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Iran Flashpoint Goes Global - Todd Sheets #6389 · Financial Survival Network

0:00
Speaker 1: He recognizes that Iran and not Israel, is the primary
0:06
Speaker 1: cause of instability and terror and destruction and devastation in
0:13
Speaker 1: the Middle East right now, and is the primary impediment
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Speaker 1: to the Middle East moving in a new direction.
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Speaker 2: You're listening to Carrie Let's's Financial Survival Network, where you
0:24
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0:47
Speaker 3: And welcome you are listening to and watching the Financial
0:51
Speaker 3: Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie Letz. Today with us
0:55
Speaker 3: is Todd Sheets that on the show before. You know
0:59
Speaker 3: him well, and Todd, it's great to have you back on.
1:03
Speaker 3: And hey, the war is continuing, and what are we
1:08
Speaker 3: doing here? You gotta wonder, like what is the real plan?
1:14
Speaker 3: By the way, you find Todd on substack And yeah,
1:20
Speaker 3: I read your stuff somewhat regularly, Todd. So the war,
1:25
Speaker 3: what is going on here? Yeah?
1:27
Speaker 1: Well, I think what's going on here, Carrie is we've
1:30
Speaker 1: gone through a couple of different stages. I think many
1:32
Speaker 1: people are asking the question why are we still here?
1:36
Speaker 1: And I think to answer that you have to look
1:38
Speaker 1: at why we went there in the first place, which
1:41
Speaker 1: I believe is a result of a number of different
1:44
Speaker 1: factors that kind of came together in a very unique
1:49
Speaker 1: type of way. One of those factors are a series
1:55
Speaker 1: of those factors has to do with, from a strategic perspective,
1:59
Speaker 1: what's going on in the Middle East and recognizing the
2:02
Speaker 1: situation in the Middle East. And I think the first
2:04
Speaker 1: important point there, which was one of the factors leading
2:08
Speaker 1: us into this war, was the fact that Trump, unlike
2:12
Speaker 1: you know, almost everybody in the on the left, it
2:14
Speaker 1: seems like at least among the prominent politicians on the left,
2:19
Speaker 1: he recognizes that Iran and not Israel, is the primary
2:24
Speaker 1: cause of instability and terror and destruction and devastation in
2:31
Speaker 1: the Middle East right now, and is the primary impediment
2:35
Speaker 1: to the Middle East moving in a new direction. And
2:39
Speaker 1: so I think the second key point on the strategic
2:42
Speaker 1: issues here is that this isn't you know, our father's
2:45
Speaker 1: Middle East anymore. If we went back forty five to
2:49
Speaker 1: fifty years when this Iranian regime first took power, there
2:53
Speaker 1: was this movement and belief among the people of the
2:57
Speaker 1: Middle East. You know that the US and Western values
3:01
Speaker 1: they weren't the answer, they were the problem, and what
3:04
Speaker 1: they needed to do was align themselves with government directed
3:09
Speaker 1: collectivism in the pursuit of a better life. But you know,
3:14
Speaker 1: so forty five fifty years ago this would not have
3:16
Speaker 1: been a great idea. Today it is a very different world.
3:20
Speaker 1: We see that within Iran, where I think a substantial
3:24
Speaker 1: majority of the ninety million plus people would like to
3:27
Speaker 1: move back towards American and Western style values and definitely
3:33
Speaker 1: away from the imposed collectivism that they've been under for
3:38
Speaker 1: the last fifty years, which has been devastating to them.
3:41
Speaker 1: And we also see it from other countries in the
3:43
Speaker 1: Middle East. You know, I think Saudi Arabia wants to
3:46
Speaker 1: move in this direction and align with US in Israel,
3:50
Speaker 1: but you've had Iran standing up to this. So these
3:54
Speaker 1: were things that Trump recognized. In addition to that, it
3:59
Speaker 1: took a significant change in the way we view our
4:04
Speaker 1: military and our role in the world. So if we
4:07
Speaker 1: go back, you know, maybe to when we were growing up.
