00:00Campaign National Security Advisor, Lieutenant Colonel Tony Schaefer, along with National
00:04Security Analyst and President of Public Security, LLC, Barry Donatio.
00:09Good afternoon, gentlemen.
00:11Tony, I'm going to go to you.
00:12What do you make of these recent attacks?
00:15I mean, is this just a tit for tat?
00:17The President in the White House is denying that, but it seems like much of the same.
00:23So it's not the same.
00:25It's a very targeted, very surgical application of military force during a phase of the operation
00:32where allowing economic sanctions to be the main effort.
00:36Where, you know, Bradley Cooper, Commander of Central Command, Admiral Cooper, announced
00:40two days ago that the Strait of Hormuz is now free of mines.
00:44So the last thing we're going to do, Kelly, is allow the Iranians to put mines back in.
00:48Secondly, they did take shots at UAE and Jordan, and yeah, we're going to make sure that they
00:53cannot continue to do that.
00:54Most of the attacks have been focused on areas along the north side of the Strait, Bondara
01:01Boss, incidental to that area, and they've been primarily focused on military technology
01:08relating to launching mods, the IRGC command and control, and their communications.
01:13So it's limited.
01:15It'll continue to be limited.
01:16There's not an escalation curve intended.
01:19It's just to send a message, you need to sit down and stop trying to interfere with maritime
01:26operations in the Strait.
01:28That's what's going on.
01:30Barry, speaking of economic pressure, Operation Economic Outcast is what Treasury Secretary
01:37Scott Bissett is calling it.
01:38And today, he vowed to asphyxiate Iran with sanctions, taking away IRGC offshore accounts
01:46and luxury homes.
01:48That's the most recent headline out there on his comments about his plans.
01:54My question to you is, why didn't we do this in January of this year?
01:58It seems like that would have been the more logical step rather than to launch Operation Epic
02:05Fury.
02:06Thanks for having me.
02:07It's a great question.
02:09I'm only assuming that they probably found other links and other ways during the intelligence
02:14war that is undertaken right now.
02:16So they may not have even known about these outlets to cut off.
02:21But I believe the Secretary of Treasury is correct.
02:25We have to remember that the Treasury is a war-finding department.
02:28It always has been.
02:29They're very, very powerful.
02:31And they are going to strangle the Iranian regime economically.
02:35And they're going to also go after anybody dealing with the Iranian regime.
02:40So just like the Trump administration says, this is an economic D-Day.
02:44They're going after anybody who assists the Iranian regime.
02:49That's pretty big in today's standards.
02:52So sit back and watch.
02:54It's going to become interesting.
02:56Yeah, I mean, it's the little Ayatollah there.
02:59I guess he's got a compound in London, right across from the Jewish embassy.
03:03So we're going to need our allies to assist in this effort.
03:07But, Tony, yesterday, Secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll, resigned after reportedly clashing
03:16with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War.
03:19It was said that he did not like the general firings that Hegseth did on the Army side,
03:25as well as removing the drone program.
03:28He views drones as the next warfare tool in the tool chest.
03:35And I guess Hegseth was taking that away from the Army.
03:39I want to get your opinion on his resign, on him resigning.
03:44And is this a good look right now for the Pentagon?
03:49That's an Army guy.
03:50The Army is a part of the overall Department of War team.
03:56The Secretary of the Army, who has a certain, is not the service chiefs,
04:07worked enterprise-wide.
04:09That is, every service has an effort.
04:11Secretary Hegseth apparently believed that that should be something that the Department of War
04:15directly controls rather than one service.
04:17I get that.
04:17There's been other issues.
04:19There's been clashes relating to personalities, as you said, as well as the fact that there's
04:25certain officers who have been leaking, to include one that was in a sting with James O'Keefe.
04:30So there's been some real issues relating to the Army and what it's doing within the enterprise.
04:36So I'm not surprised.
04:37I don't know, Mr. Driscoll.
04:40I just know that there's been some necessary changes made in the Army that apparently he didn't agree with.
04:47And if he doesn't agree, he can leave.
04:48And that's what he's doing.
04:51All right, Lieutenant Colonel Tony Schaefer, Barry Donatio, thank you so much for joining me.
04:55I appreciate your time.
04:56Thank you, Kelly.
04:56Thank you, Kelly.
