WEBVTT 00:02.060 --> 00:08.360 Get ready to take a flamethrower to the official narrative and learn what the elites don't want you to know 00:08.360 --> 00:10.280 You're listening to them 00:10.280 --> 00:17.590 Hey, everybody Tom Woods here. It's episode 00:18.350 --> 00:25.210 2742 of the Tom Woods show Brandon Weichert is here fresh off his appearance with Tucker Carlson 00:25.210 --> 00:29.930 We'll see we'll see which program gives him the bigger bump in his career 00:29.930 --> 00:35.510 But he is Nat sec guy on emerald TV and a fantastic 00:35.510 --> 00:39.650 Twitter follow I was just telling him that I feel like I owe him something 00:39.650 --> 00:42.850 You know, I get all everybody's Twitter account is free to be viewed 00:42.850 --> 00:45.250 But I look at this and I say I should probably be paying for this 00:45.250 --> 00:52.290 What is your your Twitter is it's um, what's the brand and we the brand and we the brand and okay 00:52.290 --> 00:54.110 Yeah, so so great to have you know 00:54.110 --> 00:55.170 I'm so you know again 00:55.170 --> 00:58.370 It's like when you see somebody at a funeral and you say I'm sorry 00:58.370 --> 00:59.870 We have to meet under these circumstances 01:00.470 --> 01:04.850 Same thing here you and I are meeting for the first time and I'm sorry. It's under these circumstances, but 01:05.590 --> 01:08.910 I've listened to what you've had to say and I've been reading what you've been writing and 01:09.930 --> 01:13.930 I I just have a bunch of questions that you know, I think some of them 01:14.730 --> 01:18.910 Nobody really has an answer to but nevertheless, you know 01:18.910 --> 01:22.850 You are capable of making at least an educated guess on some of these questions 01:22.850 --> 01:28.390 So we have this Iran conflict as JD Vance now calls it awkwardly 01:29.330 --> 01:31.890 It's yeah, it's not a war war 01:32.590 --> 01:37.430 Yeah, the president keeps calling it a war, but then what they don't want to call it over nobody knows what to say 01:37.430 --> 01:43.210 I mean this it's all crazy, but but well, I mean, I want to start off actually 01:43.210 --> 01:47.070 Kind of at the end if I may kind of at the finish line to ask 01:47.070 --> 01:53.410 Now that this has taken place and there was some question about whether Trump was gonna do this because 01:53.410 --> 01:58.850 With Trump you're dealing with a guy who can change his mind on a dime can change the way 01:58.850 --> 02:04.770 He looks at the world on a dime. It can depend sometimes on the last person. He talked to so it could have gone either way 02:04.770 --> 02:10.770 If for example when he bombed Iran in June of last year that could have become a much bigger conflict 02:10.770 --> 02:17.130 He even teased the term regime change at that time and nobody exactly knew what was gonna go on 02:17.130 --> 02:19.050 So maybe this wasn't gonna happen 02:19.050 --> 02:23.130 But but now it has and I guess what I'm curious about is 02:23.130 --> 02:27.190 What are the possible off ramps here? 02:27.710 --> 02:33.270 Because I I think it's harder to find them that it might have been for other conflicts 02:33.270 --> 02:37.110 So the that's a great question the Tucker interview aired 02:37.110 --> 02:44.030 I think last Wednesday and I said at that point he had maybe 48 hours to take the golden off ramp and 02:45.290 --> 02:47.350 He may still try to end the war 02:47.350 --> 02:51.550 Unilaterally now and I know that I know that at some point this week 02:51.550 --> 02:53.990 he's gonna be addressing the the American people but 02:54.750 --> 03:00.550 Ultimately the enemy gets a vote and as you know from my my Twitter and what I was saying on Tucker 03:00.550 --> 03:05.330 The Iranians are not defeated the Iranian regime is not I mean it's damaged 03:05.330 --> 03:13.090 But they they might not want to stop the fighting now because they think they've made the American Colossus bleed and in many 03:13.090 --> 03:18.570 Respects they have they've certainly made the Israelis bleed and they've gone after very in a very 03:18.570 --> 03:24.370 Methodical and efficient manner the Iranians have gone after the underpinning of 03:24.370 --> 03:28.110 America's presence in the region which people always assume is Israel 03:28.110 --> 03:33.720 but in many respects it's the oil producing Arab states and what the Iranians have done is 03:34.230 --> 03:37.170 systematically damaged and in some cases 03:37.170 --> 03:43.310 Destroyed the Arab economy to the point that I don't believe many of these Arab states will be fully rebuilt 03:43.310 --> 03:50.890 If ever for many many years to come they've lost these oil production capabilities Qatar is completely shut down now 03:50.890 --> 03:55.310 Indefinitely, and that's not even talking about the damage from the Strait of Hormuz closure 03:55.310 --> 04:00.250 So in my opinion the off ramp there is no off ramp anymore 04:00.250 --> 04:03.190 Trump might just jump in the hole and say I'm done and 04:03.710 --> 04:07.810 We can pray for that because that would still be preferable in my opinion that this thing 04:07.810 --> 04:14.170 Continuing up the escalation ladder, but the Iranians do not necessarily now want it to stop and 04:14.170 --> 04:20.850 Certainly, and this is the crazy part given how much damage has been done to Israel the Israelis don't want it to stop and 04:21.370 --> 04:23.570 Trump even said either today or yesterday 04:23.570 --> 04:30.770 I think it was in Axios one of the big publications reported this that Trump apparently said that he basically would love to end the 04:30.770 --> 04:36.790 War at any time, but he has to work alongside the Israeli government to get basically their approval 04:36.790 --> 04:43.590 Yeah, so there you go. You know where there's no golden off ramp anymore. We're in this thing for the long haul 04:43.590 --> 04:45.590 It's gonna be a long haul to 04:47.030 --> 04:50.950 Not to mention if he were I mean you just implied it with what you said 04:50.950 --> 04:57.990 But if he were to declare let's say he took that back because Trump has a way of saying the opposite one day 04:57.990 --> 05:03.190 What he said that he's very mercurial so yeah, and he could say I never said that the United States makes its own decision 05:03.190 --> 05:09.730 He may he could just say that tomorrow, but even if he does say that obviously Israel will not be happy if the US stops 05:09.730 --> 05:18.470 In what it would view as prematurely now what would prematurely be for Israel? It has to be before the installation of an absolutely a 05:19.630 --> 05:21.590 compliant regime and 05:21.590 --> 05:28.750 Obviously that would take it would be in a far far more vast undertaking than I think Trump was 05:28.750 --> 05:32.230 Yeah, and this is why they're talking about ground troops now 05:32.230 --> 05:36.950 This is why you know which foot with the topography of Iran. How is that possible? I know well 05:36.950 --> 05:40.570 And I think it's key to understand I said this I think I said this in the Tucker interview 05:40.570 --> 05:46.970 But I've said it in subsequent interviews the United States does not have the force structure to actually conduct 05:47.810 --> 05:51.070 An invasion on the level that it did in 2003 05:51.070 --> 05:57.270 We have allowed that capability to diminish and I'm not saying that we should do a ground invasion 05:57.270 --> 06:01.150 But even if you know under the best circumstances we wanted to do that 06:01.150 --> 06:09.870 We're not gonna be able to there's no amount of build-up that we could participate in to ensure that we would have on the order of 06:09.870 --> 06:17.830 several hundred thousands of troops unless there's a draft which I thought interestingly the administration is 06:17.830 --> 06:21.550 Now not shooting down when that was brought up to Caroline Levitt now 06:21.550 --> 06:26.650 I don't know that's just because she's ignorant or it's because there's some other discussion occurring 06:26.650 --> 06:33.470 Behind the scenes about this war, but the only way you're gonna change the regime in Iran is if you get boots on the ground 06:33.470 --> 06:40.070 That's a bloody mess. That's Vietnam redux. That's Vietnam in the deserts in the mountains. That's basically what you're getting 06:40.890 --> 06:44.050 And it's gonna end very badly for the United States 06:44.050 --> 06:47.650 Even if we could constitute an actual invasion force 06:47.650 --> 06:55.730 What's probably gonna happen is it'll be a redux of Afghanistan and in fact