The Team House - Is Regime Change the Answer in Iran? | EYES ON GEOPOLITICS

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

In this in-depth interview, former Green Beret Mike Taylor shares his expert insights on the current geopolitical situation in the Middle East, focusing on Iran, Hezbollah, and U.S. strategies. We explore historical context, regime change tactics, and potential paths forward for peace and stability.Grab Vitamin 1 WATER HERE:https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Vitamin+One+WaterGhostBed ⬇️https://www.ghostbed.com/teamFOR 10% off! Support the show on Patreon:⬇️https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouseSubscribe to our newsletter!!!!https://teamhousepodcast.kit.com/joinJack's news outlet:⬇️https://thehighside.substack.com/Find Jon Hackett here:⬇️Jon's Twitter:https://x.com/jonathanhackettJon's LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejonathanhackettJon's books:https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0C5L659N5?ccs_id=e11a2062-f8d3-498e-bfd7-7d2f3869caf6Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejonathanhackettTwitter: https://x.com/jonathanhackettCheck 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=n6piIu8XRcag1Z0K43A3bQYoutube:https://www.youtube.com/@UCd0Hq6QFk8CoTu5j-VU0Ong Find 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/Whitefish security summit ⬇️https://whitefishsecuritysummit.comFind Marc P here:https://x.com/MpolymerFind 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 Audio00:00 Start01:12 Current Situation in Iran and the Middle East02:55 Historical Context of U.S.-Iran Relations10:25 Strategies for Regime Change in Iran15:48 Political Dynamics and Military Strategy19:15 The Role of Technology in Modern Warfare25:52 Conclusion: The Future of U.S.-Iran Relations26:25 The Impact of Protests and U.S. Response28:43 The Role of Diplomacy and Military Expertise30:25 Hezbollah's Influence and Regional Dynamics32:35 The Complexity of Israeli-Palestinian Relations35:46 The Need for Regime Change in Iran39:41 Negotiating with Iran: Challenges and Realities44:05 The Future of U.S.-Iran Relations and Regional StabilityBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

Look, in January, President Trump told the Iranian people, take to the streets, we got your back. 40,000 people that took the streets were murdered, slaughtered. Nobody had their back. Nobody's talking about that. We need to have them overthrown. There must be regime change. If there's no regime change, we've lost the war.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Aizond Geopolitics. I got a special guest today, Mike Taylor. You guys might know him from a, Well, he's had a pretty story career, I'd say, and we've had a great, we had a great podcast with him as well. Maybe, probably a couple years ago now, talking about his crazy, the Carlos Gohn affair of smuggling Carlos Gone, the former Nissan Renault executive out of Japan. And, you know, unfortunately, you getting kind of screwed over while Carlos Ghosne is, you know, living the high life. Of course, Mike was a former Green Beret.

He's been around the block. He's got an incredible company as well, vitamin 1 water. Check that out. I'll have a link in the description. It's delicious. You guys are responsible with us for a while. Maybe we can figure that out later too, but check that out. Mike's a great guy, 10 out of 10 dude.

I mean, you've been so just a little bit of personal stuff. You've been so helpful with like the team house and stuff trying to help us out with like sponsors or you know try to connect this with people so I really I really appreciate that just a little personal so Mike how you doing doing great cool frustrated with what I'm saying happening with Iran yeah yeah so that's basically what we're going to like the basic subject of what we're going to talk about today just a little bit of an update there's supposedly a ceasefire I don't even know how you can call it a ceasefire they've been also trying to deal and make an extension to the ceasefire so they can open the Strait of Hormuz and start really deep dive talking about the enrichment

to uranium enriched. They enriched uranium in that's already there. Iran kind of seems to be tagging Lebanon and Hezbollah to the ceasefire as well. So that's like a big sticking point. Obviously, Israel doesn't want that. Supposedly, there's a ceasefire struck with Israel and Lebanon yesterday, but they've been bombing Lebanon and Hezbollah. also been firing back at Israel. It's kind of a mess, obviously, and it has, like, you know, we've been talking about it for

weeks, a ton of reverberations across the world. I mean, you know, gas prices are not cheap. You know, inflation's up. And we're not even feeling it as much as, like, the rest of the world is probably feeling it. Also, Congress, I guess, acted a little bit. Yesterday, the House passed a War Powers Resolution Act aimed at limiting future military action against Iran. if that's going to have to pass the Senate.

I don't know if it will. And also go to President Trump's desk to sign. I don't know if he'd be willing to do that. So, yeah, Mike, just, you know, you let me know. I don't have a specific question. I know you have a really unique insight into the Middle East and stuff like that. So, yeah, I'd love to hear where you're at with this. Yeah, I've been fighting against these guys since 1983.

You know, I was standing outside the American Embassy. April 18th, 1983, four minutes after one, when they sent the car bomb in and blew it up. You know, 63 souls died that day, many Americans and many local Lebanese as well. And then we had the Marine barracks October 23rd, 1983. We lost 241 Americans there. At the same time, they hit the French barracks, not as many, but still lost life. These guys are out of control. There's only one way to deal with them.

