This is a war of choice. This is not a war of necessity. There doesn't seem to be any kind of objective

metric by which you can judge the success or failure of this endeavor. This is really, I think,

revealing the limits of American military power. Operation Epic Fury is now in its third week.

U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have killed senior Iran leaders and degraded much of the

country's military infrastructure. Tehran, however, has not yielded. Instead, it has expanded the war

to hit neighboring countries it accuses evading Washington and Jerusalem. The strait of her moves,

through which one-fifth of the world's oil passes remains closed, putting the global economy in jeopardy.

Is an end to the conflict in sight? What lessons does the fighting so far offer for U.S.

military strategy? And is Operation Epic Fury creating new vulnerabilities for the United States

elsewhere in the world? From the Council on Foreign Relations, welcome to the President's inbox. I'm Jim Lindsay. Today I'm

joined by Max Boot, Senior Fellow for National Security Studies here at the Council on Foreign

Relations. Max, thank you very much for joining me. Thanks for having me. Max, let's jump into it,

and let's sort of begin a big picture here. We're now in week three of

Operation Epic Fury. Do we know what it is the United States is trying to accomplish with this

military operation? Great question to which there is no easy answer because the explanation

is constantly shifting.

Sometimes you hear from President Trump that he is after regime change.

He talks about seeking unconditional surrender.

He also talks about inciting a revolution in the streets of Iran.

But at the same time, he also has engaged in

wishful thinking about finding an Iranian Delci Rodriguez with whom he can make a deal. And if you

listen to what the Pentagon is saying, they're not talking about any of that. Their focus is,

...