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US strikes 5 Iranian tankers near Kharg Island · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Breaking news, we have just obtained new video of U.S.
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  Speaker 1: strikes on five Iranian oil tankers in retaliation for Iran
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  Speaker 1: firing ballistic missiles at a U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Navy ship.
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  Speaker 1: The video comes as a top Iranian military official warns
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  Speaker 1: that U.S. bases in the Middle East will be targeted
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  Speaker 1: if Iran's oil tankers are attacked. And those U.S. bases
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  Speaker 1: are now incredibly vulnerable and diminished because of the Iran war. Tonight,
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  Speaker 1: CNN reports that U.S. officials are in fact discussing reducing
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  Speaker 1: America's military presence in the Middle East and if and
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  Speaker 1: when the conflict ends, in part because U.S. bases have
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  Speaker 1: suffered substantial damage in the war. And by the way,
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  Speaker 1: getting rid of those bases, to be clear, is a
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  Speaker 1: key Iranian demand of any peace deal. Out front now,
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  Speaker 1: retired Army Major General Randy Manor. And I appreciate your time, General. So,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we are learning tonight about this major series
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  Speaker 1: of strikes, Iranians targeting U.S. bases in Jordan, and we
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  Speaker 1: can see a lot of missiles in the sky, whether
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  Speaker 1: that's clusters or because of interceptions, right? There's a lot
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  Speaker 1: in the sky there. How at risk are U.S. troops
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  Speaker 1: right now.
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  Speaker 2: There is considerable risk to U.S. forces in the Middle East.
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  Speaker 2: We still have not been able to modify our techniques
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  Speaker 2: of intercepting large numbers of drones. Many of those situations
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  Speaker 2: you're seeing in that video imply, again, a large number
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  Speaker 2: of not missiles necessarily, high-speed missiles, but rather some types
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  Speaker 2: of drones that are propelled by rocket, obviously, because they're
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  Speaker 2: lighting up the sky. Our troops are at risk because
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  Speaker 2: we've not adapted to this new form of warfare the
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  Speaker 2: way the Ukrainians have.
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  Speaker 3: So the U.S.
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  Speaker 1: Now is, you know, the response is they're striking Iranian
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  Speaker 1: oil tankers. You've got this base retaliation from Iran and
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  Speaker 1: this reduction in military presence, right, that we're reporting is
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  Speaker 1: being discussed. That's happening because of a reality, which is
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  Speaker 1: that while there has not been much transparency from the
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  Speaker 1: United States, there has been significant damage to U.S. bases, right?
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  Speaker 1: And CIA presence near some of those bases. So retired
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  Speaker 1: Army General David Petraeus recently said something, you know, incredibly
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  Speaker 1: blunt and quite shocking, really. I mean, he was willing
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  Speaker 1: to say this about the U.S.
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  Speaker 4: Military.
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  Speaker 1: Let me play it. It's using that.
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  Speaker 5: Has enormous leverage, both the ability to hold our bases,
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  Speaker 5: although we have moved a lot of the assets that
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  Speaker 5: used to be in the eastern Gulf states.
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  Speaker 3: Those bases are no longer viable.
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  Speaker 1: It's the last line there, General. I just wanted to
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  Speaker 1: give you a chance to respond to the assets in
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  Speaker 1: the eastern Gulf states. I mean, we're talking Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, right?
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  Speaker 1: You're talking about all of those massive bases, right? Massive bases,
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  Speaker 1: Fifth Fleet. General Petraeus is saying those bases are no
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  Speaker 1: longer viable.
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  Speaker 2: I don't mean to correct the general. I believe that
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  Speaker 2: it is something where we don't have the kind of
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  Speaker 2: air defense we need to be able to cover all
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  Speaker 2: of the bases we have there, especially the high value targets.
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  Speaker 2: For example, you're not going to see any large ships
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  Speaker 2: docking in Bahrain anymore. It's just too lucrative a target,
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  Speaker 2: too expensive for the United States if it was to
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  Speaker 2: lose it. Remember that we have over a brigade's worth
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  Speaker 2: of armored vehicles, hundreds and hundreds of tanks. and armored
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  Speaker 2: personnel carriers in Kuwait right now. It took a long
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  Speaker 2: time to get them there. It would take a long
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  Speaker 2: time to get them out. And we will not abandon those.
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  Speaker 2: We need to protect those assets on the ground. So
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  Speaker 2: I think what we're going to see, perhaps quite frankly,
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  Speaker 2: is an adjustment of the assets we keep in the
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  Speaker 2: Middle East because we have to tighten our defenses until
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  Speaker 2: we modify the way that we counter these drone attacks.
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  Speaker 2: And that means large value, high value targets like an
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  Speaker 2: AWACS aircraft or like a aircraft carrier. You're not going
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  Speaker 2: to see them in the Gulf in that area anymore.
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  Speaker 2: In contrast, other ones where you cannot move large amounts
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  Speaker 2: of armored vehicles. We've got to figure out a way
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  Speaker 2: to protect them.
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  Speaker 3: The U.S.
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  Speaker 5: Military, we are told, targeted multiple Iranian tankers near Karg
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  Speaker 5: Island earlier today. That's a key piece of land in
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  Speaker 5: the Persian Gulf. CNN National Security Analyst Alex Plitsis joins
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  Speaker 5: us now. Alex, so a US official tells us that
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  Speaker 5: this is in response to attempted missile attacks on a
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  Speaker 5: US Navy warship by the Iranians. What are you hearing?
