Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Easter Miracle—Heroic Rescue in Iran plus Trump Threatens Massive Retaliation if Strait of Hormuz isn't Opened

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Easter Miracle—Heroic Rescue in Iran plus Trump Threatens Massive Retaliation if Strait of Hormuz isn't Opened · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome in as verdict with center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: with you. I hope you had a fabulous Easter weekend
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: with your family. It was a Easter miracle, Senator, as
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: we have now gotten back that second pilot that was
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: missing forty eight hours in hell and I ran behind
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: enemy lines. I hope they make a movie out of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: this one.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Sir well, I'm confident they will. And let me first
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: of all say he has risen. He has risen. Indeed,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I hope you and everyone listening had a wonderful, good Friday,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: a wonderful Easter. I hope you spent some time with
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: your family that you gave, gave your your wife or
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: your husband a hug, you gave your kids a hug,
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: and I hope you just spent you know, we had
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the whole day together, just went to church and hung
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: out with the kids and had a great day. And
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: actually I took my mom, my ninety one year old mom,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: on Easter afternoon out to see a new movie, A
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Great Awakening. You have you seen that?
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Mean it? But I've heard so was it? Give me
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: a review.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I really enjoyed it. It's all about the Great Awakening.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: The United States, and and and the the wave of
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Christianity that swept in the in the the the early
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: seventeen hundreds that helped set the predicate UH for UH
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: for the American Revolution. And it's about Ben Franklin is
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: a major protagonist, and it was it was a fabulous movie.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: That's awesome. So she so you went to the movies.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: You had a good time.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: People that don't know you don't realize you love going
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the movies, Like that's like your kryptonite. Like if you
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: if you want to spend time just asking a movie,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: he'll nine percent of the time say yes, yeah.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: And I got to say so. My mom said she
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: heard the movie was really good. She wanted to go
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: see it. And then and then I said, hey, hey,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: do you want to go to a movie? She goes no.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I asked, Caroline, you want to go to a movie? No, Catherine,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: you want to go to a movie? No? I said, Mom,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: you and me were going. It was awesome. We we
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: had a a mom dad date night and it was
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: really cool. And she loves movies as much as I do.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: So we had a great afternoon.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: And and and then had family dinner after that and
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: so when we actually, all right, did you do this
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: with your kids? We hid Easter eggs at our backyard?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Did y'all do Yeah?
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: The easter bunny did. Yes, Yeah they did.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Okay, we have teenagers, so there's no longer any mystery
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: we hide.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: So this is what I got at five am. Wake up,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: wake up, we gotta go hide eggs.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Wake up.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, I'm awake, and it's like
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: dark outside, and I'm like dumping them outside out of
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the basket's like you're supposed to place him like they
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: pick them up the same way. I just dumped like
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: a trail of teals. I think, can I get back
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: in bed now? So, yes, we did.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: That, So I will tell you it shifts. So these
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: were no longer eggs filled with candy in this instance,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: they were plastic eggs filled with postings.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Oh I was gonna say, no, not money, Okay, I
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: thought I was thinking pure hard post its.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: So there was like a manicure. There was a pedicure.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: There was something from Sephora, something from Brandy Melville A.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: I don't know it was. Look, I've got a fifteen
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: and about to be an eighteen year old daughter, and
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I will admit he was in charge of picking what
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: was on the post its. Uh, but but they were
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: pretty excited to get them. And there were other ones
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: that just had uh, squishy little rubber duckies. Yeah. Yeah,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: So so it was fun. We had a we had
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: a great Eastern so we did not have as amazing
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: an easter as an airman who was shot down over Iran.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: And I gotta say, look, this is your right. This
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: will be a movie unless Hollywood. Well, I mean Hollywood
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: does suck, but but hopefully they don't suck this bad
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: because this is a movie screaming uh to to to
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: be written. He was he was shot down over Iran.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: He hid in the mountains. The Iranians were hunting for him.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: The CIA put out some misinformation. We went in under
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: hostile fire, did a rescue, blew up a couple of
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: our planes and helicopters on the way out so the
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Iranians wouldn't get the technology. It was an amazing story.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: We're gonna do a deep dive on that, uh in
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: today's podcast.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Incredible story.
