Rachel Maddow

Hey, Rachel.

Well, the reality is I just don't think he knows what he's doing.

It seems like he launched this war thinking that Iran would capitulate quickly and he'd have some quick win like he did when he took out and abducted Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela and anybody.

that has done any war games or looked at Iran would know that that would not be the case, that this is a deep regime that would resist and it would lash out across the region as they have.

And the war thus far has been a strategic disaster.

Rachel, I mean, let's just talk about Russia since you teed it up in your introduction there.

Vladimir Putin benefits because the price of oil is up.

That is money in his pocket because that's what Russia relies on for revenue.

Russia has been given a waiver from U.S.

sanctions so they can sell more oil at a higher price and make even more money.

The Ukrainians, in an effort to be good citizens, are sharing some of their own drone defenses with the Gulf Arabs because they're getting bombarded by the same Iranian drones that were used in Ukraine.

That's not good for Ukraine.

That lessens their defenses.

The U.S.

has become completely disinterested in pursuing a peace settlement in Ukraine, certainly one that is on any kind of favorable terms to Ukrainians because we're consumed by this war.

And then meanwhile, Vladimir Putin can now point to the rest of the world and say, what's the difference?

The U.S.

also attacks countries on illegal wars of aggression that are unprovoked.

So a kind of across the board economically in Ukraine and geopolitically, Vladimir Putin is winning this war in Iran and the U.S.

is getting really no benefit.