... to start traveling all the way to Asia, 'cause it never used to be this way.

Yeah, it wasn't.

Um, and I would even go before CO- I would say closer to two years.

I would say it's been the last real two years.

I think people during COVID started to recognize the opportunity, right? Th- many of us have been here, uh, kinda waving the flag for African American expats, you know, here, uh, Panama, Costa Rica, uh, Mexico City, Spain, Portugal, um, e- even Bali.

Bali, I would say Bali has a, a bigger community than here now.

Um, and, you know, people weren't necessarily in the socioeconomic position to make that move, to make that change.

Yeah.

It-- was anything communicated through official channels to the church that this might happen, sir, to your knowledge?

Not that I know of.

In fact, the, the-- and the cardinal in his statement even said that he has been adhering to every request and security, uh, stricture.

He was not going with some grand procession even.

He was going privately with another clergy to the, the church to say mass on Palm Sunday and barred.

So i-i-it's, uh...

When, when you-- if you give [beep] a gun and a badge, you get a bigger one.

Go ahead.

Um, first, um, you know, look, uh, CENTCOM undoubtedly over the last two years had all their target sets that they wanted to hit in Yemen

YemenTo make the Houthis comply and to open up the Bab-el-Mandeb unlimited.

The only reason that was opened over the last year is because the Houthis allowed it.

It was not done by coercion by CENTCOM.

So my concern about CENTCOM saying, "Yes, we have another 3,500 targets to strike," that's the ones that they think they know of.

And my comment about, um, the captain saying, "Well, things are quiet and they're not really shooting back from the Straits of Hormuz," um, as I read history, the Germans did not engage, um, um, until the troops hit the beach, and the Japanese did not open up on Iwo Jima or Okinawa until the troops hit the beach.

And so I really hope no one is considering some kind of a forced entry there because it will be a significant casualty event and a massive blow and, and I just hope that the administration is not gonna give the enemy the fight that the enemy is expecting, um, because it's not gonna go well.

If we got a two-state solution, de facto two-state solution, don't we need a third state? Don't we need a Christian state in Jerusalem to take the Christian quarter and, you know, maybe a quarter up to Bethlehem, but to make sure that this type of thing can't happen in the future? I mean, shouldn't the Christians take a more active role in the management of the Holy Land, sir?

Go ahead

... as I recall that, that MEU would have a maximum of ten V-22s on board.

Um, and so you're not gonna move more than twenty or thirty troops per lift.

So yeah, your initial assault into Kharg Island is gonna be mighty thin because you-- those aircraft have to cycle, and that's assuming you don't have any losses from maintenance or from missiles.

Um, uh, do you do a mass drop of the eighty-second onto Kharg Island? Again, that's, uh, that's pretty sporty.

Um, and a, uh, an airborne invasion in a place that has thousands and thousands of missiles, uh, not to mention-The Iranians have been learning.

They've certainly been paying attention to, uh, modern drone warfare, and have certainly implemented FPVs down to, um, the squad level.

Any observations? And please, no non sequiturs like Lipley again, sir.

Could you actually do a – without active Arab support, could you actually take Karg Island from the – could you actually go to carg island unless you got the lhas unless you got the amphibious ready group at least part of the uh contingent into the persian gulf or would you do it stand off and and and station the helicopters and the uh and the osprey i guess it's some you know up in qatar uh you know to the to that point you know up i think i think i think the mu has in iran in iran in iran Iraq, I mean.

Go ahead.

As I recall, that Mew would have a maximum of 10 V-22s on board.

And so you're not going to move more than 20 or 30 troops per lift.

So yeah, your initial assault in the Karg Island is going to be mighty thin because those aircraft have to cycle.

And that's assuming you don't have any losses from maintenance or from missiles.

Do you do a mass drop of the 82nd on the Karg Island? Again, that's pretty sporty.

But why do you do the comparison to Gallipoli?

Your closing thoughts on where we are, particularly with Captain Fennell's assessment of where CENTCOM is on this, straight or for moves, and what happened at the church, or what didn't happen today at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, sir?

First, you know, look, CENTCOM undoubtedly over the last two years had all their target sets that they wanted to hit in Yemen.

to make the Houthis comply and to open up the Bab al-Mandab unlimited.

The only reason that was opened over the last year is because the Houthis allowed it.

It was not done by coercion by CENTCOM.

