By Bridge2Blue
No sooner had Donald Trump unleashed his ill-planned bombing raids on Iran than Rep. Jen Kiggans (R–VA02) chimed in with her usual unquestioning and enthusiastic support for the White House. To wit, on her Twitter/X account, she wrote: “Threats to the safety and security of the American people and the free world will be met with strength and resolve….we will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran.”
Let’s break down Kiggans’ rah-rah statement to see if it holds water.
First, does Trump’s action show “strength,” as Kiggans claims, or is it merely impulsiveness? For his part, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said:
“I am totally unsure about what our country’s goal is in this potential war. There was no immediate threat to our country. So I believe the president has made a war of choice where he’s putting our troops in harm’s way.”
And, Warner added, Trump owes the American people and service members “a clear legal justification, a defined end state, and a plan that avoids dragging the United States into yet another costly and unnecessary war.”
Second, will these attacks really ensure the safety and security of Americans, as Kiggans seems to believe? Trump’s pretext for attacking was to destroy the Iranian nuclear program. But in an exclusive interview with Bridge2Blue, Middle East scholar and former U.S. diplomat Joanne Cummings said: “The people responsible for monitoring these things say there is no indication that Iran is anywhere near being able to deploy nuclear missiles. There is no validity to this accusation, which has been disproven many times.”
In a private briefing on March 11, described by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the Trump administration revealed that “the war goals do not involve destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” adding that this was surprising “since Trump says over and over this is a key goal.”
In fact, the attacks jeopardized the personal safety of thousands of Americans in the Middle East and the Gulf. Tourists were forced to scramble to find their own transportation home because no evacuation plans had been made. As for American residents—such as business people and other professionals—Cummings, an adjunct professor at Baylor University, said, “If our priority is to protect Americans, we’ve just put 1 million Americans who live in the region at risk—business people, academics—with no advance planning.” She added that one reason there has been no advance planning is the staff cuts carried out through Trump’s and Musk’s DOGE disaster.
Here in Rep. Jen Kiggans’ own Virginia Beach-based district, with its large military community, the lack of a long-term strategy is especially alarming. Recently, Senator Warner told reporters that this conflict was a “war of choice” by President Trump, dding:
“We know those sailors will do their duty. My job is to make sure they get answers about why their loved ones are in harm’s way…I’m going to be down in Hampton Roads…I don’t have a full answer for them.”
What about America’s economic security over the longer term? On that front, we’ve already seen the average price of gasoline at the pump shoot up by at least 27 cents a gallon. But that’s just the beginning; with oil tankers unable to safely pass through the Straits of Hormuz, the price of fuel for jets and cargo ships is soaring, affecting every product they carry.
Senator Murphy, after the March 11 briefing, said Trump has “no plan” to safely open the Strait of Hormuz—the sea passage Iran has effectively closed—which is currently halting the flow of oil out of the Gulf states and driving up prices of goods and services globally.
The bottom line is that Trump’s foray into war is backed by no strategy or plan. It jeopardizes the economic security of America as a nation and the personal safety of American service members. Yet—as she’s often done before—Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA02) was quick to cheer for Donald Trump, without considering her foremost responsibility: keeping Virginians safe and secure. For that reason, and many others, Kiggans doesn’t deserve reelection in November.
