Following the initiation of joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes against Iran on February 28, the Libertarian Party has mobilized a unified front across national and state levels to condemn “Operation Epic Fury.” In a series of statements, party leadership at the national level and in key states like California and Wisconsin have called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, characterizing the mission as an unconstitutional executive overreach that threatens the economic and physical security of the American people.

At the national level, Libertarian National Committee Chair Steven Nekhaila described the operation as the culmination of years of agitation by entrenched warhawks, arguing that the administration is utilizing a recycled playbook consisting of vague intelligence briefings and appeals to nationalism to justify a regime change operation that lacks a formal declaration of war from Congress. The national leadership warned that the conflict would enrich the military-industrial complex while making ordinary Americans poorer through inevitable inflation and energy shocks.

The Libertarian Party of California centered its opposition on the human cost of the conflict, noting that the state is home to both a significant military population and one of the largest Iranian-American communities in the world. Party Chair Loren Dean emphasized that the power to declare war belongs to the representatives of the people, not a single office, and criticized the normalization of unilateral war through the repurposing of old military authorizations.

Taking a particularly sharp tone, the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin denounced the attacks as the work of neoconservative warmongers and their foreign allies. The Wisconsin branch called out the administration’s departure from campaign promises to end foreign entanglements, labeling the slide into conflict with Iran a grotesque repudiation of those pledges. They urged a return to a non-interventionist foreign policy and a total dismantling of the welfare-warfare state.

While there are most certainly regional differences in rhetoric, and certain regional Libertarian parties are not quite making the news in Anti-Iranian opposition, the broader Libertarian movement appears to currently (with some caveats) stand united in its demand for a return to the constitutional rule of law. All of the statements below have called upon Congress to reassert its status as the sole arbiter of war powers and to end the military adventurism that has defined U.S. foreign policy for decades.

Read the statements here:

Libertarian Party Statement (February 28, 2026)

The Libertarian Party is calling for immediate cessation of the unconstitutional U.S. / Israel joint military operations in Iran, initiated February 28th, under “Operation Epic Fury.” President Donald Trump has explicitly stated that the operation is intended to instill regime change in Iran.

Congress has been derelict in its duty to protect its status as arbiter of War Powers, repetitively refusing to constrain Presidential privilege to attack sovereign nations without congressional consent. This latest attack is the most recent abuse of the Authorization to Use Military Force, initiated under the Patriot Act, which has been used as a catch-all for military adventurism.

“This act of war was once again carried out without Congressional War Authorization, for no discernible benefit to the American people. It is the culmination of years of agitation by the same cast of deranged “allies” and entrenched warhawks, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Benjamin Netanyahu, and others, who have been pushing for greater war with Iran for decades. We have seen this script before. We know how it ends,” said Libertarian National Committee Chair Steven Nekhaila.

Nekhaila continues, “What is clear is that the actions taken today have no meaningful constituency among the American people. They will destabilize the region further. They will make Americans poorer through inflation, deficit spending, and energy shocks. They will enrich the military-industrial complex. And they risk not only a protracted greater war in the Middle East, but the ignition of a far more dangerous global powder keg.”

The same justifications for Operation Epic Fury are being recycled from the post-9/11 playbook: weapons of mass destruction, humanitarian necessity, vague intelligence briefings, and a theatrical appeal to nationalism.

The Libertarian Party calls upon Congress to do its job, to represent the American people and defend our constitutional order. War powers do not belong to the Executive. They do not belong to foreign governments. They belong to the representatives of the American people.

The Libertarian Party calls for an immediate halt to further escalation, a return to non-interventionist foreign policy, a return to the constitutional rule of law, and an end to wars waged at the behest of foreign powers and the neoconservative establishment in Washington.

Libertarian Party of California Statement (March 1, 2026)

The Libertarian Party of California is calling for the immediate cessation of U.S. military operations in Iran reportedly initiated today under “Operation Epic Fury.” Public statements from President Donald Trump make clear that the objective of this action is regime change.

War is not a just a slogan, a line in a press conference or a television moment. It is a decision that costs lives, drains treasure, and reshapes the future of a nation.

In announcing the operation, President Trump stated, “The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties. That often happens in war.” That sentence alone should give every American pause. Casualties are not abstractions. They are sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, neighbors and friends.

“This is exactly why the Constitution places the power to declare war in Congress,” said LPC Chair Loren Dean. “If American lives may be lost, then the American people — through their elected representatives — deserve an open debate and a lawful vote before a single shot is fired. We cannot continue normalizing unilateral war.”

For more than two decades, administrations of both parties have stretched and repurposed old Authorizations for Use of Military Force to justify new conflicts in new countries. Congress has repeatedly failed to reclaim its authority, and the result has been a permanent state of military engagement with no clear endpoint and no meaningful accountability.

“Californians have seen this story before. We were promised quick victories. We were promised stability. Instead, we got generational wars, ballooning debt, and thousands of families forever changed. The U.S. government should not be rushing headlong into another regime change operation without constitutional authorization and without a direct, imminent threat to our nation.”

California is home to millions of veterans and military families, as well as one of the largest Iranian-American communities in the country. Escalation abroad does not happen in a vacuum. It reverberates here — economically, socially, and morally. Energy shocks, inflation, deficit spending, and the human toll of war do not stay overseas.

We cannot keep repeating the post 9/11 playbook. Vague intelligence briefings, sweeping executive authority, and emotional appeals to fear are not substitutes for constitutional process. If this war is necessary, make the case to Congress. If it cannot withstand debate, it should not proceed.

The Libertarian Party of California calls on Congress to immediately reassert its constitutional war powers and to halt further escalation unless and until a formal declaration of war is authorized. Decisions of war and peace belong to the representatives of the American people — not to a single office, and not to inertia.

The LPC further calls for a foreign policy grounded in restraint, constitutional governance, and a recognition that endless intervention has made Americans less secure, not more.

Libertarian Party of Wisconsin Statement (February 28, 2026)

Libertarians have long warned against the imperial entanglements that drain the future of working Americans to serve globalist crusades and foreign powers. Starting a war with Iran would be the ultimate expression of this poison: an unnecessary, unconstitutional adventure sold under the guise of “national security” but transparently designed to fight Israel’s battles on Washington’s dime. No American blood should be spilled, no trillions more borrowed and inflated away, for Jerusalem’s ambitions.

As the great libertarian voices have repeatedly exposed, neoconservatism—whether under Bush, Obama, Biden or Trump—represents the antithesis of freedom and liberty. These Beltway statists cheer endless wars, empire-building, and the military-industrial complex while pretending to champion “freedom.” In reality, they sacrifice the liberties and prosperity of ordinary Americans—farmers, workers, and families in Wisconsin and across the heartland—for a foreign policy that has brought only debt, death, and decline.

President Trump campaigned on ending forever wars. Any slide into conflict with Iran would be a grotesque repudiation of that promise, handing victory to the very neocons and Israeli/military contractor lobbies that libertarians have fought to purge from influence for decades. We reject this globalist perversion outright. Libertarians demand that we come home: slash the welfare-warfare state, restore sound money, and let Israel sort out their own affairs without dragging us into their quarrels.

The Libertarian Party of Wisconsin calls on all freedom-loving Wisconsinites, especially those weary of decades of betrayed promises, to rise up and demand an end to this madness. Support candidates and voices who support: no more foreign entanglements, no more tribute to foreign lobbies, no more empire. Peace, prosperity, and sovereignty begin by saying no to war for Israel or anyone else.

“Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else,” as Frédéric Bastiat taught us. Let us not add another endless Middle Eastern war to that list of thefts from the American people.