June 24, 2025 • 69 mins
When American B-2 bombers struck three Iranian nuclear facilities, they didn't just destroy buildings—they dramatically reshaped the Middle Eastern geopolitical landscape. This watershed moment represents America's full entry into the Israel-Iran conflict, moving beyond defensive missile interception to offensive strikes on Iranian soil.
The fallout has been swift and multifaceted. President Trump warned Iran against retaliation while simultaneously expressing frustration with Israel for violating a negotiated ceasefire. "I'm not happy with Israel," Trump declared bluntly. "You don't go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them." This rare public criticism of Israeli actions reveals the complex dynamics at play as America attempts to navigate its role in this volatile conflict.
Perhaps most fascinating is the deep split within Trump's own political base. Traditional hawks celebrate while the more isolationist "America First" wing sounds alarms about mission creep. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene didn't mince words: "Americans all over the world are seriously questioning if this is going to be World War Three." Meanwhile, former advisor Steve Bannon warned of a "bait and switch to please neocon warmongers." This internal struggle mirrors broader questions about America's proper role in Middle Eastern conflicts.
The mainstream media's coverage has been particularly troubling. Networks provided almost exclusively pro-war perspectives, with supposed progressives like Van Jones joining neoconservatives in cheerleading military action. This propaganda machine eerily resembles the lead-up to previous Middle Eastern wars, raising the question: Have we learned nothing from our past interventions?
Professor Jeffrey Sachs provides essential context by explaining that this moment represents the culmination of Netanyahu's "30-year mission to drag the United States into war with Iran." His analysis, paired with historical perspectives from voices like Noam Chomsky, offers a sobering counterpoint to the media's war drums.
As tensions remain high, now is the time to engage critically with America's Middle East policy. What are the true costs of this escalation? And who stands to benefit? Follow the Darrell McLean Show for ongoing analysis that cuts through tribalism to find reasoned common ground.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
In an address to the nation late Saturday, President
Trump warned Iran not to strikeback after the US conducted
airstrikes on three of Iran'snuclear facilities.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This cannot continue.
There will be either peace orthere will be tragedy for Iran
far greater than we havewitnessed over the last eight
days.
Remember, there are manytargets left.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Israeli Prime Minister, benjamin Netanyahu,
praised US involvement in theongoing war between Iran and
Israel.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
History will record that President Trump acted to
deny the world's most dangerousregime, the world's most
dangerous weapons.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
News of the strike comes hours after it was
revealed.
B-2 bombers were dispatchedfrom Missouri to Guam.
The B-2 bombers are capable ofcarrying barrack-busting bombs
capable of destroying the kindsof underground nuclear
facilities Iran was believed topossess.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The strikes were a spectacular military success.
Iran's key nuclear enrichmentfacilities have been completely
and totally obliterated.
Iran, the bully of the MiddleEast, must now make peace.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, will hold a rare
news conference to give detailsof the attack.
There is concern for the safetyof the 40,000 US military
soldiers stationed in the regionand there has been some
bipartisan backlash over whetherPresident Trump
unconstitutionally bypassedCongress to execute an act of
(01:33):
war.
In a social media post,Representative Thomas Massey of
Kentucky, a Republican, wrotethis is not constitutional.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
Welcome to the Darrell McLean Show.
I'm your host, darrell McLean.
Independent media that won'treinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving, so let usreason together.
You have the distinct pleasurewith me to be joining me for
episode 460.
As you have just heard, theUnited States has bombed three
(02:05):
of the sites in Iran, thenuclear sites.
We are actually not aware rightnow if it has been a decisive
bomb that has penetrated anddestroyed the enriched uranium.
That is something that we willknow in the future, but it is a
(02:30):
big deal.
It has actually changed thecalculus of this israel iran
conflict, because the unitedstates has got it not just with
shooting down missiles, but alsonow with bombing targets inside
of Iran.
Now, after this happened, therewas supposed to be a ceasefire
(02:55):
with Israel and Iran, but itseems like that that did not go
off like it was supposed to, andthe president was actually
asked about this while he washeaded to Marine One and he was
not at all happy about thateither.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
I do.
They violated, but Israelviolated it too.
Are you questioning Israel'scommitment?
Israel, as soon as we made thedeal, they came out and they
dropped a load of bombs thelikes of which I've never seen
before, the biggest load thatwe've seen.
I'm not happy with Israel.
You know when I say, OK, nowyou have 12 hours, you don't go
out in the first hour and justdrop everything you have on them
(03:38):
, so I'm not happy with them.
I'm not happy with Iran either.
I'm not happy with Iran either,but I'm really unhappy if Israel
is going out this morningbecause the one rocket that
didn't land, that was shotperhaps by mistake that didn't
land.
I'm not happy about that.
Basically have two countriesthat have been fighting so long
(03:59):
and so hard that they don't knowwhat the fuck they're doing.
Do you understand that?
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Now, of course, when it comes to the politics of it
all, there is a split in thecountry over this, and not just
in the country at large, but inthe president's base in general.
So President Trump's decision todo this but not only to do the
(04:29):
bombing, but to float regimechange after several of his top
administrators had said that itwasn't about regime change in
Iran following the US strikes onnuclear facilities has caused a
new rupture across the MAGAuniverse, as the top supporters
(04:52):
fret about the possibility ofdeeper US involvement in a
Middle Eastern war.
Trump surprised some of hissupporters by authorizing the
weekend strikes against threenuclear sites in Iran, but he
and his team seemed to signalthe military action could end
there.
The president scrambled thosecalculations in a true social
(05:14):
post.
On Sunday he said that while itwas not politically correct to
use the term regime change, ifthe current Iran regime is
unable to make Iran great again,there wouldn't be there.
Why wouldn't there be a regimechange?
And then he wrote the road, theterm, the term me got make Iran
(05:34):
great again.
The White House walked backTrump's remarks Monday with a
press secretary, carolyn LeVette, saying he was just suggesting
the Iranian people might want anew government, not suggesting
that the new front are motive tothe war.
Trump on Monday evening alsoannounced a ceasefire between
(05:55):
Iran and Israel, a move thatsuggests he wants to
dramatically defuse tensionsamongst all sides.
But earlier remarks left Trumpsupporters opposed to the war
worried, fearful.
More harkish voices of the MAGAmovement were carrying the day
Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, themost outspoken MAGA voice to
post-US intervention inIran-Israel war, said Americans
(06:19):
are having restless nights asthe results of Trump's
airstrikes.
Restless nights as the resultsof Trump's airstrikes.
Quote the reality is noAmerican slept better after
America bombed Iran because allof a sudden we now have threats
on our homeland.
Green said On Monday Steve'sban is rolling progress.
We now have warnings from theState Department, from Americans
(06:39):
overseas.
Americans in Israel areterrified for their lives.
Americans in Israel areterrified for their lives.
Americas all over the world areseriously questioning if this
is going to be World War Three,she said On a social media
platform.
Green went to one a stepfurther.
It feels like a complete baitand switch to please the neocon
(06:59):
warmongers, military industrialcomplex contractors and neocon
television personalities thatMAGA hates and were never
Trumpers.
She wrote.
Trump regime change remarksnotably came just hours after
Vice President Vance in anappearance on NBC's Meet the
Press, said the administration'sview has been clear that regime
(07:22):
change was not on the agenda.
View has been clear that regimechange was not on the agenda.
There's definitely concernamong MAGA, said one official
who worked in the Trumpadministration in the first term
, the idea that Trump is openlyflooding regime change,
especially in such blunt terms,make me nervous, not just
because of the instability itcould trigger, but because it
(07:42):
signals he completely handedover the foreign policy to
decisions and hardliners likeSecretary of State Marco Rubio.
It becomes populist posturingwith neocon execution.
The source added.
The more hawkish voices in theTrump's orbit welcome Trump's
words, even if they are just atrial balloon.
(08:03):
As usual, president Trump is onspot with his desire to make
Iran great again by changing theregime, either through their
behavior or new leadership andthat came from Senator Lindsey
Graham on X, as President Trumpsuggested.
Who is in their right mindwould want this regime change to
continue the status quoattacking the neighbors,
(08:24):
oppressing their people andbeing the largest state sponsor
of terrorism on the planet.
If you like that, you're a sickpuppy.
Count me in.
For any way possible to makeiran great again by making it
decent again.
He continued, adding the makeiran great again.
Acronym b.
A former top Trump official saidMonday he's worried about
(08:46):
mission creep.
Quote now it's all about.
Now it's all about hey, wedon't know where the material is
.
Bannon said on the podcast forIran's enriched uranium
stockpile what's going to leadus to folks hey, do we need a
75th Ranger Battalion to go inand find it.
Oh, it's coming.
(09:06):
It's coming.
Is this because the ultimategoal is regime change?
And if so, that's fine.
Israelis, have it, we continue.
If you want regime change, gofor it, baby, just no
participation by the unitedstates government.
Trump's comments came afterweeks in which he had said
dismantling Iran's nuclearprograms would be the goal of
(09:28):
any US mission, not regimechange.
The truth's social postconflicts with one of his
longstanding views, as hecriticized what he perceived as
unnecessary meddling throughoutthe Middle East and he vowed to
keep the United States out ofwars.
Now, before announcing theceasefire, trump signaled a
desire to de-escalate after Iranon Monday lodged missiles into
(09:53):
US air bases in Qatar.
Iran provided prior notice ofthe attack and, according to the
Qataris, all the missiles wereintercepted and there were zero
casualties.
Now the president is separatelygetting some questions from
Congress about the authorizationof the strikes, with lawmakers
pushing for a vote on the WarPowers Resolution, a vote on
(10:14):
Senator Tim Kaine, the Democratfrom Virginia's measure could
come at some point this weekwith some GOP support, but
whether it could win with therequisite 51 votes is an open
question.
It's unlikely enoughRepublicans would back it to
override the presidential veto.
Speaker Mike Johnson also toldreporters Monday that he does
(10:37):
not back a resolution and is notsupportive of bringing such
measures to the floor.
He noted presidents in bothparties have large strikes
similar to Trump's, withoutcongressional authority.
Rep Thomas Massey, theRepublican, is the main GOP
sponsor of the resolution.
On Sunday he accused Trump ofabsolutely breaking a campaign
(10:58):
promise and labeled the ideathat strikes weren't an act of
war as ludicrous.
Three bombings to neutralizeIran may turn out to be the 2025
version of two weeks to slowthe spread.
This could turn into aprotracted, prolonged engagement
.
I am leery of this, giveneverything that has happened
before.
And Thomas Massey said if youare on the Darrell McLean sub
(11:24):
stack, I actually wrote twopieces over the week, one
entitled the Dangers of theDrumbeat of War why the Israeli
and Iran Conflict Demands HonestReflection, and I would like
some attention to be given tothat in this context and the
(11:46):
other one was ripping up theIran nuclear deal how the spirit
, how spying ego derailed MiddleEast peace.
Now I will be doing a shortershows where I will at times read
the read some of the piecesthat that is going into the sub
stack Um, uh, maybe, maybe about10 minutes, however long it
(12:10):
takes me to read that article,but those articles are.
But until the time being to toum, uh analysis pieces that are
written over at the drama cleansub stack page, I'll just, I'll
just say this Um, uh, we kind ofknow, if you look at the
historical record, how we got inthis situation.
(12:35):
I don't think the United Stateshas to be here.
I think we got here a lotsomewhat by our own hand, by our
own doing, just from a verylong view of our history in the
region for over about 80 years.
Yeah and um, and that's methinking about, actually, if I
(13:01):
was to think all the way back to1953, that would be, you know,
exactly 72 years.
So this has been a long time inthe making.
I uh, people want to blame,want to blame President Trump
for this.
I think it would be very naiveto blame one administration for
(13:26):
70, so years of bad policytowards the region, and I try to
be more nuanced when it comesto that.
A lot of people are cheerleadingthis or cheerleading that and,
of course, like I said in theprevious episode, I'm a very
(13:49):
non-interventionist person whenit comes to the Middle East.
I'm a hands-off person when itcomes to the Middle East.
I'm a hands-off person when itcomes to the Middle East.
