STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Retired Rear Admiral John Kirby has been listening with us. In addition to serving in uniform, he was press secretary at the Pentagon and State Department and was the National Security communications adviser in the Biden administration. Admiral Kirby, welcome back.
JOHN KIRBY: Thank you, Steve. Good to be with you this morning.
INSKEEP: I'm glad you are. I want to note that a few days ago, we had a video interview on the NPR program Newsmakers with Wes Moore, governor of Maryland, veteran, who said the president never did formally address the nation about the war and that he still should because, quote, "we are a nation at war." He should rally the country behind the troops. Did the president's speech last night meet the standard of that kind of address?
KIRBY: I don't think so, to be honest with you. And I'm glad that he did address the nation. I agree with the governor that that should've happened actually well before now. But in this speech, there was really nothing new to explain to the American people exactly why we did this and when we did it, the urgency behind it. And I don't think he did a satisfactory job in terms of stitching together what the objectives are and how we know we have achieved them or we will achieve them and what that's supposed to look like. So I have to say that while I am, again, glad that he did the - made the remarks, I found them wanting in terms of trying to bring the American people along with what we're trying to accomplish in this war.
INSKEEP: I suppose he did recount 47 years of offenses, as the United States would perceive them, by Iran, but did not exactly say why now was the moment that he had to act. Is that what you're saying?
KIRBY: Yes. Exactly. I mean, look, we all know Iran's a bad actor. And nobody gets in line behind me in terms of my hatred for the regime and what they've done not only in the region, but to the Iranian people. But there was no sense - there was no clear sense of why now. And just importantly, Steve, no clear sense of why it had to be conducted the way it was conducted, why they used naval and Air Forces immediately, why diplomacy, which was on the table, was taken off the table so abruptly? I mean, we - they were in the middle of negotiation, so diplomacy never really had a chance to finish working out. And I think all of that needed to be explained.
INSKEEP: What did you make of the conflicting statements we heard from Deepa Shivaram there about the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. attitude toward reopening it?
KIRBY: Yeah, this one's a real head-scratcher for me. I mean, clearly the military knew that the Iranians would work to close the strait should they be attacked. I mean, that's been an assumption by the U.S. military for decades now, that this would be a play by Iran. So it couldn't have been a surprise that they would shut the strait and that they could shut the strait through fear alone, Steve.
Not even - I mean, not even before they launched a single drone or a missile into the Persian Gulf, shipping companies were not willing to transit that strait because of fear. So that had to have been a known. What they haven't done, and what the president didn't do last night, was explain how the strait can be reopened. He said something about it being opened naturally last night or - and then he said that other nations ought to go grab it and cherish it and take it.
But the whole reason it was closed was by the United States military action and by, of course, Iran doing what we would expect Iran to do. And so he seems to be absolving us now from any responsibility for the Strait of Hormuz after we initiated the conflict that now has caused the strait to close. So you're not seeing a lot of energy or enthusiasm from European nations or even Asian nations to militarily open that strait. And to do so at any given length of time, to make it sustainable, is going to require military force.
INSKEEP: I'm also thinking about this aspect of this. The United States has allies and partner nations all through the Persian Gulf that rely on the strait to transit their oil, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain. And now the president says we don't care about the Strait of Hormuz - it's somebody else's problem. What message does that send to U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf?
KIRBY: It sends the message that the United States might be willing to end this war without dealing with the Strait of Hormuz. And that's a real problem, not just for our national interests and those of our allies in the region, but for the whole world. I mean, he's right. We are an independent, oil-producing nation. But the - but oil is a globally traded commodity. And that's why our gas prices are now getting up to $5 a gallon here in the country. Just because we don't import a lot of oil from the strait, doesn't mean that the imports, the exports actually, you know, affect the global market, and they do. So I'm very concerned that - two things I heard in this speech that concern me is, one, no articulation of how we have or will prevent the nuclear ambitions of Iran.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
KIRBY: And two, no understanding of how the strait's going to actually get reopened. And it needs to be reopened.
INSKEEP: Retired Rear Admiral John Kirby. Thanks for your insight. Always a pleasure hearing from you.
KIRBY: Great, Steve. Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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