Weekly Review With Clay and Buck - Hour 1 - Mission Creep?

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Episode: Weekly Review With Clay and Buck - Hour 1 - Mission Creep?
Release Date: June 28, 2025
Host: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
Source: iHeartPodcasts

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I. Introduction

In the Monday edition of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton delve into the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, analyzing recent military actions, potential retaliations, and the broader implications for international relations and national security.

II. Overview of the US-Iran Conflict

A. Trump's Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Facilities

Clay Travis opens the discussion by addressing the significant military strikes ordered by former President Donald Trump against Iran's nuclear infrastructure:

"President Trump ordered the bunker busters to be used and substantial damage done to the three main nuclear facilities in Iran."
(02:34) — Clay Travis

Travis emphasizes the precision and effectiveness of the strikes, highlighting their objective to dismantle Iran's nuclear enrichment capabilities.

B. Assessment of Military Precision and Consequences

Buck Sexton concurs on the tactical success of the operations:

"The strikes... were in terms of its incredible military precision. Tactically, both the Israeli and American components of this have been remarkable."
(06:00) — Buck Sexton

He further elaborates on the minimal immediate fallout from Iran's side, noting an unexpectedly weak response compared to initial fears.

III. Potential Iranian Retaliation

A. Threats to US Bases in Qatar and Beyond

The conversation shifts to the imminent threat posed by Iran's retaliation against US military installations, particularly in Qatar:

"Iran has launched six missiles towards US bases in Qatar."
(35:09) — Ryan Seacrest

Clay and Buck discuss the implications of these attacks, exploring whether Iran's moves signify a larger strategy or isolated incidents.

B. Analysis of Potential Missile Attacks

Buck Sexton raises concerns about the possibility of further escalation:

"If they do something horrific... that could decide to decapitate what's left of the regime."
(38:12) — Buck Sexton

He underscores the delicate balance the US must maintain to avoid a spiral into broader conflict.

IV. Comparisons to Past Military Interventions

A. Iraq War and Afghanistan Lessons

Clay Travis shares his personal experiences from past military deployments, drawing parallels to the current situation:

"I worked in the Office of Iraq analysis... don't blame me for the WMD analysis largely in Iraq."
(10:33) — Clay Travis

He warns against repeating mistakes from previous interventions, particularly the pitfalls of mission creep and underestimating the complexities of nation-building.

B. Avoiding Mission Creep

Both hosts agree on the importance of maintaining clear objectives to prevent unintended escalation:

"We should not be rebuilding... We have to avoid getting drawn into regime change."
(32:23) — Buck Sexton

V. Political and Public Reactions

A. Democratic Responses and Calls for Impeachment

The show highlights the strong backlash from Democratic figures, including calls for impeachment of President Trump following the strikes:

"Avocado within an hour of the attacks said that Trump had to be impeached."
(21:41) — Ryan Seacrest

Clay expresses frustration at the partisan divide, noting that such reactions are more about political maneuvering than national interest.

B. Media Handling and Public Perception

Clay criticizes the media's portrayal of the strikes and the ensuing conflict:

"The media is getting very fired up about these stories this week."
(25:43) — Clay Travis

He argues that sensationalism overshadows the nuanced realities of the situation, fostering unnecessary fear and conflict.

VI. Potential Outcomes and Future Steps

A. Possibility of Regime Change in Iran

The hosts debate the feasibility and desirability of orchestrating regime change in Iran, considering historical precedents and current geopolitical dynamics:

"Do we want a regime change to occur? And then there's, do we want to take part in any kind of regime change?"
(30:44) — Clay Travis

They caution against interventions that could lead to prolonged conflict and regional instability.

B. Risks of Escalation to Larger Conflicts

Clay and Buck explore the potential for the conflict to escalate into a broader war, weighing the strategic interests of the US and its allies:

"If they do something against civilians, then I think that you might just decide, we might decide to decapitate what's left of the regime."
(38:12) — Clay Travis

Buck adds that such actions could push Iran into alliances with other global powers, heightening the risk of widespread conflict.

