Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said a red line has been crossed with the killing of three members of the U.S. military, in an attack by Iranian-backed proxies that wounded over two dozen more American military members.
It was the first time U.S. troops have been killed since Oct. 7, when Hamas invaded Israel, upsetting the fragile peace in the region. Since then, troops have warded off over 158 attacks on them by drones and missiles since The previous attacks only resulted in minor injuries and damage to American equipment and infrastructure.
An earlier version of this report mistakenly identified the men killed. The names will be updated here when available.
Update II: The fallen are Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46 Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24 Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23.
“Our hearts today are with the family members of the three courageous service members who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country and our allies. We also continue to pray as a nation for the heroes who are recovering from their injuries,” Sullivan told Must Read Alaska.
“Iranian terrorist proxies have crossed a red line with the reported killing of 3 brave U.S. service members and wounding of dozens more,” Sullivan said. “This strike, and the 150+ attacks our forces have sustained in recent months, shows the dangers of the Biden administration’s appeasement of Iran in the past three years and the administration’s total failure to enact deterrence in the region—something I’ve been pushing to reverse for years. The President needs to order a clear, lethal and overwhelming response that demonstrates to Iran and to the world that whoever targets our men and women in uniform—or supports these attacks—will face the full might of the U.S. military.”
Sullivan said just officially designating the Houthi rebels as terrorists is not nearly enough.
Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican member of the Armed Services Committee, also released a statement:
“It is time to act with purpose and resolve in response to attacks that have tragically taken the lives of American service members and injured scores more. We must respond to these repeated attacks by Iran and its proxies by striking directly against Iranian targets and its leadership. It is time to act swiftly and decisively for the whole world to see.”
Background, as provided by Sullivan’s office:
On Nov. 2, 2023, Sen. Sullivan led 12 of his Senate Republican colleagues in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, demanding the Biden administration press for a broader, more permanent framework of sanctions on Iran from the United Nations Security Council.
On Nov. 14, 2023, Sens. Sullivan and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and a number of their Senate colleagues, introduced a resolution emphasizing the fact that deterrence is most credible when the President keeps all options on the table, including the use of military force, to deter attacks from Iran and its proxies.
On Dec. 12, 2023, Sen. Sullivan and several of his colleagues again sent a letter to Secretary Blinken, urging him to re-designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), as well as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).
On Jan. 12, 2024, Sen. Sullivan expressed his support for the strikes on the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which he said were “long overdue.”
On Jan. 12, 2024, in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, Sen. Sullivan reiterated his call on the Biden administration to reestablish deterrence with regard to Iran, and argued that tougher action against Iran and its proxies will help avoid a wider war, not appeasement.
On Jan. 17, 2024, Sen. Sullivan said the decision to redesignate the Houthi rebels as an SDGT is a “step forward” that “doesn’t go far enough.”
Grandpa Bloodstains legacy of failure continues. He wanted to be historic-he’s gonna get his wish.
Dan is right, but Grandpa Bloodstains won’t do anything of significance. Maybe a hashtag and a sending Iran another billion.
Instead of spending another generation in the sand pit, let’s ask why we have troops stationed in Jordan and how it benefits US domestic security
Noticer; We are there to keep commerce safe and shipping lanes open lest we want higher prices for goods.
We have to defend and the best defense is to attack.
Maersk has suspended using the Red Sea/Suez Canal route due to the ineffectiveness of our navy in their ability to neutralize Houthi missiles. Isolated posts in Jordan, Syria and Iraq garrisoned by our servicemen have zero influence on shipping lanes, and it is the Europeans who are paying more for their oil from the Persian Gulf region and Chinese manufactured goods. As the EU/NATO nations are not concerned by the US destruction of Nordstream and their access to clean, reliable and cheap Russian natural gas, they are welcome to destroy their anemic economies and what is left of European societies. The servicemen stationed and now killed in Jordan are there to create an excuse to commence another war against Iran. Their commanding officers should be court martialed for incompetence.
