The Duran Podcast - Austin's mystery surgery highlights White House Middle East political infighting

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

Austin's mystery surgery highlights White House Middle East political infighting

All right, Alexander, let's talk about what is going on in the Middle East. Anthony Blinken touring the Middle East. We do have some announcements from Israel, from Israeli officials, saying that they're going to start to shift the conflict to a more low-intensity operation. That's what they're saying. Blinken is trying to get support in the Middle East. He's trying to get Saudi Arabia to reengage with Israel and to get this recognition of Saudi Arabia and Israel back on track, which was derailed after October 7th. And then maybe we can touch on Lloyd Austin a bit. I don't know.

Do you want to talk about the Lloyd Austin mystery illness now? and then we'll talk about what's happening in Israel. Yeah, I think let's do that because I think this is one of the most interesting events altogether. Now, the first thing to say is, I mean, Lloyd Austin was generally and seriously ill, and he had an operation, and he was out of commission, if you like, for about nine, ten days. So there's a serious illness. The most interesting thing about it, and the thing people need to take note of, is that the White House wasn't informed.

You know, this is, you know, the Secretary of Defense, the head of the Pentagon, the most important person of the military system, and he's out of contention for several days. He's very, very seriously ill, and the president and presumably the National Security Advisor, as to say, Jake Sullivan, are not told about it. Now, that is incredible. The first thing to say is it shows

that there is a complete breakdown in communications within Washington, because you would have thought that, you know, if the Secretary of Defence goes missing, people in the White House would have noticed. So that already tells us that there are some kinds of stresses and strains and, you know, breakdowns of communication between Lloyd Austin and the Pentagon and people in the White House. the most interesting fact of all however is that the pentagon not just lord austin but some people in the pentagon

worked to keep this fact from the white house now i should say i am a grizzled veteran of bureaucratic battles and i know that when someone is finds themselves in the middle of a bureaucratic battle if you know that there's a political infighting, factional infighting going on. The one thing you cannot afford to show is weakness. You cannot appear to be ill or unwell or tired or infirm or anything like that. You must appear all the time to be constantly there, to be full of energy, to be able to make decisions. Because if it appears that you're not looking, you're not well, you are ill. As night follows day, your opponents will exploit it.

They will say, Lloyd Austin, it's clearly not up for the job anymore. He's a nice man, but it's clearly too unwell to run the Pentagon anymore. It's time we put in place someone else. And in the meantime, whilst he's on his sick bed, we should start giving direct instructions to people in the Pentagon and have them making decisions, following the decisions that we want to make. So the fact that it was kept from the White House, the whole story, what it tells us again,

is that factional feuding within Washington is completely out of control, that there is a major political battle going on within the administration and that for that reason, the Secretary of Defence is keeping his illness secret. I mean, at the very least, he should have informed the President that he was seriously ill and going to need an operation. I mean, it's obvious.

The fact that he was keeping his secret shows that things in terms of factional infighting have become not just bad, they have become catastrophically bad. Now, go back a few weeks. We need a program about it. You remember that Lloyd Austin said that Israel, and by extension, the United States, were risking strategic defeat in the Middle East.

Now, that tells us that Lloyd Austin is, very much one of those people who wants to de-escalate the conflict in the Middle East. He understands at some level that the United States has become overextended. He's been an archaulk. He wants the war in Ukraine to continue. He's not by any stretch of the imagination, a moderate or anything at that kind, but he understands that the situation in the Middle East is very dangerous and that the United States risks over extension there. So the fact that he's keeping, that there was this, I mean, you could always call it a conspiracy to keep the fact that he was so ill.

Secret is a sign that is further proof that there are people in the White House, in the National Security Council, almost certainly in the State Department as well, who want to escalate the war. And this pressure backwards and forwards is going on all of the time. Lloyd Austin doesn't want to appear weak in front of those people. He doesn't want to have a situation where they basically cease control whilst he's ill and on the operating theatre and start a war in the Middle East. So Blinken is touring the Middle East. Actually, Blinken was asked about Austin, and he even said that he had no idea that Austin was in the hospital.

An incredible statement from the Secretary of State. But Blinken touring the Middle East, he is saying that he wants to prevent a wider war. He wants to keep a lid on this conflict so that it doesn't escalate any further. Is he going to be able to do this? It doesn't look like he's having much success. No, he's not going to be able to do this. He's going to speak to the Saudis, and the Saudis, frankly, I think, are losing patience with Blinken, because Blinken is constantly coming to them, empty-handed, talking about reviving this deal with this mutual recognition with Israel.

Even if the Saudis were interested in that, which, you know, in time they might be, obviously now with the conflict in Gaza underway, this is not the time for that. I mean, which is, I mean, that ought to be obvious. But the point is that it's not just that he's talking to the wrong people. He isn't in control of events. He can't control what is happening in Israel. He can't control what the various militias across the Middle East are doing. And of course, he's not talking directly to the Iranians. We get reports that the United States is in indirect contact with the Iranians, trying to tell the Iranians to keep the situation moderate and under control. But again, offering nothing that would persuade the Iranians to actually make moves to achieve that. And what has happened is that Lincoln and perhaps

Lloyd Austin and the relative moderate. You know, we shouldn't be take this too far. People like that are telling the Israelis, you know, scale down the fighting in Gaza, make it more low intensity, remove the tanks, carry out fewer air strikes. That is very controversial in Israel itself. There have been furious raves within the Israeli cabinet. There's been a massive row between Gans,

who's the defense minister, and the more hard-line figures like Smartrich, the finance minister, and Ben Gwir, who is entitled to security, who are very hard-line figures indeed. So it's a difficult cell within Israel itself. The Israelis have only agreed to that on the basis that they'll be able to continue operations in Gaza indefinitely. But ultimately, the Israelis are going to continue operations in Gaza,

And people like Smartridge and Bainfier, they're also now pushing hard to extend the conflict themselves into a battle with Hezbollah. And they say, look, all those people in northern Israel have had to leave their homes. We can't tolerate the situation anymore. Hezbollah must withdraw all its forces north of the Littani River in Lebanon. and there's clearly pressure to start something against Hezbollah and one can almost sense we can always be, you know,

we can sense that people are saying in Israel, look, we withdrawing all these heavy, these troops with all their tanks and all their infantry fighting vehicles and all of that from Gaza. Let's redeploy them to the north and sort out this problem. with Hezbollah once and for all. So there's that push. And there's also the push from the other

side, all of these militias, these Muslim militias in the Middle East, they're saying, well, look, in the Americans, they're talking about moving the war in Gaza to a more low-intensity level. We're not going to be impressed by that. We're not going to take that seriously. But the very fact that the Americans are talking in this way shows that to some extent our pressure on them is working. So let's escalate. Let's go on attacking

American bases in Iraq and in Syria. Let's continue operations if we're the hooth is in the Red Sea because the Americans have given us no reason to stop because they're not agreeing to ceasefire in Gaza

and they're giving us every reason to think that this pressure that we're exerting on them is working because they're talking about getting the Israelis to go onto a more low intensity course. So in fact, all of this diplomatic activity that Lincoln is engaging in, it's not making the prospect of a wider war in the Middle East less, it's making it greater. Right, but we're getting reports from the media in the United States that the Biden White House, or at least certain factions of the Biden White House, are actually warning Israel

that they won't win. They will not win a two-front war. They will not be able to defeat Hezbollah. So why the push to go after Hezbollah? But that's exactly the point. That's exactly right. I mean, you see, you can see that there is this division. This is, we come back now to Lloyd Austin and the concealment of his illness.

Because you can see that people like Lloyd Austin, who is worried about a strategic defeat for Israel and the United States, probably other military people within the Pentagon, are becoming increasingly worried that Israel is risking, getting itself involved in a two-front war where it's fighting Hamas. and it's fighting Hezbollah at the same time. Hezbollah are far more powerful organization than Hamas with many, many more rockets, many more trade fighters, fighters who have been become experienced because of their long involvement in the Syrian war

and of course who behind them have the backing of Iran as well. So those people are worried and they're telling Israel, look, don't do this. thing this is a major mistake if you extend the war in that way you bring on that prospect of a strategic defeat you make it even more real and of course you're potentially dragging us down to but of course you have the other side the people that Lloyd Austin was conceiving the fact that he was ill from.

And we could put names to some of these people, you know, Vicki Newland, who always wants a war. Lindsay Graham, who's there in Congress, who wants a missile strike on Iran and who's undoubtedly lobbying the White House all the time. Other people within the Pentagon, other people within the State Department, other people within the National Security Council.

