Shaun Newman Podcast - #1145 - Rebekah Koffler

Episode Date: October 14, 2026

Rebekah Koffler is a Russian-born former U.S. intelligence officer who served as a Russian Doctrine and Strategy specialist in the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2008 until late 2016. Working with the DIA and the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, she led “red” teams during war games and delivered classified briefings to top U.S. military commanders, NATO ministers, the directors of the CIA and DIA, the White House National Security Council, and senior congressional staff. She is the author of Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America and currently works as a writer, commentator, and national security consultant whose work has appeared in outlets including Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and The Hill. Born and raised in the Soviet Union, she immigrated to the United States as a young woman and has attributed her strongly pro-America and pro-capitalism views to her experiences under the Soviet system.Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail]’East Apothecary - USE promo code SNP for 15% off your orderhttps://thepowerofplants.ca/Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

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This is James Lindsay. This is Vance Crow and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Thursday. How's everybody doing? I tell you what, we survived New York City. We are out. I'm happy to be out.

I'm happy never to go back, pulling a trailer ever again. That was, well, Well, that's the first time Melina sat down and planned our route out, planned our escape, if you would. And every kilometer we ticked by and rush hour traffic, it was a little closer we got to the city of Brotherly Love. And we're sitting in Philly now. And to all my Canadians, I'm sorry, to all my Albertans, Saskatchewan, Westerners, it is a high of plus 29 today. And it is hot. She's nice.

The sun feels great. I'm not complaining. I know. I know. Actually, you guys aren't doing too bad back there. But regardless, here we got out of the city. The sun's shining. It feels great. The city of brotherly love, okay? Now, everywhere you turn, someone's telling a story. Headlines, experts, markets that change by the hour. You know what doesn't argue? Gold. Silver doesn't revise the script. You can hold it, weigh it, put it in a drawer, and know it's still there. When noise gets loud, own something real, folks. Silver gold bull, precious metals delivered to you. Head to silvergoldbull.ca or dot com, get an account, sign up, order something, comes right to your doorstep. And if you got questions down on the show notes, you can text or email Graham, and he'll get you answers. Now, back home, Guardian, plumbing, and heating, these guys have been keeping homes, farms,

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Let's get on to that tale of the tape. Today's guest is a Russian-born, former U.S. intelligence officer who served as a Russian doctrine and strategy specialist in the Defense Intelligence Agency. She's also the author of Putin's playbook, Russia's Secret Plan to Defeat America. I'm talking about Rebecca Koffler, so buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today, I'm I'm sitting beside Rebecca Koffler. Ma'am, first off, it's great to meet you finally in person. And we're doing it, I think, in style.

People can probably hear a bit of the noise in the background, but we're at Trump Tower in the, is it the 45? And the bar is called 45, you know, in honor of Trump's 45th presidency. And yes, it is fantastic to meet you in person, shown. Well, you could have done something with the weather, because I alluded to this on a podcast before you that I'm sitting here and I am like, I'm soaked. It has been like we had so much fun in New York City.

But by the end of it, Mel and the kids went back to the campsite and they were soaked and tired and miserable. And I was sitting there going, I got to get to Trump Tower. I'm going to get to Trump Tower because I want to meet Rebecca. But I'm like, man alive, it has poured rain all day long today. And it's our one day in the city. I know, I messed up, Sean. I forgot to pray hard to God to hook us up with the weather.

Well, I tell you what, I think probably the conversation that we've been having for, you know, probably now the better part of a year and change, roughly, has always come around Trump, right, and his policies, and specifically with Russia, right? And it was just announced, you know, like every time now that I've fallen, politics, Rebecca, and it gets close to any sort of election. It's like a government gets super active, right? They're trying to solve the problems.

I've been driving Canada, and now I've been driving the United States. Gas is not exactly cheap anymore. And so he makes an announcement that he's going to Russia and Russia's going to flood the market with a whole bunch of diesel and fuel and all these things. You got Zelensky every day, though, like signaling something

completely different. I don't know. This is where I lean on people like you. Maybe you see something that the rest of us don't see. What do you see in all these dealings? Trump, Russia, Ukraine, Zelensky, walk us through what you see. What I see regretfully shown is that President Trump is being manipulated. You know, first of all, he got us into this situation.

And I'm a Trump supporter. You know, I voted for the guy three times. times, okay? And I was like, you know, praying for the guy to make this country normal again, make America normal again. And what happens instead is like he basically did the thing that he explicitly said that he wasn't going to do. And that is to start another foreign war, a necessary foreign war. And that's what caused the surge in prices and gas prices, right, and oil. And now he is looking for Putin. to give him, you know, some way out of the situation that he drove us in.

But here's the deal with this, with this diesel, you know, thing. It's like, you know, the Russians would say it's like giving aspirin to a dead person, right? This whole, first of all, Russia used to be the second largest, producer and exporter of diesel after the United States. Well, not anymore. Guess why? Because Mr. Zelensky directed his military to start striking Russia's refineries, right? And so basically Russia's production capacity for diesel has dropped from 25 to about 35% from what it used to be. Russia used to produce 40% more diesel than its domestic consumption required, right? So the rest you would export. Well, not anymore. Right now, Russia put an export ban on diesel

because it doesn't have enough for its own needs. And so I'm not sure how the president, you know, how President Trump is going to make Putin force him. He says, you know, that he made this deal. First of all, I don't believe this anymore because he's been, you know, he's been saying that he has opened the street of Hormuz. The straight of Hormuz, he's like, certainly something's not right here. So first of all, the Russians don't have enough to give us any. And second of all, even if they do,

do come through, which remains to be seen on this deal, it's not going to improve our prices, which are at historic high right now. The reason I do not believe that Putin is going to abide by the deal, the supposed deal, which I'll believe it when I see it, is because Zelensky keeps striking the infrastructure, right? The refineries. And Zellinsky, Zelensky said that as soon as, even though President Trump called on Zelensky to stop, Zelensky said, well, if Putin stops, then I will stop. So Zelensky is out of control. So President Trump, unfortunately, is not in control.

