Episode 5192: Updates On Iran War From CENTCOM

0:00Number is it, I mean, literally double what anyone would say. Okay, this is the war we're going to continue with President Trump in the East Room, honoring the MLS Miami franchise for winning Major Lake Soccer. We're going to cut to the sent-com brief as soon as that starts. We will take that in its entirety and we've got several of our best analysts and military strategists to comment after it's back to the East Room. But we're going to have an amazing year, but I just want to thank you so much for the job you've done. You've been, I've known you for a while and I've known of you for a long period of time. You are a spectacular man and please say a few words. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much, Mr. President, to all these distinguished guests, secretaries, so many friends and supporters. On behalf of myself, my wife Aleda, my brother Jose, and his wife Patty, and my whole family

1:05who is here today, with David Beckham, I want to express to you what an extreme honor and privilege it is to be in the people's house, led by you, celebrating in the presence of champions. Winner is all because this championship was very, very well deserved, greatly played and you're looking at one of the best teams on the face of the earth standing behind us. And this all became possible because we dared to dream. Seven years ago, inter Miami was nothing but an idea and a dream. I remember after talking to Commissioner Garber and being awarded a team, we sat in the conference room of our family business in Miami and said to each other, what do we do now? And as the son of a man and woman who left Cuba just seeking freedom in this great country,

2:05it has driven us to excellence. And we thought, what can we do to make a difference? What can we do that's special? And at that time, I told myself what many people thought impossible. I said, we are going to bring the world's greatest player to play at inter Miami. And that was in 2019. And today, standing before you, you have the world's greatest player here to my right. Over the course of the last two and a half years that he has been here, we've been on an epic run of records, of trophies, of winning. Because what I've wanted to establish with inter Miami is a winning culture. That it be a reflection of our community, of South Florida Miami, made up of winners, of hard working men and women, and I want our team to be an embodiment of our fan base, and everyone who aspires to a better future and to a better life. On the back of our jersey, Mr. President, it says freedom to dream. Because that's our family moniker and what our embodies our team and our aspirations.

3:09But that all began many, many years before at the dinner table of our family. And my late father, Jorge Mascanosa, and my mother, Irma, who is here today. And I speak now, and tribute to our parents' generation. And I share that with Secretary Marco Rubio, of men and women who fled communism, who fled tyranny, who wanted a better life for their voice, and their daughters, and their sons in the future. And at that table was instilled in us that if you work hard and you sacrifice and you dream, it can be possible. And today standing before you, inter Miami is one of the world's biggest clubs. Most based on history, but our history has been short. But having a winning culture, having the best-selling jersey on the face of the earth, making a global difference, and not only because of Leonel Messi, but these men standing behind

4:09you have changed the culture of football in the United States of America forever. We can play with the big boys, we can be heavyweights, our league can be one of the top leagues in the world, and it is this ability to dream, to persevere, to have no obstacles ahead of us, that we will continue to be successful. And hopefully, Mr. President, this is not our only visit here, celebrating an MLS Cup Championship. But this team is an embodiment of that. And I want to thank you to be able to express this to you, to so many dear friends, loved ones, and global fans all over the world. We feel stadiums everywhere. We're playing this weekend against DC United at the Raven Stadium in Baltimore, because we'll have a sell out there. We sell out everywhere we go. We open the season at the LA Coliseum with a record crowd. But it is our aspiration to continue breaking barriers, to putting no limits, to making sure that Major League Soccer and Inter Miami, over the course of the next few years, is considered

5:10with the elite of global football. So with that said, Mr. President, thank you, thanking you for sharing this championship with us, that we can share it with our families in the people's house, and we can share it with the world. Thank you. And now we have some gifts we'd like to present to you. Thank you. Mr. President, as USA-250, on the front, we have our jersey, and this is from 47, the UNO-Messies, number 10's of best-selling jersey. Oh, which we made, which hopefully will have a rightful place, and well-office and dedication

6:10of you dedicated for our championship, that's for you as well as for us. And then, most importantly, this is a very, very special limited edition Inter Miami Pink Tutor Watch. It's etched on the back with your name, you know, tribute to you, and special because time is a precious element, time has a lot of meaning, I think, to all of us, and we wanted to give you that. And also, we have an additional gift, which is another jersey for very luscious, cheap football staff. So we do have, we do have our jersey somewhere, number 32, but thank you, Mr. President. Very much. And I want to just invite the team to the Oval Office, very, very special place.

7:14It's sort of the center of the world, especially now, but always, it's the center of the world. We have a little present for you there, and anybody would like to come, you could just follow me on down there, okay? You can see the open. And you'll have some fun. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Bringing in to me, okay, there's the President of the United States, East Room, packed house, for this great soccer team, right? And President Trump, spending a good part of the day celebrating excellence, he's now going to go with traditional President Trump to take these teams into the, into the Oval Office. You're in the war room.

