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It's Not Enough for Some Iranians to Be Happy About the War (Nicholas Kristof in the NYT)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/opinion/iran-war-trump.htmlOne of America’s great senators, J. William Fulbright, responded to the Vietnam War in 1966 by denouncing what he called “the arrogance of power.” He cautioned: “Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence.” He framed it this way: “We are still acting like Boy Scouts dragging reluctant old ladies across streets they do not want to cross.”
In Iraq, our arrogance of power led us to start a war that ended up costing hundreds of thousands of lives (mostly those of Iraqis) and perhaps $3 trillion — and ultimately benefited Iran. In Afghanistan, we wasted lives and some $3.4 trillion over two decades to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.
Having covered both wars and had friends killed and injured there, I fear that Trump’s new war — in the nation located between Iraq and Afghanistan — will similarly end in mangled bodies and shattered hopes.
-snip-
A president’s first task is to make us safer. Instead, it seems to me that Trump has catapulted us into an unnecessary conflict, consuming American and Iranian lives alike, costing billions of dollars and damaging the economy — all while propelling us into peril.
In Iraq, our arrogance of power led us to start a war that ended up costing hundreds of thousands of lives (mostly those of Iraqis) and perhaps $3 trillion — and ultimately benefited Iran. In Afghanistan, we wasted lives and some $3.4 trillion over two decades to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.
Having covered both wars and had friends killed and injured there, I fear that Trump’s new war — in the nation located between Iraq and Afghanistan — will similarly end in mangled bodies and shattered hopes.
-snip-
A president’s first task is to make us safer. Instead, it seems to me that Trump has catapulted us into an unnecessary conflict, consuming American and Iranian lives alike, costing billions of dollars and damaging the economy — all while propelling us into peril.