Bannon's War Room - March 08, 2026


Episode 5198： WarRoom Sunday Special War In Iran Continues


Episode Stats

Length

48 minutes

Words per Minute

168.99306

Word Count

8,265

Sentence Count

589

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

35


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral John Brennan joins me to discuss the Iran situation and why we should all be worried about it. I also discuss the possibility of Iran's unconditional surrender and why that is a good thing.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Can you give us an idea of what unconditional surrender looks like to you?
00:00:03.800 I mean, what do you want from Iran?
00:00:05.280 I said unconditional, not conditioned.
00:00:07.740 I said unconditioned.
00:00:08.940 It's where they cry uncle or when they can't fight any longer,
00:00:13.100 there's nobody around to cry uncle.
00:00:15.620 That could happen, too.
00:00:17.160 Because, you know, we've wiped out their leadership numerous times already.
00:00:21.580 So it's if they surrender or if there is nobody around to surrender,
00:00:27.380 but they're rendered useless in terms of military.
00:00:30.720 Look, you fat f***ing Trump.
00:00:32.100 If you listen to this, you listen good.
00:00:34.040 Because what I'm getting ready to say is what a lot of people in this country speak for,
00:00:38.740 who I speak for.
00:00:39.820 And I speak for a lot of f***ing people.
00:00:41.780 You hear me, you fat ass f***?
00:00:45.580 This is what we believe.
00:00:47.780 You're right.
00:00:49.220 I got Trump derangement syndrome.
00:00:51.360 I hate the mother f***er.
00:00:52.960 And you know what?
00:00:54.000 I don't want to get rid of it.
00:00:55.700 I don't want to get better.
00:00:57.940 I want to get worse.
00:00:59.680 I want to hate him more.
00:01:01.580 I pray to God in heaven.
00:01:03.260 God, reign the righteous reign of Trump derangement syndrome on me.
00:01:08.720 Pray for me, Lord.
00:01:09.840 I'm your vessel on this earth.
00:01:12.040 Pray for the people that listen to this.
00:01:13.920 We want more.
00:01:15.220 We want to hate the son of a f*** so much that we can't see straight.
00:01:19.560 But you have indications whether Russia is supporting Iran somehow in this.
00:01:24.340 No, I haven't had that.
00:01:25.880 I have had no indication of that whatsoever.
00:01:28.980 If they are, they're not doing a very good job because Iran is not doing too well.
00:01:33.660 Ladies and gentlemen, we've had 125 military actions since the beginning of this republic
00:01:38.660 and 11 declarations of war, five of which were during World War II, and the last one
00:01:42.540 was 1942.
00:01:44.160 Show me anywhere.
00:01:45.340 I challenge Hakeem Jeffries.
00:01:47.980 Show me we're in the Constitution that Congress has to authorize military actions.
00:01:52.800 Show me.
00:01:53.800 Show me the language.
00:01:54.840 Show me.
00:01:55.800 It's not there.
00:01:56.680 But declaration of war.
00:01:57.780 We know what that means because the first draft of the Constitution, you see, ladies and
00:02:03.140 gentlemen, this is what we call Madison's Notes.
00:02:06.000 And not one of those knucklehead Democrats have ever read Madison's Notes.
00:02:09.740 I know.
00:02:10.420 I'm kind of a nerd.
00:02:11.180 I study this stuff left and right.
00:02:12.640 They took out the phrase, make war in the original draft of the Constitution for Congress
00:02:19.600 and changed it to declare war.
00:02:21.660 And then under Article 2, they gave the president the power as commander-in-chief to set foreign
00:02:27.160 policy and national security.
00:02:30.060 No president has ever gone to Congress and say, will you please give me permission to take
00:02:35.100 military action?
00:02:35.940 They may want a declaration of war to sort of back up what they're doing, but on a few
00:02:40.460 occasions, but the power to make war belongs to the president.
00:02:44.460 And no War Powers Act passed by statute in 1973 can fix that.
00:02:48.560 You know how I know?
00:02:49.520 Because Barack Obama said it was unconstitutional.
00:02:52.360 Biden said it was unconstitutional.
00:02:54.700 Clinton said it was unconstitutional.
00:02:57.220 Pelosi said it's unconstitutional.
00:02:59.640 Hillary Clinton said it's unconstitutional.
00:03:01.800 Until today.
00:03:04.140 Now it's constitutional.
00:03:05.400 Something that could drag this on for a long period of time, but Director Brennan, I want
00:03:09.960 to ask you about this unconditional surrender language.
00:03:12.180 We've obviously already seen a lot of shifting justifications, some mission creep.
00:03:17.600 First it was limited strikes.
00:03:18.780 Now it's full-blown war.
00:03:20.920 In order to achieve unconditional surrender, do you need what NBC News is reporting, boots
00:03:27.340 on the ground, even if that's a small contingent force?
00:03:31.440 I don't see how a small contingent force could do that.
00:03:34.280 Could lead to an unconditional surrender.
00:03:35.600 You're talking about tens of thousands, if not more, of U.S. troops that would be needed
00:03:39.880 to suppress any type of opposition that the regime would still be able to bring forward.
00:03:45.480 So this unconditional surrender is just mindless.
00:03:48.620 And I think it shows that Donald Trump realizes that it's very messy out there right now.
00:03:52.920 And his rhetoric and his bravado is increasing as I think he gets more concerned that it's
00:03:58.940 not going the way he had hoped.
00:04:00.960 And so why should a lot of Iranians decide to leave the regime because they don't know
00:04:08.180 how it's going to turn out.
00:04:09.760 They don't want to be targeted then by those who may come to power as a result of the United
00:04:14.960 States coming in, because the situation in Iran is going to remain chaotic.
00:04:19.280 It's going to remain very violent for a long time.
00:04:21.860 I don't see how a puppet regime in Iran is going to be put in place by the U.S., while
00:04:28.780 the Iranian people and a lot of the people of the Iranian regime are still going to remain
00:04:33.100 as defiant and they're going to resist, because this is a war that was initiated by the United
00:04:37.220 States and Israel.
00:04:38.400 And there are a lot of Iranians who are very much going to try to take retaliatory strikes,
00:04:44.860 I think, against U.S., especially if U.S. forces are on the ground.
