White House reportedly looking over military plans against Iran

John Bolton.
(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

During a meeting of President Trump's top national security aides last week, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan shared a revised military plan that includes sending up to 120,000 troops to the Middle East if Iran attacks U.S. forces or speeds up its work on nuclear weapons, administration officials told The New York Times on Monday.

National Security Adviser John Bolton, an Iran hawk, ordered the updated plan for the meeting, which took place after the administration claimed Iran was organizing proxy groups to attack American forces in Syria and Iraq. It is unclear whether Trump, who has said he wants to remove troops from Afghanistan and Syria, has been briefed on the matter, or if he would agree to send so many troops to the Middle East.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.