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OneLegUpAlex Media Welcomes Mike Brest of The Washington Examiner As Iran Conflict Escalates 3-4-26 · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, and welcome inside One Leg Up alex Media.
0:03
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite months. It's the month of March.
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Speaker 1: Let's celebrate with some Irish music. Welcome aboard to this
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Speaker 1: edition on One Leg Up alex Media. All right, well,
0:17
Speaker 1: you know, sixteen years ago today I did my first
0:19
Speaker 1: play by play on a college radio station. Now, how
0:23
Speaker 1: evolved we've become. At One Leg of alex Media. We're
0:25
Speaker 1: talking politics, we're talking news, We're talking things that matter
0:29
Speaker 1: to us as taxpayers. And yes, what's on everybody's mind
0:33
Speaker 1: right now isn't sports at all. In fact, it's actually
0:36
Speaker 1: this Iran conflict. And Mike Brest, the defensive reporter for
0:40
Speaker 1: the Washington Examinar, My goodness. I had to have you
0:42
Speaker 1: on for the first time in a very evolving situation.
0:46
Speaker 1: I mean, Mike, I feel like none of us have
0:48
Speaker 1: gotten sleep tracking all of this updates here since we
0:51
Speaker 1: attacked Irana on Saturday, right.
0:54
Speaker 2: I certainly have happened, so I'm happy to know that
0:57
Speaker 2: there are others who haven't as well.
0:58
Speaker 1: Well. Tell us where we are. It's Wednesday, March fourth,
1:01
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, and I feel like that's important because
1:03
Speaker 1: these dates are gonna just keep piling on. So where
1:06
Speaker 1: are we as a march forward? What what have been writing
1:09
Speaker 1: about and researching? And you know yesterday Trump and Rubio
1:12
Speaker 1: meeting with the press. But where are we today?
1:14
Speaker 2: So today, the US has conducted about two thousand or
1:19
Speaker 2: so strikes inside Iran. They're doing this jointly with Israel,
1:24
Speaker 2: and so they have taken out the Supreme Leader, which
1:27
Speaker 2: they did in the opening strikes, and they've continued to
1:31
Speaker 2: hit military targets, the Iranian Navy, who has taken extraordinary hits,
1:37
Speaker 2: as has their air capabilities. And so the US, jointly
1:43
Speaker 2: with Israel, have really gone after Iran very hard in
1:46
Speaker 2: the first couple of days of this conflict, and they've
1:49
Speaker 2: done so to try and limit Iran's ability to respond,
1:55
Speaker 2: and so that's really one of their what that has
1:58
Speaker 2: been one of their priorities so far, is in trying
2:00
Speaker 2: to reduce Iran's ability to retaliate. And so they've gone
2:05
Speaker 2: after not only senior military leaders, but their stockpiles and
2:10
Speaker 2: arsenals of ballistic missiles production facilities, as well as their
2:16
Speaker 2: drone capabilities. And so this really has been a very
2:20
Speaker 2: extraordinary campaign. And we're only as you said, a couple
2:23
Speaker 2: of days in into a campaign that the president and
2:27
Speaker 2: senior officials belief could go on for multiple weeks.
2:31
Speaker 1: Well, you know, President Trompiez was saying there might have
2:35
Speaker 1: been intelligence that they were going to attack first. Is
2:37
Speaker 1: that instinct or were there reports that maybe there was
2:40
Speaker 1: going to be an attack by Iran that we had
2:42
Speaker 1: to subdue. What are your thoughts on that comment alone?
2:46
Speaker 2: So it's really hard to sort of shift through everyone's comments,
2:52
Speaker 2: But from the officials I've spoken to, it sounds like
2:56
Speaker 2: Iran had not given up their long term desire to
3:01
Speaker 2: try and be prepared for conflicts with the United States
3:04
Speaker 2: and have the ability to hurt the United States in
3:07
Speaker 2: that conflict. It seems to be somewhat of an open
3:10
Speaker 2: debate about how close they were to acquiring a nuclear weapon,
3:17
Speaker 2: especially considering the strikes the US did about a year ago,
3:21
Speaker 2: And so it sounds like the whether or not they
3:25
Speaker 2: were on the precipice of being able to create a
3:27
Speaker 2: nuclear weapon was only a part of their deliberations. And
3:32
Speaker 2: another part of it was Iran's significant ballistic missile capacity,
3:38
Speaker 2: where they've extended a couple hundreds so far and are
3:42
Speaker 2: supposedly have significantly more left in their arsenal, even though
3:47
Speaker 2: the US and the Israelis are going after their systems
3:50
Speaker 2: that they used to launch said missiles.
3:53
Speaker 1: And when he knocked out a lot of different nuclear
3:57
Speaker 1: sites last year, did he knock out everything? I heard
3:59
Speaker 1: there were that we may not have knocked every part
4:02
Speaker 1: of their operations out? Is that true?
4:05
Speaker 2: So the US only targeted three of their nuclear facilities
4:09
Speaker 2: last it was the end of June, and so asigned
4:14
Speaker 2: from those three facilities, anything that was left intact at
4:18
Speaker 2: the conclusion of the Israeli war would have still been there.
4:22
Speaker 2: And according to US officials, they had since then tried
4:26
Speaker 2: to rebuild their capacity and their sort of and their facilities,
4:32
Speaker 2: and so they did not completely destroy the entire nuclear program.
