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Europe's Suicide Pact: Why the Iran War is a Catastrophe for the EU | Silk and Steel · UK Column Radio

0:01
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to another episode of the Silk and
0:04
Speaker 1: Steel Podcast. I'm your host Carl Zapp. Today I have
0:08
Speaker 1: back on my show Arnold Bertroan, a French entrepreneur currently
0:13
Speaker 1: residing in Malaysia. Arnold Wright prolifically about issue relating China,
0:21
Speaker 1: international politics, and in particular in relationship to Europe. The
0:29
Speaker 1: reason I want, first of all, welcome back to the show, Arnold.
0:32
Speaker 1: How are you?
0:34
Speaker 2: Thank you glad to be back.
0:35
Speaker 1: I'm good on you good, good so I The reason
0:40
Speaker 1: I want you to have you back on the show
0:43
Speaker 1: is because you know, currently there's a you know, Trump
0:46
Speaker 1: is busy blowing up the world by waging a war
0:51
Speaker 1: on you wrong now, I wanted to find out from
0:56
Speaker 1: a European perspective on how what role Europe is playing
1:02
Speaker 1: in this because you know, right as we speak, Trump
1:05
Speaker 1: has repeatedly said, he complained he wants allies to form
1:11
Speaker 1: a coalition of willing you know, a peace board for
1:15
Speaker 1: the horror mood straight to open up the straight of
1:18
Speaker 1: horror moos. And he's been complaining that NATO has been slacking,
1:22
Speaker 1: it's been weak, and he wants everybody to join in
1:27
Speaker 1: the effort to wages work on you wrong friends. You
1:32
Speaker 1: know you are French. So first of all, I want
1:34
Speaker 1: to ask you about the reaction, uh, you know, the
1:38
Speaker 1: French reaction, because it's interesting because mccron we know previously
1:43
Speaker 1: from leaked messages that maccron actually send a message to
1:49
Speaker 1: Trump over the whole Greenland ordeal and said, hey, we
1:54
Speaker 1: we work out perfectly on Syria, we can work together
1:58
Speaker 1: again on you wrong. You know, why are you doing
2:00
Speaker 1: this on Greenland thing? I don't understand. So you know,
2:04
Speaker 1: obviously French was on board, but you know it's it's
2:11
Speaker 1: a that France was was said to send its aircraft
2:16
Speaker 1: carrier Charles the Gold to to to to head over
2:20
Speaker 1: that direction, and now the French say, now no, actually
2:24
Speaker 1: they're not doing that. What is going on?
2:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean France. I don't think if you try
2:32
Speaker 2: to look for coherence in in the French position with
2:38
Speaker 2: my con on on foreign policy, good luck to you
2:42
Speaker 2: because you won't find any so on this issue, on
2:47
Speaker 2: just about any issue with my con Uh, the French
2:52
Speaker 2: particy has been completely incoherent. So they started when the
2:56
Speaker 2: world started. My con you know, issued joint statements together
3:03
Speaker 2: with merts And and Stummer in the UK basically blaming
3:10
Speaker 2: Iran for the war. Uh. You know, literally the day
3:14
Speaker 2: after the US on this trial started the war, they
3:18
Speaker 2: were like we we beg Iran to go back to
3:22
Speaker 2: the negotiating table. You know, I wrote about it. I
3:28
Speaker 2: was like, you know, the the US literally just kid
3:32
Speaker 2: the negotiating team. That's like, yeah, I mean completely crazy statements. Uh.
3:39
Speaker 2: But then my con you know, you're always has this uh.
3:44
Speaker 2: In France we call it amnon at the same time.
3:47
Speaker 2: So he always tries to play both positions of of anything.
3:53
Speaker 1: So he also.
3:55
Speaker 2: You know, did a joint initiative with with China or
3:59
Speaker 2: of all countries, saying that they would help, you know,
4:06
Speaker 2: negotiate a ceasefire between for Iran, so you know, when
4:13
Speaker 2: it's like extreme pro us and so on the other hand,
4:18
Speaker 2: is like going with China. So there is literally no
4:22
Speaker 2: Koreerns whatsoever. Like you said, you know, when they will
4:25
Speaker 2: send the aircraft carrier the other they he doesn't. There
4:30
Speaker 2: was do something with French troops being involved. I think
4:35
Speaker 2: it was in Iraq. On one French studio got got killed,
4:42
Speaker 2: so you actually literally had sergios on the ground. No
4:47
Speaker 2: one quite knows what happened. There is some theory that
4:51
Speaker 2: the French are trying to recruit Kurdish fighters in Iraq,
4:58
Speaker 2: but you know it's romale. So yeah, there is very
5:05
Speaker 2: little coherence what I when you take a step back though,
5:11
Speaker 2: what I wrote on article, but that's last week. It's
5:15
Speaker 2: it's very clear that this war is very detrimental to
5:18
Speaker 2: European interest simply because of the energy aspect, because Europe
5:26
Speaker 2: overall imports almost sixty percent of its energy. I think
5:32
Speaker 2: the actual number is fifty nine percent. And obviously the
5:37
Speaker 2: big theme of this war is that energy prices are
5:43
Speaker 2: wellness with witnessing the biggest energy supply shock in history
5:49
Speaker 2: literally with oil prices on the energy prices and so
5:54
Speaker 2: I'm going through through the roof Katar, which was one
5:58
Speaker 2: of the big energy to players to Europe is basically
6:05
Speaker 2: off the grid, if you can speak this way. So
6:09
Speaker 2: it's extremely values for the European economy. So if if
6:17
Speaker 2: European you know, sort of index the opposition on their
6:23
Speaker 2: on their interests, they will be extremely against this war
6:27
Speaker 2: because of the energy question yourself, the migration question, uh,
6:31
Speaker 2: you know, as a remainder, Iran is a massive country
6:35
Speaker 2: with ninety million people, and if the war goes on,
6:39
Speaker 2: then of course you're going to have a big exodus
6:42
Speaker 2: from the country. That that's the way you know, it
6:45
Speaker 2: always goes in war on. So you may have millions
6:49
Speaker 2: of people live in the country and Europe is not
6:52
Speaker 2: far away. I mean you have Iran and then you
6:55
Speaker 2: have Turkey and then you have Europe, right so uh so,
7:00
Speaker 2: so you could see a Theoria like situation where or
7:06
Speaker 2: or Afghanistan like situation where you know, a lot of
7:11
Speaker 2: refugees found their way to U to Europe, which you
7:15
Speaker 2: know creates political problems on so and so forth. So
7:19
Speaker 2: no matter how you look at it, it's uh, it's
7:23
Speaker 2: very bad news for for for Europe. But the other
7:27
Speaker 2: European problem, of course is that we're so dependent on
7:31
Speaker 2: the US, which means that it's very hard for European
7:35
Speaker 2: leaders to say anything to direct against against the US.
7:41
Speaker 2: So that's why, uh, you're seeing the usual very weak,
7:48
Speaker 2: very weak response.
7:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Europe is kind of between a rock
7:54
Speaker 1: and hard place because you know, on one hand, they
7:56
Speaker 1: have been trying to win in themselves Russian energy and
8:01
Speaker 1: now Qatar was supposed to be making the Qatar gas
8:06
Speaker 1: was supposed to make up for the cutting off of
8:09
Speaker 1: the Russian gas, but now Qatar is also getting cut up.
8:12
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the reasons that compel United
8:16
Speaker 1: States to waiver the sanction against or what they say
8:19
Speaker 1: is a temporary waiver of sanctioning against Russian oil and gas,
8:25
Speaker 1: because they realized they really needed to increase the supply
8:29
Speaker 1: to the market, you know, because oil and gas are
8:32
Speaker 1: funible commodities. So if you take away a part of
8:37
Speaker 1: that supply, the supply constraint is gonna felt all across
8:43
Speaker 1: the world. But in Europe's case, it's going to be
8:47
Speaker 1: felt more acutely because you know, like like unlike some
8:53
Speaker 1: other countries, you know, China is actually pretty well positioned
8:57
Speaker 1: to the weather the storm, because China has did a
9:00
Speaker 1: massive build out of their bolder electric grid and also
9:05
Speaker 1: like sustainable energy like yeah, and nuclear go ahead, go ahead.
9:13
Speaker 2: Yeah. That was actually the topic of my etica because
9:17
Speaker 2: you know, everyone kept mentioning that the main target is China.
9:23
Speaker 2: That it was you know, I think Lindsey Ran, the
9:27
Speaker 2: US Senator, said that's a nightmare for China. But actually China,
9:33
Speaker 2: you know, many people don't realize how self sufficient it is.
9:37
Speaker 2: Like last year, I checked the statistics, it reached eighty
9:41
Speaker 2: five percent energy self sufficiency, like it generates domestically eighty
9:48
Speaker 2: five percent of its energy on Iran. When you look
9:52
Speaker 2: at it, it's only one point five percent of China's
9:55
Speaker 2: energy on the strait of fore moves is about a
10:01
Speaker 2: third of China's oil on the when when when you
10:06
Speaker 2: look at it on the total energy, it's way way
10:10
Speaker 2: lower than that. So and China has very big strategic
10:15
Speaker 2: reserves I think for six months wealth of of iron.
10:20
Speaker 2: So even if they received no oil from any country, uh,
10:26
Speaker 2: you know, it would be able to continue at the
10:31
Speaker 2: same consumption rate for for six months. And China has Russia,
10:36
Speaker 2: uh you know, which is the world's second biggest producer
10:44
Speaker 2: of oil. And contrary to Europeans, uh, they did have
10:50
Speaker 2: a very good relationship with with Russia. They've built pipelines
10:55
Speaker 2: and so and of course, uh so I actually on
10:59
Speaker 2: on on I wrote that this could actually prove to
11:02
Speaker 2: be good news for China because if anything, what this
11:06
Speaker 2: energy crisis is is the best advertisement ever for Chinese
11:12
Speaker 2: evs on the brain energy, right, because if if if
11:17
Speaker 2: you do like China, if you do ramp up of
11:20
Speaker 2: brain energy, and you get a lot of energy. From that,
11:24
Speaker 2: of course you're less uh less exposed to to changes
11:32
Speaker 2: in the in the price of oil and so on
11:34
Speaker 2: and so forth. So what we're very likely to see is,
11:38
Speaker 2: you know, a huge boom in exportations by China for
11:45
Speaker 2: for solar panels and so. And I'm seeing the discussion
11:48
Speaker 2: right here in Manesia because manager is actually not has
11:53
Speaker 2: not done a good job when it comes to green energy.
11:59
Speaker 2: On people hurting, like the price at the at the
12:02
Speaker 2: pump as almost doubled since the beginning of the of
12:09
Speaker 2: of of the Iran war. Uh and so that's obviously, uh,
12:14
Speaker 2: you know, hurting people's wallets in a big way. But
12:20
Speaker 2: if and you see very few EV's on the road,
12:23
Speaker 2: but if more people at EV's, if you're electristy generated
12:27
Speaker 2: by you know, solar panels, by wind on and so forth,
12:32
Speaker 2: then of course it would be much more resilient. So
12:35
Speaker 2: I think that would be one of the main lessons
12:37
Speaker 2: of this. Uh yeah, So on what I wrote in
12:43
Speaker 2: my out, don't worry about China, worry about Europe because
12:48
Speaker 2: they're in a much worst place than than China.
12:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm so glad I bought a Chinese TV last year.
12:56
Speaker 1: So I'm now I'm gonna put solar panels on my
13:00
Speaker 1: so I'll be more more, even more energy independent. So
13:05
Speaker 1: in Europe the case though, do you now Trump is
13:10
Speaker 1: repeatedly saying he wants to put a coalition together to
13:15
Speaker 1: open the straight or home moves. Do you do you
13:17
Speaker 1: think this well? Is there any possibility that any European
13:22
Speaker 1: country will actually join?
13:29
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I mean, if if you're the
13:31
Speaker 2: German statement Yesterdia was quite funny. I mean, Germany is
13:34
Speaker 2: not many one of the countries that is the most
13:37
Speaker 2: subservient through the US because they are literally occupied. Still
13:43
Speaker 2: to this day, you have massive American bases in Germany
13:48
Speaker 2: like Ranch time on certain and the German Defense minister
13:54
Speaker 2: quick literally toward the Americans to go f themselves like
13:59
Speaker 2: the statement great. So you know, I don't see this
14:04
Speaker 2: as a as as a likely as a likely possibility
14:08
Speaker 2: is basically Trumps mass On. No one wants to be
14:12
Speaker 2: involved in that, especially. I mean what the German minister
14:17
Speaker 2: said is like you have the American Navy, which you
14:22
Speaker 2: know is the world's most powerful navy. Uh, that's what
14:26
Speaker 2: he said. It's not true, it's China, but that's what
14:29
Speaker 2: he said, uh on, you know, what is a couple
14:33
Speaker 2: of German sheeps gonna do on top that you can't
14:38
Speaker 2: achieve it? It's like that doesn't make any sense. He
14:44
Speaker 2: basically said, you just want us to be involved to
14:47
Speaker 2: to sort of make us bear the uh sort of
14:53
Speaker 2: the political faught out from from from the whole thing,
14:56
Speaker 2: instead of having to on it yourself. So I think
15:01
Speaker 2: that is the that is what Trump is trying to do,
15:04
Speaker 2: and obviously no one wants to touch that with the ten.
