With the dust settling in Iran after Donald Trump ordered an attack on the country's underground nuclear facilities, MSNBC military analyst retired Gen. Mark Hertling was asked Monday what the U.S. should expect in the way of retaliation.
"What are you looking at this morning in terms of the military component of this, how the operation went ... what are the things that you're worried about, including that uranium, that we don't know where it is?" asked "Morning Joe" contributor Katty Kay.
After praising the professionalism of the service members who carried out the surprise attack, Hertling said, "What will the Iranians do? What is the next thing we will do in terms of our counteractions? Those are all the things that the military considers and should be part of the planning."
'What I'm very concerned about is it doesn't seem like this has been a long-term plan by the administration," he quickly added. "Everyone is suggesting it's a one-and-done, that we didn't mean to start a war, this was not a war against Iran. It most definitely is by international law, because you're attacking another country with 125 aircraft and a bunch of Tomahawk missiles from submarines — that seems like an attack to me, and it seems like the start of a war"
"They [Iran] have many options," he elaborated. "There are some that say Iran depends on missiles, militias and terrorists, but they also have more in their kit bag, such as asymmetric attacks with cyber. That's my biggest concern, with sleeper cells, that's also a big concern with what they might do in the gulf to the 40,000 U.S. troops positioned in various locations around the gulf."
"What might they do with economic issues?" he suggested. "Turning ships around from the oil refineries? All of those things are options that Iran has. Not all of them are good options, but they can play them and I'm not sure that the U.S. government has talked about the what ifs. And what I mean by that is, in the planning cycle, you always say, what? What if this happens? What if they do this?"
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