4:38
Speaker 2: They were specifically targeting three facilities that they believed were
4:43
Speaker 2: some of the most hardest to target, and so that's
4:46
Speaker 2: why the US got involved in the way they did.
4:51
Speaker 1: Mike, you know, I'm hearing reports that we also thank
4:53
Speaker 1: an Iranian naval ship. Is that accurate? I mean, you know,
4:56
Speaker 1: all these outlets are reporting, but I feel like only
4:58
Speaker 1: those that are followers dated can give us the acurate information.
5:01
Speaker 1: So tell us, is it accurate that we did sink
5:03
Speaker 1: in the Iranian naval ship.
5:05
Speaker 2: We did that. That's the Secretary confirmed that earlier this
5:10
Speaker 2: morning in a briefing with reporters, and it was he
5:14
Speaker 2: said it was sunk by a US submarine. It was
5:17
Speaker 2: the first time a US Navy submarine had sunk an
5:21
Speaker 2: enemy warship in a time of war since World War Two.
5:24
Speaker 1: In fact, and you know what, I remember, Mike, as
5:28
Speaker 1: years ago they actually tied up a lot of our
5:31
Speaker 1: soldiers on an Iranian ship and I'm like, you know,
5:34
Speaker 1: no one was out, everybody was outgent about that. But
5:36
Speaker 1: now they're not cheering this. It doesn't make sense how
5:39
Speaker 1: they're sectors that are not cheering any of this. It
5:42
Speaker 1: boggles my mind. Mike.
5:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it really has been just sort of you know,
5:50
Speaker 2: it's hard to it's hard to conceptualize everything that's happened
5:53
Speaker 2: over the early parts of this war because so much
5:57
Speaker 2: has changed and we're clearly living through a time of
6:00
Speaker 2: upheaval in the Middle East, and you know, it's hard.
6:03
Speaker 2: It's hard to realize you're living in history as you're
6:06
Speaker 2: living through it.
6:07
Speaker 1: I got to ask you this when these when the
6:11
Speaker 1: Iranian regime, when the Aetola was killing. Its dissonance is
6:15
Speaker 1: that when you think the flip switched, because I feel
6:17
Speaker 1: like up until that point, there was still not gonna
6:20
Speaker 1: go after him. But maybe after these distance were killed,
6:23
Speaker 1: you know, these protesters, that might have flipped the switch
6:25
Speaker 1: in a lot of people's minds. What do you think.
6:28
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting because it seemed like this had
6:32
Speaker 2: been something that had been simmering for a long time.
6:34
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people are asking the
6:36
Speaker 2: question of why now, and so one of the potential
6:41
Speaker 2: explanations of the to answer the question of why now
6:45
Speaker 2: is the situation with the protesters. At the end of December.
6:47
Speaker 2: In early January, the president told them that help is
6:52
Speaker 2: told the Iranian protesters that help is on the way,
6:55
Speaker 2: and deployed significant American military assets to the region, and
7:00
Speaker 2: then ultimately, as we saw, started, you know, started a war.
7:04
Speaker 2: And so it's unclear exactly what prompted them to act
7:10
Speaker 2: carry out this war right now as opposed to a
7:12
Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago. We're in a couple of weeks
7:15
Speaker 2: from now. But that has been one of the central
7:19
Speaker 2: questions that I think people are trying to understand.
7:22
Speaker 1: As as a reporter and a follower, of this, Didn't
7:25
Speaker 1: it shake? Make your head shake? When they apparently want
7:28
Speaker 1: a negotiation saying, oh, we have a bunch of Uranian
7:30
Speaker 1: that we're not afraid to use. Like who talks like
7:32
Speaker 1: that when trying to negotiate. It didn't seem like they
7:34
Speaker 1: wanted to negotiate with the US to begin with it,
7:37
Speaker 1: did they.
7:38
Speaker 2: It's interesting because the you you have two sides in
7:43
Speaker 2: a negotiation, and both sides have been trying to play
7:46
Speaker 2: to their domestic audiences. And so we've heard the Trump
7:49
Speaker 2: administration say the Iranians never really wanted a deal, and
7:53
Speaker 2: we heard the Iranians, you know, effectively say the opposite
7:56
Speaker 2: to their own people. And so it's hard to sift
7:59
Speaker 2: through exactly what happened behind closed doors in these negotiations,
8:03
Speaker 2: but it seems pretty clear that the Iranians were testing
8:06
Speaker 2: the President's patients and that those ultimately ran out.
8:11
Speaker 1: All right, So I understand. Also, you're covering when Iran
8:14
Speaker 1: is retaliating. So the retaliations have pretty much stayed in
8:19
Speaker 1: the Middle East. That's concerning of itself, isn't it.
8:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, So Iran retaliations have involved going after Israel and
8:29
Speaker 2: after US military bases, embassies, in several Gulf countries, and
8:36
Speaker 2: so I think this surprised some people in how quickly
8:40
Speaker 2: Iran's retaliations went towards American assets in different countries. And
8:47
Speaker 2: so that's still playing out. And so tragically, in one
8:53
Speaker 2: of those retaliatory drone strikes or drone operations way Irani
9:00
Speaker 2: and Kamakazi, drone hit a command center for the United
9:04
Speaker 2: States in Kuwait, which is where six American service members
9:08
Speaker 2: were killed on Sunday. And so the Iranian response is
9:14
Speaker 2: no joke. And the soldiers who are are the service
9:18
Speaker 2: members of the fifty thousand or so service members in
9:21
Speaker 2: the Middle East are very much at risk.
