minutes before 12. >> Hi everybody. Today's Wednesday, March 18, 2026 and our dear friend or brother Scott Raider is here with us. Welcome back Scott. >> Thanks for having me. >> Scott, let's start with the breaking news. The attack Israeli attack on South Pars and this is a refinery. They call it Aselu refinery and they have attacked the various phases the third the third, fourth, fifth and six and axis reported that they coordinated the attack with the United States before you know going that before doing this and what are we heading with the conflict with the war that is happening that's somehow escalating beyond because it's not just about oil refineries we can see dalination plants You can see all of these one of you know the most important infrastructures for the human being for the survival not just for living. What how do you see the war escalating? >> The Iranians first of all we have to understand that they've been um very open about what the consequences of actions will be. Um and so far they haven't bluffed. This is a death sentence for Saudi Arabian oil, um, for United Arab Emirate oil, Kuwaiti oil, Bahraini oil, any nation that played a role in this. And you can say it was an Israeli attack, but it was, as you say, coordinated with the United States. The United States is at a minimum cultable and um, you know, complicit. Um, so all the Gulf Arab nations that did this are going to pay an extraordinary price. Now maybe the Iranians will make an example of one until then tell the rest to you guys got to get this to stop or else we're taking everything out. Uh we're not doing the next attack we take everything out. But this one Saudi Arabia I'm sorry you lied to us. You let American airplanes in Europe we're and it need to erase Saudi Arabian energy manufacturing. um if they don't then their energy is now going to be erased and um that's the goal of Israel because you know what what what's happened the reason why this decision was made is that this is proof positive that both Israel and the United States now know that regime change is impossible that the Iranian government is going to last this conflict and so what they're doing right now is ensuring that the Iranian government what they govern is going to be povertystricken Uh so they're they're seeking to do permanent longlasting damage to Iran's ability to produce gas and oil and energy and and achieve income derived thereof. Um and Iran has said that we're not going to be the only nation that goes down this way. So I think this is the beginning of um one of the biggest mistakes made. But again, now what we've seen is Israel is creating the conditions for global catastrophe. I mean, when is the world going to realize that the biggest single threat to the entire world is Israel? Israel just did something because they're such a pathetic nation. They did something that's going to have ramifications globally. China will be impacted by this. India will be impacted by this because it's not just it's not Iranian energy that's being attacked. It's going to be regional energy. It's all related. So this is a very bad development, very dangerous development, very disturbing development. >> You know, Iran has issued an urgent warning to Saudi Arabia, to UAE and various points, various, you know, Jubel, they call it Jubel complex, they call it Sam, Sam refinery and in the UAE, Alhassan gas field and together with Qatar. Katar is there is a Messiah complex that they call it and is affiliated to the Chevron and two places in Qatar, two places in Saudi Arabia, one in the UAE and they said that they're going to hit and anybody who's living, you know, nearby should leave the region. >> They they they they should. I mean, this is consequences, cause and effect relationship. And I'm I'm actually glad Iran is going to do this. And I hope they hit them hard. I hope that when they finish, this isn't just a token. We're blowing up a few things so we get nice photographs of flames. They need to terminate the energy production capacity at all these facilities because then what they need to say is this is what we're going to do to everything if this happens to again. This isn't, you know, tit for tat. You don't get to take out one of our fields and we take out one of yours. We're taking the whole damn system down. And they need to prove that now. maximum damage done to these facilities, take them off the face of the earth. And because that's the only way you're going to wake people up. That's the only way. I My gas went from $311 two Mondays ago to $3.79 today. And it's going to be go it's going to be I bet you it's $3.85 before the day is over. The I remember last time I went through one of these, uh I would go in and watch the gas station change the price throughout the day. U because that's just the way it is. This is the only way you're going to wake American people up, European people, the people of the world up is by hitting their pocketbook because they don't care about Iranians. Nobody cares for the fact that um to kill Ali Larjani and his son, they took out an entire city block. That's a war crime. It is the literal definition of war crime. This is what the Nazis did. And yet they did it and and we're bragging about it saying, "Yeah, it's a good thing. Nobody cares." So you're not going to impress. Hell, we killed it. We bombed a school, double tapped a school, killed 175 girls. Um, nobody cares. That's how disgusting we are as human beings. We only care about ourselves. Okay, Iran, now it's time to hit the buttons to make us care about ourselves. Bring the pain home. You clearly didn't get to our hearts because we have hearts of stone. Um, you know, no tears shed for those girls. No tears shed for the hundred people that died so you could say you killed Ellie Ljourney. Uh, not recognizing that killing them doesn't change a damn thing. that the institution still exists. There are people to replace him and he just goes down as a martyr motivating the people who replaced him. Um, take out the oil fields. It's time for Iran to put the pedal to the metal and take the damn oil fields out. The other thing I would do if I were Iran is uh I would tell the nations that were getting tankers through the straight of horror moves, no more tankers. We're complete shutdown of the straight of hormones. um we're bringing the pain that that you know and it's time to bring the pain and if India goes but we didn't do anything you say yes India you did you didn't do a damn thing you didn't do anything to stop this you're still have good relations you're still talking to Israel like they're your brothers they're not they're the people that are murdering us every day of the week and you want us to do business with you it's time for Iran to play that card and they need to tell the Russians and the Chinese it's time for the Russian Chinese to step up their game do because this is going to have a dire impact especially