New York, March 3 (IANS) US President Donald Trump has not ruled out sending US troops into Iran “if necessary” in a further move away from his earlier opposition to getting involved in wars abroad.
He told the New York Post, ”Like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it.”
He said it could happen “if they were necessary”, but “I’ll say ‘probably don’t need them’”.
His remark about possible troop involvement in the conflict came as the Central Command reported on X that four members of US forces have died as of Monday.
He had foreseen the possibility of US casualties when he announced the start of Operation Epic Fury on Saturday morning.
“The Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties — that often happens in war,” he said in the video announcement.
Trump told the Post in the interview published on Monday that Operation Epic Fury is going “way ahead of schedule” and “is going to go pretty quickly”.
He said it was expected to take four weeks to take out Iran’s leadership, but 49 leaders were killed “in one day”.
Those killed included Iran’s Supreme ruler Ali Khamenei.
However, on Monday, Trump said that he expected Operation Epic Fury to last four to five weeks, but he was ready if it was “to go far longer than that”.
Israel’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Danny Danon, said it would take as long as necessary.
After several misadventures with US wars abroad, Americans are wary of entanglements.
It was starkly reflected in a Reuters-IPSOS poll that showed only 27 percent of those polled supported the attack on Iran, 43 per cent disagreed with the decision, and 13 per cent were uncertain.
Trump dismissed it, saying, “I don’t care about polling. I have to do the right thing.”
He added, “I think people are very impressed with what is happening, actually.”
He indicated that he was depending on a “silent majority” that would show up in what he called a “real poll”.
With his America First agenda, Trump had been sceptical of getting involved in military action abroad during his campaign for the presidency and had aimed for a Nobel Peace Prize.
But this year, he ordered his military to go into Venezuela and capture its leader, Nicolas Maduro.
Last week, he launched Operation Epic Fury on a much greater scale against Iran.
–IANS
al/dan
