Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
Speaker 1: Hillsdale Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the many free online courses there, and of
Speaker 1: course I'll listen to the Hillsdale dialogues, all of them
Speaker 1: at hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just google, Apple,
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale and I got a big show for
Speaker 1: you today coming up. Jonathan Schanzer, Ben and ben Belkablue
Speaker 1: from the Foundation for the Defensive Democracy, Eleana Johnson from
Speaker 1: the Washington Freebeacon, Jim tallon Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, so
Speaker 1: much more, But I start with the indispensable Jim Garrity
Speaker 1: Washington Post call him as senior political writer for National Review.
Speaker 1: He writes every morning the morning Joel would shot to
Speaker 1: be getting and reading. Chim will cover the breaking news
Speaker 1: of CHRISTI nom being fired and Mark Wayne Mullen being
Speaker 1: named after I get your first assessment of how the
Speaker 1: war with Iron is going, because that is the big
Speaker 1: story of the day, and we're five days in. By
Speaker 1: the end of the show, something terrible could happen, but
Speaker 1: right now such Americans have been killed and Iran's getting
Speaker 1: a living daylights knocked out of them. What do you think, Hugh.
Speaker 2: The last time we talked, the war had not yet begune,
Speaker 2: and I was reminding your listeners of Trump's truth Social
Speaker 2: statement that help was on its way. I believe forty
Speaker 2: six days passed between that statement on truth Social and
Speaker 2: the actual beginning of bombing. In the interim, a lot
Speaker 2: of the Iranian regime managed to kill a lot of protesters,
Speaker 2: and I was frustrated by it. It came late, but
Speaker 2: when it came, it came in just phenomenal numbers. And
Speaker 2: the performance of the military has just been superlative in
Speaker 2: terms of the precision, in terms of the scale of
Speaker 2: the scope, the sheer integration with our Israeli allies, and
Speaker 2: the use of Israeli intelligence has just been fascinating. And
Speaker 2: you know, today's Morning jult I kind of went through
Speaker 2: all the numbers. Before the conflict, Iran had the thirteenth
Speaker 2: largest military.
Speaker 3: In the world.
Speaker 2: Whether there was a little bit of hyperbole in Secretary
Speaker 2: of Defense Pete Hegsas comments yesterday when he said the
Speaker 2: Iranian Navy has been destroyed, the Iranian Air Force has
Speaker 2: been destroyed.
Speaker 3: They're a shadow of their former.
Speaker 2: Selves and In fact, just this afternoon, another Iranian warship
Speaker 2: went into port at Sri Lanka and basically said we're out.
Speaker 2: We're not leaving port for the remainder of the conflict.
Speaker 2: We have no interest in joining that other ship at
Speaker 2: the bottom of the ocean. It's been phenomenal, and you know,
Speaker 2: we've been through at least one eye Atola, possibly two.
Speaker 2: It's kind of hard to see because they cycle through
Speaker 2: them so fast. The Iranian regime is never going to
Speaker 2: be the same from us. I know the job is
Speaker 2: not done. I really want to see the Iranian regime
Speaker 2: utterly complete.
Speaker 3: If we end up in a Venezuela type.
Speaker 2: Situation where we leave the runner up or the right
Speaker 2: hand man of the old leader in charge, it's not
Speaker 2: going to be conducive to our long term interests. But
Speaker 2: you know, kudos to the President for calling for taking
Speaker 2: action that really no democratic even those alleged Neocon war
Speaker 2: bongers Bush and Sheney never did something like this.
Speaker 1: Two people coming up, Ben and Ben Talableau of the
Speaker 1: Foundation for Defensive Democracies, and I often talked to Kareem
Speaker 1: Sajetpoor when I'm in town, sometimes on the radio. They've
Speaker 1: both been very public. Don't arm the courage, don't let
Speaker 1: the country fall into civil war. What's your thought on that,
Speaker 1: because you know, obviously we would like the regular Iranian
Speaker 1: army to turn on the IRGC, kill them all and
Speaker 1: hold elections. But that's ye and I'd also like a
Speaker 1: unicorn that's not going to happen. What's the best result
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 2: The wariness of arming the Kurds is well placed and justified.
Speaker 2: It's been a long while since I've been in Turkey,
Speaker 2: but the RAND has fired just about everything and everybody
Speaker 2: they have not. There's one missile that got shot down
Speaker 2: over Turkey. There's debate about whether it was set in
Speaker 2: towards Julk, but by and large Iran has not fired
Speaker 2: directly at Turkey. This is because they share a border.
Speaker 2: Turkey has about a million men men when you throw
Speaker 2: in the reserves. They have a NATO trained first class
Speaker 2: army in very good drones. So if the Iranians were
Speaker 2: the Uranians have no capacity to pick a fight with
Speaker 2: the Turks right now. One area, though, that where Iran
Speaker 2: and Turkey do have shared interests, is the fact that
Speaker 2: they both have.
Speaker 3: Curds on their territory.
Speaker 2: Curtis stand if it existed as a country and included
Speaker 2: the ethnic Kurds would kind of the overlap.
Speaker 3: In the borders of both of them.
Speaker 2: And neither the Turks nor the Iranians want to see
Speaker 2: an independent Curtis stan get formed.
Speaker 3: The northern third of Iraq is a it's.
Speaker 2: Not an independent country, but it's got a great deal
Speaker 2: of autonomy and how it runs with the RACK, and
Speaker 2: I believe a little bit of Syria two has.
Speaker 3: A bit of the Curds.
Speaker 2: I understand the US wants to we're doing everything without
Speaker 2: a ground force right now, and there's an argument.
Speaker 3: We've seen the limits of air power.
Speaker 2: You can't remove a regime from power without somebody on
Speaker 2: the ground fighting there. I do, however, think that this
Speaker 2: would be opening up a can of worms. This would
Speaker 2: be opening up all of a sudden. Turkey would no
Speaker 2: longer be neutral to you know, supportive of our operations.
Speaker 3: I think they would be deeply concerned by this.
Speaker 1: All right now, I want to hear every other I've
Speaker 1: gotta have enough time to switch because you are the
Speaker 1: father of a couple of robot geeks and they're in
Speaker 1: high school. When I was in high school, Saigon fell
Speaker 1: in the helicopter leaving the embassy. Happened when I was
Speaker 1: a freshman in college. When you were in high school,
Speaker 1: I'll bet you nineteen ninety one happened Desert first Desert,
Speaker 1: Gulf War, and we were unstoppable. Other people have come
Speaker 1: of age during disasters or maybe mixed messages. Your boys
Speaker 1: are in high school and they're saying this, what do
Speaker 1: they think.
Speaker 2: We'll should point out My older one is in college
Speaker 2: and apparently when you go to a tech school, nobody
Speaker 2: pays attention.
Speaker 3: To current events.
Speaker 2: Well, so like, uh yeah, like this this is not
Speaker 2: at least as of like this weekend, but.
Speaker 4: It's all robots, it's all drunk.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in high school.
Speaker 2: There's been some talk with my own one, but my
Speaker 2: sense each year I kind of there's this argument fewer.
Speaker 2: You know, the number of Americans who serve in the
Speaker 2: military is very small, the number of Americans who are veterans.
Speaker 3: So the number of Americans who can go through their.
Speaker 2: Day and don't have a relative, don't have a friend,
Speaker 2: don't have someone else who's served in the military in
Speaker 2: some capacity, and we can spend their day thinking about
Speaker 2: the Kardashians or mister Beast or or something else that's
Speaker 2: completely alien to you, and I unfortunately this is I
Speaker 2: don't feel like the country is at war. And some
Speaker 2: of that is because you know, knocking on wood and
Speaker 2: you said, by the time people hear this, things can
Speaker 2: go wrong. That there was the shooting in Austin and
Speaker 2: otherwise we have not seen any activated Arabians, sleeper cells,
Speaker 2: or other acts of terrorism on the US home front.
Speaker 3: So that's, you know, that's good news.
Speaker 2: But I think it also adds to this sense that
Speaker 2: this is a war that's happening far away.
Speaker 3: Also, very thankfully, we've had a great.
Speaker 2: Fear of casualties in a war like this unless I
Speaker 2: check to you where you still only have six in
Speaker 2: a perfect world, about six too many, and we're going
Speaker 2: to mourn every last one of those heroes. But I
Speaker 2: think if you don't want to pay attention to this war,
Speaker 2: you have that option in a way that was not
Speaker 2: possible certainly like that, not that I remember in the
Speaker 2: Persian Gulf with during Vietnam, or even post nine to
Speaker 2: eleven or Iraq, where like that was wall to wall
Speaker 2: twenty four to seven, every cable channel, this was the story.
Speaker 2: Now life goes on. I don't grudge people talking about
Speaker 2: the Texas primaries or other issues or.
Speaker 3: Things like that.
Speaker 2: But I do kind of feel like it's strangely quiet
Speaker 2: for us to have begun what it effectively amounts to
Speaker 2: a regime change war against an enemy in our lives
Speaker 2: since the Iranian hostage.
Speaker 1: From my whole, I don't like I want to finish
Speaker 1: with this, given how serious the foe is and Iran
Speaker 1: is the octopus of terror. I am very glad that
Speaker 1: Mark Wwaynemullin is going to DHS because I think he's
Speaker 1: a serious man. And I'm not sure that the governor
Speaker 1: formercy Governor's out the cut had the management chops to
Speaker 1: run DHS with h two hundred and sixty thousand employees.
Speaker 1: They haven't even finished the wall yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So first of all, let's point out that, like
Speaker 2: you know, when people are looking for potential Iranian sleeper agents,
Speaker 2: sleeper cells, stuff like that, the FBI and everybody who's
Speaker 2: under the Department of Justice is getting paid, but anybody.
Speaker 3: Who's part of DHS is not getting paid.
Speaker 2: And I don't know about you, Hugh, but I really
Speaker 2: feel like if you're trying to catch terrorists.
Speaker 3: I'd like you to get paid.
Speaker 1: It seems.
Speaker 2: It seems like literally the least we can do is
Speaker 2: make sure you get paid on time.
Speaker 3: Christy Noam.
Speaker 2: I wrote The Morning Joel back in January that she
Speaker 2: was the biggest liability of the Trump administration. I don't
Speaker 2: think she brought a lot to the table. I think
Speaker 2: she kept you know, this was after the Minnesota shootings
Speaker 2: when she went out and gave a briefing that was
Speaker 2: like full of false information. Apparently it was the ad
Speaker 2: campaign that Kennedy.
Speaker 3: Asked her about.
Speaker 2: And I should give a shout out to my colleague
Speaker 2: Audrey Fahlberg, who first reported that Trump was just fed
Speaker 2: up with no idea. Tell me again, Christy no My
Speaker 2: colleague Audrey is a walking.
Speaker 1: Podcast. Yeah, stay up on the podcast for her.
Speaker 5: She everyone the.
Speaker 2: Jay Jones story last fault like she you know, but
Speaker 2: it's not likely surprising. Christy Doman had knock been out
Speaker 2: hitting it out.
Speaker 3: Of the park.
Speaker 2: Uh, you're playing the video and I'm just kind of
Speaker 2: observing it. Like she always seemed to be in front
Speaker 2: of a camera. She always seemed to be wearing some
Speaker 2: uniform or outfit or something. The moment Tom Holman stepped
Speaker 2: into Minneapolis, you notice things seemed to get better. Cooperation
Speaker 2: from state and local law enforcement, seemed to improve. She's
Speaker 2: a governor, she's not in law enforcement. And she always
Speaker 2: seemed like a bit of a strange pick. I know
Speaker 2: the huge people thought Christy Dolan would be this be
Speaker 2: with this administration until the last dog dies.
Speaker 1: But okay, Garity, you had missed your daily your your
Speaker 1: weekly quotient of bad jokes. It's sort of like a
Speaker 1: given that there's going to be a bad Garrity joke.
Speaker 1: Were you bad on your boys? Were you like mister
Speaker 1: dad joke on the Neighborhood Watch Hugh?
Speaker 3: The whole reason I became a father is to tell Dad,
Speaker 3: good Dad.
Speaker 4: Joe, I thought so.
Speaker 1: Garity. Read him in the Washington Post, read him in
Speaker 1: the National Review. Listen to the Three Martini Lunch, listen
Speaker 1: to the Editors podcast, and get the morning Joelt. I
Speaker 1: don't what time you get up to write that thing.
Speaker 2: I'm in front of my computer about six and forty
Speaker 2: five am Eastern. I try to send it off to
Speaker 2: the editors by nine.
Speaker 1: Well well done, that something's gone wrong every day. Well done,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jim Garretty follow him on exit. Jim Garretty
Speaker 1: found me the next segment, I'm Hugo walking back America.
Speaker 1: I'm Huughe Hewett. Every single Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I begin
Speaker 1: my morning with John and Shenshanzer, who does the FDD
Speaker 1: morning brief. I always learn how long the war has
Speaker 1: been going on because Jonathan always begins with how many
Speaker 1: days it's been since ten to seven? Jonathan, you also
Speaker 1: are a numbers guy. How many launchers have been destroyed?
Speaker 1: What is the estimate of how many are left in
Speaker 1: the Iranian arsenal?
Speaker 6: You know, this is not exactly something that the Iranians
Speaker 6: are publicizing. What we saw a couple of days ago
Speaker 6: is that three hundred were destroyed. Right now we're thinking
Speaker 6: about four hundred. That's probably two thirds of the total launchers.
Speaker 6: And then on top of that, we're hearing that the
Speaker 6: total amount of launch is by the Iranian regime I
Speaker 6: dropped by something like eighty percent. So the dwindling ability
Speaker 6: of the regime is what we're looking at. Certainly, I
Speaker 6: think a lot of that tracks back to the launchers themselves.
Speaker 6: You can't get those missiles up in the air without
Speaker 6: the mobile launchers or the static ones, and so what's
Speaker 6: happening right now is this is just a hunting expedition.
Speaker 6: The US and the Israelis have complete and total dominance
Speaker 6: in the skies over Iran. They have full control over
Speaker 6: that airspace, and so now they're just going around looking
Speaker 6: for the next missile that's been pulled out of a
Speaker 6: silo in the hope of destroying it before it can
Speaker 6: hit Kuwait, for example, or Ozerbaijan or Turkey.
Speaker 1: Jonathan, I'm sure you remember the video that the IRGC
Speaker 1: released last year of the guy who looked like the
Speaker 1: old guy from Iraq who said nothing wrong here driving
Speaker 1: around in a jeep in the missile caves. Can we
Speaker 1: penetrate those caves? Are they blowing up all over the country?
Speaker 6: So right now, yes, First of all, you know, it's
Speaker 6: hard to forget bag dad Bob as we.
Speaker 4: Call them from a rock.
Speaker 6: I think the guy's name was Tarakazis if I'm if
Speaker 6: I'm remembering it correctly. But yeah, the regime tried to,
Speaker 6: you know, I think, convey last year that they had
Speaker 6: this impenetrable capability. My understanding is that the United States
Speaker 6: has actually started to target these with some of the
Speaker 6: heavier munitions that we have. How many we've struck I
Speaker 6: don't know, you know, the battle damage Assessment or the BDA, right,
Speaker 6: we get these on a somewhat regular basis now from
Speaker 6: the Pentagon. It's going to take a little bit of time,
Speaker 6: I think, for all of the information to come out.
Speaker 4: But look, I think that.
Speaker 6: The core takeaway here is that the military component of
Speaker 6: this is going incredibly well. Full integration with the Israeli
Speaker 6: military and the American military, the intelligence sharing, the I mean,
Speaker 6: you can tell that the leaders of these two countries
Speaker 6: are are in full sync.
Speaker 4: All of that I think is very positive.
Speaker 6: The question to my mind right now is, you know,
Speaker 6: the Arab States, do they get wobbly, you know, because
Speaker 6: they've started to sustain strikes and it looks like some
Speaker 6: serious damage.
Speaker 4: I think that's a concern.
Speaker 6: And then also the unity among the Iranian people, and
Speaker 6: that's been kind of a black box, right We just
Speaker 6: don't know what's happening on the ground right now. Are
Speaker 6: the people of Iran going to pull together and fight
Speaker 6: this regime?
Speaker 4: I think that's something what we.
Speaker 6: Be hearing about within the next week or two, as
Speaker 6: I hope anyway, the kinetic operations start.
Speaker 1: To slow, Jonathan, your colleague Ben and Ben in Taliblu
Speaker 1: will be on Nicked hour and I want him on
Speaker 1: to talk about the one story out there concerned to
Speaker 1: me that we are arming the Kurds in order to
Speaker 1: start an insurrection, which Banam and kareemside, you're poor from Carnegie.
Speaker 1: They both the two guys who know the most about
Speaker 1: Iran that I know, other than norm rule. Bad idea.
Speaker 1: Don't do that. What do you think is that a
Speaker 1: bad idea?
Speaker 6: Look, here's what everybody needs to understand is that you
Speaker 6: have the kind of the core of Iran. These are
Speaker 6: the Persian you know, the Persians, right, the Iranians, the
Speaker 6: non minorities, right. And when you talk about Iran, you're
Speaker 6: talking about minorities like the Arabs and the baluch and
Speaker 6: the Uzbeks, And I mean there is a like a
Speaker 6: patchwork of minorities. The majority of Iranians want to be
Speaker 6: able to liberate their country by themselves for themselves. And
Speaker 6: when you start injecting Kurdish nationalism into the the equation, people.
Speaker 4: Start to get nervous.
Speaker 6: They start to worry about the Balkanization of Iran. And
Speaker 6: that's why you're gonna hear Iranian say that it's a
Speaker 6: bad idea. Now there, I can understand why Americans might
Speaker 6: like this idea that hey, we're not going to put
Speaker 6: boots on the ground, We're going to fight by proxy,
Speaker 6: and we can use people that are interested in doing
Speaker 6: this and they're not asking for anything in return.
Speaker 4: The key is, are they actually really not asking for
Speaker 4: anything in return?
Speaker 6: Or are they going to say, Hey, I thought and
Speaker 6: now I want a Kurdistan of my own, and that's
Speaker 6: going to set off the Iranians, It's going to.
Speaker 4: Set off the Turks.
Speaker 6: This is just this is complexity that we don't necessarily
Speaker 6: need right now and could be an unforced era on
Speaker 6: the part of the Trump administration. I hope they're hearing
Speaker 6: this from Iranians, and I hope they're moving slowly right now.
Speaker 4: It's not to say that we can't.
Speaker 6: It's just a question of is this advisable at this
Speaker 6: stage in the operation?
Speaker 4: Is this a good thing?
Speaker 6: So I'm not surprised to hear some of our Iranian
Speaker 6: friends warn against it.
Speaker 1: Another quite you're font of information. I appreciate it every
Speaker 1: time you do the Morning Brief. Early on I saw
Speaker 1: pictures of iron Beam. Now I've come not to believe
Speaker 1: anything I see because of AI and old videos being
Speaker 1: repurposed with new sub lower thirds. Has iron Bean been deployed?
Speaker 1: Is it working?
Speaker 6: My understanding is that it is usable, but I don't
Speaker 6: think that it is reliable. And there's a big difference.
Speaker 6: Right when you've got a battle ongoing, are you going
Speaker 6: to use something that is tried and true and tested
Speaker 6: like Iron Dome for the short range missiles, Arrow three
Speaker 6: for the long range missiles. These are the Israeli systems
Speaker 6: that have saved countless lives and so as I understand it, yeh,
Speaker 6: iron beam, this is the directed laser, directed energy laser.
Speaker 6: They want to be able to use it, they want
Speaker 6: to be able to trot it out. But it's at
Speaker 6: this point, as I understand it, not ready for prime time,
Speaker 6: not yet. But stay tuned because if the Israelis continue
Speaker 6: to make strides in this space, this will be important
Speaker 6: for the United States too. The Israelis may be breaking
Speaker 6: ground on the kinds of tech that we're going to
Speaker 6: need to be able to defend our skies or to
Speaker 6: defend the skies of other allies.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Walter Russell Meade made the same point today in
Speaker 1: a podcast with Dan Senor that Israeli a American defense
Speaker 1: technology and capabilities are unmatched around the world. Last question,
Speaker 1: people on the Hill listen to FDD. Is FDD urging
Speaker 1: either a supplemental or a reconciliation or just the normal
Speaker 1: appropriations to restock the shells which are depleted, and I
Speaker 1: mean ammunition.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And look, the Israelis are going to need whatever
Speaker 6: they can get. And you just got to understand they
Speaker 6: have dropped something. I mean, you want to talk about numbers.
Speaker 6: I believe they have hit fifty five five hundred targets
Speaker 6: in six days. That it is an enormoust of ordinance
Speaker 6: that is being dropped right now on this regime. The
Speaker 6: Israelis are going to need to restock. It looks like
Speaker 6: they're very likely going to have to have a knockdown,
Speaker 6: drag out battle with his Belah in Lebanon while also
Speaker 6: fighting the regime in Iran. So I'd like to see
Speaker 6: whatever the US Congress is able to muster for the Israelis.
Speaker 6: This is not charity, folks, This is the Israelis fighting
Speaker 6: side by side with the United States trying to make
Speaker 6: the Middle East a sane place again.
Speaker 4: And I think we're on our way.
Speaker 6: There's still a lot that can go wrong, but they're
Speaker 6: gonna need This is how they operate. They operate with
Speaker 6: American munitions, so if we've got them, we should supply them.
Speaker 4: They're working with us and for us.
Speaker 1: John and Shann They're always good to talk to you. Again,
Speaker 1: everyone ought to be listening to the Morning Brief Monday, Wednesday,
Speaker 1: Friday with Jonathan. I don't know why we don't get
Speaker 1: Tuesday's Thursdays. I don't know. I should ask Jonathan.
Speaker 3: I'm tired.
Speaker 1: I know your time here five days a week. Come on, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: get up and tell me what's going on. Jonan Shands
Speaker 1: are always good to talk to. The executive director of
Speaker 1: Foundation for the Defense of Democracy Think tu in America.
Speaker 1: I'm you doing Welcome Back in America. I'm to do it.
Speaker 1: The question before the House is can President Donald J.
Speaker 1: Trump pull off a Goldielocks war not too little like
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one the Iraq invasion, then not too big
Speaker 1: like the two thousand and three Iraq invasion, but just
Speaker 1: right with Iran To answer that, have Eleana Y. Johnson
Speaker 1: of the Washington Free Beacon, where she's editor in chief.
Speaker 1: How about it, Eliana, are you hoping for the Goldielocks
Speaker 1: turned out, and what will it look out look like
Speaker 1: if it happens.
Speaker 7: Well, Hugh, I'm hoping for victory. I think that's what
Speaker 7: all Americans are hoping for. And I would be a
Speaker 7: fool if I told you I know what that exactly
Speaker 7: looks like. But when you talk about Goldilocks, I think
Speaker 7: that is what the p presidents driving for. Where he
Speaker 7: said this isn't a regime change war, and yet we
Speaker 7: saw him earlier today way in and say, yes, well,
Speaker 7: the Iatola's son is not acceptable to me. We want
Speaker 7: someone who will bring harmony in peace to Iran. And
Speaker 7: you know, Iotola two point zero is not what I'm
Speaker 7: driving at. And I do want to weigh in on
Speaker 7: who the successor leader of Iran is, and so I
Speaker 7: think he he is driving it somewhere between the Gulf
Speaker 7: War leaving Saddam in power. Obviously the Iatola has already
Speaker 7: are already been killed and having no control over the
Speaker 7: future of the country.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've seen the picture yet of
Speaker 1: Doug Bergham with Delsa and Venezuela today. Do you think
Speaker 1: Don Bergham is gonna end up in Tehran sating next
Speaker 1: to Ama or An i RGC colonel or an Iranian
Speaker 1: Army general.
