US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed that America ‘didn’t start this war’ as he revealed Iran‘s plans to build a ‘missile shield’ to protect its nuclear ambitions.
‘We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it,’ Hegseth told a press conference at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday.
He warned that ‘war is hell and it always will be’ as a fourth US soldier was confirmed dead following Iranian strikes on a base in Kuwait.
Hegseth explained that ‘Iran was building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions’.
He vowed that the US would crush the Islamic regime. ‘We will finish this,’ he said.
‘If you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on Earth we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation. And we will kill you,’ Hegseth warned.
Hegseth also outlined the war goal of the mission in Iran, which did not include regime change: ‘This operation is a clear, devastating decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat. Destroy the Navy. No nukes.’
‘Know this above all, President Trump and I have your back always through fire, through criticism, through fake news, through everything we unleash you because you are the best, most powerful, most lethal fighting force the world has ever seen,’ Hegseth concluded.
Hegseth claimed that America ‘didn’t start this war’ as he revealed Iran’s plans to build a ‘missile shield’ to protect its nuclear ambitions
Hegseth also outlined the war goal of the mission in Iran, which did not include regime change
Hegseth explained that ‘Iran was building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions’
Asked if the US already had boots on the ground, Hegseth said: ‘No, but we’re not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do.’
‘We’ll go as far as we need to go,’ he said.
‘I think it’s one of those fallacies for a long time that this department or presidents or others should tell the American people and our enemies by the way, “Here’s exactly what we’ll do, here’s exactly how long we’ll go,”‘ he said.
As for how long the war will last, Hegseth said: ‘Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks, it could move up. It could move back.’
He sought to differentiate the Iran operation from past long-running US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying the war is not an effort to build democracy in Iran.
‘No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise. 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 “dumb” and he’s right.’
‘With every passing day, our capabilities get stronger and Iran’s get weaker. We set the terms of this war from start to finish. Our ambitions are not utopian, they are realistic scoped to our interests and the defense of our people and our allies,’ he added.
Following the secretary’s remarks, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Daniel Caine said: ‘On Friday, February 27 the United States Central Command, through the Secretary of War, received the final go order from President Trump. The President directed and I quote, “Operation epic Fury is approved. No aborts. Good luck.”‘
Caine revealed the sheer scale of America’s strikes on Iran to take out Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and cripple the country’s military.
Caine said that B-2 bombers had flown non-stop 37-hour trips from the continental US, dropping bombs on underground nuclear facilities in Iran.
‘At 9.45am Tehran time as dawn crept across central command area of operations, skies surged to life,’ he told reporters.
‘A hundred aircraft launched from land, sea, fighters, tankers, bombers … forming a single synchronized wave,’ Caine said.
Hegseth noted at the press conference that hundreds of ballistic missiles were fired toward troops in the region and intercepted by US forces
The rising death toll comes after Trump told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview over the phone on Sunday that fighting with Iran could go on for the next four weeks
The general said that the daylight strike was based on ‘a trigger event conducted by Israeli defense forces enabled by US Tomahawks’, referring to the strike on the ayatollah.
He said that America fired off ‘a massive overwhelming attack across all domains of warfare striking a thousand targets in the first 24 hours.’
Caine added that cyber and space commands had been deployed to ‘confuse the enemy.’
Donald Trump warned Americans to brace for more bloodshed and in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail warned that the conflict could last up to four weeks.
‘It’s always been a four-week process. We figured it will be four weeks or so. It’s always been about a four-week process so – as strong as it is, it’s a big country, it’ll take four weeks – or less,’ Trump said.
