Walz and Vance Dodge the Question on Bombing Iran
The vice presidential debate on Tuesday night opened with a question that might as well have been a pitch for war with Iran. Both Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz nor Sen. J.D. Vance (R–Ohio) dodged it, attacking each other’s foreign policy records as weak while refusing to commit to any concrete action on Iran.
“Earlier today, Iran launched its largest attack yet on Israel, but that attack failed, thanks to joint U.S. and Israeli defensive action…Iran is weakened, but the U.S. still considers it the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and it has drastically reduced the time it would take to develop a nuclear weapon. It is down now to one or two weeks’ time,” CBS moderator Margaret Brennan said. “Governor Walz, if you were the final voice in the Situation Room, would you support or oppose a preemptive strike by Israel on Iran?”
Brennan was wrong on two counts. The Iranian missile attack, which Iran said was retaliation for Israeli assassinations over the past few months, hit some of the Israeli military bases that it targeted. And although Iran could accumulate enough enriched uranium for a bomb within a few weeks—probably what Brennan was referring to—the U.S. government believes that it would take months longer to actually assemble a working weapon.
Despite the framing, Brennan asked an important question. The next president may well have to choose between bombing Iran or letting the Iranian nuclear program continue toward weaponization. Neither candidate answered clearly. It’s no wonder why. While Americans are worried (and somewhat confused) about an Iranian bomb, the prospect of another full-on war is still unpopular.
“What’s fundamental here is that steady leadership is going to matter,” Walz said, launching into a tirade about former President Donald Trump’s “fickleness” towards allies and his “dangerous” leadership on issues that had nothing to do with Iran. “We will protect our forces and our allied forces, and there will be consequences,” Walz added.
Vance countered that “Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence.” He accused the Biden administration of allowing Iran to receive “over $100 billion in unfrozen assets.”
Like Brennan, Vance had his statistics confused. Although the Biden administration has allowed Iran to move som
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