00:00:01.000If you're going to fight the war on terror, a good place to start would be this nation's haunted houses.
00:00:07.000According to the experts, the actual scary part about Islamic terror attacks isn't what happens to the victims.
00:00:13.000The real victims of terror attacks in the United States are Muslims, our toxically empathetic, even sinister Democratic and media elites are so scared of the truth about radical Islam that every single time a terrorist shouts, Allahu Akbar, they immediately respond by shouting, Islamophobia.
00:01:32.000And you can tell when you go to a place like Abu Dhabi or Riyadh, like, oh man, I hope we don't ever wind up with a society like this with a rape rate of zero where you leave your keys in your Lamborghini and don't ever worry about it being stolen.
00:01:46.000To all Muslims growing up during that time in America, I am sorry on behalf of America for the way that you were treated.
00:01:53.000When I go back and I re-examine that propaganda, that brainwashing that took place in the classroom to make me scared of something I didn't even know what a Muslim was.
00:02:02.000The real problem in the United States is not radical Islam.
00:02:27.000I'm so sick of our lives not mattering.
00:02:30.000I think of on 9-11 when my teacher pulled me out of school, pulled me out of class, rather, a classmate of mine, myself, and told us that we may get bullied because of what just happened.
00:02:40.000The past few days and weeks have brought about all too familiar fears.
00:02:46.000Fears that they will be targeted, profiled, or attacked simply because of who they are, how they worship, or how they look.
00:02:55.000Many of you in the Muslim American community, the Arab American community, the Palestinian American community, and so many others are outraged and heartied, saying to yourselves, here we go again with Islamophobia and distrust we saw after 9-11.
00:03:13.000I get messages that say the only good Muslim is a dead Muslim.
00:03:30.000Now, if you believe the people who tell you all these things, you are the sucker.
00:03:33.000And if America ignores the very real problem of radical Islam and you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you'll end up dead.
00:03:41.000That is the message across America for the last couple of weeks, and it's coming in loud and clear.
00:03:45.000Yesterday alone, there were two Islamic terror attacks.
00:03:48.000The first happened at Old Dominion in Virginia, when ISIS-linked Mohammed Baylor Jalo, 26, stormed a classroom asking if it was an ROTC class.
00:03:59.000Alihu Akbar, I know you're shocked, and shot the professor, Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shah, several times before a group of heroic cadets jumped into action and stabbed Jolo to death.
00:04:46.000Fox News reports that Jolo was forced to leave the military after he tried to provide material support to ISIS.
00:04:52.000He was a follower of Anwar al-Aliki, the now dead leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
00:04:57.000The DOJ prosecution documents show that Jolo praised a July 2015 terror attack in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in which a radical Islamist killed four Marines and a Navy sailor.
00:05:06.000He was actually arrested in 2016 after attempting to buy an assault rifle in northern Virginia and then sentenced to 11 years in prison.
00:05:13.000Then he was released just 15 months ago for good behavior.
00:05:17.000So we released an actual honest-to-God ISIS-affiliated terrorist into the population for good behavior.
00:05:24.000Did he drop his terror support somehow?
00:05:27.000If so, what was the evidence that he had?
00:05:29.000Why did America owe him a free run of the country after he decided to side with an actual honest-to-God terrorist group?
00:05:36.000And now an American hero is dead because of it, Lieutenant Colonel Shah, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Atlantic Resolve, and also a teacher.
00:05:44.000When he was arrested, it should be noted, Jolo received the victim treatment from leftists in the media.
00:06:16.000Halfway across the country at one of the biggest reformed Jewish synagogues in America, a radical Muslim suspect named Ayman Khalazi, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Lebanon who received a visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was naturalized under the Obama administration, tried to drive an explosive-laden car into the entrance of a preschool with 140 students in attendance.
00:06:37.000According to the New York Post, he, quote, barreled down the hallway before security opened fire, killing the suspect.
00:06:44.000That attack started a fire in the building.
00:06:46.000The driver was killed while he was in the car.
00:06:48.000Police found in the car a rifle and mortar shells.
00:06:51.000It is worth mentioning at this point, it was indeed a good guy with a gun that stopped the terrorist.
00:06:55.000That good guy with a gun was a trained security force that has become necessary at nearly every Jewish institution in America, thanks to the rise of anti-Semitism on all sides.
00:07:05.000Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard explained.
00:07:32.000In addition, all Jewish facilities in the area are going to have a lot of extra presence around it until we figure this out.
00:07:39.000Now, the suspect allegedly came from Dearborn Heights, Michigan.
00:07:43.000This synagogue was located 20 miles north of Dearborn, an Islam-dominated city represented in Congress by radical Islamic terror apologist Rashida Talib.
00:07:53.000In recent days, some Dearborn mosques have been preaching in favor of Ayatollah Khomeini.
00:08:00.000We're gathered here today to commemorate the martyrdom of the great leader of our time, Sayyid Ali al-Hussain al-Khaminai.
00:08:12.000We might think this was an attack led by Zionist Jews, but the commander of their mission is the very one who is trying to prove that Adam was not worth prosperity torking in their symbology, their ideologies, their psychology, their economy, claiming they follow the laws of Moses and Deuteronomy.
00:08:41.000Iblis is the hidden commander of today's society.
00:08:46.000Regardless of the stools we put at the desk of the old office, Republican or Democrats.
00:08:51.000But even if a thousand elections come to pass, it is clear that this country was built for and built by the Epstein class.
00:09:01.000And that just like Palestine, we lived on stolen land when the devil worshiping Freemasons reached these shores and the Zionists minded Christopher Columbus who came to explore and they genocided the natives and put the one eye of the devil on their currency to put their plans in full sight.
00:09:23.000While the statue of liberty is actually Lucifer, the demonic bearer holding a torch of light.
00:09:32.000Wow, I didn't realize the Candace Owens did a show from Dearborn.
00:09:35.000In any case, in 2025, the city decided to honor terror-supporting activist Osama Siblani with a street sign.
00:09:41.000Siblani is a radical Muslim who openly speaks of his pride in terror leaders like deceased Hezbollah head Hassan at Nasrallah, whom he called a great leader, saying he was proud of him.
00:09:52.000He also advocated for Hezbollah to make Israel, quote, taste the Lebanon poison.
00:09:56.000When a resident of Dearborn showed up at a city council meeting to protest naming street after this radical Islamist, the mayor of Dearborn, one Abdullah Hamou, told him to get out of the city and then called him, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, an Islamophobe.
00:10:10.000Hezbollah, you know, bombed the embassy in Beirut and including many Americans.
00:10:18.000So I just feel it's quite inappropriate.
00:10:21.000And although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here.
00:10:25.000And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city because you are not somebody who believes in coexistence.
00:10:35.000That is the mayor of a city in the United States.
00:10:37.000You don't believe in coexistence if you think that actual streets should not be named after actual terrorist supporters.
00:10:43.000Now, unsurprisingly, there were some people in the media who found excuses for the terror attack at the synagogue.
00:10:49.000Over on GB News, one commentator explained that this was an Israeli temple and thus presumably deserving of its fate thanks to Israel's actions.
00:11:20.000So they're called the Real Israeli Temple, yes, and they do align with Israel and their beliefs.
00:11:28.000Of course, the argument here seems to be that if you are a pro-Israel Jew in the United States, then it's totally fine for a terrorist to drive a car laden with explosives into your synagogue.
00:11:38.000Then there was Ryan Grimm, formerly of The Intercept, who reported that the terrorists had family members recently killed by Israel in its current action against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
00:11:46.000Even if that's true, it makes for a rather strange defense of this terrorist action.
00:11:51.000The mass murder of 1,200 Jews on October 7th in Israel has caused precisely zero Jews, zero, to drive an explosives-laden car into a mosque or near a Muslim school.
00:12:03.000There's just something about radical Islam that isn't quite the same.
00:12:06.000Of course, as we have been following, the two attacks yesterday were not the first attacks of the last few weeks.
00:12:11.000Last week, we reported on a radical Islamic terror attack in Austin, Texas, in which a 53-year-old Senegalese immigrant to the United States killed three people and wounded 13 more.
00:12:20.000He happened to be wearing a sweatshirt that read, wait for it, wait for it.
00:12:26.000And over the last weekend, we saw two ISIS-affiliated radical Muslims throw IEDs at a rally outside Gracie Mansion, all of which led the mayor of New York to spend extraordinary efforts condemning, wait for it, wait for it.
00:12:52.000This was a vile protest rooted in white supremacy entitled Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City.
00:12:59.000I'm the first Muslim mayor of our city.
00:13:02.000Anti-Muslim bigotry is nothing new to me, nor is it anything new for the 1 million or so Muslim New Yorkers who know this city as our home.
00:13:12.000Now, of course, Mamtani is expressing his deep and abiding sorrow at the anti-Semitic terror attack in Michigan.
00:13:18.000He tweeted, quote, the attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan is horrifying.
00:13:22.000My thoughts are with the congregation and all who are shaken by this act of anti-Semitic violence.
00:13:27.000Let's just say I find Zorhan Mamdani's newfound unease with anti-Semitism a little unconvincing, especially given the fact that his wife is a gigantic fan of terrorist activity against Jews and recently illustrated an essay book for an author who rants about Jewish vampires, demons, and ghouls.
