I find it deeply disturbing that Israel helped lead America into this war with Iran, yet Israel is now sitting out the latest expansion of the bombing campaign. Israel has stepped back while American aircraft continue flying, American weapons continue being depleted, American taxpayers continue paying the bill, and American servicemen and women continue being killed and wounded.
It is time to ask the question our leaders do not seem willing to answer:
Why should Americans continue paying the price for another country’s war?
I am not defending the Iranian government. I do not support Iran’s attacks upon American troops, its threats against Israel, or its oppressive policies. But opposing Iran does not require surrendering our judgment to the Israeli government. Neither does it require turning the United States military into Israel’s hired fighting force.
Israel has a right to defend its own country. However, America also has a right—and a duty—to defend its own people, troops, economy, and national interests.
Israel Steps Back While America Pays
The United States and Israel launched this war together. Now, as the conflict expands again, Israel is largely sitting out the renewed bombing. According to recent reporting, Washington and the Arab states fear that direct Israeli participation could trigger an even wider regional war. Israel also benefits by preserving its aircraft, pilots, missile interceptors, and military supplies while the United States carries the burden.
What an arrangement!
Israel receives the strategic benefit of seeing its principal regional enemy bombed, while America assumes the casualties, expense, retaliation, and political consequences.
American troops have been killed. Hundreds have reportedly been wounded. Some Iranian attacks and American casualties were not initially disclosed to the public. American helicopters have been damaged, military bases have been struck, and our air-defense and battlefield missile inventories are being steadily consumed.
Meanwhile, oil has crossed $100 a barrel. Gasoline, diesel, food, transportation, farming, and manufacturing costs are rising. The American family standing at the gasoline pump is helping pay for this war. The farmer buying diesel is paying for it. The small business owner paying higher shipping costs is paying for it. Every military family waiting for news from the Middle East is paying a price that cannot be measured in dollars.
Yet we are still not being told what victory looks like.
Whose War Are We Fighting?
If this is truly an American war, then Congress and the president must explain the American objective.
What must happen before the bombing stops?
Is the goal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz? Destroy Iran’s nuclear program? Remove its government? Eliminate its missiles? Protect Israel? Punish the Houthis? Occupy Iran? Force an unconditional surrender?
Those are entirely different objectives, and each one could require years of fighting.
America has walked this road before. We were promised short wars, limited missions, quick victories, and clearly defined objectives. Then the mission changed. The enemy changed. The reasons changed. Years passed, thousands died, trillions of dollars were spent, and eventually America withdrew without achieving what its leaders had promised.
Have we learned nothing from Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan?
A country does not need to defeat the United States on the battlefield to weaken us. It merely needs to keep us fighting—draining our treasury, exhausting our military supplies, dividing our people, raising our cost of living, and waiting for political support at home to collapse.
Iran does not have to conquer America. It only has to draw America into another forever war.
An Alliance Is Not a Blank Check
Israel is often called America’s greatest ally. But an alliance must involve shared responsibility, shared sacrifice, and respect for each nation’s interests.
An ally should not help start a war, step aside when retaliation becomes costly, and expect American sons and daughters to continue the fighting.
Friendship with Israel does not require blind obedience to the Israeli government. Supporting the safety of the Israeli people does not require approving every decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu. We can pray for the people of Israel, condemn antisemitism, oppose attacks against civilians, and still declare that America must not be dragged into an endless war.
The lives of American service members are not bargaining chips. Our military stockpiles are not unlimited. Our national treasury is not an account from which foreign governments may withdraw whatever they desire.
If Israel believes continued war with Iran is necessary for Israel’s survival, then Israel must explain what sacrifices it is prepared to make. It should not expect America to fight indefinitely while it preserves its own forces.
Bombing Has Not Produced Peace
Night after night, the United States bombs Iran. Iran answers with missiles, drones, attacks upon military bases, and threats against international shipping. America responds with more bombing. Iran retaliates again.
That is not a strategy. It is an endless circle of destruction.
Every new attack is used to justify another attack. Every death becomes the reason for more deaths. Every retaliation becomes the excuse for greater retaliation. Leaders speak of inflicting more pain, but pain alone does not create peace. It creates bitterness, hatred, revenge, and another generation prepared to continue the fighting.
The Bible warns:
“For all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”
—Matthew 26:52, KJV
That does not mean a nation has no right to defend itself. It means the sword has consequences. Once drawn, it has a terrible way of demanding more blood.
We cannot bomb an entire nation into friendship. We cannot kill enough people to manufacture trust. We cannot destroy enough bridges, power plants, military installations, and communities to create lasting peace.
At some point, someone must have enough courage to stop.
It Is Time to Back Away
America should immediately stop expanding this war. The threatened “massive attack” must not proceed without a clear debate and authorization by Congress. Our Constitution does not give one man unlimited authority to carry the nation from one round of bombing into an open-ended regional war.
The United States should suspend offensive operations, protect its personnel, and return to the negotiating table. Iran must also stop attacking American forces and commercial shipping. Both sides must enter honest negotiations without using talks merely as cover for preparing the next attack.
Returning to the table is not surrender. Diplomacy is not weakness. It takes far more wisdom to end a war than it does to order another bombing raid.
The purpose of American leadership should be to protect American lives and secure a lasting peace—not to satisfy the ambitions of another government or prove that our bombs are larger than someone else’s.
Congress must demand answers:
- What is the achievable American objective?
- What specific conditions will end the bombing?
- Why is Israel sitting out while Americans continue fighting?
- How many more troops have been wounded than initially disclosed?
- How badly have our missile inventories been depleted?
- How much is this war truly costing?
- What prevents this from becoming another twenty-year conflict?
Until those questions are answered, Congress should provide no additional blank checks for expanding the war.
Bring Our Nation Back From the Edge
I am an American, but I am also a minister of the Gospel. My first loyalty is to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. I cannot rejoice when Iranian civilians are killed. I cannot rejoice when Israeli civilians are killed. I cannot rejoice when American troops return home beneath a flag or carry wounds they will bear for the remainder of their lives.
Every one of them is a soul for whom Christ died.
It is time for America to back away from the edge. It is time to stop fighting another country’s war. It is time to quit answering every failure with a larger bomb. It is time to return to the table and conduct honest negotiations before this conflict becomes a permanent war—or something far worse.
We have shed enough blood. We have spent enough treasure. We have buried enough young people.
Stop expanding the bombing. Protect our troops. Return to the negotiating table. End this war.
“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”
—Matthew 5:9, KJV
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