Bannon's War Room - March 22, 2026


Episode 5237： War With Iran Enters Fourth Week Cont.


Episode Stats


Length

50 minutes

Words per minute

171.91779

Word count

8,665

Sentence count

374

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

52

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Rabbi Willicki joins me in the War Room to discuss the latest developments in the Iran crisis, including Iran's response to Trump's latest threats to close the Strait of Hormuz and force a Strait of Tirch.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is the primal scream of a dying regime.
00:00:07.000 Pray for our enemies.
00:00:09.000 Because we're going medieval on these people.
00:00:12.000 Here's one time I got a free shot at all these networks lying about the people.
00:00:17.000 The people have had a belly full of it.
00:00:19.000 I know you don't like hearing that.
00:00:20.000 I know you try to do everything in the world to stop that,
00:00:22.000 but you're not going to stop it.
00:00:23.000 It's going to happen.
00:00:24.000 And where do people like that go to share the big lie?
00:00:27.000 Mega Media.
00:00:29.000 I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
00:00:34.460 Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
00:00:38.200 If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
00:00:44.400 War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
00:00:52.320 Sunday, 22 March, year of early 2026, Rabbi Willicki is going to join us from Jerusalem here.
00:00:57.000 And the Jerusalem Post did post a response. It's a little more, it's a little edgier than the first one they gave. In response to Trump's, and I'm quoting the Jerusalem Post, in response to Trump's statements, the central headquarters of the Iranian armed forces said that it will fully close the Strait of Hormuz if, and I quote here, America's threats regarding Iran's power plants are implemented, unquote.
00:01:25.340 the president's given him now a little over 24 hours he put it out on true social the other day
00:01:32.600 at 4 44 4 45 p.m eastern daylight time gave him 48 hours it's going to be fully open or you're
00:01:40.520 going to pay the price and we're taking down your entire energy and electric infrastructure
00:01:44.720 you just heard back from um i guess the question people have are they a cornered rat or they a
00:01:50.540 cornered grizzly uh rabbi first off uh israel jerusalem taking a kind of a pounding uh every
00:01:58.300 what's what's the what's the report what's the sit rep on how the people in israel doing it
00:02:02.580 well the people in israel are resilient and uh everyone is i've never seen so much discipline
00:02:09.100 in terms of going to the bomb shelters making you know we get these uh pre-warnings when there's
00:02:14.940 missiles on the way and then air raid sirens in whatever region they're going to land in
00:02:19.700 everyone goes to the bomb shelters. And that's why, despite all of the rocket attacks and even
00:02:26.020 a lot of hits in the last few days, the casualty numbers have been quite low. In terms of deaths,
00:02:32.140 they're extremely low. I think we had one or two deaths over the weekend, and that was the first
00:02:38.360 deaths in a while, although there have been hundreds who have been wounded. It's now Hezbollah 1.00
00:02:44.060 and Iran together with coordinated salvos all at the same time. And they're also using cluster 0.78
00:02:50.940 munitions, which are obviously much more difficult to intercept because they split into so many
00:02:56.560 different rockets. And again, let's just remind ourselves again that they specifically are always
00:03:02.540 targeting civilian targets. But we're okay. We get the air raid sirens, go into the safe room,
00:03:09.580 got some snacks in there, waited out. And it's an interesting atmosphere in Israel because while
00:03:14.360 all that is going on, there's actually a sense of kind of satisfaction and even relief that we're
00:03:20.160 actually doing this war on terms that are beneficial to us. Because we've always known for
00:03:26.040 years, decades, that at some point in the future, there was going to be a big war with the Iranians. 0.91
00:03:30.980 And the only question was, how bad would it be? What would the conditions be? And, you know,
00:03:36.400 So there's a real sense that when we get on the other side of this, we will finally, for the first time in decades, not be living under the threat of this Iranian regime as we have been for so long. 0.91
00:03:49.040 well the the the you talk about civilians correct me if i'm wrong but two saturdays ago there was
00:03:56.500 essentially a fire bombing or equivalent fire bombing of oil facilities uh storage facilities
00:04:03.160 in tehran against a standing order of the commander-in-chief uh and we heard a whole lot
00:04:08.600 of hand-waving about that uh but civilians have been targeted in in tehran they've got civilian
00:04:14.340 they're not putting out the number of civilian casualties to keep down the thing but do you
00:04:18.360 believe and and bb talked about this yesterday is there is there actually a belief in israel right
00:04:23.980 now by any of the citizens in israel that there's going to be an uprising against this regime by
00:04:29.660 the persian people or have we turned this into now they're all persians and it's a nationalist
00:04:34.840 campaign of the persians versus israel in the united states and all the west
00:04:39.320 what no not at all i mean there will absolutely be an uprising by the persian people but they
00:04:45.760 haven't been called back out into the streets yet, not by Trump, not by Netanyahu, not by anyone else
00:04:50.520 or whatever, the crown prince or whoever else they would listen to. They haven't been called back out
00:04:54.920 into the streets yet, and there's no reason for them to come back out into the streets. They've
00:04:58.580 actually been told to hold off. It's simple math. So long as the IRGC and the besiege forces are
00:05:05.220 being degraded day by day, and they are, there's no reason for the people to come out. There's
00:05:11.400 no rush for them to come out into the streets. The worst thing that could happen in this war
00:05:15.360 for the Iranian people, is for them to come out into the streets before the Basij and the IRGC
00:05:21.200 are weakened. And while they would still have the ability to suppress the protests and to kill
00:05:30.380 more people, that would be the worst case scenario. It would set everything back. So the people are
00:05:34.200 staying in their homes until maximum degradation of the IRGC and the Basij forces. That's what's
00:05:39.720 going on now hang on but but hang but hang on admiral cooper it couldn't be clearer
00:05:44.240 and except for the first couple of days of the war when there was talk of unconditional surrender
00:05:49.300 and one of the war's objectives was no power projection against their own people it's always
00:05:55.400 been the the bullet point above that's always been power degrade their power ability for power
00:06:00.900 projection against uh entities nations in the region being both israel and our arab allies
00:06:09.720 our Arab allies in quotes um that that's Admiral Cooper couldn't be clearer the last
00:06:15.700 two weeks of present of of um briefings specifically exclude power projection against
00:06:22.720 their own people so if that's not an objective on the declawing and defending and clearly
00:06:28.520 it's not because it's not talked about how are they supposed to how are they supposed to think
00:06:33.880 about it because when they hear this how they're supposed to think about it as oh they're doing
00:06:37.660 against the allies but they're not going to actually get they can't get by air all these
00:06:42.940 bad hombres and so there's no chance that we're going to have a chance to go into the streets
00:06:47.100 sir well the israelis have been talking about it our our officials have been talking about it
00:06:52.940 non-stop that what the israelis are focused on now while the americans are you know we really
00:06:57.800 have multiple wars going on there's the there's what's going on in the persian gulf in the straits
00:07:01.560 of hormuz which is much more the american arena and what the israelis have been busy with is
00:07:06.140 degrading the besiege and the IRGC, hitting their targets and knocking out their command centers,
00:07:12.660 knocking out their bases, knocking out their leadership with these targeted hits.
