The Quagmire

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boston's Bulldozer never sleeps. The Kooner Report weekend edition on
the Voice of Boston w RKO.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Doctor Grace putting liberals in their place. We've got her,
Grace Voto full disclosure. I married down or sorry, she
married down? Forgive me. I married up. She married down,
So I'm happy that she married me because frankly, I

(00:30):
don't know what she sees in he but she saw something.
So I married up. She married down. Because many of
you keep saying, you know, Jeff, you say she married
you know you married up. Well, why don't you say
the truth? She married down. I'm like, Okay, she married down,
and I thank her every day for it. Grace, how
are you?

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Jeff? For a moment I thought I was on the
wrong show. Did I marry up?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Grace? I gotta say, you called it. You said that Melmodis.
That memorandum of understanding that's so called ceasefire wasn't worth
the paper it was written on. The Iranians would eventually
stab us in the back. They were going to break
this thing. There wasn't a question of if. It was
a question of when. I gotta say I thought the

(01:22):
Ayatolas would at least milk a few more billions of
dollars out of this before they you know, just started
shooting up commercial vessels and oil tankers. But no, they're
so primitive they won't even take the money. So they've
already broken the ceasefire. Trump now it's breaking as I
speak to you now, says that we are going to

(01:44):
hit him again tonight, and we're gonna hit him very hard.
He says, you're going to see a massive bombing campaign
begin tonight. So I don't know if the war's back on,
but clearly the ceasefire is over.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
What say you, well, Jeff? To begin with a small
personal story, I had lunch yesterday with a dear friend
of mine who is from Iran, and she was white
as a ghost. And when I asked her what her
thoughts are, she said, the regime now in Iran is
stronger than ever. The IRGC is stronger than ever. When

(02:22):
she calls her family members there, they're afraid to say
anything on the phone. The only thing she asks is
are you okay? And they say yes or no. The
people there cannot afford basic necessities. The food of everything
is sky high. And when I hugged her and said Okay,
have a great day. At the end, it was nice

(02:42):
to see you, she said, within our lifetime, I'm not
going to see the IRGC leave Iran. That's how gloomy
she was. And she said, it's been so difficult to
hear the stories of how they have cut down the
cream of their youth. The killings have been beyond even
what we know here in the United States. So we

(03:04):
have to start by having a very stark analysis. They're
not crazy in the sense that they're insane. They have
very clear strategic goals and this war has allowed them
to achieve those goals. And unless we recognize that, we
don't know how to deal with them. What are their goals, Jeff,
They have said, and I think we just have to

(03:26):
start listening to what they say. The President has to
realize he's not dealing with another businessman here. This is
not a business transaction. He's very good at making a
deal if two parties have a rational goal that they
both want to achieve to make money, he's very good
at that. But he seems to get lost when it

(03:47):
comes to understanding that as the president of the United States,
he's not there to make a business deal. He's there
to represent national interests and the other party on the
other side is representing a national interest. Doesn't matter if
they like each other or don't like each other, it's
about national interests. So you've got to start at the
beginning here. What did Iran say? Iran said they're not

(04:10):
giving up their nuclear program. So they've told us that
they're not giving it up. They've also said they don't
want Israel there in the Middle East. They want depth
to Israel. They've said that. So those are their two
large strategic goals. What did they say after that? Once
they've realized that they control the Strait of Hormuz, they've
told us and no, we're not letting go because guess what,

(04:34):
this war has elevated them. They went from a regional
player to now being able to control my grocery price
and your grocery price. That's intoxicating for them, so why
should they give that up? So we have to understand
that this war from the United States point of view,

(04:54):
has been a disaster and from the point of view
of the IRGC has been us success for them because
they are making progress in those three goals. They have
told the world they're not giving up their nuclear weapon,
and now we went to war with them, and we
haven't been able to relinquish their program from them, even

(05:15):
though you know, setting it back. They've told the world
they don't want peace and they're not giving us peace.
And they've told the war guess what now, guys, Now
we can control the straight up hormouse. So they've only
gotten stronger and the President has to make a decision here,
and there's no getting around this decision. And both options
are terrible. Either he commits to a massive loss of

(05:40):
American life. Does he want American boys to die? I
would literally go in there and say, listen, mister president.
Both options are very bad, So just choose one. Either
you go in there with American troops. There's going to
be a lot of dead young men and women coming
back home. Do you want that? Yes or no? If
you're okay with that, we got to reach take the

(06:00):
street of hormouse period. You can come home after that
and say that, you know what, you set the regime
back and now the strait of hormuse is free again.
Or you say I've done enough and we just go home.
That's it. Both of these options are bad. They're very,

(06:21):
very bad, and at this point, you have no choice.
You have to choose one, and to not choose one
is going to put you into this path right now
of appearing to be completely incompetent in the eyes of
the whole world.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Let me ask you there is a third option, which
is reimpose the blockade, which would economically cripple Iran. Then
launch a massive bombing campaign and missile strikes with Israel

(06:57):
in order to pound the Iranian into submission. Hit their
oil infrastructure, hit their bridges, take out some of their
power grids, further decapitate the regime, kill almost all of
the top IRGC leaders. In other words, you don't need to,

(07:18):
you know, to commit to massive ground troops and body
bags coming back. You can keep the troops out, or
maybe you can arm some of the opposition groups. But
in other words, pound them from the air, pound them
from this from the from our battleships and and from
with the use of our Tomahawk missiles in combination with Israel,

(07:41):
and hit them so hard that this time they have
to relinquish control over the Strait of Hormuse.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
What say you, I just I think again, Jeff, this
is the mistake that is being made. This is a
part of the world that likes war, and we don't
like war. We're a pragmatic people that want to get
on with the business of freedom and people making money
and leading their lives individually. They love war. You go

(08:10):
down this road and that's going to suck us in
two years of war with them. So it's obvious that
the president wants some kind of a relatively short term solution,
and there's only two of the short term solutions at
this point. I know it's tough medicine, but I would say,
you have to decide this, do you want another American

(08:32):
soldier to die? Yes or no. If the answer is no,
you've got to accept this. You lost, you lost, so
just get out, get out and save the rest of
your presidency. I know it's tough medicine, Jeff, but believe
it or not, you're the one that taught me all
of this, because sometimes when I was making a business
decision and I was getting in quicksand you told me

(08:55):
over and over again, Grace, sometimes the hardest decision in
the world is to cut your losses. And I learned
that lesson and I see that very clearly. Now there's
lots this is this is a disaster, Okay, So you
have to face it. Sometimes we fail in life. He
failed in this. He should never have gone in. He
made a huge mistake. I think it's apparent to almost

(09:16):
everybody that this is a desire.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Interesting, Okay, Doctor Gray says. Always I appreciate your candor
and your honesty.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Doctor Gray says, We've got two very difficult decisions. Either
when the war, which means take it, put in ground
troops and they will die, some of them will die,
or cut our losses and come home. Your reaction, Jeff.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Doesn't get a day off. This request came from his wife.
The Kuna Report weekend edition on the Boys of Boston
w RKO