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Retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson warned that any decision by President Donald Trump to launch a ground operation in Iran would be an "absolute disaster," saying Americans would die in what he described as a difficult and contested fight.
Speaking Monday on MS NOW's "Deadline: White House" with Nicolle Wallace, Anderson said he believed Trump and his advisers were caught up in what he called "the greatest geopolitical disaster in the history of our country" and accused the administration of having "completely mismanaged this war."
His remarks came as the Pentagon reportedly presses ahead with preparations for a ground operation in Iran.
Anderson said even discussing "putting boots on the ground in any capacity" would be a serious mistake.
He cited several possible locations, including Kharg Island, the Strait of Hormuz, and, "God help us," Isfahan or Fordo if forces were sent in to try to retrieve nuclear material.
"I mean, it would be an absolute disaster," he said.
Anderson, a retired brigadier general who served for more than three decades, said such a move would place U.S. troops in an unknown environment and lead to American casualties.
"What it means is Americans are going to die. ... It is a very, very difficult fight," he said. "This is going to be a contested assault."
Anderson said part of his education and training at the U.S. Military Academy centered on the principle of knowing the enemy as well as oneself, and argued that the administration was failing to follow that approach.
"We do not know this enemy," he said.
He said the U.S. had not recognized that Iran was facing what he described as an existential threat.
"We have not recognized that they're in the middle of an existential threat to them - it's a kill-or-be-killed situation. They're going to do everything possible to beat us and to outlast us," Anderson said.
Although Anderson said he had "no doubt" that the U.S. military would eventually prevail, he said using troops in such a mission would be a major error.
He said the situation was "an example of Trump once again using the Army and using the military as his own personal militia, versus Americans' military."
Anderson said Trump should instead focus on diplomacy.
"What he needs to do is be focused on conducting diplomacy," he said. "But instead he's using the military because they're acquiescent, because they have to, because they were raised like I was, to be responsive to civilian leadership - and he's taking advantage of that."
Anderson said any U.S. ground operation in Iran would carry severe consequences and repeated his warning against such a move.
"This is going to be a terrible, terrible mistake if they do this," he said.
In his interview, Anderson presented the possible deployment of U.S. ground troops to Iran as a dangerous escalation, arguing that the administration had mishandled the war and was underestimating both the nature of the enemy and the risks of sending forces into a contested battlefield.
He said Americans would die in such an operation and urged diplomacy instead of military action.
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