Do us have more than 100000. 00 navigators stand alone. That can be extremely concerning. And sadly, 2400 to never made it back home to United States. Lots and more than 20000 were wounded in action. What good was there sacrifice . Because within a year of the United States pulling out the taliban regime has almost again to full control of afghanistan. Again, the same could be also said following the withdrawal from Many American troops interact as well. Now, but following the attack, which killed 3 american soldiers in jordan, us military started a series of strikes, including 125. 00 munitions against 85. 00 militia targets in syria and a rack. And this might just be the beginning, as more and more pressure as being formed on the Current Administration to take more action. Now this is all while the United States troops station in the middle east, are there with the permission of each countrys government. Well, thats except for syria and was more than a 160. 00 recent attacks on us troops across a rack and serious since october, its apparent, the residents of the country are not as happy. So what exactly is United States doing was so many deployed Service Members to the middle east and whose interest are the exactly survey. Lets discuss about panel. Kind of rob manice, who is a former air force colonel and a radio talk show host as well. Scott ritter, a geo political analysts, and all ser former us military and un inspector. Thank you so much for joining the gentleman on this issue that weve been debating for decades. And yet here we still are. And what are the same situation . I want to start with you scott, what is the Main Objective of the United States of stationing american troops in syria and iraq in this present time . Well, i mean, we go back to be, i guess the beginning, the, the, the Carter Doctrine of the decision made that the, the middle east is an oil is the protection of oil supplies are the in the Strategic National interest of the United States. I was part of the marine corps Rapid Deployment force back in the 1980s ready to deploy on a moments notice. I deployed to saudi arabia during operation desert shield, desert storm to respond to a reaction, invasion of kuwait, the invasion that we made, the case threatened your Saudi Arabian oil fields in eastern saudi arabia, therefore triggering the need to intervene and the bit we sort of lost track and became not so much about securing the oil as um, saving face. Uh, we didnt get rid of Saddam Hussein after desert storm and for the next decade we uh, embarked on policies of regime change using United Nations sanctions to strangle saddam until we could build up a case for war for missed on a lie that got us involved in a conflict in 2003 a couple on that, the global warranty or 911 f ganna stand. Um, ill tell you what, we dont know why were in the middle. Sort of wrapped in this, in this legacy we, we were there. But the target keep moving and now were, were stuck. We, we cant articulate any reasonable premise for having troops in syria. Right . Were sustaining them. Okay. Presence direct. Well, scott and i wanna re chrome, yes. And other things. Lets go back to what you said, was it really sold to the American People . That the reason why we were sending our troops over there originally was for oil. I mean, i can understand it for national security. I can understand it for, to fight the war on terrorism tech. Vietnam was to fight this threat of communism. Was it really sold to the American People and did they understand that they were going over there as for oil and that original intent crow mannus way . Scott pointed out, rightly so, the are the original Strategic Vision of the United States for the area. I had it signing up the free flow of oil from the persian gulf was the vital National Interest for the United States. I was, well before i even the i told her took over, i ran and i believe so. Uh so yeah, thats exactly what the purpose was for the war a to a to, to boost or to boot saddam back out of to a course to 8. Im sorry, ray be, are kind of our clause i allies at the time too. So that didnt help anybodys case. It was opposing that, but today the day scotty is uh that is exactly what scott just said. We dont really have a mission on the sand in the middle east right now, and those troops should have been pulled out of there. Years ago. There should never have been american troops without the approval of congress in syria where they are still today. Then every regime, every, every administration is responsible for not doing the right things that lead to the desk. So those 3 soldiers, now we, its debatable about the, you know, the u. S. Navy task force that with the coalition now trying to protect her, most of shipping in the red sea, from the who, the terrorist and iranian backed the course up. But we even be there at all with our naval fleet. If we didnt still say that we needed to do things like keep vices from recreating itself after the Trump Administration completely destroyed it or protect those oil fields in northern syria. Protect them for who, from who. I mean theyre not doing us any good. And it just raises the, the issue in a positive life, but why we should be going back to being energy dominant because is none of these places really matter except for, from an alliance perspective nowadays. Then they did the back in the day when we said, hey, the free flow of oil coming out of the persian gulf is our vital interest. We did that on the heels of the gas shortages, etc. So the