President Donald Trump said Monday that he has not ruled out sending US troops to Iran, while threatening a new “major wave” of attacks.
The 79-year-old Republican has long campaigned against decades of U.S. military entanglements in the Middle East, but ordered a full-scale war against Iran starting Saturday.
While the assault so far has focused exclusively on air strikes with missiles and bombs, Trump refused to rule out sending ground troops, something much riskier in terms of potential casualties.
“I’m not afraid of boots on the ground,” Trump said, using a golf term for anxiety. “Every president says, ‘There will be no troops on the ground.’ I’m not saying that.”
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“I say ‘I probably don’t need them’ (or) ‘if they were necessary,'” he told the New York Post in one of the many brief interviews he has given since the Iran operation was launched.
Trump also spoke to CNN on Monday, signaling what he said would be an escalation in the attack on Iran.
“We haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened,” he told CNN, without giving further details. “The big one is coming soon.”
So far, US and Israeli forces have struck hundreds of targets across Iran, including the Islamic republic’s missiles, navy and command and control sites.
Four members of the US military have been announced dead and three fighter planes have been shot down, officially by friendly fire.
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Iran has fired missiles at Israel, at US bases in the region and also at targets in regional Arab countries (Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates), something Trump called “the biggest surprise.”
“Far ahead” of expectations
Trump, speaking at the White House during an awards ceremony, said the United States could sustain the attack beyond the one-month time frame he has spoken about publicly.
Some analysts have questioned whether the United States, even with the world’s most powerful military, has enough ammunition to wage such a long war against a determined enemy.
“We are already substantially ahead of our time projections,” Trump said at the White House, adding: “From the beginning we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capacity to go much further. We will do it.”
Trump again justified his attack by accusing Iran’s clerical state of developing nuclear weapons and missile capabilities, claims that have been disputed.
“This was our last, best chance to strike, which we are doing now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” Trump said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also said Monday that deploying troops inside Iran had not been ruled out.
Asked if troops were already on the ground, Hegseth said at a news conference: “No, but we’re not going to get into the exercise of what we will or won’t do.”
“We will go as far as necessary,” he said.
As to how long the war will last, Hegseth said: “Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks, it could go forward. It could go back.”
He sought to differentiate the operation in Iran from past U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the war is not an effort to build democracy in Iran.
“There are no stupid rules of engagement, there are no nation-building quagmires, there are no democracy-building exercises. There are no politically correct wars. We fight to win and we don’t waste time or lives,” the Pentagon chief said.
“This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” Hegseth said. “Our generation knows better and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars ‘silly,’ and he’s right.”
Gen. Dan Caine, the top U.S. military officer, spoke alongside Hegseth and said air superiority over Iran had been achieved.
The strikes by U.S. forces “resulted in the establishment of local air superiority. This air superiority will not only enhance the protection of our forces, but will also allow them to continue work over Iran,” Caine said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