8:15We are momentarily going to go to the Sencom briefing down, I think they're doing the briefing in Tampa. I think is that correct? I think they're doing the Sencom headquarters in Tampa. Of course, they get afforded deployed in Doha, but they're doing the Sencom commander, Admiral Cooper. Okay, we're going to go to it right now, it's cut live. I'm tired of this, this operation, Operation Epic Fury, and Admiral, I want to thank you for everything you do in your incredible leadership, for your dynamic thinking, the way you're attacking this problem set on every level. In just days of Operation Epic Fury, you and your team have delivered nothing short of devastating, precise strikes, taking out the better part of Iran's Navy, making it combat ineffective, neutralizing missile sites and launchers, and establishing total dominance over the skies we fly over and seize, we fly over. Our forces are executing with unmatched skill, and the mission is advancing decisively.

9:17This is the kind of no nonsense, results driven, war fighting that America demands. And you're delivering it in spades. You are the man for this moment. Admiral Cooper, on behalf of the President, the Department of War and every American watching I want to thank you for your outstanding job you and Sencom are doing. Keep pressing the fight, and we are with you all the way. A few thoughts before I hand it over to the Admiral for an update. Iran is hoping that we cannot sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation for the IRGC in Iran. You see, there's no shortage of American will here. We remember and honor our fallen, those six that we will soon welcome at Dover who gave everything for their country in this mission. We remember them. But we remember them by rededicating ourselves even more fervently to this mission, our commitment

10:17to our mission objectives only increases as our advantages continue to increase. We've got no shortage of munitions, our stockpiles of defensive and offensive weapons allow us to sustain this campaign as long as we need to. Again, our munition status only increases as our advantage increases. Our capabilities, we have only just begun to fight and fight decisively, having a chance to hear from Admiral Cooper. If you think you've seen something, just wait, the amount of combat power that's still flowing, that's still coming, that we'll be able to project over Iran is a multiples of what it currently is right now when you add up our capabilities and those of the Israeli defense forces. And we have no shortage of authorities. Admiral knows we have clear objectives with maximum authorities on the battlefield. The dumb, politically correct wars of the past were the opposite of what we're doing here.

11:21They had vague objectives with restrictive, minimalist rules of engagement, no more. Our authorities, his authorities, sent comms, authorities through the president and myself are maxed out. Our capabilities are overwhelming and gathering still as are those of our Israeli partners. Our munitions are full up and our will is iron clad, which means our timeline is ours and ours alone to control. As long as it takes to ensure the United States of America achieves these objectives and as we flow more forces and as we flow more capabilities and as our munitions as we're flying over the top, have even more devastating effects. We set the tempo, we set the timeline led by the commander on the ground. Our ear is to the ground to listen to Admiral Cooper what he needs and what he needs he will get. We are built for this fight and we are in it to win it and we have the right commander

12:25in the lead. So I'll now hand it over to Admiral Brad Cooper to give you an update right here from sent count. Admiral. Mr. Secretary, first thank you very much and get afternoon and welcome to US Central Command headquarters, America's war fighting headquarters. It's great to be here alongside the secretary and representing the more than 50,000 men and women in uniform currently executing Operation Epic Fury. So Mr. Secretary, first thank you very much for your leadership and support and the very clear vision and objectives that you've given us to allow us to use overwhelming force against the Iranian terrorist regime. And thanks to all of you for attending today and welcome to Tampa. We are now starting our sixth day of a historic mission to eliminate Iran's ability to threaten Americans. We are, if I could channel my inner Navy officer, we are at full speed ahead in executing orders given by leadership in Washington. The president and secretary hexath have been crystal clear in their expectations and we are at a high level of execution as described by the secretary and earlier this week by

13:26me, US combat power is building as Iranian combat power declines. Our air dominance allows us to hit Iran's center of gravity with overwhelming power and reach. A couple of examples. In just the last 72 hours, America's bomber force has struck nearly 200 targets deep inside of Iran, including around to Iran. And in just the last hour, US B2 bombers dropped dozens of 2,000 pound penetrator bombs targeting deeply buried ballistic missile launchers. Notably, we have also struck Iran's equivalent of space command, which upgrades their ability to threaten Americans. Then if I just look back over the last 24 hours of the operation compared to where we were at start, ballistic missile attacks have decreased by 90% since day one. Drone attacks have decreased by 83% since day one. Having said this, we remain vigilant. Our strikes against the Iranian Navy have intensified. You may have heard the President say just a little while ago that we have sunk or destroyed

