Letting Israel eliminate Iran's nuclear program (06-19-2025--Hour2)

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive. Content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron. Go to thepeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support our number two news Talk eleven ten ninety nine three WBT Pete Calendar here. The email is Pete at thepeteclendershow dot com. That's spelled k A l I n e R. You can also tweet at me at Pete Calender all one word and the phone number is seven oh four five seven oh eleven ten. To me, the question about what's going on with Israel versus Iron comes down to a pretty simple question in my mind. Now, the answers are you know complex? How you go about doing this stuff? Whatever? That's complex? The ramifications of those choices very complex and unknown, right not the sound all Donald RUMSFELDI in here. But there are known knowns, there are known unknowns, and then there are unknown unknowns, right, we don't know what happens, right. The plans all go out the window as soon as the first shots get fired, right like this. That's the thing about war. Right. So the question in my mind that I keep coming back. To is is it in our national interest for Israel to eliminate Iran's nuclear program? That's the first question, first order question. Is it in our national interest for Israel to wipe out their nuclear program? And my answer to that is yes. Now you may have a different answer, but I believe it is in America's national interest for Iran not to have nuclear weapons. And the reasons why, I think are pretty evident to anybody that's been paying attention to Iran for like the last fifty years. They really do not like America. They are responsible for the depths of hundreds, if not thousands of Americans, including a lot of military members in Iraq Beirut, right because their proxies Habala Hamas Houti's right. They've been waging war on America but also on Israel for well since they took control of Iran in nineteen seventy nine. They have made it very clear that they want to eate the Little Satan Israel and the Great Satan America. Israel keeps pointing this out, Benjamin Ntonyahu points this out, and if you agree, then you're called, you know, dual loyalty. You're accused of being in the pocket of Israel or the Jews. And that's all. But that's in our interest as well, is to not have them nuclear armed. And that's a position, by the way, that's held by roughly eighty five percent of Republican voters, and like seventy percent of Americans. They should not get nukes because they are different. See, there's another element here. There's this Western conceit and it was at play among the neo cons as well going into Iraq, right where oh, if we just topple their tyrant and we impose, you know, democratic reforms and give them a government that looks like ours, then you know, they'll be a shining beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Western conceit. They are not like us. They don't have the same history, they don't come from the same culture, right, they have different norms and more's. They rejected it. They didn't want it. The other day we were talking about, well, what about the was it the grandson of the Shah of Iran, and he's like, I'll come back in and lead the country and restore the monarchy. Yeah, I don't care, Like I don't care what happens with the regime. And now you're starting to hear the calls for regime change. In fact, let me go ahead and read this. This came from well number one. This came from open Source Intel. They monitor real time news and open source intelligence out of the Middle East global events. The Iranian Radio and TV Corporation building was just hit by Israel, but also the IDF says it tried to assassinate Iran's new military chief of staff, but he escaped, but then a few hours later he was eliminated. But the Israeli Defense Minister, after Iran dropped the bomb on the Israeli hospital, which I'm old enough to remember when bombing hospitals even if they had terrorist tunnels and headquarters located inside of them, that this was a war crime. But apparently if Iran does it too, Israel not a problem, I guess. The Israeli Defense minister this was about. So this was yeah, so this was about. This was several hours ago. The Israeli Defense minister said, now said taking out the Ayatola is now one of their war goals. So now they're going to target the Ayatola. That's Israel's call. We and this is like and the Biden administration was always trying to tell the Israelis, don't go too far, don't do this, don't do that, you know, wider war in the region. All of that. That's always been the argument that this could get way worse, right, and for an American public, that is war. We re after Iraq and Afghanistan. I understand that argument, but we don't know. That's part of the thing. And like, you could also risk wider war if you leave the Ayatola in charge, you let him keep doing what he's doing, getting closer to China, closer to Russia. They could make things even worse. We don't know. We'll see, right, people who are. This is again, this is there's so much of this speculative journalism going on, and it's like everybody now does it. We're predicting the outcome of sporting events. And I understand that there are people who work at these think tanks and work in foreign policy and stuff, and they make all their predictions and They're