(From "The Schiff Notes")


WATCH: As Iran War Enters Second Month, I Call on the Senate to End It
Sen. Adam Schiff
Apr 15, 2026

VIDEO

Mr President, We are in the second month of Trump’s Iran War, and we have already, tragically, lost 13 service members, including one, Chief Warrant Officer Robert Marzan, from my home state of California.

We are now in the second month of Trump’s Iran War and more than 200 U.S. service members have been injured, some, very seriously.

We are now in the second month of Trump’s Iran War, and we have already had two American pilots shot down over Iran, necessitating a rescue under extremely dangerous conditions. A heroic rescue, a daring rescue, and one that was only possible because we have the most capable special forces in the world. But a rescue mission that we must all acknowledge put an incredible number of our service members at risk and could easily have gone wrong.

We are now in the second month of Trump’s Iran War and we have squandered tens of billions of dollars that could have been used to build hospitals and affordable housing, to build childcare centers and senior centers. At a time when the president says we cannot afford daycare, Medicare or Medicaid.

We are now in the second month of Trump’s Iran War, and Americans are paying astronomical prices at the gas pump, at the grocery store, on their utility bills and medical bills, but the president’s actions — and inaction — are only making life more unaffordable for our citizens.

We are now in the second month of Trump’s Iran War and the president has offered no proposal to even authorize the use of force in Iran, nor have Republicans demanded one. We have not had a single open hearing on the war, nor have Republicans called for one. The case for the war in Iran has never been made, will never be made and my colleagues will not put the matter to a vote, for fear they would lose that vote or be held accountable for it.

How long can this go on? And the short, terrible, answer is — for a very long time. It is beginning to have all of the telltale signs of a quagmire.

For this war had no clear purpose. It had no well-defined goal. It had no strategic plan. Its rationale has shifted endlessly with the wind and the whims of the president. It has vacillated between being about regime change and then not about regime change. About missiles and then not about missiles. About oil and then not about oil.

About Iran’s nuclear threat, and then not about its nuclear threat, since the president had said that Iran’s nuclear program had been obliterated a year ago. Ironically, the administration’s nuclear endgame now sounds a lot like the JCPOA, the much-maligned agreement that Trump tore up and now seems reconciled to embrace, the JCPOA or something like it.

Iran has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz — sending oil prices skyrocketing — and now the vice president says “two can play at that game” so we are in the blockade business too. How does that help the American family that can’t afford to fill up the car, the trucker put out of work, or the farmer with no fertilizer?

The simple truth is that this administration has no idea how or when this war will end. It is hard to end a war when you are not clear on why you began it.

We can only be certain of one thing — at some point, the president will claim victory, but what kind of a victory will it be? One in which, Iran, for the first time, can demand tolls from ships passing through Hormuz? One in which the regime has survived, and, empowered and embittered, is even worse, with more crackdowns on the Iranian people, even less toleration of dissent, or worse still, with a fervent desire to breakout and build a bomb? One in which we suffer persistent and higher gas prices because long term damage has been done to gulf oil and gas infrastructure? One in which Russia is richer and will be richer for the foreseeable future from higher oil prices and can better fund its war against Ukraine?

Is this the victory that Trump will declare? One for which we have paid dearly in blood and treasure? One for which he will cut healthcare to pay $200 billion more for defense, to replenish the stocks of the weapons he has used.

Does that sound like victory? Does that feel like victory?

In 1984, at the height of the Cold War, Reagan said this:

“History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.”

Sadly, the lessons of that history have come to pass. And it has come in the form of a President who now, too often, sees aggression as cheap.

As he has launched not one, but two wars against Iran.

As he has launched unilateral strikes in South America, and in Africa.

As he has overseen a war on vessels in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.

As he has blockaded Cuba and threatens to “take” it, along with Greenland.

To Donald Trump, war has become easy. It has become nearly a default.

And as a result, he has become the President he promised he would never be — far from the President to end wars, he is now the President to start them. Lot’s of them.

The Founders warned us of a man like this — a president grown too fond of war. Seduced by the quick success of the apprehension of Maduro in Venezuela, and of the access to another country’s oil that such an operation begat, he was induced to make war against another Iran. But Iran is not Venezuela. And the son of the Ayatollah is not Delcy Rodriguez, not another pliant regime figure to be easily manipulated.

In the same speech, Reagan also said this:

“To keep the peace, we and our allies must be strong enough to convince any potential aggressor that war could bring no benefit, only disaster.”

This is peace through strength, his most famous mantra in foreign policy.

Well, what is the strength of our alliances now? The president has turned our back on the security pacts that Reagan championed, like NATO. He failed to consult with our allies before embarking on this war of choice, then claimed we didn’t need allies, then complained when our allies did not come to our assistance in reopening a strait that previously had been open, but was now closed.

The president has undermined our credibility with friend and foe alike, as he threatens to end a civilization and to commit war crimes, or as he ordered military strikes while talks were ongoing, or as ‘two more weeks’ becomes a punchline.

And what have we taught Iran — the “ostensible aggressor” in Ronald Reagan’s formulation — that war can bring no benefit? Or is Iran now convinced it can bring the world economy to its knees and impose its will by imposing fees on passage through the Strait of Hormuz?

Does it believe that while the U.S. military can pound its navy and missile sites, it can still strike U.S. targets and our partners in the region with rockets and drones? Does it believe it has an asymmetric advantage over the U.S. because drones and missiles are cheap and interceptors are expensive?

Ronald Reagan will be right, that we have convinced the aggressor that war can bring no advantage only disaster, if, in fact, it is we who are the aggressor.

This war should never have begun.

And it is long past time for the U.S. Congress to put an end to it.

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.