Why Rubio, a Gen X secretary of state, is our best hope in the Iran conflict
Three years after America went to war with Iraq, I began graduate school studying Middle Eastern politics and working as research assistant on a faculty book on the Iraq war — a conflict that left an indelible mark on American foreign policy and a generation of Americans, including me.
America is engaging militarily in the Middle East again. But unlike in 2003, this moment is being shaped by Generation X. And Gen X remembers how the Iraq War damaged America's credibility abroad and trust at home.
Americans are wary of being pulled into another war in the Middle East. A YouGov poll this month shows only 16% of Americans support U.S. military involvement in the conflict between Israel and Iran. Yet a Harris-Harvard poll a week or so earlier found 85% of Americans don't want Iran to get or develop a nuclear weapon. Americans want Iran's nuclear capabilities eliminated, but not if it means another costly, drawn-out war like Iraq.
There's only one voice in the president's ear right now with a generational perspective that could steady an impulsive administration: Secretary of State and acting National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, a former U.S. senator from Florida.
Rubio is a traditional foreign policy realist, a classical conservative surrounded by other advisors who range from isolationist to those skeptical of military intervention. His worldview was not shaped by Vietnam, like former Secretary of State Colin Powell's, but by the failures of Iraq. And that matters.
Rubio has seen the cost of open-ended military endeavors in the Middle East and the difference between swift action with clear objectives and a mission creep that turned Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan into America's longest conflict.
The generational contrast is real. When Powell addressed the United Nations Security Council in February 2003, he made the case for the U.S. invasion of Iraq based on what turned out to be bad intelligence. A month later, we invaded Iraq, without an exit strategy and a lack of cultural understanding — believing we could instill democracy in a country through force. In the end, the result was thousands of American lives lost, trillions of dollars spent and extremist organizations filling the power vacuum throughout the region.
Saturday's actions were different. U.S. troops weren't deployed, and the objective was clear: neutralize Iran's nuclear capabilities, not overthrow the government. On CBS News' Face the Nation on Sunday, Rubio said, 'We have achieved our objectives. We're ready to negotiate this in a peaceful, diplomatic way.' His comments signal a narrow focus that was largely absent when we invaded Iraq in 2003.
The real test is how America — and Rubio — handles what comes next. Can Rubio limit mission creep? And will he know when the mission is accomplished?
There are two important points that will help give Rubio room to act with restraint: There's no talk of putting troops on the ground so far. And Rubio knows there is an America First isolationism element rising in the GOP.
We can't let the nightmares of Iraq paralyze us when action is necessary. Americans are understandably anxious. But this time, we have a chance to do things differently — and better. If Rubio can guide the administration with moral clarity and principled diplomacy, history will remember him not only as the first Gen X secretary of state, but also as the one who got it right when it mattered.
Mary Anna Mancuso is a member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. Her email: mmancuso@miamiherald.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
20 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Indian businesses in SoCal brace for 25% tariff hike: ‘More expensive to do business day by day'
A jar of pickled mango, a popular Indian condiment, costs $2.99 at Pioneer Cash & Carry in Artesia. But that price won't hold for long. The grocery store, nestled in the heart of Artesia's Little India, has to raise prices to keep up with its rising costs in light of President Trump's trade policy with India. Beginning Friday, there will be a 25% tariff on Indian goods. Because the two nations could not reach an agreement before Trump's deadline, the president signed an executive order Thursday night authorizing the tariffs for goods from India and several other countries to start in seven days. Several businesses that rely on imported Indian goods in the Los Angeles area told The Times they would have to raise prices to maintain operations with the steep tariff. Business owners expressed anxiety over not knowing what the next couple of weeks or months will look like for their bottom lines. Devraj Keray, the owner of Pioneer Cash & Carry, said some vendors already notified him that prices will go up 25% effective Monday. The business, which is one of the largest Indian grocery stores in California, will have to raise prices on imported Indian products. 