THE WAR IN IRAN IS AN AMERICAN FAILURE. - WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

By Guardian - Robert Reich - Thu 12 Mar 2026 12.00 GMT

The most powerful nation in the world is now being led by a rogue president who rejects its longstanding values. As we reach the 13th day of the war in Iran – with death and destruction rippling throughout the Middle East – it’s important to bear in mind where the real failure lies.

So far, nearly 2,000 people have been killed, including 175 Iranian schoolchildren and seven US service members. At least 140 US service members have been wounded, several critically. The final tallies on both sides will almost certainly be far higher.

Soaring oil and gas prices in the US are inevitably hitting the poor and working class much harder than the affluent.

We’re spending huge resources on this war – so far, roughly $1bn per day, or $41,666,667 per hour, $11,574 per second.

These are resources that could be better spent improving the lives of the American people.

Americans need healthcare. Affordable housing. Childcare and eldercare. Better schools. We want our basic needs met. But the government has said we “can’t afford” these things.

Yet supposedly we can afford nearly $1tn for the Pentagon. Trump now says the Pentagon needs $500bn more.

The person who sits in the Oval Office has no endgame for this war, hasn’t given a consistent answer for what ‘victory’ will require, and doesn’t appear to know what he’s doing

The tragic failure at the center of this devastation is not that most Americans have succumbed to war fever. To the contrary, poll after poll shows that most Americans do not support this war.

In fact, this is the first war America has entered in modern times without majority in support.

The real failure is that the richest and most powerful nation in the world – the nation that has led the world since the second world war and that established the postwar international order emphasizing multilateralism, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law – is now being led by a rogue president who rejects all these values.

One man has decided for himself to make this war. A lone person has initiated this mayhem without gaining Congress’s approval, without getting the approval of allies, without even articulating a clear reason for it.

The person who sits in the Oval Office has no endgame for this war, hasn’t given a consistent answer for what “victory” will require, and doesn’t appear to know what he’s doing.

One single individual is now wreaking havoc – lives lost, energy prices soaring, our treasury being drained, our own needs overlooked, and potential future terrorism unleashed on this and other lands for years to come.

This war marks an overwhelming failure of American democracy. It is ultimately our failure.

What can we do now?

On 28 March – two weeks from this coming Saturday – we march across America in the largest demonstration in the nation’s history.

In coming weeks and months, we harden our elections systems so they cannot be overridden by the despot in the White House.

In November, we turn out the largest numbers ever recorded for a midterm election, to take back leadership of Congress from those who have enabled this rogue president.

Meanwhile, we continue to defend our communities, protect our immigrant friends and neighbors from state violence, and defend our universities and schools, our museums and libraries, and our media and newspapers from state despotism.

The best way for us to respond to the devastation of this war, in other words, is to strengthen the mechanisms that should never have allowed it to occur in the first place.

• Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK