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Erin Welsh
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Wilmer Valderrama
Alright, son, time to put out this campfire.
Krystal Ball
Dad, we learned about this in school.
Sagar Enjeti
Oh, did you now? Okay, what's first?
Krystal Ball
Smokey Bear said to first drown it
Sagar Enjeti
with a bucket of water, then stir it with a shovel.
Wilmer Valderrama
Wow, you sound just like him.
Sagar Enjeti
Then he said, if it's still warm, then do it again.
Wilmer Valderrama
Where can I learn all this?
Sagar Enjeti
It's all on smokeybear.com with other wildfire prevention tips, because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the Ag Council.
Iris Palmer
Hi, I'm Iris Palmer, host of the Against All Odds podcast. Every week I'm sitting down with exceptional people who have broken barriers even when the odds were stacked against them. Like Chef Victor Villa of Villa's Tacos. You know, the taquero from the Bad Bunny halftime show?
Chef Victor Villa
It was great. It was a big moment. It was special, and I felt like I was really representing my family, you know, my brand, my city. I was representing all taqueros, not only of, like, you know, the U.S. but of Mexico and beyond. All the taqueros of the world.
Iris Palmer
Listen to Against all odds on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
Wilmer Valderrama
Hey, I'm Wilmer Valderrama and this is Freddy Rodriguez. And we're back. Dos amigos. Season two, baby. Last time, we went deep on our careers, our lives, our art, and everything in between. Our big breaks, our auditions, the near misses, the epiphanies, the moments that changed our lives forever. We're deepening our relationships, creating collaborations, and the door always stays open for a third amigo to pull up a chair. Listen to those amigos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sagar Enjeti
Hey, guys. Sagar and Krystal here.
Krystal Ball
Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election, and we are so excited about what that means for the future of the show.
Sagar Enjeti
This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.
Krystal Ball
So if that is something that's important to you, Please go to breakingpoints.com a member today and you'll get access to our full shows unedited ad free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox.
Sagar Enjeti
We need your help to build the future of independent news media, and we hope to see you@breaking points.com. good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. Have an amazing show for everybody today. What do we have, Crystal?
Krystal Ball
We have a new Trump truth, part market manipulation, part threat to Iran. We'll dig into that. We're going to take a look at the options for ground troops that appear increasingly appears to be the direction that Trump is headed in. So we will dig into what is going on there. We are also hurtling towards an economic poly crisis involving AI, oil, helium, all sorts of things. Sohrab Amari is going to join us to break that down. He's also going to take a look at this situation in Israel where they blocked the cardinal for the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from going to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for Palm Sunday, sparking a major, major crisis. This is the first time, I think, in like a thousand years. So it is a big issue for Christians. Netanyahu himself had to respond. So Sourabh is also going to talk to us about that since we're a little bit, you know, a resident Catholic expert. Yeah, anytime we get into like deep
Sagar Enjeti
religious matters, liturgy, I'm like, yeah, I had to text a friend yesterday. I go, what is Palm Sunday exactly? He's explained to me. I go, oh, wow. So it's actually about Jesus in Jerusalem. I'm like, that makes it worse.
Krystal Ball
Yeah, it actually makes it a lot worse. Like it probably is significant to a lot of people. So we'll get into crazy incident that CNN documented their own photojournalist assaulted by the idf. Major recriminations there as well. We are going to dig into the mystery of a number of top scientists who have either been killed or gone missing. Is it just a coincidence? It could be, could be just a coincidence. But at this point, there are enough of them to at least take a look and go, what exactly is going on here? And then we're gonna have Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson join us as well. He's supposed to be with us. Last week we had some sort of a timing mess up. Hopefully we'll get him this morning. He was the former chief of staff to Colin Powell, really a hero in opposition to the Iraq war. And now he is speaking out against the Iran war as well. So really looking forward to speaking with him.
Sagar Enjeti
That's right. And before we get to any of that, thank you to everybody who's been subscribed@breakingpoints.com if you're able to help us out and support the show. We'll be doing the AMA this week, of course, for our premium subscribers. And of course you get the show one hour early, uncut and all of that. Now, if you're watching this on YouTube, we need you to do Something for us. We need you to hit the subscribe button. We are at 1.97 million subscribers. We need to get to 2 million. 2 million. I didn't think it would gonna happen this quickly, but here we are in the midst of all this chaos. So please, please do help us out and do that. And if you're listening to this as a podcast where we'll be seeing explosive growth as well, please share an episode with a friend. Clearly a lot of you have been doing that. We've had tons of new people who have been coming in. So sincerely thank you and welcome if you are a new listener. But let's go ahead and go to the latest from Donald Trump. Literally just happening this morning, minutes before we started filming. Let's go this up here on the screen. What we have from Trump is this new response. The United States of America is in serious discussions with a new and more reasonable regime to end our military operations in Iran. Great progress has been made. But if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately open for business, we will conclude our lovely stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg island, possibly all desalination plants which we have not purposefully yet touched. This will be retribution for our many soldiers and others that Iran has butchered and killed over the regime's 47 year of terror. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So this is obviously Trump trying to wishcast a deal, continuing to try and hold this guillotine over the Iranians heads who remain very much dug in. Recall that originally we had the 48 hour deadline. Right on the eve of the 48 hour deadline expiring, which is almost exactly, exactly a week to the day Donald Trump releases something. Actually exactly a week to the hour of when we're Filming right around 7:00am Eastern Time on Monday, he says I'm extending it by five days. So we get to the fifth day, we get to Friday, we over the show, we're making plans, okay, what's it gonna look like for a ground invasion? Now we get a 10 day extension. And so now we are a couple of days into that 10 day extension. But clearly he's trying to wishcast, trying to jawbone the oil markets and trying to make it clear that there is some sort of quote, reasonable regime in charge. Now remember by accounts, the so called reasonable regime that's in charge is the current speaker of the Parliament, Golubov I recommend everybody go and follow this man on Twitter because if you just see what he's posting, it's pretty much the opposite of what some reasonable negotiator who wants to make peace now, could he be bluffing? It's possible. I also think we should be clear about what these peace talks look like. It's basically the Pakistanis calling Washington and calling Tehran. That's about it. We pass messages and things back and forth to be clear. I support that. I want that to continue and I hope, hope that we get to some sort of a deal. But the Iranian response remains pretty steadfast. Your 15 point plan, the 15 point plan, which includes no missile production, no proxy effective surrender, an opening of the Straits of Hormuz and all of that potentially in exchange for sanctions relief, is off the table. The Iranians right now are in a pole position of strength. Their missiles that they fired just yesterday were actually double what they were firing just a week ago. They've been able to inflict a lot of very critical strategic level damage to the United States now, which we'll show you shocking images of. So just to set the table for everybody who's listening, there is no current situation where the Hormuz Strait is just gonna be open within the next week where some sort of grand peace deal is going to happen. We are no way in, no way close to a sort of deal that Donald Trump is saying right now.
