Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) mocked President Joe Biden on Sunday for the ineffectiveness of the strikes that he launched against Iranian-backed terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria late last week.
Graham made the remarks during a “Fox News Sunday” interview while responding to the strikes the administration launched a week after three U.S. soldiers were killed during a terrorist attack on a U.S. base in Jordan.
Graham said that under the Trump administration the Iranians were “the weakest they’ve been” and now they are the “strongest and most provocative” they’ve ever been since President Joe Biden lifted sanctions on them and has unfrozen billions of dollars in their assets.
“Here’s what we need to do. We need to hit something that the Ayatollah values, his leadership team, like a Soleimani, or take him out of the oil business,” he said. “If we hit their oil infrastructure, you don’t need manned aircraft, they got four refineries, you can see from space, if you knock one of them out, they would stop this.”
“Our American troops are in harm’s way,” he said. “If the goal is to deter Iran, you’re failing miserably. If the goal is to protect American troops, you’re not achieving your goal. If you’ve convinced Iran we don’t want a wider war, they believe you. ‘Oh, I don’t want a war with you.’ They got the message. They’re not afraid of us. They were afraid of Trump. They’re not afraid of us.”
“We need to change our policy,” he later added. “People are not afraid of us, this idea of hitting hundreds of targets that don’t matter. The only Iranian we killed in Syria or Iraq is some dumba*s that don’t know to get out of the way. We gave them a week’s notice. So, if there’s another round of strikes coming, I hope they they really will hurt Iran in their pocketbook or kill their leadership. Because if you don’t, nothing changes.”
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