The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff praised President Donald Trump’s order this week to destroy Iranian gunboats that harass U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, saying that if the the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism tries to take action against U.S. military forces that the U.S. force “will come large” after Iran.
“Well, I’ll just say that every capability that we deploy, every ship that deploys into harm’s way has the inherent right of self-defense, as the secretary just described,” Vice Chairman Gen. John Hyten told reporters. “What that means is if we see a hostile act, if we see hostile intent, we have the right to respond up to and including lethal force, and if it happens in the Gulf, if it happens in any way, we will respond with overwhelming lethal force, if necessary, to defend ourselves, and it’s really that simple. But nobody should doubt that the commanders have the authority right now to respond to any hostile act or hostile intent.”
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