VII. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

As the episode concludes, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton reiterate the uncertainty surrounding the US-Iran tensions and the need for vigilant monitoring of developments:

"We don't know yet. We're watching this as it goes."
(07:49) — Clay Travis

They emphasize the importance of strategic restraint and the avoidance of hasty decisions that could exacerbate the situation.

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Notable Quotes:

• "President Trump ordered the bunker busters to be used and substantial damage done to the three main nuclear facilities in Iran."
  — Clay Travis (02:34)

• "The strikes... were in terms of its incredible military precision. Tactically, both the Israeli and American components of this have been remarkable."
  — Buck Sexton (06:00)

• "If they do something horrific... that could decide to decapitate what's left of the regime."
  — Buck Sexton (38:12)

• "We don't know yet. We're watching this as it goes."
  — Clay Travis (07:49)

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Key Takeaways:

• The US, under President Trump, conducted precise military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, aiming to curb its nuclear ambitions.
• Initial reactions to the strikes have been mixed, with significant backlash from Democratic factions calling for impeachment.
• Iran has responded with missile attacks targeting US bases in Qatar, raising concerns about further escalation.
• Comparisons to past military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan highlight the risks of mission creep and prolonged conflicts.
• The possibility of regime change in Iran is debated, with hosts cautioning against actions that could destabilize the region further.
• Both hosts advocate for strategic restraint and vigilant monitoring to navigate the unfolding situation without triggering a larger conflict.

This comprehensive analysis by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of the current US-Iran dynamics, the challenges of military interventions, and the complex interplay of political reactions and international relations.

Transcript

[Clay Travis]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome everybody to the Monday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show. I am back from France and very happy to be here with all of you. Still not 100% on the voice. Sorry about that. Got a little sick when I was abroad. No shock there. I don't know, man. This Miami situation, Clay, my immune system is not what it used to be. If I don't have perfect weather and the beach nearby it all time.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Anytime you leave and go anywhere, now that you're in perfect weather all the time around, a little bit of a subtle shock. You got to get back to the New York City. Got it back to eaten and, you know, rat infested pizza parlors in New York City to, to get the immune system back up and running.

[Clay Travis]

