Welcome to today's podcast sponsored by Hillsdale College, All Things Hillsdale Hillsdale dot ed or I encourage you to take advantage of the many free online courses there, and of course I listen to the Hillsdale Dialogue all of them at Hugh for Hillsdale dot com or just Google, Apple, iTunes and Hillsdale. Welcome back in America. I'm Hugh Hewett. United States Senator Tom Cotton represents the Great State of Arkansas. He's also Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Chairman of
the Republican Conference. Senator, thank you for making time for me today. About an hour ago, US Central Command posted some video and the statement. Two days ago, the Iranian regime had eleven ships in the Gulf of Amon. Today they have zero. What do you think the Chinese think about this? And I want to tell the audience you authored Seven Things you Can't Say about China. I've got
the book right here. What do you think our adversaries in China think about what they've seen in the last seventy two hours?
Well, she I think once again the Chinese communist can't he please? Another signal display of strength, confidence, and resolution by Donald Trump and the United States. More concretely and materially, one has to imagine that they're fearful about the loss of black market oil coming from Iran that has been helping prop up the Iyatolas regime, and at the prospect of one of their chief and only allies in the Middle East falling and returning back into the American fold.
Senator, I am very disappointed with one of our longtime allies, the United Kingdom, and wondering whether or not they ought to be in five Eyes anymore because they wouldn't support us in this. And then Spain has absolutely disgraced itself. You know, I'm one of those Atlantisys in our party, but it makes it hard to argue with the isolation. That's when our allies established in the back in the front.
Well, the actions of both nations are somewhat disappointing you. At least the Prime Minister Starmer of Great Britain has slightly modified his previous position allowing us to use basis forty calls defensive positions. I would point out view that this moment is a perfect example of why we need total sovereignty over our military position in Greenland, both our current one and our expanded one. This is why President
Trump has taken it so seriously. We cannot allow, for instance, a future left wing government in Denmark to limit what our military in Greenland needs to do in a moment of crisis.
That brings me to the message to Cuba in all of this, and I'm jumping ahead here because first Venezuela, now Iran is under great stress. What is the message to Cuba that they should be seeing.
Well, Cuba is on the rope to you know for almost thirty years, actually over thirty years, I guess, be at Russia propped up Cuba in the Castro regime, and then Cuba's on the ropes in the nineties until Chavez came along to prop up Cuba. And now they don't have shave, they don't have anyone, and the Cuban government, really the entire Cuban economy is on the verge of seizing up like a machine without oil because well they don't have any oil to fund their economy and the
government they are and to use for energy. So that's why the President has said that in conversations with Cuba, things are looking very positive. I bet many many folks who are hanging on to the Castro regime or dream dreaming them about a peaceful retirement alongside bacheor Alasade in Moscow Right now, Senator.
Is there any open source reporting on whether or not an American cyber campaign of any sort of taking place. I haven't seen a word about cyber attacks in Iran, but that may be because we're not reporting them.
I'm not aware of any specifics. But you did hear General Kane, the Chairman of GOINT Chiefs this morning, say that cyber Command and Space Command, we're both integral in the operations in a run.
Okay, so let me move then to the big question, which is the defense budget for next year. President Trump is said on this program he'd like another half trillion dollars of the nine hundred billion that's there. That's a big lift. Center at Collins has said that. But if we're going to do Golden Dome, and boy do we need golden dome. And if we're going to reload the munition stockpile, boy do we need a supplemental? Is that something that reconciliation could deal with?
Well, you all on two of the three possibilities. There's the possibility of a supplemental the possibility of reconciliation and then the annual budget bill. But you're right where you're going to have to have a significant defense increase, not just to confront the gathering threats we face around the world, but to continue to invest more and more into our defense industry. We had Secretary Hesth in South Arkansas on Friday on his Arsenal Freedom Tour. I've worked with these
companies for a long time. They've improved a lot over the last few years in terms of their production rates, but they need to do better and they know they need to do better. And the Pentagon needs to do better in cutting through red tape, and frankly, Congress needs to do better as well.
We all need to.
Do better for our troops on the front line and the American people in producing missiles and missile defenses as fast as we possibly can.
Now what a defense appropriation fit within the rules for reconciliation requiring just simple majorities, because I think you might actually get some Democrats to vote for that.
Yeah, you if you recall our bill last summer, the Working Family's Tax Cut Act had a lot more than just tax cuts. It had a significant investment of one hundred and fifty billion dollars in our defense industry, and much of that specifically was for additional munitions manufacturing and procurement.
So our last question, could the weeks and months I had prove is consequential to our position in the world as the fall of the Wall in nineteen eighty nine, If you're wrong, crumbles and the Middle East board changes dramatically, could it be that consequential?
It certainly has the prospect that he, as Secretary of Rubio said, there's no simple answers about what happens in Iran if the government were at fall. We know certainly that the Supreme leader was eliminated, getting his just deserts for forty years of terror against his own people and against Americans in the civilized world. But let's all hope that when the smoke is cleared and we've reduced around's nuclear facilities to rubble, and we have eliminated their missile arsenal.
But also it's a new day for the Iranian people and they have a pro American government that becomes an anchor for peace and stability in the Middle East, not revolutionary violence as they have been for forty seven years.
Center Tom Cotton good to speak with you. Thank you for spending time on a very bavy weekend. Take care of Senator. I'm joined by Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, retiring United States Navy after thirty two years of service in the uniform. He's not the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, where he's a senior fellow Admiral. You've been around for the five big conflicts that I've been around for Panama, and then we've got the Yugoslavia Air campaign, Afghanistan, Iraq,
and then the Libyan campaign twenty eleven. What is different about this war than those wars?
I think that's a great question because the issue is the we're trying to do an air only campaign.
Here. We've got six good lines of effort.
I had, you know, raising care Dan Kane laid them out, not saying six, but you know, laid them out.
You know.
IRGC leadership and facilities is one. Two is suppression of enemy air defense, which I think we're almost near block checked is two to three is the ballistic missile capabilities, facilities and production.
That's three. That's the big one right now.
Then drone facilities, capabilities and production.
That's four.
And then the fifth one is the Iranian Iranian Navy, and then the sixth one is the interesting one here, which is.
How do you support the protesters?
This is different than like I was involved in Libya's at Yukon when had happened, and I was involved with Kosovo, and in both cases we had an armed insurgency on the ground. The KLA and Cosbo who were you know, I know all their friends of mine. Now those are some tough guys ready to fight, and an former army kind of armed insurrectionists in Libya in twenty eleven. We
do not have that condition in Iran right now. So I don't know that the sixth line of effort gets exploited unless they get armed either by Israeli or US title fifth year Intelligence Community Forces.
Admiral I saw earlier today reports that Israel's bombing along the Kurdish border between the Iraqi Kurdish Dan and Iranian Kurdis Dan, the idea of being that perhaps Kurdish forces might cross over. What would that mean to Turkey? Turkey is one of our three disappointing allies. Spain's the worst. Uk is a close second, but Turkey's playing it both ways. What would that mean if the Kurds crossed over.
So I don't think you did good justice to Hungary on that one, but I'll say Turkey is the worst of all those a lot.
And yeah, and so look the Turks are you know, they're going.