'We'll have to pass that on to the consumer,' he said. 'There's not really any way around that.' The grocery store, which has two locations in Artesia, has been owned and operated by family since 1982. Keray said he anticipates customers will buy less, but they'll still need basic grocery items. 'People will cut back, so we'll feel a bit of a pinch,' he said. 'It's getting more and more expensive to do business day by day. It's not going to be easy for the smaller guys.' Artesia's Little India area is a cultural hub for the community, and it's one of the largest Indian enclaves in Southern California. Artesia City Councilmember Zeel Ahir said the strip of businesses along Pioneer Boulevard is the 'heart and soul' of the area for Indians. 'It provides a sense of warmth and a homely feeling to know that the goods that were available in India for some immigrants are available here as well,' said Ahir, who has lived in the area for all her life. India 'is our friend,' Trump said on his Truth Social platform announcing the taxes, but its tariffs on U.S. products 'are far too high.' Trump's announcement of a 25% tariff on Indian goods on Wednesday came after a universal baseline tariff of 10% on imports from all foreign countries has already been in place for months. Indian goods exports to the U.S. totaled more than $87 billion in 2024, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The trade deficit with India was $45.7 billion last year, up more than 5% from 2023. Pharmaceuticals, jewelry, textiles, spices and food products are among the common imports. The Trump administration maintains that tariffs will 'strengthen the international economic position' of the United States and protect American workers. In addition to the 25% tariff on its products exported to the U.S., India is also facing an unspecified penalty for buying Russian oil. 'I don't care what India does with Russia,' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday. 'They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care.' Negotiations between the two countries continue, but local businesses are still scrambling to cope with the change in operations. Beyond Artesia, which is in southeast Los Angeles County, the city of Los Angeles has several Indian grocery stores, apparel stores and other businesses that depend on Indian imports. Dalbir Singh Ghotra, the owner of Kavita Grocery in the Palms neighborhood, said the tariff would 'spell disaster for small businesses like us.' After running the grocery store for the past three decades and keeping doors open through tough economic periods, Ghotra said he's already seen sales drop recently as customers have tightened their belts amid growing economic uncertainty. Just down the road at Bollywood Styles, a clothing and accessory store, owner Sneh Prasad said recent sales have dipped to the lowest levels she's recorded in roughly 18 years, she said. With the vast majority of her inventory imported from India, Prasad is concerned about what lies ahead. 'Businesses have already become harder for mom-and-pop stores like us,' she said. 'If the import prices go up, I do not know how we will survive since sales may fall drastically.' Many business owners said they have already seen foot traffic and sales slow down this summer. Some believe the downturn could be because customers are afraid of possible immigration raids targeting businesses that attract primarily immigrant customers. 'Ninety-nine percent of our customer base is Asian, from the Indian subcontinent, and [some] are not sure if they would even be able to live here,' said Krutika Pranav, the manager at Highglow Jewelers in Artesia. 'All of that adds to the fear, and we've seen a tremendous slowdown because of that. The tariffs will make it even worse.' Prashant 'Peter' Patel, the president of the Indian American Business Assn. and Chamber, which is based in Florida but has ties to small businesses across the country, said Indian business leaders have a general sense of anxiety. He remains hopeful that the two countries' leaders will reach a resolution soon. 'This is the time for diplomacy and pragmatism,' he said. 'Our goal is not to politicize this issue, but to represent the voice of those working hard every day to grow businesses that serve, employ and uplift communities.' Others were not as optimistic. 'It's like a chess game, to see who makes the first move,' said Keray, the owner of Pioneer Cash & Carry. 'It's just a matter of how far it goes before the consumer is the one that becomes a victim of all this.'