You know, communism. One of the things you wouldn't expect, maybe good for the immune system. Speaking of New York, we got a lot of stories. Obviously the Iran situation, we'll dive into. I had a chance to talk to you about it yet. I'm gone just about a week. And, you know, sure enough, Clay almost gets us into World War Three. Who knew? Clay, what are you doing? But, you know, I thought you might throw a party. I didn't think you might start a global conflict. But we've got a lot to get into with Iran and the strikes there over the weekend. As you know, President Trump ordered the bunker busters to be used and substantial damage done to the three main nuclear facilities in Iran. We've got also some live updates on that one coming from the news wires here in just a moment. I mentioned New York City, though. This guy, Zoran Mamadani, who is really a shocking socialist, I mean, is a straight out of. He's actually even crazier, I think, than Bernie Sanders in some ways. He is surging ahead in the Democrat primary polling in my old hometown of New York, which is just going to be disastrous if he ends up as much as I, I don't know, I despise Cuomo because of what he did during COVID but I don't think he is a complete lunatic. I think this guy's a total lunatic, politically speaking. He's out of his mind. Mamdani. So we'll get into that. We've also got. Gosh, so much as is generally the case on a Monday, the president weighing in on what will happen if anybody decides to mess with us. The Iran strikes obviously occurred over the weekend. The US Involved. Last I remember, Clay and I were in the Oval Office. A few hours later, the strikes on Iran. On, on Iran occur by the Israeli Air Force that was last, not this Thursday, the Thursday before. Right, Thursday before that. And so here we are now, really, two weeks into this conflict. And over this weekend, President Trump ordered the deployment of our $2.4 billion apiece, when you add the full scope of the program in B2 bombers, also tomahawk missiles fired from our nuclear subs. So two of the three parts of the nuclear triad involved in the strikes, our nuclear triad involved in the strikes on these reactors and these research facilities that the Iranians had been operating and refused to negotiate their way out of. The story right now. And look, my assessment, some of you are asking, and it was really because I was overseas and I was six hours ahead and my soul, you know, I had to make sure that I was, you know, paying attention to world events while also representing us abroad for our wonderful advertisers or possible advertisers. But, Clay, I think that a lot of what you've shared on the strikes I would, I would agree with in terms of its incredible military precision. Tactically, both the Israeli and American components of this have been remarkable. And the Iranian response has been far more inept and weak than I would have even anticipated. We could have witnessed what I would call the greatest aerial strike success, certainly in this century and perhaps even going back a century. Now we are waiting to see what comes of this. Clay, we've got the imminent threat. This is the big headline across Fox News and other sites right now. This, look, this is the concern, right? The concern is what is the blowback? What are the consequences of these strikes? We worry about terrorist cells. I think that's the highest likelihood threat, but also the lowest impact threat against U.S. strategic interests. You know, if some lunatic somewhere, you know, God forbid, but shoots a few people or worse, that's not going to change the trajectory of the war in the Middle East. It's just a spite act of a terrorist or spiteful act of a terrorist. But you have something here where you have military action that is apparently imminent from the Iranian regime, firing at bases in our US Base in Qatar. So striking, obviously Qatari soil and going after, or rather, you know, in the sovereignty of Qatar, going after US Bases placed there. If this happens, I think we can expect a major escalation, retaliatory escalation, Clay, from Trump. And I think that this is the concern a lot of people have. What we've seen so far has been a remarkable success. What happens next is the big question.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Look, I think welcome back and glad to have you back stateside. And I think that Trump had to make the most consequential decision of his presidency so far. And I think he made the right one. And so Saturday evening we attacked the B2 bomber pilots, all of the individuals who fired the shots from our, our submarines. It's an incredible statement for American know how and I think you also have to extend it. We have talked a lot about this. There were no leaks. Trump 1.0 was a sieve. Everything immediately got out. Trump 2.0, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, JD Vance, obviously Trump himself, everybody in the national security team, Tulsi Gabbard, they delivered a magisterial plan and performance in terms of the attacks. Now, you went through this once before. To me, the question that, that we are monitoring as we are speaking to all of you is how will Iran respond? And there seems to be an expectation that they will respond in some way by attempting to attack American forces in the Middle east, which is not dissimilar to what happened. And you could probably speak to this very well. After Trump killed Kaseem Soleimani and so many people out there said, oh my, you remember World War 3 was trending. Everybody lost their minds. There were injuries to American troops, thankfully no deaths. And then it was like, okay, Iran got to have their public reprisal against the Great Satan. But it was not a substantial response in terms of its devastating impact by any stretch of the imagination. And we moved on. I wonder what the decision is going to be of the ayatollahs from a face saving perspective. What will they do now, I think is one of the questions that lingers. I think you would sign off with me on Trump's decision to wipe out much of the nuclear capabilities of Iran sent an important message. It was necessary. Since Iran seemed to have no interest in actually negotiating. We kind of forecast that this would be likely. The outcome, I think the vast majority of the Trump supporters, voters, all of you out there listening, agree, some disagree. And that's okay. It's healthy to disagree. We should have big debates in public on major issues. But I think now the question is, what's next?

[Clay Travis]

