CSPAN - Public Affairs Events
Aired: 2026-02-28
Duration: 41:57


=== Announcement and Response (12:19) ===

[00:00:00]  Thank you.
[00:00:02]  President Trump has announced the death of Iran's supreme leader.
[00:00:06]  His post reads in part, Hamanehi, one of the most evil people in history, is dead.
[00:00:12]  This is not only justice for the people of Iran, but for all great Americans and those people from many countries throughout the world that have been killed or mutilated by Hamanehi and his gang of bloodthirsty thugs.
[00:00:26]  He was unable to avoid our intelligence and highly sophisticated tracking systems.
[00:00:31]  And working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he or the leaders that have been killed along with him could do.
[00:00:39]  The president went on to say, the heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue uninterrupted throughout the week, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of peace throughout the Middle East and indeed the world.
[00:00:58]  And we want to hear your voice on the situation in Iran.
[00:01:02]  Join us tomorrow on Washington Journal to continue the conversation.
[00:01:06]  We're live tomorrow and every day, starting at 7 a.m. Eastern, here on C-SPAN.
[00:01:18]  Democracy.
[00:01:19]  It isn't just an idea.
[00:01:21]  It's a process.
[00:01:22]  A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles.
[00:01:30]  It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted.
[00:01:35]  Democracy in real time.
[00:01:38]  This is your government at work.
[00:01:40]  This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered.
[00:01:49]  We are joined now by Benem Ben-Talibu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
[00:01:55]  He's the Iran Program Senior Director.
[00:01:58]  Benam, welcome to the program.
[00:02:00]  Great to be back with you, Mimi.
[00:02:01]  Can you hear and see me okay?
[00:02:03]  Yes, we can.
[00:02:03]  And thank you for joining us on short notice.
[00:02:06]  Your reaction to the president's announcement of strikes against Iran.
[00:02:12]  Well, it was a very powerful announcement, but also just based on what is being reported right now, the scale and the scope of the operation, as well as already within a matter of hours, the scale and the scope of the Iranian response, both things.
[00:02:24]  And I want to stress for the audience, both things are unprecedented in the 47-year history of rivalry and enmity between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America.
[00:02:34]  It seems like, again, based on open source reporting that the president in a joint operation with Israel is striking major Iranian missile and military targets as well as other regime targets.
[00:02:46]  And the Islamic Republic now is at war with its neighbors.
[00:02:50]  I want to stress that is at war with its neighbors.
[00:02:53]  The Islamic Republic has struck at least four or five different bases in the CENCOM area of operations.
[00:02:58]  Many have been doubting the statements from Iranian political, military, and even religious officials that in response to any strike by the U.S. in this current phase, that they would go big and they would go wide.
[00:03:12]  And indeed, based on the responses that we've seen militarily against air bases, against naval bases, against major barracks, this was a big and wide response by the Islamic Republic.
[00:03:25]  So I'm waiting on right now news of casualties.
[00:03:28]  I'm monitoring the situation closely, what is going on on the street in Iran.
[00:03:32]  Thus far, reportedly, the internet is not cut, but if passes prologue, that could be.
[00:03:36]  But this is, I think, history in the making, especially based on how President Trump chose to end his speech, which is with a reference to the Iranian people.
[00:03:44]  Because you could say part of this joint operation is a defanging mission against the missiles.
[00:03:49]  You could say part of it is a decapitation operation against regime elites, but also it could be paving the way for the Iranian people to go back onto the streets after all the fighting is done to take back their government.
[00:04:02]  That is what President Trump alluded to.
[00:04:04]  Let's talk about the Iranian people and how they might be responding to this.
[00:04:07]  I know that it's a bit early to kind of get an idea of how they're reacting.
[00:04:14]  They're probably not in the streets as the president said that it's not safe right now.
[00:04:19]  But what do we know about what they're expecting from the United States military?
[00:04:25]  You know, it would be no overstatement to say all eyes are on the skies.
[00:04:30]  That's actually what we heard in late January after what was the biggest three and a half week nationwide uprising against the Islamic Republic in its history from late December to early to mid-January.
[00:04:43]  Those protests were coterminous with, as you know, a 20-plus day internet outage nationally in the country by the state against the street, where anywhere from 36 to 43,000 Iranians were killed just in a matter of days.
[00:04:56]  And the scale of this crackdown has left so many Iranians, one of the most nationalistic populations, not just in the Middle East, but on planet Earth, looking for foreign military intervention and looking for foreign military assistance to help level the playing field from the street against the state.