To become unglued if if we create a Kurdish problem for them in this I mean now, my answer to them is, hey, you could have been a lot more helpful at every step of the way in this crisis. You've been unhelpful. You've been damaging to Israel. You have not been a good ally to the United States any way, shape or form. And so my empathy factor for them
is pretty low. I did I don't know what the Israeli you know, long term plan there is, because I don't that's creating chaos and you know, chao us has a value in the moment, but later on that chaos could have a negative value for us.
I'm I'm hesitant to say that. I know that's going to be a useful action by the Israelis.
All right, now, admiraald this is this goes back to your time at the Cyber Solarium, when you're the executive director, a close to tolitarian society Iran with the secret police thoroughly penetrated. I gather the Israelis took control of their closed caption TV and followed around Hawmoni's bodyguard. There's a lot of stuff that they knew, and a lot of stuff that we knew. If they're close to tolitarian society, how vulnerable are we to this kind of surveillance and measures.
You know, I have a feeling a hue that you're not watching enough Apple TV, because if you're watching Tehran, you would know Israelis.
The Israelis have half of the I audience absolutely.
I mean, by the way, so much that is in that streaming show just shows up here. I wonder sometimes about Massad, but the you know, look had them penetrated, and you know, give us some credit to you know, General Kine's emphasis on the non kinetic aspects meant, I mean, we kind of did the blunt force object of you cannot communicate, you cannot see your space assets.
They did the scalpel work. The Israelis.
We know exactly where you are, we know who's coming to this meeting, and we know that it is time to strike. Three and a half hours from now, so they're the scalpel with a sledgehammer, and between us that was a pretty non kinetic butt kicking.
Yes, now, Admill, I have a column for Fox News tomorrow that restates, again objectively, the facts of nineteen ninety one when then President George H. W. Bush, then Secretary of Defense Cheney, and then Chairman of the Joint Chief Powell called a halt to the First Golf War after one hundred hours, and the debate about that goes on. I don't want to reopen that debate. I am afraid, however, that there's a temptation for political actors to things too soon. Is that at work here one?
You know, you hit it, Hugh. That is my biggest concern.
We stopped the twelve day war twelve days too soon, that after we did four to h we should have joined in, at least at a minimum, provided refueling aircraft, continued refueling aircraft and strategic bombers to support continued Israeli.
Strikes on that.
Remember that when I thought to bilistic missile production, drone production. The reason they're shooting back at you with good numbers at us is we have not stopped that. We haven't eliminated the current stuff and rebilized everything that could build future stuff.
We need to make it clear that there will be.
No missile or drone activity from a future Iranian state. And the way you do that is a four to six week campaign, three weeks solid, and near the end of it you're doing battle damage assessment, and then restriking, restriking, restriking at a lower level for about a week to two weeks.
Then you declare victory.
The propensity for presidents who declared victory.
Early will will hurt us here.
We need to carry through on this, even if it's clear to us after some point that there's not going to be a popular revolt against the leadership. We have to continue to strike campaign until our military says we've achieved these five the lines of the other five lines of effort.
I set out what do you think China is saying as they We're sixty hours into this, so there's not a lot to conclude, but the People's Republic of China and the CCP are watching. What are they concluding?
Well, first, it turns out they didn't have that much control over Iran, because I think they've been settling to Iran NonStop, you know, Morse code, carrier, pigeon, whatever they can get to them, do not close the straits or Hormuse. And the straits of Hormus are effectively being closed by the Iranians right now. And let me tell you this is like when they do this, This is like the old scorpion ride in the back of the frog. You know, when the Iranians, you know, kill the frog and closed
the straights of Hermus. They drowned, right because there it kind of is as dependent on it as any other maybe the Katari economy is equally dependent. So they're hurting themselves, but they're killing China, right. Venezuela was a little bit of a ding on China. This is a big ding on China supply. That's where this Iranian oil was going and at a very discounted freight cost, you know, and they're going to lose that. So China's gotta be frustrated.
You know.
I think they kind of knew the Russian and Chinese weapons in Iranian hands, we're not performing well against high end US and Israeli equipment and they're getting another lesson in that. I will say, also, this is a reminder the Ukrainian. I just got back from three weeks in Ukraine. There's a lot you can learn in Ukraine, and some of it was applied here, but there's a lot that
isn't about Ukraine. Sometimes, just having a butt kicking air power capability capacity anchored in our US Air Force supported by our US Navy and Marine Corps is critical to winning wars against high end adversaries.
Admiral, we used the B one. I don't know how many the ones we have. I got twenty B twos on my being O card. What does the B one do that the B two doesn't or is it the same function?
I think it was doing the same time. I mean I think the B ones like, hey, suppression of enemy or defense complete I'm coming in.
It carries a lot of weapons, you know, probably around the B two capacity, not like a B fifty two, but it does a lot. And look we got we have anywhere operational I'm guessing I don't know, so it's not a clasm my number, but around nineteen or twenty
probably there good to go. But the dude, the deal is the B two has you have to keep some of them for your nuclear readiness to terrence thing so like, let the b twos, you know, be doing their nuclear stuff and then some B twos doing the conventional b ones picking it up. I'm comfortable with this, and you know, I'm confident they're putting a whole bunch of j DAM on target b ones. Are they carry a lot of precision guided munitions and.
So you know, I'm excited to have them in there as well.
By the way, that counts for a lot of fighter a lot of fighter assorties in one bomber mission.
Now now, Admiral, I'm asking her a continent earlier about a supplemental or a reconciliation bill to beef up the munition stock biles, and we'll talk during the break about Golden Dum. Do you think that is going to be necessary because we're using a lot of ordinance.
Absolutely, But I'll back up to that whole Red Sea year and a half. We shot a year's worth of procurement in the Red Sea alone last year and the year before each of those years, and now we're doing
it again on the offensive side. So you know, with the strike weapons, so we should have a munition you know that, Look, the reconciliations helping with munitions, but I think this is a very specific buy back the five hundred million to billion dollars worth the munitions you spend over the each week, probably in this in this contest, absolutely you should do that. That's pretty typical that you have a supplemental for a wartime expenditure like this.
I'll be right back with Adam Montgomery during the break to ask him about Golden Dome and how quickly we have to move on that given what we've seen right here. But don't go anywhere except stay tuned to the Sanuel News channel. If you've missed any or all of the conversations today, they're all over at my YouTube channel at Hugh Hewett YouTube. I'll be right back with the Admiral during the break. After the break, Bethany Mandel joins me. Then John bod Ortz. Stay tuned. I'll be right back.
I'm back with Admiral Mark Montgomery. Admiral Ronald Reagan and Edward Teller are smiling today because of what Israel is doing. They've suffered civilian casualties, but they they're shooting everything down. They got lasers work and all sorts of stuff. What's that tell us about Golden Dome? And how much of a priority it ought to be, and I assume we can get it deployed.
So first, this validates President Trump's commitment to Golden Dome during his campaign and immediately upon his election with the executive order.
It also validates his selection of Mike Gootline.
General Gootline is the leader because goot Line has laid out a very you know, a very explicit plan you can see it to get up into space, like President Reagan knew we needed to be.
The cost of launch has been dropped.
The reason I say this, if you're up in space, you can the same assets can do for deployed you know, defend your forces of the Middle East, in the Pacific, in Europe and the Homeland. We want to fight our adversary, not in the homeland, so we want to be able to defend our.
