The Team House - Ceasefire in Gaza Lasted 10 Days | EYES ON GEOPOLITICS

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

In this episode, Dee and Mick Mulroy discuss the current geopolitical landscape, focusing on the collapsing ceasefire in Gaza, the complexities of internal politics in the region, and the potential for U.S. military action in Venezuela. They also delve into the role of the CIA in covert operations and the ongoing discussions surrounding military support for Ukraine. The conversation highlights the humanitarian crises resulting from these conflicts and the intricate web of international relations at play.Check out Mick's new podcast here:⬇️Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/pub-and-porch-applied-stoicism/id1836955475Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1k3QPmkAMwnGJxMLDwUSSd?si=n6piIu8XRcag1Z0K43A3bQSupport the show on Patreon:⬇️https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouseSubscribe to our new newsletter!!!!https://teamhousepodcast.kit.com/joinNew merch, patches, and stickers! ⬇️https://theteamhouse-shop.fourthwall.comFind Mick Mulroy here: Fogbow ⬇️https://fogbow.com/Lobo Institute ⬇️https://www.loboinstitute.org/Twitter ⬇️https://x.com/mickmulroy?s=21&t=-Ze3F_Ix2vlJ18KFvORTCALinkedIn ⬇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-patrick-mulroy-31198b52/Bluesky ⬇️https://bsky.app/profile/mickmulroy.bsky.socialMick’s publications ⬇️https://www.loboinstitute.org/publications/publications-of-michael-mick-patrick-mulroy/Find Andy Milburn here: Twitter ⬇️https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fandymilburn8LinkedIn ⬇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmilburn2023Substack ⬇️https://amilburn.substack.com/Andy’s book ⬇️https://www.amazon.com/When-Tempest-Gathers-Mogadishu-OperationsBluesky ⬇️https://bsky.app/profile/andy-milburn.bsky.socialFind Jason Lyons here: LinkedIn ⬇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-lyons-666873316?uBluesky ⬇️https://bsky.app/profile/bgsilverback73.bsky.social"Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"00:00 Start01:11 The Gaza Conflict: Ceasefire Breakdown and Humanitarian Crisis05:56 The Role of Hamas and the Future of Gaza11:46 Venezuela: U.S. Military Presence and Potential Regime Change31:20 The Complexity of Autocracy vs. Democracy33:06 Hypothetical CIA Strategies for Maduro36:08 International Implications of Targeted Actions42:15 Zelensky's Visit to the White House49:17 Negotiation Strategies and Consequences for RussiaBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Aizan Geopolitics. I'm here with Mick Mulroy. I'm D. Tacos. Before we get into it, let's do us all a favor and go and check out Mick's new podcast. The Pub and the Porch. It's available on Spotify and Apple and anywhere else you get your podcast. I'm going to put a link into the description.

It's the pub and the porch applied stoicism. So if you're interested in stoicism and learning more, check it out. It's a good show. I listen to it every week. So it's super good. He's got a great co-host. Adam. It's an awesome pod. So check it out. Mick, you got it. How are you? Doing good. A lot going on in the world and I'm getting ready to travel again. So yeah, this is this is going to be an interesting

conversation today. For sure. You said a lot happening. It's literally like it all happens within like 24 hours of itself. It seems like it just piles on. We know, I don't. I, Obviously, right now what's going on? We see that the ceasefire in Gaza seems to be collapsing. Let's start with Gaza. Fuck it, because it's like the most, most, like the most prescient, I guess. Sure. Yesterday, the State Department released a notice or a statement or whatever saying that Hamas had violated the ceasefire

because they were planning an attack on Palestinians. Today in the morning, as we're recorded, this is 10.48 a.m. Sunday, the 19th, Eastern, where Israel started bombing. I believe they hit Rafa, and I believe they hit Gaza City just recently, too. They also closed the Rafa crossing as well. I think that was yesterday. What's the deal? My big question that I asked make offline was, why would the U.S. State Department

announce it and not Israel announce it? Is it to like for cover, for like a little bit more like, you know, see we're not just doing this ourselves unilaterally, like the, you know, U.S. is backing us, like just for like a little bit of cover. What's your take? Where are you at with this? So first of all, I think that we might see an announcement today, unfortunately, from Israel, about the restarting of combat operations. So it's somewhat breaking down. I think the U.S. made the statement. Don't know, but we are the ones that coordinated it.

It's statements specifically to the guarantors of the ceasefire agreement that was signed in Charleston al-Shake. So that's one reason. And the other one is President Trump has said we many times. I don't think that means he's going to insert U.S. forces into Gaza. But it might be that he's trying to be, you know, strategically ambiguous. whereas Hamas doesn't know that he's not talking about land in the, you know, a mew on the coast of Gaza, right? So I don't know, but this is, first of all, it's, it would be horrible. This conflict needs to come to an end.

Thank goodness we got the hostages out. But there's also a dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, which is, could be alleviated. I just got a note that there's 190,000 metric tons of food ready to go into Gaza. So it's not for a lack of food. It's for a lack of getting it to the people who need it. And we're going to hit the winter here in a month, and it's only going to get worse. So everybody should want this conflict to come to an end. But it doesn't look like it's going to do that.

And one of the reasons is the same reason why it started, right? It's Hamas. Yeah. As far as like the aid goes, 190,000 tons or pounds, you know, was it tons you said? Tons.