Anyway, those people, they say, inconceivable. It's impossible that we cannot win. We are the United States. We are Israel. We can defeat Hezbollah. Of course we can. We can defeat Hamas. The only reason why we are not winning is because we're keeping the gloves on. What we need to do is take off the gloves. We need to come after all of these people. John Bolton, another one who's saying all of this. Come after all of these people. Take them on at once. We are far more powerful than they are. we find the courage and the will and the strength, the strength of will, we will prevail because we always do. We are the United States.

And one senses that deep down, the president himself, Joe Biden, to the extent that he's able to make decisions vicariously, viscerally, he is on the side of these hardlines, says, you could understand better. why there was this need to keep the fact that Lloyd Austin was on well secret from people in the White House. Yeah, Biden without a doubt, his instinct is always for war. But, you know, there was a report the other day that Obama was actually at the White House and met with Biden for lunch. And they were discussing Biden's polling numbers and the 2024 campaign. and basically Obama was essentially warning Biden that things are not going well and you're going to lose. I mean, that's pretty much what the media was reporting with regards to this meeting. But I would have to imagine that Obama for all his faults, for the fact that he was just an awful president, in my opinion,

but at least Obama understood or had some sort of understanding of the U.S. is limits with regards. to its military wars and intervention. One of the reasons that he didn't escalate with Russia at the time. So I would imagine that even Obama probably sat with Biden and his team and probably said don't escalate in the Middle East, not now during an election year because things are going to turn out very bad for you guys. I mean, would you say that's probably where the Obama faction is leaning towards? Absolutely.

Now, the thing to understand about Obama, and what, in my opinion, condemns him is that he was always clever enough to understand that the United States had limits. So he was the man who came forward and said in an interview that he gave to the Atlantic that in Ukraine, the Russians will always have escalatory dominance. He said that. So he understood that. He was the person who started this huge war in Syria because he did, but who at the same time understood that it would be incredibly dangerous for the United States and might ultimately be disastrous to take the Russians head on in Syria. And he pulled back on more than one occasion from doing precisely that. But knowing all of this, Obama nonetheless, continued to give support to the neocons whenever he thought that it wouldn't really catch up with him.

And he never came forward and explained to the American people or to the political class. I think the American people understand it perfectly well, but to the political class, he always in the end said to them, I'm really on your side. All of these things that I'm doing, they're tactical maneuvers.

I don't really, I ultimately am as much of a believer in the neocom project as you. And I think this duplicity, which is at the heart of Obama's presidency, has been in the long-term disastrous. I think it's actually paved the way to much of the crisis that we have today

because it has reinforced this narrative. that the only reason that we're not prevailing in all of these places in Ukraine, in Syria, wherever, is not because we don't have the means. So, Obama never said that we don't have the means. It's because we don't have the will. Anyway, just to say that about Obama. Now, Obama undoubtedly understands, as I said, that the United States does have limits. He is also one of these people.

This has been consistently true of Obama's entire political career. Remember, all the way back in Chicago, he was very much involved in Chicago politics. He was what was a political organizer there? I can't remember what exactly he was doing. But anyway, he understands he's much more concerned with politics in the United States. He's less interested also in the neocon fantasies. because he understands that power in the United States for the Democratic Party is what matters. So what he's trying to do is he sees the polls, he sees the polling numbers,

he sees the risk of Trump winning the election. He also understands the enormous political risks involved in some of these various attempts that have been made to try to prevent Obama, sorry, Trump winning the election. So he's putting all that together, and he's trying to say to Biden, stop, you've got to pull back. You can't have a war in the Middle East.

If you do that, it will result in a catastrophe. Try and get yourself out of the situation in Ukraine. try and put together a more coherent policy in the United States. Rethink your entire strategy because if you don't, we will find ourselves in a much worse situation than we are in. And even if we somehow manage to prevent a Trump presidency, the political costs of doing that might be extremely high. So that's what Obama is trying to do. whether Biden is prepared to listen is another matter again. One senses there's always been a tension between the two men. Yeah. I imagine Obama is telling Biden. If you don't take my advice,

well, then I'm just going to run Michelle. He's probably telling Biden that. Well, that. You can be replaced, Joe, with my wife. Well, of course, I mean, bear in mind that the only reason, Biden is president at all is because Obama backed him. I mean, he wouldn't have won the primary race had it not been for Obama coming up and backing. So in a real sense, Biden is Obama's creation. That says a lot. All right, we'll end it there at the durand.com. We are on Rumble, Odyssey, pitch, shoot, telegram, rock, fid, and Twitter X, and go to the

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