There is "no evidence" that the Trump administration thought out the consequences of taking out a powerful figure like Iran's Gen. Qassam Soleimani, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said Monday.
"Look, there is no question that Soleimani had American blood on his hands, that he was a bad actor in the region," Buttigieg, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "But, if there is anything that we have learned in the last 20 years about the Middle East, it's that taking out a bad guy is not necessarily a good idea."
There also has been no evidence that there was "proper consultation" with Congress before the airstrike that killed the Iranian commander was ordered, said Buttigieg.
"Right now, my mind is with the troops who are moving to the Middle East and, having known what it's like to be in the inside of one of those airplanes, you need to be able to trust that everybody up your chain of command has thought through what's ahead, and we're just not seeing a lot of indications of that," said Buttigieg.
Further, he said, there are already "certain things" happening with Iran, including that its nuclear ambitions can be controlled.
"We have a suspension in our counter-ISIS operations, and evidence that we are moving toward a scenario where we'll be expelled from Iraq," Buttigieg said. "So, if they were thinking about this in terms of the 3D chess it is and not checkers, we've not seen evidence of why they felt this was the only or best decision."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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