US PLAYED MAJOR ROLE: In the unprecedented direct attack, Iran launched approximately 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles targeting Israel over the weekend, and nearly all were destroyed before they could cause any damage.

Of the slow-flying drones, 80 were picked off by F-15E Strike Eagles from two squadrons that had been prepositioned in the region, according to the U.S. Central Command, which included drones and missiles destroyed in Yemen in its count.

“CENTCOM forces, supported by U.S. European Command destroyers, successfully engaged and destroyed more than 80 one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles and at least six ballistic missiles intended to strike Israel from Iran and Yemen,” CENTCOM said in a release. 

In a call with reporters Sunday, a senior military official identified the U.S. warships involved in the missile shootdowns as the USS Carney and the USS Arleigh Burke in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and said a U.S. Patriot missile battery in Iraq downed one missile as it passed over that country. A senior administration official on the call said the defense mounted by Israel, backed by a military coalition that included the U.S., United Kingdom, France, and Jordan, inflicted a “spectacular defeat” on Iran.

“Several hundred drones and missiles launched in the course of several hours, and almost every single one of them knocked out of the sky and they didn’t make it into Israel,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Fox News on Sunday. “That’s a terrific testament to the superiority of the Israeli military but also to our own military superiority and the effort, the risk, the resources that President Biden committed to helping defend Israel.”

BIDEN URGES RESTRAINT: Fearing an escalatory tit for tat that could spiral into a wider war, President Joe Biden in his call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israel to take the total defeat of Iran’s massive attack as a win and temper its response. “I told him that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks — sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel,” Biden said in a statement. Administration officials said the U.S. will continue to defend Israel but will not join Israel in any retaliatory attacks.

That provoked howls of protests from Republicans on Capitol Hill who accused Biden of projecting weakness at a time when Iran needed to be sent a strong message of strength. “President Biden is wrong telling Israel they should not respond,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-AK, said on Fox News. “Imagine America getting 300 drones and missiles shot at our homeland and having a country telling us not to respond.”

“They’re not asking for that. They’re not asking for it. But I think we go from that to the other extreme, which is Joe Biden telling Netanyahu, take the win, don’t do anything, and then his people leaking it to the media, leaking it to the press,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, said on CNN. “There’s only one reason they leaked that, and that is that so, when Israel does respond, the White House can say, we told them not to do it, and at least somehow, in some way appease the so-called peace activists.”

“People that are out there cheering military attacks of this scale and scope are not peace activists. These are antisemites, anti-Israel, pro-terrorist elements out there, and we need to stop calling them peace activists,” Rubio said.

THE TRUMP PRECEDENT: Several critics of the former president noted that under his administration, Donald Trump declined to respond when Iran in January 2020 fired a volley of missiles at a base housing U.S. troops in Iraq, retaliation for Trump’s drone strike that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

At rallies and in recent interviews, Trump has made the dubious claim that Iran notified him the missiles were for show and not intended to hit the base. “They let us know, don’t move. We’re going to have to hit you back. Psychologically, we have to do that,” Trump said on Fox News on Feb. 4. “Now, they had to do it because they have people and they have to show strength. So they aimed the missiles, but they said, please don’t attack us. We’re not going to hit you. That was respect. We had respect.”

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a sharp critic of Trump who is now a paid contributor on CNN, remembers it differently. “One hundred soldiers were injured with traumatic brain injuries. Remember Donald Trump said, ‘Oh, they’re just some headaches?’ Yeah, not to those people. How did we respond to that missile barrage against our base? We did nothing,” Kinzinger said in a video post on X.

“Remember when they shot down a $100 million-something drone, which by the way is not like a little drone — it’s about the size of an airliner. And we responded by — oh that’s right, Trump did nothing,” Kinzinger said. “I have my disagreements with this administration, but let’s quit pretending Donald Trump was anything but the worst foreign policy president of my generation.”

At a rally Saturday night in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania, Trump, as is his habit, insisted nothing bad would have happened if he was still in the White House. “The weakness that we have shown, it’s unbelievable. And it would not have happened if we were in office,” he told the crowd.

“I just think Trump is delusional on this point,” Trump’s former national security adviser and frequent critic John Bolton said on CNN. “He doesn’t have any idea what to do in the Middle East in this situation. Remember when he threatened fire and fury against North Korea? Within a year, he had fallen in love with Kim Jong Un. So he’s not qualified to be president.”

HAPPENING TODAY: An Iraqi delegation is in Washington for meetings at the White House, State Department, and the Pentagon. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al Sudani and Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Tamim will meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department this morning for a session of the U.S.-Iraq Higher Coordinating Committee.

At noon, the prime minister meets with President Joe Biden at the White House, and then it’s a quick trip across the Potomac for consultation with Defense Secretary at the Pentagon.

The meetings come as public sentiment in Iraq is increasingly opposed to U.S. troops remaining in the country, which number about 5,000.

UKRAINE AID REMAINS IN LIMBO: With Ukraine losing ground to Russian advances because of its desperate shortage of ammunition and Israel facing the threat of attack from Iran, House Republicans have planned to make the first order of business today “appliance week,” with consideration of bills including the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act, Liberty in Laundry Act, Clothes Dryer Reliability Act, Refrigerator Freedom Act, Affordable Air Conditioning Act, and Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act.

But the weekend attack on Israel prompted a change in plans. “In light of Iran’s unjustified attack on Israel, the House will move from its previously announced legislative schedule next week to instead consider legislation that supports our ally Israel and holds Iran and its terrorist proxies accountable,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-LA, in a statement on Saturday. “The House of Representatives stands strongly with Israel, and there must be consequences for this unprovoked attack.”

No mention was made of aid to Ukraine, which Democrats insist must be part of any bipartisan supplemental bill. “We obviously have to work together to get this done,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-NY, said on CNN. “I’m calling on Speaker Johnson to bring a bill to the floor this week. I’m calling on Chuck Schumer and the White House to work with House Republicans. We are in a divided government. We have to work together. There has to be compromise.”