A warning to Iran

Daily Wire:

The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff praised President Donald Trump’s order this week to destroy Iranian gunboats that harass U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, saying that if the the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism tries to take action against U.S. military forces that the U.S. force “will come large” after Iran.

“Well, I’ll just say that every capability that we deploy, every ship that deploys into harm’s way has the inherent right of self-defense, as the secretary just described,” Vice Chairman Gen. John Hyten told reporters. “What that means is if we see a hostile act, if we see hostile intent, we have the right to respond up to and including lethal force, and if it happens in the Gulf, if it happens in any way, we will respond with overwhelming lethal force, if necessary, to defend ourselves, and it’s really that simple. But nobody should doubt that the commanders have the authority right now to respond to any hostile act or hostile intent.”

Trump tweeted earlier in the week that the U.S. Navy has been instructed to “shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea” after 11 gunboats swarmed U.S. ships in the Persian gulf last week.

“So, I like that the president warned an adversary,” Hyten added. “That’s what he’s doing. He’s providing a warning. If you want to go down that path, we will come and we will come large, so don’t go down that path. That is what he’s saying. He’s saying it in clear, uncertain terms. We understand that direction, and every commander that’s deployed has the ability to execute that.”
...

Iran has responded to the message with threats of terrorism against US targets around the world.  They have been making cowardly attacks on the US since 1979, but they will no longer go unresponded to.