Interesting contrasting commentaries about the war on Yesterday's This Week
WENDY SHERMAN, FORMER DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: I think, George, that we see a stalemate between the United States and Iran. We've just heard about the economic warfare that's going on. We have actually a military standoff and quite frankly, what this requires is really tough diplomacy.
There's no question that the United States has a credible threat of force, but the blockade really blockades ourselves as well as Iran. And the United States has to decide what it's willing to do to get back to these talks and really begin some true diplomacy. You can't do this in 20 hours, in one day. This is a very complex negotiation.
You have to do it with experts. You have to be ready to be in for a long haul to get a very complicated job done. The last point I want to make, as others have said, we are creating a situation which is really superpower suicide. We have effectively given Russia a way forward to get money for its war against Ukraine. We’ve put ourselves in a weaker position vis a vis the president’s trip to China, and we’ve put our allies and partners, both in the gulf and in Europe, in difficult positions because of the decisions we have made.
(snip)
We tend to think, because there’s a supreme leader, that it’s iron clad, but it’s not. It has politics. But right now what has happened is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is in full control. The folks that I call the hard hard-liners are really dictating how we go forward. Mojtaba Khamenei is probably alive, but Vahidi, who is head of -- the commander of the IRGC is probably calling the shots
(snip)
JASON RILEY, WALL STREET JOURNAL OPINION COLUMNIST & MANHATTAN INSTITUTE SENIOR FELLOW: Well, he certainly wants the off-ramp, which I think is why he keeps prematurely declaring victory. He's under pressure from financial markets. He's under pressure from the political calendar. Republicans in Congress want this over. But there's a difference between ending the war and winning the war. And if he ends it prematurely and doesn't see it through, I think Iran will be in a stronger position.
If Iran has a veto on oil going through the Strait of Hormuz, if that's what they end up with, if they keep their enriched uranium, if they keep their missile program in place, you don't want a world in which Iran is the dominant power in the Middle East and China is the dominant power in Asia. And Russia is the dominant power in Europe. That is a much more dangerous world. And that's what we're at risk of having if we prematurely end this war.
I think we need not only to decimate the nuclear program, to get the enriched uranium, they have to be open to inspections. That is what this will look like. They will have to be transparent about not pursuing nuclear weapons, not sponsoring terrorism in other countries through proxies, not threatening their neighbors and our allies.
https://www.newsbreak.com/abc-news-510079/4614218374549-this-week-transcript-4-26-26-acting-attorney-general-todd-blanche
and scroll down.