Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
Responding to news of US attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP said:
“We utterly condemn the reckless attacks on Iran by the United States that can only lead to further dangerous conflict in an already volatile region. There is no international legal basis for this unilateral action that poses a serious threat to international peace and security.
“Our prime minister has shamefully decided to echo the rhetoric of Trump and Netanyahu rather than condemn the indefensible aggression of both Israel and the US. Keir Starmer has further implied that it is justifiable for the Iranian regime to be bombed back to the negotiating table. I fully recognise the brutal nature of the Iranian regime but this unilateral action is no way to build peace and risks making the UK once again complicit in escalating a Middle East crisis.”
“We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged into another Middle East war based on lies.”
While a number of statements by members of Congress in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities focused largely on the fact that the White House acted without congressional authorization—a constitutional violation—U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders expressed anger over another aspect of the unilateral military action: the “lies” that the Trump administration is telling the public to justify the bombing.
The White House’s act of war against Iran, said the Vermont independent senator, was just the latest in a long line of military boondoggles that followed lies powerful politicians told about the threats posed by foreign countries—before taking action that ultimately killed millions of people while doing nothing to protect U.S. security.
“In the 1960s the United States government lied to the American people and took us into a terrible war in Vietnam,” said Sanders. “The result of that war was that over 58,000 young Americans died and many more came back wounded both in mind and in spirit. Millions of Vietnamese were also killed.”
Decades later, Americans were told by then-President George W. Bush that the U.S. must act quickly to stop Iraq from building “weapons of mass destruction”—with U.S. officials following the guidance of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The United States invaded Iraq and became embroiled in a long civil war there. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. That war was based on a lie—a lie which cost us 4,492 young Americans, 32,000 wounded, over half a million Iraqis and trillions of dollars,” said Sanders.
“The American people are being lied to again today,” he added. “We cannot allow history to repeat itself.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran is not attempting to build a nuclear weapon with its enriched uranium stockpile, backing up repeated statements from Iranian officials who have said the country’s nuclear program is used only for peaceful civilian purposes.
Sanders’ statement came several hours after he learned while speaking at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma that Trump had bombed Iran, authorizing strikes on three nuclear facilities, which Iranian officials condemned as a violation of international law.
At the rally, supporters erupted in a chant of “No more war!” after Sanders read Trump’s statement on the attack.
I learned about Trump’s unconstitutional attack on Iran at a large rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Here is the response: pic.twitter.com/eziVpp3Y54
The spontaneous display of outrage over the latest U.S. attack on the Middle East underscored the reality of the moment, said The Nation writer Jeet Heer, as one poll released Thursday showed that just 8% of Americans favored the U.S. becoming directly involved in Israel’s attacks on Iran that began earlier this month.
“There is only one off-ramp from Trump’s mad rush to war: the quick mobilization of an anti-war opposition,” said Heer. “The people are ready.”
3. In 2003, Bush/Cheney actually had a very sophisticated public relations campaign that won over large segments of the establishment (NY Times, New Yorker published WMD lies) and Dem party (half of congressional Dems, including Biden & Clinton, voted for war). Trump hasn't…
As the Trump administration boasted about the “severe damage” the strikes had done to Iran’s nuclear program, progressive strategist Waleed Shahid called on Democratic lawmakers to tap into voters’ palpable outrage—not about Trump’s failure to seek congressional authorization for the strikes, but about the fact that the U.S. is pursuing a war in Iran at all while repeating Netanyahu’s unsubstantiated claims about the Iranians’ ability to produce a nuclear bomb.
“No one ever won a fight yelling, ‘Congressional authorization.’ Voters need clarity amid the chaos,” said Shahid. “Lead with this: No more blank checks for corrupt and endless foreign wars, we’re here to focus on fighting for working Americans.”
“The U.S. faces enormous problems here at home, which we must address,” said Sanders. “We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged into another Middle East war based on lies.”