Ford deployed forces. So I you know, his theory of a space based.
System, both satellites and effectors to shoot down things base of space supported by a strong what's called an underlayer of terrestrial radars and sometimes shooters. Very point defense is important, and maybe getting to rigibles in there, you know, in the up to really good good vision that is where my goot line is headed, and it's validated by this. Look, it's terrible that our troops got killed. I think we're going to find out by you know, a short range
ballistic missile that hit a op center. But you know the truth is we don't have There's not enough patriot and bad that you can buy to point defend everything everywhere, all at once.
And with that in mind, the.
Space base really gives you that more comprehensive, holistic approach.
It's going to take time.
I'm afraid the President will not you know, it will be after January twenty twenty nine before it's a.
Truly effective system.
But this is the President giving his successors the systems they need to fight and win against adversaries like China, Russia and North Korea and if Iran survives Iran in the future. So I'm not excited, but I'm you know, I believe this validates improves the theory that a lot of us have been pushing and the general goot line is championing.
As head of Golden Dome.
We're radmal Mark Montgomery. Thank you for your time today. I know you're in high demand and I appreciate all the guys and gals from FDD spending the time with me. Talk to you again soon. Thank you Admiral again. I'm joined from Israel by a Meet Segal with twelve News in Israel. It's also with Dan Senor on the Calling Back podcast, the Insider podcast Busiest Man as I can tell in Israeli media. I mean, thank you for making the time. First, how is your family? You've got a
new born. If I recall, you're going back and forth to the shelters a what an additional complexity for parents or trying to get some sleep exactly?
You know they someone said something funny that I mean having sirens in the middle of the nineties, as if every every is Ready has a too, you know, has a new burn to take care of. You know, you wake up three times a night and you will barely get to sleep. But I think Moreal is high high spirits because people are aware of what is going on, what's at stake.
And here's the thing, in my opinion, you.
Since nineteen eighty two till twenty twenty six, today, each and every is Ready or was killed or injured or kidnapped was hit by either an Iranian weapon or an Iranian funded weapon. So this was the enemy. So now when they are going down and they are going to collapse in Israel and the United States are standing.
Together to facilitate the process.
I think it's ready. Are willing to pay a high price. Bride called it stiff upper lip. I think in World War.
Two, well, they are have already paid a large, large price for civilian casualties and more on the way. I'm certain because it's going to be a long war. Let me ask you, mate about the politics in Israel. In the United States, the divide between red and blue is already out in full force, and Democrats are condemning this. I have been cheered by the opposition, both Yaya Lapide and Natally Bennett supporting the Prime Minister. Is that going to hold through the duration of the war?
I think so, Because this is an existential threat, everyone is aware of it.
I think the situation in Gaza was.
A bit different, first of all because it was very long, and second because of the hostage question. There were many approaches to how to take care of whether to first take the hostages and then eliminate Camaso the other way around.
This is not the case.
Was Iran so I think the main perception in Israel is you know, green and buried and the opposition and coalition.
I mean, do not have any disputes about this. Right now, I want to talk about the Prime minister in at Yahoo for a moment. I mean, I read about him in your book The Call three Am. It's a fabulous book for people want to learn about Israeli politics. He's been off and on prime Minister of Israel since nineteen ninety six, for a total of almost sixteen years. This is the fruition what is unfolding now. It's not done yet,
but this is the fruition of his life goal. Is it changing the fundamentals of politics in Israel or is it just hardening the lines for whenever the ceasefire or the piece or the regime collapses in Iran.
It absolutely helps him, you know, following the utter disaster of October sevens which happened on Natania's watch, which with his accountability, I thought that his only way whether this monster storm, is actually by defeating Iran, because Iran is the sugar ready of each and every proxy that fought Israel, especially Ramas. And here we see that what began on October Seven's was actually Israel's pell Holbo. And now we are in the gates of Berlin and Tokyo, and I
think this opportunity cannot be missed. I think that Nataniel and Trump, I would put it different to Natania was the only one, the only leader who could have talked Trump into attacking Iran, you know, the leader of the Maga movement. And because he explained to Trump, first how dangerous cities to the United States States itself and second what it teached the world in the US enemies. If I run is to be the unim regim is to be destroyed by the United States of America.
Now Prime Minister Modi of India was their last week. And the new world order that is emerging is of the high tech superpowers like Israel, India and the United States. And maybe they'll drag along the old europe powers, but they're not really playing their own game. I also think the golf allies are going to come along and I can't even believe it. Lebanon is you know, declared open season on Hesbola.
Hooray right, yes, Chris Balla, you know there was a once in nineteen eighty three the Label party in the United Kingdom published It's a manifesto, It's a gender for the election, and the British Plus defined it as the longest suicide member, the longest suicide letter.
In the history of the world.
So I would say that his blast decision to fire three rockets in the middle of the night on Israel was the loudest suicide letter in the history of the Middle East. Listen, I know they were between a rock and a hard place. The hardest place, you know, Iranians. The founders demand them to actually seize the opportunity and defend them. That was the purpose of establishing christ Bella and on the other hand, the formidable power of the idea.
They took the worst decision. They attacked, but only marginally three rockets, and now Israel would come with its decisive power to eliminate his bela once and fall.
And the Lebanese government understands this.
I mean they see yet another flood of refugees, and their decision today was historic in the sense that for the first time his belife defined as illegal militarily in Levange. Good news for the media.
Now, I mean I talked to four Israelis about Seth you and nadav Aviv and doctor or in doctor ORNs. My generation U three are a generation younger. But you seem to talk to everyone and everyone's mad at you occasionally, so that means you're actually a fine reporter. What do your sources tell you about fracture within Iran? Because there are some reports I don't know whether the credit them or not of internal fracturing of the regime. Have you heard that from any of the people you report on.
Yes, I think we should stick to cautious optimism when it comes to this. There are two options basically for the future of Iran. One is the fantasy of Israel and the United States just you know, pressing control z undoing the Islamic evolution, thus getting you know, a liberal, secular proise ready pro western Iran. But the other more
probable option is that we're going to have Venezuela. The United States took the president and now, I mean the vice president is way more cautious when it comes to the United States, way more friendly. Why because I guess she's afraid the United States is going to after her too.
That's the thing in.
Iran, I think.
And you should notice you something very interesting Israel targeted killed forty eight senior figures in Iran, form Ali Khaminida, Supremelyadium, to generals and everything in between. But it skipped the Iranian president Pashkazian. Now, it's not due to lack of information. I suspect, and it's only my suspicion that this guy is going to be the go to guy when it comes to the Iranian regime.
That's a fascinating speculation. I watched that. What about their foreign minister who continued to make a full out of himself whenever he goes on American television.
The Middle East is full with, you know, ridiculous foreign ministers. The didn't grasp the changing situation.
In their in their homelands.
You do you remember italic As for Miraq, Mahmuda Sakha for Mirak.
I think Alila.
Arakchi is going to be remembered exactly like them.
All right, So you have talked, I've heard you talk about the UAE and Saudi ua is a little Sparta and they have been with us every step of the way through the long Wars, and their very very close ally just just behind Israel. They don't have the capabilities Israel does, but they are reliable. Do you think that breach, which was very alarming, has been healed by the common enemy that Iran has proven to be.
