These lawmakers were shaped by combat after 9/11. Now they're grappling
with a new Mideast war
[March 10, 2026]
By STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Congress responds to President Donald Trump's
attack on Iran, lawmakers who served on the front lines of Iraq and
Afghanistan are making their voices heard in a war debate that has taken
on intensely personal meaning.
Many admit mixed feelings, taking satisfaction in seeing vengeance taken
on the leadership of an Iranian regime that has targeted U.S. service
members for decades, yet fearful that another generation of soldiers
could soon face the same combat experiences that they did.
“Do I take gratification? You know there’s the Marine side of me: Yeah,
of course,” said Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego, whose company
suffered some of the heaviest losses on the U.S. side during the Iraq
War. “I know they killed a lot of American soldiers, American Marines.
But do I also understand that I have a responsibility not to let my lust
for revenge drive my country into another war?”
Experiences in the post 9/11 wars are also coloring the decisions of the
Trump administration, given that top officials, including Vice President
JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, were once deployed to Iraq.
Gallego, like others on Capitol Hill, leaned heavily on his firsthand
experience of fighting in the wars after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as
he assessed the Iran conflict. Lawmakers wore bracelets etched with the
names of friends killed in battle, told stories of coming under attack
from Iran-backed militant groups and reflected on their own
life-changing injuries suffered during combat.
Veteran lawmakers are wary of war
While the initial votes on Iran saw Congress divide mostly along party
lines, with Republicans backing Trump's actions and Democrats warning of
an extended conflict, veterans in both parties share deep reservations
about entering the conflict.
“As somebody who knows a lot of friends that didn’t come home and a lot
of Gold Star families, that’s why the week before the attack, I was
actually one of the ones that was talking about caution and why we
needed to avoid at all costs getting into another long, drawn-out Middle
Eastern war,” said Republican Rep. Eli Crane of Arizona, a former Navy
SEAL who left college to enlist the week after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Crane said his concerns were partially assuaged by briefings from the
Trump administration that indicated to him the president is not planning
a drawn-out war. He voted against a war powers resolution that would
have halted attacks on Iran unless Trump got congressional approval.
But Crane said wars are never straightforward. “I’ve been on military
operations that did not go to plan many times, and so I understand the
nature,” he said, adding that he was calling for the Trump
administration to approach the conflict with “humility and caution.”
Gallego and other Democrats worried that it was too late for that
approach. They paid tribute to the six U.S. military members who were
killed in a drone strike in Kuwait and worried that there could soon be
more American casualties. A seventh service member died on Sunday from
wounds suffered during a March 1 attack in Saudi Arabia.
“War is dirty, and mistakes happen,” Gallego said. The longer the
conflict drags on, he added, the greater the chance there will be for
U.S. military members to be killed. He experienced that firsthand in
Iraq when friends would be killed by seemingly random shots from enemy
combatants.
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Sen. Ruben Gallego D-Ariz., speaks during the "People's State of the
Union" rally outside of the U.S. Capitol Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Still, many Republicans argued that it was necessary to attack Iran
to stop a regime that for decades has helped train and arm militant
groups throughout the Middle East. Republican Rep. Brian Mast, who
chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, led the debate on the
House floor against the war powers resolution.
Mast, who served as an Army bomb disposal expert, now uses
prosthetic legs after receiving catastrophic injuries from an
improvised explosive device in Afghanistan. “Me especially, many of
my other colleagues, no one wants to see our military go into combat
or war,” he said.
Then he added, “But Iran’s terror, which has caused the deaths of
thousands of Americans, it has to stop.”
Trying to push soldiers to forefront of war debate
Important questions loom for Congress as the conflict with Iran
unfolds and spreads to other parts of the Middle East. The price of
the operation is already likely running into the billions of
dollars, likely forcing the Trump administration to soon seek
billions in funding from Congress. The outbreak of war has also
scrambled global alliances and the future of U.S. foreign policy.
Shadowing it all is the potential of another drawn-out conflict.
Lawmakers said they owe it to their fallen comrades to ensure that
doesn't happen.
“To me, it’s to speak out. It’s to say another generation should not
go fight in an open-ended, ill-conceived regime change war in the
Middle East,” said Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan, his hand moving to a
bracelet etched with the names of friends who were killed during his
two Army combat tours in Iraq.
Others remembered how frustrated they became with Washington during
their service, especially as soldiers tried to fight with
insufficiently armored vehicles and not enough troops.
“I know what it was like to be on the very end of the receiving line
of the decisions made in Washington,” said Democratic Rep. Jason
Crow, who entered the Army as a private before being promoted to a
captain and deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Crow said that front-line soldiers often suffered “because people
stopped asking tough questions. People stopped being held
accountable. Congress stopped voting on it.”
Another veteran, Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, said
that was one of the reasons she sought a congressional seat in the
first place. As a Blackhawk helicopter pilot with the Illinois
National Guard, Duckworth lost her legs when her helicopter was hit
by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq.
“I ran for Congress so that when the drums of war started beating
once again, I’d be in a position to make sure that our elected
officials fully considered the true cost of the war,” she said. “Not
just in dollars and cents but in human lives.”
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