'This is not Iraq.' Pete Hegseth says US won't spend 20 years in Iran
USA TODAY
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Iran 'is not Iraq' and the administration doesn't have 'utopian' plans for nation-building there.
WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the war against Iran aims to destroy its missiles, navy and nuclear program, and not to embark on a “utopian” 20-year nation-building effort like those the U.S. attempted in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” Hegseth told reporters March 2 at the Pentagon. “Our generation knows better.”
President Donald Trump had campaigned against the U.S. military missions in Afghanistan and Iraq that lasted decades after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. During a presidential debate in February 2016, Trump called the war in Iraq a “big fat mistake” justified by weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist. Trump said the U.S. spent trillions on Iraq and Afghanistan with nothing to show for it.
“Our ambitions are not utopian,” Hegseth said in contrast on March 2.
Hegseth, 45, a former infantry officer in the Army National Guard who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Trump knows better than to pursue open-ended military engagements in the Middle East.
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