Speaker 1: It is The Jesse Kelly Show. Another hour of The
Speaker 1: Jesse Kelly Show on a Wonderful.
Speaker 2: Friday, The Jesse Kelly Show.
Speaker 3: Another hour of.
Speaker 1: The Jesse Kelly Show on a wonderful, wonderful Monday. Coming up,
Speaker 1: we have Brandon Wikert a half hour from now. Why
Speaker 1: is the Navy and Marines? What exactly are they planning
Speaker 1: on doing in Venezuela and why. We'll talk to him
Speaker 1: about that about a half hour from now. I'm actually
Speaker 1: going to in a way defend Trump on something he
Speaker 1: said today that is making a lot of people on
Speaker 1: the right angry about bringing in Chinese students, lots of them.
Speaker 1: But you know what time it is, Oh, that's political.
Speaker 1: We don't have time for that. Now. It's the start
Speaker 1: of the second hour on Monday. So it's Metal of
Speaker 1: Honor Monday time. Same thing every Monday. At this time,
Speaker 1: we take a medal of honor citation, we read it.
Speaker 1: We remember the men, we honor them, we honor their deeds.
Speaker 1: We have to tell our children about these men and
Speaker 1: the things they did. And remember we accept suggestions. If
Speaker 1: you have ones you like, ones you're related to. Once
Speaker 1: you just enjoy whatever. It's not just love hating death
Speaker 1: threats you can send into Jesse at Jesse kellyshow dot com.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna do too tonight. This guy says Jesse,
Speaker 1: I went to Washington with my daughter on her fifth
Speaker 1: grade trip. That's so cool. You got to go. I
Speaker 1: didn't get to go. I wanted to go when my
Speaker 1: kids went. Chris, you're never gonna pay for it when
Speaker 1: your daughter gets told enough anyway, we stopped by the
Speaker 1: National Vietnam War Memorial and searched for a specific name,
Speaker 1: First Lieutenant Douglas B. Fournette. He was from my hometown
Speaker 1: of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Before you get to the two
Speaker 1: to ten loop, bridge will see a dedicated marker to
Speaker 1: this warrior. He came from a hard nosed family. His
Speaker 1: brother Rocky was such a fierce defensive back of mcnee's
Speaker 1: State that the coach made him wear a black helmet
Speaker 1: so the offense knew where he was on the field
Speaker 1: at all times. Love what you're doing. Every Monday, I
Speaker 1: take my daughter Mollie to a Monday night activity and
Speaker 1: we get to bond together listening to medal of Honor Monday. Gosh,
Speaker 1: that's freaking cool. Love your brother be well. So without
Speaker 1: further ado born and as you heard in Lake Charles, Louisiana,
Speaker 1: Vietnam veteran Douglas Bernard Fournette, Let's find out what he.
Speaker 4: Did, hey, honoring those he went above and beyond, it's
Speaker 4: Medal of Honor Monday.
Speaker 1: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk
Speaker 1: of his life, above and beyond the call of duty.
Speaker 1: First Lieutenant Fournette, Infantry distinguished himself in action while serving
Speaker 1: as rifle platoon leader of second Platoon, Company B. While
Speaker 1: advancing uphill against fortified enemy positions in the a Shah Valley,
Speaker 1: the platoon encountered intense sniper fire, making movement very difficult.
Speaker 1: The right flank man suddenly discovered an enemy Claymore mind
Speaker 1: covering the route of advance and shouted a warning to
Speaker 1: his comrades. Realizing that the enemy would also be alerted,
Speaker 1: First Lieutenant Fournette ordered his men to take cover and
Speaker 1: ran uphilled toward the mind, drawing a sheath knife as
Speaker 1: he approached it. With complete disregard for his safety and
Speaker 1: realizing the imminent danger to members of his command, he
Speaker 1: used his body as a shield in front of the mind.
Speaker 1: As he attempted to slash the control wires leading from
Speaker 1: the enemy positions to the mine. As he reached for
Speaker 1: the wire, the mine was detonated, killing him instantly. Five
Speaker 1: men nearest the mine were slightly wounded, but First Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Fournette's heroic and unselfish act spared his men of serious
Speaker 1: injury or death. His gallantry and willing self sacrifice are
Speaker 1: in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and
Speaker 1: reflect great credit upon him himself, his unit in the
Speaker 1: US Army. And just to let you know, in case
Speaker 1: you don't, a claymor mind is a terrifying thing. They are.
Speaker 1: They're full of ball bearings. I have a little bit
Speaker 1: of experience with them. And look when we trained with them,
Speaker 1: they were intimidating because you know what they do when
Speaker 1: they go off. You know what they do. To throw
Speaker 1: yourself in front of one that you know the enemy
Speaker 1: holds the clacker, you set them off for the clacker,
Speaker 1: the enemy holds the controls and you throw yourself in
Speaker 1: front of one is awesome, man, awesome. Douglas Bernard Fournette.
Speaker 1: Now for our second one. This one also came in.
Speaker 1: It was a recommendation from a Marine Master Sergeant who
Speaker 1: I'm not going to read his name. I don't want
Speaker 1: to get him. I don't want to get him in trouble. Jesse,
Speaker 1: if you've not already used this warrior for Medal of
Speaker 1: Honor Monday, please do so, PFC. And you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to bear with me. On the name Ca ho Ohannohanno,
Speaker 1: CA ho Ohannohanno. That's just his last name, caho ohann Ohanno.
Speaker 1: I'm assuming that's Hawaiian samowing something like that. My favorite
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor recipient. This guy says, so he was
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, look at that. Born nineteen thirty accredited to Hawaii,
Speaker 1: is what they say. It was. So without further ado, also, Army,
Speaker 1: let's do the second Medal of Honor citation for an
Speaker 1: Anthony T. Ca ho Ohannohanno. And I'm sorry if I
Speaker 1: screwed up the pronunciation on that, I'm stupid.
Speaker 4: I do that, hey, honoring those who went above and
Speaker 4: beyond its Medal of Honor Monday.
Speaker 1: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life,
Speaker 1: above and beyond the call of duty. Private First Class
Speaker 1: Anthony T. Caho Company H seventeenth Infantry Regiment, seventh Infantry
Speaker 1: Division distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism and action against the
Speaker 1: enemy in the vicinity of Trooper Ree, Korea, on the
Speaker 1: first of September nineteenth fifty one. On that date, Private
Speaker 1: first class ca Ho was in charge of a machine
Speaker 1: gun squad supporting the defensive positioning of Company F when
Speaker 1: a numerically superior enemy force launched a fierce attack. Because
Speaker 1: of the enemy's overwhelming numbers, friendly troops were forced to
Speaker 1: execute a limited withdrawal. As the men fell back, Private
Speaker 1: first class ca Ho ordered his squad to take up
Speaker 1: more defensible positions and provide covering fire for the withdrawing
Speaker 1: friendly force. Although having been wounded in the soldier in
Speaker 1: the soldier in the shoulder during the initial enemy assault,
Speaker 1: Private first class Caho gathered a supply of grenades and
Speaker 1: ammunition and returned to his original position to face the
Speaker 1: enemy alone. As the hostile troops concentrated their strength against
Speaker 1: his emplacement in an effort to overrun it, Private first
Speaker 1: class ca Ho fought fiercely and courageously, delivering deadly accurate
Speaker 1: fire into the ranks of the on rushing enemy. When
Speaker 1: his ammunition was depleted, he engaged the enemy in hand
Speaker 1: to hand combat until he was killed. Private first Class
Speaker 1: caho Ohanohanno's heroic stand so inspired his comrades they launched
Speaker 1: a counter attack that completely repulsed the enemy. Upon reaching
Speaker 1: Private first Class caho Ohanohanno's emplacement, friendly troops to governed
Speaker 1: eleven enemy soldiers lying dead in front of the emplacement
Speaker 1: and two inside it killed in hand to hand combat.
