Pentagon considering sending 10,000 troops to Middle East: report
President Donald Trump is reportedly considering bringing more U.S. troops into the Middle East as the war with Iran hits its fourth week.
by Summer Lane | March 27, 2026
The Pentagon is reportedly considering deploying up to 10,000 more U.S. servicemembers to the Middle East, following the confirmed mobilization of some elements of the 82nd Airborne Division to the region.
According to Fox News, a senior U.S. defense official has indicated that President Trump is reportedly mulling over further troop deployments as Operation Epic Fury, nearly at its four-week mark, continues to rage against Iran.
This would also be in addition to the nearly 5,000 U.S. Marines traveling to the region aboard the USS Tripoli and its Expeditionary Units, per TIME. A rough estimate of all these potential troops – both deployed and undeployed – comes to around 15,000 boots.
This is a significant number that seems to indicate that the United States military is ready and poised to implement some kind of ground operation in Iran, although it is unclear why.
So far, the U.S. military has waged war from the skies, but Iranian fighters have continued to resist. Mark Levin, a Fox News host and an outspoken supporter of violent war against Iran, even admitted on Thursday that it would be “impossible” to remove the nuclear threat in Iran without going “into the tunnels and facilities deep underground to get it.”
“I don’t know what the administration’s plan is, but I am guessing this is at least one reason why there are public reports that some of the special forces are being called up and deployed,” Levin wrote on X.
Despite administrative denials, it looks as if U.S. boots on the ground are a real possibility, even as the Pentagon has said that Operation Epic Fury is a limited scope military effort.
“This is not Iraq, this is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better, and so does this president…This is the opposite. This operation is a clear devastating decisive mission,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in early March.
Photo: Adobe Stock
