Trump has spent years mocking foreign entanglements. Now, he has taken the United States to war with Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has led the United States into war with Iran despite decades of stated aversion to foreign involvement, particularly in the Middle East, and repeated pledges to focus primarily on the Western Hemisphere with an “America First” agenda.

Trump’s attribution for joining Israel in the attacks on Iranian leadership, military and critical infrastructure this weekend was that Iran poses imminent and unacceptable risks to the interests of the United States and its allies.

Similar arguments have been made following Trump’s action last month to remove former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power in a military strike.

However, even his closest advisors have been unable to point to any specific threat to the United States from Iran that requires urgent action. Trump had said that a previous strike on Iran had “wiped out” its nuclear capabilities, and the Defense Intelligence Agency said in a report last year that Iran may be 10 years away from possessing a missile that could reach the United States.

With senior Iranian government officials killed in the first hours of the attacks, the leadership vacuum in Tehran, coupled with deeply divided Iranian diaspora opposition groups, could drag the United States into the kind of protracted conflict that Trump has said he wants to avoid.

Less than two days after the start of Operation Epic Fury, US lawmakers, diplomats and Middle East experts have offered conflicting assessments of the road ahead.

One Middle Eastern diplomat said Arab countries were particularly disappointed that the United States and Israel chose to go ahead with the military option while diplomacy remained possible, and were also “deeply concerned” about potential escalation. “This is exactly what we did not want,” said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

The diplomat said that stopping the escalation is “extremely important” because the longer the strikes continue, “the worse it will become, not only for the region, but the whole world will feel it.”

Read more: The war expands in the Middle East, as Israeli and American planes bomb Iran and Tehran, and its agents respond

But Trump supporters disagreed.

“America First is not isolationism,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump ally who has long supported military action against Iran. “America First is not a head in the sand. America First is not involved. We will not have any boots on the ground in Iran. But America First is to kill people who wish us ill and have a record of trying to destroy us in the region, to keep them off the table.”

Graham and other Trump defenders say the president acts quickly when necessary and not before exhausting non-military options. They point to his order to eliminate the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard during his first term, the strikes he launched last June on several of Iran’s most important nuclear facilities, and the Maduro operation.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, predicted that Republican lawmakers and, more importantly, voters would support Trump despite their support for the president’s “America First” policy.

“I think you’ll see overwhelming support from elected Republicans in Congress, who are holding accountable to voters in places like Arkansas and states across the country when we return to the Capitol later this week,” Cotton said.

Although Trump has indicated a possible return to negotiations with Iran, Democrats who claim the war is illegal because it was not approved by Congress remain skeptical and point to the difference between Iran and Venezuela, where there has been a relatively smooth transition of power.

“I believe and fear that we are witnessing only the first shots of what may not be an internal or external conflict, but what could be a sustained war in the region,” said Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee. “And our record in continuing wars in the Middle East leaves something to be desired.”

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Md. One veteran said he wanted to see a strategy from the president. “My concern here, you know, is what’s happening now… I don’t want to see a broader conflict in the Middle East.”

Senator Tim Kaine, a leading voice pushing for a congressional vote on Trump’s action, added: “Have we learned nothing from 25 years of war in the Middle East? Have we learned nothing?”

Graham and Kelly spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Cotton and Warner spoke on CNN’s “State of the Union,” and Kaine spoke on “Fox News Sunday.”