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Bannon`s War Room
Episode 5274/5275: WarRoom Special War With Iran
Episode 5274/5275: WarRoom Special War With Iran...
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- [00:00]
Stephen K. Bannon
On Easter Sunday, here's what we've decided to do. We're going to go back to the beginning of this war and we're going to show the chronology of it as we reported it at the time, both through cold opens and our own reporting. I want to thank the team at Rural America Voice, particularly our guys in Denver, and also my own crack team here. You're about to get a eyewitness account of how we got to this point in this very bloody conflict that all of us on Easter Sunday was on the day of the risen Christ that we all pray to God ends and ends shortly. Now, a special edition of the War Room for Easter Sunday.
- [00:39]
Breaking News Reporter
Israel has confirmed that the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed as a result of those Israeli strikes that took place earlier today. One of these sources saying that Israel actually has photographic evidence of Khamenei showing his dead body. The second source told me that an official announcement is in the works, although it is possible that the Israelis will allow President Trump and the United States to make this announcement officially. But this is enormous breaking news here that the Israeli government is confirming that the supreme leader of Iran was killed in Israeli strikes earlier today. This is a day that many Israeli government officials have hoped would come eventually. It is also, we should note, a day that many Iranian dissidents, Iranian protesters, had hoped would eventually come. And indeed, it has come now. And it is an earth shattering moment for the Middle east and for the future of Iran.
- [01:46]
Stephen K. Bannon
The most evil man on the friggin
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Erik Prince
planet is dead, stone cold dead because of President Trump's resolve.
- [01:55]
Stephen K. Bannon
And if we lose anybody in this operation, they will have died a noble
- [01:58]
Erik Prince
death because they will have risked their
- [02:00]
Stephen K. Bannon
lives and sacrificed their lives to make
- [02:03]
Erik Prince
us safer here at home.
- [02:04]
Field Correspondent
People have died and over two dozen others injured. After protests erupted at the US Consulate in Karachi, hundreds of protesters stormed the
- [02:13]
Cleo Pascal
Pakistani port city's compound.
- [02:15]
Field Correspondent
The violent clashes are following the killing
- [02:18]
Cleo Pascal
of Iran's supreme leader.
- [02:20]
Pro-Trump Commentator
Donald Trump did what nobody else could do for half a century. How do you like that? And you know why he did it? Because he loves his country. You know why he did it? Because he's humane. He saw people slaughtered and he wanted to put an end to it. That's why he did it. Now it's time that we Americans have to come to grips with something. We have a party in this country, the Democrat Party, that hates the country. Here we are in the middle of a spectacular, spectacular, humane peace mission where people were being slaughtered. They were being Slaughtered. Right up to the minute we attacked them, we've been talking about it. They've slaughtered our soldiers, they've slaughtered our citizens, our embassy personnel. They come into our country and try and assassinate people. They're the biggest promoters of terrorism. And the Democrats immediately knee jerk, they defend the terrorists, like to defend the illegal aliens and the criminals. There's something wrong with that party that at a time we should be celebrating the most spectacular military act I've ever seen. Khomeini's gone in 20 hours. While their President Biden was funding the Iranians billions of dollars while Obama was paving the way for them to have nuclear weapons. Donald Trump loves this country. He knows right from wrong. And we've had a real psyop going on in this country for 10 years against this man where they try and pretend he's the authoritarian, he's the dictator. No, they are. They talk about the War powers Act of 1973. Anybody who is a serious constitutional lawyer knows that act is unconstitutional. I see all these lawyers writing these pieces like they're smart, they're dumb. And every administration, Republican and Democrat, has questioned it. Questioned it. But they haven't brought it to the Supreme Court because neither the Congress or the president nor wants a resolution.
- [05:12]
Military Analyst
Didn't want to see Ron hitting back and pushing back. President Trump should have not started this
- [05:17]
Stephen K. Bannon
war from the beginning.
- [05:18]
Erik Prince
It was a war of choice. There was no necessity to start this aggression. That was act of aggression.
- [05:24]
Pro-Trump Commentator
Chuck Schumer is elected from New York. Bernie Sanders is elected from Vermont. They wanted the commander in chief to be elected by the entirety of the nation. And they're even talking about impeaching him if they take the House of Representatives. Ladies and gentlemen, we have an enemy within and it is the Democrat Party. Every reprobate, miscreant and malcontent is in that party. The Marxists and the Islamists are in that party. Do they act like they love the nation? Do they? When we have men and women in uniform, Democrats and Republicans and Independents, fighting an enemy, fighting terrorists. The greatest terror regime in American in world history. And we're winning. And that's why they're going nuts. We're winning. This is so spectacular what's taking place. And I want our troops to know something. These people who are trying to undermine you, they are a small percentage of the population. We red blooded Americans, we love victory and we love you. You are of us. And most of us have had relatives, if not ourselves in the military. Chuck Schumer means nothing to us. Hakeem Jeffries means nothing to us. You, Mr. And Mrs. America. We support our military. We support our commander in chief. We support victory. This is a spectacular, spectacular military operation with our spectacular ally, the Israelis, with their spectacular prime minister. It's working. It's effective. It's spectacular. And these guys. We have to hurry back to Congress. We need to have a vote on the War Powers act of 1973. This would be the same party that dragged us into Vietnam, right? Was that a declared war? No, it wasn't a declared war. And I could go on and on and on about the hypocrites in that party. It's their president that was about to hand nuclear weapons to this enemy. It's their president who handed them billions of dollars in cash and so forth. This president isn't going to put up with it, and he hasn't. God bless our president. God bless the Prime Minister of Israel.
- [07:39]
Cleo Pascal
The Israelis are striking targets in Iran's capital this morning. The US Operation is also expected to continue. Do you think these two forces will be able to decimate all of the hardliners in the Iranian regime?
- [07:54]
Middle East Expert
Good morning, Pamela. That's a great question. But the answer, the short answer is no. This is, you have to remember, this is an ideology that permeates the entire society now. Doesn't mean that that ideology and the people that represented. Aren't we getting. They certainly have been weakened. There's no question about it. But what we're talking about is really what is in people's hearts and minds. And that is really hard to change, especially if they have the belief system that they've had for what, 47 years now. That's a really difficult thing to change. And the strikes that Israel and the United States have launched against Iran have been very directed at leadership targets. You know, taking out the head of the armed forces of Iran, taking out. Just a few minutes ago, the IDF reported they were taking out two fighter jets that old fighter jets, F4s and F4 and F5, that was about to take off from Tabriz Airport in Iran. And that really shows that this is a multiple targeting effort. In other words, what we're doing is we're taking out the leadership, but we're also taking out some, some of their instruments of power. And that's going to go a long way to neutralizing Iran, but it is not going to completely eliminate the ideology behind this regime.
- [09:35]
Field Correspondent
But what we are seeing is a very divided picture. Of course, I want to take the city of Isfahan, the second largest city in Iran, as an example. We saw these massive pro government rallies in the streets, people mourning, crying for the Supreme Leader's death. You have to remember, of course, though, that Iran is trying to orchestrate an image of strength, because just hours earlier, social media video shows people honking their cars in the streets, celebrating women waving their hijabs in celebration again. And that divided picture that we're seeing on the ground in Iran is of force reflected across the region. You mentioned the attacks on the US Consulate in Karachi, where you see those protesters breach the initial security barrier and then bang on the consulate with sticks. Very dramatic images, very similar to what we saw in the Green Zone in Baghdad, which is where the US Embassy is located there as well. Flashbangs being used, security forces cracking down on protesters angry about the death of the Supreme Leader. But you're also seeing celebrations abroad as well, particularly among Iran expat community. There's a strong expat community here in London. Some of them were out celebrating this weekend after the announcement of the death, as well as in Los Angeles, of course, in the United States. But then there's also some anger and some resentment in the US as well. There was a demonstration in New York saying, hands off Iran. So as the memory of the Ayatollah is being debated and played out across the region and globally, you're seeing this very divided reaction. But very importantly, this is a man who's going to be remembered in his final months for a brutal crackdown that killed thousands of Iranians.
- [12:08]
Pro-Trump Commentator
We Americans like retribution, especially when it comes to dealing with terrorists. Khomeini is dead. He's not six feet under. He's in hell. He's got a river of blood on his hands. And the Iranian people are going to be free. They're going to be free. America is going to be safe. The Israelis are going to be safe. The world's going to be safe. No thanks to the UN no thanks to Europe, and most of all, no thanks to the Democrats.
- [12:34]
Stephen K. Bannon
And if we lose anybody in this operation, they will have died a noble
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Erik Prince
death because they will have risked their
- [12:39]
Stephen K. Bannon
lives and sacrificed their lives to make
- [12:42]
Erik Prince
us safer here at home.
- [12:45]
Stephen K. Bannon
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies, because we're going amid the evil on these people. Christians not get 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? MAGA MEDIA I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
- [13:17]
Pro-Trump Commentator
Ask yourself, what is my task and
- [13:20]
Stephen K. Bannon
what is my purpose?