you're seeing the 82nd Airborne now being mobilized. I 06:55.730 --> 07:01.350 Suspect they're going to do things like take try to take Carg Island. I would just remind your audience 07:01.350 --> 07:03.630 This was a quote-unquote strategy 07:03.630 --> 07:08.050 Not created by the Chet the Pentagon the chairman of the Joint Chiefs a staff 07:08.050 --> 07:11.850 This was a strategy created by Lindsey Graham who I am sure 07:12.750 --> 07:15.670 Divined it while he was polishing Netanyahu shoes 07:15.670 --> 07:22.710 So, you know, this is the Carg Island strategy where they're gonna take this this island off the coast of Iran 07:22.710 --> 07:26.890 Which is probably the epicenter of their energy production and refining 07:27.590 --> 07:31.890 Capability, but that's a bloody mess waiting to happen and then also, you know 07:31.890 --> 07:38.590 They could replicate the Afghanistan 2001 strategy by deploying large numbers of special forces and CIA 07:39.190 --> 07:45.450 paramilitaries into Iran to link up with organized groups like the Mujahideen E. Kalk M. E. K 07:45.990 --> 07:51.950 To basically use them and to force multiply off of them in order to you know 07:51.950 --> 07:58.730 Drive into Tehran, but I just want your audience to understand something the United States military was adamantly opposed to 07:59.190 --> 08:06.430 The recent Israeli airstrike on North Tehran that took out the massive oil refining complex there 08:06.430 --> 08:14.210 That basically created a toxic plume over Tehran and the reason they were opposed to this in the Pentagon and the Israelis 08:14.210 --> 08:16.530 Flipped them the bird and said we're doing it anyway 08:17.110 --> 08:21.270 great ally stuff there guys, but the reason was because 08:22.490 --> 08:23.210 the 08:23.210 --> 08:27.810 The US understood this would damage the protests remember 08:27.810 --> 08:32.070 This was the whole thing is Trump wanted to use these anti-regime protesters 08:32.070 --> 08:35.890 Well, they're certainly not gonna have any friends in Tehran today 08:35.890 --> 08:44.770 And in fact what you're noticing is in Persia the Persian community in Tehran is rallying now around the regime 08:44.770 --> 08:48.910 Because Trump is now floating this concept of cantonization 08:49.870 --> 08:56.050 For for Iran, you know, if we can't replace the regime we can at least break Iran into four or five or six 08:56.050 --> 09:01.930 Smaller countries. Well, the Persians don't want to hear that this is a thousands of years old, you know 09:02.470 --> 09:09.330 Culture and country they're not gonna be okay with you know foreigners coming in and breaking them up any more than the Russians would have been 09:09.330 --> 09:14.030 Okay with during the you know, 1990s and early 2000s 09:15.970 --> 09:18.270 You know this this 09:19.130 --> 09:26.730 Point you just made about people in Iran today. I mean obviously there are there are substantial numbers of people 09:27.350 --> 09:31.090 Who will rally to the Islamic Republic at the same time? 09:31.410 --> 09:34.450 There are plenty of modernizers who are repelled by it 09:34.450 --> 09:41.850 Well, the diaspora of Iranians around the world at least if I'm sorry to be judging them based on tiktok videos 09:41.850 --> 09:46.190 But that's all I got to go on Brandon and there's a lot of them. I 09:46.190 --> 09:48.850 Keep seeing now. I don't know if that's this is because some of them are 09:49.910 --> 09:52.230 Israeli slash Jewish with some 09:52.970 --> 10:00.690 History in Iran or what it is, but they're super enthusiastic about what's been going on and it's like 10:01.270 --> 10:05.030 either you are coming at this from some kind of a 10:05.590 --> 10:09.130 Zionist perspective and you and you view the US and and Israel 10:09.930 --> 10:16.430 Very favorably or you have not been paying attention to the way the United States deals with countries in the Middle East 10:16.430 --> 10:21.670 I mean you really think that this was to make things better. I mean what what's happened in Syria? 10:22.050 --> 10:26.870 You think people in Syria are doing really well under the the present regime there 10:26.870 --> 10:31.890 I mean you know the Islamists are doing well there. Exactly. So yeah, what is this? 10:32.390 --> 10:34.730 Where is the naivete coming on the part? 10:34.730 --> 10:41.870 I kind of thought people in the Middle East or with roots in the Middle East would be more informed than Americans would be and yet 10:41.870 --> 10:47.170 I listen to these these Iranians so-called making these videos and it's like they're dumber than Americans 10:47.170 --> 10:53.210 Yeah, a lot of them have not been to Iran ever a lot of them are like born and raised in America and a lot of them 10:53.210 --> 10:54.070 maybe their parents 10:54.850 --> 10:59.470 You know live there for a period of time, but ultimately they 10:59.470 --> 11:02.230 They don't represent the majority opinion 11:02.230 --> 11:08.430 I mean look remember the the Shah was overthrown in a popular revolt and people need to remember that and 11:08.990 --> 11:10.970 I'm no fan of the regime in Iran 11:10.970 --> 11:15.910 I think that they are a supporter of terrorism and I do think that they are not our friend 11:16.510 --> 11:23.190 But ultimately the regime at least initially was put into power on the back of a very popular wave 11:23.790 --> 11:26.150 Whereas the Shah who I thought okay 11:26.150 --> 11:30.870 He did serve American interest, but he clearly was not popular. He clearly was not 11:30.870 --> 11:38.750 You know the the the popular leader that people wanted to claim him to be and a lot of these people these ex-patriots 11:38.750 --> 11:39.750 Are themselves? 11:41.150 --> 11:47.390 monarchists a lot of these people are themselves monarchists and they are basically 11:48.290 --> 11:55.130 Carrying the water of the monarchy that is wildly unpopular to this day the Shah's I think his son is 11:55.130 --> 11:56.530 basically a 11:57.090 --> 11:59.410 you know lobbyist in northern Virginia and 12:00.570 --> 12:05.690 Ultimately, that's who the British and the Israelis really want to see take power and 12:06.410 --> 12:11.290 Even the CIA is saying that's not gonna work because the monarchy is not popular 12:11.290 --> 12:13.510 But a lot of these ex-patriots are 12:13.510 --> 12:16.210 Monarchists that hard because their parents were 12:16.770 --> 12:19.650 And their family members were and they lost all their possessions 12:19.650 --> 12:24.310 But that doesn't represent the majority opinion in Iran and I think that you're witnessing 12:25.130 --> 12:27.170 The fact that there hasn't been a popular revolt 12:27.890 --> 12:32.410 You know this would protest but a lot of that we're finding out was generated by CIA and Assad 12:33.170 --> 12:40.570 And these sort of non-governmental organizations again sort of like what happened in Ukraine in 2014 and sort of like what we were 12:40.570 --> 12:42.230 Trying to do in 2012 in Russia 12:43.150 --> 12:48.670 So this is not necessarily organic and not reflective of the majority opinion of Iranians 12:50.190 --> 12:54.730 I might be putting you on the spot with this question because I don't know how much anybody 12:54.730 --> 12:59.090 Really knows but what do your instincts tell you about the claim that the regime 12:59.810 --> 13:07.170 Murdered 30,000 protesters, you know, I I have no idea that you know so much coming out of the Iran 13:07.170 --> 13:09.950 I mean look, let's just be honest the regime there is not great 13:09.950 --> 13:13.070 They lie about stuff too and they do bad things all the time 13:13.070 --> 13:18.350 We all do as you know in terms of our government, so this is not like anybody's hands are clean in this thing 13:18.350 --> 13:24.330 I mean I could believe it it doesn't really matter ultimately the bottom line is I mean 13:24.330 --> 13:28.770 It's terrible if it happened the way they say it happened, but but ultimately the bottom line is this 13:30.190 --> 13:32.030 The Iranian government 13:32.610 --> 13:40.810 Doesn't care about their people the way that we think that they would they just want to stay in power 13:40.810 --> 13:45.890 And they have secured that power base and now we are actually helping them 13:45.890 --> 13:52.050 Secure it because what we're doing is we're putting a big target on any potential rival to the regime 13:52.050 --> 13:57.090 Their internal security identifies them during these protests take them out 13:57.090 --> 14:03.890 weakens the resistance and then also when we bomb and we do these horrific attacks on schools on 14:04.490 --> 14:09.110 You know oil refineries that completely that set the streets on fire as if it's Dresden 14:09.110 --> 14:13.010 What that does is it tells the Iranian people we can't trust the Americans 14:13.010 --> 14:16.270 Why would we want to rely this regime may be bad? 14:16.270 --> 14:23.550 But they're ours and they're gonna rally around the flag so whether they killed and and ultimately that should actually 14:23.550 --> 14:28.070 If that is true that they killed that many people in response to political upheaval 14:28.070 --> 14:34.670 That should have caused people around Trump to sit Trump down and say this regime is not gonna care about public opinion 14:34.670 --> 14:37.390 You can't just start a war expecting they're gonna be overthrown 14:37.390 --> 14:45.410 Because they haven't been and they're clearly very proficient and staying in power. I 14:45.410 --> 14:49.110 Feel free to disagree if I mean, you know, I'm open to whatever you want to do 14:49.110 --> 14:52.050 No, but I think I have no basis to judge it either except I 14:53.170 --> 14:57.550 You know, I I just I keep getting fed BS stories that justify intervention 14:57.550 --> 14:59.470 That's the thing and this is just like in Iraq 14:59.470 --> 15:02.690 You know your audience probably if they followed me know that at one time 15:02.690 --> 15:03.130 I was 15:03.930 --> 15:10.390 Unthinkingly part of the neo-conservative side of the party. I think like Tucker was my story is very similar to Tucker 15:10.390 --> 15:13.650 Obviously not on that level, but you know, I just was sort of hey 15:13.650 --> 15:17.710 I'm a Republican everybody's you know on the Republican side. We're pro-Iraq war and okay 15:17.710 --> 15:23.690 Let's just and you realize very quickly studying it and living it that oh my god 15:23.690 --> 15:25.710 They were they just straight up live 15:25.710 --> 15:32.310 They just straight up lied and they didn't care and there was no punishment for the people who got us into a really 15:32.310 --> 15:37.210 Disastrous war that we're still paying for and you're seeing the same people in some cases 15:37.210 --> 15:43.150 Certainly the same kinds of policies and lies being propagated today about this war 15:43.150 --> 15:48.370 Which is why every American who cares about America first must oppose this war 15:48.370 --> 15:51.390 It isn't about being pro-Iranian regime at all 15:51.390 --> 15:57.310 It's about being protecting our troops and protecting our standing in the world and 15:57.310 --> 16:03.390 Protecting our interests abroad because this does not run in our interests at what as I'll add at all rather 16:03.950 --> 16:06.830 Everybody Tom Woods here with a quick tip for small business owners 16:06.830 --> 16:12.090 If your business isn't showing up online your competitors are getting the leads and you're missing out 16:12.090 --> 16:16.150 That's where persist SEO comes in for over 15 years 16:16.150 --> 16:22.770 They've been helping local businesses grow through SEO paid ads and the latest in AI powered search optimization 16:22.770 --> 16:26.450 So you stay visible and competitive in the digital age 16:26.450 --> 16:29.790 Whether you're in home services legal or health care 16:29.790 --> 16:37.090 Persist SEO delivers real results without locking you into long-term contracts or overwhelming you with tech jargon 16:37.090 --> 16:46.290 Visit I need SEO dot help or call 770-580-3736 to schedule your free consultation 16:46.850 --> 16:54.330 That's I need SEO dot help easy to remember powerful for your small business. I 16:54.330 --> 16:56.170 Have a guy I wouldn't call him a friend 16:57.550 --> 17:04.510 We disagree very very intensely on foreign policy, but we have some agreement on other things and he was saying to me 17:04.510 --> 17:06.730 privately that he is convinced 17:07.090 --> 17:13.810 That quote America's enemies are in some way behind the various anti-war 17:14.490 --> 17:18.850 Movements or but as you know if you can even call it that they're so pathetic in the US right now 17:18.850 --> 17:23.690 But yeah, he was convinced and I and I couldn't understand. I thought if I were China 17:24.250 --> 17:27.670 Which I don't necessarily go for China is necessarily 17:28.430 --> 17:34.390 An American enemy doesn't have to be but that's another conversation. Yeah, if I were China, I would say this is fantastic 17:34.390 --> 17:40.530 Yeah, that's what they're saying. Let this thing go on and drain these people as long as possible 17:40.530 --> 17:43.870 So that's exactly what they're saying. That's exactly that's why you know 17:43.870 --> 17:48.510 I do a lot of sort of stuff with you know other networks on the right and they're very 17:49.170 --> 17:55.310 Zionist and they they this is a common refrain you hear from all the usual suspects that well 17:55.310 --> 17:58.330 This is a heavy blow to China. Well, I sat down 17:58.330 --> 18:01.710 I don't know if you saw I posted it on Twitter about three or four days ago 18:01.710 --> 18:08.470 I sat down for half an hour with Brendan O'Reilly who is an actual China scholar and an intelligence analyst wrote a great book 18:09.290 --> 18:16.070 Everybody's wrong about China and then my buddy Dan Collins who to this day runs high-end rare earth mineral factories in China 18:16.070 --> 18:18.490 So he is you know, I had two scholar 18:18.490 --> 18:23.210 Practitioners who sat and they speak the language and they live for decades in China 18:23.210 --> 18:28.890 And they both told me that the Chinese are eating this up that yes, it's gonna pinch 18:28.890 --> 18:33.610 Yeah, because you know 14 to 16 percent of their oil is coming from Iran 18:33.610 --> 18:38.350 But the Chinese began to change that profile around knowing that we were going in 18:38.350 --> 18:43.810 They're purchasing more oil from Russia before Saudi went offline and Qatar went offline 18:43.810 --> 18:48.690 They they soaked up a lot of oil over the last several months from those resources 18:48.690 --> 18:53.090 so they've been hardening themselves and preparing for this and 18:53.830 --> 18:57.730 Remember China right now has a massive industrial base 18:57.730 --> 19:05.170 No problem churning out weapons and systems that could conceivably be used to fight the United States if a war between us ever did 19:05.170 --> 19:10.390 Break out they have what's known as surge capacity on a level that we haven't seen in this country 19:10.390 --> 19:17.370 Since World War two in terms of the industrial might and oh by the way the Chinese hold all the cards and rare earth 19:17.370 --> 19:21.430 Minerals and we've been blowing through all of our standoff munitions 19:21.430 --> 19:29.610 Going back to Ukraine. We've been doing this and we're not replacing them at a at a necessary level because the industrial base here is so 19:29.610 --> 19:35.350 Sclerotic the Chinese can just say hey you blew through all of your tomahawks that you need to possibly fight us 19:35.350 --> 19:40.250 We consider rare earth dual use and we're gonna deny you access to those 19:40.250 --> 19:43.830 So you'll never be able to replenish those stockpiles again 19:43.830 --> 19:46.550 And then there's a capability taken out of uncle Sam's 19:47.150 --> 19:53.370 Pocket and never to be seen again while the Chinese continue, you know enhancing their own capabilities relative to ours 19:53.370 --> 19:56.810 So if anything the Iran war is a massive win and by the way 19:56.810 --> 20:03.250 Their ships are really the only ships right now passing through the Strait of Hormuz their container ships full of all the oil and whatnot 20:03.250 --> 20:09.130 So China's still getting oil by the way, that's another story. That's not being reported China's still receiving Middle East oil 20:09.130 --> 20:11.110 We're not I 20:11.110 --> 20:17.290 Say we I should say the West I should because obviously we have other but but the West is not Europe is hit hardest here 20:17.290 --> 20:21.730 All right, so that that was exactly the way I was thinking about it that I 20:22.630 --> 20:27.810 Mean every major kind of the Russians obviously would like to see the more the US is 20:27.810 --> 20:34.210 Expending resources on this the less it can expend them on Ukraine or Taiwan or whatever the case may be 20:34.210 --> 20:38.210 so and if I can just quickly inject here and we can just want to inject here because I 20:38.210 --> 20:44.650 Made a speech in 2017 at the Institute of World Politics my alma mater in Washington