“For the President to make a big announcement, hours after the strike was concluded, it is impossible, no professional military or intelligent person would expect that you would have a battle damage assessment completed so quickly," he said.
United States President Donald Trump has played a "poor hand" and spoken too soon about the impacts of the American attack on Iran, according to retired US commanding general Ben Hodges.Hodges has just attended the NATO Summit in The Hague, and told the ABC's Patricia Karvelas on Afternoon Briefing that Trump's comments about the damages done in the Iranian strike seem illogical.
“For the President to make a big announcement, hours after the strike was concluded, it is impossible, no professional military or intelligent person would expect that you would have a battle damage assessment completed so quickly," he said.
Hodges also says that when analysts are discussing a target located hundreds of feet below the surface of the Earth, damage assessments take longer than Trump took to make his comment.
“So unnecessary, unhelpful for the President to have gone out so quickly and say we obliterated the target ... there is no way you can detect total success just from a satellite," he said.
The former US general also worries these statements from the President willlose the confidence of America’s allies.
ABC LINK“I think what we are seeing, unfortunately, is also what happens when intelligence is politicised and you have people saying what they are reporting is fake … nothing good comes from this.”