like, they're the experts and they've been wrong, and so we don't want to trust them. I have my own predictions and everything, but yours is also just a prediction too, So I don't know what happens. I'm not making any predictions because I don't know what the population of Iran. That's not true. I do it's ninety two million now, But I'm not an expert. But I do believe that taking out the nuclear program is in our interest. And is it an American interest to have a friendly West leaning or West looking government in Iran? Sure over what the iotola is. Absolutely, but you take out this iotola, who's to say there's not somebody that comes in. That's another iotola. That's even worse. Right, we don't know. We don't know. And Iran is not Araq. I went over this the other day too. They are different peoples, they are different cultures, different histories. Iran has this long history, Persia is what it was, so they have a different history. So you can't just pick up Iraq or Afghanistan and lay that template onto Iran. That's not an argument for taking out the ayatola. That's not an argument for regime change. I also just saw our Senator Tom Tillis is now advocating for regime change, and like, I don't think that that's what we should be doing. Is that what Trump is going to advocate for? I don't know. We'll see right now. I think it is in our interest to wipe out that nuclear program and hopefully the Iranian people are able to throw off this murderous, tyrannical regime and implement and something that. Is more peaceful. That's my hope. Will it happen, don't know, don't know, which is why we shouldn't send any troops over there because we don't know. But what if it gets into this bigger war. I kind of feel like that might have happened already, but they don't. It doesn't seem like Iran has any allies. It doesn't. Do you think Russia is going to open up another front? They're already fighting with the Ukrainians? Are they opening up another front to Iran or three? I don't know. They might. I don't think they will, but they might. China. China's been doing deals with Iran part of their Belt and Road initiative. Do you think China is gonna go to war in Iran against Israel and America and NATO. I mean that would be World War three right all because I wouldn't stop building a nuclear weapon, which also would by the way, lead to World War three if they were able to get the nuke. Maybe that's what I mean, Like, there are all these different game theories that are out there. I don't criticize people for having opinions and for charting out the different scenarios, no doubt about it. But again, to me, I keep coming back to the first question, is it in our interest for Israel to knock out the nuclear program? 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I say yes, So then the next question in that decision tree is okay, then to what extent do we help Israel do that because we believe it's in ournational interest, right, And I think that then divides people, right, because there are some people that would say we should do nothing, just let them keep doing it, and I don't know if they have the capability to do it. We've been told that they would very much appreciate the bunker buster bombs and the B twos to fly over and drop the bombs a couple times and blow up the four dough or four dough facility that's under the mountain. But then there are other options, I guess, but I've actually not heard anybody offer any other kind of assessment or proposal to say we're going to do X, Y and Z above and beyond the bunker busters, right, Because if Israel can do this all on their own, I am perfectly content letting them just proceed, keep doing what you're doing. At some point you'll you'll wipe it all out, right, whether it's you know, going in there with commandos or something and you know, taking out these facilities, I don't know, but that would be the next question should we fly over? That also raises a host of other questions, right about are we then considered to be involved? And this was a point of contention in the Tucker Carlson ted Cruz argument masquerading as an interview. And you know, Carlson's like, I just don't understand, like why we're doing this. As I just said, it's about Iran's nuclear program. This has been the goal of American foreign policy literally my entire life. So they are not to get the nuclear bomb, and we have taken all sorts of efforts to make that not happen. Right, And then CRU's layers or sorry, Carlson layers in this. You know what about a pac and the America Israeli Political Action Committee that donates money to candidates that are pro Israel, Well, that's lobby they're lobbying for Israel, and they're not lobbying for Israel. They're Americans that collect money. I went over this in the last hour, and they fund candidates that also support Israel. And so. Cruz had said in this interview that when he was elected, he said he wanted to be the leading defender of Israel in the US Senate. That's what he said. What you didn't ask is why. So let me tell you why. No, you said I was obsessed with Israel, and you had just told me that, like you're driving motive to get to the Senate was to defend Israel. I don't think I'm not going to subsessive. Okay, sucker, words matter, And you know that. I said, I resolved to be the leading defender of israe And you said, you're driving motive the reason you're in the center. You