Curious: do you know what their orders are? Especially their ROE?
Big talk from the sidelines.
Could’ve sworn Jordan has its own military and that they continually attack isis in other countries that they share a border with.
Why did US troops need to be stationed in landlocked Jordan to protect free trade?
I’m game. Let’s stop defending the sea lanes, let trade slow to a crawl, prices further skyrocket. Let’s see jobs and companies fold. Let’s see shortages in things. Let’s cripple a tottering economy.
Then let’s see other countries blackmail us with resources we need and they have seized control of.
Side note: have you bothered to look at the Jordanian military?
For a noticer, you miss a lot.
This is the same pablum fed to the American people for two+ generations now. If we don’t gut our country economically by maintaining a global empire and send our youth to be killed in countless foreign wars (and also kill and therefor produce more enemies were our soldiers are killed) then the sky will fall.
This is pure B.S. and is the road to perdition and ruin that we are on.
You and those like you on the right are authoritarians. Go vote for your masters in the state and the democratic party. They like all the wars as you do. I think Bill Kristol is calling you…
We are willing to sacrifice the lives of young American soldiers so you can have cheaper crap. You need to reexamine your priorities.
Disgusting.
We maintain isolated military bases in volatile regions of the world for tripwires. The servicemen are used as live bait, trolling for trouble by local populations who resent a foreign military occupying their lands. Why are our armed forces in Syria? We have never had a legal basis to enter or remain with a military presence there. Iraq? The deadline for troop withdrawal was in 2011. Now that Americans are killed in Jordan, Sullivan feigns outrage and concern and demands a violent response. What officer would expose his men to this threat level simply to create an incident to commence open hostilities. Anyone with an IQ brighter than a 10 watt light bulb, let alone an officer, knows that stationing personnel in isolated outposts, in volatile territory where the local people do not want you, would eventually result in an attack. The Neocons (liberals posing as conservatives), including Sullivan, have been itching to start a war with Iran for decades, just as they wanted a war with Russia. Why would Sullivan imagine that this dream war with Iran would not develop into just another nightmare? We were in Afghanistan for 20 years and accomplished exactly what? Bring our troops home now and station them on our own borders. Let the local people overseas resolve their own problems.
To create an incident is precisely why.
President Biden has time and time again shown that he is fully in support of the Iranian regime and their actions. He de-listed the terrorist Houthis from the Specially Designated Global Terrorists list in his first month in office, he is still working to reinstall the failed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that allows Iran to develop nuclear weapons, he’s allowed Iran access to BILLIONS that have been inaccessible, he’s removed or waived sanctions that has allowed upwards of $35,000,000,000.00 in oil sales to proceed, he’s cleared the way for $10,000,000,000.00 in payments from Iraq just a month after the Iranian backed terrorists Hamas attacked Israel, the list goes on an on. In fact whenever someone says that Iran is supporting terrorists groups they should be saying the Iranian regime that Biden supports is supporting terrorist groups.
President Biden doesn’t follow a practice of appeasement with Iran, he is facilitating their actions.
No! No war means no war unless enemies invade our country.
This has to stop. We have been killing people in places we ought not to be for decades. They are our enemies because we are over there, and they act as we would act if they were over here.
How many more people are we going to kill in lands that are not ours? How many of ours are going to die pointless deaths for the empire and for oligarchy such these three (if any of this story is even true)? How many more times are the American people going to be played by the worst among us.
Sullivan, Cornyn and Graham want to fight? Then gear up and go.
We are a stupid nation to be funding our own enemy’s ability to cause disruption and terrorist acts.
Why would a tax payer want to fund all these country’s that hate us?
We are getting what we deserve and more wars are it.
Is Dan going to kick off the world war?
