Expectations

SEC. ESPER: I didn't see one with regard to four embassies. What I'm saying is I share the president's view that probably- my expectation was they were going to go after our embassies. The embassies are the most prominent display of American presence in a country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The description had been that this was a imminent threat to U.S. personnel and facilities in the region. Is that a more accurate description than what the president provided? SEC. ESPER: Well, what I've said publicly, I've- I've said many times, is that we had information that there was going to be an attack within a matter of days that would be broad in scale, in other words, more than one country, and that it would be bigger than previous attacks, likely going to take us into open hostilities with Iran.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Is that threat gone? SEC. ESPER: That was orchestrated by Qassem- Qassem Soleimani. He was the one- was- has led the attacks against America for 20 years now, so we had every expectation to believe that this would happen. In fact, a very, very senior person from the intelligence community said the risk of inaction is greater than the risk of action. That was compelling for me. MARGARET BRENNAN: Is that threat gone? SEC. ESPER: That threat has been disrupted. I think what we have to find out now is continue to work to make sure that that threat is completely eliminated.

Si contraddice o cerca di bluffare.
Il quadro che probabilmente gli è stato presentato dall'intelligence americana, anche rispetto a eventi passati, è che Soleimani aveva mezzi e motivi per agire.
La decisione di colpire è stata dettata esclusivamente da esigenze politiche.
Non lo ammette ma non c'è altra interpretazione a questo punto.

Update

The compelling action was to disrupt the attack by taking out Soleimani, a known terrorist leader.
Taking him out disrupted the attack. It also reset deterrence with Iran and made it clear that we weren’t going to tolerate this type of behavior. 9:06 PM - 12 Jan 2020
1. We eliminated the world's foremost terrorist, Qasem Soleimani. 2. We restored deterrence with Iran without American casualties. 3. We reassured our friends & allies in the region that the United States will stand up and defend our interests.
(State of the Union CNN)
9:03 PM - 12 Jan 2020
Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark T. 
Esper@EsperDoD

Avevamo capito bene.
Insiste ma non convince.
L'altra intervista era a Face the Nation CBS.