Tons. Yeah, that's a fuck ton of aid. As far as that goes, is that stopped as well? Like since the Rafa crossing got closed and now that the ceasefire seems to be going to shit, is that now Kibosh?

Like they're not delivering aid anymore? So from what I've seen, they started strong right like 900 trucks went in like 700 trucks went in and now because of this issue with the non you know production of the deceased hostage hostages bodies uh which seems like it would have been part of the negotiation process like and i think somebody would have said they had they had delivered some right like i think just yesterday delivered too as well yes but it seems like part of the negotiation process would be, can you actually deliver on what you're promising?

So if it's deliberate, then that's obviously a breach of the agreement. If it's, they don't even know where they are, well, they knew they didn't know where they were when they made the agreement. Yeah. You know, either way, because of that, and now it looks like there's attacks against IDF forces in Gaza, it looks like they're going to cut the aid to 300 trucks a day. So it's supposed to be 600 on the agreement, and they're going to cut it to 300, which is not adequate. No.

Yeah, not good. What's interesting is like, well, I don't understand why A needs to be tied to any of this. It's so insane to me. I mean, we've been through it a bunch. Also, like, it kind of feels like the whole ceasefire show in Egypt when they signed was kind of like for show, to be honest, because, like, you know, Nanyahu wasn't there. No Hamas representatives were there. So was it even a ceasefire that, like,

people were really behind by the two combatants? Because, I mean, obviously Hamas gave up, gave back the 20 hostages plus some deceased hostages as well. Israel's got to know that the majority of those other dead hostages are likely under the rubble, along with, like, probably 100,000 Palestinians. I feel like we were just, this was kind of set up to fail from the get-go and, like, Israel did whatever

they could to get the hostages back and that's great. But if you're Hamas and part of the deal was also disarming, I guess, even though like there was also some mixed back and forth in reports and news reports saying that they didn't agree to it. They did agree to it.

Like, it doesn't seem like this was a completely fleshed out thing and like Israel said, yeah, we'll take the hostages back and like Hamas literally besides their AKs and stuff have no leverage whatsoever at this point. And Israel's really it's not really holding Israel back in terms of like they can just come back and level Gaza if they want now.

There's no hostages. Yeah, and they weren't really holding back before. Sure, that's fair. Yep. I think the long pole and the tent of this agreement has always been the disarming of Hamas. It's obvious that's what Israel would require any country and their position would require. The issue, of course, is Hamas ceases to be Hamas.

they're a terrorist organization without the ability to cause terror. Right? So, like, that's a good thing for the rest of the world, but for them, to look at it from their perspective, they're essentially agreeing to end, which would be a complete and utter defeat, right? Yeah.

They have been defeated, but so is all of Iran's proxies for the most part, except for maybe some of those hoothies up in the mountains in heaven. But they have really strategically miscalculated, is a polite way of saying with Hamas did. But it's not just that. It's also the fact that they're despised in Gaza. This concept that they're like the freedom fighters and all the Palestinians

rally behind, hell no. They kill Palestinians all the time. The former head, Sinwar, was known as the butcher of Khan Yunus for butchering Palestinians in Khan Yunus, right? And you can see the videos and then just summarily executing people that they don't like. There's a lot of other, there's a lot of people in Gaza who really don't like Hamas. There's a lot of armed groups who really don't like Hamas. If they disarm, they're going to be annihilated.

Right. Yeah, they're fine with me, but, you know, from, again, from their perspective. Yeah, from a perspective of human survival, yeah, it's like, why would I fucking do this? Yeah. Right. So that's where, that's where I'm afraid that's made right down is. And there's no stability force that I've seen being set up to go in. So the alternative to the IDF right now appears to be nothing unless I'm missing something, and I hope I am.

There's also some reporting that, you know, the Egyptians have been training a Palestinian security force. So not a multinational force, but a Palestinian security force. I don't know if they're ready to go into the middle of this, which could be a giant Civil War. Right, right, yeah. You know, I mean, they just might be one of, they might be the good guys, but they might just be one of many armed groups fighting in Gaza. Yeah, there's a vacuum, right? A vacuum's going to be there and someone's going to want to fill it. Yes.

And it's going to be the strongest will survive in the case of Gaza. And unfortunately, the innocent civilians are going to pay the price. And it's going to make it even more difficult, even if Israel opened up all the gates and all the food. if there's like I counted four three major groups other than Hamas actually I think there's more than that but four major groups that are armed and ready to fight in gossip right now

what are those groups uh let's see I can't remember the names up on my head of them sent in the car but um they are yeah we can put there I can send it all right are they all like Islamic or like Islamists a lot of them are

some of them are just came together so they're the name of the families mostly i see okay so there's shibab's one of them that just means like a student but that all the rest of them are families and i think of abu this and abu that you know probably this and probably and i think some of them are set up just to protect their own like if you know this if this happened to new york city you'd probably you know, get to militia of Brooklyn to defend Brooklyn. Right. Right. Yeah. So I'm not saying they're good or bad. They're just like, you know, this is the way Mad Max happens. Right. And then some of them prey on, you know, innocent civilians. So, and then some of them are Islamic base like Hamas.

