Judging Freedom - PROF. MOHAMMAD MARANDI: Trump’s Iran War Is Backfiring — Iran Will NOT Surrender. What Happens Next?

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

PROF. MOHAMMAD MARANDI: Trump’s Iran War Is Backfiring — Iran Will NOT Surrender. What Happens Next?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Pragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? Jefferson was right? What if that government is best which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong? What if it is better to perish fighting for

freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, September 4th, 2006. Welcome to Moscow. I'm coming to you live from the National Hotel in downtown Moscow. Professor Muhammad Miranda, live from Tehran, will be with us in just a moment. Trump's war is backfiring. Iran is not surrendering. What will happen next? But first this. If you're serious about preparedness like I am, head over to preparewithachadcom right now. Let me tell you why. Our partners over at My Patriot Supply are the expert. when it comes to emergency food

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Build your 90 days of real food security. This offer ends on September 30th, so go now to prepare with the judge. Professor Miranda, welcome here. My dear friend, thank you for accommodating my schedule and the unique circumstances from which I find myself interviewing you and apologies for the noise in the background. This is a relatively public place. What happened at the attack at a wedding in Iran? The IRGC and independent media say it was unmistakably.

done by the U.S. What was the reaction in Iran to the slaughter of innocence at a wedding? Well, thank you very much for having me, Judge, and I hope to see you in Tehran one of these days, hopefully. I think if you see Tehran, your viewers would be able to better understand the situation here. unfortunately when the when the United States attacked Iran from my understanding three missiles which were highly advanced missiles struck a wedding and five people were killed one just last night a 22 year old woman a small child was killed a teenager was killed and the funeral was of course course massive and this further angered Iranians obviously outraged Iranians because the war began

with the slaughter of 168 school children in elementary school children and their teachers in Minab and also with an attack on a sports complex in Lammerd where a couple of dozen teenagers, girls and boys were murdered. The girls playing volleyball. The boys apparently playing football. So this was just a reminder of what happened in the past. And you know, Judge, before the show, I did some research on AI. Not research, but I asked a couple of questions about the number of casualties in Arab countries that host U.S. bases during this period, the number of civilian casualties. And it said that these governments altogether have claimed that 41 people have been killed throughout this war. That includes, of course, foreign workers and citizens. So while Iran has fired thousands upon thousands of

missiles and drones and has done devastation across the board as everyone acknowledges only 41 civilians have died which of course none only 41 have died and of course none should die but when one compares that to the the huge number of civilian deaths in iran throughout this period it it shows that the iranians are very careful not about not striking civilian targets and Iranians believe that in many cases the Americans intentionally struck civilian targets. I'm going to guess as horrific as this was that not unlike the attack on the Iranian school, which killed 167 school girls and their teachers and administrators, this attack

has had an aggravating effect, a unifying effect on the part of the part of the the Iranian people. No doubt, no doubt, as it would anywhere else in the world. Right. You know, a wedding is symbolic of all the good things that one could possibly imagine and on life, with life on this earth, and then to turn it into the exact opposite. It's very much also the elementary school strike

had that created, you know, that had had that bitter, that bitterness accompanying it with it, that accompanied it because you had all these little children and their teachers to deal with these little innocent children suddenly wiped out. The wedding and the assault on the school in Minov, the elementary school, these are highly symbolic and their significance for the entire population. Vice President of the United States whose behavior in my view was reprehensible, but we'll let the audience address that and evaluated for themselves, basically said, no apologies, no reparations, just more bombings. Cut number two, Chris.

And the Iranians say that an attack on a wedding celebration earlier this week killed several people, injured dozens of others. I know CENTCOM says it's investigating, but have you been briefed on that attack and was the U.S. responsible? So I've been briefed to the extent that I know that we're investigating. I've seen the same public media reports everywhere else. I will say that the Iranian state media has not been a very good scribe about what's happened in the conflict thus far. So I'm extremely skeptical of this. What I can't say with 100% confidence is that unlike the IRGC, the United States never targets civilians in combat. We never will do that. We never have done that. And unfortunately, obviously, sometimes things happen. But in this particular case,

I don't think that we have any information one way or the other. We're investigating it because obviously we care. We want to know. And if we do make mistakes, again, this is a big difference between us and Iran. When our military makes mistakes, they learn from them to try to get better from them. So we're investigating it very fully. I want you to weigh in on this, but I have to share my own views that this is utterly reprehensible and defied her recent history.

