The US is “getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East,” Trump said in a Truth Social post late Friday.
 
Yet the Pentagon’s planned actions stand in stark opposition to President Trump’s claim of phasing out military operations.
 
US military officials said that about 2,500 additional Marines aboard three warships are heading to the Middle East, the New York Times (NYT) reported.
 
The Marines, who will deploy next month, are from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Pendleton, California, and the U.S.S. Boxer amphibious ready group, per the NYT.
 
The US actually has come to realize that it has overcommitted and overextended itself in this war, which is increasingly detrimental to its own interests, Li Weijian, a vice president of the Chinese Association of Middle East Studies, told the Global Times on Saturday.
 
Yet it is unwilling to acknowledge the reality of its situation or its inability to prevail, and seeks to preserve its dignity by deploying troops, Li added.
 
It is by no means the first time that the US has struck a defiant tone in regard to this war. Trump told reporters on Friday that he is not interested in a ceasefire with Iran, CNBC reported. “We could have dialogue, but I don’t want to do a ceasefire,” Trump said from the White House South Lawn before departing for Florida. “You know you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side.”
 
Additionally, CBS News reported that the Trump administration has been strategizing methods and options to secure or extract Iran's nuclear materials, according to multiple people briefed on the discussions.
 
The timing of any such operation — if President Trump were to order it — remained unclear Friday night, per CBS News.
 
Such tactics of the US are intended to send a clear message to Iran that "it is not incapable of responding to the situation," Li said, adding that the reality is that the US has already expended far too much.
 
Iranian strikes on military bases used by the US in the Middle East caused about $800m in damage in the first two weeks of the war, a new analysis shows, BBC News reported on Saturday.
 
A significant portion of the damage was caused by a strike on a US radar for a THAAD missile defence system at an air base in Jordan, per the report.
 
The US is also seeking to draw more countries into this conflict. Trump said Friday that "it would be nice" if Japan, China and other countries that are highly dependent on energy imports from the Middle East join his efforts to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the Mainichi reported on Saturday.
 
Trump also assailed NATO allies on Friday over their lack of support for the US-Israel war against Iran, calling the longtime US ‌allies "cowards," Reuters reported.
 
Unwilling to concede defeat and unable to make an outright withdrawal, the US, amid mounting pressure, has sought to leverage the influence of other countries to pressure Iran into making concessions, according to Li.
 
The US ought to recognize that the war it has waged against Iran together with Israel is inherently unjust, that its isolation is no accident, and that it must bear the consequences for all of this, Li added.