US Central Command says that an Army Apache attack helicopter was lost at sea and crashed while off the coast of Oman. It was on patrol as part of the US military presence in the Persian Gulf, enforcing a blockade on Iran, preventing ships from entering or leaving Iranian [00:00:18] ports. Earlier today, President Trump vowed to retaliate against the IRGC following that uh alleged Iranian attack on a US Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Now the AH-64 Apache [00:00:35] helicopter was downed. Although we don't know if it was a mechanical error, if there was a mistake by the Iranians, or if it was an intentional strike. Two crew members were luckily rescued and Trump claims that there were no injuries, although there is some reporting [00:00:50] that conflicts with what Trump says about no injuries. The incident was first reported by the New York Times, which said that an Army Apache helicopter gunship went down in unclear circumstances. And to be quite honest with you, at this very moment, I think the circumstances [00:01:05] remain pretty unclear. Now the United States, is saying that Iran was behind the attack. And that could be the justification the Trump administration intends to use to justify the latest strikes against Iran, although that story is developing as we speak. Iran denies this, [00:01:22] however, they say that the attack was not carried out by them. And then later Abbas Arakshi, who's the foreign minister of Iran, said that Iran did not intentionally target the army helicopter. Now the aircraft went down Monday at about 730 PM Eastern Time and was rescued [00:01:42] about two hours later, US Central Command said in a statement today. The crew members of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter were in stable condition and the details of the incident are under investigation. Now the way the two aviators were rescued kind of gives you a sense [00:02:00] of just how much warfare is changing, especially when it comes to using unmanned uh equipment and this is definitely an example of that. So take a quick look. The first time ever, there was what's known as an unmanned surface vessel. Basically what you and I might call a drone [00:02:16] boat or an unmanned boat that actually located these two soldiers and was actually able to save them or rescue them out of the water. The boat then moved them to another location, again, unmanned. took them to another location where they were picked up by helicopter. They're [00:02:33] now both receiving medical treatment, a US official telling us that while they both have some injuries, they're not considered life threatening or that serious. So the concerning part about this story is the fact that initially Trump said one thing, then he said something entirely [00:02:50] different, and then the US carried out strikes against Iran. Initially, he said that the United States must of necessity respond to this attack. But then later in a phone conversation with journalists over at the Wall Street Journal, He said something entirely different. So [00:03:08] this is what they write, in a phone call with the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Trump said the blockade was making Iran very poor and said he would keep it in place as long as necessary. He sought to play down the helicopter incident saying it wasn't a big deal and stressing [00:03:23] that the pilot was fine. Okay, so there were two crew members they were rescued, it does appear that they're fine. And then immediately after that, the US carries out strikes against Iran. So it's really hard, to believe anything that comes out of this man's mouth. And it [00:03:38] makes it really appear as though there is no disagreement between Trump and Netanyahu, that they're both playing us, that they're both creating this illusion of disagreement in order to carry out surprise attacks against Iran, right? Because how do you go from the [00:03:54] attack wasn't a big deal to now striking Iran? I don't understand. The problem is exactly what you said, which is that every country, every government lies about war. It's just a weapon of war, but Trump is on a completely different level. And there's still so much [00:04:12] mystery and secrecy and doubt surrounding those two pilots that uh were shot down by Iran over Iranian territory. One of whom was uh supposedly immediately rescued, the other of whom was rescued two days later in a very disastrous operation for the United States [00:04:29] where they lost a lot of military hardware, including planes and helicopters and the like. We've never seen those soldiers which you know they would trot out if they were fine and you would personalize them and talk about them and turn them into heroes to connect to them the way that the United States has done before with false campaigns. They've kind of disappeared. [00:04:46] I know a lot of people inside the government who insist that we're running out of weapons, that the Iranians have way more weapons than Trump says that uh we've. the casualties throughout that first week and into the war have been far worse than the US government has said. mean, [00:05:02] people kill, but I mean the severity of injuries and the number of injuries to US soldiers. So it is so difficult to ascertain what's going on when you have a government and a president who just will outright lie to you sometimes in the course of an hour like you just demonstrated. My belief is that Trump does not want a restarting of this war because he understands for all [00:05:23] the reasons that you said. why it would be so damaging to him. To his legacy, which I think he cares a lot about, to his political estate, if the Democrats take over the House and Senate, he'll probably be impeached. The end of his presidency is basically upon us, he won't get anything done. So I do think he cares about that. But at the same time, if the Iranians [00:05:41] shoot down a helicopter, you're gonna have the Pentagon saying, what do mean? You're just gonna let Iran shoot at our guys and do nothing? So I think hopefully- It's kind of like a pinprick symbolic retaliation just he did and it doesn't really risk escalation that he did it in cooperation with the Iranians. But the one thing I want to say on is like, isn't it amazing? We're [00:05:59] acting like the Iranians engage in some sort of unprovoked aggression against our precious helicopters when we're there because we're blockading their country and won't allow ships to come in or out that is the