Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / U.S. will bomb Iran 'back to the stone ages' over the next few weeks, says Trump

Transcript

U.S. will bomb Iran 'back to the stone ages' over the next few weeks, says Trump · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: US President Donald Trump says the war in Ron is
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: nearly over. In an address last night, Trump said the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: US has completed most of its goals, but the messages
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: he delivered yesterday seemed to contradict themselves.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: The country has been eviscerated and essentially is really no
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: longer a threat. We're going to hit them extremely hard
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: over the next two to three weeks. The last thing
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: I needed was NATO stepping in our way, because they're
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: not They're a paper tiger. But so we didn't need them.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: But I asked, when this conflict is over, the strait
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: will open up naturally. It'll just open up naturally.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: I mean, I want to see no nuclear weapon. But
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: we also won regime change.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: but regime change has occurred.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Joined now by Ron de Sleem. She's the director of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the Middle East Program at the Stimson Center, a Washington
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: based think tank, and John Allen is the former Canadian
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: ambassador to Israel. Welcome both of you, John, I'm going
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: to start with you. Trump attempted to sell his reasoning
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: to keep the war going for another few weeks in
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: his address last night. Did that speech offer you any
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: clarity on his motivations here.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Not only did it not offer me any clarity, it
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: didn't offer the American people any clarity. It didn't offer
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: the markets any clarity, and it must have confused everyone,
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: including probably the Israelis. He's decimated everything, and he's going to.
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: Be bombing for two to three weeks, all of a sudden,
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: regime change is not an issue when that was the
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: original purpose of them going and sending an armada there,
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: and all of a sudden is claiming that the straits
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: are somehow going to open naturally after he's been telling
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: his NATO allies that they had to get in there
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: and open them. So it's totally bizarre, and you really
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: have to begin to wonder, you know, is what is
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: going on? Who's telling him what? And frankly, where are
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: the Americans going? Now?
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: It's quite frightening.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Ronal. Let's talk about the conflicting messages. We heard Trump
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: said last night that never in the history of warfare
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating, large scale
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: losses in a matter of weeks. How do we square
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Trump insisting in the US has devastated Iran while also
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: existing the war must continue for a few more weeks.
• 2:38
  Speaker 6: Because I don't think Trump knows what's going on.
• 2:43
  Speaker 7: I think the circle around him has been feeding him
• 2:48
  Speaker 7: the good stories, showing him the destruction that's being meeted
• 2:52
  Speaker 7: to bridges and the industrial areas in Iran. But I
• 2:57
  Speaker 7: don't think and he's not interested in the nittigrity. He's
• 3:02
  Speaker 7: not interested in the strategy that has not been This
• 3:05
  Speaker 7: is a war looking for a strategy from the get go.
• 3:07
  Speaker 6: There's no strategy. So they can achieve.
• 3:10
  Speaker 7: Tactical successes here and there, you know, but it's it's
• 3:15
  Speaker 7: it's not going to amount to too much. And as
• 3:18
  Speaker 7: John said, so if if Trump claims what I mean,
• 3:23
  Speaker 7: if if what.
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: Trump says is true, which is basically the regime has
• 3:28
  Speaker 6: already changed.
• 3:29
  Speaker 7: Uh, the nuclear dust is underground, the Strait of Hormoos
• 3:34
  Speaker 7: will open by itself. We have you know, destroyed most
• 3:39
  Speaker 7: of their capacities, industrial miss launchers and all of this.
• 3:42
  Speaker 7: So what is a deal with Iran going to be about?
• 3:46
  Speaker 7: I mean, what do we want Iran to do? And
• 3:49
  Speaker 7: to concede I mean to do I mean to agree
• 3:52
  Speaker 7: to if our objectives have already been met. So there's
• 3:56
  Speaker 7: no there's no need for US to negotiate with ira
• 4:00
  Speaker 7: and there is no need for US to get a
• 4:01
  Speaker 7: deal because we have already.
• 4:03
  Speaker 6: Succeeded in Trump's mind. But at the same time, you
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: look at the action.
• 4:08
  Speaker 7: I mean, there is the Trump talk, which is in
• 4:11
  Speaker 7: one direction, and then there is the action.
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: Of the US forces.
• 4:15
  Speaker 7: Fifty thousand some troops that are heading or already are
• 4:18
  Speaker 7: in the sent Pom area. So it doesn't look like
• 4:22
  Speaker 7: to me that this is going to de escalate or
• 4:25
  Speaker 7: is going to wind down into to three weeks. We
• 4:27
  Speaker 7: are not going to put fifty thousand plus extra troops
• 4:30
  Speaker 7: in an area that's going to wind down in two
• 4:34
  Speaker 7: to three weeks. And so so it's confusing as but
• 4:38
  Speaker 7: it has been confusing from the get go, from the
• 4:40
  Speaker 7: first day of this war, because there has not been
• 4:42
  Speaker 7: a strategy for this war.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: John, Let's talk about the effect of these changing goalposts.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: You know, it was about regime change. It's not about
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: regime change it is, but regime has changed. You have
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: wine helped have the straight opened. Needing help to get
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the straight open. We're in negotiations. They're saying that Iron
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: is denying that. What do you make or what do
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: we do with these changing goalposts. Do we just have
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: to sit back and watch and wait for us to
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: finally figure out what this is all about.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, the bottom line is, as Randa was suggesting,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: they started out without a strategy and without clear objectives.
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: The situation as it is right now, with Donald Trump
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: saying they've basically done it all, and the Israeli's claiming
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: and the Americans that they've hit eleven thousand targets, the
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: reality is that the strait is closed and it was
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: opened before. The reality is that the regime is still
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: in place, and it's probably more hardline than it was before.
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: The reality is that innocent Iranians are probably in worst
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: shape now than they.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: Were before the war started.
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: The ballistic missiles and the drones that we're supposed to
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: have been all decimated are still being fired, and so
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: all of the an uranium, of course, the enriched uranium
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: is almost one thousand grams of it, is still in
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: the ground.
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: So we've had this war.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: World oil prices are sky high, fertilizer prices in Asia.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: People are working four day work weeks. It's a complete
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: disaster globally. War started by Donald Trump and now he
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: wants to walk away and blame everybody else. So I
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: could just say one positive thing. His poll numbers are
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: now the worst that they have ever been, and he
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: has had a terrible week overall with the Supreme Court
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: with firing his attorney general. So things are not looking
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: good for Donald Trump. And I would have thought that
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: he wanted to end this war and get over it.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: But he's still talking about two to three more weeks
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: of bombing, which doesn't make any sense.
• 7:24
  Speaker 7: Ronda.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: You mentioned what is there left to negotiate if according
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to Trump, all the conditions have been met, But we
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: are hearing conflicting messages from both sides on whether these
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: negotiations are really going on. He didn't really touch on
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: it in his speech last night, so I'm wondering what
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: that signals to you.
• 7:46
  Speaker 7: Well, you know, we had there was a meeting between
• 7:49
  Speaker 7: the Chinese Foreign Minister and the Pakistani Foreign Minister, at
• 7:53
  Speaker 7: the end of which a statement of principles for countlet
• 7:57
  Speaker 7: resolution in this war.
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: Was issued. There is this quartet led.
• 8:03
  Speaker 7: By Pakistan that's trying to lead a mediation of the conflict.
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: I don't think the Iranians are ready yet to negotiate.
• 8:11
  Speaker 7: I think they might be talking with the Pakistanis Foreign Minister,
• 8:15
  Speaker 7: but I don't think they are ready to enter into
• 8:16
  Speaker 7: a negotiation.
• 8:17
  Speaker 6: The way they look at.
• 8:18
  Speaker 7: It is that they want to establish or re establish
• 8:23
  Speaker 7: deterrens with the Americans, and so for that to happen,
• 8:27
  Speaker 7: they want the Americans, I mean the American side to
• 8:30
  Speaker 7: incur a large economic cost. There is the threat of
• 8:35
  Speaker 7: the ground war. I think they are planning for it.
• 8:39
  Speaker 7: They are getting ready for it. As John said, the
• 8:43
  Speaker 7: regime so far has proved to be fairly cohesive, fairly resilient.
• 8:49
  Speaker 7: We are not seeing protests in the streets. In fact,
• 8:51
  Speaker 7: there is a little bit more of rallying behind the
• 8:54
  Speaker 7: flag because of this destruction that's being meeted at them.
• 8:58
  Speaker 7: And so they are not going to enter into negotiation
• 9:01
  Speaker 7: until they feel that the other side is going to
• 9:04
  Speaker 7: meet their conditions. And one of their principal conditions is
• 9:08
  Speaker 7: going to be financial. They want basically, you know, money
• 9:13
  Speaker 7: to rebuild, and they are looking at the Americans, they
• 9:17
  Speaker 7: are looking at the golfies to pay that money, and
• 9:20
  Speaker 7: partly it could be done by lifting the sanctions. They
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: are claiming they want reparation. I don't think this is
• 9:26
  Speaker 7: going to be achievable, but sanctions could be lifted and
• 9:29
  Speaker 7: also tolls could be imposed on the ships passing the
• 9:33
  Speaker 7: straight or formos. So we are entering, I mean this
• 9:38
  Speaker 7: is so the two three weeks is going Each side
• 9:41
  Speaker 7: is going to test the other side resolved.
• 9:44
  Speaker 6: But it's very clear that Trump is getting board with
• 9:48
  Speaker 6: this world.
• 9:48
  Speaker 7: He was expecting events well as scenario and law, and behold,
• 9:51
  Speaker 7: Iran turned out to be different than Pennezuela.
• 9:54
  Speaker 6: So he gets in board.
• 9:55
  Speaker 7: He wants an end to it, but at the same time,
• 9:57
  Speaker 7: he doesn't see how he's going to end it without
• 10:00
  Speaker 7: losing face.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: John Trump urged his audience last night to keep this
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: conflict in perspective. That's a quote compared to how long
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the US spent in other countries throughout history. I believe
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: even brought up the Vietnam War. What does history tell
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: us about what we can expect if this war continues
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: on longer.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: He not only talked about the Vietnam War, if you
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: can believe it, he talked about World War One and
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: World War II.
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: This was the president that came in saying he wanted
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: no more forever wars. He didn't want any wars and
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: criticized all his Democratic and Republican predecessors for engaging in war,
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: so now he's in one. I don't expect that this
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: war is going to last as long as Iraq, Afghanistan,
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: or Vietnam, but the longer it lasts, the more trouble
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: he's in. Seventy percent of Americans now oppose any ground
• 11:00
  Speaker 5: troops in Iran, so that's a signal to him that
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: he probably wants to end this quickly. I think, as
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: I suggested, he certainly didn't convince the markets by suggesting
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: that this war was shorter than World War one or two.
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: The markets, the world in general want this war over
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: as soon as possible, and hopefully Donald Trump will realize
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: that if you're in a deep hole, what you don't
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: want to do is keep digging, and that he should
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: be moving within these two to three weeks towards some
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: kind of declaration that the Americans have won the war
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: and they're now stopping it.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Thank you both for your time. That's Rondeslin and John
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Allen