Jamel Bouie

You know, I would say not successful at all.

I would say pretty low on the success reaching.

I don't, that's a terrible sentence.

It is.

It's very evocative.

Yeah.

I did, you know, I watched the address and I'll say the first thing I was struck by is how low energy he sounded the entire time.

Thank you.

Yeah, almost like struggling to get through the words.

He obviously made lots of claims that were just not true.

Sort of his attempt to make the case that there is an imminent threat from Iran was especially unpersuasive.

But the big thing is that the stated objectives, such as they were when this began,

was to stop the Iranian nuclear program and do a kind of Venezuela-style regime change.

Neither of those things have happened, right?

Those objectives have not been accomplished.

And worse, Iran may walk away with this, with control, like undisputed control over the Straits of Hormuz.

Which is just a major strategic defeat for the United States.

And nothing the president said got around those facts.

It was all just an attempt to make those things sound like they represent a win, right?

Oh, well, the rest of the world, Europe can take care of the Straits.