Jared Knott - Is Iran trying to pull America into a wider war?

Tensions in the Middle East continue to rise as Iran is accused of attacking commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Could diplomacy still prevent a larger conflict? Jared Knott is a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer and author. He joins the show to discuss Iran's recent actions, the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz, and America's options moving forward. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hey, welcome back to the Lars Larson Show. It's a pleasure to be with you. Glad to get to your phone calls and emails. Tehran has now attacked ships in a critical waterway, and they just blew up a deal with Washington, D.C. Is diplomacy with Iran already dead? Or maybe it was dead all the time? I thought we'd put that question to Jared Knott, former U.S. Army Special Forces officer and the author of two books in the Tiny Blunders Big Disaster series. Jared, welcome back to the program and thanks for your service in uniform.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Thank you very much. I greatly appreciate it. It's an honor.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

So where do we sit with where do we sit with Iran right now? And where do you think we're going?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Yes, uh, well, it kind of reminds me of the advice that's given sometimes to women who make the mistake of getting involved with married men or uh men who are no good lying, cheating type uh men. They say, don't they say, don't uh listen to what they say, listen to what they do. Okay, and judge them based on that. Well, of course, that obviously applies to Iran, who for 57 years has been lying and cheating and lying and cheating, and they breaking every treaty they ever made, uh, breaking every promise they ever made. Uh they are uh no good, evil, iniquitous scoundrels. Uh they uh and just I'm a big believer in going down to the basics of the situation, that'll tell you what's really going on. They can these evil people, uh fanatical people, can never, can never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. Well, why is that? Because Pakistan has a nuclear weapon, or Korea's a nuclear weapon. What's well because the people, the fanatics in Iran, will use that nuclear weapon. They could uh uh bombing all their neighbors, sending missiles in every direction. They will use it against Tehran, they will use it against the Israelis, who in turn would return and uh blow up uh uh Tehran, I'm saying using uh against uh Tel Aviv, and then the uh the Israelis would uh blow up Tehran. You'd have a nuclear war in the Middle East killing millions and millions of people. Worse than that, uh, one of the things that's uh triggered this most recent escalation of the war is that the Iranians are developing their long-term missiles, but long-range missiles that can reach not only can they reach, they can already reach uh Rome and Paris and London, but if they're long-range enough, they can reach Miami. Uh so these people that can't be trusted, these people who are fanatics, uh, they have to be stopped uh dead cold, and it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be an ugly, messy war, hopefully not uh boots on the ground, but that's the mess that we face. It's not a particular mistake that the United States has made or any of the allies have made. It's just an ugly, nasty situation.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Well, and I guess one of the things that bothers me the most, Jared, is when people make the case that this was a war of choice. Well, I I don't think Donald Trump had any choice. I mean, he could have done what every other president has done, which is largely ignore the problem, or use a piece of paper like the JCPOA to say, hey, I've got this piece of paper, and it says they're going to behave themselves. I'm with you. Look at what they do, not at what they say. And even Tehran doesn't seem especially anxious to persuade the rest of the world, why we're just a freedom-loving, peace-loving country right here in the Middle East. They're not. Their neighbors all know it better than we do. And and then you say, now imagine them armed with nukes. I don't think Trump had any choice but to act.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

No, uh he did. Now the agreement that was uh made, uh, if you call it an agreement with uh Obama, uh part of it sunset after 10 years, uh expired for 10 years, part of it expires after 15 years. Well, the first part of it would have already been the 10 years has already passed, and so that part that part of it already expired and was threadbare anyway in terms of any kind of enforcement. Bottom line, Iran would have a nuclear weapon already. Now, when they started the war back in March, there were experts who said that we were a gentleman named David Albright, he was a he was a nuclear inspector and had head of a scientific organization. He was saying his estimate that Iran was six months away from being able to develop a nuclear weapon. He said other people said there was close as three months. Well, uh I mean you you there you are. You're back right at the report. These people, these fanatics uh who would blow up themselves, who would blow up the Israelis, who would blow up maybe Rome or Paris, try to blow up the United States death to America, cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. If they uh best estimates were if they were five years away, well, okay, that might have been one thing. Three and a half years away. But the estimates were saying six months and three months, well, oh my gosh, we're we're back right into a corner. We have to take action, we have to act. People say it's a war of choice. Well, uh you got two choices. You can have uh the fanatical enemy uh bent on suicide with nuclear weapons, or you can uh go to war to stop them. And that's you know that's a hard, difficult choice we had.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

And Jared, I look at, for instance, the nuclear club, if you will. China's got them. Understands we can't we could only use these in the extreme because the reaction, the retaliation will be fierce and it will be bad for both sides. Russia, same thing. Israel has arguably had nuclear weapons, they they wouldn't admit it, but since the 70s, so 50 years of not using it when they are in a hostile region where all their neighbors, you know, most of their neighbors, now we've got some peace deals and some of them want to wipe them out. So you say, do would you trust Iran, the mad mullahs of Tehran, to be responsible with their use of nuclear weapons? I think the easy answer for anybody, no matter how far to the left you are, is no, they can't be trusted with anything. They would use them if they got them. That's why they're the biggest sponsor of terrorism on the planet. So how does where do we go from here, though? Does it mean that Donald Trump has to bomb Carga Island or take it over and simply cut them off from every dime they're getting? Because they don't seem to be open to any kind of, you know, compromise or will behave well. The minute they sign a ceasefire, they immediately start violating it.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Sure. Sure. Yes, now on but you the point you were making uh to the point uh to add to that, why is it that China did not sell nuclear weapons uh to the Iranians? And they why did North Korea sell weapons, uh nuclear weapons to the Iranians? They could have uh done that a long time ago. Well, because evil as they are, and both of those countries have their arms and hands dipped in blood, they are not crazy. They are rational even though they're evil, and where the Iranians are not rational. And so they knew that if they did give souls or the weapons to our Iranians, the problem is they would use them. Serious chance they would use them, trying to blow up the Israelis, and oh my gosh. So uh they uh we what we have to do, and I don't see any other choice, is to slick it out. We have to go in there and finish the job, continue to bomb, continue to bomb, uh, possibly take Kickar Island. I don't know uh what the all logistics, the challenges there, possibly even uh put boots on the ground. If we had to, that would be an ugly choice. They may have surrogates, some surrogates maybe wanting to go in there and do the ground operations, trump symptom apply. We had some people that could do that job for us. That kind of an ugly job, Kicarda Island and the other uh assets being maybe even seized or completely destroyed, is what we're gonna have to do. We may have to blow up all of their power plants, and we have to blow up all of their bridges, we have to blow up all of their factories, and then when they're just there in the Stone Age, then uh try to reason with them when they don't have anything left to negotiate with and see if you can't get some kind of an agreement that they're forced into.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Wouldn't it be nice? That's Jared Knott. Jared is a former U.S. Army Special Forces officer, the author of two books in the Tiny Blunders Big Disaster Series. Jared, thanks so much for your service in uniform. Thanks so much for the time on the air. Time to get to your calls at 866-HLARS. That's 866-439-5277. Send your emails to talk at LarsLarson.com. And you're listening to the Radio Northwest Network serving the Pacific Northwest states, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho with honestly provocative talk. Back in just a moment.