The Pentagon has asked for additional funds to pay for the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Congress should approve this request without delay and ensure that the U.S.’s warfighters have what they need. Iran’s missile attacks show there isn’t any time to waste. The funds are essential to both winning today’s wars and deterring future conflicts.
The Islamic Republic is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles is a direct threat to the United States and its allies from Jerusalem to London and beyond. As much as the Left and President Donald Trump’s critics insist that this is a “war of choice,” the truth is that Iran is a danger to the U.S. and its interests, and failing to deal with that threat is a choice only an irresponsible government would take.
Indeed, the ayatollahs in Tehran have been at war with America since the bloody birth of their terrorist state in 1979. For 47 years, Tehran has been the aggressor.
Its agents have murdered and maimed thousands of U.S. troops and other citizens, supplied and trained Islamist terrorists, and plotted to assassinate American officials, including Trump himself, some of them on U.S. soil. By contrast, Washington has allowed itself to become bogged down in negotiations, a euphemism for delaying and appeasing, while the regime has amassed potent military capabilities.
With the launch of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. shows that it has finally decided to fight back with what we hope will prove to be a crushing force and take the war to the regime’s doorstep. While some politicians and pundits claim Iran didn’t pose an “imminent threat,” Tehran has shown otherwise.
On March 21, it launched two ballistic missiles at the U.S.-U.K. military base in Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Islands, demonstrating that Iran now has missiles with a longer range than had been thought. With these missiles, it could hit points throughout most of Europe, including, for instance, London. Diego Garcia is some 2,500 miles from Iranian shores. As the Institute for the Study of War noted, the attack “demonstrated that Iranian missiles can reach beyond the 2,000-kilometer limit that the regime has long claimed to have self-imposed.” One missile failed in-flight, and the U.S. intercepted the other. For its part, Iran lied that it didn’t launch the missiles.
Its missiles may have missed their target, but they clearly demonstrated the nature of the Iranian threat. At present, Iran’s ballistic missiles don’t have nuclear payloads, but if it weren’t for U.S. and Israeli military action, that might soon have ceased to be the case. The Islamic Republic is a threat that couldn’t wait.
The Iranian regime is malevolent to all around it, wantonly launching missiles at American and British bases and neighboring countries, most of them Islamic. Tehran is utterly untrustworthy. Its promises not to develop certain missiles and nuclear weapons are empty. Trump’s decision to use U.S. military power to end the Iran threat is just, necessary, and historic.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that it “takes money to kill bad guys” and asked Congress for at least $200 billion in supplemental spending “to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s done, for what we may have to do in the future” and to “ensure that our ammunition is” refilled. Congress must set aside partisan differences, focus on the national interest, and accede to this request.
If Congress doesn’t approve the extra funds, it will send a terrible signal to the world generally and to our warfighters and enemies specifically. It will tell them all that Washington hasn’t the will and fortitude to defeat its adversaries, and hasn’t the loyalty to equip our military forces with the arms they need for the exceedingly difficult job we as a nation ask them to do. Iran will take notice. So will its allies, Russia and China. The Axis of Autocracies is taking America’s measure, and we must not be found wanting.
The Trump administration is working overtime to restore its posture of credible deterrence that collapsed under the mismanagement of the Biden administration. U.S. military action in Venezuela and Iran has thrown China off balance, perhaps deterring President Xi Jinping from his stated goal of seizing Taiwan by 2027.
But Xi and the People’s Liberation Army can do math. For years, America’s defense industrial base has atrophied. Even before Epic Fury, the U.S. faced a munitions shortage. A failure to resupply and refurbish American munitions and arms will only embolden China and deplete the strategic gains that have been won.
Congress must not let that happen. Iran has demonstrated, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it is a threat. U.S. resolve must not weaken. America’s men and women in arms must know that they’re supported in this crucial hour.
