David Petreaus Argues US Needed to Establish ‘Deterrence’ Against Iranian Aggression

Former CIA Director David Petraeus argued on CBS that President Donald Trump needed to establish “deterrence” against Iranian aggression, but worried about what comes next.

“What has happened here is frankly we lost the element of deterrence, the component of deterrence that was seen as American will. Our $130 million drone was shot down, and we did nothing significant in response. 5% of the world’s oil taken out of operation, numerous attacks on shipping, and then attacks on our forces – ultimately killing an American and wounding four of our soldiers,” Petraeus told moderator Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday.

“So ultimately, the president appears to have decided that it was necessary to take an action to shore up deterrence, to show we were not going to accept this,” he continued.

Brennan asked if the killing of Qasem Soleimani would actually make Iran back off.

Petraeus obliquely dodged the question, saying “what will Iran do? Will they dare to respond directly with Iranian missiles against our forces, our embassies, our shipping, what have you, or do they continue to operate through proxies, which I’m pretty confident they will.”

“This is bigger than bin Laden, it’s bigger than al-Baghdadi. This is the equivalent, in U.S. terms, of the CIA Director, CENTCOM Commander, JSOC Commander, and presidential envoy for the region,” the former general continued.

“If another country had taken out even one of the officials you just listed there, how would the U.S. interpret that? An act of war?” Brennan asked.

“These are definitions. Were we not at war already? I don’t know, I’ll leave that to the constitutional scholars,” Petraeus said.

Watch above, via CBS News.