00:07:16.960 And they're just degrading them. And they've also said, the Israeli officials have said,
00:07:21.200 that when the time comes for the Iranian people to come out into the streets,
00:07:24.760 they will be hovering with drones, protecting them from the besiege and the IRGC. They're going to be
00:07:31.160 there uh in providing air cover to the protests when the time comes for those things to happen
00:07:36.700 and anything you're hearing about the iranian people rallying around the regime is absolute
00:07:42.420 nonsense there's no basis in reality for that whatsoever i don't know where i don't know where
00:07:46.400 that's coming from uh that's uh i mean that's just not that has just has no basis in reality
00:07:51.700 i think i think i think i think that's i think that's coming from every report you see there
00:07:56.760 in the streets etc have you seen a report have you seen a news report that says anything different
00:08:02.160 can you cite i mean the the people aren't in the streets i don't know what kind of news report
00:08:08.360 would say that the people are rallying what evidence they just had a huge they just had a
00:08:11.940 huge they just had a huge rally they just had a huge rally the other day for listen they have
00:08:16.420 their for their they have their okay listen they have their supporters the besiege and the irgc
00:08:21.360 together together it's very similar to the chinese communist party if you add up the besiege in the
00:08:26.500 and the IRGC, just the fighting men, you probably have about 600,000 people. Add their families
00:08:33.080 together. You're dealing with probably a couple of million people who are the ruling class. That's
00:08:39.260 the regime. It's less than 10% of the population oppresses the rest of them. When you see these
00:08:47.160 big rallies in the streets, that's all the regime people. Those are the people who come out there,
00:08:54.360 But that hasn't but that's that's all photo ops. That's not the numbers. That's not the people in the street. The Iranian. Look, Steve, over the last few years, and this is the Iranians themselves bemoaning this out of the 75,000 mosques in Iran, 50,000 of them have closed because no one shows up to them.
00:09:13.580 The Iranian people are not of that Islamic Shiite ideology of the regime, by and large.
00:09:20.080 Probably 75%, 80% of the people reject the regime outright.
00:09:24.240 They will come out into the streets, as they have in the past, but this time there's no
00:09:28.780 reason for them to, while this war is still ongoing, from the air with the leadership
00:09:33.720 of these forces being degraded.
00:09:36.800 I think there's a lot of misinformation here about what's actually happening in Iran.
00:09:41.560 The truth is, with the internet blackout, the only people who have internet are either a few people who have Starlink and the regime is targeting them, or people who are part of the regime.
00:09:53.160 Meaning, almost by definition, if you're seeing stuff coming out from Iran on the internet, it's coming from people aligned with the regime.
00:10:01.820 And that's part of what makes this a strange war.
00:10:04.460 Because there's no ground operation, there's no embedded journalists.
00:10:08.680 We don't have independent reporting here.
00:10:10.480 We really only have what gets filtered through from what the regime allows out.
00:10:17.000 But I don't see any reason to think that the trend with the Iranian people over the last decades has been reversed suddenly.
00:10:26.120 Hang on. You're not dealing with information.
00:10:29.220 You're dealing with – you say this, you're dealing with supposition.
00:10:32.700 You could be correct.
00:10:34.600 You could be correct.
00:10:35.620 You could also be dead wrong, right?
00:10:37.900 I mean, why is the history of the behavior of the Iranian people?
00:10:42.660 Yep.
00:10:44.620 Shows what?
00:10:45.460 I'm saying the history of these people shows it.
00:10:47.900 There's no, I mean, there's the, all the mass protests we've seen over the years.
00:10:52.500 And like I told you, for example, that indicator of mosque attendance, which is a well-known indicator.
00:10:58.460 The Iranian people, by huge percentages, are against this regime.
00:11:04.880 and they're not going to reverse course because the regime is getting pounded that doesn't make
00:11:10.560 any sense they would only they would they would only they would only reverse course if you made
00:11:14.740 it if you brought them to a nationalist movement of persians it's us versus israel and us versus
00:11:20.780 the united states which israel with the attack on tehran two saturdays ago and then the attack
00:11:26.400 against a standing order of the commander-in-chief of the united states against this oil field which
00:11:31.920 is outrageous and to me all the issues about you know imminent attack and everything like that
00:11:36.600 that's got to wait for another day because we're in the middle of a shooting war right now we have
00:11:40.580 american young men and women exposed but we have a partner and we have a joint as dan senior tells
00:11:46.780 us every day on cnn we have a joint command targeting operation and yet our allies quote
00:11:53.300 unquote our greatest ally continues to do things against the commands of the president united states
00:11:59.860 which is to attack Iranian oil infrastructure and particularly to attack this gas field,
00:12:05.620 which has totally changed the makeup of this war in the last 72 hours, sir.
