BREAKING: BAHRAIN & KUWAIT JUST STRUCK IRAN - w/ Col. Macgregor

Okay. All right. So, uh, it started off about an hour ago. Yeah, exactly an hour ago. So, we got reports of explosions in Iran. Immediately, all of us assumed it's wave three of the American attacks. Iranian media was reporting explosions and strikes in Shabahar, Bandarabas, Conor, Afaz, Bushir. Sorry, Avaz Busher. So, the same places that were struck the last two times. So everyone immediately assumed it was the Americans on their third round of strikes, the third wave. Also Kashm, Siri, Jaz, all the same places. And then ashes put out a report saying no, the US is not striking Iran. So everyone's like, "All right, that must be Israel." But usually if it's Israel, you you'd see the cruise missiles like we saw before. You'd get Olen reporting the fighter jets, Israeli fighter jets, >> and then you got Israeli media saying it's not Israel. Um, so then who's left? It's the Gulf. It's not going to be the UAE. It won't be them because they weren't attacked. Um Saudi wasn't attacked. So it's only left Bahrain and Kuwait. And then Israeli media started claiming that Bahrain and Kuwait were behind the attack. And then so that's what everyone was speculating. Bahrain and Kuwait was trying to create deterrence by striking Iran saying look this is between the you and the US. Stop striking US bases in our country. And then in the last few minutes as you were coming on Iranian media started started denying the reports saying no the reports of explosions in all these cities we reported in the last hour are all untrue. So I don't know I told you it's going to be confusing. I don't know whether the Gulf did attack Iran. Some Gulf countries maybe Kuwait Bahrain and Iran didn't want to escalate so they didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Um, I don't know whether the air defenses were active or maybe anti-hship missiles launched from Iran, but there's no reports of that. But air defenses were active and the Iranian media jumped to conclusions because everyone's on edge. Um, so I don't really have anything conclusive for you, Colonel, that we can go off, but except these scattered information from different sources. But maybe I can start with this question. Would you be surprised if any Gulf country participated in an attack on Iran today? Absolutely. Very definitely. The only thing that sprung to my mind, it seems like a remote possibility, but that an Israeli strike was flown from a position along the Gulf. You know, that that's not impossible, but it doesn't sound as though we have any real clarity and there's confusion as to whether or not anything really happened. So, you know, but the last thing I would do if I were in Qatar right now or Bahrain is is launch a strike against Iran. What's to stop Iran from flattening the place? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me. >> Agree. Agree. Especially Bahin tiny little Bahin or Kuwait. I would be surprised if Qatar participated in it because Qatar was not struck by Iran except it seems one strike yesterday, one missile, more of a warning shot. Um there was one new report just came in now. Um, according to Iranian media, a military headquarters, Iranian military headquarters on the outskirts of Busher was hit by a projectile from the American Zionist enemy. According to IRNA, so Iranian media, citing the deputy political and security governor of Busher, the deputy says the attack resulted in no casualties. So that might have been and now you've Yeah. So that might have been a very, you know, the air defenses, etc., everyone's on edge responding to that little attack. Um, but I I would agree with you as well. I understand Bahin and Kuwait would want to maybe consider building deterrence, but they're too small to build deterrence. Like a Chihuahua yell barking at a lion. >> Exactly. Doesn't make any sense. I I also don't know what to make of the word projectile. Uh, you know, what is this? A lawn dart? You know, thrown from a ship or something. I I don't know. Doesn't make any sense. But you know, these things happen in war. You know, when I was uh in in ' 91, this is actually before we had begun the offensive on the ground. We had some soldiers troops that were very far forward right on the border with Saudi Arabia. And of course, you have to understand that these soldiers had never seen combat. They were all green at this point. So, everything was was fascinating and interesting and scary. And we got this report. I was awakened at I think something like 2 in the morning. Sir, we have a report that so and so in in G troop is uh under bombardment. So I got up and said, "All right, let's go there, find out." Walked over to the uh tactical operations center, this vehicle that we had set up. I walked in there, I said, "What's going on?" They said, "Well, they this this so and so report such and such." I said, "Did this come through the exec?" "No, no, no. Who the hell sent this report in?" So get them on the phone. So who who's sending this report up and what do they say? They said the report they said sir where we have airto ground bombs at our location. What the hell else are are there other than airto ground bombs? You know I mean are we do we have anti-gravity bombs and people are throwing things into the air? So this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. So then I said wait a minute get somebody else over there. Go up there. Find out what the hell's going on. Call me back. Well, it turned out they were watching A-10s that were flying over us. We had an A-10 squadron that ultimately flew over us for much of our offensive. And uh they as they were pulling out, they were engaged by so many aircraft weapons or missiles. And so they had chaff that came out that looked like fireworks and the chaff was designed to divert the missile. But these soldiers had never seen that before. And so they were convinced the chaff was meant for them and that they were under attack. So you know any anything is possible in war and the first reports you get is always wrong. Just remember that. >> Especially with um with so many parties involved in this war. You've got remember we had the reports early of Saudi and the UAE attacking