Krystal Ball
Yeah, no, I mean it's very obvious what's going on here. Yesterday the stock futures were shitting the bed, oil prices were spik. The previous attempt to jawbone the market from Friday when he said, oh, we're going to do a 10 day extension, there was a small bump in the market and then it went right back down. And that was a very, we talked about on Friday that was very, very important because he has been trying to use truth social to market manipulate and buy himself more time. More time for what? He has no idea. He's trying to figure it out. I do think in here he's trying to come up with some sort of an off ramp. All right, well, if there's not a deal, then I'm going to bomb the hell out of you and that will substitute for some sort of victory and then maybe we'll go. But as we've said, Iran gets a say in that and Israel gets a say in that. Now does Israel deserve a say in that? No. But that is the reality of the way that this Trump regime has operated. So we know that it is the case that Israel will continue to get a say in the matter as well, and they have no interest in allowing Iran to, you know, just persist and exist as a nation and get themselves back together, et cetera. So I think it's pretty clear that's what, what's going on here. There's zero, zero indication on the Iranian side that there is any sort of like a soft of the regime. In fact, all of the indications are on the other side. You know, the new supreme leader, the anti nuclear weapon fatwa, is dead and gone. The new supreme leader purportedly is more hardline. You murdered his whole family. I don't think he's too psyched about doing a deal with you. The other individuals who may have been more moderate, a number of them, the Israelis, at our best, you know, with our acceptance, already killed them, assassinated them. So this is pure fantasy in terms of the Strait of Hormuz and the way that Trump has sort of grabbed onto this as some way of demonstrating, like, see they're respecting us and see they're easing up, is also preposterous and a lie. The Iranians have said from the beginning, well, the strait is not actually closed. If you come to us, if you make a deal with us, if you pay us directly and the deal is denominated in Chinese yuan, then we will allow your tanker to go through. That has been the case from the beginning. That is no change in Iranian policy at Trump's behest or to give a gift to him, as was proffered by Trump last week. So the whole thing is, it's completely nonsense. The only thing that I do take from it that is a little bit hopeful is, I mean, and this is obviously grasping at straws is he's clearly trying to grasp here for some way that, okay, well, if I bomb them in this way, then I can just say that it's mission accomplished. But even that, it's hard to see how that gets us out of the way.
Sagar Enjeti
There's no mission accomplished. You could bomb them, you could take out their oil infrastructure. So then they're gonna be even more desperate. And what are they gonn to try to mine the Hormuz straight? They'll try and keep it closed. They're basically going to try and continue to inflict more maximum damage, because at that point, they're all in. This is the escalation trap, which we've tried to tell everybody ad nauseam about. Let's go and put a one up there on the screen. I don't want to understate the level of damage that we are taking here now in the Middle East. Let's start with the slideshow just to show everybody this is a US Navy or, sorry, a US E3G Sentry airborne early Warning and control aircraft, which as you guys can see right now, was basically obliterated here either by an Iranian missile or a drone. We don't know exactly what it is. It seems to have been a ballistic missile and drone attack. Now there are only some 14 that are currently operational in the entire United States of America in terms of their arsenal. So this is a highly strategic asset. It's one of those that you're supposed to keep the safest. It was also reportedly hit with multiple other refueling tankers, which is what keeps a lot of those air operations continuing over Iran. Now the fact that this was able to take what is very obvious from the picture, a direct hit from either an Iranian missile or a drone shows targeting capability penetration. This is the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. There were multiple U.S. service members that were hit. Let's put a 2 up there on the screen. At least 12American troops were injured too seriously. And from what I have seen from some of the intelligence analysts who are out there is that there is basically no way you could have done this without not only up to date real time targeting information, but exact, like exact coordinates to be able to hit very specifically where things are. I will also note this shows you how unprepared the United States is for a major war. You have all of these air assets that are just sitting out there in the middle of a Runway and obviously within range of Iranian missiles and drones. Now the theory was, oh well, we have interceptors. And I saw somebody. Do you remember when Ukraine took out a bunch of Russian air assets in almost the exact same way. How were we not prepared for this? And it's like very obvious. For years you and I have sat at this desk and I've talked about Ukraine and Russia. And for years I have heard the pushback from many of my friends who are much more neocons. And they're like, well, we're not the Russians. They're idiots. They're losers. They leave their stuff out in the open just to get hit. They can't even have air superiority. They're such a joke. You're an idiot for considering them such a of a large military. Oh, maybe we're a little bit more like Russia than we thought. Right now we're not as bad as how they operated in Ukraine. But to take major strategic hits like this and to lose so publicly not only one of these aircraft, but also take all the refueling hits, to take the injuries, and then also to show you clearly there was either a failure of interceptor or we ran out. Both are obviously, you know, if you listen to our show on Thursday, we showed everybody the math and the numbers. We have troops that are in harm's way, and this is in potential preparation for any sort of ground invasion where you would need a massive aerial armada to be able to continue to pound things that are on the ground to make sure that the actual troops are not going to be put into harm's way. So this is a capability and a proof that they are absolutely not out of the fight in any way to be able to take out strategic assets, multiple US Bases. Remember they called them uninhabitable. Now troops are working remotely. You're taking out refueling tanks, you're taking out the E3. I mean, this is really. This is a flashing red light to show how unprepared we are and the damage that we've now taken.
