True Promise 4: Iran and resistance axis ops. against US-Israeli assets on April 1 by Press TV Website Staff Wednesday, 01 April 2026 9:20 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 01 April 2026 9:20 PM ] https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/01/766195/true-promise-4-iran-resistance-axis-ops-against-us-israeli-assets-april1
Iranian armed forces and resistance groups across the region continue to carry out retaliatory military operations against the United States and the Israeli regime.
On Tuesday, April 1, 2026, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian Army conducted multiple operations as part of Operation True Promise 4, which was launched immediately after the US-Israeli coalition carried out an unprovoked act of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 28.
Iranian armed forces have so far carried out 89 waves of missile and drone strikes with advanced weaponry targeting Israeli military facilities in the occupied territories, as well as US occupation bases and assets scattered across the West Asia region.
The Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq have also joined the front against the external aggressors, inflicting heavy blows on the enemy.
Hezbollah’s operations have been primarily focused on Israeli military sites in the occupied territories. Its operations are both in response to the assassination of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and the relentless ceasefire violations by the Israeli regime over the past year.
Iraqi resistance groups have also been carrying out daily operations, primarily against American military assets in Iraq and other Arab countries.
Below is a list of operations carried out by the Iranian armed forces, as well as resistance movements in Lebanon and Iraq, against the US and the Zionist regime on April 1 movements in Lebanon and Iraq, against the US and the Zionist regime on April 1:
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC):
• The coordinated, synergistic, and multi-axis operations were carried out in “Wave 89” of Operation True Promise 4, code-named “O Musa Kalimullah,” involving the launch of more than 100 heavy missiles, attack drones, and 200 rockets across a vast operational radius spanning tens of thousands of kilometers throughout West Asia, from north to south of the occupied territories, targeting American and Zionist positions. • These combined operations, conducted as a tribute to the pure souls of the martyrs of the Yemeni Islamic Resistance, struck locations in “Eilat,” “Tel Aviv,” and “Bnei Brak,” targeting military sites and gatherings of Israeli forces. • Subsequently, a hideout of US occupation forces in Bahrain, housing 80 personnel, was struck with a precision missile. • Two early warning air radar systems operated by US forces in the region, stationed on a maritime structure in the waters and islands of the UAE, were destroyed with high precision. • An oil tanker belonging to the Israeli regime, operating under the trade name “Aqua 1,” was also precisely targeted and is currently burning in the central Persian Gulf region. • A secret and covert assembly point of US forces outside the perimeter of the enemy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain was struck with multiple attack drones and ballistic missiles. According to field reports, a large number of senior naval officers were transferred to hospitals in the city of Manama following the attack. • The “Chinook” helicopter preparation center and its equipment storage hangars at Al-Udeid base were struck using a combination of ballistic missiles and drones. • Several formations of attack drones were also launched at the “Abraham Lincoln” carrier strike group in the northern Indian Ocean, which, according to documentation and satellite imagery, has fled its previous position and retreated deeper into the Indian Ocean.
Press TV @PressTV IRGC announced that an MQ-9 drone was intercepted and shot down over the central city of Khomein using an advanced air defense system. Follow: http://T.me/presstv 2:52 PM · Apr 1, 2026
Iranian Army:
• Deployment locations of US AWACS and refueling aircraft stationed at Ben Gurion Airport, radar sites for detecting and intercepting missiles and combat drones, and electronic warfare installations in the UAE were targeted using powerful Arash-2 drones with a flight endurance of 2,000 kilometers.
Hezbollah:
• In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the Janijel Heights in the town of Al-Qantara with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles at Tallat Friz in the town of Ainata with rocket barrages. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in Khillet al-Hijjah in the town of Aitaroun with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in northern occupied Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Nahariya" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in northern occupied Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Kabri" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of soldiers and vehicles of the Israeli soldiers in the town of Al-Qawzah with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance confronted an Israeli warplane in the skies of the town of Jwayya with a surface-to-air missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted an Israeli military helicopter in the airspace of the town of Yaroun with two surface-to-air missiles.
Press TV @PressTV Iran’s IRGC launched the 89th wave of operation True Promise 4, jointly with regional resistance groups, launching hundreds of missiles, drones, and rockets at US and Israeli targets. https://x.com/i/status/2039384797730967638 Follow Press TV on Telegram: http://t.me/PressTV 10:50 AM · Apr 1, 2026
• In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers near the reservoir in the town of Al-Qantara with artillery shells. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the newly established truce site in the border town of Markaba with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the town of Odeissah with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a newly established artillery position of the Israeli army in the town of Rab Thalathin with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters shot down an Israeli military drone of the "Hermes 450 - Zik" type in the skies of the town of Ainata with a surface-to-air missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a Merkava tank on Al-Frayz hill in the town of Ainata with an attack drone. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Ma'ayan Baruch" site in northern occupied Palestine with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters confronted an Israeli warplane in the skies over the town of Baflayh and its vicinity with a surface-to-air missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a Merkava tank on the Al-Sal'a hill in the town of Al-Qantara with a guided missile. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the square of the town of Al-Qantara with artillery shells. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted gatherings of Israeli soldiers in the town of Al-Qawzah with rocket barrages. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers and their vehicles in the "Shomera" settlement with artillery shells.
Press TV @PressTV Thick smoke billowed over Nahariya, northern occupied Palestine, after a Hezbollah rocket barrage hit the city. https://x.com/i/status/2039447568187314613 Follow: http://T.me/presstv 2:59 PM · Apr 1, 2026
• In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the town of Al-Bayyada with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the town of Al-Bayyada for the second time with an attack drone. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the playground of the Deir Seryan school with an attack drone. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, and within the framework of the warning issued by the Islamic Resistance to a number of settlements in northern occupied Palestine, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the "Nahariya" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, at 17:30 on Wednesday, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted the communications station at the "Al-Aliqa" barracks in the occupied Syrian Golan with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers at the Hadabat Al-Ajal site north of the "Kfar Yuval" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the "Kfar Giladi" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the "Metulla" settlement with a rocket barrage. • In defense of Lebanon and its people, the Islamic Resistance fighters targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the "Misgav Am" settlement with a rocket barrage. Yemeni Military: • The third military operation in the “Holy Jihad Battle” targeted sensitive sites of the Israeli regime in southern occupied Palestine using a barrage of ballistic missiles. • The operation was conducted in coordination with Iranian armed forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon and successfully achieved its objectives. Islamic Resistance in Iraq: • Targeted US and Israeli interests in northern Iraq using drone aircraft. • Targeted US and Israeli interests in Bahrain using appropriate means.
Iran’s president to Americans: Look beyond war propaganda fog, reject ‘manufactured threat' Wednesday, 01 April 2026 6:32 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 01 April 2026 7:19 PM ] https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/0 ... can-people
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has released an open letter to the American people, questioning whether Washington is truly putting “America First” or merely acting as a “proxy for Israel” willing to fight “to the last American soldier.”
In a Wednesday message addressing those “who, amid a flood of distortions and manufactured narratives, continue to seek the truth,” Pezeshkian began by framing Iran as a historically non-aggressive power.
He noted that despite its long history and regional strength, “Iran has never, in its modern history, chosen the path of aggression, expansion, colonialism, or domination,” adding that it has only ever “resolutely and bravely repelled those who have attacked it.”
The president sought to draw a sharp line between governments and their citizens, stating that the Iranian people harbor no ill will towards Americans. “The Iranian people harbor no enmity toward other nations, including the people of America, Europe, or neighboring countries” he wrote, describing this distinction as “a deeply rooted principle in Iranian culture and collective consciousness—not a temporary political stance.”
Building on this theme, Pezeshkian noted that the perception of Iran as a danger is an invention. He said such a view is “the product of political and economic whims of the powerful—the need to manufacture an enemy in order to justify pressure, maintain military dominance, sustain the arms industry, and control strategic markets.”
“In such an environment, if a threat does not exist, it is invented,” he added.
Press TV @PressTV First it was "imminent threat." Then it was an "opinion." Now the CIA says it was a lie. The US is being dragged into a war of choice for Israel. Don't look away. https://x.com/i/status/2032134523580751992 Follow http://t.me/presstv 10:40 AM · Mar 12, 2026
He pointed to the heavy US military presence surrounding Iran as the true threat in the region and defended Iran’s military posture as purely defensive.
The letter comes as US and Israel have launched an unprovoked aggression against Iran since February 28. The United States is using its regional bases and the territory of Iran's neighboring states to wage its illegal attacks which has left more than 2000 of Iranian civilians killed, including more than 200 children.
"Recent American aggressions launched from these very bases have demonstrated how threatening such a military presence truly is," he said, adding, "Naturally, no country confronted with such conditions would forgo strengthening its defensive capabilities."
“What Iran has done—and continues to do—is a measured response grounded in legitimate self-defense, and by no means an initiation of war or aggression,” he stressed.
Press TV @PressTV Iran army announces targeting Israeli infrastructure in Nof HaGalil & Tel Aviv using combat drones, striking:
Military development and weapons centers responsible for producing offensive and defensive systems, including missile and air-defense platforms like the Iron Dome.
The letter traces the origins of current hostility to the 1953 coup d’état, which he slammed as “an illegal American intervention” that “disrupted Iran’s democratic process, reinstated dictatorship, and sowed deep distrust among Iranians toward US policies.”
He stated this distrust was compounded by subsequent US support for the Shah, its backing of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, crippling sanctions, and recent “unprovoked military aggression.”
Despite these historical pressures, Pezeshkian noted that Iran has not been broken but has “grown stronger in many areas,” citing that literacy rates have tripled to over 90% since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and noting significant advances in technology, healthcare, and infrastructure.
"These are measurable, observable realities that stand independent of fabricated narratives," he added.
Pezeshkian stressed that the “destructive and inhumane impact” of the US-Israeli aggression on ordinary Iranians should not be underestimated. He warned that the recent bombings and military actions carry a profound human cost, stating that “when war inflicts irreparable harm on lives, homes, cities, and futures, people will not remain indifferent toward those responsible.”
Pezeshkian then pivoted to directly question the motives and benefits of the US military actions for the American people themselves. “Exactly which of the American people’s interests are truly being served by this war?” he asked.
“Does the massacre of innocent children, the destruction of cancer-treatment pharmaceutical facilities, or boasting about bombing a country ‘back to the stone ages’ serve any purpose other than further damaging the United States’ global standing?”
He reminded his audience that Iran had “pursued negotiations, reached an agreement, and fulfilled all its commitments.” He was referring to the 2015 nuclear deal, which was ruined by Donald Trump after he withdrew from the agreement in 2018 during his first term.
"The decision to withdraw from that agreement, escalate toward confrontation, and launch two acts of aggression in the midst of negotiations were destructive choices made by the US government—choices that served the delusions of a foreign aggressor," added the president.
He condemned recent strikes on his country’s infrastructure as a “war crime” that directly targets the Iranian populace and serves as a “sign of strategic bewilderment and an inability to achieve a sustainable solution.”
The letter went on to shed light on the influence of Israel on US policy. “Is it not also the case that America has entered this aggression as a proxy for Israel, influenced and manipulated by that regime?” Pezeshkian wrote.
"Is it not true that Israel, by manufacturing an Iranian threat, seeks to divert global attention away from its crimes toward the Palestinians?" he asked.
He continued, asking if it is not evident that Israel “now aims to fight Iran to the last American soldier and the last American taxpayer dollar.”
Press TV @PressTV "This would be more challenging to explain had the Secretary of State, the President, & the House Speaker not stated that the attack was carried out because the Israelis were about to strike."
He concluded this line of reasoning with a direct challenge to the US administration’s stated priorities: “Is ‘America First’ truly among the priorities of the US government today?”
Pezeshkian invited Americans to “look beyond the machinery of misinformation,” suggesting they speak with visitors to Iran or observe the contributions of Iranian immigrants in Western academia and technology as a counter-narrative to official rhetoric.
The Iranian president declared that the world “stands at a crossroads.”
"Continuing along the path of confrontation is more costly and futile than ever before," he wrote, adding, "The choice between confrontation and engagement is both real and consequential; its outcome will shape the future for generations to come."
"Throughout its millennia of proud history, Iran has outlasted many aggressors. All that remains of them are tarnished names in history, while Iran endures—resilient, dignified, and proud," he added.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has warned the United States that Tehran will determine the nature of its response to any further acts of terror, dismissing as an “absolute lie” claims by Washington that it does not target civilian homes.
In a statement on Wednesday, the IRGC responded to recent statements by the US military claiming that they do not intentionally attack civilians and homes and denying responsibility for several assassination attacks targeting Iranian officials.
"We tell the US Central Command that, in the first place, your army's non-aggression against homes and civilian centers is an absolute lie," the statement read.
"Because, according to undeniable documentation, the attack on the homes of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and several Iranian officials, as well as the aggression against the Minab school and the massacre of its students, are clear examples of terrorist and anti-human operations carried out directly by the terrorist American army."
The reference to the Minab school massacre, where a US Tomahawk cruise missile struck a girls' elementary school on February 28, the first day of the war, has become a central symbol of civilian casualties in the war.
According to Iranian officials, 168 children between the ages of seven and 12 were killed in that attack.
The IRGC underscored that the United States cannot distance itself from the actions of its allies.
"Secondly, the explicit presence and participation of the American army in a terrorist coalition makes that country directly and unequivocally responsible for all the coalition’s actions," the statement said.
"Therefore, we declare once again: whether the American army directly commits a terrorist crime or whether the brutal Zionist regime does so, the Islamic Republic will choose the reciprocal response."
The statement said Iran's threat remains valid, and that regardless of which regime or army carries out the assassination, the 18 companies named in the previous IRGC announcements will be targeted in retaliation.
That earlier warning named 18 American technology and artificial intelligence companies operating in the Persian Gulf region, including, among others, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Palantir, and Oracle, as legitimate targets due to their involvement in supplying AI and surveillance technology used by the US military and intelligence services against Iran.
The IRGC said it will target those firms in retaliation “for every assassination in Iran” starting on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Tehran time.
The IRGC had warned civilians to maintain a distance of at least one kilometer from facilities belonging to these companies.
The IRGC's latest warning comes as the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran enters its second month.
Since February 28, Iran has conducted waves of decisive retaliatory strikes against US military installations throughout the region and Israeli positions in the occupied territories.
Iran had framed its operations as legitimate self-defense under international law, while accusing the US and Israel of committing war crimes through deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, and residential areas.
The Minab school massacre and the targeting of Iranian leaders' homes have been repeatedly cited by Iranian officials as evidence of the enemy's terrorist methods.
From ‘Fortress America’ to Fragile Empire: Iran’s asymmetric warfare tests US global hegemony by Yousef Pouranvari Wednesday, 01 April 2026 3:10 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 01 April 2026 3:10 PM ] https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2026/04/0 ... s-hegemony
With the press of a button, nearly two hundred Iranian families were plunged into unimaginable and immeasurable grief, mourning the tragic loss of their children.
The soldier who activated that mechanism did so knowing his own family slept peacefully on the other side of the world, likely to wake hours later to send their children to school.
What force has instilled in the American soldier such unwavering certainty – the belief that he can strike anywhere on earth without fear of consequence or reprisal?
Beyond its technological superiority, market-driven economy, ability to attract global scientific talent, and dominance of international media, the United States possesses a fundamental advantage no other country can replicate.
This advantage is described in various terms – “splendid isolation,” “free security,” “Fortress America,” and even “hemispheric hegemony.”
At its core lies a simple geographic reality: the United States is physically removed from other major powers, shielded by two vast oceans. This natural buffer, combined with its accumulated strengths, has propelled the country to its current global dominance.
It is this separation, this capacity to meet most of its needs within its own borders, that fosters a deep sense of security, even impunity, among American military personnel.
Yet the American soldier, who in practice serves the military-industrial complex, does not commit horrific atrocities solely because he believes the consequences of war will never reach his own home. He also requires justification, an intellectual and moral framework that allows him to take thousands of lives in moments, unburdened by ethical, cultural, religious, or human considerations.
This role is largely shaped by the media. Within this complex system, the media carries a profound responsibility. Drawing on an array of fields such as linguistics, psychology, marketing, and sociology, it employs subtle methods to dehumanize those portrayed as outsiders or adversaries.
Through often imperceptible means, it constructs a worldview in which violence and mass casualties in West Asia appear routine, while far smaller incidents elsewhere are framed as extraordinary and the gravest of crimes against humanity.
Immersed in a constant stream of news, films, and television, the American soldier is repeatedly exposed to narratives that his race and his values are inherently superior, that ethical and humanitarian norms need not apply elsewhere, and that others are intrinsically inferior and thus deserve more humane treatment.
