2 Week Ceasefire Reached with Iran | EYES ON GEOPOLITICS

Summary

The Team House – Eyes on Geopolitics: "2 Week Ceasefire Reached with Iran"

Date: April 8, 2026
Host: Dee Takos
Guests/Co-hosts: Andy (Marine/military expert), John Hackett (enlisted Marine/military expert), Jason Lyons, Jonathan (journalist/analyst), and others

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Episode Overview

This episode of Eyes on Geopolitics, a sister show of The Team House, covers the breaking news of a two-week ceasefire agreement reached between the United States, Iran, and, implicitly or explicitly, other regional actors such as Israel and potentially Lebanon. The panel—a mix of special operations, intelligence, and military veterans alongside journalists—discusses the strategic messiness and implications of the agreement, offers unvarnished reactions to current US leadership and negotiation processes, and debates what the short- and long-term outcomes might be for the region and the world.

Tone:
Unfiltered, skeptical, darkly humorous, and at times incredulous at the state of foreign policymaking.

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Key Themes and Discussion Points

1. Immediate Reactions to the Ceasefire

Timestamps: 00:30–10:00

• News broke mere hours before going live: “Ceasefire just announced two weeks. We’ll see how long that lasts” (Host, 00:30).
• Skepticism about longevity and efficacy: “Do you guys think it’s gonna last? ... The jizz is out of the tube, as they say in the business. You know, it’s out and you can’t get it back in.” (Host, 02:00)
• Surge in military action just before ceasefire—Israel and the US “pounding Tehran” (Host, 01:30, 11:31)
• Pakistan credited as key mediator, surprising many: “Kudos to them, huh?” (Andy, 12:09), “They are a nuclear armed country. So they do have that over the other options that were in there.” (John Hackett, 12:23)

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2. The Decision-Making: Chaos in the Situation Room

Timestamps: 05:15–07:55, 42:13–44:12

• General disbelief about the people influencing US policy:
  • “Having fucking Jared Kushner or Steve Wyckoff anywhere near the fucking Situation Room is out of control. The guy couldn’t get a clearance…we have a strip mall developer as our special envoy. …the whole thing is fucking batshit.” (Host, 42:13)
• Describes Israeli leadership pitching escalation to Trump “like Shark Tank”: “Yeah, Nanyahu rolled up…with like him, the head of Moussad and a bunch of other people. And they basically pitched like it was fucking shark tank.” (Host, 06:03)
• Policy objectives appear to be retroactively justified rather than built on strategy: “Tactical and operational successes that are being repackaged as strategic outcomes…You can’t work backwards from what you’ve done and just explain it as if that was your idea the whole time.” (John Hackett, 40:07)

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3. Content & Terms of the Ceasefire: Loopholes & Ambiguities

Timestamps: 09:49–16:09, 36:00–37:21, 50:33–51:41

• Major focus on the Strait of Hormuz being “opened”:
  • “Iranians have agreed not to disrupt shipping or not to threaten shipping anymore…which is a definite improvement.” (Andy, 09:59)
  • “It’s not like they have a barrier across the Straits of Hormuz…So how do you open the straits and thus trigger the ceasefire? It doesn’t make sense.” (Andy, 15:26)
  • Ongoing confusion as to what “opening the Strait” means in practice. “There’s no such thing as opening the strait…The only way to test that out is to drive a ship through the Strait.” (Andy, 36:40)
• Conflicting versions of the ceasefire’s scope: "Ceasefire announced by Trump includes Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel." (Host quoting YNet, 50:36)
• Reports emerge that the deal includes “full reparations will be paid to Iran” (Host quoting media, 50:46) and “a complete and permanent cessation of the war on Iran with no time limit.” (Host quoting, 51:36) – panel is openly dismissive of this as plausible.

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4. Strategic Consequences: Winners, Losers, & Unintended Effects

Timestamps: 17:17–24:10, 38:15–42:01, 47:00–48:01

• Israel and some US hawks are unhappy: “Netanyahu's not happy, Lindsey Graham's probably not happy. They wanted to hold out.” (Andy, 09:59)
• Iran regime spins ceasefire as a win: “For Iran, it’s like as long as they outlast the US they’ve won.” (John Hackett, 52:31)
• Sanctions relief and the difficulty of guaranteeing market confidence: “If Trump agreed to [full sanctions relief] just to get the Strait of Hormuz open—wow.” (Jonathan, 45:01)
• Host points out the deal "on the table a month ago" was better; “We didn’t have to lose 13 guys and 400 plus people get injured and, you know, really fuck the world economy too.” (Host, 48:01)

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5. Devastating Critique of US Information & Negotiation Strategy

Timestamps: 20:00–25:39

• US “didn’t win the Stratcon battle in this war” globally: “We haven’t come out looking very good in that…on the strategic communication piece.” (Andy, 20:53)
• Iran’s propaganda seen as more effective and sophisticated: “All these high production value Iran regime produced videos…they know how people respond…We’re not doing it.” (John Hackett, 21:30–22:45)
• Internet blackouts in Iran hinder outside messaging, but US "could have done more": “If you want regime change, best way to do that is to let the people do the regime change. Let the people be in the street.” (John Hackett, 22:57)
• Critique of Trump’s grandstanding as poorly calibrated—even for domestic consumption: “Imagine somebody else posts that, like another world leader…Putin talking about Ukraine...” (Host, 19:22)

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6. Immediate Impacts for Military and Markets

Timestamps: 27:00–35:41, 64:37–66:29

• Market response: “Look at the markets already. The futures are shooting up. Oil is down...a lot of people in the know made money on this.” (Andy, 14:56)
• Marines, sailors, and airmen face uncertainty: “They weren’t told they could go on an 11-month deployment...thousands of people deployed without any clue about what’s coming next.” (John Hackett, 70:29)
• Mixed emotions among military personnel: “For individual Marines, a huge amount of relief” (Andy, 33:42), but also “outward disappointment” for those eager to fight.

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7. Predictions & What to Watch Next

Timestamps: 60:36–62:37

• Israel may not respect US-declared ceasefire: “Curious to see what level of actual discretion is going to go on there…Plus, the Houthis…sometimes operate independently. So they might not be ready to stop harassing people.” (John Hackett, 60:56)
• Iranian regime may turn inwards during the ceasefire to crush internal dissent—or target those suspected of collaborating with outsiders (John Hackett, 61:40)
• “This is also a great opportunity for, again, the US to give the Internet to the Iranian people in these two weeks.” (John Hackett, 62:14)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the negotiation process:
  “We have a strip mall developer as our special envoy...The whole thing is fucking batshit.” (Host, 42:13)
• On objectives after the fighting:
  “Tactical military achievements…I don’t see a strategic victory, in my opinion.” (Jason, 38:15)
• On US strategic communications:
  “This is a domain. The information domain is a domain, you know, and we need to be–our war fighting functions need to be touching that domain.” (John Hackett, 22:45)
• On the short-term nature of Middle East wars:
  “There’s no such thing as when wars end. They just kind of…R and R until you get ready for the next one.” (Jonathan, 37:28)
• On market impact:
  “If you look at, like, after-hours trading in NASDAQ, S P, and Dow, they’re all up over 2% right now…biggest movement since February 28th.” (John Hackett, 65:34)
• On information flow to the Iranian people:
  “If you want regime change…best way is to let the people do the regime change. We have low earth orbit satellites, we have mesh networks. We can get stuff launched up there real quick.” (John Hackett, 22:57)

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Takeaways & Analysis

• Widespread skepticism about the ceasefire’s durability and implementation, particularly whether Israel will comply and whether Iran can control all proxies (Hezbollah, Houthis, etc.)
• Ceasefire emerged out of frantic, messy, and at times poorly informed diplomatic wrangling—with non-experts (Kushner, Wyckoff) reportedly central in the negotiating room.
• Strategic ambiguity surrounds the deal—there is no clear mechanism to verify the “opening” of Strait of Hormuz, and the precise commitments on sanctions, reparations, proxy ceasefires, and internal Iranian repression remain fuzzy.
• All sides are spinning the agreement for their domestic audiences: US public as a victory, Iranian regime as a humiliation for Trump, Israel as abandoned (at least some factions).
• Military and economic pressures prompted the pause, but no one believes the underlying drivers of conflict are resolved; most panelists expect renewed violence.
• US and allies failed to control the narrative globally. Iran and its proxies emerged looking more unified and victorious than desired by Western strategists.

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Next Steps/What to Watch

• Actual implementation: Will Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and various proxies adhere to the ceasefire?
• Regime behavior: Will Iran use the ceasefire to consolidate power internally, crack down on dissent, or prepare for future confrontation?
• US/Allied posture: Will military deployments continue at their current scale? Is there a non-military plan for stability or reform?
• Follow the markets: Oil and stock futures will continue to reflect, and perhaps drive, high-level diplomatic decisions.
• Negotiation follow-up: Will the US pursue genuine diplomacy, or will political pressures override longer-term strategy yet again?

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Final Reflection

The panel concludes in a mix of exasperation and dark humor, emphasizing the unpredictability of events, the low confidence in US diplomatic processes, and a deep concern for both US interests and the welfare of local populations.

