Hey there, folks.
It is Sunday, June twenty second, and a lot of you went to bed last night, or you went out last night thinking everything was cool, and you woke up this morning thinking, wait, are.
We had war?
Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, an extra episode, a Sunday episode we are recording here and Rhodes. I think that was the case for a lot of people waking up this morning expression their heads like wait, what's going on?
It certainly was not something that anyone was anticipating. And President Trump, I believe, wanted it that way. You know, he had said leading up till this weekend, I don't know what I'm going to do.
We'll see what I'm going to do.
He was being coy about what his decision would be on how to deal with Iran if we were to join Israel. I don't know that any of us were expecting this, though I certainly wasn't. The US struck three nuclear facilities with a fleet of B two stealth bombers, They had submarine launched cruise missiles, a fighter aircraft as well, all participating in this, and it happened around two thirty am Iran time.
So it's a lot of folks, so you're going to be seeing a lot. There's a lot of coverage today Sunday morning shows. It's all that's being talked about. It's all it's going to be talked about all day, and what's going to be talked about is what's happening over the next couple of days. So if you want to hear the debates, in the back and forth and the questions about the constitutionality, the president is being obviously soundly criticized by folks on the other side of the aisle,
saying this is an unconstitutional move. He did not get congressional approval. They're having those fights. Republicans are shooting and hollering and yelling and cheering and saying this is something that buy and Obama should have done. Dah da da da. That's same thing. If that's a debate you want to hear, this ain't the place for that. We're going to try to simplify this for you and break this down to the very basics, and you kind of got out there.
What were talking about is the who, what, when, where, how and why? The who is the US versus Iran?
The what is?
Yes has entered the conflict between Iran and Israel BI launching strikes on nuclear sites in Iran. When last night where three sites four, toh Fahan and Natans. How they use those BE twelve bombers and those bunker buster bombs to do this? Also, US submarines were involved in launched missiles into Iran. And why the US claims the nuclear program has the ultimate aim of developing a nuclear bomb and that is not something they're allowed that the world we could say it's going to be allowed to do.
So the question now robes is what happens next and how alert does a US need to be around the world.
That's correct.
So a lot of folks say the next forty eight hours are crucial depending on whether or not Iran.
Decides to retaliate.
We heard Secretary of State Mark or Rubio saying if Iran retaliates, it will be the worst mistake they've ever made.
Okay, but it's.
Unclear if they feel weakened, they feel like, hey, we want to come to the table, we want to come and negotiate, or do they feel embarrassed or emboldened to strike back.
And the truth is what their capabilities are. We don't know.
Trump initially said when he announced this to the world that he had or we had completely obliterated the nuclear abilities or capabilities of Iran, and the Pentagon has dialed that back a little bit, saying it's too early to know what ability they may still have, but certainly we severely damaged those sites. So it's unclear what even Iran
has in its arsenal in terms of retaliation. And then there's also the note that we've got forty thousand or so troops stationed around the world that are within missile reach of Iran, so could they retaliate that way? And then even here in the homeland, in New York City, the NYPD has announced that there's enhanced security at religious and cultural and diplomatic sites around the city, and I'm sure that's happening in other parts of this country as well.
So there's a lot of question marks, and frankly, there's a lot of fear out there. I know that I feel slightly on edge just knowing that we've entered into this war and we don't know what this country's going to do. No president of this country has directly attacked Iran before. We don't know what comes next.
Well, but the US, all of us wondering and waiting in the meantime, you're going to hear some pretty severe language. There is going to be some pretty harsh rhetoric, that rhetoric that's going to scare the hell out of all of you when we hear it. A lot of this is posturing. We understand, we get it, but to hear it and to know what all these countries now their military capabilities and what they have been willing to do
in the past week. Again, we're here because Israel launched a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear capabilities about what a week and a half ago, almost that was a two fridays ago. So they've been exchanging and lobbying missiles back and forth at each other. You take this conflict Israel versus Iran, Israel versus Hamas, Russia versus Ukraine, and it's just kind of we seem to be at an unstable point in the world right now, and it's not, and it's very uncomfortable. It seems so far away, it seems
so foreign to us. But this is now. You have US forces directly involved in what some are calling, Yes, we are at war with Iran. Jd Vance specifically say we are not at war with Iran. He said that this one. He said, we're at war with Iran's nuclear program. But Iran has said some of this. Foreign ministers said the US has now crossed a very big red line and that we'll have everlasting consequences, and that Iran now reserves all options to retaliate. That's just scary talk.
It's very scary.
I know.
One thing.
Hopefully, or at least getting the world involved could potentially hopefully get some of this rhetoric down and perhaps getting people to the table. The UN Security Council is holding an emergency meeting.
They just announced it. It's going to happen at three pm.
Eastern Times as of this recording, a few hours from now. But Tehran asked for this, and they want the UN Security Council to condemn the actions of the United States, and they want support from the international community in terms of what happened overnight, and they want the world to weigh in. And so we'll see what happens at that UN Security Council meeting this afternoon, if anything at all.
