With the U.S. and Iran having agreed to a memorandum of understanding that would end nearly four months of war, Justin Logan at the Cato Institute offers the following statement:

“This war should never have happened. Iran was not two weeks from a nuclear weapon, as President Trump claimed it was. If the memorandum of understanding holds, it opens the prospect for a new negotiated agreement to take the prospect of a nuclear Iran off the table for a generation. That such an agreement was likely achievable without the war shows how unnecessary it was. Americans have suffered billions of dollars in economic damage, 13 deaths and hundreds of service members wounded—and many people in the Middle East have been killed—because of a war without any justification. One hopes the administration has learned to seek better counsel on Middle East policy than it has received in recent months.”

Katherine Thompson also provided this statement:

“An expeditious and peaceful end to the war in Iran is squarely in the best interests of the United States. Launching the war in the first place deviated from the well-composed strategic vision of the Trump administration which prided itself on prioritization and avoiding the follies of foolish interventions past. Prolonging U.S. military engagement in Iran, as we’ve seen over the last four months, distracts from higher-priority interests, exacerbates significant stress on scarce U.S. munitions stockpiles, and causes economic pain which hits American pockets here at home.

If the agreement on the table holds, the Trump administration should zero back in on its own strategic guidance and ensure it does not fall further astray to distraction in its final two years.”

If you’d like to speak with Logan or Thompson, please contact Madison: mmiller@​cato.​org.