Will Cain Country - From the Vault: What Comes Next After 400,000+ LBs of U.S. Bombs Rock Iran? Erik Prince Explains

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

In this “Best Of” edition of ‘Will Cain Country,’ Erik Prince, Host of ‘Off Leash with Erik Prince’ and Founder of private military company Blackwater joins Will to delve into what America’s strike on Iran’s Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant means for America and the Middle East moving forward. Did we open ourselves up to attacks both foreign and domestic, or was this a necessary preemptive strike? Subscribe to ‘Will Cain Country’ on YouTube here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch Will Cain Country!⁠⁠⁠ Follow ‘Will Cain Country’ on X (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), Instagram (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), TikTok (⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠), and Facebook (⁠⁠⁠@willcainnews⁠⁠⁠) Follow Will on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WillCain⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Wilcane. Welcome to Wilcane Country. We're taking a little time away. But that doesn't mean the conversation stops. Today we pulled together a best of show moments that cut through the noise, sparked real debate, made you reach out. It's a solid snapshot of what we've been doing on this program. Let's get to it. He's the founder of the Unplugged phone at Unplug.com. He's also the host of Off the Leash with Eric Prince, the author of Civilian Wars, and also the founder of Blackwater. Eric, it's great to see you again, man. What do you think of what we're hearing about what happened over the weekend? Would you describe it right now as a success? Well, I was on Steve Bannon's show before it happened,

saying I don't think it's a good idea. and I still don't think it's a good idea. I think the complexities that will unfold now will cause more problems for the United States. I don't... For the Israelis, they've been thinking about this nuclear problem for a long time, and it doesn't require a B-2 bomber to solve that problem. And for as many problems as the United States had with...

The Red Sea and the Babelmandab with the Houthis closing that waterway off, using Iranian weapons. Trust me, the Iranian, the IRGC, the Iranian military has stockpiled probably 10 times as many weapons as the Houthis had to be able to shut off the Straits of Hormuz, and that's 20% of the world's oil supply. If they do that, or if they do that for everyone except the oil going to the Chinese, because certainly the Iranians don't want to hurt their allies. the Chinese Communist Party, it will still cause massive disruptions and massive price spikes in the world oil market. And it will cause, you know, if you get to $100, $110 a barrel on the U.S. market, imagine that effect on our economy and recession and all the rest. So this is where the linkage of economy and military affairs very much intersects.

And again, it's one I would not have, I counseled against it, but, you know, they appeared to strike those nuclear facilities or what were nuclear facilities. But again, the Iranians are very deliberate, clever people. I would find them to be completely idiotic if they kept all their stuff, all their eggs in one basket as an easy target for the U.S. to hit. I'd be surprised if all their stuff was at those nuclear sites. Honestly, we'll, the only time air power alone has ever won a battle, ever ended a war, was Hiroshima Nagasaki, nuclear weapons. Otherwise, the all-air power, airstrike, precision, all the rest is largely hope. And again, that's a war in Iran.

is not something the United States government, the United States citizens should be dragged into. All right. You said a lot that I want to follow up on right there. Let's start with shutting down the Straits of Hormuz. And you talked about the Iranian missile stockpiles are much greater than the Houthis. What is your guess or what is your knowledge about how much the Israelis have been able to deplete or the Iranians have depleted or the Iranians have depleted themselves by already firing their missile capabilities? I mean, I'd be curious what you think about what the Iranians have done so far. in terms of their response. Most people are saying it's a lot less and they expected,

and that brings the question up as to why, have they already been depleted? So is their ability to shut down the Strait of Hormuz also deteriorated? Look, insurance companies are chickens. And if one oil hauling ship is damaged by a mine, a missile, or a drone, they're going to shut off,

they're going to withhold coverage. and did it cause all kinds of problems percolating from that. I don't think the Israelis have gone anywhere near to destroying all the Iranian missile capability or all the drone capability and their ability to launch wave after wave. Look at what the straits – what happened in the Red Sea when you had a $30,000 drone, like the Shah Head 136, launched against U.S. naval vessels. where they had to fire not one but two one million dollar missiles to shoot that thing down do that thousands of times which is what will happen in the straits of our moves against any one of any any number of the the thousands of vessels per month that roll through there that becomes a an impossibly difficult logistics challenge okay you also said were nuclear facilities you said where they have nuclear facilities you said where they have nuclear facilities, and then you corrected yourself to say where there were nuclear facilities.

