by Fred Fleitz
Trump’s Iran campaign follows the America First formula: crush the nuclear threat, keep U.S. troops out, finish the mission quickly, and end the war before it becomes another endless quagmire.
President Donald Trump campaigned on ending endless wars, not starting them. Just over a year into his second term, he is delivering this on his terms. The U.S.–Israeli 2026 military campaign against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, which began following Iran’s reckless provocations in the wake of the 12-Day War, has already achieved its strategic goals. With only a small number of remaining nuclear facilities left to neutralize and the Strait of Hormuz on track to be fully secured within the coming weeks, the United States stands ready to proclaim mission accomplished and swiftly conclude major combat operations.
This means no quagmire. No U.S. troops on the ground. No forever war. Just decisive action, goals met, and a return to peace on America’s terms. This is President Trump’s America First approach to U.S. national security in full effect: strength that deters, precision attacks that succeed, and the wisdom to know when the job is done.
Let’s be clear about what the United States set out to do in Operation Epic Fury. The main objective is to eliminate Iran’s pathway to nuclear weapons. Other top objectives are preventing Iran from creating a “missile shield” to protect its nuclear weapons development, deterring future aggression against our allies, and restoring U.S. deterrence after years of weakness under the Biden administration.
The military campaign is also designed to open a rare, historic window—one in which the Iranian people themselves can finally reclaim their nation from the grip of their repressive, radical Islamist regime. Should they succeed, the result would mark a huge gain for security and stability in the Middle East and around the world.
The United States will stand firmly beside the Iranian people in their pursuit of liberty once the fighting ends. But the decisive step must come from within: the Iranian people themselves must rise up and overthrow the murderous government that has oppressed them for so long.
The heavy lifting is already done. During the 2025 12-Day War and the 2026 war, U.S. and Israeli forces dismantled the heart of Iran’s program: the underground uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, the deeply buried enrichment facility at Fordow, key production buildings at Isfahan, a heavy-water reactor at Arak, a covert weapons-development compound at Minzadehei, and labs doing nuclear weapons research at the Lavisan 2 complex.
Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity has been completely shattered. The specialized facilities needed to convert enriched uranium hexafluoride gas from centrifuges into metallic form—essential for fashioning nuclear warheads—have been obliterated. Moreover, the small number of incomplete, unfueled nuclear devices that Iran is believed to have kept hidden in deeply buried bunkers has almost certainly been destroyed as well.
Rebuilding Iran’s nuclear program will prove extraordinarily challenging, as its infrastructure relied on components and materials smuggled into the country over many years. Compounding this, a significant portion of Iran’s leading nuclear scientists have been killed. Consequently, Iran’s breakout time to a bomb—once measured in weeks—will now take years, if not decades.
No U.S. Boots on the Ground in Iran
Some pundits are pressing the Trump administration to send special forces into Iran to recover the 9–10 weapons’ worth of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium (in the form of uranium hexafluoride gas) produced during the Biden administration. This would be a grave error and an unnecessarily risky mission—I very much doubt President Trump would order this.
I strongly oppose deploying U.S. ground troops to Iran except in cases of extreme, immediate necessity—such as rescuing a downed American pilot or responding to a direct, imminent threat to U.S. personnel.
The notion of deploying U.S. ground troops to dig through the rubble of bombed nuclear sites in search of surviving enriched uranium stockpiles is fundamentally misguided. Any remaining material is almost certainly either destroyed outright, scattered and irretrievable, or entombed beneath massive debris—none of which would be readily usable for weapons without extensive additional processing that Iran no longer has the capacity to perform.
Risking American lives for such a speculative, low-probability, and low-impact objective is neither necessary nor defensible. Precision airstrikes and other standoff operations have already delivered devastating, long-term setbacks to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Protecting U.S. personnel should take precedence over chasing such uncertain, marginal gains when the strategic mission has already been decisively achieved.
Finishing the Job
This week, the U.S. and Israel are reportedly finishing off Iran’s few remaining nuclear weapons sites. This includes the Taleghan 2 and Parchin nuclear weaponization sites. I believe, over the coming week, the U.S. is likely to target two additional high-value nuclear-linked sites that reportedly have not been attacked: the deeply buried Pickaxe Mountain facility near Natanz and the reinforced underground tunnel complex at Isfahan. These could be struck using advanced bunker-buster munitions to ensure the destruction of hardened underground structures.
The United States faces just a handful of key remaining objectives in Operation Epic Fury, with securing the Strait of Hormuz standing out as the primary one. The U.S. Navy possesses strong, efficient mine countermeasures that can rapidly clear the strait if mining escalates—though current reports indicate only limited mines have been laid so far, with many Iranian minelaying vessels already destroyed preemptively.
The more time-intensive challenge involves neutralizing Iran’s other asymmetric threats, including drone swarms, short-range missiles, and small fast-attack boats. Suppressing these layered dangers will require sustained air superiority, targeted strikes, and possibly convoy escorts, but military assessments suggest this can be achieved effectively within the next couple of weeks.
Once these non-mine threats are adequately degraded and the strait is open to safe commercial transit, U.S. strategic goals—dismantling Iran’s missile arsenal, naval capabilities, nuclear pathways, and proxy threats—will have been decisively accomplished, clearing the way for a swift wind-down of major combat operations.
Operation Epic Fury Is America First, Not a Forever War
The critics of the administration are already sounding the alarm about a “forever war.” They’re missing the bigger picture entirely.
President Trump has consistently rejected nation-building schemes and indefinite military entanglements. He recognizes that once the nuclear threat from Iran is fully eliminated, the strategic rationale for the war has been met.
Iran’s conventional missile arsenal has been significantly weakened. Its proxy militias in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon are in disarray. The regime’s economy is collapsing under the weight of the maximum-pressure sanctions Trump reinstated from day one of his term. Tehran finds itself increasingly isolated, besieged, and fractured from within.
Prolonging operations beyond the essential nuclear mission would simply hand the mullahs the propaganda win they desperately need while squandering American resources that are far better directed toward securing our borders, rebuilding our armed forces, and strengthening the U.S. economy.
This is classic Trump: maximum pressure, minimum footprint, and a clear exit ramp. He did it with ISIS—destroyed the caliphate in record time and refused to stay for endless occupation. He is doing it again here. The same deal-making instinct that brought North Korea to the table and forced NATO allies to pay their fair share will now be applied to the post-strike environment. Once the U.S. finishes off the last Iranian nuclear site, Trump will pivot to deterrence enforcement through sanctions, naval presence in the Gulf, and quiet back-channel messages: “You’re done. Stay down, or the next strike will be even harder.” No boots on the ground in Iran. No trillion-dollar reconstruction. Just peace through overwhelming strength.
The American people elected Donald Trump to put America first. That means defeating threats decisively and then refocusing on home. The Iranian nuclear program—once the single greatest proliferation danger on Earth—will soon be a smoking ruin. The mission will be accomplished. And under President Trump, that means the war ends because we are wise enough to know when we have won.
The mullahs gambled on American hesitation. They lost. Now the world will watch as Trump does what he does best: finish the job, declare victory, and move on to make America greater than ever.
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Fred Fleitz previously served as National Security Council chief of staff, a CIA analyst, and a House Intelligence Committee staff member. He is the vice chair of the America First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security. He is the author of “North Korea, Nuclear Brinkmanship, and the Oval Office,” to be released by Texas A&M Press on April 7, 2026.
Source: https://amgreatness.com/2026/03/13/trumps-iran-war-strategy-precision-strikes-clear-objectives-and-a-swift-return-to-peace/
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