On Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) said that to keep Iran “from becoming a quagmire,” “we’ve got to negotiate transit through the Strait. It’s not going to be free and open, like it was before this war. As I said, this war is lost, but it needs to at least be navigable in order to bring down prices.”
Auchincloss said, “Yes, we should be worried about the stockpiles. More importantly, we should be worried about the safety of American troops. Sara, I’m not on the Armed Services Committee, but I have been a strong opponent of this failed, potential forever war against Iran from day one. And we need to ratchet up the pressure on the president through Congress and through public opinion to prevent what is already a lost war from becoming a quagmire, and potentially, a regional war.”
He continued, “That means three things: One, stop the ratchet of escalation. The United States is trying to vertically escalate, meaning put more effects on target. The ayatollah is horizontally escalating, meaning bringing in other vectors of conflict, the Houthis, the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia, etc. We’ve got to stop that escalation ratchet, because it risks a wider regional war that we cannot control. Number two, we’ve got to negotiate transit through the Strait. It’s not going to be free and open, like it was before this war. As I said, this war is lost, but it needs to at least be navigable in order to bring down prices. And then, number three, you’ve got to strengthen the Abraham Accords, energy, defense, logistics ties between Middle Eastern partners and allies, so that Iran’s new chokepoint control over the Strait becomes a wasting asset.”
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