“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” Rubio said on Capitol Hill after briefing members of Congress on the offensive. “We knew that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
The next day, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson
described the recent U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran as a defensive measure, saying, "Israel was determined to act with or without us" following a classified briefing on Monday evening.
Johnson told reporters after the briefing that Israel viewed Iran’s capabilities as an existential threat and was prepared to conduct operations regardless of U.S. participation. He said Israel’s assessment shaped American deliberations, and it was "determined to act in their own defense here, with or without American support."
But Johnson never has had to face election in anything larger than a blood-red congressional district in Louisiana, and Little Marco shrunk when facing Donald Trump in the GOP presidential campaign in 2016. They either were unaware of what they were saying or did not understand the implication of implying that USA foreign policy is now subject to the whim of the Israeli government. Therefore, President Trump, ever with his finger on the pulse of voters (and foot on their neck)
So, cleanup in aisle 6! Donald Trump to the rescue: What say you, Donald?
President Donald Trump denied Israel “forced” the United
States into a joint attack that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on
Tuesday — and said if anything, it was the other way around.
Trump was asked about the strikes by ABC’s Rachel Scott while taking questions at the White House on Tuesday.
“Did Israel force your hand to launch these strikes against Iran? Did Netanyahu pull the United States into this war?” Scott asked.
“No, I might’ve forced their hand,” Trump responded. “You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first, they were going to attack first. They were going to attack if we didn’t do it. They were going to attack first, I felt strongly about that.”
Trump continued, “If anything, I might’ve forced Israel’s hand.”
The president added both Israel and the U.S. were “ready” to strike Iran in the days leading up to the start of Operation Epic Fury. He said “virtually everything they have has been knocked out now, their missile count is going way down.”
"I might have forced their hand," says Trump of the Israeli leader who, following (scaled down) operations in Gaza, probably will not any time soon be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
In December, Prime Minister Netanyahu offered "to the proud people of Iran" the message "Do not let these fanatic mullahs run your lives for a minute longer. The tyrants of Tehran- so cruel, so callous, and so cowardly- they won't last long." Nevertheless, President Trump claims "I might have forced their hand."
There is little or no chance that Donald Trump would have had to force the hand of Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Iran. There is little or no chance that both Marco Rubio and Mike Johnson were imaging things when they revealed that Israel had boxed Washington into a corner (or so they believed) and that Trump therefore had no choice but to initiate Operation Epic Fury.
There is similarly little or no chance that President Trump was uncharacteristically telling the truth when, asked whether Netanyahu pulled the USA into the war, he stated unequically 'nol
Our appreciation should go to Secretary of State "Little Marco" Rubio for reminding us yet again how weak this President is. In complete control of the most powerful military arsenal in the world, he remains a weak leader, no doubt because he is a weak man. A strong leader would have told Netanyahu that we would hit Iran in our own way according to our timetable.
Trump demonstrated again that he is a wily politician. He both denied that the Netanyahu was pulling the strings and laid the predicate- fear of imminent attack- for launching his own attack. A strong leader either would have owned up to his motivation or state clearly that Cabinet officer Rubio was (for whatever reason) wrong. But Donald learned well from Bill Clinton, who famously remarked "when people feel uncertain, they'd rather have someone strong and wrong than weak and right."
The American people now feel uncertain, and we certainly have a president who is typically wrong. However, has convinced most voters and publics that he is strong, even if he has to capitulate to another nation's timetable to prove it.
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