Krystal Ball
By the way, I don't really believe that those bases are uninhabitable. I think it's just that the troops would be in danger if they're there. And so, I mean, I think they've all been damaged. Right? And the Iranians have demonstrated their capacity to strike those bases. Are they actually uninhabitable? I'm not sure that I buy that. But, you know, and we all know if it was the Iranians who were putting their service members up in civilian hotels, the way that would be portrayed as, oh, they're cowardly retreating, they're using civilians as human shields, et cetera, et cetera. But in any case, to your point, this is not, oh, we're just hitting randomly whatever we can from Iran. Either they have systematically gone in to destroy whatever radar capability and interceptor capability they can. So, you know, with this particular aircraft, why this is so significant, Number one, we don't make them anymore, you know, so it's not like you could. And we only. We don't have a whole lot of them. So it's not like, oh, let's just go grab a few more. No big deals. No, it's a significant loss that is not easily replaced. Number two, this is like eyes and ears. It's like a mobile command center. That's the way that I understand it. And so this is a highly significant, very expensive piece of equipment here. And it goes further to the point that Iran has been trying to achieve strategical. They've been trying to achieve of making it more difficult for us to detect what they're doing. So that is what is highly significant here. Another thing, if we just throw a one back up on the screen here, I want you people to realize the way this was presented before we got the pictures was that this was damaged. Okay. No. Does that look like a little fender bender? Oh, it was just nicked a little. Just like a little gray. No, that thing is destroyed. It's in up, like it's over. You're not gonna take it into the repair shop and patch up a little bit. They lie to us systematically, which is why it's so hard to know. You were debating like what's going on in these bases, how damaged they are. It's very hard to know. The Iranians have made all kinds of claims about far more service members being injured, far more service members being killed. They claim they've captured people. Now, we shouldn't take them at face value either, but our government has zero credibility, which is why there's still so much speculation about what the true numbers are and what the true level of damage is. I just wanted to note one other thing about, I was trying to find it early in the show when we're talking about Trump's market manipulation here with this new truth social and how golly Boff is the guy that's been floated. So he's the new hot ticket in terms of some moderate leadership that we're gonna be able to do a deal with. Golly Buff, literally yesterday tweeted, heads up, pre market so called news or quote unquote truth is often just a setup for profit taking. Basically it's a reverse indicator. Do the opposite. If they pump it, short it. If they dump it, go long, see something tomorrow, question mark. You know the drill. So getting out ahead of this truth, like, hey, Trump may come out and say some shit tomorrow morning, but I would not listen to the words that he's saying. And this is the guy that supposedly they're, you know, oh, we find him more. We can do the deal with him and he's gonna, he's going to give over the oil. He's going to be the one that just opens the Strait of Hormuz and lets us do whatever we want.
Anonymous family member
I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him.
Sagar Enjeti
Hi, dad.
Anonymous family member
And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen and she says, I have some cookies and milk. This is badass, convict. Just finished five years. I'm never cookies and milk at mom
Host of The Cino Show Podcast
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Krystal Ball
on the
Host of Adventures of Curiosity Cove
Adventures of Curiosity Cove Podcast. What if the Right Fit isn't what everyone expects? In the case of the Right Fit, Ella explores movement, confidence and belonging and learns that not all strength looks the same. Tennis is powerful, fast, focused and kind of fun. Strong swing, Ella this Women's History Month story introduces kids to women who change sports by trusting themselves and moving differently. A thoughtful episode about identity, courage and helping kids discover where they truly belong. So it's okay if I'm not quite sure what my thing is yet. It's absolutely okay. When and if you do find a sport you love, you may be the next Gertrude, Tony or Venus at Curiosity Cove. Listen to Adventures of Curiosity Cove every Monday from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Erin Welsh
Usually on this Podcast Will Kill youl We talk about the diseases, infections, and biological threats that can make us really sick.
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Erin Welsh
We're stepping back and looking at what the human body needs to keep going.
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The second half of our series takes us to the digestive system with a multi part series on what happens after we eat. Okay, I just have to say that all of my favorite words apparently are digestive words.
Erin Welsh
Sphincter, peristalsis, duodenum. It's fascinating, it's funny, and it matters so much more than you think.
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Sagar Enjeti
this is how Trump is trying to present it. Let's put a three this is him talking to reporters last night aboard Air Force One, let's take a listen.
Donald Trump
We're doing extremely well in that negotiation. But you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up. Whether it's the B2 bombers or just terminating as an example, the Iran nuclear deal done by Barack Hussein Obama. Probably the worst deal we've ever done as a country. One of the dumbest deals we've ever done. But I terminated it, fortunately. Otherwise right now that have a nuclear weapon and we did the attack with the B2 bombers and we stopped them from having nuclear and now we had to blow them up again. And we will probably. I think we'll make a deal with them, pretty sure. But it's possible we won't going well,
Sagar Enjeti
but you never know because we negotiate with them, we have to blow them up. Maybe that's why they don't want to negotiate with you. He might have thought of that before you got into a war like this and you bombed them twice under the COVID of diplomacy, by the way. Meanwhile, in Iran, it's not like many of their critical infrastructure isn't being hit. There we go. Let's put these up here on the screen. This is the steel plants, which apparently have just been absolutely obliterated. Allegedly these were by Israeli strikes, although of course Israeli US Strikes, who cares? We're in this war together. We're going to get the damage no matter what. But you can see very clearly that multiple critical infrastructure sites in Iran were struck. Meanwhile, let's put a 5 up here on the screen. This is about the escalation that's been happening on the ground. Despite, despite much of what's being talked about in Washington, the US Israeli war escalates as the talks prove fruitless. And as they explicitly point out in the story, you have not only all of this damage at the steel, you also had one of the largest aluminum producers in the Emirates that was actually got hit for retaliation after strikes that are happening in Iran. Iranian officials said that a university in Tehran and another at Isfahan were struck over the weekend, as well as a water reservoir in one of Iran's distant provinces. The official was quoted in Iranian media saying, quote, there is no shortage of water currently in the province. You also had the strike on the Prince Sultan base, the strike of the E3 surveillance aircraft. That's literally a $300 million aircraft, you know, in terms of the losses for us. So there has been a lot of actually escalation that's happened under the COVID of these alleged future strikes that may come in the future, we should not pretend that. We should really not pretend in any way that what's happened here has not actually that what they've been threatening is not already happening at a lower level. Now, we haven't taken out the oil infrastructure yet. We haven't taken out the power generation, although we did hit one power generation plant earlier in the war, or at least the Israelis did steel plants. So for them, like, they're like, look, you keep threatening this stuff, you're actually kind of already doing it. And whether it's you or Israel, we're taking the damage no matter what. So we have to inflict the damage in the only way that we know possible.
