Former national security advisor John Bolton called for a “far stronger” response from Israel after Iran launched a missile and drone attack against the country.
Bolton, a UN ambassador under President George W. Bush and an advisor in President Donald Trump’s administration, took to CNN shortly after the attack began to call out what he said was an insufficient deterrence strategy.
“What we had tonight was a massive failure of Israeli and American deterrence. Massive failure,” he told anchor Wolf Blitzer. “A 200 ballistic missile, cruise missile, drone failure.”
“I think notwithstanding that there appears to be very little damage, fingers crossed, until we get the final assessment,” he continued.
The world is now waiting to see how Israel will respond. Bolton, for his part, said Israel should “reestablish deterrence in a major way.”
“I think that means by definition, Israel’s response — and there should be a response — should not be proportionate,” he told Blitzer. “It should be far stronger because when deterrence fails to re-establish, you have to teach the adversary that any gain they may hope to get by any future attack will be more than outweighed by the damage that will be called.”
Bolton, who was instrumental in the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, then suggested that the Israeli government should use the attack to “destroy” Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Bolton said on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday,” however, that the Iranian government looked “weak” after its attack.
“Whatever it is, 300 plus drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles and maybe three or four got thorough,” he said. “So, who’s the fool in this posture right now?” Who looks weak? The regime in Iran looks weak.”
Bolton also blasted the Biden administration for what he said was its “weak” posture toward Iran.
The United States helped Israel counter the aerial assault by intercepting dozens of Iranian drones and missiles.
On Sunday, White House national security communications advisor John Kirby on NBC’s “Meet the Press” said that Israel’s response would be “up to them” and repeatedly affirmed that President Joe Biden did not want to engage in a wider conflict with Iran.
“I’m certainly not going to get ahead of their decision-making,” Kirby said of Israel, adding: “And as the president said to the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] last night, that support for Israel’s self-defense will stay ironclad.”