President Donald Trump was warned by military leaders that a war with Iran would risk seriously depleting U.S. weapons inventory — but went ahead with it anyway, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
One of the principal voices warning Trump about this was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan reported.
"General Caine — the man Mr. Trump liked to refer to as 'Razin’ Caine' — had impressed the president years earlier by telling him the Islamic State could be defeated far more quickly than others had projected," said the report. "Mr. Trump rewarded that confidence by elevating the general, who had been an Air Force fighter pilot, to be his top military adviser. General Caine was not a political loyalist, and he had serious concerns about a war with Iran. But he was very cautious in the way he presented his views to the president."
Specifically, according to the report, "As the small team of advisers who were looped into the plans deliberated over the following days, General Caine shared with Mr. Trump and others the alarming military assessment that a major campaign against Iran would drastically deplete stockpiles of American weaponry, including missile interceptors, whose supply had been strained after years of support for Ukraine and Israel. General Caine saw no clear path to quickly replenishing these stockpiles."
Despite having that information, Trump decided to move ahead with the plans anyway, as he had been swayed by an hour-long presentation Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave to him to justify all-out war. Netanyahu is now reportedly the principal figure urging Trump against pursuing a ceasefire with Iran.
Ultimately, said the report, "General Caine was sober, laying out the risks and what the campaign would mean for munitions depletion. He offered no opinion; his position was that if Mr. Trump ordered the operation, the military would execute. Both of the president’s top military leaders previewed how the campaign would unfold and the U.S. capacity to degrade Iran’s military capabilities."
Most of his other advisers offered mixed to favorable assessments of pursuing war, although Vice President J.D. Vance was reportedly against the whole idea.