00:12:11.080 Well, Steve, you know, it depends what we pick and choose to believe.
00:12:14.880 When Axios first reported it, they wrote explicitly behind the scenes to Israeli and U.S. officials
00:12:21.460 said the strike on the gas facility was coordinated between the Israeli prime minister's office and the White House.
00:12:27.620 That's a quote from Axios when it was first reported.
00:12:30.180 The Wall Street Journal reported the same thing.
00:12:32.200 And then afterwards, it was said, no, no, no, no, no.
00:12:33.880 It was just the Israelis and Trump was upset.
00:12:36.200 But unlike, I wouldn't say this is the same thing as what happened in June, where Trump
00:12:40.660 was like actually dropped an F-bomb and was really upset at the Israelis for continuing 0.99
00:12:45.100 after that ceasefire.
00:12:46.880 This is not the same thing.
00:12:48.240 You don't, I mean, Trump, two days later, made a similar threat to them.
00:12:52.480 I don't think it's out of the question that there was a game of good cop, bad cop going on here.
00:12:59.180 Hang on.
00:13:01.380 I mean, that's how it was reported.
00:13:03.280 You're saying – but Axios first said it was reported, and then the president of the United States came out and said, clearly, I don't know what you're talking about.
00:13:10.920 I didn't approve anything.
00:13:12.060 You're saying, hey, look, think of the reality that that was a don't ask for permission, right?
00:13:20.260 scold me later that it was actually a wink and a nod from the United States to go hit that part of
00:13:25.880 the gas room? I don't know what to believe, but I'm saying that Trump's behavior in the wake of
00:13:29.340 this one was not the same as what we saw in June. We didn't see that kind of rage and F-bombs. He 0.84
00:13:34.620 said, I told the Israelis not to do it, and then he turned it around into a threat on the Iranians, 0.54
00:13:38.760 and the threat he just made the other day, this 48-hour threat, is essentially the same threat
00:13:43.880 again. So I think it's not out of the question that this, especially considering the level of
00:13:49.760 coordination here. The Israelis are not fools. Why would they, at this stage of the war, why 0.98
00:13:55.820 would they risk blowing up the relationship with President Trump at a time like that? It makes no
00:14:01.700 sense. I think it is entirely possible. And again, it's very simple. Hang on. It's very simple
00:14:11.880 because there are strong elements in the United States and the American government looking for
00:14:16.940 an off-ramp. And Israel doesn't want an off-ramp. They want to stick through the bitter end. Hang 0.71
00:14:22.160 on, Rabbi, we're going to get right back to you. We're going to talk about what's happening in
00:14:25.660 Lebanon and also this ultimatum. The President of the United States is thrown down hard. The
00:14:29.660 Iranians have come back and said, okay, brother, if you do it, stand by for every oil asset in the
00:14:37.380 region to be under assault. Short break. Back in the war room in a moment.
00:14:46.940 too hard to say what about when you took your shot at the one you called a king
00:14:55.800 where is this song for justice war room here's your host stephen k man
00:15:03.260 uh welcome back uh our own scott besant a secretary of treasury is over at meet the
00:15:13.120 press right now we're going to pull a clip i think the quote that the engine room just was able to
00:15:19.600 grab and we're going to get it booted up in a second sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate
00:15:23.540 you know uh i would hope there were people in the uh around president trump that have read the best
00:15:30.140 and the brightest because that certainly sounds like a lot of the discussion uh with mcgeorge
00:15:35.420 bundy in this crowd around lyndon johnson in 1964 and 1965 and we know how that turned out
00:15:41.300 i think there's got to be some very tough and critical thinking right now particularly uh with
00:15:46.520 this ultimatum uh in the center of gravity of this war has shifted from tehran to the persian gulf
00:15:53.800 and really expand it and as p keeps saying the war is getting tighter and tighter and and more
00:15:59.600 and more concentrated just not it's just not the missile attempt at um diego garcia right it's
00:16:08.940 what's happening in lebanon is what's happening in various regions of the gulf uh and uh and
00:16:14.200 president trump's given a very hard uh deadline for tomorrow and i can tell you i'm sure behind
00:16:21.400 the scenes i'm sure there's a lot going on and trying to negotiate something etc but this is a
00:16:25.080 ultimatum to either open it up and even the iranians i think today blinked a little bit
00:16:29.920 saying hey we're going to open it up to everybody it's not an ally to israel in the united states
00:16:35.220 Well, basically, that would still be, I don't know, 80 percent of the oil.
00:16:39.880 The only the only oil that would go to be the Chinese Communist Party.
00:16:43.500 And I hope that we're not going to let that happen.
00:16:46.760 Rabbi Willicki, look, reasonable men can disagree about what's going on.
00:16:52.920 But I think the targeting situation and I just think there are two sets of objectives here.
00:16:57.120 It's really not working as an alliance.
00:17:00.100 No one could ever convince me of that.
00:17:02.020 But talk to us about Lebanon.
00:17:03.160 Talk to us about what's happening now. Is that going to be a major incursion? Is that strategic? My understanding from reports of a major bombing campaign early this morning in Lebanon by the IDF, and it appears like preparations for a ground invasion?
