Trump’s warmongering in Iran will not make America secure again 

President Trump promised to avoid “forever wars.” It remains to be seen whether the new conflict in Iran will become one. 

However, there’s not much difference between forever wars and the continuous wars Trump has conducted in his second term. He has already used military force against Venezuela, the Caribbean, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Iraq, as well as Iran. Congress did not authorize any of it.

Of course, the U.S. was a bellicose nation long before Trump. The country has been at war for approximately 93 percent of its 250-year history. However, Trump is making current and future wars much more likely.

Global climate change, for example, is one of the biggest modern threats to global stability. Military and intelligence officials have warned for years that it is a critical national security issue. Trump ignores it. 

The Obama administration secured an agreement with Iran to slow down its nuclear-weapons program. Trump trashed the agreement. The current war is his second attempt in the last year to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. But war is not a nonproliferation strategy.

Trump is making things worse. He allowed the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with Russia to lapse last month. His fickle behavior toward the NATO alliance has shaken allies’ faith that America’s “nuclear umbrella” will continue to protect them.

The world is teetering on the precipice of widespread nuclear proliferation. China and North Korea are increasing their nuclear arsenals, while Russia and the U.S. are modernizing theirs. Arms control experts say Australia, Japan, South Korea, Poland and some countries in Western Europe wonder whether they need their own arsenals.

This year, for the first time, U.S. military spending will exceed $1 trillion. That’s more than the combined military budgets of the next nine highest countries. Trump wants to spend $1.5 trillion on a “Dream Military” next fiscal year. With his military buildup, massive cutbacks in foreign aid and emaciation of the diplomatic corps, Trump has turned America’s plowshares into swords. He casually talks about acquiring Greenland by force, taking over Cuba, sending the military to Mexico, and intervening in Colombia.

Yet history shows that the size of its armies and arsenals is no guarantee that America will win or prevent wars. World War II was the last time the U.S. won an officially declared war. Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan ended in stalemates, proving that size doesn’t always matter in asymmetric conflicts.

Meantime, as we spend billions of dollars on war, the U.S. owes the United Nations nearly $4 billion in unpaid dues, contributing to a financial crisis in the organization. Trump decided he wants his own U.N., so he created a pay-to-play international “Board of Peace” whose 28 member countries have all been cited by the State Department for human rights abuses.

Trump has apparently learned nothing from America’s fraught involvements in the Middle East. The region can disrupt the U.S. economy by manipulating the world’s oil supplies. Nine of the 10 economic recessions since the end of World War II were preceded by oil problems. Arab countries caused the historic 1973 oil crisis to punish America for supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The Iranian revolution caused the 1978 oil crisis.   

The CIA warned as early as 1979 that the Strait of Hormuz was “a matter of increasing concern” because Iran could shut it down with mines or missiles. In those days, one-third of America’s oil supplies were shipped through the strait. That is no longer the case, but today, 20 percent of the world’s oil supplies still travel through it.  

After the 1970s, the U.S. sought to reduce its vulnerability by setting fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles. Trump has rolled them back, and eliminated federal incentives for electric vehicles.

It’s a fact of life that military power is sometimes necessary. America’s help for Ukraine was an example. But how we proceed is important. After 20 years of war in Vietnam, Gen. Colin Powell developed the “Powell Doctrine” to avoid endless conflicts. It consisted of four criteria: The U.S. should go to war only as a last resort; it must have clearly defined objectives; it must be vital to national security; and it must have strong public support.  

Trump’s military adventures have violated all four criteria. Trump, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have each given different reasons for the actions in Iran. Trump hasn’t bothered to explain it to the American people. Having gutted the National Security Council, the president says he simply “felt” Iran was planning to attack U.S. interests. And he launched the current attack on Iran in the middle of negotiations over a new nuclear agreement.

So, as the bombs fall in the volatile Middle East, we might ask whether Trump is making America secure again. The definitive answer is no.

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, named by the journal Nature as one of 2023’s five best science books. He previously served as a senior official in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. He is currently executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. 

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