00:04:47.900 The Iran and the FBI piece of this for a moment, but the president doesn't seem overly concerned
00:04:53.300 about, given the comments of Time magazine, about increasing attacks in the U.S., the potential
00:04:58.880 of that.
00:05:00.220 Should we all be concerned about that?
00:05:03.080 Well, we should always be concerned.
00:05:05.040 And I say that in the context of behind the scenes, secretly, in ways most people don't
00:05:10.400 know about it.
00:05:12.140 Iranian operatives have been on the ground here plotting things for a long time.
00:05:16.880 There are, even now, Iranian operatives in the United States.
00:05:19.980 One would have to assume that, given the number we have taken off the game field and the idea
00:05:26.100 that Iran would have no motive not to replace them with some other covert operators, you have
00:05:32.500 to operate on that assumption.
00:05:33.820 But we also, and I think what the president was saying is, we're under constant threat
00:05:38.860 from the remnants of ISIS and al-Qaeda.
00:05:41.080 We saw the Bourbon Street attacks in New Orleans on New Year's Day two years ago.
00:05:44.900 We've seen the plots that have been interrupted and thwarted.
00:05:48.260 This is a post-9-11 constant, as long as that propaganda is out there.
00:05:52.320 The factor of Iran, though, is they do this very professionally, and they are in a position
00:06:00.040 where they've always done targeted violence, targeting particular people.
00:06:05.160 This is the kind of environment where they could go to a mass casualty incident.
00:06:08.440 I mean, people who have been caught in the past, what are they doing here?
00:06:12.320 Are they working here?
00:06:13.400 Are they, do they have diplomatic immunity?
00:06:15.980 Are they, what is sort of infiltration is their life?
00:06:18.840 So you've had covert Iranian intelligence officers who have come in and out of the United States
00:06:23.460 under various covers and then recruited individuals associated with violence or criminal organizations
00:06:29.780 to target particular people for them for a hit or for an assault or a kidnapping or a murder.
00:06:37.400 But we've also seen them use elements of Hezbollah that were planted in America,
00:06:42.460 Anderson, for the specific purpose of cataloging targets, studying them, mapping them,
00:06:49.880 developing target books, and transmitting them back to their handlers in Iran.
00:06:53.640 So this is something that Iran has been thinking about and planning for 20 years or more.
00:07:01.320 Hands down, hands up, hands down, hands up, hands down, hands down, hands up.
00:07:21.680 Stand up, let's go.
00:07:23.480 Stand up, everybody, head down.
00:07:25.020 Stand up, stand up.
00:07:27.020 Stand up.
00:07:27.060 Are there any signs that you have seen so far that indicate to you that the government is,
00:07:39.820 that Trump is getting ready to deploy boots on the ground,
00:07:42.220 something that the average citizen and us journalists wouldn't necessarily pick up on or notice?
00:07:46.580 Certainly there are a lot of forces in the region.
00:07:49.340 But again, putting in a small contingent of U.S. forces, where are you going to do that?
00:07:53.540 You're going to drop them in the middle of Tehran when you still have the besiege and you still have revolutionite guards there?
00:07:59.000 There would be, you know, almost a suicide mission.
00:08:01.820 You would need to have a very large-scale, you know, force.
00:08:05.460 Just like moved into Iraq, it moved in over land into it.
00:08:09.200 You need to bring in the weapons, the equipment, the heavy weaponry and other types of things.
00:08:14.480 So I don't see right now that they're ready to do that.
00:08:17.640 Maybe they're planning to do it.
00:08:18.920 I think they're trying to play catch-up with Donald Trump's policies.
00:08:22.360 So I don't know what he is planning to do.
00:08:26.120 And this is where I think the haphazard, reckless nature of this policy really could put U.S. forces in grave, grave danger.
00:08:33.400 We're winning the war by a lot.
00:08:36.180 We've decimated their whole evil empire.
00:08:40.780 It'll continue, I'm sure, for a little while.
00:08:42.660 But I'm very proud of the people, the parents.
00:08:47.020 The parents were so proud of their boy, as they call him, my boy, one case, the young lady.
00:08:55.840 The parents are so proud.
00:08:58.140 Many of them are military parents, as you know.
00:09:00.960 But it's always a very sad thing.
00:09:04.140 The war itself is going unbelievably.
00:09:06.200 It's as good as it can be.
00:09:08.760 Now, for people who say, you know, the American people don't support this, I don't know.
00:09:14.700 What do you think the American people would think if a nuke was launched our way?
00:09:18.580 Or if they could hit us with ballistic missiles?
00:09:22.060 Polling? Seriously?
00:09:24.140 Okay, I've got a poll for you.
00:09:25.420 The latest poll shows that 92% of MAGA supports the president of the United States.
00:09:30.560 These articles of MAGA split.
00:09:32.380 MAGA's not split.
00:09:33.220 You've got a couple nutjobs who are not MAGA, who are like neo-fascists out there.
00:09:40.760 They have their own little audiences that apparently don't represent anybody.
00:09:44.760 So I wouldn't sweat that media.
00:09:46.300 MAGA's not split.
00:09:47.720 We're behind the president of the United States.
00:09:51.680 This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
00:09:56.660 Pray for our enemies.
00:09:58.640 Because we're going medieval on these people.
00:10:00.580 You're just not going to get a free shot at all these networks lying about the people.
00:10:06.220 The people have had a belly full of it.
00:10:08.180 I know you don't like hearing that.
00:10:09.600 I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it.
00:10:12.240 It's going to happen.
00:10:13.520 And where do people like that go to share the big line?
00:10:16.920 MAGA media.
00:10:18.260 I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
00:10:23.660 Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
00:10:26.820 If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
00:10:33.860 War Room.
00:10:34.640 Here's your host, Stephen K.
00:10:36.720 Bannon.
00:10:37.080 It's Sunday, 8 March in the year of World War 2026.
00:10:46.080 I want to thank Real America's Voice, Parker and Rob Sieg.
00:10:49.740 I want to thank our great team in Denver that works overnight to do this.
00:10:53.900 And of course, our War Room production team.
00:10:55.780 We're going to cover the war seven days a week until some sort of denomois or conclusion or how this thing grinds out.
00:11:06.480 One of the reasons for that is you need to be constantly up to because you're the most powerful political force in the country.