The United States, as far as they know, correct me if I'm wrong, Professor Miranda has never acknowledged the slaughter of the 167 to schoolgirls. In fact, the president of the United States in one of his incoherent statements said it was probably the Iranians killing their own. How despicable. But what are your thoughts on A, what happened and B, the second highest ranking person in the U.S. government commenting as he just did? Well, it was after I watched this clip earlier today that I went and used the

from the AI to see how many people were killed on the other side of the Persian Gulf as a result of Iranian missiles and drones. And that was the answer that I got. And so when he says that unlike the IRGC, and it cares and so it's the exact opposite the irgc and the regular army have been firing missiles and drones in huge numbers at targets across the region and after all this period of time only based on claims made by these countries in the u.s coalition only 41 people were killed again 41 is tragic but it's you cannot even compare it so it's really reversed so it's really reversed The Iranians are careful not to kill civilians, and the Americans are completely indifferent. And as you rightly pointed out, after Trump, after they killed the kids in Minab, Trump tried to blame it on Iran, even though the footage clearly showed it was a tomahawk.

And Trump went and said, well, we sell tomahawks to different countries and, you know, just talking nonsense. But the U.S. was saying back then the so-called Secretary of War, Hexsaf, was saying that we're investigating. And I wonder where that, you know, it's been over six months now. Where has that investigation led? They're always talking, telling us about what's going on in Iran and how there's no leader and how the leaders are at each other's throats and the country is falling apart and there's no food and there's no money and people are not. paying paid, of course, nonsense, but they claim to have all sorts of information about what goes on inside Iran.

Yet after three months, after over six months, they still can't tell us what happened to the school in Minna. You know, that's something that people noticed. And people, when the, when Vance says that we're investigating, that basically means that nothing is going to come out of this. Right, right, right. magazine recently reinforced what you said. Their research showed thousands, didn't give an exact number, but thousands, plural, of Iranian civilians killed by the United States and Israel since the war

began on February 28th. Oh, I may have just misspoken, Muhammad, because according to the vice, you know, I'm being sarcastic, according to the vice president of the United States, this is not a war, Chris. In terms of the war in the timeline, given this administration has put timelines out there before, what you just said about no negotiations happening with Iran. Will this war be over by the time of the midterm elections? Well, Caitlin, again, I don't, I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting.

I recognize there have been places where this is flared up. Major combat operations, again, major combat operations lasted for about six weeks. And since then, we destroyed, of course, their nuclear facilities with midnight hammer. With Epic Fury, we destroyed their defense industrial base for producing weapons, and also a lot of their conventional military. And then we made it harder for them to rebuild that nuclear program. But when you ask, when will this end, you're asking me a question, like, when will the Iranians stop shooting at ships? I think the reality is, I don't know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians.

But so it's up to the Iranians when this war ends? Well, if the Iranians keep on, but Caitlin, if the Iranians keep on shooting at commercial ships, again, we have, I think, a responsibility, but certainly we're the only ones with the capability to ensure that the Iranians are not destroying world energy markets. And our attitude is we're not going to set an artificial timeline because, let's just say, hypothetically, let's say I told you three months. Let's say I told you three days, okay? And then the Iranians start blowing up oil and gas. ships and the United States is the only country with the capability to ensure that those oil and gas ships get to market, well, what I would say is it would be irresponsible for us to write out our strategy and our timeline for an Iranian nation that simply cannot honor its commitments and cannot stop shooting at commercial ships. The look on her face at the end, I think captured what you're about to say, captured my thoughts and the thoughts of everybody in the room.

