Hegseth estimates cost of Iran war at $37.5B

[00:00:00]Well, joining us now from Beirut to talk more about this is Haytham Faraj. He is a lawyer and a retired US Marine Corps officer. Thanks very much for being with us. So, what does this continued funding say about US strategy and does it suggest to you the Pentagon is preparing for a significant expansion rather than simply maintaining the current campaign?

[00:00:25]>> Well, uh hello to you, Hazem. And uh no, I don't think that the uh current request for funding means that the strategy is any different than than [snorts] we've seen.

[00:00:34]Uh there really hasn't been a strategy.

[00:00:37]Uh it's uh it's it's fire until you achieve some uh conditions that allow you to bring uh the the agreement back to the US and say we have a victory. Of course, that didn't work in the last round, which resulted in the MOU. Uh what is interesting is the uh 1.5 trillion-dollar request for the in the National Defense Authorization Act, which is basically the law that uh that authorizes the defense budget.

[00:01:08]That's for next year. It's an extraordinary amount of money. It almost doubles the defense budget. And it's a reflection of what is happening within the halls of Congress and the halls of Pentagon uh with the one, Israeli lobby, and two, the military-industrial complex lobby, that gets a say in how uh the US runs its foreign policy rather than what's in the interest of the American people.

[00:01:34]>> And Democrats, uh as we were hearing there, are increasingly tying the war to rising costs at home ahead of the the midterm elections. And indeed, some Republicans are are feeling uh uneasy about this as well. How much pressure does domestic politics place on military decision-making?

[00:01:55]>> Well, well, so far it has not, but you're seeing Congress begin to respond to the pressures uh at home. And I will tell you, the pressures are real. I don't want to get anecdotal, but any trip to the grocery store reveals the in in saying costs that the American uh consumer has to deal with. And Congress is beginning to hear it from Americans, but there is a tension. Uh you know, while while Americans may sometimes reach out to their congress people to say, "Do something about this."

[00:02:29]Uh the the people that get Congress's ears and while the Republicans are uh still in power, is is the lobbying that is being made by the uh weapons companies and specifically the Israeli AIPAC lobby, which this war has been about. I mean, this war is not a US war. This is an Israeli war. It continues to be. The US has no interest in going to war with Iran, except that it is one of Netanyahu's main objectives, and we are executing.

[00:03:01]Uh and so, uh until we get to the elections, until this Congress gets kicked out, which it will, uh we will continue to see this kind of tension between what the American people want and what Israel's uh lobbyists and their uh hired uh congress people will execute in Congress.

[00:03:20]>> If we look at where things stand now in this conflict, then this ceasefire that was negotiated looks like it's completely collapsed, both sides exchanging strikes almost daily. We mentioned earlier, this is the 11th day now. What indicators will tell you whether this conflict is approaching a diplomatic off-ramp of some kind or or sliding into a much wider regional war, because there is always that danger?

[00:03:48]>> Yeah, look, I see it remaining limited, and and it is limited, by the way. This is not expanded to what it was before.

[00:03:55]Uh the the the US strikes were limited regardless of uh Donald Trump's hyperbolic uh statements.

[00:04:05]Uh and Iran has been somewhat limited.

[00:04:07]For example, they've not struck the UAE, they've not struck back at Israel, and the US has put pressure pressure on Israel not to join the fight. Uh there was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal today uh about that very issue of why Israel hasn't joined the fight. So, again, I think what Donald Trump is trying to do is secure some better conditions uh so that he can go back and claim yet another victory uh after the last victory that he claimed with the MOU. Uh how long it goes, anyone no one's guess.

[00:04:44]I just don't think it's going to expand to the uh wider regional war uh that it was before the MOU.

[00:04:54]>> Good to get your analysis on all of this Haytham Foulad. Thanks very much for being with us.

[00:04:59]>> Thank you for having me.