"Israel Must Be Restrained!" Joe Kent on Trump & Iran War + Sleeper Cells Threat

0:01What we're waiting for and hasn't occurred yet is a fatwa from the Grand Ayatollah, which will be very public to attack American targets. According to my security sources, there's at least 18 ,000 special interest aliens in the United States. It's not a war that is explicitly to, I believe, defend America or is in the explicit interest of the United States. Look, I'm not a fan of the guy. It's not pleasant to hear that the president speak in that manner. My entire generation, basically after 9-11, spent our adult lives in war. No negotiations with the Iranians will be successful until the Israelis are restrained.

0:38I want justice for Charlie Kirk, as I think every American does. And in relation to possible foreign involvement, have you got any clarity about where that may have come from? The Mission Accomplished speech by President Bush, delivered 18 years before U.S. troops left Iraq for good, is the ultimate emblem of why most Americans oppose Middle Eastern wars. If the history lesson bothers President Trump, whose opposition to such wars helped to elect him twice, well, he's not showing it. We've won this. This war has been won. The only one that likes to keep it going is the fake news. I mean, the New York Times, you read the New York Times, it's like we're not winning a war where they have no Navy and they have no Air Force and they have no nothing.

1:20And we literally have planes flying over Tehran and other parts of their country, they can't do a thing about it. For instance, if I want to take down that power plant, that very big, powerful power plant, they can't do a thing about it. It's like, take me. That's all they can do. Well, everything that Donald Trump says about military targets may be true, but it begs the question, is it really possible to have a military victory and a strategic defeat at the same time? If the straitless of Hormuz remain open, as they were before the war, Is that a victory? If Iran is bound to a nuclear deal but keeps its uranium, as was the case under Obama, is that a victory?

2:01If the uranium regime remains weakened but unchanged, is that a victory? General Stanley McChrystal, who led US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said this week, if you like this war, enjoy this first part, because everything after will be harder. Thousands of US paratroopers are heading to the Middle East, joining Marines already assembled there for a possible ground operation. Well, joining me to discuss our two U.S. Army veterans with very opposing views on the Iran war. Rob Smith, Iraq War, U.S. Army veteran and host of Can't Cancel Rob Smith. And Matt Tardio, he's the U.S. Army Special Forces veteran and host of Speak the Truth podcast.

2:37Welcome to both of you. Rob Smith, where are we with this war, do you think? You know, where are we right now? It's very confusing, I got to tell you, because I don't believe that we're really getting a lot of good reporting from anybody across the aisle about this war. You know, on one hand, you will have President Trump saying that we're in peace talks. On the other hand, you will have Iranian officials saying that these things don't exist. On one hand, you know, you've got, you know, the videos of all the bombings and stuff happening. On the other hand, you've got a lot of stuff that's unverified on X.

3:13I think that fundamentally, you know, and I've been vocally opposed to this war, And I think that fundamentally, I just do not understand what is happening right now. All right. And I think that the vast majority of the American people, should they want to admit it, likely feel the same. We really do not know where we are. I would like for us to be on a path towards reconciliation. I would like for us to be on a path towards a peace deal, because I think this war is a bad idea in the first place. And it's not a war that is explicitly to, I believe, defend America or is in the explicit interest of the United States of America.

3:49Right. So I would like for there to be peace talks. I would like for this to move forward towards a peaceful solution. But we are getting so much opposing information that I'm not entirely sure who to trust, what to believe or what is even real or what's not real. Yeah, I've got to say, Matt Tardio, I feel the same. I'm very confused about all of it. I'm very confused about what the initial mission was, what victory was supposed to look like, what the end game would be. And my confusion has simply grown day by day as the outpouring from all the people waging this war have seemed to have changed the goalposts on whims from day to day.

4:33can you make clarity from this do you think in your head yeah a little bit I'm like the both of you where I sit back and I go okay well we don't know exactly what Donald Trump's plan is over inside of Iran for now but we can certainly draw a lot of inferences based off of what we've been seeing taking place on the ground and it's a good thing Robin I think you would agree with this as a former infantryman with a CIV from Iraq correct you don't want the enemy to know what your plans are you don't want them to know the direction that you're going to take and particularly speaking from an unconventional warfare standpoint where we're talking about having a regime change, you most certainly don't want what little power that's left in Iran knowing what the United States is going to do.

