WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford (AR-01) joined Mike Emanuel on The Fox News Rundown to discuss the U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites and the possible impact to the U.S. homeland.
PRESIDENT TRUMP’S IMMOVABLE RED LINE: “Iran has been a problem since 1979…They have a long history of action against the United States going back to 1979 when they took hostages in Tehran. 1983, the barracks bombing in Lebanon. There is a laundry list of actions they have taken against Americans either directly or through proxies. They have been...daring the United States and Israel for the better part of half a century and we’ve finally got a President that was willing to say this is a red line and this is an immovable red line, and we aren’t going to allow this to happen. So, they brought this on themselves. I really commend President Trump, and his team, and the United States military. Strategic excellence, the tactical precision. Everything about it was absolutely textbook.”
OPSEC SUCCESS: “This is not something that took place in a matter of hours or days. This took a lot of planning over time to be able to execute on something like this and so the level of OPSEC is commendable.”
POSSIBLE IRANIAN RETALIATION: “However the potential for asymmetric warfare continues and will likely persist so we need to be diligent. Things like cyber—Iranians have a history of cyber-attacks and they are pretty good at it so that’s a concern. We know there are cells in various countries around the world—if not directly Iranian, then certainly sympathetic to the Iranians, and may even have some handlers that can direct that. We want to be very diligent and vigilant in our posture not only if we are traveling overseas but even here at home.”
THE SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES: “The other thing to observe here is the silence speaks volumes. The regional neighbors, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and other countries that also viewed Iran as a regional hegemon, potential global hegemon, I think they are as happy to see this happen as anybody is. I think that says an awful lot about the real threat that Iran presented regionally.”
IRANIAN POPULAR UPRISING: “I’ve seen some open-source reporting that indicates there are fractions of the regime that are out there trying to flex as much as they can. I think they are trying to salvage what they have left of their regime, but the reality is there is probably a pretty popular element that can overcome that and maybe steer Iran into a more productive direction as opposed to this regime that has been suppressing Iranians and their regional neighbors now since 1979. I am hopeful for a popular uprising.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP IS CHANGING THE COURSE OF HISTORY: “President Obama is largely responsible for allowing this nuclear development to continue by essentially funding it. And President Biden doubled down on that by lifting sanctions. I don’t think those two administrations really need to weigh in at this point. They have done enough damage as it is. President Trump has taken decisive action to alter the course of Iranian history here and I think it’s now up to the Iranian people. I think President Trump would prefer to save Iran for the Iranian people and let them engage in self-determination in a meaningful way and not continue to be oppressed and subjugated under this heavy-handed Islamic regime.”
A WARNING TO OUR ADVERSARIES:“I think this strike is demonstrative of our capabilities but it also points to the fact that we can multi-task and address multiple threats at the same time and understand in many cases this may play a role as a deterrent. We aren’t messing around here. The President has made that very clear. This sends a strong message to our adversaries that may want to challenge the United States that there is a new sheriff in town and we aren’t going to engage in meaningless platitudes and not take action when action is indicated. If anything, I think this strengthens our hand with these other theaters where there are things going on that are of concern to the United States.”