00:17:23.340 Oh, a significant one. There's been a fairly significant reserve call-up, and a lot of ground forces have moved up there. The Israelis are absolutely planning for a ground invasion. And you're absolutely right to refer to it as another front in this same war. It very literally is, because Hezbollah is Iran. 0.94
00:17:46.420 They're not even, we call them a proxy the same way we call the Houthis a proxy or the Iraqi militias a proxy, but Hezbollah actually has a different relationship to Tehran.
00:17:56.420 They're actually an arm of Iran, meaning when Hassan Nasrallah was killed, his replacement was appointed in Tehran.
00:18:03.540 They're actually, like, when the beepers blew up, one of the beepers was on the ambassador of Iran in Beirut.
00:18:09.840 So they're actually Iran.
00:18:10.900 And that's an important point here. So if Israel's at war with Iran, they're also at war with Hezbollah. And Hezbollah made a massive mistake a couple days into the war where they started firing rockets at Israel as part of this war. They started it here. 0.83
00:18:28.640 And the Israelis, I said this to you last time I was on your show,
00:18:31.260 it was a mistake that the Israelis were actually kind of hoping they'd make,
00:18:34.940 because this goes back to the ceasefire with Hezbollah going back more than a year,
00:18:39.440 where the Lebanese government committed itself to disarm Hezbollah by the end of 2025.
00:18:44.980 And of course, they did nothing of the sort.
00:18:46.560 They don't even have the ability to do it.
00:18:48.140 But the Israelis sat back and said, OK, you know, we'll give you a chance. 0.95
00:18:52.020 Go for it.
00:18:52.580 We'll see if you can do it.
00:18:54.540 And they never did.
00:18:55.980 and the Israelis are once and for all going to go in there and get rid of this threat on our 0.94
00:19:01.120 northern border. And quietly behind the scenes, the Lebanese, and some of them not so quietly, 1.00
00:19:06.560 there's more public figures who are saying this, they're grateful to the Israelis to finally
00:19:10.720 liberate the country of Lebanon from this Iranian occupation it's been under for the last four 1.00
00:19:15.940 decades. So the Israelis are planning a real invasion. They're already clearing out the 1.00
00:19:22.460 populations from the southern part of Lebanon and looking to recreate a kind of buffer zone
00:19:28.200 up to the Litani River, which is about 18 miles from the Israeli border, which is that entire
00:19:35.360 area has been a kind of hornet's nest of Hezbollah tunnels and weapons depots and towns that are
00:19:42.480 basically Hezbollah operatives with their families. So Israel means business this time 0.99
00:19:46.840 and plans to once and for all rid lebanon of hezbollah and that's what's happening uh rabbi
00:19:54.820 you and i are friends but as you know and people know we disagree on a lot but we're still friends
00:19:59.820 uh one thing i've said is the greater israel project brought on this disaster in gaza and 0.96
00:20:06.100 particularly what i call the two-state solution of the qatar of qatar financing in turkey being
00:20:12.460 the security guarantee with president trump's board of peace and he's kind of signed off on it
00:20:16.100 last night a helicopter was shot down it looks like or or had mechanical problems i think it
00:20:21.800 was actually taken out uh with uh with a number of qatar and turkish military officials together
00:20:29.040 is the whole situation in gaza that whole framework of peace is that just really by the
00:20:36.060 board is that not going to happen now given the expanding intensity of this particularly if there's
00:20:41.660 going to actually be ground troops in Lebanon. The Arab nations and the Persians are going to 0.86
00:20:47.720 dig in even harder. Do you think the whole thing in Gaza is just over and finished with, and we'll 0.86
00:20:52.400 have to go back and think something about the Board of Peace, the Qataris as financiers, and the Turks
00:20:57.660 as the security guarantors on the soil of Israel ain't going to happen? Well, that's a great 1.00
00:21:04.600 question. What's going to happen in Gaza? I think from the Israelis' perspective, they're trying to
00:21:09.020 kind of keep it in a holding pattern, keep it on a low boil until we see which way things go
00:21:14.180 with the war in Iran. Because dealing with the Gaza situation in a reality where there's no 0.88
00:21:21.740 longer an Iranian regime, which is not a done deal yet, but dealing with it where there's no longer 0.98
00:21:27.080 an Iranian regime and no longer a Hezbollah on our northern border is very different than dealing
00:21:32.540 with it where there is. And we also don't know where the Gulf states, Saudis, and even where
00:21:38.000 they're all going to fall out in terms of relations with Israel and relations with the
00:21:42.620 United States after this is all said and done. We don't know what's going to happen. If Lebanon 0.99
00:21:46.700 is actually rid of Hezbollah and normalizes relations with Israel, there's a lot of different
00:21:52.500 pieces of the puzzle, including the Egyptians. How are the Egyptians going to respond? They're 1.00
00:21:57.120 always hedging and playing all sides of everything. A big question is always the Saudis. 0.93
00:22:03.320 You know, the Saudis are always also waffling, you know, not waffling. 1.00
00:22:08.120 They're always playing both sides of everything.
00:22:10.260 And where that all shakes down is going to have a lot of impact on how we move forward with Gaza. 0.84
00:22:15.680 And I think from the Israeli perspective, we'd rather not deal with that head on. 1.00
00:22:20.040 And I think that that's why Hamas, no one's noticed this because there's been other headlines in the Middle East. 0.62
00:22:25.980 But Hamas has been scrambling to restart negotiations just in the last, just since this war has started, because they're in a tight spot.
