The Ben Shapiro Show - CATASTROPHE?! Oil Shocks and Drone Threats As Iran Strikes Back
Aired: 2026-03-12
Duration: 41:32


=== Iran's Final Hour Terror Threats (03:25) ===

[00:00:00]  You're waking up to a lot of bad stories this morning, but that dying regime can still be dangerous.
[00:00:05]  Wounded animals can still bite.
[00:00:07]  So, the question is, can Iran still hurt the United States?
[00:00:11]  How much?
[00:00:12]  From chaotic oil prices to drone attacks in California, are we actually susceptible to Iranian retaliation?
[00:00:18]  What will Iran do?
[00:00:19]  And what do we need to do to end this?
[00:00:21]  This is the Bench Bureau Show.
[00:00:26]  Oil tankers on fire in the Strait of Hormuz, leading to large-scale oil disruptions and a spike in the price of Brent crude oil.
[00:00:33]  Rumors of impending drone attacks, Iranian drone attacks in California, Iranian schoolgirls killed in a botched missile attack.
[00:00:40]  We're not going to sugarcoat what's going on because war is ugly.
[00:00:43]  What's happening right now is that Iran is fighting back.
[00:00:46]  The regime is on its last legs and it knows it.
[00:00:49]  Even if it survives the current conflict, the question is for how long?
[00:00:53]  Because if they're heavily damaged and if it turns out they can't defend against insurgents in their streets or against air flights, air sorties from opposing forces, how long does the regime last?
[00:01:03]  And so what we're watching right now are the dying throes of a poisonous snake.
[00:01:07]  But that doesn't mean the snake can't do serious damage before it goes.
[00:01:11]  This is typically what the end game of a war looks like.
[00:01:13]  The enemy lashes out with all of its final strength, pulling out every stop, pulling every lever.
[00:01:18]  And then, unless we lose our willpower, they lose.
[00:01:23]  As Japan collapsed at the end of World War II, American casualties went up, not down.
[00:01:27]  The Battle of Okinawa, which was fought on territory controlled by Japan since 1879, populated heavily with Japanese citizens and entirely with Japanese subjects since that point, that was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War.
[00:01:38]  Over 12,000 Americans ended up dead.
[00:01:40]  Between 36,000 and 49,000 Americans were wounded, alongside some 110,000 Japanese military killed and another 100,000 to 150,000 Japanese civilians, many of whom committed suicide.
[00:01:52]  That battle ended June 22nd, 1945, and within seven weeks, the war was over.
[00:01:58]  Again, this sort of activity isn't uncommon as America's enemies realize that they are in their final hours.
[00:02:04]  The Battle of the Bulge was Hitler's final attempt to stave off defeat.
[00:02:07]  It was bloody.
[00:02:08]  It was terrible.
[00:02:09]  And Hitler lost.
[00:02:10]  At the end of the Gulf War, actually, even after a ceasefire had been declared, the Iraqi Hammurabi Republican Guard Division attacked the U.S. 24th Infantry Division.
[00:02:18]  That was a large-scale mistake.
[00:02:20]  The U.S. ended up destroying nearly 200 tanks and erasing the Hammurabi Division entirely, but that was sort of the last gasp.
[00:02:26]  And again, that's quite common.
[00:02:28]  In the 2001 war in Afghanistan, the final Taliban stand a few months later before the launch of their large-scale insurgent warfare strategy that lasted years was something called Operation Anaconda.
[00:02:38]  That's where the Taliban fighters dug in in the mountains and then they tried to engage U.S. forces.
[00:02:43]  This was in 2002, and they lost.
[00:02:46]  Again, the losing side very often will launch a last stand or a final push or pull out all the stops.
[00:02:51]  And that's what we're actually watching right now.
[00:02:53]  Now, the question of whether Iran's activity represents the death throes of the regime or the reconsolidation of regime power, that's the question.
[00:03:01]  And the answer is actually not up to Iran.
[00:03:03]  It's up to the United States and Israel.
[00:03:06]  The only hope for the Iranian regime right now is that the United States and Israel somehow stop in their tracks before the Iranian regime suffers irreparable damage.
[00:03:14]  That is precisely why American enemies make that final push.
[00:03:17]  It's the last gasp attempt to prevent the increasingly inevitable.
[00:03:21]  Now, Iran is a terrorist regime, and so it's pursuing terror tactics.

=== Infiltrating Latin America and Homeland (04:06) ===

[00:03:25]  Three lines of terror tactics.
[00:03:26]  One, terror targeting the American homeland.
[00:03:28]  Two, terror targeting the Strait of Hormuz and other Gulf oil supplies.
[00:03:32]  And three, terror targeting our allies.
[00:03:35]  So, begin with the American homeland.
[00:03:37]  Yesterday, ABC News reported that the FBI has warned police departments about the possibility of an Iranian drone attack on American soil.
[00:03:44]  According to the FBI, quote, as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California in the event that the United States conducted strikes against Iran.
[00:04:01]  The L.A. Sheriff's Department assures the public that everything is under control, that they've deployed more resources to houses of worship and other prominent locations.
[00:04:08]  Governor Gavin Newsom says that drone issues have been top of mind for him.
[00:04:12]  As this relates to the broader concern as it relates to drone strikes, we've been aware of that information.
[00:04:19]  We've been working collaboratively through the SOC, which we established right after the war began, the State Operations Center, working with the Office of Emergency Service, but also working locally to make sure we transmit any information that we have received.
[00:04:32]  And we're aware of that, which has been reported, I think, by ABC 7.
[00:04:37]  We're aware of that information, and we transfer that information in real time to our local partners.
[00:04:43]  Drone issues have been always top of mind, and we've assembled work groups specifically around those concerns.
[00:04:52]  President Trump, too, says that we are watching what Iran is doing, that we've got our eyes on the terrorists.
[00:04:58]  Have you been briefed about how many Iran sleeper cells there could be inside the U.S. right now?
