Obama says U.S. is worse off after war with Iran

Barack Obama’s sharp assessment cuts to the question voters are likely to ask first: what, exactly, did the war with Iran accomplish? Donald Trump said the U.S. military began major combat operations in Iran on February 28, 2026, in a campaign later named Operation Epic Fury, with the White House saying the goal was to eliminate an imminent nuclear threat, destroy Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, degrade proxy terror networks, and cripple naval forces.

Obama said the United States seemed to have either returned to the status quo or was “worse off” than before the war began. He said the country had “fought a war,” spent “billions and billions of dollars,” and put “enormous strain” on the military, a blunt accounting that now hangs over the administration’s case for the operation.

The immediate strategic picture is more complicated than the White House’s original pitch. Trump said the strikes were meant to defend Americans and ensure Iran could never obtain a nuclear weapon, while the White House described the campaign as a response to 47 years of Iranian aggression and terrorism after exhaustive diplomatic efforts failed. Yet Iran retaliated after the attacks, with explosions and missile and drone launches reported in Israel and Gulf countries, underscoring how quickly the conflict widened beyond the original targets.

The United Nations condemned the U.S. and Israeli attacks and said the escalation undermined international peace and security. UN officials urged an immediate ceasefire and warned the conflict could lead to destruction on a potentially unimaginable scale, a warning that now frames the regional fallout as more than a tactical exchange. The war also deepened the domestic political split around the use of force, with top Republican lawmakers including Tom Cotton, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Dave McCormick, Rick Scott and Brian Mast backing the operation in White House material.

The White House also said some Iranian-Americans welcomed the campaign as a hopeful new dawn, an effort to show that the operation had support beyond the administration’s traditional base. But the wider record remains unsettled. If the measure is whether Washington is safer, more stable, and more credible after the fighting, Obama’s critique lands because the war produced major destruction, new retaliation, and a Middle East less settled than before the first strikes.