Latest / The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated / The China view of the Iran war, Trump/Netanyahu, Turkey, and Gaza

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The China view of the Iran war, Trump/Netanyahu, Turkey, and Gaza · The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things
• 0:03
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  Speaker 1: at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple,
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  Speaker 1: iTunes and Hillsdale. Good morning, Glory and Eman Grace America
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: has promised, and please to welcome back to the program.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Aviv Attig Gore, chief Middle East correspondent for The Free Press.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: He's also the host of askk Aviv Anything. You should
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: join his Patreon community because that's also an additional wonderful
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: advantage to people who find Aviv to have a unique
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and important perspective. Haveviv. First, I want to start with
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  Speaker 1: my congratulations on your podcast episode ninety four on the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Grand Strategy as China sees this war. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: that anyone else had done that yet. What inspired you
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: to take a look at things from China's perspective?
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I interviewed an expert who runs a for profit business
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: risk shop that deals with these issues, Melissa Chen. I
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: don't know, five episodes ago, something like that, and she
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  Speaker 2: opened my eyes to the sheer scale. Now this is
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  Speaker 2: something that you know how you can learn a lot
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: of facts about a topic over many years, but nobody
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  Speaker 2: ever puts them in the right order for you so
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  Speaker 2: you see the picture or what's actually happening.
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  Speaker 3: She did that for me.
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  Speaker 2: On China, the extent to which Iran is a second
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: front for China, the extent to which China's energy choke points.
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  Speaker 2: China is a country that uses fifteen million barrels of
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  Speaker 2: oil a day, so it's the fourth biggest oil producer
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  Speaker 2: in the world, but it can't possibly produce as much
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  Speaker 2: as it actually needs for its economy not to collapse
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  Speaker 2: or not to slow down dramatically. If it ever wants
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  Speaker 2: to replace the American led world order, which it officially
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: wants its official geostrategic goal, it's going to have to
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  Speaker 2: create massive energy supplies. Iran is fifteen percent of its energy,
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  Speaker 2: and it built out for it a one point two
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  Speaker 2: billion barrel energy stockpile that allows China if America has
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  Speaker 2: to choke off all of the sea links to China
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  Speaker 2: because there's a full on war over Taiwan, for example,
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  Speaker 2: gives China one hundred days breathing room of oil. So
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: for China, Iran is strategic and China has been upgrading
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  Speaker 2: literally in the last two years. Iran's missile arsenal to
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  Speaker 2: be to include a certain kind of missile that can
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  Speaker 2: reach Mack three and hit the American chips in the
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  Speaker 2: in the Persian Golf and actually seal off the Persian
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  Speaker 2: Golf and create a second front and tie down half
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  Speaker 2: the American Navy in case of an actual war with China.
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  Speaker 2: What the Trump administration is doing here, I'll just finish, sorry,
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  Speaker 2: what's going on, But what the Trump's administration is doing
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  Speaker 2: here is knocking out the second front. China is building
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: for that possible future confrontation. That's the issue that's going on.
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  Speaker 2: And I learned that from her. And once, by the way,
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  Speaker 2: you see it, you see it everywhere. There are good
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  Speaker 2: people writing this stuff. Political just published a whole piece
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  Speaker 2: with five fascinating charts about Chinese oil and excuse me,
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  Speaker 2: Rannie and oil, Chinese dependence on it, how much Iran
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  Speaker 2: is dependent on China purchasing that oil because it's sanctioned oil.
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  Speaker 2: And by the way, you then understand Venezuela differently, because
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  Speaker 2: Venezuela is one of the three major sources for China's
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  Speaker 2: oil that is sanctioned by the US. It has an
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  Speaker 2: entire industry of refining oil that America has sanctioned, Russia, Venezuela,
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  Speaker 2: and Iron. So this is a big game on the
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  Speaker 2: biggest chess board you could possibly play this game, and
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  Speaker 2: that will if you understand that.
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  Speaker 3: You understand where this war could go and what it
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  Speaker 3: all means.
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  Speaker 1: The China Hawks in the United States, led by Senator
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  Speaker 1: Tom Cotton, who wrote this book Seven Things You Can't
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  Speaker 1: Say About China, and Mike Gallagher, who used to run
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  Speaker 1: this SELEC committee on China and went over to work
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  Speaker 1: for Palanteer. They've been calling this out for a long time.
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  Speaker 1: But you did it concisely, and you did it for
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  Speaker 1: a layman without needing a lot of background. You broughtway
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  Speaker 1: is necessary. So now I want to use the China
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  Speaker 1: example from seventy five years ago to put a question
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  Speaker 1: on your plate. Seventy five years ago, Harry Truman called
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  Speaker 1: General MacArthur from Korea to meet with him on Wake Island.
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  Speaker 1: I think the date was October fifteenth, nineteen fifty, and
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  Speaker 1: Truman and MacArthur congratulated each other on how well, the
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  Speaker 1: Korean War was going, and don't worry that Chakams aren't
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  Speaker 1: coming in. At that moment, hundreds of thousands of pla
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  Speaker 1: quote volunteers had been sent by Mao over the Yalu,
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  Speaker 1: and the war went back to where it began and
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  Speaker 1: stayed there for three long, bloody years. Is there a
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  Speaker 1: chance right now of an intervention not by China but
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  Speaker 1: by Turkey, because yesterday I saw that Israel bombed along
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  Speaker 1: the Kurdish line in Iraq Iran, suggesting maybe to the
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  Speaker 1: Iraqi Kurds they might want to go over. And if
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  Speaker 1: ever Erdowan was looking for a reason, he used his
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  Speaker 1: million man army. That's it. He does not want that
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  Speaker 1: to happen. Are we looking past a danger?
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  Speaker 2: Hev I can't imagine. I can't imagine. It doesn't mean
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  Speaker 2: air One can't imagine, But I can't imagine that aired
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  Speaker 2: one would give up the great alliance with the US.
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  Speaker 3: One of the things we're learning.
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  Speaker 4: In Iran, the world is learning in Iran is.
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  Speaker 2: That China is not going to come and fight for
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  Speaker 2: you when you actually face the American juggernaut. We're learning
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  Speaker 2: that Russia is not going to come and fight for you,
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  Speaker 2: and by the way that it's S four hundred missile defense.
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  Speaker 2: Once the J twenty two, once the F twenty twos,
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  Speaker 2: the American twenty twos move in with their electronic warfare package,
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  Speaker 2: there's nothing left of all of Russia's in China's great
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  Speaker 2: you know, electronic warfare story.
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  Speaker 3: We're learning that America is.
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  Speaker 2: Immensely powerful, vastly more advanced in all the technical ways
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  Speaker 2: than anyone else, and that these these allies, these anti
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  Speaker 2: American alliances, aren't worth a damn once you're actually on
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  Speaker 2: the ground fighting. And I think the world is watching that.
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  Speaker 2: I think Turkey is watching that. If you're Turkey and
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  Speaker 2: you're calculating what's going on right now, going to step
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  Speaker 2: in against America right now, Turkey would like to get
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  Speaker 2: those F thirty five's back.
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  Speaker 3: He wants to move.
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  Speaker 2: Closer to America, not farther. So no, I can't imagine
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  Speaker 2: they would do it. Is aired one capable of that
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  Speaker 2: level of folly. Possibly he is slowly taking Turkey away
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  Speaker 2: from democracy and toward an Islamism that looks more like
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  Speaker 2: Iran than it does like what Turkey used to be.
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  Speaker 2: So maybe he's got that in him, But I don't
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  Speaker 2: think we're going to see it this time.
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  Speaker 1: I want to move to it a post that you
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  Speaker 1: put up this morning on x A Eve. I'm quoting
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  Speaker 1: Aviv red at Gore. Now, the scale of Britain's fall
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  Speaker 1: from a consequential power to affeckless, aimless, self abnegating chatterbox
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  Speaker 1: is truly astonishing. The thought of democracy and mother of
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  Speaker 1: parliaments is no longer a beacon to anyone because it
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  Speaker 1: no longer believes in itself. It's a geopolitical tragedy. I
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  Speaker 1: discussed this with Senator Cotton others yesterday. I agree with it.
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  Speaker 1: Do you see them reversing that fall? Because it's so
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  Speaker 1: precipitous and it's so alarming for the West. It has
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  Speaker 1: done more damage to NATO. Spain is sort of a
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  Speaker 1: subsidiary damageur than anything that Ukraine has done to sort
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  Speaker 1: of arm the American isolationist wing because Great Britain wasn't
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  Speaker 1: there when we needed them.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I'm a simple man. I don't understand the
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  Speaker 2: great complex vocabularies of the elites and the intellectuals and
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  Speaker 2: the academics. If you have twenty thousand deployable troops all told,
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  Speaker 2: and nothing more on this earth, if you can't hold
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  Speaker 2: the ground, defend with either missile defense or in any
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  Speaker 2: other way. The Persian Gulf is your own military bases
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  Speaker 2: and cypers when they're hit by ironoy and missiles. If
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  Speaker 2: you can't exact a cost vastly inferior economically power on
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  Speaker 2: this earth, which Britain cannot. It simply does not have
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  Speaker 2: the ships, it doesn't have the air force, it doesn't
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  Speaker 2: have the deployable troops to exact any kind of cost.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not talking about joining the American war. It can
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  Speaker 2: be opposed to this war. It literally can't exact a
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  Speaker 2: cost for being fired at. It has no capacity to
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  Speaker 2: do so. If you literally disarm, there's nothing else matters.
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  Speaker 2: And if you disarm because of a long term ideology
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  Speaker 2: of an entire generation of your elites that says that
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  Speaker 2: you're a bad thing in this world, Okay, you know
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  Speaker 2: it is what it is. They have to choose to
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  Speaker 2: wake up, they have to choose to stand up. They
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  Speaker 2: have to choose to build a military again, they have
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  Speaker 2: to choose to build out a GDP per capital that's significant.
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  Speaker 2: That's for example, not behind Israel nowadays, which that's you know,
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  Speaker 2: sad to see I happen to be an anglophile.
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  Speaker 3: My kids know who.
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  Speaker 2: My six year old knows who Winston Churchill is. There
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  Speaker 2: is a great and glorious past here. There would not
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  Speaker 2: be democracies in parliaments without this. English people or British
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  Speaker 2: people generally. The Scots contributed a lot. I don't want
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  Speaker 2: to get into their friends, but I'm just saying I
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  Speaker 2: like these people, and they don't like themselves, and that
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  Speaker 2: has made them totally inconsequential on the world stage. And
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  Speaker 2: when you look at this moment, nothing happened to them
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  Speaker 2: and to exact a cost from Iran would be this
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  Speaker 2: tiny little thing, and they simply cannot do it even
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  Speaker 2: if they wanted to, and they don't want to, and
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  Speaker 2: so something they're lost, They're gone. I just want to
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  Speaker 2: remind people, you know, this is true of Europe generally. Right,
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  Speaker 2: The German and British armies together are smaller than the
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  Speaker 2: Polish army today.
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  Speaker 3: That's the new world we live in.
