Rep. Waltz: "Iranians Will Have to be met With Force"

Tension has been escalating between the United States and Iran for quite some time.

After news that two U.S. oil tankers had been attacked in the Gulf of Oman, there were also reports that a U.S. drone had been downed by Iran.

In response, 1,000 U.S. troops were deployed to the Middle East at the beginning of last week.

Discussing the matter with Fox Business News’ Maria Bartiromo, Freshman Florida Rep. Michael Waltz (R) shared his thoughts on the decision to halt military strikes on Iran.

Commenting on the issue, Waltz expressed that he thinks “the Iranians will continue to push.” He explained that “they’re like a schoolyard bully that will continue taking lunch money until they’re stopped. So, that was some of my concern with not conducting the strike was that at some point, Iranians will have to be met with force.”

President Trump, in an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, clarified the situation revolving around reports that he had called for a strike on Iran but backed off at the last minute.

In his words, President Trump described that he “thought about it for a second and…said ‘You know what? They shot down an unmanned drone, plane, whatever you want to call it.” He added that “here we are, sitting with 150 dead people that would have taken place probably within a half an hour after I said go ahead. And I didn’t like it.”

In his interview, Waltz detailed that economic pressure will ultimately open the door to negotiating with Iran, detailing that “the reason Iran came to the table in 2012 for the Iran deal… is because they became desperate. The thing the regime cares about most is not the Iranian people, it’s its own pocketbook and own survival.”

Jack Keane, a former Army vice chief of staff who is also an aid to the President, has gone on record saying that Iranians are privately angered over an Iranian tactical commander that made the mistake of firing a missile too far, which ultimately took down the U.S. drone.

Keane noted that “they’re frustrated and furious with what happened.”