So powerful is the media’s capacity for dehumanization that it can shape not only how others are perceived, but how non-Western societies come to see themselves. It fosters the belief that their worth is inherently less than that of their Western counterparts, and that recognition as fully human depends on validation from the West.
Hollywood productions, widely consumed across non-Western audiences, often embed subtle cues within their narratives that reinforce this sense of inferiority. The influence of these media systems has reached such heights that they can recast a brutal dictator as a benevolent figure, while portraying a champion of resistance as a global villain.
They can normalize the bombing of civilians, including schoolchildren, by presenting such violence as routine in West Asia, diminishing its moral weight and numbing global outrage and conveying the message that the killing of brown‑skinned individuals inflicts no meaningful wound upon the world.
Drawing on these structural advantages and the dominance they sustain, the United States can shape international behavior – building coalitions, exerting pressure, and issuing threats to align countries with its strategic objectives.
Major global institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund rarely make consequential decisions without Washington’s approval. While these bodies may appear democratic and representative of modern progress, in practice, they often function as instruments advancing the priorities of American power.
In addition, mechanisms such as FATF and SWIFT serve as tools of economic leverage that the American Empire uses against countries in the Global South. Access to these systems is typically granted under two conditions: either a country is powerful enough that excluding it would risk the creation of a rival system, or it is weak enough to accept imposed terms without resistance. Countries that fall between these extremes often face mounting pressure and isolation, gradually constrained until compliance becomes unavoidable.
This unparalleled power has allowed the United States to deny noncompliant nations access to the benefits of global institutions. Over time, such exclusion exerts sustained economic pressure, often enough to bring countries to their knees.
Iran, however, has endured through various means, continuing along its chosen path despite these constraints that come in different shapes and forms. While it does not share America’s structural advantages, it possesses a critical asset of its own: its strategic position along both historic and modern arteries of global trade. Its southern coastline borders the Strait of Hormuz, a passage through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s energy supply flows.
The United States has effectively closed multiple “straits” to Iran and others – the financial channel of SWIFT, access to the World Trade Organization, and pathways constrained by secondary sanctions. Yet the strait Iran now influences has placed unprecedented pressure on the foundations of American power.
Many analysts note that even if tensions around the Strait of Hormuz were resolved today, the economic and geopolitical repercussions would continue to reverberate globally for months. Iran has long adapted to restrictions through costly and complex alternatives, but there is broad recognition that a prolonged disruption of this vital waterway could significantly destabilize the current global order.
The American soldier, whose family lives in comfort on the other side of the world, insulated by the advantages outlined above and rarely considering their own vulnerability, now faces a different kind of threat. There are no gunshots, no explosions, no roar of aircraft. Instead, the pressure emerges more subtly: rising fuel prices, volatile markets, and increasing living costs that gradually erode a sense of security.
On this side of the world, Iran is not seeking a swift resolution. Rather, it is willing to prolong the confrontation and steadily intensify pressure for the crimes the US-Israeli coalition has committed against ordinary Iranians since February 28 and before.
Iranian missiles may not reach the United States, but their capacity to inflict harm is not limited to direct military means. In this context, America’s traditional advantages offer diminishing returns. The deep interconnection of the global economy and communications has made even the “American fortress” increasingly permeable.
Throughout the long rivalry between Iran and the United States, both sides have played their respective strategic cards. The “regime change” project can only succeed if Iran collapses internally and that is not happening.
As Carl von Clausewitz articulated in his conception of defense, the weaker party prevails simply by holding its ground, by enduring, by resisting, by simply existing.
Iran has now placed its foot upon the throat of the global economy and constricted its breathing. If Iran aspires not merely to survive but to define the terms of its survival from a position of strength, it must play this card with consummate skill.
Yousef Pouranvari is a Tehran-based journalist and commentator.
Trump Iran War Address REACT /Lt Col Daniel Davis & Joe Kent Daniel Davis / Deep Dive Apr 1, 2026
Transcript
Epic Fury is one of the most successful military operations in history. God bless the and the injured. But they died in noble cause protecting America and the world from a cancer. He has destroyed their ability to acquire a nuclear weapon for decades. He's put them out of the ballistic missile uh business and he's offering them a deal. And if they don't take it, he's gonna blow up everything they got. So well done, Mr. President. Well done to our military. I'm very happy tonight. Well, that was Lindsey Graham literally ago on Fox News after he watched President Trump's address to the nation to where we now know what it is he was telling us. We were speculating earlier in the day what it may be. Now we have proved positive. um in some regards it's not unlike some of the other things he's done here recently which is more of a cheerleading session and he kind of repeated some of the themes that he had been saying here recently. So it's really unclear what the purpose of this was. There's nothing new he said. Uh he repeated literally what he said yesterday afternoon about the two to three week time frame. Uh repeated a lot of the reasons why he claimed that there was justification. repeated a lot of the things that were just flatout untrue that has been exposed as such. But that never seems to bother President Trump. He'll just continue to reiterate them with a great deal of conviction. And listen, if if all you did was watch this speech and that's all you knew, let's just say, you know, you're going to work every day and uh maybe watch a little TV at night and now all of a sudden here comes the president talking about a war and peace thing because anything from the Oval Office and a live broadcast to the nation, most people are going to watch that. And if that's all you watched, you may be thinking, "Okay, well, I hear him. I mean, I guess it's important. And I guess that boy, he's because he really saved us." I'm going to go through some of the specific things that he said here. Uh but uh the problem is for those of you who watch our channel a lot, you know very well the reality behind some of the claims that he's making. And here's the big problem. That can work for tonight. And that can calm a lot of people's nerves. And that can make people in America for the moment say, "Okay, all right. Well, that's fine." But reality will not allow that to happen very long because the things that he said, the conditions that he described simply are fantasy. There's simply no they're they're literal fiction. It's like he just made it up. And and that works for tonight. But as we always say, man, when when spin meets reality, at some point that spin is going to get crushed and reality is going to end up winning every time. And you can't keep this fiction going very much longer. and especially what he's talking about with the price of oil. Uh now Joe Kent's going to be joining us here in a minute. We're trying to work out some issues right here. Uh former number two at the office for the director of national intelligence who recently resigned and of course was very instrumental in all the preparation that was going on up into this and then as you know he ended up resigning uh in protest because of the the way we were conducting this war and the justifications that were used for it. Hopefully he'll be joining us very shortly. Uh let's go with a couple of things that he said first of all because I think Gary's already got a few things cut. So let's give those who may have missed some of it uh just a taste of what he said and I'll get into some of the specifics. On the first one here uh he said uh listen we had to uh hit them hard. I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly. Very shortly we are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. I mean, that almost in it wasn't even it wasn't even just within the soundbite. It was in the a literal one sentence. We're going to bomb them into the stone age, but we're still talking. Well, logically, you you can't have any negotiations. And he did talk about that at several points in here. If you're having a negotiation, then that means that there's some give and take and you're looking for words, some common ground. How can we get this war over with? Um, you'll submit. I'll give in here and there or it's a situation like with the Allies at the end of World War II with with both Nazi Germany and then with Japan and it was request for unconditional surrender. So, the talks were just here's our terms. You either accept them or we'll keep fighting. That's not really negotiations. That's a demand for surrender. And I think that that's more like what President Trump is talking about here. When he says there are talks, he's saying, as he said in that true social earlier today, if you open up the straight of Hormuz, then everything will be fine and we'll be good to go. But if you don't, then we're going to completely obliterate you. In fact, let me go to that second soundbite here because here President Trump talks much more specifically about what he'll do if he doesn't get the deal he wants. If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously. We have not hit their oil, even though that's the easiest target of all because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding. But we could hit it and it would be gone and there's not a thing they could do about it. They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is % annihilated. We are unstoppable as a military force. We are unstoppable, he says, as a military force. And we are going to destroy everything if we don't get what we want. All the power generating plants, hit their oil facilities, etc. Aside from the Well, it's not aside from, let's look at it first. If President Trump were to do that, that would be an unequivocal uh violation of the laws of war. It would be a war crime. You cannot go after all of the electric power generation of a civilian population. It it's it's against the Geneva Conventions, which we were signitories to, which we have always defended all during my time on active duty. I I served for almost years of active service, had four combat deployments. Every single time we were taught by the judge advocate generals, the military lawyers uh and our commanders and everyone was made very clear what the rules are, what the laws of land warfare say, what we are obligated to do, what we can do and what we can't do and that we have always prided ourselves at least all during my time in service and I I first started I had a little bit of a disjointed uh career had some uh period of time where I was not on active duty in the middle of it. But I started actually as a private in still during the cold war uh and was was part of the uh uh the on the West Germany at that time, patrolling the East German and Czechoslovakian borders. Uh so we went back a long way and even then we were trained what the laws of warfare. So it didn't matter if you were in a full-scale war, anything else, we still had to follow the laws and and we did. We we rigorously studied those things and we would hold ourselves accountable. I remember in the Afghanistan war in one of the earlier phases uh there was some soldiers that violated the the laws of war and and mutilated some bodies or did something else and and desecrated some of the af Taliban that they had killed and they were held accountable because we're saying no that we're not going to accept that. That's that's just not who we are. But now here we have the commander-in-chief who is saying, "I guess that is who we are now." At least that's who he is. And one wondersh how many of the same people that uh were brought up on this who were still wearing the uniform today have that same concern that I do uh from now they on the outside because that's just not what we are. Continuing on with what he said there though, he said that uh we're going to hit all of this energy infrastructure. Now, now that we've dealt with the morality of the issue and how that is not moral because one of the reasons that's against the law is because that means like all the civilians in an area could suffer like hospitals will be out of electricity. Schools will be out of electricity. People could literally die for just normal things because they can't keep the equipment on inside of a hospital for example. That's just one of the reasons why we can't do that. But he said he'll take it further and then also hit the oil infrastructure. Here's the thing. We can hit a lot of stuff. We still have a lot of long range missiles. Even though we've depleted a lot of them, we can still go down that path. But if you take that path, the Iranian side has been unequivocal. They will strike back and they will hit kind for. You hit our electric generation power stations, we'll hit the GCC. We'll hit all your allies in the region to include Israel. If you hit our oil infrastructure, if you knock that stuff out, we'll hit yours. So far, that's what they have done when when Israel hit the the PARs field, the PARs gas field, they struck back and hit an Israeli system. And if you then take the the water dalinization, which President Trump has previously threatened, then they'll take that also to the GCC countries. He didn't say that this time. And one wonders if the GCC countries said, uh, no, do not hit that because they can survive it. the the Iranians can survive it because they have like % of their natural or their fresh water is from desalinization plants, but the rest of it they have natural sources from their mountains and everything else. They'll be okay. But some of these other Gulf countries are like % % % depending on which country we're talking about that they require desalinization. And you could literally have people dying of thirst because I don't know that you could get that much natural water if Iran were to take all of them out. I don't know that they would, but why find out? So, that's one of the problems that he can make all these bold proclamations that we're going to do that, but then those things are going to start coming back in the other direction. Um, let's uh let's take a look at some of the other specific things he said too. Uh, first of all, he was trying to talk about the reasons why we had this war, why it was worked in the first place. And he said, you know, this uh because there were people that Iran's uh Mhola regime of their own people that they slaughtered. So remember, first it was and then they said, well, you know, it might have been This is in the buildup in in January. Uh no, then they said, you know what, it might be And that's when it kind of went up there and went up to all these numbers and now it's gone up to The only thing the Iranians themselves said that they acknowledged that there was a lot of civilians killed in these protests. They they didn't hide from it. As I understand, they actually provided a by-name list and that there were over people that were killed. Plus, I think like or several hundred uh police forces that were also killed in this process. So, they didn't deny it, but they provided uh what is a plausible number. All these other numbers, listen, I don't have personal knowledge. I can't say for sure what is and what isn't, but I can say that it's it's pretty reasonable and logical from the people that I've talked to that were on the ground then, and I've talked to several who were involved in those and and in the aftermath and what happened afterwards and how this whole thing came manifested. So, forgive me for being skeptical, but when I hear people saying like President Trump there that, you know, it was then and now the numbers just keep growing to make it sound worse and worse and worse, that we had to act and those butchers and all that kind of stuff. So, that's one of the things there that uh that the claim is that there was that many people killed, so we had to go in there. He again mentioned Venezuela as an example. He's talking about this incredible thing that our military can't be stopped. And again, he goes back to Venezuela and said, you know, we won that. We we fought like a couple of hours and and the that was that was knocked out. And so, I think that there is a lot of justification for the contention that he had in his mind and many of his advisers put in his ear that this could be like Venezuelan. We can go in and hit them hard, kill their leader, get rid of him by whatever means, and then do business with whoever's left. And of course the uh odd statement this morning that the new president of Iran is somebody that could be dealt with more um he seems more amunable, less radical, etc. But possession was already the president. He he that's not new at all. And and if he meant the supreme leader, well, the supreme leader is not more conservative and is not less radical to if anything else, he's probably more so because he was pushing his father, the previous Ayatollahan supreme leader to go further than he did and he would not do so. Now that he has been assassinated, now that the new Supreme Leader's mother was killed, that his wife was killed, and at least a couple of family members that at least that I know of were killed, he's not likely to be a lot less radical and a lot more willing to talk to the United States. Just on the surface of it, I can't imagine anybody would be willing to do that. Uh, another thing is here, uh, he said that, um, he again, listen, we got to call this for what it is, folks. There's just so many things in here. Uh not don't pass the sniff test, but that were just flatout fabrications. One of the key ones that he said, "We did everything we could diplomatically." And to an American population, that message will resonate because we're fair-minded people. We understand uh talks and in diplomacy and and talking, you know, making discussions back and forth, give and take, and you know, hey, we always it's been a kind of a part of our history and our culture. we always like to talk first and if we can settle this with words that's a lot better but that if we have to you know that's kind of a mantra so he's playing into that he is deceiving the American people not only was there no diplomacy we actually contorted and twisted diplomacy as a cover for military we did it in in June when we claimed we were trying to seek a negotiated settlement and then we launched the -day war that Israel launched the -day war and then we did operation midnight hammer and then in this case here uh again in in uh January and February we were conducting negotiations the Iranian side said we remember what happened last year we don't our trust is very low but we're willing to give it a shot so we're going to have more discussions and more negotiations and as I've told you too many times to count on the th of February after the third round of negotiations with Steve Whit's and foreign minister Abas Arachi the Iranian side made a tremendous submission uh and and were willing to lay down their desire to have any kind of a negotiated I'm sorry any kind of reprocessing facility to make it impossible for them to have a a nuclear weapon. So it literally handed President Trump one of the things he said tonight was one of his non-negotiables that they can't ever have a nuclear weapon. If that was really the situation he already had it but he said no. And in fact not only did he not say no he hadn't actually that's not actually how it worked. They were in the middle of talking. He said, "Yeah, we can get this done." And then of course, as we know, he launched this current operation epic fury. And now here we're asking them to negotiate again. So, President Trump says, um, you know, we tried everything. We tried diplomacy, but it didn't work. So, now I had to do this. Uh, he says that uh this time if there's no deal, he's he's going to hit all their energy. Um, and then he says, you know what, all their leaders are dead. We we killed them all. There's been some replacements and the ones now are a little bit more amenable. hopefully they can work out a deal. What logic would it would it there be that after you killed a bunch of their leaders and then someone else rose up that they're going to be more amunable? Now, you could be thinking you could be thinking, "Hey, listen. How's about this? How about we hit you so hard and we kill so many people that you're in fear and you're just going to cower and curl up in a little ball and then say, "Um, uncle, we'll we'll do whatever you want." I mean, I think that's the intent. That's the desire because that's what we want. We want to be able to beat you up so hard and kill enough of your people that you just submit. But has that ever worked? Did that work on us? Now, you could make an argument that it kind of did work on Venezuelans. kind of did I suppose a little bit although we had some inside help so that wasn't quite analogous but to an extent obviously Billy Rodriguez and and the rest of the leadership calculated it was better to just give up one of their own and not have to worry about a war with the United States we'll see if they come to regret that but in terms of when it's been attempted and you trying to bomb somebody um that's that's a real problem because it never works it didn't work on the United States every time that we were hit Pearl Harbor what do we do we curl up in ball and die. Did we beg the Japanese emperor for some forgiveness when we got hit on ? Did we curl up in a bowl? You know what I'm saying? I We don't do that. Did our British allies do that during World War II during the Battle of Britain was the um where did the Germans in World War II when we had we firebombed them and burned Dresden and and just had this methodical just carpet bombing across much of Germany. They never gave in. The Japanese themselves never gave in. Only a nuclear weapon twice made them finally stand down when they realized that they would literally be evaporated. But in terms of bombing here, that's not going to happen. So when you say if they don't do this, you know, if they don't make the deal here, we're going to kill them. I mean, you're almost guaranteeing that they won't, you know, and then here's where we start getting into the problem. You know, you saw Lindsey Graham in that opening scene there. Uh, you know, he was saying, "Hey, uh, I'm so happy." In fact, Gary, if you could, because I know we have a lot of people watching now that weren't watching at the first. I want to show you again where Lindsey Graham is tonight. Watch this video. Epic Fury is one of the most successful military operations in history. God bless the and the injured, but they died in noble cause protecting America and the world from a cancer. He has destroyed their ability to acquire a nuclear weapon for decades. He's put them out of the ballistic missile uh business and he's offering them a deal and if they don't take it, he's going to blow up everything they got. So, well done, Mr. President. Well done to our military. I'm very happy tonight. Okay. So, should he be happy though? because he's talking in the past