on China. China's looking at their future right now there's going to be a big old hiccup right now because even if they start buying energy from Russia you don't have the ability you don't have the throughput capacity to get all that energy there. Uh China so and Iran has to say sorry brother I know we we're sort of hurting you but hey uh Pete Hex says there's a thousand places in Iran that go boom a day. What are you doing to stop that? nothing. So you need to do more otherwise as we go down so do you. Um but they need to they they need to bring the pain. The other thing by shut in straight hormones it ends once and for all the notion that the United States right now by the limited traffic uh you have the United States claiming it's because of them did this. We're the ones that sat there and made the Iranians say, "Huh, we might as well let some traffic through because America's right there threatening us." No. Um, what Iran did is prove that they're in control. Only Iran decides what gets through the straight of Hormuz. And right now, the Iranians need to decide that nothing gets straight to the gets through the straight of Hormus. Nothing. >> Scott, Saudi Arabia and all these Arab states are in some sort of panic. Saudi Arabia, you know, will host a foreign minister's meeting in Riyad today. And the Turkish diplomat reported on that that they're going to have Azarbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Syria, and Turkey all together coming in Saudi Arabia and and the UAE to we know that Aubaijan is so much important for Israel. I don't know if Iran would do something in that direction or all these countries coming together would make some sort of move in that direction and how do you see all the capabilities of these countries >> to do what I mean you know the thing is as Saudi Arabia hosts this meeting um they're going to lose an oil field. How's that feel Saudi Arabia? Um, and as the UAE sends their representative, they're going to lose an oil field and Qar is going to lose a natural gas field. Um, you know, this is the reality. So, what are they going to do? Come together and tell what we're going to threaten Iran. Hey, dude, they're already losing a thousand points on the map a day getting blown up by America. You're going to bring your pathetically small military and make it a,020. You think the additional 20 targets you can hit a day is going to change what's going on? I mean, this is the pathetic reality of these Arab nations. They have sold their souls to the devil. They have sold their soul to the devil. The United States and Israel calling the shots. And now they're going to come together to do what? If they don't come together and say the one thing that has to be said, America, get the out of our neighborhood. Get out. You're done. We're done with you. You lied to us. You betrayed us. You set us up. All this is because of you and Israel. Stop. or see everybody here, count the bodies, count the airplanes. We'll come in and we'll erase you from the planet. It's time for nations to step up and just tell Israel, remind them how small they are and how pathetic they are, how inconsequential they are. You know, Israel right now is shooting its load into uh into uh Iran and they're blowing up some places on the ground, but they're not they're not changing anything. The missiles still come in and hit Israel on a daily basis. Hezbollah is slaughtering Israeli troops in in in southern Lebanon. I mean, go ahead, Israel, mobilize 450,000. They'll all die, too. Hezbollah is better at this business than you are. You're on their turf and they will slaughter you. And you don't want to fight. That's the other thing is the Israelis don't believe in this mission anymore. They only believe in it when it's painfree. It ain't painfree anymore. There's a lot of pain attached to this. So, the they need to put the pressure on the right places. They need to put the pressure on the United States and on Israel. If they try to put any pressure on Iran, what does Iran care? >> I mean, what what are you going to do? Kill kill the next larani? You know, kill the president? I'm sure the president cares. I don't think he wants to die, but Iran could care less. They have institutions. This is about a you you're fighting a nation. You're not fighting individuals. And so and and as opposed to the majority of those people gathering, those are families. Those are monarchies. They're not nations. Most of the people gathering there are the heads of, you know, families that run countries, but they're not part of the nation. The nation didn't vote for them. And these are corrupt individuals who have, you know, robbed their own people blind to enrich themselves. And so when they come together to speak, they're not speaking on behalf of the people. They're speaking on behalf of their own selfish interests. There's only a few nations where you could actually say, I mean, Erdogan, I think, speaks for the Turkish nation. Um, you know, Golani, who's he speak for? I mean, who's they going to send? Another head chopper. Um, you know, again, none of the Gulf Arab states are democratic. None of them. Uh they're all these autocratic corrupt um you know morally corrupt and you know economically corrupt individuals uh who the world would be better off if they didn't exist and maybe that'll be one of the consequences of this war is the eraser of these corrupt families that were put in place by the British. None of them earned this. They didn't come in and, you know, the these aren't people that came in and went, "Hello, we've discovered this great country and we're going to lead by being intellectually sound and morally correct and we're going to build things." They came in and chopped heads off and one day a camel went out and pissed in the desert and some oil came up. They, oh, that's not very good tasting. Why don't we hire a foreigner who smart and in comes the British and the Americans say, "That's oil. What do we need to do?" Not a damn thing. you just sit back there on your camel in your tent, smoke your pipe, and we will bring the oil out of the ground and we'll throw some money your way and then we'll take it. And that's how it got developed. These guys didn't do anything. They didn't do anything except chop off some heads. Other people developed the industry. Now they've inherited it and they have this structure in place where they make all the money. Ask the UAE though, what's the percentage of uh Emirati people in their military? 