"These are not strategically sophisticated people"
Many agree President Donald Trump made the right call when he called off the strike on Iran, in retaliation for their downing of a $130 million unarmed, unmanned U.S. Military surveillance drone.
But he is the one who ordered the strike in the first place, so there's no "credit" there.
Friday morning the President took to Twitter to defend his actions, saying he stopped the assault 10 minutes before the actual strike was about to happen.
Why?
"I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General."
(The drone was actually downed early Thursday morning, not Monday.)
Many are asking, how was this not a part of the decision-making process before he gave the order to strike?
Others just point-blank don't believe it wasn't.
One, a CNN political analyst, says there's a lot of speculation it was Fox News' Tucker Carlson's comments that led Trump to back off – Carlson advised against the strike.
Here's what some others are saying.
Contributor to The Nation:
CNN national security analyst:
NY Times White House correspondent who co-authored the story about Trump calling off the strike in mid-air:
Former Special Counsel at the Dept. of Defense:
CNN Chief National Security Correspondent:
Former Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Fletcher School at Tufts University and at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on international security and foreign policy, and emerging technologies and urban warfare: