← Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
3/9/26: Trump Doesn't Rule Out War Draft, Fox Coverup On Trump Fallen Soldier Disgrace, Desalination Plants Struck
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Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Ryan Seacrest
Guaranteed Human hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's Stock Up Savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for store wide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Oreo, Haagen, Dazs, Charmin, Tide, Sparkling Ice, Reese's and Special K. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pickup or delivery restrictions apply. See website for terms and conditions when
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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 this show.
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Saagar 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.
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Krystal Ball
So if that is something that's important to you, Please go to BreakingPoints. Become 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.
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Saagar Enjeti
We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see you@breaking points.com Morning everybody. Happy Monday. We have a great show for everybody today. What do we have? Crystal?
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Krystal Ball
Indeed we do. Once again we're going to be covering the Iran war from every aspect. Trump out with some new comments saying that it will be a mutual decision between us and Israel when this war ends. So that's pretty interesting. We've also got Trump's disrespectful display at the dignified transfer of service member remains. We'll show you that and how Fox News tried to cover it up. Water sources are now being attacked. This is extraordinarily dire for a region that does not have sufficient water, fresh water there locally. So we'll break down what that means for the war and escalation. We're also going to have an analyst, oil analyst, on to take a look at what skyrocketing oil prices mean for the entire economy. Extremely dire warnings from a very sober minded analyst. So you definitely wanna listen to that one. A new supreme Leader has been chosen. Trita Parsi is going to join us to break down what that means and also what happened with Iran's attempted de escalation in the region. Jeffrey Sachs believes we are already in a world war. We will discuss and debate. And Lindsey Graham is a psychopathic war hawk and also apparently a traitor according to new reporting. So definitely wanna know about that.
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Saagar Enjeti
Even the Iranians are like, hey man, if somebody did this over here, we would just, you know, we would put them on trial for treason. So there you go. All right, thank you to everybody who's been supporting signing up for the show. BreakingPoints.com, we do have our free month trial going on right now. You can put it up there on the screen. Promo code is BP3 26. Seriously, a thank you to all of you who have joined. We have had literally millions of new people who've joined us in the last week. Last week, every single day was like a new single day record for the show with views and or podcast downloads. So seriously, thank you. If you cannot afford it, no worries. Or if you don't wanna try it, cause you don't even have to afford anything, just please hit subscribe to our YouTube channel and if you're listening to the podcast, please share an episode with a friend. It really helps other people find the show, especially if they wanna know what's going on with Iran. But as you said, let's start with these new comments from Donald Trump, the President onboard Air Force One on returning from that dignified transfer of the fallen American service members. Here he is talking about boots on the ground, refusing to rule it out. Let's take a listen.
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Interviewer
Do you think the map of Iran will look the same?
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Donald Trump
The war is complicated enough without having getting the Kurds involved.
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Interviewer
And do you think the map of Iran looks the same after this is all done.
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Donald Trump
I can't tell you. Probably not.
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Interviewer
Are there circumstances where you'd send in ground troops? How are you thinking about that?
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Donald Trump
I don't even want to talk about it now. I mean, that's. I don't think it's an appropriate question. You know, I'm not going to answer it. Could there be possibly for very good reason. Have to be very good reason. And I would say if we ever did that they would be so decimated that they wouldn't be able to fight at the ground level. Negotiating leverage maybe maximum, but we're not looking to settle. They'd like to settle. We're not looking to settle. They're on their third or fourth level of leadership and they have leaders right now that nobody even knows who they are. They're being decimated now. You know, at some point I don't think there'll be anybody left maybe to say we surrender, but they're being decimated.
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Interviewer
Some Iranians are concerned that the Kurds will carve out kind of an autonomous region as they did in Syria and Iraq.
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Donald Trump
We're not looking to the Kurds going in. We're very friendly with the Kurds, as you know, but we don't want to make the war any more complex than it already is.
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Interviewer
Felt ruled that out.
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Donald Trump
We are one.
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Interviewer
Yeah, I have ruled it out.
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Donald Trump
I don't want the Kurds going in. I don't want to see the Kurds get hurt, get killed. We've had a good relationship. They're willing to go in, but we really, I've told them I don't want them to go in.
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Saagar Enjeti
So completely all over the map comments. But the most noteworthy one is not ruling out boots on the ground saying if we did do, I mean, you can see it's probably going to happen now at this point. But secondary to that are these imperial comments at the very top that we showed you crystal him saying that the map is not going to look the same. And even though he is talking there about quote, ruling out the Kurds, he didn't rule out the Kurds. The Kurds ruled it out themselves. The Iraqi Kurds were like, hey man, we want no part of this. And I'll say why? Because they're right in the range of all of these short range missiles. The Iranians have already been firing stuff at them, including the US Bases. They have no appetite for some Iran Iraq war redux, remember at one point was I think one of the bloodiest conflicts in human history. Almost Nobody ever pays any attention to it. But over a million people died in that conflict. They want nothing to do with any sort of incursion which will put them at risk. But that doesn't mean that we're not gonna be have all kinds of CIA sponsored groups inside of the country. Potentially the Iranian Kurds who are already there, could be armed. The Turks obviously would get involved. But the comment there, I mean, at every turn all this man does is make it even more existential for the people of Iran. The map is not gonna look. What would you do if somebody said that imperially decided we're gonna redraw your borders? Like as some Sykes Picot time, which by the way, they're talking about in Israel. In Israel they're like, hey, it's Sykes Picot again. It's an opportunity to redraw the maps of the Middle East. You will fight to the death, will you not? I mean, that's, that's. If we're gonna burn your oil supplies, we're gonna talk about here in a bit. We are going to drop bombs all over, you know, collapse the police forces, kill the ayatollah, sponsor some third party groups, and the President says, we're gonna redraw your map. What do you think that they're going to do as a result of this is an attack on the polity itself, not just on the regime, on the entire like nation state of an idea of Iran. So, yeah, they're almost certainly going to just continue to use this especially Iranian state propaganda. There's been no widespread protests despite the fact that everybody promised it. And at every turn, all he is doing is turning the switch up for escalation, which of course is disastrous for them, disastrous for us. And another American service member was just confirmed KIA in the operation. Not to mention for the Iranian people and especially for everybody else in the region. It just means wider war is even more likely.
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Krystal Ball
Yeah, and you've had, in addition to those seven officials, kia, you have two others who have died. One allegedly of a medical episode, the other allegedly of an accident. And then, you know, there are a number of injuries. There's a hospital that's been closed for labor and delivery to handle the wounded U.S. service members coming out of Iran. So that's already where we are. I also have to just say, you know, for these like, diaspora Iranian monarchist, what a fool. Like you thought that Trump really cared about freedom for the Iranian people. You know, the people who were the biggest critics of the Iranian regime are in Tehran and now they're Having oil rained down on them, apocalyptic fires. Like, it genuinely looks like a literal movie of a hellscape. That's your, you know, your Iranian freedom. I'm sure the women are really grateful for their kids breathing in toxic fumes that are probably gonna cause them to have cancer 10 or 20 years in the future. And meanwhile, you have Trump coming out and saying, yeah, Iran will probably break apart. Like, I mean, just absolute, absolute insanity. And it speaks to the fact that the goal now is Israel's goal. It's civil war, it's regime collapse, it's chaos. The only reason, as you said, the Kurds aren't getting involved also is not only are they worried about the danger, but they're like, listen, you people have, especially Trump in particular, have screwed us over multiple times in the past. Like, how many times are we gonna have to get the Fell for it again award before we say, you know what? This battle is yours. Go. Good luck. We'll see what happens on the other side of it. So that's where things stand as of right now. I wanna go ahead and play this next piece, which is extraordinarily significant. So it has now been confirmed that it was the U.S. that struck that girls school and murdered those 168 children, mostly girls, ages 7 to 12. There have been multiple analyses, and now we have actual video of the Tomahawk missile. Those come from us, not from Israel, not from Iran. Those come from us. Okay? Tomahawk missile that was dropped on that school and recall. Also, there's reporting this was a double tap strike. So in any case, this is now incontrovertible. You know, as much as you can learn anything definitively in war. We now know that this is the case. Trump gets asked about it, and what does he do? He just outright lies. Let's take a listen.
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Interviewer
Did the United States bomb a girl's elementary school in southern Iran on the first day of the war and kill 175 people?
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Donald Trump
Based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran.
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Interviewer
Is that true, Mr. Hickset?
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Saagar Enjeti
It was Iran who did that.
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Interviewer
That we're certainly investigating, but the only.
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Saagar Enjeti
The only side that targets civilians is Iran.
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Donald Trump
We think it was done. We think it was done by Iran because they're very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran.
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Krystal Ball
Disgusting.
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Saagar Enjeti
So you saw that. Pete Hegstaff won't back him up on that.
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Krystal Ball
He said, oh, there's an investigation once
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Saagar Enjeti
who are investigating it. Look, I mean, as you said, there's a video it's literally a Tomahawk missile. There's only one person in the entire conflict that uses a Tomahawk missile. So last time I checked, that's the only time that it could happen. And all of the background on the strike makes sense. Not to devolve too much, but it shows you the danger. And also, I've always warned about this with air campaigns and everything was like, oh, the most sophisticated military. I'm not denying that, but also there's a lot of error. So let's say you have this IRGC base which has a school attached to it, right? And years ago it was only IRGC and it wasn't a school. What's very obvious that they didn't update whatever their strike package was. And whoever's programming these coordinates into the Tomahawk, they have no idea they're getting passed on by the Pentagon. So whoever it is that put that coordinate into the strike package, sent it along to the Tomahawk, they're the ones who are responsible. In the old times. This is a massive scandal. I covered the Kunduz hospital incident in 2015. I mean, that was front page news of every paper in the country. The military, look, you know, hated Obama and all of that, but there were still at least some rules and all of that at the time. And at the Pentagon, I mean, their feet were held to the fire whenever that hospital in Afghanistan was struck. This time around, it's like Tomahawk missile video. You've got multiple geolocated pieces of evidence. By the way, the military themselves are leaking to Reuters and to everybody else. They're like, yeah, it was probably us, okay? And now if they never confirm it, and Trump is like, oh, it was Iran, which was some Israeli claim. Just so everybody understands, that was a claim thrown around by Israel. Literally completely fake. It's Gaza level stuff. Oh, it was a rocket.
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Krystal Ball
That misfire, comdebge.
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Saagar Enjeti
Bingo. Exactly. It was a misfire that came down and they killed them. This is like a serious shameful incident. Even Laura Ingraham is like, hey, somebody's head needs to roll for this, right? But this, you know, this is the Gaza. This is what happens when we get in bed with the Israelis. We're gonna adopt their tactics and their talking points. We're literally eroding our entire national sense of honor in the Iraq war. I can tell you this right now. This might have happened, but seriously, something actually would have happened at the military command level. You think Hegseth and Trump are gonna do anything? Zero, of course.
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Krystal Ball
Okay.
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Saagar Enjeti
It's Disgraceful.
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Krystal Ball
Yeah. The moment that the media stops asking them, no, we'll never hear that. That's what's gonna happen. And one last piece on this because it's important, something we've been focused on very, very possible that AI anthropics, Claude in particular, was involved in picking this target. And so, you know, and I mean, which opens up a whole other basket of questions about the way AI is being utilized. We know that AI continues to hallucinate. You know, obviously this, you know, begs the question of who then who was responsible if it was AI that picked it and there wasn't sufficient human involvement in review. So just, I mean, just hor.
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Saagar Enjeti
Well, you could easily see how it happens. You're like, hey, give me a list of IRGC bases. Here you go. Yeah, it just pills from an old
- [13:50]
Krystal Ball
data set, old map, old radar, whatever.
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Saagar Enjeti
Right, exactly. And what, you've got 50 different strike paths. How many? They said in the first day of the campaign that they did double the amount of strikes that they did in shock and awe in Iraq. So one strike was bad. But this is the problem. This is why you're supposed to have people with some actual intelligence and others looking it over. Because a Tomahawk missile doesn't just fly somewhere without a serious level of checks in terms of people who are like, let's do the intelligence. Here we go. Here's the picture of it. This is why it needs to be struck. Here's its impact. And this, I mean seriously, a massively shameful incident. Honestly, a huge besmirching on the entire honor of the United States.
- [14:29]
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn on eligible items from Oreo, Haagen, Dazs, Charmin, Tide, Sparkling Ice, Reese's and Special K. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pick up or delivery restrictions apply. See website for terms and conditions.
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Krystal Ball
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Saagar Enjeti
let's put a three up here next on the screen just to show you everything is rolling towards ground troops right now. I just, I don't see a way out of it. NBC News Trump has privately shown interest in US Ground troops in Iran. His comments have been focused on the idea of a small contingent of troops that will be used for specific purposes. Let's go to the next one just to continue to fill this out. This is from A4. There's been a cancellation of an army exercise quote fueling speculation about Middle Eastern troop deployments. The elite 82nd Airborne Division, which specializes in ground combat and other fraught missions, is now awaiting new orders. After an unexpected change of plans, the army abruptly canceled this major training exercise. This stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, brigade combat team of 4 to 5000 soldiers ready deployed on an 18 hour notice for missions as varied as seizing airfields and other critical infrastructure. So you could see paratroopers now who are getting involved here and in fact what we see initially is that some shape of what this strike would look like for ground troops. Let's put a six please on the screen. This is from friend Shelby Talcott over at Semaphore, Trump's Iran Options include a special operations raid on nuclear sites. So