WASHINGTON: The Pentagon is preparing plans for weeks of ground operations in Iran, potentially including raids on Kharg Island and coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz, though President Donald Trump has not yet approved any deployment, the Washington Post reported Saturday. Any ground operation would stop short of a <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/us-could-take-out-irans-kharg-island-any-time-white-house" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">full-scale invasion</a>, instead involving raids by special operations forces and conventional infantry troops, the Post said, citing unnamed officials. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted on Friday the United States &quot;can achieve all of our objectives without ground troops,&quot; but the Post said planning is advanced, with one official saying: &quot;This is not last-minute planning.&quot;

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on March 19, 2026. (AFP)

Middle East

Any ground operation would stop short of a full-scale invasion, instead involving raids by special operations forces and conventional infantry troops, the Post said, citing unnamed officials.

Pentagon preparing for ground operations in Iran: report

Web Desk/AFP

United Arab Emirates has the right to defend itself against Iran's ongoing strikes but chooses restraint, a senior UAE official said, as Tehran continues its retaliatory attacks across the Gulf

All you need to know about Day 15 of US-Israeli war on Iran

WASHINGTON:&nbsp;The US military will prioritize protecting the homeland and deterring China while providing &ldquo;more limited&rdquo; support to allies in Europe and elsewhere, a Pentagon strategy document released on Friday said. The 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS) marks a significant departure from past <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/pentagon-pizza-theory-latenight-orders-spark-online-war-speculation" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pentagon</a> policy, both in its emphasis on allies taking on increased burdens with less backing from Washington and its softer tone on traditional foes China and Russia. &quot;As US forces focus on homeland defense and the Indo-Pacific, our allies and partners elsewhere will take primary responsibility for their own defense with critical but more limited support from American forces,&quot; the strategy said. &lsquo;Respectful relations&rsquo; with BeijingThe previous NDS -- released under President Donald Trump&#39;s predecessor Joe Biden -- described China as Washington&#39;s most consequential challenge and said that Russia posed an &quot;acute threat.&quot; The new document, however, urges &ldquo;respectful relations&rdquo; with Beijing -- while making no mention of Taiwan -- and describing the threat from Russia as a &ldquo;persistent but manageable&rdquo; one affecting NATO&#39;s eastern members. Both the Biden and Trump strategies say homeland defense is important, but their descriptions of the threats facing the US differ significantly. &lsquo;Flood of illegal aliens&rsquo;The Trump administration&#39;s NDS takes aim at the past administration for neglecting border security, saying this led to a &ldquo;flood of illegal aliens&rdquo; and widespread narcotics trafficking. &ldquo;Border security is national security,&rdquo; and the Pentagon &ldquo;will therefore prioritize efforts to seal our borders, repel forms of invasion, and deport illegal aliens,&rdquo; it said. Biden, meanwhile, focused on China and Russia, saying they posed &ldquo;more dangerous challenges to security and safety at home&rdquo; than even the threat of terrorism. The 2026 NDS also includes no mention of the dangers of climate change -- which Biden&#39;s administration had identified as an &ldquo;emerging threat.&rdquo; Like Trump&#39;s national security strategy, which was released last month, the NDS elevates Latin America to the top of the US agenda. <h2 style="line-height: 2;">&#39;Restore military dominance&#39;&nbsp;</h2>The Pentagon &quot;will restore American military dominance in the Western Hemisphere. We will use it to protect our Homeland and our access to key terrain throughout the region,&quot; the NDS said. The document called that the &ldquo;Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,&rdquo; a reference to the declaration two centuries ago by the then-young United States that Latin America was off limits to rival powers. Since returning to office last year, Trump has repeatedly employed the US military in Latin America, ordering a shocking raid that captured Venezuelan <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/deposed-venezuelan-leader-pleads-not-guilty-in-us-court" target="_blank" style="color:#0073e6;" rel="noopener noreferrer">President Nicolas Maduro</a> and his wife, as well as strikes on more than 30 alleged drug-smuggling boats that have killed more than 100 people.

Americas

2026 National Defense Strategy says, ‘As US forces focus on homeland defense and the Indo-Pacific, our allies and partners elsewhere will take primary responsibility for their own defense with critical but more limited support from American forces.’ 

