Trump made his risky move.

Trump made his risky move.

The first war of Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” era has begun. The United States, along with Israel, has begun an unprovoked attempt to change the Iranian regime. This war has no legal basis. The attack was launched without the slightest consultation with Congress or the American people. And it came amid diplomatic efforts to avoid conflict.

Trump delivered an eight-minute speech recorded after the first round of bombings on Saturday. In his speech, it is clear that this attack will not be limited to forcing Tehran to the negotiating table. He warned that if Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) does not surrender, they will be killed. At the same time, the country’s armed forces, missile program and navy will be destroyed.

This will then pave the way for Iran’s opposition and the country’s ethnic minorities to revolt and overthrow the current ruling party. In his speech, Trump said, "It is time for all the people of Iran—Persians, Kurds, Azeris, Baluchis, and Aghvaks—to shake off the burden of tyranny and build a free and peaceful Iran."

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement released at the time of the missile strikes, said his country had joined the war to “eliminate the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran.”

The ambitious goals of the joint strikes have cast doubt on the prospects for success of the negotiations between the United States and Iran in recent weeks. Representatives from both sides have discussed possible limits on uranium enrichment. The latest round of talks on Thursday took place under the shadow of what Trump called the “Beautiful Armada” gathering in the Middle East. It is the largest military buildup by US forces in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It now seems that only a complete surrender by Iran could have stopped this show of US power.

Trump has long been vocal about the folly of the Iraq war. He has twice campaigned on promises to end US military operations abroad and lobbied vigorously for the Nobel Peace Prize based on his (factually disputed) claim to have ended eight wars.

Just 10 days before the war began, Trump held the inaugural meeting of his peace council, which is supposed to be aimed at resolving conflicts not just in the Middle East but around the world. At the meeting, leaders and senior officials from 27 countries (most of them authoritarian) gathered in Washington to praise Trump as a peace envoy.

At the meeting, the leaders heard from Tony Blair, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a living witness to the Iraq disaster 23 years earlier. There, he declared Trump’s long-term plan for the Middle East “the best — indeed the only — hope for Gaza, the region, and the wider world.”

Why the attack

The attack, despite no credible evidence of an Iranian threat to the United States, is a clear violation of the UN Charter. Donald Trump has made a lot of comments in his justification for the attack, without giving specific reasons. He described Tehran’s leadership as “a very tough and dangerous group of people” and spoke of the 47-year-old US hostility towards the Islamic Republic.

Iran is perhaps the least threatening country in nearly half a century. The country’s defenses have been weakened by a joint US-Israeli attack in June last year, and decades of sanctions and economic crisis have left it vulnerable to mass protests.

It is not entirely clear why Trump has turned from a peace advocate to a warlord, but there are signs. He faces a number of challenges at home. His popularity is waning ahead of the midterm elections. He has been rebuked by the normally friendly Supreme Court over his favorite “tariff” power in foreign policy.

Wilbur Ross, Trump’s first-term commerce secretary, believes the court defeat has increased the likelihood of an attack on Iran. “I don’t think he can accept this defeat,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “He doesn’t want to show that he’s backing down on Iran again.”

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has been trying hard to prevent the release of documents related to the child trafficking of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but suspicions surrounding Trump’s relationship with Epstein have not subsided.

A few days before the war, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer told MS Now television, “I’m really worried because when he’s in danger, he loses his balance. I’m worried about what he’ll do on Iran—who knows!”

President Donald Trump, fearing his party’s defeat in the upcoming November midterm elections, took the biggest gamble of his term.

History has shown that it is extremely difficult to overthrow an established regime with just air strikes.

It is now clear to the Tehran government that they are fighting for their survival. As a result, it is believed that they will use all the power they have to try to cause maximum damage to the attackers.