The Pentagon Didn’t Fire Dan Caldwell Over Leaks. They Fired Him for Opposing War With Iran.
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Who is Dan Caldwell and why was he fired?
Dan Caldwell is a Marine Corps veteran who wound up until three days ago advising the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on military policy. He was one of the strongest voices in the U.S. government in the Trump administration against the war with Iran. And his rationale was simple. It's not in America's interest and many Americans will die and billions will be spent. on a war we don't need to fight. And as someone who fought in Iraq, he was able to take that case to the principals with some force. Then three days ago, he was fired from the Pentagon. but not for his views on Iran, no. Dan Caldwell was fired because, reporters are told off the record, he had leaked classified documents to the media. But what were these classified documents exactly?
Well, no one at the Pentagon could know the answer to that because Dan Caldwell's phone was never examined, nor was he given a polygraph. So actually, beneath the headlines was nothing other than a false accusation. Was Dan Caldwell fired because he opposed the push to war with Iran? You decide. Here's Dan Caldwell. So there is an enormous amount of pressure on this administration to participate in military action against Iran. And the president's position has been, I think, really clear for a long time, which is we don't want Iran to get nuclear weapons. That's bad for everybody. Yes. He sincerely believes that. He's against proliferation. He's very concerned about nuclear weapons. in general, I think.
But we would prefer, strongly prefer a diplomatic solution. And he's being attacked up and down, including by a lot of people in the administration and private. And really, we're trying to steer him toward military action. So leaving aside all the, you know, internecine fights going on, just as a real life matter, What would happen if the U.S. participated in a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites?
So I strongly believe that for diplomacy to work, there needs to be a credible military option.
Yes.
And the president needs that. The Pentagon, where I used to work, needs to provide that. That is their role in American foreign policy, is to provide that leverage to for diplomatic solutions to work. Now, that's how it's supposed to work. Does it often work that way? Unfortunately, the last 30 years have shown us that it really doesn't. But the Trump administration is trying to make it work that way, like it's supposed to.
So we're pursuing diplomacy with the leverage of potential military action.
Correct. That is how it's supposed to work. Now, there's risks in that. You could create a security dilemma, a spiral. So you have to be careful, but that is essentially why the DoD exists. Now, with that said... There are obviously specifics I can't get into, but I think it is fair to say that a war with Iran risks being incredibly costly in terms of lives and dollars and instability in the Middle East.
Lives and dollars, American lives, American dollars.
The lives of Americans, the lives of Iraqis, of Saudis, of Iranians, of... Israelis. Emiratis, yes, of Israelis. And, of course, Iranians. It could be an incredibly costly war. And I think that that is very obvious to anybody who's been watching the region for a while. And I think that's why over the last few years you have seen certain countries in the region change some of their positions on how they want to engage Iran. There are a lot of Gulf Arab countries, for example. who they by no means view Iran as a benevolent force in the region. They're very aware of the threats that they could pose, but they also recognize that a war for them would be extremely costly. And so they're trying to adopt a different posture. And that's a recognition on their end of the costs that a potential full-out war with Iran could have. And I think the president, vice president, they know this.
And that is why they are making sure they're prioritizing diplomacy. And let me just say, thank God we have Steve Witkoff in the administration. He is truly doing the Lord's work and trying to stop this war through diplomacy and also end another ongoing war in Russia, Ukraine. And they're making sure that his effort is the main effort, not a military effort at the moment.
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