Krystal Ball
Yeah. And it increasingly seems too, that as the initial, I guess, hopium, that, okay, we'll just take out the ayatollah and some military assets and the regime will fall and the people arrive, blah, blah, blah. Whatever delusion was sold to Trump when that fell apart. You increasingly have civilian infrastructure which is being targeted again and again by the Americans and the Israelis. There's, there's thousands of civilian sites that have been hit at this point. Hospitals in particular have been targeted. What does that remind you of? And this is the way, you know, this is the way Israel operates. And now we are operating together with Israel and obviously we, you know, backed them fully throughout the Gaza genocide. Once the initial military objective failed and the attacks there failed to achieve the strategic objective, then the idea becomes the Dahia Doctrine where it's like, okay, well, let's just make it brutal as possible for civilians. You know, turn the power off and attack their schools and attack their homes and attack the hospitals, et cetera, and hope maybe that causes them to turn on the war and put pressure on the regime. We seem to be very much in that phase of the war. There was a recent report by BBC Verified, New York Times then backed it up about one of the early, however, strikes within Iran. We talked, of course, about the Manob Girls School where a Tomahawk missile decimated that school, killed 168 young girls and, you know, over a dozen teachers as well. There was another missile that turns out to be like this new high tech precision missile that hit a sports complex and an adjacent elementary school. Also in the early days of the war. That has also been to have, was confirmed by BBC verified to have come from us. Let's go ahead and take a listen to a little bit of their reporting.
BBC Verified Reporter
There were at least two strikes on Lamed, a town in the south of Iran. One was on a residential street which is where we can see the missile. Another strike hit a community sports hall where state media report children were playing volleyball. Its intended target may have been an Iranian military base next door, but it appears undamaged in satellite imagery. According to multiple Iranian state media outlets, four children were among those killed that day, including 12 year old Alhamzairi, an avid volleyball player. The youngest victim was reportedly two years old. Footage we verified of the aftermath of the sports hall strike shows the entire side of the building blackened. Damage can also be seen on the roof with blast fragments in the surrounding. According to experts, the weapon most likely used on the residential street was a US precision strike missile. It's also known as a prism. It can reach targets of up to 500 kilometers away. This war marks what's believed to be the first time this weapon has been used by the US military. That's according to the Department of Defense. We asked the US why it used a PRISM in a civilian area but they declined to comment. America's most senior officer praised his troops use of the system on the 13th of March.
Sagar Enjeti
In just the first 13 days of
Steve Bannon
this operation, our artillery forces have made history. They fired the first precision strike missiles ever used in combat.
Krystal Ball
So more children here killed by our missiles. This one apparently this new fancy high tech missile in its debut murdered some children while they were playing sports at the same time. Sagar, we're getting, let's put a 7 up on the screen. We're getting more reporting about. There was all sorts of happy talk about Iran's missile arsenal is being destroyed and their launcher capacity is being decimated. Well now we got this information. U.S. intelligence has determined just 33% roughly of Iran's missile arsenal has been destroyed as the Iran war nears its one month mark. This is per Reuters. Details include. The intelligence assessment shows Iran still has significant missile inventory. I think we're seeing that every day. The status of round another third is less than clear. But bombings likely damaged, destroyed or buried those missiles in underground tunnels and bunkers. Sources say U.S. intelligence was similar for Iran's drone capability as well. Obviously that's highly significant and Iran is expected to recover some buried or damaged missiles once fighting stops. Tomorrow is the one month mark of the war. So all that happy talk about how, you know, don't worry, our interceptor stockpile is going to outlast them, we're destroying them. Trump said that they've been, you know, obliterated. He won, victory is ours, blah, blah, blah. They still have two thirds of their missile arsenal.
Sagar Enjeti
They're intact at Least, yeah, they've only been able to confirm some 33%. And also look in terms of the strikes, the number of the strikes from the Iranians is coming down. But because they've worn out all of the interceptors, Israel and the United States clearly are now having to ration. If they don't ration, then they'll have to pull it from every place on the globe and we'll be out of them within at least six months. So you could see this is a huge problem. Whenever you're losing $300 million aircraft, you're using $300 million aircraft, 12 US soldiers who are all wounded, two of them seriously, who are wounded. On top of that, you have all of the strikes on the air bases. Israel has been getting pounded day after day. The IDF has basically all but confirmed that they've had to ration a lot of the missiles that they are, or they're interceptor missiles. As I told everybody the last time in the first 16 days of the war, if they fired on that same page, they would have run out two days ago for their best interceptors. And then the US in the first 16. The projection run date is, I think, April 16, before we're completely dry. So you have to ration. There's just no other way around it. And it takes years to build all these back. For example, let's go ahead and put the A8 up here on the screen. The Tomahawk missile, probably the most beloved piece of military tech by every president since, like, Bill Clinton. It's great. You can fire it from anywhere. You can hit a target thousands of miles away. You don't actually put any troops on the ground. You can send a message. Right. It makes us feel big and tough and strong, and they're super precision and they work well. Not to mention, though, that actually this was used on the very first day of the war and hit the girls school. But the US has now fired some 850 Tomahawk missiles. This is from the Washington Post, quote, raising concerns about the weapons limited supply. Now, we were only even technically, I think, on the books to get 57 as of last year in the defense budget. So 850 in a month, 57 in the last year. What's the math on that one? I mean, just what is that? Years of the backlog, Allegedly there's some ability in the supply chain to actually crank these out more. But there's only one facility, I think it's in Arizona, that even makes all of the missiles. A lot of them are, you know, it's like, by hand. It's extremely complex, extremely expensive, too. And what you can see is that this leaves you in a very difficult posture where now, if something else kicks off, what do you do? Now we really have to ration. Like, we're already rationing here. In a war, everyone talks about China. Oh, China, China, oh. They're, you know, China's. You know, if you play some 90 chess about how they're taking all these hits. What are you talking about? You got E3 down. China's like. You're just like. So they can't protect an E3. They're still playing Russian tactics. You've got all these Tomahawk missiles. You have the interceptors that have been pulled out of South Korea. Do you know what's happening? We're talking about this later. The South Korean president is telling people to take shorter showers. That's how bad things are in a. Can you imagine if an American president had to tell, hey, everybody, you need to shower less? I think the Thai president is wearing short sleeves, and he's like, listen, we're all gonna have to do air conditioning. We're gonna have to live with less air conditioning as we go into the summer. That's the reality already in Asia. So that could be coming. And that's what life looks like whenever you're threatening the economies. I was looking yesterday, the Japanese Open on their market. The Nikkei 225 was down by like, 5% on the Open. They're getting hammered over there. And so all of this is dramatically weakening any potential US Force posture for the stuff that actually matters to us, like the chips. We're gonna talk later. Helium is down 30, 40% already. Semiconductors orders being canceled. They're like, listen, we don't have the capacity. You've got all of the gas and the energy which powers all of our homes. LNG prices, oil, natural gas, like the spot price on those trading up jet fuel, $200 a barrel in Singapore as of today. If you want to fly anywhere, and if you don't want to risk flying through the Gulf and getting hit by a stray Iranian missile this summer, good luck. Seriously, I mean, it's thousands of dollars of what all of this is going to look like. So it's bad. And then final thing here is the Houthis, which is what would really send this to the stratosphere. Because what we have right now is a situation where the streets of Hormuz are closed, but the Red Sea remains relatively open. We've seen one strike there, but we have not seen a sustained campaign. Well, the Houthis are now declaring that not only are they entering the war. Let's put a 9 and take a listen here from Al Jazeera about the Houthis official declaration that they are in it with only initial strikes yet so far on Israel potentially holding back some of the strikes that they need to to fully close and choke off all of the world's oil from the Middle East. Let's take a listen. We've been reporting Yemen's Houthis have joined the conflict in the Middle East. But the group says it launched a second attack on Israel and that it'll launch many more strikes in the coming days. In response to the enemy's crimes on our people and our countries and in support of the freedom of the people, will continue with the grace of God to carry out military operations in the coming days until the enemy stops its hostilities and aggressions. So you can see that declaration they're saying and willing to be able to get into the war. It will completely choke off Saudi Arabia. And that would easily send oil to $200 a barrel.
