On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) said that, with Iran’s military capabilities, “we should have just finished the job. I think we were 75% of the way there, and we should have just destroyed it all. I think some of it, some of their missiles and stuff lie underground. They may not be able to get to them for a while, because, probably, the entrances have been blown up. But, yeah, I would have wished that we could have gone a little bit further to degrade their military capability.”
Co-host Pamela Brown asked, “The Trump administration has emphasized how the U.S. military has degraded Iran’s capabilities, its arsenal with its navy and missiles and drones and so forth. But CNN is still reporting, in the latest reporting from Zach, that Iran still retains a significant portion of its weapons stockpile, including missiles, drones, and missile launchers. Given what you just laid out there, you say you don’t trust them, does that worry you?”
Gimenez answered, “Yeah, it worries me. I think we should have just finished the job. I think we were 75% of the way there, and we should have just destroyed it all. I think some of it, some of their missiles and stuff lie underground. They may not be able to get to them for a while, because, probably, the entrances have been blown up. But, yeah, I would have wished that we could have gone a little bit further to degrade their military capability. I don’t have all the intelligence that the president does. I know the president would rather use diplomacy than war and he’s always been giving second chances, etc. to have diplomacy at least work. I want to make sure that diplomacy did work. And so that’s — all will come out when the details of this deal come out. Again, for me, it’s verification, very strict verification guidelines, and the fact that Iran will not now and will not in the future have a nuclear weapon and that there will be free flow of commerce through the Straits of Hormuz. That, to me, is a must-have in this deal.”
He added, “I think that, once you take your boot off their neck, that they feel strengthened, and the Iranians are really good negotiators for their own position. And as we ease up on some of the leverage that we do have, I think they’ll feel emboldened. And I, frankly, think they’ll move the goalposts.” And he expects that we can go back to force at any point if we have to.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett