Sabby Sabs interviews Scott Ritter: "America is in TROUBLE!"

Welcome to "Sabi-Sab's Podcast." I'm your host, Sabrina Salvati.

My special guest today is Scott Ritter; he is a former U.N. Special Weapons Inspector.

Scott, welcome back. Thanks for having me. So, there's a lot of crazy things going on right now.

Ukraine—Zelenskyy just announced that, yes, they did strike an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea.

And just recently, he had an interview with Laura Loomer—who, for those who are not aware, is an influencer here in the United States who also somehow got a press pass in the Pentagon and is very close to the Trump administration.

I want everyone to hear what he said here.

I think this is really important and should give everybody pause.

If Iran, from the first year of the war, gave new—based new technology to Russia, it was Shahed drones.

They gave thousands of these drones first year of the war, then they gave licenses.

What did they do? Did they attack us? I think yes. So they already did it.

The war is already underway, effectively. They are attacking you.

We have to be cautious. We have to do everything, not open new front in any way.

But we have to be honest: Iranians and North Koreans already attacked us.

Yes. I hope that they will not increase these attacks.

But we have to be ready for everything. Just to be ready.

And to know that we can't trust these people.

Because at the very, very beginning, without any messages, any kind of escalation from our side, Iranians gave weapon.

So, Scott, I want to get your take on that again.

That's one of the interviews that he had.

He also had another one with Laura Loomer, so he's been making the rounds.

This claim that Zelenskyy made—that Iran and North Korea attacked Ukraine—where is he getting that from?

And I want to get your opinion about this, this claim that he's throwing out there now.

What he's saying is that Iran, through the provision of Shahed drone technology to Russia, you know, is an active participant in the conflict.

North Korea, by dispatching several thousand troops to Russia—and if you remember, they were only used on Russian territory to actually throw back Ukrainian invaders in the Kursk oblast—that makes Korea an active participant in the conflict.

It's absurd in the extreme.

First of all, we need to point out that there's no state of war between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine hasn't declared war against Russia.

Russia hasn't declared war against Ukraine.

So there is no formal state of hostilities that would, you know, traditionally invoke the concept of an active participant in the conflict through the provision of military support.

If there are open hostilities, one can make that argument. Russia and Ukraine are allowed to have, you know, economic relations, diplomatic relations, and military-to-military relations.

There's nothing that prohibits this. And Ukraine did provide Russia with drone technology.

There's no doubt about that. Russia is producing, or was producing, the Shahed 136 drone under license.

Russia has, since that time, extensively modified these drones.

So the drones being used against Ukraine today are so far removed from the original Shahed as to be unrecognizable.

In fact, some of them are physically unrecognizable when you get into the Geran 4 and above, these jet-powered, you know, drones.

They're just—they're a completely new missile.

But, you know, at the time when Russia— Go ahead.

Just to interrupt real quick: you mean Iran provided that, not Ukraine?

Yes, correct.

Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry. Iran provided it, yeah. So, you know, that's the case.

Now, if Zelenskyy wants to make this the definition of active participating conflict, so be it.

With North Korea, it's more difficult to make this case because the North Korean soldiers were on Russian soil, defending Russian soil from a Ukrainian invasion.

So, you know, again, if that's the definition he wants, so be it.

But understand, Zelenskyy, what you're doing is opening yourself up.

Because therefore, every nation that provides you with military support is an active participant in the conflict.

And therefore, Russia has every right to be watching, to be aware, and to strike if needed.

So Zelenskyy just made the case.

And I think Europe should maybe calm up and say, "What are you saying there, pal?

What exactly are you trying to say?"

Because if you're saying that you have a right to strike an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea because of some military-to-military activity between Russia and Iran, you've put us all at risk.

You've put every single one of us at risk.

All the German factories that are producing drones that we give to you are now "viable targets" according to Zelenskyy's definition.

Hell, all of America is a viable target right now.

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, the plant in Scranton, you know, the plants in Huntsville, the plants across the country, now are legitimate targets according to Zelenskyy.

So, you know, this man just doesn't think. He's a man who literally doesn't think.

But this is an act of desperation, you see.

He's trying to create the perception of a global war, and to expand this to global proportions, and tell the United States, "We have the same enemies.

North Korea, Iran are joint enemies. You have to support me more."

Without understanding that the mere fact that the United States would provide the support that Zelenskyy is asking would, in accordance with the definition put out by Zelenskyy himself, make the United States an active participant in the conflict worthy of a legitimate military retaliation by Russia.

So you're saying that, basically, that Russia could use that same sentiment and apply that to the U.S. or any of the other NATO countries.

You talked about a global war, and this has been my fear, Scott.

You know, the numbers are showing, obviously, that the majority of Americans are against the war in Iran. Great.

The numbers show the majority of Americans are no longer supporting Israel. Great.

However, where I get concerned is that the majority of Americans still do support Ukraine.

And I wonder if this is going to be the next strategy, right?

Like, in order to usher in support against the Iran war, which could develop into this global war that he's talking about here, they may try to use Ukraine as that beacon.

That beacon that is going to guide the sentiment for this war.

And say, "Well, Iran is sending stuff to Russia, and therefore that's why we fired upon them.