Krystal Ball
That's right.
Sagar Enjeti
$8 a gallon. That's right. That's what it would look like.
Krystal Ball
And it also demonstrates that Iran is not at the top of, like, there's many more things that they could do. And the analysis I saw is that they've probably held back on asking the Houthis to get fully involved or close off the Bab El Mandaab Strait there in the Red Sea is because that could potentially fully bring Saudi Arabia into the war. And I mean, it's just a very significant escalation. So there are still tools in their toolkit that they could deploy. And apparently they have the missile and the drone capacity to continue to cause a lot of damage and problems and really squeeze the global economy until we squeal. And last piece to put up here on the screen because this speaks to that potential escalation chain and their continued capability here. You had an Iranian strike hit a service building at a Kuwaiti power and water desalination facility. And this underscores, you know, those Gulf Arab states, we've talked about this before, very vulnerable in terms of the, you know, the infrastructure that they rely on for the very basics of life for water and for food. So, you know, this is, these are the sort of actions that they have the capability of taking and can really cause a devastating blow for these Gulf Arab regimes in particular.
Sagar Enjeti
This is what I mean. Yeah, this is what it all looks like. Like everything the table is set. And clearly if we could destroy and eliminate all Iranian missiles, we would have already done it. And they already claim that we did 95%. If they can still take out, if they're doubling the amount of missiles they strike, able to fire in a single week as compared to last week. If they have the capability still, I mean, look, it's their country at the end of the day, how many times are we gonna learn this about the air campaign? And even with Gaza. Gaza was what? It's a tiny strip of land. And even with a full IDF coming in occupying the north, they literally leveled what every building in the north like to the ground. They still had Hamas and tunnels and guns and that's, you know, a tiny spit of land. Compare that to Iran's gigantic country. Ballistic missiles control over the Straits of Hormuz. Without full blown occupation, you can basically never guarantee that something's not going to be flying around and hitting targets. And especially they've got the technology. They have the cost advantage on their side. Don't forget what Trita Parsi said, which has now been confirmed. Iran is earning more today from oil than they ever have before. Ever before. They are more cash flush right now than ever. And the Kremlin appears to be sending them more drones, more technology, and it's very obvious that at least some of their targeting information is either coming from China or Russia with advanced satellites and precision. You don't just take out an E3 just by yourself. Think about the level of empire that has to be behind you. So look, the stage is set and it's potentially set for a ground troop invasion. So let's get to it.
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Sagar Enjeti
Turning now to ground troops, how is this going to end? Well, all signs point to a potential ground invasion, absent some serious, you know, last minute peace deal, which who knows if we could even trust that. But let's go and put this up here on the screen. Breaking last night from the Wall Street Journal, something that anybody who's been watching this show will be very well familiar with, Trump is weighing military operations to extract Iran's uranium. So if we dig down into it, it is unfortunately the craziest potential ground operation plan. But what it would entail is that it would require some U.S. forces to go deep inside of Iran and extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium. That would likely put the American forces inside the country for days or longer. So let's think about it just logistically, at a very basic, you would have to deploy to multiple of these sites and potentially unknown sites which have been buried under rubble by US Bombers earlier. You have specially trained special operators who have actually trained for years for some like radioactive material recovery. So they would be the tip of the spear. That would be their job to go in, to actually get it, to secure it. Now, to secure them, you would actually need multiple ground forces who are around them to set a perimeter to make sure that ground operators would not or Iranian forces would not be able to come swarm and decapitate them or kill them. Then you would also need all this air power and potential interceptors and all this other stuff that's happening to make sure that drones and other things that are flying, suicide drones, missiles not being flown and shot at the country, not to mention whoever even lives in the area itself. It would be a absolute nightmare. Now, why would Trump even consider this? And again, if you've been watching, you need to really understand the strategic logic from his brain. He needs desperately not ramp. If you paid attention, did you notice that in that first truth about the Hormuz Strait, he actually made it open to the idea of maybe we could just have a deal and have it not deal with the Straits of Hormuz. Secretary Rubio is apparently on Good Morning America right now as you and I are speaking, and he was like, well, other countries get more out of it, so they're trying to like set the table for a potential declare victory and then leave. Now, obviously oil is a global commodity, so it doesn't really matter. We could potentially see an export ban, but I don't think it's realistic. It would eventually still make prices go sky high. What we are seeing is in their mind, they need an off ramp. They need to be able to declare victory. The only real way to declare victory is to take away the uranium. And allegedly this is all about nuclear weapons, even though that's all fake and nonsense. So this is the mission in his mind, even though it's the most risky, the one that would actually deliver his mission accomplished moment and actual tribe and extrication from the conflict. Now it won't get us out. At the end of the day, we have all these bases, we've got all the Gulf. It's not like Iran is just going to sit there and they're going to take it. This is their only latent nuclear deterrent that they've had, which is why they won't give it up. I don't blame them. I wouldn't either. Right. Look what Gaddafi look at North Korea. Which one would you rather be? So you could see very clearly that they know they're coming. There's no element of surprise really about what this potential could look like. And this is the highest, most risky one, which would easily require multiple days on the ground. And that's if everything goes well. And it never goes well.
