Nearly two weeks later, Iran has yet to launch an expected counterstrike after Israel eliminated two terrorist leaders in late July. “It appears that Iran and its terror proxies are calculating exactly how they want to strike Israel,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) suggested on Saturday’s “This Week on the Hill.” Nevertheless, pieces are moving rapidly on the Middle Eastern chessboard, as Iranian, Israeli, and American forces move into position.

The Israelis “don’t know exactly what kind of response Iran’s going to have,” Israel-based reporter Chris Mitchell said Monday on “Washington Watch.” “Could it be symbolic? Could it be much bigger than it was on April 13th and 14th when they fired 50 combinations of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, UAVs, and drones?”

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have brought us closer to that scale of conflict, because we already have regional wars in Europe and the Middle East. And again, that’s because they put more pressure on our allies and are so timid and halting in defense of America’s interests, um, that our adversaries like Iran and its terror network, or Russia or China, think that now is the time to go for the jugular, to achieve the ambitions that they’ve long held.

The Middle East is “a tinderbox,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on “This Week on the Hill.” “One wrong move or lack of leadership by the United States, a lack of resolve … could have devastating consequences.”

American leadership requires “more than just words,” Johnson added. “We’ve got to back it up with action. And our adversaries need to understand that the United States Congress, the United States military, [and] the American people are ready and resolved to act in our interest at any moment.”

Johnson added that “it’s not just foreign troops and foreign countries, our allies,” who are in harm’s way. “It’s our own troops. We’ve already lost a couple this week, tragically.” Earlier this year, a drone strike by Iran-backed militias killed three U.S. service members and wounded 34 at a military base in Jordan.

The U.S. military is currently moving more assets into position. The U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group is currently stationed in the Gulf of Oman off the Iranian coast, while the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike group hurries from the South China Sea to join it. The U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Group arrived in the eastern Mediterranean in June.

“I hope we’re doing everything possible. I am heartened to know that we’ve got so many of our naval assets surrounding Israel in that close proximity. I think that is having the deterrent effect upon Iran,” said Johnson.

However, “I don’t know at all times whether the administration is doing what Congress has duly enacted, that is, giving Israel all of the support, the weapons, the munitions that it desperately needs,” Johnson pointed out. “I’ve had some very difficult conversations, very tense conversations, with White House officials in recent days to ensure that every single weapon system that we intend to be there for Israel is indeed being delivered. … I can’t tell you with 100% certainty whether they’ve done that or not, but we’re working on it.”

Cotton expressed concern that “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have brought us closer” to a broader-scale conflict because they “put more pressure on our allies” and tend to be “so timid and halting in defense of America’s interests.” This projection of American weakness may embolden “our adversaries like Iran and its terror network, or Russia or China, [to] think that now is the time to ‘go for the jugular,’” he said.

“China has been increasingly aggressive … because they believe the time is right to achieve their decades-long ambition to replace America as the world’s dominant superpower,” insisted Cotton. “Since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office, they feel like it’s open season on America’s interests. …The dictator that runs China and the Communist Party think that, if Kamala Harris is president, then they have a four-year window to seize their decades long ambition to reclaim Taiwan.”

“Ultimately, that would be a disaster for the United States of America of the highest magnitude,” he continued. “Not only would it lead to almost certain global recession, if not depression, but it could completely unravel the security alliances that the United States has built and that have kept us safe for 80 years.”

With regard to Russia, they invaded “because President Biden … didn’t provide Ukraine the weapons they needed’ when they needed those weapons,’” Cotton explained. “What Ukraine needs is the weapons to conduct full combined arms warfare … and then you can begin to see them put enough pressure on Russian troops … that I think Putin will feel compelled to sit down at the negotiating table.”

Cotton argued that a second Trump administration would provide the best conditions for victory in the Middle East. “With President Trump, we had peace and stability around the world because our enemies were scared of America. No one is scared of Joe Biden. And, of course, no one would be scared of Kamala Harris, who is not a credible commander-in-chief.”

To support this declaration, Cotton pointed to the Biden-Harris administration’s current posture towards Israel and Iran. “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, rather than warning [Iran] about the ferocious retaliation they would face and therefore deterring these strikes in the first place, is again putting more pressure on Israel than it is on Iran,” he said. “It’s another example of the failed Biden-Harris policy of appeasement and weakness” that might provoke a regional or even broader conflict.

“We all pray and hope that it doesn’t come to that,” Johnson underscored, “and that the White House will stand strong, that Iran will think rationally about their own interest and the interest of everybody in the region and the whole world. … Let’s de-escalate this instead of instead of escalating it. We need to be in prayer for that as well.”

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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