Former National Security Advisor John Bolton has urged Israel to take decisive action against Iran, following a barrage of drone and missile attacks on Saturday night. Bolton criticized President Joe Biden for encouraging Israeli restraint, calling him an “embarrassment to the United States.”
“Last night, the Iranians launched 320-plus cruise and ballistic missiles and drones,” Bolton told CNN’s Jake Tapper. ” It’s a blessing that the Israelis find only 1% got through, but not every night is going to be that good. And unless Iran sees a powerful response, that risk will continue. And the way to re-establish deterrence is not proportional. That’s academic talk.”
“The way you establish deterrence is by telling your adversary, ‘If you ever try that again, the price you will pay will be so much higher in any gain you think you can get. You shouldn’t even think about it.’ So, I think Israel has a wide range of potential targets. Start by flattening Iran’s air defense capabilities. Next, you might go after headquarters of the regular military and the Revolutionary Guards. You could consider going after their oil infrastructure, the oil fields, the distribution pipelines, the export port facilities.
“And most importantly, I think Israel should be looking at this as an opportunity to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which is the existential threat that Israel faces. I don’t know what they’ll do. I can’t predict it, but I will tell you this: If Joe Biden, as some press reports have it, is urging the Israelis not to retaliate at all, he is an embarrassment to the United States. This is an American interest to make sure that Iran, which is the principal threat to international peace and security in the region, is at a minimum put in its place to spare Israel, to spare the Gulf Arabs, and to spare us from the threat that they pose.”
Asked about Trump’s comments last night claiming that the Iran attack was due to the United States’ perceived “weakness,” Bolton said: “I just think Trump is delusional on this point. It’s a point that nobody can refute or confirm one way or the other. He doesn’t have any idea what to do in the Middle East in this situation.”
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5 Responses
I finally understand why Bolton hates Trump
Bolton is a war mongerer (much like Cheney) Neither Trump nor Biden are (albeit differently, Biden is a pacifist and Trump is peace through threats)
To quote the great Donald trump this guy is dumb as a rock all he wants is war war war. For Israel to retaliate for some principle and to teach some lesson right now and to therefore put many lives on the line is probably the dumbest thing in the world to do right now. Iran was retaliating for Israel. If they let it go this cycle is over. They even said so. So to spark a whole new war just to flex your muscles is crazy. Now if some serious damage was done with serious casualties that’s another story but as is now stand down.
Additionally I curious to know what he would say if his son or daughter is behind these guns in harms way. Very easy to flex your muscles on someone else’s account
an attack, any attack, on an american ally is a failure of deterrence, and whether trump is delusional or not, that means a perception of weakness. and it’s that same weakness that prompted the war in ukraine, and the war in gaza. but america does not need to attack iran, it just has to enforce the EXISTING sanctions and stop enabling iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.
Bolton is usually right about almost everything.
But Trump is also right, that Iran felt free to do this because it knows the USA’s policy, both under 0bama and now under Biden, is to build Iran up as a regional power to challenge the USA. This is treason, of course, but it’s a fact.
It’s also true that Iran had the means to do this because Biden has been giving it billions, both in cash and in sanctions relief.