5:09Rob brought up a very good point. He said that the president is talking about peace talks over inside of Iran and that he's in contact with people. And he ended up bringing up a fact yesterday or something that he's asserting as a fact, which is he received a gift from the Iranians. And he wasn't willing to say what that gift was. He just said that we got a gift. I'm not going to discuss it. I think he said it was something to do with oil and gas, right? And that's very important here, because immediately following that is when we heard those statements come out from the Iranian foreign minister, I believe it was, that said, no, this isn't going to happen.

5:38And then the Iranian state news agencies were pouring out, nope, that's not happening. We're not in talks with Trump. Well, what have we been talking about this entire time? We've been talking about regime change taking place. And I know that's not something that the American people may or may not agree with, depending on where they sit. But regardless, you're asking me where we're at and what we're doing here. So what that signals to me when I look at this and trying to look at it from a UW standpoint of what's going on is Trump is talking to people on the ground and they don't necessarily have the same communication that they did with the other government.

6:07Over the last week, we've seen people over inside of Iran that have been conducting ambushes, receiving reports of people from the IRGC that have defected and started targeting, you know, current IRGC members, if that makes sense, and that there's a power struggle that's taking place. So all those reports are out there and they exist, but the mainstream media is just not blowing them up and putting it to narrative. They'll put other things to narrative that, you know, fit agenda, dividing agenda, things that make them really happy. But what Trump actually came out with and what the Iranian regime actually came out with yesterday, both of those signify to me exactly what we've been talking about this whole time.

6:39And Trump even said, it's not the same people. We've taken out a couple different tiers of them. So it's somebody else. So it's not the ayatollah that's laid up in a hospital bed that may or may not be capable of talking right now. It's somebody else. And that present that they gave is likely like a bona fide that they are in control of the country, that they do have some control over what's taking place right now. I mean, it's a fascinating theory. What would you say to that, Rob? Yeah, you know, I wanted to make a point here because he brought up regime change, right, that this is now a regime change war.

7:13And one of the biggest complications, one of the biggest THE ONE OF THOSE PARTS OF CONFUSION IN TERMS OF THIS ENTIRE WAR IS THAT THIS WAS NOT A WAR, NUMBER ONE, THAT WAS PRESENTED TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AT ALL BEFORE IT HAPPENED. BUT NUMBER TWO, AT THE VERY BEGINNING, THIS WAS NOT A WAR THAT WAS PRESENTED TO ANYBODY WITH THE EXPLICIT GOAL OF REGIME CHANGE, RIGHT? IT IS GOING TO BE VERY HARD TO DO REGIME CHANGE FROM THE AIR, AND IT'S GOING TO BE EVEN HARDER TO DO REGIME CHANGE WITHOUT BOOTS ON THE GROUND, which very many people are very fundamentally opposed to, right? So even the fact that we are now openly discussing this as a regime change war is something that is very different from a conversation that was happening about two and a half weeks ago when this war started, which really does, again, tie into the amount of confusion that people have for this.

7:59And so now, if this is now a regime change war that does require boots on the ground, again, who does this benefit? And it always brings me back to things that happened in the first three days of this war. And this is what really confused me. All right. So now you have our secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who basically explicitly said in one of his first interviews after the start of this war, that Israel said that they were going to strike and them being our allies, America had to join. Now, however, this was cleaned up after the fact doesn't matter because this is what it was explicitly said.

8:35Now, a couple of days after that, you've got Senator Lindsey Graham, who's never met a Middle East intervention that he did not like, literally flying over to Israel to lobby President Benjamin Netanyahu and how to advocate for this war to Team Trump and those officials, right? Those things really, really strike warning signs in my mind about this entire thing. I think that now the goal is regime change. I think that we cannot have a regime change war from the air without boots on the ground. And I stand firm in my belief that boots on the ground in Iran would be a disaster that would lead to the loss of American life and American troops, the likes of which the United States of America is not prepared to absorb because, again, we were not fundamentally led into this war with direct or solid reasoning that the vast majority of Americans can trust and get behind.

