Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Michael E. Kurilla during a visit to the Israeli Navy’s commando unit, Flotilla 13, in May 2023. (IDF Press Office)
CENTCOM is one of the U.S. military’s 11 combatant commands and encompasses 21 nations in the Middle East in its area of operations, including Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those familiar with Kurilla claim he's the perfect person for the job. Retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described Kurilla as the ideal leader for CENTCOM in 2022 when Biden nominated Kurilla for the role.
"If there ever was some way to feed into a machine the requirements for the perfect leader of CENTCOM — the character traits, the attributes, the experiences, the knowledge and the personality that would be ideal — that machine would spit out Erik Kurilla," Milley said in 2022, according to the Defense Department. "Erik's got vast experience in combat (and) on staffs.
"He's a visionary, he's a thinker and he's a doer," Milley said. "He understands both the physical and human terrain and is able to identify root causes of problems and develop systems. He's not at all a linear thinker. He's actually a very gifted problem-solver."
TRUMP SAYS ‘SOMETHING'S GOING TO HAPPEN VERY SOON' WITH IRAN AS HE PUSHES TO NEGOTIATE NUCLEAR DEAL
Army Gen. Michael Kurilla, commander, U.S. Central Command, testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing March 16, 2023. (Getty Images)
He said CENTCOM has encountered the "most highly kinetic period than at any other time in the past decade."
"We have been at the brink of regional war several times with the first state-on-state attacks between Iran and Israel in their history," Kurilla told lawmakers. "In the Red Sea, Houthi attempts to kill Americans operating in the Red Sea necessitated an aggressive response to protect our sailors and mariners and restore freedom of navigation. This is while Tehran is continuing to progress towards a nuclear weapons program — threatening catastrophic ramifications across the region and beyond."
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As a result, Kurilla said CENTCOM is prepared to use military force to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear-armed state. Kurilla said he has provided Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth a host of options to employ to eliminate the threat of a nuclear Iran.
Since Kurilla’s testimony, tensions have escalated even further in the Middle East after Israel kicked off massive airstrikes against Iran's nuclear sites that Israel claims have killed several high-ranking military leaders. Likewise, Iran also launched strikes against Israel as the two ramp up military campaigns against one another.
Trump is still navigating whether the U.S. will conduct direct strikes against Iran. Trump told reporters he may order strikes targeting Iranian nuclear sites and that the "next week is going to be very big."
"Yes, I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do," Trump said. "I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate."
Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kurilla-warfare-meet-general-leading-us-military-forces-middle-east-amid-iran-conflict