Krystal Ball
One of the things that I want to talk to Colonel Wilkerson about is he's been sounding the alarm that the decision in Iran could have already been made to race to a bomb and that he believes it's possible for them to achieve that in a way that would be undetectable. And then imagine the way that that changes the game. I mean, it's hard for me to wrap my head around. But just to underscore the, the insanity of what this mission that's being contemplated here would look like, let me read to you from this Wall Street Journal piece about exactly what this mission would entail. It says any move to seize the uranium by force would be complex and dangerous. This is according to former US military officers and experts. The potential operation, which would likely trigger retaliation from Iran, could also lengthen the war well beyond the four to six week time frame Trump's team has publicly outlined. So here's what would happen. Teams of US Forces would need to fly to the sites likely under fire from Iranian surface to air missiles and drones. Once on site, combat troops would need to secure perimeters so that engineers with excavating equipment could search through debris and check for mines and booby traps. The extraction of the material would likely need to be conducted by an elite special operations team. That was what Sagar was speaking to. Specially trained to remove radioactive material from a conflict zone, the highly enriched uranium is likely contained in 40 to 50 special cylinders that resemble scuba tanks. They would need to be put into transportation casks to protect against accidents. That's the other aspect of all of this, is potential nuclear fallout that could fill several trucks, said an expert on this. Unless an airfield was available, a makeshift airfield would need to be set up to bring equipment in and take the nuclear material out. The entire operation would take days or even a week to complete. This is not like going in and snatching Maduro and getting out. This would take. You have to set up a makeshift airfield, secure a perimeter, go in under fire, send your team in with excavators, find this material, load it on trucks, get it onto these aircraft and get it out. You Know, again, under fire, it says US Troops could avoid such a dangerous operation if Iran agree to hand over its uranium as part of a peace settlement. But, you know, doesn't look like we're headed in that direction whatsoever. Like the type of peace settlement that was on the table before we decided to launch this absolutely insane and disastrous war.
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah. Can we put this next element, guys? The New York Times chair sheet I asked for this morning just to underscore how you already have many of these pieces that are currently in place. U.S. special Operations forces have been sent to the Middle east in the hundreds, just in the last week or so that have now arrived. Quote, several hundred U.S. special Operations forces have arrived, joining thousands of Marines, army paratroopers in a deployment meant to give President Trump additional options. The commandos, including Army Rangers and Navy seals, have not yet been assigned specific missions. But as specialized ground troops, they could deploy to help safeguard the straight, or they could be deployed to try and seize Kharg island. Or, of course, used in a mission aimed at Iran's highly enriched uranium at the Isfahan nuclear site. So these commandos join 2,500 Marines, another 2,500 sailors who just arrived in the region as of a couple of days ago. Altogether, There are now 50,000American troops in the Middle east, roughly 10,000 more than normal. You have all of these elite special operators on top of, remember, the 82nd Airborne, which was on its way. This just, I mean, you have to follow the forces of everything that's going. That following the actual military assets in Venezuela ultimately was the only thing that proved like the direction they were going, the direction of where things are going. For all the talk of diplomacy and all that, it didn't matter In June of 2025, the people who were looking at all of the assets that were being put into place even while Trump was allegedly negotiating, guess what? They were proven correct. And then finally, one month ago, almost exactly from when this war launched, what did we see is it at the end of the day, all the talks, the carriers on the way, the missile, everything else with the bases, that's really what proved to actually tell. Now we don't know where they're gonna hit. They could hit something else. But you also have a little bit of a view into Donald Trump's logic. Let's put B1 up here on the screen. This is what he tweeted last night. Watch Mark Levin interview of the brilliant Mark thiessen tonight at 8:00pm on Fox News. So what did Mark Levin actually say on Fox News News? Let's Take a listen.
Mark Levin
Troops on the ground. He said no troops on the ground. I don't remember that in any campaign speech either. But why would we need troops on the ground? Well, there's a lot of reasons. And we wouldn't need 300,000 of them. It's this uranium, too. We've got to get the uranium. If it cannot be destroyed, if it cannot be altered, we got to get it for the reason I just said. You can make dirty bombs, and over time, you can still make sophisticated missiles. So you need to get to the uranium. That's why I'm reading in the paper, we're talking about the 82nd Airborne. We're talking about these various special Forces and the various military services and so forth. He's not talking about sending regulators, army and infantry in by the hundreds of thousands. The men he's talking about, the units he's talking about, they are specialized. And you know what else I remember from my days in the Reagan administration? Many of them are trained for a moment like this to try and secure enriched uranium. Many have been trained for moments like this.
Sagar Enjeti
This.
Krystal Ball
Great.
Sagar Enjeti
There you go. Trump says, watch it. This is what he says.
Krystal Ball
Yeah. And I think. I don't think Trump actually knows what he's going to do. But there is, I think you're correct, that a lot of logic of Trumpian logic, logic pushes in the direction of this, frankly, insane mission to try to seize the nuclear material because he's bored with this war. He doesn't wanna do it anymore. He wants to focus on the midterms or his ballroom or whatever. He's sort of sick of the whole, well, what is going to allow you to sort of do the Mission accomplished, okay, we achieved our objective. We're out of here. Carg island, any of these other islands, they're talking. That doesn't. That actually entrenches you there for a long time, which Trump himself has admitted. I mean, indefinitely. I don't know. And obviously also, that is sort of its own suicide mission for different reasons. But he's a big gambler. He's not afraid of taking insane risks. He's done it throughout his career, including his business career. He has a sense that he always lands on his feet, and in many ways he's been right about that. This may be the time when reality catches up. I also just have to note for the guy who ran from the beginning against the neocons, blah, blah, blah, to now be shouting out a Fox News segment with Mark Levin and Mark Thiessen. Do you guys know who Mark Thiessen is.
