WASHINGTON — The war between the U.S. and Iran is on course to escalate as more American warplanes arrive in the Middle East and U.S. airstrikes pound the nation, threatening to spin into an open-ended military conflict without a clear endgame.
In early assessments of the war, top U.S. military leaders and members of Congress said the fighting will grow more intense and violent as Iran and its proxy terrorist groups trade blows with U.S. and Israeli forces.
“The amount of firepower coming from us in the next day or two is going to be overwhelming,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the hawkish South Carolina Republican, after a classified all-senators briefing. “The demise of this regime is at hand.”
The House is scheduled to vote Thursday on a resolution to remove U.S. forces from hostilities against Iran except when defending itself against an “imminent” attack. Reps. Donald Norcross (D-1st) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th) are co-sponsors of the bill, which most Democrats are expected to support.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th) said a central goal in the war should be preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. “No nuclear weapons, and I think they have them,” Smith said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. Smith said the Trump administration did not need to ask for congressional approval to strike Iran. “I think the element of surprise means fewer casualties on our part.”
The Senate on Wednesday voted down a resolution to halt the war. Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), a co-sponsor of the resolution, and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) voted for the measure.
Central in debate over the war are questions of legality, scope, length, justification and plan for the fighting. Looming over talks of a new war in the Middle East is the spectre of the Iraq War, which spanned the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and after U.S. troops invaded and quickly toppled the capital city of Baghdad, became a military quagmire and a political liability for politicians who voted to authorize it.
The Trump administration and Republican allies on Capitol Hill have struggled to articulate a clear reason why the U.S. had to attack Iran.
President Donald Trump and his military advisors have said the campaign against Iran will last four to five weeks, while top advisors, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have said Iran “cannot outlast” the American military. The administration has also not ruled out deploying troops to Iran.
“We are just getting started,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday. “We are accelerating, not decelerating.”
Hegseth along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe briefed members in classified settings Tuesday evening.
“They did talk about some strategies,” Norcross said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “It fell far short of what I need to know before committing our troops to a long-term war.”
The war has scrambled air flights, triggering an exodus of U.S. citizens. New Jersey lawmakers said their offices were flooded with calls about people struck in the region.
After the briefing, Kim said he worried U.S. forces could deplete their stockpile of “interceptors” — missiles fired to block incoming missiles — depending on how many missiles Iran fires at American troops and allies.
For decades, the theocratic regime in Tehran has been a menace to its nation’s citizens and U.S. interests.
In December 2025 and into January, the Iranian government slaughtered scores of its own people in a ruthless crackdown against dissent. Death tolls range from a few thousand to more than 35,000.
“They are a problem that needs to be addressed,” Norcross said of the political leadership in Iran. “The question is: Is now the right time?” he asked. “And is it the right strategy?”
Menendez walked away without more detail than what the public knows.
“I didn’t find any additional clarity,” Menendez said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. Republicans, he said, used their “time to congratulate the administration on the action.” Both parties split the time for questions inside the briefing doors.
Menendez encouraged New Jerseyans marooned abroad to enroll in the State Department’s “STEP” program. The more people who enroll, the better sense the department can develop of how many U.S. citizens are stuck in the region.
“The State Department needs to know what the universe is,” he said before providing a general timeline to what was discussed secretly. Much of the briefing, he said, focused on what happened before Trump green-lit the air strikes.
“The framework of the conversation was about everything that predated the decision, and then from the time the decision was made by the president to present day,” Menendez said.
In his first year in office, Trump sought an 84% cut of the State Department, including the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The administration’s goals cannot be met with might alone, said Kim, a former USAID staffer.
“These are not achievable solely just through military means,” Kim told reporters steps from the Senate briefing room. “The fact that Hegseth continually says that they’re not going to rule out boots on the ground is just another reason why this approval was needed from congress.”
Upon exiting the secure room on the Senate side of the Capitol complex, Booker said the administration briefers provided little clarity.
“They offered no clear endgame to this conflict,” Booker said. “We got nothing that even approached a justifiable reason for the president to commit an act of war by attacking another nation.”
On Monday, Trump said the U.S. attacked Iran because it was nearing the capacity to hit the U.S. with intercontinental missiles. That cut against Rubio’s explanation: that Israel was about to strike Iran, and an Iranian counterattack would place the U.S. at risk, so the U.S. hit first.
Also on Monday, the State Department urged U.S. citizens in 14 countries in the Middle East to leave immediately via “available commercial transportation” without providing clear guidance.
Kim, a former military advisor during the Obama administration, said up to 1 million Americans could be in danger due to the war.