[00:05:04]  I have been, and a lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border.
[00:05:09]  But we know where most of them are.
[00:05:11]  We've got our eye on all of them, I think.
[00:05:14]  If it doesn't, they came in through the open border policies of sleepy Joe Biden, one of the worst, the worst presidents in the history of our country.
[00:05:26]  And we've got our eyes on all of them.
[00:05:30]  The president is not wrong about the open border.
[00:05:32]  The president also added that when it comes to these threats, all we can really do is take them as they come, which, of course, is a reality.
[00:05:40]  President Trump, what have you heard about this bulletin that some law enforcement put out about a possible Iran revenge plot in California where there would be some kind of a boat offshore launching drones?
[00:05:52]  Of course, being investigated, but you have a lot of things happening, and all we can do is take them as they come.
[00:06:00]  Now, listen, this shouldn't be a major shock.
[00:06:02]  Iran has infiltrated South and Latin America.
[00:06:05]  That is one of the reasons that the Trump administration moved against Venezuela, which was the center of Iranian activity in the Western Hemisphere.
[00:06:11]  Under Nicolas Maduro, now a treasured guest of President Trump in prison, Iran and Venezuela even signed a 20-year cooperation agreement, and that included drones and missiles shipped from Iran to Venezuela.
[00:06:23]  And as the president says, an enormous number of people have crossed our southern border over the course of the last few years.
[00:06:28]  Here's Chad Wolf, former DHS acting secretary, talking to Glenn Beck about it.
[00:06:33]  It's bad, right?
[00:06:34]  We talked about four years of the Biden administration.
[00:06:37]  So over the course of four years, you had over 11 to 12 million individuals come into the United States, over 18,000 known or suspected terrorists, right?
[00:06:47]  The National Counterterrorism Center just testified about that.
[00:06:50]  Over 18,000 known or suspected terrorists tried to enter the country during Joe Biden's tenure, and a variety of them made it in.
[00:07:00]  The current threat of terrorism at home has led a lot of people to suggest that Trump's war on the Iranian regime is somehow unjustified, which seems to me wildly backward.
[00:07:09]  In other words, if Iran is more threatening and more terrorist, then somehow we have to leave them alone more, and we should leave them alone even more than that so they can do more of that stuff and therefore deter us further.
[00:07:21]  If a criminal syndicate were to threaten your home and your family, you would not be morally unjustified in attacking them, even if that attack were to cause them to initiate violence.

=== Hezbollah Deterrence in the Strait (15:12) ===

[00:07:31]  No country worth its salt can be held hostage to the whims of an increasingly powerful terrorist enemy.
[00:07:36]  Waiting doesn't decrease your risk.
[00:07:38]  It raises it.
[00:07:40]  That is the point of taking on the bad guys when you have a unique opportunity to do so.
[00:07:44]  You don't wait until Iran develops its terror capacities further.
[00:07:47]  You don't wait until they have the total capacity to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, not just the temporary capacity to fire a few drones at a few boats.
[00:07:55]  You don't wait until they have nuclear weapons.
[00:07:57]  You take the opportunity to hit them when you can and stop the threat before it fully blooms.
[00:08:02]  And that's precisely what President Trump has been doing, as he explained yesterday.
[00:08:07]  It's an excursion that will keep us out of a war.
[00:08:12]  And the war is going to be, I mean, for them, it's a war.
[00:08:16]  For us, it's turned out to be easier than we thought.
[00:08:22]  Okay, and we'll see how all of that turns out.
[00:08:24]  But the idea that it's an excursion to prevent a war, that is largely right.
[00:08:28]  Because, again, in historic terms, what the United States is doing right now is an extraordinarily low-cost opportunity, low-cost.
[00:08:37]  We're not talking again about hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of American troops boots on the ground in Iran.
[00:08:42]  We are not even talking about a months-long war at this point.
[00:08:46]  We are on day 13.
[00:08:49]  We've only been at war for 13 days, but you've been spending years paying too much for your cell phone coverage.
[00:08:54]  How'd you like that ad transition?
[00:08:55]  It's time to dig out that old wireless contract you've been clinging to and toss it.
[00:08:59]  It's outdated.
[00:08:59]  It's overpriced.
[00:09:00]  Frankly, it's ridiculous.
[00:09:01]  Now, if you actually care about saving money and getting quality service, switch on over to PureTalk.
[00:09:05]  That's the company that I use.
[00:09:07]  You're going to get unlimited talk, text, plenty of data, all for just 25 bucks a month, no contract, no hidden fees, and big bonus, no overseas call centers.
[00:09:14]  When you need help, you're talking to real Americans, which is how it should be.
[00:09:18]  Again, Pure Talk is my go-to.
[00:09:19]  It's my company.
[00:09:20]  I use Pure Talk for all my calls.
[00:09:22]  Great tower network, same as the big guys.
[00:09:24]  Other customers are saying the same.
[00:09:25]  Lois is a Pure Talk customer who said she switched to Pure Talk a few years ago.
[00:09:29]  Quote, amazing.
[00:09:30]  Same coverage and clarity as Verizon or ATT at a fraction of the price.
[00:09:33]  Award-winning customer service just upgraded to an iPhone 16E.
[00:09:37]  The support and deals were superb.
[00:09:39]  Well, folks, now is the time for you to make the switch as well.
[00:09:41]  Head on over to puretalk.com slash Shapiro.
[00:09:43]  You'll save 50% off your very first month of coverage.
[00:09:46]  That's puretalk.com/slash Shapiro.
[00:09:48]  Switch to a wireless company that actually shares your values, PureTalk, America's wireless company.
[00:09:54]  Okay, then there's what Iran has been doing in the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:09:56]  And this is making a lot of headlines because it should.
[00:09:58]  It's important.
[00:09:59]  Iran has been firing ordnance at oil tankers that have been shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
[00:10:04]  But here's the point.
[00:10:06]  If you leave in place a regime that is increasingly powerful and can choke off that waterway anytime it wants, that doesn't make things better.
[00:10:14]  The Wall Street Journal says, quote, leaving in place Iran's theocratic regime, angry, defiant, and in possession of its nuclear stockpile and what remains of its arsenal of missiles and drones would essentially grant Tehran control over the world's energy markets.
[00:10:25]  It would also sacrifice the security of America's partners and allies and possibly make another more devastating regional war likely.
[00:10:32]  While the United States has sunk much of the Iranian Navy, the Iranians are using short-range missiles and drones to harass shipping.
[00:10:38]  This is precisely what they have been doing.
[00:10:40]  They set a couple of tankers on fire last night.
[00:10:43]  This is in Iraqi waters.
[00:10:45]  They set an oil tanker on fire.
[00:10:47]  On Wednesday, the IRGC hit three cargo ships in an attempt to pressure the Trump administration.
[00:10:53]  And then Iran said that all vessels, apparently other than Chinese vessels, because again, Iran and China, very closely tied together, will be targeted.
[00:11:00]  For now, the United States is not saying that we'll actually escort tankers from the oil companies.
[00:11:05]  And this is troubling because obviously, if the United States is concerned about casualties by ushering these tankers through, a lot of tankers are going to say, well, why should we do that if you won't even do that?
[00:11:16]  One official told the Wall Street Journal, the strait, because it's so narrow, could become what he called an Iranian killbox.
[00:11:22]  Right now, President Trump is holding down oil prices largely by talking about the incipient end of the war and through the release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
[00:11:31]  But the problem about talking about the end of the war is that that's the kind of talk that actually emboldens the Iranians to increase their attacks on shipping, hoping that exerting more pressure on the Strait of Hormuz will force President Trump to stop.
[00:11:42]  Well, you know what would be really, really helpful here?
[00:11:44]  America's Gulf allies.
[00:11:46]  So the Saudis, UAE, Qatar, our supposed best ally, none of them have actually engaged in forward action against Iran, even though they're the ones who are getting pounded, truly pounded.
[00:11:57]  You know what they could do?
[00:11:59]  They could increase.
[00:12:00]  their pumping.
[00:12:01]  They could pump to areas that are not controlled by Iran, like in the west of Saudi Arabia.
[00:12:06]  As the Wall Street Journal reports, the Strait handled 38% of the world's seaborne crude oil trade in the week before the war began, according to UN trade agency.
[00:12:14]  Saudi Arabia and the UAE are working to ramp up exports through alternative pipeline routes that bypass the strait entirely.
[00:12:19]  In the Saudi case, that means redirecting crude away from its refineries, tightening the market for fine fuel in the process.
[00:12:25]  We should facilitate such action immediately.
[00:12:27]  We are defending Saudi and UAE, which again, those are the places Iran is targeting.
[00:12:32]  Disproportionately, Iran has fired multiple times more ordnance at UAE than it has fired at Israel.
[00:12:38]  If our allies are not going to join us offensively in the fight, they can at least relieve pressure on the oil markets created by the Iranian attacks.
[00:12:45]  Again, we are defending them, which brings us to the third tentacle of Iranian terror, terror against our allies.
[00:12:54]  Now, Iran knows that the entry of the Saudis and UAE directly into the war would be quite bad for them.
[00:12:59]  And they know that the Saudis and UAE could help the United States calm world markets, and that would allow the U.S.-Israel operation to continue, which is why they've been firing more missiles at the Gulf states than at Israel, trying to convince them to cower in fear.
[00:13:11]  This is a chart of Iranian attacks against the Gulf state and Israel.
[00:13:15]  Look at this.
[00:13:16]  This is astonishing.
[00:13:17]  Okay, so Israel has been targeted with 550 strikes by Iran.
[00:13:22]  That is 14% of all strikes.
[00:13:24]  Kuwait has been targeted with 24%.
[00:13:28]  UAE with 44% of all strikes.
[00:13:31]  Bahrain has been hit with almost as many strikes as Israel.
[00:13:35]  And Saudi has been hit with 176.
[00:13:37]  Qatar is low on the list because obviously Qatar and Iran are half allies.
[00:13:42]  Iran has been taking indirect counteraction against Israel.
[00:13:45]  They've been using their proxy, Hezbollah.
[00:13:47]  So Hezbollah has been absolutely shellacked by Israel over the last couple of years since the Bieber operation, the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, and the ground operation in Lebanon.
[00:13:56]  Now, Hezbollah is hoping that drawing Israeli resources toward Lebanon might somehow save the Iranian government.
[00:14:02]  They're counting on the Lebanese government to back down because the Lebanese government could theoretically exert some sort of pressure or push the Americans to stop Israel.
[00:14:09]  That is why overnight they were raining rockets on northern Israel.
[00:14:13]  Here's some of the video of what that looks like.
[00:14:16]  You can see all these rockets in the air, a lot of them being shot down by Iron Dome and also by lasers.
[00:14:24]  Well, if the Lebanese government doesn't stop Hezbollah from its offensive action, if Israel is forced to stop its destruction of Hezbollah yet again some other way, that, by the way, would be a disaster for the region's Christians, among others.
[00:14:34]  Lebanon used to be a Christian country before it was wrecked by the Palestine Liberation Organization, before it was wrecked by the Iranians, by Hezbollah.
[00:14:43]  Hezbollah is moving to destroy Lebanon's Christian population.
[00:14:46]  As Rami Naeem writes in the Wall Street Journal, quote, across Iran's sphere of influence, Christian communities have experienced demographic collapse.
[00:14:53]  In Iraq, the Christian population fell from about 1.5 million in 2003 to an estimated 250,000 today.
[00:15:00]  In Syria, more than half the Christian population is estimated to have left since 2011.
[00:15:04]  This is why many Lebanese Christians hope for structural change in Iran.
[00:15:08]  Hezbollah's military capacity, financial networks, and ideological legitimacy are inseparable from Tehran.
