00:00Security, Secret Service, rather, emergency response team during the Bush and Obama administrations.
00:07I'll get it eventually. Barry Donatio. Barry, thanks for being here this afternoon. A guy with
00:11your experience, it takes a little bit of a title there. Barry, the president set a hard deadline
00:15for today for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz. As we told our audience yesterday,
00:20that deadline's now been extended. Let's get a little bit more into the details here.
00:24What might have led to this extension? Do you have any ideas? What does it allow for as far as
00:30terms
00:31that the U.S. can strategically take on some different objectives? And then when it comes
00:39to Iran on the diplomatic side, what options might this extension give to them? What do you think?
00:45Thanks for having me. Great to be with you again. The way I see it is the United States controls
00:50Strait of Hormuz. We have total air superiority over it, as well as naval superiority. I think
00:57what Iran has is simply the threat of doing something to any shipping that is going to pass
01:02through. But make no mistake about it. There are ships going through. They're trickling through.
01:07Right now, the last time I checked today, there's one from the Marshall Islands coming through,
01:11and they're friendly to the United States. There's been ones from Barbados, Aruba, even India.
01:16So I think we're dealing with the threat of the Iranians being able to get a potluck shot with
01:22one of their ballistic missiles and actually hit one of the ships. So that's really the problem.
01:28And that's why you have the bottleneck of ships on both sides, just kind of not wanting to go
01:33through the strait and not take the chance until there is absolutely no Iranian threat whatsoever.
01:38But President Trump seems to be putting a pause on some of our missions there to give the Iranian
01:44regime a chance to start to see the writing on the wall, that their days are over. It is done
01:50for
01:51them. And the sooner that they realize this, the sooner that the rest of us and even the people of
01:56Iran can move on to freedom and peace and security in the region of Persian Gulf, as well as the
02:02Strait
02:02of Hormuz. Yeah, I know a lot of people are looking forward to that, but there is some concern about
02:08ground troops. The Wall Street Journal reporting that the Department of War has a plan to send 10,000
02:14additional ground troops to Iran. And of course, we've been following this Axios report about a stark
02:22warning of a final blow. What do you think this means with troops on the way, this final blow
02:30language that's coming out there? What could this mean in the near term? Are we going to see
02:34troops on the ground from the U.S. or potentially Israel in Iran?
02:41I think so, because there's not going to be any other way to get rid of the regime. You're going
02:46to have to have boots on the ground by somebody friendly that's going to have to go to the
02:51presidential palace there in Tehran and take control of the government once this regime falls. Now,
02:57there's been talk before this day that it could be the Kurdish or it could be an Iranian force that's
03:03in hiding, that's against the government that we'll be using. It's looking more and more like
03:07it's going to be the good old United States Marine Corps, and I'm okay with that. I would say they're
03:12going to need more. And I've heard reports that the 82nd Airborne is mobilizing as well. So I would
03:18expect the Marines, they're probably going to work to secure some of the islands off the coast of Iran
03:24in the Persian Gulf. Karaj Island has been brought up. So I would see that happening and maybe some
03:30locations on the coast where the Strait of Hormuz can be threatened by any land forces that could
03:37go on the shore and maybe attack shipping. Okay, I've only got about 30 seconds left,
03:42but you're saying you for sure expect troops on the ground. And then from a timeline standpoint,
03:48any guesses? And I know this is an open-ended question, loaded question. How long do you think
03:53it would be reasonable to expect boots on the ground? I've got about 30 seconds.
03:58I would say we would expect boots on the ground within a month, and that's the best assessment.
04:03And then an end to the war entirely within three months of today. That would be my best guess.
04:09Understood. I appreciate you being willing to be specific. We always love that.
04:14Barry Donatio, thank you for being with us this afternoon.
04:16I appreciate you being with us today.
