The sun sets behind a plume of smoke rising after a U.S.–Israeli military strike in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday. (AP Photo)

PARKERSBURG — The United States is dealing with an aggressive regime that has repeatedly targeted Americans, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said Tuesday in discussing recent military strikes against Iran.

Capito, R-W.Va., spoke to reporters from across the state during a telephone press conference Tuesday on the developments in the Middle East after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran over the weekend.

“This weekend, we saw that all eyes are on the Middle East in Iran as our military has conducted targeted strikes on high value assets in Iran,” Capito said. “The president has given the Iranian regime countless opportunities to stand down and negotiate … to stop killing their own people and, importantly, abandon their nuclear ambitions.

“Instead of choosing a peaceful path, Iran has doubled down on weapons designed to threaten the American people, our allies and our assets in the form of nuclear weapons, but also ballistic missiles as well.”

Capito said lawmakers were going to get a more detailed briefing Tuesday afternoon from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Sadly, my prayers are with the brave men and women who are serving our country in uniform, particularly the six service members and their families who have already paid the ultimate sacrifice,” Capito said of U.S. service personnel who were killed by Iranian strikes on an operations center in Kuwait. “Our sorrows and our condolences are with those family members as they lose a loved one.”

In addressing the possibility of more troops being put in harm’s way, especially young men and women from West Virginia, Capito spoke of state National Guard members Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, who were shot in Washington in November by an Afghan national while on patrol around the White House.

“It is tragic what happened in D.C. with Sarah and Andy, with Sarah losing her life in service to the National Guard and service to the country,” Capito said. “I know that when our military, when they volunteer, they know they are signing up for a very potentially dangerous job in very dangerous regions of the world.”

It is a daunting challenge for the military to be in these regions where the potential exists for them to be under bombardment, the senator said.

“They are well trained and are going to be protected to the utmost,” Capito said. “That is my priority and the president’s priority.”

Capito hopes the military members not only realize the risks, but are proud of the service they do for the country. She said she hoped there won’t be any more casualties or deaths, but referred to President Donald Trump’s statement that it was likely there could be more.

One of the subjects Capito addressed was an upcoming vote on a war powers resolution which would require Congressional authorization for the president to use additional military force against Iran.

Capito said she felt the president was well within his Constitutional rights “to move forward with an aggressive action that protects our assets, our allies, our service members and American citizens.”

“That is his primary responsibility,” Capito said.

She said the war powers resolution they are being asked to vote on would in effect “tie the president’s hands” and would result in other military actions being stopped which would be “devastating.”

“I think the president is under the obligation to inform Congress as to what he is doing,” Capito said, adding he did so over the weekend in informing the “Gang of Eight” composed of the top leaders from both the House and Senate and members of the intelligence committees.

“I think the president needs to have as many options on the table as he can in this situation,” she added. “You see other countries joining in sporadically to help eliminate the Iranian threat.”

Capito said the Iranian regime has supported Hamas, Hezbollah and a number of the terrorist organizations which have been “wreaking havoc on the region for years.”

The Iranian regime, under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been terrorizing and killing Americans for a number of years, she said, referencing American hostages taken in the late 1970s and the killing of 241 American service members when Hezbollah bombed a Marine barracks bombed in Lebanon in 1983. Capito also pointed to the 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

“(The Iranian regime) has shown themselves to be destructive … and I think we need to take this threat seriously, and I think that is what the president has done,” she said.

Capito said she believes the president gave Iran more than enough time to come to the negotiating table and that diplomacy was the administration’s preferred route. However, the buildup of arms and stalling by Iranian diplomats led the president to believe it was time to act and eliminate the threat, she said.

“I don’t think a declaration of war is what is needed here,” Capito said. “Congress has not declared war since World War II, and I don’t expect we will do it in this case.”