You know, with our present situation with Iran, you know, the IRGC is now in control of the country of Iran. And they're fighting for their existence. They're fighting for their lives because if they get overthrown, they're finished. They'll all be murdered. They'll all be tortured. And their lives will be over. So they have a lot to fight for, a lot of motivation. Whereas it seems our administration is sitting back, beating their chest.

there Johnny Cool and no big deal. We're talking about American lives here, you know, in the military, dealing with this. And the reality is the Iranians are winning right now. You can talk about ceasefires all day. There are no ceasefire. How's it a ceasefire when they're attacking our military bases

and attacking our allies? You know, they pretty much shut down the economy of the United Arab Emirates with their missile attacks going back to the end of February. I was there for that. And, you know, hotels are at less than 1% occupants. You can see people, all the companies have to lay off like 50% of their employees, some

Bengali numbers. The other ones have to take forced days off. You know, so you're going to work, but you're going to work, you know, 10 days unpaid just because the economy is destroyed. And they were never consulted in advance at all. They had no idea what was going on. And that's not just the UAE. That's Saudi Arabia.

That's Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait. You know, they're getting hammered. And their economy is getting hammered, much worse than ours. hours we're paying for higher gas prices and higher food prices and fertilizer and all that that's definitely increasing and you know the white house can say oh well it's not and it's just short-term pain that's a bunch of bullshit this is hard paying for american citizens they don't have a lot of money a lot of people are blue-collar workers and they live paycheck to paycheck um single mothers are trying to raise families it's not easy but sitting back in a white house when you're fat dumb and happy you know talking about

everything's going to be fine um um i'm going to work a a ceasefire and I'm going to work an agreement. There's no agreement with the Iranians. I'm here to tell you. I've studied them at Harvard. I've been on the ground with them, against them, I've talked to them, fought against them. There's going to be no agreement. They have no honor. They have no integrity. Anything they agree to, they won't adhere to it. It's a joke. And one of the reasons that they're fighting so hard and want to make Hasbala part of this, part of the nexus, is because that's how they control the country of Lebanon. Make no mistake about it. The Lebanese army does not control the country of Lebanon. Hezbollah controls Lebanon. No if ands buts about it. That's another proxy. That's definitely a

proxy for them. And people are saying, well, the Israelis, you know, they invaded in 1982 for no reason. No, it's because the Palestinians were there. Remember back when Israel took over in 48 or 50, whatever it was, Israel took over Palestine, declared to Israel, the Palestinians, All went to Jordan. King Hussein welcomed him with open arms until the Palestinians tried to overthrow him and kill him. So he kicked their ass to threw him out and they went to the refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria. And in Lebanon, they took over the city of Beirut. And they're the ones that were firing the missiles into northern Israel from southern Lebanon. That's why Israel invaded in 1982.

So let's not forget the history. So many people on social media and whatnot seem to forget that history or not know it. And now since we started this war with Iran, they've controlled the strait of Hormuz, which they didn't before. And it's really interesting. Since we crushed their Navy, destroyed their Air Force and their military, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and beating our chest, how is it with no Navy that they control the Straits or Hanoos? I'm interested. Please tell me that, Mr. President. How does that happen?

Or did you let them do it? Oh, I get it in our blockade. This is a little bullshit. Mike, the interesting thing, too, is about, like, you know, even, you know, I was young when we went into Iraq or the buildup into Iraq. And, you know, there was always that talk about, like, possibly going into Iran. But the issue with Iran was they had, they could control and remind the Strait of Hormuz. So it wasn't like the Strait of Hormuz was like this new, like, ace and, you know, a magic card that nobody knew about. Like, everybody, any analysts and people, operators like yourself would have worked there.

and been in the region, no, like, that's a huge choke point that Iran can use, right? And we still went in there. It's been part of our doctrine to deal with that going back to the Cold War. So this is nothing new at all. And they started playing games when President Reagan was in there, and he just annihilated Banda Abbas. Just one night he just annihilated it, and they backed off. That's the only thing they understand.

Look, in January, President Trump told the Iranian people, take to the streets, we got your back. 40,000 people that took the streets were murdered, slaughtered. Nobody had their back. Nobody's talking about that. We need to have them overthrown. There must be regime change. If there's no regime change, we've lost the war. And we're losing it today.

You talk about negotiating and the president said, oh, I'll take my time. Well, that's great. You take your time all you want. chunky, but you're hurting the American people. They control the Straits or Hamoos. 20% of the world's oil is stuck there. So, you know, the bravado don't work with the Iranians. There's only one thing that works with them, and that's brute force. And again, you can talk about all you want. You know, none of that matters. What matters to them is what they have, what they can control. And they're controlling the Straits of Hamoos. And they're not afraid. They're attacking it. They attacked us yesterday.

They attacked our bases in Kuwait. So again, all the bravado and a big talk, this ain't Manhattan real estate where you can talk trash and not have to back it up. This is the real world. This is the varsity level. You've got to back it up. And it's better not to talk trash.

It better just go do it. You know, and you listen to people like Ambassador Ryan Crocker. He's just such a wealth of knowledge, so much experience on the ground over there. He'll tell you the same thing. There's only one way to deal with that regime and that's the annihilate him. You got to get rid of them and let the people take over.