14:2924 ships. That was true at the moment. We're now up over 30 ships. And in just the last few hours, we hit an Iranian drone carrier ship. Roughly the size of a World War II aircraft carrier. And as we speak, it's on fire. The President gave us another task to raise or level Iran's ballistic missile industrial base. So we're not just hitting what they have, we're destroying their ability to rebuild. And so as we transition to the next phase of this operation, we will systemically dismantle Iran's missile production capability for the future, and that's absolutely in progress. This is going to take some time, but our forces are well supplied, as the Secretary said, and we are absolutely ready to prosecute this mission decisively. Our combined joint forces have relentlessly destroyed Iran's air defenses over the past few days, and they continue hunting for more systems to kill. Our air defenders are operating at the very top of their game. I couldn't be prouder shoulder to shoulder with our partners in the region in many cases,

15:29providing the most integrated air defense network in Middle East history. We are fighting to win. Through combined U.S. and Israeli combat power, we will continue decimating Iran's ability to project power outside its borders. And if I can just conclude by saying a strong salute to the brave men and women who are out on the point of edge of this really doing exceptional work, I just couldn't be prouder and I know the American people sharing that same pride. So thank you very much. Absolutely. And with that, we'll take a few questions. Yeah, right here. Sir, I appreciate it. I'd like to ask, or Mr. Secretary, the Ukrainian President said today that the U.S. has asked for specific capabilities to deal with shadowed drones or Iranian drones. Can you guys talk about what you asked for? And has there been any surprise from Iranian capabilities that you guys have seen in the past six days? Go ahead. We're very familiar with Iranian's capabilities. And as you might imagine, we plan for it right from the outset, and I feel good about what the plan was. Like any good organization, we adjust as necessary to meet the environment and we've made those

16:36appropriate adjustments. Absolutely. Right here. I, too, preferable to you, one, was an American pilot shot down today in Iraq, and two, I heard reports that there's an Iranian story and it's behind. I'm also in a report said there's not a lot of bombing there. Is that on purpose? Do we believe there's an Iranian there? Would we ever send special forces to security? As Sencom pointed out, those reports of an F-15 being shot down are false. As you can imagine, Iran is doing everything it can to pedal in lies, deception, and inflation of numbers in reality, mostly to propaganda is to their own people, right? They don't, they've shot down the internet. They're hoping they can convince their own population that they're having success. One thing one of their leaders said recently is that, you know, 500 Americans have been killed, they claim. These are lies. The lies will continue, Sencom will continue to debunk those lies. So and as often as the case in conflict, first reports are often wrong.

17:37As it pertains to nuclear material and things like that, one of the objectives the President has always said is that Iran will not have nuclear bomb nuclear capabilities, but we would never disclose what we will or will not do inside operational plans. So Admiral Cooper's got a plan, we're working that plan, and targets will be struck or not struck according to what we want to achieve. Yeah, right there. Secretary Hexup, the President said earlier today in an interview that he would like to have a say in who's the next leader of Iran. Is this an expansion of your military objective you viewed that way? And additionally, he spoke earlier today about how previous leaders have drawn resources from our atmosphere to the Middle East. How do you avoid that? Well, there's no expansion. Ultimately, I think the President's having a heck of a say in who runs Iran. In the ongoing operation we have. So there's no expansion in our objectives, we know exactly what we're trying to achieve. I think today's a great example of what this war department is capable of doing. I was just another part of Florida today where we announced America's counter-cartel

18:40conference. 18 countries coming together from Central South America and the Caribbean coming together to fight cartels. That is something that is ongoing. We're focused there. We're focused in the Indo-Pacific. We can mass combat power. In SETCOM, UCOM is able to support that as well. So we know we're laser focused on our hemisphere and our homeland, and that's why we lock down the border. That's why we're working with partners to take on cartels. That's why we're sinking drug boats. That's why we're on the offense there. But the beautiful things about combat and commands is that Brad Cooper's laser focused on central command, just like Frank Donovan is laser focused on southern command. We can do both. That's what a global power can do. Ultimately, this issue of Iran's nuclear pursuit and their unwillingness through negotiations to stop it was something President Trump had said for a long time needs to be dealt with. And after 47 years, he's doing something that no other president was willing to do. And we're doing it overwhelmingly and we're doing it decisively, while also on other

19:40parts of the globe having the desired effects. Take, for example, what we displayed yesterday, the Iranian ship in the Indian Ocean, sunk by Indo-Pakam, another combatant command who coordinated with us in order to make that happen. So America's reaches global. Our focus here, though, those missions are narrow, they're scoped, and Admiral Cooper is well on his way to ensuring that we reach those objectives. Right here, yes sir. Sure, I'm not familiar with the particular offer, but the interceptors in general.

20:43We've had a number of new capabilities being fielded, obviously I'm not going to talk about it from an operational perspective of what those are. But I think you have seen over a period of time, us kind of get on the other side of this cost curve on drones in general. If I just walk back a couple of years, you remember what you used always here, we're shooting down a $50,000 drone with a $2 million missile. These days, we're spending a lot of time shooting down $100,000 drones with $10,000 weapons from ours. So that's one aspect. With Lucas, indispensable, as many of you know, and if you don't know, this was an original Iranian drone design. We captured it, pulled the guts out, sent it back to America, put a little made America on it, brought it back here, and we're shooting it at the Iranians. Good targets. Good targets. Absolutely. Right there, yes sir. Thank you so much. This is Secretary. President Trump in his first speech after the launch of the Operation Epic Fury, he addressed Iranian people and he said that there is going to be a time for you to come out, but

21:47it's not now. Stay home. It's not safe. I want to know if there was a timeline for that, that you're going to urge Iranian people to come out, how that is going to play out, and how are you going to protect the protesters? You know that they're going to be shot probably, as we witness in January, that's what happened. How are you going to protect and support the protesters? And Admiral, I have one question for you. How are you going to minimize the civilian harms? We have a lot of evidence that the Bastille juniors, IRG's, the commanders, they are now gathering in schools, in hospitals, in purely residential areas, because their headquarters are bombarded. They are ruined, of course. So how are you going to protect the civilians while you're attacking the IRG's people hard? Thank you. I'm just saying the protests, obviously, the Iranian people showed a lot of courage in

22:48those protests, and we saw the Iranian regime was revealed for what it is in the way they reacted to that, the world saw that. No one's done more than President Trump to reopen the opportunity for those who want a free Iran to do so. Ultimately, it's common sense, as he said up front, don't go out and protest while bombs are dropping inside Tehran and elsewhere. So there will come a moment where he determines, or they determine that it's the time to seize that advantage. But there's a lot of things we're doing, and the Israeli military is doing, targeting those individuals who are targeting those who protest. The more you do that, and you erode their will, and you erode their capabilities, the more you create an opportunity for people to boldly stand up. Yeah, I would just reinforce the point we're targeting the people, we're targeting the headquarters and the people who are targeting the protesters, first and foremost, I'd also just double down on the President's comments that he previously made to the people staring your homes, keep things calm, stay out of the way, there's a lot of U.S. and Israeli capacity

23:51coming over. We're hitting a lot of targets. The best thing for them to do for right now is just to lay low. Right here. One common outcome of the American military action in the past has been taking in thousands of refugees into the American homeland, and I'm wondering if there's any safeguards put in place to make sure that the American people aren't having to have another way of refugees from the police, or else come and stay here. I think it's safe to say there's no plan for a wave of new Middle Eastern refugees to the United States of America. I think as the President has pointed out for a long time, there are a lot of countries in this in the region who would be capable of providing that kind of support, if need be, but that's certainly not something we're planning on. Yep, back there. Yep. Yes, sir. Michael in Washington Times. You wanted to ask, I know, you know, Semper Gumby is always a truism in the military. Did the British decision to refuse, David Garcia, have any impact on the mission itself?

24:53Did you have to adjust or were you able to just completely go with the mission without even worrying about that? Well, as the President stated, it was unfortunate that the Brits didn't, from day one, say, hey, go ahead and have access, but we got there. We got there, and that's now part of the way that we're operationalizing bomber runs. And as part of, when we say more to come, it's more fighter squadrons, it's more capabilities, it's more defensive capabilities, and it's more bomber pulses, more frequently. The amount of firepower over Iran and over Tehran is about to surge dramatically, and part of it is that we're going to have even more basing. And it's not just the UK. We've had other friends step up, and we're grateful for that. Maybe one more right here. The Azeri President, earlier today, basically authorized his minister of defense to begin preparing troops for some type of retaliatory action at the airport straight, as the Department of War has been sent home and working on deep flipping with the Azeri if they were to move in or spend something in retaliation.

25:56I'm sure there are plans while at the Admiral speak to that, but that does allow me to kind of address this idea that the war might be expanding, or there's chaos, and nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, what Iran is doing by targeting allied countries that would otherwise want to stay out of this, they've actually pulled them into the American orbit. So now you've got UAE and Qatar and Bahrain and Saudi and Kuwait and others saying, hey, we're with you. Here's, we'll shoot with you. We'll fly with you. We'll defend with you. We'll allow you more basing, and a lot of which we can't talk about and won't talk about. But it's actually firming up the unity of the resistance in order to focus exactly where we need to. So, this idea that it's expanding or going, no, it's actually simplifying in a number of ways, exactly what we need to achieve and how we'll achieve it. I don't know if you've any idea. I won't get out of policy in terms of what we might do. What I will point out is, this is now the 12th country that Iran has attacked. Twelve countries, and it goes right back to the Secretary's point, those 12 countries

