Latest / Palafox Media Network / Guardians of the Republic: Is Iran Worth This?
Transcript
- Jonathan Cole: Good evening and welcome tonight to another edition of Guardians of the Republic. With as always is Tony Hughes. ⁓ Are tonight, Tony? Tony Hughes: I'm great, Jonathan, how you doing? Jonathan Cole: doing peachy. always, ⁓ Jonathan Cole here. We're going to discuss what latest insanity has transpired since our last episode. And as it has never ⁓ failed There's more and to talk about. ⁓ Tony Hughes: you Yeah. You know, so far every episode, so far every episode we have found yet a new level of hell. So it's amazing. Jonathan Cole: Exactly. And is, and it's like, but it bode well because it ⁓ just getting worse. How much more worse it going to get? ⁓ It's kind crazy. Yep. But I guess we'll kick off with, it's kind of a little bit older news, but it's still being discussed as the targeting of the elementary school. I ran on day one and our government Tony Hughes: I'm gonna... deeper... deeper... Jonathan Cole: It wasn't us, it was the Israelis. And then a still photograph of a Tomahawk missile about to explode the place. And Israel nor Iran have Tomahawks. So, okay, well, maybe it was us, but you know, there were weapons of terror in that school, so we had to take it out. But then the fact that not only did we hit it once and kill 200 students, but we hit it again 40 minutes later. which is usually a tactic you use when you want to kill the rescuers too. So at what point is this targeted as opposed to an act of war? Tony Hughes: Yeah. Well, yeah, that school is adjacent to a naval base and the naval base is certainly a legitimate target. I hadn't heard that they blamed the Israeli for it, but I did hear Trump said that he thought Iran had done it. In fact, he even said Iran has Tomahawk missiles, which is completely false. I there's only two other nations besides us that have Tomahawks. I think it's Great Britain and Australia. And neither were they. And they had to be launched from ships, ships or submarines. And neither one of those two nations are in the fight. So to the extent that the screen grab ⁓ the Tomahawk coming in is legit. And I haven't heard anyone say yet that it's not a legitimate photograph. You know, I did. I think I think Hedges did. Sort of give away his little tail. ⁓ When they were on the, he and the front line Air Force One, I guess over the weekend, as somebody asked him about the school and Trump said that he thought that Iran did it and that Iran had tomahawks. And someone asked Hedges who was standing right behind Trump, if that was his position as well. And Hedges said, well, we're investigating. So he did not confirm what Trump said. You he said, we're investigating. And I can appreciate that, you we don't have access to the crash site. And you do definitely wonder about what is, you know, what's being produced. I there's certainly been a bunch of tomahawks land in Iran. But again, if the picture's accurate, I think it was just a screw up. mean, yes, they, you know, it is programmed by someone, but. you know, garbage in, garbage out, you just, you know, us a few dustbin points on a GPS heading that you think is going to be building X and Navy base. And in reality, it's the building of a school that's, you know, 300 yards north of it. You can certainly see how something like that can happen. I mean, it's terrible. But. And I know how long the investigation would take place and if they would even ever disclose it, but think I know and I'm a lot more familiar with the Air Force than in the Navy. But I do believe in the Air Force, they know every missile, they know where every missile is going, they know where every bomb is going, they know what the coordinates were programmed in before it left the William and airplane or before it left the missile silo or And the that the Navy does not already know ⁓ which Tomahawk that was and exactly where it was programmed to go. And if it wasn't that programmed to go into that school, even if it was a mistake, you know, we really should just own it and get on with it. because the longer that you kind of duck and jive, I think it just becomes a bigger issue. And now it looks like the inevitable cover up. because clearly this is not good for Trump, not good for this imminent threat that he said we were under when he started this war against Iran. And, you know, I think Iran's also, I mean, I'm certainly not, you know, a fan of Iran, obviously, but at the same time, you listen to ⁓ and a lot of the things that Trump is saying is just not true. Jonathan Cole: No. Tony Hughes: I don't think there's ever been any question that from a military standpoint, we can dominate Iran and we can take out Iran's military, their offensive forces very quickly with airstrikes. mean, there's just, you know, whether it takes a week or two weeks or five weeks, you know, that's going to happen really quickly. It's going to be expensive. did see today that the Pentagon has informed Congress at the first six. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: that the first six days of the war cost $11 billion, billion with a B. So that's almost $2 billion a day of ⁓ ordnance. were burning in airplanes, ordnance were fired off of airplanes and ships. And that's expensive. But, you know, it... Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: The concern I had on day one the concern I still have. And that's what happens after the bombs start dropping. Once have achieved our military objectives, everybody made fun of George Bush with the mission accomplished on the aircraft carrier. Well, mission accomplished, the military objectives had been achieved. army was Their ability to carry out war was over. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: But then what happened next? that's what's going to happen in Iran. So far, all people in the streets have been pro-Aitola. ⁓ There not been mass demonstrations in the streets. And CNN has got a crew on the ground in Iran. They're there with Iranian government permission. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: But CNN says that Iran does not have any over what they report. They don't to supply Iran with anything in advance. So they're just, I think, showing what's actually in Tehran right now. the only pictures seeing are people supporting the new leader. I'm not seeing the masses trying to overthrow their government. Because, and I think that the reality is, Jonathan Cole: Right. Tony Hughes: The people that are still in charge of Iran, they still have AK-47s, they still have RPGs. can still kill a lot of people in the streets and can't take them out with an airstrike. And that's the problem. That's why regime change, almost have to always have boots on the ground because you can't control what they do to the crowds. If the crowds do rally, Jonathan Cole: I'm out. Tony Hughes: And they do try to rise up. ⁓ They're just going to get killed by the Revolutionary Guard because they still have all the guns. have all the, may not be able to shoot an airplane out of the sky, but they can shoot a protester that's 30 yards in front of them. And that has a chilling effect. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. We have a history of this kind of thing. Yeah. 1956 one, 1968. We led Hungary and Czechoslovakia to believe that if they stood up, we'd back them up and we went crickets on them and Soviet in and butchered them up. So. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yeah, we were going to protect the Kurds in Iraq. And which I really kind of laugh when I saw that they were trying to arm the Kurds in Iran now. It's like, and know, don't really know what's the truth anymore when you read things in the media, because whether it comes from CNN or NBC or ABC or Fox, I mean, they're all splendid. But I saw one quote from an Iranian Kurd who said, ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Yep. Yeah. Tony Hughes: Well, of course we will try because we're afraid not to, because we're afraid of the United States. been so mistreated by them in the past that we're We're afraid not to go along with what Trump says. So now whether that's going to be an effective tool, I think that remains to be seen. ⁓ I mean, look what in Afghanistan. Look what happened in Iraq with us. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Tony Hughes: know, the vast majority of the people killed were not in those initial stages of the war. It was the ground action. It was the, it was the, the assertiveness. It was the guerrilla war. You know, just like Vietnam, that was a guerrilla war. And we lost 57,000 men and women over there. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Exactly. and that's just it is it's when there's so many lessons in our history, like don't do this and you do it anyway, you have to wonder what your leadership is thinking. And that's been my thing with Trump all along not even with Trump, he, know, forever with any foreign policy decisions or even the serious decision to take our nation wars. You have to look at ramifications. You can't just, ⁓ we're the biggest, baddest gorilla in the cage. We're going to go jump this little country that doesn't, doesn't always work out that way. If, you know, we look at, Tony Hughes: Yeah. Jonathan Cole: You know, the Bay of Pigs invasion and the crisis in the year, it's an issue of restraint. know, like Kennedy was pushed 50 million ways to react to both situations with blunt force. And he resisted both times. And, you know, because he knew with the Bay of Pigs, all right, if I send troops into Cuba, they're going to send troops into West Berlin and we're committed to protect them even with nuclear weapons. And at that point, all we knew about Khrushchev is he was the guy who's beating his shoe on the desk at the UN. We thought he was unstable. So why would we poke that bear, so to speak? But the next year, you know, LeMay was basically saying, nuclear war is not happening. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jonathan Cole: just get on with it, you know, and things like that. And even the ones that were saying, let's bomb them and send in ground troops. Well, you know, years later when the Soviet Union fell and all these files came, commanders on the ground in Cuba had nuclear weapons and the authority to use them. So when that first invasion force hit the beach, where would that have gone to? You know, the obvious answer was, you know, annihilation, but it was that restraint. And at most all of Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jonathan Cole: presidents have exhibited that kind of restraint going into things or if they went into things there was at least an exit strategy. We kind of learned that lesson from Vietnam mixed this president so now we've got ramifications we've got a war with no clear end in sight we replaced one with another good work there and you know and the thing is ⁓ Tony Hughes: Yeah. His son, his son, didn't even change the last name. Just the younger, just the younger version of the same guy. Jonathan Cole: is even more, yeah. But I mean, the thing too with Iranians is. ⁓ Iranians are, ⁓ lot of them have always been ultra conservative Muslims and they like these kinds of guys. mean, of course there's dissidents, but you know, there wasn't a groundswell of let's get rid of this and start with something different. And of course, like you said, our track record doesn't look well for them to like come to us. But then the other issue is, you know, Tony Hughes: Yeah. Jonathan Cole: Price of gas is going very, very much up. And so today, I don't know if you saw the news, but Trump's answer is, it's good for this country for the price of oil to go up. Have you figured that one out yet? Tony Hughes: You know, we're going to make a lot of money. We're making a lot of money. How much money did you make today, from having to spend an extra buck and a half for gasoline? You know, diesel is almost $2. I mean, it's almost $2 a gallon up. And let me tell you, that's going to translate. mean, jet fuel, aviation fuel, this is going to be tickets for your airline travel right here as we're getting into the summer months. It's going to be. Jonathan Cole: just it. ⁓ Yeah. Yep. Tony Hughes: transportation of your food and goods and services by truck and by rail because they run off of diesel as well. This is all, this is just kind of hurt us from an inflationary standpoint. And the thing that I really, you know, I posted about this on Facebook yesterday, I think, you know, we, national, our strategic petroleum reserve is about 714 million barrels maximum capacity. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Tony Hughes: And we were at, we were pretty close to capacity and then Biden released 300 million barrels very famously just before the election trying to drive the price of gasoline down. I know Trump went nuts over it because all you're trying to buy the election, blah, blah, blah. And maybe he was, I don't really remember all the details behind that, but there was a big release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And when... Trump did the big beautiful bill, they only put like enough money in there for 1%. 1 % of what was missing, which was literally the drop in the bucket, literally the drop in the bucket. So our strategic proprietary reserve was already almost half of what our capacity is. So now we're going to release another 172 million out of our reserves. which is going to put us down to about 33 % of what capacity is. Now, again, this to me just a shocking lack of planning. When you choose to go to war and you that the first thing that's going to come into play is going to be in the straight-o-home use because that's 20 % of the world's oil supplies coming through that straight. And Iran owns that. I mean, from a military standpoint, it owns it. we have an answer for that. You know, they say, well, the Navy can't, I mean, they gave this, and again, I'm not a Navy guy. Okay, I don't know the first thing about, I've seen lots of Navy war movies, but I don't know the first thing about strategy. But when they say, well, we can't convoy tankers to the strait, Jonathan Cole: Thank you. Tony Hughes: because our ships are still working on taking out the offensive capability Iran. And I really think I want to the bullshit flag on that. I think the reason we're not putting ships in convoys across the straits is because it's not safe. And the last thing we can do, the last thing, I mean, it's bad enough to lose an oil tanker, but to lose a Navy warship in Strait of Hormuz to Iran? Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tony Hughes: what a massive black eye politically and practically to, I mean, not only the death of the sailors, but just the political black eye that Trump's would take if we lose a warship to Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. I that's one reason why they're still going to just take their time to the extent they can to eliminate whatever threat they think Iran can muster the Strait of Hormuz. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: And I don't know how long that's gonna take because Iran's not playing them for this for a long time. the people in Iran, the leadership in Iran, I don't like them. They're bad people, but they're not idiots. ⁓ they were in a war with Iraq for what, 10 years before we ever took on Iraq. ⁓ they had been basically sticking their thumb in our eye to their Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yep. No. Yeah. Tony Hughes: their own links, their minions, know, Hamas and Hezbollah. so they're certainly, they certainly understand combat and tactics and how the US operates. And I mean, just the fact that, what were their five ships on fire in the Persian Gulf right now, thanks to Iran. they still have some things, even though Trump has said, well, we've already won and you know, they have nothing left. Well, they're Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: They're shooting something it's hitting some stuff. And they talk about how inaccurate the weapons are, but they're still landing on oil facilities ⁓ the Gulf of some our ⁓ Gulf And what they're firing at Israel, cluster munitions, I they intend to kill in Maine as many people in Israel as they possibly can. But ⁓ yeah, I Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Right. Tony Hughes: think the reason why we're not convolence because it's not safe. ⁓ don't have the ability. We're not willing to risk those ships yet, ⁓ lady ships. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Well, and it's not just that. a convoy is an incomplete defense. The Navy doctor would be to send in, no way in hell we're going to send a carrier through that strait. That's going to have to be ⁓ destroyers and frigates for the most part. ⁓ not in the United States. Yeah. ⁓ Tony Hughes: I don't know, what else is in the carrier? They would air cover. They have air cover from the Navy probably, but you're right, it's be destroyers. going be screening. It's screening. know, crew screening is just. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: So there's ⁓ destroyers and frigates that have an anti-submarine warfare role. And then there's those that do, call air pickets and it's air defense. So they would be the ones trying to fight off the drone attacks or if the Iranian Senate aircraft. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jonathan Cole: They have small patrol vessels that could dart out in maybe large numbers and you gotta pick them all off before they get near you because they could be loaded with bombs, ⁓ set off close proximity. Tony Hughes: Thank Jonathan Cole: Of course you got drones, but also the big threat is even the were freaking about last night is mines, which is an old technology, but they're saying Iran have as many as 7000 naval mines that they could sow in the Strait of Hormuz. And that's that's scary because. up until about the 80s, there were still mines from World War II blowing up ships. They can be, they can sit out there and float from here. You don't know they're there and then you hit one. so it could screw things up in the straits and formues. So we attacked some of their ships they use to dispense these mines. And apparently we hit the wrong ships or they weren't loaded or something. It But, but I mean, but ⁓ Tony Hughes: Well, I didn't see any, I just see a lot of secondary exposures when they showed the video. just like, and it looked like, you know, 20 foot boats cut up at the dock. know, so they weren't even actually out there doing anything like that. So, but I'll trust our, I'll trust our intel that it was. Jonathan Cole: Well, I a lot of them are like oversized. Yeah, most of them are oversized yachts and they have like rails on the back and they go along and they literally just push these off at intervals. ⁓ But and I think they said they only carry four or five at a time. So it's going to take a lot of boat to get out there. But but still, yeah, it's trying to force us straight. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: We think about, I don't know if you're familiar with the Guadalcanal campaign in World War II. called it the Strait of Sundro. They were trying to get ships through every night, the Japanese and the Americans, and there were horrific night naval battles. They called it Iron Bottom Sound after a while. just putting large ships in confined spaces just doesn't work well. And we suffered a lot of losses. We inflicted a lot of losses. But at that point in the war, Japan actually had Tony Hughes: Bye. Hmm. Yeah. Jonathan Cole: superiority at naval tactics and night fighting and still had as many ships as we had our industrial might have kicked in yet, but uh Yeah, but it was the same thing as the last thing you want to do is sail a carrier group through the Strait of Hormuz. It's We would lose an aircraft carrier. They would they would figure out some way to make it happen You know even back in 83 off of Lebanon the concern was guys Tony Hughes: Yep. Jonathan Cole: coming in and hang gliders and landed on a deck loaded with aircraft fueled up, bombed up, ready to go and create some of those scenes like we saw in Vietnam when that was the enterprise and the forest still had munitions go off. And when they were off, it wasn't enemy action. It was just accidents, but it created a lot of damage and a lot of lives were lost. Tony Hughes: ⁓ yeah. Mm-hmm. There we go. Yeah, yeah. Jonathan Cole: I I to look that up. can't remember. We haven't lost a naval vessel since World War II, if I'm correct. Had some damage like the coal and the Liberty and yeah. So, but you just, know, like I said, you, we can't really convoy tankers through the ⁓ straight support moves. Tony Hughes: Not that I can, not that I can play Go. Jonathan Cole: It's just, it's a coin flip at best. It's, we can't cover everything. It's just going to be next to impossible, especially if they find a way to just mass, you attack where you can't cover all the bases, something's going to get through. so now night Naval happened though that I did find interesting, but Tony Hughes: Mm-mm. Yeah. Jonathan Cole: We sank a ship with the torpedo for the first time since World War II last week. So they had footage of that. That was the first ship to be torpedoed since the British torpedoed the General Belgrano in the Falklands War. So old school technology, guess, still works. But, you know, at the end of the day, Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Yep. This was a fancy one though because it actually I think it actually I think it actually exploded underneath the ship and just the the burst upward burst is what broke the ship's back. It wasn't necessarily just trying to poke a hole in it. It actually broke literally just broke the ship apart. So that was pretty interesting. I know there was a lot of controversy about what was just a legitimate target and Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Tony Hughes: And had no problem with it. ⁓ ship that the parent abandoned was on some naval exercise in India. ⁓ And what understand is that the ⁓ US communicate with the ship and told to abandon the ship. They were about to destroy it. And the captain would not allow the crew to abandon the ship. So two thirds of the hands were lost. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: I don't think there is. It was a patrol. hadn't heard that. Tony Hughes: I was not disappointed that there was no effort to pick up survivors. I think Sri Lanka sent survivors in, sent over to rescue this. I think were 35 people that were left that were in the water that were awfully rescued. But I thought that was kind of interesting that, you know, it kind of goes back to the drug boat Venezuela that we blew up and Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Tony Hughes: Couple of guys were so clean it's cleaning to us. We came back and hit it again to kill them and I'm still not too sure about that that she but I don't I don't have an issue with. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Well, mean, naval doctrine is submarines don't engage in operations just because of the risk if they come up and they surface. And another warship shows up, you're kind of... And ⁓ happened even in in World War II. Originally, they were surfacing and assisting survivors. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Yeah. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. ⁓ yeah. Jonathan Cole: we started disguising some of those ships and attacking them. then like, he's like, enough of that. And it's kind of general naval doctrine. So like I said, we kind of gripe about this, but I mean, I'm going to gripe about what our men in uniform are doing when they're in harm's way, you know, that doing a great job. Well, you know, that, you know, so, ⁓ but. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. ⁓ Yeah, I agree. really want to brag about the Air Force because I think the Air Force has done a fantastic job. Today we talked about before we went on air about the KC-135 that we launched Iraq today and our prayers are certainly with those crew members and their families. I've actually been a refueling with a KC-135. was built in 1960 and it was part of the out. In fact, it was the last air refueling exercise that the 33rd Fighter Wing did at Eglin before they got rid of all their F-15s. so a group of our civic leaders from Fort Walton Beach got to go in the KC-135 for refueling. And I will say, I mean, they, you go through a safety breaking every time you get on the military aircraft. Jonathan Cole: Hmm. Tony Hughes: I don't recall there being any briefing about parachutes for the crew members or for the guests on there. So I don't think there's any parachutes, things like that. You know, they are usually well up at altitude, 20 or 30,000 feet, and which gives us some room to recover in case there is a problem. Hard to imagine what could have gone wrong, but at the same time, you know, there's always things that can go wrong. I mean, just the... Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: It's such a, they make it look so easy to refuel one airplane from another when you're flying around and you're putting a probe into a little hole on an airplane everything's kind of moving and they're doing this and I mean it's excruciating for the pilot, especially the pilot of the plane getting the gas. It's excruciating for them to stay in formation because if it's at night, they're so to vertigo. Jonathan Cole: you Yeah. Yep. ⁓ Tony Hughes: And they have to just really trust their instruments and their visual cues and just don't pay attention to what your head's telling you because if they say well, we're baking. No, we're not. We're flying level and straight. But just don't try to correct. It's really hard to do. We make it look really, really easy. But it is really, really hard to do. And those KC-135s carry a lot of gas. A lot of gas. It's very heavy. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Right. No, definitely. Tony Hughes: I just hate to think about losing one of them. It would have been they would have been a long way up. It would have taken them a little while to get to the ground if it was a crash. And so you know my heart really goes out to crew. I hope everybody survived, but I have not heard anything recently before we went on the air about what the the what's going on as far as the crews concerned. I mean, the good news is it's over a rags to its quasi friendly, but now we're searching rescue. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yeah, they have least hardly any information. Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. Tony Hughes: You know, how fast can we get people there to the crash site? That's always, I I the Air Force plans for that. They will a plan for that, but how fast can they get there is the ⁓ real question. those guys come in usually helicopters. Jonathan Cole: Well... Right, exactly. Yeah. So I can attest to the naval side of things, but it used to be. Tony Hughes: So they're just not that fast, but. Jonathan Cole: You'd have an A6 that would refuel and it would pull up, launch out this long cable with this big funnel looking thing. And then every jet fighter or whatever aircraft had a nozzle that would pop out. obviously being Navy, were very lurid descriptions of that process. It usually started, all who brought the KY or something? ⁓ happened all the time, but there were incidents, you know. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Yep. Jonathan Cole: Even static electricity could make things. Tony Hughes: Yeah, all the Air Force of course, the KC-135, they have the drogue sheets as well, so they can refuel anything that flies, but the Air Force all take, ⁓ except Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: Well, the Osprey use it. They use a probe here. So they they groves. But ⁓ the the F-35, F-15, F-16, F-22s, bombers, they all have a that opens on top of the the top of the airplane. then and they're just kind of getting a position. And then the boom operator, the boom comes down and the boom operator actually Jonathan Cole: Yeah, well. Yeah. Tony Hughes: sticks the probe into the hole that's in the airplane and then everything lights up to say, you're passing fuel. And then the pilot's job is to keep the bottom of that KC-135 in the right place in his canopy follow them around. ⁓ like I they it look easy, it's not easy. But I just hope everybody's fine. Jonathan Cole: Yes, exactly. Yeah, no, definitely not. Yeah. Tony Hughes: But we're definitely going to very hot, hot, very high tempo. And you know, you know, we're two weeks in now. People may be getting tired. They may be, they may be getting complacent a little bit. again, I'm totally, I have no idea what the cause of the crash was, but I hope everybody's still paying attention to what they're doing. And, ⁓ and, just important, just important for the guys on the ground, maintain the airplanes because these are really old airplanes. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. No, no, no. Tony Hughes: And when you start using them hard, like we are right now, things break. And the maintainers get tired too. The maintainers get tired. So it's... Jonathan Cole: That's what I'm going to say is, you know, how many missions have they flown refueling? Did they get fatigued? And like you said, when you get fatigued, you make mistakes and one mistake can be fatal, even if it's a small one. So like I said, I haven't heard any more details. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yeah. Well, hopefully, yeah. Well, I just hope that there's enough, Trump can claim enough success to claim, stop the combat at least, to say, okay, we've accomplished our main military objectives. Because if we do more than that, ⁓ we're getting into mission grief and doing things the military's just not designed for. The Air Force of the Navy is not designed for regime change. I mean, they're designed to find stuff and blow shit up. That's what they do. And if we start defining. Jonathan Cole: No, we want to be honest. modern Navy isn't designed for cutting spices. mean, it was blue water oceans. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Yeah, I mean, we start if we start adding If we start adding much more to their plate other than just fine stuff and blow it up, you that that's when you know, the morale starts to drop with the the the the military because like we're we've already bombed the site three times. I mean, how many more times? It's nothing but a pile of rubble. And, you once this rubble, you know, it Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: And if if a random if the crowds don't take the streets and over to the government, what's what's to do then? I. I just have a bad feeling he's got this. He's gonna put troops on the ground. I don't know that for a fact. I he they they pointedly say we're not taking anything on the table or off the table, but. You know he he's gotta have a big win, and if it's a partial win like it would be if he stopped right now. I mean, yeah, you could say, well, Iran doesn't have an air force, don't have a Navy anymore. Most of their missile launchers are gone. ⁓ You know, we have air dominance. You know, we control the skies over Iran. That's really all a military can do from the air, short of going on the ground. ⁓ ⁓ I'll tell you this, if we don't go on the ground, Jonathan Cole: you Yeah. Well, and that's the, the. Yeah. Tony Hughes: ⁓ is really getting in that 50,000 foot stratosphere here. But what if we don't go on the ground? Why do we have an army then? I mean, yeah, look, I was against the war. going say that. mean, there was no imminent threat that I'd heard expressed by anyone yet other than Trump's feeling that there was that, well, rat was going to attack us. There's no evidence of that. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: Iran was going to take over the Middle East. There's no evidence of that. Iran was a bunch of bad people. There's plenty of evidence of that. And they've been bad for 47 years. But I don't think you just go to war over something that happened, you know, cumulatively over 47 years. There's nothing was, nothing was happening right then. And, but, I guess instead of saying that, I say but. But this has been an Air Force war and a Navy war. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. You Tony Hughes: This has not been an army war. This has not been a Marine Corps war. So, you know, ⁓ generals and the Pentagon ⁓ about to whip their britches to get into this fight because that's just what they do. but if we don't go, if we don't go on the ground, I mean, I mean, I mean, this is actually something I've been saying for years now. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. That used to be the sayings. Tony Hughes: Why do we spend so much money on the ground army? You know, we, I think we learned our lesson Iraq for sure. You know, the, our occupation of Iraq was a total disaster. I mean, and, and we just made a lot of mistakes going in, made a mistake by going in the first place. But even then we were there, we, we, we achieved a great military victory, but it was the occupation of Iraq that Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: everything fell apart, but you had to have an army to occupy Iraq. And you didn't have to have an army just to defeat Iraq militarily. So I won't ⁓ the question rhetorically. Why do we spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a ground army if we're not going to use it? Because I just can't envision, I mean, are we going to take our army and invade China? Jonathan Cole: Yep. Tony Hughes: We're going our army across the Pacific Ocean and invade China? No. Are we going to invade North Korea? Are we going to invade Iran? Well, I guess we'll see. But if we don't invade Iran, what nation are we unfriendly with in the Middle East or Europe or Africa that we would invade with a ground army with tanks and, you know, attack helicopters and, you know, tens of thousands of soldiers? Jonathan Cole: We are not. No. Tony Hughes: I just think we piss a bunch of money away on the army every year, frankly. So that's just me. Special forces, I'm all for it. The Rangers, Delta, those guys were shit hot. We need to keep them. But I'm talking about, the Hunter, maybe the 101st Airborne, because they are mobile. But, you know, the paint brigades. When are we going to send, when are we going to send M1 Abrams tanks across the ocean? Jonathan Cole: Yeah, I think. Tony Hughes: to invade another country. I just, can't see it. Jonathan Cole: Well, and the doctrine has always been, you know, we had large army during Cold War and we stuffed most of it in Europe, you know, because of the threat of Warsaw Pact forces rolling westward. But even then we all knew, well, I mean, but even then knew a shooting war would turn into a nuclear war within a week. Tony Hughes: Trump doesn't think that's a problem? Trump doesn't think it's a problem? Jonathan Cole: Somebody would panic and launch a couple and it would escalate from there. the rule is once the first nuke is launched, the rest are coming. It's just, that's the way it is. So yeah, ⁓ don't have to be able to invade. Tony Hughes: Yeah, I can't wait to see it. Well, we, we can still not get enough troops over. We can still not get enough troops to Europe to make a difference. We've got some there, but they're not enough to make a difference. if decided to come across Poland and Germany, we don't have enough troops there. We would engage our, our troops would be engaged. It would be Russians owned Americans, but Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Tony Hughes: They have such a large advantage number wise, at least they did the last time I looked, now they may have committed the most forces to Ukraine that they've shot up now, I don't know. But I just, for us to deploy, I how long would it take us to move 100,000 men to Europe today? I think the war would be over. think you state, I say, before we would let them go across Poland and Germany, I think somebody's pushing a button, at least on tactical nukes. Jonathan Cole: I don't know. Yeah, but technically, they're going to bring the rest. Tony Hughes: and ⁓ to stop it. And if that whole needs go, then the the strategists are probably going to behind it. So I don't I just don't see it happening. Jonathan Cole: Exactly. I mean, it's been a point of debate for years, but you know, might be right. There might be time. We don't need that, that massive standing army that we've had since the end of second world war. it's because like you said, it's mostly just. Yeah. Tony Hughes: Well, and I'll even go one step further. I'll one step further and say that the Navy is great for like Trump called it today, called it excursions, not a war, it's an excursion. But the great for an excursion like we have right now, you know, but our Navy can't fight against China. China's rockets, their missiles are way better the other, but the missiles can reach further in the Pacific than our airplanes, than our Navy aircraft. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: than the carriers, the aircraft off the carriers can reach into China. The only thing we have against China right now is missiles the long range strike bombers that the Air Force has. So. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Right, well... And that's where, well, but the Navy answer is submarines. We have Polaris missiles that will reach anywhere in the world from any end. The beauty part is, don't know where you're at when you launch them. So, but still it's, but that's just it. If we get in a war with China, if we get in a war Russia, we get in a war with North Korea, it's going to become a nuclear war. Tony Hughes: Well, yeah, missiles. Yeah, missiles. Yeah, I'm talking about moves, but I'm talking about, I'm talking about conventional forces. Yeah. Jonathan Cole: A lot of times I think Putin wants to pit us and China together and we wipe each other out and he could kind of clean up afterwards, you know, and be the dominant world power. don't know. Interestingly, it was just released that Russia's feeding Iran data about our movements and their operations. Tony Hughes: Yeah. and, and we're, and we're dropping snakes into their oil so they can sell oil to, China and to India. Which that money's, I mean, so, so yeah, oil a hundred dollars a barrel now. Russia has the snakes that's released. They're selling oil, a hundred dollars a barrel. And that one is going right back and forth in the spring. ⁓ And telling Iran how to target our guys. I mean, Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Exactly. Well, Trump's been hitting hits with Russia all along, so... Tony Hughes: I don't know what kind of pictures Putin has of Trump, but this is, I mean, it's every time. When has Trump ever put his foot down and said, that's it, Russia, that's it. You know, we're not taking it anymore. always backstabbed him from Putin. And wasn't, was it? ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Take care. He can't. The original taco. Tony Hughes: Was it with call? Yeah, it it was it. I forgot now which Trump administration official was at my name with cop. I don't remember, but they asked him, I think it was the study talk shows. About Russia selling. Or giving Intel to Iran about our forces. And he well, we've asked Russia about that and they said they're not doing that and we take them at their word. Really? I mean. ⁓ I mean, while it's true Russia has never lied to our face ⁓ mean, they have, Russia's always been completely honest with us, especially about the war in Ukraine. ⁓ never ⁓ anything but tell us the truth. So I understand, I understand them saying, I understand this, but give me a fricking break. I mean, it's just unbelievable that we take them their word. Jonathan Cole: You Yes, that's a surprise. There are no offensive missiles in Cuba. Yeah. But it goes back to like, what is Trump's end game in all of this? I really haven't heard it. He keeps talking ⁓ building or whatever, but it's not happening. I don't know what, like you do we stop mid-senates? Or do we roll out ground troops and then at what point will we've gone well past the war powers? What's Congress going to do or say? You know, it's going to take, I think at that point, you almost need a declaration of war. Tony Hughes: Jimmy Fallon Yeah. Jimmy Fallon had a great piece. He had a funny skit like two days after the war started. they take these clips of Trump. It's like Jimmy Fallon was interviewing Trump about the war. Had all these totally out of context clips. ⁓ one of the questions was, well, Mr. President, what's the main thing you want to see destroyed in this war? And Trump says, they haven't seen files. And tell you. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Tony Hughes: I keep on going back to that great movie, Wag the Dog, you can't help but wonder. You're in trouble politically. You're crashing in the polls. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: what's the one thing that the Americans always rally around? That's the military, especially their bombing combat. ⁓ And even if you don't agree with the, if you don't agree with Trump going to war, choosing this war at this point in time, you're still going to love the military. It's hard to, had ⁓ good friend who was a Gold Star father on Facebook just kind of ripped into me because I was Jonathan Cole: Yep. Tony Hughes: critical of Trump's decision to go to war. And, and I was really dinging him over Fox News' broadcasting that video because Trump wore a hat, you know, didn't take his hat off. It was just a ball cap. It was lost on his campaign site. You could buy the same cap for like 40 bucks off of the trumpsales.com website and didn't remove it when the flagged rate transfer cases walked by, six of them. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Right. Right. Tony Hughes: And the relevant broadcast that Fox News broadcast a dignified transfer from Trump's first term where he is uncovered. of know, this guy, I know him very well. His son was captain in the Air Force. He was a special tactics officer. He had a senior listed guy were killed. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: in a, in I think it was actually a blue on blue environment where Afghan would dress an Afghan army uniform. So they turned their guns on our Americans and killed these two guys. And so, I mean, he's been to his own studies, transverse, a very, very sore subject for him. ⁓ And, and was critical of me, you know, politicizing the fight transfer. I had to remind him that look, Jonathan Cole: I will. Yeah. Tony Hughes: I was critical of Fox News for broadcasting the wrong video and broadcasting a video that made Trump better than he really was. ⁓ And yes, I will also criticize a political leader at a military event for not removing his cover when six deceased military members Jonathan Cole: Right. Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: pass in front of him that he ordered into that engagement. And is direct, I mean, he didn't kill them, obviously, but his orders were responsible for their deaths. And I just think it's ultimate sign of disrespect. And had to remind him that, your son his life so that I exercise my of free speech. And... Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Exactly. Tony Hughes: Well, I don't have any control over what the president does, but I hope at some point in time, these combat operations draw to a close as quickly as possible, especially if it turns out they are as unpopular as unpopular as it seems that they are, that we don't create more Gold Star fathers, Gold Star mothers, Gold Star wives, Gold Star husbands, Gold Star children, because the ultimate ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Mm. Right. Tony Hughes: And I don't think I convinced him, but at the same time, you know, it's, it's a, I do believe everything Trump does is calculated in terms of politics to make the politics look good for him. And I don't think politics is looking good for him right now, but that's just me. I mean, I'm obviously not a Trump fan. I'm just remind people that are watching that I am a diehard Reagan conservative Republican. I am not Magan. And I still. Jonathan Cole: No, I'm not good. Well. Yeah. Tony Hughes: have a brain to think for myself and don't just toad. So people, I'm against war unless Trump wants it. I'm against taxes unless Trump wants it. I'm against tariffs unless Trump wants it. I'm against government ownership of businesses unless Trump wants it. You all the things that conservative Republicans have, you just died on the Hill for in the past. Jonathan Cole: Nice. Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: Mag has just stowed away because Trump wants it. ⁓ not that guy. I have to think for myself. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. No. Well, I've, like I said, had his measure since the eighties. So tried to tell everybody, but nobody listens. But, you know, it goes to two things. One is that, and it's not, this is just a small sample, but Trump has no concept. he might have a concept, but presidential decorum, he really care. I mean, He thinks he's above all that. ⁓ I don't have to take my hat off. I'm Donald Trump. the other thing, again, going back to the Fox News decision to polish the turd, I had this conversation for 25 or more. Just simple question. If you're ⁓ a MAGA person, news do you watch? You watch Fox News. Tony Hughes: So. Yeah. Thank K. Fox News or News Nation. Jonathan Cole: If that's your sole source of news and information, that's a very loosely term, MAGA didn't see Trump dishonor sick servicemen. And then again, Fox News those sick servicemen by showing someone else's bodies coming off of a plane. I mean, that's who needs to be mad is the sick servicemen that perish that ⁓ weren't even Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yeah. Jonathan Cole: You know, we're a political pawn with Fox News, but, that's the way it's always been. Everybody's like, I don't see how Trump could be so popular. I think he does. they don't see that because Fox doesn't portray it. Newsmax doesn't portray it. OEM. They don't show the stuff that we see. So ⁓ think everything's hunky dory or it's fake news. That's just CNN. They hate, you know, Trump does, what is it? Trump. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jonathan Cole: derangement syndrome, know, all those useful things. fact of the matter is he's doing these things and more and more people are seeing it. And, know, lot of veterans groups and Republicans were upset by this episode, but here you know, ⁓ it's Trump being Trump, waiting to into. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Yeah. Well, I make a point to watch. I watch a little bit of all of them and I can tell you, I mean, I've listened to. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: NSNOW, NBC, CNN, and Fox News talk about the same exact subject, the same exact subject. they might as well be talking about the light side of the moon versus the dark side of the moon. I mean, and I guess, and I guess, and I try really hard not to get into Jonathan Cole: Thank you. Yeah. Tony Hughes: my own confirmation bias, okay? Just because I believe it, I wanna hear it, you I really try to stay away from that. But I will say this, like you say, what see out of Fox is so blatantly one-sided. And do cover the negative side at all unless they just don't have any options. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Tony Hughes: mean, the negative side is the news, then they ⁓ have choice. ⁓ know, it's kind of funny, Brian Kilmeade, when Russia first invaded Ukraine, Brian was all over that, ⁓ all it. You know, we got to help Ukraine and just put a thousand percent, where's the Jonathan Cole: So, ⁓ no. Yeah. you Tony Hughes: Ukraine lapel pens on his until Trump gets in. And then Ukraine's not that big of a deal. And now all a sudden, he'll be, well, that's not that big of a deal. And he sort of started that drift. It was a little bit of a time, but now, if he ever does talk about Ukraine, it's like, oh, well, they're crooked too. We don't need to spend money on Ukraine. Jonathan Cole: No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Tony Hughes: It's just so sad to see that if you don't toe that line. Fox is still the number one cable news broadcast. They're the number one cable broadcast period. They have the news. And they know watching them. And been trouble with Trump before. And they've been in trouble with their viewers before. ⁓ And they're not going to Jonathan Cole: Well... Yeah, right. Yeah. Tony Hughes: and they're making too much money, they're just not going to risk that by telling their viewers what their viewers don't want to hear. And that's where you have to understand that I'm not getting the full, unless I do listen to CNN, unless I do listen to MSNBC or MSNOW, I'm not going to get the full picture. Now, and that's not to say that CNN is not full of shit sometimes too. MSNOW sometimes full of shit. Jonathan Cole: Well. I have some, yeah. No, no, they definitely are. Yeah. Tony Hughes: But that's why, and I'll the first one to say, but that's why you gotta see a little bit of all of it. Because unless you're there, the only way you're gonna get it is from the news. it's like, Trump won't even take a, he won't even take a question to Kaitlin Collins because, oh, you're seeing it in your fake news. Well, what news was fake? If Kaitlin Collins was asking the question about Epstein survivors, what's fake about that? They are real people. Jonathan Cole: Right. Yeah. Tony Hughes: And, but, but Trump is like, well, there's just nothing to see here. So move along. it's just, you, but I tell you, MAGA folks, don't want to hear anything bad. They don't, they do not want to hear anything bad at all. ⁓ you just piss them off. If you do, if you present something that's not Jonathan Cole: Yep. He know that he wants you to see. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah. Can one kind of open that egg? ⁓ Yeah, I had a clue what was about to go down on January So purposely watched the whole coverage on Fox just because I want to hear what. And I swear for hours it sounded like Beavis and Butthead trying to figure out what to say and how to spend this because we're seeing this with our own eyes. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Jonathan Cole: ⁓ how do we spin this? But like, and it took them a while to finally come up with, well, this was all, you know, this was Nancy Pelosi's fault. And Antifa, ⁓ triggered the, but, as it was it was like, they were, they, they were silent. They didn't know what we don't know what we're looking at. You know, it's like, I knew exactly what I was looking at. But, but, so, you know, it's. And it's, you know, that is the famous case a years ago where Fox was sued for libel and their defense was we're not a news organization. We're an entertainment organization. So we're not bound to tell the truth. So. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yeah, well that was it was about it that was over the building that was over the other boat ballot boxes so Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. So, all right, you're gonna come right out and admit it. Why the hell should I watch your news? You know programs that you're telling me you're just making it up and I mean but when that happens To in efforts to fan the flames of war we're talking about something that goes all the way back to You know the Spanish-American war that was a purely news media war that started that it was a William Randolph Hearst, you know, paint a picture and I'll get a war or something like that. can't remember exactly, but, but even, know, the civil war, a lot of people that really take the time to study it. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jonathan Cole: It was caused by the South being inflamed by its media, which included churches at the time. They had everybody convinced that that Nick Lincoln was this ogre abolitionist who's going to invade this country and rape your women and free your slaves. And that's why they went to war when none of that was really true. know, it's, you know, so now. You know, you've got news agencies that are just bend themselves into pretzels trying to justify what's happening in Iran, but that doesn't make it right. Doesn't make it good foreign policy. Doesn't make it the good conduct of a war. And you know, that's really where things went south in Vietnam. A lot of people are saying is the fact that for the first time ever we had television news over there. So no matter what they might say from a podium in the Pentagon. Tony Hughes: Yep. Jonathan Cole: News networks were showing the real story, especially during the Ted Offensive and ⁓ yeah, we've got this one. Well, why are there Viet Cong running amok in Saigon? You know what's that's then the Malay massacre happens and then public support. It went out the window and Johnson decided I'm not going to try to run. I'm going to lose now because I lost all credibility because people know what's really happening. Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, I think, know, and not to chase too much for rabbit, I think that you could actually make the argument that the Tet offense is now, they certainly call us in our pants now. There's no question about that. But once we had a chance to regroup, it wound up being a military victory for the military. But because it had started off so poorly and was reported as such, accurately reported as such, that in the minds of the American public, Jonathan Cole: you Yeah. Yeah. Tony Hughes: a massive disaster. ⁓ it was at the beginning, but you you just call the football game after the first quarter. You know, gotta wait and see what the whole thing is. But you're right, it was still that perception. it just of course, the war was already very popular with American public anyway. But ⁓ we we learn from it. We haven't learned from any of that. Jonathan Cole: Yep. Right. Well. I know. I uh, I mean, in the first few years it was, it had support, then that was the tipping point because we were being told it's being won. We've got to handle, we're bringing your boys home and then everybody saw for themselves that that's not what's happening. Um, and then, you know, Westmoreland. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Yeah, like I'm a hoe yet. Jonathan Cole: Westmoreland says, actually, if I had 250,000 more troops, could win this thing. Well, there are already 750,000 over there. Everybody just realized there is no end in sight to this. We've gotten ourselves, and that was always the thing they said. In Vietnam, we won all the battles, but we lost the war. was the Ho Chi Minh and General Jap and the rest. Tony Hughes: No. Yeah. Well, you tell the military to fight with both hands tied behind their back, too. That's the problem. Because you can't go to Hanoi. You can't go to North Vietnam. You can't go other countries that the North Vietnamese are using as sanctuary. You can't go out of where they are. And they realize that, they exploit it. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Yeah, no, definitely. Thank you. Yeah. Well, we bombed the devil out of North Vietnam, but we never sent troops in. So, and I never understood that either. Yeah. Tony Hughes: Not until, not until addiction was there. You didn't do it in Johnson, you didn't do it in Nixon. And that's what finally got into the peace table. But then again, the peace was a joke because that was just a way for us to get out. And as soon as we were out, the North Vietnam moved right back in. Jonathan Cole: Well, no, was, no, no, it was East. Yeah. Exactly. And they knew and actually Kissinger Nixon knew that it's just like, it's, just got to get out and say we won and we really didn't. But, and that was again, backing the wrong horse. Tony Hughes: Yeah, that's why when you lift a finger when Jonathan Cole: Yeah, it's, but I mean, again, there are lessons, but I mean, we we were, we, you we propped up the wrong leaders. We, you know, we, we started with, the Eisenhower administration put in the dim brothers who were Catholics in a country that was 88 % Buddhists. They were never popular. Then eventually we like, we actually. Tony Hughes: Yep. Thanks Mm-hmm. Jonathan Cole: signaled to coup to take them out of power. And then we'd had to coup every two or three months. Henry Cavett Lodge, our ambassador, famously told General Tieu, we Americans are tired of your coups. But it's like leader that kept getting installed was even less popular with the local population. And end of the day, the average Tony Hughes: Yeah. Jonathan Cole: Villager just wanted to grow rice have a family and live and that you know, it just You know in it I forgot how many millions died that war on that side even just civilians not people are fighting on either side just caught in the middle but again, here's all these lessons and we're not learning them because that's my is we can send troops on the ground and I ran Tony Hughes: Yeah. Jonathan Cole: And we're going to have another Vietnam and another second Iraq war that's no end in sight with the. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Well, if we, if we, well, this is, this is going to be, and I'll leave you with this for the night. I mean, this is a bunch of yes, but our military objectives are accomplished. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: And even if people do rise up to try to fill it with all the government. But that revolutionary guard still has all the guns. And we don't put troops on the ground. There's nothing there to protect the people that are trying to rise up. And it does turn into a civil war. How many hundreds of thousands of Iranians will die as a result of this? ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Hmm. Yeah. Exactly. Tony Hughes: And what are we going to do about it? Because this is is the Colin Powell, you know, pottery barn rule. You break it, you own it. And they're bad people. There's no question about that. But, you know, we, we tipped the bucket over here. And if don't send in, and I hope we But again, I hope I didn't, wasn't in favor of starting this process to begin with. How bad does it have to get in Iran from a civil war standpoint before we do something about it or will it just be whoever's left alive will wind up in here in the country after you've killed off 300,000 people. And their blood, I think, is going to be on Trump's hands. And this is just, you know, I've stood all along. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. and the day. Yeah. Tony Hughes: Trump is gonna wind up going in history, my own opinion is the worst president we've ever had. And I think he's also gonna go down as the destroyer of the Republican Party. There's already a divide there between traditional Republicans like me and MAGA, because there's nothing, there's literally nothing, but, you know, there's, okay, there's 2 % of my body is made up of MAGA. You know, there's, you know, like two Venn diagrams, okay, there's. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Tony Hughes: That little bit where we shared something common, maybe about the border security, probably the only thing I had in common with MAGA. But Iran turns out to be an abject disaster, it turns out to be a civil war where hundreds of thousands of people get killed, this is going to destroy the Republican Party. And is going to go down, he's going to go down with the ship because he doesn't have the personality to ever say, Jonathan Cole: Hehehe. Tony Hughes: my god, I was wrong. And don't hold my party responsible for this. No, he's gonna defend it to the death. Because that's just, that's his personality. Anyway. Jonathan Cole: Yeah, no. And it just worries me what we're getting into because, you know, think back to the second Iraq war. won a quick military victory and we created a power vacuum and we were able to fill it with a local ⁓ type government. But the difference between Iraq and Iran is Iraq was always a more progressive nation. party was more liberal than most. actually that was, yeah, but, it was, well, I mean, the thing that like, why are you getting, here's my thing was why take Hussein out of power when he's kind of holding down the fort? Cause in reality he hated all the forces that were attacking us after 9 11. He did not like. Tony Hughes: Right. Yeah. And it was not run by a religious leader. So now who's saying was that a religious leader? Jonathan Cole: fundamentalist. did not, he wasn't supporting them, but he was kind of keeping things under control. Was he a good, no, he wasn't a good person, but he didn't have to be replaced. But we created that power vacuum and that from a governmental standpoint at work because they were fundamentally more progressive. Now, and you know, most of the people that were doing the guerrilla activity in Iraq weren't from Iraq. They were from. all over the Middle Eastern world, Saudi Arabia, Iran, they were the fundamentalists that were conducting the jihad. We're talking about going into a country that's much larger than Iraq that has always been fundamentalist Muslim. we are the enemy, we are the great Satan, you know? And now we're talking about everybody. ⁓ actually, remember our fear about invading the island of Japan? Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jonathan Cole: Iran could become the same thing where you'd have to literally kill every human being in the country for your troops to be safe. It's a scary time and we do not have the right leader in place to embrace a scary time like this. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. ⁓ know, I hear of Thune and Johnson maybe getting a little more briskly about things, but I'll believe it when I see it. But at some point they've got a man up and get some accountability and forget the whole ⁓ thing. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Yeah. Well, we're going to see what they do. We're going to see what they're going do with it. Well, know, Trump, Trump's putting everything on black with the Safe America Act. And I guess we'll probably talk about that next week because it's too many, too many. I mean, it's advertised as nothing but voter ID. But trust me, it's way more than voter ID. mean, literally every person that ever changes their voter registration is going to have to prove citizenship. And Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Well, it is. know, he, there's a video here. Tony Hughes: While, yeah, a lot of people will, it's a pain in the butt to do and we already have such a hard time. We have already had such a hard time getting people to vote. This can be just another reason why they don't go to the voting polls because they never got their address changed. They didn't change their last name. When the lady got married, they didn't change their last name. So that doesn't match the IDs. We're just not going to fool with it. And we're just going to disenfranchise millions of voters. Jonathan Cole: There's a video out there, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. Tony Hughes: But it's the population that Trump doesn't like. It's women and it's lower income because they're the ones that rep. They're the ones that move more often. But he's advertised it as nothing but, well, are you just going to show a picture ID? Well, if that was all it was, then yes, 80 % does agree with that. But it's just other stuff that people don't agree with, but they don't know that it's in there. I mean, I've got friends that get pissed off at me because I don't like that act. And I said, well, what do you think about this, though? Jonathan Cole: Well, he said it the other day in the... Yeah. Exactly. Tony Hughes: I didn't know that was in there. Well, people should, and of course they're MAGA people, so they say, well, you should show some personal responsibility and take care of stuff like that. Well, you know, that's all well and good. But when you're moving, when you move five times in 10 years, you lose stuff. You don't keep up with stuff. You throw it away accidentally. I mean, I just, I moved here to Andalusia about eight months ago and I'm still looking for stuff that I guess I must have thrown away because I can't find it. So I know where my passport is. I can still vote. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Well, the thing is, there's gotta get them the results. Yeah. So there's a big video of Yeah, there's a big like video out there Trump at a fundraiser last week where he pretty much just said Save act guarantees we win the midterms You know, he just comes right out and says it was one of those somebody wasn't supposed to be recording moments Tony Hughes: but. Yeah. Well, you know, he's got this thing from the junk. When I saw a junk cord is now bent in the officially because he's now saying that. That the save act is more important than the filibuster is, so he's willing to vote to get rid of the filibuster. Even according to one of the biggest defenders of it, but he won't get Trump's endorsement in his runoff for Texas if he doesn't. he doesn't bend the niche so. And think Trump won't send doors corn because I think. Jonathan Cole: Mm. That's right. Tony Hughes: The Democrats, if I'm right, I think they have a quality candidate for the Senate in Texas. And I don't think that the PAC has got a prayer against the Republican if it's not Cornyn. But Cornyn might still win if he can get Trump's endorsement. So it's going to be interesting. I, but I, look, I always worry about what happens when the world turns. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Good. Have you? ⁓ Tony Hughes: And the shoes on the other foot. And now the Democrats have got 51 votes and we've got 49. Well, before that was the only that kept Republicans in the game in Congress was the filibuster. The Republicans have forgotten that. Because we just want the sugar rush. We want the Trump sugar rush. We're not thinking ahead. don't think five years ahead, 10 years ahead. Jonathan Cole: Yep. Tony Hughes: We're going to lose, at some point in time, Republicans are going to lose control of or both houses of Congress. And the only ⁓ you can help bring the other party into compromise is the filibuster, the threat of a filibuster. But see, don't, but the Republicans, Trump does not negotiate anything. Trump just crams it down your throat because he has no negotiating skills. He only has, he has brute strength. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. That's been it. Yeah. Tony Hughes: and attitude of a bully. And he doesn't compromise in any way at all because he's got Republicans afraid that he's going to denounce them like he did MTG and all of a sudden they're out ⁓ and want stay in power. So it's going to be interesting how these midterms really are. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Yeah. Well, in Texas, it's going to be interesting. you had a chance to look into Talaferro much? the Democrat that won. Tony Hughes: ⁓ A little bit. I think he's a quote. I think he will take a lot of. Well, I guarantee you if there's Republicans like me in Texas. They're not going to vote for Paxson. ⁓ And. the Democrat case may be the lesser of two evils as far as compared to taxon passive download lot of baggage. I think he's. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: He is maga through and and he is truffle steroids. And I think that's going to turn off a lot of the more mainstream Republicans like me. Whereas the Democrats, he's well-spoken. He's relatively conservative. He does not have extremist views. I know you got lot of flack about, he said that God was not binary. And yes, I understand that people look at scripture and is God the Father, is God as in a masculine sex, but at the same time, look, God made men and he made female. ⁓ I think that's what the Democrats, how you say his last name again? ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tough girl. Tony Hughes: Yeah, Talithara, he is, his point, the point he was trying to make was that God does not play favors with the sexes. God made all the sexes. So not, we really should not think about him as being male and therefore against female. He's not female, he is male. He's God. He is sovereign. He is ⁓ of it. And agree with that. Jonathan Cole: Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. Tony Hughes: I mean, yes, I know the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, but at the same time, and Jesus was a man. But I also got to remember that God was speaking through other men, you know, ⁓ years ago. And you get too scientific with people back then, like we maybe can be today. ⁓ And certainly thinking about how big God is. Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Tony Hughes: could not, I would never say, well, you know, gets horny if he hadn't had any in a week. You know, that's just not how God is. He's not that kind of a male. ⁓ God is God. He is all of it. is all of it wrapped into one big package. And I think that's what he was trying to say. And I agree with that. anyway. Jonathan Cole: Right. Yeah. If you go on YouTube, you can see a lot of his sermons. He's been building towards this for a while, and I think that's the thing is he's been preaching more of the... the Jesus message as opposed to the Christian message. He focuses on the gospel accounts and what Jesus taught. He doesn't get in the weeds with a lot of the things the Christian nationalists get into. But he's also, he's a very calming influence. He even preaches like, you gotta love Maga, you gotta love your enemy. You can't hate them. It's... Tony Hughes: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jonathan Cole: I think he's the strongest candidate out of Texas in a long time. And he's going to hit a lot of the right buttons, even though he's a Democrat, because he is a Christian pastor. He has a large following. And he's an eloquent speaker. he has his convictions. And most of them aren't leftist. So he might have the first shot. Tony Hughes: I agree. Yep. Well, I've said this ever since. I've said this ever since the took office a year ago. If the Democrats start running decent candidates against Republicans, against MAGA Republicans, we're going to get our hands, we're going get our plot cleaned. But the only thing, the only reason why Trump won is because Kamala was such a terrible candidate. Joe Biden was going to be a terrible candidate. If the Democrats had run someone decent, someone that could put, you know, two senses into a pair of breath together, have a conscious thought like Biden couldn't. I think they would have run circles around Trump, but that's water up over the day now, but I'm telling you, with the, I mean, I know in the world for as far as they're, Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Well... That's, yeah, ⁓ I mean, we see there was. We see the results. Kamala wouldn't have done this, I think. Tony Hughes: I mean, I Jimmy Petros is probably, I mean, I think Jimmy Petros is a terrible Congressman. He's just, you he's just in the bag for Trump. He didn't even live in the district. ⁓ But he got the Trump endorsement over everybody else that lived in the district. ⁓ was basically anointed to the Congressman of First District of Northwest Florida. You know, the Democrat that ran against, I guess, ran against somebody. You she's running again. ⁓ Jonathan Cole: Yeah. Tony Hughes: I saw some of her campaign Facebook page, one of my friends Facebook pages, that they reposted it and I went and looked and it's her platform, something about gun control. And I even made a comment, it's like, well, she wants to stand a decent chance, she's got to come up with something besides gun control. And my friend sent back a copy, one paragraph from her Facebook, from her website that, well, you know, I believe in, you know, a balanced budget. I mean, it was all boilerplate. Jonathan Cole: Well... Tony Hughes: Gobbley gook, there was nothing definitive there. And I said, look, but if you're going to beat... Jonathan Cole: And well, you gotta remember, you gotta get, you gotta get. I mean, it's... Tony Hughes: And I know that Democrats are going to carry on with Northwest Florida. I know that. But that's an example of a bad candidate Democrats are coming. But if they are ever going to be competitive, they've got to have decent candidates. We've got to go back to, we need some Blue Dog Democrats. Jonathan Cole: Yeah, no, mean, that's more. Actually, actually a story for another night. Well, we tried. mean, when we're still trying, but, well, actually I think Talaferro is a blue dog Democrat from everything I've heard him talk about. So maybe there's hope, but the ⁓ for another night. Yeah. The story for another night is, gay could have beaten. Jimmy, the was there. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Yep. Yep. That's what we need. That's what y'all need. That's what y'all need. Jonathan Cole: But Democrats are dumbasses at running elections in this state and in this country. I'll just say it. And I'll go into detail on that maybe next week, but there was a strategy there. She could have won this dick now. She'd have lost it immediately when Republicans ran a better candidate, but the door was open and she missed it. you know, and it wasn't her, was the people she chose to advise her. Tony Hughes: Yeah. Alright. Hmm. Jonathan Cole: who weren't from this area knew nothing about this district. But, you know, ⁓ talk about that next week. We've definitely shot past our allotted time. But, you know, there's always so much to talk about. ⁓ Tony Hughes: Mm-hmm. you See you for the case. Alright. We have. Greg. Jonathan Cole: Yeah, but so anyway, yeah, we appreciate everyone tuning in as usual again if you Like this content, subscribe to our page hit the like button Hype us, push it out there comment in the captions. Let us know what you're thinking but until next week, tony appreciated as always and We'll do this again next week All right, everyone have a great evening All right Tony Hughes: Thanks, Al, see you next week. Jonathan Cole: Bye.