Well, I also think that it's not a finished situation by any means. And so for anyone to come to a conclusion on this, you know, you have to remember everyone I worked in that Office of Iraq analysis, it was called actually oia, that had been the place that was also responsible for before I got there. Don't blame me for the WMD analysis largely in Iraq. And to look at what the Iraq War was now, that's a, that's a full scale invasion. It's very different. I understand this. And one of the problems we have here is that people can pick their, you know, is this. Is this World War II and Neville Chamberlain situation, or is this Gulf of Tonkin incident, or is that everyone can pick whatever the historical analogy they want is for this situation and try to find a way to fit this in? This is a. No surprise, is a unique and complicated circumstance that is specific to exactly what we are seeing here. Meaning you can draw some lessons from other things, but nothing else is a roadmap for this because this is still happening and this is different from everything else that we have seen. Can the government lie to you? Yes, absolutely. Is mission creep a real thing? Absolutely. Should there be concerns about, you know, those as well as other aspects of this? Yes, there should. However, so far, what we've seen is the Iranian nuclear program brought to an end with minimal casualties both on the good guy side and minimal civilian casualties on the Iranian side. And the response from the Iranians has been almost nothing. I mean, let's just call it what it is. The Iranians have been, I think, taken very much by surprise by how effective these strikes were. And as I said initially when this first happened, when the Israelis opened up, if you have a great capability to counterattack somebody, you don't let your entire military leadership get wiped out in the first hour of the war. Okay? That's the truth. There's no. There's no playing possum here. There's no, oh, wait, we were lulling them into a false sense of security by letting them take out, you know, most of our major military assets, Most of our military leadership? No, of course not. So you're talking about a largely defanged Iranian military, certainly for external operations at this point. Point, it's very different. When you get into something like nation building or. Or counterinsurgency or regime change or anything like that, then it's just people walking around the streets with AK47s can. Can, you know, ruin a much larger army. We've learned that lesson, but we're not there. So we need to line these things up with where we are. And I just. Clay, one thing, I was observing a lot of this as I was in France and doing my thing and smoking my. Actually, I did not smoke any Galoise because that would have been. That would have been bad for my cold. But I observed all these things, and people want to declare things as either right, that they were either right or wrong based on what's happened. And I would Just say that. Nobody knows yet, really. If you've been saying World War Three would break out right away. Yeah, clearly that's not true. The notion that the Iranian. That the Iranians were going to be able to turn to Russia and China and those two countries were going to militarily intervene against the United States here, that's insane. And I saw a lot of people saying that. Unfortunately, that's just not based on any reality of anyone who understands, really, how national security works at the most fundamental level, because there's no interest in those countries in doing that. Why would they do that? Doesn't make any sense. But then again, we're waiting to see, as we talk to you right now in real time, if there are major strikes on US Military bases and what that looks like and what our countermeasures are. So I just say to everybody, we don't know yet. We're watching this as it goes. I think Trump made the right call. I think the Israelis so far were far more successful than most people anticipated. They could be this quickly. Now we see what happens next. Now we see what the next phase is. So we'll take calls on this and dive into it more here. And Clay's watching closely on the monitors as we see him. And obviously, we're thinking about our troops, too, and we don't want. We don't want to have any losses on our side. So we'll watch this.

[Ryan Seacrest]

I think what you had as we go to break here, Buck, is. Is super significant. Iran is isolated and pay attention to what people do, not always what they say. There's nobody in the Middle east that is actually lined up aggressively behind Iran. In fact, most of them are behind Israel in the United States. And on top of that, this idea that somehow China or Russia were going to get involved. China and Russia don't actually want, I don't think, a nuclear Iran. I don't think they trust the ayatollahs with nuclear weapons. And so they have been very muted in their criticisms as well. Some countries are going to chirp, but in terms of actions, I don't know that we have ever seen Iran more isolated in terms of actual support and backing, which is why the idea of, oh, what comes next, World War Three? No, actually, there aren't people allied with Iran who are willing to. To put themselves on the line over this. Now, again, we may well get an Iranian response officially live on the air as. As this show progresses, based on the way things are looking right now. We will update you on the latest there. But in terms of everything falling apart after this strike, to me so far, it feels like the Soleimani assassination where Iran talks a big game but isn't able to actually respond in a significant way and maybe doesn't even want to respond in a significant way.

