German Chancellor Says Iran 'HUMILIATED' Trump, No Exit Ramp

We've covered closely the damage that Iran was able to do to U.S. bases throughout the region, which I think was apparently surprising to a lot of folks, including perhaps some of our military planners. It was significant enough, we knew, that soldiers had to be relocated from those bases to civilian hotels, or at least that was the choice that was made. But NBC News has a pretty extensive report here of the damage to 11 different bases throughout the region. We can put this here up on the screen. Their headline is,

Iran caused more extensive damage to U.S. military bases than publicly known. And they go through base by base and talk about how this is going to cost billions of dollars to repair. It's far worse than was publicly acknowledged. It's going to take a long time to repair the extensive damage that was done to any variety of facilities at these bases throughout the region. And also, and Sagar, you can probably speak more to this, the type of aircraft that was even able to, you know, to commit this

level of damage was also quite shocking to them. It was like a Vietnam War era aircraft from the Iranians that was able to successfully attack one of these bases.

Yeah, so this was completely covered up. And let me just read some of the details. The Iranian regime swiftly retaliated after the Trump administration attack on February 28th, hitting dozens of targets across U.S US military bases. In the initial days of the war, an Iranian F-5 fighter jet bombed the US base Camp Bering in Kuwait, despite the base having air defenses, a rare breach that marked the first time an enemy fixed-wing aircraft has stuck an American military base in years. And actually, I spoke to two or three different people specifically about this.

I was like, how remarkable is it? So obviously, we haven't had even a peer war or anything like that in a long time. The belief is that this is the first time since Vietnam. And in fact, it's actually a very similar aircraft. But the whole point actually around that is that this is a base equipped with air defense, and it shows how caught off guard the United States military and the United States was

whenever it came to initial Iranian retaliation. Remember, that's also the very same time that that base or that tactical operation center was struck, which resulted in the biggest casualty event of the war in the very opening days where they were not protected. They did not have drone defenses, and instead they were equipped for more of a suicide bomb potential attack they hadn't updated

to the more recent days. I just think that what this highlights, this entire thing, is not just about the Iranian jet being able to attack a US military base to evade or at least get around US air defenses,

is that we have to look at it in totality of not all of the bases just that were struck, the multi-billions in damage, the THAAD radar, the depletion of all of our interceptors from various different weapon systems, some cases 50% of the most advanced weapons

which are gone and would take probably five to eight years to replace even at an accelerated level. We are profoundly, profoundly less prepared for any sort of real conflict after just a what, five week war with Iran, which we were told was some sort of a third rate military.

This has exposed once and for all the absolute, and look, it gives me no pleasure in saying this, but this is a warning that we've been saying here now for quite some time. We are not prepared for what future warfare is going to look like.

And we had a script. It was literally written on the battlefields of Ukraine. And yet we just don't pay attention. We're like, nope, we'll be fine. We're better than them. Our aircraft carriers are more superior

and we're just gonna keep pouring money into this broken system only for it to just not really work whenever the time comes. And many sailors, other people are gonna say, that's really unfair. It's not like, you know, we didn't take that many casualties, we were able to do X, Y, and Z.

The point is not about the tactical hits that we may have been able to do hit to Iran. You have to look at the strategic picture. They damaged billions of dollars in bases and the expectation from the military, from every analyst in the world, was that if the US went all out against Iran,

even without ground troops, that they would be able to inflict a significant amount of damage. And in fact, maybe even be able to collapse the regime. I never thought that last part, but I did definitely think, oh, we could definitely wipe out X, Y, and Z.

Well, it didn't even happen. I mean, from what we know from the US intelligence, it looks like at least a third of the ballistic missiles have survived much of the drone production. Now that you have this pause with ceasefire, they're gonna dig out and repurpose

much of what was actually damaged. They obviously are also updating their targets for everything. The Chinese are sending all kinds of data. They have a hidden spy satellite. And from the American side, have we really changed the way that we're going to operate now?

Not really. We have another aircraft carrier there, which is on the way. The damage itself is rotten. It's not like you can rebuild a base or a THAAD radar system overnight in the next three weeks.

