Within the last week alone two dozen service men and women were injured in a series of drone and rocket attacks at American bases in Iraq and Syria, according to U.S. Central Command.
The attacks are in response to U.S. support for Israel after Hamas terrorists murdered, raped and tortured Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.
Attacks have come by the dozens.
Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) said on Washington Watch Tuesday that Joe Biden’s administration continues to “convey absolute total weakness on the world stage," which he says goes back to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
It’s a drastic change in policy from former President Donald Trump, who responded severely and swiftly to the death of a U.S. contractor in 2020.
“He killed the number three man in Iran, (Qasem) Soleimani,” Self reminded show host Jody Hice.
Self said Biden needs to let enemies know the U.S. will use its military might.
“We need to go back to deterrence, understanding what deterrence is. They need to understand that we can do whatever we want to. We can target them. We need to convey that to them, and we need to make sure that we deter this sort of action,” he said.
Deterrence can come through financial measures as well. Last week, Self introduced a resolution calling on members of the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization to deny airport access to Iranian airlines.
“The Biden administration has not held Iran accountable -- $6 billion for five hostages, $10 billion released because they gave some electricity to Iraq, the $60 billion that we know they've gotten from oil sales to China … we simply have not enforced our sanctions.
“There are five airlines. We need to stop this, and we need to encourage our European allies to stop this because this is simply a distribution system that Iran uses to get their equipment around to their terrorist surrogates,” Self said.
Self said he expects the Senate to revisit the plan for more aid to Israel after the Thanksgiving break. The House has passed its plan, but the Senate has not responded.
“(Senate Majority Leader) Chuck Schumer stood on the mall in front of 290,000 mainly Jewish citizens and promised to do whatever we needed to do to give them what they needed in this fight, and hours later every Democrat senator voted against our 14. 3 billion aid package. Go explain that to the American people,” Self said.
Graham talks with survivors, sees images of brutality
The people of Israel need emotional support alsoand Franklin Graham, the president and CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, helped provide some of that on a recent visit to three communities in southern Israel that were literally destroyed by Hamas.
“I went to three different communities, communities that today are empty. The people have had to flee. They’re in hotels throughout the country. The Israeli army is in these communities. I saw a lot of them, but I also saw the burned-out houses, the command video of people coming over the border with heavy machine guns in the back of the trucks with soldiers or terrorists that would just jump out, shoot people on the side of the road and go on,” Graham said.
Graham also met with people “who lived through this and somehow escaped.” He told the story of a physician who rushed to his nearby clinic to help the wounded and was shot himself.
“He was shot, all the patients were shot. Hand grenades were thrown into the clinic. Women were captured and raped. One was raped, and while the man was doing this act he took out a gun and shot her in the head. There were things like cutting (women’s) breasts off and throwing their breasts like a football to each other.
“I’ve never witnessed brutality like this.”
