(Military.com) Matthew Cox - Two months after a U.S. drone strike killed preeminent Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that "taking him off the battlefield has set back the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and the Iranian government with regard to spreading their malign activity through the region. I think at the same action, we have restored deterrence to a degree. And so, for all those things, I still believe it was the right call." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said, "I believe that I, Secretary Esper, the president and many others would have been culpably negligent had we not taken the action we did...because I think many Americans would have died as a result. I believe it was the right thing to do then, and I still believe that. And I believe we contributed to reestablishing deterrence of aggressive action from Iran."
2020-03-09 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive