Bahiti's in charge of the IRGC. Under the Mosaic doctrine, they've broken that down to 31 IRGC headquarters. And they've thought about fighting the United States.
So my point to them being fractured in their leadership, which it is because of President Trump and what he has done, is I'd say let's create more problems for them and try to figure this out. That's why I keep going back to take something like Carg Island or seize the islands in the Strait of Hormuz with the AAA and boxer args that you've got there. And you've got elements of the 82nd Theater. They can take Carg Island. All of a sudden now you're creating and compounding the problem for them to try to solve.
And I don't think they can solve it because they don't have the leadership left. that can figure this out.
So that is a Lieutenant General. Kellogg, weighing in on where we go from here, in light of the fact that yesterday we had Air Force Two ready to go with the Vice President Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to fly into Islamabad, 18 hours, by the way, 18 hours, and then became clear the Pakistanis said they reversed course and that the Iranians will not be sending a delegation. And he said they have a fracture on their side. They can't get on the same page.
So they decided not to go. I guess the IRGC won that argument as opposed to doing a deal with people that can't actually cut the deal. That's one thing the vice president said last time in the 21-hour negotiation. It became clear in the middle that the people we were talking to did not have the authority to agree to anything. Which is a bit of a problem.
So the chaos ensued. There is no agreement. The president extended the ceasefire three to five days. And Kellogg says, hey, you know what? I would just say, let's finish the job.
What does Admiral William McCraven think? He's a retired U.S. Four Star Admiral, served on the 9th Command, the 9th Commander of the United States Special Operations Command, and the author of a brand new book, Perfect for 250, called Duty, Honor, Country, and Life, a tribute to the American Spirit. Admiral, always great to have you in. It's good to be with you, Brian.
So we hit the ground running. That's one Lieutenant General's opinion about where to go from here. Love yours. Yeah, well, one, I love Keith Kellogg. It's always enjoyable listening to him on Fox.
Uh I I probably disagree with him in some re respect.
So I actually I teach a class at the University of Texas, the LBJ School of Public Affairs, on national security decision making. And I put the students in a simulated situation room. They play members of the National Security Council. And I give them a framework for thinking about: how are you going to make national security decisions? And one of the things I tell them is: you have to ask yourself: the decisions you make and the actions you take, will you be in a better strategic position after you do this?
So, as we think about where we are now, what does the president want out of this? I think the president wants the Straits of Hormuz to be open, and he would certainly like to get the nuclear material back in his hands, or at least he'd like to convince the Iranians not to enrich more past the 60% that some of this highly enriched uranium is. You're going to have to get them to the bargaining table, to the negotiation table, to do that. Right now, I think the only way to do that is to say, look, we will lift the blockade. And I know that's not popular, but the blockade is a switch.
You can turn it on, you can turn it off. We will lift the blockade. You come to the negotiation. It's just like the ceasefire. But you actually unblocked the straight too, right?
Well, the straight is to some degree open a little bit. We haven't blockaded the straight. We blockaded the ports. No, I know. Would you also tell Iran, open up the straight?
Absolutely.
Okay. Yeah, yeah.
So open up the straight.
So in this ceasefire period, open up the straight. We will lift the blockade. You come to the negotiating table. If we're not able to negotiate a deal, And the two deals is the straights stay open and you don't enrich past a certain point. Then Well, we blockade again.
And again, you can turn that on and turn that off really rapidly.
So I don't think the president is giving up anything by saying, let's lift the blockade for a period of time to bring them to the table. Then if they don't want to come to the table, they've got no more excuses. Then the president's in a position to say, okay, look, I gave you an opportunity.
Now maybe we go on and do strategic strikes.
So as you did that and you sit down.
So let's say they still don't want to sit down. You lift that. And the IRGC, there's an excellent chance that we're dealing with a group that feels as though by surviving they're winning. Right. Absolutely.
So how much damage would you go, you as a commander and let's say a Secretary of State? When would you bring the military option back? Yeah, I think you've got to give the negotiation a little time. What people don't realize is, even to negotiate the JCPOA with people that were professional negotiators, it took 18 months.
Now, the President clearly doesn't want to wait 18 months, but you're going to have to give the negotiation a little time. But, okay, let's say the negotiations don't go as planned. Yes, you re-blockade the ports, and then you begin to escalate again the strikes. You've got to be very careful about going after the power plants and these sort of things, because the Iranians still have a lot to play. They've got a lot of drones.
They've got a lot of short-range ballistic missiles. They can then attack the UAE and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and their Arab neighbors in a way that's really going to disrupt the world economy.
So I mentioned this to you in the green room before Fox and Friends today, Admiral. But I mean, we did have, we do now have a week and a half, two weeks to maybe get some missile defense to protect those desalinization plants and maybe protect vital areas. And now we have the defensive drones the Ukrainians have provided. Instead of using the Patriots to knock down. $100,000 drone.
So, how much of an adjustment have we made, do you think, from the contacts you have and the reasonableness that you have? Yeah, I think we've certainly put some of the high-value targets, some of the refineries in, again, I'll be careful here, but in some of the Arab states, we have resupplied them with some additional patriots. But the fact of the matter is. We don't I don't think we have enough patriots to cover every gap.
So the Iranians could clearly find an opportunity. I mean, you talk about launching hundreds of drones or ballistic missiles, they could still get through and do significant damage to some of the power plants or the desalinization plants that are along that Persian Gulf coastline. How much progress do you think we've made in observing how much damage we've done and what the Iranians have done to try to fix things during this ceasefire period? Do you think we're learning a lot right now? Yeah, I mean, certainly, you know, we have unfettered access to the skies, and our satellite imagery and the intelligence community certainly has a good understanding of the damage that's been done and what the Iranians are trying to do to rebuild it.
But I think people don't quite understand how large Iran is. I'm from Texas. Texas is a pretty big state. Iran is two and a half times the size of Texas. 90 million people.
Yeah, so but when you think about, well, why don't we just find these little boats, these fast boats along the coast?
Well, that's like looking along the entire east coast of the United States and trying to find a Boston whaler. These are not easy things to do, even with the military that we've got.
So can we see if they're rebuilding or digging out from Natans or Combs? Sure, of course we can. But the threats that exist today are a lot, again, of these fast attack boats, of the drones that are in bunkers and cave complexes, and, of course, the ballistic missiles.
So you've thought about this and you've warplanned around this almost your entire career because Iran's been my whole adult life, Iran's been an enemy, right? That's right.
So this is nothing new to you. It's just about when we were going to take them on in some way, shape, or form. And you also probably know some of the 600-plus that lost their lives in Iraq to the insurgency sponsored by the EFPs made by the Iranians, let alone the thousands that would have been wounded. You might even know some of the 241 that were killed in Beirut, along with the hostage that we're taking.
So knowing that they have this long track record and blood on their hands. Yeah. How has this conflict played out differently than you thought? And how much was it very similar to what you thought? Yeah, so make no mistake about it.
The Iranian regime has been horrible since 1979. And you laid out all the issues, Brian. I mean, the fact of the matter is they have killed hundreds or thousands of Americans or been responsible for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans and our allies. Their proxies, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, have continued to do damage around the area.
So nobody is losing any sleep over the Iranian regime and, again, the destruction that we've levied on them. That's all well and good, but I get back to the strategic position.
So at the end of the day, the president has to look strategically. Every president since 1979 has wanted a change in the regime. A lot of the times they haven't done it because there were some things that were pretty obvious to the military. One, it's very difficult to change regimes, as the president is finding out. You've wiped out all the senior leaders, but guess what?
This regime runs wide and deep. Also, we've never been able to bomb our way to victory, right?
So, this idea that we could level the key infrastructure in Iran and they would just somehow give up, that's never been the case in modern history. Because it's so blatantly blatantly unpopular with the people. For sure. And they never got elected to power.
So it's not like you're going with 90 million against the rest of the world. You're probably going with what? 500,000 tops? Yeah, yeah, and 200,000 probably just in the IRGC that are keeping an eye on a lot of these other folks. But yeah, so again, the president wanted the Iranian people to rise up.
That's going to be really hard. And you never, ever, ever, ever talk about Iran without talking about the Straits of Hormuz, because that is always their leverage point.
So the President going forward, if he wants to find himself in a better strategic position than he was before February 28th, Then he's going to have to figure out how do you get him to the table and negotiate something that opens the straits. Reduces their enrichment of uranium, and maybe we move forward.
So I love your book, the concept of it. It takes a lot of your speeches, which you're great at not only delivering but writing. Duty, honor, country, and life, a tribute to the American spirit. And what prompted you is 250. You want people to understand, we've always been arguing, we've always been disagreeing.
But what's different now. is we seem to be uh We seem to have lost the ability to do it constructively. Right. Right. So how does this book attack that?
Well, I talk about in a lot of the speeches. And of course, as you know, Brian, my speeches, they're stories. And they're stories of great Americans I've met, great people I've met across the country and across the world that have inspired me.
So part of the book is, look, if you're starting to lose a little faith in America, read the book and I think it will help you regain that faith. But another part of the book is to look at where we are 250 years into our democracy. And when you look back over our democracy, look, we've had problems, but we have always overcome them. And one of the key attributes that has allowed us to overcome them is our ability to be civil. And I mentioned earlier this morning on Fox and Friends.
George Washington had a little book that he carried with him called The Rules of Civility and Decency. And he really lived by those rules. He wrote them? No, he did not write it, but it was a collection of what he learned. Yeah, and no, it was a little book that had been written, but he carried it with him everywhere.
And he passed it out to people because he wanted his officers to understand what was important about generalship, about citizenship. And so being civil was part of that. And then, about, I don't know, 100 years later, you have John Stuart Mill comes along, and he writes a book called On Liberty. And there's a whole section on civility. And Mill's point was look.
It's okay to disagree. You know, but people need to have competing ideas, but at the end of the day, you can't get competing ideas to solve problems unless people are civil in that part of the discussion.