US military to prioritize homeland and curbing China, limit support for allies

Web Desk

The Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia, US (AFP/File)

Fact Check

Viral

Social media users revived the 'Pentagon pizza theory' after late-night restaurant activity near the Pentagon, fueling speculation about secret US military activity.

Pentagon pizza theory: late-night orders spark online war speculation

WASHINGTON: The US military is moving forward with plans to build a dedicated facility in Idaho to train pilots from Qatar, an important US ally in the Middle East, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday. Hegseth, who made the announcement during a visit by Qatar&#39;s defense minister, said the facility to be built at the Mountain Home Air Force Base would &ldquo;host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase the lethality, and interoperability.&rdquo; The arrangement is not unusual. Pentagon officials noted that similar facilities have been set up for other allies for decades, and the Idaho base already hosts a fighter squadron from Singapore. But the news drew a sharp rebuke from close Trump ally and right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who called the plan &ldquo;an abomination&rdquo; and accused the Qataris of being associated with Islamic terror organizations. &ldquo;No foreign country should have a military base on US soil. Especially Islamic countries,&rdquo; Loomer wrote in one of several social media posts just hours after Hegseth&#39;s announcement. Although Loomer holds no formal position within the Trump administration, her online complaints have a history of achieving results. Her criticisms have led to the firing of officials on the National Security Council, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the Food and Drug Administration&rsquo;s vaccine chief, and Gen. Tim Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency. Qatar, which hosts the biggest US military base in the Middle East, made clear that it will not have a base on US soil and that it will cover the costs of building the training facility. &ldquo;This will not be a Qatari air base,&rdquo; the spokesman for the embassy in Washington said in a statement posted on X. &ldquo;Rather, Qatar has made an initial 10-year commitment to construct and maintain a dedicated facility within an existing US air base, intended for advanced training and to enhance interoperability in defending and advancing our shared interests around the world.&rdquo; The statement said the project will create hundreds of jobs for Americans and noted that the planning began several years ago, and it received local approval. When asked for more details about the future facility, Hegseth&rsquo;s office said it had nothing to offer beyond the secretary&rsquo;s remarks. The announcement comes just days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to use all measures, including US military action, to defend Qatar. Loomer also criticized that decision, writing, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to die for Qatar. Do you?&rdquo; on social media. However, she was not alone. The Wall Street Journal&rsquo;s editorial board also questioned the pledge, writing that &ldquo;this is a decision that can be and should have been debated.&rdquo; &ldquo;Instead, it comes out of the blue &mdash; an executive order following no public debate,&rdquo; the board wrote. The small, gas-rich country played a key role in negotiating the most recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending the war in Gaza, as well as in several other key negotiations. Doha, the capital of Qatar, came under surprise attack from Israel last month as members of Hamas were in the city last month to discuss a ceasefire. Qatar also lavished a $400 million jumbo jet on Trump for use as Air Force One. However, the Qataris&#39; connection with US military aviation predates these more recent developments. In 2020, the US Air Force announced it had signed a deal with Qatar for the sale of more than 35 F-15 fighter jets. An Air Force environmental study, completed two years later, revealed that Mountain Home Air Force Base was proposing to build a facility that would house 12 Qatari F-15 jets and about 300 additional Qatari and US Air Force personnel. While the US military has a long history of training pilots for allied countries, the practice received scrutiny in 2019 following a deadly mass shooting at Pensacola Naval Air Station that killed three US service members and wounded several others. The shooter, Mohammad Saeed Al-Shamrani, was a Saudi Air Force officer who was training at the Pensacola base. The FBI said he was linked to the al-Qaida extremist group and had been in contact with it before the shooting. In the wake of the shooting, the US sent home 21 other Saudi military students after an investigation revealed each had expressed jihadist or anti-American sentiments on social media pages or had &ldquo;contact with child pornography,&rdquo; including in internet chat rooms, according to officials at the time. However, the US continued to train Saudi pilots. Loomer referenced the incident in her social media posts on Friday. &ldquo;Why are we trying to train more Muslims how to fly planes on US soil? Didn&rsquo;t we already learn our lesson?&rdquo; she wrote on social media.

