Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton argued Monday that the Iranian regime has “felt no pain at all” since last October’s attack on Israel by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists and suggested that Republicans “make that into a campaign issue” against President Biden.
“It’s very distressing to me that [Biden] simply won’t acknowledge that Iran is behind all of this violence in the Middle East,” Bolton said during an interview with “Cats and Cosby Show” hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby.
The former UN ambassador also criticized the 81-year-old president’s response to 151 attacks against US forces in the Middle East by Iran-backed groups since Israel’s war declaration against Hamas, saying that American troops will continue to be targets of the Islamic Republic until it feels “pain.”
“Iran has felt no pain at all since October 7,” Bolton said. “If the [Biden] administration can’t see what’s happening and doesn’t understand that to restore any kind of deterrence, let alone appropriate retaliation for the risks that these terrorist surrogates are imposing, if we can’t make that into a campaign issue this year, I don’t know what we can.”
“The only reason we haven’t had a mass casualty event — I mean something very serious involving American casualties in Iraq — is luck,” he added. “That’s not a strategy. It doesn’t tell Iran that it will pay a severe price if they continue their activity. When are they going to stop if they’re not feeling any pain?”
The US has about 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq and 900 in Syria tasked with countering the Islamic State terror group.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a loose coalition of Iran-backed militia groups, claimed responsibility for a Saturday rocket barrage attack on the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq that left at least two US service members injured.
The US has conducted several retaliatory strikes on targets in Iraq and Syria in response to the surge in attacks on US troops, but none on targets on Iranian soil.