15% 85% of the UA military is mercenaries, mainly Pakistani. They don't know how to fight. When they build a building, are the Emirati men out there rolling up their sleeves, getting sunburned, constructing? Hell no. They're in an air conditioned office, fat, smoking dope, and uh and spending oil money. Other people come in and do the work for them. These aren't good people. These aren't good nations. They don't stand for anything worthwhile. They hide behind a facade of intellectualism. We've built the new Louv in the Middle East. You know, the UAE built that Lou lookalike. What's going to happen when all your oil fields are blown up and you got no more money and nobody's coming to your stupid piece of desert patch? Uh, you have no water because the de desalinization plants are going to be blown up and that building is going to be empty. Nobody's going to visit. Was it the Burja or whatever? Um, you know, the one that Tom Cruz jumped off of or climbed. um that'll be empty. You know, those the you know, making those little palm islands so you can see from the sky, look down on it. Uh that will be eroded away because nobody will maintaining it. Uh and that'll happen to all of these little fake little desert countries because when they lose their energy, they lose everything. They've got nothing. Nothing. Dubai had a banking industry that's gone. Think the expatriots are going to hang out in Dubai from now on that it's been exposed the way it is. No. They need stability, long-term stability, and these Gulf Arab nations can no longer guarantee long-term stability. And so, it's over for them. This is a panicked meeting that you're going to be seeing in Riad right now. A panicked meeting. >> Scott, you've mentioned the dissalination. Do you think that we are headed toward dalination plans? because that could be a huge catastrophe for the whole region and Iran doesn't suffer from dalination if that goes you know the escalation goes in that direction but we know that the Arab states together with Israel Israel is dependent more than 75% on dalination plans >> that's one of the last steps because now you're talking about the eraser of a nation without water you've got nothing and there is no plan B for water. There is no plan B for water. Um, and so that's the next step. And I believe at the end of the day, if these nations don't stop doing what they're doing to Iran, Iran will erase them as civilized nations by destroying their destinization plans. If I were the Iranians, um, I I the next I I would actually take out Israeli desalinization plans now. Right now. End Israel right now. Just end it. Just take it out. end it. Israel might have a plan B. They they, you know, they they might be able to ship in water because Europe, no one's gonna let the Jews die. Um, so they're gonna ship in water and all that. Fine. But that'll be their life from now on. Foreign sources of water, tankers pointing off, Israeli people, you know, lining up to get, you know, like gazins, you know, to pump water into their pot to take home and, you know, and all that. Good. Make that Israel's future. No more running water and pipes. Blow up the desalinization plant and eliminate it. and Hezbollah, go ahead and take Shabba farms and shut off the Jordan River source. Cut it out. End it. Make the Dead Sea dead. Make Israel over. You know, Israel needs to cease to exist. It is literally the cancer on the planet. Um, and Iran could do that by blowing up desolization plants. I think they might want to give the uh Gulf Arab states another shot, >> but at some point in time, you at least pick one. I'd pick the UAE because I just hate them. Um, erase them, blow up all their desalinization plants and make the PL make the country disappear. All the expatriots will leave. All the foreigners will leave. And then those UAE betterans will that you know they'll have to sit there and do what? Do what? Drink oil. Good luck. Um, you know, they deserve it. And this is hopefully what they're talking about in Riad is we're screwed. we're screwed. We're we're heading to the apocalypse. Um and again, when they say apoc, they don't care about their people. They only care about themselves, you know, about their family, about, you know, the monarchy. Um, you know, I I really enjoyed uh reading about what happened to the Hashemites in Iraq. And I'll let the people Google that to figure out what I mean, but um I don't really mean that because nobody wants to see families hacked up and dragged through the streets. But you know, when you take these families that have no legitimacy whatsoever and you put them in charge and they are this corrupt, maybe they need the Hasheite solution, Baghdad version, uh, which could become the Hasheite solution, Aman version, which would be nice. Um, and it could be the solution in Bahrain. You really want Khalifa to stay there? This fat nobody. I mean, he's so corrupt, so despicable. The family has been despicable. They were a joke when we were there as weapons inspectors. I could tell you stories that would make your hair curl. Go talk to the golf air stewards. All the Gulf Air stewards is out there who spent time on the chic speech and got recruited to go in and do his little things. You know what I'm talking about. Golf air stewards is because you did them. Why don't you start telling people what really happened? How despicable these people are? Despicable. And yet they govern and we treat them like they're some sort of, you know, somebody's. They're nobody. They're stupid. They're ignorant. They're corrupt. And they're morally deficient human beings. And yet they sit there and live and make all this money and everybody comes rolling up to them and treating them like they're god because they make money. Well, they're not going to make money anymore if Iran erases their energy. And then the world will see these people for what they are. Pathetic losers. I'm I'm fed up because it's there to blame. People are like, "Scott, why do you what do you got against the Gulf Arab nations?" Everything. They got everything against you because you're to blame. You caused this. You allowed the United States to come in and create a Sunni Shia split. This isn't Iran's fault. This is your fault. You all bought into it. Uh and you you played the game where you allowed the United States military to come in and uh then you enriched American defense industry. I mean, look at this straight out bribery. Remember when Donald Trump's first term and he went over and danced a stupid sword dance with the uh with the Saudis? Straight up bribery. Said, "We're going to buy more American weapons." As if this is what makes a relationship good. Well, Saudi, how are those weapons working right now? How secure are you right now with all those weapons you bought? UAE, how is that missile defense stuff working? I mean, you can put out all your numbers. You 400 missiles were shot at and we shot down 297 of them. Yeah, but how many of your interceptors did you expend to shoot those down? And how many you got left? And what's going to happen tomorrow when you can't defend your nation? because the United States refuses to give you more interceptors because we sent all the ones we brought out of South Korea to Israel. Um you it is the role played by the Gulf Arab nations in making this possible. They are the ones responsible. This is