Latest / The Stan R. Mitchell Show / Iran, Ukraine, Courage, and Faith

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Iran, Ukraine, Courage, and Faith · The Stan R. Mitchell Show

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: What is going on everyone?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to The Stan R. Mitchell Show.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Stan.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this week we are going to be looking at the biggest story happening right now,
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: which is of course the war in Iran.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be talking all about exactly what's happening,
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: what some of the potential end states or endings might be, etc.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then we're going to talk about Ukraine,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: which hasn't been in the news much, but there's a lot going on over there.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then I've got a special story of courage for you.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, we'll end with some biblical encouragement at the end.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: So stick around.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think we've got a good show laid out for you.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as I'm recording this on Wednesday night, you guys know the Iran War has blown up.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: It has escalated.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot is happening.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to get into that.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: But before it blew up,
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: five days ago,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: President Trump said the infamous line that it was all small potatoes.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he wouldn't even call it a war.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: He called it a military conflict.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty sure you heard the clip,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: but I'll just play it quickly and then we'll get into everything
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: that happened afterward.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's a chance this will be one of those comments
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: that could end up haunting the president.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Here's that clip.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: The Vice President said yesterday that he would not describe the conflict with Iran
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: as a war, but the U.S. presumed strikes for the first time in recent weeks.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Can you explain to the American people, if this is not a war, what exactly is it?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll tell you what, a lot of people don't call it a war.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a big thing.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: We did Venezuela and we did this.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: In Venezuela, we lost nobody and this, we lost 18 people.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: And in Vietnam, you lost 100,000 people.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: And in other conflicts, you lost tens of thousands of people.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: I would say that it's intermittent.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we do intermittent strikes.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I heard what he said.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: And it was interesting because I think that there's a lot of truth.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: We're not fighting right now.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: There's no fighting.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, those comments alone immediately led to criticism
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: because there have been almost 800 Americans wounded.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: 18 Americans have died.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: 50,000 folks deployed.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: So there was already some criticism of just that comment, just to say small potatoes.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not forget that just in deaths alone, 18 is a big deal.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: If we think back to Benghazi and all the hearings that followed that,
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: that was just four Americans dead.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: If we think back to Biden's presidency,
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: the thing that finally took down his popularity
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: and it never recovered was 13 Americans dead at Abbey Gate during
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: the Afghanistan withdrawal.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So Benghazi, Abbey Gate, those were both enormous political scandals.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So 18 dead is potentially a big deal.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Also, you could clearly make the case that the war in Iran is a much bigger deal
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: than our withdrawal from Afghanistan or what happened in Benghazi.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Those were not nearly as strategically as important as the war that's happening inside Iran.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So before we even get into the escalation that followed,
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: you've already got a couple of news cycles happening.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: With a comment that if I had to guess, I would say the President wishes he hadn't said.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: But within a couple of days of those comments, Iran attempted to hit some US warships.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's been reported on Wednesday night,
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: the Wall Street Journal had an article that actually broke,
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: that these attacks,
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: these attempted strikes on U.S.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: warships,
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: they led to much closer calls than previous attempts,
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: because Iran is using maneuverable warheads.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And while the warships did evade the attacks,
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Iran's actions have left American officials increasingly worried.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: That Iran has improved its ability to target American ships perhaps with help
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: from Russia or China.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: But back to those strikes, the US responded almost immediately.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Secretary of War Pete Hexeth said this in an ex-post.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's simple.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: If Iran shoots at U.S. ships, we will destroy and sink their oil tankers.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: All they have to do is not shoot at the U.S. Navy.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: However, Iran's oil tanker fleet is defenseless.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Iran has no Navy or Air Force.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Our planes, ships, and subs can strike them all.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: U.S. Central Command,
