0:04 And you're talking about enormous
0:05 numbers of them, and you're talking
0:08 almost non-stop bombing over a period of
0:11 time, some period, whatever period that
0:14 In other words, a very intense period at
0:16 the outset of any campaign.
0:18 Now, those are going to be supplemented
0:20 by strikes from fighters and other
0:23 Sometimes they'll come from the the
0:25 bases that you mentioned in Jordan if we
0:27 think we can protect them.
0:29 They'll come from the sea.
0:31 Some will come from further further
0:33 posts that we'll be able to use,
0:36 provided we have sufficient numbers of
0:40 But I think that's what you're going to
0:41 see. It's going to be a very serious
0:43 assault, very very powerful.
0:46 And uh I don't think it's going to
0:48 produce the outcome we want by any
0:52 And I think that was made clear by the
0:54 Iranian president when he said we will
0:57 I don't know if you saw what the markets
0:58 did after he made that statement, but
1:02 >> And I think what you're
1:04 >> Yeah, but what I think you're seeing
1:07 [clears throat] in the markets is this
1:10 sort of constant uh manipulation that
1:12 goes on from the White House,
1:14 telling people, well, actually we're
1:16 we're talking. We could have a deal. We
1:19 made progress. You know, he wants to
1:21 keep the fires burning, keep everybody
1:25 You turn on the business shows,
1:27 [clears throat] it's astonishing to me
1:29 how readily everybody believes what
1:31 comes out of Washington, what comes out
1:34 But then you have to look at who
1:35 controls the financial markets, and they
1:37 want this war to be successful. You
1:40 cannot be successful if people think
1:42 this war is not going to be a success,
1:44 or if they think this war is permanent,
1:47 perpetual, ongoing, unending.
1:50 So you've got different different
1:51 messages coming at a different points in
1:53 time. My my point to you is
1:56 I don't see how we avoid another
1:58 collision with Iran.
2:00 I just don't what that will do to us.
2:03 And I don't know what it'll do to us
2:05 financially. I don't know what it'll do
2:06 to the global energy structure, but I
2:08 certainly can't imagine it being
2:15 Well, I'm assuming here. Are you worried
2:16 [clears throat] about the
2:18 all the warnings from European countries
2:20 and the US about [clears throat]
2:24 hybrid attacks against NATO?
2:26 >> Well, first of all, most of this
2:27 business, in fact, all of this business
2:29 about hybrid attacks is
2:32 The Russians are not doing the things
2:34 they're being accused of. You've had all
2:35 sorts of false flags coming out of
2:38 trying to masquerade as Russian threats
2:40 and so forth. It's nonsense.
2:43 Back in 1998 99 when the Poles
2:47 were candidates for membership in NATO,
2:50 everybody was very happy. The Germans
2:51 worked very hard to help the Poles get
2:54 But behind closed doors, people all said
2:56 the same thing. Does this make a lot of
2:59 These people are incurably anti-Russian.
3:03 Do we really want to drag a nation state
3:06 into the alliance that has a long
3:08 history, hundreds of years of history
3:10 of hatred and violence and hostility to
3:14 Everybody sort of said, well, there's
3:15 nothing we can do. And there was nothing
3:19 the Poles are now trying to repeat their
3:21 performance of 1939.
3:24 We you'll recall that [clears throat]
3:26 they were caught between the Soviets in
3:28 the East and the Germans in the West.
3:31 And they had the bright idea of flying
3:34 And in London, the British government,
3:37 which should never have done this, said,
3:41 If they attack, we'll support you. We'll
3:45 There was no way that the British could
3:47 have aided the Poles in a war with the
3:48 Germans or the Soviets or both as it
3:50 turned out. Impossible.