what it would do is a special unit mission has long ready to, quote, counter WMD mission, where their job is to go in and get loose nuclear material, fissile material centrifuges, destroy them. And this is part of the folly of the entire thing. We're told that this is all about nuclear sites. Well, we've bombed some of the nuclear sites, but by US Intelligence's own admission, it's all now underground and they can't get to it. They can't continue to bomb it. So to go and get it, what do you have to do? Boots on the ground. And so in this instance, you can't just have some special operations team insert when the Iranians know you're probably coming. That's why you would have the 82nd Airborne. So you're gonna have to send thousands of troops in so the special operation can do it. Those guys have to provide security to be able to come in if anything goes awry, to airlift them outta here. You can easily see how much of a disaster that this could easily be inside. What, you think that the Iranians don't read the news? What do you think they're gonna do right now? They're gonna surround that thing and turn it into a death trap. And I'm not saying that we are not capable of doing something like this, but perhaps it would cost a lot of lives. And what's shocking, too, is the cavalier nature that they're already talking about death. Not just of Ameri, but not just of Iranians, but of Americans with Iranians. I mean, Hegstad, he's a psychopath. He's like, anybody still alive, they may not be alive. I mean, he's literally like a video game character. And actually, I do think it's worth meditating here on the White House's propaganda. Everything is like Iron Man, Tropic thunder. Like they're trying to meme this into existence. It's some of the worst aspects of, like, 2003, you know, rah, rah Americanism, which South park used to do such a good job of parroting, but to show how insane things are in the White House, they will not even rule out a draft. Okay, so a five. Let's take a listen. Mothers out there are worried that we're gonna have a draft, that they're gonna
- [19:51]
Podcast Host
see their sons get and daughters get involved in this. What do you wanna say about the President? President's plans for troops on the ground? As we know, it's been largely an air Campaign. Up until now, it has been and it will continue to be. And President Trump wisely does not remove options off of the table. I know a lot of politicians like to do that quickly, but the president, as commander in chief wants to continue to assess the success of this military operation. It's not part of the current plan right now, but the president again, wisely keeps his options on the table.
- [20:27]
Saagar Enjeti
Wisely keeping his options on the table for a draft. I mean, it's first of all politics wise. Think about that. That's gonna rocket to every mom of a 17 year old in the entire country.
- [20:39]
Krystal Ball
All these young men who voted for Trump.
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Saagar Enjeti
All these young men who voted for Trump. I have no words, by the way. I mean, I've given you my counterintuitive take. I supported draft for exactly this reason. I'm like, hey, if you want to, you know, if you want to send America's sons and daughters to the war, the whole population better be bought in or people should riot over the.
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Krystal Ball
Send baron first and then we'll follow.
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Saagar Enjeti
In the first World War, the Prime minister of the uk, his son was killed on the front line. The entire, like highest echelon of society, all of their sons were killed and like actually thrown into combat, not some rear action. And that showed that the society as a whole was actually into the war. And I'm saying the war was good, but that's the last time that we've ever seen anything like that from that point forward. The elite of the elite, they always get in the rear echelon. And of course since Vietnam in particular, the way we got around that one is all poor, young and black. Young, black and white men are the people who went and fought and died in the war. Same thing unfortunately happened with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. All volunteer military force, they primarily targeted. I mean, look, there's a military culture in the south and a lot of these working class communities literally across America, and they're the ones who predominantly suffered while people like me got to go to college. It's shameful, actually, that they're allowed to perpetuate something like this.
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Krystal Ball
Yeah, I mean, my daughter's a senior in high school. The recruiters are at the high school all the time, you know, and who, who is interested in that? The people who, yeah, they're, they're not on the college track. They're looking at the economy. They're, you know, this is a way to be able to have a stable job. And next thing you know, you're being sent off to fight some war. For Israel in the Middle East. Just to. I just want to drill down a little bit on why there is increasing likelihood, if not certainty, that US Ground troops are going to be on the ground. Because I think part of why we are in this place at this point, and Robert Pape, Professor Pape, has been doing a lot of this analysis and predicting this for a while, which is why it's worth listening. What he says is you are not going to be able to accomplish either a regime change or destroying the nuclear material from the air. So, you know, in Iraq, it took a year of searching the country to figure out there were no wmd. Okay? So you are not going to be able to figure out where it is. You are not going to be able to bomb it into oblivion or have confidence that you've bombed it into oblivion without being there on the ground. So option number one is you fail, right? Trump tacos. That's what I'm hoping for. Trump tacos. Bomb something or kills the next supreme leader and is like, okay, we're done. Great job, everybody. Let's go home. In that scenario, number one, Israel, of course not going to be satisfied with that. Number two, it's not clear that Iran would accept that at this point, because they're looking at this. Their new supreme leader just had his father, mother, wife and son murdered by the US And Israel. So I don't think he's going to be in, like, a really conciliatory