So, I made the probably the most famous speech you gave is 2014, University of Texas commencement speech, where you talked about making your bed. And it's a small book, but man, it was a bestseller forever, but it was based off that speech. That's one of your stories, right? Do the little things right, and the big things will fall into place. Yeah, absolutely.
So, what other speeches did you build off of in this? And what about your family's influence, being that your dad served in World War II? Yeah, well, of course, my parents are a big part of my life as parents and guardians and coaches and teachers are.
So, I have a number of speeches in here. I gave a speech to the MIT graduating class in 2020. I've given a speech to the National Football Foundation to talk about football. And my father was a professional football player, and he always believed that how you played football between the lines, between the 120 yards on the On TERF was how you ought to be a man, you know, respect your opponent, be humble, respect the rules. But I've got speeches in there to the law enforcement officers.
That's the first speech in there that I gave in 2011 after the bin Laden raid to talk about how much I appreciated what law enforcement officers did. I've got speeches to the National Historical Society. But again, all of these speeches, and to Irishmen, I gave a keynote speech at the 200th anniversary of the Hibernian Society in Savannah. And the point about the quote-unquote Irishman is that we all have a little bit of Irish in us. We want to fight the good fight.
Right. And the thing is, Adam, a few more minutes when we get back. But you, as an Irish guy, also know that people fight, but I think one of the most inspirational things is when they hug at the end. Yeah, absolutely.
You were literally beating each other for 12, sometimes 15 rounds back in the 80s, and you would hug it out.
So if they can do that, that's part of the respect. That's right, Brian. Back in a moment. Real talk, real guests, real insight. Where curiosity meets conversation.
It's the Brian Kilmeat Show. A radio show like no other. It's Brian Kilmead. Hey, welcome back. It's out this week, right, right, Admiral?
It's called Duty, Honor, Country, and Life, a tribute to the American Spirit. Are you looking forward to July 4th and all these things celebrating our 250th birthday? Of course. I mean, look, as I said, this experiment in democracy, and this is a grand experiment. We're not there yet.
But when you look back over 250 years, one, we're the longest democracy in the history of the world. And for all of our missteps, and there have been a few, this is still the greatest country in the world. And we ought to celebrate it. What do you see your role as probably one of the most well-known and respected leaders of your generation? Is that why it's important for you to make these speeches, to put so much time into it, and then put this book together?
Yeah, I mean, the point is, and I say it right up front, and look, this is: every time I write a speech, I try to make sure that it is a speech that I think reflects. The values that we admire in America. It is about courage. It is about integrity. It is about humility.
It is about compassion. It's about things I think that the founding fathers looked at and said, these are important qualities, and we want to bake them into our DNA. And everywhere I go, probably outside the political arena of Washington, D.C., there are terrific Americans out there. And yes, we disagree on a lot of things, but as we approach the 250th, We need to celebrate the good of America.
So you you're worried about social media. People talk about how it polarizes. Are you kind of heartened by the fact that we have a generation now in their teens that's saying, I'm not going to get caught up in that? I see how the manipulation is happening. We see schools pushing back on the iPads.
And even if they're It's no political agenda. It's no one's learning the way they used to. No one's interacting the way they used to. I think we're seeing a reawakening from the last time you were here. Yeah, no, I mean, there's a new book out called The Anxious Generation, or it's been out for a little while, and it talks about the impact of iPhones and iPads and these sort of things.
And you've seen it. Yeah, of course. And so I am concerned. And I've got a couple of grandchildren, and their parents, my kids, are very, very careful about giving the grandkids access to iPhones too early. And so you do worry about that.
But, you know, we talked about earlier in the green room before Fox and Friends about civility. And I think what has generated a lot of the incivility has been the social media because you can be anonymous. Right. So you can get out there and you can rail away on somebody and never put your name on it. And then you feel like, well, that emboldens you to go out and get some followers.
Yeah, of course. And be more and more mean-spirited. And then at some point in time, you think, well, I'm getting a lot of followers. I'll put my name on it. That's who I'm going to be.
And that does not serve America well. How about With AI, people saying, let me let AI tell me the answer to this question. Write that speech. Yeah, no. You know, I use AI to do some research, but I'm always a little careful because I use it almost like I use Google, but I never, ever, ever have it write anything for me.
Part of it is I just don't ever want to be accused or somebody say, well, this looks like it was written by AI. No, no, no. Everything I write, everything I put to paper are my original words.
Now, I look, again, I'll look up, tell me about Brian Killaman, tell me about his history, that sort of thing. Yeah, don't do that. Most of it's negative.
Well, but the other part is a lot of it's not accurate either.
So you have to be very careful with AI.
So that's why the green room, that's why our green room conversations are so valuable. Hey, guys, pick up this book, especially if you have a birthday, Father's Day coming up, or Mother's Day in two weeks. Duty, Honor, Country, and Life, a tribute to the American Spirit, Admiral William McCraven. Always great. Great to be here, Brian.
Thanks. This week on the Fox True Crime podcast, psychotherapist and author Lena Durhau breaks down the mind of Chris Watts and the warning signs behind one of America's most disturbing family murders. Listen and follow now at foxtruecrime.com. Mm-hmm.
