Speaker 1: A run back to Hooty rebels and Yemen launching two
Speaker 1: more attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, just
Speaker 1: as the US announced a naval task force to counter
Speaker 1: the threat, the US joining nine countries to escort vessels
Speaker 1: passing through the crucial trade route after major companies, including
Speaker 1: oil giant BP paused operations, but the Hooi's vowing further
Speaker 1: attacks in retaliation for Israel's war in Gaza bottom miners.
Speaker 2: These attacks have to stop. If they need to stop,
Speaker 2: they're unacceptable.
Speaker 3: The United States, our allies, and our partners will do
Speaker 3: what we have to do to counter these threats and
Speaker 3: to protect these ships. That's Kirby, they're the spokesman, and
Speaker 3: I like him. He seems like a good dude. But
Speaker 3: the rhetoric of these attacks have to stop. They're unacceptable. Well,
Speaker 3: there have been over one hundred now. We're not doing
Speaker 3: much to deter them, so you can't say they're unacceptable.
Speaker 3: We seem to be accepting it. I mean, by definition,
Speaker 3: we seem to be accepted relentless attacks on our troops
Speaker 3: and our machinery by Iran and their proxies. And I
Speaker 3: don't know how else you look at that welcome to
Speaker 3: the Armstrong and Getty Show. We want to check in
Speaker 3: with Mike Lyons, who we love talking to about anything
Speaker 3: military wise. Maybe you see him on CNN, maybe you
Speaker 3: follow him on Twitter at mag Mike Lyons on Twitter.
Speaker 3: In fact, they got a tweet that I want to
Speaker 3: read to him from yesterday and have him explain more. Mike,
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show again.
Speaker 4: Hey guy, it's good to be backcause always.
Speaker 3: Let's start with the over one hundred times that Iran
Speaker 3: or people at the behest of Iran have attacked or
Speaker 3: attempted to attack us. I mean, have we pushed back
Speaker 3: enough in your eyes?
Speaker 4: No, I don't think so. I think we keep trying
Speaker 4: to give this visual deterrence. You know, two carrier groups
Speaker 4: in the Mediterranean and the Carnie in the Red Sea.
Speaker 4: But we're dealing with an enemy that doesn't care about
Speaker 4: that because they know that we're psychologically disarmed. They know
Speaker 4: that we will respond in a manner that will likely
Speaker 4: cause great damage and destruction. And then the enemy knows
Speaker 4: that the rest of the world then will turn against us.
Speaker 4: And so we don't really, you know, have the gumption
Speaker 4: anymore to stake a high moral ground about. Look, you're
Speaker 4: not going to attack us. We're going to protect our
Speaker 4: soldiers and our sailors and the like, and we're going
Speaker 4: to not care about what the rest of the world thinks.
Speaker 4: It's the same problem Israel's having right now. You know,
Speaker 4: the rest of the world is really concerned what Israel's doing. Well,
Speaker 4: Israel's trying to fight for his existence right now. So
Speaker 4: that's you know, kind of the same example.
Speaker 2: I hear the dogs of war in the background where
Speaker 2: you are.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I couldn't even get them outther I got
Speaker 4: them out.
Speaker 2: No big deal.
Speaker 3: So the rhetoric of this must stop. This is unacceptable.
Speaker 3: I feel like if you don't push back really, really hard,
Speaker 3: you're saying it is acceptable.
Speaker 2: And is there any reason to think it's not going
Speaker 2: to continue?
Speaker 4: You know, it's so the Secretary of Defense did the
Speaker 4: right thing. Put together a coalition of other nations and
Speaker 4: of others that are that are going to look to respond.
Speaker 4: But we've got to go after the source, not just
Speaker 4: you know, on the ground. It's going to mean destroying
Speaker 4: a lot of equipment on the ground. We have to
Speaker 4: go after what Iran is doing. Is Iran you know,
Speaker 4: completely supports the Houthis. I mean, you know, but for
Speaker 4: Iran that the Houthis don't don't exist. They and and
Speaker 4: and we've allowed the problem just to get worse and
Speaker 4: worse over the course of the years. And that's that's
Speaker 4: like everything in the world right now. The can gets
Speaker 4: kicked down the road until we finally have to take
Speaker 4: care of it. So let's hope that this will possibly
Speaker 4: take care of it, and we will eventually respond if
Speaker 4: they you know, let's say they think an oil tanker
Speaker 4: or something and create an environmental disaster. There's there's so
Speaker 4: many things, so many really bad possibilities there. I don't
Speaker 4: think they'll get to our ships because of our defense
Speaker 4: platforms that we have there, but there's a lot of
Speaker 4: tragedy that can still take place there. And then of
Speaker 4: course the money that's being lost. You see, a lot
Speaker 4: of the ships are being derived or ready to the
Speaker 4: to the south and in Africa in that regard, and
Speaker 4: then all the Egyptians, the Gyptans have to be made.
Speaker 4: They're losing about my my son tells me it's a
Speaker 4: million dollars to take a ship down and back into
Speaker 4: the sost Canal. So they're losing all that money's taking
Speaker 4: place there. So let's hope the rest of the world
Speaker 4: recognizes that this is a problem and gets on board
Speaker 4: with there as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I keep using the example.
Speaker 3: The Wall Street Journal had a story several weeks ago
Speaker 3: now about how an attack drone got lodged in the
Speaker 3: ceiling of a building and the bomb didn't go off.
Speaker 2: If it had, it would have killed a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of US servicemen. So that was just lock that.
Speaker 3: You know, that that didn't happen, So I feel like
Speaker 3: you got to respond as if it did.
Speaker 2: But you know, we're not well.
Speaker 4: And the kind of attacks that the drones can make
Speaker 4: on the ships, they could be swarm attacks. We just
Speaker 4: haven't seen that yet. But that's really would be a
Speaker 4: tremendous escalation because if you fire, you know, we saw
Speaker 4: that ship the other day, the Carney was fired. Some
Speaker 4: of my fourteen or fifteen drone shot them out of
Speaker 4: the sky. If you sent a hundred or a thousand
Speaker 4: at the Carney, that would be a problem for that
Speaker 4: ship and one of them would get through, and then
Speaker 4: what do we have? And so you know that's well,
Speaker 4: for whatever reason, we're just on this luck factor of saying, oh,
Speaker 4: you know, right, it hasn't been bad. No one's dead yet,
Speaker 4: so that we're just going to continue to go. And
Speaker 4: it just just doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3: To the war between Israel and Hamas I'm looking at
Speaker 3: this tweet of yours from yesterday, I'll just read it.
Speaker 3: I was thinking, the US and Israel, we're talking past
Speaker 3: each other about what the US wanted Israel to do.
Speaker 3: From the news conference today, the administration is not putting
Speaker 3: a timeline on the operation.
Speaker 2: Israel will fight this on their terms, explain.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I had thought that the United States from
Speaker 4: what they had said, Jake Sullivan and you know, they
Speaker 4: were telling this, well, it's kind of wrap this up here,
Speaker 4: acting like it's you know, some kind of protests formation
Speaker 4: in Portland or something. And and but but after this
Speaker 4: last press conference, after the last meeting, the secondary Defense
Speaker 4: said there's no timetable for Israel. They're going to do
Speaker 4: this whatever they want to do it. So that to
Speaker 4: me was good enough to say, well, this is now
Speaker 4: going to go on for months. It's not going to
Speaker 4: get wrapped up. We're not going to you know, both
Speaker 4: of these audiences are talking to their domestic audiences, right
Speaker 4: or both of these people are talking to their domestic
Speaker 4: audiences where you know, we're trying to Obviously, the political
Speaker 4: factor of the Democrats right now, for whatever reason, is
Speaker 4: they have to show some kind of support for Hamas.
Speaker 4: Don't don't ask me why, but that seems to be
Speaker 4: what they're trying to do. And so in Israel's case,
Speaker 4: there are some inside of Israel too that that that
Speaker 4: are that want, you know, the civilians that not be
Speaker 4: as terrorized. I don't know what the term is, because it's,
Speaker 4: you know, they're at war again for their own survival.
Speaker 4: But once they said that to me, I was good, Okay,
Speaker 4: here we go. So this is that they're not going
Speaker 4: to be concerned here that in the next month nothing's
Speaker 4: going to change. Israel is not stopping. They're also fighting
Speaker 4: a two front war. They're fighting a war in the
Speaker 4: north where they're clearing Hamas military formations that wage war
Speaker 4: against Israel to that to that area they're indirect fire
Speaker 4: weapons and the like, and then the one in the
Speaker 4: south and the south Gaza Kany units for example, that's
Speaker 4: where the headquarters are, that's where a lot of the
Speaker 4: leadership were, that's where a lot of them escaped to
Speaker 4: when we had that seas fire before, and that's kind
Speaker 4: of a different operation. But the bottom line to me
Speaker 4: is Israel's not stopping and they're not going to change
Speaker 4: your tactics. They have to make this a conventional war.
Speaker 4: They have to bring Hama up to the level of
Speaker 4: a conventional fight and get them to surrender.
Speaker 3: I wonder how much we're saying different things to them
Speaker 3: behind closed doors or in phone calls than we are
Speaker 3: in public. And that makes me wonder also just kind
Speaker 3: of as in a side, like you're a West Point
Speaker 3: guy and you've studied all this military strategy and history
Speaker 3: and stuff like that, how much do you how much
Speaker 3: at West Point do they get into the politics at all?
Speaker 3: Or do they because obviously that plays a role in
Speaker 3: a war. You might have to do one thing and
Speaker 3: say another to keep you know, your domestic audience happy.
Speaker 2: How much do y'all think about that?
