Trump signals US ready for prolonged war

US President Donald Trump signalled on Tuesday that he was ready for a prolonged war in a post on Truth Social, asserting that its munition stockpiles can hold out.

In a post that used the ominous word “forever”, he said, “As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons” at the medium and upper medium levels.

“The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better,” he wrote.

On Monday, Trump said that he expected Operation Epic Fury to last four to five weeks, but he was ready if it was "to go far longer than that”.

On Tuesday, at his meeting with Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump sounded optimistic, saying, “They have no navy, it's been knocked out ... They have no air force, it's been knocked out. … Just about everything's been knocked out”.

But Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, indicated an early end to the conflict was unlikely.

“We are at the earliest stages of this campaign,” he said.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, ruled out a prolonged war.

He told Fox News, “You're not going to have an endless war”.

The Iranian regime was at its weakest, he asserted.

“So this is going to be a quick and decisive action,” he said.

He claimed that they would create conditions for the Iranian people “to form their own democratically elected government.”

In a US domestic challenge to continuing the war, the stock markets took a big hit early Tuesday, with the Dow Jones and other major indexes down about 1.3 per cent, after an even bigger drop at the opening.

Crude oil prices were up about 6.5 per cent, fuelling fears of inflation.