← The Tony Kinnett Cast
The Tony Kinnett Cast
Ep. 535 - DEVELOPING: Search & Rescue Under Fire in Iran for Remaining F-15 Pilot, France Betrays Allies
01:15:27
We cover the breaking details in a Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) operation in the Khuzestan Province of Iran, near the coast of the Strait of Hormuz, after an F-15E was shot down today. One pilot has been rescued, the other pilot is still being searched for. Blackhawk helicopters have taken fire during the rescue operation.
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Tony Kennett
Tony Kennett.
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Co-host/Guest Commentator
Tony Kennett.
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Co-host/Analyst
Tony Kennett.
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Tony Kennett
Tony Kennett.
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Co-host/Guest Commentator
Tony Kennett. Tony Kennett.
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Co-host/Analyst
Tony Kennett, host of the Tony Kennett cast. Let's get down to business. You're listening to the Tony Kennett cast on 93 WIBC on CYTV here on the Daily Signal. Good evening and welcome to the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated first on 93. Wishing every one of you a blessed good Friday. So far we have a lot of updates and news. Rumors are flying out of the Iranian region, the Khuzestan province that is the northernmost province of Iran along its southern edge of the Strait of Hormuz. It is right next. It is almost up against the Iraqi border. And that brings us to where everything started kicking off this morning local time. So our very, very early morning hours, reports started coming in that there was a US Fighter jet that was hit by Iranian anti aircraft. Iranian media immediately took to the broader social media sphere and claimed that they had downed a US F35 Lightning 2 and that the pilots had been captured. About 15 minutes after that initial announcement from the Iranian regime, we started getting photos from across the social media sphere of for example, Iranian civilians or perhaps paramilitary finding an ejection seat. And here is where we found something that immediately debunked the original Iranian claim that it was an F35. That is an ACEs 2 ejection seat. Now that's used in a couple of different fighter jets, but it is most commonly used in the F15 Eagle Jet. Jet. Now additionally we also found out that the Iranian government put out a bounty on two American pilots that were expected to have survived the crash of the F15 Eagle in the Iranian southern province or I should say the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan. And then they ended up correcting their the Iranian regime statement. They kind of deleted all of their F35 claims and said, well, actually it's a US Air Force F55 Eagle. So it's a two seat dual role fighter bomber. Reportedly this is from the 494th Fighter Squadron or the Panthers, the 48th Fighter Wing which is based at Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the United Kingdom. Wreckage photos show tail markings and components which are consistent with the F15 Eagle. Now to be clear here, this has been confirmed by US Officials at this point, although CENTCOM Central Command has not issued a series of statements yet about this particular incident. So that brings us over to the kind of follow up information of the two members, the crew of this F15, the pilot and then of Course, a weapons systems officer both ejected and are believed to have ejected safely. One has been rescued by US Forces and is currently receiving medical care. We don't know the extent of the medical care or the extent of the injuries by either the pilot or the weapon systems officer. We also don't know which one was rescued and which one remains. The second, of course, remains missing, which is why there is a combat search and rescue CESAR operation ongoing. Now that CESAR operation has a couple of different components to it. So I am personally aware of a couple of drone aircraft which are operating in the region that are on a contract basis. That meaning that private groups are assisting the United States in a multinational effort to try to keep an eye on the ground. Now that doesn't just mean keeping an eye out for this pilot in the last hours of the evening in Iran, but this would also mean keeping an eye on any groups that are, for example, the Bakhtiari tribes, and I'm not pronouncing that correctly, in the very mountainous Khuzestan area who were originally reported arming and searching the terrain for this missing group crew member. Again, either the pilot or the weapon systems officer. Now there are a couple of videos that we do have from this, from the operation, the rescue operation earlier today. We've, we've seen footage posted of local police getting out of their car or their truck and shooting at Blackhawk helicopters as they flew overhead attempting to find the, the missing pilot. Sorry, let me get this B roll footage off of here so you can see it. So you can see on the left side of the screen for those who are watching. Radio crew, I apologize. There is a white, what looks like some kind of a small sedan and a couple of white short sleeved besieged officers getting out of the vehicle. And they seeing the helicopter fly by, start firing little pot shots out of the vehicle as it's flying away. I'm near. So you can see the, the front individual firing at the second or the first helicopter which is flying away from him. A second one comes into range, he pivots left, he also starts firing. Now it, it isn't believed that either of these particular Blackhawks were hit at this time, but here's what we know at least right now, outside of the rest of the craft that were involved. So according to US Sources confirming to a host of media sources, cnn, cbs, BBC, Guardian, others, that in the Cesar operation, the combat search and rescue low flying helicopters, the HH60 Pavehawk, a couple of Blackhawks also involved in kind of a slightly different role, a couple of C130 tankers and refuelers. There are reports of special operations teams. But I'm going to caution you a little bit waiting because it's very easy in these kind of situations to announce that everyone short of Captain America and Superman have showed up on site. Now, as of the evening into the Iranian night, Iranian state media and officials reported that they were still searching for the captured American pilots. Originally they'd announced they'd captured them both and we rescued one of them. Now they announced there is still one that is at large that they're hunting for, offering rewards, reportedly mobilizing local forces and tribes. That's where that, that Bach Tiari tribe in the mountainous Kuza Stanian area is coming into play here. And as of right now the search is still underway. Now you may say, hey, wait a minute, I, maybe it was on social media this afternoon and I heard that we'd actually ended up rescuing the second one. Things are great. This is excellent. It's fantastic. Well, no, there was an A10. An A10 Warthog, the finest close air support craft, the very definition of bur. Incredible. If you've never seen an A10 rip the ground in half with its beautiful front gun, go look up YouTube footage of it. It's beautiful. The A10 which is no longer in production and in fact they are running rather short on the parts for it, which is very, very unfortunate. I believe that the President of the United States and Secretary of War and a couple of senators should work together and go ahead and Launch an updated A10 facility and parts facilities. For the record, here is what the A10 looks like. For those who don't quite remember, beautiful craft. One was also, one also crashed outside of southern Iran today. Now it is believed that it crashed in the Strait of Hormuz itself. And it is not clear at this point, and here's the thing, it is not clear at this point whether it was downed by Iranian anti air fire. Although the A10 is the most susceptible of any craft out there except for the MQ9 and other kind of strike package drones to ground fire. You can get lucky and hit an A10, we've talked about that here on this show specifically before. But the A10, we do not know at this time whether or not that was downed by enemy fire. And that