Across the country, after the U.S. unleashed strikes in Iran last weekend, veterans anxiously held their breath. They said they’ve seen this story before — and it didn’t turn out well.
The military campaign, which plunged the region into chaos, triggered a profound wave of déjà vu for post-9/11 veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And while the nearly dozen veterans who spoke to POLITICO recognize the brutalities of the repressive Iranian regime, they said they have little appetite for another war in the Middle East.
Most said they are wary of President Donald Trump’s goals in Iran — on Friday, he demanded “unconditional surrender” from the region — and how many soldiers will be sacrificed in that pursuit. They said they are angry that Congress rebuffed efforts to halt the war. And they’re particularly frustrated by an administration that’s been steadily whittling down veteran support systems.
“There is a sense from the government [that] they’re kind of using us as pawns,” said Brandon Waithe, a former Air Force master sergeant who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “They want to send us to war, but they don’t want to pay for the results of it.”
More than anything, the veterans said, they’re worried the U.S. hasn’t learned from its past military mistakes.
In 2001, the U.S. launched a widespread military campaign in Iraq and Afghanistan, designed to eliminate terrorist threats after the Sept. 11 attacks — wars that dragged on for decades. Over 7,000 soldiers died, some at the hands of Iranian-funded weapons and insurgent groups. Troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021; the Taliban retook control soon after. In its wake, the U.S. left behind years of “civil war, mass death and metastasizing terrorism,” said Phil Klay, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq.
The post-9/11 soldiers said they’re still grappling with what they see as the futility of their efforts in those wars. According to Jason Dempsey, a former infantry officer who deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan, this generation of veterans is more cautious about military force compared with soldiers from the Vietnam War era.
“There’s a much greater sense of melancholy and disappointment at this latest iteration of what we’re doing [now],” Dempsey said.
Maggie Seymour, who served in the Marines in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait from 2007 to 2016, said her immediate reaction when U.S. fighter jets attacked Iran was: “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“People are killed,” added Keegan Evans, who was a Marine Corps helicopter pilot in Iraq. “Sons, daughters, brothers, fathers, the whole list, they don’t come home. And the very legitimate question: What is it for?”
“You served in Iraq, you want our country to have learned a certain set of lessons about military force,” Klay said. “A certain kind of caution when it comes to this.”
From their perspective, U.S.-backed regime change is rarely successful, and certainly not via airstrike. Diplomacy, they argue, matters more than “chest-pumping” lethality. The aftershocks of combat last far beyond a news cycle. Immediate, tactical wins don’t guarantee success in an enduring war. Military operations must have a long-term plan.
“This makes the Iraq War planning look like grand strategy,” said Chris Purdy, an army combat engineer who deployed to Iraq in 2011. The U.S. has “rushed into things like a bunch of five-year-olds playing soccer,” said Evans.
“This operation is thinking without acting, which is arguably what we did in any number of wars,” said Seymour. “You could cite any number of examples that didn’t work out.”
The veteran community isn’t a monolith — indeed, Trump’s Cabinet contains high-ranking officials who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. (Trump acknowledged this week that Vance was “maybe less enthusiastic” at the start of the war with Iran.)
But for some veterans, the sobering reminder is reflecting on “how poorly conceived and executed those 20 years of war were,” Dempsey said. ”And today, to see the U.S. “doubling down” on the worst of those wars, is “immensely depressing.”
“We signed up [in 2001] because we thought we were doing this great, amazing thing,” said Jackie Schneider, a Hoover Institution fellow and Air Force veteran who served in South Korea and Japan. “And the results of that are complicated and unclear. Did we ever accomplish what we set out for?”
That’s an answer that veterans don’t have an answer for, Schneider said. And that’s “devastating for this generation,” she added.
The Department of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.
So far, Trump’s second presidency has been defined by a rapid succession of military actions. He bombed Iranian nuclear facilities last June. In January, he decapitated the Venezuelan government with the swift arrest of President Nicolás Maduro.
But when it comes to Iran, Trump’s endgame is unclear. His administration has touted ever-changing arguments for striking Iran: regime change, nuclear capabilities, a hidden ballistic missile program. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, dismissed Trump’s demand for surrender, telling “Meet the Press” that Iran “will keep fighting for the sake of our people.”
Already, more than 1,000 people have been killed in Iran; seven American soldiers have died in action.
Veterans worry the body count will continue to escalate.
“Risking your life,” Dempsey said, “getting grievously injured or killed; a friend or family member gets grievously injured or killed; for a [reason] that the president can’t even articulate?
“People will [ask],” he continued, “Is my life to be used for one man’s whim?”
In the past few days, Cynthia Kao, a former U.S. Air Force reservist who served in Afghanistan, has fielded dozens of phone calls within her veterans network. The anxiety is palpable, she said. A few reservists told her they fear they will be treated as “cannon fodder.”
“I am not afraid to die for my country,” is something Kao has heard from her peers. “What I am afraid to do, is die for somebody who’s got their own agenda.”
For American Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Iran feels like déjà vu
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