Is The U.S. Military Secretly Struggling?

Let's talk about how the military is doing, the military readiness that, you know, Trump and

Hegseth bragged about saying that there was, you know, we're the most ready military now that we've

been in however long that before we were weak and now we're strong. But we're hearing about all of

these accidents that seem to be happening. And it's just, everything just happens to be an accident.

You know, it's like, no, we're not an active warfare. Don't you worry, war is not dangerous. It turns

out. What's dangerous is just we have, we're accident prone as a military. So at this point,

I think they said that there's like, we have like 16 aircraft, I think that are out of commission.

I mean, Reaper drones, what the Pentagon is claiming is that it's mostly Reaper drones that have been

shot down by Iran. Iran has a different story, right? They say, yeah, we got your Reaper drones,

but we also got your F-15s and we even got an F-35. And Pentagon said, no, that's not true.

The F-15s were shot down by Kuwaitis, friendly fire, right? Three of them. They were saying,

and then Iran is claiming they got two more, they got two more F-15s. It's hard to get it,

yeah, in the fog of war. And then there's, and then Iran's claiming that they latched onto an F-35,

what the US got, which is, that's like our premier, I mean, that's like our premier aircraft,

right? I mean, that's like, that thing says we still. It is, it's a premier aircraft on paper.

It has a lot of capability on paper operationally. It has a 35% operational rate. Like, if you take

your whole fleet of F-35s, only 35% of those, 36% of those aircraft are ready to go, ready to fight

at any given time. They are susceptible to weather issues. They're very, they're just, you know,

one of the big selling points of the F-35 is that it's like, and they advertise it this way,

when you update the software, it's just like getting a software upgrade on your computer.

You know, you download the software, and it reboots, and, you know, and that always works perfectly,

right, with your computers when they upgrade to the next system. Yeah, and think about it as the

design of these upgrades. It's not quite the same as our computer that we might have for a couple

years ago. It's more like Windows. Think about Windows, I don't know, seven upgrading to Windows eight.

Do you remember all the patches that had to stand out? Well, it's like that. That's how it,

that's because that's the care I wanted this to design was we take an incredible amount of time

to design our, our biggest systems, and that's one of them. So it has great capability when it's,

when everything is perfect, right? And it hasn't, we don't do dog fights, you know, we don't,

we might do them over Nevada for training, but we don't do, you know, they're not battles tested.

Most of the battles that we have been fighting, the Air Force in particular, and we say, oh,

the Air Force loves to air wars the way to go. We can provide, we can get in there and bomb. Okay,

great. We can do that. But the places we have been bombing for the last 30 years, up until four

weeks ago, haven't been able to shoot back. They haven't been with shoot back at us. So it's like,

it's basically like practice bombing. It's like basically, let's go drop some bombs, let's go

shoot some missiles at ground targets or at really slow moving targets. And I always remember

back in the Yugoslavia war when I was at station to Daviano, we had an F-16 base there and we had

an F-16 pilot who I worked with his wife, but he shot down four Serbian fighters, but they weren't,

but turns out they weren't fighters. He was way up high in altitude, looking down on fixed

wing aircraft that weren't intended to have bombs on him, but they had jury rigged it to put bombs

on him. This is the Serbs. They didn't have much of an Air Force. And so he just set up high

and pot shot four of them. And he went and met President Clinton at the time and he got a,

got a, you know, a medal of some sort, Silver Star something. And that's what we're used to.

That's what we've been used to in the Air Force for 30 years. And that's easy targets.

Easy targets that don't threaten you. And we don't even know, honestly, you know, just like the

Navy captain, you know, Trump says, let's go in with the Navy and clear out the straight.

And the Navy's telling him, no way, sir, we're not doing that unless you want to sink every

ship that goes in there and have a big fiasco on your hands, we're not doing it. So they're not

doing it. Not only that they're pulling the ships back away from range of Iranian defenses,

same with the Air Force. We are doing standoff. This idea that we have a total air superiority over

Iran. Well, you can say that, but how come we're not flying over all the time, dropping bombs

where we want to? Because they can shoot us down and they can damage us. So we initially,

with the war, you get a lot of standoff weapons. You just go close to the Iranian border really

quickly and shoot your guided missiles off. So you have that. Now they, they have some where we've

been over Iranian territory. And guess what? They're getting us that F-35 that was hit with a

sitting, seeking drone. That's the one they're saying that I think it might have been an Israeli one,

but they said it landed. It wasn't really damaged. Okay. They're saying that it was hit by ground

fire. I mean, the first thing that they said was, oh, it wasn't hit at all. It just had like a

technical problem and it had to come back. And then the story shifted. And I think the official

story right now, and this one, it does, I guess for me, I mean, look, I'm not an expert on

barefoot. It's like you are on this. But I thought the F-35 flew pretty fast. I mean,

that was kind of my thinking was that it was like stealth, right? So you're not supposed to be able

to see it. And they're claiming it got hit by ground fire. How is that even possible?

