I don't even know how to wrap my head around everything that's happening around the world, but I appreciate being able to call you and get your thoughts.
Let's talk about Iran and Venezuela.
I'd love your thoughts on what is happening.
Start with Venezuela.
How do you view President Trump's taking of Maduro?
Before I talk about that, I want to comment on it's hard to get a rap on the world.
You and I and everybody we know, basically, everyone in our circle of co-workers and friends, we have that view.
How do you get an understanding of what is going on in the world today?
Imagine the average person.
That's why so many people tune out.
And so many young people get whatever they know from Instagram or TikTok.
They've sort of given up trying to understand the world.
And there are so many disparate voices out there.
They don't know whom to trust.
It's a very difficult time, to say the least.
So I just wanted to comment on that.
All right, so Venezuela.
This is why.
The notion that America has no interest in the world, its only interest is America, never struck me as rational, let alone not moral, but we'll leave morality out for the moment.
What Venezuela is doing as a conduit of drugs and as a base for China and Russia and Iran.
I mean, these are threats to the United States.
As a general rule, we don't want to be known as a country that arrests foreign leaders and takes them out of their countries.
But if anyone deserves it, it's Maduro.
Also, for those who oppose what was done, I would Who are crying from happiness that this was done.
Does that matter at all to them?
I have to say it does matter to me.
This is a country that has been a conduit for drugs into America.
And as I said, a base for the enemies of the United States, Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran.
I can't see on what grounds one could truly oppose what has happened.
I will admit that in the very beginning I was ambivalent, but when I thought about it, I have resolutely come to support it.
What is your comment about people who say that President Trump promised no more wars and they don't want to send their kids into wars?
And many of us have children who are Growing up, soon are going to be 18 years old, and we don't want to send more American soldiers around the world.
That's right.
Well, we haven't sent anybody yet to Venezuela, but he has basically said that we might.
I never would have made that promise.
It's not realistic.
The United States is the most powerful country on Earth, and the freest country on Earth.
Or at least it was until Joe Biden's presidency.
And that is a responsibility.
We can't avoid the world.
Dennis, do you think what is happening in Venezuela is tied to what is happening in Iran, what is happening in Russia?
It does seem to be all tied together.
status, the revolution that is happening now.
We have seen so many revolutions in Iran.
People have tried to rise up against the regime there, and continuously they have been squashed.
Do you think this uprising is going to be any different?
It looks like it will be different, and I wouldn't have said this even a week ago, but I think it is different.
We're talking about millions and All over Iran.
And they are on the offensive.
This was not the case in any previous widespread demonstrations in Iran.
The demonstrations are massive.
This corrupt, vile regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran can't give its people water.
I mean, most third world countries give their people water, and Iran can't.
It can't give it.
And the Iranian currency is worthless.
It reminds me of the German currency at the end of the Weimar Republic, where people took wheelbarrows of of Reichsmarks in order to buy a loaf of bread.
This is what is happening there.
And the people of Iran know in their hearts, at any rate, that this regime is corrupt.
You know what it spent That is dedicated to destroying Israel and killing all its Jewish inhabitants.
That's what they spent their money on, and now they have no money for water.
So, if I may digress for a moment, this is why I have said for years that antisemitism, when a nation gets antisemitic, it self-destructs.
I don't know of any exception to that rule.
And that's exactly what is happening there.
The amount of good that would happen if the Islamic Republic is overthrown is almost too good to even imagine.
It would be one of the great things to happen.
And deserved after October 7th, 2023.
You know, it's interesting that you bring up anti-Semitism in Iran because their leader originally ran on an anti-Zionist, anti-Jew, anti-West platform and kind of got everybody behind him. But now, apparently, research is coming out of the Iranian people that they're the one of the least anti-Semitic people in the Middle East, mostly because they were By what their leaders have done to them,
And they realized that the whole thing was one giant lie just to get them into political power.
And the other really interesting thing that is happening with the most recent revolution that we're seeing is that it's not just students.
In the past, you saw students who are going to the streets in Iran.
Now you're seeing merchants going out to the streets.
So in the past, when the regime kind of neglected the uprising and called it, oh, just silly little students, let's just not pay attention to these little girls.
Now you're seeing actual merchants, people who can't sell anything, can't buy anything, can't run an economy.
They're the bedrock of whatever is left in the Iranian economy.
and they themselves are now coming out as no longer just the students. And wondering whether that can be enough of a change. Apparently it is. And again,
I don't know if I would have said this a week ago, because I'm not an optimist about overturning evil regimes from within. But apparently it's so widespread. I mean,
they've rendered the currency virtually worthless. They have no water to give their people. And by the way,
I saw an amazing video on the internet about how the Iranian regime had mismanaged this giant lake in Iran and cut it off as a supplier of water. It's good for the heart. To see the evil get what they deserve. And apparently,
I don't know if I don't know that this is true, but I've seen many reports that Khamenei has gone to or will go to Russia.
And I can only say Russia deserves him and he deserves Russia.
It's a bizarre thing that some of the Iranians had more animosity towards the West than they had towards the Soviets, given what the Soviets have done to the Iranian people and the Soviets' relationship with the leader that literally destroyed their country.
given what the Soviets have done to the Iranian people and the Soviets' relationship with the leader that literally destroyed their country?
I don't know.
I don't know.
It's a very tough question.
It's a very tough question.
What do the Iranian people in general, understanding there are always exceptions, what do they really believe is the enemy of their country, the West or the dictatorships of the North and East?
I don't know the answer, but it's clear now.
I mean, I wrote when I was still being published in the Los Angeles Times, regular.
I wrote a long piece on the tragedy of abandoning the Shah. That as bad as he might have been, he was a giant compared to what's coming in now. That was in 1979 or 1980, when people were saying we shouldn't support the Shah. And now the Shah's son,
they're chanting for him. I gotta tell you, I kept hearing, Marg Bar, dictator. Marg Bar, even I,
who know no Farsi, even I know what that is. Marg Bar Israel, Marg Bar America, is death to Israel and death to America. And now, Marg Bar has been shifted over to the leader of Iran, to the dictator. If Donald Trump or Marco Rubio were listening to our conversation,
what would you say to them now? You too, and others in your administration, have done so much good in your first year that historians will be beside themselves that a guy they had total contempt for had achieved so much good. Well,