[00:15:13]  Again, this is, again, a sort of last gasp here.
[00:15:16]  And it is worth noting before we go any further that Israel is already moving toward a massive ground operation in Lebanon.
[00:15:22]  They've informed people in the south of Lebanon to move north, like significantly north, and basically abandon the lower third of the country because otherwise Israel is going to be forced to take its own citizens away from northern Israel again.
[00:15:36]  So, what does all this mean?
[00:15:37]  Well, it means that in the end, only the true collapse or serious damage leading to collapse of the Iranian government will bring lasting victory.
[00:15:48]  That's what it means, which is why President Trump correctly says we have to finish the job.
[00:15:54]  As we end this threat to America and this threat to the world, we don't want to leave early, do we?
[00:16:01]  We got to finish the job, right?
[00:16:06]  Over the past 11 days, our military has virtually destroyed Iran.
[00:16:13]  Tough country.
[00:16:16]  Okay, so he is correct.
[00:16:18]  We actually have to finish the job.
[00:16:20]  And the goals that have been spelled out by the administration are clear: ending the missile threat, ending the nuclear threat, ending support of terrorism.
[00:16:27]  Leaving an Iranian regime in power, or at least not seriously destabilized or weakened, would likely encourage China to take aggressive action against Taiwan.
[00:16:35]  Because let's be real about this again.
[00:16:37]  It is astonishing to me the level of uproar over a war that has lasted less than two weeks with extremely low American casualties by any historic comparison.
[00:16:49]  If China understands that the American attention span is so short that we can't even sustain a serious offensive action with low cost for longer than a few weeks, they will know they can move.
[00:16:59]  Not only that, if we don't do what we can while President Trump, who actually has some stones as president, then Iran likely will come back, mainly because weaker people will be president, people like Barack Obama or Joe Biden or pretty much anyone on this score, because Trump has been uniquely strong on this score.
[00:17:14]  President Trump is not wrong to call this out.
[00:17:18]  We don't want to go back every two years and let's see, because, you know, there'll be someday when you don't have me as president, you'll have perhaps, perhaps, perhaps you'll have a weak, pathetic person like we've had in the past, mostly all, like Barack Hussein Obama, who signed one of the worst deals ever with Iran, where they were going to give up everything.
[00:17:48]  Remember when he filled up a 757 with billions of dollars of cash and sent it to Iran?
[00:17:54]  Billions?
[00:17:55]  People forget that.
[00:17:56]  That's when I realized the presidency is very powerful.
[00:17:59]  When you could put over a billion dollars in an airplane and fly it over and give it to a foreign country that's your enemy.
[00:18:05]  How stupid was that?
[00:18:08]  The president is not wrong.
[00:18:10]  He is not wrong.
[00:18:11]  If you want to end threats to America, you actually have to end them.
[00:18:13]  But what does finishing that job look like?
[00:18:15]  Well, according to a new Reuters report rooted in unnamed leagues, and again, this is a leaky administration from one particular area of the administration, namely the isolationist wing.
[00:18:24]  That is the leakiest part of this administration.
[00:18:26]  It always has been.
[00:18:27]  Quote, a U.S. intelligence report indicates that Iran's leadership is still largely intact and is not at risk of collapse anytime soon after nearly two weeks of relentless U.S. and Israeli bombardment, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
[00:18:38]  Of course, zero sources named, not even a branch of intelligence.
[00:18:43]  But what's the truth?
[00:18:44]  Well, the answer is we don't really know because there isn't tremendous transparency into Iran.
[00:18:47]  The internet is down.
[00:18:48]  According to Iran International, by contrast, the IRGC isn't doing too well.
[00:18:52]  Quote, Iran's armed forces are facing acute supply shortages, rising desertions, deepening friction between the regular army, that would be the Artesh and the Revolutionary Guards.
[00:19:00]  Among the most serious allegations are reports that wounded army personnel have been denied assistance by the IRGC, that some frontline units are operating with minimal ammunition, food, and drinking water, and that attempts to mobilize reserve forces have faltered.
[00:19:12]  Reportedly, the regime has even refused medical support for the wounded, and some units are being allocated 10 bullets per soldier.
[00:19:18]  In fact, according to Iran International, when the Revolutionary Guard summoned more forces for service earlier this week, a lot of people didn't even report.
[00:19:26]  Instead, quote, some individuals used the situation to leave their areas and assist family members in moving toward border regions in hopes of leaving the country.
[00:19:34]  We are close.
[00:19:36]  We are not months away.
[00:19:37]  We are a lot closer to the end than a lot of people think.
[00:19:40]  Iran has taken it directly in the head from the American and Israeli air forces.
[00:19:45]  The coordination between these two extraordinarily powerful and competent military powerhouses has been unbelievable and unprecedented.
[00:19:52]  Here's some pretty incredible tape of Israeli and American pilots radioing each other while in the middle of a sortie.
[00:20:02]  It is a great honor for us to fight with you.
[00:20:06]  You're doing a great job.
[00:20:08]  Thank you very much.
[00:20:09]  Likewise, gentlemen.
[00:20:10]  Please be safe out there.
[00:20:16]  CENTCOM is pointing out that we continue to dealing the regime a heavy blow.
[00:20:20]  One of the big issues right now is there aren't that many clear targets to hit anymore.
[00:20:24]  Here is CENTCOM Admiral Brad Cooper giving the update.
[00:20:28]  To date, we have struck more than 5,500 targets inside Iran, including more than 60 ships using a variety of precision weapon systems.
[00:20:37]  Just yesterday, we had strike waves nearly every hour from different locations and directions going into Iran.
[00:20:43]  We also took out the last of four Solomania-class warships.
[00:20:47]  That's an entire class of Iranian ships now out of the fight.
[00:20:51]  I'd characterize our strikes as being unpredictable, dynamic, and decisive.
[00:20:57]  Since the first 24 hours of this campaign, Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks have dropped drastically.
