Daniel Davis Deep Dive

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fifty five KARC the talk station.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Ay twenty nine to fifty five krsite Talk station. Tuesday
means it is time for the alliterative podcast, Daniel Davis
Deep Dive. I'll encourage my listeners to check that out
wherever they get their podcasts and always tune in at
this time and Tuesdays on the fifty five KARSE Morning Show.
Welcome back retired Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis Deep Dive boy,
and we've got a lot to talk about today. Good
to see you again. I get to see it.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Good to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's a pleasure. Well, the whole world was on full
display yesterday. I had representatives from I think every country
or every continent rather except Australia showing up for the
Well the initial signing of what looks like, dare I
even say the words out loud, peace in the Middle East,
at least between Israel and Hamas. What an amazing development

(00:46):
your reaction on this. The stars clearly aligned for a
variety of different reasons which allowed this to come together.
But I think the idea that you've got what I
will characterize as the world the leaders from the world
on one side, and you've got Hamas obviously isolated from
a global perception they were backed into a corner.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, they were in your right that there were many,
many reasons why this came together. I would say at
the outset that I would not go as far as
to say peace. I would say that the end of
the hostilities have happened and there is a shot at peace.
But even within the terms that are set out here,
there is a two phased operation. Phase one was basically

(01:30):
a ceasefire and a return of the hostages from both sides,
which has taken place. But Phase two hasn't even been
negotiated yet. There's still a lot of problems to go
with that. So I don't want to get too optimistic,
but I am incredibly grateful and happy that the cessation
of hostilities has happened, because I've always said, you've got
to get the killing of the innocent people stopped first

(01:51):
to even have a shot at an enduring peace. And
it's going to be really hard. But listen, we got
to give props to a President Trump because he put it.
It's not just that Hamas was isolated, they've been oscillated.
It's also that President Trump was willing to put pressure
in both directions, on Hamas and on the Israeli side,
because this you'd certainly know, there's many on the Israeli
side that did not want a ceasefire. They only wanted

(02:13):
a military victory. So everybody had to give a little
something to get here, and President Trump put the pressure
wherever it needed, and then he got the support from
all those countries across the world, like you mentioned, So
he gets full props for that and our great hope
that this does translate into an enduring peace.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, and no one is more hesitant to declare peace
in the Middle East than me, Sir. I've been down
this before, the road before, only to be met with disappointment.
So yeah, as I've repeatedly said on the show, here,
devil's in the details. One of those devils though, talk about,
you know, getting the players to negotiate getting the border
with Egypt open to allow the back and forth flow
of humanity and humanitarian relief, and that was a big

(02:52):
step as well.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, it was. And then in fact this I think
that they're getting nearly all the old and all the
entrances opened up so that you can get up to
four hundred trucks per day for now ramping up to
six hundred, that's the plan. Anyway, we'll see if that happens,
but that is a massive increase over what it has been.
And also there were only four feeding spots for the

(03:17):
entire Gosze strip. Almost all of the three of the
four were in the far south. Now then they're going
to spread that back out. See I guess the initial
withdrawal line, the so called yellow line perhaps you heard
about that was that will still leave Israel in control
of about fifty eight percent of the strip. So in
that remaining forty two percent, now more vehicles with food

(03:37):
is going in to start alleviating and ending the suffering
that was going on with the food shortages. So that's
another good a good start on there. But like I say,
there's still a lot of challenges to face even in
the near term.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Now and you're better, you're obviously more knowledgeable and skilled
at understanding what's going on. But within Hamas, they apparently
are fighting amongst themselves inside Gaza. What I perceive is
something along the lines of the movie The Life of
Brian from Monty Python. You get the Judean People's Front,
you get the People's Front of Judea. You got the
campaign for Free Galilee, and they're all splitter organizations, all

(04:13):
of them collectively hate the Romans, and this Pea case,
all of them collectively hate the Israelis. But they don't
sound like they're as coordinated as I think I was
led to believe, or maybe the world was led to
believe under one hamas tight umbrella. That's why, at least
I understand. This is where you are to correct me
when I'm wrong. Why they can't identify or locate some

(04:33):
of these dead hostages. They don't quite know where they
are because they're being held by various splitter organizations or
am I wrong?

