Panicked Democrats fear Trump is close to putting troops on the ground after secret briefing

Senate Democrats are concerned that President Donald Trump may deploy ground troops to Iran and that the war could slip beyond the initial four to five-week timeline.

The Senate Armed Services Committee was briefed on the Iran war on Tuesday by Trump administration officials from the Pentagon. 

Exiting the meeting, Democrats emerged with renewed concern that Trump's war does not have explicit goals or a timeline, despite repeated attempts from White House to explain both.

'I emerged from this briefing dissatisfied and angry, frankly, that I have for any past briefing in my 15 years in the Senate,' Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told reporters after sitting in on the briefing.

'We seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran.'

Senator Tammy Duckworth, a combat veteran and Democrat representing Illinois, shared those concerns.

'I have deep concerns that that that is the case, mainly because they just have launched themselves into this war of choice without an actual plan,' she told the Daily Mail, believing the war could slide into a second month. 

'It feels to me like they're making it up as they go along,' she added.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren complained that lawmakers were left without answers to the rationale for the war, the goals the president is trying to accomplish as well as the methods the administration is using. 

The White House has stated that the goals of the operation are to destroy Iran's missile and drone capabilities, eviscerate its Navy, topple Iran's terrorist proxies across the Middle East and obliterate its nuclear ambitions.

Trump has said many of these objectives have been completed, and that Iran's Navy, missile and drone capabilities, its nuclear program and more have been taken out. 

The Democrats' concerns stand in stark contrast to what the President himself has said, though he has not ruled out using ground troops.  

On Monday, the President said that war appeared as though it were coming to an end, saying it was already 'very complete.'

Though the President did not elaborate on whether the war would be over within the weeklong timeframe Trump originally floated last week during a phone call with the Daily Mail. 

Hours later, the President said the US will go as far as it has to to win the war. 

'We could call it a tremendous success right now … or we could go further, and we’re going to go further,' he said. 'We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.'

Republicans, however, were less concerned with the war turning into a protracted conflict or that the President would send ground troops to Iran.   

'I had no indication that that was part of the discussion,' Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota told the Daily Mail. 

Pressed on Blumenthal's concerns over ground troops, Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana joked that the Connecticut Democrat 'needs to back off the crank.'

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on Tuesday that at least 150 US service members have been injured in Operation Epic Fury. Though the vast majority of those soldiers injured, 108, have already returned to duty.

At least eight US troops have died in the war. 

Congress recently attempted to rein in Trump's sweeping war authorities using a war powers act, but the gambit failed narrowly as Republicans voted down the measure. 

Now lawmakers are only capable of controlling the purse strings of the war effort.

Some lawmakers left the session talking about a potential military supplemental funding bill to resupply the Pentagon's diminishing stockpile, though no exact number was floated. 

On Tuesday, a group of Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the Trump administration requesting public hearings on the Iran war. 

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, alongside Senators Jack Reed  and Jeanne Shaheen, wrote a letter to President Trump asking for Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to testify under oath about the objectives of the war.