The U.S. and Israel have sent multiple missile strikes into Iran’s capital. Donald Trump described this as a major military operation and that it was an act of war, however this is an unconstitutional act as congress has not declared war, yet. But Trump has still sent Americans to war against Iran, and so far six have died. This could lead the U.S. and Iran into a very long conflict, which Trump also said would last for weeks. Iran’s government oversees extensive military capabilities, which could sustain a resistance. Iran has struck back, launching their own first waves of ballistic missiles to Israel.

This all happened around midnight here and 8 A.M. in Iran. The capital was struck as well as a girls elementary school, where a total of 165 girls and staff were killed. A government compound was also struck, where their supreme leader was also killed, along with top government and military officials. However, Iran has claimed that their supreme leader was in fact still alive, and that the U.S. and Israel will pay a great price. Iran has been launching retaliatory strikes against multiple other countries, which includes UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Israel and Bahrain, and specifically a U.S. naval base. Missile strikes have been seen in the Dubai and Saudi Arabian sky. The UAE has said they reserve the right to strike back at Iran since one of their citizens was killed by the Iranian missile strikes on the UAE. Global tensions overall are at a high as countries like Canada urge their citizens to proceed with extreme caution as they travel internationally.

The war is expanding, and dragging in 13 countries in one way or another. An Iran missile strike has hit a British military base in Cyprus. Cyprus is a part of the EU, and is demanding that the EU joins into battle Iran. Great Britain so far is the only country to allow the U.S. to use their military base to bomb Iran, which makes it unlikely that the EU will join in.

Another way this will affect us is that Iran shut down the strait of Hormuz, which is catastrophic because it oversees about 20% of the world’s daily oil production. This could spike the price of a gallon of gas to five to seven dollars or so a gallon, and will also cause global inflation because not only the price of oil, but oil itself is involved in the transport of nearly every good. This means that the price could just be handed off to consumers.

All of this originally started in the 1950s, specifically 1953 when the CIA overthrew Iran’s leader, Mohammad Mosaddegh. Mosaddegh was democratically elected, and the reason their leader was overthrown? He said that Iran should own their own oil instead of Great Britain. Great Britain in response to this called on the U.S. to help overthrow Iran’s leader. He was arrested, and then a king, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was put in his place. Pahlavi then ruled as a U.S. backed dictator for 25 years. Then, in 1975, the people of Iran overthrew him, and ended up being replaced by a religious government, which still exists today. And during a meeting where Iran’s council of experts were counting votes for Iran’s next supreme leader, the building was bombed by Israel. The reasoning for this was “Instead of killing off the next supreme leader, why don’t we just stop them from picking a supreme leader all together.”

Now, back to what’s happening currently with this war, a U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia was blown up after Iranian drones struck it. NATO is also now potentially involved as one of the member states, after Turkey was targeted by an Iranian missile that was traveling towards their airspace. The missile was struck down by NATO air defense systems. This was the first time they were involved in this war, and it is unknown if they will be again.