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Jack Armstrong
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Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
broadcasting live from the Abraham
Jack Armstrong
Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center.
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Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and Getty.
Jack Armstrong
And now here's Armstrong, Strong and Yeti. To the media outlets and Political left screaming, endless wars, stop.
Jacob Goldstein
This is not Iraq.
Jack Armstrong
This is not endless. I was there for both.
Joe Getty
Our generation knows better.
Jacob Goldstein
And so does this president.
Jack Armstrong
He called the last 20 years of nation building wars dumb. And he's right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission.
Jacob Goldstein
Destroy the missile threat, destroy the Navy, no nukes.
Jack Armstrong
Boy, that is something. For the Republican administration, Secretary of Defense or Secretary of War, to come out and say those wars were dumb since they were launched, you know, under Bush, that's pretty powerful, right?
Joe Getty
And there is a question. Well, there's kind of regime change in mind, but how much, nobody's sure. But to discuss this in other matters, it's always great to talk to military analyst Mike Lyons, who joins us now. Hello, Mike, how are you?
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
Hey, guys.
Jack Armstrong
Great to be back. Yeah, I was pretty interested in your tweet. Iran will attempt to execute something we have really never seen before. Win a war of attrition in the air. Explain what you meant by that.
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
So we understand regular wars of attrition, they take place on the ground against industrialized nations that just grind each other out. We're seeing it happen in Ukraine right now, in Russia, but we haven't seen it in the air before. And it's all about air defense platforms and air defense systems versus attack air capability. Because this war right now is all in the air. It's all, you know, we've launched our missiles and our planes against the Iranians, and all they have is missiles that come back at us. And so from their perspective and the economics of theater missile defense are not in our favor because of the cost it takes to defend versus the cost to go on the attack. Iran fires $100,000 ballistic missile at Israel or at one of our allies, and we spend a million dollars in multiple different ways to intercept that down. And we're running out of those interceptors. And so the math doesn't work. And so what Iran's going to try to do is to make multiple different targets all around the theater. We're noticing, for example, why are they hitting targets of their neighboring countries in the Middle East? Well, it's because it's causing the missile defense theater to spread out its defense capabilities. Okay, so now you're not. You know, we stocked up with the Gerald Ford on the Mediterranean side, but now the Abraham Lincoln is now in that game. And then using these other countries. Russell saw a mistake. The Qataris sh. Shoot down American F35s there. Probably by a mistake. They should have recognized that was a friendly fire situation. But they didn't. So they're new in the combat game. So again, overall, as a result of this, the Iranians are going to try to fire multiple different ballistic missiles to trit down the allies, I'll call it American and Israeli defense systems and forcing us to deplete all our stocks before we've, before they've gotten rid of all of theirs.
Joe Getty
Clearly the answer to that conundrum is to take out their capacity to fire all those missiles. How optimistic are you that we can do serious damage?
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
Right. That's the thing that Secretary Hicks, I said yesterday when I was going back and forth with my son about that this kind of, you know, arrows and archers, you know, going after the arrows and go after the archers. You won't get the arrows. I'm confident, I think that that's why we use the element of surprise to go after a lot of them in the beginning. It reminds me of Scud hunting back in 91 when we did that during Desert Storm as we had to do the same thing. Similar, but like anything else, some will get through. And you know, we can't go through what we did six months ago. Six months ago the United States fired about 150 thaad those high altitude air defense missiles and we can only manufacture about 30 of them a year. And so, so we took five years of inventory out out and used it just last year, June in that mission. And we only, you know, again we, because of the complexity of how they're manufacturing rare earth minerals and specialized folks that do that, you know, we just can't produce them. We're not, you know, we just can't put another assembly line and produce it. So again, the economics don't work. And so again we've got to protect them and recognize that we're going to have to do other things in order to take out their ballistic missiles and really go hunt them down.
Jack Armstrong
Just to back up a little bit, has there ever in world history been anything like the decapitation operation that happened over the weekend?
