Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says that neither he nor President Donald Trump will rule out the option of using U.S. ground troops in military operations against Iran as soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division and additional Marines head to the Middle East.
“We’re not gonna foreclose any option” when it comes to achieving the objectives of the U.S. military’s campaign against Iran, Hegseth told reporters on Tuesday.
“You can’t fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do, to include boots on the ground,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon news briefing. “Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground. And guess what: There are. So if we needed to, we could execute those options on behalf of the president United States and this department — or maybe we don’t have to use them at all.”
The term “boots on the ground” is an inherently vague euphemism that U.S. military leaders and elected officials from both parties frequently use to refer to a range of different types of deployments. It can refer to invasions, such as the start of the Iraq war in 2003, and surges of troops to combat zones, such as the Iraq surge in 2007, followed by the Afghanistan surge that began in late 2009. It can also be used to describe more limited deployments of special operations troops to train and fight with local forces and other service members to coordinate U.S. airstrikes, as was the case when the military campaign against the Islamic State, or ISIS, began in Iraq in 2014 and then in Syria the following year.
Top Stories This Week
Hegseth’s recent comments come amid speculation that U.S. ground troops may be called upon to seize Kharg Island and other stretches of Iranian territory to open the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil flows.
More than 2,000 Marines and sailors with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit recently arrived in the Middle East embarked on the Tripoli Amphibious Ready Group, and the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit is also headed to the region aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer and its group. Elements of the 82nd Airborne Division have also been dispatched to the Middle East, according to the Pentagon.
At Tuesday’s news conference, a reporter asked Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, what types of missions the soldiers and Marines deploying to the Middle East could carry out other than a ground invasion.
“The range of military options that those forces can offer are extensive, not just limited to what you mentioned, in terms of forces on the ground,” Caine replied.
He added that Iran should take note of these forces and consider from a diplomatic perspective “what’s in front of them.”
Also, on Tuesday, Hegseth once again declined to say how long it might take for the U.S. military to accomplish its objectives against Iran after the operation’s launch on Feb. 28.
“Military 101: Don’t tell your enemy what you’re willing to do or not do, and don’t tell your enemy when you’re willing to stop,” Hegseth said. “So that’s not a question I’m going to answer.”