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I don't know, but I guess we have over a great deal of confidence in our capability

to make war against people that can't fight back. And certainly this goes for Israel as well.

You know, who has Israel been beating up on? People that can't fight back.

Right. Right. Palestinians. And you know, they can say, well, they might have they have something,

you know, there's their little militant groups there that can shoot back or whatever.

No, not the same. Not a mighty military. Yeah. So basically, we, Israel and the United States

have inflated egos because the the adversaries they pick on are small and weak and unable to fight

back. And now they've now they've picked on Iran. And Iran is not small or weak. And they've proven

that. And but what we're getting here in the United States is that we're fed lines. I mean, we're

told, you know, and I think a lot of Americans, unless they're watching Fox News, you know, I think

a lot of Americans are realizing there's no way the propaganda we're getting out of the White House

and from the Pentagon is accurate. When, you know, when the when the White House says we've

obliterated them, you know, we've obliterated their military. They have no military left.

And then he turns around and says, Hey, Europe, come on. Help us out. Like we need help. We need help

over here. And it's like, what do you need help? You help against a non-existent military that

you blew up to oblivion? Or how is it that they're able to, you know, according to the White House,

according to the Pentagon, they've, you know, they fired off these intercontinental ballistic

missiles. I'm not sure if I even believe that. It's an interesting claim in that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. They didn't fire at D.O. Garcia. Okay. I mean, you know, I would kind of go in both

ways on that. Yeah. I think going both ways on that one, like it could be a false flag for sure,

you know, just to try to get Europe into the war. But it also could be that Iran's finally

had enough and they are testing intercontinental ballistic missiles. And they're going to be

testing nukes because why wouldn't they at this point? If I were Iran these last four weeks,

I'd be rapidly trying to develop my bigger and batter weapons at this point. Yeah. Well, you know,

again, Iran is defending. It's a big country. 92 million people. It's defending its country. It

has the geographic defenses built in and which they've made full use of with with their defense.

So they're not going anywhere. They and they have no place to go, right? They have no place to

go. So they're going to fight to the very end. They've been watching us fight in the region for

30 years. They know our strengths. They know our weaknesses. They know them better than Americans

know them ourselves. Okay. That's there's no doubt about that. And they have geared their military

and their strategy to exploiting our weaknesses. And one of our weaknesses is in addition to

fighting a war far far away, fighting a kind of a boutique war that, you know,

being used to fighting people that can't fight back, you know, those are all weaknesses. But

the other one is, of course, that American support for the war is very important. Political support.

And we the Trump did nothing to gin up support in the country. You know, in 2002, even in 1991,

when we invaded Iraq and then later in 2002, in both cases, many lies were generated to justify it.

But those lies were, I mean, at least Bush had 9-11, you know, Bush had at least 9-11. And so everybody

was upset and angry and wanting to do something to defend America. Trump has nothing. He has nothing.

No, he took, he basically feels that he is a king or an emperor and emperor and he can decide and

make the decision what's good for America. But by not bringing the people on board, we already

have a short attention span. But by not bringing them on board, this actually gets worse over time

rather than getting better. Now, all the bets are off. If we get a false flag attack in the United

States, certainly something that could happen and probably will happen. If the Israelis aren't ready

for us to leave the war, honestly, I think the Israelis call the shots. Ultimately, Iran has the

initiative. But I think when it comes to American participation in this war, the Israel calls those

shots. And so if we look like we're going to turn tail, which I know Trump wants to do because

financially and energy wise, this is not working. And he knows that. But if we do that before Israel

is ready for us to do that, I absolutely believe we'll get a false flag against an American interest.

But probably in the United States, something to rise, rile up the people because they are

riled up, but they're riled up against the war right now. Their gas prices do that. But we could be

brought to heal by our government if we had some sort of emergency and creating emergencies,

I think, is Israel's specialty. So I don't doubt that they have plans for that if they think they

need it. But Israel itself is off balance here because they have been hit like never before.

I mean, ever before in the history, in the short history of that country's existence,

they are being bombed without defenses. At this point, alarms aren't even going off.