Someone else is in control. I have no idea who that is, but it's no longer President Trump. I wish there was video for this. What? Because I'm like, okay, Rebecca. what I hear is I'm like, listen, I voted for him three times. You know what? That sounds like, it sounds like back in COVID times when you'd be like, listen, I've gotten every vaccine to this point.

I'm not an anti-vaxxer. I'm just saying maybe not this one. That's what it kind of sounds like we're to the point of is like, you know, like there is a lot of people that believe Trump knows what is going on and has a master plan. And then there is more and more people. that are like, what are you talking about? Like, we just have to just pick her head up for a second. Look at the gas price.

Look at the amount of conflicts he started. Where I come from, you know, like in Canada, I just keep pointing out, we'd have a different government if it wasn't for Trump. He stuck his finger in there. Now, jokingly, for sure. You know, the 51st state comment, for sure. I don't think he was like, we're going to come and invade. I don't think that at all.

But he kept poking it. at election time and the liberals get in and now we've had I mean like we just have the liberals still and so my biggest qualm with them you know when I look around the world I go I don't know

we talk about Iran one of the reasons I bring you on is your background in Russia and coming over here and all the you know intelligence briefings you do on trying to break down what's happening but when you're just a regular

everyday person and a president comes in and in a Canadian sense keeps in the government that has been the most atrocious government for the last decade and they're still in because of Trump in my opinion

I mean they did great marketing work but it was because of Trump Trump could have just backed off he didn't and if you're an American you look around and I'm sure there's domestic policies that he's done that have been fantastic but like traveling this country

it is it is expensive when it comes to how much you're filling your tank up for. Not that you can judge a man just by the cost of diesel. But I mean, you're talking about like subversion or somewhere along the lines he gets bought off or something. And, yeah, I mean, the guy was shot in the head. So what did they do in order to steer him away from his master plan?

Well, first of all, let me address first the cost. the surging costs, right? And then I'll talk about the master plan. The supposed master plan. First of all, it's not just, it's not just fuel. It's not just diesel. It's not just gas that we pump into our car. It has rippling effect throughout the entire economy.

When was the last time you went to a grocery store? Did you see the prices? Well, in Canada, we had this thing called the carbon tax on everything. So we saw that ripple effect happen. I don't know, was it three, four years ago, folks? And then they repealed the carbon tax, right? But that was a government initiative, and it was supposed to save the planet. And so we've seen the ripple effect from diesel and gas prices going up, because, oh, shocker, how do you get all the things you buy and consume?

Buy trucks, buy ships, and what did they take to move? Well, isn't that, like, I mean, this is why the Freedom Convoy was so effective. It was truck drivers who went. It's the industry that helps move a country. Exactly. And if you tax and move the price of that up, you're not wrong. I know. I mean, yes, I've been to a grocery store.

I just look at it and I think Americans are getting it in a different way because Canadians had it with the carbon tax. Carbon tax sent our, you know, our prices up over and over every year because the carbon tax was getting more and more. Every sort of consumer good as well as groceries, the prices are through the roof. The gallon of milk, or is it half a gallon right now that I buy at Whole Foods, is $6 to $8, depending on what kind of milk it is, right?

It can go all the way up to $10, depending on like the brand and whatnot. And it's not just that. And of course, it's because of that, because everything needs to be transported. meat, especially like all the perishables, because they have to be transported all the time. Like, restart. It's not like, you know, they can be stable on a shelf for a long time. So anyways, but regarding the, so he got us, he got us here. Or someone tricked him to get us into this completely untenable situation.

Like to me, you know, like I'm not a conspiracy. serious because like I'm a former military intelligence officer you know I worked with DIA defense intelligence you're one of us now Rebecca you're one of us but I am one of you a civilian right now but what I'm about to say it is so counterintuitive for Trump like what he's doing right now makes absolutely no sense it's almost somebody like okay so so with your background right yes I think people already, well, I hope so on the podcast, because you've been on so many times and know your background. Briefly, what is your background?

Okay, so former military intelligence officer, DIA, which is the Defense Intelligence Agency, military counterpart to CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency. In other words, we do the real work, right? We joke about CIA. We call them clowns in action. But on a more serious note, what we do is we enable the warfighter with critical intelligence and as well as the commander-in-chief, right? We provide intelligence on foreign threats. And what is a foreign threat? It's a capability, it's a military capability and intent to harm the United States or our allies such as Canada.

And in this capacity, I have delivered, you know, classified briefings to practically every combatant command in the United States and in Europe. And I briefed the White House during President Obama's tenure, national security council, Congress, etc. I even briefed NATO just months prior to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. So I have, but in addition, you mentioned that I'm an expert in Russia. That is like my primary expertise. I, you know, participated in war games and led red teams. But I am, my broader background is in general. foreign militaries and their capabilities, including space warfare, cyber warfare.

