On Wednesday night, President Donald Trump promised his convention crowd that his war in Iran was coming to an end and implied it would be over soon. The military's recent actions paint a very different picture, and it'll come at a significant price.
"I think the war is gonna end immediately after the election." Trump then repeated, "I think the war will end immediately after the election."
The Atlantic's Nancy Youssef and Jonathan Lemire wrote on Thursday that Naval forces are positioning themselves for a sustained presence in the region.
According to military and defense experts, the Pentagon’s actions indicate that officials are preparing for a prolonged campaign in the Persian Gulf. Such deployments have been rare outside of the height of the Afghanistan and Iran Wars, the report explained.
Aircraft carriers and ships are like mobile airfields capable of launching sustained strikes without relying on vulnerable bases on the ground in nearby countries. The concern is that keeping them in the Gulf means the Navy has fewer ships available for missions elsewhere.
At the same time, a longer deployment ends "ripple effects" through the branches of service, the report said. It's taking away from the time allocated for maintenance and training. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth expanded deployments to the Middle East, and it has become a PR disaster. Top leaders communicated their objections, said Walden. Then, for weeks, reporters covered the agony of soldiers and sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, who were on an extended deployment as food began to run out, and the ship arrived at port covered in rust. All of these small things add up to eroding "sailor retention and readiness," the report said.
“When you overuse an asset, eventually you are going to pay a price,” John Pendleton told The Atlantic. He previously directed the Government Accountability Office’s military readiness.
Admiral Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations, prepared the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group for the "tough times ahead," The Atlantic characterized. According to USNI News the attacks on U.S. bases have made it more difficult to shuttle sailors to the shore and keep them safe.
“If we know we’re going into harm’s way, we should be able to project with a little bit more fidelity how long the carrier and the strike group is going to stay on station,” Caudle said. “We do these extensions in little chunks, and the families don’t see any endpoint so they can plan their own lives—that creates a lot of stress for sailors.”
He added that he isn't "a big fan of extensions" but that "the enemy gets a vote" whether the military likes it or not.
Defense expert Bryan Clark said it has been clear to him that Trump intended to remain in the new war for a while after he "decided on the blockade as its main line of effort."
“But keeping carriers in the Arabian Gulf for responsive strikes will prevent sustaining carrier presence elsewhere. We may see U.S. influence erode in places like the Asia Pacific, like Japan and Taiwan," Clark added.
The experts painted the ordeal as a historic strategic fumble. Trump's effort to project strength may instead exhaust American forces, reduce flexibility and weaken the U.S.' ability to respond to threats elsewhere. Even if the war eventually ends, it may take the military years to recover from the damage.
