doing poorly. they are practically broke. they are broke. they could solve the problem very easily. all they have to do is stop with the terror. they have been the number one, as you know very well, the number one country worldwide of terror. melissa: in the meantime, defense officials say they will present the president today with a range of possible responses to the attacks, like boosting troops in the region, or potential extracts. iran has warned strikes will spark all-out war, and it denies it was behind the attacks. former obama defense secretary leon panetta says the u.s. has to act. well, there is no question, if the evidence continues to show that iran was behind this, it does constitute what secretary pompeo called an act of war against saudi arabia.
they have done, attacking weak spots and weak points. if this turned into a full scale conflict, we would annihilate the iranian military but then what happens? i want to get in with this breaking news. we have this from the vice president, mike pence. he s talking right now, being asked about iran. he said the attack on saudi was the largest attack on oil infrastructure in history. it was an act of war. whether they came from the houthi or iran, came from careful investigation, buck, which is what you said. and surrogates we re imposing sanctions, we ll be limiting the visas for those coming to the u.n. general assembly. remember, that s going on this week through the end of september here in new york. we will defend our interests in the region. anyway, i wanted to pump that breaking news into the conversation. jessica? yeah, i wanted to add quickly that john bolton, the ousted national security adviser was
the straits of hormuz. and i would ask you why. why do this? and say we didn t do it. iranians lie all the time. what do you gain by that? i think they re hoping to get us to blink. there s domestic political considerations to fact for in. the economy shrunk 3% last year. should shrink as much as 6%. so they want to attack and react. they want to show that we ll back off and perhaps achieve greater leeway for negotiations with us and the e.u. the saudis spend third most on their defense budget behind the united states and the people s republic of china. we re selling them these weapons. it s an act of war against saudi arabia. shouldn t that react? and they pay cash. and representative mccall from texas said the same thing. he was part of looking at those deals for selling those weapons. and we re the we have the
opportunity. so we ll see where it goes, but it s a very tricky situation. jeremy bash, i m tempted to ask what isn t vulnerable to these drones we have created across the world, but i m truly curious to hear your big-picture view of this region and what could happen. first of all, i think it s interesting to note that when general mccaffrey was leading troops in 1991 in the gulf, mohammad bin salman, crown prince of saudi arabia, was 6 years old. he did not experience the scud barrage on his own country. this is the first real test of his leadership, effectively running the country. i agree with mccaffrey, this is a significant blow to saudi oil output. it s basically an act of war against the saudis but not an act of war against the united states. i think we got to be clear that we respond militarily when our vital interests are threatened. we try to act multilaterally. we consult with congress.
i agree with mccaffrey, this is a significant blow to saudi oil output. it s basically an act of war against the saudis but not an act of war against the united states. i think we got to be clear that we respond militarily when our vital interests are threatened. we try to act multilaterally. we consult with congress. we try to exhaust diplomacy. we have a clear exit plan and exit strategy. we have none of those conditions here. i don t think this situation warrants a united states kinetic military response. general, is this the foreign policy crisis we have been fortunate enough to avoid these 970 days, and what does it do inside you to hear the president say our military would be reimbursed for our actions, conceivab conceivably, on behalf of the kingdom? well, the language, of course, is entirely inappropriate from a senior political leader like the president of the united states. just unheard of. a locked and loaded is a term used on rifle ranges when you re