Speaker 7: I don't think so. I don't think Iran and Venezuela
Speaker 7: are the same. But I do think there's a world
Speaker 7: in which the president would love to be received by
Speaker 7: cheering crowds in Tehran one day. I think this is
Speaker 7: a legacy play move to him. It's obviously not pole driven,
Speaker 7: as the majority of the country is against this now,
Speaker 7: even though a huge majority of MAGA Republicans are for it.
Speaker 7: And I think what the President's hoping to do is
Speaker 7: through action, through victory, change, you know, garner support for
Speaker 7: this war.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Eliana, I listened to commentary every day, and I
Speaker 1: listened to Ruthie asking you about the polls this morning,
Speaker 1: and I don't care about the polls until we're at
Speaker 1: least a month in, because nobody really knows how they
Speaker 1: feel until if they hit them owner tomorrow. It's a disaster.
Speaker 1: If we leave the IRGC in command and they mow
Speaker 1: down fifty thousand Iranians, it's not a good thing. We
Speaker 1: just don't know, but it looks good for five days.
Speaker 7: I agree with you. Youugh things look right now, and
Speaker 7: I don't want to be governed by a president who's
Speaker 7: making decisions about national security and where to strike and
Speaker 7: whether to strike based on scrutinizing poll numbers and looking
Speaker 7: at the next election. I want a president doing what
Speaker 7: I think this president is doing right now, which is,
Speaker 7: you know, I'll distinguish why he did this at all
Speaker 7: versus why he took this opportunity when he did it.
Speaker 7: But he took an opportunity when he had it regardless
Speaker 7: of what the polls said, and I think that's that's wise.
Speaker 1: Let me divert for a moment, Eliana. I do not
Speaker 1: talk about other podcasters who engage in stuff I don't
Speaker 1: like because they don't want to draw attention to them.
Speaker 1: I'm making an exception with you because you may have
Speaker 1: had Hbad at Yale. I don't know if you did.
Speaker 1: Habad is a fine organization. It's on most campuses. They
Speaker 1: were the target of the Mumbai terror attack, they were
Speaker 1: the target of the Bondai Beach terror attack. They are
Speaker 1: always a target because Abbad is very public. Where there's
Speaker 1: a hubbad house. Tucker went after Hubbad yesterday and I
Speaker 1: want him to take it down. Are you shocked by that?
Speaker 7: I have to say you, I've not listened to this
Speaker 7: at length. I've seen maybe as you have clips on
Speaker 7: this episode. I was surprised to see it, and I
Speaker 7: think it's important for people to know that this is
Speaker 7: an organization that supports Jews and Jewish life, and so
Speaker 7: to get the facts out there about it, which is
Speaker 7: that's the beginning of the end and end of why
Speaker 7: this organization exists, and that's it.
Speaker 1: And they support Jews everywhere around the world, and I
Speaker 1: just don't want to put a target on their back,
Speaker 1: and so I hope he takes it down. Let me
Speaker 1: move back to the war with you.
Speaker 7: We're not the other thing you is ahead is that
Speaker 7: I would add to this is there may be an
Speaker 7: aspect of this where things need to get worse before
Speaker 7: they get better, where we will see increasingly unhinged conspiracy theories.
Speaker 7: I saw Candice Owens weighing in praising that and talking about,
Speaker 7: you know, Jews trying to have her murdered and so on.
Speaker 7: Maybe that we need to spin off into those increasingly
Speaker 7: that increasingly unhinged territory for all of this to get
Speaker 7: rained back in eventually.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it broke my back. I've just ignored this stuff
Speaker 1: because it's been around forever. It's been in the water forever,
Speaker 1: and it's by the way.
Speaker 7: The President has now weighed in as well, I would note,
Speaker 7: and his comment to Jonathan Carl of ABC News was
Speaker 7: that Tucker has lost his way. I knew that a
Speaker 7: long time ago. He's not Maga, Mega's saving our country.
Speaker 7: Mega's America first, Tucker's and of those things, Tucker is
Speaker 7: really not smart enough to understand that. And look, those
Speaker 7: two could be friends again in six months. Nothing's permanent
Speaker 7: with the president, but obviously the President is standing with
Speaker 7: the State of Israel right now, key partners in this war,
Speaker 7: and with the Jewish people, as he has since twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: And Tucker come back to normalcy. That's also possible. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you about whether or not you think that
Speaker 1: Congress is going to move rapidly or take its time
Speaker 1: to replenish the munition stock, both for America and Israel.
Speaker 1: They could do that with a reconciliation in a week.
Speaker 1: You need Budget Committee and Appropriating Committee and Armed Services
Speaker 1: Committee and both Senate and House to get together to
Speaker 1: do that. But they could move quickly if they want to,
Speaker 1: or they could wait and do a supplemental which takes longer.
Speaker 1: They could wait for normal appropriation. I think they had
Speaker 1: to go fast. What do you think, Eliana?
Speaker 7: Of course I agree with you, Hugh, and I think
Speaker 7: we should hear from the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth
Speaker 7: on this screaming from the rooftops until it gets done,
Speaker 7: as well as the president top national priority right now.
Speaker 7: And it's worth noting that it's wonderful to see the
Speaker 7: new weapons of war used here, powered by artificial intelligence,
Speaker 7: and both by the US and Israel. Fantastic. It's been
Speaker 7: hugely successful.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to Dan Senior or today Walter Russell
Speaker 1: Mead says, it's incredible how advanced Israeli An American defense
Speaker 1: technology and capabilities are. The World's going to want to
Speaker 1: buy our stuff. That's what it comes down to. They're
Speaker 1: not gonna want Chinese stuff. They're gonna want our stuff.
Speaker 7: Beyond that, what the world is watching visa Russia and
Speaker 7: China is those two countries stand on the sidelines as
Speaker 7: their ally in Iran is attacked. Well America and Israel
Speaker 7: operate together, it makes America an attractive ally, and it
Speaker 7: makes Russia and Iran unattractive and unreliable partners. I think
Speaker 7: that's being broadcast to the world right now.
Speaker 1: Superb point Eleana y Johnson on X reader at the
Speaker 1: Free Peacon and of course listening to her on the
Speaker 1: commentary podcast Morning Thank You, Eliana, Don't Go Anywhere America
Speaker 1: on Quod, Morning Glory and even Grace America. I'm Hugh
Speaker 1: Hewett in the Relifact of Studio WET. You're watching on
Speaker 1: the Sale News Channel, on Trudo, GV and whatever you
Speaker 1: can find smart TV. I'm joined now by Ben and
Speaker 1: Ben Talabou, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defensive Democracies.
Speaker 1: Whenever Benham comes on anywhere, I stop and listen. Betam,
Speaker 1: I want to start with the first question. I've heard
Speaker 1: you raise the alarm about arming the courage now to
Speaker 1: a dummy like me. It sounded like a good idea
Speaker 1: at first, but then when you and Kareem Sadia Poor
Speaker 1: both tell me bad idea, bad idea, I listen because
Speaker 1: I don't know. Would you explain it to my audience
Speaker 1: why it's a bad idea to arm a Kurdish insurgency.
Speaker 8: Well, it's always a pleasure to be with you, Hugh,
Speaker 8: and thank you for the very kind note. Listen. I
Speaker 8: think President Trump has a level of popularity inside Iran
Speaker 8: that he even may not know. Yes, I think one
Speaker 8: of those rapid response Twitter pages reposted an Iranian DJ
Speaker 8: who was heralding the cliff where President Trump was saying
Speaker 8: that Iran's now former Supreme leader I told Haminae was
Speaker 8: dead in an air strike. But ultimately, even when you
Speaker 8: look at US allies in Western Europe or around the world,
Speaker 8: Donald Trumph is immensely popular. His Iran policy is immensely popular,
Speaker 8: and his prosecution of maximum pressure to include military pressure
Speaker 8: against Tehran's theocrats, is immensely popular, especially on the backdrop
Speaker 8: of the most violently suppressed free protests in the history
Speaker 8: of the Islamic Republic. And therefore, to lose that mass support,
Speaker 8: it's not about minorities or the center versus the periphery.
Speaker 8: It's to make sure that you have mass support for
Speaker 8: the policies that you pursue in that country. And to
Speaker 8: take note of the fact that a sectarian insurgency in
Speaker 8: the Middle East hasn't traditionally worked. The curves are immensely
Speaker 8: brave people. They've been immensely effective against terror organizations like ISIS,
Speaker 8: but in those states that they've cohabitated in with many
Speaker 8: of their Arab friends and brethren and compatriots. They haven't
Speaker 8: been able to take over the capital. And if that
Speaker 8: isn't the aim of this sort of an operation, does
Speaker 8: Iran wants In its history about one hundred and some
Speaker 8: odd years ago, one hundred and twenty years ago, had
Speaker 8: various different ethnic groups, but primarily Lures and Bachtiaris from
Speaker 8: the country south and southwest kind of take over to Tehran,
Speaker 8: and that was a key part of the constitutional revolution.
Speaker 8: Arming a sectarian insurgency that isn't popular even in the
Speaker 8: regions that it controls. You know, there are terrain wars
Speaker 8: and family dynastic conflicts between various factions of Iranian curves
Speaker 8: as well as within Iraqi curves, as well as within
Speaker 8: several other Kurdish groups. They may have come together in
Speaker 8: the short term, but that doesn't seem to be the
Speaker 8: recipe for success, stability, or prosperity in the Middle East,
Speaker 8: which this president wants, and I would say this president deserves.
Speaker 8: So while I understand the need for a ground game
Speaker 8: in Iran, I would say the ground game shouldn't be
Speaker 8: should be color blind, if you will, it should be
Speaker 8: just the masses of the anti regime Irodians, regardless of
Speaker 8: ethno linguistic background. And here, given the fact that from
Speaker 8: the Woman Life Freedom protest to the present there have
Speaker 8: been calls from the center or from the periphery to
Speaker 8: replace the regime, that should give the Trump administration optimism
Speaker 8: that it has large numbers on its side. And if
Speaker 8: perhaps the idea of a ground game is needed to
Speaker 8: be entertained, that might be worth thinking how best to
Speaker 8: actually use military pressure to drive street protests, because I
Speaker 8: couldn't think of something else that might impede or retard
Speaker 8: three Protest than Uncle Sam pairing up with an insurgent
Speaker 8: group and potentially dampening the great amount of good will
Speaker 8: that the President personally has been able to inculcate in
Speaker 8: Iran policy for many years now. So it's more of
Speaker 8: an alarm, it's more of a warning bell. And also
Speaker 8: the President has been managing things with NATO ally Turkey,
Speaker 8: which is quite challenging and quite precarious. Given the multiple
Speaker 8: fronts the Syrian Front, Israeli Front, and all the other
Speaker 8: issues where Turkey is making itself manifest these days, it's
Speaker 8: likely that Turkey is going to get involved in some
Speaker 8: way if there's a Kurdish insurgency near its border, given
Speaker 8: the twenty plus percent of Turkey which is the Kurdish
Speaker 8: versus the ten to twelve percent of Iran, which is
Speaker 8: reportedly Kurdish, so things can spiral. And this is the
Speaker 8: Middle East. Things can always get worse, not better. It's
Speaker 8: hard to see how whether you're talking about the fears
Speaker 8: of Balkanization from Iranian nationalism or anything else, it's hard
Speaker 8: to see how this makes things easier for the president
Speaker 8: rather than harder. But I think he does deserve a
Speaker 8: pathway to victory given the risks he's taken in the
Speaker 8: Middle East, which no previous president has been willing to take.
