Speaking to news reporters Monday morning, his first public comments since the bombs started dropping, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called the U.S.-Israel air campaign above Iran “the most lethal, most complex, and most precise aerial operation in history.”
A related social media post from U.S. Central Command said the air attacks are targeting command and control centers; military sites used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; air defense systems; military communication sites; and Iran navy assets such as ships, submarines, and anti-ship missiles.
Back at the Pentagon, Hegseth told reporters – and hence the American public – the U.S. attack really goes back to 1979. That is the year Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in France to take over and rule Iran.
Hegseth said Iran’s fanatical ayatollahs have being waging a “one-sided war” against the United States ever since.
“They didn't always declare it openly, except for their constant chants of death to America,” Hegseth said. “They did it through the blood of our people: car bombs in Beirut, rocket attacks on our ships, murders at our embassies, roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
With the attack now reaching the four-day mark, the Trump administration is also facing criticism and questions from the political Right about the military attack and its objectives.
Asked about Hegseth’s comments, Southern Baptist leader Dr. Richard Land told AFN the secretary of war was right about confronting evil that can’t be reformed or persuaded.
“Some regimes are simply evil,” Land said. “The only way to end those regimes is to end the philosophy that drove them to evil.”
In a series of X posts since the attack began, Daily Wire host Matt Walsh has staked out a clear position: Iran should not be a target, militarily or politically, for the United States.
“I’m not actually an isolationist. I’m just an America First conservative in the strictest sense of the term,” Walsh wrote in a March 2 post.
“Does the benefit for America outweigh the cost?” he continued. “It must, or it’s a bad policy. This is one of my absolute core political principles, and always has been.”
Another example came Monday from Fox News, where show host Will Cain raised the question about “objectives” and “goals” after six U.S. servicemembers have been killed.
“I think I want to ask this question of you: what does victory look like? When would the United States say mission accomplished?” Cain asked Jack Keane, a retired four-star general and military expert and a frequent Fox guest.
“I’ll be happy to repeat it: the objective is to prevent this regime from having the capability to continue to attack us,” Keane replied.
After the retired general gave a history lesson on Iran’s attacks on U.S. targets, going back decades, Cain appeared unhappy with his answers. During a testy exchange that followed, Cain pressed whether the Trump administration’s goal is “regime change” or, as Keane had stated minutes earlier, to “degrade” the Iranian regime so it no longer poses a threat to the United States.
Answering the Fox News host, Keane said the objective is a little of both. One objective is to end Iran’s military capabilities, which is being achieved by the U.S. military, and also to weaken the regime so badly with Israel’s attacks on key leaders the regime is on a “pathway” to collapse, he said.
Asked about the debate happening among Republicans and conservatives, AFR host Jenna Ellis told AFN the debate is really about what "America First" means. The phrase “America First” was never meant to be “America indifferent” when it involves other nations outside our own borders, she insisted.
“If defeating a clear evil threat directly protects American citizens and interests, then strength abroad isn’t a betrayal of the policy – it’s a morally serious application of it,” she stated.