why I shed no tears for them. I will never cry for Israel. As Israel gets erased off of the planet, I will cheer because Israel is a cancer. But joining the Israelis as, you know, as cancerous entities are every single royal family in the Gulf Arab region. None of them got there legitimately. They were all put in there by the British and it's sustained by the Americans who and they live off of the money they get out of the ground. They didn't earn this. It's a gift given to them. And there are not too many of them that spend this money wisely. Um, and you know, again, unfortunately for the the the well-meaning people out there. Um, you pay the price for the corruption of your bosses. Everybody treats NBS as if he's some sort of good. You you do know he's a disgusting pig of a human being. There's nothing good about this man. He represents the worst of Saudi Arabian society. The excesses of Saudi Arabia are put into him. There is no moral compass in him. Just ask the family of Koshogi. NBS had him cut up. Cut up. That's what he does. And yet we run around shake his hand. We we we crawled to him. Joe Biden literally crawled down. Joe, you should have bombed Saudi Arabia. That's the nation worth bombing, not Iran. You should have turned our guns on Saudi Arabia and eliminated this corrupt regime and replaced it with a democratically elected society that represents the true will of the people. Except man, the Shia might get a vote then. Anyways, I've gone off long enough on these guys. >> But when it comes, our common friend Larry Johnson reported the other day that Israelis are running out of interceptors when it comes to the fat system and patriot system. and we see how Hezbollah is getting is able to hit the targets in Israel. Then at the same time they're talking about ground invasion of Lebanon and 540,000 soldiers to be used. But when it comes to the capabilities, defensive capability capabilities of Israel, is that in the calculation? Is that in that equation of Donald Trump together with Israelis? And how is that going to work for Israel? >> Well, one of the reasons why Israel felt confident in striking out against Iran at this time is that they had convinced themselves that had taken Hezbollah off the uh I think there was always an understanding from the Israelis that Hezbollah was a loaded pistol to Israel's head and that if you went after Iran, boom, the pistol goes off. And so they pagered the middle mid level of uh you know Hezbollah management, blew off a lot of hands, blinded people. Uh they killed Hassan Nasala and they worked with the United States to get the Lebanese government to tone down Hezbollah. They got rid of Syria which made the lifeline between Hezbollah and Iran problematic. And so Hezbollah went into a quiet mode, like a sleep mode, you know, but don't be lulled. I mean, you know, it's like me looking at this computer. I'm giving a horrible analogy, but I'm making it up as I go along, so it may work in the end. Um, but, you know, I've got got this computer screen. This screen doesn't do I mean, it's a screen. I look at it and I move around my mouse and I think it's the computer, but it's not. It's just a screen. The computer's right here next to it. It does all the thinking. And what happened here is we got everybody to put the screen into sleep mode. Everybody's going there. We solved the Hezbollah problem. Look at the screen. blank. Nothing there. No mouse moving on, no cursor, can't click anything, but the computer's right here. And if you shake the computer, the screen comes back on. Israel believed that they had suppressed Hezbollah, that Hezbollah is weakened, that they could use the Lebanese government, the Lebanese army as a way of containing um Hezbollah. I mean, look at what happened when they told the when the Lebanese government, the prime minister and the president told the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah. What was the response of the Lebanese army? Hell no. We ain't touching that because they know the truth that the screen may be off, but the computer still works. And the computer when it turns on turns on with a vengeance. And Hezbollah would wipe the Lebanese army off the face of the earth. The Lebanese army is incapable of any meaningful fighting because they they're not trained for it. They all look good in their uniforms. I'm sure they do a lot of push-ups because they got some man when they roll up those sleeves, they got some impressive biceps and, you know, they got the little chest torso thing going. Tapers down. The Lebanese soldiers look really good in uniform. They really do. They're handsome dudes. Get those berets and haircut. Um, Hezbollah will kill all of them because Hezbollah are damn good fighters and they're still there. Hezblah, you know, had to do some certain uh, you know, what's the word I'm looking for when you do cosmetic. There you go. Cosmetic uh, alterations. You know, withdraw a little bit from the south, but all the tunnels are still there. Um, Israel blew up a couple missile depots and and they took over a missile production facility in Syria, blew it up, and wow, the Israelis really good. But Hezbollah is not stupid. Again, Hezbollah is like Iran. They don't put all their eggs in one basket and they have significant resources that have been, you know, saved. Israel fooled themselves into believing that Hezbollah was off the map and now Hezbollah is back and Iran has eliminated um the bulk of Israel's ability to defend itself. And so now Hezbollah is blowing up Hifa. Hezbollah is blowing up Tel Aviv. Hezbollah is blowing up Tel Aviv. That's an amazing thing. And now the Israelis are going to send in 500,000 soldiers into southern Lebanon. I just want people to think about this for a second because maybe you're not familiar with the military. One of the things that we always did uh in the military before we would do, you know, any anything training, war, you do what's called the um intelligence preparation of the battlefield, IPB. And one thing you do is you just look at the terrain and see what the terrain tells you because the terrain's going to tell you a couple things where you can go and where you can't go. And so we do overlays of go no-go. And suddenly you constrict yourselves to very limited corridors. Now you you have to also look at what terrain features can dominate these corridors because as you have the corridors going in, who controls this terrain here can stop the the corridor not just blocking it here but up here. So the the the battle starts defining itself. You can tell right off the bat what key terrain is, what the key lines of communication are, and already you can shape the battle, what we're going to need, what the enem is going to have to do, and all this kind of stuff. Um, if you try and squeeze 500,000 Israeli troops into the battlefield that is southern Lebanon, you're just going to get backed up tanks or you're going