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
I think sure. I mean this is Israel's mo, this is how they operate. This is part of their deterrence strategy. Frankly, if you decide to go to war with Israel, they respond 10x with anything that you might come back at you. But the first thing they're going to do is go after their leadership. Now the United States can't do that. There's an executive order signed by Ronald REAGAN Going back 40 years now that the United States won't assassinate head to state. I think it's a slippery slope for us to do that, it gives credence for other countries to try to do that to our president. That's not to say they couldn't do it anyway. Obviously, they're not going to necessarily abide by the wars of land warfare, but we won't do that. That was 100% Israel's mission. But we have seen that before. But on this level, probably not. Probably not a country with 90 million people, probably not how. It's how. And what will be the result of that? But it's not just the leader they took out, it's the 40 others that they have. But the message might be also, who hasn't been taken out? We know Mossad has clearly infiltrated a lot of things going on inside of Iran. We know that that's the case. And so they're searching now for the Delta Rodriguez. They're searching for the person that created that Venezuela situation of, okay, everyone's dead except you. Do you want to play ball or not? Meanwhile, we know exactly where you are. We can find you anytime. So you could be the next contestant on, you're the next leader, or you can decide to, you know, not cooperate. You could be. You won't. I mean, in this case, you won't be in the back of a Special Forces helicopter. You're going to see the front side of a Tomahawk cruise missile. So that's how the Israelis operate, and that's how they're going to do. And that's how they view Iran as an existential threat.
Joe Getty
I was just going to ask you what you thought about the obviously awesome intelligence that we in Israel have. What does that say about our capabilities and, or the infiltration of the Iranian regime?
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
You know, I saw a report, too, that said the CIA gave information, you know, we want to get in this game as well. But Israel has been doing this for, you know, 20 years, more than that, likely. And this is how they operate. It's the same thing they did with the pager exercise when they, you know, blew all the Hamas guys up. I mean, this is how they operate, and they take great risks doing it. I'm sure there's been many Israeli citizens that have, unfortunately, given their lives, have been burned. But this is all for the survival of that state. That's how they operate. In theory, a country of 90 million should have no problem with a country of about 9 million. But in this case, you know, Israel continues to dominate. It's just not just the military, the hardware side of it, it's just the, the intel and the Intellect side of it. Although, again, Iranians are smart people. They're Persians, they're not Arabs. I think. I think in some ways, that's why they're attacking those Arab states as well. They look down their nose at Arabs. They don't think they're the same. They're Persians. So I think that's. That's also part of their calculus.
Jack Armstrong
It's interesting you said that. I remember Jonah went out to eat with some. At a Persian restaurant with some. They like to call themselves Persians. These dudes, really nice guys we were friends with. But I remember this, them saying, man, those Arabs are crazy. We got into the conversation about the Middle East.
Jacob Goldstein (Ad voice)
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
They had. They had a certain view of all Arabs that I had never heard before.
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
Yeah. I mean, Persia has made significant contributions to civilization go back to the 700s, 800s. And it's, you know, part of the Ottoman Empire. It's. It's had contributions. It's a smart civilization, which is why they can create nuclear weapons. I mean, they have that intellectual capital and that, you know, there's a reason why some of these other countries can't get there from here. So they have that intellectual capability and the manufacturing and the industrial base, and they do all those things, and that's why they're in the position they're in. They're just led by ruthless people that want to see the end of Israel and the state sponsor of terrorism.
Jack Armstrong
So Trump said a little bit ago, I don't have the exact verbiage, but it was something like the big wave or the major wave or whatever is yet to come. Do you think that's true?
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
You know, if we're. I did a show the other day with somebody. It's like we can no longer be shocked about what Donald Trump says. Right. In terms of. He's always going to oversell something, too, as well. Right. So, you know, we could have. That might be true, but I'll tell you right now, I'm sure the military. We saw this thing this morning where the military came out and basically defined a military objective that can be accomplished, that can be eventually used to say, this was our endgame as well. So regime change is not something the military can do. And Hegseth said that today. It was interesting. So, yeah. Will it likely come short? The next couple of attacks could take place in the next few days, and Trump will say, yeah, that's it. He'll point to it and say, that's what that was. Now, do I like my president doing that? No, I'd rather Have him, you know, undersell some things than over deliver on the other side. But we've just come to expect this is who Donald Trump is. It does maybe put more pressure on, on the war fighters at some level, but he doesn't, he doesn't know any other way. Always going to try to oversell it. Right.
