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Or visit weShareHealth.org and take a look for yourself. But the main story. that's really affecting the election, even though we don't talk about it enough. Is what's happening in Iran. And a God that can bring us inside Iran and give us great context and context is Professor Kian Taj Bakish, the visiting professor at NYU, who was a.
Was held in prison in Iran, thankfully, is out. Professor, welcome back. Thank you, Brian. Good morning.
So, Professor, the President says he's got it. I'll just paraphrase. He says, I got a big decision to make. Do I go in there hard and go from complete annihilation, or do I continue all types of this pressure, this economic fury that we're in the middle of now? What do you think?
Well, I mean, we've heard these options many times before.
So, I mean, the option, I mean, The president really has three options in front of him. One was represented by the MOU that was signed by the Vice President in June. That was the Memorandum of Understanding, which, in my view, and I wrote at the time, and I think we spoke at the time, I thought was really a bad deal for the United States. That is basically giving Iran the store and walking away from the Gulf. The second option is what he's talking about now.
I mean, he's raising it, which is to go big. And to restart a much more massive military operation to weaken the regime even more. The third strategy is the economic strangulation strategy, which Secretary Besson is managing. And so amongst those three, I think a combination of the economic strategy and a kind of military strategy is the one that makes sense. And I think we should really avoid.
You know, I want to say, Brian, I was listening to your intro. We're at a very dangerous moment in the United States, both for our country and for the U.S. role in the world. You know, the red-green alliance that Senator Cruz talked about, the influence of anti-Israel, anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party, is something that the Iranian regime is looking at. very, very carefully.
It's saying that look These people are saying what we are saying. They are anti-Israel. And if we can just wait out President Trump, we may be able to have a Democratic Party that basically allows us to attack Israel even more. And that's something they're looking at very, very carefully. They're seeing this happening inside American society.
And they're saying we should bide our time.
So, in terms of what the U.S. should be doing inside Iran, I don't.
So, number one, we should not go back to the MOU. That was a disaster for American interests. President Vance was obviously, Vice President Vance was obviously speaking. To a large part of the American public, that what came out against so-called forever wars. But the reality is that America is a superpower and that America has global interests which are U.S.
interests.
So walking away from the Gulf would be a massive blow to U.S. interests.
So that's not what we should be doing. We should be continuing for the American strategy to continuing the economic strangulation. But unfortunately, I don't see right now a successful military operation being mounted because there's lots of talk about depletion of munitions. There's lots of talk about the damage that has been done to American bases. And also, U.S.
diplomacy seems to be a little bit. Um, you know, unfocused. I mean, why are we sitting down talking with the Houthis in Oman? Uh, Houthis are Iran, not only Iran-backed, they are Iran-managed terrorist organization that Iran is using to pressure the United States and Europeans and the Gulf Arabs by closing down the Red Sea, just as they are threatening Hormuz.
So, I think at the moment. I don't see the end of military operations happening anytime soon, maybe until the end of President Trump's time in office. And so for now, I think for the American interest, it's to squeeze economically and see if they can bring Iran not only to the table, because Iranians love to come to the table, for the Iranian regime to make significant concessions that the U.S. wants. Yeah, they're getting on crypto now, big time, and they're doing a good job forensically with Scott Besson.
We've gotten pretty good at finding out how terrorists are funded, and we're beginning to pressure there. There were 3,700 cargo trucks who've been stuck at the borders of Turkey and Pakistan. They can't get through. They're sitting there in the 110-degree weather with cargo that could be rotting as we speak.
So anybody who thought they can go over land to make up for the blockade, they're not getting that. I also think that if we were to do anything, You have to get the IDF involved.
So, if there's going to be a massive military operation, the IDF with their intelligence to know where Vahidi is and all these other leaders are would be of benefit. I'll add to the Houthis. The Houthis asked for that meeting in Oman, and they said, hey, we don't have a problem with you. We don't have a problem with Israel. We just want to fight Saudi Arabia.
But our problem is with them. And we should not allow they are shutting down these this trade over in the Red Sea.
So they're already costing us.
So we're being we're being manipulated by the Houthis, who want no part of us after the fifty three days of bombing. Absolutely, Brian. I mean, you Listen, I mean, that talking point should be dismissed immediately. The Houthis are a proxy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are funded, they were created by the Islamic Republic of Iran out of some indigenous forces that existed in Yemen.
Iran's goal in Yemen is to do what they've done with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
So this is their strategy, the Hezbollah Saudi Arabia Peninsula around the Red Sea.
So I wouldn't take that seriously. And I think that the idea that we sit down and talk with people who are against us, I mean, you should listen to the leader of the philosophy of the Houthis. It's not true that it says they have no problem with us. They want to eliminate Israel. And Israel is an ally, and it's a legitimate country in the region.
And of course, they want to control the Red Sea. And the United States cannot give that over to a group which is essentially controlled by Iran, which we're at war with. How many years have we spent listening to politicians in Washington argue about how to make health care insurance more affordable? Obamacare was supposed to fix it. Then we needed bigger government subsidies to make Obamacare.