So my concern about CENTCOM saying, yes, we have another 3,500 targets to strike, That's the ones that they think they know of.

And my comment about the captain saying, well, things are quiet and they're not really shooting back from the Straits of Hormuz.

Isn't it time that we start to have a discussion? If we got a two-state solution, a de facto two-state solution, don't we need a third state? Don't we need a Christian state in Jerusalem to take the Christian quarter and, you know, maybe a quarter up to Bethlehem, but to make sure that this type of thing can't happen in the future? I mean, shouldn't the Christians take a more active role in the management of the Holy Land, sir?

What's that?

INDO...

The, our, our, our supply in the Pacific, right? The, the different theater.

So we're pulling down magazine supply from there to try to, uh, defend all these US facilities in the Gulf from being smashed.

The Iranians are really good at asymmetric warfare, um, meaning high payoff, low cost for them.

They built that 20, $30,000 drone, which costs the United States a million to three million dollars per drone to shoot down because our, our interceptor missiles are so expensive.

The Iranians have built thousands and thousands and thousands of those.

Six so far.

Uh, your thoughts, uh, on Monday, sir?

Uh, well, the thing about taking out the top of their command structure means that the bottom is still very much intact.

And they, they also-- the, the Iranian foreign minister said that they had delegated authority and responsibility to the lowest level units to maximize their fight.

And, uh, look, the Straits of Hormuz are closed.

The Ras Tanura facility in Saudi Arabia, which flows six-- it's a loading terminal for six million barrels a day of crudeUh, it was hit.

Uh, fire, fire was put out fortunately.

Um, the Qataris just took off twenty percent of the world's gas production, uh, from their, from their facility, uh, which has also been attacked.

They got enough of it, uh, when those two empires wanted each other, sir.

Your thoughts on Monday, sir?

Well, the thing about taking out the top of their command structure means that the bottom is still very much intact and they also The Iranian foreign minister said that they had delegated authority and responsibility to the lowest level units to maximize their fight.

And the Straits of Hormuz are closed.

The Rashtanur facility in Saudi Arabia, which flows six, it's a loading terminal for six million barrels a day of crude.

It was hit.

Fire was put out, fortunately.

the Qataris just took off 20% of the world's gas production from their facility, which has also been attacked.

They got enough of it when those two empires wanted each other, sir.

Uh, are the monarchist a, a reasonable alternative? And tell people how deep the IRGC goes and how deep, uh, the security apparatus with the mullahs goes in, uh, in Iran.

The IRGC is the most powerful force in the country.

They're the ones that made money from all the sanctions.

Uh, they control the guns and, and the muscle, not even the Iranian army.

Um, so I, I don't know what the plan is to name some interim leader.

Uh, I, I'm, I'm, um, I am discouraged, and it will, um, it will uncork a lot of, uh, a lot of chaos in the area.

And I really wonder, what is the plan if there is not a clear, um, successor person that actually takes power to try to keep some kind of interim government together? It's, uh, uh...

W- why are you disappointed with what the president's actions have been?

The IRGC is the most

powerful force in the country.

They're the ones that made money from all the sanctions.

Uh, they control the guns and, and the muscle, not even the Iranian army.

Um, so I don't know what the plan is to name some interim leader.

Uh, I I'm, I'm, um, I am discouraged and it will, um, It will uncork a lot of chaos in the area.

And I really wonder, what is the plan if there is not a clear successor person that actually takes power to try to keep some kind of interim government together? And subjecting our foreign policy to Israeli foreign policy, I have real issue with that.

Or do you think there's so many it's so deep in the Mula bench in the IRGC bench that you're just going to get even worse bad hombres up there? Why are we

They use all these pe- these people are a means to an end for them to concentrate wealth and power, and if the American people have to suffer, or the Haitian people have to suffer, or the common man and woman in Mexico has to suffer, then that, that's just tough because, um, you know, those people don't have any power, Eric Prince.

What you saw in Haiti 10, 12, 15 years ago with the earthquakes, with the, um, hurricane, was a big fundraising effort.

Uh, and the Clintons looted a lot of that.

They left the place undoubtedly worse, and with all that aid money, it's basically...

It was like watering weeds, and it reinforced all the negative aspects of that society.

What you saw in Mexico yesterday is a cartel explosion.

It is a government that's allowed the criminal class to basically overmatch law enforcement.

