In an interview with NewsNation, Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw (R) discussed the U.S.’s response to a recent Iranian attack on U.S. troops in Jordan.
“Iran has long been very good at surrogate warfare...they’ve done this all over the Middle East: Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, the Shia-backed militias in Syria and Iraq. They are responsible for doing Iran’s bidding,” read the House Intelligence Committee's tweet.
.@RepDanCrenshaw to @NewsNation:
“Iran has long been very good at surrogate warfare...they’ve done this all over the Middle East: Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, the Shia-backed militias in Syria and Iraq. They are responsible for doing Iran’s bidding.” pic.twitter.com/5OfUqjMMzy
— House Intelligence Committee (@HouseIntel) January 31, 2024
The Texas lawmaker stated his surety of who was behind the violent attack that killed three U.S. soldiers.
“It doesn’t matter what we heard in that meeting. I’ll tell you what we all already know, Iran has long been very good at surrogate warfare. We call it unconventional warfare in our military and that means training and equipping surrogates to do your bidding. They’ve done this all over the Middle East. Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, the Shia-backed militias in Syria and Iraq, they are responsible for doing Iran’s bidding,” said Crenshaw.
The congressman continued, “Are they always in direct communication? Not necessarily. That’s kinda the whole point. Iran creates this infrastructure, human infrastructure, to attack us, to attack Israel, and then say that they’re not to blame. But, of course, they are to blame because they created it in the first place. And so we can look at this attack and say Iran is directly or indirectly responsible, it doesn’t really matter in the end because we’re talking about all the same people the Shia militias or the Iranian [forces] that back them.”
Crenshaw called for a strong retaliation against Iran and claimed that an equal retaliation would not be enough.
“What we need is an actual response, a disproportionate response. We always hear about proportionate responses. Does that mean we kill three of them? No, it does not mean that. The enemy should believe that we are going to hit them ten times harder. That’s how you get them to actually stop,” said the Texas Representative.
Earlier in the week, Crenshaw expressed his condolences to the three soldiers who were killed by the Iranian attack.
“I’m deeply saddened to learn three of our finest were killed and dozens more injured today by a drone strike. The attack originated from radical militia groups, but make no mistake, Iran is responsible. Iran backs these groups and often directs them,” said Crenshaw.
