{"id":323369,"date":"2026-03-05T15:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/323369\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T15:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:07:10","slug":"this-is-a-needless-war-americans-share-their-thoughts-on-the-us-israel-attacks-on-iran-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/323369\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This is a needless war\u2019: Americans share their thoughts on the US-Israel attacks on Iran | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

As hundreds of civilians<\/a> and some US service members have been killed<\/a> in the aftermath of the 28 February strike against Iran by the United States and Israel, the Guardian asked readers in the US what their thoughts are on the latest military action in Iran.<\/p>\n

Their responses were largely disapproving, with some acknowledging that the Iranian regime needed to be toppled, even with a high cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have any love lost for the ayatollahs,\u201d said Iraj Roshan, a 66-year-old retired cardiologist and US citizen who was born in Tehran, in an interview with the Guardian. \u201cBut these wars are won by narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roshan fled to Turkey after the Iranian revolution, making his way to Austria and later the US, where he has lived since 1983.<\/p>\n

Over the last decade, Donald Trump has denounced US military intervention in other countries. In December 2016, the then president-elect said: \u201cWe will stop racing to topple foreign regimes that we know nothing about, that we shouldn\u2019t be involved with.\u201d On the campaign trail \u2013 in 2016, 2020 and 2024 \u2013 Trump and his allies spoke against foreign intervention, painting Democrats as enablers of war. In a series of social media posts<\/a> days before the 2024 election day, Trump adviser Stephen Miller repeatedly warned that a win for Kamala Harris, the then vice-president, would lead to young men being \u201cdrafted to fight\u201d in a \u201c3rd World War\u201d.<\/p>\n

Roshan argues that the US government does not have a strategy in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see any way this war is going to end in a way that the US can declare victory without putting boots on the ground or without arming the Iranians themselves,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to see that so many American kids are going to be eventually dragged into a war that we cannot win \u2013 at least by any definition that we could write down today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meg, a 41-year-old small business owner based in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, spoke about the impacts of the strike on her community, which is home to the largest Arab community in New York City \u2013 approximately 10%<\/a> of the neighborhood\u2019s population.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a lot of my Muslim friends, this is their favorite time of year,\u201d Meg told the Guardian, referring to the holiday of Ramadan, which began on 17 February and continues through 19 March. \u201cSo to have this renewed tragedy strike in the middle of that, as somebody on the outskirts who cares about people in my community and in my circle of friends, it breaks my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meg also spoke of the persistent terrors that many of her neighbors have faced, first from the threat of ICE<\/a> raids and then the strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been an ongoing drum beat of terror in my neighborhood,\u201d she said. \u201cHow much can people take? How much suffering has to be inflicted on them for mindless reasons?\u201d<\/p>\n

Barb, a 74-year-old retired mental health counsellor based in North Carolina, wrote in to the Guardian: \u201cWe can be sure that Trump has launched this war for selfish purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether to flaunt his power, to control the headlines (away from Epstein), or to entertain himself, this needless war is not for the benefit of the Iranian people,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

While many lawmakers, US citizens and others around the world have pushed back on Trump for unnecessary US involvement in a foreign regime change, others struck a less critical tone. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe [Iranian] regime is a very controlling and horrible thing,\u201d Sriram Shanmugam, an 18-year-old in Texas who identifies as a Republican, shared with the Guardian. \u201cMy father escaped during the Iranian revolution, and I have many relatives in the Middle East too.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Shanmugam acknowledged that the US is \u201cnot doing much to minimize civilian casualties, and that we have no real plan after we finish this operation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat will replace the government of Iran, and will we have boots on the ground? Is there any guarantee that this won\u2019t be our generation\u2019s Afghanistan or Iraq?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

A 47-year-old social worker in Washington, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote about the impact that another war will have on US veterans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent 15 years working as a social worker therapist specifically with combat veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan,\u201d she said. \u201cThose wars turned millionaires into billionaires and created a lifetime of emotional pain and physical pain for those who served.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also pointed to the myriad of domestic issues that people in the US are facing, including an affordability crisis <\/a>and fewer jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in our country are suffering on the streets, homeless, without health insurance, without hope,\u201d she wrote. \u201cAnd this is where the government focuses its money and energy?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As hundreds of civilians and some US service members have been killed in the aftermath of the 28…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-323369","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}