COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine is concerned about "vulnerable" Ohioans and retaliation from Iran following the Trump administration's strikes on its nuclear facilities.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. has joined Israel in its bombing of Iran.
"I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success," Trump said during his address that evening. "Iran's key nuclear facilities have been completely and totally obliterated."
Now, Charlie Koenigsmark, a community organizer with the anti-racism group ANSWER Coalition, fears war.
"It was completely unprovoked and a war crime, that bypassed any consultation or approval from Congress," Koenigsmark said.
We reached out to half a dozen Middle Eastern associations and Iranian and Persian groups, but none were available to comment by our deadline. One advocate told us they were worried about speaking publicly.
Trump said he is hoping the U.S. attack would be the start to peaceful negotiations with the Middle Eastern country, but defense officials confirm Iran fired missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar. That attack was intercepted, they said.
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"It's deeply upsetting," Koenigsmark said about the possibility for war.
The state’s veterans services department told us that Ohio has more than 50,000 active duty military members, “any of whom could be pressed into a heightened military situation at any moment.”
Monday afternoon, I brought up the strikes to the governor.
"Should Ohioans be sent overseas to fight?" I asked him.
"Well, of course, the first thing we're concerned about immediately is in Ohio, something that we can do something about," DeWine responded. "Of course, we're very concerned about that. [Department of Public Safety Director] Andy Wilson has been in contact with people who we think might be potentially vulnerable, so that was frankly our first reaction, first thing that we can do."
"Who is vulnerable?" I followed up.
"Well, look, I don't have to spell things out," the governor replied. "We always are concerned about any kind of retaliation and we don't know."
RELATED: Iran conflict raises risk of attacks on US soil, DHS says
The U.S. needs to be united right now, he added, while also cautious.
"I think we all know that Iran and nuclear weapons are two things that should not go together, and the president took the action that he thought was appropriate," the governor said, responding to a question about the legitimacy of the strikes.
DeWine, who served two terms in the U.S. Senate from 1995-2007, said that he doesn't know why or how Trump made his decision.
"I do not have the intelligence that I would have had when I was in Congress and when I was on the Intelligence Committee, nor certainly do I have the briefings that the President of the United States has," he continued. "He took the action."
Many members of Congress have been telling reporters that they had been unaware until the strikes occurred.
"We don't want U.S. military personnel to die just because Trump and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu are set on expanding war and regional instability — global instability, really," Koenigsmark said.
Koenigsmark predicted anti-war protests will be going on continuously this summer. He also offered that he thought Ohio's role in military manufacturing and research is "horrible."
The City of Lima has the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center, a facility that makes army tanks and other combat vehicles. Dayton, the home of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, has a whole federal sector dedicated to aerospace defense.
In January, Governor Mike DeWine announced that Pickaway County, outside of Columbus, will be the home of a new manufacturing plant for Anduril Industries, a major U.S. defense contractor, to create weapons & drones.
One of the incentives to bring the factory to Ohio is that the company will be getting more than $450 million in state tax credits. Anduril and JobsOhio estimate that the plant will produce more than $2 billion in economic output.
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