Opinion > Opinions - White House The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill Trump’s warmongering in Iran will not make America secure again by William S. Becker, opinion contributor - 03/13/26 11:00 AM ET by William S. Becker, opinion contributor - 03/13/26 11:00 AM ET Share ✕ LinkedIn LinkedIn Email Email Getty Images TOPSHOT – US President Donald Trump addresses the nation, alongside US Vice President JD Vance (L), US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (2nd R) and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (R), from the White House in Washington, DC on June 21, 2025, following the announcement that the US bombed nuclear sites in Iran. President Donald Trump said June 21, 2025 the US military has carried out a “very successful attack” on three Iranian nuclear sites, including the underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordo. “We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. (Photo by CARLOS BARRIA / POOL / AFP) (Photo by CARLOS BARRIA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) President Trump promised to avoid “forever wars.” It remains to be seen whether the new conflict in Iran will become one .  However, there’s not much difference between forever wars and the continuous wars Trump has conducted in his second term. He has already used military force against Venezuela , the Caribbean , Nigeria , Somalia , Yemen , Syria  and Iraq , as well as Iran. Congress did not authorize any of it. Of course, the U.S. was a bellicose nation long before Trump. The country has been at war for approximately 93 percent  of its 250-year history. However, Trump is making current and future wars much more likely. Global climate change, for example, is one of the biggest modern threats to global stability. Military and intelligence officials have warned for years that it is a critical national security issue. Trump ignores it.  The Obama administration secured an agreement with Iran to slow down its nuclear-weapons program. Trump trashed the agreement . The current war is his second attempt  in the last year to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. But war is not a nonproliferation strategy. Trump is making things worse. He allowed the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with Russia to lapse last month. His fickle behavior toward the NATO alliance has shaken allies’ faith  that America’s “nuclear umbrella” will continue to protect them. The world is teetering on the precipice of widespread nuclear proliferation . China and North Korea are increasing their nuclear arsenals, while Russia and the U.S. are modernizing theirs. Arms control experts say Australia, Japan, South Korea, Poland and some countries in Western Europe wonder whether they need their own arsenals. This year, for the first time, U.S. military spending will exceed $1 trillion . That’s more than the combined military budgets  of the next nine highest countries. Trump wants to spend $1.5 trillion on a “Dream Military” next fiscal year. With his military buildup, massive cutbacks in foreign aid and emaciation of the diplomatic corps , Trump has turned America’s plowshares into swords. He casually talks about acquiring Greenland by force, taking over Cuba, sending the military to Mexico, and intervening in Colombia . Yet history shows that the size of its armies and arsenals is no guarantee that America will win or prevent wars. World War II was the last time the U.S. won an officially declared war. Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan ended in stalemates, proving that size doesn’t always matter in asymmetric conflicts. Meantime, as we spend billions of dollars on war, the U.S. owes the United Nations nearly $4 billion  in unpaid dues, contributing to a financial crisis in the organization. Trump decided he wants his own U.N., so he created a pay-to-play international “Board of Peace” whose 28 member countries have all been cited by the State Department for human rights abuses . Trump has apparently learned nothing from America’s fraught involvements in the Middle East. The region can disrupt the U.S. economy by manipulating the world’s oil supplies. Nine of the 10 economic recessions  since the end of World War II were preceded by oil problems. Arab countries caused the historic 1973 oil crisis to punish America  for supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The Iranian revolution  caused the 1978 oil crisis.    The CIA warned as early as 1979  that the Strait of Hormuz was “a matter of increasing concern” because Iran could shut it down