Well, uh, do you believe that, uh, that Delta Force and other beyond even intelligence was, was involved in this strike?

Eric Prince.

What you saw in Haiti 10, 12, 15 years ago with the earthquakes, with the Hurricane was a big fundraising effort, and the Clintons looted a lot of that.

They left the place undoubtedly worse.

And with all that aid money, it's basically, it was like watering weeds, and it reinforced all the negative aspects of that society.

What you saw in Mexico yesterday is a cartel explosion.

It is a government that's allowed the criminal class to basically overmatch law enforcement.

When you take out a gang leader and the gangs respond by locking down large parts of the city, including thousands of Americans that are stuck there, taking over an international airport, it's allowing lawlessness and chaos.

Do you believe that Delta Force and other beyond even intelligence was involved in the strike?

Uh, your thoughts, sir? The Department of War acted immediately, but your thoughts about this.

They could have even been heavy lift agricultural drones flown from Mexico carrying 10, 20, 50 kilos of narcotics to a predetermined drop location.

So whether they're carrying weapons or drugs, it is, uh, part of a ongoing mechanized invasion enabled by the Mexican government's inability to clamp down on the criminal activity, and so at some point, there has to be consequences.

I'm not sure that, um, the Mexican presidency is the, the fully witting and able counterparty, although I think she's better off than the predecessor.

Um, this r- will continue to be a problem.

When you have to shut down airspace for a million-person city in America, uh, so that you can clear the skies with kinetic, uh, capability from the military, uh, that is-... by definition, an invasion, and it must be dealt with.

This is, uh, to me, this is far worse than those weather balloons or whatever, the surveillance balloons that the Chinese were flying across US airspace, and Biden didn't dare shoot them down.

So what is your recommendation to the President?

Is, is that plan operative today to sort this mess out in, uh, in Minneapolis, sir?

Yeah, [clears throat] look, our plan was based on hitting significant numbers by the midterms, um, knowing that hard things in politics generally have a, uh, a limited lifespan.

Um, yes, it was, uh, it was submitted properly through all the channels of DHS.

It was ignored, sadly.

Uh, but we've kind of realized, having been around government contracting and around government entities before, they can do some things really well, but they can't flex, and bob, and weave, and it's hard for them to innovate.

And so we had a comprehensive plan that included, um, a lot of open-source available cell phone data to, uh, to figure out who is likely the illegal.

Um, cross that with, uh, government database search to get you really good targeting information, um, with lots of apprehension teams, including motivating state and local law enforcement with a very considerable bounty program.

Erik Prince?

What was your plan, and what do you think, is that plan operative today to sort this mess out in Minneapolis, sir?

Look, our plan was based on hitting significant numbers by the midterms, knowing that hard things in politics generally have a limited lifespan.

Yes, it was submitted properly through all the channels of DHS.

It was ignored, sadly.

But we've kind of realized, having been around government contracting and around government entities before, they can do some things really well, but they can't flex and bob and weave, and it's hard for them to innovate.

And so we had a comprehensive plan that included a lot of open source available cell phone data to figure out who is likely the illegal, cross that with a government database search to get you really good targeting information, with lots of apprehension teams, including motivating state and local law enforcement with a very considerable bounty program.

It's much cheaper to pay bounties to officers on duty or off duty to bring in more illegals than it is to even hire more full-time ICE agents, especially when these people know their communities, they know the neighborhoods, and they know who doesn't belong.

Eric Prince, your thoughts on this?

Eric Prince, your thoughts,

sir? Look, Gaza is not our problem.

I agree with you on defending the Christian parts of Jerusalem or the Christian parts of the West Bank even.

This is going to get more tribal if the insanity continues the way it is.

I think it'd be great to get rid of the mullahs, but again, it's not our problem.

There's a lot of wealth, right? They call LA tarantulas because there's so much Iranian wealth out there.

Why don't they get together, spend money, support their people that are oppressed and free them? If my home state of West Michigan was suddenly invaded, you can imagine that I would do all possible to defend my people.

Isn't that like 10x the world's oil supply? We got all the oil we need to control the world's markets and just to kind of make sure that we have our own national security, sir.

But they looked at their next door neighbor, Guyana, and they realized with a military intrusion down there, uh, when you got people like Biden and Obama and these people that are very passive, a military intrusion into Guyana, if you get Guyana's reserves or even part of them and put them with, with, uh, the reserves of Venezuela, you have a superpower, do you not, sir?

