Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told US forces Monday to “stay focused” and trust President Trump as Operation Epic Fury targeting Iran entered its third day.
“This is your moment. This is the generational turning point America has waited for since 1979,” Hegseth proclaimed during a Pentagon news conference alongside top general Dan “Raizin” Caine. “Don’t listen to the noise. Just stay focused. Our commander in chief is steady at the wheel.”
“We face a determined enemy,” the secretary said, referring to Iran, “but you are better.”
Hegseth and Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took the podium following a weekend of air attacks by the US and Israel that killed four dozen members of Tehran’s leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — while at least four American service members have died and four others seriously wounded in a retaliatory attack by Tehran.
“For 47 long years, the expansionist and Islamist regime in Tehran has waged savage, one-sided war against America,” Hegseth said. “They didn’t always declare it openly, except for their constant chants of ‘Death to America’; they did it through the blood of our people.”
“We didn’t start this war,” he added, “but under President Trump, we are finishing it.“
In a message to the Iranian people, Hegseth urged citizens to “take advantage of this incredible opportunity” to cast off their theocratic overlords.
“President Trump has been clear: Now is your time,” Hegseth said. “Choose wisely.”
When Caine’s turn came to speak, he admitted that officials “expect to take additional losses, and as always, we will work to minimize US losses.”
“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,” said Caine, later emphasizing: “These are major combat operations.”
Operation Epic Fury kicked off around 1:15 a.m. ET Saturday (9:45 a.m. Tehran time) after 30 days of military buildup, according to Caine.
More than 1,000 targets were hit within the first 24 hours of the operation, including radio facilities, command and control infrastructure, naval forces, ballistic missile sites, and intelligence infrastructure, with cyberattacks thrown in to “daze and confuse” Iran, the top general revealed.
“More than 100 aircraft” were launched in “a single synchronized wave,” said Caine, adding that the operation to take out Khamenei “was a daylight strike … conducted by the Israel Defense Forces and enabled by the US intelligence community.”
“This was a massive, overwhelming attack across all domains of warfare,” Caine said.
Hegseth took pains to distinguish the current conflict from George W. Bush’s war to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
“This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” the war secretary said. “I was there for both. Our generation knows better, and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb, and he’s right. This is the opposite.”
Hegseth emphasized that the initial goals of Operation Epic Fury were threefold: “Destroy the missile threat [from Iran], destroy the [Iranian] navy, no nukes.”
“This is not a so-called ‘regime change war,'” he added, “but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it.”
https://nypost.com/2026/03/02/us-news/hegseth-says-us-finishing-irans-savage-war-against-america/
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