Iran war ‘involves more than just the military. It involves our diplomacy’: Votel

[0:00] Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield, a capital V military victory. [0:11] Together with our Israeli partners, America's military achieved every single objective on plan, on schedule, exactly as laid out from day one. [0:21] Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week declaring victory in the Iran war. [0:28] But what has the U.S. achieved in its military aims? [0:31] For more on that, I'm joined now by former CENTCOM commander General Joseph Votel. [0:36] It's great to see you, General Votel. So no deal. What do you expect to happen now in the coming weeks? [0:42] Yeah, thanks, Martha. It's great to be with you. Well, I think hopefully what's going to happen is we'll behind the scenes. [0:50] They'll continue works to try to get back into some type of negotiations. I think that's that's really, really important. [0:56] And at the same time, I expect the U.S. military to continue to maintain its its presence. [1:01] Of course, we've we heard from Admiral Cooper yesterday that they have begun a very deliberate process to open a route to the Straits of Hormuz. [1:08] And I would expect that they would continue to do that moving forward. [1:11] And I want to talk about that in a minute. But I want to talk about the overall performance and what we have done so far. [1:18] The military, of course, has done an incredible job with what they were tasked to do. [1:22] But you have heard the president say make threats about civilian power grids, civilian sites, antiquities, things like that. [1:33] Would the military carry out those kinds of orders? Well, I think I think our military leaders have a process by which they evaluate targets to assess the military value of those. [1:45] And if there are concerns, then we have the ability to raise that to our civilian leaders and express those types of concerns. [1:52] You know, moreover, I think we have to be concerned about targeting those types of targets that would in turn cause Iran to target similar type targets of our of our partners across the region. [2:05] So I think it's I think it's really important that we do very deliberate planning here. [2:09] I expect the military is doing that and that we we focus on those things that are most critical to reducing Iran's ability to make war and to threaten the region. [2:23] You heard Pete Hegseth say basically the war is won, a military victory with a capital V. [2:31] Do you think the war has been won? [2:35] Well, I think I think we'll let the secretary's words freak themselves. [2:39] I mean, certainly watching what the CENTCOM forces have done over the last several weeks has been really impressive. [2:45] And there's been substantial dismantlement of Iran's war making capability. [2:50] It's not absolute. They still have the ability to launch some missiles, some drones. [2:55] And of course, they're still threatening in the Straits of Hormuz. [2:58] So those are those are issues that will have to be either addressed in negotiations or through perhaps future military action. [3:09] But certainly the performance of our military forces has been substantial. [3:14] And I think it's significantly reduced the war making capability of the of the regime. [3:20] But you would probably be the first to say those are tactical victories. [3:24] And again, they have done an incredible job doing that. [3:28] But strategically, they haven't really reached their goal, as we've seen here in Pakistan, because of the nuclear material. [3:36] Well, yeah, absolutely. [3:41] I mean, I think we have to this certainly has to be evaluated by our civilian leaders in light of our strategic objectives. [3:47] But what the military has done is largely move forward substantially against the military objectives that that were identified for them at the at the beginning of this. [3:58] But as we know, war is a is a political state here and involves more than just the military. [4:03] It involves our diplomacy. It involves our economics, involves the power of our information. [4:08] And so all of those capabilities have to be brought to bear for us to, I think, declare some end state. [4:15] JUDY WOODRUFF, PTAG Seth, has also said, if we don't get that nuclear material, our troops may go in and get it, somehow we will go in and get it. [4:25] Talk about the difficulty of a mission like that. [4:28] Well, you know, there's there's a lot that our military can do. [4:33] And without getting into a whole lot of details, you know, we certainly have the capacity to do this. [4:38] But an operation of that nature well, you know, well into Iran would be significant. [4:44] We'd not only have to put, you know, the specialty troops on the ground that we required to operate in that environment. [4:50] We'd have to secure them. We'd have to make sure over the top of them we had air cover. [4:54] And then, of course, we'd have to be prepared to reinforce and sustain them for a period of time. [5:00] This is likely not going to be something we're going to be able to go in and do in a period of darkness. [5:05] It will take days and perhaps longer to, you know, to get control of that. [5:09] And then we have to transport all of that material out of Iran to some safe location. [5:15] So I think it's I think it's fair to say that that's a significant operation. [5:19] And it will require a lot of resources and a lot of focus and a lot of time to accomplish. [5:26] And back to the strait, if we can, those destroyers apparently went through yesterday. [5:32] We're trying to clear out mines. How successful can that be? [5:37] How difficult would it be if Iran does not open that strait for us to do that? [5:42] Well, again, I think this is within the military capabilities of the of the of the United States. [5:51] And I think what we saw yesterday is the is the first part of what would be a very deliberate effort [5:56] to clear routes through the Straits of Hormuz that can be proofed and then hopefully build some confidence [6:04] with commercial shippers to begin moving their can be moving their ships in and out of the in and out of the Gulf. [6:10] And that all takes time. And I think we're I think we're approaching this properly and very deliberately [6:15] and making sure that we set the conditions for for success if that's what we have to do. [6:20] Hey, thanks, General Votel. It sounds very complicated. We appreciate you joining us this morning. [6:25] Thank you, Martha. Good to be with you.