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  Speaker 4: So that is what I'm hearing as well. And this
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  Speaker 4: is the second such attempted attack, one over the weekend
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  Speaker 4: and then one that was undisclosed as of yesterday. And
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  Speaker 4: there's some concerns that the Iranians may be getting some
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  Speaker 4: outside technical assistance from a state actor, such as either
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  Speaker 4: China or Russia, and that these missiles, these new missiles,
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  Speaker 4: as they're calling it, could be using electrical optical seekers,
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  Speaker 4: in which case they would still need to have general
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  Speaker 4: direction of the ships. But that's an advancement that they
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  Speaker 4: hadn't previously seen. This is now strike number two in
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  Speaker 4: the last couple of days. And so the U.S., I think,
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  Speaker 4: was sending a clear message back to the Iranians that
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  Speaker 4: they're not going to get away with it.
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  Speaker 5: Karg Island has been a consistent flashpoint. At one point,
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  Speaker 5: President Trump weighed even putting U.S. troops on the ground there.
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  Speaker 5: Remind us why Karg Island is so important.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly.
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  Speaker 4: So it is incredibly important. If we look at the
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  Speaker 4: imagery that's now up on screen, you'll see Karg Island
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  Speaker 4: is all the way up at the top of the
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  Speaker 4: Arabian Gulf there, the Persian Gulf, as you'll see. And
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  Speaker 4: that's the loading station for about 90 percent of the
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  Speaker 4: oil from Iran that comes out of there. So the
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  Speaker 4: idea was behind seizing it, if U.S. forces were to
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  Speaker 4: seize the terminals there themselves, the Iranians wouldn't want to
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  Speaker 4: blow up their ability to actually get oil out in
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  Speaker 4: the U.S., but then kind of negotiate over its release.
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  Speaker 4: At least that was the concept being discussed or floated.
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  Speaker 4: And the president's tweeted multiple times, or at least his
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  Speaker 4: true social posts, that he would blow it up potentially
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  Speaker 4: in retaliation for things happening. He released an image of
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  Speaker 4: AI-generated image of Karg Island, suggesting that it could be hit.
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  Speaker 4: And I think it was a warning to the Iranians
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  Speaker 4: following two attempted attacks on ships that we, U.S. naval
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  Speaker 4: ships we just talked about. And then to back that up,
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  Speaker 4: he now hit the tankers around the island, I think,
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  Speaker 4: to further that message to the Iranians that if they
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  Speaker 4: keep this up, Karg Island is next. But now we're
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  Speaker 4: hearing response Chinese have just warned ships in the region
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  Speaker 4: around Kuwait and other places that they could be struck
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  Speaker 4: in response to this latest U.S.
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  Speaker 2: Attack.
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  Speaker 4: So this could actually now see an escalatory pattern of
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  Speaker 4: violence coming shortly.
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  Speaker 5: Do White House officials believe the U.S. has this under control?
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  Speaker 3: Do they worry about escalation? Well, it's certainly hard to
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  Speaker 3: come up with a strategy when you can't trust your
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  Speaker 3: enemy and your enemy is unpredictable. And as you noted,
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  Speaker 3: the strikes are in response and retaliation for Iranian attempted
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  Speaker 3: strikes at a U.S. Navy carrier. And this comes just
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  Speaker 3: days after Vice President J.D. Vance said that he didn't
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  Speaker 3: believe that you could call what was happening in Iran
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  Speaker 3: a war, citing specifically that there was no fire being traded. Now,
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  Speaker 3: that had been shortly after we had seen an exchange
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  Speaker 3: of fire. And now, of course, we are seeing this again.
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  Speaker 3: And we have to remember that the White House wants
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  Speaker 3: this as far away from them as possible. They understand
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  Speaker 3: that there's not going to be an end. to the war,
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  Speaker 3: but they are trying to get out of these military operations,
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  Speaker 3: which they have intelligence that shows isn't really helpful when
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  Speaker 3: it comes to Iranians getting to the negotiating table. But
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  Speaker 3: on top of that, it is a reminder to the
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  Speaker 3: American people when these attacks go on that they are
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  Speaker 3: still in a war with Iran. And this war is
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  Speaker 3: deeply unpopular. with Americans across the board. So the strategy
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  Speaker 3: has been and has been tried by this administration, continues
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  Speaker 3: to be tried by this administration, is one of economic
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  Speaker 3: strangulation of Iran. But they obviously at the same time
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  Speaker 3: cannot let any kind of attacks on U.S. ships or
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  Speaker 3: on any ships that are passing through the Strait of
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  Speaker 3: Hormuz or, as it was a week and a half ago,
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  Speaker 3: the Iranians trying to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz,
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  Speaker 3: they can't let that happen without any kind of retaliation.
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  Speaker 3: And it doesn't seem as though Iran is going to
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  Speaker 3: stop anytime soon. So it does appear that there's going
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  Speaker 3: to be a back and forth continuously as long as
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  Speaker 3: Iran is going to strike ships, as long as Iran
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  Speaker 3: is going to play dirty in the Strait of Hormuz
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  Speaker 3: by laying these mines that the United States, President Trump
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  Speaker 3: says they've cleared. We have no indication that Iran is
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  Speaker 3: going to stop anytime soon.