[Clay Travis]

I was aware, Clay, of very of the highest level discussions back in the Iraq war days. I want to say, you know, late in the Bush administration, early in the Obama administration, in that era, high level discussions about what to do when it came to the irgc, Quds Force and Soleimani and the consensus on the policy side, not from the war fighters, but wanted to take him out because he was killing more fellow war fighters. He was just handing these EFPs, explosively foreign penetrators to these Shia militias to deploy specifically against our troops. They wanted to take him out. Policy community said, oh no, it'll create so much of a, you know, we'll have to worry about the Arab street so much or whatever. They were wrong. So on the Qasem Soleimani thing, we saw the results, we saw what happened. The people that said, you can't hit that guy, they were wrong and Trump proved them wrong. So now we see it's going to take a little more time. We see taking out the reactors, the US Getting involved in taking out the reactors. Was this a brilliant masterstroke, tactically and otherwise, to end the Iranian regime's nuclear ambitions for the foreseeable future, or was it? Is it something else? We'll see. We know that the media is getting very fired up about these stories this week. But what's not getting a lot of attention is a study under review of our nation's largest assets and whether they can be monetized for the benefit of a sovereign wealth fund. There's at least one guy out there who's had a history, a long one in D.C. and Wall street, who's paying attention to this. His name is Jim Rickards. He's one of those in the know people with great insights on a potential forthcoming opportunity with huge benefit to our nation and to you in particular. Jim Rickards is tracking the possible creation of the first ever national sovereign wealth fund. This is a fund that provides a return to citizens or retires national debt, which benefits everybody. Jim thinks that this could be coming because of an asset buried under American soil that would allow us to have a sovereign wealth fund. To hear more of Jim Rickards thinking, go to birthright2025.com A lot of this conversation is a result of President Trump's instigation on this issue. It could make Trump the most popular president in history and help millions of investors with their Retirement. Go to birthright2025.com to get the details, free of charge. That's birthright2025.com paid for by Paradigm Press.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Clay Travis]

Strike to 16 year old American citizen. That actually happened. A 16 year old.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

And knew what he was, you know, he's like, sorry, you know, Anwar Lockheed's son, like, gotta take him out. Like. And then they tried to say, oh, it's classified, no one can talk about it. Yeah. And then the press all wrote about it. I mean this, they said, clay, we have dropped under the Obama years. Specifically we were dropping bombs in, in Libya. We all know about that. And you know, we drop bombs in Syria and Somalia. I mean you get on the list and now all of a sudden they're like, you can't take a strike that's in American interest. What is it? Is a 9th Circuit judge going to enjoin Trump from doing anything for the military?

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah, that was what was trending after the attacks was that a federal district court judge had mandated that Trump had to clean up the mess from the attacks in Iran, which sadly is not far from the truth. If you look from even this weekend, some of the rulings from judges. We'll take your reaction. We'll continue to unpack major attack from Trump in Iran as we anticipated on the program would be the case hitting on Saturday. But I want to tell you all about Sabre spelled S A B R E. We have their products all over the house. The pepper prey jet, this, pepper spray gel. Projectiles in particular are absolutely fantastic. You are going to want products like these, especially if you got teenage daughters, if you got kids going off to college and you want them to be able to protect themselves. It's amazing. So many different home defense mechanisms as well. Different alarms, different security devices. We've got them all family owned, 50 years in the business. They also have a phenomenal pepper gel projectile launcher just like a gun. If you have fired a gun except it is non lethal in it will help protect you. Fires off a big pepper gel projectile. Check it out [e-mail] 15% when you go to sabre radio.com that saberradio.com 15% off.

[Clay Travis]

All right, welcome back into Clay and Buck. We're still waiting for the updates if and when they come in on this reported imminent threat against US military base in Qatar. We've also got more Updates from the region on what Israel has been hitting. You see Clay, they blew the doors off of or the gates off of the infamous Evan prison in Iran which is where they keep political prisoners, you know, high profile prisoners. Israelis just blew the gates open. It's on the front page or on the, it's funny I say front pages if I actually like Clay read paper papers but you know, it's on the website.

[Ryan Seacrest]

I was walking around trying to find paper paper this morning in Michigan. I'm doing the show from up here and I finally found paper paper to sit down and do all my reading.