It's just not going to happen. It's I think the arrogance. It is arrogance. Under that, I mean, that really is the fatal flaw here, right? You can overcome a lot of disadvantages if you are understand your adversary, if you respect your adversary, if you plan for that conflict, as Iran has been doing. You know, they were planning to go up against a superpower, and obviously,

they took that seriously, very seriously. And so, you have the specter of, in the person of Trump, this incredible ego, this incredible arrogance, this incredible ignorance of the world, and like, he has like a childlike understanding of the world and a childlike, business-driven idea

of how negotiations work and how, you know, how war will unfold. And that merges with the arrogance and ego of a declining empire. And that's how you end up in this place, where he really convinced himself,

oh, we'll go in, four days, we'll be done. And now here we are, and Iran effectively has us in checkmate. We can put this next piece up on the screen, just over some of the most basic elements that they have on their side, this geographic strategic position

and their ability to deploy some really basic, relatively low-tech technology, from drones to now they're deploying more mines in the Strait of Hormuz. And the reporting is that even if the war and all hostilities completely ceased,

it would take six months to go and demine the Strait. And that reporting was before you have this additional, you know, addition of these new mines that they are laying in the Strait. So, without the Iranians agreeing to reopen things and work together with us,

this is not going back to normal anytime soon if it ever does. I mean, I think what we're looking at really is a new normal. And at the same time, let's put this from CNN up on the screen.

We are coming up with these new plans that are just sort of a rehash of the old plans that failed. This is from CNN. They say the U.S. military is developing plans to target Iran's Strait of Hormuz defenses if the ceasefire fails. And look, I'm sure they can blow up a bunch of stuff around the Strait of Hormuz. Will Iran be able to retain some capacity to send out drones to menace any sort of ships that would want to transit that area? Of course they will. Will they maintain some capacity of their Navy,

which apparently they've been able to retain something like 60% of their naval assets in spite of what Trump has said? Yes, they'll be able to do that. And those mines will remain. And our own ability apparently to remove mines from key waterways has been diminished and some of those key ships have been decommissioned. But in any case, what they say here is the options among several sets of target types under consideration include strikes with a particular focus on dynamic targeting of Iran's capabilities around the Strait of Hormuz, Southern Arabian Gulf

and Gulf of Oman, the source said describing potential attacks against small fast attack boats, that's what Trump was calling the wise-guy boats—mine-laying vessels and other asymmetric assets that have helped Tehran effectively shut down those key waterways and use them as leverage over the U.S. And I don't think anyone should have any expectation that the results of, you know, this new planned potential operation would be significantly different than the results that

we have received to date. Yeah, exactly. Let's continue. Let's put the next one up there on the screen. This one is very important. This is actually from an account in Iran. Iran has, quote, prepared upon observing any signs of an impending strike to launch, quote, the largest missile barrage in history against the occupied territories and certain US allied Arab countries. Almost certainly, they will be targeting the UAE and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and Bahrain,

wherever US bases are, but also they mentioned Israel there specifically. Now, keep in mind that yes, there has been the ability for both sides to rearm, but our munition stock is very, very low, especially for the types of munitions that we would need if this war were to resume. It's not like you can just magically conjure bad interceptors out of nowhere. Same with the Iron Dome, same with many of the interceptors where we know with Israel

was down to some double digit stock and was beginning to ration by the very end of the war. That was probably the biggest existential threat that they faced is they really didn't have that very many munitions left. And even now, if we were to rearm them, there's still not that many, maybe a few weeks or so more,

which we were able to scrounge up from our own assets or from deep within the supply chain. Let's put B5 up here also. I think this is a really important story because ostensibly this entire thing is about the nuclear program. And what David Sanger and William Broad write here is Trump seeks to abolish Iran's atomic

stockpile, a problem he helped create. They say specifically, Trump withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear deal, saying it was the worst deal ever. Iran responded with an enrichment spree that haunts the negotiations to this day. And very specifically, and perhaps most importantly, deep within the story, is they reveal that there is a decent enough chance that in the interim period between June and those midnight hammer bombings and today,

that a new Iranian enrichment site was set up somewhere deep within the mountains in a tunnel. They say that the enrichment site doesn't have to be bigger than a grocery store, so it's quite easy to hide. Is that clearly it either hasn't been yet destroyed or again, look, this is assuming that this is real.

