On January 3rd, 2020, the U.S.A. launched an airstrike in Iraq to kill one of their top generals, Qassem Soleimani. The U.S. and Iran had a deal about no more air striking between the two countries. After President Trump launched the airstrike, Iran cut the deal and declared war.

We interviewed Mrs. Kozler, 7th-grade social studies, and PBL teacher. We asked her what was happening between Iran and the U.S. The social studies teacher gave us a very detailed description of what was happening. She said, “Iran is not a trusted country, so NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies put them in a nuclear ban.” Then she said, “Iran doesn’t want to follow that, so every time we go try to make them follow the rules, Iran doesn’t want to follow it, so the U.S. and their allies get angry about that.” She also talked about Sanctions that the United States put on them, which makes other countries not buy things from them, and in turn, hurts their economy. She explained how we have had our part in “bugging them”.    

We then interviewed Reagan Murawski what she knew about what was happening between the U.S. and Iran. She said, “I know that the U.S. wants Iran to stop making nuclear weapons and Iran wants to keep making them for war, but the U.S. wants them to stop so the U.S. killed Iran’s leader.” This was part of the reason why Iran started to get mad. She continued with, “This has been going on for a really long time, it’s just become a big thing.”

We also asked Reagan if she had any personal feelings about the U.S. and Iran conflict. She said, “I think it’s not very smart to become such a big thing.” She also talked about how she wants the U.S. and Iran to talk it out. Another thing she shared with us was, “ I think war isn’t the right thing to do because this could really turn into a WWIII and I don’t want that.” Mrs. Kozler told us, “I’m rolling my eyes because I figured something like this would happen.” She said, “Back in 2001 when they passed the Patriot Act and they gave the President the power to do whatever he wanted, I figured this would come into play.” She told us. “So I’m not surprised. I’m saddened, but not surprised.” 

Our final question for the interviewees was if you had family members in the military, how would you feel? Reagan told us, “ I used to have an Uncle that just retired from the military, and if he was still in it, I would very very upset.” I think a lot of people would be kind of upset if they had family members in the military. She also said that she likes him as an uncle. Mrs. Kozler said that she would be frightened if she had family in the military. She also said, “I have this feeling like it’s going to all work out because I think that people are smarter than they sometimes appear on TV…But it is concerning.”