00:11:11.840 And if you don't believe that, then check out Prop 10 in Texas, the Sharia law proposition and Paxton on this fight to make sure that the MAGA voice and the grassroots voice is heard in the United States Senate.
00:11:28.160 You need to have the facts.
00:11:29.560 I will say is an observation.
00:11:33.160 And if we have time, because we have a packed show this morning, I want to thank all of our contributors for giving up parts of their Sunday to join us.
00:11:40.540 And we are absolutely packed today all the way to 12 noon.
00:11:44.580 I'm going to let the audience decide.
00:11:46.220 Maybe we can play it later.
00:11:47.280 We'll play Carvel's.
00:11:49.460 We'll play.
00:11:51.600 That was Carvel.
00:11:52.560 We don't need to call it again, guys.
00:11:54.160 We'll play Carvel's Trump Derangement Syndrome next to Mark Levin.
00:11:59.260 And maybe we'll intercut that.
00:12:00.380 And you guys can tell.
00:12:01.260 You will have a poll of who's the most offensive.
00:12:06.500 It is quite important, though, that we have experts in this field that that can actually cut through the fog of war and tell us exactly what's going on.
00:12:16.420 To start, we've got Sam Faddis and Captain Fennell who have dedicated their professional lives in situations like this.
00:12:23.280 Captain Fennell, I want to start with you.
00:12:26.280 Sam Faddis got some great stuff up on his sub stack on Ann Magazine.
00:12:29.940 We're going to get into a second.
00:12:31.880 One of the reasons we do the Sunday show, it appears that Saturday night has become a bombing night.
00:12:37.680 Last night, I think we went next level on the bombing campaign.
00:12:41.860 Can you walk us through?
00:12:42.780 You're a targeting officer.
00:12:43.860 We've got about two minutes here.
00:12:45.040 I'm obviously going to hold you through the break.
00:12:46.280 Can you just give us a quick update on what you saw overnight, sir?
00:12:52.100 Well, we saw, Steve, thanks for having me on.
00:12:54.760 We saw bombing, obviously, a massive round of bombing in Tehran that included an oil refinery in Tehran that's gotten a lot of attention.
00:13:03.940 Oil refineries associated with supplying the IRGC military.
00:13:11.420 And then there was a counterstrike against some places in Bahrain and other places, maybe even Haifa desolidization plant.
00:13:21.180 So it looks like there's a little bit of a tit for tat there.
00:13:24.180 What we don't really know is because we're essentially getting the one side of the story from all the attacks that are coming from Iran into the GCC.
00:13:33.820 So every missile or drone is highlighted.
00:13:38.120 But whereas what we're actually doing inside Iran is getting some attention, like the bombing of that refinery in Tehran.
00:13:45.780 But the actual cumulative effect and the details of where we're striking each place is obviously being withheld from the Pentagon for operational security reasons.
00:13:57.420 So I think getting near what they call battle damage assessment reporting on the effects in Iran, we have to discern from what we see from the behavior.
00:14:06.960 So as the Pentagon has reported, missile and drone strikes are down significantly, missiles more than 90 percent, drones over 80 percent.
00:14:16.560 And then we are seeing the reports of some specificity.
00:14:19.640 Captain Fennell, can you just hang on for a second?
00:14:22.440 We've got to go to break.
00:14:23.200 We had a long call to open.
00:14:24.640 Captain Jim Fennell, an expert in naval intelligence and targeting.
00:14:29.320 Sam Faddis spent a big part of his career.
00:14:31.660 He'll be able to give you his ideas about unconditional surrender.
00:14:36.500 Understand they've also named a new supreme leader.
00:14:39.500 President Trump said that's going to have to pass muster with him as the war continues on.
00:14:46.340 I think we went next level last night.
00:14:48.820 Massive bombing campaign.
00:14:51.520 Also, our allies being hit.
00:14:54.840 Short break.
00:14:55.400 Back in the warm in a second.
00:14:56.240 Here's your host, Stephen K.
00:15:02.960 Back.
00:15:07.900 Captain Fennell, obviously, they look like they went after all infrastructure resources last night.
00:15:13.020 Is that is that is that just what happens when you proceed down?
00:15:17.980 You've been you've said, hey, look, and, you know, as a as a surface warfare officer and you're an intelligence officer, people should understand.
00:15:25.100 This is what the Navy does.
00:15:26.820 You do these exercises constantly all the time.
00:15:30.180 You practice, practice, practice so that it becomes second nature.
00:15:34.140 So when the balloon goes up, you know what to do.
00:15:36.280 And you've as you said, you've got your target sets that can change with intel.
00:15:40.360 But you know what you're doing when you want to take down or what it was called degrade their ability to have force projection either to surrounding countries or force projection.
00:15:51.560 Now, as the president keeps talking about on their own people, do you believe that we've gone to another phase of this war?
00:15:57.420 Not just the how brutal the bombing was last night in Tehran, but it looks like they went after all infrastructure, sir.
00:16:05.320 Steve, I would say that we are entering a second phase.
00:16:08.420 The first phase, as Admiral Cooper stated, was about being able to kill the Iranian things that could shoot at us.
00:16:15.360 So this first week, over 3,500, possibly closer to 6,000 attacks from both U.S. and Israeli forces was about rolling back their air defense capabilities, their missile capabilities that were on the ground and their air defense and their naval forces.
00:16:34.340 We have successfully, I think, to a large degree, eliminated most of those that are out in the open.
00:16:40.280 So now we're going into the second phase, which is to really start going after the infrastructure that supported the military, the IRGC.
00:16:49.680 So the target sets are command and control centers, military communication sites, IRGC joint headquarters, IRGC aerospace force headquarters, the integrated air defense, a ballistic missile, cities now, the Iranian Navy ships and subs.
00:17:05.260 And they struck last night, Isfahan, Bashir, Qom, Bandar Abbas.
00:17:10.140 So there's massive strikes going further inland from that coastal region that we needed to establish so that our forces could get in and out without risk.
00:17:19.340 So I think we're in this second phase.
00:17:21.380 And what people need to know is this is not just a naval force.
00:17:24.280 This is a joint U.S. military force commanded at Central Command.
00:17:29.080 And it's now a combined force.
