The initial strikes of the war have begun and this will continue until a sufficient amount of damage has been inflicted and then the second phase will be instigated.

Second phase?  Ground troops…..how long will this last?

The US military is preparing for the possibility that the US-Israeli war against Iran lasts until September of this year, according to a report from POLITICO, far beyond President Trump’s initial four-week timeline.

The report said that US Central Command is asking the Pentagon to send more intelligence officers to its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days, but likely through September.

The news of the Pentagon preparing for a long war comes as US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said that the US is sending more forces to the Middle East and will be escalating its bombing campaign.

(antiwar.com)

But what about the ground troops?

Senate Democrats said after receiving a classified briefing from the Trump administration on Tuesday that they’re increasingly concerned about the US-Israeli war on Iran dragging on “forever”—and involving American troops in a ground invasion.

“I am more fearful than ever, after this briefing, that we may be putting boots on the ground,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told reporters, criticizing the Trump administration for not providing the American public with information that was given to senators behind closed doors.

(commondreams.org)

But what about the prez….what does he want?

President Trump has been talking privately about putting a limited number of US troops on the ground in Iran, multiple current and former US officials tell NBC News. According to those sources, Trump has floated deploying a small, targeted contingent rather than launching a large-scale ground invasion. The discussions, said to have been held with aides and Republican allies outside the White House, reportedly have centered on scenarios such as securing Iran’s uranium stockpiles and helping to set up a post-war government friendly to US interests, including cooperation on oil production similar to the US-Venezuela relationship after Nicolas Maduro’s capture.

NBC’s sources say no decisions have been made and no orders issued. Publicly, Trump has kept the option open without endorsing it. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,” he told the New York Post earlier this week, saying he “probably” wouldn’t need them but could use them “if they were necessary.” The White House also said on Wednesday that ground troops in Iran are “not part of the plan … at this time,” per PBS. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC its report was based on “assumptions from anonymous sources” outside the president’s national security team and insisted that Trump “always, wisely keeps all options open.”

Is that a good sign?  No it is not…..

The Army just yanked the headquarters staff of elite paratrooper unit out of a major training drill, and it’s setting off alarms about what might come next in the widening conflict with Iran. The 82nd Airborne Division’s headquarters, which oversees rapid deployments of its 4,000- to 5,000-strong Immediate Response Force, was told to remain at Fort Bragg instead of heading to a planned exercise in Louisiana, officials tell the Washington Post reports. No orders have been issued, and the Pentagon insists it won’t discuss potential movements, but one official summed up the mood as “preparing for something—just in case.”

Analysts say any land operation could include seizing Kharg Island, a key oil hub. Michael Rubin at the conservative American Enterprise Institute tells the Post that securing the Persian Gulf island would be a “no-brainer.” Rubin says it appears that the administration is “coming around to the idea that Iran is a much greater problem set than perhaps they went in thinking.” Any such operation, however, would expose US forces and deepen political risks for Trump, who faces broad public opposition to a ground war.

Donny has seen that this is unpopular now that war dead are returning home and he has to have an out to prevent as mass opposition to this war…..and what would that be?

Donny and his band of idiots are trying to con the Kurds into being the spear tip on the ground…..

President Trump is leaning on the Kurds as he weighs whether to send US troops into Iran. Trump has phoned key Kurdish leaders in Iran and Iraq in recent days, offering “extensive US aircover” and other assistance if Iranian Kurdish opposition groups move to seize territory in western Iran, the Washington Post reports, citing US and Kurdish sources. Sources tell CNN that the CIA has been working to arm Kurdish groups in an effort that began months before the war.

• In a Sunday call, Trump told Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Bafel Talabani that the Kurds must pick a side—”either with America and Israel or with Iran,” a senior PUK official said. Masoud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party received a similar pitch, with US officials described as seeking Iraqi Kurds’ permission and logistical help, not their direct participation.
• Trump also spoke with Mustafa Hijri, head of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, part of a new coalition of six Iranian Kurdish parties that has urged Iranian troops, especially in Kurdish regions, to stop backing Tehran’s security forces, the Post reports.
• The outreach comes as Israel has been targeting police and Revolutionary Guard facilities in Iran’s Kurdish areas, in what analysts describe as a deliberate effort to weaken Tehran’s grip there while US strikes focus on military assets in other parts of the country.
• The gambit carries substantial risks. Iraqi Kurds have long hosted Iranian Kurdish groups on the condition they do not launch attacks into Iran and have pledged not to let their territory be used as a staging ground. Kurdish leaders, wary of past US reversals and fearing Iranian retaliation if any uprising falters, are signaling caution. Ankara could also balk if Washington moves to arm Iranian Kurdish factions linked to the PKK, which is in a fragile peace process with Turkey.
• “We are in a very delicate position,” a PUK official tells the Post. If a Kurdish offensive fails, “we do not know what Iran’s reaction against the Kurdistan region of Iraq would be,” the official says. “At the same time, we cannot simply reject Trump’s request—especially when he personally calls and asks for it.”
• Asked Wednesday about reports of plans to arm Kurdish groups, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, “None of our objectives are premised on the support or the arming of any particular force. So, what other entities may be doing, we’re aware of, but our objectives aren’t centered on that.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump spoke to Kurdish leaders “with respect to our base that we have in northern Iraq,” but denied that any specific plan was agreed to, the AP reports.

Will the Kurds fall for this con job?

My guess is yes they will.

I hope that if and when the ground forces start that the killed in action will get more respect from Donny than he showed those that just returned over the weekend.

But that is too much to ask I fear.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”