Fox News show host Tucker Carlson criticized Washington war hawks after President Donald Trump's drone attack on Iran this week, saying it delivered what regime change supporters have wanted for decades, but putting the US at risk for a war it shouldn't take on.

Taking out Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Thursday's Drone attack was a pivot point,' he said during his Friday broadcast.

'Neocons in Washington understood that immediately'.

Fox News show host Tucker Carlson criticized Washington war hawks after President Donald Trump 's drone attack on Iran this week, saying it delivered what some have wanted for decades.

President Donald Trump's drone attack was much more than a 'symbolic' Carlson said

Trump said after the attack that Soleimani (pictured) was plotting 'imminent and sinister attacks against US interests

Among proponents of the attack, former national security adviser John Bolton sent a congratulatory tweet to 'all involved in eliminating Qassem Soleimani'.

'Long in the making, this was a decisive blow against Iran's malign Quds Force activities worldwide, Bolton wrote. 'Hope this is the first step to regime change in Iran'.

But Trump backed off the regime-change strategy, saying after the attack that Soleimani was plotting 'imminent and sinister attacks'.

The US was preventing war and not seeking regime change, Trump added.

Carlson noted that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in an interview with CNN, did not say there was a threat to the US homeland specifically.

Instead, Pompeo said there were 'threats located in the region', which the Fox news show host 'translated' to mean in 'hostile Middle Eastern countries', where US troops wouldn't be in the 'first place'.

The Fox News host argued that there were bigger questions looming regarding the Middle East that US officials were refusing to look at. He noted that Iranian leaders have vowed a 'forceful revenge' in response to Soleimani's death.

'It's no exaggeration to say that by the next time this show airs, we could be engaged in a conflict, a real conflict, with Iran,' he said during his Friday broadcast. 'From Iran's perspective, we're already there.'

'No one in Washington is in a mood for big-picture questions right now,' he said during his Friday broadcast.

'Questions, the obvious ones like: Is Iran really the greatest threat we face? And who's actually benefiting from this? And why are we continuing to ignore the decline of our own country in favor of jumping into another quagmire from which there is no obvious exit?

'By the way, if we're still in Afghanistan 19 years, sad years later, what makes us think there's a quick way out of Iran ... ?'

Carlson also took aim at 'chest beaters', naming specifically Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who praised the drone strike on Soleimani, saying he was dead because he was an 'evil bastard who murdered Americans', in a released statement.

'Nothing about life and certainly nothing about killing is ever very simple', Carlson responded. 'And any politician tells you otherwise is dumb or is lying'.

He said he wants to know how can the Iranian leader's death make America 'richer and secure'.

'There are an awful lot of bad people in this world. We can't kill them all. It's not our job', Carlson said, adding: 'It's pretty clear that things could start to move in the wrong direction pretty quickly, we're praying they don't, but they could'.

He pointed to other countries that pose a threat to the US, including Mexico and China, for the trafficking of narcotics from both countries which has lead to the deaths of 'tens of thousands of Americans', and 'not that anyone in power cares'.