Why are we helping Israel prosecute this war if they're going to pursue their own objectives? We hold the cards. We have objectives. Those objectives are clear. We have allies pursuing objectives as well.
And the truth speaks for itself. I mean, President Trump was very clear about that. Iran has weaponized energy for decades. Israel clearly sent a warning, and POTUS has made it clear, very clear. Iran knows when you hit Karg Island and hit military capabilities on cargo, which is the only thing we hit.
We can hold anything at issue, anything. The United States military controls the fate of that country. Iran has the ability to make the right choices. It should not, going forward, target Arab allies, Arab countries, trying to create pain, the pain that they created themselves. Yeah, looking at the war right now in day 20, there's a lot going on.
It'll be big success, but the only offense Iran has, I mean, their army's not moving anything. They're not having any military success at all. It's going after the energy sector of our allies, you know, going after our bases, which are having almost no effect.
So I was with Dr. Nazi Moynian, and her husband's a big-time real estate guy. She was born in Iran. She's got direct contacts there. She's talking about what's happening on the ground, CUT 22.
We are militarily very, very close. All the objectives have been achieved, and there are more targets to be hit. But with the firepower between the Israelis and the Americans, I have no doubt those will be hit also.
So she's got real good contacts. She actually has context of who the ones we got to take out and that Israel is and our CIA is doing just that. With us right now is Michael Durian. He is the Hudson Institute Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. Michael, welcome back.
Uh here we are in day 20. What has been the biggest surprise for you, a guy that knows this region as well as anyone? I was a little surprised by the first of all, thanks for having me back. Great to be here. I was a little surprised by the decision on both sides, on the Iranian side and then on the coalition side, to hit the energy infrastructure.
I was expecting, like everyone, you analyze the coming war according to the way the last war went, and both sides last June were careful to avoid those targets. But now we definitely have this. The other thing that I'm surprised by, not totally surprised, but I'd say in a way almost impressed, is the staying power of these missile and drone teams of the Iranians. We have to recognize it's a very serious tool they have, a very serious capability. And despite all the decapitations that have gone on, including this week, Larajani was decapitated.
The Americans and the Israelis have enormous, incredible penetration into the Iranian system. And yet, the Iranians built redundancies and secrecy so that these missile and drone teams can continue to operate even in these very difficult circumstances. I guess the launchers is going to be key. There's about 420 and they've knocked out about 300. But every time they launch them, they blow them up.
So that's a bit of a risk when it comes to missiles and rockets. The drones are more, but they're trying to get into the manufacturing of the drones as well as the drones themselves. And I guess we're going to see if they're able to.
Well, they can you the thing with the drones is they're the most difficult because the teams can be very small and highly dispersed. You can put together an Iranian drone in a garage and then you can launch it off of the back of a pickup truck. And the drone factories, the Iranians have drone factories outside of Iran, in Tajikistan, in Belarus, and so on.
So ending once and for all the supply of drones and the manufacturing of drones is very difficult, as is seeking down the teams. But what we can do is go after the backbone of the IRGC. That's one way to destroy them. You know, the coalition is doing a good job of putting the entire regime under pressure from lots of different directions. But the center of gravity in this war are the missile and drone teams and their stockpiles.
And we want to decide if we're having a decisive victory or just a victory. On points, we have to follow what's going on with that. That's more important than anything else. There's going to be some tactics and decisions to be made. We made a decision to get rid of the military hard, military, all military hardware at Carg Island.
But there's other islands in the area. And the question is, when those Marines come to town, do they take these islands? They'll have it. It's not going to be Iwo Jima. It's going to be very little fight.
The question is, do you take them and hold them? Because they have energy assets. They also have drone teams. They have missiles in caves. I'm talking about the Kushan Island, the Kish Island.
Do we begin to pressure that way? I think all of it goes back to what I said just a minute ago about the missile and drone teams. You can't have an amphibious landing into Karag Island or Keshim Island while those missile and drone teams are operating at the level they're operating at now, because our Marines will be sitting ducks.
So we have to degrade them more or destroy them. And we have to also push all of the Iranian forces along the coastline opposite those islands back, I don't know, 80, 100 kilometers, something like that.
So there's a lot of work to be done before you can do that.
Now, if we got to a point, Brian, where the Marines could actually take Karag Island, That's basically the end of the war because Iran then, 90% of Iran's oil goes out from that terminus.
