End It or Explain It

Susan Estrich
Fri, 27 Mar 2026 23:00:00 -0700
Opinion

The costs of this war are becoming, painfully, clearer and clearer. The Friday headlines of The New York Times capture part of the picture: "Global Food Supply Faces Dangerous Bottleneck in Strait of Hormuz (that's the skyrocketing price of fertilizer at work); "Diesel Is a Bigger Problem for Consumers Than Gasoline" (hitting everyone from brewers to trucking companies, who will pass those prices to consumers); "Oil Prices Continue to Climb, Despite Trump's Delaying Bombing Threat" (gas prices here in California go up before your very eyes at the gas station); and my favorite, "Where Might the Iran War Hit Your Wallet? Start with Raspberries" (raspberries, who knew?).

And those, of course, are only some of the costs. The stock market is tanking, and with it, 401(k)'s. The administration is asking Congress for $200 billion to fund a war it hasn't been asked to approve. Are we even allowed to wonder about what that kind of money could do for us at home?

Is it any wonder that recent polls show as much as 59% of the public opposing this war?
Updated: Sat Mar 28, 2026

The costs of this war are becoming, painfully, clearer and clearer. The Friday headlines of The New York Times capture part of the picture: "Global Food Supply Faces Dangerous Bottleneck in Strait of Hormuz (that's the skyrocketing price of fertilizer at work); "Diesel Is a Bigger Problem for Consumers Than Gasoline" (hitting everyone from brewers to trucking companies, who will pass those prices to consumers); "Oil Prices Continue to Climb, Despite Trump's Delaying Bombing Threat" (gas prices here in California go up before your very eyes at the gas station); and my favorite, "Where Might the Iran War Hit Your Wallet? Start with Raspberries" (raspberries, who knew?).

And those, of course, are only some of the costs. The stock market is tanking, and with it, 401(k)'s. The administration is asking Congress for $200 billion to fund a war it hasn't been asked to approve. Are we even allowed to wonder about what that kind of money could do for us at home?

Is it any wonder that recent polls show as much as 59% of the public opposing this war?

No one is more frustrated by this than my Iranian-American friends. They see the case for this war: Not only do they have friends and families who have suffered terribly, but they believe this Iranian regime is a threat to the region, to our allies and ultimately to us. Is it?

I have yet to hear that case made clearly by this administration.

What is the strategy? What was the plan for the Strait of Hormuz? Was there a plan? Was the threat from Iran imminent? What is their nuclear capacity? What would it take to "win" this war? What would winning look like?

We have heard so many conflicting explanations. Are we at war because Israel pushed us into it, which is no explanation at all? Are we persisting because the Saudis want us to, which is no better? If our boys and girls are risking their lives, our interests must be at stake. If we're paying the price, the benefit to us should be clear. It isn't.

There is a reason the founders delegated the war-making power to Congress, the most accountable branch of government, with most of its members standing for election every two years. Making the case to Congress for this war and justifying the kind of appropriation the administration is seeking might go a long way toward answering the questions that are being raised about this war. But so far, the Republican Congress is refusing to do its job, instead bowing to the administration's spin.

And, boy, are they spinning. Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth (when he's not too busy dinging women and minorities for promotions) must be dizzy as all hell. Has Iran's nuclear capacity been obliterated? Did we do that last time, this time, or not yet? Is the war ending soon? Are we making progress in peace talks, or does Iran have no interest in making peace? What are we supposed to make of these moving deadlines? A good sign or an ominous one?

President Donald Trump faces a major political problem. History teaches that you can't pursue a war for very long without public support. It's one thing when the opposition party, here the Democrats, raises questions: that's to be expected. But Trump faces as loud challenges to his war from inside the Republican party as he does from the opposition. It's not just that he's failed to explain his war to the likes of me; he hasn't justified it sufficiently for his own base. That leaves him with a very simple choice: End It, or Explain It. It's one or the other.