Iran during the war. You've got Iran striking the Gulf. You've got the US and Iran being the two main players. You got Israel jumping in whenever necessary. Then you got the Houthies that might pop in here and there. So there is a lot of parties involved in this war. Makes it very confusing. >> How about those Belookis? >> Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You saw the strike. Did you see the strike on the railway yesterday? Have you had a chance to look at that? >> Uh you're talking about the one that connects to the to the Chinese and the Russians. >> Yeah, the Turk the one next to the Turk Manistani border. >> Yeah. And I thought >> that's interesting. >> I to me that's very significant. That's where >> Exactly. Exactly. Well, I did save it to mention it to you. So, the US truck hit the Ak Tehan railway bridge in Galestan. Um, so that's a bridge. It's the node connecting Shian to Tehran. So, Shan and China in 10 to 15 days overland, China's Belt and Road running straight through Iran. >> Um, so it's it's an it's and Lisa, if you can Oh, Stephanie now the producer. Stephanie, I don't know if you can find the images. At least I had them earlier to show them for the audience. But that was a railway line in Akala that you know very close to Turk Manistan. But I don't know. So I don't know where it was attacked from. And also the damage is not that significant. So it seems more of a warning shot um by the Americans, but it's it's interesting. It's very different to everything else we've seen. I'd love to get your thoughts on it. >> Well, it's interesting to see the photographs. I did not have the photographs when I received the report. And the report said that they thought they would have this repaired in 24 hours. Now maybe that's possible, but looking at the damage, it looks like it may take a little longer than that. And this, of course, go also highlights something else that the Belt and Road, which is enormously important to everybody in Eurasia, uh, is new, is is new, and not all of the rail lines are completed. And there has been some discussion and debate about where you can send the rail lines. The Chinese would like to have sent rail lines down through Pakistan in greater numbers and greater volume. That hasn't happened because the Chinese are not confident of security along the railways. Now, that may change, but this one is important because it tells me that someone in Washington said, "Well, we'll do some damage to this and try to signal that we can isolate Iran and also as a message to the Chinese since we we tend to treat the Belgian road as a threat to us." Uh, I don't subscribe to that view, but then again, I'm not a China threat hawk. Uh, but I see the Belton Road as the alternative to the United States Navy, which does represent a serious threat to China. We can shut down the whole Chinese coastline with our submarine fleet. Chinese know that they've been through this before. Remember the Imperial Japanese Navy before the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Royal Navy. So, they don't want to be cut off. And so, it becomes very important to build these overland routes. Now, as you can see from what you you're showing up there right now, this is not going to change the game fundamentally. They'll repair the railway, and I think you'll see redundant railways show up in the near future. There are other ways to get into Iran as well across the Caspian. So, it's not it's not a strategic gamecher, but I think you're making a valid point. It's a pretty serious message. Uh, I don't think it's a smart thing to do. I don't think it's going to change anything in of consequence, but I think that there are people in the White House that probably thought in those terms. We we've been down this road before. Well, hit so and so out there that'll signal to them, you know, we we did this sort of thing in Vietnam along the border with China. We did it during the Korean War along the border with China. You know, it didn't it didn't make any difference. >> Yeah, it it is interesting. Like I looked at it as a warning, but I'm like warning of what exactly like what does it really signal? Like one of my guests who's um who's part of the Belton Road Institute and he's been studying this for decades, he was on earlier today for the first time on the show and he was explaining to me how how significant this is, how this is a threat to US hedgeimonyy and and you're you've studied history and you always reference history, Colonel. He started referencing how the the corridors that were being built I think from Russia to the Ottoman Empire were seen as a threat by the British Empire before World War I and that played a role in what eventually led to World War I. So that shows the significance of this belt and road initiative by China as a threat or at least the US would perceive it as a threat to the hedgeimonyy and the hedgeimonyy in the region. And he um mentioned a quote he he said this quote always stuck with him a quote by Biden in 2022. He went to Saudi at the time in Riyad in July 2022, so it's before October 7th, and he said during the Ukraine war, he said, "We will not leave a vacuum in this region, the the Gulf, to be filled by Russia and China." So that was a statement that Biden made. So he referenced that statement as what this strike on the railway could include is the Americans sending a warning to Iran and other countries part of the initiative. So that's some of my speculation or his speculation. Well, the railway that you referred to before the First World War was the Berlin to Baghdad railway. >> Yeah. >> And that was taken as a threat by the British Empire who wanted a monopoly of control over the sealanes. And they also didn't want oil and anything else for that matter of significance transported over land. They wanted to make sure that whatever was moved out of the Middle East particularly or with oil would be at the mercy of the Royal Navy. The Kaiser, you know, who wasted a lot of money trying to build a a German surface fleet did have some strategic thinkers and they said, "Look, we don't need a big fleet. You know, we don't need uh frankly Bismar was always opposed to colonies." So the Berlin to Baghdad