The United States military takes out Iran s leading terrorist. Democrats lament the escalation. And Bernie Sanders prepares his final political assault on Joe Biden. Ben Shapiro explains why it s a good time to diversify your asset base. Today's episode is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Stop putting your online data at risk. Just stop it. Get protected at Express VPN. Use the promo code: "ELISSA" to receive $10 and contribute $10 to one of his campaigns. You get 10% off his first purchase when you become a patron. If you haven't taken the first step of actually gathering information, go over to Birchgold. They'll have a conversation with you, and you can determine if precious metals make sense for you. There's no obligation, you have nothing to lose. Text Ben to 474747. See how simple and straightforward this move can be for you! Text "Ben" to 48474747 and you'll get 5 stars and a FREE stock like Apple, Ford, or a Berkshire Hathaway credit card! You'll get 20% off your first month, plus a 20% discount when you sign up for an Apple credit card when you place an offer of $100 or more. Ben's Free 7-day VIP trial when you enter the offer ends on January 1st, 2020. Want to sponsor the show? Get your own gold and other precious metals? Subscribe to Ben Shapiro's new show on Audible. Subscribe here! Learn more about his new show, The Ben Shapiro Show? Learn about his newest book, The Secret Life of Ben Shapiro: How to Be a Billionaire? Learn how to be free and secure your future in the world of finance and financial freedom, and get 7% off the highest-yield gold and silver and rare minerals and rare metals, including rare minerals, like rare varieties of rarer than the rarest & rarer wildr than you can own them all for 99% of the rarer breeds, like Ben Shapiro s real life gold and rarer, all for $99 or $50 or $1,000 or $2,000, a maximum of $25,000 gets you a lifetime of VIP access, and gets you access to a 3-piece gold and a 60% of your choice of 7 days of all-of-a-choice bronze and other things, plus 7 other things like that?
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00:01:49.000It is clearly the most consequential day for Trump's foreign policy in the history of his administration.
00:01:55.000President Trump made the decision to go ahead with an attack at the Baghdad airport on General Qasem Soleimani, who is the leading terrorist probably on planet Earth.
00:02:07.000He also happened to be the leader of the Iranian military.
00:02:10.000He was the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, which was sort of the terrorist wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
00:02:15.000He was widely considered the number two in Iran after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
00:02:21.000He was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Iraq.
00:02:24.000He was really leading the Iranian terror against American troops during the Iraq War.
00:02:29.000He was responsible for, by State Department estimates, 17% of all Americans killed in Iraq.
00:02:35.000He was responsible for the arming of Hezbollah in Lebanon with tens of thousands of rockets, which is a situation that will cascade into war sometime in the next three to four years.
00:02:44.000He's responsible for the war in Yemen.
00:02:46.000He has armed the Houthis in Yemen and led to their rebellion against a Saudi-sponsored regime in Yemen.
00:02:51.000He's responsible for the building of Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, which is the terror group that is responsible for firing rockets.
00:02:57.000He's responsible, probably, for the Bashar al-Assad regime still running Syria.
00:03:01.000It was Iranians Coordination with the Bashar al-Assad regime that allowed the Assad regime to stand.
00:03:07.000He's responsible for the attacks on the American embassy that happened over the last week.
00:03:11.000He's been responsible for terror attacks abroad like a bevy of them.
00:03:15.000This was one of the worst people on planet Earth.
00:03:18.000He was a vicious terrorist who was extremely effective at what he did.
00:03:24.000Commentators have been describing him as something... In Iran, the situation at the top of the Iranian government is somewhat top-heavy, meaning that there are a few very key players who hold a wide portfolio.
00:03:35.000Soleimani was maybe the most indispensable man in Iran.
00:03:40.000People have been comparing his death to, like, let's say that there were a coordinated strike against the United States in which the defense secretary, head of the CIA, and head of the FBI were killed simultaneously.
00:03:49.000And maybe the VP, because Soleimani was widely considered a possible heir apparent to Ali Khamenei, should Khamenei have died or something.
00:03:58.000According to the Associated Press, the United States killed Iran's top general and the architect of Tehran's proxy wars in the Middle East in an airstrike at Baghdad's international airport early on Friday, an attack that threatens to dramatically ratchet up tensions in the region.
00:04:10.000Now there are three different responses that we've been seeing to Soleimani's death.
00:04:16.000Response number one is just bat bleep lunacy.
00:04:18.000Response number one is that we are sad he's dead.
00:04:20.000That the United States did something wrong in killing Khamenei.
00:04:42.000He was also in America's crosshairs back in, I believe, 2014, or he was in Israeli crosshairs back in 2014, 2015, and the Obama administration basically told the Israelis not to kill him.
00:04:53.000So he has been under the gun several times.
00:04:56.000He's not been taken out, obviously, until yesterday.
00:05:02.000Just for the killing of American soldiers, he deserved to die.
00:05:05.000For the spread of Iran's terrorism around the world.
00:05:08.000So, response number one, which you're seeing from people like Rose McGowan, the actress, is just insanity.
00:05:14.000The idea that the United States did something morally wrong in taking out one of the leading terrorists on planet Earth, probably the leading terrorist on planet Earth.
00:05:21.000Rose McGowan, who is a crazy person, tweeted out, Dear Iran, the USA has disrespected your country, your flag, your people.
00:05:40.000There are no words for how evil and vile and traitorous that tweet is.
00:05:45.000It may be the worst tweet ever written.
00:05:47.000First of all, the Iranian people are not in line with Soleimani or with the Ayatollahs.
00:05:52.000If they had their way, this regime would not be in power.
00:05:55.000Second of all, the idea that we are being held enthralled to a terrorist regime and you're apologizing for the death of a ter- I mean, we don't have to take Rose McGowan that seriously, but there is that sort of roiling undercurrent in the commentariat today that somehow Trump did something wrong in killing Soleimani.
00:06:18.000Okay, this is not a violation of American law.
00:06:21.000There are only two laws that would theoretically be implicated here.
00:06:23.000One is whether the United States was authorized to take action, whether Congress had authorized that action.
00:06:29.000Well, under the authorization for use of military force, the United States has, the President of the United States has authority to act inside Iraq.
00:06:38.000Not only that, the Iraqi government has invited the United States into Iraq.
00:06:46.000He was a foreign terrorist in Iraq, and the United States had every ability and, on a moral level, every moral obligation to kill Soleimani.
00:06:54.000As far as the idea that this was some sort of assassination in violation of the Reagan-era executive order against assassinations, again, this man was a terrorist.
00:07:02.000He was a terrorist, and he was in a foreign country, so that makes a difference.
00:07:05.000So this notion that this was some sort of assassination is nonsense.
00:07:08.000And then there's the narrative that this is an escalation.
00:07:10.000In order for you to believe that this was a tremendous escalation or that Trump is responsible for the escalation, you have to believe that nothing has been happening over the last couple of years, which is just a lie.
00:07:21.000Over and over, the Iranians have been attacking shipping in the Straits of Hormuz, including internationally flagged ships.
00:07:26.000Over and over, the Iranians have been pursuing terrorism against American interests and American allies.
00:07:31.000They've been firing rockets on Americans in Iraq, The Iranians have been responsible for the downing of the American drone, and then over the weekend, obviously, they attacked an American embassy.
00:07:41.000Because that was done with Soleimani's go-ahead.
00:07:43.000And that's what the Defense Department suggested today.
00:07:46.000The Defense Department put out a statement explaining exactly why they had just done what they did.
00:07:51.000The Pentagon said, quote, At the direction of the President, the U.S.
00:07:53.000military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S.
00:07:56.000personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
00:08:04.000General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.
00:08:09.000General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.
00:08:16.000He had orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months, including the attack on December 27th, culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel.
00:08:26.000General Soleimani also approved the attacks on the U.S.
00:08:29.000Embassy in Baghdad that took place this week.
00:08:31.000This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.
00:08:34.000The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.
00:08:44.000The reason it's a ballsy move by Trump is because it throws the Iranian regime into chaos, which means that there will be short-term lashing out.
00:09:08.000You might see them activate Hezbollah in Lebanon to fire on Israel.
00:09:12.000Things could get fairly hot fairly quickly, particularly for American allies.
00:09:16.000As far as the sort of projection of widespread attack on Americans, One thing is now clear that the death of Soleimani shows that if things get too hot, Ali Khamenei will not be connected with his head in very short order.
00:09:32.000And the fact is that what Trump was doing yesterday was a restorance of American deterrence that had been lost during the Obama administration.
00:09:39.000And yes, in the early years of the Trump administration.
00:09:41.000The fact is that the Obama administration tried a strategy of outright bribery of the world's worst terror regime.
00:09:46.000They lied to the American people in the process.
00:09:48.000The Iran nuclear deal was a disaster for the United States.
00:09:52.000It was an attempt to pay off a terror regime, a radical Islamic terror regime, hell-bent on regional domination and indeed on world terrorism.
00:10:03.000And the Obama administration lied to you and they lied to me and they lied to the American people.
00:10:06.000Ben Rhodes leading the way, the national security aide.
00:10:09.000He was going out there and lying and saying that there was this tiny window in which the moderates could take control of Iran if only we paid them billions of dollars.
00:10:17.000Hundreds of billions of dollars and allowed hundreds of billions of dollars to flow into the Iranian economy and made them part of the family of nations.
00:10:26.000They immediately started developing their ballistic missile program.
00:10:28.000They immediately started pushing terrorism around the region.
00:10:31.000John Kerry, the Secretary of State under Obama, admitted as much.
00:10:35.000And the Trump administration came in and they said, OK, we're not going to sponsor this stuff.
00:10:38.000We are not going to allow dollars to flow into a terror regime.
00:10:42.000And Iran, with its economy sagging, decided to lash out and increasingly lash out.
00:10:47.000Now, if you're on the left, you say, well, the lashing out is Trump's fault.
