Speaker 1: The US preparing to launch yet another round of air
Speaker 1: strikes against Iranian back militia in the Middle East. They
Speaker 1: followed dozens of strikes across Iraqan, Syria of Friday night
Speaker 1: in a major response to that drone attack that killed
Speaker 1: three American soldiers in Jordan, and with all going missile
Speaker 1: and drone attacks from Iranian back hoofy rebels in Yemen,
Speaker 1: the US and UK struck thirty six targets there late
Speaker 1: Saturday as well.
Speaker 2: US officials restate they're trying to degrade the capabilities of
Speaker 2: Iranian back militias in this region without triggering a wider war. Crucially,
Speaker 2: not one US strike into Iran itself.
Speaker 3: So according to the White House, the strikes that we
Speaker 3: talked about Friday morning and the strikes that happened over
Speaker 3: the weekend aren't related really at all. One was a
Speaker 3: retaliation for attack and our troops and kill on our soldiers.
Speaker 4: The other one was for the Houthis attack and the ships.
Speaker 3: But I gotta believe it's all died together in a Hey,
Speaker 3: if you mess with us, We're going to hurt you bad.
Speaker 4: Stop messing with us message, because whoever you are and
Speaker 4: whatever you're cause By.
Speaker 3: The way, Iran has put out a message in the
Speaker 3: last twenty four hours, don't you dare touch that spyship,
Speaker 3: which is kind of interesting given that the Wall Street
Speaker 3: Journal editorial board and we've played some clips of a
Speaker 3: variety of people saying the first thing we ought to do,
Speaker 3: this was a week ago, is sink that damn ship
Speaker 3: and put at the bottom of the ocean.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 5: Complicated situation, no matter how we try to simplify it.
Speaker 5: To discuss all of the above, please welcome Mike Lions,
Speaker 5: military analysts for CNN among other outlets.
Speaker 4: Mike, it's always.
Speaker 5: A pleasure of what's your take on the latest e.
Speaker 6: Everyone, guys. I think it's a good start. The terms
Speaker 6: to be re established will take some time. I think
Speaker 6: that it's all about the consequences becoming so great that
Speaker 6: the other side doesn't think that they can attack. We saw, though,
Speaker 6: what no one's talking about is an attack that was
Speaker 6: made from the Shia militia groups against a Syrian militia
Speaker 6: group that we've been aligned with, So that could be
Speaker 6: the next target for these individuals, so they could go
Speaker 6: after There are some of these groups that we're working
Speaker 6: with local groups in order defeat isis there inside of Syria,
Speaker 6: and you could see the Iraqi SA moist groups starting
Speaker 6: to attack them instead of attack Ranian forces, So we
Speaker 6: might have to defend some of our allies there on
Speaker 6: the ground inside of Tierra. So I thought that was
Speaker 6: an interesting development that took place in the last twenty
Speaker 6: four hours. But overall, I think there are two separate lanes. Now.
Speaker 6: Clearly the Houthis were going after them proactively, which is
Speaker 6: another thing that's great. We're getting them before they launched
Speaker 6: their missiles or Ani see ship and she missiles us.
Speaker 6: And then I thought what we did was good from
Speaker 6: a capability perspective to take away the capability, and we're
Speaker 6: going to continue to do it.
Speaker 3: Well, is there anything you would like to see next
Speaker 3: that you think would really send the message of don't
Speaker 3: mess with us?
Speaker 6: Well, I think that you know, the second that we
Speaker 6: find one of those Shea militia leaders that's that went
Speaker 6: into Iran, which is clearly a red line. We're not
Speaker 6: going to attack anywhere inside Iran. Now you know the plague,
Speaker 6: the sandboxes Syria and Iraq. The second that person crosses
Speaker 6: and steps foot back in a rock, I'd like to
Speaker 6: see a cruise missile with their name on. It's heading
Speaker 6: right for them. I think, I think we have to
Speaker 6: go after the leadership of these organizations, and whether that's
Speaker 6: in six months like we did with Celemony, I think
Speaker 6: that's that's a good solution as well. So that's that's
Speaker 6: kind of the next step. We'll degrade some of this
Speaker 6: capability that they have. So there's this land bridge logistically,
Speaker 6: if you take, if you'll get a map, draw straight
Speaker 6: line from Iran through a rack into Syria that gets
Speaker 6: logistics and supplies along kind of road networks and supply
Speaker 6: lines that there. So we've done a pretty good job
Speaker 6: of destroying that. We went after it initially a few
Speaker 6: months ago, but now you know, the kind of attack
Speaker 6: that we made with you know, eighty five separate targets
Speaker 6: is a super significant set back for them.