railway came up and that of course ran through the Ottoman Empire of which Baghdad and Iraq most of northern Iraq in fact all of Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire at that stage. This time around I don't think it's quite that significant. Uh and I think there are people in Washington as I said before who are hopeful that this will be significant. In other words, they hope this frightens the Chinese or the Russians or something. It won't. It won't make any damn difference at all. We don't live in 1910. Uh we're in a very different world today. And you have all of these countries and states across Central Asia who have an interest in participating in this uh belt and road project. They all stand to profit in some way. It's a it's kind of an annoyance for the Chinese. We could do it much more easily across North America because we all speak the same language. We all have one law from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I wish we would do something similar to what the Chinese have done in Eurasia on the North American continent. I've written about that. I published about that. It's on my website. People can see it. It's called the Golden Spike program. And it basically goes back to our railroad connectivity across the continent. So the bottom line is yes, that's that was the one strike that that popped out when I looked at the list as being significant. I know no doubt they'll repair it. It's not going to dampen Chinese enthusiasm for supporting Iran. Come on, wake up. Uh they have a very good relationship with the Iranians on the basis of the petroleum and a number of other products. So do the Indians. So the notion that you're going to do something like this and this is going to warn everybody that things could get worse, it's not going to help our position at all. Uh but there there are some we we have a a sort of late 20th century military establishment and we have an early 20th century uh thinking establishment if you want to dignify it with that word in Washington DC. That's our problem. >> Um yeah and also could be there might be some intelligence that we obviously don't know about. There be some the Americans know some air defense batteries are being delivered through that railway in the next couple of days are on their way and they struck it as a warning for the Chinese or for Iran not to import them. I'm just saying there could be more to it as well than something >> air and missile defense capability and radars and so forth. Even missiles themselves have been flown in by the Chinese. >> Okay. massive >> a very >> airlift on a scale of only something that we historically have been able to do Chinese can do it now so you know the point the bottom line is somebody's trying to say something about the Chinese or to the Chinese in connection with Iran we got that it's not going to change anything that's my point >> yeah um since we're talking about the strikes and there's no information on the strikes today everything's quiet now on the explosions we heard earlier. It's just very bizarre. Very, very bizarre. I'm sure we'll get reports of it. Similar to the attacks by Saudi and the UAE, we only got reports about it weeks later after the ceasefire. We'll probably hear about this uh in a few days. We'll start hearing leaks come out, but we haven't asked you yet uh your thoughts on the the the the escalations in the last 48 hours. So you had Iran attack those three ships going through the Omani side and the US just went ballistic. They've attacked in the last two days. It was 14 times the level of attacks we saw the last two times they retaliated against this the strikes on the uh on the um the Iran on the the ships going through the Omani side. So the Iranian strikes beforehand in the last couple of weeks. So it's significantly more according to the New York Times about 14 times more. Um, there's kind of two schools of thought here. One of them is the ceasefire that is or the MOU is dead as Trump has said and this is the beginning of a continuation of the war and the other one which I'm in that camp at least for now is that this is just the two sides bit of a power struggle between the both Iran saying we're going to control the straight of Hamus and the US trying to break that trying everything they can to break that and the Iranians retaliation kind of confirms that because they're not escalating they're like we're going to strike Kuwait Bahrain and Jordan and keep our control of the straight of Hum and today the ships are going through the Iranian side So they seem to be playing the long game there. What's your analysis of this escalation and how worrying is it? >> Uh I think perhaps the first observation is that Iran has gone to a full war footing. Other words, they are now mobilized for war, total war against us. Are we mobilized for total war against them? No. We have a fraction of our military capability now. most of the fleet uh is currently involved in this. And there's something interesting that should be brought up and that is that the United States Navy has now officially admitted that they have more launchers and more launch tubes for missiles than they have missiles to fire. So what are we doing? I don't know. But I suspect that we're pulling assets, missiles from other locations, other theaters, and concentrating them in the Indian Ocean and potentially the Mediterranean. But I think that's an important point to keep in mind. Iran is in a total war mode, full war footing. Russia is very close to a full war footing and could go to a total war mobilization state very rapidly. Both of them are mobilizing their scientific industrial base, their population, everything. We are not. And Trump has failed miserably to extract more performance from our so-called five major defense industries. So I guess and it's an I think it's an important observation because the most important question is not what are we doing because I can tell you we don't know what we're doing. We have no coherent military strategy because we have no attainable military political objective. We're back to the problem we began with. We have 93 million people living in an area the size of Western Europe surrounded on three sides by