DC 20:44.650 --> 20:46.030 It was not very well received 20:46.030 --> 20:52.610 But the title was Russia is the only beneficiary of an Iran war and what I was getting at was 20:53.130 --> 20:59.410 The the funding mechanism for the war machine in Russia is predominantly their their oil market 20:59.410 --> 21:04.970 Well when the oil spikes when oil prices spike globally and remain high 21:04.970 --> 21:09.890 The Russians are able to generate a lot of money. I think Tommy was something like 21:10.930 --> 21:12.570 1762% increase 21:12.570 --> 21:19.570 In profits in the last week for these Russian firms because of the global price of oil spiking because of this war 21:19.570 --> 21:23.450 So the Iran war is benefiting the Russian the Russian economy 21:23.450 --> 21:29.910 Which is now spending that excess money on continuing the war in Ukraine and and even if it did do 21:29.910 --> 21:35.970 Short-term damage to China. What is the Trump slogan right now short-term pain long-term gain? 21:36.170 --> 21:37.510 I'm sure they view it the same way 21:38.130 --> 21:44.010 I'm sure they view it the same way and I'm sure the Chinese don't don't actually think that's going to that's going to 21:44.010 --> 21:50.310 Effect them the way Trump does remember China is the world's primary and you know, it's it's the world's sweatshop 21:50.310 --> 21:55.170 It's the world's labor shop. It's the highest. It's a high-end tech dynamo 21:55.170 --> 22:02.890 They are basically the leading exporter of goods to the global south, which is where all the developing markets are Tom 22:02.890 --> 22:05.990 So remember when we started the blessed trade war? 22:06.830 --> 22:10.270 And guess what happened the Chinese? Yeah, they felt again 22:10.270 --> 22:15.770 They felt a pinch but all they did was shift over to global south because ultimately 22:16.330 --> 22:23.850 Their exposure to US markets was not as significant as America's exposure to key Chinese markets 22:23.850 --> 22:30.990 So when we initiated the trade war it had massive amounts of blowback on our soybean farmers on our high-tech sector 22:31.570 --> 22:38.490 Etc. Whereas the Chinese they got burned a little bit, but they just moved they repositioned themselves because they are the key 22:38.490 --> 22:39.410 exporter 22:39.410 --> 22:44.130 Too many of these developing economies in the global south and that's exactly how it's going to play out from here 22:44.130 --> 22:46.130 On out on a variety of issues 22:47.250 --> 22:51.170 Well, I'm well, let's talk about what what the goals of this 22:51.870 --> 22:54.330 Operation are and I'm avoiding the word 22:56.090 --> 23:02.570 Call it a war all the time. It's funny. There's no war war. It's right war war. There's so many euphemisms that I can use 23:02.570 --> 23:04.750 I mean, it's like an episode of Veep. I mean, you know 23:07.430 --> 23:09.370 Exactly and and the thing is it's like 23:09.990 --> 23:14.390 They all know that we know it's a war, you know, like so it's all a charade 23:14.390 --> 23:18.090 I'm reminded of the social needs in quote, right? You know, they know we're lying 23:18.090 --> 23:21.610 Yeah, I mean, that's the level of 23:22.590 --> 23:25.290 Absurdity that we've reached it. I mean not even look 23:25.290 --> 23:29.590 I was I ended up being very critical of the George W. Bush team, but not even George 23:29.590 --> 23:34.270 I mean at least George W. Bush had the courtesy to lie about the cause for war 23:34.750 --> 23:40.950 We didn't even get a discussion about this thing. It was just one day Trump woke up like the Mad King and said we're going to war and 23:41.810 --> 23:43.570 You know, but we can't call it a war 23:44.230 --> 23:47.610 You know, but that's what it is. It's it is and and it's leading 23:47.610 --> 23:50.130 I think I think we're in the beginning. I think we're in World War three 23:50.130 --> 23:54.310 That's what I think because if there's no off-ramp and everybody keeps getting involved in this thing 23:54.310 --> 23:59.950 It's like an insuperable wound. It keeps getting gangrene and the infection is spreading to the whole bloodstream 23:59.950 --> 24:02.030 I think that's where we are right now 24:02.030 --> 24:08.210 You have the British talking about sending their dilapidated aircraft carrier. The French are supposedly sending their carrier 24:08.210 --> 24:12.230 This to me is a world war. This is not even just a regional war anymore 24:12.230 --> 24:15.210 And it was kicked off by the Mad King in the White House right now 24:15.830 --> 24:18.710 Well, we're dealing with a country of I guess 90 million 24:19.410 --> 24:25.210 96 million. Yeah, all right, roughly this apparently the square footage of Western Europe 24:25.210 --> 24:29.690 Yeah, that's not the same thing as Venezuela where you go in you take out the one guy 24:29.690 --> 24:33.970 Then you don't really do a whole lot about the regime other than the one guy, right? 24:34.270 --> 24:39.230 And you can unilaterally declare that the whole thing's over now. Yes, what are they? What's Venezuela gonna do? 24:39.850 --> 24:42.010 Right not so obvious that this could be done 24:42.010 --> 24:48.630 So well, there's also the logistics chain is very different for operation like this in in in Persia 24:48.630 --> 24:50.990 than it is in Venezuela and 24:50.990 --> 24:54.110 Culturally and I'm not putting down the Venezuelan culture 24:54.110 --> 24:59.810 But let's just face it the Venezuelans are not as fanatical as as the cadre. That's leading 25:00.370 --> 25:07.710 The Islamic Republic of Iran. They're just not I mean there is a their ideology is a very key factor here and 25:08.670 --> 25:10.770 You know, I was told that Kamani 25:11.410 --> 25:19.310 Kamani had stopped worrying about his safety at toward the end there and was getting sloppy basically with his personal security and 25:20.050 --> 25:26.210 The reason he was staying above ground war was because he was telling his people his team 25:26.210 --> 25:31.910 Listen, I'm old and you know, if it's God's will to take me then that's time and I'm prepared to 25:31.910 --> 25:37.730 That doesn't bother me at all and that's the mentality of the people you're dealing with at that upper echelon 25:37.730 --> 25:42.990 That's not the same mentality that dominated Maduro's regime, which was basically a gangster state 25:42.990 --> 25:45.570 You know, just give him a cut of the action and they're happy 25:45.570 --> 25:50.230 That's not who you're dealing with in Iran. These guys are believers and on some level 25:50.230 --> 25:54.130 They're okay with dying in a way that the Venezuelan certainly are not 25:54.130 --> 25:59.390 Yeah, I think there is there is something about the West that makes it 25:59.930 --> 26:05.590 Incapable of understanding. Well, we're materialist that heart and and this is the problem. This is the problem 26:05.590 --> 26:11.430 Is that we we don't and we have this weird thing where there's a group of people the Christian Zionists 26:11.430 --> 26:15.590 Who clearly are more than materialists? Yeah, but they're they're 26:16.910 --> 26:21.730 Their belief is heretical if you know anything about Christianity. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Anyway, we don't have to get it 26:21.730 --> 26:25.650 I mean, I don't know how far you I've done that on this show already. Yeah. Yeah, okay 26:25.650 --> 26:32.450 I mean, it's it's clearly heretical and it is it's so you have a small group of people who believe in this heretical ideology 26:33.230 --> 26:37.490 Leading us, but you have the entire West is is post-Christian. It's a pagan 26:38.050 --> 26:42.890 We've gone back to paganism and so it's all materialism and it's all short-sighted 26:42.890 --> 26:48.910 You don't have that in in Iran today Iran is a it's an Islamic culture and and the leadership 26:48.910 --> 26:55.890 It is a theocracy and they are willing to die for their beliefs and they're going to try to take out as many unbelievers 26:56.450 --> 26:59.490 Uh and heretics as they can which is precisely what they're doing 27:00.130 --> 27:04.590 This is a this is so rhetorical. I'm gonna I'm gonna rephrase it. So it's not merely rhetorical 27:04.590 --> 27:06.950 The goals of this operation 27:07.430 --> 27:09.530 There are are notoriously 27:10.050 --> 27:10.430 shifting 27:10.970 --> 27:12.890 Yeah, shifting unclear 27:13.410 --> 27:13.910 Um 27:13.910 --> 27:18.690 Mission creep from from but also from one administration official to the other 27:18.690 --> 27:23.850 It's like