3/30/26: Oil Crisis Expands, Israel Blocks Palm Sunday, Scientists Go Missing, Larry Wilkerson On Iran War

25:41So it comes within this wider context that's much more febrile in the old city than it had been. It comes in a context in which the police forces, ultimately the domestic security forces in Israel are led by Minister Benvir, who is this convicted, even by, you know, under Israel's own law, is a convicted felon and a kind of really nasty ethno-chauvinist figure. He is basically kind of like an Israeli equivalent of a kind of Serbian, you know, national chauvinist from the 1990s. And it comes against the context of, of course, that during the Gaza war, the shelling of the Holy Family church, the Catholic parish in Gaza, and the attacks on the West Bank.

26:23On all, by the way, I should say, one of the things that bothers me as a Catholic is the way sometimes people speak up for people, for Palestinians in the West Bank, but only emphasize the Christians. It's like, whatever horror is visited upon the Muslim Arabs, it's like, oh, well, you know, but don't do this to the Christian. And of course, I have a degree of extra solidarity as a Christian with fellow Christians. However, you know, the rising kind of settler aggression in the West Bank affects not just Christians, but others as well. So sorry, that was a long answer, but against the backdrop of all of this, then that single incident of a policeman probably just doing something stupid stands out in a way that wouldn't have otherwise probably.

27:07Well, I appreciate you making that point because I think it's a really important one about how, look, I think we can all be honest, there's a lot of Islamophobia in this country in general, and there's a lot of Islamophobia specifically within the Republican Party. I mean, you ask Laura Loomer, she'll tell you outright, right? She's not shy about it. And so to me, when you see an incident like this, you know, I'm a secular person, but I believe everybody should be able to practice their faith. I believe in basic human rights being, you know, applied equally regardless of your faith or your color your creed.

27:38And so to me, part of what you get from this is, oh, you think they're just going to attack or hate like the people you've otherized as like a bad guy. No, no, no. This applies across the board once you have this ethno supremacist ideology and culture. Yeah. I mean, look, I think I became much more, I'll be honest, I became much more vocal about what was happening Gaza in the wake of the Holy Family shelling. But I think I'm not alone in that. Lots of right of center Christians and Catholics then started to feel like, well, they can also, they can and should speak up for civilians in Gaza generally, rather than just merely our own co-religionists.

28:24Because after all, the whole parable of the Good Samaritan is a reminder that, the idea of who my neighbor is should be uncomfortable for Christians. We should not be just merely my kin. That would be easy to count my own either blood kin or religious fellow kin as my neighbor. It's much more the Christian challenge to see the other who is different from me also as belonging to God ultimately, as being made in the image of God. And Sagar, from what I can tell, this cardinal has exemplified that spirit of Christianity as well. Yeah, I was talking to Crystal earlier. I mean, he offered himself. I know he was being attacked yesterday, Saurabh.

29:11You noted this, I think, by Laura Loomer for wearing a keffiyeh. He literally offered himself in exchange for an Israeli hostage. And after many of those strikes took great aims. I think he went to Gaza, right, and actually in the ruins of this church, which was struck, just to make sure that these people were religiously ministered to. So this is somebody who genuinely does live up to that. Now, to your point, let's put D2 up there on the screen. The Israelis are now saying that the Israel temporarily asked worshipers from all faiths not to worship at the holy sites to protect them. They have since reversed that policy.

29:47Next one, guys, D3, Prime Minister Netanyahu saying that I have instructed the relevant authorities that he be granted full and immediate access. But to the overall point of what you are making, from what I saw, nowhere at this time was any rabbi or Jewish worshiper told that they could not go to some of the holier sites in Jerusalem. And that kind of demonstrates the problems, like you said, with the police force and with many of the other people who are genuinely in charge and empowered in Israel, even including Ben Gavir, Smotrich, and some of these full-blown Serbian-style ethno-nationalists.