The Intercept
20 minutes ago
- The Intercept
Guess Who's Eligible for Student Loan Forgiveness: New ICE Agents
As President Donald Trump plots to halt student loan forgiveness for many government and nonprofit workers, his administration is offering a special type of debt relief to one category of workers: new ICE agents. The Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday it will offer student loan forgiveness and repayment options to new Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruits — along with a $50,000 signing bonus. The announcement comes as the Trump administration works to limit the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for groups the president considers political enemies. Since 2007, borrowers employed by the government or nonprofit organizations serving a wide range of public interest causes have been eligible for forgiveness through PSLF. But in July, the Department of Education took a major step in altering the program's rules to exclude certain employers in accordance with Trump's executive order 'Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness,' which claims the loan forgiveness 'has misdirected tax dollars into activist organizations that not only fail to serve the public interest, but actually harm our national security and American values, sometimes through criminal means.' Under the revised rules, nonprofits that help transgender youth access gender-affirming care and attorneys who provide legal assistance to undocumented immigrants, among others, might no longer qualify, according to the press release from the Department of Education. Final language has yet to be published; before it takes effect, there will be an opportunity for public comment. Experts in higher education and student debt told The Intercept that the administration is deploying the financial aid system as a tool to advance its political agenda, punish perceived enemies, and reward allies. 'This just shows the lengths that the Trump administration will go to to weaponize Public Service Loan Forgiveness and debt more broadly to achieve their fascist objectives,' said Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel at the Student Borrower Protection Center. Over the last few years, Republicans have fought to limit student debt relief for borrowers. Last year, Republican attorneys general successfully lobbied the Supreme Court to pause the SAVE Plan, an income-based repayment plan implemented by the Biden administration that allowed borrowers to make smaller monthly payments and achieve debt relief within a shorter time frame. The Big, Beautiful, Bill signed by Trump in July eliminates the SAVE Plan as of July 1, 2028, and replaces it with significantly less generous repayment options for student loans. 'We're going to see a wave of defaults happening, and we're going to see more people who can't afford their payments.' On Friday, the Department of Education resumed interest accrual on SAVE Plan loans, meaning nearly 8 million borrowers are now seeing their debt grow. On top of that, the spending bill creates new limits on federal borrowing for graduate students and parents taking out loans on behalf of their children — meaning families and people attending higher cost educational programs such as medical school will likely have to take out higher interest private loans. 'We're going to see a wave of defaults happening, and we're going to see more people who can't afford their payments,' said Sara Partridge, associate director of higher education at the Center for American Progress. Partridge said implementing changes that will make life harder for millions of borrowers while championing debt forgiveness for ICE agents is peak hypocrisy. 'It is hypocritical to provide additional funding for debt relief for certain categories of workers while seeking to deny it to everyday Americans,' said Partridge. Sam Alig, 36, a borrower enrolled on the SAVE Plan, said Republicans and the administration have left borrowers in chaos as they scramble to figure out how much they'll owe under the new income-based repayment systems. 'It's such a mess,' said Alig. 'Every single time I call, they tell me something else. … It's $400 [per month] now. Six months from now, it could be $800, I have no idea.' The irony of the new DHS announcement isn't lost on Alig. 'It's also funny that Republicans are going to get behind student forgiveness when it comes to ICE agents, because they're so against student loan forgiveness for the entire working and middle class.' It's not completely clear how the ICE loan forgiveness program will be funded. The departments of Homeland Security and Education did not respond to requests for comment. The influx of $170 billion for DHS from the new spending bill could be a mechanism to help pay off new recruits loans. Government agencies can use their own funding to offer loan assistance as a recruitment and retention strategy via a separate initiative, the Federal Student Loan Repayment program, which allows agencies to repay federal student loans for their employees up to $10,000 a year and $60,000 per employee. The contrast between how the Trump administration is treating most borrowers and ICE agents is 'shocking,' said Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president at EdTrust, an education-focused nonprofit. 'The Department of Education is effectively putting other people's cancellations on hold, while fast-tracking this other group of folks who haven't done anything to warrant cancellation,' said Pilar. 'To me, it's outrageous, and it shows where the priority of this administration is.' The expected changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program will likely face legal challenge, Partridge said. 'I'm sure there's going to be a lawsuit against it, but still,' said Partridge, 'it's a major abuse of power for the government to wield this tool to advance its political ends and to propose denying loan forgiveness to borrowers who work for organizations that this administration disfavors.' The rule hasn't been published yet, but Partridge said it's expected to impact a wide range of people who have been targets in the Trump administration. 'This administration is wielding the power of the federal financial aid system to advance its ideological goals.' 'If enacted, [it would] deny Public Service Loan Forgiveness to people at organizations doing work that this administration disagrees with, particularly those who do things such as providing legal services to immigrants or providing gender-affirming care,' said Partridge. The vague language around 'substantial illegal purposes' also opens the door for more groups to be cut out of the program. 'It also would allow the administration to deny loan forgiveness to people who work at organizations that they say violate state law, and that includes trespassing, which we know historically has been used against protesters,' she said. 'So there are ways that this administration is wielding the power of the federal financial aid system to advance its ideological goals.' Weaponizing the cost of an education isn't a new tactic from the right. Amid nationwide campus protests against the Vietnam War, then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan and his political allies slashed the budget for public universities, forcing them to charge tuition, arguing that students had become too radical. 'We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. That's dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow [to go through higher education],' Reagan's education adviser, Roger A. Freeman, told the San Francisco Chronicle. 'There is a very robust history about how debt has been used as a lever of social control,' said Yu. '[Student debt] is a force that can keep people in place, keep people in line. … That is why it is being wielded as a weapon against people who work in fields that they don't like, and rewarding folks who work in fields that they do like.'
