1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to launch an immediate investigation into the administration's failure to evacuate American citizens from Iran before military action was taken. Reports indicate that the Trump administration proceeded with bombing operations in Iran without establishing adequate evacuation plans for the hundreds of Americans present in the country, leaving them stranded in an active conflict zone. This represents a catastrophic failure in the government's fundamental duty to protect its citizens abroad. When military action is contemplated, standard protocol requires advance planning for the safety and evacuation of American civilians in the target area. The decision to bomb Iran while Americans remained in the country without a clear extraction plan placed these citizens in immediate danger of retaliation and harm. I am deeply concerned about the lack of transparency surrounding this decision. The American people deserve answers about who authorized military strikes without ensuring citizen safety, what contingency plans existed for Americans in Iran, and why standard evacuation protocols were apparently disregarded. These are not partisan questions but matters of basic governmental competence and responsibility. The consequences of this failure could be severe. American citizens stranded in a country we just bombed face potential detention, violence, or worse. Their families deserve to know what steps are being taken to ensure their safe return and why they were put in this position in the first place. I urge you to use your oversight authority to demand a full accounting of the decision-making process that led to this situation. Congress must investigate whether proper procedures were followed, who bears responsibility for this failure, and what measures will be implemented to prevent similar incidents in the future. The safety of Americans abroad cannot be an afterthought in military planning.