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Israel Instructs Military to Prepare for Expanding Lebanon Operations; Trump Says U.S. Has Won War with Iran; Iran Ramps Up Retaliatory Attacks on Energy Supplies. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 12, 2026 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:30:00]

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Is that one of the reasons you would actually have a B-1 level bomb is because there are still a lot of bunkers to bust. Areas within Iran that are still under hardened concrete, they are still kept as part of their command-and- control network and obviously their nuclear program as well.

So far, as far as we know, the nuclear program has not been targeted in this particular operation, but that is definitely a good target. And it's also key that the missiles that the Iranians have, plus a lot of the drones, many of them are all parked in underground hardened shelters.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Colonel Cedric Leighton, the audio is a little hurting right now, but we'll stay in very close touch with you to be sure.

And just ahead, with more evidence suggesting the U.S. is responsible for that deadly strike on an Iranian school, some experts are warning that not enough is being done to protect civilians. We'll speak to one of those experts, and that's next.

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[10:35:00]

BLITZER: Breaking news. Israel's defense minister is now instructing his military to prepare for expanding operations in Lebanon after the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at Israel from Lebanon. Even as this conflict widens, President Trump is declaring victory. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: And we did a little excursion. We had to take this little couple of weeks, few weeks of excursion. But it's been incredible. Our military is unbelievable, the job they're doing. I would say, to put it mildly, way ahead of schedule. So, we had to take an excursion. But it's doing well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just said it is a little excursion and you said it is a war. So, which one is it? TRUMP: Well, it's both. It's both. It's an excursion that will keep us out of a war. And the war is going to be -- I mean, for them, it's a war. For us, it's turned out to be easier than we thought.

We've won. Let me say we've won. You know, you never like to say too early you won. We won. We won the bet. In the first hour it was over.

The main thing is we have to win this thing, win it quickly, but win it. And there are many people -- I'm just watching some of the news, most people say it's already been won. It's just a question of when. When do we stop?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now, Republican Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska. He's a retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General. He also serves now on the Armed Services Committee. Thanks so much, Congressman, for joining us. What's your view, first of all, of President Trump's messaging on this war, and specifically his statement that the United States has already just won this war?

REP. DON BACON (R-NE), RETIRED AIR FORCE BRIG. GEN. AND ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I think we've done significant damage to Iran. We've eliminated the top tier of their leadership. We've devastated their Air Force, their Navy, their air defenses. But I still think there's more work to do. We know that the ayatollah's son is now the new ayatollah. I hear he's incapacitated, been injured, but we don't have confirmation of that.

But they do have command and control still. We see that with the attacks on the tankers. So, I think we have more work to do on the command and control of the Iranian leadership. I also think we need a lot of air cover with using drones and stuff, searching for these speedboats and things that are targeting our tankers.

But ultimately, the job is not done unless we have regime change. If we stop short of that, then the new leadership will be just as anti- American, anti-Israel as they've always been. They'll conduct terrorism still. They'll still try to produce a nuclear weapon, though it's been -- those capabilities have been degraded. They can still reconstitute over time.

Ultimately, we need a government that represents the people, that wants peace with its neighbors, wants peace with the United States, and does not want a nuclear weapon. We're not there yet.

BLITZER: We've seen some reports that the new leader, the supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, had some foot injuries during the airstrike that eventually wound up killing his father, the former supreme leader. But you say he's incapacitated. Is there evidence that he's incapacitated?

BACON: I saw reporting, though it's not confirmed, Wolf, but I heard that he lost a leg and that he was maybe in a coma. But that's a report that I've read. I don't know if it's true. We don't have confirmation. But regardless, the Iranian leadership still is showing command and control by targeting these tanker ships. So, there's still commanders in the loop making decisions. And so, we still have more work to do.

And I got to -- you know, I've read Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, Khamenei (ph). I served nearly 30 years in the Air Force. No war is easy. It's unpredictable. It's high risk. We have a thinking enemy that's going to do everything in their ability to survive and to take the war to us. And that's why they're attacking their neighbors, attacking the tankers. They're trying to do everything they can to create a crisis that will make us back off.

So, that we're not done yet. We have a thinking enemy that's going to do everything they possibly can to undermine our efforts. And so, we're still in a dead serious game -- not game, but a fight here, a war.

BLITZER: It certainly is. I want to play what Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said about the Trump administration's handling of this war. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): The president says we're almost done. And then we hear from others that, well, it's going to be weeks, maybe, maybe months that the level of fighting is going down.

