US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) slammed the Biden Administration’s “pause” last week on a shipment of bombs to Israel, calling the move “obscene.”
Speaking at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Graham urged both defense leaders to “give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose,” which he characterized as “Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.”
Following is the transcript of Graham’s exchange with Austin and Brown.
Graham: Now you just confirmed that we’re delaying transfer or stopping transfer
of certain weapons like 2,000 pound bombs to Israel. Is that correct?
Austin: What I said was we’re assessing where we are right now.
Graham: There are media reports that it’s happened. Are they incorrect?
Austin: That we have made a decision to … yeah, again we’ve made no decisions. We’re assessing.
Graham: Are you worried that if you make a decision to deny weapons that Israel says they need, that it would send a signal to Hamas and Iran to to keep pushing?
Austin: Senator, we want to make sure that we’re providing the right kinds of weaponry.
Graham: Okay, would you have supported dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, General Brown, to end World War II?
Brown: Well, Senator I think it, just based on the situation …well, we know, I mean, it’s happened. We know.
Graham: I’m not asking that they did it. Do you think that was disproportionate?
Brown: It was, uh, it was definitely …
Graham (interrupts): Do you — do you — in hindsight, do you think that was the
right decision for America to drop two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities in
question?
Brown: Okay, well, I’ll tell you, it stopped the World War.
Graham: Do you agree, General Austin? If you had been around, would you say drop ’em?
Austin: I agree with the chairman here.
Graham: I mean, if we were to go back in time to say hey, we got two atomic bombs,
should we drop ’em, what would you say?
Austin: Well, I think the leadership was interested in curtailing the war.
Graham: What’s Israel interested in? Do you believe Iran really wants to kill all the Jews if they
could?
Austin: The Iranian regime.
Graham: Yeah. Do you believe Hamas is serious when they say ‘we’ll keep doing it over and over again’ — do you agree that they will if they can?
Austin: I do.
Graham: Do you believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization that’s also bent on the destruction of the Jewish State?
Austin: Hezbollah is a terrorist organization.
Graham: Okay, so Israel’s been hit in the last few weeks by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, dedicated to their destruction — and you’re telling me you’re going to tell them how to fight the war and what they can and can’t use when everybody around them wants to kill all the Jews? And you’re telling me that if we withhold weapons in this fight, this existential fight for the life of the Jewish State, [that] it won’t send the wrong signal? Do you still think it was a good idea, General Austin, to get out of Afghanistan?
Austin: I support the president’s decision.
Graham: Yeah, I think you do. I think it was a disastrous decision. If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the State of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price. This is obscene. It is absurd. Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose! This is Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids.
