And those US strikes in Eastern Syria overnight conducted by American F sixteens against Iranian link positions in eastern Syria at this base. US Secretary Lloyd Austin releasing a statement saying, quote, these narrowly tailored strikes in self defense were intended solely to protect and defend US personnel in Iraq and Syria. They are separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between
Israel and Hamas. This is significant because since the conflict developed on October seventh, following that massacre here in southern Israel, we've seen a number of attacks on not just Israeli interests across the region, but also American interest.
One of the first things I did when I heard about these attacks by the US and the Middle East as I went to Mike Lions Twitter feed at mag Major Mic Lions Mag Mike Lions to see what he had to say about it, and I thought, well, we got to have him on the radio today to see where we are with that. Mike, Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show again. Thanks for having so How big a deal is this? I'm I'm the complete layman on this stuff. It just doesn't feel like enough with the
number of times that Iran has struck us. But what are your feelings as a guy who knows what he's talking about.
No, it's not. Had a conversation over the weekend with a couple of former colleagues and it's like, it's about time, and you know, the fact of the matter is they have been attacking US forces there aaron is the most responsible country for US soldier deaths within Iraq when we were there from you know, two thousand and three through twenty eleven, I mean the IEDs and everything they did,
We've done nothing. And then a lot of it is we just continue to believe that all of a sudden, we're going to wake up in the Iranians are going to be friendly, and they're going to change, and something's going to be different. But just not the case. If you're a soldier in combat right now in Syria or in Iraq and it's a combat zone, you're concerned about what's the you know, what is our government doing to
protect you there? Aside from you know, maybe vehicles. We obviously hear that there's an individual was killed in a in a bombshelter, but that's nice but at some point, again enough is enough. And right now, the whole gamble, the whole assumption is that the Iranians are not going to escalate. They're not going to do anything to force an escalation. So they continue to go around with the you know, the margins here and make small little things.
But at some point, again enough's enough. They have to decide, just like Israel. Israel has decided enough's enough. They're not going to do louder rents repeat this time. They're not stopping in guys. They're not going to take any pressure. They're not going to take any pressure from the outside world. They're just not gonna They're just going to keep going.
So, as you said, Iran was behind a whole bunch of attacks and deaths of Americans, well for a long long time. So what is the hesitation with the United States facing off against Iran? What what is their military capability?
Yeah, no, it's not much. It's more from the sky, it would be soul based, it's regional, it's uh, you know, it's it's the terror funding that they do. They don't provide an existential threat to us. And I think I think the problem is we're psychologically disarmed from them because we would destroy them, and the rest of the world would say, what's going on in the United States, Like why did you do this? Meanwhile, they continue to kill our soldiers and and and harm our allies and do
all these things. So again we've got to decide enough's enough, and we've got to you know, somebody used this expression'll punch them in the nose? Well kind of what does that mean? You know? Do we attack their pentagon? Do we attack their their capability to manufacture oil and petroleum? So if we do that, though it upsets the economic balance of power, You've got to think that we would need allies to do this, and I think that ally is Israel. So that fuse gets lit right October seventh,
and that views is continuing to burn right now. So the question is what war would Iran do? Will they back down the sum are that around's going to bock down? They're not going to do much more.
But we have to just say, uh, well, do you agree with that assumption or not.
I don't think it's a good assumption to make from a military preparedness perspective. No. I think that let's say the Israelis when they decide to go. So Israel wants to fight, it's kind of war. They don't want to fight the war Homas wants them to fight, right, So they're going to do this ground war when they're good and ready, and that's going to mean they've got either better intel on the hostages, that they they're going to be assured that they're going to win, that they're not
going to take a lot of casualties. But once that starts and they commit there, then who knows what happens in the north. Who knows? Then if the Uranians decide to help has Bella more and they encourage them, and next thing you know, they've opened up another front to the north, and now Israel is already facing an existential threat. So I don't I just don't think it's a good assumption. The assumption is being made that the Hutis are not going to do anything. Has Bellahs kind of tired, Lebani
Lebanon is not going to want to do anything. The Uranians are going to eventually back down rather rent repeat here we go, will eventually bring the Israelies up for you know, for war crimes because they're going to attack disproportionately. But the world's not getting that Israel is at war. They've said they're at war. They've the defense managers said, is the time for pieces, the time for war. This
is the time for war. They're going to destroy as use for us as much as possible as they can until they feel that that this is that their goals are accomplished.
So what's our uh, Because we've talked about how we've got two aircraft carriers now and all the support that goes with aircraft carriers and two thousand troops have put on and put on notice to deploy and all the in terms of our assets in the region currently, how how well are we stocked the.
We're good from a strategic perspective and from from putting air defense platforms in place to support Israel, because what the Ranians would likely do is fire multiple long range missiles at at Israel going to attack Tel Aviv. They have no capability to do any kind of a ground force. They couldn't get there. That wouldn't happen. They could unleash
these terror organizations that have come from the north. So what the defense they need are iron dome rockets and patriot missiles and SAD so that is kind of bullets hitting bullets. It's another complex air defense system against ballistic missiles. Is what is what we're doing, which is fine, which is exactly what we should be doing and allowing. You know, that's our level of the terrence right now. So Israel's trying to restore the terrens with their neighbors, and they
do it disproportionately. That's why that's their level of the turns, whereas ours right now is proportional. So for example, we attacked these two, we tacked a bunch of logistic bases inside of Syria. So again from a military perspective, okay, we took away some capacity for these malicious to fight, but really didn't make any kind of impact on the ground. That's they're going to still come back and start to attack American troops there. The question is how do we escalate?
