Earlier this month, when asked by KOA talk radio host Mandy Connell for his thoughts on the war in Iran, Rep. Jeff Crank (R-CO) responded, “I was with the president, and look, I’ve seen some intelligence. We can’t get too much into that, but I can say this. I think the president acted to stop an attack that was being planned on U.S. service personnel within the region. We have many military installations where our service members are serving in that region that are vulnerable to ballistic missile attacks from Iran.”
Crank continued, “They were preparing an attack, and I think the president did what he needed to do to protect our men and women in the military.”
While launching a preemptive attack on Iran is a less common justification for the war, called Operation Epic Fury, than disarming Iran’s nuclear and other military capabilities, or disrupting the regime, possibly to the point of causing regime change, it is a talking point that has been brought up by the White House on several occasions.
For instance, in February at the start of the conflict, Trump stated on Truth Social, “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.”
Furthermore, Admiral Brad Cooper stated in a Senate hearing that “in the 30 months before Epic Fury commenced, Iran and its proxies had been attacking U.S. service members and diplomats, about 350 times.”
Additionally, Fox News cited the initial attack on Iran as a “preemptive strike” and continued that “Washington and Jerusalem said the joint attack was aimed at eliminating imminent threats from Tehran.”
On the other hand, according to Newsweek, the Pentagon stated within days after the war started that no imminent threat or attack was being planned by Iran, directly contradicting claims from the White House that the operation was launched after finding that Iran planned to fire missiles at U.S. bases.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has provided details of a specific imminent attack on U.S. troops.
