Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told US forces Monday to “stay focused” and trust President Trump as Operation Epic Fury targeting Iran entered its third day.
“This is your moment. This is the generational turning point America has waited for since 1979,” Hegseth proclaimed during a Pentagon news conference alongside top general Dan “Raizin” Caine. “Don’t listen to the noise. Just stay focused. Our commander in chief is steady at the wheel.”
“We face a determined enemy,” the secretary said of Iran, “but you are better.”
Hegseth and Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took the podium following a weekend of air attacks that killed four dozen members of Tehran’s leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — while at least four American service members have died and four others seriously wounded in a retaliatory attack by Tehran.
“For 47 long years, the expansionist and Islamist regime in Tehran has waged savage, one-sided war against America,” Hegseth said. “They didn’t always declare it openly, except for their constant chants of ‘Death to America’; they did it through the blood of our people.”
“We didn’t start this war,” he added, “but under President Trump, we are finishing it.”
In a message to the Iranian people, Hegseth urged citizens to “take advantage of this incredible opportunity” to cast off their theocratic overlords.
“President Trump has been clear: Now is your time,” Hegseth said. “Choose wisely.”
When Caine’s turn came, he admitted that officials “expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize US losses.”
“This is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives that CENTCOM and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve — and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work,” said Caine, later emphasizing: “These are major combat operations.”
Operation Epic Fury kicked off around 1:15 a.m. ET Saturday (9:45 a.m. Tehran time) after 30 days of buildup, according to Caine.
More than 1,000 targets were hit within the first 24 hours of the operation, including radios, command and control infrastructure, naval forces, ballistic missile sites, and intelligence infrastructure, with cyberattacks thrown in to “daze and confuse” Iran, the top general revealed.
“More than 100 aircraft [were] launched from land, sea, fighters, tankers, airborne early warning, electronic attack bombers from the States, and unmanned platforms, forming a single synchronized wave,” Caine said.
“This was a daylight strike based on their trigger event conducted by the Israel Defense Forces and enabled by the intelligence community.”
The wave of attacks included Tomahawk missiles launched at sea by the US Navy, which were largely aimed at the “southern flank in Iran on the ground.”
“This was a massive, overwhelming attack across all domains of warfare,” Caine said.
Caine noted that the US is “just about where we want to be in terms of total combat capacity and total combat power” around Iran.
Hegseth stressed that a key military priority for the US at this stage is degrading Iran’s long-range strike capabilities.
The Secretary of War contended that Iran had “every chance” to cut a deal with the Trump administration, but opted to stall instead. He also underscored that Operation Epic Fury will not devolve into another “endless war” that the US gets sucked into.
“To the media outlets and political left screaming ‘endless wars’: Stop. This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” Hegseth said. “I was there for both. Our generation knows better, and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb, and he’s right. This is the opposite.”
Hegseth emphasized that the latest US mission in the Gulf is “a clear, devastating, decisive mission” aimed at neutralizing specific threats.
“Destroy the missile threat, destroy the navy, no nukes.”
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