Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
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Speaker 1: at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple,
Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale. Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh Hewett.
Speaker 1: United States Senator Tom Cotton represents the Great State of Arkansas.
Speaker 1: He's also Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Chairman of
Speaker 1: the Republican Conference. Senator, thank you for making time for
Speaker 1: me today. About an hour ago, US Central Command posted
Speaker 1: some video and the statement. Two days ago, the Iranian
Speaker 1: regime had eleven ships in the Gulf of Amon. Today
Speaker 1: they have zero. What do you think the Chinese think
Speaker 1: about this? And I want to tell the audience you
Speaker 1: authored Seven Things you Can't Say about China. I've got
Speaker 1: the book right here. What do you think our adversaries
Speaker 1: in China think about what they've seen in the last
Speaker 1: seventy two hours?
Speaker 2: Well, she I think once again the Chinese communist can't
Speaker 2: he please? Another signal display of strength, confidence, and resolution
Speaker 2: by Donald Trump and the United States. More concretely and materially,
Speaker 2: one has to imagine that they're fearful about the loss
Speaker 2: of black market oil coming from Iran that has been
Speaker 2: helping prop up the Iyatolas regime, and at the prospect
Speaker 2: of one of their chief and only allies in the
Speaker 2: Middle East falling and returning back into the American fold.
Speaker 1: Senator, I am very disappointed with one of our longtime allies,
Speaker 1: the United Kingdom, and wondering whether or not they ought
Speaker 1: to be in five Eyes anymore because they wouldn't support
Speaker 1: us in this. And then Spain has absolutely disgraced itself.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm one of those Atlantisys in our party,
Speaker 1: but it makes it hard to argue with the isolation.
Speaker 1: That's when our allies established in the back in the front.
Speaker 2: Well, the actions of both nations are somewhat disappointing you.
Speaker 2: At least the Prime Minister Starmer of Great Britain has
Speaker 2: slightly modified his previous position allowing us to use basis
Speaker 2: forty calls defensive positions. I would point out view that
Speaker 2: this moment is a perfect example of why we need
Speaker 2: total sovereignty over our military position in Greenland, both our
Speaker 2: current one and our expanded one. This is why President
Speaker 2: Trump has taken it so seriously. We cannot allow, for instance,
Speaker 2: a future left wing government in Denmark to limit what
Speaker 2: our military in Greenland needs to do in a moment
Speaker 2: of crisis.
Speaker 1: That brings me to the message to Cuba in all
Speaker 1: of this, and I'm jumping ahead here because first Venezuela,
Speaker 1: now Iran is under great stress. What is the message
Speaker 1: to Cuba that they should be seeing.
Speaker 2: Well, Cuba is on the rope to you know for
Speaker 2: almost thirty years, actually over thirty years, I guess, be
Speaker 2: at Russia propped up Cuba in the Castro regime, and
Speaker 2: then Cuba's on the ropes in the nineties until Chavez
Speaker 2: came along to prop up Cuba. And now they don't
Speaker 2: have shave, they don't have anyone, and the Cuban government,
Speaker 2: really the entire Cuban economy is on the verge of
Speaker 2: seizing up like a machine without oil because well they
Speaker 2: don't have any oil to fund their economy and the
Speaker 2: government they are and to use for energy. So that's
Speaker 2: why the President has said that in conversations with Cuba,
Speaker 2: things are looking very positive. I bet many many folks
Speaker 2: who are hanging on to the Castro regime or dream
Speaker 2: dreaming them about a peaceful retirement alongside bacheor Alasade in
Speaker 2: Moscow Right now, Senator.
Speaker 1: Is there any open source reporting on whether or not
Speaker 1: an American cyber campaign of any sort of taking place.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen a word about cyber attacks in Iran,
Speaker 1: but that may be because we're not reporting them.
Speaker 2: I'm not aware of any specifics. But you did hear
Speaker 2: General Kane, the Chairman of GOINT Chiefs this morning, say
Speaker 2: that cyber Command and Space Command, we're both integral in
Speaker 2: the operations in a run.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let me move then to the big question,
Speaker 1: which is the defense budget for next year. President Trump
Speaker 1: is said on this program he'd like another half trillion
Speaker 1: dollars of the nine hundred billion that's there. That's a
Speaker 1: big lift. Center at Collins has said that. But if
Speaker 1: we're going to do Golden Dome, and boy do we
Speaker 1: need golden dome. And if we're going to reload the
Speaker 1: munition stockpile, boy do we need a supplemental? Is that
Speaker 1: something that reconciliation could deal with?
Speaker 2: Well, you all on two of the three possibilities. There's
Speaker 2: the possibility of a supplemental the possibility of reconciliation and
Speaker 2: then the annual budget bill. But you're right where you're
Speaker 2: going to have to have a significant defense increase, not
Speaker 2: just to confront the gathering threats we face around the world,
Speaker 2: but to continue to invest more and more into our
Speaker 2: defense industry. We had Secretary Hesth in South Arkansas on
Speaker 2: Friday on his Arsenal Freedom Tour. I've worked with these
Speaker 2: companies for a long time. They've improved a lot over
Speaker 2: the last few years in terms of their production rates,
Speaker 2: but they need to do better and they know they
Speaker 2: need to do better. And the Pentagon needs to do
Speaker 2: better in cutting through red tape, and frankly, Congress needs
Speaker 2: to do better as well.
Speaker 3: We all need to.
Speaker 2: Do better for our troops on the front line and
Speaker 2: the American people in producing missiles and missile defenses as
Speaker 2: fast as we possibly can.
Speaker 1: Now what a defense appropriation fit within the rules for
Speaker 1: reconciliation requiring just simple majorities, because I think you might
Speaker 1: actually get some Democrats to vote for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you if you recall our bill last summer, the
Speaker 2: Working Family's Tax Cut Act had a lot more than
Speaker 2: just tax cuts. It had a significant investment of one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty billion dollars in our defense industry, and
Speaker 2: much of that specifically was for additional munitions manufacturing and procurement.
Speaker 1: So our last question, could the weeks and months I
Speaker 1: had prove is consequential to our position in the world
Speaker 1: as the fall of the Wall in nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: If you're wrong, crumbles and the Middle East board changes dramatically,
Speaker 1: could it be that consequential?
Speaker 2: It certainly has the prospect that he, as Secretary of
Speaker 2: Rubio said, there's no simple answers about what happens in
Speaker 2: Iran if the government were at fall. We know certainly
Speaker 2: that the Supreme leader was eliminated, getting his just deserts
Speaker 2: for forty years of terror against his own people and
Speaker 2: against Americans in the civilized world. But let's all hope
Speaker 2: that when the smoke is cleared and we've reduced around's
Speaker 2: nuclear facilities to rubble, and we have eliminated their missile arsenal.
Speaker 2: But also it's a new day for the Iranian people
Speaker 2: and they have a pro American government that becomes an
Speaker 2: anchor for peace and stability in the Middle East, not
Speaker 2: revolutionary violence as they have been for forty seven years.
Speaker 1: Center Tom Cotton good to speak with you. Thank you
Speaker 1: for spending time on a very bavy weekend. Take care
Speaker 1: of Senator. I'm joined by Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, retiring
Speaker 1: United States Navy after thirty two years of service in
Speaker 1: the uniform. He's not the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,
Speaker 1: where he's a senior fellow Admiral. You've been around for
Speaker 1: the five big conflicts that I've been around for Panama,
Speaker 1: and then we've got the Yugoslavia Air campaign, Afghanistan, Iraq,
Speaker 1: and then the Libyan campaign twenty eleven. What is different
Speaker 1: about this war than those wars?
Speaker 4: I think that's a great question because the issue is
Speaker 4: the we're trying to do an air only campaign.
Speaker 3: Here. We've got six good lines of effort.
Speaker 4: I had, you know, raising care Dan Kane laid them out,
Speaker 4: not saying six, but you know, laid them out.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: IRGC leadership and facilities is one. Two is suppression of
Speaker 4: enemy air defense, which I think we're almost near block
Speaker 4: checked is two to three is the ballistic missile capabilities,
Speaker 4: facilities and production.
Speaker 3: That's three. That's the big one right now.
Speaker 4: Then drone facilities, capabilities and production.
Speaker 3: That's four.
Speaker 4: And then the fifth one is the Iranian Iranian Navy,
Speaker 4: and then the sixth one is the interesting one here,
Speaker 4: which is.
Speaker 3: How do you support the protesters?
Speaker 4: This is different than like I was involved in Libya's
Speaker 4: at Yukon when had happened, and I was involved with Kosovo,
Speaker 4: and in both cases we had an armed insurgency on
Speaker 4: the ground. The KLA and Cosbo who were you know,
Speaker 4: I know all their friends of mine. Now those are
Speaker 4: some tough guys ready to fight, and an former army
Speaker 4: kind of armed insurrectionists in Libya in twenty eleven. We
Speaker 4: do not have that condition in Iran right now. So
Speaker 4: I don't know that the sixth line of effort gets
Speaker 4: exploited unless they get armed either by Israeli or US
Speaker 4: title fifth year Intelligence Community Forces.
Speaker 1: Admiral I saw earlier today reports that Israel's bombing along
Speaker 1: the Kurdish border between the Iraqi Kurdish Dan and Iranian
Speaker 1: Kurdis Dan, the idea of being that perhaps Kurdish forces
Speaker 1: might cross over. What would that mean to Turkey? Turkey
Speaker 1: is one of our three disappointing allies. Spain's the worst.
Speaker 1: Uk is a close second, but Turkey's playing it both ways.
Speaker 1: What would that mean if the Kurds crossed over.
Speaker 4: So I don't think you did good justice to Hungary
Speaker 4: on that one, but I'll say Turkey is the worst
Speaker 4: of all those a lot.
Speaker 3: And yeah, and so look the Turks are you know,
Speaker 3: they're going.
Speaker 4: To become unglued if if we create a Kurdish problem
Speaker 4: for them in this I mean now, my answer to
Speaker 4: them is, hey, you could have been a lot more
Speaker 4: helpful at every step of the way in this crisis.
Speaker 4: You've been unhelpful. You've been damaging to Israel. You have
Speaker 4: not been a good ally to the United States any way,
Speaker 4: shape or form. And so my empathy factor for them
Speaker 4: is pretty low. I did I don't know what the
Speaker 4: Israeli you know, long term plan there is, because I
Speaker 4: don't that's creating chaos and you know, chao us has
Speaker 4: a value in the moment, but later on that chaos
Speaker 4: could have a negative value for us.