want to be the leading defender of Israel. I would think if I ran for Senate, I'd be like, there are people dying of drugrities on the street. My driving motive is to fight for Texas and America, to fight for jobs, and to fight for the Constitution. And you played a very very careful word game of eliding the. One who said it not me, No, he did. He constructed a false choice that you can't fight for Texas, be in America first, to defend America the Constitution, and be a leading defender of Israel in the Senate. Right in Carlson's framing, you can't do all of those things. You're either for Israel or you're for America. You can't be both, and I reject that you can. If Israel does something that we don't like, that we don't agree with, then obviously we're not going to agree to do it. Right. But this is that quote dual loyalty argument that is made among anti Semites. And again I don't know if Tucker Carlson is or is not. Frankly, I don't care. But his arguments are the same arguments that are used, and the questions that he's just asking are the same questions that anti Semites are just asking. That the phrase, well, you can't criticize Israel for anything, No, it's the only country you can't criticize. That's also something that the anti Semite say. Again, I don't know if he's aware of that. Don't know if that's what he thinks or not. Doesn't matter to me. I'm just saying that's why Ted Cruz is responding the way he's responding. But then Carlson tries to reframe the purpose of the questions yet again, it's like you don't really know where these things are going once the shooting starts. That's my only point, and calling people names anti Semite isolationists to get them to stop talking is not the way to serve your country. But that's a different argument now. So see he's now pivoted away to say, I'm only saying that we don't know what happens when the bullets start firing. And that's true. That's not really at all relevant to APAC funding or whether they control senators, or whether Iran has a nuclear weapon. Right, Like, what is the purpose? Because you've now given us three different explanations for the purpose of your questions. He's just all over the place here. We are. Also, by the way, I'm looking up at the monitors, the White House has a press briefing. I don't know if this I assume it was previously scheduled, but we will endeavor to carry it live when it begins because I suspect this topic. What do you think it might come up? I think it might come up. Oh, in fact, she's on right now, so I'll monitor during the newscast. All right, So spring is here a time of renewal and celebrations. We got graduations, weddings, anniversaries and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime. But let me ask you are all of those treasured moments from days gone by? 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Catherine Levitt started off by talking about and touting the low immigration numbers they had, like no crossings or something yesterday or yeah, like, and so she's touting the success of the border enforcement and security efforts that Trump has done, which he does not get enough credit for. And then she abt minute or so ago, she shifted to Iran. I've paused the c Span feed. We'll see if it picks up here at that point. Now, regarding the ongoing situation and Iran, I know there has been a lot of speculation amongst all of you in the media regarding the President's decision making and whether or not the United States will be directly involved. In light of that news, I have a message directly from the President, and I quote based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future. I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks. That's a quote directly from the President for all of you today. So we'll kick it off for questions here in our new mediacy, we have Eli Lake from the Free Press. Eli, go ahead, I'm great so much for having us. Thank you the pre press the decision to extend the I guess delay in enforcing the TikTok ban. Sure, can you talk about how the White House understands it's constitutional. Authority in light of that's the first question in January. That said that the President had to enforce the ban. Sure well as all of you know, because the President put it out on his shoes social today, he did sign an executive order to extend the TikTok fan If. You don't have the power to do that, it's a law. And the White House Council in the Department of Justice have reviewed this executive order and I can get it for you. I think it's on our website by now. If it's not, my team will now put it up immediately and you can read the language in that executive order. And the White House Council's Office in the Department of Justice strongly believe the legal rationale for this executive order. They wouldn't have the President's pen hit it if they didn't. And the political reasoning for this, of course, is because the President made a promise to keep TikTok Talk on. There are one hundred million Americans who use this app. It's a law fuler. He also wants a law. Pass Americans data and privacy concerns on this app, and he believes we can do both things at the same time. So he's making an extension so we can get this deal done. I got to follow up. Sure. A few weeks ago there at Tucker Carlson reported on a meeting between the President, Mark Levin, and others of the White House. Is there a