One month from shutdown, Congress is far from a deal to fund government

The United States intends to achieve a “total victory” over Iran, “not 93 percent victory,” President Donald Trump said Wednesday, using a Veterans Day appearance at Arlington National Cemetery to defend his use of military force around the world, amid rising costs tied to the war.

“Everything we’ve achieved, everything that we are, everything that we hope to become is built on the courage of those willing to endure,” Trump told a crowd of veterans and senior military leaders on a clear, bright day at the country’s principal military cemetery. “We’re not going to allow anyone to hurt or damage our country with bad, foolish, horrible ideology. We’re not going to let it happen, and everyone knows what I mean.”

The president repeated his vow never to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, recognizing a survivor of the 1983 Iran-backed Hezbollah bombing of a Marine Corps barrack in Beirut.

“It was about time somebody fought back. All of us fought back. We fought back, and we seriously fought back, and we won. Just a question of when we want to end it,” Trump said.

Trump repeated his frequent comparison of the Iran operation with the U.S. wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, which he said each lasted much longer than the Iran conflict has.

The U.S. “got very little from any of these wars,” Trump said, noting that the January raid to seize Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro — which he called a “war” — was brief and had a large financial payoff.

“We’re taking out billions and billions of dollars of oil and all sorts of other things,” Trump said. “To the victor belong the spoils, they used to say, but you can say it again with us, under this leadership.”