If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, the threat it would pose to the U.S. would be significantly different from that of other aggressors, such as Russia, according to Simone Ledeen. 

There's significant concern of “a nuclear bomb with a country that says routinely, ‘Death to America, death to Israel,’” says Ledeen, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East. 

With Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen firing rockets at ships in the Red Sea, the U.S. “should be targeting logistics points, leadership, [and] proxies outside of Iran in the region,” she said. “We could be engaging in some pinpoint targeting inside of Iran as well.”

According to Ledeen—a senior fellow at the Austin, Texas-based Strauss Center for International Security and Law—Iran and its proxies operate like an octopus, with Iran serving as the head and militant groups such as the Houthis and Hezbollah as the "many tentacles." 

Ledeen joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” ahead of her testimony Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia to explain what her message to Congress will be, and what actions the Biden administration is not taking—but should take—against Iran. 

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