politicians were able to get away with it. But today, theres no emission, those soldiers shouldnt have been there on that the, on that ground. And we should be pulling out right now. Unfortunately, its going to look bad for us. So the generals, im sure, advise and present advice, not to do it because weve just had a bunch killed. Oh, by the way, those 85 targets, we hit, we telegraph to the iranians and their people. What we were going to do and where we were going to hit. So we hit a bunch of empty holes, probably the name and destroyer, but maybe one or 2 percent of their command and control and communications equipment. Okay, so that bridge, the question right now is scott, you can is military intelligence just as not making comments as we are warning those before we strike them. We are, we dont necessarily have a Clear Mission as to why were there. So what is the actual thinking and who is actually pulling these triggers to keep the United States in these fields, protecting these oil fields, especially knowing that the series of aaron drunk strikes and a rock and it gets ronnie approx these theres heard that, like i said, the Iraqi Government will be asked to will ask us to leave for you. What does this mean in regards to the region . If americans are ordered to leave, will they actually do so, considering theres not a clearly defined mission at this point as well. You mentioned military intelligence, you know, military intelligence supports an operational objective. And um, you know, you build a collection plan. You, you, you, you gather information, you assess it and then you, you brief, your, your, your, your leaders, military leaders, political leaders. Um, you know, at that point in time they have to make decisions. Uh, you know, this isnt that Intelligence Driven war is kurt mcmahon has pointed out. Um, you know, intelligence gave 85 targets. But what, what was the purpose of the targets where you test with providing targets that would degrade the mobile relocatable of, you know, targeting or targets the missiles model, missiles of the hoody. Or were you tacitly providing 85 points on the ground that could be struck in achieve a political objective of appeasing and american audience that was outraged by the, you know, 3 dead soldiers. We just dont know. Lets look at syria for a 2nd. Why are we there . Ostensibly, were there because isis uh, originated from serious spreading out through western iraq to move 0 in 2014 down to decrypt. We intervened in our rack with the permission of the i could government to form an anti cyst coalition. Among of which i need to point out was iran in the could force. Theres an iconic photograph taken outside of to create showing american soldiers on one side of the road and custom sumani in the goods leadership on the other side of the road. Because we were fighting together allied against isis. We re took moses o, we push onto the syrian border, and now we cross into syria, ostensibly to finish the job. But this is where it gets complicated because to finish the job we have to make common cause. With a kurdish force, the y p g a, its all alphabet soup up here, but they are literally an extension of the p k k. Another alphabet soup. But those are turkish curtis groups that we call terrorists. And now in order to fight isis a legitimate terrace group, were making common cause with a terrorist group that weve designated. So we rename them the Syrian Democratic forces. And now were in this battle. But the Syrian Democratic forces have control over an important part of syria, then this, these, the northeastern part, where oil fields exist, oil fields that had been sustaining isis outside up. And now we sought to keep to sustain the Kurdish Forces that were now or allies, even though theyre terrorist. Isis has been destroyed, but we were using the Kurdish Forces as a mechanism to achieve an unspoken objective regime change in damascus. Were seeking to remove by cheryl, aside from power. We were using one of the reasons why isis existed is because we turned a blind guy to their creation because we found it to be useful in the process of the stabilizing syria. Now we had to target isis, so we had to replace them with something as isis was defeated, the Syrian Forces began to expand, and they said they were gonna take control of the jordanian border and the rocky board. And we couldnt allow that to happen. So we moved into syria outcome for 2nd bastion, where we literally made alliance with the pro i sis siri and tribes in the region, but diverting their attention from attacking us to attacking the syrian government. We are state sponsors of care on siri and soil today in our 3 soldiers who died died in the mission of supporting isis terrorist. We call them Something Different today, but there isis terrorist for the purpose of getting rid of, by sure all of a sudden, a mission that the United States congress has not said is a legitimate mission. So the colonel is 100 percent. Correct. We have americans Service Members in arms way dying for a mission that has no constitutional authority. And thats the problem right now because i think i would almost need a diagrams for the different groups are talking about. But scott, what scott brings up to very good point that we are, have actually arm some of the same people that are fighting is. So i go to chrome, man is on this. How much does the American People understand . Also, how much does a bite in ministration understand as they continue to handle the situation with the he was these were