9:24
Speaker 1: Mike, as a defense reporter, and I think as an American,
9:27
Speaker 1: we all want the fullest information, right, So does the
9:31
Speaker 1: peace mealing kind of annoy you? I mean, we kind
9:35
Speaker 1: of understand that too, but we want more information, don't we.
9:39
Speaker 2: I've never found a journalist who was satisfied with the
9:42
Speaker 2: information they had.
9:45
Speaker 1: How do you go about in these times of conflict,
9:49
Speaker 1: you know, getting through I mean, obviously I have a
9:51
Speaker 1: lot of sources on the ground, I'm sure and all that,
9:53
Speaker 1: So how do you make sure DC Examiner readers get
9:56
Speaker 1: the best information on a daily because this is an
9:59
Speaker 1: hourly situation I.
10:00
Speaker 2: Feel, I think, especially how you phrase it at the
10:04
Speaker 2: end is very important, which is this is at a
10:07
Speaker 2: time of war. Things happened very quickly, and so we
10:12
Speaker 2: try our best to learn the most up to date
10:15
Speaker 2: news as it happens, try and confirm it as quickly
10:17
Speaker 2: as possible. And the reality is there often are mistakes
10:22
Speaker 2: in the early stages, are in the fog of war,
10:25
Speaker 2: and so it's trying to understand exactly what happened, how
10:31
Speaker 2: it happened, and get confirmation about it. And so it
10:35
Speaker 2: is difficult, and it does feel like there are new
10:38
Speaker 2: stories to report on every single day on the conflicts
10:41
Speaker 2: and just sort of even with daily updates about you know,
10:45
Speaker 2: since yesterday, this is how things have progressed. These are
10:47
Speaker 2: new details, and so it's always trying to track down
10:51
Speaker 2: what those new details are and doing our best to
10:55
Speaker 2: confirm them.
10:56
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I like, is I come to someone
10:58
Speaker 1: like you and say, okay, I've heard this and the
11:00
Speaker 1: other is that confirmed? Because you would know bet. You
11:02
Speaker 1: would know best. I guess Bresno's best. That's kind of interesting,
11:05
Speaker 1: but you would know best since you're literally writing about
11:08
Speaker 1: this on the on the you know, hourly for DC Examiner.
11:12
Speaker 1: And then I understand last night we did another situation
11:14
Speaker 1: with the Ecuador. I mean, what's going on with that?
11:17
Speaker 1: It seems like Trump's unleashing a bunch of different fronts
11:19
Speaker 1: here at the same time.
11:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, So the Ecuador situation caught a bunch of people
11:25
Speaker 2: off guard, and it was a little I mean, it
11:27
Speaker 2: caught me off guard, to be honest with you, given
11:29
Speaker 2: everything else that is going on. But the reality is
11:33
Speaker 2: the situation in Ecuador. And so for those that don't know,
11:38
Speaker 2: the US military, in conjunction with their Ecuadorian partners, launched
11:43
Speaker 2: an operation targeting a cartel that has been designated a
11:47
Speaker 2: designated terrorist organization. And so this was a significant move
11:51
Speaker 2: because the US hadn't done something like this, even though
11:56
Speaker 2: this is a part of their broader i would say,
11:58
Speaker 2: Western Hemisphere operation strategy. And so the situation currently in
12:03
Speaker 2: Ecuador ties into their broader efforts to sort of stop
12:08
Speaker 2: the illegal drug flow and economic sources for cartels and
12:14
Speaker 2: gangs in Central and South America. And so this ties
12:18
Speaker 2: all the way back into the strikes on drug boats
12:22
Speaker 2: allegedly coming from Venezuela and other countries in the Caribbean
12:26
Speaker 2: and South America towards the United States, and also the
12:31
Speaker 2: raid to capture Venezuela and Dictator Nicholas Maduro, and so
12:35
Speaker 2: all of those things sort of tipe more broadly into
12:38
Speaker 2: the administration strategy for how to try and get the
12:42
Speaker 2: countries in the Western Hemisphere to work with them on
12:45
Speaker 2: countering the cartels and trying to cut off their lifelines.
12:50
Speaker 1: I want to ask you this about Venezuela versus Iran.
12:52
Speaker 1: I feel like Venezuela was like one night flash in
12:55
Speaker 1: the pan operation where we just go in and get
12:58
Speaker 1: Madua and bring them to Brooklyn. But they didn't say
13:01
Speaker 1: we're going to say that long term militarily unless I
13:03
Speaker 1: missed that, whereas an Iran they have said, I mean,
13:06
Speaker 1: what's the difference.
13:08
Speaker 2: So you raise an interesting question, And the way I
13:10
Speaker 2: would compare them is the Venezuela raid is much more
13:14
Speaker 2: closely aligned with Operation Midnight Hammer and the US militaries
13:18
Speaker 2: targeting of Iran's nuclear facilities last year. And so as
13:23
Speaker 2: you said, in both cases Venezuela and the first Iran
13:26
Speaker 2: strikes last year, these were very short missions that lasted
13:30
Speaker 2: only a matter of hours, and the president was able
13:33
Speaker 2: to make comments publicly about the success of both missions
13:37
Speaker 2: within a matter of hours from the time they began.