Flight-tracking software shows U.S. Air Force refueling tankers on their way to Europe on June 15, 2025. (Photo: Evergreen Intel/X)
“You don’t spin up this kind of skyward muscle just to flex,” said one observer.
Flight-tracking websites showed dozens of Air Force aerial refueling planes departing from military bases in the United States and heading to Europe on Sunday, fueling speculation of direct U.S. involvement in the widening Israeli-Iranian war.
Military-focused news sites reported that around 30 U.S. Air Force KC-135R and KC-46A tankers were identified by flight-tracking software in what The Times of Israel called an “unprecedented mass deployment” to Europe.
🚨🇺🇸 SOMETHING’S MOVING: U.S. Air Force refueling tankers just launched en masse across multiple bases; headed toward Europe.
These aren’t transport planes. These are flying gas stations for warbirds. You don’t launch this many unless you’re prepping for sustained air ops.… pic.twitter.com/xrYKNFM0tU
Most of these aircraft landed this morning at Ramstein Air Base in Germany and at Morón Air Base and [Naval Air Station] Rota in Spain, while two landed at Aviano Air Base in Italy and at least one landed at Prestwick International Airport in the U.K. At the time of writing, some tankers are in flight over the Balkans, headed south, possibly towards Souda Bay in Greece or Incirlik in Turkey.
“While tanker movements in this direction are far from abnormal, such a large, near-simultaneous migration of the jets was very peculiar, especially at a time of extreme crisis in the Middle East,” The War Zone’s Tyler Rogoway wrote Monday. “The exact reason for the mass deployment is unclear, although many of the potential answers would indicate a change, or preparations for a potential change, in the current conflict between Israel and Iran.”
I have no intel on what this is, but if you were going to support Israel’s campaign directly in an offensive manner, these tankers is what they need most. Also bomber global airpower missions. Or this could be something else, including providing a contingency option. https://t.co/ZVTusZT9aB
Speaking on condition of anonymity, two U.S. officials toldReuters Monday that the tankers are being deployed to provide the administration of President Donald Trump with flexibility to act in the Middle East. Military experts said the deployment could portend expanded U.S. support for Israel’s war on Iran or even American strikes against the country.
The Trump administration—which recently concluded that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons—insists that Israel is acting “unilaterally” against its enemy in an effort to prevent it from developing nukes.
However, Trump said Sunday that “it’s possible” that U.S. forces could enter the fight. Iran has accused the United States of complicity in Israel’s bombing—which Iran says has killed more than 200 people, 90% of whom are civilians—and warned Washington of potential dire consequences if it boosts involvement in the war.
Asked about possible U.S. intervention in the war, Trump told reporters during the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Alberta, Canada on Monday, “I don’t want to talk about that.”
“We’re not involved in it. It’s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved,” the president added.
As Reuters noted:
The United States already has a sizable force in the Middle East, with nearly 40,000 troops in the region, including air defense systems, fighter aircraft, and warships that can help bring down missiles.
Last month, the Pentagon replaced B-2 bombers with another type of bomber at a base in the Indo-Pacific that is seen as being an ideal location to operate in the Middle East. The B-52 bombers can carry large bunker-busting munitions, which experts say can be used against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Iran has responded to Israel’s bombardment with waves of apparently indiscriminate missile attacks against Israeli cites, killing at least 24 Israeli civilians including women and children and Palestinian citizens of Israel and wounding hundreds of others.
Iranian state media—which was bombed by Israeli forces Monday with reported fatalities—claimed late in the day that Tehran is “preparing for largest and most intense missile attack in history on Israeli soil,” even as Iran’s government reportedly signaled its willingness to negotiate an end to hostilities if the U.S. guarantees it will not attack.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu subsequently toldABC News that Israel would continue bombing Iran, dismissing Tehran’s reported overture as a ruse meant to “lie, cheat, and string the U.S. along.”