So Iran, to me, the fact that what's going on with this war on Iran makes absolutely no sense, that war was unwinnable from the very start. So when you talk about things not making sense, now that people have your background, what makes no sense to basically, military analyst like when you're looking at this you're going what are we doing you have to break it down for the common person because you go we we can't see in rebecca's head we don't have the things you've done so what doesn't make sense let's start with iran um well let's start even like at the big picture at the strategic picture the united states is right now fighting

a two-theater war, right? By proxy, on behalf of Ukraine, it is fighting with Russia and it is fighting with Iran in a direct kinetic confrontation. According to U.S. military doctrine, we are supposed to have the capability to sustain ongoing military. military operations in two simultaneous conflicts, right? But we cannot do that. We are right now, we have depleted our own weapons arsenal to very dangerous levels. We are at 25, below even 25% of what we call wartime reserve. In other words, if, and neither of these wars are actually necessary in the sense that,

neither Iran nor Russia present an existential threat, a direct threat to the United States. What is a threat? There's no threat from either country to U.S. territorial integrity or long-term survivability, which is how you define vital interest, right? So these wars are not necessary and that is why this is the first thing that makes no sense we're effectively depleting further our weapons arsenal for unnecessary wars and then the second thing Iran bringing down from the macro level to the micro level the war with Iran has had such tremendous ramifications both on domestic situation in America and the global situation. First of all, the fact that the U.S. military, which supposedly is the best war fighting force in military history,

the fact that we cannot open the damn straight of our moves, and we cannot win this war with an adversary that is, is technologically not as proficient as we, and is fight using proxy forces like the Hooses. The fact that we cannot do that, despite billions and billions of dollars spent every year on these super duper capabilities that we call exquisite, whether it's satellites, whether it's Patriot missiles,

whether it's, I don't know, all our precision, you know, the stingers and the javelins and all that stuff that we give like to Ukraine. And we cannot open the Strait of Hermuz and everybody sees it. Russia sees it, China sees it, Iran sees it. So we just basically, you know, showed to the rest of the world that we are paper tiger. That's that is absolutely a very very. very, very dangerous situation that we are in. Why are we in this situation? President Trump said in the beginning of this war that he started in February, he said, who would have known that Iran

would close the street of Hermos? And I'm like, are you kidding me? Every single war game that we conducted for the past two decades simulating exactly the conflict that we're in. That was the very first thing that the red team did. Just for your, for your listeners, the blue team and the red team basically when we simulate a conflict, right, whether it's like with Russia or with Iran or with China, the blue team is always like US team and allies plus allies because typically we fight, you know, the US is in the lead and then NATO is pretty much part of the team, right? And then the red team consists of typically people like me, intelligence from all the,

you know, 17 or 18, however, you know, we have grown, the intelligence community has grown since September 11th, but it's people who specialize in a particular target, right? whether it's Russia, Iran, China, experts on space warfare, cyber warfare. So every single war game, Iran won, blue team lost. Same, by the way, with Russia and the United States. I know it's inconceivable to you, but that is the fact. And that was the very first thing that the red team did is close the straight. of her moves.

Just so I'm understanding that correctly. Every time you run a war game simulation between Iran and the United States, Iran won. Correct. Here's how. Because we're looking like the way that the United States fights, no one else fights like that. Militarily, the U.S. is superior. We are tactically brilliant, but we're strategically completely incompetent. It's completely two different.

warfighting styles that the two adversaries fight. Let's just take right now the situation we are when. We keep striking, you know, targets in Iran from standoff distances, right? We supposedly obliterated, as President Trump said, several times, like every single time he puts a tweet out, we have obliterated, right? Supposedly. Iranian military capabilities, it's Navy, it's Neufors, and yet, you know, Iran keeps launching strikes, whether it's against our allies in the region, whether it is against on tankers that are trying to pass Strait of Hormuz. So they still have that capability. We have not obliterated anything. First of all, if we obliterated the nuclear capability, why do we need to

keep obliterating it? So the reason, so on the nuclear bit, the nuclear capability is buried so deeply in the tunnels, both the missile stockpile and the delivery system, that even our strongest bunker buster cannot penetrate that deep. Okay? That's thing number one. He would have to go nuclear if he had to succeed. So what we're doing instead is we're trying to bury, we're trying to bury those tunnels and close them up, but it's not destroyed.

The nuclear capability has not destroyed, is not destroyed one bit. In terms of the regular conventioning capability, maybe we destroyed about 40% at this point, but again, it is so deeply big. We cannot do that. So what Iran is doing, it is fighting an asymmetric war by closing the Strait of Hormuz. Right now, they're trying to create such an impact, economic impact on the United States.

And they're actually succeeding that eventually that pressure would compel, in their view, the U.S. leadership to back off. This is why Iranians, you don't see them really jumping into any kind of deal with Trump because they have leverage. We don't have leverage over them because there, what we call the pain threshold is so high for like Iranians and same for Russians, Ukrainians, you know, vis-a-vis Westerners, right? So and their weapons arsenal is so large. Iran has the largest stockpile of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones in the region.

Okay. And now a bunch of our bases were obliterated and non-functional right now in the region, in the Middle East, and every single ally knows who bought missile defense systems from us knows that they're not worth anything, right? So we just demonstrated to the entire world that we cannot compel a country. that is a lot smaller, a lot less technologically proficient, we can't do anything with them. And so that war is going to continue dragging us more deeper and deeper into the economic disaster where we're going to run out of jet fuel.

So it's a mess, especially during the run-up to the elections. And that is what does it make sense to me. I remember hearing a story about Germany and World War II and why they lost the war. And one of the reasons I'd heard is they ran out of diesel. Yep. I don't know if that's true or not. I don't know whether it's true or not. But it kind of rings to where you're talking to.

Right. And so, yeah. So we are conducting this no-contact warfare, right? We're striking Iran from standoff distances. We're not going to commit ground troops because that would be suicidal. We can't possibly, and we cannot, and everybody sees that, we cannot compel Iran to stop. It's funny when you say everyone sees that because everybody on the east sees that then,

because in the West. I'm sorry, yes, I need to qualify that. By everybody, I mean U.S. adversaries who understand and military, like people, military people who understand what's going on, right? And, you know, some civilians who pay attention. We just demonstrated to China, we can't do shit, pardon my French, to end this war that President Trump got us into with Iran. Same situation with Russia, Ukraine.

