Cruz: ‘Iran Has Spent 40 Years Building Its Military — It Took Us 39 Days to Destroy the Entirety’

Thursday on FNC’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) declared the U.S. strikes against the Iranian regime to be an “unprecedented military defeat” for the Iranians.

He noted the amount of time it had taken Iran to build up its military, and the 39 days it took to “destroy it.”

“Do you think that these are people that get it?” host Jesse Watters asked. “Are they pragmatic? Can they do a deal? Are they capable of it? Or do you have a bunch of just suicidal fanatics in a bunker that might just want to go down swinging?

Cruz replied, “Listen, there are certainly suicidal fanatics, and there are religious zealots who glorify death and suicide. I will say there are a lot fewer of them than there used to be before this military conflict began. Iran has spent 40 years building its military. It took us 39 days to destroy the entirety, their ballistic missiles — gone. Their ballistic missile manufacturing capability — gone; their drones and drone manufacturing — gone; their Air Force — gone; their Navy — gone; their air defenses — gone, the Ayatollah is gone. Virtually every senior military leader — gone. That is — it is an unprecedented military defeat. You still have a handful of mullahs and the new Ayatollah, the Ayatollah, who Intelligence briefing says is a gay Ayatollah, which means he’s facing threats from his own religious zealots that he serves with.”

“But look, at the end of the day, there are not very many of them,” he added. “One of the ways this ends is when the military decides enough is enough, and they take out the Ayatollah and the mullahs and say, OK, we’re going to cut a deal, because we’re losing and this is hurting our country. And I’ve got to say, Jesse, if we see a government in Iran that is not run by Islamists who hate America, who chant “Death to America,” who fund terrorists who are murdering Americans, if we see a government that wants to be friends with America, it will make this country massively safer. That’s why President Trump is doing this.”

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