[00:05:12]  So right now, no doubt, you've seen dribs and draps things coming out on Iranian social media that amplified this sense of hope, that amplified this sense of happiness even.
[00:05:22]  But as we saw during the 12-day war, what could begin with a sense of hope, what could signal a little bit of happiness may with the realities of war change.
[00:05:31]  It's too soon to tell at this exact moment.
[00:05:34]  But nonetheless, this is a big day for the people of Iran, which have been waiting and have been trying for quite a while.
[00:05:41]  Even though regime change is the pejorative word here in Washington, where we live and work, it is exactly what the Iranian people have been trying to do on their own since at the very least December 2017, if not 2009, if not earlier.
[00:05:55]  You wrote a piece for foreign affairs, Benham, with the headline, what it will take to change the regime in Iran.
[00:06:02]  You said the U.S. military must go big and then let Iranians do the rest.
[00:06:06]  What will it actually take, Benham, to change that regime in Iran?
[00:06:10]  It will take a lot.
[00:06:12]  We have to not pull our punches here.
[00:06:15]  The record of air power alone for regime change is not a great record.
[00:06:19]  But what the Iranian people bring to that record is, again, their decade-plus nationwide national uprisings, which every couple of months between 2017, 18, 19, 20, have been basically turned on.
[00:06:32]  The Iranian people looking for every single opportunity to take to the street against the state.
[00:06:37]  This was a population which was willing to at least give Tehran's theocrats a chance.
[00:06:41]  Ironically, in the 90s and 2000s, despite being an Islamist autocracy, Iranians tried to go to the polls to incrementally change things, to signal their dissatisfaction at rates that were even greater than some Western democracies.
[00:06:56]  So we didn't get here by accident.
[00:06:58]  And the same applies, the same thinking, the same logic applies to the U.S.-Iran relationship.
[00:07:03]  We also didn't get here by accident.
[00:07:05]  Despite the Islamic Republic projecting this enmity onto America, you've had, you know, in the diplomatic record, everybody from President Reagan on trying to find a way to deal with this regime, trying to find a way to talk with this regime, trying to find a way to bring it back in from the cold.
[00:07:20]  As much as President Trump has been sanctioning the regime and talking about military strikes, he's also been talking about a deal.
[00:07:26]  But at some point, the cookie is going to crumble.
[00:07:29]  So I think right now we're at that point.
[00:07:31]  Benham, you said that airstrikes are not enough for regime change.
[00:07:35]  Does that mean the track record is not good?
[00:07:37]  Does it mean it's impossible?
[00:07:38]  The three good, the three most popular regimes are Japan, ground troops, Do you believe that ground troops are going to be necessary or that we're going to end up after airstrikes, we're going to end up with the same regime and the same problems we've had?
[00:07:53]  It depends very much on the nature of several things.
[00:07:56]  One, how long those airstrikes go on.
[00:07:58]  Two, if the president and or the Israelis can move from the thinking, the thinking of massive military operation to low-intensity campaign.
[00:08:07]  Because if the goal is not decapitation or defanging, if the goal is to pave the pathway, as I've articulated in that piece you mentioned, if the goal is to move from the military targeting to the political targeting, the nature of the weapon is going to change.
[00:08:20]  For example, a heavy bomber is a good tool to collapse an Iranian missile base.
[00:08:26]  However, a heavy bomber is not a good tool to provide close air support to protesting Iranians, nor is it a good tool to go after the command and control of the Islamic Republic in various barracks across the country's 31 different provinces.
[00:08:39]  For that, you should be looking at drones, standoff weaponry-like cruise missiles, and perhaps even A-10s for that close air support.
[00:08:45]  But make no mistake, the army on the ground, for lack of a better word, is the Iranian people.
[00:08:50]  They are the ones who can actually try to add the street power to the air power, the local power.
[00:08:56]  And of course, if you sandwich the security forces after drilling down level 2, 3, 4 of their command and control, if you shatter the national security state, if you gut command and control, you actually incentivize the kind of defections and the flipping of the armed forces that have traditionally mattered in this part of the world.
[00:09:14]  And what that will take after military operations, it will take volume from the streets to be able to get to do that.
[00:09:21]  It is risky, but I would also say 47 years of living with and even coddling an Islamic Republic has brought us to this point.
[00:09:29]  Benam, we're hearing reports of senior commanders in the Revolutionary Guard being targeted and killed.
[00:09:36]  We saw that the Supreme Leader, Khamenei, his compound, was attacked.
