Name: Fmr. General Petraeus on the ‘big mistake’ Iran’s military is making
Uploaded: 2026-03-01T21:32:13.000Z
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The Gulf states wanted to stay out of it, as Brett said, so they did not even allow us to use their bases in a number of cases.

They've been attacked in not just our bases, but civilian areas as well.

Now that Iran's supreme leader is gone, the question on everyone's mind, both in the Middle east and here in the US Is what comes next?

Here with me now is retired U.S. army General David Petraeus and former presidential special envoy Brett McGurk.

We are at the wall because I think it's, it will really help people understand what we have seen and what we're going to see next.

And I'll start with you, General Petraeus.

In terms of the strike targets inside Iran, what were US Forces able and Israeli forces able to get, and

what do you think they're going for next?

Well, of course, this is a massive operation.

There were hundreds of Israeli aircraft, hundreds of American aircraft, hundreds of cruise missiles coming out of ships, submarines and so forth.

And the focus, the Israelis, it appears, was largely on the regime leaders.

And of course, they had extraordinary success in taking out the supreme Leader and a number of the other most important figures in the regime.

In fact, it's particularly stunning that the arrogance of the Iranians that they all gathered together for meetings, presuming that we didn't attack in the early morning hours like we normally do, and

therefore they had a period of daylight during which they could come together and talk.

meanwhile, was going largely after the air and ballistic missile defenses that are left in Iran and then the missile and other retaliatory capabilities.

And again, keep in mind that there were hundreds of targets by each of the Israeli and US Forces.

So a really extraordinary amount of ordnance being dropped and going in as cruise missiles as well.

And it appears to have been very, very devastating in a lot of ways, but

still always an ability to retaliate with both the longer range that could reach Israel and then the shorter range of which they have a substantial number that can reach across the Gulf.

Yeah, I mean, and we're seeing that happen.

We just were reporting on devastation in Beit Sheva, which is outside of Jerusalem.

And what does that tell you about what is still left in the Iranian arsenal?

Well, sure, we should understand that even in the 12 day war with all of the ballistic missile and air defenses that we assembled, and

they were very considerable and we've done it again now.

It's not just the Patriots and the terminal high altitude air defense systems that are on the ground, but

also all the ships have Patriot like systems.

There are planes flying to try to take out missiles and drones and so forth.

So this is a very, very comprehensive effort and it's all integrated with the host nations and with Israel to be sure.

But even then 5 to 7% of the missiles got through during the 12 day war.

And if they hit, unfortunately as the one did that you reported on earlier, there can be a pretty big amount of devastation.

And then Brett, what does it tell you about the fact that Iran is retaliating the way it is when it comes to who's actually in charge now?

George Kennan, a great diplomat said war once initiated has a momentum of its own.

You don't know exactly where it's going to go.

Very importantly, look, the United States and Israel has complete, not just air superiority but air dominance.

So whoever might step up into a leadership role is very vulnerable.

The Iranians have announced they have a constitutional process.

Remember they've only had one secession in their entire history since 1979.

They have a secession process under their constitution, a counsel of the president, the chief justice and a cleric to be named.

That's they say who's running the country now but those people haven't been seen.

Ali Larajani, who's a key adviser to the Supreme Leader for many decades.

But what I'm seeing Iran do, they're firing off missiles.

This was probably a pre cooked plan for when they were attacked.

It's unclear who is making strategic decisions and they're making some mistakes, Dan.

They're attacking the, you know, civilian areas of the Gulf and the Gulf states, the GCC states there, uae, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia are uniting and I would watch this over the coming days.

Do they actually, their air forces are now engaged in defense.

Do they actually join in some attacks into Iran in self defense?

That was not I think on my bingo card when this started.

I think the Gulf wanted to stay out of it.

The big mistake I think actually Dan, because again the Gulf is a mistake that the, that they have been attacking the Gulf states.

The Gulf states wanted to stay out of it as Brett said so they did not even allow us to use their bases in a number of cases.

They've been attacked in not just our bases but civilian areas as well.

And so they're going to take place now with the defensive measures as mentioned.

I'm sure they're being integrated by the combined Air Operations Center.

And if that continues they're going to probably take further measures.

I want to talk about the chaos and instability in the region, obviously militarily, but also economically.

I mean if you see the Strait of Hormuz which is right there, I mean that's a key geographical location for a lot of these countries.

Well, 20% of global trade, you know, 80% of Iran's oil of course goes to Asia and China.

Of course they're very much part strategic partners of Iran.

Yeah, we would expect when oil markets open the price of oil is going to go up, I think fairly significantly.

They announced they're going to be increasing production.

But look, think about escalation dominance in a conflict like this.

If Iran makes moves in the straits of Hormuz as are threatening they targeted some tankers today.

U.S. air Forces have escalation dominance here.

So Iran has to be calculating that to the extent Iranian leaders are even thinking strategically, they seem to be just firing off their missiles without a strategic plan.

And that shows real disarray in their chain of command.

Maybe a result of all the leaders taken out.

They're just acting on pre decision that they were authorized before.

But again, 20% of the world's crude oil and 20% of the world's liquefied natural gas come right through the strait.

There's already a report that the traffic is down by some 50 to 70%.

And then as Brett mentioned, there was a ship attack right in here and that's going to Maersk has announced that they're stopping going through here and also through the strait that the Houthis have disrupted in the past.

There of course an Iranian surrogate as well.

So we'll, we'll see an effect but it likely will be a short term effect.

It will not be enduring unless there's some really significant escalation, say mining of the strait or Hormuz that for some reason requires longer than Norma to Clear.

Joining us now to discuss is CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier and CNN military analyst Cedric Layton.

Cedric, I want to go to you first on this news.