00:10:52.000Okay, that's like suggesting that the lashing out by your child, when you punish them for hitting a sibling, and they're in their room screaming, you say, the screaming is your fault for punishing the kid.
00:11:02.000Well, actually, the screaming is the kid's fault for hitting their sibling.
00:11:04.000Iran, anytime it wants, anytime Iran wants, Iran can be a part of the family of nations.
00:11:09.000Anytime Iran wants, it can be integrated into the world economy.
00:11:12.000Anytime Iran wants, Iran can be a well-respected member of the world community.
00:11:16.000All they have to do is stop being terrorists, radical Islamists, that's it.
00:11:21.000Because they are running a repressive, oppressive, terror regime in Tehran.
00:11:26.000And the fact that the Trump administration acknowledged that reality, and the Obama administration sought to back-massage the mullahs, was the initiating event that led to all of this.
00:11:39.000So Trump said, he came out and said, this deal is no good, he tore it up.
00:11:42.000And then the Iranians started lashing out.
00:11:44.000And then after lashing out and lashing out and lashing out for years, after lashing out for literally years, and the Trump administration taking very light action, right, they restored some of the sanctions, but after an American drone was shot down, there was talk that the jets were on their way, the American military was on its way to hit targets in Iran, and Trump called that off at the last moment.
00:12:03.000That after attacks on shipping in the Straits of Hormuz, the United States was basically doing nothing.
00:12:07.000We saw repeated violations of international law by the Iranians under Obama.
00:12:11.000They actually took a boat full of Americans and held them at gunpoint.
00:12:16.000And then they built a statue of it in Tehran.
00:12:20.000After all of that, this is the first sign that the United States is going to restore its deterrent capacity.
00:12:25.000Which is, if you screw with us, you're going to die.
00:12:29.000If you screw with us, the people at the top of your regime are going to be the ones who pay the price.
00:12:33.000This is a terror regime, and your terror leader just got killed.
00:12:37.000Not just your terror leader, your heir apparent, the head of your military strategy, the head of your terror strategy.
00:13:24.000There were those of us who were enraged that Barack Obama drew a red line in Syria over chemical weapons use and then promptly proceeded to blow right through the red line and hand over power to the country, to the Russians.
00:13:33.000Which ended in disaster and it's amusing today to watch all of the Obama officials trotting out there proclaiming their expertise after completely wrecking the Middle East.
00:13:41.000I mean really, making it much worse than it was when Barack Obama entered office.
00:13:46.000When Barack Obama entered office, the Middle East was a much more stable place than it is right now.
00:13:50.000When Barack Obama exited, Iran was a regional rising power.
00:13:54.000Many of the American allies were in trouble.
00:13:57.000Donald Trump entered and he has attempted to mitigate the effects of the horrible Obama presidency.
00:14:03.000And what we are watching is the attempt to restore deterrence.
00:14:05.000In order for that to happen, The Trump administration has to do more than a one-off.
00:14:09.000That means that if Iran strikes again, then the United States is going to have to take action against Iran in different ways.
00:14:15.000Now, none of this has to lead to full-scale war.
00:14:17.000Everyone keeps suggesting this is going to lead to a full-on, all-out war between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the U.S.
00:14:24.000The reason that it is not is because the Ayatollahs know better than anybody that if this thing goes to war, within three weeks they will all be dead.
00:14:44.000And he understands, just like Ronald Reagan understood, that deterrence can only be achieved with the credible use of force.
00:14:50.000And with the credible threat of force.
00:14:52.000When you are non-credible, there is no deterrence.
00:14:55.000And thus, the Iranians have no interest.
00:14:58.000In pulling back on their terrorist objectives.
00:15:00.000Re-establishing deterrence is the goal here.
00:15:03.000We'll see how it works out, but I don't think that it's going to be a one-off, right?
00:15:05.000I mean, this is going to result in the Iranians getting more militants in the short term.
00:15:10.000But the United States, and under President Trump, if they stay the course, then this will simmer down.
00:15:15.000Because there's one thing the Iranians want even less than the United States, and that is a full-on war with the most powerful military force in the history of planet Earth.
00:15:23.000Okay, we'll get to more of this in just one second.
00:15:25.000We'll get to the Democratic response, which has been predictably awful.
00:15:28.000We'll get to all of that in just a moment.
00:15:29.000Listen, being nervous about what comes next, perfectly understandable.
00:15:32.000Suggesting that this is quote-unquote Trump's fault, and that what comes next is quote-unquote on Trump, or that the escalation is on Trump, or that this is an assassination, that something morally wrong was done.
00:17:21.000Alright, so according to the Associated Press, The Defense Department said it killed Soleimani because he was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.
00:17:31.000Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that a harsh retaliation is waiting for the United States.
00:17:36.000Iranian state TV also carried a statement by Khamenei also calling Soleimani the international face of resistance, and he declared three days of public mourning for the general's death.
00:17:45.000An advisor to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani warned President Trump of retaliation from Tehran.
