War Demands Candor

President Trump's misleading claims about the conflict with Iran—its origins, its progress, and the tragedy in Minab—are weakening public trust and the case for military action.

President Trump's misstatements and mischaracterizations about the Iran War remind us that sound political leadership requires those in power to communicate candidly with the people they serve. More than two weeks into the war with Iran, the president is offering Americans a distorted view of the conflict. His actions are eroding public support for military action at the very moment he needs backing from the American people. Clear and honest communication is a worthy test for any leader, and the president is failing.

Military action against Iran is justified. The reasons for the conflict, however, are lost in the exaggerated and misleading language the president has used about Iran for the better part of a year. Last summer he announced that an American attack had obliterated Iran's nuclear program, yet we find ourselves in a growing conflict in part to eradicate the same threat he supposedly destroyed. The president's decision last summer to use maximalist language is undermining his current case for war and making it more difficult for Americans to trust his characterization of events.

Trump's misguided statements haven't been limited to his justifications for the war. Early in the conflict he brashly announced that the U.S. didn't need support from two British aircraft carriers being considered for deployment by Prime Minister Keir Starmer. A week later, as the magnitude of the challenge begins to dawn, he called for international assistance to help open and secure the Strait of Hormuz. The president's international posture is that we don't need the world's assistance. It turns out that isn't true.

The president keeps saying that the war against Iran has already been won. His description seems absurd given the Iranian munitions still finding their way through air defenses and our continued heavy bombardment of Iranian targets. Military progress is being made but the conflict continues.

Proof of this continuing conflict is everywhere. It exists in rising gas prices and the growing list of countries our citizens are asked to evacuate. These evacuation orders weren't issued out of an abundance of caution; they were issued because Iranian actions continue to threaten the territory of neighboring countries. In Iraq, American citizens were advised to make the difficult trip to the country's land borders since Iranian threats have closed Iraqi airspace. The president is right that Iran is suffering serious losses but he's wrong when he describes Iran as defeated. He's falling back on his tried-and-true technique of saying something as loudly as possible to drown out the evidence-based opinions of others.

Beyond the military situation, the president is failing to disclose the potential economic fallout of the war. The oil infrastructure now being idled can't be restarted at a moment's notice and it's likely that oil prices will remain elevated in the months ahead. Higher oil costs will almost certainly drive inflation at a time when many Americans are still suffering from high prices and an economy that isn't generating an abundance of opportunity.

The president's explanation for why this war was necessary has shifted over time, but he and his administration continue to insist that Iran posed an imminent threat and was planning an attack on American installations or interests. No details have been provided about the nature of this purported attack, and it seems increasingly likely that Iran wasn't behaving any differently in the run-up to the current conflict that it does habitually. The president's assertion that he was simply responding to Iranian actions doesn't seem to be true.

The tragic loss of more than a hundred Iranian children at a school in Minab was likely caused by an American munition, but the president denied responsibility and blamed the attack on Iranians. This narrative will change as evidence becomes incontrovertible but it's hard to believe the president and his Secretary of Defense didn't have access to the type of intelligence at the time that would clarify what happened.

It's a mistake to deny what happened in Minab. Terrible things happen in every conflict but this doesn't change the fact that in recent decades the U.S. has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid civilian casualties. It's always wiser to trust the American people with the truth about mistakes. Failing to quickly admit mistakes means that credibility is lost once the truth emerges. Americans are already deeply distrustful of our government and the last thing we need is another reason to doubt our system.

Restoring deterrence, limiting Iran's capacity to threaten its neighbors and giving the Iranian people a chance to seize their freedom was never going to be an easy mission. Telling the American people that we've already achieved victory not only mischaracterizes the situation, it belittles the immense sacrifices made by our service members every day the conflict continues. If war was as easy as the president claims, it wouldn't be necessary to celebrate the courage and devotion that defines our armed forces. We honor these things because we know that wars are hard and dangerous, and despite what the president is saying, we know this war against Iran is no different.

Colin Pascal is a senior fellow at the Orion Policy Institute and a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Military Intelligence Officer who spent 52 months in Iraq and Afghanistan. He served as Chief of Human Intelligence and Counterintelligence for Operation INHERENT RESOLVE and as Director of Operations for the U.S. Army Foreign Counterintelligence Activity.