The one thing about this news that pisses me off is the “Iran -backed” stuff. Every parrot in the media, including this outlet, just repeats that. No basis, no evidence. Just keep saying it. When it originally happened, the media said the missiles actually came from Iran. Yet they aren’t saying that any more. How about some evidence rather than war mongering and goading the ignorant, over fluoridated, brain-dead readers of any American media into signing up for YET ANOTHER Mideast war. How about the writer of this outlet not engage in the same brain-dead redundancy that she so often does when to comes to gunning for another war?? Restating assertions with zero evidence doesn’t
make a fact. Downing knows this. But decides not to care and does it anyway.
Dee Cee. Feels good to agree with you.
A senior Iranian official said Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force – the external arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – met top IRGC officials in Tehran last month to look at ways to “empower” the Houthis.
“At this meeting, they agreed to increase the amount of help, through training, arms and financial support,” the official said.
“Yemen is where the real proxy war is going on and winning the battle in Yemen will help define the balance of power in the Middle East.”
This is a quote from an Iranian official in a Reuters story. A cursory search yielded numerous other similar accounts dealing with Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza and Shia forces in Iraq from sources like the Atlantic, Rand Org. think tank, Ipsos, and on and on. Iran sponsors terror especially with but not exclusively using Shia groups. To deny that fact is simply irresponsible or simply uninformed.
So wrong. Qassem Solemani was assassinated in IRAQ by US intelligence forces in 2020. Ps: this was the last event of major significance in which warmongering neocons in permanent federal service attempted to provoke a war with Iran, and Donald Trump saved the day by negotiating a cool-down after it happened, via “back channels” because he couldn’t trust his staff.
Once again ignorant readers displaying no critical thought and listening to the parrots squak.
‘https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qasem_Soleimani
Some detailed evidence would be nice. I’m certain it exists. What we don’t want is more US troops on the ground in countries that already hate us. Stop the attacks? Absolutely: cut off completely Iran’s access to trade and finance; level all their means of production by bombing; if they try to attack anything or anyone else, nuke ’em. But make certain that our evidence is unimpeachable and isn’t just another intelligence failure. Evil exists – let’s not be part of it. Saber rattling might be good politics and genuinely express emotion – but bad policy if there is no follow through.
Dee Cee, I agree with you, however I take exception to one point. Iran is backing these attacks with full support from it’s new best friend, CHINA. What we are seeing is a concerted effort to weaken and bleed the U.S. dry and for China to expand its influence over control of the Red Sea shipping lanes.
Next steps for Senator Sullivan and those other lovers of WAR who profit so handsomely from it might include,
Identify the source of the agitation and stop with the reactionary nonsense. Of course thos might include stopping the Crazy Mullahs from obtaining Nukes too.
Just saying…
Our taxes fund the UN who get directed by the likes of WEF trained organizers and direct the orderly, quiet invasiveness of unknown military age male individuals at our southern and northern borders. Add another conflict? What do we have? A sped up need for rule by the Kingdom of God Jesus taught us to pray for. Keep close to family as best as you can. God’s Kingdom would evidently improve conditions which now lead to unnecessary wars. Pray constantly.
Remember when Dan demanded to know why “Biden” was funding Iran? Yeah, neither do I……elections have consequences…stolen elections have catastrophic consequences.
Biden’s own people don’t respect that POS in the White House. How can Americans expect other people around the world to respect him? War is looming. And the cheating lying Democrats own it.
Why are our special forces protecting Zionists? They should be in Panama and Mexico. America is falling apart and we still let Zionists run our nation. Israel decided to settle in the middle of the Arabs, why do I need to pay for their bad idea? Why are our troops in Jordan? America first. Zionist shills are traitor parasites. Illinois sent 300 national guard to Israel instead of the border , and zionist secretary Mayorkas is a member of HIAS, who is working with the CCP for years now organizing the great replacement. Time for neocons to quit betraying Americans for a foreign state. Most of Alaska’s “right” representatives are Ziotrash lapdogs scared of AIPAC and the ADL and compromised by the MIC special relationship with Israel. Bidens entire cabinet is Jewish Zionists, (if they were Korean you would notice a pattern right?). So right wing or left they bleed America dry. We’ve destroyed the entire Middle East for Israel and they want more from us, Israel offers us forever war and subversion. Spare me your evangelical philosemitism, they spit on Christians in Israel.
