00:00:29.000I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
00:00:34.460Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose?
00:00:38.200If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
00:00:44.400War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Bannon.
00:00:52.320Sunday, 22 March, year of early 2026, Rabbi Willicki is going to join us from Jerusalem here.
00:00:57.000And 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.
00:01:25.340the president's given him now a little over 24 hours he put it out on true social the other day
00:01:32.600at 4 44 4 45 p.m eastern daylight time gave him 48 hours it's going to be fully open or you're
00:01:40.520going to pay the price and we're taking down your entire energy and electric infrastructure
00:01:44.720you just heard back from um i guess the question people have are they a cornered rat or they a
00:01:50.540cornered grizzly uh rabbi first off uh israel jerusalem taking a kind of a pounding uh every
00:01:58.300what's what's the what's the report what's the sit rep on how the people in israel doing it
00:02:02.580well the people in israel are resilient and uh everyone is i've never seen so much discipline
00:02:09.100in terms of going to the bomb shelters making you know we get these uh pre-warnings when there's
00:02:14.940missiles on the way and then air raid sirens in whatever region they're going to land in
00:02:19.700everyone goes to the bomb shelters. And that's why, despite all of the rocket attacks and even
00:02:26.020a lot of hits in the last few days, the casualty numbers have been quite low. In terms of deaths,
00:02:32.140they're extremely low. I think we had one or two deaths over the weekend, and that was the first
00:02:38.360deaths in a while, although there have been hundreds who have been wounded. It's now Hezbollah
00:02:44.060and Iran together with coordinated salvos all at the same time. And they're also using cluster
00:02:50.940munitions, which are obviously much more difficult to intercept because they split into so many
00:02:56.560different rockets. And again, let's just remind ourselves again that they specifically are always
00:03:02.540targeting civilian targets. But we're okay. We get the air raid sirens, go into the safe room,
00:03:09.580got some snacks in there, waited out. And it's an interesting atmosphere in Israel because while
00:03:14.360all that is going on, there's actually a sense of kind of satisfaction and even relief that we're
00:03:20.160actually doing this war on terms that are beneficial to us. Because we've always known for
00:03:26.040years, decades, that at some point in the future, there was going to be a big war with the Iranians.
00:03:30.980And the only question was, how bad would it be? What would the conditions be? And, you know,
00:03:36.400So 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.
00:03:49.040well the the the you talk about civilians correct me if i'm wrong but two saturdays ago there was
00:03:56.500essentially a fire bombing or equivalent fire bombing of oil facilities uh storage facilities
00:04:03.160in tehran against a standing order of the commander-in-chief uh and we heard a whole lot
00:04:08.600of hand-waving about that uh but civilians have been targeted in in tehran they've got civilian
00:04:14.340they're not putting out the number of civilian casualties to keep down the thing but do you
00:04:18.360believe and and bb talked about this yesterday is there is there actually a belief in israel right
00:04:23.980now by any of the citizens in israel that there's going to be an uprising against this regime by
00:04:29.660the persian people or have we turned this into now they're all persians and it's a nationalist
00:04:34.840campaign of the persians versus israel in the united states and all the west
00:04:39.320what no not at all i mean there will absolutely be an uprising by the persian people but they
00:04:45.760haven't been called back out into the streets yet, not by Trump, not by Netanyahu, not by anyone else
00:04:50.520or whatever, the crown prince or whoever else they would listen to. They haven't been called back out
00:04:54.920into the streets yet, and there's no reason for them to come back out into the streets. They've
00:04:58.580actually been told to hold off. It's simple math. So long as the IRGC and the besiege forces are
00:05:05.220being degraded day by day, and they are, there's no reason for the people to come out. There's
00:05:11.400no rush for them to come out into the streets. The worst thing that could happen in this war
00:05:15.360for the Iranian people, is for them to come out into the streets before the Basij and the IRGC
00:05:21.200are weakened. And while they would still have the ability to suppress the protests and to kill
00:05:30.380more people, that would be the worst case scenario. It would set everything back. So the people are
00:05:34.200staying in their homes until maximum degradation of the IRGC and the Basij forces. That's what's
00:05:39.720going on now hang on but but hang but hang on admiral cooper it couldn't be clearer
00:05:44.240and except for the first couple of days of the war when there was talk of unconditional surrender
00:05:49.300and one of the war's objectives was no power projection against their own people it's always
00:05:55.400been the the bullet point above that's always been power degrade their power ability for power
00:06:00.900projection against uh entities nations in the region being both israel and our arab allies
00:06:09.720our Arab allies in quotes um that that's Admiral Cooper couldn't be clearer the last
00:06:15.700two weeks of present of of um briefings specifically exclude power projection against
00:06:22.720their own people so if that's not an objective on the declawing and defending and clearly
00:06:28.520it's not because it's not talked about how are they supposed to how are they supposed to think
00:06:33.880about it because when they hear this how they're supposed to think about it as oh they're doing
00:06:37.660against the allies but they're not going to actually get they can't get by air all these
00:06:42.940bad hombres and so there's no chance that we're going to have a chance to go into the streets
00:06:47.100sir well the israelis have been talking about it our our officials have been talking about it
00:06:52.940non-stop that what the israelis are focused on now while the americans are you know we really
00:06:57.800have multiple wars going on there's the there's what's going on in the persian gulf in the straits
00:07:01.560of hormuz which is much more the american arena and what the israelis have been busy with is
00:07:06.140degrading the besiege and the IRGC, hitting their targets and knocking out their command centers,
00:07:12.660knocking out their bases, knocking out their leadership with these targeted hits.