30:23Now, I guess bigger picture, and I think this is what matters more than anything, what I want to continue on strategically, is this invasion of Lebanon. Guys, let's put the next one up there on the screen. We have the prime minister just yesterday. This is basically nowhere in terms of its coverage in the U.S. has ordered the military now to expand the invasion of southern Lebanon to include all the way up to a further border that would put some 1 million people, 1 million people who will be displaced. and they're even saying internally in the country, they can never be allowed to return. Crystal said earlier, Saurabh, that this is actually larger square footage, actually, in terms of land than Russia did in its current invasion of Ukraine or occupation of elements of Ukraine.

31:06And yet there is silence, actually, not only from Western media, but really from Western governments around the globe. What do you think the lasting impacts of this occupation and probably annexation of Lebanon will be? Yeah, I mean, look, I think that of all people, the Jewish people should be uncomfortable with population transfers. I mean, you know, look at Israel's founding, there was a massive, obviously, population transfer that happened. It's because the Arab states rejected Israel's creation and waged war and they lost that war. And in that time, in the aftermath of World War II, it was quite common to move populations around en masse in order to create new nation states.

31:50So therefore, I don't actually, you guys might disagree, but I don't blame Israel uniquely as being attacked because that happened when India and Pakistan were separated from each other. That happened, of course, to lots of German-speaking populations across Europe in the wake of World War II. It's why the city of Danzig, the German city of Danzig, became the holy city of Gdansk. So that is a in the 1940s, as recently as the 1940s, the mid 20th century was still like a norm, a terrible, terrible norm. But we were supposed to have then since then to have learned from that and think that moving populations around willy nilly and it's kind of suffering that that imposes is not something we do.

32:33Because for one thing, for Israel's own security, it breeds another generation of Lebanese or Gazans who are, you know, on the move or have been forced into camps and so on and are extremely embittered. So tactically, it's bad, but also morally. Again, I think that if there's one of the lessons of the Jewish 20th century is not to move populations around in this way and just, you know, to openly talk about it. I mean, I saw an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post. Again, it's not even the newspaper's view, to be fair. It's just a single op-ed. But it was like, well, you know, we really need to move people out of Gaza was basically the upshot.

33:12Again, like this kind of talk has become completely normalized. This is a standard issue. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I saw that op-ed that was just outright calling for ethnic cleansing. And they said, oh, well, if we don't want to be the oppressors forever, then I guess we just have to get rid of the people as if that's a moral. Who we would oppress. Exactly, as if that's a moral or ethical approach. Last question I have for you, Saurabh. If we could actually just go back to the Netanyahu tweet here about him basically saying, like, OK, we've changed our mind. But I wanted to linger on a piece of this.

33:45He says, over the past several days, Iran has repeatedly targeted the holy sites of all three monotheistic religions in Jerusalem with ballistic missiles and one-strike missile fragments crash meters from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I've heard him mention this a number of times. It makes me very uncomfortable. There was previously a rabbi who floated, hey, we could do a false flag. We could bomb Alexa Mosque. And then we could use that as our excuse, first of all. Then all the Muslim countries, all the Arabs are going to fight against Iran. They're going to be so mad that Iran did this. That'll help solve the problem.

34:18And then second of all, that opens it up for their own sort of views of rebuilding the temple, which is important both to Christians and to Jews. But if you could just speak to how combustible this situation is. And, you know, it's something that I kind of have a hard time as a secular person, have a little bit of a hard time wrapping my head around. I feel like it's a bit of a blind spot for myself because you're right. Like people in Iran genuinely hold their faith, right? Christian evangelicals, they really mean the things that they believe. You know, the you know, the especially more fanatical Jews in Israel, like they have certain ideas about how they're going to bring about their own end times fantasies.

34:56So could you speak a little bit to that piece as well? Well, I think, look, does does does the Iranian regime fly some missiles, like including ones with submunitions that are not always accurate and could like a fragment could have hit the old city? Yes. And so that's like I don't I'm not inclined to think there's some, you know, BB attempt to create a false flag. BB is still has although he has nutters in his orbit, he himself, I think, has his head on straight enough to know to not to mess with things like that. That's my belief. However, I think to your to your larger point that that this is a moment of extreme danger for the world, in part because of the energy and economic issues that we talked about.

35:43And then you layer on top of that, or maybe it's the fundament, the deep theological issues, which is why I think it's just so irresponsible for the Trump administration to get into this war that basically every other predecessor had resisted. resisted, right? Because again, you open up this whole world of potential consequences that are very, it's very hard to put, you know, these creatures of Pandora's box back inside. You have the economic dimension, you have the energy dimension, and then you have the religious dimension of potential harm to holy sites, whoever does it, however does it, whether it's on purpose or accidental.

36:31Just this is why, you know, George W. Bush wasn't inclined to do this war. This is why Trump himself in his first term was this inclined to do this war. So the fact that this second time around, he sort of threw the dice and said, you only live once with the most sensitive region in the world, basically, is something from each. I can't forgive the Republican Party ever again. Like all the other issues in the world can go to hell. Right. Compared to being responsible stewards of that region and not like messing with the world in that way. Yeah. The Republican Party, the fact that it could not prevent a president coming to power who would be this irresponsible needs to go away for a long time and meditate.

37:21And that's what we will do. I I mean, every poll seems to suggest that the midterms are going to be brutal. Probably 2028 is going to be brutal. It's just the party is irreformably irresponsible. All right. Well, appreciate it, Sora. Sora, great to see you. Thank you so much. It's great to have your insights on all these issues. Thanks, man. Be well. When it comes to advancing your education, you have more options than you think. At Rasmussen University, they find ways to remove barriers, not build them, like a new laptop if you're eligible and enroll in select online or on-campus programs. That also means flexible and engaging online courses and resources, tuition savings options if you qualify, exceptional student support, and much more.

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39:42It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and lets you backtest it against the S &P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1 % bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA, and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool.

40:11Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. Now, we also didn't want to keep our eye off of a very strange story that's happening here on U.S. soil. We have multiple missing scientists. We have mysterious drone swarms over U.S. bases. We have a few congressmen which are asking big questions about this. One of them is Representative Eric Burleson, and here is what he had to say. General McCaslin apparently walked out of his home, left all of his devices and and never came back. And Monica Reza, she was on a hike as well and mysteriously disappeared.

40:51And I've heard of others. We've already sent a letter when I first came in. I heard of another gentleman and I'll keep that name to my to out of respect. sent a letter to the FBI investigating the suspicious suicide of another individual who had worked alongside other whistleblowers like David Grush and Jake Barber who had come forward. So their colleague mysteriously committed suicide. We've already sent the letter to the FBI to investigate that, and that is an ongoing investigation. So to catch everybody up, on top of this drone store, we have all these missing scientists, And now let's put this one up here on the screen.

41:29This is E2. This was a married mother who vanished last year, could potentially have actually been tied to these missing and dead U.S. scientists. This fills in some of the gaps that Representative Burleson was saying. Big picture for those who haven't tuned into the story at all, we have about five missing scientists all across the nation. NASA engineers, major figures at the Air Force Research Laboratory, many of them were actually overseeing futuristic metal for rocket engines in terms of their projects. One of them, obviously, is this retired General William McClaskin. Now, his disappearance is really strange because we had previous incidents involving Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and the tying of all these things together has had a lot of people in the UFO community really concerned about what exactly is happening here.

42:15We were talking, I mean, your mind immediately starts to go to three-body problem, if you've ever read that book. But, I mean, look, I don't know how crazy that is because now we're also in a time of war. And in that time of war, what we've actually seen are all of these drones that have just been hovering, apparently, over a U.S. Air Force base. Can we skip ahead to E5, please? Because in the midst of this missing scientist wave, we have, quote, multiple waves of unauthorized drones recently spotted over a strategic U.S. Air Force base. This was the U.S. Air Force base at Barksdale in Louisiana.

42:48and it was, quote, under a shelter-in-place order on March 9th, so nine days after the U.S.-Iran war, launched a report of unmanned aerial systems operating over the installations. This is the same Air Force base which houses those B-52 bombers and plays a critical role in the command and control of the Air Force nuclear defense capabilities. I will note on this one, I could see it both ways as a UFO person. drone swarms over nuclear bases is like UFO. It goes back for decades. This has happened multiple times. The Strategic Air Command, specifically the nuclear arsenal seems to be monitored. But when you combine all these things together, the fact that we're in a time of war, you also have to ask the main reason why normal national security officials who are not UFO people at all ever got involved in the story, people like Rubio and others, is people in the Air Force and in the Army kept coming to them and go, no, you don't get it.

43:45Like there are drones hovering over our bases. There are things that are just monitoring what we're doing. And they're like, oh my God, this could be Russia or China. Now, the more they dig, it's not Russia or China. This one, I actually could see a situation where this one is Russia or China, specifically also because they're the ones who are helping Iran. Remember the whole Chinese weather balloon situation? It's not like you would put this out of character for all of them. But if you put it all together, it's very mysterious and scary. And for those who think I'm a kook, it doesn't just have to be UFO related.

44:17Do you know how many nuclear scientists that we've killed in Iran with the Israelis? The Israelis are bragging about it right now, how they've killed two missing nuclear scientists already. Didn't I just read earlier in the A block, we hit a specific part of Tehran University? What do you think that's for? It's from military related, nuclear related research. So this is a campaign, which, I mean, it's very Manhattan Project, kind of Oppenheimer. where it could be UFO-related. It also could be related here to the war with Iran. The scientists, though, I should clarify, this has been a months-long, if not a year-long thing.

44:52So it's somewhat disconnected, but I do think the stories are linked. Yeah, I mean, I think there's three obvious possibilities. One is the connection to the UFO stuff. And by the way, part of what really raised eyebrows is the one of these scientists who, this one disappeared, was the general, Major General William Casland. And his disappearance occurs shortly after Trump announces, like, okay, we're going to release all of this, like, UAP material and let you know what's going on there. Not that we have, I think, a lot of hope about just how transparent that will be, but that was part of what raised eyebrows.

45:29And his is, first of all, the circumstances are very strange. Okay, he left Albuquerque on foot, like, left his home on foot, didn't have his phone. There was clothing found. Again, coming right in proximity to this UAP directive coming out. He was actually in the Podesta, the 2016 Podesta WikiLeaks emails as someone who, quote, had firsthand knowledge of UAPs. He oversees this classified space weapons program at Wright-Patterson. Sagar, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's where the supposed - New Mexico. Yes, that's the idea in the UFO conspiracy community is that the craft was taken to this Wright-Patterson Air Base.

46:11It's the subject of a lot of sort of the conspiracies in the space. So when he goes missing in this weird way, it's very eyebrow-raising. The other one that is the most eyebrow-raising is Monica Jacinto Reza, who worked under him, under his program. She's the one who was studying this very advanced nickel alloy. And again, the circumstances are really weird. She was hiking with a group of people, not alone, hiking with a group of people, vanishes. They were, you know, she was some 30 feet away from her companions and then she's just gone. And they found no sign of her whatsoever. Extensive search, volunteers, dogs, helicopters, the works, no sign of her whatsoever.

46:55So look, like I was saying, three possibilities. One is some sort of relation to the UIP program, perhaps, you know, wanting to silence them, et cetera. That's one possibility. The other is foreign intelligence. The other is just a coincidence. You know, it's a violent country. Unfortunately, weird and bad things happen all the time. It's certainly not out of the realm of possibility that this is all just coincidence. So you've got those two, and then you've got about three others. Some of them are more or less sort of tangentially related. Certainly some of them, I think it's probably like people trying to put pieces together that don't totally fit.

