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About a week before Trump launched Operation Epic Fury, attacking Iran alongside Israel,
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Cain warned that the lack of support from allies
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and depleted reserves of interceptors and patriot missiles would make an attack on Iran risky.
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Patti Nyberg of task and purpose reported that on February 28th, the day the offensive began,
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Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, wrote to the troops deployed around the
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Middle East that they were embarking on a mission of profound consequence, moving from deterrence
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into active combat. Central Command has reported six American service members killed and 18 wounded
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in the operation. According to U.S. Central Command, which manages U.S. military operations
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in the Middle East, there are about 50,000 military personnel involved in Operation Epic Fury,
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200 fighter jets, two aircraft carriers and bombers, and they are moving more support to the region.
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Yesterday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegsith refused to rule out sending ground troops to Iran.
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In his message to Congress yesterday announcing he had taken military action against the government
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of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump wrote, it is not possible at this time to know the full
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scope and direction of military operations that may be necessary. Today, the war continued to widen,
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leaving hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals in the Middle East desperate to leave.
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France alone has 400,000 people there. The U.S. has between 500,000 and a million people in the
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Middle East. The U.S. State Department has urged them to leave, but said it could not help,
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and with airports and air spaces closed, just how they are supposed to do that is unclear.
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After pressure, the government is now saying it will work on shardering aircraft and using
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military planes to transport people who want to leave.
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Allyson, Turkey of Forbes reported today that Trump's military strikes in Iran have already
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cost U.S. taxpayers more than a billion dollars. The three F-15E Eagle jets lost to friendly
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fire on Sunday cost 90 million dollars each. Transporting troops, ships, and aircraft to the
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Middle East cost about $630 million dollars. Missiles and weapons systems are also expensive.
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A drone is about $35,000 and a Tomahawk missile costs millions, and the two aircraft
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carriers in the region together cost at least $13 million a day, and then there are the costs
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of operating aircraft and so on. Jennifer Schulte's and Catherine Telly McManus of Politico reported
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that lawmakers anticipate the administration will ask for supplemental funding for this operation.
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Over and above, the more than $150 billion dollars the Republicans provided the Pentagon
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in their one big beautiful bill act, and the nearly $839 billion dollars in regular funding
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Congress appropriated in February. Trump made little effort to present his case for military
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strikes against Iran to the American people. In his letter to Congress notifying them of his attack,
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Trump said he had acted under the 1973 War Powers Act, which permits the president to attack
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another country if there is an urgent threat. But the letter itself doesn't identify any such
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urgent threat. It simply said, Iran is one of the world's largest sponsors of state terrorism,
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and that it continues to seek the means to possess and employ nuclear weapons.
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The framers of the Constitution placed the power to declare war in the hands of Congress
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and not in the president above all because they did not trust that much power in the hands of one man.
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But they also wanted to make sure the American people would have robust debates about the value
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of the money and lives lost in combat. So determined were they for the American people to have
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those debates that they put into the Constitution that Congress had the power to declare war
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and to raise and support armies. But no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term
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than two years. In Federalist number 26, one of the newspaper essays Alexander Hamilton wrote
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to encourage the ratification of the Constitution. Hamilton explained that people shouldn't
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fear the strength of the new government outlined in the Constitution because the necessity of
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debating war alongside the two-year limit on government funding for the military would force
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Congress to debate military actions. He expected members of the opposition to attack those in power
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over military appropriations so that if those in power were disposed to exceed the proper limits,
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the community will be warned of the danger and will have an opportunity of taking measures to
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guard against it. But Trump has now taken that power away from the people and their representatives.
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He has launched a military action that by his own admission is not an emergency situation like
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those anticipated by the War Powers Act and thus he should have asked Congress for authorization
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to send troops and money to Iran. Members of Congress in turn would then have had to answer to their
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constituents. Tonight the U.S. Southern Command which operates in Central and South America and the
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Caribbean posted. On March 3rd, Ecuadorian and U.S. military forces launched operations against
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designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador. The operations are a powerful example of the
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commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narcoterrorism.
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Together we are taking decisive action to confront narcoterrorists who have long inflicted terror,
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violence and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere. Eric Schmidt and Luis Fereza
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Derni of the New York Times reported that U.S. Special Forces soldiers are advising and supporting
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Ecuadorian commandos as they conduct raids against drug-related sites run by designated terrorist
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organizations. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson.
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It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Data Massachusetts, recorded with music composed