[00:09:42]  We don't know his situation as of yet.
[00:09:45]  Who is running Iran right now?
[00:09:48]  Where are the power centers in that country?
[00:09:51]  This is an excellent question because while this title of supreme leader is meant to be taken rather literally, Mimi, the power structure of Iran doesn't necessarily look like a pyramid.
[00:10:00]  Yes, he's the decider and yes, he has the ultimate veto, but he has actually institutionalized his power across the system, which is likely why if the administration moves, as well as with the Israelis, towards larger, towards sustained political targeting,
[00:10:16]  the kinds of things they're going to be targeting are the state security institutions, and in particular, this newly created body called the Defense Council, as well as this other body that functions as the regime's most important national security decision-making body called the Supreme National Security Council that has a secretariat.
[00:10:34]  I'm guessing that the Israelis or the Americans would be going after that secretariat as well, as well as the staff of this other military body called the AFGS, the Armed Forces General Staff.
[00:10:45]  And then that is the peacetime authority for command and control for Iran's two forces, the Artesh, the National Military, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the parallel ideological military.
[00:10:57]  And then the wartime iteration of that, of the AFGS, is called Qatam al-Ambiya.
[00:11:02]  That's the central headquarters.
[00:11:04]  I assume that would be targeted as well.
[00:11:06]  Previously, the Israelis had taken out not one, but two of the commanders of that other wartime authority.
[00:11:12]  So I would be looking to see if those institutions, as well as those persons who staff those institutions, would be targeted in these strikes.
[00:11:20]  Much also depends on any kind of intelligence that the Israelis or the Americans might have been able to get from the ground.
[00:11:25]  Lest we forget during the 12-day war, the Israelis quite literally operated a drone base against the Islamic Republic from Iranian territory, going after surface-to-air missiles as well as transporter erector launchers from Iranian territory.
[00:11:39]  So one wonders if they are also collecting or have collected or reconstituted that network to enable this kind of much more localized targeting.
[00:11:49]  But make no mistake, Khamenei has institutionalized his power.
[00:11:52]  You know, it's kind of odd to think of an 86-year-old being able to decide which missile to fire at which target.
[00:11:58]  So there's quite a bit of mid-level devolved National Security Decision-Making Authority.
[00:12:03]  And before, between the protests and before the strikes, there were a whole host of reports from the New York Times, as well as I think from the Wall Street Journal, talking about Khamenei delegating and coming up with a chain of command in case exactly what we're seeing now unfolds.

=== Iran's Nuclear Threat (12:42) ===

[00:12:19]  All right.
[00:12:19]  Well, we have callers that are on the line, and we'll go to Michael in the York Independent Line.
[00:12:26]  Michael, you're on the air.
[00:12:28]  Yes.
[00:12:29]  How you doing, Amy?
[00:12:30]  It's a first-time caller.
[00:12:32]  And I'd like to say that I think it's about time that we've took revenge on Iran for when they killed 200 Marines in the base in Beirut.
[00:12:46]  And I think Reagan should have took care of it back then.
[00:12:49]  And all the Americans they've killed since then.
[00:12:55]  And I think I listen to these people that call in, and somebody's conspiracy fantasies are so far out, I don't understand people.
[00:13:08]  But that's all I got to say.
[00:13:09]  And thank you.
[00:13:13]  Venom, your reaction to that?
[00:13:15]  Yes, thanks, Mimi.
[00:13:16]  Actually, what the caller was hinting at was the track record of, unfortunately, it's a long track record, of Iran-sponsored or Iran-backed terrorism since the 1979 revolution against not just U.S. interests and assets, but against U.S. lives in the region.
[00:13:31]  Whether one is looking at the Khobar towers in the mid-1990s and Saudi Arabia attack, or whether the Marine barracks and the embassies there in Lebanon in the early 1980s, that was right around when the regime was creating its most potent proxy, Lebanese Hezbollah, as well as, of course, what they did to U.S. service persons both in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
[00:13:51]  And that track record really doesn't stand when you compare it to the kind of strategic competition that America has with other countries to kind of let the other side inflict this growing incremental number of casualties and no large, no massive military response.
[00:14:08]  For example, the amount of restraint the Americans have shown against Iran over the past four decades, whether from the hostage crisis or from the string of terrorism or even from the growth in its missile and nuclear program is actually unprecedented.
[00:14:21]  I remember during the mid to late Bush administration where the Americans ended up finding out where the copper, I want to stress this, where the copper mine in Iran was that was furnishing the copper for the IEDs and EFPs where they were killing Americans of coalition service pursuers in the scores in Iraq in the mid to late 2000s.