4:11
Speaker 1: I think most Americans, you know, after a century that
4:14
Speaker 1: extended from the Civil War through the Two World Wars
4:20
Speaker 1: and then the Cold War had a view that you know,
4:23
Speaker 1: America was a force for good and promoting peace and
4:27
Speaker 1: stability in the world around us. That all started to
4:30
Speaker 1: change with the Vietnam War and then Iraq and Afghanistan.
4:33
Speaker 1: And I think prior to Trump it had gotten to
4:36
Speaker 1: the point where we had lost confidence in our ability
4:40
Speaker 1: to play a positive role in the world around us,
4:43
Speaker 1: and we had lost confidence in our military. And because
4:46
Speaker 1: of the series of you know, highly successful operations he's
4:49
Speaker 1: engaged in, that has changed.
4:52
Speaker 3: Then.
4:52
Speaker 1: I think the last final critical thing was, you know,
4:55
Speaker 1: recognizing Israel made him you know, gave him the ability
4:59
Speaker 1: to see how much they had accomplished in a positive
5:03
Speaker 1: light after October seventh, twenty twenty three, how severely they
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Speaker 1: had graded Iran and their proxies, and that this was
5:14
Speaker 1: really as we came into early this year, especially after
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Speaker 1: the protests this year, there was this incredible opportunity to
5:21
Speaker 1: come in with a lightning quick strike and take out
5:26
Speaker 1: so much of the regime and so much of their infrastructure,
5:30
Speaker 1: you know, in a very quick and unannounced way. So
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Speaker 1: I think all those things came together and they put
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Speaker 1: us into the war in the first place. I think
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Speaker 1: those things are still valid, and if anything, we've learned
5:42
Speaker 1: that there are the reasons to go in in the
5:44
Speaker 1: first place are even more important than we probably thought
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Speaker 1: they were originally. Given what we've seen that Iran's been
5:50
Speaker 1: able to do with the straight of hor moves.
5:52
Speaker 3: Couldn't agree with you more. You know what else has
5:54
Speaker 3: changed about the world from forty seven years ago? And honestly, look,
5:59
Speaker 3: Iran's been at more with the United States for forty
6:02
Speaker 3: seven years. We just refused to accept that fact. Same
6:07
Speaker 3: arguably with China. But China is more weaponized trade than
6:12
Speaker 3: actual terrorism. But the thing that's changed is air travel.
6:20
Speaker 3: Air travel back forty seven years ago, people were flying locally,
6:25
Speaker 3: but not as much international. All these very insular regimes
6:30
Speaker 3: in the Middle East, there are people with their wealth
6:33
Speaker 3: have traveled to other countries, Western countries all over, and
6:40
Speaker 3: the world is a lot more different place. I mean,
6:43
Speaker 3: when you go from airport to airport, I don't particularly
6:46
Speaker 3: like our airport security, but that has become like the
6:51
Speaker 3: standard of airport security. I'm not holding that as an
6:55
Speaker 3: example as to like a really positive thing, but it's
6:59
Speaker 3: the unification and of the planet has occurred over the
7:03
Speaker 3: past forty seven years. And I think the interests are
7:07
Speaker 3: more more understood, our common interests and our common goals
7:12
Speaker 3: are more understood. And the you know, the Arab regimes
7:17
Speaker 3: of the Middle East see that, you know, Aron is
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Speaker 3: a real threat to them, more so than they wanted
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Speaker 3: to perhaps come to terms with. And now we actually
7:28
Speaker 3: have somebody in the White House who's willing to do
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Speaker 3: something about it.
7:33
Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, I agree completely, and I think you're right.
