James Talarico

Yeah, as a millennial, I had seen how military disasters like the Iraq War robbed this nation of young lives, of billions of dollars, and of our moral standing across the globe.

And I worry that our current leaders are making those same mistakes in Iran.

I was in Sand Branch, Texas, a few weeks ago.

It's a community south of Dallas that doesn't have any running water.

It doesn't have basic sewer infrastructure.

So every dollar that we are spending bombing people in the Middle East is a dollar that we are not spending in our communities back home.

And we're always told there's not enough money for schools, there's not enough money for healthcare, there's not enough money for housing or veterans, but there always seems to be enough money to bomb people on the other side of the world.

And there are right now our government is spending a billion dollars a day, a billion dollars a day bombing people in Iran, including innocent schoolchildren.

We have just seen more of our brave men and women in uniform dying in this conflict.

I know the president said this was going to be short term pain.

You tell that to the parents of those fallen soldiers.

That's not short-term pain.

That is a lifetime of pain.

And for what?

We can support the democracy movement in Iran.

We can prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

Both should absolutely be priorities of our foreign policy.

But it should be done through our partnerships with allies.

It should be done using our economic strength, through our intelligence community.

But this kind of military intervention without much forethought, without much explanation, to me just reminds me of the forever wars.