← Boots on the Ground: TV Clips
McMaster Lays Out Scenarios for Boots in Iran
H.R. McMaster, retired Army lieutenant general, national security adviser in the first Trump administration. CBS News, CBS News 24/7, March 9, 2026.
CBS News · posted 2026-03-09 · 6:29
Added to this site: September 27, 2026 · Transcribed: September 27, 2026
Original: youtube.com/watch?v=J6RQPj9h3Vo · IPFS QmfMhCBsfzckEiQMSxzTHNg1A4vrvTg5U5Y1zVVTgEd2rK
What this video shows
H.R. McMaster is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general who served as President Trump's national security adviser in his first term; he now appears as a CBS News contributor. The segment opens with the bodies of American service members killed in the first days of the war coming home. The anchor then asks McMaster directly whether the mission can be done from the air alone, "or will there have to be some force on the ground?"
"There has to be some force on the ground."
McMaster says that force does not have to be American: it could be Iranian opposition groups, or units of Iran's regular army turning on the IRGC (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime's own ideological military). But he also says "there could be the use, as the president has said, of troops," that some missile threats and deeply buried sites are "tough to get at exclusively from the air," and that the answer could be U.S. "special operations forces, special forces operating alongside indigenous partners." He tells the parents of service members that the intense phase should last about a month, and calls the war "a righteous mission."
So, in only the second week of the war, a former national security adviser was telling a national audience that victory needs a force on the ground, with American special forces as one of the options, while the public was being told this would be an air war.
Where this fits: this clip is one of the TV clips calling for American boots on the ground in Iran. For the full story, what the public was told next to what was happening, see American Soldiers on the Ground in Iran — Videos.
Transcript
Machine transcription (apple-speechanalyzer · Source duration: 00:06:29 · Transcript covers: 00:06:29 ✓ full) made with Large File Bridge on September 27, 2026. It can mishear names and words, so check exact wording against the video before quoting it.
Over the weekend, President Trump joined mourners, welcoming the bodies of six service members killed in the first days of the war with Iran. This, as we learn a seventh service member, also lost his life from injuries sustained in the early hours of the war. 26 year old Sergeant Benjamin Pennington of Glendale, Kentucky, killed when Iran conducted a major air strike on a U.S.
base in Saudi Arabia. Live now at a CBS News contributor, General H.R. McMaster, National Security Advisor to President Trump during his first term, first of all, General, on behalf of our organization, our condolences, to everybody in the U.
S. Armed Forces for the news of this latest loss, Sergeant Pennington. I want to ask you, though, about whether we're really looking at the reality of boots on the ground. Can this mission that the president has be accomplished solely in the air, or will there have to be some force on the ground?
Well, hey, it's great to be with you. There has to be some force on the ground. It doesn't have to be U.S.
It could be Iranian. It could be, or the Iranian people. It could be an Iranian group, you know, that opposes the government, but, you know, it's really hard to imagine the collapse of the regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the bus siege without some kind of massive ground presence, maybe this could be in the form of protests or a fissure, a breakaway. uh, kind of part of the security forces, the artesh, which is like the the conventional army, maybe elements of that could turn against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, or there could be even members of the RGC who say, hey, enough of this, right?
So I think that's what we're kind of playing for. There could be the use, as the president has said, of troops. Um, and, you know, it's important to recognize that for some of these missile threats, they're tough to get at exclusively from the air, although we're doing, you know, dropping off the numbers of missile launches and drone strikes. Uh, but also some of these deep buried sites, for example, could be another target, but, you know, you really need the, the whole comp, you know, all elements, land sea, air, cyberspace, space to get to a final resolution.
Again, it doesn't have to be U.S. or it could be special operations forces, special forces operating alongside indigenous partners of some kind. Well, and as we speak about those air strikes, it looks if any of my studying of this is at all accurate.
It looks like the first priority was taking out weaponry, but weaponry that could be used in the immediate to retaliate. Now that the airspace appears to be clear for planes to fly over Iran, some of our U.S. military clear to do that.
Do you feel like we'll move into perhaps a phase two that will look different than that phase one of taking out the ability to retaliate? Yeah, so that's already happening with now the ability to fly with impunity with, you know, with fourth generation aircraft and bombers and so forth, what you're seeing are, you know, are reconnaissance missions that are to identify any kind of missile launchers, you know, coming down of these deep bird facilities or drone launches to try to destroy them on the ground. But also, you're seeing now, again, a new range of targets. And I guess the President Trump was unhappy with striking some of the economic targets, you know, the fuel capacity there within within Iran, because, you know, if there is a new government, they're going to need maybe that infrastructure to rebuild the country.
But also what you're seeing are now targeting of the repressive arms of the regime, including the RGC and the buses, some of these police stations. Now, of course, what they're doing, you know, what the RGC and procedure are doing is they're moving into hospitals. They're moving into schools, you know, to try to evade air power. And this is why it's so hard to do this exclusively from the air.
But hopefully, you know, for the good of the Iranian people, that will weaken these arms of repression, because remember, I mean, they just killed, you know, they think 30 to 40,000 of Iranians in the last 30 days in a 48 hour period. So if I am the parent of a U.S. service member, and I'm seeing the headlines, and I have a minute to get a copy with you, and I look you in the eye, and I say, do you really think it's going to be four weeks, five weeks, two months, six months?
What do you say? I think for the most intense part of this fight is gonna be, the four weeks, you know, month period of time, before we're able to cause so much nutrition on their missile capacity and their drone capacity. They're trying to replenish it? You know, uh, two ships are, are bound to are around from China now that have loaded up all the chemicals that are necessary for solid fuels, uh, solid fuel for their missiles, but I have a feeling those ships aren't going to make it to an Iranian port.
So there's this sort of effort from the outside in to make sure they can't replenish, and then now from the inside out to cause attrition on their longer range capabilities. Hey, but but to hey, for parents of servicemen and women, I just want to say it should be so darn proud and recognize that Iran has been fighting a proxy war against us for 47 years. Uh, and whereas uh, we we deeply feel uh, the sacrifices of our 7 uh, fellow soldiers who who have been killed in this fight. What they are doing is they are getting rid of a regime that has killed 1000s of U.
S. soldiers. 600 or so, we think, in southern Iraq, through their proxies and these roadside bombs. But hey, how about going back to to Lebanon?
Um, and and the Beirut bombings in 1983, you know, where they bombed our marine barracks and our embassy and killed French commandos there. And then have had this sustained campaign of terrorism. You know, across the region. I mean, I can't think of any regime that's got more blood on their hands, enabling the serial episodes of mass homicide in the Syrian Civil War.
You know, the support of these militias and proxies that have that have caused so much loss among the Arab populations in the region, let alone the lighting of the Ring of Fire around Israel in October 7, 2023. So, hey, I think this is a righteous mission. Uh, we ought to be very proud of our servicemen and women uh, who are fighting really to end a war that's been going on for almost 50 years. General H.
R. McMaster, an honor to talk to you today. Thank you so much for your life services as well.
Last Updated: 2026-09-27