GOP cry to hit back at Tehran

A slew of Republican pols called on President Biden on Sunday to retaliate against Iran after three US service members were killed and 34 others wounded in Jordan in an attack by Iranian-backed militants.

“Hit Iran now. Hit them hard,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is well-known for his hawkish views, wrote on X.

“When the Biden Administration says ‘don’t’, the Iranians ‘do’. The Biden Administration’s rhetoric is falling on deaf ears in Iran,” Graham said.

“Iran is undeterred,” he said. “The only thing the Iranian regime understands is force. Until they pay a price with their infrastructure and their personnel, the attacks on U.S. troops will continue.”

The White House confirmed Sunday that the deadly attack was the result of a Saturday drone strike from “radical Iranbacked militant groups.”

Biden later vowed at a campaign stop in South Carolina that the US would retaliate.

“We shall respond,” he said at Brookland Baptist church.

“We had a tough day in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls,” Biden said, asking for a moment of silence.

Numerous Republicans expressed their condolences to the victims’ families. They also used the deadly assault to highlight what they called Biden’s failed Middle East policies.

For weeks since Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel, Iranian-backed proxies — such as the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and militia groups in Iraq, as well as Syria — have unleashed fire near US or allied assets and forces in the region.

“The Biden administration’s failed Middle East policy has destroyed our deterrence against adversaries in the Middle East,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in a statement.