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  Speaker 1: It's not true of frontline states. Israel is a front
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  Speaker 1: line state, Ukraine is a frontline state, Poland is a
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  Speaker 1: front line state. States that are Japan is a front
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  Speaker 1: line state, Taiwan, South Korea the Philippines to a lestri
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  Speaker 1: extern Australia, but they think of themselves as a frontline
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  Speaker 1: state against frontline states are serious allies. People who are
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  Speaker 1: far enough away from the front lines get very, very frivolous,
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  Speaker 1: and Spain is the most frivolous of all. I'm so
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  Speaker 1: angry with Spain right now. I regret every dollar I've
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  Speaker 1: spent there in every trip I've taken there. Another topic
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  Speaker 1: front of the day, I want to turn to Lebanon
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  Speaker 1: because for the fourth time I believe Israel is engaging
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  Speaker 1: in a ground invasion in Lebanon after being attacked again
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  Speaker 1: by has the Law. It's just it's righteous. Doesn't it
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  Speaker 1: always end in tears for Israel? Or is this one
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  Speaker 1: where the Lebanon government's turn, at least in its rhetoric
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  Speaker 1: may make a difference.
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  Speaker 2: No, it doesn't end in tears. It didn't end in
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  Speaker 2: tears last time. If the first Lebanon War ended in
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  Speaker 2: an eighteen year military presence in Lebanon that then ran
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  Speaker 2: away overnight, right that it was very much almost identical
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  Speaker 2: to America's Afghanistan experience. We didn't defect the enemy that
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  Speaker 2: melted away into the civilian population. We stuck around far
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  Speaker 2: too long, sustained losses, vast expenditures, and then left. But
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: our case is different from America because when we left,
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  Speaker 2: that was the lesson that the lesson that Kamas and
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  Speaker 2: Palestinian groups took from that hiz Black capacity to kick
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  Speaker 2: us out, capacity just because we didn't know why we
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: were spending more resources and blood in the place. Look
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  Speaker 2: that lesson and basically it blew up the peace process.
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  Speaker 3: I mean they went in.
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  Speaker 2: The May of two thousand, Barako Polsies were all out
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  Speaker 2: of Lebanon, and by September you already have the beginning
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  Speaker 2: of massive ways of suicide bombings that demolished the peace process,
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  Speaker 2: killed well over a thousand Israelis, quite a few of
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  Speaker 2: them children, and the Israeli left hasn't won an election since.
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  Speaker 2: So in our case, pulling out that way was a
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  Speaker 2: sign of terrible weakness. The two thousand and six war
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  Speaker 2: was the war in which Hesbela's ability merely to survive.
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  Speaker 2: Lebanon faced tremendous demolition. In that war, not on Gazo scale,
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  Speaker 2: but at the time it was quite significant of the scale.
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  Speaker 2: You know, Goz a little bit reset the sort of
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  Speaker 2: expectations in this region, but Lebanon really faced a terrible war.
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  Speaker 3: But Kasbela was not removed from the.
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  Speaker 2: Chess board completely, and therefore Hesberlac came out of it heroic.
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  Speaker 2: All of that changed on October seven, because the Israelis
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  Speaker 2: don't care anymore. An enemy that can and will and
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  Speaker 2: will do nothing but demolish their own quality in order
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  Speaker 2: to invade and murder us, that enemy is no longer
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  Speaker 2: a tolerable presence on our border. We went after Chrisbela
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  Speaker 2: with everything we know how to do. It is a
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  Speaker 2: total war, a war for the annihilation of this organization.
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  Speaker 2: That's where all the intelligence successes came from. You saw
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  Speaker 2: the pager operation, the ground war, the bombing campaigns. We
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  Speaker 2: don't ask permission, We're not polite about it. We don't care.
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  Speaker 2: They're coming to exterminate us. The only question is if
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  Speaker 2: they have the capability, and they'll never have the capability again.
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  Speaker 2: In the interim between the ceasefire signed last year and
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: the current return to operations, because Chrisbelah joined the war
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: on Ironside and launched massive rocket barrages at northern Israel yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: In the interim days, I think it was about three
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  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty days killed. We continued to strike Chrisbela assets.
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  Speaker 2: We killed something like one Krisbela fighter a day. About
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: three hundred and fifty have died in the ceasefire. And
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: that's that's Israel's posture. It'll be never ending until Sezbelah
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  Speaker 2: actually lays down its arms and it's actually gone. We
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: should say, the Lebanese government has told us that the
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Lebanese army swept through South Lebanon, there is no more
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Ksblad presence in South Lebanon. Well, yesterday I rocket brought
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: from South Lebanon hit Israel. So you can't trust the
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  Speaker 2: Lebanese government on this. Yesterday we also saw the Lebanese
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  Speaker 2: government come out and announce Fasbela is no longer legal.
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  Speaker 2: It is illegal for Hesbela to have a military option,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: to have military capacity, it must buy Lebanese law, laid
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  Speaker 2: down its arms, and they even pretended to give some
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: order the Lebanese army to actually implement the decision. Well,
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  Speaker 2: it's very nice that they showed up and said what
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  Speaker 2: they should have said according to UN Security Council resolutions
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  Speaker 2: in two thousand and six. But we also don't trust
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: them to have the courage to do it.
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  Speaker 3: Lebanon does not have.
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  Speaker 2: The courage to see through, to do the sacrifices that
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: it'll take to give Lebanon a new day in which
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: it's not a proxy arena of Iran's war on Israel.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: And so Israel's going to have to do it. And
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: the new Israel is capable and willing. We're not going
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: to get bogged down. We're just going to destroy Risbelin
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: and if it takes.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Forever, okay too.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Let me move to the fundamental question. Shai Katub came
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: back from America armed with a revamped ideology for the
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Muslim brotherhood, and it's never been the same since. I
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: don't know how the Middle East ever gets to the
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: new Middle East without a reformation of Islama, the sort
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: that Bernard Lewis used to talk about when he was alive.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: He was a guest on this program as the Christian
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Church needed a reformation. So does Islam need a reformation
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: just to get rid of its crazies and it's medievalism?
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Do you see any path to that in the aftermath
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: of this shattering of the Middle East puzzle? And it's
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: just been the Board's been turned over.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just interviewed. The episode's going to run either
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: tomorrow or the next day. One of Israel's finest public intellectuals,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: a scholar of religion who's written seven best selling books
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: named Micha Goudman Excellent English. By the way, I think
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: his mother is American, and he talks a lot about
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: the Muslim world and Muslim philosophy. At the university, I
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: learned Mimonodes, the greatest rabbi who ever lived, is the
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: philosopher in the twelfth century Cairo.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: From him. He was my Mimonites professor. And that was
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: a moment.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: When Jews went to the Muslims to learn philosophy, there
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: was a different Muslim world. It was a different kind
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: of Muslim world. We're talking about. Aristotle was the most
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: exciting thing for the elites. And then the Muslim world
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: abandoned that path and went to a very different path
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: and closed down and also became backward and poor and incompetent.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: And today you have both options on the table. You
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: have countries that are phenomenally competent and modern and moderate
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: and by the way, socially conservative with muslim For example,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: the amoradis everybody knows that the Amoradis have a peace
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: treaty with Israel, but it's not about Israel. The Amoradis
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: have also taken their vast oil wealth and invested it
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: in Ai, which is the I think the biggest fastest
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: growing industry in the Emirates and some double digit percentage
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: of their GDP at this point. They're modern, they have
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: an economy that can with stand what is happening. Iran
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: shot hundreds of missiles and rockets at the Emirates over
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: the last three days, and the Emirates have shot them
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: down at above ninety percent success rates. That is an
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: Israeli scale missile defense architecture. They built, by the way,
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: by learning from Israel. This is a country that wants
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: to be competent the Muslim world, the Arab Muslim world.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: I don't know anything about Indonesia. It's a big place the.
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Muslim world, but the near Muslim world that we're familiar
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: with here in Israel has a choice. It has examples
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: of extraordinary successes and modernity and moderation, and it has
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: Iran as a counter example. The Muslim brotherhood on the
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Sunni side and the Iranian Shia revolutionary ideology on the
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: Shia side have destroyed everything they have ever touched. They
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: will never do anything but destroy because they are nothing
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: but a revolution against America. I can I just add
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: one little thing. I'm really chating.
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  Speaker 3: You know, there was a.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: An Israeli socialist, communist public intellectual, philosopher, thinker and the
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Mapalm Party, the very very left wing socialist party in
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: the early days of the state that produced these extraordinary
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: generals and leaders like Igal Alone, who were very pro
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: American but deeply communist. This is early Israel, very pro
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: American and deeply Communist at the same time.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: And this philosopher, to Benkin, he goes.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: To America and I think it's nineteen sixty and he
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: visits New York for some meetings or some business engagements
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: or something, and he writes a letter to gall Alone,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: who is by now a cabinet minister. I believe, please
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: don't hold me to the timelines. But he writes a
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: letter to his best friend and important back home, and
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: he says, you know how we were talking in the
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: fifties or in the forties about how capitalism is definitely
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: going to collapse. And the letter is basically like, so,
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: I've just been to Fifth Avenue and done some shopping.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure capitalism is going like you hear this.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: There was a sense of these ways when they saw
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: what America became in the after the war, coming out
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: of the Great Depression, the success story, the safety and
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: prosperity of a world led by America compared to the
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: world led by Stalin. There was a sense that, you
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: know what, this is proving itself. Forget ideology for a second,
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: forget isms. This is working. And that's not say Kuteb
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: goes to America, sees the unbelievable success of America and
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: comes back more hateful of that success because what he
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: sees in that America, in that success is Islam's weakness
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: and Islam's failure, and he interprets.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: That as well.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: You know, therefore, this great success story of America has
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: is something very bad and evil and materialistic. And it's
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: okay if we back in Islam become more pious, geopolitically,
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: more powerful, become a conquering religion again because we're pious,
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: but we don't have all of this, you know, economic
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: success or military power. He chose a path that is
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: a path of resentment and blame, and those ideas are
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: also borrowed from Soviet propaganda in the communist world.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: If you actually.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Read Kamenai, mainly the founder of this regime, and Khamenei,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: who is the dictator who led the Iranian regime for
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: the last thirty five years, it's unbelievable how much raw Maoism,
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: raw communism, raw anti Americanism is at the heart of
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: the of their redefinition of Sheism. So it's really about blame,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: it's really about accountability. It's really about two kinds of
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: cultural responses to modernity. And the air world has pieces
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: of it, big pieces, dramatic pieces that are choosing to
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: do the best practices that everybody knows will bring success.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: And Iran is the biggest purveyor of the kind of
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: old Stalinist failure that has to be brought down for
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: everybody else to find the lead.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I was helpful that MBG, the ruler of the Emirates,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: was going to pass the baton to MBS who would
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: then carry on the modernization project for all of Middle
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Eastern Islam. That there was a rift, it was discussed
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: well on your program. Do you think that rift is healing?
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: In rather rapid and extraordinary pace right now.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: It's very healthy to give societies a choice. It's a
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: very healthy thing. As long as somebody can refuse to
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: make a choice without paying too high a cost in
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: the short term for making a difficult choice, they will
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: choose not to make a difficult choice. Iran is forcing
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: a choice. You want to live in the Iranian Middle East,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: You're going to live in the Iranian Middle East, and
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: you're going to deserve to live in the Iranian Middle East.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Or we could bring that Middle East come crashing down
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: and build a different Middle East, the Middle East where
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: everybody is happier, healthier, more prosperous, and a little bit
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: less at war with everybody that I think you understand that.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: That brings me to the the transition question, because I'm
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: going to go to Israeli specific questions. What about President Trump?
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Is it that he gets about the Middle Aged that
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: other American presidents haven't?
