Skip to main content

← Congress and the Public

Sen. Roger Marshall: Iran needs to 'be able to defend themselves'

On June 18, 2026, Jewish Insider published Sen. Roger Marshall: Iran needs to 'be able to defend themselves', by Melissa Weiss. Jewish Insider is a US news site that covers Jewish politics and Israel. The article reports that Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas told CNN that Iran has to be able to defend itself. He said that, short of boots on the ground, the United States would not get an unconditional surrender. Boots on the ground means American soldiers fighting on land inside a country, not only planes and ships. An American family should care because a senator said that full surrender would take that step, and he said he did not want a forever war. He was answering a question about missiles. He was not announcing that troops had been sent.

Evidence rating: MODERATE. The rating covers Senator Marshall's words on CNN, as Jewish Insider quotes them on 18 June 2026. A sitting Republican senator said on television that making Iran surrender everything could not be done "short of boots on the ground."

What the article says​

Melissa Weiss reports that Marshall spoke on Wednesday. CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked if he was all right with Tehran having missiles. Weiss writes that he replied, "I'm hesitating. I'd prefer that they not." He said he did not want Iran to have long-distance missiles or nuclear-armed missiles. He said he would prefer they did not have missiles at all. Then he said, "But I don't think that's the key issue here. I think that they have to be able to defend themselves."

Collins asked again, "You think Iran needs to be able to defend itself?" Weiss quotes his answer:

Otherwise we turn this into a forever war. You're never going to get them — short of boots on the ground — of surrendering everything, an unconditional agreement, if you will.

Sen. Roger Marshall, to CNN's Kaitlan Collins, as quoted by Jewish Insider, June 18, 2026. The sentence before that, in the same answer, is "I do. I think they have to be able to defend themselves." Read together, he is not asking for an invasion. He is saying that demanding Iran give up everything would become a forever war unless the United States put soldiers on the ground, and that he does not see that as the path.

Weiss writes that the comments came shortly after President Donald Trump said in France that it would be "OK" for Iran to keep some ballistic missiles. She quotes him from the sidelines of the G7 summit: "If other countries have them, it's a little bit unfair for them not to have some." She points that remark to a Times of Israel story. This page did not open that story. The quote above is what Jewish Insider itself prints.

The article also says Marshall has in recent years been an outlier in his party because of his defense of Qatar. That is Weiss's description of his record, with a link to an earlier Jewish Insider story. It is not part of his comment about troops.

What other reporting and posts add​

The same week, the ground option was real and paused. Six days earlier, CNN reported that the US military had rushed to prepare a ground mission to seize Iran's highly enriched uranium, and that Trump paused it over fears of heavy American casualties; one source told CNN: "Essentially, we'd have to invade." See US military rushed to prepare ground mission to capture Iran's uranium. A week earlier, Trump told Fox & Friends he was not sure the country had the appetite for a bigger operation: "I think they'd like to see us come home." See Trump vows to seize Iran's Kharg Island.

An Israeli leader had called for going in. In May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CBS's 60 Minutes that the war was "not over, because there's still nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out of Iran," and, asked how: "You go in, and you take it out." CBS News transcript, 10 May 2026. (capture: twitter/t13__v145.md) Marshall's "short of boots on the ground" is the other side of that sentence: taking everything from Iran means someone goes in.

How the ceasefire deal unraveled. A summary by the World Socialist Web Site says a memorandum "to suspend direct attacks" was announced 14 June and signed 17 June, and that "Trump declared the 'ceasefire' over on July 8." WSWS, 16 July 2026. (capture: twitter/t56__v668.md)

What it shows​

Marshall said out loud what the war's stated aims require: getting Iran to give up everything cannot be done "short of boots on the ground." Six days earlier, CNN had reported that the military rushed to prepare a ground mission to seize Iran's uranium, paused over fears of heavy American casualties; one source said, "Essentially, we'd have to invade." A month before that, Netanyahu had said of the same uranium, "You go in, and you take it out."

Israel's prime minister named the aim; an American senator named the price. See Kharg Island and the Uranium Raid and Congress and the Public.

Check it yourself​

Background for a new reader: the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February 2026. By mid-June, a spring ceasefire was fraying and a written US-Iran "memorandum of understanding" was being negotiated. "Unconditional surrender" was Trump's own early demand of Iran. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican and a physician, is saying something many senators avoided saying out loud: that demand could only be met by sending American soldiers into Iran.

Research captures: twitter/t13__v145.md, twitter/t56__v668.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

Last updated on