And they're going to, you know, strike us at any moment, so we have to protect ourselves."

And I'm afraid that that is going to be the narrative.

That if you support Ukraine, that you must indeed support the war against Iran because now Iran is a threat to Ukraine.

I mean, Sabi, your logic is impeccable, and it's, you know, clearly you can make these inferences.

There's a problem, though. How do you match rhetoric with reality?

Because when you speak of a broader war, I'll just ask some fundamental questions.

What weapons is the United States going to be using? Because the last time I checked, we stopped bombing Iran because we ran out of weapons. That's why we're not bombing Iran today. We don't have any more weapons. What weapons are we going to use to defend ourselves against not just the Iranian missiles that we can't defend ourselves against anymore because we don't have any more interceptors?

We fired them all. But now you want to get Iran to hit Ukraine with missiles that Ukraine can't defend itself against? You want to invite North Korea into this conflict? They'll rain death and destruction down on South Korea and Japan, who can't defend themselves because there are no missile defense systems available? This is the problem. We're not dealing with reality here. See, all of the rhetoric that you're talking about right now is asking you to delink yourself from reality, to stop critical thinking, and to buy into a narrative that feeds into an ongoing information operation. There's not going to be a global war. Because there can't be a global war. Because neither the United States, Europe, nor Ukraine has the capacity to wage a global war. But what's needed is to create the perception of this risk and to echo it back into Russia reversely. Because now the question is, what is Putin doing?

This is a global war. Shouldn't Putin be taking more action? I mean, it's brilliant what Ukraine just did. Think about what Zelenskyy just did. Iran provided weapons. We must now stand firm. Now, he's not going to do a damn thing because there's nothing he can do. But the message that he's sending is, "I'm a strong leader. I'm talking about retaliation." What about you, Vlad? What are you doing? What are you doing when the German drones strike your cities? What are you doing when the American missiles strike your cities? What are you doing when France sends technology to help strike your cities? You're doing nothing, Vladimir. You're weak. You're weak, Vlad. And then that resonates back into Russia, and Russia starts questioning the validity of their leadership. This is what's going on. It's called mental warfare. It's being waged actively against Russia. And the goal and objective is to get the Russian population to drop their support for Vladimir Putin on the eve of September 20th Duma elections.

This is the same pattern that played out in 2011, when the United States was trying to cook the books on the Duma election in December 2011 to get United Russia to lose the election and therefore foil the effort to swap out Vladimir Putin, who was then the prime minister, with Medvedev, who was the president. That could only work if United Russia had control of the parliament and therefore could nominate the prime minister, which would be Medvedev. So the West actively worked—the Biden, the Obama administration, Hillary Clinton, you remember, she got called out by the Russians, "Stop interfering with our domestic political affairs," for what she was saying about December. So this is the same game that's been playing over. There's nothing new here. Right now, the West is singularly focused on creating an attitude inside Russia that's negative to Vladimir Putin, negative to United Russia. A perception of weakness, of a man who's not doing enough.

And to affect the September 20th elections. The problem is, Putin is smarter than all these people. First of all, you know, let's give you an example. There's a certain individual out there that likes to use the term "Pyrrhic victory." Because you can't deny that Russia's winning on the battlefield. There's no denying it. Everybody acknowledges it. But it's a Pyrrhic victory. A Pyrrhic victory, of course, comes from King Pyrrhus in B.C. 789, fought a battle against the Romans and beat the Romans. But he lost 20% of his army, most of his commanders. And Plutarch, the Greco-Roman historian, recorded him saying, "If I win many more battles like this, all is lost." And all was lost. It was a Pyrrhic victory. He won the battle, lost the war. And so that term has come down through the ages: Pyrrhic victory. You can win the battle but lose the war. And so this term is being used, that Russia is achieving a Pyrrhic victory. That's how you acknowledge that Russia's winning, but Russia's losing.

The problem is, the historical analogy fails across the board. Because it's not Russia that—a Pyrrhic victory means that you lose more men than you can replace them. That the other side has more resources. Last time I checked, it was Ukraine that's losing more men than it can replace. Russia has more resources. It's Ukraine's defense industry that is being devastated. Russia's defense industry working. It fails across—Russia's winning across the board. So the term "Pyrrhic victory" doesn't apply, except it's being said enough that people say, "Oh, it must be a Pyrrhic victory." And then it echoes back into Russia, and next thing you know, you have people questioning. Well, what Putin did yesterday is he spoke to the Duma, you know, the very place that's having the election on September 20th. And he was at an award ceremony, put medals on some people. And one of the people he put a medal on leaned into him and said, "Mr. President, be bolder. Be bolder." And so the president got up and spoke to the Duma.

He said, "I put a medal on this guy, and he asked me to be bolder. Do you want me to be bolder?" And the Duma shouted out spontaneously, "Yes! Yes!" All right? You see what he just did there? He now has permission of the Duma to do whatever the hell he wants to do to be bolder. And he said, "We will behave responsibly. I don't want to sacrifice lives." But now he has—and he's put it on the table there. It's now part of the—Putin's not going to—United Russia isn't going to lose this election in September 20th. They're going to sweep. Russia's going to rally behind because they have rallies. 78% approval rating. And people say this is the plummeting because it went from 84. Went from 84 to 78. And people say Putin's losing his grip. Name me a Western politician that has 78% approval rating. Not a single one. Look at our boy Donald Trump, you know? I mean, he's down to 36 in some cases. Macron was 11. Merz is 14. Starmer doesn't have any approval because he's being replaced already.