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: You know?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: I don't know, you know him for decades. I watch
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: him on TV occasion. I mean, I don't have that
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: kind of insight and access. I'll just say my sense
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: is that his sense of the world is profoundly don't
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: misunderstand me.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: It's simple. That is not a critique.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: If it's something is good for America, then he wants it.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: If it's not good for America, he's deeply uninterested in sophisticated, complicated,
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: you know, academic sounding ways of explaining why it actually,
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: in some secret order of being is better for everybody.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: He doesn't do ideologies. He is deeply transactional. In the
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: Middle East, that is an extraordinary thing because the Middle
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: East basically lives on a different on a kind of
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: matrix of interlocking lies. Okay, we're talking about a whole
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: lot of dictatorships. The Asad regime for fifty years pretended to.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: Be elected, right.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: The Middle East was full of presidents who were dictators.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: They called themselves presidents. They had elections. Saddam Hussein was
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: once elected by ninety nine percent of its population, and
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: the head of the election office of Iraq was asked
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: on CNN, why didn't you pretend Why didn't you say
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: it was eighty percent so it would be believable nobody's
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: elected by one hundred percent of the vote. And the
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: guy said, who am I to deny the Iraqi people
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: the right to tell us just how profoundly. They love
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: their great leader, Saddam. The Middle East is built on
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: these kinds of interlocking lies and.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: The Iranian regime.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: This is a forty seven year revolution, right, that is
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: a great, grand world revolution for the oppressed, for the
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: most the fiend.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: That's these language.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: The Romani took from the Quran and said, we are
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: this what is basically Marxist global revolution.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: For the oppressed. That is that has transformed.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Into a totalitarian mechanism of oppression nothing else, and its
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: leadership are all billionaires.
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: It's all a lie.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: And everybody in the Middle East knows that these are lies.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: The countries that are stable, the countries that have a
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: possible chance of success. That's Israel, that's the Emirates, that's
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: by the way, Saudi and Bahrain.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: And even Katar.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: One of the things that distinguished these countries and the
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: stability of a country like Jordan, is that they're not lying.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: They are a monarchy. Their system is exactly what it is.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: They don't pretend to you know, they enjoin the UN
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Refugee Treaty, that enjoying the Rome Statute and the ICC
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: that don't pretend to care about international law. They are
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: totally honest about what they are, and they are also
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: stable for that reason.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: And Trump is that right.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: He's not my friend. He uses me as a journalist
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: and he talks to me on a fairly regular basis
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: in public. On the record, I've only been in the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Oval once with him, and then it wasn't alone. There
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: were three of us talking for a while. So I'm
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: not I'm not the Trump whisperer. I don't pretend to be.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: I just ask him questions like I ask you questions.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: But it's sort of like I imagine you with a lot
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: of public officials that you see a lot in Israel.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Now I'll turn to Israel Prime Minister Nanielo was on
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Sean Hattie's program last night doing his typical excellent job
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: of communicating with Americans. Has he been communicating with Israelis?
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I think he's learned some of the lessons. Well,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: you know, after October seven, he didn't communicate with Israelis
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: for many, many months, and actually for I think over
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: a year and a half he didn't really talk to
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: Israelis in any way that wasn't very very carefully packaged
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: and manage and sometimes for several months at a time.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Multiple times he didn't give a single press interview, not
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: even to the press that loves him, not even to
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Channel fourteen, which is very pronent to now press. He
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: was trying to ride out politically. You know, the parliament
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: wouldn't disband itself basically because these people wouldn't get re
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: elected in the aftermath of October seven. So they all
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: stuck together, and therefore they become a government in Israel
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: becomes stable the more it's hated, that's true of me.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: And he rode that out almost quiet, silent, often deeply
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: politically in ways that I think are I frankly won't
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: forgive him. He's the only person who was in power
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: at the time, in a position of any kind of influence,
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: who has yet to take responsibility for October seven.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know why I should ever.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: As his boss, as a citizen, I don't know why
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I should ever forgive him for that.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I got to tell you this. My wife's grandfather
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: was fired by FDR for warning the Senate publicly with
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: an admiral at the time that Japan was going to
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: attack US, and so FDR's indifference to the threat from
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Japan a little bit like, who's indifference to the threat
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: from Hamas may look less bad in title, never look good,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: but it may look less bad in time if he wins.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Big question, could anyone in the Israeli political firmament have
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: carried off? What netanyah? Who has carried off in the
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: thirty months since ten to seven.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: That's a great question, you know, I was just going
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: to say, now he's communicating a lot, but also now
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: it's very comfortable because it's this enormous story of success
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: and strength and capability. The question is would anyone else
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: have been able to do it? Is a fascinating question.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: There's a case that absolutely not. This is a guy
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: who has just the sheer hours in power in negotiating
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: the connection, the deep ties with the Trump administration, the
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: people around Trump.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: He is a Trump whisperer, I think, in a way
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: that the rest of us couldn't even imagine being.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: He knows America, he understands strategic discourse in America, and
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: he might be the guy you want to be in
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: charge on this specific war in a way that nobody
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: else is.
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: And I think that's visible.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: To a lot of his people, a lot of his supporters,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: a lot of his base, a lot of his voters.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Having said that, you know, we don't have the polls
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: out of after this war. We also don't know how
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: this war is going to end. But going into this war,
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: he was not winning. He doesn't have a single poll
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: where he actually wins. In the good polls, he can
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: deny victory to everyone else. He might, by the way,
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: have the easiest path to a coalition in most polls,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: but nevertheless.
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: Doesn't have a majority and hasn't had a majority.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: He lost a certain percentage of his base on October
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: seven and hasn't gained them back.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: And so the.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: Big question is would any other leader be able to
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: lead Israel through this? And that's a question the voter
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: is going to be asking on election day and that's
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: coming pretty soon.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: So great question. Can I make the case that other
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: leaders could have done it?
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: I made the case that unique, and in some ways
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: he is. He's a very well read, serious, thoughtful, strategic thinker.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: You don't get those, you know, just you.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Know, bubbling up every political system every day of the week.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: But at the same time, one of the really extraordinary
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: things about Israel is that it has a serving elite.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: It has an elite in office. Sometimes you know, when
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: he's fighting them, he calls them the deep state, but
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: he actually loves them and backs them and supports them
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: in one hundred different ways. We have an air force,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: we have a finance ministry, We have a health ministry
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: built that built out a universal healthcare system that works
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: in an extraordinary way, way beyond what most European systems
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: can accomplish, and costs less. We have extraordinary competence in
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: our public service in so many parts of our public service,
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: and our leadership therefore doesn't have to actually pull all
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: kinds of miracles out of the hat all the time.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: The Israeli Air Force's abilities what you're seeing able to
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: do in Iran. Olmer did that in this area in
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: nuclear program. It was tiny, it was time limited, it
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: was a single pinpoint operation. But that was the air
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: force that then went to Iran. Didn't its now build
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: that air Does he have that kind of hands on,
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: detailed tactical capability.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: I don't think he does.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: I think that other prime ministers would probably not have
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: navigated America as well. And you can say, well that's
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: decisive right now, and you might be right, but sending
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: the air force to do what it's doing on Iran
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: making those calls.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: I do think that there are several other.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: Options in the Israeli political system. By the way, across
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: the political spectrum on the deep left, you have your
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: ilgo Land, deputy Minister, deputy ahead of the army back
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: in the day. He now runs the Progressive Democrats party.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: And he's a guy who when October seven was happening,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: grabbed a gun, old man retired general and drove down
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: to the south and just physically literally rescued people. And
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: I think he would have the courage also to pull
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: the trigger on a war like this, and he would
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: also have the knowledge and experience and the capacity to
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: fight a war that is necessary to fight, to have
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: built this air force and sent it into war. So
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: you have that across also to the right of Nits
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: and Nohow. They're competent people. I don't think now is
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: that is indispensable. You know, there's an old joke by
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: I think I forget who said it, maybe Ben Gurian,
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: or maybe I'm stealing it from the English or something.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: The cemetery is full of indispensable people.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: Correct, right, But he's one of them.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: He's one of the people in Israel that the Israeli
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: elite knew how to produce that could pull this off.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: And that is that is something for the sheer courage.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: Okay, we didn't know back in June in the first
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: war and this one that Iran would do that. What
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: would be in case that we would succeed so well
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: in taking out the launchers. Okay, he was going into
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: a war that could have had ten thousand and fifty
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: thousand Israeli civilian dead. He didn't know everything would go right,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: and in this round everything might still not go right,
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: and he.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: Still pulled that trigger. The courage to do that is.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Not something you can never take away from him, because
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: he thought it was the thing that needed to be done,
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: and he went and did it.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: My last question, Hevi takes us back to where this
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: began on ten seven. Israel has lost some ground in
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the world, even in America. All though I believe it's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: overstated by pulling, because it's proven itself very good at
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: destroying enemies, but not so good at planning on how
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: to rebuild them. Like the Marshall plant, Hamas is still standing.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: They're not dead. Does one Israel have to go in
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: and finish them off. And two, does Israel have to
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: rebuild Gaza so that it's a place where people can
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: actually live and enjoy life free of the threat of
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Islamists and maybe occupied for a long time until they
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: learn how to do that in order to get the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: world back to the extent you need to get the
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: world back, and I think every country does on your side.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Not thinking of you as destroyers. I don't. I think
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: of you as builders. But Hamas doesn't want to be rebuilt.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: They've got to be gone.
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: I think the Israeli debate at the moment is basically
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: divided between two groups.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: The groups who say, you can't socially.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Engineer the enemy. You can't, you know, with the Americans.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: Imagine they could do any rock in Afghanistan. The Americans
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: couldn't do it. How are we going to do it?
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Maybe the Americans could do it in Imperial Japan, but
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: they couldn't do it in Afghanistan. We're going to now
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: go into Gaza and what change them into the liberal democer.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: We don't know how to do it.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: And if we don't know how to do it, and
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: we don't know how to defeat Hamas in the sense
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: that Hamas will exact the cost of the total catastrophic
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: obliteration of Gaza before it will allow itself to be defeated.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: This is Hamas's vision. It's it's something called the Mukawama,
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: the resistance. It's this entire, vast doctrine.
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: That it has been building out for many, many decades.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: The total capacity to absorb catastrophic damage is their one advantage.
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: And the Israeli camp that says, look, we're not going
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: to fix that.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: We don't. That's not a capacity we have.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: They just say, Okay, Kamas wanted this war. Hamas held
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: out in those tunnels. It built the biggest air defense system,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: the air defense bomb shelter system in the history of war,
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: and didn't let a single Godsan child into those tunnels
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: for you know, two and a half years. It wanted
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: this destruction in Gaza. It planned this destruction in Gaza.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: You don't build those tunnels unless this is this is
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: the war you're planning for now. We're not going to
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: change their society. We don't know how to change. They're
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: not asking us, they're not going to let us change
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: their society.
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: So they live in this.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: You know, what are we going to do. What are
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: we going to change everything? The second camp, and I
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: belong to the second camp, which is a little less humble,
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: it's a little more aspirational, it might be a little naive.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: And the second camp says, we're the real war. The
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: big war is the war that.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: Demonstrates that the Ihuan, the Muslim Brotherhood, the radical silofist
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: versions of Islam that you have in Iran and in
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: Gaza and in Hezbulan and the Hutis in all these
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: different places, they destroy everything. And there is another option
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: and another path, and that path is the building and
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: the great and beautiful.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: Future that awaits.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: Gaza is primed to be a test case of that,
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: and we can turn it into a test case of that.
