Senator James Lankford (R-OK) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Iran’s attacks on U.S. forces were connected to Iran facilitating the terror attack on Israel.
Anchor Jake Tapper said, “The U.S. carried out air strikes targeting two facilities linked to two Iranian-backed militias in Eastern Syria this week. You’ve been calling on the Biden administration to stand up to Iran and Iranian-backed militias more strongly. Are you satisfied with the response, or do you think President Biden needs to do more?”
Lankford said, “I think President Biden is very focused on not trying to escalate the war. That’s a good thing to not escalate the war into a regional conflict, but the problem is Iran only understands force. Iran has attacked the United States 19 times in just the last two weeks. And I think most Americans don’t know that Iranian forces, Shia militants, whether it be the Houthis from Yemen, or whether it be an Iraq or in Syria, they’re finding ways to go attack American forces.”
He added, “We’ve had multiple of our forces that have been injured in those attacks. The United States is finally pushing back on those Shia militants and on Iran, to be able to make it clear, we are going to stand up for ourselves in this, to be able to stop it. I know the administration is trying to be able to keep this separate. Unfortunately, there’s no way to actually separate Iran attacking the United States while Iran is also facilitating the attack of Israel, as well, at the same time. They are connected.”
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Senator Lankford ‘s response (R-OK) is pathetically weak and is representative of what will get us more embroiled.
He states Biden is focused on not creating a regional conflict and then in the next breath tells us that unfortunately Iran only understands force. By not exercising an impressive force Biden invites and teases the Iranians to escalate their violence and thereby creates the exact regional conflict he wants to avoid.
We have allowed the Iranians ‘to attack us 19x in just the last 2 weeks?’ …and we’re FINALLY ‘pushing back to be able to make it clear that we are going to be able stand up for ourselves’ (weakness, ambivalence….)
”We are trying to keep separate Iran’s attack on the U.S. from that on Israel” ??? Why?? for what reason?
Annihilate their offensive positions in Syria!!… and be done with it.