The war on Iran has begun. Where it ends and what is ahead for the United States remains unclear. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees our military operations in the Middle East, announced early this morning that four U.S service members have been killed. That is up from the three shared yesterday, with one more service member succumbing to his or her injuries.
Just a short time ago, President Trump gave an interview to The New York Post where he did not rule out potentially sending U.S. ground troops into Iran. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” the president said. “Like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it. I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ or ‘if they were necessary.'”
Prayers for the Military
First and foremost, I am praying for the troops. The guys and the gals who have to actually carry out this mission – why, again? – and put their lives on the line – or whom, again? – are the ones who are on my mind. I prayed for them mightily yesterday and the day before, and I hope you have and will continue to as well.
Look, there are massive divisions over what we have done here, and people are going to change their minds over the coming days and weeks one way or the other. But my own feeling is no one should have to die for a foreign country.
I don’t think those four service members died for the United States. I think they died for Iran or for Israel. I understand how this helps Iran perfectly well. Long term, we’ll see. But they seem rather jubilant. Some 80 percent of the country did not support the Ayatollah. He was a terrible, terrible man. No normal person is crying that he is dead.
But our government’s job is not to look out for Iran or for Israel. It is to look out for us.
Defining the Objective
This feels very much to me like it is Israel’s war. It’s Mark Levin’s war. Ben Shapiro’s. Lindsay Graham’s. Miriam Adelson’s. That is obvious. They are the ones who have been pushing us into this. In case you have any doubt, The Washington Post reported this earlier today:
“In the briefing on Tuesday for the Gang of Eight, which consists of the leaders of the House, the Senate and each chamber’s intel committees, Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated to lawmakers that the mission’s timing and goals were shaped by the fact that Israel was going to attack with or without the United States… So, the only debate that seemed to be remaining was whether the U.S. would launch in concert with Israel or if the U.S. would wait until Iran retaliated on U.S. military targets in the region and then engage.”
This would explain why President Trump seems to be having so much trouble clearly defining why we are doing this. He definitely doesn’t want to say, ‘We did it because of Israel.’ What he said instead was, “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”
Kitchen Sink Approach?
I don’t know about you, but I have found that explanations lacking. I woke up on Saturday morning to the president’s videotaped announcement like the rest of you and did not walk away with a clear understanding of what we are doing. It was restatements of things we have known for years: ‘We hate Iran. They hate us too.’
We know that. Why are we doing this now? What is the catalyst? What is the imminent threat from the Iranian regime?
We saw CNN’s Scott Jennings, who is always talking with the administration, parroting this over the weekend. He posted on X: “Senior Trump Administration officials telling me that credible intelligence indicated Iran planned preemptive missile strikes against US military targets in the region, and against civilian targets as well. Failure to act would’ve resulted in mass US casualties.”
Does that make any sense to you? That Iran was planning preemptive strikes against us, knowing full well of the military assets we had moved to the region? No, not to me. And sure enough, CNN and Reuters report that Trump administration officials on Sunday acknowledged in closed-door briefings with congressional staff “that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack U.S. forces first” or to “strike our bases in the Middle East.”
Trump cited a long list of terrible things Iran has done to the U.S. or its forces over the years, dating back to when I was eight years old. I realize the 1979 taking of the hostages for 444 days was bad, but I was literally in third grade. These wrongs have been on the books for a long time. Some have resulted in sanctions or retaliation already, which leaves us asking again: Why now?
Trump mentioned he felt like we were getting tapped along on our negotiations about their nuclear program. I believe that. I am sure they did. That is all they ever do. But the president himself told us we “obliterated” that program last June. That wasn’t four years ago; that was seven months ago. He mentioned they still had “ambitions” to make a nuke, so maybe this is about bombing them out of their “ambition”?
It feels very much like a kitchen sink approach, and I don’t fully understand what is going on here.
What Comes Next?
I do believe President Trump doesn’t want to get us into another forever war, and I believe he wouldn’t willingly submit to quagmire. He has been all over the board on the timing of it, but, in general, he seems to think he can do this in four weeks or so. He thinks we can do enough damage to them over the course of four weeks that we can achieve what, again? Is that going to bomb them out of their “ambition”? I don’t know.
We also don’t know who is going to take over. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead. That is a great thing. Truly, it is like finding out that Adolf Hitler died. There is only one correct response: Yay. But regime change wars and taking out another country’s leader is full of danger too.
We have taken out 40-plus members of the regime. What are we going to do about all the other members of the regime? President Trump told The New York Times he hoped Iran’s elite military forces — including from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — would simply turn over their weapons to the Iranian people. That is the most vicious group they have over there.
I support the president. I voted for the president. I campaigned for him, as you know. But that doesn’t mean – and being a conservative or being a Trump supporter or being part of MAGA doesn’t mean – you have to accept another Middle East war without questions. There is nothing unpatriotic or unsupportive of one’s conservatism or general adherence to MAGA-type principles to say, ‘I would like to be better convinced that this is worth the sacrifice of American blood and treasure.’
That is where I am.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,263 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.