And some are like gangs basically. Islamic jihadist based, I should say. Like criminals, essentially, like criminal gangs and stuff. Yeah. Some of them are criminal gangs. Some reportedly are, you know, supported by Israel. Yeah. I don't know if that's true, but you can see it in the. You know, the media reporting, I don't know if it's accurate or not, but, you know, from a irregular war per perspective, that's something I'm sure they at least considered it, not did. I was just going to say, I was like, that makes sense for them until I kind of, you know, do that. All right, so a quick, quick Google search, and you correct me if I'm wrong. Obviously, it's Hamas, Palestinian Islamic jihad, the popular front for liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Right, there's more than that. There, and there's more. The ones that I'm thinking about all have names that look like are named after probably the, you know, militia leader. Yeah, I think there was, I remember we spoke about it, probably a couple months ago, the guy down south, man, I can't remember his name. I feel like we definitely spoke about it.

So, yeah, it's a shit. I mean, for lack of a better word, it's a shit show, it sounds like, in terms of, like, who's going to take over next. Like, I can't see free and fair elections happening anytime soon. No, no. no. It does. I mean, again, the plan as laid out by the U.S. is a solid comprehensive plan that would greatly benefit the people of Israel and the people of Gaza, in my opinion. But it's going to be a hard slug because the really hang-up is the demilitarization of Hamas. What just happens?

And, you know, there's also, and that's also Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and UAE came out and said, They don't demilitarize. We're not paying for the reconstruction. So this is the linchpin right here. Demiliteration. They have offered them amnesty and safe passage out of Gaza, which tells me that they addressed the situation of them disarming. We'll just have to see if they do it and who will take them and where they go.

I don't know. Yeah. I mean, I would think they would want that like negotiating. and like set up logistically before they gave up any kind of weapons and stuff like I would think I mean that's what I would want and like you're just kind of on your own whether you go to Iran or Qatar or wherever um because like the targets on your back and like listen covert wise you know the targets on your back it is what it is I per I don't give a shit if every single one I think gets clipped as long as like women and children stop getting fucking smoked and bombed and

starved like I don't you know that's where my my uh liberalism kind of kind of ends, you know what I'm saying? Like, wow. Yeah, these, they're deplorable 100%. Yeah. But we have to look at it from their perspective only to the extent that it ends the conflict. So if they have to line them up and put a giant barge and they just hand in their aches,

they get on a barge, and then they go to whichever country you would accept them, which I imagine is going to be very difficult. Sure. Because what are you going to do with all these? And you know when they're going to get there, if they go, to Iraq, they're just going to militarize them back and send them back out doing terrible shit.

So it's a lot of, it's about as complex as you can get when it comes to negotiating you know, demilitarization of any kind of. Man, it sounds insanely complicated. I mean, the last two years it was just been

really talking about is IDF and Hamas, right, as being like the chief combatants. And frankly, like they are, but it's like, the Internal politics of Gaza sounds like an absolute just, just like crazy mess of a, you know, just, for lack of a better word, cluster fuck, frankly. And remember, it's only 25 kilometers wrong and like 8 kilometers wide. Yeah. Jesus.

It literally, like you said it before, it literally seems like Mad Max, like total anarchy. Man, I just wish that like women. children and civilians weren't in the middle of this shit because it seems like there's only about like maybe 30,000 even less probably like not just Hamas but the rest of the players who are infighting and stuff like that and like totally destroying a place where there's two plus million people like it's it's insane it's nuts to really think about like the sheer numbers of it it is it is it is it's very sad and he's to come to an end people need you get fed.

Everything that's in that 20-point plan needs to happen. And I think the vice presidents get on a plane to try to make some headway with this, because at least when I'm hearing, it's potential that the IDF is really a government analysis that they're essentially going back to combat. Yeah. And I mean, to be fair for like on the other side, like that right wing in that LACU. party or whatever that coalition, not just a lacquude party of the Gaviers and the finance minister guy.

Yeah, small treats. Small treats. You know, they've been coming out and saying publicly, like, you know, we're going to keep 52% of Gaza and start, like, settling it and stuff like that, which not optimal, obviously, with the people in power and stuff like, it's just, I feel like we were all happy a couple weeks ago. I was kind of cynical, obviously. And I'm not really surprised that this is happening this way.

Like it's, you know, they got the hostages back, which is like the, it feels like the pressure on the Israeli government in power like Netanyahu and his coalition is kind of ceased a little bit only because like they got their host, the living hostages back and some deceased ones. Now I think the, I'm assuming that the Israeli population will be less likely to be told. totally against, you know, just obliterating whatever is left of Gaza now. Yeah, that was the biggest pressure point on that, and Yahoo internally, was the hostages, as you'd expect. But now he can say, look, we pulled back to the yellow line. We did our part. We started flowing aid, and I agree with the age,

never be used as a bargaining tool on warfare, but it is. And then they attacked us. So, you know, from the Israeli perspective, and they won't release all the 28 deceased hostages. So it's going to be a lot less pressure on him internally. And, you know, the only pressure, really, that's going to be remaining is the U.S. and President Trump. And he does have, I think, influence over Netanyahu that other presidents, U.S. presidents, really didn't have. So that's probably because he's really popular in Israel. So, I mean, but is that going to be enough?

And, you know, if Hamas or any of these other groups keep attacking Israel, nobody's going to tell them not to defend themselves, right? Sure. Yeah. We're not in a good spot. Hopefully, you know, we can get this back on track and the pressure put on, it's really going to come down to Hamas has to leave. Right.

You know, they got to go. Just fall in our discussion, you know, the more you talk about it, they just have to leave. And if they stay, they're not going to stay because they're in disarm because they'll be, you know, they'll be somewhereally executed. Right. Like they like to do other people. So they got to go. We got to find a place for them to go.

And we got to find, you know, a country that's willing to take them and contain them. They have to be contained. That's all that's too, bro. Like who, outside of Iran and maybe Qatar, but like, I don't know if Qatar is down for like 3,000 or so, whatever Hamas guys rolling up afterward. And I know there's a new security guarantee. all that bullshit with the United States, but like Israel's bombed Qatar anyway, right, targeting Ramas guys.

So it's like, I don't know if Qatar's game for something like that, understandably so. I doubt it. I doubt it, right? Because the international community would do it. They would then do it. And then they'd get blamed for it.

Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. So I was in those years, you'd be like, no. They hosted the negotiations that led to this and then they get blamed for hosting Amos, which if they didn't host

a Moss, how are you going to negotiate? Right, yeah, exactly. They imagine they would say no. And then the issue is with Iran who might take them they're untrustful. There's no easy answer. I think the ultimate answer is they have to be allowed to go

some of the rounds. And maybe that's what the vice president is talking about. Also, you would think that like we would be hearing reports like there's negotiation happening now for you know uh the like the rest of hamas fighters and whatever to go to iran or somewhere else where like because like even if like somebody approached iran for like hey you want to take these three thousand guys they're going to be like okay yeah they're all proxies but like what do we get exactly you know they would let's go talk

about the, you know, the agreements going on or not the agreements, negotiations going on on a new nuclear agreement, right? Yeah. So they could play into that. So it could give them advantage there. Okay. I mean, this is where we live in, right? Nothing's going to come out perfect.

That's not that let the perfect be the enemy of the good when it comes in conflicts. There's a lot going on and, you know, good on all the people that are trying to make it happen. Yeah. All right. Let's move on to Venezuela. That was going to be the kickoff where we're going to talk about because what's going on with that is pretty nuts.

But obviously, what's gone on in the last few days, a couple days with Israel and Gaza is taking precedence. So Venezuela, it seems like we're gearing up for some regime change. I'm not going to lie to you. We have about 10% of the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean. I don't know what, like on vacation. I don't know what they're doing. They're clearly getting ready for something. TF160, the Special Operations Aviation Regiment,

seen, you know, doing exercises about 90 miles out of, out of, away from Venezuela that was reported last week and stuff. So clearly we have J-SAC over there in some form. Another, it's just so much shit going on with Venezuela. It's insane to me. another strike obviously on the traffickers and stuff like that, which seems to a couple of them have survived and stuff. So like international law clearly is being violated.

We don't really care about international laws, the U.S. We didn't sign into it. So whatever, we kind of make the rules. But at the same time, we expect other countries to do it. So what's going on to me seems insane because like, yeah, Venezuela is a total narco state, socialist. Maduro's bad. he stole the election, he's a bad guy. We can name 15 other authoritative dictators that have stolen elections that we haven't really gone after at all.

And the whole premise of this was because of drug trafficking, and they're bringing fentanyl. And fentanyl is created in China. And the vast majority of drugs that come into the United States from Mexico, the Pacific and other countries. Columbia does the cocaine. So in terms of like drug trafficking, like I don't know if we should really be going after like the number 22 drug, you know, cartel in the world, maybe go after like the suppliers and stuff like that and the fentanyl. Having said like all that's happening, obviously it's a ton going on. Another bit of news as well. That it was reported, but like it kind of went under the radar.

Nobody really paid attention. The CIA, he's deputy director, named himself general counsel of the same. CIA, which is highly unusual, obviously. The CIA is clearly spinning up to do what they do, you know, taking direction from the president. So what the fuck is going on in Venezuela? Make what's your, what's your analysis on all this? Because it seems like we're really spinning up to go after it.

Yes. So to start with Venezuela, it used to be one of the most wealthy countries. Latin America, it has more proven oil and gas reserves than Saudi Arabia. I was told, $14 trillion worth. And somehow it's one of the poorest countries in the world. 30% of their population relies on food aid and millions have fled. For those who think, you know, socialism and autocratic socialism are a good thing. There's your example.

It's not working well. So, but to your point, yeah, you've got multiple destroyers, an amphibious ready group with a 22nd Mew. You've got, I know, squadrons and squadrons of F-35s. You've got, you know, the J-Soc folks deploying, according to the media. That's not just to go after drug boats. You still need that level of firepower. So it's either sending a message or it's preparing to do. do something like a Noriega slash Panama scenario.

And that might be exactly what they intended. So they put, and there was even like strategic bombers flying around the coast as well. Yeah. So it's either a giant show of force that intimidates Maduro to the point of leaving, right? Step it down and leaving, which would be a good thing, but most dictators don't do that. although they should. But it's clearly one or the other, in my opinion. So if it's a show of force, then we'll just see what happens.

If it is like, hey, we're getting ready to do something. I don't think there'd be a long-term occupation of Venezuela by the United States. It would be extraordinarily difficult. And from a president who said he wants to get out of wars, not consistent, But to address the agency part, you know, I obviously don't know or I wouldn't be talking about it. But like everybody else, I saw the president say that unusual, right? You don't usually announce covert actions. But he didn't say the details.

