‘This is not a single overnight operation,’ Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine says.
The top U.S. general said that American military objectives in Iran will not come at once and that more American casualties are to be expected, as several U.S. warplanes were mistakenly shot down over Kuwait.
The U.S.–Israeli air war against Iran continued on March 2 as Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that Kuwait’s air defense systems accidentally shot down three F-15E fighter planes during strikes on Iran. So far, four American soldiers have died in the operation since it was launched early on Saturday morning.
“To be clear … this is not a single overnight operation,” Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine said in a news conference on Monday morning.
“The military objectives that CENTCOM and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work.
“We expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses.”
He added that the armed forces are unified “against a capable and determined adversary.”
In the most significant U.S. military gamble in years, the Trump administration launched an air campaign alongside Israel on Feb. 28 against an enemy regime that had been opposed to the United States, Israel, and its allies since its inception in 1979. Iran’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and dozens of other top leaders were killed in airstrikes.
A fourth U.S. service member died on Monday of injuries sustained in the U.S. operation against Iran. U.S. military forces have intercepted hundreds of ballistic missiles targeting the United States and its partners in the region.
Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth said in the same news conference on Monday that military operations against Iran would not morph into an “endless war,” alluding to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.
“This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” Hegseth said.
The goal, he said, was to degrade or destroy the Iranian regime’s missiles, navy, and other security systems. A day earlier, President Donald Trump announced on social media that the U.S. strikes destroyed nine Iranian navy ships, and that the Iranian naval headquarters was also partially destroyed.
There were no indications that the Islamist clerical regime in charge of Iran for decades was showing any public signs of capitulating to the United States on Monday as the Iranian military launched missiles and drones at its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain, among others.