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: which is of course part of the military command structure that's in charge of
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: the Middle East, they put out a post showing VideoStrike's own oil tankers.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, let the message to Iran be clear.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you shoot at two of our ships,
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: we will impose an even higher economic cost, taking out three of yours.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: We will not hesitate to defend American forces,
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: and if necessary, destroy Iran's limited and exposed oil fleet.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what CENTCOM put out.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now since then,
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: as the escalations have gone back and forth,
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: U.S. forces have destroyed 10 Iranian tankers in just one week.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: These are part of a multi-billion dollar shadow network that has been helping fund Iran.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, Iran cannot defend these.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the U.S. may have found an Achilles heel of Iran's.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: But Iran, of course, did respond.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: There was a very large ballistic missile attack on an airbase in Jordan
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: that made quite a bit of news.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, if you want to see footage of that, it is spectacular and also terrifying.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: But you can find that in the episode notes.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to click that link to go to the Substack page,
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: But they did attack an airbase in Jordan.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: The United States fired,
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: based on people counting from this video, 60 Patriot interceptors fired.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And Iran used cluster munition ballistic missiles.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: It does look like several of them got through.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now there was a news article that said only That Jordan had helped shoot down some
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: of the missiles and that the 18 of 20 were shot down and that there was no damage.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: But there are also analysts who are saying that several planes were damaged and
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: that there were American wounded who had been flown out to Germany.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now of course,
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: no one really knows what the truth is because the Department
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: of Defense isn't releasing any of that information.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So we really don't know, but the attack, if you look at the video, it looks pretty horrific.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately, of course, in the aftermath of all this, the price of oil begins to rise.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: It crosses $100 for the first time in months as these tensions escalated.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Gasoline went up 10 cents in one day.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was the biggest one-day jump since April 30th, so that was a big deal.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people were talking about how the use of patriots,
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: the amount of them fired, how this could be a scary reality for the United States.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Some people had asked AI on X, or what X is called, Grok.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: They asked, Grok,
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: what are the public estimates on how many patriot interceptors the U.S. has?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, before the Iran War, it was about 2330, according to Grok.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Of course,
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: most of this stuff is pretty public because you can keep up
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: through congressional spending, how many missiles are bought per year, etc.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, 2330 is pretty accurate.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because of how many have been used during the war,
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: it was estimated that U.S. Patriots were down to about 760 to maybe 830.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: 827 is what Grok said.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: So 760 to 827 is the estimate somewhere in there.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you cut that in half, we'll say there's 800 of them.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they fired 60 of them in one night, in one attack.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: 60 of them.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see that I ran in the video,
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: if you watch it, those missiles are maneuvering that are coming in.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: So these are the more advanced missiles.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: We can only produce about 600 of these Patriot missiles per year,
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: even though they're trying to scale it up.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Russia and China can supply Iran faster than we can build
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: and get new interceptors there.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So there is some concern there.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: I will make just one strategic footnote before getting right back to the Iran thing.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get off on a tangent.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: But there was one analyst that pointed out that if you see that Iran
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: with just 20 missiles was able to do that to the U.S.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: and we had to fire 60,
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: You can guarantee,
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: like the U.S.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: military needs to be preparing for the fact that China could do this to the U.S.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: in Japan or Guam or Diego Garcia or some of the other islands
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: where we have troops like Okinawa.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: As the analyst said,
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: this should be a wake-up call about how vulnerable our U.S.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: bases are to missile and drone attacks.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope people in the military are paying attention to this
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: because Iran is obviously a serious threat,
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: but they are nowhere near the level of a China if China had launched...