leak investigation that? Can you say who else was in that meeting. I'm not aware of a leak investigation at this time. I, for one, do not reveal details about the President's private meetings without his permission to do so. But certainly the president does not like when people leak. He takes that very seriously. This entire administration takes that seriously, and that's why you've seen at agencies some of the cabinet secretaries have been given the authority by the President to let go of staff who are engaged in such leaks, especially those that risk American national security. Sure, go ahead, Caroline, thank you so. Brian O warmonger Lindsey Graham, he recently called on the USO all In. That's quite the lead to a question, right, He's just called Lindsay Graham a warmonger. Every day Trump supporters, not the I don't know who this other big names. But every day Trump supporters, grassroots who voted for the President Trump to stop the wars rejected this in the primary going into another war, but voting against Nicky Hayley, and they want to see non US involvement in this war. What's your message? Trust in President Trump. President Trump has incredible instincts and President Trump kept America in the world safe in his first term as president, in implementing a peace through Strength foreign policy agenda, and with respect to Iran, nobody should be surprised by the President's position that Iran absolutely cannot obtain a nuclear weapon. He's been unequivocally clear about this for decades, not just as president, not just as a presidential candidate, but also as a private citizen. In fact, I have some quotes for you. In twenty eleven, President Trump said, America's primary goal with Iran must be to destroy its nuclear ambitions. We cannot allow this radical regime to acquire a nuclear weapon that they will either use or hand off to terrorists. In twenty fifteen, the President said, the problem is that Iran poses an next essential threat to Israel, our Middle Eastern allies in the United States, and of course the President has repeated that in his first term as president and his second term as president as well. That's why he was adamantly opposed to the disastrous arounding a nuclear agreement that was implemented by President Obama. And it's why he has given great latitude and given a lot of effort to achieving a diplomatic solution. But he's been very clear. Iran went for sixty days when he gave them that sixty day warning without coming to the table. On day sixty one, Israel took action against Iran. And as I just told you from the President directly, he has he will make a decision within two weeks. All right. So I'm gonna pause it here because that's the all right. So that's the key message. He's got everybody now on a clock for two weeks. Everybody. Okay, you've got Israel that now says they're going to take out the Ayahtola. So Israel's got two weeks right ostensibly like they whatever you want to get done in two weeks, Israel, go for it. Because I'm not you know, I'm not saying anything right now. So this is an Israeli show. Only the Mollahs, the Ayahtola, the revolutionary Guard, the upper echelon in Iran. They've got two weeks to figure out what it is they want to do. If they're doing negotiations, they're trying to get Israel to stop, you know, the bombing runs and everything, then they've got two weeks to come to the table offer concessions, and one of those concessions has to be the elimination of your nuclear program. Trump has been very clear, and I don't say that very often, okay, but Trump has been very clear on this. As she just mentioned, he is He has been consistent for fifteen years. So you don't get to keep your nuclear program. That's what Israel is taking out. So if you come and say, okay, fine, you know what, we will scrap all nuclear ambitions, we will open ourselves up for all IAEA ins inspections going forward, complete disclosure and the dismantling of the of the program. That might be a way to stay in power. That's their call. Also, if anybody's looking to do a little coup, toss out the Ayatola, install a new government or something right from inside that upper echelon of Iranian government, then you got two weeks and if you are the people of Iran and you've heard the calls coming from you. Israel has been saying it. Iranian dissidents have been saying it. You know, living in exile, you've got more protests. In fact, there was a story here, I have it. Yeah, here it is. Hackers infiltrated Iran's state run media outlets and are using the airwaves to encourage Iranians to rise up against their government. Footage circulating on social media appears to show Iran's TV broadcast being hijacked. The TV screen shows images of the recent protests against the regime's onerous laws against women. Quote, rise up, this is your moment. Go out into the streets, take control of your future, saying that the regime has failed to protect Iran's airspace, it has failed in its offensive efforts, it has failed to protect your money. The hackers also took the regime to task for funneling their money into its military endeavors instead of taking care of its citizens. NBC News reported yesterday that hackers also made their way into Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange, called Nobitechs, and they drained the exchange of more than ninety million dollars. You got two weeks. Two weeks people, all