Secretary of War Pete Hegseth denied claims from critics on Tuesday about Israel’s involvement in operations against Iran, stating that the United States was “leading” the operations against Iran.
President Donald Trump announced Operation Epic Fury in a video posted on Truth Social early in the morning of Feb. 28. The reporter brought up comments by critics who claim that Israel pushed Trump into a needless war during a Tuesday press conference.
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“Well, I would just state by saying Israel’s been a really strong partner in this effort, where they have different objectives, they’ve pursued them, ultimately, we’ve stayed focused on ours, but what Iran has felt is the power of the world’s two most powerful air forces,” Hegseth responded. “In that particular case, that wasn’t our, those weren’t our strikes or that objective, or that wasn’t necessarily our objective, but the president has made it clear to those concerns that we’re not getting pulled in any direction. We’re leading. The president is leading. He’s determining where we want to go, what the outcome will be, what the end state is, with a very keen eye.”
“I understand those concerns because I’ve heard from a lot of people who went through, I went through 20 years of those wars myself, worried about getting dragged in, worried about mission creep, worried about nation building or democracy expansion, that’s never the perspective the president has pursued on this,” Hegseth continued.
Some critics have pointed to comments Secretary of State Marco Rubio made during a March 2 press conference as evidence of Israel “taking advantage” of the United States.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said. “We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
Trump remarked during a Monday press conference that the conflict would end “soon,” but did not commit to an exact date. The president previously stated that he would not accept anything outside of an “unconditional surrender” from Iran to end the operation.
Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham admitted to the Wall Street Journal that he had been advising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding a push for Trump to take military action. The senator made multiple trips to Israel and one to Mar-a-Lago, with the idea that Gulf states wanted the U.S. to intervene.
Trump previously alluded to the idea of striking Iran as early as December 2025, around the same time Netanyahu visited Mar-a-Lago. The Feb. 28 strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei alongside numerous Iranian officials.
In a Democracy Institute poll released March 3, 85% of Republicans believe Trump broke his 2024 campaign promise to avoid starting new wars by launching Operation Epic Fury. Seven military personnel have been killed in action while an eighth died from a medical incident.
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