U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth signals aggression against Iran is ‘not endless’

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday spoke to widening concerns that the U.S.-“Israeli” strikes in Iran could spiral into a protracted regional conflict by declaring, “This is not Iraq. This is not endless.”

Hegseth, along with Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held the Trump administration’s first news briefing since Saturday’s strikes. U.S. President Donald Trump, while he’s conducted a few phone interviews with individual reporters, has not taken questions on camera and only released two videos since the strikes began.

Hegseth said the operation had a “clear, devastating, decisive mission” to “destroy the missile threat” from Iran, destroy its navy and “no nukes.”

“No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don’t waste time or lives,” Hegseth said.

Asked if there are currently boots on the ground in Iran, Hegseth said, “No, but we’re not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do.”

He said it was “foolishness” to expect U.S. officials to say publicly “here’s exactly how far we’ll go.”

He also suggested the U.S. was not seeking to change the Iranian regime with the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change,” Hegseth said.

Meanwhile, Caine said the United States continued to send additional troops to the Middle East, even after a massive military buildup.

“This is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives that CENTCOM and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work,” Caine told reporters.

His comments come a day after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that strikes against Iran could go on for the next four weeks.