[10:40:00]

And yet then the next day, it seems like the intensity of the strikes is even more than it has been. So, I think this is where the American public is following this with a bit of confusion. If you haven't built the case as to why we need to be doing more, it may be a challenge to get the support that you need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Congressman Bacon, does she have a point? How do you respond to her?

BACON: I think she does have a point. You know, the administration didn't do a good job at all of saying why we needed to go to war with Iran. I could have done this. I mean, we've been at war with Iran since 1979. They've been -- they've killed over a thousand Americans. They tried to kill the president. They've killed approximately 30,000 to 50,000 of their own people in the last month or two.

This case would have been easy, but I don't think it was made. It wasn't made during the -- you know, the address to Congress when the president did that two weeks ago. He had an opportunity to lay out a better case. There are some mixed messages there. I would say maybe less is better. Keep it simple. Say why -- what's our mission? Why are we doing it? But we don't want to give away our secrets or our plans to the enemy. They're listening. So, I would -- a simple, clear, unified message from all the layers of the administration would be helpful. BLITZER: Yes, he spent about three minutes during his lengthy State of the Union address to Congress talking about Iran. On the other side of this debate, South Carolina's Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Listen and watch what he recently said. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I go back to South Carolina. I'm asking them to send their sons and daughters over to the Mideast. What I want you to do in the Mideast, our friends in Saudi Arabia and other places, step forward and say, this is my fight, too. I join America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You served in combat zones over your many years in the military and we're thankful for you for your service. But what do you say in response to what we're hearing from Lindsey Graham? And also, the $11 billion that the U.S. has already spent during the first six days of this war, as well as, of course, even more importantly, the lives of U.S. sons and daughters.

BACON: You know, I remember seeing Colonel Graham when I served in Iraq in 2007 and '08 when I was there. This -- you know, Iran has been at war with us. That's just a fact. They've been killing Americans since 1979. The most egregious one-time incident was the 241 military that were killed at the Beirut barracks. I lost a friend of mine at Khobar Towers in 1996 when the Iranian terrorist killed 19 Americans at that bombing attack.

When I served in Iraq, they attacked us every single day in the part of Baghdad that I was in. On a good day, we would get three missiles or rockets or mortars that would hit our position. And on bad days, it'd be like 30. And these all came from the Shia militias that were proxy groups of Iran. I think that's what Senator Graham is saying. He's alluding to this. They've been at war with us, and they've been killing approximately 1,000 Americans since the Ayatollah Khomeini came into power in 1979.

I don't think we should put boots on the ground in Iran. I don't think most Americans support that. But this is an important fight using our air, our navy. We lost soldiers, obviously, in Kuwait. Again, we have a thinking enemy. They're going to do everything they can to target Americans right now. And so, we're not out of this fight. And we got more work to do before this job is done.

BLITZER: Let me just get a final question to you while we have you, Congressman. Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, recently warned Lebanon's president that if his military, the Lebanese military, does not crack down on Hezbollah's rocket fire on Israel, and it was intense overnight, the Israeli military would launch a broader invasion into Lebanon. What is your view of that possible major escalation?

BACON: It's always been hard for Israel because the Hezbollah pretty much operate within half of Lebanon. And they've been operating there pretty much with impunity, other than Israel strikes. But Lebanon hasn't had the ability to crack down on the Hezbollah. And so, now you have the Hezbollah, this has been going on for a long time, firing rockets and missiles in the cities of northern Israel. They are very well-trained, trained by the Iranian IRGC.

Now, they've also been, I would say, depleted and weakened over the last year with the Israeli strikes on Hezbollah leadership. Obviously, you know, the pagers that exploded and killed or injured many Hezbollah, taking off their hands, sometimes blinding them. So, the Israelis have had the upper hand, but this has been a dagger at Israel going back decades, operating with impunity in Lebanon.

[10:45:00]

So, I think Israel's right to pressure Lebanon to do more, though I hate to see this war escalate and grow. That's what Iran wants. They want to create a crisis situation that in the end, we will back off and their regime then survives.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. Congressman Don Bacon, as usual, thank you very much for joining us.

BACON: Thank you.

BLITZER: And in our next hour, I'll speak to Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on concerns over retaliatory attacks by Iran here in the United States.

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[10:45:00]

BLITZER: New developments in the investigation of a military strike that Iranian state media says killed at least 168 children at an elementary school in Iran.

