The United States has said that the war with Iran has “only just begun.” It added that it has already struck more than 2,000 targets since the initial joint attack with Israel. Iran’s Health Ministry says more than 920 people there have been killed.

“We’ve only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy, and defeat their capabilities,” Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon on Wednesday. That statement echoed U.S. President Donald Trump’s sentiment.  Trump said Monday that “we haven’t even started hitting them hard. The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”

Iran, Israel, And The United States All Say That They Are Ready For War

There has already been a large discrepancy in the reporting of deaths between the U.S. and Iran.

Pentagon Confirms 3 Deaths, Iran Claims It Killed 200 In Strikes

The U.S. defense secretary Pete Hegseth said today that the war expanded once again. Iran, for the first time, has fired a drone into NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) territory, and the U.S. used a torpedo fired by a submarine to sink a warship for the first time since World War II.

Hegseth was also quoted as saying the fighting is “far from over”,  even as the U.S. rulers declined to explain what ultimate victory might look like.

The war, which kicked off Saturday with joint American and Israeli airstrikes, has seen thousands of bombs dropped on Iranian targets, eliminating most of its air defenses and hitting missile launchers and elements of Tehran’s defense manufacturing capabilities, according to a report by Politico. 

Over the past 24 hours, Iran’s ballistic missile launches have fallen by 23 percent from the first day of the war, while one-way attack drone shots are down 73 percent, according to Joint Chiefs Chair General Dan Caine.

While acknowledging the deaths caused by Iranian strikes, Caine said a more intense campaign is definitely on the way.  “We will now begin to expand inland, striking progressively deeper into Iranian territory and creating additional freedom of maneuver for U.S. forces.”

This war does not look like it will end soon. A sustained war with Iran could push the globe toward a third global conflagration and the outcome will be horrific.