Trump vows to finish Iran War despite rising U.S. Military deaths

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

US President Donald Trump has defended the ongoing American military campaign against Iran, acknowledging the human cost of the conflict while insisting that the operation must continue until its objectives are fully achieved.

Speaking at a press conference in Florida late Monday, Trump responded to questions about the growing toll on US forces after the Pentagon confirmed the eighth American service member killed in the operation against Iranian targets.

“When you have conflicts like this, you always have death,” Trump said when asked how many US casualties he was prepared to endure in the war.

The president disclosed that he recently met with the families of fallen soldiers at Dover Air Force Base, where the remains of American troops killed overseas are typically received.

According to him, relatives of the slain service members urged the administration to press on with the military campaign.

“[They said] ‘finish the job sir, please finish the job’. And I’ll leave you at that,” Trump said.

The remarks came as Washington intensified its air and missile campaign against Iran, a conflict that has rapidly escalated into one of the most significant military confrontations in the Middle East in recent years.

Trump claimed the United States, working alongside Israel, had already inflicted devastating damage on Iran’s military capabilities.

“We wiped them out in the first two days,” he said, adding that the strikes had destroyed large portions of Iran’s naval and air forces as well as key weapons infrastructure.

The president further asserted that the Iranian missile threat had been significantly reduced.

“The missiles are down to a trickle, the drones are down to probably 25%, and they will soon be down to nothing,” Trump said, noting that Iranian drone manufacturing facilities were currently under sustained attack.

According to Trump, more than 5,000 targets across Iran have been struck since the start of the operation, including military bases, missile launch systems and weapons manufacturing sites.

Despite the sweeping military claims, the president indicated that the conflict would not end immediately, although he predicted a conclusion in the near future.

“I think soon,” Trump said when asked how long the operation would continue. “Everything they have is gone, including their leadership.”

Trump also reiterated his administration’s justification for launching the strikes, arguing that Iran had been secretly rebuilding its nuclear weapons capability while simultaneously expanding its ballistic missile programme.

“They started the process while rapidly building conventional ballistic missiles that threatened our overseas bases and soon could have reached our homeland,” he said.

The president maintained that the United States had acted pre-emptively to prevent what he described as a growing security threat.