pilot, that pilot was able to eject safely and they have been rescued. So there was a report that two pilots have been rescued, but it's not the two pilots, or should I say the pilot and the weapon systems officer. From the F15 Eagle in Khuzestan, one of the officers has been collected and rescued in the F15 and the one from the A10 has also been rescued. So this brings us to the absolute deluge of just blatantly false garbage information. So again, when I tell you guys very often that it is important we take a minute and be careful because in this modern day of quick scams and social media moves, it's very easy to get out there and say, oh, someone said that this was going on and then Reuters confirmed it. You know, like they'll throw out some kind of an outlet's name to make it sound more true. This gets a lot of people. This is one of the reasons why you don't ever hear me making fun of those who fall prey to the telemarketing scams. Sky News of Australia was one of those that fell prey to this kind of nonsense, suggesting that Reuters had reported that the Iranian government had rejected an emergency plea from the United states for a 48 hour ceasefire. Here was Sky News trying to push this today, inciting Reuters a little bit of breaking news coming out of the Middle east, hearing in the last few moments from the Reuters news agency that Iran has rejected a US proposal for a 48 hour ceasefire. That's to an unnamed source speaking to the Fars News Agency. Iran rejecting a US proposal apparently for a 48 hour ceasefire. We'll keep across that. Okay, so what did the actual report say? Well, we'll dive into it. Radio crew will send you guys off to the commercial landscape. We're going to continue here on the live stream YouTube.com daily signal. It's the Tony Kinnett cast. We'll see the radio crew back in a few. Now please allow me to pop the bubble of over excited news broadcasters who don't know what it is that they're doing. So whenever you say oh Reuters is reporting, it might help to actually read the article, to actually go through it piece by piece and make sure you're not making a fool out of yourself. Because essentially what media outlets started reporting today was a game of telephone. So allow me to draw you the picture. An unnamed source told Iran's semi official kind of sort of Fars news agency on Friday that Tehran had rejected a US proposal for a 48 hour ceasefire. And, and then Reuters wrote the article on that. So what you have is an unnamed official who no one has any idea who this is telling the probably an Iranian official of sorts telling an Iranian quasi link state media outlet who then told Reuters from the from not like, oh hey, you should also call Reuters, but we're going to report this other report from this quasi Iranian outlet. Okay? And then you have sky and others saying, oh well, the United States was begging for a cease fire. There is no evidence whatsoever, even on the diplomatic cables. There's no, for example, secondary report out of Islamabad in Pakistan that Iran has rejected any kind of emergency ceasefire request from the United States. In fact, about 16 hours ago, we have information that Iran just stopped going to talks about any kind of diplomatic end to this whatsoever. And that brings us over to the United States. What are we actually hearing from the United States and centcom? Well, so far CENTCOM is keeping their mouth pretty tight lipped about this. I'm gonna level with you. I don't particularly mind this. What you don't need right now are a ton of statements from government officials in the middle of an operation that needs a very sharp line of precision and a rather unified approach to getting things solved, getting things taken care of. Here's what I mean. I hate the age of PR that we're in. I hate it. I don't like the idea that every single time that there is an individual that walks out of the White House or walks out of the Pentagon or walks out of the Attorney General's office, they're swarmed with 427 reporters and they stop and give these impromptu press conferences. I don't care for that. The reason I don't care for that is because believe it or not, the press is not the most important thing in the world. And this hyper addicted to the news personality and theme that a lot of us in kind of the political landscape have. And I being one of the people in this ecosystem that feel the driving engine of it, it's not healthy. And it doesn't really do a whole lot for operational efficiency, clarity and excellence either. Now this will shift us over to the media coverage and claim was the buzzards were immediately out the carry and foul sensed the roadkill. And me, they were all immediately in to say, ah, see, this is evidence that the Trump administration has lost all control. It's all over. Doomsday is here, you know, all of this nonsense. So Aaron Blake over at CNN swept in and, and wrote this scathing article about how this is all Trump and Hegseth's fault because Trump and Hegseth had claimed that the United States was invulnerable over Iran. They had air invulnerability. Now I've read this particular article and I've, I've gone through the, the entire, entire piece. I have seen nothing about it, nothing about it at all that the United States suggested either through Trump or through Hegseth where they claimed that the United States Air Force is invulnerable. I'll remind you that three F15s were hit by friendly fire in Kuwait earlier in the war. And by the way, this wouldn't be the first time that the United States launched some kind of an air campaign. And we lost an F15. In fact, in the Gulf War we lost an F15 to Iraqi anti air provided by at the time the Soviet Union. Yes, every once in a while these things are absolutely going to happen. I happen to know that there have been at least nine MQ9 Reaper drones, the dearest to my personal heart, that have in fact been shot down while they're very slow moving craft and if you aim something correctly, yeah, you can absolutely get a shot off at them. Now that'll bring us to kind of the CNN initial coverage of this for sure. Because what started transpiring was like an initial dunking session which is a little weird, kind of maybe a little crass, a little gross. We're gonna bring the radio crew back in for that cause they're about out of their commercial break. Don't go anywhere. A lot of news to cover tonight. It's the Tony Kinit ca on the Daily Signal, The Tony Kennett cast on 93 WIBC. Welcome back to the Tony Knitcast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated first on 93 WIBC. We're going through some of the updates right now. In the Middle east again, the combat search and rescue mission still underway for the second crew member of the F15 Eagle which was downed near the Khuzestan province or I should say in the Khuzestan province. It was downed outside of it flew into the Khuzestani province on its way back towards Iraqi airspace. One of the crew members has been rescued, one is still at large and a 10 also crashed today. Although it is unclear at this point whether or not it was hit by anti aircraft fire or whether it was experiencing mechanical failure which given the A10s have a quite the shortage of parts at this point. They're no longer being manufactured. We're running a bit short on a few things. There are some mechanical failures that were never fully revised. And I can say that personally I have watched a crew, I've watched a crew chief in the hangar cuss up the wildest storm. I learned brand new swears watching him describe some of the mechanical shortcomings that were never quite fixed with the A10 despite the dear love that many have for the warthog, and rightly so. So right now, what's going on in Iran? We'll get back to some of the initial news coverage, but I want to give you an up to date point right now to make your time worthwhile here. Explosions are currently heard in Syria's capital, Damascus. That's according to state media. The cause is as of yet unknown. Tehran is just getting the living tar beat out of it right now in the very late night hours up to and including a video that we have of a strike that occurred at 7:10pm Eastern. The capital city of Iran is, is experiencing quite a few explosions, quite a few strikes. I think we have that, that ready to go. Huge explosions. Now those do not carry the secondary