3:53 But that's what got Britain into the
3:55 [clears throat] Britain Britain paid a
3:57 terrible price and came out of the war a
4:02 we [clears throat] have to look at
4:03 what's happening right now, and we have
4:05 to judge the situation in a way that the
4:09 back in 1939. Do we want to sacrifice
4:15 in order to ensure that Israel enjoys
4:17 its hegemony across the region?
4:20 Do we want to potentially be dragged
4:21 into war with everybody there?
4:24 Now, let's move to Europe.
4:26 Let's assume that the Europeans succeed
4:29 in provoking the Russians into
4:32 Do we want to put all of our cities and
4:37 in a nuclear exchange with Russia
4:45 I don't see any any interest in that at
4:49 This whole thing of extended deterrence
4:53 It's been an illusion for years. It was
4:54 an illusion when I was a young officer
4:59 [clears throat] Everybody knew we're if
5:00 we fight, it'll be conventional. There's
5:02 not going to be a nuclear exchange here
5:04 because we're not going to risk the
5:05 annihilation of our own country
5:07 you know, to protect these places.
5:10 Now, fortunately, cooler heads
5:13 Moscow withdrew. We had a chance at that
5:15 point to build a new and better world.
5:19 Now we're paying a price for it.
5:21 But I think the globalists that are in
5:23 charge in Europe today are going to be
5:27 And you are going to get new
5:28 governments, and they are going to be
5:30 different from the globalists who are
5:34 And they will not go to war with Russia.
5:37 Well, the answer to your first question
5:40 are you correct in your interpretation?
5:44 Iran is in a war for its very survival
5:49 This is a war of choice.
5:51 We've done this for reasons had
5:53 everything to do with Israel and its
5:55 representation, power, influence here
5:58 inside the United States.
6:01 we have this thing called an
6:04 a blockade. I'm not sure it really
6:05 qualifies, strictly speaking, as a
6:07 blockade, but nevertheless, we call it
6:10 And Iran sees the blockade as
6:12 representing a serious threat to itself,
6:14 its economy, its relations with others.
6:16 So Iran has to break the blockade.
6:19 Now, how are they going to break the
6:22 They're going to break it by driving us
6:23 further and further and further away
6:25 from their coastlines.
6:27 Now, this is something else that was
6:30 I I don't want to say obvious, but very
6:34 I published a book in 1997
6:37 and the book was about a future war with
6:41 followed by Iran, but first and foremost
6:45 And I showed numbers of shore-based
6:49 cruise and ballistic missiles that would
6:51 be terminally guided in some cases. In
6:53 some cases, they would be
6:55 directed, if not by satellites and
6:57 aerostats. In other words, to reach out
7:01 a thousand miles and attack targets. And
7:04 at the time in the scenario that I
7:05 depicted in 1997 in the book Breaking
7:10 the the Iranians and the Iraqis were
7:12 interested in sinking a carrier.
7:15 But they mistook on their
7:17 you know, whatever their ISR was, a
7:19 marine amphibious ship for a carrier,
7:21 and they sank the marine amphibious
7:23 Well, you can imagine overnight I became
7:25 public enemy number one inside of
7:28 because I was saying that the the Navy's
7:30 carrier force and the Marine Corps's
7:32 amphibious force were both very much in
7:35 danger of becoming an anachronistic and
7:39 incapable of influencing anything
7:44 that book came out in what, March of
7:45 1997. This is now 2026.
7:50 Good Lord. I mean, this is this is
7:54 You know, all of the instrumentalities
7:56 that were developed for the use of the
7:58 US armed forces against its opponents in
8:02 have reached their termination date,
8:05 their sell-by dates.
8:08 In other words, the old
8:08 instrumentalities are going to vanish
8:10 now, and new instrumentalities are going
8:12 to come into existence.
8:14 But our instrumentalities are different
8:16 from, say, the Russians or the Germans
8:18 or the Chinese or the Iranians because
8:21 we are primarily a maritime aerospace
8:26 Everything we have is designed to reach
8:30 thousands of miles somewhere else.
