Ankur Desai

I've got more details on this from our North America correspondent, Helena Humphrey.

Well, certainly, I think if you just take a look at the tone, we had that forceful rhetoric from the Secretary of Defense once again.

He was saying that U.S.-Israeli forces are winning decisively.

And he said that today would be the most intense day when it comes to those attacks on Iran so far.

Now, of course, the question in the room and the question that everybody has been asking in recent days, how long will this last?

and the Secretary of Defence wouldn't be drawn on that.

He wouldn't give a concrete timeline on how long it will go on for.

What he said repeatedly is this is not 2003.

So he was insisting it will not be an endless war.

And, of course, that is something that President Trump campaigned against in the first place, and the Defence Secretary pointed that out.

He was also asked about what comes next after a war.

I thought this was a really interesting point.

He said the aftermath is going to be in our interest without saying exactly what that looked like.

But it was that similar kind of mixed messaging that we'd heard from President Trump yesterday, saying on one hand, OK, this war in Iran could be wrapped up pretty quickly, but also saying the goal for the U.S.

is ultimate victory.

But I think, you know, from the U.S.

perspective, this was an attempt to try and reassure the public because they will have seen the scenes of another U.S.

service member, Army Sgt.

Benjamin Pennington coming home in a dignified transfer yesterday, his coffin at Dover Air Force Base.

He's the seventh member of the U.S.