A Republican congressman told Military.com on Monday that U.S. boots on the ground in Iran "may be required" to accomplish its ongoing military campaign.
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) told Military.com on Monday that “any timeline for ground operations is a decision for” President Donald Trump and military leaders based on real-time battlefield conditions. He said Trump has been clear in his assessment of the ongoing conflict that follow-up actions in addition to ongoing airstrikes could be necessary, and that special operations forces on the ground “may be required to secure victory and prevent the regime from regrouping."
"We do not have information on the timing of when it would happen, but will support whatever level of force is necessary to achieve strategic victory,” Fallon said. “The Pentagon and President Trump will assess when it would most effectively protect American interests, empower the Iranian people, and prevent this threat from lingering."
Asked about the appetite of his congressional colleagues on the prospect of putting boots on the ground, Fallon said “there is strong resolve among many Republicans in the House to give our military everything it needs to win this conflict decisively and not repeat the mistakes of past limited engagements.”
“The greater danger lies in leaving a weakened but still dangerous regime in place,” he said, adding that Americans can help the Iranians who oppose their regime. It would provide greater stability in the region and, in effect, “eliminate a major threat to the U.S. and our allies," according to Fallon.
His remarks come one day after Trump, through an expletive-included Easter post on Truth Social, demanded Iran soften its grip on the Strait of Hormuz—an oil chokepoint that has had reverberating impacts on gas costs in the United States, with the average U.S. per-gallon cost sitting at $4.11 as of April 6, according to AAA.
Trump wrote on Sunday: "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F*****' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
'Can't Leave Until Job is Done'
Fallon made similar remarks Monday morning while a guest on Fox Business’ Mornings With Maria program, saying that the ongoing military operation—which most recently included a downed U.S. F-15E aircraft and search-and-rescue operations to recover two crew members—could lead to the sending of ground troops before the Trump administration would leave its current presence in the region.
“I personally think it’s going to be boots—at least special ops, American special operators on the ground, with allied allies in the region and air cover,” Fallon said. “We have to change the tact of the Tehran government or we can’t leave. We can’t leave until the job is done.”
Asked by guest host Cheryl Casone if he believed that translated to boots on the ground, Fallon replied in the affirmative.
“I just don’t see any other way,” Fallon said. “I mean, Iran is 93 million people. It’s five times the size of Iraq. It’s larger in size than Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Germany combined. Ninety-three million people. When we invaded Iraq, they had a population of 25 million people.
“But here’s the thing that’s in our favor. Eighty percent of the people in Iran hate this regime, so once an action like that is taken, I do believe that people are gonna rise up and the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) is gonna melt away, and then we can see some kind of moderate faction coming out and then eventually taking over.”
GOP Appetite for Next Phase of War
Republicans in Congress have resisted outright calling for the Trump administration to put boots on the ground, with one conservative lawmaker saying that Congress would have to approve any such policy decision before it comes to fruition.
On the Sunday talk show circuit, a pair of House Republicans provided different reasons when asked about boots on the ground as the next phase in Iran.
“I think the question, moving forward, with respect to any troops on the ground, would be: For what purpose? And I think the only purpose that I could see would be to get the enriched uranium,” Lawler told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday’s Meet the Press.
“And I think that is something that does need to be discussed with Congress in a classified setting. And I think Congress would need to be briefed on that particular matter,” Lawler added.
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said Sunday on ABC’s This Week, when asked about the standstill in the Strait of Hormuz and whether ground troops would be necessary for its reopening, “I don’t believe so. I think that certainly that this is going to be, again, a diminishing regime.”
One week earlier, on March 29, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was vocal in her opposition to putting boots on the ground.
“If we’re going to do a conventional ground operation with Marines and 82nd Airborne that is a ground war that I believe Congress should have a say and we should be briefed,” Mace told CNN.
“We don’t want troops on the ground,” she added, saying Congress would have to approve and that the sending of ground forces is “a line for a lot of people.”
Back-and-Forth Negotiations
Trump’s urging of caution towards the Iranians follows a string of different deadlines that have been set regarding the activity, or lack thereof, in the Strait of Hormuz. These warnings have been going on for weeks.
On March 21, less than one month into the conflict, Trump threatened to "obliterate" Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not "fully open" within 48 hours.
By March 23, the president said he would postpone strikes for five days (until March 28) due to "good" and "productive" negotiations.
Meanwhile, Iran has publicly remarked on multiple occasions that such negotiations have been essentially nonexistent.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian penned an open letter to Americans last week, just hours before Trump addressed Americans on the mission in Iran, questioning the administration's "America First" policy while claiming that the U.S. “entered this aggression as a proxy for Israel, influenced and manipulated by that regime.”
