LEILA FADEL, HOST:
So let's take a closer look now at the future of U.S. military strategy in the Gulf with retired General Joseph Votel. He led U.S. Central Command from 2016 through 2019, overseeing U.S. and coalition military operations across the Middle East. Good morning, and welcome back to the program.
JOSEPH VOTEL: Good morning, Leila. Good to be with you.
FADEL: So as we heard there from our correspondent, the Pentagon has not been transparent about damage to U.S. bases, U.S. strategy in the Gulf, and how many U.S. troops will remain in the region. What question does that raise for you as a former CENTCOM commander?
VOTEL: Well, I think one of the things that's important to appreciate is that, you know, oftentimes we don't want to give our adversaries the benefit of appreciating how much damage they may have done to us. So I - one of the considerations here is that this may be operational security and trying to protect the results of some of these Iranian strikes. That said, of course, it's always important to be transparent with the American people to make sure they understand what the cost is that has been that has been put on to our troops and our forces forward. So yeah, I think transparency is really, really important, obviously, but there are some operational considerations as well.
FADEL: I mean, how much, though, is this about concealing the extent of the damage from the American public and how much of it is about operational security? Is that something you can tell based on your experience?
VOTEL: Yeah. I think some of that is - I mean, certainly some of this is being driven by political factors, which are kind of beyond my expertise to comment on. So I'm certain there is some of that. My experience is that is that when we are transparent with the American people and with Congress, that it helps us in the long run. It allows us to recover from things. It allows us to get the resources that we need to address the situation we have here. So, you know, I think - to your point, I think the transparency issue is obviously a very, very important one for the American public.
FADEL: Now, this has really been escalating, as we heard from our correspondent, and Iran says it seized a U.S. underwater drone. What do drones like this do exactly? I mean, how significant is that?
VOTEL: Well, in this case, you know, these underwater drones have the ability, you know, put a machine where we don't want to we can't or we don't want to put a man or a service member at harm. And so they can go in and they can do surveillance. They can do counter-mine activities, that is, neutralize or remove mines. They can do maritime surveys. So it allows us to put a capability into a denied area for the purpose of, you know, providing us information or to undertake activities that we want them to perform.
FADEL: Now, the U.S. says it was a defective drone that was an older model that neither collected sensitive data nor carried any classified sonar or radar equipment. If that's true, are there other ways in which the seizure could be problematic for the U.S. military if it doesn't have sensitive information?
VOTEL: Yeah. I think we always want to be concerned about captured military equipment. And of course, this is a risk with any...
FADEL: Yeah.
VOTEL: ...Military operation that we conduct, that, you know, some of our capabilities will fall into the hands of our adversaries. And in this case, you know, the Iranians are not unsophisticated. They have the ability to reverse-engineer some of this, to understand some of the materials, some of the technologies involved in that. And more importantly, because of their relationships with China and Russia, they can provide this information to them, which could hurt us in the long run. So yeah, there are some concerns on this. This may be an older system, so maybe not the state of the art. But nonetheless, it does provide, you know, an example of American technology that could be exploded by - exploited by our adversaries.
FADEL: Now, the last six months and this last week, I mean, what Iran has shown that despite the extreme economic pressure under - it's under, despite the U.S. attacks, the U.S. superpower - is a superpower. Iran keeps coming back and pivoting. And the U.S. seems to be slow in pivoting and adapting to what Iran is doing. I mean, what would you do in this moment as a military commander?
VOTEL: Well, I think, actually, the Strait of Hormuz blockade is actually working here, and I think it's center of gravity. It's a spanner in the works, putting a lot of pressure on the Iranians. Going after their oil-carrying vessels is an important complementary effort to the economic effort here. And Iran is really coming at this from a weak point. They are losing a lot of their floating oil stock. Their gas prices have gone up, and of course, that will cause a lot of problems with their population. So time is not on their side.
FADEL: That is Joseph Votel. He's a retired four-star general and a former commander of U.S. Central Command. General Votel, thank you so much.
VOTEL: Thank you very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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