Obamacare affordable. Those subsidies expired, and guess what? People are paying more again at some point. Maybe the question isn't, how do we keep fixing the same system? Maybe the question is, what else is out there?
That's why I want you to take a look at WeShare Health. WeShare isn't health insurance, it's a non-profit, Christian healthcare sharing organization, and their members pay up to 60% less than they would for Obamacare. You still get access to a nationwide PPO network and over a million physicians, plus unlimited telehealth.
So stop waiting for Washington or the insurance companies to make healthcare affordable for you. Do your own research. See what your options are. Call 1-88-WESHARE for a free quote. That's 1-888-WESHARE.
Or visit weShareHealth.org and take a look for yourself. Irene American Scholar now at NYU, former political prisoner, Professor Kian Taj Bakish is with us now. And Professor, so. There's going to be a meeting with the Gulf States and the President at the General Assembly.
Now, some of them are angry, some of them are disillusioned, some of them are happy, some of them just want a way forward. All of that stuff matters. But Saudi Arabia is the most interesting because they stopped us twice from amping up the pressure in the Gulf and said you can't use our bases if you're going to do freedom, Operation Freedom. And they did it again.
So now they say, help us with the Houthis. I'm sw I'm for helping them. With the nugget of saying, don't stop us again, and don't cut off our bases. Because it's in our interest to protect not only their pipelines but their access.
So what would you do, Professor? I would, you know, I mean, I obviously am not in the room there talking about logistics. I would step back and say, look. What has been exposed and become very clear over the last six months or even a year since the Of the nuclear facilities over the last year is that the United States needs a grand strategy, an understanding of what the grand strategy is in the Middle East. It should not be approaching these problems piecemeal.
It should not be seeing the question of the Houthis separately from the question of the Iranians. And it should not be seeing the Red Sea as separate from Hormuz. These are one coordinated strategy by the opponents of the United States to pressure the US and its allies. Saudi Arabia should be a partner, it is an ally, and there are obviously many dimensions of the economic and political relationship between the US that should continue. But I think that what the Arab Gulf states are seeing.
When they look at the United States, is there seeing Um What looks to them is great confusion and lack of clarity about what the United States actually. Once in the Middle East and what it sees as the long-term plan. I mean, the June MOU with Iran must have been an enormous shock. To all of the Arab states and even to Israel. I mean, I heard very senior people from the region, both in Israel and the Arab states, who were just saying, just shaking their head, saying, What on earth is going on?
I hear you. I hear you. I agree. And so I think the big issue is that. You know, it may be a long time ago, but many of your, you know, maybe your listeners should go back and read.
They can look it up on Google very easily. Look up the January 1980 executive order by President Jimmy Carter. And it's being called now the Carter Doctrine. And in it, it states very clearly in one paragraph: it says that. Uh it is the official policy of the United States.
that any any threat Any threat to freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf. Will be considered, and these are the important points, will be considered an attack on the vital interests of the United States, and any such threat will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.
Now, that is a very clear statement of what. is obviously behind Uh, U.S. policy. In other words, why are we there? Why does the United States have naval assets there?
Why is the United States engaged in trying to open the strait? But that is a very clear statement that it is a vital interest of the United States to protect that.
Now, either the administration. Goes to the American people and says, you know what? We don't, we want to revise. This uh statement of grand strategy and say We don't think the Persian Gulf is anymore a vital interest for us, and we want to pack up and we want to go home. That is essentially what the MOU.
uh entailed. More or less. If you look at the even, you know, the wording was more or less. You know what I would do, Professor? That was so good.
I did not know that existed. And an executive order like that be something that you'd see so valuable inside the State Department, be able to talk to them. But, and that would be true. I think that if I, if this is my portfolio now and the MOU happened, we can't take it back. Hey, guys, you were a little naive when you cut that.
I know what your approach was, 60 days to do a deal. I know you wanted to get oil down, but you realize what a mistake that was in the message. And you know that you gave them the deal of a lifetime and they didn't take it. They still shot at your ships.
So we live here.
So help me. give you an idea of how to land this plane. And that's how I would start the meeting. Yeah, exactly.
Well, I mean, what I would also say. Is I would actually have a meeting before a meeting with the Gulf states and go back and say, and by the way, it's not just the 1980 executive order, the Carter Doctrine, all president national security strategies throughout the years, even the last national security strategy the Trump administration published. Actually, it says this. I mean, it includes this. It's been a fixed objective of the United States and now.
I think what we do is we have a meeting. You know, I would say, I mean, no one's asking me. I would love to be asked, but I would. Professor, I'm up against the break real quick.
Okay, get your grand strategy first and go into the meeting and tell our allies that it is still a vital interest and we are going to redo our strategy and forget about the MOU and we're going to go forward on the basis of that executive order. Yep, fix it. That's what you're feeling is fix it, get it right, because the mission is needed.