Standout summary quote:
“Frankly, like, I know the Iranians are taking this as a win. Like, the regime right now, like, they're crowing. Like, they're spinning too. Spinning like crazy right now. ... These are serious issues that, like, have huge ramifications. It's not gonna be like, you're buying a new strip mall and you can bang it out with your lawyers in a couple days. Like, unbelievable to me, like, the level of, like, fuck this guy Kushner, man. You are a liability." (Host, 66:29)

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Important Segments by Timestamp

• 00:30-03:00: Live reaction; ceasefire announcement; skepticism
• 06:00-08:00: Situation Room vignettes (“like Shark Tank”); US/Israeli strategizing
• 09:49-16:09: Ceasefire details; Strait of Hormuz; mediated by Pakistan
• 17:17-20:53: Strategic communications failures; domestic vs. international perception
• 22:57-25:39: Information warfare; potential for US to empower internal dissent
• 36:00-37:21: Ceasefire mechanism ambiguity; “no such thing as opening the strait”
• 38:15-42:01: War aims; tactical vs. strategic achievements; nukes and proxies discussed
• 47:00-48:01: Lost diplomatic opportunity; comparison to prior deal
• 60:36-62:37: What to watch—potential for regime crackdowns; importance of information access
• 64:37-66:29: Market and Pentagon responses; inexperience in negotiating team

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For more, follow The Team House and Eyes on Geopolitics via their newsletter and Patreon—links in episode description.

Transcript

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[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yo, what up, guys? I hope, I hope we are live. Let me just check, make sure we're all right. Ceasefire just announced two weeks. We'll see how long that lasts. Says with Gucci. It says excellent. Does that mean good? Last time I checked, it does. Here we are. All right, I just sent out the link to the boys, so they should be trickling in at some point. It's gonna be a lot more fluid. Like we won't just have like a straight up show, like one hour pot. It'll just be people coming in and out and stuff like that. So we might not even have the full crew. Whatever. We're just gonna be. We're gonna have fun. We're gonna be cute and fun. What's up, guys? What's up? How are you guys? Trying to see. How's it look? How does it sound? Talk to me, talk it to me. Shoot this over to. Yeah, looks like the Pakistanis were in it. They were doing like a lot of the mediating and stuff. Grace period. Sounds clear. Sounds good, but good. Awesome. Good. Love to hear it. Love to hear it. Nice. Maybe if he's doing a speech at 8, maybe I'll watch that and goof and gaff on it. I mean, you saw that like there was like the last few hours, people were all over Twitter saying that, you know, they're working on a late two week ceasefire through the Pakistanis and all this. So you kind of like the writing was kind of on the wall and once Axio starts reporting it, you know, it's like, all right. Yeah, the White House's stenographers are reporting that. Reporting what they want to say. Yeah. So we'll see where this goes. Oh, yeah, in the last few hours, you saw like a real big uptick of like bombing in Tehran and stuff like that. So it's kind of. They were trying to get it in before they called the ceasefire. Let me see. Mark P. Is coming. All right, enough. Enough chatting in the signal chat. Our signal chat is a wild one, I'll be honest. Well, I think Israel was like The IDF was really pounding Tehran as well, pretty, pretty hard over the last few hours as well, because I think they saw the writing was on the wall. I did also see that, like, somewhere. It was like one tweet. So I don't know if I believe it until, like, a bunch of people are starting to talk about it like, that. Lebanon was also part of this, which I don't believe. I don't believe. Because my guess is Israel is probably pushing for these guys to not do the ceasefire. Are we doing here? Oh, so annoying. Can't even sign into X, bro. All right, whatever. What do you guys think? Do you guys think it's gonna last? Also, like, what comes after, right? Like, what does it even look like on, like, an actual lasting kind of piece? Feel like it's not gonna be. The jizz is out of the tube, as they say in the business. You know, it's out and you can't get it back in. I wonder what Israel thinks about this. Do they want to stop? I think Israel definitely doesn't want to stop. I think they want to keep going for as long as they could possibly go. Hell yeah. We got Jason lines.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

What's up, dude?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yo, what's up, bro? We're live, just FYI.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Okay.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. Let me turn on your echo K. Oh, I can't while recording. It's okay.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Can I do it?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, if you can. Because I've seen a little bit of an echo. Now it's actually gone. I mean, who knows? It comes and goes.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Oh, yeah. It's not even letting me do it.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, I don't sweat. Yeah, I think it's cuz we're already live.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Gotcha.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Where am I? 54 people watching. Yo, smash that, like, button guys smash it. They say that in the biz too.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

And share this, Share this stream to tell your, tell your friends. Yeah, this one's gonna be a little bit more, like, fluid. Like, you know, people are gonna jump in, jump out. I feel like.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah. Yeah. I can only stay for maybe an hour or so.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, you're good.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

It's been a minute.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I know, bro. What's up?

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

No, same old work, family getting ready for this wedding, but yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Excited.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's not like I haven't done this dance before, but.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Right.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

This is it. I'm done.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Last one.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah. How about you, man?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

How you been chilling, bro. I'm hanging. I'm looking at that chat. That's why I'm just staring.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, yeah, no, it's. Of course this hits right Now.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, I mean, it was. They were kind of like, like whatever, watering the soil a little bit because for the last few hours saying, you know, it looks like there might be a two week ceasefire through the Pakistanis and stuff like that. I mean, who knows? I think Trump, I mean, Trump lost it this morning. I mean, he's lost it for a while now, but with the whole like, I'm gonna wipe out a civilization stuff. Yeah. Just insane.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Absolutely nuts. Yeah. My kids were texting me like screenshots of that and you know, they're like, is he being serious? Are we talking nuclear weapons? I was like, well, let's calm down. But then again, how do we put anything past them?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's just a wild. He's just a freaking wild card, dude. And I read that, you should read that New York Times article about like the decision making leading up to it. Like, we're like, yeah, Nanyahu rolled up at like on like early, early February, like February 11, with like him, the head of Moussad and a bunch of other people. And they basically pitched like it was fucking shark tank.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Hitting, hitting around, like going harder to run. Yeah. And what was it? Decapitation strike, Take out all the leadership, missiles and drones. And then it was like, stoke some kind of resistance and stuff like that. And then regime change. It's like, bro, yeah, I want to be 6 foot 4 and have like a 9 inch hammer. You know what I mean? It's never gonna happen.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Exactly. Yeah. It never happens the way it's. It's pitched.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Ever. Yeah,

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

it's just incredible. And also the other, the way it read too. Like they were in the Situation Room talking about this just without the Israelis, just them. And how no one has the balls to tell this guy, like, no, this is a terrible idea and it's going to backfire. Like, they think that like the Iranians are just going to turtle.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Like, yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

After they. After we smoke. Even if we just smoke the Ayatollah.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Right. Like, forget the 40 or 50 guys that we killed. They should be like, oh, we're sorry. Like, yeah, we love democracy now. Like, we love it. And they played Trump of it. The Israelis played Trump a video, like a trailer or I guess like a hype video.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

About who could really lead Iran after. And like they put the Shaw son in there. They put all like, oh, it's gonna be a secular democracy. Like, are we, are we serious here? Just. Have we not heard this story before?

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

It's like an episode of The Bachelor, for God's sake.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

He's 43 and lives on the Riviera. He'd be a great.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, yeah, be on top of this. Taco Tuesday. T hat's funny. Trump always chickens out Tuesday. I mean, I get that statement about Taco. Like, Trump always chickens out, but it's like the guy fucking has been bombing the shit out of Tehran and, you know, basically throwing dynamite into, like, the global economy for the last three weeks, so. Or month.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, I think, in my opinion, that he. Yes, he does Taco, but I think it depends on what it is, and it depends on who's, like, whispering in his ear. If it's, you know, you're doing great. This is awesome. Which it seems like his entire cabinet does. And it makes him look tough. He's gonna keep doing it, you know, all the way up to the. The brink. And I think it would also take reverse psychology to get him to stop. You know, like, you've. You've accomplished what you want, you know, you've. You've done it. You've done a great service for the Iranian people. And that would get him to stop, you know, more, less than. This is screwed up. We have no plan here.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

You know, it's funny, reverse psychology. Like, he's a. Like he's a toddler.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

But he's got the nuclear coats.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Milburn. Andy, what's up, dude? We're live, just FYI.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Andy.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Oh, cool. Okay.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

So no. No berating. No berating the US Navy and the aircraft carriers, actually. You'll do that on the show.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

I was gonna say, does it really matter?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, yeah. So I'm talking about.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

We're doing quick summary of what we know.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, sure. We talked about it a little bit, like, ceasefire for two weeks. Is there any, like, details in terms of what's in the ceasefires? The straight open up. Like what.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, the straight was a central point. My understanding was that. For what. Whatever that means. I mean, obviously what it means is the Iranians have agreed not to disrupt shipping or not to threaten shipping anymore. And Vance is going to lead negotiations, is what the Axios article says, which is a definite improvement, I think, right from Witkoff. For the. Yeah, the two who got us into this, into this mess. Netanyahu's not happy, Lindsey Graham's probably not happy. They were. They wanted to hold out. The President's declaring victory based on military objectives already achieved. I've gone from being pessimistic to optimistic. Maybe because it's 2O'. Clock in the morning here, man.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

You still up?

