00:01We have a man who I call America's wise man. Why? Because he is America's wise man. That's why. Victor
00:06Davis Hanson, my dear friend, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow. It's always good to see you and have you here. Victor,
00:13I think we sure have the upper hand with Iran here.
00:20Yes, we have. I think the president has played this and done brilliant things that nobody else would do or
00:25could. Nobody, nobody. Militarily, economically, geopolitically. Yes, yes. Really have the upper hand. Now, the Strait of Hormuz is to
00:34be open. Apparently, Iran has agreed that it will be open. Yes. That's nice since that doesn't belong to them.
00:40That's international. Yes, it's international waterways and it should be no one's control under. Waterway.
00:47And with respect to Lebanon. Yeah, yeah. There's been talk about a peace deal between the government of Lebanon and
00:54Israel. Yeah. A couple of points I want to raise with you. Number one. Yes, let's go. What about Hezbollah?
00:59The problem is not really the government. Yes, it's Iran's proxy Hezbollah is the problem. Because the government of Lebanon
01:07is quite weak and it doesn't seem to be able to or willing to rein in Hezbollah. So what about
01:12that? And number two, in terms of the Straits, I think
01:16I think so many people are impatient. Certainly Democrats are trying to sabotage this whole thing. The media are trying
01:22to sabotage this whole thing. But I even think some Republicans and others are impatient. This hasn't gone on this
01:28long. And we have the ability to really not just defeat the Iranian regime, but I think collapse it so
01:35the people are liberated.
01:36Yes, collapse it. I already made a video about how a woman, a woman is prosecuting, they are prosecuting, executing
01:44a woman. And one day before executing the woman, they are going to do, I mean, you know, I cannot
01:51say it. You just got to go watch that video. I mean, I cannot say that word myself. Oh my
01:56God. Horrible, horrible.
01:58So I'm throwing a lot at you. What do you think?
02:01Well, I think that we've inflicted such a great deal of damage. And I think some of the estimates on
02:06the higher end are accurate of a half a trillion dollars that we're at a crossroads.
02:10If we were to negotiate an end, they would be pretty inert for 10 years, but not after that. There
02:17would be no guarantee. We should assume they're going to cheat, but they wouldn't have the ability to reify that
02:23cheating for a long time.
02:24But it wouldn't solve the existential problem, which is the regime. And we were right at the cusp of either
02:31weakening it so much that they have internal disagreements.
02:34True, true. Everything is true. You are saying absolutely right, Victor.
02:38So the Revolutionary Guard fights with the army, fights with the theocracy, and they each don't trust each other for
02:45being too soft.
02:46And then they're worried they're going to be, if there's a revolution, they're going to be tried like a Nuremberg.
02:50So they're in disarray. And with a little bit more time, I think they they could be permanently weakened. But
02:55what we're seeing.
02:56Yes, they can be, because everything is in our favor right now. Iran has no cards to play. No, not
03:04a one.
03:05Quickly, Mark, is after we did all the heavy lifting with the Israelis, there's all these parties that are coming
03:11in and saying,
03:12I mean, now that you've taken the heat from us and we criticize you, and I'm talking specifically about the
03:19NATO countries that now want to come in and appropriate the strait and say that they're going to patrol it,
03:24which is OK, but they wouldn't do it.
03:26Yes, NATO is not helping us at all. We are, US, we are the only one fighting this fight. Nobody,
03:36nobody is helping us. I mean, never feel this alone. Never.
03:41We did it and made that possible because they're so weak. Yes, we have the Gulf states that are pretty
03:46good, but yeah, 600 fighters and they didn't deploy one of them.
03:51No, no, they deployed nothing, not a single one of them. No, nothing. Nobody is helping us. Nobody.
03:58And so then we have the Hezbollah in Lebanon. Yeah. The only reason they're talking is because the Israelis took
04:05a great risk and attracted their leadership over the last year and weakened them.
04:10So, yes, we've got to be very careful that our agenda is not identical to the NATO one. It's not
04:15identical necessarily to the Lebanese government.
04:18It's not identical to the Gulf states. And all of these parties want to get in now that we've really,
04:25you know, broken the back of the Iranian regime.
04:28Yes, we really did it. We did it. We broke their back and they are nowhere to stand on their
04:36legs. Nowhere.
04:37And it has no more reputation for being fearful, terrible. The master of the Middle East, we destroyed that entire
04:44image.
04:44Yes. With help from Israel. And now they want to be...
04:47No master. Iran is not even a master at all right now.
04:51Tunishti can either take credit for it or manipulate it in ways that might not be conducive to our own
04:57agendas.
04:58Yes, man. Thank you, Victor.
04:59Thank you, Victor.
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