Iran was supposed to be over. It isn’t. The ceasefire is going nowhere, 40% of the Navy is parked in the region, the tab is past $29 billion and climbing, and new reporting suggests as much as 70% of Iran’s missile capacity is still standing. Meanwhile Ukraine just took the largest drone and missile barrage of the entire war and corporate media couldn’t be bothered to lead with it. Paul sits down with Preston Stewart — West Point 2009, field artillery officer, two tours in Afghanistan, and one of the fastest-growing independent national security voices on YouTube — to get the no-BS read on where we actually are.
They get into the Strait of Hormuz, the exaggerations coming out of both the Iranian regime and the Trump regime, why drones matter more than ballistic missiles right now, and how Ukraine’s “kinetic sanctions” are quietly bleeding the Russian economy dry. They dig into Trump’s weak hand in Beijing, Taiwan’s window of vulnerability, the terrorism threat we’ve stopped paying attention to, and the dangerous partisan politicization of the National Guard on American streets. If you’re tired of cable-news noise and want a briefing that sounds like it came from someone who’s actually been on the ground, this is the conversation.
In this episode
- Why Preston calls Iran the story we’re about to lose focus on — and what happens if we do
- The Strait of Hormuz: what Iran can still shut down even without a surface Navy
- New reporting that up to 70% of Iran’s missile capacity is still standing — and why the drone threat matters more
- “We want regime change. We just don’t want to use that word” — Hegseth’s own testimony on Iran’s nuclear intent
- Ukraine’s “middle strike” doctrine — how targeting the 40 to 300 kilometer band is unraveling Russian logistics
- Kinetic sanctions: Ukrainian drones hitting oil refineries in the Urals and raining fuel on Russian cities
- Trump’s weak hand in China, Xi’s patience, and why Taiwan has never been more vulnerable
- The domestic deployment fight brewing around the World Cup, the Insurrection Act, and cross-state National Guard mobilizations
- Terrorism moving to the back burner while affiliates close in on Mali and the Sahel
- How independent veteran voices on YouTube are filling the vacuum corporate media left behind