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, well, I was up because the water was cut off, I think, in anticipation of World War Three. And I'm hoping now there's a ceasefire, they'll turn it on.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. Take a shower.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

It's like, I'm thirsty, God damn it.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, you know, I am, man. I'm a Marine, of course. Shower three or four times a day. I can't go to sleep. Scuzzy. Oh, what. So what happened in the. And someone was saying that Tehran was getting. That the United States was striking Tehran.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I think the IDF and. And us, we were pounding them the last few hours. Because I think the. The ceasefire was on the. On the cards.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah. Okay.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Oh, Shuck says if Graham and BB Are upset, then that's a good. That's a good thing for America and the world. I agree with you.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Who said that?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

One of the chatters in the chat. Because we're live, right?

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Okay.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Graham and BB Are upset. It's probably a good thing for America and the world.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Yeah.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, I think so. I think, you know, Lindsey Graham.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

John, what's up, bro? We're live. We're live.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Just Fylex right now. All right.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Thank God. And, you know, everyone thought that the Pakistanis didn't have any leverage with anyone, but they were the mediators of this. Not Erdogan, not. You know. So kudos to them, huh?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

They are a nuclear armed country. So they do have that over the other options that were in there.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

That is true. Yeah. What was the name of that guy who was the father of their nuclear program?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Aq Khan.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Khan.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Aq. Yeah. That's quite a story, isn't it? He's a. He's a national hero there. And, you know, I cannot blame the Pakistanis for making him a national hero because it certainly changes the dynamics, doesn't it, once you're in nuclear power? Just ask King John.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, I've got the Samson option right here. Which is actually the story about how Israel got the bomb through aqcon, in contrast to that.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love to read that.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

They didn't get it from.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

He actually had. We actually had Jim. Jim Lawler, former CIA guy who was like, big into the. You know, played a big hand in taking down that network. I mean, but they still got the bomb. Right? So it's not like.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah. And actually their centrifuge, the level one centrifuge they had, and I think it was 1988 or 89, is the base model that Iran used in their centrifuges and now Iran's like, seven generations beyond that first generation that they got from Pakistan.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Three Marines, someone said. I know. Well, no, yeah. Three Marines. Yeah.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

What? Three Marines. What?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Somebody said that in the chat with an exclamation point. Very excited.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Oh, yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I don't know if Murphy's gonna join us. He's big time now after his viral.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

So I'm getting skepticism from my Israeli friends. And, yes, I still have Israeli friends after writing that article. The sirens are going in Tel Aviv now. I mean, like, right now. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean they're being hit. Maybe it was just a ceasefire with the United States.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Maybe.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Did we do it dirty on yet another partner?

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Don't worry about them.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Just.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, don't. Yeah, don't tell the Israelis that. Bibi's not happy anyway. I'm not laughing.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Is it? Fire starts right now. Like, right?

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

That would be just like us. That would be 4D chess.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

So the ceasefire is, like, right? It's happened immediately, right? Mm.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah. Look at the markets already. The futures are shooting up. Oil is. Oil is down, down, you know? You know, a lot of people in the know made money on this. Right?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Of course. Barack Ravi just tweeted. Unit, unit, 8200 news. A senior white House House official tells me Israel has agreed to a ceasefire and will also suspend its attacks for two weeks. The ceasefire will take effect when Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Oh, so, you know, but that's. It's not like they have a barrier across the Straits of Hormuz. They're closing the straits by disrupting ships through the threat of missiles and drones. So how do you open the straits and thus trigger the ceasefire? It doesn't make sense. Who?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Just, like.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Where did you read that, D?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I think that's Barak Ravid.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, but ask him.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

A senior White House official told him

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

that supposedly the US Is telling Israel.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Listen, I get it. I think I say. Just say, hey, it's open now. I don't know. Put out a press release.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

I don't know.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, it's gonna be a ribbon cutting.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. There was some talk, too, that Lebanon was. Was also part of the ceasefire, but I don't believe that. Like, is there also a ceasefire in Lebanon as well? No way. With Israel. Lebanon.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

There would be good news for Lebanon for sure.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

That's kind of the one thing that's getting swept under the rug a little bit. Not talked about as well as Gaza. Lebanon's getting pounded by Israel.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Damn it.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, I guess it's All Iran.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Where's Jack? Is he. Is he sleeping? Sleeping off his celebrity status?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I don't know where he is. I think he said he was getting a tattoo and like he gets these huge tattoos that like, take six hours.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

So I don't know if he's jumping on. He. He has been snarky in the. On our group chat, though, just now,

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

you know, he's beyond us now.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. He wrote, guessing it goes as well as the Gaza ceasefires. So Jack is very optimistic on this.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Is that what he said?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

No, I mean, there's, there's. See, no one really had an incentive in the Gaza ceasefire. That's the difference. Everyone has an incentive in this one, except perhaps for the Israelis. Right. But they're not going to unilaterally start shooting missiles at Iran.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah. It's interesting the. The President of Iran possession, who's got no power currently, obviously, he says that 14 million Iranians will die for the country right now that are willing to sacrifice their lives, which is actually double the number that another regime official said. So that's between 7 to 15% of the country might support them. Based on their own rhetoric, which is interesting in their own admission.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

The problem is that when we start threatening to destroy civilizations, we are uniting a population of a country behind the regime.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Right. And I mean, an entirely foreseeable consequence that was not foreseen.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah. Didn't someone say in our chat that some of. That some of the citizens were like, lining up on bridges or something like that?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Like over the.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I think Israel too, over the last couple days, like blew up like eight, eight bridges over the last 48 hours or so.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah. I mean, bridges are the most understandable with dual purpose infrastructure. Right. I mean, bridges are not a war crime, but when you start going after electrical grids and energy infrastructure, then you're kind of following the Russian model. And that's why we're on thin ice, having lambasted the Russians, quite rightly, for what they're doing in Ukraine. Of course, it's not like minus 20 degrees here in the Middle east, but nevertheless, what we were threatening to do was, was putting us on. On thin ice.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. I mean, that tweet today from Trump was insane. Imagine somebody else post that, like another world leader, you know, Putin talking about Ukraine or whoever.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

But then normally, you know, the. The heads of places like North Korea or Iran. Right, yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

My point is, like, how would we react? How would the America, you know, America react?

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Well, I mean, how have we been reacting They've been screaming death to America for 40 something years. And you know, this is a, this is the reason for it. But now he's saying the exact same thing.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

The problem is that the, that in their pronouncements, once the war started, the Iranians, actually, I listen, I do, you know, I'm a US Marine at heart. But the Iranians were quite circumspect. I mean, they said, hey, we're going to continue with the war, but they had an eye on Stratcom messaging and you know, I'll shut up in a moment because John's far smarter than me. But it, but globally, and I'm outside the United States right now. Globally, we didn't win the Stratcon battle in this war. Doesn't matter how many targets we destroyed. And you're talking about our global audience and not just countries we don't give a shit about, but countries that we may well rely on. We haven't come out looking very good in that. In the strategic communication piece. Right.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, I think we do. Very bad with even just psyops generally. Like back in 2014 when ISIS and Daesh came up and declared the caliphate and they had these high production value videos of the violence they were doing and their training videos and all that. We started to kind of get after it, especially with Gallant Phoenix and other programs we were using to try to exploit media associated with that. But we never really got ahead of that and it was kind of a catch up. And even now, if you look on Twitter, all these high production value Iran regime produced videos of like Legos and all this stuff with the US and all these AI videos of Trump.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Some cool soundtracks too.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, I mean they know how the audience is going to respond to that and they're doing a really good job of producing things that they know people will reshare even if they don't like intrinsically support what the message is. It looks cool, it's fun to watch and they're doing a good job with that.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

We appreciate them.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, yeah. I mean it's far outpaced the Trump dropping on a crowd of protesters video, you know, that little AI thing. Far outpace that. So we have that going for us.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Also. It's kind of interesting watching like centcom like tweet out like fact checks and stuff like that.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Because I've never, I don't remember that ever being a thing.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

And we have battalions that are trained in making these videos and doing this production and actually can do it in the military, not just CIA, which Also can do it, but like in, in centcom, you could have Centcom producing counter narrative at the same production value level. You know, we have combat camera, whatever we call it now, Strat Strategic communications now I guess we call it, or comstrap can still do that. And we're not doing it. It's like, what? This is a domain. The information domain is a domain, you know, and we need to be. Our war fighting functions need to be touching that domain, just like we're touching the actual physical space.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

John, let me ask you, like, is there. Because Iran's, most of Iran's Internet's out. Is there. Is it difficult for us to reach the Iranian population with that kind of stuff?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