Speaker 3: I'm I'm hesitant to say that. I know that's going
Speaker 3: to be a useful action by the Israelis.
Speaker 1: All right, now, admiraald this is this goes back to
Speaker 1: your time at the Cyber Solarium, when you're the executive director,
Speaker 1: a close to tolitarian society Iran with the secret police
Speaker 1: thoroughly penetrated. I gather the Israelis took control of their
Speaker 1: closed caption TV and followed around Hawmoni's bodyguard. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that they knew, and a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff that we knew. If they're close to tolitarian society,
Speaker 1: how vulnerable are we to this kind of surveillance and measures.
Speaker 4: You know, I have a feeling a hue that you're
Speaker 4: not watching enough Apple TV, because if you're watching Tehran,
Speaker 4: you would know Israelis.
Speaker 3: The Israelis have half of the I audience absolutely.
Speaker 4: I mean, by the way, so much that is in
Speaker 4: that streaming show just shows up here. I wonder sometimes
Speaker 4: about Massad, but the you know, look had them penetrated,
Speaker 4: and you know, give us some credit to you know,
Speaker 4: General Kine's emphasis on the non kinetic aspects meant, I mean,
Speaker 4: we kind of did the blunt force object of you
Speaker 4: cannot communicate, you cannot see your space assets.
Speaker 3: They did the scalpel work. The Israelis.
Speaker 4: We know exactly where you are, we know who's coming
Speaker 4: to this meeting, and we know that it is time
Speaker 4: to strike. Three and a half hours from now, so
Speaker 4: they're the scalpel with a sledgehammer, and between us that
Speaker 4: was a pretty non kinetic butt kicking.
Speaker 1: Yes, now, Admill, I have a column for Fox News
Speaker 1: tomorrow that restates, again objectively, the facts of nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: one when then President George H. W. Bush, then Secretary
Speaker 1: of Defense Cheney, and then Chairman of the Joint Chief
Speaker 1: Powell called a halt to the First Golf War after
Speaker 1: one hundred hours, and the debate about that goes on.
Speaker 1: I don't want to reopen that debate. I am afraid, however,
Speaker 1: that there's a temptation for political actors to things too soon.
Speaker 1: Is that at work here one?
Speaker 3: You know, you hit it, Hugh. That is my biggest concern.
Speaker 4: We stopped the twelve day war twelve days too soon,
Speaker 4: that after we did four to h we should have
Speaker 4: joined in, at least at a minimum, provided refueling aircraft,
Speaker 4: continued refueling aircraft and strategic bombers to support continued Israeli.
Speaker 3: Strikes on that.
Speaker 4: Remember that when I thought to bilistic missile production, drone production.
Speaker 4: The reason they're shooting back at you with good numbers
Speaker 4: at us is we have not stopped that. We haven't
Speaker 4: eliminated the current stuff and rebilized everything that could build
Speaker 4: future stuff.
Speaker 3: We need to make it clear that there will be.
Speaker 4: No missile or drone activity from a future Iranian state.
Speaker 4: And the way you do that is a four to
Speaker 4: six week campaign, three weeks solid, and near the end
Speaker 4: of it you're doing battle damage assessment, and then restriking, restriking,
Speaker 4: restriking at a lower level for about a week to
Speaker 4: two weeks.
Speaker 3: Then you declare victory.
Speaker 4: The propensity for presidents who declared victory.
Speaker 3: Early will will hurt us here.
Speaker 4: We need to carry through on this, even if it's
Speaker 4: clear to us after some point that there's not going
Speaker 4: to be a popular revolt against the leadership. We have
Speaker 4: to continue to strike campaign until our military says we've
Speaker 4: achieved these five the lines of the other five lines
Speaker 4: of effort.
Speaker 1: I set out what do you think China is saying
Speaker 1: as they We're sixty hours into this, so there's not
Speaker 1: a lot to conclude, but the People's Republic of China
Speaker 1: and the CCP are watching. What are they concluding?
Speaker 4: Well, first, it turns out they didn't have that much
Speaker 4: control over Iran, because I think they've been settling to
Speaker 4: Iran NonStop, you know, Morse code, carrier, pigeon, whatever they
Speaker 4: can get to them, do not close the straits or Hormuse.
Speaker 4: And the straits of Hormus are effectively being closed by
Speaker 4: the Iranians right now. And let me tell you this
Speaker 4: is like when they do this, This is like the
Speaker 4: old scorpion ride in the back of the frog. You know,
Speaker 4: when the Iranians, you know, kill the frog and closed
Speaker 4: the straights of Hermus. They drowned, right because there it
Speaker 4: kind of is as dependent on it as any other
Speaker 4: maybe the Katari economy is equally dependent. So they're hurting themselves,
Speaker 4: but they're killing China, right. Venezuela was a little bit
Speaker 4: of a ding on China. This is a big ding
Speaker 4: on China supply. That's where this Iranian oil was going
Speaker 4: and at a very discounted freight cost, you know, and
Speaker 4: they're going to lose that. So China's gotta be frustrated.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: I think they kind of knew the Russian and Chinese
Speaker 4: weapons in Iranian hands, we're not performing well against high
Speaker 4: end US and Israeli equipment and they're getting another lesson
Speaker 4: in that. I will say, also, this is a reminder
Speaker 4: the Ukrainian. I just got back from three weeks in Ukraine.
Speaker 4: There's a lot you can learn in Ukraine, and some
Speaker 4: of it was applied here, but there's a lot that
Speaker 4: isn't about Ukraine. Sometimes, just having a butt kicking air
Speaker 4: power capability capacity anchored in our US Air Force supported
Speaker 4: by our US Navy and Marine Corps is critical to
Speaker 4: winning wars against high end adversaries.
Speaker 1: Admiral, we used the B one. I don't know how
Speaker 1: many the ones we have. I got twenty B twos
Speaker 1: on my being O card. What does the B one
Speaker 1: do that the B two doesn't or is it the
Speaker 1: same function?
Speaker 3: I think it was doing the same time. I mean
Speaker 3: I think the B ones like, hey, suppression of enemy
Speaker 3: or defense complete I'm coming in.
Speaker 4: It carries a lot of weapons, you know, probably around
Speaker 4: the B two capacity, not like a B fifty two,
Speaker 4: but it does a lot. And look we got we
Speaker 4: have anywhere operational I'm guessing I don't know, so it's
Speaker 4: not a clasm my number, but around nineteen or twenty
Speaker 4: probably there good to go. But the dude, the deal
Speaker 4: is the B two has you have to keep some
Speaker 4: of them for your nuclear readiness to terrence thing so like,
Speaker 4: let the b twos, you know, be doing their nuclear
Speaker 4: stuff and then some B twos doing the conventional b
Speaker 4: ones picking it up. I'm comfortable with this, and you know,
Speaker 4: I'm confident they're putting a whole bunch of j DAM
Speaker 4: on target b ones. Are they carry a lot of
Speaker 4: precision guided munitions and.
Speaker 3: So you know, I'm excited to have them in there
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 4: By the way, that counts for a lot of fighter
Speaker 4: a lot of fighter assorties in one bomber mission.
Speaker 1: Now now, Admiral, I'm asking her a continent earlier about
Speaker 1: a supplemental or a reconciliation bill to beef up the
Speaker 1: munition stock biles, and we'll talk during the break about
Speaker 1: Golden Dum. Do you think that is going to be
Speaker 1: necessary because we're using a lot of ordinance.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, But I'll back up to that whole Red Sea
Speaker 4: year and a half. We shot a year's worth of
Speaker 4: procurement in the Red Sea alone last year and the
Speaker 4: year before each of those years, and now we're doing
Speaker 4: it again on the offensive side. So you know, with
Speaker 4: the strike weapons, so we should have a munition you
Speaker 4: know that, Look, the reconciliations helping with munitions, but I
Speaker 4: think this is a very specific buy back the five
Speaker 4: hundred million to billion dollars worth the munitions you spend
Speaker 4: over the each week, probably in this in this contest,
Speaker 4: absolutely you should do that. That's pretty typical that you
Speaker 4: have a supplemental for a wartime expenditure like this.
Speaker 1: I'll be right back with Adam Montgomery during the break
Speaker 1: to ask him about Golden Dome and how quickly we
Speaker 1: have to move on that given what we've seen right here.
Speaker 1: But don't go anywhere except stay tuned to the Sanuel
Speaker 1: News channel. If you've missed any or all of the
Speaker 1: conversations today, they're all over at my YouTube channel at
Speaker 1: Hugh Hewett YouTube. I'll be right back with the Admiral
Speaker 1: during the break. After the break, Bethany Mandel joins me.
Speaker 1: Then John bod Ortz. Stay tuned. I'll be right back.
Speaker 1: I'm back with Admiral Mark Montgomery. Admiral Ronald Reagan and
Speaker 1: Edward Teller are smiling today because of what Israel is doing.
Speaker 1: They've suffered civilian casualties, but they they're shooting everything down.
Speaker 1: They got lasers work and all sorts of stuff. What's
Speaker 1: that tell us about Golden Dome? And how much of
Speaker 1: a priority it ought to be, and I assume we
Speaker 1: can get it deployed.
Speaker 4: So first, this validates President Trump's commitment to Golden Dome
Speaker 4: during his campaign and immediately upon his election with the
Speaker 4: executive order.
Speaker 3: It also validates his selection of Mike Gootline.
Speaker 4: General Gootline is the leader because goot Line has laid
Speaker 4: out a very you know, a very explicit plan you
Speaker 4: can see it to get up into space, like President
Speaker 4: Reagan knew we needed to be.
Speaker 3: The cost of launch has been dropped.
Speaker 4: The reason I say this, if you're up in space,
Speaker 4: you can the same assets can do for deployed you know,
Speaker 4: defend your forces of the Middle East, in the Pacific,
Speaker 4: in Europe and the Homeland. We want to fight our adversary,
Speaker 4: not in the homeland, so we want to be able
Speaker 4: to defend our.
Speaker 3: Ford deployed forces. So I you know, his theory of
Speaker 3: a space based.
Speaker 4: System, both satellites and effectors to shoot down things base
Speaker 4: of space supported by a strong what's called an underlayer
Speaker 4: of terrestrial radars and sometimes shooters. Very point defense is important,
Speaker 4: and maybe getting to rigibles in there, you know, in
Speaker 4: the up to really good good vision that is where
Speaker 4: my goot line is headed, and it's validated by this. Look,
Speaker 4: it's terrible that our troops got killed. I think we're
Speaker 4: going to find out by you know, a short range
Speaker 4: ballistic missile that hit a op center. But you know
Speaker 4: the truth is we don't have There's not enough patriot
Speaker 4: and bad that you can buy to point defend everything everywhere,
Speaker 4: all at once.
Speaker 3: And with that in mind, the.
Speaker 4: Space base really gives you that more comprehensive, holistic approach.
Speaker 3: It's going to take time.
Speaker 4: I'm afraid the President will not you know, it will
Speaker 4: be after January twenty twenty nine before it's a.
Speaker 3: Truly effective system.
Speaker 4: But this is the President giving his successors the systems
Speaker 4: they need to fight and win against adversaries like China,
Speaker 4: Russia and North Korea and if Iran survives Iran in
Speaker 4: the future. So I'm not excited, but I'm you know,
Speaker 4: I believe this validates improves the theory that a lot
Speaker 4: of us have been pushing and the general goot line
Speaker 4: is championing.
Speaker 3: As head of Golden Dome.
Speaker 1: We're radmal Mark Montgomery. Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 1: I know you're in high demand and I appreciate all
Speaker 1: the guys and gals from FDD spending the time with me.
Speaker 1: Talk to you again soon. Thank you Admiral again. I'm
Speaker 1: joined from Israel by a Meet Segal with twelve News
Speaker 1: in Israel. It's also with Dan Senor on the Calling
Speaker 1: Back podcast, the Insider podcast Busiest Man as I can
Speaker 1: tell in Israeli media. I mean, thank you for making
Speaker 1: the time. First, how is your family? You've got a
Speaker 1: new born. If I recall, you're going back and forth
Speaker 1: to the shelters a what an additional complexity for parents
Speaker 1: or trying to get some sleep exactly?
Speaker 5: You know they someone said something funny that I mean
Speaker 5: having sirens in the middle of the nineties, as if
Speaker 5: every every is Ready has a too, you know, has
Speaker 5: a new burn to take care of. You know, you
Speaker 5: wake up three times a night and you will barely
Speaker 5: get to sleep. But I think Moreal is high high
Speaker 5: spirits because people are aware of what is going on,
Speaker 5: what's at stake.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing, in my opinion, you.
Speaker 5: Since nineteen eighty two till twenty twenty six, today, each
Speaker 5: and every is Ready or was killed or injured or
Speaker 5: kidnapped was hit by either an Iranian weapon or an
Speaker 5: Iranian funded weapon. So this was the enemy. So now
Speaker 5: when they are going down and they are going to
Speaker 5: collapse in Israel and the United States are standing.
Speaker 1: Together to facilitate the process.
Speaker 5: I think it's ready. Are willing to pay a high price.
Speaker 5: Bride called it stiff upper lip. I think in World War.
Speaker 1: Two, well, they are have already paid a large, large
Speaker 1: price for civilian casualties and more on the way. I'm
Speaker 1: certain because it's going to be a long war. Let
Speaker 1: me ask you, mate about the politics in Israel. In
Speaker 1: the United States, the divide between red and blue is
Speaker 1: already out in full force, and Democrats are condemning this.
Speaker 1: I have been cheered by the opposition, both Yaya Lapide
Speaker 1: and Natally Bennett supporting the Prime Minister. Is that going
Speaker 1: to hold through the duration of the war?
Speaker 5: I think so, Because this is an existential threat, everyone
Speaker 5: is aware of it.
Speaker 1: I think the situation in Gaza was.
Speaker 5: A bit different, first of all because it was very long,
Speaker 5: and second because of the hostage question. There were many
Speaker 5: approaches to how to take care of whether to first
Speaker 5: take the hostages and then eliminate Camaso the other way around.
Speaker 1: This is not the case.
Speaker 5: Was Iran so I think the main perception in Israel
Speaker 5: is you know, green and buried and the opposition and coalition.
Speaker 1: I mean, do not have any disputes about this. Right now,
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the Prime minister in at
Speaker 1: Yahoo for a moment. I mean, I read about him
Speaker 1: in your book The Call three Am. It's a fabulous
Speaker 1: book for people want to learn about Israeli politics. He's
Speaker 1: been off and on prime Minister of Israel since nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six, for a total of almost sixteen years. This
Speaker 1: is the fruition what is unfolding now. It's not done yet,
Speaker 1: but this is the fruition of his life goal. Is
Speaker 1: it changing the fundamentals of politics in Israel or is
Speaker 1: it just hardening the lines for whenever the ceasefire or
Speaker 1: the piece or the regime collapses in Iran.
Speaker 5: It absolutely helps him, you know, following the utter disaster
Speaker 5: of October sevens which happened on Natania's watch, which with
Speaker 5: his accountability, I thought that his only way whether this
Speaker 5: monster storm, is actually by defeating Iran, because Iran is
Speaker 5: the sugar ready of each and every proxy that fought Israel,
Speaker 5: especially Ramas. And here we see that what began on
Speaker 5: October Seven's was actually Israel's pell Holbo. And now we
Speaker 5: are in the gates of Berlin and Tokyo, and I
Speaker 5: think this opportunity cannot be missed. I think that Nataniel
Speaker 5: and Trump, I would put it different to Natania was
Speaker 5: the only one, the only leader who could have talked
Speaker 5: Trump into attacking Iran, you know, the leader of the
Speaker 5: Maga movement. And because he explained to Trump, first how
Speaker 5: dangerous cities to the United States States itself and second
Speaker 5: what it teached the world in the US enemies. If
Speaker 5: I run is to be the unim regim is to
Speaker 5: be destroyed by the United States of America.
Speaker 1: Now Prime Minister Modi of India was their last week.
Speaker 1: And the new world order that is emerging is of
Speaker 1: the high tech superpowers like Israel, India and the United States.
Speaker 1: And maybe they'll drag along the old europe powers, but
Speaker 1: they're not really playing their own game. I also think
Speaker 1: the golf allies are going to come along and I
Speaker 1: can't even believe it. Lebanon is you know, declared open
Speaker 1: season on Hesbola.
Speaker 5: Hooray right, yes, Chris Balla, you know there was a
Speaker 5: once in nineteen eighty three the Label party in the
Speaker 5: United Kingdom published It's a manifesto, It's a gender for
Speaker 5: the election, and the British Plus defined it as the
Speaker 5: longest suicide member, the longest suicide letter.
Speaker 1: In the history of the world.
Speaker 5: So I would say that his blast decision to fire
Speaker 5: three rockets in the middle of the night on Israel
Speaker 5: was the loudest suicide letter in the history of the
Speaker 5: Middle East. Listen, I know they were between a rock
Speaker 5: and a hard place. The hardest place, you know, Iranians.
Speaker 5: The founders demand them to actually seize the opportunity and
Speaker 5: defend them. That was the purpose of establishing christ Bella
Speaker 5: and on the other hand, the formidable power of the idea.
Speaker 5: They took the worst decision. They attacked, but only marginally
Speaker 5: three rockets, and now Israel would come with its decisive
Speaker 5: power to eliminate his bela once and fall.
Speaker 1: And the Lebanese government understands this.
Speaker 5: I mean they see yet another flood of refugees, and
Speaker 5: their decision today was historic in the sense that for
Speaker 5: the first time his belife defined as illegal militarily in Levange.
Speaker 5: Good news for the media.
Speaker 1: Now, I mean I talked to four Israelis about Seth
Speaker 1: you and nadav Aviv and doctor or in doctor ORNs.
Speaker 1: My generation U three are a generation younger. But you
Speaker 1: seem to talk to everyone and everyone's mad at you occasionally,
Speaker 1: so that means you're actually a fine reporter. What do
Speaker 1: your sources tell you about fracture within Iran? Because there
Speaker 1: are some reports I don't know whether the credit them
Speaker 1: or not of internal fracturing of the regime. Have you
Speaker 1: heard that from any of the people you report on.
Speaker 5: Yes, I think we should stick to cautious optimism when
Speaker 5: it comes to this. There are two options basically for
Speaker 5: the future of Iran. One is the fantasy of Israel
Speaker 5: and the United States just you know, pressing control z
Speaker 5: undoing the Islamic evolution, thus getting you know, a liberal,
Speaker 5: secular proise ready pro western Iran. But the other more
Speaker 5: probable option is that we're going to have Venezuela. The
Speaker 5: United States took the president and now, I mean the
Speaker 5: vice president is way more cautious when it comes to
Speaker 5: the United States, way more friendly. Why because I guess
Speaker 5: she's afraid the United States is going to after her too.
Speaker 3: That's the thing in.
Speaker 1: Iran, I think.
Speaker 5: And you should notice you something very interesting Israel targeted
Speaker 5: killed forty eight senior figures in Iran, form Ali Khaminida, Supremelyadium,
Speaker 5: to generals and everything in between. But it skipped the
Speaker 5: Iranian president Pashkazian. Now, it's not due to lack of information.
Speaker 5: I suspect, and it's only my suspicion that this guy
Speaker 5: is going to be the go to guy when it
Speaker 5: comes to the Iranian regime.
Speaker 1: That's a fascinating speculation. I watched that. What about their
Speaker 1: foreign minister who continued to make a full out of
Speaker 1: himself whenever he goes on American television.
Speaker 5: The Middle East is full with, you know, ridiculous foreign ministers.
Speaker 5: The didn't grasp the changing situation.
Speaker 1: In their in their homelands.
Speaker 5: You do you remember italic As for Miraq, Mahmuda Sakha
Speaker 5: for Mirak.
Speaker 1: I think Alila.
Speaker 5: Arakchi is going to be remembered exactly like them.
Speaker 1: All right, So you have talked, I've heard you talk
Speaker 1: about the UAE and Saudi ua is a little Sparta
Speaker 1: and they have been with us every step of the
Speaker 1: way through the long Wars, and their very very close
Speaker 1: ally just just behind Israel. They don't have the capabilities
Speaker 1: Israel does, but they are reliable. Do you think that breach,
Speaker 1: which was very alarming, has been healed by the common
Speaker 1: enemy that Iran has proven to be.
Speaker 5: First of all, yes, I think the UAE, the UI's
Speaker 5: number one reason to go to the Abrama Cords was
Speaker 5: first the huge threat possessed by Iran, and second understanding
Speaker 5: that there should be an alliance of the moderates in
Speaker 5: the Middle East. It's not Jews versus Arabs, or Jews
Speaker 5: versus Muslims, but moderates versus fundamentalists. And now Saudi Arabia
Speaker 5: gets this.
Speaker 1: Listen.
Speaker 5: I Ran attacked, the directly attacked Saudi Arabia this day
Speaker 5: attacked Bahrain, whouwaits even Qatar, you know, Qatar, the big
Speaker 5: the biggest terror funder, the second biggest tele funder in
Speaker 5: the Middle list was targeted by the first.
Speaker 1: Founder in the in the Middle East.
Speaker 5: This is huge, and I think they are going to
Speaker 5: understand that there is only one power in the Middle
Speaker 5: East which does not threaten peaceful citizens, and this is Israel.
Speaker 1: Thirty seconds, I mean, is anyone running around right now
Speaker 1: because what they're doing does not fit any coherent pattern
Speaker 1: I've ever seen in my studies of war and conflict
Speaker 1: and being around don't make any sense. Is anyone running it?
Speaker 3: No, it is run by by the Gang of Three.
Speaker 5: But and here's the thing, it runs a strategic plan
Speaker 5: for the entire for the last forty seven years was
Speaker 5: we are going to enjoy the bloods of other proxies.
Speaker 5: Now their proxies are gone thanks to the IDF, and
Speaker 5: now for the first time they have to fight themselves
Speaker 5: against the West, and the outcome is devastating.
Speaker 1: From them going very well. I meet Segal, Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining me. Follow him on. I meet Schagal. Get
Speaker 1: his book that you can get an Amazon. Listen to
Speaker 1: him and call me back with Dan speenor and thank
Speaker 1: you to meet for at the time. Good luck with
Speaker 1: the babies in the middle of a war. I'll be
Speaker 1: right back in America's patre born in Gloria and Ian
Speaker 1: and Grace in America. I'm you Hereitt back from vacation.
Speaker 1: My thanks to Kurt Schlicker for sitting in for me
Speaker 1: last week. And what was the penultimate week before the war.
Speaker 1: And I was without wireless all day Saturday as I
Speaker 1: flew Delta just couldn't get it working. So I was
Speaker 1: gone crazy wondering what my next guest, Eli Lake, who
Speaker 1: I asked to be the first guest for this program,
Speaker 1: first guest after the war was sinking and saying, and
Speaker 1: he was working with commentary and pumping stuff out. Eli,
Speaker 1: great work this weekend. First question, big picture, your reaction
Speaker 1: after seventy two hours of war with Iran.
Speaker 6: I look at this as the culmination of a forty
Speaker 6: seven year war that was started with the embassy hostage
Speaker 6: crisis that the Iranian regime has started, and it looks
Speaker 6: like this is going to be the final chapter of
Speaker 6: that near fifty year war. And I think that's the
Speaker 6: right way to look at it now.
Speaker 1: I thought the Free Press, for whom you worked, did
Speaker 1: an amazing job on Saturday before I lost wireless. You
Speaker 1: brought in serious people to talk about the subject. There's
Speaker 1: been good guests over at Fox as well, but most
Speaker 1: of the news is slow, Eli. Where are you getting
Speaker 1: your news from about developments in the war.
Speaker 6: I like social media, there are some accounts. I think
Speaker 6: Iran International has been very good source for understanding what's
Speaker 6: happening with the democratic opposition. I always in situations like this,
Speaker 6: we'll try to remember the basic rule of the fog
Speaker 6: of war. The first reports are often wrong, so there
Speaker 6: was a there were there was still dispute over who
Speaker 6: hit a girls' school that you know, the casualty figures
Speaker 6: keep rising, and a lot of news outlets kind of
Speaker 6: went with that. But I'm still waiting to sort of see, okay,
Speaker 6: what what happened there was that potentially a misfire was
Speaker 6: on an IRGC base. Certainly don't think it was targeted.
Speaker 6: That's regime propaganda, but uh, you know so, so I'm there.
Speaker 6: I do think that the straight stuff you're getting from
Speaker 6: the wires and the usual suspects has been pretty good.
Speaker 6: And to be honest, I learned a ton just at
Speaker 6: the press conference today with Raisin Kine and Pete Hexsath. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I mean that that answered a lot of questions. I
Speaker 6: thought was pretty good.
Speaker 1: So now I listened to HEAVV right morning on my
Speaker 1: trungle and he too. He went very big on the
Speaker 1: other chessboard, the Grand Strategy chessboard. I thought he was persuasive.
Speaker 1: What do you think China is seeing as it's unfolds.
Speaker 6: Well, we've talked about this before. The first thing, I
Speaker 6: think that the Chinese military planners are looking at Is.
Speaker 6: The United States and Israel together have done it again.
Speaker 6: They have managed to, in this case kill instead of
Speaker 6: capture the leader of a regime without boots on the ground.
Speaker 1: That's brand new.
Speaker 6: That's a new technology that, in my view, is a
Speaker 6: new kind of capability. And I think we're in this
Speaker 6: kind of moment similar to the years after World War
Speaker 6: Two where America and its ally Israel has a kind
Speaker 6: of monopoly on this capability.
Speaker 1: But that's extraordinary.
Speaker 6: I'm not saying that this would be done in China,
Speaker 6: but I just think it changes the game. It changes
Speaker 6: the chessboard in a lot of ways in terms of
Speaker 6: a kind of tactical innovation. The other thing I think
Speaker 6: is that I have not seen Russia or China the
Speaker 6: kind of great power allies of Iran offering to send troops,
Speaker 6: offering to do much of anything. Iran is alone and isolated.
Speaker 6: That to me was also super significant. But if we
Speaker 6: were worried that China would take an opportunity to make
Speaker 6: a grab for Taipei and Taiwan, I think we've set
Speaker 6: that back at this point in terms of the demonstration
Speaker 6: of American military might.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the one accent we had not see is the
Speaker 1: underwater asset. I know most of the Iranian navy has
Speaker 1: been sunk. I don't know how it's been sunk, but
Speaker 1: I would guess a lot of our Virginia attack submarines
Speaker 1: are near the Straits Taiwan Straits right now, because we
Speaker 1: are pretty committed in the Middle East to this. Let
Speaker 1: me go to the downside. I don't know that the
Speaker 1: United Kingdom should be in the five eyes anymore, and
Speaker 1: I sure as hell don't think Spain out to be
Speaker 1: anywhere near. What do you make of their First of all,
Speaker 1: UK just wouldn't work with us for seventy two hours.
Speaker 1: How do we trust them? And then Spain won't work
Speaker 1: with us now after everybody's been attacked by the Butchers.
Speaker 6: Well, it's drastic. The five I question is very interesting
Speaker 6: with the UK. But the Shenanigans they called with Diego
Speaker 6: Garcia for as this was ramping up, is a real blow.
Speaker 6: And I think it is a huge problem. And I
Speaker 6: know it was something that Trump had personally talked about,
Speaker 6: so it got his attention. Listen, this is the difference
Speaker 6: between the US Israel. I mean, think about what the
Speaker 6: US Israel military partnership is achieving right now. Taking care
Speaker 6: of an enemy to not just Israel. It's like not
Speaker 6: a war for Israel. It's like they're taking care of
Speaker 6: the West. And where is where is where are our
Speaker 6: traditional European allies in that nowhere? They are roving their
Speaker 6: irrelevance in this moment. You know, it makes you rethink
Speaker 6: a number of things, and it you know, it gets
Speaker 6: back to I was very initially skeptical of Trump's hostility
Speaker 6: to NATO. I'm not saying I've come around to the
Speaker 6: kind of full Trumpian position on it, but I just
Speaker 6: don't know that we can count on a lot of
Speaker 6: the europe Western European militaries in particular, to be the
Speaker 6: kind of allies that we assume they are in the
Speaker 6: NATO alliance. You know, when they did there at a moment
Speaker 6: like this, and not just that they didn't go along
Speaker 6: with the United States, Do they have the what capabilities.
Speaker 1: Would they have?
Speaker 6: I mean that's what I'm the Israeli tech and what
Speaker 6: the Americans have been able to do. I keep coming
Speaker 6: back to it is so extraordinary. And where is the
Speaker 6: UK on stuff like this?
Speaker 1: Nowhere? Yeah, I'm kind of up for the two eyes approach.
Speaker 1: What we don't know Massada, and I'm kind of going
Speaker 1: to that. I want to ask you about your worry.
Speaker 1: My column for Fox tomorrow is Mster President, don't do
Speaker 1: what hw and Dick Cheney and Colin Powell did in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. Although I don't know the information they
Speaker 1: acted on that they had a goal. They executed the
Speaker 1: Pole doctrine. They expelled Saddam, but the Marshabs were slaughtered.
Speaker 1: We went on for another eleven years with the no
Speaker 1: fly zones. We lost airman, we lost kobar towers. It
Speaker 1: was not the right thing to blink and quit. And
Speaker 1: because you know, look bad on the road, that was
Speaker 1: the road of destruction and death. Do you think there's
Speaker 1: a danger of stopping too soon?
Speaker 6: Yes, but I also think that there this is a
Speaker 6: big gamble and we should we should keep.
Speaker 1: That in mind.
Speaker 6: I think it's smart that we're not going to commit
Speaker 6: boots on the ground because Americans don't want it.
Speaker 1: And then our service.
Speaker 6: Our marines, our our infantry men become sitting ducks because they,
Speaker 6: as a man, the checkpoints and they train and we
Speaker 6: and that's that's how.
Speaker 1: The wars became.
Speaker 6: Quagmires wasn't in the initial phase of toppling the regimes.
Speaker 6: It was the nation building phase. So I think Trump
Speaker 6: is smart to say that's not in the cards and
Speaker 6: you shouldn't have any expectations of that. But we should
Speaker 6: also acknowledge that we have less of an ability to
Speaker 6: shape whatever comes next in the transition. My hope is
Speaker 6: that MASAD and CIA have a network in place that
Speaker 6: can emerge after these layers of the regime are eliminated,
Speaker 6: and that would be the best case scenario, and I'm
Speaker 6: not ruling it out, but it's a big unknown at
Speaker 6: this point. And my nightmare scenario is that you have
Speaker 6: even if it's a thousand true believers with lots of guns,
Speaker 6: you know, they head to the hills, they form an insurgency,
Speaker 6: and there's a race for the most sensitive material, whether
Speaker 6: it's nuclear, whether it's you know, even if it's handheld
Speaker 6: anti aircraft guns, which we know the Iranians have, If
Speaker 6: they get in the hands of terrorist groups and they
Speaker 6: go to international airports, that's an international crisis.
