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Speaker 1: Frank McKenzie to say, he's executive director of Global and

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Speaker 1: National Security Institute, and yes, a former Central Command commander.

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Speaker 1: He joins us this morning at the Citadel and I

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Speaker 1: speak here General of Natalie Stewart, the Marine Corps winner

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Speaker 1: this year at the Citadel of that August War. And

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Speaker 1: what was it like coming out of NROTC your first

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Speaker 1: day serving the nation?

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Speaker 2: Well, I was excited.

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Speaker 3: I had the good fortune to actually go to Okinawa

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Speaker 3: to commander of Rifle Platoon in the third Marine Division

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Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty.

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Speaker 2: It was an exciting time. We deployed the Korea.

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Speaker 3: We did a variety of things that were all very

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Speaker 3: challenging for somebody just out of college.

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Speaker 2: It was a great bracing, exciting experience.

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Speaker 3: And apparently I like it because I hung around for

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Speaker 3: forty two years.

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Speaker 1: You are the fourteenth commander of Central Command. The twelfth

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Speaker 1: commander of Central Command is a bit distracted. Now, what

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Speaker 1: is Lloyd Austin and our people in arms way, what

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Speaker 1: are they doing this morning in the Eastern Mediterranean.

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Speaker 3: I think our primary task in the Eastern Mediterranean, and

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Speaker 3: indeed throughout the entire region to the east, is to

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Speaker 3: ensure that Iran is deterred and does not enter the

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Speaker 3: current problems that Israel's having with Gaza. I think that's

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Speaker 3: our overarching the overarching objective of both our diplomacy and

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Speaker 3: the recent military deployments that you've seen. At the same time,

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Speaker 3: we also seek to ensure that Lebanese Hisbala, sitting up

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Speaker 3: in southern Lebanon doesn't choose to enter the freight That

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Speaker 3: would be very, very bad for both those Both those

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Speaker 3: entities and the offer that we move there is all

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Speaker 3: designed to make them think twice before taking that taking

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Speaker 3: that very bad decision.

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Speaker 1: Is Israeli military or Allied military impinged by the volume

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Speaker 1: of modern media. This is different from your tours of duty,

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Speaker 1: This video, this cable TV, this social media. Does that

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Speaker 1: affect the military?

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Speaker 3: I think as a commander and certainly I saw this

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Speaker 3: at US Central Command from nineteen ninety nine to nineteen,

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Speaker 3: from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty two, you have to

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Speaker 3: recognize that that volume of media presence is there. It's

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Speaker 3: not going to go away. You can't ignore it. People

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Speaker 3: are actually getting news from it. What you want to

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Speaker 3: try to do, and here's where we are sometimes hampered.

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Speaker 3: We're going to have an essential relationship with the truth.

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Speaker 3: We want to tell the truth and we put something

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Speaker 3: out there, we want to be honest about it. We

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Speaker 3: want it to be able to stand up the fact

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Speaker 3: checking and if we make mistakes, and we do, we

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Speaker 3: acknowledge those mistakes. But many of our opponents Hamas Lebanese

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Speaker 3: is Bala, the Russians have no essential relationship with the truth,

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Speaker 3: and so that's not important to them when they operate

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Speaker 3: in the media and in the information space.

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Speaker 4: General, very good morning to you talk about how collaterals

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Speaker 4: are being deployed. There was a statement yesterday from Savietory

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Speaker 4: Defense Lloyd Austin the third obviously deploying an additional carrier,

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Speaker 4: the USS Dwight Eisenhower to command, and also readying some

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Speaker 4: troops just on the on the risk of needing them.

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Speaker 4: How important is this step change in preparedness for an escalation,

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Speaker 4: because that does not sign like a nation the USA

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Speaker 4: in preparedness for de escalation.

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Speaker 3: Well, actually it is all designed escalation. The capabilities that

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Speaker 3: we're bringing into the theater are largely in circle around

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Speaker 3: aaron missile defense and the ability to fight in that domain.

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Speaker 2: So that's the threat.

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Speaker 3: The threat to Israel is actually not large scale invasion

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Speaker 3: from Iran or Lebanese z Balla. It actually is the

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Speaker 3: proliferation of missiles, land attack crews, missiles which are low

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Speaker 3: flying missiles, and of course drones, and so the systems

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Speaker 3: that we're bringing into the theater are all designed to

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Speaker 3: assist in the defense of Israel against those weapons, but

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Speaker 3: also should should it be necessary, we have we always

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Speaker 3: reserved the right to strike from where those missiles came.

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Speaker 4: Do you think that that builds up is enough in

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Speaker 4: messaging of itself to Iran to perhaps reduce the risk

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Speaker 4: of multiple fronts escalating. You talked about HESBLA in Lebanon, etc.

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Speaker 4: But do you think that this military show is a

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Speaker 4: message of communication to Iran about the folly of escalation

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Speaker 4: of multiple fronts.

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Speaker 3: We know analytically that Iran looks very carefully at the

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Speaker 3: correlation of forces in the region. When we reinforce, they

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Speaker 3: take notice of that. In fact, going back over many years,

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Speaker 3: we can trace very clearly Iran provocations to unwise, untimely

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Speaker 3: draw downs in our posture in the region.

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Speaker 2: So I think this will have an effect.

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Speaker 3: Now, look, it's always hard to predict ultimate decisions, and

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Speaker 3: Iran there very but I think we're doing all the

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Speaker 3: right things. I think the messaging from the Secretary has

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Speaker 3: been very strong, very clear. I think the forced posture

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Speaker 3: in the theater sends a very clear signal to Iran.

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Speaker 1: In the theater, General Mackenzie, there will be the question

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Speaker 1: of should we show the flag and should we have

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Speaker 1: a different deployment of our forces over a long period.

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Speaker 1: Do you see a sea change here where we will

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Speaker 1: deploy differently in the Mediterranean up to Turkey, that will

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Speaker 1: deploy differently in the Red Sea and I'm down to

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Speaker 1: the Indian Ocean. Is it a sea change moment for

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Speaker 1: the Pentagon?

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Speaker 3: I think what we're relearning an old lesson that while

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Speaker 3: you may want to turn your back on the Middle East,

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Speaker 3: and you may want to walk away, and we do

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Speaker 3: in many ways, you can't actually do that because we

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Speaker 3: have vital national interests here, we have long standing friends here,

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Speaker 3: and we're going to have to keep a presence here. Again,

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Speaker 3: I think we trace many of these problems to times

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Speaker 3: when our posture drop too low in the theater in

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Speaker 3: the region, our friends are not reassured by that, and

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Speaker 3: our potential adversaries draw confidence when we do that. So

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Speaker 3: is it a sea change. DONO too soon to tell.

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Speaker 3: I will say this. I think that we're seeing right

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Speaker 3: now are appropriate, timely, measured and uh and I believe

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Speaker 3: they're going to have an effect.

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Speaker 1: General mackenzie, Thank you so much. Frank McKenzie of the

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Speaker 1: Citadel in a Central Command with US today