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, 100 or 300 ballistic missiles at a base.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Could the U.S. defend that?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or at a carrier group?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: These are the kind of scary things that I'm sure military planners are putting thought into.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: But just watching 20 come in and 60 go out trying to hit those, it was pretty terrifying.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, moving back to the Iran thing, away from our little footnote.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: I saw a great point made, which is that we're disabling Iran's oil tankers.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Iran can't do anything about this.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Iran's firing at our bases in Jordan.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: We have other bases in Saudi Arabia and other places that Iran could hit.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: We do not know.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is the big ifs.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: We do not know How strong the Iranian economy is.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone knows it was already headed toward potential calamity.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time,
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: all of this fighting and now the sinking of these tankers has pushed
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: the global oil market closer to a real shortage that we've talked a lot about
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: in previous episodes.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the real question is, like, what gives first?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's what no one really knows.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Strait of Hormuz, it's kind of opened, it's kind of not.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Neither side really wants to go back to a full war,
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: but neither side really knows how to end this either.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: the president has made additional comments since all this fighting has happened and
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: the escalations.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what he's saying now.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: The attacks are made by us.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: We've knocked out nine of their ships.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: I would say that the attacks are caused by us, yeah.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: And you're going to see, you're going to see a lot more.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: We've taken out about nine of their tankers.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: Many of them are gonzo.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Mr. President.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_03: We're going to
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: find out.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Mr. President.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I think the war is going to end immediately after the election.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: I think the war will end immediately after the election because they can't hold out any longer.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: They're desperate to try and affect the election so that we can get a nice,
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: weak group of people in there and leave them alone
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: and let them have their nuclear weapon.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: All they want is a nuclear weapon.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_03: And if they had a nuclear weapon, the whole world is in deep trouble.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: Are you still hoping for a nuclear weapon?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in some ways, that is a compelling argument.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: It even makes some sense if you just look at it, especially if you are a Republican.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, yeah,
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: they're going to put in a Democrat that's not willing to keep up the pressure
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: or strike Iran, so they just have to survive until then.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Having said that,
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Wall Street Journal has just been all over it with good coverage lately,
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: but They had a breaking news story that says
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: that top White House advisors have privately raised concerns with the president
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: that Iran could drag the war out all the way through his entire term,
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: which of course is a message that is at odds with what he's saying
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: that it will immediately end
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: after the election.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: But according to the Wall Street Journal,
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: during Oval Office discussions as well as Situation Room discussions, J.D.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Vance, Marco Rubio,
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: and others have told the President that Iran could continue to resist our blockade
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: and other military tactics all the way through Inauguration Day of January 2029.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so,
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: the Pentagon is already planning on extending a deployment of some air defense units
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: in the Middle East.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's no firm end date.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: There are more Marines headed to the region this fall.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Air Force is rotating some of the squadrons in the region.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: All of this again is in a story in the Wall Street Journal.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: So who knows what the truth is.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: As I have said many times, I really hope the Iranian government collapses.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: It would be good for the Iranian people and the Middle East and even the world.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: But they have every incentive to hold out until the very end.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Their lives,
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: those ruling generals and theocratic leaders,
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: their lives literally depend on surviving this.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: So they will hold out until the very last breath.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And for many of them,
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: this is a religious cause, so they may not even worry about the last breath.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: They may hold out against what they call the Great Satan until the very end.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think my bottom line comment at this point is that this is just one of
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: the biggest gambles the President has ever made.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest decisions ever.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: And for the President,
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: for his sake,
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: he better hope that the Iran regime collapses in like the next 30 days.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: If it collapses in the next 30 days,
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: and this is seen as some great victory,
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: and it probably would be,
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: then the Republicans have a chance to hold on to the House and the Senate.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if it continues, and if nothing changes...