Zelensky, you know, President Trump just a few days ago, told Zelensky to knock it off striking Russian refineries. Because again, diesel, you know, prices are out of control. It was at $6.53, which is at historic high, I think. And Zelensky pretty much ignored what President Trump said. And in fact, Zelensky just accused President Trump on first. Friday of using the meeting in Florida with his team between the US team and Ukrainian team, like trying to negotiate the end of Russia-Ukraine war, he accused Trump Zelensky, that is, of using smokescreen for negotiations with Russia on diesel prices.

So in other words, Zelensky is not even listening to President Trump, which tells me that there's someone even, you know, more powerful than the president. This that Zelensky reports to, right? And so it's, this is what makes absolutely no sense because things that are going on are very anti-American, they counter to U.S. interests, right? And I'm not even talking about getting closer to nuclear war, you know, we can talk about.

later if you want but so so we are in this two wars he cannot stop them because we have no leverage with squanded leverage we never you know we never even built up any with the two countries and on top of it he seems like he has no idea what kind of capability Iran and and what kind of leverage he had because he said who would have known well if you pay attention if you actually get your briefings or if you get briefings from the right people you would know that this is what happened there was a game war game that it's very important to mention this the millennium challenge i think it was called where iran won the war the red team that is um simulated war game in five days and the Marine General who was I believe it was I think Admiral Van

Riper I would need to check on that who was running the red team he was actually dismissed because he exposed the vulnerabilities that we had and he was pretty vocal about about this within the Pentagon, and instead of commending him on exposing those vulnerabilities and taking steps to close those vulnerabilities, he was dismissed. And all that information is declassified right now. And what I mean by vulnerabilities is not just like the U.S. is tactically brilliant, but strategically incompetent. It's about the dot. We lack proper strategy. We just keep striking. It's almost like schizophrenic. We keep launching these strikes, launching the strikes, but it doesn't really amount to anything. Yeah. Okay. Let me, let me, am I safe in assessing that your background is an understanding amongst other things, but one of them being that you've studied how other nations would fight against the United States?

Yes, it's their way of war. So it's not that you're saying Iran is. is greater because you think Iran's greater. You're saying, no, no, no, listen, what I did for years was study how Iran thought, or Russia, or take your pick. Thank you. And then when, this is how they'd fight their war. And this is, and when you, so, no, that's my first question. I'm correct in assessing that, that's your background is understanding how a different country would fight a war. Correct.

And how they think, how they plan these wars, what they're done. doctrine is and what their military. Okay. Then the second question I have, because I've never ran a war game before. When you say there's a red and a blue team and you go and you set up this war game, what is a war game actually? Is it just like 10 people sitting around a table? No.

You know, with a game of risk on the table and you go, okay, we're going to take three your people. Or how? No. Could you walk me through that? Sure. Usually it is at a military base, at a U.S. military base. and let's just take specifically some of the war games that we do are at a let's just take specific war games shriva war games which is oriented towards space warfare

takes place usually at neles air force base near Las Vegas so it's on the blue side it's a joint force right it's a representatives from all services, Army, Navy, Marines, Special Forces, you name it. And it's not 10 people, it's like hundreds. Sure. Then the Red Team typically consists of, like I said, people like intelligence officers specialize in the particular area, both regional target and functional. target by regional target I mean like the top four US and allied

adversaries are Russia China North Korea and Iran right these are the top force so there's an analyst from every intelligence agency CIA DIA Army Army Navy intelligence NSA the guys who do communication intercept and then in addition to that there are experts functional experts. Let's say, you know, again, space cyber, terrorism, counterintelligence, biological weapons, you know. But I guess maybe, okay, so there's people from every background on each side and all the intelligence is there. How do they play out a war game? So there's a lot of preparation before the actual war game takes place.

They're scenarios. There are people who are. war planners develop scenarios. There's what we call a roadmap, a road to war, right? How does a conflict starts? And historically, all war, like big wars usually starts due to some, like miscalculation or misinterpretation or usually it's unintentional, right?

So there's like a trick, Let's say like with Russia, Ukraine, you know, Russia makes an incursion, you know, into a former Soviet state. U.S. you know, overreact. So this sort of thing. Or they stage like a protest or something. You know, same with Iran. Let's say Iran strikes a allied or U.S. interests somewhere. We overreact. So it's basically what we call escalation ladder. So usually it starts with the red team, usually puts the first strike somewhere. And it doesn't need to be a kinetic strike. Sometimes it could be like a non-kinetic, you know, strike attacking someone's satellites.

That's a big one, right? Because the U.S. cannot prosecute a military campaign without satellites. We do everything with satellites, targeting, navigation, missile warning, nuclear support, you name it, communication between troops. So that could happen. So there's a trigger, and then it's red, blue, red, blue. So all of those scenarios are worked out, and then we are given, like, let's say, you know, five days to do like a war game. And several times it has been the case where the red team would do something, let's just say, you know, in the Russia-Ukraine scenario,

the red team would pop a tactical nuke and the war game would stop. Why? Because we don't have a policy to respond to such thing. okay or like you know Iran would do something to which we don't because the blue team has to play by the rules using the doctrine we the red team also plays by the rules based on our understanding of the opponent's doctrine you can't just do things that come to your mind right you have to you have to your action has to be consistent with the doctrine and if there's no doctrine for something you can't do anything.

And so several times it happened, the war game would stop. Or they would reset the scenario. If the red team, let's say, won or did like an action, putting the blue team in a checkmate, let's say, using the chess term, right? And there's no policy and there's no doctrine. They can't do anything. And so they either stop the war game or they would reset and not say, oh, pretend that didn't happen. This is the kind of stuff.