the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing with telephone. Yeah, it is. So yeah 27:23.850 --> 27:27.250 What's the best you're able to put together for 27:27.750 --> 27:33.590 Because I want to have the let's try to propose what the best case scenario is that it's it's not 27:33.590 --> 27:37.870 Uh, that they have in mind something that does not actually involve 27:38.430 --> 27:42.910 Years and years and years of a slog that they have something finite in mind 27:42.910 --> 27:45.830 And they're aiming at accomplishing it. What would that be? 27:46.510 --> 27:52.490 The best case scenario is oil prices remain high over the next several weeks, which 27:52.490 --> 27:54.590 Makes trump get skittish 27:55.130 --> 27:56.630 and he can't 27:56.630 --> 27:58.670 I well, um 27:59.210 --> 28:05.250 I believe the market is manipulated because some of the responses to what we're seeing is not tethered to reality 28:05.250 --> 28:07.530 But that's another story for another time 28:07.530 --> 28:14.890 But basically trump will not be able to use the power of his office to keep the economy from looking bad on paper 28:14.890 --> 28:17.090 Which is what he cares about fundamentally 28:17.090 --> 28:20.930 He cares about that more than anything because he thinks that's a measure of his success 28:20.930 --> 28:25.350 And his chances well or his party's chances for staying in power 28:25.810 --> 28:30.150 So if the prices of oil like I believe will remain relatively high 28:30.150 --> 28:34.010 And americans are going to be screaming over that and rightly so 28:34.010 --> 28:40.290 Um, that might force him to just say i've gotten the ayatollah. I've degraded the missile capability 28:40.290 --> 28:48.490 I've degraded the drone capability. I've killed a lot of irgc top echelon guys. I'm good. I'm done 28:48.490 --> 28:49.670 Let's call it a day 28:49.670 --> 28:55.450 We're going to come home and and and he's probably not going to be able to reconstitute and that's a good thing 28:55.450 --> 28:59.250 We're not going to be able to reconstitute our our facilities in bahrain 28:59.670 --> 29:03.290 Or in some of these arab states because they're never going to want to see us again after this 29:03.290 --> 29:10.170 Yeah, um, but ultimately that to me is the best case scenario, which of course isn't an optimal scenario because 29:10.170 --> 29:13.290 The iranians might say hey, we're just getting started buddy 29:13.770 --> 29:15.970 Uh, you know israel may say the same thing 29:15.970 --> 29:19.710 Well, israel is the real wild card and I think it's very predictable what they're going to do 29:19.710 --> 29:21.830 I think we're moving toward nuclear weapons use 29:22.290 --> 29:27.290 Uh from israel because it is it is very dire on the ground in israel. They just killed 29:27.290 --> 29:30.750 I believe benjamin netanyahu's brother in a in a missile attack 29:31.230 --> 29:35.670 Um, I know they're saying it was a car accident, but okay, you know, whatever 29:35.670 --> 29:40.670 Um, but you know, they targeted the largest underground bunker for the israeli government and 29:41.230 --> 29:42.590 successfully destroyed it 29:42.590 --> 29:47.150 Nobody's seen benjamin netanyahu as far as I can tell I don't know where he is 29:47.150 --> 29:52.650 And that starts making me think could he be dead could he be injured and they're covering it up 29:52.650 --> 29:55.210 So israel is in a very bad way right now 29:55.210 --> 29:59.090 And it's getting worse every day with every iteration of this fight 29:59.090 --> 30:05.470 And so my concern is that nuclear weapons come on the table at that point, but that's the secondary topic here 30:05.470 --> 30:06.930 Let's just focus on the objectives 30:07.410 --> 30:11.250 Um, I just I'm going to go off of what the president said because at the end of the day 30:11.250 --> 30:14.590 Our battlefield commanders are not listening even to pete hexeth 30:14.590 --> 30:20.830 They're listening to what the commander-in-chief has consistently said. It's very clear. His objective is regime change 30:20.830 --> 30:26.610 His objective is denuclearization. His objective is getting you see how many objectives there are now 30:26.610 --> 30:31.090 This is becoming highly complex. His objective is I want to get rid of all the ballistic missiles 30:31.090 --> 30:36.270 His objective is I want to get rid of the iranian navy. What is the objective of the iranian regime? 30:36.930 --> 30:37.670 To survive 30:38.230 --> 30:41.210 Just to hang on they don't have to do anything other than that 30:41.210 --> 30:45.930 So long as the islamic republic of iran remains the the leader 30:46.450 --> 30:49.290 Of the the iranian country they win 30:49.830 --> 30:53.930 And so far they're winning that doesn't matter how many sorties we fly 30:53.930 --> 30:56.430 It doesn't matter how many underground facilities we bomb 30:56.430 --> 31:01.170 We will never know if we got them all and as long as there's one of those facilities around 31:01.170 --> 31:05.150 They have clearly demonstrated a capability under degraded conditions 31:05.150 --> 31:09.410 To continue to effectively fight they are combat effective in a way 31:09.410 --> 31:13.030 I know for a fact the pentagon was not anticipating this far into the war 31:13.610 --> 31:17.830 So, you know, what what is our what does our mission set look like? 31:18.250 --> 31:22.030 I just said those are the objectives. You could say, okay, we got rid of the iranian navy 31:22.030 --> 31:25.930 But there's some debate on that too. That's probably our biggest success so far 31:26.430 --> 31:29.010 Okay, we degraded the ballistic missile capability 31:29.010 --> 31:33.490 But if you saw the new york times at the beginning of the week or i'm sorry at the end of the week 31:33.490 --> 31:39.790 Last week on friday, uh, there was a closed briefing in congress in which the us intelligence agencies said 31:40.240 --> 31:44.090 At least 50 of those ballistic missiles tom remain operational 31:44.090 --> 31:52.690 That's after 3 000 sorties in counting. They remain operational. Uh, the nuclear weapons, uh, you know, who knows who knows about the nukes 31:52.690 --> 31:54.810 We know that they weren't obliterated 31:54.810 --> 32:00.190 But we also know that the iranians were very easily convinced to get rid of them which indicates to me 32:00.690 --> 32:06.890 You know during the negotiations which indicates to me that they were never really very serious about really mass producing these weapons 32:07.550 --> 32:10.510 Because they knew they had the ballistic missile wild card 32:10.510 --> 32:15.850 That was there that was their key thing and they're using it deftly and then again regime change 32:15.850 --> 32:21.070 Well regime change is not just getting rid of one leader and replacing it with the leader from the same group 32:21.070 --> 32:25.730 Like we did in venezuela. That's really not regime change. That's regime 32:26.230 --> 32:28.570 Constability or survival with a different face 32:29.150 --> 32:34.510 So what we've seen in iran is I think as of today the son of the the ayatollah kimani 32:34.510 --> 32:36.570 I think is much above I think was his name 32:36.570 --> 32:42.390 He took power and he might have been injured now in an Israeli attack. That's a rumor that's going around 32:42.390 --> 32:46.430 Who knows if that's true? But the point is that's still the islamic republic of iran 32:46.430 --> 32:52.710 So the number one objective the president has consistently stated regime change it ain't happening after all of this 32:52.710 --> 32:53.750 It ain't happening 32:54.250 --> 32:57.830 Everybody I got some bad news for you, but then also some good news the bad news 32:57.830 --> 33:03.910 We're living through historic deficits persistent inflation and a federal reserve that can't unwind what it's created 33:03.910 --> 33:07.950 That's why gold is back in the spotlight not as a trade, but as real money 33:07.950 --> 33:13.790 Here's the problem most gold just sits in a vault. It protects purchasing power. Sure, but it doesn't generate income 33:14.390 --> 33:18.770 Monetary metals changes that they let you earn a yield on gold paid in gold 33:18.770 --> 33:25.230 I lease my gold through monetary metals and earn a return of around 4% annually paid in physical ounces 33:25.770 --> 33:29.210 So I keep my gold and I get more gold over time 33:29.210 --> 33:34.410 So that means I benefit from rising gold prices and I grow my holdings in ounces 33:34.410 --> 33:40.170 No paper promises. No fiat payouts gold becomes a productive yield bearing asset again 33:40.170 --> 33:43.110 The fed can print dollars. They can't print gold 33:43.110 --> 33:49.370 Learn more at monetary-metals.com slash woods and see how you can start earning a gold income 33:49.370 --> 33:52.690 That's monetary-metals.com slash woods 33:54.030 --> 33:56.630 I don't know if that answered your question. No, it's a no, it's a good 33:56.630 --> 34:01.590 It's a good but I I'm thinking of myself that since I have you I want to ask a question that I've always wanted to hear 34:01.590 --> 34:03.330 I think I kind of know the answer 34:03.330 --> 34:05.750 But I wonder if there are other people who wonder the same thing 34:05.750 --> 34:11.250 We always hear in this situation that air power is not enough like if you if you have ambitions like 34:11.250 --> 34:17.070 It seems like the u.s regime has then air power is just not going to do it and yet absolutely 34:17.070 --> 34:19.910 But yet to a layman it would certainly seem like 34:20.750 --> 34:23.350 Bombs coming from the sky 24 hours a day 34:23.890 --> 34:30.210 Seems like that should shake things up a bit. What is it that's so is considered to be so inadequate about air power alone? 