[00:14:43]  And no action was taken against that.
[00:14:45]  So I think what the caller is getting at is this larger unresponded to track record.
[00:14:50]  And you don't have to take it from me.
[00:14:52]  There's a really interesting declassified CIA report from the late 1980s, right about the time when the Iran-Iraq war, which was the longest conventional war of the 20th century, was ending.
[00:15:02]  And the assessment is talking about Iran's strategic and growing use of terrorism.
[00:15:06]  And it says that if this is not responded to, this is going to be a major problem for us.
[00:15:11]  And you could just see how Iran has unfortunately been able to scale up those attacks.
[00:15:15]  It's evolved.
[00:15:15]  It doesn't necessarily carry it out itself directly anymore.
[00:15:18]  It has in the region, as you know, this axis of resistance, this constellation of terror and proxy forces that has been carrying it out as while it's turned the region into a war zone.
[00:15:28]  And abroad, whether that's at Europe or North America, it's worked through a whole host of lone wolf radicals, as well as this thing called transnational criminal networks.
[00:15:37]  And in America, in the past 10 to 15 years, the regime has tried to kill people on U.S. soil by working by with and through everything from Mexican drug cartels to European mafias to even Canadian biker gangs.
[00:15:49]  Fortunately, all of those plots have been thwarted.
[00:15:51]  But this is what we're talking about when we're talking about the persistent and long arm of Iranian terror.
[00:15:56]  And no one knows that better than the region and the Iranian people themselves.
[00:16:00]  But geographically, unfortunately, it's a much wider spread.
[00:16:04]  And if you're on the line, please do stay on the line.
[00:16:06]  We're going to go ahead and play the president's remarks from early this morning out of Mar-a-Lago announcing strikes on Iran.
[00:16:13]  Here it is in its entirety.
[00:16:15]  A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran.
[00:16:25]  Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people.
[00:16:40]  Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.
[00:16:48]  For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted death to America and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops, and the innocent people in many, many countries.
[00:17:05]  Among the regime's very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days.
[00:17:18]  In 1983, Iran's proxies carried out the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel.
[00:17:28]  In 2000, they knew and were probably involved with the attack on the USS Cole.
[00:17:35]  Many died.
[00:17:37]  Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq.
[00:17:42]  The regime's proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lands.
[00:17:56]  It's been mass terror, and we're not going to put up with it any longer.
[00:18:02]  From Lebanon to Yemen and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained, and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts.
[00:18:15]  And it was Iran's proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous October 7th attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage.
[00:18:31]  It was brutal, something like the world has never seen before.
[00:18:37]  Iran is the world's number one state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested.
[00:18:47]  It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular, my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon.
[00:18:58]  I'll say it again.
[00:19:00]  They can never have a nuclear weapon.
[00:19:04]  That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime's nuclear program at Fordeaux, Natance, and Isfahan.
[00:19:16]  After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal.
[00:19:27]  We tried.
[00:19:28]  They wanted to do it.
[00:19:30]  They didn't want to do it.
[00:19:31]  Again, they wanted to do it.
[00:19:32]  They didn't want to do it.
[00:19:34]  They didn't know what was happening.
[00:19:35]  They just wanted to practice evil.
[00:19:38]  But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades.
[00:19:44]  They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can't take it anymore.
[00:19:52]  Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our Very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas, and could soon reach the American homeland.
[00:20:11]  Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had and actually were armed with nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message.
[00:20:23]  For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests.
[00:20:39]  We are going to destroy their missiles and raise their missile industry to the ground.
[00:20:44]  It will be totally, again, obliterated.
[00:20:49]  We are going to annihilate their Navy.
[00:20:51]  We are going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces and no longer use their IEDs or roadside bombs, as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.
[00:21:14]  And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
[00:21:19]  It's a very simple message.
[00:21:22]  They will never have a nuclear weapon.
[00:21:25]  This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States armed forces.
[00:21:33]  I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration, and there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength, or sophistication.
[00:21:45]  My administration has taken every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region.
[00:21:52]  Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill.
[00:22:00]  The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties.
[00:22:06]  That often happens in war, but we're doing this not for now.
[00:22:10]  We're doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.
[00:22:15]  We pray for every service member as they selflessly risk their lives to ensure that Americans and our children will never be threatened by a nuclear-armed Iran.
[00:22:26]  We ask God to protect all of our heroes in harm's way, and we trust that, with his help, the men and women of the armed forces will prevail.
