WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism, on Wednesday made the following statement on the attacks on two military bases in Iraq that house American troops:

“I am incredibly relieved that no lives were lost in last night’s attack on Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops. Clearly the administration’s claim that killing Soleimani would deter Iranian attacks has fallen short. And we must not forget that Trump is the one responsible for getting us to this crisis point in the first place, by leaving the Iran nuclear deal and pursuing a unilateral, non-strategic maximum pressure campaign. Now, the Trump administration has enabled Tehran to restart their nuclear program, turned the people of Iraq and Iran against us, brought about a halt to our counter-ISIS mission, and prompted Iraq to vote to eject all our troops from the country. In short, we are weaker, and Iran is stronger, because of Trump's actions. I am glad that the road to war may be narrowing, but the damage done to U.S. national security interests is enormous and potentially irreparable,” said Murphy.

Murphy continued: “We still need answers from the administration today at our classified briefing. And Congress must continue moving forward to fully exercise our constitutional authority to oversee the president’s reckless and destabilizing foreign policy.”

Yesterday, Murphy took to the U.S. Senate floor to urge bipartisanship in the perilous march to possible war with Iran. Murphy recently joined Pod Save America to discuss the escalation and CBS News’ Face the Nation. Last week, Murphy held a press conference in Connecticut where he discussed the need for the administration to come to Congress to authorize any future military action against Iran, and released the following statement after the Pentagon confirmed the strike. Last year, Murphy published a joint USA Today op-ed with U.S. Representative Jim Himes (CT-4) raising concerns about the president’s possible march to war with Iran

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