Both newspapers have disingenuously cited humanitarian reasons to save lives as the reason for attacking Iran.
For example, the first WaPo editorial (1/2/26) approvingly quoted Dummkopf Trumpf's Truth Social promise (1/2/26) to Iranian protesters that the US "will come to their rescue ... . We are locked and loaded and ready to go."
The second WaPo editorial (1/23/26) expressed disappointment that, despite "mass killings" and the "most repressive crackdown in decades," "Trumpf has ratcheted back his earlier rhetoric." It emphasized that "the regime is now mocking Trumpf for backing down."
A NYT editorial board headline (1/14/26) declared: "Iran's Murderous Regime Is Irredeemable" and "the Khamenei regime is too depraved to be reformed," the editors wrote.
~snip~
This is laughable and the ridiculous arguments from WaPO and the NYT are hypocritical and fall flat on its face on logic. The murderous Israeli crackdown on Muslims in Gaza killed 72,061 human beings, mostly women and children; a further 171,715 have been wounded or maimed. These numbers are far, far greater than the number of Iranian casualties caused by the Tehran regime. No one has indicted the Iranian crackdown a genocide like Israel's pogrom against the Palestinians, which has been rightfully condemned by academics, the UN, and the ICC.
And the disgusting ICC-indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu and his ethnic cleansing Likud junta are redeemable?
Moreover, if the argument for attacking Iran is because Dummkopf Trumpf snivels that he "cares" about the Iranian people living under brutal theocratic rule, why is he deporting vulnerable Iranian nationals wholesale back to a religious police state, something which WaPO and the NYT are overlooking? link: Dummkopf Trumpf Hypocrisy Exposed Yet Again
Do you recall decades ago the Islamophobic call to arms by WaPo and the NYT to attack Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 to track down WMDs? How did that work out for the American people and all the death, casualties, destruction, PTSD, and trillions of dollars wasted in those "Forever Wars," idiotically called a "crusade" by a born-again Christian POTUS?
The USS Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier Group (ACG) will soon be meeting up with USS Abraham Lincoln ACG in the Middle East. Millions of Americans In the vast antiwar bloc, a movement as old as the American Revolution itself, are monitoring events closely in the Middle East.
Any US politician who receives money from AIPAC or who supports attacking Iran will not get the votes of the multi-million strong pacifist bloc on Tuesday 3 Nov 2026, 2 Nov 2027, or 7 Nov 2028. If any political party in the US thinks their candidate can win without their crucial support on these election days, good for them.
Two bloodthirsty warmongers that should be in handcuffs and leg-irons.

... few percent is all that is required to swing many elections, ...
I don't think data upholds that. That aside, the concerns you voice are general. They exist without this stupid.