Trump: Don't Drag the US Into Netanyahu's War with Iran | Sen. Bernie Sanders – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.thank you very much for joining me In the year 2025 one might have hoped that the global community would be working together to address the existential threat of climate change working to prevent future pandemics working to address the massive levels of income and wealth inequality that exists working to improve the standard of living of struggling people all over the world But tragically that is not where we are today Quite the contrary Instead of addressing the major crises that we face the world is now looking at the terrible war in Ukraine started by Putin which has taken hundreds of thousands of lives over the last 3 years We are looking at the horrific war in Gaza where as we speak thousands of Palestinian children are facing starvation due to Israel's inhumane and illegal war policies And now we face a dangerous and escalating war in Iran which was begun in violation of international law by the extremist Netanyahu government And the main point that I want to make today is that it is absolutely imperative that the United States not be dragged into this war Let me say a word about how this war began On Thursday Netanyahu launched an illegal and unilateral surprise attack on Iran bombing targets across the country and killing hundreds of people Iran has responded with attacks of its own which have killed dozens of people in Israel Whatever you may think of the corrupt and authoritarian Iranian regime Israel's attack clearly violated international law and the United Nations charter While every country has the right to defend itself they do not have the right to launch so-called preemptive wars of this kind But let's remember who Netanyahu is He is a war criminal under indictment by the International Criminal Court for starving innocent people and killing civilians in Gaza At this very moment in Gaza Israel continues to prevent the UN from delivering humanitarian aid And just today in Gaza Israeli tanks fired into a crowd desperately trying to collect food killing at least 59 people So it should come as little surprise that Netanyahu ignored international law to start this war with Iran But Netanyahu's decision to strike also directly contravened the express wishes of the United States which was seeking a diplomatic resolution to the longstanding tensions around Iran's nuclear program In recent months the United States has held five rounds of negotiations with Iran to resolve these longstanding concerns Let me repeat In recent months the United States has held five rounds of negotiations with Iran to resolve these longstanding concerns A sixth round of talks was planned for Sunday but Netanyahu chose instead to start this war So let's be clear Israel's attack was specifically designed to sabotage American diplomatic efforts In fact in its first round of strikes Israel assassinated the man overseeing Iran's nuclear negotiating team And let's also remember that US intelligence has never indicated that Iran has made the decision to build a nuclear weapon Just a few months ago Trump's own director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbid testified to Congress that quote "The intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon." End of quote But Netanyahu chose to attack crippling diplomatic efforts and risking a full-blown regional war He is now openly talking about regime change in Iran and threatening to kill the political leadership of that country without any thought to the chaos that might ensue Let's also not forget that the current Islamic regime in Iran is itself the product of a westernbacked coup in 1953 that overthrew the democratically elected government of Iran and replaced it with a corrupt autocrat The critical question now is whether the United States will get dragged into Netanyahu's war In my view that would be a disaster The United States must not be involved with another Netanyahu war not militarily or financially The United States Constitution is crystal clear There can be no offensive use of military force against Iran or any other country without an explicit authorization from Congress No such authorization exists and any US involvement would therefore be illegal The United States has already provided hundreds of billions of dollars to Israel over the last many decades Last year alone US taxpayers provided more than 22 billion in military aid to Israel Meanwhile by providing massive aid to Israel we have Americans sleeping out on the street unable to afford health care or other basic necessities Enough is enough President Trump ran as a supposed peace candidate In his inaugural address he said and I quote "My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier That's what I want to be a peacemaker and a unifier." End quote Very fine words Trump should remember them today Supporting Netanyahu's war against Iran would be a catastrophic mistake Instead of going to war Trump must work with the international community to reign in Netanyahu and urgently push for a diplomatic solution Netanyahu's illegal attack has made the world a more dangerous place The United States must not be a part of this war Thank you very much