The Team House - Will Iran Respond To Israeli Airstrikes and How? | EYES ON | Ep. 18

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

Support the show here:https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouseToday the guys discuss what Iran's [possible response could be to the airstrike that killed 7 IRGC (Quds Force) members, and the continuing saga of the Israeli political situation at home. Also Andy tells us about the time in the 80's when he was in Iran and was detained multiple times by the Iranian army and IRGC.Find Andy here:Twitterhttps://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fandymilburn8LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmilburn2023Substackhttps://amilburn.substack.com/Andy's bookhttps://www.amazon.com/When-Tempest-Gathers-Mogadishu-Operations/dp/1526750554Team House socials https://www.instagram.com/the.team.house/https://twitter.com/theteamhousepod?lang=en#geopolitics #iran #israel Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

Hey guys, it's Jack. I just wanted to talk to you today about a way that you can help support the podcast if you're not already. We would really appreciate it if you guys went and reviewed us on Apple or Spotify. Those reviews really help people find the podcast and help it get recognized. And, you know, if you've been enjoying the show, we really appreciate your support. Another thing that you can do to support the channel is to become a Patreon member. So we have Patreon memberships that start at just $5 a month. And, you know, when you sign up, you get access to all of our episodes ad-free. That's the big bonus for that. I mean, we also do some Patreon bonus episodes for our subscribers. But this is the biggest and best way that you can support the Teamhouse channel and podcast if you'd like to. And we really appreciate that. So go in and check us out at patreon.com slash the team house. Hey, everyone.

Welcome to another episode of Aizan. I'm Andy Milburn. I'm Jason Lyon. I'm Demetri Contacos, the producer of Aizan and the team house. We're on this every morning. I mean, every time we do this, they say there's a lot going on. We've been lucky. The world has been unlucky that there is a tremendous amount going on.

Dee, do any preference? I was going to kick off with an extraordinary, I think it's an extraordinary story. Hermione, the Supreme. Oh God damn it Let's start it again Fuck I don't know how I messed that up

I want to leave that in It's the Supreme Leader I was about to say Supreme Okay Is there nothing in there There's not all there like adjective in there No it's just supreme leader

Okay Yeah I forget his first name Ah And it doesn't matter Fuck it I rans Yeah It's his first name

Ali Ali Okay Come on. Come on. All right, man. Andrew, that's the easiest day, bro. Here we go.

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Aizan. I'm Andy Moulburn. I'm Jason Lyons. I'm Demichucom tacos. Well, we've got a packed program. It's such a cliche, but it is true. And in our case, it's going to be a cliffhanger as usual.

Thanks to a lot of things going on the world. It's fortunate for us, not so fortunate for the world. Dee, what do you want to kick off with? I mean, the biggest, the biggest mortgage board. Yeah, that's kind of been carrying on into this week is what's gone on between Iran and Israel and the weighted Iranian response to the Israel's hit in Syria. Yeah, excellent point, Dee. You know, when you filter through everything that is going on,

and I know people gravitate down to kind of what's happening in Gaza and the discussions of Rafa, and we'll touch on that. But, you know, the real issue geopolitically and circled the United States is, you know, what's the worst could be yet to come. And indeed, that is what the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khomeini, I forgot his first name, by the way, and Dee kindly reminded me they are on first name terms. But he, Khomeini is, you know, he's up with the Times and he's got a Twitter account. And I don't know if any of you subscribe to it. But I do not, and I do not speak Hebrew. But surprisingly enough, get this, the Supreme Leader of Iran, like Khomeini,

posted on Twitter in Hebrew today, right? Friendly message for the state of Israel. And he said Israel must be punished for attacking. And he's talking about the strike that we discussed last week. So we haven't seen last week's episode. We're not going to do it again. Please, after this one, go back and see it. It is a really, really good one.

it's the second best episode after this one. But in any case, last episode, we talked about the assassination of, actually, of seven Quds Force related officers in Damascus, and possibly a senior member of Lebanese Hotsbola. And three of those commanders, well, literally the three most senior Qudsman force commanders, aside from the Supreme Commander himself, Connie. Anyway, so these three guys guys. are whacked mysteriously. No one knows who buy, right? And very, it's actually an extremely

accurate precision strike that shows that whoever conducted is capable of conducting such a strike when they have to. The embassy that was struck was right next to the Canadian embassy. I'm sure that rattled the, you know, the teacups in the conference room next door. I'm not, you know, I'm not being jocular about this. It's, I guess I am. But it's a serious issue, obviously. The, you know, this back and forth on whether the building itself was part of the Iranian embassy, it was adjacent to it. And it was really kind of an annex to the embassy. We have the same thing and we counted as being part of our own diplomatic terrain.

Again, I'm just stating facts. Okay. That it's normally off limits. Oh, 100%. Yeah, by, you know, international law. Remember when we hit the, I mean, mistakes happen. remember when we whacked the who can forget that right the chinese embassy in belgrade and 1993 killing a a janitor sadly who was not chinese um but um but that launched i mean chinese theorists

are almost universal in agreement that that launched that was the catalyst that launched china on the trajectory that it is on now of extreme competition. So, yeah, these, you know, when people at the time punch the air and go, yeah, this rocks, man, yeah, you know, get some, all cool, but the ramifications decades down the line at times are often far greater, you know, it's the whole butterfly wings thing. Sorry, I'm waxing philosophical, but yeah, the point. is this was in a momentous thing. It is, I would be very surprised if this does not result in activity that is more serious than anything that has happened to date. You know, if you think of everything that, you know, the Houthi's plinking ships in the Red Sea, which actually is a

pretty serious problem, probably the most serious problem aside from our, you know, the alliance with Israel and what it's causing us right now. But all of this, all of this is potentially mere foreplayy, which I know is not something you believe in. You know, kind of for what possibly lies ahead. And I'm not being an extreme, you know, I'm not being chicken little here. You know, those of your audience who are familiar with Lebanese Hezbollah will know that,

that his follower alone has the ability to wreak enormous damage on Israel, overcome, I mean, not overcome, but overwhelmed the Iron Dome system. And, you know, at the least serious cause thousands of casualties, very least ramifications. But as we discuss, you know, this, it's unlikely to be as, as, as, as anodyne, right? harmless as that because that's just more of the same. So what could happen, you know, I'm speculating here certainly, certainly a concerted rocket and missile attack from Hezbollah into Israel, probably, I mean, certainly aligned with the Houthis blinking at Yalat in southern Israel with with drones, long range of missiles. And when I mentioned the Houthis doing this, you know, if I'm

appearing to be laughing, it just still was sound, I mean, it sounds me, they really are doing what the Marines are supposed to be doing against the Chinese in the, in the Pacific, right? And they're doing it quite well, you know, for all their lack of apparent sophistication. Anyway, so all of these proxy groups will be doing stepped up action that I don't, you know, you, what's coming from Hezbollah is like nothing the world has seen, you know, attacks on Israel. That's, you know, everyone is aware of that in Israel. But that could not be the least, you know, that might not be the least of it. Now, Iran, now, that, that, that threat from, or promise from the Israeli defense minister today, when he said, you know, Israel, he announced on TV right after

reading Plamini's tweet, which he could read because it was kindly in Hebrew. Galant said that Israel will attack in the territory of any country that attacks him. All right. Now, there is, if that does happen, Iran is certainly in trouble. Yes, you know, Israel is a nuclear nation, blah, blah, blah. But Galant's not talking about nuclear strikes. Israel doesn't have to do that. Israel can wreck incredible, a lot of damage on Iran.

And Israel is one of the, probably the only friendly intelligence agency who have people on the ground in Iran. Jason, would you, has it a guess that that might be correct? Yeah, I would say that's probably more than most likely the case. Yeah, I was hoping you would say, I can neither confirm. Well, I can, but. But anyway, look, I will show up in a moment. But it's a really, there's a kind of, you know, if we go down to the micro level, this is kind of, you know, the long reach of Mossad,

all the shit's going on. And then big, like a big arena, big arena. Lebanese papers today report, money changer accused by Israel of sending funds to Hamas found shot to death. Okay, so no surprise there. It goes on, say, you know, Israel accused the money changer of transferring money to terrorist groups in Gaza before the attacks and Shimbab, the IDF and Mossad have, in their interrogations, have specifically narrowed, had focused on this guy, so they're clearly after him. And then according to this, this time not, not Lebanese papers, but Saudi papers,

he, he was, he just, the money change he went home. He's like 57, wrong dude. And then when they checked the security cameras, he just never came out. And they found his body with seven, seven bullets in him. Very, very accurate. You know, someone, someone, not your run of the mill guy, okay? Right. And in case you weren't convinced that it might be an intelligence agency, they found two gluck pistols in the water cooler, and not the water cooler, the assistant and um uh and the money chain the house was full of money he's a money changer and nothing was taken he even had a like a bag of money in his hand so very clearly yeah message to encourage the others right so you know even when all this stuff's going on

moss ad isn't too busy uh to you know to whack um you know a paycheck uh what's it called uh early early paycheck guy, right? Who are the guys who cash paychecks on in garrison towns for large corporals who don't have money? Oh, those payday loan people? Yeah, that's right. Payday loan. Yeah. So anyway. Um, I'll pause there, guys. Anything, any, any thoughts, bitches, gripes, moans. So along those lines, I mean, this is on a bigger scale than just the money changer. do you think that Israel is capable of levying the same force against Hezbollah if things step up at the same time that they're running operations against the mosque? Or do you like if let's just say Iran says hey as Hezbollah you're off the chain. Could they, you know, levy the same force?

Jason, that's a great question. And, you know, the Israelis, the IEF high command is. churning through this all the time. So, all right, what did we see this week? We saw, we saw all Israeli troops. Okay. So it was roughly, you know, it's difficult to, the way the Israelis task organized stuff. But they had, you know, the equivalent of a division, right, more than a division reinforced in Gaza. They have pulled everyone out, except for one brigade that is on the edge of Khan, Eunice, whose interim role is just kind of refit there and run raids as needed.

So the rest of the IDFs being pulled out. Now, the Israeli MOD, I mean, I'm sorry, the Kiria, their Pentagon is saying, hey, look, this is just normal refit. This has nothing to do with the hostage deal or with the threat from Iran. All right. Now, we're going to talk about the hostage deal in a moment. I told you this is complicated. Yeah.

But where are those units going? Yeah, indeed, they're going back to base to refit. But the training that they're jumping right into is very much oriented on Lebanon. Remember, they're coming out of urban areas. You guys all know you can't switch mindset. However well trained you are, it's tough to switch mindset from that to the terrain in northern Lebanon, which is very different, right? It's open. I mean, it's rural for a start.

It's a different type of fighting enemies, different, blah, blah, blah. So these units are being brought out and retrained for the north. So at the same time, today, Benny Gantz, who's a member of the cabinet, the wall cabinet, and possibly a future prime minister, and probably the United States' favorite, he said today, hey, we're going on, we're going to take Rafa. the U.S. has opposed, has an opposed point blank take going into Rafa, what the United States, what is telling Israel, and is telling it, I mean, advising with the implicit threat of withholding or restricting the supply of arms. I said implicit because no one said that yet. What the U.S. is urging Israel to do is to move the civilian population in a practical way to a real safe haven. There have been a lot of problems, I think, you know, even the Israelis might admit some of them about miscommunication and moving them into kill zones, all right? Well, this time, the U.S. says, no, you're not going to clear an area and then move the U.S. population, I mean, move the civilian population in another area, then hit that area before you hit that, you know, when you've just evacuated them from, which has happened.

I mean, let me put it this way. The New York Times media, I can't personally verify that that has happened. Reportedly, that is never, okay? So that's the United States stance. And then the U.S., you know, in a military angle, is advising rather than go in and occupy Rafa, and there's a million and a half people in there, most of whom have already been displaced. Rather to go in and create another slaughterhouse, position yourself in Forbes, all right, around, you know, around Rafa, conduct patrols, raids, in, targeted.

raids, you know, the stuff that we counterinsurgency, right? So that's United States's argument. But remember, within the cabinet, Netanyahu relies on the far right-wingers for political power. And they are telling him, they will dump him if he does not go into Rafa, you know, in kind of this apocalyptic way from the book of revelations, right? And so, and Ben Gavere is, is the leader of the right wing within the cabinet. Ben Gavere is the security, a minister of security.

Someone's going to correct me on this. Dee's going to Google this. But he's got a senior position in the cabinet. Now, I just want to give you, I just want to give you some insight into how right wing these guys are. I know it seems strange. We're talking about the Jewish people, extreme right wing. But some of you may remember back in, I think it was 1994, right, before Dee was born. But there was an incident on the Temple Mount.

And a U.S. and American Israeli called Barry Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians, wounded several hundred. You know, he took her, he took her an assault rifle into, um, so much, he took an assault rifle into Alexa Mosque and just gunned down worshippers. Okay. Right. And then he killed himself. Ben Gavere has a picture, had a picture of this dude on the wall. All right. And, and this was caught on, this was caught on, yeah, on TV. I mean, unbelievable. He's a minister of national security. That's his hero. Yeah. Minister of National Security, and his hero is a mass murderer. I mean, we think we have problems?

That is, that's effing scary. Yeah, that really is. I got a question. A guy in the driver's seat in a full-scale war, all right, where, you know, a guy who has stated over and over again, the way he talks about Palestinians, they're subhuman, blah, blah, I mean, he doesn't use that term. But what he has said is you cannot separate. you cannot separate Hamas from the Palestinian people.

He said that repeatedly. Right? So we're not even going to try. That's the implication. And he keeps saying that. And you can argue, you know, people have argued all they want. Hey, you know, the US manages not to do this stuff

and against a far more capable enemy, you know. Yes, we've made mistakes. Like, oh, I've just brought on a lot of people are going to criticize me for this. But come on, you guys. See, if you've been in the U.S. military, you know we operate under different rules of engagement. And we just do. And that's who we are.

