Editor’s Note: War on the Rocks is running “for” and “against” articles on the war with Iran by legislators with military backgrounds. You can find the other article here.
21 years ago, I was a Marine infantryman in Anbar province, western Iraq, carrying so much gear that I could barely feel my legs. My job was to go town to town, search houses, and try to stop insurgents before they stopped us. Every day, someone was trying to kill us — improvised explosive devices buried in the roads, mortars in the middle of the night, and random rocket propelled grenades fired from rooftops. And even two years into the war, there was no clear direction, no clear definition of victory, and no real plan for what came next.
I lost my best friend there. I watched young men die for a mission that was never clearly justified to the American people. I came home with post-traumatic stress disorder that I still live with every day.
That war lasted almost 9 years, cost $3 trillion, destabilized the Middle East, led to a civil war, damaged America’s credibility, stole more than 4,000 sons and daughters from their families, and created a generation of veterans who will never be the same.
I thought the politicians who sent us to Iraq learned something from that legacy. But watching what is happening now with Iran and hearing the shifting explanations from the administration feels like déjà vu.
President Donald Trump has started a war in Iran with no explanation, plan, or endgame. We’re repeating the same mistakes of the past, and it’s young, working-class Americans who will pay the price again.
Over the past month, we’ve heard multiple, shifting, and contradictory reasons for why U.S. military intervention in Iran was supposedly necessary. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said we had to strike because Israel was about to attack, which makes no sense. We’re the most powerful country in the world — we decide when we go to war, not Israel. Vice President JD Vance said it was about taking out their nuclear program, which the administration supposedly did last June. But that nuclear program was actively being negotiated just weeks ago. And don’t forget that it was Trump who tore up the 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in the first place. Now Trump says this is about punishing the Iranian regime for its violence against its own people, but if he suddenly cares about human rights in Iran, bombing the country and walking away is the worst possible way to help the people living there.
When you ask Trump’s closest advisors why we’re going to war, you get five different answers. It’s clear that they don’t even know what the actual goal is, either.
On the first day of the war, the United States killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — this is a good thing. He ran a brutal regime that tortured, imprisoned, and murdered tens of thousands of Iranians who demanded freedom. But if removing him was the objective, why didn’t the administration have a strategy to ensure that whoever took his place would be someone we could work with? How were they planning to prevent the hardliners in Tehran from taking power? Those are the questions that should have been answered before starting a war.
Instead, Iran has appointed Mojtaba Khamenei, the former leader’s son, to lead the country. Mojtaba is seen as even more hardline than his father. Instead of helping the Iranian people, we’ve strengthened the very regime that oppresses them. Why? Because the Trump administration had no plan then, and it still has no plan now.
Now, Trump is saying that on top of the 13 American servicemembers already killed over the past month, we should expect more Americans to die. He’s already deployed 2,500 Marines to the Middle East and the White House is saying there could even be a military draft. Why? Because the Trump administration had no plan, and it still has no plan now.
The war has predictably driven oil prices up by nearly 50 percent. Trump’s solution to the problem he caused is to ease sanctions on Russia so they can sell more oil. At the same time, U.S. officials have confirmed that Russia is providing intelligence to Iran to help target American servicemembers. We started a war with Iran, and we’re now indirectly helping them shoot us.
Why? Because the Trump administration had no plan, and it still has no plan now.
It’s American taxpayers who are the ones paying the bill. This war is costing over $1 billion a day. Imagine what that money could do if we invested it in our schools, housing, and families. Think about how many more people could afford to keep their health care with that money.
Everywhere I go, I meet people being crushed by the cost of living. They can’t pay for groceries or bills. But Trump has done nothing to address the issues Americans are struggling with at home. He’s only made them worse. He claims to be “America First,” but when it comes to the problems families actually care about — like the cost of living, housing, and health care — Americans are clearly last.
I’m Team America, too. That means asking before sending our troops into harm’s way: How is this actually in our country’s best interest? Right now, I don’t see how it is.
We could have helped the Iranian people in other ways. The United States negotiates with bad actors all the time without going to war. We trade with China and condemn its human rights abuses against the Uyghurs. We could tighten sanctions or strengthen our regional alliances to build deterrence. Recognizing Iran as a threat and supporting the Iranian people does not require bombing their country and putting our troops at risk without a clear strategy, defined objectives, or an exit plan.
I know from lived experience that when wars are launched without a plan, the people who pay are never the politicians who started them. It’s the American people. It’s the kids from working-class neighborhoods who enlisted.
The legacy of the Iraq war lives on in every veteran. We cannot repeat its mistakes.
Ruben Gallego is the junior U.S. senator from Arizona.
Image: Mohammad Ali Barno via Wikimedia Commons
