On Tuesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” CNN Military Analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark (Ret.) stated that Iran is “getting away for free with this proxy war on the United States.” And that he would recommend President Joe Biden go after the Revolutionary Guard, like former President Donald Trump did with the strike on Qasem Soleimani.
Co-host Brianna Keilar asked, “Some Republicans want these strikes inside of Iran. … Is that a serious proposal, in your opinion?”
Clark responded, “I hope was one of the options that was being looked at. If I’d been in the chain of command, it’s what I’d have recommended, because I think you have to cap this off. You have to put at risk assets that Iran really values, and they’re getting away for free with this proxy war on the United States. They don’t care how many militiamen are killed out there, there [are] dozens of them and multiple headquarters and multiple young people standing up to be the next commander in line to get knocked off. But what they do value is their own Revolutionary Guard’s chain of command, their assets, and so forth. So, yes, that should have been a serious consideration. Now, when you weigh the pluses and minuses, you talk to the diplomats in the region, you talk to your allies in the region, you make sure you’ve got support, people understand what you may do, maybe you come back with a different answer. But I would certainly have been pushing for the top end of the strikes, because I think it’s important to stop and get out of the action-reaction cycle and get control of the initiative of this thing and convince Iran to call it off. Enough’s enough.”
Keilar then asked, “It is broadly understood that Iran stands to gain from a proxy war, and you also have Republicans calling for strikes against Iranian leaders, something like the Soleimani strike that Trump ordered, that does not seem [to be] on the table. That, according to the U.N., violated international law. It was controversial. But, to your point, how important is it that the administration do something that has some Iranian leaders looking over their shoulder, and how high up do those leaders need to be?”
Clark answered, “I would think it’s important, and I think the leaders need to be in the Revolutionary Guard command level. … [W]e know that there’s a big Iranian hand behind this, and the question is, what’s it take to get Iran to decide that this campaign is not in their interest? Because right now, they’re getting away for free. And the President’s got to convince them it’s got to stop.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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