Politics stops at the water’s edge, as Arthur Vandenberg famously asserted during the Truman administration. But apparently not if the water in question is the Strait of Hormuz. And not if the politician in question is Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D – CA 43). After President Trump pulled the plug on the Iran counterstrike, you’d think that the move dovish Democrats would all be breathing a sigh of relief. (At least for a little while.) But Waters decided that she would lay into the President, claiming that the confrontational situation was our fault in the first place.
Trump, you get no credit for so-called stopping the strike against Iran. Why was the unmanned drone in Iran's airspace? Why the surveillance? Don't provoke and then pretend innocence.
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) June 23, 2019
This prompted some immediate responses from some of her colleagues, including Dan Crenshaw.
This is a shocking comment from a House Committee Chairwoman. She is literally repeating the lies of the Iranian regime. What a disgrace.
Maxine Waters’ hate for Trump runs so deep that she is willing to take Iran’s side over the word of our military. https://t.co/BnJn7Qn9rN
— Rep. Dan Crenshaw (@RepDanCrenshaw) June 24, 2019
Our own Hugh Hewitt got in on the action as well.
What the appeasement caucus of left-over Obama-era Metternichs don’t get is that Iran hasn’t changed in 40 years, and it’s Khomeinist ideology will not allow it to change. Team 44 got duped, got very little, recapitalized the revolution and now objects to nat sec seriousness. https://t.co/AITfY0mN8i
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) June 24, 2019
Crenshaw and Hugh are correct here. All Maxine Waters is doing is parroting the propaganda of the Iranian regime. And that’s really going far over the line, even for the Democrats. The Iranians have been growing increasingly aggressive with their naval forces for years now, going so far as to capture two of our own command boats in 2016. (To be fair, our sailors, in that case, had decided to take a “shortcut” and went through Iran’s waters, but it was still an outrageous move for such a minor infraction.)
As far as our drone goes, unless one of them suffers a crippling malfunction, we know where those birds are at any given moment down to a matter of inches. They have satellite nav systems and geolocation so the operators know precisely where they are. And we also know exactly where Iran’s airspace begins and ends. Sure, it’s possible that some of our operators push their luck a bit and cross the lines from time to time, but in this case, the Navy is saying we were definitely in international airspace.
So if it comes down to a game of We Said, They Said, and you’re talking about the Iranian regime, whose side are you going to take? In the case of Maxine Waters, she’s made her choice. Her burning hatred for the President is so intense that she would rather take the word of the Iranian Mullahs than our own military. There’s really no nuance required in this discussion. The woman is a disgrace.