Speaker 1: Private first Class coho Ohanohanno's extraordinary heroism and selfless devotion
Speaker 1: to duty are in keeping with the finest traditions of
Speaker 1: military service and reflect great credit upon himself the seventh
Speaker 1: Infantry Division in the United States Army, and we will
Speaker 1: play taps in honor of both of these gentlemen. To now,
Speaker 1: it's amazing how often those Korean War ones go that way,
Speaker 1: of the numerically superior enemy force overrunning the lines. I've
Speaker 1: read more Korean books than I can count, and that's
Speaker 1: just the Korean War. You take a hilltop, the Chinese,
Speaker 1: because they were mostly Chinese, would mass up more bodies
Speaker 1: than you could kill, and they would send in waves
Speaker 1: of them and they would just overrun you. And then
Speaker 1: you'd have to counterattack and take it back. And then
Speaker 1: they would counterattack and take it back. And there were
Speaker 1: a lot of very brave men who did a lot
Speaker 1: of very brave things in Korea. Like I've told you before,
Speaker 1: it is called the Forgotten War, and it really truly
Speaker 1: is the Forgotten War. Look into Korea, Look into Korea.
Speaker 1: If this stuff interests you, fascinates you, you want to learn
Speaker 1: about the fighting they did over there, the heroes who
Speaker 1: fought their way through that place and then had to
Speaker 1: fight their way out of it. Go pick up a
Speaker 1: book or watch a documentary. I think there's a good
Speaker 1: one on Amazon if I remember it called Chosen. It's
Speaker 1: on Amazon or Netflix, but it's called Chosen about the
Speaker 1: Chosen Reservoir. Highly recommend it. Uh, I don't remember if
Speaker 1: it's a kid friendly or not. It could be. Chris said,
Speaker 1: probably not, No, it could be. I don't remember. So kids,
Speaker 1: ask mom and dad. It is the Jesse Kelly Show.
Speaker 1: A wonderful, wonderful Monday. Just did Medal of Honor Monday.
Speaker 1: Remember we have Brandon Wiker coming up ten minutes from now,
Speaker 1: gonna get us educated on what exactly is happening in Venezuela.
Speaker 1: So Trump said something earlier today that has the right
Speaker 1: apoplectic and upset. And don't get me wrong, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: upset two but I understand. You ever have those situations
Speaker 1: in your life where you're mad but you get it,
Speaker 1: You're mad, but you get it. He said this, it's a.
Speaker 4: Very important relationship.
Speaker 1: We're going to get along good with China.
Speaker 3: I use so many stories about we're not going to
Speaker 3: allow their students.
Speaker 4: So now we're going to allow their students to come in.
Speaker 3: We're gonna allow it's very important, six hundred thousand students.
Speaker 2: It's very important.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna get along with it. We're going to
Speaker 1: allow six hundred thousand Chinese students into our country. Chinese
Speaker 1: spies is what they are. It's not it's not exactly
Speaker 1: a guess. It's not an unknown thing. China sends its
Speaker 1: young people into our country, into the university system to
Speaker 1: not just spy, steal. They are the biggest corporate thieves
Speaker 1: on the planet. They steal technology, they steal proper intellectual property,
Speaker 1: they take it back to China, they duplicate it, and
Speaker 1: it's really really bad. And everyone's mad at Trump today
Speaker 1: about that. We're going to allow six hundred thousand. Then
Speaker 1: we're going to allow six hundred thousand in. I'm mad too,
Speaker 1: So let me clarify. That's that's really bad. It's really bad. However,
Speaker 1: remember when Trump was talking with Zelenski on the first
Speaker 1: meeting where it blew up in the White House, where
Speaker 1: Zolensky lost his mind starts freaking out. Remember what Trump
Speaker 1: told him, you don't have the cards, You don't have
Speaker 1: the cards, and Zolensky had to be like a stupid,
Speaker 1: angry little troll, I'm not playing cards. That Everyone knows
Speaker 1: what Trump was saying, including Zelensky. What does he mean
Speaker 1: by that? You don't have leverage. Ukraine doesn't have any leverage.
Speaker 1: You can't militarily defeat the Russians. You're not in possession
Speaker 1: of the territory the Russians have taken. You don't have leverage.
Speaker 1: You can want it, you can scream that's wrong, but
Speaker 1: you don't have it. All right, So let's have a
Speaker 1: frank talk about where we are as a country right now.
Speaker 1: China produces ninety percent of the pharmaceuticals that people take
Speaker 1: in the United States of America. Nine zero, not nine,
Speaker 1: not nineteen ninety. That's a tiny, tiny example of how
Speaker 1: much we have to have cooperation with China. And so,
Speaker 1: don't get me wrong, they have to have cooperation with
Speaker 1: us too. But it really comes down to this. If
Speaker 1: I have to make it extremely simple, China makes the stuff,
Speaker 1: we buy the stuff. That's the terrible relationship we are in.
Speaker 1: You can hate that and I hate it. You can
Speaker 1: say we have to change that, and we do. But
Speaker 1: you know, wish in one hand, grap in the other,
Speaker 1: and see which one fills up first. As my dad
Speaker 1: used to tell me all the time, you can't wish
Speaker 1: away where we currently are. We we don't have all
Speaker 1: the cards. We have some cards. We have cards, There's
Speaker 1: no question about it. We have some cards. Look, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna talk to Brandon Wykert next. I'm gonna flat out
Speaker 1: ask him how much of the world's rare earth minerals
Speaker 1: does China have control over versus how much we have
Speaker 1: control over. Imagine, imagine if China owns sixty seventy percent
Speaker 1: of the rare earth minerals and I think it's at
Speaker 1: least that high'ma I'm gonna confirm it with Brandon Wickert
Speaker 1: in a moment. What if it's seventy percent. Now keep
Speaker 1: in mind, when we say rare earth minerals, what does
Speaker 1: that even mean? Like everyone loves that term, Now, what
Speaker 1: does that even mean? We are talking about the things
Speaker 1: you have to pull out of the ground to make
Speaker 1: the modern things. Your country, your economy, and most definitely
Speaker 1: your military need to keep running. You want your military
Speaker 1: to be as modern as the next. You have to
Speaker 1: have that in the ground. What if China owns it
Speaker 1: all and I know they own a big chunk of it,
Speaker 1: I'm not happy. I'm not happy that this is where
Speaker 1: we are, and I'm certainly not happy that we're allowing
Speaker 1: six hundred thousand Chinese spies into the country. I think
Speaker 1: that's suicidal and insane. I don't like it either, but
Speaker 1: I understand it. I understand we don't hold all the
Speaker 1: cards here. You know, it's a not a huge story,
Speaker 1: but a little bit of a story that Canada, Canada
Speaker 1: is backing off. You know, Canada was talking really tough,
Speaker 1: we were talking about tariffs, and Canada started flexing. They
Speaker 1: have a bunch of comedies up there in charge. Now,
Speaker 1: poor Canadians to it sucks for them. Canada bends the
Speaker 1: need at Trump's will and drops the tariffs on US goods.
Speaker 1: That's from today. Why, well, we have all the cards.
Speaker 1: If you're Canada, you don't have that leverage. If we
Speaker 1: pull the trigger on you when it comes to tariffs,
Speaker 1: you're finished. You can hurt us a little so we
Speaker 1: can smash Canada's budget. We can smash their budget, we
Speaker 1: can smash their economy into a fine powder. So they
Speaker 1: had no choice. It's all about leverage. We are not
Speaker 1: in that same situation with China. Yes, China needs us
Speaker 1: to buy a lot of stuff, there's no question they
Speaker 1: need us too. But we are in We're in a
Speaker 1: Mexican standoff right now. Okay, we can't afford to smash
Speaker 1: them because they can smash us back guaranteed, guaranteed. This
Speaker 1: was negotiated Jiji and Ping. Okay, you want this. You
Speaker 1: don't want that. You're taking six hundred thousand spies students. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I misspoke. Sucks. I hate it. That's the way it is.
Speaker 1: It is the Jesse Kelly Show on a wonderful Monday.
Speaker 1: The work week is just beginning. I can tell how
Speaker 1: happy Chris is about it. Anyway, I'm happy because Brandon
Speaker 1: Wikert's about to educate us on some things, as he
Speaker 1: often does, joining me now, wonderful author National security man
Speaker 1: Brandon Wikert, Hey, Brandon, why is the Navy going down
Speaker 1: to Venezuela?
Speaker 3: Well, thanks for having me. As always, the Navy has
Speaker 3: decided to flex some muscles in the face of Nicholas Maduro.
Speaker 3: Ostensibly it's to help the Trump administration conduct its anti
Speaker 3: drug cartel operations, but I suspect that it is much
Speaker 3: more than that. I believe that the Trump administration is
Speaker 3: attempting to conduct some form of regime change in Caracas
Speaker 3: by ousting Nicholas Maduro.