The US plans to train Qatari pilots in Idaho, sparking backlash from critics citing past security concerns, though officials stress Qatar will fund the project, creating more American jobs.

Pentagon to build a training facility for Qatari pilots in Idaho

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth plan to address hundreds of US military officials in person Tuesday after the Pentagon suddenly asked top commanders from around the world to convene at a base in Virginia without publicly revealing the reason.&nbsp;The gathering at the Marine Corps base in Quantico near Washington has fueled intense speculation about the purpose and value of summoning such a large number of generals and admirals to one place, with many stationed in more than a dozen countries that include conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere.&nbsp;Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new. But experts say the scale of the gathering, the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it are particularly unusual.&nbsp;&ldquo;The notion that the secretary is going to talk to the generals and give them his vision for running the department &mdash; and maybe also for strategy and organization &mdash; that&rsquo;s perfectly reasonable,&rdquo; said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired Marine colonel. <img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/730efb63-83ff-4b17-b620-7eecfdd4ff3f.jpg" style="width: 1000px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> &nbsp;&ldquo;What&#39;s mystifying is why it&#39;s on such short notice, why it&#39;s in person and what else might be involved,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;The uncertainty comes as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality and what he calls the &ldquo;warrior ethos,&quot; has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.&nbsp;News about the abruptly scheduled meeting broke on Thursday, and top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed it but declined to release further details.&nbsp;Trump didn&rsquo;t seem to know about it when he was asked by reporters during an Oval Office appearance later that day. The president said he&#39;ll &quot;be there if they want me, but why is that such a big deal?&rdquo;&nbsp;A White House official said Sunday that Trump also will speak at the gathering. The president told NBC News that he and Hegseth would be &ldquo;talking about how well we&rsquo;re doing militarily, talking about being in great shape, talking about a lot of good, positive things.&rdquo;&nbsp;Vice President JD Vance argued last week that the media had turned it into a &ldquo;big story&rdquo; and that it was &ldquo;not particularly unusual that generals who report to&rdquo; Hegseth are coming to speak with him.&nbsp;Italian Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chair of NATO&rsquo;s Military Committee, described the meeting as unusual and told reporters Saturday after a NATO meeting in Riga, Latvia, that &ldquo;as far as my 49 years of service, I&rsquo;ve never seen that before.&rdquo;&nbsp;The lack of detailed information has prompted many in Washington to speculate about the meeting&#39;s focus. Whatever it is, Michael O&rsquo;Hanlon of the Brookings Institution said he suspects there will be a dramatic element that may be &quot;as important as any substantive element.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;Just the sheer scale makes you wonder what kind of meaningful interaction can occur,&rdquo; said O&#39;Hanlon, Brookings&#39; director of research for foreign policy. &ldquo;And therefore, it smacks more of theatrics or of trying to impose than of trying to exchange views.&quot;&nbsp;Bryan Clark, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute, said he expects the meeting to center on the Trump administration&rsquo;s shift in defense policy. The US military is expected to focus less on Europe and Asia and more on the Northern Hemisphere, a change that breaks with decades of precedent, he said.&nbsp;Hegseth has championed the military&#39;s role in securing the US-Mexico border, deploying to American cities as part of Trump&#39;s law enforcement surges, and carrying out strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the administration says targeted drug traffickers.&nbsp;&ldquo;I think they&rsquo;re trying to set the tone, set the context, for these generals and admirals to say the strategy we have coming out is very different from what you&rsquo;re used to &mdash; we need you to all be on board with it,&quot; Clark said.&nbsp;Video teleconferencing across the world is difficult because leaders are spread across time zones, Clark said. Forcing them to attend the meeting in person will drill the point home.&nbsp;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a way of demonstrating that this is important,&quot; Clark said.

The gathering at the Marine Corps base in Quantico near Washington sparks intense speculation about the purpose and value of summoning such a large number of generals and admirals to one place.

Articles tagged with "Pentagon"

Pentagon preparing for ground operations in Iran: report

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Pentagon pizza theory: late-night orders spark online war speculation

Pentagon to build a training facility for Qatari pilots in Idaho

Trump, Hegseth set to meet with hundreds of military leaders as speculation grows