Noureldein GhanemEarlier this week, when US Senator Lindsey Graham filed to run for a fifth term in South Carolina, he spoke at his campaign office about the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran — a topic unrelated to the state's local issues.
"We haven't underestimated Iran at all," said Graham, who has been priasing himself for dragging US into the war. "We're crushing them (Iranians)."
Ahead of formally launching his campaign to retain his Senate seat, he told Fox News that he is asking South Carolinians to "send their sons and daughters" to fight against Iran in the Middle East.
His rhetoric, though familiar, has drawn criticism from US veterans and activists who took exception to his remarks.
"Graham's comment about sending 'our boys and girls' to fight in West Asia prompted me to look if he has any grandchildren who would qualify. He does not," Mike Ferner, a former president of Veterans for Peace, told TRT World.
Veterans For Peace is a global network of veterans and allies, striving to end wars, highlight conflict costs, and aid veterans or victims worldwide.
"Would he send any of his many nieces and nephews should be the question put to him," Ferner added.
"The G.I.s who have already been killed and wounded in this epic catastrophe died in the service of oil companies and empire, as will any future casualties."
Graham has consistently backed US invasions and military conflicts since the early 2000s.
In 2003, he supported the US invasion of Iraq. In 2011, he supported strikes to remove Muammar Gaddafi from power in Libya. In 2012, he argued for the continuation of the war in Afghanistan.
On March 3 of this year, he threatened that Cuba would be next after Iran.
Philip Tottenham, a US veteran who was tortured by Israel after being seized from the Global Sumud Flotilla, says Graham is a "bought-and-paid-for rich" who wouldn't risk the lives of his children by sending them to the front lines.
"The United States' economy is propped up by the Military Industrial Complex, which packages its lies wrapped in nationalist pride and sold to the American people to our own detriment," Tottenham told TRT World.
"As for Lindsey Graham and the other War Criminals, the day we lock them up and hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity, is the day we start a new direction towards a world of peace, led and lived by unconditional love."
Tottenham reckons Graham's remarks might affect number of Americans who are concerned about getting drafted into combat, but won't sway those who've bought into his "falsehoods".
"The American Society is the most narcissistic one in the world — where apathy, individualism, capitalism fatigue and fear lead the way. We don’t want our own to die," Tottenham explains.
"Most Americans have more passion and anger for sports & rising gas prices, than they care about the suffering of others," he adds. "Our politicians are just a reflection of that."
Graham's interventionist comments have been condemned not only by US veterans but also by anti-war activists.
Kathy Kelly, president of World Beyond War, says Graham should look up the number of veterans who commit suicide every day because of wars.
World Beyond War bills itself as "a global non-violent movement to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace."
"Regarding the rate of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder suicide and SIMs (Self Inflicted Mortality among Former Service Members (FSMs), the Veterans Administration says the first is 17.6 per day and the second is 26 per day," Kelly told TRT World.
"Some 80% of the latter are drug overdoses. That makes 44 every day."
According to statistics, veterans face a 58 percent higher chance of suicide than those who didn't serve.
"I wonder what Lindsey Graham would think about initiating new draft laws that would start by conscripting people age 40 and up," Kelly says.
"Why should young people be compelled to loan their lives to kill or possibly be killed in a war of choice?"
Activists and veterans opposing a US-Israeli war on Iran received a further boost to their cause when Joseph Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned from his position in protest against the potential war.
Kent stated in a widely circulated letter on Tuesday that he "cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran" and claimed that US was forced to enter the war due to intense pressure from Israel and pro-Israeli American lobbies.
Kelly says that Kent's resignation "will help raise questions about why the US complied with Israel's aims to destroy Iran."
"I hope his letter of resignation will be carefully read and that more resignations will follow," she says.
The war on Iran has been largely unpopular among Americans from both sides of the spectrum since the US launched joint attacks with Israel on the country.
According to polls, only 33 percent of Americans support the war on Iran. 56 percent of Americans oppose it, with 61 percent wanting the conflict to end quickly.
This pales in comparison to other wars US initiated, most notably Iraq, which saw up to 76 percent support from Americans in 2003.
But now, even Iraq veterans are opposing the war on Iran.
Paul Reickhoff, an Iraq veteran and political commentator, criticised Graham's remarks on the Iran war, saying he is "bad for America."
"Lindsey Graham is a spectacular, raging, aggressive, violent, hot mess, and he is bad for America," said Reickhoff.
Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a retired USAF major, also criticised Graham over his pro-war comments.
"He does NOT tell the President what to do, nor does he control Congress," she said on X. "If Senator Graham wants to go fight in a foreign conflict, let him be the first to volunteer."
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that he ordered the attack on Iran alongside Israel on February 28 due to an "imminent threat."
However, Tulsi Gabbard, his ally and Director of National Intelligence — who, as a Democratic congresswoman, had been an outspoken opponent of war with Iran — told US Senators on Wednesday that Iran was not rebuilding nuclear enrichment capacities destroyed last year by the US and Israel, contradicting a key justification by Trump for his ongoing war.
The UN nuclear watchdog and most observers haven't supported claims of Iran imminently developing a nuclear bomb during deal negotiations.
Gabbard, during the senate hearing, asserted that it is not the responsibility of US spy agencies to determine "what is and is not an imminent threat" to the United States, adding only the president can determine if a nation poses an "imminent threat".
