00:00Is it a wise decision to bring in the military?
00:02Do you think that they can succeed in unblocking the strait
00:06by not providing escorts but providing this assistance?
00:14Thank you for having me.
00:15When you say assistance, I'd appreciate if you could just be clear.
00:19You're talking about using the military to invade and occupy territory
00:25which is currently held by the Iranian regime.
00:28Is that what you mean?
00:30Well, I mean, it would be good if I guess we got from the White House
00:34exactly what their assistance is going to be
00:36because apart from being told in various parts of the media
00:40that they're going to help the stranded ships,
00:44we don't exactly know what that looks like.
00:46So I guess we're all playing a little bit of a guessing game.
00:49It hasn't looked good on day one.
00:51And what do you make of their efforts so far?
00:55Well, there have been several day ones through this war,
00:58including the beginning of this war.
01:00And it took several weeks before the Trump administration was clear
01:05about what its consensus position was on war aims
01:09because there were conflicting war aims being stated for actually several weeks.
01:15Part of the problem in terms of how the United States has prosecuted this war
01:20is that within the White House, decision-making around foreign policy
01:26has been incredibly centralized around very few people
01:30and not just the decisions, but also information that informed those decisions.
01:35This is unlike any other presidency that I've seen in my lifetime
01:39where expertise within the State Department, within the CIA,
01:43within different agencies in Washington simply don't have input.
01:47So you have these bizarre conclusions that if you have a sufficiently shock
01:54and awe campaign, then you're going to have a Venezuelist-style outcome
01:59or you're going to have the capitulation of the regime.
02:02The regime is a resilient one.
02:05It's a nefarious one, sure, but it's not one that's just going to collapse tomorrow
02:09as a result of a shock and awe campaign or some sort of blockade.
02:14Unfortunately, there are those in D.C. who think otherwise,
02:18but it shows that the level of engagement from within expertise circles in D.C.
02:25into the administration has been incredibly minimal.
02:28And I think people have now realized this and they're trying to recoup.
02:32The very fact that we've been talking about the Strait of Hormuz,
02:35quite frankly, is evidence of that.
02:37Anybody who looked at war games in Washington over the past decade
02:41would have known that very quickly this would have been something
02:43that the Iranian regime would do.
02:45And yet the Trump White House, this Trump White House,
02:48not even the first one, mind you,
02:50but this Trump White House was taken completely by surprise.
02:53I think all of that included imp wiederhol alternate.
02:53Because of his rider some sort of political str Walter Friedman
02:53and his little mum and his little mum changes.
02:54I think he's one of the most anyone in which he never mentioned
02:56as the задors would have done a decade outside.
02:56So for the sooner or for the Europeans,
02:57And yet theğı support theله institutions
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