00:13:45.000That author wrote shortly after October 7th, quote, whether or not Israel indeed knew of the plans in advance, those few freedom fighters inspired not only the whole of Palestine, but the oppressed masses worldwide to imagine what freedom looks like, what resistance is possible, and what life is attainable.
00:13:59.000So yeah, I'm going to withhold my kudos to New York's terror-supporting mayor.
00:14:04.000And the recent history of radical Islamic terror in the United States is unfortunately quite rich.
00:14:08.000Between April 2021 and December 2025, according to the House Committee on Homeland Security, quote, more than 60 cases of individuals linked to or inspired by foreign terror organizations were recorded in the United States.
00:14:21.000How does this radical ideology spread in America?
00:14:43.000Well, first off, we can stop future immigration from radical Islamic countries and other third world areas where we can't vet our immigrants at the source.
00:14:51.000You cannot import problems from other parts of the world, require zero assimilation, and then pretend that the big issue is Islamophobia.
00:14:59.000I mean, here's video from just last year from the southern border.
00:15:42.000So become a subscriber over at dailywire.com/slash subscribe.
00:15:45.000According to the Daily Wire, illegal immigrants have been filing habeas petitions that force their release at rates never before seen.
00:15:52.000Reporter Jenny Terr writes, quote, illegal immigrants have filed more than 18,000 habeas petitions since Trump's return to the White House last January.
00:16:00.000That is more than all of the habeas petitions from the past three administrations put together.
00:16:05.000U.S. Attorney Timothy Courtain told the Daily Wire, quote, in most of them, they're granting bonds.
00:16:10.000We've been losing almost all of these and folks will be released.
00:16:12.000Habeas petitions move DTE's cases out of immigration court and into the district court docket.
00:16:19.000And once they're there, judges can offer migrants a lot more relief than they would ever get in immigration court.
00:16:26.000Once citizenship is granted, it is very difficult to revoke.
00:16:29.000But that brings us to yet another solution.
00:16:31.000We ought to enforce the law to revoke the citizenship of people who associate with terrorist groups or who favor totalitarian forms of government.
00:16:42.000Under Title VIII, U.S. Code, Section 1484, quote, no person shall hereafter be naturalized as a citizen of the United States who advocates the establishment in the United States of a totalitarian dictatorship or who advocates or teaches the overthrow by force or violence or other unconstitutional means of the government of the United States or of all forms of law or the duty,
00:17:03.000necessity, or propriety of the unlawful assaulting or killing of any officer or officers, either of specific individuals or of officers generally of the government of the United States or of any other organized government because of his or their official character or the unlawful damage, injury, or destruction of property or sabotage.
00:17:22.000In fact, under the law, citizenship can be revoked under section 1451 if it was, quote, procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation.
00:17:32.000If enforced properly, this would mean revocation of citizenship for a wide variety of radical Islamists living in the United States right now.
00:17:39.000Now, listen, this law is difficult to enforce.
00:17:42.000It requires a high degree of evidentiary demonstration.
00:17:45.000But that degree ought to be met when you affiliate with an actual terrorist group.
00:17:50.000And if it is not, then the law itself ought to be changed to allow for revocation of such citizenship.
00:17:56.000America does not owe a duty to people who seek to destroy America in the name of radical Islam.
00:18:02.000Until the law is either enforced to the letter or changed, we have an enormous number of people in the United States who are devotees of radical Islam.
00:18:08.000What's more, we've been told by one entire political party that mentioning this inconvenient fact is tantamount to Islamophobia, fear of Islam itself.
00:18:19.000Calling out radical Islam need not entail attacking every Muslim as a radical.
00:18:23.000American Muslims are indeed far more moderate in disposition overall than Muslims in Europe or the Middle East.
00:18:28.000But there are mosques that provide material support to terrorist organizations, and they ought to be shut down in accordance with the law, as should all organizations that do the same.
00:18:39.000We'll get to the bigger problem, the much bigger problem in just a moment.
00:18:42.000First, today's episode is sponsored by American Beverage.
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00:20:53.000There is a bigger problem than even radical Islam.
00:20:56.000Americans' toleration and indeed celebration of radical Islam.
00:21:00.000Zoran Mamtani was elected to the mayoralty of New York while preaching exactly the same messages as Rashida Talib and Ilhan Omar.
00:21:07.000Mamtani's solidarity with open terror supporters like Mahmoud Khalil, who was at Gracie Mansion days ago, speaks volumes about the political left's unwillingness to come to grips with radical Islam's predations.
00:21:19.000On the same day that there were two radical Islamist terror attacks, Senator Chuck Schumer spent his time tone policing Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
00:21:26.000He posted, quote, Muslim Americans are cops, doctors, nurses, teachers, bankers, bricklayers, mothers, fathers, neighbors, mayors, and more.
00:21:33.000Islamophobic hate like this is fundamentally un-American, and we must confront it whenever it rears its ugly head.
00:21:40.000To which Senator Tuberville quite properly responded, quote, calling radical Islam out for being a cult doesn't make you an Islamophobe.
00:21:46.000Radical Islamists chant death to America and would love to see every Christian and Jew murdered.
00:21:51.000Under Sharia law, if you are not a Muslim, you are the enemy.
00:21:54.000Under Sharia law, minorities are persecuted.
00:21:56.000Under Sharia law, women are sold, raped, and trafficked.
00:21:59.000Don't believe me, read it for yourself.
00:22:01.000Radical Islam is not compatible with the Constitution and has no place in America.
00:22:07.000Atheist writer Christopher Hitchens famously tore into the very concept of Islamophobia now in 2009.
00:22:17.000Resist it while you still can, and before the right to complain is taken away from you, which will be the next thing, you will be told you can't complain because you're Islamophobic.
00:22:29.000The term is already being introduced into the culture as if it was an accusation of race hatred, for example, or bigotry, whereas it's only the objection to the preachings of a very extreme and absolutist religion.
00:23:12.000The very unwillingness of the West to speak openly about the evils of radical Islam leads to its importation and its promotion and then to its fruit, terrorism and murder.
00:23:21.000I'm not sure, honestly, there has ever been a better visual representation of this phenomenon than this video from outside Gracie Mansion last weekend of a left-winger shouting about the wonders of open borders, only to be used as a human shield by an ISIS-affiliated terrorist throwing an IED.
00:23:40.000But for those who have decided that America's institutions are fundamentally flawed, the real enemy is not radical Islam.
00:23:48.000This is why, presumably, so many leftists are raging at President Trump like idiot woman child and official Lord Farquhad from Shrek lookalike, Grenada Thunberg.
00:23:58.000We need to talk about what's happening in Cuba right now.
00:24:01.000As the Trump administration is waging illegitimate wars across the world, killing countless people, it is also strangling the Cuban people deliberately, methodically, and openly.
00:24:14.000We should mention that the Cuban people have been under the thumb of a communist dictatorship for, you know, 70 years.
00:24:22.000This is also why Nick Fuentes, a true hater of the country, says he is rooting for Iran.
00:24:32.000I'm rooting for deterrence to be reestablished.
00:24:36.000This is not a war, ironically, that we want to win.
00:24:39.000This is maybe a war that it's better if we lose.
00:24:44.000Now, I'm not sure about you, but I have never identified a war that I want America to lose.
00:24:50.000A West that hates itself is a civilization that imports ideological cancer to its shores.
00:24:55.000Now, radical Islamic states have learned already they can exploit the West's own stupidity and blindness for their own ends.
00:25:01.000Iran has imported cells of terrorists throughout Europe and Latin America and South America, and yes, into the United States.
00:25:06.000And now they're trying to use those terrorists as leverage to stop the United States from finishing off the regime.
00:25:11.000This, by the way, is literally the purpose of sleeper cells, leverage.
00:25:15.000And useful idiots help Iran in their quest.
00:25:18.000Yesterday, one CNN analyst, Juliet Kayyam, blamed the Trump administration for the synagogue terror attack.
00:25:24.000I think it's absolutely that he said specifically in the last two weeks, he has been in contact with federal authorities as well as the Jewish community about the heightened threat level.
00:25:36.000It is something that all of us have been warning about, that this may be a regional war, but it's going to have global consequences.
00:25:44.000And one of them is going to be incitement, radicalization in particular, as Islamic terrorist groups are utilizing the war like ISIS to go online and to lure people to violence.
00:26:00.000Again, the idea here seems to be that everything is blowback to America.
00:26:04.000But the reality is that Iran and other countries like Iran set up such cells.
00:26:09.000And the fact that radicalized terror supporters are going active in support of Iran, they do this because they wish to push us off the ball.
00:26:44.000Well, I mean, first is what we're watching right now, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
00:26:50.000Iran can keep that straight closed essentially for as long as they want.
00:26:54.000And we can't necessarily get into it outside a classified setting, but this is maybe the primary reason why we have not been willing to open up a full-scale war with Iran, because they can control that strait.
00:27:06.000They can move energy prices from $100 a barrel to $200 a barrel.
00:27:10.000They could essentially shut down the global economy, which they are in the process of doing.
00:27:18.000Well, yes, Iran is indeed attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
00:27:21.000They are bragging about their ability to spike the price of crude oil.
00:27:24.000They are threatening to choke off the global economy.
00:27:27.000The new supreme leader of Iran, Moshtaba Khamini, who's not making any public appearances since he may be actually missing a leg or in a coma or dead.
00:27:37.000They're putting out like cardboard cutouts of him and then written statements.
00:27:40.000Well, he put out a written statement, or someone near him, put out a written statement, explaining that the Strait of Hormuz should be used as a tool to pressure the enemy.
00:27:46.000Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says that right now it's not possible for the Navy to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, but we may do so shortly to reopen it.
00:27:56.000Is it your belief that the volume of ships going through the Strait of Hormuz will be improving immediately from now?
00:28:03.000It is my belief that as soon as it is militarily possible, the U.S. Navy, perhaps with an international coalition, will be escorting vessels through.
00:28:20.000Why would we possibly want a regime that threatens to shut off global trade every time they murder 35,000 of their own citizens?
00:28:29.000Why would we want that regime to continue to maximize its power?
00:28:35.000If such a regime went nuclear, then they would have more leverage.
00:28:39.000If they had a full complement of ballistic missile capacities, they would be far less vulnerable to the sort of military strikes that could break their stranglehold on global trade routes.
00:28:48.000It turns out, easy rule, when we allow our enemies to grow stronger, our life gets harder.
00:28:55.000By stopping the Iranians, we actually strengthen our position in the world.
00:28:59.000I've been very critical in the past of the president's trade advisor, Peter Navarro, but he is totally right when he wrote in the Wall Street Journal yesterday: quote: If the geopolitical risk associated with Iran were reduced, oil prices would fall toward their underlying supply and demand equilibrium.
00:29:14.000Market evidence suggests equilibrium prices could be well below $60 a barrel.
00:29:18.000Confronting Iran's destabilizing behavior is first and foremost a matter of national security, but it also promises to reduce the persistent geopolitical risk surrounding Persian Gulf energy flows and bring down the Iran terror premium.
00:29:32.000You know where we typically don't worry about oil flows being choked off by tyrannical regimes, where there aren't tyrannical regimes, or where are the regimes allied with the United States.
00:29:42.000All of which brings us to the current update on Iran.
00:29:45.000So, tragically, yesterday, the United States lost a military aerial refueling tanker.
00:29:49.000Four service members were reportedly killed.
00:29:51.000The tanker went down over Iraq in an incident that did not involve friendly fire or enemy fire.
00:29:56.000It seems it involved a crash between two U.S. aircraft.
00:29:59.000The other aircraft landed safely in Tel Aviv.
00:30:01.000Obviously, our prayers go out to our heroes on the front lines and their families.
00:30:06.000Meanwhile, Israeli drone strikes have been taking out specific IRGC positions inside Tehran.
00:30:11.000The goal, presumably, is to clear the way for Iranians to take to the streets and then overthrow the regime.
00:30:16.000According to the Jerusalem Post, information has been sent by Iranians on the ground to the Israelis.
00:30:20.000Quote: Iranians on the ground have been transmitting information in Persian through Israeli social media accounts.
00:30:25.000According to the report, the information is first verified and vetted by Israeli authorities.
00:30:30.000Action is taken only after it is found to be accurate.
00:30:37.000According to Crown Prince Reza Pallavi, who has many supporters in the country, things ought to stay that way until the Iranian people are unleashed on the tyrannical government.
00:30:45.000Here was Pallavi yesterday says the regime uses schools, mosques, and other public places to hide its repressive forces and create human shields.
00:31:01.000For your own safety, stay away from such locations.
00:31:09.000And my special message to bureaucratic employees under no circumstances report to your workplace.
00:31:17.000Do not sacrifice your lives and safety for the survival of the Islamic Republic.
00:31:23.000Do not allow yourselves to be used as human shields.
00:31:29.000Do not let your work and activities become tools For the repression of your fellow compatriots.
00:31:37.000Use your resources and access to disrupt the process of repression.
00:31:40.000Well, meanwhile, Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, was crystal clear about the state of the Iranian regime at a presser this morning.
00:31:46.000Here's what he had to say: We know the new so-called not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured.
00:31:55.000He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video.
00:32:20.000And moreover, when the press court inquired whether the administration even thought about the chokehold at the Strait of Hormuz, Secretary Hegseth stated the obvious, yes, duh, we thought about that.
00:32:34.000We recognize it because ultimately we want to do it sequentially in a way that makes the most sense for what we want to achieve and ensure that we're sending the right signals to the world when we do so.
00:32:46.000So when Chris Wright speaks or we speak, it's based on a full assessment of what we're up against, what we want to say to the world, how we want them to see and understand the conflict.
00:32:56.000It's like this whole idea of the war widening.
00:32:58.000That's what the press wants to make it look like.
00:33:02.000No, we're actually closing in on grabbing hold of and controlling what objectives we want to achieve and how we want to achieve them.
00:33:10.000It's called shaping operations and setting the conditions.
00:33:12.000But when you shape the environment, you don't always tell, I mean, foolish political leaders and foolish military leaders of the past will hang an exact deadline on it.
00:33:21.000Or here's exactly when we'll do what we're going to do, or here's how long it's going to take us.
00:33:25.000And then if you meet that, maybe you meet it.
00:33:29.000If you're far beyond, we know exactly what we're shaping and why.
00:33:32.000And in case you're still not convinced that our military knows what it's doing, Secretary Hegseth was asked specifically about Tucker Carlson objecting to the war, calling it disgusting and evil.
00:33:43.000Particularly from your fellow Fox News alum, Tucker Carlson.
00:33:47.000He called the war disgusting and evil and then said of unconditional surrender, which the president has called for means foreign troops get to rape your wives and daughters.
00:33:55.000Have you heard these comments and what's your reaction to them?
00:33:58.000We're busy executing on behalf of great patriotic Americans with a clear mission that's 47 years overdue.
00:34:05.000And we're going to execute on that regardless of what people say about it.
00:34:09.000So essentially, we now have a battle of wills.
00:34:12.000The will of President Trump and his administration and our military against the will of the Iranian Ayatollahs and the IRGC.
00:34:18.000Iran is hoping that the West will crack and simply back away.
00:34:21.000But if the West doesn't, the regime is in serious, serious trouble.
00:34:25.000And there are, as we have been discussing continuously, levers that can still be pulled.
00:34:29.000Iran's capacity to attack shipping can be stopped.
00:34:32.000Karg Island, the choke point for the entire Iranian oil industry, can be taken with special operations.
00:34:37.000Iran nuclear materials can be captured as well.
00:34:39.000In fact, as Iran ups the ante, the goals of the war must shift as well.
00:34:43.000Iran's willingness to mine the strait of Hormuz and attack shipping directly means this must now be considered a terror capacity of the regime and must be dismantled.
00:34:51.000The war in Iran isn't over yet, but Iran's government has only one strategy and one strategy only.
00:35:00.000And their ally, fifth columnists and panicans in the West, who will trade a little temporary relief for long-term insecurity.
00:35:06.000Thank God for the president, who doesn't seem inclined to acquiesce to this weakness.
00:35:10.000He posted overnight on Truth Social quote, We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise.
00:35:15.000Yet, if you read the failing New York Times, you would incorrectly think we are not winning.
00:35:47.000Well, folks, a lot of hot topics in the news.
00:35:49.000What better time than to join me, Michael Knowles, and Andrew Clavin for a live afternoon edition of Friendly Fire, conversations about the biggest stories in the headlines, the media narrative surrounding them.
00:35:58.000And of course, we will talk a little bit of Oscars.
00:36:01.000Watch Friendly Fire live today, 2 p.m. Eastern on dailywire.com and the DailyWire Plus app.
00:36:06.000Joining me on the line to discuss the status of the U.S.-Iran conflict is John Spencer.
00:36:11.000He's a combat veteran military analyst and one of the world's leading experts on urban warfare and modern military strategy.
00:36:16.000He also serves as the executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute.
00:36:25.000So why don't we begin with where you think the war currently stands, what the United States's goals should be in this war, and how close are we to achieving those goals?
00:36:34.000So I think at this point, we're historic.
00:36:37.000Really, there's no comparison to even how this operation opened.
00:36:41.000I do believe this might be the first war where no matter how many times our senior leaders say what the goals are, the media runs with what they think they are.
00:36:50.000As of 30 minutes ago, the Secretary of Defense went on TV again to say the objectives are very clear, deny nuclear capability, destroy the missile shield and all of its parts and components, and destroy the Navy.
00:37:04.000If you take those goals, not what people think they are, that it's not a regime change war, then we're doing ahead of schedule extremely well.
00:37:14.000Soon, the Iranian military will not have a Navy.
00:37:19.000They will not only not have missile launchers, missiles, the ability to manufacture more missiles.
00:37:26.000They will also be continuing their weekend at Bernie's leadership style, where we don't know if he's alive or dead and just in a hole like a rat, sending out Telegram notes, I guess.
00:37:39.000So, you know, from a military analysis, I think they're ahead of schedule, measurably achieving the objectives.
00:37:48.000War is always uncertain, so nobody knows where to actually end.
00:37:52.000But as of this morning, 16,000 targets, 90 ships.
00:38:35.000So let's talk about the sort of shadow purpose.
00:38:38.000So a lot of people are speculating that this is about regime change.
00:38:41.000Obviously, it would be very good for the region and the world if the regime were to change in Iran.
00:38:45.000The regime lashing out, it does feel like it is in serious, serious trouble, which is why it is using, as you called it, the bar fight tactic, firing more ordnance at UAE than it has fired directly at Israel by a multiple.
00:38:58.000And not only that, now just shooting random ships in the Straits of Hormuz in an attempt to stop the flow of oil and put pressure on the United States to stop its own action.
00:39:08.000We should talk about the Strait of Hormuz because obviously 20% of global oil transits the Strait of Hormuz.
00:39:13.000An enormous amount of that oil actually heads for China.
00:39:16.000And the Iranians continue to allow oil that is directed toward China out through the Strait of Hormuz with that without shooting it.
00:39:23.000The big question becomes, this is an Iranian offensive capacity to shut the Strait of Hormuz to prevent the flow of oil.
00:39:29.000Should it be on America's target list to reopen the Strait of Hormuz?
00:39:33.000And how would you go about doing that?
00:39:34.000How should America see the Strait of Hormuz situation?
00:39:39.000And that's why the destruction of the Navy was one of the goals set on the opening day.
00:39:44.000And again, every leader every day is going out and saying the goals, but that keeping the Straits of Hormuz and more importantly, taking away that threat that Islamic regime of Iran has been doing for 47 away from holding the world economy at hostage so it can continue terrorism is a major goal.
00:40:02.000So it's not like we haven't done it before.
00:40:05.000If you remember the end of the Iran-Iraq war in the late 1980s, President Reagan, another great president, did Operation Earnest Will because they were attacking the tankers called the tanker war.
00:40:17.000And we, the U.S. Navy, started escorting ships.
00:40:21.000Phase one was to destroy everything that was moving along the shoreline.
00:40:25.000Now, of course, today there's more stuff, but the immense amount of destruction that the United States Navy, United States military is doing right now to destroy anything that could deny traffic, disrupt traffic through the Straits of Abhormus.
00:40:40.000The sinking of those 90 vessels, the attack of the mine lane ships, anywhere they might be hiding anything.
00:40:47.000And then the next phase is you escort.
00:40:49.000And even the secretary, both secretaries involved in the U.S. operations said that militarily, when it's convenient or not convenient, when it's possible with the lowest amount of risk, the U.S. Navy, like in 1988, will start escorting the frigates and the commercial supplies through there.
00:41:08.000And remember, that operation went for a year, and there was actually a U.S. Navy vessel that was basically hurt.
00:42:00.000It appears that lines of communication have been broken between the central government in Tehran and various IRGC facilities throughout the country.
00:42:08.000Israel has destroyed an enormous number of IRGC facilities.
00:42:11.000Israel is now sending suicide drones into the streets of Tehran to take out actual checkpoints that are run by the IRGC, presumably in the hopes of fostering an uprising in Tehran today.
00:42:21.000There was a big march in Tehran with the IRGC escorting top members of the government through the streets in an attempt, I assume, to show some sort of remaining strength in the background.
00:42:31.000You can see Israel still hitting targets directly in Iran, like blocks away, which shows a couple of things.
00:42:36.000One, that the Iranian government is not in control of its guys.
00:42:39.000And number two, that the Iranian government is very, very confident that Israel and the United States are not, in fact, targeting civilians.
00:42:44.000Because if you are marching your top leadership in the streets with a bunch of civilians, and the United States and Israel know that, and they could theoretically kill you, and you're relying on civilians to prevent that killing, that is assuming the humanity of the United States and the Israeli military.
00:42:59.000So it actually gives the lie to many of the arguments made about the United States and the Israeli military that Iran is deliberately saying we are perfectly happy to walk in the streets knowing there are civilians around because we know the U.S. and Israel won't actually kill us if there are too many civilians around.
00:43:13.000But back to the sort of generalized topic of what ought to happen next.
00:43:17.000If the United States were to try to pursue a faster collapse of the Iranian regime, I've mentioned on the show Kharg Island, which is a coral island about 15 miles off the coast of Iran, and 90% of all Iranian crude is processed there.
00:43:30.000Do you see the possibility that the United States military unleashes a special operation to take Karg Island, essentially choking off the final vestiges, and indeed the entire centralized economy of the Iranian state and essentially ending the IRGC's capacity to do anything?
00:43:46.000Ben, I think it's quite possible, but this is what we've seen.
00:43:50.000The whole idea of telling the world what the United States won't do and what Israel won't do.
00:43:56.000I think that's a potentially option as much as special forces operations to secure the 60% rich uranium that is out there.
00:44:06.000Possibly, the chairman just a few minutes ago said that today will be the biggest day of our strikes.
00:44:14.000I think the whole purpose of war is not to let your enemy believe that they can continue doing what they're doing.
00:44:21.000And that is absolutely one of the potential variables.
00:44:26.000And this is the, you know, what we know about war, as Klauso has said, is, you know, three-fourths of his fog is covered in a fog that we don't know.
00:44:33.000But we've seen this a lot of influencers that want to know everything and they're predicting everything.
00:44:39.000It's potentially absolutely a possibility, as much as we've seen Israel going after all of those levers that the Islamic regime uses to suppress.
00:44:48.000And the minute they think they can, they'll go out and start killing the population so they don't get an ideal to do this uprising, like attacking the IRGC headquarters, the besieged headquarters, anything, cyber, all the levers that we saw them use in January to kill over 35,000 civilians.
00:45:06.000But if you tell you, if anybody comes on your show and tells you what's going to happen, you just don't have them on again.
00:45:13.000So, John, I think that the biggest question here is obviously the endgame.
00:45:17.000How long this is going to last if the United States leaves with the Iranian regime still in power, but tremendously weakened, missing its forward capabilities, unable to support terrorism, basically on its last lags and isolated, sort of like the Cuban government is currently.
00:45:36.000Measure the win or loss against the objectives that the president said on March 1st.
00:45:41.000And then every leader from Secretary of War to the GR Chief of Staff has said since then, this is about taking away all of those levers which the Islamic regime wanted to use as an umbrella to continue their plan for the Middle East.
00:45:56.000And that's been upset since October 7th.
00:45:59.000No matter what, I believe after this, if this operation stops tomorrow, the United States is safer.
00:46:05.000The U.S. bases in the region are safer.
00:46:07.000Israel is safer because the goals were set, deny that nuclear program, destroy that ballistic missile shield that it's clearly wanted to use to terrorize the world and prevent it from using that threat of closing the Straits of Hermuz from us.
00:47:12.000According to the Calci markets, 76% of people believe that one battle after another is going to win Best Picture.
00:47:18.00023% believe that Sinners is going to win Best Picture, Hamnet at three, Marty Supreme at two, sentimental value at one.
00:47:27.000So it is very likely that one battle after another is going to win.
00:47:30.000I'm going to say Sinners is going to win.
00:47:32.000I think Sinners is going to win mainly because when it comes right down to it, when it comes right down to it, so many Academy voters feel better about voting for the Wocus movie as opposed to the movie that really is about the evils of America and white supremacy and illegal immigration crackdowns and all of the rest.
00:47:51.000I think Sinners is going to pull this one out.
00:47:52.000I think this will be a big shock of the night is when Sinners wins Best Picture.
00:47:56.000Timothy Chalamay has dropped to second place in the Calci markets behind Michael B. Jordan in Sinners.
00:48:18.000I think he's fine in Sinners, but Chalamet should be winning.
00:48:22.000Apparently, he was winning until he announced that film may be a dying industry.
00:48:27.000He doesn't want to see it be a dying industry, but it may be a dying industry like, say, opera and ballet.
00:48:32.000And everybody's been going nuts over that, which, I mean, listen, as a fan of both ballet and opera, those aren't exactly the big moneymakers.
00:48:39.000They're essentially driven at this point by major donors who want to see the opera continue.
00:48:45.000And when it comes to best supporting actor, unbelievably, Sean Penn is leading in the best supporting actor category.
00:48:50.000This is unbelievable to me because I think that his performance in one battle after another as a white supremacist cop who has a sexual fetish for a black revolutionary, I think it's a truly bad performance.
00:50:06.000I mean, I think that she is the only star who is in a best picture-nominated film that actually has a shot of winning and got any sort of coverage.
00:50:17.000I didn't really like Hamnett very much.
00:50:19.000With that said, Jesse Buckley is at 96% in the Calci odds.
00:50:25.000Best original screenplay, apparently Sinners is way ahead, which I find insane since Sinners is basically just a ripoff of From Dawn to Dusk, the Terence Hino film, but with a bunch of racism attached.
00:50:36.000But we will see how exactly all of this goes in the Oscars.
00:50:42.000If you want to see my full breakdown of all of these movies, again, I watched every single Oscar-nominated film this year.
00:50:48.000I watched all of them, so you don't have to.
00:50:50.000My full review will be released on my YouTube channel tomorrow.
00:50:53.000So if you want to prep for the Oscars, but you don't actually want to watch so many of these movies the way that I had to for you, the people, head on over to YouTube, check out my channel tomorrow, 10 a.m. Eastern.
00:51:05.000Alrighty, folks, coming up, there is more show, but the show is only available to those of you who subscribe.
00:51:11.000And this is where I answer your most burning questions.
00:51:13.000So, you and I, behind the paywall, we could be best friends.