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Episode 5187: American Air Defense Continues In Iran; Updates On Operation Epic Fury
Episode 5187: American Air Defense Continues In Iran; Updates On Operation Epic Fury ...
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- [00:01]
Steve Bannon
To allow a flawed, self centered and
- [00:04]
Brandon Weickert
shameless candidate like Ken Paxton risk everything
- [00:08]
Military Analyst Brandon
we've worked so hard to build over these many years.
- [00:12]
Brandon Weickert
John Cornyn has failed us time and
- [00:14]
Steve Bannon
time again in his over 40 years of office.
- [00:16]
Brandon Weickert
You cannot name one single accomplishment that he's done to help the state of Texas.
- [00:24]
Steve Bannon
So the runoff there is May 26, and the winner will face state lawmaker James Talarico, who won the Democratic primary overnight, defeating Congresswoman Jasmine Croggett. Control of the Senate could be at stake here. The Texas race could be a tipping
- [00:38]
Political Commentator
point the Republican side. We are expecting this to be quite a contentious battle. Things have already been heated between Cornyn and Paxton and that is expected to continue in the coming weeks. We heard Cornyn and Paxton both preview some of their lines of attack last night. Paxton decrypt tried the amount of money that was poured into the state to try to boost Cornyn. That was more than $70 million on behalf of Cornyn efforts, really adding to why this became one of the most expensive Senate primaries in US History. Cornyn, meanwhile, has really warned about Paxton's past controversies, his legal and personal scandals that Cornyn believes will be a drag on Republicans if he becomes the nominee in November. One big question going forward, though, is whether President Donald Trump decides to get into this runoff, decides to endorse a candidate, something he declined to do in the primary, but he's left the door open to. That's certainly something that both camps are pushing for over the next 12 weeks.
- [01:35]
Steve Bannon
Over Tehran, flying over Iran, flying over their capital, flying over the irgc. Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only US And Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it's over and Iran will be able to do nothing about it. B2s, B52s, B1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long. We're playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the President and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to be a fair fight and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be. Thus far, Operation Epic Fury has delivered twice the air power of shock and awe of Iraq in 2003, minus Paul Bremer and the nation building. The campaign has seven times the intensity of Israel's previous operations against Iran during the 12 Day War, seven times. And as President Trump said, more and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran's capabilities are evaporating by the hour while American strength grows fiercer, smarter, and utterly dominant. More bombers and more fighters are arriving just today. Think overperform. Senator Cornyn overperformed. I early on thought Paxton was going to probably get more votes, but now people are just assuming Cornyn is going to win. But if I were a Cornyn supporter, there'd be a lot of alarm bells going off right now. First of all, he's an establishment figure. Secondly, this is a runoff. And I know better than anybody, I, I lost my initial primary. I won my runoff easily first time I ran because I was crazy. I'm. Well, I still am. I exaggerated a little bit, but I was intense, man, and I had, I had the base following me and I knew if I got in the runoff, I'd win the runoff because the most driven people vote in the runoff. I'd be worried about that if I recorded. Also something else that you can speak to very well. The 2020 election. Ken Paxton led, led Texans in stirring up bull conspiracy theories in 2020 for Donald Trump. Ted Cruz supported stirring up the conspiracy theories, the unproven conspiracy theories. John Cornyn did not. And he called them unproven. And he voted to actually, you know, go along with the 2020 election. I'm just curious, John, you wrote the book on the big lie and you follow the President. Is there any issue that's more important to him on, on a loyalty test and where people fell in the 2020 election? And if that's the case, I just, I understand he wants to win taxes, but how in the world does he not endorse the guy who lied the most for him in 2020 and vote and endorse instead John Cornyn, the guy who said no, no, no, those theories are all unproven.
- [05:16]
Political Commentator
What do you assess the enemy's control and command status is right now? And can you broadly describe our decisive point in this operation?
- [05:26]
Brandon Weickert
Well, I won't describe the decisive point in the operation because that would tell the bad guys what it was.
- [05:30]
Steve Bannon
Good question, though.
- [05:31]
Captain James Fennell
I appreciate the question. Their C2 structures in a bad way.
- [05:36]
Steve Bannon
Admiral Cooper has been continuing to pressure
- [05:39]
Brandon Weickert
C2 at the IRGC, C2 and other military elements and will continue to do so.
- [05:45]
Steve Bannon
And now, with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500 pound thousand pound and 2000 pound GPS and laser guided precision gravity bombs, of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile. We used more exquisite standoff munitions at the start but no longer need to. Our stockpiles of those, as well as patriots, remains extremely strong. The enemy can no longer shoot the volume of missiles they once did, not even close. And the chairman will lay out some of those percentages so our air defenses and that of our allies have plenty of Runway. We can sustain this fight easily for as long as we need to. And as I said yesterday, we set the terms. The Iranian Air Force is no more. Built for 1996, destroyed in 2026. The Iranian Navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Combat ineffective. Decimated. Destroyed, Defeated. Pick your adjective. In fact, last night, we sunk their prize ship, the Soleimani. Looks like POTUS got him twice. Their navy, not a factor. Pick your adjective. It is no more. In fact, yesterday in the Indian Ocean, and we'll play it on the screen there, an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II. Like in that war back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win. Also yesterday, the leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed. Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh.
- [07:49]
Political Commentator
So one of the strange things about Trump's presidency, and this is actually even different from some dictatorships, I mean, there are a lot of dictatorships, before they go to war, would do a propaganda campaign, as the Russians did, for example, before attacking Ukraine. They would spend months talking about the enemy and so on. But Trump's method of leadership is often called personalist. So he does what he feels like in any given moment. His main aim is to win the current moment, whatever that is. So whether it's a confrontation with a journalist or whether it's a confrontation with a foreign enemy, to be seen as the dominant person or the dominant figure in the room or the conversation or of the moment. And it looks like that's what he did here. In other words, there was no particular plan. There was no clear goal. But he felt that this was a moment when he could demonstrate his dominance and he could win somehow. You know, of course he doesn't win, then he'll walk away and say he won anyway. But the consequences of that for Americans, for, you know, for anybody in the Middle east, and actually for Iranians, you know, the Iranian people don't seem to have been put at the center of this. Of this operation at all. There's been no attempt to think about who might. Who might Rule Iran next, or how the Iranian democratic opposition might come to power or might become at least have influence inside the country. You know, instead he's speaking about, oh, well, there were some other military leaders, there were some other members of the Islamic Republic who he imagined they would take over, as in Venezuela. So it's this personalist way of running the country. You know, there's no policy process, there's no presentation of different points of view. There's no consideration of alternatives. There's no internal debate inside the White House. And then there's no external debate in the country. There's no public debate, there's no debate with Congress, as we've already, as I've already said, there's no debate with allies. In other words, there's no attempt to create any kind of consensus or movement or agreement, even if it's a minority consensus. And that's very unusual, actually, not just in American history, but anywhere. I mean, the whims of an individual leader would make these life and death dramatic decisions without any input from anybody else, which is certainly what it looks like from the outside. This is very strange and it's likely to produce very erratic and unpredictable outcomes.
- [10:28]
Steve Bannon
Now, this is not a mission accomplished situation. This is simply a reality check. The combination of US And Israeli intelligence and combat power will control Iran and will control it soon. Sure, Iran will still be able to shoot some missiles and still be able to launch one way attack drones at civilian targets. And their proxies will attempt to attack our embassies, bases and soft targets. They are terrorists after all, and they need to target civilians because they can't fight toe to toe. But we will find them and we will kill them. This is what the fake news misses. We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways. Without boots on the ground, we control their fate. But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the President look bad, but try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step. It's a real litmus test and a dilemma for Trump because the 2020 big lie is still at the heart of so much what he's talking about to this day. He's still talking about it now and raising fears about what would happen in 26 and 28. Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who also spoke out against the Stop the Steal effort, lost a Republican primary yesterday in Texas. So he will be out. He crossed Trump. Cornyn also disagreed with Trump. So, yes, it's true. There's a lot of political people. Trump's advisers are saying Cornyn's the safest pick, Dave Weigel, because he. They believe he has a better shot to win in the general election there. I have been talking to advisers the
- [12:18]
Military Analyst Brandon
last couple of days, say there's some
- [12:19]
Steve Bannon
momentum for Trump to do that. I think David Drucker is right, that if Cornyn had lost even by any number, maybe Trump can't. But because it's more or less pulled even, he could justify it and say, I'll put you over the top. But I'm not 100% sure he will for all the points that Joe just raised. And Democrats are simply salivating at the possibility of taking on Paxton.
- [12:40]
Captain James Fennell
And so this is the Republican Party. This is my party in this hour,
- [12:46]
Military Analyst Brandon
at this, at this moment, which is
- [12:48]
Captain James Fennell
why it needs such an incredible political enema unlike any
- [12:54]
Military Analyst Brandon
weight of visual.
- [12:56]
Political Commentator
Thank you for that.
- [12:57]
Steve Bannon
Thank you very much. As I said Monday, the mission is laser focused. Obliterate Iran's missiles and drones and facilities that produce them. Annihilate its navy and critical security infrastructure and sever their pathway to nuclear weapons. Iran will never possess a nuclear bomb. Not on our watch, not ever. And this is why President Trump's moral clarity on Iran today is so vital. Unlike the past, where vague redlines and endless negotiations let Iran fund terror and inch ever so slightly toward a bomb, this president sees the threat plainly and acts decisively. No more half measures, especially when Iran is at its weakest. No more letting Tehran play for time while our people pay the price. His leadership ensures that we finish what we start and that we protect our warfighters by crushing the enemy before they can strike again. Our offensive operations refine through months of relentless preparation, are unstoppable, and our defensive efforts are unprecedented. In closing, as President Trump told German Chancellor Mertz yesterday, Iran negotiated in bad faith, stalling, scheming, and preparing to strike. And we acted decisively to defend our people, our interests, and our allies. President Trump took bold action, putting America first, the kind of bold action that the American people elected him to execute to our steadfast partner, Israel. Your mission is being executed with unmatched skill and iron determination. Fighting shoulder to shoulder with such a capable ally is a true force multiplier and a breath of fresh air. We salute your courage and your contribution. Four days in, we have only just begun to fight. America fights to win. And in Operation Epic Fury, we are.
- [15:05]
Brandon Weickert
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. I got a free shot. All these networks lying about the people, the people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen. And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
- [15:30]
Steve Bannon
MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul,
- [15:33]
Brandon Weickert
I wish that any of these people had a conscience. Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my
- [15:43]
Steve Bannon
country, this country will be saved. War ROOM here's your host, Stephen K. Banner.
- [15:54]
Brandon Weickert
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- [17:17]
Steve Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
- [17:23]
Brandon Weickert
It's Wednesday 4 March in the year of our Lord 2026. Okay, so we're going to have to, we're going to bifurcate our show here. We're going to talk of politics in Texas. Politics specifically. In the second hour we have a number of people. Luke Macias is going to join us to break down. It was actually a very good night in the Texas House and other places. Some congressional races for conservatives wanted to have. Brian Harrison won with 53% of the votes. There's no runoff there. There are some runoffs. We're going to go through all that. I do want to start with the military briefing first because I think that we have to work through these issues collectively. This morning. I do want to say a thank you to Real America's Voice, Parker and Rob Sig, the entire team, particularly our team in Denver that worked so hard, my own team here, everybody associated with War Room Texas and the folks that not just came on the show, but helped drive the show in the background last night, I think the secretary of State's showing on the website Almost 2 million votes for Proposition 10 to prohibit Sharia law. This was done really in a campaign that kicked off with this conference's dinner that was put on. I want to thank Gert Wilders for coming over from Holland to actually the Netherlands to show us what would happen if we didn't thwart this. Really want to thank Glenn Beck for adding his putting his shoulder to the wheel and everybody else associated. Grant Stitchfield, who was a host that night and then everybody that came up. This had no money, had really no visibility. And with everybody pitching in here, true grassroots effort. I believe the combined number, I believe the number was actually more than Cornyn and Paxton combined. But I'll do that math here in a moment. But it shows you what a strong issue people here in the state understand this. We did give a permission structure for the first time to have an open conversation of this. And I want to thank Governor Abbott for declaring the Muslim Brotherhood and Care as terrorist, international terrorist organizations. Also for Brian Harrison and other people that said, hey, we got to have hearings on this now. And then we have to have a special session at the legislator. The conservatives and the Republicans in the state of Texas have spoken with one voice. They're not going to give up their country. If you heard Tommy Robinson. Want to thank Tommy for joining Ben Berkwam last night at Paxton headquarters. Tommy, we had about six or seven minutes with him in the last segment of, I think the second hour. And Tommy laid it out exactly what happened to his country, exactly what happened to England and what happened particularly to London. As you know, we had Peter McIlveney on here. Not so this is the beginning of the second wave of this effort. But to come together with a state the size of a country worth literally no money and no organization, but kind of to ride to the sound of the guns. The grassroots organizations in this state, which are enormously, enormously powerful. It's just. And great people show what you can do when you, when you pull together. Let's go back to the business at hand, which is not that that's not the business at hand. We'll do it the second hour And Luke Macias and others will come on, Debbie Jurgadis and others will come on and walk us through what a big night it was for MAGA and what a big night it was for conservatives throughout Texas. And of course, we have the issue before us of the, of the Senate race, so we'll get to all that. Captain, for now, and Brandon Weickert, I think you guys have done a really good job of kind of walking through, and I think this is very important. I think that's why the briefing we're getting there. And I realize for opsec, we're not going to probably have a Norman Schwarzkopf type, but we're getting there with the Pentagon, hopefully every couple of days doing this. But I want to go through and do a level set here, Captain Fennell, because our audience wants there's a lot of going back and forth. Should be done. Hey, there's plenty of time for that. Right now. We have sailors, airmen and troops in harm's way. We have to collectively come together as MAGA and make sure we just understand what is actually going on and what is the process here and what's the methodology. And I think I've got two of the and of course, with Thayer and Faddis and others, we've got really level heads that are professionals, been doing this for a long time. Captain Fennell, let's start with you. As you've been going through this, you've actually laid out target patches, et cetera. Given what you've seen overnight, given the briefing you saw from Secretary warhegseth and particularly General Raisin Cain, your thoughts on where we are.
