Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan "Raizin'" Caine held a press conference at the Pentagon Tuesday morning to provide updates on Operation Epic Fury, the joint military action currently being carried out in and over Iran by the United States and Israel. The operation has now passed its tenth day, and the duo provided a timeline of events, starting with the initial missile strikes on February 28 through the elimination of 50 Iranian naval vessels as of March 9.
The timeline also showed a map of where strikes had been carried out to date.
The First Ten Days of Operation Epic Fury pic.twitter.com/gCmTckaP6Z
— Department of War 🇺🇸 (@DeptofWar) March 10, 2026
Hegseth said the U.S. was "winning with an overwhelming and unrelenting focus," and revealed that the administration had no intention of engaging in nation-building. "This not endless nation-building under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama," he commented.
He also made clear to all in the room that, despite narratives being pushed to the contrary, the U.S. was leading the effort and was in no way "getting pulled in any direction" by another nation. "The president is leading," he declared. Commentators such as Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly have accused the Trump administration of taking directions from Israel, with Carlson remarking after the start of the operation, "This happened because Israel wanted it to happen. This is Israel’s war. This is not the United States’ war."
Hegseth strongly disagreed.
.@SECWAR "The president has made it CLEAR to those concerned—WE ARE NOT GETTING PULLED IN ANY DIRECTION; WE ARE LEADING.
— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) March 10, 2026
The president is leading." pic.twitter.com/kUI3nEUPbW
Caine reiterated the three ongoing military objectives of Operation Epic Fury:
- Destroy Iranian ballistic missiles and drone capability;
- Strike the Iranian navy and their capabilities; and,
- Go deeper into Iran's "military and industrial bases."
He also told reporters that Iran is "fighting, and I respect that. But I don't think they're more formidable than what we thought." He continued, "Our strikes mean we've made significant progress in reducing the number of missile and drone attacks out of Iran. Ballistic missile attacks continue to trend downward, 90% from where they've started, and one-way attack drones have decreased 83% since the beginning of the operation."
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Hegseth offered some words of warning to Iran's new leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, remarking it "would be wise to heed the words of our president, which is to not pursue nuclear weapons and come out and state as such." This remark comes after President Trump expressed his displeasure with the choice of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader, saying, “I don’t believe he can live in peace.”
Additionally, Hegseth cautioned Iran against attacking its neighbors, advising them not to "alienate their Arab partners." He continued, "Big mistake by the Iranian regime to start targeting its neighbors right away, exposing who they are and what they're all about, indiscriminate targeting, flailing recklessly at the beginning. I can't say that we anticipated necessarily that's exactly how they would react, but we knew it was a possibility."
As for the lingering question on the Strait of Hormuz, Caine said they were looking at "a range of options," including having the U.S. "escort" ships through the important shipping lane. "On the potential, if tasked to escort, we'll look at the range of options to set the military conditions to be able to do that. And then, like we always do with every potential mission, come to the secretary and the president with both," he concluded.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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