Where we escalate there is attacking those places inside Iran, and you know that opens up another level of discussion.
So the President was asked on sixty minutes a couple of weeks ago, we've got a war we're supporting in the Ukraine, supporting the Ukrainians against the Russians. Now we've got supporting the Isras. Can we handle two different fronts? And then of course you've got to throw in the idea of if we are busy with those, does China decide to do anything anywhere? Can we handle all this stuff? Are we big enough and powerful enough to handle all these things at one time?
Well, we could, we'd have to mobilize, we'd have to do things, you know, we'd have to create a situation where you know, in the past thirty years, the United States has really not gone to war. The military has gone to war. So ask a military family and ask the soldiers that have been deployed, you know, three or four times over six or seven years, and the damage that's created to that military environment because that's happened. But the United States would have to deploy. The United States
would have to mobilize. And I haven't seen that yet. I haven't seen that appetite yet. And that's the that's the hard political decision that some political leader would have to make. The reality would have to kind of hit us in the face. We're acting different in the Middle East. Also, because there's no nuclear power we're eventually up against, right, I mean, in Ukraine, were giving Ukraine the means, so
they don't lose. Right, We've not really given them the means for them to win, because then that would tip the balance. And potentially Russia does something and they have nuclear capability, So that's out there. But what's different here in the Middle East because there's no other nuclear power that we have to kind of face off with. Now you brought up China again, who knows another wild card?
We have to assume that they're going to sense weakness and countries and leaders make these calculated decisions and history about whether they go or whether they don't go right, you know. So again you look at how World War one started, World War one started, and all these bad assumptions that everybody didn't think were going to happen, Well, I'm sure they're happened, and they happened for four years, and everybody can say, oh, it's going to be over
by Christmas and never never went that way. Yeah, where we're at right now, we're all facing off each other saying, oh, that's not going to happen because they would never his Bla would never do that, and the Ranians would never do that, and the Chinese would never do that. I mean, it's really bad. Assumptions got us into those places in the past, and if we don't learn from him, then shame on us.
Well, I know you're an expert in military history. I've read a lot of military history. If it seems like every big war in world history began with the side believing it'll be over by Christmas or summer or spring or whatever it was, and it doesn't work out that way. I'm looking at cable News right now and they're talking about close call with the Chinese fighter plane or whatever. They ran one of their ships up against a ship
in the Philippines the other day. So we had Ian Bremer, the political scientist, on last week and I asked him about why wouldn't China go now? And he thought, well, economically, there's just no way they're going to do that now. But you know, it's one guy's decision. President she and if he looks at Joe Biden and thinks the guy is old and a little lost in the United States is busy, there's never going to be a better time. I just I don't know. I can't imagine why now wouldn't be a good time.
The question is whether our country will declare war. That's what it's going to take for the country declare war. Then we're all in. We're mobilized, national guard units, industry changes, We're now providing weapons, go back to the Ukraine. We're providing weapons to the Ukraine. We're taking stuff from the nineties that was about to expire. But what we need to do now a complete refresh of all of our
defensive systems, because that's kind of happening here. Our enemies could be drawing down our supplies, and now's the time to go. If you're China, now's the time then to go to war the United States, because you know, we're tone out in world wars for a reason, right, because we can crank up the industrial machine pretty quickly if
we have to. If you ever go to the World War Two Museum down in New Orleans, it's pretty amazing that you see how quickly if the United States wanted to crank up the war machine, we could do that. But again, we end up losing the beginning of those wars and we take a lot of a lot of casualties because we're just we're not ready to the point where the enemy has got that capability.
One more quick thing before we let you go the it's three weeks tomorrow since the horror happened in Israel. I think most people probably thought they'd be in there with tanks faster than now. Does it make sense to you to to strategically wait and get your ducks in a row like.
This, Yeah, it does. I sat in the desert for a couple of months in desert storm, and then watch for thirty five days in the air campaign, and we still faced off at an enemy that had capability. I think Israel is torn between knowing that if they go large scale on the ground that's not a good outcome for the hostages that are there, and I think they're doing everything they can. The raids that they're doing right now, they're doing quick across the border raids, try to gather intelligence.
But I think that they're faced with that decision knowing full well now again when the time comes, they're not going to allow Hamas to hide behind civilians, because they're going to say, if you're a civilian in the northern part of Gaza, you're a combatant. Right, everyone's been warned, everybody's been told to get south, Go south. They'll they'll
likely have no fires on too. I mean there's a reason why the Egyptians won't left the Palestinians in, and the Jordanians won't let the Palestinians, and there's like the rest of the Middle East does not want to help Israel solve this problem. So they're going to solve the problem by just you know, destroying it, by flatting it.
Thanks for your time today. It's good to talk to somebody who actually knows what they're talking about, because you know, my blathering is of no use. Mike Lions, thank you very much, thanks for having me. And as I mentioned earlier, you can find him if you want to follow him on Twitter at mag Mike Lions, and he's one of the first places I go when anything militarily is happening to get his opinion, or you see him on CNN on a regular basis Armstrong and Getty