The Secretary of General has already weighed in and has condemned what the US has done, and he said, quote, there is a growing risk now that this conflict could rapidly get out of control with catastrophic consequence. Was for civilians, the region, and the world. Russia even came out and condemned. Obviously Russia has been a partner with Iran on many things, but that form, mister came out and strongly condemned what the US has done, SAIDs it grows violation of international law.
It's kind of something that you hear some Democrats at least whot and holler about right now. This is a violation of law, international law and the US Constitution. He was not supposed to do this. He is not the first president to go at it alone without congressional authorization. We do know that. But you see some of those
typical back and forth happening. But right now it's again, this ain't the podcast for you if you want to to some of those political debates, but right now we're just trying to give you what happened and where we are and some of the details of this operation. You remember, I can't remember which day it was, but we all got word that B two bombers were moving from the US and being positioned in Guam. Those headlines came out several days ago, and we learned today now rogues at
the that was just a ruse. That was an actual decoy to throw off Iran and throw off the world about what they were going to do. Those b two bombers left from Missouri base there flew to Guam. Everybody's saying, Okay, they're getting positioned, they're getting ready for something. They said that was just to throw people off, So it some gamesmanship was even done. So we're getting some interesting details about how this all came about.
Yeah, and it is remarkable what took place and the reaction that's happening. You know, we think we talk about Iran retaliating, but certainly there are plenty of militias and militants in the Middle East in the region who have Iran's backing and have threatened the United States in the ways that they can. Even we're hearing from Yemens, Iran backed Huthi militia threatened to attack American ships in the
Red Sea if the US attacked Iran. There are ways in which we could see retaliation, not even just from Iran itself, but from some of the groups around the region who are defending Iran, and this is deeply concerning.
If for anyone who has loved ones who are serving in this military overseas, yes, it's a little scary here back at home, but I can't imagine what those folks are going through right now this morning, imagining that their loved ones are out there defending our country but now are at even more risk than ever before given the actions of President Trump.
And we told this is not supposed to be a protracted This is not expected to be a protracted involvement by the United States. That's what they say. But we have to wait to see what Iran does. The President certainly did Iran did warn Iran last night in his speech at the White House at ten o'clock Eastern time, do not retaliate. We just hit you, but don't you dare hit back. Because the President put everybody on notice that he was going to be willing to take further
steps if needed. But at this point it doesn't appear the US this was a move to hurt their nuclear program and try to get them back to the table. It seems a weird thing to do. Let me, I'm gonna bomb you and now don't do anything but come to the table and talk. That was the plan. And look, after all this is going on, we still don't know how badly the nuclear capabilities of Iron have been impacted. There are no independent folks who can go in there
and check. And there were some reports that Iran ahead of time moved a lot of their nuclear material out of some of these facilities ahead of time. So we just don't know. But this this bunker bunker buster bombs, these things ropes are fascinating. We've been hearing so much about them. These they've been used now for the first time in combat. But the V two bombers and the bunker buster, this is the height of US military capability, technology and advancement.
Yeah, and where are we the only, if not one of the only We're the only country I thought that was true who has this type of bomb Because this Foidah, especially this Foidah facility that you've heard a lot about if you've been paying attention, Israel was not able to
penetrate it. This is basically inside a mountain, and so we were the only ones who had the type of bomb that could get in there and actually destroy what we were able to do in their millet in their excuse me there, in their nuclear program in this mountain. So yes, if they moved some of it, fine, but
that was their safest place. It was a secret actual actually until President Obama was able to point out in two thousand and nine, we realized, we found out that they were all of this while while they were saying they were ending the nuclear program, actually underground in this mountain, working on it feverishly. And so this is the main area, this Foidah facility, that we were able to penetrate at least and cause some damage. We obviously don't know how much damage.
These things are absolutely fascinating. I couldn't get a price tag on the bombs, but they said they dropped fourteen of these bunker busters. Give you an idea that sounds wild, But these things are thirty thousand pounds each. I was trying to get some kind of context for that, and it was difficult to do so. But the B two bomber is the only one can carry the damn thing. You can't drop this bomb any other way than with this B two bomber, this stealth bomber. This thing is Look,
you've seen some of these on TV. This is one sexy looking piece of machinery. It's just the jet black Stealth Fighter B two bomber, so you know what that looks like. But this bunker buster is thirty thousand pounds. I was trying to find some context. A Chevrolet Suburban, which is probably the biggest vehicle you'll see on the road today, weighs about sixty five hundred pounds. So these bombs are about the equivalent of five Chevrolet suburbans in weight.
Wow.
And these B two bombers they cost the US military two point one billion dollars per bomb, per plane. So the bomb, yeah, not the bombs themselves, but the planes that are carrying these bombs are two billion dollar planes. It's incredible the effort we put into protecting this country at times, and the money when we talk about Pentagon
budgets and all this stuff. Folks, this was one mission that took moments, and the type of capability and your taxpayer dollars were, I assure you on those planes and on those bombs. It's just fascinating what the military is capable of doing.
It certainly is and.