00:17:50.000He said Trump, through his gamble, has dragged the U.S. into the most dangerous situation in the region.
00:17:54.000This is according to Hesse Medin Ashena.
00:17:56.000Whoever put his foot beyond the red line should be ready to face its consequences.
00:18:00.000Iranian state television called Trump's order to kill Soleimani the biggest miscalculation by the United States in the years since World War II.
00:18:07.000The people of the region will no longer allow Americans to stay.
00:18:52.000The airport strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces.
00:18:59.000That was the group that was directly responsible for the attacks on the U.S.
00:19:06.000President Trump had only one quick response that he sent out on Twitter immediately following the attack, and it is just a graphic of an American flag, which of course drove the left to distraction for some odd reason.
00:20:24.000lives and interests, but we cannot put the lives of American service members, diplomats and others further at risk by engaging in provocative and disproportionate actions.
00:20:31.000So it's disproportionate to kill the leader of a terror group.
00:20:38.000So what exactly is the proper proportion?
00:20:42.000He's responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans and terror attacks all over the globe and conflict in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, as well as the Gaza Strip.
00:20:50.000And this is disproportionate in some way.
00:20:54.000This is this is who is planning further terror attacks.
00:21:10.000Ilhan Omar, of course, tweeted out the most asinine response.
00:21:13.000She has never met a terror regime she's not willing to defend.
00:21:16.000She tweeted out, What if Trump wants a war, knowing this leads to war and needs the distraction?
00:21:21.000Yes, I'm sure this is a wag the dog scenario where Trump is desperate for a war with Iran because nothing spells re-election quite like a war with a major regional power.
00:21:30.000I mean, as we know, nothing spells re-election quite like that.
00:21:35.000She says, real question is, will those with congressional authority step in and stop him?
00:21:47.000This is the same lady who says we should not have sanctions on Iran.
00:21:51.000We shouldn't have sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, according to Ilhan Omar.
00:21:53.000We should have sanctions on Israel, according to Ilhan Omar.
00:21:56.000So, um, I'm gonna go with no on her hot takes on foreign policy.
00:22:00.000Meanwhile, you have members of the Obama administration who are emerging to defend their own crap foreign policy, which is what led to the rise of Iran regionally in the first place.
00:22:10.000Here is Obama's ambassador for the Iran deal, Wendy Sherman, explaining that this could have horrific consequences.
00:22:16.000Speaking of horrific consequences, how about, you know, like the handing of $150 billion in cash pallets, in cash on pallets, to the Iranian regime so they can explore ballistic missile testing and spread terror throughout the region.
00:22:27.000Was that a one-off that may have had some bad consequences?
00:22:29.000Here's Wendy Sherman being a complete fool.
00:23:25.000I mean, they have to lash out because they have to demonstrate that the regime hasn't been crippled by Soleimani's death.
00:23:31.000And it is true that the United States, as I've already said, must have contingency strategies here.
00:23:35.000Like, what happens if the Iranians attack a US base?
00:23:38.000The reason, by the way, they're not going to attack an actual hard American target is because, at that point, things get real hot for the Iranians and that regime is in serious trouble, right?
00:23:48.000If they pursue a 9-11-style attack on US soil, That's when bleep gets real.
00:23:53.000If they attack a US base in the Middle East, the United States will bring all of its power to bear and mash whatever force is attacking them wherever that attack is occurring.
00:24:03.000But listening to people like Ben Rhodes lecture us all on American foreign policy is really sickening.
00:24:08.000We'll get to more of that in just one second.
00:24:10.000First, Let's talk about your safety and security online.
00:24:14.000The fact is there are lots of people who are out there looking for your data.
00:24:59.000I've tried other VPNs in the past, and you download one of those free VPNs, and the big problem with getting one of those VPNs is that it really slows down your computer.
00:25:34.000So, Ben Rhodes, who is the architect of the Iran nuclear deal and a vast liar, a huge liar to the American people, He tweeted out, Congress has to assert itself and determine exactly what our Iran policy is.
00:25:49.000This is a guy who pursued an Iran policy without congressional approval and then did not submit it to Congress as a treaty because he knew it would not get through.
00:25:58.000It's just, it's amazing to watch the Obama administration, which botched the Iran situation worse than any administration since Jimmy Carter.
00:26:06.000Running out there to proclaim that they now have the knowledge and the expertise to handle this thing.
00:26:10.000You got Ben Rhodes tweeting, Oh, is that what that was?
00:26:12.000Donald Trump is equipped to handle a complex, enduring international crisis that could play out in many countries and demand expertise, rigorous process and judicious decision making.
00:26:22.000When you guys, you know, launched a war in Libya without any sort of background and then proceeded to let the entire place fall into terrorist ruin and you allowed the embassy in Benghazi to be overrun.
00:26:31.000When you allowed a bunch of American allied regimes to fall in the so-called Arab Spring, necessitating the rise of El-Sisi in Egypt in order to stop the Muslim Brotherhood from taking over one of the most populous Muslim countries on planet Earth.