[Clay Travis]

You and my dad, I don't even know he's. You guys can both also maneuver it around like it's no problem. I, I don't, yes.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Laura gets driven crazy by the amount of sound and even when I, if there's a page, if there's an article on multiple pages, she's like, I, I don't even want, I don't even want to read it. I don't know why they have to put it on two pages.

[Clay Travis]

I co sign with her on that one. But here is from the weekend. I wanted you to hear it from President Trump himself. Remember this is a big decision made by the commander in chief to follow up the Iranian strikes with a military capability that only the United States has. That really goes to among our most expensive and a high tech and sensitive from a, you know, classified and proprietary perspective. I mean this is something we can do. No one else on the planet can do what the US military did with these strikes in Iran. President over the weekend at about 10 Eastern time on Saturday addressed the nation. He had J.D. kerry and I watched it live as it happened. I'm sure many of you did as well. But just so you can get a sense as to what the president's view of the strikes. This happened on Saturday. Some of you might not have even heard it. This is cut one, play it. A short time ago, the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime for Do Natanz and Esfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this hard, horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. Tonight I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle east must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. He made it very clear, first of all, he's a spectacular success. And you know, President Trump in what I think will be one of the more memorable moments of not just his second term, but really of his entire president's presidency. When all is said and done, there's a big moment, Clay. We've been talking about the Iranian nuclear facilities and possible strikes on them for decades now. I mean, this has been a conversation going on for a very long time. But notice this, Clay, and this is the part of it that I think has to be factored into our calculations about the success of this and about the risk reward calculations. He's let the Iranians know. If you mess around now, you know, that's it. We did our thing. We hit your facility. If you come at us with some terror strike or you do something somewhere, we can hit you a lot harder wherever we want to hit you. It's not worth it to you. So the question is, what is the calculation made by the mullahs, by the Iranian regime itself? That's what remains to be seen and we could be finding out at any moment.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah, reports that the expected attack is in Qatar. I mean, question for you. If we have all of the intel about where the attack is coming from and theoretically we're going to remove our troops to keep them safe, how much of letting them have a couple of missiles land is just for show? In other words, it almost feels like allowing your sparring partner to, you know, kind of catch you one in the ribs when you know it's coming and it's not actually in any kind of significant danger because you're giving them the opportunity to look like, hey, we returned fire. Even though, look, if on a scale of 1 to 10, our attack on them was a 10, if they punch back with a 1, it's like, okay, nothing really happened, but you're allowing them to save face a bit. I mean, how much of this is, in other words, kabuki theater or almost sparring on our side at this point?

[Clay Travis]

This, this brings up, and I know a lot of you, and we'll take some calls and some talkbacks on this because it's in there's in MAGA world. As you all know, there are very, very fervently held beliefs on this particular issue that are not all in alignment. Ok, you really have a non interventionist. What are we doing? Have we not learned the lessons wing of MAGA right now? And then you have a Israel needs to not live under the specter of nuclear threat from lunatics. And this is the time, and we can do it, and we've done it. And, you know, you have these two different. I'm very aware of this. I've been reading and a lot of, you know, some of the big voices on one side, some of the big voices on the, on the other side, so we have room for this discussion here. But, Clay, to the point you're making it, it's about, well, do we want, you know, there's. We want. Let me be very clear about how I'm saying this. There's, would we like a regime change to occur? And then there's, do we want to take part in any kind of regime change? And do we realize if we go with number two, what the implications of that may be like? There's these different phases or different tiers. I think that the Trump administration wants a new government in Iran, but I think they're very careful about not involving themselves further in overthrowing the existing government because we don't want to be in a situation where there's mission creep and we're doing more. You know that. And I, and I completely share that sentiment. We should not be rebuilding. Well, you went to Iraq.

[Ryan Seacrest]

You, you were there, so serving the country. So, I mean, you know, which I know a lot of listeners were. I was not. Most listeners were not, I would imagine, your perspective. But I was, I was interested to hear your perspective on this in particular. There are obviously differences between Iran and Iraq, but your perspective would be. But I'm curious to hear, having seen the United States try to engineer a government in Iraq. Now, Iran was involved in helping to try to stop that from being in any way successful, deeply involved.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, really subverted our efforts in the most malicious ways they could.