explosions that one would expect to see in munition dump explosions which we have seen quite a few of, especially near Isfahan. It's one of the uranium enrichment sites over the last couple of days. And these explosions matter in a slightly different way based on where in Tehran it appears these are. I'm no Tehran geography expert. I'm not about to get out, you know, halal maps here for you. But it is important based on some of the intelligence we're getting out so far from these strikes, the Trump administration may be moving forward with a couple of key infrastructure strikes. Now the lights didn't go off in Tehran as those strikes happened. So it's not like I'm saying they hit the power plant. I don't want to get ahead of myself. So we'll get into that right now in kind of the broader media ecosystem. You appear to have a lot of people trying to reach the White House for comment. And so far there really isn't a lot that is being let out. All we have today really are three statements from the President. Two of them are truths posts, things he shared to Truth Social and the final is a comment that he made to NBC. So first this post at 8:22am Eastern the President tweeted or truthed, quote, with a little more time we can easily and then in all caps, open the Hormuz Strait, comma, take the oil, comma, and make a fortune. It would be a quote, gusher, quote for the world. Three question marks. And then President Donald J. Trump. So that was this morning and then he followed that up at 3:20pm Eastern. In all caps, keep the oil. Anyone, question mark. So very clear that the President of the United States is interested in the idea of taking the Kharg island infrastructure and putting the United States in charge of Iranian oil through some type of a transition period. Now, if the United States took some kind of transition period to the forefront and took control of Iranian oil, then that is not something that would be able to happen with the current Iranian president, with the current kind of pseudo regime changed sort of situation. Now, there is footage of the Marine Expeditionary Units on Diego Garcia doing kind of practice amphibious assaults. Some of that footage, I believe, has been shared by Fox and other outlets. We might grab that for you here in just a little bit. But back to some of the additional information. There's one other comment the President of the United States made to NBC, which has a lot of feathers ruffled and I mean, just all of the feathers ruffled. The NBC News crew was able to get a reporter in contact with the President and asked if the downed F15 Eagle would impact the President's talks and negotiations to end the Operation Epic Fury, if, if this downed craft would change things, essentially. And the president said, quote, no, not at all. It's war. We're in war, end quote. And a lot of people were really upset by this, thought it was uncaring, thought it wasn't right. There is not a single, not a single commanding officer from the, the commander or the CEO of a company going through hard times to an official in office leading through a particularly difficult time, or any competent CO from the lowest butter bar to the best NCO of the platoon, all the way up to the best of the brass that would, in the middle of a serious operation, especially after a moment where it appears there might be an instance of loss, where they would look and say, you know what? Yeah, this loss has knocked me over. I'm done. We're calling it quit. No, you buckle down and you take it very, very seriously. That's legitimately what there is to derive from this particular quote. Rest assured, it would not be unlike the President of the United States to approach the country via some type of late night social media video like he did after the initial strikes into Operation Epic Fury and talk to the nation about this, or at least Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in the next couple of days. Now that brings us back to the missing pilots in the coverage. So CNN first took to the airwaves and started off with some initial coverage and then the commentary dipped in real quick. This is very unusual when you are covering your own nation and military operations as they are being carried out, news coverage kind of on a broader professional level, usually doesn't devolve into this. I'll show you what I mean.
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Tony Kennett
Let's go now to Elena train at the White House.
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Co-host/Analyst
Elena, what are you hearing there?
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Tony Kennett
Yeah, look. So this is reporting from, you know, three U.S. officials and my colleague Kelly Britsky, Kevin Lipchak and I as Jim laid out that a US Fighter jet has been shot down over Iran and search and rescue is underway. I will note that at this point there is very little information we actually know about what is happening related to this. We do not know where the, where the plane went down. We do not know the status of the crew on board and we are not hearing any official word from the US Military or the White House at this moment.
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Co-host/Analyst
Though, by the way, so far, good appropriate the tone, the candor, the resuscitation of facts pointing out exactly what's going on so far. I would say this is actually pretty standard for how Wolf Blitzer over on CNN who, this is one of the things that kind of behind the scenes he's very, very, he cares a lot about when it comes to high tensity, high intensity moments like this, giving the updates point by point. That's fine. Unfortunately, that is about to end.
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Tony Kennett
Of course we do know that they are monitoring this very closely and obviously this is a very sensitive thing. And so they're being very careful with what they're going to be putting out publicly. Now I will say one thing we have been hearing, of course is you, you know, repeatedly I'm hearing in my conversations with people in that building behind me, you have to be careful with what you're hearing from the Iranian state media, which of course has been sharing a lot of videos and images this morning of this. But what we did hear as well from the state run Tasman agency.
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Co-host/Analyst
So first of all, mistake attributing in the middle of this, we know that you be careful what's being shared by the Iranian state media because she says they are sharing videos, quote of this. No, I'm going to, I'm going to show you one of those videos here in just a minute where they claim they have like the footage of taking down and, and the A10 like Iran has shown. Oh, hey, here's the missile hitting the A10. No, as someone who has spent a little bit too much time watching interception footage and looking at the gray grainy footage as kind of a specialty in the private side of things that one might contract for. No, but what she does right there, she says which they are sharing of this, assigning credibility in the middle of a Misinformation or really just a open conflict propaganda campaign rookie stuff. And it gets worse. Radio crew, we're gonna send you guys over to the commercial and dig into this a little bit more. It's the Tony Kinnit cast here on the Daily Signal with this breaking coverage.
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Tony Kennett
They said that the search for any missing crew had, quote, so far been unsuccessful. And I do want to say part of the reason this is so notable is because this incident does mark the first time that a US Aircraft has been shot down over Iran since the beginning of this conflict. For context, we do know that, you know, near the beginning of the war, three F15 were mistakenly shot down in a friendly fighter incident by Kuwaiti air defenses. But this is the first time we're seeing them shot down by enemy fire. Now, again, we are waiting to hear what the White House will ultimately say on this and similarly with the military. But it is, you know, a huge blow for this Trump administration in particular, at a time when you've heard the president try to project confidence about completely diminishing Iran's military capabilities. And so we'll keep you posted as we.
