Fox Guest Predicts Trump Widens Retaliatory Strikes On Iran: Will ‘Make it Hurt’

Fox News anchor John Roberts spoke to Navy veteran turned Heritage Foundation fellow Brent Sadler on Monday about the latest developments in the war in Iran. Sadler predicted that President Donald Trump is biding his time in waiting to respond to the latest attacks from Iran, but argued he’s also likely to widen the scope of his strikes against Iran this time around.

“The president, according to Trey Yingst, in a conversation said about Iran that there’s going to be retaliatory strikes coming. He said, quote, ‘We are going to hit them hard.’ This after attacks on the Al Asad Airbase and the King Hussein Airbase in Jordan. I mean, all of the missiles except one were intercepted,” Roberts began, adding:

The one that wasn’t intercepted fell in a place where it wasn’t going to hurt anybody — there were no injuries, as far as we know, from this. But it’s pretty clear that the president is saying, “I’m done with this game that Iran is playing. I’m not going to sit back and let them retaliate and not hit back again.”

“Absolutely. I think the tempo and the response, the size of it, is for the president to decide. And I think that is something that gives us the benefit of time — not to go too high and right, or too excessive in the response, but keeping the main thing the main thing: allowing the economic D-Day to play out, but at the same time having an adequate and very timely military response,” Sadler replied, adding:

Another point that I think is important to note: the attack on Larak Island, where there were apparently rocket-assisted mines that were going to be placed — that proactive military response, not waiting until after the Iranians’ attack, is a key thing, and that should probably be something to be looking for to be continued, and more aggressively, along that coastline in the Strait of Hormuz.

“I mean, just looking at the map there, Larak Island is about 20 miles off the coast of Iran. It’s near Kesham Island and Hormuz Island. That’s where they had some missiles with mines somehow attached to them that they were going to try to fire into the Strait of Hormuz,” Roberts responded, adding:

And what’s really interesting, too — if we could put up this other graphic of transit routes through the Strait of Hormuz — going in between Larak Island and Kesham Island, as demonstrated here in this, or illustrated here in the graphic, was the so-called Iranian “extortion route.” You get them close enough to Iranian territory, you can charge them a million dollars to go through.

“That’s right. Larak Island is definitely of tactical importance in the control of the Strait of Hormuz. And with the amount of American military assets in the region, it’s clear there’s a lot of eyes along that coastline. So if the Iranians are bold enough to move or to try to put a missile in place, it gets hit before it even gets the shot off,” Sadler agreed.

“So, Jack Keane was on Newsroom earlier this morning and said he thought that the Iranians trying to re-mine the Strait of Hormuz, and using missiles to do it as opposed to boats because they don’t have a lot of boats left, really was a sign of the desperation that they’re in right now. Listen to what he said,” Roberts continued before playing a clip from earlier in the day:

I think, clearly, the Iranians, I think, are in a more desperate mood here than what we’ve seen in the past, by imposing this now. And obviously we dealt with that — Cooper has what we call preemption authority. If he sees Iran getting ready to do something, he doesn’t have to ask permission to act.

“You know, the president said last week that the Space Force is watching every square inch of the Strait of Hormuz, and if the Iranians get ready to do anything like they tried to over the weekend, they were going to get punched, and punched hard,” Roberts insisted.

“Absolutely. And as far as those missile launches — again, continuing on after the first two weeks of this conflict — the Iranians are not able to really launch massive missile strikes, and certainly not coordinated ones. So that’s still the truth. But also, every time they take a shot at our bases in the region, it’s like a finger pointing right back to where they’re operating or where they are moving from. And so if the president does decide to go after those launchers, they probably have a pretty substantial amount of intelligence to make it hurt,” Sadler explained.

“So what do you think the president does? Does he just go after the launchers, since obviously Space Force saw everything happening? Or does he go after a different target to send a stronger message?” Roberts followed up.

“I think he does both. He continues the proactive military posture in the Strait of Hormuz — see a threat, attack the threat — as well as going after these actual ballistic missile attacks, because that’s been the other option the Iranians have kind of fallen back on. They don’t have much left to do, and their only leverage is in the Strait of Hormuz, which we are rapidly removing completely,” Sadler added.

“You know, I said over the weekend, on accident, it’s like a juvenile delinquent with a box of matches — they just can’t help themselves. Brent, always great to see you. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it,” Roberts concluded.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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