So what I would say just in general is the agency has the ability and the authority to collect intel forward countries all the time. Hey, the president doesn't have to tell them, hey, go collect intel on them, Russia. It's just what we do. Covert action is different. So, corporate action comes from a very, I think it's Section 30, 93, not to geek out on it, but title to title 50. It talks about this specific authority that the CIA can get from the president to conduct, you know, paramilitary influence operations and the like. which obviously includes lethal, depending on what the president writes in the finding. And most of the restrictions on the agency come from past president's executive orders,

which if you think about it, means the current president can simply change the former guy. I'm not saying he did. I have no information they did. But there is much less restrictions on agency activities than the military. there's no War Powers Act issue like under the War Powers Act although I don't think any executive any president has ever acknowledged it as

Constitution but under the War Powers Act you have 60 days to do a military operation and then you have to pull out unless Congress declares war in Congress by a concurrent resolution under the War Powers Act can pull them out in three days

they want to. That's not the case with the agency that's not the case of recovered action They don't need congressional approval, only notification and oversight. So that might be, and we don't know what he wrote in the finding. But that's what I was going to say, yeah, I was going to ask. The finding is clearly not public. So.

And it shouldn't be. But it might just be part of the bigger, you know, idea of just to intimidate Maduro. Now he, you know, he sees the significant military force that's right off the coast. now he's worried behind every corner is going to be somebody there to smoke him out yeah yeah so I don't know

I don't know but we'll find out if this doesn't if this is a bluff we'll find out and then after that he'll probably be even more bold if it does work and either they remove him or

he just leaves you know the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Carina I saw that Machado is somewhere in Venezuela

calling for regime yes because she's still awful re-elected president right yeah so super impressive lady right she's still there risking her life somewhere in Venezuela she was actually doing interviews from this

you know her fight out yesterday But it would be a great thing for the people of Venezuela if Maduro was forced to leave or just left for sure. He's not going anywhere, bro. And he's also offered America to cancel all contracts with China and Russia in terms of their oil and gas and doing everything he can to kind of like sweeten the deal. And it doesn't seem to be working. That's what makes me shake. it's more like what first off for us to occupy Venezuela we need at least what we had in in or close to

it in in Iraq so you know quarter 100,000 troops and stuff like that station somewhere getting ready to go I'm not saying Marines are the best and they can fuck shit up really well but a couple thousand Marines yeah right right but a couple thousand Marines aren't going to occupy Venezuela right like not. The mew that's there is, yeah. So they would have, I think they're arrayed for a surgical go in and just like Noriega. Right. So it's just, it's a very targeted, one person go in and take them out.

Of course, that's going to require really good intelligence. And then it's done. But the occupation of Venezuela would be bohemath. It wouldn't be make any sense. It would cost, I don't even know. how much money and lives. And I don't see that be in the endgame. So it might be just

either intimidation to try to get him to step down voluntarily. Maybe they get him a really plus deal that he lives in some high-rise somewhere in the world for the rest of his life and is immune from prosecution. That's a bad thing, but maybe it's a good thing overall for the people

of Venezuela. It's just so wild to me. Like, what's the point of this? Government, just getting rid of another dictator, the world's chock full of them. Yes, it is, unfortunately, and it's a growing issue. Autocracy versus democracy is we're not winning. There's funny indicators from Freedom House that were going to the other direction.

I would say that Venezuela, in addition to the drug issue, which is a big issue, But most of the fentanyl, for example, is produced in Mexico, not Venezuela. But the illegal immigration population, a lot of it's coming out of Venezuela because of how dired the situation is there. So I think for a administration really focuses that as one of their main efforts, that's another part of this. Yeah, that's a lot more than just protecting our borders, Mick, I'd say, you know, going in with like a J-Soc task force.

with, you know, a couple hundred Rangers and a mew to go and smoke, uh, Maduro. Going to be honest. Because like, yeah. Or they find him and they can, they can do it without all that. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably why, you know, if they did, and I'm sure they did, it's the president announced it, they've given, you know, one of the things that I think the agency can do, I guess, again, I don't know what's going on right now. But if we could do something that would then prevent the need to sent in a squadron from J-Soc and potentially risked their lives, one, I think, big benefit of the agency to the overall national security cops. If we can do something simply that doesn't require, you know, risking of how many

helicopter pilots and assaulters and all that stuff, then, you know, we should. Mike, I got a hypothetical for you. You ready for it? if you were the director of the CIA, right, and the president gave you a finding to get rid of Maduro, how would you do it without giving away TTPs and stuff? I don't think I can. Fuck.

Give it away. I mean, I can't because that would be, I think I would be. Sure. In a bad space. I might actually get a call from the director. Okay. Tell them sorry.

I've never been in the agency and stuff. I don't know. a top secret or didn't have a top secret so I think I can say what I would do and correct me, tell me if I'm hot or cold. So to avoid sending in J-Soc or guys with at 160th and potentially having some of our guys die or all of them because it's not like exactly, it's not exactly a permissible environment. I would obviously with the CIA, you know, contact groups that are against Maduro. and try and set up a way to get them, smoke them with those groups, like an assassination.

