Why Did We Just Start A War w/ Iran?

Sources

Barbaro, Michael, and Farnaz Fassihi, hosts. Celebration and Mourning: Inside an Iran at War. The Daily. March 2, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/podcasts/the-daily/iran-us-israel-supreme-leader.html.

Barnes, Julian E., Ronen Bergman, Eric Schmitt, and Tyler Pager. “The C.I.A. Helped Pinpoint a Gathering of Iranian Leaders. Then Israel Struck.” U.S. The New York Times, March 1, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/01/us/politics/cia-israel-ayatollah-compound.html.

Debusmann Jr, Bernd. “Jared Kushner Defends Controversial $2bn Saudi Investment.” BBC News, February 14, 2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68296877.

Gambrell, Jon. “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Who Led the Islamic Republic since 1989, Is Dead at 86.” World News. AP News, March 1, 2026. https://apnews.com/article/iran-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khamenei-dead-5b13b69b708c4ed38e8f95f5fb41a597.

Harris, Mary, host. The “Peace President” Goes to War. What Next. Slate, March 2, 2026. https://slate.com/podcasts/what-next/2026/03/iran-ayatollah-war-khamenei-israel.

Ireland, Olivia. Why Did US and Israel Attack Iran and How Long Could the War Last? March 2, 2026. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2dyz6p3weo.

Kamin, Debra, and Bradley Hope. “Where Mideast Envoy Pitched Peace, His Son Pitched Investors.” Business. The New York Times, September 26, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/business/witkoff-son-qatar-gaza.html.

Maddow, Rachel. “Who Benefits from Trump’s War in Iran? The Answer Is Disturbingly Clear.” MS NOW, March 1, 2026.https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/why-trump-war-iran-benefits.

Transcript

Hi it’s Monday, March 2nd, 2026, you’re tuned into Why, America? I’m your lawyer friend Leeja Miller. Donald Trump has entered an unprovoked war with Iran that fully 80% of the American people do not support and without the approval of the United States Congress or the United Nations Security Council. The Trump regime has provided flimsy reasoning at best for its bombing of Iran in coordination with Israel that has resulted in the death of the Supreme Leader of Iran as well as dozens of school children and at least four American servicemembers in the last three days. And they have provided even less information about their end goal and what they hope to achieve through this aggression that Trump vowed on the campaign trail to never partake in. Today we’re discussing what has happened in the lead up to and days since the bombing started in Iran, whether these bombings were legal, and perhaps the biggest question on most peoples’ minds in the US watching their tax dollars be used against our will: WHY? Why is this happening, why now, what has the Trump regime indicated is their reasoning and their end goal, and what is the speculated reasoning behind the move since you can’t actually trust the reasoning given by the regime in the first place. First I do need to pay the bills and I appreciate your patience and support (maybe hit that subscribe button if you watch all my videos and somehow still aren’t subscribed) as I take a moment to pause during the end times and rather dystopicly thank the sponsor of today’s video.

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Okay here’s the current state of things, as I’m recording this in the early afternoon of Monday, March 2nd. Trump’s envoy Steve Witcoff and Jared Kushner have been in talks with Iran for weeks, primarily over nuclear issues. The only qualifications either of these people have to be negotiating on behalf of the United States are they are real estate buddies with Trump or married to Trump’s daughter, respectively, so not really instilling a lot of confidence to begin with. Despite the fact that Obama entered into a nuclear agreement with Iran and then Trump pulled out of that agreement during his first term, Trump seems really dead set on a nuclear agreement, even though we literally already had a nuclear agreement. After weeks of negotiating behind closed doors it was unclear how those talks were going–some say they were just talking past each other and no one could reach an agreement, some signalled hope last week that agreements could be reached, suffice it to say, though, the negotiations were ongoing. Until they weren’t.

On Saturday morning at around 9:30am Iranian time, which is the start of the work week in Iran, and during Ramadan when much of the 92 MILLION inhabitants of Iran are fasting from sun up to sun down, US and Israeli forces launched a joint attack on Iran. The attack targeted the compound of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei where US intelligence had found there would be a gathering of top Iranian officials. A separate Israeli attack also hit a girls school, killing over 100 people, mostly children. On Sunday, Iranian media confirmed Khamenei had been killed, along with several prominent Iranian leaders. The US and Israeli lead bombing has continued since Saturday. Iran has retaliated by targeting US embassies and other holdings in Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and a British base in Cyprus that the UK had given the US permission to use in launching its attacks against Iran. Israel has also been attacked in retaliation, especially by Iran’s proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon, leading to back and forth in that country as well. This act of aggression by the United States and Israel has led to a full blown regional war, a breaking of tensions that have been building for decades. The Strait of Hormuz, which is controlled by Iran and through which fully one fifth of the world’s daily oil supply flows on shipping routes bound for places all over the world, has been completely shuttered, sending oil and natural gas markets reeling and threatening global economic stability.

