An Unnecessary War: The Iran War

By: Mo Hill, Opinion Editor

On Feb. 28, 2026, the United States and Israel began a coordinated bombing campaign of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a nation that has historically had high tensions with the countries it is now defending against. Since then tensions throughout the world have risen, and according to the Department of War there have been 13 U.S. service members killed and over 200 injured as of March 16. This comes after President Trump campaigned on a “No New Wars” platform during his 2024 presidential campaign. Since that time he has called for and carried out strikes on several different nations and militant groups that he has designated as targets, most notably in mid 2025 when the United States carried out a strike on several Iranian nuclear facilities.

The war began with a joint strike by the U.S. and Israel on Iranian military capabilities and leadership in Tehran, and since then, the strikes seem to only be escalating. Amid several more strikes at a daily rate and $12 billion spent by day six of the war according to The Guardian, it seems like there is no end in sight. In fact as of writing this, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is set to ask Congress for an additional $200 billion dollars to fund the ongoing strikes. The United States government has not been particularly clear with its intent or reasoning for entering this conflict, but whatever it may be, it feels that the United States is preparing to escalate its involvement in the conflict. 

It feels like this war is yet another distraction from the Epstein files, the release of which have already been slow and continue to slow down even more as public attention is shifted to the ongoing conflict. It also feels like a distraction from many of the other issues that are occurring throughout the nation, among those are the Department of Homeland Security being shut down, ICE patrolling the streets and general fear in many areas of the country. The war has led to a rise in energy prices, and according to AAA, gas has risen to $3.90 a gallon in New York State, with some counties seeing it rise to over $4.00. Trump’s war against Iran is coming at the cost of American money, security and lives. We as a nation can not afford to fight in another forever war. The early 2000s showed us that at the end of the day, it isn’t worth it to continue throwing money at these conflicts with little to no gain. It is unfair to the American people to spend $900 billion in taxpayer dollars on the military every year for useless conflicts when that money can be spent on uplifting and improving the lives of the everyday person in America, and the war needs to be ended as soon as possible.