The Widening War in Iran

March 3, 2026

About a week before Trump launched Operation Epic Fury, attacking Iran alongside Israel,

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Cain warned that the lack of support from allies

and depleted reserves of interceptors and patriot missiles would make an attack on Iran risky.

Patti Nyberg of task and purpose reported that on February 28th, the day the offensive began,

Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, wrote to the troops deployed around the

Middle East that they were embarking on a mission of profound consequence, moving from deterrence

into active combat. Central Command has reported six American service members killed and 18 wounded

in the operation. According to U.S. Central Command, which manages U.S. military operations

in the Middle East, there are about 50,000 military personnel involved in Operation Epic Fury,

200 fighter jets, two aircraft carriers and bombers, and they are moving more support to the region.

Yesterday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegsith refused to rule out sending ground troops to Iran.

In his message to Congress yesterday announcing he had taken military action against the government

of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump wrote, it is not possible at this time to know the full

scope and direction of military operations that may be necessary. Today, the war continued to widen,

leaving hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals in the Middle East desperate to leave.

France alone has 400,000 people there. The U.S. has between 500,000 and a million people in the

Middle East. The U.S. State Department has urged them to leave, but said it could not help,

and with airports and air spaces closed, just how they are supposed to do that is unclear.

After pressure, the government is now saying it will work on shardering aircraft and using

military planes to transport people who want to leave.

Allyson, Turkey of Forbes reported today that Trump's military strikes in Iran have already

cost U.S. taxpayers more than a billion dollars. The three F-15E Eagle jets lost to friendly

fire on Sunday cost 90 million dollars each. Transporting troops, ships, and aircraft to the

Middle East cost about $630 million dollars. Missiles and weapons systems are also expensive.

A drone is about $35,000 and a Tomahawk missile costs millions, and the two aircraft

carriers in the region together cost at least $13 million a day, and then there are the costs

of operating aircraft and so on. Jennifer Schulte's and Catherine Telly McManus of Politico reported

that lawmakers anticipate the administration will ask for supplemental funding for this operation.

Over and above, the more than $150 billion dollars the Republicans provided the Pentagon

in their one big beautiful bill act, and the nearly $839 billion dollars in regular funding

Congress appropriated in February. Trump made little effort to present his case for military

strikes against Iran to the American people. In his letter to Congress notifying them of his attack,

Trump said he had acted under the 1973 War Powers Act, which permits the president to attack

another country if there is an urgent threat. But the letter itself doesn't identify any such

urgent threat. It simply said, Iran is one of the world's largest sponsors of state terrorism,

and that it continues to seek the means to possess and employ nuclear weapons.

The framers of the Constitution placed the power to declare war in the hands of Congress

and not in the president above all because they did not trust that much power in the hands of one man.

But they also wanted to make sure the American people would have robust debates about the value

of the money and lives lost in combat. So determined were they for the American people to have

those debates that they put into the Constitution that Congress had the power to declare war

and to raise and support armies. But no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term

than two years. In Federalist number 26, one of the newspaper essays Alexander Hamilton wrote

to encourage the ratification of the Constitution. Hamilton explained that people shouldn't

fear the strength of the new government outlined in the Constitution because the necessity of

debating war alongside the two-year limit on government funding for the military would force

Congress to debate military actions. He expected members of the opposition to attack those in power

over military appropriations so that if those in power were disposed to exceed the proper limits,

the community will be warned of the danger and will have an opportunity of taking measures to

guard against it. But Trump has now taken that power away from the people and their representatives.

He has launched a military action that by his own admission is not an emergency situation like

those anticipated by the War Powers Act and thus he should have asked Congress for authorization

to send troops and money to Iran. Members of Congress in turn would then have had to answer to their

constituents. Tonight the U.S. Southern Command which operates in Central and South America and the

Caribbean posted. On March 3rd, Ecuadorian and U.S. military forces launched operations against

designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador. The operations are a powerful example of the

commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narcoterrorism.

Together we are taking decisive action to confront narcoterrorists who have long inflicted terror,

violence and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere. Eric Schmidt and Luis Fereza

Derni of the New York Times reported that U.S. Special Forces soldiers are advising and supporting

Ecuadorian commandos as they conduct raids against drug-related sites run by designated terrorist

organizations. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.

It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Data Massachusetts, recorded with music composed

by Michael Morse.