Latest / Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar / 3/14/26: TRUMP KNOWS HE’S DEFEATED! Begs Other Countries to Rescue US

Transcript

3/14/26: TRUMP KNOWS HE’S DEFEATED! Begs Other Countries to Rescue US · Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, guys. So earlier today we talked about how
0:03
Speaker 1: Trump had announced the bombing of Carg Island in Iran,
0:07
Speaker 1: which is very important to their oil exporting and we're
0:11
Speaker 1: privileged now to be joined by doctor tree Toparsi, he
0:14
Speaker 1: is the executive vice president over at the Quincy Institute
0:16
Speaker 1: for Responsible Politics, to talk about that and some other
0:19
Speaker 1: significant developments that have been unfolding in the Iran War
0:22
Speaker 1: as well.
0:22
Speaker 2: Great to see you, doctor, Good to see you again.
0:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, So let's go ahead and put this
0:28
Speaker 1: Trump truth up on the screen, just to get the
0:32
Speaker 1: exact words from the President himself, he says, moments ago
0:35
Speaker 1: my direction, the United States Central Command executed one of
0:38
Speaker 1: the most powerful bombing rates in the history of the
0:40
Speaker 1: Middle East and totally obliterated every military target in Iran's
0:45
Speaker 1: crown jewel, Carg Island. Our weapons are the most powerful
0:48
Speaker 1: and sophisticated that the world has ever known, but for
0:50
Speaker 1: reasons of decency, I've chosen not to wipe out the
0:53
Speaker 1: oil infrastructure on the island. However, should Iran or anyone
0:56
Speaker 1: else do anything to interfere with the free and safe
0:59
Speaker 1: passage of ships through the Strait of Hormones I will
1:01
Speaker 1: immediately reconsider this decision. During my first term and currently,
1:05
Speaker 1: I rebuilt our military into the most lethal, powerful and
1:08
Speaker 1: effective force by far anywhere in the world. Auran has
1:11
Speaker 1: no ability to defend anything we want to attack. There's
1:14
Speaker 1: nothing they can do about it. Auran will never have
1:17
Speaker 1: a nuclear weapon or will it have the ability to
1:19
Speaker 1: threaten the United States of America, the Middle East, or
1:22
Speaker 1: for that matter, the world. So this was the announcement
1:25
Speaker 1: we received yesterday evening, and sure enough, you know, reporting
1:28
Speaker 1: is that Carr Island was hit, that it was the
1:30
Speaker 1: military infrastructure, that the oil infrastructure remains intact. Your reaction
1:35
Speaker 1: to these latest developments, I.
1:38
Speaker 2: Think, frankly, we're further seeing him Trump losing control whatver
1:42
Speaker 2: it is Iran it apparently seems to have even escalation
1:45
Speaker 2: control at this point because they struck at oil facilities,
1:49
Speaker 2: not military facilities, oil facilities in UAE. In response to this,
1:55
Speaker 2: I think we have now a situation in which Trump
1:58
Speaker 2: actually is recognizing that the Iranians have this leverage over
2:02
Speaker 2: the strait of hormones, over oil, and he doesn't really
2:05
Speaker 2: have what it takes to go all the way to
2:08
Speaker 2: attack these things because he is now finally recognizing that
2:10
Speaker 2: that would be absolutely suicidal. Even if he were to
2:13
Speaker 2: strike at the oil facilities at that island, it does
2:17
Speaker 2: not mean that the Iranians will open up the strait
2:20
Speaker 2: or that the Iranians will not be able to export
2:22
Speaker 2: their own oil. During the Iraq Iran War, that island
2:26
Speaker 2: was struck constantly by the Iraqis. The Iranians found various workarounds.
2:30
Speaker 2: Obviously it's very bad for I'm not trying to downplay it,
2:33
Speaker 2: but they have workarounds. They put those in place back then.
2:37
Speaker 2: I would suspect that they're even more sophisticated at this
2:39
Speaker 2: point compared to them, whereas they now have really the
2:43
Speaker 2: control over the Strait of hormones. They're the ones who
2:46
Speaker 2: decide which ships go in and which ships don't. And
2:48
Speaker 2: just to see as the evidence of that is that
2:50
Speaker 2: India is negotiating itself with Ivan for free passage, and
2:54
Speaker 2: so is France and Italy. They didn't go to Trump
2:57
Speaker 2: to negotiate free passage. They went to Iran because it's
3:00
Speaker 2: the Iranians that are in control. And now, for the
3:03
Speaker 2: first time in a very long time, the Iranians actually
3:05
Speaker 2: have leverage. They have significant leverage when they didn't have leverage,
3:09
Speaker 2: and in the negotiations they gave concessions. It didn't get
3:12
Speaker 2: them anything. It get them It got them this war.