34:30.770 --> 34:33.990 Well, I would argue it doesn't take into account human will 34:34.870 --> 34:39.730 Um, ultimately war is a human endeavor no matter how we try to sterilize it 34:39.730 --> 34:43.210 No matter how we try to condition it, you know for the public 34:43.210 --> 34:48.670 So that's more palatable or how many ai systems very flawed ai systems as it turns out 34:48.670 --> 34:54.350 We use to try to mitigate the human factor in war. It is inherently a human act 34:54.350 --> 34:56.090 and it is uh 34:56.090 --> 35:02.030 If you are waging war and I should say it's also an extension to quote claus woods 35:02.030 --> 35:04.490 It's an extension of politics through other means 35:05.010 --> 35:08.990 So if you're trying to regime change rather than just degrade 35:08.990 --> 35:13.270 So if we if our goal is just to degrade we've already done it. They've degraded 35:13.270 --> 35:17.810 Maybe for two years maybe for 10 years. They we've degraded them. Okay 35:18.290 --> 35:22.850 But if the goal is we want never again to never again to worry about 35:23.470 --> 35:29.790 Uh, the regime it's nuclear weapons. It's ballistic missiles. Uh, well, you need to have ground power for that 35:29.790 --> 35:34.070 Um, and I would just remind your audience in the entirety of the vietnam war 35:34.070 --> 35:39.710 And I posted this on my twitter the other day the entirety of the vietnam war the u.s air force flew 35:40.310 --> 35:42.310 5.29 million 35:42.310 --> 35:47.730 Sorties against north and south vietnam cambodia and and laos and that was with hunting 35:47.730 --> 35:53.850 You know, what was it 100,000 or several hundred thousand troops on the ground for 10 years and we still lost that war 35:53.850 --> 35:58.210 So not only does air power alone not win a war of regime change 35:58.790 --> 36:03.490 It's not even guaranteed that a fully stacked military like what we had in vietnam 36:04.070 --> 36:04.890 Can achieve that 36:06.290 --> 36:12.030 Against a hardened enemy who's committed to cause the north vietnamese war. I believe the iranians are 36:12.930 --> 36:13.930 well, what about 36:14.690 --> 36:19.330 what we're what we're hearing or maybe more to the point what we're not hearing in 36:20.150 --> 36:24.590 I guess are we getting real damage reports from the us and israel? 36:25.090 --> 36:29.670 And are you entirely convinced by these damage reports? Do you think it's worse than they're saying? 36:29.950 --> 36:33.810 Again, i'm putting you on the spot because are you saying battle damage in terms of what we're receiving 36:33.810 --> 36:38.770 Or what we're dishing out. Oh, well in terms of what we're receiving and i think they're lying through their teeth 36:38.770 --> 36:44.890 I think they're lying through their in fact in fact the pentagons been caught lying on several occasions about the damage to the bases 36:45.370 --> 36:49.830 So you had these um third party private satellite imaging firms 36:49.830 --> 36:57.230 I think maxer or one of them that basically released the imagery of the fifth fleet headquarters at bahrain 36:57.230 --> 37:01.530 Which is really the most important facility for the us navy in the region 37:01.530 --> 37:06.330 It is the hub of all of our activity in the region and we spent a lot of money on it 37:06.330 --> 37:10.310 And it's it looks like gaza. It's completely flattened and moonscape 37:10.310 --> 37:15.130 Pete Hegseth or one of his minions said the other day. Oh, no, no, it was just damage 37:15.130 --> 37:18.250 And it's like no it's flattened 37:18.250 --> 37:23.490 It's gone and the Bahrainis are not going to let us come back anytime soon to rebuild it and reuse it 37:23.490 --> 37:26.070 No matter how much money we throw I shouldn't say that 37:26.070 --> 37:31.730 Probably don't matter how much money we throw at them given the amount of damage Bahrain has specifically received 37:31.730 --> 37:39.590 And Bahrain is the most permissive of the arab countries in terms of the middle eastern countries because they're technically shiites 37:39.590 --> 37:43.090 And there's a whole other thing there, but they're the one of the more permissive 37:43.090 --> 37:45.710 regimes in the arab world 37:46.190 --> 37:51.610 In that golf world, which is why we based so much there and why the british before us based 37:51.610 --> 37:56.050 So much in Bahrain and we've lost that that facility it is gone 37:56.050 --> 38:00.170 So the the us is routinely and and some of that is operational security 38:00.170 --> 38:03.870 I don't want to you know say it's all all bad because they're just 38:03.870 --> 38:09.130 But I think a lot of it is being lied about because of the political optics because it's a non-war war 38:09.130 --> 38:15.210 And if we start having all these images and we start admitting true casualty numbers, which I hate to say 38:15.210 --> 38:17.390 I don't believe the casualty numbers for a second 38:18.110 --> 38:22.710 If we start admitting that, you know, then suddenly the president has a very big 38:23.230 --> 38:26.170 Big problem on his hands politically this to me 38:26.170 --> 38:34.530 Tom reminds me of the worst excesses and more of the covet era and remember trump crapped the bed during that whole thing as well 38:35.250 --> 38:39.010 And to me though his worst instincts on on this are coming out 38:39.650 --> 38:42.830 As president and you're seeing it play out in real time only this time 38:42.830 --> 38:48.150 It's not just a virus that we're dealing with it's it's nuclear weapons that are probably going to be used soon 38:48.650 --> 38:50.830 well, I I don't like to 38:51.470 --> 38:55.790 Bend over backwards at this point to give trump the benefit of the doubt and say well 38:55.790 --> 38:58.850 He was dragged against his will into this at some point 38:58.850 --> 39:02.730 You have to say he must have wanted this on some level or at the very least 39:02.730 --> 39:07.030 Given the choices that he thought he realistically had he went for this 39:07.030 --> 39:11.130 I think the the analogy with covet is apt in that 39:12.210 --> 39:15.930 Fauci was obviously anticipating a long campaign 39:16.830 --> 39:17.710 Trump wasn't 39:17.710 --> 39:21.050 Trump said, well, I I hope this will all be over by Easter 39:21.050 --> 39:27.050 Now it started in March Easter was in April and Fauci was was saying to now hold on a minute 39:27.050 --> 39:29.470 This is going to go along to trump hadn't counted on that 39:29.470 --> 39:35.090 So likewise, even though I don't say oh this was against trump's will or he he had to really be dragged into it 39:35.590 --> 39:40.370 I I do think there are indications that he thought it would be a lot faster than it's turned out to be 39:40.370 --> 39:43.710 he did no he did in fact, um, I was told that 39:44.310 --> 39:51.210 He was operating off of what netanyahu told him, which of course is always a terrible idea because netanyahu's an inveterate liar 39:51.210 --> 39:56.910 Um, it has a vested interest in the situation. Absolutely. You've got to balance him with somebody else and by the way 39:56.910 --> 40:00.590 I'm sorry to cut you off, but he's talked so he's talked so much 40:01.110 --> 40:06.510 To other Middle Eastern countries. I was I was wondering are any of them saying to him look 40:06.970 --> 40:10.150 What we