Speaker 1: Bet that's a word I want the audience to hear,
Speaker 1: and we'll put it up on YouTube. I hope everyone
Speaker 1: sees that because initial enthusiasm for having someone on the
Speaker 1: ground gives way to realism about the nature of the regime,
Speaker 1: and we want the entire Iranian people on our side.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about the Goldilocks result nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety one. It was too little. George H. W. Bush,
Speaker 1: Dick Cheney, Colin Powell stopped after one hundred hours. The
Speaker 1: Marsha carbs were slaughtered. They didn't go to Bagdad turned
Speaker 1: out to be too little two thousand and three, too much.
Speaker 1: We went, we conquered, we stayed. We're still there. There's
Speaker 1: a civil war. It's a mess. That's been a mess.
Speaker 1: There weren't any WMD. What's the goldilocks result here? That's
Speaker 1: just right for a war in the Middle East.
Speaker 5: You know what.
Speaker 8: You may not know it, sir, but you channeled the
Speaker 8: quote I think from former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair
Speaker 8: who talked about going all in, half in and none
Speaker 8: in when he compared what the UK was doing in
Speaker 8: Iraq versus Libya, versus Syria, and he said that the
Speaker 8: UK had failed everywhere and he was puzzled as to why.
Speaker 8: And that's because, with im Men's respect, I think we're
Speaker 8: focusing on the tool, which is the nature of military power,
Speaker 8: the nature of the intervention, the type of internationalism on display,
Speaker 8: whereas really we need to understand the relationship between the tool,
Speaker 8: military force and the target. It really is about these
Speaker 8: different kinds of societies. I'm not saying we can't put
Speaker 8: cases together and learn because fundamentally that is political science
Speaker 8: one on one. That is international relations one on one.
Speaker 8: We can learn from previous campaigns. Not every case is
Speaker 8: sweet generate, but sometimes we do have to pay attention
Speaker 8: to the differences, and sometimes we have to tailor the
Speaker 8: tool to the targets and the kind of If one
Speaker 8: is willing to entertain the costs and the risks associated
Speaker 8: with military action, then we're going to have to conceive
Speaker 8: of this first and foremost with respect as a campaign
Speaker 8: rather than an operation. And it has to be a
Speaker 8: campaign that paves the pathway for Iranian protesters. And this
Speaker 8: is costly, it is risky, it is more protracted, and
Speaker 8: it is bloody. But you cannot tell me that the
Speaker 8: Middle East is anything but those things right now anyway.
Speaker 8: I mean, the Islamic Republic of Iran is at war
Speaker 8: with its neighbors, period, regardless of orientation, regardless of background.
Speaker 8: It is firing at Azerbaijan, it's firing at Turkey, it's
Speaker 8: firing at Arab countries that have oil VERSUS don't have oil.
Speaker 8: It's firing at US bases, US diplomatic facilities, it's firing
Speaker 8: at Israeli civilian targets. The Islamic Republic is widening the
Speaker 8: war against everybody. So I think now more than ever
Speaker 8: it's imperative to have a political theory of victory rather
Speaker 8: than just a military theory of victory. And this is
Speaker 8: where you know, the history is instructive because the Middle East,
Speaker 8: not just America, not just Israel, not just Iron but
Speaker 8: every actor that has existed in the Middle East has
Speaker 8: had military victory.
Speaker 1: Benham, are you old enough to Are you old enough
Speaker 1: to remember Yosemite Sam, a Looney Tunes character.
Speaker 8: I remember the cartoon.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, well that's what Iran's gone full Yosemite Sam.
Speaker 1: They're just shooting at everything, but they're not hitting much.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the numbers, how many launchers are left,
Speaker 1: and what do you think is the damage done in
Speaker 1: percentage terms to their missile arsenal? About what you are
Speaker 1: the expert.
Speaker 8: Well, that's very kind of you. There's a lot of
Speaker 8: other good experts. But I do my best to keep
Speaker 8: an open source, you know, tab on this kind of
Speaker 8: stuff because this is the reason why the Islamica public
Speaker 8: remains a state threat, and this is the ration now
Speaker 8: for a defanging mission against the regime. This is the
Speaker 8: region's biggest ballistic missile power, clearly using them. It's fired.
Speaker 8: I think over one hundred and twenty odd ballistic missiles
Speaker 8: at the UAE alone, for example, but up to a thousand.
Speaker 8: I want to stress that for the audience up to
Speaker 8: and over one thousand drones at the UAE loon. I mean,
Speaker 8: I have to double check their records, but I think
Speaker 8: the ballistic missile latest tally for March fifth is somewhere
Speaker 8: between one eighty and one ninety depending on the source
Speaker 8: you're using to UAE, not one twenty, forgive me, but
Speaker 8: up to the one thousand plus when it comes to drones.
Speaker 8: And this is because the regime is feeling the heat
Speaker 8: as to the success of Israel and America's defanging strategy
Speaker 8: against missiles and missile launchers, because it's forcing the regime
Speaker 8: to take its quantitative advantage, which is the missile arsenal,
Speaker 8: and funnel it through where it has a quantitative shortcoming,
Speaker 8: which is the missile launchers. You can have a million missiles,
Speaker 8: but if you have only two launchers, you can have
Speaker 8: most only fire two at a time, and then you
Speaker 8: would be very risk averse because you might lose one.
Speaker 8: So the logic is to as the Israeli over the
Speaker 8: Twelve Day War, go after the arrow versus Sorry, go
Speaker 8: after the archer versus go after the arrow. Rather than
Speaker 8: defend and pay for costly missile defense systems, go against
Speaker 8: those who are shooting it. America, now that has entered
Speaker 8: this war, can do that one step better because it
Speaker 8: has heavy bombers. So if Israel can target the launcher
Speaker 8: and America can target the launcher, with the introduction of
Speaker 8: heavy bombers, America can target the subterranean IRGC bases that
Speaker 8: house both the launcher as well as the missiles. So
Speaker 8: think about collapsing the usability of the entire arsenal. And
Speaker 8: the logic here is to replicate what America did in
Speaker 8: the Twelve Day War when it had Operation Midnight Hammer.
Speaker 8: Because it entombed the facile material. It did not destroy
Speaker 8: the fisile material. It entombed it in the facility that
Speaker 8: it destroyed, taking advantage of the natural geography there. So
Speaker 8: you can make all of those little missile prisms and
Speaker 8: allow the IRGC not to be able to draw on
Speaker 8: them to fire at Israel, to fire it in America,
Speaker 8: to fire at the Arabs, or to fire out who river.
Speaker 8: So that should be the logic. Reportedly, the regime has
Speaker 8: upwards of four hundred plus ballistic missile launchers. These are
Speaker 8: basically large trucks that transport, erect and launch. That's why
Speaker 8: they're called tels tel Transporter erector launcher. These various projectiles.
Speaker 8: We don't have a breakdown as to in which bases
Speaker 8: they are kept, but Iran has four chains of bases,
Speaker 8: Western chains that are long the Zagros Mountains, Central chains
Speaker 8: in the middle of the country south of the capitol,
Speaker 8: eastern and along the Persian Gulf coastline. And destroying those
Speaker 8: bases is going to be key to suppressing the fire
Speaker 8: and defanging the Islamic.
Speaker 1: Republic Anham thank you for joining me. Venham Ben Talabou
Speaker 1: is our number one expert from the Foundation for the
Speaker 1: Defensive Democracy on the Iran Mitchell prep. I appreciate the
Speaker 1: time to take turned on you here. Welcome back, and
Speaker 1: I'm q Hewett. Vic Mattis joins me, co host of
Speaker 1: the Getting Hammered podcast, a brand new one of which
Speaker 1: just dropped. It's called Boom. It's about the American war
Speaker 1: with the Iran. He and Mary Katherine Ham go over
Speaker 1: every aspect of it. I gotta say it was arresting.
Speaker 1: Vic Matis hear you saying we wouldn't have gotten to
Speaker 1: Morocco in World War two if we had the press
Speaker 1: corps we have. Now, that's pretty good line.
Speaker 4: That's thank you, Hugh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 9: I was looking back into it, and that was Operation Torch,
Speaker 9: and I think in that process of landing in Morocco, now, Jerry,
Speaker 9: the Americans lost five hundred and fifty six uh and
Speaker 9: then obviously thousands more who were injured.
Speaker 1: This isn't even the Casserine Pass. You know, we were
Speaker 1: back to Italy. We were all forget about it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, no, forget about it, throwing the towel.
Speaker 1: It's over, you can have it. Yeah, But what you
Speaker 1: made me think, Ernie Pyle is not around today. Now,
Speaker 1: we have some great war correspondence. In two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: two thousand and one, John Fisher burned of the New
Speaker 1: York Times, we had Dexter Filkns of the New Yorker.
Speaker 1: I'm not, hey, we don't have any war correspondence because
Speaker 1: nobody's in Iran or they're out of their mind. But
Speaker 1: b they are predisposed to hate this president so much.
Speaker 1: I wrote a column about this for the Washington Examiner yesterday.
Speaker 1: They can't they'd rather America lose than Trump triumph. I
Speaker 1: really think we're at that place.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think that's right, Hugh. You can't help but
Speaker 9: think that they're secretly rooting for, you know, setbacks and
Speaker 9: anytime there's a casualty that's front and center and Trump acknowledged.
Speaker 9: And you and I both know with an Operation to Scale,
Speaker 9: you're going to have casualties. Unfortunately, that is the price
Speaker 9: to pay to eliminate a threat like Iran. This has
Speaker 9: been again a threat to this country into the West
Speaker 9: since nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 1: I mean they've already killed you.
Speaker 9: Know, hundreds, if not thousands, either directly or through its proxies,
Speaker 9: you know, going into Iraq. If you think about that,
Speaker 9: going all the way back to the Marine Barracks bombing,
Speaker 9: and it had had something had to be done. But
Speaker 9: as you mentioned, those on the left in the media,
Speaker 9: they love skewering the Trump and this administration for any
Speaker 9: small mistakes and errors and setbacks.
Speaker 1: And this goes back to even.
Speaker 9: Operation Midnight Hammer, where they thought that, oh, you know,
Speaker 9: we didn't hit the mark and destroying that nuclear facility.
Speaker 9: Oh that's too bad. Trump is wrong again. And then
Speaker 9: now that we actually go to war against Iran. They said,
Speaker 9: I don't know why he's going to war. We successfully
Speaker 9: destroyed the nuclear facilities, so they they're trying to have.
Speaker 5: It both ways.
Speaker 1: They're broken, A lot of them are broken. And thought
Speaker 1: I saw today Barry Wise and now Rank CBS hired
Speaker 1: Aaron McClain from School of War, which is a fine podcast,
Speaker 1: and brought him over. And I'm thinking, Barry Weiss is thinking,
Speaker 1: if I want real talent that hasn't been infected by
Speaker 1: newsroom itis or TDS, I got to go out and
Speaker 1: find people from the podcast world who haven't got that.
Speaker 1: And I don't blame her, no, And I think.
Speaker 9: It's great that they picked my good friend Aaron McLain,
Speaker 9: who I've known for many Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 9: Oh yes, he occupies the sometimes he comes by our
Speaker 9: office and uses the office right behind this wall. So
Speaker 9: I just saw him this morning and wished him congratulations.
Speaker 1: Now that he's a media big shot. But Aaron was
Speaker 1: in the Marine. Aaron's in the.
