Don’t let history repeat: The next Congress must end the Iran War

For many obvious reasons, America needs an aggressive Congress to emerge from the November elections ready to restore the government’s balance of power. If the Iran War is still underway, one of the new Congress’s first jobs should be to end it.

President Trump says he won’t resume strikes against Iran before the elections . It is not clear what he plans for afterward. But in addition to usurping Congress’s war powers, hurting the economy and costing U.S. and Iranian lives, this war of choice violates a sacred contract between commanders-in-chief and American families: the assurance that our sons and daughters will be sent to war only when there is a clear and present danger to national security and no other option but the military.

Instead, Trump’s greed, personal grievances, ego and failure to learn from history all appear to play a role in this war.

Greed: CNBC reports that Trump has holdings in oil and gas companies . His nine largest holdings earned him as much as $4.4 million during the first six months of the war. CNBC found “no evidence” that Trump or his investment managers used advance knowledge in the stock trades or allowed them to influence policy. But it is one of the many examples in which Trump has created the appearance, if not the reality, of conflicted interests.

Trump’s sons, who own investments in multiple defense-related companies, have reportedly collected billions of dollars in defense contracts since their father became president again. No public evidence shows illegality, but the investments create another appearance of conflicted interest, especially with the Pentagon planning to spend more than $1 trillion as it scrambles to replenish depleted stocks of munitions and equipment and repair damages to its bases in the Gulf.

Personal grievance : Trump traded a diplomatic solution — the Obama-era deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program — for warfare. He pulled the U.S. out of the deal , citing specific policy objections. But he was also said to be motivated by his personal dislike for former President Barack Obama. In a leaked diplomatic cable, the British ambassador called Trump’s position “an act of diplomatic vandalism, seemingly for ideological and personality reasons.”

Ego: Several foreign-policy experts, including Brookings’s Robert Kagan , believe that Trump’s objectives in Iran are unachievable. But Trump has repeatedly shown, including during the 2020 election and the riot at the Capitol that followed on Jan. 6, 2021, that he is unwilling or unable to admit defeat . With widely varying accounts from the Pentagon and independent sources, we aren’t sure how many U.S. soldiers have died in the war so far. Civilian deaths are estimated in the thousands .

The Vietnam War taught Americans the price of delaying peace. Richard Nixon ran for president in 1968, promising to end the Vietnam War. When incumbent President Lyndon Johnson nearly brokered a truce between North and South Vietnam, which Johnson hoped would help Hubert Humphrey beat Nixon in the upcoming presidential election, Nixon had a messenger tell South Vietnam to wait, promising it would get a better deal under his presidency. Johnson’s peace initiative collapsed. Johnson privately called it “treason.”

Nixon’s presidential papers show that he entered office acknowledging that the war could not be won militarily . Yet he continued the war and ordered military operations that he kept from Congress. He was concerned about U.S. credibility, South Vietnam’s survival and “peace with honor.” But tapes and documents show that Nixon also sustained the war to keep South Vietnam’s government from collapsing and affecting his 1972 reelection campaign.

During the four years between Nixon’s intervention in Johnson’s peace process and the 1972 election, more than 20,000 U.S. troops were killed, more than 100,000 were wounded, and over a million Vietnamese were reported killed — the cost of a president who “couldn’t let go of a failed war.”

Nixon biographer John Farrell concluded, “We must now weigh apparently criminal behavior that, given the human lives at stake and the decade of carnage that followed in Southeast Asia, may be more reprehensible than anything Nixon did in Watergate.”

Ignoring history : The Vietnam War also taught some tough lessons about modern warfare. Gen. Colin Powell codified several in his Powell Doctrine. It instructs that America should use military force only as a last resort when vital national security interests are at risk, objectives are clear, risks and costs are thoroughly analyzed, there is a plausible exit strategy, and the war has strong domestic and international support. Trump ignored all of it.

The next Congress must stop the war if Trump hasn’t done so before January. But that won’t happen unless voters elect representatives on Nov. 3 with enough principle and spine to credibly threaten to remove him. The war is in Iran, but the ball is now in the electorate’s court.

William S. Becker is co-editor of and a contributor to “Democracy Unchained: How to Rebuild Government for the People,” and a contributor to “Democracy in a Hotter Time.” He previously served as a senior official in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.