Don Bacon ‘Very Reluctant’ to Support Boots on the Ground in Iran
by John Gage
OMAHA — Congressman Don Bacon said he was “reluctant” to support a potential push to put American troops on the ground in Iran. The comments come on the heels of a report that President Donald Trump is considering a major military operation to use U.S. ground troops to extract nuclear material from Iran.
“I would be very reluctant,” Bacon told Chuck Todd during an interview released Sunday when asked if he was “supportive of ground troops.” “If you want to go into Iran, you’d have to have 100,000 [troops].” Bacon said, adding that any talk of boots on the ground by Trump was likely a negotiation strategy to “put a little bit of leverage on Iran.”
“Hey, now we’ve got a Marine unit off your coast. We’ve got the airborne coming in. So, I think maybe [it’s] also part of our negotiating toolkit,” he said.
Bacon said any operation into Iran would be difficult given the size of the country. “You’ve got to remember that Iran is three and a half times bigger than Texas,” he said. “It’s actually a pretty big territory. It’s bigger than many of our states.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Trump is considering an operation within Iran that could take days, if not weeks, to remove uranium from the country.
In response to the report, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president is still weighing options. “It’s the job of the Pentagon to make preparations in order to give the commander-in-chief maximum optionality. It does not mean the president has made a decision,” she said.
John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.
Why is he talking to corporate media NBC?