Gen. Jack Keane: Our Allies in the Region Talked Us Down from Opening the Straits of Hormuz, ‘Just Man Up Here’

EXCERPT:

KEANE: “The problem with our allies here, Stuart, let's just put it on the table, is twice before during this 90-day period, once when we tried to conduct Project Freedom, which was opening the Straits of Hormuz, and another time when it looked like the president was leaning several weeks ago to go back to major combat operations, our allies in the region talked us down from doing just that because of the impact it would take on them. We've been protecting these allies since World War II with a nuclear umbrella. We've had conventional forces to help protect them. We helped to shield them from radical Islamist groups that have been operating in the region, al-Qaeda, ISIS, et cetera. And we're asking them to share the burden with us here. And the burden isn't just defending with missiles, the burden is casualties also. We're taking the risk and we expect them to accept some risk too, and use a term that I'm familiar with, let's just man up here.”