Longtime critics of Trump lauded decision to strike Iran’s nuclear sites
John Bolton: “It was a decisive action. It was the right thing to do. I thought somebody should do it for a long time. But better late than never.”
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
US President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s three main nuclear sites on Saturday was praised even by critics of the president.
One of the most enthusiastic was former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who told CNN that the strikes were “better late than never.”
“Well, let me say this unequivocally: I think President Trump made the right decision for America to attack Iran’s nuclear weapons program. And I think we’re on the verge of potentially seeing regime change in Iran as part of that. I believe this represents a significant shift in the Middle East.”
“It was a decisive action. It was the right thing to do. I thought somebody should do it for a long time. But better late than never,” Bolton told Kasie Hunt on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Bolton added that Trump’s statement, made two days before the attack, that he would take up to two weeks to decide whether to strike Iran was a “pretty, pretty clear giveaway. As I said, I would have done this a long time ago. We’ll see what happens now.”
Former GOP lawmaker Adam Kinzinger, who spoke in support of former vice president Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention, called the strike a “good call by the president.”
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, who has spoken harshly about Trump, wrote that he made a “courageous and correct decision that deserves respect, no matter how one feels about this president.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who ran for president against Trump and has long criticized him, said he “wasn’t surprised” by the decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites.
“I think the president deserves an enormous amount of credit,” Christie said. “This is against type for him. I’m sure it was a difficult decision. But what I think his analysis was he cannot live with a nuclear weapon, Iran. And Israel did all the heavy lifting; they wiped out many of their air defenses, really severely damaged them in what they’ve been doing over the last week and a half or two, and the president saw an opportunity that he might never have again.”
The Atlantic‘s Eliot Cohen wrote on Sunday that Trump “got this one right. The president has made many poor decisions, but in striking Iran, he acted where his predecessors had failed.”