So this is the stuff. So I'm just trying to build myself a visual. You use the chess term. I like chess. So then I visualize a giant chess board and red team moves this pawn up. No, no, it's not like that. It's computer. It's basically like it's.

Like call a duty or. No, no. So there's like, there's a. We all go out and play paintball, Rebecca. No. So everybody has a role, right? Sometimes I would like I played Putin sometimes if I lead the red team I am Putin And you know I have people who are you know reporting to me they are doing their own like duty

They there's an intel person there's like there's a whole like security like the same on the blue team But we never had like an actual you know press it's usually somebody plays the role of the US president right So there are meetings. There's like... So when the blue team, sorry to keep interrupting. I just... In this war game, you're Putin. Mm-hmm.

And the red team makes a move. Do you post it on a board so the blue team can see it? And they go, okay. Yes, yes, correct. How are we going to respond to that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We do like, it's basically, it's not, it's a simulation. It's not the actual.

There's no, like, web, at least like with this, with the table top. Obviously, there are military drills with Lifi and all of that. But what we're talking right now is about analytic. It's a simulation. So in these simulations where you played Putin, or you were just part of the war games, Iran, take your pick.

Yes. What you're seeing unfold right now, is this close to the simulation where you're like, this is why the U.S. will lose, or is it different? Yes, it's close. like so basically on the on the PowerPoint we're given the scenario this is a scenario this is what red team did um uh blue response blue response briefs comes briefs its action right we the red team you know um consults with itself the blue team consults with itself and then we brief the

principles like on what happened and then at the end of the game At the end, there's what we call hot wash. We say, like, okay, this is what happened. This is why it happened. These are the things that the U.S. military needs to take into consideration to improve itself. But unfortunately, what happens shown is that usually the capability, like, because doctrine and strategy are such amorphous things, concepts, U.S. military thinking, right? Why? Because we're driven by defense industry, like behemoths.

Because they only make money on weapons. You don't make money on thinking, on brain power. You don't make money on doctrine and strategy, right? So if you recommend to the agency, like you need to improve this, this and that from the doctrine strategy standpoint, the contractors cannot make money you understand so these things never get implemented this is why we keep losing these wars it's not like this Iran thing is a new thing right we have been fighting these wars for decades at this point we spent five six trillion on the Middle Eastern wars Iraq Afghanistan right and like specifically let's just say Afghanistan 2.2 trillion dollars six thousand American lives

after 20 years we ran away And the same lunatics are running the country, the Taliban, except they have $85 billion worth of top secret U.S. military hardware that is on the black market right now. It's not a new thing what is happening right now, right? We just never learn because the military industrial complex has a death grip on the U.S. government. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yeah, it sounds. Because you know, you don't make money on improving strategy. The reason why I bring it back to COVID.

It sounds like the pharmaceuticals, right? They don't make money on Ivermectin, right? Yes. We don't make money on thinking. Come on, Sean, don't be so common sense. Let's go make some money. What you're talking about from a military standpoint is very similar, just in obviously different set of circumstances.

Exactly. It's a perfect, perfect analogy with the COVID. And conversely, the adversaries, because they are not as economically, you know, strong, you know, say Russia, Iran, they use their brain power. They do study us. They don't have the U.S. dollar. They have to figure out ways. They have to use their brain. They have to use their brain.

And they study how we fight. Every single war that we have fought, every U.S. adversary deploys, like, massive intelligence resources to understand how we fight these wars, so they can figure out how to drag us into, like, miraz. And you think, forgive me, but it, Like, if you're an adversary of the United States, the most brilliant thing that has happened in the last 20 years was a cell phone and social media.

Because now you can understand how the American thinks, right? You can see how the propaganda plays out. Yes. All the things they've, you know, I'm saying they, I just assume there's, you know, like everybody's seen the Lego videos from Iran. I assume it's coming from Iran, making fun of the United States. it's absolutely brilliant. That's not means I'm for it.

I'm just saying it's brilliant. And what does the American audience do? The Western audience do. They're eating it up. They're eating it up. And that takes time and studying how the American consumer, North American consumer, gravitates to information. They put it in a freaking Lego video.

Correct. And it's cheap. It doesn't cost anything to produce a Lego video. and it doesn't take, you know, as many resources to intervene in the U.S. elections. And when we say, like many adversers intervene in the U.S. election, it doesn't mean that they're actually flipping votes. It means they're so in chaos. They're, like, they're putting out these bots, you know,

with trying to divide the country, right? They're posing as, you know, some as Democrats, some are like, you know, Republicans, some as Magas, some as Black Lives Matter, and they're putting out those inflamed, like, rhetoric so that we fight amongst each other, right? And they weaponize that type of division. And so, unfortunately, what President Trump did with his,

launching this war on Iran, he fractured the Republican Party and he fractured the coalition, the so-called Maga coalition that he took great efforts to build. Like we are now fractured. We're sitting on Trump Towers, you know, as your listeners remember. and the people who I'm regularly here and there's several of us like come here regularly with big supporters of Trump now we are fractured because some of us see what's going on and we feel betrayed that he did exactly what he promised not to do

and he basically there's no difference right now in terms of foreign policy whether it Kamala Harris would have been president or it's him We're again in this unwinnable foreign war that, by the way, is not going to end any time soon, right? Because we have no leverage. We can't do, we can't compel Iran to open the straight door for the most. Like, think about it. This is like the major thing. And I can't stress it enough that everyone in the world sees right now that the super duper U.S. military, whom I love dearly, you know, obviously worked with.

this supported this guys, worked with them. But the super duper, U.S. military cannot do a simple thing. Open the strait of Hormuz. Just give it a thought. Like, think about this. Think about how profound that is, that everybody sees that. And so that is why, so he fractured his supporters, the coalition, and what are we going to do next? Like, right? now people are disillusioned. I'm myself like I'm you know planning I'm not planning to on voting because I'm

I feel like you know it doesn't really matter who is in charge Republicans are Democrats they always look after their own interests it's the elites right it's whoever you know

whoever is driving the bus what do you think is going to happen at the midterms I think I think Republicans are going to lose because it's the economy is stupid, right? It's like, and the economy is not good. Like, we are in a severe economic, on a severe downward trajectory in terms of economy, because as we just talked, like, fuel prices are... Let me ask you a question on Russia switching from Trump.