Sagar Enjeti
I do.
Krystal Ball
He was a speechwriter for Donald Rumsfeld and then for George W. Bush and he wrote a whole book about defending torture and waterboarding during the war on Terror era. So these are the people that he now uplifts, the very neocons that he claimed to be so opposed to. Are these leading lights at this point?
Sagar Enjeti
Yeah, well, you know, you hate to see the people who you read about ran against, thought were dead. Not only resurrected, but now be the people who are directly pumping. At this point, though, that's trite. This is Trump. I'm almost done with this whole, it's Mark Levin's war.
Krystal Ball
Oh, of course.
Sagar Enjeti
But at a certain point, like, this is Trump, it's Trump and that's it. At the end of the day, he's the guy who wants people to listen to Mark Levin. That's the guy who he's chosen to be in bed with. So be it. People like me, all of us, need to reckon with it. How did this happen? It's very interesting.
Krystal Ball
Well, it also shows you why this time around, all the people that got us into this disaster shit, they need to be out of media, they need to be shamed, they need to if, you know, if there were criminal acts, they need to be dealt with. Cuz you allow these people to linger around, next thing you know it's, you know, 20, 30 and we're getting the same bullshit about how we gotta go to war with Turkey or whatever, you
Sagar Enjeti
know, that's that's coming and we'll eventually get to that. You'll see gasping boomers on life support and be like, I know you were right about Iran, but we've got to go to war against her. We cannot allow her.
Krystal Ball
This time it'll be different. Democracy will flourish, human rights. Think of the girls we need. A gay pride parade, whatever.
Sagar Enjeti
We cannot allow Turkey to have a nuclear weapons saga. You just don't get it this time. And by the way, as we said, Put B4 up there on the screen. The US sailor. This is from Centcom. They're openly just tweeting this stuff out. Sailors and Marines aboard USS Tripoli have arrived in the US Central Command area of responsibility. So you've got all of the pictures of all of these US service members that are now there. Don't forget I talked earlier about China. China is genuinely weeping as this amphibious group was taken from the Asia Pacific and sent directly over here for potential operations. Put B5 up there, there as well. This actually goes into some of the operational details of what the influx of a potential 17,000 additional troops could look like, because that's currently being floated over at the Pentagon, far short of what would be needed for a full scale invasion, but could seize strategic territory on the mainland, secure their stockpile or take an island. So to set the tone for everyone, the way that this is going to go about is like the Vietnam mine model. What's going to happen is they're going to say that this is an initial and a special operation. That's it. It's just, we're taking the island, we're taking the uranium, we're going to stay there as long as we need to, and then once we get the uranium, we're going to come out. Well, where have we heard all of that before? Well, I'll enlighten you. It actually happened during the Vietnam War, where in the very first operation that General Westmoreland was in charge of, he said there is no situation where Marines will be directly engaging with the Vietnamese. He literally said that. He said, we're not here to engage. It was just 3,500. That's it.
Krystal Ball
Weren't they supposed to like, take an airport? Was not the idea exactly right.
Sagar Enjeti
Do you see how everything comes back around the same exact strategic logic? There is no situation where US Marines will be directly engaging with the Vietnamese. That's what he said. And of course that's what you plan for. And even yesterday or last show, I remember they're like, trump wants speedy end to the conflict. Every wartime leader wants a speedy end of the conflict. That doesn't mean you get it. And that's why you don't get into the damn mess in the first place. And I just, I cannot see a situation where we, at the very least, and I'm not saying we can't do it, we could just declare victory and leave even then. Straits of Hormuz are closed. What are you gonna do? You're gonna. Straights are closed. The Gulf Arabs are all, all getting attacked. The oil refineries. What, the Israelis are just gonna stop? I mean, that's layering on top of all of this. They're going through it right now. We're gonna talk about that a little bit later. But IDF is collapsing. You guys cover that on Friday. They've literally invaded all of Lebanon, like or half of the entire country. They just expanded the buffer zone. A million people are being displaced. IDF, 19 year olds are getting killed left and right in Lebanon. I mean, after their parents died and fought in Lebanon. Don't forget this is a political crisis. In Israel. Not to mention, like, look, they're stretched to the brink. They're fighting in Iran. They're taking ballistic missiles. It's a small country the size of New Jersey. Imagine that people there are like, I haven't slept in a month, you know, because we're all under attack by.
Krystal Ball
My heart breaks.
Sagar Enjeti
But I know.
Krystal Ball
Well, I do wanna make a point that somebody made online, which I thought was excellent, important by proportion. Israel has invaded and is attempting to annex a larger portion of Lebanon. Then Russia invaded in Ukraine. And I want you to think for a moment about the very different way those things were presented in the media. The Western media goes out of its way to describe Israel's invasion of Lebanon as anything other than an invasion. And you know, it's, guess what, guys, it's an invasion. It's wrong when Russia does it. It's also wrong when Israel does it. But in any case, your point about how, look, the public is on board with the Iran war. Don't get us wrong here. I mean, even with all the polling suggests, even with having to go in the bomb shelters and losing sleep and IDF soldiers getting killed and all of that, they're in for it, okay? In a much different way than the US population is. But that doesn't mean there's not tremendous pressure in terms of the demands on the idf. In fact, there's Israeli news outlets that are reporting if the US Puts troops on the ground, Israelis are not going to.
Sagar Enjeti
To, like, they're like, why would we ever expect that?
Krystal Ball
Yeah. Why would.
Sagar Enjeti
They can't ask for that.
Krystal Ball
Risk their lives in the war that they have been here for. For 40 years.
Sagar Enjeti
Of course. Yeah.
Krystal Ball
But in any case, I also wanted to play this last one because, you know, it speaks to the political landscape that, you know, that Trump is operating in, which for all the talk about, you know, the how MAGA would split if he went to war in Iran, blah, blah, blah. Yes, there are more independent allies, influencers predominantly, who are opposed to the Iran war. As we've discussed here before, the MAGA base is all in. And Steve Bannon, I think, emblematic of that is saying, look, if we're in here now, we need to go for total war. He's all in on the war effort. So let's take a listen to that.
