John Fetterman on Dealing With Iran

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John Fetterman, the Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania, has consistently upheld the right of Israel to defend itself, using whatever means the IDF deems appropriate, and has vocally supported the embattled Jewish state more than any other senator from either party. He’s a curious fellow, often seen wearing his shorts and pullovers, a 6’8” apparition as he lopes along through the Senate Office Building. On the walls just outside his office, he has posted photographs of the Israeli hostages. Now he has spoken out about the Trump administration’s apparent willingness to negotiate with the masters of deception in Tehran over their nuclear program; he doesn’t think negotiations will do more than allow Tehran to stall for time, as it continues to race forward with its enrichment of uranium to a level of 60% purity, one step below weapons-grade. He thinks Witkoff should be called home, and the American military should be working with the IDF to help plan an attack on Iran’s nuclear program that should take place soon, while Iran still remains vulnerable after Israel’s raid on October 26 that destroyed all of its aerial defenses.

More on Senator Fetterman’s views can be found here: “‘Waste That S—t’: In Interview With Free Beacon, Fetterman Tells Trump To Dump Iran Talks and Destroy Tehran’s Nuclear Facilities,” by Jon Levine, Washington Free Beacon, April 23, 2025:

Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) says the Trump administration should drop nuclear negotiations with Iran and finish off the country’s nuclear facilities with a military strike.

“Waste that s—t,” the Pennsylvania Democrat told the Washington Free Beacon in an interview on Wednesday. “You’re never going to be able to negotiate with that kind of regime that has been destabilizing the region for decades already, and now we have an incredible window, I believe, to do that, to strike and destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.”

Fetterman dismissed the foreign policy experts who warn that striking Iran would lead to the outbreak of a regional war. “And remember, all of these so-called experts were all wrong,” he said. “You know, they’ve been saying for years and years Hezbollah was the ultimate badass that kept Israel in check, and we can’t move on anything beyond that.”

As it turned out, Fetterman said, the Iranian proxy group “couldn’t fight for s—t. And Hamas, literally, are just a bunch of tunnel rats with junkie rockets in the back of a Toyota truck. And now the Houthis have been effectively neutered as well. So what’s left? You have Iran, and they have a nuclear facility, and it’s clearly only for weapons.”

Fetterman’s remarks come as the Trump administration barrels forward with negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program that have so far been defined by mixed messages. Going into the talks, the administration said any deal would require Tehran to dismantle its nuclear program. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff later suggested a deal could allow Iran to enrich uranium up to a certain level. Then he walked back that walk-back, saying Iran must agree to “stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment” to ink a deal….

Taking a more muscular approach to Iran has prompted criticism from the isolationist wings of Trump’s movement, like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens, who have warned it could lead to open war with Iran.

“It’s not going to turn into World War III,” Fetterman said, dismissing the worries. “It’s the acknowledgment that we’ll never have a better opportunity.”

Senator Fetterman’s is the voice of reason. There is no reason to trust any commitments that Iran might make — or pretend to. It can hide at least some of the uranium it has already enriched to a 60% level. Meanwhile, it is stalling for time both to enrich more uranium, as well as to rebuild its ballistic missile factories that the IDF destroyed, and most importantly, to try to rebuild the anti-missile defenses to replace those that Israel destroyed on October 26, 2024. Fetterman knows that such an attack, to be successful, needs to take place soon: “we’ll never have a better opportunity.” He also knows that if Iran’s nuclear program is destroyed, that will not end with the scare scenario offered by some opponents of an attack on Iran causing a “World War III,” but quite the reverse – the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program would make a major war by the Islamic Republic impossible. With its aerial defenses destroyed, Israeli planes would rule the Iranian skies. Once the nuclear facilities are destroyed, Israel could conduct airstrikes on weapons warehouses virtually unopposed. And all this destruction could lead to a popular uprising, once the Iranians — two-thirds of whom now oppose the regime — realize that their government wasted tens of billions of dollars on a nuclear program that has just been reduced to rubble. Iran can’t fight a “World War III” — it doesn’t even have the support of its fellow Muslims — the Sunnis who make up 85-90% of the world’s Muslim population, who despise and fear the Shia’ regime in Tehran. They would be delighted to see Iran brought low, deprived of its nuclear program, so that it is no longer a threat to the Sunni regimes in the region.

Fetterman is the first senator of either party to call for an end to the current negotiations with Iran and for an attack on Iran’s nuclear program, either by Israel alone (but with America having supplied both the 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs, and the B-2 Spirit bombers needed to carry them, presumably to be piloted by Israelis who have been, or are about to be, trained to fly them), or in a joint operation by the militaries of Israel and America.

As for John Fetterman, that rara avis, he should be supported to the hilt. He’s a Daniel come to judgment.