Picking your battles
By Robert Dean
Carter County Times
When is the last time you asked a veteran if their time spent in Afghanistan was worth it? Most of the time, they’ll say no.
No one in America wants to go to war with Iran. Even the venom-fanged ghouls at Fox News have recently featured experts saying it’s probably a horrible idea. In a recent piece by the Washington Post, Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said “Any major operation against Iran … faces significant risks” — including depleted munitions supplies, weakened regional air defenses, and the potential for fierce retaliation that could lead to broader conflict.
Going into Iran feels like another quagmire, akin to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which did nothing but send American soldiers home in coffins while lining the pockets of the war machine. We spent billions of dollars that could have gone to feeding and sheltering our own people, but instead we left tanks, helicopters, and a broken country in our wake — only to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.
Iran, on the other hand, is a far more militarized nation, with real weapons and real allies, which creates an exponentially bigger problem.
If we wanted to take real, ethical military action, why aren’t we supporting the Mexican government in its fight against the cartels? The Trump administration claimed Venezuela was bringing in the drugs — which anyone with two working thoughts knows is a whopper. Meanwhile, down in our sister country, Mexican military and security forces launched an attack on Feb. 22, 2026, that killed Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, marking one of the government’s most significant blows yet against the cartels.
The strike triggered retaliation across multiple states — torched vehicles, road blockades, and dozens of casualties among security forces and cartel fighters. Mexican authorities, with intelligence support from a U.S.-led task force, aimed to disrupt the cartel’s network, though analysts warn the death of one leader may not significantly reduce overall violence or drug trafficking. All of these seem like perfectly legitimate reasons to confront a violent network, equating to real outcomes just across the border.
So why wouldn’t we put all our chips on this fight when it literally affects American lives? Iran means oil, and it pleases a regional ally (Israel), and everyone needs new bombs and uniforms — which feeds the beast. Instead, we keep our jails full — most run by private corporations who are reliable political donors — which only perpetuates the system. Going after the cartels means going after the drugs that poison Americans every single day.
If we really cared about sending more kids off to die in a rich man’s war, we should ask what that costs us. Have we learned nothing? Real violence is ripping through communities right now, spilling across our own border, destroying families caught up in fentanyl, meth, and cocaine — precisely the products these cartels funnel into American towns every day. We owe it to the veterans we’ve already sent into harm’s way, and to the communities still bleeding from cartel violence, to face a simple truth: if avoiding another Iraq or Afghanistan means taking the harder, more honest fight, that’s the fight we should be having.
Ask yourself: if endless wars in far-off lands have cost us lives and trillions while gaining us nothing in real security, why would we cheer another one against Iran — a country with real military capabilities, regional alliances, and no clear exit strategy? Fentanyl is killing Americans in towns you’ve actually heard of. The cartels aren’t theoretical. They’re not geopolitical chess pieces. They’re poisoning our neighborhoods. If we’re going to spend blood and money, spend it where it matters. Be a superpower at home.
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