It took about 48 hours to go from an unexplained helicopter crash to Trump announcing the planned seizure of Iran’s oil infrastructure.
On June 9, a U.S. Army Apache helicopter went down near the Strait of Hormuz; both crew members were rescued. A U.S. official told Axios that an investigation determined that an Iranian drone had hit the helicopter—but not whether it was intentional. Iran denied deliberately targeting it. Nonetheless, CENTCOM launched three rounds of “self-defense strikes” on Iranian air defense and radar; Iran answered against the 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain and bases in Jordan and Kuwait. A second round of U.S. strikes followed June 10. Defense Secretary Hegseth, leaving CENTCOM headquarters, supplied the doctrine: “If we need to negotiate with bombs, we’ll negotiate with bombs.”
By June 11, Trump was announcing on Truth Social that the United States will, “in the not too distant future,” be “taking Kharg Island” and assuming “total control” of Iran’s oil and gas markets (see below). Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi pronounced the April 8 ceasefire dead: The strikes are “a widespread and utter nullification of the ceasefire,” he said, adding “in international law, the aggressor does not evade the consequences of its actions by changing the title.” Also on June 11, Iran declared that the Hormuz Strait is closed.
Thus the war Trump and Netanyahu launched February 28 enters its fifteenth week with the Pakistan-mediated ceasefire in ruins.
The resistance is growing. The Hill reports that four Republican senators—Paul, Collins, Murkowski, and Cassidy—have voted to discharge Sen. Tim Kaine’s war powers resolution from committee, and Kaine believes a fifth is close: “We think we can have a narrow win.” The War Powers clock passed 100 days this week; Sen. John Curtis has said he will not fund the war past 90 days without Congressional authorization. An Economist/YouGov poll (June 5-8) finds 62% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict. As Rand Paul put it regarding the bill: “The more hostilities continue, the more likely people are to vote for it.”