I don't think that the US has aclear and concise plan to deal
with the United States and, flatout, I think we've been getting
(14:10):
some bad intelligence, usuallyfrom the prime minister, and
that's just if you really lookat the history.
I mean, in 1992, bibi Netanyahutold the Israeli parliament
that Iran was three to fiveyears from getting a bomb.
(14:32):
In 1995, in his book FightingTerrorism, he said that Iran was
five to seven years away fromgetting the bomb.
In 1996, he told Congress Iranwas getting extremely close and
only the US could stop it.
In 2009, he told the USCongress, again a delegation
(14:55):
that our experts have said thatIran was one to two years away
from getting the bomb.
In 2012, bibi Netanyahu toldthe United Nations that Iran was
a year away from getting thebomb.
In 2018, bibi Netanyahu claimedthat Iran has a secret weapons
site with little to no evidence.
And in 2025, he launched aunprovoked attack, says the bomb
(15:18):
is months away and this wasdone basically by all intent
purposes, just to sabotage.
The Iranian S Office of theDirector of National
Intelligence said just in Marchof this year we continue to
access Iran is not building anuclear weapon.
(15:39):
So I think the US has donethese strikes.
Of course, it is my positionthat they have done it under
with bad intelligence.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
It did for you and the grief he's taken over here.
You had the gall when he saidthis is what I've done and I
need you to be a partner.
I need you to stand down First.
Here's what I can't say.
I can't stop at all, which isanother lie of the many lies
we've gotten from the Netanyahugovernment A bald-faced lie.
(16:19):
But then he says okay, I needyou to stand up.
I can't have any scale.
If you can't get some guys back, it's fine.
Goes to bed, gets a couple hours, so he wakes up and you lied to
him.
That's why he's's furious.
That's as mad as I've ever seenthe president united states and
think about how did you get hisanger like that, given
everything he's done for you andthe pressure he's under, and a
(16:40):
couple hours sleep and I was ina freaking plane and fly for
what?
Six, eight hours to sit downwith this crowd at nato, which
you know he just wildlyenthusiastic about doing that
and plus putting himself goingin the air at a time when you're
in a shooting conflict in theworld, putting his life at risk
to do that.
And this is what he gets.
This is the thanks he gets.
(17:01):
So don't sit there and don'tglaze him.
Netanyahu goes on Israel TV andglazes him.
Don't glaze him.
Don't slobber all over him.
It doesn't mean anything.
You showed what you reallythought of him last night.
Oh, president Trump's thegreatest.
You showed exactly yourappreciation last night.
You showed exactly.
(17:22):
And do I see any of the BaghdadBob equivalents, the Tel Aviv
Levens or any of this crowdtoday calling him out?
They never call out Netanyahu,who got Israel into this.
And for supporters of Israel,which is kind of on the ropes
about this, it makes it veryhard when someone, when your top
(17:47):
guy is dealing from the bottomof the deck, is not straight and
in fact, not only not straight,he's a bald-faced liar.
If you support Israel and youlove Israel and you want to see
Israel not just survive butthrive, you better be asking
hard questions.
(18:07):
You better be asking hardquestions.
You better be asking hardquestions.
You better be asking hardquestions and demanding straight
answers.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
That was the populist voice, Steve Bannon, one of the
advisors from President Trump'sfirst administration.
I think I've said before thatwhen it comes to the wing of the
Republicans that I think are onthe right side of a lot of
issues, I would say Steve Bannonis one of the voices of reason
(18:44):
when it comes to the Republicansat this moment.
Speaker 9 (18:49):
With the insanity of the last 24 hours.
I know you've been monitoringthis situation.
I just want to get yourreaction to the broader
ramifications of this ceasefire,at least for now, between
Israel and Iran and the rolehere of the United States.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Well, this has been an absolutely wild week.
In a way, it is an absolutelywild week.
In a way, it is Bibi'sfulfillment of a 30-year mission
to try to drag the UnitedStates into a war with Iran.
This latest episode has beenpart of a long-term idea of
(19:28):
Netanyahu, which is we're goingto do what we want in Gaza, the
West Bank, we're going tocontrol everything.
We'll kill, we'll have agenocide and anyone that objects
, any other country in theregion, will overthrow that
government.
That's been the basic strategyfor 30 years.
For 30 years, the United Stateshas gone along with that
(19:50):
strategy, whether it is inLebanon, syria, iraq, sudan,
libya, and Iran was always thebig prize.
So Netanyahu has been absolutelyitching for a big war with Iran
, trying to drag the US in, andwhat we saw last week probably
(20:11):
was the great battle insidebetween the deep state, which is
absolutely in line with Mossadit's basically a Mossad-CIA
operation for 30 years and MAGA,which says stop, we're sick of
this, we're sick of these wars.
(20:32):
The president I don't know wherehe is because I haven't checked
my social media for the last 30seconds he's been on both sides
of this, but his base has beensaying do not do this, do not do
this, whereas Netanyahu hasbeen saying next year in Tehran.
Netanyahu's been saying thatnext year in Tehran, or his
(20:56):
ministers have been putting thatout in disgusting vulgarity.
So I don't know whether this isgoing to stop, but this is a
battle of a long-term strategyof Netanyahu remake the Middle
East to give basically complete,total impunity to Israel to do
every murder, massacre, genocidethat it wants to do.
(21:18):
And some of us who think that'snot making the world a better
place, that's not helpinganything and it's not making
America more secure.
Thanks God if the ceasefireholds.
That's a good thing.
That's the bottom line.
Speaker 7 (21:34):
Yeah, professor, let's pull in that thread a
little bit more of the Israelis.
As you mentioned, this has beena multi-decade project of
Netanyahu specifically, but it'sbroadly supported the Israeli
public and certainly with hisentire coalition, including
literal terrorists that areinvolved in his government.
So he's not going to give upand say, ok, cease fire and now
we have peace with Iran.
(21:54):
That is certainly not going tohappen.
So what do you expect to see,based on previous historical
actions, from the Israelis?
What do you expect the Israelisto do next to try to play their
next card to get us drawn inyet again?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Well, the Israelis will make new provocations,
that's for sure.
They will make arguments thatnow we see the perfidy of Iran
or for whatever argument to keepdrawing us in.
I have said for years I thinkdecades now that the main job of
the president of the UnitedStates in modern times is to
(22:31):
keep the foot on the brake ofthe war machine, because it's
always revving.
If you went to the deep statein the last few days, I think
bombing missions against iranare just splendid.
Let's uh try out those b2s,let's see how the bunker busters
do and uh, going beyond that,the regime change.
(22:51):
Well, that was in half thetweets of the last or social
truth posts of the last few days.
So I think that Israel willprovoke and it is the job of the
United States when in raremoments presidents do their job,
to keep the foot on the brake.
And this morning Trumpunusually chastised Israel in a
(23:18):
post to say do not drop thatbomb.
Well, actually that's his job.
It's pretty interesting he didit this time.
Yesterday was different.
We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Speaker 9 (23:30):
So one of the things I'm curious about, sir, you're
obviously always looked at thebigger picture, and there was a
lot made, potentially, of Russiaand China coming in on Iran's
side.
That didn't materialize to amajor extent, but there were at
least some entanglements.
We can put this one up on thescreen.
For example, president, formerpresident Medvedev of Russia at
one point basically threatened,basically said the Americans
(23:54):
have accomplished nothing intheir strikes, potentially we
could transfer nukes to them.
He walked it back a little bitlater, saying a number of
countries are ready to directlysupply Iran with their own
nuclear warheads, but then hewalked it back later.
What do you make, though, ofhow the Russians and the Chinese
will respond to what'stranspired?
Speaker 4 (24:11):
in the last 12 days of how the Russians and the
Chinese will respond to what'stranspired in the last 12 days.
Yeah, I think, by the way, whatMedvedev was saying in that
point number three was notRussia transferring nuclear arms
or endorsing that, but the factthat Pakistan is a country
closely aligned with the Islamiccause, obviously, and with Iran
(24:31):
, and absolutely able totransfer nuclear weapons.
North Korea is another case,and I think that's an important
point, by the way, because we'vebeen told that the be-all and
end-all is Iran's enrichment ofuranium.
That is not the true issue atstake here.
(24:54):
The true issue at stake is isIsrael vulnerable by its own
actions, to a nuclear attack onIsrael?
The answer is yes.
Does Israel create moresecurity for itself the way that
it operates?
My answer is no.
It makes Israel more and moredangerous.
Not only did we see, obviously,that the Iron Dome ain't so
(25:16):
iron and that there were easilyit was not hard to penetrate the
air defenses in Israel, butIsrael seems to think that Iran
is the end of the story, and itis not the end of the story.
And it is not the end of thestory.
There are 57 countries in theOrganization of Islamic
(25:37):
Cooperation that are absolutelydead set against what Israel is
doing.
The vast majority of the worldis dead set against it.
When you ask about Russia andChina, it is their fundamental
purpose not to be thrown underthe bus of the United States.
This is the basic point.
(25:58):
They want a multipolar world,not a US-dominated world, and
they are succeeding in thatbecause the US does not have the
means, the power, in my view,the interest interest, but put
that aside the means or thepower to make a us dominated
world, despite what washingtonhas believed for more than 30
(26:20):
years.
So russia and china are careful.
China's very precise, I thinkit is.
It's a cliche, but it's alsotrue that Russia plays chess,
china plays go and the UnitedStates plays poker.
One hand at a time, very quick,not any long term strategy,
(26:44):
just go for the hand.
And I think that China andRussia bided their time in the
first days.
China and Russia bided theirtime in the first days, but the
point was really Iran was notdecapitated with regime change,
nor was it stopped in itsability to do great damage
(27:04):
inside Israel up until the verylast moment, which really irks
the Israelis that it was.
The last exchange of missilesin this case was Iran's, and
then Israel tried to violate thetimeline and launch another one
so it could be last, and that'swhen Trump said no stop.
(27:24):
We already have anunderstanding about the
chronology.
So we are watching, step bystep, the emerging of a true
multipolar world, where otherpowers that don't love the
United States they don't hate it, by the way, they just don't
want to be subservient to itthey have nuclear arms, powerful
(27:46):
weapons, the technologies thatwe have, so that we can't
dominate, and Iran is a regionalpower.
It's not a pushover for Israel,by any means.
There was no one strike andit's all over.
One of the things that may havehappened last week, I don't know
, of course, but Netanyahutelling Trump we can do it, we
(28:10):
can do it, we can do it.
And they did their decapitationmurders Mossad really is a
murder machine, of course andthey did its decapitation strike
and it did not bring down theregime, and so it probably led
Trump and people around him tosay come on, you know, the
Israelis have given us a bunchof BS on this.
(28:30):
It didn't change the regime, itdidn't end the threats, and I
think that's when Trump heardhis base calling, he heard
common sense calling and he saidlook, this isn't going
according to plan.
And I think the main point iswith Russia and China.
(28:51):
They were cautious, but theyweren't letting Iran fall by any
means.
And if Iran were to be facing amore cataclysmic set of events
in the last few days, I thinkthe reactions also would have
been different.
Interesting.
Speaker 7 (29:08):
To your point about.
Perhaps Israelis were selling,perhaps they even believed that
they would be able to create aregime collapse in short time.
The Washington Post got a holdof this leaked audio of Mossad
agents calling Israeli generalsand saying you have 12 hours or
else we're going to murder youand your wife and kids, by the
way, and if you want to avoidthat fate, you need to record
(29:30):
yourself surrendering.
You need to film the surrendervideo and send it to us, which,
of course, would have been usedas propaganda by the Israelis
and, as best we know, not one ofthem did that, which I think
you know, in and of itself is anindication that they may have
miscalculated the strength ofthis regime, especially once a
country is bombed, like it'svery common for people to rally
(29:52):
around the flag.
But I wanted to ask you withregards to Israel so they have
bombed, you know they'recommitting a genocide in
Palestine, in the Gaza Strip.
They bombed Lebanon, syria,yemen, iran, iraq and our
nuclear-armed nation outside ofthe NPT, you know, did have a
(30:12):
secret nuclear weapons programand you know are a rogue nation,
I think by any characterizationat this point, is there going
to be any consequence for them?
Like, is there any sort oflonger-term consequence for the
fact that they have behaved inthis outrageous, barbaric
fashion over years?