It would be a reverse of 1979 when Ayatollah Khomeini came in. All these radicals took over. They controlled our election, the presidential election. When Carter was the president and the Reagan took over, they held those hostages in the American embassy there until Reagan swore in. Right, on the inauguration day. Yeah. Once he took the oath of the president, they released the hostages. That's how they were manipulating the American presidential election.

They don't care. They'll play with the big leagues. And again, there's only one way. So what would your recommendation be to get like, you know, 500,000 American troops on the ground in Iran? No, absolutely not. Let this cut the CIA loose and let them go, you know, give arms to the population, set up some resistance. You know, this is a perfect UW situation for SF people, for special forces. You know, send some in there, you know, let's get the people up and trained a little bit and let's attack. But in the meantime, we've got to hit them with all of our air power and naval power. Open a strait of her moves, put some pressure on them. Iran has no pressure right now.

They're talking about economically. They don't give a damn about their people and their economic situation of the country. They really don't. So there's no real pressure on their Iranians. And they feel like they're in, you know, in the best position because since the war started, they've progressed. Now they control the straits or her moves before they didn't. Right. Yeah.

I mean, listen, I'm of the. I'm of the side of like we were in a better negotiating position on February 27th before we started this, the air campaign and stuff and wiped out, uh, the old man, Khomeini and stuff. Uh, I think, frankly, even if we were, I don't, I'm not an expert. So I don't know. I mean, like, how the UW would work if we, you know, arm the Kurds, let them lose and in the populace, like the more, you know, general poppies that actually lives in Iran, like proper around Tehran and stuff, wherever the power centers are. I mean, would that entail, like, let's say you armed the populace, built up some resistance groups, would that also entail like air strikes, right? Like working in conjunction with like air strikes as well? Because it sounds like a huge undertaking.

Even forget the 300 or 500,000 of American troops, just like a just saw resistance inside of Iran that is coordinated with air strikes. We don't need hundreds of thousands of years troops on the ground. We only need some SF teams to infiltrate and be able to train assist and advise the local resistance. Create the local resistance, get them armed, beef them up a little bit, give them some confidence targets and let them continue on. Then they can start protesting and when they're getting shot at, they can return fire. Then you have a regime change in the making. That's how it works. It's not complicated.

We've done it many times. And the CIA is very good. They're the best on earth at doing this stuff. why they're not doing it. That's all coming from the White House. Yeah, I don't understand. Frankly, I don't see, like, any, there was any, like, real strategic thought into going in bombing Iran, frankly.

And I'm of also the thought that, like, it was, you know, we kind of were a little bit, not a little bit. We were dog walked by Israel into it as well because it benefits them. I mean, I don't know how you feel about that, but, like, I think we could have been in a better place diplomatically. That's where I stand. The Netanyahu sell Trump, sure. He butters him up and tells him how great he is.

He's the smartest guy on Earth, blah, blah, blah, blah. Trump loves that stuff. Let's be honest. That's just a reality. But I'm all for regime change always have been because without regime change, you're not going to have a country of Lebanon with the sovereignty. You're not going to have, Syria, you're going to still have problems because they, They've, you know, essentially, you know, controlled Syria.

And the same with Iraq. When you got Norman Maliki as the prime minister of Iraq, who's a Shiite, he's very close tied to the IRGC and the Iranian leadership. So, you know, essentially, they have the trifecta there. They've got Iran, they've got Iraq, they get Syria, and they got Lebanon. They control it. In addition, they also control the Houthis in Yemen. So, yeah, you got to get rid of the regime. I'm all for getting rid of the regime.

talk to anybody. Talk to the Ambassador Ryan Crocker's. Talk to the real professional diplomats, not real estate guys and son-in-laws who get thrown into this position. Talk to real pros with real depths of knowledge. They'll all tell you the same thing. If you don't have regime change, you'll lost the war. Regardless that Netanyahu convinced us or not, I'm all for regime change. We should have been doing this a long time ago. I don't know why they did it, but they didn't. So Trump did a good thing in that regard. But you can't start. and then stop and beat your chest and think that you're scaring anybody. Because your little tweets and social media don't scare anybody.

These are the Iranians. There's one way to deal with them. And only one way we would deal with them. And professional diplomats and foreign service officers will tell you the same thing. Yeah. I think the tricky part is, I mean, Trump kind of operates in a different level, like in terms of like a normal politician where like political capital means a lot to most politicians for him. he can he can kind of burn it until he doesn't care he doesn't really have that kind of like uh pressure um

i mean they will feel the pressure obviously with the midterms so i think the little bit of political pressure he his is feeling is uh it's gonna make it hard i think for like a covert program where you send s f and you know ground brand cia guys and to like stir up the resistance similar to what we did in afghanistan right right after 9-11 um and we did it in iraqa to we're definitely good at it I don't know I don't know how that's going to play though politically that's what I mean even though he is more Teflon than like most politicians are yeah and again it goes back to what are the fundamental aspects here number one we're losing the war we started it we're losing it we

pissed off all of our allies throughout the Europe and throughout the the Gulf Coast countries right they're all not happy with us because we just essentially destroyed their economies and didn't have have any coalition or give them a heads up prior to attacking Iran. In addition to that, this isn't long-term things we're talking about here. Get some weapons into the people. Let them have their own resistance. It doesn't have to be the Kurds.