Are you concerned, highly concerned that, in fact, they had gotten most of that uranium? I heard you, it's probably dispersed. It would be idiotic to have all of your eggs in one basket, but they knew this was coming and might have even moved everything ahead of time? Look, all I know is I look back at history, and whenever anybody thinks that they're going to hit some key strategic spot and knock out the enemy's capability, the fact is, for all of the bombs, the millions of tons of bombs that we dropped on Germany during World War II, we never really affected aircraft production. Okay, the Mechersmith 109 was produced at the same

volume in 1945 as it was in 1942 because they just took the machinery out of the factories and put them in tunnels in the sides of hills. So I would, the Iranians have had a long time to think about this problem. I would be shocked if they haven't, come up with a dispersed strategy to do the same. So it's dangerous for us to assume that it's a one-and-done, hey, you know, it's way too much of our American way to expect a simple, clean solution to something as complex and ancient as the Persian Empire.

You also said, Eric, that it wasn't necessary for the United States. You didn't need B-2 bombers, that the Israelis could have done it themselves. That's different than everything we were told ahead of this, that only we had the military capability, only we had these massive ordinance penetrators, only we had the delivery vehicles in the B2. So how could it have been handled by the Israelis?

Sure. I know for a fact, because I've seen enough videos of some very large anfo-lemonium nitrate bombs going off over parts of Iran that the Israelis are flying at least C-130 aircraft over the battle space. Now, a C-130 will carry 20 tons. If you want to carry 50 to 70 tons, you can rent some bigger ramped cargo aircraft or buy.

They cost between five up to $10 million a piece. An ex-Soviet Air Force cargo plane. There's lots of them moving around Africa in the Middle East. And a big, a massive ordinance penetrator bomb like they dropped is basically a machined out steel, hardened steel rod, many cases they can use an ex-gun, like a naval gun barrel, and you put fusing on there. And if the Israelis have been thinking about this problem set for the last 15 or 20 years worried about an Iranian nuclear program, then they should have built that capability to

deliver it by themselves. I've been, I dropped enough boats out of airplanes that weigh many, many tons to know it's not that hard to get a large device off an aircraft in a hurry in a stable way to deliver that kind of weapon system. No, it's not going to be a stealth bomber, but the fact is they have largely degraded the Iranian weapon systems, surface-to-air missile systems, to make it possible to deliver that kind of precision. So yes, I believe the Israelis could have delivered it themselves if they needed to. We'll take a quick break. More of this best of Will Kane Country coming up. This is Ainsley Earhart.

Thank you for joining me for the 52 episode podcast series, The Life of Jesus. A listening experience that will provide hope, comfort, and understanding of the greatest story ever told. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome back to this best-of edition of Wilcane Country. Okay, and yet now we have. And so that brings the question of what the Iranians will do beyond maybe even just attacking and shutting down the Straits of Hormuz.

Are you concerned, Eric, with any threats to domestic homeland? I mean, there are a lot of Iranian nationals who have illegally immigrated to this country over the last five years. I don't know the capabilities of the IRGC of the Iranians to weaponize people across the world. How concerned are you for us back here at home? We should be highly concerned because we've had such a porous border. Tens of thousands of Iranian nationals have gone to Venezuela, been rebadged as Venezuelans. And in many cases, entered even legally into the United States with a Venezuelan passport over the last two decades. So their ability to have significant amounts of sleeper cells is we should be concerned.

