The death toll from last month's nationwide protests in Iran has reached 7,000 by some reports, with more feared dead, but former Veterans Affairs Secretary and Pentagon Undersecretary Robert Wilkie told Newsmax on Saturday that the actual numbers are much higher.
The Iranian regime, he said on Newsmax's "Saturday Agenda," is the "weakest" it has ever been, noting that the British Ministry of Defense is now saying that 30,000 people have been killed.
The situation reflects the nature of Iran's leadership, and he argued the United States should be prepared for sustained military action if diplomacy fails, said Wilkie.
"We've been at war with these people since 1979," he said. "They've killed thousands of American soldiers. They've threatened to kill the president of the United States."
Still, Wilkie continued, "What the world is not seeing is the deployment of the heavy forces of the United States Air Force, the forces that make the ground shake, the forces that collapse bunkers where the ayatollah might be, where he's hidden, what remains of his nuclear capability, where his ballistic missile assets are."
The discussion came as the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier was described as heading toward the Middle East, with President Donald Trump weighing possible military options while negotiations continue.
Asked what could happen if the talks produce no agreement, Wilkie said he expects the president to move quickly.
"This is not a one-off, one-day operation," he said.
"In order to do this right and finally put a knife to this most malevolent of regimes, it's going to take a while," Wilkie stressed. "It's going to take a week, or maybe more than that, to really devastate the instruments of terror that the regime has."
Wilkie also addressed the prospect of coordination with Israel, saying U.S. planners may prefer limiting Israel's visible role to avoid giving Tehran an argument for propaganda.
"If I'm planning it, I try to keep the Israelis out," he said. "You don't want to give the ayatollahs an excuse to whip up propaganda that Zionists are coming for them."
Wilkie credited Israel with significant intelligence and operational successes against Iran.
"They've killed all of the senior Iranian generals," he said. "They've killed all of the senior Iranian nuclear scientists, and they've told the ayatollah, we can hit you anytime we want to."
On whether Russia could help Iran respond to U.S. strikes, Wilkie dismissed the idea, pointing to Moscow's war losses.
"They can't handle Ukraine," he said. "The Russians have lost in the last two months dead more than we lost in Vietnam."
He said action against Iran would also cut off military support flowing to Russia.
"What the president is on the cusp of doing, certainly in part from changing the landscape of the Middle East, is removing a pipeline of drones and ballistic missile assets that flow from the Iranians to the Russians," Wilkie said.
Wilkie said allied support for U.S. operations would likely be quiet but real, including from NATO partners.
"They probably assist us quietly," he said. "But the British are already off of the coast of Iran. Their frigates have transited the Suez Canal."
"Many of the refueling missions that would be flown would probably be flown by NATO officers," he added. "So, yes, several of the NATO nations will be there."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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