mountains and on one side by impassible desert. Everything of real importance is a long long flight for US aircraft or for missiles. So what are we trying to achieve? We've given up on regime change. You know, we've decided that the most that we can do is insult and offend the people of Iran and everyone who happens to be a Shiite Muslim by attacking during the funeral of the leader of Shia Islam who is being laid to rest in near maj. We should have waited. We should have demonstrated some sort of sensitivity. Instead, we chose to insult everyone. This is hardened opposition to us. So, what's your objective? If you can't bring the regime down, what are you bombing to get? You think the more bombs you drop, the more likely the Iranians are to jump into little rubber boats with white flags and say, "We we're we're through. We're finished. You can have the Persian Gulf." That's not likely. So what do we why are we attacking Busher? Because there's a nuclear power station there. Is that designed to endear us to the Iranians? Or do we want a large nuclear accident and poisonous radioactivity all over the region? I mean, what are we doing? No one has explained it. What the hell is the objective? Well, I know what the Israeli objective is, and I'm afraid that's the objective that we're pursuing, the total destruction of Iran. I said that to you months ago. What do the Israelis want? The destruction of Iran. End of story. We we we have no interest in that. Never have. So, what are we doing? We're trying to destroy Iran. Why would some man stand up who is in charge in the United States and say, "I'm going to destroy a civilization in one night." Sheer unadulterated lunacy. We saw a glimpse of rationality with Donald Trump when he was in Versailles in Paris. And what did he say? He said, "We've got to get this war over with. This could send the world into a global depression. That's why I signed theou." Oh, well done, Mr. President. Thank you. That was the most intelligent action he's taken since this nonsense began. What's happened then? What's changed? Have we decided, oh, the hell with the world? Send the world into a global depression. Can we do that? Well, what what are the three things we ought to be focused on? Number one is oil. I don't know what the price is right now. Few hours ago, it was $78 a barrel. What is it now? Is it above 78? I think it'll go to 120 and 150 in the few in the next few weeks. What about this business of restoring or resupplying the strategic petroleum reserve? Remember Vice President Vance? Well, you got to understand this is just a pause. We just want to refill everybody's oil reserves and get everybody healthy and then we'll go back to war. Well, what's happened there? We thrown that out. You know what about this thing called inflation? Inflation in the United States is getting worse. It's getting worse across the Western world. Wars breed inflation. This is only going to make matters worse. And then finally, it's time to look at the United States bond market. >> Yeah. >> Look at the interest rates for the 10-year bond. That's the the bellweather. Everybody who's an expert in the area tells me say, "Doug, if we hit 5%, it's financial Armageddon. we go under and it's climbing. >> Yeah. Yeah. We did a deep dive. I think you did a piece on it as well. We did a deep dive on it in our last discussion. Um I've got some information to just um because you started off by Iran is preparing for war and um there's indications of that. So the Iranian armed forces as of yesterday entered their highest rates of alert uh highest state of alert and move to wartime conditions. Also, there's reports of uh special forces moving to the Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan region as well, worried about potential infiltration from there, which is bizarre to me. Um the Kurds can't do much in Iran. But then the more important one is yesterday, Thran, according to um uh the tanker trackers, they shipped out 10 million barrels of crude oil and fuel overnight. massive amount of oil shipped out in case there is an American blockade or a continuation of the war, similar to what we saw before this war. Remember the floating reserves? I had all these ships out there. So, I saw those reports this morning and I had someone close to me say, "Look, is it looking bad?" Cuz I'm I've been more on the optimistic side for a while. And I said, "Look, it was it wasn't great in the last 48 hours, but these indications are not good." But I have a I want to give you a theory and let me know if you by the way axious also put out a report that the White House is bracing for a week's long fight with Iran. So this is not the end of it. Is it possible this is but this is not a plan to continue a full-blown war. The reason I don't think the US wants to continue war is for the reasons that we've talked about. Depleted munitions, bond market, the economy, inflation, oil, strategic petroleum reserves, political suicide for Trump, allies being upset, all these different reasons make it, if you're looking at this from a pragmatic lens, does just makes it such a stupid idea to continue the war. So could this be just literally the US trying to force Iran with a carrot and stick approach not to charge a fee in the straight of Hammuz saying hey we'll lift the sanctions we'll unfreeze the assets like ax just reported a few days ago just don't charge a fee at the straight home but if you don't accept we'll bomb you and Iran's just saying we're going to charge a fee you could do whatever you want we're not budging could we just see that power dynamic playing out or just more likely something more significant >> the Turks just raised the fees for the Bosphorus passage of the dinels by 15%. >> And uh what happened after World War I in which the Turks were defeated or at least they were on the losing side uh they retained control of the dinels. Persia or Iran is going to retain control of the Gulf. End of discussion. Forget it. You know, why did they hit all these bases again in these last targets? They they they blasted the living daylights out of bases they've hit previously, only made the damage much worse. Why? What's the message? We're not coming back. >> It's over. Our