13:40
Speaker 2: And so this what we're currently seeing in Iran today
13:45
Speaker 2: is a much different type of campaign and is much
13:49
Speaker 2: and will be much longer and more intense than anything
13:52
Speaker 2: the president, the current president has done in either his
13:55
Speaker 2: first term or his second. As it relates to the
13:59
Speaker 2: length of the fight and the number and you know,
14:04
Speaker 2: the number and force power and manpower involved in the
14:07
Speaker 2: fight itself.
14:08
Speaker 1: All right, during the I have that First of all,
14:12
Speaker 1: how long have you been a reporter with Washington Examper, Like,
14:15
Speaker 1: have you been a defense reporter for a long time,
14:16
Speaker 1: even during the Bying years? I mean what because in
14:19
Speaker 1: the Bying years we didn't have much military presence anywhere,
14:22
Speaker 1: it felt like, so it's a very different situation here.
14:25
Speaker 1: But what was that defense covering like compared to this.
14:29
Speaker 2: So I started covering defense for the Examiner in twenty
14:33
Speaker 2: twenty one, So it's been five.
14:34
Speaker 1: Years, and in those five years is the most action
14:38
Speaker 1: I feel like any we've taken. And so were you
14:42
Speaker 1: writing in the in the Buying years, like why weren't
14:44
Speaker 1: we taking action? I feel like that was the question
14:46
Speaker 1: during the buying years, wasn't it.
14:48
Speaker 2: Well, so there's always been conflict long before I was
14:53
Speaker 2: a defense reporter, and there will be conflict long after
14:56
Speaker 2: I'm a defense reporter. And so right when I was starting,
14:59
Speaker 2: the US was le eating Afghanistan.
15:02
Speaker 1: And oh yes, that that disaster, and you had to
15:05
Speaker 1: cover that. I mean, that was just we can all
15:08
Speaker 1: agree that was domin effect to Ukraine being attacked. I mean,
15:11
Speaker 1: that ineptitude of that withdrawal must have it was the
15:16
Speaker 1: catalyst for a lot of this too, exactly.
15:19
Speaker 2: And so from there, as you mentioned, it went into
15:23
Speaker 2: Russia invading Ukraine in February twenty twenty two, and then
15:28
Speaker 2: a year and a you know, a little over a
15:31
Speaker 2: year or two later was October seventh, which put the
15:34
Speaker 2: entire Middle East on a war footing. And so while
15:39
Speaker 2: the tempo of US operations is very high right now,
15:46
Speaker 2: there has always been conflict that the US was I
15:49
Speaker 2: would say adjacent to.
15:52
Speaker 1: But I'm sure you've seen the difference in that I
15:55
Speaker 1: felt like Biden was throwing money and Obama was too
15:57
Speaker 1: throwing money at I ran to try and play it,
16:00
Speaker 1: but that just wasn't working. I mean, it just they
16:03
Speaker 1: seem to be spunding their terrorist arm I'm sure you're
16:05
Speaker 1: reporting that over the years. Also because all the money
16:08
Speaker 1: we gave them went to Hesbilah and Hamas. I mean,
16:11
Speaker 1: is that that's not conspiratorial, is it?
16:14
Speaker 2: No? So Iran, at least until recently, was a tremendous
16:20
Speaker 2: supporter of its proxies in the region. And you know,
16:23
Speaker 2: we've seen Israel go to war with each and every
16:26
Speaker 2: one of them since October seventh, and that includes Hamas
16:30
Speaker 2: and Gaza, Hezbola and Lebanon, the Huthis and Yemen, as
16:35
Speaker 2: well as various militias in Iraq and Syria. And we
16:38
Speaker 2: also saw the Assad regime fall in Syria. And so
16:42
Speaker 2: it is somewhat amazing just to put into perspective the
16:45
Speaker 2: amount of upheaval and change that we've seen in the
16:48
Speaker 2: region since October seventh, so for about in about three
16:51
Speaker 2: years time.
16:53
Speaker 1: And also it's amazing how we saw the three people
16:56
Speaker 1: of Iran really start to find their voice. I mean,
16:59
Speaker 1: before were the protests, they were burning the burkas. I mean,
17:02
Speaker 1: there was a lot of activity going on that maybe
17:04
Speaker 1: the average American was not following.
17:08
Speaker 2: Absolutely, there's so much going on in the world. It's
17:10
Speaker 2: hard to follow every single storyline all over the globe,
17:13
Speaker 2: but you're absolutely right and that the protesters have continuously,
17:19
Speaker 2: at various points over the last almost decade, come out
17:22
Speaker 2: in protest of the regime almost across the nation, and
17:26
Speaker 2: it forced the regime security forces to crack down and
17:30
Speaker 2: crack down hard. And so we've heard reports that, you know,
17:34
Speaker 2: there were thousands of Iranian protesters who were killed during
17:38
Speaker 2: this latest eruption of protests in late December early January,
17:43
Speaker 2: and you know, it put Iran in the president's crosshairs
17:47
Speaker 2: at least in the immediate future, and we've seen how
17:49
Speaker 2: that's played out so far.
17:51
Speaker 1: I keep thinking of how they need approval for this
17:53
Speaker 1: approval of that in your recollection, when bind did do
17:57
Speaker 1: strikes or Obama did do strikes, and they did do
17:59
Speaker 1: a few on different targets, did they get approval or
18:02
Speaker 1: do they just strike? I feel like everyone's now to
18:04
Speaker 1: a lot approval, but these other presidents just struck and
18:07
Speaker 1: everybody was happy about it.
