Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, said Thursday that President Joe Biden is waiting too long to respond to Iran over last week's drone attack that killed three American troops in Jordan.
In fact, Wenstrup said, Biden has waited far too long to respond to the roughly 166 attacks on U.S. troops and bases in the Middle East since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.
"It's been too long for a while. If you look at the attacks that have taken place since October 7, on U.S. interests, U.S. military, 160 times, what are we waiting for?" Wenstrup said on "The Hill" on NewsNation on Thursday.
"When you know that it is Iran that is behind these militias, behind Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis, they're funding them, they're providing the training, they're providing dollars and the weapons as well," Wenstrup added.
His comments come as Biden's response to Iran is reportedly imminent. Now that the U.S. knows that the drone that killed American service members was made in Iran and has fingered an Iraq-based proxy group, the Islamic Resistance, as the ones responsible, CBS News reported that Biden has approved strikes on Iranian personnel and facilities in Syria and Iraq.
"How much Iran knew or didn't know, we don't know. But it really doesn't matter because Iran sponsors these groups," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday. "Without that facilitation, these kinds of things don't happen."
To date, the U.S. has responded with about six counterstrikes on facilities in Iraq and Syria, and airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen. The Houthis fired on a Liberian ship in the Red Sea on Thursday.
"We're going to do what's necessary to protect our troops," Austin said.
Wenstrup said he and his fellow GOP lawmakers are waiting.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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