role in this region is at an end. Our hegemony over the region is at an end. No, there will be no negotiation over tolls or anything else in connection with the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Forget it. It's done. And you got to go back to the big issue again. What what compels us to quit? That's where we are. The Iranians take the position, we're going to hold what we've got. We're going to defend ourselves. We'll use every missile at our disposal. We are in a war to the last missile. So, we'll use whatever we have until we don't have any. Number one. Number two, we're in this war until the financial crisis at home is so bad we can't continue. Those are that that's how this thing ends. There will be no agreement. I don't think anybody's going to sign anything. I think all of a sudden people are going to say, "Look, this is a this is a stinker." Eventually, you're going to have people from the Senate, from the House, from industry who crowd into the Oval Office say, "Listen, Donald, it's time to end this. It's not going to work. Pull it pull a plug on this. If you don't pull a plug on it, you're not going to last because we can't tolerate this." Now, when does that happen? I don't know. But I think it's coming between now and the end of the year. He'll be lucky to survive. I said before if he stops the war after this this last round before we began the new one. I said he can survive. All he has to do is sort of quietly withdraw, you know, postpone any serious negotiations on big issues, get the straight open, demonstrate our sensitivity to the needs of our friends allies around the world. Forget the rest of it. Then he could stay in office. He's now backed out of that. He said, "The hell with the world. The hell with everybody. I'm going to break Iran. I'm going to win this." That's where he is. It's It's back to this problem that he has with the parent child relationship >> with him. Everyone's a child and he's in charge. >> Remember I went over Roy Con's rules. >> That's inevitable outcome. >> So he says, "Well, I told them, you know, they could, you know, they they have to do this or there's no deal." Oh, they called me last night. They're They're desperate for a deal. Yeah. Okay. Smoke some more crack. They're not desperate for a deal. You're desperate for a deal and everybody knows it. So, what can he do? Can he stand up and be the man we know he's not? Take responsibility for this thing and end it. No. So, he's just going to hammer away and hammer away and hammer away. And eventually, the other factors that you and I have been discussing will descend. They'll all converge on him and compel us to leave. And I don't think he'll make it. I think he'll be booted from office. >> Yeah, he told me that last time. >> Um, oh, Trump and Netanyahu spoke this evening. Uh, and they've agreed to continue close coordination between Israel and the US on multiple regional issues. Trump briefed BB on recent US operations in the Gulf. During the conversation, BB raised his office. what his office described as okay this is what I wanted to ask you about perfect so Netanyahu raised what his office described as Turkish President Erdogan increasingly hostile rhetoric towards Israel and stress the importance of maintaining Israeli security zones along its borders and that goes to my next question um we've talked about Turkey before and the rhetoric on the Israeli side just keeps getting you know more and more hostile towards Turkey and our friend Mric probably one of the worst voices in Israel went all the way to say to prepare for war with Turkey. Let me see if I can find there it is. He said Erdogan is a very dangerous man. Fine. Turkey as it stands today is a very sign significant threat to the state of Israel. Stupid, but fine. They've said this before. We are conducting very intensive discussions with the president uh uh and with the administration Trump. and we are working very hard both publicly and behind the scenes to try to prevent the sale of the F-35s to Turkey which we've spoken about. Erdogan must not be given access to gamechanging weapons. So this is not okay this is not the crazy SL there's another one where he's talking about oh this is it. We are preparing for every scenario including military action. That's Motric Israeli uh finance minister about Turkey. We understand that there is a threat and we will not allow Turkey to threaten Israel's existence just as not we as we have not allowed and will not allow the Iranian regime to do so. So he's talking about preparing for the military action against Turkey and comparing Turkey to Iran which was just bombed for the second time in in war last year and this year by Israel. That's pretty extreme. But Trump Trump doesn't seem to give a damn uh a he went to Turkey. kept praising Erdogan time and time again and said he's considering approving the F-35s. >> Well, why would President Trump do that? >> Why would he praise President Erdogan and why would he lift the sanctions and sell F-35s to Erdogan? It's called a bribe. We are bribing President Erdogan and the Turks to stay out of the war with Israel. We want them to sit on the sidelines. We don't want to bring them into the fight. >> Have you been to Turkey recently or Turkey? >> Yeah. Four months ago. >> Everybody there loves Israel, right? The population >> is overwhelmingly supportive of the Israelis. Right. >> There's Israeli flags everywhere. >> Yeah, that's right. So, our friend Erdogan is the master fence straddler. You know, he says, "Well, Donald, okay, you know, what are you going to give me?" Well, you know, uh, >> this is the godfather now. This is the godfather some F-35s. You know, you got to play ball with us. Okay. You give me the F-35s, there'll be peace. That's is what do you think you're dealing with? That that's the level of discourse right now. only the only thing is that our friend Erdogan is much smarter than Donald because just because Erdogan says fine we'll sit on the sidelines you know we won't involve ourselves uh but I have to talk to the population I have to be on the right side of the issue but we won't do anything at least until he feels he has to or wants to and that's coming and the Israelis know