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: If the half of Gaza under Israeli control is a
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: flourishing half of Gaza, even just pieces of Rapha, We're
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: don't even have.
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: To bring them all the way up to the border.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Most of the part of the Israeli control that Israel
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: controls is actually a kind of buffer zone from the
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: Israeli border to protect Israel.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: But we can nevertheless build real.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Flourishing areas in Gaza, have Gazans living there, who are
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: not Tramas, build out capabilities. Gaza, have its own government,
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: have it supported by the our world, have it funded
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: by the Americans and the Europeans, and everyone who wants to.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: Invest in Gaza.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Have that Gaza start to actually take the money by
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: letting international companies pull the natural gas that Gaza has
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: in its territorial waters out of the water, build a
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: better Gaza. While the part that Ramas can't be extricated
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: from because it literally holds the entire population utterly hostage,
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: that part still lives the way that Kramas demands that
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: they live. And we could build that dichotomy, show it
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: to the Arab world, show it to the population of Gaza,
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: and reframe the debate. Also, it might be useful to
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: Israel in terms of the information war in the West.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: I'm a little bit, as you say, less concerned about
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: the information war in the West because I don't think
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Westerners have any sense of what's actually happening in the
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: Middle East, and their media isn't telling them what's actually
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: happening in the Middle East. So they're living in a
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: little bit in a Western moral morality play rather than
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: on the ground in the Middle East. With any real understanding.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: But nevertheless, Israel probably should be pursuing how much more inspirational.
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: What's the worst that could happen? Will fail then live
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: in the first group's vision of what's happening, but we
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: might succeed. We're not a completely incompetent people. We might
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: be able to pull something like this off, and I
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: think we should.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: West Berlan makes sense to me. Heavy Thank you for
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: your time today for a wonderful episode. I want to
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: encourage the audience again to join your Patreon have a
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: wonderful program. If you have not already begun to celebrate,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: you don't sound like you've begun to celebrate. So thank
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: you for staying with me throughout the early evening hours
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: of your holiday, and I'll talk again. Soin thank you
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: for your time. Thanks you, Welcome back to America. I'm
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Hugh Hewittt. Mark Dubowitz is the CEO of the Foundation
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: for the Defense of Democracies. Marc has spent decades alerting
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: the West, generally in the United States, specifically to the
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: dangers posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. So I
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: wanted to ask Mark this week ninety hours less than
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: ninety hours into the war with Iran. First of all,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: are you feeling satisfaction, Mark or trepidation about where we
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: are right now? Thanks you for having me on look you.
• 36:33
  Speaker 6: I think it's been an extraordinary military success so far
• 36:38
  Speaker 6: by the United States and Israel. It's my job to
• 36:41
  Speaker 6: always be concerned. I always expect the worst, and so
• 36:44
  Speaker 6: I can be surprised on the upside rather than expecting
• 36:46
  Speaker 6: the best and being severely disappointed on the downside. But
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: I think the incredible ability of the US and Israeli
• 36:54
  Speaker 6: Air Force, the US Navy, the joint operations, the integration,
• 36:58
  Speaker 6: the fact that we are the United States is literally
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: flying with a not only an ally, but a peer.
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: For the first time in our history, we actually have
• 37:08
  Speaker 6: gone to war alongside a power that is not subordinate
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: to us, but is capable of inflicting massive damage on
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: our common enemy. And I think the israel air forces performinggnificently,
• 37:19
  Speaker 6: the US Air Force is performing ificently, and the US
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: military in general has shown tremendous courage and unfortunately some
• 37:27
  Speaker 6: sacrifice in confronting this enemy.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Now Mark my column for Fox News this morning. The
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: headline telegraphs the concern why Trump must finish what he
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: started with the Iron's regime. President Trump's most difficult decision
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: as they had, and it reviews the nineteen ninety one decision,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: much debated for thirty five years, to end the First
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Golf War after one hundred hours. What do you think
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: out of the foremost in the mind of President Trump
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: as he considers when to end the campaign.
• 38:01
  Speaker 6: So, Hugh, I mean, you know, I've been a longtime
• 38:03
  Speaker 6: advocate for over twenty two years of bringing down the
• 38:05
  Speaker 6: regime in Iran and replacing the Islamic Republic of Iran
• 38:08
  Speaker 6: with a free and prosperous Iranian ally. But I think
• 38:13
  Speaker 6: the President has defined and should continue to defy his
• 38:17
  Speaker 6: military capabilities or military mission as stripping Iran of its
• 38:23
  Speaker 6: most dangerous capabilities. It's nuclear, missile, military repression, and terror capabilities.
• 38:31
  Speaker 6: And I think that is what the United States and
• 38:33
  Speaker 6: Israel are doing as we speak. I think they're doing
• 38:36
  Speaker 6: severe damage to all those deadly capabilities. I don't think
• 38:40
  Speaker 6: the President should define success as regime change for the
• 38:44
  Speaker 6: military mission, and what I mean by that is, I
• 38:47
  Speaker 6: think the next phase after the military mission is for
• 38:50
  Speaker 6: the United States and Israel to work closely together, maybe
• 38:53
  Speaker 6: with other allies using maximum pressure on the regime, maximum
• 38:58
  Speaker 6: support for the Ranian people, in maximum fracturing of the
• 39:01
  Speaker 6: support base of the regime, to then advance the military
• 39:04
  Speaker 6: mission to a broader goal of bringing.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Down the Islamic Republic. But I don't think we can bring.
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: Down the Islamic Republic from the air, but I think
• 39:13
  Speaker 6: we can set the conditions so that the Iranian people
• 39:16
  Speaker 6: can do as President Trump said and have this once
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: in a generation opportunity to take back their country.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: Two more questions. Mark, It was reported earlier today that
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the United States and Israel are arming Kurds in kurdage
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Dan within Iraq in order to arm Kurds within Iran's
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: own courtage Dan. What did you think of that reporting
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: of that strategy if it's correct.
• 39:40
  Speaker 6: Look, I think it makes a lot of sense to
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: arm Iranians so that they can fight against this brutal regime,
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: because what we saw in January is that hundreds of
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: thousands of Iranians came to the streets without weapons and
• 39:52
  Speaker 6: were slaughtered. In the thirty thirty five thousand Iranians were killed,
• 39:57
  Speaker 6: maybe only in a two day period. They were proba
• 40:00
  Speaker 6: probably thirty two thousand Iranians murdered. We can we can't
• 40:03
  Speaker 6: have these people come to the streets without weapons and
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: without other support.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: So I think it's.
• 40:08
  Speaker 6: Important that we do give them the means to take
• 40:12
  Speaker 6: the fight to the enemy. I would, you know, I'd
• 40:15
  Speaker 6: be cautious. I wouldn't want to arm one ethnic group
• 40:18
  Speaker 6: over another ethnic group and get into a situation where
• 40:21
  Speaker 6: we're we're picking ethnic favorites. But the Curds, no doubt,
• 40:25
  Speaker 6: are very competent fighters. They are armed already, and the
• 40:30
  Speaker 6: important thing for them to do, and for others to do,
• 40:33
  Speaker 6: is to tie up the security services and tie up
• 40:35
  Speaker 6: the RGC so that the ability of the regime to
• 40:39
  Speaker 6: then repress Iranians and major centers, the major twenty cities,
• 40:44
  Speaker 6: let's say in Iran, has been severely diminished, and so
• 40:47
  Speaker 6: I think they can play a very important role. I
• 40:49
  Speaker 6: also think, actually, look, the Kurds, the the Azaris, the Baluchis,
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: the Arabs are very proudly Iranian. The thing is, they're
• 40:59
  Speaker 6: not proudly Islamic Republic. They hate the Islamic Republic. That's
• 41:03
  Speaker 6: brutally repressing.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Them as well as all our audience.
• 41:06
  Speaker 6: But I do think they're proudly nationalistic and they're proud patriots,
• 41:11
  Speaker 6: and we should make sure that all groups that are
• 41:12
  Speaker 6: involved in.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: This are committed to.
• 41:16
  Speaker 6: A sovereign iron that doesn't splinter into separate entities.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: All right, Mark, last question two minutes. Turkey has been
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: profoundly disappointing again as they were in two thousand and
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: three when they prevented our northern entry into the Iraq War.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Spain has totally fallen on its face and the President's
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: cut off train trade and the United Kingdom is disappointed.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: What does it tell us about our allies and what
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: ought we to do in response?
• 41:45
  Speaker 6: Well, this is one of those defining moments where you
• 41:47
  Speaker 6: find out who your allies are, you find out who
• 41:49
  Speaker 6: your enemies are, and you find out who your frenemies are.
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: I think the Turks are frenemies and aren't quite enemies yet,
• 41:54
  Speaker 6: but they seem to be moving in that direction.
• 41:57
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 41:58
  Speaker 6: Look, the Spanish and BRIT's supposedly are friends, but they've
• 42:02
  Speaker 6: been obviously not only very unhelpful today, but in previous
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: months and years neither country has really stood up. I mean,
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: the Brits are, you know, their inheritor of a special
• 42:16
  Speaker 6: relationship that we've had with the UK for many many years,
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: but under Starmer's rule, this government is a pale shadow
• 42:24
  Speaker 6: of the Churchill government or the governments of Margaret Thatcher.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: So hopefully we'll see.
• 42:29
  Speaker 6: Regime change in the UK sometimes soon a British government committee.
• 42:33
  Speaker 8: Mark America, thank.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: You for all the work you and the fd D
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: all of your colleagues have been doing for many, many years,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: and especially in the last two years to sort of
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: prepare America for understanding that the threat was now in
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: the action had to be taken. Follow him on Exit
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: m Dubovitz, follow FDD on x at FDD, Listen to
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Schanzer in the morning with the FDD Breakdown on Monday,
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: Wednesday and Friday. And Mark host the Iran Breakdown often
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: and don't miss any episode of the Iran Breakdown, Born
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: and Glory and even Grace America. My guest is Abe Greenwald,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: the executive editor of Commentary Podcast and almost a daily
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: participant in the Commentary Podcast. And I told John pod
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Hortz yesterday, but I'll tell you Abe, thank you for
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: working overtime on Saturday and Sunday because there was a
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: demand signal for a smart conversation about the war with Iran,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: and very few people decided to step up, but Commentary did.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: And it's a great recommendation for the podcast. You'll show
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: up when people want to talk about it. Hey, but
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: left me though, along with yesterday and today's podcast, which
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: I've listened to with this question. Happy for um by
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: the way, and I hope you're celebrating later and not
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: right that you're not already begun celebrating so that we
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: get the real A Greenwald. What is the purpose of
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: the Commentary podcast in a war with Iran? Oh?
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, it's an interesting, interesting question because John
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: was the impetus for the having the emergency podcasts over
• 44:02
  Speaker 5: the weekend, and he often is. And you know, the
• 44:07
  Speaker 5: truth is Commentary, you know, having always been a magazine
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: that seeks to explain the Jews to America and America
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: to the.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: Jews and.
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: Stand as a witness to anti Semitism and defend the
• 44:30
  Speaker 5: right of the State of Israel to exist. After October seventh,
• 44:38
  Speaker 5: we had a sort of informal conversation. I had an
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: informal conversation with John where he sort of articulated this
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: kind of revelation. I mean, it makes perfect sense that
• 44:52
  Speaker 5: this this is what we are here for. I mean,
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: this is the magazine exists for just these such moments,
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: to to make sense of these moments, explain the truth
• 45:07
  Speaker 5: as we see it. And you know there's there can
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: be through through the through the through through.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: The sort of.
