HPR has been checking in with Hawaiʻi’s congressional delegation as the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran stretches into its 20th day.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz joined The Conversation to discuss his perspective on the escalating war in the Middle East as well as the recent storm damage across Hawaiʻi.
Hear what the senator had to say about students and phone use by listening back to Wednesday’s call-in show.
Interview Highlights
On preparing for future climate crises
U.S. SEN. BRIAN SCHATZ: The other thing we can do in the long run, and that's a, you know, a slower process, is to make sure that we're just more resilient to severe weather. And with the Lahaina wildfire and some of the wildfires, frankly, on the north side of the Big Island, you know, the weather is getting weirder and weirder, and this storm was, you know, once in a 75-year period. But a lot of these supposedly once-every-100-year events are happening more frequently than that because of climate change, and so we've just got to build a more resilient society so that we're ready for floods, that we have firebreaks, that we all know our evacuation routes. We're not going to prevent these weather events. And of course, we need to be working in the big picture on ameliorating climate change, but in the meantime, we need to do as much in the way of pragmatic things as we can.
On the Iran war's impact on energy and living costs
SCHATZ: Wars in the Middle East, especially wars of choice, do not work out, either for the region or for the United States. This is, in so many ways, very similar to the Iraq War, where we have a tremendous kind of tactical military success, but what starts to look like a strategic failure. … And we now have a really dangerous situation in the entire region, and the price of everything is about to go up. It's not just the price of gasoline in our cars, but it's fertilizer, and therefore food. It's rare earth minerals and therefore our electronics. There's really nothing that's going to be not caught up in rising prices, unless we can get the Strait of Hormuz reopened, and the Iranians are saying, you know, no way.
On his outlook on the Iran war
SCHATZ: President Trump last night said that they were surprised about Iran's response, and I am surprised that he is surprised, because most of us in the national security space have been briefed as to the possible course of action were we to attack Iran, and it was that they would do asymmetric attacks against Gulf adversaries — that's exactly what they did — and that they would close the Strait of Hormuz, that's exactly what they did. But it's actually worse than that, because we always thought, if they close the strait, that they also would be unable to export oil. They have figured out a way to close it for everyone else and continue exporting oil. On top of that, because there's such a global oil shortage, Russia's oil, which was sanctioned, and they were unable to sell it, we just had to lift the sanctions to alleviate the global shortage. And so now, Russia is the recipient of windfall, hundreds of millions, probably approaching billions of dollars, because of this decision to attack Iran. So it is not going well, and the sooner we wrap this up, the better.
This story aired on The Conversation on March 19, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