First of all, yes, I think the UAE, the UI's number one reason to go to the Abrama Cords was first the huge threat possessed by Iran, and second understanding that there should be an alliance of the moderates in the Middle East. It's not Jews versus Arabs, or Jews versus Muslims, but moderates versus fundamentalists. And now Saudi Arabia gets this.
Listen.
I Ran attacked, the directly attacked Saudi Arabia this day attacked Bahrain, whouwaits even Qatar, you know, Qatar, the big the biggest terror funder, the second biggest tele funder in the Middle list was targeted by the first.
Founder in the in the Middle East.
This is huge, and I think they are going to understand that there is only one power in the Middle East which does not threaten peaceful citizens, and this is Israel.
Thirty seconds, I mean, is anyone running around right now because what they're doing does not fit any coherent pattern I've ever seen in my studies of war and conflict and being around don't make any sense. Is anyone running it?
No, it is run by by the Gang of Three.
But and here's the thing, it runs a strategic plan for the entire for the last forty seven years was we are going to enjoy the bloods of other proxies. Now their proxies are gone thanks to the IDF, and now for the first time they have to fight themselves against the West, and the outcome is devastating.
From them going very well. I meet Segal, Thank you for joining me. Follow him on. I meet Schagal. Get his book that you can get an Amazon. Listen to him and call me back with Dan speenor and thank you to meet for at the time. Good luck with the babies in the middle of a war. I'll be right back in America's patre born in Gloria and Ian and Grace in America. I'm you Hereitt back from vacation. My thanks to Kurt Schlicker for sitting in for me
last week. And what was the penultimate week before the war. And I was without wireless all day Saturday as I flew Delta just couldn't get it working. So I was gone crazy wondering what my next guest, Eli Lake, who I asked to be the first guest for this program, first guest after the war was sinking and saying, and he was working with commentary and pumping stuff out. Eli, great work this weekend. First question, big picture, your reaction after seventy two hours of war with Iran.
I look at this as the culmination of a forty seven year war that was started with the embassy hostage crisis that the Iranian regime has started, and it looks like this is going to be the final chapter of that near fifty year war. And I think that's the right way to look at it now.
I thought the Free Press, for whom you worked, did an amazing job on Saturday before I lost wireless. You brought in serious people to talk about the subject. There's been good guests over at Fox as well, but most of the news is slow, Eli. Where are you getting your news from about developments in the war.
I like social media, there are some accounts. I think Iran International has been very good source for understanding what's happening with the democratic opposition. I always in situations like this, we'll try to remember the basic rule of the fog of war. The first reports are often wrong, so there was a there were there was still dispute over who hit a girls' school that you know, the casualty figures keep rising, and a lot of news outlets kind of
went with that. But I'm still waiting to sort of see, okay, what what happened there was that potentially a misfire was on an IRGC base. Certainly don't think it was targeted. That's regime propaganda, but uh, you know so, so I'm there. I do think that the straight stuff you're getting from the wires and the usual suspects has been pretty good. And to be honest, I learned a ton just at the press conference today with Raisin Kine and Pete Hexsath. Yeah,
I mean that that answered a lot of questions. I thought was pretty good.
So now I listened to HEAVV right morning on my trungle and he too. He went very big on the other chessboard, the Grand Strategy chessboard. I thought he was persuasive. What do you think China is seeing as it's unfolds.
Well, we've talked about this before. The first thing, I think that the Chinese military planners are looking at Is. The United States and Israel together have done it again. They have managed to, in this case kill instead of capture the leader of a regime without boots on the ground.
That's brand new.
That's a new technology that, in my view, is a new kind of capability. And I think we're in this kind of moment similar to the years after World War Two where America and its ally Israel has a kind of monopoly on this capability.
But that's extraordinary.
I'm not saying that this would be done in China, but I just think it changes the game. It changes the chessboard in a lot of ways in terms of a kind of tactical innovation. The other thing I think is that I have not seen Russia or China the kind of great power allies of Iran offering to send troops, offering to do much of anything. Iran is alone and isolated.
That to me was also super significant. But if we were worried that China would take an opportunity to make a grab for Taipei and Taiwan, I think we've set that back at this point in terms of the demonstration of American military might.
Yeah, the one accent we had not see is the underwater asset. I know most of the Iranian navy has been sunk. I don't know how it's been sunk, but I would guess a lot of our Virginia attack submarines are near the Straits Taiwan Straits right now, because we are pretty committed in the Middle East to this. Let me go to the downside. I don't know that the United Kingdom should be in the five eyes anymore, and I sure as hell don't think Spain out to be
anywhere near. What do you make of their First of all, UK just wouldn't work with us for seventy two hours. How do we trust them? And then Spain won't work with us now after everybody's been attacked by the Butchers.
Well, it's drastic. The five I question is very interesting with the UK. But the Shenanigans they called with Diego Garcia for as this was ramping up, is a real blow. And I think it is a huge problem. And I know it was something that Trump had personally talked about, so it got his attention. Listen, this is the difference between the US Israel. I mean, think about what the US Israel military partnership is achieving right now. Taking care of an enemy to not just Israel. It's like not
a war for Israel. It's like they're taking care of the West. And where is where is where are our traditional European allies in that nowhere? They are roving their irrelevance in this moment. You know, it makes you rethink a number of things, and it you know, it gets back to I was very initially skeptical of Trump's hostility
to NATO. I'm not saying I've come around to the kind of full Trumpian position on it, but I just don't know that we can count on a lot of the europe Western European militaries in particular, to be the kind of allies that we assume they are in the NATO alliance. You know, when they did there at a moment like this, and not just that they didn't go along with the United States, Do they have the what capabilities.
Would they have?
I mean that's what I'm the Israeli tech and what the Americans have been able to do. I keep coming back to it is so extraordinary. And where is the UK on stuff like this?
Nowhere? Yeah, I'm kind of up for the two eyes approach. What we don't know Massada, and I'm kind of going to that. I want to ask you about your worry. My column for Fox tomorrow is Mster President, don't do what hw and Dick Cheney and Colin Powell did in nineteen ninety one. Although I don't know the information they acted on that they had a goal. They executed the Pole doctrine. They expelled Saddam, but the Marshabs were slaughtered. We went on for another eleven years with the no
fly zones. We lost airman, we lost kobar towers. It was not the right thing to blink and quit. And because you know, look bad on the road, that was the road of destruction and death. Do you think there's a danger of stopping too soon?
Yes, but I also think that there this is a big gamble and we should we should keep.
That in mind.
I think it's smart that we're not going to commit boots on the ground because Americans don't want it.
And then our service.
Our marines, our our infantry men become sitting ducks because they, as a man, the checkpoints and they train and we and that's that's how.
The wars became.
Quagmires wasn't in the initial phase of toppling the regimes. It was the nation building phase. So I think Trump is smart to say that's not in the cards and you shouldn't have any expectations of that. But we should also acknowledge that we have less of an ability to
shape whatever comes next in the transition. My hope is that MASAD and CIA have a network in place that can emerge after these layers of the regime are eliminated, and that would be the best case scenario, and I'm not ruling it out, but it's a big unknown at
this point. And my nightmare scenario is that you have even if it's a thousand true believers with lots of guns, you know, they head to the hills, they form an insurgency, and there's a race for the most sensitive material, whether it's nuclear, whether it's you know, even if it's handheld anti aircraft guns, which we know the Iranians have, If they get in the hands of terrorist groups and they go to international airports, that's an international crisis.