9:33Now, look, we saw something similar to this happen 23 years ago with the war in Iraq. And I remember being a 20-year-old that participated in that invasion right at about three weeks after shock and awe. At least the corporate mainstream media and at THE WAR HAWKS IN D.C. DID US THE SOLID OF GIVING US SIX MONTHS OF PROPAGANDA, WHICH ENDED UP BEING LIES BEFORE WE WENT INTO THAT WAR. WE WEREN'T EVEN GIVEN THAT WITH THIS ONE. SO NOW WE'RE KIND OF JUST EXPECTED TO GET BEHIND THIS, TO HAVE THE FUNDAMENTAL LACK OF RESPECT FOR THE LIVES OF AMERICAN TROOPS THAT SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM HAS EXPRESSED IN HIS INTERVIEWS IN TRYING TO SELL THIS WAR, ALL RIGHT?

10:14So if this is going to be a regime-trained war now, this is not something that was sold to the people when this first started. Right. And Matt, I think the other thing I'd say, I mean, I had an interesting conversation with a Kosovo yesterday who was in Kosovo when the NATO strikes happened against Milozovic. And he said he was seeing a similar thing. He'd be speaking to some Iranians. He runs a cafe and they came in and talked to him. and they were people who opposed the regime in Iran, but have now, since the attack on Iran, they have moved back to supporting their country. And he said it reminded him of what happened in Kosovo, that a lot of people, a lot of Kosovans opposed Milozovic, but once NATO attacked Kosovo, they reigned in behind their country.

11:00And it may go some way to explaining, in addition to the fact there are bombs flying everywhere, which is a deterrent of people taking to the streets, and the protesters who were killed in January and so on. It may be a third dimension to this, that actually when any country comes under big attack like this, it can often drive people to get behind their country, even if they have to hold their noses about the people leading it. And that would be a third element to this apparent surreptitious regime change going on that I would find questionable, because there is no sign of the people rising up at the moment.

11:35And at some stage, if you're actually going to have a regime changing, you need that to happen. So why would they not rise up right now, though? Right. Let's let's apply some common sense logic. Well, the bombs flying everywhere and the fact that thousands were killed in January by the IRGC. But that's the IRGC are still in control. Tens of thousands were killed by the IRGC. Basij still has checkpoints up out in the middle of the city, although they're getting targeted by numerous different types of drones. Some of them likely being launched from inside Iran. And plus you have the Iranian officials, the regime officials coming out stating that if you do right now, we're going to gun you down.

12:07Yeah. We also had the CENTCOM commander make a statement the other day that informed them, don't do it right now. You'll know, right? He basically let them know when the time comes, we'll tell you when it's that time. And I'm going to tell you, man, I disagree with his premise when it goes to boots on the ground saying that we're going to absolutely have to have boots on the ground in order for this to happen. You know, the only time that you're going to actually have a successful regime change and uprising, right, when you start talking about coups and you start talking about these things happening, is when you have members of the military and certain units from within that military that are willing to go up and overthrow their own government.

12:38No regime change has ever been successful without the support of the military on the ground actually doing that. And as I mentioned before, we are seeing all of those signs currently that that is happening, in addition to signs of people defecting. He said that we haven't even been given a warning, and you guys are comparing, or excuse me, Rob, you're comparing this to Iraq. This is night and day difference between Iraq, all right? Here we have the IAEA that's gone in and established that they have 60 % enriched uranium in stockpiles there. The Iranian foreign minister, even after we bombed them back in June, I don't believe everything that the Trump administration says.

13:08I don't think that we're over in Iran solely on the basis that we want a regime change and that we're going over there to do that. I think it has more to do with Russia and China, if I'm going to be honest. Right. But with that being said, you know, the Trump administration told us that they had completely and totally obliterated their weapons program. Correct. And then we heard the Iranian foreign minister told Steve Whitcoff that they had gained an additional 20 kilograms of enriched uranium since last June, which means it's still intact and they're still moving in that direction. Numerous IAEA reports, one in particular actually came out and said that they had uranium enriched over at Fordow in the 80s, that they found trace elements of it enriched up in the 80s, and then they ended up writing that off as a centrifuge issue or something of that nature.

13:47But regardless, there's zero point for them having that. And we've heard Democrats and Republicans, not just this year, but in all the years prior, you pointed out that Israel's been pushing it for a while. Israel's been bringing up we need to like bomb Iran, that the nuclear weapons program and lots of people point that out. But what you guys are refusing to acknowledge is the fact that we've had Democrats and Republicans on the Hill that have been pointing this out for a very long time, the nuclear weapons issue. I can go to 2020, 2021, 22, 23, 24 and 25 and point to a bunch of different Democrats that have been pushing the Iran issue.