I'm not saying, I'm saying that. I'm glad. But I'm not commenting beyond that. But anyway, so politically, politically, there is some, there is some dynamics. Meanwhile, you had tens of thousands of things. That's a night. Andy, that's a nice way of saying, like, extremists politically in power, operating as the Minister of National Security and the Prime Minister, basically,

who like takes his peas and cues from that same right way. I'll say it. It's okay. I'm happy to say it. I don't give a shit one way or the other. Yeah. I mean, it's, I think it's scary. I think extremist views in any coming in this.

You don't get much more extreme than that. Yeah. And I think that is. Yes. Certainly it's concerning. I got a question too about Rafa. So let's say Israel goes eventually when they go into Rafa and start like their searching destroy campaign. What does Egypt do?

Because I feel like Egypt has said like, you know, Rafa is a red line and, you know, they probably don't want a million Palestinian refugees in their country. What happens if like Egypt spins up their military? And then you have Israel now basically inflaming. every person on their, every person that they share a border with, they're inflaming, more or less, and Iran. Yeah. Now, interestingly, and that's a great point. So I brought that topic up, actually, with the senior IDF officer about Egypt.

And he had a really interesting perspective. He said, hey, you know, the Egyptian army is absolutely infiltrated. It's controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. And I said, no, I didn't know that because CC launched a purge of the Muslim Brotherhood, right, after Morsi. So how come Cici is in charge of an army that is overrepresented, to say the least, by the Muslim Brotherhood? And the audio officer said, hey, look, you know, this, it happened before Morsi went. He did this and they were never perched. And so they've kind of, you know, and he said, look what the number one.

Number two, he said, look what the Egyptian, and this is in my view, I'm quoting him, look what the Egyptian military, the percentage of the defense budget that they are spending. I mean, defense of their GDP, they're spending on defense, and I forget the percentage, but it is high. And their defense budget is extraordinary. I looked it up. I mean, and of course, you know, Egypt, I believe is the biggest recipient of USA, one of the biggest recipients used to be one of the biggest recipients. Did I qualify that enough in the Middle East? At one point, it was, you know, right after Israel. I haven't checked to see, if not, I know that

CC's regime that has muddled things a bit. But the point is, what his point was, he said, who's Egypt's enemy? You know, I mean, rhetorical question, right? I mean, Egypt doesn't have any readily apparent external enemies. So why is Egypt building up this extraordinary army of that's going to be one of the most powerful in the Middle East, right? And controlled by Muslim Brotherhood officers. And he said, so we, you know, he said, we used to have a really good relationship with the Egyptian military. They coordinated.

They even did combine strikes together in the Sinai, not commonly known. And of course, people challenged me on that. And if neither of the Israelis or the Egyptians want to tell people about that. because can you imagine if they're, you know, in Egypt, if they found out that their own officers were conducting strikes and coordination with the Israelis against extremists in the Sinai. When I say, I mean, I'm not saying Israelis conduct the strike, I'm saying sharing of intelligence, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't play well on Main Street in Egypt. No, not on the Arab Street. Right. Yeah. And so you can see how tenuous Cici's position is, right? you know the the western world hates him he's got a military that apparently is is riddled with with an internal organization that he has purged he thinks he has purged from all office positions and has imprisoned all their leadership except for ones who work for him now in the army all right what do you

think he's a very very tenuous position what do typically do despots do when they are facing trouble internally. Crack down or start something externally. Yeah. I mean, they do both, yeah. Yeah. And what's the most unpopular country in the world probably right now, probably more so than Russian?

Israel. Israel. So wouldn't it look cool to the most of the world if Egypt stood up to Israel or threat or opposed the military threat, even if it's just even if it's just chest bang. I'm not suggesting, although the IDF officer was suggesting it's a possibility

that there would be another major war. Think about it. Lebanese is born in the north, Egyptians in the south and Iran. That is potentially problematic. Is this fantasy? I don't know.

But stuff happens geopolitically that must be would have appeared fantasy. The Hamas attack, right? We had to pinch ourselves. The Israelis, you know, it was so unexpected, obviously. So I don't, I'm not quick to dismiss this. I don't think it's entirely paranoia.

And when I think about these questions, I can't answer them except by saying, yeah, to, you know, to build up a force that potentially, potentially would be a counterweight to Israel. So, hey, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, I was going to say along those lines then of fantasy and, you know, not being able to picture something and then it happening, is it possible that Israel could, or specifically Netanyahu, could entertain a ceasefire in Gaza in order to pivot and focus on Hezbollah and any other external threat? maybe use that, you know, say, hey, we're only entertaining this ceasefire or we're going to do a ceasefire because now this is the more existential threat. Yeah, absolutely, Jason. So, you know, Netanyahu's a wily customer. I mean, he is. He's being, no one stays, no one stays influential in Israeli politics as long as he has without knowing how to ring the bells and find the ropes,

right um so i you know i'm pretty sure that's going to happen he is you know he's got to he's got to do two things well he's got to do a number of things but probably priority uh is is to some is to close that potential air gap with the far right because political survival is ultimately important he knows that he's tossed from power he faces criminal charges some of you know remember um for corruption and as long as he's been because the Israeli constitution as long as he remains prime minister so they can't triumph right so so there is his freedom potentially is at stake do you think that he values anyone else's the rhetoric question right yeah you know who this reminds me of a little bit I'm not going to say but there's another despot um very similar

in mentality if that anyway so so he's got to close that got at the far right and that's why they're they're going to go into Raffer, right? But at the same time, what he wants to do is tell the far right, hey, listen, we've been out of combat for six months. Our units are worn down. We've already sent the reservists back home. So it means that our active duty guys, you know, that's only 20% of the entire force are, you know, they're fighting nonstop.

And if you look at the units that have actually been fighting, it's a very small group. And, you know, there's the Commando Brigade. There's a, I don't want to go through them all because I'll be accused of a bit. But the point is, they put their very best troops in the initial thing to clear. You know, they'll saturate an area with firepower. And then I'll send in drones and surveillance, blah, blah, blah. And then they'll move in, reconnaissance by fire, direct, direct fire, reconnaissance by fire, because they will argue, hey, we've told this someone to evacuate.

I mean, every building, every building gets a tank main gun round or, you know, I mean, an enormous amount of ammunition we would have just dreamed of in Fallujah. And then they'll send in their special forces on one of their elite units. Like, for instance, I mean, it could be like, say it Marcault or Egas or Meghal, one of the, you know, the really top ones. Or it could just be, you know, a green side reconnaissance. unit like the Galani Brigade reconnaissance unit, but they'll move in and they all seize kind of a bridgehead, a lodgment. And then what happens and they, I forget the term they use as a Hebrew term at sea,

it's a, it's a heasty fog. They'll bring in D-9s, they'll push up barriers around. They do it very quickly, right? A D-9 is a workhorse in the campaign. And then what they'll do is they'll bring in convention. What's a D-9? It's a giant armored bulldozer. It is, I mean, I mean, I mean, it is dominating the battlefield. I know that sounds crazy. But it is, you know, these soldiers are saying, hey, it's easily, it's more useful than a tank because it can, you know, it can do so many things. Anyway, so they'll push up, they'll make this, this hasty fog, they'll bring in conventional, and they'll just drive in conventional forces and trucks, right? there's no and they'll get out you know they'll they'll they'll they'll bevy and they'll um and then

they'll start to move into buildings all right that have already been cleared and they and then the process repeats itself so all of that will take like two weeks for one you know i'm i'm just saying it's slow very very slow because they want to avoid IDF casualties IDF casualties are very low if you look they're in the five you know mid five hundreds uh but but most but but more than half of those were killed on 7 October. So, and I'm not up to date on the latest, but last I checked, it was like 260. Yeah, 260 something. KIA.