get that you have a huge Zionist presence in the uh 40:10.150 --> 40:14.970 In the u.s. And your political system and we understand that you know, whether you agree with that or not 40:14.970 --> 40:16.050 You have to deal with it 40:16.050 --> 40:20.890 But you need to know the facts on the ground. I was hoping somebody sat him down and talked to him like that 40:20.890 --> 40:23.390 So, uh, so here's what I know happened 40:23.390 --> 40:29.270 And this is when bannon started bringing me on his show to talk about it because he knew that I had the story 40:29.270 --> 40:36.130 Politico has confirmed this by the way since I reported it on january 15th trump was ready to initiate bombardment 40:36.510 --> 40:40.490 Of iran and it was the muhammad bin salman and the qatari 40:40.490 --> 40:46.590 Amir and erdogan of turkey who basically called him in the middle of the night and said if you do this 40:46.590 --> 40:49.030 You will not be able to use our airspace and furthermore 40:49.030 --> 40:55.970 We will not use our air defenses to stop any incoming iranian missiles and drones that would be fired at the bases 40:55.970 --> 40:59.330 U.s. Bases and at israel and trump backed down 40:59.330 --> 41:03.530 In fact in fact at the end there netanyahu called them and said we're not ready to go yet 41:03.530 --> 41:04.250 Just hold off 41:04.870 --> 41:12.030 But but that is what dissuaded and again there was another time three weeks after that. So in the early part of february 41:12.810 --> 41:15.350 Where the trump trump wanted to go again? 41:15.610 --> 41:20.030 And my understanding is and and my understanding is that the arab's again told him 41:20.030 --> 41:23.110 No, you're not going to do it and then the navy sat him down and said sir 41:23.110 --> 41:28.810 We really need a second carrier and that was the the impetus for bringing the ford into the metaterranean 41:29.290 --> 41:34.970 But but then of course like a couple weeks later three weeks later that that had all changed and netanyahu said now 41:34.970 --> 41:40.170 We're ready to go and netanyahu initiated the fight, but ultimately i want to make it clear 41:40.810 --> 41:41.930 trump believed 41:41.930 --> 41:48.230 Based on what netanyahu told him kill kill kimani and the whole regime collapses like a house of card 41:48.230 --> 41:49.550 And you could run the tables on them 41:49.550 --> 41:53.710 And so if you look at it, that's exactly what they did they killed kimani at the very beginning 41:53.710 --> 42:00.210 Using i believe the diplomacy as a ruse which well, we'll be paying for that for many decades 42:00.210 --> 42:05.790 Unbelievably dishonorable. Yeah, oh it will remember and i think i said this to talk or remember this is what 42:06.510 --> 42:10.110 stimson used to say, you know to the press in the 1940s 42:10.110 --> 42:13.210 The reason america is on the right side is because unlike the japanese 42:13.210 --> 42:18.770 We don't use diplomacy as a ruse to initiate a surprise attack can't say that anymore guys 42:18.770 --> 42:21.530 No, you can't you know you can't and so 42:21.530 --> 42:25.750 We'll be paying that one down for a long time, but ultimately 42:26.950 --> 42:31.750 Trump believed netanyahu that this would be a quick thing over and done and then once netanyahu 42:31.750 --> 42:36.990 I mean once kimani is gone, you know, it'll there'll be some shifting and some missiles here and there 42:36.990 --> 42:42.050 Remember they were talking about dead enders like rumsfeld was at the height of the insurgency in iraq 42:42.050 --> 42:45.670 You know the trump minister. Oh, it's just some missile. They're just going here and there 42:45.670 --> 42:48.650 But it's it's fine. We've got their command and control their c2 42:49.110 --> 42:52.470 Well, that's not accurate. We we did degrade their command and control 42:52.470 --> 42:57.790 But their their leaders are smart over the last 30 years 20 years to begin 42:58.490 --> 43:05.530 Decentralizing command and control functions to local battlefield commanders, which is why you're still seeing despite all of the damage 43:05.530 --> 43:07.150 We've done to their central authority 43:07.690 --> 43:11.590 You're still seeing these these units fighting quite vociferously 43:12.370 --> 43:13.110 against us 43:13.650 --> 43:16.970 You could imagine if this were a i'm going to use the word war 43:17.730 --> 43:23.010 That had enjoyed popular support unlike this one where the president got no bump 43:23.010 --> 43:25.290 He had no polling bump from this at all 43:25.290 --> 43:27.770 But suppose after venezuela by the way 43:28.470 --> 43:32.750 Is that so he did not get any bump my understanding is he did not get the usual bump 43:32.750 --> 43:36.990 He would have thought people were happy people felt good the military felt good 43:36.990 --> 43:40.890 But my understanding is there was no significant polling bump on that 43:42.250 --> 43:45.910 Well, if but if it had been the case that that people were real, I mean 43:46.970 --> 43:51.730 Most Americans don't even notice the iran exists, you know, so the the over-the-top 43:52.490 --> 43:56.150 Language about it just seems disproportionate to the average person 43:56.150 --> 44:01.790 I don't even notice that this country's even there, you know, and I'm supposed to think yeah that my life depends on 44:01.790 --> 44:03.450 Change over there, you know 44:03.450 --> 44:09.510 But but if but if they did feel that way then if reports of casualties were to start coming in 44:10.010 --> 44:15.590 You could imagine a scenario in which that makes the american public more committed to it because now they're even angrier 44:16.390 --> 44:19.550 But if they weren't committed in the beginning beginning then now 44:19.550 --> 44:25.250 We're losing people for again for a reason that doesn't seem adequate to me and this is why I think that they are 44:25.250 --> 44:29.410 I think what they're doing is they're slow walking the release of of casualties 44:30.190 --> 44:34.950 Um, I don't have any proof of that and I hope that's not the case because I would I would I really 44:34.950 --> 44:41.550 I don't even like talking about the casualties because i'm not rooting for high american casualty numbers or anything like that 44:41.550 --> 44:43.710 so but I just based on 44:44.430 --> 44:47.130 The you know, I've studied multiple conflicts 44:47.770 --> 44:53.710 Um, Ukraine being the most prominent now where literally every side in that war is lying about the number of dead 44:54.270 --> 45:00.650 And uh, usually it's team nato. That's the worst liars about the casualty figures 45:00.650 --> 45:06.290 So that's why i'm very concerned that that and and it's because of the political ramifications 45:06.290 --> 45:10.250 They didn't make the case to the american people. They didn't really go to congress 45:10.250 --> 45:15.250 The democrats are claiming the gang of aid is claiming that rubio withheld intelligence 45:15.950 --> 45:20.990 From them, uh, right before deciding to go into iran, which if that is true 45:21.690 --> 45:25.730 You are going to see when the democrats and I believe they will take back power in november 45:25.730 --> 45:28.550 There is going to be such an investigatory scope 45:29.130 --> 45:32.850 On the trump administration that there's going to be a lot of people taken down by this 45:32.850 --> 45:34.170 I think if that's true 45:34.170 --> 45:39.490 Yeah, unfortunately that will make the worst of the republicans dig in their heels on this crazy position 45:39.490 --> 45:44.330 Of course that the that the president could just go to war whenever he wants to and that's what george washington would have wanted 45:44.330 --> 45:49.970 Yeah, exactly. Well, we spared nothing. Yeah, mike davis who i'm told is an excellent attorney 45:49.970 --> 45:52.630 And he maybe is because he can play word play so well 45:52.630 --> 45:58.910 But he was on the same episode abandoned as i was last week and he he gave this insane 45:59.850 --> 46:06.910 Disquisition about oh, um, you know, there's a difference in the constitution between making war and declaring war 46:06.910 --> 46:12.610 Yeah, they all they all pull that one and it's like well, there's a reason shakespeare said first kill all the lawyers 46:12.610 --> 46:14.350 I mean that that is insanity 46:14.910 --> 46:21.970 That is insanity masquerading as policy and i'm understand that he's a he's an influential member of the trump team 46:21.970 --> 46:27.290 Uh advising him on legal matters. I mean, this is this is the