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Strikes on Iran will have huge implications far beyond the Middle East, analyst says · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: With the US and Israel launching this war with Iran,
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  Speaker 1: this could be one of the most consequential days for
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  Speaker 1: the Middle East in generations. To put it all in
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  Speaker 1: the context, let's bring in analyst and author Douglas Murray
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  Speaker 1: plus Chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett Major. Wait right there,
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  Speaker 1: we start with Douglas here on set. There's reporting from
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  Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal tonight that Israel has managed to
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  Speaker 1: hack a popular Iranian prayer app and it is sending
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  Speaker 1: messages telling members of the Revolutionary Guard to leave and
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  Speaker 1: liberate the country.
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  Speaker 2: What do you make of that festival?
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  Speaker 3: It's a tactic that the Israelitis have used elsewhere. They've
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  Speaker 3: used it in Gaza, They've used it against Hesbala in Lebanon,
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  Speaker 3: so it's a familiar tactic. The message itself is simply
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  Speaker 3: reiterating what President Trump said in his late night message,
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  Speaker 3: which is to request that the Revolutionarygards, the Messige and
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  Speaker 3: others put down their weapons. And in Trump's language, he
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  Speaker 3: said last night, you know now is the time to
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  Speaker 3: do that. Otherwise there's another route further down the road.
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  Speaker 2: So let's talk about the otherwise.
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  Speaker 1: What are the implications in the days weeks or longer
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  Speaker 1: ahead for America, Iran.
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  Speaker 2: The world.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the first thing is, of course, is I mean
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  Speaker 3: you mentioned at the beginning how historic this is.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, since nineteen seventy nine, the.
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  Speaker 3: Iranian Revolutionary government has first of all been repressing, of course,
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  Speaker 3: Uranian people.
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  Speaker 2: It's been colonizing the entire region.
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  Speaker 3: It's been colonizing Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and of course
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  Speaker 3: it's been the world's foremost sponsor of terror. So the
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  Speaker 3: fact that that regime seems to have been certainly decapitated
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  Speaker 3: and seems now to be tottering means first of all
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  Speaker 3: that we will very likely see a very different Middle East.
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  Speaker 3: But there's a secondary thing, which is of course, and
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  Speaker 3: President Trump did refer that to this a bit in
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  Speaker 3: his remarks, perhaps not enough in my view, was that
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  Speaker 3: don't forget that the terrorism that this regime has been
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  Speaker 3: spreading has not been limited to the Middle East. The
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  Speaker 3: regimes spread terror to South America. It's tried to carry
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  Speaker 3: out assassinations here in New York of dissidents. It tried
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  Speaker 3: only a couple of years ago to kill a former
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  Speaker 3: American Secretary of State and a former national security advisor
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  Speaker 3: in Washington, DC. So the fact that that foremost sponsor
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  Speaker 3: of terror is now seemingly on its last legs is
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  Speaker 3: something that's going to have huge implications way beyond the
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  Speaker 3: midd least.
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  Speaker 1: All of what you said has been true though for
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  Speaker 1: a while now.
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  Speaker 2: So why right now? Was it just the moment presented itself?
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  Speaker 2: It seems to me that the moment presented itself.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, if you consider the difference between what's happened
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  Speaker 3: in the last twenty four hours and what happened last summer.
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  Speaker 3: Last summer is very clear that in the twelve Day
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  Speaker 3: War that decapitation of the regime, specifically the targeting of
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  Speaker 3: the Ayatollah was not.
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  Speaker 2: On the table.
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  Speaker 3: That seemed to be the one thing that was absolutely
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  Speaker 3: not on the table. Taking out the nuclear sites was
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  Speaker 3: the main objective then, but not regime decapitation.
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  Speaker 2: Something has changed in the last year.
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  Speaker 3: Possibly it's simply President Trump's realization of the intractable nature
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  Speaker 3: of the Iranian revolutionary govern and negotiations they have strung
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  Speaker 3: on negotiating team, often negotiating team from the West, from
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  Speaker 3: the international community for decades on every one of these issues.
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  Speaker 1: Douglas, thank you very much. Major Garrett, I want to
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  Speaker 1: bring you into this conversation. The President likes to describe
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  Speaker 1: himself as the President of peace. He ran a campaign
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  Speaker 1: of no more wars in the Middle East, and then
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  Speaker 1: from the perspective here of some in his own coalition,
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  Speaker 1: this looks like a new war.
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  Speaker 2: What do you make of it?