But using them as a proxy. That's what I would do. Am I hot, cold? What do you think? I think there's a lot of options, right? We also have our own version of J-Slock. Sure. And then there's what you call proxy.

That's what you're talking about. It's using another group. I would imagine, well, other than I don't want to get any specific, but I would say, you know, I think they're looking at everything. I mean, there's no reason to like, I only want to do it one way, right? Because you don't know if that's going to play out. You know, it might be they're putting together collectively, courses of action for the president to side.

Yeah. And, you know, when you do courses of action, you're looking at, you know, the pros and cons, put in a, you know, common vernacular. And, you know, the cons of doing it with a small team means that, you know, they're obviously very vulnerable. The cons of doing it with a giant, you know, J-shock machine. One helicopter gets shot down and how many guys he lives, right? So it's a big, it's a big decision or the drone scenario, right?

I was going to mention that as well, yeah. You know, it's pretty well published. It's our area of smoked and cobbled, right? Yeah. He's reading his newspaper and having his morning tea. So it's doable. It all comes down to exquisite Intel. Right.

Let me ask you this, so PR-wise or optics-wise, would it be a major international incident if, because like we obviously know what Maduro is at all times. We probably have him completely penetrated in terms of his communications. Or if we're not, like we've got to give more money to the NSA or they're not doing their job. But anyway, where we could drop a drone, right? Like where, because the presidential founding will probably okay it and stuff like that. Do you think the fallout of doing something like that internationally is worth that squeeze? Specifically drone striking them.

I mean, you think about where we are now. I mean, we're doing strikes on, you know, boats. Sure. How many years have we now been doing targeted drone strikes on individuals? Yeah, but that's one thing for it to be a trafficker or a jihadi. in the mountains of Pakistan and another. You're right. Yeah.

It's another to be a, you know, a dictator who. Sure. Basically ignored the, I mean, he doesn't have any validity as the president of them. I completely agree. I'm not defending it. Like, I wouldn't shed it here if you got smoke. I'm just saying, like, optics-wise. Yeah.

I don't, I don't know that it does. I mean, to the point of your question, D, when you start taking out leaders you don't like, that's going to, that's going to cause. issues, right? Because that kind of makes it an open season on going out to presence. But I just don't know that this crowd would, I think if I was in their shoes and that was what happened, I would point out that this person had all the opportunity to leave. You know what I mean? He could just get on a plane and go to Cuba.

Cuba's falling apart for the same freaking reason. It has been a disaster. And he chose not to, therefore, this is the consequences. I'm sure there would be a lot of pushback around the world. I'm pretty sure that they wouldn't care. I don't think they would care either. Yeah, I just say it like in terms of like setting a fucking dangerous precedent. Yeah, that would be the contrary position as you've now opened up targeted killings, which is another.

Of whether it's he's the duke, like elected president of Venezuela or, not, he's still like the de facto leader there of a head of state more or less. Yeah, by force. I mean, it is what it is. I mean, uh, man, it's tricky and I don't think it's worth to squeeze. I mean, I understand the Venezuelan

immigration issue. Because I think they're number three in terms of, uh, countries like illegal immigrants that come into the country and I understand having a strong border and stuff, but I don't know about like regime change and just leaving it like a fucking, just a crater in the ground and be like, okay, guys, you guys figure it out, have fun.

Frankly, I don't think that would stop narcotics from coming from transiting from Venezuela at all. I think it's just bullshit the whole drug angle of it. I mean, drug angle is serious, but I think most drugs come out of Mexico and from the Pacific, right? Right. But, you know, nobody's going to reasonably sleep over with narcotic traffickers that are bringing fentanyl the United States. No, I wouldn't even. You know, but regime changes

is because I saw people talking about the agency and regime change. The agency, by my count, has overthrown eight governments. Mostly in the 50s, 60s. Right? And then they, you know, we had the church commission and they said,

you know, I got to knock that off. A couple points. The agency doesn't decide to do this. The president's strong to do this. For some reason, the agency gets accused to do a thing. like a rogue elephant. I was the term.

It's not the case. So if you have a problem with the policy, it's not really the agency, any more than you blame the U.S. Army for Vietnam. Sure. Yeah. And the other thing is we're not actually that bad at it,

but the question is philosophical. Like, should, should the, you know, the strongest democracy in the world be overthrown regimes because we don't like them? Right. And like propping up once. Yeah. And then propping up ones that they are on our side who happen to be dictators and brutalize their citizens.

Exactly. Right. So it's a dirty game. It's a dirty game. But, you know, all I'd say is it's a game that ultimately the political leadership are the ones deciding, not the agency. You know, and then they always bring up the bay of pigs. But, you know, if you try to do an amphibious landing with the force 10 times your side and have the air component pulled out from one of you right before you do. Right?

I read the book by a pick So again I'm not just being Furokial at the agency But it's it's a broader question And this theory that the agency just runs around Yeah I don't think that's the case To be honest at all

Because I met enough Enough for you guys Where it's like you guys go where you're pointed Right And more or less right I'm sure there's like moral qualms officer to officer And stuff like that

In terms of what you're doing But yeah It's not like they you know the CIA director wakes up one day. He's like, you know what? Let's fucking overthrow Venezuela today, right? Like getting pointed by the president. Oh, yeah.

