Americans used to be people who'd say, "Wait a minute, what's this go to do with us?" They don't do that anymore. --Col. Douglas MacGregor
Iran will not stand by and allow Hezbollah to be destroyed. --Macgregor
Netanyahu wants to expand the war.
Israel doesn't have any friends in the Middle East, but now it has serious enemies. And the populations are going to shape the destiny of Israel in the future.
Is this an American national security interest, or an American domestic politics reality?
It is a reality of domestic politics. The American people have been conditioned for decades to see Iran exclusively as an enemy that had to be destroyed.
I mean I could take you into WalMart or CVS, and ask somebody, "What do you think about those Iranians?"
Oh, they're bad. They're terrible.
It's worked. It goes back to our discussions about why are all of these people so quick to swallow the line about Russia being evil and corrupt, dangerous, and invading everyone? Well, you fell back on the Cold War. There is still that underlying consciousness, and there is a willingness to accept what is being taught in academia, what comes across the airwaves on television,
Americans used to be people who'd say, "Wait a minute, what's this go to do with us?" They don't do that anymore. They have been brainwashed, and conditioned. Intellectually and socially to say, "Iran is evil and bad, therefore, get rid of it. Now, there are younger people who don't share that assumption. And I don't think that Americans really understand what war means. A friend of mine who fought in Vietnam was a helicopter gun pilot as a warrant officer, he's a great person and worked for years in the intelligence committee. Worked for me when I was at the Supreme Headquarters of Light Powers Europe. And he was telling me, you know, Americans have no idea what's going on. We had Army groups in Europe between 1944 and 45, from June of 44 until the war ended, that sustained 756,000 casualties, more casualties more losses than we could replace. We have forgotten that war involves a lot of killing. The Israelis are experiencing that now, and they are not insensitive to it. But imagine it on a regional scale and Industrial scale. We lost 19,000 casualties a month from June of 44 until the Battle of the Bulge broke out, and then it went up to 100,000 a month. I'm just talking about American forces in Europe, you know, but we never bring these things up. That's war. And we have played with this war thing and now we've watched what the Russians have done who understand war. They have a grasp of it. Look at what they have done; they built a force for war. This is not some boutique, specialized army or Marine Corps designed to go into third-world countries where nobody has air defense, where nobody can defend themselves effectively, where they have very little organized military power. That's [Russian force] a force capable of waging scientific industrial war in the 21st century. We don't have that, and if we drag ourselves into this thing by provoking a war with Iran, this thing will spread because the Russians will not stand by and watch us destroy Iran. China has an enormous interest in the Persian Gulf in the Arabian Peninsula. It Imports most of its oil and gas from there. Russia has tried to make up for some of it when it could not reach it, but today it's impossible to feed the Chinese industrial machine without the Persian Gulf, without the Middle East. They are not going to stand by and watch us annihilate Iran. And we talked before about the Turks . . . the Turks are, you know, that nation is ready to fight. Mr. Erdogan has talked himself into a real corner, and my judgment because people there are enraged and ready to fight, this is a large gasoline storage site that simply needs the right match at the right time at the right location and it will blow up. That's the problem.
25:57. I want to talk with you later in the week about Russia, Ukraine, and China before we finish today, and thank you for that superb analysis of where we stand. Here's a clip from a former colleague of yours, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who shares your views and my views on nearly all these things, being pretty critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu. I wonder if you agree.
26:24. Since Netanyahu took over, indeed probably since Ronald Reagan had to really bash the Israelis when they went into Lebanon in 1982, but it certainly been their policy since Netanyahu took over, he is the most Draconian leader Israel has had in its short history since 1948 he is der Fuehrer. He is der Fuehrer.
26:53. Fair?
26:54. That may be true but I don't think at this point it's terribly relevant, because this situation has moved well beyond Mr Netanyahu. The forces in play now will not be easily arrested; they will not be contained. The so-called Genie is out of the bottle.
27:12. Even if Netanyahu were to go for domestic political reasons your view is the genie STAYS out of the bottle.
27:20. Yes, I think we're in a position now that I've tried to describe in the regional sense with all of the Islamic world, and I don't see any easy way through this at this point. If we were to stop supplying the Israelis, that might have an impact in the short term but in the long term. Their strategic position now requires support or they will go out of existence, even with our support potentially in the next 12 months. Given what I see emerging on the horizon, that may be very questionable.
