Cornyn, Allred Pleased No US Troops Hurt By Iranian Attack, Disagree Over Order To Kill Iranian General
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Texas Senator John Cornyn and North Texas Congressman Colin Allred said they're pleased President Donald Trump announced no U.S. service members were killed during Iran's retaliatory strikes on two U.S. air bases in Iraq.
The President addressed the nation Wednesday morning from the White House.
"We suffered no casualties, all of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases. Iran appears to be standing down, which is a good thing for all parties and a very good thing for the world," President Trump said.
Cornyn, a Republican, and Allred, a Democrat, also agreed with President Trump's position about Iran not becoming a nuclear power.
As long as I am President of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon," said President Trump.
But Cornyn and Allred disagreed over the President's order to kill Iran's top military commander and terrorist, Major General Qassem Soleimani.
President Trump called Soleimani the world's top terrorist. "Soleimani directed the recent attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq that badly wounded four service members and killed one American, and he orchestrated the violent assault on the U,S. Embassy in Baghdad. In recent days, he was planning new attacks on American targets, but we stopped him."
After the President's remarks, Cornyn spoke on the Senate floor. "I'm confident this administration's maximum pressure campaign, combined with our unparalleled military capabilities, as well as the President's decisive actions that have culminated in the air strike last week prevented a much worse outcome."
But Allred questioned and criticized the President's order.
"No one will mourn his death. The question we have to ask is why have previous administrations, both the Bush administration and Obama administration, who had the option to take him off the battlefield, why have the Israelis, who also had the option to take him off the battlefield, why have all these other administrations decided it was not in the long-term, strategic interest of the country to do that? The answer is the backlash from it is worse than the outcome if he were to stay on the battlefield."
Major Tom Giboney, a retired U.S. Army Major in Dallas who was one of five people who wrote and validated the concept of the ground attack in Desert Storm, said he's not surprised Iran's retailiation was measured.
"The Iranians knew that in a kinetic war, missile against missile, plane against plane, ship against ship, would only last a couple of hours. They would receive a tremendous amount of power that they did not want to receive."
During his address, the President didn't indicate new strikes against Iran are imminent.
Giboney said, "The President was clear that his evolving doctrine is to not retaliate unless there are human casualties. We can repair equipment, we can replace equipment, we can't do that for people."
He explained the military's top priority now is to protect American service members.
"The protection of those forces is number one. If we don't protect our forces, we've lost, I think, our mission. The mission I think is to also support our allies and contain Iran."
