DeSantis Says Iran Regime Change Would Require Massive U.S. Ground Forces

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis criticized the conduct of the war against Iran on Saturday, arguing that removing senior Iranian leaders had not brought down the regime. Speaking at the University of Notre Dame, he questioned whether Israel and the United States could achieve that outcome through the approach they had taken. DeSantis said replacing Iran's government would require a substantial ground-force deployment and an enormous commitment of resources. He argued that Americans did not want to make that commitment. He also criticized what he described as the lack of a clear objective and voiced concern that the fighting could continue without a resolution. These were his assessments of the campaign and its prospects. At the operation's launch on February 28, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described its purpose as removing the Iranian regime's existential threat to Israel. He said Iran must not obtain nuclear weapons, while arguing that joint Israeli-American action would create conditions for Iranians to determine their own future and free themselves from tyranny. The White House set out military objectives in a March 12 statement: destroying Iran's ballistic missiles and their production capacity, neutralizing its navy, ending its support for terrorist proxies and preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Those earlier statements predated DeSantis's remarks.