right, if you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events, and I know you do too. And you've probably heard me say get your news from multiple sources. Why well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You could check it out at check dot ground, dot news slash pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check dot ground, dot news, slash pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get fifteen percent off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. News Talk eleven ten ninety nine three WBT seven oh four five seven zero eleven ten. Lad's head over to the phones and chat with Dave. Thanks for hanging on, Dave. What's going on? Pete TikTok was his first question? Yeah, please play that. Please play that clip every half hour and find out what organization he's with. That's Eli Lake, who's actually like a national security reporter guy and he now is working for the Free Press. Geez, yeah, just a point, not a I did not appreciate that being the first question. So the question about whether or not Israel will will take it, if we'll let Israel take out their nuke, their capabilities first thing. And I was able to listen to the to the news conference while I was on hold, and I was going to give them thirty days, say Israel, Israel, can you handle this? Israel says yes or no. If they say no, what do you need for us to help you with? Trump steps in and says two weeks. I love it. Give them two weeks to get it right, or if Canada has to step in, that program has to be extinguished. Well, I don't think another country is going to do it. There's too much, especially after the last you know, almost two years of the war in Gaza. I don't see any other nation that has an appetite because of their you know, I mean you look at all the Western European countries. They've allowed so much migration from Muslim countries that they've got you know, protests in the streets just like we do. So we are I think we are the only ones that would be able to offer any kind of military assistance to Israel. Politically, there's no question at all. You can't let that section of the world have the capability of exploding a nuclear whip. And it is anyone that sees at any difference. I would imagine people from Iran see it differently. But other than that, what really right? So the question that is, you know, in the question I started off asking, is you know, is it in our interest to let Israel take out the nuclear program? I think it is. Sounds like you agree. The next question is then okay, so if we agree it's in there, it's in our interest to let them pursue it. If they needed our help, then what does that help look like? Any any means necessary? So boots on the ground for you. We don't need boots on the ground anymore. We have technologies and abilities to stop things like that with out putting American soldiers in the line of fire. We can we can wipe that out from from a drone if necessary. So, and I've thought about that too, that you could have said, if you could get with you know, whatever the range is for these drones, and I don't know what the ranges are, but yeah, if you could get somehow get access into the facility, you fly a drone in there, or a couple of them, or a whole swarm of them in there, and you blow it all up from the inside. That may be a way to do it without even putting anybody on the ground except some drone operators within the range of the drone. And Israel could probably do that without us. Yeah, So I mean, that is definitely one course of action, David. I appreciate the call. All right, man, take it easy. So we also have some new information about the first attack that Israel launched on Iran. Israeli secret service operatives used a fake phone call to trigger what appeared to be an emergency meeting among Iran's top military leaders. Okay, so they sent a phone call. They made a phone call to everybody all at once, Hey we got an emergency meeting. Everybody assemble at this place. They all went there, and then they targeted that location. According to a report published twosday Day by the Jewish Chronicle, Masad used Iranian communication channels as part of a coordinated disinformation campaign targeting top Iranian Air Force officials and lured them all to the same location for what they believed to be an important meeting. I guess it was just not the kind that they thought. A fake phone call for twenty members of the Air Force senior staff telling them to go to a specific bunker in Tehran, and so they go, it gets blown up. They are all eliminated. And this means there isn't anybody to give the order to fire the first salvo of a thousand ballistic missiles, which is what Iran was threatening to do. They were promising to do any strike on us, going to watch a thousand missiles that Israel, and Israel's like, well, we can't have that happen because we can't take them all out. So if there's nobody to give the orders, you can't fire them. And that's what apparently they did. I do have some more audio of the of the Carlson Cruz argument, and I only got three more clips, but these are pretty important. Okay, these are pretty important to understand the debate that's going on in MAGA and in the MAGA influencer sphere. So pick up there on the other side of the news. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpetecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone. M hmm