Expert Says Blanche’s Iran War Denial Reveals a “Significant Strategic Defeat”
Key Takeaways
- •Todd Blanche reiterated the administration’s position that the Iran conflict is not a war.
- •The conflict has resulted in 18 U.S. service-member deaths, hundreds of injuries and at least $28 billion in spending, according to the article.
- •Leighton said the United States had largely lost the ability to move forces through approximately 15 to 18 Middle Eastern bases.
- •He characterized the loss of base access as a significant strategic defeat that could affect U.S. policy and regional security.
Attorney General Todd Blanche’s Tuesday press conference reiterated the Trump administration’s official position that the conflict in Iran is not a “war.” But Col. Cedric Leighton told CNN’s Boris Sanchez that the characterization was absurd.
Sanchez noted that Blanche was making the claim “despite the deaths of 18 U.S. service members, hundreds of others injured,” and $28 billion already spent on the effort, according to new Congressional Budget Office numbers.
“That doesn't count bases that have been destroyed in the Middle East, which the Pentagon hasn't given an estimate of the cost of. And also whether or not they would actually repair them. So you, hearing the Attorney General say this, what's your reaction?” Sanchez asked.
“I mean, it's hard to believe that something that costs at least $28 billion is not a war,” Leighton said. “You know, when you're dealing with conflict, when bullets are flying, missiles are flying, drones are flying.”
Leighton said the United States had “basically lost our ability to move forces into and out of about 15 to 18 bases in the Middle East.” He described that as “a significant strategic defeat.”
If the administration continued to deny that the conflict was a war, Leighton said, “you're really making it difficult for the American people to understand what exactly happened here.” He added that the United States had lost the ability to use bases that “had been used by the United States all the way back to the beginning of the War on Terror.”
Without access to those bases, Leighton said, “we have to figure out, are we going to let places like Saudi Arabia move off on their own, or are we going to put them at risk of Iranian proxies like the Houthis? Are we going to be doing things that will basically change the face of the Middle East?”
“That’s the kind of thing that really happens when there is a conflict, or we’re leading up to a conflict, or we’re coming back from a conflict,” Leighton said. He concluded: “These conflicts are, by any other name, wars. And to use expressions that cover that up is really a disservice to the American people.”
