WASHINGTON — Senior U.S. military leaders have voiced concern to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that sustaining a prolonged war with Iran is not viable, sources said. Their warning is that it could erode the ability to counter enemy threats to the U.S. homeland and in other regions.
The Washington Post, citing multiple sources, reported that the chiefs of staff of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force, along with four-star generals overseeing U.S. military operations across Europe, Asia and Latin America, registered those views in the Secretary of Defense Orders Book, or SDOB, dated the 14th. The classified SDOB is issued twice a month. It includes an overview of the availability of U.S. warships, aircraft, troops and weapons systems deployed worldwide, along with the assessments of the military's top generals.
The SDOB dated the 14th contains instructions that some of the more than 50,000 troops committed to the Iran war remain in place through September, with others staying until 2027. Military leaders expressed concern about the prospect of extending those deployments, the Post reported. Commanders in Europe, Asia and Latin America in particular marked "non-concur" on maintaining a troop presence around Iran. The designation means they do not agree with the extension but will carry it out regardless. With the Iran war now past the six-month mark, one source said the prevailing mood among the military leadership had reached the view that "this has gone on too long and it is too much."
Concern also ran high over the large-scale redeployment to the Middle East of U.S. offensive and defensive assets, not just troops, since the start of the Iran war. The commanders of European Command and Southern Command warned that lending ships and surveillance aircraft to Central Command had degraded their ability to carry out homeland defense duties. Pacific Command chief Samuel Paparo did not agree to the scale of sustained support for carrier strike groups and Navy destroyers, sources said. Chief of Naval Operations Daryl Caudle presented Hegseth with the bleakest assessment, saying the current level of support cannot be sustained with no end to the war in sight, according to the sources.