At this point and, you know,really made themselves a villain
(30:36):
in terms of the eyes of much ofthe world.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I think Israel is in its worst insecurity in its
history by far, because it isutterly isolated in the
international system.
I'm sitting just outside the UN.
I've been attending UN SecurityCouncil meetings, un General
Assembly sessions.
You have 95% of the worldpopulation voting against Israel
(31:05):
.
Right now.
You have an overwhelming callfor the absolutely practical
state of Palestine beingestablished on the borders of
the 4th of June 1967, and Israellearning finally, after decades
and decades.
It's just going to have to livealongside the Palestinian
people, who have the same numberpopulation as the Israeli Jews.
(31:28):
And this is the most basicpoint of all.
Israel has no security from allof this.
It has achieved nothing excepta wasteland in its neighborhood,
and if it wants security, theonly security is to rejoin the
family of nations.
And the way to do that isstraightforward it's according
(31:49):
to international law, it'saccording to basic common sense,
it's according to decency, it'saccording to endless
resolutions of the US SecurityCouncil and the UN General
Assembly, and that is that therewould be a state of Palestine
for the Palestinian peoplealongside a state of Israel, and
President Trump actually canmake that happen If he wants his
(32:11):
Nobel Peace Prize.
It's not by this ceasefire,after this behavior of the last
week.
It is by a Palestinian statebeing established.
How does that happen?
One vote change in the UNSecurity Council.
The US vetoed this last yearwhen it came to a vote in the
Security Council, which is thepart of the UN system or the
(32:34):
international system thatestablishes the statehood
membership in the UN.
All the United States has to dois to say we go along with all
the rest of the world and tellIsrael wake up, we're saving you
, we're not hurting you, we aresaving you from yourself.
However, it's just crazy whatIsrael's doing and the idea that
(32:57):
this is any security.
I think they should understandthat, with apartment buildings
in Beersheba being destroyed,with Haifa being attacked, with
Tel Aviv being attacked, withthe countries outside of the
region like Pakistan and DPRKwatching, if Israel thinks it
has any security at all from itsbrazenness, it should think it
(33:21):
again.
And, by the way, what we saw inthe Mossad tape, which is
chilling, of course, to listento, is that Mossad became a
killing machine.
It's very skillful at massmurder.
I would say, not mass murder inthe sense of the murder of the
(33:43):
leadership of the Iranianmilitary last week.
Yes, that's Mossad's business.
Yes, that's Mossad's business,but to have that as your
centerpiece of statehood to bemurder incorporated is not going
to get you safety or securityor any sound sleep any day in
(34:05):
your life.
Israel needs to rethinkfundamentally this BB strategy,
which goes back to 1996 when hefirst became prime minister.
Speaker 7 (34:16):
And I think to your point they're not going to
rethink it because the public isbroadly supportive of the Bibi
strategy.
It has to be forced upon them,and the United States of America
can do that if there is anywill to do it.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
It depends always.
It has always depended on theUnited States going along.
By the way, people should getonline if they haven't done it
recently, and look atNetanyahu's speech to the US
Congress in 2002, telling himhow wonderful the Iraq war is
going to be.
Oh, it's a cakewalk.
It's going to inspire the wholeregion.
(34:53):
This man is nuts.
He's a failure for 30 years.
He's the biggest warmonger onthe planet.
If Trump wants a successfulpresidency, don't sign on to
this idiocy.
Do your job, mr President.
Make peace in the region.
That has to be.
You give the state of Palestinealongside the state of Israel,
(35:15):
stop the genocide and go alongwith international law.
It's pretty straightforward.
It's there for the taking.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
So that was Professor Jeffrey Sachs, along with
Crystal Ball and Sega Ingenetti.
If you want to look at some ofJeffrey Sachs' work, you just go
to wwwjeffsachsorg and that'sS-A-C-H-S dot org.
(35:43):
Now I think this is fairlystraightforward when we get to
stuff like this.
This has been something thatJohn McCain wanted, that Lindsey
Graham wants, that Marco Rubio,the Secretary of State wants.
You know that Mitch McConnellcame out celebrating this.
(36:03):
And then, when you get lookedat some of the on CNN and Fox
News, it was deranged andunhinged coverage after these
war strikes, just a full-onpropaganda machine.
And it did remind me of beingyoung and being in high school
(36:32):
and the country was attacked theSeptember 11th attacks happened
and then hearing the drumbeatof war and hearing very little
pushback in the mainstream mediaabout this.
And the big deal is becauseit's pretty much known now that
(36:54):
the president of the UnitedStates watches Fox News.
So he was listening to SeanHannity, he was listening to
Mark Levin, as they were, youknow, cheerleaders for for this,
this regime change war, and ofcourse, they won't be getting
(37:16):
their hands dirty in it.
They won't be sending theirchildren to fight in it, it's
just.
It is a sin and a shame of howeasy it is for them to push this
type of stuff.
Let's listen to the greatprogressive analyst on CNN, Van
Jones.
Speaker 8 (37:37):
He's buying himself some time and some room.
I was also in the Holy Landvery recently.
I think progressivesunderestimate how dangerous Iran
is.
Iran is not a normal country.
Normal countries don't blindwomen because they showed some
hair.
They don't empower little gangsand proxies to surround the
(38:01):
country and fire rockets andraid people.
So Iran, the two things areclear the what they cannot have
have a bomb and the why becausethey say death to America, death
to Israel and death to all theJews.
One of those should offend you.
If you're a progressive, atleast one should offend you.
And so the question, though, isthe who and the how.
(38:22):
Is Israel going to take outthis nuclear capacity by
dropping people there who blowit up, or is America going to
take it out by dropping a bombthat blows it up?
But the what and the why areclear, and I think progressives
should get on board with that.
We cannot have a nuclear-armedIran.
I was in the region, you werein the region.
This is a very dangerous powerthat cannot get nuclear weapons.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
Yes, yes, brilliant progressive Fan Jones, who just
got back from the Holy Land todeliver some wisdom like that.
And of course, if you look atCNN, they didn't just have the
esteemed intelligent progressiveVan Jones air quotes, they had
the very well-known warmongerJohn Bolton.
(39:09):
You know to, I guess, give theconservative take.
Let's hear what John Bolton hadto say.
Were you surprised thatPresident Trump took such
decisive action?
Speaker 11 (39:23):
Well, let me say this unequivocally I think
President Trump made the rightdecision for America to attack
Iran's nuclear weapons program,and I think we're on the verge
of potentially seeing regimechange in Iran as part of that.
I think this is a huge changein the Middle East.
It was a decisive action.
It was the right thing to do.
(39:44):
I thought somebody should do itfor a long time, but better
late than never.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
Here we go.
Good old John Bolton alwayswanted to do it.
Been a neoconservative foryears, never found a target in
the Middle East.
He didn't want a bomb, and CNNcontinued with this.
When you went to the newsroomon the Internet and looking at
the articles, you have ananalysis coming out from CNN's
(40:11):
Stephen Collinson, and thearticle stated Analysts US
strikes mark a stunningdemonstration of military might
and presidential power.
They're not taking this stuffseriously.
They're just cheerleading forwar.
It's just nothing but pure,pure propaganda.
This stuff is maddening and it'sso revealing to have somebody
(40:38):
like Van Jones, who's supposedto be some leftist progressive,
on CNN webinizing identitypolitics.
Oh, look at what they do towomen.
Oh, look at the gays, oh, andit's like oh, yes, yes, yes.
What about the American allies,saudi Arabia, any different?
(41:00):
What about any of our partners?
What about that?
What about Israel?
How they treat ethnicminorities, even people who are
Jews, who are anti-Zionist inIsrael you should go see how
they're treated.
How about those women andchildren and gays in Gaza who
(41:21):
have been bombed to smithereens?
This is a bunch of bullcrap andthey know it is, and it is
nothing more than theweaponization of identity
politics in order to gin up awar because you don't like a
chant and and you, you haven'teven fully tried to wrestle with
(41:44):
.
When did they start sayingdeath to america and death to
israel?
When did they start saying that?
Wasn't there something thathappened?
Oh, yeah, and maybe, maybe thatcoup, uh, maybe the installing
of the Shah by us, maybe that'swhen they started yelling death
to America, death to Israel.
(42:05):
You ever thought about that?
Uh, if not, it may be some uh,deeper analysis you may need, uh
, mr Van Jones, versus justgoing to the Holy Land and
slobbering, coming back andslobbering all over a country
from which you do not belong to,and in the entire panel of Fox
(42:28):
News, the entire panel of CNN,when you talked about this issue
, cnn, when you talked aboutthis issue, not one anti-bomb,
not one anti-war voice theentire weekend, none Zero.
Speaker 12 (42:44):
Western Europe is weak.
That's why wars start inWestern Europe.
That's why World War I startedthere and World War II started
there.
And I would tell the demagoguesin our country when you were
going on about World War III,donald Trump just prevented
World War III by using theUnited States military to stop
(43:04):
it.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
That loudmouth demagogue that you just heard
was Mark Levin on Fox News, whohas been doing everything he
could to get the presidentinvolved in these wars in the
Middle East.
And look, reporting that cameout of the New York Times this
morning literally said that apart of the reason that
(43:26):
President Trump changed his mindon whether he was going to get
involved was because he wascurrently watching Fox News and
listening to John Hannity andMark Levin and those people
saying we should not just strike, that, we should get involved.
A lot of his analysts actuallysaid they still wish that Tucker
(43:47):
Carlson was at Fox News becausethe president would have at
least heard one opposing voiceagainst this entanglement in the
Middle East.
I feel like we're stuck in thisnon-ending, constantly
repeating, mind-forged manacleof being in the Middle East, and
(44:12):
it sucks because I don't feellike it's going to change
anytime soon, because most ofthe baby boomers who who watched
most of the news, who had mostof the money to fund most
campaigns unfortunately they gettheir news from Fox news
highest ranking show CNN, abc,msnbc and those stations just
(44:40):
cheer me for war.
If you were watching Fox Newsover the weekend, you were
hearing this type of thing.
Speaker 10 (44:48):
Anyone who says this war isn't good is either with
the regime or has something togain from it.
Good is either with the regimeor has something to gain from it
.
And I look at, you know, evenin America, I look at the people
and the influencers that aretalking poorly about.
You know this possibility thatjust happened tonight and it
makes you wonder.
You know why.
Why are they all of a suddenagainst taking out the nuclear
(45:12):
capability of Iran?
Speaker 5 (45:13):
That old, old adage from the Bush administration
either you are with us or youare with the terrorists.
We've heard this before.
It was not true then.
It's not true now.
All that lady was trying to dowas basically say, if you are
(45:36):
concerned about this, yada, yada, yada.
She was winking and nodding andpretty much calling you
anti-Semite.
That's basically what you werehearing, which is, as time goes
on, people are just going tocome out and flat out say that
Again, the conservative type ofpeople not all, but most are
going to weaponize theanti-Semitism claim.
(46:00):
And if you don't support this,it's because you're anti-Semitic
.
I heard even during thecampaign people were saying that
they didn't pick the governorgovernor of pennsylvania, uh,
because they are anti-semitic.
It's just.
It's just the new thing thatwe're never gonna have here.
(46:25):
Um, there's a lot more going onin the news, obviously.
I think sometimes that whathappens is because things seem
so overwhelming.
You just you're gonna misssomething because there's so
(46:46):
much going on.
The Trump administration has,under the Veteran administration
, has cut a program that issaving veterans homes, and even
some Republicans have somequestions.
Npr has heard from more than 50veterans around the country who
are upset about the veteransadministration cutting the
program that was helping vetsavoid flood closures.
(47:10):
Veterans are now having worseoptions than most Americans in
just the past year, according tothe Department of Veterans
Affairs.
It having worse options thanmost Americans In just the past
year.
According to the Department ofVeterans Affairs, it has helped
more than 33,000 veterans andservice members who got to hide
on their loans by giving them anew low-interest rate mortgage.
But last month, out of fear ofpotential costs, the VA abruptly
(47:31):
did away with this safety netprogram.
It was the latest deployment inthe VA mortgage saga that has
whiplashed veterans betweenVAERS-enacted cancel programs
and left thousands in fear oflosing their homes.
