{"id":46761,"date":"2026-02-19T17:41:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46761"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:42:08","slug":"as-trump-marches-us-toward-iran-war-critics-ask-wheres-the-pushback-from-dems-and-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/as-trump-marches-us-toward-iran-war-critics-ask-wheres-the-pushback-from-dems-and-media\/","title":{"rendered":"As Trump Marches US Toward Iran War, Critics Ask: Where\u2019s the \u2018Pushback\u2019 From Dems and Media?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-DEMOCRATS\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) depart a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 8, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s astonishing that we\u2019re building up for a significant military clash, and Congress isn\u2019t involved, no real case is being made to the public, and the average American has no clue.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb 18, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid reports that President Donald Trump<\/a> is pushing the US toward a \u201cmassive\u201d war in Iran, critics have found themselves shocked by the lack of \u201cpushback\u201d from top Democrats and mainstream media institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barak Ravidreported<\/a> for Axios <\/em>on Wednesday that, with a deal between the US and Iran appearing increasingly out of sight, \u201cthe Trump administration<\/a> is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize\u201d and \u201cIt could begin very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECOMMENDED…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"image<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The Tankers Just Keep Coming\u2019: US Military Movements Spike Fears of Imminent Attack on Iran<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Negotiations<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Peace Campaigners Demand Congress Stop Trump From Waging \u2018Devastating\u2019 War on Iran<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sources told the outlet that \u201cA US military<\/a> operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign that would look more like full-fledged war than last month\u2019s pinpoint operation in Venezuela<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuch a war would have a dramatic influence on the entire region and major implications for the remaining three years of the Trump presidency,\u201d Ravid wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with Congress on recess and the media largely distracted by a whirlwind of other issues, he noted, \u201cthere is little public debate about what could be the most consequential US military intervention in the Middle East in at least a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As columnist Adam Johnson pointed out<\/a> on social media<\/a>, Trump\u2019s sabre-rattling toward Iran was underway well before Congress left town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, Johnson said, the \u201ctwo most powerful Democrats in the country,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> (D-NY), \u201chave once again not leveled a single word of substantive pushback,\u201d as was the case when Trump conducted strikes against Iran over the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the top Democrats have only acknowledged Trump\u2019s threats \u201cwhen asked by reporters\u201d and have made only \u201cprocess criticisms\u201d rather than criticizing the merits of the war itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, as Trump threatened to carry out massive strikes in retaliation for Iran\u2019s brutalization of protesters, Schumer limited his criticism to the fact that Trump had not consulted Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has to be debated by Congress. Something like that, the War Powers Act, the Constitution, requires a discussion in Congress. We\u2019ve had no reach-out from the administration at this point,\u201d he told reporters.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, Jeffries\u2014a member of Congress who is briefed on national security matters\u2014was asked on CBS\u2019s Face the Nation <\/em>what he knew about the war plans or what he would want to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He did not answer that question, but vaguely lamented<\/a> that Trump \u201chas been slow to provide information… to the Gang of Eight members of Congress\u201d and \u201chasn\u2019t provided a significant amount of information to Congress in general.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen it comes to sanctions<\/a>, perma-war, and bombings, we do not have an opposition party,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe have sleepy AIPAC-funded hall monitors paid to get wedgies and vaguely object after the craters are smoking in the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York Times<\/a><\/em>\u00a0columnist David French\u00a0agreed<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s astonishing that we\u2019re building up for a significant military clash, and Congress isn\u2019t involved, no real case is being made to the public, and the average American has no clue. If this gets serious, it will be a shock for lots of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/brhodes\/status\/2024209063853379928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2024209063853379928%7Ctwgr%5E3a277672ed4df168297c70d5754db37b5fdd22d0%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Ftrump-iran-war-pushback<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is little hunger in the American public for a war with Iran. A YouGov survey<\/a> from early February found that 48% said they strongly or somewhat opposed military action in Iran, compared with just 28% who supported it and 24% who weren\u2019t sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in an interview<\/a> with Democracy<\/a> Now! <\/em>on Wednesday that, despite the public\u2019s broadly anti-interventionist attitudes, \u201ctheir voices are more or less not being heard in the mainstream media.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing exactly what we saw during the Iraq War<\/a>, in which a large number of pro-intervention Iraqi voices were paraded through mainstream media in order to give the impression that not only is this something that is supported by the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi society, but also that this is the morally right thing to do,\u201d Parsi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drop Site News <\/em>founder Ryan Grim said that when compared with the invasion of Iraq, which was built up<\/a> over the course of more than a year through persistent propaganda to get the public on board, the Trump administration\u2019s effort to sell a war with Iran is laughable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t even get the respect of being lied into war anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s just going to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) depart a press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 8, 2026. \u00a0(Photo by Saul Loeb\/AFP via Getty Images) \u201cIt\u2019s astonishing that we\u2019re building up for a significant military clash, and Congress isn\u2019t… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46761"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46762,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46761\/revisions\/46762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}