3:15
Speaker 2: Now they have leverage, I don't find it very likely
3:17
Speaker 2: that they will give it up without getting major concessions
3:20
Speaker 2: in return. And if yours, of course, there is that
3:22
Speaker 2: the Iranians will do the same mistake as the Trump
3:25
Speaker 2: administration did, which is to overplay their hands.
3:28
Speaker 1: Let me get your reaction to this additional truth social
3:32
Speaker 1: that came from the President. Let me just pull this
3:35
Speaker 1: one fully up on the screen. I'm sorry.
3:39
Speaker 2: There we go.
3:40
Speaker 1: Many countries, especially those who are affected by Iran's attempted
3:44
Speaker 1: closure of the hormone strait, will be sending warships in
3:46
Speaker 1: conjunction with the United States of America to keep the
3:48
Speaker 1: straight open and safe. We've already destroyed one hundred percent
3:51
Speaker 1: of Iran's military capability, but it's easy for them to
3:54
Speaker 1: send a drone or to drop a mind or deliver
3:57
Speaker 1: a close range missile somewhere along or in waterway, no
4:00
Speaker 1: matter how badly defeated they are. Hopefully China, France, Japan,
4:05
Speaker 1: South Korea, the UK and others that are affected by
4:08
Speaker 1: this artificial constraint will send ships to the area, so
4:10
Speaker 1: the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by
4:13
Speaker 1: a nation that has been totally decapitated. In the meantime,
4:16
Speaker 1: the US will be bombing the hell out of the
4:18
Speaker 1: shoreline and continually shooting Iranian boats and ships out of
4:21
Speaker 1: the water. One way or the other, we will soon
4:24
Speaker 1: get the Hormuz straight open, safe and free. So they're
4:28
Speaker 1: hoping that China will join this fight alongside of us
4:32
Speaker 1: to reopen the Strait of Hormus.
4:35
Speaker 2: May look every sentence there contradicts the next, first declaring
4:39
Speaker 2: complete victory, saying that these countries will and then later
4:42
Speaker 2: on saying hopefully these countries will join in this effort.
4:46
Speaker 2: You're seeing the words of a man who actually has
4:48
Speaker 2: been defeated, and who knows it. This is the desperation
4:52
Speaker 2: phase of this war at this point. The question, though,
4:55
Speaker 2: is it hasn't yet ended, and it can end in
4:58
Speaker 2: a much worse way than what we're already in. He's
5:00
Speaker 2: looking at increasingly bad escalatory options to give the pretense
5:05
Speaker 2: that he is in control, hoping that the sounds of
5:08
Speaker 2: more explosions in Iran will cover up the fact that
5:11
Speaker 2: he has absolutely no strategy.
5:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, and just talk to us a little bit about
5:17
Speaker 1: why reopening the strait has become clearly so central in
5:21
Speaker 1: Trump's mind. And I think it's also worth noting that
5:24
Speaker 1: all of these moves occurred after the markets closed on Friday,
5:27
Speaker 1: which I don't think is an accident.
5:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, and even then he actually didn't strike the old facilities.
5:33
Speaker 2: If I'm sitting in Tehran right now, I will interpret
5:36
Speaker 2: that as Trump's aim at playing mad man has come
5:40
Speaker 2: to an end and that he is now being constrained
5:43
Speaker 2: by others. He probably wanted to go all the way.
5:46
Speaker 2: This is just speculation on my end. He wanted to
5:48
Speaker 2: go all the way, but there was such pushback inside
5:51
Speaker 2: the US government pointing out the tremendous negative effects this
5:55
Speaker 2: would have on the global economy, on all market and
5:58
Speaker 2: on the US economy months before midterm, that he had
6:02
Speaker 2: to pull it back and instead just that this pinpoint
6:04
Speaker 2: attacks against the military facilities, which then tells Divanians Trump
6:09
Speaker 2: is not willing to escalate further. This further strengthens their sense,
6:13
Speaker 2: false or correctly, that they are more in control of
6:16
Speaker 2: the situation right now.
6:18
Speaker 1: So you see this, you believe the Iranians will perceive this,
6:22
Speaker 1: in spite of the bluster, as effectively being a sign
6:25
Speaker 1: of weakness that he attacked, he constrained his attacks to
6:29
Speaker 1: the military facilities, is only threatening the oil infrastructure, but
6:33
Speaker 1: is unwilling to go there himself because of the pain
6:36
Speaker 1: that he knows that will create in his own economy.
6:39
Speaker 2: I believe that that is a likely interpretation on the
6:41
Speaker 2: Iranian side. I think there was an expectation on the
6:44
Speaker 2: Iranian side that he will take attack to old facilities
6:48
Speaker 2: on that island, that it potentially even tried to seize
6:50
Speaker 2: the island. The Iranians know that seizing the island actually
6:53
Speaker 2: is not that terribly difficult. Keeping it and making it
6:57
Speaker 2: any thing of value is what much more difficult, because
7:00
Speaker 2: the Iranians can then rain drones and missiles on that island,
7:03
Speaker 2: which is right off their coast. I mean, the time
7:06
Speaker 2: these drones would fly would be so short, and they
7:09
Speaker 2: have such more effective short range missiles compared to their
7:12
Speaker 2: long term missiles long distance missiles which also have proven
7:15
Speaker 2: to be very effective. But they would at that point
7:18
Speaker 2: also destroy their own island and their own oil facilities,
7:21
Speaker 2: which would be a very high cost to the Iranians. So
7:24
Speaker 2: I think we've seen a point in which the US
7:26
Speaker 2: kind of back down from a very very strong escalatory move,
7:29
Speaker 2: recognizing that this would be more or less suicidal. My colleague,
7:32
Speaker 2: the imeir hand Journey at the Quincy Institute, believes that
7:35
Speaker 2: what we're seeing right now and either an economists is
7:38
Speaker 2: the beginning of the COVID phase of the global economy.
7:42
Speaker 2: That it's going in that direction, which means that we
7:45
Speaker 2: will have a major, major economic contraction. COVID ended up
7:49
Speaker 2: costing in the first year and negative three percent GDP
7:53
Speaker 2: contraction globally, and that this is now the early phases
7:57
Speaker 2: of that unless this war is stopped. But stopping war
8:00
Speaker 2: is no longer in the control of Trump. He and
8:04
Speaker 2: this is part of the reason why you're seeing this
8:05
Speaker 2: increasingly desperate language. He knows very well that even if
8:09
Speaker 2: he stops attacking Iran, pulls out of the waters in
8:13
Speaker 2: the Indian Ocean, declares victory, points to things that he
8:17
Speaker 2: actually had achieved in this war in terms of degrading
8:19
Speaker 2: Iran's military. The Iranians will likely continue to close the
8:22
Speaker 2: straits and control who comes in and who doesn't because
8:26
Speaker 2: they have that ability. Right now, This is not the
8:28
Speaker 2: same closure of the Straits as it would have been
8:30
Speaker 2: twenty years ago, in which they would have just put
8:32
Speaker 2: mines in the waters and they would have no control
8:35
Speaker 2: whose ships would be exploded. Now they have full control.
8:38
Speaker 2: They can control whether a Chinese ships goes in or not,
8:40
Speaker 2: whether Italian one goes in, and they themselves are actually
8:43
Speaker 2: been exploding more oil during the war than they did
8:47
Speaker 2: try it to the war.
8:49
Speaker 1: What did you think of the move on their part
8:51
Speaker 1: to say we will light some ships through, but it's
8:54
Speaker 1: going to be denominated not in US dollars but in
8:57
Speaker 1: Chinese yuan.
8:58
Speaker 2: I mean, they're doing every thing they can to just
9:01
Speaker 2: squeeze Trump and the US economy as much as possible.
9:04
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's going to be successful in
9:06
Speaker 2: terms of getting countries to switch over, but many of
9:10
Speaker 2: those countries are going to be quite desperate. I mean,
9:13
Speaker 2: India only has old reserves for twenty five days. The
9:16
Speaker 2: impact on Asian markets right now has already been devastating.
9:19
Speaker 2: Already last weekend they started to cut down on the
9:23
Speaker 2: number of days schools are open, offices are open because
9:26
Speaker 2: they don't have the few for all of these different things.
9:28
Speaker 2: The US is a little bit further removed, has a
9:30
Speaker 2: much stronger reserve. But all of those things that is
9:33
Speaker 2: happening in the global economy, just as it was with COVID,
9:36
Speaker 2: will come back to haunt the US economy as well,
9:38
Speaker 2: sooner or later.
9:40
Speaker 1: Let me ask you about this reporting from the Wall
9:42
Speaker 1: Street Journal, which indicates that this is Aliabbona, sorry Abumna,
9:48
Speaker 1: who's a great reporter and journalist, and he's saying US
9:51
Speaker 1: military leaking. They warned Trump that iron would close Hormos,
9:54
Speaker 1: but he ignored them, thinking Iran would collapse and he'd
9:57
Speaker 1: get swift, decisive victory. And here's one of the quotes
10:00
Speaker 1: from here. General Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs
10:03
Speaker 1: of Staff, told Trump an American attack could prompt Iran
10:05
Speaker 1: to close the Strait of Hormuz. Kine said in several
10:08
Speaker 1: brief briefings that US officials had long believed Iran would
10:11
Speaker 1: deploy minds, drones and missiles to close the world's most
10:14
Speaker 1: vital shipping lane. Trump acknowledged the risk, these people said,
10:18
Speaker 1: but move forward anyway. He told his team that Tehran
10:22
Speaker 1: would likely capitulate before closing the straight, and even if
10:26
Speaker 1: Iran tried, the US military could handle it. So I
10:31
Speaker 1: think a few things that were noteworthy to me. I mean,
10:33
Speaker 1: first of all, just the fact that these leaks are
10:35
Speaker 1: coming out now of people in the administration, likely in
10:38
Speaker 1: the military bras are trying to say, listen, we tried
10:40
Speaker 1: to tell this guy that this was bad idea, which
10:43
Speaker 1: shows you as an indication that on the inside they
10:46
Speaker 1: also think that this is, you know, a catastrophe on
10:49
Speaker 1: their hands at this point. And then obviously the details
10:51
Speaker 1: here that Trump, rather than listening to military experts, was
10:55
Speaker 1: sort of high on his own supply, coming off what
10:58
Speaker 1: he perceives as this magnificent victory in Venezuela, and thought,
11:02
Speaker 1: all the Iranians, they'll they'll capitulate. They're just going to
11:05
Speaker 1: threaten this it's an empty threat, and they'll they'll break
11:08
Speaker 1: before we ever get to this point.
11:10
Speaker 2: With one small, well actually very important addition to that,
11:14
Speaker 2: there was some other people also whispering in his air,
11:17
Speaker 2: saying ignore the advice of the US Intelligence Service, ignored
11:21
Speaker 2: the advice of the US military, and that what the
11:23
Speaker 2: Israelis who are telling him constantly Iran is at its
11:26
Speaker 2: weakest points. Ever, they will capitolate. They have no other option.
11:30
Speaker 2: Go back to what I've been saying for the last
11:32
Speaker 2: couple of months that the whole approach to the diplomacy
11:35
Speaker 2: was erroneous because he was under the false impression that
11:37
Speaker 2: the Iranians are much weaker than they actually were. He
11:40
Speaker 2: ruined the diplomacy because he thought capitulation was in the cart,
11:43
Speaker 2: and now he's turning a war into a debacle because
11:46
Speaker 2: he thinks capitulation is in the card. And this was
11:49
Speaker 2: not something that he came up on his own. This
11:51
Speaker 2: was something that the Raelis kept on pushing onto him.
11:54
Speaker 2: I mean, the whole idea that there was a moment
11:55
Speaker 2: to attack was because Iran is at its weakest ever.
11:58
Speaker 2: I mean, just go back and look at the reporting
12:00
Speaker 2: from that time. This was constantly repeated by the pro
12:04
Speaker 2: Israeli crowd in Washington and by Israeli officials. Those are
12:07
Speaker 2: the people Trump chose to listen to instead of his
12:10
Speaker 2: own military and here we are.
12:12
Speaker 1: What do you make of the reporting that the Saudis
12:14
Speaker 1: also were influential in pushing Trump towards war.
12:17
Speaker 2: I think the picture that has emerged is that the
12:19
Speaker 2: Saudi Foreign ministry actually lobbied against this war, but unbeknownst
12:23
Speaker 2: to them, MBS himself lobbied in favor of it, and
12:27
Speaker 2: this has been a pattern that we've seen in the
12:29
Speaker 2: past in which NBS does his own thing completely above
12:32
Speaker 2: the government, kind of like Trump, and the rest of
12:35
Speaker 2: the government is not necessarily even aware of it. We're
12:39
Speaker 2: also seeing now that there is clear evidence that the
12:42
Speaker 2: US has been using some GCC states sold Saudi Arabia
12:47
Speaker 2: and Bahrain to attack Yuan. And we've seen how the
12:51
Speaker 2: Iranians have struck at Saudi basis and destroyed. American refueling
12:57
Speaker 2: planes are extremely expensive them, if I'm not mistaken. So
13:01
Speaker 2: even though those bases may not at that point have
13:05
Speaker 2: been used and we don't know for certain for direct attacks,
13:09
Speaker 2: they were integrity part of the logistics and the refueling.
13:14
Speaker 2: In fact, the Israeli planes have had their whatever that
13:19
Speaker 2: thing is called on trackers on so that you know,
13:22
Speaker 2: the Vivonnians could see that Israeli planes were flying to
13:25
Speaker 2: the Saudi airfields in the midst of that war. So
13:28
Speaker 2: part of the reason why the Vanians are striking as well,
13:31
Speaker 2: it's not just because they're trying to squeeze the economy,
13:33
Speaker 2: et cetera, is because there is a realization on both sides.
13:36
Speaker 2: Both sides I have kind of pretended as if everything
13:39
Speaker 2: is better than it is, But behind the scenes, it's
13:40
Speaker 2: clear evidence that some of these states have actually been
13:44
Speaker 2: somewhat supportive of this war. Logistically, they may have had
13:48
Speaker 2: great difficulty saying no to Trump. They may not have
13:50
Speaker 2: done it eagerly, but this is part of the reason
13:53
Speaker 2: why the Vaneys have been also been striking at some
13:55
Speaker 2: of these Saudi airfields.
13:57
Speaker 1: So I saw and I'm sure you did it as well.
14:00
Speaker 1: The reports that they're bringing in this marine expeditionary force,
14:04
Speaker 1: some twenty five hundred marines being rushed into the region.
14:08
Speaker 1: What does that tell you about where this war may
14:11
Speaker 1: go next? From the US.
14:13
Speaker 2: Side, it just looks to me as if it's getting
14:15
Speaker 2: more and more desperate. Now, are they going to use
14:17
Speaker 2: those twenty five hundred troops marines to go and take
14:21
Speaker 2: that island. They might succeed in taking the island, but
14:24
Speaker 2: then they're sitting ducks and the Iranians will rain missiles
14:27
Speaker 2: and drones onto them. They will destroy their own island
14:29
Speaker 2: and all the old facilities, but they will get far
14:32
Speaker 2: more American casualties than they have been able to get
14:34
Speaker 2: by striking places. They empty bases in Bahrain and in
14:38
Speaker 2: Kuwait in other places. And what can you achieve with
14:41
Speaker 2: twenty five hundred dollars now troops? And is this about
14:45
Speaker 2: doing some special operations inside of Iranian territory, going in
14:49
Speaker 2: and taking the nuclear You know they have the and
14:53
Speaker 2: rich uranium somewhere under the mountains there there is still
14:56
Speaker 2: some potential leverage for the Ranians. That would be an
15:00
Speaker 2: extremely risky operation. This is not like, you know, sneaking
15:05
Speaker 2: into someone's house and stealing their wallet and going out.
15:09
Speaker 2: This will take hours and hours in which they would
15:11
Speaker 2: be sitting ducks and would be under tremendous attacks. This
15:14
Speaker 2: will be extremely risky. So it's just not clear to
15:17
Speaker 2: me at all, and I think it's not clear to
15:19
Speaker 2: Trump either. He went in with the wrong impression this
15:23
Speaker 2: was going to be easy. He's now stuck in a
15:24
Speaker 2: war that he doesn't know how to get out of.
15:26
Speaker 2: There is a path out. There is a path out,
15:29
Speaker 2: and that is that the US will call an end
15:32
Speaker 2: to this war. But there will also be negotiation indirectly
15:35
Speaker 2: with the audience, and the Yonians are going to ask
15:37
Speaker 2: for certain things, and I suspect that some of them
15:40
Speaker 2: will be completely unacceptable, such as reparations, but I think
15:43
Speaker 2: that other things will perhaps be in that moment when
15:47
Speaker 2: it's become absolutely clear that this is beyond insane. At
15:51
Speaker 2: that moment, it may actually be feasible for the United
15:54
Speaker 2: States to also do some sanctions relief for the audience,
15:57
Speaker 2: for instance, lifting sanctions on the GCC state or some
16:01
Speaker 2: Asian states that would then start trading with Ivanians, and
16:04
Speaker 2: that would be something that Yuanians could then accept in
16:07
Speaker 2: order to open the straits. Others are saying, and you
16:09
Speaker 2: will see an outbit on Monday, that this will actually
16:11
Speaker 2: cost a trillion dollars to get the straits open, and
16:14
Speaker 2: most of that will be money that will be coming
16:16
Speaker 2: from Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a compensation to Iran,
16:20
Speaker 2: that they will pay the repatoration reparations to Iran for
16:23
Speaker 2: this war. I'm not sure it's going to go exactly
16:25
Speaker 2: in that direction and those amounts, but I think there's
16:28
Speaker 2: a premise in that argument that is true. This is
16:31
Speaker 2: not going to be cost free in terms of ending
16:33
Speaker 2: the war. There's going to have to be concessions, there's
16:35
Speaker 2: going to have to be measures, because Yvanis have leverage now.
16:39
Speaker 2: They clearly have leverage now, and they're not going to
16:41
Speaker 2: give it up easily or cheaply.
16:45
Speaker 1: What do you make of these comments that David Sachs
16:47
Speaker 1: just made. He is co host of the All In podcast.
16:49
Speaker 1: More importantly, for this conversation, he is the White House's
16:53
Speaker 1: cryptos are, and he was warning of a what he
16:56
Speaker 1: described as a potentially catastrophic situation. He indicated that Iran
17:03
Speaker 1: can basically destroy the economies of the GCC states and
17:07
Speaker 1: inflicts significant damage on Israel as well, especially over time
17:11
Speaker 1: as their defenses are worn down. And he also warned
17:14
Speaker 1: of the possibility of Israel deploying a nuclear weapon, which
17:17
Speaker 1: you know is extraordinary in and of itself, but also
17:20
Speaker 1: for an administration official even to acknowledge that Israel has
17:23
Speaker 1: nuclear weapons is extraordinary.
17:26
Speaker 2: You know.
17:26
Speaker 1: Is that a concern that you share with him?
17:28
Speaker 2: I do absolutely, and now I've spoken to several people
17:31
Speaker 2: in government or around government who share that concern, including
17:35
Speaker 2: that it could be used by the United States. They
17:36
Speaker 2: do believe, however, that the likelihood of the Israelis using
17:40
Speaker 2: it is greater and faster in the sense that there's
17:42
Speaker 2: still a lot of guardrails around the American side using
17:45
Speaker 2: the nuclear weapons, but that in itself tells you how
17:48
Speaker 2: bad this war is going. I think David did something
17:50
Speaker 2: extremely courageous coming out and saying this, and he might
17:53
Speaker 2: be in a unique position to be able to say
17:55
Speaker 2: it because he can leave the administration costs free, more
17:58
Speaker 2: or less. He doesn't look for a longer political career
18:01
Speaker 2: or anything like that. But I think it's really reflective
18:04
Speaker 2: of what actually has happened inside government throughout this period.
18:07
Speaker 2: Trump was the driving force behind this war, with Netanyau
18:10
Speaker 2: constantly whispering is his air Others were not excited about
18:14
Speaker 2: this at all, but they were not pushing back in
18:17
Speaker 2: the manner that they probably should have and could have.
18:20
Speaker 2: Part of the reason why they didn't is because those
18:22
Speaker 2: who did back in June are no longer at the
18:25
Speaker 2: table and the cost was seen as very high for
18:27
Speaker 2: having done so. So now the ones remaining were a
18:31
Speaker 2: little bit more careful. What they did is like, well,
18:33
Speaker 2: you probably need another aircraft carrier, actually throw in two
18:36
Speaker 2: of them in there, and you need a couple more
18:38
Speaker 2: weeks to amass more troops, all of these different things
18:40
Speaker 2: to try to get it through to the guy, this
18:43
Speaker 2: is a really bad idea, but the point never reached home.
18:47
Speaker 1: Well, that's a very interesting insight and would sort of
18:49
Speaker 1: square the circle of what jade Vance may have been
18:51
Speaker 1: doing behind the scenes, because there was a leak that
18:53
Speaker 1: he was pushing for a bigger attack, and of course
18:56
Speaker 1: then his people lead and that it's scene as having
18:58
Speaker 1: come from sort of the Suzi wild Marco Rubio camp.
19:01
Speaker 1: Then there were league scenings come from his camp of no, no,
19:03
Speaker 1: he was reluctant. Could have been that he was reluctant,
19:06
Speaker 1: but the tactic that he used was saying, oh, you
19:08
Speaker 1: need more. You know, we need to a bigger armada.
19:10
Speaker 1: We got to rush more to the region.
19:12
Speaker 2: This is a very common tactic. I mean, this is
19:15
Speaker 2: actually a very common tactic used by the military because
19:18
Speaker 2: the military hates it when politicians throw them in to
19:22
Speaker 2: unthought through wars, knowing very well that politicians don't have
19:26
Speaker 2: the political will power to stay in that fight. Military
19:30
Speaker 2: hates to be thrown into wars that are not lost
19:32
Speaker 2: militarily but are lost politically. So what they say is, look,
19:36
Speaker 2: if you want to do this, you're going to need
19:37
Speaker 2: x you know, ten times more of this, one hundred
19:39
Speaker 2: times more of this, etc. Just to make it clear
19:42
Speaker 2: to the politicians that this is not as easy as
19:44
Speaker 2: you think it's going to be. And if you want
19:46
Speaker 2: to go in this, this is going to be for
19:47
Speaker 2: the long ord, it's going to be much more complicated.
19:49
Speaker 2: Are you really ready to do it? That strategy, however,
19:52
Speaker 2: it did not seem to work with Trump.
19:55
Speaker 1: Lastly, we saw the Iranians warning citizens in the GCC states,
20:00
Speaker 1: in particular in UAE, what do you think their next
20:05
Speaker 1: move may be as they continue to try to turn
20:07
Speaker 1: the screws on the US and whage you know, what
20:10
Speaker 1: is already becoming a fairly successful economic war.
20:13
Speaker 2: You know, when you take a look at the number
20:15
Speaker 2: of attacks, the UAE actually has not been struck as
20:19
Speaker 2: hard as for instance, Kuwait and Bahrain have been. So
20:22
Speaker 2: this may just be one of the things that they're
20:24
Speaker 2: doing is shifting a little bit of the focus over there.
20:26
Speaker 2: As I'm sure you may have reporters, well, the UE
20:28
Speaker 2: is one of those countries that puts you in jail
20:31
Speaker 2: if you are posting on social media about what actually
20:33
Speaker 2: is happening in the country, or if you're putting out
20:36
Speaker 2: videos of these attacks, these fires, et cetera. There's a
20:39
Speaker 2: sixty year old British card that just was apprehended by
20:42
Speaker 2: the UAE authorities for simply having posted something about this.
20:46
Speaker 2: So I think, you know, the image of the UAE
20:51
Speaker 2: suffering is in and of itself something that further puts
20:55
Speaker 2: pressure on all countries and only global economy as a whole.
21:00
Speaker 2: And I think again, the problem the US has here
21:02
Speaker 2: is that the Iranians have a very very rich number
21:07
Speaker 2: of targets throughout the region in different ways that they
21:11
Speaker 2: can really put a squeeze on the global economy. It's
21:13
Speaker 2: not just through the Straits. And this again, this is
21:17
Speaker 2: part of the reason why most of them did everything
21:19
Speaker 2: they could to prevent this war from having started in
21:21
Speaker 2: the first place. I have to say Trump has been
21:24
Speaker 2: one of those presidents that, beyond many things that he's
21:27
Speaker 2: done that I think is highly, highly problematic, he's been
21:30
Speaker 2: very careful not to put himself in lose lose situations
21:33
Speaker 2: on the international stage. This is the mother of all
21:36
Speaker 2: lose lose situations, and he put it himself there against
21:39
Speaker 2: the advice of most of his advisors.
21:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that is well said, doctor Parsi. Thank
21:45
Speaker 1: you for your insights. Has always appreciated.
21:46
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me,