- [22:13]
Captain James Fennell
Well, Steve, I say that we are what Admiral Cooper, the commander of Central Command, said last night from his assessment is that we are ahead of the game plan. So with just over 100 hours in 2000 targets have been struck, dedicated target lists. That's probably got still more targets on that dedicated target list. But we have struck those strategic targets both in Tehran, missile sites, missile production facilities, their navy and any associated known terrorist locations and compounds and training centers and things of that nature. So we've gone through in four days a systematic destruction of those major four categories of targets. Concurrently, we have been also rolling back their air defense capability, both strategically and along the coast, as General Kane just showed us in that chart in his briefing. And now we're moving, as he said, we're transitioning from standoff weapons to into stand in weapons. And I think this will help address some of the concerns. It's obvious in the last 48 hours or last 24 hours. Lots of commentary, lots of articles about munition levels. But the reality is we are now moving away from having to be exclusively tied to standoff weapons like a Tomahawk or something else like that. And we can now start using general purpose bombs that have all kinds of different kind of kits on them, like the JDAM Joint Direct Attack Munition, which essentially takes an old World War II, Vietnam War bomb that we have many of these. And you put fins on the, on the back and you put sensor fuses on the front and you're able to glide these things in very precision. And we're going to be able to expand and roll back even further now. That'll give us more air superiority. General Kane said we have local air superiority in the southern tier of Iran. We've destroyed their navy. Now 20 ships, destroyed 17 last night. This morning. We have in the briefings of two briefings in 12 hours, 17 ships killed yesterday night, now 20. And with the one that was actually sunk by a torpedo, first time Since World War II of Iranian frigate off the coast of Sri Lanka. This is outside of the immediate theater of operations, but it just shows the completeness of our targeting and our awareness of what's going on. And so I think this is really a testament to the detailed plan. And I heard one of your cold opens talk about there's no planning and no thinking. Clearly, I disagree with that. I think there's been a hell of a lot of planning, a hell of a lot of thinking, and we're systematically going through it. And then what we're now able to do, as Admiral Cooper mentioned last night, we're in this phase of dynamic targeting, which when I was in service, we called time sensitive targeting, which means now that we have local air superiority, we can fly and observe. We have exquisite intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance that allows us to observe anybody that's going to come out of a tunnel, a cave or anything like that. And if they move, we're going to be able to destroy those resources. And that's why the ballistic missile launches went down 86% since the first day, and the drone launches have gone down by 73% since the first day. They're still out there. But our ability to be more time on target to take out those that are coming out of their bunkers is going to increase. So I see us tightening the noose. It's an anaconda, if you will. We're slowly strangling off their conventional military forces to will, as General or Admiral Cooper said, Last night we want to kill everything that they have that can shoot at us outside of their borders. And I think that we are, we are on the, the process to do that. And we're, we just need to keep at it and not give up.
- [26:17]
Brandon Weickert
Captain, before we go to break and, and Brandis will join us right after the break. As we go to break, as you listen to Admiral Cooper, centcom and we're going to try to. We've got a package on Admiral Cooper. If I can't play this morning, I'll play it this afternoon because very important. He's CENTCOM commander. He's the combatant commander raising cain. General Kaine is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and senior military advisor to the president. Do you have we bifurcated. This is the American Are we taking out command and control? Are we taking out, you know, to get air superiority to take out their naval forces ballistic missiles? The thing that Pete Hegseth walked through, what our objectives are, are the Israelis the ones targeting specifically the senior command structure and personnel of the Iranians of both the mullahs and the Revolutionary Guard.
- [27:14]
Captain James Fennell
From what I've seen, the Israelis are attacking military forces as well. I think there's a shared intelligence there. I think they have better awareness of maybe some of the senior government officials, maybe some of the irgclum, Iranian Revolutionary Guard leadership, military leadership. So I don't know the specific divvying up of the percentages. I'm guessing that it's more likely that the Israelis are doing more of the leadership of Iran and the military and the government, and we're doing more of the conventional military targets, especially the ballistic missile launchers, ballistic missiles, the command and control of their military forces, their radar sites. That's why you're not seeing any firings of their coastal defense cruise missiles, because their radars have been destroyed.
- [28:04]
Brandon Weickert
Hang on one second. We're taking a short commercial break. Captain James Fennell, Brandon Weickert next on the military situation in Iran. If you're a homeowner, you need to listen to this, so listen up. In today's artificial intelligence and cyber world, scammers are stealing home titles with more ease than ever. And your equity, the equity in your home, your life savings, is the target. Now, here's how it works. Criminals forge your signature on one document, use a fake notary stamp, pay a small fee with your county, and boom, your home title has been transferred out of your name. Then they take out loans using your equity or even selling your property. You won't even know it's happened until you get a collection or foreclosure notice. So let me ask you, when was the last time you checked your home title? If you're like me, the answer is never. And that's exactly what scammers are counting on. That's why I trust home title lock. Before I met them, I never checked on this. Now I'm safe and now I'm secure. Use promo code steveometitleck.com to make sure your title is still in your name. You'll also get a free title history report plus a free 14 day trial of their 1 million dollar triple lock protection. That's 24,7 monitoring of your title. Urgent alerts to any changes, any and a fraud should happen. They'll spend up to $1 million to fix it. Go to hometitlelock.com now. Use promo code Steve. That's hometitle lock.com promo code Steve. Do it today. Do it now.
