CONGRESSMAN BAUMGARTNER AND ALL THE CANDIDATES OWE A THOUGHTFUL AND INFORMED OPINION TO THE VOTERS REGARDING THE IRAN WAR.

While I'm deeply concerned about the nation's leadership's decision to go to war in Iran - I have great confidence in our soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen who are deployed to execute their missions.

I served two tours in Afghanistan to include leading a SOT-A on the ground with 19th SFG, and two years in Iraq where my second year was as the United States Forces-Iraq Liaison Officer to the Political Section of the US Embassy in Baghdad. Rest assured that I have been on the business end of Iran's exported terror and arms and have no soft spots for the Ayatollah nor the Council of Experts nor their fanatical Quds Force and military. They are not missed.

But from Sun Tse to VonClausewitz the objective of all wars is always to achieve political ends and our president, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense don't have a clue what those political ends are. That's not opinion - that is a fact because it changes every other day. THAT is why Vietnam and Iraq were such fiascos. We are not talking about mission creep - we are talking about a vibes-based war with an impossible mission:
REGIME CHANGE WITHOUT SENDING IN TROOPS IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Iran is 3 times the size of Iraq. Iran has twice the population of Iraq. the IEDs and EFPs and the expertise in terrorist tactics were all Iranian exports and now this more homogeneous and infinitely better educated population sees us at the enemy.

No matter how much they hate their government - rest assured that the Iranian people hate us and the Israelis infinitely MORE. If you thought the Iraq War was a bad idea - a ground invasion of Iran will take 500,000 troops to gain control of the country and occupy it. And that occupation will take decades.

Congressman Baumgartner has a decision to make. He has voted 100% of the time with Speaker Mike Johnson in an effort to curry favor and promote himself in the GOP House Leadership. Johnson has said that we are fighting a Holy War. Does Mr. Baumgartner support a modern day Crusade?