In six months of urban fighting, shit. I mean, we, fighting in Fallujah, I mean, you can look up, you can, you can compare it. But the bottom line is when you compare per capita, you know, the number of people involved, blah, blah, blah, blah. Of course, you can't include all the variables, but our casualties were at least three times IDF casualties, three times in Fallujah. And we were fighting, let's face it, al-Qaeda in Iraq. You know, I'm not saying they were like elite, but they were certainly better than Hamas. Certainly better. And they were fighting to the death, which Hamas is not necessary.

They're doing hit-and-run rate. And so the resistance their meeting is not like a dug-in, defense and death. blah, blah, you know, kill sentence. It is two or three gunmen, hit and run, RPG shots, grenades tossed out of windows. So how can they say that they've killed 9,000 fucking Hamas guys? Well, that's really interesting. Well, I mean, easily, that could, of course, that could easily have happened because they kill 33,000 people. Sure.

You know, so, but remember we had this discussion. Yeah, every military age male is like, oh, that's Amos. Yeah, if you count every single military age male who is killed, which I've, you know, I've heard units do as Hamas. Remember, it's kind of flashback to Vietnam. Yeah. Right? You know, if he's, if he's Vietnamese and dead, he's VC. Oh, yeah.

I'm not saying that that's what they're doing, but look at the math. You know, 9,000 military age males killed in the bombardment and the Israelis are saying 9,000 mass fighters killed. They were saying more than that. 13, 14,000. Then someone pointed out math, you know, the math. Hey, are they recruiting a lot of women? You know, but that is bad news for the Israelis, because even if every single one of those guys

was a card carrying a mass killer, that still leaves significantly more than the four battalions, the Israelis, say, remain behind. Okay, so estimates, remember, at the beginning of the war and the Israelis were saying, hey, this is going to be cataclytic. We're going to go because we have to because there are 25 to 30,000 Hamas fighters waiting for us in there.

So if you lose, use even their lowest estimate, 25,000, you've removed nine. Dee, go for it. How many is that? Carry the one. Yeah, that's 16,000. Yeah. That's a lot more than four battalions, isn't it? Yeah.

Where did these guys go? Because Israelis have sealed the area. Could they be in the tunnels? Yeah, probably, you know, so. Right. There is a significant, there are significant problems. We talked about this before the Israelis even went in, you know, that you just cannot eviskerine Hamas this way.

You can talk about it. You can say you've done it. Do we do that for Lujia? No. We didn't. That whole fucking battle was a waste of time. Aside from the fact what happened to Iraq later, but I mean, even operationally, it turned out that battle was a waste of time.

We didn't get Sakhali. You know, we got a bunch of, we got thousands of, dudes, Yemenis, Saudis, foreign Syrians who came there to die and fight to their death, and they gave us a very difficult time. But the losses were probably more important to us than

they were to them. Yeah. All right. So what happens in the next week or two with Iran responding? Is it going to be strictly through proxies? They're not going to be shooting rockets or missiles from their own. Well, they've got no reason to shoot them. You know, I mean,

first of all, they've got, I mean, they once they start firing from their own soil, the whole game, hey, by the way, so the game, remember we talked about the game, both the Israelis and the Iranians and His Bala, play by walls of the game, all right? So you whack me this way, I can whack you that way, and I will, and everything stays cool. You know, and it starts off lower level.

Anything that happens in Shiba farms up in Golan Heights stays in Shiba farms, right? So when, you know, the Israelis and his baller, at it there. It's like, hey, this is contained. It's, you know, it's just, we're just, we're just having not fun, but, you know. Yeah. But then when Iran, I mean, his baller strikes into Israel, now Israel strikes, you know, and the policy is, hey, if we inflict civilian casualties, we inflex civilian casualties, we're going after these targets, blah, blah, blah. So, but there's a, but with Iran, the, the rule is this, okay, we can,

kill each other outside our own countries. All right? So, you know, if a Mossad agent gets whacked by Iranians in Paris, no one knows. It's just part of the game. It's part of the game. There are exceptions to that, you know, attacks on embassies and things like that. I feel like that's a bit of a push. Which the Israelis may have.

So this is the point. So the Israelis are arguing, hey, man. I mean, they're not saying, hey, man to Khomeini. they're talking among themselves. If you look, you know, the experts, hey, we play by the rules of the game. These are three coups, false officers, but it was in Damascus.

You know, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was next to an embassy, but it wasn't really the embassy. Come on, guys. You know, Bahamini's saying, no, absolutely not in Hebrew in his text. And he's saying, that was part of our embassy, and now you fuckers are going to catch some. What is that going to mean?

Well, I, you know, certainly from Pesbola, direct drone, missile attacks, rockets, as I said, combined with the Houthis. But I think cyber attacks, although the Israelis are very good there, I think what the Israelis are most concerned about are asymmetric overseas attacks against their own embassies. That's what I was going to say. That would be perfectly symmetric. Yeah.

But the point is that that is what they're most concerned about. an El Al airliner shot down by a surface to air missile. That's not going to be that difficult to do, right? I mean, they don't carry any, I don't know. But I mean, you know, shooting down a commercial airliner with a service to air missile is a little like seal hunting. Not our friends, the seals, but the swimming one. Oh, shit.

The animal, the fucking mammals. Yeah. Oh, I still haven't narrowed it down. Yeah, no. Now, what about, do you think that would extend to us, to the U.S.? Yeah, yeah. I understand they hold us responsible. Maybe said we're in the process for having provided a decision.

Look, I'm not, I'm not really scared from the Iranians. And that, you know, Iran was a special interest of mine. It was a hobby, not a hobby, but it was a forced area of interest. mind when I was wearing a uniform. So I'm not, you know, I'm not saying, hey, we need to make, they are irreconcilable. This regime is hell-bent on, on constantly finding weaknesses and causing both us and other Western nations in Israel pain. It's a very, very bad administration. But on the other hand, on the other hand, the concern, I think, in the U.S. administration is that this, I don't know how much coordination took place beforehand.

I hope a good deal of coordination took place. I hope that the U.S. was warned in time to take mitigation measures for its own troops and its own assets and its own infrastructure. And I would say if we were not, that would be certainly a cause for massive complaint. But because we haven't been complaining about it, and there's no, I haven't seen any criticism from the U.S. administration. I'm pretty sure that the U.S. at least knew about this. I don't know. I don't know at all. Well, I mean, from the like the DOD's press people, they're saying that they didn't.

Oh, they are. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm behind on that. But I mean, that's probably what they say, right? Yeah. It could be. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, my biggest concern is like blowback on U.S. interests in the area more than like. Press people allowed to lie. I don't think that spokesmen are not allowed to lie. Oh, I mean, like maybe they weren't told themselves. So like, oh, I have no idea. I think like they keep them in the dark on purpose. So they don't lie. They don't technically lie.

