Retired admiral lays out 'desperate' Trump’s no good, very bad options in Iran

Members of the military wait for U.S. President Donald Trump to arrive for a meeting convened by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Quantico, Virginia, U.S., September 30, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

President Donald Trump is reportedly "desperate" for a quick exit from Iran as his war causes global gas prices to skyrocket, but according to one retired Navy admiral, his only options are to stick it out or leave Iran in a position to rebound quickly.

Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery previously served in the Navy for over three decades, and now serves as a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a national security think-tank noted for its conservative leanings. Writing for the New York Times on Thursday, he warned that there is no option for a quick exit that will amount to a real victory for Trump.

"At least another two weeks of attacks will be necessary to ensure the regime cannot pose a serious military threat for several years — if it survives at all," Montgomery wrote. "Forcing the threat from Tehran into remission certainly would constitute a military victory, arguably the United States’ first in Iran since 1979."

According to the retired admiral, there are two major mistakes Trump could potentially make that would undo any success in Iran. One would be if he "prematurely calls off the operation before the necessary targets have been hit." Had Trump continued strikes against the Middle Eastern nation last summer, he argued, they might not have been able to hit back as forcefully in the current conflict.

The second mistake would be to leave Iran in a position where it still controls the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which most of the Gulf States' oil is shipped to the rest of the world. By closing off passage through it in response to the U.S. and Israel's military strikes, Iran caused a historically massive disruption to the global oil supply chain.

"Should the regime survive the war with the power to close Hormuz at will, disrupting the transit of fossil fuels and other crucial commodities, any declarations of victory by the United States will ring hollow," Montgomery argued.

Writing further, Montgomery warned that Trump cannot have his war both ways, ending quickly and resulting in a meaningful victory. In order to ensure Iran's capabilities are diminished sufficiently, a longer commitment is required, and with it, a potential economic shock that is proving majorly unpopular with voters.

"If the United States can hold firm for the next few weeks, it can fully degrade Iran’s war-making apparatus," Montgomery wrote. "This would usher in a multiyear interval of calm of the kind that neither sanctions nor diplomacy has been able to produce in over four decades. In that window, a better regional order could emerge. The president has reached a decisive point. He cannot both end the war immediately and claim victory. It is one or the other."

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