to get guys on a hillside. um just providing more targets. You know, a hillside should probably only take, you know, a platoon spread out as they as they sweep it. That way, if the if the Hezbollah opens up on fire, they can take out a fire team, the rest of the guys can suppress, bring in artillery, reinforce with other platoon, move in. But if you come in and put a company online, you're going to lose the company in the first thing. All you're doing is creating more targets, more tanks, more concentration of troops. Where are these 500,000 troops going to go as they get caught up in a traffic jam? Because that's what's going to happen. There's going to they're going to start snaking their way up to some unnamed southern Lebanese hilltop village and they're going to go in there and Hezbollah is going to jump up and bam, hit them. And now they're in a firefight. They got wounded Israelis. You got to get them out. But you can't get them out because you got a traffic jam going on. The traffic jam is going to get hit. Rockets, burning tanks and everything. They're stuck and all those troops are going to be in concentration areas and Hezbollah's got rockets and they're going to hit the concentration areas and kill these guys. Please, Israel, don't make it 500,000. make in a million, mobilize every man, put them all in uniform and send them to Lebanon so they can all die because that's what's going to happen. Hezbollah is going to kick their ass. Hezbollah is in an existential struggle right now. You know, Hezbollah before never really did the fight to the finish mode because they were also linked to the Lebanese government. Lebanese government has proven itself to be nothing more than a MSAD front. The president and the prime minister work for MSAD. I'll say it again. the president of Lebanon and the prime minister work for Assad. Now, it could be directly or indirectly, meaning maybe Tom Barack, the American ambassador, um, you know, is is to Turkey, who is now the Lebanese special envoy. He's a front for them. But the bottom line is they don't work for the Lebanese people because if they did work for the Lebanese people, they'd have declared war on Israel already for all the bombing that took place in uh in Beirut and elsewhere. No, they work for MSAD. Um, and so now Hezblah now knows what has to be done. They have to defeat Israel and they have to defeat the MSAD government in Beirut. And they will because nobody, this is a life and death struggle for people who, as we've talked about, embrace martyrdom, not suicidally, but they're not afraid. You know, all the people, all the other people, all those little Israeli boys out there that are getting ready to go into Lebanon, they're scared. They're scared little boys. You see, they're mama's boys. They're the new generation of Israelis. They grew up with mama and they're oh, they're so nice and they know it. They're very good. They can they want to create that their big thing in life isn't to work on a kabutz under the sun and get sweaty and hot and muscles. They want to sit in an air conditioned office and do an IT startup. That's all they want to do. I want to do an IT startup. A startup because that what that means is you do nothing, get all the money. Uh because that's what the Israelis are today. They don't work. They're lazy. And so all these little mama boys now are going to be moving towards Lebanon, but when they take off their helmet, there's going to be little Mishva or whatever the their girl's friend name is, and they're going to be looking at her, go, "Oh, mama and my girlfriend. Oh, I missed them." They're thinking the wrong thing. Hezbollah, meanwhile, is down there, you know, pooping in a bag, burying it, pissing in a cup, burying it because they're ready. They're not moving. And here they come. And Hezba's going to close and kill them. Heza is sit there and go, "Oh no, you know, Fatima, forget Fatima." Hezba is in the business of killing Israelis and the business is good right now. And the Israelis are going to come in, these little mama boys, and are going up against real men who are in killing mode because they have no choice. Israel and the United States have made this existential. If they defeat Iran, that's the end of Hezbollah. So Hezbollah is fighting literally for their existence. And the Israelis don't know what they're fighting for. They just know that when they go into Lebanon, they get chewed up and they start to hesitate. And when you hesitate in combat, you're dead. Mobilize every Israeli and send them to Lebanon. And then we won't have to worry about Israel anymore. Hezbollah is doing God's work right now because they are excising a cancer. You know, Hezbollah wasn't defeated. Everybody, oh, they're defeated. They went dormant. Their screen went into, you know, silent mode. went black, but the computer's still there with a hard drive and a CPU and all that kind of stuff. And now they've shook it. The screen's up and running and the computer's working like a champ. And the Israelis are just getting slaughtered. They're not very good. They have some special forces guys that are good, but what the Israelis are really good as flying airplanes and dropping bombs and blowing things up. But as Iran showed, you got to blow things up of significance. In Beirut, what's happened is they they've run out of significant things to blow up. So now they're back to the Dawa doctrine, holding the population collectively accountable. It's war criminal stuff. Of course, that's what the United States is doing. Pete Hexath hasn't quite formally announced it that way, but we're in the mode right now of killing Iranian civilians. We are literally shifting over to civilian targets because our goal now is to punish the Iranian people for not rising up and uh and and taking down the regime war criminal activity. So, the United States and Israel have self-defined as the worst possible nations in the world today. We're the leading war practitioners of war crimes in the world today. And Hezbollah is doing God's work. And um I know as an American I'm not supposed to say this, but um since Hezbollah is not formerly at war with the United States, I feel comfortable. I want Hezbollah to defeat Israel. I want them to defeat Israel in in the most comprehensive way possible so that Israel is lethally damaged. And I want Iran to help them. I want Israel gone. Israel got us in this war. The America American people to understand that this is not an American war. Donald Trump sold us out for Israel. Pete Hgsath sold us out for Israel. Marco Rubio sold us out for Israel. Everybody in the White House, everybody associated with the Trump administration sold America down the road on behalf of Israel. Ted Cruz did that. Mike Huckabe did that. Every one of them. And we need to know that. We need to know that when we pay the higher gas prices, this is because of Israel. Everything is because of Israel. This