And Putin is supposed to be a political risk because he has 78% approval rating. This is the insanity of what's going on, Sabi. It's all information warfare. People don't want to acknowledge the basic facts that across the board, Russia is winning and that there's nothing the West can do to prevent the Russian victory, except try to get Russia to collapse from within, which is their ultimate objective. To create discord, to sow the seeds of discord, to get the society to question its leadership, and to have a Moscow Maidan moment, which, again, is a plan that was actively acted on. You go back to Prigozhin's mutiny of June 2023. You know, it appears that that mutiny was part of a larger Western intelligence effort to create a Moscow Maidan. To get Wagner in Moscow, to have businesses rally around him, to have people come to the streets as they did in Rostov-on-Don, and collapse the Putin regime from within. It failed. But nobody can say, "Oh, Scott, you're just making stuff up." No, no, no, no, no.

This is an active, ongoing conspiracy by Western intelligence to bring down the government of Vladimir Putin. And Vladimir Putin is on to them. He's called them out. He's acknowledged it. And the Russian people hear him and are responding to him. So there we are. And the goal of the West is, of course, to overthrow Vladimir Putin and to implement a Western puppet. Someone who is going to do the bidding of the U.S. and, I would assume, also Israel. And that brings in this question: where does Israel, in your opinion, fit into all of this? Right now, Donald Trump at the White House is meeting with Netanyahu and Zelenskyy. There have been multiple videos and pictures of Zelenskyy, of course, acknowledging he supports Israel. He also said that he sent Ukrainian troops to Israel as well, to help them during this, you know, Iran war that was earlier on in the war. And the way that I've just said it to people is that, like, Ukraine supports Israel. So I think it's important that people understand that.

They support Israel. They support—Zelenskyy supports—by the way, I mean, like Zelenskyy, the government, he supports everything that Netanyahu is doing. And so I'm trying to really get people to understand how, to me, it seems as though the Greater Israel Project and that mission that they have is ultimately spreading to other countries as well. We see this happening in Latin America, obviously Ukraine, Zelenskyy here as well. And it seems like, to me, that part of this also includes Zionism, where when you have these other countries that may have been critical of Israel, like Russia and also like China, etc., the ultimate goal is to get those leaders out and to get someone in that position that is also going to support the Greater Israel Project. So I want to get your take on this, this meeting that's happening with Donald Trump and Netanyahu, also Zelenskyy. Again, same time. Well, I mean, you know, the reason why it's the same time is Lindsey Graham's dead, and there's a funeral arrangement.

So they both came to the United States because of Lindsey Graham's death. You can't have Zelenskyy arrive in the United States and not meet Donald Trump. That would create all sorts of political issues. Why is Trump ignoring him, etc.? Especially after, you know, Trump met with him in Ankara, Turkey, and they mended their relationship and everything's good. So they have to prove it. Look, Zelenskyy was greeted by nobody when he landed. Nobody. He's the head of state. And he was greeted by nobody. His corrupt ambassador, who's on her way out for corruption, met him. And the pilot had to come down and salute him as well. A two-man reception committee. No Americans were there. We don't, you know. So that's it. He came to—there's no major agreement coming out of the White House meeting. It was a photo op just for political purposes. And then Zelenskyy's gone. Netanyahu, you know, he's not going to win reelection unless there's a miracle. He's out. He's finished as a politician. It's the end of the Netanyahu era.

And so this meeting isn't going to, you know, what can he do? Get the United States to do what? Bomb Iran? We just did that and we lost, Sabi. We lost this war. We lost. It's over. We may bomb again, but it's not going to change the outcome. Iran has achieved a strategic defeat of the United States. And frankly speaking, Europe as well. Their control of the Strait of Hormuz, their control of the Battle of Mendeb, their ability to inflict damage without any ability to interdict means they hold the entire oil production capacity of the Middle East hostage. And if Trump were to attempt to continue escalation, they would destroy 25% of the world's energy production capacity, throwing the world into absolute chaos and anarchy and death and destruction. That's why Trump had to stop bombing. Because we can't win. It's over. So what is Netanyahu going to say to him? Bomb Iran? No. Here's what's happening. The Greater Israeli Project is failing. It's failing in Israel.

It's failing in, you know, in Lebanon, where Hezbollah is inflicting horrific harm on Israeli forces. It's failing in Syria. It's failing in Yemen. It's failing in Iran. You know where it's not failing? The United States. You see, Congress right now apparently has the votes to pass legislation that'll, in effect, merge the U.S. Army with the Israeli Army, U.S. intelligence with Israeli intelligence, make it indistinguishable. And when that happens, the United States of America ceases to be the United States of America. We become part of the Greater Israeli Project. Now, some people say we already are part of that. I don't dispute the fact that we have a large Zionist element in government, etc. But there has been a Chinese firewall between the U.S. government and the Israeli government. The U.S. military and the Israeli military. U.S. intelligence, Israeli intelligence. They aren't the same. Can't say that anymore. And once the Israelis come in, it's like a parasite taking over the host.