18:09
Speaker 2: So I think it's interesting because Congress does have the
18:14
Speaker 2: ability to declare war, and that is sort of a
18:18
Speaker 2: power that's designated specifically for Congress. Even though Congress over
18:22
Speaker 2: the last couple of decades have slowly seeded some of
18:26
Speaker 2: that power to the executive branch, giving the president, and
18:30
Speaker 2: that could be whoever it's been in recent time, I
18:33
Speaker 2: would say, more leeway in how to lead the armed forces.
18:38
Speaker 2: And obviously the president is the commander of the armed forces,
18:41
Speaker 2: so the president can choose to do what they want. However,
18:47
Speaker 2: at least by the book, Congress is the entity that
18:51
Speaker 2: has the ability to officially declare conflicts.
18:56
Speaker 1: All right. I think one of the biggest things that
18:58
Speaker 1: the President started out with was is he renamed the
19:00
Speaker 1: Department of Defense Department of War. I mean, was that
19:04
Speaker 1: a foreshadow or was that just happen since it's like
19:07
Speaker 1: talk about the meaning of it now a year later
19:10
Speaker 1: after he renamed it.
19:12
Speaker 2: So a lot of I think when the Secretary and
19:17
Speaker 2: the President decided to rename the Department of Defense the
19:19
Speaker 2: Department of War, they were trying to do it as
19:24
Speaker 2: a sort of mentality shift to go along with some
19:27
Speaker 2: of the other policies that they were implementing across the department.
19:32
Speaker 2: And so one of the phrases that Secretary HEG. Sith
19:37
Speaker 2: used as frequently is restoring the warrior ethos and so
19:42
Speaker 2: in it, I think the Secretary would say, change with
19:45
Speaker 2: the name falls into that mantra, which is a mantra
19:49
Speaker 2: he is, you know, champion throughout his first year as secretary,
19:54
Speaker 2: and so I don't know if there is, you know,
19:57
Speaker 2: any sort of connection to what we see in terms
20:00
Speaker 2: of policy, but it does seem like changing the name,
20:05
Speaker 2: and it was only It's interesting because the name is
20:09
Speaker 2: changed on the building, but officially it still is the
20:14
Speaker 2: Department of Defense. It has almost a nickname as the
20:16
Speaker 2: Department of War because Congress is again the only entity
20:20
Speaker 2: this is, you know, just a tight end, is the
20:22
Speaker 2: only entity that can change the name because the name
20:25
Speaker 2: was given by Congress, and so it would take a
20:28
Speaker 2: congressional piece of legislation to formally change the name. And
20:31
Speaker 2: so the Pentagon did this as a roundabout way, you know,
20:35
Speaker 2: to avoid distracting Congress from taking up some of its time.
20:39
Speaker 2: And so it really comes down to I think the
20:42
Speaker 2: Secretary's perspective on trying to change sort of the mentality
20:47
Speaker 2: of the building.
20:48
Speaker 1: All right, I want to highlight a Trump quote what
20:51
Speaker 1: he told Zelensky. You mean, if we're in a war,
20:54
Speaker 1: we can suspend an election. I mean, it was a
20:57
Speaker 1: very odd thing to say. But looking at it now,
21:01
Speaker 1: are we headed down that route or we have resolutions
21:03
Speaker 1: here before the midterms.
21:06
Speaker 2: I think it would be surprising if it got any
21:09
Speaker 2: or close to the midterms. But I've been wrong before.
21:13
Speaker 1: And I mean, you cover everything about the defense, So
21:16
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about this the contracts. I mean,
21:20
Speaker 1: it's sort of a new ship, but it is a
21:22
Speaker 1: big deal with the defense. Have you change the way
21:24
Speaker 1: they do contracts change under Trump first Biden or what
21:27
Speaker 1: are you notice any different with that? I'm curious.
21:30
Speaker 2: So that's another one of I think the Secretary's uh,
21:34
Speaker 2: I would say, big goals. And so the Secretary has
21:38
Speaker 2: tried to change the way the department is handling defense
21:44
Speaker 2: contracts and you know, engage engaging with defense industrial companies.
21:50
Speaker 2: And so the Secretary has gone on several trips to
21:54
Speaker 2: various manufacturing companies across the United States to talk about
21:59
Speaker 2: the importance of trying trying to rebuild the defense industrial base,
22:03
Speaker 2: because the American defense industrial base for the last couple
22:07
Speaker 2: of decades really slowed down. And if there's anything that
22:11
Speaker 2: these conflicts between Russia and Ukraine as well as what
22:14
Speaker 2: we're seeing currently in the Middle East, and what we've
22:16
Speaker 2: seen in the Middle East over the last couple of
22:17
Speaker 2: years is that stockpiles can run out really quickly, and
22:21
Speaker 2: so the US is trying desperately to fix years of
22:26
Speaker 2: underdevelopment in terms of their stockpiles and in terms of
22:30
Speaker 2: the development of additional weapons systems. And so that's something
22:36
Speaker 2: that has been top of mind for the administration, and
22:39
Speaker 2: there are reports that the President intends to meet with
22:44
Speaker 2: some of those defense industrial leaders later this week amid
22:49
Speaker 2: comments that he made about US stockpiles.
22:52
Speaker 1: Currently, all right, the word of the day yesterday when
22:56
Speaker 1: it came to defense is munition. So where are you
22:59
Speaker 1: with that? Do we have a lot, do we have
23:02
Speaker 1: unlimited as Trump said yesterday, or where are we with that?
