General (Ret.) Michael “Erik" Kurilla, former head of US Central Command (CENTCOM) spoke on Thursday night at the opening session of the 10th Israeli American Council (IAC) National Summit in Florida.
During the session, Kurilla was asked to comment on the situation in Iran and what he thinks should be done moving forward.
“I think the real question is, and we look at what's happening right now, the biggest question we have to ask ourselves, ‘And then what? What is our strategy? What is the end state we're trying to achieve?’" he said.
“I've always been a proponent of the whole of government to take action. I'm the military arm of our instruments of national power, but you have a diplomatic, an informational, a military, and an economic. And if there is going to be action against Iran, it needs to be the whole of government, and candidly, it needs to be an international effort that is able to do that," added Kurilla.
He recalled, “I remember when President Trump and I were talking, Steve Witkoff was in the room, and we were talking about Iran, and I said, ‘If we're ever going to take action, I want to phone a friend, and that friend is Israel.’" Because of the capability and the friendship that we have with them, Israel has very unique capabilities."
“So, I think right now it's a very tense situation, but I think we have to always ask ourselves, what is the strategy, and then what? What happens when we take action? I think that's the most important thing."
Asked whether he thinks a vast attack can bring about the collapse of the current Iranian regime, Kurilla replied, “It's a good question. I think that's the thing that I think everybody has to go through and look at the analysis. What does that look like, and then what? The most important question we should ask ourselves, would we create something even worse, depending upon who's in, what is the strategy then to replace that, if that happens?"