Stories credited to Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University, by publication date. ChamberLight collects articles that mention the officials it tracks, so this shows its own coverage of this source, not how much the source publishes.

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Month	Stories	All outlets
March 2026	2	940
April 2026	2	4,537
May 2026	0	none collected
June 2026	0	none collected
July 2026	0	none collected
August 2026	0	1 (collection gap)
September 2026	0	598

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Party of the officials these stories are mainly about, across all 7 officials named. A story counts once for each official it is mainly about, so the split is over 11 story–official pairs, from 4 stories.

Republican64% · 7 pairs
Democrat27% · 3 pairs
Party not recorded9% · 1 pair

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Informational: 0 (0%)
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Articles served from smallwarsjournal.com

Trump’s widespread use of military goes far beyond Iran: ‘Death by a thousand cuts’ in terms of readiness

WASHINGTON – Iran is not the only country where the U.S. military engaged in conflict in the last few months. Just since the first strike on Tehran on Feb. 28, the U.S. has conducted 10 strikes in Somalia against militant groups, four strikes against vessels in Latin America and a bombing in Ecuador. And that doesn’t count ongoing missions and deployments, including a training mission in Nigeria, planning for two more bases in Greenland and a fuel quarantine in Cuba. It’s not unusual for the U.S. to have simultaneous operations worldwide, though experts say the Iran war has taken up enough resources to erode readiness for another major conflict. “It’s overstretched, but I don’t think the problem is the military being too small or not having enough money,” said Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities. “The problem is the military trying to do too much.” Western Hemisphere In the Western Hemisphere, strikes during Trump’s second term reflect the administration’s counterterrorism objectives, said Stephanie Savell, executive director of the Costs of War project at Brown University. The strikes target drug cartels that Trump designated as terrorist groups by executive order the day he started his second term. “Instead of calling it a war on drugs, it becomes an expansion of U.S. counterterror operations,” Savell said. That’s how the Trump administration justifed the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, and the 50 strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September. The last such strike was on April 13, according to U.S. Southern Command. U.S. officials asserted the boats and the 159 people killed in those strikes were involved in drug trafficking, though the government has presented no evidence, and doubts are widespread. U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Moore, a combat medic assigned to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Regional Health Command-Europe secures a simulated casualty on a sked while under a simulated chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attack during the 21st Theater Sustainment Command Best Medic Competition in Baumholder, Germany, Aug. 22, 2019. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jesse Pilgrim) On March 3, the U.S. expanded its reach against narco-terrorists by launching operations with Ecuador. On March 6, Ecuador bombed a site that officials there and in the U.S. described as a training camp for drug traffickers, using intelligence supplied by the U.S. Nearby residents later said the site was nothing more than a civilian farm. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said more such strikes are coming as part of the new anti-cartel U.S.-Ecuador effort. In the Caribbean, the U.S. Coast Guard began a blockade around Cuba in February called Operation Southern Spear. With most oil deliveries halted, residents have endured frequent blackouts. The U.S. allowed a Russian tanker with about 730,000 barrels of crude oil into the country in late March. Five U.S. warships were in the Caribbean Sea to institute the quarantine as of April 13, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. Sebastián Arcos, the interim director of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, said the fuel quarantine and Trump’s executive order against cartels shows a fresh emphasis on Latin America and a willingness to intervene militarily that presidents largely abandoned after the Bay of Pigs. The muscular use of U.S. forces sends a message to China that “the U.S. will be there if they take over Taiwan,” he added. “The United States was falling behind in regards to other competing superpowers, China and Russia in particular, regarding military capability,” Arcos said. “It was a way to show the world that the United States has the spine to do what it needed to do in order to enforce U.S. foreign policy goals.” The U.S. will likely continue its quarantine of Cuba for some time, Arcos said. “Cuba is a long unfinished homework that the United States has to finish,” Arcos said. The U.S. blockade of Iran’s ports, which CENTCOM declared was fully in place as of April 14, is meant to pressure Iran to drop its own efforts to control and toll shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Kavanagh said Trump has grown increasingly comfortable with force as his “best tool” for