- [13:21]
Pro-Trump Commentator
If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
- [13:27]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
War Room here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
- [13:36]
Stephen K. Bannon
It's Sunday the 1st of March in the year for Lord 2026, the noble and honored dead of America. We're going to get to that in just a minute. Sencom has put an announcement. I want to thank real America's voice, Parker and Rob Sig, our entire team in Denver, also our fantastic team here at the War room. We're going to go seven days a week because of like events have just happened here in covering this major military operation, as the president defines it, or war. Until that time it's deemed unnecessary to cover it seven days a week. So we'll be seven days a week. This is our first. And I want to thank we're packed with some of the smartest minds about the region, the nation, geopolitics, military operations and I really want to thank them for changing their Sundays up to be with us. Jack Bosobic, CENTCOM has just put out Lindsey Graham, Mark Levin, I mean I think to torture the war room posse. We'd play an hour of Mark Levin, just the over the top revolting comments of Levin but we'll spare you one in the cold open just to see what's playing on Fox 24. 7. We're trying to give you a quite frankly a more detailed and sophisticated look at what is actually happening. JACK Posobic, CENTCOM has just announced, I think three Americans killed in many others wounded.
- [15:02]
Erik Prince
Sir.
- [15:04]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
STEVE that's right. And I'm working right now with my sources at the Department of War within the Pentagon and other areas of the intelligence community and the military to be able to try to figure out exactly who that was. Centcom saying that they're going to be holding back the information for 24 hours while family members are contacted. We don't know exactly which it was. I'm trying to see if we can figure out if they'll release at least which branch it was. Early indications seem to be just based on what I've seen, that this may be related to some of those on base attacks, those strikes that we've seen Bahrain, Qatar, some of the other ports all along the Middle east. But of course we've also seen attacks on US bases. Otherwise one of the interesting pieces that we've seen is that there was a Sikorsky helicopter that was flown from Bahrain. It's known for medical, combat, rescue. It was flown from Bahrain to Doha International. That's something that we're tracking to see if that was related to this attack. But as we could see right now, this is not bloodless for the United states. We've lost three American service members and we're told four or five in critical condition. CentCom, by the way, confirming that the IRGC had claimed at one point that they had targeted the Lincoln with four ballistic missiles. This is just about an hour ago. CENTCOM now confirming that the Lincoln was not struck by those ballistic missiles. So this does not appear to be related to any attack on the.
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Stephen K. Bannon
That's what I was asking.
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Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
And to be sure, if the Lincoln was hit, there'd be by a ballistic missile. There'd certainly be more than four.
- [16:43]
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, let me ask you. The Iranians claimed earlier they had targeted the Lincoln with four ballistic missiles. So centcoms, because a lot of times the Iranians are, you know, obviously in the, in the fall fog of war, the first casualty is truth. They're always putting out, obviously the first hit yesterday they said was a girls school. That's still being, you know, that's still being worked through whether it happened or not. But did CENTCOM actually concur that four ballistic missiles had targeted the Lincoln?
- [17:12]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
Well, they said that the missiles did not come even close. So I take that to mean that the missiles did target the Lincoln. We know that Iran had supplied those anti ship cruise missiles to the Houthis across the Arabian Peninsula there in the Red Sea area with anti ship ballistic missile or anti ship cruise missiles in the past. So certainly this is within their capabilities to target the carrier. Of course, the carrier would be the ultimate target for any of their strike forces strike packages. And that's why the carrier has that defensive screen with the standard missile. Three interceptors fired from the Arleigh Burke destroyers with their Aegis, their Aegis air defense systems, they're fully capable. Again, we don't know exactly what the status was, how it was that those missiles did not strike. Now they're saying ballistic missiles, not cruise missiles. That could be something that's lost in the wash. But of course it remains to be seen exactly what capabilities they're bringing to bear. But yes, it does appear that it was targeted by missiles and then missiles. At least as of now, as we know, they have not been struck. And of course, if the carrier had been struck, we'd be seeing images and videos and Iran would be showing it Everywhere. I mean this would be a high value target in terms of propaganda for them. So we would know immediately if that were struck. There was a carrier that Iran seems to have struck or excuse me, a tanker that Iran seems to have struck in the Gulf of Oman, the port of Oman, a Palau flagged oil tanker that is currently sinking right now as well as by the way, CENTCOM striking an Iranian naval corvette that is currently on its way to Davy Jones Locker.
- [18:46]
Stephen K. Bannon
Yeah, Kevin Fennell is going to be on about this, the Straits of Hormuz because that will have a definite impact on oil markets tomorrow. Jack. It's interesting. I'm going to bring Erik Princeton now, Jack, one of the justifications rationale for why it had to go now as the White House said yesterday, is that they had intelligence that the Revolutionary Guard was going to target American. They were going to strike first and target particularly American vessels and basis. But that's where they went. Eric. It seems like it's not as intense as the strike that ended the 12 Day War, but spectacular results. Correct. I mean they took out the Ayatollah and his top 40 guys. What having a picnic lunch in the afternoon or gathering the intelligence was pretty special in the fact they took the Ayatollah and 40 of his top guys out. Sir.
- [19:45]
Erik Prince
Look, Steve, it's, I'm, I'm not happy about the whole thing. I don't think this was in America's interest. It's going to uncork a significant can of worms and chaos and destruction in Iran. Now who takes over? You still have tens, hundreds of thousands of IRGC people that will be positioning for to be number two, to be the next rulers of that country. I don't see how this is in keeping with the President's MAGA commitment. I'm disappointed.
- [20:19]
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, talk to us about that about. Because I've been putting up on social media he wanted, he said, regime change. He made this comment the other night. The Ayatollah is gone. His 40 top guys are gone. Don't you just toss it to the Persians and say. Because he keeps saying rise up from the streets. I haven't seen massive demonstrations or massive people coming out in Tehran. There have been some running around shouting, they're supporting it. But is is the plan to decapitate. Do you think the President's accomplished that and now can just move on?
- [20:51]
Erik Prince
I think. And again, who comes after that? I don't know that there's a plan. These are ultimately solved by ground combat. I don't think a regime has ever Been changed by air power alone. It's wishful thinking. And now it is indeed cost American lives. I don't buy the argument that it was only because of they were doing it to preempt. When you load that many troops and that many aircraft in an immediate area, you could almost guarantee a response. But again, how does the regime get changed? I don't think that Reza Pahlavi is a strong enough leader to. Even though there may be some protest in Iran asking for him to come back, there's an absence of security apparatus to get him done to get him.
- [21:41]
Stephen K. Bannon
Tell the audience about Chalabe. He's Pahlavi bringing the shahs. The monarchist. Remember everybody in la, when he sees people in la, everybody in London, they're all their parents, all left with the Shah. So they're monarchists. The monarchy solution here is as close to ridiculous as you can get. He's like Chalabe, which as you know was on Fox News in the rum to Iraq war. This is. The guy was going to be the Iraq, you know, Congress, National Congress. So he got over there, nobody ever heard of the guy. And he just got. He got swept up in the annals of history. Never thus been a history. Never be heard from again. The monarchist. A reasonable alternative. And tell people how deep the IRGC goes and how deep the security apparatus with the mullahs goes in.
- [22:31]
Erik Prince
In Iran, the IRGC is the most powerful force in the country. They're the ones that made money from all the sanctions. They control the guns and the muscle, not even the Iranian army. So I don't know what the plan is to name some interim leader. I'm. I am discouraged and it will, it will uncork a lot of. A lot of chaos in the area. And I really wonder what is the plan if there is not a clear successor person that actually takes power to try to keep some kind of interim government together. It's in subjecting our foreign policy to Israeli foreign policy. I have real issue with that. I said it before, I said it weeks ago on your show. Not that this should not be the path forward and President's chosen to do it. I just wonder who pressured him that much to do it this way.
- [23:36]
Stephen K. Bannon
You're one of the President's biggest supporters. You've worked around and with the administration the first time you've been. I've known you now for what, 15 years, almost 20 years. You are certainly America first, but you've seen all the conflict all over the world. You've been supportive of what the President's done to date, particularly in things like Venezuela, although for hemispheric defense, a lot of people are not even happy with that. Just let's walk through this because you're an important voice here. Why are you disappointed with what the president's actions have been?
- [24:11]
Erik Prince
If there is a viable ground force that could seize and hold terrain and control terrain, then I guess air power and a decapitation strike makes more sense to me. But clacking off against the leadership and leaving a real void right now I'm concerned that it's going to ensue with a lot of chaos because who knows what other weapons the Iranians have stocked away and they're going to unleash on the region or what they would do inside the United States now. So it is undoubtedly a bold move. I hope it was the president's decision alone to do this and that he wasn't arm twisted by supporters or billionaire donors around him to do this.
- [25:04]
Stephen K. Bannon
They're saying now access reports that have been a viable diplomatic and the reporting is pretty deep on this, that Kushner and Wyckoff did think they were getting tapped along at the end, that the Persians really weren't addressing the issues the Americans needed to address, particularly ballistic missiles and other things about the nuclear program. Do you believe it's a correct response? The president's put down they can't have a nuclear weapon and I'm not really getting anywhere in negotiations to go in and take out the leadership. Or do you think there's so many, it's so deep in the mullah bench, in the IRGC bench that you're just going to get even worse, bad hombres up there.
