When Iran launches missiles at U.S. military bases (which are clearly valid military targets in a time of war), the action is described as a "surprise attack" to insinuate that the attack is somehow unethical or immoral.
Yet when the U.S. launches surprise attacks on Iran, including attacks on civilian schools, or assassinations of Iranian leaders, or the bombing of critical civilian infrastructure, those are called "strikes" to imply they are a routine, justifiable part of warfare.
When it comes to the actual moral code of what's happening in this conflict, the U.S. consistently proves itself to be immoral and unethical:
- The U.S. launched the illegal war in the first place, even though Iran posed no imminent threat to the U.S.
- The U.S. deliberately targeted and bombed a school with 170+ young girls (children), then double-bombed the target when parents and teachers showed up to try to rescue their injured children.
- The U.S. has repeatedly invited Iran negotiators to travel to a negotiation site, and then bombed them or used explosives to kill them, while blaming Iran for refusing to negotiate.
- The U.S. has no intrinsic right to control the Strait of Hormuz, located nearly on the opposite side of the planet as the United States of America. If that were true, then Iran would have the right to control the Gulf of Mexico.
- Trump routinely orders the U.S. military to strike civilian targets like bridges and power plants, committing act war crimes under U.S. law, while claiming he isn't bound by any laws or rules at all.
- To avoid requiring Congress to declare war, Trump pretends that each military action lasts only 60 days, at which point he declares the action to be concluded, and then the next day he declares a new action has begun, thereby stringing together a series of 60-day emergency actions, effectively usurping the power of Congress and concentrating the power to wage war in the hands of the executive (himself). While the war grows increasingly unpopular, Trump betrays the very Americans he is supposed to represent, and he pursues actions that most Americans find abhorrent.
Summary? The U.S. actions against Iran are illegal, unethical, immoral, unjustified and place the entire world at grave risk of famine, industrial collapse, economic depression and social strife stemming from those conditions.
Trump and Hegseth both need to be removed from office and prosecuted as war criminals. In a world of real justice and peace, perhaps they would share a jail cell with indicted war criminal Netanyahu.