The United States is now months into a war in Iran, and American troops are coming home in coffins. Asked about it on national television, Carlos Gimenez offered a shrug.

What he said

During an appearance on CNN's "The Lead," Gimenez was asked about the mounting U.S. death toll in the Iran conflict. His response:

"That's the nature of warfare; we will have some casualties."

He added that his "condolences go out to the families of our servicemen and women that are killed — have been killed — in Iran."

The context makes the tone land even harder. Three U.S. service members had been killed over the weekend, bringing the total to 17 dead. These aren't abstractions. They're sons and daughters, and their families were burying them the same week Gimenez waved the losses away as "the nature of warfare."

Easy to say when you've never had to go

Here's the part that stings for a lot of veterans and military families. Gimenez, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, has been a supporter of this war — and he's never worn the uniform himself.

His opponent, retired Navy Commander Phil Ehr, called the remarks "callous" and pointed out that Gimenez "never served." "This man talks about casualties and the nature of warfare in a callous, holier than thou manner," Ehr wrote.

It's a fair hit. It's one thing for someone who has been in combat to speak soberly about the costs of war. It's another for a politician who has never been in harm's way to treat dead Americans as an acceptable line item in a conflict he cheers on from Washington.

He supports the war — he should own the cost

This isn't just a bad soundbite. Gimenez is part of the group of Republicans backing an open-ended war with Iran, one that has already cost American lives and billions of dollars with no clear end. When you vote for and champion a war, you own its consequences — including the flag-draped coffins.

Instead of leveling with families about why their loved ones died, or asking hard questions about where this war is going, Gimenez reached for "that's the nature of warfare." That's not leadership. That's a lawmaker trying to make the deaths sound routine so he doesn't have to answer for them.

A pattern of telling people to move on

Brushing off uncomfortable truths is becoming a habit for Gimenez. He did the same thing with the Epstein files, going on CNN to tell Americans to get over it: "Americans, I think, are over the Epstein case. They have been over it for a long time... we need to move on."

Whether it's dead service members or a sex-trafficking scandal, the message from Carlos Gimenez is the same: don't dwell on it, move along.

The bottom line

American families grieving a child killed in Iran deserved more from their congressman than "that's the nature of warfare." Carlos Gimenez supports this war. The least he owes the troops fighting it — and the families burying them — is to treat their deaths as something more than the cost of doing business.

Source

This post is based on reporting from The Independent.