47:27But it's enough that a former assistant director of the FBI, Swecker, who was interviewed by the New York Post, said, hey, these should really be investigated in connection with each other. Like these shouldn't be separate investigations. They should at least be looked at, which tells you it's not just kookery. There's at least enough here, and as Sagar said, it certainly wouldn't be the first time that high-level scientists at the bleeding edge of nuclear or physical sciences that they would be targeted. And so I think that's why it's at least significant enough to kind of flag here without fully getting our tinfoil hats on.

48:01Whether it's Russia—well, my hat's on. My hat's on. The hat's ready to go. I don't think you need the tinfoil hat to look at this and be like, this at least bears looking into. Whether it's Russia. Flagging, looking into, et cetera. Whether it's Russia, whether it's China, whether it's Trisolarans, everybody has an interest in killing scientists, right? Everybody has an interest in killing scientists. I literally just read Three Body Problems. So, yeah. So, reading that and then seeing this, of course, I instantly was like, oh, what's going on here? The show is, you know, it's not the greatest thing ever made, but it was okay.

48:36It was okay. We started watching it. I like it so far. It's all right. It's, yeah. You guys, tell me what you think. The book is always better, right? Apparently, there's a Chinese version. Oh, really? They did a, well, in China, obviously, it's a Chinese book. So I think China did like a multi-episode series where it's like akin to like an HBO-style prestige show. That's supposed to be good. So if anybody knows where I can watch it, I'll watch it. As long as it has subtitles, I'd be happy to watch it. That's cool. Yeah, I would check that out too. Okay. We've got Wilkerson standing by. Let's get to it.

49:35across six states. Start when you're ready and get the support you need. Visit rasmussen.edu. Less support through telehealth, but it feels overwhelming and rushed. Check out orderlymeds.com now. Orderlymeds.com was built to be different. Here, you connect with real doctors who take the time to understand your goals, review your eligibility, and guide you through a plan that's right for you. Orderlymeds provides access to proven GLP-1 medications like semaglutide and hepatite, including both name brand options and personalized compound versions when appropriate. So you have choices backed by clinical oversight, not guesswork.

50:12It's a simpler, more supportive telehealth experience designed around people who want clarity, care, and confidence in their weight loss journey. And your medication is delivered directly to your home in discreet packaging. So your experience stays private from start to finish. Do your research, ask the right questions, Then visit orderlymeds.com slash podcast for an exclusive offer. Again, that's orderlymeds.com slash podcast. Individual results may vary. Not medical advice eligibility required. See site for details. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously.

50:47On Public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt from renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20 % year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you backtest it against the S &P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's.

51:21Go to public.com slash podcast and earn an uncapped 1 % bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC registered advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. So for more on the Iran War, we're very fortunate to be joined this morning by Lawrence Wilkerson.

51:49He's a retired U.S. Army colonel. He was former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vietnam veteran, and also former faculty member at the U.S. Naval War College, and was a prominent critic of the Iraq War. Genuinely one of my heroes, certainly. Great to meet you, sir, and great to have you on. Good to see you, sir. Good to be with you. Yes, of course. So let's go ahead and start with some of the latest here. A recent interview that President Trump gave to Financial Times, we can put some of the highlights if you want to call them that up on the screen here. He told the Financial Times he, quote, wants to seize Iran's oil.

52:24Quote, to be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran, specifically considering taking Karg Island. He compares it to Venezuela, saying the U.S. could control oil there indefinitely. Also claims Iran has no real defense. Quote, I don't think they have any defense. We could take it very easily. acknowledges that Karg Island would require a lengthy occupation. He also says we've bombed 13 ,000 targets. We've got about 3 ,000 targets left and claims that regime change has effectively already happened. So your reaction to some of what President Trump is claiming here in this interview?

53:02I think we're seeing Donald Trump do his best to create an aura around this decision to go to war in Iran that looks successful. And he's having great difficulty doing it, whether marshalling forces to show the American people that he can do that, or whether it's actually describing the situation in Iran. I bring it to my group's attention, and most of them know what I'm talking about, that when I used to be on the game floor in some of the biggest simulations and war games the United States play, global, for example, at the Naval War College, where former secretaries of defense, or in one case, sitting secretaries of defense, would play the president in the game.

53:48These were very serious games. And one of the things I would always ask the people on the game floor is, how are you doing? Or some question like that. And if a Navy captain or an Army colonel came back to me and said, we're accomplishing our objectives, I'd take him in the corner and chew his butt out. And I would say, that's not what I asked you. Are you accomplishing your mission? You can bomb the hell out of the world and accomplish your objectives. So many bombs, so many targets, so many airplanes, and not be accomplishing your mission. And they would look back at me with some amazement. Oh, is that right, sir?

54:33Okay, let me get back to you. That's what I would say here. You can drop all the bombs in the world. You can be accomplishing your plans and all that. But if they aren't leading you to accomplishing your mission, it's nonsense. And that's what's happening here, partly because no one has articulated the mission. Sir, I'm actually really curious, considering your experience in the Bush administration, The current plan is now to go in, or at least one floated plan, is to go in, use U.S. ground troops to seize 1 ,000 pounds of uranium, somehow just be on the ground for days or weeks, be able to take that without taking any casualties or minimal casualties, potentially with the 82nd Airborne that would be surrounding them.

55:18From a military strategic level, also genuinely as somebody who was engaged probably in similar conversations there at the time, I mean, how fantastical of a plan is that? What are the realities of being able to successfully be able to pull that off, not only just to extract the uranium, but also to make sure that there's minimal U.S. casualties? First of all, I don't think General Keene, and I don't know him that well, but I've seen a little bit of his activities, and I know something of his objections to this entire process. they weren't heated, of course. But I don't think anyone is going to give the real evidence or facts of what's going to happen.

55:54I see forces moving from Naha and Okinawa, the 15th MU, I believe, the forward-deployed MU. I see forces moving from Southern California, from Washington State, from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, from Rammstein, of course. All manner of forces moving toward, or supposedly toward, some of them haven't even received a warning order yet, if you can believe that, the area. What that means in terms of what's been stated, I think, is very difficult to ascertain, I hope, probably because the military is obfuscating it and doesn't want anybody, including the enemy, to know what we're going to do. But I think you're right in terms of the array of forces being put down, it looks as if we're going to have some more or less conventional forces to protect, as well they can, those special operators who are going in to try and find something that we want.

56:53And from what Dr. Ted Postol has told me up at Emeritus Professor at MIT, the most serious thing is, and I think Ted's right on this, he thinks, as the North Koreans did and fooled us in 2002. I was there when they did it. They have the capability to match the enriched uranium to the warhead, to the Khrusha or whatever missile, and send a nuclear weapon at Israel. And they are fast perfecting that deep underground in a laboratory that they built, especially for this purpose. If that's the case, I suspect that's principally what we're after. I don't know, but I would say that's probably the main target we're after.

57:38And I think we have less than a 50 percent chance of achieving success. So you believe that decision may have already been made. And how does how does that change the game? You know, obviously, Iran has talked a lot about their goal in this war is to establish some level of deterrence. So they're not constantly being threatened and bombed by the U.S. and by Israelis. So how does the strategic calculus change for us if Iran has decided like, OK, well, I guess we're off to the races here? That's a very good question. One, a group of us were pondering until the wee hours last night. And I think there's another dimension here that is crucial.

58:18We have seen devastating accuracy based on truly excellent intelligence all through the region by Iran. from Erbil in Kurdistan to our own embassy in Baghdad to the two aircraft that crashed over Iraq. By the way, one of those aircraft, we have it from good authority, was actually hit by a shoulder-fired missile. It wasn't an accident. It actually was hit by a missile and went down to other things that they've done in countries like Bahrain, where they destroyed our entire our fifth fleet capability, and Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Now, think of this for a moment. We know that Iran has a second set of targets in countries in the region.

