A former top U.S. general who commanded troops in Iraq has warned that President Trump’s strikes against Iran could plunge the region into “chaos.”
Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Mark Hertling said on Monday that the U.S. military was conducting “precision strikes with tremendous effect” but warned that external bombing alone “cannot produce democratic change” and could “strengthen hard-liners in Tehran.”
“I think when we talk about the Middle East, which I’m very familiar with and where there’s a lot of scar tissue, my conclusion is that external strikes alone can’t bring about democratic change. We’ve seen that in multiple conflicts,” he told MS Now.
Mark Hertling said Monday the strike would not impact changes in the district. /AFP/AFP via Getty Images
“We saw this in Desert Storm, where 45 days of airstrikes were followed by a ground campaign. If nothing is done afterwards, it’s going to be much tougher than what we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan, because these attacks in the Middle East often empower hardliners. It’s going to create further chaos,” he added.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
This comes after U.S. and Israeli forces launched a large-scale, unprovoked coordinated air strike on Iran over the weekend, marking a significant escalation in the region.
Trump defended Saturday’s “major combat action” against Iran by arguing that Tehran had resisted efforts to curb its nuclear program. / US President Trump via The Truth Society / Anadolu via Getty Images
The attack killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggered retaliatory attacks on several other countries in the Middle East.
Trump defended Saturday’s “major combat action” against Iran, saying Tehran had resisted efforts to curb its nuclear program, despite saying last year that the U.S. military had “completely and completely destroyed” Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities and that it would take “years” to rebuild.
So far, four US military personnel have been killed in the attack. In a video statement released by the White House on Sunday, Trump warned that “sadly, there may be more to come before it’s over.”
With casualties mounting and no clear exit in sight, Trump faces growing demands to define his endgame in Iran. The president returned to office promising to end America’s so-called “forever wars,” but instead promised days of sustained “violent and precision bombing” that he insisted would continue until the United States achieved what he called its “peace goals” in the Middle East.
At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected comparisons with costly entanglements of the past, saying Operation Epic Fury was not an “endless war” but a “clear, devastating, decisive mission.” However, the government has yet to publicly detail what victory would look like or how the fighting would stop.
The United States and Israel launched a new wave of attacks in Tehran, Iran, on Sunday. / Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images
Lawmakers and foreign policy experts warn that without a clear strategy, the United States could slip into the kind of protracted conflict that Trump has vowed to avoid.
“Where has all this gone?” Jim Himes, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told NPR. “We could join Israel in bombing Iran, you know, for a long time, but for what?
“Was the intent to be regime change? Because there aren’t many examples of regime change being effected through bombing, or frankly, there aren’t many examples of U.S. forces actually doing regime change in a satisfactory way.”
But at present, the United States has not yet formulated a plan for Iran’s next move.
Republican lawmakers have so far opposed the deployment of U.S. ground troops to Iran. “There are no easy answers to what happens next,” SennTom Cotton, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee from Arkansas, said on CBS News.
“You know, the idea that ‘you break it, you own it’ I don’t believe at all,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Trump ally, said on NBC. Meet the media. “This is not Iraq. This is not Germany. This is not Japan. We are going to liberate our people from a regime of terror.”
Graham added that it is not the president’s job to make plans for Iran.
“It’s not his job and it’s not my job. How many times do I have to tell you? Our job is to make sure that Iran is no longer the largest state sponsor of terrorism. To help the people rebuild a new government. There are no boots on the ground,” he said.