00:22:32.940 their two patrons Qatar and Iran are at war with each other and they got themselves into a pickle
00:22:38.420 where they they praised Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war and and said you know and were
00:22:45.080 cheering for Iran and the Qataris looked at them and said you better walk that back or we're going 0.90
00:22:49.100 to cut you off so they so they walked it back and and told and and condemned Iran for bombing its
00:22:54.580 Arab neighbors and then Hezbollah turned to Hamas and said what are you doing we've been standing
00:22:58.840 with you for years and now you're condemning iran so they they're stuck but uh in terms of
00:23:04.800 what's going to happen in gaza it's just going to have to wait until until the iran war is over
00:23:09.160 because we don't know what the middle east is going to be uh rabbi where do people get your
00:23:16.340 content particularly your videos are always i think great to give people the perspective of
00:23:21.260 what's happening in israel in a very accessible and clear-minded way although everybody may not
00:23:26.040 agree with it. You at least get it. It's accessible. Where do people go? And for your
00:23:31.800 columns. Oh, thank you very much. So for my columns, you can go to the Jerusalem Post. You
00:23:36.980 can find my author page there. And for the videos, go to Israel 365 News on YouTube. We're uploading
00:23:43.620 videos multiple times a week, almost every day now. And Israel365action.com. That's the website
00:23:50.060 you see up on your screen now. Just sign up there for our newsletter and you'll get news and
00:23:54.520 information from Israel, and it won't cost you anything, and you'll get our updates. You'll get
00:23:59.360 all the videos, too. They're all up on that website, and you can follow me on x at RabbiPW.
00:24:06.940 Rabbi, thank you so much for joining us on a Sunday. Appreciate it.
00:24:10.880 Thank you, Steve. Ben Harnwell. Ben Harnwell, the view from Rome and Europe, but you know,
00:24:15.900 our Arab allies, they're not totally unhappy. The United Airlines CEO said he thinks
00:24:24.120 uh oil is going to 180 a barrel he thinks at least 100 a barrel is going to stay through 2027
00:24:30.340 they're doing some cuts uh remember saudi arabia and uh qatar qatar doesn't mind having force
00:24:37.340 majeure to redo those contracts now they'd like to have an oil field that can still provide liquid
00:24:42.420 liquid natural natural gas liquefied natural gas your sense of all this sitting in rome sir
00:24:48.860 bluntly. You can be as blunt as you want.
00:24:52.620 Good morning, Steve. Well, I saw something in the last hour
00:24:56.880 on the news suggesting that oil was going to hit $200
00:25:00.400 per barrel. And this is just, I think, the market's trying
00:25:05.100 to give a price on the uncertainty that
00:25:09.120 exists right now. Really what I want to talk about, if I may, is the situation
00:25:13.360 with regards to your NATO allies here in Europe, with regards
00:25:17.620 to the 48-hour deadline the president has given.
00:25:22.540 I would suggest that that situation, the NATO position,
00:25:26.720 the alliance position, can be defined by not taking a position at all,
00:25:30.380 which is somewhat interesting.
00:25:33.040 The most that NATO seems to be doing, and this is on a nation-by-nation basis,
00:25:38.240 is saying, like the UK, which is your most reliable NATO ally in Europe right now,
00:25:44.320 we do not want to get involved with any offensive actions and that's like that's even from the the
00:25:51.040 uk um germany is doing something i think with japan to uh try to ease up the international
00:25:59.280 trade routes but it's somewhat symbolic i think as you said at the beginning of the show we need
00:26:05.220 to sit back and wait what happens this is a turning point is it is an inflection point in
00:26:09.920 in the war and whether president Trump decides to follow through with his ultimatum will dictate
00:26:16.160 I think whether NATO decides to redefine the present situation with regards to NATO as being
00:26:24.500 fundamentally not of the alliance's interest right now or whether NATO will fall in line
00:26:31.420 and support the US. I don't see any indication of that from the chancers across Europe right now 0.99
00:26:39.000 Steve. Most European leaders seem to realize that the third Gulf War in as many decades is
00:26:44.420 politically toxic. Hang on for one second, Ben. We're going to come back to you on George
00:26:49.960 Papadopoulos' also with a short break. Back in the warm on Sunday in a moment.
00:26:57.760 He says if Iran doesn't fully open without threat, the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours,
00:27:02.840 from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various 0.63
00:27:08.920 power plants, starting with the biggest one first. Has the president changed his mind about winding
00:27:15.560 down the war, as he said a day earlier, and instead plans to escalate? I think he said he could wind
00:27:22.260 the war down at any time he wants. And, Kristen, this is the only language the Iranians understand. 0.99
00:27:28.840 But this seems to be an escalation, a threat of escalation, and it seems to run counter
00:27:35.340 to his statement that he, in fact, wants to wind down the war.
00:27:38.580 Again, Kristen, the president's been very clear from the beginning
00:27:41.840 that the goals are destroy the Iranian Air Force and the Navy
00:27:46.420 to completely demolish their missile capabilities,
00:27:51.640 demolish their ability to replenish those capabilities,
00:27:55.360 make sure the Iranians can not have a nuclear weapon,
00:27:58.180 and stop their ability to project power internationally.
00:28:01.720 And the president will take whatever steps it takes to achieve those goals.
00:28:05.880 What we have done, there has been a campaign to be using military assets to soften up the Iranian fortifications along the strait.
00:28:17.840 That's going to continue until they are completely demolished.
00:28:21.380 And, Kristen, let me tell you, whether it's this network or the mainstream press, the American people do not have good framing what is going on here.
00:28:28.260 If you were to read what is happening, and I'm sure when Senator Murphy is on, you know, he has come out and said we are losing the war.
00:28:35.600 That is wrong.
00:28:37.120 We have demolished the Iranian capabilities. 1.00
00:28:40.880 Their air force is completely destroyed, Navy destroyed.
00:28:45.360 And every day we are taking out their missiles, their missile systems, and the factories that build those missiles.
00:28:51.960 And now the General Cain, Secretary Hegseth, are leading a campaign to destroy all the fortifications along the Straits of Vermont.
00:29:04.740 That's Scott Besson.
