00:00I do appreciate the transparency that Admiral Cooper is having about what the U.S. is doing
00:05in Iran. But that said, I think we've already seen these announcements of various attacks to degrade
00:11Iranian capabilities. But that doesn't necessarily mean that these capabilities are off the table.
00:17There's also a real focus right now on Iran's conventional capabilities. It's conventional
00:24navy, it's anti-ship cruise missiles, it's command and control architecture. And while that is all
00:31well and good, Iran can do a lot with very little. It can threaten the Strait of Hormuz with drones.
00:36It doesn't need to have some of its large warships. It can use IRGC fast boats. There are so many
00:43different ways that Iran can still threaten the Strait of Hormuz that are more asymmetric. And
00:49some of these attacks will most certainly degrade Iranian capabilities, but it doesn't take them
00:54out entirely. And that, I think, is where we maybe have some problems with the theory of victory that's
01:00being put forward by U.S. Central Command, the Pentagon, and, frankly, President Donald Trump.
01:06Becky, you mentioned transparency, and it's nice to hear updates on the operations. But
01:10in previous administrations, Republican and Democrat, this would have been a press conference.
01:14Why wasn't this a press conference? And can we get your take on this court ruling that those
01:18Pentagon passes were taken away? The parameters by which you could retract a Pentagon pass were not
01:24legal? I mean, it would have been a press conference. And in fairness, we have had Pentagon
01:29press conferences pretty routinely since the start of the war with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth
01:35and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Cain. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that
01:41everyone's in the room, right? We're all watching from afar quite often because there is this new
01:46Pentagon press corps. So there is transparency, but it's so focused on all of these tactical successes
01:52as opposed to focusing on the bigger picture and strategic success. There's also the question of
01:57why hasn't there been any open-door congressional hearings about this? That's definitely something
02:02we would have seen in previous administrations. And something we've heard from Republicans about
02:06that if they were to authorize this $200 billion package, they would want to see those hearings. I
02:09think Senator Kennedy said that in remarks yesterday. Becca, I want to ask you about your most recent piece.
02:14You're writing about kind of the military attack that this president has taken or favored.
02:18That is favoring air power, special operation forces. You use a term that candidly I love,
02:24which is Gucci high-end long-range equipment. What he's experiencing now, though, is the degree
02:31in which that works in kind of a longer-term scenario here. You write that violence wielded from afar
02:35can only accomplish so much. I'd love for you to talk about that lesson learned, especially as we've
02:39been talking about over the course of this morning. The president is clearly thinking about the
02:43prospect of going to Karg Island and trying to take that very critical part of Iran's oil infrastructure.
02:48Part of Trump's way of warfare has been this idea of war without entanglement, the idea of no boots
02:53on the ground, no big coalitions of the willing, no need to actually be there, just use coercive force
03:00in any way that you can from a distance. But when you try and do that without clear objectives,
03:05oftentimes you find that it doesn't work. And so Trump has found himself having these strikes and
03:11then potential restrikes. And I think looking at the Iran war, we can even think of this as a
03:17restrike. Trump went in during June of last year for Operation Midnight Hammer. It didn't actually
03:23achieve what he set out for it to achieve. So we find ourselves mired in conflict yet again.
03:29And I think with this current war going on much longer than Trump intended, there's the potential
03:34for ground force deployment. As you said, we've seen various Marine units get called up. And at
03:41this juncture in time, it potentially risks becoming one of the very forever wars that Trump campaigned
03:47against. And that just shows the limits of his approach to warfare. And that's, I mean, that's the
03:52irony here, especially as he talks about wrapping up this operation and possibly looking at others,
03:56including Cuba. I want to read a little bit more from your piece. You say Donald Trump believes
04:00America can fight wars without becoming trapped in them. Yet this more muscular military vision
04:06rarely produces the political outcomes he desires. One of the other things we've been discussing is
04:10the fact, and you just mentioned it, when you're coming in hard and hot with these airstrikes,
04:15this works for him in Venezuela. It is not going to work everywhere. And it may not work like that
04:20in Iran. And I think it seems the president is now trying to get his hands around what he wants
04:25to do
04:26here. Can he achieve his objectives, frankly, without putting boots on the ground?
04:31The question is, what are his objectives? It's been a bit vacillating. It's been all over the place.
04:37And so a lot of what we've actually heard from the president and from folks who are in support of
04:43his
04:43aims have really focused once again on these tactical and operational objectives, not a broader
04:51strategic picture. And that is something that makes it really difficult to disentangle yourself.
04:56And it makes it really difficult to try and achieve aims when you keep on just slapping more and more
05:01tactical objectives onto something. And that's the risk where we might actually see some of these
05:07ground forces. And it's also the risk that I think Trump has seen in this current term, where he's
05:13launched over 9000 strikes all around the globe, not only the Middle East.
05:18Very quickly here, you write about the splendid isolation he seems to find himself in. We've got
05:22about 30 seconds. I apologize for that. But this is a moment when he's trying to get allies to help
05:26him out. And yet he finds himself increasingly alone and isolated, only with Israel. Yes, an ally,
05:31but with no more than that. Yeah, I think Trump thought that he could essentially do it alone with
05:37one model ally who could come in and provide some additional firepower. And I think now he's finding
05:42that he needs allies. Look at his call for a request for the Strait of Hormuz. Once you askew
05:47allies, they're not necessarily going to come to your aid just because you ask for it after
05:52the fact. What's that thing going on on social? If you if you want a village, you got to be
05:56a villager. I guess that applies to diplomacy, too.
