A woman waves an Iranian flag during a pro-government campaign as a portrait of the slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, is displayed at rear, in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) Back when the Super Bowl was in Los Angeles, I was assigned a story to cover the military pilots doing the flyover at the game. I went to Los Alamitos where the NFL was also arranging for Hall of Famer Kurt Warner to go up in a military jet. While waiting for the event, I ended up talking to a fellow Marine who had served in Iraq the same time that I did. We exchanged stories, vented, laughed, griped, and tried to make sense of what we went through. I told him, “I really hope we don’t make the same mistakes again.” He looked at me and said, “I hope not either, but we definitely will.”
This conflict with Iran, which has been called everything from a war to an “excursion,” seemed to come to the beginning of the conclusion for the umpteenth time when President Trump announced that a ceasefire agreement was met. Of course, the president and his team were very cagey over what exactly the agreement’s terms were, leaving politicians, pundits and people to only guess at what was in the deal. Add to the fact that Iran and the U.S. are still exchanging blows and you can only assume it’s not a real peace. The reality is there is no way you could pawn this off as a win.
Yet MAGA talking heads are proclaiming victory.
It remains to be seen if Iran is going to get everything they want and if we are going to get some of the things we asked for. The nuclear question is still up for debate, but we do know that the Iranian regime is still the same (regardless of the Trump logic that the bad ones are gone), their missiles might still be a problem, their proxy terrorist groups still exist, and they can now choke off the Strait of Hormuz anytime they want to. MAGA talking heads are saying that we can always go back to bombing Iran if they don’t come through on their end. But if the bombing starts, the oil stops. Guess who that hurts more.
The military history of the U.S. has always been a shining point in our history classes. We fought a revolution that shook the world to its core. We fought a civil war to free the slaves. We came to the rescue twice in the world wars. And we also beat up countries like Mexico, Spain and Iraq (in Desert Storm) pretty soundly even if the pretexts for some of those conflicts weren’t very kosher.
But we have also struggled to come to terms with the wars that haven’t gone so well. Korea was a stalemate that never got resolved. Vietnam was to prevent the spread of communism. Now they are a communist country with which we have diplomatic relations. As an Iraq War veteran, I struggle to explain exactly how we won the war other than we just up and left, but also somehow, still have troops there. I also can’t justify the war because it was based on a massive lie. And there is no way you can say Afghanistan was a win, because we all saw how that ended.
I know many Vietnam veterans, and now Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, have struggled to make sense of their respective wars. It’s a hard thing to go fight for your country and then realize that you are just fighting for your buddies and maybe the conflict you are in isn’t as noble as you were told it would be. Those wars, of course, started out with the best of intentions. Stopping communism was important to world security. Going after terrorist networks made sense after 9/11. But those conflicts evolved into wars that were meant to allow politicians to save face.
The U.S. kept Vietnam going because our leaders didn’t want to accept that the communists were going to eventually win. We kept Afghanistan going, even after we had killed Osama Bin Laden, because we knew the Taliban would come back. Ultimately, extending those wars made things worse in the long term. But between Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, you would think that we would learn our lessons.
Iran proves that we have not. We might have the most powerful military with brave men and women who operate the latest technological equipment, but we still have politicians who get their military experience from movies, Navy SEAL memoirs, and the delusions in their heads. We should have learned that there are limits to our technological power and we can’t just “shock and awe” people into submission. We should have learned that every potential war we start should have an endgame mapped out that prepares for all foreseeable contingencies. We should have learned that while wars do happen, we should go out of our way to not charge head first into one.
There were hundreds of Americans wounded in this war with Iran, and even more who dealt with the psychological stress of being in the conflict. They will eventually cycle back to the States and have to deal with their experiences. For many, the embarrassment of Trump’s actions will lead them to downplay their service. For others, it might mean not getting help for issues that will arise.
Our politicians never seem to learn the lessons of war. There is a human toll that goes beyond death. Sending men and women into pointless conflicts with poor political and civilian leadership just hurts our veterans and the system that supports them. Maybe we can start supporting the troops by not going on excursions for the sake of politicians’ egos.
Joslin Joseph is a recipient of the Military Reporters and Editors award for Best Commentary-Opinion. A graduate of Harvard and Ohio State, he is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, Calif.
Add as preferred source on Google Tags Iran Iraq Kurt Warner Osama bin Laden President TrumpCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Comments: Link copiedMore Opinions - National Security News
See All
Opinions - National Security Zelensky should learn from Netanyahu’s mistakes by Dov Zakheim, opinion contributor 3 days ago Opinions - National Security / 3 days ago 
