DeProgram with John Kiriakou and Ted Rall - Extra: Mideast in Flames | DeProgram with Ted Rall and John Kiriakou

Episode Date: March 1, 2026

Political cartoonist Ted Rall and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou deprogram you from mainstream media every weekday at 9 AM EST. Today we discuss the US/Israeli War Against Iran:• In the run-up to the U.S. and Israeli attacks, the CIA assessed that if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated along with other top officials—which he was yesterday—he could be replaced by hardline figures from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, though its commander died yesterday. An interim council led by Ayatollah Alireza Arafi was announced today.• Insiders tell The New York Times the Trump Administration’s maximalist demands, along with constantly shifting priorities and Israel’s refusal to believe Iran on anything, doomed negotiations from the start. • Only 21% of Americans support the war.• Trump is largely in hiding.• Oil futures are soaring.• Key members of Congress are pushing a war powers resolution. “Has President Trump learned nothing from decades of U.S. meddling in Iran and forever wars in the Middle East?” said Sen. Tim Kaine. House Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie are demanding a public vote. Massie said: “This is not ‘America First.’”TO ASK A QUESTION FOR TED AND/OR JOHN BEFORE TODAY’S SHOW AIRS LIVE: https://ahaslides.com/T1S4EMERCH STORE: https://www.deprogram.livehttps://x.com/tedrallhttps://x.com/JohnKiriakouLIVE ON RUMBLE: https://rumble.com/c/DeProgramShowSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kdFlw2w8sSPhKI8NRx8ZuAPPLE MUSIC: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deprogram-with-john-kiriakou-and-ted-rall/id1825379504

Good morning. You're watching a special edition of the program with Ted Roll and John Curiaku. It's Sunday, March 1st, 2026. We are normally here Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. Eastern time on YouTube and Rumble, but, and streaming whenever, but obviously with the news out of the out of Iran and the Middle East, John and I decided we needed to pipe in and say our piece and answer questions and try to analyze things as best we. good. Thanks so much for joining us, John. Hey, good to see you, Ted. Glad to be back even on a Sunday. And I want to show, too, forgive my video. I'm in a hotel in Brooklyn. I have only my phone, so I apologize for the quality of my

picture. It actually looks pretty good, John. Oh, good, good, okay. And you sound good, too. Good. Good. Good. I'm going to make this nicer. Okay, there we go. Great. All right. So, Let me go over some of the – obviously today's – we're only going to be talking about Iran, nothing else. Even though there's plenty of else going on in the world, basically yesterday, the big news being that

Supreme Leader Ali Khamini, who's been leading Iran for nearly 37 years, was killed by an Israeli air strike that was guided by the United States. That was confirmed by the Iranians. the CIA apparently told Trump before he decided to attack Iran that there was a strong chance that Kamenei would probably be replaced by someone who was at least as hardline as he is, maybe someone from the Revolutionary Guards. Interim Council has been announced, a senior cleric named Ayatollah Ali Rizzi Arafi, sorry for the butchering of the language there, has been announced.

We'll talk about that. The New York Times is reporting that basically insiders are saying that the, the diplomacy never had a chance due to the way that the Trump administration was approaching and talking to the Iranians. And it may have just all been misdirection all along. Polls showed that only 21% of Americans support this war at its very, at its inception. I think that's insane. I've never heard of anything like it. Normally, 21% is like after you've lost the war and everyone's turned against it. And even then, it doesn't get that bad. I think more people supported the Vietnam War and signed 1973 than 21%.

Trump is hiding somewhere. We don't know where. No speeches to the nation and no public statements. Oil futures, not surprisingly, are soaring. We'll see what happens when the markets open tomorrow, but we'll know more when the Asian markets open later today due to the time difference. There's a key members of Congress are pushing for a war powers resolution. Notably, Rokana, Thomas Massey,

want a public vote. Looks like they're probably going to get one. And so this is a unique set of circumstances. The Strait of Ormuse, Iran's claims, has been closed by them. My favorite quote, John, was from their social media feed where they said, you know, we have blocked the Strait of Ormuz. Let the orange pig try to unblock it. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. I didn't see that. It's so great. I don't mean to laugh, but. You do have to laugh because war does always have like some funny moments like Baghdad, Baghdad Bob. Baghdad Bob. And then there was also this really weird moment yesterday at NBC News, which used to be a news organization. They were interviewing a top Iranian official.

And they said, how can you justify hitting these military base, the U.S. military bases? And he's like, but that's the places that are firing the weapons at us. the war that you started. I mean, literally, there's no more justifiable military action than that. I don't know. Very strange. Unbelievable.

Well, things are bad, Ted. Bad all around. I spoke to friends of mine in Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates yesterday. It's funny. I talked to a guttery, the son of the senior guttery official

yesterday and he just kind of chuckled and said well this is life in the middle east we live in a dangerous neighborhood my my friends in Dubai were panicked uh the birch al-arab the the giant ultra luxe hotel that shaped like a sail um the iranians fired or not fired but sent a drone to to blow up on it The drone was intercepted and hit in the air, but when it exploded, it exploded against the hotel and set the hotel on fire. The fire was put out, but there's significant damage. The Iranians sent drones to attack the Birch Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. They hit it with two drones. Maybe even more importantly, though, Manama Airport in Bahrain is unusable.

It has to be closed for a while and repaired. Kuwait International Airport in Kuwait has always been here. There's a question, John, about the Bahraini airport. There's reports that the Bahraini local firefighting brigade refused to put out the fight, to fight that fire. You know, I would actually believe that because Bahrain is a majority Shia Muslim country, just like Iran is Shia Muslim. And Bahrain has a Sunni Muslim royal family. which can be a problem at times. Heads are going to roll if that's true.

But it doesn't surprise me. So anyway, the Iranians, you know, the Iranians can't win this thing, of course, but they can put up a fight and they can, you know, put some hurt out on the Gulf Arab states. And they could survive, right? I mean, that's what virtually looks like for them. I mean, this is a regime that's really built for survival.

It's been under siege since 1979. The, you know, they have, as we talked about yesterday in the other extra edition that we did yesterday morning, John, there was a, you know, there's redundant governmental systems there. The, you know, these decapitation strikes certainly hit hard. The Israelis and the Americans killed a lot of top officials. But, you know, they have a succession plan. They have number two's, number three is ready to step in. They always did. They always knew something like this could happen.

