Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who retired as a Captain in the U.S. Navy, warned on Sunday of the “greater risk” to U.S. troops abroad, as well as to American citizens at home after the U.S. struck Iranian nuclear sites.
“Certainly, for the 40,000 troops in at least six countries in the Middle East — we have a lot of bases in the Middle East — those troops are now at greater risk,” Kelly said in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.”
“I think folks here at home as well are at greater risk,” he continued. “We could have, we could see terrorist attacks here. The Iranians still have a lot of proxies. They could go after us.”
“The escalatory factor of this action that was taken yesterday is significant,” he added.
President Trump announced Saturday the United States had bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, including the Fordow site that is located in a mountainside.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home,” Trump added. “Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!”
The announcement of U.S. action against Iran came two days after the White House said Trump would decide whether to get involved in the conflict between Iran and Israel “in the next two weeks” to give a window for negotiations.
It marked a significant entrance by the U.S. into a conflict that Israel and Iran had been in for nearly two weeks. It also indicated a reversal by Trump, who said for weeks he would have rather sought a diplomatic solution with Iran and had sent U.S. officials to make a deal with Tehran on its nuclear program.