27:00are none too happy, and I look forward to working with all the partners who are willing to join us in this. And I would just close by saying, Mr. Secretary, one more question. What is your message to Americans who are concerned about security here at home with the change-up that we're going to see at the Department of Homeland Security? Well, I think, I think, Chris, you know, did an excellent job over there, securing our border and keeping us focused on threats and President, making a change. We all serve at the pleasure of the President. I'm sure Mark Wayne-Mullen will do a fantastic job. He's been a friend of mine for a long time. So, Chris, you did a great job setting this up for success. So, I don't have any concerns about whether or not the homeland will be covered down on. And I'll just end by saying, I wish every American could get a chance to see what we see, a chance to go into the control room, into the tactical operation center, go see these young men and women that are doing this, the dedication that they show at every level. The way they've refined their craft, and I've talked to a young colonel who's iterating on how we target and how we find and fix different aspects of what the Iranians are trying

28:05to do. If they don't know what they're up against, and if they think they've got it solved for they're wrong. And ultimately, the combination of our ingenuity, the skill, the professionalism, the discipline, and then the sheer weight of the capabilities of the U.S. military, what you're going to see may look routine. It might start to be like, oh, another boat, oh, another launcher. Oh, another drone facility. What it takes to do this with the precision that we do is world-class, no one else can do it. And it's world-class Americans. Like the ones I saw here, like the ones that are coming home that we're going to greet home, that are the engine of what makes our country great. And so I'm so grateful for folks like those here at St. Comet Central Command who are under your command. Thank you for your decisive leadership, and all I say to you is what I say to them, keep going. Because the president and myself, we have your back. Thank you, Admiral. Appreciate it. Thanks very much. Thank you all. Okay. Your head, that's at St. Comet headquarters in Tampa.

29:07He had Admiral Bradley Cooper, the secretary of war, Pete Hexeth. Let's go. We got Brandon Wiker, Dr. Bradley Thayer, George Papadopoulos, to start it off. Brandon Wiker, tell me discerned for me what was what was signal and what was noise in that briefing. A key takeaway is that we do have localized air superiority, which means that we can start bombing these sites. But I just want to make it clear, this is not the same thing as air dominance. There's no indication yet that we have achieved air dominance. So that's another signal noise issue. Another thing they kept repeating was the missile launchers. It's true. We have destroyed the missile launchers we can find and see. The Iranians have switched now to popping off these missiles from within the entryways or in these covered positions near these underground tunnels. We have no idea how many they have. So I think it's a little misleading on the part of the Pentagon to say that, oh, well,

30:10we're going to be able to get all these things. We will eventually, over time, likely be able to find many of them. But it requires them to shoot off the missile first. So it's sort of like closing the barn door after the horse is already left. I just want to be hang on hang on. I want to be specific. The term of our superiority and their air supremacy. I don't think I heard air supremacy. They said they had local air superiority, correct? Yeah, that's what that's what it's that's what they're saying. And then the headset said we have total air dominance. And that is just not accurate. That is a turn of phrase and I understand he wants to do that. But just so we're clear, there are many steps between what we have achieved at great cost mind you to our stockpiles and what is happening or what he wants to happen, which is total air dominance. But I just want to make it. Yeah. Yeah. I think those briefings, I think those briefings, particularly from some com would be better if you had Sencom do more.

31:11I think people want more numbers more about what the combat operations are, but let me go back to something. It does seem like an Admiral Cooper reiterated this unless I missed it. That we contain a flow, more systems, more weapon systems, more platforms into the region and have consistently and that degradation. We're still going down their target sets. It seems more scattergunned, you know, a guy coming out of the thing and popping something out there. These are random pops and said a systematic retaliation is that do you think the same way? I'm not convinced of that. That's just my personal take and I'm sure other guests will disagree with me. But I'm not convinced of that that this is just random dead enders, if you will. Remember that was the Rumsfeld term back in the day, dead enders. This doesn't seem like dead enders to me. This seems like a very organized. Now, maybe the C2 functions we know have been degraded, but the Iranians were anticipating

32:12this and this is why they desegregated or decentralized rather as many command authority to their local field commanders as possible. I would also like to remind everybody that the weapons that the Iranians are firing. Now the sent comm is running around with this percentage thing. They're playing a numbers game. Well, it looks like that the systems that are being fired at the region are increasingly more complex. They're merving in many cases. They are, which means they're separating into smaller warheads. I was witnessing one strike from, I think, about 12 hours ago in Israel where this thing led out a series of decoy systems which basically forced the air defense system in Israel to go after the decoy. This is happening repeatedly, Steve. So I want to make it clear that we, this thing is not over and the Iranians are still very much in the fight. And the fact of the matter is, Hegseth says this thing isn't expanding. Well, the Iranians just expanded it into Azerbaijan. They just blew up the Zanger cord or pipelines.

33:13You know, you've got the Kurds coming in. So this thing is very much expanding and they're saying it's not going to be done until September now. So this is a very big problem. Hang on. Okay. Hang on. Actually, and also expanded into Beirut today, there was kind of a massive evacuation out of Beirut. In fact, George Papadopoulos is going to join us here in a second. Actually, talk about Azerbaijan and other areas up there that it looks like is expanding. Just go back though to what you just said. Where have you seen for the audience? Yeah. Is there any place in the Gulf or even Tel Aviv or Jerusalem where you've seen a consistent looks like Counter-Strike by the Iranians, but something like they did in the 12-day war or anything close to what they did in the first couple of days here? Well, I mean, they've flattened large portions of Tel Aviv. They continue to strike. They flattened our fifth fleet headquarters, which we are not getting back after this. They've, I mean, to me, this is a very significant and consistent offensive capability.