15:09
Speaker 1: Football yeah, I mean, the United States is the largest
15:13
Speaker 1: military within NATO. I mean, if the United States can't
15:17
Speaker 1: can't do it, how is the expectation a couple more
15:20
Speaker 1: European ships will will will help? And militarily it's almost impossible,
15:25
Speaker 1: uh to to to to open the straight or hor
15:28
Speaker 1: moves when you know you run in miss South and
15:30
Speaker 1: Jones can reach it on all sides. And yeah, it's
15:35
Speaker 1: it's completely ridiculous. But what what is europe plan now?
15:40
Speaker 1: I mean, now now that it's in the position that
15:43
Speaker 1: it is in not all its own making, well okay, partial,
15:48
Speaker 1: I mean, like I think Europe do bear some responsibility
15:52
Speaker 1: for encouraging, uh United States adventures in in in the
15:56
Speaker 1: West Asia, but mostly it is still driven by the
16:01
Speaker 1: United States. What is what is a plan in Europe?
16:05
Speaker 2: Now?
16:05
Speaker 1: What is a political chatter within Europe? Like about US war?
16:14
Speaker 2: I mean I furumously the French chatter, uh and I
16:20
Speaker 2: mean quite university they were. I'm speaking about mainstream media
16:26
Speaker 2: and the mainstream politician. So at the beginning of the
16:31
Speaker 2: war they were quite through. I mean anti Iran basically,
16:40
Speaker 2: I mean the usual stuff like, you know, it's awful
16:43
Speaker 2: dictatorship on the region, what about Iranian woman and the
16:48
Speaker 2: you know, it's great if we if we get to change.
16:53
Speaker 2: But now that you have the energy fill out, the
16:58
Speaker 2: conversation has changed quite a bit, uh where you know,
17:02
Speaker 2: it's shifted to you know, Trump being in a in
17:05
Speaker 2: a quagmire basically, so everyone can see that things are
17:09
Speaker 2: not are not going well. But what the conversation is
17:16
Speaker 2: not on what people have, not on what worries me
17:20
Speaker 2: rat is people haven't understood the consequences for Europe. So
17:27
Speaker 2: they're all like they basically have a bit of a
17:29
Speaker 2: shadow freudo when it comes to Trump, like look at
17:34
Speaker 2: that idiots, what kind of mess it puts himself in.
17:38
Speaker 2: But when you look at its actually the consequences are
17:42
Speaker 2: probably far worse for Europe than than the US. UH.
17:46
Speaker 2: And again it's due to energy, Like the US is
17:50
Speaker 2: self sufficient when it comes to island, in fact, the
17:52
Speaker 2: amassive exporter of both oil and energy like that. Now
17:59
Speaker 2: that the world the biggest explorer of both. And so
18:05
Speaker 2: you know, it's not only negative for them, it's also
18:08
Speaker 2: positive because when energy prices increase, of course they make
18:15
Speaker 2: that much more profits. On who do the profit from
18:19
Speaker 2: from Europeans? I checked in twenty eighteen, so before the
18:25
Speaker 2: war in Ukraine, we used to import only four percent
18:31
Speaker 2: for oil and gas from the US. Now we're up
18:38
Speaker 2: to twenty three percent due to the war in Ukraine.
18:42
Speaker 2: And that's likely to increase even further with this because
18:46
Speaker 2: you know, Katar is off, but we still need that lergy.
18:51
Speaker 2: And of course the Americans are like, hey guys, we
18:57
Speaker 2: have energy sans so on. That conversation is not there
19:04
Speaker 2: in Europe. And even what worries me even more is
19:08
Speaker 2: that even people who should not many speak about those topics,
19:13
Speaker 2: Like in France we have that guy called Melosan maybe
19:16
Speaker 2: you've heard of him, so he's uh, you know, kind
19:20
Speaker 2: of the anti imperiodist left, so very you know, I
19:27
Speaker 2: would say quite anti American in the in the French
19:32
Speaker 2: tradition on San. But even he follows the Neo Can,
19:38
Speaker 2: the neo narrative that this war is about China and
19:42
Speaker 2: we need to be worried about China and San. I
19:46
Speaker 2: mean he follows the same script as the new as
19:49
Speaker 2: American Newcans, but obviously in the opposite way. So Newcans say,
19:55
Speaker 2: this is about China, We're gonna uncycle them, and it's great.
19:58
Speaker 2: On the Menoshans, Yeah, this is about China there there,
20:03
Speaker 2: you know, the US are gonna unsoccer them, and that's
20:06
Speaker 2: very worrying. But it's the same script, right, But what
20:11
Speaker 2: Minutia should really be worried about. It's not China, it's
20:14
Speaker 2: Europe because the situation so yeah, that's uh, that's what
20:18
Speaker 2: we're seeing, like no one cares about Europe anymore in Europe,
20:23
Speaker 2: which drives me crazy. Yeah.
20:27
Speaker 1: Even a few days ago Europe European country are still
20:31
Speaker 1: detaining Russian tankers, which is really crazy because at this
20:35
Speaker 1: time you want to increase the oil and gas supply,
20:39
Speaker 1: you don't how to further are constrained, uh, you know,
20:42
Speaker 1: like by taking off the Russian oil and gas off
20:45
Speaker 1: on the market. You're only going to help with the
20:48
Speaker 1: price increase. And this is also at this is also
20:52
Speaker 1: at the same time when United States itself already waivers
20:55
Speaker 1: the sanction and Russian oil and gas. It's really crazy
21:00
Speaker 1: because I saw the I think it was a minister
21:03
Speaker 1: of UH Sweden was boasting about how sweetened they just
21:09
Speaker 1: exercise their rights to seize the Russian tanker, Like, what
21:13
Speaker 1: are you doing? What what do you think you're doing
21:16
Speaker 1: in the context of this war. Yeah, it's it's it's nuts.