Joe Getty
So we're talking to military analyst Mike Lyons. Hey, Mike, if China were to take this moment to move on Taiwan, how bad would that be in terms of our ability to do anything about it?
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
So again, no one's talking about this, but the Strait of Homo, once it gets blocked, if it is being blocked now there's reports this morning trying to get to 15% of its oil from there. So the President cut off Venezuela as an emergency access of oil for China and now 15% of it gets blocked off coming from the Middle East. China will now scramble when it comes to having reserves in order for it to go to war. China is building underground tanks. They recognize they need billions of oil in the ground to make sure that they can go to war with Taiwan if that's what they want to do. But right now this is going to put that actually more of at risk because if they can't get the oil or they try to buy it from Russia, which then doesn't help that cause because Russia now has more money to create more weapons to go after Ukraine. So this is a vicious circle that takes place. Again, no one's talking about when it comes to the economics of the energy trade. I think anyway, no matter what, we'll have a hard time. Two things. First of all, the second, that we're no longer reliant on Taiwan for silicon chips and we've created the foundries that we're building right now in Texas. I just got back there and talked to some folks doing that. The second we can do that, then Taiwan becomes the Middle east of the 1990s. We're no longer relying on it for oil. So we'll let China have it. I still have. I know we have strategic ambiguity about it. And AOC stumbled upon, didn't know how to answer it because I think deep down this president won't decide to attack China, potentially lose a west coast city just, just over Taiwan.
Joe Getty
Well, in AOC's defense, she's an idiot. Mike Lyons MILITARY ANALYST Mike, I'm sure we'll talk again. Thank you so much for, for the thoughts and the expertise and we'll talk soon.
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
Hey, guys, great. Thanks for having me.
Jack Armstrong
And then we mentioned this headline earlier this morning from the New York Times if China invades Taiwan and cuts off its chip exports, the tech industry in the United States economy would be crippled. Yeah, so you got the oil angle, you got the chips angle. As Mike pointed out, interesting times we have released.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
I know where you're going here.
Joe Getty
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Jack Armstrong
I had another question for Mike, but I'm sure we'll be talking to him more this week. Almost certainly, but Hegseth and the President just a little bit ago told Fox that boots on the ground is an option, so the fact that they're laying the groundwork for that is something. Anyway, more on the way.
Joe Getty
Stay here Armstrong and Getty
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Jacob Goldstein
the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back to tested against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this
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Jack Armstrong
After launching a massive military strike against Iran, Trump announced hours ago that they officially killed the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and replaced him with, oh my God, the guy from Venezuela.
Joe Getty
That's an interesting joke.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, that's funny.
Joe Getty
Yeah. The Venezuela situation, which is obviously not in the headlines. Kind of interesting because the kleptocrat fake communists are still in charge there and it's. It's not good. I mean, Maduro's gone. He was a bastard. But other than a little access to oil, conceivably, I'm not sure what we got?
Jack Armstrong
France just announced they're going to increase their number of nuclear warheads from the current level of below 300. First time they've increased the size of their nuclear arsenal since 1992. And throw this in just as kind of a whole. The whole world is just getting a little hotter, getting a little more jumpy, a little more ready to go.
Joe Getty
Oh, boy.
Jack Armstrong
Don't like it. I have no control over it, but I don't like it. Yipes.
Joe Getty
Coming up, a really interesting back and forth about the constitutionality of the attack on Iran. And I don't want to give too much away, but I think everybody's right in this argument and they disagree with each other. So we'll talk about that. Plus, it just struck me last night as I was taking in all sorts of news that at that point we'd lost three of our service people. It's now up to four. And how we value life in the west, in the United States, and are very. We're very careful about not spending people's lives cheaply. We cherish life, in short, unless you're on the left and it's a fetus, anyway. But the next report was that there were protests at the American consulate in, oh, one of your big Pakistani cities. I can't remember which one, Pakistan Heights. And nine people died at the protest.