- [25:47]
Erik Prince
Why are we so worried about nuclear weapons now? If we had all these strikes a few months ago that supposedly eliminated their nuclear program. Again, if regimes get changed by yes, removing the top, the top management, taking away the inevitability, but then having a viable replacement. I have yet to see any evidence that there's a viable replacement anywhere that can actually seize control of a, of what was a significant empire. 90 million people, intelligent, hard working, with a lot of tech and a lot of capability is not an easy endeavor to accomplish. And so the air power alone, I'm concerned and I'm concerned that this was not our fight, that this is Israel's fight that we got dragged into and already three Americans dead, five seriously wounded. That's troubling to me.
- [26:50]
Stephen K. Bannon
You said you had to have a substantial ground force. Really do regime change here, you're not implying that that would have to be an American. You're saying Israel or some. Or some combination of uae.
- [27:00]
Erik Prince
Not. Is not Israel, not uae. Iranians, Iranians from across the ethnic spectrum there that are willing to take up arms and go against the IRGC and freeze up.
- [27:13]
Stephen K. Bannon
So they have a huge army that's not IRGC now, maybe equivalent to a militia. But you're, you're arguing that to see regime change, change here, that that army or some part of that organized that's not igrc, or maybe some rebel units from that are going to have to lead the Persian people against the apparatus.
- [27:32]
Erik Prince
Yeah. I mean, the natural option here would be the Kurds, the Kurdish, the Iraqi Kurds supporting the Iranian Kurds to do it. But this is an extremely bold move. I don't know why it was decided that I had to do it. Now. I'm shocked. And I'm just wondering what political pressure was brought to bear for the president to make this because this is certainly not what he campaigned on.
- [27:59]
Stephen K. Bannon
Yeah. Real quickly, we got two minutes. I know you got to bounce because I know the president respects your opinion. If you had a chance to talk to the president today, what would be Erik Prince's recommendations to the commander in chief?
- [28:13]
Erik Prince
Don't ever contemplate ground troops in Iran.
- [28:18]
Stephen K. Bannon
You think that's even a possibility?
- [28:22]
Erik Prince
I didn't think this was a possibility today over the last couple of days, Steve. I didn't really think that was, that he was going to do it.
- [28:30]
Stephen K. Bannon
Erik Prince, where can people track you? I know you got a podcast. You've been busy all over the world, particularly in places like Haiti, chasing down bad guys, bad hombres. Where can people follow you, sir, at.
- [28:43]
Erik Prince
I'm on Twitter at Real Ericd Prince.
- [28:47]
Stephen K. Bannon
Thank you, sir. I appreciate you taking time away on Sunday to join us. Eric, Jack Bosobuk, we got about a minute to break your observations on Erik Prince, who's one of the been one of the president's biggest supporters, sir.
- [28:59]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
Well, Steve, nobody knows this, nobody knows this territory better than Eric himself. And, you know, reminds me in a sense what he's talking about. I wonder if he's drawing back from the lessons of Libya, where the United States came in, United States Navy predominantly with airstrikes on the infrastructure, airstrikes on missile defense, the leader being taken out. People in that case rose up, but those people ended up being rebels. They joined in with Al Qaeda, they joined in with isis, and it led to a mass civil war.
- [29:33]
Stephen K. Bannon
Yes, I think some very tough days ahead of us. Although the top of the regime ayatollah graveyard dead. 40 of his top associates, graveyard dead. They've already announced Ahmadinejad. They've got people forget. Remember he made the tour of the United States back at Columbia University years ago. He was a quote unquote rock star. He's dead. People loved him. Jack, hang on. Jack Basova is going to be with us. We got branded Weickert. Captain Fennell, I think they've taken out a tanker and the straits are a moose. The war starts to expand. Three Americans killed in action today as reported by centcom. We're going to take a short commercial break. We're going to turn to the war room, special coverage on Sunday. Back in a moment. Coming after Mind your soul, War room,
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Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
here's your host, stephen k. Ban.
- [30:47]
Stephen K. Bannon
Captain Fennell, as you know, was not just playing guard, but was asw for any back then potential Soviets. If there was the fast attack, the Soviets were to get involved. How much does that concern you, Captain Fanell, to know that they may have a diesel boat, they actually slip out of Straits or Hormuz and even potentially threaten the strike group, sir well, we
- [31:11]
Military Analyst
know that the Iranian naval order of battle had somewhere from 28 to 30 submarines. So this is not a surprise. It's not some kind of a secret that they would try to use their naval forces to try to go after us. But I think the reality is, is that we have been Lincoln's been there for at least two weeks with her support ships and her submarines that are in escort of the strike group. And they have had what we call air supremacy and sea supremacy. And so they are watching the undersea domain. There are assets there that can provide information on where this is. And so the Iranians can try it. They may get lucky. That's the risk of war. But I think at this point we haven't seen anything even close to getting near our carriage. The fact of the matter is, yeah, we have knowledge of where they are. And so even before that slipped out, we knew if it was leaving. So I think it probably slipped out before combat operations started since we've already seen them attack and sink a Jamar class. This Jamar class, not class, but this Jamar frigate that was in base in Shabahar, which people are talking about now,
- [32:23]
Stephen K. Bannon
Let me go back. And you said the air, air superiority, air supremacy, air dominance to Brandon's thing that we're still doing standoff. Do you think that we've taken out, I mean, is any, any knowledge you have that we have taken out the Iranians air defense and that we can have at them at will.
- [32:43]
Military Analyst
I think the Iranian air defense was already severely degraded in the strikes in June and then since then. And with all due respect to Brandon, we just, he just told us that we had B2s that flew from continental United States and flew over Iran and deliver ordinance. We have Iranian or Israeli air force taking out two or three Iranian fighters, two F5s and one F4 that we're trying to take off at Tabriz. So we're operating over the country. We have and indoctrinally the air force calls it air superiority where you have control for a time and air supremacy when you have more time, long duration and greater geographic area. So I believe that we're in the air supremacy phase. You can call it air dominance, but doctrine is called air supremacy. And I think we're operating at will over Iran with due regard because there are man pads, man portable air defense systems, handheld things that can still be a threat. But for the most part there are no strategic SAMs left in Iran that I am aware of that are being effectively employed. So we are what I said yesterday, we're in the process of defanging the Iranian military regime. We have to take out their missiles, as the President said, the missiles, missile production industry. We have to take out their navy and all these coastal defense, cruise missile sites and artillery sites. They have to be taken out and we're doing that in a systematic way. There was over 900 sorties from the US side attacks probably with TLAM and aircraft. If you have two carriers, 200 sorties a day, that's at least 400 sorties flying off of the Ford and the Via Lincoln and then the rest are from our ground based air assets and tlam. So we're going through the target list and then we will be going back systematically down that list, going for things that we may have missed and then being on call for what we call time sensitive targets. So there's no reason to celebrate, there's no reason to be negative either. We're in the war right now and we're, we're going forward. And I think what's really interesting is we haven't seen a lot from centcom, we haven't seen, seen a lot from the Pentagon, the President either, because this is deadly serious. And so for the past 35 years with CNN, when we did Desert Storm and we watched Baghdad Bob tell us there was no problems. We have been in this age of information where we expect to be hand fed all this information. And I think President Trump and his Team recognize we're at war. People's lives, Americans lives are at risk and our allies, friends are at risk. And we're not going to be involved with being so concerned about running a public affairs campaign as we are more focused on taking out and defanging the Iranians and taking out their senior leadership, which is what the President said they're about to do and are doing.
- [35:40]
Stephen K. Bannon
For now, let's talk about the Straits of Hormuz and tankers and oil. And also I'm not sure I totally understand the Iranians logic for trying to go after the Gulf Emirates at least in the first couple of days. I mean they're hitting I think Dubai, they hit Doha, I think they hit obviously Bahrain, but even Saudi Arabia. What's their strategy and are they going to have an impact on oil and the ability to get oil out of the Straits of Hormuz?
- [36:09]
Military Analyst
Well Steve, by just declaring that they were closing the strait, that pretty much started the decline. If you look at AIs automatic identification system tracking through the strait, it was starting to go down when they made the announcement. Then there's this attack that was off the in the port in Oman right there south of Cash from island Bandar Basque. So there's no virtually now. There's no traffic going through. There's reports of 150, 200 tankers sitting well outside south of the strait waiting. So that will spike the oil price, no question. But the larger issue is, and my assessment is is that and we talk about this when we talk about China, about this impact of Xi and the purging of his generals and admirals and we talk about the impact on the pla. But what we're seeing in Iran is this decapitation of these 40 leaders plus others. There's reports now today of riot police are being targeted also by our strikes, Operation Epic Fury. And so we're going after the people that are terrorizing the people of Iran. But it's like if you're a patient and you've been in a car wreck and you're in shock and what they need to do is get you to the hospital immediately and then they need to get you on medicine, they get an IV hooked up and you need to be stabilized and you should take no more shock. But what we're finding out is, is that the Iranians are continuing to be attacked. We had the B2 strikes that we talked about even in this press release from CENTCOM that just said that the alleged ballistic missile strikes or attack against the USS Abraham Lincoln didn't Even come close. And more importantly, it said in the second part of that announcement, that press release flight operations continue. So we're continuing to pound Tehran. And so what we're seeing is a reaction. It could have been the last best orders that those on scene missile brigade commanders received from their leadership a week ago, two weeks ago, who knows. But we're not seeing anything that's coordinated. It seems sporadic. It seems obviously to attack.
