Win Without War, a peace advocacy group, displayed backpacks and children’s shoes on Capitol Hill on March 18, 2026, to protest a U.S. strike on a school in southern Iran that killed more than 100 children on February 28. (Photo: Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Against a backdrop of children’s backpacks and shoes on Wednesday, congressional Democrats protested President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, particularly denouncing an early U.S. strike that killed more than 100 elementary school students in the southern city of Minab.
The lawmakers attended the installation organized by the peace activist group Win Without War nearly 20 days after the U.S.-Israeli campaign in Iran that killed 13 U.S. soldiers, nearly 2,000 civilians and military personnel in Iran, nearly 1,000 civilians in Lebanon and dozens of civilians in Persian Gulf countries and Israel, according to government officials and human rights groups.
The conflict that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have vowed not to abate is “illegal” and a “war of choice,” Democratic lawmakers said on the lawn of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, R-Ariz., said Trump went to war “without making a clear case for the American people and without any strategy or plan.”
“And this lack of planning had devastating consequences. One of the first attacks of this illegal war struck an all-girls elementary school in Iran, killing at least 175 people, most of them children,” Ansari said, adding that she is the only Iranian-American member of Congress.
News reports citing the Iranian authorities and human rights organizations Amnesty International let’s say that on February 28, the first day of the war, 168 children were killed in a US attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Hormozgan Province.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters March 4 that the Pentagon is investigating the strike and that the United States is not targeting civilians.
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Reporters then pressed the Hegseth button a few days after the New York Times’ March 11 publication report revealed that an ongoing military investigation found that a US Tomahawk missile hit the school.
“We will not allow reporting to guide us or force us to point out what happened in a particular situation because what matters is the truth,” Hegseth responded during a March 13 news conference check-in. “I can therefore report that (U.S. Central Command) has assigned an investigating officer to complete the command’s investigation.”
Almost every Senate Democrat he demanded in a March 11 letter that the Pentagon was quickly releasing the investigation’s findings.
Auditions sought
Congressional Democrats are also calling on Republican colleagues to hold open hearings during which administration officials would testify publicly under oath.
“The administration refuses to send its policymakers to Capitol Hill to explain why they dragged America into this war, and the reason they won’t show up is because they don’t have good answers for the American people,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen said at Wednesday’s event.
“We’ve lost 13 of our service members (and) over 2,000 civilians have died throughout the Middle East. And of course that’s the worst loss, the loss of life, but it’s also costing the American people $1 billion a day,” the Maryland Democrat continued.
The cost of financing the war to the federal government is significant, reaching $5.2 billion after just two daysaccording to one estimate. Other estimates after two weeks, they estimated the cost at $11.3 billion.
Ansari, Van Hollen and several other Democratic members at the protest said they would vote “no” if the White House asked Congress for additional money finance the war.
Majority House AND Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats have so far blocked attempts to limit Trump’s executive authority in Iran.
Senate Democrats are expected to force another vote on the war powers resolution as early as Wednesday evening.
Gabbard testifies before the Senate
Senators charged with overseeing federal intelligence had the opportunity Wednesday to question Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and other top national security officials during a previously scheduled annual hearing on the global threat assessment.
Sen. Jon Ossoff, R-Ga., pressed Gabbard for nearly three hours hearing on Trump’s justification for attacking Iran last month, when the administration claimed Iran’s nuclear weapons program had been “destroyed” in joint airstrikes with Israel in June.
“Was there a quote in the assessment of the intelligence community despite this blurring?”direct nuclear threatproposed by the Iranian regime? Yes or no?” Ossoff asked.
“The intelligence community is not responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat,” Gabbard responded. “It’s up to the president, given the amount of information he receives.”
On Tuesday, Gabbard’s deputy, Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, publicly resigned in a letter stating that “Iran does not pose an immediate threat to our nation.”