It's actually interesting you mentioned that, because I was thinking about that earlier, about Trump's threat. I wonder how many Iranians actually were able to see that threat because they don't have the Internet. So I wonder if that was more a domestic consumption statement that he made. I know he doesn't think that clearly sometimes, but maybe that was more for the US side or for the Pakistanis or something like that. But in Iran, I mean, this is my thought from the very beginning. If you want regime change, best way to do that is to let the people do the regime change. Let the people be in the street. And if you do that, we have low earth orbit satellites, we have mesh networks. We can get stuff launched up there real quick. Yes, there's already Starlink, but you could create one that's proprietary for Iran that's over there doing direct to cell communications from February 28 till now. Not saying it would solve the problem 100%, but it would give the people the space to actually get out there and communicate and coordinate. Find out, hey, is there food and water in this next village over so I can go get some? Because they can't even do that right now. And so if you set that up, the people can now actually get outside. And guess what? Then you can use all that air power that we're using that is very good to protect those people. So when they actually go out in the street and you see a group of basijis coming to them, well, through that Reaper or that Gray Eagle, you can just destroy the base coming up to them. And pretty quick they'd stop trying to stop the people or they'd run out of people. And it just kind of baffles me. Why was that not part of the plan? That would have been a very cheap, relatively cheap part of this operation to, to dramatically increase like force multiply across all the domains that are involved in this right now. If you just get those people out there.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, yeah. In my opinion, the, the people are the de facto boots on the ground, you know, but they can't get out there on the ground because they're too busy taking shelter. You know, it's like, I'm not saying we completely stopped dropping iron, you know, dropping steel, but we've, there's got to be some kind of coordination between that and like you said, getting the message to the people so that they can do their part.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, and we had something similar like that in Iraq in 2016, 2017, when we turned into the war around against ISIS. You know, we're doing a lot of precision strikes. We did something like 30,000 strikes in three or six months, something like that. Precision. I mean we had human trigger strikes all over the place. We had dynamic targeting, we had deliberate targeting. Beautifully mapped across and coordinated. Not just us side, that was with indigenous people inside, behind enemy lines inside Mosul occupied areas providing information using repeaters and other kind of information that we were able to set up with them to talk back to us so that we could talk to them outside of the denied area and then we'd have targets hit within minutes of that information. We can do it and we have done it and we can do it on a large scale. And I just again baffles me that we're not doing it now.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, extending Internet into denied areas. Mind you, we had some major fuck ups basically before we figured out how to do that Right. In Iraq we spent a lot of

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

money

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

with contractors who screwed us over. Bastards.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. I don't understand, why wouldn't they do that? For this you could even put repeaters

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

on drones and do like a source repeater network that would be able to provide direct to cell communication to people using outside. So for example, a Tesla or. Correct. Which is the one in Kurdistan, you could do a correct repeater around the border areas and actually get people communicating. But they're not doing it at all. None now that I've seen. I know that there's some Starlink that's being, you know, assisted in the area. But the problem with Starlink is it's a giant target on your back. If you have a Starlink terminal, you know, you need to have such widespread diluted access that it's impossible to actually stop it.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Fellas, good news. My water is on.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Congrats Andy. Go watch.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Running. It's running brown, but that's all right.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

You've had worse water's worse.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Take a sun shower.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

So who knows? I wake up to a world at peace, huh?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, everything's gonna be great. Everything's gonna be fine once you wake up.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Right, fellas? Hey, D. So this means that we can now do our live eyes On. Not live, but an episode of Eyes on from Dubai, the city at the center of the wall.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Sure.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

I think with the extensive coverage that we have done and the income and the advertising, we can get a first class ticket out there.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, absolutely. We'll charter a jet. Yeah, absolutely.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

That's on Jack. Deep pockets. The great, the great Jack Murphy.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

He spent the budget on his tattoo. It's all gone.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, he spent all of his Twitter money on the tattoo. Today, Mark Polymeropoulos is joining us. Mark, we're live, FYI. Okay. So great to see you. I mean, you do this every day.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Some wisdom to our British friends across the pond on, on British radio. So I managed to throw in Taco Tuesday on that. So that was kind of fun.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

They're probably like, what the hell's the Taco Tuesday?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

People in the chat are saying Taco Tuesday too.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

You just, I mean, you serve this up.

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[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Stop. No pun intended.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

They, they have like Vindaloo Friday in the uk

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

by the way. Just it was on lbc. It was, you know, a pretty big British station. And just withering criticism of Trump that he caved on this. I think they probably. Our analysis is certainly not going to be shared by the people on the right or the in the fdd, the freedom and defense and democracies crowd. We're going to be insufferable as Andy knows. But, but withering criticism on this that he definitely caved.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

So did they accept the like the, the 10 point plan that like at least hinted towards accepting it for the ceasefire? The 10 point plane that Iran sent back countering our 15 point D. We're

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

going to, I mean, again, we're at a disadvantage here. We're actually talking about diplomacy and really important things on a true social post. And so, you know, so Trump claimed that he also wasn't sure, we weren't sure if the Iranians actually have accepted to opening reopening the Strait of Hormuz. So, you know, who knows what the hell this is. I think he was just looking for a way out and we're really looking

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

for an ex Iran.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Yeah, I mean, I mean, you know, and so, but this is going to be, this is going to test my patience. I probably have to get off of social media because this is going to be really couched from the kind of these, the pro Israel. Right again, Freedom, defense of democracy, which drives us all crazy as a massive Trump victory in some fashion. And I already got a note from a former Mossad officer who I work very closely with. Not happy the Israelis. No, they're not.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Nope.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

I've been on the phone with someone in Tel Aviv because their sirens are going there now. This is, this is.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Okay.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

That's a natural reaction. I don't know.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Right. This is from Nobody told us bilateral ceasefire. You didn't let us in on this. I'm like, it's not my fault.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Trump is also going to absolutely kind of bludgeon Netanyahu to accept this. And so, you know, that's going to be fun. How B.B. yeah, you know, there's going to be a lot of so. And you know, again, who knows what happens. But, you know, look, for Barack Ravid to tell us all the great, you

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

know, points of disagreement in the Farsi media. It says Trump's humiliating retreat from anti Iran rhetoric. That's how the Iranian media is painting it, which is accurate.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Well, it would be interesting to see what the Pakistani media is saying because we'd probably get the real truth from, you know, what the President of Pakistan is saying. That's.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

You're welcome.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

That's what the headline, isn't it?

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

What I just said?

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

See this, this is going to trigger me all over the place, you know, so because, you know, when it comes to the government of Pakistan, a lot of us have memories of Afghanistan and I'm sitting on the border and getting, you know, eating 107 millimeter rockets fired from Pakistani military positions at US firefights with the Pakistani military. I've talked about it on a team house with you all. So the idea that somehow Pakistan is back in our good graces is going to be tough personally to swallow. But, you know, this is. It's a fellow autocrat. So. Trump loves these folks.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Might you let bygones be bygones? It's just. There's just too many groups of people to hate in the world.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

I'm Greek. Dee knows this. I don't forgive anybody.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, no one ever.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

I'm. I. I'm the opposite end of the spectrum. I'm ultra forgiving.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

You're a lover. You're a lover, not a fighter.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah. I even forgive Dee for pouring whiskey down my throat on those evenings and insisting that I take off my clothes.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yep, that was me. You're right.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

This sounds like a Reddit.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

We had the. We had ladies in the. We had ladies in the room, and they were. They were egging on Andy. And once Andy heard the lady scream and he started taking. He started disrobing.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah. And then I found out they're actually screaming for Jack.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Jonathan, question. Question to you in terms of. And this is just that kind of think back. And actually, all you guys, Jason, Andy, too, if you're on the MEW right now, if you're on the float, you're sitting there and you get this news, like, what's the. What are the emotions of the. Of the Marines, who probably thought, as we were softening up Carg island over the last 12 hours, that that might have been in preparation for some kind of movement of ground forces. What do you think they're thinking right now?

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Well, it's hard to think. Externally, there's a lot of outward disappointment. I think, though, for individual Marines, a huge amount of relief.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

There's also hurry up and wait feeling where it's like, okay, we already probably got told to go and get back and go and get back multiple times before the MEW even got there. Because I'm sure when they were in California and Japan, they were told like six times they're. They're going and not going. I remember a buddy of mine that was on the FAST team that was going into Libya back when the 2011 kicked off, or 2012, September, and they told me, get on and off the airplane like seven times before they actually flew out of Italy over there, you know, and they told them to, like, change their clothes. They couldn't be in civilian clothes. They Got to put on cammies and then back and forth again, same thing. And I'm sure that's been going on the rumor mill on that ship has probably been out of control. Like you mentioned a few weeks ago, Andy, like the rument on there, like you don't even know what's true until you're actually on the airplane.

[Podcast Promoter]

Yeah.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

I'll tell you what the. I guarantee the one of the main rumors that's running through all the both OGs right now is we're stopping in Australia. It always happens. Yeah, that's always the rumor. It's like, ah, we're not going to war, but we're going to Australia. Someone starts that and it spreads like wildfire. Because to Marines, Australia is the land of milk and honey.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yep. Marcus breaks down in Rhoda.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

I don't know why. You know, I'm a Brit with that's. We shipped our convicts there.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

I think too that it also depends on, to answer your question, the rank and age of the these Marines because as you know, the younger ones are probably like, you know, I wanted to go get some the g. W. A. T. Vets. The. Probably the staff sergeants and above are like, you know, we're not doing this again, thank God. And the older are probably thinking the same thing, but now have to, you know, control the rumor mill. So I think that has a lot to do with it.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

And plus there are guys that are out outside the ship that are doing advanced force operations and doing preparation of the environment stuff. They're like out there that are probably kind of pissed because they just built a bunch of structures to put in place to move a lot of people. And either those things aren't being validated or they're falling apart or they're on hold. And that's, that's a pain in the ass.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

So there's, there's, there's some interesting stuff coming up. So they said a senior White House official says Israel has agreed to a ceasefire and will suspend its attacks for two weeks. But the ceasefire takes effect only when Iran opens the strait. Yeah. And there is meaningless. So now the Iranians are saying they just announced for a period of two weeks, safe passage through the strait will be possible via coordination with Iran's armed forces. Interesting.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

But they're obliterated. How can they coordinate?

