Politico: US preparing for 100-day military campaign against Iran

A US military operation against Iran could last at least 100 days and possibly continue through September, according to an internal Pentagon document cited by Politico.

The report, published on March 4, says officials from the US Central Command asked the Pentagon to send additional military intelligence personnel to the command’s headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to support operations against Iran “for at least 100 days, and probably through September.” The request suggests the campaign could extend far beyond the four-week timeframe initially outlined by US President Donald Trump.

Politico writes that the need to rapidly deploy additional personnel and resources indicates the administration may not have been fully prepared for the broader consequences of the conflict. The outlet noted that such logistical preparations are typically organised well in advance of major US military operations.

Further evidence of the strain created by the conflict, according to the report, is the US State Department’s decision to send additional staff to the US Embassy in Athens to assist American citizens during the crisis.

The United States launched a large-scale, multi-pronged military operation together with Israel on Saturday, targeting Iranian security infrastructure and killing the country’s supreme leader and several senior officials. However, US and Israeli officials have not yet clearly defined the ultimate objective of the campaign, and the Trump administration has struggled to explain why the strikes had to be carried out at this particular moment.

Gerald Feierstein, a former senior US diplomat who worked on Middle East issues, described the operation as improvised.

“What we’ve seen is a completely ad hoc operation where it appeared that nobody actually understood or believed that military action was imminent,” Feierstein said. “It seems like they woke up on Saturday morning and decided that they were going to start a war.”

Iran has responded with retaliatory attacks on the US and other targets across the Middle East. At least six US troops were killed at a port facility in Kuwait in what appeared to be a drone strike, raising questions about whether the site had been sufficiently fortified. Several US diplomatic facilities have also been targeted, while concerns are growing that both the United States and its regional allies could begin to face shortages of munitions if the conflict continues.

By Tamilla Hasanova