Mixed reaction, calls for congressional action: Washingtonians react to widening war with Iran

Washington lawmakers and politically active Washingtonians with ties to Iran had a range of reactions Monday to the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and the Islamic Republic's counterstrikes on Israel and its Arab neighbors.

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Washington's Democratic U.S. senators rebuked President Donald Trump for starting a war without seeking congressional approval.

Some Iranian Americans celebrated the killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Others said they remain worried about what lies ahead as the death toll mounts.

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U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called for Congress to return to Washington, D.C., immediately and vote to end the war that started last weekend, when the U.S. and Israel began bombing hundreds of targets in Iran.

"Just months after he claimed he had nearly obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, President Trump is shamelessly telling the American people that he’s started this war in self-defense," Murray said in a statement. "There are no concrete goals. There is no long-term strategy."

Sen. Maria Cantwell echoed those sentiments and said brazen attacks against hostile nations need to be justified to the American people and approved by Congress.

"The Congress must demand that the President seek our Constitutionally required approval if he intends to engage in a protracted conflict," Cantwell said in a statement. "He must also send his military and civilian leadership team before the people’s representatives in the House and the Senate to explain where we are and where he is taking us."

For Iranian Americans in Seattle, reactions to the airstrikes were more diverse.

Hossein Khorram has helped raise millions of dollars for Trump's presidential campaigns. He said he celebrated when the president announced the attack on social media.

"It was like a dream coming true," Khorram said.

Khorram said the Iranian regime had to be stopped from killing protesters and developing nuclear weapons.

"Would you like to have a criminal run loose in your neighborhood and knock on your door and threaten your family?" Khorram said. "Well, that's what I feel like has been happening for the last 47 years."

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Rep. Darya Farivar (D-Seattle), the first Iranian American woman elected to the Washington state Legislature, said she is hearing mixed reactions after a weekend of strikes and counterstrikes in Iran and across the Middle East.

"Half of the community is very excited, half the community is very scared," Farivar said.

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She called the former Supreme Leader Khamenei "evil personified," but said she worried about the potential civilian casualties and U.S. soldiers who could be killed in the coming days and weeks.

Officials said Monday that counterstrikes have killed six U.S. soldiers so far. The Iranian Red Crescent Society said almost 600 Iranians had been killed.

"I don't believe that Trump is going to save us. I don't believe that this is going to result in regime change," Farivar said. "I believe that this is going to just result in devastation across Iran."