isn't anti-Semitic. I'm not saying it's because of the Jews. I'm saying it's because of Israel. The Zionist entity called Israel. This parasetic entity that attached itself to the United States and is sucking the lifeblood out of the United States and the world. Israel. Israel needs to be erased. And hopefully Iran has the eraser eraser to do it. I know Hezbollah does. Scott, what do you make of the resignation of Joe Kent? He was, you know, he Donald Trump cannot blame him to be a leftist, you know, to be his enemy. This is the guy who supported Donald Trump. This is the guy who wanted who really believes in America, who wants America to be more powerful, but he doesn't see that coming with the current policies of the Trump administration. Joe Kent, no one can question his his courage. You know, he he has served in some of the world's worst places um under the worst conditions and um he prevailed. You know, Joe Kent is we have a large body of you know this the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but especially the war in Afghanistan um made maximum use of special operations personnel, special forces personnel. we actually expanded their ranks considerably. And so these are very intelligent people, very physically fit people and people with a moral conscience. Um but they're they're people whose moral conscience is defined by a war warrior's ethos, not so much by what it should be defined as, which is constitutional principles. Um, I hear these special forces vet bros out there um, give lip service to the Constitution, but when it comes down to it, as you dig deeper into what they're articulating, they're they're going for military efficiency. I hate to break it to people, but the Constitution is not efficient. The American form of constitutional government is not efficient. It is ugly, inefficient, whatever, but it's ours. It has checks and balances. The moment you say checks and balances, you imply inefficiency because you're checking and balancing. The military is not about checks and balances. The military is about accomplishing the mission. And Joe Kent is one of these guys that accomplishes the mission. He's given a mission and he accomplishes it. And he's surrounded by people of a similar mindset. But they fooled themselves into believing that this is constitutional because they took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. Now by accomplishing the mission they are fulfilling that oath. What they don't understand is sometimes the mission is operating in opposition to constitutional norms and values. Um Joe Kent I and I saw this when he was running because I I I I had hope for Joe Kent but then I would read statements he would make about the Middle East and um you know he's somebody who of course most of these people who fought in the in these wars um they'll admit that you know we were doing the wrong thing. we we we shouldn't have been there though, you know, especially Iraq shouldn't have been there. In Afghanistan, we did it the wrong way. Um, all this stuff. But then you, you know, and you're like, okay, okay, okay. But then you throw in Iran and because they don't know anything about Iran. Iran is evil. It's an evil Islamic regime, u you know, the worst terrorist organization in the world, and you're like, wait a minute, where'd you get that? You know, and Joe Kent was part of that cut. And the other thing is um as you define yourself as an American, you now you know unfortunately you become factionalized because again these people stopped being Americans and started being Republicans. They started to be in opposition to the Democratic party because many people in the Democratic party were in opposition to what they were doing in Afghanistan or Iraq. Um they started supporting the Republican party out of this mistaken belief that the Republicans actually cared for them. But Joe Kent knows this. Joe, Joe, you've got, I'm assume, because Joe Kent's a standup kind of guy, lost his wife, Shannon. She was a hero, a heroin. Um, in Syria, she got killed by an ISIS bomb. But if you look at her chest, I mean, in the awards on her chest, she's she's a lady who has had been there, done that, and she had the t-shirt. She wasn't just a a war tourist and she died. Um, tragically, and now Joe is raising kids. Um, you know, so he, you know, he knows the the the reality of of the war, but you know, Joe doesn't know, Joe allowed himself to be captured by the MAGA movement. Uh, the MAGA movement is not an American movement. The MAGA movement is a faction. People, please read Federalist 10. I'm sorry. I'm just one of these constitutionalist kind of guys. James Madison wrote FFederalists tend to warn us about the danger of factionalism and the creation of factions. And MAGA is a faction. It's not an American movement. It's a faction. An American movement actually believes that everybody should exist. It understands checks and balances, the need for balance. Um, factions want everything to go their way. And the MAGA faction is controlled by a group of Zionists who hijacked uh the MAGA movement to put Israel first. literally. And Joe Kent went along went along with that along with others. They thought they were serving America. America first. MAGA. No, you were serving Israel first. The parasite that had taken over um you know, the American body. Uh he ran for office and now he gets in, you know, and that's the other thing, too. It's easy. And Joe knows this along with everybody else. They they know what the burden of leadership is. Joe knows it better than anybody. He's been in combat. Um there's no in combat. There's none. You have a mission to do. gets you killed. When you start sitting there spouting crap that's nonsense, um you get diverted and next thing you know, the bullet enters your brain housing group and your brain gets splattered on a wall. Joe knows this cuz he's seen the consequences of that. Um but when you get into politics, it's all every single thing. And so he bought into a load of crap and now he comes into office and now he's at the counterterrorism center and he's seeing the truth because he's trying to deal with these terrorist threats that are manifest and um he realizes that we're not doing we're not hitting the right targets. We're not focused on the right thing. In order to sell this war in Iran, we actually had to define a nation that's not terrorist in nature, the Iranian nation, the Iranian people, and call them terrorists and devote a lot of time into explaining why everything they do is related to terrorism. Well, the real terrorists are out there not getting the attention they deserved. And then the we get pulled into a war that Israel pulled in. Joe's smart. He knows exactly what happened. Knows Netanyahu told Trump to to to initiate and Trump went okay. Kent knows that the joint joint chief staff said it's a bad idea. Kit knows that Tulsi Gabbard put it together an intelligent report