00:00So, David, Iran's president says this U.S. naval blockade is doomed to fail.
00:05Why would this be the case?
00:09Well, I'll let the Iranian government speak for themselves.
00:14I think the United States does have formidable capabilities in this situation.
00:21And I guess as a history fan, I look back to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when I think
00:33President Kennedy acted much more deliberately.
00:36And he defined what the United States was doing with Cuba not as a blockade, but if I remember right,
00:45as an embargo.
00:46He defined it much more narrowly and therefore was much more successful in gaining international support and in achieving our
00:56country's objectives.
00:58Actually, I think he defined it as a quarantine rather than even as an embargo.
01:04Exactly. So more in words, because President Trump says the contrary here.
01:08He specifically said that the U.S. blockade is choking Iran like a stuffed pig.
01:13Those were his words, but more rhetoric because he also says things like, no more Mr. Nice Guy.
01:20And he's made continuous threats towards Iran.
01:23So how do you think, what do you make of this type of rhetoric during wartime?
01:29I think he and his staff should look back to what President Kennedy said and did and how he said
01:36it and how he did it in the missile crisis in 1962.
01:40President Kennedy spoke much more deliberately.
01:43He was much more focused in what he was doing and in what the United States was doing and how
01:49he reached out to the world community.
01:53People should take a look at the U.N. ambassador at that time, Adlai Stevenson, and how masterful he was
01:59at the United Nations.
02:00And I think the team of Kennedy and Stevenson, among others, was much more successful than what the Trump administration
02:12is doing now,
02:13which is not to say that the world community does not have reasons to want to restrain the behavior of
02:20Iran.
Comments