Jack Armstrong
Wow.
Joe Getty
I mean, there's a contrast for you.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, no kidding.
Joe Getty
I mean, they just spend lives like crazy in the Muslim world because they believe, you know, you, you go to Allah's side and have your virgins and your martyr and the rest of it. But, yeah, they, they do not value life at all.
Jack Armstrong
So there's Operation Roaring lion and Operation Epic Fury. What's the Roaring lion part?
Joe Getty
I'm not clear on that myself.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. Anyway, both are going on. Most of it seems to be Epic Fury. I'm not exactly sure why you have to have names like this for this sort of thing. As I've been saying, this is for us. This is Operation Mediocre Punditry that we've got going all week long.
Joe Getty
You can't name it Mediocre Blooming Daffodil, or, I'm sorry, Operation Blooming Daffodils or anything. It's going to have a hard ass name. Everybody knows that.
Jack Armstrong
The fact that Pete Hegseth didn't rule out Boots on the Ground and Trump is not ruling it out, and I understand the whole not ruling things out, but I feel like they're laying the groundwork, maybe, that they maybe actually think we might have to put boots on the ground to accomplish what we want to accomplish. So we got to make sure we get out there on that. Boy, that would be a big political story.
Joe Getty
I would sure love to see their decision tree right now. If this happens, then we will do this, that and the other. What would happen that we would. Which branch of the tree includes that?
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, what would have to happen that we would actually put soldiers on the ground. Now the history of the world is I don't think there's ever been a regime change forced through the air. But we don't have to force regime change. That's not mandatory. We took out the Ayatollah and everybody underneath him.
Joe Getty
As we discussed earlier, just declawing them for a very long time would be a win. Yeah, we got the big win, but it's a win.
Jack Armstrong
We can pound them for quite a while. Boy, that stuff Mike Lyons was talking about though, about, you know, how much of our super expensive high tech gear has been expended already and at some point we could run out of it. Now I understand why they attacked all those countries. They're just trying to wipe out the capability of Israel and the United States to defend against all these rockets and missiles.
Joe Getty
That's escalating.
Jack Armstrong
That's not a bad plan.
Joe Getty
No. Which is why we've got to pound the bejesus out of them. Let's argue about the Constitution next. It'll be fun.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, lots on the way. If you miss a segment, get the
Joe Getty
podcast Armstrong and Getty.
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No one knows what the future holds, but you deserve a weather app that can help. Weatherbug is easy to use and provides forecasts for your every need. From storm warnings to pollen levels right at your fingertips. Get the fastest local alerts and comprehensive 10 day forecasts wherever you are. Its hyperlocal real time customizable alerts. Make sure the weather never takes you by surprise so you can plan every day with confidence. Download the free Weatherbug app from the App Store today and start Getting accurate weather forecasts 24, 7.
Jacob Goldstein
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this
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Jack Armstrong
Initial rumors of the death of Ayatollah
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
Khamenei had just started to trickle from
Ad Announcer (Anabe Sofas/Greenlight)
Iran to this diaspora community and people were jumping in excitement Hugging each other, crying, saying that basically They've been waiting 47 years for this very day is
Jack Armstrong
the reason so many of them have come out here today celebrating, partying like crazy. Have you seen the video of all the Iranians doing the Trump dance after the news broke? They're dancing to ymca doing the Trump dance. American flags, Iranian flags, Israeli flags, all together now. I am all for the discussion about whether or not, you know, constitutionality, Congress, all that sort of stuff. I'm troubled by it, but you can't do the long face, sad voice like they did all week on an MSNBC while you're having the conversation. And Trump, of course, does not have the right to do this when you got all these young Iranians who are partying like crazy because the country that they love has been freed, hopefully from this evil theocracy. And I'm sure they all know people who've been tortured or killed or whatever by their own government. So, msnbc, geez, Rachel Maddow and all your Democratic guests, you gotta stop with the long faces. You're out of touch. You're on the wrong side of history on this.
Joe Getty
Which is why nobody watches them. They're idiots.
Jack Armstrong
Idiots.
