Newt Dances Around The Subject Of The Drone

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The DMR board asks about the downed predator drone seized by Iran and what Newt would have done:

“They could have either destroyed the drone on the ground or sent in a team to pick it up. I’d have said which of these two options do you need to do and in worst case would have destroyed the drone.”

He was asked why he thought it hadn’t been destroyed.
“I suspect there were plans to destroy it…It was the same challenge with the helicopter that went down in the bin laden raid. if you’re letting your competitors get 20 to 30 years of tech in one event then you’re losing your advantage.”
They asked him if he would – like Obama – ask the Iranians for the drone back.

“I wouldn’t even have talked to the Iranians,” Newt replied. “There should have been a contingency plan to take it down… presumably with some sort of precision missile.” 
Finally he was asked how he could criticize given that he wasn’t privy to all the information regarding the incident.
“Because very knowledgeable people have criticized it,” he replied. “And that’s not my opinion. that’s people who’ve studied it.”
He’s a campaigner in chief… or an explainer in chief… but not a commander in chief.

i would be very cautious about the use of military force because you then have ot ask the question and then what.

because you have things where it’s easy to get in and hard to get out.

i suspect there were plans to destroy it… Same challenge with the helicopter that went down in the bin laden raid. if you’re letting your competitors get 20 to 30 years of tech in one event then you’re losing your advantage.

I wouldn’t even have talked to the Iranians.

you had an american spy plane in a sovereign country.

how long did they have?

there should have been a contingency plan to take ‘em down… presumably with some sort of precision.

if you think a country’s dangerous enough to put a spy plane over it then presumably you’re willing to take some risk with it.

how can you criticize?

because very knowledgeable people have criticized it. And that’s not my opinion. that’s people who’ve studied it.

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