{"id":804,"date":"2025-06-17T13:40:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T13:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/?p=804"},"modified":"2025-06-17T19:21:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T19:21:36","slug":"hegseth-we-are-postured-defensively-to-be-strong-in-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/17\/hegseth-we-are-postured-defensively-to-be-strong-in-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth: &#039;We are postured defensively &#8230; to be strong&#039; in Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the U.S. is \u201cpostured defensively in the region to be strong\u201d amid <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/5354215-donald-trump-ceasefire-iran-israel-conflict\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">conflict between Israel and Iran<\/a> in the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur job is to be strong. We are postured defensively in the region to be strong, in pursuit of a peace deal. And we certainly hope that&#8217;s what happens here,\u201d Hegseth said on Fox News\u2019s \u201cJesse Watters Primetime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd \u2018America First\u2019 means we&#8217;re going to defend American personnel and American interests,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Conflict between Israel and Iran broke out last week following long-simmering tensions in the region over Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and Iran\u2019s nuclear capabilities. President Trump said recently that \u201cit\u2019s possible\u201d the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/5351748-trump-possible-us-becomes-involved-israel-iran-conflict\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">steps into the conflict.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not involved in it. It\u2019s possible we could get involved. But we are not at this moment involved,\u201d Trump told ABC News over the weekend. <\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Hegseth <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/defense\/5353739-us-deployment-middle-east-tensions\/?email=467cb6399cb7df64551775e431052b43a775c749&amp;emaila=12a6d4d069cd56cfddaa391c24eb7042&amp;emailb=054528e7403871c79f668e49dd3c44b1ec00c7f611bf9388f76bb2324d6ca5f3&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=06.16.25%20%E2%80%94%C2%A0Defense%20%26%20National%20Security\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ordered the deployment<\/a> of &#8220;additional capabilities&#8221; to the Middle East amid the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>He did not describe specifics, though earlier in the day a U.S. official confirmed to NewsNation that the U.S. military moved several refueling tanker aircraft to Europe.<\/p>\n<p>The president told reporters early Tuesday <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/5354215-donald-trump-ceasefire-iran-israel-conflict\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he was seeking<\/a> \u201ca real end\u201d to the conflict, saying he wasn\u2019t \u201clooking for a ceasefire. &#8230; We\u2019re looking for better than a ceasefire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a post <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SeanParnellATSD\/status\/1934768120549286184\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">on the social platform X Monday night<\/a> that \u201cAmerican Forces are maintaining their defensive posture &amp; that has not changed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will protect American troops &amp; our interests,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/international\/5353012-netanyahu-israel-iran-conflict-khamenei\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">did not rule out targeting<\/a> Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday following reports that Trump had shot down a plan from Israel to take Khamenei out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the U.S. is \u201cpostured defensively in the region to be strong\u201d amid conflict between Israel and Iran in the Middle East. \u201cOur job<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/2025\/06\/17\/hegseth-we-are-postured-defensively-to-be-strong-in-middle-east\/\" class=\"readmore\">Continue reading<svg class=\"icon icon-arrow-right\" aria-hidden=\"true\" role=\"img\"> <use href=\"#icon-arrow-right\" xlink:href=\"#icon-arrow-right\"><\/use> <\/svg><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hegseth: &#039;We are postured defensively &#8230; to be strong&#039; in Middle East<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":805,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions\/805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.logicalware.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}