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Maher outlines ways US ‘f—-ed up’ Iran conflict strategy

by Ryan Mancini - 03/21/26 6:40 PM ET

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Comedian Bill Maher on Friday outlined his list of ways that he thinks the U.S. “f—ed up” its strategy in attacking Iran.

“You know where we f—ed up? A few places,” he told guests Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Democratic strategist Paul Begala on his HBO show “Real Time.” “One, we’re blowing up each other’s oil now. They didn’t foresee the Strait of Hormuz stuff well enough.”

“They also didn’t understand drones well enough and they should have from the Ukrainian war,” he continued, referring to Iran’s retaliatory attacks on the U.S.’s Gulf allies. “Drones are cheap and they can do a lot of damage, even if you knock out their navy and everything else. ‘We knocked [them] out’ –– no you didn’t.”

Maher then added that the “uprising” led by the Iranian people to overthrow their government has not happened. The host compared it to the French resistance in 1944 while under Nazi occupation, “where you can have an underground, where you could smuggle in guns.”

“We live in a surveillance state now,” Maher said. “So nobody in that underground who might be –– and again, it’s probably 90 percent of the country in Iran, these poor people have been living under this horrible fascist theocracy. These people can’t smuggle guns in. I mean, maybe somebody’s got a plan there, but in a surveillance state, this uprising –– it has been strangled in the crib so far.”

Maher said earlier this month that he was “cautiously optimistic” about the military campaign against Iran. A longtime critic of Iran’s regime, Maher said he saw “so much happiness” coming from the Iranian people. The host, despite his support, objected to the possibility of boots on the ground.

He criticized Trump the following week for not having control over the Strait of Hormuz, where its closure has led oil and fuel prices to skyrocket. Trump days later told CBS News that he was “thinking about” taking over the strait.

“I don’t understand this,” Maher said at the time. “We have complete military superiority. We’re bragging about that except for the one place where we apparently need complete military superiority. Do you understand this, why we can’t control the Strait of Hormuz, the one place we need to control in Iran?”

Maher’s recent comments come as the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran stretches into its fourth week with no clear end in sight. President Trump on Friday said he is considering “winding down” the military offensive after suggesting the U.S. was close to completing its objectives.

The Pentagon, however, deployed over 2,200 Marines and sailors to the Middle East from San Diego.

Trump also said he does not want a ceasefire with Iran, that the U.S. has “won” the conflict and that he will not send boots on the ground.

Maher’s remarks about a resistance movement in Iran also come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there needs to be a “ground component” to help the Iranian’s overthrow their government. He suggested that the emergence of a revolution in Iran remains Israel’s objective in fighting the conflict, even after Trump has frequently said the objective was to prevent an “imminent nuclear threat” from Iran.

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