00:07:16.960And they're just degrading them. And they've also said, the Israeli officials have said,
00:07:21.200that when the time comes for the Iranian people to come out into the streets,
00:07:24.760they will be hovering with drones, protecting them from the besiege and the IRGC. They're going to be
00:07:31.160there uh in providing air cover to the protests when the time comes for those things to happen
00:07:36.700and anything you're hearing about the iranian people rallying around the regime is absolute
00:07:42.420nonsense there's no basis in reality for that whatsoever i don't know where i don't know where
00:07:46.400that's coming from uh that's uh i mean that's just not that has just has no basis in reality
00:07:51.700i think i think i think i think that's i think that's coming from every report you see there
00:07:56.760in the streets etc have you seen a report have you seen a news report that says anything different
00:08:02.160can you cite i mean the the people aren't in the streets i don't know what kind of news report
00:08:08.360would say that the people are rallying what evidence they just had a huge they just had a
00:08:11.940huge they just had a huge rally they just had a huge rally the other day for listen they have
00:08:16.420their for their they have their okay listen they have their supporters the besiege and the irgc
00:08:21.360together together it's very similar to the chinese communist party if you add up the besiege in the
00:08:26.500and the IRGC, just the fighting men, you probably have about 600,000 people. Add their families
00:08:33.080together. You're dealing with probably a couple of million people who are the ruling class. That's
00:08:39.260the regime. It's less than 10% of the population oppresses the rest of them. When you see these
00:08:47.160big rallies in the streets, that's all the regime people. Those are the people who come out there,
00:08:54.360But 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.
00:09:13.580The Iranian people are not of that Islamic Shiite ideology of the regime, by and large.
00:09:20.080Probably 75%, 80% of the people reject the regime outright.
00:09:24.240They will come out into the streets, as they have in the past, but this time there's no
00:09:28.780reason for them to, while this war is still ongoing, from the air with the leadership
00:09:36.800I think there's a lot of misinformation here about what's actually happening in Iran.
00:09:41.560The 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.
00:09:53.160Meaning, almost by definition, if you're seeing stuff coming out from Iran on the internet, it's coming from people aligned with the regime.
00:10:01.820And that's part of what makes this a strange war.
00:10:04.460Because there's no ground operation, there's no embedded journalists.
00:10:08.680We don't have independent reporting here.
00:10:10.480We really only have what gets filtered through from what the regime allows out.
00:10:17.000But I don't see any reason to think that the trend with the Iranian people over the last decades has been reversed suddenly.
00:10:26.120Hang on. You're not dealing with information.
00:10:29.220You're dealing with – you say this, you're dealing with supposition.
00:13:03.280You'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.
00:17:03.160Talk 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?
00:17:23.340Oh, 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.
00:17:46.420They'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.
00:17:56.420They're actually an arm of Iran, meaning when Hassan Nasrallah was killed, his replacement was appointed in Tehran.
00:18:03.540They're actually, like, when the beepers blew up, one of the beepers was on the ambassador of Iran in Beirut.
00:18:10.900And 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.
00:18:28.640And the Israelis, I said this to you last time I was on your show,
00:18:31.260it was a mistake that the Israelis were actually kind of hoping they'd make,
00:18:34.940because this goes back to the ceasefire with Hezbollah going back more than a year,
00:18:39.440where the Lebanese government committed itself to disarm Hezbollah by the end of 2025.
00:18:44.980And of course, they did nothing of the sort.
00:18:46.560They don't even have the ability to do it.
00:18:48.140But the Israelis sat back and said, OK, you know, we'll give you a chance.