00:26:43.000When you were like bribing the Iranians, was that what that was?
00:26:46.000Was that the judicious decision-making that we came to expect from people like Ben Rhodes?
00:27:13.000He said, President Trump just tossed a stick of dynamite into a Tinder box.
00:27:17.000And he owes the American people an explanation of the strategy and plan to keep safe our troops and embassy personnel, our people, and our interests.
00:27:22.000Remember, this guy, he, Trump owes an explanation on how to keep embassy personnel safe?
00:27:50.000But I fear this administration has not demonstrated in any turn the discipline or long-term vision necessary and the stakes could not be higher.
00:27:57.000Again, as opposed to you bribing them.
00:28:00.000It is perfectly reasonable to be nervous about what comes next.
00:28:03.000It is perfectly reasonable to ask what the Trump administration's plans are.
00:28:06.000But I'm not going to hear it from Joe Biden.
00:28:08.000Joe Biden has no credibility to speak on this issue.
00:28:10.000He presided over the worst Iran policy since the initiation of the Iranian revolution in 1979.
00:28:14.000So no, he does not get to sound off on this.
00:28:18.000You know who else doesn't really get to sound off on this?
00:28:20.000Socialist Bernie Sanders, who's going around campaigning with anti-Semitic mouthpieces And he spends his days kowtowing to terror regimes.
00:28:41.000Sanders tweeted out, Trump's dangerous escalation brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East that could cost countless lives and trillions more dollars.
00:28:51.000How about the Americans who are dead because of the Iranians already?
00:28:55.000Trump promised to end endless wars but this action puts us on the path to another one.
00:29:00.000You know, it's an endless war trying to bribe your way out of terror regimes taking over the region.
00:29:05.000And I talked about this yesterday with regard to Iran and our response at the American embassy.
00:29:09.000I talked about the fact that politically speaking, it is nearly always easier to simply suggest that inaction is the best pathway because there's no cost to inaction in the near term.
00:29:19.000It is only when that manifests in terms of a vast crisis that everybody goes, oh, we should have done something about that.
00:29:24.000It was always easy for the Clinton administration to pass up the hit on bin Laden.
00:29:29.000It was always easy for the Clinton administration to cut the American military and then take a non-aggressive posture in the Middle East.
00:29:34.000And then 9-11 happens and everybody goes, oh, we should have done something about that.
00:29:39.000It's always easy to slash America's military to the bone, as we did during the 1930s.
00:29:42.000And then Pearl Harbor happens and we're like, oh, that was a bad idea, huh?
00:29:47.000In other words, aggressive action that is somewhat preemptive in nature Aggressive action that establishes deterrence always bears the immediate short-term risk of retaliation.
00:29:57.000But non-action bears the risk of a completely reshaped world map that has vastly more consequences over long-term than doing the things now that prevent that stuff from happening later.
00:30:09.000It's very easy for Bernie Sanders to sit there and decry war generally.
00:31:24.000He says, one reason we don't generally assassinate foreign political officials is the belief that such action will get more, not less, Americans killed.
00:31:46.000Was that, again, was that just my imagination?
00:31:49.000Then you had Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Senator from Massachusetts, and he tweeted out, Trump's apparent assassination of Soleimani is a massive, deliberate, and dangerous escalation of conflict with Iran.
00:32:19.000It's as though action on planet Earth only begins when Trump says something about it.
00:32:23.000Trump is not God, and everybody treating him as though he is a unique figure in history, and that the world began spinning every time he farts?
00:32:49.000You're deterring Iran from pursuing a more aggressive action across the region.
00:32:53.000If you believe that deterrence doesn't exist, if you believe that deterrence is always a bad idea, then sure, bribery seems like a great strategy.
00:33:24.000Yes, we should be aware that the Iranians are going to lash out.
00:33:27.000And yes, we should have contingency plans prepared for them lashing out.
00:33:29.000We should have a list of targets that we are going to hit.
00:33:32.000If they do X, Y, and Z, we have to keep reinforcing to the Iranians that if they continue to pursue this path, there will be consequences to that path.
00:33:44.000If you want a big, bold war, all you're gonna need is for Iran to step across that border with Saudi Arabia, five years from now, with nuclear weapons.
00:33:56.000Imagine that the Trump administration left the Iranian nuclear deal in place, had allowed billions upon billions of dollars to flow into Iran, the ayatollahs to strengthen themselves, develop ballistic missiles, create nuclear weapons, and then proceed to launch actual overt wars with Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, surrounding nations.
00:34:16.000Imagine that, because that's not far off in the imagination, but now they're armed with nuclear weapons and there's nothing you can do about it.
00:34:22.000That was the Obama administration's plan, and they basically admitted as much.
00:34:27.000So pretending that we don't exist in the course of a history, as though this is all tabula rasa, brand new, it's just, it's historically ignorant, and it is cynical politicking beyond pretty much all else.
00:34:41.000All right, we'll get to more of this in just one second.
00:34:43.000First, Let's talk about the fact that you're probably still receiving all those Christmas and Hanukkah gifts.