coercion in foreign policy. “After the Venezuela operation, he was very emboldened and thought that he had cracked the code” that eluded other presidents who “had gotten us into long wars. They had messed up, but he had the key and that he felt that he could do anything,” she said. Africa According to New America, a left of center think tank, the U.S. conducted more than 170 strikes in Somalia in 2025 that killed at least 172 militants and civilians. The U.S. has justified these strikes as deterrence and self-defense against terrorist organizations like Al Shabaad and the Islamic State-Somalia. Trump, in both of his terms, has conducted more strikes in Somalia than all presidents since President George W. Bush combined. “There’s hardly any media attention to what’s going on in Somalia, but it’s a definite intensification,” Savell said. The lack of media attention tracks the under-the-radar approach from the Trump administration. The president, taking a poke at Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a Somalian-born member of Congress, posted an article Feb. 3 detailing a U.S. strike a year earlier that targeted ISIS-Somalia leaders. That was the first time in a year that he had referred publicly to the ongoing U.S. strikes. At a news conference Jan. 20, at the height of protests in Minnesota about an immigration enforcement surge that led to the shooting deaths of two Americans by federal agents, Trump went out of his way to criticize Somalia. Noting that Somalian immigrants were allegedly involved in a massive fraud scheme in Minnesota, he told reporters at the White House: “Somalia is not even a country,” Trump said. “They don’t have anything that resembles a country. And if it is a country, it’s considered just about the worst in the world.” The most recent U.S. airstrike in Somalia took place on April 9 near Qalay. U.S. Africa Command reported no additional details. “The lesson we can draw there is that there is less regard for protecting civilians – a more belligerent, more aggressive military posture, and a sense in which the war on terror must continue through force,” Savell said. On the other side of Africa, the U.S. sent 200 troops to Nigeria to assist with counterterrorism in February. That followed a Christmas Day strike on ISIS in the northwest region of Nigeria called Sokoto. Trump later called that strike a warning against jihadist who have attacked Christians. “If they continue to kill Christians it would be a many-time strike,” he told The New York Times. Is the military spread too thin? While the U.S. war with Iran – currently under ceasefire – has reduced the stockpile of munitions, these many smaller conflicts and commitments also sap resources, said Carlton Haelig, a fellow with the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security. Military operations around Venezuela alone cost $31 million a day, according to an analysis issued in December by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “You have this death by a thousand cuts situation going on,” Haelig said. By itself, each commitment doesn’t “really put too much stress on the force,” he added. “But when you combine them all together, and then add to that a major war, you start to see cracks in the readiness and the capability of the force.” The U.S. military has also been conducting exercises to maintain its readiness. On Feb. 26, the U.S. and 29 other countries had 8,000 personnel conduct training and humanitarian assistance in Thailand in what is considered the largest joint exercise in Asia, according to the Navy. The U.S. and South Korea conducted a 10-day exercise starting on March 9 – at the height of the Iran war – named “Freedom Shield 26.” “Freedom Shield 26 demonstrates the strength of our alliance and our ability to train, build readiness, and operate seamlessly as one force,” said Gen. Xavier T. Brunson, commander of United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea, in a press release. “There is no substitute for training, there is no excuse for not being ready.” The annual Balikatan exercise in the Philippines is planned for April 20 to May 8, according to Stars and Stripes. That will involve more than 10,000 U.S. troops and 7,000 from six other nations. As of Jan. 31, the U.S. had 1.35 million active duty personnel, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center. That’s up about 43,000 from a year earlier. More than 50,000 of those are in the Middle East. At the peak of the War on Terror in 2011, there were about 98,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Some of Trump’s moves have undermined other priorities, including Europe and the Indo-Pacific. Deployments for the Iran war include about 2,000 troops on March 24 from the 82nd Airborne Division’s Immediate Response Force out of Fort Bragg. That force deployed to the Middle East in 2020 and to Eastern Europe to support NATO in 2022. On March 28, the Pentagon also sent at least 2,000 Marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to Iran. That unit, based in Okinawa, Japan, had been conducting exercises in the Indo-Pacific. “The loss of a forward-deployed MEU in the Indo-Pacific is critical,” Haelig said. “It’s a significant capability for the Indo-Pacific that’s being taken away from that theater.” The post Trump’s widespread use of military goes far beyond Iran: ‘Death by a thousand cuts’ in terms of readiness appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Apr 16, 202619 votes

Trump’s widespread use of military goes far beyond Iran: ‘Death by a thousand cuts’ in terms of readiness

Apr 16, 20267 votes

Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilization shocked even some supporters, raised war crime concerns

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran complies with his demands left MAGA supporters and other Republicans deeply divided. Carrying through on the threat – issued Tuesday morning, about 12 hours before a deadline he set for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz – would clearly amount to a war crime under U.S. and international law, according to legal scholars. And Trump promised during the 2024 campaign that he would not get the U.S. into any new wars, particularly in the Middle East. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was once a close Trump ally, called his threat “evil and madness.” She urged the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment, declare him unfit to serve and strip his power. “Not a single bomb has dropped on America,” Greene said on X. “We cannot kill an entire civilization.” Eighty minutes before his deadline, Trump announced a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, contingent on Iran reopening the strait to shipping on which world oil markets rely. The move eased tensions in at least two countries but did little to quiet the backlash sparked by Trump’s threat earlier in the day, which far-right podcasters Alex Jones and Candace Owens equated to genocide. Jones said Trump sounded like “an unhinged supervillain from a Marvel comic movie” and said that wasn’t what he voted for. Owens said Congress and the military need to intervene because “we are beyond madness.” In November, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and five others in Congress who served in the military or CIA publicly urged military personnel to refuse illegal orders, prompting Trump to accuse them of sedition. “If the president takes the actions he has threatened to take, countless Iranian civilians will die, it will massively escalate this war, and the United States will be seen as a country without a moral or ethical compass,” Kelly said hours after Trump issued his threat Tuesday. Last week, Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s desalination plants. Water infrastructure on which civilians rely is not a lawful military target. For some of his longtime supporters, such threats – including the one to obliterate a 2,500-year-old civilization, considered one of the world’s oldest – are excessive but not disqualifying. “I would like to see Trump lower the rhetoric,” said three-time Trump voter Mick Sullinger, a 57-year-old technician and Marine veteran from Pittsburgh outside the White House during a visit to the capital. “I think it does nothing, but it strengthens the other side’s resolve.” Sullinger yelled back at some anti-Trump protesters nearby and defended the president’s broader goals in Iran. “This is 50 years of a terrorist regime that has done nothing but hurt the West. It’s hurt our freedom and democracy. … It’s time to eradicate this regime,” he said. Vice President JD Vance underscored Trump’s threat during a speech Tuesday in Hungary at which he seemed to allude to a possible nuclear attack, though the White House rejected that interpretation. “We’ve got tools in our tool kit that we so far haven’t decided to use,” he said. In Arizona, Carson Carpenter, a 20-year-old Trump voter who co-founded Off The Record USA, a conservative media company, said Trump’s shift from his 2024 promise of no new wars has been disappointing. Carpenter, a former president of College Republicans at Arizona State University, said he wasn’t thinking much about foreign policy when he cast his vote. But now, he said, “We constantly see new conflict, which is … not a ‘promises made, promises kept’ agenda. That’s a ‘promises made, promises forgotten’ agenda.” John Byrnes, the strategic director at Concerned Veterans for America, a libertarian conservative group, also said Trump’s rhetoric may have gone too far. CVA has advocated for limited U.S. military presence in the Middle East and an end to “forever wars.” “The language of destroying a civilization is extreme,” he said. “If we really are at the point where that is the goal of this war, then it’s imperative that Congress be involved in a declaration of war or authorization use of military force.” Rick Wilson, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump Republicans, said the president “is an unhinged maniac who is threatening to destroy a civilization for kicks.” “He has no goals, no plans, and no idea where he is,” he said by email. “He’s encouraged by a White House staff trying to out cheer each other despite the damage he is doing to the economy. Every American should be afraid and call their Members of Congress to rein in this lunatic before it’s too late.” Selina Cardenas, a veteran and the deputy director of organizing in Arizona for the left-leaning group Common Defense, called Trump’s threat “alarming.” “The risk of civilian harm cannot be dismissed as collateral damage, and threats directed at civilian infrastructure raise legal and moral concerns under international law,” she said. “If carried out, such actions could also have far-reaching geopolitical consequences, including disruption to regional energy supplies that the United States and our allies rely on.” After Kelly’s warning last fall about illegal orders, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered him demoted, with a reduction in retirement pay. The senator retired as a captain after 25 years as a Navy pilot that included combat and four tours in space for NASA. None of the other Democrats had served long enough to retire, so he is the only one still potentially subject to military justice. In February, a judge temporarily blocked Hegseth’s actions, which he deemed a direct assault on free speech and legislative oversight. The case is set for arguments in May before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. More than 100 experts on international law signed a letter last week asserting that Trump’s actions in Iran have violated the United Nations Charter and could amount to war crimes. Rachel VanLandingham, a retired judge advocate and Air Force lieutenant colonel, was one of the signers. She said in an interview Tuesday that while it’s lawful to destroy so-called dual use infrastructure that supports both civilians and the military, that doesn’t mean it’s good policy or morally defensible. “What I fear is that there’s going to be huge target sets generated,” she said. “It’s awful but it’s lawful.” But she’s also confident that military leaders would ensure that only lawful actions were taken, even if the president orders strikes on a scale intended to erase Iranian civilization. “If indeed, the president’s rhetoric is being turned into an order down the chain, that order is not being followed,” she said. “It’s being translated into lawful targeting sets.” The post Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilization shocked even some supporters, raised war crime concerns appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Apr 8, 202612 votes

Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilization shocked even some supporters, raised war crime concerns

Apr 8, 202612 votes

Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilization shocked even some supporters, raised war crime concerns

Apr 8, 202614 votes

Trump’s threat against Iran desalination plants would be a war crime, legal experts say

WASHINGTON – On Monday, President Donald Trump threatened to destroy all desalination plants in Iran. Strikes on water infrastructure relied on by civilians would violate international law, legal experts say. Unless a plant supplies water only to a military base, said Marko Milanovic, a professor of public international law at the University of Reading, ordering such a strike would be “manifestly unlawful.” “Desalination plants are generally civilian objects, and as such protected from attack,” he said. “They also enjoy special protection as objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population.” Destroying infrastructure needed by civilians violates Article 54 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which lists “drinking water installations and supplies” as examples of targets that are off-limits. But enforcing international laws of warfare against a U.S. president would be nearly impossible, legal scholars said. And such prohibitions probably aren’t one of Trump’s considerations, said Robert Goldman, a law professor at American University who directs the school’s War Crimes Research Office and co-chairs the Academy of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. “This is not an administration that in any way feels restrained by international law,” he said, noting the difficulty to enforce arrest warrants against leaders of major nuclear powers like Russia. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, asked about the president’s threat to hit desalination plants, said the U.S. will act in “the confines of the law.” “But with respect to achieving the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump is going to move forward unabated, and he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration,” she told reporters. Rule 154 of customary international humanitarian law states explicitly that military personnel have a duty to refuse a military order if it is unlawful. The U.S. is not involved in all treaties regarding international laws, although it does reflect some laws in its own legal language, according to the Congressional Research Service. “In U.S. domestic law, you have the same rule by implication, in that the obligations to obey orders only apply to lawful orders,” said Ioannis Kalpouzos, a visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School. Goldman predicted that anyone in a U.S. uniform who refuses an order to target an Iranian desalination plant would have no trouble finding a lawyer. “He would have pro bono counsel from former judge advocate generals under Republicans and Democrats alike,” he said. “They would rush to his defense.” That is just the sort of scenario Sen. Mark Kelly and five other Democrats in Congress, all veterans of the military or CIA, warned about when they posted a video Nov. 18 urging military personnel to refuse illegal orders. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump described the comments as treasonous. Hegseth ordered Kelly – a former Navy combat pilot and astronaut who retired at the rank of captain – demoted with a pension reduction as punishment. None of the other lawmakers had served long enough to retire, so that form of punishment was not available to Hegseth. Kelly sued and a judge blocked the demotion temporarily. The case is set for arguments in May in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A federal grand jury refused to indict Kelly for sedition in February, a blow to Trump’s effort to punish him and an unusual rejection of prosecutors. “It is clear both as a matter of international law and as a matter of U.S. domestic law that a soldier has a duty to refuse to obey an unlawful order,” Milanovic said. Millions of Gulf state residents rely on drinking water from desalination plants, though only about 3% of Iran’s potable water is desalinated. Residents along Iran’s coast rely most heavily on desalinated water. “These rural communities and villagers … have struggled with having access to clean water during peacetime,” said Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health. “During war times, things would be much more catastrophic and problematic.” Iran has already accused the U.S. of attacking a desalination plant March 7 on Qeshm Island, strategically located in the Strait of Hormuz. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the plant provides water to 30 villages, and called the attack “a blatant and desperate crime.” “Attacking Iran’s infrastructure is a dangerous move with grave consequences,” Araghchi said on social media. “The U.S. set this precedent, not Iran.” The U.S. denied attacking the plant, as did Israel. The next day, Bahrain – where two-thirds of drinking water is produced through desalination – accused Iran of attacking one of its desalination plants. Another U.S. ally, Kuwait, said Monday that an Iranian attack on a power and desalination plant killed a worker and left “significant material damage.” On March 21, Trump threatened to attack Iranian power plants if it didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz within two days. Madani said that would have a much wider civilian impact. Iran threatened to retaliate with attacks on energy infrastructure and desalination plants belonging to U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf. Trump has not ordered such an attack so far. Legal experts say international and U.S. law present no real obstacle if Trump is determined to order attacks on desalination plants. U.S. law gives the commander-in-chief broad authority over the military. Congress can invoke the War Powers Resolution to limit his use of force and could in theory impeach him. Some Democrats have already accused Trump of war crimes for capturing and deposing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and for lethal boat strikes in the Caribbean. Iran and the U.S. are not among the 125 countries that joined the treaty that created the International Criminal Court. Nor is Israel, though the ICC still issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024 for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Trump imposed sanctions in February against ICC judges and officials involved in war crimes investigations targeting the U.S. and Israel. The sanctions include a ban on travel to the U.S. and asset freezes. The post Trump’s threat against Iran desalination plants would be a war crime, legal experts say appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Mar 31, 202615 votes