Speaker 9: Marines, I really, you know, I mean, and he taught
Speaker 9: at Annapolis. He's one of the smartest people I know.
Speaker 9: And he's going to make a fantastic war correspondent for CBS,
Speaker 9: and he's got that great podcast as well as you
Speaker 9: mentioned School of War. My big question is to Aaron
Speaker 9: hasn't opened any doors yet restaurants do you get do
Speaker 9: you still.
Speaker 1: Have to make reservations? I'm waiting for that, and then
Speaker 1: I can you know, make use of Aaron I want
Speaker 1: to make I want to let you know, Vic the
Speaker 1: Salem News Channel and the Salem Radio Network, my podcast
Speaker 1: does not get you anything. I want you to know
Speaker 1: that doesn't get you a thing. I do want to
Speaker 1: also ask you that in terms of Iran, they've gone
Speaker 1: full Yosemite Sam. Now I'm using that on some people
Speaker 1: who get it and other people who don't. Are you
Speaker 1: the You're old enough to get that, aren't you? Yeah?
Speaker 9: Getting the Looney Tunes a reference to Samity Sam. I
Speaker 9: was gonna say, you know, even quite positively, the Tasmanian devil.
Speaker 1: Oh, I mean, we're going all out, yeah, but there
Speaker 1: was something endearing about the Tasmanian devil. We didn't likee Sam.
Speaker 9: No, that's true, and he's definitely not Pepi Lapuugh.
Speaker 5: Let's let me you know.
Speaker 9: We know how the French are about this at the moment.
Speaker 9: No again, as Mark Rubio said, they haven't even felt
Speaker 9: the full brunt of the US force right now. I
Speaker 9: do have some concerns obviously about the depletion of munitions,
Speaker 9: and we need to ramp up the production of missiles
Speaker 9: and to resupply the aircraft carrier battle groups.
Speaker 4: So that's important.
Speaker 9: But we just saw this amazing video of the US
Speaker 9: submarine sinking an Iranian frigate, and people are upset about
Speaker 9: that because that's in international waters, which reminds me, I'm
Speaker 9: sure the US did that in World War Two. If
Speaker 9: there was a U boat on the off the East coast,
Speaker 9: I'm sure we just let it go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they ought not to have declared war on US
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy nine or blown up the Marine Corps
Speaker 1: barracks in nineteen eighty three. Let me talk to you
Speaker 1: a little bit VIC about something. It's a complete right turn.
Speaker 1: It's got nothing to do with anything. I was asked
Speaker 1: to be on Fox today, so I read up on
Speaker 1: a story. I could not believe that Fairfax County Prosecutor
Speaker 1: mister D'scano let go a guy more than thirty times
Speaker 1: who had stabbed, raped Donald and he murdered a forty
Speaker 1: one year old mom at a bus stop. How in
Speaker 1: the world do they sleep with themselves? How do they
Speaker 1: get to bed at night when they release violent criminals
Speaker 1: with detainers? With detainer I mean yeah again, Hugh.
Speaker 9: A number of these prosecutors across the country. You mentioned
Speaker 9: Steve Descano in fairfact, even in Arlington County, uh, prest
Speaker 9: Gotti Tofty, She's also a Soros funded prosecutor. As you know,
Speaker 9: Philadelphia is that way, the same way as well. They
Speaker 9: really believe this stuff and it's disturbing because nothing good
Speaker 9: can come of this. They're being released back onto the streets.
Speaker 9: And for me, the big question, though, Hugh, is is
Speaker 9: not when will these people realize what they're doing is insane,
Speaker 9: but when will the voters, let's say, the voters in
Speaker 9: the state of Virginia, realize that enough is enough.
Speaker 4: What is their threshold?
Speaker 9: Northern Virginia, as you know, is now heavily democratic, it's
Speaker 9: heavily blue. You have a lot of federal workers, they're doze,
Speaker 9: they hate Trump. What is their threshold for allowing murderers
Speaker 9: and rapists back on the streets to commit What do.
Speaker 1: You think does the story does this? Do people know
Speaker 1: that a guy named Descana let a murderer out thirty times.
Speaker 9: Yeah again, I mean we've done some reporting on this,
Speaker 9: and again kudos to UH.
Speaker 1: I believe it's Nick Minok who is done the reporting
Speaker 1: on this as well. Locally.
Speaker 9: I'm only now beginning to see other major networks begin
Speaker 9: to cover it, namely Fox. I haven't seen whether or
Speaker 9: not CNN or the other mainstream broadcasts are willing to
Speaker 9: report on this story because it's definitely disturbing.
Speaker 1: We're seeing now.
Speaker 9: Multiple warnings from the police to the prosecutor's office saying
Speaker 9: you cannot do this.
Speaker 1: This band has committed.
Speaker 9: Multiple crimes on multiple occasions. If you let him out again,
Speaker 9: he will do something worse and he did. Where's the outrage?
Speaker 9: And I'd like to know that, particularly in this.
Speaker 1: State, so full circle? Do you think this is because
Speaker 1: they hate Trump that they won't report stories that reflect poorly?
Speaker 1: This guy was an Obama Department prosecut He went to
Speaker 1: West Point by the way Descano, so he's a smart guy.
Speaker 1: He's a military veteran, but he's an idiologue. We don't
Speaker 1: need proscut Do you think that this story gets suppressed
Speaker 1: because it might make Trump look Okay?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 9: I mean because it definitely confirms what a lot of
Speaker 9: people believe, which is they have a lot of concerns
Speaker 9: when you let in, I don't know, nine ten million
Speaker 9: illegal immigrants aliens into this country who haven't been vetted,
Speaker 9: and what is a lot of them have actually committed
Speaker 9: crimes and they're all beliefs and if they're out there.
Speaker 1: You can't mention that because it'll make the president look back.
Speaker 1: And there was a detainer. Retainers only exist for people
Speaker 1: who are considered dangerous threats to the community. I don't
Speaker 1: understand anyone not calling up by some saying take this
Speaker 1: guy off our hand. Vic Mattis call him at Victorino
Speaker 1: Madison X. Listens the new getting hammereds. Get ready to
Speaker 1: get your Morocco map out. Thank you, Vic. I'll be
Speaker 1: right back in America, State Jumner. Welcome back in America.
Speaker 1: I'm joined by Josh Koshauer, editor in chief of Jewish Insider.
Speaker 1: Josh Iran has fired eight salvos of missiles at Israel today.
Speaker 1: Hezballah has wounded at least to Israeli soldiers operating in
Speaker 1: southern Lebanon. As the effect begins, An earnest into Lemanon
Speaker 1: to eradicate Hesbellah. So we're in the middle of a
Speaker 1: very serious time and things go wrong in a hurry.
Speaker 1: Six American service members have lost their lives. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to make light of war at all, but i
Speaker 1: want to ask you about whether or not you think
Speaker 1: President Trump's Iran war could end up being the goldilocks.
Speaker 1: For not too little, which was nineteen ninety one, we
Speaker 1: stopped in Kuwait, we didn't go to Baghdad, not too
Speaker 1: much treat just two thousand and three we went to
Speaker 1: Bagdad and we never left. But just right, do you
Speaker 1: think that's possible a goldilocks result?
Speaker 10: Well, I think we have a long way to go
Speaker 10: to really conclude that answer that question. I think this
Speaker 10: is the playbook that Trump likes, very decisive strikes, so
Speaker 10: that take out leaders in Venezuela was Maduro. The first
Speaker 10: twenty four hours of the Iran operation, it was committely Ayatola.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 10: And I think the way things are going so far,
Speaker 10: I think it's pretty safe to say that the threat
Speaker 10: that Iran is going to put God to pose in
Speaker 10: the region or through its proxies, is going to be
Speaker 10: vastly diminished after however, this lasts, uh, after this operation
Speaker 10: is finished, the bigger question, and the unanswered question, is
Speaker 10: what is the leadership of Iran going to look like?
Speaker 10: Is the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard still going to remain
Speaker 10: in power after this is over? Is there going to
Speaker 10: be any any semblance of democracy? You know, Hugh, I'm
Speaker 10: skeptical that without boots on the ground, without any you know,
Speaker 10: efforts that there, I say, nation building, it's going to
Speaker 10: be hard to shape the future Iranian regime and in
Speaker 10: a more favorable way towards US interests. That said, I
Speaker 10: don't think you need to get to that point to
Speaker 10: really achieve a whole lot as part of this military operation.
Speaker 10: So I think a lot of known unknowns, as Don
Speaker 10: Rumsfeld like to say, But I think early indicators are
Speaker 10: that the US and Israel are both achieving a lot
Speaker 10: of their main missions.
Speaker 1: All right, now, I want to switch subjects on you, Josh.
Speaker 1: I am loath to talk about fringe commentary have left
Speaker 1: or right, because it just is fringe. And when you
Speaker 1: talk about clickbait, you add to the clicks. That's been
Speaker 1: my theory for thirty five years in this business. Tucker Carlson, however,
Speaker 1: today attacked Habad. I know Hubbad rabbis. Habbad members are
Speaker 1: friends of mine. They are a good Jewish group that
Speaker 1: does good work and support Judaism all over the world.
Speaker 1: They've been attacked and Mumbai by terrorists. They've been attacked
Speaker 1: in as recently as December at Bondai Beach by terrorists
Speaker 1: by Islamis, and Tucker, whether he knew it or not,
Speaker 1: put a circle on their back today. What did you
Speaker 1: think about that? And are you doing a story about
Speaker 1: Habbad to explain it to Americans.
Speaker 10: Yeah, we have a story up at Jewish Insider and
Speaker 10: looking sadly, Hugh doesn't come as a surprise. Tucker Carlson
Speaker 10: has been mainlining pretty darn anti medic rhetoric on his show.
Speaker 10: It's gotten worse and worse over time, and now he's
Speaker 10: going after a very mainstream Jewish denomination that is full
Speaker 10: of love and is Anyone who's been to Kabad service
Speaker 10: or knows you know about emissaries, knows how warm they
Speaker 10: are and how much they care about you know, Judaism
Speaker 10: and spreading it to other Jews across the country and
Speaker 10: the world. In fact, they have outposts in some of
Speaker 10: the you know, in capitals of the world where there
Speaker 10: just aren't many Jews, so Jews when they travel or
Speaker 10: when they're on the road, they can celebrate their Jewish faith.
Speaker 10: So the fact that, I mean, it's a very sinister
Speaker 10: you know, I don't know what he's getting at. But
Speaker 10: if you look at what Tucker's rhetoric has been like,
Speaker 10: and you look at that interview he did with Huckabee
Speaker 10: and a lot of the stuff that he mainlines on
Speaker 10: his podcast, it's downright in the sewer and it's kind
Speaker 10: of the you haven't heard anti semitism like that since
Speaker 10: Father Coughlin in the nineteen thirties on our radio show.
Speaker 10: So you know it really it doesn't come as a
Speaker 10: surprise to me. And you heard Trump today say I
Speaker 10: don't know what happened to Tucker Carlslon, But.
Speaker 1: Do you think he actually knows that habad it's sort
Speaker 1: of like Catholic focus. It's a I know for Abad
Speaker 1: from their university towns. They usually go to university towns
Speaker 1: and open up a habad house like the Hellel House,
Speaker 1: and they're in places like Mumbai as it's the craziest
Speaker 1: thing to put a target on them.
Speaker 10: Yeah, it's dangerous too. As you mentioned, Hugh that there
Speaker 10: was a terrorist attack in Australia in Bandai Beach where
Speaker 10: a crazed terrorist slaughtered fifteen participants at Ahonica celebration sponsored
Speaker 10: by Habbad. There's so many crazy people, Hugh, as you
Speaker 10: know online, and I hate to give them attention to
Speaker 10: Like these are trolls.