tense. They've been they have he's destroyed their ability to have a nuclear weapon. He's destroyed their their missile capabilities. You know, funny thing about that, I wonder if he took a a um a poll in Tel Aviv tonight. I wonder if he would get that. This is from earlier in the day. Earlier today, Iran fires major missile salvo ahead of the the Passover holiday. ballistic missiles were fired at the past few . This is earlier today making one of the most significant barges in recent weeks and and now that you're trying to tell me that the war is already over. President Trump himself in this he said they are beaten past tense not are being beaten not that they are losing that they are beaten past tense and decimated. Lindsey Graham there was shouting cheers and with all that and again this will fly tonight and I bet if you look at the at the presidential ratings you'll probably see okay a lot of people in America are going to be buying this at least especially those that are for President Trump but you know everybody's not in that boat here. Let me see if I can pull up something there. Something really interesting happened. I want to show you this uh screen here of the current oil price because um while a lot of the president's people are going to be buying on this look at this. This is interesting here. This is from today. So, this is where the price of oil was. It was right about all up until President Trump started speaking. And look at this. The longer the speech went on, the higher the price of oil got. And now it's it's sitting just under $ Look at that. That tells you that people around the world in the oil industry, they are not buying this at all, folks. That is crazy. does they're seeing things for what it is. So the things that I'm telling you right now, they're tracking with it and and they see the missiles falling. They see the most that we've had in weeks fell on Israel today and now then you're talking about you're going to and you have decimated them and yet there are the missiles fallen. I mean it's it's it's hard to even fathom. The president of the United States is telling you that our military can't be stopped. They are the most incredible. Again, he repeated this. The most incredible military power in the history of the world and their nuclear power capabilities have been decimated and they're also going to their their missile capabilities has been knocked out as the missiles are falling in. Now, look, we we can see what what the uh what the Iranians have said here recently. This is President Peskian. He said that they still want peace and they have necessary will, but only if their essential conditions are met. And that is of course they want security guarantees and that they want these attacks against their people to stop and if it does then they're willing to do things. You had uh Abbas Iraqi uh who has specifically said there is no truth to the claim that we are negotiating with the Iran. All the messages conveyed through the foreign ministry received by it and they are communications between security agencies. He said but tyrron has not made a decision about negotiating with Washington. So they're not even sure they want to talk to us because they have their strangle hold on the straight of Hormuz and they realize they see that chart that I just showed you. They know that a lot of this you saw Tre Pary on our show a few days ago. He said look that this is kind of being artificially kept down because Trump keeps making statements. He thinks he's going to drop it down. This is the first time and we showed just this week especially several times when he's made a number of statements. It had an initial drop in the price because people listened to him at first and then it started going back up when the fundamentals became evident that he wasn't true. This time it had the opposite effect. This time when he spoke it spiked. Now we'll see what it does overnight what happens in the morning. But that tells you that the market and the people around the world are not being fooled by this anymore. the president's supporters apparently can, but not the market, not the people around the world. And let's get to the straight of hormones because that's the key issue here. And he said some really interesting things. And I think probably the longer this went and maybe the time he got to here, I'd like to see it that spike tied to to one of the specific things he was saying. But he says, "You know what? This oil price, I know it's bad. A lot of high price gasoline. I know that, you know, a lot of people don't like that in the United States, but don't worry about it because it's all going to be coming down very soon. We're two to three weeks out. This is probably We'll have this thing wrapped up. Then as soon as it does, the straight of horos will just kind of automatically open right up. Price to gas come right back down. Don't even worry about it. And oh, by the way, if it doesn't, well, you know what? How's about we get the u those people who get oil? Interestingly, he didn't specify the Europeans today, which he did in pretty costic terms earlier today with the UK and France in particular. this time he just says whoever is getting oil uh whether in Asia or in Europe let them go and open it up and that to me was one of the most insulting and and made me angry and I can imagine our allies and our friends around the world because they're thinking hang on you started a war on your own choice there was no imminent threat everybody in the world is aware of what I have already told you here it's self-evident So, even Tulsi Gabbard last week, a week or so ago in Senate testimony said that the op the Operation Midnight Hammer in last year obliterated their the facilities where they did a lot of this reprocessing. That was the case. And then she said that there has been no evidence that they had rebuilt it. That's what she said like about a week ago. And now here tonight, President Trump again reiterated that there was an imminent threat, that we had to do this. We were running out of time. They were What did he say? I think the phrase was they were at the doorstep. They are at the doorstep. They were at the doorstep and we had to act. We did it for the children. We did it for your future. Well, everybody around outside of the president's inner circle understands that there he did not do it for our future. He did not do it for our children. And there was no at the doorstep. Even according to your own intelligence agencies, not Tulsi Gabber is the one that gave the report, but the all of the agencies all were unified in that assessment that there had been no evidence that they were reprocessing anything. President Trump did not just categorically rejected that and said yes, they were. But we know that that's not the case from our unless he knows something that none of our intelligence agencies did, which is pretty unlikely. That's that's where he gets his information from. That's why we have them. But that's what he said here. And now then he's saying that you guys have to come get this up. Now just imagine if you're a Frenchman or or or a Brit or a German or or anybody a South Korean uh somebody in Vietnam and and you hear this that hey you guys get this oil. I don't need it. We got our own oil. So get off your butt and you goes down there and do it because we're not going to take care of your job anymore. I mean how How insulting is that to know that we started this war and now then because of our actions they're suffering and you want him to come to clean up your military mess after having the audacity of saying that we have the greatest military in the world but we can't open this stuff up and now we're not going to. It's going to be easy. He said that again. He said it's going to be easy. Now one might reasonably ask Mr. president, if it's easy, why hasn't our Navy done it? Why haven't we just opened it up if it's that easy? Well, Steph, evidently, it isn't. It's obviously it's not. And sending in ships won't open it because that's not why it's closed. There's a whole host of reasons. And you got to get all the host of reasons out. And you can't because you would have to physically conquer the country. You don't have an army to do that with. And if you did get one, you probably couldn't successfully conquer it because of the terrain. The defensive positions would would be just almost impossible to accomplish. It would be it would be suicide to try. So, you can say to those people all you want, just send your ships in and that'll take care of it and you can figure it out. Well, they're they're not going to. There's a reason why they haven't done it already. Because as much as they hate to say anything negative about President Trump, their militaries know it would be suicide to send a ship in there because they can't protect it. All they're going to end up doing is having it either blown up, hit with a drone, hit with a missile, or and maybe even sunk. But it wouldn't provide it wouldn't open the straight. And then you get one or two warships hit. Nobody else is going to attempt it then. And no carrier is going to go through because they couldn't get insurance and they would lose everything if they got hit. That's the reality, friends. Now, I'll tell you in in closing here, this is the this is the last thing I I'll talk to you about tonight. Uh we'll we'll hit this in more detail in the morning. So many things that he said here, and I don't want to I don't want to go over all of them tonight, but this last one is the one that's the most concerning to me. He said, uh, our military is going to finish the job. He said, "One of the things I told to all the family members of the the that have fallen so far, that have been killed and presumably on behalf of the plus that have been wounded so far. We're going to finish the job." Well, now what might he mean? We We certainly know by now that we can nobody can take President Trump at his word on anything and especially when it comes to war. we have just double deal been double dealing all over the place especially with Iran here in and in his uh current operation epic fury. So now when he says you know we're going to wrap this up in a couple of weeks what does he mean by that? Because you can see the missiles are still flying. You can see that there's still kilograms of nuclear processed material somewhere in there and you don't have any control over it. You can see that the government is still fully in charge in Thran. they still are running the show. And even though he'll publicly say we've decimated their navy and their air force, he knows good and well that their real navy, the one that actually has influence in the in the Persian Gulf, is still ensconced in those tunnels and that are hidden. There's reportedly between on whose assessments you want to believe somewhere between three and of these ships plus a whole number of these drone boats as well plus some underwater drones and some torpedoes and just conventional submarines for that matter that fire regular torpedoes. All of that stuff is still there. We haven't taken out a single one of their submarines. So you obviously it is not easy to get that open. So, one is afraid that with all this combat power going there, we've sent a second squadron of Aground attack uh fighters, those are those are for close air support for ground troops. Apaches, those are for close air support for ground troops. We've sent nd Airborne in the st Marine Expeditionary Unit, the th Marine Expeditionary Unit, uh Army Rangers, and now about of additional troops from from other locations. What I fear is that when he says finish the job in two or three weeks is that he may make some kind of a gambit and some of the people like Lindsey Graham may be cheering in his ear and saying you know what though just take Car Island because that gives you you know puts their their economic lifeblood in your hands and then then you'll finally have the leverage to compel compliance from those darn leaders in Tyrron and that's when we'll be able to win this up and that's why it's going to be easy because all you got to do is take hard. So, we don't need a whole army. We don't need troops. We just need about or so. Uh, and all the air power that we've got. So, we've got a lot of that. We can suppress their enemy air defenses. We can get these guys on there and then we'll have it. If that is the case, if that's what he's thinking, then we are going to be in a world of hurt because that probably will not succeed. And I won't I won't go into all the military reasons here tonight, but the the the task is just almost unimaginably difficult to the point to where it's it's essentially impossible for us to even for us to even get it. Maybe we'll get some troops on there. There's no telling how many we would lose just flying them in because it's impossible to get the the amphibious ships up the straight. There's no chance of that. So the only thing left is a air mobile insertion and and probably many of those would get shot down on the way in. Some would get there. Uh there would be a big fight on the ground. But then that's not even the worst of it. The worst of it is once you've gotten it, what are you going to do with it then? Because now then you're just going to be in a relentless bombardment from drones, from rocket artillery, from short-range missiles, long range missiles, medium-range missiles, from all over the country. and there'll be nothing we can do about it because we've seen even even the best of our air defenses right now are only taking a small percentage according to what's been released by Israeli media uh and some of these ballistic missiles % are now getting through. That's what the Israeli media is reporting anyway. And now here we would have only what we can carry with us. How are you going to keep them fed? How are you going to keep getting water to the troops every day? food, fuel, medical evacuation off when people get wounded. I mean, how are you going to do any of that? And then what air defense? You won't even have tactical air defense. It'll be hard to get anything down there, even to help N take out drones, etc. And and everything will be focused on us. I mean, it would be catastrophic. And then the casualties will go through the roof and won't be able to keep that hidden anymore. The price of oil will then really go up. No words will make any difference. at that point. And again, I mean, look at this. This is already the words are just not making any difference. Look, continues to go up. It's now up over and climbing. That's that's what his words are doing now when it's when it's gone down all the times before. Let's see like remember when he made this uh I think this is where he made that first comment about uh hour uh ultimatum and then we'll have this war over with and it was a drop and then he a couple of other times he said some other things. there was some drops. This time there was a spike. So that tells you that people around the world who've been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt uh now are losing that opportunity and now then the reality is is sinking in. If President Trump makes good on this threat and actually tries to employ the ground, I I I shudder to think what's going to happen to those troops and and I just cringe of it. I know that when I my first combat deployment was in in Desert Storm as part of the the Seventh Corps, uh you know, there was like total Allied troops. We were going up against an Iraqi force that had been uh under sanctions for a decade that had uh sorry not that's what they were subsequent to that but up to that point already uh they were poorly trained because we knew that that their uh manu not just manufacturing but their uh ma maintenance on their armored vehicles was poor. We knew their gunnery skills were were poor. We had good intelligence on all this. So, we knew that they were very weak and poor and we knew how well we were trained and we had every advantage in the world, an Mtank against an old Tin open desert where we had all the great firepower systems. We had helicopter gunships over our shoulders. We had planes in the sky. They had nothing. We were incredibly confident these guys, the current crop is going to be reversed now. then all the advantages are going to be on the enemy side. And and believe me, I'm not the only one that sees this. And we get our troops that are going in there. They're going to know the score here. And many of them are going to know it's a one-way ticket, but they're going to go anyway because that's what we do. That's who we are. And and that's why it's so egregious to me because the president of the United States, the secretary of war are exploiting that mentality and the best of what we have. The some great great Americans and we'll send them off to their death. That that's what we're going to have. That's what's going to happen if we try this on the ground. And I just I pray to God that somehow some sanity gets in and we don't do this. It just stays rhetorical and it doesn't end up anywhere and President Trump figures something else out of a way to do it. That's where we are right now, folks. Just wanted to give you that update tonight. Appreciate you being up here with us late on night. It's already p.m. We'll be back with you tomorrow. Give you some more nuanced information. Anything new that happens overnight, we'll bring it to you then. Thanks very much, and we'll see you tomorrow on the Daniel Davis deep dive. You know, we don't have sponsors because we hate to hit you over the head with ads. I don't like them. So, show a little love back. Subscribe, like, and send this to somebody you care about.
LIVE | North Korea's Quick-Strike Missile Jump: Kim Ready to Support Iran With Long-Range Firepower? Hindustan Times Apr 1, 2026
Kim Jong-un has showcased North Korea’s expanding military power through missile tests, advanced rocket engine trials, and new battlefield systems amid rising global tensions. Reports highlight improved missile ranges, enhanced propulsion technology, and the unveiling of a new main battle tank, signaling rapid defense modernization. Analysts suggest these developments could reshape regional security dynamics, especially as Pyongyang draws lessons from ongoing conflicts and strengthens its strategic deterrence posture.
Transcript
North Korea has made a massive leap in missile power, boosting its strike capability and sending alarm signals across the region. Kim Jong-un rapidly builds quick strike missile systems, drawing tactical inspiration from Iran's defense strategies. Kim leverages the Iran war context to justify expanding his nuclear arsenal, soon pushing missile limits even further. Kim's intensive military drills raise international alarms, suggesting Pyongyang prepares for more than mere shows of force. North Korea unveils a new advanced battle tank, significantly boosting Kim's ground warfare capabilities across multiple fronts. As Middle East tensions escalate into broader conflict, North Korea has conducted public demonstrations of its military capabilities through structured weapons testing. Kim Jong-un personally supervised multiple weapons firings, combat maneuvers, and platform inspections, showcasing national defense development progress. Analysts noted particular significance in Kim observing a ground test of a high thrust solid fuel rocket engine designed for advanced strategic applications. Experts assess this engine technology substantially improves North Korea's capacity for longrange ballistic missile systems with extended operational envelopes. Successful integration could equip intercontinental ballistic missiles for mainland United States reach, expanding strategic deterrence parameters significantly. The engine reportedly generated kontons of thrust, exceeding prior developmental benchmarks established in previous test iterations. Enhanced propulsion facilitates heavier payloads, enabling multiple independently targetable reintry vehicle configurations on single launch platforms. Kim also conducted inspections of a newly developed main battle tank, reflecting ongoing efforts to upgrade conventional ground combat formations. State media presented the vehicle as incorporating advanced armor protection alongside improved fire control and mobility characteristics. During separate field exercises, Kim reviewed special operations personnel executing livefire engagements and tactical maneuvers under simulated combat conditions. Imagery captured operators conducting close quarters battle procedures and hand-to-hand combat proficiency demonstrations for evaluation. These activities underscored the unit's physical conditioning and operational preparedness across diverse mission profiles and environments. The displays followed Kim Jong-un prior statements linking the Iran conflict to North Korea's rationale for maintaining nuclear deterrence capabilities. On March th, Kim characterized certain US policies as state sponsored terrorism without direct reference to the Iranian situation. Specifically, as Russia backs Iran more openly, some in the region now fear North Korea could be the next partner to step into the war zone. Daily NK reporting, cited by Iran International, says rumors of North Korean troops joining the Iran war are spreading fast in border areas. Families with conscription age sons are increasingly worried they could be sent overseas to fight, this time in Iran. Some residents are openly asking why Pyongyang would join yet another foreign war after already sending forces and shells to support Russia in Ukraine. Locals quoted by Iran International warned the Russia war is not even over and now quietly wonder if their troops will be dispatched to Iran as well. Reports say public anxiety is rising as food prices climb and economic strain deepens across North Korea. Residents complain that missile tests keep coming while rice and basic staples remain scarce and expensive. One resident told DailyNK that cutting back on launches and importing more food should now be the regime's real priority. Official slogans about strengthening defense capabilities no longer resonate with people just trying to get through the winter. For many ordinary North Koreans, real good news now means cheaper rice and basic essentials, not new weapons on parade. North Korean state media is using the Iran war as fresh proof that only nuclear weapons can keep US firepower at bay. Kim has accused Washington of state terrorism and global aggression, citing the assault on Iran as another example. He has vowed to permanently and irreversibly consolidate North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons. Pyongyang warns it is prepared to respond whether opponents choose confrontation or uneasy coexistence, tying its posture directly to events in Iran. Meanwhile, Moscow is nearing completion of covert drone and aid shipments to Iran. According to the Financial Times, Western officials say secret talks on those drone shipments began just days after USIsraeli strikes hit Iran. minutesIntelligence sources add that Russia has provided targeting data and satellite support for Iranian operations. These drone deliveries would mark Moscow's first clear lethal support to Thran in the current conflict. The Kremlin dismisses such claims as fakes, insisting it only maintains normal dialogue with Iran. European officials now openly accuse Russia of helping Iran target and kill US troops in the region. Western capitals warned this points to a deepening Russia Iran war axis. Whatever Moscow's public denials, one senior western official told the Financial Times that Russia is deliberately bolstering both Iran's firepower and the stability of its ruling system. We are raising this issue that we see that Russia is helping um uh Iran with intelligence to target Americans to kill Americans. Uh and Russia is also supporting Iran now with the drones uh so that they can attack uh neighboring countries and also US military bases. So uh these wars are very much interlin. So if America wants the war in the Middle East to stop uh Iran to stop attacking them, they should also uh put the pressure on Russia um so that they North Korea flexes its military power amid growing signs of diplomatic support for Iran's regional position from to kon.