8:33 This is a result of the fact that we're
8:36 with no serious opponent ashore. In
8:39 other words, we're not expecting any
8:40 armies to come down out of Canada or
8:43 armies to come up from Latin America. So
8:45 what do we do? We we focus on the things
8:47 that we can do beyond the Western
8:49 hemisphere, and that's what we've been
8:51 Those days are coming to an end.
8:54 And that's why the future for the United
8:56 States is not interference in other
8:58 people's affairs, meddling inside other
9:00 people's societies, attacking people
9:03 who've never attacked us. You know, I I
9:06 know everybody says, oh, well, the evil
9:07 Iranians have been at war with us for 47
9:10 years. It's all nonsense. Okay, that's
9:13 No one bothers to point out the
9:16 which cost the Iranians anywhere from
9:18 500 to 750,000 casualties, maybe more.
9:21 We just don't know. And all of the
9:24 supplies and all of the equipment and
9:25 all of the intelligence and all of the
9:28 advice that was supplied to Saddam
9:29 Hussein to make that war happen came
9:36 It's over. This this this is a chapter
9:39 in humanity in human history that is
9:42 We can't do this anymore.
9:44 So all we're doing right now with this
9:47 is we're prolonging the agony. We're
9:49 bleeding cash. It's costing us a lot of
9:52 And I think we're doing enormous damage
9:54 to our armed forces.
9:56 But there's no willingness to say, wait
9:59 this has gone as far as it can go.
10:01 You know, we just had these reports
10:03 leaked from the Department of Defense,
10:04 or they call it the Department of War
10:07 And I guess Secretary Hagel Seth is now
10:09 running witch to find out who leaked
10:13 But the point is what are they telling
10:15 us? They're not telling us anything that
10:16 you and I and others that you've talked
10:18 to like Larry Johnson or any number of
10:20 people have said repeatedly, we don't
10:23 have the munitions.
10:25 We we don't have the production base to
10:27 rapidly replace all these interceptors,
10:30 all these anti-missile missiles, let
10:32 alone the strike weapons.
10:34 So we're really pushing up against an
10:36 enormous logistical barrier that we
10:39 cannot easily overcome. And people are
10:41 saying, you know, we really need to get
10:44 But nobody wants to admit what I just
10:46 explained to you, that our ability to
10:47 maintain these bases on the Eurasian
10:50 periphery because look where our bases
10:53 Start all the way up at Northern Japan,
10:56 work your way all the way around China,
10:58 down into the Philippines, through
11:00 Southeast Asia, jump over the Indian
11:04 Fortunately, the Indians don't have to
11:05 put up with us. And then you go over to
11:08 the Persian Gulf and all the way up to
11:10 the Middle East and up to your all the
11:12 way to the top of Norway.
11:14 Okay, that that's the Eurasian
11:17 And our strategy has always been we need
11:20 to cling to this, to hold on to this in
11:23 case we have to come back and re-fight
11:27 Well, we're not going to re-fight World
11:29 War II. That's already been
11:31 We're in a new era now, new kinds of
11:33 warfare, new kinds of technologies. We
11:36 need a new strategy and that strategy is
11:38 staring us in the face and that's called
11:40 hemispheric defense.
11:43 >> In other words, defend ourselves.
11:45 And unless somebody attacks us directly,
11:47 we don't attack them.
11:51 But that's something that Washington
11:55 They don't want to give it up.
11:55 >> that also lead doesn't that also lead to
11:57 the end of the petrodollar that led to
12:00 the quality of life that the Americans
12:02 enjoyed for so many decades?
12:03 >> Absolutely. The petrol the petrol dollar
12:06 is on the skids. I don't think there's
12:07 any question about that.
12:09 And we're going to have to change our
12:11 economy. We're going to the way we think
12:13 about economic development.
12:15 I mean, when Donald Trump came to power
12:17 to begin with, he started talking about
12:18 repatriating industry.
