The U.S. bombing in Syria "did nothing to deter" Iran or the leadership of its proxies from additional attacks on America's military forces, intelligence expert Norman Roule told Newsmax on Monday.
In an interview on "National Report," Roule, national intelligence manager for Iran at the office of the Director of National Intelligence from 2008-17, praised the U.S. military force, but said its targets "retain capability."
"The U.S. strikes in Syria destroyed a series of command control intelligence and training centers, but … did nothing to deter the leadership of the proxies or Iran from conducting additional attacks," he pointed out.
"So in essence in Syria, and in Yemen, we are degrading adversary capability, but they retain capability; they retain the intent to use it; and their leadership has yet to pay a price for continue[ing] to use it against U.S. and partner forces."
But Roule praised the U.S. military performance in the region.
"If you look at the geography of Syria, where the attacks took place, that geography is larger than the country of Lebanon," he pointed out. "We're talking about vast bodies of water, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea. We're talking about very complex and different operating environments from the desert territory of Iraq to the naval geography of the Red Sea itself.
"It literally challenges every aspect of our military, and our military performance has been superb."
Roule also cautioned that the United States needs to be "very clear" on the implications of a cease-fire in Gaza that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is trying to work out.
"It will offer humanitarian aid to enter Gaza and larger quantities. But we need to be clear about this," he said.
"If you're Hamas, you want a very long cease-fire or permanent cease-fire because you stay in power," he continued, "and if you have a two-state solution — and Hamas is likely to dominate that Palestinian entity unless it's destroyed — we need to be clear that we're going to put a Lebanese Hezbollah-type actor in charge of the Palestinian state against not only Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, but also Jordan. This would be a catastrophe."
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