Arab Fighters Rain Fire In 'BIGGEST ASSAULT' Yet On US Bases In Iran War; '41 STRIKES IN 24 HOURS’ Times Of India Apr 1. 2026
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed a massive wave of 41 coordinated attacks targeting US bases across Iraq and the wider region. In statements shared via Telegram, the group confirmed deploying dozens of drones in a single day. It also released footage of drone launches and issued warnings to civilians. The strikes reportedly extended to targets linked to the US in Bahrain. The group says operations will escalate further, raising fears of a broader regional conflict.
Transcript
This is a major escalation. attacks, dozens of drones, and US bases across the Middle East are now under sustained threat. In a dramatic claim, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq says it has launched one of its largest coordinated operations yet. According to a statement released on Telegram, the group carried out operations in a single day. The targets were US bases inside Iraq and across the wider region. The group says it used dozens of attack drones, a coordinated swarm designed to overwhelm defenses. It also released footage. The visuals show drones being launched toward what it calls occupation bases. The message is clear. This is not a one-off strike. This is a sustained campaign. In another statement, the group widened its claim. It says it targeted US and Israeli linked interests in Bahrain. If confirmed, that marks a dangerous expansion, a signal that the conflict may no longer be confined to Iraq alone. The group also issued a warning. Civilians are being told to stay away from US- linked locations. That raises alarm bells because it suggests more attacks could be imminent. The rhetoric is also intensifying. The group frames these strikes as retaliation. It links the operations to recent killings and to what it calls ongoing aggression in the region. It also invoked the name of Ali Fuseni Kamei calling him a martyr and a symbol of resistance. This indicates a pattern. Frequent strikes, rising tempo, and growing ambition. The Middle East is already on edge. Multiple fronts remain volatile, and now drone warfare is taking center stage. Cheap, fast, and increasingly effective. The big question now is response. How will the United States react? Will this trigger retaliation or a broader escalation across the region? Because once the cycle begins, it becomes harder to contain. Oh, there's a flash lights up the night sky. Oh, there's a roar tears through the silence. Oh, get and then boom. a deafening impact. This is the moment an Iranian ballistic missile allegedly hits a US military base in the Middle East. The purported footage was recorded by an American soldier appearing to come from a helmet-mounted camera. As the missile strikes, chaos unfolds. Smoke, debris, and panic grip the facility. One soldier can be heard asking, "Is everybody okay? You guys all right? Everybody okay?" The Iranian missile attack reportedly damaged the facility. However, it remains unclear which US base was targeted. The Times of India has not independently verified the authenticity of the video. All right, everybody. Okay? Yeah. Meanwhile, Iran has launched highintensity drone and missile strikes dubbed Operation True Promise in response to US and Israeli actions. These strikes have targeted multiple American military bases across the Middle East, including locations in Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. The attacks have reportedly caused casualties, damaged aircraft, and forced a significant shift in US regional operations. Reports indicate that Iran has targeted more than key sites so far, including the US Navy's fifth fleet headquarters in Bahrain and its largest Middle Eastern base in Qatar, Al Udid. Several of the military bases used by American forces in the region are reportedly severely damaged or uninhabitable, particularly those in Kuwait, which lies close to Iran. Radar and satellite systems have been a primary focus from the start as they serve as the eyes and ears of modern military operations. Open up. The Pentagon says at least US soldiers have been killed and more than injured in Iranian attacks. Iran is not only targeting US bases, but also embassies and critical oil and gas infrastructure across the region. It has also managed to disrupt the straight of Hormuz, a vital global shipping route, ensuring the impact of the war is felt worldwide. Despite sustained air campaigns involving Iran and Israel, Iran continues to retain significant and deadly strike capabilities. Chilling details have emerged from Iran's deadliest attack on a high value US military base in Saudi Arabia. According to NPR news, citing a US official, two ECentury aircraft were knocked out in an Iranian strike at Prince Sultan Air Base on March th. Earlier reports had suggested that at least one ECentury AWAC aircraft was destroyed beyond repair. More than a dozen US service members were also injured in the attack. The Eis a high value airborne command and control platform with replacement costs approaching $billion per aircraft. It is an Awax airborne warning and control system. essentially a flying radar and command center that tracks threats and directs US air operations across entire regions. The United States has only about remaining, making each loss critical. The EAwax is based on a Boeing airliner and features a distinctive rotating radar disc mounted on the rear of its fuselage. The aircraft first entered service in and is expected to remain operational with the US Air Force until Images reportedly show an Eaircraft split into two with its fuselage torn open and burned out. Retired Air Force Colonel John Venibal told the Wall Street Journal, "The destruction of the ECentury Awax is a very serious matter and it deals a blow to the US military's ability to assess what is happening in the Gulf region and maintain situational awareness. Additionally, one to three KCrefueling aircraft were also targeted in the Iranian strike. Earlier, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranbacked armed factions, claimed responsibility for downing a KCnear Turibil along the Iraqi Jordanian border, reportedly killing six US service members. The KChas been in service for more than years. It is derived from the Boeing passenger aircraft which was retired from US civilian service in The KCis primarily used for midair refueling but can also transport wounded personnel during medical evacuations or conduct surveillance missions. According to the Congressional Research Service, the US Air Force had KCaircraft last year, including on active duty, in the Air National Guard, and in the Air Force Reserve. Iran has also claimed that a $Shaheddrone destroyed a $million US aircraft. The Shahed is a low-flying, slowm moving GPSguided unerial vehicle designed for saturation attacks to overwhelm enemy defenses. It has a range of approximately to km and a low radar and heat signature, making it harder to intercept. Iran has been targeting US military installations across the Middle Eastern region since the war began on February th in retaliation for US and Israeli attacks.
Inside the Strait of Hormuz: Eyewitness to US-Israeli War Crimes in Iran | w/ Dimitri Lascaris BreakThrough News Apr 1, 2026
Journalist and lawyer Dimitri Lascaris just returned from Iran, where he traveled from Tehran to the Strait of Hormuz, witnessing firsthand the impact of the US-Israeli war.
From hospitals treating the wounded to the world’s most important oil chokepoint, Lascaris saw a side of this war that Western media is barely covering.
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most critical waterways on earth, responsible for a massive share of global energy flows. But today, it has become a frontline in a rapidly escalating conflict. Trump says only with its opening would he consider a ceasefire.
In this episode of Dispatches, Rania Khalek speaks with Dimitri Lascaris about:
What he witnessed inside Iran during wartime
The situation on the ground at the Strait of Hormuz
Civilian infrastructure and the human toll of the war
Whether US and Israeli actions constitute war crimes
How Iran is responding and what comes next
This is a rare, on-the-ground account from inside a country under attack.
Transcript
Hello everyone. I'm Rana Call and this is Dispatches on Breakthrough News and I am happy to be joined by Dimmitri Lascaris, lawyer, journalist, and host of Reason to Resist. Fresh from his return uh after about a week and a half spent all across Iran. Dimmitri, thank you so much for joining me. Great to see you again, Nana. Always a pleasure. Well, there's a lot I want to ask you about because you have been quite busy for the last couple of weeks. Um, and you know, this is your you went to Iran. You were telling me before we started recording, you spent uh time in Iran last May before the -day war. Now, you had the opportunity to return during this much more devastating war that's really engulfed the entire region. Uh, and you spent a lot of time around the country. I saw that you also spent time in the street of Hermuz from the Iranian side. So I kind of wanted to start there. Maybe that's like the most you know uh relevant to what's happening uh around the globe right now and then we can get to everything else you saw in Iran because there's a lot of uh observations I want to hear from you. But yeah, tell me about your trip to the street of Hermuz. What did you do? How did you get there? Um how long did you spend there? What did you see? Well, so by way of background to understand to answer your question, I should say something about how I ended up in Idran to begin with. Uh I uh established friendships and relationships with people in the Iranian state broadcaster, the IRIB, when I came to an uh in May of last year because the purpose of my coming was to attend the soap media festival which was organized by uh the state broadcaster. So they knew me personally and since then I've been interviewed a number of times on Nidanian television and they decided uh to extend to me an invitation uh one that they extended I I understand to about other foreign journalists to come to the country and to be given a tour. Uh and so I accepted that invitation. Um uh at the end of the day four of us were in this group. They were hoping for more but the timing didn't work. And by the way I think they're their plan is to do another one very soon with a larger group of people. But in this group uh I was with Tim Anderson uh someone for whom I have a great deal of respect the peace activist and author based in Australia um and uh Ahmed uh the host of propaganda and co whom I met for the first time in last year and then we were accompanied by a Turkish journalist uh by the name of Adam Metan but he wasn't able to go beyond uh tan he had other commitments so um we were in an entourage of about or people and they had an itinerary which they wanted us to follow, but uh they modified it at various points uh at our request and there were several times when I just went off and did my own thing uh you know left the hotel and walked around and whatnot. So that's kind of the background. So one of the points of um uh that they wanted to show us was the street of Hormuz. We knew they were going to take us there toward the end of the trip. Before we went to Hormuz, we went to Busher, which is on the Persian Gulf. And from there we headed down to uh uh Bandar Abas. And uh the reason why I mentioned that is because some uh concerning things happened in Busher. Uh we went to uh three st three three sites there. Uh two of which were completely demolished. The third of which was a hospital which had been put out of action uh by heavy strikes around the hospital. Uh but it was not demolished. Uh and um after we left Busher on our way to Bandar Abas, we learned that uh there had been an air strike outside of our hotel uh a couple of hours after we had left. As far as we could tell, there was nothing there that would be of any interest, but hey, who knows? Maybe there was. Uh we learned that they struck a meteorological facility which they had completely leveled to the ground. There was nothing there to hit as far as we could see. They hit it again shortly after we left. and they hit a third site, the port uh where they had destroyed five civilian fairies, passenger fairies, uh a couple of weeks ago. Uh what they wanted to strike there, we don't know. So that kind of, you know, caused us concern, but we thought, hey, maybe this is random. So then we uh before we get to the straight of Hormuz, we went to Minab, which is about hours south of Bandar Abas. And on our way to uh Minab, we stopped at a the ruins of a civilian facility which was a radio and TV t transmitter for the state broadcaster. And while we're touring this facility halfway between Bandabas and uh Minab, uh there's a drone strike nearby. We heard it and uh it was unmistakable and we quickly evacuated the site. So then we go to Minab and we spent uh a long time there. And by the way, my conclusion after going through that site as thoroughly as I could with no restrictions on my movements, uh, was that there was absolutely no connection to the military, nor was there a military facility. I'm sorry, just to just to be clear, Minab is the is is also the place where they hit the school the first day of the of of the war and killed people, including over school children. Just to throw that in there. Yes. students and teachers. That's the school we were inspecting. It used to be a military base like years ago, but it was clear as day that it was not a military base anymore and uh that there was no military base immediately adjacent to it either. Uh so, but that's another matter. Anyways, we visit the site and within of our departure, RA, there's a drone strike at the site. Okay, there's nothing there to destroy. It's completely demolished. So by the time we get to the straight of Hormuz, we are all really wondering whether they were trying to send us a message. Uh I don't know. But uh you know at the very moment that this was all happening, we learned that two of our journalistic colleagues in Lebanon had been murdered by the genocidal entity. Uh so all of this was causing considerable concern and there was a lot of debate within our group. I wouldn't say a lot, but there was some debate within our group about whether we wanted to go out onto the water and we decided that we're going to do it. The plan was uh that um and this came straight from the mouth of the governor of the province where Bandar Abbas is situated, the province that borders on the straight of Hormuz, because he he had tea with us the night before. We said to him, "Can we please visit some of the islands in the straight? We wanted to go to Hormuz Island and to Kemp, which is the largest island in the Persian Gulf." And he said, "Subject to security conditions, uh you can go there. I'll make sure that that happens." We wake up in the morning, we find out that the port at the the island of Hormuz has been bombed. So, they had to change the plan. And the plan was they're going to take us out on the water for so that we can see the straight and what's going on in the straight. We ended up spending uh about an hour out there. And what I saw uh while I was out there uh was about a hundred oil tankers and cargo ships. Some of them were moving. Most of them appeared to be uh uh stationary. Uh we were told that a large number of them were Iran Iranian uh vessels. Uh but um uh I I'm guessing here based on what I heard maybe about a third of them uh were flagged from other countries and they were waiting for permission to pass through the straight of Hormuz. They come in there and they have to you know give paperwork and substantiate to the Iranian military that they satisfy the requirements for passage and then they move on. Uh so there's a lot of ships in there. Uh and some of them are going through the strait. So the way I would summarize based on what I saw and heard about the straight of Hormuz is it's not really closed but the Iranian military has a vice grip on the straight of Hormuz. No, that that's I mean that's what I wanted to ask you with regard to the straight is if you had seen ships going through because obviously we've heard reports that you know Pakistani ships have been granted permission as well as Chinese ships and a few others here and there. So it is interesting right? It's so it's basically there are ships coming through. looks busy. It's just a matter of Iran deciding who gets to go through or not based on the geopolitical situation of a war on their country right now. Yeah, I I wouldn't say relatively speaking that it's busy because you can apparently track the number of ships going through. Uh and uh it looks like there's been about a to % reduction in the level of traffic. So, uh it's busy in the sense that there are a hell of a lot of ships out there. Uh but the uh there's been a dramatic reduction in the amount of traffic going through the street of Hormuz since this criminal war was begun. I mean it's it's definitely uh super interesting that you were able to go uh from that side and I kind of I wanted to ask you I have a bunch of questions I want to ask you but based on everything you just said um you mentioned how you were kind of able to go and explore uh without anybody telling you like where you couldn't go could and couldn't go and what you could and couldn't say. Um, and I just think that's an interesting uh juxaposition to the kind of military sensor that exists in Israel. Um, where we don't actually know what's happening uh there. So, it's just like something I wanted to throw out there because I I do find it because I think a lot of people would say, "Oh, you went to Iran. Um, you must have been like uh you know, under the control of a handler who told who like basically made you cover your eyes when they didn't want you to seize something and told you what you couldn't say." But you're no longer in Iran right now. So you could actually say whatever you wanted to. Uh had that been the case. Um it doesn't seem like Haran is trying to hide the destruction that's being leveled there. And you described some of it, but I kind of wanted you to elaborate a bit because you do have a lot of videos. I recommend people go check them out on Reason to Resist uh your YouTube channel where you visit various places. as you visit like you mentioned hospitals, schools, the and you talk to the the victims um who've been impacted and there seems to be a lot of intentional destruction of uh civilian areas and civilian sites. Yeah, I mean of course top of mind in that regard would be the MINAB school uh because of the civilian it was as far as I can see uh the single atrocity that generated the most civilian death. uh innocents died and the Americans have admitted they bombed it with multiple tomahawk missiles and as I said there is absolutely no way that they did not know that that thing was a school. Okay, they knew and they bombed it intentionally and there's no reasonable basis to believe that that facility was connected in any way with the Iranian military. And in fact, we went to the cemetery where many of the victims had been buried and we interviewed two fathers who had lost children in the uh the crime and they were angrily protesting uh the claims that they were somehow connected to the military. They said we're not military men. That school was not in any way any shape or form associated with the military. It was being run by the Ministry of Education. It's been run by the Ministry of Education for more than a year. Uh they murdered innocents and they targeted our children. So, uh, that's the most, I think, uh, heinous of the crimes that have been, but there's so many they they've committed against the civilian population. It's it's hard to know where to begin. Um, so let me start with, I guess, the the Gandhi hospital, which is in Thran. Uh, the Gandhi hospital has been wrecked. Uh it's not uh it's not beyond repair, but we spoke to the vice president of the board of the hospital and he said it's going to take minimum months to just bring it back to functioning. It's completely empty now. The the facade of the building has been totally blown up uh blown off. Uh we went up to the fourth floor and we stood inside uh the invitro fertilization clinic that has no walls anymore. You just basically look out and you