And when you combine that with when you look at some of the pro-hesbola, pro-Hamas marches going on in eastern Michigan, results of a completely runaway out-of-control immigration system. where you have a lot of fundamentally incompatible with the American way of life people that are sympathizing with the enemy, that is a huge internal problem. So, yeah, we should be concerned because if any one of those cells are activated, we have a very, very soft underbelly of a lot of very soft targets in America. And I'd be shocked if the Iranians don't respond. Domestically, through that mechanism we just talked about, not just regionally, but domestically. domestically. If you were wargaming that, Eric,

and I don't want to indulge in fearmongering or reckless speculation, but if you and I were in a closed room with people that mattered and you have been and you were wargaming, what would the softest targets and how that would play out? We just saw the Israelis and the Ukrainians pull off big drone attacks domestically

with people on the ground. It's a pretty low-tech, capabilities, from what I understand, in launching that type of attack in Russia, in Iran. You have our history here. There's bombs. There's guns. It's easy to have guns in the United States. What would you be wargaming?

Look, something as simple as driving a vehicle up on a curb and mowing down shoppers. I mean, there's, if you want to weaponize things, if you have a, if you have the mind, devious enough for it, there's a lot of ways you can hurt innocent people. and we have a very open, free society, which is what we want. But that means you actually have to know who belongs in the country and who doesn't, which is something we've lost the plot on. And I'd say we're behind on deporting all the people we should be despite the best efforts of the Trump administration.

So, yeah, kicking this hornet's nest, it's a very, very dangerous time to kick that nest. That's all I'm saying. And so we should be ready, mentally prepared for those kinds of. consequences. Okay, let's go back to history for a moment. I find it fascinating. I love how you always bring in historical precedent. No war has ever been won through air power alone. With it with the exception of my mind. That's it. With the exception of Japan. Where would you classify what we did, NATO did in the 90s in Yugoslavia? That was largely just an air campaign right and um and i'm i'm forgetting his name at the moment but i mean he he was deposed

at the end of that that nato air campaign slow but down melosevic yes and and what do you take from that history um the fact is they still had significant ground combat systems at the end of the day that leadership lost its nerve what i know what the what the what the serbian special forces had actually planned and prepared for, the leadership lost their nerve, but they've actually smuggled trucks into Europe with garage rockets on board to attack legitimate military targets of the military headquarters of NATO, Germany, France, the Netherlands, with 122 millimeter rocket attacks. So there was a lot of fight.

I mean, NATO literally dodged a bullet by Milosevic blinking. That was a lack of will in the leadership side, not of the manpower. And I would say when you mix radical Shia Islam with the Mullah regime and their desire for martyrdom, it's a very, very volatile mix. And so we have to be prepared for that. And think about how many people are willing to do any kind of suicide bombing or suicide activity. to serve their cause. And do you think, Eric, that almost that Yugoslavian Milosevic model is the hope behind the doors in Washington that through this campaign, both Israeli and now American, that somewhere along the line here,

the Iranian leadership blinks, they flee, they get on a plane to Russia, something like that, is that what you think they're hoping, and then therefore, then you can have the domestic revolution, the people stepping up? I don't think hope is an acceptable policy. If you're going to commit the resource of the United States to an outcome, hope is not part of it. I see Reza Pahlavi, right, the deposed crown prince, hasn't really done anything for the last 46 years, now having a press conference saying, okay, Iran, time to rise up and revolt, until there's organization. Look, the mullahs are not liked. The fact that Israel could pull off so much inside of Iran

means they have lots of very willing participants to rise up against the regime. But I would have, I would have, instead of a campaign of bombing that the Israelis started, that the United States joined, we should have, and what I've publicly advocated for for years, was something akin to what the U.S., the CIA and the Catholic Church, did to the communist and poll in the 1980s, empowering all the different alternate centers of power, the students, the refinery workers,