mood here, number one. Number two, their strategic calculus now is that they have to hit us hard. They have to make us pay and suffer so that we don't do this again. So even if Trump tacos, at this point, it is no guarantee that the thing is going to be over. So that's option number one. And of course, Trump, he wants to save face, et cetera. And you've got a lot of forces from Israel that are continuing to push in this direction. Number two is that you have some sort of ground invasion to try to obtain and destroy this nuclear material so that you can have your mission accomplished moment there. Number three, I guess, is that you, like, deploy a nuke or something completely insane like that, which we're gonna talk about a little bit more of the possibility of that in World War three, which, quite frankly, at this point, you can't put anything With Netanyahu and Trump in charge, you cannot put anything off the table, because the level of death and destruction that these men are comfortable with is completely insane. I think Trump, thinking about his legacy, I don't think he cares whether that legacy is like, as a good leader or as notoriously evil leader. I think he's just more interested in leaving a gigantic mark on the world and wanting to be remembered. And so listen, if you're going in that direction, being the first president since World War II to drop a nuke again, I'm not saying that's what's gonna happen, but I don't think that you
- [24:55]
Saagar Enjeti
can put the table. I actually wouldn't rule it out. Not just because of Trump, but really because of BB. Let's put a 7 up there on the screen. Trump says to the tyranny times of Israel, it'll be a mutual decision with Netanyahu regarding when the war ends. So America literally, you know, we're giving up all of our sovereignty. It's a mutual decision with Bibi Netanyahu, literally a client state. Not exactly somebody who's an equal ally partner in this entire thing. But he's the one who's gone all in. We're gonna talk later about those oil strikes. It was Israel, apparently. And they're saying, oh, the U.S. they were very upset about the strike. Fake, whatever. If you're not gonna do anything about it, don't leak it to bureaucracy, just like Joe Biden, Putin's entire presidency did. But their level of barbarism, which we all saw, remember, it's not just Gaza. Cause Gaza was barbarism at like a humanitarian level. But their barbarism in terms of their, like gangster action in the whole region is really what showed. It's like, oh, these fuckers will do anything. Like Doha, Qatar, Jordan, or, sorry, Lebanon, like all over the entire Middle East,
- [25:56]
Krystal Ball
Syria, in Lebanon right now, literally.
- [25:57]
Saagar Enjeti
I mean, they're saying we're gonna turn Dahia area of Beirut into Khan Yun. This is smokers. They say this stuff out loud. How they're gonna level. I've seen hotels, buildings just completely collapsing in the middle of that city. So that is why I actually wouldn't rule out anything. Cause you never know where Israel will force your hand.
- [26:18]
Krystal Ball
Well, and especially when you layer on the number of, like, religious fanatics who are wanting to bring about the end times. Like, how can you rule anything out? And that's, you know, that's in Israel and that's here too. So again, I sort of feel like I had a blind spot for how much that ideology is significant, both in terms of some of the base of the Republican Party, but more importantly in terms of the leadership. I mean, you think about Huckabee, you think about Hegseth, you think about the Trump spiritual advisor and then he has this messianic vision of himself. This is scary stuff that we're playing with. Very scary stuff that they're playing with.
- [26:55]
Saagar Enjeti
Let's turn now to Donald Trump here. This should be a national scam. I thought that the remember what the tan suit, latte salute, all that stuff under Obama. That was Fox News fair. Here was Trump at the dignified transfer, literally dead American servicemen where he's supposed to be saluting and he's wearing a baseball cap. Take a look at this. I mean, every other person is not wearing a baseball cap because that's not what you're supposed to do in this type of situation. The USA cap, apparently it's the exact same USA cap that was worn whenever he announced that wore, remember, in the middle of the night, literally at what, 2am and then we didn't hear from him for like 24 hours on what the hell was going on there. What's even crazier is this Fox News and the way that they covered it where they actually played old footage of the dignified transfer, apparently to cover up the baseball cap. Let's go ahead and put this up here on the screen. So as you guys can see all here, they used old footage of a previous dignified transfer, apparently to mislead the audience about the fact that he did wear a baseball cap during that strike. So I mean, that is so crazy. Now, Fox News, I guess to their credit, did eventually apologize after this was pointed out. Let's take a listen. Before we move on, we want to acknowledge a mistake made earlier on our program. During our coverage of yesterday's dignified transfer, we inadvertently aired video from an older dignified transfer instead of the ceremony that took place yesterday. We deeply regret the air and extend our respect and condolences to the service members families. We honor the sacrifice of those six American heroes. Yeah, sure. I'm sure that inadvertent.
- [28:32]
Krystal Ball
Just a little oopsie. Editing together a clip with a previous dignified trans.
- [28:36]
Saagar Enjeti
I mean especially here's why I actually don't believe it. Cause did none of the hosts, like everyone saw the pictures and then they played that immediately. If you and I were doing that, I'd be like, hey, that's the wrong side. Like, how did something like this happen? Nobody in the control room. Nothing. Yeah, not buying it. That only happened because it got leaked out there. But what's even worse, look, I mean, as people know, I'm a dress code fanatic, but it's not just about that. It's also about what it represents, which is about, it's called a dignified transfer. It's about respect for the people who are dead. What's even more disrespectful is Trump basically saying, yeah, this is probably gonna be the first of many. I hate to do it, but that's part of war. Whatever, right? Literally, the Lord Farquaad me team. Let's take a listen.