Steve Bannon
If we're gonna go to war, let's go to total war. And what I mean by total war, let's shut down everybody trading with them. Let's shut down. Let's go to UAE and said, hey, you got like two Hours to go to Dubai and shut it all down. The pirate cove in Dubai. Gotta. Got to stop the Arabs. Everybody's playing games. The Israelis are playing games with us, the Arabs are playing games with us, the Europeans are playing games with us. And what are we doing? We're sending troops over there. We got. Which is fine. President Trump needs options and alternatives.
Krystal Ball
So ban and calling for total war. And this is the logic, this is
Sagar Enjeti
what always happens, is that people are bought in. They're like, well, we're in it. I decided for a pound, like you just said. You've got Matt Walsh, look, yeah, I got my problems. So he's like, hey, none of the predictions worked out. And what do I see? People are like, our troops have died. We have to support them. We have no choice. Oh, never heard that. Literally my lifetime in Iraq, same playbook in Vietnam. This is how it all starts. I'm not saying that we're gonna end up with 50,000 dead in 14 years of war. I really hope not. But it's not completely out of the question because you could easily see we do the uranium mission, some shit goes real bad. Now what? I mean, what, Trump is just gonna sit there and take it? Let's say that you have a disastrous strike and you have dozens of US troops again, there's nothing I want less than any of that. Now let now what? What the people. Professor Pape laid this out on our last show. Now you're gonna have the entire Brazil. Now we have to avenge them. Then we avenge, then something else goes wrong and it just spirals and spirals and you keep going up. And by the way, the whole time oil continues to go up to 140, 150A gallon. What's gonna happen to our society? We're gonna see shortages. Except this time nobody's gonna be in lockdown. It's not like they're gonna be demand destruction. It's gonna be a supply side shock that hasn't been seen since like the oil crisis. It will have massive social disruption and that's just here at home. So it's very much like the last Iran crisis. The oil shock combined with potential US ground troops all together, it's like it's genuine poly crisis, which I think sets us up well for our move to the economy. So let's get to it. We've got our friend Saurabh Amari standing by. Let's take a listen, Babes. What are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on smokeybear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips.
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Right.
Sagar Enjeti
Thanks, honey bear. Cause remember, only you can prevent wildfire. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the AD Council.
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Date: March 30, 2026
Hosts: Krystal Ball & Sagar Enjeti
This episode focuses on a major escalation in the Iran conflict: a successful Iranian attack on a critical US surveillance aircraft and Trump's latest threats—including the possibility of a US ground invasion of Iran to extract enriched uranium. The hosts dissect Trump's market jawboning, the devastating strikes on both US and Iranian infrastructure, the anticipated "mission accomplished" logic, the consequences for global markets, and the mounting risk of a ground assault. The growing involvement of allied and proxy groups, as well as the persistent echoes of failed US military adventures, set the background for a worried, sometimes acerbic conversation about America’s next move in the Middle East.
“He's trying to wishcast a deal, continuing to try and hold this guillotine over the Iranians’ heads, who remain very much dug in...” – Saagar Enjeti (07:24)
“Oh, maybe we're a little bit more like Russia than we thought... To take major strategic hits like this…is a flashing red light to show how unprepared we are and the damage we’ve now taken.” – Saagar (13:23)
“This is like eyes and ears… a mobile command center… highly significant, very expensive piece of equipment…” – Krystal (14:02)
“All of the indications are on the other side… The new supreme leader purportedly is more hardline. You murdered his whole family. I don’t think he’s too psyched about doing a deal with you.” – Krystal (08:50)
“So more children here killed by our missiles…this new fancy high-tech missile in its debut murdered some children while they were playing sports.” – Krystal (26:03)
“Can you imagine if an American president had to tell…everybody, you need to shower less? ... That could be coming.” – Sagar (28:23)
“It would require some U.S. forces to go deep inside Iran and extract nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium. That would likely put the American forces inside the country for days or longer…” – Saagar (38:35)
“Not like going in and snatching Maduro and getting out…if Iran agrees to hand over its uranium as part of a peace settlement…doesn’t look like we’re headed in that direction whatsoever.” – Krystal (41:45–44:07)
“To now be shouting out a Fox News segment with Mark Levin and Mark Thiessen…These are the people that he now uplifts, the very neocons that he claimed to be so opposed to.” – Krystal (48:55)
“The way that this is going to go about is like the Vietnam model…In the very first operation…he said there’s no situation where Marines will be directly engaging with the Vietnamese …Of course that’s what you plan for…” – Saagar (51:58)
“If we're gonna go to war, let's go to total war… Let's shut down everybody trading with them. Let's shut down… the pirate cove in Dubai. …The Israelis are playing games with us, the Arabs are playing games with us, the Europeans are playing games with us. And what are we doing? We're sending troops over there, which is fine. President Trump needs options and alternatives.” – Steve Bannon (55:20)
Trump’s Threat:
“We will conclude our lovely stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells and Kharg island, possibly all desalination plants which we have not purposefully yet touched.” – Trump (read by Saagar, 06:10)
On the Flawed Premise of Market Manipulation:
“He has been trying to use Truth Social to market manipulate and buy himself more time. More time for what? He has no idea.” – Krystal (07:51)
On Iran’s Retaliatory Strength:
“Their missiles that they fired just yesterday were actually double what they were firing just a week ago. They've been able to inflict a lot of very critical strategic level damage to the United States.” – Saagar (09:13)
On Missile Depletion:
“The US has now fired some 850 Tomahawk missiles…raising concerns about the weapons limited supply…what is that, years of the backlog?” – Saagar (27:56)
On the Ground Game’s Insanity:
“You have to set up a makeshift airfield, secure a perimeter, go in under fire, send your team in with excavators, find this material, load it on trucks, get it onto these aircraft and get it out. …This is not like going in and snatching Maduro and getting out.” – Krystal (44:07)
On Escalation Logic:
“This is the escalation trap, which we've tried to tell everybody ad nauseam about.” – Saagar (10:22)
On the American and Israeli Publics:
“The public is on board with the Iran war. Don’t get us wrong here…they’re in for it, okay? In a much different way than the US population is.” – Krystal (54:16)
This episode offers a bracing, critical review of the Iran war’s rapidly escalating dangers: from Trump’s performative bluster and real-world risk taking, to devastating military and civilian consequences, to the growing certainty that the US and allies are locked onto a disastrous course. The ever-present logic of previous American military debacles looms large—as do the global economic tremors and the sense that, once again, American leaders are improvising their way toward a bigger war without a viable exit.