Georgia Republican Representative Rich McCormick appeared Thursday on CNN The Lead and stated that the United States had no strategic readiness for a war of the kind now involving Iran. He raised the point while talking about the midterms and described energy as an unavoidable central contest.

McCormick recalled that many presidents had declared Iran must never obtain nuclear arms. He pointed to about one thousand American deaths in forty attacks carried out through proxies including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis, along with Iranian work on missiles able to travel more than two thousand miles and enough enriched uranium for eleven weapons, both of which he said broke earlier commitments.

He placed responsibility on both parties and listed canceled pipelines, unbuilt refineries and earlier agreements as factors that left the country unprepared.