Joe Kent

That has been shattered.

The Iranians have shown that they can reach in

And they can penetrate all the defenses that we, in theory, had.

The idea of us having a basing presence in the region, again, those bases have proven to be more of a liability than an asset.

So we're going to have to relook at our security arrangements.

I'm also concerned that a lot of these Gulf states, they're not going to come out and completely reject us.

They're going to want to keep us as their friends.

But they're going to start moving away from the petrodollar.

That's going to harm our economy.

That's going to harm our status as the world's reserve currency holder.

But then also I think a reality that we're just going to have to deal with is if we do pull our troops out and we do look to have a more pragmatic solution to getting the Straits of Hormuz open back up again –

We're going to have to just deal with the Iranians as they are.

There's no military solution there.

So at some point, whether it's after we fight a bloody 20-year war or it's relatively soon, we're going to have to just deal with the Iranians.

And I think the sooner that we can get over that and realize that Iran is not going to be exactly as we want it to be –

However, Iran has proven to be pragmatic.

They are not the insane jihadis.

They're not the new ISIS, the Persian version of ISIS.

They can be dealt with.

So I think the sooner that we realize that and just realize that we're going to maintain any standing in the region, any kind of relationships, the faster that we can start having realistic diplomacy with them.