Joe Getty
Speaking of which, in the American left, this is so amazing. From Nellie Bowles, Zoran Mumdani, the new mayor of New York, and his team are ousting military contractors from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They quote a council member celebrating the decision this public asset should not be leasing space to companies producing drones that are being transformed into weapons of war. It's part of the movement, to quote demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard. And of course, Nellie asks, what the hell do they think the word navy means? A shade of blue that symbolizes author.
Jack Armstrong
That is pretty funny. I missed that. Demilitarizing the Navy Yard. There you go.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah. But genuinely, is the idea that America should not have a military or just that people who build our air Force shouldn't be allowed to look live in Brooklyn? Yeah. Unbelievable. And on that topic, well, sort of. Patrick said, guys love the show, et cetera. I haven't heard much addressed. How can Trump go to war with Iran? I thought war was the purview of Congress. Which brings us to a Twitter thread I came across which I found very interesting, and I will relate to you now. Now, it starts more or less with this. Hello, Iranian here for those fixated on legality to excuse the regime in Iran. F you. No, I will not let you be my voice. You don't get to narrate my story. You don't get to claim moral superiority. You don't get to tell me my feelings are wrong. It's interesting. It's a very lefty style of argument and it's irrelevant to the legality. On the other hand, Jack, I will say to you, if at some point you want to, we can go through it. It describes what it was like essentially to live under the regime.
Jack Armstrong
And it is, I would like to hear that.
Joe Getty
Chilling. But as Tim Sandifer, a good friend of the Armstrong, you get he points out, he says this is understandable, but wrong. Of course the ayatollahs are evil and should have been destroyed long ago. Of course the world's better off without these guys in it. But ignoring the Constitution, letting one person arbitrarily take the country to war is illegal, stupid and dangerous. As I said during the last segment, talking about, talking about this, there are several people who are disagreeing with each other and I think they're all right. Tim which brings us to the interesting moment that we, we have in terms of war in Congress and presidents and the rest of it.
Jack Armstrong
Just in case you're a Tim fan and wondering where he is on this. It's all about the constitutionally of the constitutionality of the decision. He did say in his first tweet over the weekend, if I were in Congress and this came up for a vote, I would be a hard yes.
Joe Getty
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
On attacking Iran, I just think Congress should make the decision.
Joe Getty
Yeah. In a system like ours, how you do things matter. So anyway, he says this is understandable, but wrong. What I just said. Letting one person arbitrarily take the country to war is illegal, stupid and dangerous. Somebody with a name that certainly looks Iranian replies, we're not at war. Military operations against terrorist organizations are not wars. Tim said, that's just not true. If against imminent attack, they may be justified without a declaration, but that appears not to be the case here. While entirely justified by any rational measure, the attack on Iran is obviously a war that requires congressional declaration. And then the other person replies, I think we have enough votes to do it. Put the entire full force of our domestic economy behind it. End this cancer once and for all. Like I said, I think everybody's right in this argument. The Constitution may be. Well, first of all, it's the first and only time in human history that a committee has come up with something brilliant. It because they did, the Constitution is a miraculous success. But there are just a couple of areas like the declaration of war, where I think we need to amend it or clarify it. If we had A Congress that did anything because the nature of warfare has changed so much.
Jack Armstrong
So are we. I think this is really interesting. So are we assuming that, like what John Fetterman was arguing earlier, that whatever declaration I had that in front of me, the 1973 War Provision act, allowed Trump to do this? And as I mentioned earlier, Andrew McCarthy of National Review, who I really respect his opinion on this stuff, he says Trump was on the right side of the law to do this. And he does not always agree with Donald Trump, by far.
Joe Getty
Yeah, I mean, is this a war? Quote, unquote. Because when the Constitution was written to. To have a war, it always looked more or less the same. It would take, you know, enormous amounts of preparation over a very long time. You would send many, many, many soldiers and ships and sailors and, and, and everybody knew what you meant by declare war. But now, where you can launch just devastating bombing raids from the US Refuel once or twice in the air, then fly home without ever touching down. Is that a war? Exactly. It's certainly an attack.
