POMPEO: “The world is a safer place."

STRATEGIC CHANGE
Pompeo: US Is Now Targeting Iran’s ‘Actual Decision-Makers’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday the U.S. strategy in countering Iran is to target the country’s “actual decision-makers” rather than to focus on Iranian proxy forces in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

He said the U.S. had previously sought to “challenge and attack everybody who was running around with an AK-47 or a piece of indirect artillery. We’ve made a very different approach. We’ve told the Iranian regime, ‘Enough. You can’t get away with using proxy forces and think your homeland will be safe and secure.’ We’re going to respond against the actual decision-makers, the people who are causing this threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

“The world is a safer place. We’re taking the actions that we need to take to protect American interests not only in Baghdad and in Iraq but throughout the region,”

"This was a bad guy. We took him off the playing field.” “It’s very clear the world’s a safer place today. Qassem Soleimani no longer walks the planet. You know the history: hundreds of thousands of people in Syria, millions of refugees; Lebanon, Beirut, Syria, Iraq, Yemen; deaths to Americans in Iraq in the earlier war. This was a bad guy. We took him off the playing field,” Pompeo said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News.
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“The American people should know that every target that we strike will be a lawful target, and it will be a target designed at the singular mission of protecting and defending America. President Trump has been diligent about that. He doesn’t want war. He’s talked about this repeatedly. He is a reluctant participant in this, but he will never shy away from protecting America.” arutzsheva

Trump warns Iran of 'disproportionate' response to attacks

Trump: Should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will strike back, perhaps in a disproportionate manner.  arutzsheva