Obviously they were able to zero in on their targets. But the concern is, as we hear Hexa say, and you mentioned that we don't want to prolong conflict, what Iran does next is going to absolutely determine the way forward. And it's also disturbing because, look, there was hope that there was going to be a negotiated solution to end the fire in between Israel and Iran, and there was talk that Iran was in some way communicating indirectly with
the United States open to some sort of negotiation. So I don't know, we don't know what set Trump off, what made him make this decision. He had mentioned at one point that he would wait for as long as two weeks to give diplomacy a chance, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, bam, we strike Iran. And so this is certainly concerning because how does Iran come to the table after this? How does Iran say, okay, let's negotiate now.
That seems like something that wouldn't happen after something like this. They would be angry. They would want to retaliate, they would want to defend, they would want to show their prowess. They would want to say, hey, yeah, and we're not going to let you United States bully us. We're not going to let you Israel bully us. And that's just deeply disturbing, just on a human level. You're thinking, I'm thinking about it like that. As a human being, the
reaction when someone hits you is to hit back. It's not to come to them tootiating table. It's not to say, let's figure this out peacefully after you've been attacked.
They're not going to win. Everybody knows Iran cannot in. Iran knows that you can't defeat the United States. So what is going to be their ultimate goal do not know, but they have several options that the rhetoric suggests. I'll give you a couple of things here from the foreign minister we talked about earlier, but also the Iranian president. In some of the language they're using against the US, it says the US has launched a dangerous war against Iran.
The world must not forget that it was the United States, during an ongoing diplomatic process, that betrayed diplomacy by supporting the aggressive actions of the genocidal and lawless Israeli regime. This is from the foreign minister who says the US is also warmongering and has a lawless administration in Washington that is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences
and this act of aggression. So right now, again this is so so fresh, and the responses are coming out right now that are strongly many places condemning what the US has done. But we have I don't know when the temperature is going to come down because we're talking about the US attacking Iran.
Oh.
Yeah, by the way, Iran and Israel are shield attacking each other. Yeah, that's happening as we speak. Still, that's going into where we ninth day of that tenth day of that something like that. It continues. It was uncomfortable thinking that that more war is ramping up instead of They've been trying to end what's happening in Ukraine with Russia for three years. It hasn't happened. We're a year and a half into Israel versus Gaza that doesn't seem
to have an end. Repeated peace talks on and off and on and off, and so now here we go again right with another and the US directly involved. It's just it's unsettling, is probably the only way to put it.
Yeah, that's a good way to put it.
My stomach feels like it's in not it's just the not knowing what's next and not knowing how this unfortunately escalates.
And just a few hours after we attacked.
Iran, Iran launched a new round of missiles towards Israel. So they heated that back up. And even though the US says that Iran has depleted its stock pile of certain types of missiles, Iran still has plenty of other weapons, including rockets and drones, and so this is not going away anytime soon.
And this the President's spoke, of course at the White House last night, but he did put out a state and true social is really where things sometimes can get hot. But this is statement. We have completed our very successful attack on the three nuclear sites in Iran. All planes are now outside of Iran airspace. A full payload of bombs was dropped on the primary site, Foordoh. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great
American warriors. There is not another military in the world that could have done this. Now is the time for peace. Thank you for your attention to this matter. That's how he signed all folks, He said, thank you for your attention to this matter. It seems odds saying hey, we just bombed everybody, thanks for listening, and now is the time for peace. We're done, but now is the time for peace. I can I'm sure if somebody has done that as a kid or something. You smack somebody and
then you say, oh, I'm just playing. Okay, let's stop. Stop, stop planing, stop planning. After you throw a punch. It was a true social It's always interesting.
Oh my goodness, And we're getting word and this is going to be happening throughout the day. Today the US Embassy in Beirut ordering the departure of non emergency personnel and family members from Lebanon. And this is you know, several areas around in the Middle East, we have embassies, we have staff, we have people, and can you imagine what they must be thinking and going through right now.
So, yes, the US say is because of.
The volatile and unpredictable security situation in the region, they're asking American citizens in Lebanon to exercise caution and monitor the news. So yes, if you are an ex pat, or if you are a member of the military, or you are in any way representing the United States in the Middle East.
This has got to be incredibly unsettling.
So we just wanted to hop on and give you an update, try to get through a little bit of the clutter, just let you know exactly where we are, and I'll end I guess on. I'm not sure what kind of note I'm ending on, but it's not necessarily a war note. This just came across in the live updates from the Associated Press all we were talking about. Pete Hegseth on Sunday today made a statement saying that our boys and those bombers are on their way home
right now, and someone corrected him. The Associated Press is reporting one of the pilots of those BE two bombers was in fact a woman. I love that, you know what. Let me just leave it there. That's a nice little nugget, cool to hear. I don't think heg ssth was saying anything negative or anything. We just all hand comment our boys are on the way home. One of the pilots of those of that be too was a woman.
So that's the perfect note to end.
I'll leave you with that note.
I love that, all right, and yes, thank you for listening to us and of course, we will continue to drop some episodes if it warrants. We certainly hope you have a peaceful and wonderful Sunday despite all of the news in the world.
But thank you for listening to us.