21:23
Speaker 1: I'm i and and I think this is gonna be
21:27
Speaker 1: People don't realize how much further impact is gonna go,
21:32
Speaker 1: even beyond the price at the gas pump, because China
21:35
Speaker 1: already announced, first of all, they have stopped exporting UH
21:40
Speaker 1: gasoline and diesel. You know, people might be surprised to hear, oh,
21:44
Speaker 1: China export gasoline and dialo. Yes, because China has a
21:47
Speaker 1: huge refining capacity. So China export a lot of gas
21:52
Speaker 1: and diesel to mostly to to Asian countries, you know,
21:55
Speaker 1: to places like Singapore. Of course, Singapore is not a
22:01
Speaker 1: h end consumer, it's just reseller and it sells to others.
22:05
Speaker 1: I saw a stats from Australia. Australia actually gets thirty percent,
22:10
Speaker 1: thirty two percent of jet fuel from Singapore and how no, no,
22:16
Speaker 1: from China. Thirty two percent of this jet field from China.
22:20
Speaker 1: Now it's cut off. China is not exporting that anymore.
22:23
Speaker 1: And China also has announced that it's gonna stop exporting
22:28
Speaker 1: the nitrien nitrogen potassium fertilizer, you know, because those are
22:33
Speaker 1: also synthesized from oil and gas. And and that's huge
22:37
Speaker 1: because you know, that's going to impact agriculture. We're now
22:40
Speaker 1: in the planting season, you know, in the spring, this
22:43
Speaker 1: is when uh there's a great demand for fertilizers, and
22:48
Speaker 1: and the stop of the stoppage of oil and gas
22:51
Speaker 1: coming out of golf also means a severe bottleneck on
22:57
Speaker 1: the fertilizer supplies all around the world. You know. Of course,
23:02
Speaker 1: of course China have to do what they uh have
23:05
Speaker 1: to do what they do to protect its own domestic industry,
23:09
Speaker 1: you know, and it's domestic agriculture. But the rest of
23:12
Speaker 1: the world, I mean, I don't know, I don't know
23:14
Speaker 1: what what what is going to happen? You know, the
23:17
Speaker 1: entire world's foots food food spies at jeopardy right now,
23:21
Speaker 1: all thanks to reckless action of Trump.
23:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's insane. On the on the carelessness with
23:33
Speaker 2: which Trump is replaying is uh is crazy. Like I
23:37
Speaker 2: saw just yesterday he said, uh, you know what, maybe
23:42
Speaker 2: we shouldn't be there. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea.
23:44
Speaker 2: I mean, it just careless, like he didn't like his
23:50
Speaker 2: own actional directly implanting their lives negatively of billions of people.
23:56
Speaker 2: And he's like, yeah, you know, maybe not not such
24:01
Speaker 2: a good idea after all. Uh yeah, So it's it's
24:06
Speaker 2: it's quite uh, it's quite insane, no scary.
24:10
Speaker 1: Okay. So there's no political pressure in Europe right now
24:14
Speaker 1: to you know, building up to two even uh, to
24:19
Speaker 1: bring a political solution to this. I mean like you
24:23
Speaker 1: would think at this point in time there will be
24:26
Speaker 1: a strong incentive among all other countries to pressure United
24:30
Speaker 1: States to stop in this insanity and and and to
24:35
Speaker 1: you know, I but but but it doesn't look like
24:39
Speaker 1: that's happening, at least not from the European quarters.
24:44
Speaker 2: No, no, no, it's uh uh uh. The only vice
24:50
Speaker 2: in Europe that you you hear against this is uh
24:54
Speaker 2: in Spain, so Pedro Sanchez. But uh, it's it's not
25:01
Speaker 2: it's not that important a country in Europe. Spain is
25:04
Speaker 2: relatively small country and literally the Lune vice. Uh. When again,
25:11
Speaker 2: if if if Europeans were pursuing the actor interest, they
25:16
Speaker 2: will all be speaking like like Spain, and and you
25:20
Speaker 2: can see why they don't because you know, the first
25:24
Speaker 2: thing that Trump did after Spain spoke out is uh
25:29
Speaker 2: is react violently saying that you will cut all trades
25:35
Speaker 2: relations with with the country. So that's delivery that.
25:43
Speaker 1: The Trump Trump statement was supported by the German Prime
25:46
Speaker 1: Minister Verds. He went out record and saying, yeah, well
25:51
Speaker 1: let's do that, let's embargo Spain, which is crazy exactly.
25:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, in the over office evalidated what what Trump was saying.
26:04
Speaker 2: Although to I think that me sous validation was more
26:11
Speaker 2: on uh on on native that Spain didn't want to
26:16
Speaker 2: increase it's its native spending UH to to the five
26:22
Speaker 2: percent that you know Trump was asking for, which is
26:26
Speaker 2: another topic like that is like a tribute payment, because
26:33
Speaker 2: Trump wants all European countries to increase their their defense
26:37
Speaker 2: spending to five percent. And of course where does that
26:41
Speaker 2: money go. It doesn't go to the European defense industry,
26:45
Speaker 2: it goes to to buy American American weapons, which is
26:50
Speaker 2: good for the American economy, and also it makes Europe
26:54
Speaker 2: even more dependent on the Americans. So Spain right was like,
27:00
Speaker 2: you know, that's madness. It doesn't make any sense no
27:05
Speaker 2: matter how you look at it. And that's what Mars
27:10
Speaker 2: was was reacting to. So, yeah, it's bleak. It's it's very,
27:14
Speaker 2: very bleak, and I'm afraid it will take a whole
27:19
Speaker 2: new generation of leaders in Europe to to get us
27:25
Speaker 2: out of that. And when you look at the next generation,
27:28
Speaker 2: like the young folks coming next, at least in France,
27:35
Speaker 2: they're also like, maybe even to a greater extent, completely
27:41
Speaker 2: oblivious to all those topics. So you know, I think
27:46
Speaker 2: it's it's not even going to be the next generation,
27:49
Speaker 2: but probably the one after that one. You know, it's
27:53
Speaker 2: the same weak men create hard times and on hard
27:59
Speaker 2: times create it's Chris strong men. We were far away
28:02
Speaker 2: from those strong strong men in Europe unfolduntly.