How could he possibly say this? is not a war? Well, Judge, you're the judge. You know these things far better than I. The United States has imposed the blockade on Iran's siege warfare, which is targeting civilians. It's preventing food from getting in. It's preventing medicine and medical supplies from getting into the country. So they are waging war on the entire Iranian population.

Iranian commercial ships that try to break the siege, they will target them with missiles. So the Americans are waging war. On the other hand, the Iranians are not targeting ordinary commercial ships. These ships belong to the countries that assisted the United States and continue to assist the United States in this war. Either it's their ships or it's their oil and LNG or other products that they're trying to export. And we are still at a state of war. Kuwait, the Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia. During the assault on the country the other night,

where the wedding was also targeted, their airspace, Saudi airspace in particular, was used extensively to carry out strikes against Iran. And of course, all of these countries were partners, and all of these countries host large quantities, large numbers of U.S. troops and large quantity, large amounts of U.S. equipment. So these countries are partners in war against Iran. And so, of course, Iran is going to impose restrictions on their exports and imports. But what Iran has said that it will do is that if the United States abides by the MOUs, provisions if it carries out its obligations within the framework of the

MOU then the Strait of Hormos will be normalized and while he's saying that it's Iran that's not carrying out his commitments I think that MOU is clear the United States did not carry out any of its commitments whereas the Iranians were opening the Strait of Homo's and they were constantly bragging about how many more ships were going through those those couple of weeks but during those couple of the United States did not release any of Iran's stolen assets. It did not force the Israeli regime to withdraw from Lebanon as we speak. They're bombing Lebanon and killing people.

So, you know, he speaks. What he says is the opposite of what he's saying is actually true. Right, right. He has aggravated a lot of the so-called MAGA base, which has been opposed to the war from the beginning, which believed what candidate Donald Trump and candidate J.D. Vance both promised when they were running for election, which voted for them, believing that they wouldn't start a war. And all he's done is really rubbed salt in the wound with the absurd statements that he made yesterday. It would seem to me, Muhammad and you're a professor and you're right there and you're a gifted guy and your profoundly intellectually honest, but it would seem to me, challenge me, correct me,

modify me if you wish. Trump's war is backfiring on Trump. I have no doubt that it has backfired on him. It will continue to backfire. But meanwhile, everyone is going to suffer. Iranians are going to suffer. The countries in the Persian Gulf that are U.S. proxies, they're suffering. they're suffering even more than Iran because at least Iran has an industrial base.

It has agriculture. It is a large country that in many ways is self-sufficient thanks to decades of sanctions, but also the post-revolutionary vision to become more independent and self-reliant. These countries are completely dependent on oil and gas. and their economies are going downhill very fast. And if this continues, who knows what will happen to them? Who knows whether they will crumble or not with or without the war, if this hot war.

So he's making his own allies suffer, and the people across the world are suffering. The situation with fertilizer and agriculture is going to be caused. some say hunger next year in many parts of the world the economies across the world are suffering and the American people are suffering yet he refuses to end this all he has to do is just say I will abide by my commitments in MOU and the occupation of Lebanon and the genocide in Gaza and hand over Iranian stolen assets and so on it's it's not difficult and then the rate of homoes would be open.

You know, you're actually being charitable, Muhammad, because everything you just articulated, he agreed to in writing when he ostentatiously signed the MOU in the Palace of Versailles on internationally broadcast television. And then, of course, he violated what he signed within hours of his signing it. Is there some, only because the rumors are rampant in the West, is there some determination on the part of the Iranian government to eradicate Israeli leadership? Well, that is an interesting point.

The chair of the Supreme National Security Council, since it was a few days ago, I'll refrain from saying exactly what he said because it's a, but he's. He basically said that we will sooner or later we'll send Netanyahu to hell. But he also, by the way, said that this talk about Trump's son is all nonsense, it's Zionist propaganda. And of course, by extent, and also, I think he also said this, these claims of assassinating Trump are also nonsense and propaganda. But I think he said that.