• 45:19
  Speaker 5: Becoming effects of modern American history and its history with
• 45:24
  Speaker 5: the Jews, long stretches of relative calm and ease for
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: the Jewish people in this country. But when there is
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: a moment of crisis in the Middle East, when there
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: is a war launched by Iranian proxies on the Jewish state,
• 45:43
  Speaker 5: if we don't come to life at those moments, then
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: then we are shirking our duty.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: So the same goes for a moment such as the launch.
• 45:57
  Speaker 5: Of this war. Because because Commentary has been advocating for
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: either the bombing of Iran's nuclear program or regime change
• 46:10
  Speaker 5: in Iran for a good twenty years. So this is
• 46:13
  Speaker 5: if we are not the ones to speak up and
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: help people make sense of this now, then no one is.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: And I think that's what I'll put Because I was
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: able to download the Commentary podcast before Saturday, I got
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: on an airplane and the wireless didn't work on the plane,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: so it's all I had, so I got to listen
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: to it twice. I decided that my understanding of your
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: mission is to defend the West, and that means defending Israel,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: the Greeks, the Romans, the Brits in the United States
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: of America, as well as our allies and those who
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: are semi dependent upon us and headed in our direction.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: And you do that very well. And right now the
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: West is under attack by Iran directly, by Chicom's directly,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: by Russia directly, but by a lot of fringe people
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: in the United States, but also how various actors figure
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: within it. And I think Trump's basic instinct, someone told
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: me Nixon got there by intellect and Trump gets there
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: by instinct, is to defend the West. You don't even
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: I don't even know if you could explain what defending
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: the West is. But I think you folks are doing
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: that every day by discussion and historical analysis. I think
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: I cannot overstate how valuable it is. It's not a
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: news program, it's a discussion program. It's what Buckley used
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: to do on Firing Line, and it doesn't exist anywhere anymore.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Nro defends the Western Catholicism and commentary defends the West
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: and Judaism and other people defend the West. That are
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: the great podcast. But what do you think of that
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: mission statement defend the West and the Jews?
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: Oh, one hundred percent.
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: I was not listing every pillar of our sort of mission.
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: Defending the West and defending the United States in particular.
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: And bringing to light that the best of.
• 47:54
  Speaker 5: Western thought and Western policy in Western history has created.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: That is also very much a part of our mission.
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: And really to.
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: Also make an ongoing argument that this miraculous story of
• 48:13
  Speaker 5: the West of the United States, which is the greatest
• 48:19
  Speaker 5: creation human endeavor on the planet, that the Jews are
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: an integral, necessary part of this story.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: And that leads me to today's podcast. You were talking about.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Was the threat form Iran imminent or not? It does
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: not make a lick of difference to me. Because Iran,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: ever since they dropped the veil on January eighth and
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: ninth and massacre at thirty five thousand of their own people,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: they are not They cannot coexist with the West. That
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: one of them has to win the West or Iran
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: has to win. We can have some weak sisters like
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: England and Spain, and I'm not sure what Turkey is
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: doing right now. Iran is a malevolent evil for it.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I'm not even sure the CCP is as dangerous to
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: the West as Iran is, because if they had gotten nukes,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: or even dirty nukes, they would have done with them
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: what they're doing with their ballistic missiles Right now. They
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: are a rabbit dog. They have to be put down.
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 49:17
  Speaker 5: Interestingly, Trump spoken terms very similar to that today. He
• 49:22
  Speaker 5: described the regime as evil. This harks back to the
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: George W. Bush hears and the description of the access
• 49:32
  Speaker 5: of evil, and of course before that, talk of Russia
• 49:36
  Speaker 5: as an evil empire. This is not the kind of
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: language that we are used to hearing from Trump. Really,
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: name calling, yes, moral framing of other regimes in absolute terms,
• 49:56
  Speaker 5: that's something different. This is not so much the opposite
• 49:58
  Speaker 5: of transactional.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, not so much so, given that he's gone down
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: that way. How much of your time is going to
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: be spent looking ahead to twenty twenty eight because it's
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: really a question of party now. I don't know the
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: nominee are going to be, but I look at that
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: The line from the State of the Union, these people
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: are crazy is maybe the best distillation of Donald Trump, ever,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: and his view of them, like, what's wrong with you people?
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: I'm never going to do a deal with you people,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: And it's very transiited, you're crazy. And I think the
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: Democratic Party has a mind virus.
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: Oh for sure.
• 50:38
  Speaker 5: And well, I don't want to say the whole Democratic Party,
• 50:41
  Speaker 5: some of the Democratic Party is just simply sure.
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: To death of the far left, which makes.
• 50:48
  Speaker 5: Them very weak, which is that's not a compliment. I
• 50:53
  Speaker 5: just I don't think they're necessarily crazy. Some of them
• 50:56
  Speaker 5: are crazy or you know, in colloquial terms, crazy, and
• 51:01
  Speaker 5: we should say, you know, as regards the current moment,
• 51:04
  Speaker 5: when you have a far left, including some lawmakers who
• 51:09
  Speaker 5: have been out holding placards and chanting slogans that are
• 51:18
  Speaker 5: authored by the Iranian regime's terrorist proxies, this is their
• 51:27
  Speaker 5: having declared themselves on the side of the regime.
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: They're crazy in that and on a great.
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: Many other issues.
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: And it's part of why when Trump first came to office,
• 51:39
  Speaker 5: what he called his common Sense Agenda, I think common
• 51:44
  Speaker 5: sense revolution rather, I think very aptly was as popular as.
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: It was the country as a whole.
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: You didn't have to be a far right winger to
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: look at what the far left.
• 52:01
  Speaker 5: Program and how it was instituted by liberals and the
• 52:06
  Speaker 5: liberal establishment. You didn't have to be a fire breathing
• 52:10
  Speaker 5: far right.
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: Winger to say, yeah, this is a little crazy, all right.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: So last question, when we look over at the left
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: and we see what we see, and then we see
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: on the horseshoe and some very troubling rhetoric, especially the
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: anti Semitic stuff that comes from a variety of sources.
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: We'll use Nick flint Age and those adjacent to him.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: What's more dangerous. I don't think the wackos on the
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: right are that dangerous, because they're never going to have power,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: and I don't think that anyone who gets elected with
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: their votes is going to grule with them anyway. But
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: I do think the far left in America is dangerous.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: What is the priority in your view? One minute?
• 52:47
  Speaker 5: It's a very tough question because in some sense I
• 52:51
  Speaker 5: have come to expect the anti semitism of the far left,
• 52:58
  Speaker 5: So to me, that's sort of constant, and I have
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: had been leaning on my the the hope, the anchor
• 53:09
  Speaker 5: that is the post Buckley Wright uh as a as
• 53:15
  Speaker 5: A as A as a block of sanity that's there
• 53:21
  Speaker 5: to fight against the anti semitism of the left. The
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: scary thing about the rise of any sort of anti
• 53:31
  Speaker 5: Semitic right is that it renders both parties potentially.
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: Dangerous to the Jews. And that's a new phenomenon.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: That is I'm counting on people like Senator Cotton and
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: those that Jaspingham to keep the GOP anchored in common
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: sense and pro American, pro Western ideal. Please a greenwalk
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: Baum on X today. Greenwald read his newsletter every morning.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: What You're gonna sign up for our commentary dot com.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome back America. Doctor Michael Aran was Israel's ambassador to
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: the United States for a long time. He's authored so
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: many books, including ally, which are relevant right now. Dr Arran,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: As the war rages in Israel, how are you, your
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: family and your friends faring.
• 54:18
  Speaker 8: Well?
• 54:18
  Speaker 9: I just got out of the safe room now.
• 54:20
  Speaker 10: We had a missile attack about forty seconds ago, and
• 54:25
  Speaker 10: it's been a busy night.
• 54:26
  Speaker 9: It's not the busiest night.
• 54:28
  Speaker 10: Yesterday we had about thirty missile attacks that we had
• 54:32
  Speaker 10: to go into the safe room, our bomb shelters.
• 54:34
  Speaker 9: We've had about six or seven today.
• 54:37
  Speaker 10: So I don't know whether this means that Iran is
• 54:39
  Speaker 10: focusing more on other targets in the Middle East.
• 54:42
  Speaker 9: We can talk about what.
• 54:43
  Speaker 10: That means, and on American military assets in the Middle East,
• 54:47
  Speaker 10: the ships and bases, you know, other than Iran doesn't
• 54:51
  Speaker 10: get anything out of shooting at us other than making
• 54:54
  Speaker 10: them feel good. It's an ideological feel good movement because
• 54:57
  Speaker 10: we're not going to bolt. We're not going to put
• 54:59
  Speaker 10: pressure on Press and Trump to end the war, right,
• 55:01
  Speaker 10: We're not going to break, so you know, they're going
• 55:04
  Speaker 10: to try to shoot at what will give them the
• 55:06
  Speaker 10: biggest forgive the expression in the bank for the book,
• 55:09
  Speaker 10: which is trying to increase American casualties in this war,
• 55:12
  Speaker 10: trying to put pressure on various and Leastern governments to
• 55:14
  Speaker 10: put pressure in turn on the American president to cease fire.
• 55:18
  Speaker 9: It ain't going to.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: Work, so doctor, and I asked us of Aviv earlier,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: but you're the real historian, so I'm going to ask
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: it of you. In nineteen fifty on Wake Island, General
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: MacArthur met with Harry Truman to congratulate each other on
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: how well the Korean War was going. Already, MAO had
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: sent one hundred thousand plus volunteers over the Yalu and
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, we're however, Yeah, is it possible
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: that Turkey comes in if, in fact, Israel and Lisia's
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: the Kurds of Iraq into Kurdistan in Iran.
• 55:52
  Speaker 9: I hadn't thought of that. I can't believe that on
• 55:54
  Speaker 9: what side of this war is Turkey is supposed.
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: To come in.
• 55:56
  Speaker 9: That's what I would ask you, Hugh. On Iran side,
• 56:00
  Speaker 9: It's highly unlikely.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: On the side of the Ottoman Empire because this guy's
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: not there one.
• 56:06
  Speaker 9: Oh, they could attack the they could they could attack
• 56:08
  Speaker 9: the Kurts. They could easily do that. That I can understand.
• 56:10
  Speaker 10: You know, it's going to be again one of those
• 56:12
  Speaker 10: dirty Harry moments, is going to be a pull the trigger,
• 56:14
  Speaker 10: make my days what Hisbola has done for us in
• 56:17
  Speaker 10: Lebanon now. But what we're seeing witnessing now is the
• 56:22
  Speaker 10: discarding of just about every assumption about the Middle East,
• 56:25
  Speaker 10: about the conflict that we've.
• 56:26
  Speaker 9: Held for close to eighty years.
• 56:28
  Speaker 10: Yeah, we're in a situation tonight where the Lebanese government
• 56:31
  Speaker 10: is condemning his Bola for shooting at Israel.
• 56:34
  Speaker 9: We're in a.
• 56:35
  Speaker 10: Situation tonight where Katar, the presumptive ally of Iran, may
• 56:39
  Speaker 10: be actually bombing Iran together with Israel. By the way,
• 56:42
  Speaker 10: together with Israel. It's a total realignment of this region.
