WEBVTT - Ben Rhodes has entered the conversation about Iran 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.760 Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.440 Hillsdale Hillsdale dot ed or. I encourage you to take 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:08.920 advantage of the many free online courses there, and of 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:09.400 course I'll. 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:10.840 Listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue. 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.320 All of them at que for Hillsdale dot com or 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.960 just google, Apple iTunes and Hillsdale Great America. 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:18.720 I'm qu Quille. 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:22.760 It's ash Wednesday. I hope you are observing today. If 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:25.639 you are Christian, if you're a Catholic, go get your ashes, 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:29.520 go to mass. I have a word of advice from 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:34.760 my friends in the priesthood, letting masses need to be short. 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.200 They don't need music. People have to go to work, 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.080 they don't need sermons. They just need to happen. 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:42.760 Now. 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:47.000 There are ASH Wednesday services late in the day after 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.879 work that are fine, that can go longer and can 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.040 have music, but really, the morning Mask, the noon Mass, 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.600 they need to be thirty five minutes. We don't need music. 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.400 People want to go to Mass and lent. Just let 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:02.160 them go to Mass. It's not it's not Sunday. And 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.320 I understand a lot of people are in the liturgical 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.720 music business and they want to perform for the Lord 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:10.000 and for the congregation. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:12.480 But that's not the way to do Lent. 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:15.959 You know, the very best descriptions that led I'm gonna 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:18.119 come to the war in a second I've ever read 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:22.000 was in Wolf's Hall, which was an upside down novel 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:25.440 that made Thomas Moore the bad guy, and that was bad. 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:28.840 But they did talk about. 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:33.080 Lent in the era of Henry the eighth, and they 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:36.640 really went all in back then. Now it's like Lent 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:40.480 light even for Catholics. I do is fast and abstained 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.240 on ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and then abstain from 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:50.240 meat on Friday and any other any other devotions or 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:53.120 sacrifices you want to make in order to sort of 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.840 observe the season of penance and repentance. The Pope went 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.000 way out on a limb yesterday and asked every cathol 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:04.920 like to please not use harsh words about their neighbor. Now, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.440 that's not good for my business, but I'll try and 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.640 go along with that. But I still got to play 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:12.760 you the news. And I'm sure not going to be 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.600 rooting for the Ayatola and the fanatics in Iran because 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.399 we're on the brink of war. All of the bulletins 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:21.720 coming from Israel are that they've gone into their defensive crouch. 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:27.040 They've alerted everyone to be ready for conflict. We've got 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:31.560 the biggest mass forces that we've had anywhere in the 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.720 world since prior to the Iraq invasion in two thousand 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:39.400 and three. And it doesn't look like Iran wants to 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:42.360 actually capitulate on the things that needs to capitulate on. 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:47.320 Stop killing your people, Stop supporting Hamas Hezbalah and the UTIs, 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:52.080 Stop building missiles and infect, disarm, and abandon attempts to 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:57.080 enrich and rebuild your obliterated nuclear program. Four asks don't 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.040 have to destroy you that people might rise up against you. 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.240 You've murdered thirty five thousand people. And I don't think 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.320 Donald Trump is Barack Obama right on schedule. By the way, 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.079 Ben Rhodes, the Metternich of ms NOW in the Architect 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.760 of the Echo Chamber, posted eighteen minutes ago, no legal 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:16.200 basis and no debate in Congress about what could be 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:18.920 a major war with no clear sense of what the 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:20.840 objective is or what comes next. 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.919 Huh. Kind of like Libya in twenty eleven. 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.120 Do you remember that the NATO operation that went on 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.480 months and months, took out Kadaffi. 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:32.920 Though Kadaffi was. 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.280 Not making war on his neighbors, he was a repressive dictator. 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:39.760 He was bad for the world, and NATO went in 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:40.560 didn't have a plan. 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:42.840 There's still a civil war going on there, but there 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:47.480 was no congressional authorization or maybe Bill Clinton supporting the 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.800 war in Serbia with General Wes Clark in charge of 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.840 it in nineteen ninety nine that went on for seventy 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.920 eight days air campaign. So look, there's one standard which 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.160 the president gets to ordered if he wants to, and 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.080 Congress can cut off the money if they want to. 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.920 Congress isn't going to cut off the money Congress want, 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:09.040 says to happen. Left wing nutters who envisioned some kind 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:10.520 of nirvana with Iran. 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:12.440 The Rhodes people, they've been wrong. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.480 They've been wrong since President Obama came up with It 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.080 would have been great if he'd been asked that on 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:20.279 Friday night, but he wasn't, and he's not getting tough questions. 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:20.640 I JD. 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:25.120 Evance did on Monday from Martha McCollum. Here is the 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:30.520 Vice President talking to Martha on yesterday, actually Tuesday, cut number. 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.679 One well, I'm obviously not going to make an announcements today. 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:35.680 I think the President has a lot of options. We 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:37.920 do have a very powerful military. The President's shown a 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.120 willingness to use it. He also has a remarkable diplomatic team. 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.039 He shown a willingness to use that too, And so 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:45.640 what the President has been very clear with the Iranians, 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:47.840 and actually I just talked to Steve Wook Golf and 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.719 Jared Kushner this morning about some of their negotiations is 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:53.760 the United States has certain red lines. Our primary interest 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:55.120 here is we don't want a Ran to get a 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.920 nuclear weapon. We don't want nuclear proliferation if it Ran 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.480 gets a nuclear weapon. There are a lot of othermes, 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:02.760 some friendly, some not so friendly, who would get nuclear 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.320 weapons after them. That would be a disaster for the 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:08.240 American people because then you have these crazy regimes all 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.800 over the world with the most dangerous weapons in the world. 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:12.599 And that's one of the things the President has said 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.760 he's going to prevent. Now, we would very much like, as. 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.120 The President has said, to resolve. 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:21.240 This through a conversation and a diplomatic negotiation. But the 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.680 President has all options on the table. And you know, 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.000 one thing about the negotiation. I will say this morning, 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.320 is you know, in some ways it went well, they 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:30.320 agreed to meet afterwards. But in other way is it 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:32.880 was very clear that the President has set some red 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:36.600 lines that the Iranians are not yet willing to actually 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.599 acknowledge and work through. So we're going to keep on 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:42.400 working it. But of course the President reserves the ability 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.440 to say when he thinks that diplomacy has reached its 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:47.600 natural end. We hope it will get to that point, 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:49.120 but if we do, that'll be the president's call. 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.680 He also talked about the difference between his speech at 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:56.159 Munich and the speech that Marco Ribio gave this weekend. 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:57.920 His speech was last year cut number three. 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.280 Rubio, Secretary State, was there. Gave a speech that had 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.880 a lot of similar underpinnings to it. But they were 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:06.880 applauding and they thought it was great. 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:08.200 So what happened with that? 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:09.440 Why is that the outcool? 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:11.800 Well I heard somebody say that I was the bad cop, 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:13.480 so that Marco could be a good cop. I mean, 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.039 he gave a great speech, but he drove home I 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.320 think a very important point that the Europeans have largely forgotten, 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.120 or at least had largely forgotten over the past year, 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.480 is that the reason why the President or Marco or 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.119 me talk about borders, the reason why we talk about 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.599 them spending more on their own security, the reason that 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.520 we talk about them more becoming a vibrant economy again, 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:36.880 is that we want Europe to thrive and we want 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:39.159 Europe to succeed. The problem that we have with Europe 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:40.919 is not that we don't like Europe, even though you 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:42.440 hear that from the European press. 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:46.040 It's not that we don't respect our allies. It's that they. 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.120 Are doing a lot of things to sabotage themselves. We 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:50.839 would like that to stop. We would like them to 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:52.760 be an ally in the true sense of the word. 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.719 And here's what the Vice President had to say about 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.880 Aosa distinguishing herself and Munich Cut number four. 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:02.599 Martha, you bring me on your show. 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.440 You show me the most uncomfortable twenty seconds of television 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:06.400 I've ever seen. 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:09.960 I take away from them there, what do you think? 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.360 Well, I think it's a person who doesn't know what 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:14.680 she actually thinks. And I've seen this way too much 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.640 in Washington with politicians, where they are given lines and 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:20.760 when you ask them to go outside the lines, they 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:24.080 were given. They completely fall apart because look, does AOC. 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:30.280 Does anybody really believe that AOC has very thoughtful ideas about. 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.000 The mister vice president? But you're getting close to the 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.040 Pope's landline, so we'll leave it there, and then the 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.480 vice president, I'm the former President Obama cut number five. 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:41.400 Well, I think the president will do what he thinks 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:43.200 isn't the best interest in the American people. I think 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:45.800 he's shown very clearly that he has not Broughck Obama. 