Trump, Iran, and the Next American Quagmire

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0:32It's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards. Iran's formerly supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, is dead. This wretched and vile man had the blood of hundreds and even thousands of Americans on his hands and was responsible for the slaughter of countless thousands of innocent people all across many countries. Yep, yep. Last night, all over Iran, the voices of the Iranian people could be heard cheering and celebrating in the streets when his death was announced. Look, I'm not going to sit here and pretend that it's somehow a bad thing that Khomeini Ahmadinejad and most of the top Iranian officials were all wiped out.

1:14I mean, sometimes the ends do justify the means, even when it's coming largely from a corrupt leader like Trump. Just because a terrible person does a good thing does not cease to make him a terrible person. The Islamofascist Iranian regime had been begging for this comeuppance for decades on end. It just so happens that the schoolyard bully was the only one daring enough to hit them head on. That doesn't turn the schoolyard bully into a good person. It is beautiful, however, to see the secular people of Iran celebrating these assassinations. And they do seem to be in the majority, am I right?

1:47I mean, there are, obviously, a lot of religious fanatic nutjobs in Iran who follow Sharia law. Those are the people that are incompatible with Western culture. That's the real chasm here. Sharia law is incompatible with Western civilization, just using Iran as a case study alone. Young secular people just want to live in peace without oppressive religion under Sharia law that says the hijab is mandatory under the threat of violence, or that dancing in the wrong place in time is against the law, or that you can only listen to certain kinds of music, where people aren't even allowed to enjoy a cold beer, and being gay can still get you killed by the government.

2:21Most Iranians want separation of religion and state. A leaked government poll from 2024 found that 73 % of Iranians favor separating religion from politics and public governance. 10 % of Iranians declared themselves non-religious, 24 % moderately religious, and 45 % are opposed to the mandatory hijab. The question naturally becomes, what now? That's what everybody's asking. What is the end game here? Trump told the Iranian people to rise up and take control of their government, but as of the current moment of this recording, the government is still somehow intact, to which degree it's impossible for us to know without direct intel.

2:56It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations. How are the people going to rise up and form a new government, though? Do Do you realize how complicated that is? Do you realize how long that might take? Who exactly is entitled to that power? And what are they going to do with that new power if and when they somehow manage to take control over it? Who's going to make sure this new Iranian government isn't just taken over by another group of radical Islamic extremists?

3:27The problem is that these questions are rarely answered easily. Because each faction now between the moderates and the extremists are now in a virtual cage match of competing ideologies, which usually leads to bloody civil war. History repeats itself regularly, and this has all the markings of another quagmire. Just like Iraq in 2003, ousting Saddam. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated. Libya in 2011, ousting Gaddafi. But then the Libyan people rose up and demanded their rights. And when Gaddafi and his forces started going city to city, town by town, to brutalize men, women, and children, the world refused to stand idly by.

4:09What about Syria ousting Assad? The list seems to go on forever. At long last, the Assad regime has fallen. This regime brutalized and tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians. Tens of thousands of Iranians have been executed for simply protesting in the streets in recent months. They have every right to take back their government. Unfortunately, in the real world, it takes more than just a few strategically based bombs and knocking out leadership to establish a new government. because now there's a new war looming between those who are rightfully emboldened to take advantage of the situation and those who will continue to fight to keep control of the situation.

4:45It's almost difficult to say that Trump has any say in this pattern whatsoever because he's just a slave to protecting himself at this point. And he's probably following the lead of his joint chiefs as a convenient diversion away from the Epstein files. I mean, that's the running speculation online. Bill and Hillary Clinton testified just last Thursday and Friday. But look at how that already feels like ancient news to those of us who consume news on a daily basis. Tell me that's not by design. I mean, a lot of us predicted that Trump would do exactly this. This is a Democrat hoax that never ends.

5:18And he could not be more on schedule with the program if he tried. I can celebrate the assassination of Khomeini along with millions of other secular and non-dogmatic religious Iranians. Because not all Muslims are into this extremist interpretation of Sharia law either. The true enemy here is the same as it's always been wherever it's found in any corner of the earth. And that is just plain old human extremism. I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And it always seems to come from the same kind of people, doesn't it? Despite race and age or gender or intelligence level or any other category that we as humans use to compartmentalize and rationalize every immeasurable variant within our own species like we're reading hieroglyphics.

6:03I'm talking about the kind of people who cannot, for the life of them, live and let live. The kind of people who aren't content enough just living with and enjoying their own belief systems. They need everybody else to play along and adapt to their worldview or else they get so upset that they'll start a war. I can say the same thing about the far right in America and I can say the same thing about the far left as well. What we're seeing play out in Iran right now isn't really all that different. It's just that the balance has shifted all the way to the furthest in the direction of religious fundamentalism for Iran over the last 50 years especially.