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Co-host/Analyst
Yeah, the last part there. Not your job. Not your job. Not. Not the time. In a media standpoint, that's not the time to do so. No, you don't go. Well, we all know that, really, the pro. This is a real blow to the President of the United States. What on earth are you doing? Are you covering the details or are you providing commentary? Again, there was a time to provide analysis, to provide the facts, and then say, hey, here's what's going on. That's what I'm doing at the moment. But when you are trying to report the bare facts and you cannot stop yourself from diving in and giving your political analysis, I again, it's really hard when CNN claims, and they desperately, desperately try to claim that they are just giving the news, they stand behind their reporting, and you don't even have correspondence that can just bring you the details. And to be clear, this is something that I have our White House correspondent at the Daily Signal, Elizabeth Mitchell, we keep a very high standard when we bring her on the show and she's relaying information just outside of the White House. She strives to meet that because there's a time for commentary and there's a time for relaying the information. It gets worst out on the Washington Post side of things, Fareed Zakaria wrote a column, threw it up today called has the US Military action, excuse me, has any US Military action ever racked up so many costs for so few gains. My latest column, what on earth, the desperation to claim that everything in this administration is the worst in history has literally given people a virus from which they cannot heal. So again, many of you will remember rightly so, the immense resources the United States poured in to Iraq and Afghanistan's long occupation, the Nikki Haley, George Bush style soft handed diplomacy building, United nations nonsense, all of those resources poured in for so very little gained. The Vietnam War in which because the United States poured in a ton of resources and then held its hands behind its backs and would not let our men fight that South Vietnam no longer exists. The idiocy by Fareed Zakaria over at the Washington Post to try to get a little one up here. Bizarre. Bizarre for sure. And then a little last note here from the Iranians and what they are claiming. I do want to get this one clip for you guys to see here. When we're talking about the footage posted of certain events here, you can see this aircraft flying and then there is a strike. And Iranian state media tried to claim this was footage of them shooting down an A10 Warthog. This is them proving the shot down. Here's the issue with that. No, that's not an A10 Warthog. You zoom in, you see something totally different. You don't see the, you know, the twin turbines there. Quite a bit wrong. We'll get into that. We got to bring the radio crew back from commercial. It's the Tony Kenneth cast. Lot of news to cover tonight. Don't go anywhere. It's the Tony Kenneth cast on 93 WIBC. Welcome back to the Tony Kenneth cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated, first on 93 WIBC. A couple of updates on the Iranian situation. Again, we're still waiting to hear whether the combat search and rescue for the second crew member again either the pilot or the weapon systems officer for the downed F15 Eagle is successful. Night is we're getting up to dawn now over in that particular region. So we're keeping an eye again. Tehran is currently getting absolutely pummeled and I do mean absolutely pummeled. The videos that are coming in of really, really big explosions over the capital city that suggest the United States might be leaning into a couple of infrastructure style strikes. One thing I pointed out while we were over on the break is that there are a couple of online armchair warriors who are suggesting to you that they know like that they have analyzed the footage. Iranian state media is also sharing the exact same thing with the exact same takes and they're sharing clips supposedly of. Oh man, they, they got this a 10 warthog. They've got it shot down. Oh, it's incredible. There's, there's just one problem. First of all, that's not an A10. It appears to be, based on that being thermal footage, it appears to be an MQ9. That appears to be a Reaper. And my heart breaks because we have lost at least 9MQ9 reapers either from the United States Air Force or from other groups that are allowed to fly them. And the heat signature there on the back, that, that is not what a thrust exhaust looks like. That's the, the, that would be the propeller engine right there spinning really quickly. The only real heat source on it. And that's what you can see the surface to air. Some kind of a Javelin personal launched anti air missile firing up. It picks up to it. You can see it very easily catch up to it. That means it ain't flying super duper fast. It hits and kind of disintegrates. So right here, right now, that really, again, just be very careful on social media, people telling you they're seeing things in the tea leaves. No, don't, don't, don't play that game. And also don't do what a lot of other individuals have decided to do. Right now. First of all, on the international stage, before we get to kind of some of the other armchair experts on the matter, France has decided now is the time to betray its allies, and I mean all of their allies. So first of all, good old Emmanuel Macron got up with the United Nations Security Council and the notable defenders of freedom, Russia and China and blocked a United nations led push. No, an Israeli led push. No, an Arab country led push at the UN Security Council for a resolution which would authorize military force to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Let me, let me circle that one back to you. An Arab led rec or an Arab led call for a resolution at the United Nations Security Council would be to authorize military force to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. There were three powers that blocked it. One would be Russia, obviously. One would be China, obviously. And the other, the French. Now you may say, Tony, why does this matter? I mean, after all, France, France can do kind of whatever they want. This isn't their fight, guys. It kind of is. You know how countries have various alliances and connections and they have certain special relationships as the United States is to Israel, is France to the uae, the uae, the United Arab Emirates is France's little coup de crayon little, you know, je ne sais quoi, their little special region, their little special country. They have all of these intelligence agreements and military agreements. France has provided a lot of the desalinization equipment to the uae. They've worked very, very, very closely for a long time. And under the military agreements that France has with the uae, if the United Arab Emirates comes under fire, like Article 5 and NATO situation stuff, guess what? France is supposed to intervene directly. But no, no, the French do not want to do that. Instead, France has completely abandoned its on contra. Well, I guess the French government's fallen so many times, who knows if any treaties or obligations are still good. They've completely abandoned their obligation via treaty with their own documented legislated ally, the United Arab Emirates. And it's, it's really, really bizarre to watch. And so what you are seeing are already consequences from the uae. So how is the UAE responding? Well, in a couple of ways. First of all, one of the officials from the uae, Hamada Alva Jin. I'm not going to pronounce the name correct. That's just going to be one of the ways. This is, this is translated from Arabic.
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Tony Kennett
Quote.
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Co-host/Analyst
The French position of shirking the UN Security Council resolution on opening the Strait of Hormuz is an opportunistic and hostile stance against the Gulf of Cooperation Council states. Guess what? That doesn't involve the United States and Israel, the Gulf Cooperation Council. Those states wanted the Strait of Hormuz to allow armed convoys sailing on through and to, yes, strike the shoreline if possible. You mean you just have ships firing on the shore? What if there's people there? You have one ship sailing up the strait firing at the shoreline. There's not going to be people that are going to be camping out there on beachfront property for long boys, girls and squirrels. Anyway, he says, for this reason, I call on every, on every citizen of the Cooperation Council to boycott French products that bring in billions to the French public treasury. Which, by the way, is very true. The UAE purchases a lot of stuff from France. Essentially, the French luxury market has two main purchasers, two main patrons, the United States, because, you know, of course, and the uae. Those are the first two. Also, the UAE has withdrawn from the funding. Excuse me, The UAE has withdrawn all of its funding in the development of the new Rafale F5 after France refused to transfer advanced technology. So there's an F5 jet deal between France and the UAE in which UAE was going to basically fund a huge chunk of, of French weapons and aircraft development. The UAE is Now pulled out of that completely because the French are about as useful as a flat doorstop. It turns out the French are about as useful as they've always been. So, you know, just, just well done to the French. Just. Way to go. Now, this does bring us to some of the, the current information. There are all of these rumors circulating that Emmanuel Macron has signed a deal with Iran and that the French have made some kind of hidden backroom pact. That's not confirmed at this point. But the reason that these rumors are being made is that there is a French shipping vessel, the CMA CGM container ship, which is Malta flagged and therefore French owned, which successfully transited the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, April 2nd. It's the first known Western European vessel to do so with an open transponder on all the way through since Iran restricted the traffic amid the war. It passed without incident. And if it's passed without incident, no one firing a single shot. Either everyone was asleep or did France sign some kind of a backroom deal. Now, supposedly, and this is the part where we got to be a little careful. South Korea and France and India have suggested they are going to start escorting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. I will believe it when I see it. I would believe it from India before I believe it from South Korea or France, but that is, that is kind of the way things stand in that moment. Iran is also still striking other nations. The Associated Press reported this afternoon that the government of Kuwait said that an Iranian attack, we don't know whether it was a only a suicide drone attack or it was a suicide drone attack with a kind of soft ballistic chaser. But the desalinization plant that provides 90% of the drinking water in Kuwait was hit today. And there was an oil refinery in Kuwait hit by the Iranian drones Friday morning. So essentially what the Iranians have started doing is saying, okay, well, United States, Israel, other Gulf powers, you can't cover all of your territory, period. So we're just going to just start slinging whatever we can, wherever we can. Iranians have, according to the reports, have pushed in a lot of these children they are drafting, are being put on work teams to try to open up the tunnels where the United States, Israel had corked, basically slid a bunch of rubble down due to airstrikes over the ballistic missile tunnels inside these large mountains. And child labor is being used alongside, you know, a couple of the besieged in the IRGC to try to open these tunnels and get some of these missiles out. And you're hearing A bunch of reports about, oh well, international intelligence communities report. So far we do not have any confirmed reports of this except for the media rumors that are flying around from unnamed, which changes from hour to hour. It's why you don't see the exact same port from the New York Times or CNN or Washington Post or the Huffington Post. We're going to get to the Huffington Post in a few minutes from the White House and from Tehran. We don't have anything new, at least as far as an official statement is concerned. But what we do have now are a couple of statements from members of Congress. So first of all, radio crew, sorry we have to send you away to commercial one more time. It's the Tony Knitcast here on the Daily Signal. We're going to continue on the live stream. So first of all, the Republican Senator John Curtis of Utah, and the report is several Republican lawmakers are also beginning these talks. John Curtis is the only one whose statement on this I have seen so far. Now, Curtis has pushed back against the president a couple of times over the last couple of weeks, not just related to the Iran thing. He's kind of going the way of Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Anyway, he said, I stand by the president's actions taken in defense of our national security interests in the Middle east, but we must be clear eyed about history and the Constitution. While I support maintaining our readiness and replenishing stockpiles, I cannot support funding for further military operations without a formal declaration of war from Congress. And there's an interesting kind of a bifurcation there. So first of all, you have the question from the United States Congress as to whether they will actually vote on some type of a declaration that allows the United States to operate freely in its full military capacity if it comes to that. Interesting to see this discussed here, although I don't necessarily believe that things are set in stone in any way, shape or form yet. But I will say this. I will say that suggesting that the request for defense funding or the Department of War funding so far being earmarked specifically for additional military operations, I think that he's kind of subtweeting Cuba here is a little bizarre. And it's a little bizarre because the United States, since the Biden administration really has needed to start putting things back into the stockpiles. When you give away large chunks of arms to other countries, whether it be Ukraine, whether it be other Eastern European powers, to kind of stiff up defense a little bit, whether it be in the Middle east or in South Korea for Thaad missile defense systems, Patriot missile defense systems. You do need to replenish the stockpile. And so that is understandable. But it is going to be an interesting point of contention over the next couple of weeks, especially in a midterm year. And given the polling, it's not quite clear that we are going to see the bulk of Americans go the way that a lot of people are suggesting, kind of in the way to online social media sphere. Now that all said, I do want to point out the Elizabeth Warren side of things are just bonkers. Get out the cuckoo clock. So Elizabeth, Elizabeth Warren has decided that she wants a full investigation into Pete Hegseth because she is accusing him of sending US Troops to fight and die in Iran so that he could cash in on stocks behind closed doors.
- [41:25]
Co-host/Guest Commentator
Oh, brother, this guy stinks.
- [41:28]
Co-host/Analyst
Okay, I've heard this one before. And honey, sweetie, baby, I don't think you get to play this game where you selectively care about taking kickbacks as Elizabeth Warren has and has been caught doing alongside Pelosi for a very long time in some insider trading allegations. But then to kind of flip things around to make some unfounded allegations, ABC News is also suggesting that, oh, there's a big story here, but there's a little of an issue. There's a little bit of an issue here that the only news report that ABC has put forward on this story of hegseth supposedly profiteering are just Democrats complaining and making allegations. There isn't anything substantive yet that's been kind of brought to the table. So we have to bring the radio crew back from commercial one more time here. And then we're going to continue on the show. It's the Tony Kinit cast. Don't go anywhere. The Tony Kennett cast on 93 WIPC. Welcome back to the Tony Kennett cast. Wishing you all a very blessed Good Friday. And the online media crew, the major pundits, politicians have taken to social media to do a couple of things. First of all, to give really, really bizarre takes on the developing situation in the Middle east, such as comparing this to the United States and the United Kingdom during its taking back the Falkland Islands from Argentina. But we'll get to that because there's a little bit more to it because it is, in fact, Good Friday. There was some major media that was brought forward today in which a lot of huge scandal trying to be unearthed. So first of all, some of the idiots over at the Huffington Post, like Jen Bendery, who by the way, looks, looks like this lovely, lovely lady has tried to insinuate that at the Department of War today at the Pentagon that they had invited more than 3,500 employees to attend a Good Friday service at its in house chapel. Oh, no. The horror. And here's the catch that said, it's not for. It's only for Protestants. It's not for Catholics. So she writes this huge scathing article that didn't do too well. So then she wrote a big thread about it saying, hey, there's going to be a Protestant service, no Catholic Mass for Good Friday today at the Pentagon chapel. And they're trying to stir up this idea that. Man, I can't believe it. I guess Catholics know that they're not welcome. Oh, man, Pete Hegseth is super duper anti Catholic. There's just one problem with this story. No Catholic church, no diocese has made any kind of public statement about a Mass on Good Friday. Catholics do not do a big Mass on Good Friday. They don't. They don't. So it's nothing. It's a nothing Burger. Congratulations. Incredible, incredible stuff. That really wasn't the most embarrassing thing of the day, though. There was a lot of whitewashing of the holiday. So again, to make this perfectly clear, Good Friday is about one thing and one thing only. It is three days before Easter, meaning it is the day that is. That is treated as a monument, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is not a monument to sacrifice or community or. Or a lesson on the morals and understanding of. No, it's not. It is a memorial to the death of Christ, who, according to the Scriptures to very, very clearly expressed as the core, the very core, the root of Christianity, that Christ, being the son of God, took upon himself the sins of the world, being sinless, submitted himself willingly unto death so that you and I, who can do absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing about our sin, the unrighteous can do nothing about their unrighteousness, took what was supposed to be my penalty upon himself so that you and I could restore our relationship with God and yes, indeed, have eternal life. That is the point. The point of Good Friday. That's it. There's no broader. It's not Arbor Day. It's not Memorial Day. It's not where we all sit down and get out the coloring book pages and say, all right, here's the lesson about giving or Thanksgiving's about being thankful. No, it is a very specific kind of holiday. So when you have officials get out there and start wishing people a Good Friday. It's really, really bizarre to see how the left, who really does not in any way, shape or form believe that public officials should be talking about Christianity unless it is to smack the right with it. The name of Christ stays out of their lips unless it's to say that Jesus was an illegal immigrant or some other such nonsense on that realm. And so what you saw today was the whitewashing of the name of Jesus Christ from Good Friday, which I didn't even think that you could do, but they have found a way. So first of all, from Abigail Spanberger, the lady who tricked a bunch of people in Virginia, to believing that she was moderate again, the the middle aged liberal woman blonde wino thing, not really escaping the trope here. Anyway, she posted today, to all Virginians observing Good Friday, I am wishing you and your loved ones a reflective and meaningful day. Okay, but maybe about like what the holiday's about again. Remember whenever there's something celebrating the made up holiday of Kwanzaa or celebrating Diwali or Gishin Big Ding Du or whatever else, we have to sit down and there's this big huge graphic that's created by the social media team saying, here's why we celebrate this. Once upon a time there was a professor in Africa who wanted to celebrate things with candles. The candles represent the 42 virtues of and it's like this huge paragraph you have to read through because no one cares and fewer people know about the holiday that you're after. Again, you remember the Trans Day of visibility thing from this week. Huge big long paragraph about all of the important tenets of the holiday and things. Good Friday though, and it's very ambiguous, very vague for all of those who may care. I hope it is reflective and meaningful. Mmm, excellent. Zoran Mamdani. Well, in true Zoran Mamdani fashion said, today on Good Friday we mark a day of sacrifice. Some New Yorkers will abstain from eating. Those would be called Catholics, not just some New Yorkers. Others will spend hours without speaking. You should have been among them anyway. Says faith, the Bible tells us, is the belief in things unseen. That belief is what will guide so many of our neighbors in solemn reflection and reverence. I wish all those observing Good Friday a blessed day of peace. Good Friday is not about emulating sacrifice. It's not? No. Nowhere at all in the New Testament is it made clear that how you are supposed to reflect on Christ sacrifice for you is therefore you should sacrifice for other. No, that is never once said. It is a point that when you could do nothing, he, the matchless name of Jesus Christ did everything. That's the point. No if, ands, buts, that's it. And when you do this, this whitewashing of everything, you lose any credibility to complain whenever someone else doesn't quite mention the national trans J of Oogety boogity the way that you want them to. Absolutely not. Now, then, you had kind of the really awkward posts that weren't like, super terrible, but were just a little. Had some weird things. So you had Representative Gregory Meeks, who posted a picture of Good Friday with four crosses on a hill. Can you imagine if you had someone posting a picture of the menorah on Hanukkah and there's like 47 holes in the lamp. Not the eight days of Hanukkah, the 47 days. Guys, there's three crosses. There's Christ and the two thieves, boys and girls. There's not four crosses. Don't be dumb, don't be stupid, folks, don't do it. It's not worth it. And then you also had guys like Congressman Troy Carter again on the true meaning of sacrifice and rule. Again, never the whole point of Good Friday. It is a Good Friday because Christ died on the cross, but just this. This very vague kind of nonsense. And then, of course, finishing it up with Andrew Cuomo, who, again, supposedly like Mr. Super Big Good Catholic. On this Good Friday, we pause to reflect on sacrifice, humility, and the enduring power of faith. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Christ did not rise from the dead three days later because of enduring faith. And he rose because he is the sinless Son of God. And he conquered death. Guys. It's almost like it's been written in books and taught ecclesiastically here in the United States for its entire history. You don't have to whitewash things. We don't have to do this. But this kind of weird brain worm is insipid and it is found in each and everything. So I wish you a blessed Good Friday because Christ loves you. He died for you. And three days from now, we are going to celebrate Easter. I genuinely hope that if you're in Newcastle, you'll stop at Grace Baptist Church. That's where I'll be. And I wish you a very, very great Easter weekend. It's the Tony Knittcast here on the Daily Signal. Sorry, I realized I was coming up on the end of my radio clock there. In all seriousness, that is the entire point of Easter. It's not about bunnies. It's not about renewal. It's not about Spring is here. It's not about friendship and hugs and sacrifice. No, absolutely not. And if you're in the comments saying, I didn't tune into the show for that. I do this every single Good Friday because it matters. If I was a Christian who believed these things, and I do, and I did not share them with you specifically given what it is that I believe that yes, there absolutely is something for your soul, there absolutely is something for your life that can change everything. And I didn't give that to you. Kind of a trashy thing to do. So again, I do genuinely hope that you got a moment today to reflect on the one sacrifice that matters. And so, and by the way, if you really would like a good place to turn, you're welcome to shoot us an email. There you go. Over to tonykinnit.com t o n y k dash I n n e t t.com you can find a contact thing there. You can reach out to us or open up your friendly neighborhood Bible to the Book of John, the Gospel of John. Just start reading and from there forward you can reach out. Any questions at all? Seriously, before we get to any of the other, the other news stuff, I don't want to rush through that. That is deeply important to me. And as long as they allow me to continue doing this on any of the stations, any of the airwaves, Good Friday will always be marked by that. So that said, unfortunately, the armchair philosophers, historians, every time there's a major international crisis of some sort, you get everyone rushing out to be experts on things that they never were 50 minutes ago. So again, you remember after the Alex Preddy and the Renee Goode situations in Minneapolis, all of these experts on crime, forensics and, and due process and law, when it comes to what rights are expected, what, what actually constitutes police brutality and immigration law, everyone became experts. Well, now we have a lot of experts on search and rescue and kind of on macro war, history and theory, which is pretty Precious. So Michael McFaul, who is a senior fellow over at the Hoover Institute, has melted down over the last couple of days. Why? Because he really doesn't like that. The president of the United States seems pretty bent on making this a clear victory and not just announcing mission accomplished like some presidents did and then just trying to walk away. So Michael McFaul on Ms. Now got up today and I'm going to try
- [53:50]
Co-host/Guest Commentator
to use diplomatic language here, but he used disinformation to describe what President Obama, who I work for, did with regard to denying Iran a nuclear nuclear weapon. We used coercive diplomacy and we denied Iran a nuclear weapon and a nuclear grade enrichment of their uranium for 15 years at the set of 3.67%. That's what we did. Trump tore it up and then Today it's at 60%, almost weapons grade nuclear materials. And that's still there even after this war. So that, that jiu jitsu that he played, you know, with Obama would have been all these weapons, and I'm the one that denied it, is completely false.
- [54:32]
Co-host/Analyst
So first of all, it is categorically and completely true that after the Obama administration signed the JCPOA deal and sent pallet loads of cash over to the Iranians, two things happened. And this isn't me reporting this. These are documented, clear and consistent reports from the network he appeared on Ms. At the time, NBC, that after about two months, what did Iran stop doing? They stopped allowing the IA ia, the International Atomic Energy Group from the United nations to come in and observe Iran keeping enrichment levels under 3% because civilian power doesn't need uranium enrichment anywhere close to over 3%. And so Iran would basically take the IEEPA officials into a separate visitor center. Like the first rest stop you go to. We walk in, you go, you're into a new state on the interstate. You walk in, there's a picture of like the governor and the lieutenant governor and, and a bunch of random like souvenir crap from that state. That's what they would walk the IPA scientists into in Tehran, not near the uranium enrichment facilities in ifs, Isfahan or Fordo. They took the Obama administration money that was shipped to them in pallets and then they used it to arm themselves and to dig out new tunnels and to fund terror proxy networks for the ballistic missile program, that, yes, when they said, oh, it can only go like a thousand miles now has a range of 4,000 miles, so you don't really get to run that here. And by the way, he, he kind of doubled down with this online. He said, you know, Trump's comments about these Iran deal stuff, it was wrong because the Obama deal capped uranium enrichment at 3.67%. It capped it. Now the, according to every available data, including from Iranian officials themselves, boasting way later on social media, on state media, internationally, they had uranium that was enriched 15, 20, 50%. That doesn't sound anywhere near 3.67% to me. And that again, the grandstanding to gaslight you into believing that they were just totally harmless, sitting there with stuffed animals. And you see this obviously on kind of the corporate left. You also see this over on like the weird hyper isolationist right, who doesn't like intervention Again, understandable. So long term, intervention is not a good thing. And whenever you tie United States troops hands behind their back and you don't go and fight a war to win a war, and you pussyfoot around like we did in Vietnam or like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, you don't allow our troops to go in and win and conquer and finish the fight. Well, then you do, in fact, get a lot of bad things out of it. It's understandable to have a lot of isolationists who are not really excited about intervention. However, you don't have to then lie to yourself and say, well, everyone else is actually really wonderful and fantastic, Mrs. Cleaver, and everyone's just great, and if we left everyone alone, everyone would get along and sing Kumbaya. Yeah, that's retarded. You don't have to play that game either. And unfortunately, you have this from kind of this weird populist meeting. David Axelrod's a great, a great example of this, because David Axelrod was the kind of pseudo populist on Trump's side on a lot of things, except when it actually comes to being ideologically consistent. So, you know, again, and, and, you know, I'm, I'll, I'll explain what I mean on the other side here, David Axelrod says, quote, beyond which Iran surrendered 97 of its enriched uranium. They submitted 97% of it. Guys, do you know what the source was for the enriched uranium that Iran had, like, coughed up Iran? So the I, the IPA crew showed up and said, hey, we're here for the enriched uranium. And what showed up was one Toyota Hilux that my tax dollars probably paid for. And in the back of it was one small crate. And they're like, yeah, this is the uranium. This is all of it, 97% of it. I have a little vial that I'm going to keep back on, like a necklace and wear it around the office. And AIPA is like, okay, Iran, are you sure that's all of it? And Iran is like, yes, yes, indeed. And they were lying because that's what Iran does. So, I mean, if you're lulled by that kind of stuff, again, he said the same thing about the Affordable Care Act. The idea, it's an. Oh, because it's just. Because it's an Obama legacy. That's why Trump ripped it up. Okay, all right. Michael McFaul and others of that kind of ilk also lost their minds over the idea that the United States expects more from NATO. Essentially that, hey, that's an international highway through The Strait of Hormuz. And so if you have your flagged boats going through the strait, maybe you should go and escort them. Makes sense to me. Well, here's the. Again, the idea that Trump said, you know, maybe, maybe other countries ought to lend a hand just to, you know, little something. Thought I'd see what they do. McFaul gets out there and kind of tries to contrast this and says, well, look, did we join the United Kingdom in support of their war against the Falkland Islands? No, this is the left line because the. They're saying that the United States did not help Margaret Thatcher send in the Brits to take back the Falkland Islands after the dictator in Argentina nationalized, liberated, whatever them, you know, remember back in the late 80s, early 90s kind of stuff. Only there's a small problem with that. That's bullcrap. The United States absolutely did so. First of all, the United Kingdom did not gather Parliament together and declare war. They didn't do so. It was a military action. Number two, the United States did provide resources. We allowed the Brits to use our bases. We shared intelligence with them, we sent them arms. We absolutely supported the United Kingdom in that. So in other words, this crew is full of crap. All of these pseudo historians that have never picked up a bleeping book are getting a little tiresome. Gonna level with you. Just a, just a, just a smidge. Just a smidge tiresome. So that all aside, I do want to point out one last thing on the media side tonight, that this one just gives me a giggle on this whole NATO pearl clutching. You got to bring in the New York Times. And boy, did the New York Times not disappoint whatsoever. So in their print edition of the New York Times, they have a news analysis piece, quote, a North American Treaty Organization without America, question mark. There's trying, they're trying to say a NATO without America. As many of you in the comments are already pointing out, NATO is not comprised of the North American Treaty Organization. That's not what NATO stands for. It is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is not the North American Treaty Organization. This is not difficult, folks. You're going to bring out your big news experts and your historian experts on this. Don't be dumb. I mean, there are corrections to issue and then there are corrections. So from New York Times communications, because they're not going to use the real New York Times account that has millions of followers. New York Times has a little communications account that has like 60,000 followers. And then they'll kind of like saddle along here and kind of the back end and say hey yeah, we're going to issue a small correction. The correction being quote, a correction will appear in tomorrow's print edition. A headline with an article on Friday about President Trump's threat to leave NATO misstated the full name of the body and then they correctly cited North Atlantic Treaty Organization, not North American Treaty Organization. Okay, that's, that's real special. Well done. Well done indeed. So incredible jobs numbers for this month by the way. There's a lot of excitement. So again kind of on the propos side of things. Carolyn Levitt sharing her excitement. Oh wow. 178,000 jobs added this month and we're down to a 4.3% unemployment rate. And you saw some cut clips being shared around CNN talking about this with Harry Enton's crew. I mean the expectation was what, 60,000 jobs and it's 178.
- [62:52]
Co-host/Guest Commentator
Wow.
- [62:53]
Co-host/Analyst
Yeah, look, the job market bounced back in a big way in March and that is good news, really blowing away expectations. Okay then also of course the classic CNBC route here, right up the front
- [63:06]
Co-host/Guest Commentator
65,000 we are significantly stronger, 178,000. However there's a pretty big revision in the rear view mirror. If we look at the -92,000 it becomes -133,000. So the two month revision ends up actually if you look at the previous month only minus 7,000 so not as bad.
