On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) reacted to Quds Force Supreme Commander Qassem Soleimani being killed in an airstrike directed by President Donald Trump which has been confirmed by the Pentagon.
Murphy said, “Well, there’s no doubt that Qassem Soleimani was an enemy of the United States. He ordered the killing of hundreds of Americans. The question tonight is whether Qassem Soleimani is a greater threat to the United States as a functional head of the Quds Force or as a martyr. The danger here, of course, is that we are going to get into a conflict in the region that will ultimately accrue to the detriment of U.S. national security interests no matter how good we may feel that about the fact that Soleimani is dead this evening.”
He continued, “They have capability to launch assassination attacks right back at U.S. leaders, and their proxy forces can threaten U.S. forces, Israel itself throughout the region. And of course, there are potentially grave complications with our relationship with Iraq. Were they notified of this? If not how on earth will they continue to allow thousands of U.S. troops to operate inside their borders, a place where ISIS is regrouping as we speak. So this a very, very dangerous moment. This could be the most significant foreign political leader the United States has ever assassinated. We are very careful about these kinds of things because they often end up and can end up spilling into a set of consequences that ultimately do much more damage to U.S. national security interests than the assassination itself accrues. So we will be watching carefully. And of course, there’s a question of what the authorization for this? If this indeed was an act of war against Iran unless it was done to prevent an imminent attack against the United States. you can’t do this without congressional authorization.”
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