Speaker 1: So what I'm saying is.
Speaker 6: I actually think the MASAD and the CIA and the
Speaker 6: US military are aware of that, and I and you
Speaker 6: have to marvel at their brilliance and competence. So at
Speaker 6: this point, I think they know that that's a challenge,
Speaker 6: but there are no guarantees. We've ruled the iron dice
Speaker 6: of war and we have to accept that that's a
Speaker 6: major risk.
Speaker 1: Now there's no danger of loose nukes. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of danger of loose nuclear material that makes dirty bombs,
Speaker 1: and that is that's very last question, just loose weaponry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Israel has demonstrated extraordinary technology that we need, and I
Speaker 1: think the Golden Dome that Trump's put on the table
Speaker 1: becomes the priority for the rest of his term that
Speaker 1: we need what Israel has. Do you think the Congress
Speaker 1: will step up and spend what needs to be spent
Speaker 1: and go Manhattan Project on this the way that Reagan
Speaker 1: did and then we kind of put it away because
Speaker 1: of the piece did and Ino, But we need it.
Speaker 1: It's absolutely essentially so glad you brought this up.
Speaker 6: This is an opportunity to reset the USS where we're relationship.
Speaker 6: I think that it's not just me, Benjamin Netanyahu's even
Speaker 6: said this, it's time to end the model of that.
Speaker 6: You know, we're subsidizing Israel's military more than any other
Speaker 6: country in the world.
Speaker 1: Israel's a prosperous nation.
Speaker 6: Instead, let's have Israel graduate to full partner and instead
Speaker 6: of having a Manhattan project, let's have Israel, you know,
Speaker 6: bring its technology to us in a collaborative process, so
Speaker 6: that we have Iron Beam, a laser based missile defense
Speaker 6: system that eliminates the huge.
Speaker 1: Problem right now in.
Speaker 6: Our missile defense contract, which is that it's far more
Speaker 6: expensive to build the interceptors than for the bad guys
Speaker 6: to build the missiles. So if we can use that
Speaker 6: kind of laser technology doesn't work in all conditions, but
Speaker 6: if we can get that and use that and have
Speaker 6: Israel helping with Golden Dome, that is a new kind
Speaker 6: of relationship.
Speaker 1: And that's what I'd like to say. I agree this
Speaker 1: is they are the equal of any of our ally,
Speaker 1: and in fact, they've proven themselves to be more important
Speaker 1: to us than any other ally in the last seventy
Speaker 1: two hours in a grand strategy sense, which has not
Speaker 1: always been the case before. Eli Lake always hit the
Speaker 1: free Press, follow him at the CFP and on x
Speaker 1: at Eli Lake, come right back, America lots ahead today
Speaker 1: on my first day back, Danny Pluckkip from AIX Welcome
Speaker 1: back in America, I'm you, Hewittt back after a week
Speaker 1: thanks to Kirk Schlichter for sitting in for me last week.
Speaker 1: I'm joined by Danny Pludka, senior scholar at the American
Speaker 1: Enterprise Institute, co host of the What the Hell Is
Speaker 1: going On? Podcast? Danny, I want to ask you about
Speaker 1: the big big picture of eve Reddy Gore did a
Speaker 1: what Ask Have You Anything? Podcast all about what China
Speaker 1: is watching and seeing and concluding. I want to put
Speaker 1: that question to you, because you are a grand strategist.
Speaker 1: What is China seeing, watching, concluding from the first seventy
Speaker 1: two hours of this war.
Speaker 7: Look, it's really important that the China is understand something
Speaker 7: about American will because I think that a lot of
Speaker 7: our adversaries in recent years, recent administrations, have come to
Speaker 7: believe that America can be tested and will not respond,
Speaker 7: that America can be rejected and not respond. And this
Speaker 7: is what our history with China is. We've watched the Chinese.
Speaker 7: We've talked repeatedly about a quote unquote pivot to Asia,
Speaker 7: and what we've done is not only not pivot, but
Speaker 7: not respond to a Chinese military build up in the
Speaker 7: South China Sea, to Chinese aggression against our allies in
Speaker 7: Southeast to Asia, and now watching us, watching our capabilities
Speaker 7: in the Mediterranean, they have got to be asking themselves
Speaker 7: is this a risk worth taking?
Speaker 1: I agree? I also wonder are they going to rush
Speaker 1: to try and build a counter like a Golden Dome themselves?
Speaker 1: And how much of a priority does Golden Dome become
Speaker 1: for the American homeland now?
Speaker 7: So I think that. Look, I think all missile defenses,
Speaker 7: all drone defenses, are absolutely critical. But we knew this
Speaker 7: before this conflict with Iran. We knew this by watching
Speaker 7: what the Russians have been doing with Iranian weaponry to
Speaker 7: our friends, the Ukrainians. And we know this by watching
Speaker 7: what the Ukrainians have been able to do to the
Speaker 7: Russians by stepping up their capabilities their manufacture of drones.
Speaker 7: We all need to be working together to counter the
Speaker 7: capabilities of adversaries like the Russians. Well, I would have
Speaker 7: said the Iranians, but maybe not, but certainly the Chinese,
Speaker 7: and to begin to protect our allies, the Israelis, the Taiwanese,
Speaker 7: the Ukrainians are NATO friends. Well, if I can still
Speaker 7: call them NATO friends.
Speaker 1: Oh, let's pause there, because I brought up the five.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I trust the United Kingdom anymore. And
Speaker 1: Spain has basically given more ammunition to the isolationists in
Speaker 1: America than every isolation as in America could come up
Speaker 1: with in the last forty eight hours.
Speaker 7: You know, I have friends who use this word and
Speaker 7: I find it very effective. I'm very disappointed in our
Speaker 7: NATO allies and the same people who have been and
Speaker 7: again you you warned me about the FCC, I need
Speaker 7: to be careful of my language. But the same people
Speaker 7: who have been whining over the last year and a
Speaker 7: half about America's alliance with NATO, about our lack of
Speaker 7: commitment to the Transatlantic Alliance, about us not doing enough
Speaker 7: for our Ukinan friends are completely and totally indifferent when
Speaker 7: a we come to them and say support us in
Speaker 7: supporting our allies and partners in the Middle East. They
Speaker 7: are two faced hypocrites. And that's just the languag that
Speaker 7: I'm using to be compliant with the FSNC.
Speaker 1: Thank you for doing that, Danny Plikeka. Let me go
Speaker 1: back to one of the most debated decisions in national
Speaker 1: security strategy of the last fifty years, the decision by
Speaker 1: President George H. W. Bush, Secretary of Defense, and then
Speaker 1: Cheney and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, then Colin Powell
Speaker 1: to stop the invasion of Kuwait after reaching the border
Speaker 1: with the rock after on the arbitrary one hundred hours
Speaker 1: headline moment. Do you think we are in danger of
Speaker 1: doing the same thing here? And I'm not saying I
Speaker 1: don't want to relitigate that decision. There are good reasons
Speaker 1: to defend that decision and bad reason to defend that decision.
Speaker 1: But I don't want to stop prematurely here.
Speaker 7: Now. Listen, I agree with you wholeheartedly. And you know
Speaker 7: there's always a tension between the military imperatives and the
Speaker 7: political imperatives. But here Mark and I had on and
Speaker 7: we don't yet it's not yet published, but we had
Speaker 7: on very well known nuclear expert David Albright, physicist on
Speaker 7: the podcast this morning, and we'll release it tomorrow morning.
Speaker 7: But he gave us such compelling reasons for us to
Speaker 7: stay the course in Iran. First of all, they have
Speaker 7: a nuclear weapons program. We know that we don't know
Speaker 7: where all of their facile material is, where all of
Speaker 7: their enriched geranium is. If we stop prematurely, we risk
Speaker 7: the idea that bad guys that Iranian government retreads that
Speaker 7: al Qaeda. Don't forget al Qaida head of al Qaida
Speaker 7: is in Iran right now, that these guys will get
Speaker 7: a hold of get a hold of nuclear material, nuclear technology.
Speaker 7: We don't want that to happen. And it's one of
Speaker 7: the reasons why I believe the President will continue to
Speaker 7: prioritize ensuring there is a stable government in Iran that
Speaker 7: follows this one. It's imperative.
Speaker 1: Danny sail Adel is the current head of al Qaeda.
Speaker 1: He replaced Zawahiri after Zawahiri was killed by Tim Biden,
Speaker 1: and good that he's gone to his reward. But this
Speaker 1: guy's in Iran. Doesn't that make this an AUMF covered
Speaker 1: operation from two thousand and one?
Speaker 7: So I've wrote about this this weekend. You can certainly
Speaker 7: press the AARMF for people who are not nerdy like me.
Speaker 7: The authorization for use of military force that came after
Speaker 7: nine to eleven, and that really has been used by
Speaker 7: successive presidents for counter terrorism operations in Syria and Iraq
Speaker 7: and Yemen and even further afield than that. Look, I
Speaker 7: don't think that the president actually requires an authorization for
Speaker 7: use of military force, and I don't think that he's
Speaker 7: going to get one from this Congress. But in a
Speaker 7: pinch sure stretch that AOMF that's now, what twenty five
Speaker 7: years old? He almost twenty five years old. Even further
Speaker 7: and say that the head of al Qaeda's presence and
Speaker 7: his being protected by this regime does give us a
Speaker 7: certain latitude in our operations. But the Constitution makes clear. Look,
Speaker 7: and you know this better than I do, Hugh, the
Speaker 7: President has the ultimate authority to defend the national security
Speaker 7: of the American people and he doesn't need an AOMF
Speaker 7: to do that. It's nice to have, it's not an imperative.
Speaker 1: And Hugh youtt believe the War Powers Actor is unconstitutional.
Speaker 1: For the record, last question, thanks K. Ben Rhodes is
Speaker 1: up there. You tweeted about this. Are the Democrats that's stupid?
Speaker 1: Do they really not understand that Ben represents and God
Speaker 1: bless him, he's just dumb the sunk costs of twenty
Speaker 1: years of idiocy. It's not the way they want to go.
Speaker 1: They got to go back to being the party of JFK.
