'Epic Failure': Former US diplomat questions Secretary Rubio's Iran war update

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul expressed "complete shock" after Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that the war in Iran was over without an agreement being in place. After Rubio on Tuesday announced that "Operation Fury," the military name for the campaign in the Middle East, was over, McFaul dubbed it "Epic Defeat," claiming the U.S. failed to achieve any of the goals it set out to. 

"The Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation. I'm not going ​to, you know, we're not cheering for an additional situation to occur," Rubio said at a press conference, despite the U.S. military not yet securing Tehran's enriched uranium, and the Strait of Hormuz still being blocked by Iranian forces. Speaking to hosts of "Morning Joe" on MS Now, McFaul said he couldn't believe what Rubio said. "There he was, alone, not with the President, by the way, declaring the end of the war that they launched without achieving any of those objectives that Joe [Scarborough] outlined from the centerpiece; none of them, and especially on the nuclear weapons deal," McFaul said. 

While Rubio claimed that the focus had shifted to a smaller operation, 'Project Freedom', under which the U.S. military would safely guide ships out of the Hormuz Strait, the effort was paused within a day of its date of commencement by President Donald Trump. The President announced on social media that the project was put on hold for a "short period" to give space to negotiations to finalize a deal. He added that it was done at the request of Pakistan, the acting intermediary in the negotiation, and that the U.S. had made "great progress" in the peace talks, BBC reported. However, McFaul claimed that the U.S. had nothing but a commitment to negotiate in the future and just a memorandum of understanding regarding the gradual opening of the strait and Iran's nuclear program. 

"The President doesn't seem able to focus long enough to achieve the objectives he sets out. He changes his mind. It's deeply troubling for our long-term national security interests," McFaul said, before declaring the military campaign an "Epic Defeat," on the show. "In fact, I'm going to make a prediction: I think it's so epic that they're going to reverse it, because they're going to look at this and say, we cannot defend this. And the President's going to change his mind again," he continued. 

McFaul added that he found it bizarre that the U.S., which has the most powerful military in the world, and which asked Congress to approve a $1.5 trillion budget, just "backed off" after the President agreed on a "one-page memo." He claimed the U.S. had better ideas than the "autocrats," but "we're squandering all of it because we can't run a long-term game plan." He added that the administration didn't have a "grand strategy" in place, and it is in part because the President doesn't believe in alliances. "We're better off with allies. We're better off with friends," he stated.