00:25:33.040The most that NATO seems to be doing, and this is on a nation-by-nation basis,
00:25:38.240is saying, like the UK, which is your most reliable NATO ally in Europe right now,
00:25:44.320we do not want to get involved with any offensive actions and that's like that's even from the the
00:25:51.040uk um germany is doing something i think with japan to uh try to ease up the international
00:25:59.280trade routes but it's somewhat symbolic i think as you said at the beginning of the show we need
00:26:05.220to sit back and wait what happens this is a turning point is it is an inflection point in
00:26:09.920in the war and whether president Trump decides to follow through with his ultimatum will dictate
00:26:16.160I think whether NATO decides to redefine the present situation with regards to NATO as being
00:26:24.500fundamentally not of the alliance's interest right now or whether NATO will fall in line
00:26:31.420and support the US. I don't see any indication of that from the chancers across Europe right now
00:26:39.000Steve. Most European leaders seem to realize that the third Gulf War in as many decades is
00:26:44.420politically toxic. Hang on for one second, Ben. We're going to come back to you on George
00:26:49.960Papadopoulos' also with a short break. Back in the warm on Sunday in a moment.
00:26:57.760He says if Iran doesn't fully open without threat, the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours,
00:27:02.840from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various
00:27:08.920power plants, starting with the biggest one first. Has the president changed his mind about winding
00:27:15.560down the war, as he said a day earlier, and instead plans to escalate? I think he said he could wind
00:27:22.260the war down at any time he wants. And, Kristen, this is the only language the Iranians understand.
00:27:28.840But this seems to be an escalation, a threat of escalation, and it seems to run counter
00:27:35.340to his statement that he, in fact, wants to wind down the war.
00:27:38.580Again, Kristen, the president's been very clear from the beginning
00:27:41.840that the goals are destroy the Iranian Air Force and the Navy
00:27:46.420to completely demolish their missile capabilities,
00:27:51.640demolish their ability to replenish those capabilities,
00:27:55.360make sure the Iranians can not have a nuclear weapon,
00:27:58.180and stop their ability to project power internationally.
00:28:01.720And the president will take whatever steps it takes to achieve those goals.
00:28:05.880What we have done, there has been a campaign to be using military assets to soften up the Iranian fortifications along the strait.
00:28:17.840That's going to continue until they are completely demolished.
00:28:21.380And, 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.
00:28:28.260If 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.
00:31:20.640I have to say, if you'll forgive me the analogy,
00:31:23.960much of the talk about defanging, degradation and all the rest of it,
00:31:29.580I can't help but think that the US-Israeli campaign so far,
00:31:34.280if that's what it leads to, you're going to say bye now over to you guys.
00:31:38.460It's much like the opening five minutes of Team America
00:31:41.220and the liberation of Paris from the terrorists.
00:31:46.340Look, you know, let's tie all this together.
00:31:49.020What was I saying just before the break that the reason Europeans don't want anything to do with this
00:31:54.480is because politically they realise that a protracted third Gulf War in as many decades is political suicide.
00:32:04.680It's politically toxic. That's why they want nothing to do with it.
00:32:08.740And 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.
00:32:31.620um so let's look at what Scott Besson was saying again using these words which we heard
00:32:39.440to justify the the the Ukraine war the escalate to de-escalate what is that signaling and what is
00:32:46.100President Trump's indication that his European NATO allies are cowards are signaling I think
00:32:52.100Steve this is and this is somewhat a communication strategy asymmetry between the US side and the
00:33:28.420that are calling them a coward, that's meant for the US domestic audience, that's meant for MAGA.
00:33:32.960EDEM, Scott Besson's saying let's escalate to de-escalate, because of course the key word
00:33:38.580that everyone is going to look at there isn't so much the escalation, it's the de-escalation,
00:33:44.740because there is this instinctive view, I would suggest, in the administration, that the
00:33:50.700toleration for this war, whilst it's been high so far, is going to taper off very, very quickly.
00:33:57.740And 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.
00:34:21.340And hang on. George Papadopoulos joins us.
00:34:26.840George, you've got a great geostrategic sense, particularly when it comes to that part of Eastern Europe, Russia, the NATO allies.
00:34:35.720You've also got some thoughts about pipelines, how we get around this.
00:34:38.240But 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?
