As the U.S.-Israel war on Iran enters its fourth week and President Donald Trump orders the deployment of thousands of additional sailors and Marines to the Middle East, the troops he is counting on appear increasingly wary of the conflict.

Interviews with active duty soldiers, reservists, and advocacy groups focused on service members found some U.S. troops who are caught up in the war are reporting vulnerability, overwhelming stress, frustration and disillusionment to the degree they may leave the military. The reservists and active duty soldiers spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation or because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

A military official who is treating service members evacuated from the Middle East to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany amid Iran’s retaliation said troops are suffering from “inadequate force protection and planning” and already reporting a severe, destabilizing toll from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones that have been repeatedly striking American military facilities. Thirteen troops have been killed amid the war so far, seven due to strikes, and at least 232 have been wounded.

A ground operation would be “an absolute disaster… we don’t have a plan for that,” the official said earlier this week. “We can’t even fully defend a single land base in the theater.”

A veteran and reservist who mentors younger officers told HuffPost her contacts are expressing a loss of faith to a new degree.

“I’m hearing out of service members’ mouths the words, ’We do not want to die for Israel — we don’t want to be political pawns,” she said. Another reservist in touch with current troops separately reported hearing similar comments.

“I’ve shared conscientious objector information six times in the past two weeks and I’ve been in the military almost 20 years — I’ve never had people reach out this way,” the first reservist continued.

Mike Prysner, the executive director of the Center on Conscience and War, said his group would in past years hear from between 50 and 80 troops annually. The month of March has seen a 1,000% increase, he added, saying at least one new service member now contacts the organization daily. On Friday, he wrote on X that his group is handling “expedited” objector applications by Army, Navy and Marines personnel who were told they will be deploying this weekend.

And Matt Howard, the co-director of the group About Face: Veterans Against The War, said his organization has been helping more active duty troops understand their options for dissent.

“Folks have more options than they think they do. The military makes it seem like there is only one route, its through their contract and that the consequences otherwise are devastating,” Howard said. “Folks have the right to options, including conscientious objector status. My understanding is more and more folks are going that particular route. We’re definitely finding ourselves having more of those conversations than we have in a long time.”

There is no indication of a mass exodus from the United States’ 1.3 million-person military over Trump’s campaign. Sources described anger, but also a sense of resignation among many troops.

Many service members have long anticipated and prepared for a U.S. war against Iran, with some more senior personnel seeing that as justified given the country’s role in deadly attacks on American troops, particularly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But dissatisfaction and morale problems could make Trump’s campaign less likely to succeed — and hint at a lasting shift among troops that could have implications for America’s national security establishment.

The lack of a clear, consistent narrative justifying the Iran war is a key source of discontent among troops, the reservists said, demoralizing those who believe a poorly planned conflict is placing them in unnecessary danger for no identifiable strategic benefit.

Iran’s retaliation has pummeled wealthy countries in the Persian Gulf that host U.S. forces and have for decades been largely spared large-scale conflicts unlike their regional neighbors, which include Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Deployments to the Gulf States were, until last month, considered low-risk and, according to former Army Maj. Harrison Mann, almost laughable.

“It does not enter your mind that that becomes a warzone,” Mann, now at Win Without War, told HuffPost.

Since those facilities started facing fire, military commanders have struggled to address troops’ heightened sense of exposure, the service member said, noting worrying patterns among some personnel, like refusing to answer calls to go to a bunker amid attacks.

Troops now seeking to leave the area are reporting different concerns from those who sought to do so in the recent past, even as tensions were heightened in the region, the service member added: “Getting random indirect fire is not the same as watching the entire gym and coffee shop and some dorms get blown up from a door less than 50 meters away.”

Broader concerns about the U.S. strategy also appear to be affecting troops.

Most service members now exploring registration as conscientious objectors point to the Feb. 28 strike on a school in the Iranian town of Minab as a breaking point, Prysner said. The strike killed at least 175 people, including dozens of schoolgirls. Sources familiar with the Pentagon’s investigation of the horrifying incident have told HuffPost the U.S. likely bears responsibility.

Additionally, concerns about military service and the Iran campaign appear to reflect shifting attitudes on the U.S. role in the Middle East, particularly relating to Israel. Troops are mentioning reservations about participating in a U.S.-Israeli operation based on their observation of the devastation wrought by the American-backed Israeli offensive in Gaza since 2023, and younger Americans — core to the military — have become far more skeptical of Tel Aviv. An NBC News poll this month found 63% percent of voters under 34 now view Israel negatively, compared to 37% in 2023.

Meanwhile, many veterans are publicly and privately warning that Washington appears to be on the cusp of a costly quagmire akin to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. One reservist noted that such a portrayal can reach younger troops more easily now than when service members were deployed for those campaigns 20 years ago, given the more honest discussions of failures in those wars and the spread of social media.

Even prior to the recent tumult, the Trump administration’s broader handling of troops and the Defense Department has also fueled alarm among military personnel.

“It’s not just Iran. Prior to this, it’s been National Guard deployments [in American cities], the possibility of being used against their own neighbors and collaborating with ICE,” Howard said. “This moment is so destabilizing in the way the military is being used as essentially a plaything for the administration to further an authoritarian agenda.”

Experts on civil-military relations and the law of war have condemned those deployments as well as apparent violations of international law in ongoing U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.

A reservist in regular contact with service members noted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s crackdown on efforts to promote diversity in the armed forces and moves to cancel military partnerships with think tanks and universities: “I’m getting this impression he doesn’t want us to learn or get smart — he just wants us to fight.”

“We’re seeing the direction of this,” the second reservist said, noting that Trump had, despite his campaign trail of avoiding wars, now shown a willingness to act forcefully against Iran, Venezuela and potentially Cuba. “If this doesn’t align with your intent or your career goals, I would get out.”