Ralph welcomes Wes Bryant, a retired Air Force special operations master sergeant and former analyst at the Civilian Protection Center who talks to us about how civilians, either through incompetence or negligence, are not being protected during American missile strikes. Then our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, joins us to break down his latest op-ed “The Power to Declare War Belongs to Congress Alone.”
Wes Bryant is a defense and national security analyst with focus on foreign policy and global conflict, counterterrorism and extremism, strike and joint targeting operations, and civilian harm. He retired from the U.S. Air Force in 2018 at the rank of Master Sergeant after twenty years of active duty service. He was formerly a senior policy analyst and advisor on precision warfare and civilian harm mitigation at the Pentagon’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, where he led as the first-ever Branch Chief of Civilian Harm Assessments.
This strike [on the girls’ school in Minab, Iran] violated standing practices and doctrine we’ve had in place for two, three decades. That’s aside from even the work we were doing at the Pentagon in civilian harm mitigation to get better at this sort of thing and prevent these things from happening…This is just one of many. My colleagues at Airwars who track civilian harm incidents in conflict zones—right now, they’re tracking over 130 separate incidents throughout Iran (that’s between the U.S. and Israel) and that number is going to spike. And of course we’re tracking, I believe, it’s over 2,000 civilian casualties. That number is surely going to spike once the smoke clears.
Wes Bryant
I believe that right now, with the way we are conducting ourselves as a nation on the international stage—and most importantly, the way we’re using or abusing our military and the use of lethal military force—we are carrying out state terrorism. Israel assuredly has been for years.
Wes Bryant
We hear all these people (especially Hegseth most recently) talking about “precision” —”precision strikes” and “no one’s more precise” and “precision warfare”. Well, I was an expert in precision warfare. I was one of the people helping develop our standards for precision warfare and try to make us get to the point where we’re actually carrying out precision warfare consistently. Precision warfare really means the minimal use of resources, the minimal use of (as Hegseth says) lethality in order to accomplish strategic objectives—and the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure. We have in Gaza simply the use of precision weapons to decimate an entire urban infrastructure and decimate parts of the population. So what I say is (and not flippantly, unfortunately, I say it somberly) the only thing being applied here in terms of precision is that civilians and civilian infrastructure are being killed and destroyed more precisely.
Wes Bryant
Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.
When we decided in the culture that we would rather be an empire that got an adrenaline high from being a colossus and surrendering our republican virtues of rule of law, everyone gets to march to their own drummer, find fulfillment as long as they’re not harming anyone else, you then find this repeated disrespect for the Declare War Clause.
Bruce Fein
News 3/27/26
Our top stories this week have to do with the tiny, blockaded island nation of Cuba. Cuba, famous for its medical innovations including a lung cancer vaccine, has long maintained medical missions abroad. In recent days, the United States has pressured foreign governments to end these partnerships, including passing a law that opens up the possibility of sanctions on countries that accept these medical missions. This week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced Mexico will retain the Cuban doctors in defiance of American threats. Since 2022, thousands of Cuban medical workers have been deployed in poor, rural areas of the country. Sheinbaum emphasized that “It’s hard to get Mexican doctors and specialists to go out to many rural areas where we need medical specialists, and the Cubans are willing to work there,” per Al Jazeera. However, Mexico is the exception. Within the past month, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Guyana and the Bahamas have all announced that the Cuban doctors will leave their countries under American pressure. It is tragic to think of the number of poor people in the rural areas of these countries who will needlessly suffer and die simply because they are caught in the crossfire of American imperialism.
In more Cuba news, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told Drop Site that the Cuban government is preparing to submit a proposal to the United States offering lump sum payments to Americans and American firms that lost property during the 1959 revolution. As this piece notes, Cuba negotiated lump sum compensation agreements with Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France in the wake of the revolution, but the United States refused this offer and instead sought to destabilize the Castro government for decades. The Cuban officials admit that they lack the reserves to make good on this offer right away, but argue that if the Americans eased the sanctions regime they could use the new capital flow to finance this agreement. With all of that said, Cossio also contends that “the Cuban people and the Cuban nation…deserves…to be compensated for the damage done by the economic blockade, by the invasion, by terrorism, by assassinations…[and by] violent actions against the [Cuban] economy.”
In more news from Latin America, CBS reports Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, a 28-year old Venezuelan man deported from the U.S. and detained in the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador last year has filed a tort suit alleging false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress and demanding $1.3 million in damages from the United States. According to Rengel, he and fellow detainees were constantly beaten by prison guards, forced to drink the same water he and other inmates bathed in, and was told by guards that he would be there for 90 years. Rengel was eventually freed in a prisoner exchange with Venezuela in July of 2025. Rengel, who entered the country legally, was deported on the basis of alleged ties to the Tren de Aragua gang. He denies having any connection with that criminal organization.