I mean, I don't see how you overthrow this regime this way, unless the Iranian people rise up and overthrow it, but I don't see how that happens either. Which we're not seeing. So I'm seeing video from Iran. You know, on CNN, they'll show you video from Iran. It's like 300 people dancing and waving and whatever, beeping their horns. But then you see video of a million people out in the street, self-flagellating and crying and vowing to fight the West to the death.

Think of it this way, too. A peaceful transition of power from the current regime to some sort of. substitute regime is in U.S. interests. Chaos and death is what is in Israel's interests. And that's what we're more likely to get. And that's what we're more likely to get. I think Netanyahu is hoping for a civil war. I think that's exactly what the plan is, yes. Yeah. Okay, so let's, should we go to the questions? Because there's a lot of them in the all that. So as usual, if you're watching live, please put your question at this. point into the Rumble and the YouTube chat and producer Robbie will get will let us know what

you have to say and we will answer and before we before we do the first question Robbie Robbie's reading you know these these live updates on telegram and there are reports we don't know if they're true yet but there are reports that the USS Abraham Lincoln is under attack which is exactly what we said we feared last week if you send enough drones or a hypersonic missile against an aircraft carrier, you can't defend it. So waiting to see how that plays out. And okay, well, we have some record. Robbie says he has some housekeeping to do, so let's put him on.

Yeah, just real quick, because it's such a busy day. Later today, I do not know when because things are just really hectic right now, naturally. I will be launching John's official TikTok. Well, that happens. I will post a link on his ex account, so you'll be able to actually follow the real John karaoke. John also has a real account on Rumble. If you go to rumble.com slash C slash John Kariaku official. That is his official channel. His stuff will be going up today, including

shorts. And I'll also be working on doing the same thing for your favorite cartoonist, Ted Rawl at a later time, but it will be this month. Last little thing, if you're in the chat, if you're a dick, I will ban you. Don't do it. I mean, you can ask questions. You can be snarky, but if you're an asshole, I will bury you. So don't do it. Thank you, Robbie. Okay, let's do, let's do some... Last your, last your, your microphone, Ted. Oh, really? Can't hear you. You can't hear me? I hear you.

Can't hear you. Robbie, can you hear Ted? I hear you. Then maybe it's me. Try jumping out real quick, John, and then jumping back in. Sometimes phones will act crazy. Okay. So let's see what happens here. So, all right, so, yeah, Robbie, any news, any more news on the Abraham Lincoln? No. Nothing new from what I shared just before we went live. Okay, we're waiting for John to pipe back in here.

Okay, there he is. All right, John. Do you hear us? There we go. That works. Okay. Cool, cool. All right, Robbie, thank you for that.

All right. So we do, are ready for some questions? Yes, sir. All right. Hello, heroes. Thank you. Do you think any of the Arab countries that were struck will actually strike back, or will they count on the U.S. and Israel to do this for them? I'm wondering the cultural dynamics playing into this decision like losing face, appearing weak, or being peaceful during Ramadan.

The Ramadan thing is interesting to me, too. Yeah. This is a big sin for this to be launched during Ramadan. done. My UAE contacts told me yesterday that they sent their ships out of port, not to fight, but just to protect them. We have not seen retaliation from the Arab states yet. And my guess is we probably won't that they're going to let the U.S. and Israel do their thing with some British air cover. And that's going to be it. I agree with that completely. Donkey Man, do we think that war will last more than a month?

I think it will. Yeah, you know, that's a great question. Donald Trump said yesterday, it's only going to last a couple of days. He lives in a fantasy world if he thinks this is going to last a couple of days. I wouldn't be surprised if there are active U.S. and Israeli hostilities for weeks. But yeah, I could see this lasting for a month, sure. I mean, especially if the Iranians bloody the Israelis or our noses in some way. that we can't fathom, right?

A missile gets through and, I don't know, blows up something that Israel or we care about a lot. And then there's a domestic, there's, you know, a domestic concern that we can't just let it go. That's right. Okay. Let's, is Iran actually causing damage anywhere, even with the numerous missiles fired, it doesn't seem to do much. Is Iran hoping for an off-ramp home still? Oh, I'm sure they're hoping for an off-ramp.

The Israelis killed practically everybody. It's not just the Ayatollah, his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. It's the entire Iranian military leadership was wiped out yesterday. So the second and third stringties room. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so, but is Iran actually causing any damage anywhere, is the question? Oh.

Not that I've seen. I mean, sure. Yeah. I mean, they fired rockets at Jebel Ali, the, the free port in Dubai. They have damaged Manama and Kuwait airports. They fired a rocket at the Saudi oil fields that was intercepted. A couple of hotels were damaged in Dubai. Yeah, one rocket landed in Abu Dhabi. There's some damage, but absolutely nothing, like what's being inflicted on Iran. No, no question. It's definitely a one-way street there when it comes to that. But all they have to

do is survive. Deva, devia, do we think hitting Dubai hard would be beneficial for Iran right now because of all the American interests right now? I think no, and I'll tell you why, because that's where Iran does its business. Iran, I mean, Dubai is chock full of Iranian businessmen, and that's Iran's outlet to the Western world. That's how Iran evades sanctions by having businesses in Dubai. So I think, no, hitting Dubai is not going to help Iran at all. John, during the Iraq war, Bush and Cheney, especially the latter, kept saying, oh, we're going to have cheap oil because of this. Turned out it went exactly the opposite way. I think I see a replay here. I think the real damage is going to be economic. I mean,

high oil prices means high everything prices. This is a president who was trying to fight inflation more than anything else, right? I mean, that's the real risk to him. That's right. That's exactly right. And it's not like Venezuelan oil is a panacea. It's not. It's filthy. It's heavy. You have to inject it with massive amounts of chemicals to clean it up just to make it into home heating oil. So Venezuela is not going to be the answer to our prayers. Oil prices are going to go up. Sassen, we get such great questions. Thank you. You guys are great. What do you think is the impact of the death of Khomeini on the future of the regime in Iran? As an Iranian, I'm worried yet another extremist has chosen and the cycle continues on and on, love the show. That, I think, is exactly what's going to happen. Absolutely, 100% agree. That is exactly what's going to happen.