the truckers, the teachers, the environmentalists, the rock and roll clubs, all those alternate centers of power on top of the ethnic disparities between the Baluch, the Akwazis, the Kurds, the Azaris, all of them that don't like the mullahs, which are largely Persians, to rise up and resist the regime. And we've been close before, missed a huge opportunity in three years ago when you had the women-life freedom protests going on, when you had millions of women in the streets protesting against the horrible treatment of women, that's the time to provide them just a little bit of kinetic help,

but the Biden administration completely missed that. And I would have not have counseled for the B-2 being the solution, but rather that kind of low-level pressure and power In the case of ending the Cold War, it was communications gear and not even kinetics, which finally tipped over those communist states in Eastern Europe. So a missed opportunity, I don't know that Pallabi as the son of the depot Shah is the solution. He's probably the most recognized or semi-trusted, but he hasn't really done anything to actually and physically promote the freedom, the solidarity.

and the liberation of this country yet we'll be right back on will cane country welcome back to will cane country okay let's let's do this for a moment so president trump tweeted last night or posted on true social make iran great again talking about regime change now whatever he means by that um by the way he's played a lot of poker openly and publicly over the past couple of weeks said some things done something else strategic poker i would i would assume so i don't know what exactly he's calling for there he could be calling for the people to rise up you know it doesn't necessarily mean we're embarking on the same thing that we did in iraq or afghanistan but i'm curious if the regime were toppled and you know what even with the scenario you described or maybe even more concerning

should we have pursued the path you described if you foment domestic divisions ethnic religious whatever it may be then you have this situation that we might have had it we did have you might have the situation we did have in Iraq, which is civil war, sectarian violence immediately afterwards. Or what you have in Libya right now? Right. So I wonder what you think, and by the way, Syria as well. So what you might think would happen in Iran. I mean, if the Mullahs were toppled, I mean, it's different ethnically. 60% is a huge majority, Persian, 60% Persian. And you don't seem to have the, no, that's not That's not correct.

Persians are... Meaning that's not a huge majority? They're about 40%. I thought it was 60. Okay. All right. Oh, sir. But how about this?

Okay, so let's bear down on this. But not the same sectarian divide, right? Almost all of it, Shia Muslim. Almost all Shia, with a shockingly larger than you think and fast-growing minority, which is Christian. Okay. So do you feel like, now that you've repositioned me to 40% Persian, do you feel like Iran would be similarly unstable as that we've seen in these other countries like Iraq and Libya? Certainly high risk of that. I'd say that the group to work with the most closely with is the Iranian military. because the IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,

is the enforcer of the Mullahs right now. They very much behave and are like the SS was to the Nazi party in Germany, the Schuztuffel, the protectors. And the IRGC is who makes all the money from all the sanctions and all the special perks. The Iranian army is a significant force. And I almost have to look at it like dropping a rotten tree. You want to be really careful, and you can never be exactly sure how it's going to come down,

but you try to guide it. And if you have an Iranian military that you've recruited, paid, provided some capability for to smash the IRGC, the rest of the regime goes away. Look, the regime was in such bad shape back in 2009 and 10, which is actually where the Arab Spring started in 2009. with the green protests in Iran. And it was so bad the regime was in such dangerous shape there that they actually brought in Lebanese Hezbollah to crack down because they didn't trust any of the internal Iranian resources.

So the regime is fragile, empowering some of the ethnic groups or some commando element and some part of the Iranian military to turn on the IRC. That's how they take this down internally. And I don't know if the CIA is part of that. I don't know if the Israelis have supercharged that capability. You'd think they'd be showing themselves now if they had. But I don't think an air campaign alone is going to make this thing, is going to drop this problem.