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.520 He takes a much different approach to America's national security, 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.520 and he's much more willing to act aggressively to defend 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.200 America's national security. But the President of the United States 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:58.400 is very much trying to find a solution here, whether 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.200 it's through diplomatic op or through another option. That means 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:05.000 that the Iranians cannot have a nuclear weapon. That has 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:06.760 always been the main focus. If you go back to 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.160 the campaign that you ran in twenty fifteen, the Republican 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.320 primary campaign that he won, he said Iran cannot have. 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:14.080 A nuclear weapon. 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.520 I think it's very important for the American people to 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.960 appreciate it's one of the most hostile and also one 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:21.800 of the most irrational regimes in the world. 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:23.360 You can't have people. 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.800 Like that have the most dangerous weapon known to man. 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:28.600 It would be awful for our security, would be awful 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:30.640 for the future of our children. That is the goal 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:32.040 of the President the United States, and he's got a 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.440 lot of options and a lot of tools to make 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:35.200 sure that doesn't happen. 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:35.679 As well. 0:08:35.720 --> 0:08:39.280 After an interview and after the alert in Israel, crude 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.560 oil is up by four point six percent today is 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.960 sixty five dollars a barrel. 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:47.600 And I expect that we'll get higher and higher and higher. 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.160 Especially it'll pick spike when the war begins, and I 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.559 think the war is going to begin. However, the ten 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.160 year treasury is getting close to going below four percent, 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.760 which is not your interest rate on a thirty year mortgage. 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.040 A thirty year mortgage, you's got to tack on a 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:02.959 point and a half to two points, so it's probably 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.280 around six percent right now. Find out from Andrew and 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.320 toodd dot com. Triple A Triple eight eleven seventy two. 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:12.000 Triple A Triple eight eleven seventy two. My friends, you 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.400 don't have to stop buying your house because there's a ward. 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:16.040 We're going to break out. We're going to win it. 0:09:16.400 --> 0:09:17.880 You don't have to worry. By the way, if you're 0:09:17.880 --> 0:09:19.320 a veteran, you' not have to put any money down. 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:22.000 Andrew and toodd dot com handle those. If your first 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.840 time home buyer and you're confused, why your rates going 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:27.480 down when a war is imminent, ask Andrew and Todd 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.800 dot com. Because money is rushing into the United States 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.319 to the thirty year treasury, driving down the cost of 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.200 the thirty year treasury and the tenure Treasury. And the 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.200 tenure Treasury is on which the number on which most 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:41.880 thirty year mortgages are based, with a couple of extra 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.400 points added on. So it's a good time to be 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.000 buying a house right now. Get pre qualified, get in fact, 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.679 a letter of approval from Andrew Andtodd dot com. They're 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.840 with Union Home Mortgage. They are a bank. They actually 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.840 make the decision to underwrite your loan. So don't go 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.040 to a middleman. Don't go to anybody, go to Andrew 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.880 and Todd dot com. Triple A triple eight eleven seventy two. 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.960 Did my loan when we moved back to the West coast. 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.040 They did from to the East coast, from the West Coast. 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:11.520 They did Wayne's loane, They've done my kids loan. They've 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.560 done loans for thousands of people out there, not one complaint. 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.520 Andrew and Todd dot com Triple A, triple A eleven 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.920 to seventy two. And you know when you when you 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.360 need a home loan, you want to be able to 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.960 trust the person you're dealing with, and you want to 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.360 be able to ask maybe not the brightest questions in 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.760 the world, because you're a first time home buyer. That's 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:33.640 Andrew and toodd dot com. They're not gonna throw shade 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:35.360 at you because you don't know what you're doing. They're 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.839 going to help you. So start today, Andrew and Todd 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.160 dot com Triple A, triple A eleven seventy two, and 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.520 come right back. Noah Rothman of National Review is next. 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.240 Welcome back America. I'm Hew Hewett. Noah Rothman, senior writer 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:56.400 for National Review, joins us, Noah, is the war going 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:57.200 to start soon? 0:10:59.120 --> 0:10:59.400 Soon? 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.200 I assure your assessment that it's all but inevitable, but 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:06.960 I couldn't put a timeline on it. I don't think 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:10.319 the diplomatic track, as the president says, as a president 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.840 describes it is completely exhausted. I think there will need 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:19.000 to be some more deliberations over how fast we can 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.280 get the response from the Ranians. We're expecting a written 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:23.960 response having to do with the asks that you outlined 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.160 in the last segment, and if that is delayed or 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.120 if they're unsatisfactory, I think you'll have the predicate that 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.960 the White House needs to say that the diplomatic process 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:34.120 is exhausted. 