[00:22:37]  We have the greatest in the world, and they will prevail.
[00:22:41]  To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity, or in the alternative, face certain death.
[00:22:57]  So, lay down your arms.
[00:23:00]  You will be treated fairly with total immunity, or you will face certain death.
[00:23:07]  Finally, to the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand.
[00:23:14]  Stay sheltered.
[00:23:15]  Don't leave your home.
[00:23:16]  It's very dangerous outside.
[00:23:18]  Bombs will be dropping everywhere.
[00:23:21]  When we are finished, take over your government.
[00:23:23]  It will be yours to take.
[00:23:25]  This will be probably your only chance for generations.
[00:23:31]  For many years, you have asked for America's help, but you never got it.
[00:23:35]  No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight.
[00:23:40]  Now you have a president who is giving you what you want.
[00:23:43]  So let's see how you respond.
[00:23:46]  America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.
[00:23:51]  Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.
[00:24:00]  This is the moment for action.
[00:24:02]  Do not let it pass.
[00:24:04]  May God bless the brave men and women of America's armed forces.
[00:24:09]  May God bless the United States of America.
[00:24:12]  May God bless you all.
[00:24:14]  Thank you.
[00:24:16]  And President Trump posted that video statement at 2:30 a.m. Eastern Time this morning.
[00:24:22]  And our guest is Benem Ben-Taliblou of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
[00:24:27]  Benham, anything surprise you in that video statement?
[00:24:32]  To be honest, it was quite comprehensive.
[00:24:36]  There had been talk in the press for about a week and a half to two weeks before this statement, before the operations, about America considering a series of limited strikes, holding away, seeing if the regime would respond before going for the juggler or before going even for a larger deep-hanging mission.
[00:24:52]  The president's statement, as well as the scale and the scope of the joint attacks already over the past six to eight hours, are the surprising part because they are not limited.

=== Long-Range Strike Capabilities (04:13) ===

[00:25:02]  The president talked about the 47-year history of enmity and of bloodshed between the regime against America, the urgent national security threat there, as well as, of course, the opportunity for something different with his references to the Iranian people.
[00:25:15]  What I would actually stress, because as you know, doing more in the Middle East is often not popular.
[00:25:21]  Certainly it hasn't been.
[00:25:23]  That was the wave the president rode twice to enter the White House both in 2016 and then much more recently in 2025, sorry, in 2017 and then much more recently in 2026.
[00:25:35]  But the president did not mince words, shall we say, when it came to the potential for casualties.
[00:25:43]  This is war.
[00:25:44]  This is a regime that has been saying death to America for 47 years.
[00:25:48]  This is a regime that has been saying death to Israel for 47 years.
[00:25:51]  It has put state resources behind that.
[00:25:54]  It has internationalized much of the conflicts that it believes and projected it onto at least two or three different continents.
[00:26:01]  You know, Iranian drones are on two or at least three to four continents today.
[00:26:05]  The regime has sponsored terror attacks on at least three to four continents.
[00:26:09]  Well, so Benham, that's my question to you.
[00:26:11]  You know, since this is an existential threat to the Iranian regime, what are they capable of doing beyond hitting military targets in the Middle East?
[00:26:22]  I mean, will there be, do you anticipate terrorist attacks against Americans?
[00:26:27]  Do you anticipate cyber attacks here in the U.S.?
[00:26:31]  Certainly, the Israelis and the Americans have knocked off at least two of the three legs of the traditional pillars of deterrence.
[00:26:40]  You have the local terrorist cells, the proxy networks, what we call the Axis Resistance.
[00:26:45]  You have the threat for nuclear escalation, and then you have the long-range strike capabilities.
[00:26:50]  Israel and America since October 7 have been shaving away at those first two that we mentioned.
[00:26:56]  Now, there still are quite a bit of transnational terror actors in the region.
[00:27:01]  You know, the Houthis actually have significant long-range strike capabilities, like anti-ship cruise missiles, like anti-ship ballistic missiles, like medium-range ballistic missiles, like long-range one-way attack drones.
[00:27:12]  The Hezbollah, right now, it's an open question as to how involved they might be if the Israeli element of this conflict continues to deepen.
[00:27:23]  So, one is within the region, those terror groups have some capability to project power, but a diminishing one.
[00:27:30]  Two is abroad, I am sure the regime has tried to cultivate a host of these assets.
[00:27:36]  We've talked previously in this segment before the president about working by with and through local criminal syndicates.
