As war escalates, Iran's universities face increasing fire | Science | AAAS

The Trump administration's reckless escalation with Iran is now putting university campuses directly in harm's way. Recent military strikes have damaged the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), with collateral damage from attacks on nearby military installations spreading to academic facilities.

This is what happens when you manufacture a conflict for political gain -- real people, including students and researchers, pay the price. The administration walked away from the Iran nuclear deal, reimposed crippling sanctions, and ramped up military provocations. Now Iranian universities are catching shrapnel from a war that didn't need to happen.

According to reporting from Science magazine, IUST has already sustained damage from barrages targeting military sites in its vicinity. Iranian universities are frequently located near strategic installations, making them vulnerable as strikes intensify. The damage threatens not just the physical safety of students and faculty, but also research infrastructure that took years to build.

This follows a pattern we've seen throughout Trump's approach to Iran: maximum pressure with minimum strategy. The administration pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, despite international inspectors confirming Iran was complying with the agreement. Trump wanted a "better deal" -- what we got instead was an escalating cycle of provocations, sanctions that devastated Iran's civilian economy, and now military strikes that are hitting educational institutions.

Universities should never be acceptable collateral damage. But when you pursue regime change through economic warfare and military brinksmanship, civilian infrastructure becomes a casualty. Iranian students didn't ask for this conflict. Iranian researchers working on everything from medical advances to environmental science didn't provoke these strikes. They're caught in the middle of a manufactured crisis designed to make Trump look tough on the world stage.

The timing is also suspect. Every time this administration faces domestic scandals or political setbacks, suddenly there's a new Iran crisis. It's the oldest play in the authoritarian handbook: start a foreign conflict to distract from problems at home and rally people around the flag.

The damage to IUST is just the beginning. As strikes continue and the conflict escalates, more universities will find themselves in the blast radius. Research collaborations will be disrupted. Students will flee campuses that are no longer safe. Academic freedom, already constrained under Iran's theocratic government, will face new pressures as universities become militarized zones.

This didn't have to happen. The Iran deal was working. International cooperation was containing Iran's nuclear program without firing a shot. But Trump tore it up because it had Obama's name on it, and because his advisors like John Bolton had been itching for war with Iran for decades.

Now we're watching the consequences play out in real time. Universities under fire. Students and faculty at risk. Research infrastructure destroyed. And for what? So Trump can claim he's tougher than his predecessor? So defense contractors can profit from another Middle East conflict? So the administration can change the news cycle away from corruption scandals and impeachment proceedings?

The American people didn't vote for war with Iran. Congress didn't authorize it. But Trump's maximum pressure campaign has brought us to the brink anyway, and now Iranian universities are paying the price for his recklessness.

This is what manufactured conflict looks like: collateral damage spreading to places that should be sanctuaries of learning and research. Universities catching fire because an American president needed a distraction and his advisors needed an enemy.

The question now is how much worse this gets before anyone in Washington has the courage to pull the plug on this disastrous escalation. How many more universities need to be hit? How many students need to be put at risk? How close to full-scale war do we need to get before someone says enough?

Trump's Iran policy has been a failure from day one. Walking away from diplomacy. Imposing sanctions that hurt ordinary Iranians while strengthening hardliners. Assassinating Iranian generals. And now watching as military strikes damage universities and threaten students.

This is the cost of electing a president who sees foreign policy as reality TV drama. Real institutions are being destroyed. Real lives are at risk. And all of it could have been avoided if this administration had chosen diplomacy over brinksmanship.