12:21 Well, some of that has to happen, but we
12:23 need new industries. In other words,
12:26 if you look at what do we do best? What
12:28 do Americans do best?
12:30 Agriculture. We've ignored agriculture.
12:33 In fact, we're punishing our own
12:34 agrarian sector right now.
12:37 Our farmers are suffering suffering
12:41 Our agricultural sector should lead the
12:43 world. The Midwest is a breadbasket on
12:46 the scale of Ukraine, okay? So that's
12:49 number one. Number two, energy.
12:51 We have enormous energy reserves. We
12:54 should be developing them in an
12:56 intelligent fashion. How many new
12:57 refineries have we built within the last
13:06 Okay? No new refineries. What's
13:07 happening to our strategic petroleum
13:10 People are reporting that it's it's it's
13:15 would like to extricate himself from
13:17 this no winning situation.
13:20 Uh he's lost the military conflict.
13:22 There is no way out of this easy way out
13:27 Uh he's opened his big mouth and made a
13:28 lot of stupid statements, statements
13:31 that put him in a bad position,
13:33 but they're positions from which he
13:35 cannot easily retreat.
13:38 The Iranians have no reason to trust us.
13:42 I mean, let let's be frank.
13:43 We tried to kill their delegation. The
13:46 Israelis have done this. We've done
13:49 Uh why would they trust anything we say
13:52 I I'm just I just find it hard to
13:54 believe that the Iranians would do
13:58 unless we demonstrated conclusively that
14:00 we were serious. The only way to do that
14:02 is for us to lift the blockade
14:05 release all those funds, and withdraw
14:07 the naval forces, not just lift the
14:09 blockade and sail 100 miles away. Get
14:14 That's tough for President Trump to do
14:16 without admitting defeat.
14:18 It's also something that I don't think
14:20 is the Israeli lobby and its agents in
14:23 Washington will accept.
14:25 The Israelis do not under any
14:27 circumstances want an end to this war
14:30 unless it ends in the destruction of
14:34 So I guess the bottom line is that I
14:36 would be very hopeful
14:38 but not very optimistic. So I don't
14:41 think much will come of this and I think
14:42 we will resume fighting.
14:46 >> What do you make of what we're seeing in
14:48 Saudi as well? The imminent strikes that
14:51 seemed to seem to be imminent over the
14:54 weekend. I think the bombs were being
14:55 loaded on the planes and then they were
14:56 canceled by Trump as American planes.
14:59 The Lancer took off
15:00 to strike the Houthis.
15:03 The Iranians were on high alert.
15:07 Is the US abandoning Saudi? Are they
15:09 delaying it after the midterms? Would
15:10 that really make a difference cuz the
15:12 Houthis are still bombing Saudis and the
15:14 Saudis are bombing the Houthis. But
15:16 the Houthis went as deep as
15:19 Tabuk, which is up near Jordan, 2,000 km
15:22 and there was an important air base
15:24 there. So the Houthis struck Tabuk for
15:26 the first time ever or for the first
15:30 So I would love to get your thoughts on
15:31 the Houthi-Saudi war.
15:35 >> Al-Ansar made an agreement with us.
15:38 I don't know the contents of the
15:39 agreement, but there is an agreement in
15:42 and we halted operations against them.
15:45 As far as I can tell, they've held to
15:46 their end of the bargain.
15:49 If we attack them now, that means that
15:52 once again we've demonstrated we can't
15:54 be trusted and no bargain that you make
15:56 with the United States will be honored.
15:58 So I'm sure that's on on President
16:00 Trump's mind. Secondly, I don't know
16:02 what kind of munitions they'll use, what
16:04 kind of PGMs, precision guided
16:08 I have no idea where we stand on that.
16:12 there's resistance in inside the senior
16:15 military leadership, probably in the
16:17 Pentagon, to doing this.
16:20 I think their argument will be, we have
16:21 to keep our eyes on the trained on the
16:24 real goal in this war.
