Is Iran a U.S. Adversary? The Record Answers What Rep.-Elect Hamawy Would Not

On Tuesday, CNN anchor Pamela Brown put a simple question to New Jersey Rep.-elect Adam Hamawy on "The Situation Room": Does he see Iran as the adversary of the United States? Hamawy, the Democrat elected last week to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in the state's heavily Democratic 12th District, never said yes. His first answer, as reported by Jewish Insider, was "We pushed them into a fight," followed by a call for Washington to seek a friendlier relationship with Tehran ^[1].

Brown kept pressing. When she noted that Iran's rulers have chanted "Death to America" for decades, Hamawy replied, "We've been saying 'Death to Iran' for decades as well," the Daily Wire reported ^[2]. When she pointed out that Iran has killed many Americans, he answered that the United States has killed many Iranians, too, and he argued that both countries bear responsibility for the hostilities ^[1].

Fairness requires the rest of the exchange. Hamawy agreed that Iran's government is a dictatorship and authoritarian, argued that the current war is making American lives worse and said the United States has the leverage to bring Tehran to the negotiating table, according to the Daily Wire ^[2]. He is a former Army combat surgeon ^[1]. Some headlines framed his answers as saying America is just as bad as Iran; he did not use those words. But he did, again and again, set the two governments side by side. Neither outlet reported any clarification from Hamawy or his office ^[1][2].

The Record Answers the Question

Whether Iran is an adversary is not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of record, and that record runs more than four decades.

The State Department has designated Iran a State Sponsor of Terrorism since Jan. 19, 1984, the longest tenure of the three countries still listed, alongside North Korea and Cuba ^[3]. The label carries limits on U.S. aid, a ban on arms sales, controls on dual-use exports and a range of financial restrictions ^[3].

That designation came less than three months after one of the darkest days in American military history. On Oct. 23, 1983, a bombing destroyed the Marine barracks in Beirut and killed 241 Americans, including 220 Marines, 18 Navy personnel and three soldiers, according to the Navy's Naval History and Heritage Command ^[4]. The Navy's historians attribute the attack to the Islamic Jihad Organization, which they describe as funded and trained by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley ^[4].

Two decades later, the pattern returned in Iraq. In 2019, a Pentagon spokesman told Military Times the department's assessment was that "at least 603 U.S. personnel deaths in Iraq were the result of Iran-backed militants" ^[5]. The State Department said those deaths made up about 17 percent of all U.S. personnel deaths in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 ^[5]. The weapons ranged from explosively formed penetrators and other roadside bombs to rockets, mortars and sniper fire ^[5].

The Threat Is Not History

Nor is this only a story about the past. This week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent moved from his Washington home to an undisclosed military base after threats from Iran, Al Jazeera reported, citing reporting by The New York Times and Reuters ^[6]. The Times reported that Iran's targeting includes current and former U.S. officials, and a senior intelligence official's memo seen by Reuters warned that Iranian plots against American citizens had reached an advanced stage ^[6]. A spokesperson told Reuters that "the secretary will not be deterred by the Iranian regime's threats" ^[6]. Tehran has denied plotting attacks on U.S. soil ^[6].

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All of this comes amid an unresolved war. U.S. and Israeli strikes early in the conflict killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials; in April the United States announced a blockade of Iranian ports; and since August, Bessent has led a pressure campaign meant to make Tehran stop attacking shipping and reopen the Strait of Hormuz ^[6].

Peace Starts With Clear Eyes

Hamawy is right that Americans want this war to end. Scripture blesses the peacemakers, and no family that has buried a soldier wants another folded flag. But peace has never been won by pretending that an enemy is something else. Placing a republic that answers to its voters on the same moral plane as a regime whose proxies bombed Marines in Beirut, whose militias killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq and whose plots, by a U.S. intelligence account, have reached an advanced stage does not bring Tehran to the table. It tells Tehran it has no reason to come.

Brown deserves credit for asking the question more than once instead of letting a vague answer slide ^[1]. The clip, posted by the Republican National Committee's research account ^[2], will follow Hamawy to Capitol Hill.

What comes next is clear. The new Congress convenes in January, and Hamawy will swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He will soon vote on sanctions, war powers and the defense budget that protects the troops he once served beside. Before he does, he has time to give the one-word answer Brown was asking for. The 241 Americans lost in Beirut and the 603 deaths the Pentagon tied to Iran in Iraq gave that answer long ago.