US Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on claims that the war with Iran is “over” on Wednesday, telling Democrats that America had acheived “victory” over the Islamic Republic.
Rubio, who refused to label the conflict with Iran as a ‘war,’ said it was a ‘fact’ that the military operation in Iran had concluded with the end of Operation Epic Fury.
“If the war is over, then who won?” asked Democratic Rep. Sarah Jacobs.
“We’re no longer conducting sustained strikes inside of Iran to degrade their military, because Epic Fury is over,” Rubio responded.
“As to the question of who won, I can tell you this: We define victory. We define victory as destroying their defense industrial base, significantly reducing the number of missile launchers that they possess, significantly reducing their stockpile of drones, and we achieved all those, in addition to destroying what they had left of an air force and wiping out their entire conventional navy.”
“Those are all gone,” he claimed. “So, I consider that victory, and we did, too. And that was the purpose of Epic Fury.”