Increased pressure on Trump after downed planes
Updated 21.45 | Published 21.18
"We have total air supremacy," Trump claimed a month ago.
Now two planes have been shot down and public opinion at home is swaying.
- People want to know what the ultimate goal should be and neither Hegseth nor Trump can answer that, says analyst Shahin Eghraghi.
President Donald Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have stated for several weeks that the US and Israel basically had total air supremacy over Iran.
- Within a few days (...) the two most powerful air forces in the world will have complete control of Iran's airspace, Hegseth said at a press conference a month ago, on March 4.
He added:
- And Iran will not be able to do anything about it.
Difficult to convince the Pentagon
Donald Trump has said for weeks that Iran has “no navy,” “no military,” “no air force,” and “no air defense systems.”
– They have no air defense equipment. Their radar is 100 percent wiped out. We are unstoppable as a military force, Trump said.
Despite “complete control,” two American planes have been shot down in a short time. And a pilot from one of the planes is still missing.
According to Middle East analyst Shahin Eghraghi, the missing pilot is putting additional pressure on an already stressed American president.
And the missing pilot is not the only problem.
According to Shahin Eghraghi, Donald Trump has had difficulty convincing the Pentagon and the US military of the goal of the war and on Thursday, Army Chief General Randy George was fired.
Army Chief was fired
The reason was not entirely clear, but the CBS television channel quotes a source as saying that Trump and Hegseth wanted someone in the post who would drive through his and President Donald Trump's vision for the army.
- He has probably opposed some of these, what can I say, fantasy plans that the administration has regarding Iran, says Shahin Eghraghi.
Eghraghi continues:
- The military wants to know the purpose when they send people in the direction of danger. They want to know what the end goal should be and neither Hegseth nor Trump can answer that. How is the Pentagon supposed to understand and interpret the will of the commander when he himself does not know.
General Randy George had over a year left in his term.
A former senior Hegseth aide, General Christopher LaNeve, is now temporarily taking over as Army chief.
And the exaggerations about the successes in the war continue.
On Thursday, CNN reported that Trump's claims about the destruction of Iran's missile launchers were greatly exaggerated. The Revolutionary Guard is said to still have about half of its capacity.
Exaggerating the successes
After the attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities in June last year, Trump repeatedly said that the country's nuclear program had been "wiped out" and that it was irreparable. But that turned out not to be true. Just nine months later, the administration suddenly again portrayed Iran as an imminent nuclear threat.
Throughout the entire time, Hegseth in particular has argued that the media did not give enough attention to the military successes of the campaign.
– This is what fake news misses. We have taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without ground troops, he said at a press conference on March 4.
Today, a month later, the most important waterway – the Strait of Hormuz – is still closed. And the control of Iran's airspace and the destruction of its missile program are not as complete as has been portrayed.
According to CNN, the American public also has little faith in the war in Iran.
They believe that it has not been properly explained and there is economic pessimism following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the rising prices of gasoline.
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