The Christian Science Monitor

2 days ago | csmonitor.com | Linda Feldmann |Caitlin Babcock

The United States’ deep involvement in the 12-day-old Israel-Iran war, which may not be over despite a declared ceasefire, has reignited an age-old clash between Congress and the president: Who has the power to launch a U.S. military offensive – if not outright war – against another country? The debate became especially charged this past weekend, when the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in support of its ally, Israel, without advance authorization from Congress.

3 days ago | csmonitor.com | Taylor Luck

An Israel-Iran war has come and gone, for now. Yet the conflict, which culminated in weekend U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and an Iranian missile barrage lobbed at a U.S. base in Qatar Monday, was marked by a noticeable absence. Iran’s network of militant groups, which Tehran spent two decades building up across Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, and the Levant, were nowhere to be seen.

4 days ago | csmonitor.com | Scott Peterson

As Iran reeled from waves of Israeli military attacks last week, President Donald Trump posted a message demanding Tehran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” in nuclear talks. After five rounds of indirect negotiations, the White House had demanded strict limits on Iran’s nuclear program that, to Iranian officials, did in fact amount to surrender. And that summoned bitter echoes of past humiliation that still resonate in the Iranian psyche today – and affect decisions to be flexible, or to dig in.

5 days ago | csmonitor.com | Scott Peterson |Anna Mulrine Grobe |Dina Kraft |Taylor Luck

The United States struck three key nuclear sites in Iran overnight, leaping into Israel’s eight-day military campaign against Iran with bunker-buster bombs, in a dramatic American attack that could reshape the Middle East for decades to come. President Donald Trump said the U.S. attack “totally and completely obliterated” what remained of Iran’s nuclear program, after more than a week of pummeling by Israeli airstrikes.

5 days ago | csmonitor.com | Linda Feldmann

In his election campaign last year, President Donald Trump ran as a peacemaker, promising to “end the endless foreign wars.” Now he has opted for war, joining Israel’s conflict with Iran. U.S. bombers attacked three of the nation’s key nuclear facilities overnight. President Trump, it turns out, is more of a traditional “peace through strength” Republican than the “America First” isolationist many in his MAGA base had hoped or even assumed he would be.