Speaker 5: These are people who.
Speaker 10: Don't have as much of a constituency as a lot
Speaker 10: of people think they do. But sometimes perception becomes reality.
Speaker 10: If if people talk about some of these extremist podcasters,
Speaker 10: these fringe folks, they end up kind of creating their
Speaker 10: own constituenc that you're seeing this on the far left,
Speaker 10: Gavin Newsom and Oh my gosh, podcasts that are you
Speaker 10: know this, No politician would touch them ten years ago,
Speaker 10: and now they're going on these podcasts that are I
Speaker 10: would argue our antisemitic.
Speaker 1: Do you don't have to argue it is? Where is?
Speaker 1: Where is? Ram Emmanuel and Josh Shapiro today hitting Gavin
Speaker 1: Newsom for calling Israel an apartheid state and that we
Speaker 1: need to rethink are in the middle of a war
Speaker 1: where Israel has proven to be the best ally we've
Speaker 1: had since World War two, in the middle of a war,
Speaker 1: he suggests we cut off funding Israel. It's ridiculous, it's absurd,
Speaker 1: and he won't come on this show because he's afraid
Speaker 1: of going anywhere where he might get a serious question. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the scary reality.
Speaker 10: I think it's alarming and scary. But the sources by
Speaker 10: which under thirty five year olds get news, you know,
Speaker 10: their social media platforms, certain podcasts, but a lot of these,
Speaker 10: you know, you get fed these ten second memes, the
Speaker 10: propaganda that's often not even you know, it's coming from
Speaker 10: outside the United States and sometimes coming from from our
Speaker 10: our enemies.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 10: And that's what a lot of younger people especially are
Speaker 10: are just gorging. And it's not a coincidence that you
Speaker 10: see extremist views, anti Semitic views, just you know through
Speaker 10: the you know, much much.
Speaker 1: Much higher than with any other great question. So, do
Speaker 1: you think it's your job, as the editor of a
Speaker 1: platform devoted to Jewish news to go find a twenty
Speaker 1: five to thirty year old, funny, smart, quick person, give
Speaker 1: them a podcast, and promote the living daylights out of it. Yeah.
Speaker 10: Look, I think part of part of our job is
Speaker 10: to kind of put good information, you could factual journalism,
Speaker 10: good reporting, and people who can be engaging into the ecosystem.
Speaker 10: I think that that is really the only thing you
Speaker 10: can do. Frankly, Hugh, it's a it's sort of like
Speaker 10: the Tower of Babbel. People are in their own little universes,
Speaker 10: speaking their own languages, and some of some of the
Speaker 10: things that are being said in these mini echo champs
Speaker 10: are quite quite extreme and would have been you know,
Speaker 10: the notes that politicians leading candidates for president would have
Speaker 10: been all these shows and affiliating with these people would
Speaker 10: have been unthinkable a decade ago.
Speaker 1: But that's for the reality. And I'm just I know
Speaker 1: that Aaron McClain just went to work for CBS. That's
Speaker 1: good news. I just like Jewish Insider to find a
Speaker 1: kid who is going to be able to talk to
Speaker 1: the kids, because why are they getting crapped? Oh, I've
Speaker 1: got to talk to josh cross Hower. Follow josh on
Speaker 1: ex to Joshua cross Hower. Follow him a Jewish Insider
Speaker 1: as well, josh Crossauer, not Joshua Josh cross Ower. Follow
Speaker 1: me to the next segment of the You hwish all right,
Speaker 1: I mean, Grace America. I kicked off this hour with
Speaker 1: Senator Jim Tallant, formerly Senator from Missouri, currently Senior Fellow
Speaker 1: at the Reagan Institute for Peace through Strength. Senator Talent, welcome,
Speaker 1: I've asked this question a number of times. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask it to you. Nineteen ninety one, in my view,
Speaker 1: was the wrong war too little, and two thousand and
Speaker 1: three the Iraq War number two was too big. Are
Speaker 1: we going to hit the goldie blocked warrior just right
Speaker 1: given five days of what's just right? Yeah?
Speaker 5: I think so.
Speaker 11: I think the President and Rubio and Hexith have been
Speaker 11: very clear.
Speaker 5: The point of this war is to.
Speaker 11: Defang our ancient adversary, at least five decades worth of adversary, Iran,
Speaker 11: by taking out their ballistic missiles, their drones and their
Speaker 11: capacity to produce them. And I'll say also, I think
Speaker 11: this war is designed to settle forty seven years of accounts.
Speaker 11: You during what time they've been attacking. They've been attacking Americans,
Speaker 11: Americans abroad, American diplomats, American servicemen and women, and American shipping.
Speaker 11: And you know what, you nobody does that to us
Speaker 11: throughout history.
Speaker 5: We've never tolerated it.
Speaker 11: And finally, as Tom Cotton said, the butcher's bill is
Speaker 11: being paid. There's an enormous overmatch there. This is like
Speaker 11: I said, it's a turkey shoot in Missouri. We might
Speaker 11: say it's like a duck going after a june bug.
Speaker 11: I mean, it's not a fair fight. We don't want
Speaker 11: a fair fight, and we're going to achieve all that now.
Speaker 11: I don't believe we're going to get directly involved in
Speaker 11: anything like regime change, but we are going to enjoy
Speaker 11: the other benefits of it. The Chinese energy supply line
Speaker 11: is a lot less secure than it used to be.
Speaker 11: Hezbollah is a lot less secure in Lebanon than it
Speaker 11: used to be. Remember, they're tied at the hip with
Speaker 11: the narco terrorists in the Western hemisphere, and the world
Speaker 11: is starting to believe that maybe.
Speaker 5: The Americans are credible again.
Speaker 11: Hey, can I close by reading a headline from the
Speaker 11: South China Morning Posts, Oh please, which, as you know,
Speaker 11: is one of the regime's mouthpieces. Here's the headline. Is
Speaker 11: the US in decline after Iran strikes?
Speaker 4: Maybe not?
Speaker 5: Chinese analysts say.
Speaker 1: All right, let me ask you this. When nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: one rolled around everyone in the post Soviet world, look
Speaker 1: at what we did and said, whoa. After two thousand
Speaker 1: and three, Kadathi called up and said, come take everything
Speaker 1: I've got, don't invade me. What is the impact of
Speaker 1: this display? And I mean Israel in the United States
Speaker 1: together is an intelligent superpower on an exponential basis, and
Speaker 1: our weaponry I just don't know how much of it
Speaker 1: we've got, and they're being very quiet about that. What's
Speaker 1: the world thinking that we're running out or that they
Speaker 1: don't want to chance it?
Speaker 11: Well, it is true that our military and Israels using
Speaker 11: our equipment and theirs, is defeating an adversary that's using
Speaker 11: Russian equipment and Chinese technology, and that can't be a
Speaker 11: good news any good news for Beijing. You notice that
Speaker 11: the countries in the region, which have been moving in
Speaker 11: our direction anyway, are continuing to do that, which gives
Speaker 11: rise to the possibility of a new equilibrium in the
Speaker 11: Middle East. We've been talking about that ever since Operation
Speaker 11: Midnight Hammer. And you here's the other thing that the
Speaker 11: Chinese are not going.
Speaker 5: To like about this.
Speaker 11: If we can create a new balance of power where
Speaker 11: the Israelis are the ones who are policing the region
Speaker 11: at the behest and with the cooperation of the Gulf States,
Speaker 11: Egypt and Jordan. Then we can draw down a lot
Speaker 11: of our forces in the Middle East. And where do
Speaker 11: you think we're going to send them. We're going to
Speaker 11: send them to Indo Pecon.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 11: So no, this is this is not good news for
Speaker 11: the aggressors in Beijing.
Speaker 1: Tactical win, strategic win. Thus far bad things can happen.
Speaker 1: It's early six service members have already made the ultimate sacrifice.
Speaker 1: It could be a lot more. And Israelis are dying
Speaker 1: on the ground in Lebanon today, and Iran continues to
Speaker 1: say a fuselade against our allies set in a little
Speaker 1: Sparta Uae. For example, let me ask you about the rebuilt.
Speaker 1: They've gone Yosemite, Sam, and they fired off everything every
Speaker 1: which which way to try and draw the air world
Speaker 1: into this war and put pressure on them. They're just
Speaker 1: not very smart in Iran, that's my view, because that
Speaker 1: nobody likes getting blown up. And they fired off everything,
Speaker 1: but we fired back a lot. To your former Senator,
Speaker 1: if we wanted to, can Johnthon go to the Budget
Speaker 1: Committee and Speaker Johnson go to the Budget Committee and say,
Speaker 1: pass me a reconciliation that's defense only. We'll take it
Speaker 1: to the Armed Services Committee in both houses, Committee of Jurisdictions.
Speaker 1: Then we'll take it to Appropriation and we'll run it
Speaker 1: through as a reconciliation and let the Democrats vote against rearming. Yeah.
Speaker 11: I could do that, But the basic problem I don't
Speaker 11: think is money. Remember there's like one hundred and thirty
Speaker 11: billion dollars in the big beautiful bill for defense, and
Speaker 11: the Department has a lot of discretion in how they
Speaker 11: spend it. The problem is capacity, and if there is
Speaker 11: something that I worry about, it's running out of interceptors.
Speaker 11: I don't think it's going to happen in this war,
Speaker 11: but it is reducing our stock pile, and that's a
Speaker 11: bad thing. So what we have to be to do
Speaker 11: is to rebuild our capacity. On the other hand, there's
Speaker 11: nothing that's going to produce that faster than a backlog
Speaker 11: of orders, which I think you're going to see after this.
Speaker 11: I kind of think we'll see if they do a
Speaker 11: supplemental I don't think it will be by reconciliation. A
Speaker 11: lot will depend on what the Democrats are willing to do.
Speaker 11: But if we have to wait for the regular appropriations bill,
Speaker 11: you I think we can.
Speaker 1: Well talk about capacity, Senator, there are states all over
Speaker 1: the country with defense buildings, and there are a few
Speaker 1: that have none. Why don't we just subsidize capacity. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's three Unlock Lackeyed or Palmer
Speaker 1: Lucky whatever he's running, or whatever Peter Thiel's running, or
Speaker 1: if it's Palaeer, and just give them the money to
Speaker 1: build the capacity and say we want it in two years.
Speaker 1: You guys can do this. Why don't we do that?
Speaker 5: Well, we are doing this.
Speaker 11: I mean this administration is investing in defense production and
Speaker 11: the defense industrial base to include the maritime industrial base,
Speaker 11: as you know, you at an unprecedented level.
Speaker 5: And two years some of it may be.
Speaker 11: I mean the problem is again we have to replace
Speaker 11: the interceptors in the meantime.
Speaker 5: But you're talking several years out.
Speaker 11: I mean, intention can change quickly, and we are intending
Speaker 11: to bring up to build up the defense industrial base,
Speaker 11: but capability can't. So you can't produce a factory or
Speaker 11: expand a factory overnight. Well, I just I do think
Speaker 11: the money is there is the point I was making.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm trying to talk about market signaling. There might
Speaker 1: be a lot of money and it might be going through.
Speaker 1: But I heard the most interesting conversation about the failure
Speaker 1: of Pentagon procurement and the fact that for decades this
Speaker 1: is not a Republican or a Democrat problem. It's a
Speaker 1: bureaucracy problem. We have not been able to order munitions
Speaker 1: in anything. Do we need a Minister of Munitions? That
Speaker 1: took a full year of World War one's chaos and
Speaker 1: carnage for a great brains to set up a Ministry
Speaker 1: of munition. Do we need a munition zar.