Speaker 7: Well, bless his heart. Ben Rhodes, whose degree I think
Speaker 7: is in fiction, writing, and perhaps appropriately so, was an
Speaker 7: important advisor to the Obama administration and has become not
Speaker 7: just a rulent defender of the Biden and Obama legacies,
Speaker 7: but has really become a pretty nasty enemy of the
Speaker 7: state of Israel in recent years. Look, he doesn't know
Speaker 7: what he's talking about. He's an embarrassment. And I have
Speaker 7: seen that there are a couple of Democrats who are
Speaker 7: not so blinded by their loathing of Donald Trump that
Speaker 7: they are able to recognize that what the president is
Speaker 7: doing is important to our national security. And then there's
Speaker 7: the rest of them.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope Chris Coons and Angus King and Jack
Speaker 1: Reed and the Caucus of the Serious come out and
Speaker 1: say way to go, miss President. We're with you. Danny
Speaker 1: Plugger from AI follower on hplug listen to what the
Speaker 1: hell is going on? Mister Albright is indeed the person
Speaker 1: I would want to hear about the loose nuclear material.
Speaker 1: It'll be on to Milds podcast by Jun Americ. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Meta. I'm new Hewett Richard Goldberg as a
Speaker 1: senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy.
Speaker 1: He's been working on the Iran file for decades. Rich
Speaker 1: thank you for spending some time with me. I know
Speaker 1: you must be in great demand. First, just your general
Speaker 1: reaction to seventy two hours of the war with Iran.
Speaker 8: Well historic in every single way, obviously, Hugh, credit to
Speaker 8: you for just pounding away on this issue all these weeks,
Speaker 8: not letting it fade out of the media's site. After
Speaker 8: the historic uprising by the Iranian people and unfortunately the
Speaker 8: historic maximum violence from the regime, but in the first
Speaker 8: twenty four hours, historic coordination between the United States and Israel,
Speaker 8: the ability to command the skies together with US made
Speaker 8: platforms the decapitation strike on the leadership of that regime
Speaker 8: and are very precise and ongoing degrading with the intent
Speaker 8: of destruction of all of the external threats that this
Speaker 8: regime faces that presents to the United States from its missiles,
Speaker 8: it's drone, its navy and also a surprise to me,
Speaker 8: not surprised if you've been following energy markets, but even
Speaker 8: with attacks on energy infrastructure and some of our Gulf
Speaker 8: state allies, the oil market is different today. American energy
Speaker 8: dominance has made a difference. We are seeing the same
Speaker 8: tepid reaction that we saw in the first twenty four
Speaker 8: hours of the twelve day war. And so in the
Speaker 8: oil market we are seeing just a little bit of
Speaker 8: a bump right now.
Speaker 9: It can change.
Speaker 8: But the president's focus on drill, baby drill. We saw
Speaker 8: an attack on Katari LNG export facilities today, the president's
Speaker 8: decision to reverse his predecessor's ban on the export of
Speaker 8: LG looming very large today. And so American energy dominance
Speaker 8: providing flexibility here, American military dominance potentially changing the world's face.
Speaker 8: And what comes next if all continues to go as planned,
Speaker 8: destroying their external threat capability and then opening the door
Speaker 8: to the command and control, the repression apparatus, and perhaps
Speaker 8: millions of Iranians taking back their country.
Speaker 1: So Rich Coldberg, I listened to the Writy Gore this morning,
Speaker 1: ask you of anything, and he did a very useful thing.
Speaker 1: He took his focus off the chessboard, that is the
Speaker 1: Middle East regional problems and conflicts, and focused on grand
Speaker 1: strategy chessboard. I want to do that throughout the program
Speaker 1: today and I have been doing it throughout the program.
Speaker 1: What do you think China is thinking as they see
Speaker 1: this unfolding?
Speaker 8: Well, I said this when we spoke a few weeks ago,
Speaker 8: when we didn't know exactly what would happen, we were
Speaker 8: both pretty confident that President Trump would do executive what
Speaker 8: he's doing now that the Strait of Hormuz is a
Speaker 8: pressure point on China far more than the United States
Speaker 8: today because of how we've turned around to be American
Speaker 8: energy dominant. Half of the imports of oil that China
Speaker 8: relies upon comes through the Strait of Horror Moves. They
Speaker 8: are also heavily dependent on those LNG exports out of Cutter.
Speaker 8: So when you see attacks on Saudi, when you see
Speaker 8: attacks on Cutter coming from Iran, it's the Chinese who
Speaker 8: are most alarmed right now, and they're making phone calls.
Speaker 8: They're asking that their tankers continue to move through the
Speaker 8: Strait of horm Moves. They're putting pressure on the regime
Speaker 8: while the regime is under attack and potentially on the
Speaker 8: verge of collapse, to keep the straight open. And so
Speaker 8: I think the Chinese right now are looking at the
Speaker 8: game board and saying, wow, we're losing both ways.
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 9: The regime that's on.
Speaker 8: The vergi of collapse is threatening our current supplies of energy.
Speaker 8: And if this regime falls, then what happens there's nobody
Speaker 8: who is our ally to threaten the United States. And
Speaker 8: so in a future conflict over Taiwan, if we decide
Speaker 8: that we're not going to allow China their import of energy,
Speaker 8: it's a complete game changer. We now have a massive
Speaker 8: strategic trump card over the Chinese Communist Party. They know
Speaker 8: that you've seen also that Iran as a foothold into
Speaker 8: an entire region. The infrastructure projects that they've been investing
Speaker 8: in hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for the
Speaker 8: illicit oil.
Speaker 9: Will all go up in flames.
Speaker 8: And so they've lost Venezuela as their foothold in the
Speaker 8: Western hemisphere in Latin America. They might now lose Iran
Speaker 8: as their foothold in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Speaker 8: This is a massive, massive setback for China on a
Speaker 8: strategic level.
Speaker 1: Now not everything is roses rich I was very disturbed
Speaker 1: by the United Kingdom's initial at least seventy two hour
Speaker 1: delay in allowing the United States use Diego, Garcia and
Speaker 1: United Kingdom airfields. Now Spain is separated completely from US.
Speaker 1: First of all, should the United Kingdom be in the
Speaker 1: Five Eyes anymore? In second, they've given anti NATO people.
Speaker 1: These two countries more ammo than any isolationist in America
Speaker 1: could have hoped to gotten. They've done grave damage to
Speaker 1: the Atlantic Alliance.
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean Starmar has been a great disappointment throughout
Speaker 8: this process and the lead up to operations already threatening
Speaker 8: the use of a British bases by American forces. There
Speaker 8: was an initial support for operations that we saw from Canada,
Speaker 8: from Australia, from the United Kingdom. The Uanik Kingdom has
Speaker 8: now been attacked. It would appear in Cyprus at its
Speaker 8: own base by hesbel Up. Potentially. They have apparently allowed
Speaker 8: us to start using their bases for offensive operations. But
Speaker 8: the dance that Starmer thinks he has to play domestically,
Speaker 8: he looks so weak as he tries to communicate a
Speaker 8: Waffley position. Are you for the most radical terror sponsoring
Speaker 8: regime on Earth? Or are you against it? Are you
Speaker 8: with your closest ally or you against it? They have
Speaker 8: all the intelligence that we would have shared with them.
Speaker 8: That's why, by the way, we saw Australia and Canada,
Speaker 8: other Five Eye allies come out very quickly and say
Speaker 8: we support this action. What the United States was seeing,
Speaker 8: what the President was seeing on the intel, on missiles,
Speaker 8: on nuclear on the threat of terrorism. Our closest ally
Speaker 8: saw that as well. Great Britain has been a subject
Speaker 8: to assassination plots on its own soil by the Revolutionary
Speaker 8: Guard Core. And of course, if you can't have your
Speaker 8: closest allies stand with you in a moment like this
Speaker 8: and at least say we support it, you can use
Speaker 8: our bases? My god, what are we supposed to do
Speaker 8: with this? Ally, I will give them some credit. They
Speaker 8: are even if politically they're trying to play to their
Speaker 8: left wing base at home, the truth is is that
Speaker 8: they are allowing us to use the bases they are
Speaker 8: in participating at least in defensive operations. Maybe that will
Speaker 8: change the offensive operations. So there is still value in
Speaker 8: having the military partnership with Great Britain at this hour.
Speaker 8: But yeah, we would definitely hope for a much bunch
Speaker 8: better Prime minister in London in the future.
Speaker 1: I'm going to put Spain aside because I want to
Speaker 1: give you at least two minutes three minutes. You're a
Speaker 1: sanctions expert, and you're an American defense spending expert. President
Speaker 1: Trump has told me he wants another half trillion dollars
Speaker 1: on top of the nine hundred billion that was in
Speaker 1: this year's budget. What do you think has to happen
Speaker 1: to American defense spending and of the American sanctions authority
Speaker 1: at the Department of Treasury, with which you're so familiar,
Speaker 1: Did they both need to go much stronger?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 8: Absolutely, I mean, in some ways, we obviously know that
Speaker 8: as we look at this conflict, we know that our
Speaker 8: defense industrial base needs to be in a position to
Speaker 8: flex like it did during World War Two. We cannot
Speaker 8: be in a position like we've seen in other sectors,
Speaker 8: by the way, because of regulations, because of procurement regulations,
Speaker 8: because of all kinds of ways, of just the way
Speaker 8: we've done business for all these decades since the Great War.
Speaker 8: We can't be a position where you can't make munitions
Speaker 8: fast enough. You have to be able to get enough
Speaker 8: munitions of all kinds. You have to have the ability
Speaker 8: to get your interceptors restocked as fast as possible. If
Speaker 8: we need more factories, we need more workers. We need
Speaker 8: to be going twenty four to seven on lines of
Speaker 8: production to have what we need in all theaters. Let's
Speaker 8: do it. Let's not just say, oh, we can't do
Speaker 8: it anymore. We're constrained. We're going to have to choose
Speaker 8: between whether we die from this threat or die from
Speaker 8: that threat. That is not a way to be a
Speaker 8: superpower in the twenty first century. So whatever it takes,
Speaker 8: both on the resources being made available to invest in
Speaker 8: that defense industrial base and then the reforms regulatory wise
Speaker 8: to make sure we can get things made fast.
Speaker 1: Rich, let me keep you over for another six minutes
Speaker 1: if I can. I got to go to a break
Speaker 1: right now on the sale of new channel and across
Speaker 1: my radio network. Don't go anywhere Rich Goldberg knows of
Speaker 1: which he speaks. Follow them on as at Rich Underscore
Speaker 1: Goldberg and at FDD. I'll be right back. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Melica. I'm hu Hue with Rich Goldberg, one of
Speaker 1: the absolute experts on Iran. Rich, can you give us
Speaker 1: a best case worst case for the region in a
Speaker 1: year from now, a best case and a worst case
Speaker 1: from this war?
