(Politico)
CAITLIN OPRYSKO 06/21/2019 11:53 AM
President Donald Trump on Friday confirmed that he called off a retaliatory strike on Iran at the last minute Thursday night, saying he decided that the potential cost of human lives was “not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.”
“We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights [sic] when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets, adding that not only would such an attack have been disproportionate, “I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Thursday it had shot down an American drone, claiming it had entered Iranian airspace, an assertion sharply disputed by the U.S., which has maintained the drone was over international waters. Both countries have produced what they say is evidence supporting their diverging positions.
Iran’s attack, which took place amid steadily escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran, prompted the president to summon congressional leaders to the White House for a briefing in the Situation Room on Thursday afternoon and drew mixed reactions from Iran hawks and anti-interventionists in Congress.
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