File photo: US President Donald Trump (Image source: AP)
TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Monday that he was prepared to go further than destroying power plants and bridges if it did not “cry uncle” before a deadline he set on Tuesday evening.
“We wiped out the country,” Trump told reporters as he toured the White House grounds, mingling with children at an Easter egg hunt hosted by the first lady. “They don’t want to say, ‘Uncle, surrender.’ They have to. Otherwise, they won’t have much left.” Trump also asserted that his administration was talking to the third-tier Iranian leadership (having eliminated the first two leaders) which he found more reasonable despite their refusal to yield to American terms. “We could leave now and it will take 15 years to rebuild what they have, but I want to finish it,” Trump said amid growing concern across America, including in MAGA circles, that he is leading the United States into a quagmire in the Middle East and possibly crossing the red line for war crimes. When asked what he wanted to say to the American people who were against the war (a clear majority), Trump said they were “stupid” because the goal was to deny Iran nuclear weapons, which he claims they would have had if he had not interceded.
Independent experts challenged Trump and Netanyahu’s assertions that Iran was close to producing a nuclear weapon. Trump’s threat to bomb Iran and bring it into the “Stone Age” by destroying its infrastructure has alarmed many Americans who say such action could amount to a war crime. When asked about this opinion, Trump justified his position by saying that the Iranian regime had killed 45,000 people, while claiming that the Iranian people “want to hear the bombs go off because they want to be free.”Trump is scheduled to speak about the US mission that rescued an American pilot stranded in Iran later in the afternoon, detailing an operation that, although achieving its primary goal, remains shrouded in the fog of war and disputed claims. Two MC-130J transport aircraft, serving as the logistical backbone of the mission at a secret desert location, suffered what the Pentagon described as “cascading mechanical failures.”
To prevent capture of advanced communications and navigation systems, US forces reportedly carried out a standard sinking procedure, reducing aircraft to burning shells before the final extraction team left Iranian airspace.
The destruction of these assets denied Tehran a strong and outright propaganda victory—although Iran tried to make the best of it—but it also raised questions about the effectiveness of the Pentagon in terms of deploying men and materiel.
Meanwhile, US military analysts spoke of the heroic action of the stranded pilot (who used the call sign “Dude 44”) who reportedly hid in a 7,000-foot mountain range after jumping from an F-15 fighter jet shot down by Iran.
Early Monday, Iran issued a statement claiming that the IRGC had “repulsed a desperate US incursion,” asserting that it had shot down the plane and captured several “mercenaries.” However, forensic satellite images and administrative briefings point to a more nuanced truth: the American aircraft were destroyed by their own crews, and all American personnel, including the rescued colonel and several wounded Special Forces personnel, were successfully evacuated to a military medical facility in Kuwait. Iran has not produced any individuals it claims to have captured. At the same time, American rhetoric hides the staggering financial cost of the operation.
With the loss of two MC-130Js and an F-15E, the hardware cost for this single rescue mission is estimated to exceed $400 million, a figure that does not take into account fuel, munitions or the massive support from aircraft carriers required to maintain air superiority in the region. Political pressures are also mounting domestically, as the administration faces a dual battle: justifying the high costs of “limited” engagement and managing the optics of a war that is increasingly being fought using artificial intelligence and on social media, where concern about the motives for war is growing. The Pentagon’s reliance on sophisticated artificial intelligence infrastructure for real-time battlefield management was on full display during the rescue, as a CIA-led deception campaign reportedly flooded Iranian social media with false reports of the pilot’s location. This digital “shell” reportedly confounded IRGC command and control for a critical four-hour period, allowing extraction helicopters to move in and out without being targeted by Iranian countermeasures.