• 56:48
  Speaker 10: It is the resurfacing of ancient hatreds because the Arabs
• 56:51
  Speaker 10: hate the Persians and the Soonis hate the Shiites. And
• 56:55
  Speaker 10: and with Moti's visit last week, which was quite extraordinary.
• 57:00
  Speaker 9: Know, on the eve of this war.
• 57:01
  Speaker 10: The democratic elected, the leader of the largest nation on
• 57:05
  Speaker 10: Earth comes to visit Israel and does nothing but swear,
• 57:09
  Speaker 10: you know, allegiance and support for us. We could see
• 57:13
  Speaker 10: the emergence of a Pax Americana strategic arc that extends
• 57:18
  Speaker 10: from you know, the Mediterranean Ocean, not from from where
• 57:20
  Speaker 10: I'm sitting, to the banks of the Ganges. It is
• 57:24
  Speaker 10: totally transformative moment.
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you brought this.
• 57:28
  Speaker 10: I want to quote my quote by taxi driver today
• 57:31
  Speaker 10: who says that we're not living during historical times, we're
• 57:34
  Speaker 10: living during biblical times.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: Well said by him. Maybe that's a title of your
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: next book. Here's my question. You and I have through
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, when out of nowhere the Warsaw pack
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: collapsed and the entire world was rearranged. Are we in
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: such a moment again, because I didn't think we'd get
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: two in my lifetime.
• 57:53
  Speaker 10: I know we were two for two here. It apparently
• 57:57
  Speaker 10: is that way. And you know, no, he knows how.
• 58:00
  Speaker 10: You know, we all know how wars start. We don't
• 58:02
  Speaker 10: know how they end. We don't know. And this war
• 58:05
  Speaker 10: was the product of multiple miscalculations by just about everybody.
• 58:10
  Speaker 10: Israel on October six, twenty twenty seven, the Palestinians on
• 58:13
  Speaker 10: October seventh, twenty twenty three, twenty twenty three, sorry, and
• 58:18
  Speaker 10: miscalculations and miscalculations, the most recent by the Rarnians, and
• 58:21
  Speaker 10: thinking that if they bomb Arabs and they bomb Cyprus,
• 58:24
  Speaker 10: they're gonna get more pressure on Trump to stop the war.
• 58:26
  Speaker 10: With just the opposite, they've got a lot of more
• 58:28
  Speaker 10: people bombing them tonight. We don't know, but it looks
• 58:33
  Speaker 10: like everything's going to be shaken up. It's a it's
• 58:37
  Speaker 10: a Corona moment where the balls go flying in different
• 58:40
  Speaker 10: pockets and the billiard bowls.
• 58:42
  Speaker 9: Okay, we don't know, but it is remarkable to see this.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: The fundamental question is the fundamentalist question that is Islam
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: has veered for one hundred years into Wahabism and Shia extremism.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Can MBZ working with MBS patch it up and bring
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: the Arab of some world into a reformed modern Islam.
• 59:04
  Speaker 9: It's possible. They're still going to be radical Islam.
• 59:06
  Speaker 10: Listen to the crazy thing is my my son is
• 59:08
  Speaker 10: visiting the United States now, not under fire in Israel.
• 59:11
  Speaker 9: Big last week he was in Austin, Texas. Wakes up
• 59:14
  Speaker 9: to find himself.
• 59:14
  Speaker 10: You know, a massive police investigation happened right down the
• 59:18
  Speaker 10: street from him.
• 59:19
  Speaker 9: You can't make this up. So you know, Islamic extremism
• 59:23
  Speaker 9: is still with us and will continue to be with it.
• 59:26
  Speaker 9: It just won't have a state behind it the way
• 59:27
  Speaker 9: it did.
• 59:28
  Speaker 10: And you know, Nazism is still with us too, but
• 59:30
  Speaker 10: they're a lot less dangerous because they don't have Nazi
• 59:32
  Speaker 10: Germany behind them. And so you know, Islamics, you know,
• 59:35
  Speaker 10: islamicists and Islamis terrorists may be less dangerous now that
• 59:39
  Speaker 10: they don't have Iran behind them. And by the way,
• 59:42
  Speaker 10: they won't have Hamas and his Balla behind them either.
• 59:45
  Speaker 9: So that is all.
• 59:46
  Speaker 10: These are again amazing, amazing events. I want to add
• 59:51
  Speaker 10: one other things. I don't know if you were talking
• 59:53
  Speaker 10: about this, but but America's relationship with Europe over this,
• 59:56
  Speaker 10: I was deeply moved by President Trump's decision to cut
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 10: off trade with Spain.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 9: Yes, it's about time. It's about time.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: I regret every dollar.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 9: And shin shame. They should move the naval base out
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 9: of Rhode of Spain.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: I agree with out and no cruise ship should dine there.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: I have two big questions, Michael, I don't know how
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: much time I have. If I can, I'll take you
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: during the break in into the next Keep it short, Okay,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: Here are the two questions. One, Gaza is not off
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: the table yet. It's the open swords, the open wound.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: And then two Net and Yahoo. You know him, You've
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: worked with him, you've worked against him, You've commented on him.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: Could anyone else have led Israel through these last thirty months?
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 9: Let me start with Gaza. Gaza on the table. I
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 9: think that Gaza was one of the reasons that Iran
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 9: the Runian.
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 10: Leadership felt that they could rebuild their ballistic missile system
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 10: and begin to begin the nuclear system because the Trump
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 10: administration hadn't fulfilled it, it hadn't moved on its promise
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 10: to dismantle Hummas and for the in the Middle East, that.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 9: Was perceived as a lack of willpower, lack of resolve,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 9: and that has to be done. That has to be
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 9: then they have to be dismantled.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 10: I was talking to a Palestinian colleague of mine and
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 10: Washingtday person, very well informed, saying that Duhamas thinks that
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 10: it basically won the war. It's emerged from the tunnels
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 10: and it still has its guns, and they think they're
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 10: going to be part of the post war arrangement. We
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 10: have to disabuse them of that. It's extremely, extremely important
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 10: for for for regional and global security. As for Natanelle,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 10: I was talking to another friend who you know, suffers
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 10: from netall derangement. You know, if we have inclement weather here,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 10: it's because of Nitanelle. And he had to admit, I'm serious,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 10: if it rains, it's Naneo. He had to admit that
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 10: nobody else could have done this, that he was willing
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 10: to forgive all of That'tagnello's to put in his words,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 10: his fabulous personal flaws and foibles, because he has brought.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 9: Us to this moment.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 10: And no, I don't can't imagine anybody could have done
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 10: this other than these to these two leaders.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 9: By the way, it's not just that.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 10: Yeah, it's the it's the Ness and now Trump combination,
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 10: which you know, as you know in diplomacy, and I've
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 10: been a practicing diplomat, diplomacy is ninety three percent personal.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 10: And this war is the product of a two leaders
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 10: who understand each other, who respect one another, and have complete,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 10: you know, open relations with one another.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 9: And you see how that works.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: The historian, wouldn't you love the transcript of that three
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: hour meeting, wouldn't.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 9: That very much?
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 8: So?
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 9: Yeah, and I get to write the book about it too.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 9: That's the good view.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: Oh, I can't wait for it. Doctor Michael Oran follomon
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: a Dr Michael Orran. Come back and stay safe in
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: your entire family. Michael be well, I'll be right back
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: in America. Stay two. Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: you at Byron, New York joins me from the Washington Examiner.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: Byron political impacts of wars are very difficult to calculate
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: at the beginning, even difficult in the middle, and often
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: it takes decades's first impression subject to revision as events unfold.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 11: Well, my first impression was the My impression right now
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 11: is the same as it was the very minute I.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 8: Heard this was going on, which is, if it succeeds,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 8: it'll be great for politically for Trump.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 11: And if we're looking at some sort of descent in
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 11: the chaos or rack style, it will.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 8: Be disastrous for Trump. I mean everything one depends on
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 8: the success of the mission.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: All right, to find success buying York.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 11: I would define success as first of all.
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 8: Decapitating the Iranian leadership, so we can put a check
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 8: mark by out Yep.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 11: Second of all, destroying all of their defensive capabilities.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 8: We're close to putting a check mark by that one.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 8: Then allowing or creating some sort of stable government to arise.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 3: In which.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 11: Iran lives peacefully and does not seek to attack its neighbors.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's Mount Everest. I'm gonna use Syria as my comparison.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: I don't like this share guy at all. I'm not
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: one to believe in al Qaeda transformation into the nice
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: guy next door, but it's possible. Thus far, he got
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: into one scrape with Israel and then back down he's
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: fighting with the Kurds. Now. If Iran descends into kind
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: of controlled chaos and various parts of the country at
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: war with others. That's of no concern to me. If
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: they haven't got ballistic missiles, that's a success. But it's
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: not mount everth.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 11: Well, and also they have no nuclear program right correct?
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 8: And they have no nuclear program and they have no
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 8: ballistic missiles, obviously that would be progress.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 11: On the other hand, you know, if it's descends into.
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 8: Chaos, what is the US either responsibility or inclination to
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 8: take part in this or just sort of step back
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 8: and let it descend into chaos.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, Hugh Hewitt's view on that is zip not in nothing.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: I love the Persian people in southern California. I think
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: they could be great partners for a peace, but we're
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: not going to get involved with that because they're at
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: ninety two million people. It's a bigger bite than.
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 8: A rock bob. I mean, you just went in and
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 8: blew up the entire.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: Leadership, and we blew up carg Island's power supply, so
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: they haven't got any revenue. So it does seem to
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: me they're at a critical point where they may want
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: to do what Delsea did in Venezuela, which is, hello,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, what do you want me to do?
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 11: That would be reasonable, But on the other hand, if
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 11: it does descend.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 8: Into some sort of chaos after these actions that we're
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 8: just been discussing, the United States blows it up and
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 8: leaves right.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: Well, let's look at Libya byron President Obama's famous leading
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: from behind campaign, it led to nothing but tears, and
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: it's still a civil war. It's still a pipeline of
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: migrants crossing dangerously to Italy, many many dying on the way.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: And Americans don't know much about Libya and they care less.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: What about that result? Now that's chaos. We don't care.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 8: Look, yes, look, my feeling is we certainly do not
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 8: have to help every nation that cannot handle its own affairs.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 8: We did not have to help them do that. I
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 8: will say though, that when we are the ones who
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 8: blew up the previous situation, we have some sort of
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 8: responsibility in this. And that's why you have to really
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 8: think about it before you go blow something up, because
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 8: you realize if you you know, for example, we did
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 8: behead the leadership in Venezuela, but as you just suggested,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 8: we do seem to have a plan and does seem to.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 9: Be working at the moment.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought you would mentioned, and you have it
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: I do think the president has got to get oil
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: back to sixty two dollars in barrel, which it was
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: before the war began, because that's a direct impact on
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: every American's pocketbook.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, if you're talking about domestic politics, I think, listen,
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 8: I think the effect of the Iranian action has a
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 8: much bigger downside for politically for Trump and Republicans than
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 8: it does and upset because the things feel fairly well.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 8: People don't care about foreign policy, and there's still care
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 8: about the cost of living. And remember, I went back
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 8: and looked at some of the pieces I wrote. I
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 8: think it was on decent or the seventh or eighth
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 8: about Trump's pivots to the economy and.
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 9: To the cost of living.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 11: And he's going to go give speeches and travel around
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 11: the country.
