A war hawk senator’s “unacceptable and dark” default response to the operation in the Middle East found him taking friendly fire with a refresher on human cost during World War II.
Ahead of an ultimatum deadline issued by President Donald Trump regarding the Strait of Hormuz, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) was featured once more, seemingly salivating over the chance to ramp up the military-industrial complex. However, referencing the ends without the means in bringing up Iwo Jima drew sharp criticism from fellow Republicans as the senator was called out for treating American troops like “expendable cattle.”
During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Graham was challenged by Fox News host Shannon Bream about a piece in The Atlantic predicting the cost should the U.S. take further military action against Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. While the senator bristled at “armchair quarterbacking,” Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R) was among those appalled at his apparent callous view on the lives of service members.
“I am deeply upset at the lack of respect for life Senator Lindsey Graham is displaying when talking about our troops,” wrote the lawmaker on X while sharing the clip. “He is acting as if they are expendable cattle. This is unacceptable and dark. There were over 26,000 American casualties at Iwo Jima.”
I am deeply upset at the lack of respect for life Senator Lindsey Graham is displaying when talking about our troops. He is acting as if they are expendable cattle. This is unacceptable and dark. There were over 26,000 American casualties at Iwo Jima. pic.twitter.com/EWMaVtOWX3
— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) March 22, 2026
Bream referenced Brynn Tannehill’s piece in The Atlantic that read in part, “U.S. troops may well take Kharg Island, only to endure ballistic-missile strikes, drone attacks, and petrochemical smoke, all without a reliable means of obtaining logistical support. The result could be a grinding war of attrition that more closely resembles the battle space in Ukraine than it does the ‘shock and awe’-style campaigns that Americans are used to.”
In response, Graham said, “I’m sort of tired of all this armchair quarterbacking. This has been an amazing military operation. God bless the fallen.”
“But, it’s a difference when we talk about troops on the ground,” contended the host as her guest continued, “I trust the Marines, not that guy. I trust [the Department of War]. We’ve got two Marine expeditionary units sailing to this island. We did Iwo Jima; we can do this. The Marines, my money’s always on the Marines.”
“I don’t know if you take the island or you blockade the island, but I know this: The day we control that island, this regime, this terrorist regime, has been weakened and it will die on a vine,” argued the senator.
Graham also spoke to the October 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas against Israel and the impact that it had on peace efforts between the Jewish State and Saudi Arabia. “I want to take up and complete what [President Joe] Biden started. As soon as we get Iran defanged so they can never do another October 7th, I want to start up peace talks between Saudi Arabia and Israel. This year, I want a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel normalizing — ending the Arab-Israeli conflict — that has been going on for 2,000 years this year. And you can’t do it with a lethal Iran.”
Despite spinning an escalation in American military action as a broader push for regional peace, the senator was further criticized from his own side of the aisle, including from the lawmaker aiming to be Graham’s governor, South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace.
“Lindsey Graham needs to be removed from the Situation Room. I don’t want to hear one word from a guy with no kids, desperately sending our sons and daughters into war on the ground in Iran,” wrote the first woman graduate of The Citadel on Sunday before later adding, “Lindsey Graham has one foreign policy: send someone else’s kids to war. He was wrong about Iraq. He was wrong about Afghanistan. Now he’s wrong about Iran.”
Lindsey Graham needs to be removed from the Situation Room.
I don’t want to hear one word from a guy with no kids, desperately sending our sons and daughters into war on the ground in Iran.
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) March 22, 2026
Lindsey Graham has one foreign policy: send someone else’s kids to war.
He was wrong about Iraq.
He was wrong about Afghanistan.
Now he’s wrong about Iran.— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) March 22, 2026
Likewise, as others added their own condemnation for the senator’s typical favor for war, Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett presented another eye-opening fact check on Iwo Jima, reminding, “We lost 7000 Marines and 20,000 were wounded.”
We lost 7000 Marines and 20,000 were wounded. https://t.co/41mBBKGicK
— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) March 22, 2026
Today Lindsey Graham, who for some reason has been the White House’s top spokesman for this war, went on TV and invoked Iwo Jima while calling for more escalation in Iran. Iwo Jima of course involved 26 thousand US casualties. It’s extremely troubling that Graham has so much…
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) March 22, 2026
There is never a war this man isn’t for… because he has never had to be the one to fight it. Obviously, our military goes where their commander and chief and their country tells them to, but one would hope the leaders making those decisions appreciate the cost and the…
— Lifeabundantly (@Lifeabundantly5) March 23, 2026
People like this will sit in their multi-million dollar houses after decades in Congress and the Senate, having delivered nothing of substance for their future generations, and be gleeful at the loss of life and forever wars overseas because it helps their benefactors at the…
— Jeremy (@Jeremy_) March 22, 2026
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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