- [29:18]
Interviewer
Or if you're going to end up coming back to Dover for more of these such dignified transfers,
- [29:25]
Donald Trump
sure, I hate to do it, but it's a part of war, isn't it? Who are you with?
- [29:31]
Interviewer
Washington Post.
- [29:32]
Donald Trump
Wouldn't you say it's a part of war?
- [29:36]
Interviewer
Deaths are a part of war.
- [29:38]
Donald Trump
Yeah, it's a part of war. It's a sad part of war. It's the bad part of war.
- [29:43]
Saagar Enjeti
Sad part of war. Bad part of war. I mean, it's just so comfortable with the deaths of American servicemen. You know, another thing, and we shouldn't let this one go unnoticed. Anyone noticed Tulsi Gabbard there in full uniform doing her salute? How many times had her on the program talking about, oh, I never wanna see Americans come back. You know, my time as a medic really informed my views. There she is sitting in front of coffins coming back from this now war with Iran again. One of them, literally a 20 year old kid born four to five years after nine, 11. It's so disgusting.
- [30:13]
Krystal Ball
She and JD have been very quiet, haven't they? Very quiet. I mean it is utterly shameful and insane. I mean we're now at a point where they're actively flooding. We can't rule a draft out, where it's almost certain that we're gonna have boots on the ground, where they're so cavalier about the death that is going to come to US service members and additional injuries and casualties. Just really wild stuff. And then in terms of the cost for everyday Americans, we're gonna talk more extensively about the price at the pump, what that's gonna mean. Not only there, but we all live through Covid. We know the way this ripples throughout the economy. We know the level of disruption and how much ordinary people suffer when you have these kinds of supply shocks. So Trump got asked, hey, are you worried about gas prices and so cavalier about this as well? Very easy when you're a billionaire, I guess. Let's take a listen to that.
- [31:06]
Interviewer
Worried about gas prices right now?
- [31:08]
Donald Trump
No, this is a short excursion into something that should have been done for 47 years. 47 years. It's taken to do this and no president had the guts to do it.
- [31:20]
Krystal Ball
Short excursion, no big deal. There's a new talking point from his lackeys, his administration lackeys, which is like short term pain for long term gain. That's what they're selling to the American people.
- [31:31]
Saagar Enjeti
Long term gain of what? For some fake threat from Iran?
- [31:34]
Krystal Ball
Exactly.
- [31:34]
Saagar Enjeti
Bullshit.
- [31:35]
Krystal Ball
Exactly. And also the pain, what they're projecting is not going to be short term either. Let's be clear about that too.
- [31:41]
Saagar Enjeti
Even then, I mean, people spent like $200 million more on gas last week than they would have previously. That's a lot of money last time I checked. I mean, look, just. We're going to talk to Rory here in a bit. This just came across the wire. 499 a gallon today for diesel, $5 a gallon. I mean, does anybody else? How many segments we do here on this show about diesel and trucking and food inflation? This is where it all comes from. And apparently they don't give a sh. They do not care. Care at all about us. Okay, let's get to water desalination because that's very important and a major escalation in the war.
- [32:12]
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- [34:14]
Krystal Ball
We have now had multiple attacks on regional desalination plants, including a strike on a significant one within Iran. This, this is obviously a war crime, but it's also opened up a new escalatory front. This is actually something Professor Zhang talked to us about, how vulnerable this entire region is. And actually the GCC countries outside of Iran, they're the ones who are more reliant on these desalination plants because they lack freshwater sources within their own countries. Let's go ahead and take a listen to Trump getting asked about a US Attack on an Iranian desalination plant plan.
- [34:51]
Interviewer
Iran today accused the US of getting a desalination plan in Iran and they said that might open the door to other strikes on infrastructure, non military for
- [35:00]
Donald Trump
us to also open the door to other strikes against them.
- [35:04]
Interviewer
How do you respond to that allegation? Did the US Have Iran?
- [35:07]
Donald Trump
They are among the most evil people ever on earth. They cut babies heads off. They chop women in half what they did. Take a look at October7. Take a look at what they've done over the last 47 years. So I know nothing about a desalinization plant other than to say if they're complaining about a desalinization plan, we complain about the fact that they shouldn't be chopping babies heads off.
- [35:31]
Krystal Ball
Okay, so complete deflection there and then just uses some of the Israeli like atrocity propaganda.
- [35:37]
Saagar Enjeti
But what is he even talking about?
- [35:39]
Krystal Ball
He's.
- [35:39]
Saagar Enjeti
He, what's the reference?