00:17:31.220 And so what they have is what they call a combined targeting coordination board.
00:17:35.460 And that represents all the services that are involved, all the nations that are involved, plus the intelligence agencies from CIA, DIA, NGA, all that.
00:17:47.660 It's an interagency process.
00:17:49.280 Even State Department gets involved.
00:17:51.220 And there are people there that are saying, hey, we need to consider this.
00:17:54.120 We need to consider that.
00:17:55.080 It goes before the board and people analyze it.
00:17:57.980 And they say, yes, this is something valid we want to go after or not.
00:18:02.460 And then it gets put on the list.
00:18:04.000 And then there are legions of people that find the target material and intelligence that helps give us precise location of where these assets are.
00:18:12.960 But it's worked together.
00:18:14.400 And it's been going on for, I would say, years, the planning about how if we, you know, contingency had to go after Iran.
00:18:22.880 CENTCOM's been working on this for decades.
00:18:25.080 And so what you see is the unfolding of a plan that's being refined to do the levels of damage that will ensure that Iran's military is completely and thoroughly defanged.
00:18:37.780 And as I said in a communication to you this last week, as Mao said, the party controls the gun.
00:18:43.840 And if there's no gun in the party's hand, then who's running everything?
00:18:48.760 And so the mission is to take the gun away from the Iranian regime.
00:18:53.180 So I think if you look at the 12-day war, if you look at Venezuela, if you look at what's happening here, we're going to leave the politics aside.
00:19:01.820 We're going to get into all that and the strategy and all that.
00:19:04.060 But if you just look, this is why our military is so magnificent.
00:19:06.560 The practice, the precision, the dedication to make this second nature, to ingrain this in yourself.
00:19:13.640 Before I go to Sam Faddis, and I'm going to ask you to stick around, Jim.
00:19:16.980 In 1979 and 80, when I was there, we had two carriers.
00:19:21.940 We eventually, because the Navy had never really been there, we had two carrier battle groups on Camel Station and Gonzo Station in the North Arabian Sea.
00:19:29.540 We have two carrier battle groups, two strike forces today that contain 10 times more lethality than we did back in the 80s just because of the weapons packages.
00:19:39.200 But now you're the first one to call it.
00:19:41.460 You said on this show over a week ago, he said, hey, they're going to get to Bush.
00:19:45.740 They're going to get a third carrier strike group over there.
00:19:48.000 And it appears that that is what's happening.
00:19:50.100 Yes, the Bush, the carrier, George H.W. Bush, completed its basic final phase of its training.
00:19:59.960 And on the 5th of March, pulled into Norfolk.
00:20:02.140 It certainly reloaded fuel and ammunition for not just the carrier, but the strike group.
00:20:07.760 And there's indication that she's already leaving or has already left Norfolk and is making the transit.
00:20:13.740 It's about a four or five day transit across the Atlantic, very small compared to the Pacific.
00:20:18.000 And so that'll add a third carrier.
00:20:20.080 And I'll just remind folks, in Desert Storm, we had six carrier battle groups operating for Desert Storm.
00:20:26.740 In OEF, we had five carrier strike groups.
00:20:29.320 So just adding a third one is really about bringing in more of that ordnance that's using the MARC series, the Dumb Bomb series with the fusing and the fins in the back that give us the precision strike.
00:20:42.220 So we don't have to use the high end, high demand, low density interceptors and other kind of missiles that are, you know, were discussed on Friday in Washington.
00:20:53.340 So it's this idea of moving from standoff to stand in weapons.
00:20:57.700 It's planned.
00:20:58.640 It was understood.
00:20:59.320 And the Bush will bring a lot more punch to the fight with that from the Eastern Med, while the Ford and the Lincoln now can combine their carrier strike groups.
00:21:07.800 And now those 16 destroyers that are with it can now start to work on how are we going to open up the strait and provide some kind of escort plan.
00:21:16.620 We're not going to escort ship by ship, but we'll maybe do something like we did in 87, where we had baskets and we had ships on station in those baskets.
00:21:24.960 As we get further along, grinding down the Iranian naval threats to naval shipping.
00:21:32.120 Particularly as you also take out their missile defense, the combatants can then go into the Straits of Hormuz and figure out how to open this or if it even could be opened.
00:21:44.020 Hang on for a second, right before I go.
00:21:45.740 The Brits, he's now talking to the Brits.
00:21:48.020 He's all over Starmer.
00:21:49.900 We're actually discussing two of the smaller, they got smaller carriers.
00:21:54.960 Deployment of two British carriers to the region also.
00:21:59.360 Well, the, you know, the Brits were, and it's coming out this weekend that actually the U.S. approached the British three weeks before the bombing struck to say, this is what we're thinking of doing and we would like to coordinate with you, our ally, and let's work together on it.
00:22:15.260 And the Brits and Starmer gave us the Heisman and said, no, we're not going to let you use our bases.
00:22:20.560 So when the war started, they didn't participate.
00:22:23.640 They denied us use of their bases in Cyprus.
00:22:26.580 They denied us use of Diego Garcia.
00:22:29.160 And then just here only a couple of days ago did Starmer say, well, you can use our airfields, but we will only allow you to use your aircraft to attack defensive targets in Iran, which is like air defense sites and missile sites.
00:22:41.400 So they put a lot of restrictions on it.
00:22:43.900 In the meantime, the Iranians attacked their base in Cyprus.
00:22:46.620 And the Brits still have yet to send a single destroyer out there because of their readiness.
00:22:51.760 The British Navy is almost gone.
00:22:55.060 It's less than 80 ships, probably less than 70.
00:22:58.240 So they don't have much to provide to us.
00:23:00.300 And I think the president's instincts are right on this in a way.
00:23:03.120 Hey, you know, you didn't want to be with us at the beginning.
00:23:05.080 Why do you want to come in now when you feel like we're, the tide is turning?
00:23:10.500 Jim, hang on for one second.
00:23:14.560 I want to bring in Sam Fattis.
00:23:15.520 Sam, you wrote an amazing piece over the weekend about our objectives and goals.
00:23:20.280 But I want to ask you, this whole situation with unconditional surrender, I mean, you spent a good part of your life inside here.
00:23:28.360 They're talking about unconditional surrender.