[00:21:03]  But it's worth pointing out that Iranian forces continue to deliberately target innocent civilians in Gulf countries while hiding behind their own people as they launch attacks from highly populated cities in Iran.
[00:21:16]  Of course, forces executing Operation Effort Curie aren't just defending against Iranian threats.
[00:21:21]  We are methodically dismantling them by hitting Iranian missiles and drones as we also strike their defense industrial base.
[00:21:28]  Just last night, our bomber force hit a large ballistic missile manufacturing facility as an example.
[00:21:34]  So it's not just about what's shooting at us today.
[00:21:37]  It's also about eliminating the threat in the future.
[00:21:41]  Okay, this is the key.
[00:21:42]  It's about eliminating the threat in the future.
[00:21:45]  So this brings us to the question of what we have to do to actually finish this war.
[00:21:50]  So Iran is a moral abomination of a country, but there are moral abominations all over the place.
[00:21:54]  One of the big ones, maybe the biggest one, is of course abortion.
[00:21:57]  All across America, women are being pushed into making life-changing decisions in moments of fear and confusion.
[00:22:03]  They're being told you have to decide this moment as if love, hope, or motherhood should ever be rushed.
[00:22:07]  That's not freedom.
[00:22:08]  That's actual pressure.
[00:22:09]  But thanks to organizations like Pre-Born Network Clinics, there is another way.
[00:22:12]  When a woman walks through their doors, she's not met with judgment or manipulation.
[00:22:16]  She's met with compassion.
[00:22:17]  She's offered a free ultrasound, the chance to see the baby growing inside her and real support to help her choose life.
[00:22:22]  And here's the incredible part.
[00:22:24]  When a mom sees her baby on that screen, more than 80% of the time, she will choose life, not out of fear, but out of love.
[00:22:30]  My wife and I are pregnant for the fifth time.
[00:22:31]  Technically, she's the one doing all the work.
[00:22:33]  So technically, she's the pregnant one because men can't be pregnant, but every time we see an ultrasound, we are seeing our baby, and it's an incredible experience.
[00:22:39]  That is true for everyone.
[00:22:41]  This March, Pre-Born is working to help save 6,800 babies.

=== Targeted Strikes on IRGC Checkpoints (12:32) ===

[00:22:44]  To do that, we need 124 people every day to step up.
[00:22:47]  28 bucks covers one ultrasound.
[00:22:49]  $140 helps five moms.
[00:22:50]  Every buck is a declaration that both mom and child matter.
[00:22:53]  So take a second, pause your day, choose to stand for life because truth, compassion, and courage, that's what really changes the world.
[00:22:58]  Give, just aisle pound250 or say keyword baby, or you can visit preborn.com slash ben, that's preborn.com slash ben to make an impact on generations to come.
[00:23:08]  Well, first, there are a few things that we could do.
[00:23:11]  The United States could seize control of Iran's oil facilities on Kharg Island that is cutting off the lifeline of the Iranian regime.
[00:23:17]  So, the Iranian government is relying totally on oil exports to China, entirely.
[00:23:22]  Karg Island is kind of the exhaust port in the Iranian Death Star.
[00:23:25]  It's a place of unique vulnerability, subject to very specific and meticulous action.
[00:23:29]  Approximately 90 to 95% of Iran's crude oil exports pass through this tiny coral island, 15 miles off the coast of Iran.
[00:23:37]  The island features a massive tank farm with a storage capacity of somewhere between 28 and 30 million barrels of oil.
[00:23:43]  So far, we've left that untouched.
[00:23:44]  The reason we've left that untouched is because we're afraid that if we take action against Karg Island, then the price of crude is going to spike even more because that is where Iran is shipping oil out to China.
[00:23:55]  But if the Iranians keep harassing all the oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, except for that Chinese oil traffic, since again, Iran and China are allies, then the United States may grow tired of this game and simply seize control.
[00:24:07]  And the price of Brent crude would spike for a short time, and then there would be a long-term decline in the price of oil because the Iranian regime would basically be toast.
[00:24:14]  They would basically lose its own endgame.
[00:24:17]  The Americans would not be retreating and they would have no economic lifeline.
[00:24:21]  Yes, they could up the ante even more in the Straits of Hormuz and close it temporarily, not for very long because the Iranian government would have no money.
[00:24:30]  They would have no resources flowing out.
[00:24:32]  And the Americans would be sitting on their most precious resource, which is their capacity for oil export.
[00:24:37]  The Iranian governmental failure might not be immediate, but it would become inevitable, not merely possible.
[00:24:42]  Second, the United States could actively facilitate boots on the ground, even if they're not our boots.
[00:24:47]  Now, this would require helping to relieve the Iranian crackdown on internet access to facilitate the flow of small weapons to allies on the ground.
[00:24:53]  This is the biggest question.
[00:24:55]  And you see an enormous number of Iranians, millions, tens of millions of Iranians who hate the regime.
[00:25:00]  The problem is they don't have the guns, which is why you saw these gigantic protests beginning in December and you saw 32,000 people shot in the streets.
[00:25:06]  I know that we're supposed to forget about all that because opponents of the war, as we'll get to, are very, very upset about a girls' school that got hit in the war.
[00:25:14]  And then we're supposed to totally pretend that the Iranians don't slaughter innocent Iranians at the rate of tens of thousands the minute they pop their heads out of the ground.
[00:25:22]  In any case, the Israelis have been pummeling IRGC stations in Iran's western regions, particularly the areas that border Azerbaijan and Iraq.
[00:25:29]  Those happen to be areas that are largely comprised of Azeris and Kurds.
[00:25:33]  Remember, Iran is actually less Persian than America is white.
[00:25:37]  There are huge minority populations in Iran, and they largely live in the border areas with other countries.
[00:25:43]  The Kurds, for example, live on the eastern side of the border with Iraq.
[00:25:48]  So you have Iraqi Kurds on one side, Iranian Kurds on the other, and some interplay between the two.