that when I was in Israel in 2013 I think it was 20 or 20 yeah 2013 was the anniversary of the 73 war and I gave a presentation you can find it on the internet you can google it and uh it it was it was a good conference I learned a lot about things I was trying to write about the a chapter in my book about the 73 war the Egyptian front and I told them and and at the time people said oh come on don't be ridiculous I I had a I had a swive I said I know all of you are worried worried about Iran. You're concerned about Iran. But you know, historically, Iran is not a state with whom you have to have hostilities. In fact, the opposite is the case. Iran is the most inclined to cooperate with the West. And you and Iran share similar interests and some of the same opponents. So I said, 'I think you should start to look carefully at the one true potential existential threat to Israel that exists in the region, and that is the Turkish state. And everyone looked at me as though I was crazy. And I said, "Now the you and the Iranians can lob missiles and bombs at each other, but the Iranians can't invade Israel. the Turks can invade Israel and you are living on territory that the Ottomans governed for hundreds of years. Don't you remember? And uh you could have heard a pin drop in the audience, but ultimately after it was over, several people came up and said, you know, you're making a good point. They were depending upon ah somebody found it. They were depending upon see you find the slide that shows you on Turkey. That's what's most interesting. They were very dependent upon the uh uh what I would call the legacy of uh uh Oh gosh. Uh oh goodness. My brain has just gone into vapor lock. >> That's okay. I'm watching you. I'm watching the younger you give a presentation. >> I know. I know. Look at all that. >> Look good there. Exactly. Exactly. Anyway, >> I have a >> Anyway, you know, Adaturk, you know, they were looking at at Turkey through the lens of Adaturk, and I was trying to tell them, you know, Adaturk is still revered. He's respected, but this is not Adatur Turkey anymore. The Turks have made a choice. They know who they are. They're not Europeans. They're Turks. Their roots are in the Middle East, in Islam, and in Central Asia, not in Europe. So this whole NATO thing, this whole facade of NATO is is very flimsy. The Turks are not going to march out of it voluntarily, but they're not going to pay a great deal of attention to it if it if it's not in their interest to do so. Uh and I think we need to understand that. I think the Israelis have figured it out. Now, threatening to attack Turkey is a dumb idea. I don't know why they're talking publicly that way, except that they're suffering from what appears to be a sense of uh racial prejudice, racial supremacy, cultural supremacy, and extreme arrogance on a scale that I don't think I've ever seen in my life. I don't know what's brought this on, but I think it's control of us. They feel that they have such complete control of us that they can say or do anything they want. I think that President Trump was doing two things. He was saying, "Come on, Erdogan. Stick with us. Stay out of this war and we'll do this." And on the other hand, he was saying to the Israelis, "Don't push the Turks. They're friends. Don't get involved." Uh, he's not dumb. Uh, he's in this sense he's being very smart. I just don't think it's going to work because I think Islam as an entity is coalescing. Forget the rich fat cat elites in the Arabian Peninsula. I'm talking about Muslims. There's a greater coalescence of people in inside the the house of Islam than we've seen uh for hundreds of years. >> There's another And by the way, you asked me if have I've been to Turkey. I was meant to be there um for an important interview during the NATO summit in Ankora. I could have been doing this from from Turkey, but it had to be rescheduled because the war broke out. Um, but I have one theory that is worrying me. A few people are floating around. Is um that Trump is giving the F-35s to Erdogan conditional on Erdogan convincing the Syrian president Al-Shara to actually fight in Lebanon. Now, I dismissed that as a just completely stupid idea. I don't know if we briefly mentioned it in our last interview, but very briefly, cuz it just sounds ridiculously stupid, but Trump keeps talking about it and it's starting to get a bit worrying. Is that possible? Do you think Alshar is a puppet of Erdogan or is he does he have agency where he decides because Alshara said he doesn't want to attack? And it makes sense like Syria barely has a military to fight. They've got the border. If you're heir to one, you listen and say, "Well, you know, I I'll talk to him." We'll see what we can do. >> I'm sure he made no promises. And I know that the Syrian leadership right now is very focused on the border with Israel and the Kurds. >> Exactly. >> They have their hands full. I don't see disengaging and rushing up to northern Lebanon. And I think Erdogan knows that. and Erdogan would rather have the Islamist radicals that are in charge in Syria right now in Damascus than Israelis. Yeah. What do you make of um I haven't asked you about this actually. You've seen JD Vance and uh Trump criticize Israel non-stop. We talked about it last week when we spoke. But now after Trump considering the F-35s and warming up to Erdogan despite Netanyahu's opposition, they're going to be meeting in a few days. So we'll see if that changes anything. Um, is it possible we we are seeing maybe a decoupling between the US and Israel? Are we seeing more indications of this or I'm getting way ahead of myself? >> Yes, you're way ahead of yourself. >> Oh, okay. Okay. I got optimistic when you said yes. I'm like you agreed with the first point. So nothing to nothing to be happy about yet. >> No, I think until we are in serious financial economic trouble. That's that's key. Uh, we're not going to make any sudden moves in any particular direction. And this is the history of all great powers. They they tend to be more aggressive at the end than at any point in their history. And then all of a sudden it stops and they're gone. Other words, everything happens quickly. The Brits were there and then they