So what I'm saying is.
I actually think the MASAD and the CIA and the US military are aware of that, and I and you have to marvel at their brilliance and competence. So at this point, I think they know that that's a challenge, but there are no guarantees. We've ruled the iron dice of war and we have to accept that that's a major risk.
Now there's no danger of loose nukes. There's a lot of danger of loose nuclear material that makes dirty bombs, and that is that's very last question, just loose weaponry. Yeah, Israel has demonstrated extraordinary technology that we need, and I think the Golden Dome that Trump's put on the table becomes the priority for the rest of his term that
we need what Israel has. Do you think the Congress will step up and spend what needs to be spent and go Manhattan Project on this the way that Reagan did and then we kind of put it away because of the piece did and Ino, But we need it. It's absolutely essentially so glad you brought this up.
This is an opportunity to reset the USS where we're relationship. I think that it's not just me, Benjamin Netanyahu's even said this, it's time to end the model of that. You know, we're subsidizing Israel's military more than any other country in the world.
Israel's a prosperous nation.
Instead, let's have Israel graduate to full partner and instead of having a Manhattan project, let's have Israel, you know, bring its technology to us in a collaborative process, so that we have Iron Beam, a laser based missile defense system that eliminates the huge.
Problem right now in.
Our missile defense contract, which is that it's far more expensive to build the interceptors than for the bad guys to build the missiles. So if we can use that kind of laser technology doesn't work in all conditions, but if we can get that and use that and have Israel helping with Golden Dome, that is a new kind of relationship.
And that's what I'd like to say. I agree this is they are the equal of any of our ally, and in fact, they've proven themselves to be more important to us than any other ally in the last seventy two hours in a grand strategy sense, which has not
always been the case before. Eli Lake always hit the free Press, follow him at the CFP and on x at Eli Lake, come right back, America lots ahead today on my first day back, Danny Pluckkip from AIX Welcome back in America, I'm you, Hewittt back after a week thanks to Kirk Schlichter for sitting in for me last week. I'm joined by Danny Pludka, senior scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, co host of the What the Hell Is
going On? Podcast? Danny, I want to ask you about the big big picture of eve Reddy Gore did a what Ask Have You Anything? Podcast all about what China is watching and seeing and concluding. I want to put that question to you, because you are a grand strategist. What is China seeing, watching, concluding from the first seventy two hours of this war.
Look, it's really important that the China is understand something about American will because I think that a lot of our adversaries in recent years, recent administrations, have come to believe that America can be tested and will not respond, that America can be rejected and not respond. And this is what our history with China is. We've watched the Chinese.
We've talked repeatedly about a quote unquote pivot to Asia, and what we've done is not only not pivot, but not respond to a Chinese military build up in the South China Sea, to Chinese aggression against our allies in Southeast to Asia, and now watching us, watching our capabilities in the Mediterranean, they have got to be asking themselves is this a risk worth taking?
I agree? I also wonder are they going to rush to try and build a counter like a Golden Dome themselves? And how much of a priority does Golden Dome become for the American homeland now?
So I think that. Look, I think all missile defenses, all drone defenses, are absolutely critical. But we knew this before this conflict with Iran. We knew this by watching what the Russians have been doing with Iranian weaponry to our friends, the Ukrainians. And we know this by watching what the Ukrainians have been able to do to the Russians by stepping up their capabilities their manufacture of drones. We all need to be working together to counter the
capabilities of adversaries like the Russians. Well, I would have said the Iranians, but maybe not, but certainly the Chinese, and to begin to protect our allies, the Israelis, the Taiwanese, the Ukrainians are NATO friends. Well, if I can still call them NATO friends.
Oh, let's pause there, because I brought up the five. I'm not sure I trust the United Kingdom anymore. And Spain has basically given more ammunition to the isolationists in America than every isolation as in America could come up with in the last forty eight hours.
You know, I have friends who use this word and I find it very effective. I'm very disappointed in our NATO allies and the same people who have been and again you you warned me about the FCC, I need
to be careful of my language. But the same people who have been whining over the last year and a half about America's alliance with NATO, about our lack of commitment to the Transatlantic Alliance, about us not doing enough for our Ukinan friends are completely and totally indifferent when a we come to them and say support us in supporting our allies and partners in the Middle East. They are two faced hypocrites. And that's just the languag that I'm using to be compliant with the FSNC.
Thank you for doing that, Danny Plikeka. Let me go back to one of the most debated decisions in national security strategy of the last fifty years, the decision by President George H. W. Bush, Secretary of Defense, and then Cheney and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, then Colin Powell to stop the invasion of Kuwait after reaching the border with the rock after on the arbitrary one hundred hours headline moment. Do you think we are in danger of doing the same thing here? And I'm not saying I
don't want to relitigate that decision. There are good reasons to defend that decision and bad reason to defend that decision. But I don't want to stop prematurely here.
Now. Listen, I agree with you wholeheartedly. And you know there's always a tension between the military imperatives and the political imperatives. But here Mark and I had on and we don't yet it's not yet published, but we had on very well known nuclear expert David Albright, physicist on the podcast this morning, and we'll release it tomorrow morning. But he gave us such compelling reasons for us to stay the course in Iran. First of all, they have
a nuclear weapons program. We know that we don't know where all of their facile material is, where all of their enriched geranium is. If we stop prematurely, we risk the idea that bad guys that Iranian government retreads that al Qaeda. Don't forget al Qaida head of al Qaida is in Iran right now, that these guys will get a hold of get a hold of nuclear material, nuclear technology.
We don't want that to happen. And it's one of the reasons why I believe the President will continue to prioritize ensuring there is a stable government in Iran that follows this one. It's imperative.
Danny sail Adel is the current head of al Qaeda. He replaced Zawahiri after Zawahiri was killed by Tim Biden, and good that he's gone to his reward. But this guy's in Iran. Doesn't that make this an AUMF covered operation from two thousand and one?
So I've wrote about this this weekend. You can certainly press the AARMF for people who are not nerdy like me. The authorization for use of military force that came after nine to eleven, and that really has been used by successive presidents for counter terrorism operations in Syria and Iraq and Yemen and even further afield than that. Look, I don't think that the president actually requires an authorization for use of military force, and I don't think that he's
going to get one from this Congress. But in a pinch sure stretch that AOMF that's now, what twenty five years old? He almost twenty five years old. Even further and say that the head of al Qaeda's presence and his being protected by this regime does give us a
certain latitude in our operations. But the Constitution makes clear. Look, and you know this better than I do, Hugh, the President has the ultimate authority to defend the national security of the American people and he doesn't need an AOMF to do that. It's nice to have, it's not an imperative.
And Hugh youtt believe the War Powers Actor is unconstitutional. For the record, last question, thanks K. Ben Rhodes is up there. You tweeted about this. Are the Democrats that's stupid? Do they really not understand that Ben represents and God bless him, he's just dumb the sunk costs of twenty years of idiocy. It's not the way they want to go. They got to go back to being the party of JFK.