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.000 Both for a domestic American audience and for. 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.120 The audience in the Middle East that I think mostly 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.440 this process has been for now. 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:41.960 No, you've got to help me out. 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:45.720 Pope Leo has told Catholic that this Lent, we can't 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.319 say bad things about people. We have to be nice. 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.720 And so Ben Rhoads posted, and so I'm going to 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:55.320 have you respond. Ben Roads posted no legal basis and 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:57.840 no debate in Congress about what could be a major war, 0:11:57.920 --> 0:11:59.840 with no clear sense of what the objective is. 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.840 What comes next? That was twenty five minutes ago. What 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:04.360 do you think? 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:07.400 All right, I'm going to take some runway here. 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:11.000 I'm under no theological obligation to avoid criticizing mister Rhodes, 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.000 and I will do so. The President, President Barack Obama 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.440 said in twenty twenty two, in the midst of some 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.960 really rare self criticism, that one of his bigger regrets 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.680 as president was ignoring the two thousand and nine Green 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:27.760 Revolution revolts in Iran. He said, in retrospect that was 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.720 a mistake. I haven't heard the president say anything he 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:33.320 did during his presidency was a mistake, but that was, 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.320 and that was Ben Rhodes brainchild, and it was part 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:40.000 of a much broader strategy. The President Barack Obama entered 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.920 office determined to get Americans out of Iraq. He did so, 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.160 but he did so recklessly and by empowering the Saite 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.400 militias under Iran's thumb, under the assumption that they would 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:53.040 bolster Iraqi security as well as create a more durable 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.040 balance of power in the region between Iran and its 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:58.920 scha Eyde elements and its orbit and the Sunni kingdoms 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:03.920 that freaked out the Sunni states Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE Jordan. 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.600 They started developing relationships with Israel over the process, over 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.200 the course of their fear that Iran was getting more 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.560 power than they could deter its its aggression against and 0:13:13.600 --> 0:13:16.080 so they developed those links. When Donald Trump came in, 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.520 He cultivated them. They flowered into the Abraham Accords. All 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.080 the while the President executed strikes on those Schiite militias 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:26.440 that Barack Obama refused to strike. He even stopped strikes 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.360 on ISIS targets and to create at one point when 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.080 he realized that there were IRGC personnel on the ground 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:35.560 directing those strikes very deferential to Iran, President Trump abandoned 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.720 all of that. He struck the Shiite militias, He struck 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.840 Saudi or the Syrian regime in Bashar al Asad's chemical 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:47.360 weapons contributing to its fatal decline. He struck Stelmani, and 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:49.600 he observed restraint over the course of all of this 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.240 could have exacted a much bigger price from Iran, for example, 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.640 for the attacks on oil tankers, for the brazen drone 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.280 strike on the Saudi petroleum processing facility at a Ramco 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:00.800 in twenty nineteen, he didn't. 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:03.199 But when they went back. 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:07.079 Into office, he pursued that very same maximum pressure campaign 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.000 with economic as well as diplomatic leverage, but also a 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.600 military component. And by that point Israel had already wiped 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:18.680 out Iran's decimated at least Iran's proxy militaries as a 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.240 response to what the Wall Street Journal reports was Iran's 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:24.360 green lighting, at least in some operational capacity of the 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:25.720 October seventh massacre. 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:28.359 And we thought around could not be more weak. 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.880 After the Midnight Hammer operation that decimated the nuclear facilities, 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:33.560 But we found out it could be made weaker still 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:37.320 by its own people. The revolt in December and January, 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.560 while crushed ruthlessly, has sacrificed whatever legitimacy is left in 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:46.480 the Iranian regime. Ben Rhodes's project is in tatters. Ben Rhodes, 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:50.560 as Barack Obama said repeatedly, tried to usher this country 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.120 into the Community of Nations, to make it a responsible 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.760 steward of its region and to create something like a 0:14:55.800 --> 0:14:58.760 balance of power. The idea being that we should pursue 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:02.200 something like Detant Nixon style the tent with Iran. The 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.160 Trump administration came in and like Reagan said, no, no, no, 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:07.440 what if we don't have to live with Iran anymore? 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:10.080 What if it didn't have to exist at all. That's 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:11.400 been a very consistent through life. 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:16.240 Yeah, they're always had the fatal flaw. Iran is run 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:19.240 by religious zealots. The Soviet Union was run by atheists 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.320 that don't have a next life to live for right, 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.960 they're not millennialists. They just wanted the Kingdom on Earth 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:28.640 to be paradise. Mister Rhodes makes the point that there's 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:32.720 no congressional debate, no resolution in that regard. It's like 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:36.680 the nineteen ninety nine US participation in the bombing campaign 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.880 in Yugoslavia against Serbia and Montenegro and the twenty eleven 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:46.360 Barack Obama bombing campaign in which we participated leading from behind. 