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  Speaker 4: Yes, but there are times tony when we make the
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  Speaker 4: observation that President Trump is so different than all of
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  Speaker 4: his predecessors and operates differently and doesn't necessarily adhere to
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  Speaker 4: the conventions of the presidency as conducted by presidents before him,
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  Speaker 4: And this one respect there is a constant to pick
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  Speaker 4: up on the point just made. Since nineteen seventy nine,
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  Speaker 4: every American president has to one extent or another, been frustrated,
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  Speaker 4: be deviled, deterred, and in some cases haunted by the
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  Speaker 4: islomic regime in Iran and its use of terocell networks
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  Speaker 4: and proxies. Not just in the Middle East, Europe, South America,
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  Speaker 4: even Asia, every American president has had to deal with this. Carter, Reagan,
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  Speaker 4: bush I, and Clinton all dealt with not only the
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  Speaker 4: Iranian revolution in nineteen seventy nine, but its expansion of
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  Speaker 4: use of terror throughout the region, and then it became
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  Speaker 4: up a much bigger problem after nine to eleven, the
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  Speaker 4: global War on Terror. Then it's nuclear ambitions. That was
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  Speaker 4: Bush two, that was Trump, Obama, Trump again, Biden. All
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  Speaker 4: of them have been dealing with this. So that's one
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  Speaker 4: constant thread through the American presidency from nineteen seventy nine
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  Speaker 4: to now. And it's at that point that I believe
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  Speaker 4: President Trump is saying, not only is the time now,
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  Speaker 4: but Iran and its regime and its proxies have never
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  Speaker 4: been weaker. So when they are weak, it's time to strike.
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  Speaker 4: Not that they present this particularly malevolent new threat, but
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  Speaker 4: it may be time now to deal with that long
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  Speaker 4: running threat from a position of if not maximum advantage,
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  Speaker 4: near maximum advantage.
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  Speaker 1: But major We have midterm elections coming up. The president
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  Speaker 1: does need to have a coalition in Congress. This is
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  Speaker 1: difficult for them to explain to people. The polling is
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  Speaker 1: not in favor of a unilateral strike without approval from Congress.
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  Speaker 2: How does this play well.
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  Speaker 4: Let's go right to our polling data, Tony. On that
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  Speaker 4: very point, our polling unit talk to Americans before the
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  Speaker 4: President's Day of the Union address, asked one question, has
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  Speaker 4: the Trump administration clearly explained the US position on military
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  Speaker 4: action against Iran. Seventy two percent told us the answer
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  Speaker 4: to that question was no. Only twenty eight percent believed
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  Speaker 4: the administration had clearly explained what was about to happen
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  Speaker 4: or what it was contemplating. Now, let's go after the
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  Speaker 4: Stay of the Union address. We asked some other questions.
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  Speaker 4: How should the United States approach Iran's current leadership. Let's
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  Speaker 4: go to the lowest rated answer, eighteen percent, remove them
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  Speaker 4: from power with force, then next twenty two percent, do
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  Speaker 4: not get involved, twenty two percent pressure them with sanctions,
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  Speaker 4: thirty eight percent negotiation with them through diplomacy. We also asked,
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  Speaker 4: does Trump need approval from Congress for military action? Seventy
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  Speaker 4: four percent. Tony said yes he does. That's clearly not happening.
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  Speaker 4: One last question, US military action against Iran to stop
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  Speaker 4: them from making a nuclear weapon.
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  Speaker 2: How did that come out?
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  Speaker 4: Fifty one percent would favor, forty nine percent would oppose,
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  Speaker 4: Very closely divided on those central questions.
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  Speaker 2: Tony, all right, Major, thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: Douglas Small, I have you here. I think of Rick Crawford,
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  Speaker 1: the congressman, his first district there in Arkansas, the people
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  Speaker 1: sitting there tonight and all over the country asking themselves,
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  Speaker 1: what does this have to do.
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  Speaker 2: With my life? How does it make my interest better?
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  Speaker 3: Well, a huge amount is simply going to depend on
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  Speaker 3: the success or otherwise of this operation.
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  Speaker 2: If you look at the.
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  Speaker 3: Polling data from the operation in Venezuela the other week,
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  Speaker 3: the initial response among floating voters was pretty negative about it.
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  Speaker 3: Once it turned out that, you know, an extraordinary operation
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  Speaker 3: highly success from Maduro c and brought to New York,
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  Speaker 3: those numbers of approval went up hugely. But there's a
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  Speaker 3: caveat to that, and any Republican you speak to, and
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  Speaker 3: anyone in the administration you speak to as knows this,
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  Speaker 3: which is none of these issues are actually midterm issues.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's the economy, its cost of living, the
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  Speaker 3: there midterm issues. But nevertheless, as was just mentioned, these
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  Speaker 3: are This issue of the Iranian revolutionary government is something that.
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  Speaker 2: As several people this hour have said, has been.
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  Speaker 3: Deviled not just the Middle East but America for forty
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  Speaker 3: seven years now. We have been strung along in the
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  Speaker 3: West on nuclear issues, on terrorism issues, and much more.
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  Speaker 3: All of this time. Clearly there was a moment that
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  Speaker 3: was seen that could be seized. Donald Trump seized it,
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  Speaker 3: and if it's successful, I'll imagine that this success will
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  Speaker 3: have an awful lot of people claiming a bit of.
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  Speaker 1: Its Murray, thank you very much, Major Garrett, thank you
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  Speaker 1: as well.
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  Speaker 2: To you