I've written an article about the green wasp laying eggs and the American cockroach and how the eggs take over the American cockroach. Israel is the green wasp. We're the American cockroach. They've laid their eggs and we're being taken over by Israel. And they're going to change everything. They're going to change the laws. You know, you take a look at the Biden administration and look what they did, how they used the rule of law to go after anybody who articulated a policy difference between them and Russia. Look at me, for instance. Seizure of passports. FBI agents in my home accused of being a Russian agent. A debanking. A grand jury facing, you know, 20 years in prison. This was what they were doing to me simply because I spoke out. I want to just remind your audience that there's a reason why I'm here today. Because they found nothing. You know, if I were a Russian agent, I wouldn't be here today. So all you people out there who say that Scott Ritter's taking RT money and doing all this, FBI took everything.

And they found no evidence of that. Because there can be no evidence of that. There can be no evidence of any wrongdoing. So here I am. But that's just because when Trump became president, you know, he had been painted with the same brush. And so in order to throw the Department of Justice off of his case, they said, "No more Russian investigations." But what happens when Israel takes control of the United States judiciary, as they will? People who speak out against Israel will be targeted. Will be called information terrorists. That's already something that's happening. I was called an information terrorist. I've been marked for death by the Ukrainian government. I have hits out on me paid for by the United States State Department. I'm on a list, a terrorist watch list, published by the Ukrainians, marking me for death. That was organized and funded by Chuck Schumer in the United States Senate. That's what happens when a government takes control. My passport was seized because the Ukrainian government asked the United States to seize my passport.

The FBI came to my home because the Ukrainian government asked the Department of Justice to shut me down. And that's what they did. What happens when Israel starts making those requests? But it won't be a request because Israel will be in charge. You see, it isn't about an outside power requesting the United States government to do something. What happens when we get a blending of America and Israel to the point where it's indistinguishable? Where Congress starts passing laws, but the Constitution is irrelevant, so people forget that the First Amendment prohibits Congress from passing any laws that infringe on the rights of free speech. And they begin defining free speech, that's anti-Israel, as terrorist activity. And they come after you there. Debanking can happen this quick. That quick. All they have to do. I just want to add, Marco Rubio already started some of this. I'm not sure if you heard, but they already announced the counter-terrorism strategy and task force. And they already named over 43 people and organizations that they're coming after.

In particular, people like Madi Benjamin, some of them that went down to Cuba, etc. But also, you know, all of these people tend to be, you know, critical of Israel as well. So yes, these are things that they can do. Oh, they not can. They are doing it. And you are on a list. I'm on a list. We're all on a list. And at some point in time, they're going to weaponize that list. Sabi, all they have to do is to shut you down financially. All the FBI has to do is make three discreet phone calls requesting clarification on a transaction. On the third one, your bank automatically shuts your bank account down and you have no recourse. They automatically seize your money, shut your account down, and you may get your money later. Because no criminal activity. They haven't charged you with anything. It's just the way the banks work. Three inquiries from the U.S. government shuts down your bank account automatically. They used this in the aftermath of the January 20th thing where they shut down people, the Biden administration shut down people's accounts.

They used it against me. They shut down my Citizen Bank account. I did nothing wrong. Nothing illegal. Three phone calls, close it. This is a tool they'll be used. You're going to lose your money. You're going to lose your job. You're going to lose your passport. You're going to lose everything. And then if you continue to not do what they want, which is to shut up, they will come into your house. They will raid your house. They will open up a grand jury investigation and scrub you. Overdone. And if you have done anything wrong, you're going to jail. You're going to jail for a long time. Yeah, I just want to tell people, we saw some of this happen too under the Biden administration with Chairman Amalia Yeshattella, how the DOJ weaponized them and came after them and raided, you know, their Uhuru centers in Florida. And we were trying to warn people back then, but I think a lot of people decided to fall asleep because, you know, Trump wasn't in office anymore. And the one thing that woke people up was the genocide.

But they're going to try to do a lot of this. And also for people who may think, oh, well, the Democratic Party will overturn it. I don't think that they will. I think that once this is in place, I do not see, especially looking at Democratic leadership, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, I do not see them overturning this. But Sabi, you're missing the point. The Democrats wrote the book. It was Joe Biden that came after me. Donald Trump has that book. He's just putting in different names. The Democrats wrote the book. The Democrats wrote the book. The Democrats wrote the book. The Democrats went after the Uhura group. The Democrats went after me. So this isn't Donald Trump reinventing something. This is Donald Trump simply taking the game plan written and executed by the Democrats and applying it against a new set of targets. So if the Democrats come in, they have the game plan that they wrote.

