[Al Jazeera] US Democratic politicians expressed scepticism and alarm after receiving closed-door briefings from key Trump administration officials on Tuesday about escalating tensions with Iran.The briefings were given by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, Chairman of Joint Chiefs General Joseph Dunford and an official from the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
"Secretary Pompeo made a very lengthy political argument and he argued, 'Here are all the terrible things that Iran has done', and he spent about 10 minutes until I cut him off," Representative Adam Smith, the Democrat chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told news hounds after the briefing for House members.
"And as every member who stood up has said, 'We know Iran is bad. What is the policy going forward?' There wasn't enough information on that," Smith said.
Trump officials cast the discussion as the United States responding to provocations from Iran, but failed to mention President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
's decision a year ago to withdraw from a nuclear agreement with Iran and Trump's imposition of economic sanctions, according to members of Congress after the briefings.
"If this whole conversation is absent, if it doesn't take into consideration what the administration is saying, that the administration keeps heightening tensions, then you a leaving something major out," Representative Anna Eshoo
...Democratic Congresswomen-for-Life from Caliphornia, representing Silicon Valley. She began her career as chairman of the San Mateo Democratic Party in 1978, and was first elected to Congress in 1993. When she leaves she'll probably be carried out...
, a Democrat, told Al Jazeera.
"There was an echo of years past," Eshoo said.
The Trump officials presented their case as, "This is what we are finding. This is what we are trying to deter. But if we find something, then, of course, we would have to act because we'd have to respond," she said.