[Ryan Seacrest]

But, yeah, and I think a lot of times people miss that, that Iran has been a malign influence basically, on any thing that could be good in the Middle east for some time to come. But having been there, I imagine you don't think it's a good idea to have boots on the ground trying to impact, in the event there were regime change, the decisions made by the Iranian people.

[Clay Travis]

It's a. That would be an absolutely horrible idea and is one that I would vociferously oppose in whatever ways are available to me, having seen. But, Clay, not just the reality in Iraq, the reality in Afghanistan. Yeah, even in 2000, I was in Afghanistan in 2010, and it was when Obama had decided that this was the good war and Iraq was the bad war. And anybody who was In Afghanistan then. And remember I, I had essentially like delivery of. I was almost like a highly classified gopher. I would deliver classified among principals in theater. So I would take the stuff to the ambassador, I would take this stuff to the four star general and I mean, I mean hand carry like, you know, hard copy stuff. And I just remember any of this and I had to read the assessments. I had to be familiar with what was going on. If you knew what was going on in Iraq, I mean in Afghanistan in 2010, you knew that the policy was failing and had no chance of success. But what happens is that at all everything gets cleaned up. When you get to the. I wasn't in the military, but the guys would say when it gets to like the brigade or. Sorry, it gets to the division level and then the command level, all the assessments from brigade and battalion and company, all this stuff that the guys are actually seeing, it gets cleaned up to. Yeah, no, we're doing great. It's working really well. Because the four star doesn't want to tell the president your ideas suck and this is never going to work or, you know, our ideas suck and this is never going to work. So yeah, that is a lesson that I think was learned very painfully by us in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And so that's something that we have to keep in mind here. But I think that right now we're not there. Not everything is, you know, just like not everything is Vietnam, not everything is World War II. This is its own situation. And so far what we. Do you have an update on.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah, we just got breaking news, reports of explosions in Qatar. And this is from Barack Ravid, I believe, who's a reporter at Axios. Sorry to interrupt, but Israeli official says Iran has launched six missiles towards US bases in Qatar. So as we were telling you that it was likely to happen. We will keep you updated on the absolute latest there. But that report just coming down in the last two minutes or so.

[Clay Travis]

Well, yes. So to your question though. So there's the regime change conversation that factors in now to everything that comes from this. You know, the aftermath of the US strikes of the nuclear facilities. How do we avoid getting drawn into that? I think there's pretty clear, I shouldn't say universal or clear agreement, but there's pretty widespread agreement among maga. I'm not even. Democrats just hate Trump and they hate. I can't even, you know, what do they. They just need to figure out why they exist other than hating Trump. And that's their own problem in terms of Republicans, in terms of the Trump, Trump voters out there, there's a, I think a broad rejection of any intervention that would require us boots on the ground or anything like that. But that's, that's one thing that we have now, though we look at the escalate or the escalation, the back and forth that would happen after something like this Clay, if, if Iran hits military bases, that is a proportionate response in some way to what we did. That would not, it doesn't mean that we're going to like allow them to do it. It doesn't mean that we don't necessarily exact a price for them doing it. But it wouldn't result in, I think, an escalation. We go, okay, now we're really going to make things more painful for Iran substantially more so than we already have. And then the Israelis already had. If they do something horrific, I mean, I don't want to get into it, but something Al Qaeda style, which is really the concern here. The concern is that the Iranian regime, the irgc, who is every bit, I mean, look at the bombing of the, well, that was a military target, but you look at the bombing of Marine barracks. They've been involved in mass casualty terrorism in the past. If they do that against a civilian target, then I think the question turns to, or the likelihood is that the Trump administration goes and takes out the remnants of senior Iranian leadership. I think Trump has intimated that essentially, okay, if you order, if the ayatollah orders mass casualty civilian murder anywhere in the world, you know, against Americans, Israelis, you're, you're now like, then you are Mullah Omar with bin Laden and the Taliban, then we're in a whole different world of how we're going to handle this. So that's what I think remains to be seen. If they just strike our military bases, I don't think, not that that's, we told them not to do that. We may hit their bases more in retaliation and say are you done yet? Are you done yet? But if they do something against civilians, then I think that you might just decide, we might decide to decapitate what's left of the regime. That's what I think could happen.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Trump is in the Situation Room, by the way, which suggests we'll give you the latest on this again, reports that six different missiles fired by Iran at Qatar and our military base presumably there. Again, this is, we will give you the latest. There's video out there showing those missiles coming in. It's night in the, in the Middle east right now, at least in Qatar and we'll give you the absolute latest on that. But the reason why it suggests that we were very well aware that this was coming is because the President was already in the Situation Room and I'm sure they are monitoring in real time what exactly happens there. So we will give you the absolute latest when we come back. But Israeli citizens certainly appreciate solidarity our nation has shown them over the past 630 days since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks. Billboards on display today in Israel with the words thank you Mr. President along with a picture of President Trump. Just 12 hours after our nation's military targeted strikes in Iran, Iran has fired back at Israel. This has been going on for for several days now, over a week, and the Fellowship is doing everything they can to make room and make hay for as many people as they possibly can to make sure that emergency rooms and shelters are fully stocked with critical life saving supplies. That's why the Fellowship needs your most generous gifts today to help make their work possible in this incredible time of need in Israel. Now's your time to stand with Israel's most vulnerable. To rush your gift, call 888-488 IFCJ. That's 888-488 IFCJ. You can also go online at IFCJ.org that's IFCJ.org Clay Travis and Buck Sexton telling it like it is. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

