Pentagon Is Moving Additional Marines, Warships to the Middle East (Updated) — WSJ

The USS Tripoli amphibious assault ship saeed khan/AFP/Getty Images

(UPDATED) The Pentagon is moving additional Marines and warships to the Middle East as Iran steps up its attacks on the Strait of Hormuz, according to three U.S. officials. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved a request from U.S. Central Command, responsible for American forces in the Middle East, for an element of an amphibious ready group and attached Marine expeditionary unit, typically consisting of several warships and 5,000 Marines and sailors, the officials said, according to the WSJ.

The Japan-based USS Tripoli and its attached Marines are now headed for the Middle East, two of the officials said. Marines are already in the Middle East supporting the Iran operation, the officials said.

Retired Col. Steve Warren, an NBC News military analyst and former Pentagon spokesperson, joins Saturday TODAY to break down the war in Iran as it marks one week since the conflict began. He also talks about what to make of President Donald Trump privately suggesting a small contingent of U.S. ground troops in the region.

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JUST SAYING:

BY RAUL HERNANDEZ

Secretary of War Hegseth is playing a Rambo fantasy with American lives, and the result is what you’d expect: deaths, blunders, and chaos.

Meanwhile, Orange Hitler is barking for results. His stooge scrambles to deliver, hoping to make Daddy proud—wave the flag, fire up the MAGA crowd, and hand fresh material to Trump’s Fox propaganda machine.

Across the ocean, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have made his own cold calculations. He is terrified that the U.S. will pull out of this war after the U.S. and Israel poked the Iranian religious cave-dwelling savages in Tehran, who also believe God is talking to them.

The new Tehran leader is a terrorist with high-tech weapons and not afraid to use them while invoking the name of Alla.

The play is simple: Bibi prods U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who in turn flatters the Orange Buffoon in the Oval Office until the bombs keep falling and the Middle East war machine keeps humming.

Huckabee and the ultra-right-wing religious want to expedite the Second Coming of Jesus via the Middle East.

And Congress?

Most Republicans can’t see past the next election cycle. Their real fear isn’t war or bloodshed—it’s losing those plush offices, taxpayer salaries, and the comfortable seats where independent thinking is treated like a dangerous experiment.