Vice president J.D. Vance promised that America will not see "boots on the ground" in Iran as he defended President Trump's bold airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“We’re not at war with Iran. We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” Vance told NBC’s Meet The Press.
“We have no interest in a protracted conflict. We have no interest in boots on the ground,” he said. “We didn’t blow up diplomacy."
Trump has said he has no interest in a prolonged conflict in the Middle East after the United States bombed Iran's nuclear facilities over the weekend.
The strikes led to criticism from Democrats, as well as some libertarians and non-interventionists on the right, who feared Trump was breaking a promise not to embroil the U.S. in another war.
Vance, a vocal non-interventionist, said that Trump's strikes had a limited objective and only came as a last resort.
“We only took this action when it was clear, as the president said, that the Iranians were tapping us along,” he said.
“The Iranians are clearly not very good at war. Perhaps they should follow President Trump’s lead and give peace a chance if they’re serious about it. I guarantee you, the president of the United States is,” Vance said.
Vance's comments echo Trump, who has indicated that his goal was to eliminate a nuclear threat, not drag the U.S. into a major war.
“The president has actually been one of the fiercest critics of 25 years of failed foreign policy in the Middle East, which is why he did what he did: a very precise, a very surgical strike tailored to an American national interest,” Vance said.
“I don’t fear that this is going to become a protracted conflict because I think that we have a president who knows what’s in America’s interest.”
Some Iran hawks who celebrated Trump's bold strikes were left deflated by Monday, as Trump adopted a new diplomatic tone and announced that he brokered a cease-fire.
Intelligence reports soon began circulating that the U.S. did not wipe out Iran's nuclear capability, as hawkish Republicans and pundits pressured Trump to escalate and target the Iranian regime.
But Trump - who has long taken pride in being a peacemaker - said that he has no interest in toppling the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since 1979, warning regime change would lead to "chaos."
