Can We Contain and Extinguish the Fire, or Will It Become a Raging Inferno?

BILL ASTORE

MAR 03, 2026

Here are some macro ideas and thoughts about America’s latest war of choice with Iran:

1. It’s a war so call it that. It’s not “strikes” or “major combat operations.” 

2. It’s an unconstitutional, illegal, immoral, and potentially escalatory war. 

3. The war has no clear objective other than decapitation of the Iranian leadership (achieved?) and installation of a new regime that will play ball with USA/Israel. That latter outcome is extremely unlikely.

4. It’s a war for Israel to advance its regional hegemony.

5. In the main, the war is neither supported nor understood by the American people. That fact doesn’t seem to matter to the Trump administration.

6. For all those involved, the war will prove increasingly expensive in blood and treasure.

7. Recklessly begun, the war is utterly unpredictable in its final outcomes.

8. The war does not serve the national defense interests of the U.S., as Iran posed no imminent threat to U.S. national security.

9. With no clear Congressional mandate, the war lacks the critical support of the American people. Again, the Trump administration remains unconcerned here.

10. For these reasons, among others, there should be an immediate ceasefire followed by negotiations, leading to discussion of war reparations to be paid by the aggressors. (This scenario, I realize, is unlikely in the extreme.)

Yesterday, I went on “Judging Freedom” with Judge Andrew Napolitano to discuss the Iran War.

As I said to the Judge, I am still confused about America’s true rationale, its intent, and its goals, and I have no clear idea of how this war is going to proceed, let alone end. War is inherently unpredictable, much like fire. Trying to predict its path of destruction, what it will burn and what it will leave behind, and when it will end, is nearly impossible. We must work to contain and extinguish this new fire in the Middle East before it becomes an inferno that engulfs even wider areas, leading to yet more innocents dead.