Well, bless his heart. Ben Rhodes, whose degree I think is in fiction, writing, and perhaps appropriately so, was an important advisor to the Obama administration and has become not just a rulent defender of the Biden and Obama legacies, but has really become a pretty nasty enemy of the state of Israel in recent years. Look, he doesn't know
what he's talking about. He's an embarrassment. And I have seen that there are a couple of Democrats who are not so blinded by their loathing of Donald Trump that they are able to recognize that what the president is doing is important to our national security. And then there's the rest of them.
Well, I hope Chris Coons and Angus King and Jack Reed and the Caucus of the Serious come out and say way to go, miss President. We're with you. Danny Plugger from AI follower on hplug listen to what the hell is going on? Mister Albright is indeed the person I would want to hear about the loose nuclear material. It'll be on to Milds podcast by Jun Americ. Welcome back to Meta. I'm new Hewett Richard Goldberg as a senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy.
He's been working on the Iran file for decades. Rich thank you for spending some time with me. I know you must be in great demand. First, just your general reaction to seventy two hours of the war with Iran.
Well historic in every single way, obviously, Hugh, credit to you for just pounding away on this issue all these weeks,
not letting it fade out of the media's site. After the historic uprising by the Iranian people and unfortunately the historic maximum violence from the regime, but in the first twenty four hours, historic coordination between the United States and Israel, the ability to command the skies together with US made platforms the decapitation strike on the leadership of that regime and are very precise and ongoing degrading with the intent of destruction of all of the external threats that this
regime faces that presents to the United States from its missiles, it's drone, its navy and also a surprise to me, not surprised if you've been following energy markets, but even with attacks on energy infrastructure and some of our Gulf state allies, the oil market is different today. American energy dominance has made a difference. We are seeing the same tepid reaction that we saw in the first twenty four
hours of the twelve day war. And so in the oil market we are seeing just a little bit of a bump right now.
It can change.
But the president's focus on drill, baby drill. We saw an attack on Katari LNG export facilities today, the president's decision to reverse his predecessor's ban on the export of LG looming very large today. And so American energy dominance providing flexibility here, American military dominance potentially changing the world's face.
And what comes next if all continues to go as planned, destroying their external threat capability and then opening the door to the command and control, the repression apparatus, and perhaps millions of Iranians taking back their country.
So Rich Coldberg, I listened to the Writy Gore this morning, ask you of anything, and he did a very useful thing. He took his focus off the chessboard, that is the Middle East regional problems and conflicts, and focused on grand strategy chessboard. I want to do that throughout the program today and I have been doing it throughout the program. What do you think China is thinking as they see this unfolding?
Well, I said this when we spoke a few weeks ago, when we didn't know exactly what would happen, we were both pretty confident that President Trump would do executive what he's doing now that the Strait of Hormuz is a pressure point on China far more than the United States today because of how we've turned around to be American energy dominant. Half of the imports of oil that China
relies upon comes through the Strait of Horror Moves. They are also heavily dependent on those LNG exports out of Cutter. So when you see attacks on Saudi, when you see attacks on Cutter coming from Iran, it's the Chinese who are most alarmed right now, and they're making phone calls. They're asking that their tankers continue to move through the Strait of horm Moves. They're putting pressure on the regime while the regime is under attack and potentially on the
verge of collapse, to keep the straight open. And so I think the Chinese right now are looking at the game board and saying, wow, we're losing both ways.
Right now.
The regime that's on.
The vergi of collapse is threatening our current supplies of energy. And if this regime falls, then what happens there's nobody who is our ally to threaten the United States. And so in a future conflict over Taiwan, if we decide that we're not going to allow China their import of energy, it's a complete game changer. We now have a massive strategic trump card over the Chinese Communist Party. They know that you've seen also that Iran as a foothold into
an entire region. The infrastructure projects that they've been investing in hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for the illicit oil.
Will all go up in flames.
And so they've lost Venezuela as their foothold in the Western hemisphere in Latin America. They might now lose Iran as their foothold in the Middle East and Central Asia. This is a massive, massive setback for China on a strategic level.
Now not everything is roses rich I was very disturbed by the United Kingdom's initial at least seventy two hour delay in allowing the United States use Diego, Garcia and United Kingdom airfields. Now Spain is separated completely from US. First of all, should the United Kingdom be in the Five Eyes anymore? In second, they've given anti NATO people. These two countries more ammo than any isolationist in America could have hoped to gotten. They've done grave damage to the Atlantic Alliance.
Yeah, I mean Starmar has been a great disappointment throughout this process and the lead up to operations already threatening the use of a British bases by American forces. There was an initial support for operations that we saw from Canada, from Australia, from the United Kingdom. The Uanik Kingdom has now been attacked. It would appear in Cyprus at its own base by hesbel Up. Potentially. They have apparently allowed
us to start using their bases for offensive operations. But the dance that Starmer thinks he has to play domestically, he looks so weak as he tries to communicate a Waffley position. Are you for the most radical terror sponsoring regime on Earth? Or are you against it? Are you with your closest ally or you against it? They have all the intelligence that we would have shared with them. That's why, by the way, we saw Australia and Canada, other Five Eye allies come out very quickly and say
we support this action. What the United States was seeing, what the President was seeing on the intel, on missiles, on nuclear on the threat of terrorism. Our closest ally saw that as well. Great Britain has been a subject to assassination plots on its own soil by the Revolutionary Guard Core. And of course, if you can't have your closest allies stand with you in a moment like this and at least say we support it, you can use our bases? My god, what are we supposed to do
with this? Ally, I will give them some credit. They are even if politically they're trying to play to their left wing base at home, the truth is is that they are allowing us to use the bases they are in participating at least in defensive operations. Maybe that will change the offensive operations. So there is still value in having the military partnership with Great Britain at this hour. But yeah, we would definitely hope for a much bunch better Prime minister in London in the future.
I'm going to put Spain aside because I want to give you at least two minutes three minutes. You're a sanctions expert, and you're an American defense spending expert. President Trump has told me he wants another half trillion dollars on top of the nine hundred billion that was in
this year's budget. What do you think has to happen to American defense spending and of the American sanctions authority at the Department of Treasury, with which you're so familiar, Did they both need to go much stronger?
Well?
Absolutely, I mean, in some ways, we obviously know that as we look at this conflict, we know that our defense industrial base needs to be in a position to flex like it did during World War Two. We cannot be in a position like we've seen in other sectors, by the way, because of regulations, because of procurement regulations, because of all kinds of ways, of just the way we've done business for all these decades since the Great War. We can't be a position where you can't make munitions
fast enough. You have to be able to get enough munitions of all kinds. You have to have the ability to get your interceptors restocked as fast as possible. If we need more factories, we need more workers. We need to be going twenty four to seven on lines of production to have what we need in all theaters. Let's do it. Let's not just say, oh, we can't do it anymore. We're constrained. We're going to have to choose between whether we die from this threat or die from
that threat. That is not a way to be a superpower in the twenty first century. So whatever it takes, both on the resources being made available to invest in that defense industrial base and then the reforms regulatory wise to make sure we can get things made fast.
Rich, let me keep you over for another six minutes if I can. I got to go to a break right now on the sale of new channel and across my radio network. Don't go anywhere Rich Goldberg knows of which he speaks. Follow them on as at Rich Underscore Goldberg and at FDD. I'll be right back. Welcome back to Melica. I'm hu Hue with Rich Goldberg, one of
the absolute experts on Iran. Rich, can you give us a best case worst case for the region in a year from now, a best case and a worst case from this war?
