Jason Dozier represents District 4 on the Atlanta City Council. After graduating from Denison University, he joined the U.S. Army, serving as a reconnaissance officer in Iraq and Afghanistan. His service earned him the Army Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star. After leaving the Army, Dozier returned to Georgia to help address challenges facing transitioning military veterans and their spouses. As a combat veteran, Dozier is speaking out against the current war in Iran.
“The lack of a clear strategy or end state only undermines U.S. credibility globally,” Dozier told The Daily Beast. “As an Iraq War veteran, I’ve seen firsthand the costs of conflicts like this, and I had hoped those lessons would guide future decisions. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case.”
Dozier is correct that our leaders have learned little from past mistakes. According to Defense Department statistics, the Iraq War killed 4,492 U.S. soldiers and injured 32,292 more. An estimated 200,000 Iraqi civilians died in the conflict. The Iraq War began in spring 2003 with a U.S.-led coalition invasion to remove Saddam Hussein. Bush administration officials justified the invasion by alleging Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction while actively pursuing nuclear capability. No such weapons were ever found.
In a joint effort, the United States and Israel launched an attack against Iran, echoing the flawed reasoning that led to war in Iraq. Since the initial assault, thousands of people have died, including 13 U.S. service members. Iran has moved to block the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for roughly 20% of global oil. Trump has justified the war by saying Iran was close to producing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles. Experts and members of his own administration have contradicted him on that point. In an assessment from last year, the Defense Intelligence Agency said it would take nearly a decade for Iran to produce such weaponry.
From Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction to claims of an imminent Iranian nuclear threat, past lessons are being widely ignored. Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, is one notable exception. In announcing his resignation, Kent said he was stepping down because Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation.” Kent, nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Senate last year, posted his resignation letter on X. “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” he wrote. “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
President Trump has criticized and threatened America’s NATO allies — and now wants those same allies to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz. “This is not our war, we have not started it,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters. As Dozier notes, given the nation’s credibility problems, allies should be deeply concerned — both about the abuse of power by the president and Congress’s failure to rein him in.
The Republican-led House and Senate voted against a war powers resolution — a significant development Americans and allies alike should not ignore. Each member who defeated the resolution placed no limits on the war efforts of a president who has proven to be, in the view of critics, unpredictable. Each ignored the misinformation that surrounded the Iraq War and the claim of weapons of mass destruction.
Our global partners, like many Americans since the election, are growing weary of an unpredictable president. Our allies are starting to say no. Voters should do the same — by opposing every Republican who voted to kill the war powers resolution, starting with the upcoming Texas Senate race. The sacrifice of every combat veteran from the Iraq War should not be rendered meaningless by lawmakers who knowingly repeat the same irresponsible decisions at the cost of American lives.
Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and author of the book “God Bless Our Divided America.”