US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has admitted America was forced into war by Israel’s insistence on attacking Iran, claiming US forces then launched “pre-emptive defensive” strikes to limit casualties.
Mr Rubio made the revelation while addressing a group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Monday about the ongoing joint US-Israel offensive, sparking criticism from both Democrats and conservatives who have asked why President Donald Trump did not make Israel abandon its attack plans instead.
“It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone – the United States or Israel or anyone – they were going to respond, and respond against the United States,” Mr Rubio said, and called Trump’s decision to join the Israeli strikes as “very wise”.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.
“There absolutely was an imminent threat. And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded.
“We went pro-actively in a defensive way to prevent them from inflicting higher damage. Had we not done so, there would have been hearings on Capitol Hill about how we knew that this was going to happen, and we didn’t act pre-emptively to prevent more casualties and more loss of life.”
.@SecRubio: “The president made the very wise decision—we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we… pic.twitter.com/Jp5rqpRH4T
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 2, 2026
Democrat Mike Warner, the vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, said there were major concerns over the US allowing another state to force it into a war.
“There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel. If we equate a threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States, then we are in uncharted territory,” Mr Warner said.
Conservative commentator Matt Walsh, who has been speaking out against the war, responded to the comments by saying: “So he’s flat out telling us that we’re in a war with Iran because Israel forced our hand. This is basically the worst possible thing he could have said.”
“So we’re at war for Israel confirmed. So how about them Epstein files,” political commentator Ian Carroll wrote on X.
“Donald Trump is so weak that he couldn’t tell Bibi Netanyahu no, so now we are at war,” said former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes.
“Secretary Rubio’s remarks indicate that Israel put U.S. forces in harm’s way by insisting on attacking Iran,” Democrat Congressman Joaquin Castro said.
“And the administration was complicit – joining their war instead of talking them down.”
Header image: Rubio making his comments (Fox News).