Normal Iranian people do not want this. They do not want the Ayatollah or the IRGC in charge. Give them some weapons. Show them which end of the gun the bullet comes out of and cut them loose. This isn't really complicated, but let them go. Because the IRGC doesn't have that kind of control before, because a lot of their political hierarchy has been destroyed. So there's a power struggle inside right now.

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Listen, I don't know, so I'm not, I don't know. So I'm not a, I can't really say, you know, it does make sense that, like, if we're going to start what we've done for the last, you know, before the ceasefire, quote unquote, where we were bombing them pretty consistently. Like, if you're going to go do that, go kind of go, you should go all in, right? You can't be half pregnant, right? Like, whether you need to arm the Kurds, do it, or arm the actual populace inside of Iran, I would have thought that this would have been the plan from the get-go. right and maybe there was a plan always but like you know the trump administration obviously you know they decided to go into iran like with five guys in a in a border room basically and like let's do it let's start attacking without really like what comes next you know when you wipe out their

entire um entire like power structure like the iatola and the other 40 people they killed that day one yeah you're you're asking for chaos right you're selling chaos really and it was kind of of like a half pregnant idea. John Hackett, one of our hosts, like he was talking about like how, you know, Iran doesn't have internet. It hasn't had internet for like, you know, since the war started or since the protest started.

There are ways for the U.S. to like give, give the Iranians internet to at least get the information space back on their side, spread some, you know, do some sciop, spread some propaganda, right? Try to get the, the actual citizenry to like start.

revolting and resisting like they were doing in January. And like some of those like smart moves or not even smart moves, just moves that make sense, if you explain it to anybody, weren't taken, weren't even like broached. It was just like we're going to do airstrikes. You're going to see some cool videos. And we're going to declare victory.

Like there was no plan here whatsoever. Right. And what happened to Voice of America? That came out, you know, the World War II days and that was that's phenomenal that worked everywhere but yeah up with USAID and everything else again this this would be a perfect opportunity to use it and you know again I don't understand why the president doesn't get his buddy Elon remember he had the chainsaw cutting jobs uh federal jobs yeah yeah why don't they put some of his low flying low orbiting satellites over there so they can have internet

so it was again you know the reality the reality is here Iran is kicking our ass right now they are in a They don't need to negotiate. They got all the pressure in the world put on Trump, not on them. They don't give a damn about November elections. They don't give a damn about Trump or his corrupt family or any of that stuff. They don't care. They're surviving. They want to live.

They're fighting with a lot of motivation because if they die, they're finished. If they get kicked out of power, they're finished. They're going to be eaten alive because it was just in January where they killed 40,000 innocent people who were on the streets protesting. That's a lot. Those people in Iran and Iranian citizens are very aware of all this. They would love to, you know, be able to take over. Yeah.

I remember there was a report also like they asked Elon and Starlink. They gave them a price for what it would look like for Starlink to get put over Iran and give people, most people, internet to be able to just access the fucking, they have no internet. Like it's wild. It was going to cost, I think, 100 million up front. plus 500 million over the course of the of the program and the DOD said no meanwhile we're like losing jets that are 600 million dollars

like the E3 century and stuff we're losing hardware that's you know multiples of that price and uh you would think you just would think there would be a full spectrum strategy to this and there wasn't at all um and honestly you thought it was Venezuela again right But even if it's out of his bed. I know, that's the crazy thing because Venezuela was like a totally different op, right? It was J-Soc in and out in a few hours. This is not that at all.

Like, not even close. So I don't know. I think, I guess I'm giving him a little bit too much credit, Trump. But like, you would think he could see the difference between that. You don't have to be like a military strategist to see the differences. But you've got to understand the military. I don't think he understands anything about the military. Remember, this is a guy after Venezuela

that was talking to 82nd Airborne Division troops. Tell them, I know you guys love me because your 401Ks are doing so good. Yeah. Soldiers don't have 401Ks. Yeah. So, I don't think he knows the difference between Venezuela and Iran operations, frankly.

Yeah, to me, that's scary. Or not even anyone in there to be like, hey, okay, Venezuela was great. Like, that op was amazing, and, like, the J-Soc boys did what they do and they did it almost flawlessly. This is not an operation in the middle of the night in and out. Like, this is sustained combat operations or air operations. To what end, I don't know, like, frankly.

Well, this is big boy, big boy war. And big boy war is you're going to have a plan. You've got to have a plan for everything, a plan for entering and a plan for exiting. Perhaps what they should have done is look at the exit plan first. That's how we do it in special ops all the time. How do we get out? Sometimes there is no way out, so we don't plan for it.

Maybe we've got to walk out, but whatever. We've got to get in and get the mission done. But the reverse planning is critical, especially in a time like this. But, you know, additionally, again, it goes back to if you don't get rid of the regime, they're going to stay in power, you didn't get rid of their fusion. They controlled the Strait of Hermuz. Who's winning this? You said you weren't going to give them a nuke.

