Valuetainment - ＂Who The Hell Is Wes Moore？＂ - The 2028 Democratic Frontrunner NOBODY Saw Coming

00:00:00.000 Let me talk to you. As a military guy, Afghanistan, what do you think about what's going on with Iran?

00:00:04.000 I'm actually curious. What's your opinion? Because that's more of a foreign, you know, do you think that could have been prevented?

00:00:09.040 Are you somebody that's saying, you know, you support the president? What is doing? What's your position on that? 1.00

00:00:13.200 It absolutely could have been prevented. And the problem with the. So I have a few different issues with it.

00:00:19.800 One is, for example, I was actually a fan publicly and I know some people got on me about it, about Midnight Hammer.

00:00:25.520 I was like, I think that's a smart operation.

00:00:28.940 I think it was, there was risk analysis.

00:00:32.060 I think there was enough international consensus and coalition about a need to be able to address it.

00:00:38.380 And at least from what we heard from the initial reports, it accomplished the set out established mission, right?

00:00:46.620 I think that's necessary and required for military operations, right?

00:00:51.760 That we're clear about what is the consensus and the goal. 0.67

00:00:53.740 specific for Iran to not have

00:00:55.840 nuclear capabilities. Correct. 0.85

00:00:57.740 For that reason. And I thought Midnight Hammer

00:00:59.600 was the right kind of operation. 1.00

00:01:01.620 With the outcome of eliminating Iran 0.86

00:01:03.580 having nuclear weapons capabilities. 0.96

00:01:05.460 And I think there is a

00:01:08.040 at least I believe, there's a

00:01:09.500 bipartisan consensus of the danger 1.00

00:01:11.400 of the Iranian

00:01:13.480 regime having nuclear weapons. 0.91

00:01:15.860 And I very much fall into

00:01:17.520 that category.

00:01:19.820 I am not

00:01:21.460 confused about the danger that

00:01:23.360 that regime posed to the world. The truth is, probably both for you and myself, we lost people

00:01:29.760 because of the Iranian regime, right? So I'm very clear on that. There's a difference between 0.99

00:01:35.220 Midnight Hammer and what we're doing right now. Because Midnight Hammer, I understood

00:01:39.580 risk calculation and understood like, what was it that we're looking to accomplish? And once the

00:01:46.280 mission accomplishment was laid out, then the operation is complete. No mission creeps.

00:01:51.580 because there's nothing that worries me as a military guy more than mission creep.

00:01:56.820 What is the mission?

00:01:58.080 Know what to accomplish, and then once it's accomplished,

00:02:00.120 if you have something else, that's a secondary operation.

00:02:02.820 This is no mission creeps.

00:02:04.580 With this mission, I feel like there's three things we should know

00:02:08.240 every time you decide to deploy military personnel.

00:02:11.380 One, was military force and kinetic force the last option?

00:02:15.800 Two, what is the end state and the mission that people can understand

00:02:20.700 and that you're able to bring the American people along for it as well

00:02:23.980 because the American people are paying for this.

00:02:25.500 I mean, we saw testimony today indicating that, you know,

00:02:28.880 and this is DOD's numbers,

00:02:31.240 where they're talking about this has cost around $25 billion so far.

00:02:34.240 Have we really explained to the American people

00:02:36.880 what $25 billion has gone towards?

00:02:39.340 And the third thing is that what is the international coalition

00:02:42.820 that you're building around it?

00:02:44.620 Now, I'm not saying there needs to be an international coalition

00:02:47.400 to be able to fight wars because the truth is,

00:02:50.140 the U.S. military is one on one. If the U.S. military is coming after you, there's nothing

00:02:55.640 you can do. We're that good. We're that good, right? We are one of one. However, it takes a

00:03:02.680 coalition not to fight the war, but to build the peace, right? Because one side can start a war.

00:03:08.360 Generally, one side cannot end it. That's where we need to have a sense and a consensus of what

00:03:15.020 this thing is going to look like. You're referencing NATO. Is that a NATO message?

00:03:18.040 No, I think it's past NATO.

00:03:20.920 And first of all, I actually think it starts more with the regional partners, right?

00:03:23.840 Because I think, is NATO going to be important in it?

00:03:26.020 Yeah.

00:03:26.560 But I think NATO also has its hands full in other things.

00:03:29.420 I'm talking about the regional partners.

00:03:31.160 I'm like, are we making sure that we're getting the UAE involved?

00:03:35.620 Are we making sure what has been the conversations with Pakistan?

00:03:38.840 What has been the conversations with Saudi Arabia?

00:03:41.120 What has been the conversations with Egypt and all the other part of Israel?

00:03:45.720 All these other partners that are going to have to be involved in this.

00:03:49.340 And I feel like when you're thinking about all those three criteria, was kinetic operation the last option?

00:03:55.800 Was there a stated end goal and a stated, you know, real mission accomplishment of what this is going to look like?

00:04:00.220 And did you do the work to be able to build out the intercoal coalitions?

00:04:04.720 I think the answer in all three of those is no.

00:04:07.760 And that's what makes me so bothered about where we are right now, where I think there is no one who wants this war to end more.

00:04:15.720 right now than Donald Trump.

00:04:17.420 He wants this over.

00:04:19.400 But again, one side can start a war.

00:04:22.740 Generally, one side can't end it.

00:04:24.380 Did you support what he did with Venezuela?

00:04:26.400 Because I know Midnight Hammer, you said yet.

00:04:27.800 But did you like the way he did Venezuela?

00:04:29.380 In, out, got Maduro, boom, took control.

00:04:32.600 You liked the way he did Venezuela.

00:04:34.000 I think that- 0.96

00:04:34.920 That was like a ridiculous operation, the way they did it. 0.99

00:04:37.820 It was a ridiculous military operation. 0.99

00:04:39.360 Sure. 0.98

00:04:40.180 100%.

00:04:40.540 Yeah.

00:04:40.900 I think the thing that society can't confuse, though,

00:04:44.660 is, again, our military can kind of do anything.

00:04:49.020 While our military can do anything,

00:04:51.260 I don't think our military should do everything.

00:04:54.700 And I would actually put that in the same category, right?

00:04:57.680 Where if you say, listen, the job is to go take out Maduro

00:05:01.760 and the job is to make sure that you are securing the capital

00:05:07.060 and the jobs, our military can do that all day long

00:05:09.620 and twice on Sundays.

00:05:11.100 But what becomes the larger conversation

00:05:14.060 that is then being had about basic measurements of stability,

00:05:17.980 about what does this thing look like in six months, in 12 months, in 18 months?

00:05:21.980 And if the answer is simply that, well, you're still looking at the same type of abuses

00:05:27.800 and maybe what now we've gotten some more barrels of oil out of it,

00:05:31.380 is that worth that potential risk and cost analysis?

00:05:35.040 Got it.

00:05:35.320 And that's the thing that I don't know.

00:05:36.300 Oh, buddy, if you think about, like, go to the other side of the argument,

00:05:41.040 because I do think there's a lot of uncertainty with this.

00:05:43.000 fair enough that's that's not undisputable the 13 lives cost you know 25 billion dollars i even

00:05:48.220 think it's more than 25 billion but let's just say low numbers 25 i thought it's like 51 billion but

00:05:51.720 let's say 50 because that's probably yeah so uh uh if i think about the way he did it

00:05:58.940 so he whispers greenland people lose their minds okay why did he say greenland well we need the

00:06:05.040 resources from there because of china okay so he goes gets venezuela and he's doing all the boats

00:06:09.840 and everyone's getting upset, and all of a sudden, boom, we got Maduro.

00:06:12.940 So then, suddenly, Venezuela's part of OPEC.

00:06:16.320 We're not part of OPEC.

00:06:17.240 Venezuela's, I think, their number seven for the most production out of everybody.

00:06:20.760 And then he gets the Panamanian president to tell China, C.K. Hutchinson,

00:06:28.120 get these ports out.

00:06:29.080 You have no longer jurisdiction here.

00:06:31.340 So you mean to tell me they no longer?

00:06:33.080 No, they don't.

00:06:33.580 China, that's massive, so that's two.

00:06:35.320 So now China cannot bully us with Panama Canal, and China needs Venezuela.

00:06:41.220 Now Venezuela is under control of U.S. pretty much, if you think about it.

00:06:44.100 The VP reports to him, and he goes and does this to Iran.

00:06:48.180 If he's able to pull this off, we're now with the blockade.

00:06:52.000 Every day Iran is bleeding $450 million, $12 to $13 billion per month.

00:06:56.740 One million jobs lost directly, another million lost indirectly.

00:07:00.580 Food prices 67% up year over year.

00:07:03.520 They're getting destroyed.

00:07:04.380 All the people that have been gone, the leader when I met with Putin a couple days ago, taking a picture together, a conversation, make sure Putin's like, I got your back.

00:07:12.380 If he's able to get the IRGC to be gone, where now Gulf states are supporting what he's doing, UAE now left OPEC.

00:07:22.560 You better believe UAE's got a relationship with Trump that they're talking offline and saying, hey, don't worry about it.

00:07:26.500 I'm going to get you a bunch of business. Leave it. You're going to be fine.

