Russell Brand's thoughts on the drone strike that killed 3 US service members in the Middle East, and why we should be worried about Iran's involvement in it, and who might be to blame for the deaths of the service members, and how to deal with the consequences of it, in this episode of his new podcast, Stay Free With Russell Brand . Remember, there s an episode every single day, 7 days, to educate and elevate our consciousness together. Stay Free, and enjoy the episode. No, here s the Fucking News! - Russell Brand. Join us on our voyage to truth and freedom. We bring you in-depth conversations with guests like Jordan Peterson, RFK Jr, Sam Harris, Veena Shiva, Vandana Shiva, Gabor Mate, and many more. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/OurAdvertisers. Use the promo code: "ELISSAFEED" to receive 10% off your first purchase when you enter the invite code: AWAKeningWonders at checkout. Our theme song is Come Alone by The Good Fight by Suneaters, courtesy of Lotuspool Records. This episode was produced and edited by Tall Tales and our ad music is by Haley Shaw, and our tagline is I'm Too Stupid to Die . We hope you enjoy it! - Thank you so much for listening to this episode, we really appreciate it. - Your support is so much more than we can't help us spread the word about it everywhere else. We really appreciate you, and we're looking forward to help you spread it everywhere. Thank you! - The Good News Network. Thank you, There's a little bit more than you can spread it around the word around the world. Love you, Big Love, Thank you. XOXOXOXO - The Best of Good News, Big Talk, Thank You, Your Support is Big Love & Blessings, - Alyssa & Good Morning - P. by by Rachel Maddows . - Vicky - Sarah McCartanon - , Sam Harris - JUICY PODCASTING & Gaborates - SONGS - BONUS EPISODES - GABE - DADDY
00:00:00.000Hello there you Awakening Wonders on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you download your podcasts.
00:00:05.000We really appreciate you, our listeners, and want to bring you more content.
00:00:08.000We will be delivering a podcast every day, seven days a week, every single day.
00:00:13.000You'll get a detailed breakdown of current topics that the mainstream media should be covering, but if they are covering, they're amplifying establishment messages and not telling you the truth.
00:00:23.000Once a week we bring you in-depth conversations with guests like Jordan Peterson, RFK Jr, Sam Harris, Vandana Shiva, Gabor Mate and many more.
00:00:31.000Now enjoy this episode of Stay Free with Russell Brand.
00:00:34.000Remember, there's an episode every single day to educate and elevate our consciousness together.
00:01:35.000We had a tough day last night in the Middle East and may I say that I find it rather appalling when politicians hold public silences when it's their actions and decisions that have led to their tragic deaths of those service personnel and that his subsequent actions will likely lead to the deaths of more service personnel. If you're going to have a moment of
00:01:52.000silence, this should be a moment of reflection where we look at our aims and our objectives
00:01:56.000and our politics and the decisions that we make and the consequences of escalating war and
00:02:00.000tension. Not just, "Here's a minute of silence. Now let's carry on ensuring that loads of
00:02:05.000"We lost three brave soldiers in an attack on our base. And we shall not smile."
00:02:12.000Some people might question why there are 45,000 American service personnel stationed in the
00:02:18.000Some people might be curious as to why 1 million people in that region have died in the last decade or so as a result of US interventionism in that region.
00:02:26.000And who might be responsible for that?
00:02:30.000It's over somewhere else, the Middle East.
00:02:32.000There's 45,000, a small town's worth of service personnel.
00:02:36.000And sometimes, occasionally, those people die, which I think is wrong and appalling.
00:02:41.000I also would like to make clear that I think the people who serve in the military are extremely brave and ought be honoured.
00:02:46.000And I also think they ought be led better and decisions ought be made that don't escalate the likelihood of their unnecessary deaths.
00:02:53.000With America already locked in an escalating confrontation with the Houthis in Yemen over the group's continued attacks on global shipping.
00:03:02.000Yes, it's the Houthis that you'd never heard of before, all over your news cycle, getting Lindsey Graham into a frenzy, saying something like, we have to kill all Houthis, otherwise we can't look ourselves in the mirror and say, there is Lindsey Graham.
00:03:14.000Now Republicans demanding a more forceful response from the US.
00:03:19.000Senator Lindsey Graham writing, I am calling on the Biden administration to strike targets of significance inside Iran.