7:36
Speaker 1: Air travel was the first step in going down this
7:39
Speaker 1: process that drastically changed people's perspective because it gave them
7:45
Speaker 1: the opportunity to see other cultures and experience it firsthand,
7:49
Speaker 1: you know. I mean I can remember growing up, and
7:51
Speaker 1: you know, the thing was, you know, eat the food
7:53
Speaker 1: on your plate because of all the starving kids in
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Speaker 1: China and at that time, you know, China and in
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Speaker 1: the Soviet Union, they really were behind either an iron
8:04
Speaker 1: curtain or a great wall, not just physically but psychologically.
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Speaker 1: It was like these places you learn something about, but
8:12
Speaker 1: you had no you know, ability to have any kind
8:16
Speaker 1: of firsthand experience like being there or even as time
8:20
Speaker 1: went on, you know, maybe through television and culture and
8:22
Speaker 1: that type of thing. And then with the Internet, it
8:24
Speaker 1: took it to another level. And one of the things
8:27
Speaker 1: that that's done is I think it's made, you know,
8:30
Speaker 1: what we might call the American dream even more tangible
8:35
Speaker 1: to these societies. When they see the difference in living
8:38
Speaker 1: standards and in freedoms and those kinds of things that
8:41
Speaker 1: we enjoy, it makes them even more aware of how
8:46
Speaker 1: repressed they have been by these government dominated, collectivist kind
8:51
Speaker 1: of systems and how badly they have failed relative to
8:55
Speaker 1: what life is like in systems that aren't like that. So, yeah,
8:58
Speaker 1: I completely agree with you.
9:00
Speaker 3: I guess I kind of went overboard. But the world's
9:03
Speaker 3: become a lot smaller place when you travel you understand
9:07
Speaker 3: other cultures that when you read about it in the newspaper,
9:10
Speaker 3: on the internet or watch TV if anyone still does that,
9:14
Speaker 3: you don't really grasp what you're observing as opposed to
9:20
Speaker 3: going to that culture and seeing it yourself. So I think,
9:24
Speaker 3: and then you know one thing about Trump his first term,
9:29
Speaker 3: he knew he had the power, but he was much
9:32
Speaker 3: more reluctant to use it this term, whether it was
9:37
Speaker 3: from the near death experience he had in Pennsylvania. He's
9:41
Speaker 3: not afraid to use the power to pull the levers
9:45
Speaker 3: and that is perhaps the biggest difference of most presidents,
9:51
Speaker 3: you know, going back to FDR or maybe to Truman
9:56
Speaker 3: wouldn't have well maybe LBJ and he was restrained. But
10:02
Speaker 3: really there's nothing restraining Trump now from exercising the powers
10:08
Speaker 3: inherent in the presidency. And for instance, like I was
10:12
Speaker 3: in Washington, D C. A few months ago, that city
10:16
Speaker 3: is going through a renaissance right now. The crime has
10:20
Speaker 3: been greatly diminished. But more important than that, a lot
10:23
Speaker 3: of the government buildings were really crumbling. They were really
10:27
Speaker 3: filthy exteriors, even the Supreme Court, it's all being renovated now.
10:33
Speaker 3: So Trump's builder complex. He's brought it to DC, and
10:39
Speaker 3: maybe from DC we'll see a renaissance in these other
10:42
Speaker 3: declining cities as well. So you know the fact that
10:47
Speaker 3: Washington it's safe to walk on the streets at night,
10:51
Speaker 3: which it hasn't been for years, not since I can remember.
10:54
Speaker 3: I used to have an office there and you got
10:57
Speaker 3: off the street at like seven o'clock.
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Speaker 1: In that area.
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Speaker 3: You know, all of these things kind of figure in
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Speaker 3: together to what's going on.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think you're exactly right. I think you know,
11:10
Speaker 1: the first time in Washington, D C. You know, he
11:13
Speaker 1: was learning the ropes of the place. He did a
11:15
Speaker 1: number of things that were incredibly positive on the economic side.
11:19
Speaker 1: You know, if it had not been for Covid, I
11:21
Speaker 1: think it's it's very clear that he probably would have won,
11:25
Speaker 1: you know, you know, in a landslide type victory.
