Biden gained national fame as Barack Obama’s Vice President. Now it’s coming back to bite him.
Because this Obama official betrayed Biden in one high profile interview.
During the Obama administration, Leon Panetta, the CIA Director and Defense Secretary, advocated for a “more aggressive” response to attacks on US personnel in the Middle East.
He made the remarks on Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, with former National Security Advisors Stephen Hadley and Robert O’Brien.
The moderator, Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer, raised the issue of dealing with Tehran after dozens of attacks on US soldiers in Iraq and Syria by Iranian proxies in recent weeks.
“I would basically determine where those missiles are coming from — and we have the capability to do that … and then attack those positions immediately in order to make sure that they don’t do it again,” Panetta said.
“I would be much more aggressive about going after those that attack our U.S. forces,” he added before contending that Iran would rather lean on terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas rather than enter a war.
Retaliatory strikes by the United States on weapons facilities and other targets in response to the attacks, which have increased as Israel wages war on Hamas, have been “a little bit too selective.” Panetta explained.
“I want to go after those who are firing missiles at our troops and make sure they understand that when they fire a missile — they are going to die,” he added.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke at the same gathering in California, where he urged boosting US forces in the Middle East to support Israel and build up regional deterrence.
“As we are working to stabilize the region, Iran is raising tensions,” Austin said.
“And after attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria, our forces repeatedly struck facilities in Iraq and eastern Syria used by Iran’s [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and by militias affiliated with Iran.”
He continued, “We will not tolerate attacks on American personnel. And so these attacks must stop. And until they do, we will do what we need to do to protect our troops — and to impose costs on those who attack them.”
Republicans in Congress have put pressure on the Biden administration to respond more firmly to the attacks by Iranian-backed groups.
“We’ve only hit back a few times. When we do hit back, it’s almost always at empty proxy warehouses or maybe proxy forces in Iraq and Syria,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said in a “Fox News Sunday” interview last week.
“It seems like the president wants to go out of his way to avoid Iranian casualties. I would target Iranians who are operating in Iraq and in Syria. I would also send a clear message to Iran if these attacks don’t stop immediately, then we’ll begin to threaten their assets.”
He went on to say: “The way to stop these attacks is not be fearful and hesitant and cautious in a response, but massive retaliation to make it clear we will not tolerate these attacks on Americans.”
It’s a scary day when a former Obama official sounds conservative compared to Joe Biden and his cabinet.
Unfortunately, Biden has no plans to defend the American people like he should.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