00:29:06.040 And I might say that, you know, you would assume Marco Rubio, who's – remember, he's not just Secretary of State.
00:29:11.280 He's National Security Advisor.
00:29:12.820 So he's really the senior advisor to the president in addition to General Cain.
00:29:19.360 It really falls to the National Security Advisor.
00:29:21.340 obviously the secretary of war is in there also but it's national security advisor and the chairman
00:29:25.780 of the joint chiefs of staff i think are the two um senior military advisors um obviously it's pete
00:29:34.900 and the secretary of war but i think marco it's great with scott but he's secretary of the treasury
00:29:39.980 and he's a brilliant guy i think we got a role mark is i don't know if marco's in the witness
00:29:45.480 protection program or not but he ought to be out and he ought to be explaining this to the
00:29:50.460 american people this has to be sold when i say sold it has to be explained to the american people
00:29:55.020 exactly what's going on here because the center of gravity of the war as we have said and been
00:29:59.220 correct for the last two weeks since the fire bombing of our allies in israel has shifted now
00:30:05.540 to the persian gulf and to to wit if you don't believe that within the commander-in-chief of the
00:30:12.040 united states your military force has given the iranians an ultimatum that's pretty tough either
00:30:18.360 The Strait of Hormuz is open for free navigation, or I'm going to take down all your energy and your electricity for your country.
00:30:26.400 And they just came back in a sense, basically bring it.
00:30:30.080 So we're at a pretty big standoff here.
00:30:32.760 Ben Harnwell, how's that going to go down with the President of the United States referred to our NATO allies as cowards, quote, unquote.
00:30:42.080 How is this going to play with that group?
00:30:44.500 and do you see any true participation even as feeble as they are because the houthis once the 0.99
00:30:51.480 houthis get involved in this and they may be the ace in the hole for the iranians once you get the 1.00
00:30:56.720 red sea that that's all about europe this whole thing's about europe and asia and the president
00:31:01.840 said to the american people said a couple times he said hey look maybe we just uh maybe we just
00:31:07.380 do do some more defanging and declawing this week and we head out and toss it to you and uh
00:31:12.840 you go on escort duty, sir.
00:31:18.520 Steve, so much to wrap up here.
00:31:20.640 I have to say, if you'll forgive me the analogy,
00:31:23.960 much of the talk about defanging, degradation and all the rest of it,
00:31:29.580 I can't help but think that the US-Israeli campaign so far,
00:31:34.280 if that's what it leads to, you're going to say bye now over to you guys.
00:31:38.460 It's much like the opening five minutes of Team America
00:31:41.220 and the liberation of Paris from the terrorists.
00:31:46.340 Look, you know, let's tie all this together.
00:31:49.020 What was I saying just before the break that the reason Europeans don't want anything to do with this
00:31:54.480 is because politically they realise that a protracted third Gulf War in as many decades is political suicide.
00:32:04.680 It's politically toxic. That's why they want nothing to do with it. 0.89
00:32:08.740 And that's why Marco Rubio is in the Witness Protection Program, because anyone with 2028 ambitions doesn't want to be on this side of the microphone, this side of the television, defending a war, which if it is still somehow going by the time of the midterms, by the time of 2028, it's kryptonite.
00:32:31.620 um so let's look at what Scott Besson was saying again using these words which we heard
00:32:39.440 to justify the the the Ukraine war the escalate to de-escalate what is that signaling and what is
00:32:46.100 President Trump's indication that his European NATO allies are cowards are signaling I think
00:32:52.100 Steve this is and this is somewhat a communication strategy asymmetry between the US side and the
00:32:58.680 Iranian side, when the
00:33:00.180 Iranian side is signalling something,
00:33:02.620 they're signalling it to Washington, D.C.,
00:33:04.920 almost 100%,
00:33:06.440 of course, because there's very little internet in Iran
00:33:08.640 right now. When the U.S. is
00:33:10.440 signalling things, I'd say
00:33:12.560 75% of that signalling is to
00:33:14.560 the U.S. domestic audience,
00:33:16.800 specifically to MAGUS.
00:33:19.240 And that's where I would
00:33:20.500 put the president's
00:33:22.220 truth, social
00:33:24.660 verbal bomb on the Europeans 1.00
00:33:28.420 that are calling them a coward, that's meant for the US domestic audience, that's meant for MAGA. 0.71
00:33:32.960 EDEM, Scott Besson's saying let's escalate to de-escalate, because of course the key word
00:33:38.580 that everyone is going to look at there isn't so much the escalation, it's the de-escalation,
00:33:44.740 because there is this instinctive view, I would suggest, in the administration, that the
00:33:50.700 toleration for this war, whilst it's been high so far, is going to taper off very, very quickly.
00:33:57.740 And that's what people want. That's what people are going to hone in on and breathe that sigh of relief. It's the de-escalation side of it. Of course, the problem is that de-escalation really leads to de-escalation. And that's why I think it's a pretty dangerous strategy. As I was saying, though, let's wait for this 48-hour ultimatum to pass and then see what kind of territory we're going to be in then.
00:34:21.340 And hang on. George Papadopoulos joins us.
00:34:26.840 George, you've got a great geostrategic sense, particularly when it comes to that part of Eastern Europe, Russia, the NATO allies.
00:34:35.720 You've also got some thoughts about pipelines, how we get around this.
