Overview
- Lawmakers pressed Gen. Dan Caine through hours of testimony, and he refused to define the war’s “center of gravity,” a term for the enemy’s main source of strength, or to outline an endgame.
- Pressed for a plan, Caine stuck to near-term goals, citing strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile systems, its navy and defense factories, and efforts to stop threats to U.S. troops and regional partners.
- Reporting linked his caution to President Trump’s push to keep negotiating room, which makes public statements of fixed war aims vulnerable to rapid reversal.
- Sen. Gary Peters pointed to the Strait of Hormuz as the likely focal point, noting it carries about 20% of the world’s oil, and he kept asking how the United States would restore those flows.
- Analysts split on Caine’s approach, and retired Army Col. Heidi Urben warned that talking only about tactics teaches the force that strategy can be ignored.