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: The midterms are going to be horrific for the Republicans.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's take a break.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back,
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: let's talk about Ukraine,
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: and then we'll jump into the story of courage and the faith section at the end,
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: so stick around.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: A small monthly subscription is one option, or you can even do a one-time gift.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, I'm grateful you're here.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for sticking around.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about Ukraine.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, obviously the United States sent two emissaries,
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: if you will, to Russia to meet with some Russian officials.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Officials, and most importantly, Vladimir Putin.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jared Kushner was one of the folks who went, and then the other one was Steve Witkoff.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was a pretty heavily publicized event,
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: although it's kind of gotten hidden by the Iran stuff and just some of
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: the other news about the elections and everything that's going on.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So they go there,
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: they meet with Putin,
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: and one of the stories that's come out since the meeting is that Unfortunately,
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: and this makes sense if you think about the fact that Putin is a crazy tyrant
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: who will throw people into prison or kill generals without much thought.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: But what has emerged is that Vladimir Putin apparently thinks he's winning because
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: the generals will not tell him the truth.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there were a lot of people who are saying this is quite similar to what happened
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: with Hitler during World War II.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: His generals would not be honest with him because he was a dangerous guy.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: You did not want to make Hitler mad.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Same with Joseph Stalin in Russia.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: There were intelligence reports that said that Germany was about to invade.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: He wouldn't believe it.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: People were afraid to tell him the truth in strong enough terms.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so unfortunately,
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: there is some reporting that that is what is happening
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: with Vladimir Putin right now.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless,
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: I give the Trump administration some credit for sending two people over there to try
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: to work a peace deal again.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is the peace deal that he said he would have done within 24 hours of being elected.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it is what it is.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff go down to Ukraine.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: They give these comments that made a lot of headlines.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: They said that peace should be a win-win deal that helps Putin achieve his, quote, aspirations.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: That was a comment that Jared Kushner made.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to not play the comment because A, I think you believe it.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to see it, I'll leave it in the episode notes.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: But B, The comment made quite a bit of headlines, so I think you've seen it.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: If I played, it's kind of long and drawn out.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: But, so,
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jarrett says they're looking for a win-win,
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: and they want to help Putin with his aspirations as Democrat,
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Senator,
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: and former Captain Mark Kelly said,
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: he said, no American should care about Putin's aspirations.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's a war criminal, and And my aspirations for him are for him to rot in a prison cell.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now I saw one person say,
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: can you imagine if like in 1942,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: in the middle of World War II,
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: if America had sent some people and said,
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: hey, let's meet with Hitler and see if we can come up with a win-win.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: But regardless, it is what it is.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now another analyst was saying that
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: In Trump's mind and in Jared Kushner's mind,
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: they think Putin can be reasoned with that Putin cares about wealth
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: and there would be all of these post-ceasefire deals that could happen in Russia.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it's pretty clear that's not how Putin's mind works.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: One, he literally wants Ukraine as a part of the Russian motherland.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Two, he knows that if this war ends,
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: he's going to be at some risk because Russia has lost a lot.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: But, again, the thing that's a little disturbing, a little terrifying, is that...
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, he's not being told the truth.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's literally gas shortages happening in Moscow itself,
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: but no one is really sure if he's being told by his advisors.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: How bad it really is.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's this one we're not sure of at this point.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now a few other things regarding Ukraine and then we'll wrap up this section.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: One, Ukraine has actually done a pretty significant counter-attack.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a moving image,
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: a little video that you can play that shows the map as Ukraine
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: over several months has It took Russia almost a year to take this,
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: and Ukraine has taken it back in just a few months.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you can see that if you want to go to the episode notes.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now I've said this in previous episodes,
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: but Ukraine has hit a few more ships, 13 of them in the Black Sea.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: So there are up to 282 ships hit as a part of the Russian Shadow Fleet.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a big deal.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the kind of news that isn't getting to Russia.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now Russia has launched just terrible attacks on the cities of Ukraine,
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: especially its capital city.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I've got video of that if you want to see it,
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: but there are ballistic missiles flying in and landing on a city
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: of 3 million people.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: And of course Ukraine is very low on interceptors such as the Patriot.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a very sad situation.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: The casualties are starting to go up.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: But while Russia is hitting the capital city and killing civilians,
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine is hitting power plants, oil facilities, ships.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: So as a lot of people have said, many countries have tried bombing civilians.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Germans tried it during World War II.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: They were killing a thousand British a day in places like London, civilians.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not as effective as strategic bombing.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's better to actually take out factories and military units.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: When you kill a When you kill civilians, you're just making people essentially more stubborn.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want to give up.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: This was actually said by the Polish foreign minister.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: He said that he believed Putin was making the same mistake as Nazi Germany.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he said that the Russians might think that this will intimidate the population
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: and cause the public pressure to get to the political authorities.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is when people are attacked, they rally around leadership.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not real...