- [38:14]
Stephen K. Bannon
Does that, does that support surprise given their order of battle and naval forces given their order of battle in air defense and air forces given the supposedly strict discipline they had? We only got about a minute. Does that surprise you that even with the American Israeli hits and on their common air that it doesn't seem to be a more organized strike back?
- [38:38]
Military Analyst
I think they're in shock and their command and control has been destroyed or severely degraded. And that's why we're not seeing anti ship cruise missile attacks or anything at all against our fleet, which is good, but we can't take that for granted. We have to worry about mines as well and these submarines, no question about that. But we are in the advantage and we need to keep pressing until we defang them and destroy the military capability. The political stuff we can talk about
- [39:03]
Stephen K. Bannon
later we're going to talk about real quickly. You had said your eyes can concerned Venezuela and the first strike were not like the Chinese Communist party will counter in. You'll have to do these in a, in a situation where you're getting counter. Are you, are you, are you, do you put this at that level of counter that you were concerned about hitting American forces?
- [39:24]
Military Analyst
It still could happen. We have to be on our guard. We have to be on our guard. This is not over. It's weeks away now.
- [39:31]
Stephen K. Bannon
I know you got to bounce to thank you for being here. Your observations in the first 30 hours of this war and what do you anticipate we will see before we get back here? You back here in the next day or two.
- [39:43]
Military Analyst
Well, Steve, thanks for having me on. And again we remember those that have fallen today on the American side, obviously the others and civilians that have been killed as well. My view is, and I said yesterday there was maybe 2,000 targets. I probably undersold that because I was thinking back of the Bosnian war with the Y2K of 2000 targets there. This is going to have thousands of targets. We're working through the list. My concerns are what you know, Jack already mentioned is this idea of a lucky shot from a ballistic missile against one of our big decks or any one of our Ships that could have serious death. That would be something we really have to be careful of. But I will just say this is an organization, the military, US military, that has been in these waters for 47 years, understands the threat and is doing everything capable in their. In our powers to make sure that that would not happen. But we need to watch for all of that. But while we're continuing to drive forward and strike them, the new Ayatollah Ali Larjani said, they stabbed the heart of a nation. Their heart will be stabbed, too. Listen to your enemy. When your enemy says he wants to stab you in the heart, don't take that for granted. We are on general quarters. We have to be prepared for any kind of contingency while we continue to stab them in the heart. Now, that may sound cruel, but that's what we're trying to do, is defang them, take away all their military capability and take away that military leadership and those police that are murdering Iranians and then let the Iranians do what they need to do. But for now, we have to be able to operate with impunity over the seas and the air in and around Iran, and we have to be able to do that without fear of a shot being popped off or something like that. So the strikes will continue for the next 24 hours.
- [41:41]
Stephen K. Bannon
Stabbed in the heart. Captain funnell, thank you. Look forward to seeing you and talking to you this afternoon. Great analysis. Not. Not exactly analogous, but I think as a form of entertainment, it can be enlightening to people about the Mahdi. Winston Churchill wrote a book as a young subaltern called the River War about the uprising of the Mahdi in Khartoum in Sudan. Back in the 19th century. They made a film about it called Khartoum, starring Charlton Heston and Sir Lawrence Olivier. Sir Lawrence Olivier plays the Mahdi. And it is absolutely. I've always thought Charlton Hessen plays General Chinese. Gorgeous Jordan, who had taken on, I guess, the boxers and then had then pivoted to. He was called back to service to go take on the Mahdi down in Khartoum. Anyway. Fascinating. But it shows you the power that was inspired in this Muslim army by the Mahdi. This mythical. This kind of mythical to us, but real to them. It's quite fascinating. And Churchill's book, the River War has still been one of the best descriptions. I remember the beginning of it. I can't believe we're talking about stuff that we talked about at the very beginning of the global war on terror. We have a Muslim, we have a Marxist Jihadist Muslim mayor in New York City. And you're seeing yesterday with the nail bombs and now everything coming out about his wife and her social media campaign account as a true hater. You have a Muslim, you have a Marxist jihadist mayor in the greatest city in the world, the greatest city in the United States of America, the financial capital of the world. These people think very differently than we do. Very differently. And you can put on suits and you go to conferences and you can, you know, talk about crypto and everything you're going to do do. They are two radically different civilizations, the Judeo Christian West. And there's a lot of split sometimes between the Judeo part of that and the Christian part of that. But it has thousands of years from Athens to Jerusalem to Rome to London to Washington D.C. and New York City. You see this in this fight we've had in Texas. It's all inextricably linked but we're in it now. We're in it. It's like that scene in 12 o' clock high when Gregory Peek walks in as taking over the bomber command and he goes up for the first time, turns around these young pilots and said, hey, I don't want to hear this. Why we fight. We're in a. We're in a fight and we got to win it. You saw yesterday in the dignified transfer, the first six came back home, home. We got to have their backs. At the same time we have to face reality of exactly what in the hell are we doing here? What is the plan? What is the commitment? We couldn't be in a more dangerous time as we are now in the beginning of the kinetic part of the third World War. And how do we bring it to a conclusion that's in the benefit of the United States of America are citizens
- [45:00]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
war room here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
- [45:08]
Stephen K. Bannon
Get here Kurt and there's reporting this news site you've showed me coming. I guess I found it sent to you, but you know it quite well. It's saying that President Trump one hand he's saying 30 days. But there's also discussion that he may be looking for an offering ramp in the next three or four days after he's pounded Tehran enough and eliminated enough of the leadership of Iran. Your thoughts, sir?
- [45:34]
Kurt Mills
Yeah, I mean we got here frankly at the behest of a foreign power. I mean, as the rabbi notes, I'm not entirely clear or not entirely sure the appetite of the American people to absorb fatalities. Three Americans have been killed. Five apparently have been grievously Wounded. And that's just what the government is conceding. Very notably, they're not telling us how they died. And very notably, the leading intellectual architects of this war, people like Senator Tom Cotton, are arguing now they're already moving the goalpost to a small ground force. As he told the Sunday shows this morning, this is an out of control war. And this is a war war that is being driven, frankly, by an older generation that has.
- [46:20]
Stephen K. Bannon
Hang on, hang on, hang on. Take a deep breath. When you say out of control, as we've gone through the day, militarily, it's pretty systematic how we're trying to take down their defenses in the leadership. Is that part out of control? Are you saying the expanding nature of it is out of control?
- [46:36]
Kurt Mills
I'm not entirely sure. I mean, the fifth Fleet just got hit yesterday. I mean, it's entirely unclear, with the exception of the Supreme Leader, if the Iranian. I mean, the bombings in a lot of ways were less severe than the ones in June of 2020 25. And the Iranian counterattacks are much more severe. And the Israelis are going to try to escalate this to keep the US In. They just basically carpet bomb Tehran. They give the Iranians, quote, the Gaza treatment. There was some idea that they were going to treat Persians any different than Arabs. And I think there's going to be a real desire to keep President Trump in here. I think the President has gotten very poor counsel, and I do think it matters politically that he was the no more Endless wars candidate in 2016 and 2024 particularly. And this looks like an open betrayal of the base. And now there's an argument that this is different than the Bush era neocon wars. But I will flag what Bush era neocon is not for this today. Find me one name, name one. Bolton is pleased as hell about what we're doing. He went, he said his only regret is that he didn't convince Trump to do this in 2018.
- [47:40]
Stephen K. Bannon
Talk to me about Tom Cotton. Tom Cotton has been doing the Sunday shows today, and when they put up a trial balloon, that means they're thinking of something. What Tom Cotton has now said, just a small grant, Just a small, a tiny. Just a teensy ground force. Are they running that up the flagpole and see if anybody salutes?
- [47:58]
Cleo Pascal
For sure.
- [47:58]
Kurt Mills
Look, I mean, look, the President is impressed by Tom Cotton and he's an impressive guy, double Harvard young senator. He's very tall.
- [48:05]
Stephen K. Bannon
He's a very careful combat veteran.
- [48:08]
Kurt Mills
Veteran, it used to be said. Yeah. People look at him and they see CIA Director Defense secretary, president. But the reality is Cotton represents a constituency which is getting narrower and narrower and older and older in the American public. And he is frankly a foreign policy radical. He sees no real problem with the Bush legacy. He's a former protege of the Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, and he represents a strain of Republicanism that Trump's initial rise was all about rejecting. Remember, the Never Trumpers were the neoconservatives they still are in many respects. Trump's entire rise in 2016, and you know this more than any American alive, Steve, was against these folks.
- [48:50]
Stephen K. Bannon
Amen. Amen. The National Review when they came out with that thing, Never Trump or against Trump, one of the principal arguments was neocon. President Trump had a totally different way of looking at it. Before I leave you, Peter Baker, you just put, you retweeted something that Peter Baker said and put some commentary on it. Now, Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent for the, for the beloved paper of record, the New York Times. Talk to me quickly about this poll that he's just put up and your comments on it.
