{"id":57941,"date":"2026-03-06T05:29:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=57941"},"modified":"2026-03-06T05:41:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T13:41:54","slug":"william-astore-on-the-many-perils-of-americas-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/06\/william-astore-on-the-many-perils-of-americas-war-on-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"William Astore on The Many Perils of America’s War on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

Reading NBC News<\/a> Wednesday morning, I saw where the U.S. \u201cis winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy,\u201d so claimed self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. \u201cWe are only four days in,\u201d he added, and the U.S. \u201cwill take all the time we need\u201d to prevail. He further added \u201cWe are punching them while they\u2019re down, which is exactly how it should be.\u201d (There\u2019s nothing more honorable than punching someone when they\u2019re down, right?)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the Iranians] are toast, and they know it, or at least, soon enough, they will know it. And we have only just begun, to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities,\u201d Hegseth boasted. As far as how long the war will last, he equivocated. Three weeks? Eight weeks? Who knows? Hegseth doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Hegseth also doesn\u2019t know something fundamental: You can\u2019t do a wrong thing the right way.<\/p>\n

The Iran War is wrong. It\u2019s illegal, unconstitutional, immoral, and also extremely dangerous. There\u2019s no way to prevail in a war fought for the wrong reasons, a war fought without clear goals, a war that is already beginning to spiral out of control. But Hegseth thinks if the U.S. launches enough missiles, drops enough bombs, and torpedoes enough ships, somehow the U.S. will \u201cwin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Congratulations, U.S. and Israel: You made him a martyr<\/p><\/div>\n

In so many ways, the U.S. has already lost. The Ayatollah Khamenei is now a martyr. Iran is now more likely to pursue a nuclear weapon. Even more so than usual, Israel is now in the driver\u2019s seat, calling America\u2019s shots in the Middle East. This has all the makings of a major catastrophe for U.S. forces, but all Hegseth can see is the promise of punching a man when he\u2019s down.<\/p>\n

Clearly, Hegseth is intoxicated with winning \u201cwithout mercy.\u201d Think about that for a moment\u2014war without mercy<\/strong>. Only the most barbaric or fanatical person would boast about waging war without mercy.<\/p>\n

With the Iran War, the Trump administration is marching down the most perilous of paths, blinded by illusions of total victory.<\/p>\n

A warning: More than anything, America must not allow this to become a religious war, a crusade, between a Judeo-Christian force and a Shia-Islamic force. We\u2019re already seeing a lot of talk within the U.S. military of a God-driven mission against Iran, with (positive!) references to Armageddon. Such rhetoric is incredibly dangerous and inflammatory. (In this context, that crusader cross tattoo on Hegseth\u2019s chest is more than alarming.)<\/p>\n

If anything, the best outcome for the U.S. would be an immediate ceasefire before more U.S. troops are killed and wounded. But how is such a ceasefire to be negotiated? U.S. diplomacy has no credibility. None.<\/p>\n

Among the worst outcomes would be the commitment of U.S. troops to Iran, so-called boots on the ground, which would likely create a massive Bay of Pigs-style fiasco. America can ill afford yet another land war quagmire in the Middle East. There is already talk, however, of committing U.S. Special Forces to Iran, perhaps to organize Kurdish and Iranian dissidents against the legitimate Iranian government. Such folly must be prevented.<\/p>\n

Any commitment of U.S. troops to Iran would further accelerate escalation. If you begin to hear rumblings about Selective Service and a return to a military draft, you\u2019ll know the Trump administration has become completely unhinged (if it isn\u2019t already).<\/p>\n

In just a few days of \u201cmajor combat operations,\u201d the Trump administration already has more than enough innocent Iranian blood on its hands. That toll in blood is only going to increase, as will the risk of blowback on the \u201chomeland.\u201d<\/p>\n

The smartest course for America at this moment is to declare \u201cvictory\u201d and leave. Since it\u2019s unlikely Trump and Hegseth will see the light, Congress should immediately cut war funding. Sadly, a weak-willed Congress seems far more likely to pass supplemental funding bills to give Trump and Hegseth a blank check to wage a Judeo-Christian crusade.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t live in interesting times: we live in unhinged times. Perilous times. We must find a way to seek a merciful peace. The alternative just might be World War III.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. Reading NBC News Wednesday morning, I saw where the U.S. \u201cis winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy,\u201d so claimed self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. \u201cWe are only four days in,\u201d he added, and the U.S. \u201cwill take all the time we need\u201d to prevail. He further […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[758],"class_list":["post-57941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"0","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"Hegseth Boasts of War Without Mercy; What We Need Is Merciful Peace"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57941"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57949,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57941\/revisions\/57949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57941"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=57941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}