Former Special Assistant to President Reagan, Doug Bandow:

‘Donald Trump is probably afraid Iran has WON the war, but he CAN’T admit any of that, and he knows he needs to change that.

And the only tool he imagines he has is to use the US Military. It didn’t work before, it's not working now.

But Donald Trump is not one to check reality when his ego is at stake.’

Watch the full interview: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

Q: At the start of the war, you said it would be 4 or 5 weeks?

Donald Trump: ‘This is a far bigger job that we’re doing, we were doing a little job [before]…it’s really not the same thing.’

The most gullible President in modern times sleepwalked into a forever war for Israel and openly admits it.

Netanyahu simply fought with him as encouragement, and now that Trump is stuck in the disastrous quagmire and can’t recognise his own defeat because of his ego…

Netanyahu sits back and relaxes in Tel Aviv as Trump fights Israel’s war for him

Doug Bandow: ‘Trump is risking a GLOBAL DEPRESSION with the war on Iran, it will ENGULF the US.’

‘Trump said he didn’t want to be Herbert Hoover, that he understood that destroying the world energy markets could bring the entire world to a recession, or depression.

He certainly risks that.

If he causes most of the industrialised world not to get the energy that it needs, one can imagine the chaos that’s going to result and that will engulf America as well as the rest of the world.’

—Doug Bandow, former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan

Watch the full interview: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

The Telegraph reports that the US doesn’t have enough missiles to return to an all-out war on Iran.

At the same time, the US’ emergency oil reserve has fallen to its lowest level since 1983.

Military force didn’t work against Iran the first time in fulfilling any of the US’ objectives, and now the US has even less military force as Trump tries Round 2 of the same, failed option.

Trying military force for a second time will only make Iran more intransigent and unwilling to negotiate…

Which will mean that the global economy and the American economy is at an even greater risk as global oil reserves have been spent on artificially keeping oil prices lower. As those reserves run out, that ability evaporates.

The blustering stupidity of American neoconservative foreign policy.

War on Iran: ‘Americans will NOT be isolated from global energy shock, the SCREAMING from Americans will start soon.’

—Doug Bandow, Former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan

FULL INTERVIEW: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

Prof. Steve Keen: ‘FAMINES UNAVOIDABLE because of Strait of Hormuz closure. Up to 2 BILLION could starve.’

‘The extent to which we’re reliant upon chemical fertilisers derived from oil feedstock is extremely high. In the absence of the Haber-Bosch process and the process for producing both nitrogenous fertilisers and phosphate-based fertilisers, without the oil, you can’t produce them.

And 30% of the world’s fertiliser passes through the Strait of Hormuz, roughly speaking.

Now, without the fertiliser in general, the carrying capacity of the planet falls from about 8.5 billion people, which is how many people we have right now, down to between 1 and 2 billion. That’s the extent to which we’re reliant upon petroleum-based fertilisers for food output.

If you lose 30% of the fertiliser that the planet relies upon, at the extreme that implies that something of the order of only 6 billion people can be supported by our food systems, down from the current 8.5 to 9 billion people we’re supporting now.

There is some buffer inside there in terms of roughly 30% of food being wasted. But the extent to which we rely upon a continuous flow of petroleum-based fertilisers cannot be overestimated.

And if we have a disruption to the supply of those fertilisers, anywhere from 10 or 20 million people through to the ludicrous scale, I have to admit, of 2 billion, that’s the potential range of disaster.’

—Prof. Steve Keen on Going Underground

‘It’s not clear Trump even READ the Memorandum of Understanding he signed with Iran.’

—Doug Bandow, former Special Assistant to President Reagan

‘The Iranians do have to be careful not to overreach. They hold the Strait. That gives them enormous leverage, but they need to be prepared to make a deal when they can.

I think what they were worried about here was that it was pretty clear Trump was violating the MOU in terms of the Strait as well as the issue of Lebanon.

Now, it's not clear that he actually read the MOU before he signed it. Did he actually know what was in it? It was somewhat ambiguous.

You send over a couple of real estate developers, a childhood friend and your son-in-law and expect them to work out negotiations with Iran? What could possibly go wrong?