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Well, yeah, I'll address both of those issues. First of all,
with the issue with the hostage part of the problem.
In fact, the main problem with identifying the deceased hostages
is that many of them were buried or I guess
just laid in some of the areas where subsequent Israeli
airstrikes level the buildings and the whole thing got buried.
So they don't even know where they are or can't

(05:02):
reach them, and so that's going to take a lot
of time. And you've seen all those pictures of the
whole Gaza strip basically being rubbled. So it's understandable that
that's going to be incredibly difficult as far as that goes.
But the second issue there, I think there's some analysis
that there have been significant firefights between Palestinians and Hamas
of late, because listen, many times I think on your show,

(05:25):
I've had issue with the Israeli government of well things
they do. They're the ones that are dropping bombs, et cetera.
But man, you can't go much farther without saying that
Hamas has been the absolute most catastrophic thing to happen
to the Palestinian people since this thing began, because whatever
they thought they were going to accomplish on ten seven
two twenty twenty three, the end result has been mass

(05:47):
destruction of the entire place and the suffering of the
Palestinian people. They're tired of that, they're tired of the
as you said, they're tired of the Israeli side who's
been putting the bombs, but they're as tired and maybe
more so on the guys that kept this going. So
they want them to get out. They want them to
leave and give them a chance to actually have some
sort of deal going forward where they can have a

(06:09):
chance and a hope for a future. And I think
that if Hamas doesn't make good on its promises to leave,
et cetera, they may find more trouble with the Palestinians
than with the IDF.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
Isn't that what I'll say, local conflict like within Gaza
and among the leadership of the Maas or lack thereof.
Isn't that sort of the general concept that the Middle
East is now sort of embracing, beginning with the abraham
peace of courts. If we all just agree that we're
tired of terrorists, we're tired of fighting each other. If
we just start trading and playing nice together, regardless of

(06:40):
our differences, we're all going to benefit economically. It's going
to be a powerhouse area of the world. Just put
the damn guns down. So it's kind of a miniature
version of the broader challenge in the Middle East, which
seems that we are definitely making progress toward resolution these
conflicts between the various Arab countries.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
Well, listen, the Gulf Corporation Council has been for more
than a year emphatically saying a lot of those things.
They say, we want to have improved relations with Israel.
Of course President Trump, it's his signature thing, so he
would love the Abraham Accords to expand. Israel has recently
said that they want ned Yahu specifically, they want normalized

(07:19):
relations with the rest of the Middle East. So that
is on the table that all the main parties have
an interest in doing that, but that's going to require
some giving, especially on the Israeli side, because, like I said, internally,
a lot of them want to have a military victor
here and then they want to get this other stuff.
But if it doesn't it results in the Palestinian people

(07:40):
having some kind of future and a hope, and whether
that's a distant possibility for a state of their own
or some kind of autonomous freedom where they can thrive
as a people, at least the hope of it. Then
the rest of the GCC probably is not going to
be willing to do that. But if they can get there,
then I think we actually have a broader shot. There

(08:00):
is a possibility, there's a path to potential piece, but
it's going to take a lot a lot of hard work,
but it is there. So that is good news.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
Step in the right direction and connection with the Middle East.
I'll take any step in the right direction. Daniel Davis
really quickly. You mentioned Hamas. Obviously they've been the disrupting factor.
They ruled that area, they were the governing force. Who
steps in If we assume Hamas is out, what coalition
or what group of acceptable people is going to step

(08:29):
in to provide the leadership for this region.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Well, that's what's going to have to That's part of
the fly in the ointment the difficulties because Israel has
said they have to approve whoever goes in, but the
Palestinians say, we want to choose who is going to
lead us, not have it given by the you know,
our enemy that over the last two years, et cetera.
There is a guy named more Marwan Bukhari who is