[00:25:53]  We could see serious incursions into Iran from both Azerbaijan and from Iraqi Kurdistan by Iranian Kurds.
[00:26:00]  And if that happened, there would be a serious challenge to IRGC forces.
[00:26:04]  Those forces are now isolated from Iran because of the fracturing of the IRGC leadership class.
[00:26:10]  Basically, with the destruction of the top levels of the IRGC, the lines of command have now broken down and you have specific IRGC areas governed by specific IRGC commanders.
[00:26:21]  Many of these brigades are maybe 3,000 to 5,000 people.
[00:26:24]  And so the entire structure could begin to collapse piece by piece.
[00:26:27]  And if that happens, then more and more Iranians in the center of the country will understand that the moment has come for action.
[00:26:34]  And this is being facilitated pretty actively by the Israeli government.
[00:26:38]  Right now, we are reading astonishing reports of Israeli drones that are so specific.
[00:26:43]  These are suicide drones.
[00:26:44]  They're targeting specific IRGC checkpoints in Iran.
[00:26:49]  So when we say checkpoints, we mean like areas on a street where IRGC soldiers are standing waiting for people to emerge so they can shoot them.
[00:26:58]  And Israel has been from a thousand miles away directing suicide drones to take out specific IRG soldiers, IRGC soldiers, at specific intersections, essentially killing the suppression forces necessary to kill protesters en masse in the streets if there should be some sort of popular uprising.
[00:27:16]  And finally, the United States could simply bomb until the bombing is done.
[00:27:19]  Now, again, that might not entail the immediate fall of the regime.
[00:27:22]  It could entail going after nuclear facilities at Pickaxe Mountain with its facilities that are buried under rock 80 meters deep.
[00:27:29]  Now, last year, you'll remember that the president of the United States authorized Operation Midnight Hammer, which was designed to hit the Iranian nuclear facility at Fordo.
[00:27:37]  There are multiple nuclear facilities in Iran, Isfahan, Florida, Pickaxe Mountain.
[00:27:43]  The entryways to some of those facilities were destroyed.
[00:27:46]  Many of those facilities were heavily damaged.
[00:27:48]  The president said obliterated.
[00:27:49]  Obliterated was language that was, I would say, overdone, heavily damaged was right.
[00:27:55]  It's difficult to get 300 feet underground just with bombs.
[00:28:00]  So you might require the work of a special operations unit or Mossad.
[00:28:06]  The same is true when it comes to locating and destroying any remaining stockpiles of nuclear material.
[00:28:10]  Now, none of these options are mutually exclusive.
[00:28:12]  In fact, all of them could theoretically happen at the same time.
[00:28:15]  But all of them depend on the willpower of the president to carry this operation to a successful conclusion, which is why the president should know, and I'm sure he does, that 90% of Republicans support him, despite the nonsense that you hear online from the caterwalling, chattering class, the people who keep complaining that it's all about Epstein or that it's an endless war or that Israel forced him into it.
[00:28:37]  The vast, vast, vast majority of Republicans support the president here.
[00:28:42]  They do.
[00:28:44]  And if we want America to defeat Iran, which I think we all should, regardless of political affiliation, the American people are going to have to recognize the realities of war and the evils of our enemies.
[00:28:55]  All of this brings us to the tremendous media focus on what appears to be the accidental bombing of a girls' school in Iran in the early hours of the war.
[00:29:01]  This has been the chief point of pushback by the legacy media and again, members of the grievance party, meaning Democrats and the horseshoe theory right, many of whom are just openly rooting at this point for Iran, openly rooting.
[00:29:12]  And by the way, lying.
[00:29:14]  People suggesting, seriously, that the United States is going to launch some sort of false flag operation in California in order to initiate further action against Iran.
[00:29:22]  That is a suggestion literally made yesterday by some of the top grievance party podcasters in the space.
[00:29:28]  And these are the same people who are apparently very, very concerned about this bombing of a girls' school by accident in Iran.
[00:29:34]  On February 28th, ordinance fell on the Shajarat Tayeba elementary school in Iran.
[00:29:39]  According to the Iranian government, 175 people died, most of them children.
[00:29:42]  First off, we should definitely verify how many people died and who they were.
[00:29:47]  Trusting the Iranian regime on casualty numbers is about as trustworthy as the Hamas Health Ministry.
[00:29:53]  But we are getting new information as to what actually happened here.
[00:29:57]  Was it a misfire by the Iranians or was it American ordinance?
[00:30:01]  According to the New York Times, the February 28th strike on the Shajara Tayeba Elementary School building was the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military, which was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base, of which the school building was formerly a part.
[00:30:13]  The preliminary investigation found officers at U.S. CENTCOM created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defense Intelligence Agency, people briefed on the investigation, said.
[00:30:25]  Well, obviously, this is a tragedy, a very serious tragedy.
[00:30:29]  As you can see on this map, the elementary school was located directly next to, directly next to, the Iranian compound, the IRGC military base, which, again, you have to ask yourself, why does the IRGC locate its military bases directly next to large girls' schools?
[00:30:47]  In any case, this terrible incident is being used as an excuse by opponents of Iranian action to castigate the United States and President Trump for the intervention itself.
[00:30:56]  Jon Favreau, one of the Obama bros from Potsdam of America, lit into President Trump while lamenting, quote, a U.S. missile strike killed more than 100 little girls at an Iranian elementary school.
[00:31:05]  Nearly 1,400 civilians have been killed.
[00:31:07]  Hundreds of thousands have had to flee their homes.
[00:31:09]  Do any of these people really believe that the U.S. military wanted to kill a bunch of schoolgirls?
[00:31:14]  Well, I mean, some of them probably do because they've been indoctrinated into this idiotic system of belief for generations by our crappy public school system, the Howard Zinification of American education.
[00:31:24]  There are a lot of people in the United States who are imported from other countries who hate America in the first place and lied when they were asked to take that oath of citizenship.