• 4:00
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• 5:50
  Speaker 1: This story which I love true stories.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: You love movies.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: We talked about that a moment ago. I love I
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: love true story movies. I really hope they do a
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: movie about this. And credible feet. You had an F
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: fifteen that was shot down in Iran, deep in Iran.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Both of the people ejected. One of them was grabbed
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: pretty quickly. There was there was a fight to get
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: him as well, a firefight to get him, but they
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: couldn't get the second guy quickly. And that is when
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the CIA went to work, which is the part of
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the story which is just truly incredible. They started putting
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: out misinformation inside of Iran, claiming that America had actually gotten.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: But we were having, in essence take him out by
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: land on foot, so that it would drive the soldiers
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: now O urgc and these and these other warlords, etcetera
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: that were looking for him, these militias that are looking
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: for him in the wrong direction, and they they probably
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: saved his life more than likely.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Undoubtedly. Here, let's take a minute and go through the
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: TikTok that the Wall Street Journal put out Sunday evening.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: For nearly two days, injured and alone, a US aviator
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: hid in the remote mountain crevices. Iranian forces and militias
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: closed in on him with helicopters and drones. God is good,
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: the Air Force colonel had radioed once he reached an
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: elevated ridge, a message that was initially met with suspicion
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: in Washington as a possible Iranian trap. As officials scrambled
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: to verify he was still alive. Early Sunday, he heard
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: the heavier roar of US aircraft and a barrage of
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: fire as US commandos reached him two hundred miles deep
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: inside Iran. As they whisked him to safety, they blew
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: up aircraft stranded on the ground. Rather than risk sophisticated
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: military equipment falling into Iranian hands, leaving behind a final
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: explosion and a plume of smoke. The rescue mission that
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: US officials set unfolded the craggy gorges of southwestern Iran
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: was the kind of operation that military commanders both planned
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: for and dread. A downed American airman in enemy territory,
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: hostile forces converging in early attempts, faltering under fire. The aviator,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: who hasn't yet been identified, had been one of two
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: crew flying in an F fifteen to E Strike Eagle
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: with the aircraft call sign Dude forty four. Dude forty
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: four is great and Dude forty four is a badass.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: I'm sure we're going to learn more about him. When
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: it was shot down by Iranian forces on Friday. Shortly
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: after the plane crashed, Defense Secretary Pete hegg Seth and
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: General Dan Kane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: brief President Trump about the situation. According to US officials,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: they told him the Pentagon had long planned for this
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: scenario and could rescue the airman. Once the Pentagon confirmed
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: the aviator's identity, heg Seth rushed into the Oval office
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: to tell him and to seek a final order. Official said,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Trump immediately gave his approval. We have to get him,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Trump said. According to the White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt,
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: the effort to cover the officer set off a sprawling,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: high risk rescue mission involving some one hundred Special Operation Forces,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: dozens of US warplanes and helicopters, and a last minute
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Central Intelligence Agency deception campaign to buy more time. The
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: official said, quote, when airmen go down, you can't get
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: them in very tough countries like in Vietnam. Trump told
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: the Wall Street Journal on Sunday morning, he was able
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: to climb, climb up. As wounded as he was, he
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: was able to climb into a crevice. The President continued, saying,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: the airmen could hear the US forces looking for him.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: A lot of great things happened. Troops led by Central
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: Command brought a devastating array of firepower to keep its
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: enemy at bay. Four B one bombers, part of a
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: larger Arimata armada, dropped nearly one hundred two thousand pounds
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: satellite guided bombs, according to two US officials. MQ nine
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Reaper drones also struck suspected fighters as they approached within
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: kilometers of the aviator's hiding site. The search for an
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: American airman stranded behind enemy lines jolted the US, making
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: what had been an abstract air war feel visceral beyond
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: the grady footage of explosions released by the White House.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: In triumphant interviews and posts, Trump and some of his
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: allies had been calling the successful operation an Easter miracle.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: I hate when reporters are starky. Trump and his allies
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: are calling it an Eastern miracle. We go in and
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: rescue an airman behind enemy lines. We can celebrate that.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: That is extraordinary. And now the journal does note the
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: most famous rescue operation that the US has previously attempted
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: in Iran, aimed at freeing fifty three US embassy staff
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: hostages nearly forty six years ago, had failed dramatically after
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: a series of mishaps punctuated by a fiery crash at
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: a desert stagey area. What a contrast. Go back to
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Jimmy Carter. Yeah, we've got our hostages. That that the
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: beginning of this, this Islamic revolution is taking taken American