[00:27:42]  That's something that law enforcement, as well as the national security apparatus, as well as the intelligence apparatus of each of these states that have experienced these things before, that have prosecuted these things before, need to be very vigilant on right now.
[00:27:57]  And then lastly, you mentioned cyber.
[00:27:59]  Cyber, as well as the maritime domain, particularly threats to shipping in the Persian Gulf, in the Strait of Hormuz, and right after, could be other ways that the regime may look to try to punch back.
[00:28:12]  But I would say, given how off guard the regime was, and given the overwhelming military capabilities America and Israel bring to the table, the ability to launch those in time and to land a blow meaningfully, I would say, is small,
[00:28:27]  especially when during peacetime, the ability for the U.S. to detect and actually prevent some of these terror and kidnapping attacks in North America or for European or British authorities across the European continent has been good.
[00:28:43]  So certainly there are other options the regime has, but make no mistake, its main tool are going to be long-range strike capabilities.
[00:28:50]  And actually, the more successful it is in using them, the more actually it will move the knife closer to the jugular.
[00:28:57]  For example, I think the Iranians thought that if they struck bases and killed Americans, that that would spook the president, that that would spook oil prices, and that would foster restraint in U.S. targeting.
[00:29:08]  Nothing could be further from the truth, and it's proof that that is why this regime has had such a caricature view of President Trump.

=== War Choice Consequences (12:00) ===

[00:29:16]  Because if there is one through line through how he treats things and foreign policy crises, is that if you touch it American, if you spill a drop of U.S. blood, President Trump is going after you.
[00:29:26]  All right, well, let's talk to Robert, a Republican in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
[00:29:30]  Robert, you're on the air.
[00:29:33]  How are you doing today?
[00:29:34]  Good.
[00:29:34]  Go right away.
[00:29:35]  Thank you.
[00:29:37]  Yes, I just have a couple of opinions.
[00:29:41]  Well, for one, I think that the Democrats are just out for themselves because they don't do what's right for the people.
[00:29:49]  I mean, if you go back to where the president had his speech, he just had one basic thing that everybody could agree on, and they couldn't even agree with that.
[00:29:58]  And that's what struck a nerve with me.
[00:30:01]  Now, as far as the attack on Iran, I think that, I mean, Israel is one of our biggest allies.
[00:30:13]  And if we can't support our ally that has a threat towards the United States as well, then that's another thing that the Democrats can't agree on.
[00:30:23]  They think they're owed everything and an explanation for everything.
[00:30:27]  There's just some things that just has to be done that people just don't agree with.
[00:30:32]  And that's just what people's opinions are.
[00:30:35]  And a lot of these people that called in, they just made no sense at all for whatever they were talking about that made no sense what was going on today.
[00:30:44]  I mean, they're just bringing up stuff from the past that didn't make any sense to what was going on for today in Iran.
[00:30:53]  All right.
[00:30:54]  Any comment there, Benem?
[00:30:56]  I would just say on the partisan file, briefly, best for folks on the left to the right not to make this partisan.
[00:31:04]  When the Islamic Republic sponsors terror attacks, it does so without care or cause for concern about affiliation, party affiliation, or political orientation.
[00:31:15]  This is a war of choice that the Islamic Republic launched against Americans decades ago and potentially has the opportunity to come to a close.
[00:31:22]  We shouldn't give the Ayatollah any abilities to land blows politically or militarily at this late stage in the game.
[00:31:29]  Michael in Cabot, Arkansas, Democrat, you're on the air.
[00:31:34]  All right, yes.
[00:31:35]  I was just listening to the last guy.
[00:31:37]  And, you know, it just this is a I agree with what Trump did.
[00:31:41]  I think that didn't have a nuclear weapons.
[00:31:43]  Like, I think it was Trump that said, you know, could you imagine what they would have nuclear weapons?
[00:31:48]  So I understand all that.
[00:31:49]  But my real question is to everybody: just take a second and really think about our world and the situation that we're looking at and just everything.
[00:31:57]  And just you feel how different that feels.
[00:31:59]  That's a spiritual awakening that's going on.
[00:32:01]  And this spiritual awakening, some people are going to make it and some people aren't.
[00:32:05]  And it's going to get real bad.
[00:32:06]  I mean, it's going to be take the Bible, the book of Enoch, and the carriers of the God and replace the aliens with fallen angels.
[00:32:13]  And it's basically our history right there.
[00:32:15]  All right, Michael, let's get a response on, you know, what if Iran were to get a nuclear weapon?