00:34:47.060Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely right that the president has to start selling this
00:34:52.820to the American public because we're entering the fourth week of this conflict. And the last
00:34:58.600thing we want with the midterms right around the corner is mission creep or a war of attrition or
00:35:03.100this to metastasize across various borders. So it's time to start really thinking outside the
00:35:09.620box. And I think we have to start looking at the situation in terms of clearing systems,
00:35:14.860currency settlements, and reserve diversification, and how we could actually attack our preeminent
00:35:22.960military, political, and security threat, which is China, which is basically utilizing
00:35:28.140Iran as a junior partner to wage not only this hot war against the United States, but there's
00:35:34.960also a silent war against the U.S. dollar and its status as a global reserve currency that many
00:35:41.160people aren't really talking about, which they should, because it's the economy. It's all about
00:35:47.940the economy and it's about oil prices. And if the United States can somehow take Iran out of China's
00:35:57.880fear of influence and integrate them into their own Western projects, including this new finance
00:36:05.920and trade and pipeline design called the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor, and similarly the way that
00:36:13.100they've attempted to remove Russia from China's fear of influence, then I think this military
00:36:19.920conflict will actually start to fizzle out. Iran and the United States and the world will actually
00:36:26.060have something to work constructively towards instead of ballistic missiles, drones, and
00:36:30.740blockades. And China will ultimately be the biggest loser, which I think at the end of the
00:36:36.140day, Steve, and you've been talking about this for years, that's where all of our focus should
00:36:40.500really be on, how we compete with China. And the longer this war with Iran continues, the weaker
00:36:46.020our position against China ultimately is. And that's something that we have to really recalibrate
00:36:50.900and rethink moving forward, especially with the election right around the corner.
00:36:55.460how do you how do you if if you get a strategic overview of that and you said hey that's my
00:37:02.260sunlit uplands i can get there you've got unfortunately you've got a pretty stark
00:37:08.140reality in front of you you've got this situation in hormuz in the persian gulf and remember i keep
00:37:13.860telling people this the guys are supposed to be your allies you know the israelis have a whole
00:37:18.520different geostrategic outlook of this this is why they're like they're like in the last scene
00:37:24.340of the first godfather they're they're trying to take it all down every enemy they got at the same
00:37:29.880time that's why i asked for licky about gaza they've got a very distinct plan to do that and
00:37:34.960while they've got you know an administration that's open to these types of things or at least
00:37:39.880listening they're full on but you also got our other allies in the persian gulf that at one hand
00:37:48.220they're sitting there going this is horrible they're attacking us they're attacking our
00:37:50.720desalination plants are attacking our oil capacity we may not be able to be up online
00:37:54.760in five years and they're going to have cash problems but they're loving the fact because
00:38:00.220under trump's the the core and the underpinnings of the trump economic plan folks is what that
00:38:08.160we've said over and over again full spectrum energy dominance leading with oil and gas
00:38:14.140or oil down at, you know, below $50 a barrel, maybe with a four handle in front of it.
00:38:21.360Now you're talking, you know, Ben saying some guy's talking 200 bucks. The CEO of United is
00:38:26.120talking 170 bucks. All of them talking 100 bucks to 2027. The Arabs are loving this because they
00:38:32.180got a problem. They got a, they've got an asset that's depleting that at 40 bucks with their
00:38:37.180lifting costs at about 20, uh, makes a certain amount of cashflow with lifting costs at 20
00:38:42.680and selling for 120 that's nirvana and so and then you've got the european allies who don't
00:38:49.560want to do anything the red sea and the strait of hermuz are 100 and trump's right for them and
00:38:55.220they don't they have put social welfare programs out there to help their workers and they're having
00:39:00.800the american working class and middle class paying for a navy of which obviously a former
00:39:06.180naval officer i i i i love our navy and naval forces and the great sailors and officers that
00:39:13.980have done this but we have multiple carry battle groups and now amphibious ready groups pouring
00:39:18.900over there to keep the red sea and the strait of hermuz open for them so every ally we have
00:39:25.100is actually looking after themselves and the united states is left with the burden of doing
00:39:29.560this and yes that may be as you know we're totally against the ccp but i got the secretary
00:39:34.540treasurer he's a smart guy who's sitting there going the 140 million barrels that is restricted
00:39:39.440on this high seas for the iranians we're going to let him sell it i think most of that's going to
00:39:44.780the wait for it chinese communist party give me a minute of that i'm gonna have you through the
00:39:49.520break and so i i see the overall strategic of where it could go but it's so many uh it's so
00:39:56.880many difficult things we have to go through including going back to 324 BC to Alexander
00:40:05.180the Great who had the same logistics problem he decided to march half his army and put the other
00:40:09.560on boats and they still had to contend with the Persian Gulf and the guys on the coast because
00:40:14.420the guys on the coast today are exactly like the guys on the coast there in 324. I might also add
00:40:21.240as a side note, that when he got to Babylon, he either got a disease or they poisoned him,
00:40:27.840but Alexander the Great didn't get any farther past Babylon. There he died. And that should be
00:40:34.400a lesson to everyone. George Papadopoulos, Ben Harnwell from Rome, on the other side in the war room.
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