see the street below. Um, you know, you could, we saw incubators that had been destroyed. Um, and, uh, as I say, there's nobody in the hospital other than people trying to repair the damn thing. Um, it appears that they didn't target the hospital directly. What they struck was a building of the Iranian state broadcaster, again, a civilian facility, which was right across the street, m from the entrance to the hospital. Okay? and they struck it with such power that they leveled it to the ground and it was inevitable that they were going to cause massive damage to the hospital. It was a matter of public knowledge that that was a hospital and they did it anyways. They struck a civilian facility knowing that it was mters from a hospital knowing that they were going to cause catastrophic damage to that hospital. uh that we went to uh various palaces extraordinarily beautiful uh palaces that are key key parts of the the history of Persia of the Islamic Republic. We saw palaces in um inside Tan itself. Then in northern Tan uh actually a place that used to be uh residents of the Sha family but has been turned into a gorgeous museum. There's been tremendous damage done to those palaces. Uh it's unclear whether they were struck directly or uh this was as a result of uh you know blast wave uh from nearby strikes. In Esvahan we saw uh some of the most precious uh historical sites uh having suffered catastrophic damage. Uh we were given tours of those as well. Uh we saw residential buildings. We went to one place where four residential buildings in Tan had been utterly destroyed. And uh we spoke to two men who lived uh in those buildings and who lost family members and they said there's there's not a single as far as we know there is not a single military man living in any of these four buildings when they were leveled to the ground. Uh and uh uh I mean I don't know what else I could tell you. I mean we saw uh various uh government ministries uh we saw uh the judiciary building was uh that basically a gigantic hole was uh uh was was was put into the structure the this the roof of the structure caved in it was bombed uh the judiciary building. Okay. Uh so uh we did not see any military sites that were bombed. I have no doubt that they have been. Uh and unsurprisingly like any country that is uh in a hot war uh they weren't interested in showing us the damage from any military sites. Uh so I you know and that was the one restriction that was placed upon us. Uh and we were also told that we couldn't videotape uh any military any militarily sensitive sites when they were within our view and sometimes they were uh but those subject to those two restrictions we saw uh enormous amounts of damage to a whole range of civilian facilities and we spoke to people uh who has whose family members had been killed and I asked them repeatedly you know we are being told in the west that this war is being done to liberate the people of Iran from oppression. how do you respond to that? And the reaction of course was universally one of scorn, disdain and contempt. Uh they were outraged, but they always answered with, you know, which was quite impressive to me, with a certain dignity and restraint and calm that I u I found inspiring. But nobody I spoke to, and I spoke to hundreds of people at Ana, nobody I spoke to believed for one second that any of this is being done for the benefit of the people of Iran. uh and uh and they have also uh a sthing dislike of the son of the shaw. This is a sentiment I heard over and over again. I over and over again we saw protests progovernment protests where people were shouting for the death of the son of the shaw. Um we um we uh you know a lot there was there was some talk amongst the people we spoke to about the Epstein files and about this being an attempt to uh you know distract uh the West's attention away from that scandal. Uh I I did not encounter a single person who supported the bombing of their country by the United States and Israel. Not one. Uh and in fact in our entourage I I think I can think of only one person who said that they opposed the government. It was a young woman uh who didn't speak to me. She spoke to Ahmad uh who was given again he just went and picked her out of a crowd. we were in a shopping mall and he was permitted to interview her and she said, you know, she talked about the restraints that are imposed by the Islamic Republic on women. She said, "I disagree with those, but I'm absolutely opposed to what they're doing to my country, the Americans and the Israelis." That was the only person that anybody in our group spoke to that uh said at this time they oppose the government. Yeah. I think that would be the sentiment of most people anywhere in the world, no matter how much they hate their government, right? the majority of people at least would would be opposed to having their state and their civilian infrastructure being destroyed. And just to to point out, you know, the Iranians are saying there's been strikes uh on civilian in or sorry, civilian sites have been struck in the USIsraeli war on Iran. Uh including much of what you talked about, you know, schools, hospitals, energy facilities. I mean, these are all civilian sites and they're quite openly being uh destroyed uh by a a campaign that is really meant to take Iran back decades. Um that's why you would hit those targets um and to really punish a country and just commit blatant war crimes. If you have a conscience, it's unbearable to be plugged into the corporate media machine right now. These outlets are accompllices in genocide, running cover for the war machine. Breakthrough has become the go-to outlet for those who want something different. But the funds we've used to start this platform are starting to run out. We'd never dream of turning to mainstream corporate funding. So, we're turning to you. Become a patron. For as little as $a month, you can become an essential part of our fight to not just break through the mainstream media, but create something that can challenge it. We have to become completely viewer supported or this platform we've built could go away. Don't just watch us, join us. You've also spent time in South Lebanon. Uh I believe you spent time there both during before the last huge escalation in and after. And of course, we're seeing another massive escalation on Lebanon now. Um, and I'm just curious like are there any kind of similarities you see in the kind of destruction uh that the Israelis exact uh against their enemies in in these places? Yeah, I was in uh actually I was in Palestine in Ramadan in It was about months into the genocide. I was in South Lebanon uh four times during the hot war, the first phase from October to I think November it was. Um and based on what I was reading in the press uh in the weeks leading up to my uh departure for Iran, I expected to see that level of destruction in Tehran. Uh it's nothing like what was done to Gaza and what has been done to South Lebanon. the level of destruction in uh Iran. I mean, if people weren't actually taking me to sites that they knew had been destroyed, I might have gone an entire uh week or days, however long I was there, without seeing anything destroyed. Oh, interesting. Yeah, is a big number. And there's no doubt that they're destroying uh they're committing war crimes all over the country, but Iran is a huge country. You know, if you think about it, there there's probably to million civilian units, commercial and residential, in that country. The population is over And the government reports that the current number of buildings that have been destroyed or damaged, not destroyed necessarily, but damaged, is in the range of You're talking about less than % of the civilian infrastructure. That doesn't mean it's not criminal. That doesn't mean that they aren't causing tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars of damage. It doesn't mean they aren't murdering civilians. They're doing all of those things, but this is nothing like what they've done to Palestine and uh and Gaza and and and I'm I'm sorry and South Lebanon. Now, with time, if this war goes on long enough, maybe they'll be able to pull that off. But I'd be very surprised that and it's just some practical reasons for this. One of which is Iran is a much bigger country. Number one. Number two, unlike Lebanon which has the misfortune of being situated beside this genocidal maniac, uh Iran is, you know, a long distance away. And uh thirdly, uh they are conducting these strikes at a time when their munitions have been heavily depleted because they've expended so much of them on uh the Ukraine war, the people of Palestine, and the people in South Lebanon uh and in Beirut. So, uh, for all of these reasons, their ability to inflict comparable levels of damage on Iran is highly constrained. Uh, and the reason why I'm saying this, I again, I really don't want anybody misinterpret what I'm saying here. I'm not trying to diminish the suffering of the Iranian people or the gravity of these crimes one iota. The reason why I'm saying this is because there's this narrative, you know, that Iran's being carpet bombed and they're reeling and they're devastated and this creates a sense of impending doom. uh for the Iranian people. And I got none of that when I was there. What I saw were people who were proud. I saw people who are determined to fight to the death. I saw people who feel that they're winning this war. Uh and uh I don't think that the narrative we're getting in the West and sadly sometimes in the alternative media about how Iran is being destroyed. Um sometimes that isn't helpful uh to the morale of the resistance. I think we need to be step back and say actually the situation for Iran is not quite as grim as they claim it as as you know its enemies claim it to be. You know I think it's interesting too because when you look at the numbers um I I believe the death toll in Iran has hit just like a little over maybe which is a lot of people. Um I'm not suggesting that's not a lot of people but Iran is a country of million right? Um, and then I look at the death toll in Lebanon, which is over Not that much less than what's happened in Iran, but Lebanon's a country of million people. So just by that alone, you can tell there is definitely a more severe destructive aggression that's being carried out in a place like Lebanon that's so much smaller uh than Iran, which is so much bigger. And I know also Iran does have air defenses that are still functioning to some degree at least at least according to my friends in Iran um that hear explosions in the air. So not every single American and Israeli missile is necessarily making it through. But all you know regardless I I think that's those are really really important points you make and I you know I want to ask you while I still have you Dimitri um about Lebanon uh because you have reported from Lebanon and I'm just curious you know you mentioned that you were you know in Iran uh visiting these sites where the Israelis had and Americans had clear committed clear war crimes uh when you got the news about the uh Israeli deliberate assassination that they gloated about of almanar journalist Ali Schwe and also of um al maden journalist fat mafuni and her brother Muhammad. Uh and so I don't know I'm not sure if you had ever or met any of them. Um regardless of whether you did or not you can you can let me know if you have any anything you want to say there. I'm just curious of of of your thoughts on that given that you have spent time with the Lebanese press um and in your time in Lebanon. I did not know them personally, but I've met many fine journalists, wonderful journalists like yourself and Ana in Lebanon. And uh I think that the journalists of Lebanon, the resistanceoriented journalists, let me be clear about that, are an exemplar for the global journalistic community. I mean, these people inspire me every single day. And of course, I say the same thing about the journalists in Palestine. These people, they they they just put to shame the entirety of the Western Corporate Media Corps. uh you know they to the idea that they're still going out there day after day after day under fire you know under the guy under under the watch of Israeli drones doing their job reporting on the front line telling the stories of their people who are being massacred day after day with total impunity is a marvel to behold and here I can tell you when I was in Adan the level of admiration uh that the people have for the journalists in Lebanon in uh and Palestine is really something not just amongst people in state media but amongst the general population. Um you know when I was I I I got a lot of grief when I was in Iran from uh you know people from the Iranian diaspora who support the sha uh who wanted their governments uh their their their country to be bombed by these maniacs. I got grief from some people in the corporate media uh for being in Iran. And uh one of the uh one of the claims that was being made was that uh the level of uh censorship in Iran is so extreme that there's no point from reporting on the ground. And there was an excellent uh analysis of this claim done just recently by fairness uh in accuracy and reporting or fair. And what they noted was that the New York Times has uh I don't know a dozen correspondents on the ground in Israel and doesn't have a single person in uh in Iran. Well, uh this has led some people to speculate that they can't get visas. Oh, contr. We ran into on several occasions a a photojournalist from Reuters and there was a CNN journalist who has been in the country and in fact he's quoted in this fair article and he says yeah there were some restrictions but I there was nothing I uh wanted to cover and wasn't able to cover. That's exactly what my experience was. And people say one of the most obnoxious refrains I've had to live I've had to deal with over the last uh you know days on social media was you know you have access to the internet. Uh the people of Iran don't have access to the internet. That why are they giving you access? They're giving you access because you're a mouthpiece for the regime. Uh this is all bulocks. Okay. And I can I can tell you personally, I have a friend named Sarah who uh Sarah in and of herself is a very interesting person. She was born in Iran. She immigrated to Canada. She's secular. She was she's very progressive and she decided because of some ch profound changes that were happening in society a couple of years ago to return uh to Iran uh and left Canada where she says she was feeling dispirited. She's talked openly about this and she recently published a video about this whole notion that Iranians don't have access to the external internet. She said that's bullock. She doesn't have any special privilege. What she has is a VPN. Okay, she uses her. There's an internal internet which everybody can use without restriction. And if you want to access the outside world, you have to get a good VPN. And she says it's hit and miss. There's some days it works and some days it doesn't work, but you can do it. and she's been using that VPN to report to the world what's being done to her country. So in fact, the Iranian people do have access to the internet. It is more uh difficult uh than it is for us living in the west, but they still do. And at the end of the day, um what is the worst form of censorship? The worst form of censor censorship in my view, hey, maybe I'm a simpleton, is mass murdering journalists and ain't being done by Iran. This is something that the Israelis are doing throughout the region and particularly in Palestine and Lebanon and they're doing it with total impunity. The people who are condemning Iran censorship have done absolutely nothing to hold Israel accountable in the corporate media for its mass murder of journalists uh in this region. So the idea that Iran is more sensorial than Israel, are you kidding me? I mean, even in Germany now, they're like subjecting people who are critical of the government and of Israel to crushing economic sanctions. They're destroying their lives and they're criticizing Iran's censorship. Give me a break. Yeah. And when you talk about killing journalists, I mean, over in Gaza alone. Um, I think we're up to in Lebanon since since October I mean, and just openly gloating about it at this point because they've gotten away with killing so many. um and photoshopping images of of Ali Schwe in a military fatigues to justify saying he's a soldier when he's been in front of a camera this entire time with a microphone in his hand. Just disgusting disgusting behavior. Lastly, Dimmitri, I want to ask you, you know, you are Canadian. Um and uh I know you're also Greek, uh but you know, uh and I you know, I like to claim Greek as part of the Mediterranean Mediterranean people. So, I'm not going to give that to Europe. Um, but in terms of being Canadian and and and you know, being from North America and uh and like understanding the culture and the sentiments uh there, um, you know, I'm I'm curious, you know, I assume you're the reason you went to Iran was to see for yourself, as you've as you've done as a journalist in other parts of the region, what's going on and to to hopefully try to educate people who are a part of these societies whose governments are carrying out this aggression. So, I'm curious, you know, what is the main thing you want people to take away from your coverage uh of Iran specifically, you know, those who you're speaking to who can like relate to how you speak um and your ability to communicate it back to them. These people don't want war. They're not inherently violent. The Iranian people are peaceful, hospitable people, a very humane people, a very generous people. This has been my uniform experience of people inside Iran and you know dealing extensively too with people in the Iranian diaspora who do not support in any way, shape or form Trump, Netanyahu or the Sha's son. Uh they are a people of uh ancient vintage, a civilization of great renown and they deserve their rightful place in the world. You know, one of the questions I was asking myself when I was there, why is this country considered to be a lesser power than countries like Germany or countries like uh Britain or France or the United States? This is an this is a thousand-year-old, you know, thousands of years there has been a civilization. They've experienced every manner of tragedy, uh every manner of crisis, every manner of invasion. They've survived it all. Uh they um to this very day they have a a country that's larger territorially than uh uh any European country. It's basically as big as Western Europe. A population of million bigger population than any western European country. They have massive resources by any rational measure. Rana this country should be considered a greater power a more important country. And personally I feel that all human beings are equal. So I don't want to suggest that anybody from any country is less important than anybody else. What a wild what a wild thought. Yeah. All human beings regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, let me be clear of equal value, equal importance, all life is sacred. But if you're going to talk about geopolitical power and stature, the rightful place of Iran in my view is somewhere between Germany and let's say Russia. just looking practically speaking and historically at the country's accomp and and it's techn I didn't even mention the technological prowess of this country is really quite impressive when you consider what they've done despite all of the sanctions so it's time for us to stop looking at the people of Iran and this country as some kind of a a leper as as inferior as primitive uh it is a nation that deserves our respect and what I would say to people out there who have any doubts about what I have had to say about Iran is go to the country and see it with your own eyes. If you're not willing or able to do that during a time of war, hey, I get it. But when the war is over, go to this country and see it with your own eyes. Educate yourself about this country because it deserves our respect and our admiration. Well, Dimitri Lasceris, uh, journalist, lawyer, and host of Reason to Resist, I want to thank you for coming on Breakthrough News, uh, to break all of this down and tell us about your observations. Really appreciate you. Thank you for the chance to share what I saw.
