The War In Iran Was A Colossal Mistake.
The war in Iran is a disaster. The Memorandum of Understanding fell apart, more Americans have been killed, oil prices are surging, the Strait of Hormuz is closed, and the United States is now trapped in a war it never needed to start. An unprovoked attack launched on false pretenses has become exactly what critics warned it would become: a costly, destabilizing, self-inflicted failure.
These are the results:
The Strait of Hormuz was open. Now it is closed.
Gas was under three dollars. Now it is over four.
The previous leader of Iran that the US killed wasn’t interested in building a nuclear weapon. The new leader is interested.
US oil reserves and munitions stockpiles are running low.
Despite having a $1 trillion military budget, the Pentagon is asking for $60 billion because it is running out of money.
18 US service members have been killed, and over 400 more wounded. 20 military facilities have been damaged. More than 40 aircraft have been lost or damaged.
America has gained nothing.
It has also damaged America’s credibility with the world. Our allies were not asking for this war. They were not given a clear objective, a legal justification, or an exit strategy. Now the global economy is dealing with the consequences of an American war that made energy more expensive, shipping less secure, and diplomacy harder. That is not how a nation acts as a world leader. It is how it creates cracks in its alliances.
Before the war began, there was not a single legitimate reason for the United States to launch the attack that started it.
US intelligence said Iran wasn’t working on a nuclear weapon before any of this fighting started. This has been reiterated year after year, both by the US and international agencies. Trump had even launched an attack eight months prior that he claimed “obliterated” the Iranian nuclear program. If that was true, there was no urgent nuclear threat. If it was false, then he lied about the success of the earlier attack.
Trump also used Iranian protesters as a talking point when it helped sell the war. He told them he would help. He pushed them to do more. Then he left them out to dry. The MOU even included a commitment that neither country would interfere in the other’s internal affairs, meaning the United States was agreeing not to interfere with whatever Iran did to the very protesters Trump had encouraged.
There was simply no reason to start a war and plenty of reasons not to.
US intelligence warned that if America attacked Iran, it could weaponize the Strait, attack energy production in neighboring nations, and strike US bases in the region. But Trump and Hegseth refused to believe it and started the war anyway. All of those warnings came true.
The military consequences have been severe. A country with a $1 trillion military budget is now watching stockpiles run low, bases damaged, aircraft lost, and the Pentagon return to Congress asking for more money. America has become weaker from a war it started, while Iran looks stronger for standing up to the world’s superpower and inflicting economic damage.
Trump believed that he could bomb Iran, kill its leaders, destroy military sites, and then turn around and get a ceasefire. That’s what happened when he bombed their nuclear sites, and when he invaded Venezuela to abduct its leader. But after being attacked enough times, and having its leader killed, Iran was ready to fight back. Trump wasn’t ready.
The war also strengthened the exact forces inside Iran that America should have wanted weakened. It gave the hardliners a nationalist rallying cry, an excuse to crack down, and a reason to pursue the very nuclear weapon the war was supposedly meant to prevent. Before the fighting started, real negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program were possible. A deal like the previous Iran nuclear agreement could have been pursued. Trump chose bombs instead.
The administration claimed the war was won dozens of times. They said it would be a short excursion of maybe four weeks. They said the Strait was open when it was closed. They said Iran was desperate to make a deal when it wasn’t.
That is why the war continues today.
Trump can’t admit it was a mistake. He doesn’t want to walk away and be told he lost. So the war rages on with no plan and no exit strategy.
Congress has the power over war and could put an end to it today. Republicans refuse to, even though they know the public is opposed to this war. They don’t want to go against Trump out of fear of his mean tweets.
Nothing good has come from this war. Not a single positive outcome. It has been nothing but a disaster.
It needs to end.
