WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, led his colleagues in examining the U.S. military’s posture in U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) as our forces deal with aggression on multiple fronts from Iranian proxies.

In his opening remarks, Senator Wicker stated that the source of much of the instability in the Middle East continues to be the Biden administration’s unwillingness to confront Iran directly for its support of terrorist proxies.

Senator Wicker also noted that China and Russia are both making major inroads into Africa, using the continent as a means to project power against U.S. global influence.

“China and Russia view the African continent as a power projection platform. They use the region to flex their muscles, undermine western influence, and bolster their economic interests. Beijing and Moscow do all this through exploitative practices that often come at the expense of African communities,” Senator Wicker said.

Read Senator Wicker’s opening statement as delivered below or watch it here.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are banding together. They hope to weaken American resolve and shift the global balance of power away from the United States. The effects of their sinister activities are on full display in both the CENTCOM and AFRICOM theaters, which we are discussing today.

I begin with a particularly acute example. Hamas’ barbaric October 7th massacre was not merely a Palestinian terrorist attack on Israel. It was also an Iranian proxy attack on the United States. The Palestinians attacked Israel -- they were proxies of Iran, attacking the United States.

Thirty-three of our fellow Americans were killed, and 12 were taken hostage. Iranian proxies then began near-daily attacks against U.S. troops in the region. They attacked Israel with missiles, and they tried to close maritime shipping routes in the region.

It is indisputable that Tehran controls its proxies and those proxies have killed Americans. Iran’s objective is, and has always been, to evict the United States from the Middle East so it can achieve regional hegemony .We will not be evicted from the Middle East.

I believe the Biden administration should address Iran’s culpability head on. And we can do this without going to war against Iran.

The administration spent its first three years offering Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief to restore the Obama-era nuclear agreement. President Biden ordered minor counterstrikes on Iran’s proxies in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, apparently hoping to manage escalation through pinprick responses. This approach has failed and will fail, because it assumes that we can deter terrorist groups without causing pain to their chief sponsor, Iran. 

General Kurilla, I hope you will share your assessment of what it would take to end Iran’s terrorist proxy attacks on our forces.

China and Russia view the African continent as a power projection platform. They use the region to flex their muscles, undermine western influence, and bolster their economic interests. Beijing and Moscow do all this through exploitative practices that often come at the expense of African communities.

China, in particular, approaches Africa as a critical terrain for its global military expansion. Its first overseas military base was established in the strategically-located country of Djibouti. According to public reports, this base is now capable of hosting some of China’s most advanced naval vessels. Additionally, we know China is actively pursuing a naval base on Africa’s Atlantic coast. General Langley has said this would, [quote] “change the whole calculus of the geostrategic campaign plans of protecting the homeland.” General Langley, I hope you will tell the committee what is being done to address this disturbing development.

Russia’s destabilizing activity in Africa is to trade security assistance for access to African natural resources. Putin does this by the spreading disinformation and propaganda to sow unrest, prop up sympathetic regimes, and undermine support for western engagement on the continent.

We cannot lose sight of the continued threat al-Qaeda and ISIS pose in Africa. Political instability and weak security institutions have allowed these groups to expand territorial control. We must maintain sufficient force posture and resourcing in Africa to support our national security interests there. At the same time, we must develop more effective non-defense tools in Africa. These would include our ability to use private sector financing in non-development contexts through DOD’s Office of Strategic Capital.

The world has changed drastically since the publication of the National Defense Strategy. This is particularly true in the Middle East, but the strategy that drives our investments and force posture in both these command theaters must reflect those changes.