00:23:30.260 I think they've overnight, and they now have an official supreme leader, president of the United States, saying, yeah, I don't know about that.
00:23:36.680 We don't want to come back here every 10 years.
00:23:38.460 So I think I've got to have a hand in picking that.
00:23:41.280 From the mindset of the Persians as they sit right now, when they hear the president talking about unconditional surrender, and that means no forced projection against neighbors, but most importantly, no forced projection against their own population, what are they thinking, sir?
00:24:00.560 I don't think there's any way on earth that they are considering unconditional surrender.
00:24:05.580 Now, I've said from the beginning, there is some possibility here that at some point you get some guys within this government who effectively stage a coup, and we end up with a Venezuelan solution.
00:24:17.020 And they say, we're not riding this thing all the way to the ground, and that would be, in my view, a happy ending.
00:24:26.240 But as of now, they're going to dig in, and they're going to take this thing into an unconventional realm, and they are going to prolong this conflict.
00:24:35.940 And are they going to be hammered mercilessly by the United States military, without question?
00:24:42.380 I mean, anybody who bet on the Iranians to stand up to the U.S. military was delusional.
00:24:48.660 They've been flattened, and they're going to continue to get flattened, but in their worldview, they will just dig in, and this will become low-cost drones, and proxy forces, and terrorist attacks abroad, and attacks on desalinization plants, and oil refineries, and sort of let's all go to hell together kind of mindset.
00:25:13.680 Did they not, yesterday, try to, there was some sort of communication or something, they tried to back off and said, hey, they're not going to go after the, which I think is the most interesting thing, not go after the Gulf countries, so they didn't, but that looks like it's all torn asunder now.
00:25:29.860 They did, they tried to hit a, or they hit a desalination plant.
00:25:34.100 Are they, is it all bets off Persians versus Arabs right now, or is that back on hold?
00:25:40.960 And last night's bombing, we've got about a minute, I'll bring you back after the break.
00:25:45.040 Was, was the difference in intensity last night of the Americans, of our forces going after their oil infrastructure and hitting Tehran, the refineries there, go take this next level?
00:25:55.740 Look, I think what they were trying to do was divide us from our allies and encourage the Gulf states in particular to, to part company with us, and that didn't work.
00:26:07.220 And so now they've gone, I mean, they, they just hit a desalinization plant in Bahrain, they've hit a number of other targets.
00:26:13.360 So they, they, they gave that a whirl and it didn't work.
00:26:16.240 So now they're, they're going to, they're going to intensify what they do against the Gulf states to the extent they can.
00:26:25.120 Sam, hang on for one second.
00:26:26.560 You gave a perfect segue.
00:26:28.100 You talk about objectives, trying to divide allies.
00:26:32.620 Wrote a pretty impressive piece for N Magazine.
00:26:34.920 If we can get that up and if Mo and Grace and Elizabeth can make sure the war and posse sees it, we're going to bring Sam Fettis back and talk about that point.
00:26:42.420 Also, Rabbi Willicki will join us from Jerusalem for a live update.
00:26:47.900 We're packed.
00:26:48.420 We got Poso, Thayer, Weikert, Caroline Wren on this huge political story in Texas.
00:26:55.720 All of it this morning, our special edition of The War Room.
00:26:59.040 Here's your host, Stephen K. Mann.
00:27:05.440 Okay, Sam Fettis, thank you for back.
00:27:07.280 By the way, Birch Gold, I think now may be the time that you want to go and talk to Philip Patrick of the team.
00:27:14.260 Birchgold.com, promo code BANET, end of the dollar empire.
00:27:18.580 Dollar has strengthened a little bit because flight to quality, flight to safety.
00:27:22.540 But you still have to understand why gold has been a hedge for 5,000 years.
00:27:26.640 We use all these fancy terms, geopolitical risk.
00:27:30.080 That means war in the rumor of wars.
00:27:32.560 This is what you're seeing in the Gulf right now.
00:27:34.380 This is why you're seeing about attacking this oil infrastructure, about why people are learning about U.S. Navy destroyers and the function they play in keeping place like the Straits or Hormuz open.
00:27:48.300 That affects capital markets.
00:27:49.820 It affects commodity markets, equity markets, debt markets.
00:27:54.740 Shouldn't be lost.
00:27:55.680 We're going to talk this week about this private credit market in the United States.
00:27:58.740 BlackRock, Larry Fink and the team yesterday, or I think on Friday, told people for the first time in BlackRock's history, these big institutional investors, hey, if you want your money back in this private credit, which we told you're going to have above junk bond returns, well, you can get half of it back.
00:28:15.300 The other half we got to think about.
00:28:17.160 You know, you just can't withdraw it.
00:28:19.620 That's a huge issue.
00:28:20.660 That deals with what we're going through, geopolitical risk, war, and the rumor of wars.
00:28:25.560 Where you find out about it, Birch Gold.
00:28:27.200 It's not about the price of gold.
00:28:28.340 It's the process of what drives the value of gold.
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00:28:46.700 Talk to Philip Patrick on the team.
00:28:47.880 He was great yesterday on the show.
00:28:49.880 I don't want to thank the audience we had.
00:28:52.060 The president was down with the shield of America, the hemispheric defense, which is obviously something the world would love to focus on.
00:29:00.260 But right now we have other concerns that are top of mind.
00:29:03.800 Sam Fadish, you wrote an amazing piece.
00:29:05.500 You talk about allies, allies being together.
00:29:07.860 This war is metastasizing.
00:29:09.900 President Trump did say yesterday, hey, I don't want the Kurds.
00:29:12.480 I don't need the Kurds in.
00:29:13.880 Of course, remember, President Trump's a disruptor.
00:29:17.260 He's never going to tell you exactly what he's going to do.
00:29:20.280 He wants to leave.
00:29:21.700 When I tell people about Trump, he wants optionality.
00:29:24.780 He always wants a range of alternatives and don't box him into a corner because he always wants a range of alternatives to be able to pivot and sometimes pivot hard.
00:29:34.940 Yesterday on the plane, I don't know.
00:29:36.260 The Kurds, I'm not going to give him the go ahead.
00:29:38.880 But he has talked.
00:29:39.860 I think it's been leaked about special forces to go secure some of the nuclear material.
00:29:44.520 That's what they're talking about, boots on the ground right now.