So we actually control the economy of Iran. That would be a wonderful ending, but there's a long way to go because first we have to break the back of those drone teams.
So, Michael, you think if you take that island with missile defense along with it, you know, we have it. It's portable. The Ukrainians have pioneered a way to take down those Shahed drones. If we land with Marines with some missile defense, I mean, that should be enough to take Carg Island. I always think it's just a decision by the President.
Well, look, if part of it is also they have the Iranians all along the coastline have anti-ship missiles.
So if the Iranian imagine, you know. If there was a lucky shot by the Iranians and they hit the USS Tripoli and hundreds of Marines were killed and wounded, that would be a game changer for Donald Trump. It would be a political crisis at home.
So he's going to be very, very cautious. He's going to be very cautious before b b before he brings uh landing teams through the Strait of Ormos, either to Kesham Island or or on to Karg Island. I i the the question is, we're in a we're you know, we're in about the We're winning, absolutely winning, no doubt about it. And if the President stopped the war right now, Iran would be bleeding badly. They started this war, their economy is in a total shambles.
They're not coming out of this better in any way. But we're in like round five or round six of a twelve round fight. And the question is: from the Iranian point of view, what they're asking themselves is: can we hold out long enough? To cause economic pain through by holding the energy supplies of the world hostage? And can we force the Americans and the Israelis to run down on their interceptors and thereby force Donald Trump to go to a ceasefire before he really deals us a knockout blow?
It's a question of time. If Donald Trump thinks he has the time, then we are going to wear them down. We're going to defeat those missile and drone teams, and then we're going to win the war decisively. Yeah, even with your great context, it's impossible to know exactly what's going on on the ground. And how weak the besieged are, right?
And if they are truly weakened, right? These commanders are weakened.
So I'm not going to say I know either, but I'm just reading everything possible, trying to go on all the Arab websites I can through translation. And it looks like the besieged commanders have been hit hard, and they are freaked out at the higher echelons of the Iranian government. If they're on the blacklist and if they're going to be killed next because of the scope of people and the magnitude of people we've taken out, I think we might find out tomorrow. With the celebration of the Persian New Year. They were told not to go out and celebrate.
But if they do and there's no blowback, what message does that send would be protesters? Oh, totally. I mean, this could break in a moment. You and I don't know. We don't know.
There's no way that the leadership of Iran is as confident as it is attempting to portray itself when it's in front of the TV cameras. I mean, you think about we took out the Israelis took out the head of the besiege this week. His name was also Soleimani. He was in, he and his, he had 10 top commanders around him of the besiege, and they were in a tent because they knew that their facilities had all been destroyed or would be destroyed if they met in them.
So they were meeting outside in a tent, and the Israelis knew where they were.
So we're hunting them like animals. They feel it. It's got to be degrading the morale of their drone and missile teams. Absolutely. I think if the president can hold on, then we will break their backs.
This is Ainslie 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 FoxNewsPodcasts.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Join Fox in supporting our troops from daily needs to global emergencies. Help us be there for those who serve. Visit go.fox/slash Red Cross to donate to service to the Armed Forces today. I hear you. Here's the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Kaine, on the breakdown today on a press conference you may have missed at 8 a.m.
Eastern, Cut One. U.S. CENTCOM remains on plan to achieve our military objectives and remain unrelenting in our pursuit of Iranian missile capabilities, UAV capabilities, and their Navy and, as the Secretary said, their industrial base. Each day, we continue to attack deeper into Iranian territory. As reported by U.S.
Central Command yesterday, the U.S. military dropped 5,000-pound penetrator weapons into underground storage facilities, storing coastal defense cruise missiles and other support equipment. These weapons are bespokely designed to get through concrete and/or rocks and function after penetrating those barriers. And you don't drop them unless you're aiming for something that you know is there, right? And a lot of people think it's where they're building or storing the drones.
And the the key the key word he said there was coastal defense.
So they are laying the groundwork to give the President the option to bring the USS Tripoli and whatever other ships he wants to bring through the Strait of Hormuz. And I don't know if the President's made that decision, but the military is giving him that option.
So Michael, how's it resonating throughout the Gulf states? I know they had a emergency meeting. There's anger. Saudi Arabia says that our patience was not forever, meaning that they are tempted to start striking back. Are you surprised that they seem and appear to be unified?
