Will Vermont Air National Guard F-35 pilots be called up to bomb Iran?

Earlier this morning Newsweek published an article entitled, “Five Signs War with Iran Could be Imminent.” ABC reports, “Israel considering military action against Iran in coming days.” The New York Times reports, “Israel Appears Ready to Attack Iran, Officials in U.S. and Europe Say.” CBS reported multiple sources saying, “Israel is poised to launch operation on Iran,” and that “The U.S. anticipates Iran could retaliate on certain American sites in neighboring Iraq.”

Pilots of the Vermont Air National Guard have been training for such a war with twenty F-35 jets since 2019. The training has not just involved operating the jets in military maneuvers; it has also deliberately used thousands of local Vermont civilians, including children, as part of pilot practice.

Well before the F-35 jets arrived in Vermont, the US Air Force itself described the severe injury and suffering that repeated exposure to daily 115-decibel training flights would cause to civilians living in the F-35’s oval-shaped extreme noise danger zone centered on the runway. The Air Force particularly described permanent hearing damage and impaired cognitive development of children living in this oval-shaped zone in Volume II of its Environmental Impact Statement.

Highlighting the importance of civilians for the F-35 training is that, of the 16 airports in Vermont, the one in the most densely populated part of the state was chosen: the Burlington International Airport. The US Air Force said that 6,663 Vermonters live within the oval-shaped danger zone of this airport, of whom 20% are children. The 5 mile long by 1 mile wide oval-shaped danger zone surrounding its runway includes immigrant and working-class parts of the Cities of Burlington, South Burlington, and Winooski, and the Town of Williston.

Here are alternate ways Trump could view these facts to determine whether the Vermont F-35 pilots are called up for the imminent war with Iran:

1. By training on civilians in a location where they knew they would cause unnecessary suffering, Vermont F-35 pilots made themselves ideal for Trump to call up for this next US war of mass slaughter in the Middle East.

Or

2. By training on civilians in violation of the US military’s own stated discipline upholding protection of civilians during all military operations, including military training operations, Vermont F-35 pilots corrupted themselves and disqualified themselves for use in any military conflict.

In view of his military and diplomatic complicity with the genocide the Israeli government is conducting in Gaza using US-supplied F-35 jets, which way do you think Trump will view these facts?