Iran left 'emboldened' as it survives Pentagon's best shot: Ex-Trump Defense head

According to former Defense Secretary Mike Esper, who served in Donald Trump’s first administration, the leadership of Iran is feeling pretty confident about its position after three weeks of having war waged upon them by the president.

In a clip shared on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe,” Esper admitted the Pentagon’s military objectives seem to have been met, but now the hard part begins — and Iran has some leverage to make demands.

“In terms of the military objectives that [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] Gen. Dan Caine outlined, you know, taking down the navy, the air force, ballistic missiles production, etc. Degrading the nuclear, they've made incredible progress on those things,” he said before adding the caveat, “I'm not hearing as much about the nuclear, but I think the military objectives are being accomplished.”

“Now, of course, it's unclear what the political objectives are," he continued. “The president has moved around and said different things at times, and so it's hard to see what the yardstick is at when it comes to that. At the end of the day, it's going to be the political yardstick that determines, you know, win-loss. You know how much of a victory, whatever the case may be.”

“But what's interesting now, I think, is the Iranians. My sense is they survived the decapitation,” he elaborated. “They probably feel like they've taken three weeks of, you know, America's and Israel's best, and they've survived. There's no signs of the regime fracturing.”

“I mean, the [director of national intelligence] said that the other day in the hearing,” he pointed out. “And they feel emboldened, so much so that they're making demands as to what it would take to have a negotiated end to the conflict. So they are emboldened.”

“I don't see them giving up anytime soon,” he predicted.

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