A Pentagon Debate: Are U.S. Deployments Containing the Fighting, or Inflaming It?

Military officials discuss whether sending more force to the Middle East is helping to prevent a much wider war, or emboldening Israel.

As the Israeli offensive in Lebanon expands to include ground incursions and intensifying airstrikes, senior Pentagon officials are discussing whether the enhanced U.S. military presence in the region is containing a widening war, as they had hoped, or inflaming it.

In the 12 months since Hamas attacked Israel, launching a conflict that includes Yemen, Iran and Lebanon, the Pentagon has sent a bristling array of weaponry to the region, including aircraft carriers, guided missile destroyers, amphibious assault ships and fighter squadrons.

The Pentagon announced this week that it would add a “few thousand” more troops to the equation and essentially doubled its air power in the region.

President Biden says the U.S. hardware and extra troops are there to help defend Israel and to protect other American troops on bases throughout the region. In an interview on Thursday, the deputy Pentagon spokeswoman, Sabrina Singh, said the Defense Department’s leadership remained “focused on the protection of U.S. citizens and forces in the region, the defense of Israel and the de-escalation of the situation through deterrence and diplomacy.”

The larger American presence, she said, is meant to “deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.”

But several Pentagon officials expressed concern that Israel was waging an increasingly aggressive campaign against the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy, knowing that an armada of American warships and dozens of attack planes stand ready to help blunt any Iranian response.

“Right now, there’s enough posture in the region that if the Iranians step in, we can and would support Israel’s defense,” said Dana Stroul, the Pentagon’s top official for Middle East policy until last year. Of Israel’s increasingly aggressive campaign against Hezbollah, she said, “If you’re Israel and you’re a military planner, you want to do all that while things are in the region, not after it leaves.”

Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has raised the issue in meetings at the Pentagon and at the White House, officials said. General Brown, a former F-16 pilot who commanded U.S. air forces in the Middle East, has also questioned the effect of the expanded American presence in the region on overall combat “readiness,” the ability of the U.S. military to respond quickly to conflicts, including with China and Russia.

General Brown, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and other officials have tried to balance containing the conflict and emboldening Israel, one senior U.S. military official said. Another official said it was easier for Israel to go on offense when it knows that “Big Brother” is nearby.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

Dealing with the Israelis has become more difficult for the Pentagon, they said, as Israel has made clear that it will not warn the United States before it takes actions against what it views as existential threats.

On Sunday, Biden administration officials said they had talked to the Israelis and believed that they had agreed to a limited ground incursion into Lebanon. But Israel’s raids this week look more like an extensive operation so far, other officials said.

Then, there was Israel’s plan to assassinate the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, last week. Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, the officials said, informed Mr. Austin during a call as the Israeli operation was underway.

Pentagon officials said Mr. Austin was seething that the Israelis did not give more notice to allow U.S. troops in the region to increase defensive measures against likely Iranian retaliation.

When asked about Mr. Austin’s reaction, Ms. Singh told reporters that “he was caught off guard.”

“How you interpret that, I’ll leave that to you, but that was his reaction,” she said. “And it was a frank and very firm conversation on both sides.”

But that same day, the Pentagon said it was deploying a “few thousand” more American troops to the region. A Defense Department official said the number would be between 2,000 and 3,000 and include aircrews with the three additional fighter squadrons, plus personnel to maintain, supply and protect them.

Iran has not attacked American troops in the region directly, but has, rather, left that to its proxy groups. In February, the U.S. launched retaliatory strikes after an attack by an Iran-backed militia killed three U.S. troops in Jordan and injured 40 more.

Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the head of the U.S. military’s Central Command, requested the additional troops to protect American forces in the region and to help defend Israel, when the expected Iranian retaliation came, the officials said.

When Iran retaliated against Israel on Tuesday, two U.S. Navy destroyers — the Bulkeley and the Cole — together launched a dozen interceptors against the Iranian missiles, knocking down a handful. The warships fired more than one interceptor at each incoming missile, officials said, though Israel handled the bulk of its defenses itself, using its own air defense systems.

The Biden administration had tried to prevent the conflict in the Middle East from spiraling. The Pentagon was already helping Ukraine defend against Russia and trying to focus on the national security strategy, which says the Defense Department should focus on so-called great power conflicts with Russia and China.

More significantly, though, Defense Department officials are worried that the Middle East conflict will draw resources away from the Pacific region, where the military is trying to shift more of its attention, in the event that China invades Taiwan or a conflict on disputed territory in the South China Sea leads to something bigger.

“What happens in one part of the world impacts other parts of the world,” General Brown said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York last week. “We’ve got to make sure we’re able to make those connections, so we don’t get surprised at a later date because we’re only focused on one area.”

Successive U.S. administrations have tried to extricate the American military from the Middle East for nearly a decade. But the region is again hosting a growing array of U.S. military power.

The United States has an amphibious assault ship and three guided-missile destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean. A second aircraft, the Harry S. Truman, left Virginia in late September for a previously scheduled exercise in Europe. But it may need to divert to the eastern Mediterranean if fighting in the region boils over.

In the Red Sea, the Navy has several guided missile destroyers, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. In the Gulf of Oman, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, with its attendant strike group of guided missile destroyers and fighter squadrons, has been monitoring Iran since August. This week, Mr. Austin ordered it to remain there, extending its deployment by two months.