An Illegal War
Mehdi on the media's failure to hold Trump to account on Iran, a new corruption scandal from this administration, and the Pakistani PM can't stop glazing the US president.
On this day, in 1895, legendary abolitionist Frederick Douglass died from a heart attack at the age of 77. Donald Trump thinks he is still alive.
Good morning! Mehdi here. Ramadan Mubarak to all of you who are marking this holy month for Muslims and, of course, fasting. Fasts in the winter months, thankfully, are pretty straightforward. You have an early breakfast, an early dinner, and you skip lunch. Over in Greenland, Donald Trump’s favorite place, the fasts this year are between 15 and 16 hours long.
In today’s ‘First Draft,’ I start with a rant against our mainstream media’s abysmal coverage of Trump’s impending attack on Iran; then there’s the Democrats’ predictably boring and centrist choice to respond to Trump’s State of the Union next Tuesday; and I have nothing but praise for the South Korean courts for doing what our courts refused to do. Here we go…
On Iran, Why Won’t the Media Say the I Word?
We’ve seen this movie before.
A Republican president threatens war in the Middle East. Intelligence assessments about a “nuclear” threat are hyped and leaked. Cable news panels fill up with former generals and “national security experts” robotically echoing the administration’s claims. Words like “threat,” “deterrence,” and “credibility” get thrown around in newspaper headlines.
And one crucial word is conveniently left out.
Illegal.
In 2002 and 2003, as George W. Bush prepared to invade Iraq, many of our so-called liberal media outlets acted less like watchdogs and more like lapdogs. The New York Times infamously splashed feverish claims about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction across its front page (and later issued a groveling public apology). Cable news networks wrapped themselves in the US flag and fired dissenting voices.
The invasion of Iraq, of course, was a strategic disaster and a moral abomination. But it was also illegal. Brazenly, patently, undeniably illegal. It violated Article 2(4) the UN Charter, which forbids “the threat or use of force” except in self-defense or with explicit authorization from the UN Security Council. Even Kofi Annan, then secretary-general of the United Nations, later said bluntly: “From our point of view and from the Charter point of view, [Iraq] was illegal.”
And it also violated Article 1(8) of the US Constitution, which states that only Congress has the power to “declare war.”
But at the time, how often did you hear the word “illegal” on the nightly news? In headlines or op-eds?
Hardly ever.
Fast forward to 2026.
Another Republican president is openly preparing for military strikes on the Middle East – this time, it’s Iran. Once again, we are told that the regime is a grave threat. Once again, administration officials anonymously leak alarming intel. Once again, the cable chyrons are filled with endless references to nuclear sites and threats.
And once again, our mainstream media is refusing to state the obvious.
A US attack on Iran would clearly violate international and US law. It would be illegal.
There is no imminent threat from Iran to the US.
There is no Security Council resolution authorizing force against Iran.
There has been no declaration of war by Congress.
Yet turn on the television or read the headlines, and you would think war is simply something US presidents do in their spare time.
Consider these three stories on Donald Trump and Iran from the legacy media in recent days: