Lawmakers react to reports Pentagon preparing for ground operations in Iran | US-Israel war on Iran
US lawmakers have responded to reports that the Pentagon is preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran as thousands of US troops gather in the Middle East and the conflict shows signs of entering a new, more dangerous phase.
Authorities he told the Washington Post It was rumored that a ground operation against Iran could be limited to raids by Special Operations forces and infantry units, but it was unclear whether Donald Trump would approve any of the Pentagon’s plans.
Republican Sen. James Lankford told NBC’s Meet the Press that he wasn’t ruling out supporting troops on the ground, but “we need to know what the targets are and what they’re actually doing.”
Lankford, who serves on the Senate intelligence committee, said it was important to “get the job done” but to know “which boots to put on the ground.”
“If this is about special forces being able to carry out a specific operation (enter, exit), this is very different from a long-standing occupation,” he said. “The worst thing that can happen is to start such a conflict and not be able to finish it, to leave it unfinished.”
“We need to be able to get this done,” he added.
Responding to the Washington Post report, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “It is the Pentagon’s duty to prepare to give the Commander in Chief maximum options. This does not mean the President has made a decision.”
Another 3,500 U.S. soldiers and sailors arrived in the Middle East on Sunday as part of a contingent led by the warship USS Tripoli that included attack and transport assets. The United States usually deploys about 50,000 troops to the region.
Options for using military reinforcements include plans aimed at securing the Strait of Hormuz, operations to seize Iran’s highly enriched uranium, or the seizure of Iran’s oil facilities.
Trump has previously said he “will not station troops anywhere” at a time when there are apparent divisions at the Maga base over foreign military engagements and the need for congressional approval.
Lankford was asked Sunday whether the president needs congressional approval to deploy U.S. troops to Iran. Lankford objected that it depends on how they are used.
“If there’s a long-running war, let’s go back to what happened in Iraq or Afghanistan, yes,” Lankford said. “If this is to protect the Americans and make sure we’re in there for a season, stopping and getting out, that’s very, very different. Again, this is all conditional.”
Senate Republicans have previously rejected several war powers resolutions aimed at limiting Trump’s ability to take further military action against Iran without congressional approval.
The Pentagon reportedly requested an additional $200 billion for the war, in addition to its $1 trillion annual budget. Trump said the additional funds were requested “for many reasons beyond what we talked about on Iran.”
Lankford said that if requested, Congress would “have to speak at that moment to be able to talk about how far we are, what the plans are, what we are going to do.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Sunday that the Trump administration had achieved its goals in the conflict.
“The whole world knows that a nuclear armed Iran would have been a danger to the world,” he told ABC News. “Look at what Iran is doing right now. It’s actually united not only Israel but all the Arab nations around them against Iran because of the danger they pose.”
Scalise rejected any characterization that the administration had failed to set its goals. He said Trump “understands what needs to be done” and “has a great team around him.”
Democrats reacted Sunday to signs that the conflict could enter a more dangerous phase.
New Jersey senator Cory Booker said the Trump administration “has put us in a situation that will be viewed as one of the greatest mistakes of our time, one of the presidential mistakes.”
Booker said that by not seeking congressional approval, Trump is “driving us further and further into a conflict that has no predictable exit point and thousands of troops are moving into that area.”
He said the US military engagement with Iran was “clearly not just a war, but the largest military engagement we’ve had since the war in Afghanistan” and questioned its plan.
“That’s been the problem from the beginning,” Booker said, adding that Trump “has not made himself clear to us, to the American people, or to his strategic allies in the region.”
Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen told ABC This Week that he hopes his request for additional Pentagon funding will not pass Congress.
“I don’t think we should be providing more money for an illegal election war to a president who promised during the campaign not to drag America into new wars, especially in the Middle East, and who is now promising a war that is making us less safe, not less safe, a war that is already costing American lives, costing billions of dollars every day, with oil and gas prices rising.”
Van Hollen added that a president who campaigned to lower prices and end foreign wars “started foreign wars with Prime Minister Netanyahu and prices went through the roof.” So no, we should not continue to fund an illegal war of choice that makes us less safe.”
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned the United States on Sunday against a ground invasion and threatened to “set fire” to American troops and step up attacks on U.S. allies.
Galibaf said Iranian forces were “waiting for American troops to arrive on the field to set themselves on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to Iranian official media.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it is ready to target US universities in the Middle East in retaliation for allegations that US-Israeli attacks destroyed two Iranian universities.
In the statement published by Iranian media, it was said, “If the US government wants its universities in the region to be exempt from reprisals, it should condemn the bombing of universities by making an official statement by 12 noon on Monday, March 30, Tehran time.”
