As United States President Donald Trump declares the war with Iran as almost over, thousands of additional troops have been deployed to the Middle East. The Trump administration has insisted that progress has been made in talks with Iran, but has threatened to escalate the war if a deal is not reached soon.
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The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush deployed Tuesday and is slated to go to the Middle East along with three destroyers, two U.S. officials said. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 sailors.
This news comes as thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division have also begun arriving in the Middle East, according to two other U.S. officials, who, like the others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans.
A U.S. Navy ship carrying about 2,500 Marines recently arrived in the Middle East, and another 2,500 Marines are also being deployed from California.
According to a report by The Associated Press News (AP News), the majority of those troops are part of a rotation of forces planned before the war, and some are among roughly 1,500 paratroopers the Trump administration decided to surge into the region last week.
The Trump administration has not yet said what these troops are going to be used for, but the 82nd Airborne is specifically trained to parachute into hostile or contested territory to secure key lands and airfields.
Defense Secretary, otherwise known as the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, and other administration officials have avoided questions about whether or not the U.S. military will deploy ground troops against Iran.
“You can’t fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do to include boots on the ground,” Hegseth told reporters Tuesday. “Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground. And guess what? There are.”
“We don’t want to have to do more militarily than we have to,” claiming that the U.S. is looking for a diplomatic solution, not a military one.