- [30:03]
Steve Bannon
Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
- [30:06]
Brandon Weickert
Okay, now more than ever, you need to understand why gold is a hedge. Take your phone out and text Bannon B A N N O N at 989-898. You get to Birch Gold. This is the ultimate guide. Totally free, no obligation. What Birch Gold and the worm tried to do is immerse you in information so you become an informed investor purchaser of physical gold. It's not the price. The price is going to bounce around. It's what the process is. All this talk we always do about, hey, it's a hedge against geopolitical risk. You know what geopolitical risk is? It's exactly what Captain Fennell laid out a few minutes ago. It's blocking the Straits of Hormuz. It's mining the Straits of Hormuz. That is geopolitical. That's geopolitical risk. A fancy term for that. So understand it. Understand how that, how that affects impacts financial assets throughout the world. Capital markets throughout the world, commodity markets throughout the world. And guess what? The market for gold. We're here to make you as we do in the war room every day. Make you as smart, tough and focused as possible. Birchgold.com check it out. Admiral Cooper is the combatant commander. Remember, I've always said the three most powerful institutions in Washington D.C. are the CIA, the Federal Reserve and Centcom. He's the Centcom. We've still never had as hard as. As hard as Captain Fennell ourselves. The first term. We've never really had the pivot to Asia. I'd like to say we pulled it off. We Didn't. CENTCOM is all powerful. Admiral Cooper is the CENTCOM commander. Let's have a quick update by Admiral Cooper. We have a short package here, and I'll bring in Brandon.
- [31:46]
Steve Bannon
100 hours into this operation, and we've already struck nearly 2,000 targets with more than 2,000 munitions. We have severely degraded Iran's air defenses and destroyed hundreds of Iran's ballistic missiles, launchers, and drones. And in simple terms, we're focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us. You're also sinking the Iranian navy. The entire navy. Thus far, we've destroyed 17 Iranian ships, including the most operational Iranian submarine that now has a hole in its side. For decades, the Iranian regime has harassed international shipping. Today, there's not a single single Iranian ship underway in the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, or Gulf of Oman. And we will not stop. We will continue to conduct dynamic targeting operations. We're hunting Iran's last remaining mobile ballistic missile launchers to eliminate what I would characterize is their lingering launch capability. Now, in retaliation, the Iranian regime has launched over 500 ballistic missiles and over 2000 drones. To be clear, Iran. Iran is indiscriminately targeting civilians as they launch these missiles and drones. You've seen it on tv. The evidence is crystal clear and overwhelming. Having said this, we are seeing Iran's ability to hit us and our partners is declining while our combat power, on the other hand, is building. And my overall operational assessment is that we are ahead of our game plan.
- [33:11]
Brandon Weickert
I think you see the type of people President Trump selects. Admiral Cooper. I would say Admiral Cooper in general Dan Cain are no brag, just fact. They just stick to it. Brandon Weickert, your assessment. Your assessment of where we are and where we're going?
- [33:27]
Military Analyst Brandon
Well, as I said Yesterday, the next 24 to 48 hours are going to be key for determining exactly how this thing is going to shake up in terms of the air war. I certainly agree that we have degraded significant capabilities within the Islamic Republic. I agree with the claim that we have gone after those missile launchers. We have degraded those C2. That's command and control functions. This is all very good for Team usa. However, I do think the transition. Munition, the transition in munitions is an interesting story that might not being. Not might being told very well. Essentially, we were relying on standoff weapons. Now the argument is, is because we are now switching. Because the Iranians have been so thoroughly degraded, we're able to now enjoy local dominance. My concern is the real reason we are switching is because we blew through 400 Tomahawk land attack missiles in about four days. And I would remind your audience, we've only got about 4,000, according to Open source information of those systems. Totally. And it takes 18 to 24 months to procure about 100 every 18 to 24 months. And right now we've been building at most 90, which is considered low end. So if you're sitting in the Pentagon, you're probably having conniptions because we're blowing through those Tomahawks too fast. So in a way, you don't have a choice but to switch over.
- [34:52]
Brandon Weickert
Hang on for one second though. Last night when we were doing the Texas election night, Reuters broke a story, I think you, you got it. To me and a couple other people I want to talk about, people understand that this is a potential issue or an issue. There's gonna be five of the senior defense industry leaders, CEOs come to the White House on Friday to have a senior level meeting. I assume the President, United States is gonna be in there because he's very focused on this.
- [35:22]
Military Analyst Brandon
And it's key, the timing. That timing's key because this weekend, as I told you, the original assessment was after eight days of full conflict, we would have to begin cannibalizing Indo Paycom. And I think the President is savvy enough to know I don't really want to do that unless I have to. So this is a smart move to have these guys come in and read them the riot act.
- [35:41]
Brandon Weickert
When you say read them right at what, what can they do? Can they go to full production? Do we have the capacity? Is it just, is it funding? Is it that they have? They're not at full capacity. As far as going 24 7. What's the solution?