going to bring in young men into this situation. How much did they recognize . What is really happening on the ground will be your 2nd question. Ill answer 1st, i think the by the administration and the team running the country fully understand because there are allies of iran. Okay. That explains some of the moves that theyve made. They are allies of our read that keep in mind whats got just said he just called out the american government, which one of its visions, it says it has this to prevent the, the reformation of the isis caliphate. And were actually allied with isis supporting terrace in this region. Think about that. The American People have no idea about that. But the Us Government does have an idea about that. And those 3 americans died without a mission. The 2nd part of the mission they say is that were, were there to enter the supply lines of the Iranian Forces in equipment and, and material and intelligence going into, uh, support come off. Well, when is the last time the United States armed forces in any way even in special operations, rage did anything to irans logistics and supply lines through that part of the world. I challenge you to find me one independent report that states that weve ever done that. And thats because we have not done that. We are on the wrong side there. We have our people in harms way intentionally, and they need to be got an offer that drowned right now. We can reset to a strategic location. We have all the capability in the world to do those kinds of things. And if we need to do things like were doing in the red sea to protect commercial shipping, we have that capability, but we dont have to put our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen in physical danger, of incessant and costs that attack from the iranian militias. Just because they happened to be there and they happened to be backing the wrong side. Okay, were going to take a quick break because when we come back, i can do this conversation. I want to interject into the new thing with is real and what role theyre playing, as well as the binding ministration, as they continue to escalate the tensions within the middle east. The take a fresh look around his life. Kaleidoscopic isnt just a shifted reality distortion by power to vision with no real opinions. Fixtures, design to simplify will confuse really once a better wills, and is it just because it shows you fractured images, presented to this, but can you see through their illusions, going underground . Can ok welcome back. Im sky now heres an youre watching the 360 view. Lets bring back in our panel, colonel robert, manage the former air force colonel radio show host, as well as scott ritter, 8 geo political analyst, author, and former u. S. Military and un inspector. Before the break, we were starting to get into this idea of israel and the escalating conflict that is going on between israel and casa. How is that effected . The dynamic in the middle east, as obviously, as you 1st started out, scott talked about was a ron. Uh, where is that changing any of your, your friends, our photos based on the recent events and developments in israel. The 1st of all, we have to understand that is real considered itself to be in a strategic conflict with the wrong. But its a conflict that israel knows that it cannot militarily initiate and sustain without the assistance of the United States. So one of is real strategic objectives as always, been to create a scenario that would get to United States to take the lead in military action against the wrong that israel could dovetail a lot of United States determines that the wrong poses a threat to our extra central survival that warrants military actions. So be a, thats an issue the congress should discuss. And um, and then then the American People can, can get behind if thats the direction we want to go. But i, i take umbrage at the notion that the United States goes to war because another nation is, know, join us in that direction without the advice and consent of congress or the American People. That im somebody who spent a lot of time in that region. And a lot of time. Ready with israel, i used to consider israel to be, you know, a friendly nation despite the us this liberty attack, despite jonathan pollard. Despite apex intervention in american elections. Um, you know, i, i felt that we had your common cause in terms of stability. But when you take a look at what israel is today under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu in this far right wing government. Um i, i just think the American People need to reflect on whos calling the shots and its not the United States government yet. Its American Military forces that are being deployed be called into action. And again, if, if we need to go to war, if we need to take military action is United States to protect our Vital National security interest. So be it. But we should have an honest discussion about this right now. I just think this entire is really scenario is a of a situation that, you know, israel is foisting on us and were, were getting blurred into a trap that, you know, we may find ourselves with a lot more dead americans and wondering how the heck this happened and that is my concern on this because 2 way r d was, let me ask chrome is do you feel like the American People are being told the truth of what exactly is happening with in the gaza and is real conflict right now. And the role that runs playing and a do feel like were being told what is actually happening on the ground. The American People are being told the truth about pretty much any subject in these days. Got a, i mean, its got the right look. You know, i support the, the, the movement of Us Naval Forces in to the area at the beginning of this, when a moss, a crazy people committed their atrocities on october 7th in order to deter other adversaries and bad actors from entering the conflict. But you know what, that deterrence has failed if it was ever established at all. And that requires the United States to take a 2nd look at scott said, you know, if, if, if we take a 2nd look into the analysis and, and see through irans actions that they are a serious threat that makes a central threat to United States. Or they attack their forces, we obviously have a responsibility to respond to that. But we shouldnt be dancing to any other countries to a, even though we support israels right to defend itself based on this october 7th attack i, i whole heartedly support their right to do that. But they dont have any say in what the United States of america does. Were allied. So yes, we communicate and those kind of things. But i mean, even opposed to the us giving any money to israel for this because they dont need our money. What they need is allied support, and thats what we should be doing. But if our deterrence effort failed already, then we just need to be reassessing and figure out what our next steps are. Because we dont want any wider, regional conflict or worse to happen, especially getting the United States. So america and its force is drawn into a conflict that it shouldnt be in the 1st well. And i hate doomsday. I hate what us scenarios. However, i dont think we properly know here in america to what exactly is capable of countries like iran and israel and it and in the middle Eastern Countries right now. So i am going to ask you said we, i normally dont ask my guess im gonna ask, whos got 1st, what does a war look like with iran if the United States went up against it . What considering the economic sanctions the us has tried to impose on them over the last few years. What is their actual military capabilities currently . And is this threat that we can to, to hear of a nuclear war . Is that something that even a ron would even be considering . Well, lets just start off by looking at again. Desert storm of conflict of desert shield, desert storm, a conflict im intimately familiar with. You know, we flowed 750000 troops into the region. We were able to do so because we had permissive ports. That means we had friendly ports able to receive our shipping. We werent under fire, but we could land our aircraft in airfields that werent under attack. And today we dont have 750000 troops to flow into the region. We are, weve diminished our military capacity a tremendously, carl, the colonel mentioned the turns, you know, the key aspect of deterrence is that the other side needs to be afraid of the consequences of their actions. That, you know, we need to come in and say if you do x, what were going to do and response will be so horrible that whatever benefit you think youre getting from x will not exist. We dont have deterrence because people are doing whatever they want. And our strikes are not achieving the kind of, you know, horror that they should receive a. So weve lost the church. So now if we go to war, the run, understand this, we will need because the run is not iraq. Iran is a very large nation run has extremely world of. Busy military capability, including Ballistic Missiles that can sink american ships and they have that potential, they can strike american airfields in the region, strike american bases in the region. We dont have an adequate response to that. We would need 900 to 1500000 american troops deployed into the region to have any chance of successfully engaging and defeating a rug uh strategically. We dont have that one of the things that this who the exercise has taught us about the, the, the bellman deb straight, which is the strategic straighten. The red sea is the us navy cannot guarantee that it can keep it open. And now what happens if you run shirts down the street to her moves for years weve been told by the us navy, we guarantee that the street will be open around. Cant shut it down. No, i think you ron can shut it down and we dont have the means available. This is where we have to be careful about allowing a motion to get ahead of actual capability. We have our military showed great it today that we project a power that cant be backed up with meaningful force. We cannot do an operation. Desert storm today, and we would need an operation. Desert storm on steroids. To take care of. You run your runs nuclear threat. I dont believe that they have a nuclear weapon. Who knows what the future holds is real, does have a nuclear weapon. But if were going to talk about potential is really retaliation. Do we run in terms of nuclear . Then we have to bring in pakistan and you know, pakistan does have Nuclear Weapons in pakistan has hinted that should israel, striking wrong pakistan will strike israel. And this is a whole different ball game of the United States needs. If were going to get involved in the military scenario, we need to be able to control that from the outset. We need to be in charge. We need to have the capacity to meet the objectives. And today we simply dont, were in there. We dont know why were there, we dont know what we want to accomplish strategically, and we dont have the force necessary to, to do this. Its a trap. And unfortunately, the people who pay the