And through all of this the question I keep asking, my mom’s been asking me, the media is asking, the world is asking, is WHY? What the actual fuck do we have to gain by instigating this level of unrest in the middle east? The Trump regime provided ZERO rationale ahead of the attack. Unlike for example the wars in the middle east instigated by George W Bush, where the president at least attempted to get Congress and the American people on board, to sell it to us, even if the rationale was based on lies. Trump has done nothing of the sort. And literally from one hour to the next, from one public statement to the next, he changes his reasoning given to the media. So there is no coherent rationale being presented by the Trump regime. But the various reasons that have been given in statements over the last few days include that Iran was developing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles or other missiles that could be used to target American assets. Also regime change. Iran has been named the biggest state sponsor of terrorism and is allied with groups including Hezbollah and, significantly of course for Israel and, by extension for the US because whatever Israel wants the US is ready to give, Iran is a major supporter of Hamas in Palestine. Additionally, Ayatollah Khamenei oversaw a truly brutal dictatorship that denied its people basic rights and freedoms and violently oppressed free speech, most recently killing thousands of protesters in cold blood in the streets in January, upwards of 30,000 protesters by some reports. But if you rub a couple brain cells together for one second, neither of those reasonings really hold water.

Last year, remember last year? A mere, I don’t know, six or seven months ago, Trump bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities and claimed to have completely annihilated them. He was lying then but he’s also lying now that Iran was dangerously close to enriching enough uranium or having the capacity to create a nuclear bomb or any intercontinental ballistic missiles. Actual experts on Iranian firepower have confirmed there is no evidence or intelligence that supports the contention that Iran posed any imminent threat to the US or its assets abroad such that immediate action was warranted. And the regime change claim is bunk first because I think if Trump could kill 30,000 of us in the streets he probably would. Trump LOVES strongmen are you kidding me. Perhaps if this administration paid any lip service at all to the old school US claim of caring about spreading democracy across the globe then yes perhaps we could buy the idea that taking out the Supreme Leader of Iran was good for global peace and democracy but Trump doesn’t give a shit about that, and neither do the Iran hawks that wanted to get in there and attack Iran. And even some of them, including former Trump insider John Bolton, are saying hey not like this though? What the fuck are you doing?? In two pre--recorded videos posted on social media on Saturday and Sunday, Trump reiterated the idea that he supported the Iranian people and that they should take this once in a generation opportunity to take back their government, which presents a child’s understanding of how revolutions and governing work that I don’t think even the toddler Trump himself actually buys.

And the regime change rationale holds even LESS water when you look at the complete lack of plans that Trump or his goons have set forth for what happens next in Iran. If they were desperate for a Venezuela-style regime change wherein they just sub in someone from the ruling party that will go along with whatever the US wants, they have not indicated any person who would fill that role. Trump himself confirmed that the people who might have filled that role were killed along with the Supreme Leader over the weekend. And if they wanted the people of Iran to rise up and take over their government, that would require there to be an organized, militarized, ARMED resistance capable of moving in and governing a country of 92 million people. This is the same resistance that saw upwards of 30,000 people killed in the streets a few weeks ago. These are the same people who are now in bomb shelters trying not to die because of our bombs falling over their heads. The Iranian regime did not fall with the death of Ayatollah Khamenei. He had lines of succession put in place for this very scenario. There is a group of people from his inner circle still controlling the country. This is a government that has been in place for half a century and has ruled its people with a violent, iron fist. To just say welp we killed a few leaders, so now the Iranian people can go ahead and take over, and if this doesn’t go well then it’s THEIR fault, is blatantly idiotic, and I don’t think even Trump himself believes what he’s saying. There is no power vacuum forming immediately in the wake of Khamenei’s death, he made sure of that before his death and now the United States has turned him into a martyr. That’s of course not to say he isn’t DEEPLY unpopular inside Iran and with the Iranian diaspora around the world. Many people took to the streets to celebrate his death, many Iranians who haven’t been able to return home for fear of political persecution feel hopeful for the first time in decades. This is not a black and white issue. If Trump were serious about regime change, about a popular uprising, about Iran being ruled by resistance forces, that would likely require significant funding and military support from the US on the ground inside Iran to try to help establish some sort of new government, some form of coordination with the Iranian resistance on the ground, none of which we are seeing from US or Israeli forces. None of the given reasoning behind this attack from the Trump regime makes any sense. Which is why the American people, whose tax dollars are being used to fund this war we did not approve of, are left wondering WHY. Why is this happening. And because there is no official line that is adequately answering that question, we are left with speculations.

