Retired Gen. Wesley Clark said Saturday that an intensified air campaign, not an immediate deployment of ground troops, should define the next phase of any potential military effort involving Iran.
Speaking on Newsmax TV’s “Saturday Agenda,” Clark, a former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, said achieving air superiority remains a critical objective before broader strategic goals can be realized.
“It’s not necessarily inevitable,” Clark said of sending in ground forces.
“But you’ve got to continue the intense air campaign. You’ve got to shift the targeting. You’ve got to get air supremacy over Iran. We don’t quite have that yet.”
Clark emphasized the importance of sustained aerial operations, particularly over strategic maritime chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global energy shipments.
“You’ve got to put continuous air over the Iranian coastline in and around the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
“You’ve got to pick up the targets and take those targets out the best you can from the air.”
He described a complex battlefield environment in which Iranian military assets are dispersed and concealed, including speedboats and other capabilities hidden in tunnels, coves, and civilian infrastructure.
“Some are in tunnels, some are back in coves, some are in garages, speedboats that can be pushed into the water,” Clark said, underscoring the difficulty of neutralizing such threats solely through conventional targeting methods.
Clark also pointed to the role of intelligence from within Iran, suggesting that internal actors may already be assisting U.S. and allied forces.
“You’ve got to get help from some people on the ground,” he said, clarifying he was referring to Iranians “in the process of calling in targets to the Israelis and sometimes to the Americans, is what I hear.”
The retired general characterized the approach as a gradual campaign aimed at degrading Iran’s operational capabilities over time, particularly its ability to disrupt maritime traffic.
“You’re going to grind this out,” Clark said.
“With each day, hopefully you’ll make it so that there are less and less effective means for the Iranians to resist the passage of ships.”
While not ruling out the eventual need for ground troops, Clark said any such move should come only after Iranian defenses and infrastructure have been significantly weakened.
“At some point, we may be able to get away without putting the troops in,” he said.
“If we do, we want to make sure we’re going against a very heavily destroyed enemy base.”
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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