16:26 We don't want to be diverted into a
16:29 Ansarallah. We want to stay focused on
16:31 the fight with Iran.
16:33 Remember that Ansarallah, if they
16:35 fundamentally block off
16:38 the Red Sea and they block off the with
16:40 the Persian Gulf and the current
16:42 condition it's in, and it's it's
16:44 effectively closed, contrary to what
16:48 you're looking at 35% of the global oil
16:52 reserve is is out of out of action. It's
16:55 out of out of reach.
16:57 So under those circumstances,
17:00 I think President Trump and his advisor
17:03 are probably seriously considering what
17:05 to do and they may decide not to do
17:06 anything right now. They may be looking
17:09 to help Saudi Arabia. And there's
17:11 another problem that the Saudis have and
17:13 I'm sure you're aware of this.
17:15 Uh Prince Mohammed bin Salman is
17:19 arrange for loans to the Saudis
17:22 to bridge their situation financially
17:25 right now into the future.
17:27 This is not a good sign for Saudi
17:30 one would think is one of the richest
17:32 countries in the world.
17:34 But they've squandered an awful lot of
17:36 money and resources on big projects,
17:39 some of which have worked, many of which
17:42 And they're not prepared for a long war
17:44 of any kind. And they certainly don't
17:46 have the military power. I mean, they
17:48 may it on paper, but in in real terms,
17:51 there's not much there.
17:53 So I I wonder if Saudi Arabia is going
17:55 to survive at all. Remember, I've said
17:56 from the beginning that I thought all of
17:58 these statelets on the Arabian Peninsula
18:01 would all be ultimately swept away
18:04 in the tide of time as a result of this
18:07 I include that in Jordan in that.
18:09 And I as I've said before, I don't see
18:12 there is an absolute guarantee that
18:13 Israel will survive this either. It's
18:16 got serious problems.
18:17 The whole the whole status quo in the
18:21 right now is crumbling.
18:23 What's going to take it place is
18:25 But that's where that brings me back to
18:27 your earlier comment about the Turks.
18:31 You know, I people say, well, you know,
18:32 the Turkish economy is very fragile. The
18:34 Turkish interest rates are too high.
18:36 Turkish inflation, Turkish this, Turkish
18:38 that. But at the end of the day,
18:41 the Turks can fight and they have a very
18:43 large military and that nation can be
18:45 mobilized and hurled into action. I
18:47 think the Israelis know that.
18:51 I don't know what's going to happen
18:52 next, but I don't think you're going to
18:54 get an agreement based on
18:56 meetings on the sidelines with Kushner
18:59 or anybody else from the US government
19:01 right now with Iran. I just don't.
19:04 >> When you talk about the Gulf and Jordan
19:10 how would that look and you you
19:11 mentioned Israel as well, but how would
19:13 that look like for the Gulf?
19:16 >> I don't know. I think that to some
19:17 extent you're going to have the Iranians
19:19 involved in dictating or shaping the
19:24 I'm sure that some and Qatar is is
19:26 probably one of them will turn to their
19:30 It may be that that is also the case
19:32 with some of the Sunni Arab leaders
19:33 there. They will turn to the Turks.
19:36 They're obviously all interested in the
19:38 Chinese support because the Chinese are
19:41 the ones with the capital to come back
19:42 in and rebuild things.
19:45 So it depends on a number of different
19:47 dynamics. If you're an Iranian and you
19:49 look across the Gulf, what do you want
19:50 from them? Well, you remember exactly
19:52 what I just described.
19:53 These Gulf statelets were very much in
19:55 bed with Saudi Arabia and the United
19:57 States in its war against Iran.
19:59 They have also cooperated and conspired
20:02 with Israel against Iran. So what do
20:05 they want? Well, they don't want anybody
20:07 on the other side of the Gulf conspiring
20:10 They don't want any foreign bases there.