- [63:33]
Co-host/Analyst
I do want to be clear when I said that the Enton crew that would be beat the Harry Enton crew that wasn't Harry Anton himself. No, but, but that part of his, his reporting crew over on CNN with that data. Now I'm going to level with you here again. I like seeing good numbers. However there's a bit of an issue because we have seen revisions over the last couple of months that have been pretty significant. I'm going to hold my, I'm going to hold my tongue and I'm going to wait here I am. I love seeing good things, believe me. I have said, I have even kind of somewhat predicted that if there is going to be a leap forward moment for the US economy it is going to be from the quarter one of 26 through the end of quarter two because that's when you are going to get a lot of consumer sentiment that comes in after new tax policy kicks in, et cetera. However, we have seen some revisions in which the job numbers actually go down. So I'm gonna hang on here a little bit here and especially that on the unemployment rate as well. Again not Saying it isn't happening. I'm just saying I'm gonna be a little, I'm gonna be a little hesitant here. I'm gonna be patient again. If it comes out and it's a very small revision downward or it's a revision upward, excellent. I'll be thrilled. I will, you know, I'll break out again, you know, Indie Fundy Baptist. I'll break out the Sparkling Welches. But unfortunately at this point, I've been, you know, fool me once kind of a thing. So I'm gonna wait a little bit, just a little, just a little bit of patience on those particular numbers. So that said, and aside, I do want to get a little bit of the mail time in before we are done for the day. And you know, again, couple of good questions tonight. Very kind. Super chat from Yani Bennett. $10 said Tony, need someone to stand up, create a GoFundMe as an Iranian reward for anyone who finds the last crew member, hides them and guides them back out to safety. Can you do it? Well, the issue with that would be that the Iranian state media is still trying to suppress as much of the Internet access as possible. And so it's very difficult to reach a large portion of the populace now. Right now it's really, it is really chaotic. Based on the scant reports that I have heard that I'm not reporting because I can't verify some of the information. But based on some of the information that is trickling in, there are a lot of groups at odds with each other trying to find this remaining pilot or crew member. And so at this point, everyone who's looking or is already looking is looking. And as you know, based on the people inside Iran, there might in fact be somebody. There might in fact be someone who is already keeping this particular pilot in their home. They just can't necessarily do anything with them yet. So that would probably be the, the where and the why on that one for you. Let's see here. From a one eye monster. Everybody's a war expert now. Hey, it's amazing. It's quite funny how often, how often you can, how often you can see that kind of things. Looking forward, I'd say kind of a final wrap up here, Tony. Do you believe in the Geneva Convention? I love this, I love this question. So regarding the concept and the conversation about war crimes, I'm gonna level with you. We have taken the original idea of the Geneva Conventions, which was that you were not supposed to use weapons of mass cruelty on directed specifically at civilian populations like unrestricted Submarine warfare, to shoot civilian vessels that were flying an allied flag or an Entente flag. That kind of a ban or things on, you know, types of mustard gas, chemical warfare, biological warfare. The idea would be to try to restrict warfare to the classical idea of the battleground. Two sides meeting up in a field, shooting at each other very neatly and whatever. The diplomat's idea of war, though, there's a bit of an issue when people get down, and I mean when the regime in opposition gets to a point where they are very, very deep down and it doesn't appear they're going to recover, they toss all of that out the window. And for the majority of the Geneva Convention's existence, the only powers that have followed the rules of war would be the United States and Western allies. From an official diplomatic perspective. Absolutely. And we know this because we have record of a lot of the atrocities. And no, that's not suggesting that anyone has been perfect in keeping away war crimes. Absolutely do happen. It's not an endorsement of war crimes, but the social tut tutting from middle aged women on the left or obese young men on the weird isolationist. Fuentes. Right. Who are lecturing everyone about war crimes right now. You can't strike a power plant. That's really bad. Honey, I'm going to need you to go sit down. The adults are talking. Restricting your opponent's ability to wage war. If that's striking a bridge, an unfinished bridge, yeah, that's fine. Because at some point when you put a hand behind your back and you hold it there and you say, I can beat you with a hand tied behind my back. That type of stuff will get US citizens and troops killed. Allowing the prosecution of the mission. Will the idea that, well, if you, if you really go really, really hard, that's gonna spawn terror groups. Guys, the terror groups spawn regardless. There is not one instance in history, not a single instance of a country which was defeated and conquered. And at the end, near the end of the fight went well, they've treated us really reasonable when they were conquering us. All right, everyone, we were gonna do resistance groups, but I've decided we're not. We're just gonna sit here and work with the people. That's not a thing. That's not a thing. I don't know. What in the world is this clown fairy tale land that people get into and the concepts about operations and war. Now, there is one other question that I did want to, you know, I did want to talk about that I thought was pretty important here. So There was one YouTube member of the channel who asked this, and I wanted to, you know, answer this question. Hey, I thought this is an operation and not a war. What. What gives? Okay. Connotation and denotation are important. Denotation means the actual definition of the word. Connotation means the word in context, meaning this. We've talked about this with due process. Due process is not a magical word that always means the same thing all the time. Your due process simply means what you are owed by the law in this circumstance. Many times in cases of arrest and processing through the legal system, it's totally different for immigration cases and United States citizens. Very, very different things. Now, in the same way, we've also talked about the different connotations regarding the language of treason. So, for example, things can be treasonous, but the legal definition of treason to aid or abet an enemy of the United States directly and clearly that's very different than suggesting that someone who is currently cheering on, you know, whatever the. The Iranian resistance against the United States. Being an idiot on social media, while that may be treasonous, does not fit the legal definition definitively of treason. And they do matter that that kind of matters. It's the same way in this way regarding war. So to make war and a warlike action to fight a battle. Well, if we're going to call that war every then, then no one has ever been at peace anywhere at any time in history. Again, to. To point back to my favorite novel, Robert R. Heinlein's starship troopers from 59. No, not the movie. Totally different thing. He says, if there's ever been a point in history in which there has been a country at peace, meaning there were no fights or actions going on anywhere, I've never yet heard about it. That would in fact be the case. There's never been a time that that's occurred. So they say, well, wait, is that war then? Well, there are legal definitions to war that Congress uses. And you hear these semantics games that are brought up all the time. And I'm going to level with you. Yeah, I mean, I think this is reaching the point where Congress probably needs to take a little bit more of a key interest. In this particular instance, we see the House Armed Services Committees that were addressed on the situation regarding the downed F15 Eagle today. But at the idea that's like, oh, well, you know, this word has just been used. It changes everything. When you get into semantics games. Yeah, you kind of. Whatever. Here's a great example of the stupid comments. Iran has a right to defend itself against the US in this illegal war and we should be ready for the consequences. That's a great example of being retarded. So first of all, illegal war, what are you talking about? I say the war is illegal because international law states no, there has never ever, ever been someone staring down the barrel of a gun that was able to stop that by going, wait, international law said that's not a thing. Stop it, don't be a child. And number two, the right to defend itself. Yeah, they have a right to defend itself. They sure do. And the regime, if it fails to defend itself is going to find itself replaced by likely a balkanized group of countries including Kurdistan, a restored Persia and then a couple of micro ethnic countries whose borders are going to be very, very, very blurry over the next couple of decades. Self determination. You can't claim that and then say, well, but the citizens in Iran can screw off. Well, no. So yeah, a little, little fun there. All right, last thing here just in a very kind super chat from Dr. Richard James. Government military have backup generators. So if you knock them out, you can avoid more easel easily say to civilian casualties by focusing on what is still lit up. That is true. And that is an absolutely. I have sat in that lecture talking about different strike targets, packages and what it is the kind of the, the actual walkthrough of what you hit and why, why you might strike a power plant and not hit the water treatment facility. Those things matter. Again, when you see Iran attacking desalinization plants and you see the president ordering specifically the desalinization plants be left alone right now, but instead maybe considering targeting the electrical facilities. Well, yeah, that, that does in fact kind of matter. I mean there are a couple of particulars there and how you actually map out what needs to be struck and why and when and where. But some UN goober, I'm sorry, if, if you're out there and you're aligning with the United nations, Maybe sit down and kind of, you know, take a look at it. So that side said, I hope you guys have a genuine one. A genuinely wonderful Easter weekend again, if you are of the opportunity of the chance to go to a church on Sunday morning that preaches the gospel, that preaches Christ crucified and resurrected, I highly, highly recommend it. And again, we'll see you probably not Monday. I think I'm gonna try to give my crew that Monday off that Easter Monday after Sunday. So we'll likely see you Tuesday, 7pm Eastern right here. It's the Tony Kennett cast here on the Daily Signal, nationally syndicated and first on 93 WIBC. Y' all take care. Quick reset something practical. TikTok is packed with free workout plans, home training, fat loss routines, muscle tips. 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