00:29:46.080 Sam, your piece about America and Israel, because the war in Lebanon and in other areas is starting to increase as it is in the Gulf, not just in Tehran.
00:29:59.180 Maybe Azerbaijan and other places.
00:30:01.300 Your thoughts, sir?
00:30:01.940 Right.
00:30:04.660 Well, I mean, to take off from the point in the article, look, we're in this war with the Israelis.
00:30:11.660 People have different ideas about the extent to which we are in the war because of the Israelis.
00:30:16.580 But however we got here, it is very clear that when the president talks about this, he envisions a happy ending.
00:30:26.100 In other words, even when he says unconditional surrender, then the next thing he talks about is a free democratic Iran working with us, prosperous, all of this.
00:30:35.320 That's how he sees it.
00:30:37.040 That, in some sense, that's what we all on the American side want.
00:30:42.100 It is not clear to me that that is necessarily at all what the Israelis regard as success, meaning if Iran ends up as a much bigger, much more intense Libya,
00:30:58.680 a totally broken, dysfunctional state where people are sold as slaves openly in markets,
00:31:05.560 I'm not sure that is a bad outcome to the Israelis because what it means is an Iran that probably can't threaten them directly isn't building nuclear weapons because it's impoverished and it's in chaos and it's in civil war.
00:31:23.380 But from an Israeli national security perspective, the way they look at things, which of necessity is very hard-nosed,
00:31:31.300 I think that very well could be a success in their view.
00:31:37.180 I don't think anybody on the American side really would view that as a success.
00:31:42.940 We see what happened in Libya, right?
00:31:44.960 When ISIS was that...
00:31:46.080 Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.
00:31:48.600 As you know, and you're one of the experts that turned to it because you know this so well, but I am not a wild, enthusiastic supporter of this war.
00:32:00.780 We are going our way at War Room to show you a range of facts and opinions to make sure it's balanced.
00:32:08.260 However, if it's a chaotic mess, I just don't care.
00:32:13.640 I don't care about Iran.
00:32:14.840 I don't care about the Persia.
00:32:15.840 I just don't.
00:32:16.400 We got enough problems here that we got it like yesterday's thing and to get...
00:32:20.740 I noticed nobody's talking about the 25 million illegal aliens we got in the country.
00:32:25.520 And by the way, last night there was a terrorist attack on this Southwest Airlines.
00:32:29.920 That's why we showed that video.
00:32:31.420 People had put their hands up and they took a guy off or I guess they're figuring out it was a terrorist attack.
00:32:35.740 We got...
00:32:36.480 We heard all the coal open.
00:32:37.800 We got problems here.
00:32:38.560 If it's a chaotic mess, they brought it on themselves and they threw us out 50 years ago.
00:32:45.640 Threw the Shah out, threw any type of Western, because that country was developing a middle class, right?
00:32:52.060 And it may have been huge problems, a police state, all that.
00:32:55.220 But it's much better than today.
00:32:56.660 If it's a...
00:32:57.840 If the outcome here...
00:32:59.640 I don't care.
00:33:00.620 I don't...
00:33:01.000 If we had to spend a second and a dollar for a free and democratic Iran and all this happy talk from Levin and all these guys about that, I could care less.
00:33:11.280 If it's a chaotic mess and they're at each other's throats and they're...
00:33:15.000 The payback, because the only way they're going to get through this is almost like the French Revolution.
00:33:19.520 They're going to purge themselves.
00:33:20.680 We can't do it.
00:33:21.340 So for 30 or 40 years, if they do that, hey, have at it.
00:33:25.020 I could care less.
00:33:26.040 I want to get back here and start getting 25 million bad...
00:33:30.180 You know, the illegal aliens out of the country.
00:33:32.260 So I don't mind that as a war objective.
00:33:35.560 Is that...
00:33:36.840 Do you actually think...
00:33:38.020 I mean, President Trump, he is looking at, I think, a World War II model.
00:33:41.880 Where the Nazis and Imperial Japan and all the bad guys, it turned out to be a happy ending, right?
00:33:50.020 Or at least a relatively happy ending.
00:33:52.880 And you're saying the Israelis don't want that.
00:33:57.080 They'd much rather have just a mess in Iran?
00:34:01.280 I think they would be very...
00:34:02.680 Personally, I think they would be very happy if it ends up as a broken, dysfunctional country consumed by civil war.
00:34:09.080 But even if we attack, if we adopt, you know, your thesis, which is, okay, look, guys, it's your country sorted out, which certainly on some level I agree with fully.
00:34:21.160 The problem is it doesn't just stay within their borders, right?
00:34:25.440 When Libya disintegrated, more Libyans joined ISIS than from any other country in the Middle East.
00:34:31.780 Libya is not the most populous.
00:34:33.140 Syria was blown up, and we unfortunately still get stuck with the implications.
00:34:41.580 It doesn't stay within the borders, right?
00:34:44.640 That's where the terrorist groups take over territory in California.
00:34:47.140 The biggest, are you implying that this is that the law of unintended consequences here, our partners in Qatar, everybody's loving on Qatar, all the influence are hanging out in Dubai.
00:34:57.800 You're saying that the collateral damage here is this thing, it devolves into some hellhole, most logically, will be the potential toppling of those monarchies that control the tiny houses in Qatar, in Saudi Arabia, and in UAE.
00:35:17.520 You know, MBZ came out yesterday, he said, hey, look, and he was talking about Dubai and Abu Dhabi, he said, just because we're beautiful places, and we've tried to westernize a little bit, and we're a huge vacation place, and people love coming here, we're as tough as scorpions, and the Iranians will know if they strike at us.
00:35:34.060 Is that him sending a warning on exactly your thing, the collateral damage here of the collapse of the Persians will spread and topple, supposedly, our most important allies in the region, the Gulf Emirates and Saudi Arabia?
00:35:46.700 Well, look, I think what you're talking about is like you're breaking a sheet of glass, right?
00:35:52.080 There are going to be, it's going to shatter in hundreds of different directions.
00:35:56.980 So, we were talking a little while ago about desalinization plants.
00:36:00.640 The area where we're fighting this war is a desert, and there's like 100 million people that are in that region that rely upon seawater from which the salt has been removed, it's been turned into freshwater, desalinization plant.
