[S]en. Patrick Leahy said Friday that President Donald Trump’s decision to hold off on retaliatory airstrikes against Iran is one of the few he has made during his time in office that the Vermont senator can agree with.
Leahy made the comments hours after Trump tweeted Friday morning that he decided against launching an airstrike against Iran in response to its shooting down an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone earlier in the week.
….On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019
“The story this morning, as the president was going to order an attack and then changed his mind, that’s one of the times that I’ve agreed with President Trump in changing his mind that shooting down the drone is not worth starting a war,” said Leahy in Burlington on Friday.
Trump said he decided against the strike, 10 minutes before it would be carried out, because he did not think killing 150 people was an appropriate response, even as tensions continued to mount between the two countries over the past week.
Iran’s decision to take down the U.S. drone came after the White House accused Iran of attacking six commercial ships and for firing on U.S. targets throughout the region.
Iran has maintained that the drone was flying over Iranian airspace, but the U.S. has said it was in international territory. Leahy said that, according to the classified briefings he has attended, he believes that the drone was indeed over international waters.
But Leahy did say that, based on conversations with fellow senators in and out of intelligence briefings, other senators do not want to escalate the conflict. Leahy added that he hopes Trump’s decision to not retaliate with an airstrike may give both countries the opportunity to negotiate differences.
“I hope now maybe the president will go back and say, ‘OK, that was a mistake to walk away. Let’s be together on this.’ I think if we are, Iran will also realize they’ve got to back off,” Leahy said.
The escalation of tensions between the two countries also comes as the Vermont Army National Guard has concluded training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, reaching its highest level of combat readiness in four years.
With the combat training, which ran from April to the end of May, completed, the 86th Infantry Brigade Combat Team could be called on to deploy overseas if a conflict breaks out.
“At this point the brigade is at its highest level of readiness and remains in the force pool for the Army to be called upon as needed for any sort of mission that we might get,” said Col. Justin Davis, of the Vermont National Guard.
Davis declined to speak about national policy or about hypothetical conflict situations, but did say after current training, members of the National Guard have been certified ready for combat.
“The bottom line is the Vermont Army National Guard is ready to serve across the globe as needed for both its state and federal mission,” Davis said.
However, no overseas deployment for the Vermont National Guard is imminent, according to two Vermont National Guard sources.
One source said there are always rumors about being sent overseas in the Guard but that nothing had been discussed since 2018 when there was a possibility of an Afghanistan deployment.
Leahy said he hopes a full-blown conflict with Iran does not occur, but that if it does the Vermont National Guard would serve like it has in years past.
“The Vermont National Guard has always answered the call, Afghanistan or anywhere else,” Leahy said. “But I don’t want to see them put in harm’s way unnecessarily.”
Ellie French contributed reporting.