- [35:42]
Krystal Ball
Yes, and he's claiming that Iran is now behind which all of the reporting suggests Iran had nothing to do with October 7th, outside of Hamas obviously being allies of theirs. But yeah, just complete deflection uses all of this debunked atrocity propaganda, tries to make it so that Iran is directly responsible for October 7th, et cetera. And we're already seeing the consequences of this new escalatory front. Let's put B2 up on the screen. We now, have Iran struck, caused material damage to a desalination plant in Bahrain. First time they say an Arab country has reported Iran striking a desalination plant. So just to be clear, US Strikes an Iranian desalination plant, and then they say, okay, all right, game on. Let's go. Two can play this game as well. Let's put B3 up on the screen just so we can take a measure of how impactful this is. So these are the countries in the region listed out here by their level of dependency on these desalination plants, which, of course, convert saltwater into fresh water. Okay. The most dependent 90% of their water coming from desalination plants is Kuwait, then at 86%. Oman, then at 75%. Israel, then at 70%. Saudi, at 60%. Bahrain, which was just struck, 50%, Qatar, 42%. The UAE and Iran. Now, they have some water issues, but it is not nearly the level of the GCC or Israel. Only 2% Iran is. The tweet here says 3% dependent on desalination. The chart says 2%. U.S. allies in the region at 40 to 90%. Think about that. Think about that. If you are like, Kuwait is basically wholly dependent on these plants which are vulnerable. And the U.S. you know, running out of interceptors and not doing a good job of defending these allies anyway. And your move is to attack an Iranian desalination plant to just completely opening up that front. Yeah. This is extremely dire for these countries.
- [37:45]
Saagar Enjeti
I will also raise another one. Are we sure it was us? Are we sure it wasn't the Israelis? Because this is something that they love, right? To see the broadened war and then immediately the strike that happened back on the GCC countries, as we've been talking about, they don't care at all about the gcc. They would be happy to see them collapse. Also, if. You know, it's funny, when I lived in Qatar, all of the Americans, we would always joke because gas was literally cheaper than water or than water. So gas would be like $0.89 a gallon, whereas water would be a dollar a gallon if you wanted to buy it from CVS or like some sort of grocery store. That is how different, like, things actually are over there, especially for fresh water. So you can think and just talk about how you've got only a certain amount of Runway whenever it comes to water desalination. But the bigger point is about civilian infrastructure. So this strike on the water desalination plant and the closure of the Straits of Hormuz literally is a choke point for every single person who lives in the Gulf, because think about it, you've got. Everyone talks about the Straits of Hormuz just for oil, but it's not. Remember, they have huge, you know, food, like all their food comes in from there. Everything, if you've ever been to these countries, everything is imported. Literally, there's nothing out there. It's a desert for fresh Florida.
- [38:58]
Krystal Ball
Not food sufficient, not water sufficient. Everything has to be.
- [39:02]
Saagar Enjeti
Everything is either flown in or shipped in. And if you two weeks is all they have for Runway, whenever it comes to food or water, I mean, it is a disastrous situation, especially for the civilian populations of a lot of the. Not to mention what, a million plus Americans who are all living in the country. Good luck getting out right now. Look at Dubai Airport. You know, we're gonna show you some of that stuff later on. I mean, the civilian infrastructure attacks. This is designed to inflict maximum damage on all of the population. So it's really dangerous.
- [39:31]
Krystal Ball
And to your point about who did this. So put B6 up on the screen. The Israelis blamed UAE. Okay, UAE is completely denying this, that they struck this desalination facility. And they also hit back at inappropriate, what they described as inappropriate Israeli conduct. So, you know, it definitely, there is a full scale disinformation campaign coming from the Israelis. Why? Because they don't want this to be a limited conflict. Their incentives are all in the direction of dragging as many countries into this thing as they possibly can. So, you know, I think given the breadcrumbs here, I think you're probably right. The most likely suspect here is Israel. But ultimately it doesn't matter from a, you know, whether it's the US Or Israel, because certainly the Iranians blame us for everything that's being done to them right now. And you already had, we're gonna talk to Trita more about this, but you've already had, you know, the Iranians made this sort of outreach like, okay, regional Arab countries, if you don't attack us, we're not going to attack you back. Trump immediately comes in and undermines that. And now, you know, that very fragile sort of accord to limit this and contain the conflict and step back from the escalation chain that has already been completely destroyed. And clearly Israel here trying to keep that regional escalation going by saying, oh, it was uae. They're denying it and saying, you know, basically you all are outrageous for the, you know, the disinformation that you're spreading. We can put B7 up on the screen here as well to see, you know, this analysis. Senior analyst on Israel, the crisis group says much of what israelisraeli media is reporting in Gulf states is disinformation. Appears to be part of an effort to escalate the war further between Gulf and Iran. And the, you know, I think that's just like undeniable at this point what they are up to. But last thing here put before up on the screen you can see the way that the Iranians are reacting. So this is the foreign minister of Iran. He says the US committed a blatant and desperate crime by attacking a freshwater desalination plant on Kashim island. Water supply in 30 villages has been impacted. Attacking Iran's infrastructure's dangerous move with grave consequences. The US set this precedent, not Iran.
