Joe Scarborough Credits Trump as ‘Extremely Successful’ in Iran War — But Warns ‘Problem’ Is Now ‘Political’

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough credited President Donald Trump’s military action against Iran as “extraordinarily successful” so far, but warned the conflict now faces serious political challenges at home and abroad.

The remarks came just one day after Trump said he believes the war in Iran is nearing its end and objectives were “very complete,” claiming U.S. forces have already crippled the country’s military capabilities.

The president added that the United States is “very far” ahead of his initial four-to-five week timeline for the conflict.

Speaking on Tuesday’s Morning Joe, the host reflected on the campaign, which he said had “degraded” the regime’s capabilities “in an extraordinary way”:

It’s just important as anybody looks at this conflict, looks at this war, looks at what’s going on, there are two sides of this. Militarily, it’s been a remarkable military success. We have degraded their nuclear capabilities. We have degraded their ability to launch missiles across the region, possibly to the United States one day, we have degraded their Navy in an extraordinary way. We have degraded their air defenses in an extraordinary way. We have decapitated their leadership – we’ll see who replaces the leadership. Every military person that’s looked at what has happened will tell you that this has been extraordinarily successful. Now, it would have said the same thing about Iraq in March and April of 2003. But thus far, militarily, we’re doing great.

The host slammed those who’d say otherwise as having “an agenda,” however, cautioned that military gains do not resolve the broader political challenges now surrounding the conflict:

Our challenge right now, as the general said, is on the political side, anybody that tells you, first of all, that the military hasn’t done an extraordinary job, they’ve got an agenda. I mean, obviously there have been tragedies but, militarily, the operations have hit what they’ve wanted to hit and degraded what they wanted to degrade.

He warned the war could face mounting opposition as economic pressures grow, and with the appointment of Iran’s new leader:

The problem comes on the political side where you have a war that’s unpopular at home, you’ve got gas prices rising – that’s going to be unpopular at home. You have in Iran, you have a leader now that’s a successor to his father, who seems to be even more extreme. This is a regional conflict, needs to be kind of put back in there, and right now there’s no one to negotiate with.

Scarborough concluded by noting that there were “two different realities” to contend with in terms of the conflict now, and that “politically there are things that need to be developed and things that need to be thought through and things that need to be brought to a resolution.”

“There are two different realities in this war: one extremely successful, the other not successful yet,” he said.

Watch above via MS NOW.

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