14:18Our own government has came out and stated that they've had lethal attacks here on U.S. soil. We have Hezbollah down inside Mexico, Hezbollah inside of Venezuela. Iran just came out with a 4 ,000-kilometer range ballistic missile that they ended up targeting Diego Garcia. And the IRGC was absolutely, the IRGC absolutely, that targeted Diego Garcia with that 4 ,000-kilometer intermediate-range ballistic missile. If you were to put that in Venezuela, which was the first step in this war, in my opinion, was taking out Maduro, if you put that in Venezuela, it would have covered the entire eastern seaboard of the United States of America and all of the southern states, half of Texas.

14:55So to sit there and say that they're not doing this, which, by the way, it is documented that the IRGC was selling weapons to Maduro and putting them down inside Venezuela. You've also like, to be honest, Rob, you've also came out and you said that no Americans would ever want to go and fight in this war. And at the same time, we have Americans that are over there fighting and dying right now and that are doing so very proudly for their country because they actually believe in what's going on. The fact is that this is completely and totally different than what's taking place. The fact is that this is completely and totally different than what's taking place or what had taken place over in Iraq.

15:23It's completely and totally different than what's taking place in Afghanistan. And you as being a combat veteran from Iraq should know that the IRGC funded the terror organizations that killed your friends. Okay. Okay. This is a lot of information. It's okay. A couple points here. First of all, that if what you're saying, what you're saying about the nuclear enrichment program and all that stuff is true, like this is incontrovertible evidence, right? It's true. as well. It's true. It's not, man, we know it's facts. It's not, it's not that I'm saying it's true. Okay. Okay. So, so let me, I let you talk for a really long time.

15:56I'll let you talk for a really long time. Well, you'll agree. You're agreeing anyway. So let's move on. It's a very long time. And I would like to kind of get this, this idea out. I'll let you talk for a very long time. So the point is that I'm making here is that there was real, there was no real sign that was PEOPLE THAT WAS GIVEN EITHER TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC OR EVEN INTERNALLY THAT THESE TALKS WERE BREAKING DOWN. THERE WERE TALKS ABOUT THIS DEAL. THERE WERE TALKS ABOUT GETTING IRAN TO BACK OFF OF THE NUCLEAR ENRICHMENT. THESE TALKS HAVE BEEN GOING ON FOR QUITE SOME TIME. SO NOW THERE WAS NO INDICATION GIVEN TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OR ANYBODY ELSE THAT THESE TALKS had somehow broken down to a point that now we had to go to war.

16:40That's the first thing. The second thing is that there was no evidence that there was any kind of threat towards some immediate action that was going to happen against America or its allies from Iran. So these are two things that did not happen. So what you're saying about all of this stuff is absolutely true and verifiable fact. Like I'm not arguing that at all. You just stated this The fundamental point that the fundamental point that the fundamental point that the fundamental point that I'm making is this, that there was no real reason given to the American public. For us to have gone into this war in the way that we have.

17:22And now, obviously, things have changed because now we are in this war. And I think that a lot of people want to kind of like next day quarterback this and give a lot of reasons as to why we should be there now that we're already there. And I totally understand that. Right. And I totally understand and respect the sacrifice of our troops that have given their lives to this war and to this country. Would never denigrate that for a single solitary second. The reason I am in opposition to this and the reason that I continue to be in opposition to this is because when we are going to put American troops in harm's way and we have already sacrificed the lives of way too many American troops for my liking.

18:08And I do believe that there will be more. We owe the American people and we owe our troops an ironclad, rock solid reason to put them in harm's way. I can get there and stop telling you that that was given. I'm afraid, guys, we've run out of time. I really appreciate the debate. We could talk for a lot longer, but I appreciate you both joining me. Thank you both very much. Thanks, Piers. Thank you, Piers. Thanks. Well, Joe Kent is a Gold Star husband, a retired Green Beret, and a veteran of 11 combat tools. He crossed 20 years' service in the U.S. Army. President Trump appointed him to the role of director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a position from which he resigned last week.

18:46Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, he said in his statement. It's clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobbying. I'm pleased to say that Joe Kent joins me now. Joe Kent, I'm just wondering, a week ago your life was very, very different to what it is today. You've been through what I would call the mincer since you went public. You're a man used to very difficult situations. How are you feeling about how this week has gone for you? I feel really good. Thank you for having me on. First off, I appreciate the opportunity. But look, I didn't reach my conclusion lightly.