- [41:58]
Saagar Enjeti
Yeah, that's why they already attacked in, what is it? Bahrain.
- [42:01]
Krystal Ball
Bahrain.
- [42:02]
Saagar Enjeti
And just, I mean Bahrain, remember, where are all those Americans who are in the Gulf? In Bahrain, like in Kuwait. And all of these countries are massively dependent on these water desalination. So I actually think, look, this is a broader war theory. Like what do you do? Let's go back to the history of all warfare. It starts out just troop on troop. Then, then it's like, well, when you get gridlocked, what do you do? Oh well, now we have to wage war on the enemy's ability to sustain the front. So what do you do? You no longer care as much about that. Air power is gonna go and attack. Remember ball bearing factories and all of these places of infrastructure that sustain the war effort. This is what. If you think back to World War I, what did they do? Why did they have unrestricted U boat bombing back then? To literally make sure that the Britons couldn't continue the war effort on their home island so that they couldn't continue to send food or any supplies to the people who were on the front. The same things that the Allies did to the Germans. We would attack their food supplies and all these other things. Again, same thing. We wanted to cause mass famine to make sure that the population would stop supporting the war. This is what total war looks like. The Civil War, how did it end? We had to go through Atlanta, burn everything to the ground. This is the problem with sustaining these types of conflicts. And it's literally a fight literally to the death. And then you have to say who has the ability and the will or at the very least the will to want to fight to the death. I don't want to, I don't even want to pay 50 cents more per gallon. The number of American dead for me is already, it's 7 too high. Who are confirmed. Who knows what the real number is? So for the rest of us, we're out here being like, oh, diesel, $5 a gallon. Huge disruption to our lives. Jet fuel is going up. Anybody who wants to fly, by the way, our Asian allies are getting hammered. You know, the South Korean. And the South Korean index is down 15% over the last five days. They're getting destroyed because all their oil comes from the Straits of Hormuz. The Japanese, 90% of their oil comes from the Middle East. The Nikkei 225, I checked this morning, is down like 9% over the last five days. They're getting hammered the entire world for what? For literally nothing. And then you've got Interceptor stocks that are all falling. Civilian infrastructure. This is textbook for how a war, for any war, which doesn't initially find smashing success in the first couple of days, it has to expand. It doesn't have a choice by strategic logic. I mean, theoretically you do. Which is to say, oh, my God, this was a horrible idea. Trump's not gonna do that. And even if he wanted to do that, Israel's not gonna let him at this point. And even if they did, then what are the Iranians just gonna say, yeah, okay. They're like, no, no, no, we're not done with you yet.
- [44:28]
Krystal Ball
And normalizing those attacks on civilian infrastructure, that is to Iran's benefit. Cause this is sort of stuff that's very easy to attack with the drone. Right. And, you know, so this is a game they can play all day long. And so what have you accomplished so far in this war? You know, decapitated the head of the regime. Now you've got a harder line person who has been named as the Supreme Leader, the son of the previous ayatollah who just had his whole family murdered by you. So congratulations, you've got another Khamenee who is more hardline than the previous one, who's now in charge. Okay. You've likely unified, actually the Iranian people behind this government, given that they are under siege and under attack. You have now your economy being destroyed in real time. I mean, true threat of, like a global depression situation already, just with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, you are now. You have failed to accomplish whatever the goals are. Not that you've been real clear about what those goals even are. So it kind of makes them unaccomplishable. But you have not collapsed the regime. There isn't civil war. There is nothing. Not certainly a regime change. You do not have control of the nuclear materials. They continue to be able to, you know, to strike within Israel. I'm seeing lots of reports this morning about attacks from Iran in Israel and also on GCC member states as well. So and now you're in sort of this bind where you're very likely to end up sending ground troops in and having many, many more Americans dead. That is what's been accomplished, quote unquote so far in this war. It could not be more of a cluster like it's just an absolute disaster and very hard to see how we get out of this anytime soon because Trump, there are no good options for Trump to walk away. And as I said before, even if Trump tried to walk away, not at all clear that the Iranians would be like, okay, good, let's go back to the way things were. Because they know that they would just be courting another attack yet again in the future.
- [46:28]
Saagar Enjeti
Future.
- [46:41]
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 31st. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags to earn uneligible items from Activia, General Mills, Nature Valley, A W, Monster Energy Coffee Mate and Pete's Coffee Coffee. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pickup or delivery restrictions apply. See website for terms and conditions.
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