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.720 I think was the famous phrase to bring down Kadafi. 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.280 I'm just wondering, he is there a good way to 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.640 say that those were okay? And the United States acting 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:58.520 now is not because I don't see it. 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:01.120 I don't see it either. 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.840 You and I have had disagreements over the necessity of 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.840 new AUMFS Authorizations for the use of military force, which 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.520 is the functional declaration of war that Congress has the 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.120 constitutional authority to issue when it comes to Venezuela. 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:14.920 We've been at odds over that. I am not. 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.720 Concerned when it comes to strikes in Iran. I think 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.040 the Iranian regime is it's not a tortured reading of 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.680 the two thousand and one AUMF to suggest that the 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:28.640 regime in Iran is captured by that AUMF, and we. 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:29.200 Acted on it. 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:31.440 In fact, in two thousand and six two thousand and five, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.000 during the time in which Iran was actively facilitating the 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.880 killing of US soldiers in Iraq, we estimate that roughly 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:42.080 six hundred or more US soldiers are We're dead, not wounded, 0:16:42.280 --> 0:16:44.120 killed as a result of Iranian. 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:44.480 Action in Iraq. 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.520 I think the AUMF captures that would it would be 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.640 sufficient to legally justify an attack on the Iranian regime 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:54.920 designed to topple the Iranian regime. 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.680 Okay, one last question. I think I'm under an injunction 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.640 from the pontiff. Not to be mean, but I just 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.600 want to be accurator. We gave them a billion and 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.800 a half dollars on pallets, and we each sanctions during 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:13.280 President Obama's tenure, but it was obamacarey ben roads A 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:15.040 toen them a billion and a half in Is it 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:17.399 fair to say they bought the bullets that killed the 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.119 thirty five thousand people or. 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.280 The shaped chart the shaped charges that were imported and 0:17:23.320 --> 0:17:25.520 delivered into the hands of insurgents that were used to 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.760 attack US soldiers and Ied attacks yeah. I think that's 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.400 absolutely fair because money is fungible. The Iranian regime uses 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:35.280 the funds that it gets not for hospitals necessarily, but 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.440 for terrorist attacks, and you can't tell where the money 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.280 is going once you give it to them. 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:40.600 I will give Ben Rhodes this. 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.680 I think the president President Donald Trump should come to 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.919 the American people sooner rather than later. The campaign that 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.280 he's envisioning is a week's long campaign. 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:51.160 It will be a fraught project. 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.800 The Iranians might face a situation where it's not like 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:55.600 the Twelve Day War, where it's. 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.360 A use it or lose it kind of situation for them, and. 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.560 They might fire off all all the Bliss missiles that 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.919 they have in their capacity and use some asymmetric capabilities 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.960 to try to target American troops American naval assets. We 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.360 should be prepared for that and prepare for the prospect 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.399 that it could be a war that involves casualties. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:12.000 U right. 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:14.879 I think thousands of Americans could die. It's unlikely, but 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.959 it's possible. Our allies could be injured. Israeli could die 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:20.560 by the tens of thousands if they get a good 0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.960 hit off. And I don't think anyone has really been 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.399 preparing for that in the way that before two thousand 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:29.359 and three, and I want to give you the last word, 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:34.200 W did and before nineteen ninety one, HW did. I 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:36.520 don't think anyone's talking about the threat to Americans. 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:41.000 No, no, And I worry that the White House is 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:45.200 afraid of articulating to the American people what the worst 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:46.919 case scenario could be, because. 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:47.520 It is really scary. 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.680 But this is a national project that deserves to be pursued. 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:54.960 And the argument for taking out this regime the most 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.320 malignant force on the planet Earth, which has been at 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.560 war with the United States for fifty years, which has 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.320 killed in Americans and will continue to kill Americans, and 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:06.040 it's possessed of a suicidally millenarian outlook in which it's 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:09.040 the members of this regime, the claresy, do not care 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.000 if they invite something like a Gotterdam of room and 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:16.919 are a real catastrophic conflict with the West. This is 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.560 a necessary project. It's necessary for Donald Trump to pursue 0:19:20.560 --> 0:19:23.480 what he started in twenty sixteen and twenty seventeen. 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.080 And I think the American people would be on board 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:25.400 with him. 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:27.679