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Morning Joe Panel Dissents After Scarborough Praises ‘Remarkable Military Success’
In the opening hour of Tuesday’s Morning Joe, the MS NOW morning program’s co-host Joe Scarborough called the military operations in Iran a “remarkable military success” and then added anyone who said the strikes were not successful had an “agenda.” Immediately after his military praise, the two following guest panelists dissented with his comments, as one panelist said it might just be a “short-term setback” for Iran. Meanwhile the other panelist, Ret. Gen. Mark Hertling, called out Secretary of State Rubio for calling the U.S. military the “greatest military in the world.”
Today on Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough praised the US Military's "remarkable military success" and said those who say the military hasn't done a good job have an "agenda." pic.twitter.com/UNHvgsTvuY
— Nick (@nspin310) March 10, 2026
Scarborough gave a somewhat surprising praise of the military aspect of the war, along with the actions and statement of Secretary Rubio:
Militarily, it's been a remarkable military success. We have degraded their nuclear capabilities. We have degraded their ability to launch missiles across the region, possibly at the United States one day. We have degraded their Navy in an extraordinary way. We have degraded their air defenses in an extraordinary way. We have decapitated their leadership. We'll see who replaces the leadership. Militarily, every military person that's looked at what has happened will tell you that this has been extraordinarily successful.
He then added, “Anybody that tells you, first of all, that the military hasn't done an extraordinary job, they've got an agenda.”
It’s unclear what got Joe in a good mood about the Iran operations, but good for him in actually sharing his true opinion. But, in the following guest segments, others clearly did not agree with parts of Joe’s assessments.
Kim Ghattas, a contributing editor at the Financial Times, was the first to offer pushback:
Financial Times contributing editor Kim Ghattas said it was too soon to call it a success, calling it just a "short-term setback." pic.twitter.com/uITcGCy2US
— Nick (@nspin310) March 10, 2026
I want to push back just a little bit first on the idea of a resounding military success on Iran. I actually - I'm not a military expert, and I will defer to military experts. I think it's actually still a little bit too soon to make that assessment.
I know a lot has been degraded, a lot has been destroyed. But it's for, I think, still a short term setback for Iran.”
Then, Ret. Gen. Hertling was asked his opinion on assessments saying the operation was a military success. He basically ignored the question and decided to show disdain for Rubio calling the US military the greatest in the world:
Retired General Mark Hertling was asked for his opinion on military success. Instead of answering a question posed to him, he took the moment to criticize Rubio for calling the US military the "greatest military in the world." pic.twitter.com/IiE85dgZtN
— Nick (@nspin310) March 10, 2026
And what I will say is I'll make a recommendation to all politicians: Quit starting your sentences with, “we've got the greatest military in the world”. The military knows what they can and can't do, and what they can't do is end a war. That's up to the politicians and to continue to open your sentences like Secretary Rubio just did with how great the military is, is a waste of time.
You know, the military, for the most part, is pretty humble. There's not hubris involved. We don't need other people telling folks how good we are. We know what we can do, but we also know what we can't do. (...)
Scarborough's rare moment was immediately overtaken by the guest’s panelist denial of military success. And he’s right, those who still feel the Iran operations haven’t been a success clearly have an agenda.
The transcript is below. Click "expand":
MS NOW’s Morning Joe
March 10, 2026
6:23:48 AM Eastern
(...)
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, you know, again, Marco - Secretary of State Marco Rubio was actually the first to spell things out fairly clearly several days ago. And that's positive. It's just important as anybody looks at this conflict, looks at this war, looks at what's going on, there are two sides of this.
Militarily, it's been a remarkable military success. We have degraded their nuclear capabilities. We have degraded their ability to launch missiles across the region, possibly at the United States one day. We have degraded their Navy in an extraordinary way. We have degraded their air defenses in an extraordinary way. We have decapitated their leadership. We'll see who replaces the leadership. Militarily, every military person that's looked at what has happened will tell you that this has been extraordinarily successful.
Now, I would have said the same thing about Iraq in March and April of 2003. But, thus far, militarily, we're doing great. Our challenge right now, as the general said, is on the political side.
Anybody that tells you, first of all, that the military hasn't done an extraordinary job, they've got an agenda. I mean, they're obviously - there have been tragedies - but militarily, the operations have hit what they've wanted to hit and degraded what they wanted to degrade.
The problem comes on the political side where you have a war that's unpopular at home, you've got gas prices rising. That's going to be unpopular at home. You have in Iran, you have a leader now that's a successor to his father, who seems to be even more extreme. This is a regional conflict. Needs to be kind of put back in there and right now there's no one to negotiate with.
So, we have two different things happening right now. Militarily a success. Politically there are things that need to be developed and things that need to be thought through and things that need to be brought to a resolution. Because right now they're two different realities in this war. One extremely successful, the other not successful yet.
Let's bring in contributing editor at the Financial Times, Kim Ghattas. She's in Lebanon this morning just outside of Beirut. And the Washington Post, David Ignatius has the first question. David?
(...)
6:27:17 AM
KIM GHATTAS (Contributing Editor, Financial Times): David, great to speak to you, and thanks for having me, Mika and Joe. I want to push back just a little bit first on the idea of a resounding military success on Iran. I actually - I'm not a military expert, and I will defer to military experts. I think it's actually still a little bit too soon to make that assessment.
I know a lot has been degraded, a lot has been destroyed. But it's for, I think, still a short term setback for Iran. And they still have the capacity to do a lot of damage in the region, including through some of their proxy militias, like Hezbollah in Iran the Shia militias in Iraq. And they will now work to try to live to fight another day.
So, the concern in the region is also that this is just the first of many such fights unless we find a way forward that delivers more positive results, more constructive results. And this requires diplomacy, but also positive results for the Iranian people.
(...)
6:30:17 AM
SCARBOROUGH: You know, Willie, what's so fascinating is we listen to Kim and talking about, well, maybe the military operations not as successful as Americans are saying it is, because this is still a very, very dangerous region, a very dangerous neighborhood, which parallels with what David heard earlier in his reporting that he reported earlier this morning from a leader in the region saying, “don't leave us with with a battered, bruised and angry Iran.”
And of course, that leader was talking about more military strikes. Kim's talking about the importance of diplomacy, but there's no doubt we have a lot of allies in the region concerned about America just cutting and running and leaving them with an angry and wounded Iran.
WILLIE GEIST: Including Israel. Yeah, all of our allies in the region, for sure. And I guess, General Hertling. It just depends, again, on what your definition of success is. Does it mean taking out missile capabilities, as Marco Rubio said? Does it mean obliterating, as President Trump has said, the nuclear program? Does it mean regime change? We're certainly not on a path to regime change at the moment.
So just tactically, strategically, from your point of view as a general, the military campaign, just to add to this conversation that Joe and Kim are having, how is it going from the U.S. perspective?
LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.): Well, from the standpoint of the military, and I think unlike Kim, I can speak to this. And what I will say is I'll make a recommendation to all politicians: Quit starting your sentences with, “we've got the greatest military in the world”. The military knows what they can and can't do, and what they can't do is end a war. That's up to the politicians and to continue to open your sentences like Secretary Rubio just did with how great the military is, is a waste of time.
You know, the military, for the most part, is pretty humble. There's not hubris involved. We don't need other people telling folks how good we are. We know what we can do, but we also know what we can't do. And that's the ground we're in right now. So I can say that. I make that recommendation to all politicians, knock it off. -
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
HERTLING: - Worry about what you've got to do to end wars.