were bang gone because they couldn't afford to stay. Uh the Romans 400 years in Britain, boom, they left. What happened? They couldn't afford to stay. I mean, we could just go down the list. All great powers go through this sort of thing. You write it off. You leave. Everything's mortgaged to vanity at the end because by the time you reach the end of the imperial period, you're broke. I mean, this is Paul Kennedy's book, you know, the decline of the great powers. Open it up and read it. We We have been, he calls them frontiers of insecurity. We've created new frontiers of insecurity all over the world to justify 750 bases and hundreds of thousands of troops, airmen, uh, marines, sailors all over the world. And all of a sudden, it's going to collapse like a bag. it'll just deflate because we can't afford to do it anymore. And Trump is playing against that adversary. The adversary is financial Armageddon. He's trying to outpace it. He's trying to keep it under control. He and his friends on Wall Street have done everything they could to manage the decline, to manage the the problem of interest rates, to manage the oil problem, to manage the precious metals problem. All of these things, it's not going to work. it's going to fall apart, but it's not going to happen because somebody sat down and negotiated an end to anything. >> So gra kind of gradually but suddenly. So what we'll see is that all this build up and suddenly under a future administration, we'll see everything unravel, the bases closed, the US moving away from the from the entire world and moving towards its sphere of influence. all these things happening within, you know, a couple of years. >> I think it'll happen. I think it will happen under this administration. Whether or not Trump is still the president, I I don't know. I can't answer that. That depends on what he does next. What he's doing right now, as you rightly pointed out, is very stupid. He's harming himself. He's harming our country. He's harming our interests. Uh and he would think if he were such a brilliant businessman, you know, when to cut your losses and pull out. That's what he should have done months ago, but he can't because he's not a free agent. He's under duress and I think we understand that. I don't know what that duress is. I have not figured it out, but somebody's got something on him. And I think it's our friends that are in the Israeli lobby. And >> unless you got to take something else into consideration. >> Somebody said to me, "Well, Doug, you know, we could lose the midterms." I said, ' Okay. And he said that Trump can't afford that. I said, 'Why not?' He said, 'Well, if he loses the midterms, then they'll try to impeach him. You know, people in his own party hate him. I said, okay, well, then you have to make a choice. And if you're Donald Trump, you say, "Who do I want on my side when they come for me to impeach me?" The answer is, I want the Israel lobby. I want all those billionaires with all their money, their control of finance, control of the media, uh they're the ones and control of the government effectively. They're the ones I want on my side because if I don't have them, I'm done. I'm out. They're the reason I'm here to begin with. Do you do you understand that's >> he thinks that. So if you tell him, "Well, you're going to lose the midterms." Well, I may lo some midterms, but if I continue with the war, I do what my uh backers and supporters want, my donors, as they say, what the lobby demands, they'll prevent me from going under. >> Self-preservation. >> Yeah, I think so. And that's not, you know, I'm not saying that's right or wrong. I that's not me. I'm not that kind of person. But he's been in this business of business for a long, long time. Nobody knows how to self-promote better than Donald Trump. And nobody knows the financial realities better than he does. So I think that's that's going to keep him and keep us fighting. Unless until you get to the last missile and you can't afford to stay, that's when we that's when we bug out. Um well on on as we wrap up there's another front that would have been a whole other discussion within itself if we didn't have these strikes in the last couple of days and that's the comments by Trump on the war in Ukraine. >> Yes. >> Um talking about you supporting Zilinski strategy of striking deeper into Russia, striking Russian refineries and and approving I think it's been approved or he said he will approve the licensing of the Patriot missiles >> to Ukraine. Um, I like I thought the the positive side is the production capacity of Ukraine, but the negative side is first it will take a long time to set up and Russia will just bomb it whenever they set up a factory to develop Patriot missiles, but it'll take too long from what I understand, my limited knowledge, it would take too long for the Ukrainians to even build those facilities in the first place to make a difference. Uh, would you say that we in the United States underestimated Iran's military potential and capability? >> Yes. >> Yes. Would you say that we have consistently underestimated Russian military power and its capabilities? >> Yes, I think so. Now, why? We've never understood the war, frankly, because we don't want to. We're not interested in understanding the war for Russia. Ukraine is an existential question. Who rules? Who occupies it? Who controls it? Can be a friend or can be an enemy. And there's not much in between. It was obvious that we were building an enemy force designed to do one thing to destroy Russia in Ukraine. That led to the intervention and it's led to the war. But for the last four years, Putin has absolutely consistently always wanted to avoid a war with NATO and especially with us. I mean, if you go back to Anchorage, where the Russians were fooled into thinking that Donald Trump was serious and wanted a better relationship with Russia and wanted to do business with Russia, they've now figured out that was nonsense. The Russians have been incredibly naive in ways that I would never have imagined, but they really have been. They were naive over the Minsk Accords. They were naive about us as a nation, as a people. They've been naive about Donald Trump. They listened to

