(NewsNation) — John Bolton, the former national security adviser in the first Trump administration, believes the president should hit Iran with multiple strikes.
Bolton’s comments come as the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group arrived in the Middle East, positioning itself near Iran.
U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said Tuesday that Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests killed at least 6,126 people, while many others are feared dead, as the U.S. aircraft carrier group arrived in the Mideast to lead any potential American military response to the crisis.
“I think even though it’s been quiet for several weeks, there’s still an important point to be made here by attacking Revolutionary Guard or besieging militia targets. But I think the president also needs to think long-term; one strike isn’t going to bring the regime down. If he is committed to regime change, as he has now said, you need to think in a more programmatic strategic way,” Bolton told “On Balance.”
“… You have to think of what multiple strikes might do to degrade the regime’s ability to cause problems in the nuclear field and the terrorism field, but also to reduce its power to repress its own people,” Bolton said Monday.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to drag the entire Mideast into a war, though its air defenses and military are still reeling after the June war launched by Israel against the country.
Bolton believes a show of U.S. force would boost the morale of opponents to the Iranian regime and remind the Iranian people “we have not forgotten about them. But also say to regime figures, your days are numbered here.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
