{"id":5253,"date":"2026-03-04T20:35:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T20:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/trumps-endgame-in-iran-regime-change-without-us-boots-on-the-ground\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T20:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T20:35:28","slug":"trumps-endgame-in-iran-regime-change-without-us-boots-on-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/trumps-endgame-in-iran-regime-change-without-us-boots-on-the-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s endgame in Iran: Regime change without US \u2018boots on the ground\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p><strong>Washington, DC \u2013<\/strong> Hours after the United States and Israel unleashed their bombing campaign against Iran on Saturday, President <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2026\/3\/4\/will-the-us-put-boots-on-the-ground-in-iran\">Donald Trump<\/a> said that all he wants from the war is \u201cfreedom for the people\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts say that despite this claim and other objectives articulated by US officials, Trump appears to be seeking to collapse the ruling system in Tehran.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/4\/hegseth-says-more-us-forces-arriving-in-middle-east-as-iran-war-ramps-up\">Hegseth says more US forces arriving in Middle East as Iran war ramps up<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/4\/which-oil-and-gas-facilities-in-the-gulf-have-been-attacked\">Which oil and gas facilities in the Gulf have been attacked?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2026\/3\/4\/irans-place-in-world-cup-2026-in-doubt-amid-conflict-trumps-dismissal\">\u2018Sports cold war\u2019: How the Middle East conflict could disrupt the World Cup<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Kelly Grieco, senior fellow at the Stimson Center think tank, told Al Jazeera that achieving such a sweeping political shift will be difficult \u2013 if not impossible \u2013 without troops on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt seems like they\u2019re not willing to pay certain costs to achieve regime change, so there\u2019s sort of a set of secondary goals that perhaps will be enough if they can\u2019t achieve that through air power alone,\u201d Grieco said.<\/p>\n<p>After the opening <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/liveblog\/2026\/3\/4\/iran-live-news-us-embassy-in-dubai-hit-israel-pounds-tehran-beirut\">US-Israeli strikes<\/a>, Trump told the Iranian people that their \u201cmoment of freedom\u201d is at hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take,\u201d he said, suggesting that the US will take down the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Duss, the executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, stressed that air strikes alone cannot collapse the Iranian ruling system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can damage buildings; you can damage the regime, but we don\u2019t have examples of when air power alone has achieved regime change,\u201d Duss said.<\/p>\n<p>A NATO-led air campaign in Libya in 2011 managed to dislodge <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2020\/2\/18\/libyans-mark-9-years-since-start-of-uprising-that-removed-gaddafi\">Muammar Gaddafi<\/a> from power, but Libyan rebels led the offensive on the ground that removed the regime.<\/p>\n<p>While Trump and other US officials have called on Iranians to rise up against their government, as of now, there does not appear to be any meaningful force on the ground capable of taking on the Islamic Republic system.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"boots-on-the-ground\">Boots on the ground?<\/h2>\n<p>While the US has kept the door open for the involvement of ground troops in the war, the move would pose an increased risk to American forces and mark a stark departure from Trump\u2019s stated preference for swift military campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe war is already unpopular, even without any American boots on the ground in Iran,\u201d said Duss.<\/p>\n<p>A recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/2\/poll-suggests-only-a-quarter-of-americans-support-attacks-on-iran\">Reuters survey<\/a> suggested that only about one-quarter of Americans support the war.<\/p>\n<p>Duss drew a contrast between the ongoing conflict and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which had more than 55 percent support from the US public, according to various polls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would imagine that as this war continues, especially if US troops are put on the ground, that support will drop even more,\u201d Duss told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters after a classified hearing with administration officials that he fears that the US may be heading towards a ground operation in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground and that troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish objectives that the administration seems to have,\u201d Blumenthal said.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"other-objectives\">Other objectives<\/h2>\n<p>Over the past few days, US Secretary of State <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/2\/rubio-suggests-timing-of-us-strikes-on-iran-was-influenced-by-israeli-plans\">Marco Rubio<\/a> and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth have articulated more modest goals than regime change in Iran: destroying the Iranian nuclear and drone programmes as well as the country\u2019s navy.