00:36:13.500 I don't know, there's like 400, 500, okay, we're now starting to see those desalinization plants hit.
00:36:20.640 The Iranians claim we started it.
00:36:23.380 Who knows what the truth of that is?
00:36:25.640 It doesn't matter.
00:36:26.200 They've already started striking them.
00:36:28.260 Okay, you take those things offline and destroy them.
00:36:31.000 If they are really hit, not just, you know, a minor strike, then they're offline potentially for years.
00:36:42.100 And so, you're now looking at 100 million people who don't have water to drink.
00:36:46.360 You're talking about taking out refineries.
00:36:48.320 Well, again, some of these strikes are relatively minor damage.
00:36:52.460 But if we really start losing major infrastructure like that, you don't put it in operation again next week.
00:37:00.000 So, now you're talking about tens of millions of people without water, and you're talking about the world without whatever oil and natural gas production.
00:37:07.780 So, these are just consequences.
00:37:12.320 I mean, look, we've got crazy stuff going on in Cyprus now, right?
00:37:16.180 The Iranians, actually, I think it was Hezbollah on their behalf, hit the British base in Cyprus.
00:37:22.200 That got the Greeks all energized because the Muslims were attacking their brothers and sisters in Cyprus.
00:37:29.480 So, now they're sending Greek naval vessels to defend Cyprus from the Muslims, right?
00:37:35.380 It's the Battle of Lepanto all over again.
00:37:37.480 And now, all of a sudden, we've got Erdogan talking about sending F-16s to northern Cyprus, which they occupy, to protect Cyprus from the Greeks who are invading again.
00:37:49.880 You know, like, everybody's thinking, what the hell does this have to do with hitting Tehran?
00:37:55.080 But it's that kind of ripple effect as it goes on.
00:37:59.200 And some of it will just be nonsensical.
00:38:01.000 Hang on, Sam, Sam, you're – but when we say – I want – because you spent your career there.
00:38:08.120 The folks over there, I think, the Battle of Lepanto happened yesterday.
00:38:12.120 Yes.
00:38:12.540 These are ancient vendettas versus – you know, Rahim gave me a free Constantine at Tadobel shirt two Christmases ago as a gift.
00:38:22.380 We had a big Christmas celebration at Rahim.
00:38:24.400 And I think the thing got 5 million – Boyle tells me, and I think it's still iconic in Greece that they loved it.
00:38:30.640 It's like 5 million hits or something.
00:38:33.000 They put it up the other day.
00:38:35.020 The Greeks are thinking free Constantinople.
00:38:38.460 I mean, my point is that when you talk about unconditional surrender, you talk about the Persians.
00:38:42.380 These are ancient civilizations that vendettas and wars from 1,000 years ago are as current because they teach their kids.
00:38:49.980 They pass it down.
00:38:50.600 And here in the United States, you can't have – and a lot of times, particularly for younger people, you can't have a logical discussion about the Iraq and Afghan war because they don't really understand the details of it.
00:39:01.580 That's not – in this region, that's not how they're brought up or how they're taught, is it, sir?
00:39:08.520 No, not at all.
00:39:09.740 Look, when I lived in Athens many years ago, there was graffiti on the wall across the street from my house.
00:39:14.820 It's said in Greek, Constantinople is the capital of Greece now and for forever.
00:39:21.020 So a 15-year-old kid, an idiot kid with a spray can, that's what was on his mind, was something that happened in 1453.
00:39:31.960 I mean, come on.
00:39:33.500 That's like not his gang sign or anything else.
00:39:36.980 It's like we got to go retake Constantinople.
00:39:40.460 So, I mean, every group out there has this, you know, some vision.
00:39:46.220 Look, I actually was having – talking to a Greek asset many years ago, a very senior guy, retired military officer, and he actually brought up the Battle of Lepanto, which I think was, what, 1571?
00:39:56.980 And he said, the problem with you guys is you think that we defeated them then?
00:40:02.000 And he was like, they didn't go away.
00:40:03.980 They're still here.
00:40:05.120 And he's – I mean, meaning the Muslims.
00:40:07.740 So, yeah, that's the way the whole region works.
00:40:11.600 There's these kinds of issues that we barely acknowledge.
00:40:15.800 They live and die by this stuff.
00:40:20.160 Sam, hang on for a second.
00:40:21.540 Captain Fennel, if you hold on.
00:40:22.820 Rabbi Willicki's here.
00:40:23.840 Jack Vassolik's going to join us.
00:40:25.280 A whole host of people this morning to make sure we can break it down and give you the best information possible.
00:40:30.840 Big – can't say anything else, but it was, I think, a going next level on bombing in Tehran.
00:40:40.000 Also, Tel Aviv got hit last night.
00:40:42.300 Rabbi Willicki's going to join us.
00:40:43.640 Jack Vassolik.
00:40:44.200 But Caroline Wren is going to update us on Paxton in this Cornyn fight, the nation's capital, and in the great state of Texas.
00:40:54.080 Next in the world.
00:40:55.280 On the CCP.
00:40:57.320 War Room.
00:40:58.140 Here's your host, Stephen K. Mann.
00:41:04.280 Take your phone out.
00:41:05.120 Text BANN, B-A-N-N-O-N, at 989898.
00:41:09.740 That's Birch Gold.
00:41:10.540 You can get access.
00:41:12.780 Totally free, no obligation.
00:41:14.840 To investing in gold and precious metals in the age of Trump.
00:41:18.860 Check it out.
00:41:19.300 Most importantly, you get access to Philip Patrick.
00:41:21.500 You heard Philip yesterday talking about geopolitically what's happening, particularly what's happening in the Gulf and the impact on the ownership of physical gold.
00:41:30.700 So talk to Philip Patrick and the team at Birch Gold and do it today.
00:41:34.680 Bannon, B-A-N-N-O-N, 989898.
00:41:38.400 Simple, fast, quick, and dirty.
00:41:41.060 There's Sam Faddis.
00:41:42.020 President Trump, adamant now, talking about unconditional surrender and putting some meat on that bone, saying the ability not just to project force against allies in the region like Israel or Qatar or Saudi Arabia, but also internally forced projection against their people.
00:42:00.700 I mean, he was very specific when they get to a point where they can't, you know, lay waste to protesters or people that want to, I guess, overthrow the government.
