Hey there from CNN. I'm David Rind with the five things you need to know for Monday, March 2nd.

This is not a single overnight operation.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Cain and Secretary of Defense Pete Hexeth gave an update this morning on the widening war with Iran.

We learned a lot here. First, that President Donald Trump gave the final go-ahead for this

operation on Friday afternoon around 3.30 p.m. The U.S. military also confirmed that at least four U.S.

service members have died so far, all in Kuwait. 18 had been seriously wounded overall. Secretary

Hegeseth said there are no U.S. boots on the ground right now, but did not rule out that possibility.

Despite some of those answers, there are still a lot of unknowns here.

Namely, how long will this last? And what exactly is the end game here?

This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change.

And the world is better off for it.

Secretary Hegseth, alluding to the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hohmani there,

but it's not clear who will fill the power vacuum.

Hegset also pushed back on concerns that this war could soon become one of those forever wars

that President Trump has long promised to avoid.

This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb, and he's right.

This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat,

destroy the Navy, no nukes. President Donald Trump told CNN's Jake Tapper in a phone interview

this morning that while we're, quote, knocking the crap out of them, the big wave is yet to come.

When we come back, the fighting is not limited to Iran, not by a long shot.

Stick around.

So we've seen Iran strike back at U.S. targets and civilian areas across Gulf Arab states

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