Rep. Smith on Iran: Trump ‘Precipitously’ Started This War Because Netanyahu Convinced Him That We Could Decapitate the Regime

RUSH EXCERPT:
SMITH: "Look, this is a significant problem. It really is. And it’s a tough problem. We don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. We all agree with that. The administration sort of takes the position that as long as we say Iran with a nuclear weapon is bad, therefore, everything we do is right that we don’t have to question them. But there has to be a connection between what we’re doing and stopping that nuclear weapon. And look, I’ve said this a hundred times since this war started. For 15 years, we have been looking in the Armed Services Committee at the military options to accomplish that objective. And for 15 years, military leadership said, sadly, there is no military solution. You can set the program back weeks, maybe months, probably closer to weeks with a military strike. But ultimately, as long as the Iranian regime is in place and as long as they have that ambition the secretary haake described, you’re going to have to get to a negotiated settlement. And the real tragedy of this is prior to the start of this war, Iran was as weak as they had ever been. Israel prosecuted their 12 day war against Iran. Hezbollah has been weakened. Hamas has been weakened. Assad has gone. In Syria, we had Iran in the best possible position to negotiate a deal. And instead of doing that, Trump precipitously started this war because Benjamin Netanyahu convinced him that we could decapitate the regime, which was probably never going to happen in the first place. And now we’re in a worse position in the hard line regime has been strengthened. We need a negotiated settlement. Final point. Of course, we had that negotiated settlement under Obama. But but Trump’s Obama derangement syndrome, if you will, the idea that whatever Obama does must be bad, which is Trump world, made him tear up an agreement that was actually working. It was working to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. And now the war has put us in a much weaker position to accomplish that goal. But a negotiated settlement is still the only way out of this problem."