I'm John Batchel with my good colleague Peter Berkowitz at the Hoover Institution.

We're discussing Peter's column at Real Clear Politics, five errors made by responsible news organizations,

repeated by same, about the recent conflicts still underway.

Quickly, the one where the opposition in Congress declared that

President Trump did not have the authority to use a weapon. Do we need to spend more than a

sentence on that, Peter? I might have two. Here are two independent grounds, three sentences,

independent grounds why President Trump did have authority.

First, the authorization to use military force all the way back from 2001 has not lapsed.

And the United States, the president has authority to strike at anybody who is aiding, abetting, harboring al-Qaeda jihadists, and that is something

that Iran had did. But second, the jihadists in Yemen have even up to very recently been attacking

American ships in the Red Sea. Who sponsors the Houthis in Yemen?

Iran.

The United States has authority, or I should say the president has authority to respond in self-defense to those who are attacking us and those who sponsor them.

That's Iran.

The president had authority on his own to strike Iran.

The fourth error, which is that the Israeli and American military operations against Iran

benefit not only Israel but also moderate Gulf Arabs.

That is generally true, but it's important to note that Iran is an existential threat

to the whole region, and it remains a regional power, the number one sponsor of terror

throughout its own part of the world and worldwide.

And Peter, that fact seems to have become normalized so that there's no objecting to Iran

whenever it enters into transnational organizations. No one comes forward and say,

...