ICYMI: Kelly Warns Lack of Strategy and Clear Goal in Iran Conflict Risks More American Lives

"When you don't have a goal and you don't have a timeline, that's when you wind up putting more Americans at risk."

In case you missed it, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joined CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront and MS NOW's Morning Joe to warn about the administration's shifting explanations for the conflict with Iran, the lack of a clear strategy or end goal, and the risks facing American servicemembers in the region.

Sen. Kelly speaks on Erin Burnett OutFront.

Watch the full Erin Burnett OutFront interview here and the full Morning Joe interview here. See key excepts below:

From Erin Burnett OutFront on the administration's shifting explanations for the conflict…

"I have more questions coming out than I had going in. That's typical of these briefs. They share a lot of the public information. They get into very few details about the 'why' and how does this help Americans, which is one of my biggest concerns here at Erin. How does this help the American people pay for stuff that they can't afford right now? Groceries, rent, health care. What is in it for us? And they don't really go into the why of this. They try to, right, they talk about nuclear weapons. They talk about an 'imminent threat,' the Navy, ballistic missile capability, regime change. And it's still a constantly changing story on why we're doing this."

From Morning Joe, on the consequences of a president who doesn't take advice…

"I think this is a perfect example of what happens when you have a leader of a country who doesn't take input, doesn't take advice, puts a lot of 'yes' people around him, and makes these decisions without the right input and without the right data. So, I think this is not going well for them. And what that means is it's not going well for our country, and it's not going to go well for servicemembers. I don't want to see a repeat of what happened in 2003, in Iraq, when we wind up with a long and bloody conflict."

Sen. Kelly speaks on Morning Joe.

From Erin Burnett OutFront on the risk to American servicemembers without a clear mission…

"I don't think we thought about the math problem that we're going to have here very quickly. The Iranians have a lot of ballistic missiles and drones. We have interceptors in the region. We have air defense systems. We have Patriots. We have SM-6s on ships, SM-3s. We can deal with some of this, but if they have more offensive assets and we have defensive, we get into trouble here possibly really quickly. If our magazine depth goes to zero and they can then shoot these things freely around the region. And when you don't have a goal and you don't have a timeline, that's when you wind up putting more Americans at risk. We already have six Americans that have paid the ultimate price. We don't want to see any more."