Speaker 8: Well, a best case scenario is you've had a peaceful
Speaker 8: transition of.
Speaker 9: Power in Iran.
Speaker 8: They're already on schedule, perhaps already had an election. This
Speaker 8: is now an ally of the United States, a partner.
Speaker 8: The potential for infrastructure development together.
Speaker 9: Obviously they're oil market that will.
Speaker 8: Continue to boom in partnership with the United States, not illicitly.
Speaker 8: The terror proxies being cut off from their source of
Speaker 8: income and support. That means a rock becomes more stable.
Speaker 8: The future of a rock becomes more stable. The future
Speaker 8: of Yemen becomes a question of potential return to stability
Speaker 8: openings for Saudi and UAE finally defeat the Huthies without
Speaker 8: the mothership Iran looking after them, and of course Lebanon, Syria, Gaza,
Speaker 8: the West Bank. All of these areas turn in our
Speaker 8: favor because the mothership that sponsors them has fallen. Because
Speaker 8: Israel obviously an opportunity along with the Lebanese government to
Speaker 8: step up to take on Hesbola and finally dismantle it
Speaker 8: in Lebanon, the future of Lebanon looks bright. We have
Speaker 8: a Cyrus Accords between the between Israel and Iran, the
Speaker 8: Abraham Accords expand Saudi normalizes. I mean, this is the
Speaker 8: Kumbaya right piece in our time certainly would be the
Speaker 8: rosiest of pictures. Worst case scenario, obviously, is that on
Speaker 8: the military objectives of this campaign that were spelled up
Speaker 8: by the Pentagon. Today, we have achieved success. The missile
Speaker 8: program of Iran has been destroyed as best we can
Speaker 8: do so, its drone program, its navy has been destroyed
Speaker 8: as best we can do so. It has no ability
Speaker 8: to to move towards nuclear weapons for years to come. Sadly,
Speaker 8: that still means that the Chinese and the Russians can
Speaker 8: step in and start helping the Iranian regime rebuild, it
Speaker 8: would still be there, it would still have their proxies,
Speaker 8: it would still be a sponsor of terrorism. It would
Speaker 8: mean that the people were not able to have an uprising,
Speaker 8: were not able to take their country back, and so
Speaker 8: we will still stumble along with threats along the way
Speaker 8: from this regime. We will definitely be in a better
Speaker 8: position regionally given the strategic threats that have been eliminated,
Speaker 8: But if that political picture has not come to fruition,
Speaker 8: we still have an anti American ally of China and
Speaker 8: Russia sitting there on the Persian Gulf waiting to rebuild.
Speaker 8: Buys US some time to focus finally on China for
Speaker 8: a few years, maybe squeeze Russia a little bit more.
Speaker 8: Puts US in control of the Strait of Horror. Moves
Speaker 8: without the threat of retaliation or missile threats or drone
Speaker 8: threats or naval swarms by Iran, but does not get
Speaker 8: us that reset in what the world looks like and
Speaker 8: the biggest defeat for the Chinese Communist Party of losing
Speaker 8: yet another enabler and rich.
Speaker 1: Last question, the President Trump has made the Golden Dome
Speaker 1: one of the centerpieces. And I served in the Reagan
Speaker 1: White House, So Republicans that have been talking about strategy
Speaker 1: defense initiative for forty five years, how important does this
Speaker 1: become in the aftermath of watching what we're watching, which
Speaker 1: is ballistic missile warfare and interceptors.
Speaker 9: It's super important. I think people should be watching it
Speaker 9: if you.
Speaker 8: Didn't tune in last year or the year before to
Speaker 8: watch what Iran was doing with its medium range ballistic missiles,
Speaker 8: knowing that they also have intermediate range ballistic missiles that
Speaker 8: can already reach Europe and seeing the lethality of these
Speaker 8: missile attacks. Watch the pictures that are coming out of
Speaker 8: Israel when there is a direct hit that gets through
Speaker 8: our missile interceptors and kills a number of people, innocent teenagers, kids,
Speaker 8: old people who are just taking shelter and trying to
Speaker 8: get through the day even without a nuclear tip on this,
Speaker 8: even thought a warhead, this is a weapon that causes
Speaker 8: mass destruction. And understand what that means if it's an
Speaker 8: intercontinental ballistic missile, whether that's from Russia, whether that's from China,
Speaker 8: North Korea, or potentially god forbid, run in the future
Speaker 8: if we are unsuccessful in this campaign, and then understand
Speaker 8: what American cities would face.
Speaker 9: Why we can never allow that to happen.
Speaker 8: And we have to invest in a system that uses
Speaker 8: both ground based and space based capabilities to make sure
Speaker 8: that our enemies never have the opportunity to rain terror
Speaker 8: on our cities.
Speaker 9: Like what you see today.
Speaker 1: Now is at the Kennedy Space Center last week, first
Speaker 1: time I've ever visited, and it's kind of like Disney Tomorrowland.
Speaker 1: I think we need to go all in on this
Speaker 1: in a hurry thirty seconds to your rich I mean
Speaker 1: not yesterday, not tomorrow, but like today, everything in on
Speaker 1: Golden dowme.
Speaker 8: There is nothing more important to our long term national
Speaker 8: security to be able to say to our enemies, you
Speaker 8: have no military option to defeat the homeland of the
Speaker 8: United States. We are in control here. We're going on offense.
Speaker 8: You can't touch us. If we can achieve space superiority
Speaker 8: and missile defense superiority through the Golden Dome, every hypersonic missile,
Speaker 8: every project that our enemies are investing in will be
Speaker 8: useless and we will be on offense the entire time.
Speaker 1: Rich Goldberg, always good to talk to you. I'm sure
Speaker 1: we'll be talking a lot to the extent you're available.
Speaker 1: I appreciate the time today because I know your calendar
Speaker 1: must be jammed. Thank you, Rich Goldberg, and to all
Speaker 1: the people at the Foundations for the Defense of Democrial Piece,
Speaker 1: Thanks for all the work get done for decades. Stay tuned, America.
Speaker 1: I'm you, Hewett. This is the normal segment for normal people.
Speaker 1: Bethany Mandel, co founder of themom Wars dot substact dot com,
Speaker 1: co author of Stolen Youth. Bethany The United States State
Speaker 1: Department just urged Americans to lead about ten countries, including Israel. What,
Speaker 1: of course, I really can't leave Israel. I got to
Speaker 1: stay there. They got jobs, they got kids that take care.
Speaker 1: What are your friends and family telling you in the
Speaker 1: Jewish State.
Speaker 10: I mean, the.
Speaker 11: Ambassador gave a pretty clear indication that if folks wanted
Speaker 11: to leave, they should leave on Thursday Friday, but no
Speaker 11: one that I know had any real intention of leaving.
Speaker 11: Everyone sort of figured they would hunker down and live
Speaker 11: through this war, just like they lived through the Twelve
Speaker 11: Day War in October seventh and all of the rest.
Speaker 11: Israel is a unique country in the region because they
Speaker 11: actually have the capability to defend their citizens. And you know,
Speaker 11: Iraqi got through in the drew some suburb of bit
Speaker 11: Chemish and nine people were killed. But overall, it's a
Speaker 11: pretty safe place to hunker down during a regional war.
Speaker 1: What is your feeling generally about where Iran is headed?
Speaker 1: You read the news as closely as any of us do.
Speaker 1: Those of us who are not holding a classification have
Speaker 1: no idea what's going on beyond those of us who
Speaker 1: read faster than anybody else. What's your sense.
Speaker 11: So it's not looking good if you're the Mullas. They
Speaker 11: have lost all air control over Iran, and forty of
Speaker 11: them were killed instantly, and another half dozen were killed,
Speaker 11: you know, since the war started on Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 1: But the.
Speaker 11: Masad know where they all are, and so it's a
Speaker 11: different situation than it was in Gaza because the intelligence
Speaker 11: was not great there because the majority of the residents
Speaker 11: of Gaza are in cahoots with Hamas or they side
Speaker 11: with Hamas ideologically. It's not the case in Iran. The
Speaker 11: vast majority of people in Iran are not supportive of
Speaker 11: the regime and they're actively working to hinder them by
Speaker 11: working with Masad. And so the intelligence for the Americans
Speaker 11: in the Israelis is very good inside of Iran.
Speaker 1: So, Bethany, I'm not in ISRAELI obviously I'm not Jewish.
Speaker 1: But you study a lot of history and very rarely
Speaker 1: do figures as significant as baby net Nyahu come across
Speaker 1: your screen. What do you hear people in Israel and
Speaker 1: in the Jewish community in America saying about Bibi right now?
Speaker 1: As as look, anything could go wrong, very very very wrong.
Speaker 1: Lots more than nine people can get killed in Israel.
Speaker 1: But what do you think they're thinking about him right now?
Speaker 1: Because it seems like sometimes a man meets the moment.
Speaker 11: Yeah, So overall, I don't know many people who are
Speaker 11: fans of Netsa Nyah who anymore. That being said, in
Speaker 11: moments like these, I think I think the consensus is
Speaker 11: more or less no one else would have done this
Speaker 11: except Netta Yaho.
Speaker 10: He's very much like Trump in this way.
Speaker 11: You need someone who just will do what needs to
Speaker 11: be done, and it doesn't care about the the sort
Speaker 11: of reaction of the world, reaction of anyone in the country.
Speaker 10: This is just this is the objective.
Speaker 11: This is what needs to be done, and I don't
Speaker 11: care if I'm popular.
Speaker 10: This is what needs to happen.
Speaker 11: And no one on planet Earth has been yelling more
Speaker 11: loudly or more frequently about the threat of Iran than
Speaker 11: the thread of a nuclear Iran than Benjamin Etaniahu. And
Speaker 11: so he's meeting the moment, and he has explained to
Speaker 11: the world why this moment really should have happened ten
Speaker 11: twenty years ago, but better late than ever. And he
Speaker 11: has a president here in the United States who agrees
Speaker 11: with him that this moment needs to happen.
Speaker 1: Now a final question, Bethany, I am not surprised. I'm
Speaker 1: somewhat disappointed that people with tds who have been longtime
Speaker 1: enemies of Iran still can't put their tds down for
Speaker 1: even a week to say good on Donald Trump. Is
Speaker 1: that ever going to change.