That's a really interesting point. Lying or not telling your own P.A.O. What's going on? Also like, shit. No, forget. I totally forget. You know what? My P.A.O.

is certainly related to that. He's true. You didn't tell me you canceled the key volunteer meeting. I showed up at my phone. Anyway, I digress. But that's a really interesting point. I don't know, but it's certainly, yeah, we are in the crosshairs and we are more vulnerable in some ways than Israel, because we have forces overseas that Israel does not. And Israel's military, at least, and civilian infrastructure, yes, Iron Dome will be overwhelmed.

But at least they are, you know, there's some protection measure in place. there are for our troops overseas, but they, it's, you know, arguable whether there are as robust. Now, look, I get it. Well, our, you know, our bases are widely dispersed. Israel is compacted altogether. Israel's civilians infrastructure. That was silly of me to say that our troops are more vulnerable, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But we are vulnerable. Of course, we are. And the strike against us probably is not going to come in the next three months. Yeah. And honestly, I'd be. I'd be more... Jason, what you were saying? I'd be more, my, me personally, I'd be more worried about troops or, or, uh, being hit

outside of the Middle Eastern AOR, you know, like a la, the discotheque in Germany with Libya, you know, that sort of thing. Somewhere where we just would never, not that we wouldn't expect it, you know, everybody would be on alert, but, um, where, you know, to borrow from you, just a little bit more vulnerable, you know, uh, where are, our, it's, we're not as heightened. You know, I don't see one here in the U.S. within our borders. I mean, anything is possible, probably more like a lone wolf in the name of kind of thing.

But that's where I'd be more worried is that, you know, I ran via proxy would hit us somewhere else, you know, Japan or Korea or something like that, you know, outside of the Middle Eastern AOR because that's where our eyes are focused. So, you know, that's just me personally. Yeah, and as you guys know, Hezbollah really does have global reach because the Lebanese diaspora is everywhere. And they're normally very successful wherever they go. You know, I've been in Liberia, you know, and the Lebanese are running, how much do they were back then, running, I mean, everything during a very shitty time, right? you know if they off the mouth of civil war but just as an example and remember the attack

the attempted attack in thailand um and that was actually two course for us guys uh several years ago you remember it was foiled uh but they um so that yeah they they're certainly capable of doing that and it makes sense because we are less prepared there i think that's a really good point um so what happened let's say they hit something in europe or wherever in Asia and you know a handful of Americans are killed

what happens do we trace it back to Iran and make a public outcry of it and start fucking smoking Iran like what's what's

what's the move after that so I think you know Iran's too smart to hit directly it'll be via proxies and and that's

kind of playing the game right because we've never struck at Iran after even when we've lost U.S. soldiers by Iranian proxy. So we have a history of not striking at Iran itself, even when that has happened.

I mean, from the Iraq War, right, all the way through to recently. Now, when I said that something is coming for us, you know, I'm not being alarmist, but think about that, and it's not going to come in the next three months. So when did we kill Khamini? I mean, not Kermini, so on January, 2020, right? Was it 2020?

2020. 2020. Yeah, yeah. So we killed them then. And then we lose, you know, we lose three guys in Tower 22, four years away, right? And the Iranians, not the Iranians, I'm sorry. But in the aftermath of that, on Twitter at least, there's a lot of reference back to revenge for Soleimani. I'm not in that.

So they waited, you know, four years. Yeah, I mean, free, I'm not saying that that's, that's the end of their revenge. Remember the captain of the Vincennes? Do you remember that story? No. Okay, the USS Vincense, which is a U.S. Navy ship, yep. Shot down an Iranian Airbus in 1889.

Okay, awful mistake. 1990, 1980. 1989, yeah, that would really have made the news in 1880. Yeah, that would really have made the news in 1880. Yeah, that would be wild. Yeah. Fuck some airbus. okay so sorry man um where was i yeah so we shut it down in 1989 um all passengers on board killed

iran at the time said hey you know that was not deliberate we'll get back to you it was supreme incompetence you know if you read the investigation on it i mean it was not the navy's finest hour and it had tragic consequences but we kind of blew it off and um uh i think it was 10 years later, just less, eight, nine years later, the skipper of the Vincent's wife walks out to a van, starts in, it blows up,

very seriously injuring her. Winstin's, you know, who knows? And he normally, it was his van. He normally drove it. She just that morning had driven out. Eight years, right? Eight years, San Diego, you know, he's out of the military.

They didn't forget. Yeah. So, I would say that, track record, I'm not eulogizing Iran, but the track record is certainly such that they will follow through. And Khomeini painted himself into a corner that's hard to envision any other way out. Yeah. But something else I want to mention, guys, so while all of this is going on, tens of thousands of Israelis have been taking to the streets to protest against Netanyahu's handling of the hostage part of this. You know, they believe, all right, and I've spoken to

them, you know, several families of hostages. And I'm just repeating facts again. They are universally filled with contempt for Netanyahu. They feel that the right wing and Netanyahu do not give a shit about the, you know, their hostages, their families. They're shocked by the friendly fire incident, you know, where three hostages were killed. If you're interested in reading exactly, exactly what happened. That it is a shocking story, then please subscribe to my substack because it is awesome.

And so they think that, you know, Netanyahu, it's not going to be in his favor to halt, have a ceasefire, even if the hostages are released because the right wing will tear him down for not just rushing Rafa. Okay? And part of the hostage deal

would probably involve not going into Rafa, You know, right now, Hamas is saying, no, we want all Israeli forces out of Gaza, okay? That's obviously going to be a no-go for the Israelis, but the point, you know, I mean, it's negotiation back and forth. But Netanyahu's white-wingers are saying, no, there's fucking no negotiation. You've got to go in and crush Rafa, anything less than that, and we are ditching you. Tens of thousands of Israelis, they say, protesting against them. So you just could not have a more complex. Well, it's going to get more complex.

But there's a lot of shit going on, D, in that part of the world right now, which is why I'm going out there in an hour and a half if you will let me. My other thing, the hostage deal, like the hostage negotiations, like the most recent, there was a, they said that they were trying to get 40 hostages that met a certain criteria that weren't like military age males. and that Hamas didn't have access to enough of them because the majority of them have died who are like women, children, elderly,

and are males with like sicknesses. Is that like them bullshitting? Is like what it or is that the truth? Like they're like, yeah, they're all dead and we only have X amount. Oh, Hamas is saying that? Yeah. This thing they have how many?

So the deal was we want 40 for the six five, but they only meet. a certain criteria, like women, children, elderly. And they're saying they don't have enough to meet that criteria. Yeah. So we need to like that. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's a horribly painful topic, isn't it?

