Caribbean-American Democratic Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke on Saturday, Feb. 28, strongly condemned the United States and Israel’s attack on Iran.

Early Saturday morning, Feb. 28, United States President Donald J. Trump announced the start of massive and ongoing military operations against Iran. 

“I reject Donald Trump’s illegal war in Iran, and I reject the unsound justifications he and his administration have abused to drag America into it,” Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, told Caribbean Life.

“For months, the president has insisted his previous unauthorized strikes on Iran ‘obliterated’ its nuclear capabilities,” added the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). “From his own mouth, he declared the threat of a nuclear Iran delayed by decades, and himself a champion for peace. 

“May the people of the world and our nation now see Trump as the farce we have always known him to be,” Clarke continued. 

She said while the Iranian government is “brutal and terrible, and the Iranian people’s ongoing resistance to their government’s years of tyranny should inspire all people of decent and moral intent, it is tragically clear their salvation is not the true purpose of Trump’s exercise in insanity — nor is it even a secondary objective.”

In the brief hours since this war began, Clarke said the public has been “inundated with reports of Iranian civilians, including dozens of young girls at school, losing their lives to missiles shot by America and its allies. 

“The very people whose future freedom and present oppression were used to justify this war have already been murdered by it,” she said. “Without any imminent or realistic threat to our nation, without the approval of Congress that the Constitution demands, and without any consideration for the safety of American service members nor the innocent people in the crossfire, the president has taken the first step towards shackling our nation to another endless war in the Middle East. 

“The American people did not ask for Trump’s war. The American people did not agree to Trump’s war. They do not want their sons and daughters dying for his war, nor their tax dollars used to slaughter someone else’s sons and daughters thousands of miles away,” Clarke added. “Donald Trump is a rogue president, and it’s clear he’s prepared to drag this country down with him. I refuse to stand by while he does.”

She urged leaders in the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives and the Senate to call both chambers back into session immediately.

“And the instant we reconvene, I will vote for the bipartisan War Powers Resolution to rein in his mania,” Clarke said. “I am certain hundreds of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will do the same. 

“Those who believe in peace want it known where we stood on this dark and violent day in these United States,” the congresswoman added. 

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the framers of the United States Constitution gave Congress the sole power to declare war “as the branch of government closest to the American people. 

“Iran is a bad actor and must be aggressively confronted for its human rights violations, nuclear ambitions, support of terrorism and the threat it poses to our allies like Israel and Jordan in the region. However, absent exigent circumstances, the Trump administration must seek authorization for the preemptive use of military force that constitutes an act of war,” said Jeffries, whose 8th Congressional District in New York comprises heavy concentrations of Caribbean nationals in Brooklyn and Queens. 

“Donald Trump failed to seek Congressional authorization prior to striking Iran,” he added. “Instead, the president’s decision to abandon diplomacy and launch a massive military attack has left American troops vulnerable to Iran’s retaliatory actions. 

“We pray for the safety of the men and women of the US military as they have been put into harm’s way in a dangerous theater of war,” Jeffries continued. “If Iran’s nuclear program was ‘completely and totally obliterated’ by the military strikes in June 2025, as Donald Trump boldly proclaimed, there should be no need to strike them now.”

Equally troublesome, the Democratic leader said the advancement of security and stability in the Middle East requires more than military might, “as we painfully discovered in several failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

“The Trump administration must explain itself to the American people and Congress immediately, provide an ironclad justification for this act of war, clearly define the national security objective, and articulate a plan to avoid another costly, prolonged military quagmire in the Middle East,” Jeffries demanded. 

He noted that the War Powers Resolution introduced by Congressional representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie demand that Trump remove US forces from hostilities in Iran absent Congressional authorization. 

“House Democrats remain committed to compelling a vote on this resolution upon our return,” Jeffries said.

In launching an operation to oust the Iranian government, Trump, early on Saturday, claimed that Iran posed an “imminent” threat to the US and its allies.  

Later, he announced that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the operation. 

“Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” Trump said. “Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.

“For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted ‘death to America’ and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder targeting the United States, our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries,” he added. “Among the regime’s very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days.

“Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq. The regime’s proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as US naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lanes,” Trump continued. “It’s been mass terror. And we’re not going to put up with it any longer. 

“This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States armed forces,” he said. “I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration. And there is no military on Earth even close to its power, strength, or sophistication. My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to US personnel in the region. Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war. But we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future. And it is a noble mission.”