20:14 think about it. What does it mean? It
20:15 means they're going to have a big say in
20:17 who ultimately governs over there.
20:19 And again, if they turn to the Turks as
20:21 the case is with Cutter and others.
20:24 Uh, the Turks will have to decide what
20:26 they do or do not do. The Turks are
20:28 already very concerned about what's
20:30 happening in Syria, as you know.
20:32 The situation there is extremely tense.
20:34 The Israelis have brought brought that
20:39 If I lived in the middle of the Middle
20:41 East right now, I'd move.
20:45 >> who that's for. I wonder who that's for.
20:48 We saw the munitions depot in Syria
20:51 blowing up again two, three days ago.
20:56 >> I'm saying. This thing is
20:58 is just is just getting started. This is
21:02 >> I want to start right there with Donald
21:03 Trump's recent address to the United
21:05 Nations. You know, he stood in New York
21:06 City and said that he has a very
21:09 difficult decision to make. Does he make
21:10 a deal with Iran that turns them into
21:12 one of the most basically his message to
21:14 the world there? I'd like to get your
21:16 initial thoughts to that and, you know,
21:18 what you think of this decision that
21:19 Donald Trump says he has to make.
21:24 listening to him was entertaining to say
21:28 Uh, I I think he's developed something
21:30 of a god complex. Uh, he seems to have
21:33 determined that he's going to
21:35 single-handedly return the United States
21:38 to 1991 and the unipolar moment.
21:42 Effectively, he's set himself up as a
21:44 judge and jury of the world.
21:47 And Iran is, uh, for reasons of
21:49 connectivity to Israel turned out to be
21:52 public enemy number one as far as he's
21:54 concerned and seems willing to do
21:56 anything to destroy it.
21:58 But he's also allowing them to
22:02 and publicly humiliate themselves by
22:06 agreeing to do whatever it is that
22:07 Israel wants. I mean, that's literally
22:09 what it comes down to.
22:11 >> Uh, it's psychotic.
22:15 >> Yeah. Um, let's talk about it from a
22:18 military perspective, you know, Colonel.
22:19 Is this even possible? I mean, we we
22:21 just heard Donald Trump say that he's
22:23 going to annihilate Iran. He's going to
22:24 send in this. I mean, I've I've been
22:26 carry out a very large uh you know
22:28 movement here. I mean, is is there still
22:30 a potential of a ground invasion? I
22:31 mean, what is the United States military
22:33 really looking at uh from Iran right
22:36 >> Well, to annihilate Iran would require
22:41 uh the use of nuclear weapons. Let's be
22:43 frank. Annihilation, look it up, it
22:45 means total destruction, nothing left.
22:49 It's the last word I would utilize. It's
22:52 thinking that was familiar to Stalin or
22:56 It is certainly not the thinking that
22:58 one would associate with the president
23:00 of the United States.
23:02 We should be interested obviously in
23:04 avoiding war whenever possible and if
23:06 there is a conflict, finding a way to
23:07 settle it on the best possible terms
23:11 But those terms always have to take into
23:13 consideration the opponent and his
23:15 thinks thinking and his interests.
23:18 He's essentially excluded those from the
23:22 Now, militarily, what can we do? Can we
23:24 destroy, fundamentally annihilate Iran
23:27 with purely conventional military power?
23:29 Annihilate, no. Significantly destroy,
23:34 So that brings me back to nuclear
23:35 weapons and that's the problem.
23:38 Uh I'm someone that thinks that a
23:39 nuclear weapon should be employed only
23:42 in the most desperate of circumstances
23:45 we Americans ourselves have been
23:47 attacked by someone else who has nuclear
23:51 Otherwise, as far as I'm concerned, a
23:52 nuclear weapon is off the table.
23:55 He apparently is thinking in those
23:57 terms, I'm told, because there are
23:58 people in the Department of Defense,
24:01 excuse me, Department of