Rep. Cory Mills to Newsmax: Iran Conflict Is 'About Good Versus Evil'

The current confrontation with Iran is not an Israeli war or an American war but a broader effort to end decades of aggression from the Iranian regime, Rep. Cory Mills told Newsmax on Sunday.

"This isn't about an Israeli war. This isn't about an American war," the Florida Republican said on Newsmax's "Sunday Report."

"This is about good versus evil. And this is truly an evil dictatorship to the Nth degree," he said.

Mills, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and an Iraq War veteran who was wounded by an Iranian-supplied weapon, described Iran's government as a long-standing danger both to its own citizens and to the West.

"They've been under 47 years of tyrannical dictatorship under this Islamic regime, where women have been subjugated and tortured," Mills said. "You see the fact that they ramped up their rhetoric and their nuclear enrichment capabilities, which poses a great threat to the West as well as to our allies."

According to Israeli media reports, Iran's clerical leadership body may have selected a successor to the country's supreme leader, though the decision has not been publicly announced.

Mills said that if the regime collapses, Iran should move toward a transitional government that ultimately allows citizens to choose their leaders through elections.

"The crown prince Reza Pahlavi has said many times that he would accept the role as a transitional government," Mills said. "But ultimately, the leader should be determined at the ballot box, not in these little council meetings."

Mills also pushed back on claims that the conflict primarily concerns Israel, noting Iran's long history of actions targeting Americans.

"They had launched war against us for 47-plus years, everything from holding hostages and ransacking our embassies to the attack in Beirut on our Marine barracks," Mills said.

He pointed to Iran-backed proxy groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and militias in Iraq, as part of that campaign.

"[Gen.] Qassem Soleimani was responsible for thousands of deaths and maiming of American soldiers," Mills said. "So this is about putting an end to 47 years of war, not starting a new war."

Mills said recent operations targeting Iranian leadership and military capabilities are designed to weaken the regime's ability to fund and coordinate those proxy forces.

"When you cut off that economic capability to fund these militias, when you start putting a stranglehold where people like Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is eliminated, [Yahya] Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, is eliminated, the ayatollah is eliminated, now you're putting pinch points in there," Mills said.

Despite the escalation, Mills said he does not support deploying American ground troops.

"I don't support boots on the ground, so let me just make that very clear," he said. "What we're in right now is strategic military objectives hitting the industry, but also going after the mobile launch sites as well as their drone manufacturing."

According to Mills, weakening Iran's military capabilities could eventually open the door for political change led by the Iranian people.

"I think that they'll be soon ready for a transitional government where the people of Iran, not the U.S., not Israel, not others, can take their own fate into their own hands," Mills said.

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