Speaker 5: Mike, as a conservative talk show host, my job is
Speaker 5: to just say Joe Biden's week and a bad leader,
Speaker 5: and that's why we're doing this, that and the other.
Speaker 4: But I have a feeling there's more going on than
Speaker 4: just that.
Speaker 5: And I read some analysis in the Wall Street journalier're
Speaker 5: talking about how the new guy who is the CUDS
Speaker 5: for leader, his name's Connie. He is the kind of
Speaker 5: the guy who runs the Syria I'm sorry, the Shee
Speaker 5: militias and the you know, their proxies, and that they
Speaker 5: allege that he doesn't have as.
Speaker 4: Much control of them as Sola Moni had.
Speaker 5: So I just I find myself picturing Iran through back
Speaker 5: channel diplomacy saying to the US, look, we're trying to
Speaker 5: rain these maniacs in. We don't really have control. Hit
Speaker 5: them not us. Is that possible, Yeah.
Speaker 6: It might, There might be something to that the back
Speaker 6: channel that is going on right now. We kind of
Speaker 6: made the mistake by taking Saddamus saying that when we
Speaker 6: did obviously and we saw the balance of power tip
Speaker 6: and I think that the Iranians are concerned that they
Speaker 6: want to stay in power. They have their own internal
Speaker 6: struggles with their people inside running an authoritative government that
Speaker 6: they do, so that wouldn't surprise me from a back
Speaker 6: channel perspective. That's the message that they're sending is to
Speaker 6: you know, go after these d militia groups because we
Speaker 6: can't seem to get control of them. That's not to
Speaker 6: say they still want, you know, Israel to win. They
Speaker 6: don't want the United States to have a tremendous influence there,
Speaker 6: but they don't want it to escalate from that perspective
Speaker 6: because they know if they escalate them, they're going to
Speaker 6: have internal problems gathering an army doing what they have
Speaker 6: to do to fight an external enemy like the United States.
Speaker 3: Well, how about the other side of it, since we
Speaker 3: know that Iran at least an ideology is aligned with them,
Speaker 3: and it's certainly arming them and funding them.
Speaker 4: You hit Iran hard, and they.
Speaker 3: Whether they have control of them or not, they work
Speaker 3: really hard to try to rain them in because they
Speaker 3: don't want damage done to them. And do you agree
Speaker 3: would sinking that ship, as a lot of people have
Speaker 3: argued that spy ship there in the in the Red Sea,
Speaker 3: would sink in that be an attack on Iran in
Speaker 3: your mind, I think it would.
Speaker 6: If you put the shoe on the other foot, if
Speaker 6: if somebody sank one of our ships, I think we
Speaker 6: would excellent points as an active war. So I mean
Speaker 6: not again always looking through the eye the lens of
Speaker 6: what's going on. You know, the attacks that were made
Speaker 6: for those those that were that were shot at the
Speaker 6: eighty five targets, I'm sure they thought that the United
Speaker 6: States is at war with them there as well. I
Speaker 6: think that that ship has got to be an overt
Speaker 6: threat to our security. What I don't like is, you
Speaker 6: know the fact that our politicians are still not all
Speaker 6: behind this. Everything still still the War Powers Act, and
Speaker 6: everything is still an authorization U Samilitary force from from
Speaker 6: nine to eleven.
Speaker 4: Still unbelievable. I mean, that's just unbelievable, exactly.
Speaker 6: And and and you know, it's it's a big deal
Speaker 6: to launch the super Hornet off of aircraft carry and
Speaker 6: go hit a target in a sovereign country, whether they
Speaker 6: are our enemy or not, without you know, any not
Speaker 6: the legal side of it, but just kind of them
Speaker 6: all side, especially Yemen. Yemen is one of the poorest
Speaker 6: countries in the world. Now they have capacity. Again, we
Speaker 6: allowed this to happen. We you know, we we allowed
Speaker 6: them build up to happen, We allowed the arms to go,
Speaker 6: and we allowed all those and now we're the situation
Speaker 6: where we have to take care of it and the
Speaker 6: result is not going to be good for that country.
Speaker 6: That country might never get.
Speaker 4: Outs feet again, yeah man.
Speaker 3: And then you know, if I get on this side
Speaker 3: of the argument that you were just referring to, for
Speaker 3: your average young many who is you know, too young
Speaker 3: for to even remember nine to eleven or any of
Speaker 3: that stuff. They just take the United States rerets of
Speaker 3: their lives because missiles came into their country.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and they've been at civil war now for the
Speaker 6: past almost ten years, the Houthis versus the former sana
Speaker 6: government that was there. The Saudis tried to defeat them,
Speaker 6: weren't able to and that was another classic proxy war
Speaker 6: with an our ally being Saudi Arabia Orn on the
Speaker 6: side of the Houthis, and they harmed them very well
Speaker 6: because they have again thousands of these anti ship missiles
Speaker 6: that a couple of weeks ago, that missile got to
Speaker 6: win the like seven seconds of one of those destroyers.
Speaker 6: I mean, that's what they're trying to do. They win
Speaker 6: the lottery if they get one missile through these defense systems.
Speaker 6: And they still haven't done things like swarm drones. All
Speaker 6: their drones are one white suicide drones. They all leave
Speaker 6: and they have no return address. And so again if
Speaker 6: they swarm them, if they do something and they hit
Speaker 6: a US destroyer or a carrier or a cruiser or
Speaker 6: something in the Red Sea, that's a complete lottery win
Speaker 6: for them.
Speaker 4: But then we would go nuts, wouldn't we. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's a hell of a lot of nuts.
Speaker 6: Yeah, But I'm talking on their side. So like anything,
Speaker 6: we have this tremendous air power, naval, sea power, but
Speaker 6: nothing changes until someone shows up on the ground. And
Speaker 6: so you know, that's what the armies are for now.
Speaker 6: I'm not advocating out on any level, but again, we
Speaker 6: can bomb them into submission, but as we've seen, it
Speaker 6: doesn't it's not going to change anything. So unless we're
Speaker 6: willing to do something, so yeah, we would go nuts
Speaker 6: for sure, and it would be a disaster, and it
Speaker 6: would would. It's that's why we're playing with fire here,
Speaker 6: and that's why I think I think that's where we're
Speaker 6: going more proactive with regard to attacking these these sites.
Speaker 6: We saw the Sentcom report that they took four of
Speaker 6: them out before they even got off the ground. I
Speaker 6: think that's what we're going to be doing.
Speaker 5: You know, Mike, I'd love to see you side by
Speaker 5: side on a panel within Economists to address the free
Speaker 5: navigation of the seas and what it means. I was
Speaker 5: reading another piece that was dealing with the fact that
Speaker 5: piracy was like the number one issue asking voters in
Speaker 5: seventeen ninety three, what's the year number one issue? It's
Speaker 5: that piracy was huge, hence Jefferson and the Barbary pirates
Speaker 5: and the rest of it. And we have had an
Speaker 5: incredibly long period of the free navigation of the seas
Speaker 5: for the purposes of commerce. It's lifted everybody on our
Speaker 5: standard of living and it's been so peaceful so long.
Speaker 5: People forget that that's an enormous deal economically.
Speaker 6: You know, it is. I've talked to my son about it,
Speaker 6: because he's been deployed to that part of the world,
Speaker 6: you know, on a destroyer and they peel off and
Speaker 6: they go and either help try to protect ships or
Speaker 6: go after ships that have pirated others. It is, and
Speaker 6: it gets back to gunboat diplomacy again, and we need
Speaker 6: this is where we need allies. I think that's the
Speaker 6: best part of the Houthy attack plan right now is
Speaker 6: the Great Britain's on our side, and the European countries
Speaker 6: and some of some of them that don't have navies,
Speaker 6: but it's going to take larger navies, more ships in
Speaker 6: order to make sure that that transports. And they're they've
Speaker 6: shut down suic Canal that Egypt is hurting, not because
Speaker 6: of that obviously, so again, the economics behind what's going
Speaker 6: on hasn't impacted yet, but I think show.
Speaker 5: Mike Lions, military analyst for CNN. Mike, we appreciate the
Speaker 5: time very much.
Speaker 6: Thanks, Thanks guys for me Armstrong and Getty