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  "path": "/post/207471/army-training-exercise-escalation-iran",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-06T19:12:17.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Politics",
    "Republican Party",
    "Donald Trump",
    "Foreign Policy",
    "Middle East",
    "Iran",
    "War",
    "Military",
    "American military",
    "army",
    "Training",
    "The Washington Post",
    "unconditional surrender",
    "potentially unavoidable reality",
    "confident",
    "_Time_",
    "indiscriminately bomb civilian targets",
    "elementary schools",
    "1,200 Iranian civilians"
  ],
  "textContent": "The U.S. Army spontaneously canceled a training exercise for an elite team this week, raising concerns that the soldiers may soon be expected to deploy to Iran.\n\nThe headquarters element of the 82nd Airborne Division, stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, pulled out of a major training exercise earlier this week. The brigade is a rapid-reaction paratrooper division, comprising up to 5,000 soldiers that are capable of deploying anywhere in the world within 18 hours. They are specialized in missions that include parachute assault, reinforcing U.S. embassies, and enabling emergency evacuations.\n\nThe rest of the 82nd Division continued training at Fort Polk in Louisiana.\n\nDeployment orders had not been issued as of Friday, military officials told _The Washington Post_. The unidentified Army men noted to the _Post_ that the division is expected to deploy a helicopter unit to the Middle East, a plan set before the war began, though that won’t happen until later in the spring.\n\nNonetheless, military officials are steeling themselves for the worst.\n\n“We’re all preparing for something—just in case,” one official familiar with the issue told the _Post._\n\nA spokesperson for the Army referred the _Post_ to a statement that read: “Due to operations security we do not discuss future or hypothetical movements.”\n\nTalk of escalating the conflict with Iran has ramped up in recent days among chief White House officials, at times in a remarkably disaffected way. The president declared on Friday that he wants “unconditional surrender” from Iran, and would not negotiate a peace deal without it.\n\nRepublicans are discussing the potentially unavoidable reality of a U.S. ground invasion in Iran; meanwhile, Iranian officials have already said they are “confident” the country could counter a U.S. ground invasion.\n\nWhen asked by _Time_ if Americans should be worried about Iran attacking them on U.S. soil, Donald Trump responded: “I guess.”\n\n“But I think they’re worried about that all the time,” he continued. “We think about it all the time. We plan for it. But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.”\n\nThe self-titled “peace president” has so far used his second term to sweep foreign cities, massacre foreign leadership, and indiscriminately bomb civilian targets, such as elementary schools in Tehran.\n\nSo far, six U.S. soldiers have been killed in the conflict, as have more than 20 Iranian officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Eighteen American soldiers have also been seriously injured. More than 1,200 Iranian civilians have been killed, including 176 children, dozens of whom were bombed at a girls’ school in south Iran.\n\nThe conflict entered its seventh day on Friday. Trump has still not directly addressed the American people on the issue.",
  "title": "Latest Army Scheduling Move Sparks Fears of Escalation in Iran"
}