00:03:29.000I find it kind of personally appalling that people that operate in institutions of bureaucracy are willing to use the language of war so casually when so seldom are they directly affected by the consequences of that language.
00:03:42.000But at least we're 100% certain that Iran are definitely involved and it's not essentially a guess, a hunch, a suspicion, a whiff, a convenient assumption that Iran are involved.
00:03:53.000This is the press secretary of the Pentagon publicly admitting they don't even know if it's anything to do with Iran.
00:03:59.000Just to follow up, you said Iran was behind the attack.
00:05:12.000War is very serious and if the President is planning to go to war with Iran, he needs to come to Congress and ask permission and this is something that Congress has to give approval for.
00:05:23.000Lunatic Marjorie Taylor Greene there saying that Congress should be consulted before embarking on war.
00:05:29.000I mean, I think it's part of the Constitution.
00:05:31.000Now, that rational, sensible, heroic politician Nancy Pelosi claiming that anyone protesting against war is a Putin-apologist.
00:05:48.000What have you got to say, first female speaker of the house?
00:05:50.000Well, anyone protesting against war, yeah, yeah, is a hero, is part of the civil rights movement that led to even the opportunities that you're enjoying.
00:05:57.000Oh no, I'm saying they're liars and that they're funded by Putin.
00:06:25.000She may have the delicate features of a cartoon mouse, but she has the cruel heart of a tyrant.
00:06:30.000And I say that having looked at this for a long time now.
00:06:35.000Do you think some of these protests are Russian plants?
00:06:37.000Do you see how the legacy media participates in the construction of myths while simultaneously saying you've got to watch independent media?
00:07:14.000Although, no, they're entirely separate, aren't they?
00:07:15.000Nancy Pelosi's over here, earning 200 grand a year, and then there's Paul Pelosi, curiously and coincidentally, investing in big tech companies.
00:07:21.000And Nancy Pelosi, though, they've got something to talk about at home, but not in an unprofessional way, because she actually regulates big tech companies.
00:07:26.000So it's good, it's good for the small talk, but they don't let it get involved in the business strategy.
00:07:31.000Tucker Carlson, who's consistently anti-war, posted this on X, quite a succinct response to the dogs of war and their hawkish proclamations.
00:07:41.000Now though, because we don't want to associate too heavily, right kids, with a right-wing extremist like Tucker Carlson and his right-wing advocacy for peace and harmony, so let's get some perspectives from those other right-wing fascists at World Socialist Organization.
00:07:58.000And you'll note how frequently you agree with everything they're saying, almost as if there's this weird new movement at the center of global politics that's not really right or left in the conventional sense, but I don't know, totalitarian?
00:08:11.000Calls for President Joe Biden to take direct military action against Iran are ratcheting up following this weekend's drone attack in Jordan that killed three U.S.
00:08:19.000service members and wounded over 30 others.
00:08:21.000The United States can and must respond to this brazen attack, said Democrat Senator Mark Warner in a post on X. This attack on U.S.
00:08:28.000and coalition troops in Jordan, our steadfast regional partner...
00:08:45.000But the exploitation and rhetoric around this and the obvious attempt to exploit an opportunity to go to war, which I would say probably is part of a broader project that includes profiteering and projects of dominion, are considered to be an insult to the bravery of those people who have lost their lives.
00:08:58.000I support President Biden in a deliberate and proportionate response, added Senator Ben Cardin, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
00:09:08.000Some Republican hawks, many of whom are longtime advocates of regime change, who have been calling for an aggressive response against Iran since October 7th, went a step further, calling for a direct confrontation with Iran.
00:09:18.000The only answer to these attacks Must be devastating military retaliation against Iran's terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East, added Senator Tom Cotton.
00:09:28.000This is a really peculiar moment, actually, because they're saying terrorist forces in Iran, but like almost the definition of terrorism previously was that it was separate from a sovereign state, i.e.
00:09:52.000Iranian terrorist COVID Kanye Wests are attacking our troops!
00:09:57.000The Biden administration claimed the attacks were carried out by Kataib Hezbollah, a militia group the US asserts is backed by Iran.
00:10:03.000Iran has denied any links to the attacks.
00:10:06.000Now we get into some interesting, bigger picture geopolitical facts.