There are about 80,000 vets inthe US behind on their mortgages
and heading towards foreclosure, according to the data from the
(47:53):
ICE mortgage technology.
Both Democrats and Republicansin Congress are questioning this
move by the VeteransAdministration.
Stephen Miller owns six-figurestock companies.
Who is profiting off ofdeportations, the influential
(48:17):
Trump admin aide behind theHarley Immigration Policy's host
, substantial Financial Statesand Palantir Technologies.
And this report is coming fromPablo Martinez, stephen Miller
administration's aide behind theHarley Immigration Policy,
substantial Financial States andPalantir Technologies, a key
tech contractor for the USImmigration and Customs
Enforcement, is raising newethics questions, according to
(48:39):
the report published Tuesday bythe Project for Government
Oversight.
The Project for GovernmentOversight goes on to say
parliamentarians' ICE contractsand political connections have
long been controversial.
The companies, too, haveenabled ICE agents to identify
and detain and deport people,including through recent
(49:00):
enactments that give officersnear real-time data of
self-deportations.
Meanwhile, palantir stock hassurged more than 80% this year,
making it one of the topperformers in the S&P 500.
Of the top performers in theSMP 500.
Pope Leo came out with wordsabout the strike of Iran and is
(49:21):
already going vile.
Pope Leo said War does notsolve problems.
On the contrary, it amplifiesthem and inflicts deep wounds on
the history of people whichtakes generations to heal.
No armed victory can compensatefor the pain of mothers, the
fear of children, our stolenfutures.
May diplomacy silence theweapons.
May nations charge their futurewith works of peace, not with
(49:44):
violence, bloodshed and conflict.
So that is from the new Pope.
There's a marital race going onin New York and Bill Clinton has
done a last-minute endorsementof Andrew Cuomo.
Andrew Cuomo is a pathetic anddisgusting figure and what's
(50:06):
ridiculous is most of Democratshad just asked just in the
recent past that he step down,and a lot of those Democrats who
were saying he stepped down forsexual assault et cetera, et
cetera, have come out to endorsehim.
Bill Clinton's last minuteendorsement of Andrew Cuomo in
New York's mayoral race is alltoo fitting.
Both men is representingcorporate democratic
establishment opposed by thesocialist candidate, zoran Mondi
(50:30):
, and that is a band of theworking class and that has
abandoned the working class.
Bill Clinton's last-minuteendorsement is basically that
he's in the Democratic lowerprimaries, including some of the
shocking twists and turns.
The city's cop controller,mayor candidate brand leader,
was arrested by immigration andcustoms enforcement agent Joe
Mahdi, muslim democraticsocialist who relentlessly
(50:53):
focuses on bread and butterissues but also refuses to bend
to the demand of centuriesrespectability on issues like
Palestine, where, from being thelongest of the long shots to
being neck and neck with theformer governor, andrew Cuomo,
as New Yorkers head to casttheir votes today, most of the
recent polls have MuhammadMoudanadi ahead of Cuomo.
One development that is notparticularly surprising,
(51:15):
although is the grotesquelyrevealing is of Cuomo.
One development that is notparticularly surprising,
although is the grotesquelyrevealing, is that Cuomo scored
a last-minute endorsement fromBill Clinton, the president who
has infamously declared the erabig government is over Praise
the governor of Cuomo.
When it comes to the DemocraticParty, I'll just say this Every
time that they seem like theyhave a candidate that is
(51:37):
intelligent, popular and thebase of the people like that,
just expect the establishment tocome in and kill that candidate
and pick a loser or somebodywho has very, very awful
policies.
The last thing I'll say is oilprices fell sharply after China
(51:58):
after President Trump says Chinacan continue buying oil from
Iran.
Oil prices fell sharply onTuesday after President Trump
told China they can keep buyingoil from Iran, a sign that the
US is easing its maximumpressure campaign on the Islamic
Republic in the wake of theceasefire with Israel.
China cannot continue topurchase oil from Iran, trump
said in a post on his socialmedia platform to social
(52:18):
hopefully they will bepurchasing plenty from the us
also.
It was a great honor to makethis happen.
So there we have it.
I'm going to end with a blastwith intellectual past here.
Uh, I'm gonna give us a treatand do something I rarely do.
We're gonna go to two of theblasts from the intellectual
past.
We're going to travel back toour brothers and sisters in
(52:43):
Europe.
We're going to go back to theselling of the war.
And we're going to go to theselling of the war in Iraq and
Afghanistan, to the selling ofthe war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And we're going to travel to atime where there is a politician
, who has now left us, by thename of Tony Benn, and we're
(53:04):
going to hear that in a blastfrom the intellectual past.
Speaker 13 (53:09):
War is an easy thing to talk about.
There are not many people ofthe generation that remember it
dear.
I as an, an honourablegentleman, served the
distinction of.
I never killed anyone but Iwore a uniform.
But I was in London in theblitz of 1940, living in the
Millbank Tower where I was born.
Some different ideas have comein since, and every night I went
(53:30):
down to the shelter in ThamesHouse.
Every morning I saw Docklandburning.
500 people were killed inWestminster one night by a
landmine.
It was terrifying.
Aren't Arabs terrified?
Aren't Iraqis terrified?
Aren't Iraqi?
Women weep when their childrendie.
Does bombing strengthen theirdetermination?
(53:50):
What fools we are to live in ageneration for which war is a
computer game for our childrenand just an interesting little
Channel 4 news item.
Every member of Parliamenttonight who votes for the
government motion will beconsciously and deliberately
accepting the responsibility forthe deaths of innocent people
(54:11):
if the war begins, as I fear itwill.
Now that's for their decision totake, but this is a quite
unique debate in myparliamentary experience, where
we ask to share responsibilityfor a decision we won't really
be taking, with consequences forpeople who have no part to play
in the brutality of the regimewhich we are dealing with.
(54:32):
And I finish with this OnOctober 24th 1945, and the
former Prime Minister fromBexley and Olsen will remember
the United Nations Charter waspassed and the words of that
charter.
They etched into my mind andmoved me even as I think of them
.
We, the people of the UnitedNations, determined to save
(54:54):
future generations, succeedinggenerations, from the scourge of
war which, twice in ourlifetime, has caused untold
suffering to mankind.
That was the pledge of thatgeneration to this generation.
And it will be the greatestbetrayal of all if we voted to
(55:14):
abandon the charter and takeunilateral action and pretend we
were doing it in the name ofthe international community.
And I shall vote against themotion for the reason that I
give one.
Speaker 5 (55:24):
Tony Benn was born April the 3rd, 1925 and he died
the 14th of March in 2014.
The 4th 10th of March in 2014.
I remember Tony Bennett, hisfavorite.
One of his famous quotes if youcan find weapons to kill people
or money for weapons to killpeople, you can find money to
(55:47):
help and heal people Blacks onthe Intellectual Paths.
From the Member of ParliamentTony Bennett.
Speaker 14 (55:57):
In Western policymaking circles and among
political commentators, theIranian threat is considered to
pose the greatest danger toworld order and hence must be
the primary focus of US foreignpolicy.
Europe's trailing alongpolitely as usual.
This year is called the year ofIran because of the danger of
(56:22):
that enormous threat, which doesraise the question what exactly
is the Iranian threat?
If you read the publiccommentary you don't get much of
an answer, but there actuallyis an authoritative answer which
is ignored.
The authoritative answer isprovided by the regular reports
to Congress by the Pentagon andUS intelligence agencies come
(56:45):
every year, reports on theglobal security, and of course
they include a section on Iran.
It was almost a year ago.
The reports make it very clearthat whatever the Iranian threat
is, it's not military, it's allquote Iran's military spending
(57:05):
is relatively low compared tothe rest of the region.
In fact it's less than aquarter of that of Saudi Arabia
and minuscule as compared withthe US.
Of course, iran's militarydoctrine is strictly defensive,
designed to slow an invasion andto force a diplomatic solution
(57:28):
to hostilities.
Iran has only limited capacityto project force beyond its
borders.
They of course bring up thenuclear option and say that
Iran's nuclear program and itswillingness to keep open the
possibility of developingnuclear weapons is a central
(57:49):
part of its deterrent strategy.
Brutal clerical regime in Iranis undoubtedly a major threat to
its own people, though hardlyoutranks US allies in that
regard.
But the threat lies elsewhereand it's ominous.
One element of the threat isIran's potential deterrent
(58:13):
capacity.
Notice that that's anillegitimate exercise of
sovereignty because it mightinterfere with US freedom of
action in the region.
It's, of course, glaringlyobvious why Iran would seek a
deterrent capacity.
Just take a look at thedisposition of forces in the
region, including nuclear forces.
(58:36):
Seven years ago, one of Israel'sleading military historians,
martin von Krefeld, wrote thatthe world has witnessed how the
United States attacked Iraq for,as it turned out, no reason at
all.
Had the Iranians not tried tobuild nuclear weapons, they
would be crazy, particularlywhen they're under constant
(58:58):
threat of attack by the UnitedStates, of course in violation
of the UN Charter.
But remember that that doesn'tapply to the United States.
Whether they are in factdeveloping a nuclear capability,
we don't really know, butperhaps so Well.
The Iranian threat, asdescribed in the documents and
(59:20):
the reports, goes beyonddeterrence.
Iran is also seeking to expandits influence in neighboring
countries and thus todestabilize the region, as it's
called.
Notice that when the US invadesand occupies Iran's neighbors,
(59:43):
that's stabilization.
When Iran tries to expand itsinfluence say commercial
relations with its neighbors,that's destabilization.
That is absolutely routineusage in foreign policy.
That is absolutely routine usagein foreign policy commentary,
so sometimes it becomes almostcomical.
Here's a prominent foreignpolicy analyst, james Chase,
(01:00:08):
former editor of Foreign Affairs, rather on the liberal side
intimately.
He was properly using the termstability in its technical sense
when he explained that in orderto achieve stability in Chile
it was necessary to destabilizethe country, namely by
overthrowing the elected and thegovernment, installing a
(01:00:31):
vicious dictatorship soundscontradictory, but it isn't if
you understand the technicalmeaning of the term well.
Other concerns I have no timeto go into.
They're interesting to explore,but I think they simply
underscore what the guidingdoctrines are and their
(01:00:51):
continuing status in imperialculture.
That's very much in accord withthe doctrines that were laid
down by FDR's planners backduring the Second World War.
The United States cannottolerate any exercise of
sovereignty that interferes withits global designs.
The United States and Europeare of course, engaged in
(01:01:15):
punishing Iran for its threat tostability and trying to get it
to become a more civilizedcountry.
But it's useful to recall howisolated the US and Europe are,
the non-aligned countries, whichis most of the world.
They have for years beenvigorously supporting Iran's
(01:01:35):
right to enrich uranium Withinthe region.
As I mentioned, the irrelevantpublic even strongly favors
Iranian nuclear weapons.
The major regional power, turkey, voted against the latest US
sanctions motion in the SecurityCouncil, along with Brazil,
(01:01:58):
which is the most admiredcountry of the South, as polls
show.
Turkey's disobedience led tosharp censure at that point, but
not for the first time.
Turkey was bitterly condemnedin 2003 when the government
committed a major crime.
It followed the will of 95% ofthe population and refused to
(01:02:22):
take part in the US-Pritishinvasion of Iraq, and that
demonstrated its very weak graspof democracy, which led to
sanctions and sharp censure.
Same today, after the 2010Security Council misdeed, turkey
was warned by Obama's topdiplomat on European affairs,
(01:02:45):
philip Gordon, that it mustdemonstrate its commitment to
partnership with the West.
Follow orders, in other words.
A scholar with the Council onForeign Relations asked how do
we keep the Turks in their lane?
They're departing.
Something wrong In their lanemeans following orders.
(01:03:08):
Like good Democrats, our styleDemocrats.
Brazil's Lula was admonished ina New York Times headline.
It was admonished in a New YorkTimes headline.
He was warned that his effortwith Turkey to provide a
solution to the uraniumenrichment issue outside the
(01:03:28):
framework of US power is a spoton the Brazilian leaders legacy.
In brief, do what we say.
That's your function.
It's kind of an interestingsidelight to all of this, which
has been effectively suppressed.