00:42:11.840 That's a pretty hardcore statement.
00:42:14.200 Your thoughts from the view of guys who are picking another supreme leader that may be in the bloodline of the last one we lost and some guys that come from an ancient civilization.
00:42:26.160 How's that going to set with them?
00:42:27.280 You're talking about people who have an apocalyptic worldview.
00:42:34.360 They believe that they will win.
00:42:36.260 They believe the Mahdi, the Iranian Superman, is returning and they effectively have to walk through.
00:42:44.920 Armageddon is a necessary precondition of their ultimate success.
00:42:50.540 In other words, fire brimstone and the end of the world is what you have to go through to emerge on the other side for the inevitable preordained victory.
00:43:01.860 I don't think you want to put those guys in a box and say it's all or nothing, you must quit.
00:43:11.000 Again, there is some chance in my view that at some point some guys in senior positions but not at the top stage what amounts to a coup and depose them.
00:43:21.920 But absent that, they will dig in and I don't think the people have the capacity to overthrow them.
00:43:29.540 So you're putting their backs against the wall and what they will then do is become, they're already doing, is become more desperate.
00:43:36.840 You will see more attacks around the world.
00:43:39.580 Any place they can attack us, including inside the United States, that's, you've got, they're in a corner.
00:43:46.220 I don't think that's what you want to do.
00:43:47.920 This is, this is a death row.
00:43:51.020 So people, and we're bringing another carrier over, we're talking the Brits, we're funneling naval, more naval forces.
00:43:58.420 And as Captain Fidel so rightly picked out, dumb bombs or gravity bombs for real bombing runs.
00:44:04.220 I, obviously the IDF took out a command center with a 50 fighter bomber run the other day.
00:44:09.560 My point is for those, for those of us that would like to see maybe talk about an off ramp, you don't see an off ramp coming on Tuesday.
00:44:16.940 I take it, sir?
00:44:19.800 No, I mean, we are, we are intensifying and look at it.
00:44:23.920 The United States military is the best in the world and its capabilities are truly awesome.
00:44:29.220 We are notching this up.
00:44:30.720 We are, we are digging in and expanding and hitting them harder and harder.
00:44:35.120 And we, we will continue to do so effectively.
00:44:37.480 We've got the best guys and men and women in the, in the world.
00:44:41.120 But I, psychologically, I don't think you are going to achieve what you're trying to achieve.
00:44:46.720 You're just going to make them more desperate and they will look for any place to take this conflict.
00:44:54.660 And it won't be trying to match us man for man with, you know, take on carrier battle groups.
00:45:00.240 It'll be every place that they feel like they can hit us.
00:45:03.300 It will become more and more unconventional.
00:45:05.480 And asymmetric.
00:45:09.480 Sam Faddis, once again, your expertise and judgment, discernment, second to none.
00:45:15.860 Where do people get you now more than ever to read and magazine, to follow your social media?
00:45:21.460 Substack.
00:45:22.420 Andmagazine.substack.com.
00:45:24.480 And I'm on X and, and Getter and, and every place else, but that'll get you there.
00:45:33.360 Thank you, sir.
00:45:34.080 Appreciate it.
00:45:35.840 It came to me as Sam was talking, if you want, and this is not, not exactly analogous, but I think as a form of entertainment, it can be enlightening to people about the Mahdi.
00:45:47.080 When Winston Churchill wrote a book as a young subaltern called The River War about the uprising of the Mahdi in Khartoum in Sudan back in the 19th century, they made a film about it called Khartoum starring Charlton Heston and Sir Lawrence Olivier.
00:46:05.920 Sir Lawrence Olivier plays the Mahdi.
00:46:07.660 And it is absolutely, I've always thought, Charlton Heston plays General Chinese Gordon, who had taken on, I guess, the boxers and then had then pivoted to, he was called back to service to go take on the Mahdi down in Khartoum.
00:46:24.140 Anyway, fascinating, but it shows you the power that was inspired in this Muslim army by the Mahdi.
00:46:32.920 This mythical, this kind of mythical, mythical to us, but real to them.
00:46:38.840 It's quite fascinating.
00:46:40.200 And Churchill's book, The River War, has still been one of the best descriptions.
00:46:44.120 I remember the beginning of it.
00:46:45.300 I can't believe it.
00:46:46.020 We're talking about stuff that we talked about at the very beginning of the global war on terror.
00:46:55.040 We have a Muslim, we have a Marxist, jihadist, Muslim mayor in New York City.
00:47:01.040 And you're seeing yesterday with the nail bombs and now everything coming out about his wife and her social media account as a true hater.
00:47:09.920 You have a Muslim, you have a Marxist, jihadist mayor in the greatest city in the world, the greatest city in the United States of America, the financial capital of the world.
00:47:21.920 These people think very differently than we do, very differently.
00:47:27.140 And you can put on suits and you go to conferences and you can, you know, talk about crypto and everything you're going to do.
00:47:33.900 But they are two radically different civilizations.
00:47:37.940 The Judeo-Christian West, and there's a lot of splits sometimes between the Judeo part of that and the Christian part of that.
00:47:45.460 But it has thousands of years from Athens to Jerusalem to Rome to London to Washington, D.C. and New York City.
00:47:53.500 You see this in this fight we've had in Texas.
00:47:55.680 It's all inextricably linked, but we're in it now.
00:48:00.240 We're in it.
00:48:01.920 It's like that scene in 12 O'Clock High when Gregory Peck walks in and is taking over the bomber command.
00:48:08.100 And he goes up for the first time, turns around these young pilots and said,
00:48:11.540 Hey, I don't want to hear this why we fight.
00:48:15.700 We're in a fight and we got to win it.
00:48:17.660 You saw yesterday in the dignified transfer, the first six came back home.
00:48:26.260 We've got to have their backs.
00:48:28.200 At the same time, we have to face reality of exactly what in the hell are we doing here?
00:48:34.220 What is the plan?
00:48:35.560 What is the commitment?
00:48:37.780 We couldn't be in a more dangerous time as we are now in the beginning of the kinetic part of the Third World War.
00:48:44.740 And how do we bring it to a conclusion that's in the benefit of the United States of America and our citizens?
00:48:52.800 Be back in a moment in the world.