59:06It is waiting to see which of those countries actually support, materially support, these actions that are supposedly coming up by these ground forces from the United States and perhaps Britain. they are then going to execute that second. And if they execute that second target list with a devastating effect that they did the first, the global economy is going to go into depression because it will take out almost all the capacity, whether it gets through the strait or not, will be irrelevant because it will be destroyed. This is significant and we're not even paying any attention to it. Sir, how worried are you about the use of nuclear weapons by Israel, by Iran, by the United States?

59:52Very, especially Israel. I would put the order of probability in that order. Israel first, Iran possibly second, if Ted's right. And I don't think, I don't even think Donald Trump, I hope I phrased that properly. I don't even think Donald Trump would resort to nuclear weapons. Tell us about that with Israel then. You've dealt with the Israelis, you've studied them for a long time. Why are you so worried about it? I remember in 73, if it hadn't been for the Soviets and us and Henry Kissinger, to a certain extent, bringing the pressure that both capitals brought on Israel, Golda Meir at the time, I think they had already uploaded one or two bombs and were going to drop it on the Egyptian Third Army, which was putting them in peril at that moment.

1:00:38What really solved that was the Israelis managed to flank that army and didn't need the nuclear weapon. But Golden Mayor at the time, maybe it was for public consumption, told a BBC reporter, and it was on the top front page above the foal of one of the London papers the next morning, that in response to his question, would you use a nuclear weapon? She didn't bat an eye. She said yes. You were telling us before the segment started, there were some headlines jumping out at you this morning in the Israeli press in particular about J.D. Vance potentially looking for an off-ramp and wanting to put Israel's interests to the side, which would be necessary in order to even begin to explore an off-ramp.

1:01:20Do you put any credence in that reporting? And what off-ramp exists for the U.S. at this point? I think we should declare victory and quit. That's what I think. And Trump's a genius at lying about it. So I think with the MAGA base, at least, although it's becoming even more fragmented than he thought probably by this time. I think still he'd have enough core there that would believe him, no matter what fantastic lies he told about it, but declare victory and quit and tell Netanyahu he's on his own. The only problem with that is what we just discussed. Would Netanyahu, being on his own, seeing the Jewish state of Israel disappearing under his feet, to be credited to him in history, would he not use a nuclear weapon or two?

1:02:07And as a military professional, he wouldn't use one. He'd have to use quite a few to have any impact on a vast country like Iran, 93 million people the size of Western Europe. One nuclear weapon of the kilotonnage that Israel has would not do very much. If he dropped it on Tehran, of course, it would be bloody. It would be terrible, be horrible, Hiroshima, Nagasaki. But I don't think he would do that. He'd drop it on these military targets. They're significantly underground, and that's not going to do very much. So he'd have to use many of them, and then the genie is truly out of the bottle. Yeah.

1:02:42Last question for you, sir. You served in Vietnam. We were reading a quote from General Westmoreland this morning from 1965. He said, there's no scenario where U.S. Marines would ever engage with the Vietnamese in the very first weeks of the war. Do you see parallels here with some of these deployments? Tell us about it. I do. The major parallel I see is we went in, I think, with reasonably good intentions, and we ruined it all, and we didn't recognize it for 59 ,000-plus casualties later. Now, there were other reasons Johnson committing that huge amount of troops he did. I think President Johnson knew.

1:03:19He knew George Ball had told him, this is a case study I taught at William and Mary, that it wasn't going to do any good. And LBJ actually said, and I quote, oh ho ain't going to be moved by no bombs, unquote. That's a direct quote from LBJ. And he knew it, but he knew also that if he cut and ran from Vietnam, he would lose the election. And so he didn't. And some 30 ,000 added to that 59 ,000 killed later. We finally left. This is a similar situation and with a much different administration, which I don't think even knows how to make national security decisions. Well, retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, thank you so much for your time this morning.

1:04:01We got a lot out of this. We hope you'll consider coming back. Thank you, sir. We appreciate it. Thank you. Take care. Thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it. We'll have a great show for you all tomorrow. We'll see you then.

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