[00:32:21]  What would the region look like?
[00:32:23]  What would the world look like?
[00:32:24]  You know, there are some theorists, academics, and even some Iran watchers who believe that this would calm down the regime, that the regime has been so paranoid because of real external threats.
[00:32:34]  But unfortunately, some of those analysts, some of those Iran watchers, some of those academics seem to miss the cause and effect beyond the reason for those threats.
[00:32:43]  So if the Islamic Republic actually got a nuclear weapon, not only do I think it would not calm down, it would have had a sense of immunity to prosecute that low-intensity war against the region, against Americans, against American assets and interests, as well as against Israelis.
[00:32:57]  And perhaps most importantly, it would have that sense of immunity against its own people, particularly if that nuclear weapon came this year or next year or the year down the line, perhaps by its 50th anniversary, for example.
[00:33:09]  Because the longest suffering victims of the Islamic Republic are actually the Iranian people themselves.
[00:33:13]  And that sense of lock-in for this Islamist autocracy would have been akin to that sense of lock-in for the Kim dynasty, the Kim regime in Pyongyang, which is part of this larger constellation of Axis of aggressors in North Korea that is also a partner of the Islamic Republic.
[00:33:35]  So it would have that sense of immunity and invincibility.
[00:33:38]  And not only would it not foster restraint and a sense of calming, it could actually foster escalation and more risk-taking, be it by the proxy forces, be it by the regime's own armed forces, in particular the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who would be the custodian of the bomb within the Iranian national security space, by the way.
[00:33:56]  And of course, could set up a cycle of events in the region that could lead to more U.S. partners hedging when it comes to non-proliferation strategy.
[00:34:04]  Partners like Saudi Arabia, for example, partners like Turkey, which is a member of NATO, for example, or in terms of simply nuclear deal making, cause more challenges down the line when we're looking at making sure the programs in South Korea and Vietnam are purely civilian and there are no domestic full-fuel cycle capabilities.
[00:34:21]  On the independent line in Michigan, Dennis, good morning.
[00:34:25]  Yeah, how are you doing today?
[00:34:27]  Good.
[00:34:27]  Good issue I have is I look at a Trump administration.
[00:34:32]  We are selecting which one of our allies we want to stick with anymore.
[00:34:39]  Israel has enough power over there that they can take over the Middle East.
[00:34:44]  They don't need our help.
[00:34:46]  Who are we helping?
[00:34:47]  Are we helping the rest of the Middle East?
[00:34:49]  They can defend themselves.
[00:34:51]  If they want to get rid of Iran, why don't they step in and do it?
[00:34:55]  Why do we send our aircraft carriers, destroyers, battleships, and everything over there to get rid of Iran saying that it's a get rid of their nuclear weapons?
[00:35:10]  We can't have nuclear weapons.
[00:35:11]  But now all of a sudden, regime change.
[00:35:13]  We need a regime change.
[00:35:15]  What do we really want?
[00:35:16]  The United States is just picking on everybody that they know right now they could beat.
[00:35:21]  Venezuela, Iran, Cuba.
[00:35:24]  All right.
[00:35:25]  Well, let's get an answer to that, Dennis Benham, as far as does Israel have the capability to do this on their own?
[00:35:33]  On their own, with respect to the full range of operation, no.
[00:35:37]  I mean, even if you look at the multiple kind of iterations of the Israeli war against Gaza, against Hamas in Gaza post-October 7, after that Iran-backed terrorist attack from Hamas there, no doubt, if you're looking at munition stocks, if you're looking at defense capabilities, the Israelis may, in terms of the conventional balance, outmatch a non-state terror actor, but they run through those.
[00:36:02]  They have burned through much of those.
[00:36:04]  Many countries in the world actually don't have the capacity to sustain large-scale industrial conflict.
[00:36:12]  You know, war is won today, not just by strategy or tactics or intelligence, but also logistics, logistics that actually are based on the capacity and capabilities of your state.
[00:36:23]  But to the callers, you know, the heart of the caller's question, why us, why now, why such a massive operation?
[00:36:28]  I have no qualms with the U.S. being a selfish actor on the world stage.
[00:36:33]  Every American should want any move that is done by the U.S. military to first and foremost serve the U.S. national interest, the public good, and to defend American lives and American interests.
[00:36:43]  And there has been no state in the past four and a half decades in the Middle East that has posed such a consistent and persistent threat to those interests, to those assets, and to those lives in that part of the world than the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran itself.
[00:36:57]  I mean, again, let's run through the diplomatic track record.
