Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer told Newsmax on Thursday that President Donald Trump must decide what he hopes "to accomplish politically" with Iran as he weighs whether to join Israel in attacking the country.
The White House announced Thursday that Trump will make a decision on whether or not to attack Iran over its nuclear program within the next two weeks.
Shaffer said on "American Agenda" that the U.S. "absolutely" has the "military capabilities" to assist Israel in attacking Iran, noting that "As matter of fact, we have options which we're not even talking about, which are highly classified, which could be employed, which if given the chance ... we could take it out."
He added, "You could you could do some very quick and effective damage within three hours, but then what?"
Shaffer questioned what the Trump administration hopes to accomplish, noting that top military leaders often tell the commander-in-chief when asked about military capabilities: "Can we do this? Yeah. But then what? ... What happens if we do this? Where do we go?"
He added that the U.S. may be led to conduct strikes against "other deep underground sites that they probably have and we may or may not be aware of," and questioned "what happens to the Iranian regime?"
Shaffer said, "Do we push for a complete regime change, decapitation or otherwise? You know, President Trump has said he's giving the mullah the opportunity to meet Allah face to face, which could be a good thing. But the question becomes, what do we want to accomplish politically? And that I'm not sure if we really have a clear picture of at this point in time."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.