Iran's Missiles SMASH Israel, Trump's Bluff CALLED w/ Patrick Henningsen & Col. Larry Wilkerson Danny Haiphong April 2, 2026
Geopolitical analyst and war reporter Patrick Henningsen and former Chief of Staff to the State Department Col. Lawrence Wilkerson join to react to Trump's war address and Iran's stunning response as the war takes a turn for the worst for the US and Israeli warmongers.
Transcript
Welcome everyone. Welcome back to the show. It's your host Danny Hiong. I am joined here by uh Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colon Powell and retired Army Colonel and Patrick Hennington, independent journalist and geopolitical analyst for st Century Wire. Gentlemen, thanks so much for joining me today. Good to be today. Great to be with you, Danny. Yeah. Well, let's get started. So, uh I know you two probably have heard the war address of Donald Trump uh in the last hours overnight and where he declared that there will be at least two to four more weeks of fighting. The markets are going crazy right now. But one of the stark things that I found to be very surprising was or at least not surprising at all but maybe comes to a shock to the US's uh war machine is that as Donald Trump was saying that missiles are done, Iran's missiles are done, its navy is done, its army is finished. Uh Iran launched one of its biggest missile strikes on Israel and the rest of the region of the Gulf uh the rest of the Gulf region overnight as Donald Trump's speech was uh coming, you know, was about to happen and afterward. So here's just one report from Fox News as Donald Trump's speech was about to happen. Pounded by Iran. The Supreme Court. Israel is being pounded by Iran. Sirens sounding over Tel Aviv as a barrage of missiles hit the nation. Let's bring in Jonathan Hunt with more. Jonathan Kaylee. Israel in general and Tel Aviv in particular have been under almost constant bombardment throughout the day today. uh one of the most intense bombardments in fact since the very early days of this war. Uh just about an hour ago we had an hourong series of sirens. We watched as the interceptors uh were launched from this area uh at those missiles which came in one after another after another. So and here's just uh some of the results of that. that in Benre there was a major sewage disaster that was caused by these missile strikes and maybe I can start with you Patrick you know your impressions I can play a little bit later uh the biggest part of the speech which was his announcement of how long this war would go from here but ultimately what is your impressions of not only uh Donald Trump's speech but also how Iran has responded and behaved before and during and after a loss for words at this point. So, it's just uh flip-flops by by by the day, flip-flop flip-flopping by the hour. It was only a couple of days ago we had this vaunted point or whatever peace peace proposal ultimatum uh and that just sort of you know slipped off the news cycle and then some another announce is made and you know when you take over the national airwaves uh to you know the president to make some kind of a major address um one expects that when the president does that that there'll be something of substance that he's going to share with the uh American people some kind of a announcement or some sort of major policy announcement or declaration of something or rather um but he didn't say anything that we hadn't heard a times before uh in the usual waffling uh manner you know this this was the most incoh the president of the United States his his addresses are getting increasingly incoherent uh it's very hard to follow his line of thinking if there is any line of thinking uh to follow there. It reminds me of that scene out of Apocalypse Now where Martin Sheen's character was uh talking to Colonel Curts and Colonel Curts says to Martin Sheen, "So, uh what do you think of my methods?" And Martin Sheen looks at him, he says, "I see no method, sir." Uh that's kind of the feeling I get with Donald Trump, completely lost in the jungle uh in his own sort of delusional world. And you know, if you want to pick a apart the lies on this, Danny, I mean, we could we could go back to his his recollection of history is quite amazing that he says that the United States was uh in the Vietnam War for years. I think I let I wrote it down. years uh months and days. And you know what? I was like, where did you get that figure? And I thought, wait a minute, Steven Miller or whatever is writing this speech. So, I just should I should just go to Wikipedia because that's probably where they got they get their numbers from. And if if it's if I'm not mistaken, the US official involvement or combat operations in Vietnam began after the Gulf of Tonkan incident. And so I believe that was and uh hostilities ended with the Paris Accords, March th, Uh so really it wasn't years President Trump. It was by my estimation years, months and days. But then again I'm not qualified enough to be writing speeches for the president of the United States. So what would I know? And I could go on. The other one was the you know Wikipedia. Basically all of these were gleaned from Wikipedia. So it pre the president's uh point was, "Hey, stop complaining about this war. World War I and World War II, Korea, Vietnam were much longer. This has only been days." So he's almost browbeating the American public in a kind of very uh crass uh strange type of way. That's kind of a joke really at this point. I mean, it it it doesn't really dignify any response the speech that he gave. and and also I mean he he said that uh you know it's the same thing uh the justifications for the war and I'll be brief okay and h uh hand over the the to to Colonel Wilkerson but he said that Iran is the number one state sponsor of terror this is a complete lie this is straight out of the Israeli lobby talking points memo it's repeated at nauseium by every US politician and media outlet is simply not true uh he said that uh uh Iran is uh killed the American soldiers in the Beirut Marine barracks bombing in Ostensibly, that's assuming that this Hezbollah did that. Hezbollah didn't have uh didn't announce a formal organization, didn't have a manifesto until Okay, the context is important. Israel was occupying South Lebanon and the US were militarily occupying Lebanon and US naval destroyers were shelling uh targets within Lebanon at that time. So those were Lebanese resistance factions, whatever name you give them. And the other one is IED roadside bombs in Iraq. Iran slaughtering our soldiers. No, those were Iraqi resistance. Mind you, me some of the Shiite resistance that were armed and trained by the United States military. Okay, so these weren't Iranians and America did illegally invade and occupy Iraq. So our soldiers were there illegally under a fake uh justification of WMDs. And then he has his own WMD fraud, which is that Iran was an imminent threat weeks away from a nuclear weapon. Another WMD fraud. every single bit of Trump's case of why Iran is evil. Uh that there is state sp number one state sponsor of terror. No, the United States is the number one state sponsor. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, these are the number one. Israel, these are the number one state sponsor of terror on the planet. Not Iran. Iran was fighting our terrorists. Kasamsulammani was fighting our terrorists. Hezbollah were fighting terrorists that we armed, that we uh uh backed, that we financed in Syria, in Iraq. Okay, that's a fact. So the the lies that the US rests its imperial narratives on are just breathtaking. And very few people, especially in our media, the New York Times said, "These are our takeaway points from Trump's speech." They didn't refute any of the lies practically that the president said. So there's our mainstream media. So, what what what good is what good is any of this really? Yeah, great points, Patrick. I think it's a a great foundation. And uh Colonel Wilkerson, you know, it seems when Donald Trump was talking uh last night, uh he was essentially making conclusions that in effect Iran uh called bluff on even before you had Pzeskin, president of Iran, releasing a letter just giving the facts, a lot of the facts of which uh Patrick and both of you have come on this show and talked about in terms of the root causes of this war. But nonetheless, Iran has responded in a big way. It doesn't seem like it is militarily defeated one bit despite the fact that the the US and Israel, especially the US and Donald Trump are saying this is going to be over in two to four weeks. What's your reaction to the speech and uh to the battlefield realities and if there's a gulf between those two things, no pun intended, I guess. Actually, I had the speech summed up for me uh and it was a very brief summary. It didn't need to be very lengthy. At about a.m. this morning, I didn't watch it. Didn't want to. couldn't stand it. Um, and then I decided I would tune over to whatever Iranian spokesperson I could find that might either be almost simultaneously, near simultaneously responding to the speech or giving me a broader tapestry. And lo and behold, what did I find? uh next to Sergey Lavough and Wongi in China probably the best diplomat in the world right now under the press of events you could say he had to be but I think he is Aragchi Abbasi talking at great length on Alazer English a nice choice that Alazer English even though he decided to speak in Farsy and therefore the translation slowed things down a bit, but made me listen a little bit more intently. And I listened to a man destroy Donald Trump, destroy Steve Whit, destroy Jared Kushner, destroy BB Netanyahu. Not with bombs, not with bullets, bayonets, none of that. He destroyed them with words. Words that rang true, words that were resolute, words that said what was happening right now, words that said Witkoff has not talked to a single Iranian period. Now go back and look at that cabinet meeting where Witkoff in his sycopency is trying to impress Donald Trump as much as possible and telling him about all the things that they did and that they came to know fruition. Well, they came to no fruition basically because he didn't talk to a single solitary Iranian. He talked to Pakistanis. He talked to Omanis and others who were offering their good offices and maybe a third or fourth level intermediary. He never talked to any Iranians and Aragchi simply just blew him out of the water on that and of course consequently Trump out of the water on that. Then the thing he did was express what Iran's and implied that they had delivered this however um telephonically by letter by email whatever just by saying it in the councils of government whatever they had delivered what are their conditions for this war's cessation and they are straightforward they are very logical they are very understandable especially given what Patrick just said about our fault in all of this and they are clear. Um, and basically what they say is that little vermin known as Israel and its big daddy have to stop. Period. They have to stop. And maybe there's some other things like reparations even and some other things that have to flow out of that, but they have to stop. um they went well beyond the five-point plan of the Chinese and the Pakistanis articulated a few days ago, but he's very adamant about it and I think he's being straightforward. He's being a diplomat. He's being honest and he's telling the world and Donald Trump, if Donald Trump will listen, which I doubt, precisely how Iran sees this. And they're not going to stop until the last Iranian is dead or these conditions are met. Take that, Donald Trump. Yeah. Now, and Patrick, I'll just pull up uh the shape of everything that happened uh surrounding this speech uh in terms of Iran's uh military uh uh you know, targeting its strikes uh you know, multiple waves. Of course, we have uh the missiles fired at Israel, uh Qatar, Amazon data center in Bahrain, which Iran claims has been destroyed. uh and more than missiles and rockets fired from Hezbollah. And then uh I want your reaction to this, Patrick. Uh here is what the United States is doing uh in response to this speech. Uh Donald Trump is gloating about the bombing of a very an important bridge that was just about to uh be completed called the Vbridge. And here he is gloating about it. The biggest bridge in Iran comes tumbling down, never to be used again. It's time for it to make a deal, Iran to make a deal before it's too late. So there you have the contrast. Uh Patrick, uh react to uh uh what you uh you know what you find important about this development, these developments. Oh yeah, Patrick doesn't mind for just one sec because you mentioned Bahrain. Let me point out another thing that just indictes Rubio and Hexath. They ought to be frog march to the guillotine. people, most of them sailors, just arrived in Norolk. They had a bag in their hand. In that bag were whatever sundaries they could throw in them, whatever valuables, just a tiny bag. Now they are thrown on the Navy's uh responsibility in Norolk. You know who's taking care of these people? The citizens of NOFK, Hampton Roads, Chesapeake. They just no one told them. And they came to Bahrain after that. devastating hit on the main facility, the refinery. They came to Bahrain and said, "Throw everything you can in a bag. This is as big a bag as you can take and get out of here cuz we're putting you on a plane. We're taking you out of here." That's how we evacuate. I'll bet you that's going on all across the region. Yeah. Yeah. Patrick, uh, step in. What What was your question before, Danny? Oh, just I wanted your reaction to the contrast there. You have Donald Trump gloating about the destruction of a major Iranian bridge last hours, especially after a speech. I believe that happened. And then uh Iran's list of just what it's still targeting despite the claims that Iran is uh finished. Well, the on the Iranian side hitting Israeli u another barrage uh hitting Israel. I mean, that just kind of speaks to the uh ridiculousness of uh the claims uh from from the president. But what what's more telling is the fact that Iran timed that missile barrage uh right at the end of Trump's uh national address which was uh in a way you know the Iranians have are very sophisticated in their ability to troll to troll the US and the west not just in the social media but also on the battlefield as well. So they're making a a real statement there and and that I think that was devastating for uh people in Israel. Uh again, where is Benjamin Netanyahu amongst all these barges? He seems to be uh missing most of the time. Uh you know, where exactly is he uh you know what, uh you know, what what is the true situation of the the political situation in Israel? So the on the bridge uh I mean that that's that type of bridge that type of stansion suspension bridge is the only one of its kind uh in in Asia I believe or it's it's one of the the the greatest engineering works of engineering of its kind in all of Asia. And so what what do the US have to do is just destroy it. It's not a military bridge. That's a civilian bridge. um it's probably going to create a lot of disruptions uh in terms of people needing to get there's a reason they built a bridge over that sort of terrain obviously like any other place in the world but it's just kind of petulant attitude by and this kind of arrogant uh I I don't know sort of evil I guess attitude by the president and this administration is that they're just going to wreck Iranian society. They they said it they said it out in the open. and they said, you know, we're we're going to make this uh country unable to function uh as a country. And and they're they're justifying this by claiming it's it's this is backstopped by the lies which I said at the beginning, which is that Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Ergo, this attack falls under the general banner of the global war on terror. Iran being the worst antagonist in this story. I mean, that's how they package it. That's how they justify it, you know. Anybody pushing back or resisting Israel in the region is labeled a terrorist. And I'm telling you right now, this is the biggest problem in the international system. Now, this this label has been abused. It's been used and abused. It's an arbitrary definition. It's practically meaningless at this point. It should be anyway, but it's used it's being used to justify the worst war crimes that we uh some of the worst war crimes of the modern era. It's being used to justify ethnic cleansing in in not just in Gaza, but also now in South Lebanon. Whole villages have been raised to the ground. Towns have been erased this week in South Lebanon. And Israel's openly calling for the forced ethnic cleansing under threat of death. That's exactly the same uh uh deal that they were giving Palestinians in Gaza Lee. So, but it's justified because they're claiming that these are terrorist targets in South Lebanon, claiming Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. Well, it can be politically proscribed as a terrorist organization by Israel. And the lobby can pressure the US to do the same, listed as a terrorist organization, pressure the British government, which they do, pressure the European Union, which they have to to say the Hezbollah, the IRGC, Hamas. These are not expeditionary terrorist organizations by any stretch of the imagination. Nothing near al the al-Qaeda and ISIS variety which somehow end up with US arms weapons uh in the case of Syria directly funded by by our own governments. Okay. Nothing like that. Nothing like that. But it's being used to justify the most horrific crimes against humanity. and it's being used to justify the beginnings or at least I would say we're we're well into a third world war if this continues uh at this rate in the Persian Gulf all based on this terrorist label. So to I I'm I'm very pragmatic. I like to go to the source of I like to look for the mechanism of in in at least when looking at international relations that is the mechanism because that's backstopping all these policies which are hugely destructive. So that that and I I might add Pete Hegsth tweeted out, I don't know if you have that one handy, Danny, but he said, "Back to the Stone Age. this our our self-styled uh secretary of war who uh ceremoniously got kicked out of the DC National Guard uh has a incredible wrap sheet uh and resume that certainly would disqualify you for any cabinet position but somehow uh all of our senators uh voted to confirm him for that position which I can't imagine why they would do that. I can't imagine which lobby in Washington instructed our US senators to confirm Pete Hegsth as a secretary of defense. So just let's just remind Pete that when Cyrus the Great or inscribed on Cyrus's cylinder uh the first declaration of human rights that was BC. So where was Europe at BC? I think Europe was living in caves with foraging and doing other things to try to survive. Uh basically that's what Europe was doing at BC. So, you know, lecturing the Iranians about civilizational issues coming from Pete Hexath of all people or from the United States, full stop. Um, this is not going to deter the Iranians. Let me tell you that bridge, I'll tell you right now, if it's not this year, if it's not in years, that bridge will be rebuilt. And everything else inside Iran will be rebuilt. They just bombed the pharmaceutical manufacturers just in the last hours inside Iran. Why are they doing this? Because and Iran's steel manufacturers. Iran's going to get steel. Guess who's going to provide steel for to the Iranians now? China, Pakistan, they're going to they're they're going to get their steel, but the US and Israel want to destroy all of their import replacement, all of their sanctions busting uh domestic industries. That's why they're they're they're trying to punish them for daring to daring to have a domestic uh industry and and put import replacements in to bypass US sanctions. So there are no more military targets per se. So now it's all just civilian industry and just punishing them. And and the last thing I'll say, and I I I think I probably said this before, but I'm sure um Larry uh probably may or may not have recommended these books in the syllabus to his students, but uh the great scholarly works on sanctions, very very simple game theory, including Daniel Dresnner's excellent book called The Sanctions Paradox that maps out every single case study of any situation where you're threatening the other side with physical physically threaten the other side. Zero compliance. Zero comp. The your target will not comply to your demands if there is an implicit threat or the belief that there will be more threats coming or threats of physical violence or or force in the future. Zero compliance. You're not going to get a deal. You can't bomb your way to a deal. That's not me saying that. If I'm advising the president, I just look at the uh the research, the academic literature and say, how is this different from every other hundred cases in the last uh years? It's not. This is human nature. This is this what is this what international relations as a field of study is designed for. So you can predict how states are going to behave in situations and be advised accordingly. That's the whole reason why this exists and it's this is lost on these people uh in the White House right now. Or it's not. Maybe it's not and they're just sadistic. I I I don't know. I think you may be stumbling on to some truth there. Yeah, I think. Colonel Wilkerson, uh I want to hand it to