\n<\/p>\n
When US President Donald Trump casually floated the idea of putting US \u201cboots on the ground\u201d in Iran, he openly defied a longstanding presidential taboo. \u201cLike every president says, \u2018There will be no boots on the ground\u2019. I don\u2019t say it,\u201d Trump declared amid the ongoing US-Israeli strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n
But while the political rhetoric from Washington hints at a sprawling conflict, military experts argue that the reality on the rugged Iranian terrain will look vastly different from a traditional invasion.<\/p>\n
Military and strategic analyst Colonel Nidal Abu Zeid told Al Jazeera it is unlikely the US is contemplating a traditional ground invasion involving tanks and massed infantry, but rather a different pattern of warfare.<\/p>\n
In his interview with The New York Post on Monday, Trump left the door open for the arrival of ground forces while expressing confidence in the current aerial campaign, dubbed \u201cOperation Epic Fury\u201c.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground \u2013 like every president says, \u2018There will be no boots on the ground.\u2019 I don\u2019t say it,\u201d Trump said following the strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of other officials. \u201cI say \u2018probably don\u2019t need them,\u2019 [or] \u2018if they were necessary\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth echoed this at a Pentagon news briefing, confirming no US troops are currently inside Iran but leaving the option on the table. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to roll 200,000 people in there and stay for 20 years,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n
According to Abu Zeid, Hegseth\u2019s and Trump\u2019s comments align with what is militarily known as \u201cpick-up\u201d or selective operations. This involves limited efforts by special forces infiltrating specific points to execute precise sabotage or intelligence-gathering missions, followed by rapid extraction.<\/p>\n
A traditional invasion to occupy territory is not viable, Abu Zeid said, citing Iran\u2019s complex geopolitical environment, rugged geography and demographic density, all of which provide Tehran with a distinct defensive advantage. He noted that Israel has also previously declared a ground operation in Iran to be impractical.<\/p>\n
Trump revealed that the decision to launch the joint US-Israeli strikes came after \u201cfinal talks\u201d in Geneva collapsed on Thursday. The trigger, he claimed, was intelligence showing Iran had surreptitiously moved its nuclear enrichment programme to a \u201ctotally different site\u201d.<\/p>\n
In June last year, Trump had claimed that US strikes, known as \u201cOperation Midnight Hammer,\u201d had \u201cobliterated\u201d known Iranian nuclear facilities. \u201cSo then we found them working on a totally different area, a totally different site, in order to make a nuclear weapon through enrichment \u2013 so it was just time,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Trump said the operation is \u201cway ahead of schedule\u201d. Originally estimating the war would last around four weeks, Trump said the primary objective of eliminating the leadership structure \u2013 killing 49 top officials \u2013 had been achieved in a single day.<\/p>\n
However, Abu Zeid pointed out that Trump\u2019s initial reference to a four-week timeline is not merely operational; it is tied to US domestic law. The US Constitution restricts the president\u2019s authority to wage war beyond 30 days without Congressional approval, making the \u201cfour-week\u201d window a critical legal and political calculation.<\/p>\n
While the Iranian command structure has taken a severe hit, Tehran has continued to retaliate. At least six US service members have been killed in action during the conflict with Iran, according to the US military.<\/p>\n
Simultaneously, Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed to have fired four cruise missiles at the US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is stationed in waters close to Iran. Abu Zeid dismissed this claim as media \u201cpropaganda\u201d designed to target the morale and prestige of the US military.<\/p>\n
He explained that the carrier is protected by advanced RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile systems capable of high-altitude interception, backed by a multi-layered defensive umbrella from escorting destroyers. Furthermore, US reconnaissance aircraft, notably AWACS early-warning planes, maintain constant surveillance, making undetected missile launches highly improbable.<\/p>\n
Approximately 72 hours into the confrontation, Abu Zeid said, a drop to a medium-intensity level in Iranian missile attacks was observed. He attributed this decline to the likely destruction of Iranian launch platforms. While higher estimates suggest Iran possesses about 3,000 ballistic missiles, it relies on only a few hundred launchers. In a missile war, the destruction of platforms is just as critical as the depletion of the missile stockpile itself.<\/p>\n
Despite the military momentum, Trump faces scepticism at home. A Reuters\/Ipsos poll<\/a> showed only 27 percent of Americans approved of the strikes, while a CNN\/SSRS poll<\/a> placed approval at 41 percent.<\/p>\n Trump dismissed the numbers, insisting a \u201csilent majority\u201d supports the preemptive action to prevent \u201ccrazy people\u201d from acquiring a nuclear weapon and citing a 47-year history of Iranian hostility that includes the 1979 embassy hostage crisis and the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Abu Zeid noted that US and Israeli intelligence may have underestimated Iran\u2019s ability to quickly repair its chain of command. By adopting a doctrine of \u201ccentralised planning and decentralised execution\u201d, Tehran has managed to absorb the initial shock and maintain its missile barrage despite heavy US electronic jamming and technological superiority.<\/p>\n Yet, how long Iran can sustain this strategy of \u201cfire flooding\u201d remains the defining question. As Trump boasts of completing a four-week leadership decapitation in a single day, the clock continues to tick for both sides. Ultimately, the next phase of this war may not be decided by tens of thousands of US boots marching across Iranian soil, but by which side runs out of time \u2013 and launch pads \u2013 first.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When US President Donald Trump casually floated the idea of putting US \u201cboots on the ground\u201d in Iran, he openly defied a longstanding presidential taboo. \u201cLike every president says, \u2018There will be no boots on the ground\u2019. I don\u2019t say it,\u201d Trump declared amid the ongoing US-Israeli strikes on Iran. But while the political rhetoric […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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