The Iran-Turkey-Brazil deal hadbeen approved in advance by
(01:03:49):
President Obama, presumably onthe assumption that it would
fail and that would provide anideological weapon against Iran.
That was revealed by theBritish Foreign Office, which
released the letter of supportfor it after Brazil was censured
.
When the effort succeeded,approval quickly turned to
(01:04:15):
censure and Washington ranthrough a Security Council
resolution which was so weakthat China readily signed, and
is now chastised for living upto the letter of the resolution
but not following Washington'sunilateral directives, which go
far beyond it which go farbeyond it.
Speaker 5 (01:04:38):
So that last clip you heard was a short excerpt.
It was in 2011, at UCLA I'msorry, at UCLA Rickman Goldman
Lecture, and the voice of thatone was Professor Noam Chomsky.
Thank you for tuning inno-transcript.
In an address to the nation late Saturday, President
Trump warned Iran not to strikeback after the US conducted
airstrikes on three of Iran'snuclear facilities.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
This cannot continue.
There will be either peace orthere will be tragedy for Iran
far greater than we havewitnessed over the last eight
days.
Remember, there are manytargets left.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Israeli Prime Minister, benjamin Netanyahu,
praised US involvement in theongoing war between Iran and
Israel.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
History will record that President Trump acted to
deny the world's most dangerousregime, the world's most
dangerous weapons.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
News of the strike comes hours after it was
revealed.
B-2 bombers were dispatchedfrom Missouri to Guam.
The B-2 bombers are capable ofcarrying barrack-busting bombs
capable of destroying the kindsof underground nuclear
facilities Iran was believed topossess.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The strikes were a spectacular military success.
Iran's key nuclear enrichmentfacilities have been completely
and totally obliterated.
Iran, the bully of the MiddleEast, must now make peace.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, will hold a rare
news conference to give detailsof the attack.
There is concern for the safetyof the 40,000 US military
soldiers stationed in the regionand there has been some
bipartisan backlash over whetherPresident Trump
unconstitutionally bypassedCongress to execute an act of
(01:33):
war.
In a social media post,Representative Thomas Massey of
Kentucky, a Republican, wrotethis is not constitutional.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
Welcome to the Darrell McLean Show.
I'm your host, darrell McLean.
Independent media that won'treinforce tribalism.
We have one planet.
Nobody is leaving, so let usreason together.
You have the distinct pleasurewith me to be joining me for
episode 460.
As you have just heard, theUnited States has bombed three
(02:05):
of the sites in Iran, thenuclear sites.
We are actually not aware rightnow if it has been a decisive
bomb that has penetrated anddestroyed the enriched uranium.
That is something that we willknow in the future, but it is a
(02:30):
big deal.
It has actually changed thecalculus of this israel iran
conflict, because the unitedstates has got it not just with
shooting down missiles, but alsonow with bombing targets inside
of Iran.
Now, after this happened, therewas supposed to be a ceasefire
(02:55):
with Israel and Iran, but itseems like that that did not go
off like it was supposed to, andthe president was actually
asked about this while he washeaded to Marine One and he was
not at all happy about thateither.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
I do.
They violated, but Israelviolated it too.
Are you questioning Israel'scommitment?
Israel, as soon as we made thedeal, they came out and they
dropped a load of bombs thelikes of which I've never seen
before, the biggest load thatwe've seen.
I'm not happy with Israel.
You know when I say, OK, nowyou have 12 hours, you don't go
out in the first hour and justdrop everything you have on them
(03:38):
, so I'm not happy with them.
I'm not happy with Iran either.
I'm not happy with Iran either,but I'm really unhappy if Israel
is going out this morningbecause the one rocket that
didn't land, that was shotperhaps by mistake that didn't
land.
I'm not happy about that.
Basically have two countriesthat have been fighting so long
(03:59):
and so hard that they don't knowwhat the fuck they're doing.
Do you understand that?
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Now, of course, when it comes to the politics of it
all, there is a split in thecountry over this, and not just
in the country at large, but inthe president's base in general.
So President Trump's decision todo this but not only to do the
(04:29):
bombing, but to float regimechange after several of his top
administrators had said that itwasn't about regime change in
Iran following the US strikes onnuclear facilities has caused a
new rupture across the MAGAuniverse, as the top supporters
(04:52):
fret about the possibility ofdeeper US involvement in a
Middle Eastern war.
Trump surprised some of hissupporters by authorizing the
weekend strikes against threenuclear sites in Iran, but he
and his team seemed to signalthe military action could end
there.
The president scrambled thosecalculations in a true social
(05:14):
post.
On Sunday he said that while itwas not politically correct to
use the term regime change, ifthe current Iran regime is
unable to make Iran great again,there wouldn't be there.
Why wouldn't there be a regimechange?
And then he wrote the road, theterm, the term me got make Iran
(05:34):
great again.
The White House walked backTrump's remarks Monday with a
press secretary, carolyn LeVette, saying he was just suggesting
the Iranian people might want anew government, not suggesting
that the new front are motive tothe war.
Trump on Monday evening alsoannounced a ceasefire between
(05:55):
Iran and Israel, a move thatsuggests he wants to
dramatically defuse tensionsamongst all sides.
But earlier remarks left Trumpsupporters opposed to the war
worried, fearful.
More harkish voices of the MAGAmovement were carrying the day
Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, themost outspoken MAGA voice to
post-US intervention inIran-Israel war, said Americans
(06:19):
are having restless nights asthe results of Trump's
airstrikes.
Restless nights as the resultsof Trump's airstrikes.
Quote the reality is noAmerican slept better after
America bombed Iran because allof a sudden we now have threats
on our homeland.
Green said On Monday Steve'sban is rolling progress.
We now have warnings from theState Department, from Americans
(06:39):
overseas.
Americans in Israel areterrified for their lives.
Americans in Israel areterrified for their lives.
Americas all over the world areseriously questioning if this
is going to be World War Three,she said On a social media
platform.
Green went to one a stepfurther.
It feels like a complete baitand switch to please the neocon
(06:59):
warmongers, military industrialcomplex contractors and neocon
television personalities thatMAGA hates and were never
Trumpers.
She wrote.
Trump regime change remarksnotably came just hours after
Vice President Vance in anappearance on NBC's Meet the
Press, said the administration'sview has been clear that regime
(07:22):
change was not on the agenda.
View has been clear that regimechange was not on the agenda.
There's definitely concernamong MAGA, said one official
who worked in the Trumpadministration in the first term
, the idea that Trump is openlyflooding regime change,
especially in such blunt terms,make me nervous, not just
because of the instability itcould trigger, but because it
(07:42):
signals he completely handedover the foreign policy to
decisions and hardliners likeSecretary of State Marco Rubio.
It becomes populist posturingwith neocon execution.
The source added.
The more hawkish voices in theTrump's orbit welcome Trump's
words, even if they are just atrial balloon.
(08:03):
As usual, president Trump is onspot with his desire to make
Iran great again by changing theregime, either through their
behavior or new leadership andthat came from Senator Lindsey
Graham on X, as President Trumpsuggested.
Who is in their right mindwould want this regime change to
continue the status quoattacking the neighbors,
(08:24):
oppressing their people andbeing the largest state sponsor
of terrorism on the planet.
If you like that, you're a sickpuppy.
Count me in.
For any way possible to makeiran great again by making it
decent again.
He continued, adding the makeiran great again.
Acronym b.
A former top Trump official saidMonday he's worried about
(08:46):
mission creep.
Quote now it's all about.
Now it's all about hey, wedon't know where the material is
.
Bannon said on the podcast forIran's enriched uranium
stockpile what's going to leadus to folks hey, do we need a
75th Ranger Battalion to go inand find it.
Oh, it's coming.
(09:06):
It's coming.
Is this because the ultimategoal is regime change?
And if so, that's fine.
Israelis, have it, we continue.
If you want regime change, gofor it, baby, just no
participation by the unitedstates government.
Trump's comments came afterweeks in which he had said
dismantling Iran's nuclearprograms would be the goal of
(09:28):
any US mission, not regimechange.
The truth's social postconflicts with one of his
longstanding views, as hecriticized what he perceived as
unnecessary meddling throughoutthe Middle East and he vowed to
keep the United States out ofwars.
Now, before announcing theceasefire, trump signaled a
desire to de-escalate after Iranon Monday lodged missiles into
(09:53):
US air bases in Qatar.
Iran provided prior notice ofthe attack and, according to the
Qataris, all the missiles wereintercepted and there were zero
casualties.
Now the president is separatelygetting some questions from
Congress about the authorizationof the strikes, with lawmakers
pushing for a vote on the WarPowers Resolution, a vote on
(10:14):
Senator Tim Kaine, the Democratfrom Virginia's measure could
come at some point this weekwith some GOP support, but
whether it could win with therequisite 51 votes is an open
question.
It's unlikely enoughRepublicans would back it to
override the presidential veto.
Speaker Mike Johnson also toldreporters Monday that he does
(10:37):
not back a resolution and is notsupportive of bringing such
measures to the floor.
He noted presidents in bothparties have large strikes
similar to Trump's, withoutcongressional authority.
Rep Thomas Massey, theRepublican, is the main GOP
sponsor of the resolution.
On Sunday he accused Trump ofabsolutely breaking a campaign
(10:58):
promise and labeled the ideathat strikes weren't an act of
war as ludicrous.
Three bombings to neutralizeIran may turn out to be the 2025
version of two weeks to slowthe spread.
This could turn into aprotracted, prolonged engagement
.
I am leery of this, giveneverything that has happened
before.
And Thomas Massey said if youare on the Darrell McLean sub
(11:24):
stack, I actually wrote twopieces over the week, one
entitled the Dangers of theDrumbeat of War why the Israeli
and Iran Conflict Demands HonestReflection, and I would like
some attention to be given tothat in this context and the
(11:46):
other one was ripping up theIran nuclear deal how the spirit
, how spying ego derailed MiddleEast peace.
Now I will be doing a shortershows where I will at times read
the read some of the piecesthat that is going into the sub
stack Um, uh, maybe, maybe about10 minutes, however long it
(12:10):
takes me to read that article,but those articles are.
But until the time being to toum, uh analysis pieces that are
written over at the drama cleansub stack page, I'll just, I'll
just say this Um, uh, we kind ofknow, if you look at the
historical record, how we got inthis situation.
(12:35):
I don't think the United Stateshas to be here.
I think we got here a lotsomewhat by our own hand, by our
own doing, just from a verylong view of our history in the
region for over about 80 years.
Yeah and um, and that's methinking about, actually, if I
(13:01):
was to think all the way back to1953, that would be, you know,
exactly 72 years.
So this has been a long time inthe making.
I uh, people want to blame,want to blame President Trump
for this.
I think it would be very naiveto blame one administration for
(13:26):
70, so years of bad policytowards the region, and I try to
be more nuanced when it comesto that.
A lot of people are cheerleadingthis or cheerleading that and,
of course, like I said in theprevious episode, I'm a very
(13:49):
non-interventionist person whenit comes to the Middle East.
I'm a hands-off person when itcomes to the Middle East.
I'm a hands-off person when itcomes to the Middle East.
I don't think that the US has aclear and concise plan to deal
with the United States and, flatout, I think we've been getting
(14:10):
some bad intelligence, usuallyfrom the prime minister, and
that's just if you really lookat the history.
I mean, in 1992, bibi Netanyahutold the Israeli parliament
that Iran was three to fiveyears from getting a bomb.
(14:32):
In 1995, in his book FightingTerrorism, he said that Iran was
five to seven years away fromgetting the bomb.
In 1996, he told Congress Iranwas getting extremely close and
only the US could stop it.
In 2009, he told the USCongress, again a delegation
(14:55):
that our experts have said thatIran was one to two years away
from getting the bomb.
In 2012, bibi Netanyahu toldthe United Nations that Iran was
a year away from getting thebomb.
In 2018, bibi Netanyahu claimedthat Iran has a secret weapons
site with little to no evidence.
And in 2025, he launched aunprovoked attack, says the bomb
(15:18):
is months away and this wasdone basically by all intent
purposes, just to sabotage.
The Iranian S Office of theDirector of National
Intelligence said just in Marchof this year we continue to
access Iran is not building anuclear weapon.