And they will apply it their way. This is the death of America. This is why America is dying. Because neither party respects the rule of law. Neither party respects freedom of speech. Neither party respects fundamental constitutional rights. Both parties have been corrupted. And the one unifying factor in the corruption is Ukraine and Israel. Both parties have shown themselves to be willing to subordinate basic constitutional protections to foreign governments, to basically wipe it clean, to go after people because Ukraine isn't happy. Because Israel isn't happy. And now if we get this legislation passes that merges the Israeli military, the American military merges the intelligence, it's over. Israel will be writing the legislation. Israel will control. They already bought Congress. They brag about it. $100 million to buy Congress. $30 million to remove Thomas Massie. And what are the American people doing? Not a damn thing. You said they fell asleep under Biden. They're falling asleep now.

They don't understand the danger. They don't understand the danger. Once you allow, the beauty of the Constitution is, and this is why the ACLU defended the KKK's right to protest. You say, why are you defending the KKK? I'm not defending the KKK. I'm defending you. I'm defending all of America. Because the right to protest, freedom of speech is an absolute right that cannot be infringed on by the U.S. government. If you disagree with the KKK, come up with a better idea. And most people can. That's why the KKK is shrinking, becoming nothing. But don't suppress them. Don't use the rule of law to silence them. Because once you establish the precedent that they're bad, we can silence them. Soon the finger will point at you and they'll come after you. And that's where we are today. The U.S. government is completely, completely out of control. If this legislation passes, frankly speaking, it's the end of the Constitutional Republic. Because we're no longer the United States of America. We're Greater Israel.

And people need to understand that. We have become, we're on the brink of becoming a different state. Greater Israel. And that means the U.S. is dead. Take the flag down, put up a new flag, call it something different, whatever. But don't call yourself an American. Because you're not an American anymore. It's, you know, it may seem harsh to some, but the thing is, like, you're right. This is what we've been trying to warn people about. Like, this is not something to just shrug off or whatever. And I've seen it happen on both sides. I've seen the censorship and the attacks happen when Democrats were in power. I've seen it happen when Republicans were in power. Both parties support this type of activity. And Scott is right. This will be the way that they get people to shut up about the criticism of Israel. To that, I say, we need a massive movement in this country. That's why I tell people, just voting isn't going to cut it. Like, the same way we got out in the streets, you know, for Gaza, we need to get, we need to double that and get out in the streets over this piece of legend.

This is very, very dangerous. There's a reason why they wanted Thomas Massie out of there. There's a reason why they want other people out of there. That's why they're buying all these elections like they want this legislation to pass. And it is very scary. And everybody should be concerned whether you have had supported Israel or not. They could come after you for something else. Like, this is how it starts, right? So it's just, I think the freedom of speech issue cannot be stressed enough. The other thing I wanted to mention is somehow Iraq is now back in the picture too. Speaking of Ukraine and then also Iran and Israel. This was released by Constitutional Nobody, but also shared on Ground News. Ukraine has denied any involvement here in Kyiv-linked militants busted in Iraq. So it says that Iraq authorities have busted several militant cells linked to Ukraine that were involved in multiple attacks within the country. This is according to the National Security Advisor.

The top official made remarks on Monday during an interview with Jalala TV, stating that the country's intelligence service has concluded that Ukraine has been meddling within Iraq. What do you believe this is all about, Scott? Because I know for those who are not aware, Scott was one of the ones that warned people that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, like early, early on. What do you feel is they're trying to, why would Ukraine have these sleeper cells in Iraq? Well, look, Ukraine has a history of using their intelligence services, the special forces components of their intelligence services as a force multiplier against identified enemies. To give you an example, Ukraine has played a role in Syria. Ukraine has played a role in Sudan. Ukraine has played a role in Libya. Ukraine is playing an active role today in Mali. The Al-Qaeda forces that came out of Algerian territory attacking Mali recently were trained by Ukrainian intelligence operatives.

They used drones that were probably flown by some Ukrainians. But the Ukrainians are doing this as a force multiplier. It's a way of weakening Russia. Death by a thousand cuts. That's their strategy. The same thing applies to Iran right now. We see, you know, Zelensky bragging about striking an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea. They now have Ukrainian forces using Iraqi proxies to attack, you know, facilities in Iraq that are, you know, controlled by the Shia, are related to Iran that decide to create instability to undermine Iran's, you know, grip on Iraq. So this is the strategy. It's, you know, they have a very active intelligence for now. People need to understand that from 2015 until 2022, the CIA was the biggest trainer of this. We were the ones who created these covert operation groups. So in many ways, what you're seeing here, they call it Iran, but it's CIA directed.

The CIA is the one pulling the strings here. It's again, just using Ukraine as another proxy. That makes sense. Okay. Because I know one of the things that Trump said is that he was trying to get some of the Kurds in Iraq to go into Iran and create unrest. And that didn't work out. Like, remember he openly said this, that he was giving them weapons and telling them to go into Iran. And he was like, they wouldn't help me. You know, so it's kind of like all out in the open that people don't understand. But that's what happened the next day. The next day, Iranian missiles came down and slaughtered the Kurds. The next day, Iranian drones came in and slaughtered the Kurds. There were reports that earlier this month, the Iranian paratroopers crossed the border and slaughtered the Kurds. So all Donald Trump did is put a giant target on the back of the Kurds by talking about it. And so the Iranians launched preemptive strikes that didn't just target the Kurds, but they blew away the CIA infrastructure in Erbil as well.

