THAT was interesting…
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social Saturday that U.S. forces have successfully launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan,” Trump announced on Truth Social. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space.”
The president said a “full payload of BOMBS” was dropped on the primary site, Fordow.
Full article, HERE from Fox News.
Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan… The ‘big 3’ for Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Fordow got 6 MOPs, Natanz and Isfahan got 30 Tomahawks. Talks weren’t going anywhere, and Iran knew what the consequences would be. But they ‘chose’ to believe that Trump would never actually DO anything…
Welp, that question is now answered…
What happens next is up to them. Of note, neither Trump nor Israel is saying anything about regime change, just about stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Is what Trump did legal? Yes. As commander in chief, he was well within Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution spells out that “the President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states,” while only Congress has the power to declare war, as an enumerated power under Article I, Section 8, Clause 11.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires a report to Congress within 48 hours of the commencement of ‘hostilities’. And could run a maximum of 60 days…
However, the WPR can only be exercised “by (1) with a declaration of war, (2) with specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.”
Now Iran declared war on the US in 1979, as soon as the current regime took over, so ‘technically’ we’ve been at war with them for 47 years. I believe this was done under part 3, to prevent a nuclear attack on the US.
Also, Trump briefed Rep Johnson, so Congress was notified prior to the strike. And I loved the ‘misdirection’ of the very public departure of the B-2s plus tankers heading west… “Look over here, we’re positioning…”
Thankfully the missions were successful and none of our folks died!
Now it’s up to Iran…
I understand the Ayatollah has said he’ll never surrender to Satan. I thought he already did that.
And about time.
I understand where you’re coming from, but that interpretation stretches both the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution beyond what they actually say—or were ever intended to permit.
Yes, the President is Commander in Chief under Article II, Section 2, but that role doesn’t give him a blank check to initiate war. The Founders very intentionally gave only Congress the power to declare war (Article I, Section 8). That was their way of making sure no single individual—regardless of party—could drag the country into major armed conflict unilaterally.
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 was written specifically to rein in presidential overreach, especially after Vietnam. It allows limited emergency actions, but only under strict conditions: a formal declaration of war,
specific statutory authorization (like an AUMF), or a sudden attack on the U.S. or its armed forces.
There was no new attack on the U.S. by Iran to justify bombing three of their nuclear facilities. The claim that “Iran declared war in 1979” just doesn’t hold legal water. Hostility is not the same as a formal, recognized declaration of war. If that logic held, we’d technically be “at war” with half the world for past threats or actions.
And notifying Speaker Johnson in advance—while politically strategic—is not the same as fulfilling the WPR requirement to formally report to Congress within 48 hours. That report must explain the legal basis and expected scope of the operation. There’s no evidence that happened before the strikes.
This was a major act of war against a sovereign nation—not a defensive strike against a rogue militia. If we accept this kind of unilateral action, we’re essentially letting the presidency bypass Congress on matters that the Constitution clearly reserves for the people’s representatives.
Presidents aren’t kings. That principle doesn’t change based on which party holds office.
I too am glad there were no U.S. casualties but we now have around 40,000 American troops in various bases around the area that can easily be targeted. It isn’t exactly comforting that Trump’s military expertise isn’t exactly his strong suit, that seasoned military leaders have been fired or have resigned, and the head of the Pentagon is a drunken yes man. We seem to even be selling lieutenant colonel rankings to corporate billionaires. What could go wrong?
There’s also the interesting question of: is the War Powers Act Constitutional? It has not yet been challenged by a President, true. A number of legal scholars believe that the act was not Constitutional, but could be rewritten to make it so.
I am not a specialist in that aspect of Constitutional law, so I offer that strictly as an observation, not a critique of your arguments or of the larger situation.
My take is that unilateral presidential action to launch a military strike is a constitutional gray area. The constitution gave the power to declare war to Congress and also made the President the Commander in Chief of the military. The country has pretty much always accepted that the assignment of Commander in Chief to the President includes the power to respond to imminent threats, starting with Adams in the undeclared war with France and Jefferson with the Barbary Pirates. The War Powers Act of 1973 requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30-day withdrawal period, without congressional authorization for use of military force (AUMF) or a declaration of war by the United States. The constitutionality of the War Powers Act has never been addressed by the Supreme Court even though there have been some actions initiated by the president that have gone beyond 60 days without any action by Congress (Balkans and Libya). The DOJ claimed (after the fact) that the Congressional approval of emergency appropriations for the effort constituted the approval of operations beyond the 60 day limit (https://www.justice.gov/file/146196/dl). In fifty years the Supreme Court has stayed away from this but I expect a TRO from Hawaii any moment now.
Trump’s Military experience is better than that of the last 4 or 5 presidents. He did a lot of very successful operations when he was last in office. Because he just tells them what he wants and leaves them to do it without looking over their shoulders. Unlike every since Reagan, and several before (Carter being the worst of them).