<\/p>\n<p>Rubio has argued that Iran was building a large missile and drone arsenal to \u201cachieve immunity\u201d and deterrence against foreign attacks that would allow it to build a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Hegseth has emphasised that the bombing campaign in Iran will not turn into a \u201cforever war\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re ensuring the mission gets accomplished, but we are very clear-eyed \u2013 as the president had been, unlike other presidents, about the foolish policies of the past that recklessly pulled us into things that were not tethered to actual, clear objectives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Grieco, however, noted that Trump\u2019s own objectives have been unclear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is this all for? What are we trying to achieve? The administration certainly has not done itself any favours in the fact that they don\u2019t seem to have a consistent narrative or message on this,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, emerged from a briefing with Trump officials on Tuesday with a similar assessment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is so much worse than you thought. You are right to be worried,\u201d Warren said in a video message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Trump administration has no plan in Iran. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/3\/are-us-israeli-attacks-against-iran-legal-under-international-law\">This illegal war<\/a> is based on lies, and it was launched without any imminent threat to our nation. Donald Trump still hasn\u2019t given a single clear reason for this war, and he seems to have no plan for how to end it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The US and Israel launched the bombing campaign against Iran early on Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, several top officials and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/3\/questions-over-minab-girls-school-strike-as-israel-us-deny-involvement\">hundreds of civilians<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The conflict quickly spread across the Middle East, with Iran lashing out against Gulf countries, launching drone and missile attacks at US assets as well as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/4\/which-oil-and-gas-facilities-in-the-gulf-have-been-attacked\">energy and civilian<\/a> targets.<\/p>\n<p>Tehran has also been targeting Israel with missile volleys.<\/p>\n<p>Iran-allied groups in Iraq joined the war as well, claiming drone attacks against US-affiliated targets. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/4\/israeli-air-attack-targets-hotel-in-beirut\">Hezbollah in Lebanon<\/a> also entered the fray amid reports that Israel was planning an invasion of the south of the country.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"weeks-or-far-longer\">Weeks or \u2018far longer\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Despite Hegseth\u2019s insistence that the war is not open-ended, the Trump administration\u2019s timeline for the conflict has been elastic.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has said that the US is ahead of schedule in completing its mission as the conflict expands. At the same time, he said <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/2\/trump-says-iran-war-projected-to-last-4-to-5-weeks-could-go-far-longer\">the war could<\/a> last four to five weeks and \u201cfar longer\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The US president\u2019s allies have also been hailing the war as a success, predicting that the Iranian system will soon fold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not there yet but, in my view, it\u2019s not if this terrorist regime falls in Iran \u2014 it is only a matter of when,\u201d Republican Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on X after a call with Israeli Prime Minister <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/2\/netanyahu-iran-would-threaten-all-of-humanity-with-nuclear-weapon\">Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Graham said the \u201cgateway to peace that would be opened\u201d after the Iranian regime falls and ties between Israel and Arab states would take the region to a \u201cnew level of prosperity and security\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>However, Duss said it is hard to assess US progress in the war because Trump \u201chas not been clear yet what the objectives really are\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou really can\u2019t judge whether we\u2019re ahead of time or behind time on those objectives. That\u2019s the problem here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey didn\u2019t bother to build any case for why this war was necessary. They certainly did not bother to explain what they hope to achieve and how and when. So all we have is just this killing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With the war still in its first week, it is starting to appear like a longer conflict than the decisive strikes Trump prides himself on, such as the abduction of Venezuela\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/2\/27\/maduro-seeks-dismissal-of-charges-claims-us-blocked-legal-defence-funds\">Nicolas Maduro<\/a> in January and the strikes against Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities in June.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the problem here is that he seems to have become enamoured with air power and what he thinks it can achieve,\u201d Grieco said of Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC \u2013 Hours after the United States and Israel unleashed their bombing campaign against Iran on Saturday, President Donald Trump said that all he wants from the war is \u201cfreedom for the people\u201d. Analysts say that despite this claim and other objectives articulated by US officials, Trump appears to be seeking to collapse the &#8230; <a title=\"Trump\u2019s endgame in Iran: Regime change without US \u2018boots on the ground\u2019\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/trumps-endgame-in-iran-regime-change-without-us-boots-on-the-ground\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump\u2019s endgame in Iran: Regime change without US \u2018boots on the ground\u2019\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}