Speaker 11: Yeah, we kind of have one in the Secretary of
Speaker 11: Defense or in this administration. The Deputy Secretary is really
Speaker 11: in charge of that, Deputy Secretary Feinberg, and he's doing
Speaker 11: a really good job. You're exactly right. The problem here is,
Speaker 11: I should step back for a second. We at the
Speaker 11: Reagan Institute have a National Security Innovation Base report card.
Speaker 5: We've been putting it out for five years now. I
Speaker 5: think a former.
Speaker 11: Deputy Secretary, Bob Work and I headed a task force
Speaker 11: about six years ago put out a report and on
Speaker 11: the basis of that we've been assessing every year. And
Speaker 11: one of the biggest problems is demand clarity. In other words,
Speaker 11: a consistent demand signal that the market understands is purposeful
Speaker 11: and it's going to be there a year after year,
Speaker 11: and so I think this administration is sending it. I mean,
Speaker 11: we are buying munitions, but you are right. In the
Speaker 11: past they weren't. And a big part of the reason
Speaker 11: for that is that the service chiefs were saving money
Speaker 11: on munitions in order to be able to invest it
Speaker 11: in their core weapons platform programs. And there was not
Speaker 11: strong enough civilian leadership to frankly, just to make them
Speaker 11: put the money into two munitions. Now Congress would often
Speaker 11: plus it up. But see, that's not the kind of certain, clear,
Speaker 11: consistent demand signal that will get the private sector to
Speaker 11: invest substantially in new capacity.
Speaker 1: I agree, And I wonder your student of history. Every
Speaker 1: war teaches a new lesson, like World War two taught
Speaker 1: us battleship's not so good, carrier is very very good.
Speaker 1: Does this teach us that we need rockets, missiles and
Speaker 1: anti missiles in a way that we've never fully understood before.
Speaker 11: Yes, and drones unmanned. I mean, anybody can see it,
Speaker 11: just an educated layman and I can see it. And
Speaker 11: we need sheep drones, which is one of the reasons
Speaker 11: you this alliance with Israel is so significant. You notice
Speaker 11: that the Germans. I don't know if they've confirmed this,
Speaker 11: but I've been reading reports that they have a six
Speaker 11: billion dollar defense deal with who with the Israelis because
Speaker 11: they develop an adapt technology for military use better than
Speaker 11: anybody on the planet. I mean, Ukraine's are good too
Speaker 11: now on drones, and so I think this alliance is
Speaker 11: going to pay off. You talk a lot about Golden Dome.
Speaker 11: We can't do it. I don't think without the Israelis
Speaker 11: helping us, and they're going to help us, and we
Speaker 11: need the alliance that has emerged. Oh yeah, the alliance
Speaker 11: because we don't because of the bureaucracy and the red tape,
Speaker 11: and they're doing better now.
Speaker 5: We don't move as quickly as we need to move.
Speaker 11: You and every Secretary of Defense, every Armed Services Committee
Speaker 11: going back to when I went into the Congress, has
Speaker 11: tried to solve it. Well, if we outsource some of
Speaker 11: this to the Israelis and we get the technology that way,
Speaker 11: I don't care.
Speaker 1: I get the missiles, get the interceptors, get the drawn.
Speaker 1: Jim Tallon, former Senator from Missouri and from the Reagan Institute,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining me, Senator I'll be right back
Speaker 1: in America. Stay tuned. Welcome back to America. I'm Hugh Hughet.
Speaker 1: I hope you are watching us live on the Sale
Speaker 1: News channel, unless you're driving home, in which case look
Speaker 1: at the road, not at the Sale News channel. But
Speaker 1: we're on Samsung TV Plus down channel eleven seventy seven
Speaker 1: and on Pluto TV. I'm joined out by Seth Mandel
Speaker 1: of commentary magazine. Seth, I've been asking everyone about this
Speaker 1: war and how does the president stick the dismount here?
Speaker 1: What's the best result.
Speaker 12: The best result is hard to prove, because the best
Speaker 12: result really is Ron not being able to drag us
Speaker 12: into conflicts in the Middle East anymore, and a region
Speaker 12: free of you know, Iranian funded insurgencies and occupations and
Speaker 12: things like that. But in the near term, I think
Speaker 12: that you have to look at our golf partners, you know,
Speaker 12: our golf partners. The economists just reported today that our
Speaker 12: golf partners are telling Trump stay the course because if
Speaker 12: he if he doesn't, then and he leaves the Iranian
Speaker 12: regime more or less intact, even without common A, then
Speaker 12: you've got a sort of dangerous cornered animal over there.
Speaker 12: And it's their corner, right, they'll be left in the
Speaker 12: neighborhood with them they need at this point because of
Speaker 12: everything that we've you know, as far as we've come,
Speaker 12: you need to go all the way. So I think
Speaker 12: that we should look to our golf allies. They you know,
Speaker 12: they they'll they will show when they are in a
Speaker 12: position that is comfortable with where Iran ends up. And
Speaker 12: I don't think we should get out before our regional allies,
Speaker 12: including Israel, by the way, you know, feel like the
Speaker 12: mission has accomplished what it needs to accomplish and there
Speaker 12: won't be blowback because we left too much of the
Speaker 12: Iranian regime intact.
Speaker 1: It's interesting thinking about it from the perspective reality. I
Speaker 1: hadn't thought of that set. I'm thinking it from the
Speaker 1: perspective of high school students. When I was a freshman
Speaker 1: in college, the helicopter left the embassy in Segon and
Speaker 1: it was a disaster when you're too young to remember
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one and the absolute devastation wrecked on the
Speaker 1: Iraqi Arby on the Highway of death. But that was
Speaker 1: too little, and then Iraq two thousand and three, which
Speaker 1: is probably in your wheelhouse. Is a young man that's
Speaker 1: too that's too big. So the Goldilocks is what I'm
Speaker 1: looking for, not too little, not too big, not a disaster.
Speaker 1: This isn't World War two. Any idea what it looks
Speaker 1: like to our youngsters, to people who are in high
Speaker 1: school and college today, what a victory would look like.
Speaker 12: Well, it shouldn't require anything like Iraq, so you know,
Speaker 12: that's one thing to void.
Speaker 4: But you know, again it's very hard to say what
Speaker 4: victory looks like.
Speaker 12: You have complete capitulation by the Iranians, but that's by
Speaker 12: the Granian regime. But that's not really happening. Trump wants
Speaker 12: to be involved in deciding who takes over.
Speaker 1: For common a.
Speaker 12: I don't know how that's going to go. It depends
Speaker 12: on the regime that's in power. You know, victory is
Speaker 12: really the military aspect.
Speaker 4: Of this has gone incredibly well.
Speaker 12: We expected that it would go well, but it's gone
Speaker 12: probably even better than expected, more more efficient, more effective.
Speaker 12: But I think then you have to grade it by
Speaker 12: whether the regime that is left in power at the
Speaker 12: end of this is materially different from the one that's
Speaker 12: there now, and that Iran is set on a visibly
Speaker 12: different course all.
Speaker 1: Right now in the first year Rock War, we ended
Speaker 1: up establishing no fly zones in the north and the
Speaker 1: south that we patrolled from Kuwait and reinforced. How about
Speaker 1: a no launch zone over all the Rock that is
Speaker 1: patrolled by everyone in the Middle East jointly. Does that
Speaker 1: look like victory because they can't They can't have these missiles.
Speaker 1: I don't know why people are so dumb. They cannot
Speaker 1: have an arsenal of missional to fire off like Yosemite,
Speaker 1: Sam and everybody that they're mad at today.
Speaker 12: Yeah, my sense is that they are uh that the
Speaker 12: Israelis and the US are just going around and taking
Speaker 12: out their launchers, their missilestock piles everything they can. And
Speaker 12: there's been a lot of movement today toward bringing Ukrainian
Speaker 12: expertise in on drone interceptors, the and the and they
Speaker 12: you know what happened to the in the war in
Speaker 12: Russia's war with Ukraine. Russia took Iranian SA heads right,
Speaker 12: drones and and and just tried to send swarms of
Speaker 12: them that Ukrainian and Ukraine had to figure out a
Speaker 12: cost effective way to intercept.
Speaker 4: Them because they can't. You can't.
Speaker 12: You will be bled dry if you use updated missile interceptors,
Speaker 12: and that's you know, the question around the movies. And
Speaker 12: it looks like Ukraine is coming to the table and
Speaker 12: they're not asking anything unreasonable, you know, for their own side.
Speaker 12: So I think that the what's coming together is a
Speaker 12: fierce destructive onslaught against missile Iranian missiles, missile producing factories
Speaker 12: and the batteries, especially the mobile ones, and possibly away
Speaker 12: for the rest of the region to be able to
Speaker 12: afford whatever it takes, you know, to get through the
Speaker 12: rest of this until Iran is defeated.
Speaker 1: I announced that the big question. Donald Trump has broken
Speaker 1: so many people in the ten years that he's risen
Speaker 1: and taken over the Republican Party that I sometimes wonder
Speaker 1: if they'd rather we lose this war than Trump gain
Speaker 1: a big win. And the Democrats seem to have totally
Speaker 1: lied their way as a pro American victory party. And
Speaker 1: I don't know why Ram Emmanuel gets it, others get it,
Speaker 1: but people like Gavin Newsom go on the Podbros And
Speaker 1: engage in viril and anti Semita. What's wrong with the Democrats?
Speaker 1: Eighty years ago they led the country to worldwide victory.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what's wrong with them is that.
Speaker 12: You know, it's kind of like the tail wagging the dog.
Speaker 12: They're being led by their base. The progressive base is angry.
Speaker 12: They're angry about Israel. And you know, Gavin Newsom, he's
Speaker 12: not a guy who has any real firm beliefs.
Speaker 4: He's a weather vane.
Speaker 12: If you want to see which way the trends are
Speaker 12: moving on his side of the aisle, you watch him,
Speaker 12: and those trends are moving in this direction. He's clearly
Speaker 12: spooked enough to say something incredibly stupid about our allies
Speaker 12: on the ground in a war during which we're fighting
Speaker 12: side by side with them. You know, whatever he might
Speaker 12: think about Israel otherwise and aid to Israel, the answer
Speaker 12: should be, we're not talking about this now. Right now,
Speaker 12: we're in a war and Israelis are fighting alongside us,
Speaker 12: and their presence there is, you know, making things safer
Speaker 12: for us, saving American lives and making it less costly
Speaker 12: for America to do this, and so now is not
Speaker 12: when we're going to have the conversation about cutting them off.
Speaker 4: But he doesn't.
Speaker 12: He's just it's like the war isn't happening to them.
Speaker 5: They're just so wearing it.
Speaker 1: I need I need an exit question from you, though, Seth,
Speaker 1: I try not to. For thirty five years, I have
Speaker 1: not elevated the Alex Joneses and the crazy people of
Speaker 1: the world, and I don't pay attention to marginal content
Speaker 1: or left or right. Tucker attacked to BOD today. I
Speaker 1: know too many bad people. I know how Bod rabbis.
Speaker 1: They're on college campuses. I think he put a target
Speaker 1: on the back of an organization that was attacked in
Speaker 1: Mumbai in two thousand and eight at Bondai Beach in December.
Speaker 1: Do you have any experience with Abod? Can you explain
Speaker 1: to people what Habbad is and why it is not
Speaker 1: It should not be singled out as a target. And
Speaker 1: that's what happened today.
Speaker 12: It's it's the core of rabbad is joy. It's it's
Speaker 12: you know, they're a Hasidic movement, but they don't require anybody,
Speaker 12: They don't really tell anybody what to do, and so
Speaker 12: they get a lot of people. They go to far
Speaker 12: flung places where there aren't synagogues and there aren't Jewish
Speaker 12: schools and institutions and basically set up shop almost as
Speaker 12: embassies of the Jews in a way, and through them,
Speaker 12: if you want to get a kosher meal, you can get.