The sirens are failing to go off. So the people are starting to feel. And again, when I think

of Israelis and Israel, you know, obviously we have this settler mentality, you know, these,

these tough socialist, you know, it comes from a socialist, very unified society. It's how they

they modeled their country. And, you know, tough people, obviously smart people. And we think this

cohesion and faith religious, obviously, even though most Jews are not that religious, but you know,

we have this idea of who they are and that they're tough, okay? But they're not tough. It's an illusion.

They're no tougher than anybody else. Most of them, they come from very urban. You know,

if you want to know who's tough, look at countries that have rural populations, okay? Russia,

World War II. Yeah. They can die in millions and millions can die and they still don't give up.

That's tough. Israel is an urban population, a cosmopolitan, global population. They have moved,

they've settled in Israel. This is their country and they like it, but they've not been tested.

And when they're tested, this is what happens. They get on airplanes and they fly the hell out of

there, okay? If they can, which is why Israeli government twice has had to in the last 12 months,

but the 12 they were, they had to do the same thing. They had to shut the exits so that Israelis

would not flee the country. This is who you're dealing with for the most part. So the people that want

to form this greater Israel, the empire of the Middle East, run by Israel, all oil exports

controlled and managed through Israel. This is a minority of their people. Now, the majority hate

Arabs absolutely and the majority have relished what they didn't Gaza. They relished genocide.

They don't have a problem with that, but it didn't cost them anything, right? It was like it's

just like watching a a saw movie on TV. How many people go to the theaters in the old days and

watch these bloody, murdering shows and we can enjoy that because we ourselves aren't being hurt

by it except psychologically. We're not physically at risk. Let me go to the movie theater.

Well, that's how they have entertained their genocide and their destruction of their neighbors.

And when I say neighbors inside the country as well, you know, what's going on in the West Bank?

Yeah, very, they love that. I don't, you know, I don't understand it, but there is a great deal of

hatred for Arabs there. They don't mind killing them, but that's when they're not getting

punished for it. They are now being punished for their actions and they don't like it. They can't

sustain it. Honestly, Israel's food, energy, water, all of the things that the Gulf countries need,

Israel is vulnerable in the same way. Water is at a premium there. Energy is they don't make

their own energy. Israel is highly vulnerable to the same things that have been done to the Gulf

States in a less extent by Iran. So I think this thing can, well, I think America wants, I think

Trump wants to stop it only because he looks at the dollar signs and some of his billionaire friends

are telling him this is going to really hurt, you know, and you're going to be impeached. I think

surely he must know that, although I did see Trump touting a CNN poll or something that said 100

percent of the people, so I mean North Korea doesn't even get that. I know it. So that was

crazy. I don't know if he believes that or he just likes to use it. You mentioned credibility.

You know, Trump and how Americans are played all the time. We're always played at these wars,

but we have grown up a little bit. We were slightly more sophisticated, given we've had it done

to us so many times. And Trump himself is helping that in two ways. One, he vacated MAGA

in the second term, right? He had MAGA going on for eight years. As soon as he got in office,

MAGA was stupid for wanting the Epstein files dealt with and we're going to do war and he continued

to do war and not peace. And so he screwed over his best supporters. And that's a wake-up call.

And that happens. It doesn't matter what situation it's a wake-up call. And then when he's done,

and he did this in the 12-day war to some extent with his choice of the word obliterated,

their entire nuclear capacity, because anybody with half a brain knew that didn't happen.

But he kept saying it. He kept saying it. And he kept saying it in his national security strategy.

He used the word obliterated in the November national security strategy document.

He obliterated it. And then only a few months later, now we have to go back in because we

didn't obliterate it enough. And he said this, every five minutes, every 30 minutes, every hour,

every social, every truth social post, he is switching gears. And he's changing his position.

And you know, average Americans, like if your kid was doing this, you'd say, well,

that's a kid being a kid. But when your president is doing it, it's a wake-up call.

So we're Americans are getting the same wake-up call that the Gulf States got when this war hit

and all of a sudden they're getting hit back by our land. And things are going to change.

And I think we'll thank Trump. We won't thank him for the murder that he has conducted in the

destruction and the cost and the illegality of this war. We won't thank him for those things. But

I think we will thank him for shifting the entire globe in terms of who has power,

what power looks like, how it's exercised and America will not be the superpower. We're not

actually the superpower now. That's the whole point. You know, we're a broke-ass nation,

right? I mean, I'm sorry. Some people who think that 40 trillion in debt doesn't matter.