But I think, you know, the IDF estimates that a third of at least a third of the remaining hostages are dead ready. I don't know how they do that, how they estimate that. But that's, you know, that's from their estimation. I think, you know, obviously how many are left are probably gathered in the tunnel system around Sinwa. I mean, he is bound to be surrounded by hostages because if the Israelis get him, he's going to want to die with Israelis, right? He's going to want, I mean, he doesn't want his death to be cheap. So he's going to surround himself with those hostages and they're going to want to hold on to those particular hostages. And he's still buried down there. And not only is he down there, but he is communicating. No one knows how the fuck is communicating. But he's communicating to Qatar, Qatar, as is for Americans, where the negotiations are taking place. So this is what's happening. In the negotiating room, you know, the Qataris, Burns, you know, head of the CIA. Right. Jason, he's in there, I believe. He's actually in that.

and uh well maybe he isn't maybe isn't the one no he was there this week he was he was there he's in kutah but he's not in the room with the hamas uh negotiators the guys in the room are the egyptians the kataris and i forget who else and so what happens is you've got them there you've got uh u.s delegation and you got the Israeli delegation The negotiation takes place in the in the Hamas room and then the Qataris relay the latest offer to the Israelis, you know, with the U.S. in attendance. And then obviously then, you know, the Israelis go back and blah, but what's really interesting, what happens on the Hamas side, right? Because Hamas comes back with answers. They are very hierarchal.

So they haven't empowered their negotiators. to make deals without referring back to one guy, Sinwa, who's in the tunnels. So you can see why this is kind of slow. So the Israelis will make an offer, let's say. Hamas will go, okay, you know, these Zionist pig dogs, we will go and discuss this before we butcher them, you know, whatever. The negotiators go out and they contact Sinwa. I've fucking no clue how.

I mean, they don't have time to get a guy on a plane and even, even if they did, how does he get into Gaza? So they are communicating electronically. So how are we not in on that? How is in Israel got the drop on that? How do we have the most sophisticated communication to two of the world's most sophisticated electronic warfare nations? What are these fucking balloons going off?

When you do motions like you have your. Oh, wow, that is awesome, man. Okay. It's keyword. Where was I? Totally. Well, yeah. So the negotiations.

So you've got the United States and Israel literally world-class signals, intelligence, you know, the best. And how does this happen? I don't know. Jason, what do you, what do your thoughts? How could it be? Well, I was just thinking about, I mean, could it be that we are privy to it? And we do know, but we're allowing it because of the ramifications of, okay, we know where he is. is we can pinpoint on it.

But like you said, if he's surrounded by hostages or taking him off the board, maybe it escalates things. So maybe we're allowing it. Or that is a really interesting point. I hadn't think about that. So in other words, the Israelis can pinpoint him, but they know, they suspect he's surrounded by hostages. And they don't, but they don't want him announce it domestically or to the IDF that they

know where he is because then, you know, it's really interesting. Yeah, they got to know. I mean, at least, like, the U.S. has, I wouldn't be surprised if, like, the UK knows what's going like. I mean, there's only one guy can really answer this, and that's Sinai. And hopefully he's watching down there in the tunnel

with his electronic suite. Yeah. Hopefully we'll hear from, wouldn't that be? I mean, I'm not making fun of him. He's a fucking mess. You know, he is a terrorist. And actually, we wouldn't, we wouldn't feel this call would be, D.

But, I was, bad. I'd show. Please don't complain about that one. Yeah. I would love to talk to him. I talk to Bebe. I'd call him both fucking jerkoffs. Yeah. Well, that's probably why he doesn't call us, Dee. Yeah. I mean, it's one thing, getting hunted down by the IDF. It's quite another when Dee calls you a jerk off. You know,

you know, we've reached you an idea. Is there a possibility that the U.S. is like telling Israel, like, all right, we know where he's at exactly in the tunnels and stuff, but he's got 30 or so hostages around him protecting him basically you can't hit him with like a fucking bunker buster because we're trying you know maybe the US is

reigning Israel back and back channels and stuff like that obviously really not publicly yeah there's a lot going on that behind the scenes obviously to use that dreadful cliche but it's fascinating and and what Jason just said has been really thinking about yeah I mean

it's Byzantine and then on the Israeli side who knows who doesn't know does the IDF know you know I mean because if Netanyahu knows that you know they know he knows shit he knows where Sima is

does the whole cabinet know and if the whole cabinet knows why aren't the right wingers pushing screaming yeah it's yeah it's very watching their pearls freaking out you couldn't you couldn't make a streaming TV show that was I mean it more more in fralling than this.

Yeah. It's quite something. I know we're winding down. Yeah, so we got a question from one of the people that watch the show, I guess, the fans. Because you mentioned about being detained by Iran when you were a younger man, and they want to know what that story was like and expand on it a bit. Oh, yeah. Okay.

So long time ago, 1997 specifically, which dates me. which I'm not worried about. I was too. I, thank you. I had the brilliant idea that I wanted to travel to Australia, overland from the United Kingdom. If you look at a map, yes, you'll notice that the reward. And when I say overland, I don't literally mean,

but I meant as far as I can. Overland, all right. I, you know, I just, I just failed an exam at law school, and I had to take a whole year and retake four because I failed that one. That's just the way Vosk was. So I thought I put it to good use. And I had a girlfriend at the time who had just inconveniently moved to Australia and had said, hey, come on out. Like I'll walk there?

No. So the plan was, okay, I couldn't drive. I wasn't allowed to drive from my own rules. Local transport or just catching rights. So it was all bus, train. local ground transportation. I could fly. Anyway, that was the plan. And it worked out, but with a few hiccups along the way. So the big deal was getting through Iran. This was 1987. And I think it was in August or the previous year, right? 86. The U.S. had struck Libya.

okay um iran was rallied behind the ganafi at the time the u.s struck Libya and the and the uh f1 11s took off from the united kingdom so the UK and the US were in Iran's bad books and it had been anyway and it was impossible to get a visa anyway I turned out that a college alumni I went to university college London college alumni was an Iranian not only an Iranian but was headed up up the um the visa section at the Iranian embassy and uh I heard that you know as I was referred to him he's he's popping up in the alumni he pops up in the alumni you know Ravi up made you know I was like cool so I got an introduction from one of his former professors and uh and he said okay come around you know and he was very yeah he's I mean he was very uh amicable and everything he said look you know I

he goes why do you want to go to Iran and I went I I want to visit my girlfriend friend in Australia and I thought that you go just stop it's just give me a good reason and uh I said well he goes what are you doing at college I said philosophy he's like Jesus Christ and I said what part of that he didn't say Jesus Christ you know I say hey part of that's theology he's like now you're talking all right let's do this I mean a conversation is literally like this he was very Western he goes we'll say you're a theology student you want to you know um not study Islam but you're very interested in the you know the Shia religion's not its birthplace but kind of it's it's it's it's bastion um so I did so and he gave me a

visa handwritten I still got it handwritten in my British passport I sent my US one ahead because I thought British would be a better bet what I had to be because it's where my fucking visa was handwritten you know he didn't have a they gave so few visas and he signed it and so off I went And I wanted to skip Europe, Europe's borrowing. So I flew to Turkey and got in a local bus, got to the Iranian border. And that's when things started to go amiss, oddly enough. And so I'm waiting there for three days on the Iranian border to get across.