19:26But by the time I made the decision, seeing how we got into this war and seeing the path that we're going down now, I knew that I was doing the right thing. And I still feel the same way today. So my main goal is to hopefully change the dialogue on how we're looking at things in Iran and hopefully give the president some opportunity to get us out of this conflict. This sort of central charge that there was no imminent threat. We've heard people like Lindsey Graham and others saying they were two weeks away from doing something, which seems ridiculous. You were in the perfect position to know what the actual real threat was.

20:03How would you assess it? The only imminent threat was of Israel attacking Iran and then Iran retaliating against our bases in the region because the Iranians knew that the Israelis couldn't accomplish this military objective they have of regime change without our support. So we knew that was going to happen. That was the only imminent threat. Once President Trump came into office in 2025, the Iranians closely observed an escalation ladder. By that, I mean prior to President Trump coming back into office, the Iranian proxies in the region had attacked our troops hundreds of times throughout the region after October 7th.

20:44Once Trump came back in, the Iranians deliberately stopped their proxies from attacking our troops, knowing that President Trump wanted to get to the negotiating table. He did just that with Steve Whitcoff and others. When the 12-day war was launched, the Iranians didn't attack us. They made sure their proxies didn't attack our forces in the region. They didn't actually take a strike against us until we hit the nuclear facilities. And then they launched an equal amount of missiles that we dropped on bombs, and they dropped on their nuclear facilities. And then they eagerly got back to the negotiating table with us.

21:17So there actually was no threat emanating directly from Iran. They had the capability to pose a threat to us, but so do many nations. But we did not have any intelligence to indicate that they were on the cusp of attacking us. The only real threat was from Israel forcing our hand. And notwithstanding the fact that Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, publicly stated that actually America launched a preemptive attack because Israel, he didn't name the country, but obviously he was talking about, had indicated they were going to attack Iran and therefore there would be a response and America would have to get involved.

21:48They then tried to rein that back. He was on the record as basically saying we did this because of Israel's decision to attack. You, with your criticism, have now been accused by Mitch McConnell of being anti-Semitic. You've had Matt Brooks, the president of the Republican Jewish Coalition, saying that your appearance on Tucker Carlson's podcast was part of an ongoing problem. So it's very the same. You know, how do you respond to that charge that you're anti-Semitic? So in my criticism of really our policy, the American policy towards Israel, I've never mentioned the religion of the people of the state of Israel.

22:26My issue is the fact that we have a foreign government that is dictating our policy in the Middle East and in particular dictating when and how we go to war. That's my main issue. Look, these guys are going to throw out the anti-Semitic claim because they want people debating that. And they also want people to cower because they don't know what wants to be called anti-Semitic. They're doing that because they don't want to discuss the fundamental issue, which is exactly what Secretary Rubio said, that we are forced into this war because we knew that the Israelis were going to attack, which would set off a series of reactions from the Iranians.

22:59So that's why we went ahead and conducted the attack, because our hand was forced by the Israelis. That's what Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and all the neoconservatives don't want to address. And that's the main issue here that we should be discussing. Of course, at the same time, you know, it's been pretty obvious to people, I think, that from what Anthony Blinken said, that Israel had tried this before. They tried to tell President Obama and President Biden, we're going to attack. Are you with us? We're going to attack Iran. Both times the answer came back no. And on both occasions, Israel didn't attack.

23:35I thought that was very significant. And I'm sure the Israelis told the Trump administration this in an effort to get them to be stronger than the Biden administration and the Obama administration. What I pointed out in my resignation letter is that there was an eco chamber that was created around President Trump by key Israeli government officials and then media talking heads, basically saying that this was the only time for us to take down the regime. They also moved the red line in a very clever way. President Trump had always said that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. Well, the Iranian regime under the previous supreme leader basically agreed, and they had a fatwa that made a prohibition on Iran developing a nuclear weapon.

24:16So the Israelis came in with the goal of moving that red line because basically the Iranians said they wanted to continue to have the ability to enrich. And that kind of got us into this conundrum. But then in January, when the Iranians were feeling the weight of the economic sanctions that President Trump had put on them, they took to the streets. Again, the Israeli lobby came back. The key Israeli officials came back and said, now is the prime time to strike. If you strike, there's a clear path to victory. The regime will simply just fall. And so basically, through those series of events, we were led to believe that there was a clear path to victory.