11:28
Speaker 3: He didn't win in twenty twenty.
11:31
Speaker 1: It certainly wasn't a landslide victory. I think it would
11:34
Speaker 1: have been a landslide it's if it hadn't been for Covid.
11:39
Speaker 1: And I think this time you're right, he's he's learned
11:42
Speaker 1: the ropes. And in addition to that, you know, when
11:46
Speaker 1: he saw the level of warfare that the Democrats and
11:53
Speaker 1: the socialist wing of the Democratic Party imposed to try
11:57
Speaker 1: and prevent him from running to discredit.
12:00
Speaker 3: Him in office, yeah, I wasn't ready for that.
12:03
Speaker 1: It made him realize, you know, this is not a
12:06
Speaker 1: time to pull punches. We have got to step up
12:09
Speaker 1: or we are going to lose the battle within our
12:11
Speaker 1: own borders to the socialists who want to take us
12:14
Speaker 1: in the direction of all of these You know that
12:18
Speaker 1: all of these countries, for example, in the Middle East
12:20
Speaker 1: or in Latin America have gone they've learned the lesson
12:23
Speaker 1: over the last half century about how disastrous it is.
12:26
Speaker 1: But we've still got a faction of the Democratic Party
12:30
Speaker 1: that's trying to force us to learn it the hard way,
12:33
Speaker 1: the way all the people in Iran, other parts of
12:36
Speaker 1: the Middle East, in Venezuela and other parts of Latin
12:39
Speaker 1: America have had to.
12:41
Speaker 3: It's so true, like what you see here that you know,
12:46
Speaker 3: we just how can we not learn the lessons? How
12:49
Speaker 3: can anyone in this country who is alive during the
12:52
Speaker 3: Iron Curtain and the fall of communism and watching what's
12:57
Speaker 3: happening in Cuba, watching what's happened in Venezuela. You know,
13:01
Speaker 3: That's what I say when Trump exercises power, I don't
13:05
Speaker 3: think he can really separate the war in Iran from
13:09
Speaker 3: what he's done in Venezuela and what's about to happen
13:13
Speaker 3: in Cuba. Cuba has already collapsed. It's like now we're
13:16
Speaker 3: just writing the future, but the past is gone. That
13:21
Speaker 3: communist regime has gone oppression. I knew this was going
13:24
Speaker 3: to happen when the first thing he did when he
13:27
Speaker 3: came back into office was sending Marco Rubio down to
13:30
Speaker 3: Panama and said, all right, the Chinese are done. We
13:35
Speaker 3: want the canal back. You could do this the nice way,
13:39
Speaker 3: or you could do it, you know, you could do
13:41
Speaker 3: it the easy way, or you could do it the
13:44
Speaker 3: hard way. And then he showed them that basically the
13:48
Speaker 3: Chinese company was ripping them off, and they did it
13:53
Speaker 3: the easy way. And now you know, now basically the
13:58
Speaker 3: Panama Canal is back in the fold, right, Yeah, I mean.
14:02
Speaker 1: I think he clearly understands the importance of these waterways.
14:06
Speaker 1: And you know, there's no better indication of how important
14:11
Speaker 1: that move was than what's going on in the Strait
14:15
Speaker 1: of Hormoves right now and the need for us to
14:18
Speaker 1: control those waterways so that we can keep them open
14:21
Speaker 1: and not see control to China. Which I'm glad you
14:24
Speaker 1: brought this up because this I agree with you completely.
14:27
Speaker 1: What is going on in Iran is also part of
14:31
Speaker 1: a much bigger strategic move to checkmate China. If there's
14:37
Speaker 1: a possibility, you know, this is you know, far from done.
