U.S. Won’t Rule out Sending Ground Troops into Iran

The Washington Post

12:37 JST, March 3, 2026

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday would not rule out the possibility of sending American ground troops to Iran or articulate the Trump administration’s exit strategy as the Pentagon attempts to secure a quick, decisive victory while limiting U.S. bloodshed.

Hegseth, joined by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, delivered his first public remarks to reporters as U.S. and Israeli forces carried out a third day of attacks on Iran’s military infrastructure and as Iranian forces hit American bases throughout the Middle East.

Hegseth, who as an Army National Guard officer served during the Iraq War, struck a combative tone early on in the briefing, defending President Donald Trump’s decision to authorize the operation against Iran, chastising the administration’s critics and vowing that, unlike recent U.S. wars, this one would not be “endless.”

“Our generation knows better,” the defense secretary said in a prepared statement at the briefing’s outset, “and so does this president.”

But there are signs that the military’s needs already are evolving and that the conflict could become more costly and drawn out than the president perhaps had anticipated.

Six U.S. service members have died as a result of Iranian counterstrikes, officials said, and three advanced aircraft have been lost. Trump told reporters at the White House later Monday that the U.S. military had projected that the operation could take four to five weeks but “we have the capability to go far longer than that.”

Caine said additional personnel were being moved into the region Monday to support the operation. He would not provide specifics except to say that some of the additional forces included “tactical aviation” units.

A person familiar with the military’s plans, speaking like some others on the condition of anonymity because the matter is highly sensitive, said the Pentagon also was working to move more air defense assets into the region. The Army has been directed to send additional medical support and ammunition technicians to Europe, a defense official said.

Spokespeople for the general and U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, declined to specify how many additional troops would be deployed. Approximately 50,000 service members already are involved in the operation, a U.S. official said.

The ambitious objectives that the Trump administration has set – the destruction of Iran’s navy, its air defenses, its command-and-control operations, and its ballistic missile and nuclear capabilities – have required a massive, coordinated effort involving the military’s cyber, space, naval, air and ground forces.

Hundreds of fighter jets, ships and drones have struck so many of Iran’s weapons systems that Caine said the U.S. had achieved “local air superiority” over Iran.

While the steady attack hit more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours, some of the hardest threats to eliminate remained – notably Iran’s vast fleet of Shahed drones and its long-range missiles. In comments to the New York Post on Monday, Trump acknowledged that he had not ruled out sending ground forces into Iran “if they were necessary.”

Achieving the administration’s objectives “will take some time,” Caine said, adding that, in some cases, the work will be difficult and “gritty.”

“We expect to take additional losses, and, as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses,” Caine said.

Officials announced ahead of the Pentagon briefing that a fourth American service member had died as a result of the hostilities, succumbing to wounds suffered in Iran’s ferocious counterattack. The death toll was revised to six a few hours later, when officials disclosed that the remains of two previously unaccounted-for service members had been recovered from a facility hit by an Iranian strike. All six deaths occurred in Kuwait, in an incident that left several other service members seriously injured, officials said.

Separately, officials said that the Kuwaiti government had acknowledged that its military had mistakenly shot down three U.S. F-15 fighter jets Monday, in what officials called a “friendly fire incident.” The six crew members “ejected safely, have been safely recovered, and are in stable condition,” Centcom said in a statement.

The State Department issued a warning urging Americans in more than a dozen countries to “DEPART NOW,” saying they face “serious safety risks” from Iran’s ongoing retaliatory strikes.

In Bahrain, an attack drone hit a hotel, injuring two Defense Department employees, according to a State Department cable reviewed by The Washington Post. The U.S. Embassy there had advised U.S. citizens to avoid hotels in the capital, Manama, after the Crown Plaza, a luxury property there, was attacked Sunday morning.

The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait came under attack twice, according to separate cables reviewed by The Post, though it did not appear that anyone was injured. Smoke was seen rising over the embassy Monday, and personnel there were instructed to shelter in place.

At the Pentagon, Hegseth sought to frame the military assault as a just response to Tehran’s years-long targeting of Americans and American interest throughout the Middle East and a necessary preventative move. Iran’s massive arsenal of missiles and drones, he said, was built to “shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions – our bases, our people, our allies all in their crosshairs.”

Yet he appeared to contradict statements made by the president over the past three days – declaring that the fight with Iran “is not a so-called regime-change war.” Trump has explicitly said that is his objective, in addition to destroying Tehran’s military capabilities.

Over the weekend, Trump said that the military action – which the administration has called Operation Epic Fury – could last four weeks or more and that additional U.S. casualties were likely. Hegseth scoffed at a reporter who asked about the president’s expected timeline, calling it a “gotcha-type question” and offering no commitment to that schedule.

“President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take,” Hegseth said. “Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up. It could move back.”

Hegseth did not directly answer a reporter’s question about the administration’s exit strategy. “As far as time frame, I would never hang a time frame,” he said, adding that it is Trump who will set the “tempo” of the fight. “It’s on his terms,” Hegseth said.

In one exchange, the defense secretary was asked what he would say to military families about why he had sent their children to war and whether he is concerned that the fighting will spiral into a protracted war.

“Did you not hear my remarks?” Hegseth responded. “We are very clear-eyed, as the president has been, unlike other presidents, about the foolish policies of the past that recklessly pulled us in.”

Caine said that hundreds of Iranian missiles have been intercepted across the region and that the U.S. air defense network is working “exactly as it’s intended.” His assertion, however, is complicated by the fact that missiles and drones have hit U.S. bases in the region, including in Kuwait over the weekend when air defenses failed to avert a deadly strike.

Hegseth appeared to acknowledge this, saying, “Every once in a while you might have one, unfortunately … that makes its way through.”

As The Post reported last week, Caine had warned the White House that munitions shortfalls and a lack of broad military support from other U.S. allies would add considerable risk to any operation in Iran and to the personnel put in harm’s way. Two munitions vital to their defense – Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors, and Patriot missile systems – have been extensively used in recent military operations. Patriots also remain one of the most in-demand items by Ukraine as it defends against Russian missile attacks.

The general disclosed that the initial strikes, which began during the daytime Saturday in Iran, involved more than 100 aircraft flying from positions on land and at sea. U.S. forces dropped tens of thousands of pieces of ordnance during the first two days, he added, sorties that included B-2 bombers – flying on a 37-hour round trip from the continental United States – and the use of “precision penetrating munitions” against Iranian underground facilities.

U.S. cyber and space capabilities were employed to blind Iranian forces in advance of the assault, Caine said. The effort disrupted their communications, he said, “leaving the adversary without the ability to coordinate or respond effectively.”

Karen DeYoung, Susannah George, Meryl Kornfield, Noah Robertson, Leo Sands, Adam Taylor and Amy B Wang contributed to this report.