Search for Meaning with Gary Grappo

When we spoke about a year ago, the war had just broken out and so much has changed since then.

A year later now, what has surprised you most about the moment we find ourselves in right now, how it's all

unfolded? Well, there are more than actually several things that are on my mind.

First of all, recall that at the end of the war in June of last year, the 12-day war, President Trump had announced that U.S. and Israeli forces had obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program.

But yet we found ourselves, what, eight or nine months later entering into a conflict once again, this one far more intensive and longer lasting, much longer lasting than I think the American-Israeli sides had hoped for or anticipated.

That war went on for, well, the fighting part of it went on for a little more than, I guess, five or six weeks, and then we got into a period going back and forth about whether there are going to be negotiations or not.

It takes a while, especially when you're negotiating with the ever difficult, challenging, and frustrating Iranians.

They are among the best negotiators in the world.

And I will say one thing right up front.

I don't think this administration fully understands the challenges of negotiating with the Iranians.

They are difficult.

Nevertheless, the war went on.

It seemed as though, given the military statistical reporting, it was an overwhelming victory for the American-Israeli forces.

Nevertheless, we saw last week the text of the MOU, and everyone is left scratching their head.

How did we so-called win this war and end up with so little? There can be very few people that are pleased with the outcome given this MOU, with the exception of the leadership of Iran right now.

Certainly not the Iranian people.

Things will not get better for them.

Not for people in the region, whether it's the Gulf countries or Israel.

Their security has not improved one iota, although we must say that the Iranian military forces, whether we're talking missiles, drones, or anything else, are much degraded and certainly present less of a threat, but still a significant one to all the countries in the region, including Israel.

And certainly not for the United States.

I don't see much that the United States was able to achieve out of this war.

There are commitments so to speak, Very loosely worded, shockingly so, in my view, with regard to the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranians had agreed to make best efforts.

This is diplomatic language for, well, we'll see what we can do.

I mean, it's language big enough to drive a freight train through.