Speaker 12: If you want to get, you know, a Friday night,
Speaker 12: a Shabbat meal, or a place to go for Shabbat,
Speaker 12: you seek out Rabbad.
Speaker 4: They're there just to help, no matter.
Speaker 12: What you believe, no matter how religious you are, They're
Speaker 12: just there to sort of help.
Speaker 8: So yes, it's ludicrous, it's.
Speaker 1: Ludicrous and it's dangerous. Set Mandel, Thank you. Follow set
Speaker 1: at set Mandel. Listen to him on the common Joy
Speaker 1: podcast most days. Follow me in the next segment of
Speaker 1: today's You Here at show. You've heard me talk a
Speaker 1: lot about Consumer Seller. I can switch your carrier save
Speaker 1: money without the sacrifice. That's because Consumer Cellular uses the
Speaker 1: same towers as major carriers. Make the switch today and
Speaker 1: get twenty five dollars off at Consumer Cellular dot com
Speaker 1: slash shoe. If you're over fifty, get one line of
Speaker 1: unlimited talk, text and data for thirty five dollars, plus
Speaker 1: an additional five dollars per month off for the first
Speaker 1: five months. When you visit Consumer Cellular dot com slash shoe.
Speaker 1: Use the promo code Q twenty five. Consumer Cellular ranks
Speaker 1: number one for network coverage and consumer satisfaction. According to ACSL,
Speaker 1: you'll be working with an actual human being when you
Speaker 1: switch base right here in the US. So get one
Speaker 1: line of unlimited talk, text and data for only thirty
Speaker 1: five dollars per month, plus an additional five dollars off
Speaker 1: per month for the first five months. Think of all
Speaker 1: the money you will save. Go to Consumer Cellular dot
Speaker 1: Com slash shoe Promo Q twenty five or call one
Speaker 1: eight hundred and four to one one forty four fifty
Speaker 1: four Consumer Cellular dot Com slash shoe. Clean water is
Speaker 1: not complicated, but it is essential. Without it, public health suffer,
Speaker 1: education declines, economic stability well it weakens if it doesn't collapse.
Speaker 1: Across Latin America and the Caribbean, families are facing that
Speaker 1: reality of unclean water every day. Mothers walk miles for
Speaker 1: clean water. Children are exposed to preventable diseases because they
Speaker 1: haven't got it. Communities are held back by the absence
Speaker 1: of basic clean water access. But strategic compassion changes outcomes.
Speaker 1: Through food for the poor, your gift provides safe and
Speaker 1: living water, improving how strengthening communities, and supporting gospeled centered
Speaker 1: transformation through trust for local partnerships. This is a measurable
Speaker 1: impact with lasting results. Your gift to fifty dollars ensures
Speaker 1: two people have safe and living water, or four one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars a family of four will be transformed for
Speaker 1: a year. I hope you act. Text Hewitt Hgwitt. That's Hewitt,
Speaker 1: Hwitt to five to one five fifty five, that's Hewett
Speaker 1: to fifty one five five five, or visit Hughewitt dot
Speaker 1: com right now and click on the blue giving living
Speaker 1: water banner at the top to provide living water today
Speaker 1: and thank you. Welcome back, America. I'm Hewett, joined by
Speaker 1: Alaska's great Senator Dan Sullivan. Senator Sullivan, welcome back. I'd
Speaker 1: like to ask you first a quick procedural question. Do
Speaker 1: you expect your colleague Mark Wayne Mallin to get confirmed
Speaker 1: quickly as head of DHS And if so, how soon
Speaker 1: is soon?
Speaker 13: Yes, Hugh, great to be back on the show and
Speaker 13: the answer is yes. Mark Wain is a great senator
Speaker 13: and an inspired choice by the President.
Speaker 3: He's a really good friend of mine. But here's the thing.
Speaker 13: He has great relationships across the aisle with Democrat senators
Speaker 13: and uh in the House as well, so a super
Speaker 13: well respected member of the Senate. He's made a huge
Speaker 13: impact in the Senate. Like I said, I think he's
Speaker 13: going to get confirmed very quickly. You know, of course
Speaker 13: they'll have to be a hearing, but I will say
Speaker 13: he needs to be confirmed quickly. But also the Democrats
Speaker 13: need to stop shutting down homeland security. I've seen a
Speaker 13: lot of government or partial government shutdowns. To you, this
Speaker 13: is the most stupid, ridiculous and dangerous government shutdown, partial
Speaker 13: government shutdown I've ever seen. Chuck Schumer's playing games with
Speaker 13: the safety of the American people. We know there's an
Speaker 13: increased threat from the Iranians in terms of terrorism, and
Speaker 13: they've kept DHS shut down. It's ridiculous and it's got
Speaker 13: to stop.
Speaker 1: I want to remind the audience Senator at Sullivan is
Speaker 1: also a Wawyer. He is a Marine. He's retired now,
Speaker 1: but Colonel Sullivan is with us, and so I want
Speaker 1: to ask you guys about the marine as a Senator
Speaker 1: on Armed Services. Senator of Sullivan, how do you think
Speaker 1: the war with Iran is going? Nineteen ninety one too little,
Speaker 1: we left too little after a too little time. Two
Speaker 1: thousand and three, too big, we stayed too long. Are
Speaker 1: we going to goldilocks US and get it just right?
Speaker 13: I hope so, Hugh, and look first to shout out,
Speaker 13: of course, to our brave men and women and our
Speaker 13: military their leaders. I shared a Readiness subcommittee hearing with
Speaker 13: all the top vice chiefs of all the services yesterday,
Speaker 13: of course, where our hearts go out to the warriors
Speaker 13: who have given their lives. But this is all about
Speaker 13: going after a country that, to be honest, and you
Speaker 13: know it, you and I have talked about it. They've
Speaker 13: been at war with us for almost fifty years. The
Speaker 13: Iranian terrorists have killed and wounded thousands, thousands of American
Speaker 13: service members. Heck, just in twenty twenty four, Iran was
Speaker 13: actively trying to kill then candidate Trump. We were in
Speaker 13: a hearing on election interference right before the election. I
Speaker 13: asked the FBI Director appoint blank question, are the Ranians
Speaker 13: still trying to kill President Trump a month out before
Speaker 13: for the November twenty twenty four election.
Speaker 4: Answer, yes, Senator, they are.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 13: So, this terrorist regime has been at war with US
Speaker 13: for almost fifty years, and as you know, we have
Speaker 13: needed to bring back to terrens with regard to Iran.
Speaker 13: During the Biden administration. They could do anything they wanted
Speaker 13: to our military. As you know, they bomb sent missiles
Speaker 13: and drones at the USS Carney Destroyer in the Persian
Speaker 13: Gulf over one hundred Hugh, and Biden never did anything
Speaker 13: to retaliate. Those days are over, and I think right
Speaker 13: now the conflict is going well, but it's early days,
Speaker 13: and you know there's going to be more challenges.
Speaker 1: Certainly, Sartah, you're a Chair of Readiness of Armed Services,
Speaker 1: so you're the perfect guest to ask this. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of buzz in the media, uninformed as usual, because
Speaker 1: I don't know anything. Nobody knows anything you would about
Speaker 1: our munition stockpiles. Do we need do we need a reconciliation,
Speaker 1: a supplemental, or a quick appropriation in order to restock
Speaker 1: what we have expended and to build more of what
Speaker 1: we are finding to be of particular use in the
Speaker 1: new era of war.
Speaker 13: Look, I'm going to leave that request up to the
Speaker 13: Department of Defense and the President. If there is we
Speaker 13: should rapidly move a supplemental with regard to munitions. But Hugh,
Speaker 13: I've been in three briefings, one classified, two unclassified hearings
Speaker 13: this past week and I've asked that question every time,
Speaker 13: and I think the answer, I know the answers. We
Speaker 13: have enough munitions, certainly to not only prosecute this conflict
Speaker 13: with Iran, but to be able to defend our interests
Speaker 13: in other parts.
Speaker 4: Of the world and especially into pay COOM, and I've
Speaker 4: asked that.
Speaker 13: I asked that out of the Under Secretary for Policy
Speaker 13: Bridge Colby in Armed Services hearing this week. I asked
Speaker 13: it of all the Vice service chiefs, and what I
Speaker 13: wanted them to say was, Hey, if you're a country
Speaker 13: and you think you're reading about munitions being low and
Speaker 13: you want to do something aggressive and in another part
Speaker 13: of the world, don't do it, because we do have
Speaker 13: the capacity, we do have the capability, and we do
Speaker 13: have the mission of the munitions to defend our interests,
Speaker 13: including in the Taiwan straight So that's a message for Shijinping.
Speaker 13: I asked that directly of some witnesses. So that's the answer.
Speaker 13: We clearly have the capacity. Do we need to do
Speaker 13: more in the defense industrial base? Absolutely, And that was
Speaker 13: a big part of my readiness hearing that I shared yesterday.
Speaker 13: We had a long way to go. I think we're
Speaker 13: getting on it. Under President Trump. What I particularly like
Speaker 13: was what he and Secretary Hegseth noted that they're going
Speaker 13: to put out in terms of the budget a one
Speaker 13: point five trillion dollar top line. We talked about that
Speaker 13: end up my hearing yesterday. But we have a long
Speaker 13: way to go on the defense industrial base. But we
Speaker 13: do have the munitions night right now. And if you're
Speaker 13: a dictatorship or a country that wants to cause trouble
Speaker 13: because you think we don't have the capability, don't do it,
Speaker 13: because you'll be surprised we do, all right.
Speaker 1: Last question, Senator, Alaska would be the front edge of
Speaker 1: Golden Dome. I know that you've used your position, your
Speaker 1: seniority to advance Golden Dome for Alaska in the country.
Speaker 1: Are we moving fast enough on that?
Speaker 13: You know, Hugh, there's so much going on in Alaska,
Speaker 13: it's unbelievable. Last night we had another Russian bear bomber
Speaker 13: incursion into our aid is. You know, this doesn't even
Speaker 13: make the news anymore. They're being so aggressive up in Alaska.
Speaker 13: We've had two Russian bear bomber incursions with fighters in
Speaker 13: the last three weeks. Our military, which they always do,
Speaker 13: they do a great job of going out. We had
Speaker 13: F twenty two's F thirty fives a wax tankers going
Speaker 13: to intercept these Russians. So once again they did a
Speaker 13: great job in my state. So we are on the
Speaker 13: front lines of this new air of authoritarian aggression with
Speaker 13: Russia and China in the northern part of America, in
Speaker 13: the Arctic, in the North Pacific, seeing that all the
Speaker 13: time in Aska. But Alaska you mentioned it, Hugh, were
Speaker 13: also the cornerstone of missile defense for the country. All
Speaker 13: the ground based missile interceptors that we have protecting America,
Speaker 13: with the exception of four in California, they're all in Alaska.
Speaker 13: All the big radar systems the track incoming ballistic missiles
Speaker 13: are in Alaska. So but what the Golden Dome does,
Speaker 13: it's going to build out that system and it's going
Speaker 13: to integrate it with a space space system in terms
Speaker 13: of tracking in space space interceptors. We had a down
Speaker 13: payment of twenty five billion dollars for that in the
Speaker 13: budget reconciliation bill. The President's provided great leadership. Senator Kramer
Speaker 13: and I got legislation in the NBAA this year to
Speaker 13: kind of put into law of the Golden Dome initiative,
Speaker 13: but we need to accelerate it more.
Speaker 4: There's a lot more work to do, so to answer your.
Speaker 13: Question, a good start, but we need to accelerate it
Speaker 13: because it's a really important initiative, especially during a dangerous time.
Speaker 1: Senator Dan Sullivan, thank you for joining me on the
Speaker 1: Uhuit Show.