We don't know. But from what they report inside of the story is that this enrichment site was potentially about to be disclosed before any sort—before the bombings actually even began. Now we don't have any real read on where it is. And if Iran wanted to, they could sprint at least to some sort of enriched uranium and a latent nuclear deterrent threat, considering

that they still have their ballistic missile capacity. The logic right now of getting a nuke and their capacity actually seems to be very—first of all, the logic makes more sense than ever from their perspective, but then their capacity actually seems to have remained completely unchanged as a result of this war.

That's right. And specifically what they say here is that the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, had a disclosure meeting with Iran planned for June 13th, 2025. Well, guess what else happened on that day?

We decided to attack them. They were bombed. So, you know, the idea is that this new facility was likely to be, the location of it, was likely to be revealed on that day, you know, whether or not that for 100% sure would happen, we don't know. But instead of

finding out and, you know, moving forward with the deal that was on the table at that point from the Iranians that the Omanis were saying, hey, this is a good deal, this is far beyond what even the Obama administration was able to obtain. Instead, we decided to go to war. And, you know, as you and I and many others worried about at the time, they presented it as, oh, we can just go in, we'll bomb the hell out of their nuclear facilities, and we'll be out and that's it, that's a wrap, you know, and they'll be set back, etc., etc.

First of all, even on its face, that is a vastly inferior approach than actually having a deal with them that, you know, requiring inspections and being able to long-term curtail their nuclear production versus just bombing them and creating some sort of a setback. But now we know that it didn't set them back at all,

and of course, it paved the road to the disastrous war that we are in now. And I think there's an interesting quote here that really gets to the heart of the matter in this article. This is from a nuclear specialist at Harvard. He says, look, we can't bomb away their knowledge.

Since a plant-ten rich uranium can be comparable in size to a grocery store, the mountains terrain of Iran offers many places to hide a clandestine bomb effort. So you can murder all the scientists you want. You can, you know, bomb around the country. You can assassinate the Ayatollah, etc. But they have sufficient knowledge at this point that if they want to pursue and they, you know, have sufficient and highly enriched

uranium, you know, stored in places that we don't even know exactly where it is, that if they decide to pursue that direction, they can pursue it. And the best chance to move us in a different direction was the original Obama-JCPOA that, you know, Trump immediately gets out of, and that is what helps start this whole movement to war that we're in now. And, you know, blame lays with Biden as well, who decided not to get back into that deal. And I think that shouldn't be left out here. But ultimately, obviously, it's Trump who brings this disaster, truly,

on in terms of American interest, absolute disaster. Let's go ahead and put B6 up on the screen because this is important in terms of some of the regional dynamics here. Israel sent the Iron Dome system and troops to the UAE during the Iran war. This is something they've never done before. They've never shared the Iron Dome system with any other country. This is something that would have been unimaginable, you know, probably prior to the Abraham Accords. And I think it also, Sagar, very strongly indicates, and this is something that Dr. Parsi was tweeting about, very strongly indicates the UAE's direct involvement

in this war, which is something that they themselves have floated, but also been kind of cagey about what their territory and what actions they've been involved in directly. Hard to imagine Israel sending them Iron Dome system and troops if they were not

already engaged as effectively combatants in this war already?

Oh, no question. I mean, beyond that, it actually is a bit—look, I think it's a big problem for Dubai and for the UAE. It's one thing to be in the Abraham Accords. It's another thing to have Israeli troops and Iron Dome systems being used by your country. I don't think that the vast majority of Emiratis

are going to be cool with that. And in fact, you know, look, as we always say with these monarchies, they are monarchies, but not in an absolute sense. Like there is some democracy in terms of feelings and the population and their acquiescence to the monarchy

and to the royals who rule them. They get paid, they make a lot of money, but they don't have freedom of speech, right? And there's a little bit of a trade-off. But whenever it comes to the issue of Israel, I mean, that is a very, very hot topic,

I think, for a lot of the Emirati population. Are they really going to accept Israeli soldiers? I mean, we're talking about Israeli soldiers, IDF soldiers on their soil helping defend their nation. I'm not so sure about that. I also think the bigger problem for the UAE is they really went all in on this war. They made it very clear that they wanted a UN authorization to bomb Iran. Their own jets and others were speculated potentially to have been involved actually

in an attack on the country. Obviously, it hasn't been confirmed, but this was on the very last day whenever it came to the ceasefire. There's also still remains a lot of the questions where, for them, they're furious about the way that everything worked out because, of course, they got their image ruined with Dubai, their airport was damaged in many cases, and then their entire, like, you know, we've talked about the luxury sales of goods. Many residents have fled the region, they may not be coming back, it might crash their real estate market.