Newsweek
21 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Maps Show States Where Foreign-Born Populations Are Rising Fastest
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. The foreign-born population in 26 U.S. states grew by more than 300 percent over the past 45 years, while American-born populations lagged far behind. New analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) – a right-leaning think tank – found it was Texas and Florida where the biggest increases occurred. The findings have been backed up by the non-partisan Brookings Institution, which found that immigrant populations continue to drive the country's population growth. "The story of immigration is a national one, but it's an uneven one as well," Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, told Newsweek. "Which means that in many states the impact is so much larger, so much bigger, than it is nationally. "Whatever the impact, whether you think it's positive or negative, or even more if you're thinking about the impact on housing or culture or politics or the labor market, it's a very uneven story." Census data gives regular glimpses into the changing makeup of the U.S. population. Such hard data is crucial for policymakers, and the various groups across the political spectrum discussing how immigration should be managed, especially in the face of a declining American fertility rate. Historic Highs of Foreign-Born Residents After a five-year decline in the U.S. population, a pandemic-era surge began in 2020. CIS has pointed to the explosion of new arrivals from the southwest border, be they legal immigrants or those crossing illegally. Camarota and Karen Zeigler, who authored the CIS report, said that the changes were "all the more striking" because babies born to immigrants counted among the U.S.-born population figures – highlighting the ongoing tension around birthright citizenship the Trump administration is seeking to address via executive order. Much of the data available allows a look at the changes at state level, with 14 states seeing historic highs of their foreign-born population share in the first quarter of 2025. These were: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. State Populations Becoming More Diverse The Brookings analysis of the data also highlighted how young Hispanic and Asian American residents were driving the most new births, while white Americans were seeing greater numbers of deaths. All states experienced growth in their Hispanic, Asian American and two-or-more-races populations in 2023-24. Brookings found that without those groups, California, New Jersey, and New York would have all seen their population gains drop into the negative at a time when births have fallen. "We have a decline of white children in the U.S., which is the big engine of the fact that we have an overall decline in in children," William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution, told Newsweek. "But that's being countered by the growth in a lot of these racial minorities, and especially Latinos in a big way." Since 2021, when the last surge at the U.S.-Mexico border began in earnest, there have been steady changes in population make-up in states generally associated with immigrant communities: those in the northeast, along the southwest border, and in Florida. However, as the chart below shows, the foreign-born population has noticeably grown across the board, even in states with relatively low numbers like Alabama. California continues to dominate, with over 10 million estimated residents born outside the U.S. Texas follows with 6.2 million, then Florida with 5.5 million, and New York with 4.7 million. Frey noted that it isn't just traditional immigrant-heavy states like New York and California that are seeing a rise in younger foreign-born and minority populations. "Not only are whites becoming smaller, but these new minorities are a bigger part of it than they've ever been before, which means we're going to be much more dependent on them as those groups move into their younger labor force ages and newer groups of young people move into those groups," Frey said. "The fact that that's spreading across the country is something that's important, not only because of the nature of the racial composition of that group, but because those states are going to dependent on those kids to keep that younger population not declining as much and, in some cases, growing." Camarota said that there may be a shift that becomes apparent in the coming years, due to President Donald Trump's immigration policies that have led to a drop in new arrivals at the southwest border, as well as efforts to deport thousands of immigrants without legal status. Camarota said that, often, the focus of the immigration debate and discussion is on alleged illegal immigrant criminals, or the long-term resident swept up in enforcement actions under the Trump administration. "What I do think gets lost in the model of compelling anecdote is the overall question of the numbers," he said. "And I would say one of the big questions that this kind of report raises, but it doesn't answer is: is this too much [immigration]? "You could argue it's not enough, but what is the absorption capacity of Texas? What is the absorption capacity of Florida? I don't mean just narrowly with schools and hospitals, though that's a big deal. I mean, politically, socially, culturally, economically, what is the absorption capacity? Have they reached it? Is public dissatisfaction with immigration related to the sense that it's just too much?" Frey told Newsweek that data illustrates how, the U.S. wants to continue to grow its population, then it needs immigrants in order to do so.
