House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner, R-Ohio, sharply criticized the Biden administration Sunday on CBS regarding its response to attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East.
While speaking about the strikes the administration launched last week in response to three U.S. troops being killed in an attack on an American base in Jordan, Turner said the administration's claim that it would respond to any attack on U.S. forces was "not true."
"They've tolerated over 160 of these attacks," Turner said.
"They keep saying that they want to retaliate, but then they say it's about deterrence, then they say it's about diminishing capabilities. Those are all different goals and objectives. And they're not doing any of those. We all know that this is just about Iran. These are all franchises of Iran. And the administration has no policy with respect to Iran, how to diminish their capability, diminish these attacks, and diminish their nefarious activities in the Middle East," Turner continued.
Turner added that the administration's "incredibly poor" responses to the attacks tell Iran that the U.S. will tolerate them, which would lead to more of them.
"The problem here is that the administration — back to goals and objectives — has no goal and objective. Iran pays no price when militias are attacked; the militias don't care. And when you diminish their capability for the moment that you've struck them, you haven't diminished their overall capability. These attacks are still going to happen.
"The administration needs two things: a real plan with respect to Iran and countering Iran in the area; but secondly, diminishing capacity to stop these attacks," he continued.
"We can't play defense forever. Our systems to protect our troops and our ships cannot continue to respond to these attacks with 100% success. Tolerating the attacks tolerates casualties. We need to diminish their capability, and we need to take this problem to Iran."
Jeremy Frankel ✉
Jeremy Frankel is a Newsmax writer reporting on news and politics.
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