PANews reported on March 2 that U.S. Defense Secretary Hergsays denied the notion that a war against Iraq would escalate into the kind of "endless conflict" Trump vowed to avoid during his re-election campaign, stating that "our generation understands the stakes better." At a briefing, Hergsays said, "Our ambitions are not utopian, they are realistic." He added, "This is not Iraq, this is not endless. Our generation understands this, and so does the president. This is a targeted, destructive, and decisive mission." Hergsays described the threat to the U.S. as imminent, claiming that Iran has built a conventional weapons shield to protect its nuclear ambitions. He stated that Iran is "holding a conventional weapon to our heads."