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

With due consideration of technical limitations. And so that's a little bit different than what Trump wrote in his Truth Social post. Complete, immediate and safe opening of the strait. And so, you know, there's a lot that's going to

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

here's the issue that we're talking about. There's no such thing as opening the straight. Right. It is forbearing from shooting ships that are trying to get through the straight. And the only way to test that out is to drive a ship through the Strait. Right. With Jared Kushner and more. So, I mean, don't forget Wyckoff is a test of the validity of the ceasefire. Right.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

I'm getting from somebody that the New

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

York Times says that it's not a, it's not a ribbon cutting. It's, you know, how do you, it's an open question, no one can answer it, but it's not as though there's a physical barrier across the straight that they are pulling open.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Apparently it was China that made a last minute intervention that pushed the agreement.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Yeah. And we'll see. And then, you know, you think back and, you know, least it wasn't Russia. Right, that's, that's true. But, you know, this is the same kind of adage that, you know, I got to think about this, the things to kind of think to say about this. And this is, you know, we're going to go back to the mowing the lawn theory. The Israelis will accept us because Trump's going to beat them over the head with it, but they're going to go back if they have to. And so it's the old adage in the Middle east, there's no such thing as when wars end. They just kind of, you know, it's R and R until you get ready for the next one. And I think that's probably accurate. And so, you know, I think that, you know, this is all super preliminary, but maybe a discussion just for a couple of minutes would be, is okay, you know what, look in the, in the US Perspective, what war objectives have been achieved. I think that maybe that's a good point of discussion. Jason, what do you think?

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Well, I mean, obviously we've hit a lot of targets, so I don't know what the target deck looked like. I don't know, you know, what the broad strategic plan look like on paper. But I think militarily they can say we hit the targets we said we were going to hit. And that's, that is kudos to the air crews, the, you know, the crew, the ground crews, things like that, and, you know, whoever we have on the ground processing these targets. But I don't know strategic. If we're talking regime change that's being thrown out there all willy nilly, I, I, I don't see it you know, from my little five foot, you know, view. But I guess they're gonna. I think much like the rescue of the Wizzo, they're just gonna keep parading out these military achievements. These are tactical military achievements. I don't see a strategic victory, in my opinion.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Jonathan, what about the nuke program?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Well, we don't see any new developments in that that are public at least. But to me, you know, I'm thinking about deny, degrade, disrupt. Like these are the kind of things that we can say that have happened in some degree, different ways, but those are not defeat, they're not obliterate. So like if we're looking at lines of effort on the campaign plan, like if defeat Iran was on there, that is not achieved. Right. So the problem is when the war started, we were not given discrete objectives. Those objectives were kind of assembled along the way and kind of repackaged as things progressed. Not according to plan, if there was such a plan. And like you said, Jason, I think there's a lot of tactical and operational successes that are being repackaged as strategic outcomes. And it doesn't work like that. You can't work backwards from what you've done and just explain it as if that was your idea the whole time.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Andy, what do you think?

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, I mean, I think we've achieved as best if we kept our objectives sane, which was exactly what Jonathan said, like dq, then, yes, we've probably been as successful as we could hope for. But the thing is that chief among our. Previously, before this even kicked off, right when the campaign was designed and it was on the shelf, what did we say our main objective was, John? Our number one objective?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

The nukes.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

The nukes, right. So, you know, it's kind of a war of. It wasn't. I mean, listen, I spent just like you guys most of my, a lot of my career planning against Iranians. The only casualties I took as a battalion commander were caused by Iranians. I've got no reason to love the regime, but this was, you know, it's a war of choice. And the objectives that we achieved were really Israel's objectives. Our main objective had to do with the nuclear program. At least that's always what we have said. And effect on that is unknown, but it's unlikely to have been obliterated. But, you know, I mean, I understand we can take a win if we've set Iran back, but our main goal was, was always the nuclear weapon. Number two was support for proxies. Always. Right. I mean, because that was what was destabilizing. The Middle east, the threat of nuclear. You know, I mean, they bizarre. A policy of non proliferation and then regional stability in the Middle east and Iran was a threat to both of those. And that is why we selected those objectives. Hey, D. What effect. Unclear what effect we've had on those two.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

D. Your favorite subject, the New York Times article about the Israeli pressure.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

We talked about it a little bit

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

before you got on.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

No, no, no, Continue, please. I want you.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

I know. I want to hear your rant on this. This is a.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Well, I mean, frankly, like having fucking Jared Kushner or Steve Wyckoff anywhere near the fucking Situation Room is out of control. The guy couldn't get a clearance. You know what I mean? He's in the pocket of Qatar and Saudi. Like, what are we doing? The guy is. And obviously Israel. The guy is obviously a liability. We have a strip mall developer as our special envoy. It's like the whole thing is fucking batshit. Like, if we're being honest here, you guys are all professionals in this world and you know it too. You don't have to say it. I'll say it. I'll be the guy. I'll be the bad guy. It's fine. Yeah, it's. And when they were making that final decision before, you know, before he gave the final go ahead, they're sitting there with five or six people and nobody can give any fucking dissent. Not even J.D. vance, who I think, by the way,

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

must have leaked all this stuff. I mean, that was like a. That was a defense. I know Jonathan Swan. I mean, I know these. These reporters. And so they're. And they're doing their job. But to me, it was incredible, you know, covering your ass on this thing. J.D. vance is the one who seemingly is the one who reached it. It looks the best in this whole thing.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, yeah. He looks like the only one that's actually has like a working, working brain, to be honest. Even though he kind of. He kind of pushed out too. Right. He. He's his whole MO for their long time while he was running and you know, while he was bringing. Brought up as like the groomed. As the VP was getting out of these wars.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Right.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

And America first and that bullshit. So where is that exactly? While we're spending. You know, we've spent probably 20. Upwards of $20 billion plus so far. Yeah. It's just the dynamics that go on in there where it's. Everyone's scared to say anything. It's like I don't know what the decision should be, but I know Your decision would be. Right. Somebody said that, like, are you fucking kidding me? You're a professional. You're supposedly a professional. So there's mind boggling.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

I got a raise on this because so. And then of course, Ratcliffe is in there kind of trying to be the one again. He came out looking fairly okay on this because he's showing dissent. Although you then contrast that, which is why I question that. You know, this is like the old Bob Woodward books and it's a narrative, it's an account, there's an agenda there. But you take a look at that CIA video that they put out of Radcliffe. Crazy, you guys. Which was. I mean, the reaction I got from people inside was freaking hilarious. But, you know, it's just like licking his boots. But yet in the background, he was showing some reservations about this. You can't really have it both ways. I'm sorry. Hey, one quick thing for Jonathan. I'm just reading something here now. And again, this is as we kind of. This is all live with the ten point plan. One of the pieces of the ten point plan is full sanctions relief on Iran. Well, holy shit. Frankly, if that's something that the US has agreed to, you know, that is pretty extraordinary. And so that's why I think that, I mean, you know, I mean, talk about that. Because the maximum, maximum pressure campaign had so much to do with that. If, you know, if Trump agreed to that, just to get the Strait of Hormuz open. Wow.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

The thing is with sanctions, you can't just turn them off so you can stop enforcing them. That's true. But, you know, in the corporate world, the market drives everything. And if the market doesn't trust, like the collective market does not trust, that these will remain unenforced, there will not be interaction. Like, people won't go and do business in Iran. And actually, remember back in the Clinton administration, the 1990s, there was a brief relief on sanctions in Iran. And Clinton allowed carpets, pistachios, saffron, and a couple of other products to be sold inside the United States directly. And companies didn't want to do it because they were afraid that when Clinton's out of office, they're going to have to close their businesses down and leave. And this is kind of a similar issue with the tariffs where there was this idea that, okay, we do these tariff things and suddenly people can bring industry to the United States. And some companies did that. Then the tariffs were enjoined by the courts, which meant that there was no financial incentive and these companies are left to dry And I just invested $100 million here and I'm out and nobody's helping me. And it's the same inverse in Iran. If you say, suddenly you can do business in Iran, Iran can join the Swift banking network again, which they were kicked out of in 2018. People aren't, the market's not going to believe that. There's the short term changes. When you look at oil futures right now it's 19% drop in 2 hours on oil futures, which is insane. That's oil futures. That's just a simple little small thing. That's not people moving manufacturing industry into Iran, which would be fantastic if they did. So it's like the market has to believe this. And it's kind of like we were talking about the Straits of Hormuz. You can say they're open, but is Maersk going to get insurance that's as cheap as it was before to move oil through there?