- [35:57]
Military Analyst Brandon
It's a little bit of all of that. But in my opinion, the defense industrial base, our defense, defense contractors are some of the most corrupt people in the world. So they, you know, they've been taking gobs of money, a nearly trillion dollar defense budget, and yet somehow we're worried that after eight days of conflict, we're going to be out of weapons. And centcom. How is that possible unless there's a lot of mismanagement? I know Hegseth is trying to address that. He's got a great acquisitions guy in the Pentagon, but it's not moving fast enough. That's just the nature of the bureaucracy. So my hope is that Trump can sit them down and say, look, this has got to get done like he did with the COVID personal protective equipment production when he kind of took control over that, maybe that will be enough to keep us going, because otherwise the Pentagon is going to hear from the defense contractors that we can't do anything more than we're doing, which means that that's going to start dictating the outcome of this war, which is what I've been saying. It's a race to depletion.
- [36:50]
Brandon Weickert
Did these, did these, was the Iran war and, excuse me, Ukraine and Gaza and other places we've had to use these. Is this what led to this drawdown?
- [37:02]
Military Analyst Brandon
100%, Steve. 100%. In fact, there was the final year of Biden. I thought this was interesting. Bloomberg had a chart of this. There was zero new Tomahawks made in 2024, the last year of Biden's presidency. Even though he was shipping all of these systems around the world to places like Ukraine where they were doing God knows what with, they certainly weren't winning the war. So this is another reason why the Ukraine war should be ended tomorrow. But anyway, this is the real crisis and I suspect that is also informing this transition in munitions. Last night around midnight, I watched in real time on open source tracking a logistics chain open up from the Middle east to the United States via Europe. All of our logistics birds were constantly going back and forth because they were starting now to pull the new forms of munitions that are needed. And I think the reason that they're doing this is because they're very worried in the Pentagon about having to pull, pull from the greater resources in Indo Paycom because the Indopacom guys are already throwing a stink about, hey, if we do this and pull from us, we're never going to get that back and China's going to have open season on the region. And so I think Trump is smartly saying let's pull from whatever we can do in the United States. He's going to, I hope, pressure these defense guys. Something that they should be talking about is invoking the Defense Production act because I'm telling you right now, this war is not ending by this weekend. It's going to go beyond and they're going to have to start, start cannibalizing those, those existing stockpiles in Indo Paycom, aor, by the way, the worst possible scenario.
- [38:35]
Brandon Weickert
That's what Peter. That's what Peter, you used the example in Covid. That's what they used in Covid. They stepped in with the Defense Production Act. Hang on for one second. Just, they made a. We've, we've launched 2,000 weapons on 2,000 targets, and we got them. They've only come back with 500 and it's getting more scattergun all the time. Do you buy that theory? Do you, do you think this is not as organized on the Iranian side? They're still able to launch, but you're not seeing the kind of systematic launches they were doing, particularly.
- [39:04]
Military Analyst Brandon
Which gets back to what my. Yeah, which this gets back to my buddy, Colonel Rob Manus, who, who was talking about this with me the other day. You know, he's insistent that these guys popping off the missiles in Iran are a bunch of dead enders, that they've been isolated. But to me. And that's that. You know, it definitely has drawn down in the last 12 to 14 hours. But to me, the, the fact is the regime was savvy enough to disaggregate the command and control functions locally. That way, when we did come in to take out their central C2, they would still be in the fight. I want to make it clear the Iranians are not out of the fight yet. They've killed a thousand innocent people in the Middle east with these missiles. But more importantly, Steve, they have managed to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. And more importantly than that, they are targeting and effectively destroying Saudi and Qatari oil production. It will take years and months to get those systems back online. So this is part of a wider longer term strategy on the part of Iran to hurt the American economy and the global economy beyond even the next few weeks. So that indicates to me that the Iranian leadership may be degraded, but the Iranian regime is still in this fight. And I don't know if they're going to be able to be thrown out with air power alone. Which gets me to my fear, which is that we're going to be putting a large number of special forces groups to try to coordinate with the MEK on the ground. And I think that would be a grave mistake at this point.
- [40:29]
Brandon Weickert
Let's play. Hang on, I got you a few minutes. Do we have. Pete Hexith answered that question or attempted to answer that question this morning. Can we play the. Can we play the Kurds? Can we play the Kurds club?
- [40:40]
Political Commentator
The administration is considering arming Iranian Kurdish groups.