28:07
Speaker 1: Uh, we're just gonna see where we're just seeing the
28:11
Speaker 1: beginning of hard time right now. I mean, we're not
28:13
Speaker 1: even anywhere close to getting through the middle of it. Yeah,
28:18
Speaker 1: I think I think a lot of people have really
28:21
Speaker 1: grown complacent over the you know, eighty years after World
28:25
Speaker 1: War two, and and yeah, this is uh, it's it's
28:31
Speaker 1: it is what it is. Okay, So let's let's let's uh,
28:35
Speaker 1: I want to shift the focus a little bit back
28:39
Speaker 1: to Trump. You know, do you think do you think
28:43
Speaker 1: Trump is uh is trying to seeking an off ramp
28:47
Speaker 1: uh to to to wrap up this conflict, because you know,
28:51
Speaker 1: recently he made statements saying, uh, you know, he made
28:55
Speaker 1: made various statements to suggest you know, you know, you
29:00
Speaker 1: we we the United States, this is not even our business,
29:03
Speaker 1: you know, like we don't import that much oil from
29:05
Speaker 1: the from the Gulf. It's other country that should should
29:08
Speaker 1: you should be worried about it. You know, it seems
29:12
Speaker 1: like he's signaling that he's seeking some some sort of
29:16
Speaker 1: off ramps so he was able to get out of
29:20
Speaker 1: this conflict while still declaring victory, you know, mission accomplish
29:24
Speaker 1: basically Trump style. Do do you think that's likely?
29:29
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean it's that's clearly
29:32
Speaker 2: the case. He's clearly trying to to find a way out.
29:37
Speaker 2: And I think that's what's asked about about help it's
29:45
Speaker 2: all about Uh that's basically what he did in Ukraine, right,
29:48
Speaker 2: So the US was very much involved. And then when
29:52
Speaker 2: Trump came in, uh, you know, he promised to to
29:56
Speaker 2: serve the conflict in one day, but really what it
30:01
Speaker 2: did was, uh, you know, put all the buildings on Europeans, uh,
30:07
Speaker 2: you know, not not financing it anymore. Basically, it's a
30:12
Speaker 2: pr tactic because he knows the war is is being lost.
30:16
Speaker 2: So it's it's a pr tactic to you know, make
30:19
Speaker 2: sure that the the lass is on others and not
30:24
Speaker 2: on the US, so you can be one on.
30:28
Speaker 1: Person.
30:29
Speaker 2: I'm sure that if as Europeans or even as China
30:33
Speaker 2: you get involved, then you know, a few months down
30:37
Speaker 2: the line of a few weeks on the line is
30:39
Speaker 2: gonna be like you know, these goose els on their
30:43
Speaker 2: war in in in Iran. It's a good thing we
30:46
Speaker 2: got out, we got it with a win, and they're
30:49
Speaker 2: losing it like idiots. So yeah, that that's that's obviously
30:53
Speaker 2: it's plan, and that's why it's not going to work out.
30:58
Speaker 2: I mean Europeans, so exactly what happened with Ukraine, so
31:02
Speaker 2: the you know, Europeans are stupid, but not to that
31:06
Speaker 2: extent hopefully, uh on China. China, of course, like you've
31:12
Speaker 2: never heard of a great power seeing their adversary lose
31:17
Speaker 2: a war and be like, yeah, let's get involved great
31:23
Speaker 2: on the side of the Sorry, I mean, it makes
31:25
Speaker 2: zero sense whatsoever?
31:27
Speaker 1: Es Actually when all these pro Trump think tanks were
31:32
Speaker 1: televising that oh, this this war was really about United
31:37
Speaker 1: States trying to choke off in it just fight to China.
31:40
Speaker 1: And now you know, now Trump is publicly asking help
31:45
Speaker 1: from China to to end this, which is you know, where,
31:48
Speaker 1: where where? What can you do? When we live in
31:51
Speaker 1: the comedy hour and.
31:54
Speaker 2: Exactly it is quite funny, like from uh, you know,
31:58
Speaker 2: Lindsey Graham saying that this is as nightmare that a
32:01
Speaker 2: couple of days afterwards we have from literally inviting the
32:05
Speaker 2: PLA to to put in the spread of homos. It's
32:11
Speaker 2: it's actually quite funny. But yeah, I think, I mean,
32:20
Speaker 2: obviously the US is gonna, you know, remain alone in this,
32:25
Speaker 2: and then it's a question of how Trump can get
32:30
Speaker 2: out of it on its own without looking like too
32:33
Speaker 2: much of a failure. That's gonna be that's not gonna
32:39
Speaker 2: be difficult. That's why he might stay actually on double down.
32:44
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, That's what I'm worried about, because right now
32:47
Speaker 1: they have dismantled the fat anti missile system in South
32:53
Speaker 1: Korea and they're sending them over to West Asia. And
32:57
Speaker 1: also they just dispatch five thousand marines from the US
33:01
Speaker 1: basis in Okinawa, uh and they're on their way to
33:05
Speaker 1: sailing to to the uh To to wur Yourn right now.
33:10
Speaker 1: And and you know that it will take about at
33:13
Speaker 1: least two weeks for the new marines to to arrive.
33:17
Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, does that mean that the war is
33:20
Speaker 1: going to drag on for another two weeks? I mean,
33:23
Speaker 1: I don't know how much longer the we can take
33:27
Speaker 1: this closure of the the straight And by the way,
33:31
Speaker 1: you know, because earlier you said at the beginning of
33:35
Speaker 1: the war, the Europeans were quite uh you know, uh,
33:39
Speaker 1: you know anti Iran. I'm thinking beginning of the war
33:43
Speaker 1: was only like what, less than three weeks ago. It
33:47
Speaker 1: really it shows how much things change in three weeks time.
33:54
Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't that bad.
33:58
Speaker 2: And I think we're in the funny situation where I
34:02
Speaker 2: think most Americans even are against the ward now from
34:11
Speaker 2: you know what you see on on Twitter and so
34:14
Speaker 2: like even Newcans now against the world. Even John Burlton,
34:20
Speaker 2: whose entire career was all about war with Iran, like
34:25
Speaker 2: Trump has even less John Burlton.
34:27
Speaker 1: Uh.
34:28
Speaker 2: And it wouldn't surprise me if you did survey in
34:32
Speaker 2: the US if most Americans were were not rooting for
34:37
Speaker 2: Iran at this stage. Like, yeah, there is the I
34:45
Speaker 2: think there is a feeling, certainly in the West, amongst
34:49
Speaker 2: the population, even amongst the American population, uh, that this
34:54
Speaker 2: is just way too eubyistic. It's like peak Hubrey on
35:00
Speaker 2: the on its time, you know, America leans listen, but
35:05
Speaker 2: about those types of adventures because it's way too kenous,
35:10
Speaker 2: but about this. So yeah, whether Trump can actually person
35:18
Speaker 2: is uh is uh very doubtful.
