The vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Friday that President Trump made the right decision by calling off an attack on Iran but added he needs to discuss his plans with Congress because he has a “lack of understanding.”
“What this demonstrates is dysfunction in the national command authority that ten minutes before a potential strike against Iran [he calls it off],” Rep. Anthony Brown, Maryland Democrat, said on CNN’s “At This Hour,” adding it “demonstrates a broken system, a lack of understanding and knowledge by our commander in chief — the president — and really a strong call that the administration has to come to Congress.”
“Not necessarily for authority to defend and make a retaliatory strike but come to Congress, inform us about what your intentions are, how you’re going to go about it. The president himself said he’s in no rush, well he should rush down to Congress to inform us about what he intends to do,” said Mr. Brown, a former U.S. Army reservist who served a deployment in Iraq in 2004.
Mr. Brown said the U.S. is not “diplomatically engaged at the appropriate level” with Iran need to happen otherwise it will lead to “miscalculated” retaliation.
“If we are flying in international airspace, if we are navigating in international waters and we are attacked, we should be able to and we are — retaliate, strike back — in a proportionate manner. We should send that clear signal,” he said.
“Last night’s dysfunctional go/no-go decision demonstrated that there is dysfunction in our decision-making process. That doesn’t send a good signal,” he said.
The president said Friday that he halted a retaliatory strike “10 minutes before” in response to Iran shooting down a surveillance drone over what the military says was international waters.
“We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. I am in no hurry,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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