'It is so much worse than you thought.'
That was Senator Elizabeth Warren's message to the American public after walking out of a classified briefing on Donald Trump's military strikes against Iran. The warning came on Tuesday, just days after Trump and Israel launched bombing campaigns that have already killed six US service members and, according to Iranian officials, over 150 people at agirls' elementary school.
I just left a classified briefing with the Trump Administration about the war in Iran.I was worried before, but I’m more worried now.pic.twitter.com/HoSWLVWrR8
Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, didn't mince words. She called the conflict an 'illegal war based on lies' and saidTrump still hasn't given 'a single clear reason' for starting it.
'You are right to be worried,' Warren said in a video posted to X. 'The Trump administration has no plan in Iran. This illegal war is based on lies, and it was launched without any imminent threat to our nation.'
Warren wasn't the only senator rattled by the briefing. Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii told reporters the closed-door session with Secretary of State Marco Rubio left him with more questions than answers.
'There are times when you go into a classified session and you walk out with a better understanding about the gravity of the situation and the rationale behind the military action,' Schatz said. 'This is not one of those times. We remain as confused as the American people are.'
The Hawaii Democrat pointed to the administration's shifting explanations. 'They have had three or four or five justifications for this act of war over the last four or five days,' Schatz said, 'and nothing in this classified session alleviated that confusion.'
According to reports, Independent Senator Angus King of Maine offered a blunter assessment. He called it 'very disturbing' that Trump took the US to war because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to bomb Iran. Past US presidents, King noted, 'have consistently said no' to such pressure.
The human toll is already staggering.
Source: International Business Times UK
