US President Donald Trump faces a decision on whether to get out of a war he started or to dig in deeper. Photo / Getty Images
The question of whether the United States plans to walk away or escalate its war on Iran remains open as the conflict enters a fourth week.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said the US was considering “winding down” its military efforts in Iran even as thousands of Marines sailed towards the region.
Trump’s announcement on social media that he may step back from the war sought to raise pressure on allies to assume a greater role in securing the Gulf’s oil shipments - an increasingly urgent concern as energy prices spike.
Trump has complained in increasingly bitter terms that US allies are dragging their feet about joining a fight that he launched without consulting them.
“The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it - The United States does not!” he wrote on Truth Social, adding that he would be open to helping other countries “in their Hormuz efforts”.
“It will be an easy Military Operation for them,” he said.
Tehran has nearly completely shut down a crucial shipping choke point that has sent global energy prices skyrocketing.
Trump has lamented multiple times a day this week that Washington’s European and Asian allies have been unwilling to send their militaries to protect the Strait of Hormuz, even though they are more dependent than the US on the oil and natural gas shipped out of the Gulf.
But Trump is still facing the domestic political consequences of gas prices that have risen 33% in the past month - nearly a dollar ($1.71) a gallon (3.78 litres), according to AAA figures - creating divisions within his own party as some Republicans grow nervous ahead of the Midterm elections.
He is also fielding ongoing concerns about the fate of the highly enriched uranium that was buried deep underground by US airstrikes in June.
Hardliners have entrenched themselves in Tehran following waves of US and Israeli strikes that Trump has said killed the first, second and third rank of Iranian leadership, leaving the White House to define victory as it seeks an end to the conflict.
The President’s comments come as the Pentagon has developed options that include potentially deploying several thousand paratroopers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to key areas in Iran, according to two officials familiar with the issue who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The potential move, reported earlier by CBS News, follows an Army division’s abrupt cancellation of training it had planned in Louisiana at the outset of the war in Iran, fuelling speculation that US soldiers could be deployed.
One official familiar with the cancellation, first reported by the Washington Post earlier this month, said it did not necessarily mean elements of the division would deploy to Iran, but “we’re all preparing for something - just in case”.
The Pentagon has also abruptly diverted about 4500 sailors and Marines aboard ships in the Pacific region to the Middle East, as the Administration sought to have more combat forces on hand.
As part of that deployment, the Pentagon sent an infantry battalion landing team with more than 800 combat troops backed by helicopters, F-35 fighter jets and armoured landing vehicles.
Pentagon officials also decided to speed up the forthcoming deployment of a similar unit, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, from San Diego to depart within days, defence officials said.
That deployment, first reported on Friday by Newsmax, will require US troops to cross both the Pacific and Indian oceans before arriving in the Middle East. They could either replace the unit from Okinawa, Japan, when it arrives or supplement it for a period of time, the officials said.
Both Marine Corps units train for amphibious assaults, maritime combat and ship-to-shore warfare, all tasks that defence officials see possible if the US President calls for coastal areas in Iran to be seized to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
White House officials have downplayed but not ruled out the possibility of US troops in combat in Iran.
“It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the Commander in Chief maximum optionality,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“It does not mean the President has made a decision, and as the President said in the Oval Office yesterday, he is not planning to send ground troops anywhere at this time.”
Trump said on Saturday that the US was close to eliminating Iran’s missile stockpile, destroying its defence industry, Navy and Air Force, and “Never allowing Iran to get even close to Nuclear Capability”.
He also said that Washington was working to protect Arab allies in the region, along with Israel, that have faced retaliation from Iran since the war started.
In the first days after the strike on Iran, Trump said little publicly about Nato and other American allies, focusing instead on the strength of the military campaign and warning Tehran against escalation.
As the oil markets reacted and petrol prices began to climb, Trump began pressing allies to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, characterising their participation as a reasonable expectation of long-standing allies.
“I think Nato is making a very foolish mistake,” Trump said on Wednesday in the Oval Office.
“And I’ve long said that, you know, I wonder whether or not Nato would ever be there for us.”
European leaders, although also concerned about energy prices, have expressed caution about getting pulled into the war.
Some question the legality of the pre-emptive attack on the Iranian regime. And many face deeply sceptical electorates who remember Trump’s recent threats to seize Denmark’s territory of Greenland against its will.
His posture hardened over the course of the week, as European leaders deflected his calls for military assistance.
Trump started the week by declaring that the US no longer wanted help from American allies, writing “WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!” in a post on Truth Social.
In the days after, he called Nato a “PAPER TIGER” and “cowardly”.
By Saturday, he had declared that the conflict he started in the Middle East could soon be the responsibility of his allies.
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