(08:53):
long respected among all the different Palestinian factions and they
want him, but for some reason, Israel has not released
him yet, even though they asked him in this prisoner
exchange that just happened. We'll see how that works out.
But the Palestinians, minus Hamas, they want to decide that
on their own, and that's one of the next near
term challenges.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Certainly, I can understand their one two the right to
self determination, pivoting over as we must Russia Ukraine. I
read this horrific statistic, and you and I have talked
about the fog of war. How many people are actually
dying and being killed in the Russian Ukraine conflict. Politico
article Russia bleeds troops from microscopic frontline gains initial sentence.

(09:34):
Russia lost two hundred and eighty one five hundred and
fifty soldiers in Ukraine in the first eight months of
this year.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
I'll just tell you, I don't believe that for a second.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
And well, I was gonna say, even if it's half
of that, we lost what fifty four thousand Americans fighting
the Vietnam War for more than a decade, fifteen plus years.
I mean, if this number is even half of that,
the amount of of life loss is just amazing.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah. I don't think it is even half that. And
you've seen the Institute for the Study of War, which
is big time pro Ukraine, revealed over the last couple
of months, especially that Russia has significantly changed its tactics
to where they have focused on firepower to destroy the
Ukraine armed forces and minimized the exposure to their troops

(10:23):
and they are succeeding at that. And I have recently
talked to two separate people in the US military hierarchy,
i'll just say, with access to classified information, and they
have not revealed the exact information, but they said that
that is wildly out of proportion. That that's what people
want people to believe in the West so that they
keep supporting to think they're succeeding. But they said it

(10:45):
is not true. Russia is not suffering anywhere near those
kind of casualties, and you see that on the front
because they continue to go forward as opposed to the
Ukraine side, which is suffering those casualties. And that's why
it's so hard for them to bring all these reserves
and even shore up the line, and they're making significant
losses in the Koupiansk and in the other areas of

(11:06):
the Donetic Front that have really started to pick up
speed here of late. So it's not I think some
people want that to sound like it's good news for
the Ukraine side, but it's more bad news as far
as I can see, and even more reason why we
need to get this war wrapped up even.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
More well, your comments are reflective of exactly why I
brought this up because I read the statistic this morning
with a huge measure of skepticism because where do they
pull these figures from. I don't know, but the volume
of casualties just seemed unimaginable. Any chance that peace might
break out, given that we've got some steps in the
right direction between Israel and Hamas, that it might catch

(11:42):
on between Russia and Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Well, President Trump wants that and he would love to
have it. The Russians, obviously they would like to have
it too, on their terms. The problem is, and I
just got to be honest, the problem is that the
Ukraine side and the European side don't. They only want
peace on their terms, and their pressure hard to get them.
That's why Zelenski will be in town on Friday to
talk to President Trump to try and really get him

(12:05):
to release Tomahawk missiles, which Trump said he would consider doing.
I hope he doesn't, and I don't think that he
really is, because that would only exacerbate and raise higher
the possibility of a clash with Russia, which they said.
This is different because the Tomahawk missile can contain a
nuclear warhead, winner the others can't, so it's a bigger
red line. I don't want to find out if they

(12:27):
mean that or not, so I'm all for getting this
deal wrapped up quickly.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Amen to that, Daniel Davis. And Plus you also pointed
out in our previous conversations, if we give him Tomahawks,
it's going to require American military personnel to operate them,
which means we're in a fighting war with Russia and
nobody wants that. Daniel Davis, Deep Dive. Always a distinct
pleasure to have you on the fifty five cars Morning
Shore every Tuesday. God bless you, sir. I'll look forward
to next Tuesday, another discussion.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
See you next week.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Take care of my friend. It's eight forty one right now,
fifty five KR see the talk station, be right back.
This is fifty five KARC and iheartrate