A U.S. B-1 long-range bomber struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets in Iran on Tuesday as American attacks intensified and the House narrowly passed a resolution to halt U.S. military action in Iran. The bomber mission was the first since fighting with Iran resumed 12 days ago. The machine of war kept moving. So did the people in Congress, who voted 214-208 to demand approval for the war while the White House kept ordering strikes.
Who Gets Hit First
U.S. officials said the B-1 mission launched from an airbase in the UK and was spotted on online plane tracking websites. The bomber can carry two dozen 2,000-lb. bombs or dozens of cruise missiles, and it can fly faster than the speed of sound at low altitudes while carrying the largest bomb load of any type of bomber. That’s the hardware of empire, stripped down to its purpose. U.S. Central Command said in a statement that "CENTCOM assets targeted Iranian military operations centers, maritime capabilities, aircraft hangars, drone storage facilities, and military logistics infrastructure to further degrade Iran's ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz."
Reuters reported that the U.S. military completed its latest round of strikes on Iran on Wednesday at President Donald Trump's direction, marking a 12th successive night of American attacks. Reuters said U.S. forces struck Iranian military targets including maritime capabilities, missile and drone storage facilities, coastal surveillance sites, and air defense assets. It said the latest strikes lasted five hours. Reuters also said that in July, U.S. forces have targeted dozens of Iranian military sites on land while resuming a blockade against Iran at sea.
What Power Calls “Order”
Reuters said the Iran war began when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 and Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host U.S. bases. Reuters said U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon have since killed thousands and displaced millions. It said U.S. troop deaths have risen to 18 in recent days. The costs keep climbing, and the people at the bottom keep paying.
Reuters also reported that Trump vowed on Wednesday to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, and that he has previously threatened to target energy plants and bridges. Iran's joint military command warned that if the threat was carried out, its forces would target regional oil, gas, electricity and economic facilities, state media said. Reuters said the 1949 Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on sites considered essential for civilians, and that international law experts in the United States said in April that such attacks may amount to war crimes after Trump's threats. Reuters also said Trump's threat that month to destroy Iran's entire civilization drew wide condemnation.
Congress Votes, War Rolls On
The House on Thursday narrowly passed a resolution to halt U.S. military action in Iran, sending a warning to President Donald Trump for the second time as the war has escalated and the future of the conflict is increasingly uncertain. The 214-208 vote requires congressional approval for the war. The Senate is expected to consider a similar resolution later Thursday morning. The votes forced by Democrats are largely symbolic, but they are meant as a strong signal to the Republican president that his support on Capitol Hill is chipping away as the war drags on and lawmakers in both parties have questioned his administration's endgame.
Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat who led the resolution on the House floor, said, "The war has had 'no clear mission, no strategy, no end goal.'" That’s the language of a political system trying to catch up with its own violence. The resolution narrowly passed after a handful of Republicans voted with Democrats to end the war. The vast majority of Republicans voted to back the war and cede congressional war powers to Trump.
Trump has insisted that continued U.S. attacks against Iran do not mean a return to war or long-term action. After the first House vote to halt the war in early June, he posted on social media that it was "unpatriotic" and "meaningless." As the House debated the resolution Wednesday evening, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., read out names of 18 service members killed since the war began. Mast said, "To belittle this mission is to belittle and demean the very service these members gave their life for. Their sacrifice was not meaningless. This operation is bringing reckoning for the hundreds of times Iran has attacked and killed people of the United States of America." The top Democrat on the panel, New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, said presidents are supposed to make the case to Congress. He said the service members who died made the ultimate sacrifice for "an illegal unauthorized war that the American people don't want."
As both chambers vote on whether to weigh in, the U.S. has carried out waves of airstrikes in recent days as the two countries clash over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Gas prices have spiked again, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators at a hearing Tuesday that the U.S. had spent $37.5 billion on the war so far. On Wednesday, Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base for the arrival and dignified transfer of the remains of four U.S. service members. Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat who is leading the Senate effort on Thursday, said, "I do think the combination of the hearings, plus the fact that we are in this new escalatory phase where Americans have been killed, and Americans are experiencing the rising costs — I think it’s important that people be held accountable. And this is a very unpopular war."
Republicans on both sides of the Capitol know that voting against the war can have a political cost, even as many of them have privately questioned the Trump administration's handling of the conflict. In his post after the June House vote, Trump called the four Republicans who voted with Democrats "GRANDSTANDERS!" and said they should be "ashamed of themselves." He said, "They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories." When the Senate passed a war powers resolution on Iran for the first time in June, the president attended a GOP Senate luncheon the next day and called the Republicans who voted for it "losers." Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican who lost his Senate seat in a primary after Trump endorsed one of his opponents, told Trump directly that he needed to give more details to the public about the conflict. Cassidy said, "This was supposed to last four weeks. It’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved." Trump argued back, Cassidy later told reporters, and Cassidy told the president that he wouldn't change his vote until he got a briefing. The White House later relented, giving Cassidy a one-on-one meeting, and the Louisiana Republican changed his vote in a late-night do-over vote before the Senate left for a two-week recess. Cassidy wouldn't say Wednesday whether recent developments would change his vote.
Most Americans disapprove of the way Trump is handling the situation with Iran, according to recent polling. A Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted in July found that few Americans think the war in Iran has been worth fighting, and most aren't confident that the U.S. military action in Iran and negotiations to end the war will prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Only about two-thirds of Republicans approve of Trump's handling of the situation in Iran, according to the poll. Most Republicans, about 6 in 10, think the war has been worth fighting and are confident that the military action and ensuing negotiations will prevent Iran from development nuclear weapons, but a sizable share — about one-third — are unconvinced.