35:23
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, there's actually an article that just came out on
35:30
Speaker 1: New York Times, well not just came out, like came
35:33
Speaker 1: out a week ago, Uh, that actually made the argument
35:38
Speaker 1: that United States this is gonna hurt US, uh, even
35:44
Speaker 1: more so than than it's US peers, including including Europe,
35:50
Speaker 1: because US is the US economy is more oil intensive
35:56
Speaker 1: than even Russia, you know, oil producing not oil producing country.
36:01
Speaker 1: America's economy is more than forty percent more oil intensive.
36:05
Speaker 1: Than China, and the European Union's economy is half as
36:10
Speaker 1: oil intensive as America's. Even Russia, a petro state, is
36:15
Speaker 1: about twenty percent less reliant on oil per unit of
36:18
Speaker 1: economic input than the United States. Is Yeah, I think it.
36:25
Speaker 1: It hasn't really sunk in yet because there's kind of
36:29
Speaker 1: delayed effect in the full impact of the closure of
36:34
Speaker 1: STRAIGHTA hormones. You know, people, people, people are really not
36:38
Speaker 1: liking this because the price at the pump has increased,
36:42
Speaker 1: But there's gonna be a whole a wave of inflationary pressures,
36:50
Speaker 1: you know, not just not just the price of the pump,
36:54
Speaker 1: because so much of the modern economy still depends on
36:58
Speaker 1: hydrocarbon unfortunately, you know, like we make everything from fertilizer
37:03
Speaker 1: to plastics and and now now and I just saw that,
37:09
Speaker 1: you know, Taiwan depends on sixty percent of this helium
37:14
Speaker 1: supplies from Qatar, and the helium is a very important,
37:19
Speaker 1: uh component in the simp sema conduct manufacturing. Yeah. So
37:26
Speaker 1: so there's the whole supply chain that's going to hit
37:30
Speaker 1: across the board.
37:31
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I think the picture is actually for the
37:35
Speaker 2: US it's mixed because it's it's it's very ill intensive,
37:40
Speaker 2: but they're also the world's main explorer of our companies
37:46
Speaker 2: are making big bags these days with with this, and uh,
37:53
Speaker 2: you know, Europeans and maybe other else will because the
37:58
Speaker 2: Middle East is so disrupted right now, will go to
38:00
Speaker 2: them to order more, you know, to get more supply.
38:04
Speaker 2: So there will be a mixed picture over the long run.
38:11
Speaker 2: It's certainly going to impress upon many countries that you know,
38:18
Speaker 2: dependence on oil is is too much. Dependence on oil
38:22
Speaker 2: is uh is a huge tragic liability. And so over
38:27
Speaker 2: the long run, it's actually favors China's model, which is
38:32
Speaker 2: depend on your on your son, on your wind instead
38:36
Speaker 2: of like be being the independent when it comes to energy.
38:41
Speaker 2: So I think, you know, that's one of the iron
38:44
Speaker 2: is with with the war, Trump presumably wanted to do
38:49
Speaker 2: it in order to get control of Iran's iron and
38:54
Speaker 2: so you know, the bigger, bigger share of the cake.
38:58
Speaker 2: If the cake is like global oil production, Uh, the
39:02
Speaker 2: US would control you know, on top of Venezuela now Iran.
39:09
Speaker 2: But I think the effect is also that it's gonna
39:12
Speaker 2: shrink the cake. So and in any case, it's not
39:16
Speaker 2: looking likely that that they're gonna get the Iran share
39:20
Speaker 2: of the cake. So yeah, it's although the long run,
39:24
Speaker 2: I think it's it's pretty bad for the US as well.
39:29
Speaker 1: By the way, Iran is the one that's actually dictating
39:32
Speaker 1: the flow of oil right now. I mean, Iran gets
39:35
Speaker 1: the disciple which oil tankers on, which country gets to
39:39
Speaker 1: go where it's not United States at this point.
39:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw there was there was a
39:48
Speaker 2: here are you statement yesterday by the US. Yeah, yesterday's
39:54
Speaker 2: cut Besson said, we've decided to allow Iran's ear to
39:58
Speaker 2: go through the Strait of almost which transius because you know,
40:04
Speaker 2: the whole issue is that Iran controls the trait performers
40:09
Speaker 2: and actually Irans uh, you know, it's going streets at
40:14
Speaker 2: the same rate as it's it's it was always the case.
40:19
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, And there's some dumb American commentators I
40:25
Speaker 1: think likes the Gordon Chance saying, oh, why are we
40:29
Speaker 1: allowing Iranian tankers to sail through, you know, on its
40:34
Speaker 1: way to China. Look, man, right now, the United States
40:38
Speaker 1: is doing whatever you can trying to increase the world
40:41
Speaker 1: oil supply. You know, more Iranian oil goes to China,
40:47
Speaker 1: it actually relieves the pressure on the world oil market
40:51
Speaker 1: because oil is a commodity, is a coligible commodity. If
40:55
Speaker 1: China buys more oil from Iran, that means China can
41:00
Speaker 1: will purchase less oil phones elsewhere, free up more oil capacities.
41:06
Speaker 1: This is this is why United States attack on on
41:12
Speaker 1: on the on the on the Uranian island that hosts
41:14
Speaker 1: the majority of Uran's oil facilities. They targeted everything except
41:21
Speaker 1: the Uranian oil facilities because even United States understand they
41:26
Speaker 1: need to increase the they need to increase the oil supply,
41:29
Speaker 1: not to further constrain it. So yeah, it's it's crazy times, man,
41:35
Speaker 1: crazy times we live in.