00:34:48.000People are sending out a lot of packages at the beginning of the year.
00:34:50.000You're getting all of your tax documents ready.
00:34:51.000Like, a lot of stuff is happening, and a lot of it's coming through the mail.
00:34:54.000Well, when people deliver your mail, you want to know that they are there.
00:34:57.000And a lot of thieves will actually ring your doorbell, make sure that you are not home, and then rob your place.
00:35:02.000Well, this is one of the reasons why you should have Ring devices on your property to make sure that your property is actually safe.
00:35:09.000Ring's mission is to make neighborhoods safer.
00:35:10.000You might already know about their smart video doorbells and cameras that protect millions of people everywhere.
00:35:14.000Ring helps you stay connected to your home anywhere in the world.
00:35:17.000So, if there's a package delivery or a surprise visitor, you will get an alert and be able to see, hear, and speak to them all from your phone.
00:35:23.000I have Ring products all over my house.
00:35:33.000As a subscriber, you have a special offer on a Ring welcome kit available right now at ring.com slash ben.
00:35:38.000The kit includes a Ring video doorbell and a Chime Pro, which is just what you need to start building a ring of security around your home today.
00:36:03.000We're at the end of the first work week of the new year.
00:36:06.000And it is that time of week when I give a shout out to a Dailyware subscriber.
00:36:09.000Today, it is FalconChance91 on Twitter, who is already a clear frontrunner for 2020 Father of the Year.
00:36:14.000In this picture, his two adorable kids, one infant and a toddler, are snuggling in a chair, making dad proud.
00:36:20.000The caption reads, I know liberals and leftists aren't the same, but I had to post this picture of my daughter wearing her I cry almost as much as liberals onesie.
00:36:27.000and her brother holding our prized Leftist Tears Tumblr.
00:36:29.000Thank you, Daily Wire, for providing such great content.
00:36:35.000It is our pleasure to make this content.
00:36:37.000We can only do that because of subscribers like you, so thank you, and thanks for the pic.
00:36:39.000You are definitely going to have your hands full this year.
00:36:43.000By the way, 2020, you know, it's gonna be a crazy, news-filled year.
00:36:46.000I mean, have you watched, like, the first two days?
00:36:49.000And we know that you need to know everything that's going on.
00:36:51.000The best way to stay informed on all things 2020 related is to become a Daily Wire member and get comprehensive news and opinion from us on demand.
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00:37:58.000I hope the Iranian leadership will see that and see American resolve, and that their decision will be to de-escalate and take actions consistent with what normal nations do.
00:38:04.000In the event they do not, and they go in the other direction, I know the President and the entire U.S.
00:38:08.000government is prepared to respond appropriately.
00:38:10.000Meanwhile, the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, promised early Friday to take revenge for this heinous crime.
00:38:15.000He also said that Iran would raise the flag of Soleimani.
00:38:18.000In all likelihood, what you're going to see is a spate of attacks, not, as I say, directly on America, but instead on American allies in the region, trying to separate off those allies from the United States with the help of the left in the United States and isolationists on the right.
00:38:30.000So the idea would be to attack Saudi targets, and then dare America to do something about it.
00:38:34.000Suggesting that then it's America escalating even more or attack Israel and then if Israel responds then suggest that it's that America was just doing Israel's dirty business here.
00:38:44.000By the way, that'd be the worst mistake they can make because right now let's say that they decide to activate Hezbollah in Lebanon and southern Lebanon against Israel.
00:38:51.000Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is currently under indictment and is sitting at the head of a government that does not exist.
00:38:58.000And he is currently seeking immunity from indictment.
00:39:00.000Like, the worst thing they could do is try to launch a war with Israel directly.
00:39:19.000If they are acting reasonably, instead what they would do is maybe make an attack in Europe, make attacks in South America, make attacks abroad, elsewhere, in the region, escalate things in Yemen.
00:39:32.000And by the way, as far as the details on General Qasem Soleimani, the terror leader, He was apparently only identifiable by a large ring that he wore on his finger because he was so badly maimed in the strike that there was not much left of him.
00:39:45.000He had arrived at the airport on a plane from either Syria or Lebanon around 1230 a.m.
00:39:49.000when he was met on the tarmac by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was the deputy commander of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq.
00:39:55.000That was the specific umbrella terror group that was responsible for the attacks on the embassies.
00:40:01.000Mohandas pulled up to the aircraft, steps in two cars, before Soleimani and Mohammed Rida Jabri, public relations chief for the PMF, climbed inside and then were promptly driven away.
00:40:10.000Moments later, as the cars passed through a cargo area headed for an access road leading out of the airport, this is according to the Daily Mail, the convoy was struck by four missiles fired by an MQ-4 Reaper drone.
00:40:20.000Both vehicles were instantly reduced to smoldering wrecks, killing Soleimani, Mohandas, Jabri, and two others who have yet to be identified.
00:40:26.000And he was only identified by this giant ring that he was wearing.