His words. They didn't look carefully at his actions. What has Donald Trump changed with regard to Russia since he came to power? Nothing.

So now all of a sudden at a point in time where he privately has concluded Zalinski is a loser. Ukraine is a is a loss. It's not going to win. All of a sudden he does a 180 degree turn similar to the F-35s to to Erdogan. He's now decided, oh let's give more money to the little man in Kief that he can steal or waste so that he can kill more Russians hopefully. And how many of his own people die is of no consequence.

And the Europeans are delighted because the Europeans have one goal. It's the same goal the Israelis have. Israel's goal is to drag us into war with Iran and anybody else they don't like because without us they can't win. With us they probably can't win, but that's another story. And the Europeans have decided, and I say Europeans, I'm not talking about the average European citizen who's completely disinterested. I'm talking about the globalist leaders, these governments that are seething with angry anger, hatred, and hostility for Russia because Russia is a real national state with a national identity, a national culture, a foundation in Orthodox Christianity. Oh my god, these people are serious. They've got to go away. We've got to destroy them so they can become globalists, nihilists, atheists, Marxists.

So, they're happy now for the moment because they think they've talked Donald Trump into confrontation with Russia. And Donald Trump was foolish enough to state right after Rubio pointed out, "Oh, yes, we think this is a new phase. Striking deep into Russia is good." And then Donald Trump says, "Yes, I know it's escalatory, but I think that's the path to negotiation and peace." That's like saying, you know, I got a pain in my left hand. I'm cutting my wrist and enough blood flows out, the pain will go away and I'll pass out and die. It's stupid.

>> But he's fallen for it.

Now, why would he do that? Well, he probably says, you know, it's too much trouble to deal with Congress. That's what the Senate wants. That's what the Congress wants. They're all making money from this. I've made money. Uh so what what difference does it make? I mean, I I've seen this thing before. FDR when he when he left the Potam conference, Admiral Ley was his senior military adviser and Admiral Lehey said to him, "Mr. President, do you really think the Soviets are going to abide by any of these things? They're going to honor their obligations? Are they going to do the things they've promised?" And he said, "You know, I don't know, but I'm just too tired to fight anymore." He died what, a month later. So I this this kind of thing goes on. I this these are the perils of democracy. Democracy sounds great in theory, but in practice, it's got real problems.

>> Yeah. Far from perfect. It depends on the people that you appoint, the people that are that are elected. And you know, the great uh historian Macaulay said uh this will work very well in the United States until they run out of high-quality people in office. Then everything will fall apart. I think we've run out for a long for quite a while.

So, you know, you all you have to do is sit there and and take a go listen just listen to the foreign minister of China. Listen to the foreign minister of Russia. Listen to these men speak. Look at how they behave. Are there any fits of emotion? Any snide remarks? Any off-color remarks? No. They're extremely professional. They're focused like lasers on interests, on the interests of their country and understanding the interests of other countries. And when they speak, everything they say reflects that mentality and understanding. They're called diplomats. We don't have any.

Ko, it's a pleasure. And uh peak, I love the impersonations today. It's a record number of impersonations. It was a good conversation. It's a good conversation.

>> You have to laugh a little bit, right?

>> You do. You do. Thank you for your time, K. Appreciate it.

>> Byebye.

All right, guys. We're live again. Let's see. I think we next live is in a minute. Um, we're live again in 30 minutes with Karen Vatovski. It will be my co-host. So Brendan Wert will be co-hosting the show um in 30 minutes with Karen Viardski and I'll personally be back with Malcolm Nance in an hour and a half and then Larry Johnson. Um we'll go live earlier if there's strikes, but so far it's been quiet. There's no updates since the reports, the bizarre reports about strikes in Iran that were then um uh dismissed as uh unconfirmed by Iranian media. So I'm not sure what really happened.

Now, there's reports that it has been confirmed that strikes did take place in Connor. They just came in now. So, there were strikes in Iran. I'm not surprised. We just don't know by who. The Americans, Axel said it's not the Americans. I think the Americans officially said it's not them. There's no reports. It's the Israelis. And Israeli media, so take it with a grain of salt, is claiming it's Gulf countries, Kuwait and Bahrain, which shouldn't be too surprising. We saw Saudi and the UAE attack Iran as a way to deter future attacks. And I'm not saying it's a good idea or bad idea. We could be seeing the Bahrainis and Kuwaitis doing the same thing. Is it a good idea? The colonel said it's a terrible idea. These are very small states. They don't have much capabilities. Um so the solution will not be military military strikes on Iran because that could lead to more significant Iranian retaliation. We'll see. We haven't gotten more clarity. We'll see you guys live with Brendan Ward. We'll be doing the interview with Karen Fatovski in 30 minutes. Bye guys.