As the Iran war approaches its fifth week, a retired U.S. Army general warned that the conflict in the Persian Gulf could leave the U.S. and its allies vulnerable on other battlefields across the globe.

On Thursday, retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who served as the commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe during the Obama administration, told MS NOW’s Alicia Menendez that Donald Trump’s decision to launch a military operation in the Middle East will likely benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine. 

According to The Washington Post, the Pentagon is now considering whether to divert weapons intended to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russia for use in the Middle East conflict instead.

“When I was a war planner on the Joint Staff, a long, long time ago, when we invaded Iraq, there was a requirement by the Chairman of Joint Chiefs to determine: Where are we taking risks in other parts of the world?” Hertling told Menendez. “I’m not sure that kind of assessment has been done today.”

“We’re spreading ourselves very thin,” the former general warned.

Hertling also took issue with Trump’s inconsistent language regarding the attacks in the Gulf, which he has, at times, tried to downplay as an “excursion.”

“Let me be emphatic when I say this: We are in a war. We are in multiple wars. And we do have to consider the risk associated with other places that we’re leaving uncovered,” he said.

Hertling told Menendez it was clear to him that the administration’s decision to launch this war was severely flawed. “In terms of the sustainment of this fight, there’s a critical element of strategy that says, if you forget logistics, you’re going to lose,” he said. “We’re forgetting logistics.”

“A great mentor of mine told me when I was going into the surge in Iraq in 2007, he said, ‘We can’t kill our way out of this.’ That would be good advice for the president to understand, that you can’t kill your way out of this problem. There’s gotta be different elements of national power, applied, policies, politics, diplomatic.”

However, Hertling expressed skepticism that the U.S. could emerge victorious from the war. “I think the best condition we can get out of this particular conflict is a draw,” he said. “There is no win-win, there’s no win-lose. There’s going to be a draw.”

You can watch Hertling’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.

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