Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
See the talk station.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Justh I have a thirty one to fifty five KCD
talk station. I'm very happy Tuesday to you. Always made
extra special because it's this time of week when we
get the Daniel Davis Deep Dive with retired Lieutenant Colonel
Daniel Davis getting his analysis of the war. Lately, the
war has not been focused over with Russia and Ukraine,
but this situation with US and Iran. Welcome back, Daniel Davis.
Always a pleasure to have you on the fifty five
KRC Morning Show.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Always a pleasure to be here, Brian, Thank you, all right.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Sort of a maybe it's rhetorical question, Daniel Davis, but
here's the way I view it. If you're in the middle
of a ceasefire and both sides of the ceasefire start
firing at each other, isn't it definitionally that the ceasefire
is over?
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Oh well, according to the Secretary of Defense, just a
couple of minutes ago, I literally just jumped off of
an NBC news hit on there where we were watching
live this press conference in the Pentagon, and he was
specifically asked that question, and they said, nah, it's still
in place. This just kind of low level stuff. It
doesn't meet the threshold, is what the way it was
(00:59):
just so, I guess it doesn't count unless something gets
hit or blown up of sufficient nature because apparently the
Iranian side attack us our ships, and General Kine actually
said that there had been ten such attempts but none
had been successful so far, and apparently there we have
been successful at at least we claim that we knocked
(01:21):
down six of their fast boats. We'll see how that
that's been disputed on the other side. But that's the
claims back and forth. But the bottom line is that
it's not in our interest yet to end the cease first,
and we'll say it's just you know, low level noise,
if that's what you want to call it, unless we're
ready to go back into it. And I think that
would only be done if there was a decision made
(01:42):
to go back in big and I certainly hope we
don't ever do it. I hope we figure a way
to get this over with, But that seems to be
where we are right now.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
See, it's been a bit of an Orwellian news speak.
You know, if you say it's not a war, if
you say the seafire is not over it's not over
even if you're shooting each other. But the USS Truxton
and USS Mason, US ships military hardware did come under
what has been described as sustained Iranian attacks. They got
a whole bunch of missiles launched at them in various
I guess a smartar mosquito fleet going after him as well.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Yeah, and it's interesting. They also said. One of the
questions that from the press gallery was what are these
fast boats armed with? And both he Secretary of Hecseth
and General Kine both said, oh, it's just small arms
stuff AK forty seven's. They said there was some shore
batteries that had been launching some small cruise missiles anti
(02:32):
ship cruise missiles that he said those were knocked down.
But they ascribed only machine gun fire to these fast boats,
which doesn't make sense to me either. Why would someone
in a fast boat attack a warship with a machine
gun which is just like mosquitos and would just bounce
right off this stuff the whole, So that doesn't seem
to make sense to me, But that's what they're reporting.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Well, and I would seem a fairly easy thing if
you can get us one of those fast boats up
close enough to a ship that you can actually hit.
It wasn't it the USS coal that was attacked that way?
A small bud blew a giant hole in the size
of one of our ships so many years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, I did. That was a suicide boat. And Iran
does have those, especially with these other drone boats that
they have, like their Ukraine side does against Russia. But
we haven't seen those employed yet. Well against the US.
We did see them employed against some of the tankers
in the first few days when we saw a lot
of that dramatic you know, scenes of these tankers on
(03:26):
fire in the Gulf. So they have been used before.
They haven't been used lately though.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well. Obviously the United States is projecting that it wants
to break the stranglehold on the Straight of Horror moves.