Nobody's talking about CIA casualties. You know, the CIA maintains a very large and vibrant paramilitary capability. Nobody talks about it. When they die, nobody hears their names. They become a star on the wall. And generally speaking, the name in the book has no name. It's just a star on the wall. There's good reason to believe that a significant number of CIA officers are dead and injured because of these attacks. They're the ones that are orchestrated. It's the CIA paramilitary arm, Special Operations, Special Activities Division, Ground Branch, that's working with the Kurds to get them to go into Iran. And the Iranians preempted it, eviscerated the Kurds, and destroyed the CIA's capacity to move. This is another reason why Trump is backed down, because the, you know, supposed invasion, ground invasion isn't going to happen because Iran has taken out that capability. But it's the CIA working with the Kurds. But, you know, Donald Trump said this. It's not that the Kurds didn't do anything.

They're all dead. Thanks to Donald Trump's big mouth. Yeah, there you go. He's also talking about trying to get Jelani and Syria to get involved against Iran. This is insane, Scott. Like, I'm just thinking to myself, like, wow. Like, this is probably one of the most insane approaches that I have seen. Because to your point, as you mentioned, we don't have the weapons. Do people really, you guys really understand? We don't have the weapons. They're gone. That's why I think part during the time, during these negotiations, they were like, okay, let's, this is an opportunity to, you know, refuel and all that type of stuff. Because we don't have that weapon, you know, capability. And I would say, you know, we just, we don't have the number of weapons that we used to have before. And many are wondering, I want to get your take on this about this turning into a world war. Do you think that now that it's also been reported that there have been missiles that have been fired, or missiles or drones that were fired from also the UK towards Iran as well?

Do you think the other NATO countries will, like, eventually give in to Donald Trump and try to go after Iran? With what? There's a reason why NATO is called a paper tiger and they got nothing. I mean, let's look at Germany, for instance. In 2022, Olaf Scholz, recognizing that the Ukraine conflict was redefining war, took a look at the sorry state of the German military and asked the German parliament to provide 100 billion euros in emergency funding to get the military up where it needs to be. 100 billion euros in addition to the standing budget. This is extra money. Last year, or late last year, earlier this year, maybe earlier this year, the report came out about that 100 billion euros. It ended up being like 117 billion because the moment they borrowed the money, they had to start paying it back. I mean, it's, you know, it's just like, hey, how do we bankrupt Germany even further? We borrow the money and before we even spend it, we have to take some of that money and pay it back.

But now we, so it ended up costing like 117 billion. Nothing happened. It didn't change anything. The German military is so fundamentally broke that 100 billion euro infusion not only didn't change anything, it made it worse. This is the state of Europe's military today. They are so fundamentally broken that no amount of money will fix that. You can't fix broke. You have to start over. It's better to start anew. The British military is fundamentally broken. They have two aircraft carriers, one of which doesn't work, the other one won't work if they ever try to use it. That's the reality. You could take the totality of the British army, put it in a soccer stadium and have 30,000 unsold seats. That's how small it is. The British army can't generate a brigade's worth of viable, sustainable combat troops. That's it. They're broke. The French, they did an exercise several years ago that tried to logistically move 12,000 troops, barely could do it.

Today, they'd be lucky if they could move 5,000 troops. What is Europe going to bring to bear? I mean, we invoke Europe as if it's some sort of power. It's nothing. They have nothing. They are nothing. And they're going to go up against Iran that just beat the United States in a stand-up fight. I just want your audience to reflect on what I just said. Iran beat us in the stand-up fight. We brought all the resources we could bring conventionally to bear and they beat us. Well, Scott, we didn't invade them. We can't invade them. Everybody talks about a ground invasion because there's some people, are you worried about a ground invasion? No. Why? I don't know. In 1985, I was privy to the war plan to invade Iran. I actually wrote the intelligence portion of it. I'm familiar that at that time we would go in through Chabahar, forcible entry, two marine divisions, 60,000, 60 to 80,000 marines going in, backed up by 120 to 200,000 army forces, and then we would project our forces inward.

That was the plan. I also know that we didn't get very far before we got beat because it's very difficult to sustain this. But that's when we were strong. That's in the 80s when we had the strongest military in the world. Bar none. Today, we can't do any of that. We have two marine expeditionary units deployed in the region. That's two battalion landing teams. That's nothing. Nothing. We got an airborne brigade on standby, 5,000 paratroopers. They jump from an airplane, they land on the ground. That's all they have is what they brought down with them, which runs out instantly. Then they all die. We have nothing. We have no forces we can send in. None. It takes six months to get a US Army heavy brigade out of Fort Carson, Colorado, to Germany to participate in a rotational, you know, presence of force in Poland and in Europe. Six months to prepare. And we want to invade Iran with what? We have no forces available.

We know this because in 2020, the Iranians shot down a Global Hawk drone over the Strait of Hormuz. You might recall that. And Donald Trump said, I'm going to bomb them in retaliation. And the Pentagon went, wait a minute, boss. If you bomb Iran, you know, there might have been a chance that our drone was actually over Iranian territory and they shot it down, legitimate self-defense. If you bomb them, they're going to escalate. They're going to hit us. Then we're going to escalate. Next thing you know, you're going to seize the Strait of Hormuz and we can't take it back. Listen to what I'm saying, Sabby. They told President Trump in 2020, we cannot take Strait of Hormuz back from Iran if they seize it. Yet the president today is saying, well, we never knew that could happen. We never expected Iran to seize the Strait of Hormuz. And he lied. He's a liar. Everything he says is a lie. We knew it then we couldn't do it because they briefed him. It would take 800,000 to 1.2 million American soldiers to go in and create the conditions to seize, to retake the Strait of Hormuz.

Because you have to project power inside Iran. And we don't have that. It would take years to build up that capacity. That's where we are today. There will be no invasion of Iran because there can be no invasion of Iran because we don't have the capacity to invade Iran. It's an absolute joke. We can launch a raid here, special operations. The Marine Battalion can go in and blow up something and come back. But the idea of invading and occupying Iran is an absolute joke. The last time we did something like this was, I mean, well, we did it in 1991, Operation Desert Storm, where we infused a significant number of troops and recaptured Kuwait, invading Western Iraq in the southern Iraq in the process. We did it again. That was 700,000 troops. We invaded Iraq in 2003 with 200,000 troops. But that was an already fundamentally defeated Iraqi military. We don't have that military today. It doesn't exist. We can't do any of the things that people are talking about. So we are defeated.

We have no more options. This war will not expand because it cannot expand. If it does expand, then we get into nightmare scenarios where the world, you know, deals with the consequences of losing 25% of its energy production capacity. It's not just energy production. You know, Qatar, which has suffered some serious harm, they produce liquid natural gas. The processes involved in creating natural gas create ammonia. Ammonia is a key component of fertilizer. Fertilizer feeds the world. Do you understand that right now there is no ammonia being produced in Qatar? That means that 25% of the world's fertilizer capacity doesn't exist. That means there's 25% of the world's global food production that's not getting the fertilizer it needs to grow the food that the world needs not to starve to death. That's a consequence. You all like your cell phones and all your electronics. You know, to make those chips and everything, you need helium. 30% of the world's helium comes from Qatar. They're not shipping helium right now because they're not producing liquid natural gas.

So we're going to run out of chips because there is no alternative supply source for helium. This is the reality. Global production will shut down. Look at your desk. Look at around your room. Everything there is made out of petroleum, one way or another. And without it, this world shuts down. This is the consequence of the war that Donald Trump started with Iran. And if it escalates, the Iranians will shut the door on the world. The Iranians have far more power today than the United States does. That's sort of what happened here is that we, by illegally attacking Iran, created a catastrophe that has fundamentally altered the global balance of power. Iran today possesses power beyond imagination because unlike the United States, the only way we can achieve similar destruction in the world is through nuclear weapons. Everybody said, Iran needs a nuclear weapon. They don't need a nuclear weapon. They have a nuclear weapon. It's called the Strait of Hormuz and it's called Bab al-Mandab.

And when they shut that down, the world shuts down with greater destructive force than, you know, any, you know, single or nuclear weapon we'll have. So this is the, this is where we're at today. I fear that consequence. I fear what happens when Trump, because he's so weak-minded that he can't accept the fact that he lost. So he will attempt to escalate a conflict that can't be escalated because we have no ammunition. He will seek to bomb targets in order to put pressure on Iran. But all the result is the Iranians destroying similar targets. Kuwait almost was eliminated as a modern nation-state. Iran started striking desalinization plants, power plants, you know, electrical generation plants. And the Kuwaitis said they're hitting critical infrastructure. Then they said they're really hitting critical infrastructure. And they're down to like their last desalinization plant, their last power plant. If Iran hit that, Kuwait shuts out. It's over. They don't have electricity. They don't have water.

They die. That's how close Kuwait came to disappearing as a nation-state. Iran can do that to every single Gulf Arab state. So this is the reality. This is why we were warning people about the global disaster that could come from this. Like people have to understand that we do not have control over the Strait of Hormuz and they can shut that down at any time. You mentioned they warned Donald Trump in 2020 about the Strait of Hormuz. Why do you think that I was watching this debate that happened recently with Tucker Carlson and Stephen A. Smith and Tucker Carlson was just basically saying that Donald Trump didn't have this belief before where let's just go start a war with Iran. What do you think happened there other than him taking the money, of course, from Mariam Adelson? Why this pivot to we must go to war with Iran?

I mean, this is a because let me just start by saying the logic against going to war with Iran is so overwhelming that no rational actor would ever do what Donald Trump did. It was a known quantity that we were going to fail from the start. We had no chance to succeed. This is why successive presidents, including Donald Trump, said no to Israel when they said help us bomb Iran because we couldn't win and we knew we couldn't win. So what changed it? Is it as simple as Donald Trump taking Mariam Adelson's $200 million? No, it's not that simple. We're talking about the psychology of a mentally unstable man. We have to acknowledge this. We have to speak about this. We have to, you know, point out the fact that Donald Trump doesn't function normally when it comes to cognitive processes, that he is a narcissist. He suffers from severe extreme narcissistic personality disorder that manifests itself in an antisocial manner. This man is an egomaniac. Even before he went to war with Iran, he openly acknowledged that he functions as a dictator.

He bragged in Davos, I am a dictator. I am a dictator. He has said, I don't care about the rule of law. That means he doesn't care about the constitution. He cares about his own personal moral standard. Now, that's something to be scared of. So, and then there's no checks and balances because normally if a president behaved this way, the 25th Amendment would click in and out he goes because he's clearly not capable of governing because he's lost, you know, touch with reality. He's talking about being a dictator. He's talking about the constitution not mattering. He has to go. Nobody's stepping in. Congress, there's no effort to impeach. The Supreme Court has given him a pass for life. Anything you do in your presidential duties cannot be prosecuted as a crime while you're president. So this is a man who now openly carries out insider trading, openly, massively acknowledges it and nothing happens. His inner circle is making billions of dollars. He is, this is a guy who is talking about selling a subscription service to his social media posts so that people get advanced notice of what he's going to post because he's proven a cause-effect relationship between his posts and market movement.

And so he says, yeah, you can subscribe to this. I'll give you advanced notice. It won't be the exact wording of the tweet, but it'll be the, you know, it'll give you a hint as to the direction. So now if you buy access to his social media tweets, you get insight and he, it's a crime. If I did this, I'd be in jail. If you did this, you'd be in jail. Anybody be in jail, but not this man. And the country's allowing this to happen. This country has lost its moral compass. And this president is irrational. The Russians have said that he may not be dementia-ridden like Joe Biden was, but they say that he is emotionally unstable. That on a day-to-day basis, it's impossible to predict what Donald Trump will do. And his social media postings prove this. So I believe the Israelis, rather than overwhelm him with logic, exploited his instability. And all you have to do with Donald Trump is keep coming at him. Give him the same problem set today. He'll say no. Do something to irritate him tomorrow.

Give him the problem set. He'll say maybe. Get him even more angry and feeling, you know, under pressure. Give him the same problem set. He'll say yes. And that's what the Israelis did. They were bombarding him with the need to go to war against Iran. And finally, on February 11th, they got the audience and he said yes. What was happening around February 11th? I don't know. Maybe the Epstein files. I don't normally go this route. I don't like, but, you know, you have to call spade to spade. I think this war was influenced by the fact that Donald Trump had severe insecurity issues over the Epstein files and he needed a distraction. And he viewed this war as a distraction. Now, he was able to overcome some of the logical, you know, speed bumps like we can't win. What happens about the Strait of Hormuz by buying into if we kill the Supreme Leader, everything collapses. Scott Besson's argument. Even if we lose, we create chaos in the global energy market that gives us leverage over China that we currently don't possess.

You know, these are the things. So he said yes. And then everything went wrong. Nothing has succeeded. We've lost everything. And now he's trapped. And because he is an unstable individual, we're not going to recover as a nation. We're not going to find the off-ramp because he can't. If he finds, if he identifies the off-ramp today, tomorrow he'll tweet. Let's look at an example. A multi-month effort to lure Saudi Arabia back into the fold of the United States by exposing them to nuclear enrichment technology. And the Saudis and the United States were ready to sign an agreement where Saudi Arabia would be able to enrich uranium outside of the framework of the IAEA, making them a parallel proliferator aligned with Israel. And we're going to sign this agreement. And then Donald Trump, after it was all ready to sign, comes out the next day because he woke up and the fly farted. And he went, no, Saudi Arabia won't get this unless they agree to the Abrams accords.

And that was never part of the negotiation. But because he's emotionally unstable, he now did something that destroyed months of negotiations. This is Donald Trump, unstable. And this is why we're in the situation we're at right now. This isn't about Israeli control of him. This is about Israel using his instability to achieve control. This is why what's getting ready to happen in Congress is so fundamentally dangerous because we don't have a Congress willing to say no. They're going to vote in favor of it. Maybe the judiciary will come in and say it's fundamentally unconstitutional to do this. I hope that there are challenges, but, you know, it's hard to get standing in a case. It gets to the federal courts. But ultimately, the president is being manipulated by Israel to allow this to happen. Because if you get, and again, I hope your audience is listening to me very carefully. Because if the Israelis take control, they will manipulate American elections.

And Donald Trump will win the midterms. The Democrats won't come in. And then worse things get. You heard the idiot in front of you saying he was joking. I'm ready for a fourth term. And you know what? No one stood up and said, you must be right. That's just wrong. In fact, many people out there going, yeah, Donny, fourth term. And now imagine if you get the pro-Israeli lobby behind it when they control everything, including the military, including the judiciary. So when you and I speak out, the FBI comes in and silences us. Don't say it's impossible because it's happening right before our eyes. Scott Ritter, thank you so much for your time. Where can people find your work? You can find me at scottritter.com. Takes you to my Substack page, Real Scott Ritter. And it's a free subscription, but if you want to, you know, put roof over my head, you can subscribe, a paid subscription. And if you want to send me on trips, you can hit the donate button and subscribe there. Those are the only ways that I fund my trips is through donations.

Nobody else funds it. Totally independent. All right, Scott, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Hey guys, this was a savvy video. If you like what you saw, hit that like button and subscribe.

info@situationpolitics.com

© 2026. SituationPolitics.Com - All rights reserved