[10:50:00]

Video analysis suggests it was a U.S. strike. Two sources tell CNN that early findings in the probe revealed the school likely was hit because of outdated information about a nearby Iranian naval base. But as we await the Pentagon's full report, some experts are warning that not enough is being done to protect civilians.

Joining us now is one of those people, retired U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Wes J. Bryant. He was a civilian harm policy adviser and analyst at the Pentagon. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for your service. When you were there in that role, what did you analyze in order to protect civilians who potentially, God forbid, could be victims of the war?

MASTER SERGEANT WES J. BRYANT (RET.), FORMER PENTAGON CIVILIAN HARM POLICY ADVISER AND ANALYST AND U.S. AIR FORCE SPECIAL OPERATIONS TARGETING SPECIALIST: Well, we were really taking a hard look at lessons learned over the last 20, 30 years in the war on terror and prior and trying to figure out how do we get more consistent at protecting civilians, at carrying out what we term precision warfare, true precision warfare.

You know, because if you see our history in the last few decades, we have moments of incredible successes at that and moments of incredible failures. And what we're trying to stop was these moments of incredible failures, like we see here with the strike on the school in Iran.

BLITZER: The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has repeatedly stated, and I'm quoting him now, "No other country takes as many precautions to ensure the U.S. is not targeting civilians." He also suggested that the U.S. does not get enough credit for taking these steps. How important is it for civilian harm mitigation to be a key strategic imperative when the U.S. engages in these wars?

BRYANT: It's incredibly vital. You know, we have strategic imperatives, turning the civilian population or post-nation governments against our cause, right? We have legal obligations per U.S. international law. We have moral and ethical obligations of not wanting to kill the innocent, protecting the innocent, which is a large premise of what was stated we were going into Iran for in the first place. So, you know, vital on many counts.

BLITZER: Bring us, Wes, into your former role at the Pentagon a little bit more. How many people worked with you at what was called the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, and how many are left now? What was the explanation given to you about why your role and so many others' role was eliminated?

BRYANT: Well, we had about, you know, 200 personnel and growing across the whole what we called Civilian Harm Mitigation or Response Enterprise across the Department of Defense and the National Security Apparatus. At the Center of Excellence for Civilian Protection itself at the Pentagon, we had about 30 to 35. We were actually the smallest Center of Excellence in the entire DoD, and still standing up, not even fully operationally capable.

So, you know, the justification here was -- well, I mean, you got to look at the real justification was the name. The first two words in the name was Civilian Protection. So, it was automatically viewed as woke, of course. But then the on-paper justification was it was redundant because we already have these safeguards built into our processes.

But I would argue that, you know, if we're already doing this and we're already so good where we didn't need this new enterprise that was stood up, mind you, and initiated under the first Trump administration under Esper and then fully stood up under Austin, under President Biden. You know, if we're really this good, why are we having incidents like this in Iran where the Secretary of Defense himself and our own combatant commander cannot even say whether or not they dropped a bomb here?

BLITZER: So, of the 200 people that used to work in this area to try to prevent civilian casualties during warfare, how many are there now?

BRYANT: There's just a handful left at the Pentagon. Really, they're relegated. They're waiting for formal congressional disillusion of the center. And then most of the personnel that were spread out across the rest of the Department of Defense implementing the civilian harm mitigation enterprise and architecture are gone. So, we're down to 90 percent of the enterprise of the personnel have been cut at this point.

The Center of Excellence itself, the few that remain there, are locked out of visibility on every one of these operations that have gone down under the Trump administration this past year. So, they have really no functional role. It's depressing when you hear that.

BLITZER: Retired Master Sergeant Wes J. Bryant, thanks for your service. Thanks very much for joining us. We'll stay in close touch.

BRYANT: Yes, I'd like to add something else if I could.

BLITZER: Go ahead.

[10:55:00]

BRYANT: You know, I think that this problem here speaks to an overall culture. You know, when we have this culture proliferated from the top of bloodlust, of reveling in death and destruction and human suffering, of bravado for violence and power, dehumanization, disregard for international law, all these things that safeguard the innocent, enable precision warfighting, things that are supposed to make us better than our enemies. When you have that culture embodying the antithesis of everything we're supposed to stand for as American warfighters, everything else tends to slip. And that's exactly what we're seeing here.

BLITZER: And we anticipate fairly soon we'll get the official final report from the Pentagon on what happened at that school in Iran. Thank you very much, Retired Master Sergeant Wes J. Bryant. And we'll be right back.

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