U.S. Readying Ground Troops For Iran War

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the war in Iran continues into its fifth week, the Pentagon is contemplating sending an additional 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East. This escalation would add to the roughly 5,000 Marines and at least 2,000 paratroopers from the elite 82nd Airborne Division that have already been ordered to the region. Meanwhile, President Trump has pressed pause on his threat to strike Iranian energy infrastructure offering a ten-day reprieve, and on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that the U.S. could achieve its objectives without using ground troops. We talk about the latest on the Iran War and the fast pivoting American strategy. Guests: Mona Yacoubian, director and senior advisor, Middle East Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies Lt. Col. Jahara Matisek, command pilot and research fellow, U.S. Naval War College Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Scott Schaefer, host of KQ80's Political Breakdown. Head over to Political Breakdowns
0:05.6	Feed Saturday, April 4th to catch a debate between the top three candidates trying to get
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0:36.2	From KQED.
0:39.0	Welcome to forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:41.2	This morning we're talking about the war in Iran getting the latest.
0:46.5	This is what Donald Trump posted this morning.
0:50.7	This is all a quote.
0:52.2	The United States of America is in serious discussions with a new and more reasonable regime to end our military operations in Iran.
0:58.8	Great progress has been made, but if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be.
1:03.5	And if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately, quote, open for business, we will conclude our lovely, quote, stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their
1:12.1	electric generating plants, oil wells, and Karg Island, and possibly all desalination plants,
1:17.8	which we have purposefully not yet, quote, touched. This will be in retribution for our many
1:23.1	soldiers and others that Iran has butchered and killed over the old regime's 47-year reign
1:27.4	of terror. Thank you for attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trun. soldiers and others that Iran has butchered and killed over the old regime's 47-year reign of
1:27.5	terror. Thank you for attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. What do we make of this?
1:34.2	Here to discuss, we have Mona Yakubian, director and senior advisor of the Middle East program
1:40.4	with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Welcome.
1:43.7	Thank you.
	...

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