Yes.

So the fastest economy growing in the world last year was Guyana because of the Starbrook Formation, which is a massive offshore gas, oil and gas, uh, discovery made by Exxon.

Uh, they went into production and obviously Guyana's economy really exploded.

Then, uh, to, to distract from the corruption, incompetence and socialism of the Maduro government, they, Maduro trotted out a 130-year-old border dispute, which had been settled 130 years ago, uh, on an area called Essequibo area, which is, uh, uh, about 30% of the land mass, uh, of Guyana that suddenly Venezuela claimed again, that's where all the oil was, and they started rattling their sabers and, and putting, um, special forces across the border and all the rest.

It would have actually...

Seizing that would have grown the Venezuelan economy by more than a third.

Yeah.

If you get Guyana's reserves or even part of them and put them with with the reserves of Venezuela, you have a superpower, do you not, sir?

Yes.

So the fastest economy growing in the world last year was Guyana because of the Starbrook Formation, which is a massive offshore gas, oil and gas discovery made by Exxon.

They went into production, and obviously, Guyana's economy really exploded.

Then to distract from the corruption, incompetence, and socialism of the Maduro government is Maduro trotted out a 130-year-old border dispute, which had been settled 130 years ago on an area called Esequibo area, which is about 30% of the landmass of Guyana that suddenly Venezuela claimed again.

That's where all the oil was.

And they started raveling their servers and putting special forces across the border and all the rest, it would have actually, seizing that, would have grown the Venezuelan economy by more than a third.

Why is Greenland so important to that, sir?

Uh, just walk me through what you know about this strike and how complicated it was to pull off and how proud we should be of our forces.

forces.The Maduro regime has spent a lot of money on building out some- they, they spent a lot of money on defense and the Russian air defense systems, the Pantsir, uh, anti-aircraft cannons, the S-300s, all of that stuff would have been on high alert because of the presence of all those ships offshore.

And the fact is, the US could come in, turn the lights off.

I'm sure they'd turn the power off, turn the phones off, um, turn the ability of those surface-to-air missile systems to even function, destroy them, and to fly helicopters right into an urban area, um, like that and, and to get everybody out clean is truly spectacular.

It is an enormous amount of coordination.

Uh, congrats to Pete Hegseth and General Kane and the entire Department of War.

It's amazing what you get when you focus on merit and lethality instead of politics and social engineering, and it works.

Just geo-strategically, how big a deal is this?

Is that along the lines of some- of something that you think can actually solve the problem, uh, with Maduro and send a message to him it's time for him to move on?

Venezuela is a great example of you can vote in socialism but you have to shoot your way out of it.

So a year ago July, Maduro lost that election by 40 points, and he has refused to turn over power and he has really installed himself as a dictator, and the, the narco money, all right, there's 34 drug, commercial drug production facilities, commercial narcotics production facilities in Venezuela.

So there's lots of reasons for Trump to have high concern about the, that primary tumor site in South America.

Um, as he's dialed up pressure by sending US naval and, uh, air force assets down there to patrol with rightfully interdicting a lot of the, the maritime drug traffic, and now he's started to go after one of the, I think there's 52 complete gray black market, uh, oil trading vessels which are hauling sanctioned illegal crude on stateless vessels, meaning they constantly change the r- the registration, falsify the registration of these vessels, which under any kind of inter- international maritime law, they can be boarded and seized as pirate vessels, which is exactly what they just did this week.

And that is an excellent strategy exhalation to clamp down on Maduro's ability to fund his illicit government.

Now, at the same time you have María Corina Machado who was well smuggled out of the country in some kind of a maritime exfil, probably, uh, through a bunch of checkpoints by boat to Curaçao, a Dutch island off the northwest of, of Mo- uh, Venezuela, and then jet to Norway where she receives the Nobel Prize for her valiant pursuit of representative democratic-elected government.

They're trying to start it again and you've got, you've got, uh, global actors that are edging, uh, egging this on, are they not?

When Sheinbaum was elected, they killed 27 different conservative candidates, largely assassinated by the cartels, and in many cases, it was funded by the Chinese Communist Party because they're trying to do state capture of Mexico (clears throat) with the fentanyl, with the other drug trafficking, uh, and with other aspects of trade.

The CCP is trying to put their hooks in at all levels of the Mexican society.

That becomes a huge problem for the United States.

