US President Donald Trump says Washington would “easily” beat Tehran in a potential war, dismissing reports that a top US military officer had flagged significant risks of a strike against Iran.
General Dan Caine, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, cautioned at a White House meeting last week that a lack of munitions and support from allies could mean greater danger for the US if an attack set off a long-term military entanglement, The Washington Post reported.
But Trump dismissed that reporting, saying it was “100 percent incorrect” that Caine was “against us going to war with Iran”.
“General Caine, like all of us, would like not to see War but, if a decision is made on going against Iran at a Military level, it is his opinion that it will be something easily won,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday (NZT).
“Razin Caine is a Great Fighter, and represents the Most Powerful Military anywhere in the World… he only knows one thing, how to WIN and, if he is told to do so, he will be leading the pack.”
The Washington Post reporting did not state that Caine had taken a position against a strike, and his office told the news outlet that the general “provides a range of military options, as well as secondary considerations and associated impacts and risks, to the civilian leaders who make America’s security decisions”.
The New York Times reported that at the White House meeting – which also involved Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles – Trump pressed Caine to weigh in on the administration’s broader strategy in dealing with Iran.
Caine and Ratcliffe would not generally advocate certain policy positions, the New York Times noted, and both men instead discussed possible outcomes of proposed operations.
The largest US military buildup in the Middle East in decades
Trump’s comments come amid repeated threats of force against Iran unless it agrees to US terms in talks over its nuclear programme.
The Pentagon is building up the largest force of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades, including two aircraft carrier strike groups.
“It’s proven to be, over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran, and we have to make a meaningful deal,” Trump said last week. “Otherwise bad things happen.”
Trump, during his first term, abandoned a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme that had been agreed to by the Obama administration and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, along with the European Union, in 2015.
Trump likely will have a host of military options, which could include surgical attacks on Iran’s air defences or strikes focused on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, experts say.
But they warn that Iran could retaliate in ways it hadn’t following attacks last year by the US or Israel, potentially risking American lives and sparking a regional war.
“It will be very hard for the Trump administration to do a one-and-done kind of attack in Iran this time around,” said Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the International Crisis Group.
“Because the Iranians would respond in a way that would make all-out conflict inevitable.”
– with Associated Pres