You know, and the thing, too, is that I think that in the West, we seriously overestimated Ayatollah Khamanai's authority. Certainly, he was the final word on religious issues, certainly. But you can take him out and have literally not. nothing change. It's like if you killed the Pope. Yes, exactly. Exactly. No. No, that's wonderful. I'm going to, I'm going to repeat that. Oh, let's see, reload. Please reload. What are you doing? Okay, good morning, gentlemen, the sneaky part of my brain wondered how much of a beating Iran will suffer before finally unleashing their hypersonic missiles. I think they proved during their probing strike on Iron Dome that letting Israel and the U.S. burn through their limited arms supply, that patience is

the best practice. Yeah, I mean, you learn that when you have 7,000 years of continuous culture, right? Also, why does the American government always imagine that killing a leader will end a war? I know, right? Ed, you mentioned the time frame, Germany fought beyond Hitler. If Trump was killed today, nothing about our country's day-to-day would change. And somehow we expect other countries to be different. It's a childish mentality. The New York Times just issued a push notification saying that the Iranian foreign minister says that a new Supreme Leader will be chosen in the next day or two.

So there it is right there. Nothing changes. You can take out the Pope and there's just going to be another Pope. Yeah, if you and I were in the Iranian leadership or any leadership that was besieged like this, we would say, oh, we have to project continuity in order to maintain domestic control. I mean, they don't like the fact that there have been protests. And even if it is just 300 people, you know, going, they don't like that. That's 300 too many.

Regimes radicalize under in times of war. Yes, they do. You know, that's just sort of history. You know, hypersonic missiles, but we got, you know, do they exist? Are they real? Oh, yeah, they're real. The Russians have them, the Chinese have them, the Iranians have them.

The Iranians have them. That's what I mean. Iranians have them. So they're, so they're, so they're, So the Iranians keep are, you know, using their usual Florid language as they do to say, like, today is going to be, we're going to unleash our doomsday scenario. Okay, maybe. But. Yeah.

No, but the danger of hypersonic missiles is they'll go three or four times the speed of sound. So you're dealing with a missile going 2,500 miles an hour. You can't defend against a missile going 2,500 miles an hour. And so maybe you can get it into, you know, the Knesset building. or you can get into the side of the USS Abraham Lincoln or something like that. And then, you know, the West is going to have to deal with it. They don't have a lot of them. They only have a couple of them.

But, you know, we'll see if you can find to use it. It's like the Afghan Mujahideen in the 80s, right? They didn't have that many stingers. They had to make count. That's right. And they did. Hello, gentlemen, big fan. Wondering if you think Iran's sleeper cells, if they have, will be activated and if they will

be activated in the UK? In addition, what will China's likely response be? John, where do you get those lovely sweaters like you wore on Diary of a CEO from? Let's dispose of the sleeper cells. Probably they don't exist, right? I don't think they exist in the U.S., Canada. Maybe. Probably the UK, probably.

But they certainly exist in places like Pakistan, India, Indonesia. Yeah, they're out there. They're out there. And thank you for that. I get these sweaters at Macy's. Oh, really? brought them back from Greece or something. Okay, China's response, well, we already, China is doing what they always do.

They're trying to be the adults in the room. They keep saying, like, you guys respect Iran's sovereignty, just stop. But I think that's going to be, that's going to be about it. Ted, there was a headline on the Onion a couple of weeks ago that was funny because it was so true. And the headline was China content to sit back and watch U.S. destroy itself. And that's what we're going to see here. No doubt. How much leverage Jasper wants to know does this give countries like Russia and China to pursue their military goals, such as in Taiwan?

I'm not convinced that China wants to invade Taiwan. No, I don't think so. If China wanted to invade Taiwan, they would have done it two days ago. Yeah, that would have time. You and I, Ted, we're in the minority of people who believe that China is not interested in invading Taiwan. Yeah, we are. And the Russians are very happy to see us distracted in fighting the Iranians so they can focus on the Ukrainians and not have the American monkey on their backs. Yeah.

No, I mean, this definitely, look, you know, when the cat's away, it's always a good time. And we're the cat. Matt, I can remember Bob Baer writing extensively about the Iranian threat, specifically the ability to covertly retaliate against the West and shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Any thoughts? It's been years since I read his book. Memory's phasedy, but, you know, I'm really. No, that memory is correct. That's exactly what Bob Bear wrote about.

And he was correct then. When he wrote that book 25 years ago, he's correct today. The Iranians can shut the Strait of Hormuz. If I were the Iranian leader, I would shut the Strait of Hormuz. They're not going to win a sustained bombing campaign, but over the long term, you know, they live there. It's their neighborhood. and they can inflict real economic harm on the West.

Ted and John, thank Declan Brady. I love the show, welcome your unbiased opinions and analysis. Why do you think Iran is attacking its neighbors? Surely at the aggrieved party, Iran needs all the support it can get. How does Dubai and Kuwait airports help their cause? Hope your question comes through, John. It's because there are two U.S. military bases in Kuwait. The headquarters of the American Fifth Fleet is in Bahrain.

the world's largest U.S. Air Force base is in gutter. Two U.S. Army bases are in the Emirates. There are multiple U.S. military, both Army and Air Force bases in Saudi Arabia. So there's no love of Iran in these countries. Well, exactly. I'm glad you said that there. I mean, I think that's the final calculus, John. These aren't their friends.

They're not going to get, they're not going to become friends. These are not any kind of, none of these targeted. countries are going to help the Iranians in any way, shape, or form. They're not even going to tweet on their behalf. Absolutely not. As someone who served in the Navy, Andy wants to know, this is very concerning for me. Do you think we'll need to put boots on the ground for this? That right there is the $64,000 question.

So everybody at the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department, and all the talking heads from Capitol Hill say that there will be no boots on the ground. That would be the death knell for the United States if we were, if we had to put boots in the ground and fight a country of 92 million people. You know, I'm going to reiterate what you said yesterday, Ted. And that is that the U.S. and Israel have to win. The Iranians just have to survive. And that is much, much easier than winning. Yeah, yeah.

And they have the home field advantage. Like, let's not forget that. Gong, thanks for the, thanks for the fiber. I'm intimidated. John looks pissed, rightfully so. Yeah, I am actually. I'm pissed about this. This is a totally unnecessary war of choice. Oh, I mean, it's one of the most boneheaded, and we have a lot of boneheaded wars.

All of our wars are boneheaded for the most part. World War III, not off the table? I'd say never. Things can always spin out of control. Yeah. Accident member for a month, thank you so much, is the only probable reason Turkey hasn't hit because of NATO if they're hit it will trigger article 5 that's a good question too um that is that it could be it could be that the iranians you know have more important things to

worry about right now than turkey but sure that could be it and and don't don't forget Azerbaijan, right? There are Israeli, there is an Israeli base in Azerbaijan. The Israelis have drones preposition there. The Azerbaijani's are, or the Azeris are very close to Turkey. So I wouldn't at all be surprised to see this expand to Azerbaijan. Not at all. Who's actually driving 10 Australian dollars from Illuminous? Thank you very much. Thank you. Who is actually driving Iran policy in this administration? Is there a coherent interagency? process or are with cost of significant autonomy outside of normal

national security council channels. That's a great question. It's quite an important question. In a normal situation, there are two bodies called the Principals Committee and the Deputies Committee. The Principal's Committee is chaired by the President, and it includes the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Advisor, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the director of the CIA.

The deputies committee is the number two's for all those people. It's chaired by the vice president. Normally, this policy would be coming out of the National Security Council. In this odd scenario that we're in right now, Marco Rubio is both Secretary of State and National Security Advisor. And so this is Marco Rubio's policy. We learned from this leak from the White House last week that J.D. Vance was opposed to an attack on Iran.

Tulsi Gabbard was opposed to attack on Iran. And the chairman of the joint chiefs came out and said that he was opposed to an attack on Iran. Who does that leave? Marco Rubio. That's it. Marco Rubio is running this policy. Yeah, and BB Netanyahu.

Bebe Netanyahu. Yeah. There's a report coming out of Jerusalem, John, that Israel is claiming that an Iranian strike killed nine Israelis and injured 28. So right before we started

we started broadcasting, Robbie told us that there were reports of an Iranian hypersonic missile that had impacted a bunker. Perhaps that's it. Gotcha. Archangel, thanks for the 499. How much you guys think this war will distract from the

Epstein stuff. Yeah. Completely. A lot. We're not talking. Although I don't think Epstein people who care about Epstein are going to forget and they're well aware. That's right. That's right.

Thanks for doing it. But you know what, though? One of the things that this may do is distract people from demanding that Pam Bondi released the remaining 2.7 to 3 million pages of documents. That would be nice. Isaac, thanks for the $5. The U.S. consulate was attacked in Pakistan yesterday. Yes.

I'm glad that came up. In response to the attacks on Iran, have we started a war with the Muslim world? Well, that's what we did last time. Yeah, the answer is probably yes. Yeah. That's exactly what we did last time. We killed two million Muslims from 2001 to 2020. John, is this going to explain? I mean, many Arab countries have a huge division between the politics of their street, as they say it, and in other words, their citizens and the policies of their governments. How much will this could a schism, like, blow up someone's government? And where would you think they would be? Honestly, if I were, you know, the leader of Bahrain, I would be genuinely worried today.

If I were the Pakistani government, I would be genuinely worried today. If I were a leader, always be worried. Yeah. But even an Indian leader, I would be worried about what my population in California. Kashmir would be doing right now. Yeah, they're up there's massive protests in Kashmir. Oh, yeah. Massive.

And the Saudis, the Saudi royal family, they've got to be on the verge of cracking down in the eastern province, which is almost entirely Shia Muslim. So yeah, there's a real risk today. I'm glad you brought up the Saudis. So it turns out there's heavy reporting. I know you've seen that the crown prince, bin Salman, is, he was a key advisor to Trump on all this. And his counsel to Trump, which

obviously Trump accepted, was that A, the U.S. should and Israel should attack, and B, there would never be a better time than this than now. Yeah. Yeah, you know, the conventional wisdom was that

this is all Netanyahu all day long. And it turns out it wasn't. And I think that that might be what pushed Trump over the edge to make the decision to actually attack. That, you know, you know that every time Netanyahu flies to Washington, he's going to say, please attack Iran, please attack Iran, please attack Iran.

It's an entirely different thing for the Israelis and the Saudis to be on the same sheet of paper. I think that's what convinced Trump to do it. Got it. Askinsi, thank you for subscribing to Deprogrammed. $4.99 from Keep It Real, since the war is very unpopular to most Americans, One, by the way, my sub question would be like, will it stay unpopular? I would say you're going to see a bounce, the rally around the flag effect. But starting at 21% is pretty bleak.

Do you think Israel will lose support from the U.S. And rely on India more? You know, I think that's the Trump plan. And I think that was the plan from the first Trump administration. You remember the love fest that Trump and Modi had in Texas when Modi came to the United States to address Indian Americans living in Texas. It was a love fest and they had to have it in a stadium to hold 50,000 people. So I think that Trump, and I should add, this started with Bill Clinton. This is not Donald Trump's idea. But I think that the idea is to improve ties to

India to make relations between the U.S. and India as close as possible so that we have an ally on that side of Iran, and we have a strong and populous ally that can sort of offset some of the bad juju that we have in the Middle East. Kitty von Miao, why do you think Germany took in Netanyahu? Although there's mixed reports about where Netanyahu really is, but there were several reports that he went to Germany that I... Oh, looks like we lost head. Yeah, you know, Netanyahu, every time the Israelis want to bomb somebody.

Netanyahu runs away. So most of the reports are that he's in Germany. I heard a report this morning saying that he's in Cyprus, which of course is that much closer to Israel. And we're getting reports now that the Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi has been hit as well as an Emirati oil platform in the Persian Gulf. We're going to see a lot more of this, Ted. A lot more of these individual strikes, targeted strikes.

You know, let's compare this. too let's compare this to say the 1990-91 Gulf War where you just like carpet bomb and just just open the bomb bays and let bombs drop this is a very smart conflict the targeting is we are John we are no long you we don't have you anymore well we wait for him to come back I'm just just kind of share a little bit of the information that I am getting right now it looks like the John is right. The Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi was hit. Also, the Navy base there has been hit. It is currently burning.

There are some oil platforms that have been hit, and I'm seeing reports that two ships trying to run the streets of Hormuz have been hit. So Iran's not playing. Fuck around and find out. I have not seen. I've not seen anything new about the Abraham Lincoln, so that could be a rumor. it could be real. I have no idea. I'm seeing reports that Scott Ritter says that the Lincoln was hit for whatever that's worth. I don't know where he's getting that from. If it's true, it could just be trust me, bro. Couldn't tell you.

All right. Thanks, Robbie. Yeah, we're going to see a lot more of this, Ted. A lot more. How do you, I mean, John, how do you? I don't, you know, a lot of things about this blow my mind, but what, what, oh my God, we just lost Robbie. I'll ask Robbie. I mean, we, yeah, I mean, really, yeah, Bobby's here. We just lost John. John's coming and kind of come back. How do you deal? This is a good question for you anyway, Robbie. Sure. Wouldn't you make it with the fact that Donald, there's John?

Sorry, I don't know why. As soon as Robbie got out, it threw me out again. Oh, sorry about that. This is for both of you guys anyway. Why isn't Donald Trump talking to the American people? I mean, we're at war. Caesar doesn't have to speak to the American people. That's why. I think I'm going to take a slightly different attack. This is a security measure. I'm going to use kind of a strong word here. The president is in hiding.

That's what this is. Just like George W. Bush, for security reasons, went into hiding on 9-11. Just in case all hell breaks loose, the chances are very, very low. But just in case all hell breaks loose, better to protect the president now and have him come out later. I got to say, I strongly politically disagree with that. Just strategically. Oh, politically, I do too. Yeah, agree.

It's a pussy move. And like you're the president of the fucking United States. I mean, you know, we read history. Remember, we know that like generals used to go into battle at the front, at the front, right? Now they hide at home and, you know, in their bunkers. What, I mean, to me on 9-11, it was a very bad look for George W. Bush to be nowhere to be found. People are still talking about it 25 years later. I don't know why Trump repeated that mistake.

I mean, he studied what all of Bush's mistakes. That was key to his rise to power. Here's where I disagree for whatever it's worth. When Trump started this war, he did not bother making the case to the American people. He didn't address us. He didn't go on TV. He didn't send us as much as a tweet. He is arrogant to the extreme and he thinks that he can do whatever he wants.

He does not care. I think it's peak ego. And that's what, I mean, seriously, if you are the imperator, why do you care? about what the Pleb thinks. You don't. I mean, I could be dead wrong. Y'all can be right, but that's a signal I'm getting. Robbie, I'm going to keep you on to talk about this. I mean, look, we've got to talk about the War Powers Act, right? So War Powers Act passed after the, at the end of the Vietnam War, it was Congress's attempt to reassert their war powers that they had abandoned to numerous presidents over the 200 years. And basically, it requires

the president when he has a sustained commitment of troops to go to, Congress and get congressional approval, right? Not a declaration of war. It's, War Powers Act has been kind of like a problematic, you know, kind of rule, law ever since. But looks, are we going to get a vote here? I mean, it looks like we are going to get a vote. And if we do, how's it going to go?

You want me to answer? Either one, both. Okay, I think that, I think that there are going to be war powers votes. We saw this morning on CNN reporting that Mike Johnson is going to sort of be forced to to allowing a vote on the War Powers Act in the House. But my guess is that Democrats are all going to vote yes, because they're just as big war mongers as the Republicans are. Yeah, I agree.

I mean, they're all paid by the same people. Yeah. I mean, if you're a fat pig, you're going to the trough, are you really going to go walk away from that? No, we have the cheapest, hoarse government that money can buy. Yeah, yeah, we do. Thanks, Robbie. Yeah, we do.

We do. 499 from Perez. Thank you so much. How ironic to rage a war based on nukes and take out the leader who withheld a religious ruling against nukes. Exactly right. You know, a dear friend of mine said yesterday that the next Iranian Grand Ayatollah or supreme leader is just going to issue a new fatwa revoking the old fatwa and calling for a nuclear weapons program. Yeah. Of course they will.

I mean, you know, you and I have been talking about this for a long time. Okay, thanks for the $10 Australian dollars. What's the current Israeli assessment? Does Netanyahu's government actually want a U.S. invasion? Or do they prefer Iran weakened with the regime intact as a perpetual justification for their own military posture? You know my answer to that. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I think what the Israelis want in Iran is what the Israelis got in Libya.

chaos. They want chaos. They want a civil war and they want as many dead Iranians as they possibly can get. Yeah, I agreed with that. Let's see. Could we Pittsburgh wants to know. Could we get more Sunday morning shows besides emergency broadcasts? You know, a good friend of mine called me a day before yesterday and he says, buddy, he says, I'm going to tell you something because I love you. you haven't been in church in a year and you should be ashamed of yourself. I want to see you Sunday morning. I said, okay, I promise. I'll be there.

I'll be there. Yeah. I don't know about Sunday morning shows. Yeah, I mean, as it is, John and I both work very hard. We have multiple jobs and multiple gigs. We do. You know, we have to recharge.

We Americans work too hard as it is. I don't know. Maybe, I mean, I guess there would be a world in which anything's possible. Maybe we'd take Monday off like restaurant workers or something. Right. Barbers. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Big question, why is the U.S. Israel's bitch?

If you could summarize, I would be grateful. It's a big, good question. I mean, we know it is. Yeah. Because the United States does anything and everything the Israelis tell it to do, even when it's not in U.S. interests to do so. Yeah. Yeah, so, I mean, why, though, is the question.

And the why is because of money in politics. That's really what this comes down to. You know, Citizens United made it even worse. So Miriam Adelson could donate $150 million to the RNC Super PAC, and A PAC can just spend people out of office by challenging them in primaries when they do the slightest thing that the Israelis don't like. Israel is, there's also other things, right? Israel is a tech hub.

and the United States feels like, you know, that alliance with the intel that we get from, you know, from Israel is considered valuable. But also, we're the Israelis lobby. They're spectacularly effective bullies. They smear everybody. Like, you criticize Israel. You know, you're slimed as an anti-Semite. That's been their schick forever.

And up until very recently, it still worked. It's finally, you know, the spell is broken. But I mean, there's more to it than that. But what do you think, John? Yeah, I think that's it. And I think this may be what breaks the spell. If the Israelis suck us into a war, a longer-term war, rather than just a few days of bombing, we're in trouble.

And we're going to have to seriously, as a country, reassess this relationship. What do we get out of this relationship? I understand exactly what the Israelis get. But what do we get out of this relationship? By the way, producer Trent is reminding me to mention to everybody who's on YouTube that if you go to membership and you become a tier two member, you will be thanked by us in the closing credits of each and every show. So please go ahead and do that.

He's in the middle of updating that list. I just wanted to remind you of that. Will the Bucktown Crazy wants to know, will the U.S. need to escort commerce ships through the Strait of Hormuz? Well, that's what Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s when the Iranians threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. He sent the U.S. Navy there to escort each and every oil tanker through the strait. I remember being on a boat in the Persian Gulf and seeing the SS Bridgeton. The Bridgeton was famous in the 80s because the Iranians attacked it and set it ablaze.

It was the biggest oil tanker in the world at the time. It ended up being towed into port and repaired. It took a couple of years to repair it. But we may be headed into the same scenario where there's going to have to be a long-term, heavy U.S. naval presence in the Gulf just to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Which, of course, could set us up for being targeted. So then, you know, it sets up, it's a trigger for escalation.

Do we think this situation will destroy the UAE's reputation and cause a mass exodus as soon as the airport? reopens. No. No. No. It's the Vegas. It's the Vegas of, it's the Vegas of the Middle East. Honest to God, it's like paradise there. They need it. They need it. Do you think Israel will be happy with the U.S. attacks on Iran so far? Do you think they'll hold back moving forward? Thank you for all you do. Yes and no. I think they are happy because so much of the leadership has been taken out. And, you know, another thing, too, the Israeli, killed more than 100 school girls in an attack on a on a school in southern Iran and people talked

about it for a couple of hours and then just said meh no big deal it's a very big deal when you deliberately target a school and murder a hundred children that's a very big deal but i think that they're they're thrilled with the killing of ayatollah khamenei and his entire family his daughter his son-in-law, his grandson, they were all killed in this attack. I think the Israelis are thrilled with that. I think the Israelis are very proud that they were able to take out literally the entire Iranian military leadership. And Ted, I just missed that. Is the French embassy under attack?

Is that what that said? Yeah, that's what Robbie's saying. The French base in Abu Dhabi has been hit. Base, military base, not embassy. I see. Good segue from Matthew. Why didn't Iran plan better? I had this question too.

Why not have the senior commander safe inside bunkers, which yesterday I wrongly assumed would have been the case. Same with the Ayatollah. Are the Iranian military that incompetent? No, the Ayatollah elected to not go to a bunker because he said if there are no bunkers for the Iranian people that he will not go into a bunker. And to use the language from the Iranian media today,

it said that that Ayatollah Khamanai drank from the nectar of martyrdom and entered into heaven. I'm glad that you brought that up, John, because like I talked, I corresponded with an Afghan friend. She's Shia. And she said, you guys don't understand. Like, for Shias, what happened to Khamenei is a win. Every Shia wants to be martyred like this. We did them a favor. Yeah.

It's like, thank you. You know, like, it's like, we're. It's like winning a Nobel Prize. That's right. Go straight to heaven. When you're martyred, you go directly to heaven without having to stop anywhere. Mark's asking, there was reported progress on a deal just before the strikes happened. Do you think the U.S. Israeli intent was always to nuke a deal in favor of regime?

That was the Israeli intent, one million percent. Yes. And I think the Americans didn't know how to negotiate, like the New York Times report said, right? Like they basically kept changing their demands. They were confusing as hell. They were asking for stuff the Iranians. They knew the Iranians couldn't agree to. I think the Israelis were pulling the strings here the entire time.

Agree completely. I can't even add anything to that. Why wouldn't Iran make an incursion into Iraq maybe take an oil well or two? It forced the U.S. to put boots on the ground and play to Iran's strength, especially since killing Khamenei would motivate rural Iranians. And I think there's a lot there, right? Like Iran does have influence in Iraq. We know that.

And, you know, they have allied militias there. And they also, you know, we should talk about like how there has been, you know, in Iran. There were some reports, credible supports of celebration, bigger supports of mourning. But, you know, obviously it's like, well, what do the Iranians think about all this? Well, it depends who you ask, right? I mean, it's a diverse country of over 90 million people. But, you know, my take when I was in Iran was that the people in the cities hate the government. They're basically liberal.

They don't want to, you know, they don't want to wear the Chador. They don't want to, you know, they want to go drinking and have a good time and go to and do be Westerners. And then in the rural areas, it's very different. It's different. It's more conservative. And that's where that's the base of the government support. I think that's exactly right. I mean, it's the same divide that most countries have, right?

Rural areas. Including the United States. Totally. So, yeah, so why would they? I mean, I don't think Iran's in any position to launch a ground incursion into Iraq. No, and Iraq is a friendly country. Iran and Iraq have very close relations. They're both Shia Muslim governments.

And so there's no Iranian benefit. That's why Soleimani was over in Iraq when he was killed. That's right. I think it does make, I mean, you know, one of the takeaways here is let's say you're like North Korea in the U.S. says, hey, you want to talk, why would you believe anything we have to say? I mean, we don't negotiate in good faith. No, we don't. Good morning to both of us. John Unrelated, would like to know which of your book would you suggest to read overall when it comes to the CIA? And which of your books would you suggest reading first? If you can find one, I would say first read the reluctant, my first book. And I'm going to, I think I can reclaim the rights to that book and publish a new edition. I'm looking into it now. If you want to learn more about CIA tactics, my second book, doing time like a spy.

And the second edition just came out, so it's out there. The Shah of Iran was impotent, says an anonymous commentator. This Razor Palavi is not his real son. I don't know. It looks like him. It looks just like him. This is not a Ronan Farrow situation. No.

And he's just as fucking dumb, too. Yes. And then there's that. So, I mean, by the way, I mean, what, I mean, isn't it fucking embarrassing to see so many, like, my carto, fellow cartoonists that's on the right and journalists saying like, oh, you know, we're going to reinstall the Shah. Kind of embarrassing. Let's make Iran Persia again. And it's like, it's just, I mean, he's the, he's the, he's. He's Ahmed Chalabi all over again. Yeah, he is.

Except not as intelligent. How embarrassing. Not relevant to recent events, but I was curious if you too had a reading list of several books you found eliminating to reach your great understanding of modern foreign policy and history. Oh, wow. You know, early on, the one I started with was the rise and fall of the CIA. It was written in the 1980s.

And it was my first really, real, like deep introduction to CIA covert action operations and covert operational failures from the creation of the CIA until Iran-Contra. If you can find it, I'd say to start with that. And anything that Timothy Wiener writes, you're going to want to check it out. I'm a huge fan of Robert Fisks, the Great War between civilizations as like sort of one-stop shopping for people who want to know about Western policy in the Middle East. Anyway, not well-versed to these things, Gabby says,

what are the chances that Iran or another country actually attacks American soil? Zero. Yeah. Very, very small. Okay, so more questions. Wait, hold on. I'm trying to bring this up. Okay.