Jack Armstrong
And I know this isn't a good argument because you can't change the Constitution or ignore it just because our current climate doesn't fit with it, but there's no way you could get Congress to approve anything ever like this, because they don't. They all remember early 2000s, when people who voted for the Iraq war pretty much were blocked out of getting reelected or ever running for president.
Joe Getty
Right. And they learned that lesson, overlearned it. Here's a response on the Twitter from a guy with an Israeli flag in his ID there. The legislature is not trustworthy. They don't just leak, they oppose and undermine. Look at all the insider trading, trading, the grift, the fraud, the deceit. See how they fail to act on a bill that over 80% of Americans want. They're not representing our interests, only their own.
Jack Armstrong
But, yeah, I agree with that. But obviously you can't just decide. So therefore, we're just all going to ignore Congress from here on out. Because they all suck, clearly.
Joe Getty
Yeah, 100%. We're in a really difficult moment for the declaration of war, war powers, whatever you want to call it. And I think if we had the brains and the balls to do it, we in Congress would address that in a significant way.
Jack Armstrong
I also don't. Because some people were arguing this before Maduro also, I also don't quite understand how you make it work with a surprise attack.
Joe Getty
Correct. That's. Well, the War Powers act kind of addresses that, because you've got to. Well, although You've got to give Congress a 48 hour heads up that you're going to do something and then you have 60 days.
Jack Armstrong
You don't think there are Democrats that would leak this immediately if you give them a 48 hour heads up? Yeah, CNN that day.
Joe Getty
The founders sure as hell didn't count on publicity, horror, Instagram fundraiser using, you know, pieces of garbage.
Jack Armstrong
And by the way, completely unfair to say Democrats based on, for instance, what Marjorie Taylor Greene was tweeting out over the weekend. I don't know if you saw any of that, but. And she's no longer in Congress. But if she were in Congress, she might have said this. And just like that, we are no longer a nation divided by left and right. We are now a nation divided by those who want fight wars for Israel and those who just want peace and are able to afford their bills and health insurance. She believes this is all just to help Israel. And she tweeted out my God, as soon as it started. My God, these poor military members and their poor families. I'm sorry for them and praying for them. This is absolutely unnecessary and is unacceptable. Trump, Vance Tulsi and all of us campaigned on no more foreign wars and regime change. Now American soldiers are dead. So she's hardcore against this and thinks it's a disaster. She would have felt the same way in Congress. So she, as a Republican might have leaked it if you gave him head up. Heads up. Sure.
Joe Getty
Well, the opposite party in general does whatever they can to deny the other side, quote, unquote, a win. Who called her the dumbest person ever served the other day?
Jack Armstrong
I don't remember. I think that was Darrell Issa. So that conversation came up. I was watching Darryl. Isa was being interviewed, former Republican congressman and got hit with the Marjorie Taylor Greene quote that I just read you. And he said, I'd like to remind you that Marjorie Taylor Greene might be the dumbest person to ever serve in Congress. He's blind, bad built Bush body. Which is a heck of a thing to say.
Joe Getty
Yeah, yeah. The whole Israel, we're dancing to their tune. They're pulling our strings. They're the puppeteers. Why would that be? Because they've got dirt on Trump through Epstein.
Jack Armstrong
That's part of it for some people.
Joe Getty
I can't even.
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
Yeah.
Jack Armstrong
So where does that leave the Jews? And the fact that you got a lot of the Democratic Party who doesn't care about supporting Israel and a certain chunk of the Republican Party that thinks Israel is controlling everything and it's horrific.
Joe Getty
Big. How big a chunk that's the ever present question. They're young, they're very low vocal, they're
Jack Armstrong
very online enough to make Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens tens of millions of
Joe Getty
dollars a year because they're very young and very online. You know, I. I don't know how many there are, but I don't either.
Jack Armstrong
It's a heck of a thing, though. Yeah, I saw a fair amount of that floating around on Twitter. Launching another war. Israel is launching another war. They tell us what to do. I don't understand how you can't see this as. Without Israel involved at all, that this is in the United States interest. This is not Israel first. It's America first. There's no benefit to the United States, to Israel getting a nuclear weapon. They've killed more Americans than any other country.