After we took out Soleimani, after Trump ordered that hit, which happened on Iraqi soil, as you remember, a drone strike. The Iranians fired a lot of ballistic missiles at I think like 100 missiles at US bases in the region. They made a remember if you've never, a lot of you have served. So, you know, some of these military bases are a couple miles across. I mean, they're huge. So even a pretty substantial missile, if it were to impact as long as people are sheltering in place is unlikely. There were no deaths from those strikes, American deaths. There were some TBI traumatic brain injuries from the concussive force of the missiles. But that was it. And I think didn't the Iranians shoot down a Ukrainian airliner by accident?

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah, they killed almost 200 people as a part of that response, which was actually the most devastating aspect of the response. And it was inadvertent.

[Clay Travis]

This is a reminder Iran is a poor third world country because of the people in charge. It actually should be a great place. But that's a whole other conversation. It's a poor third world dysfunctional country with a really inept military. I mean, the truth is the Iranians, I mean, yeah, they're good at killing like innocent people or they're good at, you know, ambushing peacekeepers, stuff like that they can't actually go toe to toe with an advanced military at all. Not even a little bit. That's the truth. So, you know, what were they doing in Iraq? They were just making it a hell, a hellish nightmare for everybody for the Iraqis who were there by killing Americans who were effectively trying to keep the lights on and get the sewage cleaned.

[Ryan Seacrest]

As peacekeepers because they feared if Iraq was in some way a peaceful Middle Eastern country that their power would be impacted.

[Clay Travis]

Exactly.

[Ryan Seacrest]

By the way, also reports out there, and certainly our prayers for all the troops that are in the Middle east that air defense systems have been activated as the U.S. air base in Iraq as well. So much like what we saw with Soleimani, there is going to be an attempt to extract revenge in some way. And we will continue to update you on the absolute latest.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, but we have US Military bases under attack right now as we talk to you. Missiles.

[Ryan Seacrest]

That's correct.

[Clay Travis]

So we'll continue to follow this.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And again, the president in the Situation Room, they are monitoring and in real time. I would suspect, Buck, that we may get a statement from the White House sooner rather than later when we have some sort of finality on exactly what happens here.

[Clay Travis]

We're definitely going to get a true social post. I mean, Trump's not going to let this go.

[Buck Sexton]

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You.

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[Clay Travis]

This is an iHeart podcast.