David French

I want to emphasize this again because I just don't want anybody to mistake this.

I take a backseat to no one in my loathing of this Iranian regime.

It is it has been an enemy of the United States.

It's been an enemy of the of human rights forever.

But this war was foolish from the outset.

It was foolish from the outset.

The original sin of this war, not going to Congress, not getting the American people behind it, in many ways doomed it from the beginning because that meant that the American people had no tolerance for anything that would go south on this.

They had not been prepared to sacrifice.

They had not been prepared for casualties.

They had not been prepared for the Iranian reaction.

This was sprung on us.

And then when Iran did the most obvious thing imaginable in response, because it did not have the military capacity to match us strength for strength, it went to its strengths, which were including using its geographic advantage of the Strait of Hormuz, using its long coastline to threaten shipping.

We didn't have an answer there.

We didn't have an answer.

And so, no, Iran didn't have an answer for our airstrikes, but we ultimately didn't have an answer for its closure of the Strait.

Or if we had an answer, we weren't willing to... If we had a solution, we weren't willing to employ it because...

Everyone knows that this war was extraordinarily unpopular and the means necessary, boots on the ground, an extended war, serious casualties, the American people were not going to put up with that.

And so...

Trump destroyed his own chances for success in the way that he launched this war.

But also at the same time, he was in this situation where he thought he could achieve greatness quickly.