Joe Getty
To Iran. Nuclear.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, Iran getting a nuclear weapon. Israel already has a nuclear weapon. They just don't admit it. Iran has been an enemy of the United States forever. This is not new. Israel just didn't like, say, hey, could you take out Iran? They're bad to us. No, no, no. They've been bad to us.
Joe Getty
Do you know what we need right now, Jack? What we as a country? Mirth. What we need is mirth. Clip number 10, please.
Jack Armstrong
Michael, what are you doing? Just shopping for an Iranian flag on Amazon. Because I stand with Iran. Yeah, me too.
Joe Getty
I'm very excited.
Jack Armstrong
No, I stand with Iran.
Joe Getty
Yes, me too.
Jack Armstrong
I stand with Iran.
Joe Getty
This is. This is a very good. Are we on opposite sides of this?
Jack Armstrong
No, I stand with Iran.
Joe Getty
Hands off Iran.
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
Okay.
Joe Getty
America needs to leave.
Jack Armstrong
But that would mean the regime stays in place.
Joe Getty
Homosexuality is illegal. Women don't have access to education. And you're for this?
Jack Armstrong
Well, I'm against Trump and I'm against
Joe Getty
the regime in America.
Jacob Goldstein (Ad voice)
Say it.
Joe Getty
Say you hate Trump. Homosexuality should be criminalized. Women shouldn't get to go to school, and Iran shouldn't be free or say, thank you, Trump.
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
Which one.
Jack Armstrong
Didn't stop? A lot of Democrats I saw on the talk shows yesterday from just loudly denouncing this. You got young Iranians dancing in the streets around the world. You gotta at least acknowledge that. I would think you could come up with a clever way to be against Trump. Go with the Constitution angle or whatever, but. But strongly emphasize. Glad the Ayatollah's dead. Iran's been an enemy of the United States forever. All these young people might have a future now. You gotta show that sort of enthusiasm. You can't do the long face shaking your head while all these young women are dancing around the world. Bing, bing, bong, bong, bing, bing, bing. I don't get.
Joe Getty
I know. Just everybody retreating to their usual, you know, their scripted lines. It's just so tiring.
Jack Armstrong
While we're on the air, President Trump is addressing the United States for the first time on Iran. Because he never did, really, before the State of the Union address. It got like two sentences. And that was what, four days before the Ayatollah ceased to exist? It got like no talk during the State of the Union address.
Joe Getty
You'd been calling for yanking him out by the beard. Are you satisfied?
Jack Armstrong
I would love the image of him hanging by his beer, swinging underneath a helicopter, but I suppose this works in
Joe Getty
terms of what we're trying to accomplish.
Jack Armstrong
Give him a fair trial. Give him a fair trial. Now he's just in tiny bits all over the place.
Joe Getty
Blue eyes. One blue that way, one blue that way.
Jack Armstrong
Exactly. More on the way to here.
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Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
I launched this attack after me and
Jack Armstrong
my Board of Peace decided that we were bored of peace.
Joe Getty
Little wordplay there.
Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)
Did you catch it? As we all know, Iran has been two weeks away from developing a nuclear
Jack Armstrong
weapon for like the last 15 years or something. So we had to act now and we're doing war.
Joe Getty
War.
Jack Armstrong
What is it good for? Distracting from the Epstein files so that was Saturday Night Live. Cold open with their President Trump. Ben Rhodes, he was advisor to Obama, wrote a piece opinion piece in the New York Times today about how awful this is. And I'm just, I'm amazed that the, the, the what do people call themselves who don't ever engage in war for some reason? Pacifists. The pacifist leaning crowd always thinks that there's no nothing bad can come out of that. It doesn't make any intellectual sense to me whatsoever. The whole Obama don't do stupid s so let other countries just do whatever the hell they want forever so that we don't. That's not going to work out.
Joe Getty
As the what's his name? Character in the Big Chill put it, you can't get through the day without one good rationalization. Jeff Goldblum I think guys like that don't they're afraid of action. They prefer inaction and they intellectualize it and they rationalize why that's really the most enlightened thing to do. They come up with elaborate defenses of inaction, but it's always inaction.
