Over the weekend, the United States targeted three Iranian nuclear sites with bunker-busting bombs as the war between Israel and Iran escalated. On Monday, Iran retaliated with strikes on U.S. air bases.
President Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran on Monday, but it appeared that both countries had broken the agreement overnight. As of Tuesday afternoon, though, Trump says the ceasefire is now in effect.
Rep. Mark Alford, a Republican representing Missouri's 4th congressional district, told KCUR's Up To Date that he doesn't expect the U.S. to get more involved after the strike.
Alford's district includes Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, from which the strikes were launched.
"Look, this was a surgical strike to decapitate the nuclear capabilities, decapitate the snake if you will, that Tehran has been promoting and building over the last couple of decades, and have gotten very close to completing a nuclear weapon with their nuclear enrichment well underground," Alford said.
"And so if we have not decapitated the snake, we have certainly buried it and set it back a number of years. There are no intentions whatsoever, and I don't think there will be, any U.S. boots on the ground."
Alford says he hopes this conflict ends swiftly. But he believes the Republican Party is now uniting after initial infighting over President Trump's decision.
“I think what you’re seeing now is silence on the part of the critics who originally doubted the president of the United States," Alford said. "Do not doubt Donald J. Trump.”
- Rep. Mark Alford, Missouri's 4th Congressional District