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: hostage in the embassy Jimmy Carter sends in a rescue
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: mission and it crashes, no opposing fire crashes in the desert.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: And and and that that was one of the kivotal
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: pivotal acts that ended the Jimmy Carter presidency. This is
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: night and day, and I got to say, our military,
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: the capacity of the American military is second to none.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: And every enemy of America is watching this, and every
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: ally of America is watching this, and they're all shaking
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: their heads in marble.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: By the way, it's it's so interesting to see what
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the president did. As I was talking to a buddy
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: mine the military early this morning, he said to me,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: He's like, Benny's like, you need to understand what President
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Trump did that other presidents have not done. He basically said,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: do whatever it takes, use whatever military might you need
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to use. However many people you need to send to
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: go and find our boy, because we don't leave someone behind.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: He said, we're talking still team six, hundreds of special
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: operations personnel. I wrote this down. Armed drones flying constantly
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: overwatch over his location, strike aircraft, engaging intelligence assets, tracking
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: every movement on the ground. This wasn't just a rescue,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: he described it as a controlled battlefield inside Iran that
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: the US set up with with no notice for a
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: scenario that they knew could happen. But he said this
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: was a controlled again his words, a controlled battlefield inside
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: of Iran. And then he said, not only that the
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: US intelligence went to work immediately, he said, the CIA
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: spreading false information suggesting the pilot had already been recovered,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: saved his life, he believes. And he said, not only that,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: the Iranian forces, we know it worked.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: It wasn't like they tried.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: It didn't work because they said, the Iranian forces reacted
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: to the misinformation and they moved literally in the wrong direction.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: That is what happens when you have a true leader
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: in the White House who says, hey, we will do
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: whatever it takes to get back our boy. I think
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: that's part of the story that people need to understand,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: is when you have a leader like Donald Trump that
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: says to the military leadership, do your job and do
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: it well, do whatever it takes. You just describe those
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: bombers overhead. You got the CIA misinformation working. You see
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the soldiers going in the wrong direction. That is buying
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: time for not only them to do the rest of
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the planning, but to save his life.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, that's exactly right. And I want to make
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: another point on this, which is a strategic point about
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: one of the things that makes the US military so
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: extraordinary and so unusual. Like a lot of folks, I
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: was following the breaking news from Iran and of this
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: rescue on x which is the fastest way to get it.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: And one European commentator sent around a picture of the
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: F fifteen and two C one thirties and tweeted said,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: lose all of this to rescue one pilot and call
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: it your greatest military success of all time. And you know,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: I looked at that tweet that annoyed me. But then
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: a fellow and I don't know who this person is,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Craig Fuller. He's freight attorney, is what his hashtag is.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: He sent a response that struck me as really insightful
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: and in fact, so listen to his comment and response
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: to the European puzzled why we would give up three
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: aircraft to save one airman. During World War Two, Hitler
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: was convinced that the Americans lacked the will to fight
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: and that any who did would be quickly overwhelmed. When
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: early reports arrived from the battles in North Africa. German
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: absorbers observers noted that Americans fought differently from the Europeans.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Rather than charging aggressively and risking heavy infantry casualties, US
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: forces relied on overwhelming fire power, staying at a distance
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: and expending vast quantities of artillery with little hesitation. Thanks
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: to unmatched industrial production and logistics, fresh supplies were always available.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: This approach allowed the relatively smaller American units to wear
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: down much larger and well entrenched enemy forces. In contrast,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: German and other European doctrines often emphasized aggressive maneuver and
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: were sometimes more willing to accept high casualties to achieve
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: objectives or to preserve key equipment. This material heavy American
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: style surprised many Germans, including Hitler, who had long dismissed
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: US soldiers as soft and lacking and fighting spirit. He
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: believed soldiers were cheap and expendable. He discovered too late
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: that Americans fought to conserve lives by expending machines and
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: ammunition instead. It was one of the many reasons for
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Germany's defeat, perhaps the hardest for some foreigners to fully
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: understand Americans place a high value on the lives of
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: our soldiers. Equipment and shells can always be replaced. I
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: thought that was a very insightful observation. Absolutely, it was
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: an incredibly successful mission. We saved the airmen, and we
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: can always build more equipment. We could build more planes,
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: and that spirit is critical to why the American military
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: second to none.
