Former Rep. Stewart backs Trump’s decision to attack Iran

SALT LAKE CITY — Former U.S. Congressman Chris Stewart offered his take on President Donald Trump’s bombing in Iran during a Wednesday appearance on KSL NewsRadio’s Midday with Maria.

“It was a brilliantly executed mission,” Stewart said. “I think it was essential, had I been advising the president, I would have encouraged him to do it, and I think it resets the dynamics in the Middle East.”

How effective was the bombing in Iran?

Stewart said reports that the attack was not as effective as the president hoped, are “just simply not true.”

“At the very least, we should say we don’t know for sure,” he said. “But other indications are some of them [attacks] ended up … perhaps even more effective than we had hoped.”

He noted that the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated possible chemical leaks. 

“That would only be true if the damage extended down to where the centrifuges are located,” Stewart said. “So, I think it’s a little too early to make to make a broad assumption … ”

He added that assessing the total damage will take time.

Will the U.S. continue to attack Iran?

Host Maria Shilaos asked Stewart if the U.S. was done with attacks of this nature. 

“I believe that’s true,” he said. “Three or four days ago, there were some people who have warned that we’re going to get into a World War III … I never believe that was possible. I mean, I really think this is a very, very limited engagement with a very specific outcome. I think we’ve achieved that outcome.”

“Could you kind of describe for us how you believe that these attacks were carried out, what that would have been liked for those people involved?” Shilaos asked.

The former congressman drew on his past military experience saying a mission like this is a “massive effort.”

“It’s the planning for this,” he said. “The intense planning took place over weeks. And I don’t mean to indicate that the decision had been made to strike weeks ago … they wanted to have things in place in case the president made that decision.”

Stewart said 125 planes were involved in the mission. 

Mitigating a threat?

According to Stewart, the decision to bomb Iran did more than reduce threats to Israel. 

“I mean it wasn’t just a threat to Israel or a threat to the region and U.S. assets in the region,” he said.

“It’s a threat globally in the sense of economic stability, in the sense of had Iran been able to complete their nuclear weapons program, they would have threatened not only Israel, they would have threatened U.S. bases.”

Stewart also said not taking action would have accelerated an arms race throughout the Middle East.

“Saudi Arabia is certainly not going to allow to Iran to have nuclear weapons and them not not be forced to match that.”

Stewart said he is optimistic that doors for other conversations have been opened. 

“I mean, the world is just dramatically different than it was a week ago.”