34:17Yeah, we've degraded them in key areas, but they planned for this. They are continuing to execute their strategy. And I want to say something else also. NBC interviewed Ergachi, who's the foreign minister for Iran, and asked him point blank, are you worried about a U.S. invasion? And his response, and this might have been Bragedosha, but we shouldn't just take that at face value. His response was the Iranian military has prepared for this contingency. He smiled. He said, we are waiting for the Americans to come. This could end up being the Vietnam of our era with a protracted insurgency on our hands. How did you, and when you say September, who, who, who, who, who said September today, I must admit this is coming out. This is coming out. I think there was a political report where they mentioned this. This is coming out of contacts at the DOD, where now they're talking about these intelligence analysts being tasked for a hundred days now. And they're talking about, I think it has a political, tell the audience about that.

35:17Politico Berkho story. Yeah. Post on I talked to that because he was an intelligence officer. Talk about this 100 turns out that's not rumored to actually do it. They're forwarded deploying a hundred intelligence analysts or officers from the Department of War. Yeah. DC, our DC environment to actually forward deploying them now into the region, correct? Yeah. I have a friend and naval intelligence that he did this during the Afghan war as well. Usually this is because we are, it's part of a surge, if you will. And that's, that's my word. That's not the president's word, but it's, it's for lack of a better term, it's part of a surge. And the reason you do this is because you are anticipating a bigger fight on your hands. You are anticipating having to do more. I was talking also with somebody who has a lot of ties to this Mujahidini calc group, Mek, who point blank told me that the US Special Forces is going to be, you know, linking up with these guys at some point in the next several weeks, so that we can begin doing joint operations on the ground in Iran, not a normal invasion, but with special forces.

36:22But the point is, this is, this is not ending anytime soon. And I argue the reason we're even talking about doing even special forces on the ground is because the air war has been limited in effectiveness at best. Yeah. There is a bunch of rumors going around and this is an addition to the paramilitary CIA massage and bad IDF with the curbs. And they're all over with the curbs, right? Exactly. Exactly. There's that whole group up with the curbs. There's also all rumors fine, it's probably just rumors right now, but there is some talk about joint special forces operations, maybe in different parts of one of those. Yeah. And I want to say something also real quick about the curbs here. The curbs are very angry with us because of our treatment of the Syrian curbs next store. I do not trust the fact that the Iraqi curbs are going to take the guns and money we're giving them and use it on the Iranians. I think they're going to turn on the Turks because that's their big number one threat. And I think that this thing, that's another side story that's about to blow up in our

37:22face because this thing is a disaster in the making in my opinion. You mean the curbs in the curbs? Yeah, the Iraqi curbs, that's correct in northern Iraq and we're giving them money and weapons and telling them, hey, go fight the Iranian back, Shiite militias in Iraq. And they might do that a little bit, but they're going to save that stuff to fight their big enemy, which is turkeys. Yeah. I'm sure heard of ones going something, say about that, Brandon, where do people go and get you? We're going to get you on social media, follow all your analysis. You can find me at we the branded on Twitter ex find me natsek guy on emerald.tv and I'm a senior national security editor at 1945 dot com. Thank you sir. Appreciate you. Thank you. Have a good ride. You're assessment of what you heard from send com also, do you agree with Brandon? Do you think the air campaign here's been less effective than what send com is in general raising cane is saying? Well, Steve, on that, it's difficult to say it's a traditional war.

38:26So the air war is going to be fought between the Iranians who want to preserve their assets because once they emit their radars or once they fire a surface to air missile, for example, there's going to be a response. So they want to husband their capabilities as they do their ballistic missiles, their drones and UAVs. They want to keep the fight going, but they don't want to use up all of their capabilities because they want to draw out the fight. So it's difficult to assert whether, and of course, our choices to trick them as rapidly as possible, to find them by whatever means and destroy them. And that's the entire chain where they're being produced, how they're being transported, how they're being generated, and then how they're being fired. So we need to keep that in mind. So what comes out of Hegseth's remarks and Admiral Cooper's remarks to my mind are

39:30three things. Hegseth stressed the will is iron clad, right? One thing that he repeated time and again was that the United States is in this to stay as long as it takes. Secondly, as he stressed, of course, again, repeatedly, more forces, more capabilities are going to flow to the region. Iran hasn't seen just a paraphrase, but Iran hasn't seen all of U.S. capabilities and allied capabilities. So again, that's important. Third, both Hegseth and Cooper independently, of course, stressed that we have the means, right, that we have the offensive and defensive capabilities to sustain the fight. So that's a very important point to keep in mind. But Steve, if we take a step back, I think when we think through the war as a traditional,

