“Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 ways we can come at them with boots on the ground, and guess what, there are,” he said. “If we needed to we could execute those options on behalf of the President of the United States and this department, or maybe we don’t use them at all—maybe negotiations work.”
Since U.S. and Israeli bombardments inside Iran began on Feb. 28, the U.S. has hit 11,000 targets, said U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, who stood next to Hegseth during Tuesday’s press briefing.
In recent days, U.S. warplanes have increased the pace at which they destroy mobile rocket and drone launchers moving into the open inside Iran.
The thousands of additional elite combat units deployed in the region could be used in many different ways, Caine said. One of them, he added, is that their mere presence is intended to put pressure on Iranian negotiators to make a deal.
