The US needs to find an “off-ramp” from the war with Iran, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine reportedly told other top Trump advisers in private.
Over the past few weeks, Trump’s most senior general raised concerns that military options on the table to escalate the conflict in Iran could backfire, and airpower alone is unlikely to achieve US President Donald Trump’s stated objectives, sources told CNN.
“Caine is looking for an off ramp,” one of the sources was quoted as saying.
Sources added that Caine is not alone in his view that the war has reached a crossroads.
He reportedly discussed concerns about military options to escalate the conflict and raised the prospect of finding an off-ramp from the war with other key Cabinet officials, including CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance.
“I think it is just his way of protecting the military,” one of the sources told CNN, referring to Caine’s discussions with other top national security officials within Trump’s cabinet about the Iran war.
Trump has consistently appeared averse to the idea of deploying ground troops in Iran, instead signaling he believes that air bombing can force them to agree to a deal on his terms.
According to sources, Caine and others in Trump’s cabinet privately view that outcome as unlikely and instead have sought to develop other options that fit within the president’s own parameters.
When asked for a comment on this claim, Caine’s spokesperson Joseph Holstead told CNN: “We do not discuss the Chairman’s confidential conversations with the President, the Secretary, or other senior leaders, nor do we comment on anonymous, agenda-driven characterisations of those conversations by sources who were not privy to them.”
The CNN report noted that while Caine has raised concerns, he has also been mindful of preserving his relationship with Trump, and been careful in how he conveys the potential downsides of military options when presenting them directly to the president, the sources said.
Caine was “doing his job” by recently raising potential downsides of military options for escalating the conflict — including concerns about the already depleted US munitions stockpile — during a White House meeting with Trump and other top officials late last month, two sources familiar with the discussion were quoted as saying.
But during the same discussion, Caine also made clear to the president that if he wanted to go forward with those operations, “we could absolutely wreck them,” one of the sources familiar with that recent White House meeting told CNN about the chairman’s message.
Why US military options may backfire?
1. ‘Airpower has its limits’
“There is no easy military solution to end a war in Iran”: This is what Caine has been arguing privately, according to CNN sources. They also emphasised the “limitations and pitfalls” of the available military options, including those that do not involve putting .
The war has reached a point where many of Trump’s top national security officials believe what Caine himself told lawmakers during a public hearing late last month — “airpower has its limits.”
For those reasons, Caine and other Trump officials were wary of the plan in late July to launch new, more aggressive strikes due to concerns about the likely fallout that could come from escalating the conflict, the report added.
“The only ones in favour of the operation were elements of ,” the source added, noting Israel also broadly supported an operation to escalate the conflict.
Trump ultimately decided to back off after talking with Middle East allies, who told him they were afraid of Iranian retaliation, specifically retaliatory attacks on their energy infrastructure, a senior administration official told CNN.
The official said that the president is not taking the planned strikes off the table for a future date.
2. Dwindling US stockpiles
The US war in Iran has depleted stocks of key air defense weapons, including ballistic missile interceptors — a potential constraint for President Donald Trump as he weighs the prospect of renewing the conflict, ABC News reported.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Study of air defense systems, Patriot stockpiles have been depleted by two-thirds and the THAAD missile inventory, which it estimated was 452 before the start of the war, has been reduced by half.
A US official, who would not discuss numerical estimates, told ABC News that both stockpiles “are extremely low.”
The official highlighted that particular concern was the low inventories of long-range offensive missiles like the ATACM and PRSM.
The CSIS stated in its analysis that “diminished stockpiles may force the United States and its coalition partners to take more risks with interceptions.”
“There are no good alternatives to for ballistic missile defense. Navy ships, with Standard Missiles that can intercept such threats, generally are too far away,” it added.
Multiple sources told CNN that dwindling of key munitions were a concern that has been raised not only by Caine but also by Gulf officials.
They reportedly conveyed to administration officials how a shortage of high-end American air defense systems could impact their ability to ward off potential Iranian retaliation if Trump decides to escalate the conflict.
On Thursday, Trump acknowledged that “we need more all the time” but “we have certain types of munitions that are very powerful [of which] we have unlimited, virtually unlimited supply.”
“We have others where it’s a little bit tighter, and we’re getting them in on a daily basis,” the president was quoted as saying. It was, however, unclear which munitions Trump was referring to.
Each missile costs about $4 million and can take as long as two years to make, the ABC News reported.