00:40:32.000The local militia commander, Abu Muntathir Al-Husseini, told Reuters, So that is the current situation.
00:40:37.000and Abu Mahdi saw Muhandis were riding in one vehicle and it was struck by two successive guided missiles launched from an American helicopter while they were on their way from the arrivals hall on the road that leads out of Baghdad airport.
00:40:47.000The second group was a bunch of bodyguards who are also dead at this point.
00:41:23.000He said General Qasem Soleimani, ...has killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time and was plotting to kill many more, but got caught.
00:41:32.000He was directly and indirectly responsible for the death of millions of people, including a recent large number of protesters killed in Iran itself.
00:41:38.000While Iran will never be able to properly admit it, Soleimani was both hated and feared within the country.
00:41:43.000They're not nearly as saddened as the leaders who let the outside world believe he should have been taken out many years ago.
00:41:48.000And then he also tweeted, Iran never won a war, but never lost a negotiation.
00:41:50.000In other words, come to the table now, or we can continue killing all of your friends.
00:41:56.000So, by the way, if you speak to members of the American military today, many of whom have buddies who were killed by Soleimani's forces in Iraq, overwhelmingly the feeling is one of joy that Soleimani is dead.
00:42:09.000This does not mean that all questions are answered.
00:42:11.000All questions are not answered, obviously.
00:42:13.000We don't know what's going to happen from here.
00:42:15.000And everybody is sort of bracing for what the Iranian response will be.
00:42:18.000But there's no question that a very good thing happened with Soleimani being dead.
00:42:22.000And the fact is that deterrence must be restored.
00:42:24.000If America is not seen as a power capable of deterring its enemies, then it has no power at all.
00:42:29.000The Trump derangement syndrome, by the way, is unbelievably strong out there right now.
00:42:32.000Max Boot, who was once a somewhat respected foreign policy thinker, Max Boot goes on CNN and he suggests that the Iran crisis is created by Trump.
00:42:42.000This is the same Max Boot who wrote a piece in July of 2015 called The Dawn of Iranian Empire talking about the evils of the Iran nuclear deal and why it was a mistake to try and bribe them.
00:42:52.000And now here he is on CNN just a few years later declaring that the best solution would be to presumably to bribe the Iranians or to never retaliate against their increasing and escalating aggression.
00:43:02.000This is a crisis that President Trump has really created between the U.S.
00:43:08.000and Iran have a long history of animosity dating back to 1979, relations had actually quieted down quite a bit since President Obama concluded the Iranian nuclear deal in 2015.
00:43:18.000And last year, even though the Iranians were complying with the Iranian nuclear deal, President Trump decided to blow up the deal, and then he imposed unilateral economic sanctions on Iran this year.
00:43:28.000Which have been a lot more effective than a lot of people, including me, expected.
00:43:32.000The way the Iranians view that is the U.S.
00:43:33.000is waging economic warfare on them, and they need to strike back.
00:43:37.000So there is Max Boot completely flipping his own position on the Iran nuclear deal, basically, because Donald Trump happens to be president.
00:43:44.000Again, if Barack Obama had done this exact same thing, and it's amazing to watch these people.
00:43:49.000Barack Obama droned American citizens overseas who were terrorists.
00:43:53.000And people on his side of the aisle were like, no problem, everything's great.
00:43:57.000Donald Trump orders the death of an Iranian terrorist in a foreign country, and everyone's like, assassination, illegality.
00:44:05.000Now, again, consistent foreign policy must be had going forward.
00:44:08.000We must see a consistent foreign policy going forward.
00:44:10.000Deterrence only works if you continue to deter.
00:44:13.000If you warn people, if you keep crying wolf about what exactly you're going to do when somebody harms you, then eventually people are going to stop taking you seriously.
00:44:21.000But with all of that said, Soleimani's death makes the world a better place.
00:45:00.000And what we should do is phasing it out.
00:45:03.000And if you notice, we're running into a problem right now.
00:45:07.000The problem is we have a president who says there is no problem.
00:45:10.000Deeply important issues being taken on by the Biden campaign like plastic bags.
00:45:14.000By the way, if you want to understand why the left, why the Europeans are constantly attempting to pretend that George W. Bush was the aggressor in the Middle East, or Israel is the aggressor in the Middle East, or Saudi Arabia, or Jordan, depending on the situation, Egypt.
00:45:27.000These are all the aggressors in the Middle East.
00:45:29.000The bottom line is that anybody who is perceived as either American, European, or an American or European ally in the Middle East is perceived as the bad actor.
00:45:36.000And the reason is because the West is constantly seen as the source of all malignity, malignity and evil in the world.
00:45:43.000Joe Biden is the least like this in the Democratic Party.
00:45:53.000of Biden appearing to suggest that America was built on European culture.
00:45:57.000And this was apparently extremely controversial and people were going crazy over it, except that's not what he was saying.
00:46:01.000What he was saying was actually extraordinarily stupid and horrible.
00:46:04.000What he was saying is that European culture is uniquely anti-woman.