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Just said they're. I mean, so the whole, the whole idea of this was that Ron wants to walk away as the, as the toll booth operator in the agreement.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Two million.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Do it.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Two million.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

And they chop it with Oman, right?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yep.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

So, you know, again, I think, you know, as we kind of decipher this, that happened just a couple of minutes ago, there's going to be some things where you kind of scratch in your head, you know, what has, you know, how much has Trump actually capitulated on this? Because he was, he was looking for a way out. It's gonna be, it's gonna be fascinating. Now, we can't have it both ways in one way, in that, you know, Jason, we've been like, we've been hammering this crazy ass president for, you know, for all the things, but now there's a ceasefire, he backed down. So now we're gonna hammer him for being a big pussy. I mean, so it's kind of funny. And so there's already some criticism I'm seeing on social media for people like us, like, well, hold on a second. You guys were saying he's a crazy man causing World War iii, yet he, now he's not going to do it. Now you're making fun of him for backing down. So, I mean, there's a little bit of a, some truth in that. Maybe. Maybe. I certainly have, you know, a little Trump derangement syndrome. I know.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

D, I'm not really shitting on him because he backed out because he made the ceasefire. I mean, frankly, I'm shitting on him because a month ago or a little bit over A month ago, the deal that was on the table diplomatically far exceeded whatever this can ever create ever get to. We didn't have to lose 13 guys and 400 plus people get injured. And, you know, really fuck the world economy too. Right. Like, we didn't have to do all that. And we still could have got a better deal diplomatically. But Steve Wickoff, I'm going to go back to them because they're the fucking worst. Steve Wykoff and Jared Cushion don't have a technical expert in the room with them while they're doing nuclear negotiations. Like if they were buying a strip mall or leasing something, I have them in the fucking room. But it's a joke. We're a fucking joke. So, I mean, I'm happy that the, like, bombing is gonna stop, obviously. Yeah, we did. We get fucking bent over by Iran. Yeah, it looks like it right now. Especially deal point wise. Like, you know what, what we're ending up getting, like, are they still gonna keep their nuclear weapons or their uranium? Not their nuclear weapons. Yeah, it's a big question mark right now. And what happens in two weeks? Israel doesn't love this. What are they gonna do to like kind of cockblock this whole thing?

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Especially if they're getting hit right now with ballistic missiles. Yeah, kind of. Kind of interesting. I'm reading some, I'm just getting some, some messages from folks. And this is from someone who has access inside the White House. And even it was quoting a White House official saying it's a, it's a weird agreement. And so, I mean, I think it probably took some creative diplomacy and there's going to be some parts in this that we're all going to be shaking. I mean, look, Trump just wanted to stop and so that's it. And then the other part of it that I think if you look at the history of just US Diplomacy, usually we have really experienced negotiators steeped in Iranian history, culture, language. The Iranians are very experienced negotiators. But on our side, I don't even know who was doing this. Maybe it was Jared and Steve Wyckoff and J.D. vance, although he's running around hungry, humiliating the United States to no end today. But so I think they're just, they probably, the Iranians knew that we were going to come up with something weird and we're just going to accept anything just to have this thing stop for a bit because Trump was just getting pummeled. I mean, this was such a bad day, public relations wise for the United States. I mean, if it, if it set the Pentagon almost on fire in terms of, holy shit, we're going to be asked to commit war crimes. Probably not a bad thing that everyone kind of stood back from the brink.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Guys, what's ynet? What's the media source? Why Net.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

It's Russian.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Saying what? Because it says ceasefire announced by Trump includes Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

No, you're correct, actually, that's point number one.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

It does.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

It says complete cessation of the war in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. And then further down, which is even crazier, full reparations will be paid to Iran. This tells me that this is like, not a legit agreement.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

This is going to be fun, actually. So this is going to be fun because now it's not going to be. Were whining that we wanted the war to continue. It's just gonna be fun making, you know, fun of this agreement just to see how much Trump.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Oh, my God, that's. I mean, guys,

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

guys.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Even me. Why didn't want the war.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Like point number three, John, ending all conflicts in the region in their entirety. Peace in the Middle East. That's the plan.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Number four, the Boston Red Sox are gonna win 100 games in a row and make just a piss off. All right, bro.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Oh, my goodness.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

And it's a complete and permanent cessation of the war on Iran with no time limit.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Yeah. So again, as you know, that's the beauty of doing stuff live. You know, the, the initial stuff. And I mean, we should know better that, you know, Trump's bravado when you kind of have to dive into the details. And so I guess I'm going to have some fun with this just because. And I watched, you know, Andy get into kind of some war with some of the kind of the pro Israel crazy types in his little spat when he was writing on war on the rocks. It's going to be fun seeing how people get. Try to still even seeing this terrible. If it's a terrible agreement, how they're going to still try to say somehow this is a win. And then the language they use, I already saw it. I mean, not to pick on names, but I, you know, we're all kind of mildly obsessive about these crazy people,

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

but for Iran, it's like as long as they outlast the US They've won.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, that's it right there.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Yeah.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

And that's what it's always been for them. As long as they can outlast us. Because they have how many examples in our history of Those who have said all we need to do is outlast them from Vietnam to now.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yep. Yeah. So we. So I'm guessing that like going into the war, Trump was assuming that we would completely take out their missile program and like, keep them like completely defenseless and like, they still have half their missiles and half their drones and it's proven to be very difficult to like, you know, take stuff out because it's mobile and you know, underground outside of smoking the leader and the 40 other ones behind him, I mean, what have we achieved outside of high gas prices and like, you know, squeezing the global economy and you know, how can, how can fucking cutter. How can any of our, those GCC countries trust us ever? Yeah, I don't.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

The best thing is some of the, you know, Fox News is going to go into kind of orgasmic glee about the brilliance of, of the president.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

So.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Ah, well, like you told like we were on the group chat before Mark and you mentioned like turning on Fox News. So I turned it on.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Oh.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

And they're like, they did a whole segment with a panel like, of six people talking about like Solomoni's daughter that got arrested and the other one, that was the, the one of the hostage takers, the woman.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah. What was my empty car.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, what's her like, what's the name they gave her? Screaming something like, yell. There's some nickname she's got anyway, her son lives in LA and like they're just talking about these like, like guys, what do we care about like these like dilettante kids living in like, who gives a shit? It's just like this constant, just propaganda of like they're living in our country. You have to take them out. Like, what the. You're wasting airtime on this. You're like a major news down. Yeah. So like Mark told me, I did it, I turned it on. I got triggered. I was like, I can't believe this. Like there's a program director or producer saying like, this is the. This is a great segment. We should do this segment. This is killer.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Because if they didn't put these filler stories in there, they'd have to actually talk about what's really happening, you know, there. So this is what they do, you know, it's like. And I'm sure I'm gonna trigger somebody with this. It's like with these ICE stories, you know, a U. S. Citizen get killed. But it's like, oh, you know, but this guy killed this girl and he's an illegal, you know, he's illegal.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Okay. That's true.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

But that's. Does that mean that all murders are done by illegals? But it, you know, they've got to kind of counter. They've got to fill that space. So that's what they're doing here.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Oh, fun. All right, fellas, I gotta. I gotta roll.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I get out of here. Mark, good to see you. Thanks for coming.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

That was fun. And we'll do it again.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, we'll be back on Sunday. A regular, regular schedule program. I'm sure there's gonna be a ton of. To talk about then too. Like. Right, like. Because this doesn't seem like an actual. Like, they agreed. We agreed to this. Like, we didn't agree to this.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

That ten point plan was actually sent by Jonathan.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

I'm gonna go. Jonathan and I are gonna go back on Israeli TV just to annoy D. Yeah.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Without coordinating.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

No, go on it. Just make sure you plug eyes on. I'm fine with it. I don't give a shit.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Take care.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I don't care. Take care, man. Go on Iranian tv. I don't care. Go on the fars. Just plug us. What were you saying, John?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

That 10 point plan that I was mentioning was. Was the Iranian plan that was shared to the US that the US has said is a good starting point for negotiations. Which is crazy because, I mean, the

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

thing is, like, starting point, it's the

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

most extreme list and it's also not an agreed on plan. So, like, what is the actual ceasefire?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Who said that was a good starting Trump?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

He said, I believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

We surprised.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

What the. Bro, Bro.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

He.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

This is like elder abuse at this point. Right? Like, he's just like an old dotty guy and like, Lindsey Graham's got him from behind. Like. Like, I don't know what's going on here, dude. It's crazy. I guess he got freaked out by like the MAGA hardcores. I think Tucker Carlson called him the Antichrist.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

You know?

