Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Okay, let me ask all of you two questions. Now that this has become a battle of wills over the control of the Strait of Hormuz, has Trump effectively, in your view, potentially squandered victory in the war? Are we on the verge of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory? I'm just curious. If we're not able to secure the strait or Iran stays in control of the strait, have we now lost the war with Iran? Have we now inadvertently, not deliberately, obviously, but have we now left Iran ironically in a stronger position than they were before the war? That's question number one. 617-266-6868. And question number two, if Trump now has to go to Beijing, and he's going to meet Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, on Thursday at a major summit, and he has to have China apply leverage to Iran, let's say the Chinese even want to do it, because maybe they want to see Trump go down in the midterm elections. So they're willing to endure four or five more months of high gas prices and have this stalemate continue. And this war of attrition, this quagmire, continue. And then Trump gets hammered in the elections. And then Trump can't stand up to China because he's got to fend off to Democrats because they'll be impeaching him morning tonight. So Beijing may not think it's in their interest to help Trump. But let's just assume that they do. and they come around and they say, look, we're going to get on the phone, we're going to talk to the Mullahs, to the IRGC, and we're going to get them to clear up, you know, to clear the Strait of Hormuz and have them sign some kind of a negotiated deal. Is this the equivalent of the Suez crisis? where Great Britain essentially was forced to back down, and it was the United States that imposed order over Suez, marking now really the moment that America was the world superpower, and Britain was essentially now in permanent decline. The fact that China is going to end the standoff, and China... be the one that effectively restores the strait of Hormuz. Will this become America's Suez moment? I'm just curious. Do you trust the Chinese? And do you think Trump needs the Chinese? 617-266868. Vince in Long Island. Thanks for holding Vince and welcome.

Vince? All right. I think we lost Vince. Let's see if we can reconnect. Tom in the great state of Ohio. Thanks for holding Tom and welcome. Good morning, Jeff. Your previous caller and the comments that you were just making kind of took a little bit of my thunder. But I think a couple things, Jeff. One, in the immortal words of Travis Kelsey, know your job and shut your mouth. You know, I, like you and a lot of the callers, I'm tired of Trump running his mouth left and right. He's got no discipline. Listen to the clip that you just did with BB. He is disciplined. He's evasive. He's not going to give him what they want. Trump's like somebody that gets pulled over by the cop and the cop says, hey, have you had anything to drink tonight? And he's like, oh, I was over some friend's house. And well, maybe there was some spike punch. I don't know. Did I drink some? Maybe I didn't. I mean, he has got to shut his mouth. I'm getting tired of it, Jeff. Tired. Tom, are you, I take it, you supported the war, correct? Yes. Tom, how do you feel now the last couple of weeks? Is Trump making a mistake in conducting these negotiations and in trying to make a deal? And now, of course, they've rejected his peace proposal. And they're basically telling Trump, you're not going to get our nuclear program, go fly a kite. And the Hormuz, Strait of Hormuz, that's now ours. What should Trump do now? Does he have to send in the Navy? Does he have to come in and reassert control over the strait? Or do you think now he should just walk away and cut his losses? You know what, Jeff, if we walk away and cut what theoretically, quote, cut our losses, that's not, it's not the American wing. Number one. And number two is, for what? What did we achieve in it? Absolutely nothing. We've emboldened these idiots by letting them hang around. And I think you've said before in some of your callers had previously. You know what? We've taken, this is around. We've taken on the big Satan and the little Satan as much as they can throw at us, and we still survived. We are still standing. I think he goes to China, and he sits with Xi Jinping, and he says, look. I've already got Venezuela. I'm going to shut down Cuba and you've got Iran. And I know that you're getting X amount of oil from Iran. So here's the deal. I'm going to negate and I'm going to reduce some of the tariffs that are going on right now. And I need you to leverage back chance. Brilliant. Brilliant. Tell them, listen, we'll give a little on the tariffs. Vince, we got them back in Long Island. Thanks for holding Vince. And welcome.

Yes, hello fellow refugee from Quebecistan. How are you doing? Vince, I got to ask you, my friend, what do you make of what's happened? Dramatic over the last 24 hours, the mullahs are telling him, go fly a kite. No deal. So what should Trump do? walking away from this would be insane. It'd be like saying the Japanese islands we were conquering, we were too hard to conquer, so we'd just walk away from it. We can't do that because it's going to lead to a much greater war. And basically, Trump is fighting two wars. He's fighting the internal enemy and he's fighting these barbarians. I mean, whatever happened to Brennan being arrested. and all the subversives that we have in here. In the first Trump term, I remember John Kerry going to Iran and sabotaging Trump's endeavors to form a new deal with them. What happened to the Logan Act at that point? It's insane what's happening. I mean, if we can't defeat Iran, how would we ever handle the Soviet Union and China? We definitely have to see this through. And the people who say that he should have gone to Congress and all that stuff, going to Congress is like trying to work with people who want to impeach you and want you dead. That's insane. He's got to bypass all that stuff and go straight to the American people and make his case. That's the only viable way to do it. And as far as the Europeans are concerned, they're a bunch of weasels. I don't know how long they're willing to suffer before they start joining into this endeavor to try and clear the passageway and have free commerce. I don't know if you remember the movie Gladiator, and Caesar was sitting on the mountaintop, and they were talking about the barbarians, how they were having a long war with them. And he finally said, you know, a people should know when they've been defeated. And their last battle, he said, unleash hell on them. That's what we need to do with barbarians. Nothing else works. I don't think that China has as much influence as we think on Iran. These are religious fanatics, and you're basically dealing with atheists. I don't think they have much respect for the atheists. So how could the atheists control these fanatics? They just must be defeated. That's the only way forward. Now, what would you, if Trump is listening right now, I know his people are, but just for the sake of arguments, say you've got the president listening, you've got his ear. What does Trump need to do to finally, in your view, deliver the knockout blow? Unleash hell. I'm not the military strategies, but do as much damage as you need to do. There's going to be some innocent people that are going to suffer, obviously. But there's going to be a whole bunch more suffering when these people get their hands on nuclear weapons, which they're incredibly determined to do, come hell or high water. So you pick the lesser demon. Do you want your leg cut off or do you want to die completely? I'd rather have my leg cut off. I don't know. Vince.

Can Trump leave Iran, leave aside the nuclear issue for a second, just the geopolitical issue? Can he leave the mullahs in control of the Strait of Hormuz? Can he do that? No, he can't. And what I think is dealing also with the upcoming election. So he has to play a lot of things up in the area. He has to try and settle the situation for now, not to crash the economy, get through the midterms, keep Congress and the Senate, and then really go for part two, which is complete annihilation. Because at that point, he's not running again, and he needs a legacy to be left behind, and he needs to settle this thing once and for all, because we have a whole bunch of worms around the world. Interesting. Interesting. Vince, thank you very, very much for that call. All right. Vince is saying, look, he's got no choice. Going hard, going heavy, as basically shock and awe. As Vince put it, unleash hell. Send in the U.S. Navy, resume the air campaign, the bombing campaign, the missile strikes. I mean, hit the mullahs. pound the regime to its very foundations, wipe out all of their military installations. And if you ought to start even taking the lights out in some cities, do it. Keep upping the pain threshold until they have no choice but to surrender. 617-266-68. Agree, disagree. Randy in New Hampshire. Thanks for holding Randy and welcome. Good morning, Jeff. Thank you for taking my call. My pleasure, Randy. So, Jeff, my take on this is a little bit different. There it is. There it is, Randy. We almost got through it for one show. There you are. You're sounding like a robot. So we're going to try to see if we can fix the connection there, Randy. You started off as a human being. and you know it's you know we could barely understand what you were saying all right Mike let's see if you can work your magic Randy are you sounding like a person again Randy Randy do we do we have Randy Okay. So, yeah, we're just, it could be a glitch. We're trying to fix the glitch. And we'll, the moment we get it, we got Randy back. Nice job, Mike. All right. Randy, go ahead, my friend. Sorry about that. No, no, it's not. It's okay. It's not your fault. Go ahead. So my take on this is a little bit different. And I want to go back to the intelligence briefing that happened over the weekend with Mark Kelly. Now, if you go back to the Biden administration, when Millie, you know, what did Millie do? He had a conversation with his counterpart in China, right? There's ever going to be an attack. We'll warn you ahead of time. Yes. Do you believe that they didn't know for one minute that Mark Kelly was...

going to roll, was going to divulge this information? Of course they knew. So was what was shared accurate? In my opinion, he's a useful idiot. But they had to know. So what are we really, what kind of intelligence are we really sharing? And do you believe it to be accurate? Or is this just a strategy of the administration? Well, Randy, let me ask you, because if they give false information, let's say, just for the sake of argument, they're saying, you know what, let's lie, right? Just, you know, we'll deceive. We'll say that we're really low on these munition stockpiles, on these Patriot missiles, on these interceptors. I mean, he listed all of them. And let's see if they leak, right? And then it'll be like a trap. The problem with that is if you give false information in a classified top secret briefing to either the Senate or the House Intelligence Committee, I mean, that's impeachment. He's opening himself up to impeachment. So I don't think they would do that. Now, if they said it, and it's the truth, and then Trump looked at Pete Hegseth, and Pete Hegseth looked at Trump, and said, Okay, we're going to tell him this. It's the truth. But Kelly's going to open his big fat mouth. And when he does, we're going to indict the SOB. We're going to indict him. And we're going to politically destroy him. So maybe. Maybe. Is that what you think happened, Randy, that basically they gave this briefing? and they knew full well that some Democrat on that committee was going to run to the media and leak it. You see, what's different is this, Randy, having worked in D.C., when somebody leaks something, it's usually through a newspaper, New York Times, Washington Post, whatever, and they go, keep my name out of it. In other words, someone on the committee, an anonymous source, close to the committee, that's how they would phrase it, revealed X, Y, and Z. But what that moron did is how stupid he is. No, he goes on television with his name and his face. And he divulges all of this classified information. So if you want to indict him, he's put a big, juicy target on his back. Randy, do you think they deliberately set up, Kelly? I don't know, Jeff. It just seems incredible to me that knowing what that man's history is, that they would have had him in the room. It just seems incredible to me. I agree. But, I mean, Randy, I'm not trying to be funny or, you know, play games. What Democrat now can you really trust? I mean, that's, really, I mean, that's the problem. And now I think some other Democrats are a little smarter. They wouldn't, you know, put their name and face on an interview on CBS.

They would, you know, leak it more surreptitiously, you know. Little everyday frustrations adding up. Elite checking from NASA Federal can help. Get your paycheck up to two days early. Enjoy cell phone protection, roadside assistance, and identity theft aid for peace of mind. Even earn dividends on your balance. If your checking account isn't working hard for you, switch to elite checking from NASAFEDERAL at NASAFCU.com slash elite. NASA Federal Credit Union. Smart, NASA Smart, federally insured by NCUA. Okay, this is rapidly now becoming one of our favorite segments. Now it is your turn. Talk back. Tit for tat. All right, my friends. Let's check in with you. It is a chance for Cooner Country to speak directly, thoughtful, funny, passionate. We've gathered your best messages, and they're coming up right now. Take it away, Mike.

One man's working less than a politician these days. Mike, Mike, Mike. I know you're a rock and roll guitar slinger, but why can't you do some oldies? For the elderly, this rock and roll is killing my ears. Over and over and over and over and over again. You repeat the same thing over and over and over again. I can't stand listening to you. You're done for the week. Just want to let you know every Wednesday at 720. When that time comes for that troll show, I turn off your radio. I don't like that. All they know over there is anger and hate. That's it. They don't know any other way of life. Again, you come back from a commercial break, you hold somebody over, but you go on another five, ten minute monologue, and everyone's forgot that you had somebody on the other line. Quit doing this. I've listened to you for years, but you and Grace sound like a couple of moonbat liberals. Grow up there. Stand behind my president. Jeff, Mike is always cutting you off just before you're ready to finish your sentence. Over the crack at dawn, I gave my radio and put the Guna Man on.

Mike, that was some good stuff, man. Okay, Cooner Country. If you want to hear your voice on tit for tat, well, guess what? All you got to do is go to the iHeart radio app. look for the red microphone in the upper right corner of the app and you can leave a message as you just heard for me for sandy for mike agree disagree respond react anything goes leave your talkbacks anytime during the week and as we just heard every monday in the final segment we will play the best ones on the air so download the i heart app Hit that red mic baby and join Cooner's talk back. Tit for tat. David in Malden. Thanks for holding David and welcome. Thank you very much. It's a first time call, long time listener. Welcome, David. I'm a veteran of the Marine Corps and the Army. And as far as I'm concerned, I just, I want him just to wrap this up. You know, they've been causing us problems for 47 years. I had my brothers in the Marine Corps barracks, you know, killed. I just want this over and done with it. I mean, at this point, you know, bomb their bridges just. bomb their bridges, the refineries, and get out because we got a war at home that we need to take care of. And that's really all I got to say about it because, you know, I mean, hey, I respect the commander in chief. Don't always agree with some of his mannerisms, but he's still the commander in chief. And, you know, I served under Clinton and Bush. And I just want this thing to wrap up. I don't care about the gas prices. The gas prices can be whatever they want. I understand that freedom isn't free and American people have to pay a little bit extra. But let's just wrap this up. Let's just wrap this up and call it a day and let's get back to business as usual. David, first of all, I want to thank you for your service. God bless you, my friend. And I want to ask you this, is it time for Trump? to start arming the dissidents and the opponents of the mullahs in Iran. In other words, yes, send in the Navy, yes, resume the bombing campaign, as you were talking about, just hit him and hit them hard. But is it also time now to arm the opposition so that now there's internal pressure for the Ayatollahs to deal with?

the, you know, whatever CIA operation is going on or whatever Special Forces operation is going on to arm the people. But, like, who are we really dealing with? Because we don't even really know who we're dealing with with the so-called leadership. So, I mean, okay, I just don't want us to arm them, and then all of a sudden something breaks out. Then we have to go back over there and face the arms that we just gave them. Same thing that happened in Afghanistan. You know, I just don't understand. You know, I just want this to be wrapped up and let's deal with the problems at home. I am mager all the way. I voted from three times, and I still have confidence in my commander-in-chief. David, thank you again for your call. CJ in Boston, CJ, I've got about a minute. I hate to do this to you. The floor is yours. Go. Well, Jeff, don't believe everything the Pentagon has to say about what's happening here. We decimated their Air Force. We knocked out their army. We've taken out their missiles. There's very few left and everything yet. We cannot control the straight ever moves. We have not reached out. Oh, CJ, you kind of faded on us there. CJ, call back again. Okay, we're going to put you right back on.