They're just processing everyone. I want to say processing. They really are just emptying everything. Well, I'm on this rickety, you know, rickety bus. I'm sitting there with the chickens and the hens by the bus for three days, you know, my sleeping bag. And there's food vendors. it's not too bad until there's a truck ahead of us and we're finally going and they the um on the iranian side so the turks no problem on the iranian side they're searching this guy's truck i didn't

see this happen but apparently they found heroin guys swear this is true um again i didn't see it this is what the passengers told me later what i did see was them dragging this dude out and shooting him just fucking shooting him dead and and i'm i'm like whole what? And I said, was he Turkish? Was he? And they were like, uh, don't know, it doesn't matter. You know, it was, he must have been Iranian because they wouldn't have shot a Turk right in front of the Turkish border guards, but it was just, you know, and that, that kind of made me think, don't worry, I'm getting to it through the point here. So I wanted to get out of that, but it was too late to turn it back. And I've already told my friends, right? You know, I mean, it's

egos. I'm, I'm 20, you know, two years old. I, I can't go back. So I just think, fuck. I'll go on and execute the trip. And I had two weeks to get across Iran by terms of my visa. So I had a route plotted where I went to Tehran, Qom, Shraz, Isfahan, and then a shithole town on the Pakistan border, Zahidan. So I get to Tehran.

It's early hours of the morning. This is November. I want to say November 1987, the date's significant, okay? I get, I, uh, and, and there are, you know, I'm the only whitey on the bus, right? So I'm like, and I've got, do you remember Walkman's? I had a Walkman, Orange Walkman, DCDC. I'm out. I'm not that bright.

Um, so exactly blending in. Jeans, you know, it's cold. I'm wearing, you know, jeans ski jacket. I get off and, uh, there's a welcoming committee. and it's like guys who they're revolutionary guard they it wasn't called iGRC back then they they were just called the revolutionary guard and they were clearly identifiable in fact i've got one of that cat badges i've got i remember how i got it um but i spent they had a Filipino woman there with uh probably in her 20s she was a domestic help and she she was there as a translator

and they they took me off to this hangar so really cold i remember and they questioned me all night. They didn't lay a finger on me. They threatened me, but they never, at one point, you know, they pick up my Walkman and one of them puts it on and it's cranked off and back in black, the slow-blastly enemy's ears. And he takes it off and he just fucking throws it against the wall.

And then they're just breaking all my, do remember cassette tapes? They're just breaking them, you know, ACDC did it for them. They're just going. And I start laughing. I mean, it's surreal. And the Filipino girl looks at me and she goes, stop laughing. And she goes, you, you can disappear. We can both disappear here.

And no one gives us shit. No one, she didn't say gives you. No one cares. There's no US embassy. No, she doesn't say that to me. I'm thinking, yeah, there's no US embassy here. You know, and so that, that, and I could tell she was, I mean, she was so scared. She was shaking.

And that really, that really worked me up. Well, what saved me was my passport. That pathetic handwritten visa. The fact that this guy had signed his name apparently made a big deal. I don't know if, you know, they wouldn't have known of him, but it was a big deal. So they, you know, they brought in, I guess, an officer who did speak some English. And he said, hey, you have to, you should leave Iran as quickly as possible. And say, yeah, but I can stay here two weeks.

You know, I tell you. I was too fucking hot. shit. And, uh, 22 year old punk, bro. Yeah. He goes, I'm just telling you, you need to, you need to get out. And I said, okay, can I report, can I coordinate a, like, not a trip, but coordinate, I just tell you where I'm going.

So this doesn't happen again. And so I did. You know, I mapped it out. Can you believe that? I'm mapping out my, my itinerie for the Revolutionary Guard. By the way, that was the last time I did that. Um, I promise you. true. So I get on a, you know, they let me go. I get all my stuff up. They even let,

they even let me keep one ACDC tape and an oddly enough of Michael Jackson tape that wasn't mine. I had no idea how the fuck I got it, but I ended up with that one and came to be a fan of Michael Jackson as a result. And so I go to this town called Shiraz, which is, of course, is famous. There's a shrine there to Imam Ali. But it was a staging point for the Iraq. war. Remember, the Iraq war was raging. In Shiraz, and probably for that reason in Shiraz, I get arrested again, this time by the

MPs, okay? And I I'm out, you're going to think I'm so fucking stupid. I'm running. Okay, so I'm going for a run and my, you know, I can't wear shorts, obviously. I'm wearing sweats and I thought, yeah, but no one

fucking jogs in Revolutionary Iran. And especially not with a camera, strapped to that least um jesus christ sandy a western camera i'm sorry i got to take you the tree so um you know there's this jeep driving by me and i get invited to join the mps in the back and they take me back to you and they lock me in a cell this time and they come in and question me again no one's no one's threatening me but this time that um you know they it's they're like they're hinting darkly that they're going to have to turn me over to someone And so I'm there overnight.

It wasn't bad. In fact, one of the Iranians came and brought me grapes, gave him through the bars, which was, you know, the soldiers were really cool to me. It was the Revolutionary Guard were not, but the soldiers were actually pretty friendly. And then their lieutenant came in, and he, I'm not lying, had been to London University. See the link here? A lot of Iranians went to London University. So he spoke, flew in English and very kind of English.

an anglophile obviously and he's like hey mate he did call me mate he said you need to he goes look I have done everything I can but I have to report you to Revolutionary Guard and you're gonna have to go back to Tehran again for more questioning I'm like fuck and he said yeah we'll have you know someone to pick you up

they're sending someone down to pick you up they'll be hearing about you know I forget it's six hours so I'm sitting there just thinking, fuck, man. But about three hours later, they come back, the officer comes back, and he's got all my stuff, all right, to include the ACDC tape, and now Michael Jackson. And my passport and my money, and I'm just, wow. And he said, hey, we called Tehran. And they said, they already checked you out. Basically, you're good to go.

So I'd had the Revolutionary God stamp of approval. Yeah, he's a theology student. That's why he's in Shiraz. and the guy's like, if they're good, I'm good, but get the fuck out of Iran. Yeah, the second time. Hey, listen, I've got a visa, though.

It allows me to spend two weeks. So I understand what you're telling me, man, but touch the ways. And I said, okay, look, I've already cleared my route. I'm going to go to Quam next. Okay, this part of the story, you are not going to believe, but it's absolutely true. So I can't remember where it was,

but it was en route to home. We stopped at some shit hole town. and I go for shit as I was you know it's very good at that and I was doing it a lot then getting a lot of practice and someone must have mentioned that I was not Iranian you know maybe they noticed I know someone someone's throwing a someone throws a rock off there's a corrugated iron shitter and someone throws a rock off and someone throws bounces a rock off and then they're all just throwing shit so here I am now I'm propping another load right i mean i'm just like i'm gonna die in a shitter and no one's gonna know um and and then you know eventually um you know it kind of dies down and then there's a knock on the door

and uh i'm thinking fuck man i hope the bus hasn't left well it's the it's soldiers arraining soldiers they say hey we'll we'll walk you through the crowd they're a little pissed off right now um i said thank you you know so they walk me back to the bus and they go hey uh one of them speaks english and he's like hey you've got to about an hour, do you want to go and see the monument? And I'm like, yeah, let's just get the fuck out of here. And we're on our way. And he goes, I said, what's the monument?

And he said, yeah, the American sent people here, blah, blah, you know, to try and rescue their hostages. And we destroyed them all. And this is, and so no shit. There's a wreckage of the CH 53. I can't tell you where it was on the map. It had been moved. It had the flight helmet on top.

