General Keith Kellogg on the Latest in Iran

0:00Welcome back to focus. We're honored to have General Keith Kellogg join us on the focus program. General Kellogg is a highly decorated retired army general and seasoned national security expert. With over 36 years of military career, General Kellogg commanded elite units, including the 82nd Airborne Division, and served in some of the multiple senior roles within the U.S. government from senior from national security adviser to the vice president to president Trump's special presidential envoy on critical foreign policy missions. More recently, you've probably seen General Kellogg on Fox News and other news broadcast channels, but General Kellogg has been on the forefront of international diplomacy shaping U.S. foreign policy on Ukraine and offering strategic insight on global security challenges, including the evolving situation right now in Iran in the Middle East. His experience spans combat operations, senior White House leadership, and

1:02transatlantic diplomacy, giving him one of the most unique vantage points of the latest developments out of Iran. General Kellogg, welcome to the program. Thank you. It's good to be with you, buddy. Hey, thank you, General. Well, we appreciate you joining us. Can you kind of break down what's currently happening and what it means to global stability right now? Yeah, and by the way, Rockies, is the president has been wanting to do something in our Iran since his first administration. That's reason he walked away from the joint comprehensive plan of action to Duke Polo, primarily because it had sunset clauses in there that after a certain period of time they could develop in rich uranium, they could to a high level, or they could upgrade their missile fleet. So he saw that Iran was a threat, and he has always said that he did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, because if that happened in the Middle East, it would totally destabilize the region. And you treat a nuclear power significantly different than you treat a non-nuclear power.

2:07So he made the decision after talking to Steve Woodcoff and Jared Kushner as soon negotiators. When they both realized that the Iranians were enriching uranium well above three to five percent, which is generally what you enrich to for a nuclear power plant or something like it. And they were in the range of 60, 70 percent. So they were to break out a period that you get to 80 percent uranium. You can develop a nuclear weapon or you can buy one that is there. And you wanted to make sure that didn't happen. The second part of that was that they're missile fleet, the Iranian missile fleet, could actually reach all the way to France. So you had a question, there was no longer just a regional threat. It was, it was tended trending towards being a national threat as well. And then the third part of that, there was a three of credit government ever since, I was told, the Ayatollah took over 49 years ago, and that theocratic government, religious-based government, would chant a death to America and that's Israel. They wanted to make sure that they were out of the equation in the region,

3:10and sort of stabilize the region with his friends, the Saudis, or the Israelis, the Qataris, the Emirates, Oman, you know, you do want to stabilize all that. So it all came together with this operation against Iran. And people out there don't realize how tough this is. When you say the size of Iran and the geography, you understand and you realize how hard this is. You know, Iran geographically rocky. When you put it together, it's the size of Spain, England, France, and Germany, combined. It's huge. It's bigger than what you, the initial front we had in World War II. So this operation is not intended to be a one and done meeting. It's going to happen overnight and we live in sort of like Venezuela. But it's going to be a protracted engagement that's going to go on for a couple to three weeks. Now, it's going the way it seems to me. It's going better than they believe it was going to happen. Believe it was going to occur.

4:15In general, Cain, just yesterday said, they were moving from standoff weapons, weapons, and you fired from a distance, sort of like cabin bombers on target right above it. And now that you can use your whole suite of weapons that you couldn't use before, you can bring in this example, B-52s. If you want to, you can just use all of your air assets. Do I think there's going to be land troops, you know, which infantry on the ground? There's U.S. absolutely not. There was only two places that I believe that U.S. troops could be used if they wanted to. One was to secure a land bond or a bus because that is right across the stretch of our moves to make sure you did not have any shore to ship missile systems come into play. And the second was Carg Island, which 80 to 90 percent of the oil industry comes out of Carg Island. Carg Island. And then, since it is an island, you can see it pretty well. And to ensure, economically, we have got, we control their oil flow as well. So that is sort of an operational,

5:16strategic operational attack review of the war that's happening right now. Well, I think the audience kind of understands now why Brachion General is one of your former, you were my boss at one time. You were obviously the commanding general and I was just a soldier. But you are a wealth of knowledge. So, and you also date back, you look at the history as being a commander and as someone with your tactical and diplomatic knowledge, what lessons from the past conflicts that the US has been involved with, should the US apply to prevent proliferation or further destabilization of the region? Well, I think what President Trump has done, he's brought deterrence back into vote, back into question, into the equation. And I think the experience that I would say is that previous presidents have not used deterrence to the full weight of American power and Trump does that. So Trump says this is not going to happen, listen to me, and they don't do it. And so he applies the ultimate, which is common power to do it.

6:17So when you had a Biden, even Bush or Barack Obama, anybody, they would always talk but they wouldn't have action. And I think he's taking the talk, moving the action using that are all of our systems. And when you look at it, you realize that really when it comes to military soldiers, men and women, and our equipment, we're basically first in class. We've been able to operate with impunity against the very best the Russians who have sold to Iran. They've sold them their S-300 and S-400 systems. They haven't worked. They haven't used their short shift, their short shift missile systems. The Iranian Navy is at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. So bottom line is saying something and then using it, using the power behind it, which in past we didn't do, we kind of talked about it. We never were willing to pull the trigger, as they say. No, you're absolutely right. General, we've got one minute left, and you know Russia really well.

7:18So I wanted to ask you this very important question. Knowing Russia, as you know, and understanding the Ukraine conflict within 30 seconds, can you tell me, have we effectively ended the supply train of these drones to Russia that have been so effective in the Ukrainian war? No, not really, because what's happened is they've now started producing themselves. They don't get them from Iran anymore. They do it. We just have to start taking out, not we, the Ukrainians, have to start taking out the protection facilities of the drones. And you're right, it's a new age of warfare, drone warfare is being adapted. We're doing it in the United States and the world as well. It's sort of like when the machine gun came into vogue or the airplane came into vogue. So little things like that can change warfare, and they've done it. But with Russia right now, the biggest impediment to peace is Putin. It's not the weapons. It's lucky. Rocky, give me a good example, really quickly. When the Soviets came out of Afghanistan,

8:21they had lost around 18,000, and they called it a day. Right now Putin is lost between 1.2 and 1.4 million dead and wounded. And he's the one that's really holding up the peace process because of his desires. And if he doesn't want to become another Nicholas II, I think it's about who is the last r. I think he just started saying, I'm dead for the day and go home. And now that's kind of been on the back burner, not truly back, but the second burner based on what's happening in Iran right now. So they'll develop and build those things far away from the front. They're starting to be targeted by the Ukrainians. I think that will continue to slow down that whole business and development cycle. Thank you. General Keith Gillog, soldier, diplomat, and special presidential envoy. You're listening to focus on WGR.