Gordon Chang

And I'm sure there are a lot of people in the upper reaches of the Communist Party who know that what Xi Jinping is doing is not good for China, but they won't stand up to him.

So in that system, they have seen what happens if you oppose Xi Jinping.

And sometimes there are rumors that people have lost their lives recently for opposing Xi.

So right now, I think you're seeing a political system that is completely unable to deal with the world as it is.

The most important thing was for President Trump to make the case to the American people and the people of the world that Iran posed a clear and present danger or was an imminent or near imminent threat.

Because that would justify the use of force.

And President Trump has a lot of important facts that he could have actually given.

But he was very conclusory last night.

And I don't think he made the case.

And I'll just give you one example.

You know, President Trump in one sentence said that Iran had missiles that could almost get to the United States.

He said they would soon be able to do that.

Well, on CNN afterwards, Caitlin Collins correctly said that that assessment is not consistent with the one from the U.S.

intelligence community.

The U.S.

intelligence community thinks that Iran does not have a ICBM program.

But the intelligence community is wrong.

There is an analyst, Bruce Bechtel of Angelo State University, who has made a very clear case that Iran has the components for a Hwasong-15, which is a North Korean missile with a range of 8,100 miles, which if fired from Iran can hit any part of the United States.

And he runs through this going back to U.S.

Treasury sanctions on North Korea for transferring basically the first stage, the booster, the most important thing in order for Iran to have an ICBM.