The situation in Iran is dangerously escalating – but whatever you do, don’t call it a war | Arwa Mahdawi

Forget the bombing: the Trump administration keeps insisting this isn't a war. But it's not just a matter of semantics

I will not send you to fight and die in stupid foreign wars that never end," Donald Trump promised a crowd in Pennsylvania in 2024. While the disastrous conflict in Iran, which has escalated in recent days, may make it seem like the president has reneged on that promise, that's inaccurate. It would be wrong to say that the president has dragged the US into yet another disastrous forever war in the Middle East because, as government officials keep insisting, what's happening in Iran isn't actually a war.

I wouldn't call it a war," JD Vance told reporters early this month, for example, after being asked whether the fighting in Iran might be over by the November midterms. Right now, there is no active shooting."