In America, we like to know where we stand. And we increasingly seem to pride ourselves in our unabashed lack of nuance. Things are either black or white, right or left, red or blue. We can lament this binarism and often do, calling it tribalism or partisanship, but we can also acknowledge this is the rightful consequences of living in a country full of free speech and therefore strong opinions. What good is having them if we aren’t going to push them to their limits?
But war isn’t black or white — it’s infamously gray. And this one is particularly complicated.
The US-Israeli led strikes on Iran have opened a very familiar wound for a lot of Americans of a certain age – another war in the Middle East.
I was 12 when the first Gulf War started, and I have very formative memories of laying on the living room floor and watching CNN’s Bernie Shaw and Wolf Blitzer as Patriot missiles rained down on Iraq.
Then, there was the post-9/11 War in Afghanistan, which we only just ended five years ago; then, another Iraq War in 2003 that lasted for just under a decade; and we’re in the midst of an ongoing war against ISIS all over the Levant.
And that’s leaving out interventions in Libya, Syria and Yemen in between.
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Whatever you think of the validity or prudence of those wars, they left serious scars on a now war-weary public, an electorate that now importantly includes many Trump voters. No longer made up of just the far-left MoveOn.org and Code Pink crowd, most Americans are over the forever wars that punctuated the last few decades.
With that as a baseline, this latest war in Iran doesn’t start out on great footing. We’ve seen little of the rallying around the flag we usually see in these scenarios, save for some of the cheerleading drones on Fox News – but even there, there’s some skepticism.
There’s also, in various political corners of the country, relief and even ecstasy over the fall of Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose 30-plus year reign of terror saw the executions of countless dissidents, protesters, and journalists, as well as the aiding and abetting of some of the world’s worst terror groups. Among many, many other evils.
I’ve talked to so many people who simply don’t know how to feel about this war, and that’s more than understandable – multiple things can be true at once, and never is that more true than in matters of foreign policy. It’s certainly true here.
It’s even true for me, someone who’s professionally opinionated. While I’m not a warmonger, I’m also not a pacifist. I believe that sometimes going to war is justified and even righteous, but I also believe in weighing the costs. The details and nuances around the edges will matter most.
So to be helpful, here are some points of fact — and opinion — about a very complicated conflict that may feel at odds with each other or incomplete, but that can without question be held at the same time. Here’s where I’m at:
Iran is bad and the world is safer with Khamenei gone.
Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, whose stated goals have included the total annihilation of Israel, the destruction of America and Western civilization, and the persecution of Christians and Jews. The clerical regime also murders its own people, and just since January of 2026 is accused of murdering as many as 30,000 Iranians. The Iranian regime is an affront to democracy and democratic values, including a free press, free elections, and human rights. It regularly threatens global commerce and energy supplies by targeting ships in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz. It backs the world’s bad actors, from Hamas and Hezbollah to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. And, it has an advanced nuclear program. All of that makes it well-worth our ire.
This war may embolden Iran, and that’s scary.
Concerns that Iran will act irrationally following these strikes are not unfounded. With their backs against the wall they may feel cornered and act out of desperation, even against their own self-interest. The instability this war could cause in the region will most certainly benefit Russia and China and could deeply damage the West’s economy, not to mention put thousands of lives at risk. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is talking tough about our military might, even saying we are “punching down” against Iran – and they are no match for our military – but there’s plenty Iran can do to punish the region and the West, from cyberattacks to terrorism. Those are real and worrisome.
The Iranian people deserve liberation.
In the hours following the toppling of Khamenei, it was hard not to be moved by the celebrations around the globe amongst Iranians and Iranian defectors. Here at home, everywhere from New York City to Los Angeles, Iranian-American communities erupted in celebration and joined Iranians in Australia, Europe and elsewhere to applaud the end of the Khamenei regime. For too long they’ve lived under the oppressive thumb of the clerics, afraid to criticize their own government and unable to live freely and democratically. We should welcome the prospect of a free Iran and, now that we’ve decided to intervene, do what we can to help them achieve it. Their future is in our hands now.
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Trump is a hypocrite and a liar.
This is true any day of the week, but especially true on this specific issue. Trump campaigned in 2016 against Hillary Clinton on her support of the Iraq War, and made ending “forever wars” a giant part of his platform and base. This anti-war, America-First stance brought in all kinds of new voters and supporters, including isolationists like Tulsi Gabbard who joined his cabinet, and countless libertarian-ish voters who wanted America to mind its own business. And in 2020 and 2024 folks like Gabbard and JD Vance and Stephen Miller all campaigned AGAINST the idea of striking Iran – specifically.
“KAMALA WILL SEND YOUR SONS TO WAR,” Miller frequently threatened. Tulsi hawked “NO WAR WITH IRAN” t-shirts.
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Hypocrisy always stinks, as do broken promises. Trump’s America-First voters should absolutely hold him accountable for both in November.
Trump is not the biggest problem, Congress is.
Without any evidence of an imminent attack on the US by Iran, Trump should have asked Congress for authority to launch strikes. But, also, Congress should have demanded it. While Trump often wants to act unilaterally, even if it’s unconstitutional, he shouldn’t get to. That’s not his fault. Republicans in Congress pushed snooze on their obligations so Trump could do illegal tariffs, illegal wars, illegal deportations, illegal boat strikes, all to remain in his good graces. But Congress took an oath to uphold the constitution, and should do its job. At the very least, lawmakers should demand answers to some pretty basic questions: What is the justification for war with Iran? What is our mission? Will we put boots on the ground? How long will we be there? Is this about regime change, oil, human rights, Israel, a bad economy and/or the Epstein files? If Congress were doing its job, we all might feel a little better about this intervention.
It’s no wonder this perfect tweet got more than 2 million views:
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The risks are great – the upside may be greater.
As is always the case in war, the risks are considerable. From regional escalation to the economic impact, from the prospect of a long-term commitment to help stabilize the region to the certainty of civilian casualties, there is plenty of downside to going to war with Iran. And I think if you asked most national security experts, they would have cautioned against it – as would have most Republican political strategists. But, we’re here now – Trump did it and he’ll be judged for that decision, both by voters in the near term and history in the long term.
The upside, now that we’re here, could be substantial, from neutralizing Iran’s nuclear ambitions to decimating its proxy groups, from bringing democracy to the Iranian people to bringing the prospect of peace to the region, these aren’t small things. They’re things everyone on the right side of history should want, which means we should want success. Again, we can and should punish Trump and Republicans at the ballot box for their hypocrisy, lack of transparency, and possible violation of the law, but we should also want the greater mission, insofar as its been defined, to succeed.
It’s complicated. It’s possible to be hopeful for the Iranian people and worried for our American troops; optimistic for peace but anxious about retaliation; disgusted by the broken promises of the president but pulling for America’s ultimate success.
It’s also hard to know how long this will last – the administration is speaking out of both sides of its mouth, saying simultaneously that we’ve already won AND that we’re just getting started.
It’s okay to feel conflicted and uncertain. This is messy, and likely to only get messier.