23:06
Speaker 2: So it's hard to know exactly because a lot of
23:10
Speaker 2: that information is classified. However, the reality is that this
23:15
Speaker 2: was a concern that defense officials had before this war,
23:19
Speaker 2: and so it was one of the reasons why the
23:22
Speaker 2: US stopped giving as much a to Ukraine is because
23:26
Speaker 2: of perceived concerns about stockpiles. And so, you know, the
23:33
Speaker 2: president would know better than me what exactly the American
23:37
Speaker 2: stockpiles look like. But the fact that the Secretary has
23:40
Speaker 2: spent weeks traveling to defense industrial based companies to meet
23:45
Speaker 2: with local workers, and local factory workers would demonstrate to
23:50
Speaker 2: me that they know that this is a concern, and
23:53
Speaker 2: so they're trying to get ahead of it and ensure
23:56
Speaker 2: there aren't long term issues.
24:00
Speaker 1: All right, I want to ask about this. The thought was,
24:06
Speaker 1: and maybe it's confirmed that we let that there was
24:08
Speaker 1: a lot of our munitions left behind in Afghanistan. Whatever
24:13
Speaker 1: happened to those that did tal did the Talban take it?
24:16
Speaker 1: Did the bad guys take it? Or that is that
24:18
Speaker 1: just conjecture?
24:20
Speaker 2: So the Taliban has been documented with some American technology.
24:27
Speaker 2: The US also destroyed some of its technology that it
24:30
Speaker 2: wouldn't be able to take on its way out of Afghanistan.
24:36
Speaker 1: From your seat, could could the lives we lost have
24:38
Speaker 1: been prevented? I mean, I don't know if you want
24:40
Speaker 1: to apply on it, but could it? How much different
24:43
Speaker 1: could the woodraw have gone? And did you write about
24:46
Speaker 1: that extensively? Like we could have done this differently back
24:48
Speaker 1: in twenty one?
24:50
Speaker 2: So in twenty one, one of the big issues was
24:55
Speaker 2: how quickly the Afghan army collapsed, and so there were
25:00
Speaker 2: people who did not expect the Afghan army to collapse
25:04
Speaker 2: as quickly as it did, which prompted sort of the
25:06
Speaker 2: chaotic scene that unfolded before US. And so had the
25:11
Speaker 2: Afghan army been able to stand up and hold up
25:15
Speaker 2: until the US left at the end of August twenty
25:18
Speaker 2: twenty one, we wouldn't have seen many of the issues
25:21
Speaker 2: we saw. And then another aspect of that, of you know,
25:25
Speaker 2: a big component of that withdrawal was that the US
25:28
Speaker 2: evacuated over one hundred thousand people in the final week
25:32
Speaker 2: because they were afraid of what would happen to them,
25:35
Speaker 2: given the talent, given the Taliban had overtaken the government,
25:39
Speaker 2: and so had the Afghan Army been able to prevent
25:44
Speaker 2: that from happening, we likely wouldn't have seen the thirteen
25:46
Speaker 2: Americans killed at Abby Gate. And so I think there
25:52
Speaker 2: are some similarities between what we're seeing right now with
25:56
Speaker 2: Americans who are stranded in the Middle East, but there
26:01
Speaker 2: are there are a lot of differences as well, and
26:05
Speaker 2: so hopefully there are no additional American casualties, but US
26:12
Speaker 2: officials have warned that there could be.
26:15
Speaker 1: Mike, I gotta ask you, this Sealed Team six was
26:17
Speaker 1: so praise and so lauded for killing Bid and Laden,
26:21
Speaker 1: but these different operations, I don't hear any praise for
26:24
Speaker 1: these soldiers. I mean, well, we get these guys on
26:26
Speaker 1: television to tell their story. I feel like we need
26:28
Speaker 1: to hear how they were able to capture Maduo from
26:31
Speaker 1: a first time perspective, how they were able to kill
26:34
Speaker 1: you know, the Ietola. I mean, these moments maybe not
26:38
Speaker 1: should be praise in that sense, but they should be highlighted.
26:41
Speaker 1: They should be uh acknowledged. And yes, I do think
26:44
Speaker 1: praise personally, but I don't know I feel about that,
26:46
Speaker 1: But they these operations should be acknowledged.
26:49
Speaker 2: I would love to speak with them personally, and I
26:52
Speaker 2: know a lot of journalists who would. I think there
26:55
Speaker 2: are concerns for some of those people who don't who
26:58
Speaker 2: would write. You know, a lot of people who carry
27:01
Speaker 2: out these missions want to be able to keep doing
27:04
Speaker 2: those types of missions, and sometimes that means not being
27:08
Speaker 2: in the public eye, at least in the immediate future,
27:11
Speaker 2: other career continues.
27:14
Speaker 1: If he had a d NEX to his name, would
27:16
Speaker 1: Trump be praised right now? I feel like that's a
27:18
Speaker 1: big part of this.
27:19
Speaker 2: Also, I think it's hard to tell, given that Democrats
27:25
Speaker 2: have largely been I would say, more averse to conflict
27:30
Speaker 2: with Iran historically, considering you know, the President Obama agreed
27:36
Speaker 2: to the nuclear deal, which was criticized by Republicans at
27:40
Speaker 2: the time, and then ultimately President Trump withdrew from that
27:42
Speaker 2: during his first turn.
27:45
Speaker 1: Now, obviously Iran was supposedly self reporting a lot of
27:50
Speaker 1: the time. Was that a concern into this too, like
27:52
Speaker 1: we don't believe what they're reporting us. I mean, obviously
27:55
Speaker 1: there has been a lot of skepticism over what they're
27:57
Speaker 1: reporting and self reporting. I mean, that had to go
27:59
Speaker 1: into this as well.
28:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was that was definitely contribution to where the
28:05
Speaker 2: Americans were in terms of negotiations, because to them, it's
28:10
Speaker 2: not enough to get you on to agree to something,
28:12
Speaker 2: but there have to be safeguards and measures in place
28:15
Speaker 2: to be able to confirm that they're abiding by whatever
28:19
Speaker 2: the agreement looks like.
28:21
Speaker 1: All right, I think one of the bigger things I
28:23
Speaker 1: want to ask you is they've identified four I believe,
28:26
Speaker 1: unless they did all six of the service members killed,
28:29
Speaker 1: and we thank them for their service. I don't want
28:33
Speaker 1: to sound you know, whatever, but could there be more
28:35
Speaker 1: that they're not telling us that got killed? Is that
28:37
Speaker 1: a possibility.
28:39
Speaker 2: So it's hard to know. But given that the six
28:44
Speaker 2: who were killed were killed on Sunday in a drone
28:49
Speaker 2: one way drone attack, I think it would be unlikely
28:52
Speaker 2: that there are more service members who were killed in
28:55
Speaker 2: that attack. That being said, senior mill Try leaders have
29:00
Speaker 2: been very clear eyed in acknowledging the possibility of additional
29:03
Speaker 2: casualties before this.
29:04
Speaker 1: Is over, and that leads to my next question, Mike,
29:10
Speaker 1: I think we're all worried about boots on the ground.
29:15
Speaker 1: I mean, could there be is this really going to
29:19
Speaker 1: be the next step? I mean they haven't really talked
29:21
Speaker 1: about it that way, but is this going to be
29:22
Speaker 1: the next step?
29:24
Speaker 2: It could be. It's hard to know exactly, and I
29:26
Speaker 2: think a big part will depend on how things move
29:29
Speaker 2: from here. But the President does not seem or has
29:34
Speaker 2: not seemed to want to put boots on the ground
29:35
Speaker 2: in many place, has given his track record, but also
29:39
Speaker 2: it feels like this war against Iran was also would
29:42
Speaker 2: also not have fit into the track record either, So
29:46
Speaker 2: only time will tell. And Secretary Hegseith explicitly did not
29:50
Speaker 2: rule it out, but to not say they would do it.
29:53
Speaker 1: I been a lot of this is also based on
29:57
Speaker 1: our enemies. I'm not just im, but I mean a
29:59
Speaker 1: rush and China. I mean, does all of that play
30:04
Speaker 1: in because remember how strong a partnership they have with
30:07
Speaker 1: Russia and China Iran, I mean, this might decimate it
30:10
Speaker 1: somewhat right that their relationship and hinder it.
30:14
Speaker 2: One And so it has been interesting to watch because
30:20
Speaker 2: Russia has not come to the defense of multiple allies.
30:25
Speaker 2: It did not come to the defense of Venezuela prior
30:28
Speaker 2: to during the US build up there. They did not
30:32
Speaker 2: come to the defense of Iran during the first US
30:37
Speaker 2: strikes last year. They did not even come to Asad's
30:41
Speaker 2: defense in Syria when his regime was crumbling around them.
30:44
Speaker 2: And so Russia has shown its allies that if you
30:51
Speaker 2: look at its track record, it will not come to
30:53
Speaker 2: your aid if you are in trouble.
30:57
Speaker 1: And of course this is coming time where Trump is
31:01
Speaker 1: still trying to get the Russia Ukraine conflict and war.
31:05
Speaker 1: I should say figured out I got to ask you
31:08
Speaker 1: about that summit back in August on that specifically, because
31:12
Speaker 1: that summit was so historic bringing all those leaders in.
31:15
Speaker 1: Were you covering that at all when they were trying
31:17
Speaker 1: to get solutions done at the White House. I mean,
31:19
Speaker 1: that was just unbelievable. He had Zelenski, there, had all
31:21
Speaker 1: these leaders there. I mean, that was quite a moment
31:24
Speaker 1: in that war alone.
31:26
Speaker 2: It was a it was a big moment because it
31:29
Speaker 2: came right after the Trump Putin summit in Alaska, and
31:33
Speaker 2: there were concerns about what happened in that conversation or
31:38
Speaker 2: what deals could have been struck in that conversation.
31:41
Speaker 1: And honestly felt very productive. But there's still no real
31:46
Speaker 1: solution to that. I'm sure he's got to figure this out.
31:48
Speaker 1: And then, you know, I gotta ask a couple more questions.
31:52
Speaker 1: He then wants to do a friendly takeover of Cuba.
31:56
Speaker 1: Nothing about this has been friendly with Venezuela or area.
31:58
Speaker 1: What does he mean by friendly take over? Do you think?
32:02
Speaker 2: I think it's his way of recognizing that that Cuba
32:06
Speaker 2: does not post a military threat or opposition should the
32:11
Speaker 2: US decide to act.
32:14
Speaker 1: All right, I gotta ask you this sort of pulp
32:17
Speaker 1: culture question, because we all know Colin Joe's does have
32:20
Speaker 1: a great little bit impersonating. Heg seth is heset that energized.
32:25
Speaker 1: I mean, does he like downing for locals and everything?
32:28
Speaker 1: Is that? Is he that hypeer what he's on on
32:31
Speaker 1: the stage doing these different briefings or is that just exaggeration.
32:35
Speaker 2: It's a little bit of exaggeration, But I think hegseth.
32:38
Speaker 2: You can see it in the videos that he posts
32:40
Speaker 2: from time to time about doing PT in the morning
32:43
Speaker 2: with different troops. Uh, this is a guy who likes
32:46
Speaker 2: being around service members, and so I think he is
32:52
Speaker 2: doing just that and is trying to do his best
32:54
Speaker 2: to carry out his and the president's mission.
32:59
Speaker 1: Also, I love it gone when we have breaking news
33:01
Speaker 1: and you can confirm that with us, because this isn't
33:05
Speaker 1: just our conversation could be posted three hours later. Things change,
33:08
Speaker 1: you know. It's just that rapid right now. So I'd
33:09
Speaker 1: love to bring you on again as more breaking news happens.
33:12
Speaker 1: But how did you get into defense? I feel like
33:14
Speaker 1: that's a very sort of niche thing or unique thing
33:17
Speaker 1: to get into, is how did you get into defense?
33:18
Speaker 1: Were you in the service yourself?
33:21
Speaker 2: I was not, in fact in the service, and I
33:23
Speaker 2: was recently out of college. I was covering breaking news
33:27
Speaker 2: and I was given the opportunity to stay in my
33:30
Speaker 2: position or take a promotion to cover the Pentagon, And
33:33
Speaker 2: so the beat that was assigned before me was the
33:37
Speaker 2: energy beat, which I would not have liked. And the
33:40
Speaker 2: beat that was after me was that had an opening,
33:44
Speaker 2: was the economy, And so I got lucky that national
33:47
Speaker 2: security was the one that fell in my lap.
33:51
Speaker 1: But we can say how all of them tied together.
33:53
Speaker 1: Now with all this, you know, fight for oil, it
33:57
Speaker 1: seems like or oil reservations that is in the forefront.
34:00
Speaker 1: Is oil a concern in Iran as well? Or is
34:03
Speaker 1: there a different motive here.
34:06
Speaker 2: I think there is a possibility that it was a
34:07
Speaker 2: part of the calculation.
34:12
Speaker 1: Well, Mike, this has been a really informative conversation and
34:15
Speaker 1: I'm so glad to meet you for the first time.
34:17
Speaker 1: I love to have you back on as things progressed,
34:20
Speaker 1: because this is this intens times. And did you ever
34:24
Speaker 1: think covering defense, you'd ever see a leader of a
34:28
Speaker 1: you know, a terrorist state like Iran. You know, the
34:31
Speaker 1: regime is terrorist, Mikail, did you ever think that would happen?
34:35
Speaker 2: It's it's certainly hard to imagine any of this happening
34:38
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago. But you know, given the
34:41
Speaker 2: president and his willingness to carry out military action, combined
34:45
Speaker 2: with some of the sentiment and the actions in the
34:48
Speaker 2: region in recent years. It wasn't the most surprising thing.
34:54
Speaker 2: Once the US and Israel started bombing Iran, it was
34:57
Speaker 2: not particularly shocking to me that they went after the Ayatola.
35:02
Speaker 1: Could you see this happening? And when they did that
35:03
Speaker 1: military parade on Trump's birthday? Was this part of his
35:06
Speaker 1: grand design to show the world, all right, we're going
35:09
Speaker 1: to come after you, you know. I feel like that was
35:11
Speaker 1: maybe something motivation behind it.
35:13
Speaker 2: I think the president loves to show off the military,
35:17
Speaker 2: and the US military is the best military in the world.
35:20
Speaker 2: And they proved it by being able to capture Maduro.
35:24
Speaker 2: They proved it by the first round of strikes against
35:28
Speaker 2: Iran last year, and they demonstrated their capabilities both in
35:34
Speaker 2: their intelligence collection and then their precision targeting by giving
35:39
Speaker 2: it seems like Israel the locations of the iatolas meeting
35:43
Speaker 2: on Saturday morning.
35:47
Speaker 1: And how they knew that is quite amazing. All Right.
35:49
Speaker 1: One last thing, because Mike, it seemed like when Headseg
35:53
Speaker 1: took over, he promised this whole culture change. Yes, no
35:56
Speaker 1: trains people, yes, no fat people or whatever. I mean.
36:00
Speaker 1: It was sort of a very big and intense culture
36:04
Speaker 1: you even talking about. But it has that actually happened gradually.
36:06
Speaker 1: I mean, have you noticed a lot of changes within
36:08
Speaker 1: the military sinces that took over.
36:11
Speaker 2: So a lot of the changes, I would say, we've
36:13
Speaker 2: heard announcements be made about them. But it's really hard
36:18
Speaker 2: to sort of identify how specific policies can affect people.
36:23
Speaker 2: In an organization as large as the military, there are
36:27
Speaker 2: a million, I believe a million active duty service members roughly,
36:31
Speaker 2: and so any given policy will have trickle down effects
36:35
Speaker 2: for soldiers or service members all over the world, but
36:38
Speaker 2: it's hard to quantify immediately how much difference some of
36:43
Speaker 2: these changes are making.
36:46
Speaker 1: Well, Mike, appreciate your time today and we'll talk to
36:48
Speaker 1: you soon. On one look at alex.
36:49
Speaker 2: Media sounds good. Have a good one, and thank you
36:52
Speaker 2: for having me on