It's totally at the direction. I'm sure with a lot of discussion between the senior captain members on the National Security Center. Yeah. At the end of it, they make a decision, right or wrong. But the idea that it's some kind of rogue by the agency. Just waking up one day. I'm like, let's just do this.

why not we're bored we got this budget you know burning a hole in our pocket let's fucking use it no like there's yeah for somebody to think that's the case is like they're just naive yeah and of course if it goes south and it's a completely way about that the other part of that uh is that a lot of times the agency's handed stuff that nobody else can fix you see what i mean right right so it's like yeah here's an impossible situation right right we can't figure how to put the fire out the dov doesn't want to to do it. Diplomats can't resolve it. Here's the burning building, right? Yeah. Good luck. So, yeah, yeah. But anyway, so I don't know what the finding is, or even if there was a finding,

but the president, I think, I don't think he made a mistake. I think he wanted Maduro to go, look in every shadow and be scared that, you know, it's curtains, even if it isn't the case. Yeah, so we'll see what goes down in the next couple of things. a couple weeks. Obviously, we'll keep it close eye. All right. Last bit of news, Zelensky was at the White House on Friday. I feel like it's, I mean, which is crazy.

It's only Sunday, right? And it feels like he was there like a month ago. I think the main topic was to talk about long-range missiles, tomahawks, presumably. And it didn't seem to go well. Interesting thing that came up in the 25th hour before the day before the meeting was that President Trump was going to talk to President Putin before the meeting for some fucking reason.

Let me think. So the bottom line. Also, what I also noticed when I watched a little bit of like the press gaggle in that room was like some of that right wing press is still pretty fucking, pretty kind of hostile towards Zelensky. And it's like I just don't understand it, especially, you know, America first and, you know, don't give money away. but we just gave $40 billion to Argentina for a bailout. So it's like pretty selective. And I would argue that giving Ukraine what they need in terms of arguments is better off because they are an actual democratic company country.

Even though they're corrupt and their corruption is high and all that stuff, they were invaded, right? Like by a more powerful, aggressive, imperialistic colonizer. So I think it should be really easy for. for this. I don't understand what the friction is there. Anyway, Putin and Trump are set to meet as well

in Budapest, which is kind of fucking ironic. And Trump gave Putin another two weeks. It's been two weeks for like fucking four months. So what do you got? So the importance of Tomahawks, right? Very, very effective weapon system.

I think the lock twos can go Like 1500 miles. Yeah. It's like 2,500 kilometers. Yeah. And the block for like 1,000 miles. But they're, you know, they are sea-based.

There used to be a ground-based version of it, and I think they're probably going back to trying to find. Yeah. Ground-based way to launch them. I guess they could probably remove the... I think we do have one. Because I spoke with... I spoke with when I talked to Andy about this.

Andy had like a really good coverage. You could check out that video. We did a short video about what it would be like. That our majority of our Tom Hawks are a sea base, right? From subs and ships. But we do have a ground brace variant, but they're more limited in supply, essentially. The Europeans did say that they can make something that will allow it to shoot from the ground. Like they have some kind of system that works that way.

But, you know, there are some limiting factors to all this. Well, I hope they're building it now that they can actually, whoops, let me get in quieter area. So on the reach, though, if you give them and they can figure out how to launch them, either by some kind of C platform or ground-based platform, there's about two dozen air bases in range. right? That's why Putin's freaking out. It really opens up the targets. And I think there's hundreds of other military installations and energy infrastructure. They'll be able to hit that they can't now. So that's why it's so important. You know, Putin's like, oh, these are capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Well, yeah, so are all the missiles. You've been shooting at nursery, schools, and hospitals, right? So on the, so on the, standard Russian response, major escalation,

and then they're going to throw on nuclear weapons. They said that about F-16s, Hi, Mars. They said about Javans. Yeah. Right? So I don't know why we publicly deliberate this stuff. I would just do it. I mean, I'm not charged, but as soon as when they lined up to go into Ukraine,

and we had really good intelligence, they were going to do it, we should have just announced, we're going to give them everything. everything they need to win. So it's your decision. It's your decision, Russia, to invade your neighbor. And then we would stop with this whole handraking and flutching of pearls every time we decide to do this. I think potentially that this summit or whatever we're calling it in Budapest, that the U.S. may say, look, you obviously ask us not to give them Tomoff. We won't. If you have a ceasefire, you stop fighting and you come to the negotiation table and goodwill.

And I would hope they'd also put on their secondary sanctions. Yeah. So, you know, we don't want to do it. We don't want the war to expand. We want the war to cease. But it's your choice whether to have a ceasefire. If we don't and we go through this summit and B doesn't agree to anything and the war continues, then this is totally playing into Putin's hand. He gets a public stage with the President of the United States, which he wants because he's essentially an international pariah,

and he has no consequences. So I hope they put the consequences on the table and say, either we get to this summit and there is a ceasefire or tomahawks are flowing. And by the way, there's a German variant. Yeah. They can send them. They should be sending them to step up Europe.