That's this project freedom that Trump talked about over the weekend,
providing safe passage to the state of Horror, the state
of horrormus or the Straight of Horror moose for various
shipping companies who you know. He says they're unfairly impacted
by this, and I understand that argument, but it's a
defensive shield. It isn't a physical escort like a US
(03:53):
warship escorting any given ship, but it's sort of a
standback and provide this shield for folks going through. Apparently
many of the shipping He's just saying that's good not
good enough assurances and are relying on in pointing to
these missile launches from the Iranians against various ships, including
the South Korean one that was actually hit. So conceptually
(04:13):
it sounded like, well, won't that work helping people get
through the Strait of horn moves with military power defending them,
or is that an impossibility. We've talked about the mines before,
and there's been wide reports that they have actually removed
some minds over the past several weeks, and that several
boats just the other day are ships I should rather
state have actually gotten through the strait of horror moves.
(04:33):
So is this a strategy that could work?
Speaker 1 (04:37):
No, it's not, And listen, whatever whatever we may say
we want to do. They described it as a red
watten and blue bubble. A shield is now they just
described it here that you know, has one hundred planes
in the air and I don't remember how many ships
and some other cassets and I don't know why But
the eighty second Airborne was sited as one of the
organizations that was helping out with this to provide protection.
(04:59):
But I I don't know how you provide protection without
a physical discord, and they said it wasn't a physical escort,
even though there are two apparently warships in the gulf
itself and apparently have transited this strait of horror moves
towards what end. I have no idea why you would
want to send two ships by themselves into that, but
that's allegedly what we've done. But then the biggest issue
(05:19):
is in the Chairman of the Joint Jesus Staff, General Kaine,
said there are hundreds of ships lining up to come out,
but none have And as you pointed out, two ships
work at the South Koreana and one other were attacked
by run yesterday. Look all they've got to do. If
they can't shoot cruise missiles at the US warship, they
certainly can at any tanker because the thing is it's
(05:41):
like a whale. I mean, the thing can't move and
it has no defenses. So if Iran decides they're going
to attack the ships, there's nothing we can do to
stop it, and this shield won't do anything to help
one of these ships, and that's why there hasn't been
one hundred ships moving, only lining up. So so far
we've seen no effective this whatsoever.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
So obviously they want to sustain the closure, the straight
upfour moves to bring about the economic pain on the globe.
This is their only leverage at this point, and we
obviously are trying to keep their ports shutdown as well,
which means their economy is continuing to struggle. And lots
and lots of reporting how terrible the Iranian economy is,
and I guess I wonder do the Iranians are the
(06:20):
Iranians hoping to hold off and sustain this. I'll call
it a stalemate for one of a better word on
the fly here until after the November elections, for example,
to bring about some pain to the Trump administration.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Yeah, there are. I mean, it's a stalemate of sorts,
but it's dueling blockades and the Iranians, no matter what,
they're suffering at home, and they have mitigation factors for this.
Even they can see that they are. They're hurting and
lots of shortage, et cetera. But they are everybody that
I've talked to, and every report that I've seen, and
I'm talking about on the West and on the Uranian side,
(06:54):
says that they are definitely prepared to suffer for a
long time. They've got history forward and got experience. It's
religious issue. They can suffer for a long time. And
they're saying, hey, we'll drag this out for months, no problem,
we can survive. All they want to do is survive
because it is a literal life and death issue for them.
And so they say, but we don't think you can
(07:15):
because there's already and it's not even November, we're going
to start suffering severe economic contraction about the end of
this month, in the first of June, according to many
of the experts I've inquired about. So I think they're
looking at those dates and they're saying, yeah, you want
to do this blockade, We'll keep doing the blockade, but
we can hold longer than you can. That seems to
(07:36):
be their strategy.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
What of our larger foes in the world, the Chinese
and to some extent, the Russians, although I think they've
been given a lot more projected, a lot more strength,
and actually have my subjective opinion, but seems to me
the Chinese and the Russians might have a vested interest
in continuing the thorn that is on our side. Along
these lines, Are they providing any financial or other material
support to the Iranians behind the scenes, because as I understand,
(08:00):
the Chinese are having a difficult time with the straight
of horror moves closure themselves.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
They are in both cases they are having some problems
with the oil not coming out, but they also have
a massively bigger strategic patroleum reserve that can last nine months,
which is way bigger than what we had even percentage wise,
so they can weather this storm for a long time.