Is this a demonstration of what those who claim “antizionism isn’t the same as antisemitsm” are talking about?
That’s some serious hate Nat! And mostly bs. In the Bible God says, “I will bless them who bless you and curse those who curse you.” Which do you want to be part of?
I stand with Israel. It is their land, and they have a right to defend themselves against fascist pigs who want to kill everyone who won’t kiss their idol starting with the Jews They’re coming for us too Nat, that’s our interest in the middle east.
That’s a 19th Century Darby and Schofield fraud. The Church is the Israel of the Bible, NOT the modern day aparthied nation-state.
We can argue about whether our forces should be in Jordan (An ally of the US) or not. But they are and they were directly attacked and killed/wounded. That is an attack on us. That is a step too far, an act of war actually, being they were there with the consent of Jordan.
So, I guess my question asking if Sullivan is going to start a world war is too…..?
You really need to loosen your tinfoil hat. It’s cut off the flow of blood to what passes for your brain.
I’m curious if you’d support setting up gas chambers and crematoriums?
Actually, sorry Ginny. This post was meant for Nat and somehow ended up here.
Three American servicemen killed on foreign soil and Sullivan wants war. How many Americans have been killed or otherwise victimized on U.S. soil by foreign invaders pouring over the southern border while Sullivan does nothing effective to stop it? I support war also but against the invaders from the south. Stop them at the border, by lethal force if that’s what it takes.
Thank you for mentioning this! Maybe Sullivan is trying to divert attention from what Texas is doing! Having soldiers die anywhere is not good, but where should our focus be? SGT Report and Atty Todd Callender talk about what just happened in Texas – standing up against the Resident and other states backing up Texas! This is good news!
‘A LINE IN THE TEXAS SAND — ATTORNEY TODD CALLENDER’
‘https://rumble.com/v49qcuk-a-line-in-the-texas-sand-attorney-todd-callender.html
Well said.
WWIII will commence by this summer.
So we probably shouldn’t have unfrozen that $6 billion and given to to Tehran, huh? I don’t know what Obama’s obsession with being friendly to Iran is.
Funny thing is, aircraft carriers and the like have anti drone capabilities. They are easy to deploy and still work on land, air or sea….the deeper and more thoughtful question KNOWING terrorist organizations are using these low tech attacks and are easily defendable against, WHY weren’t the defense technologies deployed to defend this FOB???
Jordan claims that the drone strike did not occur on their soil. Many credible military analysts have stated that the deadly attack was, in fact in Syria, a country that the USA has illegally stationed troops in for years now. Trump warned of the danger of keeping small forces in Syria & Iraq while President and tried to remove them from harm’s way but was stymied by Washington, DC neocons & the Pentagon. War mongering lunatics like Nikki Haley, Lindsey Graham & John Bolton are quick to urge Soggy Bottom Biden to go to war with Iran, but the fact is there are more than enough factions in the region that could be responsible. As always, a false flag operation is also always a possibility.
We can’t get this corrupt imbecile out of office fast enough. You don’t wait a week to make a strike on your enemy after an attack like this. He should have had missiles in the air in 25 minutes. What he did was give our enemy time to re position there horde of weapons.
Dan Sullivan you should have impeached this fraud of a president after he got the first batch of 13 of OUR kids killed in Afghanistan. The incompetence in the White House is astounding.
How many of our nations kids need to die because of absolute incompetence in leadership. And I call bull shit on they didn’t realize it was the wrong drone. They are tracking these drones every second.
My sympathy for the families of our lost soldiers.
Elections have consequences sometimes deadly ones
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