Jack Armstrong
Nobody hates Donald Trump more than George F. Will of the Washington Post, conservative columnist. But his opinion piece today at last, the credibility of the United States deterrence is being restored. Perhaps the 30,000 protesters who perished in Iran's streets early in January did not die in vain. And he talks about how important it was to reestablish for the safety of the world, US deterrence. You can't mess around with us. A nader of post 1945 US power and its preconditioned confidence was the 1975 departure of the last helicopter from the US embassy roof in Saigon as the end of the Vietnam War. A second low point was reached when Barack Obama drew in 2012 and then ignored a red line about the chemical weapons in Syria. We all know that a third was in 2021 when Joe Biden produced a chaotic exit from Afghanistan. Today, Vladimir Putin is watching Venezuela, Iran, and soon perhaps Cuba join Syria as vanished clients. The swiftness of their downfall illustrates the hollowness of Russia's claim to be a formal global actor. Today's world, where the velocity of information and the capability of weaponry annihilate distances and compress time, blah blah blah, leads everybody to understand, because I'm running out of time that you can't mess around. Well, he doesn't say this, but you can't blank around and find out with the United States anymore, right?
Joe Getty
Right. How long will it last? What lessons will be learned from this? However it plays out, who will be next in the White House? It all could change depending on the answers to those questions.
Jack Armstrong
Of course.
Joe Getty
For now, yeah, I would not F around.
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I would take Trump seriously if he warns you about things. If you missed a segment or an hour, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand.
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty.
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March 2, 2026 • iHeartPodcasts
In “Operation Blooming Daffodils,” Armstrong & Getty dig into the seismic aftermath of the U.S.-Israel strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, exploring its military, political, legal, and cultural ramifications. With expert insights from military analyst Mike Lyons, the episode examines the unprecedented nature of the operation, the global reactions—especially from Iranian diaspora communities—the risks of escalation, debates about constitutional war powers, and shifting perspectives within U.S. politics and media.
Is It Legal? Who Decides on War?
Can Congress Ever Approve Quickly Enough?
| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote & Context | |-----------|-----------------------------|-----------------| | 03:35 | Mike Lyons (Military Analyst)| “Iran will attempt to execute something we have really never seen before. Win a war of attrition in the air.” | | 06:26 | Mike Lyons | “We took five years of inventory out and used it just last year.” | | 07:15 | Mike Lyons | “This is Israel’s MO…first thing they’re going to do is go after their leadership. Now, the United States can’t do that. There’s an executive order... not to assassinate heads of state.” | | 26:42 | Jack Armstrong | “Have you seen the video of all the Iranians doing the Trump dance after the news broke? They’re dancing to YMCA...” | | 30:08 | Joe Getty | “Letting one person arbitrarily take the country to war is illegal, stupid and dangerous.” (Quoting Tim Sandifer) | | 32:10 | Joe Getty | “When the Constitution was written ... to have a war, it always looked more or less the same … now … is that a war?” | | 36:41 | Jack Armstrong | “You got a lot of the Democratic Party who doesn’t care about supporting Israel and a certain chunk of the Republican Party that thinks Israel is controlling everything and it’s horrific.” | | 38:10 | Jack Armstrong | (Satirical) “Michael, what are you doing? Just shopping for an Iranian flag on Amazon. Because I stand with Iran.” | | 45:41 | Jack Armstrong | “At last, the credibility of the United States’ deterrence is being restored. … You can’t blank around and find out with the United States anymore.” (Quoting/paraphrasing George Will) |
This episode offers an unvarnished, wide-ranging discussion of the sudden turn in U.S.-Iran-Israel relations, focusing on the unprecedented killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader. With a blend of expert military analysis, firsthand media skepticism, legal debate, and cultural observation (plus a dose of Armstrong & Getty humor), the show unpacks everything from the strategic calculus of the air war, intelligence coups, energy chokepoints, and chip shortages, to diaspora joy, U.S. constitutional dilemmas, and the political/media circus stateside. Whether you’re interested in battlefield math, the psychology of deterrence, or just want a dose of “mediocre punditry,” this episode is a lively primer on a world in upheaval.