Speaker 4: There's no question that at West Point that's the force
Speaker 4: that's taught to cadets as they progress in their careers
Speaker 4: and get to that certain place. But I mean west
Speaker 4: Point trains you kind of the younger officers. It's really
Speaker 4: the ones that have been you know, the general officers
Speaker 4: that are there and politics has made a much bigger
Speaker 4: impact on the military. Unfortunately. I often think about if
Speaker 4: you brought back to generals from World War Two and
Speaker 4: you told them how we were fighting war today, they
Speaker 4: would just like shake their and say, you guys are nuts,
Speaker 4: because we'd have this thing over here in six weeks.
Speaker 4: We would take the biggest weapons we have and we
Speaker 4: would destroy everything we possibly could. We wouldn't care about
Speaker 4: the things you guys seem to care about, and we
Speaker 4: would get this thing done. And that is the harsh
Speaker 4: reality of history, is how they would look at it.
Speaker 4: And instead, you know, we're trying to tell Israel to
Speaker 4: you know, you have the president United States saying that
Speaker 4: Israel's indiscriminately bombing civilians and that's just irresponsible, right, That's
Speaker 4: why I was talking about, you know, talking past each other.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's irresponsible for the president to say that.
Speaker 4: So no question that and the accelerant of social media
Speaker 4: and the audience and all those things get through it.
Speaker 4: So again from a military perspective, that the Idea app
Speaker 4: is trying to use its military as a tool foreign
Speaker 4: policy to get the Palestinian leadership to heal and get
Speaker 4: them to surrender and they're going to do whatever they
Speaker 4: can in that regard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've been talking about.
Speaker 3: I mean, you take any country, state, village anywhere in
Speaker 3: the world throughout history, if you got attacked the way
Speaker 3: Israel got attacked, where they came in and they headed
Speaker 3: your babies and raped your grandma's you would if you
Speaker 3: could lay waste to that entity right all throughout history,
Speaker 3: anywhere in the world. And so now what where are we?
Speaker 2: It's it's an interesting thing to watch.
Speaker 4: And in the Arab world is not helping the Palestinians,
Speaker 4: I mean Egyptian says we've talked about before, and anytime
Speaker 4: they open up a barrier, that barriers between them and
Speaker 4: Gaza to let humanitarian id and they can't close it
Speaker 4: fast enough, all right, so they're not letting any refugees
Speaker 4: in the rest of the nations really don't care about it.
Speaker 4: They want to you know, brand to the United Nations,
Speaker 4: and they want to make a big deal about it.
Speaker 4: But this is you know, Israel's not going to settle
Speaker 4: for two state solution right now. They're not going to
Speaker 4: settle for any of that previous ideas about what's going
Speaker 4: on here. And I don't think they care about what
Speaker 4: the United States says. You're right behind closed doors. They're
Speaker 4: kind of rolling their eyes at us basically telling them
Speaker 4: how to fight terrorism, because we really have a great
Speaker 4: record from the past twenty years in a rock in
Speaker 4: Afghanistan frankly in terms of trying to you know, get
Speaker 4: that to work there.
Speaker 2: So interesting.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sure we'll be talking about this with you
Speaker 3: in the next year, and this is the last time
Speaker 3: we'll be talking to you this year. In twenty three.
Speaker 3: Where is the war in Ukraine currently? Where do you
Speaker 3: think it's headed for twenty four?
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a stalemate right now, with both sides still
Speaker 4: not able to take their strategic objectives and align them
Speaker 4: with their operational capabilities. And I don't and if the
Speaker 4: United States decides not to support Ukraine, then eventually it
Speaker 4: could be in years at this point, but eventually they
Speaker 4: will lose. I think that you know, Russia is building
Speaker 4: more capacity every day, learning doing things that are moving
Speaker 4: in the direction that they're doing better. So you know,
Speaker 4: we've got to get off the dime here, get the
Speaker 4: rest of the world to recognize that. And then if
Speaker 4: you ship the world as tinderbox, because I think you
Speaker 4: have what's going on in the Pacific still is something
Speaker 4: that could explode in twenty twenty four, given US leadership,
Speaker 4: where it's going to be, how it's going to change
Speaker 4: next year for US. So I think we're in for
Speaker 4: a lot of things to go on at twenty twenty four,
Speaker 4: both in the Middle East, in Europe, and then of
Speaker 4: course in the Pacific. It's going to be a really
Speaker 4: challenging year.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's a heck of a thing for you to
Speaker 3: end on what we I was going to say, look
Speaker 3: forward to talking to you. Unfortunately, when we're talking to you,
Speaker 3: it's oftentimes a bad or challenging situation. But we will
Speaker 3: talk to you in twenty four. Helpe, you have a
Speaker 3: great Christmas in the holiday season.
Speaker 4: Thanks Mary, Christmas everybody soon. Thanks for having me Armstrong
Speaker 4: and Getty.