US-Israel Joint Military Operations Intensify Against Iran, Sidestepping Congress
New reports indicate heightened US military activity directed at Iran, with deployments that include advanced fighter jets and naval assets to the region. This is not merely a supportive role; US forces are now a direct participant, fighting alongside Israel in operational maneuvers aimed at Tehran. This comes as the United States concurrently maintains a sanctions regime that has been in place,
in various forms, for over 45 years, severely impacting the Iranian populace and economy. Newsweek, like much of mainstream media, often frames US military budgets and intentions regarding Iran as a matter of hypothetical future conflict or domestic political maneuvering, such as comparing a 'war budget' to education spending. What this framing consistently omits is the active, ongoing military
and economic aggression. The US is not just proposing a budget for a potential war; it is already engaged in a joint operation with Israel. This current involvement circumvents the public scrutiny that a formal congressional declaration of war would entail, effectively allowing executive branches to wage de facto wars through 'operations' and 'deployments,' obscuring the true extent of US military
entanglement. This pattern of undeclared or covert military action against a sovereign nation has historical precedent. Consider the 1988 shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655 by the USS Vincennes, killing 290 civilians, including 66 children. The US government initially claimed self-defense within Iranian airspace, an assertion widely disputed by international observers. The lack of accountability for