The Donald Trump administration and its political allies in the United States avoid using the word “war” when talking about the conflict with Iran, preferring more ambiguous language such as “operation” or “mission.” Official statements and comments from Republican politicians described the strikes on Iranian targets as a “very specific operation” with limited objectives.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, for example, to talkThe United States is “not currently at war” but is on a “critical mission to keep everyone safe.”
There is a quite practical explanation for this choice of words. According to the US Constitution, the authority to declare war rests with Congress, not the president. The last time this happened was in 1942, when during World War II the United States declared war on Nazi Germany’s allies – Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania. For all the conflicts the United States has been involved in since then, including the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, different administrations have come up with different names, even “kinetic action using armed force.”
Each time this caused criticism. In 1973, during the Vietnam War, Congress passed the War Powers Act, which stipulated that the president could use military force abroad only with congressional authorization—or at least notify Congress that exceptional circumstances existed that would prevent him from waiting for such authorization. In the case of an attack on Iran, the Trump administration did not even provide such a report — this is not unprecedented, but it is still a rare case.
how Notes In addition to the legal reasons, there are also purely political reasons why the Trump administration has avoided using the word “war.” For American society, the matter is primarily related to the events of recent decades in Iraq and Afghanistan: long conflicts that resulted in many casualties and the absence of clear prospects. “War” does not mean readiness to fight as much as it means chaos and discontent.
The last time military intervention was very popular in the United States was in the early 1990s, when American forces, supported by an international coalition, liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation (the First Gulf War, or Operation Desert Storm). A generation of Americans has already grown who simply does not remember this experience.
The current practice of the American authorities is in many respects similar to the practice of the Russian authorities at the beginning of the comprehensive invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Then the word “war” was already banned. What was happening should have been called a “special military operation” (SVO), and the word “war” could have given rise to an administrative or even criminal case under the article on “falsification” or “defamation” of the armed forces. In the United States, there is no administrative or criminal liability for the word “war.” The fact that he is avoided is only an element of official discourse and a sign of loyalty.