- [49:18]
Kurt Mills
Yeah. So the polling initially conducted overnight on the strikes is overwhelmingly negative. But most importantly and most central to this show, it appears that a majority of Republicans don't know why we're doing this, this and or don't support it. So, look, I think it needs to be level set. Tens of millions of Americans are happy that Donald Trump is the president. I'm one of them. I don't regret my vote for President Trump. I don't think Kamala Harris would be doing this better. But there's such a thing as motivation or opposition to the administration on discrete issues. And a new war in the Middle east that looks a lot like the Iraq War, though. It looks a lot like the same people making the arguments for the Iraq war. And basically an argument that is mired in the past. Respectfully, to Chairman Kennedy, where Brian Kennedy, who I like a lot and consider a friend, he's arguing about military exercises that occurred in the 90s. A lot of people who voted for President Trump weren't alive when these military exercises occurred. Yes, Iran is an adversary of the United States States, but it was not an imminent threat at all. It wasn't an imminent threat in January of 2025. This is not something that President Trump needed to handle for the interest of the United States. It's an Israeli objective. And why it is an Israeli objective because Israel wants to expand in the Middle East. Fine. That's their prerogative. But they shouldn't ask the American taxpayer or Republicans to support it.
- [50:41]
Stephen K. Bannon
I want everybody to go to American conservative. By the way, one of the things I do find disturbing, if you look at Fox and the cheerleading of Fox, you have guys like Mark Thiessen who's one of the greatest haters of President Trump. Some of haters that hated President Trump tried to stop President Mark Levin being one of them. Mark Levin is one of the biggest haters of Trump. Despised Trump. He was a cruise guy. I mean the stuff he said about Trump was nothing but vile. You see Fox and you see all these haters of Trump and they're glazing President Trump. They're over the top. And the same cheerleading you saw about the Iraq war, particularly in the first days. And remember folks, you got a long way to go on this thing. So that's why you got we're trying to be as even handed as possible on the war Room because we want the war room posse to have all the information that's available. Kurt, American conservative was formed in the crucible of the Iraq war by the great Pat Buchanan. You're now the editor. How do people get it and where they go to your Twitter feed. Your Twitter feed, like Rabbi Wolicki is everybody we want people to immerse themselves in information here and even partisan perspectives. Where do they go, Kurt?
- [51:44]
Kurt Mills
I mean look, Thiessen was George W. Bush's speechwriter. He's got Ukraine flags and Israeli flags in his Twitter bio. This is an actual do loyalist, not a conspiracy. He's openly declared as such. As for the magazine, thank you as always Steve for the audience and I appreciate the Star wars cantina of prospectus you've had here. I think it's a great show. But the magazine is the American Conservative TheAmericanConservative.com and my own feed as you to advertise is at Curt Mills Curt Mils on X. Thank you very much and take care
- [52:16]
Stephen K. Bannon
our prominent guest Steven. He's seen in Star wars of the bar. Thank you. Kurt Mills, you're great War room Here's
- [52:24]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
your host Stephen K. Banff.
- [52:31]
Stephen K. Bannon
It's but give us I need your battle assessment of where we are after
- [52:35]
Scott Besant
last night's sir, in my opinion the war is set to expand even more the Iran systems as Jack was just noting to now these more advanced systems there is a massive strain on the particular the Qatar and Israeli air defense interceptor arsenal. So if this thing continues to go on as you and I believe they will, well then the defense of these countries gets even more precarious. I Also want to point out the Houthis have not yet opened up on the Red Sea. The Saudis are moving most of their oil transportation away from the Strait of Hormuz into their Red Sea port. I think the Houthis are waiting for them to be totally reliant on that and then they're going to seal it up. But we now have the issue of the Eritrean coastline. The Ethiopians have taken operational control. They are saying they're going to allow U.S. or Israeli forces to, to use ground based missiles to break up the Houthi capabilities across the way in Yemen. What that means is, Steve, we're now talking about a war expanding not just to Azerbaijan, not just to Beirut, you know, and all these other places, but now possibly in the Horn of Africa as well. This war is not ending anytime soon.
- [53:52]
Stephen K. Bannon
Real quickly, your reporting drove the CEOs to come to the White House on Friday. Give me a minute because I'm jammed for time. What was the outcome of the CEO meeting on Friday with President Trump at the White House?
- [54:06]
Scott Besant
They probably said some very pretty things to each other, but ultimately the reality is there will not be the ability to surge production the way we need to do. Remember, we need at least 200 tomahawks per year. We're not producing anywhere near that in 24 months. That is an industrial bottleneck that has to be overcome. And by the way, who controls the rare earth minerals that go into the creation of these systems? That's the People's Republic of China. And they are absolutely not going to let their, their chokehold on that go away. Now, if they meet with Trump in Beijing, they're going to tell him, you stop the war or we're cutting you off from the rare earths. China is the beneficiary of all of this right now, contrary to what some of the reporting earlier was saying.
- [54:48]
Stephen K. Bannon
Okay, hang on. Where do people go to get your, your reporting service?
- [54:53]
Scott Besant
You can get me at 1945. Com, you can get me on the NATSEC guy at EmeraldTV TV and you can get me the Weikart Report. That's old though. I don't really go there anymore. And you can get me on Twitter, ethebrandon.
- [55:08]
Stephen K. Bannon
Well, go to Twitter, I guess, for the updates. You can get all the books. Shadow War, a great primer if you need one, on Iran versus the United States. Thank you, sir.
- [55:17]
Kurt Mills
Thank you, sir.
- [55:18]
Stephen K. Bannon
Rabbi Wiliki. Look, reasonable men can disagree about what's going on, but I think the targeting situation, and I just think there are two sets of objectives here, and it's really not working as an alliance. No one could ever convince me of that. But talk to us about Lebanon, talk to us about what's happening now. Is that going to be a major incursion? Is that strategic? My understanding from reports of a major bombing campaign early this morning in Lebanon by the idf, and it appears like preparations for a ground invasion.
- [55:56]
Rabbi PW
Oh, a significant one. There's been a fairly significant reserve call up and a lot of ground forces have moved up there. They're absolutely. The Israelis are absolutely planning for a ground invasion. And you're absolutely right to refer to it as an. Another front in this same war. It very literally is, because Hezbollah is Iran. They're not even. We call them a proxy the same way we call the Houthis a proxy or the Iraqi militias a proxy. But Hezbollah actually has a different relationship to Tehran. They're actually an arm of Iran, meaning when Hassan Nasrallah was killed, his replacement was appointed in Tehran. They're actually like when the beepers blew up up, one of the beepers was on the ambassador of Iran in Beirut. So they're actually Iran. And that's an important point here. So if Israel's at war with Iran, they're also at war with Hezbollah. And Hezbollah made a massive mistake a couple days into the war where they started firing rockets at Israel as part of the. As part of this war. They started it here. And the Israelis, I said this to you last time I was on your show. It was a mistake that I, that the Israelis were actually kind of hoping they'd make, because this goes back to the ceasefire with Hezbollah going back more than a year, where the Lebanese government committed itself to disarm Hezbollah by the end of 2025. And of course, they did nothing of the sort. They don't even have the ability to do it. But the Israelis sat back and said, okay, you know, we'll give you a chance, go for it, to see if you can do it. And they never did. And the Israelis are once and for all going to go in there and get rid of this threat on our northern border. And quietly, behind the scenes, the Lebanese, and some of them, not so quietly, there's more public figures who are saying this. They're grateful to the Israelis to finally liberate the country of Lebanon from this Iranian occupation it's been under for the last four decades. So the Israelis are planning a real. A real invasion. They're already clearing out the populations from the southern part of Lebanon and, and looking to recreate a kind of buffer zone up to the Litany river, which is about 18 miles from the Israeli border, which that entire area has been a kind of hornet's nest of Hezbollah tunnels and weapons depots and towns that are basically Hezbollah operatives with their families. So Israel means business this time and plans to once and for all rid Lebanon of Hezbollah. And that's what's happening.
- [58:25]
Stephen K. Bannon
Rabbi, you and I are friends, but as you know and people know, we disagree on a lot, but we're still friends. One thing I've said is the Greater Israel project brought on this disaster in Gaza and particularly what I call the two state solution of Qatar financing in Turkey being the security guarantee with President Trump's board of peace. And he's kind of signed off on it. Last night a helicopter was shot down, it looks like, or had mechanical problems. I think it was actually taken out out with a number of Qatar and Turkish military officials together. Is the whole situation in Gaza, that whole framework of peace, is that just really by the board? Is that not going to happen now, given the expanding intensity of this, particularly if there's going to actually be ground troops in Lebanon, you know, the Arab nations and the Persians are going to dig in even harder. Do you think the whole thing in Gaza, Gaza is just over and finished with and we'll have to go back and think something about the border peace. The Qataris as financiers and the Turks as the security guarantors on the soil of Israel ain't going to happen?