height of mania right here 46:28.530 --> 46:34.590 I mean shredding the cost, you know, steve sailor once said that the uh, he said that the democrats often wear 46:34.590 --> 46:39.630 The uh, the the the constitution like a serial killer wears the skin of their victims 46:39.630 --> 46:43.510 I think you're gonna apply it now to a lot of the republicans as well and in power 46:43.930 --> 46:48.410 You know, you can you can make an argument that the president acting alone 46:49.190 --> 46:51.890 Was authorized to repel sudden attacks 46:52.490 --> 46:56.050 But the thing is pearl harbour would have been a sudden attack 46:56.590 --> 47:02.930 Yeah, and and even at pearl harbour franklin rosevelt went to get a declaration of war right exactly never have done that today 47:02.930 --> 47:07.870 That's right. Well, yeah, and let's face it. I think he would have preferred to have never have done that 47:07.870 --> 47:13.370 I think that he would have because of his you know, his penchant for um, you know executive action 47:13.370 --> 47:17.430 But ultimately it ended up working in his favor politically because he had cover 47:17.430 --> 47:23.350 He had cover from both parties. They gave him, you know, you go and this is what I never 47:24.050 --> 47:27.930 You know, I always disagree I I didn't always disagree with but over years 47:27.930 --> 47:32.030 I started thinking a lot about this and it's like actually if you're a politician 47:32.750 --> 47:38.110 It's actually really good to go to congress and get get the the declaration not just an authorization 47:38.630 --> 47:44.310 But get a declaration because then if something goes pear shaped, it's not all on you and your party 47:44.310 --> 47:49.890 You can say hey, you know, and and by the way when you declare war in some cases 47:49.890 --> 47:54.110 There's more power conferred to the presidency for a limited time 47:54.110 --> 48:00.170 Uh, you know to fight the war but what we've done is we've done all these authorizations to use military for 48:00.170 --> 48:06.430 And it's like well now it's in definite war. We've always been at war with east asia type of thing and 48:06.430 --> 48:11.910 Wars piece pieces war and it's destroyed the constitutional fabric here in this country 48:11.910 --> 48:17.570 We now have a surveillance state that will never go away. They're getting ready to upgrade it and impose 48:17.570 --> 48:21.310 I think a chinese style credit, you know, social credit system 48:21.910 --> 48:26.610 Palantirs behind that you got all these different, you know tech firms working with cia 48:26.610 --> 48:29.570 So, I mean these so-called wars 48:30.090 --> 48:33.290 Maybe they're not wars. They're just sort of endless, you know 48:33.290 --> 48:35.190 commitments that we just never 48:35.890 --> 48:39.550 Never divorce ourselves from and i'm worried that's that play here in iran 48:40.650 --> 48:43.650 Last thing do you have any sense? I mean 48:44.470 --> 48:49.830 Obviously the neocons have wanted a war with iran for a long time back since george w bush 48:49.830 --> 48:55.590 Yeah, but they didn't get it and there were various reasons they didn't get it. I mean one there was a 48:56.130 --> 49:02.330 Intelligence report by all the agencies in late 2007 that said they haven't got the weapons and all that 49:02.330 --> 49:06.650 And and that was back when that was enough to actually derail something like this 49:06.650 --> 49:13.050 But but also it was the pentagon. It was the generals who would say this would be a fool's errand 49:13.050 --> 49:16.110 This would be supreme folly. There is no way we can do this right 49:16.770 --> 49:22.010 But yet that doesn't seem but but I guess what I want to ask you is there a sense that the pentagon 49:22.710 --> 49:28.090 Is is if anybody's been dragged into this against their will it's not donald trump. It's the pentagon. Do you think? 49:28.950 --> 49:30.090 Yeah, no, I think that's true 49:30.090 --> 49:33.750 And I think that's why you had vice emerald fred concher fall on his sword 49:34.310 --> 49:35.790 The friday that the war 49:36.430 --> 49:38.410 You know, basically was ordered to begin 49:38.930 --> 49:43.550 There was a particularly contentious meeting between chairman of the joint chiefs of staff 49:43.550 --> 49:47.270 Dan cain air force general. Who is trump's guy? 49:47.910 --> 49:51.630 He was pulled out of retirement personally by trump. So he is trump's guy 49:53.110 --> 49:59.070 He got into it with trump and said look all he gave him the the parade of horribles as rumsfeld would say 49:59.070 --> 50:03.030 He gave trump the parade of horribles and trump at one point apparently 50:04.410 --> 50:08.310 Cain kind of went like this the praise goes mr president. I don't actually think you're listening to anything 50:08.310 --> 50:09.450 I'm saying right now 50:09.450 --> 50:15.550 And apparently that conversation was dictated by was no note to note taken by 50:15.550 --> 50:21.510 Cotcher who was an adjutant to cain on the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee 50:22.430 --> 50:26.010 Or or their staff and he basically leaked it to roiders 50:26.740 --> 50:27.030 and 50:27.620 --> 50:31.070 He he was you know reduced for for doing that 50:31.070 --> 50:32.890 But I noticed he wasn't actually fired 50:33.390 --> 50:35.990 Because and so that that's where people are saying to me 50:36.510 --> 50:42.410 Cain actually asked cotcher to do that and in return he basically protected cotcher on some level 50:42.410 --> 50:46.550 Cotcher's no longer working on the chairman to join chiefs of staff 50:46.550 --> 50:48.070 You know their staff 50:48.070 --> 50:51.490 But he's now gone back to the navy in some other lesser capacity 50:51.490 --> 50:59.470 But that to me indicates that yes the upper echelon of the u.s. Military was very opposed and very worried about this war 50:59.470 --> 51:02.450 Because of mission creep, but ultimately 51:03.170 --> 51:04.970 Look the military of today 51:05.670 --> 51:09.310 The leadership class even under trump, which I think is better than under biden 51:09.310 --> 51:16.570 But even they are a shadow of what they once were even 20 years ago during the iraq war 51:17.150 --> 51:23.370 Um, and I think it shows by the fact there wasn't a mass resignation by these flag officers if you're that opposed to it 51:23.370 --> 51:25.750 It's not your job to salute and say yes, sir 51:25.750 --> 51:33.230 You're actually morally obligated by your oath to the office to resign and protest and you don't have to 51:33.230 --> 51:36.390 You know be mutinous of course not but you have to you 51:36.390 --> 51:42.610 If you think it's an unlawful order at the very or a bad idea at the very least you have to resign you have to 51:43.830 --> 51:44.230 Yeah 51:45.330 --> 51:49.810 No, no, right. Well, that's a whole other question. There are certain people 51:49.810 --> 51:52.230 I would have thought might have thought about resigning 51:52.230 --> 51:56.570 I thought kane would have because you know, he was an aerospace executive. He was very wealthy 51:56.570 --> 51:59.710 He made a lot of money in the private sector. He was doing very well for himself 51:59.710 --> 52:03.630 He didn't actually need to come back. It wasn't like his career required it 52:04.130 --> 52:07.570 So and he would have landed on his feet, you know after doing that 52:07.570 --> 52:13.150 But uh, he chose to stick around so it's it's on him and and polyanna pete and all these other ones 52:13.150 --> 52:16.970 Yeah, no kidding. Well brandon weichert. I appreciate your time 52:17.530 --> 52:19.630 Those of you who are on twitter slash x 52:19.630 --> 52:25.610 I'm telling you you are not going to be unhappy if you follow and it's at we the brandon 52:25.610 --> 52:32.170 Uh, you are not going to be unhappy you're going to be very edified and and it's going to be another example 52:32.170 --> 52:38.170 Of how all woods improve your life. So uh brandon, thanks again. It was a great conversation. Thank you 52:38.170 --> 52:40.050 And thank you ladies and gentlemen 52:42.110 --> 52:47.410 Make yourself and those you love less vulnerable to the regime both mentally and physically 52:47.410 --> 52:54.210 Get more forbidden information at tom's free books dot com and be sure to subscribe to the show wherever you listen 52:54.710 --> 52:55.770 See you next time 53:04.150 --> 53:08.670 Like the sound of the tom wood show my audio production is provided by pods worth media 53:08.670 --> 53:11.170 Check them out at podsworth.com