00:34:38.240 But what are your thoughts on what you're seeing, particularly this deadline that the president has now thrown down hard and the Iranians have come back and said, OK, let's roll? 0.99
00:34:47.060 Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely right that the president has to start selling this
00:34:52.820 to the American public because we're entering the fourth week of this conflict. And the last
00:34:58.600 thing we want with the midterms right around the corner is mission creep or a war of attrition or
00:35:03.100 this to metastasize across various borders. So it's time to start really thinking outside the
00:35:09.620 box. And I think we have to start looking at the situation in terms of clearing systems,
00:35:14.860 currency settlements, and reserve diversification, and how we could actually attack our preeminent
00:35:22.960 military, political, and security threat, which is China, which is basically utilizing 0.87
00:35:28.140 Iran as a junior partner to wage not only this hot war against the United States, but there's 0.85
00:35:34.960 also a silent war against the U.S. dollar and its status as a global reserve currency that many
00:35:41.160 people aren't really talking about, which they should, because it's the economy. It's all about
00:35:47.940 the economy and it's about oil prices. And if the United States can somehow take Iran out of China's 1.00
00:35:57.880 fear of influence and integrate them into their own Western projects, including this new finance
00:36:05.920 and trade and pipeline design called the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor, and similarly the way that
00:36:13.100 they've attempted to remove Russia from China's fear of influence, then I think this military
00:36:19.920 conflict will actually start to fizzle out. Iran and the United States and the world will actually 0.94
00:36:26.060 have something to work constructively towards instead of ballistic missiles, drones, and
00:36:30.740 blockades. And China will ultimately be the biggest loser, which I think at the end of the 1.00
00:36:36.140 day, Steve, and you've been talking about this for years, that's where all of our focus should
00:36:40.500 really be on, how we compete with China. And the longer this war with Iran continues, the weaker
00:36:46.020 our position against China ultimately is. And that's something that we have to really recalibrate
00:36:50.900 and rethink moving forward, especially with the election right around the corner.
00:36:55.460 how do you how do you if if you get a strategic overview of that and you said hey that's my
00:37:02.260 sunlit uplands i can get there you've got unfortunately you've got a pretty stark
00:37:08.140 reality in front of you you've got this situation in hormuz in the persian gulf and remember i keep
00:37:13.860 telling people this the guys are supposed to be your allies you know the israelis have a whole
00:37:18.520 different geostrategic outlook of this this is why they're like they're like in the last scene
00:37:24.340 of the first godfather they're they're trying to take it all down every enemy they got at the same
00:37:29.880 time that's why i asked for licky about gaza they've got a very distinct plan to do that and
00:37:34.960 while they've got you know an administration that's open to these types of things or at least
00:37:39.880 listening they're full on but you also got our other allies in the persian gulf that at one hand
00:37:48.220 they're sitting there going this is horrible they're attacking us they're attacking our
00:37:50.720 desalination plants are attacking our oil capacity we may not be able to be up online
00:37:54.760 in five years and they're going to have cash problems but they're loving the fact because
00:38:00.220 under trump's the the core and the underpinnings of the trump economic plan folks is what that
00:38:08.160 we've said over and over again full spectrum energy dominance leading with oil and gas
00:38:14.140 or oil down at, you know, below $50 a barrel, maybe with a four handle in front of it.
00:38:21.360 Now you're talking, you know, Ben saying some guy's talking 200 bucks. The CEO of United is
00:38:26.120 talking 170 bucks. All of them talking 100 bucks to 2027. The Arabs are loving this because they 0.99
00:38:32.180 got a problem. They got a, they've got an asset that's depleting that at 40 bucks with their
00:38:37.180 lifting costs at about 20, uh, makes a certain amount of cashflow with lifting costs at 20
00:38:42.680 and selling for 120 that's nirvana and so and then you've got the european allies who don't
00:38:49.560 want to do anything the red sea and the strait of hermuz are 100 and trump's right for them and
00:38:55.220 they don't they have put social welfare programs out there to help their workers and they're having
00:39:00.800 the american working class and middle class paying for a navy of which obviously a former
00:39:06.180 naval officer i i i i love our navy and naval forces and the great sailors and officers that
00:39:13.980 have done this but we have multiple carry battle groups and now amphibious ready groups pouring
00:39:18.900 over there to keep the red sea and the strait of hermuz open for them so every ally we have
00:39:25.100 is actually looking after themselves and the united states is left with the burden of doing
00:39:29.560 this and yes that may be as you know we're totally against the ccp but i got the secretary 0.72
00:39:34.540 treasurer he's a smart guy who's sitting there going the 140 million barrels that is restricted
00:39:39.440 on this high seas for the iranians we're going to let him sell it i think most of that's going to
00:39:44.780 the wait for it chinese communist party give me a minute of that i'm gonna have you through the
00:39:49.520 break and so i i see the overall strategic of where it could go but it's so many uh it's so
00:39:56.880 many difficult things we have to go through including going back to 324 BC to Alexander
00:40:05.180 the Great who had the same logistics problem he decided to march half his army and put the other
00:40:09.560 on boats and they still had to contend with the Persian Gulf and the guys on the coast because
00:40:14.420 the guys on the coast today are exactly like the guys on the coast there in 324. I might also add
00:40:21.240 as a side note, that when he got to Babylon, he either got a disease or they poisoned him,
00:40:27.840 but Alexander the Great didn't get any farther past Babylon. There he died. And that should be 0.99
00:40:34.400 a lesson to everyone. George Papadopoulos, Ben Harnwell from Rome, on the other side in the war room.
00:40:51.240 If a major disruption happened and you couldn't get to the store,
00:41:01.240 how long do you think you could last with what's in your house right now?
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00:42:30.580 Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
00:42:35.940 Thank you.
00:42:36.900 George, real quickly, you joined us.
00:42:39.600 You were in Russia a couple weeks ago.
00:42:40.740 you said there may be a possibility of a big rapprochement around sorting out this Ukrainian 1.00
00:42:45.560 mess. Now we've got information that, and the president does, that the Russians are helping
00:42:51.400 the Iranians target American forces. There's also the Russians then came back and talked to the
00:42:59.280 president and said, hey, look, you stop having your CIA and DIA target us from Ukraine or from
00:43:06.420 Germany, from Wiesbaden, and we'll stop this. And there's all sorts of negotiating going on.