You didn't care about individual Americans' financial status and how things are costing and the escalation of all prices and inflation. And you don't care about any of that, but you just care. You don't want Iran to have a nuke. Well, if you really don't want them to have a nuke, why do they still have their fusion and why do they are due fusion in their material? And why do they now control the streets of her moves, 20% of the world's oil? we're losing we're getting hammered

and again you know beating your chest on social media doesn't do jack to help the American people to help our allies or you know win the war over there if we don't get rid of the regime they're going to win they'll keep Lebanon they'll keep Syria they'll keep Iraq

and anybody thinks that they don't control Iraq is still buying tickets on Pan Am right yeah I mean you know Iraq is predominantly Shia right we got rid of Saddam and there was a huge vacuum there that you would also thought the analysts and they probably there probably were analysts that were like if we do this it's going to break out in civil war and Iran's going to have a bigger hold and like they you know the powers that be didn't listen um you know we broke

Iraq and that seems to have helped um you know Iran filled that vacuum happily I can't tell you how many times we were expressing our opinion do not disband their Iraqi army. Do not disband the Iraqi army. And you got academia like Bremer, Paul Bremer, arguing against us. It's like, come on, guys. We know what's going to happen. You know what's going to happen. They've got to feed their families. If you disband them, they're not getting paid. What are they going to do? Go to the Iranians. Iranians will pay them and they'll be working against American soldiers. We lost a lot of American soldiers because we disbanded the Iraqi army when we knew better. Yeah. Yeah, everyone said, like, that was the big, uh,

That was the, I was the turning point. I mean, you can make a case. I was a turning point for the entire region, frankly. Of course. You know, because, you know, ISIS proliferated. Yeah. And historically, the conventional war between Iran and Iraq, you know, people were saying, you know, that went for eight years. These people are tough.

No, it went for eight years because they don't know how to shoot, move, and communicate. That's what happened. Nobody could win as a stalemate. They just throw human waves of bodies at each other and getting them killed. We've seen all their helmets or a lot of their helmets at Saddam's parade ground with the cross swords. They're fighting eight years because they don't know how to fight. Now, this war that we're in right now, and make no mistake, there's no ceasefire. How's it a ceasefire when they just fired up missiles at our military base?

How's it a ceasefire? You could say it's a ceasefire in Washington. Take your fat ass over there and get hit by a missile and see how much of a ceasefire it is. Yeah. You know, let some bullets and some fragments come whip them by your head. see if you think it's still a ceasefire. Mike, in your professional opinion, you really think if we were pushing the UW,

let CIA lose, SF loose, we would be able to make regime change? Absolutely. Absolutely. Look, you had 40,000 people take to the streets without weapons. They were butter knives. That's how motivated those people are, the population. They're motivated.

It's 80% of the population wants the 20% of the population out. Unfortunately, the 20% of the population is the IRGC and the ruling government. They have the guns. 80% want them out. They gave their life. Over 40,000 of them, some estimates up as high as 60,000. People who are protesting in the streets because Trump said, I got your back.

So, yeah, I absolutely do believe that. You give them the weapons and a little bit of knowledge? Absolutely, they'll take to the streets again. In your opinion, from January, when they were protesting and getting killed by the RERGC and when Trump went out and said, you know, we got your back, why did it take, you know, almost two months, seven, eight weeks, six to eight weeks for us to actually do something. Because he doesn't care. He's not well advised.

He has no real expertise around him. Again, where are the professional diplomats? We're the generals with real knowledge. Where's our subject matter experts on? They got fired. They got rid of the whole NSC. The National Security Council is like basically, you know, no one's there anymore. Who's the wing nut now in charge of national intelligence?

I don't know. I don't know. Really? Where did he come from? But again, that's what happens when you don't have real season professionals around you. Go try, go into Venezuela with a group of real estate investors and see how well you do with that. No, you're sending in special forces to take care of business. Why? Because they're pros at it. They're the best on earth. You don't send in knuckleheads. You send in knuckleheads. You're going to have knucklehead problems. Guess what? All of our diplomats that he's sending over there, the crucial diplomats are all knuckleheads. They've got no experience. The only one is with a brain and it's got some real experience is Marco Rubio. But again, these guys all got a kiss to ring of the dictator down there. We're saying we don't have money to do operations, but we need a billion dollars for a ballroom. Come on. The whole thing is just piss poor manage. It's pathetic.

Yeah, I don't disagree. I mean, I don't know if I'm down for like a full on. I mean, I'm always down for a little bit of covert ops. I'm frankly surprised that the CIA wasn't trying, like over the last 30 or 40 years, hasn't had like a program to arm resistance in Iran, frankly. Like, even if it was small, right? Like not like, but some kind of like actual network there that they, you know, had been arming people in Iran for for the last few decades just in case like you know all these

you know 2009 they had a big pro to a big uprising too and stuff like that um that surprises me a little bit i know it probably would take a lot of bandwidth and we had the global war on terror and all that stuff and you know we were really focusing on other things um but again like yeah i don't it's interesting because if it was such a huge uh problem for us or worry for us, you would think we'd be more prepared. Yeah, and look, there are plans in place. There's no doubt about it, you know, to run resistance groups. No doubt about that whatsoever.