lifeblood of their economy. Think about what we would do to a country if they tried to blockade our ports and our cities and our boats. in our ships and our [00:06:18] trade. Which is an war. that's an act of war. Exactly, and honestly, considering the fact that the US blockade has been in place for as long as it's been in place. It's actually shocking how much restraint we've seen from Iran because I think Iran does want an end [00:06:36] to the war. I don't think they enjoy what's going on right now. They wanted to prevent it to begin with, which is why uh They showed a tremendous amount of restraint toward the United States after multiple attacks, after the 12 day war that took place last summer. [00:06:53] Calling the US and letting Donald Trump know this is where we intend to strike, make sure you evacuate these bases so none of your troops get harmed. That is an amazing level of restraint that you can't really expect from the United States and certainly not from the Israelis. [00:07:10] made a habit of literally assassinating nuclear scientists in Iran. And no one made a peep about it. No one thought that was unusual. I remember having a conversation about that on a show called Her Take, which I used to host with Jillian Michaels. And Jillian Michaels [00:07:26] brought that up, the fact that Israel assassinates nuclear scientists in Iran, as if it's a good thing, as if it's totally normal to do that. And it's like, would you be okay with our nuclear scientists getting assassinated by a foreign country? Why are we okay with this? Why are [00:07:42] we accepting it? This is terrible and could spark a bigger war. Luckily that didn't uh spark a war because again, Iran showed a tremendous amount of restraint. And so I actually am a little more willing to believe that if uh there was a strike by Iran against this helicopter, [00:08:02] it was likely an accident. Although you don't know for sure. They're denying it. The US says no, was definitely Iran. They definitely did it intentionally. And US Central Command put out this statement. CENTCOM forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 PM [00:08:18] Eastern Time today at the commander in chief's direction in response to yesterday's downing of a US Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression. So to your point, Glenn, it does appear that this is going to be a [00:08:34] limited, these are limited strikes. hopefully doesn't expand into a larger war. Yeah, first of all, moment of peace for her take, RAP. I really love that show and I'm sorry that it blew up. I don't know how you withstood Jillian Michaels for as long as you did. So congratulations [00:08:50] on that. I can imagine or I can barely imagine. Just to this point that you made, I think it's so critical and it following war propaganda for as long as I have. Sometimes it actually does shock me like the fact that the American government can tell its citizens in the world [00:09:06] that we're going to war to free the oppressed people of the planet. Like we're going to Venezuela and Cuba to free them, or going to save the Iranian people and bring them democracy. When our closest allies, including right this moment in this very war, are the most savage tyrannies on the planet, Saudi Arabia, the Emiratis, the Qataris, the Bahrainis, the Jordanians. We [00:09:23] love tyranny and yet we can say with a straight face that we're going to war to free people. a lot of people will start just nodding. But the other part of it is think how long we've been told that the regime in Iran is this apocalyptic end times doomsday cult that they crave death [00:09:40] because they believe they'll be rewarded in the afterlife. They love death more than they love life. They wanna die. And yet you compare Iranian actions like you can go back even right after October 7th in 2024 when the Israelis bombed. the Iranian consulate in Syria and [00:09:57] killed people on their soil who have been invited to the inauguration of their president, acts of war for sure. The Iranians when they sent missiles to Israel, which they felt obligated to do, sent these slow older model missiles that they knew were gonna be intercepted, told the United States that we're gonna do it, did the same thing as you said. the Iranians felt [00:10:14] obligated to retaliate against US bases and told them to evacuate the bases, told them exactly where they were striking. Is this the kind of behavior of an apocalyptic religious fanatic cult that actually wants to die and craves the destruction? To be absolutely honest, if Iran had a nuclear weapon, and John Mearsheimer has made this point a lot. I do think the world [00:10:32] would be safer because the Israelis would then be actually constrained and deterred. I think the most dangerous situation is for the Israelis and them alone in that region to have a nuclear weapon. Because if you want to talk about an apocalyptic limitless cult that's filled with religious and ideological fanatics, you're talking about the Israeli government, not the Iranian [00:10:51] government. And look at how our propaganda leads people to believe the exact opposite of the obvious truth. I mean, you make such a devastating point here and you're citing the democratic, I'm sorry, the nuclear peace theory which was popularized by Kenneth Waltz, uh one of my favorite political scientists along with Mearsheimer. uh But I totally agree with you, I think that [00:11:12] much as we saw with North Korea after they obtained nuclear weapons, do we have any conversations about attacking North Korea? No, of course not, we're not going to go to North Korea. Would we ever go to war with Pakistan? They have nuclear weapons, of course not. There are two countries who are uh problematic given their nuclear arsenal and their past behavior. One of them is the [00:11:31] only country that's ever used nuclear weapons, that's us, the United States of America. And then you have Israel, which has a clandestine nuclear program. uh They are not part of the nonproliferation treaty. And by the way, on multiple occasions, you have various figures [00:11:47] within Israel threatening to use nuclear weapons. The notorious traitor to the United States, Jonathan Pollard, being one of them. And so it's amazing to me that the two countries who have uh pretty dark history with nuclear weapons are the ones going around the Middle East, [00:12:04] policing who can and cannot have any nuclear weapons to begin with. So that's a really, really great point. uh