Washington: Former US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the Trump administration’s war with Iran risks drifting without a clear strategic objective, even as American military operations demonstrate significant tactical success.
Speaking on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, Sullivan said the US military’s operational performance had been “remarkable” but questioned the clarity of the war’s ultimate goals.
“On the encouraging side, the US military is just simply remarkable,” Sullivan said. “It’s remarkable at being able to achieve tactical objectives, to execute operations with skill, professionalism, and courage.”
But he cautioned that the strategic purpose of the war remains unclear.
“The discouraging part is we are asking the US military to put itself in harm’s way, and we’ve already lost six service members, pointed towards a completely unclear objective,” Sullivan said.
According to him, the administration has offered multiple explanations for the war without clearly defining its end state.
“The administration has not been able to say with any clarity whatsoever what the ultimate goal of this war is,” he said, adding that officials have “given perhaps a dozen different explanations, shifting by the hour by the day.”
Sullivan said the lack of a clear strategy more than a week into the conflict poses a serious risk.
“To have that level of muddiness, that muddle, I think is a huge challenge,” he said. “It suggests that this war got launched without being fully thought through.”
He also questioned whether the Trump administration drew the wrong lessons from a previous US special forces operation in Venezuela.
“President Trump is going to draw the wrong lesson from this,” Sullivan said, referring to the earlier raid. “He’s going to think we can use military force anywhere, anytime, for any purpose, and it will all work out just fine.”
Sullivan said the war may also have unintended geopolitical consequences, particularly benefiting Russia.
“Russia is an adversary of the United States,” he said. “They’re an adversary who, reportedly, is actually supplying intelligence so that Iran can pinpoint locations where US service members are present.”
He warned that Moscow could gain both financially and strategically from the conflict.
“One of the big winners in all of this is Vladimir Putin and Russia,” Sullivan said, pointing to rising oil prices and reduced US military resources available for Ukraine.
Sullivan argued that the decision to launch the Middle East war has weakened Ukraine’s defensive position against Russia.
“At a critical point in the negotiations, at a moment when President Trump could have come in in massive support of Ukraine… President Trump decided instead to launch this massive adventure in the Middle East,” he said.
He added that the war risks reinforcing dangerous geopolitical precedents.
“I think they’re taking two major lessons,” Sullivan said, referring to China’s likely interpretation of the conflict.
“The larger strategic lesson… is that we’re in a new era of geopolitics, where big countries… can act with force without any reference to international law.”
According to him, Beijing could interpret the war as evidence that the United States and its allies are less able to deter military action elsewhere.
“I think this is going to make them believe… that they have a greater window to be able to use military force against Taiwan,” Sullivan said.
(IANS)
