A top former military official lashed out during an interview with Fox News after the host took the scenic route getting to a question on the goals of President Donald Trump’s new war in Iran.
“OK… well, it’s not 100 percent clear to me, general—and that’s not to suggest that I don’t support, 100 percent, what’s happening. Nor that I 100 percent offer my support…” Will Cain told retired Gen. Jack Keane, as he was building up to ask about the administration’s objectives in the Middle East.
He went on: “I just think… I want to ask a couple of critical questions, and I hope you know how much respect I have for your service, and, I think, it goes without saying, to anybody watching, how much respect I have for the men making these decisions…”
After listening to Cain speak for almost 20 seconds without arriving at his point, Keane—a long-time fixture of the network, and reportedly a subject of Trump’s considerable admiration—abruptly snapped.
“You don’t have to patronize me, just ask the question,” the general blurted out. “Go ahead, come on. Ask it.”
But Cain wasn’t done yet.
“To be clear, general, I’m not patronizing you. I’m trying to have a very serious conversation in front of the American people,” he went on. “The men making these decisions have my utmost respect, and this is less about you, and everyone making these decisions, than it is about the American people understanding the investment that lies before them.”
“Do we understand the objectives?” he finally asked of America’s ongoing strikes against Iran, for which the Trump administration has offered no less than four different justifications since launching their first attack early Saturday morning.
Keane, for his part, appeared relatively unfazed over White House indecisiveness on whether the campaign is designed to liberate the Iranian people, or to put an end to the Islamic regime’s nuclear program, or to effect a change in leadership, or to preemptively respond to prospective attacks on U.S. bases in the region.
“I thought it was pretty clear. I mean, what we’re trying to do is take down what sustains this regime and keeps it being able to function,” Keane said. “They’re saying that they’re setting the conditions for its collapse. I think those objectives are pretty clear in terms of what we’re trying to do here.”
By the time the interview was over, Keane seemed to regret his earlier brusqueness. “I’m sorry I barked at you,” he said, setting Cain off fawning again over both the general and the Trump administration officials overseeing the president’s new war.