The point is that I think he realised he was in trouble, he got a lot of flak for it and thought that he could force the Iranians to back down.

They are holding firm. I think the danger here is they have to be prepared at some point, I think, to make a deal.

And the question then is, how do you communicate that to Trump while indicating he's got to make the real concessions…

but that they're willing to let him, in a sense, get away with some of his victory claims at home, as long as they get the substantive wins in the Middle East?’

Watch the full interview: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

ICYMI, Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel:

‘Iran have also discovered that while Trump thinks he wrote a book called The Art of the Deal, they're going to teach him a lesson, which is the Persian lesson, the art of the negotiation.

And he just got schooled unbelievably.’

‘Iran has done ENORMOUS DAMAGE to the US military with strikes on American bases in the Middle East.’

—Doug Bandow, Former Special Assistant to President Reagan

‘It’s terrible that they're striking the Gulf States, of course, because the Gulf states have not initiated combat.

I don't think I was surprised simply because Iran views them as being vulnerable and frankly, Iran views them probably as being the only target that's likely to make a real difference on the United States.

Hitting the bases has done enormous harm to the US military. That can be viewed as direct retaliation in terms of the US government and then hitting the Gulf states there, trying to get the Gulf states to tell the US to end this.

So it's a tactic that I'm not surprised about. I think that it's wrong. You're hitting people who did not hit you.

But look, the way this war has gone, the US went after them twice in the middle of negotiations, launched an aggressive war. I'm not surprised that Iran has basically said all of the rules are out the window.

And tragically, the Gulf states are targets in this.’

Watch the full interview: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

Meanwhile, Fox News seems to be on cusp of a groundbreaking discovery:

‘I don’t understand how it’s possible that Iran has the capabilities to fight this way and continue to lash out at Gulf countries and US military bases…

Because the US has OBLITERATED Iran’s military and the President continues to reiterate that.’

They’re a couple of lines of reasoning away from finally reaching the conclusion that President Trump is pathologically lying, and the entire world is suffering because of it.

‘Donald Trump feels BETRAYED & MISLED by Benjamin Netanyahu over Iran war quagmire.’

—Doug Bandow, Former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan

‘I don't think that he feels any particular loyalty, for example, to Netanyahu. I suspect he also, in fact, feels betrayed to some degree that Netanyahu promised him an easy win, three or four days, regime change.

“You can go home and have your big parade and an arch of triumph and you've won.” And none of that happened.

I think he knows that he was misled, that the question of his political future, to have a Congress heavily dominated by Democrats would be very dangerous for him.

To have the Republican Party damaged significantly would be bad for him, to have it ruined for the next presidential election.

All of these things mattered to him. So I suspect that he really knows he's got to get this over. And my hope is that sense of self-preservation takes over very quickly.

Because if it's just his ego, he really could take the world over the edge.

But if he worries about his reputation for the future, then there's hope that he might decide he's got to get it done.’

Watch the full interview: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

“Donald Trump has demonstrated pretty conclusively that without NUCLEAR WEAPONS, it’s hard for Iran to defend themselves.”

—Doug Bandow, Former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan

‘The danger, of course, is we’ve got a new leadership that’s more angry, more antagonistic, probably more nationalistic, and they have a much better reason to want a nuclear weapon….

They don’t have to do that right now.

The point is the Strait of Hormuz has turned out to be their nuclear weapon and given them extraordinary leverage that they may have thought they might have had in the past, but they never used it.

And this is the extraordinary thing: Donald Trump has created the entire problem. They wouldn’t have the enriched uranium if he hadn’t gotten rid of the JCPOA, the nuclear accord that Obama negotiated.

And then last year he attacked them in the middle of negotiations, this year he attacked them in the middle of negotiations and they struck back at the strait.

So he’s the one who’s created the problem of both the nuclear issue as well as the Strait of Hormuz.’

Watch the full interview: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

Russia’s🇷🇺 Dmitry Medvedev:

‘Following the assassination of the Supreme Leader of Iran, there is no doubt that Iran will continue pursuing nuclear testing and will eventually acquire nuclear weapons.’

