AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.

As the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran enters its 26th day, the Pentagon is deploying up to 3,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East. In addition, 2,500 troops from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit are heading to the region and are expected to arrive later this week. Another 4,500 troops, along with three more ships, are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. This comes as speculation is growing the U.S. might attempt to seize Kharg Island, a key Iranian oil export hub.

The deployments come amid some diplomatic developments. Pakistani officials say Iran has received a 15-point ceasefire proposal from the U.S., but top Iranian officials have denied Trump’s claim that direct negotiations have already begun between Iran and the U.S. On Tuesday, Trump claimed Iran had agreed to never have a nuclear weapon, but offered no details.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz has announced Israel plans to occupy all of South Lebanon, south of the Litani River. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the Litani River to become Israel’s new border with Lebanon.

We’re joined right now by retired Master Sergeant Wes Bryant, who spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force as a special operations targeting specialist. Brian served as the chief of civilian harm assessment at the Pentagon from 2024 to ’25, before the office was dissolved.

We thank you so much for being with us. If you can start off by that first day of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, because this goes to you being an expert on targeting, and the killing of at least 175 people, overwhelmingly primary school girls, in southern Iran as a sort of setting the stage for what’s happened with the strikes on Iran?

WES BRYANT: Yes. You know, this war, I think even more concerningly, it’s really just the latest in an outplay of authoritarianism, of tyranny, that’s laced with a bloodthirst and a lust for power and domination. It’s a wholly illegal war. It’s been carried out recklessly from the start and with little regard for the innocent, as well as all of the rest of the economic regional security impacts and the long-term strategic consequences.

You know, to see that strike on the girls’ school in the opening hours of the war, as someone who spent over two decades as a targeter, you know, I’ve controlled — I’ve coordinated and controlled hundreds into the thousands of strike operations. And that was pure recklessness, pure negligence. And the fact that it still hasn’t even been answered to or even officially acknowledged, let alone any redress or semblance of apology or sympathy offered, is, you know, beyond shameful. But it’s fitting with who and what these people are, who and what Hegseth is, who and what Trump is, and this entire administration. But I can tell you, you know, this strike was not a case of fog of war. It was not a case of, well, civilians will die in combat, and so, you know, this is a natural consequence of war. It was pure and complete negligence. And it’s representative of a pattern of this de-evolution of these standards and practices that the U.S. military has been upholding and condoning, up until Hegseth took the reins.

And I’d like to point out this is just one of many. Right now my colleagues at Airwars are tracking upwards of 130 separate civilian casualty incidents between U.S. and Israeli strikes throughout Iran. And so, as the smoke clears, we’re going to see a whole lot more — hopefully nothing this tragic as the school strike.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about Pete Hegseth, who he is, his policies right now, talking about not having to be politically correct, which seems to be code for what? Committing war crimes?

WES BRYANT: Absolutely. Pete Hegseth has already directed the committing of war crimes. And unfortunately, our senior military leadership is bending the knee and carrying out whatever he tells them to do. And he expresses intent to commit even more war crimes, along with Trump himself, you know, talking about doing strikes on infrastructure just for the fun of it, talking about shutting down all of the power grid across Iran and then decimating Iran so that it can’t rebuild for generations — clear intent for war crimes. You know, Hegseth talking about giving no quarter to the enemy, a war crime.

And so, you know, combine that with the sheer magnitude of these campaigns — look at Yemen last year, which is a bit of a microcosm of what we’re seeing in Iran, and then now Iran. First few days of this strike campaign, more strikes than in the first six months of the counter-ISIS campaign. I helped lead and stand up the first strike cells in the counter-ISIS campaign out of Baghdad in 2014, and I can tell you, we could barely keep up at that time. The magnitude of these strikes, these thousands of strikes in such a short period, tells me, as well, that there’s no way that proper characterization of each of these different target sets was accomplished in terms of “Are they still valid targets? What is the risk to the civilian populace?” And the Minab school strike is just one horribly tragic example and outplay of that recklessness.

I believe also that, you know, Hegseth is setting the example, setting the precedent of — for all of this, and he’s setting a higher tolerance for civilian casualties. You know, he doesn’t have to change our law of war, our targeting doctrine, our what we call collateral damage methodology and how we assess civilian risk and mitigate it. But the culture and the precedent that he sets and the orders that he gives, even verbally, can change all of that. And that’s what we’re seeing. We’re seeing a complete disregard for standing operational practices that would have us adhere to international law, adhere to the protection — you know, the sacred values that we hold as Americans and American war fighters, one of those being the protection of the innocent.

And this entire warrior ethos that Hegseth proliferates, it’s frankly disgusting. There’s nothing about him that exudes the American warrior ethos, because, for me, how I was brought up, that ethos includes honor, humanity, temperance, the protection of the innocent, humility. He exudes none of those; in fact, the exact opposite of all those. And that’s incredibly dangerous to the culture of our military, and we see it playing out in its use.

AMY GOODMAN: Retired Master Sergeant Wes Bryant, you were forced out of government last spring. What’s happened to your position? What is the impact of gutting your department? And explain what that department is — or was, I should say.

WES BRYANT: This department was — it was called the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, out of the Pentagon. It was actually initiated under Secretary Esper in the first Trump administration, codified into law under Secretary Austin in the Biden administration. And it was actually Austin’s number one priority. I was one of the people directly recruited in. That’s how big of a priority it was. We want as many experts in as many different fields as we can to help the military get better. You know, look at sustains and improves, we call, from the war on terror, from the last 20, 30 years, what we’re doing well to protect civilians and what could we do a lot better. That was the entire construct. And this fell under what was called the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Enterprise.

And that was completely targeted, you know, as soon as Hegseth and his team came in. I mean, the first two words in our center were “civilian protection,” so, of course, that’s going to fall under this construct of woke. But, you know, unfortunately — and it’s almost laughable, if it wasn’t so angering — Hegseth really doesn’t understand much about war. He certainly doesn’t understand precision warfare, as he throws the term around so often. You know, protecting the innocent and civilians is actually true precision warfare, because, as it turns out, when you kill less civilians, you’re putting more of your resources into finding and killing the enemy. And, you know, there’s this idea — and it’s really being imported from what we’re seeing in Israel, unfortunately, in their genocide in Gaza — this ideal that using precision munitions means precision warfare. No, in Gaza, for example, precision munitions have destroyed 80 to 90% of the infrastructure, killed thousands of civilians, including over 20,000 children. That’s not precision warfare whatsoever. And we’re seeing this now play out in Iran. And the danger here, an incredible danger, is that the U.S. military is now starting to import the practices of the Israeli military. And either way, we are complicit in everything happening in Iran, whether Israel carries it out or the U.S.

AMY GOODMAN: Retired Master Sergeant Wes Bryant spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, served as the chief of civilian harm assessment at the Pentagon from 2024 to 2025.

Coming up, Patti Smith at Democracy Now!’s 30th anniversary celebration, her performances and this rare joint performance of “People Have the Power” with Bruce Springsteen, Michael Stipe and others on the stage. But first, she reads from her book about U.S. policy in Gaza for years. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Streets of Minneapolis,” Bruce Springsteen, performing at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary event Monday night at the Riverside Church. Go to democracynow.org to see the whole performance. And afterwards, I asked him questions about his nationwide tour. It's beginning Saturday at the No Kings march in St. Paul.