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Michael Knowles (0:00)
This is Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. Watch Parenting, available exclusively on Daily Wire. Plus, we're dealing with misbehaviors with our son. Our 13 year old throws tantrums.
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson (0:09)
Our son turned to some substance abuse.
Michael Knowles (0:12)
Go to dailywireplus.com today, are we @ war with Iran? According to President Trump, we are not yet, but soon could be if Iran does not agree to a nuclear deal. But of course, the US Is involved in basically every event around the world. So President Trump's statement to me sounds less like disinterested analysis and more like a threat, more like a negotiation. From the man who wrote the Art of the Deal, there's a new story out from Reuters reporting that President Trump has been restraining the Israelis by vetoing a plan to assassinate Iran's supreme leader, which likewise strikes me less like a news report and more like a negotiation and a threat. As if Trump is saying, hey, mullahs, I told the Israelis not to kill you, but don't test my patience. I could not tell them that too. Pundits and activists on both sides of the aisle are fuming over this war. On the one side you've got the hawks screaming that Iran is five minutes away from building a nuclear bomb and the fate of the world rests on our glassing Iran right now. On the other side, you got the doves screaming that this war is nothing more than a fight between two dusty countries in the Middle east, one of which is dragging us against our will in, into war. And as usual, the people in politics who are screaming their heads off don't know what they're talking about. They're wrong. That's a good rule of thumb. If someone's screaming his head off, it probably doesn't have the tightest grip on reality. This war is not about what anybody seems to think it's about. So we will get into what it is. I'm Michael Knowles. This is the Michael Knowles Show. Welcome back to the show. A lot of death on the show today. Two Minnesota lawmakers have been shot. One of them, along with the spouse, has died. The shooter, we're learning a little bit more about the shooter. This is the weirdest shooter story, politician assassin story that I have heard since Butler, Pennsylvania. Since President Trump came within 1/20 of an inch of getting his head blown off. Really bizarre stuff. The Dems are saying he's a Republican, the Republicans are saying he's a Democrat. The story's even weirder than that. There is much more to say. First, though, go to tryarmora.com knowles ever wonder what Gives elite athletes, business moguls and high performers their edge. Many are turning to Amra Colostrum. This remarkable superfood is nature's original whole food supplement. Containing over 400 bioactive nutrients that work at the cellular level. Armor helps build lean muscle, speeds up recovery time and enhances overall performance without relying on artificial stimulants or synthetic ingredients. 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They've just decapitated the top of the Iranian military establishment. They, they have gone in. They haven't yet killed the supreme leader though President Trump is suggesting the only reason they haven't yet is because he's told them not to. The Israelis have lost. I think the number today is up to 24 people. Last night it was 14 people. I guess now it's being reported it's closer to two dozen. The Iranians have lost hundreds of people. So it's a much larger casualty count in Iran. What's this really about? On the one hand you have the hawks saying that Iran is five minutes away from a nuclear weapon. And if we don't stop them right now, if we don't go into this war right now, then the world is gonna end. The fate of the world rests upon the Israelis going in and attacking Iran right now. I don't totally buy that. On the other hand you have these isolationists and in some cases you have isolationists and is critics of the state of Israel and in some cases actual anti Semites who like just don't like the Jews on an ethnic basis. You've got all of them Accusing Israel of dragging us kicking and screaming into a war that we want no part of. But they're just dog walking us into this war. I don't really buy that either. So what is actually going on here? I think what's actually going on is much bigger than either of those things. The question you gotta ask yourself is why now? Why are the Israelis going in now? The official story is cuz Iran is five seconds away from a nuclear bomb. I don't really buy that. We've been hearing that Iran is five minutes away from a nuclear bomb since the early 80s. Okay. Then we heard it again in the early 90s and we heard it in the early 2000s. Then we heard. I don't buy that exactly. Iran definitely wants a nuclear weapon. Iran definitely has a nuclear program. The Israelis are arguing that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA has a new report that came out in June to show that Iran is five seconds away from a bomb and that's why they had to go in. But the IAEA actually kind of denies that justification. So I don't think that's really it. I think the reason that the Israelis went in now is not really primarily about a nuclear weapon. I think it's about regime change in Iran. They believe that Iran poses an existential threat to the state of Israel. Iran has said, isn't it in the Iranian constitution? They want to wipe out the state of Israel. So they see an existential threat there. They see that the mullahs are weak right now. And as a result of the war that followed the October 7th attack, the Israelis have systematically taken out all of Iran's proxies. So Hamas, which is just a proxy for Iran, neutered. Hezbollah, which is just a proxy for Iran, neutered. With those pagers, literally neutered. In that case, the Houthis have been taken out largely by the Americans. So Iran is really vulnerable. They don't really have a lot of their proxies left. So that's why it's not primarily about the bomb, it's primarily about regime change. The reason why right now is not cuz Iran's 5 seconds away from a bomb, though I'm sure they're advancing in their nuclear program. The reason right now is because Iran is super weak. Because the mullahs are super weak. Okay, so then is this just about the