[00:31:31]  There are a bunch of people who are cynically pretending.
[00:31:33]  I think that's the biggest group here.
[00:31:35]  The people who are cynically pretending that we did this on purpose, that the American military is blunderbussing around in Iran, just randomly hitting targets they don't care about or that they actually want dead schoolgirls.
[00:31:45]  Listen, if you, here's the bottom line.
[00:31:47]  If you believe for any of these reasons that the United States military is deliberately seeking to kill schoolgirls, leave the country.
[00:31:55]  Leave the country.
[00:31:55]  You hate the country, period.
[00:31:58]  Seriously, you believe the men and women of the United States military know that that's a girls' school with a bunch of second graders, and they're like, go and hit the tomahawk?
[00:32:08]  If that's what you believe about the American military, get the hell out.
[00:32:11]  Seriously, you hate our military.
[00:32:13]  You hate the country if you believe that.
[00:32:14]  Again, I'm not saying that if you oppose the war or if you're critical of the war, this means you hate the country.
[00:32:18]  I'm saying if you believe that the United States military and the Trump administration or any other administration, by the way, Democrat or Republican, is deliberately trying, trying to kill civilians with no military purpose, then you really believe such horrible things about the country that you should leave.
[00:32:35]  But if in reality you know that this was just a bad accident, a terrible, horrible, tragic accident, then why are you treating it as the dispositive critique of the American military?
[00:32:44]  Why are you using it to discredit an entire military operation?
[00:32:47]  You want to make an argument against the military operation?
[00:32:49]  You want to say that it's going to lead to long-term oil shocks and that there'll be no way to topple the regime.
[00:32:54]  Make that argument.
[00:32:55]  That's a fair argument.
[00:32:56]  I think it's wrong, but it's at least a fair argument.
[00:32:58]  And maybe in the end, you'll be right and we'll find out.
[00:33:01]  But focusing in on one tragic and horrifying accident to discredit the entire effort is asinine and immoral.
[00:33:10]  I see no such upset from the same exact people over the fact that the Iranian government has been holding hostage tens of millions of Iranians for 50 years, that the Iranian government is so incompetent, that Tehran was going to be evacuated because of lack of water five minutes ago, that the Iranian government is so bad at this, that all civilians in Iran have been suffering from inflation that makes Weimar Germany look like Fort Knox.
[00:33:37]  And very few of these people had anything of merit to say about the fact that the Iranian government, on purpose, not accidentally, not through mistargeting, on purpose, murdered 32,000 innocent people a few weeks ago.
[00:33:49]  None of these people had anything to say.
[00:33:51]  None of them, not even one of these false, not nothing.
[00:33:54]  Zip Zilch.
[00:33:56]  But when the United States mistargets a former military target, they jump to the conclusion that the U.S. has engaged in a unique evil, an evil so grave that we have to cancel everything here on out.
[00:34:05]  And the Iranian government, which is the most evil government on the planet, must somehow be maintained.
[00:34:12]  I just have a simple question for these people.
[00:34:14]  Do any of them really believe the U.S. military wanted to kill a bunch of schoolgirls?
[00:34:20]  Do they really believe that?
[00:34:21]  Or are they lying to you?
[00:34:22]  Are they liars?
[00:34:24]  The answer is they don't believe that.
[00:34:25]  Or by the way, if they do, they truly hate the country.
[00:34:28]  If you believe that the U.S. military, that CENTCOM is sitting there and they're saying, hey, bunch of little girls, let's go for it.
[00:34:33]  If you truly believe that, you should leave the country because you clearly think that you live in a place of tremendous evil, like true, unbridled evil.
[00:34:43]  But if realistically speaking, these people understand that this was, in fact, a terrible accident, then why treat it as a dispositive critique of the American military, which is delivering some of the most targeted strikes in the history of warfare, in the history of warfare.
[00:34:58]  We are using next-gen technology to target specific individuals in Iran, not just specific buildings or specific streets, specific humans in Iran.
[00:35:11]  But if there's a tragic accident because of bad intel, then suddenly that is the thing that cancel it.

=== Howard Schultz and Political Lies (05:35) ===

[00:35:16]  Let's all go home.
[00:35:17]  Let's leave Iran in control.
[00:35:18]  Let them build up those ballistic missile facilities.
[00:35:20]  Let them build up their drones.
[00:35:22]  Let them build up their nuke program and then talk to them while they do that until they become essentially untouchable.
[00:35:28]  That is your case.
[00:35:29]  It's a bad faith attack.
[00:35:31]  But that's all opponents of the Iran action seem to be pursuing these days.
[00:35:35]  Well, meanwhile, if you haven't noticed online, things are happening.
[00:35:39]  If you've been browsing social media the past few days, you may have stumbled upon me or even tripped upon one of my most striking features.
[00:35:47]  Let's be honest, you could have seen these babies coming from seven posts away.
[00:35:50]  It's time to address the caterpillars in the room.
[00:35:51]  The internet is clearly asking for it.
[00:35:53]  So behold, the Brow Shapiro t-shirt is now available at the DailyWire shop, dailywire.com/slash shop.
[00:36:01]  Emblazon with the most discerning eye umbrellas, this side of sanity.
[00:36:04]  The optical awnings on this comfy tee strike fear in the heart of every talking head too scared to say what they actually mean.
[00:36:11]  Open your browser right now.
[00:36:12]  Head on over to dailywire.com slash shop and get yours.
[00:36:15]  Keep your eyebrows strong and your principles stronger.
[00:36:18]  Also, every weekday here on the Ben Shapiro show, we take the news, try to make it all make sense.
[00:36:22]  Sometimes it's more fun to argue about it.
[00:36:24]  So we have Friendly Fire.
[00:36:25]  Join me, Michael Knowles, Andrew Clavin, for a completely live conversation about the biggest stories in the headlines.
[00:36:30]  And of course, the Oscars are coming up.
[00:36:31]  So we will do a big Oscars preview.
