Additional U.S. strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria were necessary after ISIS killed two U.S. service members and their interpreter, former Rep. Jack Kingston said on Newsmax, Sunday.
He warned that failing to respond would invite further attacks on American personnel overseas.
"It's really something that you just have to do," the Georgia Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "If they kill two of our service members and we don't do anything, then we're going to look really bad on the world stage, and frankly, it's going to encourage other attacks on our personnel across the seas."
Earlier strikes involved multiple aircraft and were conducted at close range in an effort to limit collateral damage, he noted.
"As you may know, that was done with an F-15, but also with Warthog A-10 airplanes, and Apache helicopters, meaning that it was close range," Kingston said. "So that we're trying to be, to have precision strikes."
At the same time, Kingston said, the United States was trying to send a deterrent message.
"Yet at the same time, we're showing we're going to get close to you," he said. "And I think that makes it even more of a threat."
Kingston also weighed in on recent unrest in Minnesota following a fatal shooting involving ICE officers, criticizing Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey after he demanded ICE leave the city.
The mayor's stance, he said, aligned with a "Justin Trudeau imitator, mayor, who's with Trudeau both in philosophy and wussiness."
Kingston said groups like "ICE Watch" trained agitators used legal maneuvers to disrupt federal immigration enforcement operations.
"She knew exactly what she was doing because she was trying to do that," Kingston said of Renee Good, the woman who was shot and killed.
He also criticized political rhetoric aimed at immigration agents.
"Then you have people like Mayor Frey and Boston Mayor [Michelle] Wu, and then you have [Minnesota Gov.] Tim Walz and many, many other politicians saying that ICE is Gestapo and that they're Nazis," Kingston said. "So it's just one hand washing the other, and that's the way the left does it."
Kingston said some politicians were using the situation for political gain. "They want to revisit the glory days of the George Floyd riots so that they can get a political advantage going into the election," he said.
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