Speaker 1: Oh well, that always goes well, Okay, let's rewind quite
Speaker 1: a bit, because I realize everybody comes at the news
Speaker 1: from different levels of understanding Venezuela. How did they get
Speaker 1: to where they got? Now, Maduro, what's the deal with them?
Speaker 1: Pretend like I don't know, squad, what's going on there?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, forty years ago, Venezuela was one of
Speaker 3: the wealthiest countries in the world. It is one of
Speaker 3: the great oil producers. And then in the nineties and
Speaker 3: early two thousands they went through a political revolution led
Speaker 3: by Hugo Chaves, who was a colonel in the Venezuelan army.
Speaker 3: He was a socialist and he overthrew the government and
Speaker 3: installed a radical socialist regime with himself as the leader.
Speaker 3: And ever since the two thousands it has been run
Speaker 3: by either Hugo Chaves, who died in twenty thirteen, and
Speaker 3: then after that it was his right hand man, Nicholas Maduro,
Speaker 3: who took over. They have funded drug cartel operations. They're
Speaker 3: a narco terrorist regime. They have funded human trafficking. They
Speaker 3: have sent Trende Aragua, which is a paramilitary force, into
Speaker 3: the United States through our broken border. And there may
Speaker 3: or may not be some evidence that their company, run
Speaker 3: by Venezuelan national Smart Mattic, may be involved in the
Speaker 3: Philippines and other countries in manipulating the votes. It's an
Speaker 3: election counting machine software and in fact the CEO is
Speaker 3: currently indicted I believe, in a Miami court. So there's
Speaker 3: a lot of problems with Venezuela. We've had going back
Speaker 3: several decades. Every president has talked about how much of
Speaker 3: a problem it is. But because it's an oil producer,
Speaker 3: we are in a bind. We need to have business
Speaker 3: relations with Venezuela. But the regime as it stands hates
Speaker 3: the United States.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we are currently purchasing oil from Venezuela.
Speaker 3: So there was a special carve out that was allowed
Speaker 3: after Shavas took over, the only US company that was
Speaker 3: allowed to directly drove for oil consistently in Venezuela with Chevron.
Speaker 3: This became a fight about three or four months ago
Speaker 3: in the Trump administration. You had people like Rich Grenell,
Speaker 3: you know, Rick Cornell, You had people like him versus
Speaker 3: Marco Rubio. Rick Cornell was saying, hey, President Trump, renew
Speaker 3: the licenses. It's easy, quick access to oil. All we
Speaker 3: have to do is pay the Venezuelan's off and they'll
Speaker 3: look the other way while we mine for it. We
Speaker 3: drove for it, and Marco Rubio was saying, hey, that
Speaker 3: money is directly feeding these organizations in Venezuela that are
Speaker 3: sending drugs, human traffickers, illicit arms, trendy iragua into the
Speaker 3: United States through are broken southwestern border. We got to
Speaker 3: cut him off, so there was a temporary cutoff about
Speaker 3: two months ago. It was a big fight. Trump sided
Speaker 3: with Rubio, and many people, myself included, believe this was
Speaker 3: part of a larger move to slowly build up a
Speaker 3: regime change operation. Don't forget Also Venezuela's regime has allowed
Speaker 3: the Chinese, the Russians, and even Iran into our hemice
Speaker 3: fear for the last twenty years. And also Venezuela. If
Speaker 3: you deal with Venezuela, you take care of that regime,
Speaker 3: then Trump has a clearer shot at taking the Panama
Speaker 3: Canal zone, which is something that he has wanted to do.
Speaker 3: Venezuela is a complicating factor in that mission as it's
Speaker 3: currently run. So that's the logic. Now. I don't know
Speaker 3: if that's what we should be doing, but that is
Speaker 3: the logic behind I think what Trump is doing.
Speaker 1: Okay, Actually we'll get to the Panama Canal thing in
Speaker 1: a few moments. Can you elaborate more on Venezuela and
Speaker 1: being a narco terrorist stake because they're never brought up
Speaker 1: when it comes to cartels. People obviously know about Colombia
Speaker 1: and they dang sure to know about Mexico. What's Venezuela's
Speaker 1: vested interest in the YEO.
