Visual release of Iran attack
The United States has released images purporting to show American warships and aircraft launching attacks against Iran.
He seemed surprisingly relaxed and chatty, just like any other Monday.
But appearing in the East Room at noon on March 2, President Donald Trump gave his first public account of the extraordinary U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran that has upended the region and could define his presidency.
He outlined his goals but did not specifically mention the change of government he encouraged over the weekend. He promised success, but did not provide a specific timeline.
“We’re open to whatever the timing is, whatever we need to do,” he said, adding that the campaign is being rolled out “significantly” ahead of initial expectations for the campaign to last four or five weeks. He claimed he had the world’s support. “Everyone was supporting us, but they just didn’t have the courage to say so.”
Apparently it’s Trump’s world now.
Donald J. Trump, who reshaped American politics in his first term, appears determined to reshape the world in his second term. From Gaza to Greenland, from Caracas to Tehran, he wields American economic power with tariffs and military power with bombs.
But no sooner had he finished praising the American military’s valor against Iran than there were signs of the challenge he would face in convincing Americans that he had chosen the right path.
A CNN poll conducted over the weekend found that those surveyed opposed military action in double digits, between 59% and 41%. 60% said they did not have a clear plan. And by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, 54% to 28%, they predicted that Iran would increase rather than reduce the threat to the United States.
President Trump has ordered bombing raids on six countries over the past year: Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen, but none of them match Iran’s size and military might.
In a series of defiant posts on social media platform
For better or worse, the effects of Operation Epic Fury will undoubtedly reverberate across the region and the world for months and years to come.
And through President Trump’s inauguration.
“We will win easily.”
President Trump argued that the military strike was justified because the U.S. mainland itself could soon be attacked by Iran’s nuclear weapons.
“The administration already has missiles capable of hitting bases in Europe and at home and abroad, and will soon have missiles capable of reaching our beautiful United States,” he said. “An Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would pose an intolerable threat not only to the Middle East but also to the American people.”
This contradicts Defense Intelligence Agency estimates that it will take at least a decade for Iran to build missiles that can reach the United States.
He specified four goals: “destroy” Iran’s missile capabilities, “annihilate” its navy, ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons, and ensure that it is unable to fund or direct terrorist proxies outside its borders.
That end goal seemed to suggest the current regime might remain in power, even as President Trump called on Iranians to rise up and overthrow the authorities in a video posted to social media over the weekend.
He did not answer questions from reporters and declined to address some basic issues, including whether he intends to send in U.S. ground troops. However, he expressed confidence in the result. “We will win easily,” he said.
Trump was so at ease that he stopped reading his remarks on the teleprompter in front of him and admired the East Room’s decor. “Those curtains are what I chose in my first term,” he said. “I’ve always liked money” – and notice how much noise construction workers are making on the controversial new White House ballroom ofs To make.
“My wife isn’t thrilled” about the rattling noise, he says.
He mocked one of his predecessors, stretched out his full name “Barack Hussein Obama” and mocked an anonymous commentator who suggested on television that he might get tired of Iran in a week or so.
“I’m never bored,” he said. “There’s nothing boring about this.”
Warnings from Vietnam and Afghanistan
In the eastern room was a reminder of the upcoming danger.
The event had long been scheduled for the president to award three Medals of Honor. One was a posthumous gift to Sergeant Major Roderick Edmonds, a heroic leader of the U.S. Army in a German POW camp during World War II, a war that unified the country and the free world.
The other two awards went to retired Army Commander Sergeant Terry Richardson, who was recognized for his bravery in Vietnam in 1968, and U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Michael Orris, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2013.
These two wars taught us how conflict can divide a country and weaken the presidency.