40:30we need to understand that that attrition is taking place really in five fronts. First front is going to be the missile war, if you will. That's the ballistic missiles, the cruise missiles, the UAVs, and the drones. The second front is going to be the air war, as Brandon was describing. A third front is the naval war, now largely fought in the Gulf. A fourth front is the ground war, which is heating up. The Kurds, obviously, U.S. Special Forces, Israeli Special Forces, perhaps the Azeris, will send in a force as well in time. And then, fifth front of the war is the proxy war, right, being fought in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, and perhaps broadening elsewhere in the world. So that attritional dynamic is taking place in each of those areas.

41:32And we need to understand that attritional wars are going to be like two heavyweight boxers pounding on one another, right, it's like Muhammad Ali, and pounding against one of his heavyweight. But that's my point. Hang on, but that's the point I haven't seen in day, what day six, we've had a pretty substantial target package. We're going down that, that punch list. I just haven't seen the response of the Iranians at any kind of scale or depth. Yes, they've gotten some shots off, they've hit some ore refineries, they've taken out a tanker, they're hitting, even what Brandon said, what Brandon was saying, what were things that happened in the first or second day, we're in day six, and it's not that they don't have certain weapons systems that can hit and particularly deliver a lot of carnage to Tel Aviv.

42:32But it looks like, for the limited information they give, it looks like we are having some sort of degradation to their systems, which is supposed to be what this whole thing's about. So if you're looking for an off ramp anytime in the next 72 hours, you want to make sure that you can look and say, okay, the nuclear weapon systems gone, their air defense are gone, their capabilities are producing any more missiles are gone, their fighters are gone, their navies now sunk, you just go through that punch list. It looks to me like Senkham, because there's two different briefings. Pete's got one, the Secretary of War is more policy and overview, and then Senkham or actually, that's the combat and commander. He's kind of telling you what we're doing and how we're doing it, sir. Right. So that's the key issues, Steve. Are we winning that attracional war in some areas, obviously in the Navy we are? Are we winning in the missiles, for example, the drones, the UAVs, or are they husbanding

43:35their capabilities for a longer fight, sending a few every day, right, recognizing that they have been attritted, recognizing their command and control is greatly damaged, recognizing their leadership is greatly damaged, right? Their brain has been damaged, their nervous system has been damaged. How much muscle do they really have? And that's the key question. Are we successfully attritting the brain, the nervous system, and the muscle? Or are they doing what they want to do, which is to ensure that they're going to be able to hit every few days, they're going to be able to keep up trickle or a flood at some days to attack allies, to attack the U.S. Before we, before we, I don't really get a few minutes, but I just want people to understand these are tough people, particularly the people in charge and the citizens too, but these are, and I think they understand what TRETA Parcy told us over and over again to capitulate

44:36to the Americans, it looks like in either deals or negotiation or diplomacy, they think it's to end their regime. And so they're, they're hunkering down now to try to fight this and it looks like to the bitter end. And so that's why, you know, this content, and we're, it looks like we're going through our punch list to take this down, think down pretty systematically. So I think both sides have their strategy and it looks like it's being pursued from my perspective, at least on the limited information we're getting. Right. So the Iranian regime is in the domain of losses. So they're going to be risk accepting, right? They're like a gambler who's losing and what do gamblers who are losing do? They bet more. And so when you're in the domain of losses, you're going to be risk accepting. So we should expect the Iranian regime to lash out by any means necessary. They have the intent, do they have the capabilities? So that's critical. Do they have the capabilities to hurt us significantly, either using their missiles,

45:37either using terrorists, either using the other proxies or using, closing down the straight and, and hending energy? So they've got the intent to hurt us again, because they recognize they don't have a future, right? Their future is you don't want to sell these guys a life insurance policy, right? It's the, but do they have the capability? Is there hurt us? Right. Hegseth and Admiral Cooper are saying we're successfully treating their capabilities in the missile realm, in the Navy, which I think is quite clear in the air realm and in air defenses, which is also there's strong evidence that the air defenses are suppression of enemy air defenses. Yes. Dr. Thayer, we got a bounce, where do people go to get your updates on all your observations and analysis? Dr. Brad Thayer at X and Bradley Thayer at Truth and on Getter as well, Steve.

46:38Thanks very much. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Great, great breakdown. Thank you for joining us afternoon. George Papadopoulos. We're going to talk about the expansion of this war up to a region outside of Iran next. A new year means new financial goals, like making sure your savings are secure and diversified. Will this be the year you finally listened to me and talked to someone from Birch Gold Group? Honestly, the great people, I appreciate their educational approach and their understanding of macroeconomics. There are forces pushing the dollar lower and gold higher, which is why they believe every American should own physical gold. So until February, if you are a first-time gold buyer, Birch Gold is offering a rebate of up to $10,000 on qualifying purchases. Declaim eligibility and start the process.

