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23 Jan 2020
CNN military and diplomatic analyst and APB speaker John Kirby appeared on CNN Newsroom with Rosemary Church to offer his expertise in light of the recent developing tensions with Iran. After Iran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq in a retaliatory strike, both Iran’s foreign minister and President Trump tweeted potential messages of de-escalation. Kirby weighed in on the tense situation, cautioning against taking these preliminary tweets as surefire evidence of de-escalation. He added that with the amount of information we have currently, we cannot be sure if Iran intentionally avoided casualties or mistakenly hit a deserted section of the base. Kirby pointed out that while Iran’s missile system has undoubtedly gotten much more sophisticated in recent years, it is not always accurate, saying, “there was a risk in using that kind of missile if your goal was not to hurt or kill.”
John Kirby is a retired Rear Admiral of the U.S. Navy, and has served as a spokesperson for the Navy, the Pentagon and the State Department. His Navy career spanned nearly three decades, and he was the first uniformed officer to be the chief spokesperson for the Department of Defense. He became the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs before transitioning to CNN to utilize his communications talent as an analyst of the fields he had spent his life working in. One of the most knowledgeable and engaging voices on defense, diplomacy, international relations, and government workings today, Kirby continues to lead us through national and international crises while analyzing fast breaking news for the press and public.