- [40:45]
Steve Bannon
So could you please clarify that whether
- [40:48]
Captain James Fennell
any such plan has been authorized or. And whether Congress or regional partners has
- [40:55]
Steve Bannon
been notified and consulted. All I would say is none of our objectives are premised on the support or the arming of any particular force. So what other entities may be doing we're aware of. But our objectives aren't centered on that,
- [41:13]
Brandon Weickert
does other entities mean the Central Intelligence Agency and the Israelis? I mean, I love Pete. I'm not so sure that got us to an answer. The Kurds are a wild card here, right? Because I think Turkey, they just shot down a missile. The Turks shot down a missile. People are talking about their NATO maybe invoke Article 5. The Turks can't be sitting there being wild about. First off, the last time I looked and folks remember I didn't say I agreed with this. But the reality in Gaza is the Turks are supposed to be head of the security force. I know people don't like hearing that, but that's just reality. At least what President Trump says, you got the Kurds. The, the Kurds are a wild card because they want peace. They want a piece of Iran. They want, they say is their territory and they want to turn, pivot and take on the Turks, sir.
- [41:58]
Military Analyst Brandon
Well, not only that, but they're also still smarting over what they say is our betrayal of the Syrian Kurds. We allowed three or four weeks ago Jelani or Shira of Syria to go in and annihilate the Kurds of Syria that we were backing. And he released all those ISIS fighters. And it is my opinion and William Van Wagenen, who's a colleague of mine in Syria, he tells me that the Jelani is reconstituting the ISIS fighters to go into Iraq and attack the Iranian backed militias there on our behalf. So you've got that story as well. That's not being told. But with the Kurds in particular, they only want a small sliver of Iran. So if they do open up another offensive, they're not going to go in to change the regime the way we want them to. They don't have the manpower for that. They're just going to target that little slice and that's going to trigger the mother of all reactions from our NATO partner Turkey, because they do not want to see that at all because they know that's the beginnings of state building for a Kurdish independent country and they do not want that they will go to war over that. And so this is a potential flashpoint that I think is unnecessary. Again, we don't have the ground forces. I know Erik Prince said this to you recently. We don't have the relevant ground forces needed to overthrow the regime. President Trump has killed Kamani. He has gotten the bad guy. He has gotten the people that not even Reagan could get. So in my opinion, that's a golden off ramp for him. He can declare victory right now and say okay, we've done it. We've won. We're going to pull back now. We're going to rebuild, we're going to reconstitute and we're going to focus on Western hemispheric defense and space dominance.
- [43:35]
Brandon Weickert
Brandon, we got to bounce. Where do you get your book and where they get your writing?
- [43:39]
Military Analyst Brandon
Anywhere on Amazon you can find me. I'm the natset guy at Emerald TV TV and I'm also the senior editor at 1945.com we the Brandon is my Twitter.
- [43:50]
Brandon Weickert
Thank you, sir.
- [43:51]
Military Analyst Brandon
Thank you, sir.
- [43:52]
Brandon Weickert
Thank you. Thank you for coming. On short commercial break, Stephen Mosher and Captain Fennell to old China hands next. Imagine having the world's most connected financial insider feeding you vital information, the kind of information only a handful of people have access to and that could create a fortune for those who know what to do with it. That's exactly what you get when you join our frequent guest and contributor Jim Rickards in his elite research service, Strategic Intelligence. Inside Strategic Intelligence. You'll hear directly from Jim and receive critical updates on major financial and political events before they hit the mainstream news. He'll put you in front of the story and tell you exactly what moves to make for your best chance to profit as a proud American. You do not want to be caught off guard. Sign up for Strategic Intelligence right now at your our exclusive website. That's rickards war room.com rickardswarroom.com you go there, you get strategic intelligence based upon predictive analytics. Do it today, right now. Rickards war room.com here's your host, Stephen K. Ban. So, Captain Fennell, if you do listen to Admiral Cooper, if you listen to General Kane, you think about what they're talking about potentially for the next 24, 48, 72 hours. Brandon Weickert does make a compelling case. Not that you would choose it, but but you'd have the opportunity. Given the degradation of the Iranian command structure, military navy to the bottom of the Persian Gulf. The air defense is gone, their air force gone, that the president would have a possibility of an off ramp. Do you agree just with the military, let's leave the politics aside. But do you think that gets enough down the path that some. I won't say hawkish, but people are saying no, you have to destroy it. Root and branch would be satisfied.
- [46:04]
Captain James Fennell
Sir, I'm a root and branch person. I do not think that we have destroyed enough.
- [46:11]
Brandon Weickert
Call it. Captain Pinell, you did not need to tell us that this is the you have a role to play here. We Know that so is the root and branch crowd not wouldn't be happy.
- [46:21]
Captain James Fennell
We'll also have a little bit of a study of history. I can go back to Sherman and his march to the sea. I can go back to the Desert Storm and trainer and book the General's war when we didn't finish because of the line of death at the highway of death. History is replete of when military endeavors have been undertaken and we different, different generals, different leaders have backed off and allowed their enemy to get off the map. There's no going back from this. The Iranians were already at war with us beforehand. They've declared war against us for 47 years, and they are now. Certainly this regime will never, ever accept anything left except to destroy us. So why would we stop now when they still have combat capability? The SEC War, this chairman and the operational commander, Admiral Cooper, have all said we're still working at and chipping away and getting after the rest of their military capabilities. So let's do that. The increasing risks to our forces diminishes as their ballistic missile launches go down, as their drone attacks go down and our attacks come down.