price in addition to the people of the region are those americans Service Members who honored us by taking a nose to protect us. And were going to put them in harms way without giving you know, Due Diligence to why were asking them to sacrifice their lunch. Well, uh, and thats very dire, but i really want appreciate your being honest with this good. I think thats what we need. People need to understand what the consequences of were this generation, especially who did not. I started to see what happened with vietnam and post vietnam. And what the havoc that has read for generations call man is i have to ask you a saudi arabia. What role of saudi arabia play if that conflict was to occur as, as the layout that scott described where it started, right . We are, they still are ally, is it even smart to call them an ally . Well, i think theyve always been a clause i ally, and it was in their interest to allow us to occupying build bases inside their territory to take care of the desert shield. Desert storm situations got pointed out. But one of the things, the 2 of the things that he didnt point out to just now are that we also lack, not just the capability to get this job done. If we go to war with iran, we lack the political will. If we had the political will, we would have destroyed the iranian command, control intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, ships that are out in the water. Ating the who dees targeting and command control in which targets the hit. And we didnt, we chose not to do that specifically. So we dont have the political will, and if we were to get into an all out conflict, the honor ran proper with all of the requirements that scott, just to lay it out, we would actually an utterly fail. And heres the re, the big reason why not just a political will, is we dont have the military Industrial Base needed to even keep up with the amount of rounds that the craniums are getting at. And we dont, we are not replenishing our supplies that we expended during afghanistan. And we continued to, to create more problems for our military Industrial Base. Who cant keep up with the production need to fight the war and ukraine, whether you believe it or not, those are the facts. So we wouldnt be able to last more than about 72 hours to a week. More than likely, if we were to go into an iran war proper, it would be an absolute disaster and rob chrome in a sense, god, we both knew. I think we can all agree. Were just talking about the United States involved. But if there was a conflict that seriously broke out, theres a lot of other countries that ive interest to, but also be involved and what lines in the sand would be drawn. I wanna thank both of you. We could go on for hours is were just hitting the surface of this issue, but i appreciate you sharing your insight. Thank you. Thank you. There is nothing more heart wrenching. Then watching a family dressed all in black, waiting along the tarmac to receive a coffin draped to the countrys flag of the cargo hold of the airplane. That same family gathered in pride to send their loved 1 october mission, the middle east thinking they were doing something to help make the world a safer place. Now there, here are returns, but instead of being greeted with tears of joy is tears of deep sorrow. Sadly, the west does it show these images to the people, or what life is like for the injured in their families for generations. Where is the follow up to all of those who started in afghanistan and their stories of what they saw were instructed to do. And how life changed when they returned to america. And i think this is all done on purpose. As those are so quit to use the American Military to protect their own interests like oil dont want their pause seed his actual human beings. The middle east has always been a powder keg, and unfortunately, it seems astounding. The west are waiting for an opportunity moment to strike the match and straight out. Heres an expand your 360 view of the news affecting you. Thanks for watching the uh the see the silver so the somebody how can it be that um the ship to the middle east from a country whose top officials constantly complain about shortages of munitions and military equipments. This through a little bit of boston, low green, and the new system and located along the nominal facility or some of those other stairs we. Im about to daisy. If not, you know, so let us know, and well have an easy somebody remember, but the sold will not be so kind and why are weapons from ukraine spreading over the world to, to this country and to a major arms hub, will continue to bolster ukraines and forces by rushing them occasionally use that they need to defend their country. The everyone knows very well that we dont sell but known as pineapples or any kind of childrens toys. We sell weapons. Yes, were also known in the world as homes dealers that we must not be ashamed of that the, to the agencies able to get the b 5, the response of the minutes and the, the, all the guys us 3 but International Organization sound the alarm over the entire situation in gods up with the un calling attention to the 13000 children killed in just over half a year. The 900 arrests from quarterly made within 10 days as please continue to plush with american universities. Students rallying over gaza, pre hearing from the us screen party co chair person. Margaret elizabeth. Think it really highlights the hypocrisy that the Democratic Party and indeed the Republican Party as well embodied. They will tell us that they want