Well, a best case scenario is you've had a peaceful transition of.
Power in Iran.
They're already on schedule, perhaps already had an election. This is now an ally of the United States, a partner. The potential for infrastructure development together.
Obviously they're oil market that will.
Continue to boom in partnership with the United States, not illicitly. The terror proxies being cut off from their source of income and support. That means a rock becomes more stable. The future of a rock becomes more stable. The future of Yemen becomes a question of potential return to stability openings for Saudi and UAE finally defeat the Huthies without the mothership Iran looking after them, and of course Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, the West Bank. All of these areas turn in our
favor because the mothership that sponsors them has fallen. Because Israel obviously an opportunity along with the Lebanese government to step up to take on Hesbola and finally dismantle it in Lebanon, the future of Lebanon looks bright. We have a Cyrus Accords between the between Israel and Iran, the Abraham Accords expand Saudi normalizes. I mean, this is the Kumbaya right piece in our time certainly would be the
rosiest of pictures. Worst case scenario, obviously, is that on the military objectives of this campaign that were spelled up by the Pentagon. Today, we have achieved success. The missile program of Iran has been destroyed as best we can do so, its drone program, its navy has been destroyed as best we can do so. It has no ability
to to move towards nuclear weapons for years to come. Sadly, that still means that the Chinese and the Russians can step in and start helping the Iranian regime rebuild, it would still be there, it would still have their proxies, it would still be a sponsor of terrorism. It would mean that the people were not able to have an uprising, were not able to take their country back, and so we will still stumble along with threats along the way
from this regime. We will definitely be in a better position regionally given the strategic threats that have been eliminated, But if that political picture has not come to fruition, we still have an anti American ally of China and Russia sitting there on the Persian Gulf waiting to rebuild. Buys US some time to focus finally on China for a few years, maybe squeeze Russia a little bit more.
Puts US in control of the Strait of Horror. Moves without the threat of retaliation or missile threats or drone threats or naval swarms by Iran, but does not get us that reset in what the world looks like and the biggest defeat for the Chinese Communist Party of losing yet another enabler and rich.
Last question, the President Trump has made the Golden Dome one of the centerpieces. And I served in the Reagan White House, So Republicans that have been talking about strategy defense initiative for forty five years, how important does this become in the aftermath of watching what we're watching, which is ballistic missile warfare and interceptors.
It's super important. I think people should be watching it if you.
Didn't tune in last year or the year before to watch what Iran was doing with its medium range ballistic missiles, knowing that they also have intermediate range ballistic missiles that can already reach Europe and seeing the lethality of these
missile attacks. Watch the pictures that are coming out of Israel when there is a direct hit that gets through our missile interceptors and kills a number of people, innocent teenagers, kids, old people who are just taking shelter and trying to get through the day even without a nuclear tip on this, even thought a warhead, this is a weapon that causes
mass destruction. And understand what that means if it's an intercontinental ballistic missile, whether that's from Russia, whether that's from China, North Korea, or potentially god forbid, run in the future if we are unsuccessful in this campaign, and then understand what American cities would face.
Why we can never allow that to happen.
And we have to invest in a system that uses both ground based and space based capabilities to make sure that our enemies never have the opportunity to rain terror on our cities.
Like what you see today.
Now is at the Kennedy Space Center last week, first time I've ever visited, and it's kind of like Disney Tomorrowland. I think we need to go all in on this in a hurry thirty seconds to your rich I mean not yesterday, not tomorrow, but like today, everything in on Golden dowme.
There is nothing more important to our long term national security to be able to say to our enemies, you have no military option to defeat the homeland of the United States. We are in control here. We're going on offense. You can't touch us. If we can achieve space superiority and missile defense superiority through the Golden Dome, every hypersonic missile, every project that our enemies are investing in will be useless and we will be on offense the entire time.
Rich Goldberg, always good to talk to you. I'm sure we'll be talking a lot to the extent you're available. I appreciate the time today because I know your calendar must be jammed. Thank you, Rich Goldberg, and to all the people at the Foundations for the Defense of Democrial Piece, Thanks for all the work get done for decades. Stay tuned, America. I'm you, Hewett. This is the normal segment for normal people. Bethany Mandel, co founder of themom Wars dot substact dot com,
co author of Stolen Youth. Bethany The United States State Department just urged Americans to lead about ten countries, including Israel. What, of course, I really can't leave Israel. I got to stay there. They got jobs, they got kids that take care. What are your friends and family telling you in the Jewish State.
I mean, the.
Ambassador gave a pretty clear indication that if folks wanted to leave, they should leave on Thursday Friday, but no one that I know had any real intention of leaving. Everyone sort of figured they would hunker down and live through this war, just like they lived through the Twelve Day War in October seventh and all of the rest. Israel is a unique country in the region because they
actually have the capability to defend their citizens. And you know, Iraqi got through in the drew some suburb of bit Chemish and nine people were killed. But overall, it's a pretty safe place to hunker down during a regional war.
What is your feeling generally about where Iran is headed? You read the news as closely as any of us do. Those of us who are not holding a classification have no idea what's going on beyond those of us who read faster than anybody else. What's your sense.
So it's not looking good if you're the Mullas. They have lost all air control over Iran, and forty of them were killed instantly, and another half dozen were killed, you know, since the war started on Saturday afternoon.
But the.
Masad know where they all are, and so it's a different situation than it was in Gaza because the intelligence was not great there because the majority of the residents of Gaza are in cahoots with Hamas or they side with Hamas ideologically. It's not the case in Iran. The vast majority of people in Iran are not supportive of the regime and they're actively working to hinder them by working with Masad. And so the intelligence for the Americans in the Israelis is very good inside of Iran.
So, Bethany, I'm not in ISRAELI obviously I'm not Jewish. But you study a lot of history and very rarely do figures as significant as baby net Nyahu come across your screen. What do you hear people in Israel and in the Jewish community in America saying about Bibi right now? As as look, anything could go wrong, very very very wrong. Lots more than nine people can get killed in Israel. But what do you think they're thinking about him right now?
Because it seems like sometimes a man meets the moment.
Yeah, So overall, I don't know many people who are fans of Netsa Nyah who anymore. That being said, in moments like these, I think I think the consensus is more or less no one else would have done this except Netta Yaho.
He's very much like Trump in this way.
You need someone who just will do what needs to be done, and it doesn't care about the the sort of reaction of the world, reaction of anyone in the country.
This is just this is the objective.
This is what needs to be done, and I don't care if I'm popular.
This is what needs to happen.
And no one on planet Earth has been yelling more loudly or more frequently about the threat of Iran than the thread of a nuclear Iran than Benjamin Etaniahu. And so he's meeting the moment, and he has explained to the world why this moment really should have happened ten twenty years ago, but better late than ever. And he has a president here in the United States who agrees with him that this moment needs to happen.
Now a final question, Bethany, I am not surprised. I'm somewhat disappointed that people with tds who have been longtime enemies of Iran still can't put their tds down for even a week to say good on Donald Trump. Is that ever going to change.
