Sen. J.D. Vance said Sunday he won't support taking military action against Iran on its mainland, as he believes "we should be trying to deescalate the situation," but he does think the United States should have "red lines" in place if Iran attacks American troops.
"If they play an escalatory role in the conflict, we need to be willing to respond," the Ohio Republican said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "They have attacked, certain militia groups have attacked and I think we’ve done the right thing, a proportionate response."
The United States has to "hit them back" if "they hit us," he added, but "if you’re talking about an attack on the Iranian mainland, I think that would be a significant escalation right now. It would be a mistake.”
Friday, President Joe Biden ordered U.S. forces to carry out airstrikes on an ammunition storage area and a weapons storage facility that was being used by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other groups in eastern Syria.
The strikes came in response to at least 19 attacks against U.S. and coalition forces over the past two weeks in the Middle East, including three new attacks Thursday.
Meanwhile, Vance Sunday called for dividing aid that would be awarded to Israel and Ukraine after Biden asked for $106 billion in aid from Congress for Ukraine, Israel, the border, and countering China.
"First of all, Israel needs the aid and they need it immediately," Vance said. "Second of all, there's broad bipartisan consensus that we should be supporting Israel. And third, and most importantly, we're stretched way too thin. The President's budget request betrays a fundamental misunderstanding, I think, of the challenges in the country."
The United States, he added, can't support a three-pronged conflict.
"We don't make enough weapons and our manufacturing capacity is too weak," he said. "Congress needs to have a real debate, not collapse these packages together and pretend we can do everything at once. We can't."
He said he's also concerned that aid going to Gaza for humanitarian purposes would end up in the hands of Hamas.
"We don't want to basically fund two sides of the exact same conflict," said Vance. "Fund Hamas, fund Israel. It seems like a really bad deal for American taxpayers. Most of all, it's just stupid … if I could wave a magic wand and give aid to the Palestinian children, I would but given the realities on the ground, I think if we divert resources to Gaza, it's going to fall in the wrong hands."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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