and said the regime won't fall. There's nothing you want to accomplish will be accomplished. And he knows that Donald Trump went ahead and did this anyways. Um you know he finally I think he reached the point where he said I can't do this anymore. I can't I can't live the lie. Because Joe Kent for all of his faults and when I say faults I mean you know being sucked into the MAGA movement. Hell, we all were. You're talking to a guy that thought Donald Trump was gonna be a peacemaker. Okay, we all we all got conned one way or another. But like any honest person, when you wake up in the morning, you realize you were conned. He didn't delude himself. He acknowledged it. He wrote a letter and he resigned. Um this could be should be the beginning of a cascade of resignations, resignations of conscious mor, you know, moral consciousness. Um, I don't know if it will be because again, um, I've lost a lot of faith in humans over, especially Americans over time. Uh, I'd like to believe when most Americans are empowered with knowledge and information, they'll do the right thing. Um, sadly, I don't believe that anymore. I think Americans have become addicted to comfort and therefore they will do whatever it's necessary to sustain comfort, even if it's the wrong thing to do. But this could be I mean, this could lead to additional resignations. I mean, Tulsi Gabbard needs to resign and start telling the truth about what happened. You know, she wrote this awful uh post where she basically said she defended the president by sort of trying to tell the truth but not telling the truth. You know, the president was briefed on all this that and the other thing and the president made a decision. Yes. But Tulsi, what was he briefed on? Did his decision match the conclusion? because your job as an intelligence officer is to give recommended courses of action. Telsey, I've been an intelligence officer for a long time. I know what you're supposed to do. And um did the president take one of your courses of action? Did he did he listen to what or did he just do whatever the hell he wants to do and and said what he said before? I don't believe you. I don't trust you. Well, at that point in time, you must resign. If the president doesn't trust you, then you aren't doing your job and you must resign for the good of the people. Find someone in there that the president does trust. Um, and then you have a duty and obligation to go to Congress and explain this. You don't have to go to the American people because a lot of what you would be explaining is, you know, classified, but Congress has closed sessions. And um, since the president has long ago selfidentified as a man who doesn't believe in the Constitution, doesn't believe in, you know, the the office of the presidency, believes in a cult of personality, believes in a dictatorship. He called himself a dictator. You're not beholden to any confidentiality of conversation with men because he's not a president. He's a dictator. you need to go to Congress and talk about the dictator named Trump and how he's disregarding all the evidence there is and got us into this war on behalf of Israel. Now, half of Congress will try to suppress you because they work for Israel, but the other half might actually start, you know, asking follow-on questions, and that could lead to, you know, this this president ultimately being held accountable either at the election uh at the booth, a voting booth on election day or maybe the ultimate accountability where his cabinet finally awakens up to the fact that this man is is awful for America, harming America and harming them, and they invoke the 25th amendment and remove him. But you know, Donald Trump is, you know, after Israel, he's the greatest threat to to the United States of America because he stopped believing in America. He only believes in Donald Trump. >> Scott, before wrapping up, we had an interview with the Iranian foreign minister. He said that Iran is designing a new mechanism for this rate of hormones. And there is an article in the financial times arguing that Iran's action in the Isra show the reality of multipolar economic warfare. For decades, the United States dominated sanctions and use fi financial pressure as a strategic weapon. Now other powers including Iran and China can use similar tools to respond to the escalation. How do you see the whole the case of a straight of Hormuz? Donald Trump is begging Europeans to help him. I don't know in what manner they can help Donald Trump in this rate of form but it seems that it's going to turn into a one of the most strategic points or strategic you know outcome you know this rate is somehow so important not just for Iran but but for all of these Arab states together with Japan, South Korea, China, everybody is dependent on this trade that shows the importance of that how do you see the way that Iran is talking about and the way that as an outcome of this war something is reshaping in the Middle East? Well, first of all, there's a disconnect um between what Iran is saying which is reality based and um what other nations are saying for instance and not just saying but doing. I think there's a growing recognition that Iran right now controls the Strait of Hormuz. Um, you don't get through that the Straight of Hormuz right now without Iran saying yes. Now, the United States is carrying out a military campaign that's designed to degrade Iran's ability to interdict the straight. Um, I just again intelligence preparation of the battlefield. I look at a map. I look at the straight. Um, you know, and and and the other interesting thing is, you know, the way the straight operates is you uh you have traffic going in and you have traffic coming out and there's two lanes and the traffic coming out takes you in a channel that goes between two Iranian islands, land mass, Car Island and uh not Car Island, Kashim Island and um Latak I think it is. Um and it's very narrow. Um, you're never going to force that if Iran doesn't want you to force it. You know, Iran hasn't even begun the business of mining the strait. The only thing Iran hasn't done is sunk a ship in the middle of that channel because that's the end of that channel. I mean, all Iran has to do is put some tankers out there, sink them, bring them down, and they could do the same. Iran controls the straight. Will always control the straight. We're trying to do a campaign designed to hit Iran's missile. There were, you know, the the um Arif missile brigade. I think I'm saying that right. RF. Um it was the one that had the compound that in Manab that you know they used to own the compound that got bombed by the United States and killing the the the girls. Um RF RF something of that nature. Uh it's organized into four battalions. Uh first battalion is short range um anti-shipping missiles 15 20 kilometer range. Did you see what I just said there? They're 15 to 20 km. Um that's that means