you. Uh but before I do, I want to just make sure to note that uh uh to Patrick's point about Pete Hegth, and this is what's so striking is that uh all of Trump's uh administration, they're just just yesmen. They're just uh repeating what he says. They're repeating any anything he does, anything he says, they're just going along and they're repeating it because Donald Trump in that speech said exactly what Pete Hexath decided to tweet out uh directly after it. Here is here is that very shortly we are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks we're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong. So the back to the stone ages where they belong, Colonel Wilkerson, but the problem with this and to Patrick's point, I'll get your reaction to it is uh the economist is reporting that Iran Iran is now earning nearly twice as much from oil sales each day as it did before the US and Israeli bomb started following at the end of February, February th. It may be pummeled on the battlefield, but it is winning the energy war. Oh, sorry about that. Hold on one . I got to get rid of this. I got to add this. So here it is. There's the quote from the economist. And of course, it's the economist. I wouldn't be so sure that it's being pummeled Iran is necessary being pummeled on the battlefield. But the point stands is that there are mainstream sources admitting that Iran is going to have revenue to be able to rebuild. The the problem is is uh it seems to be on the US side where uh there's a lot being lost and drained uh economically and militarily. Colonel Wilkerson, what's your reaction to this? Well, you could be saying that we're deepening our inability to end this conflict because one of the things that uh foreign minister she said was reparations. You're going to have to pay for all the destruction you've done particularly to those targets that are not war targets that are war crimes. You're going to have to pay to rebuild them. Now, I'm not saying for a moment that this country would do that, but I'm saying you are making your ability to end this conflict on some terms that might not be earthshattering very, very difficult. And let's just talk about that for a moment. Here's a president who says we get all our own oil, not through the straight of Hormuz, but elsewhere, meaning mostly we get it from the Peran Basin and other places like that in our own country. Um, I got news for him that didn't have much effect on the price of Brent or West Texas Intermediate and I would suspect it doesn't have much of an effect on prices of other commodities that come out of this trade or moves that the world is only now I think in many places learning about such as helium and ura and other things that are critical. You were talking about the straight up moves not being critical to the United States. You are full of it up beyond the top of your head, Donald Trump. Because what we're talking about is destabilizing the global economy to the point where we are almost right now by the definition of the term two quarters in a row in recession. You're talking about bringing about depression and not just depression here or there, but global depression. That's what you're talking about, Donald Trump. Now, I don't think he gives a hang, which is another reason why did test the man completely. Now, he has no positive redeeming characteristics whatsoever. and his Darth Vader. And for those of you who don't remember Darth Vader or never saw the movies, Darth Vader was the evil one for the Sith Lord in the Star Wars series. That's who Pete Hegseth is without the redemptive nature of having once been a Jedi Knight and therefore coming around at the end as it were. Pete Hegseth is just that kind of person without any redemptive qualities whatsoever. we are looking at and here's the thing I'll say to that condition that I just described as potentiality. I've seen the set of targets, regional targets the Iranians are looking at. I know what they're talking about. I know where they're talking about hitting. I know what from the first set of targets they hit they can do. I know the devastation. I know the accuracy. And I know the exquisite selection of targets that were struck to make sure that we and the regional powers knew that Iran was making every effort to hit the United States of America and in some cases like Prince Sultan Air Base, the people who were supporting those facilities for the United States of America. This set has no such inhibitions and I have no question in my mind that they can hit them and hit them with the incredible accuracy they did the first set and the incredible devastation. What am I talking about? I'm talking about Ros Tanura in Saudi Arabia with barrels per day production throughput capacity. I'm talking about the other one up the up the stream from it which produces % of the entire world's now light sweet and good crude that Libya is kind of out of the picture for many purposes. We're talking about % of the global supply coming out of that one place. All it would take is a strike like they put on Bahrain, maybe another missile or two. That's out. I'm talking about the pipeline that the Saudis have built to kind of obviate the need for the straight of Hormuz, although it doesn't do much of that, especially not with the Houthis having been at war with them for so long that goes over vicinity to of Jedha to the Red Sea. They're going to take that out. I'm talking about every target in the region that applies to what I just said. Global recession, depression, they're going to hit them. That's their tier. So, if we go on into this further, Donald Trump, you are going to set the world a flame economically and you're going to make a pariah out of the United States like Israel is now. And that's a position from which it is going to take maybe a generation if ever to recover. That's what you're setting up, Mr. President. Yeah. And Patrick, uh, to that point by Colonel Workers, I just want to pull up what Saudi Arabia is trying to do to bypass the restrictions that Iran has placed on the straight of Hormuz, its assert assertion of control. Uh here you have uh Saudi Arabia is trying to ship its oil now through uh the Red Sea of the Babe Strait. It has been doing so because Yemen has not closed it. But Yemen has said that they will close it should this war continue and to continue to escalate which economists are noting in the west Patrick would be uh one of the worst disasters maybe in the history of modern energy uh production and distribution. And Danny, I'll just add the capacity of what they're doing is about one quarter of what would normally be flowing through the straight. So even that's an economic setback. Yeah, definitely. So Patrick, uh your your thoughts, your reactions to this? Oh, sorry. Hold on one . The interesting thing about that east west uh pipeline, the petrol line pipeline there at the Yanboo, that uh port, that facility uh on on the Red Sea, uh as Larry rightly points out, it's only a fraction in terms of uh what it's able to deliver uh in terms of output that would normally go through. So it it could deliver at the moment like a one and a half million barrels a day or something like that at full capacity based on what it's currently uh uh tooled up to do. But you the shortfall on the global markets around uh million barrels uh that are not coming through uh the straits of Hormuse that would normally come through. But the the thing is that answer a lot of the Houthies have already targeted that port. Yeah. So I mean they've already proven Yeah. as Iran I believe earlier in the war but continue yeah years ago so a couple years ago so it's it's what the Houthies as the Americans call them and sir Allah um their capabilities today are much better than they were two years ago or three years ago so that that's an open target so this is it's already been proven that that can be taken out so why would Saudi Arabia want to put the money into upgrading that port facility to to use it for this great highpass, let's call it, uh if it that can be just taken offline literally in a day uh by by you know drones or missiles that and that's as as well Danny that Iran could target it as well. Um so in addition to all the important energy nodes that Larry uh mentioned there there's also the military modes. You know Iran has been very I would say they haven't been very heavy-handed on all US military positions uh in the region. I think they've done that out of deference somewhat to Saudi Arabia hoping to kind of appeal to Saudis uh you know better side uh and more reasonable side in all of this. So, there's that plus the two there's well there's there's one one major and one minor US military base within Israeli so-called territory. Okay. And and a lot of people aren't aware of that. The US did open a permanent military uh base inside Israel. I think they opened that in around there if I'm not mistaken. No. But that's not the one. The one is the what would also transform this geopolitically would be if Iran decided to and they can and they do have the range to hit Djibouti. Okay. And they could also if they want make life very uncomfortable for the UAE, the US, the British and the Israelis that are currently trying to hold Satra, which is a very important island. Uh they're just off the Gulf of Aiden that's nearly looking into the Babumandel Straits. It's strategically so important. um happens to be the eighth wonder of the world from a natural beauty point of view, but let's turn it into an aircraft carrier. But that's what that's what's happened. That's that land has been stolen from from Yemen and turned into a military base effectively. So, but that could easily come under threat. That would be huge for Analah. Uh if if they if this did if this did kick off in that way, um they would be looking to maximize um their strategic gains as a result of that. So there's a there's there's many many more US military targets in the region and all of this just makes life a lot more difficult to stage any major military operations uh in in the Gulf.
And I I wouldn't mind hearing uh Colonel Wilkerson's opinion on this, but uh what was all these announcements of the deployment of the nd Airborne uh and US Marine detachments and all of these troops that were supposedly heading for the Middle East? Was this uh just a faint or I'm just logistically uh uh Colonel looking at this and thinking where where how how in the world can you stage an operation in the region? Where are you going to stage it with this amount of troops? And you know because you need a staging you need places to stage the operations. You need fallback positions. You need logistical and supply lines. I I can't see where they have that uh with that. So I'm think what were these announcements really about? Right. I have to I have to imagine that it was probably mostly Hegseth. It might have been a little bit of Kane because as I once said to Coen Pow, we don't really ever want to have an Air Force officer as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He agreed with me and there's a reason for that because they don't understand ground warfare. But I've got to understand too, I hope that there are people around Kaine and on the joint staff in particular that understand these things. So, I have to look at most of these things, especially since I check with the MW and Naha, the forward deployed MEW and NA Okanawa. They hadn't even received a warning order at the time that HEG was announcing and others were announcing that they were on the move. They hadn't even got a warning order yet. I checked with the other MW on the I believe it was in Southern California at Pendleton or somewhere around there. Um, and they were alerted, but they didn't even have their ship yet. believe it was Tripoli E that hadn't showed up yet. In any in any event, it was quite clear to us who were most mostly military veterans who were looking at this across the globe that we were saying things that weren't true. We were marshalling forces that didn't even know they were being marshaled. And in one case, we were marshalling a landing platform that wasn't even floating. Um, so we got concerned about it. We started checking on the usual sources about, you know, anytime the nd is alerted, reporters usually know it because pizzas are bought, you know, and people are packing their bags and everything else. They watch Brag pretty pretty closely. Nothing was happening. Um, so that was the first thing. We didn't understand what was happening. Were we fainting? You know, fe i n t i n g. Were we deceiving? Was that what we were doing? or did these people at the top simply not know what they were doing? Stupid. We concluded it was possibly a little bit of both. The fainting on the military side and the not knowing what they're doing on the other side and and he says giving things to Trump like Trump gets given things by all of the sycopants around him. You know, you want some tariffs? Oh, I'll tell you the good tariffs to do. Do do these. That's Messen of course. So the phase we saw some actual movement of forces including platforms and then we been began to discover things like this. Uh okay that aircraft carrier has F-s on it. F-s aren't allowed on that carrier to fly in anything but the catapult mode and that carrier can't put them off in the catapult mode. Uh what's going on here? Why do we have aircraft incompatible with the flattop surf launching surface with those aircraft on it? Are they just transporting those aircraft to someplace? Are they going to put them on one of the marine LHAs or whatever that do have the platform and the the the deck that can withstand that uh downward pressure when it does a V style takeoff. All these things are coming together and telling us that one, Hexath is utterly incompetent and Cain may be in the boat with him there, too. And they aren't listening to other people who maybe are even doing what those sailors on Ford tried to do twice. Now, we've we've confirmed this. They tried to sabotage Ford with the sewage system first. That didn't work. So, then they started fires on Ford. And now Ford, of course, is out of combat. She's back headed for Norolk for probably a twoyear maybe three year maintenance. All to say we don't know what they're doing and we have no idea what the people who might be able to execute something like Delta Seal Team Six and so forth. The Rangers, the Washington Battalion haven't been alerted but not moved. Um are they going to try to seize? And there were some people who almost convinced me that they really were doing all this conventional force maneuvering so they could hide this very careful Venezuelaike operation with Delta in the lead and they were going after the uranium. And then we started looking at the weight of the uranium and what they'd have to have to carry that to get it out of there. All to say we're puzzled to say the least. We don't know what they're doing and and it looks very strange to us and it looks deadly if any of that coaleses around Carg or any of the other islands or for example no one's talked about this but the greatest onward movement and forward movement facility in the area used for both Iraq wars was in Kuwait. Well, Iran hit it. The buildings were burning. So, is that still a forward movement area for the United States in the region? It was the only one we had. We had one for Brightar in Egypt, but that's really too far away. And you're talking about ospreys that only have an operational range in this environment, probably about to miles. It's all strange. It's extremely strange. It looks like a lot of braggadocio without the operating forces to fulfill it. That's what it looks like. Yeah. Pat. Well, Patrick, anything in response to that? I mean, it's it right now we have a a major disaster on our hands. Uh oil after this speech, uh you know, dollars per barrel, we have prices going up, record prices for ground beef, uh shortages possibly in plastics, for water. Danny, when we did that simulation in Beijing I told you about a few months ago, it went to $before we were through. Yeah. And uh many observers, economists, they're saying that if it does get to that point, it will be an economic recession and uh the price increases we're seeing and the economic turbulence will be far greater than what's being experienced now. So Patrick, any any reaction to to what Colonel Wilkerson said in the midst of this disaster? um because I think it's being downplayed a bit even by those who uh you know are not for this war or even maybe downplaying it a bit because they're looking uh more I've been talking about this at the profits that are being made by US LNG companies etc. that might be masking uh a crisis that's bubbling. I don't know if you agree with that. F first I'll just quickly address the political dimension then then briefly the economic dimension and um I was just in uh I'm I'm in Arizona at the moment which is a purple state and I was in uh Texas uh this past week and I uh I went out and did some Vox pops and did a report for uh for a UK uh news agency UK column uh get getting the impressions of people on the streets. Now there Texas is is a big Texas is the hub of the US military-industrial complex. I mean it is the biggest military state has the most amount of veterans and pro maybe even probably the most amount of active duty servicemen living within the confines of this massive uh state. So I went out and talked a lot of veterans as well. And I was in Austin, greater Austin area, so Red Rock, uh, Georgetown, and it's mixed. Uh, but you know, a lot of Vietnam veterans I spoke to, some on camera, by the way, um, they absolutely do not support this president and what he's doing with this war in any way, shape, or form. And they absolutely despised Pete Hegseth. And this wasn't just one, two, and this wasn't just older Vietnam vets. This is also younger uh uh either formerly active duty uh late s early s. Uh one gentleman from West Virginia uh US Navy veteran told me that um his very good buddy and you know the this where the military get some of their best fighters is from the uh what they call hillbilly country. Okay. Uh ready to go into the Navy Seals. Um and he said this person was a physical specimen. um absolutely % Navy Seal quality and he basically when this war started this past four weeks he basically canceled it. He said I'm not going to I'm not going I'm not going into this organization. So I don't know what what this person's career is going to end up being like if it's going to be a military career at all but basically it was a turnoff. So this idea that the that the entire rank and file is somehow behind Pete Hexath and Donald Trump in this sort of aimless war is false. There's a lot of push back. There are a lot in the veterans community and in active duty as well just to add a little bit of extra receipts to what Larry was saying about the Gerald Ford or what you were saying as well Danny about the Gerald Ford incident. So that that's the first thing. Politically, the the political dimension. There's a lot of disscent in the ranks. MAGA is fracturing and the longer this goes on, um this is basically another nail in the coffin of the midterms uh coming up. And and that's just a fact. And they they've they've given the Democrats a great great campaign campaign platform uh with with this uh undeclared war of aggression. So that's the political dimension. on on the economic dimension. Uh aside from everything that's been said already, the fact is this and the straits of Hormuse, it's never going back to the status quo anymore. Whatever the previous world order was that governed how things work uh in that part of the world, it's not happening anymore. And and the other thing people don't realize which is quite shortsighted um and this might be too deep for the MAGA the MAGA mind. Okay, I might be going too deep here, but why why would Jeff Besos and Mark Zuckerberg and Google be putting these massive data centers in the Middle East? Because let me tell you the cost of air conditioning alone. And I can tell you because they're doing the same thing uh in Arizona and they're very expensive to maintain because of the heat. Okay, why are they doing that? Why? Because that's where the energy is. That's where the energy is to provide the base load of power for those energy-intensive industries like AI and massive sprawling data centers. That's why Iran is targeting those uh Amazon cloud facilities in Bahrain most recently as well as in the UAE and other places. It's be that's where the energy is. So this idea that Trump's saying like oh we don't need to worry about the oil in the Middle East. We've got we've got more oil. I can tell you that much more than anybody has ever seen before. Uh, no, that's not true. It's a global market. The price of oil is global and the energy intensive industries are were based there, but they're not going to anymore. This is a new order in the Persian Gulf. So, business as usual, it's not going to continue. Um, so have they thought all of this out because this is transformational. So there there's so many different aspects of this economically that are very very hard to calculate and to predict until we get into the cycles of cause and effect. And we're getting into those now. And and and we probably not going to see the downstream effects of a lot of this stuff for like six or months. So it's not just about the stock market and the price of oil. There's a whole bunch of other things um to to consider here. Not only that, it's it's going to have to change the Gulf states that are that are not going to get on board with