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The Case Against the War
The enemy always gets a say in war. (Ahmed Saad via Reuters)
Yes, it is possible to imagine Trump’s war against Iran going right, and every free and decent person should be rooting for that outcome. But it is all too easy to imagine all of it going wrong.
By Elliot Ackerman
03.02.26 — International
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When I fought in Iraq in 2004, one of my friends, another Marine lieutenant, carried a 20-year-old bloodstained field jacket in his pack the entire deployment. Our battalion—the 1st Battalion of the 8th Marine Regiment—carries the radio call sign “Beirut,” and this jacket belonged to Second Lieutenant Donald George Losey, who was killed along with 241 A…

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Elliot Ackerman
Elliot Ackerman is a New York Times best-selling author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels 2034, Waiting for Eden, and Dark at the Crossing, as well as the memoirs The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan and Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning. His books have been nominated for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in both fiction and nonfiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, among others. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic, a senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs, and a veteran of the Marine Corps and CIA special operations, having served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He divides his time between New York City and Washington, D.C.
Tags:
War
Donald Trump
Iran
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