John, have you read Carl Young? Toby wants to know. Thanks for the three Australian dollars. Yeah, I have read Carl Young because I very briefly dated a girl who was a Jungian. And, yeah, I learned a lot. Not sure I agreed with everything. But, yeah, interesting stuff. And I'll tell you what, it's good for dinner conversation.

Managing next dinner we have, I will hold you to that, John. managing things, thanks for the $10. Is there any line that the BB Israeli government could cross that would cause the U.S. government to stop the blank checks? I'd say going nuclear. Yeah, I agree with that. He took the words right out of my mouth.

Let's see. Thanks for the Nasir. Thanks for the $4.99. I wish George Carlin were still alive. Boy, would he have a field day now? Oh, my God. It's still alive anyway. So true.

Jacob, thanks for the $9.9. Is it likely, John, that the CIA's paramilitary is on the ground in Iran already? That's a great question. That's a great question. I would say probably not. Now, granted, my information is dated, but to have the CIA paramilitary on the ground to carry out targeted killings, the president would have to assert that a person is what's called a clear and present danger. to the United States, to an American installation, or to an American person.

And I don't think we're there. Okay. Thank you very much to both Sean B. and Kangorski for becoming members. Let's see. Papadupilos. Thanks for the six euros. Hey, John, do you think Greece might get attacked as well? And if they do, do you think they have enough military strength to handle it?

it. You know what? A friend of mine in the U.S. military mentioned this to me yesterday. He said, we really need to be worried about Sula Bay in Crete. There's an enormous American naval presence there. It's where the USS Gerald Ford is, you know, just offshore because it's the nearest major port that can accommodate a U.S. aircraft carrier. So the answer is yes. I think we should be a little worried about this. And another comment. Thanks for the five Australian dollars from Illuminous. But why?

How does Israel benefit from absolute chaos like in Libya and Iraq? What's the end goal? How can this lead to lasting security for them? You know what? I don't think it can lead to lasting security. I think this is the fallacy in Israeli policy. The Israeli view is if there's chaos, they won't have the wherewithal to work on a bomb.

And if they don't have the wherewithal to work on a bomb, then Israel is going to be safe for another month or six months or one year or whatever it is. And so if you just keep the region in a state of chaos, you can protect yourself with nuclear weapons. And those other states, because they're in chaos, can't develop a legitimate weapon to use against you. It's a short-term view, not a long-term view. Yeah, I think one fallacy, especially when people on the left are analyzing like Western and U.S. and Israeli policy,

is that we kind of assume that the actions are based on some kind of logic that is even right for the people who are perpetrating it. It may be that they're engaged in something that's self-destructive, and they're just making a mistake. You know, I mean, the March of Folly, right? I mean, and I think, I mean, I think that's what is going on. I mean, you and I have talked about, I mean, why on earth would Israel have wanted to overthrow Assad and have an ISIS regime right on their fucking border? That doesn't seem good for Israeli internal security, but yet they did it. The Syrian government yesterday endorsed, announced its support for the U.S. Israeli attack on Iran.

I felt like I was in the twilight zone. That's so crazy. This is a guy who is, this guy was, you know, in Al-Qaeda. Yeah. Yeah. He was the number two in ISIS. It's crazy. Yeah.

I mean, look, I think what's, you know, the, look, the thing is, Stratfor, who are not always right, but they're right about some things. They say that the U.S. foreign policy is based on disruption of possibly emerging regional superpowers, right? Just keep everyone else off guard. That's your thing. You fuck them up. You throw a push a stick into their bicycle spokes.

The Israelis are just the same thing on acid. That's what this is about. They're just trying to, you know, instead of just like the Chinese approach is very different. The Chinese approach is like, we can all make money together. You know, let's just pieces, more is bad, pieces more profitable, pieces smarter. But that's not the U.S. Israeli model. Agreed. let's see why

Joe Reddington wants to know why are there still British bases sorry braces in Cyprus will there be added pressure to remove them now get your Brits out I sure hope so hey Robbie is telling us that CENTCOM is announcing that three American soldiers

have been killed in some kind of an attack let's see um yeah i'm seeing this uh they're not there's not really any details here um several other people also several other soldiers were injured does it say where um in action is all it says we're withhold they're withholding additional information including their identities until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified oh boy It was inevitable.

It was inevitable. Yeah, people keep asking about the sleeper cells. We got to reiterate, there's probably no sleeper cells. And if they are, they're in places that don't have very many Americans. When I think of Iranian sleeper cells, I think of Pakistan. Because when I was living in Pakistan, there absolutely were Iranian sleeper cells, and they were doing bad shit. Um, Otaku, thanks for the 10 bucks. Um, do we think Huckabee is another individual who became an interloper after being in Israel for so long and sees himself as an Israeli more than as an American?

Oh, I think before he got to Israel, he saw himself as more Israeli than American. This guy's, this guy is actually dangerous to U.S. foreign policy. He needs to be removed. Anybody who would fette the traitor, Jonathan Pollard, in the American embassy, like some kind of fucking hero. to be removed from office. He's doing damage to our country. Couldn't agree more. And by the way, thanks for managing things for the dollar. Outside of Israel, which regimes in the Middle East are happy with the removal of the Shah slash Islamic Republic? Well, that's different. Let's say the Islamic Republic. Yeah, the Islamic Republic, every one of the Gulf countries. Every single one of them. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Gutter, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

Thrills. I'm sorry, let me finish real quickly. You can add to that Jordan, Egypt, and apparently now Syria. Weird. Way I see it, thanks for the generous two $10 donations. Much appreciated. Thank you. Let's see.

Oh, and Jay, support from Utah. You guys heard about the former Iranian president being confirmed to be dead, right? That's Ahmadinejad. Yeah. They killed Ahmadinejad yesterday, inexplicably. And apparently they wiped out his entire family as well. And there was another, who's the other one that they attacked? I said he was a reformer.

That's not true. Who is the other former president that they attacked? That's it. It was just Ahmadinejad. Okay. If the intelligence, Illuminous cutter, thanks for the five Australian dollars, If the intelligence community thinks that the current administration is making Iran decisions based outside of the U.S. national interest assessments, why aren't they trying to solve that, John? Well, it's because at the end of the day, these agencies and departments have to do what the president tells them to do.