Speaker 11: It's really shocking and disappointing to see the progressive reaction
Speaker 11: to this, because there is nothing more antithetical to what
Speaker 11: they claim to believe than that Iranian regime. They're throwing
Speaker 11: gay men and women off of rooftops, They're subjugating women
Speaker 11: and putting them in he jobs and denying them in education.
Speaker 10: Would think as a.
Speaker 11: Progressive you would celebrate the death of the eyototally, even
Speaker 11: if you don't love Trump, even if you don't love
Speaker 11: our involvement anything. This is a singular moment of hope
Speaker 11: and liberty in this part of the world that has
Speaker 11: been denied it for so long, and I truly don't understand,
Speaker 11: as a former progressive, how they can not celebrate.
Speaker 1: And a last question, are you letting your youngsters watch
Speaker 1: this twenty four to seven, because it's not unlike Grenada
Speaker 1: if they were ten years older. There's a turn that
Speaker 1: came in nineteen eighty three. I was in law school then,
Speaker 1: but everyone knew it was a turn back from where
Speaker 1: we had gone, and this is a pretty significant turn.
Speaker 1: Are you watching it with them?
Speaker 11: I watched it with them, funny enough, on Saturday, when
Speaker 11: it was the Sabbath, I had a couple of our
Speaker 11: kids at a hotel for my family's bar Mitzvah, and
Speaker 11: so we were standing in the lobby watching it. Other
Speaker 11: than that, we've been giving them sort of cursory updates.
Speaker 11: But they were pretty scared when we were in Israel
Speaker 11: that we would sort of live through a siren. And
Speaker 11: we were able to disabuse them of the belief that
Speaker 11: the only thing that Israel experiences is war, and so
Speaker 11: we don't want to redo that.
Speaker 1: Ah very interesting. I did talk to him Ete Segal
Speaker 1: earlier today. He's got an infant and he said, the
Speaker 1: thing is that everyone in Israel is now sleep deprive
Speaker 1: like those who have infants, because they're going back and
Speaker 1: forth to the shelters. Have you heard that as well
Speaker 1: from your friends?
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 11: And tonight starts the most fun Jewish holiday Parum, which
Speaker 11: is aptly timed God has a sense of humor, the
Speaker 11: defeat of the Persians who tried to kill the Jews.
Speaker 11: It's the most fun Jewish holiday. Kids dressed up in costumes,
Speaker 11: there's lots of candy involved. Is basically Jewish Halloween, and
Speaker 11: so there's some disappointment that the kids are missing it
Speaker 11: in Israel this year. But this is modern day perum
Speaker 11: happening you know, in real time right now in front
Speaker 11: of their eyes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we need what'd be a Mordecai noa a han On?
Speaker 1: Did I get that right? Yeah? All right? Good? That
Speaker 1: was That was a save. That was a diving catch.
Speaker 1: Bethany Mandel, Thank you follower on exit Bethany Shandark and
Speaker 1: at themom wars dot substack dot com. Thank you, Bethany.
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Speaker 1: slash Shoe Welcome back to America. I'm here here at
Speaker 1: time for our yuser report in the middle of a war.
Speaker 1: No better person to talk to than Selena Zito column
Speaker 1: this to the world the Washington Post, the Washington Examiner
Speaker 1: of the Pittsburgh Post is at the New York Post.
Speaker 1: I'll run out of time in the segment if I
Speaker 1: tell you from whom she writes. Selena can be followed
Speaker 1: on ax at Zito Selena. You can follow everything she
Speaker 1: does at Selenazito dot com. Now, Selena, I was on
Speaker 1: vacation last week and I spent the weekend trying to
Speaker 1: follow reaction. What is your sense of public opinion regarding
Speaker 1: the Iran war.
Speaker 12: I think that the public and I've gone around and
Speaker 12: talked to people about it.
Speaker 13: People are.
Speaker 12: Understand that Iran has been a threat for most of
Speaker 12: our lifetimes for a lot of us. For a very
Speaker 12: long time since the bombings during the Reagan era, there
Speaker 12: have been many times where there have been a substantial
Speaker 12: loss of life in the hands of Iran directly or
Speaker 12: through their other terrorist groups that they sponsor.
Speaker 13: And so, you know, Americans want to feel safe.
Speaker 12: They want to know that their treasure, which is their
Speaker 12: children and their grandchildren, are safe, and they're willing to
Speaker 12: give the president some of.
Speaker 13: Leeway here in terms of.
Speaker 12: Making that decision, understanding why he needed to make that decision.
Speaker 12: And I think that if this while goes long, that'll
Speaker 12: be different. But we're two days in and so I
Speaker 12: think the American public is very patient right now.
Speaker 13: Now.
Speaker 12: If you go on social media, that is a completely
Speaker 12: different world. But I have long learned that social media
Speaker 12: is not an arbitra of how the American public feels
Speaker 12: about something.
Speaker 1: I agree with that. In fact, it's a false flag often, Selena,
Speaker 1: have you talked to the president since the war began? No,
Speaker 1: I have not got you on heat dial, And he
Speaker 1: talked to John Carl Jake. He's doing the beltwait thing
Speaker 1: instead of talking to the heartland through the Selena Zito column.
Speaker 1: So I expect your phone will be ringing pretty soon.
Speaker 1: What are you going to ask him?
Speaker 5: What he calls.
Speaker 12: I'm just going to ask him about the decision making,
Speaker 12: about why he believes this is the best thing for
Speaker 12: the country, and give him the opportunity to talk about
Speaker 12: that in detail.
Speaker 13: I think that's really important. What were you thinking in
Speaker 13: terms of the heartland, in terms of our military. What
Speaker 13: was the thought process that you believed that this was
Speaker 13: an important thing to do in the moment?
Speaker 1: Now, Selena, I keep on my desk in the the
Speaker 1: production studio in California, the patch for JP Blacksmith. JP
Speaker 1: was killed in the First Battle of Fallujah on November eleventh,
Speaker 1: two thousand and four. United States Naval Academy graduate. I
Speaker 1: knew his dad. I taught his sister. The cost of
Speaker 1: war is real. We've already lost American military and civilians
Speaker 1: in Israel. I expect the President or the Vice President
Speaker 1: will be at the dignified transfer of remain ceremony at
Speaker 1: Dovert when they arrived. Do you think the President takes
Speaker 1: this as hard as to say, W did? Oh?
Speaker 12: Yeah, I absolutely do, and I can tell you why
Speaker 12: he's still taking it very hard.
Speaker 13: When CORTICOMBATORI lost his life in Butler.
Speaker 12: That is something that really hits him hard because he
Speaker 12: understands that that was someone who was coming to see
Speaker 12: him and to enjoy the day, and so that weighs
Speaker 12: on his mind. And I was thinking, you know, it's
Speaker 12: really I was thinking about in these past couple of days,
Speaker 12: is this is this has gone on? And I remember
Speaker 12: what he said to me about there is a reason
Speaker 12: that I was saved that day. There was a reason
Speaker 12: that God wanted me to be around to make decisions
Speaker 12: to be president, and I have to live.
Speaker 7: Up to that purpose.
Speaker 12: And the past two days really made me think this
Speaker 12: may be one of the great reasons.
Speaker 13: That he was saved.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not quite sure the president's theology. I support
Speaker 1: Israel because the best ally America, and I'm a Zionist
Speaker 1: because every people deserve their state. But I'm not a
Speaker 1: quote Christian Zionist believing in end times. But I do
Speaker 1: think it's providential that Trump and nen Yahoo are in
Speaker 1: charge right now because they both have a great deal
Speaker 1: of spine.
Speaker 14: Yes, yes, and that is you know, a very think
Speaker 14: about the King Cyrus, right, but think Jews lean into
Speaker 14: their most robable protector, which would be the cursion King
Speaker 14: King Cyrus, and yet he is the one that led
Speaker 14: them to safety, right, kept them from being killed. So
Speaker 14: there's all kinds of contradictory things with leaders and religion
Speaker 14: that you sometimes think don't light up or don't don't
Speaker 14: make sense.
Speaker 13: But I do think it's really important.
Speaker 12: But you know, we always talk about history repeating itself
Speaker 12: or history rhyming. You know what's happening two hundred and
Speaker 12: fifty years ago today, right, they were getting ready for
Speaker 12: the siege of Boston Dorchester Heights. Washington had said time.
Speaker 13: For the bombardment, and he did that fake out where
Speaker 13: the Brits thought he was going for Boston, but he was.
Speaker 12: They were actually coming in quietly with Henry Knox and
Speaker 12: all those cannons that he brought from for tig.
Speaker 1: You know, taikwon Henry Knox from the Great State of Maine.
Speaker 1: I do want to pick up on something you said.
Speaker 1: I remember the chapter in your first book, King Cyrus,
Speaker 1: Christians and the Great Revolt is Selina's first book or
Speaker 1: second as butler. Cyrus the Great ruled in Persia five
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty years before Christ, So a long time ago.
Speaker 1: The oldest people that people known relationship state to state
Speaker 1: is Persia and Israel. It's a little known fact. They
Speaker 1: are longtime allies. The last forty seven years is an aberration.
Speaker 1: We got to get back to the cyrus Israel Neemiah
Speaker 1: Ezra days.
Speaker 13: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 12: I remember Brad and I did a talk Brad Hadna,
Speaker 12: my co author.
Speaker 13: We did a talk on DA drive to a group
Speaker 13: of Persian Jews.
Speaker 12: And I was like, I completely forgot that this is
Speaker 12: what even existed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, the diaspora out here, the Iranian diaspora is
Speaker 1: extraordinarily animated, energetic. I don't see a lot of coverage.
Speaker 1: There's been a couple little photos of the Persian diaspora.
Speaker 1: But are they in Pittsburgh. They don't live in Neanserland,
Speaker 1: right they.
Speaker 12: Yeah, yeah, we have a significant Iranian population.
Speaker 13: My story will be up tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, you should have gone up to Cleveland. That's
Speaker 1: where they really go. They're bronze fans. Selena Zito. I
Speaker 1: will look for the column tomorrow. Follow her on ex
Speaker 1: everyone at zito Selena and everything that she writes is
Speaker 1: available at Selenazito dot com. She works for the Posts
Speaker 1: both Washington and New York. For the Washington Examiner for
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Post Becausette, you name it, she writes for it.
Speaker 1: Prolific is her middle name. I'll be right back in America.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned to The Uwitt Show.