- [47:30]
Brandon Weickert
Let me make sure the audience, Let me make sure the audience understands that maybe you got to understand it first. Kushner and Witkoff and the President's been adamant saying, hey, look, they're really tapping us along. They weren't serious. Given what we've done to the command structure, what we've done to the leadership, what we try to eradicate the Islamic Republic part of this. When you say there's no going back, you say you can't have a half measure here. And I think Pete used that term that these. Now, if they weren't your mortal enemies before, you're not going to go to a negotiating table and cut a deal, because the hardcore that are still there are going to realize that their power comes from, not from capitulation, but to fight down to the last man, essentially.
- [48:12]
Captain James Fennell
We have to defang them, we have to declaw them. They can think whatever they want. I don't really care what they think. If they, if they hate us, but they don't have any weapons, then go ahead and hate on us. We're not going to give you any more weapons, whether they're nuclear weapons or conventional weapons. That's the mission. It's not regime change.
- [48:30]
Stephen Mosher
I.
- [48:30]
Captain James Fennell
That's not the mission. The mission is to declaw them to take away their ability to hurt us. If you take off all the, the, the, the teeth and the claws from a tiger, you can walk into a tiger's cage and, and be safe. So that's what we have to do. We have to remove their claws and their fangs. That's the mission.
- [48:50]
Brandon Weickert
Captain, hang on for a second. I want to. You've always taught me I'm well trained by you to always keep the main thing. The main thing. I want to bring in Stephen Mosher, one of our top experts on the Chinese Communist Party. Stephen, I was so glad in the fog of war here you had an incredible piece up in the New York Post that said, hey, when Trump's doing this, his real target is Beijing. Can you explain? We got about three minutes here. I'm gonna keep you through the break. Can you explain what you meant, sir?
- [49:18]
Stephen Mosher
Well, I mean, Steve, that it's shock and awe in Beijing and it has been since Trump took office. The, the tariffs took a huge bite out of their, their ill gotten, you know, trade profits. And then it was Panama. We're going to kick Hutchinson Wampoa out of Panama. That has now happened. In fact, the Panamanian Supreme Court has said that, that the contract was void ab initio, which means from the beginning. So all of their investment in the Panama Canal ports at each end, Atlantic and Pacific, is gone, as if it never existed. Big blow to China. Then we have Venezuela taking away that particular footprint in South America. Now we have the advances in Cuba. Can anyone doubt that Cuba is going to negotiate a deal rather than live in the dark for the next century? We have Iran, the oil from Iran not going to China. Now, the first thing I looked at, Steve, when we attacked Iran to see what happened to Kharg Island. Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export terminal, was in flames. And that means China's oil lifeline from the Ayatollah was going up in smoke. That's very important because it means a lot of things. It means, first of all, the Iranians can't get money from China, which was half of their budget. It means secondly that BRICS is probably dead because they were paying Iran in, in renminbi, cheap Chinese currency. They could print it at will. Now that that is gone, they'll have to pay in dollars again. They'll need bill, tens of billions of dollars to pay for oil. Trump is smiling, said, we'll be happy to sell them oil. Well, yeah, and they'll be paying in dollars. So BRICS is dead. The dollar will remain the dominant currency. So all roads, in my view, lead to Beijing. I mean, people should see the pattern from Panama to Venezuela, from Greenland to Iran. All the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. Trump is thinking very, very bigly here. You know, the Premier, Wen Jiabao 10 years ago, the premiere of China from 2002-20, 2012, once said Americans are naive and innocent and easily deceived. Think about that. The Chinese leadership think that Americans are naive and innocent and easily deceived. Well, I think they've met their match in, in Donald Trump, and one of the things he's doing is he's using one of China's ancient stratagems against them. It's called taking the firewood out from under the pot. Well, what does that mean? Well, that meant in traditional Chinese warfare, you took some vital resource away from your enemy in order to prevent them from being able to mobilize an army and fight you. Well, we're literally taking the firewood from, from, from away from the teapot refineries in China, that we're using it to fuel China's industry and fuel its war machine. We're literally taking. Trump is taking the firewood out from under the pot.
- [52:13]
Brandon Weickert
I love it.
- [52:14]
Stephen Mosher
And that's really hurting China. And now, hang on, hang on, hang
- [52:19]
Brandon Weickert
on, hang on, hang on, hang on. We're going to get to all that. We're going to take a short commercial break. Stephen Mosher is with us. Captain Fennell, we're also going to get into what happened in Texas last night in this, how do you say it, Historic victory for the Prop 10, the proposal, quite simply, to prohibit Sharia law, the great state of Texas. We're going to talk all about that. We got tons of people associated with, with Texas and politics and conservatism and maga. Short commercial break. We're gonna be back in the warm in just a moment.
- [52:55]
Steve Bannon
You know, you still need help from the boss. We need help from the boss.
- [53:07]
Brandon Weickert
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