Yes. The plague. It's coming through. Oh, it's all BS. Like, this is, this is like, this is complete propaganda. It's, uh, it's basically the, uh, see the thing with like Russia, Ukraine. Um, again, that's, I'm glad I can make you laugh. I, that's another one that, um, that like, we have demonstrated how impotent we are in terms of ending the conflict again, that we,

inadvertently or perhaps intentionally started by trying to incorporate Ukraine into Western sphere of influence and Ukraine is the top corrupt country in Europe, you know, second only to Russia, now it's probably, you know, equal. And somehow we decided it would be good for us to have Ukraine. so we started this thing and because we can't do anything you know it's an unwinnable conflict so the propaganda thing is what we can do to Russia like like think about the what you read right now in in regular media is oh Putin is losing the war but on the other hand like but then another headline is, well, he's going to like threaten Europe. He's going to start a war on Europe, which is completely absurd because Putin is not suicidal. He's not about to like trigger Article 5

collective defense, right? He's not going to invade. He has no, you know, plan. There were no. And how do I know this? Like people ask him, well, how do you know? How do I know this? Because I've seen, I've seen Russian war plans, okay? And there's no war plan for, There are only war plans, like obviously that we stole, right? There are war plans for certain countries, but there are no war plans for other countries. And we only know what Putin, you know, because if there's no plan, there's no plan. You know, people can write off what you're saying, but when I go back to it, I go,

you spent your career understanding, which I don't know if you'd agree to all for, but you mentioned four, I believe, Russia, China, North Korea, and I'm missing one. Iran. Iran, thank you. Those are the top four. So I assume you studied all four of them quite in depth. Yes. Which means you can go, you can write off what Rebecca is saying, but you're like,

but you spent your career doing it, and then you got removed from your job. Because I accurately predicted what Putin was going to do and describe, at the highly classified level Russia's entire war fighting strategy to NATO and NATO is the Secretary General oh my goodness no his deputy Alexander Veshbov was in presence and I brief President Obama's top you know advisor on Russia and they ignore They ignored all of it. And then everybody was surprised. Ivan wants nothing to do with up here.

I know. He doesn't. Oh, but you mentioned the plague, right? The plague is all, it's basically propaganda that we are putting out. We the West are putting out. It's from the same playbook that says, oh, Putin is about to, like, he has a terminal illness. Like, yes, Parkinson, he's going to die. He's going to be.

like there's all these things that they're putting out there or he's going to be like killed in a coup or there's this or there's that putting the intelligence assessment and my official intelligence assessment and I still you know even though I'm not in the government right now I'm still using my you know expertise to advise people who are in industries that depend on the actions accuracy of my analysis, right? Because the reason why these newspapers and, you know, media putting out those, and all these like general, you see like on Fox News, general so-and-so says, oh, you know, Ukraine can win if we can only give them, you know, this many weapons of this, and I called certain on certain of these journalists and when I was told, oh, general so-and-so

by an ankle, let's say, like Fox business. He disagrees with the, I said, Well, can you put us on the panel so he and I can go at it and figure out, like, who. Like, a lot of these generals, they just basically beholden to the military-industrial complex. They have no idea what they're talking about. Yeah, well, it sounds like doctors and tied to the pharmaceutical, you know, like that's what I mean. Yeah, exactly. You don't want to put it to such simple terms, but I'm like, you know, I had the same thought. I think when you were on with Alex Craneer, it's like, you have a background with intelligence that would,

Sorry, folks, the puppy dog keeps running away from us. Yeah, my dog, Ivan the Terrible is his name. I bring him everywhere and he keeps running away and the bartender. It keeps bringing it to us. But, yes. But like, to me, you stood in the way of something, as did somebody who you mentioned a name earlier of somebody, you know, they won a war game and like five moves and all.

all of a sudden they're gone instead of fixing the errors. Well, I mean, I go back to COVID, Rebecca. I'm like, it didn't take me that long to look at other countries and a bunch of different things and find out Ivermectin. I think the reason they hated Ivermectin so much is because so many other people figured it out just as quickly as I did, if not faster. Like, there must be something there. Well, then they had to demize it and shut it down because they can't have that getting out

because that ruins their big plan. That ruins the money-making scheme, right? When you look at the military industrial complex and what you're saying, I go, man, they really, they're removing key pieces from the board that show that they're weak, that show their holes in their game. And it's, you know, to the everyday person, it's hard, at least for me, it's hard to like visualize because I've never been a part of that world. And that world isn't coming crushing down on me. It comes down in weird ways, right? The price of gas being obviously the one we've been talking about.

But in your world, you've already mentioned how they've removed not only yourself, but another guy, for just showing them, hey, there's holes in our game, we should get better. Holes in our game, we should get better. Boom, you're gone. It's not just me and another guy. There are hundreds of us. There are hundreds of us. How do I know this?

I know some of these people personally. Okay. So then when you sit there and think about that, where do you get to? Because that isn't Donald Trump. That's something way more nefarious. I think it's something way above Donald Trump because because like clearly he's doing things now that run counter to what he promised to the people and why the people vote.

It's why people voted on him for him, right? And so he's doing things that are completely, you know, against U.S. interests, which tells me that someone, else, there's like a shadow, I mean, people say deep state, right? There's a shadow government. There's a shadow government that is in charge highly likely because if President Trump is the person who, you know, who went down that golden escalator that's right behind you. Show him, right?

And he promised all these things, and people believed in him. But if he's doing things that are completely opposite to what he promised, then someone else is in charge. And that someone else does not have U.S. interests in their heart as the agenda. I mean, look at Europe. Europe is being destroyed right now with... you know, completely like alien ideologies and people who are setting on fire, you know, key European cities. I mean, U.S., I mean, look at the U.S.

We in the city ruled by Mr. Mamdani, who's a communist jihadist, basically. Think about that. The financial center of the world is ruled by someone. who wants to turn America into a socialist country and who adheres to the Sharia law ideology. Like, think about that. So if you were doing your own war game, and on one side you got the shadow government,

and the other side you have the American people. I mean, you got 300 million plus. I mean, you got to get them all in the same team. But regardless, how would you win this war? This thing that's going on because so many people just want it back to,

you know, like everyday life, what is that even more? You know, does that mean 1980? Or does it just mean, you know, like, let's just get away from some stupidity and let's get back to common sense, and let's not go invade other countries and kill people and all the things. I don't know where you put the line on it,

but as somebody who's been a part of war games, how would you win this thing that's happening? It's a massive thing that's happening. And, well, thing number one is we would need to define, whenever we say to win a war game, you need to define victory, right? What victory would look like. And if I were to define victory,

I would say make America normal again. And like make, you know, America, Canada, Europe, make them normal again where it is like, you know, meritocracy when you win on merit, not because of like some belonging to some group, whether it's like skin color or whether it's where you're from you know we talked a little bit you know before the podcast started about this Iranian war and who possibly started and who nudged trump and i mean there's certain lobby that is controlling a lot of you know american

politicians politicians right and there's a certain country so get again get to the basics and to the foundational principles of this country, whether it's like freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and forget about all the like, like skin color and all the other identifications. So that would be the definition of victory to me. And then the second important thing in my view is to put the right people in charge. You have to like put and clearly, unfortunately, and it pains me to say what I'm about to say. And unfortunately, President Trump is not that person anymore. Because I don't know what happened to him.

He's not the same person. He's controlled by somebody or manipulated. I don't know. So you have to put the right people. And there are several people in this country who might trust. So somehow we need to put those people in charge. And then we also, I am calling, you also need like a population that is knowledgeable and is like understanding where we are at in this juncture. Like I think we are in the crucial period right now.

Like even like humanity and we didn't, we haven't even talked about AI, right? That's like a whole separate conversation. But that thing is can get out of control. So write people and then listen to like independent podcasts like your own, like independent media media who is not beholden to the money kings, right? Because every single network, whether it's Fox News, it's News, CNN, CNN, anybody that's beholden to their. to people, you know, who sponsor them. And then use your own brain. Like I'd like to tell my children, God gave you a brain.

Please use it. And so see what's going on and then make decisions accordingly. And then we got to fight. Like, I don't know. honestly, like, I find myself just, I was about to say vote in elections, but I realized that a few minutes ago I said that I'm considering not voting in this elections because, you know, it doesn't really matter. So I think we need a third-party system here.

I don't know about you guys in Canada. You know, but when I started this question, I was saying put your war game hat on. And the first thing you said was merit-based. and that if you go merit based that solves your next one which is put the right people in power Walt that is merit merit based is the best lead

the best are in the top positions that is merit so if you start there it's whether or not you have the time to see that plan play out right because I mean we're constantly inundated with new things that are pulling society apart not to mention

and everything you've mentioned on the global front and maybe further out even, you know, you talk AI, you talk space warfare, you start talking some things that are hard to get my brain wrapped around fully, you know, of the dangers or something that I can't even, you know, begin quite comprehend at this stage of the game, I guess. And a lot of people cannot, and that's why, like, we are dangerously close to, like,

to, you know, potentially nuclear. war and because the because we started messing around with how should like things that have been out there like for centuries right spheres geopolitical like spheres of influence right the we started trying to remake the world in our own image impacting countries and nations that have nothing in their history pointing to the possibility of so called democracy succeeding and so now we like stirred the hornets nest and we have gained a lot of adversary but now like I mentioned this word I don't like this word anymore

And it pains to say to me democracy because I don't believe we have a democracy here because I think it's like there's no democracy. Like the people express their vote. They chose a person and then he turns around and he does the exactly opposite thing from what he promised. And so where is it? So where are we at? like because the the defense industrial complex continues to make money in a war that's killing both Russian and Ukrainians and these are we're talking like you know Slavic European child producing age males are being taken out their lives being taken out like think about the

demographics and Europe is already like we are like demographically the the Muslim populate Muslim ethnicity those are the the fastest producing you know ethnicity not that I have anything to do against Muslims right we the the friend that my friend whom you spoke with before I got here, John, he's from Albania, he's Muslim, right? But he's a normal, I call them normal Muslims, right? When I sound the alarm, I mean about, like, the radicals. There are a lot of radicals that are now like in Europe, right?

And we are taking out of the gene pool these, like I said, the child-producing age, Slavic people who are, closer like to the European culture than the other than the migrants like why are we doing this exactly it's a it's a suicide and then we're letting in like people who are here you probably have seen New York has changed it's it it's suicidal like from the longevity standpoint The things that we're doing and I'm wondering who's doing it and why they're doing it. So I don't mean to, like, we shouldn't be ending on the... Well, okay, then end it on a positive note.