14:40
Speaker 1: It's not going to be easy. There's a lot of
14:42
Speaker 1: dangerous elements left in order to get there. But there's
14:45
Speaker 1: a possibility we come out of this with Iran where
14:49
Speaker 1: the regime is hopefully at least much closer to collapse,
14:53
Speaker 1: if not fully collapsed. Where we are policing and controlling
14:57
Speaker 1: the Strait of Hormves to make s sure that it
15:00
Speaker 1: remains open, which means that one, we're making sure it's
15:04
Speaker 1: open for our allies who are so dependent on that
15:07
Speaker 1: and to a lesser extent, ourselves. But in addition to that,
15:11
Speaker 1: we control the waterway in a manner that would allow
15:15
Speaker 1: us to choke off China if they start to make
15:19
Speaker 1: hostile and aggressive geopolitical moves, you know, like everybody eventually
15:23
Speaker 1: expects them to. That totally resets the dynamics for China,
15:27
Speaker 1: as did our moves with Venezuela and getting control of
15:31
Speaker 1: the oil in Venezuela. So you know, if all of
15:34
Speaker 1: these things continue to go successfully, we not only change
15:39
Speaker 1: the dynamics of Latin America, change the dynamics of the
15:42
Speaker 1: Middle East, but we also just totally reset the chessboard,
15:48
Speaker 1: the geopolitical chess board with China, almost to the point
15:52
Speaker 1: of having checkmated them. I think if we can be
15:55
Speaker 1: successful here.
15:56
Speaker 3: So totally totally, I mean they're already feeling it gas
16:01
Speaker 3: lines and things like that. Yeah, I think there are
16:08
Speaker 3: certain inflection points in history when they go back one
16:12
Speaker 3: hundred years, they will look at Butler, Pennsylvania July thirteenth,
16:18
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four is one of those inflection points where
16:22
Speaker 3: history could have gone one way or the other. And
16:28
Speaker 3: you know, I've been optimistic. I don't want to say
16:32
Speaker 3: like I feel like everything that's happening is great and
16:35
Speaker 3: for the better and all that. There's definitely risk reward
16:39
Speaker 3: going on, but I feel like, for the first time,
16:41
Speaker 3: we actually are addressing the issues that are existential to
16:46
Speaker 3: the United States, to Western civilization. Before Trump, no one
16:51
Speaker 3: was willing to defend Western civilization, which has brought us everything.
16:58
Speaker 1: You know, Look, I absolutely agree with that. I think
17:03
Speaker 1: to me, there's a couple of distinct periods here. One
17:07
Speaker 1: was the beginning of Ronald Reagan's two terms in nineteen
17:12
Speaker 1: eighty and winning the election beginning in eighty one, which
17:16
Speaker 1: took us again out of a similar kind of but yes,
17:20
Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter called it a malaise, which was the dysfunction
17:24
Speaker 1: that resulted from lbj's disastrous Great Society programs that pushed
17:31
Speaker 1: us into the deficits, along with the Vietnam War and
17:35
Speaker 1: the spending and the monetization of that spending that came
17:39
Speaker 1: from the FED, all of which created the disaster of
17:42
Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. Reagan turned that around, took us back
17:46
Speaker 1: in a free market direction, had the similar kind of
17:50
Speaker 1: strength to stand up to the Soviet Union in a
17:53
Speaker 1: way that everybody was afraid to do, including prior Republicans,
17:57
Speaker 1: all of who thought the way to do it was
18:00
Speaker 1: to sign treaties, which, as Reagan pointed out, those were
18:04
Speaker 1: treaties that we felt honor bound to adhere to. But
18:08
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union only did it to the extent that
18:11
Speaker 1: they felt it was necessary and in their interests, and
18:14
Speaker 1: if it wasn't, then they just ignored it. And so
18:17
Speaker 1: we had that period that extended all the way through
18:20
Speaker 1: the nineties and the Clinton years. You know, Clinton, even
18:22
