Iran is a bad actor and must be aggressively confronted for its human rights violations, nuclear ambitions, support of terrorism and the threat it poses to our allies like Israel and Jordan in the region. However, absent exigent circumstances, the Trump administration must seek authorization for the preemptive use of military force that constitutes an act of war.
It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone - the United States or Israel or anyone - they were going to respond, and respond against the United States. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn't pre-emptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.
And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties ... And then we would all be here answering questions about why we knew that and didn't act. Obviously, we were aware of Israeli intentions and understood what that would mean for us, and we had to be prepared to act as a result of it. But this had to happen no matter what.
We didn't start this war but under President Trump we're finishing it. This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it. He said the U.S. goal in Iran was to destroy the missile threats, destroy the navy, no nukes.
The U.S. and Israel conducted attacks on Iran early Saturday after weeks of negotiations and the biggest military build-up since the war in Iraq. The airstrikes follow the 12 Day War last June, when the U.S. joined Israel's air campaign to target Tehran's nuclear facilities. While President Donald Trump had reportedly considered limited attacks on the regime, sources told CNN that the U.S. involvement was "not a small strike."