We need to end on a positive note. Sure, let's end on a positive note. So, but now I have a question to you. Sure. Because Canada, obviously, you guys are our close, you know, relative. Do you feel like what is your trajectory? Are you hopeful that you guys can reverse the slide into this? I don't even want to use the word liberal because that's not,

the word liberal no longer means what it used to mean. It's like nonsensical. It's nonsense like what like the, you know, the, men think they can become women, like all this nonsense, right? And I love your guy, Jordan Peterson, who lives now with us, because you guys expelled him or, you know, whatever happened. So do you have faith that you guys can get back on track and make Canada normal again?

Because if you can, then maybe we have hope. Sorry for the long pause, folks. Probably not that long while you're sitting there listening, but I've thought about this question a lot. Maybe not in those terms, but can Canada survive? And now I know there's going to be a ton of people screaming at the radio saying they can't. Right? As you know, or I assume you know, Alberta has a referendum here on October 19th.

and the only way I see Canada going back to normal, whatever that even means, is it needs a shock. It needs something to shake people out of their apathy. It needs, because you talk about, like, when I go back to what you're saying about, if you were playing out the war game of people versus the deep state, you were saying, you know, like merit-based, people need, we need an intelligent voter base. Well, those things take time.

So like to say that, you know, like do I, am I written off? No hope at all? No, I'm an eternally optimistic person. The rules that are set up, though, in our country have been there for a long time. They're against the average person. And they're there to keep the people in people, power that want to be kept in power and to protect the interests of the most powerful.

I think it would probably be the safest way to say it. So you go, is there a way to change that? Well, in my travel across Canada, I talk to people from all walks of life. They all are not happy with the direction Canada's heading, but a lot of them feel disempowered. Is that a word? I think it is. Yes. That there's no hope. Like, what can one person do? And I laugh because I'm like, well, you morons, this is what they want. If I was in power and I was doing just awful things,

I want to make you feel like you have no power over me. You just, you go live on your world, you know, you work your, however many hours you work, and pay all your taxes to me, and I'm going to decide. And don't vote because it's not going to change anything.

And I would seed that, and I know there's more to it, but I would cede that the vote means nothing. I would cede that it's all fake and that we control it all the things. I would seat all that. That's how I'd play that war game. So on the flip side, how do you pull

people out of that? How do I pull Canada out of that? I give them hope. I show them a different way. There is a better way for us to go about this. Now, you know, like, was Trump shot in the head? I'm pretty sure he was. I mean, there's lots of people saying it was at all

a ruse and a theatrical thing, but I'm like, when you stand up to that level of the machine, death is a possibility. And so, you know, I think society is sad as it is to say, because I'd love to just say that we went through COVID. Like, we had our taste of insanity.

Let's all get involved and let's change it. That's what Alberta is doing. That's why there is a referendum. It's because there's a concentration of people that have had enough, and they want that. If you're asking about all of Canada, no, there's pain that has to come before things will change. bar none, and will it change back to what we think of a normal?

I don't know. Because it's taken me probably five years to even comprehend part of the thoughts I'm saying right now. And if you've been living in a world where you still wear a mask and you just put your head down and you think, this is life and I don't know, whatever else goes through their head, I'm like, the war game on them is trying to allow them to. to think and breathe again because for sure since 2020 there is a group of human beings I see them in New York right now that they're still wearing the mask and are still terrified

you can see it in their eyes so how can you get them even comprehend this conversation so like in order to overturn something so large what we're talking about you don't need 2% you need 15 to 30% and then some and then you still need the people to understand what you're saying can't just be inflaming anger because the other side inflames anger just as quick you have to bring something more out that there are

better days ahead that there's hope in the world you know I had I sat with a Jewish man on the train into New York today Rebecca and he said in the America he remembers

they didn't idolize Mark Zuckerberg and I I don't know, maybe who's the big Aaron Judge would be the baseball player in New York. Back in his day, they admired the steel worker who was up at the top of the, the top of the Empire State Building. Wow. And I was like, you're not wrong.

That is very true. Today we idolize, you know, Sidney Sweeney with their cans out on, you know, which is like, whatever. I don't care. But like, he's right. We used to build up the working class. right now we admire something that is tearing us apart.

I love the working class and you you just made my day actually by saying, yeah. Well, I tell you what. You can have a thought on that. You're inspiring me to vote. Good.

I need to put really... I would love to push you with your war game background to war game it out. I think that be a fun exercise. You're giving me an idea for an op-ed. Because if you've war-game, if they war game out the worst things, we as society have war-game this out and see, and see the chinks in their armor. They will have, they will have chinks. Yeah. We just have to expose them. And then, like,

you know, if Iran can do what it's doing to the U.S. military, the military industrial complex, the pharmaceutical industrial complex, isn't it a... as strong as we believe it to be. They put on a big force. But there is holes in it. You know it. Obviously there's no brain power there. All their brainpower is

like spent on devising and developing weaponry. But in terms of like how to use that weaponry, the adversaries are always out players because they come up with ideas on how to use

those weaponry. against us in a much more efficient way because they figured out how we think, how we fight, what triggers us, and we don't, unfortunately, and we have to. We have to start doing that. Where can people find your stuff?

You have a book? Yeah, I have a book, Putin's Playbook, Aar's Secret Plan to America. That'll be on Amazon. It's on Amazon. It's everywhere. and I'm writing another book on the Sovietization of America. I'm on X, YouTube, like, anyway, all the social media, Rebecca Coughler.

Okay, well, I hope I left us on a positive note. What we're going to do is we're going to switch over to substack and we're going to have a few bonus questions with Rebecca. But before then, we'll take a quick break.