Okay. So what you're laying out for us, though, is an air campaign combined with hoping one of these elements stands up. Interesting about the Iranian military. Hoping one of these elements stands up domestically to take down the mullahs? Yeah, but I would have hoped. If they're planning on doing this air campaign to weaken the regime, that you have to have a ground element to actually hold ground. Air campaigns don't work unilaterally for almost anything.

But this is, what do you mean by ground element? Everyone listening is going to be concerned about American troops committed to anything like this. Israeli troops, I don't know. Are you talking about domestic? Hard, no. I know you're not advocating. No, no, I know you're not advocating. We're analyzing.

No. No, I know you're not advocating. advocating, analyzing here. I know you're not. I know. But if it has to have a ground element and you're doing this war planning game, game scenario out with us, is that you're saying that ground element is the domestic uprising, right? It is that element that stands up domestically.

That should have been prepared for months ago. You take people out, you recruit them, you train them, you send them back in with certain arms cachet, so you have the ability to communicate and organize and move by 50 and 100 man groups to be able to see certain terrain to make things happen. It is the unconventional warfare approach. That's what U.S. Army Special Forces do.

And again, not advocating any active U.S. personnel in any way to do that. But whoever planned this campaign to get rid of the mullahs, if they didn't plan that kind of ground combat element using local part of the war. forces, they are clearly missing the history of regime changes. We'll take a quick break. More of this best of Will Cain Country coming up. Welcome back to this best of edition of Wilcane Country. Okay, well, does that lead you to believe that's actually not been the goal from the beginning? I've always wondered if that was an inevitable goal. You couldn't avoid that.

Is it, do you take them at their word that the goal is simply to rewind the clock? I don't know, months, years on the, on the nuclear campaign? I don't know, Will. I would just, that's pure speculation if I said anything on that. So I don't know. On the goal side of this. What do you think President Trump is, is, means when he, when he posts that on truth social? I think he, he, he listens to a lot of what the, what the Israelis are, are calling for.

I, I have Middle East fatigue and, uh, Israelis are not our problems. And that's dragging us into a bigger problem, because I don't think a one-and-done B-2 raid on three nuclear facilities will be the last time U.S. troops are called by now for this. And that's my objection to this. If people are hell-bent to do regime change, then do a proper job of planning of a commando, indigenous, partisan ground element to put that kind of pressure. at the ground level, at the boot on neck level against the IRGC and the Quds Force and the besiege and let the Iranian people, okay, the citizens that live there rise up and reclaim their freedom. This is ultimately has to be their mission that's accomplished. It cannot be done by U.S. intervention or by Israeli intervention.

They have to, you know, look, the French helped us gain our independence, but it was ultimately U.S. boots and leadership that made it happen okay i think i think i can say it 1881 the israelis are not stupid um that has been well illustrated and their capabilities inside iran as you talked about earlier are are pretty sophisticated think of this now eric if you would from the israeli side if the irailles and they've been pretty open about their desire for regime change if that is their desire would you think would you not think they have had a plan like you just described to stand up domestic elements if it needs a ground element or or but even if the alternative is part of it is we're going to get the united states involved

there has to be some understanding that's not going to i don't know i don't know that it's not going to involve boots on the ground full out warfare for the united states in iran i'm wondering what the israeli forget forget the american plan what was the israeli plan a damn good question. I don't know. And maybe their plan was to make enough of a stink in Washington to pressure the President Trump into backing them up. Look, they are the ones that bombed, that started bombing Iran, what was it, two weeks ago. And that's a country 11 times their population with a very dispersed geography with significant oil resources and money that they've invested into tens of thousands of low-cost precision weapons

that in some cases have made it through the five layers of air defenses to smash into Israeli cities. If it was the Israeli plan all along to drag America into this, that's really bad. That is not being an ally. And I am in favor of allies, but I am not in favor of America, of all this American protectorate.