Turning to the Middle East, while the American war on Iran rages, the new Israeli offensive in Lebanon has largely slipped under the radar. But as this campaign grows larger and larger, it cannot be ignored. According to Reuters, Israel is planning to seize a “chunk” of southern Lebanon south of the Litani River to create a “buffer zone” against Hezbollah militants. Approximately 8% of Lebanese territory lies south of this line of demarcation. On March 24th, Israeli Defence Minister Katz said Israel had “destroyed five bridges over the river and that the military would ‘control the remaining bridges and the security zone up to the Litani,’ adding that Israeli troops would remain as long as there is “terrorism and missiles.” As part of this offensive, Israel has ordered the evacuation of all Lebanese south of the Litani. In practice, this means over 1.16 million people – 25% of the population of Lebanon – has been displaced, per Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayyed. This from Drop Site.
Meanwhile, the Hill reports that the Progressive Caucus – Chaired by Texas progressive congressman Greg Casar – will uniformly vote against any proposed supplemental funding for the Pentagon to prosecute the war in Iran. Casar told the publication, “Democrats should unite against funding this illegal war and force Republicans to answer to the American people for it.” The Progressive Caucus argues that the eye-popping $200 billion price tag of the supplement could be better used to fund programs to expand health care subsidies, cover pre-K education costs, build more affordable housing, cover school lunches and eradicate medical debt. Congresswoman Sara Jacobs added that the supplement request is “not a one-time cost to wrap things up” but rather “a down payment on a long war.”
Even as Congress debates the supplementary funding bill, Democrats are eyeing a new War Powers Resolution. Axios reports that while the previous War Powers Resolution on Iran failed by a margin of 219 to 212, the four Democrats who crossed party lines to vote down the resolution last time are “poised to flip” the next time party leadership forces a war powers vote and Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace is hinting that she would support a new resolution as well. If all Democrats vote for the measure, along with the two Republicans – Reps. Thomas Massie and Warren Davidson – who supported the resolution last time maintain their support, Mace’s support wouldn’t even be necessary for a majority vote. Unfortunately, Axios notes that even if both the House and Senate pass the resolution, President Trump can veto the measure and it would be nearly impossible to get the necessary two-thirds vote in both chambers to override his veto.
Turning to tech news, Wired reports that Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill in the Senate designed to institute a national moratorium on construction of AI datacenters “until legislation is enacted that safeguards the public from the dangers of artificial intelligence.” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plans to introduce a companion bill in the House in the coming days. In a speech, Sanders contended that “A moratorium will give us the chance to figure out how to make sure that AI benefits the working families of this country, not just a handful of billionaires…A moratorium will give us the time to figure out how to ensure that AI is safe and effective and prevent the worst outcomes. A moratorium will give us the time to figure out how to make sure AI does not harm our environment or jack up the electric bills that we pay.” Concerns about AI Data Centers have demonstrated an appeal on both the Right and Left; beyond Sanders and AOC, Republican Senator Josh Hawley and Rep. Thomas Massie, along with Governor Ron DeSantis and conservative pundit Steve Bannon, have all expressed some level of concern. Even President Trump, who forged an alliance with the tech industry in his second term, has been forced to admit that “Data centers…need some PR help.”
On the open market, OpenAI is reportedly shutting down Sora, the video generation app it launched just last year intended to be a harbinger for expansion into creative tools and social media, per CNN. While Sora started off with a significant degree of public enthusiasm, and a billion-dollar deal with Disney, copyright holders “quickly raised concerns over the use of their intellectual property and people’s likenesses on the platform.” Others derided Sora for its contributions to misinformation and for helping to proliferate so-called “AI slop.” For their part, Disney issued a statement maintaining that they “respect OpenAI’s decision to exit the video generation business,” but that the deal would not be moving forward.
In more local news, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is initiating a massive round of cuts to wasteful spending in the municipal budget. In a video, the mayor acknowledged how past spending has left the city with a $5.4 billion budget gap over the next two years and how he plans to cut $1.7 billion to help drive that down in the near term, without compromising essential services. One way Mamdani plans to cut costs is by minimizing the use of outside contractors and crucially, consultants. Mamdani said the city’s Department of Social Services is canceling its contract with McKinsey worth a staggering $9 million. In addition to these cuts, Mamdani stressed that in order to fight this budget gap, the city also needs to “tax the rich and end the drain that’s been our relationship with the state for far too long.” Staying true to his promise of transparency with the people of New York, he said his administration will “keep [them] posted every step of the way. Because to deliver public goods, you have to first deliver public excellence.” This from Newsweek.
Finally, ever since his 2020 election loss, President Trump has ceaselessly attacked mail-in voting as fraudulent – calling the method “mail-in cheating” – and his government is currently arguing a case before the Supreme Court seeking to ban the practice of states accepting mail-in ballots postmarked by election day but received afterwards. This week however, in the midst of this campaign against mail-in voting, Trump himself cast a mail-in vote in his adopted home state of Florida, NPR reports. Democracy Docket adds that when asked about his mail-in vote, Trump responded “because of the fact I’m president of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida because I felt like I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sun.” While a minute example of Trump’s rampant hypocrisy, this is indicative of his philosophy that rules exist for thee and not for me.
This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.