uh normalizing relations with Iran and then reconsidering their position with Israel and the US. Um I I'm going to tell you right now, and I've worked in I've been in the Gulf. I've worked in the Gulf. I've traveled through the Gulf and the Middle East, and those regimes are not going to last a long time because there there'll be no place. they they can't fight wars. These these uh family tribal monarchies that that run these countries, I mean Saudi Arabia is is a country named after a family. I mean where this is just so it it's all very tenuous. Their whole existence there is completely tenuous and completely reliant on things like desalinization plants importing uh uh slave labor from from India, Bang Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and the Philippines like and the management class from Europe and and you're they're totally propped up by European uh uh international corporations and the people who work for those corporations. They can't exist. They can't have the modern economy that the Gulf's been uh marketing to the world. Come bring your DFI to us. They're trying to build financial capitals uh to look past their oil future to become sort of, you know, Singapore style mercantile style financial hubs. That all is not going to happen anymore unless there's a chance it could, but they're going to have to partner with Iran. They're going to have to be have normalization relations with Iran. Otherwise, there they will not have a future. They are literally one uh you know incident or one missile potentially away from uh a coup or the US listened they're they're not they have no love for these in Israel. They have no love for these uh Gulf monarchs. They can remove them like this. And if they do, they they could do a military coup in any of these countries just like that. And that's it. They're gone. They're off to Paris or London or uh Los Angeles or wherever they're going to end up. And then they'll be the US and Israel will manage a military uh dictatorship. That's that that's what's going that's what will happen. So it I'm just saying it's it's uh they don't really have a future there. They could, but the window of opportunity for them to make a decision on that will be closing rapidly, I think. Colonel Wilkerson, I know you have another appointment, so I want to give you the final word. Uh, but Danny, you were talking about, weren't we talking about before we went on the air the maps that show how the Gulf States have switched their priorities. Now, they're going across Syria and up. They're eliminating Israel completely. No pipelines are going to flow across Israel. No pipelines are going to pump into Israel. Um, and from what I'm hearing from the multinationals who have been fighting this business with the Kurdistan oil versus the Iraq oil and now finally came to a deal that apparently Baghdad accepts and so they're willing to come back in again. They're telling me the same thing. The pipelines are not going to go the way the pipelines were envisioned. The pipelines are going to ostracize Israel completely. That's the end of Israel. it. I think it's there already anyway. As a Jewish state, it's not going to continue to exist. It might be able to exist as a state that is democratic, genuinely democratic, and has both Palestinian, Arabs, Christians, and Jews in it, and treats them all roughly the same. But that's going to be a real real hard road to hoe for these core Jews in Israel who still to this day may abominate Netanyahu but love what he's doing to the Palestinians and want him to continue. Oh, by the way, he's not going fast enough. So this, as Patrick was saying, this whole region on an interim basis is going to change dramatically regardless. And on a long-term basis, these people are going to get rid of these regimes at some time. One wonders what will replace them, but nonetheless, I think they're going to get rid of them. So, it's a very dynamic region that's going to be even more dynamic as the time goes forward. And it's economic circumstances shift. The question in my mind is how badly are they going to be damaged by what is coming if Trump continues on this utterly idiotic path of ignoring everyone else because we are quote self-sufficient unquote and everyone else is not. That is not the case. Just take a look at the world, particularly from an economic perspective, and you can see that globalization, whether you like it or not, is a point of fact reality today. And when you disturb these supply lines, and you disturb them majorly and for lengths of time, you were asking for it. Well, Colonel Wilkerson, I know you have another appointment in just a few so I'll let you go. Thanks so much for uh joining today. Hey, I really appreciate it. Take care. Thanks for the chance. Of course. All right. Uh Patrick, I wanted to close maybe on this, you know, uh maybe we could talk about uh to end here the big implications, the global implications uh that you were beginning to touch on of uh this war that are not going the way the United States and Israel want them to go. Here's an Economist uh uh the newest Economist magazine uh cover uh never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake. Now, this is a meme actually. This is a a popular meme among younger people on X uh being shown here and uh with that quote that quote has been going around for quite some time over the last year or two. But nevertheless, uh this says a lot because uh we are in a moment, Patrick, where Iran is saying Oman and Iran are going to dictate terms from here on out for the straight of Hormuz. And that one of those terms Patrick is that these vessels are going to be settling now the tolls and also uh what they are bringing over uh to their respective countries in uh Chinese UN R&B which uh is a major development and all of this uh you know all of this I think is being ignored by the United States and Donald Trump as simply well we don't need the straight anyway which as Colonel workers you just said is folly it's a complete a completely misunder understands and and misinterprets uh their economic reality. So your reaction to this because this is becoming more and more of a talking point in uh financial circles, the elite circles uh this this kind of panic around uh how we have a new order that is starting that is through this war being able to assert more control rather than less control over global economic development. Yeah, I I believe that quote there sometimes, I might be wrong, attributed to uh Zanzu's The Art of War. Uh the the on the cover there. The other one was uh Trump Trump's Trump's uh meme on on the art of war is um if you don't have a plan or don't actually know what you're doing, neither does your enemy. That's the genius of uh of Donald Trump. Um no but all jokes aside it's uh uh so okay there is a power play uh from the US side here and and they are they are attempting to play that um to to to what degree of success that's another question but the power play is that by uh choking off Qatari LNG uh to the southern European conversion market uh that it's opened up an opportunity for an increased supply of US LG uh to that those European markets in the south uh that Qatar was servicing. Uh so and and that would be at a premium. So that would be sort of Nordstream pipeline part two basically. Uh so the US effectively would be engineering if they were successful uh would would be engineering pretty much a US monopoly of the supply of uh natural gas to to Europe aside from what Norway uh uh ships uh via its pipeline uh to to Poland. Um so that's significant because it gives the US incredible amount of leverage increasingly so over the uh the Europeans. Of course, the easy way for Europe to bypass that and to become like more independent would be to do a deal with uh with Russia. Uh, of course, but anyway, that's not going to happen because European Europe is not militarily occupied by Russia, but it's military occupied. Europe is occupied by the United States militarily. So, but but there's some fissures happening in there. The US is now talking about pulling out of its bases in Spain uh because Spain has denied it uh the facility to use those bases for launching uh bombing attacks uh on Iran. Uh so if that's the case, if they be if they come good on that threat, um the US bases in Spain are not trivial. the US bases in Spain at least the uh they have air force, they have uh I believe army but mainly air force and navy. Um and and in fact if our research on the Nordstream pipeline shows that the uh the sabotage of the Nordstream pipeline uh one of the main staging areas for the teams that did blow up the Nordstream pipeline NATO teams was ROA uh in Spain. So, so Spain is a a base of operations for attacking Europe for the United States technically if you want to look at it like that with the Nordstream pipeline. But hey, that's just our forensic research, all fact-based using drawing from open- source documentation and military documents and uh public statements and movements and so forth from the US military. So, uh what do we know? It's all published at st Century Wire. Anyway, um but uh but Italy is also uh now kind of throwing up uh resistance against Israel and uh and Maloney is talking about uh the possibility of economic sanctions or at least on the terms of military procurements th those classifications of goods with with Israel. So, uh, there's that. There's also a little bit of push back from Italy on the on the, uh, staging using Italy as a staging ground for US attacks on Iran. So, the European uh, sort of, you know, matrix, if you will, for the US and NATO is is has fissures in it. it is is breaking uh and not not just under the pressure from the Ukraine war but just now from this. So the general American attitude if you look at the statements from Trump and people administration it's you know saying that uh you know very we're very disappointed with NATO they haven't come they haven't come to our uh they haven't come to our aid and uh so you know why why not this is uh outrageous and you know we started this a war that that the US started and they're saying that somehow there's some article five um obligation to help the United States in a undeclared war of aggression. That's just kind of ridiculous. But that but that's the general thinking is they're scapegoating Europe. Donald Trump originally courted Europe. If you remember two weeks ago uh two weeks ago he courted Europe for why why did he do that? Why did he say come help me with the Straits of War Moose? Because the pressure the political pressure was getting too much and all the focus was on the United States. So they needed to pull in European uh accessories to the crime, if you will, to to to build out the operation in order to diffuse the focus on the US. They wanted to paint targets for Iran on European countries like Denmark, like Britain, uh whoever else. They need to send some navy down there to help open the straits because it's not our oil, it's Europe's oil. So why don't they uh take care of their own oil supplies? We we don't need the oil, says Trump uh in his speech again. Uh we've got plenty, the most in the world, in fact, ridiculous. So, what he's trying to bring Europe into to be to co-op them into this disaster, and also to paint targets on them because he knows that as soon as there's a European ship that gets hit or sunk, it's going to mobilize a lot of uh right-wing forces in Europe to be to sort of get on board with this war effort uh in the Middle East. build a coalition of the willing and here we are getting into sort of Iraq war uh kind of orientation now uh in So that's all that was that was for at the end of the day. So it's very disingenuous for the US to make these accusations at Europe talking about energy politics with Europe when the US through this war is trying to game the the supply of energy into Europe. And not only that, I don't know if you saw these reports, Danny, of the US making overtures to China about buying US oil. Yeah. And saying, "Hey, it's a shame what's happened here in the Persian. You we've got plenty of oil to sell you, China. Why don't you just buy it from us?" Um, obviously probably at a premium, I would imagine. So, so they're they're in their mind they're thinking we have the world's largest um proven or announced declared oil reserves. I don't think that's true, by the way. and and I think it's in certain countries interest not to declare their total reserves like Russia. Um but anyway that that somehow US can supply the world with energy by knocking out or taking control of and and there is a there is a a school of thought there. This is part of the conversation in the White House, Danny. It sounds imperialistic and bombastic, but this is what they're talking about. Yeah. So they they I don't think China would go for that in a million years become dependent on the US for energy. But that it's but they're going to try it because they believe that they have leverage and they believe that they could pull it off. Yeah. I mean just uh just even the the thought of it is uh it's just a bad deal. Russia's right there and hell Iran and and China right now are trading Iran is exporting its oil in massive numbers to China. I'm sure at a very uh very friendly price. Now Patrick, maybe we can close on your reactions to this because this is breaking news as we're talking about oil and this war. We have now the world's most important price for real world oil barrels has just surged to $the highest since And speaking of the impacts of this, Patrick, Amazon has just added a % fuel and logistics sir charge because of this and there are reports that fertilizers to plastics to all kinds of uh items across the supply chains. Uh these are all going to face massive price increases the longer this goes on. which goes to show that um the uh L the profits for the LNG companies and whatever you know Trump what they're thinking about raking in profits for them uh through this crisis doesn't necessar it isn't it not going to happen in a vacuum and certainly the uh damage from all of this is is not only going to affect them but it's also going to uh cause shock waves across the entire world economy. So, your final thoughts on uh on where we're at as we move into now week uh as we're finishing week five of this war. Well, what were the what were the campaign promises for Trump? I'm going to lower gas prices. No new wars. No more useless wars. Going to take care of America first. And so, we get the opposite. Higher gas prices and more wars. endless wars in fact and promises of more wars uh in the future. Um that's that's and the president's even come to to state publicly in the last hours. I did hear this correctly. He says we can't afford Medicare. Uh we can't afford these federal health care programs because we're fighting wars. So how many people do you think if that was his campaign pitch in do you think he would have got all those Thomas Massie Republicans? Do you think he would have got all those libertarians, the Libertarian Party that were staging rallies for Trump calling it uh what was it? Reclaim the Republic or I can't remember what it was, but those uh ridiculous rallies with Russell Brand and um whoever else. I can't remember. But you know, all those swing votes, all those independents, all those Ron Paul Republicans, they're they're they're all single-issue voters in America. Uh there's the anti-war vote. Uh and then the economic uh I mean what what what what's this president delivered economically besides announcements? He delivers announcements and and tweets. But the tariff wars I I think if the what is the object of the tariff wars? Was it to lower prices? Was it to bring home a manufacturing to the US? No, that's not going to happen. The only growth there seems to be is in uh you know that the the AI bubble which is in continues to inflate um but could very very well pop very soon according to a lot of experts um and and and data centers for the these uh this cartel of companies like you just mentioned Amazon. Amazon has such market control that they can levy attacks on right across the board. I mean it's kind of ridiculous. That's not how the market should work. But if you have a monopoly over a large portion of the market and not only that, Amazon has gifted the market itself by uh basically forcing companies, individual companies to to sell and market their product on Amazon and only on Amazon and and they have total control just like the supermarkets have total control over food producers and so you have the consolidation. So if if if the if this continues and there's going to be an economic contraction because that's what's going to happen with runaway inflation in this case and there's going to be a contraction in the economy. That means that there's going to be a throttling of consumer spending. Uh that means there's going to be ultimately a liquidity crisis and guess where the m but the the capital is going to end up going somewhere and it's going to be Howard Lutnik and all these Jared Kushner, the vulture capitalists and private equity. Uh the they're going to manage the uh the dismantling of large portions of the American economy and theme sector and so forth. And and guess what, Danny? That means the bailout's coming. The bailout's coming. Eventually, the bail there'll be a bubble that pops. If it's not the AI bubble, it's the new housing bubble that they're currently trying to inflate, right? And when that happens, it's going to be And guess what? Guess where the guess where the Fed is going to tell all these banks to to to to funnel all that money into into private equity. and you can have an inflation of stock prices because they're, you know, they've trimmed up all the non-performing assets off of the books and so the stock prices are doing great because they're turning a profit. So you you get again these artificial boom bus cycles that uh that that Trump and his Trump's base Trump will lose has lost the rust belt. He will lose the working class. He'll lose the independents. He loses the anti-war voters. Okay. His base is Wall Street, big oil and gas, big AI. Yeah. The Israel lobby. That's Trump's base. That's it there. There there's nothing left. That's that's his base. And anyone stupid stupid enough to be on the MAGA train uh at this point, uh you probably can't help you. And here is uh proof of what you just said, Patrick. Eying a $ trillion defense budget. Trump is um and proposing deep cuts to all other programs to fund military expansion, setting up a major budget battle for the midterms. It's already looking quite bad for uh Donald Trump and the Republican party given that the war on Iran has absolutely zero or at least it has very low popularity. it might as well be zero. But uh it it is hurting where it counts, which is independence and uh you know massive numbers of course of the opposition uh which usually means you're in rough shape from here on out. Uh and this Yeah. But but hey Danny, at least Tulsi Gabbard's having a positive impact and a positive influence. She might be gone. Uh we might not even finish. We might not even finish before this. She might be fired. She's still massaging his anti-war muscles in the background. That's what we're good cope. There's a lot of good cope going around uh on that one. So, yeah, it's all going to be good. Trust the plan. She's about to be doing that uh you know uh on on a on a tropical island somewhere because uh rumors are is that Donald Trump is uh Pam Bondi's gone and Tulsi Garber looks like she's going to be next. And for what? for, you know, absolutely nothing because she's done very little to push back. Well, the the value the value of her resignation, I mean, if she gets fired, that would be funny. Uh because she had a chance to actually resign with honor from that position when he when the president threw her under the bus a year ago when her her office uh pushed out an intelligence assessment saying Iran was not developing nuclear bomb. And that, ironically or not, that could have averted the -day war. and and we might not be having this conversation like we're having today. And that was all in the power of Tulsi Gabbard a year ago. And she chose her career over her principles. Quite frankly, I can't see another way to explain that. Uh but I'm sure it'll be in her memoirs. So yeah, you've got you've always got that. You've got the book and I'm sure it's going to be interesting. Yeah. Well, Patrick, this was great. We're going to head out together. I want to make sure everybody knows that both your Substack and st Century Wire YouTube channel are in the video description below. All the place support this channel are there as well. Anything you want to plug, Patrick, before we head out of here, I'll pull up the uh super chats. Uh, no. I just um if if people can uh find it in their uh time and heart to go to st centurywire.com, we uh in our YouTube channel uh absolutely if they can go and like and subscribe uh to our YouTube channel. We're heavily throttled on that platform. Heavily heavily throttled on YouTube. So, we need physical help. We need people to come hit our videos, hit the Sunday wire, like subscribe to our YouTube channel. That would make a world of difference. Yeah. Yeah, definitely definitely do that everyone. Uh because Patrick does uh great independent work. Hit the like button before you go. I'll be back tomorrow. And of course, all those things for to support this channel and to support Patrick's are in the video description. I'll see you tomorrow, pm Eastern time. I'll let you know what's going on. All right. Bye-bye. Thank you.