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's very likely that this is going to cause the Ukrainian people to break.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think their strategy is not a wise one.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so...
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the attacks are continuing.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: They are terrible.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Germany did announce a couple of things.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: One, Germany is going to be sending some additional missiles for the Patriot systems to Ukraine.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't said how many, but Ukraine clearly desperately needs them.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: But even with the civilian casualties,
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like based on everything I'm seeing,
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine is making advances both on the ground and with their deep strategic strikes.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Russia is starting to feel this pain.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Whether that news will get to Vladimir Putin or not, I'm not so sure.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move now to our story of courage.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is something I've heard from several of you guys that you really are enjoying this.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I've got a great one for you this week.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Before we leave.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Today...
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you about a guy named Rick Rascorla.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Rascorla was a Vietnam veteran who eventually became the head of security
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: for Morgan Stanley at the World Trade Center.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: And years before September 11th, he became convinced that the towers were vulnerable to attack.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing,
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Rescorla studied the attack, and he believed terrorists would come back.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: And next time, he feared they might use an airplane.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now Morgan Stanley was a big company,
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: but even a company as big as they were,
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't simply abandon the World Trade Center.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: They occupied more than 20 floors of the South Tower, and they had thousands of employees there.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Rescorla asked if they could cancel their lease and move,
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: but that was just far too expensive.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: So since that wasn't an option, Rescorla did the next best thing.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: He prepared them.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, he really prepared them.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: He held evacuation drills.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: He made employees leave their desks and walk down the stairwells.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: People complained.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: These were busy Wall Street employees who made a lot of money per hour.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: They had clients.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: They had meetings.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: They had commissions and bonuses on the line.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Raskorla didn't care.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because he believed that when something terrible happened,
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: people would not rise to the occasion.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: They would fall back on their training.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then came September 11, 2001.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: At 8.46 that morning, the first airplane slammed into the North Tower.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Morgan Stanley was in the South Tower.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: And incredibly,
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: an announcement soon came over the building's public address system telling people
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: that the South Tower was secure.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: They could remain where they were.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Rick Rescorla ignored it.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: He grabbed his bullhorn and he started evacuating Morgan Stanley's employees.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: And because they had practiced it over and over again, they knew exactly what to do.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Floor by floor, they went down the stairs.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: They knew to keep moving.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: They knew to stay calm.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: According to eyewitness reports,
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Rescorla sang songs through his bullhorn as they descended,
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: trying to keep people from panicking as news spread what had happened next door.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then at 9.03 a.m., the second airplane hit.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: This was about 15 minutes after the first one.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: But by then, Morgan Stanley's evacuation was already well underway.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the incredible part.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Morgan Stanley had roughly 2,700 employees in the South Tower that morning.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: Almost all of them survived.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Rick Rescorla could have been one of them.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: But after helping people out, he went back inside.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to make sure everyone had gotten out.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: He was last seen heading back up the South Tower, and at 9.59am the tower collapsed.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Rick Rescorla never came out.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: His remains were never found.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: And there's something about this story that really gets me.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because courage isn't always one dramatic decision made in the heat of the moment.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes courage starts years earlier.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's being willing to see a danger that other people don't want to see.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's preparing when people laugh at you.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's making people practice when they complain about it.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's doing your job when nobody understands why it matters.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then when the moment finally comes,
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: it's being willing to walk back up the stairs while everyone else is coming down.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thousands of people went home to their families that night
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: because Rick Rescorla took his responsibility seriously.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: He prepared them, he led them, then he went back for more.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: So this week,
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: remember the name Rick Rescorla because on one of the darkest days
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: in American history, he showed us what courage looks like.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Before we wrap up,
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: let's step away from the news for a minute and talk about something
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: that matters even more.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: So this week,
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I'd share just a few faith-based items that I hope
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: in some way touches you wherever you're listening from.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so let's just start with the first one.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: I thought we'd start with just a joke.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so the joke is, it shows a picture of a lady and it says, I fell asleep in church.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then I heard the pastor say, stand up.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I stood up and people clapped.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: The pastor said, who else will give $2,000?