6:36And now the people at least appear to be ready for a paradigm shift. When these two internal forces start fighting each other, the United States should feel compelled to intervene and support the secular and moderate Iranians. But that's going to require boots on the ground, bases that are regularly attacked, convoy supply chain routes that are easy targets. We've seen it all before. Trillions of dollars later, and a few thousand American casualties, leaving with little, if anything, accomplished, just like Afghanistan, just like Iraq and Syria and Vietnam. Now, it's also entirely possible that Trump won't send troops into Iran to clean up the mess, but Secretary Hegseth won't commit to that.

7:12Are there currently any American boots on the ground in Iran? No, but we're not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do. Yeah, translation, they're coming. I mean, that wasn't even the question, Secretary Hegseth. The kid just asked you if there are any boots on the ground yet, currently. And you basically said, not yet, with your flippant response. We're not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do. Our brilliant defense secretary, or is it war secretary now? God, I hope the Democrats fix all this nonsense when they get back in charge. He continued with his propaganda narrative by spinning this war in Iran as an American first feature.

7:48Listen to this spin. President Trump puts America and Americans first. He doesn't hesitate and neither do our troops. Wow. The mission of Operation Epic Fury is laser focused. Laser focused. I almost hear a little George W. in there. You know, I've been talking with my conservative friends who said, this is nothing like G.W. Bush. The threat comes from Iraq. Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror. And its drive toward an arsenal of terror. This terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. It is seeking nuclear weapons. They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions.

8:24It has given shelter and support to terrorism. And we can't take it anymore. And practices terror. And could soon reach the American homeland. Sure sounds like the old Bush doctrine to me, don't it? Wow. Yeah, Secretary Hegg, Seth, you got a timeline on any of this bullshit? President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up, it could move back. Okay. You know, six months, 20 weeks, four years, what's it matter? What difference at this point does it make? Now, the right thing for the United States to do at this point, now that we've opened this can of worms, is to step in and support this quasi-secular faction and protect it in the looming civil war, should it play out.

9:06One could argue that tens of thousands of dead Iranian protesters was the opening act of this civil war before the U.S. and Israel got involved. Clearly, Trump and Netanyahu are taking advantage of an already volatile situation here. And I can't say that I would have done any differently if I were in charge, God forbid. I know. I'm going to leave with the conclusion here over the last 72 hours that what's happening in Iran has been a civil war over the last 50 years in the making. So Trump and Netanyahu are simply cashing in on what appears to be a paper tiger of a defense force that is now just randomly lobbing missiles at targets across the Middle East who happen to do business with us.

9:41The response so far from Iran has been laughable, but make no mistake, The danger is real of serious escalation, but there's also potential here for the good people of Iran to step up and do the dirty work with us. Yeah, we'll ship you the guns and ammo. Just try not to splinter off into a thousand new extremist groups, all trying to rise to the occasion for some sort of new jihadist offshoot, using all the gear and cash that we send you to start new terrorist training camps. Yeah, we can't have that happen again. Oh, but don't worry. Vice President J.D. Vance says that President Trump isn't like those dumb presidents.

10:14I certainly empathize with Americans who are exhausted after 25 years of foreign entanglements in the Middle East. I understand the concern, but the difference is that back then we had dumb presidents, and now we have a president who actually knows how to accomplish America's national security objectives. Now, calling somebody not dumb isn't exactly like calling somebody smart. But I think these were the opening shots across the bow of J.D. Vance possibly showing his hand here of his inevitable turn on Trump. I say inevitable because I still think that J.D. Vance is a never-Trumper secretly down deep.

10:49And that he's doing all this as a populist act because he knows where his bread is buttered. And that's with the MAGA Bay. So he's got to go with Trump. But I also believe that politics is just about as real as professional wrestling. And that at any minute when Vance and his team think it's the right moment to do the deed, I guess I'll say. I'm guessing sometime soon after the 2026 elections, because it'll be a lot easier to blame all the losses on Trump and his backsliding from true conservative values, Mr. Snurdly. Oh, and don't worry, Trump gave a press conference about Iran earlier and started trailing off about the curtains and his new ballroom.

11:22That should give you a lot of assurance that a calm and sound mind is at the helm as we go to war with a foreign adversary. See that nice drape? When that comes down right now, you see a very, very deep hole. But in about a year and a half from now, you're going to see a very, very beautiful building. And there's your entrance to it right there. In fact, it looks so nice. I don't think I'll even I think I'll save money on the doors because it can't get more beautiful than that. I picked those drapes in my first term. I always like gold. Okay, Grandpa, we can save a lot of money. I just saved curtains.

11:58Well, I guess we'll leave it at curtains then, because it sounds like it's bedtime for Grandpa. What an incredible weekend. Hope you're all doing well. Until we can do it again, it's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards. Catch you next time. Bye. And we say bye-bye! Newsweek Radio is a member of the Trust Project. The threat comes from Iraq. Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror. And its drive toward an arsenal of terror. This terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. It is seeking nuclear weapons. They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions. It has given shelter and support to terrorism.

12:29And we can't take it anymore. And practices terror. And could soon reach the American homeland.