(15:39):
So I think the US has donethese strikes.
Of course, it is my positionthat they have done it under
with bad intelligence.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
It did for you and the grief he's taken over here.
You had the gall when he saidthis is what I've done and I
need you to be a partner.
I need you to stand down First.
Here's what I can't say.
I can't stop at all, which isanother lie of the many lies
we've gotten from the Netanyahugovernment A bald-faced lie.
(16:19):
But then he says okay, I needyou to stand up.
I can't have any scale.
If you can't get some guys back, it's fine.
Goes to bed, gets a couple hours, so he wakes up and you lied to
him.
That's why he's's furious.
That's as mad as I've ever seenthe president united states and
think about how did you get hisanger like that, given
everything he's done for you andthe pressure he's under, and a
(16:40):
couple hours sleep and I was ina freaking plane and fly for
what?
Six, eight hours to sit downwith this crowd at nato, which
you know he just wildlyenthusiastic about doing that
and plus putting himself goingin the air at a time when you're
in a shooting conflict in theworld, putting his life at risk
to do that.
And this is what he gets.
This is the thanks he gets.
(17:01):
So don't sit there and don'tglaze him.
Netanyahu goes on Israel TV andglazes him.
Don't glaze him.
Don't slobber all over him.
It doesn't mean anything.
You showed what you reallythought of him last night.
Oh, president Trump's thegreatest.
You showed exactly yourappreciation last night.
You showed exactly.
(17:22):
And do I see any of the BaghdadBob equivalents, the Tel Aviv
Levens or any of this crowdtoday calling him out?
They never call out Netanyahu,who got Israel into this.
And for supporters of Israel,which is kind of on the ropes
about this, it makes it veryhard when someone, when your top
(17:47):
guy is dealing from the bottomof the deck, is not straight and
in fact, not only not straight,he's a bald-faced liar.
If you support Israel and youlove Israel and you want to see
Israel not just survive butthrive, you better be asking
hard questions.
(18:07):
You better be asking hardquestions.
You better be asking hardquestions.
You better be asking hardquestions and demanding straight
answers.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
That was the populist voice, Steve Bannon, one of the
advisors from President Trump'sfirst administration.
I think I've said before thatwhen it comes to the wing of the
Republicans that I think are onthe right side of a lot of
issues, I would say Steve Bannonis one of the voices of reason
(18:44):
when it comes to the Republicansat this moment.
Speaker 9 (18:49):
With the insanity of the last 24 hours.
I know you've been monitoringthis situation.
I just want to get yourreaction to the broader
ramifications of this ceasefire,at least for now, between
Israel and Iran and the rolehere of the United States.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Well, this has been an absolutely wild week.
In a way, it is an absolutelywild week.
In a way, it is Bibi'sfulfillment of a 30-year mission
to try to drag the UnitedStates into a war with Iran.
This latest episode has beenpart of a long-term idea of
(19:28):
Netanyahu, which is we're goingto do what we want in Gaza, the
West Bank, we're going tocontrol everything.
We'll kill, we'll have agenocide and anyone that objects
, any other country in theregion, will overthrow that
government.
That's been the basic strategyfor 30 years.
For 30 years, the United Stateshas gone along with that
(19:50):
strategy, whether it is inLebanon, syria, iraq, sudan,
libya, and Iran was always thebig prize.
So Netanyahu has been absolutelyitching for a big war with Iran
, trying to drag the US in, andwhat we saw last week probably
(20:11):
was the great battle insidebetween the deep state, which is
absolutely in line with Mossadit's basically a Mossad-CIA
operation for 30 years and MAGA,which says stop, we're sick of
this, we're sick of these wars.
(20:32):
The president I don't know wherehe is because I haven't checked
my social media for the last 30seconds he's been on both sides
of this, but his base has beensaying do not do this, do not do
this, whereas Netanyahu hasbeen saying next year in Tehran.
Netanyahu's been saying thatnext year in Tehran, or his
(20:56):
ministers have been putting thatout in disgusting vulgarity.
So I don't know whether this isgoing to stop, but this is a
battle of a long-term strategyof Netanyahu remake the Middle
East to give basically complete,total impunity to Israel to do
every murder, massacre, genocidethat it wants to do.
(21:18):
And some of us who think that'snot making the world a better
place, that's not helpinganything and it's not making
America more secure.
Thanks God if the ceasefireholds.
That's a good thing.
That's the bottom line.
Speaker 7 (21:34):
Yeah, professor, let's pull in that thread a
little bit more of the Israelis.
As you mentioned, this has beena multi-decade project of
Netanyahu specifically, but it'sbroadly supported the Israeli
public and certainly with hisentire coalition, including
literal terrorists that areinvolved in his government.
So he's not going to give upand say, ok, cease fire and now
we have peace with Iran.
(21:54):
That is certainly not going tohappen.
So what do you expect to see,based on previous historical
actions, from the Israelis?
What do you expect the Israelisto do next to try to play their
next card to get us drawn inyet again?
Speaker 4 (22:08):
Well, the Israelis will make new provocations,
that's for sure.
They will make arguments thatnow we see the perfidy of Iran
or for whatever argument to keepdrawing us in.
I have said for years I thinkdecades now that the main job of
the president of the UnitedStates in modern times is to
(22:31):
keep the foot on the brake ofthe war machine, because it's
always revving.
If you went to the deep statein the last few days, I think
bombing missions against iranare just splendid.
Let's uh try out those b2s,let's see how the bunker busters
do and uh, going beyond that,the regime change.
(22:51):
Well, that was in half thetweets of the last or social
truth posts of the last few days.
So I think that Israel willprovoke and it is the job of the
United States when in raremoments presidents do their job,
to keep the foot on the brake.
And this morning Trumpunusually chastised Israel in a
(23:18):
post to say do not drop thatbomb.
Well, actually that's his job.
It's pretty interesting he didit this time.
Yesterday was different.
We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Speaker 9 (23:30):
So one of the things I'm curious about, sir, you're
obviously always looked at thebigger picture, and there was a
lot made, potentially, of Russiaand China coming in on Iran's
side.
That didn't materialize to amajor extent, but there were at
least some entanglements.
We can put this one up on thescreen.
For example, president, formerpresident Medvedev of Russia at
one point basically threatened,basically said the Americans
(23:54):
have accomplished nothing intheir strikes, potentially we
could transfer nukes to them.
He walked it back a little bitlater, saying a number of
countries are ready to directlysupply Iran with their own
nuclear warheads, but then hewalked it back later.
What do you make, though, ofhow the Russians and the Chinese
will respond to what'stranspired?
Speaker 4 (24:11):
in the last 12 days of how the Russians and the
Chinese will respond to what'stranspired in the last 12 days.
Yeah, I think, by the way, whatMedvedev was saying in that
point number three was notRussia transferring nuclear arms
or endorsing that, but the factthat Pakistan is a country
closely aligned with the Islamiccause, obviously, and with Iran
(24:31):
, and absolutely able totransfer nuclear weapons.
North Korea is another case,and I think that's an important
point, by the way, because we'vebeen told that the be-all and
end-all is Iran's enrichment ofuranium.
That is not the true issue atstake here.
(24:54):
The true issue at stake is isIsrael vulnerable by its own
actions, to a nuclear attack onIsrael?
The answer is yes.
Does Israel create moresecurity for itself the way that
it operates?
My answer is no.
It makes Israel more and moredangerous.
Not only did we see, obviously,that the Iron Dome ain't so
(25:16):
iron and that there were easilyit was not hard to penetrate the
air defenses in Israel, butIsrael seems to think that Iran
is the end of the story, and itis not the end of the story.
And it is not the end of thestory.
There are 57 countries in theOrganization of Islamic
(25:37):
Cooperation that are absolutelydead set against what Israel is
doing.
The vast majority of the worldis dead set against it.
When you ask about Russia andChina, it is their fundamental
purpose not to be thrown underthe bus of the United States.
This is the basic point.
(25:58):
They want a multipolar world,not a US-dominated world, and
they are succeeding in thatbecause the US does not have the
means, the power, in my view,the interest interest, but put
that aside the means or thepower to make a us dominated
world, despite what washingtonhas believed for more than 30
(26:20):
years.
So russia and china are careful.
China's very precise, I thinkit is.
It's a cliche, but it's alsotrue that Russia plays chess,
china plays go and the UnitedStates plays poker.
One hand at a time, very quick,not any long term strategy,
(26:44):
just go for the hand.
And I think that China andRussia bided their time in the
first days.
China and Russia bided theirtime in the first days, but the
point was really Iran was notdecapitated with regime change,
nor was it stopped in itsability to do great damage
(27:04):
inside Israel up until the verylast moment, which really irks
the Israelis that it was.
The last exchange of missilesin this case was Iran's, and
then Israel tried to violate thetimeline and launch another one
so it could be last, and that'swhen Trump said no stop.
(27:24):
We already have anunderstanding about the
chronology.
So we are watching, step bystep, the emerging of a true
multipolar world, where otherpowers that don't love the
United States they don't hate it, by the way, they just don't
want to be subservient to itthey have nuclear arms, powerful
(27:46):
weapons, the technologies thatwe have, so that we can't
dominate, and Iran is a regionalpower.
It's not a pushover for Israel,by any means.
There was no one strike andit's all over.
One of the things that may havehappened last week, I don't know
, of course, but Netanyahutelling Trump we can do it, we
(28:10):
can do it, we can do it.
And they did their decapitationmurders Mossad really is a
murder machine, of course andthey did its decapitation strike
and it did not bring down theregime, and so it probably led
Trump and people around him tosay come on, you know, the
Israelis have given us a bunchof BS on this.
(28:30):
It didn't change the regime, itdidn't end the threats, and I
think that's when Trump heardhis base calling, he heard
common sense calling and he saidlook, this isn't going
according to plan.
And I think the main point iswith Russia and China.
(28:51):
They were cautious, but theyweren't letting Iran fall by any
means.
And if Iran were to be facing amore cataclysmic set of events
in the last few days, I thinkthe reactions also would have
been different.
Interesting.
Speaker 7 (29:08):
To your point about.
Perhaps Israelis were selling,perhaps they even believed that
they would be able to create aregime collapse in short time.
The Washington Post got a holdof this leaked audio of Mossad
agents calling Israeli generalsand saying you have 12 hours or
else we're going to murder youand your wife and kids, by the
way, and if you want to avoidthat fate, you need to record
(29:30):
yourself surrendering.
You need to film the surrendervideo and send it to us, which,
of course, would have been usedas propaganda by the Israelis
and, as best we know, not one ofthem did that, which I think
you know, in and of itself is anindication that they may have
miscalculated the strength ofthis regime, especially once a
country is bombed, like it'svery common for people to rally
(29:52):
around the flag.
But I wanted to ask you withregards to Israel so they have
bombed, you know they'recommitting a genocide in
Palestine, in the Gaza Strip.
They bombed Lebanon, syria,yemen, iran, iraq and our
nuclear-armed nation outside ofthe NPT, you know, did have a
(30:12):
secret nuclear weapons programand you know are a rogue nation,
I think by any characterizationat this point, is there going
to be any consequence for them?
Like, is there any sort oflonger-term consequence for the
fact that they have behaved inthis outrageous, barbaric
fashion over years?
At this point and, you know,really made themselves a villain
(30:36):
in terms of the eyes of much ofthe world.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
I think Israel is in its worst insecurity in its
history by far, because it isutterly isolated in the
international system.
I'm sitting just outside the UN.
I've been attending UN SecurityCouncil meetings, un General
Assembly sessions.
You have 95% of the worldpopulation voting against Israel
(31:05):
.
Right now.
You have an overwhelming callfor the absolutely practical
state of Palestine beingestablished on the borders of
the 4th of June 1967, and Israellearning finally, after decades
and decades.
It's just going to have to livealongside the Palestinian
people, who have the same numberpopulation as the Israeli Jews.
(31:28):
And this is the most basicpoint of all.
Israel has no security from allof this.
It has achieved nothing excepta wasteland in its neighborhood,
and if it wants security, theonly security is to rejoin the
family of nations.
