A Republican member on the House Armed Services Committee told Fox News Digital ahead of the midterm elections that the Trump administration has a key decision to make on the future of the U.S.-Iran war as "continuing to do just enough not to lose, but not enough to win, is not OK." Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., made the comments as Vice President JD Vance declared during a Fox News town hall on Thursday that he promises "Donald Trump is not going to let Iran become a forever war." Official and military sources also told Fox News this week that movements are being made in the Middle East to give the president options if he decides to resume strikes against Iran. "I share my constituents and many Americans' perspective that I'm very, very frustrated that this war is not over.
The way that ultimately this administration went about conducting the war, it needed to execute it and wrap it up in a very short period of time, and we are not there yet," said Harrigan, who is running for re-election in North Carolina's 10th Congressional District. "That being said, Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. And so at the end of the day, I do believe that this was a war that was inevitable at some point, but the party that's in power and the administration that decided to pull the trigger on it is responsible for the outcome, and they're responsible for the outcome in a very short period of time.
Otherwise, things get really, really difficult," Harrigan continued. "And I think we've been seeing that, both from a political perspective but also from a policy perspective." TRUMP SUPPORTERS CONFRONT IRAN, AFFORDABILITY CONCERNS WITH A MESSAGE FOR CRITICS: 'GIVE HIM TIME' "And so while the administration needs to wrap this up, we are not in a forever war, but we need to make sure that we're not... we keep the mission the same. We accomplish the mission.
And we do what it takes to either win or come home," Harrigan added. "And that binary decision has to get made by this administration." Harrigan told Fox News Digital that Trump "needs to involve Congress" if he chooses to renew military action against the Iranian regime. "I think that that will long-term set the course for the country to be resolute in affirming and actually executing and accomplishing the objectives that exist.
Because look, like it or not, Congress is responsible for the funding arm of the government. And if they run out of money to accomplish the objectives, then that is not good for our strategic interests," he said. "So, in my opinion, Congress and the White House need to be very closely involved in making the next set of decisions that exist for this conflict." GOP CRACKS WIDEN OVER IRAN WAR AS VULNERABLE CANDIDATES BREAK WITH TRUMP, DEMAND ITS END "And we do need to make sure, again, that we either do what it takes to actually win in Iran, or we need to take the three out of five objectives that we've accomplished and say that, you know what?
We've largely accomplished our strategic objectives. We've got more work to do over the long-term that's going to require consistent and persistent over the horizon monitoring of their nuclear program. And we're going to have to mow the lawn every now and again, and everybody's got to realize that, and leave, right?" Harrigan continued, mentioning how the U.S. has prevented Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and eliminated Tehran's missile and drone production.
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