US military chiefs warn Hegseth that Iran war is unsustainable

Senior US military commanders have warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that maintaining large numbers of troops and military assets in the Middle East over the long term is unsustainable, the Washington Post reported Sunday (local time), as the war against Iran passed the six-month mark.

Citing sources familiar with the Aug. 14 Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB), the Post reported that the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, along with commanders responsible for Europe, Asia and Latin America, warned that prolonging large-scale military operations against Iran is unsustainable and could erode the United States' ability to respond to threats at home and in other regions.

The SDOB is a classified document that tracks the availability of ships, aircraft, troops and weapons systems deployed worldwide. It reflects the president's priorities for the use of military force and incorporates the views of the military's most senior officers.

The SDOB directs some of the more than 50,000 troops committed to the Iran war — which has entered a lull — to remain in the Middle East through September, with others ordered to stay until 2027, according to sources familiar with the document. Those sources said senior commanders expressed serious concern about the extended deployments.

The commanders of European Command, Pacific Command and Southern Command formally registered "non-concurrence" with orders to keep forces and assets deployed around Iran — meaning they disagreed with the extension but would carry out the orders.

The Army and Air Force chiefs, while agreeing with Hegseth's approach, said their respective services would face significant risks in implementing it.

One source said that with the Iran war now past the six-month mark, the overall mood among military leadership had reached the conclusion that it had "gone on too long and is too much."

Concern also ran deep over the large-scale redeployment of US offensive and defensive assets — not just troops — to the Middle East since the war began.

Specifically, the commanders of European Command and Southern Command warned that lending ships and surveillance aircraft to CENTCOM, which oversees military operations against Iran, had degraded their ability to fulfill their homeland defense responsibilities.

Pacific Commander Samuel Paparo also withheld his agreement on the scale of continued support involving carrier strike groups and naval destroyers, sources said.

Chief of Naval Operations Darrell Caudle presented Hegseth with the starkest assessment, saying the current level of support cannot be sustained with no end to the war in sight. Caudle told Hegseth that only about a quarter of the Navy's destroyer fleet is ready for deployment — a sharp drop from pre-war levels.

The Post noted that while President Donald Trump is trying to end the war on terms favorable to the United States, Iran is holding out, aware that most Americans do not support the conflict and that the toll on US military readiness is growing. The warnings sent to Hegseth, the paper said, offer new insight into the dilemma facing the Trump administration.