Sen. Ricketts Makes the Case for War

By Gordon Hopkins Each of Nebraska’s five federal delegates have made clear their support for the ongoing military action in Iran. U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts discussed the matter at press conferences on March 4 and March 11, 2026. While the official topics were to be taxes and other domestic economic matters, most of the questions from reporters ended up being about the war. Nebraskan Among First CasualtiesA Nebraska native, Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens of Bellevue, was among six military personnel killed when an Iranian missile hit a military operations center in Kuwait. Senator Ricketts opened the first press conference by addressing the loss, “My prayers are with the Tietjens family as they mourn the loss of your heroic family members, may we always remember and honor the sacrifices made by Noah Tietjens and the Tietjens family.” When asked about what lead to the death of Sergeant Tietjens, Ricketts said, “I actually spoke to General (Craig) Strong this morning, and just to echo what the Department of War already said, that the circumstances of Noah's death are under investigation, so we need to wait till the final investigation is done. I don't want to speculate on how it happened.Ricketts said “And again, his sacrifice was to make sure that ultimately, Iran can't develop a nuclear weapon and a missile system to be able to reach the United States, because that would put us at moral peril. And again, we've learned the lesson from North Korea that once a country does have those things, you can't get them to give them back up again.”Thus far, seven U.S. military personnel have died. In addition, approximately 140 troops have been injured, according to Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. ObjectivesRicketts said, “Right now, the administration has been very clear about what the objectives are. They are to destroy the missile capacity of Iran. So that means destroying the launchers, destroying the missiles themselves in the warehouses, and destroying Iran's ability to be able to produce those missiles. This also means destroying the Navy, the Iranian Navy, so that they can't, for example, mine the Strait of Hormuz. And the reason the administration is doing that is because Iran was producing missiles at a rapid rate, and at some point, between the missiles and the drones and the Navy that they would be able to inflict such punishment that we wouldn't really be able to stop their nuclear program. At least, that's what they were betting on. And of course, we know that Iran had missiles that could already reach allies like Turkey and Israel, and were looking to develop them that would soon be able to reach into Europe and then ultimately to the United States, as they were looking to develop a nuclear weapon and were not ready to give up those nuclear weapon ambitions as they continue to draw out those negotiations.”According to multiple news reports, Iran has already begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Regime ChangeRicketts denied that regime change was the primary purpose of the military action, “The President has said, though, to the Iranian people, that this is probably your best opportunity to be able to take control of your own government. And while the goal the mission of this military operation is not specifically about regime change, we would certainly welcome an administration in Iran that would actually give up its nuclear ambitions on the road to join the rest of the world in having a peaceful Middle East.” Operation Epic Fury, as it has been dubbed, is a jointed U.S.-Israel operation. The morning of the press conference, Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, wrote on social media that whomever Iran picks to be the country’s next supreme leader will be “a target for elimination.”When asked if that was the policy of the U.S. as well, Ricketts said, “Well, I'm not going to get into discussing hypotheticals, and I'm not going to pretend that I could somehow limit the President's options whatever he decided to do. So, that would be if the President decide what we're going to do with regard to supporting whatever action Israel takes.”On March 5, 2026, President Trump said, “I have to be involved in the appointment” of Iran’s next leader.Reports on Monday indicate Iran has selected a new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the hours after the US and Israel launched military action in Iran on February 28. President Trump has called this choice “unacceptable.” Boots on the GroundWhen asked about the possibility of sending troops into Iran, Ricketts said, “You're talking about, again, a hypothetical, and I think the context of that is that they're not going to take options off the table because they don't want to, you know, telegraph to our enemies what we might or might not do.” EconomyThe senator acknowledged the potential for economic disruption, “What the President wants to do, I'm sure, is to get this taken care of as quickly as possible, so that we can get the traffic flowing in the Persian Gulf. There's a lot of people who depend upon the oil and natural gas and other commodities that flow out of there.”There is a bottleneck at the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway which connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Multiple vessels have been attacked and Iran has reportedly laid undersea mines, further choking off the passage of transports. The U.S. is already seeing an increase in fuel prices, both gasoline and diesel. In addition, fertilizer prices are rising. Ricketts said, “One of the impacts we have seen is that oil, obviously, is being withheld or being held up because of Iran's attacks on its neighbors and in the Straits of Hormuz, and that also includes urea, which goes into fertilizer, and that's the higher prices that you were talking about there. We also need to know that this is a national security issue.”As for how an economic downturn might influence the upcoming midterm elections, Senator Ricketts again refused to speculate, “How it impacts the election will remain to be seen.”

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