41:37
Speaker 2: And uh there is also a big AI dimension which
41:42
Speaker 2: is quite interesting. I don't know if you saw, but
41:46
Speaker 2: the only I think the only Trump administration of Visher
41:50
Speaker 2: who publicly went against the war is David Sikes, who
41:57
Speaker 2: is the AI exa big because he understands that you know,
42:02
Speaker 2: for AI, this is terrible news because AI is a
42:06
Speaker 2: lot about the price of energy and about global supply
42:11
Speaker 2: chains of uh, you know, semiconductors and so on, like
42:15
Speaker 2: you just pointed out. You know, semiconductor production relies on
42:20
Speaker 2: helium and so on and so forth. And also they
42:24
Speaker 2: had huge AI plans in the Middle East. So you know,
42:32
Speaker 2: David Sex inaugurtion a five gigawatts data center I think
42:40
Speaker 2: it was in Catar, the world's biggest for AI, and
42:46
Speaker 2: it said this would be like transformation, uh for for
42:51
Speaker 2: us AI. It will enable us to you know, take
42:55
Speaker 2: the lead or whatever. Like he had several codes like
42:58
Speaker 2: like this. Uh. You know, a couple of weeks after
43:03
Speaker 2: East President uh literally you know, umbris the entire region
43:08
Speaker 2: into a regional war. So you see that is not
43:15
Speaker 2: quite quite happy.
43:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean a lot of people don't realize
43:22
Speaker 1: the reason they're putting a lot of AI centers in
43:25
Speaker 1: West Asia, particularly in the golf countries, is because they
43:29
Speaker 1: AI is very energy intensive, so they put AI data
43:33
Speaker 1: center right next to the source of energy. And now
43:37
Speaker 1: now that now you run in missouts and jones are
43:39
Speaker 1: hitting those very same AI AI data centers. Yeah, and
43:45
Speaker 1: and and not to mention that the us AI bubble,
43:50
Speaker 1: they require a lot of funding coming from the golf money,
43:56
Speaker 1: I mean the the whole like the five hundred billion
44:02
Speaker 1: UH investment into Stargate project. They that that money wasn't
44:06
Speaker 1: you know, there were it wasn't Americans that was supposed
44:10
Speaker 1: to expect to come up with the money it was
44:12
Speaker 1: supposed to come from those golf monarchies. Uh and and
44:16
Speaker 1: and the golf countries recently just announced that they're going
44:19
Speaker 1: to curtail their investment into the United States because they
44:22
Speaker 1: need that money themselves to to to to focus on rebuilding.
44:27
Speaker 1: So yeah, this is going to have multiple uh multiple
44:31
Speaker 1: clay multiplication uh effect on US economy because you you know,
44:38
Speaker 1: US economy, if you take away all these AI investment,
44:42
Speaker 1: you know, the economy is actually not growing like like
44:47
Speaker 1: a lot of the so called growth it was actually
44:50
Speaker 1: in the AI sector. You know, if you take that away,
44:53
Speaker 1: US will be in recession already the.
44:59
Speaker 2: Exactly. That's uh, that's very venues. And another thing that
45:03
Speaker 2: David Sach said that I thought was interesting also super scary,
45:08
Speaker 2: is how close uh, the entire region is too liter
45:17
Speaker 2: annihilation because as he pointed out, you know it's a desert. Obviously,
45:24
Speaker 2: most of those countries and on the rely a lot
45:28
Speaker 2: on disalination facilities, and I think, for instance, read the
45:37
Speaker 2: country the capital of Saudi Arabia is relies entirely on
45:42
Speaker 2: one big disalination plant. So if that one is heat
45:49
Speaker 2: or disrupted in any way or if you know a
45:54
Speaker 2: lot of those facilities are disrupted, you could be seeing
45:58
Speaker 2: quickly the end of life in the entire region. Uh
46:03
Speaker 2: So this is insane, and this could happen because you
46:07
Speaker 2: already had I think, I don't know if it was
46:12
Speaker 2: the US or Israeli hits when disalination plants in uh
46:16
Speaker 2: in Iran. So yeah, you know, they've they've started, they've
46:24
Speaker 2: started to hit those types of fat cities. And it's
46:27
Speaker 2: not only about you know, uh a desalination plant could
46:32
Speaker 2: be out of service even if it doesn't get hit.
46:36
Speaker 2: So for instance, it would be enough. I spoke to
46:39
Speaker 2: a specialist about that. It would be enough if there
46:42
Speaker 2: was a massive Irish spear in the sea, which could
46:47
Speaker 2: very what happened with all the missiles on the drone
46:51
Speaker 2: attacks on oil cargo. So if there was a massive
46:56
Speaker 2: Irish spear, then obviously the the what are that will
47:01
Speaker 2: be extracted from the sea would be tainted and so
47:06
Speaker 2: those desalination plans could not function and that would have
47:11
Speaker 2: the same the same impact. So we are actually very
47:14
Speaker 2: very close to uh to to massive catastrophe that could
47:20
Speaker 2: in the end of life. As we know. It's in
47:22
Speaker 2: the Middle East, which is quite crazy.
47:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is really you know, you mentioned that US
47:29
Speaker 1: is really striking your only desalination plan. Iran also depend
47:36
Speaker 1: on desalination plants, but their dependencies like in the single digits,
47:42
Speaker 1: whereas the other countries in the Gulf. Uh, you know
47:46
Speaker 1: it goes up to like eighty ninety percent. And even Israel,
47:50
Speaker 1: Israel's sixty percent of Israeli drinking water come from just
47:54
Speaker 1: five desalination plants. So this, yeah, this is going to
47:58
Speaker 1: be that you know, restricted war is going to be
48:02
Speaker 1: terrible for all this for all these so called US allies.
48:07
Speaker 1: And this is why I thinking away Irung is single
48:12
Speaker 1: handedly dismantling the US imperial system in West Asia right
48:16
Speaker 1: now because a lot you know, the whole cost benefit
48:21
Speaker 1: analysis for these countries to be part of the US
48:25
Speaker 1: imperial system is that US was supposed to provide them
48:29
Speaker 1: with a security umbrella. Well look right now, looks like
48:32
Speaker 1: that security umbrella is very leaky or even not existent
48:37
Speaker 1: in some cases. So uh and and and and in terms,
48:42
Speaker 1: they're actually bearing the costs. They're bearing the cost of
48:46
Speaker 1: being being hit by Irani miss out. The US alliance
48:50
Speaker 1: is not making them safer, it's actually making them the target.
48:54
Speaker 1: And I think that that's the lesson also too, you know,
48:59
Speaker 1: for for for the so the US allies in East Asia,
49:05
Speaker 1: you know, all those all those US bass in in
49:10
Speaker 1: South Korea, in Japan, in the Philippines, in Australia, while
49:16
Speaker 1: witness what's happening to those spaces in West Asia right now.