Israelis dragging us kicking and screaming into a war? I don't think it's really about that either because a lot of people don't like the mullahs in Iran. Saudi Arabia doesn't really like the mullahs in Iran. Egypt doesn't really like the mullahs in Iran. The United States obviously doesn't really like the mullahs in Iran. Even some other countries, Qatar, well, even around the Middle East. Bahrain doesn't like the malos in Iran. You know, the list goes on and on. But even other countries, Qatar, Qatar kind of helps Iran proxies sometimes, but Qatar also sucks up to the United States. And Qatar also gives us nice airplanes. And so I don't know that Qatar would be so upset if the Malas in Iran went away. Turkey, Turkey, we have tensions with Turkey, but also Turkey is a NATO ally going back to the 50s, so we kind of play nice with them. And I don't think Turkey would be so upset if the mullahs in Iran went away. So I think what you're seeing here is great power politics, because who are the allies of the mullahs? The allies of the mullahs in Iran are Russia, China. Those are the big powers. Venezuela, North Korea. Places that we don't get along with, and our allies don't really get along with either. This is what's going on in Iran is a great power struggle. That's what it is. What's going on in Ukraine is a great power struggle. Very often these wars that break out are great power struggles. Very rarely, certainly in geopolitics, but even in domestic politics, very rarely is the apparent issue the whole story. We think we're fighting over one tiny little issue, but really there's a lot more going on. There are coalitions that have been built. There are great power struggles. How did World War II break out? Why did World War II break out? Can you explain in one sentence how and why World War II broke out? Even people who are gonna say it's cause Hitler invaded what, Poland, I guess, Czechoslovakia, Austria, I don't. France, I don't know. Was it become a global war because the Japanese hit Pearl Harbor? What? Even harder than that, how did World War I break out? Is it because a Serbian nationalist shot the Archduke Franz Ferdinand? Is that. I guess technically that's why. But obviously there was much more going on. There were major great power struggles, and that's what's going on here. The reason this is breaking out now is because of the context of a longstanding great power struggle, which is not completely separate from the war in Ukraine. Trump was asked about the strikes, and he's been playing it cool as a cucumber. He says, look, we didn't do this. We're not part of this. Iran better not hit our bases. He said, but, and this is according to reporting from cnn, but everyone I've been dealing with in Iran is now dead. He's been trying to get a nuclear deal. He gave Iran 60 days. Iran would not budge on certain American demands. So day 61, the Iraelis go in and rain down hellfire on them. And Trump says, look, everyone I've been dealing with in the Iran negotiations is now dead. And the reporter asked, well this is. Unfortunately we don't have a tape of it. I'm sure it would have been a great performance. But the reporter asked well, are they dead because of the negotiations? Cuz they wouldn't come to a deal. And Trump says, well they didn't die of COVID they didn't die of the flu. So all of that to say I mentioned on the show on Friday, I do not want the United States to be dragged into a regime change war in the Middle East. I don't want American soldiers involved in this. I don't wanna be bogged down in some Middle east quagmire. I don't want our resources and our attention to be taken up by this battle because I'd much rather keep an eye on China and Taiwan and wrap up the Ukraine conflict and not have to sink American blood and treasure into another regime change. We're in the Middle east, we've had enough of those over the past quarter century. However, as I point out on the show a lot, America is the global empire. We just are. We're not a yeoman nation. We're not. We don't so just stick to ourselves. It's just not how it works. Even the broad system of nation states that we think we live under since the Westphalian peace is not really true. There are empires, there are spheres of influence, there are strategic alliances, there were coalitions of nations. And so we can't totally avoid it. That's why I'm not screaming my head off. I'm not surprised by the outbreak of this war, just like I wasn't surprised by the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, just like I won't be surprised if there's an outbreak of war around Taiwan. There are great power battles around empires. And what it is incumbent on Trump to do now is to try to maintain the peace. Because I guess this is what would separate my view from the view of say the neocons or the liberal imperialists or whatever is they want to just light up every country in the world. They never saw a non liberal regime they didn't want to overthrow, so they love that stuff. That's not my view of empire. My view of empire is not lighted up. My view of empire is the classical view of empire, which is that the empire exists for a reason, which is to establish peace. Going all the way back to the Aeneid and Virgil writing about the Romans. He says, the art of the Romans is to govern. Other peoples have other arts, you know, dry cleaning and sushi. But our people, our art is governing. And, and the purpose of the empire understood throughout Christendom is to establish peace, one hopes, because we will be involved. There's no question that we will be involved. We're already involved. We've been involved from the beginning. You can track, there's an account on Twitter called the Pentagon Pizza Index. And you can. When the business, when the wait times at the pizza stores around the Pentagon are extending late at night, you know, oh, they're working on something. Something's about to go down. What we hope occurs is that the aims of this kind of war, which obviously are regime change, that they remain restrained, circumscribed, relatively modest, and are aimed not towards some radical liberal revolution, not toward establishing Madisonian democracy in Iran or whatever, but just toward maintaining the peace, advancing America's interests, keeping our allies in all their ducks in a row, keeping them in their proper place, and then we move on.
