Members of Congress are slamming Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the recently installed chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for his comments about Israel's military strategy and his concerns that eliminating Hamas will be a "pretty large order" that may take too long to accomplish.
"If Gen. Brown is worried about how long it may take the Israelis to accomplish this mission, he should advise the president to drop his push for a cease-fire — which would only benefit Hamas — and work to ensure that Israel has the lethal aid it needs to destroy Hamas as quickly and efficiently as possible," said Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., as the New York Post reported Saturday.
Earlier this month, Brown said Israel's stated goals calling for the destruction of the terrorist organization is a "pretty large order," and he's concerned that the amount of time it would take for that to happen could create risks of generating more terrorists among the Palestinian population.
"The faster you can get to a point where you stop the hostilities, you have less strife for the civilian population that turns into someone who now wants to be the next member of Hamas," Brown had told reporters before arriving in Japan, reported Reuters.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, further commented that Israel must be given the time and space to carry out its mission.
"As the United States and our allies did with respect to ISIS, Israel must have the latitude needed to eliminate the threat," he told the Post. "The chairman must recognize his words carry enormous weight in his new role and they undermine Israel, our greatest ally, at the very moment much of the world has turned against them as they defend themselves."
Meanwhile, retired U.S. Army Gen. Patrick Brady, a Medal of Honor recipient for having evacuated 51 critically injured men in one day under enemy fire as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, said there is "no way that we can describe how Israel should do it."
"They know better than we do how to fight that enemy," he said. "We ought to just stand by and support them without quibbling about it and let them do their job. There is no such thing as peace with certain kinds of enemies. You just have to kill them. It seems to be like these people."
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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