49:20
Speaker 1: And just keep in mind that China has a magnitude
49:24
Speaker 1: more missiles, more advanced missiles in store. So uh, you know,
49:30
Speaker 1: all the countries, I think the back of their mind, Uh,
49:35
Speaker 1: they have to realize what this means, and this could
49:38
Speaker 1: be a shake up of the whole security system around
49:42
Speaker 1: the world.
49:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, there was this narrative in some American media.
49:51
Speaker 2: Yeah that's uh. You know, countries like Saudi Arabia lobby
49:55
Speaker 2: the US too intervenio. But I I spoke to a
50:00
Speaker 2: couple of specialists of Saudi Arabia and to mean, it's
50:03
Speaker 2: the exact contrary, like the breeding not want this war
50:07
Speaker 2: because they understood full well that the consequences would be
50:10
Speaker 2: very negative for them. On there, Uh, they gained nothing
50:15
Speaker 2: from from this and uh uh yeah. Another point is
50:22
Speaker 2: that in terms of security arrangement with these wars or shows,
50:28
Speaker 2: is the very small limits of American power. I mean
50:34
Speaker 2: just two weeks, Uh, the entire arsenal is getting deepleted
50:40
Speaker 2: by uh you know, relatively weak power that is Iran
50:45
Speaker 2: to the extent that they need to bring in, you know,
50:49
Speaker 2: additional supplies that they I don't come to them from, uh,
50:54
Speaker 2: from from Asia, like the the third from from thaus Korea,
51:00
Speaker 2: the marineses from Japan on so and so forth. So
51:06
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's another whole in the you know,
51:12
Speaker 2: this is uh a strategy to contain China. Uh you know,
51:16
Speaker 2: it's it's the first step on on the Grand world
51:19
Speaker 2: towards China. Like uh you know, if you think if
51:23
Speaker 2: if Iran can do this to the US in two weeks,
51:27
Speaker 2: like there is literally no hope uh no hope against China.
51:34
Speaker 2: Uh So yeah, I think it's it's it's impresses upon
51:39
Speaker 2: like everyone can can see, can can see that, like
51:42
Speaker 2: the the king is naked.
51:44
Speaker 1: Basically, Yeah, this is why I uh you know, I've
51:48
Speaker 1: been telling people, especially some people in the on the
51:53
Speaker 1: left or on the resistance, what whatever you call it,
51:56
Speaker 1: they uh you know, they seem to think that US
51:59
Speaker 1: is omniputent beast. You know that now maniputent but omni
52:05
Speaker 1: present that can be all at all places at all time. No, no, no,
52:09
Speaker 1: US Empire faced serious resource constraint. If anything this war
52:14
Speaker 1: has shown is that, you know, forget about war against China.
52:18
Speaker 1: You know that, don't even think about it. It's not
52:21
Speaker 1: not gonna it's not gonna happen. And the pivot to Asia,
52:25
Speaker 1: as it turns out, is a pivot to West Asia. Right,
52:29
Speaker 1: They're they're literally dismantling their their their military hardware right
52:33
Speaker 1: now in the Asia Pacific region to ship to the
52:37
Speaker 1: to to West Asia.
52:38
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, I'm one of represents with you on
52:43
Speaker 2: this is genuinely the thing that annoys me the most
52:47
Speaker 2: on the so called anti im parodist left, Like there
52:52
Speaker 2: are a lot of people who oppose US imparodism in practice,
52:58
Speaker 2: in theory, sorry, but they insist on the US etonal
53:03
Speaker 2: nights in practice. Like to me, that's uh, that is
53:08
Speaker 2: the same as being an incurred. It's at the end
53:10
Speaker 2: of the day, you're like.
53:13
Speaker 1: It's it's an inversion of the kind of American central
53:16
Speaker 1: you know, you're just there, you're just being American centric
53:19
Speaker 1: from a different perspective, right, like like ex yeah, yeah,
53:23
Speaker 1: there's it's just it's just an American inversion of American exceptionalism. Uh,
53:28
Speaker 1: you know, US is the exceptional. US is exceptional in
53:33
Speaker 1: some ways, but come on, it's not a it's not
53:36
Speaker 1: an omnipotent being that can can do whatever you want.
53:41
Speaker 1: There's there's there's limit, there's there's limit of physics, there's
53:44
Speaker 1: limit of resources.
53:46
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, And that's why I'm I'm always a bit
53:50
Speaker 2: uncomfortable with the narrative that whenever any anything happens anywhere,
53:56
Speaker 2: it's always the CIA on the US behind behind its
54:00
Speaker 2: like first story, it means that no one outside the
54:04
Speaker 2: US has any agency because it's only ever the US
54:09
Speaker 2: decides anything that happens anywhere in the world, like people
54:13
Speaker 2: can't decide for on their own, which is already you know,
54:17
Speaker 2: kind of racist in a way, or at least denying that,
54:23
Speaker 2: you know, anyone as free will outside of Americans. And
54:29
Speaker 2: I think it's actually that's the type of narrative that
54:32
Speaker 2: actually pleasues the CIA enormously.
54:37
Speaker 1: Well they're company.
54:41
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, yeah, yeah, uh you know that, like yeah,
54:46
Speaker 2: the even people who oppose US think that we're like, uh,
54:52
Speaker 2: we're like this omnipotent mighty falls. That is, that is everywhere,
54:56
Speaker 2: that's exactly what we want them to think, when actually
54:59
Speaker 2: the true is that, you know, as is obvious in
55:03
Speaker 2: the war in Iran, Uh, the actually is stunningly incompetent.
55:08
Speaker 2: Uh not very strategy at.
55:11
Speaker 1: All, very and very dumb, very dumb. Uh. Well that
55:17
Speaker 1: that uplifting note. I think we can wrap this up, Arnold.
55:23
Speaker 1: If people want to follow your work, where would they go? H?
55:29
Speaker 2: So it's easy. I'm on Twitter and step stack under
55:32
Speaker 2: my name.
55:35
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you, uh, Arnold Pertryan. Ladies and gentlemen always
55:41
Speaker 1: give him a make sure to give him a follow,
55:43
Speaker 1: he writes very eloquently on you know, on every all
55:50
Speaker 1: the China related matters, you know, highly respected. I always
55:54
Speaker 1: read your your tweets. You know, normally I don't bother
55:57
Speaker 1: with really long tweets because I don't have time for that.
56:00
Speaker 1: But for your tweets, you know, they're actually provide real value.
56:05
Speaker 1: So thank you for that, Arnold, and thanks for everyone
56:09
Speaker 1: who tuned in. Until next time, Bye bye,