00:46:08.000Here is Joe Biden explaining that European culture is uniquely anti-woman.
00:46:11.000If you're going to Penn or Harvard or Yale or Brown or whatever, and you have to publish how many times someone's been abused, it's like, well, I'm going to send my kid there.
00:47:05.000Yeah, the same blame America first, blame Europe first mentality that leads to the bizarre notion that violence against women is a unique Western invention, which, by the way, look at the world.
00:47:15.000There are lots of countries on that globe.
00:47:17.000If you're a woman, where would you prefer to be born on that globe?
00:47:20.000The answer, European countries, countries with European influence, America, Australia, Canada, Western countries, in other words, okay?
00:47:27.000You would not prefer to be born in Sub-Saharan Africa, in most parts of Asia.
00:47:33.000You would not prefer to be born in the Middle East.
00:47:34.000There are lots of places on planet Earth you would not prefer to be born if you're a woman and want to be treated with respect.
00:47:39.000But according to Joe Biden, America's culture of violence against women is purely European in origin, and then he cites bad history to push all of this.
00:47:46.000It's that mentality, the soft bigotry of low expectations when it comes to other countries, that leads to the idea that when America retaliates against terrorists that it's America's fault for escalating.
00:48:15.000And yet it is people in the West suggesting that it is Trump's fault or it was Bush's fault.
00:48:20.000Apparently the only possible solution to the intransigence of evil countries and evil aggressors is to bribe them.
00:48:26.000Because in the end, we are the true evil, aren't we?
00:48:29.000In the end, it's America, it's Europe.
00:48:31.000Those are the places that are the cause of all evil in the world.
00:48:36.000That sort of self-loathing leads to some pretty awful consequences.
00:48:40.000And again, when it comes to Iran, things are going to get hot before they get cold.
00:48:43.000But if you want things to cool down, if you'd like a cold war with Iran rather than a hot war with Iran, you're going to need to stop arming the enemy and then suggesting that the regional aggression has no consequences whatsoever while handing them pallets of cash.
00:48:55.000This whole blowback for Trump for doing what is obviously a moral and right thing without Not even waiting to see what comes next is pretty astonishing.
00:49:08.000Okay, time for some things I like and then we'll do some things that I hate.
00:49:12.000So, things that I like over the break.
00:49:15.000I had the opportunity to watch some of the movies that have finally come out streaming.
00:50:17.000And there's a great scene with Robert De Niro near the end of the film in which he talks about his feeling of dispossession, of being mocked.
00:50:31.000So if you imagine that he's supposed to be so clever, that he's supposed to be such a villain, that Batman can never quite get his arms around him, then it doesn't work at all.
00:50:38.000Because basically, he is not a brilliant person.
00:50:55.000And that, of course, is part of the Batman comics, because he's released on mental health recognizance, effectively.
00:51:02.000But, the idea that he is sort of the notorious counterpart to Batman, that part, like, if you imagined the Joker movie in the Batman universe, it doesn't work.
00:51:09.000On its own, it works perfectly fine as the descent of one person living in bad social circumstances into evil, and the self-justification that comes from it.
00:51:26.000Okay, time for a quick thing that I hate.
00:51:32.000So the New York Times is now making a big deal out of this homecoming video from the University of Wisconsin.
00:51:37.000The video is utterly non-controversial.
00:51:41.000Here's a little bit of the video, and then I'll explain what's controversial about this, because there really is nothing controversial about this.
00:51:55.000It's welcoming everyone into our home.
00:51:57.000Shows people walking through the campus and some of these young women going swimming.
00:52:03.000Some young women dancing and all this.
00:52:09.000Okay, so what was so controversial about this homecoming video, which is just like kind of a cute, nice video, and it was the homecoming committee that made the video?
00:52:58.000A sunny montage of life at the University of Wisconsin's flagship campus in Madison.
00:53:02.000Here were hundreds of young men and women, cheering at a football game, dancing in unison, riding bicycles in a sleek line, throwing the W for the camera, singing a cappella, leaping into a lake.
00:53:11.000Home is where we grow together, a voiceover said.
00:53:13.000Days before homecoming week, the student homecoming committee, tasked with producing the video, posted it online.
00:53:47.000But according to students of color, the homecoming video was a glimpse of what they experienced every day as they walked through campus.
00:53:53.000The video prompted a burst of student activism, an attempt by university officials to educate about diversity, and a reckoning over who feels at home at the University of Wisconsin.
00:54:17.000It's like, what are we even talking about?
00:54:19.000The answer is we're talking about nothing.
00:54:20.000People are looking for a reason to be outraged, and we live in a stupid place right now.
00:54:25.000A very stupid time in a very stupid place.
00:54:26.000Alrighty, we'll be back here a little bit later today with two additional hours of content, all the new developments, plus If you don't want that, we'll be back here next week.
00:54:33.000Now is the time to subscribe, by the way, because Monday, our special subscription offer ends, our 20% offer.
00:54:38.000So use DW2020 when you go to dailywire.com and pick up a subscription.