“We define victory as destroying their defense industrial base, significantly reducing the number of missile launchers that they possess, significantly reducing their stockpile of drones. And we achieved all those, in addition to destroying what they had left of an air force and wiping out their entire conventional navy.
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MR
Statements (9)
“We're no longer conducting sustained strikes inside of Iran to degrade their military, because Epic Fury is over.
“The Iranians would think that the administration's hands are going to be tied if Congress approved a war powers resolution.
“There's a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of Iran's ability to open up the Strait of Hormuz and enter into a real significant time limited negotiation on nuclear matters.
“The president always has the option to do whatever it takes to support and protect the national interest... Over the years, Cuba has gotten used to buying time and waiting us out. They're not going to be able to wait us out or buy time. We're very serious, we're very focused.
“Operation Epic Fury, as the president notified Congress, we're done with that stage of it. We achieved the objectives of that operation. Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb — that issue has to be addressed in the negotiations.
“Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation. We are now on to Project Freedom — this is not an offensive operation. There's no shooting unless we're shot at first. But I'll be honest with you, it's not going to solve the whole straits problem.
“The whole world has been impacted, unfortunately, because Iran is violating every law known by striking commercial vessels in the Straits of Hormuz. This is a regime that doesn't believe in laws and rules. It's a state sponsor of terrorism, so it is not surprising that they're now conducting terrorist operations against commercial vessels.
“Instead of interdicting it, on the president's orders, we blew it up. And it'll happen again.