Americans will be shocked when the full story about how Iran treated the U.S. sailors it captured earlier this year comes out, as they'll "find this was done totally against international and maritime law," Rep. Randy Forbes, who as a member of the House Armed Services Committee has received classified information on the matter, said Tuesday.
"It wasn't just what the Iranians did, it was our response to what the Iranians did," the Virginia Republican told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" co-host Martha MacCallum, pointing to Secretary of State John Kerry's thanking Iran for its "cooperation and quick response" after the sailors were captured.
"You have to look at this on a backdrop," he said. "Iranians were doing live firing within 1,500 yards of our ships right before this. They have planes all over our ships.They capture our sailors. What do we do? Nothing, we thank them and write them a check for $100 billion."
Meanwhile, "the Russians buzz our ships, we do nothing. Hong Kong tells us we can't do a port call and we do nothing. Get that on the backdrop of what this president has done to our military. In 2011, the Navy was able to meet 90 percent of our needs around the globe. This year we'll meet 24 percent."
And once the details of the sailors' capture and release are public, Americans will be shocked and appalled, said Forbes, explaining that members of Congress were encouraged to attend a briefing so they could see firsthand what had happened.
Forbes said he couldn't yet release the details, as they remain classified, and said "the full story probably won't come out for at least a year."
The capture unfolded as President Barack Obama and his staff were putting the final touches on his last State of the Union address, and Forbes said he and others were stunned that the sailors' capture was not mentioned.
"What we have seen with this administration is they adopted the strategy of bowing down to bullies," said Forbes. "The problem is when you do that, the bullies don't go away. They get strong and stronger."
Forbes is backing a
new resolution calling for increased sanctions against Tehran for how the captured soldiers were treated, reports The Washington
Free Beacon.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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