00:43:10.880 Give me a minute or two on the Russian element in this strategically, sir.
00:43:17.040 Well, strategically, what sanctions have overwhelmingly done against Russia, and I would
00:43:22.540 even add Iran, has made both Iran and Russia junior partners to China. And as a result,
00:43:28.280 there is now a war that China is waging against not only the U.S. dollar as a global reserve
00:43:32.860 currency. But the Strait of Hormuz is exemplifying the war against the petrodollar. That's exactly
00:43:38.980 why Iran now is attempting to sell oil in the yuan. And Russia and China have been selling
00:43:44.300 their own oil in yuan. And obviously, China has invested hundreds of billions of dollars
00:43:49.340 in both of these countries. So at the very large strategic level, we have to understand what China
00:43:53.480 is really doing with both of those countries and how U.S. foreign policy follies have created this
00:43:58.160 very disturbing situation for U.S. interests. Now, related to Iran and Russia, now, it's in
00:44:03.820 U.S. interest to separate China from Russia and Russia from Iran so that the United States can 0.91
00:44:11.300 have a working relationship with the world's largest nuclear power, a European country,
00:44:16.140 and one of the largest oil and natural gas reserves in the entire world. Russia has
00:44:20.880 demonstrated that they are willing to negotiate a ceasefire and some sort of territorial agreement
00:44:26.820 in Ukraine in exchange for normalizing relations, not only with Europe, but the United States.
00:44:31.580 And it's not simply Russia and the United States that have been saying this. European countries,
00:44:36.000 including Finland, Switzerland, have come out openly over the last month and have stated that
00:44:41.460 Russia is a European country. We must negotiate with Russia and we need to open the door once 0.99
00:44:46.120 again to Russia. So there's no longer a reason for the United States to share intelligence,
00:44:51.600 to send money or weapons to Ukraine
00:44:53.600 to continue an interminable conflict
00:44:55.680 against Russia at a moment
00:44:57.480 when we have China to worry about, Steve.
00:45:01.600 George, where do people go to get your content, sir?
00:45:04.840 You can find me on x at georgepapa19.
00:45:10.200 George, great work.
00:45:11.860 Always look forward to the insights.
00:45:13.300 Thank you, sir.
00:45:14.760 Ben, we got about a minute or so.
00:45:16.500 Give me your closing thoughts.
00:45:18.020 We're going to have you back on during the week.
00:45:19.360 Of course, you're doing the Wednesday and Friday show.
00:45:21.380 which are extraordinary.
00:45:23.140 Your thoughts as you leave us on a Sunday, sir, from Rome.
00:45:26.360 Yeah. Okay, 60 seconds.
00:45:28.120 Steve, I think Bibi had absolutely right in the cold open 0.86
00:45:30.580 that the Iranian strike at Diego Garcia
00:45:34.340 was an indication to the world, to America,
00:45:39.380 that it has longer than was understood missile range.
00:45:44.260 It was considered to be about 2,000 kilometers,
00:45:48.880 but now you know it's possibly and the upper reaches around six and a half thousand kilometers
00:45:54.960 which massively widens the amount of damage that the Iranians can do and it's not going to go down 1.00
00:46:00.960 in the annals of fighting war with honor what they're doing but it's certainly effective it's
00:46:06.340 pretty much what the bad guy does in any film that's ever been made put your gun down or the
00:46:11.880 kid gets it and that's what Iran is basically doing right now it's not primarily focusing
00:46:17.920 its targets on striking the united states but striking the united states allies in the region
00:46:23.640 it's effective and we'll we'll see um who blinks first
00:46:27.340 i think uh it's not just who blinks first i think we're going to find out over the next couple of
00:46:33.620 days do we have a cornered rat or we have a cornered grizzly that intelligence is uh you
00:46:40.460 know it's going to be quite important and we'll find out how good these intelligence agencies are
00:46:44.300 and DIA and all of it. Ben, what's your social media, sir, till we get you back on here?
00:46:50.200 My social media platform of choice, Getter. Harnwell is my surname. Tap in at Harnwell.
00:46:56.200 There I am pushing out my daily provocations on Getter. Thanks, Steve. Enjoy the rest of your
00:47:01.260 Sunday. God bless. Thank you, brother. Okay. Grace and Mo are going to have up. We're going
00:47:08.160 to stream all day this debate in the in the senate yesterday tuberville's uh tuberville's amendment
00:47:14.800 for no um men and women's sports went down to defeat uh i think they're going to regroup i have
00:47:21.560 some other things they mike lee is uh and and kudos to him he's fighting a great fight to
00:47:27.400 actually make this more take it from messaging to legislative jenny beth and clita we're getting 0.73
00:47:33.480 updates all the time um and we'll update you on getter uh as you watch it today on our live
00:47:39.680 streaming real america's voice may jump in and out of that also but we'll also be covering it full
00:47:43.740 full stop tomorrow i want to thank rav and everybody for helping us with this sunday
00:47:49.000 show because so much goes on as you can see overnight on saturday saturday night is all
00:47:54.320 right for fighting is that what the song said mike lindell let's leave this morning
00:47:59.160 with an upbeat MyPillow report, sir, as only you can give it.
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00:50:09.640 We'll see you tomorrow, Mike.
00:50:10.580 Have a great Sunday.
00:50:11.400 and you have a great Sunday
00:50:14.560 War and the Rumor of Wars
00:50:17.280 on the Sunday morning edition of The War
00:50:19.720 we're going to see you back here tomorrow
00:50:20.880 we're putting stuff up on Getter all night
00:50:22.940 see you tomorrow