Top Pentagon official assures Congress that Iran is ‘not another Iraq War’

WASHINGTON – At a contentious House Armed Services Committee hearing with the Pentagon’s No. 3 official, lawmakers in both parties vented frustration Thursday over being kept out of the loop on major military operations. Many aired concerns that the 5-day-old conflict with Iran will deplete stockpiles, lead to a prolonged war and distract attention from other U.S. adversaries. Elbridge Colby, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, assured lawmakers the conflict will end far more quickly than the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, which lasted nearly nine years. And he asserted there’s a “very plentiful supply” of munitions. Colby – avoiding the term “war” in referring to the hostilities with Iran – has long argued for limiting U.S. commitments in the Middle East to focus resources on deterring China. “Are we at war with Iran?” Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., asked at one point – a question at the heart of war powers resolutions that failed Wednesday in the Senate and Thursday in the House. “I think we’re in a military action at this point. I’ll leave it to Congress and lawyers, etc., from the administration to determine,” he said. “I’m not the right person to weigh in on exactly the criteria.” Republicans used the hearing to express support for Trump’s decision to attack Iran. “This action should have been done a long time ago to restore deterrence. I can’t think of a better group of folks to target than the ayatollah and his henchmen,” said Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb. Congress kept in the dark Democrats in particular have accused the administration of failing to warn Americans in the Gulf region or plan for their evacuation. That was one of many critiques lawmakers aired. Many found it infuriating to learn that President Donald Trump tipped off U.S. energy company executives before U.S. forces captured Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3. The former president of Venezuela is awaiting trial in New York on drug trafficking charges. The raid on Caracas came as a surprise to Congress. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., demanded to know if plans to attack Iran had likewise been shared ahead of time. “Did the administration brief private sector officials, oil and gas executives, companies, businesses with interest in the Middle East before that operation commenced?” Crow asked. Colby didn’t rule that out but said he wasn’t sure. Two days after the Venezuela raid, Trump told reporters he had spoken with U.S. oil executives “before and after” the operation. Trump defended the decision not to inform Congress. “Congress has a tendency to leak,” he said at a news conference hours after Maduro was captured. The explanation did not sit well with many in Congress, including some Republicans. Federal law requires notification to a tight circle of bipartisan leaders. Speaker Mike Johnson has said the Gang of Eight was briefed before the Iran operation began. ‘Pulling teeth’ Armed Service Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican, slammed Colby for a pattern of communication lapses. He pointed to the Pentagon’s decision to remove a brigade from Europe in October without notifying Congress until three days later. That partial withdrawal weakens the U.S. force posture, he said, making it especially problematic that Congress wasn’t consulted or even alerted. “We take our duty to consult with Congress very seriously,” Colby responded. “I would actually go so far as to say our organization is one of the leaders in congressional engagement.” “We see that completely differently. It’s been like pulling teeth” to get information, the chairman said. Quick turnaround from ‘obliterated’ In a sharp exchange Tuesday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., pressed Colby to explain how Iran could have become an imminent threat by last week when only last summer Trump declared that he had destroyed its nuclear threat. If Iran’s nuclear missile program was “obliterated,” as Donald Trump claimed, why is it being used as part of the justification for this war? U.S. servicemembers have paid the price with their lives. The President owes this country the truth. pic.twitter.com/OyF33DA8KV — Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) March 4, 2026 “None of us here heard about Iran having missile technology that was that advanced, being able to range the United States or being close to obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Kelly said. “I mean, the last thing we heard from the president on the nuclear weapons before this war, as he calls it, was the Iranian nuclear program was `obliterated.’ That means completely eliminated, gone for good,” he said. Kelly noted that the National Defense Strategy issued Jan. 23, which Colby authored, also claimed the June attack “obliterated Iran’s nuclear program.” Colby asserted that the Pentagon always expected a follow-up to June’s Operation Midnight Hammer. “We fully anticipated providing the president with credible military options to deal with the Iranian threat,” he said. Will Iran be an Iraq repeat? Colby assured lawmakers that this conflict with Iran will not be prolonged, echoing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s predictions that it will be over within three to five weeks. “Sometimes we have to use force in order to not fight for the long term,” said Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C. “We are using a very specific application of force in such a decisive way that we are actually avoiding long conflict, and I think that’s exactly what we are doing in Iran.” Colby agreed. “This is not another Iraq War,” he said. “This is not nation building. This is not an endless war.” Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to differentiate Operation Epic Fury from previous military operations. “No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars,” he said. “We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives.” Depleted stockpiles One concern lawmakers expressed was that Operation Epic Fury is depleting munitions stockpiles. Last June, the U.S. used a quarter of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile interceptors during the 12-day conflict with Iran. Rubio said Monday that Iran’s ongoing ability to produce offensive weapons faster than the U.S. can produce interceptors justified the latest intervention. “They are producing, by some estimates, over 100 of these missiles a month,” he said. “Compare that to the six or seven interceptors that can be built a month.” At the House hearing, Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., voiced concern the Iran conflict will leave the U.S. short of munitions needed to deter China. Colby has long viewed China as the top U.S. threat, and the NDS describes China as one of the biggest threats to the U.S. “You’re not concerned about the number of missiles that we’re using in Iran?” Moulton asked. “I am confident in the situation,” Colby said, adding the U.S. has a “very plentiful supply” and the Pentagon is prepared to address multiple threats at once. “That is not a view shared by many of the officers who work in the Pentagon,” Moulton said. The post Top Pentagon official assures Congress that Iran is ‘not another Iraq War’ appeared first on Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University.

Mar 6, 202612 votes

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Articles served from smallwarsjournal.com

Trump’s widespread use of military goes far beyond Iran: ‘Death by a thousand cuts’ in terms of readiness

Trump’s widespread use of military goes far beyond Iran: ‘Death by a thousand cuts’ in terms of readiness

Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilization shocked even some supporters, raised war crime concerns

Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilization shocked even some supporters, raised war crime concerns

Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s civilization shocked even some supporters, raised war crime concerns

Trump’s threat against Iran desalination plants would be a war crime, legal experts say

Top Pentagon official assures Congress that Iran is ‘not another Iraq War’

Top Pentagon official assures Congress that Iran is ‘not another Iraq War’

Top Pentagon official assures Congress that Iran is ‘not another Iraq War’

Top Pentagon official assures Congress that Iran is ‘not another Iraq War’

Top Pentagon official assures Congress that Iran is ‘not another Iraq War’