The United States under President Donald Trump is making rookie mistakes in Iran, warned Seth Jones, former adviser to the commanding general of U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan.

Specifically, he said on Thursday's edition of CNN's "OutFront," Iran is managing to damage critical U.S. hardware with drone attacks — something it doesn't appear as if U.S. forces prepared for in any meaningful way.

"There does appear to be some effort to repair some of what the U.S. has done," said Jones. "But I will tell you, I was in Europe last week looking at an update on the war in Ukraine," and what struck him in particular is that "the Ukrainians have been targeted by missiles and drones for four and a half years. They have their bases underground. They've got a range of both point and area defense. So, [they have] counter-drone capabilities."

By contrast, he said, there is little if any of that kind of preparation by the U.S. forces campaigning against Iran.

"The U.S. should have been better prepared when this war started for these kinds of missiles, cruise [or] ballistic missiles and drones," said Jones, saying the situation is "entirely predictable" based on how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has played out.

"Having like structures that are hittable and not underground is a major lesson from the war in Ukraine that was not moved over to the Persian Gulf right now," he emphasized.

Meanwhile, as Trump risks escalating the war, Iran has successfully choked off world oil markets — and is warning more is to come in the energy crisis. Analysts have said the new strikes have proven ineffective at getting Iran back to the negotiating table, and reports indicate that Trump's own intelligence officials have reached the same conclusion.

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