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 8: Uh. And then within a few.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 11: Weeks he does Innezuela and that you know, completely consumes
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 11: us all for a few minutes. And then so then
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 11: you know he's going to come back. And then now
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 11: he's got he's gotten involved in in Iran. I think
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 11: I don't think there's a huge.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 8: Upside for this in the midterm elections.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: All right, But here's the counter case. The countercase is
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: you are absolutely right about the electorate as a whole.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: Probably five to ten percent care about national security, but
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: they care a lot. It's for me, the most important issue,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: and these two things Venezuela and Iran are big blows
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: to Chicom's. The PRC is very upset today and I
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: think Trump's playing the great game with Master's touch. But
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: in June, when voters lock in their view, you like
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: they're voting in Texas today and Corning and Paxston will
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: go to a runoff and it'll be the nastiest ever.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: But no one locks in their view deal June, and
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: then it's locked in and it doesn't matter. That's my
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: understanding of American history.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 3: Do you agree with me? Well, I do.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 11: I think as a matter of fact, in certainly, in studying.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 8: Some primary races and in general election races, you've seen
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 8: the elector pretty much lock in months and months and
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 8: months before the election. If you remember, I was, I
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 8: was just looking back at the twenty twelve election today,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 8: and Barack Obama did a great job of basically nuking
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 8: Romney before Romney really got started with the general election campaign.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 8: So's that's how.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 12: You do it.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 11: And I don't know what situation Iran is going to
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 11: be in in June, but you know this was not
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 11: something you know.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 8: People didn't vote for this. When you asked voters agree after.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 11: Twenty twenty four, why did you vote for Donald Trump?
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 11: And nobody said that.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: It's a nice way to move a marginal voter if
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: you're in a close race and a close CD. But
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: what matters a lot more is what you're paying at
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: the gas pump. So drill, baby, Drill America, yep, because
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: that's what America needs. Byron and ne York can be
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: followed on accet Byron York get his newsletter every day
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: from the Washington Caminal of seeing on Fox News to
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: the Margin News contributor. I'll be right back in America's
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: League News. What we're doing right now where they're in.
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 13: If we don't stap them, or if we didn't stop them,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 13: or if we didn't start, they've been decimated.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: But if we didn't do what we're doing right now,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: you would have had a nuclear war and they would
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: have taken out many countries.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 7: Because you know what, they're sick people, They're mentally ill,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 7: sick people.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: They're angry they're crazy, they're sick. Morning, lor and evening
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: Grace America. President Trump's summing up the reason we are
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: at war with iron. I'm joined by Senator Jony Ernst
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: of Iowa on Homeland Security I Committee, other committee. Senator,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: and you agree with President Trump's description of our enemy.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 14: Yes, absolutely, I think that if we had not moved
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 14: forward with this. I do believe that Iran would be
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 14: targeting US, Israel, and our other partners abroad, no doubt
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 14: about it. They have nefarious activities in mind, and fortunately
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 14: we've been able to cut them off at the knees.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: So, Senator, I'm going to come to Homeland Security and
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: the committee on which you said in just a moment,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: but as the perspective of a veteran, and you know
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: how expensive the munitions are that we are firing off
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: in great numbers. President says we've got enough, but it's
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: still our stockpile. Do we need a supplemental? Do we
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: ought to use reconciliation a second time to focus on
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: the Department of Defense? Or do we wait for the
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: order that would be regular order were we not in
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: a war.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 14: Well, Hugh, I think everything is on the table right now,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 14: and We have no idea how long this engagement will
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 14: go operation to epic fury. It could last a matter
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 14: of weeks, it could extend longer. But what we have
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 14: to recognize is that whatever it takes to end the
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 14: threat of Iran needs to be on the table. So
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 14: whether it's reconciliation, whether it's additional supplemental appropriations, whether it's
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 14: going through regular order, we need to be discussing all
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 14: of those opportunities right now and not wait until the
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 14: last minute.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 9: We know that munitions are important.
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 14: How can we continue to manufacture and push production of
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 14: those munitions while we're expending them in the Middle East?
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 14: So you a lot for us to do and a
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 14: lot to be determined in the upcoming weeks.
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: Do you do that in the conference, Senator, or you
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: do that only in committee in one on ones meeting,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: or do you all gather as a group and say, okay,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: we're going to go with reconciliation.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 9: Well, we do this through the committees.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 14: One will need to have estimates coming from the Department
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 14: of War, and two then we take a look at
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 14: it through whether it's appropriations or whether it's through the
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 14: Armed Services Committee.
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 9: But then we will gather as.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 14: A conference as well and decide what is the appropriate
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 14: way to move forward using the information that is gathered
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 14: by those committees.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: All right, now, I want to switch to Homeland Security,
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: and again you are on the Homeland Security Committee, which
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: is without funding right now. It's operating on a contingency basis.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: It's unbelievable that Democrats are not funding this at a
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: time when we can certainly expect Iran, its proxies and
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: all of its sympathized in the United States to try
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: and wreck havoc on the United States. Has there been
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: anyone on the other side to say, Okay, we're going
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: to throw in with the country right now rather than
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: our talking points, Well.
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 14: You mean other than Senator John fettermus because he has
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 14: been with us through thick and thin. But I would
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 14: say that the Democrats are recognizing that they're in a
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 14: very ugly position right now, and as we have the
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 14: threats from Iran, what they'll continue to do is deflect
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 14: the blame and say, well, this is all on President
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 14: Trump for starting this war. But what I would remind
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 14: them is, regardless I Ran was planning to likely strike US,
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 14: strike Israel put Americans in jeopardy that doesn't matter. We
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 14: have threats here in the homeland that need to be nullified.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 14: So that means funding our Department of Homeland Security and
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 14: making sure that those officers, those people that work for
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 14: the department have the skills and ability and are receiving
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 14: the appropriate pay to continue doing their jobs. One thing
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 14: that we have brought up is the fact that DHS
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 14: is in charge of cyber security for our homeland and
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 14: right now we are not funding those methods to protect
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 14: our businesses, our governmental structures here at the homeland. So
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 14: Democrats beware, you know, if they are choosing not to
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 14: fund it, something happens to us. It is all on
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 14: their shoulders.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: This is a question, centator, or not a statement. I
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: think it is the case that even if we designate
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: a Homeland Security employee as essential and they come to
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: work without pay, we can't do that to contractors and
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: the contractors don't work in the lapse of appropriations. Am
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: I correct about that?
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 14: You are absolutely correct, Hugh. So contractors, they would not
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 14: be obligated unless their contracts have been paid.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 9: But for those that are deemed.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 14: As essential, yes they do show up at work. But
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 14: look at our TSA and what they have gone through.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 14: Look at others that have been exploited basically by this
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 14: process and showing up the last time we went through
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 14: a government shutdown forty plus days. You know your heart's
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 14: not in it when you have a government that's not
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 14: paying you and yet requiring you to work. So how
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 14: many things when we talk about Department of Homeland Security?
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 14: How many things when you are tired because you are
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 14: working a second job to pay the bills, how many
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 14: things are going to slip through the cracks because you
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 14: were tired, you were overworked, you were disheartened by the
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 14: fact that your elected representatives don't feel that you are
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 14: important enough.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: To pay So, Senator, I think Leader thun At doing
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: a marvelous job. Has he arranged for floor votes on
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: DHS funding, not yet, Hugh.
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 9: And he is doing a fabulous job.
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 14: So we got a very brief update at lunch today
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 14: in our Republican Senators Conference meeting. But the Democrats right
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 14: now are just not yielding. So a lot of these
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 14: discussions will have to be done between the Democratic leadership
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 14: and the White House.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 9: They have to come to a consensus.
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 14: I think the pressure will continue to build as we
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 14: see DHS continue to be shut down during a time
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 14: of international crisis, when we know that Iranians have sleeper
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 14: cells throughout the United States, when we know that they
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 14: are perpetrating activities against former administration officials. So let's just
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 14: put the political ideologies and Shenanigan's aside. Let's make sure
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 14: we get DHS funded. It's not just about cbp Ice.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 9: And so forth.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 14: It's also about the Coastguard TSA and others that are
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 14: protecting our homeland.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: Centater Joni Earn's always good to talk to you, Follower
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: Jonie ernst On X. Thank you, Senator. Welcome back America.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: I'm here, Hewett, joined by the Ruthless Podcast John Ashbrook.
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: He is there a White House correspondent? John? You know
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: the Ruthless podcast always has the vegetables and it's got
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: the fun. I want to get to the vegetables. But
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: can I begin with the fun with you? Please? You
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: are the White House Correspondent. Therefore, I assume you're going
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: to the White House Correspondence Association dinner and maybe you'll
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: get a plus one. But what about the other fellas well?
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 12: Here's the thing, Hugh, I have not been to that
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 12: dinner in quite some time, and it's just it's sort
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 12: of a painful experience if you're a Republican because you
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 12: know it's surrounded by Democrats. It's all Democrats journals. Now
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 12: that our great President has decided to attend this year,
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 12: you know that the jokes are going to be good.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 12: You know the show is going to be good. You
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 12: know it's worth attending. And so this year, for the
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 12: first time in many years, I plan on joining, and
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 12: I think my co hosts are going to go to Okay.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: I've been once. I went when that disgusting comic assailed
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: now Governor Sarah Huckabee, and I said, I'll never come
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: back to this disgusting display of left wing activism. But
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: you might be right. But I'm curious with the fellas
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: on hand. You're gonna be like the stars, do you
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: get a plus one? Are you bringing your wives? And
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: they begun to get into the dress thing because it's
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: a big deal for spouses.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 12: Well, I don't know if my wife is going to
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 12: want to go. I don't know that she's going to
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 12: Wanta Covort with all of these journals. My guess is
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 12: she won't want to, but I would insist that she
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 12: attend with me and sort of bear the burden of
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 12: being around all these people together.
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: Now you're gonna be with Smug and he knows that
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: you know all the journals and your buddies with them.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: So is he going to be at your side whispering
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: names in your air that this is that guy and
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: this is that gal who's your shirpa.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 3: Here's the thing.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 12: Smug is a secret journal. He will never let you
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 12: know how many people reach out to him with source
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 12: material and how he acts on it. To be honest
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 12: with you, Hugh, he is the real journal of this show.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 12: I know that I get the I get the blame,
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 12: I get the slings and arrows. But to be honest
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 12: with you, Smug is the true journal of the variety.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: Well better for it? Is he a sleeper journal? Is
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: he like the mecade of journalists in your number?
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 12: Without a doubt'sout a doubt, Nobody without a doubt? Nobody
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 12: gets more incoming from Democrat consultants than Smug. They all
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 12: send their material to him hoping that he will dunk
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 12: on their opponents within the Democrat party, and he does
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 12: it very very well.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's ahead of Smug is a sleeper journal. Okay,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: let's go to the to the vegetable, the serious of
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: the war. Wars never go well when American troops are lost,
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: and we've had ka and wounded already, so they're not
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: going well, but they're actually moving in a decisive way,
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: I think, towards victory. What is the feeling inside the
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: Ruthless studio.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 12: Well, you know, we're all waiting to hear what comes
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 12: out of this Senate briefing that may be occurring right
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 12: now as we speak. You know, Trump top administration officials
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 12: letting everybody in the Senate know what the stakes are
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 12: on the ground, what the what accomplishments have been made
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 12: on the ground, And it sure seems like those accomplishments
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 12: are many. It seems if the reports are to be believed,
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 12: that the missile capabilities of Iran have been significantly degraded
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 12: in the last seventy two hours, that their navy is
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 12: maybe completely gone. And you know, I heard General Jack
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 12: Keen just a little bit ago talking about how the
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 12: Iranian navy was trying to set minds in the Strait
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 12: of horror moves. If our navy has taken them out
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 12: and prevented them from doing something like that, It is
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 12: quite an accomplishment. And you know they are they are
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 12: moving from this missile strategy to a little bit more
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 12: of a drone strategy, which you've probably been following, Hugh,
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 12: you know a whole lot more about this than any
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 12: of us at the Variety Program because you've been watching it,
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 12: reporting on it for quite some time. But the ability
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 12: of these drones to cause the destruction that the missiles.