00:10:10.000More than 45,000 troops are deployed in the Middle East associated with decades of US wars throughout the region that have collectively killed over 1 million people.
00:10:18.000Would it be sensible to divorce this attack and this escalation, even the current war in Gaza and all events in the Middle East, from this fact?
00:10:26.000There are 45,000 troops stationed there and a million people have been killed in that region.
00:10:31.000Would you say that's relevant or irrelevant?
00:10:33.000The legacy media will tell you that's irrelevant.
00:10:35.000They won't report on it, they won't responsibly explain it, they won't investigate it.
00:10:39.000They'll just sort of go, oh, you know, Houthis now is the problem and let's escalate tensions.
00:10:52.000Over the past two months, US imperialism has provoked regional war in the Middle East, having already launched multiple attacks on Iraq, Syria, And Yemen.
00:10:59.000And Yemen, that actually sounds like a real country.
00:11:01.000Now the US military is threatening to directly attack Iran, which would engulf the entire region in a bloodbath.
00:11:07.000The Biden administration is playing with fire, creating the conditions for a catastrophe.
00:11:12.000It has systematically provided funding, logistical support and political cover for Israel's war in Gaza.
00:11:18.000Knowing full well that this would provoke retaliation against US forces deployed throughout the region whose deaths would be used as a pretense for further military escalation.
00:11:26.000Many people at the beginning of this conflict said it is a volatile situation and would likely lead to further conflict and those people are now looking like they were accurate in their appraisal as events appear to be becoming More conflagratory and more intense, I would say.
00:11:41.000In response to all criticism of its provocative actions, the Biden administration has responded
00:11:46.000by declaring that it has no intention of waging war against the countries it is militarily
00:12:02.000Asked repeatedly at Monday's press briefing whether the US government is actively considering potential attacks inside Iran, White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby repeatedly replied, we are not looking for a war with Iran.
00:12:14.000Huh, but this is sort of a war, isn't it?
00:12:17.000Notably on January 12th, Kirby used the exact same language with regard to Yemen, declaring, We're not interested in a war with Yemen.
00:12:24.000And yet the United States has carried out dozens of missile strikes inside Yemen over the past three weeks, on over half a dozen separate days.
00:12:31.000Funny way of showing you're not interested in a war, And as a further declaration of our peaceful intentions, here's some missiles!
00:12:39.000I'm glad they don't want a war if this is what they do to achieve peace.
00:12:42.000It seems the best predictor of what country the US military will illegally bomb next is the one the US government declares it has absolutely no intention to wage war against.
00:12:50.000The most ridiculous version of this argument was presented in a White House press briefing on January the 16th.
00:12:56.000And then just going back to something you said about the Houthis, how we're not looking to expand this conflict, How do you square that with the mission of degrading their capabilities?
00:13:06.000I mean, how is that not expanding this conflict?
00:13:08.000Yeah, how is bombing someone not sort of a war?
00:13:12.000Oh, this is friendly bombing, kindly bombing, love bombs, bath bombs!
00:13:16.000So on the second question, I mean, by It's a very simple equation.
00:13:23.000It can't be that simple because I think bombing is an act of war.
00:13:26.000It's at best going to be Orwellian doublespeak and potentially absolute nonsense.
00:13:29.000And I can only assume that these people either think we're stupid or don't think very much at all about anything.
00:13:36.000By removing military capability from the hookies, We are making it harder for them to conduct these attacks.
00:13:56.000Coast guards, in a way, just ensuring that the waterways are protected.
00:14:00.000Oh no, look, there's a heron, an ibis.
00:14:03.000We must look after the precious marshland.
00:14:05.000It's extraordinary that we're invited to accept that an escalation of military action is the best way to get to peace.
00:14:10.000This is the curious logic of the tyrant, and it's more obvious when you see something like Stalin adorned with medals and a mad mustache say out loud and outright, if you knew what I know, then you'd do what I tell you.
00:14:22.000But I haven't got time to explain all this to you.
00:14:31.000That's essentially what's being said here by John Kirby with none of Joe Stalin's panache or Georgian chutzpah, is that if the hoofies are not killed, things are going to get worse.
00:14:40.000They're going to escalate their attacks on these vital shipping lanes and marshlands and precious little reed warblers.
