Former Joint Chiefs Chair Mullen says regime change is a 'very difficult undertaking'

Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday that he has doubts that the U.S. can successfully pull off regime change in Iran.

“Our track record in Iraq, where we actually chose the leader, in Afghanistan, where we chose the leader was pretty bad. So, it's a very, very difficult undertaking,” Mullen told "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz.

Mullen served as chair of the Joint Chiefs under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, while the U.S. was fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

President Donald Trump in recent days has raised the possibility of regime change in Iran. Trump said the U.S. should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader.

Trump has demanded “unconditional surrender” from the Iranians, but Mullen said that he does not expect that they will lay down their arms, even as their supreme leader and several top officials were killed.

“The supreme leader is dead, but I don't think the regime change that we're talking about is represented just by that,” Mullen said. "They're going to sacrifice everything they've got in order to make sure that they can survive.”

The war with Iran entered its ninth day Sunday, and Iran’s retaliation is increasingly widespread across the region. Mullen said he worries the conflict could spread in unpredictable ways.

“Wars expand, objectives change, circumstances come up that you didn't expect,” Mullen said. “And I worry this has already become a wide, regional war.”

The consequences of the war have also begun to extend beyond the Middle East. As of Sunday morning, AAA shows gas prices have risen $0.47 since the first attacks Feb. 28, the result of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial passage for the world’s oil supply.

“We've got the economy of the world in great part depending on the open waters that the Straits of Hormuz and how markets react to this. You've got a tourism, economic, livelihood in the region that's actually completely stopped right now,” Mullen said. “There's an awful lot in play that we can't anticipate.”

And as most Democrats continue to criticize the president and his administration, Mullen said he remains focused on the present.

“I think the debate about how we got in, when we got in, why we got in will continue,” Mullen said. “I'm much more focused now on the fact that we're in and how can we make it come out well.”