And again, I'm not advocating an 1845-style invasion at Veracruz again.

Um, we need to push for leadership change, maybe, and maybe, um, the United States starts doing it at a governor level where a state governor says, "I'm ready to take this on," and we support them that way with kinetic strikes, with covert action, with the means to overmatch the cartels.

I feel terrible for the average cop, the good cop, uh, that tries to do the right thing in Mexico because they're immediately met by overwhelming force, which wipes out not just them but their family, and it kills their entire family ugly.

And President Trump says, "You know, I'm willing to listen," right? "And, and talk." Wh- what ha- what has changed? Is it, is it, is it that the Ford showed up with the strike group and now you have instead of 4,000 fleet marines and sailors, you've got, I don't know, 12,000 to 15,000? Is that, is that what got their attention? Did they take your advice and put the $50 million on him dead or alive? Wh- why do we have what looks like a sea change in the last 72 hours?

Um, perhaps there are some covert actions that worked, but, uh, to me, this is not solved by, by carrier air wings and B-52s.

Correct?

Not just that.

When Sheinbaum was elected, they killed 27 different conservative candidates, largely assassinated by the cartels, and in many cases, it was funded by the Chinese Communist Party because they're trying to do state capture of Mexico with the fentanyl, with the other drug trafficking, uh, and with other aspects of trade.

The CCP is trying to put their hooks in at all levels of the Mexican society.

That becomes a huge problem for the United States.And again, I'm not advocating an 1845 style invasion at Veracruz again.

Um, we need to push for leadership change maybe, and maybe, um, the United States starts doing it at a governor level, where a state governor says, "I'm ready to take this on," and we support them that way with kinetic strikes, with covert action, with the means to overmatch the cartels.

I feel terrible for the average cop, the good cop, uh, that tries to do the right thing in Mexico, because they're immediately met by overwhelming force, which wipes out not just them, but their family, and it kills their entire family ugly.

Um, s- so w- the overall plan is to, is to basically tell these guys, "You got to change your government peacefully, that we oversee and supervise, or we're gonna go kinetic." And why do you wait on going kinetic? D- isn't a better way just to strike, take out some of the cartels, take out some of the political leaders, and just clean this thing up quickly, sir?

Correct?

Not just that.

When Sheinbaum was elected, they killed 27 different conservative candidates, largely assassinated by the cartels, and in many cases, it was funded by the Chinese Communist Party, because they're trying to do state capture of Mexico with the fentanyl, with the other drug trafficking, uh, and with other aspects of trade.

The CCP is trying to put their hooks in at all levels of the Mexican society.

That becomes a huge problem for the United States.And again, I'm not advocating an 1845 style invasion at Veracruz again.

Um, we need to push for leadership change maybe, and maybe, um, the United States starts doing it at a governor level, where a state governor says, "I'm ready to take this on," and we support them that way with kinetic strikes, with covert action, with the means to overmatch the cartels.

I feel terrible for the average cop, the good cop, uh, that tries to do the right thing in Mexico, because they're immediately met by overwhelming force, which wipes out not just them, but their family, and it kills their entire family ugly.

Um, s- so the overall plan is to, is to basically tell these guys, "You got to change your government peacefully that we oversee and supervise, or we're gonna go kinetic." And why do you wait on going kinetic? D- isn't a better way just to strike, take out some of the cartels, take out some of the political leaders, and just clean this thing up quickly, sir?

They're, they're done right away, correct?

Not just that.

When Sheinbaum was elected, they killed 27 different conservative candidates, largely assassinated by the cartels, and in many cases, it was funded by the Chinese Communist Party because they're trying to do state capture of Mexico with the fentanyl, with the other drug trafficking, uh, and with other aspects of trade.

The CCP is trying to put their hooks in at all levels of the Mexican society.

That becomes a huge problem for the United States.And again, I'm not advocating an 1845 style invasion at Veracruz again.

Um, we need to push for leadership change maybe, and maybe, um, the United States starts doing it at a governor level, where a state governor says, "I'm ready to take this on," and we support them that way with kinetic strikes, with covert action, with the means to overmatch the cartels.

I feel terrible for the average cop, the good cop, uh, that tries to do the right thing in Mexico, because they're immediately met by overwhelming force, which wipes out not just them, but their family, and it kills their entire family ugly.

Whether you like it or not, this is the reality." Erik Prince.