However, it's got to come from the top. And it hasn't come from the top since President Reagan. And, you know, historically since 1983, the Iranians keep getting stronger through their proxies. The country of Lebanon is governed and run and control by Hezbollah. Hezbollah could take it over anytime they want. Not as much right now. Just be thanks to the Israelis, you know.

People could say whatever they want about Israel. But if it wasn't for Israel, Hasbala would still be in charge there 100%. But even today, Hasbala is still firing rockets into northern Israel. What does that tell you? That tell you that there's a lot of support from Iran there. A lot of support. And the same thing goes for Syria.

They were sending missiles and all their logistical supplies through Syria into Lebanon. And nobody's going to say a word. Lebanese army can't say a word. You know, you have all these Lebanese politicians there talking about this, that, and the other, all they're doing is ripping a country off. Why isn't the Lebanese army do anything? In your opinion, why isn't the Lebanese army doing anything? They don't have the ability to do it.

Remember, back in the early 80s, 1982, 83, we went over there and started training the Lebanese army. They were broken up into factions. You had the Druze, you had the Maronites, you had the Shiites. and then we were supplying them with all kinds of brand new one-on-threes, armored personnel carriers, all new weapons, all new uniforms, training them up, teaching them urban combat, teaching them shoot, move, and communicate

and combine arms tactics. And then the political aspect hit again, and they all took their weapons and went home. Christians went to their place, Jews went to their place, Sunnis went to their place, Shiites went to their place. They took their weapons from the army and the tanks and everything, it went home.

So it split up. Who's in control during that time? Hasbala. Hasbala was growing. He started in 1983. They started growing. And Iran was feeding them, feed them, feed them. They came from the vacuum of the Palestinians getting kicked out by the Israelis. Now, you have a whole bunch of Lebanese citizens here in their teens, in the early 20s. They have no job, no education. What are they going to do? Perfect grounds for Iran to come in and start this group called Hasbala.

Yeah, man, I don't know. I don't know what the, because frankly, I'm over the side of like Israel, frankly, I'm going to be honest. Israel is the way they've been reporting themselves over the last few years and frankly over the last 20 years, I think has inflamed tensions in the Middle East. I'm in no way trying to defend Hezbollah or Hamas or any of the terrorist groups. I think Israel should do what Israel is really good at and smoke the guys they need to smoke strategically. More covert action is what I always vote for rather than overt stuff. Because, again, I'm going to say that especially in the eyes of an American citizen, I'm not, Israel is not looking great.

You know, they're going about it in the wrong way, I think. and I think they should exist and be secure and, you know, have their own country, just like I think the Palestinians should too, right? But just the way they've been going has really hurt them in terms of popular opinion. I don't think there is much, especially in America. Forget about the rest of the world. The rest of the world is not huge fans of Israel either. I think there are better ways to go about it, right? Like instead, like you mentioned, like, you know, a more tailored way for Iran, right?

UW, let CIA and SF go in there and train up people, arm them, and try to be as asymmetric as you can or unconventional as you can. I think Israel can learn from that and be able to keep themselves secure while also not having the civilian casualties that they are racking up. Yeah, it was, it was definitely a mind. opinion, genocide would happen in Gaza. There's so many innocent people there and children. It's just heartbreaking. Heartbreaking to see that and the world stand by and watch, including Biden. You know, he could have put his foot down if he was awake.

I don't know. But it's horrible. It's horrible. And the world should never have to see that in those poor people. Those poor Palestinian people. Look, I'm not talking about Hamas. Hamas, I'm all for hanging them up, gutting them like dear. Yeah. I'm okay with that too, you know.

All for that. but not these innocent kids and women and elderly. There's no reason for that. Anyways, that doesn't solve our problem today. Hasbala, for example, they intermingle themselves with the population. They hide. They'll really even run to the Christian areas. Hide there.

And you'll have little bits of real pockets of resistance that'll fire a couple missiles into Israel. But a lot of the Hasbala guys are very, their morale has been broken, especially after Hassan Masrallah was killed. A lot of them. morale was broken and they lost a lot of people. But again, where these guys are going to go? They've got nowhere to go. They have no education, no food, you know,

no way to earn money. There's no economy there. You get, Lebanon is one of the most literate countries on earth. They grew up, you know, since the age of two or three, reading, writing and speaking, three languages, French, Arabic, and English. And fluently, you know, it's just, it's amazing. People don't realize the literacy rate. Their schools are phenomenal.

when they graduate high school there, come to their American colleges, it's a joke for them because they're just so well educated. But they have no future there. You get some of the best educated people on earth, but they have no future. They have no opportunity. Why? Because Iran and Hasbalah. That's why.

It's that simple. Yeah. Man, I don't know. I don't know what the fix is, frankly. But again, you go back. You cut the umbilical cord. We got to get rid of their. regime. Get rid of the Iranian regime, the tentacles from the umbilical cord dry up and die.

