Donald Trump drops hammer on NATO, threatens to leave following dismal support over Iran war

There's always surprises with war. They can be very bad surprises. I mean wars are lost, it should be won. Many wars are lost. You think a country is going to wipe somebody out and they end up getting wiped out themselves, so it's always risky. But I think a tremendous mistake was when NATO just wasn't there. They just weren't there. It's going to make a lot of money for the United States because we spent hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO, hundreds of protecting them. And we would have always been there for them. But now based on their actions, I guess we don't have to be, do we? It sounds like a breaking story. Yes, sir. Is that breaking news? I think we just have breaking news. But that's the fact. I've been saying that. Why would we be there for them if they're not there for us? They weren't there for us. Well, the Pentagon is reportedly preparing for weeks of ground operations in Iran as three and a half thousand U.S. soldiers and Marines arrive in the Middle East. According to the Washington Post, the operations would be in a limited capacity, potentially including raids on Hague Island and coastal sites along the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's parliamentary speaker, the one who is believed to be leading negotiations between Iran and the U.S., claims Iranian forces are waiting to set American troops on fire if America launches a ground invasion. The U.S. president has proven that the only language he understands is a language of force. In response to Trump's recent threats of a ground operation or the occupation of any part of Iran's territory, which is nothing more than a wish, we declare the fighters of Islam have long been awaiting such actions in order to demonstrate that aggression and occupation will yield no result. A fire has broken out in an industrial zone in southern Israel. The area contains chemical manufacturing plants and residents are being warned to avoid the area due to the potential spread of hazardous materials. In southern Lebanon, Israel's military is expanding its existing security buffer. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it's a necessary expansion to strengthen security against its northern neighbor. We are in the midst of an operation consisting of multiple fronts. We are hitting Iran and its proxies with immense power. I've just instructed to further widen the existing buffer zone in Lebanon in order to dismantle once and for all the threat of invasion and to distance the anti-tank guided missile launches from our borders. We are determined to fundamentally change the situation in the north. Anyway, let's move on to Richard Kemp. Colonel Richard Kemp talking things military. Here he is from, I'm not sure what part of the world he's in at the moment. He's in London. Great to see you, Richard. As always, Colonel Richard Kemp, you've great mind on all things military. You've worked there with the Israeli Defense Forces. You've, you know, the SAS, you know it all. So Richard, great to have you back on the show. What is happening with the war? Will the Americans take Karg Island? Is that the key to it? And what about the Straits of Hormuz, or as we like to call it on the show, the Straits of Trump? I think the Karg Island thing is, if they do decide to take that, I think this is more about applying further pressure on the Iranian regime and maybe even precipitating its collapse, because of course that is critical to Iran's survival, being a major, really most important oil export location for Iran. There are other things that Trump might do as well, using the ground force that he's now deployed to the region. That includes taking some of the key terrain around the Straits of Hormuz, which would enable him or may enable him to dominate that place. And of course, it might be also, given that they've got a lot of special forces deploying, as I understand it, there might be some form of move to try and support the oppositionists in bringing down the regime. That's the basic sort of role for special forces. We don't know. Trump will know. Netanyahu will know. The rest of us can only guess at the moment. Jan, tell us about this sort of idea around what does happen next year, because it seems to me that we're now at the point where pressing for real regime change is really the only solution now. Otherwise, the U.S. is kind of boxed into a corner on this. Is this now the time to really be deploying some sort of more alternate government, bringing back the Shah out, having him talk more, talking to groups within Iran? And at the same time, is the message that Trump is sending to Europe and others that are far more dependent on the oil coming through those straits, well, you know, we're not rushing because you're not here to help. And is there a bit of a tit-for-tat happening there around some of the things that he doesn't like about European behavior with NATO and with things like global carbon taxes on shipping and things of that nature? On that, I think he's made his view pretty clear that his NATO allies in particular, but also his other allies, that's Australia, who also depend for a great deal of energy on stuff coming through the Strait of Hormuz, more so than the U.S. does, they're not really willing to ship in and to play their role. And I think he's probably laboring that sort of dependence and understandably so, in my view. He should be able to depend wholly on his NATO allies as they depend entirely on him. So I think that's part of his thinking as well. But as far as regime change is concerned, I think the U.S. and Israel between them have done immense damage to this Iranian regime. They've really put them out of business as far as offensive operations on any significant scale is concerned in the region and indeed the world. But of course, what can be destroyed or damaged can also be repaired. And if we have this regime remaining in power, then all the work that's been done up to now, maybe in a few years or a decade or something, can be replaced and put back in place. So I think the key thing is regime change so that we have a regime that does not want to return to the anti-West, anti-Arab, anti-American, anti-Israel perspective of this current war. So that obviously is the key thing, but it's not easy to do, as you understand. I don't think the U.S., without deploying vast numbers of forces on the ground, can bring that about. So they rely on the Iranians to take over, whether it's Rajavi or whoever it is. We've got our own Iranian here in the studio with us. Donald Trump presented his 15-point plan to end this war. The Iranians have rejected it. He talked about the Iranians being decimated, their navy's gone, the air force is gone. Why are they rejecting this piece of what are they hoping to achieve? And who's making the decisions? Because the military leaders seem to be knocked off as soon as they're appointed. The latest Ayatollah, for all we know, is dead. So what is the power base there now? And how much longer can they hold on? Well, I think the power base is now with the IRGC, as it pretty much always has been. And although various top levels of the IRGC have been knocked out, there are then lower levels coming up and taking control. And of course, with this brief, with the IRGC and the entire current Iranian regime, as you understand, their absolute priority is regime survival. Yet at the same time, they're not prepared, maybe even above regime survival, they're not prepared to humiliate themselves by buckling under to Trump's demands. So I think they're in probably quite a tough situation themselves. Personally, I don't see them accepting anything that Trump's offering. I see them continuing to fight until they're essentially knocked out completely. And that might or might not happen. I think it really depends to a very large extent now, I think, on the people of Iran. I've no doubt that the Americans and the Israelis have been working behind the scenes for a number of months now to try and create something to take over from them. And we can only hope and maybe expect that that will materialize at some point.