As for authorization? He had the right to do it.
Americans being at Risk? Iran has been killing Americans without consequence for 47 years now. This is nothing new.
Personally I’m not happy about this, because I know our intelligence agencies suck and had a tendency to lie. But I’m not going to second guess him on this.
I do NOT want to see any American soldiers sent to war, and I honestly don’t care how many Iranians die. Seeing as they’ve been killing us for decades.
My two cents? About time.
Iran has been dancing around outright war with the U.S. by financing terrorism, and directly contributing to the attack on Israel that started the current strife. U.S. citizens were killed, and they weren’t soldiers. Considering the evil of killing civilians, and how enriched plutonium can kill thousands with something as simple as a dirty bomb, destroying an enemies capabilities to wage war against the United States is the responsibility of the President, in spite of a feckless Congress. The last administration contributed to the finances of this terrorism, and the result is now seen.
Larry Johnson over at sonar21.com did a analysis of terrorism deaths in the region over the past 2 decades. The Shia (Iran and allies) were at the bottom of the list. Go take a look.
Iran has stated they are sending an envoy to Russia on Monday to seek help from Putin in this attack by the US. If Putin is smart he will refuse to get talked into the war that Iran wants. Putin would be wise to tell the Iranian envoy to enter negotiations with the US and resolve their differences.
Putin recently said that they offered the Iranians the full military alliance, similar to the one with North Korea but the turned it down. They wanted to deescalate and find a way to make a deal.
I thought the OPSEC for the operation was amazing. Usually it’s on CNN before the bombs fall.
Many are complaining Trump violated the War Powers Act, but they seem to forget Obama bombing Libya for more than 90 days without notifying Congress. He even got an Attaboy from Pelosi for it.
I have not seen a thank you from the small hat big nose bois, just saying.
Permit me to make a comment about intelligence, having been involved…
US (and UK) intelligence organisations are among the best in the world — on the raw intelligence level. BUT as we saw in Vietnam (even before, really) raw intelligence is not the whole story — and both the US and UK intelligence is affected (crippled?) by a layer of mid-level analysis which filters whatever gets to the top, and filters it with a very rosy set of goggles. The result being that by the time it gets to the top, the real capabilities and intentions are obscured by a “nice people wouldn’t ever do that” — which is true enough, except we’re not dealing with nice people.
UK intelligence, by the time it is allowed to the level of informing UK politicians, seems to be pretty uniformly garbage. If we take their politicians at their word, they had /nobody/ telling them that the US might be inhabited by alien cultures, who might have instincts that do not work exactly the same as those of graduates from UK universities.
From a US perspective untangling where the errors happened with high level UK understandings, maybe Starmer is just a bad man, but a lot of brexit people seem to be as shocked at current day US politics. (Current day US politics is actually something a little predictable, but requires an intel estimate of US cultures that has converged on being confident in the models that US academia has carefully left undocumented.)
Jim- Point!
Ian- Agreed.
RJ- Believe/interpret however you’d like. I choose to differ in interpretations. If you’re complaining about this, why no complaint against Obama for what he did?
TXRed/John- Good points!
JVS- Agreed! And Intel is ALWAYS subject to interpretation/massaging by ‘middle’ managers… sigh Saw that more than once.
WSF- Or long overdue…
Jess/Trumpeter- True!
John/Trumpeter- Iran’s MO was talk, talk, talk, with no action… Oops..
Wilson- 😉
Ian- Well said!
Sure would be nice if that Strategic Petroleum Reserve was brimming full, wouldn’t it?
At the brief Chairman of Joint Chiefs said they used 7 B-2’s with 14 MOABs and 20 Tomahawks and the whole bombing event was over in 25 minutes.
We have almost been at constant war since WW 2 without declaring war. Straits of Hormuz will close, we only get 7% of our oil from there. Sounds like retaliation has already begun with church shooting in Michigan; we will see. I expect homeland retaliations like cyber attacks and jihadi attacks.
Neon- Sigh…yep!
Old Maine- We shall see what the previous administrations ‘cost’ us…
With regard to the news comment from Old Maine, the retaliation is not going to just happen here. Obviously, I don’t know if this attack was a response or was planned before last night’s strike, but the responses could be world wide. We don’t know, only the people planning these know when and where.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/06/19-reported-dead-after-suicide-bomber-targets-orthodox/
Grog- Point..
I never thought Red Sea shipping would be shot at , but it was . Not a stretch at all to see Hormuz get shut down . We always went to GQ and set Zebra when transiting Hormuz straight , to be on the safe side , always talk of silkworm missiles by the weapons guys . I loved my GQ station in after steering , Helmsman , steer by pointer , steer by follow up , or steer by a gigantor ratchet and manually move the udders . Made me and the A-Ganger work like hell when they did that . Now that I think about it , probably a piss poor place to be below the waterline in a mine field or in a stern hit of any sort .
Ooops , rudders not udders ,