But he did say that we will sooner or later. we will send that to Yahoo to help. Will the Iranians accelerate and exacerbate their military response if the U.S. keeps up these pinpricks? I shouldn't call it a pinprick. It's slaughtered innocence at a wedding, but you know what I mean. It's not a false gas invasion. It's devastation. It's killing innocence. It violates the peace. It violates the MOU. It's horrific. But will the Iranians accelerate and exacerbate their response? Well, I think we already saw this, this time around when the Americans carried out these attacks. The Iranian response was very, very heavy-handed.

What the Iranians have been doing, especially after the United States undermined the MOU and the fighting restarted. Every time the United States would attack, the Iranians would attack, would retaliate. a bit harder. This time round, though, the Iranian retaliation was very heavy-handed. It far outweighed the American strike. And then the next night, the regular army again attacked U.S. bases in Kuwait and in the Emirates. So I think we're already seeing that. And the Iranians are going to make the Strait of Hormuz more than. difficult for ships to pass through up some ships do go through with iranian consent most of the oil that goes through is actually uh is actually taken with iranian consent whether they're chinese

ships or they're iraqi tankers because they didn't participate in the war some of the oil that the emirates gets through with these small small ships that take uh oil from tankers and then reload them onto tankers afterwards uh they do it with iran iraninin consent there's an agreement of sorts but i think i'm i know that the iranians are going to be tougher when it comes to the usage of the strait of homoes because the united states is intensifying the war and the u.s secretary treasury secretary is planning to strangulate iran my understanding is that the iranians will use the military to retaliate in other words and this is my guess that economic assets will be if the United States tries to strangle the Iranian economy further, Iran will strike back

by hitting economic assets across the region. The reason is that the Iranians don't have the ability to counter-sanction the United States and undermine the U.S. banking system, obviously. So the Iranians are going to retaliate by striking assets that are nearby, which are very, very sensitive and very important for four countries in the region, the West and the United States. Has there been any palpable response in the Iranian economy to the so-called D-Day sanctions announced by Secretary Bessent now about a week ago? Nothing sudden. I mean, the currency has gone down somewhat, I think, maybe 10, 15 percent.

I don't know exactly how much. maybe a bit more something like that I guess but in general life in Tehran is the same as it was before but the expectation is that the United States will continue to push and to and to threaten countries and to sanction banks and and but if it has no impact on Iran that's one thing but the Iranians have been very clear that if it does have an impact then the Iranians are going to the Iranians are going to retaliate. And the Iranians, you know, as we discussed before, after with the new Supreme, chair of the Supreme National Security Council, with his appointment, Iran is already sending a signal. It is clear that the leader wants Iran to go on the offensive.

And he, the chair of the council, Dr. Rezae, has said that Iran is, Iran should go on the offensive before he became the new chair, and since then he's been making very, very tough statements. And also the first vice president, who's the second person in the Pezeshkiyan administration, he too, he's a, he's a professor at the Iran's MIT, let's say, a very, very intelligent person. And he's basically running day-to-day affairs of the administration, Dr. Ardif. He put out a statement, a tweet yesterday or the day before, and he basically said the Americans should be prepared for great hardship. They should prepare for great hardship.

And that, I think, and this I'm just speculating, I think he put out that statement or that tweet, basically to counter this sort of propaganda in the Western media about. about divisions and Iran over the war and what Iran should do. And regional media that's linked to the West or allied to the West like Al Jazeera and Arabia and so on. So I think, but it was a very, very tough worded statement. And I did retweet it so that some of my followers could see what he had said.

I think that was also a very important statement. Wow. Professor Muhammad Miranda, my dear friend, Be well, be safe. Thank you very much for your time. If there is breaking news, reach out to us and we'll have a conversation like we just did. Otherwise, we'll look forward to seeing you sometime next week.

All the best, my friend. Absolutely, Judge. I hope you enjoy your stay in Russia, and I hope to see you soon. God be with you. Thank you. And thank you, everyone for watching. Thank you for being impatient with our new setup when I travel.

back with you with some of your familiar faces and most desired guests on Monday and Tuesday of next week. Judge McAlattano for judging freedom.