Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., said Friday he expects the Trump administration to press ahead with its military campaign against Iran and argued President Donald Trump will not back away from the conflict over energy market pressure as the Pentagon prepares for another public briefing on the widening war.
Scott, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told “Wake Up America” that he wanted to hear that U.S. officials were "continuing through with the missions" as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine prepared to update reporters.
"This has been a long plan, a long process, not just the DoD, but other agencies as well," Scott said.
He added, "Our president, you know, clearly did not want to go into this, but Iran made it very clear with their continued enrichment of uranium and other things, that they wanted war with the United States."
Scott also praised the administration's national security team, saying, "I'm thankful that President Trump is the decisive leader. I'm thankful that we have General Caine and Pete Hegseth at the DoD.”
He added, "I'm thankful that our CIA and other agencies have continued to do the work that they had done so that we would be prepared for the things that we needed to carry out."
The conflict, branded by the White House as Operation Epic Fury, began Feb. 28 after Trump authorized a major U.S. strike campaign against Iran, and Hegseth said earlier this week the United States was preparing for the "most intense day of strikes" so far.
The Pentagon has said about 140 U.S. troops had been wounded as of Tuesday, and fighting has rattled global energy markets as attacks threatened shipping tied to the Strait of Hormuz.
Scott pointed to the growing U.S. death toll after a KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq on Thursday during a combat support mission, an accident that pushed the number of American military deaths in the war to 11, with two crew members still missing.
"My heart goes out, obviously, to the loss of life that we've had. I think we're at 11 now. Obviously, the search goes on for two additional crew members, so there's a lot of prayers to be said that those searches are successful," Scott said.
He said the U.S. should continue making battlefield decisions "based on the facts" and predicted the war would end "sooner rather than later" if that approach holds.
Scott then drew a sharp contrast with prior administrations.
"But I will tell you this, Donald Trump is not going to make the same mistake, and do to this country the same thing that previous administrations and presidents have done by stopping the war over the politics of a barrel of oil," Scott said. "He's not going to stop. He's not going to leave this for future generations. And I'm thankful for that.”
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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