00:14:47.000But it seems to me that what's more likely is there's an agenda in the Middle East, that there's long been an agenda in the Middle East, that's why there's 45,000 troops stationed there, that's why a million people have been killed there, that's why your legacy media is advocating for war, that's why Nancy Pelosi's not being asked any difficult questions, that's why dear old lazy old sloppy old Well, sopiorific, dozy Joe Biden is having a minute's silence and saying there must be retaliation and reaction because it's part of a broader plan.
00:15:11.000Now, I know geopolitics is complicated, but what is plain and simple and obvious is that there are imperialist projects that relate to the military-industrial complex, American expansionism, and a general agenda of total global control.
00:15:22.000So you, I suppose, have to ask yourself, what is this?
00:15:24.000Is the military-industrial complex just responding to random stimuli and arbitrary events, or is this part of a concerted effort?
00:16:14.000Seems like an extreme statement, but based on the logic that we've just heard, that's actually what is being proposed.
00:16:20.000By destroying them, we're making things better down the line.
00:16:23.000In fact, actually, people do literally use that argument about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, don't they?
00:16:27.000Whole Japan would never have surrendered The kindest thing we could have done was to bomb them into oblivion.
00:16:34.000And in fact, you know, Japan built back better.
00:16:36.000I like that phrase, built back better.
00:16:37.000The absurd verbal gymnastics are an attempt to cover up the White House's far-reaching plans for military escalation from the American population, which overwhelmingly opposes further US military intervention in the Middle East.
00:16:51.000Yeah, like increasingly I think people don't want to be in a war in some far away place.
00:16:55.000Say if your family are in the services or you yourself are in the services, don't you think, well, shouldn't we be doing stuff that's really connected to our purpose as a nation and as a people and as a tribe?
00:17:05.000Like, you know, we could be domestically dealing with stuff, we could be preventing threats.
00:17:09.000All of these assumptions that also lead to imperial goals and financial goals being met Oh, probably they're going to do this and then they'll do that, so your sons and daughters should get out there and die.
00:17:19.000That doesn't seem like something that's very popular anymore, so they have to keep presenting it to us as somehow necessary, inevitable, beyond our choice.
00:17:27.000Look at all the rhetoric at the beginning of this article.
00:17:29.000Democrats and Republicans united together against your children's lives.
00:17:33.000Asked on Tuesday why the White House has not informed the American people about its war plans or sought consent from Congress, Which you'd think are two pretty important ideas.
00:17:41.000We're just going to, firstly, before we do anything, tell the American people and then have the due process of Congress.
00:17:47.000Kirby bristled at the suggestion, declaring the Commander-in-Chief is not looking at polling or considering the electoral calendar.
00:17:53.000The United States seized upon Hamas's October 7th attack on Israel to immediately surge troops, warships and aircraft into the Middle East in what the U.S.
00:18:01.000Navy's news publication called the largest mass of U.S.
00:18:06.000This massive military build-up was intended to be used In exactly the way it has been, to carry out a widening series of military attacks throughout the region, aimed at reorganising the Middle East and the US domination.
00:18:17.000So once that fleet of ships is out there, it seems that it's possible, and they know that the legacy media will support this, that you just subsequently look, for instance, and go, Aha!
00:18:37.000Use that simple philosophical trick of imagining it reversed.
00:18:40.000If Iran had a bunch of ships in the Gulf of Mexico, do you imagine that people would be opening ice cream stands up on the beach for them?
00:18:46.000Or do you think that there could be some conflict in the region?
00:18:49.000In less than 10 days after the October 7th attacks, the WSWS warned, the dispatch of an armada of over a dozen warships to the Middle East is not simply to threaten Hamas, which has no navy.
00:19:00.000The United States is preparing for a much broader conflict in the Middle East, including war with Iran.
00:19:05.000Since then, the United States has bombed Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
00:19:09.000Yeah, but just because they've bombed Iraq, Syria and Yemen and Hamas doesn't have a navy, don't see that as a strategic move.
00:19:18.000I mean, don't imagine that there must have been a conversation somewhere within the admiralty, military-industrial complex and pentagons and the conglomeration of those organisations where people said, right, look, we're taking all those warships, it's obviously going to be seen as an act of provocation, but given that we've got this plan to escalate tensions with Iran anyway, There hasn't been no conversations, have there?