- [59:35]
Rabbi PW
Well, that's a great question. What's going to happen in Gaza? I think from the Israelis perspective, they're trying to kind of keep it in a holding pattern, keep it on a low boil until we see which way things go with the war in Iran. Because dealing with the Gaza situation where there's in a reality where there's no longer an Iranian regime, which is not a done deal yet, but dealing with it where there's no longer an Iranian regime and no longer a Hezbollah on our northern border is very different than dealing with it where there is. And we also don't know where the Gulf states, Saudis and even and you know, where they're all going to fall out in terms of relations with Israel and relations with the United States after this is all said and done. We don't know what's going to happen if Lebanon is is actually rid of Hezbollah and normalizes relations with Israel. There's a lot of different pieces of the puzzle and including the Egyptians, how are the Egyptians going to respond? They're always hedging and playing and playing all sides of everything. A big question is always the Saudis, you know, the Saudis are always also waffling, you know, not waffling. They're always playing both sides of everything. And where that all shakes down is going to have a on how we move forward with Gaza. And I think from the Israeli perspective we'd rather not deal with that head on. And I think that that's why Hamas, no one's noticed this because there's been other headlines in the Middle east but Hamas has been scrambling to restart negotiations just in the last, just since this war has started. Cuz they're in a tight spot. Their two patrons, Qatar and Iran are at war with each other. And they got themselves into a pickle where they praised Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war and said, you know, and we're cheering for Iran. And the Qataris looked at them and said, you better walk that back or we're going to cut you off. So they walked it back and told and condemned Iran for bombing its Arab neighbors. And then Hezbollah turned to Hamas and said, what are you doing? We've been standing with you for years and now you're condemning Iran. So they're stuck. But in terms of what's going to happen in, in Gaza, it's just going to have to wait until, until the Iran war is over because we don't know what the Middle east is going to be.
- [61:46]
Stephen K. Bannon
Rabbi, where do people get your content, particularly your videos are always, I think great to give people the perspective of what's happening in Israel in a very accessible and clear minded way. Although everybody may not agree with it, you at least get it. That's fine, it's accessible. Where do people go? And to enter your column.
- [62:04]
Rabbi PW
Oh thank you very much. So for my columns you can go to the Jerusalem Post, you can find my author page there. And for the videos go to Israel365News on YouTube. We're uploading videos multiple times a week almost every day now. And israel365action.com that's the website you see up on your screen now. Just sign up there for our newsletter and you'll get news and information from Israel and won't cost you anything. And you'll get our updates, you'll get all the videos too. They're all up on that website. Or you can follow me on x@Rabbi PW.
- [62:37]
Stephen K. Bannon
I'll be prepared, I don't know Monday or Tuesday to go into this more but I was thinking over the weekend that one of the other great strategists, maybe arguably the greatest strategist and field commander combined in history, Alexander the Great, had this issue, but the same part of the world in, in 324 BC, in a retreat from India,
- [63:04]
Erik Prince
maybe a
- [63:05]
Stephen K. Bannon
strategic repositioning, I think they would call it, he and his generals, the war council. Because the Macedonians and Greeks, as hard as they were, as tough as they were going from Greece through Persia, all the way through the Khyber Pass into India, I think all the way the Indus river, maybe beyond, they decided maybe we've gone too far from our logistics chain and maybe it's time we go back. And this concept was, hey, maybe we go back and we'll go back to Babylon, right? That's the nicest place. And we'll, we'll regroup and we'll rethink. And if you want to be the king of Asia, maybe we go back to Egypt and North Africa and we do the whole thing. And then you can call yourself the King of Asia all the way from where we touched India, all the way back to work at around this time in 324 BC. Think about that. 2300 years ago, 2300 years ago, a probably the greatest expeditionary force, at least from the West, I realized Genghis Khan of these guys were too shabby coming from these, but the greatest expeditionary force to ever exist in the West. And really, although they were mainly Macedonians, they had enough Greek to be the foundational pillar of democracy and debate. They had the same dilemma, the same exact dilemma. They were on the retreat. They decided it was going to be too hard, too tough to take the entire army and march it back through Persia, that what they were going to do is go along the coast of the, what they called the Indian Sea, but really the North Arabian Sea. And because the Arabs weren't really a thing then, weren't really a known entity, and they were going to put into a fleet, a fleet that would be just off the coast in the North Arabian Sea and would head through, wait for it, the Strait of Hormuz and go all the way up past Carg island, all the way up past those gas fields which obviously back then, and no one knew about the wealth and how that would drive the modern industrial society, they would go to essentially Mesopotamia, the Tigris and Euphrates, and they would take as many vessels as they could up to Babylon, and then the army would, would disembark and march up there and his army would go through the Greek capital, visit the tomb of. Of Cyrus the Great. But they would trail him on the coast, the same exact coast. And when you read the Greek historians that gave the eyewitnesses account of that, it was although they weren't fighting the entire way, they had fought all the way over there. But coming back pat, particularly in that part, it was absolutely brutal. Why the land there is like the surface of the moon. I got the photos. Maybe I'll show them here in a few minutes about the coastline line. It was not easy then. And these were pretty tough hombres 2300 years ago, the greatest probably military genius of the west. Greater than Caesar, greater than Napoleon. Alexander the Great, in fact, the one from Caesar to Mark Antony to Napoleon to all of them used as the template. In fact. Fact, there were many stories about when Caesar went to the. When he was in Egypt, went to the tomb of Alexander the Great. The Cleopatra saw him and he wheat and he wept because Alexander had done by the age of 31, 32, 33, what Caesar had not accomplished in his 50s going through the same logistics problem. It's quite ironic and I think there's a lot we can learn from the Greeks and a lot we can learn from those men about exactly what we're biting off here. Exactly what this has got to be thought through. With all the modern technology and everything going on, warriors are still warriors. So this has got to be thought through.
- [67:18]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
War room, here's your host, Stephen K. Ban.
- [67:26]
Stephen K. Bannon
Cleo Pascal. Nothing warms my heart more here in the war room than have someone introduce someone like you to the audience. I don't know, a year or so ago. And to be so dead spot on on Diego Garcia, the expansion of this war. And of course, Bibi, I think did a good job explaining, hey, look, they do got the ability to deliver farther beyond than Israel and Qatar and Saudi Arabia is. They launched a ballistic missile towards Diego Garcia, which you had pointed out for over a year here on the show that how important strategically it was. The Persians think so too. If it was not, I think for an Aegis class destroyer cruiser to take it down there would have been a. Could have been a catastrophic hit onto the atoll and the pier and the Runway that is Diego Garcia. Do you think the Brits now know that maybe that's an asset that we keep. Mayor,
- [68:24]
Cleo Pascal
I'm very grateful for the coverage on the War Room of this situation in Diego Garcia. There were two missiles launched at it. One disintegrated effectively and the other one was defended. I think that this points to an even larger Problem. Admiral hall was talking about NATO and UK capabilities. They're becoming increasingly clear that this is a serious problem. And all of the UK assets, I think, need to be looked at. There was a drone strike on one of their two bases in Cyprus, for example. And now the Cypriot government is talking about, oh, we're going to have to perhaps renegotiate or take a new look at having UK bases in Cyprus after this conflict is over. That's another real serious problem for the us. There are, I think, some major signals intelligence operations going on out of Cyprus. And, and we're seeing a degree of potential penetration of the UK government that raises concerns also in financial sectors where you've got that large embassy that they're talking about, the Chinese are talking about building in London, being built near some of the cables that transmit key information into and out of the city. And of course, those transmissions are very time sensitive if you're doing trade aids or things like that. And there was also reporting they've arrested a few people in the UK recently on suspected spying for the Chinese. One of them, a labor advisor, spoke directly to Marco Rubio in December 24 about Chagos, just before he became Secretary of State. So they are. We're going to have to really look not, not just them being not particularly helpful, perhaps, as Admiral hall was describing, but potentially being an actual vulnerability across multiple areas.
- [70:20]
Stephen K. Bannon
The CCP in all of this, give us your perspective. I know you focus on Micronesia and the islands in the Pacific, the western part of the United States. What is the third island chain? How are they taking this in right now? Because their oil has essentially been cut off, we think. But now we're hearing, you know, know last week that they're letting Chinese flag vessels through in Beijing. How are they viewing this?
- [70:43]
Cleo Pascal
Ma', am, I'm hoping that it's making them recalculate a little bit on the ground. I don't see a lot of slowing down. So I was recently in Yap and Palau and Guam, and in Yap, if you remember, we covered the Chinese rebuilding of that Imperial Japanese Runway on Wulei. That construction crew has now moved onto the main island of YAP, where the US is putting in $2 billion worth of infrastructure. And according to Secretary Hegseth's public statements, although the negotiations aren't complete, and this is where you get a concern, I look more at kind of the left of bang, what happens before things blow up so that hopefully things don't blow up. That same Chinese company that was doing the Runway is on the main island doing a bridge which is in a location between the port and the airport that the US is looking at rebuilding. And they've also settled in to do over a dozen secondary roads on the island. So from a situation of about a year ago where there was essentially no Chinese installed government linked operations on the island of Yap, there's, they're now settling in and they, they do the relationship map mapping, figure out who they can buy, who they can influence and they're settling in for the long run. So that Runway which is about 400 miles from Guam, which they've completed, they've completed the Runway but they've left behind on woolly eye containers and I don't know what's in the containers, they also left behind a couple of tenders. One of them has sunk and has leaked oil into the lagoon. So the locals are having problems with their fish fishing supplies. It's just, it's not dialing down. So I hope that they're reconsidering. But all of this, everything we've spoken about the islands, Dio Garcia, what's happening in Cyprus, this is all logistics, this is all about the four, right? And unless we can kind of do a proper assessment and regain control on the logistics, which is where the Chinese are trying to, to cut off the US if you remember Admiral Keating was testified in 2008 that he was told by Chinese official, you take Hawaii east, we'll take Hawaii west. And they're putting in place logistical control in order to, to try to make that happen like happened with the Japanese German War II. They're looking at the same map.