It's really shocking and disappointing to see the progressive reaction to this, because there is nothing more antithetical to what they claim to believe than that Iranian regime. They're throwing gay men and women off of rooftops, They're subjugating women and putting them in he jobs and denying them in education.
Would think as a.
Progressive you would celebrate the death of the eyototally, even if you don't love Trump, even if you don't love our involvement anything. This is a singular moment of hope and liberty in this part of the world that has been denied it for so long, and I truly don't understand, as a former progressive, how they can not celebrate.
And a last question, are you letting your youngsters watch this twenty four to seven, because it's not unlike Grenada if they were ten years older. There's a turn that came in nineteen eighty three. I was in law school then, but everyone knew it was a turn back from where we had gone, and this is a pretty significant turn. Are you watching it with them?
I watched it with them, funny enough, on Saturday, when it was the Sabbath, I had a couple of our kids at a hotel for my family's bar Mitzvah, and so we were standing in the lobby watching it. Other than that, we've been giving them sort of cursory updates. But they were pretty scared when we were in Israel that we would sort of live through a siren. And we were able to disabuse them of the belief that the only thing that Israel experiences is war, and so we don't want to redo that.
Ah very interesting. I did talk to him Ete Segal earlier today. He's got an infant and he said, the thing is that everyone in Israel is now sleep deprive like those who have infants, because they're going back and forth to the shelters. Have you heard that as well from your friends?
Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent.
And tonight starts the most fun Jewish holiday Parum, which is aptly timed God has a sense of humor, the defeat of the Persians who tried to kill the Jews. It's the most fun Jewish holiday. Kids dressed up in costumes, there's lots of candy involved. Is basically Jewish Halloween, and so there's some disappointment that the kids are missing it in Israel this year. But this is modern day perum happening you know, in real time right now in front of their eyes.
Yeah, we need what'd be a Mordecai noa a han On? Did I get that right? Yeah? All right? Good? That was That was a save. That was a diving catch. Bethany Mandel, Thank you follower on exit Bethany Shandark and at themom wars dot substack dot com. Thank you, Bethany. You've heard me talk a lot about Consumer Cellular how you can switch your carrier, save money without the sacrifice. That's because Consumer Cellular uses the same towers as major carriers.
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slash Shoe Welcome back to America. I'm here here at time for our yuser report in the middle of a war. No better person to talk to than Selena Zito column this to the world the Washington Post, the Washington Examiner of the Pittsburgh Post is at the New York Post. I'll run out of time in the segment if I tell you from whom she writes. Selena can be followed on ax at Zito Selena. You can follow everything she
does at Selenazito dot com. Now, Selena, I was on vacation last week and I spent the weekend trying to follow reaction. What is your sense of public opinion regarding the Iran war.
I think that the public and I've gone around and talked to people about it.
People are.
Understand that Iran has been a threat for most of our lifetimes for a lot of us. For a very long time since the bombings during the Reagan era, there have been many times where there have been a substantial loss of life in the hands of Iran directly or through their other terrorist groups that they sponsor.
And so, you know, Americans want to feel safe.
They want to know that their treasure, which is their children and their grandchildren, are safe, and they're willing to give the president some of.
Leeway here in terms of.
Making that decision, understanding why he needed to make that decision. And I think that if this while goes long, that'll be different. But we're two days in and so I think the American public is very patient right now.
Now.
If you go on social media, that is a completely different world. But I have long learned that social media is not an arbitra of how the American public feels about something.
I agree with that. In fact, it's a false flag often, Selena, have you talked to the president since the war began? No, I have not got you on heat dial, And he talked to John Carl Jake. He's doing the beltwait thing instead of talking to the heartland through the Selena Zito column. So I expect your phone will be ringing pretty soon. What are you going to ask him?
What he calls.
I'm just going to ask him about the decision making, about why he believes this is the best thing for the country, and give him the opportunity to talk about that in detail.
I think that's really important. What were you thinking in terms of the heartland, in terms of our military. What was the thought process that you believed that this was an important thing to do in the moment?
Now, Selena, I keep on my desk in the the production studio in California, the patch for JP Blacksmith. JP was killed in the First Battle of Fallujah on November eleventh, two thousand and four. United States Naval Academy graduate. I knew his dad. I taught his sister. The cost of war is real. We've already lost American military and civilians in Israel. I expect the President or the Vice President will be at the dignified transfer of remain ceremony at
Dovert when they arrived. Do you think the President takes this as hard as to say, W did? Oh?
Yeah, I absolutely do, and I can tell you why he's still taking it very hard.
When CORTICOMBATORI lost his life in Butler.
That is something that really hits him hard because he understands that that was someone who was coming to see him and to enjoy the day, and so that weighs on his mind. And I was thinking, you know, it's really I was thinking about in these past couple of days, is this is this has gone on? And I remember what he said to me about there is a reason that I was saved that day. There was a reason that God wanted me to be around to make decisions to be president, and I have to live.
Up to that purpose.
And the past two days really made me think this may be one of the great reasons.
That he was saved.
Yeah, I'm not quite sure the president's theology. I support Israel because the best ally America, and I'm a Zionist because every people deserve their state. But I'm not a quote Christian Zionist believing in end times. But I do think it's providential that Trump and nen Yahoo are in charge right now because they both have a great deal of spine.
Yes, yes, and that is you know, a very think about the King Cyrus, right, but think Jews lean into their most robable protector, which would be the cursion King King Cyrus, and yet he is the one that led them to safety, right, kept them from being killed. So there's all kinds of contradictory things with leaders and religion that you sometimes think don't light up or don't don't make sense.
But I do think it's really important.
But you know, we always talk about history repeating itself or history rhyming. You know what's happening two hundred and fifty years ago today, right, they were getting ready for the siege of Boston Dorchester Heights. Washington had said time.
For the bombardment, and he did that fake out where the Brits thought he was going for Boston, but he was.
They were actually coming in quietly with Henry Knox and all those cannons that he brought from for tig.
You know, taikwon Henry Knox from the Great State of Maine. I do want to pick up on something you said. I remember the chapter in your first book, King Cyrus, Christians and the Great Revolt is Selina's first book or second as butler. Cyrus the Great ruled in Persia five hundred and fifty years before Christ, So a long time ago. The oldest people that people known relationship state to state is Persia and Israel. It's a little known fact. They
are longtime allies. The last forty seven years is an aberration. We got to get back to the cyrus Israel Neemiah Ezra days.
Yeah. Absolutely.
I remember Brad and I did a talk Brad Hadna, my co author.
We did a talk on DA drive to a group of Persian Jews.
And I was like, I completely forgot that this is what even existed.
Yeah, well, the diaspora out here, the Iranian diaspora is extraordinarily animated, energetic. I don't see a lot of coverage. There's been a couple little photos of the Persian diaspora. But are they in Pittsburgh. They don't live in Neanserland, right they.
Yeah, yeah, we have a significant Iranian population.
My story will be up tomorrow.
Oh okay, you should have gone up to Cleveland. That's where they really go. They're bronze fans. Selena Zito. I will look for the column tomorrow. Follow her on ex everyone at zito Selena and everything that she writes is available at Selenazito dot com. She works for the Posts both Washington and New York. For the Washington Examiner for the Pittsburgh Post Becausette, you name it, she writes for it. Prolific is her middle name. I'll be right back in America. Stay tuned to The Uwitt Show.