[00:36:33]  Yeah, I watched all the movies for you, so you don't have to.
[00:36:36]  Watch Friendly Fire live tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern on dailywire.com and the Dailywire Plus app.
[00:36:40]  Meanwhile, on the home front, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz just announced that he is leaving Seattle.
[00:36:45]  In a LinkedIn post, Howard Schultz explained, quote, for those of you who know us well, we have entered the retirement phase of our lives, a term we are both just getting used to.
[00:36:54]  Last year, we traveled to dozens of places around the world, places we are too busy to see when building Starbucks and raising kids.
[00:36:59]  And we have moved to Miami for our next adventure together.
[00:37:01]  We are enjoying the sunshine of South Florida, and it's a lure to our kids on the East Coast as they raise families of their own, says Howard Schultz.
[00:37:07]  Like many other Seattle-based companies, Starbucks today stands on the shoulders of the many Pacific Northwesterners who built the company.
[00:37:13]  They helped shape the culture, the benefits, and the brand, contributing to the civic community and public life of the city and state.
[00:37:19]  It is our hope that Washington will remain a place for business and entrepreneurship to thrive, creating essential opportunity for those in Seattle and the surrounding areas.
[00:37:26]  Sounds normal and innocent.
[00:37:28]  They're getting older.
[00:37:29]  It's time to retire.
[00:37:30]  Head on over to Miami, sunny Miami, and just like grandma used to.
[00:37:35]  Well, there's a little bit more to the story.
[00:37:37]  It turns out that Howard Schultz announced he would be ditching Washington State for Florida on precisely the same day that Washington state lawmakers advanced a 10% annual tax on all personal earnings over $1 million.
[00:37:49]  Idiot Governor Bob Ferguson announced in December he would love a wealth tax.
[00:37:53]  That wealth tax would amount to for a billion billionaire, somewhere between $50 and $100 million.
[00:38:01]  Now, it's not as though all that government money has been going to good use.
[00:38:04]  Homelessness in Seattle's King County has been on an upward trend since 2012.
[00:38:09]  But since they abdicated all basic law and order measures in 2020, homelessness increased 43%.
[00:38:14]  The city's violent crime rate, property crime rate, ODs are all hitting national highs.
[00:38:18]  Its police is notoriously short-staffed.
[00:38:21]  And of course, they then elected a socialist mayor who has promised a people's paradise.
[00:38:26]  Here's Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson.
[00:38:29]  I want everyone in this great city of ours to have a roof over their head.
[00:38:33]  I want universal child care and free K-through eight summer care.
[00:38:38]  I want world-class mass transit.
[00:38:40]  I want great, safe public spaces where kids can run around with abandon.
[00:38:45]  I want stable, affordable housing for renters.
[00:38:48]  I want social housing.
[00:38:49]  I want much more land and wealth to be owned and stewarded by communities instead of corporations.
[00:38:58]  Who's going to pay for all of that?
[00:39:00]  The answer was Howard Schultz.
[00:39:02]  And so he was like, nah, out.
[00:39:04]  So he just bought a $44 million mansion in Florida.
[00:39:07]  Listen, Schultz's business isn't even sticking around.
[00:39:09]  Starbucks operations are expanding radically into the Southeast, including into Tennessee, ditching additional employment in liberal Seattle.
[00:39:16]  So, why is this like a national story?
[00:39:18]  Why is it a big story?
[00:39:19]  Lots of billionaires have been fleeing liberal jurisdictions for low-tax conservative ones.
[00:39:23]  Not all of them were quite so vocal about the magic of Democratic political rule.
[00:39:28]  Howard Schultz is a longtime donor to Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell in the state of Washington.
[00:39:33]  He supported Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer.
[00:39:37]  He gave over the course of his giving career in hard money $150,000 to Democrats.
[00:39:43]  In 2020, when he was exploring running for president as an independent, Schultz said, I myself should be paying higher taxes, and all wealthy Americans should have to pay their fair share.
[00:39:51]  But when it came time to pony up, Schultz, like every other rational human being, moved to a low-tax, zero income tax state, Florida.
[00:40:01]  Listen, welcome.
[00:40:02]  We're always happy to have more great people, but please, Howard, leave your tax policies back in the state you just abandoned after having pushed for many of those same politicians who wrecked the state.
[00:40:13]  We do not need anyone Washingtoning our Florida.
[00:40:17]  There is a broad-scale problem with leftists who wreck their states and then, seeking to avoid the consequences of that failure, move to red states.
[00:40:27]  Okay, well, if you're going to do that, then please leave your politics behind.
[00:40:31]  Do not bring your crap politics from California and New York down to Florida or down to Texas or to Arizona or to any other place that is not governed by trash.
[00:40:39]  The reason that you're moving is because the politics of your home state are bad.
[00:40:43]  Do not make the same, don't wreck, don't set your house on fire over there and then immediately move to a house in our neighborhood and start setting things on fire.

=== Tucker Carlson Season Two Politics (00:40) ===

[00:40:52]  Please don't do that.
[00:40:53]  All right, folks, there is more show, but it only continues for our members.
[00:40:56]  And I will ask all of your burning questions.
[00:40:58]  I see one of our members is asking about Megan Kelly and Tucker Carlson.
[00:41:01]  Yes, I will answer that, but only if you become a member.
[00:41:04]  Become a member, use Code Shapiro at checkout and try it out.
[00:41:07]  Two months free on all annual plans.
[00:41:09]  Click the link in the description and join us.
[00:41:11]  Legal sent this list of everything we're not allowed to do in season two.
[00:41:16]  We're going to do all of it.
[00:41:18]  We've got games, more celebrity guests.
[00:41:20]  And yes, the mailbag is somehow worse.
[00:41:23]  If you thought season one was extra, season two, we're doubling down.
[00:41:26]  We're not supposed to be doing this.
[00:41:28]  Exactly.
[00:41:29]  Been after dark season two, streaming on Daily Wire