Daniel Yergin

In those ways, I thought that, in a sense, that this war had been brewing for 47 years, is the way I thought.

Was it going to take this form?

I think that probably the administration, having seen the decimation of the Iranian proxies in the Middle East and so forth, that this seemed timely to do.

And there was that congregation of senior leaders all in one place, a target of opportunity.

But I do think of this quote from Winston Churchill who said, once a war begins, policy and plans go out the window and it becomes unknowable and unexplicable in terms of what happens.

And I think we're in that state today.

And I was just talking to some people in the Gulf today.

For them, on the Arab Gulf, it's absolutely intolerable

to have a situation where Iran remains in control of the Strait of Hormuz.

I think that certainly contributed to the sense that the regime's hands were really weakening, that there was popular uprising opposition, but the notion that they also killed perhaps 30,000 people or more is very sobering because all the guns are with the IRGC, with the militias, and with the military.

It may have been read that the regime was weak because of the scale of these demonstrations and the degree to which the rulers have ruined the economy.

Iran today could have been a great force in the world economy.

The basis was there before 1979, and they've ruined it.

It's a country where people have been impoverished.

They don't have enough water.

It's been very badly ruled.

I mean, there were so many talented people

Iranians who were studying in American universities, getting PhDs in economics and engineering, who would have gone back.

And some of them did go back when the Shah felled, but now many of them are in exile again.

Of course, there's been a war, but it was an aerial war.