Good morning. And Brigadier General Rob Spalding,
he joins us right now.
General, good morning to you.
Good morning. Good morning. So what do you make of
the fact that so far Israel has said nothing
Iran has said, we're not going to strike back?
And it sounds, as I mentioned a moment ago,
the only people who have confirmed that it was Israel
is the US Pentagon.
And Jackie Heinrich reported last night that apparently the United
States was in contact.
Israel called us last night and said,
hey, we're going to hit.
But that's the only notification.
Well, the Israelis are typically silent about what they do
in operations such as these.
We talk all the time.
So it's it's in, you know,
character for what goes on.
Typically for one of these strikes,
General Iran is downplaying it and we've had reporters.
Trey Yink says he thinks this gives them an exit
ramp so they can save face.
Don't have to necessarily respond,
but you had the foreign minister of Iran on
one of the channels here in New York just hours
before this strike.
And he said if Israel commits that mistake once again,
our response will be decisive,
definite and regretful. How do you think they'll respond,
if they respond at all?
Well, as I watched that his
statement, what was concerning to me was it sounded like
it wasn't just aimed at Israel,
it's also aimed at the United States.
And given our southern border situation and in particular their
ability to potentially create a nuclear weapon,
I'd be worried about attacks here in the homeland.
You had, you know, video of Hamas here here in
the United States.
So I think it's a concern.
You know, general, I'm just curious about our foreign policy.
So we say Israel, you can't get involved with it.
You can't respond. We know Iran is the number one
state sponsor of terror.
Then we know Israel is our ally.
What is the position? Do you have a grasp
of what the administration is saying?
Can we just push our arms back and say Israel,
you do it. We're not going to get involved.
There's no comprehensive strategy. We typically respond to other provocations.
You know, I would like to say that everything was
coordinated because these are all related.
Iran is supported by China.
China supports Russia. So this is,
this is a comprehensive global war that we're facing.
It's a Cold War and it seems like it's about
to turn hot
general. The thing is, if you take a step back
and you do talk about strategy,
the world was set to watch the Abraham Accords expand
Saudi Arabia and Israel.
And what happens October 7th?
All hell breaks loose as Hamas rises up after meeting
with Iranian and Hezbollah officials multiple times.
Go in the Wall Street Journal and they execute the
most horrific possible
attack on Israel since that time nothing but tumult.
But if you take a step back,
how do you re get control of this situation and
recognize that Iran's the problem and then go go work
with your neighbors to come up with a solution?
Because winning in Gaza, winning over in Lebanon is striking.
Iran is exactly what Iran wants.
Well you know the the Abraham Accords really started to
bring the Gulf States and Israel together and I think
those should be re pursued.
I think we should start to put sanctions on Iran
and China,
put the Houthis back on the terror watch list.
Basically a comprehensive strategy to bring the the Middle East
more in line with the Arab countries and Israel and
basically isolate Iran,
Iran, our our funding of Iran is really the problem.
Yeah. But the general general apparently according to the New
York Times last weekend senior officials in Israel were ready
to pretty much in real time.
OK, they're bombing us. Let's bomb them.
But we're talked out of it by Joe Biden.
Clearly the advice that Bibi Netanyahu has been getting is
don't make this a bigger war.
We knew that the Israelis were going to have to
strike back,
and they did, even though they're not taking credit for
it.
And now we know that Iran says,
you know what, we're not going to retaliate.
So is it over?
Well, I mean, really, this began all the way back
to 2020 with the Biden administration basically reopening our our
friendship with Iran.
And that's the problem. It happened on October 7th,
yes. But that was has been building because we've been
funding them and slowly relaxing all the pressure that we
had put on them in the prior administration.
And we're afraid to sanction oil because it'll bring the
price of oil up.
And the foreign ministers over here basically running,
brushing us back, telling us we better not act general.
Is it too late to pivot
for this administration? Because I know this is supposed to
be a part of his legacy,
Part 2 of the Obama administration with a new nuclear
agreement.
Can the administration say we're done with this?
I don't think so. You know,
I think this, this entire system is aligned towards Iran.
They're very pro Palestinian. I'm not sure why they are,
but they are. You know,
we're seeing rising anti-Semitism. It's just part of the ideology.
And you know, I think we're going to be in
for it until the end of this administration.
Yeah. The next generation of Democrats certainly are pro Palestinian.
We're seeing that on college campuses across the country.
General, thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.