Ted Cruz says the US is ‘winning the war’ with Iran right now, not losing

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz says that the U.S. is “unquestionably winning the war” with Iran.

And the conservative firebrand and three-term senator from Texas tells Fox News Digital that, in his opinion, President Donald Trump’s “decision to launch this military action is the most consequential decision” of his presidency.

“If you look at how our military has carried out this action, it has been an incredible success,” Cruz emphasized in an interview this week.

But many Americans don’t agree with the senator’s reading on the nearly month-long strikes by the U.S. and Israel on Iran.

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Several new national surveys released this week, including a new Fox News poll, indicate that most Americans give the military strikes a thumbs down. But the surveys point to a continued broad partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans over the ongoing fighting in the volatile Middle East.

HEAD HERE FOR FOX NEWS LIVE UPDATES ON THE STRIKES AGAINST IRAN

The military attacks by the U.S. and Israel have resulted in the deaths of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials, and the decimation of the country’s military.

But Iran has retaliated with attacks against Israel and many of its other neighbors in the region.

And Iran has targeted energy facilities with missile and drone attacks in a number of Persian Gulf nations. It has also made the Strait of Hormuz nearly impassable to commercial shipping, bringing to a halt roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply and in turn sending fuel prices skyrocketing in the U.S. and across the globe.

Asked about the ongoing operation, Cruz highlighted, “We’ve taken out virtually the entirety of their air defenses. We have taken out their short range and medium range ballistic missile launchers, their missiles, and their missile manufacturing capacity. Have taken out their drone launchers, their drones and their drone manufacturing capacity.”

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“We have executed over 9000 military strikes. We have sunk 140 of their ships. That is the largest… sinking of naval ships since World War Two, and on top of that, we’ve taken out the Ayatollah and virtually the entirety of the top military leaders. That is a profound victory,” the senator emphasized.

Cruz noted that he “spent the entire day” with Trump on the eve of the launch of the strikes, as the president traveled to Texas.

“The day before he launched this military action, I was on Air Force One with him. He was flying down to Texas, and then he and I were one on one in the Beast, the Presidential limo, and we spent most of the day talking about, should he launch this military action, or should he negotiate further.”

Cruz recollected, “What I told him at the time is, I said, I don’t think there’s anything to negotiate. The Ayatollah is negotiating in bad faith and the regime was weaker than it ever has been.”

The senator highlighted that “the Ayatollah and the mullahs in Iran have been waging war against the United States for 47 years… Iran has been the number one state funder of terrorism in the world.”

According to the Fox News poll, a third of voters nationwide said the U.S. military action against Iran will make America safer, with 44% saying less safe and nearly one in four (23%) saying the strikes will make no difference.

Cruz disagrees.

“The president decimating this regime has made America substantially safer, and that is his responsibility as commander in chief,” the senator stressed.