Lindsey Graham Presses Lloyd Austin on Halted Weapons to Israel, Asks If He Would Have Dropped Atomic Bombs On Japan

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) grilled Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over if he would have dropped atomic bombs on Japan during World War II after the Biden administration announced it had halted shipments of weapons to Israel.

Austin announced Wednesday that the United States would halt a shipment of weapons to Israel containing payload munitions due to reservation regarding an attack on Rafah.

“We’ve been very clear,” Austin said told reporters, “that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack in Rafah without accounting for and protecting the civilians in that battle space.”

During a Senate Appropriations Committee for the Defense Department, the South Carolina senator grilled Austin, alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Charles Q. Brown Jr., over if they would have supported the decision to drop the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in order to end World War II.

GRAHAM: Would you have supported dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? General Brown, to end World War II?

BROWN JR: Well Senator, I think it is based on the situation —

GRAHAM: Well, we know I mean, it happened, we know. I’m not asking, they did it. Do you think that was disproportionate?

BROWN JR: It was —

GRAHAM: Do you, in hindsight, do you think that was the right decision for America to drop two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities in question?

BROWN JR: Well, I’ll tell you, it stopped the world war.

GRAHAM: Okay. Well, so. Do you agree, General Austin? If you’d been around, would you say drop them?

AUSTIN: I agree with the chairman here.

GRAHAM: I mean, if you were if we go back in time says, hey, we got two atomic bombs, should we drop them? What would you say?

AUSTIN: Well, you know, I think the leadership was interested in curtailing —

GRAHAM: What’s Israel interested in? Do you believe Iran really wants to kill all the Jews if they could? The Iranian regime. Do you believe Hamas is serious when they say we’ll keep doing it over and over again? Do you agree that they will if they can?

AUSTIN: I do.

GRAHAM: Okay. Alright. Do you believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization also bent on the destruction of the Jewish state?

AUSTIN: Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.

GRAHAM: Okay, so Israel’s been hit in the last few weeks by Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas dedicated to their destruction. And you’re telling me you’re going to tell them how to fight the war? And what they can and can’t use when everybody around them wants to kill all the Jews. And you’re telling me that if we withhold weapons in this fight — the existential fight for the life of the Jewish state — it won’t send the wrong signal? Do you still think it was a good idea, General Austin, to get out of Afghanistan?

AUSTIN: I support the president’s decision.

GRAHAM: Yeah, I think you do. I think it was a disastrous decision. If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the State of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price. This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war. They can’t afford to lose. This is Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.

Watch the clip above via CSPAN.