And we should be fixing it so they can launch them off the ground right now. We need to prepare for that. I mean, they have some maritime platforms. They can watch for it. Either way, and there's got to be, we got to start mass producing them. Because there's only a finite amount out of them. And we don't want to deplete our stocks too much. But it needs to happen, especially if Guten comes out of this.

this Budapest summit and it's it's the same situation. Are they saying that Budapest summit's going to be just Trump and Putin or Zelensky there too? So I've heard Trump, Putin and Zelensky in one room, Putin. Another scenario is Putin in one room with Trump and then Zonski and another one with Trump. So he goes back and forth. Yeah. Right. I don't care so much about the personal dynamics.

of, you know, I think what's necessary is to give real consequences to Russia and say, when the president goes in there, says, okay, this is your chance. You don't want Tom Oaks? Ceasefire today. Seasfire, freeze the lines. Let's start negotiation. If I walk out of here, again, and you do what you did to me in Alaska, Tomahawks are flowing, the German version of it's flowing, and the sanctioning Russia Act, which Senator Othune wants to pass. It has to 85 sponsors. Like, that's unheard of. Just, you could, he could just call a soon and say, you know, vote now.

Yeah. And it's just too bad this administration's, Ukraine policies, completely bipolar. Let's be honest. Because three weeks ago, Trump was like, yeah, they need to win, you know, and now it's like they need to stop. Supposedly, I think Wall Street Journal reported that the phone call that Trump and Putin had together yes on Friday before the Zelensky meeting. Putin said he wants all of Denex, even though he doesn't have all of Dernesk, like he's not occupying all of the necks.

People are speculating that he's saying that because he wants the war to continue because obviously Russia's economy is war-based now and he can't lose face at all, right? He's trying a legacy shop and he doesn't care how many fucking Russians he kills to do that, you know. So it seems like their demands are completely fucking crazy, just out of control. Yeah. And I think the U.S. should just say what is reasonable and not care because they won't negotiate in good faith. They're going to ask for like everything and for Ukraine to disarm, you know, some ridiculous shit like that. Sure, sure. Every NATO member to swear to God that Ukraine don't ever be allowed in NATO.

Yeah. Right. So disarm and not join NATO. I mean, it's just going to get ridiculous. And they don't even have a problem being ridiculous. They just look right at you and be ridiculous. So the U.S. needs to say, no, you can drop all that. And here's, here's a plan that we think Solensky can actually get approved by the Ukrainian people. And if you don't, because that's, he has to do that, right? He can't just sign away parts of his country. So here's the plan. It's somewhat accessible. Let's cut through the crap. And then if you say no, we're going to give them everything they need to win. Yeah. And we're going to start giving them your money that's tied up in Europe. That too. All the money in Europe. I think all totals are on 425 million. Wow, that interest is accruing, huh?

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe they can use that to buy our tomahawks. And we can just start pumping them out, right? Can you imagine if there was just thousands of tomahawks had into, it's not just a military installation, It's all their ability to, you know, produce energy to fund the war. Yeah, and they're already hitting those areas too, right?

They're hitting a ton of refiners and stuff like that. Supposed you're around 40% of the production. It's down 40%. Yeah. Well, they have attackers. They're a medium range, and they've actually mastered it. So, yeah. Yes.

Again, you know, if Russia doesn't like it, they can just stop fighting. They can stop trying to take them. Yeah, I don't understand. Also, I saw another report where we were like, there was some negotiations. going on about easing sanctions on Belarus. It's like, what? Fuck Belarus.

You know, they're complicit in this. So we'll see what goes down. I mean, it just feels kind of hopeless and like Zelenskyy's got to be tired. That guy needs a fucking vacation, I feel like, you know? Like, this is brutal. And I mean, think about the people that are being killed in the Russian attacks day and day out.

Yeah, Russia needs a pee-wack, a bad one. So they can only just learn it, like learn how to, like, act in this world. Anything else? Oh, that's a lot, boys. I know. We did have a lot going on. I want to remind everybody, Mick's got a new podcast. The Pub and the Porsche Applied Stoist is in the links are in the description.

Check it out. It's a great pod. Easy listening to. Unlike this show. What else? Mick, of course, Lobo, Fogbo. Check it out. The links are all in the description.

All the other guys links are in the description as well. And the best place to support the show is patreon.com slash the team house. You get both Teamhouse and Eyes on episodes, ad free and early. And you help support the show. Mick, as always, happy traveling. Travel safe. I hope you get there quick. Thanks, Steve.

Appreciate it, man. Great discussion. Hey, guys, it's Jack. I just want to talk to you for a moment about how you can support the show. if you've been watching it, enjoying it, but you'd like to get a little bit more involved and help us continue to do this. You can check out our Patreon.

It is patreon.com slash the Teamhouse. And for $5 a month, you can get access to all of these episodes of the Team House ad-free. The same goes with our affiliated podcast, Eyes On, with Andy Milburn, Jason Lyons, Mick Mulroy. That one, you will also get

all of those episodes ad-free. And you support the, channel and the show and we really appreciate it. The Patreon members are literally what has helped this company, this small business survive, especially during our early years. And you are what continues to help this thing going even as we navigate the turbulent world of YouTube advertising. So we really appreciate all of you guys. There's going to be a link down in the description to that Patreon page. And there is also going to be a link to our new merch shop. So if you guys, guys want to go and get some Team House merchandise, we got stickers, and we also have patches.

And I should mention, if you sign up for Patreon at $10 a month, we will mail you this patch as well. So we really appreciate that. But they're also for sale on the merch shop. And additionally, they got T-shirts up there, water bottles, tote bag, coffee mugs, all that good stuff. So please go and check them out and support the show. We really appreciate it, guys. Thank you.