Somebody wants their money. I don't know who it is. You know, they say, they say,

oh, we borrowed it from Americans. Well, if they borrowed it from me, I want my money, okay?

I don't know how they're going to do that. But if you actually are a foreign country that bought

treasuries and you're not getting your, you're going to get shorted. Historically, that has been a

primary cause of war. Now, if you look at this whole thing financially, it's part of it.

There's a reason that Trump needs straight-of-our-muse. He wants that $2 million per ship

bounty or fee to transit that, and he wants to collect that. What did he say about after

Venezuela? You know, he goes, oh, we got all this oil. We're going to be rich. Okay.

He's an idiot. Trump is an idiot. There's no doubt. And in my mind that he is an idiot,

and he says a lot of things. He doesn't even know what comes out of his mouth. But

there are real concerns about the financial stability of not just the United States dollar,

but the financial stability of the U.S. system, the whole system. So we're highly vulnerable.

And actually, historically, empires go to stupid, ill-conceived wars that they lose

at the same point in time that we are in our empire, which is broke. We're broke, we're poorly led,

and we don't have a constitution. I mean, there's one on paper, but it doesn't work.

It doesn't, it's not listening to, it's not observed. So the outcome of this, probably in a year,

because I don't think it's going to be over with this, the ramifications this have already,

we can't fix what has been done already in six months. We can't fix some of this in five years.

There's certain things that have been destroyed that will take five years to bring back online.

So, and we're still fighting. So the ramifications of this are very painful, and that will go on

for some time. But the end result of it is that we will be out of the Middle East,

ideally, this is going to happen sooner or later. We don't know when.

Israel will be kicked out of this country as terms of our as our political foreign policy

manufacturer. They will be gone. The upcoming generations, you know, the Charlie Kirk thing.

I didn't follow Charlie Kirk before, but when Charlie Kirk switched and kind of echoed what young

Americans, when I say young Americans, I'm talking 50 and younger, okay? That's one thing about

young Americans. Their view towards Israel has shifted very negatively, and it's not going to

come back. You can't win that, not with Gaza, not with a video to two, three years of genocide

in your face on your, on your, you know, on your computer, on your phone every day. You can't

come back from that. So the US relationship with Israel is on a path of a breakup, which is good.

That's healthy. It's what it should be. That's what George Washington said. It's what Jefferson said.

You know, you don't want entangling alliances, and that's one that has really harmed us.

But that's ending. Now, the question is, will it end demographically as these new generations

take power or will it end more abruptly? And I think we will thank Trump for ending it abruptly

with this war. We're losing it. We're losing the war. It's predictable that we would. You can't,

you can't win a war against a dug-in defense of 92 million people halfway around the world.

If you don't have the resources to compel that war, unless, unless somebody pulls a nuclear

fuse. If somebody hits the button, that is a, that is a dangerous risk that could happen.

And I don't know. I can't say that's obviously in the back of my mind that's one option.

But if it stays conventional, we've lost the war. And so has Iran. So has Israel. Israel has lost

the war too. And the whole world will be different after this. And it'll be better for free trade.

It'll be better for the vast majority of the populations around the world. And it will be harder

for Americans. But you know what, with or without a war in Iran, this country was always going to

be hard for Americans. We have so much money and degraded our economy, degraded our political system.

It will take two or three generations to climb out of, to climb out of what America has become

for most Americans. And again, the funny thing is, this is what MAGA was about, right? This is

the MAGA message was, you're suffering here in America. You can't get ahead. Two incomes can't even,

you can't even raise one kid. You know, your American dream has been killed. And Trump was going to

swoop in and let us allow us to focus on fixing ourselves. And of course, he didn't do it. Yeah.

So in the long run, this is a positive. And I have to say, you know, I root for Iran to preserve

their country. And I root for Iran to do what it can. Obviously, I don't want to kill people.

I don't want us to kill them. That's still happening. But we are all going to wake up to a different

security architecture in the Middle East and a different set of alliances in Washington.

And I do see a break. I do see a break with Israel. And I've even watched in Joe Kent. Some of

the things he's been given a few interviews. And his, you know, he's not a libertarian by any means,

you know, a military guy. He loves this country, of course. But he has focused the issue on the

corrupting relationship that we have with Israel. Washington and his. So that has to change.

And it will change. And I think because of this war, it's going to change faster than it would

have on a natural basis. Probably. Thanks for watching this clip from the full Kim Iverson Show,

which you can catch Monday through Friday, 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern, 4 free,

at KimIversonShow.com. See you there.