that they can be back a certain range and still reach in. They don't have to be right on the coastline. Then the second brigade was sort of the medium range missiles. That means that they can strike deeper into the Gulf or they can be standoff. The you what you've done now is when you look at the the the the terrain of the of the straight of Hormuz. What I'm defining isn't just in terms of how they can reach into the straight, but how far back they can relocate and still have the ability to impact the straight through direct or indirect fires. And then there's the long range. So you have three battalions that provide layered closure capability. And the United States right now is focused on bombing u the the the the ridges and the mountains that are right there on the coastline. as if blowing those things up save anything. It shows again a fundamental lack of understanding. The Iranians have been preparing for this war for a long time. They've been they know how we operate. Oh, the fourth battalion by the way does all the unconventional stuff. Lays the mines, fast boats, the whole thing. Um so it's it's just a broadspectctrum approach to closing the straight. Um we're never going to interdict that. In order the only way to to fully open the straits is to physically control that territory that I just defined. And that means it's not just landing on the shore. You got to go in depth, you know, a couple hundred kilometers. Um, do we have the 900,000 troops that that would take? No. So, we're never going to close the streets. Um, and even with shipping going through, imagine you're an insurance company, ship owner. What insurance company's going to ensure that? Uh there, you know, there no insurance company's going to sit there and go, "Yeah, we'll give you the same rate." No, insurance rates are go up with the cost of shipping is going to go up. And other people are just going to abandon that route and say, "We're not we're not doing it. It's just not going to happen." Um Europe right now is saying, "We're going to talk to Iran to try and get Iran to let our tankers go through." But the Iranians are basically saying, "You're you're doing you're not doing it the right way. This isn't about negotiating with us to get your oil through. It's about negotiating with the United States to stop doing what they're doing to stop the war. Um, Iran isn't going to do Europe any favors. Europe has to save itself and Europe saves itself by identifying as somebody who is sympathetic of the Iranian plight, the Iranian cause. Those nations who have showed sympathy are the ones getting the favorable treatment. those nations who continue to play lip service the United States and simply telling the United States we're not going to send naval forces in. First of all, Iran could care less about the Navy of Europe. Talk about the only thing more pathetic than an Israeli infantry platoon is the Navy of Europe. Um sending, you know, sending an Israeli infantry platoon into southern Lebanon means they're all going to die. The Navy of Europe comes in, try to open straight, they're all going to die. I mean, it's just it's stupid to even have this discussion. Um, you know, Trump is playing a political card here, but the the fact of the matter is it's not that Iran's not going to reward Europe for that. What Iran wants is Europe to tell the United States to stop this war. Stop it. But now you have Finland saying, "We will exchange uh support for the United States in uh in the Middle East for American support in Ukraine." You see how the Europeans are thinking? So Iran's not going to play that game. So I I think what we're seeing here is a permanent um redefining of energy security parameters. U whatever calculations algorithms were used before this war are going to be permanently changed. There's going to be new algorithms. The price of oil is going to be more expensive no matter what. Uh because you know for inance if you're Kuwait let's say Kuwait oil production survives this conflict strategically speaking because you know all these nations are going to take a hit. They may not survive this hit. Let's say they survive. Let's say the the the Kuwaiti royal family survives. Now, are they going to sit there and say, "Well, we're just going to double down on stupid and do what we did again so it can happen again because now Iran can shut the straight anytime they want." Or are they going to start negotiating with the Saudis to build a new pipeline that connects Kuwaiti man Kuwaiti oil to the Red Sea? But then what they have to understand is that that pipeline begins someplace and that'll just be a target for the Iranians. This changes everything that now that the the world has gone stupid, now that the Israelis have gone stupid, the Americans have gone stupid striking Iranian energy, this means from now on these these energy fields are targets. That changes the whole approach. Um, you know, it's the same thing what's happening in Russia. You know, when the Ukrainians started going after uh Russian, you know, uh oil strategic oil manufacturing and processing facilities, the Russians realize that you have these giant facilities with no protection. And so the Russians are now in the business of hardening these facilities. Um you know, physically putting air defense, the the whole works. there's uh you know the the the the the role being played now of um of Russian um industry and um counter drone uh technology u it's not you know it's not just the ministry of defense that comes in these oil companies now responsible for protecting their own selves so they're developing counter drone technology well this is going to be the next reality you can't talk about building an oil field in the Middle East anymore until you talk about how to defend the which now your expenses go up so everything's going to cost everything's going to cost more. And the other thing this does is shows the uh vulnerability of all uh sea lanes of communication. Um look at uh the straits of Mullica in Indonesia. That's another one, a critical one. Everything goes through that. Easiest place in the world to shut down after the straight of Hormuz Baba Mandeb. You know, Yemen can can can shut that down. Suez Canal. We saw what happens if you get a tanker uh turned the wrong way and gets stuck. It's shut. Well, maybe it's time for Iran to start sinking shipping in the in the Suez Canal and shut it down, too. Um, you want to play stupid games. The Iranians, you know, are fully capable of um, you know, playing that game as well, meaning making you pay for your stupidity by paying the ultimate price. You know, short-term pain for long-term gain. This is going to be long-term pain for no gain whatso. That's that's what's going on in the world today. >> Yeah. Thank you so much, Scott, for being with us today. Great pleasure as always. >> Thank you. It's a pleasure talking to you. Okay. >> See you soon. Bye-bye. >> Byebye.