Midwest US pays high cost for Trump’s Iran war as soldiers die, while veterans are baffled: ‘Why are we there?’

As casualties mount, those who share a home state with the deceased in Iowa, Kentucky or Ohio question war’s legality Upon the headstones at the Dayton National Cemetery in south-west Ohio are the names of the numerous wars fallen soldiers buried here have fought in: Korea, Vietnam and Iraq. At the center of this sprawling, manicured cemetery for veterans and service members, ground staff and three machines this week have cleared space for a new grave site. It will be the place where one of the first victims of a new US conflict – the 2026 war on Iran – will be laid to rest on Friday. Capt Curtis Angst, 30, of the 121st air refueling wing, from Wilmington, a 45-minute drive away, died in an aircraft accident in skies over western Iraq on 12 March that saw all six air crew onboard killed when their plane collided with another US aircraft. While facing danger in the line of duty is something service members sign up for, some veterans are questioning the merit and legality of the administration’s war on Iran, which was launched without congressional approval or much in the way of Tehran presenting the US as a clear and present danger. All the while, it is communities in three