Since President Trump announced early Saturday morning the beginning of a “major combat operation” in Iran, there have been significant developments. The U.S. military just announced that three U.S. service members have been killed in action and five more were seriously wounded.
On Sunday morning, Lincoln Square turned again to retired Navy Commander Bobby Jones, who spent years leading forces in the Middle East, for his analysis and expertise.
Iranian officials have said that at least 148 people have been killed in a strike that hit a girls school in southern Iran. Tehran has retaliated at targets the Persian Gulf, including U.S. military bases and Abu Dhabi and Dubai — major centers of international commerce.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also has been killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike.
“The fact that he’s gone, I will not shed a tear,” Jones said of Khamenei. “But two things can be right at the same time. It’s the manner of which this happened ... and how the Iranian people had no real say-so in how this went down.”
Jones also talked with Lincoln Square Executive Editor Susan J. Demas about Trump launching a war from the insecure hub of Mar-a-Lago instead of the White House and whether a war can deliver a bump in his sagging poll numbers.
"He has been desperately trying to recreate the moment that Barack Obama walked down the East Room and talked about killing Osama bin Laden,” Jones noted. “He has been jealous of that ever since he saw it."