Here are the speculations I’ve heard that seem more plausible than what the Trump regime has put forth. First, of course, there’s Israel. We do it allll for Israel. I made a whole episode, multiple episodes really, about the United States’ relationship with Israel and why we are so willing to align with them blindly no matter what in a way that is different from literally every other relationship we have with every other country on the planet. Israel is our strongest ally in the middle east and is seen as kind of THE “western” ally in the region. Iran, on the other hand, is supported by both China and Russia, so what happens in the middle east between Israel and Iran is a proxy for the global world order of the US and the “west” and “democracy” versus Russia and China and “communism” – I put both democracy and communism in major air quotes because those two words don’t actually mean anything anymore and don’t accurately describe what’s happening on the ground in a lot of these places but that’s been the general dichotomy in the world order for the last century plus at this point, and a lot of that is playing out in the middle east. On top of that, Iran is allied with some major threats to Israel, specifically Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which sits on the other side of Israel’s northern border. So even though Iran is relatively far away from Israel, its proxies in Palestine and Lebanon pose a threat to Israel, and any potential missile development in Iran could easily reach Israel. So the country seen as THE western ally in the middle east is being threatened at all sides by, ultimately, Iran.

Rachel Maddow’s special report on the attacks over the weekend offered another potential reason for why this attack on Iran might be happening now that I think is worth talking about. Specifically, she discussed the countries beyond Israel that benefit from a weakened Iranian state and, specifically, the personal ties that Trump and his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have with those countries.. Qatar, for example, is a major rival of Iran in the middle east. Qatar has given Trump a $400 MILLION dollar plane for his own personal use. Additionally, Steve Witkoff, founder of the real estate fund the Witkoff Group, stands to gain a FORTUNE off key middle eastern allies like Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait. Steve’s son Alex has been hard at work securing allegedly billions of dollars from the sovereign wealth funds of those countries for commercial real estate projects in the United States. Steve Witkoff is still partial owner of the Witkoff group, which stands to make millions in the deals Alex brokered with these major middle eastern countries that now just happen to benefit from the bombing in Iran. The United Arab Emirates also provided about $2 billion dollars from its sovereign wealth fund to the Trump family’s crypto financial firm. And Saudi Arabia reportedly invested about $2 BILLION dollars into Jared Kushner’s private equity firm at the end of Trump’s previous term. So we have Trump and his entire family, plus his rich friends, who are now in government and have all benefitted swimmingly from past investments and deals with our various allies in the Middle East all of whom now benefit from the weakening of the Iranian regime in the region. Remember when the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia visited the White House a few months ago and they held a huge banquet for him and all your favorite billionaires were there? THIS is what happens when you put billionaires and capitalists at the seat of power, whether it's in the US or the middle east, they’re going to find a way to make back door deals, engage in quid pro quos, and enrich themselves off the back of OUR tax dollars, using the apparatus of the state to enact whatever changes they want that most benefit them and the rich friends who have done them favors over the years. So on top of the Israel of it all, there’s also the fact that our government is run by people who have done billion dollar deals with the countries in the middle east that gain the most with a weakened Iran.

