President Joe Biden bears "significant responsibility" for the bold Iranian assault on Israel, according to former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton.
"The Biden administration bears significant responsibility for this Iranian attack," Bolton told Newsmax in live reaction as Iran's drones and missiles were reportedly in flight to Israel, "from the beginning, not appreciating that the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7 was part of a larger Iranian strategy in the region called the Ring of Fire around Israel.
"And now we're seeing Iran itself get into it."
Bolton expects the "incredibly broad assault" by Iran should bring U.S. to the defense of Israel and even supporting an Israel assault on Iranian soil.
"It is an incredibly broad assault with cruise missiles and over 100 drones, and that's all that we know of at this point," Bolton said, criticizing other cable TV networks for claiming this is not a significant retaliatory story. "It could be more than that, so I think that the Biden administration should make it clear, not just rhetorically, but with active assistance for Israel – which I hope is being given, and to consider not only how to defend against this attack and whatever its final form is, but what Israel's response is going to be.
"I think it needs to be a very strong attack on Iran proper."
Iran is emboldened by the Biden administration's weakness and inability to deter their aggression, Bolton lamented.
"Iran feels very confident at this point that the Biden administration will not participate in any Israeli retaliation," he said. "Certainly, they should, and I hope they will do everything they can to help Israel defend against this attack. But the question, really, that the president should address is it is apparent that the Israeli-U.S. effort to deter Iran from attacking Israel itself has failed and failed in a significant way.
"Even if – and we all hope all these drones and cruise missiles are shot down, Iran has nonetheless demonstrated what it's prepared to do."
Bolton compared this attack on Israel to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.
"If our defense at Pearl Harbor had resulted in no ships being sunk or no casualties – would we have just said, 'Oh well, no problem?'" Bolton said. "Israel faces the risk of a nuclear Iran in the very near future, and whatever is in these drones and cruise missiles coming at Israel now almost certainly not nuclear weapons.
"Can Israel be sure the next time it happens that there won't be nuclear weapons sent their way?
"So, I really think to reestablish deterrence, you don't do a tit-for-tat response. You don't do a proportional response. You do a disproportionate response to make it clear to Iran that they will suffer far more than anything they could hope to gain by this attack.
"That's what deters them from doing it in the future."
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