Noah Heftman:
Following Trump’s recent strikes in Iran, the nation does not pose a significant threat to the United States militarily. There has been no conclusive evidence of Iranian nuclear weapon programs progressing, and Trump has repeated a lot of the same rhetoric that Biden previously used in order to justify interventions in Iran saying that the nation is “two weeks away” from developing a nuclear weapon. This rhetoric has never been proven true and is contradicted by Trump’s previous statements that the United States earlier strikes in the summer had destroyed Iranian nuclear facilities. However, the nation does pose a political threat to the United States. As the midterms near, it is of the utmost importance for both the Democratic and Republican parties to have coherence in their party messaging and to have strong defenses of their parties’ positions. This is where the war poses a threat as it contradicts Trump’s previous statements back in 2020 where he had been greatly critical of war in Iran as it shifted the focus away from domestic issues such as education.
Alex McGrath:
While Iran’s proxy groups pose a threat to United States allies in the region, and potential Iranian acquisition of a nuclear weapon would run further risks related to potential escalation, the United States and Israel have dramatically increased the potential danger by their reckless and illegal campaign against the Iranian regime. Israel has been warning about Iranian acquisition of a nuclear bomb being only weeks away for decades, and the greatest opportunity for reducing the risk of Iranian nuclear proliferation I believe was the 2015 nuclear deal. While Iran’s regime has continued to have significant human rights violations, the most recent of which being the reported killings of 4,000 protesters in January, intervention and bombing decrease regional stability, impact global markets, and contribute to a rise in radicalization. The recent campaign has caused the deaths of six United States service members, expended billions of dollars of munitions, and will further destabilize the Middle East.
Atharv Pateriya:
The Iranian people have suffered much more after the Iranian revolution compared to the era before it. Extremist views of the Ayatollahs: Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khamenei, have caused thousands to die in the oppressive regime. Iran is also a country which is revisionist and supports Anti-American propaganda. That is a threat to the United States because Iranian beliefs directly go against it. Furthermore, Iran is not democratic, and that is a threat to the United States because it blocks out the voice of the Iranian citizens and it goes against American values. If Iran becomes an influential country in the Middle East, the United States may have more adversaries. If Iran develops a powerful army, it may pose a threat to American military bases in the Middle East. If Iran becomes a dominant nation, it would be able to create military alliances with other revisionist powers such as Russia and China and may bring forth to the world another World War. Iran is indeed a threat to the United States and an American intervention was necessary. The civilian lives lost in the attacks were truly a tragedy, but the death of Ayatollah Khamenei was good news. His death was seen as vengeance for the innocent Iranian lives lost under his rule as Ayatollah. Celebrations erupted across Iran after his demise. The Israeli and American attacks were justified, and if successful, Iran may move toward a more stable and democratic future.