Speaker 1: though it was a Democrat, essentially governed on the tales
18:26
Speaker 1: of the Reagan Revolution, which is why that all continued
18:29
Speaker 1: for so long. But since that time, starting in the
18:34
Speaker 1: early two thousands, what we saw was some mistakes made
18:38
Speaker 1: by Bush from the Republican side that Morgan just wars,
18:42
Speaker 1: but also the spending and the deficits and those kinds
18:45
Speaker 1: of things. And then we see on the left this
18:49
Speaker 1: increasing aggressiveness of the far socialist left to push their
18:56
Speaker 1: agenda further and further and more aggressively to where we
19:01
Speaker 1: had the cancel culture kind of stuff, the dei initia view,
19:06
Speaker 1: which was an attempt to override meritocracy. In those kinds
19:10
Speaker 1: of things. These were an attempt to overturn those Western values,
19:15
Speaker 1: including capitalism, which as you said, were the first thing
19:20
Speaker 1: to really lift the mass of humanity, at least in
19:24
Speaker 1: the United States and parts of Europe at that time,
19:28
Speaker 1: up off the ash eep of history. This created the
19:31
Speaker 1: middle class. And as it did that, it didn't just
19:35
Speaker 1: benefit us. It also led to global trade and upward
19:39
Speaker 1: mobility that benefited even those countries that weren't directly involved
19:46
Speaker 1: in adopting those things. Their growth rates started to move
19:49
Speaker 1: up and they started to experience a better life also.
19:52
Speaker 1: But like you said, for the last let's just say,
19:55
Speaker 1: from two thousand, the last twenty five years, with the
20:00
Speaker 1: exception of the first Trump administration, we went in the
20:02
Speaker 1: wrong direction. The far left became ever more aggressive in
20:07
Speaker 1: trying to overturn those Western values which created all this
20:11
Speaker 1: the first place, and gave them the opportunity to do
20:14
Speaker 1: you to do what they're doing through speak, free speech
20:17
Speaker 1: and that kind of stuff. But somebody, and it was Trump,
20:20
Speaker 1: needed to step up and stand up to that to
20:24
Speaker 1: get us back towards the kind of things that create
20:27
Speaker 1: the greatest opportunity for everybody in the system.
20:32
Speaker 3: All right, And I couldn't agree with you more. And
20:35
Speaker 3: it's spreading across the world. I was in Vietnam six
20:38
Speaker 3: months ago, and it was the most westernized communist country
20:43
Speaker 3: you've ever seen. Like I would look at the flag
20:45
Speaker 3: and I'd see the hammer and sickle and stars, and
20:47
Speaker 3: I think this country doesn't feel communist anymore. You're not
20:51
Speaker 3: allowed to talk politics there, fine, but economically capitalism is one.
20:58
Speaker 3: It's not even a contest anymore. And when they talk
21:03
Speaker 3: about the war, there is no anger or negativity towards Americans.
21:11
Speaker 3: But anyway, Todd, just tell us again where we find you,
21:14
Speaker 3: how we connect with you on the web and your substack.
21:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, a couple different things. My web page is Toddsheets
21:21
Speaker 1: Writer dot com, WRI t e R dot com. Or
21:25
Speaker 1: you can go to substack and search Todd Sheets and
21:27
Speaker 1: on Wealth and Progress. Or if people prefer, you know,
21:31
Speaker 1: a podcast or videotype version of what I write each week,
21:35
Speaker 1: they can get that from either YouTube or Spotify or
21:39
Speaker 1: Apple Music by searching the same thing. Toddsheets on wealth
21:43
Speaker 1: and Progress excellent.
21:46
Speaker 3: If you've got any questions for Todd myself kl at
21:49
Speaker 3: Carrie LUTs dot com. That's where you reach us Todd.
21:52
Speaker 3: Always a pleasure. Thanks for stopping by.
21:54
Speaker 1: Thank you Kery.
21:55
Speaker 3: Great to be with you again.
21:56
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network, your
22:00
Speaker 2: solution to today's trying times. For the latest, go to
22:04
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