There's no other way. I'm telling you, there's no other way. I challenge anybody to find another way to get rid of those proxy organization. And let me tell you what, Azbalah's no joke. They had Imad Mugnay on there. He started as a young teenager because he was one of the bodyguards for Arafat way back when. And when the Palestinians got kicked, out by the Israelis and General Alexander Hague was there. He was doing a shuttle diplomacy back and forth. There was a big vacuum. And those Lebanese citizens that were working with the Palestinians now had to do something else. And Ayatollah Khomeini did a perfect, perfect job of getting in there, getting them motivated, paying them some money, taking care of their families. And then they had a real

proxy. They were so strong within 24 hours, they declared an operation in Buenos Aires. And they blew up some targets in Buenos Aires. That's how strong they were in their reach. They also controlled a lot of people and a lot of things by kidnapping foreigners, especially Americans. So, you know, they're no joke. They're no joke. And the only way to get rid of all them and the Houthis is get rid of the regime in Iran. And, you know, I would love to get somebody like Ambassador Ryan Crocker on, you know, listen to him. I'm telling you, he's going to tell you the same thing. If that doesn't happen, there's not going to be any change. Right now we're losing the war. We're in a worse position today and our allies are also than before we started

this war. Yeah, there's no question about that. We've strategically lost this war. That's why they always say in like press conferences they say like militarily we've won. It's like, okay, yeah, you blew up a certain amount of things and killed a certain amount of people. You checked a couple boxes. But strategically, where are we? We're worse off than we were February, before February 28th, you know, before we started bombing. I challenge that. They say militarily we won. If militarily we destroy their Navy, how they control the Strait of Hamoos? Yeah, well, I mean, and plus, frankly, like the Iranian Navy wasn't exactly something to be so scared about.

You go there, you drop a couple of mines and the insurance companies get scared. We're the strongest military ever known to mankind. And it's not being used properly because they don't have the expertise. They're incompetent. All right, yeah. We'll see what happens. Obviously, this is still going to be cooking. I saw a couple interesting things too.

I think Qatar said or Qatar said that, or not Qatar, Kuwait said that even if the Shreda Haramuz opened tomorrow, where it was back to where it was in February, that it would take six months to get 70% of the oil production back. So it's not exactly like, you know, open it up and things are back to normal and perfect. It's going to be slow rolling. And it's going to be even slower than that Because again, if you don't change your regime They're going to fight your tooth and nail and everything Yeah

Man Listen, I'm not a fan of the Iranian regime Obviously, but I don't it seems so It's like such a difficult task And frankly I'm you know I'm just a student of all this Basically have been witness to What we've done over the last 20 or 30 years

And it's just it seems like regime changes a lot of heavy, heavy lifting. We've got the reality, we have the capability to do the heavy lifting. And it's not that complicated. We almost had regime change early on in this war by eliminating so much of their leadership. There was almost regime change. However, we didn't have the other aspect of it, the people. The people, 80% of the population, they had no way to take over that little bit of strength

that remained. Yeah. In the IRGC. Had we had that, this would have been over a long time ago. Trump would have been a hero. Yeah. What else you track? And anything else that you want to talk about?

You want to talk about Ukraine? Yeah. Again, you know. So Mike, let's go into like you a little bit. So you worked in and around the region for ever, right, for years. I've been in and around the Middle East since 1983. And in 1983. you were in the SF, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So you were going down, you were in Lebanon and stuff like that, like helping train or, you know, try to do a little bit of feed. Yeah, we put the Lebanese army together, back together. We often, they look like, you know, a band of, you know, guerrillas when we got there. They had no uniforms.

They were wearing sneakers with their, you know, part of their camis, and nobody had the same uniform. They were just total, in total disarray. We put them all together, made them into an army, trained them. They could shoot, move and communicate, do combined arms maneuvers. And, you know, we actually took over Beirut with the Lebanese army. We assisted them in taking it over. We took it over from the Progressive Socialist Party, which is the Druze, the Amal, the Shiites,

all the different, you know, the Hasbalah, what you call the Islamic Jihad back then. So all these different organizations, the different paramilitary organizations, militias, we took it over. That's the first time the city of Beirut has been taken over by the Lebanese army ever. Yeah. But we lost control of the army because they all went back politically to their different religious outfits. And that's when the army broke apart again. Yeah, it's sad because I know Lebanon's a great country.

Beirut's a great place. I have a bunch of friends who are from there who now live in New York and stuff like that. So, yeah, it's a wonderful place. Wonderful. Yeah. Highly educated. They're the most hospitable people on earth. I'm telling you, you're not going to find more hospitable people than them.

Maybe in Dubai you'll find some, but they're just amazing. The hospitality. I've actually walked through Dahi before and knocked on the door and asked for help. They knew I was an American. They bring me in. They get me coffee. They want to give me some fruits. And then they got me a ride back to where I needed to go.

That is hospitality. Yeah. Yeah. So you were around back then when they were like when we were trying to go after the guys, you know, the fuckers that took Buckley, right? Like were you part of that? I'll tell you a little story about that. They had him over in the Sheikh Mohammed barracks in the Bacah in Balbek. And there was a deal working on back then with Ali North and those guys about the hawk missile parts and, you know, get them to the Iranians. And we'd sell them to them for 100. and send that over to the Contras to help them out because of the Boland Amendment, Congress shut off funding for them. But we got to the point where the Syrian said to Hasbala, you go ahead and you're going to turn these hostages over now. And Hasbala, because they have a direct line to Iran, said, no, we're not. Because if you, the Syrian army tries to come in and take him, we're going

to kill all the hostages first, and then we're going to kill all the Syrian army people that come. That's how strong Hezbollah was from Iran. That was back in 1985, 86, 87. And now it was like a few years after they formed, right? Didn't they form in 82? 83, yes. That's correct. They were that strong, that facts because of that vacuum that the Palestinians left.