And if this is the president's policy, they are compelled to carry out the president's policy. Keep in mind, my favorite quote from former Egyptian President Gamala Abdanassar. The thing about you Americans is you never make clear-cut stupid decisions. You only make complicated stupid decisions, which makes us wonder if there is something to them which we are missing. That's so fucking awesome. That's so great. And the U.S. Army is now announcing that it sank an American ship. I'm sorry, an Iranian ship, forgive me.

The U.S. Army is saying that it sank an Iranian ship. Well, Trump had threatened at the beginning of this war a couple of days ago that he was going to destroy the Iranian Navy. Yeah, there's not much to the Iranian Navy. They've got a sub or two. They've got a couple of ships. It's not going to be a lot of patrol boats. A lot of patrol boats. And they're mostly IRGIC.

Zizi Karagigianis. Thanks for the 29. and donation, much appreciated. Yeah, so, John, we are in, we're an hour in. I can keep going, but what do you think? Let's answer our questions. Okay, let's answer our questions. Indeed.

Okay, so, complicated stupid actions is so great. Thanks for the 99 from Keep It Real. Have you heard the conspiracy about how Israeli tourists burned down, part of Patagonia's forest, Argentina. And before the fires occurred, the president of Argentina changed the law allowing foreigners to buy land in Argentina. I knew to me. Hadn't heard that. Yeah, don't know. And now AP is reporting that three service members killed and five seriously wounded. But not where or how? No, not where. Weird. Okay. Um, can you, oh, this is good.

Trevor House, can you guys simply explain why you are so against the attack? Do you agree that Iran is extremely dangerous when left alone in a perfect world? What do you think America's stance should be on Iran? I'm really glad for this question. John, why don't you take it? Iran posed no threat to the United States. None. None.

It had no nuclear weapon. it had no nuclear weapons program that was confirmed twice by the CIA and by the international atomic energy agency and don't and didn't want one and didn't want one and there was a fatwa against developing one and even if they had one they didn't have a delivery system to to deliver it so um you know why are we doing Israel's dirty work for it if the Israelis wanted to attack Iran then go head attack Iran. But why did we have to do it? Why are Americans dying in the name of Israeli foreign policy? Would you agree with the assumption that Iran was quote unquote dangerous? I mean, the brief against Iran has been that it's a promoter of terrorist groups like Hamas and Hasbola

and the Houthis in Yemen and that they basically are an exporter and destabilizing force throughout the Middle East? Do you agree with that? No. I believe. that terrorism is in the eye of the beholder. There are, I mean, Hezbollah certainly is a terrorist group, or has been a terrorist group in the past. It blew up the American embassy twice. It blew up the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, killed hundreds and hundreds of Americans, including several of my CIA colleagues decades ago. It is now a legitimate political entity in Lebanon. It's a major parliamentary force. With the exception of targeting civilians on October 7th, I think that Hamas was created to liberate the Palestinian people from Israeli oppression.

And so oftentimes terrorism is in the eye of the beholder. I would say that the Iranians were responding with their support for these groups to what they saw as Israeli terrorism against Palestinians. and more broadly against Iran. Yeah, let's not forget, right? Like when the rebel, I mean, let's go back in the way back when machine to 1979. They overthrow the repressive Shah of Iran, whose son they'd like to now install, who was presiding over a despotic, tyrannical regime with a torture regime that is crazy under this horrible Savak organization.

1980, Iraq supported and armed and financed and encouraged by the United States attacks Iran. They end up having to fight this brutal war that we never paid attention to or even covered in the American media, the Iran-Iraq War, from 1980 to 1986, if memory serves. 88, 89, something like that. And then when, and then like out of all that, we basically, You know, the Iranians basically never got a start. We imposed these horrible, these brutal sanctions against their economy for the entire time. I mean, they've been on defense. I mean, I think the brief in favor of Iran is that they're also like a regionally non-unipolar force in that region, right?

It's kind of like U.S. and Israeli dominance would be complete, if not for Iran. Iran is the counterweight, counterbalance. I would argue that counterbalances are useful and more stabilizing than having, you know, hegemonic control by one power in a region. I mean, so, I mean, but like you, John, I mean, it's basically it's like who the Iranians want to have governed them is not our fucking business because we're not. It's their fucking country. If they want to overthrow it, they can. If they want, they have in the past.

They know how. and even if we want to, we can't get the new government that we want. We'll just end up breaking things, which is what we're doing. We are bad at this. I mean, point to one example of the United States, you know, bombing a country into regime change and having it work out well. It's killing people for no end, what, destroying infrastructure towards no end. We could have had a peaceful economic and diplomatic.

relationship with these people decades ago if we wanted it. All we had to do is get the phone. That's it. That's true. That's true. So, yeah, that's all right. Sorry, I get a little bit heated here. Okay. John, Swiss J says, John says that Iran has a couple of hypersonic missiles, but open source intel and other intelligence assessments is that they have a few thousand.

Well, if that's true, I stand corrected. It was my understanding that they had about a half a dozen that they got from the Russians. Darkness is saying, questioning me, Iran is useful and stabilizing. I mean, it's not a bad, it's not a good thing to have one. Look at what the whole 1991, you know, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the U.S. and the world became a unipolar environment for a while until the Chinese and the Russians got their shit together. it was not a good place. I mean, you know, we drove the car and we drove it into a ditch repeatedly.

I don't know. That's my take. You know, it's, but again, basically it's not our business. Illuminous counter, thanks for the five. Israel isn't a monolith. It's allowed to have a propaganda. It's been allowed to have a propaganda and lobby network in the West, to say the least. Does the West benefit from,

absolute chaos in the Middle East. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. We benefit from stability in the Middle East. 100%. Couldn't agree more. Okay, let me see what... People, I just want to say,

can we just all get along? Can we just get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids? Of course, we all know that Rodney King quote. It's pretty funny, though. It shouldn't be funny, but you know, you have to sort of ruthfully laugh. Thank you very much. Martin C. Hugh, to your adjoining deprogrammed.

And I think we are basically at the end of our questions. I'm really sorry for all the people whose questions we didn't get to. Please bear with us. There were more listeners and viewers than we're used to. And so thanks for joining us. Definitely very much so. So we are here on D-Program. If you're,

some of you are new to the show. We do this every Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. And we try to answer as many questions as possible. We're a fast-moving show. We appreciate your, your likes, your follows, your subscribes. And of course, your donations.

Please tune in tomorrow, Monday, 9 a.m. Eastern time. John, have a good. remaining time in New York City. And I hope everything goes well. And we will talk to you guys later. Bye. Bye, everybody.