Though they are trying to get some ships out. But
the one thing they had they have done is they
(08:26):
directly contradicted something that Scott Bessen put out this past weekend.
I think it was about some more sanctions on anybody
helping anybody taking into these oil that tries to break
the our blockade, and China says, yeah, no, you're not.
And they said these five Chinese entities that we said
are sanctioned, they said no, they're non sanctioned, and we
got back We're going to back them up. The corporations
(08:49):
that are working on this, so they are directly contradicting
our attempts to sanction anybody else. And they do want
this to come out. And there has been reports of
both Russia and China bringing airlift of unknow quantities or supplies.
We just know that ships, I'm sorry, planes are coming in.
We just don't know what's being unloaded.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Well, I only brought that up because it is something
we need to take into consideration. The Iranians by themselves,
and that any assistance from outside, you know, might face
economic collapse. But if they're getting help and they can
help them sustain this war of attrition or this stalemate,
obviously that are nearest to their benefit and to the
detriment of the United States of America and the global economy.
Do you see anybody any of our maybe call them
(09:28):
former allies, I don't know, like to think of NATO
is still at least NATO countries and the European Union.
We still trade and and play nicely with them, relatively speaking.
They're hurt big time on this. So do you see
them changing course and maybe capitulating and offering any assistance
down the road. I know you've been saying no for
quite some time now, any any landscape change on that,
Daniel Davis.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, no, there hasn't been. As a matter of fact
that the South Rans are still saying no. And over
the weekend you had Menuel Macron say, listen, he was
asked that question at a press conference on Sunday, I
believe it was, and and he said, listen, we had
a plan in place. There was fifty European nations to
get together. I think you and I mentioned this before,
where we weren't invited and they were trying to figure
(10:09):
out ways to get the Strait opened up and all this,
and he said, and then in the middle of it,
America puts a blockade on it, which undid everything we
were working on it. So no, we have no plans
to come and help this military blockade. We won't even participate.
So he's saying, no, that's not going to work, and
it won't and I think that they recognized it. So
nobody's going to send their ships into a suicide mission.
(10:29):
We're not even putting our ships. And until we have
our ships and say we're going to escort something out,
nobody else is even going to possibly come and do
what we won't do. And I think that's really where
the rub comes in.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
So as we part coming today, Daniel Davis, this again
stale me war of attrition. Whatever you see this continuing
down the road with no hope for any negotiated piece.
Is that kind of where you are right now?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
I mean that's where we are. And listen, I've getting
reports from those at the front line. General Cain mentioned
it again just a few minutes ago. Everything is locked
and loaded. All this is is a political choice. The
minute that President Trump says, are I'm sick of this,
I'm impatient that this didn't work. Go with that. They
can do it on a minute, I mean in a heartbeat.
(11:17):
The problem is that what we're doing now has no
prospect of succeeding getting this done, and that prices of
old goes up every day, and the amount of fertilizers
and things coming out is not and that is causing
problems with our farmers, with their allies. These things just
you can't just keep kicking this can down the road.
We have weeks and we're going to have to do
something to either diplomatically open that straight, or we're gonna
(11:40):
do something even more foolish and try to force it
militarily anyway, and catastrophe, that's how I see it.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
You mean, blown off the face of the earth if
they attack US vessels, that kind of thing. Daniel Davis, you.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Could use that phrase. I don't know where it came from.
I don't know that.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I just saw somebody who was quoted as saying that
the other day. Daniel Davis Deep Die I find his
podcast where you find your podcast. Tune in every Tuesday
at eight thirty for the Daniel Davis Deepdive here in
the fifty five carssee Morning Show. Appreciate your analysis, Daniel,
as always, have a great week. We'll do it again
next Tuesday.