Michael Weiss

They did not distribute it evenly to would-be insurgents in Iran.

Our covert program for some kind of proxy revolutionary force, that didn't go so well.

We knew that.

We've been wargaming a scenario for taking out this regime for years.

Every option that has come back or every result has been –

Rather lackluster.

And I think the dividends of that are – now, that's not to say that Iran is doing great.

They think that they've won simply by surviving.

They did get a lot of their missile program destroyed.

Their navy is at the bottom of the sea, although they have a lot of fast boats and assets destroyed.

kind of unsophisticated ways that they could chivvy and do harm to not just tankers, but also the American warships that have amassed this blockade.

But did we achieve all of our objectives?

Do we have regime change?

No.

We did regime decapitation, but we got new guys in charge.

Whether they're more hardline than the previous lot, some Iran analysts seem to think that they are.

The Speaker of Parliament –

He's not a cuddly character.

I mean, this is a guy who was going around bashing people over the head, embedded with the Basij during a protest movement, what, almost 20 years ago.

He's pretty in it to win it, you know, not a reformist.