Pentagon Destroys Trump’s Main Defense on Iran Strikes

Iran was not planning to attack U.S. military personnel or bases in the Persian Gulf unless Israel struck first, sources in the Pentagon told Congress Sunday.

The revelation undercuts the White House’s claim the day before that Iran was an imminent threat to the U.S. with plans to strike American targets first. Senior Trump administration officials claimed Saturday that Iran was planning to begin attacks against American military bases in the Middle East with many casualties. At the time, CNN reported that this claim had no intelligence basis.

Iran has its own missile program and supports groups outside of the country such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and multiple militias in Iraq. White House officials used these factors to back up its claim, but other sources told the news outlet that this still didn’t justify the U.S. hitting Iran first.

When asked about the Department of Defense contradicting the White House, an administration spokesperson, Dylan Johnson, avoided the question and said that the DOD had “briefed the bipartisan staffs of several national security committees in both chambers for over 90 minutes on the military action in Iran.”

The briefings only discussed Iran’s allied groups in the region and its missile program, and didn’t mention any intelligence about Iran attacking the U.S. first, sources also told Reuters.

All of this shows bungled planning by the Trump administration for its military action against Iran. Four U.S. soldiers have been killed thus far and five seriously wounded, with other military personnel suffering minor shrapnel injuries and concussions. By Trump’s admission, any plans for succession in Iran after its supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, was killed on Saturday were dashed because multiple successors were also killed.

What happens now? Apparently Trump is workshopping possible plans with outside journalists. Meanwhile, countless Iranian civilians are dead, including at least 165 at an elementary school, and the death toll in the region will only increase as this ill-advised, haphazard war continues.