00:19:36.000And we already know that the American people haven't been consulted, you know because you are them, and Congress hasn't been approached because it's listed there.
00:19:42.000So by this reckoning, and even by Marjorie Taylor Greene's analysis, this is not a legal escalation.
00:19:47.000What they have to do is go, oh shit, we've got all these Ship's here, thank God, because these provocative oofy bastards are lunatics.
00:20:04.000That's the phrase that we've become familiar with.
00:20:06.000They exploit these crises continually to fulfill an agenda that was already desired.
00:20:11.000The US sees the conflict that has now erupted in the Middle East as a critical component of its existential struggle with Russia and China.
00:20:18.000Significantly, the United States, in the words of a recent article in Foreign Affairs, has taken note of China's expanding relationship with Middle Eastern states.
00:20:25.000In particular, Beijing's effort to broker a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
00:20:30.000So China of China, the monsters that they are, bring about peace between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
00:20:36.000What the hell are you doing over there bringing about peace in that region?
00:20:39.000We've got a lot of money tied up in that region.
00:20:41.000Shut your bloody mouths and let there be escalating tensions, which we can exploit for profit.
00:20:45.000On Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a man who has publicly admitted that he's
00:20:50.000been provoking Putin into war with Ukraine, in a meeting with Secretary of State Antony
00:20:54.000Blinken obliterated any dividing line between NATO's war against Russia and the US conflict
00:21:00.000with Iran and China, declaring "a Russian victory would embolden Iran, North Korea and
00:21:20.000But the idea that the war between Ukraine and Russia has to be perpetuated, otherwise
00:21:24.000China are like "Oh, hello there, what's going on here?"
00:21:26.000By that reckoning, the defeat by Vietnam of the United States during the 1970s would have caused more problems than it inevitably did.
00:21:33.000The lesson of that conflict was not, we always have to win wars.
00:21:36.000It was, stop starting wars in countries that are none of your business.
00:21:40.000That's a lesson, at least, that we could investigate.
00:21:42.000The global war that has now been provoked by US imperialism and its allies in London, Berlin and Paris is part of a global counter-revolution in which the imperialist powers are seeking to re-establish direct control over their former colonies.
00:21:53.000At the same time, US imperialism, beset by massive internal social contradictions, is attempting to channel these internal tensions towards an external enemy.
00:22:01.000These wars also create the framework for continuous attacks on democratic rights and an effort to delegitimize domestic political opposition.
00:22:08.000In fact, war does do a lot of jobs, doesn't it?
00:22:10.000It creates opportunities for revenue and it generates the opportunities to crush dissent at home, plainly.
00:22:17.000I would imagine that over the coming years, if indeed these conflicts do escalate, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, if it sees the conscription of UK troops, as has been suggested through our legacy media in our country, if we see escalating tensions in the Middle East and even hostility between the US and China, Think of what reality is like. Well, I'll give you an idea
00:22:36.000Taken literally from George Orwell. We're in this state of perpetual war and perpetual fear
00:22:41.000Authoritarianism seems more and more necessary and understandable
00:22:45.000We've already seen in the last couple of years that a significant number of people will just stay indoors if told
00:22:50.000to do so Not necessarily because they're docile and compliant. I'm
00:22:53.000not suggesting that actually I'm saying that a lot of people if we're told there's a
00:22:56.000social project that we should all be participating in from a position of like love and general
00:23:00.000goodwill will comply and there's nothing like constantly Escalating fear and threats of death and apocalypse and Armageddon
00:23:06.000to make people more obedient In fact, that's obviously part of the general dynamic. We're
00:23:11.000being encouraged to participate in we've got no choice.
00:23:32.000What interests want this war to happen?
00:23:34.000Who will likely suffer, both financially, emotionally, and most significantly, of course, will experience loss of life of themselves and their loved ones.
00:23:46.000He'll use the hawkish rhetoric of war, but he will not use an M16.
00:23:50.000So what I would suggest is that we remain united in our opposition to escalating conflict and demand that diplomatic solutions are sought.
00:23:58.000And it's a ridiculous demand, really, because we don't have the institutions or personnel in place to seek those kind of conclusions, because this is not an aberration within the system, this is the system doing what it's supposed to do.
00:24:08.000Generate conflicts that generate profit and solicit compliance at home.