“There’s no end game here. There’s no strategic vision for what we’re supposed to get out of this and how it’s supposed to end.”
“This is such a consequential decision to send young men and women off to war.”
In case you missed it, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joined MS NOW’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell to discuss the serious consequences of Donald Trump sending American servicemembers into conflict without a clear plan or goal that serves Americans.
Sen. Kelly speaks on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.
Watch the full interview here. See key excepts below:
On the administration’s changing positions and lack of clarity…
“I’ll get a brief tomorrow, along with my Senate colleagues from the Secretary of Defense and State. But I don’t expect more clarity here. This has been a few days of a lot of changing, positions by the administration. Like, why did they get into this? What are we getting out of it?
“I’d like to see an explanation to the American people about how is this conflict on the other side of the world going to help them with their health care costs, with the cost of food and rent? How is it going to improve their lives?”
On the gravity of sending servicemembers into war without a clear strategy…
“This is such a consequential decision to send young men and women off to war. I remember back in 1991, right before the First Gulf War, I was a pilot on an aircraft carrier. And I remember how hard it was on my commanding officer. He wasn’t the guy who even had to make the decision. He was just in charge of a bunch of young pilots and bombardier navigators. And it was really, really challenging for him because he knew that there was a reasonable chance that some of us weren’t going to come back.
“And this president is down there at Mar-A-Lago. He’s talking about his ballroom. I presume he was playing golf, and now we’re three days into this thing, and he doesn’t seem focused on it. This is the most serious stuff that a president ever does, is send people off to fight overseas. And in this case what I see is no plan. There’s no end game here. There’s no strategic vision for what we’re supposed to get out of this and how it’s supposed to end. And what I worry about is escalation, where we wind up with troops on the ground in Iran fighting, who even? The IRGC? I think the president at this point really owes it to the American people to have a serious discussion about why has he decided to do this.”
