John Bolton

“Trump made a number of mistakes before beginning hostilities. He didn't make what I think is a very compelling case to the American people, that regime change is the only way to protect ourselves and our friends and allies in the region, especially from Iran's menace. If you don't prepare your own people for why you're about to use military force, it's just a mistake in Politics 101”

“Given the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by the regime, by its threats, really more than anything else, and by intimidating shipping and insurance, they've established something that is really, in my mind, a threat, in many respects, equivalent to the nuclear threat they were developing, the terrorist threat they've nurtured over decades, really a direct threat at the world economy. And to walk away with that scenario is still unresolved, I think sets a dangerous precedent.”

“They made a point near the beginning of saying they had delegated authority in the Revolutionary Guard to commanders in the 31 provinces following pre-planned scenarios of what would happen if they were attacked and if the central nodes of command and control were eliminated. I think that's what they're following now. I think that the evidence is that the damage is so substantial that they're running on muscle memory.”

“I don't think having religious fanatics controlling nuclear weapons is something that we should accept. I find the proliferation of nuclear weapons generally gravely concerning. I'm more concerned about nuclear weapons in some hands than others. I am not concerned about nuclear weapons in the hands of Great Britain, but I am exceedingly concerned about nuclear weapons in the hands of a medieval, a feudal group of religious fanatics backed by a militarized autocratic system.”

“No, it was a wretched treaty, and I think it was paving the way for Iran to get nuclear weapons much more quickly. One of the fundamental precepts of that treaty was that Iran hadn't had a nuclear weapons program before. We know that's not true. Another fundamental precept was that we would know everything about their nuclear activity, which is saying that we have confidence that our intelligence will always be 100% accurate. We know that's not true either.”

“He does not do philosophy. He doesn't have a national security grand strategy. He doesn't do policy the way most of us understand that term. I don't know what motivated him, in fact, to begin this campaign, since when I talked about the objective of regime change in the first term, he didn't buy it.”

“Well, let me finish. Let me finish a thought here occasionally... I just finished the stand here. I mean, really, you want to ask me a question or you want to talk? If you want to talk, go ahead. It's your show.”

“If you ask the leaders of the Gulf Arab countries today, they would say as representatives of Gutter and others have said, this fundamentally changed our view of Iran, that they tried to placate them for years, and they had their civilian targets attacked, not missing targets at US bases. So the geostrategic reality of the region, I think now links the Gulf Arabs even more closely with Israel, that they see this regime as an existential threat to them.”