And then there’s of course the Epstein files. These latest attacks on Iran have been dubbed Operation Epic Fury but many have renamed them Operation Epstein Fury. Now I’m not trying to fuel the conspiracy theories that say EVERYTHING is about Epstein, but after 10 years of dealing with President Trump in some capacity, I feel we kinda know the guy at this point. Everyone who knows him reports he’s the same person behind closed doors as who he shows to the public, and I believe that. If Trump didn’t have something personal to gain from this Iran attack he wouldn’t give a shit about it. And I think it is really convenient that this attack came right after news reports started coming out linking redacted and missing documents to claims that young girls made about Trump sexually abusing them. The walls are closing in on Trump–will he ever face justice? Probably not. Is there a smoking gun piece of evidence in there? No one can say for sure other than the people who have access to the unredacted files. But I think he knows the walls are closing in, and like a trapped animal he’s willing to act out violently to avoid getting caught. I also think this is why he’s so weirdly obsessed with the Nobel Peace Prize and with making it seem like he really is sad about the deaths of protesters in Iran. I think he is facing his own mortality in a way he never has had to before in his life, I’m sure up until recently he’s always felt pretty invincible, and I think having reached the end of his life he is reflecting on some of the horrific shit he’s done, and I don’t think he feels remorse for it, but I do think he’s old school enough to be genuinely concerned about whether he’ll make it into heaven. Being faced with your own mortality forces you to contend with what happens after you die, and I think he’s old enough that heaven or hell or religion generally probably does play a role even though he’s never been a religious man. And I think he’s looking to something like the Nobel Peace Prize to try to absolve himself. Like well yeah maybe he raped a couple underage girls (allegedly) but look he has the nobel PEACE prize, he can’t be THAT bad. Look he cared so much about the deaths of protesters in Iran or the plight of the people of Venezuela that he started whole wars and instigated regime change. He solved 13 wars!!! Solved them!!! He can’t be THAT bad!!! He’s a toddler with no moral compass attempting to do what he thinks he needs to do to tip the scales in favor of making it into heaven in the only twisted way his mangled brain can conceive of. I think that reality has colored his choices over the last year more than they did during his first term. He’s nearing the end of the road and he’s thinking more about legacy than anything else. And that requires rewriting history, telling lies, and whitewashing and sanewashing his decisions after the fact so he can sleep better at night knowing the sweet embrace of death could take him at any moment. We’ve seen the hand bruises and the cankles, though I need the tiktok nurses to stop promising me he’ll be dead in three months because y’all have been saying that for a year and I can’t take the disappointment.

And then I think the other calculus that is happening here is that Trump gets to do all of this without having to worry about convincing any of us that it’s for a good cause. Because he’s really unconcerned with getting our votes in the midterms or in 2028. Because I think he is feeling quite secure in the many steps his regime is taking to undermine the democratic voting process this fall. Reports have dropped that there is a leaked draft of an executive order going around, the one we’ve been talking about for months, the one that declares a state of emergency and sends in ICE or the troops to patrol our polling places. The reportedly leaked draft is an old draft, and lord knows there’s been many tweaks and changes happening behind the scenes, but at this point I am quite convinced we will see some version of that playing out at midterms in a few months. I made a whole episode rating the potential midterms scenarios from most to least legal, but I have very VERY little doubt that we will get an emergency declaration and an attempt by Trump and his goons to intervene especially in blue state elections in a way that will tangibly impact the outcome of the elections. And in the districts where they unsuccessfully block the election of democrats, I’m certain they have other measures they will take to undermine trust in the elections after the fact or block the ability of newly elected lawmakers from taking their spots in Congress. If I were someone who participated in these new online betting platforms where you can bet on anything–which, like, please don’t that is so deeply creepy and should absolutely be illegal–but if I WERE, I would be putting all my money on the scenario where Trump declares a state of emergency and sends in his goons to police the votes in blue states. It’s not going to be pretty. And because of this, I think Trump feels very little need to get the American people on board with his war in Iran. It doesn’t make sense otherwise–a deeply unpopular war that 80% of Americans do not support, happening a few months before we’re set to go to the polls and weigh in on how we think his party is doing? He and his entire regime would only be this flippant about not giving a shit about Congress or the American people if they felt very secure in the amount of power they’ve accumulated into the hands of the executive ahead of these midterms and the 2028 elections.

And as for what happens next in Iran–no one can say, including the experts. At this point, there is no power vacuum, there’s no indication the people who have taken up leading the country are in a rush to name a successor to the supreme leader, they have vowed retaliation and are making good on those promises. This is the problem with instigating major conflict like this–there is no way to predict the outcome or the long-term consequences, likely Trump and his goons don’t even know themselves what’s to come on the ground in Iran or with our allies. For now, like so many things over the last year of the Trump regime, we are forced to sit on our hands and wait and see.

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And if you liked this episode, you’ll like my episode from Wednesday about why I don’t give a shit about the state of the union address.