Rep. Max Rose, a former U.S. Army officer, praised President Trump for calling off an attack on Iran Thursday, adding that the U.S. did not need another war started by National Security Adviser John Bolton.
“I commend the president for taking a step back. What we need right now is clearly a policy of courageous restraint, one that is layered with strategy and defined objectives. What we do not need right now, I cannot emphasize this enough, is yet another John Bolton war,” the New York Democrat said.
“I was in Afghanistan just six years ago. I’ve got friends that deployed four, five, six times in never-ending wars. We certainly do not need another one in the Middle East right now,” he added.
According to The New Yorker, Mr. Bolton helped further the position that then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was developing chemical weapons of mass destruction, which led to the Iraq war in 2003. The U.S. found no evidence of those weapons.
A senior White House official told CNN that Mr. Bolton and Mr. Trump are debating how to handle Iran after the president said Friday that his administration called off an attack to save Iranian lives.
“The Ppesident has demonstrated a preternatural risk-aversion when it comes to use of military force and wants to get out of unwinnable old wars and not get into new ones. In contrast, John Bolton has been a hawk on Iran his entire professional life,” Aaron David Miller, a senior vice president at the Wilson Center, told CNN.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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