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  Speaker 1: know several people that I talked to that are in
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  Speaker 1: the military over the last couple of days. They were
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: really worried about the airman who has gone missing, because
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: they were like they knew what was going to happen
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: to him. If he was caught by the IRGC, by
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: these militias, he was a dead man and they were
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: going to do it in a horrific way and probably
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: film it and put it out there as propaganda to
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, and that was what they were all
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: concerned with. They also said to me and and text
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: messages on Easter Sunday, I want you to understand, they said,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the morale booster of seeing that you have a commander
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: in chief who says, I do not care what it costs, I.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Don't care, gow get it. Go get him, Go.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Get them, and use everything, stop everything, and use everything
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: to go get one man. And then we'll go back
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to what we're doing. But whatever it takes, there is
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: nothing I'm going to say no to. And they said,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: they said to me, they said, Ben, it's been a
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: long time since men and women in uniform have felt
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: that they have a commander in chief who truly has
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: their back in this way. One of the things they
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: said that was I also thought it was very interesting,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: and I'm going to look it up now.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: See you looked up saying earlier.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: But it was a quote, and I want to quote
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: this because it was so It was so important what
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: this individual said that's serving his country said, you know,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: go look at the comparison to Bill Clinton and what
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: he did with American troops in Somalia. Yeah, he said,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: look at Barack Obama and what he did with Americans
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: in Libya. Look at Joe Biden, who had been inoned
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: thirteen US soldiers in Afghanistan. Trump moved mountains to rescue
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: one American in Iran. One American. And if you're an
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: American soldier right now, how fired up for you to
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: serve Donald Trump knowing he's genuinely got your back?
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Well, let me be clear, you're serving the United States,
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: You're not serving Donald Trump. But agreat your commander in
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: chief has you're back, and that's a powerful thing. And
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: by the way, it's not just you and me saying that,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: it's also Barack Obama's former Secretary of Homeland Security. Listen
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: to Jay Johnson talking about this incredible.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Rescue, this operation for the first pilot and this second pilot.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: It's remarkable exercise, demonstration of US military courage, technology power.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: I would encourage the President and the Secretary of Defense,
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: consistent with operational security, share as much of that with
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: the American public so that the American public can appreciate
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: what goes into this kind of operation was more complicated
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: than the bin laden operation. For example.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Wow, I'm not sure any of that saying something that's
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: coming from Jay Johnson.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: That's pretty incredible.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, and I want to drill down a
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: little bit more on what this does for the fighting
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: spirit and the morale of the entire military. And actually
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: a different tweet but I thought very profound as well,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: from a fellow named John Conrad on X Here's what
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: he said, this is why Americans are the deadliest fighters
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: on Earth. I met a priest yesterday who just got
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: accepted to chaplain school in Newport. I asked him the
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: obvious question, Marines or Navy Navy? He said, his face
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: fell a little. He told me he could never be
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: a marine because every marine is a rifleman, and as
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: a priest, he can't carry a weapon. He's hoping to
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: get a signed to a marine unit. Anyway, all chaplains
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: are Navy officers, so that's the only I laughed. I
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: feel a little bad about that. Then I explained to
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: him what devil doc means. The Marine Corps doesn't have medics.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: They use Navy cormen. I told him, when you get
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: out to the fleet, find a Marine sergeant with a
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: couple of purple hearts and tell him devil docks aren't
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: real Marines. Be prepared to duck Marines are violently particular
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: about who gets to wear their uniform. Navy cormen and
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: Navy chaplains who had eaten dirt alongside them in combat
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: qualify full stop. My dad was Air Force, not even Navy.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: I remember going to VFW Hall's with him as a kid.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Someone would ask him what service. He'd say Air Force
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: and the room would chuckle a little, and then they'd
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: find out he was a medic, and the air in
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: the room changed something close to reverence. Dad hated being honored.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: He had one line he used to deflect it. I
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: didn't do much savior praise for my cousin. The PJ
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: that always broke the ice. Pjs are the Air Force
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: special operators who go into hell to pull downed pilots out.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: They will take casualties and are prepared to die to
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: rescue a single pilot or crewman. The math doesn't math
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: out why would any combat force take multiple casualties to
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: wreck rescue one Air Force jet jockey. What the padre
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: is about to learn is that the military has a
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: hierarchy that has nothing to do with rank and nothing
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: to do with the service stitched on your chest. Have
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: you deployed. Have you seen combat? In every firefight, there
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: are men who move towards the guns and men who
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: hang back. And when the guy at the tip of
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: the spear is pinned down, bleeding with rounds cracking past
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: his head, there is exactly one word, he screams into
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: the radio medic. YEP, here's the catch, and it is
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: the whole reason Maria fights the way America fights. That
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: marine is willing to push forward in the fire because
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: he knows the core men is coming. He knows the
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Metavac birds will land in the hot LZ. He knows
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: the devil doc will drag him out by his plate
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: carrier if it comes to that, and if the medic
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: can't help he has what Dad called injuries incompatible with life.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: He knows that chaplain will crawl on his belly to
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: administer last rites and deliver him to Heaven. The f F
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: fifteen pilot punching out over enemy territory knows the same thing.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: He knows the pjs will move Heaven and Earth to
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: reach him and turn whatever is shooting at him into
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: a smoking crater of hell on Earth on the way in.