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

And Alex Jones, too, was freaking out about him too.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah. Alex Jones is talking about the 25th.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. So you lose those two cuckoo birds, you know, something's not right. We got a. We got a big dono. A donation from Read Read. Yk. Thank you, boys for keeping us informed. Nice to hear from actual experts. Sending support from my beloved shithole in Brooklyn.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Love. Hey, Brooklyn's nice. I heard. I heard.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

I love Brooklyn.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

It's quite nice. Yeah. I enjoy it. Yeah. I mean, you can go on. Yeah. I mean, there's parts of Brooklyn that, like, are shitty, but that's, like, anywhere.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah,

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Brooklyn's good. You can go to brunch.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Well, did you see someone said Caravaggio8003 said D is a professional season. Brooklynite.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. I get worked up and I just start running my mouth.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

I love it.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Do you ever run into AOC when you're walking down the streets of Brooklyn?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Oh, I wish, bro. I wish. I love her. I love her. I wish I run into her.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Just like, spill your bagel on her.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I think she lives in Queens, I think. Not that I've been following her, I swear.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

D, I don't know if you saw, but there was a guy who got busted in Jersey for. Basically, he had like a shit ton of pipe bombs in his house. And, like, he was literally, like, walking outside and just lighting these things and just throwing them in the street. So just for fun, apparently for years, because this came through at work before it hit the nose. Came through my job. So apparently this guy. For years, people have been complaining about explosions and what they sound like explosions. And the cops come out and not find anything or whatever. So one day, I think it was last week or whatever, apparently this guy set something off and so they call the cops. Cops pull up just as the guy walks outside, and he's like, powder burns, blue stuff all over his face and everything. And it made me think of that guy. That was it a video you sent us of somebody in your neighborhood, like, lighting something?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Oh, yeah, yeah. My neighbor. That was my neighbor. He lives like four houses down. He went a little cuckoo. He was off his meds or something. He's a nice guy. He's a curmudgeon. He's an old guy. He's a little bit of curmudgeon. So he just came out the crib, out of the house. Like, it was snow everywhere, too. So this must have been in January. Just popping off rounds at, like, some random car. But it turns out it was a starter pistol, so he's not getting in trouble, of course.

[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Crazy.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

He. It was. Crowd's crazy. Yeah, that video was. I got the video, like, right away, too. Like, the neighbors are talking, sending that video around. Yeah, it was. Why? It was. It was wild.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Is he back? So he's back home.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I saw him today. Yeah, I was like, yo, what's up, bro? How you doing?

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Get your hands.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Seems better, which is good. Yeah, yeah. He seems better though, I think. I think because he was in the. He was in, like a. Like a psychiatric facility for like a month.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Damn, that sucks.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, Something could happen to anybody, I guess.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

You know. Yeah, Just start shooting your starter pistol into the street at a random car.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Pretty sure if I did that, I would not be on the next podcast.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

No, you'd be shot. You'd be shot by cops. Yeah.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Oh, man.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. So I don't know if you guys saw what Mark P. Just sent that tweet, like, breaking down. Good summary of the problems with the agreement. I mean, yeah, this agreement's gonna get, like, dissected because it sounds like it's batshit insane. John, what do you think? What should we, like, look for in the next few days? What are you looking for?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Especially from the Israeli side, because this happens with Israel versus Lebanon a lot of times where they'll come to a ceasefire, and then during the ceasefire, Israel continues striking because they claim the other side is violated somehow. So I'm curious, since it sounds like Israel was told by the US that there was a ceasefire that Israel must now follow, which I don't think usually happens in that direction. I think it's the other way around, usually. So I'm curious to see what level of actual, you know, discretion is going to go on there about are they going to actually sustain that or not? And if Iran continues firing missiles that they might claim, like, oh, whoops, we already fired that, it was too late. You know, is that going to be a pretext that Israel uses? Plus, the Houthis, again, are kind of on their own. They do sometimes follow the regime, but also sometimes operate independently. So they might not be ready to stop harassing people. So it might be that the regime doesn't have the kind of control that it needs to actually keep the lid on violence and also should be looking for, how does the regime treat the Iranian people in these two weeks? Are they going to start because they're not firing outboard? Are they going to turn their weapons inboard and start looking for people that have been collaborating over the past two months? I'm sure there's been quite a few people working with different intelligence community entities over the past two months, and the regime is going to be looking for them. So now they'll have the space to do that. And the question is, will the US Help behind the scenes to not let them do that? This is also a great opportunity for, again, the US to give the Internet to the Iranian people in these two weeks, because if they do that and Iran is now pressured to not retaliate as strongly, that could also help those people get out in the street and then start taking the government as well.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

From an intelligence perspective too, all the talking that's been done, you know, all of the quote, unquote leaks or whatever about going back to that, the rescue of the, the extraction of the wizzo, you know, sources and methods and things like that, while they weren't necessarily specifically named, like we're talking around things that IRGC and others, you know, they're going to focus on that, they're going to hone on that. So. Because if we, if this thing doesn't hold and, you know, airstrikes continue, the chances are that another aircraft is going to go down. So is it going to, you know, things going to happen the exact same way based on everything that's been put out there? You know, so I'm sure that's something that hopefully somebody is thinking about.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Another good point too is the Kurds. So the Kurds have been making videos about holding M4s, for example, and saying that they want to do stuff because they had the COVID of Air Support at the time making those statements. Well, if there's a two week ceasefire, the regime might head west into Iranian Kurdistan and start being pretty violent against those people that made those videos, which they've done in the past. So they have already demonstrated they're willing to do that.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

When the Kurd stuff started popping up in the media and stuff like that, didn't they start. They shot like a couple missiles and drones over. Yeah, over there too. Right.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

They fired into Erbil, actually around Erbil and eastern, eastern Kurdistan inside Iraq at a couple of bases and inside of Iran.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Feels like. Oh, yeah. No, it's come to like a. We're pausing. It does not seem like. It seems like this is going to be pretty bad. I want to know what's going on in Lindsey Graham's brain right now. He's got to be losing it.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Anything else? I mean, I'm trying to. I'm like have so many screens open right now, I'm like, dizzy.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

The one screen I'm watching is the oil futures, because that's the market, like absorbing the news and reacting to it, which is a very interesting thing to look at.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Where's it at now? Did it go under 100?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, it's 9,507. So it's down 16%, roughly.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Wow. I mean, you got to assume that's like the main reason we did this. It's not like Trump's worried about the Iranian civilians or even our servicemen. It's just like, oh, fuck.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

And you notice timing again. It was after hours after trading Closed again. Every single time it's been after hours trading.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

They were also pushing it yesterday, too, last night before. I'm sorry, early this morning or late last night, talking about possible ceasefire and stuff like that to kind of try and quiet the markets a little. Ah, man. Again, I don't know what stage capitalism this is, but it's a weird one, I'll be honest.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

If you look at, like, after I was trading in NASDAQ, S P, and Dow, they're all up over 2% right now. Right now. Which is, like, the biggest movement they've had upward since February 28th.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah. I mean, frankly, like, I know the Iranians are taking this as a win. Like, the regime right now, like, they're crowing. Like, they're spinning too. Spinning like crazy right now. But what h. I mean, do they really. They can't trust us, right? After what we've done the last couple times with negotiations? Like, we had a killer deal or close to it. And in that. Back again, that New York Times article, Wyckoff and Kushner were saying, like, oh, to get an actual deal is going to take months. Yeah, no shit, guys. It's a nuclear deal, not a fucking lease for a deli at one of your buildings, you dumb fucks. You know, it's. Of course it's gonna take months. How long did the JCPOA take?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Right here?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

There you go. I mean, like, these are serious issues that, like, have huge ramifications. It's not gonna be like, you're buying a new strip mall and you can bang it out with your lawyers in a couple days. Like, unbelievable to me, like, the level of, like, fuck this guy Kushner, man. You are a liability. You can't get out clearance. And he's sitting in the Situation Room, like, how is that allowed in this, in this. In our government?

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Well, in that situation talk you're discussing, which is, like, earlier, before the war started, if you read who was in there, the ODNI director was not in there, and there were a couple other individuals that you would think from the Cabinet that should be in there. Like, Treasury Secretary was not in there.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Scott Bessant wasn't in there. So.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

But was the energy guy, too? They mentioned energy and.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

But who was. Caroline Leave. It was in there.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

The. The pr. Like the press secretary.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, yeah. So the actual decision makers weren't in there, but the, the media people were in there.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Right.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Had to make sure that spin. Right.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, yeah. And I, I. The comms director was in there too.

[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

Right, Right.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

I think. And I think they had the, like, the general counsel, which is like, I don't even know why that position's even filled with this administration, if we're being honest.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Yeah, well, they're just writing legal opinions that are exactly what they're told to write.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Right?

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah. I mean, and if I'm the Pentagon, I. Someone has to be thinking, like, what's our pivot point here? How long do we keep these Marines soldiers?

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[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Sailors and airmen on station there. And if something pops off on the other side of the world, how quickly can we pivot? You know, like we've done the whole boys and their toys. Look what we got. Look what we can do there. And now we've got this pause, so hopefully someone is taking a beat and saying, okay, what is our pivot point? How long are we going to keep these kids on station trying to, you know, to hold this down? Yes, we have to keep somebody there just in case, you know, this whole thing breaks. But that doesn't mean that something's not going to pop off on the other side of the world. So hopefully somebody's thinking about that.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Plus, you got the carrier strike group that's been deployed, I think, 11 months now at sea.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, that's Crazy, I think, are they. They're heading back home. Right. They had the big fire in the. In the laundry room.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

I think they're in bay in. Or Suda Bay in Crete getting repaired.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Okay.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

And they let the guys go on liberty, which is nice that they got to go on liberty. But like they're still deployed. They're not home yet. And they weren't told they could go on 11 month deployment. They were told they go on a six month deployment. So, you know, like they got spouses and kids back home. Some of them with their kids being born while they're out at that boat. You know, that's thousands of people deployed without any clue about what's coming next for them in their life.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Now they're in Crete getting Cretan girls knocked up. You know, just waiting around for the laundry room to get fixed.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

So they can use it.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

And then they.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Didn't they say that it's gonna take like almost two years to fix the actual. Fix the. The carrier? Wow.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

I don't know.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, they had like a range. It was like 12 to 36 months to get it back. It's like my, oh my. I'm trying to get Jack to come on. Andy just sent something. A screenshot from his phone. He's getting. The area is under hostile aerial threat. Please remain calm, stay indoors or a safe place away from the windows and doors and follow the instructions of civil defense. Me too.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

What happened? The first 2 million dollar toll check bounced.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Probably they couldn't get it to the bank account because it's still sanctioned.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Well, I'm gonna drop off, guys.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yeah, I gotta take off too.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

All right, get out of here, guys. I'll wrap it up on my solo. Don't worry about it. I'll keep chatting with the chatters a little bit.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

All right, folks?

