March 17, 2026
Iran - Why? What’s the Plan?
Our country has now been engaged in military conflict with Iran for over 2 weeks. This is an incredibly complicated part of our world, and we all understand that Iran has been the world’s leading sponsor of state terrorism for decades. But at least three fundamental problems are also clear at this point:
- No persuasive rationale regarding the necessity of this conflict has been presented to the American people.
- Neither a clear, desired outcome, nor a plan to achieve and maintain that outcome, has been articulated.
- The war is now a global conflict as at least 11 countries are now involved either directly or indirectly.
We do not know why we are there, and we do not know what we are trying to achieve.
The president has offered the nation no comprehensive rationale for his actions via the kind of formal Oval Office address we would expect. The president is putting US citizens at risk for bloodshed both in battle and in the likelihood for retaliatory strikes on the homeland. The financial costs, both directly in the waging of war, and indirectly through the economic impact, are staggering. Americans deserve a persuasive explanation.
How many of you have heard from the war’s supporters, including the president and his administration, that it is about time? So why haven’t leaders in the past done as Trump is doing? In fact, no one, not the president himself, members of his administration, Congress, or other corporate or international supporters of the war has come forward to justify the government's actions. Previous administrations have come before Congress and the American people to explain their actions. Conversely, this administration is threatening to pull the FCC licenses of networks who report the war accurately, a First Amendment violation. Furthermore, previous administrations have simulated scenarios involving Iran and its neighbors and have estimated what the costs of conflict might be. Heather Cox Richardson’s March 13 letter summarized this:
Philip Gordon of the Brookings Institution, who was formerly a national security adviser to Kamala Harris and the White House coordinator for the Middle East under President Barack Obama, told Andrew Roth of The Guardian that previous administrations had spent much time gaming out war with Iran and foresaw exactly what is happening: Iran would attack its neighbors to try to spark a regional war and would close the Strait of Hormuz to hurt global trade and drive up oil prices. “One of the reasons we did the nuclear deal and didn’t try to change the regime is exactly what’s happening,” he said of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Trump took the U.S. out of that treaty in 2018, undercutting it.
Evidence of poor planning abounds. US citizens in the region were stranded when the government initiated strikes with no plans for evacuations. A girls’ elementary school was bombed, most likely because decades-old data was used in the targeting decision. We were unprepared for Iran to respond with drones and inexpensive weapons to strike various Gulf facilities and close the Strait of Hormuz. The actual daily costs of executing the war are expected to be higher than current estimates of over $1 billion per day. Furthermore, if there is a plan to recover Iran’s stores of enriched uranium, it likely would require “boots on the ground.”
WHAT TO DO
Contact your elected officials with the following messages (see HOW TO DO IT below):
- Our government owes us an adequate and persuasive rationale for the necessity of engaging in war with Iran. (Knowing that Iran has terrible leadership that sponsors terrorism is not a sufficient reason.)
- Our government needs to explain what the plan is once the bombs are no longer falling.
- Congress must vote on whether to support and fund this war withan Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) and a funding resolution. Most of the country opposes this military action and Congress was elected to take on such responsibilities.
HOW TO DO IT
Please use https://5calls.org/issue/stop-iran-war/ or the above bullet points to contact your elected representatives. They need to hear from you and from more of us.Share this information with your family and friends and respond to ICCV if you would like to become more involved in saving our country during a time of peril.
- Senator Thom Tillis: (202) 224-6342
- Senator Ted Budd: (202) 224-3154
- Representative Pat Harrigan: (202) 225-2576
- Representative Virginia Foxx: (202) 225-2071
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
The Constitution, and the War Powers Act of 1973,make it clear that the president may not unilaterally lead the country into military hostilities. In recent decades, Congress has passed several Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) as an alternative to a formal Declaration of War. This Congress – caught between the president’s actions and the popular will – does not appear anxious to take a vote on an AUMF.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution
Americans were stranded at the start of the war because “it all happened very quickly.” https://www.aol.com/articles/trump-why-americans-werent-evacuated-192134340.html
Outdated intelligence likely responsible for bombing of girls’ school.
Hegseth drastically reduced programming and staff dedicated to mitigating harm to civilians during military actions.
The US was not well prepared for Iran’s use of drones and wasted large amounts of costly missiles to down the vast numbers of cheap drones used by the Iranians. They are now working to utilize less expensive drone defense systems.
Estimates of the cost of the war are being discussed (but don’t include the cost of the military build-up or indirect costs such as the effect of fuel and other prices throughout the world).
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/12/iran-war-cost-pentagon-00825666
Eliminating Iran’s uranium stockpiles might well require “Boots on the ground” - https://thebulletin.org/2026/03/trump-may-send-us-troops-to-neutralize-irans-highly-enriched-uranium-there-are-no-good-options/#:~:text=Ultimately%2C%20if%20the%20United%20States,and%20weaponize%20in%20the%20future
According to Axios, at least eleven countries are currently involved in either direct military action, retaliatory strikes, and/or support for various factions. Extricating ourselves now will mean negotiating with multiple parties, something this administration has not addressed in its comments to the American people or to Congress.
https://www.axios.com/2026/03/03/iran-war-countries-gulf-qatar-us
Thank you for everything you do to protect our democracy!
ICCV Legislative Committee
“With Liberty and Justice for ALL”