Iran and Israel both say Iran's Supreme Leader, 86 year old Ali Khamenei, in failing health for years, is dead, allegedly struck down in the Royal compound. The night of the attacks, Iran media reported Khamenei had been evacuated before the strikes. It seems somewhat bizarre that with Trump hinting all week the U.S. would be taking military action against Iran, that Iran would not evacuate him. But as late-night host Jon Stewart said on the Daily Show Monday night (at 7:40' in), sometimes old people so stubborn and certain they are correct, you can't convince them of anything, especially danger and maybe Iran couldn't convince him to leave.

No matter how horrible Ali Khamenei was, Donald Trump has yet to make the case that Iran represented an imminent danger to the U.S. or U.S. interests, or that its success at developing nuclear bombs or ballistic missiles that could reach the U.S. was on the immediate horizon.

Anger at Trump for engaging in a personal war of choice is growing.

On Monday repeated his assertion that the US needed to take action because of concerns that Iran was aiming to build ballistic missiles that could reach the United States.

Iran hasn’t acknowledged it is building or seeking to build intercontinental ballistic missiles. The US Defense Intelligence Agency, however, said in an unclassified report last year that Iran could develop a militarily viable intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 "should Tehran decide to pursue the capability".

....Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, on Monday reaffirmed that Iran has an "ambitious" nuclear programme but doesn’t have a programme for building nuclear weapons currently.

This is reminiscent of the colossal mistakes of Dick Cheney and his fellow neo-cons in dragging us into war in Iraq based on faulty intelligence.

Trump, never one to believe law applies to him, did not seek authority from Congress to join Israel's war. Nor did he have the decency to personally address the American people of his dragging us into war in prime time. Instead, at 2:00 am on Saturday morning, he posted a prerecorded, after-the-fact video announcement on his social media channel, almost nobody other than rabid Trump followers would see. (While wearing a baseball cap that is too large for his head.) In case you haven't seen it or read the transcript, here are some snippets with a few of his outlandish statements. (The U.S. Embassy in China has a transcript:

.... the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.

We're going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy. We're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilise the region or the world and attack our forces, and no longer use their IEDs, or roadside bombs as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans. And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It's a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.

This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States armed forces. 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.

I once again urge the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian military, police, to lay down your arms, and receive full immunity or face certain death. It will be certain death. Won’t be pretty.

I call upon all Iranian patriots who yearn for freedom. to seize this moment, to be brave, be bold, be heroic, and take back your country. America is with you. I made a promise to you, and I fulfilled that promise. The rest will be up to you, but we’ll be there to help.

....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.

American service people are now collateral damage to Trump? What comes next? A military draft so the U.S. has enough recruits to put boots on the ground in 14 countries?

By irresponsibly joining Israel's bombing of Iran, arrogantly calling on the protesters to seize the moment for regime change to free themselves, and promising immunity to members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who join the effort to topple Iran's Government, Donald Trump has alienated almost the entire world and turned the middle east upside down. This is not a war of necessity, it is a war of Trump's personal choice.

Hopefully, our do-nothing Congress will grow a spine, commence impeachment proceedings against Trump and the third time will be a charm.