- [73:16]
Stephen K. Bannon
Cleo, you're putting up great stuff all the way the time of us the geostrategic confrontation between the Chinese Communist Party in the United States of America. Where do people go?
- [73:26]
Cleo Pascal
X just my name Cleo. C L E O P A S K A L and I'm real Cleo still on getter.
- [73:37]
Stephen K. Bannon
Thank you ma'. Am. Appreciate you.
- [73:39]
Cleo Pascal
Thank you sir.
- [73:40]
Stephen K. Bannon
Always. Great. Well how's that going to go down with the President? States refer to our NATO allies as cowards, quote unquote. How is this going to play with that group? And do you see any true participation even as feeble as they are? Because the Houthis, once the Houthis get involved in this, and they may be the ace in the hole for the Iranians once you get the Red Sea, that's all about Europe. This whole thing's about Europe and Asia. And the President said to the American people a couple times, he said, hey, look, look, maybe we just, maybe we just do do some more defanging and decline this week and we head out and toss it to you and you go on, you go on escort duty, sir.
- [74:26]
Ben Harnwell
Steve, so much to wrap up here, I have to say, if you'll forgive me, the analogy. Much of, you know, they're talking about defanging, degradation and all the rest of it. I can't help but think that this, the U.S. israeli campaign so far, if that's what it leads to, you're going to say bye now. Over to you guys. It's much like the opening five minutes of Team America and the liberation of Paris from the terrorists. Look, you know, let's tie all this together. What was I saying just before the break? That the reason Europeans don't want anything to do with this is because politically they realize that a protracted third Gulf War in as many decades is political suicide. It's politically toxic. That's why they want nothing to do with it. And that's why Marco Rubio is in the Witness Protection program, because anyone with 2028ambitions doesn't want to be on this side of the microphone, this side of the television, defending a war which if it is still somehow going by the time of the midterms, by the time of 2028, it's kryptonite. So let's look at what Scott Besant was saying, again, using these words which we heard to justify the Ukraine war that escalate to de escalate. What is that signaling? And what is President Trump's indication that his European NATO allies are cowards are signaling? I think, Steve, and this is somewhat a communication strategy asymmetry between the US Side and the Iranian side. When the Iranian side is signaling something, they're signaling it to Washington, D.C. almost 100%, of course, because there's very little Internet in Iran right now. When the US is signaling things, I'd say 75% of that signaling is to the US domestic audience, specifically to MAGA. And that's where I would put the president's truth social verbal bomb on the Europeans that call him the cowards. That's meant for the US Domestic audience. That's meant for maga. Edem Scott Besant saying let's escalate to de escalate. Because of course, the key word that everyone is going to look at, there isn't so much the escalation, it's the de escalation because there is this instinctive view. I would suggest it's in the administration that this, that the Toleration for this war whilst it's been high so far is going to taper off very, very quickly. And that's what people want. That's what people are going to home in on it and breathe that sigh of relief. It's the de escalation side of it. Of course the problem is that de escalation rarely leads escalation rarely leads to de escalation and that's why I think it's a pretty dangerous strategy. As I was saying though, let's wait for these 48 hour ultimatum to pass and then see what kind of territory we're going to be in then.
- [77:31]
Stephen K. Bannon
Hang on, you got about a minute or so. Give me your closing thoughts. We're going to have you back on during the week, of course, you're doing the Wednesday and Friday show, which are extraordinary. Your thoughts as you leave us on a Sunday, sir, from rome.
- [77:42]
Ben Harnwell
Yeah. Okay, 60 seconds, Steve. I think Bibi had it absolutely right in the cold open that the Iranian strike Diego Garcia was an indication to the world, to America that it has longer than was understood missile range. It was considered to be about 2000km but now it's possibly in the upper reaches around six and a half thousand kilometers which massively widens the amount of damage, damage that the Iranians can do. And it's not going to go down in the annals of fighting war with honor what they're doing, but it's certainly effective. It's pretty much what the bad guy does in any film that's ever been made. Put your gun down or the kid gets it. And that's what Iran is basically doing right now. It's not primarily focusing its targets on striking the United States, but striking the United States allies in the region. It's effective and we'll see who blinks first.
- [78:46]
Stephen K. Bannon
I think it's not just who blinks first. I think we're going to find out over the next couple of days do we have a cornered rat or do we have a cornered grizzly? That intelligence is, you know, is going to be quite important and we'll find out how good these intelligence agencies are in DIA and all of it. Ben, what's your social media? Sir, till we get you back on
- [79:05]
Ben Harnwell
here, my social media platform of choice, Geta Harnwell is my surname. Tap in at Harnwell there I am pushing out my daily provocations on Getter. Thanks, Steve. Enjoy the rest of you.
- [79:17]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
War room, here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
- [79:29]
Erik Prince
Well, first Steve, let me speak to Palm Sunday in Jerusalem. I know Cardinal Pizzabala, he actually contacted me after the Gaza debacle started and he said the Holy Father had instructed him to get involved and he asked me to make a plan to build a whole refugee camp to take care of the Gazan civilians and was blocked by the Biden administration. But imagine for the first time in centuries since the Ottoman rule hundreds and hundreds of years ago, Christians are denied to have mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is truly unprecedented times. I cannot see any legitimate reason security wise to ban people from going to Mass. I mean if they're going to Mass, they're clearly in community with their Lord. If they're killed going to mass, I think they'll take that risk. It is a horrific affront to Christianity and every Catholic evangelical, every Orthodox in America should be irate about it. It is unprecedented and wrong. Second, we now live in a.
- [80:47]
Stephen K. Bannon
Hang on, hang on one second. Before we go to number two, I want to go back to number one. My understanding after this story broke and with my inquiries and that's we're trying to get Ben up from Rome in the second hour. Is, is, was there any, to your knowledge, was there anything transmitted to the church through official channels to tell them? Because this is unprecedented. For hundreds of years since the Ottomans controlled Jerusalem, was anything communicated through official channels to the church that this might happen? Sir, to your knowledge?
- [81:22]
Erik Prince
Not that I know of. In fact the cardinal in his statement even said that he, he has been adhering to every request and security stricture. He was not going with some grand procession even he was going privately with another clergy to the the church to say mass on Palm Sunday and barred. So it's when you, if you give a gun and a badge, you get a bigger one. And perhaps that's the case of some security apparatchik in Jerusalem that doesn't care that it's a cardinal, has no respect for Christendom. This is a really, really bad look for look, it starts to take away any understanding about or I guess it adds to understanding of even Muslims that are angry at their access to Al Aqsa Mosque. And again, a completely unforced stupid error by Israeli security forces today. Bullet point two. Steve, we live in a very, in a world of transparent battlefields. If you get within 30, 40 kilometers of the front line in Ukraine, you are completely at risk because of the amount of surveillance and drones, sensors. The idea that you're going to hide a amphibious ready group a mu with an LHA, that's probably what, eight or nine hundred foot ship weighs 40 or 50,000 tons. Believe me, there's multiple countries in the world that own the means to track that in real time. And so if you, by doctrine, if you try to get that entire amphibious group within range of them, starting to discharge their troops, they're going to be heavily and highly targeted by all. But for the same reason that they pulled the carrier Air Wing back mysteriously after the laundry fire on board the USS Ford. So highly dangerous to put amphibious troops into that area because of there's so many precision missiles. And obviously there's no surprise left if they somehow manage to get all those Marines off and move them somewhere else to launch an amphibious operation to try to force open the Straits of Hormuz maybe, but hard to do deception now. And second, they truly don't have maritime superiority when the Iranians can launch, launch as many missiles, drones and suicide, suicide vessels against them as they can.
