Vice President JD Vance and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine both raised concerns about escalating the war in Iran as President Donald Trump weighed the possibility during a White House meeting on Friday, a source familiar with the matter and a US official told CNN. On Friday night, the US appeared to pause its bombing campaign on Iran after nearly two weeks of consecutive nights of strikes. Operations are “on a hold,” a Department of Defense source told CNN on Saturday.
On Friday, Caine specifically raised concerns about the US munitions stockpile and other potential negative implications, according to the sources. One of the sources said that Caine told Trump and the US military they could carry out the options available to him and be successful but then warned of the possible implications. The stockpile concern was one of many raised to Trump during the meeting, both sources said. The potential for massive civilian casualties inside Iran if the US resumed major combat operations was also raised, a person familiar with the matter said.
Trump has threatened civilian infrastructure, including roads, bridges and power plants, over the past week, the targeting of which could constitute war crimes. Doing so could potentially leave scores of Iranians dead and many more to suffer without power or food, Trump was warned, according to the person. The broad concerns raised during Friday’s meeting also included sparking a potential refugee crisis, Iranian retaliation against Gulf energy and desalination infrastructure and the potential for regional escalation, according to a source familiar with the discussion.
Most of the advisers in the room said that if Trump wanted to pull the trigger on a bigger attack, the US could do so in a devastating way, but that the president should consider the potential second- and third-order effects. It’s currently unclear if the stockpile concern or warning about escalation were the primary reasons why the US paused consecutive nights of strikes or whether it will continue to do so. *Ed note: So whose story are you going to believe? Do we have enough "stockpile" or not?) (Read More)