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51:48Hopefully, I don't know a couple of weeks since we get all the graphics. Correct. Birchgold.com promo code ban and end of the dollar empire. Talk to Philip Patrick and the team today as markets, commodity markets, all markets, stock markets, bond markets, all in term, all because of geopolitical risk. That's fancy talk for war. George Papadopoulos, you join us on another aspect. Do you agree with the degree of the statement the war is actually not expanding, at least geographically, sir? Hi, Steve. Look, I think what the Secretary of War was actually correct on is that Iran's capabilities domestically have been degraded. But what I disagree with is whether the war has metastasized across various borders and has now involved foreign countries, many of which are critical to this war of attrition, including countries like Cyprus, Azerbaijan, the GCC states, Israel itself. What Iran has calculated is that there's no way that they will take on the United States

52:51one V1 and actually win. So that what they're looking at is a soft underbelly that basically has underwritten the United States economy, sea lanes, global trade routes, and of course, how Israel operates in the entire region, given its abilities to depend on various oil reserves from countries like Azerbaijan. So what has Iran just done the last 48 hours? They haven't really hit American facilities, but what they are hitting are different nodes in energy pipelines in countries like Georgia, Azerbaijan, and they attempted to do it in Turkey. Now, what the pipeline that your viewers are looking at does is it provides Israel with 30% of its entire oil consumption. So what has Iran done? They said, we're going to hit Tel Aviv, we're going to hit Jerusalem with our ballistic missiles and our drones, but we also are going to hit the economy of Israel. That's what this logic was behind in hitting this pipeline. Why are they hitting the GCC?

53:52The GCC, not long ago, pledged over $2 trillion in FDI to the United States economy under the Trump administration. So now the GCC members sing their city's hits, their airports hit, and their civilians living in bunkers are recalibrating whether they can even earmark those trillions of dollars in the U.S. That's why this has now not only become a war of attrition, but it's also evolved how Iran has approached this war. It's no longer Iran versus the United States, but Iran versus the soft underbelly that is underwritten both Israel's and the United States economies. Why did the GCC means the Gulf Council? That's bringing the Gulf, the Emirates and the Saudis. Why would they take a risk, something they haven't done before, although they hate each other, and they've been mortal enemies for a long time? There has been a rapprochement between the monarchy and Saudi Arabia and the Persians. Why would they risk bringing the Gulf Council in here with attacks, particularly on the oil and gas assets?

54:54You think that's a role, the dice that was smarter than they're doing, the opening gambits of this? I think they understand that the GCC does not have the appetites for a war of attrition or a prolonged conflict. Now, of course, oil hitting, going up 15, 20 percent in a matter of days, and the straight-up or moose closed, that really affects how the Europeans and their energy security, and that's something what I believe the Iranians calculated when they did hit Saudi Arabia. We can't forget that the United States is now the largest oil and natural gas producers in that exporter of energy for the first time since World War II under the Trump administration. But the European Union, in which NATO is predominantly a part of, is energy scares, and it can't actually depend on $100 oil for their crippled economies. It also can't depend on losing various energy sources from Azerbaijan, which is a critical source of natural gas and oil also to the European market.

55:56So that's really what this calculated risk that the Iranians took so quickly was really all about. It's about getting the Europeans out of the game, crippling the Arab countries from actually investing in the United States and forcing Israel's hand at the negotiation by cutting off their oil from Azerbaijan. That is the risk that the Iranians have taken, I believe, is they understand that they're not going to defeat the United States militarily. So they are lashing out, they are a desperate regime, but the most important thing we have to understand is, Steve, desperate regime means desperate measures. George, we're going to have you on here more often. Where do people go for your social media in the interim, sir? Thank you. Thanks, George. Papa 19. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Programming announcement. And we're in Texas. Peter Tickton has a full report on Tina Peters. He's the lawyer that got the part for President Trump. Peter's going to join us in the six o'clock hour. Also Matt Boyle and Caroline Ren are going to talk about this proposal that Paxton has

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59:00y'all. We're going to do live from the factory floor of our Mike Lindell thank you will see you in the morning. Peter Tickton is Tina Peters a gold star mother that's in prison right now her lawyer going to be on war room Texas as is the great Matt Boyle national editor of bright part in Caroline run all next in war room Texas. Do you owe back taxes or you haven't filed your taxes in years now is the time to resolve your tax matters with the national conversation around abolishing the income tax the IRS is fighting back improving it's here to stay by becoming more aggressive than ever before they're sending out more collection notices filing more tax leans and collecting billions more in recent years. If you owe the IRS can garnish your wages levy your bank accounts seize your retirement and even your home if you owe or haven't filed it's not a question of if the IRS will

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