- Congressional candidate Phil Lyman urges U.S. withdrawal from Iran conflict, calling it a "fiasco."
- He said he initially supported the effort, but says war has been "hijacked."
- Lyman says Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
SALT LAKE CITY — Congressional candidate Phil Lyman called for the United States to withdraw from the conflict with Iran, saying the war effort had been "hijacked" and calling it a "fiasco."
Lyman, a Republican former state lawmaker who is challenging Rep. Celeste Maloy in Utah's 3rd Congressional District, said he supported the initial military action and the goal of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. But he broke with the Trump administration's handling of the war — which began more than two months ago — and said he would vote against extending congressional war powers.
"I did support the action on the front end of it and how it was pushed," Lyman told the KSL and Deseret News editorial boards Thursday. "I feel like it's been hijacked and at this point they need to pull out of that fiasco that's taking place in Iran."
Lyman didn't offer evidence for his claim — besides a disputed allegation from a Republican congresswoman who claimed the CIA had raided the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — but questioned whether President Donald Trump is calling the shots.
"I'd like to believe that Trump is in charge of those decisions, but on the other hand, it seems inconsistent with what he started to then find himself in a quagmire of dysfunctional, bad policy, bad calls, bad military action," he said. "Would I vote to extend continued funding of that? No, we need to pull out. We need to pull out of the Middle East, or out of the Strait of Hormuz."
Iran responded to the U.S. attacks by cutting off traffic through the strait, which has snarled global oil shipping lanes and raised the price of fuel. A ceasefire was announced last month, and the U.S. later responded by enacting its own blockade around some Iranian ports.
Lyman said he's "bothered" by the move.
"To do a blockade of the Iranian ports, put in the blockade and then call it ceasefire, it seems like that's disingenuous," he said.
The initial strikes against Iran followed a successful military operation in January during which U.S. Special Forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Lyman said he thinks Trump expected similar results in Iran.
"When you get involved in a protracted conflict with Iran, at some point you have to say this was not what I said I was going to do," he said. "If I said I was going to do this in two weeks, clearly I'm not."
"I think it's time to regroup," he added.
Lyman previously told KSL that improving government transparency is one of the primary reasons he is running for Congress, and said his questions about the war highlight the need for Americans to better understand what their government is doing.
"Let's have a system that people can at least find out the truth about these things," he said.
