House Republican predicts Trump will deploy troops in Iran: ‘I just don’t see any other way’

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas), a former Air Force officer, said Monday he expects President Trump to deploy troops in Iran and suggested such an escalation is unavoidable.

“I just don’t see any other way,” Fallon said in an interview on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” when asked whether he thinks “we’re going to have some boots on the ground.”

Fallon, the chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, said he thinks it’s important the U.S. sees its mission through in Iran.

“I personally think it’s going to be boots — at least Special Ops, American special operators — on the ground, with allies in the region and air cover,” Fallon said.

“We have to change the tact of the Tehran government, or we can’t leave,” he continued. “We can’t leave until the job is done.”

Trump has sought to increase pressure on Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the start of the war in late February and through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes.

In a profanity-laced post on social media over the weekend, Trump warned that the U.S. would escalate attacks on Iran’s civilian infrastructure if no agreement is reached by Tuesday.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F—in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” the president said.

In an interview with The Hill on Sunday, Trump said he is not ruling out troops on the ground if Iran does not come to an agreement.

At the same time, there have also been signs of negotiations, meaning an escalation is not an inevitability.

Multiple reports have indicated that both the U.S. and Iran received draft ceasefire proposal from third-party mediators to halt the ongoing conflict, though neither has responded.

Fallon noted the size of Iran makes would make it difficult to achieve victory in the country without deploying ground troops, comparing Iran’s 93 million people to Iraq’s 25 million people when the U.S. invaded it more than two decades ago.

“It’s five times the size of Iraq,” Fallon said. “It’s larger in size than Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Germany combined.”

He said he expects any ground operation, however, to win the support of the Iranian people and facilitate a transition to a more moderate government.

“But here’s the thing that’s in our favor: 80 percent of the people in Iran hate this regime,” he added. “So once an action like that is taken, I do believe that people are going to rise up, and the IRGC is going to melt away, and then we can see some kind of moderate faction coming out, and then eventually taking over.”

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