Casar Mourns Loss of Military Members, Calls for De-Escalation of Violence

Texas Representative Greg Casar (D) took to social media to mourn the loss of three military members while also calling for a de-escalation of violence.

In January, an Iranian-backed militia killed three military members in Jordan. The strike caused strong responses from U.S. lawmakers who called for a retaliation. However, Rep. Casar has responded differently.

“We mourn the loss of our 3 service members killed in Jordan. Such death is always a tragedy. But it is wrong to urge escalation in response. Americans don’t want our troops to be dragged into more endless wars in the Middle East. Further escalation will only mean more death,” tweeted Casar.

Initially, some were skeptical about who directed the attack. Yet, others such as Texas Representative Dan Crenshaw (R) believed otherwise.

“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.”

The U.S. has been defending itself from different attacks in the region with the most recent being the strikes from Houthis.

In January, After U.S. ships were attacked by Houthi with anti-ship ballistic missiles, U.S. forces responded and attacked four Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles in Yemen.

The U.S. has been fighting Houthi forces for some time. However, the previous attacks from the U.S. were pre-planned. That said, it appears that the U.S. is willing to go after whatever threats it detects from Houthi.

Once again, Casar criticized the U.S.’s previous attacks on Yemen, stating that the strikes were not approved by Congress.

“The strikes on Yemen, which shouldn't be allowed without Congressional approval, further escalate the risk of regional war. The US should be preventing death & destruction, and working toward peace & stability. Americans don't want another endless war in the Middle East,” tweeted Casar.

The U.S. has been criticized previously for its position in wars and battles that have taken place in the Middle East. However, the country now walks a line of defending its military, defending democracy and avoiding escalation.