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 4: Can they just they did.
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 12: They can't. They can't do as much as damage as
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 12: these missiles can do. And we had Brian Hook on
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 12: the show this morning about who I know you're familiar with,
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 12: very smart guy, very very smart, and he talks about
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 12: Iran in terms of the proxies they used to cause
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 12: problems in the Middle East and elsewhere, the missile program
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 12: that they've continued to develop even after last summer, and
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 12: then the nuclear program that they have continued to develop
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 12: even after last summer. And it's sure as hell, seems
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 12: like our military is just degrading every single one of
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 12: those things by the hour.
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: Now, John, you and Holmes are veterans of the Senate,
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: and the very arcane rules of the Senate. I love
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: when you guys, get into the tall grass and explain this.
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: I have a very simple question. I'm a simple man.
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: Reconciliation only takes fifty votes. We need to build Golden
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: Dome yesterday, and we need to replenish our munitions today.
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: Could not a reconciliation because of the spending bill, move
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: fairly quickly to plus up the Defense Department budget to
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: make good what we've expended, and to accelerate what we need,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: which is Golden Dome.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 12: You know, you raise an interesting point here, Hugh. I
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 12: would have told you before this operation in Iran that
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 12: a reconciliation bill wasn't possible in the House and Senate
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 12: because there are so many House members who don't want
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 12: reconciliation because they come from rural states and they don't
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 12: actually love all of the trade policies out of this administration. However,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 12: if it is something that is singularly focused on helping
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 12: our men and women in uniform win this fight in Iran,
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 12: that's a very very different subject and it might be
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 12: the pathway. I'm sure that's something they're talking about here
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 12: at this meeting in the Senate with you know, Secretary
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 12: Hegsith and Secretary Rubio and all of the Republicans in
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 12: the Senate, I know that every single one of them
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 12: is interested in seeing our operations succeed. And you know
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 12: I've already heard I've already heard the senator from Mississippi
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 12: talk about maybe the need for a supplemental We'll see
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 12: Roger Wicker, thank you. You know, we'll see how that
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 12: stuff plays out here in the in the coming weeks
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 12: and their path toward daylight and that what that best
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 12: path might be. But I don't think anything's off the
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 12: table and supporting this.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: I think if they came in, especially on Golden Dum,
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: We've seen these missiles, we've seen these drones, We've seen
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: the shattering, devastating impacts of impact. If we build the
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: Golden Dum, the more we build of it, the faster
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: we build of it. You build it in the heartland,
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: you build it in every state, you build it around
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: every shipyard. It's a it's a jobs program, it's a
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: technology program, it's a forcing technology. And if it's clean,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: I think your emphasis was on clean, nothing else, just
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: supporting the war and the defense of the country. I
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: think can get majorities in both houses.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 12: Yeah, I mean, you'd like to think so that it's
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 12: the sort of protection that our country deserves. And if
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 12: the technology exists, why in the world do we not
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 12: have it. There's one other thing, Hugh, that's sort of
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 12: hanging out over Congress right now, and that's the shutdown
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 12: of the Department of Homeland Security. And you remember as
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 12: well as I do, that this is a department that
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 12: was created after nine to eleven, after we were attacked
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 12: on our own homeland, specifically to protect the people who
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 12: are here from foreign threats. We know that during the
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 12: four years of the Biden administration that there are terrorists
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 12: who are in our country. They need to fund the
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 12: Department of Homeland Security right.
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: Now, right now. John Ashbrook, member of the Ripless podcast
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: and revealer of the true identity of Comfortably Smug, is
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: a journo. Thank you for joining me. I'll be right
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• 1:28:54
  Speaker 7: I think the President did the right time. What six
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 7: seven present that SIP talked about it, he did it.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 7: I would We don't know what's going to happen, but
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 7: I would call this success for no other.
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 9: Reason but that kamani Is is dead.
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 7: He Diatoma won the corn toss and he elected to receive.
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: And Malaca America that it's the winner. Only. John Kennedy
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: Center from Louisiana, talking to Josh Holmes on the Ruthless Podcast.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: I'm joined by the one and only David M. Drucker
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: of The Dispatch. David, I have not even paid attention
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: to one poll because pulling at the beginning of war
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: is nothing like the end of pulling at the end
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: of a war, or five years after whatever is considered
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: to be end of the war. Are you paying any
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: attention to it?
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 13: Well, I'm paying attention to it because I'm trying to
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 13: track public opinion and you know, keep my eyes and
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 13: ears open. But I agree with you that initial polling
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 13: can be deceiving. We've talked about this before, Hugh. Anytime
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 13: there's a major terrorist attack, a major natural disaster, a
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 13: major anything, you like to let the dust settle a little.
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 4: Bit, right, So at least you're going to wait for
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 4: the polling to be.
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 13: Taken the week after things happen or begin, and then
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 13: that polling doesn't even come out for another week.
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 4: They got to go through the numbers.
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 13: And war in particular, and this is not just military
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 13: action here, this is a war. It's ongoing.
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 4: Things change, things go this way and that way, and
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 4: so it may be a little harder to poll for
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 4: the foreseeable future. But I don't think the.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 13: Data is all together necessarily wrong or not useful, and
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 13: it depends on what kind of data we're dealing with.
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 13: Focus groups in particular, I think might be very helpful
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 13: in understanding public opinion as time goes on from week
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 13: to week.
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: Now the posting John x post that the United States
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: is unleashed its B fifty two fleet. These are heavy
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: bombers with extraordinary loads payloads. They're not fighter bombers or
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: strike one two five targets. They can strike numerous I mean,
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: they can blow craters in the ground. At what point
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: do you say, do you expect a regime to cry uncle?
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: Now that the Ayatolas in Afghanistan never cried uncle, they
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: retreated to the mountains, But there's a government here. Tehran
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: is not Afghanistan.
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 13: Yeah, well they're not Afghanistan, but they're kind of Afghanistan.
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 13: I mean, these guys are a bunch of murderers, zealots.
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 13: They've been going at it for fifty years and they've
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 13: never taken the easy off ramp, even though they actually
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 13: have a population that would like to be a part
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 13: of the West.
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 4: Maybe not all of the.
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 13: Population, but probably at least half, if not a majority, right,
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 13: And they just they never take the off ramp.
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 4: Because they don't want the off ramp. So I don't
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 4: know that there's going.
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 13: To be any I mean, we're just kind of speculating here,
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 13: but I don't see evidence going back these fifty years
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 13: that they're going to cry uncle and all of a sudden.
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 4: Change their behavior.
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 13: They could have done this without this, and they wouldn't
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 13: do it, and they've never been willing to do it.
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 13: And I kind of look at the regime in Iran
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 13: and everybody associated with governing Iran governing the same way
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 13: I've looked at Jamas and Hezbollah. Every time you give
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 13: these groups the PLO, the palse Liberation of Authority under
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 13: Yasar Arafat, it never want an off ramp because they
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 13: don't want to give up the war, because they're extremely zealous.
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 13: They hate America, they're anti Semitic, and to give up
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 13: the war would give up both their authority such that
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 13: it is, but also the whole reason for their existence.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: You know, David, you're old enough to remember when the
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: Wall fell and first Stots he melted away, and then
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: generally Arlzlowsky and Poland melted away. In Romania, Chijsko ended
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: up upside down and dead, hung by the crowd. I mean,
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: sometimes very public figures get killed. But if you want to,
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: if you want to resume to dissolve, you just wait
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: about a month and then it starts to dissolve. I
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: think it's way too early to tell if it's going
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: to dissolve.
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 4: I don't know that dissolves. I think it can be eliminated.
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 13: But I think that's why, you know, I think that's
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 13: why the President has said this thing could last for weeks,
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 13: because that's what it's going to take, and it may
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 13: take even longer than that. I mean the thing about
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 13: Eastern Europe, Hugh, And you know, I'm not telling you
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 13: something you don't know, but you know, the Eastern Europeans,
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 13: the Europeans behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War,
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 13: wanted to be a part of the West.
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 4: They originally were of the West, and.
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 13: Culturally and politically they fit with Western Europe. They fit
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 13: with the United States, and they knew what was taken
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 13: away from them, and there was no legitimacy to the
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 13: governments that popped up in that part of Europe after
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 13: World War Two.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 4: The Iranian regime does have a.
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 13: Bit of legitimacy because obviously was brought brought about in
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 13: part by a popular revolution.
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 4: And it's a little more complicated than that.
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 13: But I'm also old enough to remember when those revolutionarias
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 13: took American hostages and kept them for what over a
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 13: year until Reagan was about to win that election or
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 13: won that election, And so this has been ingrained in
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 13: Iranian society. There has been more and more popular uprisings
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 13: as the years went on. This regime has resorted to
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 13: more and more brutal tactics as the years went on.
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: There they don't have any guns. They don't have any gun.
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: And I know about as much about Iran as I
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: do about Malaysia. But I've been to Malaysia. I haven't
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: been to Iran. And all I know from Iran I
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: learned watching an hour of Tehran on Apple TV last night.
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: That's not quite true, but it's a modern country. It's
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: a very sophisticated modern evidently, and Admiral Montgomery turned me
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: on to it. It is riveting. But I'll tell you this, David,
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine anyone wants to live in a republic
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: of fear. That's what it is. It's a republic of fear.
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: Does anyone want to live that way?
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 4: Well, we know that so many Iranians do not.
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 13: It's one of the reasons why so many Iranian expats
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 13: that live in the United States been dancing in the
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 13: streets literally, regardless of whatever they think of Donald Trump
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 13: and so No, so many Iranians don't. But the regime
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 13: still has roots, and that's why you can't just cut
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 13: off the leaves.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 4: I mean, you've got to go to the roots. And
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 4: I think it's going to take a lot of effort
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 4: on our part.
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: I agree. David M. Drucker follow him on at David M. Drucker,
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: read him in the Dispatch every day. Thank you, David.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: I want to mind everyone over at Hughewitt dot com.
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: The banner for Food for the Poor is at the
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: top of Hugh Hewitt dot Many of you expected me
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 1: to kick it off yesterday with a big presentation of
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: what Food for the Poor does. Look I've been doing
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 1: a drive for them during lent for twenty five years.
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: They know what they're doing for the lost in the
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: least in the Caribbean and Central America. They build wells,
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: they build food outlets, They work with partner churches. They
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: can be trusted every donation. We can walk and chew
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: gum at the same time. We can cover the war
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 1: and be generous during Lent to people who really needed.
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: In the season of almsgiving, this is a place to
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: give your alms. The banner for Food for the Poor
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: is at the top of hughewitt dot com. Thank you,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: I'll be right back.