The War Department is reportedly prepared to deploy a 3,000-man brigade combat team from the elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East in the coming days, reports the New York Post. This news comes just days after the Pentagon dispatched 2,500 U.S. Marines aboard three Naval ships to the area.
President Donald Trump has not ruled out putting U.S. boots on the ground in the region, but won't preview any military moves to the media. Recently, CNBC reported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that while Iran is being decimated from the air meaningful regime change will require a ground component.
Gordon Klingenschmitt is a former Air Force Missile officer who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy. He says what is really needed is an aggressive uprising from the Iranian people themselves.
"So far, there is no effort to arm the troops on the ground that would, among the Iranian population, rise up to take control of their own government. If the Ayatollahs and the Mullahs are the only ones with Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC weapons and every police station is also like their version of a National Guard, if they're the only ones with weapons, then how can the people rise up?" Klingenschmitt states.
Meanwhile, Klingenschmitt says Trump is reportedly having negotiations with the regime.
"Let's hope that it's real. Let's hope there is peace. Let's hope they do surrender. And thank God that NATO is now coming on board,” Klingenschmitt says. “We saw a statement from NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte. He is finally saying Europe is going to come around and find unity on the topic of Iran."
CBS News recently interview Rutte after Iran’s attempt to fire at Diego Garcia, where he admits that if Iran has nuclear capabilities, “it will be a direct threat, a existential threat, to Israel, to the region, to Europe, to the stability in the world.”
He also says that since last Thursday, 22 countries, the majority NATO members, met to discuss answering the president’s call to secure free sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.