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: This is the quiet math underneath American violence. Our warriors
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: are the fiercest on earth, not because they're the more
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: aggressive because they're better trained or better equipped, although though
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: they are all of those things. They are the fiercest
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: because they know in their bones that when they key
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: the mic and call for help, help is coming in hot.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Take that away, and you don't have the US military anymore,
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: you have a security force. I thought that those two
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: posts I thought were very insightful and they sum up
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: a truly extraordinary and unique aspect of the American military.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: And this brings us to the second part of the
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: conversation that is important, and that is a new warning
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: center coming from President Trump. If there's anything that I've
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: learned from President Trump in the second term, there's two
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: aspects of his foreign policy. One is FAFO and two
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: is if you're an OWI of the United States of
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: America and you don't stand with us, then his second
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: foreign policy is, well, good luck to you, because we're
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: not gonna We're not gonna keep funding and doing things
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: like NATO, Are you in or whatever it may be.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: If you're taking advantage of us, he's calling that out
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: as well. And the President has made it clear when
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: he tells you there's a deadline for something.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: He means it.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: There's a new deadline with it with Iran and Tehran
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: and the leadership there. And let's talk about what his
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: new threat is by Tuesday.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Well, on Sunday, he sent out a truth Social that reads,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Tuesday will be power plant Day and bridge Day all
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: like it. Oping open the efen straight, you crazy bastards,
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: or you'll be living in hell. Just watch Praise Be
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: to Allah President Donald J. Trump. Now, I will say
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: he did not abbreviate effing, but this is a PG
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: rated podcast, so I did. I will say also that
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: after he sent that truth Social, the Wall Street Journal
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: article that I quoted at the beginning of this show
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: quotes it. And for the first time I've ever seen
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: the F bomb in the Wall Street Journal, they did
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: it quoting the President of the United States. I'm not
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: aware of any precedent of a president dropping the F bomb,
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: But then again, I'm not aware of any president dropping
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: the level of bombs that he is dropping in a
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: concentrated focus that is having this kind of effect. And look,
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: I think Tuesday Night is a very serious deadline. The
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: president wants the straight of horn moves open. And if
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: you're an Iranian leader as batcrap crazy as those guys are,
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: I don't think they think this is a bluff.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would think not now they you're crazy enough
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: to just say go ahead and do it. And that
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: may be how much they're holding on for dear life
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: just to try to stave control. But I agree with you,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: I don't think they think he's bluffing at all.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: Well, and that's the challenge is that the Malas, I
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: don't think care at all about their people. You know,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: we talked to before about comparing, say, the Nazi army
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: to the Allies during World War Two, that Hitler was
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: willing to send German soldiers in to die and just
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: have a mode over. I think the same is true
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: with the Malas. They're happy to have, not happy, but
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: they're willing to have as many Iranians die as need be.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: They believe they're on a mission from God. This is
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: it is theocratic and if thousands, look, they murdered the
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: Ayatola just murdered about forty thousand Iranians who were rising
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: up in protest. So thousands of Iranians dying doesn't bother
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: them at all. Tens of thousands doesn't bother them at all.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: It may prove to be the case that hundreds of
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: thousands or even millions of Iranians dying doesn't bother them.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: And so the question is, Look, if the US military
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: takes out the power plants and takes out the bridges,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: that kind of hard infrastructure that doesn't get rebuilt overnight,
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: that has real and long lasting damage to the economy
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: in Iran. It imposes enormous consequences on Iran. What I
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: don't know is does a theocratic mulla who's chanting death
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: to America care about inflicting massive misery on the Iranian
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: people and devastating the Iranian economy. I guess we'll find
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: out by Tuesday. I don't know the answer.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: You know what's interesting is I was asked this question
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: over the weekend, and it's when I want to ask
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: you center. It was someone tod right, Well, look, let's