A little bit. A little bit. I was expecting them to waver. What I'm hearing anecdotally and what I'm reading in the press is, as you reported, that they are telling President Trump this is intolerable, this threat that Iran poses to us. We have to see an end to this, which means taking down the IRGC's capability to do this.
And that kind of fortitude I probably wasn't expecting. If we don't go the distance with them and we leave this wounded animal, this rabid animal, which is the IRGC, in place, then we'll see hedging from the Gulf states again. Not because they have weak characters, it's just where they are geographically. And militarily. They're going to say, yeah, what do I have to defend myselves and my, you know, forget my people and my army, what do I have to defend my energy sector?
And that's what they're aiming for. And they're desalinization plants. I mean, Iran showed a willingness to hit the desalinization plant in Bahrain. The Iranians are not limiting themselves to military targets. They pretend they are, but they're not.
And that's a weakness. I mean, that's an imbalance in the conflict here because we, by and large, are restraining ourselves with respect to those targets on Iran. You know what's interesting is doesn't it sound like we have nothing to lose? Where they like, okay, there there is no tomorrow. That seems to me a nation that says, I'm not keeping my powder dry for the next conflict.
This could be our last. Their backs are to the wall, absolutely. And I suspect that President Trump sees that this blackmail that they have over 20% of the world's energy supplies won't end unless he goes the distance with them. Yeah, and that's it. And I think that the new leader of Iran, we have not heard anything from him.
And yesterday there was just some statement promising revenge for the killing of Ali Larajani.
So where do you think this guy is? I hear rumors he was taken to Moscow for medical treatment. Others that he didn't want this job when they gave him this job. Everybody else is speaking. He saw foreign ministers speaking, the deputy foreign minister speaking.
Ali Larajani was speaking until they killed him. Why is he not speaking? Look, he's a placeholder. He's there just to protect the IRGC. What basically happened here is we got a coup d'état.
We now have a military dictatorship in Iran run by the IRGC. And Mujtaba Khamenei is the figurehead for that military dictatorship.
So don't give him much credence like we did his dad? No, no. No, except that his hardline statements are crucial. This country is now closer to North Korea than it is to the other Gulf states. It's not North Korea in the sense that Iran is porous.
You can't control every little movement in Iran like you can in North Korea. But the mentality of the people running it is a North Korean mentality. And this might be impossible to quantify, but Michael, what do you think their reach is? You know, we hear about that they have sleeper cells and it's been basically acknowledged here. You know, they were trying to hire some Pakistani to hire somebody else to assassinate Trump.
We need to put bounties on Brian Hook, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and Trump's head. What is their reach? It has to be taken seriously. They do engage in this kind of activity. You know, they tried to blow up Cafe Milano in downtown D.C.
five or six years ago, seven years ago. But they were capable of doing that, but they're not that good, which means, you know, they work through drug, they work through drug gangs, biker gangs, other cutouts. The FBI has to be very, very vigilant about it. We should all be vigilant about it. But we shouldn't allow ourselves to be scared by it.
Yeah, it's just amazing at one of those shootings. The guy who sh who pulled off the who ended up dying. He's a he was a Hezbollah linked directly to Hezbollah. How he was able to get a gun and walk around in America, I just think they didn't think that was possible, who had relatives killed in Beirut.
So it's just crazy. Brian, when I worked in the White House, which was 2005 to 2007, I had a bunch of diplomats came to me and said, Mike, there's an Iranian guy, senior Iranian official, who's in town, and you're having secret negotiations with him, and you're not coming clean with us. And I said, no, no, no, no. And then a friend of mine who was from the British embassy came and said, Mike, you're losing all credibility because we've seen the guy downtown. And I went to my boss, Steve Hadley, and I said, look, are we having secret negotiations?
Because I'm looking like a fool. And he said, the national security advisor said, look, if we are, then I don't know about him and I'm a fool, right?
So what was the story? The guy is a senior official in the Iranian government. He had a green card. And he came into the United States through Canada over the land border, and for some reason that didn't get caught up in the system. Why are we allowing people who are members of a terrorist regime to have green cards?
This is crazy. Michael Doran, thanks so much. Appreciate it, Michael. We'll stay up to date on this historic time.
