On February 28, 2026, President Trump ordered Operation Epic Fury — a massive joint US-Israeli military campaign against Iran. In the first 12 hours alone, nearly 900 airstrikes targeted Iranian military infrastructure, air defenses, leadership compounds, and cities across the country.
\nThe strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei along with Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, IRGC Commander Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, and four top Ministry of Intelligence officials. Approximately 170 civilians were killed when a missile struck a girls' school adjacent to a naval base in Minab, near Bandar Abbas.
\nThe war was launched without congressional authorization, without a declaration of war, without a UN Security Council mandate, and while diplomatic channels remained open.
\nArticle I, Section 8 of the US Constitution gives Congress — not the President — the power to declare war. The War Powers Resolution requires congressional authorization for sustained military operations.
\nNone of this was obtained. The strikes were launched unilaterally. When Congress attempted to reassert its constitutional authority, the House narrowly rejected a war powers resolution by a vote of 219 to 212. The Senate defeated a similar measure along party lines. The administration has consistently avoided using the word \"war\" to describe the conflict, despite a scale of operations — 900+ strikes, Iranian retaliation hitting US bases across the region, and ongoing combat — that meets any reasonable definition.
\nUnder the UN Charter, the use of force is lawful only in two circumstances: authorization by the UN Security Council (Article 42), or individual or collective self-defense in response to an armed attack (Article 51). Neither condition was met. No armed attack by Iran on the United States preceded the strikes. No Security Council authorization was sought or obtained.
\nThe strikes were launched while diplomatic channels remained available. As of March 25, 2026, Pakistan has been facilitating message exchanges between the two countries, and a 15-point peace plan has reportedly been delivered to Iran via intermediaries. Trump himself has acknowledged that negotiations are underway, raising the question of why military force was chosen when diplomacy had not been exhausted.
\nLegal experts have concluded that the strikes likely constitute a crime of aggression under international law:
\nThe Brennan Center for Justice published a detailed analysis concluding that the strikes are unconstitutional. The Constitution's allocation of war-declaring power to Congress was not merely procedural — the Founders deliberately placed this power in the legislative branch as a check against executive unilateralism in matters of war and peace.
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