Senator Roger Wicker chairs the Armed Services Committee Hearings to examine the nominations of Bradley Hansell, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary for Intelligence and Security, Earl Matthews, of Virginia, to be General Counsel, and Dale Marks, of Florida, to be an Assistant Secretary, all of the Department of Defense, and Brandon Williams, of New York, to be Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security, in Washington, DC on April 8, 2025. (Official U.S. Senate photo by David Rogowski)
- U.S. Senator Roger Wicker says President Donald Trump used military force to protect the United States and make the world safer.
President Trump recently made the most difficult decision a commander-in-chief can make. He ordered American service members into action. The president concluded that the time had come to strike the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism, the Iranian regime. I believe the decision was profound, deliberate, and correct.
President’s Most Profound Choice
For months, the administration weighed the risks and opportunities of striking Iran’s leadership. In his video announcing the military campaign, President Trump was honest with the American people about the danger. He said, “We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear armed Iran.”
Tragically, as of my writing, six American soldiers have lost their lives in the fighting. We grieve with their loved ones. These service members fought to protect us from an evil regime. Though their service was noble, we know that war is hell. Deterrence is always our first choice.
Administration’s Clear Objectives
However, when we do need to enter conflict, we do so deliberately. Mississippians awoke last Saturday to headlines announcing the strikes on Iran, and they were right to expect a clear rationale for the decision. The president has outlined four goals of the campaign against Iran.
Since the day he took office in 2016, President Trump has insisted that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That is the first and ultimate goal of this mission. Last summer’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities set the regime back, but it strove to rebuild.
To protect its bomb-making program, Iran has been stockpiling ballistic missiles. Destroying those—and the facilities where they are built—is the second goal of the operation.
Third, the U.S. armed forces are wiping out Iran’s navy, which has menaced the high seas. Finally, we will ensure the regime can no longer arm, direct, and fund the network of terrorists it has been supporting around the region.
These are ambitious but realistic goals. The U.S. military and our partner Israel degraded Iran’s air defenses and missile systems quickly. We have destroyed more than 20 Iranian vessels. Within four days, Iran’s ballistic missile shots decreased by nearly 90 percent. Its one-way attack drone deployments fell by over 70 percent. Achievements like these allow our forces to control the air, secure the ground, and gain freedom of movement.
President’s Correct Decision
Last month in this column, I noted that Iran was at a moment of historic weakness, which President Trump could exploit. I believe he was right to do so now.
For decades, the Iranian regime has killed Americans and supported those who do. They have empowered terrorist groups around the Middle East, and these proxies have attacked us and our allies. The Supreme Leader of Iran, who was killed on the first day of this operation, was friends with the world’s worst dictators—China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Like those thugs, he violently oppressed his people, and he sought the world’s most deadly weapons. If the Ayatollah had acquired nuclear bombs, he could have struck our friends now and—eventually—our homeland. Iran was never going to relinquish its pursuit of nuclear weapons capability, and the president knew that.
Seeing Iran’s weakness and its commitment to killing Americans, President Trump made the correct decision. He used military force to protect the United States and make the world safer.
