Members of Congress failed an entire generation in the run-up to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That failure shaped my life, and it is one reason I am running for Congress.
While serving as a Marine logistics officer in Fallujah, Iraq, I saw firsthand what happens when a president takes the nation to war without proper debate or transparency. The result was a human, strategic and financial disaster.
Many of my fellow service members paid with their lives, and many more returned home forever changed. An entire generation vowed we would never let it happen again.
Today, I fear it is happening again in Iran.
The Iranian regime is a bad actor. It is a state sponsor of terrorism that has slaughtered its citizens at home, spread violence abroad, and is responsible for the deaths of American civilians and service members. An Iran with nuclear weapons would be an existential threat to the United States and our allies.
But the Trump administration has offered no evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat. In fact, the administration does not seem to know — or is refusing to say — why it launched this war at all, instead offering a cascade of conflicting justifications.
This war is a war of choice, with no clear objective, strategy or exit plan, launched on the whim of Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth. Seven American service members and well over 1,000 civilians have already died, including over 170 at a girls’ school apparently bombed by the U.S.
And what have we achieved? Destruction across the Middle East and the replacement of one Ayatollah Khamenei with another.
The Constitution is clear. Article I, Section 8 gives Congress — not the president — the power to declare war. That responsibility was never meant to rest in the hands of a single person.
This matters not just because it is the law, but because of the tremendous human and financial cost of war. Congress should only authorize war when there is a significant threat to the U.S. or our allies, a clear plan for success, and after an exhaustive review of intelligence and thorough debate. Ultimately, members of Congress must look their constituents in the eyes and justify their vote.
I have seen who pays the price when Congress abandons this responsibility. It is 18-year olds who just graduated from Somersworth or Kennett or Central high schools. It is not the children of U.S. Senators or CEOs who fight our wars. It is kids from working class communities like those across New Hampshire.
Multiple events in the first weeks of this conflict have raised additional concerns about the basic competence of this administration.
First, the State Department did not issue evacuation orders until three days after the attack began, when airspace was already restricted across the Middle East and Americans — including Granite Staters — could no longer safely leave. If this war was about protecting American lives, issuing evacuation orders ahead of time is the bare minimum.
Second, within days of the war starting, our allies shot down three American fighter jets in a friendly-fire incident over Kuwait. Thankfully, no one was killed, but in the over 25 years since I joined the Marines, I cannot recall anything similar.
The administration regularly maligns our allies, but alliances are critical in moments like this. I spent two years in Asia participating in joint exercises with partner nations precisely to prevent this kind of costly, and potentially deadly, mistake.
Replacing those three American jets alone will cost approximately $300 million. That is about 19 times the projected budget shortfall in the Manchester schools this year.
Now, the administration may ask Congress for an additional $50 billion in Pentagon funding, shortly after this same administration cut veterans’ benefits and health care for millions of Americans. A nation that cannot afford to take care of its veterans cannot afford to go to war.
If a budget shows priorities, this administration’s priorities are deeply out of line with what the American people and the Granite State need.
As I travel New Hampshire’s First Congressional District, I hear the same thing over and over again from Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike. Our health care system is broken, and the cost of insurance is crushing families, stifling entrepreneurship and slowing our economy. The cost of housing, energy and education are through the roof, and Granite Staters are working harder than ever just to get by.
Our federal government is now spending an estimated $890 million dollars a day of taxpayer money on another reckless regime change war in the Middle East. The mismatch between priorities and need is staggering.
Our representatives must hold the president accountable and require him to justify this war before Congress and the American people. Congress must not fail again.
Granite State lives are on the line.
Maura Sullivan, who is a candidate for Congress in NH-01, is an Iraq War veteran and former Marine Corps captain who served as an Assistant Secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs and as a senior Pentagon official appointed by President Obama. She lives on the Seacoast.