See below for video and highlights from two appearances last night – on MSNOW and CNN – by Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA07). Great stuff by Vindman!
First, on whether Pete Hegseth saying “no quarter” (which is “absolutely illegal”), Vindman correctly pointed out:
“…it’s actually in black and white in international law. So under the Geneva Convention, under the International Criminal Court, the Rome Statute, the very order ‘no quarter will be given’ – that’s a violation. It’s plain and simple, and I’ve trained hundreds conservatively, probably thousands of soldiers on the law of war. And everybody, even privates, know that that’s illegal. And now this is a pattern from Pete Hegseth. You know, this administration, they learn by trial and error. They have no experience, no knowledge, no judgment. It’s actually painful to watch the cavalier attitude to American casualities from the president and the secretary. It’s obscene. And here we are, the president starts an unlawful war of choice with Iran. Iran gets intel from Russia to target Americans and the president lifts sanctions on Russian oil to help Russia. The president is just really bad at his job and these actions are getting American service members killed.”
Next, on oil prices having spiked due to the Strait of Hormuz being shut down, Vindman said:
“Look these things are very foreseeable. There’s a reason why Democratic and Republican administrations over the course of decades have decided not to engage in a conflict with Iran. 20% of oil transits the Strait of Hormuz. We have a number of bases in the region. We have a number of allies. And all of the calculations have been that it’s not worth the massive disruption, the potential cost in life. I mean, this regime, despite what the administration is saying, is not on the verge of folding. I’ve seen no indication of that. In fact, this president and this administration have gone to war with Iran based purely on hope. Hope that American air power is sufficient to bring the Iranians to their knees and hope that the Iranian people rise up. And I’ll tell you, in the last two weeks or so, the prospects of the Iranian people rising up against the regime have have faded, not grown…You know, this president promised that he would not get us involved in another Middle East war, a forever war. We have no real prospects of when this will end because we don’t know what the objectives are. The president, you know, from one moment he’s saying unconditional surrender, the next moment he’s talking about eliminating a nuclear capability that he obliterated just 8 months ago, so he was either lying then or he’s lying now. And all at the same time that costs are skyrocketing for Americans that he got elected because he claimed he was going to lower costs. Instead, he is doing everything he can to skyrocket costs. It’s obscene, and the cost in in American blood and treasure is real. I saw that at Dover last weekend when I was at the transfer of American dead, literally feet behind the president watching the coffins roll by and wondering to myself when will this end?”
On CNN, with regard to supplemental funding for the war with Iran, Rep. Vindman said:
“…the president, this administration entered this war without a plan…And over the course of the last two weeks, I’ve not seen anything that looks like the Iranian people are are in a position to rise up. And air power so far has not been sufficient to open the straight of Hormuz. So I want to see a real plan. I want to know what the achievable objectives are… before we throw good money after bad, I’m going to want to hear a plan…So, no, I’m not inclined to support the funding right now.”
Regarding Trump lifting oil sanctions against Russia, Rep. Vindman said:
“…it’s obscene that the president would actually lift sanctions on Russian oil in this context…There is other information potentially out there that the Russians are providing to to target American interests, American personnel. We should take this very seriously…Russians are our adversary, they’re not our friend. And the president is just waving his hand at this…This is American blood and American treasure. We have had 13 casualties. For the president not to take this seriously is frankly outrageous. For him to lift sanctions at this moment is obscene and uh completely unacceptable…some my Democratic colleagues think that supporting funding is supporting the troops. No, I think it’s the exact opposite. I think if you want to support the pro troops, we need to have a plan. We need to have a achievable objectives and we don’t need to put soldiers in harm’s way. I was deployed to Iraq. I know what that means. We can’t put soldiers in harm’s way without a plan, without an exit strategy.”
BINGO!