[00:37:00]  Everybody from President Reagan sending a Bible and a cake in the shape of a key to try to open relations with Tehran's theocrats to Obama's famous line in 2009 when he was inaugurated talking to the Islamic Republic.
[00:37:15]  He said, if you unclench your fist, I'll extend my hand.
[00:37:18]  No doubt everybody has tried, even in tweets, President Trump in his first term and on Truth Social Post in his second term has talked about the urgency and the imperative of diplomacy.
[00:37:28]  But at every single juncture, the Islamic Republic chose.
[00:37:31]  And this is why precisely the conflict that we're in right now is a war of choice, but it's a war of choice brought to us by a considerably weaker actor, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
[00:37:42]  And I don't fault the president for seeing that imbalance, for seeing the opportunity, and actually trying to do something about it so that future presidents don't have to be in this tight spot.
[00:37:51]  All right, let's talk to Ron in Kentucky, Republican.
[00:37:54]  Go ahead, Ron.
[00:37:56]  Good morning, Mimi.
[00:37:57]  Thank you for taking my call.
[00:37:59]  Mr. Talibu, what an excellent guest you are.
[00:38:01]  You're extremely professional, very knowledgeable.
[00:38:05]  And those last sentences you have where you used the word the Iranians chose.
[00:38:09]  That's exactly what they did.
[00:38:10]  They chose to bomb Beirut.
[00:38:12]  They chose the USS Coal.
[00:38:14]  They chose what they're doing.
[00:38:16]  And they are getting payback in kind and unmercifully.
[00:38:20]  Thank God for President Trump, his strong leadership.
[00:38:23]  And you're exactly right.
[00:38:25]  These folks have killed Americans for 46 or 47 years.
[00:38:29]  Enough is enough.
[00:38:30]  We've had enough.
[00:38:31]  We want to protect our allies, make sure they have no bomb.
[00:38:34]  And most importantly, we want to protect Americans.
[00:38:37]  Thank you all.
[00:38:38]  Appreciate you taking my call.
[00:38:40]  Comment, Venom?
[00:38:41]  Yeah, thank you very much for the kind comments.
[00:38:43]  Again, that chronology, if one is looking to do a little bit of psychologizing, and I have to say, I'm not a medical doctor, nor do I have a psychology degree, but to kind of psychologize how President Trump, the man, the person, has approached this very critical moment.
[00:38:58]  I am sure that that long track record, whether he knows it personally, and again, the comments, if you go back to 1979 and to the present, you can put this into your favorite AI tool of choice.
[00:39:09]  Look at President Trump's comments from the early days of the Islamic Republic and then fast forward all the way to the present.
[00:39:15]  One of the through lines is that he believes that this regime has killed Americans and he sees that as a humiliation.
[00:39:22]  Everything from the hostage crisis to the Beirut bombing to the Cobar Towers to the support for transnational terrorism.
[00:39:28]  Unfortunately, he sees the Islamic Republic as having bested America in those multiple contests.
[00:39:33]  And unless it's stopped, it's going to keep going, kind of like the Soviet Union.
[00:39:36]  It will press in a way that'll force the challenge of responding to that press onto us.
[00:39:42]  And I think President Trump today tried to rise to meet that challenge.
[00:39:45]  Time will tell if he can take a political win after he takes a military win.
[00:39:51]  But nonetheless, I think he has responded to those multiple iterations of strikes, of death by a thousand cuts.
[00:39:59]  And again, as the caller said, Iran's war of choice, or better yet to say, the Islamic Republic's war of choice against America for the past four and a half decades.
[00:40:07]  All right, Iran Program Senior Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Benim Ben Taliblou.
[00:40:12]  Thanks so much for joining us today.
[00:40:14]  Pleasure.
[00:40:14]  Thank you, Mimi.
[00:40:17]  President Trump has announced the death of Iran's supreme leader.
[00:40:21]  His post reads in part, Hamanehi, one of the most evil people in history, is dead.
[00:40:27]  This is not only justice for the people of Iran, but for all great Americans and those people from many countries throughout the world that have been killed or mutilated by Hamanehi and his gang of bloodthirsty thugs.
[00:40:41]  He was unable to avoid our intelligence and highly sophisticated tracking systems.
[00:40:46]  And working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he or the leaders that have been killed along with him could do.
[00:40:54]  The president went on to say, the heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue uninterrupted throughout the week as long as necessary to achieve our objective of peace throughout the Middle East and indeed the world.
[00:41:13]  And we want to hear your voice on the situation in Iran.

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