US forces target 3 Iranian oil tankers in response to IRGC missile attack
Trump is using ‘economic asphyxiation’ in bid to make Iranian regime ‘crumble’: retired general
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. John Teichert told Fox News’ “Saturday in America” that President Donald Trump “has settled into the idea that this strategy of economic asphyxiation is the right one to cause the [Iranian] regime either to capitulate or to crumble.”
However, he said there are two “downsides” to this strategy as the U.S. ramps up pressure against Iran through Operation Economic Outcast.
“The first one is that there’s no evident way where we can know what the timeline would be before we achieve our objectives, which means it could be months and not weeks to see success,” Teichert said. “And related to that as number two, in that there is an opportunity cost for the U.S. military, because during the execution of this strategy, we need to maintain those 50,000 brave Americans in the area of responsibility in order to enforce the blockade and escort friendly ships filled with oil and to make sure we’re defended well.”
Teichert spoke to Fox News after U.S. Central Command struck three Iranian oil tankers Saturday in response to an attempted Iranian attack against U.S. Navy warships.
“One of the greatest things that we did with our military instrument of power during the six weeks of active combat operations was not just to destroy Iran’s current military, but to destroy their military related industrial capacity so that they couldn’t resurrect their military capability,” Teichert said about resumed military activity between the U.S. and Iran.
“And we’re starting to see, no doubt, that Iran is limited in their ability to strike. We haven’t driven the threat to zero, but we certainly are seeing that Iran is far less potent in projecting power than they were six months ago,” he added.
Teichert also said Trump should get “huge credit” for carrying out Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran in June 2025, “which effectively destroyed Iran’s nuclear program.”
“Unless the regime is gone, we can never quite know that our interests are going to be safe in the region and around the world,” Teichert said. “And so by strangling the regime economically, we’re hoping for one of those mechanisms of regime change to take place, while we also acknowledge that we took care of their nuclear program 14 months ago.”