Phil Stewart

You know, these talks obviously did not succeed and now we're in a situation of real conflict.

President Trump has an enormous amount of vulnerability right now.

And he kind of recognized that when he spoke in his video address about the risks of U.S.

casualties.

Any major Iranian counterattack against the United States or against Israel could drag the United States much, much deeper into a conflict against Iran.

Right now, again, we're seeing air and naval strikes against targets in Iran, but should dozens, hundreds of American or even Israeli casualties

take place as a result of retaliation by Iran, it's not unreasonable to think the U.S.

could actually have to feel the need to escalate.

And it's that escalation ladder that a lot of military analysts have always warned about when engaging with Iran, because they have a far greater ability to counterattack than adversaries that the U.S.

has attacked before, say the Taliban or Al-Qaeda or Islamic State.

This is nothing like any of those.

What we're talking about here is something fundamentally different than what we saw last summer.

And what I mean by that is, you know, you had seen a pretty stunning operation by US fighter pilots, bombers, basically, who flew all the way from the United States over Iranian airspace and destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities.

And what you're talking about now could be something fundamentally different, where the United States either attacks any range of targets in Iran, and then the Iranians retaliate, and then there's a back and forth.

What U.S.

officials would often say and warn about is that the sheer number of missiles that Iran has stockpiled and ready to go, and the real only limiting factor for Iran is launchers.

So, you know, the United States is going to take very seriously any defensive precautions before it goes ahead with any offensive action against Iran.

And I think that's what you're seeing with all this buildup by the U.S.

military in the region right now.

Well, I appreciate it.