DeSantis Addresses Iran, Military Draft in New Hampshire Town Hall

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis arrived in New Hampshire less than 24 hours after coming in second to former President Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses and after spending the morning with voters in South Carolina.

While participating in his latest CNN Town Hall with Wolf Blitzer on Jan. 16, the Navy veteran was asked, among other topics and issues, about his position on Iran and the possibility of a military draft.

“I don’t support a draft,” he said, recognizing that “our recruiting is at a generational low,” and some people have started talking about the draft being a means to fix that.

“I think the way you solve that problem is to inspire young people to want to join,” he said. And he thinks that people will be inspired to join when they see a commander in chief who holds “the brass” accountable for the withdrawal from Afghanistan, gets rid of the “woke” ideology, and returns the military to being “mission first” and making promotions based on merit.

“When you join the military, you’re writing a check for an amount payable to the United States of America for an amount up to and including your life,” he said. “You don’t know where they’re going to send you. You don’t know what contingencies are going to happen. But you want to know that the people in charge of both the civilian and military levels are only going to do that. If it’s to pursue the mission, and they’re not going to let these other considerations cloud that out.”

He also argued that he would be a source of inspiration to join up, as he would be the first president since 1988 to have served in a foreign war. That president was George H.W. Bush.

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“John Kennedy said, ‘You can look back on your life with a great deal of pride and say, ’I served in the United States Navy.‘ That inspired a lot of people,” he said. “Ronald Reagan said, ’Some people spend a lifetime wondering whether they’ve made a difference. U.S. Marines don’t have that problem.’ So, I’m going to be a voice to tell young people that pursuing a career in the military is a noble calling.”

Addressing Iran

Mr. DeSantis was also asked about how he would confront Iran by a fellow Iraq War veteran, specifically, “If you are elected president, do you go for the head of the snake? Or are you a rub-the-belly diplomat?”

The governor told him, “We’re going to understand they are the root of the terrorism throughout the Middle East,” who has seen America as “the great satan” since the Ayatollah took power in 1979.

“They were responsible for killing over 240 U.S. service members when Hezbollah bombed the Marine Corps barracks in 1983,” he said. “In Beirut, Lebanon, they financed that and orchestrated it. When I was serving in Iraq—and you probably saw this too—a lot of our combat deaths were at the hands of Iranian-backed Shia militias. They are responsible for killing hundreds of our troops, maybe even over a thousand.”

However, the candidate does not plan to use his reinspired volunteer military to attack the country.

“The way you deal with Iran is you turn the financial screws on them,” he said, calling out the Biden administration for relaxing sanctions. “You deny them money.”

“We’re going to use every tool at our disposal to deprive the regime of resources—starve them of money—so that they’re not able to foment jihad throughout the Middle East,” he said.

Mr. DeSantis was scheduled to meet former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on the debate stage once again on Jan. 18, but she has rejected the offer.

New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary is scheduled for Jan. 23.