Former Joint Chiefs chairman: ‘The last thing in the world we need right now is a war with Iran’

Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen on Sunday stressed the importance of avoiding war with Iran, saying it “could spin out of control.”

“I really would like to know that the American people who feel we should not go to war with Iran are pressing their congressmen, their senators and everybody in the public domain to make sure that no matter what happens with respect to where we are with Iran right now, that we do not go to war,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I think the politicians need to figure out a way to achieve the objective, which is Iran without a nuclear weapon, without — from my perspective — without regime change, without going to war.”

{mosads}Mullen also said that he was concerned the situation would “spin out of control.”

“My biggest concern is the president is running out of room, running out of options, and while the rhetoric goes back and forth on how close we came to hitting Iran just the other day, that this thing could spin out of control,” he said. 

“The last thing in the world we need right now is a war with Iran. I really would like to know that the American people feel we should not go to war with Iran,” former Joint Chiefs chairman Mike Mullen tells @MarthaRaddatz https://t.co/jWRB6H5Cmf pic.twitter.com/UZENLsf2ff

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 23, 2019

Mullen served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff between October 2007 and September 2011, under both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations. 

Last week, the U.S. appeared close to war with Iran, as President Trump tweeted that he stopped a strike in response to the downing of a U.S. drone 10 minutes before it was supposed to occur. 

“We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone,” he tweeted.

He has since tweeted that he ordered the strike to not go forward “at this time.”