'War is going to continue for some time': Ex-NatSec official responds grimly to Trump’s Iran address

WASHINGTON, DC: Former White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk was expecting to have a moment of clarity with President Trump's latest Iran address, but he came away hearing something far less comforting.

Appearing on CNN’s 'The Source' with Kaitlan Collins after Trump wrapped his Wednesday night address, McGurk concluded that “this war is going to continue for some time.”

Brett McGurk asks Trump, 'What's the plan?'

Collins wondered whether Trump succeeded in explaining the “why” behind the Iran conflict. McGurk gave him partial credit, but stopped short of applause.

“I thought he started with the necessity we talked about. You need necessity, the objective. Then, what’s the plan? I thought the necessity, laying out the bill of particulars on Iran, was fairly effective,” McGurk said to Collins.

McGurk made it clear that while the argument for action came through, the roadmap for what comes next was fuzzy at best. “I thought when he laid out the objectives and the plan, I don’t think we heard too much,” said McGurk. “And my takeaway was that we might be in for an escalation of this war.” 

“He said, if it’s not a deal, the enemy targets everything else he’d been talking about. So if we were– thought we might hear a de-escalatory speech, we’re going to wrap this up in a couple of weeks, I actually heard something quite different,” said McGurk.

What stood out instead was the tone and the message behind it.

“He said he visits the families at Dover, and he said, ‘We must honor them by completing the mission.’ And then he basically threatened Iran that we’re going to prepare to send you back to the Stone Age. So I think this war is going to continue for some time. I mean, that’s what I heard.”

Trump talks tough, timeline still foggy

During his speech, Trump praised the US military as “unstoppable” and insisted the campaign would wrap up “shortly." Albeit he stopped short of putting a firm date on it.

“Thanks to the progress we’ve made, I can say tonight that we are on track and the country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no longer a threat,” Trump said. “This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future. The whole world is watching."

Still, the fine print appeared to tell a different story. The President stressed the fight would continue until objectives were “fully achieved."

"Shortly, we're going to hit them extremely hard," he said. "Over the next two to three weeks, we're going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing."

Trump warned that if Iran doesn’t come to terms, “we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously.”

The president also sought to explain why the US entered the war in the first place, saying Iran was building its nuclear program at a new location and “making clear they had no intention of abandoning their effort to obtain nuclear weapons.”

"Everyone has said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, but in the end, those are just words if you’re not willing to take action when the time comes," he said. “We are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world," he later added.