stuff where we are $37 trillion in debt, we're moving towards hyperinflation, where the cost of servicing our debt exceeds that of our defense budget. So these are very, very real economic problems that are born and imposed on all American citizens. But cleaning up the Iranian problem, the threat to Israel, is not the primary responsibility of the United States of America, period. And I am, I am ornery that we're being dragged into this. Okay, I think the last question or two here, you said, this is not going to do it. What we have done, and you said you suspected this won't be it, what we've already done

over the weekend. What do you think happens next involving the United States, Eric? Well, now you wait and see what the enemy, what this opponent does, do they close the Stras of Harmuz, do they do a number of responses that are just below the obvious threshold of war, or there are a bunch of lone wolf attacks. President Trump said, hey, this is a one and done. We're just destroying your nuclear capability. That's a big hope for them to say, okay, we just punched you, and now we're going to go home and don't punch us back.

That's a big if. Okay. And then finally, what do you want? Not from a week ago when you spoke to Bannon about what you hoped the outcome would be for the United States. The game has changed now, right? We've already launched this initial campaign. So from this point forward, what would you hope would happen with the United States? that the United States would require our so-called ally to clean up their own, the problem, the hornets nest that they kicked over is not the burden of the U.S. fighting personnel and not the burden of the U.S. taxpayer. You know, in the old Colin Powell phrase, you know, you break it, you buy it. Not something we can afford to wait into is another endless. nation-building war no way so you're saying step back now and say deal with it israel the

question is to the point of your earlier answer though what are the iranians do if they don't see it that way we don't have the capability of stepping back well it depends if they if they retaliate and smash a bunch of u.s. bases and kill a bunch of americans yeah this becomes a a very ugly cycle that we could have avoided. And I think it's a big, it's a very big bet of the president to say he can do this, clearly commit a precision bombing campaign. Apparently, no people were killed in these three attacks. That's good.

But I would be shocked if we actually destroyed all their nuclear capability and their nuclear program. The fact is, the Iranians have uranium, and they haven't put anything on a dirty bomb yet. Maybe that's something they pivot to. So there's a lot of ways they can escalate, and it would be interesting to see what happens. I doubt they're at the point of fear where Kamani and those around him are ready to abdicate and just run away. But maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm completely wrong, and peace, love and happiness breaks out in Tehran.

Iran and the whole country because a secular run Iran with a very intelligent people that want to be part of the modern world with natural resources and lots of arable land. And like I said, a very smart population would be an amazing force of modernity and growth in the Middle East and it would drag the whole region probably half a millennia forward. I hope that's the case, but I don't think that is the case. Well, I found this depressing and enlightening this conversation, Eric, which means I have to ask one last question. What do you think the response will be from the Russians and the Chinese? Well, the Chinese import a huge amount of their oil from the Gulf.

They passing through the Straits of Hormovans. So the last thing they want to do is interfere with that because that becomes a massive threat to their economy. Putin just said something very interesting. He said two million of the people of the citizens in Israel now speak Russian. They're Russian Jews that left. And so I don't see them retaliating or doing something aggressive. They have enough of their hands full of Ukraine and hopefully find a way to get that wound down. Because that is in the United States long-term interest, and be at interest and long-term,

is to be not so antagonistic. They don't have to be best of friends, but at least a normal trading partner with Russia and pull them out of the orbit of the Chinese Communist Party. So I don't see the Chinese taking any huge action other than they will continue to trade with Iran. They will be the main economic lung that they breathe through. The Russians will, I'm sure, continue to buy stuff from Iran, some drones and drone components, because again, the Iranians have developed some unique capabilities that the Russians are putting

to effective use in the Ukraine battle space. So I don't see any major response from either of them. Okay. Like I said, concerning, maybe depressing, but also enlightening. Eric Prince, always love having you on the show. Thank you, Eric. You bet well, thanks. That's going to do it for this best-of edition of Wilcane Country.

Thanks for listening, and we'll be back soon. Listen to ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast. and Amazon Prime members, you can listen to this show, ad-free on the Amazon Music app.