Vice President JD Vance is pushing back hard against claims that U.S. action against Iran will devolve into another open-ended forever war, insisting there is no way President Donald Trump would permit a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight.
Speaking with Fox News host Jesse Watters, Vance addressed comparisons between the current confrontation with Iran and the long, grinding campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to Breitbart, he reminded viewers that Afghanistan became 20 years of not having a clear objective, and 20 years of the United States trying to bring liberal democracy to a country that never shared Washingtons progressive ambitions.
By contrast, Vance noted that the Iraq conflict was shorter, yet similarly plagued by a lack of strategic clarity and mission definition. That history, he suggested, understandably fuels public skepticism when new military operations are launched in the Middle East.
After Iraq and Afghanistan, some people say, Oh, here we go again. Is that something here youre thinking about? Watters asked, voicing a concern common among Americans wary of endless foreign entanglements. Vance replied that The president has clearly defined what he wants to accomplish, stressing that the current administration is not interested in nation-building or ideological experiments abroad.
Theres just no way I said this before the conflict started, Ill repeat it again. Theres just no way that Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight, and no clear objective, Vance said, underscoring a more restrained, interest-focused approach to U.S. power. He argued that this marks a sharp break from the bipartisan foreign-policy establishment that presided over the post-9/11 wars.
What is different about President Trump, and its frankly different about both Republicans and Democrats of the past, is that hes not going to let his country go to war unless theres a clearly defined objective, Vance added. Hes defined that objective as Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and has to commit long-term to never trying to rebuild their nuclear capability.
Vance spoke after President Trump announced Saturday that the United States and Israel had carried out joint strikes on Iran intended to destroy Irans stockpiles of missiles. Over the same weekend, Trump also confirmed the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a seismic development in a regime long hostile to American interests and regional stability.
Breitbart Newss John Hayward reported that additional senior Iranian figures, including Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Defense Council, and Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief of staff of Irans armed forces, were also reportedly eliminated in the U.S.-Israeli strikes. In a Monday update, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) disclosed that six U.S. service members have been killed in action during Operation Epic Fury, a sobering reminder that even a tightly defined mission to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran carries real costs for American troops.
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