And the way to do that isstraightforward it's according
(31:49):
to international law, it'saccording to basic common sense,
it's according to decency, it'saccording to endless
resolutions of the US SecurityCouncil and the UN General
Assembly, and that is that therewould be a state of Palestine
for the Palestinian peoplealongside a state of Israel, and
President Trump actually canmake that happen If he wants his
(32:11):
Nobel Peace Prize.
It's not by this ceasefire,after this behavior of the last
week.
It is by a Palestinian statebeing established.
How does that happen?
One vote change in the UNSecurity Council.
The US vetoed this last yearwhen it came to a vote in the
Security Council, which is thepart of the UN system or the
(32:34):
international system thatestablishes the statehood
membership in the UN.
All the United States has to dois to say we go along with all
the rest of the world and tellIsrael wake up, we're saving you
, we're not hurting you, we aresaving you from yourself.
However, it's just crazy whatIsrael's doing and the idea that
(32:57):
this is any security.
I think they should understandthat, with apartment buildings
in Beersheba being destroyed,with Haifa being attacked, with
Tel Aviv being attacked, withthe countries outside of the
region like Pakistan and DPRKwatching, if Israel thinks it
has any security at all from itsbrazenness, it should think it
(33:21):
again.
And, by the way, what we saw inthe Mossad tape, which is
chilling, of course, to listento, is that Mossad became a
killing machine.
It's very skillful at massmurder.
I would say, not mass murder inthe sense of the murder of the
(33:43):
leadership of the Iranianmilitary last week.
Yes, that's Mossad's business.
Yes, that's Mossad's business,but to have that as your
centerpiece of statehood to bemurder incorporated is not going
to get you safety or securityor any sound sleep any day in
(34:05):
your life.
Israel needs to rethinkfundamentally this BB strategy,
which goes back to 1996 when hefirst became prime minister.
Speaker 7 (34:16):
And I think to your point they're not going to
rethink it because the public isbroadly supportive of the Bibi
strategy.
It has to be forced upon them,and the United States of America
can do that if there is anywill to do it.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
It depends always.
It has always depended on theUnited States going along.
By the way, people should getonline if they haven't done it
recently, and look atNetanyahu's speech to the US
Congress in 2002, telling himhow wonderful the Iraq war is
going to be.
Oh, it's a cakewalk.
It's going to inspire the wholeregion.
(34:53):
This man is nuts.
He's a failure for 30 years.
He's the biggest warmonger onthe planet.
If Trump wants a successfulpresidency, don't sign on to
this idiocy.
Do your job, mr President.
Make peace in the region.
That has to be.
You give the state of Palestinealongside the state of Israel,
(35:15):
stop the genocide and go alongwith international law.
It's pretty straightforward.
It's there for the taking.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
So that was Professor Jeffrey Sachs, along with
Crystal Ball and Sega Ingenetti.
If you want to look at some ofJeffrey Sachs' work, you just go
to wwwjeffsachsorg and that'sS-A-C-H-S dot org.
(35:43):
Now I think this is fairlystraightforward when we get to
stuff like this.
This has been something thatJohn McCain wanted, that Lindsey
Graham wants, that Marco Rubio,the Secretary of State wants.
You know that Mitch McConnellcame out celebrating this.
(36:03):
And then, when you get lookedat some of the on CNN and Fox
News, it was deranged andunhinged coverage after these
war strikes, just a full-onpropaganda machine.
And it did remind me of beingyoung and being in high school
(36:32):
and the country was attacked theSeptember 11th attacks happened
and then hearing the drumbeatof war and hearing very little
pushback in the mainstream mediaabout this.
And the big deal is becauseit's pretty much known now that
(36:54):
the president of the UnitedStates watches Fox News.
So he was listening to SeanHannity, he was listening to
Mark Levin, as they were, youknow, cheerleaders for for this,
this regime change war, and ofcourse, they won't be getting
(37:16):
their hands dirty in it.
They won't be sending theirchildren to fight in it, it's
just.
It is a sin and a shame of howeasy it is for them to push this
type of stuff.
Let's listen to the greatprogressive analyst on CNN, Van
Jones.
Speaker 8 (37:37):
He's buying himself some time and some room.
I was also in the Holy Landvery recently.
I think progressivesunderestimate how dangerous Iran
is.
Iran is not a normal country.
Normal countries don't blindwomen because they showed some
hair.
They don't empower little gangsand proxies to surround the
(38:01):
country and fire rockets andraid people.
So Iran, the two things areclear the what they cannot have
have a bomb and the why becausethey say death to America, death
to Israel and death to all theJews.
One of those should offend you.
If you're a progressive, atleast one should offend you.
And so the question, though, isthe who and the how.
(38:22):
Is Israel going to take outthis nuclear capacity by
dropping people there who blowit up, or is America going to
take it out by dropping a bombthat blows it up?
But the what and the why areclear, and I think progressives
should get on board with that.
We cannot have a nuclear-armedIran.
I was in the region, you werein the region.
This is a very dangerous powerthat cannot get nuclear weapons.
Speaker 5 (38:45):
Yes, yes, brilliant progressive Fan Jones, who just
got back from the Holy Land todeliver some wisdom like that.
And of course, if you look atCNN, they didn't just have the
esteemed intelligent progressiveVan Jones air quotes, they had
the very well-known warmongerJohn Bolton.
(39:09):
You know to, I guess, give theconservative take.
Let's hear what John Bolton hadto say.
Were you surprised thatPresident Trump took such
decisive action?
Speaker 11 (39:23):
Well, let me say this unequivocally I think
President Trump made the rightdecision for America to attack
Iran's nuclear weapons program,and I think we're on the verge
of potentially seeing regimechange in Iran as part of that.
I think this is a huge changein the Middle East.
It was a decisive action.
It was the right thing to do.
(39:44):
I thought somebody should do itfor a long time, but better
late than never.
Speaker 5 (39:48):
Here we go.
Good old John Bolton alwayswanted to do it.
Been a neoconservative foryears, never found a target in
the Middle East.
He didn't want a bomb, and CNNcontinued with this.
When you went to the newsroomon the Internet and looking at
the articles, you have ananalysis coming out from CNN's
(40:11):
Stephen Collinson, and thearticle stated Analysts US
strikes mark a stunningdemonstration of military might
and presidential power.
They're not taking this stuffseriously.
They're just cheerleading forwar.
It's just nothing but pure,pure propaganda.
This stuff is maddening and it'sso revealing to have somebody
(40:38):
like Van Jones, who's supposedto be some leftist progressive,
on CNN webinizing identitypolitics.
Oh, look at what they do towomen.
Oh, look at the gays, oh, andit's like oh, yes, yes, yes.
What about the American allies,saudi Arabia, any different?
(41:00):
What about any of our partners?
What about that?
What about Israel?
How they treat ethnicminorities, even people who are
Jews, who are anti-Zionist inIsrael you should go see how
they're treated.
How about those women andchildren and gays in Gaza who
(41:21):
have been bombed to smithereens?
This is a bunch of bullcrap andthey know it is, and it is
nothing more than theweaponization of identity
politics in order to gin up awar because you don't like a
chant and and you, you haven'teven fully tried to wrestle with
(41:44):
.
When did they start sayingdeath to america and death to
israel?
When did they start saying that?
Wasn't there something thathappened?
Oh, yeah, and maybe, maybe thatcoup, uh, maybe the installing
of the Shah by us, maybe that'swhen they started yelling death
to America, death to Israel.
(42:05):
You ever thought about that?
Uh, if not, it may be some uh,deeper analysis you may need, uh
, mr Van Jones, versus justgoing to the Holy Land and
slobbering, coming back andslobbering all over a country
from which you do not belong to,and in the entire panel of Fox
(42:28):
News, the entire panel of CNN,when you talked about this issue
, cnn, when you talked aboutthis issue, not one anti-bomb,
not one anti-war voice theentire weekend, none Zero.
Speaker 12 (42:44):
Western Europe is weak.
That's why wars start inWestern Europe.
That's why World War I startedthere and World War II started
there.
And I would tell the demagoguesin our country when you were
going on about World War III,donald Trump just prevented
World War III by using theUnited States military to stop
(43:04):
it.
Speaker 5 (43:05):
That loudmouth demagogue that you just heard
was Mark Levin on Fox News, whohas been doing everything he
could to get the presidentinvolved in these wars in the
Middle East.
And look, reporting that cameout of the New York Times this
morning literally said that apart of the reason that
(43:26):
President Trump changed his mindon whether he was going to get
involved was because he wascurrently watching Fox News and
listening to John Hannity andMark Levin and those people
saying we should not just strike, that, we should get involved.
A lot of his analysts actuallysaid they still wish that Tucker
(43:47):
Carlson was at Fox News becausethe president would have at
least heard one opposing voiceagainst this entanglement in the
Middle East.
I feel like we're stuck in thisnon-ending, constantly
repeating, mind-forged manacleof being in the Middle East, and
(44:12):
it sucks because I don't feellike it's going to change
anytime soon, because most ofthe baby boomers who who watched
most of the news, who had mostof the money to fund most
campaigns unfortunately they gettheir news from Fox news
highest ranking show CNN, abc,msnbc and those stations just
(44:40):
cheer me for war.
If you were watching Fox Newsover the weekend, you were
hearing this type of thing.
Speaker 10 (44:48):
Anyone who says this war isn't good is either with
the regime or has something togain from it.
Good is either with the regimeor has something to gain from it
.
And I look at, you know, evenin America, I look at the people
and the influencers that aretalking poorly about.
You know this possibility thatjust happened tonight and it
makes you wonder.
You know why.
Why are they all of a suddenagainst taking out the nuclear
(45:12):
capability of Iran?
Speaker 5 (45:13):
That old, old adage from the Bush administration
either you are with us or youare with the terrorists.
We've heard this before.
It was not true then.
It's not true now.
All that lady was trying to dowas basically say, if you are
(45:36):
concerned about this, yada, yada, yada.
She was winking and nodding andpretty much calling you
anti-Semite.
That's basically what you werehearing, which is, as time goes
on, people are just going tocome out and flat out say that
Again, the conservative type ofpeople not all, but most are
going to weaponize theanti-Semitism claim.
(46:00):
And if you don't support this,it's because you're anti-Semitic
.
I heard even during thecampaign people were saying that
they didn't pick the governorgovernor of pennsylvania, uh,
because they are anti-semitic.
It's just.
It's just the new thing thatwe're never gonna have here.
(46:25):
Um, there's a lot more going onin the news, obviously.
I think sometimes that whathappens is because things seem
so overwhelming.
You just you're gonna misssomething because there's so
(46:46):
much going on.
The Trump administration has,under the Veteran administration
, has cut a program that issaving veterans homes, and even
some Republicans have somequestions.
Npr has heard from more than 50veterans around the country who
are upset about the veteransadministration cutting the
program that was helping vetsavoid flood closures.
(47:10):
Veterans are now having worseoptions than most Americans in
just the past year, according tothe Department of Veterans
Affairs.
It having worse options thanmost Americans In just the past
year.
According to the Department ofVeterans Affairs, it has helped
more than 33,000 veterans andservice members who got to hide
on their loans by giving them anew low-interest rate mortgage.
But last month, out of fear ofpotential costs, the VA abruptly
(47:31):
did away with this safety netprogram.
It was the latest deployment inthe VA mortgage saga that has
whiplashed veterans betweenVAERS-enacted cancel programs
and left thousands in fear oflosing their homes.
There are about 80,000 vets inthe US behind on their mortgages
and heading towards foreclosure, according to the data from the
(47:53):
ICE mortgage technology.
Both Democrats and Republicansin Congress are questioning this
move by the VeteransAdministration.
Stephen Miller owns six-figurestock companies.
Who is profiting off ofdeportations, the influential
(48:17):
Trump admin aide behind theHarley Immigration Policy's host
, substantial Financial Statesand Palantir Technologies.
And this report is coming fromPablo Martinez, stephen Miller
administration's aide behind theHarley Immigration Policy,
substantial Financial States andPalantir Technologies, a key
tech contractor for the USImmigration and Customs
Enforcement, is raising newethics questions, according to
(48:39):
the report published Tuesday bythe Project for Government
Oversight.
The Project for GovernmentOversight goes on to say
parliamentarians' ICE contractsand political connections have
long been controversial.
