Trump allies defend US-Israel strikes on Iran as Democrats call it a ‘war of choice’

Trump allies defend US-Israel strikes on Iran as Democrats call it a ‘war of choice’ Senators Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham defend attack, Democrats say administration must answer vital questions US-Israel war on Iran – latest updates Donald Trump administration allies reinforced on Sunday the administration’s messaging on the Israel-US strikes on Iran , while Democratsdecried it as a “war of choice” that required congressional approval. On Sunday talk shows, Arkansas senator Tom Cotton, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, and South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham defended the strikes, while Virginia senator Mark Warner, vice-chairman of the Committee on Intelligence, and other Democrats welcomed the elimination of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei but said the administration must now answer vital questions. “I’m not going to shed any tears over the death of the Iranian leadership,” Warner told CNN’s State of the Union. “The question is why now? Why not make the case to the American public?” Warner said Trump had started “a war of choice”. “There was no imminent threat to the United States,” he said. “It’s incumbent that the president comes before the American people and Congress to make the case on why he’s chosen to go to war.” Warner has warned that the strikes risk pulling the US into another broad conflict in the Middle East. On Sunday, he went further, pointing to a lack of US intelligence visibility into the Iranian resistance to its theocratic leadership or who may replace Khamenei. “Will the president’s supporters still say this is a great move if the person who replaces the supreme leader is even further to the right and actually rushes forward on their nuclear program,” Warner said, pointing out that Khamenei maintained Iran’s nuclear enrichment program but did not approve moving to full weaponization. “We have very little visibility into what happens next,” Warner said. A populist revolution and a reduction in regional violence “would be ...