- [84:19]
Stephen K. Bannon
You actually do a. Without active Arab support, could you actually take Carg island from the, could you actually go to Carg island unless you got the LHAs, unless you got the amphibians previous ready group, at least part of the contingent into the Persian Gulf, or would you do it standoff and station the helicopters and the Osprey? I guess it's some, you know, up in Qatar, you know, to the, to that point, you know, up, I think the MEW has, in Iran, Iraq. I mean, as I recall that that
- [84:58]
Erik Prince
MEW would have a maximum of 10 V22s on board. And so you're not going to move more than 20 or 30 troops per lift. So, yeah, your initial assault into Carg island is going to be mighty thin because those aircraft have to cycle. And that's assuming you don't have any losses for maintenance or for missiles. Do you do a mass drop of the 82nd on the carg Island? Again, that's, that's pretty sporty. And a, an airborne invasion in a place that has thousands and thousands of missiles. Not to mention, the Iranians have been learning, they've certainly been paying attention to modern drone warfare and have certainly implemented FPVs down to the squad level. I mean, you see videos of the Israelis in southern Lebanon losing tanks, losing armored personnel carriers to the same FPVs that the Russians have been using with great effect in Ukraine. So it is again, a fight against Iran. They're not Arabs, they're Aryans. They are a highly intelligent, highly skilled war fighters. And it would not be the pushover by comparison that you see of the Iraqi army that worked. The other thing, the Iranians have done, seeing what the US military did to Iraq in 2003 and four, where they decapitated all the military command structure is they decentralized the decision making into 31 military districts with a standing order to make war, as much war for as long as you can. And the only person that can countermand that is the Supreme Leader, not their Minister of Defense or their Chief of the armed forces or their President. President only the supreme leader. So it's at that point even hard to, to negotiate with any of the other people that come to, to meet J.D. vance or whatever. And I think we just killed the, the head of the parliament who was the other guy that was supposed to come and negotiate with, with J.D. vance. So I'm not sure that U.S. interests are even in parallel at all to Israeli interests because they seem, they seem to be whacking a lot more of the leaders taking those names off the board, people that are supposed to be negotiating peace with.
- [87:27]
Stephen K. Bannon
Look, clearly President Trump, I keep saying, and Rubio picked it up optionality. He needs optionality. He needs a range of alternatives and you're never going to give your strategy how. That being said, the national security adviser, Marco Rubio and the Vice President were pretty adamant to go back to the military objectives President Trump doesn't even referred to as a warning war. It's a military operation. You've got those four or five objectives of, you know, de industrialize them. Taking out the Navy, taking out the Air Force, their defense capabilities, air capabilities. We have air supremacy now or at least air superiority, you know, and Marco was adamant or pretty adamant and repeated many times. We're not going to need combat troops for this is the combat troops we have and another 10,000 being prepped. Is that so President Trump has another option. Is it for leverage against these guys or how real, how real do you feel right now moving in to take, to make sure they take that, those, those couple of islands down by Strait or Hormuz and then Carg island and you're thinking this through and putting in that logistics base or that logistics premise or predicate. How real do you think we're moving on with the cheerleading of Mark Levin and Thiessen and all these other, you know, they're Lindsey Graham's the world. How realistic do you think it looks like combat troops?
- [88:49]
Erik Prince
Well, unlike the chattering classes in Washington, Steve, I've actually sailed through the streets of Hormuz on a sailboat, oddly enough with a huge Blackwater logo on the sail, doing a race Dubai to Muscat Race, it's narrow. And those two islands on the north side, one is Kesham and one is Lyric. Kesham is the size of Okinawa. Laric is the size of Iwo J. Anybody that knows anything of American maritime amphibious history knows those names and how many thousands and thousands of soldiers were killed by a very dug in enemy. Now those islands are generally flat. So even if you put guys over the beach and you take them the bunkers, prepared fortifications, which I would imagine are there, worse than that on the mainland Iran, there are mountains very, very close by which are also laced with caves, tunnels and survivability from which can be launched rockets, missiles and drones, making both of those islands that you're trying to put, potentially putting marines ashore as one large beaten zone. And I, I think it's important to think of other military history of a grand amphibious operation planned by the British in World War II at Gallipoli which is to try to take the Dardanelles and take out Turkey from the war. And it ended very badly because they never seized the highlands. And so seizing those highlands is ugly. Sir. First, you know, look, CENTCOM undoubtedly over the last two years had all their target sets that they wanted to hit in Yemen to make the Houthis comply and to open up the Babel Mandab Unlimited. The only reason that was opened over the last year is because the Houthis allowed it. It was not done by coercion by centcom. So my concern about CENTCOM saying yes, we have another 3,500 targets to strike, that's the ones that they think they know of. And my comment about the captain saying well, things are quiet and they're not really shooting back from the Straits of Hormuz. As I read history, the Germans did not engage until the troops hit the beach and the Japanese did not open up on Iwo Jima or Okinawa until the troops hit the beach. And so I really hope no one is considering some kind of a forced entry there because it will be a, a significant casualty event and a massive blow. And I just hope that the administration is not going to give the enemy the fight that the enemy is expecting because it's not going to go well. Now on even more serious topic, Palm Sunday. Look, whether it's some mid level bureaucrat that went off the rails to block the cardinal from going to mass, Mass I'm told I, I just read that he had asked for four people to, to go to the church to live stream mass from there and they even barred him from doing that. That's an enormous problem. And it's, it's Israel showing a, a disdain for Christianity in the Middle east and it's ridiculous.
- [92:17]
Stephen K. Bannon
War room.
- [92:18]
Stephen K. Bannon (Host)
Here's your host, Stephen K. Banff.
- [92:26]
Stephen K. Bannon
Doctor Thayer, you've got an update for us. Kind of one of the updates. Pretty startling. What do you got for us, sir?
- [92:32]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
Well, the former Iranian foreign minister is sending up a trial balloon. Former Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif has talked about the necessity of having a comprehensive, comprehensive peace plan to resolve what he calls a stalemate mate, that is recognizing that this is not a war, that Iran should continue or is going to achieve victory, identifying again as a stalemate, and is calling for then the conflict to be resolved. So that's a very important trial balloon, Steve, that shows.
- [93:11]
Stephen K. Bannon
Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Why do you think it's a, why do you think it's a very important trial? You think he's got any authority to do it, or he's just another guy throwing it up there?
- [93:23]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
I'm sure he's, I'm sure that he's got ties to the existing, the present Iranian regime. And so I don't think he's just throwing spaghetti at the wall here. If you look at the details of what he's saying, even though of course it's a bit ambiguous, again, it's a, it's a trial balloon. Soon it's showing that there are elements in the Iranian government, if not the totality of the Iranian government, saying it's time to recognize that this is a stalemate. As he, as Zarif identifies, they'd be willing to give up the nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions. And the other points there, of course, are going to be important, but that's a huge step forward, forward for potentially bringing the conflict to an end.
- [94:24]
Stephen K. Bannon
Walk through. We got about a minute. I want to hear again, your, your thoughts on you don't believe President Trump is, is, is walked in like a lot of his critics saying, walked into an escalatory trap. Before we go to break, we got about a minute walk through your logic for saying that, because I think that's very big element of where we are strategically in this. If true.
- [94:46]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
If true, absolutely. So it begins. I think we need to recognize that President Trump is not boxing himself into any particular path. So he wants to maximize the optionality that he has. Like every good statesman, he wants to ensure that he's going to use only as much force as needed, needed in this contingency in this case, and not more at the same time, if he needs to do it he will. And he's got forces in the region now that can be deployed, as we've discussed this morning and as we've discussed previously. So if he chooses to escalate, Right. Moses only brought down 10 Commandments from, from Mount Sinai, Steve. He didn't bring down 11. So we know the 11th Commandment is not that you're going, if you escalate, you're going to get into a trap. Right. There's good logic, military logic, for escalating in the right circumstances. US Military history is replete with examples of escalating to bring about the defeat of the adversary. Linebacker too, of course, perhaps being most famous or allied force too, where we began to spread out the targets set from the military targets to the Serbian economic targets as well.
- [96:11]
Stephen K. Bannon
So, Dr. Bradley Thayer, give me your thoughts on a good Friday. Sir, to sum up, where do you think we are in this war?
- [96:20]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
Well, absolutely, Steve. I just want to say that in the Dark Ages, it was the Irish monks who saved Western civilization. And if Western civilization is going to be saved again, it's going to be people like Julie and Brandon and the people who show up on Tuesday to ensure that Texas history is preserved, American history is preserved and Western civilization is preserved. Right. That's absolutely essential because of Texas influence in the book market and the educational market. Do you want your kids taught by the Texas Board of Education or the California Board of Education? Education. And that's what everyone needs to ask themselves. And that's really the argument of the book, Steve. We've been in a long war against communism. 100 years war against it. It was the ideology of the Soviet Union. It's the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. Communism is illegitimate and it's hyper aggressive. And the deep problems that we face, from the Chinese Communist Party to George Soros to the anti Americanism of the Democratic Party Party, are responsible for that. The neo Bolsheviks have penetrated our identity, Western civilization. We need to stand up and fight it. The book explains why. But I'm proud to stand with Julie and with Brandon and other great folks, the folks who are going to show up on Tuesday.
- [97:41]
Stephen K. Bannon
I want people to get. Yeah, I want people to get. By the way, this is why Thayer so special. He makes a direct connection from Lindisfarne, the monastery at Lindisfarne and the Irish monks all the way to Texas. And what's going to happen on Tuesday. And you know what? It's exactly the same, you know, trying to, trying to keep away the barbarians, right? And the pagans and in this case the Islamists and the terrorists from poisoning your children. Dr. Thayer. Where do they go? Books going to be out in the summer. We're gonna get it up on Amazon here shortly where they go to get your writings and most importantly, your social media.
- [98:18]
Dr. Bradley Thayer
Brad Thayer X and Bradley Thayer Getter and true. Thanks, Steve.
- [98:23]
Pro-Trump Commentator
Thank you.
- [98:24]
Stephen K. Bannon
And thank you for the update on the war. Magnificent. You and Brandon were fantastic.