Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

"RETALIATING”: Journalist Warns Iran’s Tanker War ESCALATION

Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Show Notes

Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world. Pre-order Aaron's new book on the Ukraine war "Their Blood, Our Bullets": https://orbooks.com/catalog/their-blood-our-bullets/ Read more of Elijah Magnier's work here: https://ejmagnier.com/ Check out Quince and use our code https://quince.com/useful for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/IDIOTS Check out Chilipad and use my code sleep.me/USEFUL for a great deal: https://sleep.me/useful Visit www.functionhealth.com/USEFUL and use gift code USEFUL25 for a $25 credit toward your membership. Check out the Peace Corps at https://peacecorps.gov/serve Check out Webroot: https://webroot.com/USEFUL Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/useful ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Support our work and get the ad-free interview with Elijah Magnier: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/ad-free-iran-is-retaliating-journalist?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Watch the Friday Free-For-All: JD Vance Just Called Out Trump on Joe Rogan https://usefulidiotspodcast.com Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. There is chaos in West Asia as a result of Trump continuing his war on Iran: The latest US strikes on Iran hit near a children’s cancer hospital, forcing patients to flee; Israel continues to break the MOU by destroying and stealing more land in Lebanon; and Iraq is back in the picture as Trump cuts off its money in an attempt to break their support of Iran. In order to make sense of the pandemonium, we spoke with veteran journalist and war correspondent Elijah Magnier, who gives his analysis of the expanding conflict, reacts to JD Vance’s thinly-veiled callout of Trump for getting tricked by the Israelis to oppose diplomacy, and explains why Trump is powerless when it comes to taking the Strait of Hormuz or Kharg Island. Elijah Magnier: Threatening to occupy an island is very easy for US forces to do with a heavy bombardment on several days. But they can’t stay because the cost will be extremely heavy: Iran has the ability to bomb this island or to bomb the Strait of Hormuz or anywhere in the Gulf. Therefore, this plan is actually not feasible.Donald Trump doesn’t have an offer to really propose to end the war in a way that everybody comes out not a loser. He wants to be the winner, and the Iranians aren’t allowing him to be. Iran doesn’t need to win. Iran is not losing because it’s defending itself.And by Donald Trump threatening Kharg Island or the Strait of Hormuz, it means he doesn’t really know the consequences and, militarily speaking, what can be credible or not. His plan in this way is not credible because he can’t hold on to what he potentially can occupy. And then he cannot face the Americans with such a heavy bill.Watch or listen to the full interview with Elijah Magnier where we react to Trump getting called out in JD Vance’s Joe Rogan interview, mocking Syria’s President (and former al-Qaeda founder) Ahmed al-Sharaa to his face, and embarrassing Iraq’s Prime Minister over the Trump-ordered assassination of an Iraqi military leader. 00:00 Intro 02:34 The Massie Amendment STOPS Aid to Israel 05:09 The Dems Who Voted PRO-ISRAEL 08:45 Worse than Netanyahu 13:07 Elijah Magnier interview 17:12 Fmr CENTCOM Commander wants Trump to take the Strait of Hormuz 45:08 Trump's disastrous meetings with foreign leaders 54:16 JD Vance throws Trump shade on Joe Rogan

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Support our work and get the ad-free interviews with James Carden and Kylie Cheung (@kylietcheung): https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/ad-free-democrats-melt-down-over?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web Watch the Friday Free-For-All: Stupid Fact Check: Does Abdul El-Sayed REALLY Sleep in an “Osama Bin Laden Jersey?” https://usefulidiotspodcast.com Order James' new book: THE GREAT BETRAYAL: How the Democrats Became the Party of War https://orbooks.com/catalog/the-great-betrayal/ Order Kylie's new book: Playing the Victim: How the Powerful Deny and Attack Survivors of Violence, from Domestic Abuse to Genocide https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/826796/playing-the-victim-by-kylie-cheung/ Check out Lean: Visit https://takelean.com and enter USEFUL for your discount. Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world. Pre-order Aaron's new book on the Ukraine war: Their Blood, Our Bullets https://orbooks.com/catalog/their-blood-our-bullets/ Check out Quince and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Check out TruDiagnostic and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com Check out HomeServe at https://homeserve.com/useful Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/IDIOTS Check out Chilipad and use my code sleep.me/USEFUL for a great deal: https://sleep.me/useful ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Support our work and watch the Friday Free-For-All: It Doesn’t Go Well When JD Vance Tries to Define Socialism https://usefulidiotspodcast.com Please watch and share this full interview with Muhammad Shehada. Join us LIVE on Youtube every Monday at 10am EST for Monday Mourning, where we watch the Sunday morning news shows so that you don't have to. Go to https://groundnews.com/useful to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on the stories shaping our world. Pre-order Aaron's new book on the Ukraine war: Their Blood, Our Bullets https://orbooks.com/catalog/their-blood-our-bullets/ Check out Quince and use our code https://quince.com/useful for a great deal: https://www.quince.com Check out TruDiagnostic and use our code USEFUL for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com Check out HomeServe at https://homeserve.com/useful Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com/IDIOTS Check out Chilipad and use my code sleep.me/USEFUL for a great deal: https://sleep.me/useful ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This week, we’re joined by Useful Idiots fan-favorite Muhammad Shehada, the political analyst and writer from Gaza who has guided us through the mirk of corporate media propaganda since the first week of Israel’s genocide three years ago. On the week of the third anniversary of October 7, and as Gazans prepare for their fourth winter in these unimaginable conditions, Muhammad shares what he’s heard about the conditions on the ground from his friends and family, many of whom have been killed by the Israeli military. My late friend, Ali, my closest friend, was in a refugee camp in the center of Gaza. I asked him how it was going. And he said, ‘Well, you know what? If there’s a God, if there is a judgment day, I would ask him for one thing, one thing only.‘I would ask him to force those Israeli soldiers to go on the same adventure that I have to take every single day to find water and food. Nothing more. That is enough punishment for them. The idea of going every day, out in the open under airstrikes, under constant gunfire, and walking around desperately from one place to another, ten hours just to find water, that is enough punishment.Share Recently, Israeli filmmakers premiered a new film called Naza in which they interview Israeli soldiers confessing to war crimes. The Israeli government has threatened the filmmakers and there have been protests at the homes of one of the filmmakers’ parents. We asked Muhammad about the film and what he makes of the backlash. The most striking thing in that movie was how casually soldiers describe the atrocities they unleashed in Gaza, as matter-of-fact with zero remorse or contortion, nothing.And the thing that strikes you the most is that those soldiers were not providing these confessions out of guilt or shame. They were providing it out of excitement. They were very eager to brag about the formidable force that was at their disposal.I’ll give you an example. I read an article in an Israeli newspaper describing soldiers who were coming back from Gaza and falling into severe depression. They interviewed a psychiatrist in that article to provide analysis about why soldiers feel depressed when they come back.The psychiatrist didn’t say it’s because the soldiers feel guilt or shame. He said it’s because the soldiers in Gaza felt like gods. They were superhumans. They decided who lives and who dies, like they are in charge of life and death of two million people.And then that psychiatrist says that when those soldiers come back home, they feel like nothing. Nobody knows them. Nobody recognizes them. Nobody opens the door for them. There’s no prestige. And that’s what tears them down the most.That’s why a lot of people go back to serve in Gaza, because of the adrenaline, because of the excitement, because of the euphoria of feeling like a god, feeling like a superhuman. And it see

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