I know it was the CH 53 because I took a photo and then subsequently when I recognized what a CH 53 was. And there was other wreckage, but at the time I couldn't identify what it was. And there was US, there was at least one US flight. I'm going to say it was a flight helmet on top of that. And a little blur of explaining what had happened. And of course, the soldiers wanted to explain to me what had happened. I pretended I didn't know. I'm like, wow.

But I was, you know, it was one shock off. for another and I wasn't done yet. I get to Isfahan. Beautiful city, by the way. If you ever get a chance to go to Isfahan, don't, but not because it isn't beautiful. If you work that one out. Absolutely lovely. I stayed in a five-star hotel with my black dollar, my black market dollars for like

$3 a night. Yeah. Anyway, but in the morning, there's frantic knocking on my door. more. The only guests in the hotel, so not hard to find. And it's the manager. And he's like, we tried to get you up last night. And no one could. We were yelling and we had to move. We had to rush out. I'm like, okay, why, why do you have to rush out? He goes, you didn't hear. The Iranians hit the city. You know, they bombed. He said bombed. The Iranians did use long range bombers. I mean, sorry, the Iraqis bombed the city. I don't know that they used long range

bombers, they certainly used missiles. And I know they did use long range bombers during the War of the Cities. This is one of the five big strikes during the War of the Cities, which is the term that was subsequently used to describe the bombing campaign between Iran and Iraq. And this was a major one. And they had flattened areas of this one. I don't know how I slipped through it because it wasn't that far away. They'd swack a whole neighborhood with scud missiles. I saw it because as we drove out, we went through this area. I'm like, I mean, I was just so tired. I think the stress and everything, you know, it's just out.

But I'm hitting now. I'm hitting for Pakistan, during I'm almost done. I'm hitting for Pakistan. That's great. And I arrive in this another shit old town. Zahedan, look it up on the map. I'm sure it hasn't changed that much. Zahidon is packed.

It's like, if you look where it is on the map, you can imagine what the atmosphere is. They've got Baluchis, they've got Afghans, they've got. they've got Iranians, you name it. And they're all pissed off and angry, you know, the war, the Russians are still in Afghanistan. So you've got all that bubbling away, not far away. And so Zahedan is not a place you want to hang out. It is a frontier town in the worst possible, worst possible term. And the last thing you want to put into that town is a 22-year-old grit, you know, very clearly.

with his ACDC tape. And I was threatened almost soon as I got off the bus. And it was pretty, you know, I wouldn't say it was mob, but it was a group yelling insults, I mean, following me. And the group just grew. And so I headed for a police station and I walked in. And there's two cops there and there's an old Afghan with the Lienfield. Again, I'm not making this up.

and I explained to them what's happening and they are concerned you know they're concerned for my safety they call their boss and he goes look we don't have accommodation here but you can sleep in the cell and I said you know funny enough that's the second time I've been off with that and he said you'll be safe here you know well just we'll leave the um but that's the only place and I said okay and you can imagine the cell was not the most clean um it's I stretched down I didn't even want to touch the mattress man it was crawling with things um you know i straight a bag i stretched down the floor i had a you know i support man um but i wasn't but the cop and the you know i couldn't sleep and so i started chatting with the cop and the afghan gentleman who was

ancient well he used to be in the british army or the british indian army it was hilarious no i mean i said what he said yeah i was in uh oh fuck man i can't remember it would have been like the patan you know, the private rifles or something. Yeah. And it is bad. Yeah, I mean, it was quite something. That's awesome. The next day I got out,

and I'm finishing here because I know Jason needs to go. They finally took my last cassette at the border. They broke my walkman. They made me walk. I swear to God, they made me walk across an American flag. They painted on the sidewalk. Yeah. Yeah, so forgive me for that.

All right. I wouldn't. Real quick. I need to ask this real quick before we go. When you, when all was said and done, were you debriefed by like intelligence services? And that's how I ended up in the Marine Corps, Jason. In Islamabad, I went into, so I went for all kinds of shit in Pakistan too. I got into, I was in Balochistan during a fucking riots and the Pakistan army shooting people.

But I get to the embassy in Islamabad. And I go in to get my passport because my mom has sent it. And I'm chatting to one of the consular officers. And he's like, yeah, so where did you come from? And I said, Iran. And he's like, why? And I said, yeah, Iran. Yeah, look, and you know, I got my visa and everything.

It was pretty cool. Schras was nice, but jail sucked. You know, and they got my ACDC tape. And he's like, wait. And he calls, you know, hey, Bill, I need you to come up here. So I spend, he's like, yeah, I want you to. talk to our, you know, Chief Consular Officer. Yeah, he's just interested in some of the dynamics in Iran. I'm like, oh, cool. And he goes, you can eat in the cafeteria afterwards, man, I spend

all morning with these two guys asking fucking weird questions, you know, and they seem, um, yeah, so what, what sort of weapons of the soldiers carrying? He's, you know, uh, how's the economy? How's this? What the prices? I mean, fucking everything. And, um, and, um, So I go to the cafeteria with my meal ticket, determined to get my first hamburger five weeks. And sit down and these three dudes come over, shaven head. They're in civilian clothes, but they're obviously military, you know, big dudes, muscular, course, they're Marines. And I start chatting to them. And one thing leads to another and they say, hey, come back to the embassy house for a party tonight.

I mean, the Marine House. So I did. And it was awesome. I thought, man, life in the core is, well, this is great. These dudes live in an exotic place. They've got their own Marine House where, I mean, I was single there. Not that it did me any good, but I'm just saying that, you know, they were, they were like rock stars in Islamabad in the expat community. And so I thought, yeah, you know, I can always go back to doing law, but this is for me. first day at Paris Island

I was rather roughly disabused but yeah I want the plan I want the plan where I go straight to an embassy All right last question for me seriously

After all of this Was your girlfriend in Australia still your girlfriend? She was Yeah Actually we're still friends Oh Yeah

Did you make it to Australia? Yeah, I did. And she put up with me for at least another year. I had an awesome time in Australia. Came back, finished my law degree. And remembering these dudes, walked into the U.S. embassy and met the Marine recruiter who was a Brit, free time tours in Vietnam, still didn't have his U.S. citizenship. Wow.

According to him, I think he was lying because he must have had security clearance. I didn't know. I bet he was lying. That wasn't the only thing he lied about, too, by the way. And you enlisted into the Marines. Yeah, I finished law school and enlisted. Let me ask you some. I drove a hard bargain.

I was guaranteed PFC at a boot camp. Oh, wow. Huge. But even more exclusive, guaranteed infantry. Oh. Yeah, I run that recruiter. I rang and dry, man. Let me ask you, like, don't they teach logic in British law schools?

Yeah, that was a big part of philosophy. that's the test of fail it's like it's like Tom Cruz and an officer and gentleman says to Demi Moore oh I forgot you met you were sick that one day they taught law at law school unreal

all right that was great listen check out Andy's Substack check out Andy's Twitter check out Andy's book all the links will be in the description of course don't forget to like and subscribe if you're listening to us on audio

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