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

And continue to ruin our reputation.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Yes. Burn the whole thing down.

[John Hackett (Enlisted Marine, military expert)]

Somebody's gonna do it.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Yeah.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Take care, Jen. I'm the fault, guys.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Later, James.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Take care, John.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

See ya. That was the boys. I'm trying to get Murphy on, Jack Murphy on, but he's playing coy, I think. I don't think he's home. It's pretty awesome. I get to do the show with these guys, right? Like some jerk off like me. It's sick. Trying to catch up on the chats, guys. My bad. Yeah. So there's that ceasefire. Peace in our time, guys. And it's so annoying too, because this thing just so many, so many screens. What else we got? Anything? I Think we might wrap it up. I got nothing else to say. I'm spent. Cretin. Question mark. A Cretan girl from Crete. Because the. The aircraft carriers in Crete on leave while it's getting repaired. So they're. And so people from Crete, we call them cretins. Yeah, I have friends from Crete. They're. They're little cuckoo. They're definitely the cuckoo ones. Question for D. If thousands of Marines are there on station, does that mean they will be deployed? Isn't it. Isn't it true that the US Forces are on station? They get used to. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. They're gonna probably stay, you know, sit around wherever they are. My guess is they're probably in the Gulf of Oman. The mu. They're not in the Persian Gulf. No way they're gonna be sitting around for a couple weeks to see this thing, whether it falls apart or not. I mean. But, yeah, we. You know, there's a. For the most part, Trump, whenever he builds up, like, military forces somewhere, he kind of uses them. So frankly, I hope they don't do it. I hope they don't go after Carg island or anywhere else. Because think about it. If they're gonna go take Carg island to try and. Let's say this shit. Let's say this ship broke apart, they try going. And, you know, they. We go back to fighting. They go back to Carg Island. They go take Carg Island. They're sitting there for weeks, probably just taking incoming fire. Like, how is that good versus the PMF in Iraq? Do you think there will be. They will have a ground operation versus the PMF in Iraq. If anything, it's going to be special ops and maybe CIA. Like, I don't think it's going to be real deal. I'm gonna slowly wrap up. I want you guys to do me a favor, like, and subscribe. If you're watching right now, hit that. Like, share it. Tell your friends. What's the best Greek diner in Brooklyn? I mean, diners are all diners, right? Like, I know the best Greek restaurant, and that's the one that my family owns, and it's called Avali Greek Kitchen on Smith Street. Go check it out. The best Greek food in Brooklyn as far as diners go. There's a place over here, Bay Ridge Diner's pretty good. My Bahomey used to own it. He just sold it. I mean, most diners suck, to be honest, but Bay Ridge Diner has, like, a step above, like, pretty quality diner food. I would go and check it out, boys, hit the like, hit the like boys and girls. If there's like 3% of the girls that listen that are on right now, hit that like. Tell your boys, tell your homies. You know what I mean? Do what you got to do for the cause. I got like five experts on every week and they're not cheap guys. They're not cheap. Okay? They're divas. Don't tell him I said that. I hope my man Andy's good to go. Yeah, do us a solid. Oh, also Murphy, Jack Murphy, he's got a new book coming out in June. It's a fiction book. It's really cool. It's about our army ranger RRC guy who gets kidnapped and gets. Gets hunted for sport. Really good book. Read it. I read one of the first early drafts. Really? It's, it's fun. Check that out. The link is in the description. High side for Jack to his is news outlet with Sean Naylor. They do great work. Worked at like the New York Times and Washington Post. Wish they fucking did and all that. All the links to in the description. If you guys want to talk to us, hit us up there. Sign up to Our Patreon to patreon.com TeamHouse Help support the show. You get both eyes on and Team House episodes ad free and early. D you see about the Ursa Major sinking. I don't know what that is. Sorry, I'm stupid. A diner is basically like a. Like you get eggs, you can get a burger. I mean diners in New York and I'm sure a lot of places like in America are. It's just like a seven page menu and you can get anything from like two eggs breakfast to like you want a filet of soul. They have filet of soul. So for some reason that's what a diner is. At least here it's like a coffee shop. Plus in Brooklyn now in New York, we don't really have those big ass diners as much anymore. It's like a small regular store like in a retail area that's just like a coffee shop diner. Like we don't have those big ones with the big parking lots and stuff like that. We have one left in my neighborhood, but the ones that we at least have three, all diners are just Cisco slop. You're not wrong about that, bro. You're not wrong about that. Don't get me going with the restaurant business. Worst business in the human, in human history. Also Cisco just bought Restaurant Depot, which is like a place where like a lot of most. A lot of restaurants in Brooklyn and anywhere go and buy stuff. So it's just like Cisco is just gobbling up everything and they're like the fucking worst guys. Don't get me crazy. You're as a bringing up traumatic stuff from my past when I used to own restaurants. Ok. It's not cool. Yeah, it's basically like a cafe. Yeah. Food. Yeah. Cafe in Europe. It's funny too, because some coffee shop diner places call themselves, you know, Jimmy's Cafe and stuff. And it's basically like just diner food. Maybe some of them will do like. Some of them do like desserts and stuff like that too. There are a lot of like different places that like amalgamations. Jack's at a bar. All right. Jack's out. All right, guys. Thanks for hanging out for the live. Really appreciate it. Maybe we'll try and start doing a little bit, a couple more lives. Keep it like nice and loose maybe.

[Co-host (Possibly Jason or John)]

Okay.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Basics. Yeah. Right. Jason's in here. Jason. Also stop. Also, diners stay open later, sometimes 24 hours. Yeah. What happened here in New York especially, I mean, I'm sure There's still some 24 hour diners, but a lot of the 24 hour diners around me, when Covid hit, they stopped being 24 and they never really came back as 24 hours. My local Greek diner burned their diner down for insurance money to cover the debt on the bar they opened up. Yeah, that sounds like a totally plausible reason to do that. Would I be lying to you if I told you when I own restaurants, I fantasize about burning them down and taking the money? Yeah, I did. I didn't burn it down or anything. I should have. All right, guys, thanks again. Really appreciate it. I don't know how the fucking. Turn the stream off. Give me a moment. Like and subscribe. Don't forget to do that, please. Like and subscribe, please. Like and subscribe. And follow us, you know, on Twitter. And also, how fucking smart is John Hackett, by the way? Can we be honest? Jesus Christ. The guy was enlisted. He was an enlisted marine. He wasn't even an officer. Guy's a fucking genius. Well, everyone's smart on this except for me. I just run my mouth off. All right, boys and two girls, see you next time. We'll see you Sunday for sure. Actually, no, a new Eyes on is coming out tomorrow. Actually. We recorded something with Mick Mulroy's partner Eric Ollerich and Scott Canino, both, you know, SMU guys talking about the future of warfare. So that's coming out. Me and John Hackett did an interview with them last week, so that's coming out. Check out for that. I actually got to edit that right now. Fuck me. Just reminding myself. New team house coming out. We're recording it tomorrow, so if you sign up on Patreon, you can watch it live as we record it. Really cool one with a guy named Sean Weiss. Worse, Weiss Wesser. He wrote a book about Russian espionage. Really cool one. Jack just said. I'm at a bar reading the rest of it right now, so Jack's gonna come prepared. So yeah, we're pumping out stuff all the time, so we might. I think I might want to do this live shit a little bit more, maybe get some reaction videos too. Dave's in. Dave's in the Caribbean working at. Working a security gig. All right, I'm really done now. I love you guys. Peace and love. Don't forget to like and subscribe. Patreon.com teamhouse thanks guys. All the best.

[Podcast Promoter]

Hey guys, I want to take a moment to tell you about the Team House podcast newsletter. If you go and subscribe, it's totally free and what it will do is aggregate all of our data, all of our content that we put out, the things that are on the team house. On our Geopolitics podcast, Eyes on things that I write journalistically with Sean Naylor. On the high side, anything else that we have going on, books, we recommend, upcoming guests that we have coming on the show and also, you know, filtering in some fun stuff in there as well if you'll go and check it out. We send it out just once a week. We don't want to spam you guys. It's just a kind of roll up of all of our content on a weekly basis. You can find our [e-mail] join again, the website for that is teamhousepodcast.kit.com join so we hope to see you there.

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[Andy (Marine, military expert)]

At a playground?

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[VRBO Announcer]

Wow, your search can really get that specific.

[VRBO Advertiser]

Really? And you just put in your info and boom, car's in your budget.

[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Mom needs a second.

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[Jonathan (Journalist/Analyst)]

Mommy, look.

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[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Kyle.

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[Host (Possibly John or Jason)]

Really? Autotrader? Buy your car online.

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