Speaker 3: So Venezuela has a state owned cartel. Members of the
Speaker 3: Venezuelan Parliament, the current head of the Venezuelan Parliament, the
Speaker 3: Vice President, probably Maduro himself, several key Venezuelan generals and
Speaker 3: intelligence leaders of the Venezuelan intelligence operation. They all run,
Speaker 3: excuse me, they all run Cartel of the Suns. It's
Speaker 3: one of the largest cartels in the world, and it
Speaker 3: is completely state owned and backed, so it is a
Speaker 3: state owned cartel. This is very different from Colombian cartels.
Speaker 3: It's even different from how Mexico's cartels operate. In Venezuela,
Speaker 3: the regime and the cartel is one. And then of
Speaker 3: course there's also Trende Aragua, which, as I said, it's
Speaker 3: described as a prison gang in Venezuela that has these
Speaker 3: sort of transnational ties. In fact, Trende Aragua is a
Speaker 3: paramilitary force. I live in Florida. I deal a lot
Speaker 3: with Venezuelan expats. All of them tell me TDA Trende
Speaker 3: Aragua is a paramilitary force that Maduro deploys to go
Speaker 3: after things like Thennezuelan political dissidents in America. So that's
Speaker 3: what Venezuela is doing. And a lot of the Cartel
Speaker 3: of the Suns actually does business and supports the Colombian cartels.
Speaker 3: They do business and help out with certain Mexican cartels,
Speaker 3: all as part of this feeder program to get their
Speaker 3: product and the human traffic up into the broken southwestern
Speaker 3: border with the United States.
Speaker 1: Okay, now you mentioned China, you mentioned Russia. In what
Speaker 1: way do they invite them into our hemisphere?
Speaker 3: Well, the Russians through the Wagner Group, which is their big,
Speaker 3: supposedly private military contracting group. It's actually an arm of
Speaker 3: the Russian government though, and the Russian military staffs it
Speaker 3: and Russian intelligence supports it. They have massive contracts with Caracas.
Speaker 3: They provide a lot of the protection for Venezuela's leaders.
Speaker 3: I suspect they provide protection and conduct operations on behalf
Speaker 3: of both the Venezuelan government and the cartel of the Sons.
Speaker 3: The Russians are allowed to base nuclear capable Blackjack bombers
Speaker 3: in Venezuela. They have repeatedly landed them there over the
Speaker 3: last decade. They're in fact talking about sending these Shahad
Speaker 3: one thirty six Iranian made drones that the Russians use
Speaker 3: in Ukraine. The Russians are talking about sending them over
Speaker 3: to Venezuela to fight the Americans the Chinese. They have
Speaker 3: these massive contracts for access to Venezuela's oil and rare
Speaker 3: earth minerals, and obviously they like to stabilize America's leading
Speaker 3: role in the Western hemisphere. It's also part of China's
Speaker 3: control of the Panama Canal as well as their major
Speaker 3: presence in the Caribbean Sea, which is basically now a
Speaker 3: Chinese lake, and so Venezuela is in the middle of
Speaker 3: all is the epicenter of all of this, inviting the
Speaker 3: American enemies into our hemisphere to undermine us that regime.
Speaker 1: Is Brandon, do you have I didn't even get to
Speaker 1: the freaking Panama Canal or Venezuela's military capability. Do you
Speaker 1: have time for one more segment with me?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm here.
Speaker 1: Okay, we are going to come right back with Brandon
Speaker 1: Wiker schooling us on Venezuela. Hang up, it is the
Speaker 1: Jesse Kelly Show on a wonderful Monday. It's been a
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor Monday. Maybe you can email the show
Speaker 1: Jesse at Jesse kellyshow dot com. We still have Brandon
Speaker 1: Wickert educating us on some things when it comes to Venezuela.
Speaker 1: Apparently the Navy is heading down there, the Marines are
Speaker 1: heading down there. Before we get to what's heading down there?
Speaker 1: How are they militarily At some point in time, as
Speaker 1: you said, they were one of the wealthiest countries in
Speaker 1: the world. What kind of military are we dealing with here.
Speaker 3: Well, it's pretty much a you know, conventional force wise,
Speaker 3: it's not that impressive. I would argue even the hoofy
Speaker 3: rebels of Yemen are probably more impressive with their anti
Speaker 3: access area denial capabilities. The Venezuelans are late to the
Speaker 3: party in terms of building up their own AI to
Speaker 3: AD capacity. The Russians, like I said, are helping them
Speaker 3: do that, but again it's late in the game. They
Speaker 3: do have these maoist like militias that are you know,
Speaker 3: the Bolivar and the you know militias which are like
Speaker 3: the people's militias. And Maduro is claiming he's mobilizing four
Speaker 3: point five million of these these militia men to fight
Speaker 3: Los Gringos. I'm very skeptical that he can mobilize that many.
Speaker 3: And even if he can, you know this, this kind
Speaker 3: of reminds me of the Fediyen in Iraq. They really
Speaker 3: weren't that impressive at the end of the day. Obviously,
Speaker 3: I Rock itself was a disaster, but actually knocking out
Speaker 3: Saddam was was pretty straightforward. I think the same thing
Speaker 3: is true of Maduro. I would just posit if the
Speaker 3: Trump administration is playing its cards right, it needs to
Speaker 3: remember it's not dealing with a jihadi type leadership that
Speaker 3: wants to go meet their maker by fighting the death.
Speaker 3: They're dealing with basically a narco criminal gang that just
Speaker 3: wants the biggest slice of the pie they can get.
Speaker 3: If the Trump administration flexes its muscle with these military
Speaker 3: maneuvers off of Venezuela's coast and signals to some element
Speaker 3: of Maduro's government, we will leave you in place as
Speaker 3: long as you hand over Maduro and let us get
Speaker 3: the oil. I think that's a deal that some ambitious
Speaker 3: person or group working under Maduro might go for, and
Speaker 3: it could be relatively bloodless because you know, it is
Speaker 3: a jungle war, even though I don't think they're militarily
Speaker 3: on par with even say the WHO these in certain ways,
Speaker 3: a jungle ground war could get very dicey, especially because
Speaker 3: I mean numbers matter. Four point five million guys. If
Speaker 3: they can get anywhere near that, that's going to be
Speaker 3: a problem for us, but I think there's a way
Speaker 3: we might be able to do this relatively bloodlessly. I
Speaker 3: just hope the Trump administration is, you know, reaching out
Speaker 3: to certain people in the in the regime who might
Speaker 3: be willing to part ways with Maduro in exchange for
Speaker 3: remaining in them remaining in power.
Speaker 1: Yeah, jungle warfare freaking sucks. Okay, all right, let's go
Speaker 1: to the Panama Canal, because you brought that up, and
Speaker 1: I know Trump's been hot on that for a while.
Speaker 1: What do we What do we have now as far
Speaker 1: as that situation goes, and what do we want?
Speaker 3: Well, what we have now is basically the Chinese manage it.
Speaker 3: They have the two largest ports, one on the mouth
Speaker 3: of the Pacific side, one on the mouth of the
Speaker 3: Atlantic side, and then they're building these My friend Michael Johan,
Speaker 3: who's an independent war reporter, he's been in Panama on
Speaker 3: and off for the last two years. He's actually taken
Speaker 3: pictures and posted an on a substack of these bridges
Speaker 3: the Chinese are building across the Panama Canal. So the
Speaker 3: Chinese own major infrastructure. They have a huge footprint in
Speaker 3: the Panama Canal zone. Now in peacetime. That's it seems
Speaker 3: relatively you know, insignificant because ships are still going through
Speaker 3: and whatnot. But with the Chinese managing the two sides
Speaker 3: of the Panama Canal and the locks of the Panama Canal,
Speaker 3: the Chinese could easily sabotage them in the event that
Speaker 3: a war between the United States and China broke out,
Speaker 3: and that could seriously cripple our ability to move naval
Speaker 3: forces and other assets from one side of the North
Speaker 3: the North America the Americas, you know, the Atlantic side
Speaker 3: to the Pacific side, and vice versa, which would complicate
Speaker 3: our ability to deploy forces, say to help protect Taiwan
Speaker 3: from a possible Chinese invasion.
Speaker 1: So how do we handle that. We're not going to
Speaker 1: go down and bomb Chinese ports, how do we get
Speaker 1: to how do we handle that?
Speaker 3: So this was this, you know, this was what Trump
Speaker 3: was talking about. He tried to leverage the trade war
Speaker 3: with China, uh, get them to basically sell off the
Speaker 3: two properties, the big properties they have to Blackrock. I'm
Speaker 3: setting aside my distaste for black Rock. It didn't go
Speaker 3: anywhere because ultimately China has figured out that they have
Speaker 3: ninety percent of the world's rare earth mineral supply under
Speaker 3: their control, and all they have to do is whisper
Speaker 3: to Trump that we're gonna cut you off like they
Speaker 3: did in April, and Trump will give them whatever they want,
Speaker 3: which is one of the reasons why he's dropped his
Speaker 3: calls to reclaim the Panama Canal Zone. Now I don't
Speaker 3: think he's abandoned this mission. I think he's actually finding
Speaker 3: ways to basically completely surround the Panama Canal Zone and
Speaker 3: then choke it off from Chinese control. One of those
Speaker 3: ways would possibly be by taking Venezuela. He possibly has
Speaker 3: Colombians now on his side, and we could basically create
Speaker 3: a sort of encirclement of those two Chinese ports in
Speaker 3: Panama and maybe squeeze them and if necessary, bake them.
Speaker 3: But I mean, well, see this is very dicey, and
Speaker 3: as long as China has those rare earth minerals under
Speaker 3: their belt, we're not going to do much to them.
Speaker 1: Okay, Finally, last question before I let you go, What
Speaker 1: exactly do we have around Venezuela right now? As far
Speaker 1: as our military goes, what do we have? What are
Speaker 1: we sending?
Speaker 3: Okay, so, the Ewajima Amphibious Assault Group which is marines.
Speaker 3: I believe they're underway. They'll be there shortly. I think
Speaker 3: elements of that assault group are already there. That's about
Speaker 3: forty five hundred marines and sailors. You've got three or
Speaker 3: hourly class Burke destroyer early Burke rather class destroyers. They've
Speaker 3: got ninety six vertical launch system cells that can pop
Speaker 3: off Tomahawk cruise missiles each Then I suspect I might
Speaker 3: get you know this, this is a theory. I suspect
Speaker 3: that we probably have a Virginia class nuclear powered attack
Speaker 3: submarine operating off the coast that brings additional Tomahawk land
Speaker 3: attack CRU's missile capability and probably the ability to launch
Speaker 3: special forces elements from that submarine. So we've got a
Speaker 3: small flutilla there. And that's to say nothing of what
Speaker 3: the Trump administration is talking about doing with the Mexican
Speaker 3: drug cartels. So we are we are rapidly ramping up
Speaker 3: our force presence in our hemisphere for the first time
Speaker 3: in decades.
Speaker 1: How about that? He is Brandon Wikert. I told you
Speaker 1: to go buy his books. You'll get a whole lot smarter. Brandon.
Speaker 1: Thank you, my brother, as always very much appreciated Chris,
Speaker 1: do you know how badly I want to scuba dive
Speaker 1: from a submarine? What? Chris? Why are you? What?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 1: What are worried about the sonar? Why? I don't know him?
Speaker 1: Who now? Now, Chris? Why would I be worried about
Speaker 1: the sonar? It's deafening. I'll wear earplugs, Chris, it's not
Speaker 1: a big deal. I want to. I want to scuba
Speaker 1: dive from a submarine so badly, and I don't know why.
Speaker 1: I don't even want to be in a submarine because
Speaker 1: I get kind of claustrophobic if my shoulders are touching
Speaker 1: the walls. And those submarines are made for little bitty midgets,
Speaker 1: you know, They're just not made for somebody like me.
Speaker 1: But I would do it. If I could scuba dive
Speaker 1: from it, it would be sweet. Now I've seen enough
Speaker 1: Navy Seal movies. I think I could do it. What, Chris.
Speaker 1: They even have the little things where I don't know
Speaker 1: what they call them, but the little things that have
Speaker 1: the propeller where it basically swims for you. I don't
Speaker 1: have to keep up with the seals. I'll just get
Speaker 1: an extra one of those. I can do it.