So for them, they're feeling like this is existential. And within that, I think that they're making a choice here, which cannot be undone, and will definitely perhaps invite enmity from the rest of the region. I'm very curious to see how it'll interact with their own diplomatic negotiations by going so all in with Israel, with the United States, for Iran as well.

They're gonna use this as a reason to attack in the future if they need to. So they definitely cast their lot, I think, with this move.

And at the same time, as we mentioned before, I can put this up on the screen from DropSite, Israel continues to bomb in Lebanon. I was just reading a Haaretz story about, you know, the IDF is bragging about they hit 15 more, quote unquote, Hezbollah strongholds or Hezbollah sites.

And at least 51, DropSite says, Lebanese civilians killed or injured today. That was from yesterday, after more than 20 Israeli airstrikes across Southern Lebanon. It's according to official figures cited by PressTV's correspondent, 14 people, including two women and two children, have been killed, 37 wounded,

tolls not final, as strikes are still ongoing. And obviously, Iran has made Lebanon a very central part of their willingness to negotiate. You know, when Trump announced the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, that's when Arashi came out and said, okay, the strait is open. And then Trump undercut that by saying, well, we're gonna do a blockade of the blockade and we're keeping that in place.

So, that's how those, that initial thaw was completely undercut by Trump. But now, so long as Israel is allowed to go back in and relentlessly bomb, you know, there's no chance that the Iranians are gonna come back to the negotiating table. And just to go back for a second

to what I was mentioning before with that Barack Ravid report about, oh, the Iranians came up with a new plan for how they're gonna move forward. I mean, that was just basically sort of lipstick on a pig. What the Iranians are really saying is,

hey, we don't even want to talk about nuclear with you right now. We can talk about the Strait of Hormuz and what a new reality is going to be, but we're not even prepared to talk about nuclear anything with you at this point. So we are much further away from even any sort of talks occurring at this point and, you know, are in a very, I would say, unstable new status quo as of this morning. One other thing I wanted to update on is, there's a quote now from the German Chancellor, who says he doesn't see an exit strategy for the U.S.

and quote, an entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership. At the moment, I don't see what exit strategy the Americans are choosing. And he goes on to say the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully and clearly stronger

than one thought. So that is from our German allies saying outright, we are being humiliated by the Iranian leadership. They are much stronger. We are much weaker. And there is no exit plan in sight.

Let's remember, he supported the war in the initial days. So let's all just recall what Mr. Mertz was saying. But I mean, he's right. The straits closed. The energy crisis continues. Yes, I know it doesn't feel like it.

Oh, the world is not ending. Yeah, that's not how supply chains and all that work. I again beg everybody to remember COVID. It took literally months and up to a year for the full spike and the impact of what all of that delay in the supply chain looked at. Also, have you been to the gas station recently?

Yeah, it hasn't gone up much. What is gas right now? Let me take a look. It's 411 a gallon. That's still really high. Our producer, Griffin, who's in LA, he sent us a picture.

Let me find it. What was it in his neighborhood? 679 a gallon in Los Angeles. 679. He says that is the cheapest in his area and that quote, we are past seven a few blocks away.

I mean, I would riot at $7 a gallon for gas. And you know, it tracks California, the statewide price right now is average is 5.94 a gallon. They're six cents away from six bucks. And I'm assuming that that is, you know, not what the case is in places like LA,

San Diego, and San Francisco. So look, it's not like the immediacy of all of this is not like already being felt. The cheapest gas that I can see right now in the nation is 350 in Oklahoma, which again, I'm pretty sure is right next to the refinery, which is the whole reason that's happening. Hey, if you liked that video, hit the like button or leave a comment below. It really

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