The companies, too, haveenabled ICE agents to identify
and detain and deport people,including through recent
(49:00):
enactments that give officersnear real-time data of
self-deportations.
Meanwhile, palantir stock hassurged more than 80% this year,
making it one of the topperformers in the S&P 500.
Of the top performers in theSMP 500.
Pope Leo came out with wordsabout the strike of Iran and is
(49:21):
already going vile.
Pope Leo said War does notsolve problems.
On the contrary, it amplifiesthem and inflicts deep wounds on
the history of people whichtakes generations to heal.
No armed victory can compensatefor the pain of mothers, the
fear of children, our stolenfutures.
May diplomacy silence theweapons.
May nations charge their futurewith works of peace, not with
(49:44):
violence, bloodshed and conflict.
So that is from the new Pope.
There's a marital race going onin New York and Bill Clinton has
done a last-minute endorsementof Andrew Cuomo.
Andrew Cuomo is a pathetic anddisgusting figure and what's
(50:06):
ridiculous is most of Democratshad just asked just in the
recent past that he step down,and a lot of those Democrats who
were saying he stepped down forsexual assault et cetera, et
cetera, have come out to endorsehim.
Bill Clinton's last minuteendorsement of Andrew Cuomo in
New York's mayoral race is alltoo fitting.
Both men is representingcorporate democratic
establishment opposed by thesocialist candidate, zoran Mondi
(50:30):
, and that is a band of theworking class and that has
abandoned the working class.
Bill Clinton's last-minuteendorsement is basically that
he's in the Democratic lowerprimaries, including some of the
shocking twists and turns.
The city's cop controller,mayor candidate brand leader,
was arrested by immigration andcustoms enforcement agent Joe
Mahdi, muslim democraticsocialist who relentlessly
(50:53):
focuses on bread and butterissues but also refuses to bend
to the demand of centuriesrespectability on issues like
Palestine, where, from being thelongest of the long shots to
being neck and neck with theformer governor, andrew Cuomo,
as New Yorkers head to casttheir votes today, most of the
recent polls have MuhammadMoudanadi ahead of Cuomo.
One development that is notparticularly surprising,
(51:15):
although is the grotesquelyrevealing is of Cuomo.
One development that is notparticularly surprising,
although is the grotesquelyrevealing, is that Cuomo scored
a last-minute endorsement fromBill Clinton, the president who
has infamously declared the erabig government is over Praise
the governor of Cuomo.
When it comes to the DemocraticParty, I'll just say this Every
time that they seem like theyhave a candidate that is
(51:37):
intelligent, popular and thebase of the people like that,
just expect the establishment tocome in and kill that candidate
and pick a loser or somebodywho has very, very awful
policies.
The last thing I'll say is oilprices fell sharply after China
(51:58):
after President Trump says Chinacan continue buying oil from
Iran.
Oil prices fell sharply onTuesday after President Trump
told China they can keep buyingoil from Iran, a sign that the
US is easing its maximumpressure campaign on the Islamic
Republic in the wake of theceasefire with Israel.
China cannot continue topurchase oil from Iran, trump
said in a post on his socialmedia platform to social
(52:18):
hopefully they will bepurchasing plenty from the us
also.
It was a great honor to makethis happen.
So there we have it.
I'm going to end with a blastwith intellectual past here.
Uh, I'm gonna give us a treatand do something I rarely do.
We're gonna go to two of theblasts from the intellectual
past.
We're going to travel back toour brothers and sisters in
(52:43):
Europe.
We're going to go back to theselling of the war.
And we're going to go to theselling of the war in Iraq and
Afghanistan, to the selling ofthe war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And we're going to travel to atime where there is a politician
, who has now left us, by thename of Tony Benn, and we're
(53:04):
going to hear that in a blastfrom the intellectual past.
Speaker 13 (53:09):
War is an easy thing to talk about.
There are not many people ofthe generation that remember it
dear.
I as an, an honourablegentleman, served the
distinction of.
I never killed anyone but Iwore a uniform.
But I was in London in theblitz of 1940, living in the
Millbank Tower where I was born.
Some different ideas have comein since, and every night I went
(53:30):
down to the shelter in ThamesHouse.
Every morning I saw Docklandburning.
500 people were killed inWestminster one night by a
landmine.
It was terrifying.
Aren't Arabs terrified?
Aren't Iraqis terrified?
Aren't Iraqi?
Women weep when their childrendie.
Does bombing strengthen theirdetermination?
(53:50):
What fools we are to live in ageneration for which war is a
computer game for our childrenand just an interesting little
Channel 4 news item.
Every member of Parliamenttonight who votes for the
government motion will beconsciously and deliberately
accepting the responsibility forthe deaths of innocent people
(54:11):
if the war begins, as I fear itwill.
Now that's for their decision totake, but this is a quite
unique debate in myparliamentary experience, where
we ask to share responsibilityfor a decision we won't really
be taking, with consequences forpeople who have no part to play
in the brutality of the regimewhich we are dealing with.
(54:32):
And I finish with this OnOctober 24th 1945, and the
former Prime Minister fromBexley and Olsen will remember
the United Nations Charter waspassed and the words of that
charter.
They etched into my mind andmoved me even as I think of them
.
We, the people of the UnitedNations, determined to save
(54:54):
future generations, succeedinggenerations, from the scourge of
war which, twice in ourlifetime, has caused untold
suffering to mankind.
That was the pledge of thatgeneration to this generation.
And it will be the greatestbetrayal of all if we voted to
(55:14):
abandon the charter and takeunilateral action and pretend we
were doing it in the name ofthe international community.
And I shall vote against themotion for the reason that I
give one.
Speaker 5 (55:24):
Tony Benn was born April the 3rd, 1925 and he died
the 14th of March in 2014.
The 4th 10th of March in 2014.
I remember Tony Bennett, hisfavorite.
One of his famous quotes if youcan find weapons to kill people
or money for weapons to killpeople, you can find money to
(55:47):
help and heal people Blacks onthe Intellectual Paths.
From the Member of ParliamentTony Bennett.
Speaker 14 (55:57):
In Western policymaking circles and among
political commentators, theIranian threat is considered to
pose the greatest danger toworld order and hence must be
the primary focus of US foreignpolicy.
Europe's trailing alongpolitely as usual.
This year is called the year ofIran because of the danger of
(56:22):
that enormous threat, which doesraise the question what exactly
is the Iranian threat?
If you read the publiccommentary you don't get much of
an answer, but there actuallyis an authoritative answer which
is ignored.
The authoritative answer isprovided by the regular reports
to Congress by the Pentagon andUS intelligence agencies come
(56:45):
every year, reports on theglobal security, and of course
they include a section on Iran.
It was almost a year ago.
The reports make it very clearthat whatever the Iranian threat
is, it's not military, it's allquote Iran's military spending
(57:05):
is relatively low compared tothe rest of the region.
In fact it's less than aquarter of that of Saudi Arabia
and minuscule as compared withthe US.
Of course, iran's militarydoctrine is strictly defensive,
designed to slow an invasion andto force a diplomatic solution
(57:28):
to hostilities.
Iran has only limited capacityto project force beyond its
borders.
They of course bring up thenuclear option and say that
Iran's nuclear program and itswillingness to keep open the
possibility of developingnuclear weapons is a central
(57:49):
part of its deterrent strategy.
Brutal clerical regime in Iranis undoubtedly a major threat to
its own people, though hardlyoutranks US allies in that
regard.
But the threat lies elsewhereand it's ominous.
One element of the threat isIran's potential deterrent
(58:13):
capacity.
Notice that that's anillegitimate exercise of
sovereignty because it mightinterfere with US freedom of
action in the region.
It's, of course, glaringlyobvious why Iran would seek a
deterrent capacity.
Just take a look at thedisposition of forces in the
region, including nuclear forces.
(58:36):
Seven years ago, one of Israel'sleading military historians,
martin von Krefeld, wrote thatthe world has witnessed how the
United States attacked Iraq for,as it turned out, no reason at
all.
Had the Iranians not tried tobuild nuclear weapons, they
would be crazy, particularlywhen they're under constant
(58:58):
threat of attack by the UnitedStates, of course in violation
of the UN Charter.
But remember that that doesn'tapply to the United States.
Whether they are in factdeveloping a nuclear capability,
we don't really know, butperhaps so Well.
The Iranian threat, asdescribed in the documents and
(59:20):
the reports, goes beyonddeterrence.
Iran is also seeking to expandits influence in neighboring
countries and thus todestabilize the region, as it's
called.
Notice that when the US invadesand occupies Iran's neighbors,
(59:43):
that's stabilization.
When Iran tries to expand itsinfluence say commercial
relations with its neighbors,that's destabilization.
That is absolutely routineusage in foreign policy.
That is absolutely routine usagein foreign policy commentary,
so sometimes it becomes almostcomical.
Here's a prominent foreignpolicy analyst, james Chase,
(01:00:08):
former editor of Foreign Affairs, rather on the liberal side
intimately.
He was properly using the termstability in its technical sense
when he explained that in orderto achieve stability in Chile
it was necessary to destabilizethe country, namely by
overthrowing the elected and thegovernment, installing a
(01:00:31):
vicious dictatorship soundscontradictory, but it isn't if
you understand the technicalmeaning of the term well.
Other concerns I have no timeto go into.
They're interesting to explore,but I think they simply
underscore what the guidingdoctrines are and their
(01:00:51):
continuing status in imperialculture.
That's very much in accord withthe doctrines that were laid
down by FDR's planners backduring the Second World War.
The United States cannottolerate any exercise of
sovereignty that interferes withits global designs.
The United States and Europeare of course, engaged in
(01:01:15):
punishing Iran for its threat tostability and trying to get it
to become a more civilizedcountry.
But it's useful to recall howisolated the US and Europe are,
the non-aligned countries, whichis most of the world.
They have for years beenvigorously supporting Iran's
(01:01:35):
right to enrich uranium Withinthe region.
As I mentioned, the irrelevantpublic even strongly favors
Iranian nuclear weapons.
The major regional power, turkey, voted against the latest US
sanctions motion in the SecurityCouncil, along with Brazil,
(01:01:58):
which is the most admiredcountry of the South, as polls
show.
Turkey's disobedience led tosharp censure at that point, but
not for the first time.
Turkey was bitterly condemnedin 2003 when the government
committed a major crime.
It followed the will of 95% ofthe population and refused to
(01:02:22):
take part in the US-Pritishinvasion of Iraq, and that
demonstrated its very weak graspof democracy, which led to
sanctions and sharp censure.
Same today, after the 2010Security Council misdeed, turkey
was warned by Obama's topdiplomat on European affairs,
(01:02:45):
philip Gordon, that it mustdemonstrate its commitment to
partnership with the West.
Follow orders, in other words.
A scholar with the Council onForeign Relations asked how do
we keep the Turks in their lane?
They're departing.
Something wrong In their lanemeans following orders.
(01:03:08):
Like good Democrats, our styleDemocrats.
Brazil's Lula was admonished ina New York Times headline.
It was admonished in a New YorkTimes headline.
He was warned that his effortwith Turkey to provide a
solution to the uraniumenrichment issue outside the
(01:03:28):
framework of US power is a spoton the Brazilian leaders legacy.
In brief, do what we say.
That's your function.
It's kind of an interestingsidelight to all of this, which
has been effectively suppressed.
The Iran-Turkey-Brazil deal hadbeen approved in advance by
(01:03:49):
President Obama, presumably onthe assumption that it would
fail and that would provide anideological weapon against Iran.
That was revealed by theBritish Foreign Office, which
released the letter of supportfor it after Brazil was censured
.
When the effort succeeded,approval quickly turned to
(01:04:15):
censure and Washington ranthrough a Security Council
resolution which was so weakthat China readily signed, and
is now chastised for living upto the letter of the resolution
but not following Washington'sunilateral directives, which go
far beyond it which go farbeyond it.
Speaker 5 (01:04:38):
So that last clip you heard was a short excerpt.
It was in 2011, at UCLA I'msorry, at UCLA Rickman Goldman
Lecture, and the voice of thatone was Professor Noam Chomsky.
Thank you for tuning inno-transcript.
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