Donald Trump

Yeah, most of my time was operational in the Pacific, but dealing with providing the president many options, military options, is the key goal of the Pentagon and the military.

It's not to dictate or make the recommendation which to take, but to maximize the options.

And so by having two aircraft carrier strike groups, one in the Eastern Mediterranean and

The other one in the Arabian Sea, both within striking distance and very likely conducting very intensive operations, gives the president a rheostat that he can adjust and maneuver his forces to send a signal, but also to affect certain military operational impacts like we're seeing right now in the pictures.

Well, it appears that the folks in leadership in this administration are taking two recent historical events to mind.

One is the liberation of Iraq.

You're talking about the statues that bring down Saddam Hussein, his eventual hanging as a war criminal.

But that was overshadowed by two rapidly vilifying and purging all of the Ba'athists.

Very similar type of circumstances in post-war Germany in the end of World War II.

Rather than just remove all the Nazis, we kept those that were needed at a lower level to keep the lights on and policing the streets until they could be transitioned out and fully vetted.

What we ended up doing by the debathification in Iraq in 2003 and 2004

is we turned all of them into enemies and into insurgents, and that's what bought us a very long war.

There's a smart way to go about that.

We didn't.

Afghanistan's another lesson that I think is being heeded.

Afghanistan is never going to be a replica of American democracy, but we thought, along with many Western European countries, that we could.

So you have to take the country for what it is and what its people, their aspirations and desires and culture, and apply your interest to that, making sure that Americans and American interests are being safely pursued.

I think in both cases, when I say both, I'm talking Venezuela and what could unfold in Iran is Venezuela.

give the space for the people to decide a government that is one that's responsive to their wishes, but also one that's not going to be a threat to the American interest.

And it does take a degree of patience and a highly well-informed insight to the local politics and the local groups.