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: say we do this and we knock out their power plant.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: What good does that do is because then we're just
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: going to have to help them rebuild it one day.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: My response was, what you don't understand is that may
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: be what it is it takes for the people to
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: really overthrow their government. It'll also have a devastating impact
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: on their military in jail, uneral.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: And it's another way, it's another way to fast track
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: them losing control of their country. That's the reason why
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: I think the President saying, all right, fine, you guys
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: aren't budging, well, then we're going to go to the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: next step here, because I'm not backing down.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and and and look, the President in his nationwide
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: address said he was going to bomb them back into
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: the Stone Ages. What's one of the aspects of the
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Stone Ages not having electricity, not having power going back
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: to to to to lighting fires for light. You take
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: out all their power plants and they have no electricity,
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: which is amazing for an oil rich country like Iran.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: But you want to talk about grinding the economy to
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: a halt, immediately grinding the military to a halt. Everything
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: runs on electricity and and and so shutting down power
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: and by the way, you take out the bridges, that means,
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: you know, it's one of the things that I've learned.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize when I was a kid how much
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: of military effectiveness is logistics. One of the incredible things
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: our military is really good at is moving people in
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: material getting it in there, getting ammunition in there, getting
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: food in there, getting fuel in there, moving it around,
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: all of that. Logistically, we are extraordinarily we the military.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: That not you and me. You know, I'm a lawyer
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: and you're even worser a podcasts, so we are not
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: extraordinary logistically. But but the military is. Notice how I'm
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: not a podcaster. Apparently you do this just.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, you just just threw
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: me under the bus, so that I'm pretty sure the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: name of the show is behind me there, but we
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: just keep going there, we go.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, pot meat kettle. But look, you take
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: out the bridges and the ability to move, the military
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: to move, but anyone else to move. You basically shut
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: down commerce in the country. That puts enormous economic pressure
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: on the country. Look, my hope is that the endgame
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: on this is the people rise up and say enough
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: with these crazy mullahs. We want you out. And my
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: objective has always been the President laid out his objective,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: which is to eliminate the Iranian military's ability to strike
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: out and kill Americans or kill our allies. That's a
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: very important objective. I think the objective should be to
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: collapse this regime, to have Iran led by a government
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: that is not a crazy Islamist who wants to murder Americans.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: I don't care who it is, as long as they're
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: not actively murdering Americans, if they're not murdering Americans, if
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: they're not trying to murder Americans, I'm good with it. Now,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: the next step, if we've leveled all the power plants,
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: you get a new government in the new government is
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: going to have to rebuild the power plants. Now, I
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: will note that there is one advantage for rebuilding, which
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: is Iran has a crap ton of oil.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so very quickly financially.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: There's a revenue stream. So you said, like people said
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: to you, a gosh, we're going to have to rebuild it.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: I promise you if Trump bombs it, the American taxpayers
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: are not rebuilding it that there is no scenario in
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: which the endgame is Trump writing a check. Now, there
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: may be a scenario depending on what happens where when
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: you have a new government, if they're a friend and
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: ally with America, you could see assistance on the construction
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: that is paid for by Iranian oil revenues. It's possible
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: that we help them build it back where they're paying
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: for it. But I don't envision any universe in which
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: America is paying for this. And I think anyone who
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: knows Donald Trump knows that's right.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt about it. It's going to be very
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: interesting to see what happens on Tuesday. We are going
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: to cover it that I can promise you don't forget.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: We do this show Monday, Wednesday Friday, so hit that
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: subscriber auto dowload button. Also, you can watch this episode
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: on YouTube as well, so make sure if you're a
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: YouTube watching that you put in Verticua Ted Cruise and
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: you can watch this show there and the center. I
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: will see you back here on Wednesday morning.