Doug Bandow, Ex-Special Assistant to President Reagan:

‘There’s a lot of talk in the Washington policy community that the US🇺🇸 MUST defend Taiwan…

I doubt Americans want a NUCLEAR WAR with China🇨🇳 over Taiwan. They don’t even know where Taiwan is. They don’t want to fight a war 6,000 miles from home.

That does make me very nervous in the future. I think American policymakers underestimate that risk. I think the Chinese are very serious.

And no one on Earth, I mean, especially China and America, but no one on Earth wants a war between these two countries.’

Watch the full interview: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs:

"How many wars has China🇨🇳 been in, in the last 40 years? Let me count them. That would be zero. Not one war in 40 years.”

Contrast that to just the second Trump Administration alone where Trump has bombed 7 countries including Iran and Venezuela.

🇷🇺🇺🇦 Ukraine proxy war: Europe is SUFFERING economically, Trump has LOST INTEREST in the conflict

‘Russia expected that the Europeans, and ultimately the US would pay a price. The Europeans have suffered very badly. Getting rid of cheap energy sources has hurt their industries enormously.

It’s hard for them to raise the money to keep funding the war in Ukraine. It’s pretty clear Trump has kind of grown tired of it.

He didn’t solve it the way he wanted. Congress still wants to support it, but even there you don’t get the same levels of enthusiasm.

And I’m sure that Putin and the Moscow government are all watching this and taking that into account as they plan for the future that they can assume.

I think that interest will continue to flag.

It’ll be interesting if they decide there’s a point to approach Trump where they think, perhaps especially after the Iran debacle, that they might be able to convince Trump to try to take a more favourable stand and get the war over with with Ukraine.’

—Doug Bandow, former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan

Watch the full interview: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

We are facing an ongoing energy crisis due to the shortage of Russian gas.’

-Germany’s🇩🇪 genius 14% approval rating Chancellor Merz

Just an idea maybe…lift the sanctions so Germany doesn’t face a shortage of Russian gas so you can start reversing the deindustrialisation?

🤡

IRAN WAR: ‘The UAE🇦🇪 has been the MOST EFFECTIVE militarily of any of the Gulf States.

They do have the capacity to defend themselves, more so than most of the other Gulf States.’

—Doug Bandow, Former Special Assistant to US🇺🇸 President Ronald Reagan

Watch the full interview: https://rumble.com/v7cybjy-donald-trump-knows-iran-has-won-the-war-and-is-risking-a-global-depressiond.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a

Israel’s Finance Minister Smotrich:

‘Israel has no interest in joining the limited confrontation between Iran and the United States…the current situation is the best possible for us.’

Drag the US into a war for your apartheid state, and leave the US’ soldiers to fight and die in the war you wanted.

‘America’s closest ally.’

Why the US🇺🇸 hates Cuba🇨🇺 and makes up fictitious lies to justify a regime change war against Cuba:

Nelson Mandela to Fidel Castro:

"Our friend Cuba, which helped us in training our people, gave us resources to help us with our struggle, trained our people as doctors. You have not come to our country…when are you coming to South Africa?”

When the US speaks of ‘third worldism’, it means Cuba has backed liberation struggles against US-backed barbaric regimes in the global south.

Pete Hegseth: The US has spent $37 BILLION for the war on Iran

Here’s what $37 billion ($290 per household) could have gotten for the American people:

370,000 teachers at an average total annual compensation of about $100,000 (salary plus benefits).

740,000 affordable homes if each unit cost around $50,000 in federal subsidy.

More than 10 years of the National Cancer Institute’s budget, which is roughly $7 billion annually.

About four years of the CDC’s budget, which is roughly $9 billion per year.

Nearly the entire annual budget of NASA, which is around $25–30 billion, with billions left over.

More than three times the annual cost of the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which serves hundreds of thousands of veterans and students.

Over 9 million Pell Grants of $4,000 each for college students.

Replacing or renovating thousands of bridges and schools, depending on project size.

37 new state-of-the-art hospitals at around $1 billion each.

740 elementary or high schools costing roughly $50 million each to build.

370,000 nurses for one year (assuming total compensation of about $100,000 each).