Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on Sunday said Sen. Lindsey Graham was acting as if U.S. soldiers were “expendable cattle” following his comments about the possibility of losing servicemembers in battle.
“I am deeply upset at the lack of respect for life Senator Lindsey Graham is displaying when talking about our troops. He is acting as if they are expendable cattle. This is unacceptable and dark. There were over 26,000 American casualties at Iwo Jima,” Luna wrote in a post on the social platform X, with a clip of Graham’s remarks on Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday.”
During the interview, the South Carolina senator reiterated his support for the U.S. taking Kharg Island, which is about 16 miles from Iran’s coast and serves as a major hub for oil exports.
“This has been an amazing military operation. God bless the fallen. But it’s a difference when we talk about troops on the ground. I trust the Marines … ,” Graham told host Shannon Bream.
“I trust DOD [Department of Defense]. We got two Marine expeditionary units sailing to this island. We did Iwo Jima. We can do this,” he added.
Weeks into the war with Iran, 13 U.S. servicemembers have died and at least 200 are wounded. Some lawmakers in Washington remain concerned with additional deaths while others say capturing Kharg Island, which is responsible for approximately 90 percent of the country’s crude exports, would bottleneck the Islamic Republic.