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so, you know, maybe lame, maybe not.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of funny.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so moving away from the jokes, though.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is just a quote from Charles Spurgeon.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: The quote is, nothing will satisfy man but God in whose image
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Again, nothing will satisfy a man but God in whose image he was made.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think you ask people,
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: by the time they get to their 40s,
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: sometimes even 30s,
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: but definitely 40s or 50s,
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: people have this kind of empty feeling because the world cannot satisfy us enough
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: because we are made in the image of God and we do want eternal life.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the devil will try to trick us into chasing ambition and other things.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: But that stuff will never make us as happy as a relationship with God.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: So again the quote is, Nothing will satisfy man but God in whose image he was made.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course,
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: that quote's from about 200 years ago,
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: so it has the he,
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: so it's not trying to be sexist, that's just how people wrote back then.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so let's move to a verse I wanted to share.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: This verse comes from 1 Peter 1, verse 16.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: The verse is, Be holy, because I am holy.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's be holy, because I am holy.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just a good reminder there.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, next, I saw an image on X that I thought was pretty good.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: It shows a Bible and it says, quote, So many are looking for special revelation from God.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: While it sits on their shelves gathering dust.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: So again, it's a photo of a Bible.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we all hear this from people who say, you know, I wish God would speak to me.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or I wish God would tell me what to do in this or that situation.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: And God speaks throughout Scripture.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much wisdom on everything from gluttony to...
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even like borrowing money.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much in there.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of times we're looking for God to speak to us.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: And God has already spoken to us many times and it's throughout the Bible.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much wisdom there.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, moving along.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Another quote I saw.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: The quote is, The devil is not anti-religion, but anti-Christ.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: The devil has devised so many religions and so many versions of Christianity
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: to blind people of the truth of God's good news or gospel message.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: So Short of that is that, you know, we should be looking toward Jesus.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not what specific religion of Christianity are you?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: Are you Calvinist?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you evangelical?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Are you this or are you that?
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Presbyterian, Anglican, there's so many.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: But in the end,
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: it's really about having a relationship,
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: believing that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice who willingly gave himself up,
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: As an atonement for your sins.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: We can't get there ourselves.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can't do works.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: The only way is to believe that God sent His Son as a perfect sacrifice for us.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is God's good news.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now finally, I just thought I'd share a quote from John MacArthur.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the quote is, The Bible is the most offensive book ever written.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: It damns the whole human race.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: No one escapes.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that's a quote from John MacArthur,
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: and it's obviously making the point that all of us are fallen,
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: all of us have sinned,
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: and all of us need a way to be forgiven and to be made right with God.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: And to have that relationship.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: The Stan R. Mitchell Show.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible is the most offensive book ever written because it does say all of us need that.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: And without that, we are going to a place we do not want to go.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're wondering how to avoid hell, the Bible's answer is actually pretty simple.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Put your faith in Jesus Christ.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Admit that you're a sinner.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Ask God to forgive you.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Trust in what Jesus did on the cross, not in your own goodness.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: And commit your life to following Him.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: You don't earn salvation.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: You receive it through faith in Jesus Christ.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me this week.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: As you head into the coming days, try to be a little kinder online and out in the world.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that most Americans are good people even if they vote differently than you do.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: And keep working on yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: Try to be a little better this week than you were last week.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be perfect.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Just keep moving forward.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: When the news gets discouraging, And you know it will.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Don't give up on this country.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm betting when you finish this podcast, you're going to hear a lot of angry rhetoric.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: Either in your neighborhood or maybe from your news source.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: But remember these truths.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: Division weakens us.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Unity strengthens us.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: So be careful what you feed your mind and your spirit.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a person of faith, spend some time in your Bible this week.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not, maybe pick one up and give it a try.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: Finally,
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: if you'd like to support what I'm doing here or check out any of my books,
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: you'll find links in the episode notes.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time,
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: stay hopeful,
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: stay humble, and keep working to be the light in your corner of the world.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Stan R. Mitchell Show.