Fmr. Biden CENTCOM Head: We’ve Let People Get Away with Attacking Our Troops

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Gen. Frank McKenzie (Ret.) — who served as head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden — stated that we have not matched the vow to decisively respond to aggression and hold those who attack U.S. troops responsible.

Before the interview with McKenzie, host Wolf Blitzer played video of Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying, “We will respond decisively to any aggression, and we will hold responsible the people who attacked our troops. We will do so at a time and a place of our choosing.”

During the interview, Blitzer asked, “You were head of the Middle East operations, the U.S. military’s Central Command, as it’s called, under both Presidents Biden and Trump. How would you advise this administration to respond now to this attack without sparking a much broader war?”

McKenzie responded, “Well, I think we begin by realizing, Wolf, that, if we want to prevent escalation, we need to leave the theater. If our primary goal is to not have something escalate, we need to get out. That’s obviously not our primary goal. So, we need to get comfortable with the fact that there can be escalation associated with this. The next thing I would say is Secretary Blinken’s words are very strong, very forceful, and very on point. We need to match them with action, and we have not done so over the course of the 150 attacks or so that have proceeded this lethal attack and the loss of these three brave Americans.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett