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Who’s Funding the Chaos in the Middle East | It’s Closer to Home Than You Think. · CLUB NORMIE

• 0:00
  HOST, JENNIFER: So many people are tired of hearing about the Middle East and do not understand why that area of the world is so important to us.
• 0:07
  HOST, JENNIFER: But a kid in Yemen shouting death to America in class every day actually affects your life.
• 0:12
  HOST, JENNIFER: Because we live in a global world and your phone, your gas, and everything that you enjoy gets to you on a ship through a shipping lane that is controlled by people who do not like the West.
• 0:24
  HOST, JENNIFER: Your life is their target.
• 0:27
  HOST, JENNIFER: Normies don't need to be experts in the Middle East, but we just need to know what's going on in the world so we can make our own decisions.
• 0:44
  HOST, JENNIFER: Welcome to Club Normy.
• 0:46
  HOST, JENNIFER: I'm Jennifer Weissmith.
• 0:47
  HOST, JENNIFER: My guest today has an incredible handle on who's funding so much of the chaos in the Middle East, and she's sharing all the details.
• 0:59
  HOST, JENNIFER: Bridget Toomey.
• 1:05
  HOST, JENNIFER: She's an Iran and terrorism expert at FDD, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
• 1:11
  HOST, JENNIFER: She's a Fulbright Fellow.
• 1:12
  HOST, JENNIFER: Her list of credentials is very, very long.
• 1:15
  HOST, JENNIFER: Bridget, welcome.
• 1:17
  HOST, JENNIFER: Thanks for being here.
• 1:18
  HOST, JENNIFER: Thanks for having me.
• 1:19
  HOST, JENNIFER: Let's start with a very basic question.
• 1:22
  HOST, JENNIFER: What does a normie really need to know about the Middle East?
• 1:26
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Iran and its partners seek to not only harm the US, but really destroy all of the pillars of the post-Cold War era that the United States has led and thrived under.
• 1:40
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And that's what they want to target.
• 1:42
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Whether the threat seems far away, their ability to target aspects of that world order are not far away.
• 1:49
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And they're certainly within their grasp.
• 1:52
  HOST, JENNIFER: If I live in Indiana, why do I care what's happening in the Middle East?
• 1:58
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The impacts are very real, especially on the global economy.
• 2:01
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The interconnected world that we live in today, security threats in one place, particularly what we're seeing in the Middle East with maritime security threats and threats to energy markets, have a ripple effect across the world.
• 2:14
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: I focus on the Houthis.
• 2:16
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Their slogan includes death to America, death to Israel.
• 2:19
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: This is what they're chanting.
• 2:20
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: They force children to chant this in school every day.
• 2:23
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: This really is the way they look at the world.
• 2:25
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And so, sure, the Houthis may not be able to strike the continental US or Alaska and Hawaii.
• 2:31
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: But they think about how we can hurt the United States, U.S.
• 2:35
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: interests.
• 2:36
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And then from Iran all through its proxy network, they're constantly expanding and trying to develop their capabilities.
• 2:43
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Whether we want to or not, we have to acknowledge that the United States is a primary adversary for all of these terror groups and their state sponsors, Iran.
• 2:52
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The Houthis are funded by Iran.
• 2:55
  HOST, JENNIFER: Is that right?
• 2:56
  HOST, JENNIFER: Their primary backers, Iran.
• 2:58
  HOST, JENNIFER: So I know right now the Houthis are very focused on Saudi Arabia.
• 3:02
  HOST, JENNIFER: Why is that?
• 3:03
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: They've been using their terrorism in the Red Sea and attacks on Saudi Arabia to elevate their standing in the region and in the world.
• 3:10
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Saudi Arabia is also very important for Iran's strategy in the war with the United States.
• 3:16
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Both Iran and the Houthis kind of want to divide and conquer.
• 3:19
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And they view Saudi Arabia as vulnerable to splitting off from its historic closeness to the U.S.
• 3:26
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The Houthis are trying to convey to the U.S.
• 3:29
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: this is not an American problem.
• 3:31
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: This is a Houthi-Saudi Arabia issue.
• 3:34
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: But really, their activity in the Red Sea, their attacks on Saudi Arabia are in service of Iran's war on global oil markets and attempts to put economic pressure on the U.S.
• 3:43
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: and to box President Trump in and limit his ability to putting all sorts of different pressures on him.
• 3:49
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: For the Houthis, they want to expand their control in Yemen and their power there.
• 3:54
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The internationally recognized government of Yemen is supported by Saudi Arabia and they view Saudi Arabia as vulnerable to these attacks and this pressure and likely to give concessions if they exert enough pressure.
• 4:07
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: This is backfiring a little bit because the Houthis have been attacking Saudi Arabia in the hopes that they would seek to de-escalate the situation.
• 4:14
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: What we're seeing now is instead Saudi Arabia is supporting the Yemeni government forces and fighting the Houthis, but that's their strategy.
• 4:22
  HOST, JENNIFER: It's such a strange mix of players here.
• 4:24
  HOST, JENNIFER: You've got Oman, Saudi, obviously Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, of course, Israel.
• 4:31
  HOST, JENNIFER: Do you see a future where the Houthis want to increase their ability to call the shots in the Middle East?
• 4:39
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Absolutely.
• 4:39
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Their aim in taking more territory in Yemen would not be to stop there, but as kind of a launching pad.
• 4:46
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Some of the southern Saudi Arabia and northern Yemen have historic ties that didn't used to be a border in the way that it is now.
• 4:52
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The Houthis would like to take that territory from Saudi Arabia.
• 4:56
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: They make a lot of claims that the Saudi royal family are not proper custodians of the Islamic holy sites.
• 5:02
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The Houthis absolutely have expansionist aims.
• 5:06
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: They're also increasing their influence in the Horn of Africa.
• 5:09
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And they want to become not just a regional power player, but a global player.
• 5:14
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And I think their terrorism in the Red Sea and the attention that it's gotten and the impact that it's had really elevated their ability to make waves in the global stage.
• 5:24
  HOST, JENNIFER: I thought the Houtis were just this ragtag group of militiamen.
• 5:28
  HOST, JENNIFER: But from what you're saying, they are an organized, well-funded machine.
• 5:35
  HOST, JENNIFER: Is that right?
• 5:36
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The common assessment had been that they were kind of a ragtag group.
• 5:40
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And they certainly were when they started fighting the Yemeni government in the early 2000s, but they have since evolved.
• 5:47
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And a lot of that evolution is due to Iran's support, Iran's weapons, Iran's guidance.
• 5:52
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And now they've evolved into an adversary that both the United States, Israel, the global community really shouldn't underestimate.
• 6:01
  HOST, JENNIFER: We know that Iran has been fighting a war with America for 47 plus years.
• 6:06
  HOST, JENNIFER: In February, President Trump launched a war.
• 6:09
  HOST, JENNIFER: There is a lot of pushback in America about why we're in Iran, what we're doing.
• 6:15
  HOST, JENNIFER: Should we be there?
• 6:17
  HOST, JENNIFER: What's the future?
• 6:18
  HOST, JENNIFER: What's the end game?
• 6:20
  HOST, JENNIFER: What's your sense about how things are going for America in Iran?
• 6:25
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: I think in the conflict with Iran, the United States and the Islamic Republic have been racing against different pressures.
• 6:32
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: How long can the United States sustain a blockade?
• 6:35
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: How long can the United States sustain a bombing campaign?
• 6:39
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: I think we've seen through the blockade and through the Trump administration's efforts to continue moving oil to market despite Iran's efforts to block that.
• 6:50
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: This has flipped a bit in Washington's favor.
• 6:54
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The Islamic Republic is really facing extensive financial pressure, economic pressure, and that's only going to mount so long as the blockade stays in place.
• 7:03
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And the Treasury Department continues to execute Operation Economic Outcast, the program that they have to financially isolate the regime in Tehran.
• 7:13
  HOST, JENNIFER: Are they isolated?
• 7:14
  HOST, JENNIFER: Because it seems like Russia is helping.
• 7:16
  HOST, JENNIFER: Seems like the Chinese are still buying some oil from them.
• 7:20
  HOST, JENNIFER: Of course, Oman seems to be double-dipping friend and foe.
• 7:24
  HOST, JENNIFER: Do you think that Iran is really feeling the pinch?
• 7:28
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: I think they are feeling the pinch.
• 7:29
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: They're not completely isolated in the sense that they don't have, I'll say, friends, but there are limits to the extent that Russia and China are willing to come to Iran's aid.
• 7:41
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And certainly a country like Oman, which describes itself as a neutral mediator, but is not quite neutral, it more enables a lot of bad activity, whether it's the Houthis or Iran.
• 7:51
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: On China, they're still willing to purchase Iranian oil.
• 7:56
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: But Secretary Bessant pointed out, I believe it was about a week ago, that Iran is really running up against the clock in terms of the oil that it had moved out to sea past the blockade in the early summer before the United States reinstated the blockade.
• 8:12
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Iran still has financial ties in China.
• 8:15
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The important point about the oil is whether China is willing to buy it or not will become a little bit irrelevant if they no longer have any past the blockade and then cannot get any past the blockade on the oil purchasing front that will go to zero.
• 8:30
  HOST, JENNIFER: I want to talk to you about your feeling on what's going on in America with the younger generation in particular and how they view America as the bad guy.
• 8:40
  HOST, JENNIFER: Do you feel like this can be turned around?
• 8:44
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Interesting question.
• 8:44
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: You know, I certainly hope it can be turned around.
• 8:48
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: I think that there is a lot that American institutions could do on fostering some critical thinking, history lessons, and kind of doing better to challenge young people's thoughts, encourage them to challenge their own assumptions and thoughts, and kind of discourage some of what I fear we're seeing on university where there's a dominant thought.
• 9:11
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: It's a disservice to students and to young people, I think, not to be forced to confront alternative ideas and to think through how you could be wrong, how you might be wrong, and why other people might believe differently.
• 9:23
  HOST, JENNIFER: With social media and the influence of our social media and our newsfeed, so negatively anti-American and really anti-capitalism and all these things that we kind of hope when kids got out and started their own careers that they would find the middle of the road a bit.
• 9:42
  HOST, JENNIFER: You're seeing in many cities, certainly you mentioned in universities, that the younger generation is frustrated and angry and really embracing socialism, the DSA, and all these things that are, you know, my grandparents ran from, came to America to start a whole new life.
• 10:00
  HOST, JENNIFER: You said institutions need to do a better job.
• 10:03
  HOST, JENNIFER: What if we've already passed that point?
• 10:06
  HOST, JENNIFER: How do we bring this next generation back to the center?
• 10:09
  HOST, JENNIFER: Because I think it's so easy to talk about places in the Middle East or Russia and China, but the everyday person, they don't really care.
• 10:16
  HOST, JENNIFER: Things are expensive.
• 10:18
  HOST, JENNIFER: It's hard to buy a house.
• 10:19
  HOST, JENNIFER: They have large debt from universities, hard to find a job.
• 10:23
  HOST, JENNIFER: And I worry that we can't find a way to bring them back.
• 10:28
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: I do think there's also a responsibility on American leaders to make a strong case to the public, to go before the American people and really explain midterms in a few weeks.
• 10:41
  HOST, JENNIFER: The outcome of that could be a serious blow to the Iranian plan that America has to use financial pressure to choke Iran.
• 10:51
  HOST, JENNIFER: Do you see that as a possibility?
• 10:54
  HOST, JENNIFER: If the Republicans lose the House and maybe the Senate, what does the next two years look like?
• 11:00
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Yeah, I think there's certainly a possibility that a Democratic Congress could seek to rein in some of the actions that the administration has taken on this conflict.
• 11:08
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: I think the administration still has enough executive leeway, given that foreign policy and war fighting, well, Congress has an important role in that and levers that it can use.
• 11:20
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: The Trump administration also still has a range of options, especially some of these Treasury, the measures from the Treasury.
• 11:28
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: But that will certainly be impactful.
• 11:30
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: And I think that's something that the regime in Tehran has been watching extremely closely.
• 11:35
  HOST, JENNIFER: If it goes to the Democrats taking the House andor the Senate, yeah, Iran's going to be a very, very happy group, I would imagine.
• 11:43
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: There's been a lot of bipartisan acknowledgement, I should say, of the threat of Iran in many past years.
• 11:48
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: I know now things are become politicized, but you're right that it probably will curtail some of the measures that the Trump administration has undertaken.
• 11:58
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: To our adversaries around the world, America is ever present in their thoughts and how they kind of really their worldview.
• 12:06
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Bridget, thank you.
• 12:08
  GUEST, BRIDGET TOOMEY: Thank you.
• 12:11
  HOST, JENNIFER: The Middle East matters.
• 12:13
  HOST, JENNIFER: Normies don't need to be experts in the Middle East, but we need to know what's true and what's going on in the world so no one can tell us what to think.
• 12:21
  HOST, JENNIFER: Hit subscribe.
• 12:22
  HOST, JENNIFER: This is Club Normie, and I'm your host, Jennifer Weissman.
• 12:24
  HOST, JENNIFER: Until next time.