Why Trump’s Iran Ambitions Don’t Require Ground Troops | Victor Davis Hanson

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4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

Following the initiation of Operation Epic Fury, there has been a lot of talk about a supposed MAGA split among Trump supporters. After all, the America First credo was no optional wars in the Middle East following disgust with the 20-year misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. But Iran is not Afghanistan or Iraq. This is a top-down, air-only military conflict whose stated mission objectives do not necessitate ground forces, and the MAGA base understands this, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “But nobody has ever seen a war in which one side destroyed the entire air force of the enemy, the entire navy of the enemy, and has got pretty much 90% of its ballistic missile arsenal nullified and probably 85% of the drones and decapitated the entire command and control of the military.” 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What I've dedicated my life to is revenge.
0:04.7	A brand new drama based on the best-selling novel.
0:07.5	They think they're better than us.
0:08.5	Who do you think you are?
0:09.8	I'm going to prove to them that they're wrong.
0:11.5	She's punishing me.
0:13.0	You destroyed my family.
0:14.3	I will not rest until I've destroyed yours.
0:17.0	A woman of substance on Channel 4 starts tonight at 9.
0:19.9	There's a lot of talk about a Make America Great Split among Trump supporters.
0:24.6	When you look at the MAGA base, the people who identify themselves as Trump conservatives are Trump MAGA people.
0:32.1	The support for the Iran war is over 90%.
0:34.9	How could that be when they have told us that there's a widespread civil
0:39.6	war among the MAGA people? When you look at the people who are objecting, you know,
0:43.4	it's the Steve Bannon Wing, the Tucker Carlson, Candice Owens, maybe Megan Kelly, I don't know,
0:49.2	and they're saying that this is contrary to mega philosophy of no optional wars. It would be if we insert ground troops and we're there for months, this is different.
0:58.8	This war is only conducted by error and there's certain characteristics of it that we haven't seen before.
1:05.5	It's a top-down war.
1:06.8	We are targeting the leaders, not the military rank and file.
1:11.1	We've never quite seen that before.
1:22.9	Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal.
1:25.9	There's a lot of talk about a make America great split among Trump supporters.
	...

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