And again, why don't we put some factories in there? Talk to these professional diplomats like the Ryan Crocker's of the world. Put some factories in there. Let's get these people some jobs, some work. It's some fun stuff to do, earn money. They have no way to earn money. What do you think they're going to do? Same thing when we disbanded the Iraqi army.

They haven't had no way to feed their families. It matters. That's their job as a man, especially in the Arab world. Got to take care of the family. No different than here. They've got to find a way to take care of their family. They get paid by the Iranians. Okay, so be it.

But shame on us. We're the ones that ascerbated that. Yeah, it's going to be wild next. Hopefully, I don't know, something. gets figured out and things go back to semi-normal, man. I don't know. Mark my words, Dee. There's not going to be any peace deal.

The Iranians may sign whatever. It'll never happen. They don't have the ethics. They don't have the morality. They don't have an honor. They don't care. What they care about is getting a nuclear bomb. They're going to do anything they can in their power to get that nuclear bomb.

Well, specifically now, too, right? Like, think about it. it's real simple. You know, you see North Korea, no one fucks in North Korea because they have nukes, right? So if you're all, if their ultimate, and it probably obviously is, their ultimate goal is regime security.

It's not making sure the Iranian people are well taken care of or the economy's booming. It's them staying in power. What's the ultimate? Obviously, now it's straight over Moose, right? Because that's a big car that they're playing. And the big boy is, a nuclear weapon.

So, yeah, I can't, listen, do I think diplomacy could work where I don't know if you could trust them? Obviously, you never trust them completely. You always fucking run intel on them and make sure you know what they're doing exactly. But my opinion is we were in a better place, February 27th, in terms of negotiating-wise, than we are right now. That's definitely for sure. Yeah, well, we lost some right now, but as far as true negotiating, it's irrelevant.

They're not going to negotiate. They don't give it damn. That's what the American people don't understand. They will not negotiate. They'll jerk you around and make you think they're negotiating. They're not going to negotiate. They're not going to surrender their nuclear material. They're not going to give up their ambition for it.

It's not going to happen. So do you believe like the JCPOA was like not? like the first nuclear deal with Iran. I put that in the same category as the Clinton administration decide, we're going to pay North Korea a lot of money not to make a nuke. We're paying them hundreds of millions of dollars every year not to make a nuke. What were they doing? Making a nuke.

Thank you for your money, you dumbasses. I mean, the crazy thing is, though now, like, there's talk of, like, we're going to unfreeze 12 billion for Iran right now, then start a $300 billion investment fund for Iran. Like, you know, there's talk now that we're going to open up the floodgates in terms of the cash that's like whether it's frozen or taking off sanctions or sanctions relief yeah another big mistake another foolish american mistake we you know we we get the ATM you know mentality push a few buttons we want

our reward those guys remind me of the afghanis they're very much like that we were negotiating with the hakani's to get an american hostage release and they said listen guys the hakani said this jala jali Akani said, Mr. Mike, I tell you, you guys have the watches, we have the time. Iran's the same thing. Americans, we want everything now. Everything's got to be quick, drive through quick, drive through quick. Iranians are staying there. They're motivated. They're fighting for their lives and they're not going to change and they're not going to give it their demands. Why do they care about money? They don't give a damn about money. They want a nuke. They get a nuke, then they control everything. We attack them

and now they control the Straits of her moves. They're sitting in the best seat they can possibly be sitting in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Man. It's a problem with this show. There's never good news. Give me some good news, Mike, for God's sakes. Hey,

get rid of the regime and things will flourish. We won't have other countries like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen under control of the Iranians. There's good news. Let's make it happen. Yeah, you know what else is good news? I want people to go and drink vitamin one.

That's what I want them to do. Definitely. Go drink vitamin one. This is it right here. It's delicious. It's honestly delicious. It's on Amazon. It's healthy.

Only 10 calories, no sugar, energy enhancing vitamins, and it's delicious. It tastes good. It really is delicious. I'm actually going to go order someone to Amazon right now. I remember there was a time you guys were sending us cases. I was loving that. It was so good. It's so good.

That link is in the description. Check that out. And Mike, if you want to plug anything else, please feel free. No, we're good. All right. Mike, let's do this again. Mark my words. There's not going to be a real peace deal.

It's not going to be a negotiation. The Iranians are going to do just like the North Koreans did. Pay us a lot of money. And, oh, sure. We'll tell you, we're not going to make a nuke. But we paid them hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the North Koreans while they were making the nukes. Same thing with Iran. They're going to tell you we're not doing it.

But blah, blah, blah. They're going to keep doing it. All right, guys. We'll see you next time. Mike again. Thanks. A pleasure. Let's do this again soon.

And it was really good catching up with you. My pleasure. Good seeing you. Take care. Hey, guys. I want to take a moment to tell you about the Team House podcast newsletter. If you go and subscribe, it's totally free. And what it will do is aggregate all of our data, all of our content that we put out, the things

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