00:07:28.880 OPEC is now sitting there

00:07:31.180 because OPEC is Iran, Iraq, all these other guys 0.58

00:07:33.280 because number one is Saudi, number two is

00:07:34.940 Iraq, three is, used to be Iran

00:07:36.960 now it's UAE and four is I think Iran

00:07:39.260 If he's able to get this thing done 0.97

00:07:42.800 and get rid of IRGC, let's say in the next 0.79

00:07:45.180 six weeks, story drops

00:07:47.180 IRGC is gone

00:07:48.880 they signed a 20 year no

00:07:50.700 nuclear capabilities, they're doing nothing

00:07:52.940 and we

00:07:54.700 have partners where nobody can

00:07:57.100 come and do anything with us

00:07:58.040 in the Strait of Hormuz.

00:07:59.780 We're good to go.

00:08:00.820 Now we just shipped 910,000 barrels to Japan

00:08:05.020 that just arrived today or a couple days ago.

00:08:07.340 So now people are ordering from us.

00:08:10.300 And China's sitting there saying,

00:08:11.500 wait a minute, I can't get my oil out of Iran,

00:08:13.360 Strait of Hormuz.

00:08:14.000 I can't get oil from Venezuela.

00:08:16.200 I can't, wait a minute, I'm cornered now.

00:08:19.220 Don't you, would you be able to comfortably

00:08:21.160 give them the credit on this if that ends up happening?

00:08:24.740 If, it's a big if.

00:08:25.960 Five to 10% chance of that happening.

00:08:27.500 But if it happens, I actually don't think it's five to 10 percent.

00:08:30.940 I think it's lower than that.

00:08:31.920 OK.

00:08:32.300 However, of course.

00:08:33.680 OK.

00:08:34.260 Listen, if all of those variables are in place, then that would be extraordinary.

00:08:42.260 But here is but here's what we know right now is right now we have a total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which is having very real consequences.

00:08:53.600 And again, not just in the United States.

00:08:55.820 I mean, people say, yeah, it's having huge impact on gas prices in the U.S.

00:08:58.860 Yes, I mean, gas prices, what's over, $420 now on national average.

00:09:02.760 But that's just the U.S.

00:09:05.260 This is having huge international implications.

00:09:08.180 It is.

00:09:08.480 Right?

00:09:08.900 That we still have military personnel that are being deployed to include my old unit,

00:09:13.720 and I believe to include the 101st as well.

00:09:16.000 And people have to remember, that's not free.

00:09:18.820 Like, every time our units move, the American people are paying for this.

00:09:22.940 But these Gulf states want IRGC to be gone.

00:09:25.380 100%.

00:09:25.860 If we're able to do that.

00:09:27.740 Yes.

00:09:28.140 That's massive.

00:09:29.120 But we also know that we're talking about a regime that at the start of the year, right,

00:09:33.660 when we had an uprising and there were, what, 20, 25,000 people that this regime just mowed down and massacred.

00:09:44.580 What we haven't seen in the past 60, 70 days is the same type of uprising.

00:09:50.480 We haven't seen it.

00:09:51.660 Well, the Internet is still not there, so we still can't see anything.

00:09:53.960 They don't know what's going on.

00:09:55.180 Fair.

00:09:55.600 But we haven't seen that same, and you're right, the Internet's not there,

00:10:00.020 so we'd so, but, and I don't know if you believe that that energy is happening right now.

00:10:04.620 The uprising internally?

00:10:06.180 Sorry, internally, yes.

00:10:07.100 No, they have, the challenge they have with that, which is to give you credit on the argument,

00:10:12.060 is they thought the military would flip on them and decide to go and say,

00:10:18.840 look, I'm not with you, IRGC, whatever you guys are doing, I'm out.

00:10:21.060 That hasn't happened yet. 0.99

00:10:22.020 And the weapons that we try to give the Kurds, they kept it. 0.98

00:10:25.100 It never went to the people. 1.00

00:10:26.580 So that part, I agree that that part.

00:10:29.800 And then Reza Pallavi is doing a pretty good job, you know, going out there speaking.

00:10:34.240 He's going viral.

00:10:35.040 But quite frankly, mobilizing military hasn't happened.

00:10:39.020 The people have come out.

00:10:39.900 The people have come out for a lot of things.

00:10:42.180 But the mobilizing part with the military side hasn't happened.

00:10:44.940 And unfortunately, you know, as we find in these situations, the guys with the guns generally have the bigger voice.

00:10:51.400 You're right.

00:10:52.020 And that's the issue that we're facing right now is that, you know, when people talk about, well, what is going to be the regime change?

00:11:00.060 For me, regime change is less about personnel.

00:11:03.020 It's more about ideology, right?

00:11:05.160 It's like you could have a regime change of people, but do conditions change for the people?

00:11:13.960 And listen, take other examples.

00:11:17.120 Take Cuba, right?

00:11:20.480 Take the Cuban example after Fidel died, right?

00:11:23.800 Fidel died.

00:11:24.660 Raul takes over.

00:11:26.020 That's a regime change.

00:11:27.700 What was it?

00:11:28.900 And I think we have to really think critically about what that means and about what the goal then becomes and what it looks like.

00:11:36.200 Because the same type of energy that we were seeing at the start of the year when it comes to people really uprising, and that's when I think there was a hope for people that the United States and others would come up and support that.

00:11:47.760 and tens of thousands of people were killed.

00:11:52.560 So that same energy is not there right now,

00:11:55.520 which is not providing any forms of incentive

00:11:58.360 for a regime change in its real meaning

00:12:01.960 to actually exist right now for the RGC.

00:12:04.500 Very low.

00:12:05.280 I'm saying 5% to 10%.

00:12:06.460 You're saying lower.

00:12:07.340 You're probably right that the chances are slim.

00:12:10.220 But that's even more of a thing that if he does pull it off,

00:12:13.160 I am so curious to know how the critics are going to come out

00:12:16.000 and say, Mr. President, credit to you for pulling it off.

00:12:19.180 I'm curious to know what's going to happen there.

00:12:20.820 Will you hear me right now?

00:12:21.580 Yeah, no, I respect that.

00:12:22.540 And I don't put you as a critic.

00:12:24.580 I actually think you're a reasonable player.

00:12:26.480 I'm talking about the guys that there's nothing that anybody can do right.

00:12:29.260 You're not in that state.

00:12:30.560 You're a fairly reasonable guy.

00:12:32.100 Now, I will say one thing, though.

00:12:33.340 I still think, though, that there needs to be a bigger conversation in Congress

00:12:37.380 about how they are looking at war powers.

00:12:40.120 Because, and again, to be clear, this is not a Trump thing.

00:12:43.660 Our last official war is World War II.

00:12:46.000 So you're trying to tell me the United States has not been in conflicts since World War II?

00:12:50.140 We've been in conflicts every year since World War II.

00:12:54.200 But the president has the flexibility to be able to do it.

00:12:57.080 Now, do I think there needs to be a bigger—do I think a president needs flexibility?

00:13:00.760 Because a president is dealing with more information than anyone in Congress.

00:13:05.100 Yes.

00:13:05.540 And definitely more than any of us, right?

00:13:07.540 Yeah. 0.66

00:13:07.740 So a president needs to have a measure of flexibility.

00:13:09.520 I want him to have it.

00:13:10.680 I want him to have it.

00:13:11.060 I want him to, right?

00:13:12.140 And that's why elections matter.

00:13:14.300 Have consequences, yeah.

00:13:15.080 However, when we're talking about large-scale, long-term conflicts, for there not to be an ability for other bodies to have a say as to what's going on, the fact that we were in Afghanistan for 20 years and never had to go and explain what was happening in Afghanistan.

00:13:38.320 And, again, I think about this from a very personal perspective.

00:13:41.200 We were there for 20 years, spent over $2.4 trillion, lost over 2,400 service people, and never had qualified as a war.

00:14:00.100 Say that to the families of over 2,400 people.

00:14:03.600 Say that to the fact that our treasury lost over $2 trillion.

00:14:07.580 So there's got to be, there has to be a different type of conversation about where does jurisdictional prudence for a commander-in-chief start?

00:14:18.660 And when does authorizing ability for presidents of the United States begin?

00:14:23.960 Because I do think those things have gotten very, very muddied over the years.

00:14:27.600 And again, this is not a Democratic-

00:14:29.120 That's a left-right center decision.

00:14:30.120 By the way, you have the support with that message of a lot of people who are with you on that.

00:14:36.100 You wasted wars, money for no reason, weapons of mass destruction, all this stuff that we fell for.

00:14:41.820 You've got a guy over there, Vincent Oshana, that's probably listened to this podcast.

00:14:44.800 If he hasn't already left, he's sitting down right now.

00:14:47.000 He was in the Air Force.

00:14:47.820 He was the airman of the year in the Air Force right there.

00:14:49.420 He's looking at the glasses, him right there. 0.97

00:14:51.440 He, for that specific reason, Afghanistan wasted time. 1.00

00:14:54.740 He's like, dude, I can't even support that.

00:14:56.480 So he's conflicted.

00:14:58.100 Yeah.

00:14:58.400 And he's a Trump supporter.

00:14:59.360 He's conflicted.

00:15:00.100 Like, look, what are we doing here?

00:15:01.000 So I don't think you're alone there.

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Valuetainment - May 06, 2026

＂Who The Hell Is Wes Moore？＂ - The 2028 Democratic Frontrunner NOBODY Saw Coming

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