 So, we've been talking about the escalation between the United States and Iran over the course of the last couple of weeks, and I told you about a plan that was devised by John Bolton, who is Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, to send 120,000 troops to the Middle East to essentially intimidate Iran. Now, at the time I told you about that plan, it was unclear about whether or not Donald Trump even knew about this plan, and whether or not John Bolton was doing all of this and escalating and saber-rattling under Donald Trump's nose unbeknownst to him. But as of now, Donald Trump is aware of the plan. I don't know if he knew about it at the time when Bolton was pushing it, but nonetheless, he knows now, and he is denying that they were even considering this. But it's funny, because as he denies that they wanted to escalate with Iran, he still manages to threaten them. We have not planned for that. Hopefully, we're not going to have to plan for that, and if we did that, we'd send a hell of a lot more troops than that. So every single time he denounces the prospect of war with Iran, he manages to simultaneously raise the stakes. It's like he is incapable and doesn't know how to not be belligerent. If you don't want war with Iran, Trump, then stop raising the stakes. Because on one hand, you know, we wouldn't consider doing this and sending 120,000 troops to the Middle East to intimidate Iran. Of course we wouldn't do that. But if we did do something like that, we'd send a lot more than that. I mean, either you don't want to escalate or you do, but by saying that you're not de-escalating, you're escalating. So it's infuriating, because this idiot doesn't realize that John Bolton is playing him like a fiddle, and he may not want war or at least vocalize his unwillingness to get engaged in another regime change war, but nonetheless, he's not helping himself if he truly doesn't want war with Iran. Now understand this, he previously tweeted out that Obama in 2011 would start a war with Iran in order to help his reelection chances. But if Donald Trump perceives the prospect of war as giving him any sort of advantage whatsoever to help his reelection chances, then as Farron Cousins puts it, well, maybe he isn't necessarily as closed off to the idea of war with Iran as he has previously stated. And if he believes that there's some sort of perceived electoral payoff by engaging with Iran militarily, then maybe he will, because this is his thought process, right? He thought that Obama was willing to do it because it would help Obama get reelected. So if you have this idea that war will help your reelection chances, then maybe he'd do it himself. But I don't know. I hope that that's not the case, but you never know with Donald Trump. Now there's been other reports that there's been infighting within his own administration because Donald Trump has been frustrated reportedly with John Bolton, who is overly hawkish and militaristic, which is not a surprise to anyone. If you don't want someone who's a neocon and a warmonger in your ear, then don't appoint that person to be your national security adviser. But nonetheless, he basically denied that there was any infighting going on whatsoever, tweeting the fake news Washington Post and even more fake news New York Times are writing stories that there is infighting with respect to my strong policy in the Middle East. There is no infighting whatsoever. He then kind of contradicts this statement by saying different opinions are expressed and I make a decisive and final decision. It is a very simple process. All sides, all views and policies are covered. I'm sure that Iran will want to talk soon. He is so frustrating. So he says there's no infighting and then he says, well, you know, there's disagreements, but we're just hearing all views. And then he says, well, you know, we want Iran to come to the table. Dumbass. They already came to the fucking table. Obama signed the Iran deal. You just didn't like it because Obama did it and you didn't do it. But if you can sign the same deal with Iran and put your name on it, then you'd like it. But because Obama did it, it's just bad by definition. I mean, he's he's such a fool. There's no driving ideology. There's no core philosophy with regard to foreign policy here. He's just shooting from the hip. We need coherency. We need you to be coherent and have an actual goal in mind. And for you to communicate that goal to us, because if you don't, then what's going to happen? You're going to get taken advantage of by war mongers in your administration. And that's exactly what has been happening. It's been happening with Venezuela. It's now happening with Iran, and he can't see it because he's too much of a jackass. So it may very well not be his first instinct to go to war with Iran because we all know that that's exactly what John Bolton wants and has been pushing for. But in order to save face and not make himself look weak, he'll go along with whatever John Bolton wants and pretend as if it was his idea. So he doesn't look like a pushover. So he doesn't look weak. Regardless, the situation is incredibly tense. And it's worse that we have someone who's basically an empty suit in power currently, who is able to easily be manipulated by war mongers who have this agenda, who have had this agenda for years. Back when John Bolton was in George W. Bush's administration, he was pushing for war. And now that he's in Trump's administration, he's doing what we all expected him to do, push for war with Iran. So the situation, regardless of how it turns out, now is incredibly tense. But thankfully we have real leaders in this country who are willing to speak out and call Donald Trump out. So I'm going to show you two videos. One is from Tulsi Gabbard. The other is from Bernie Sanders. In this first video, I'm going to show you it's short but concise. Tulsi is going to bluntly say what Donald Trump wants. President Trump says that he doesn't want war with Iran. But that's exactly what he wants, because that's exactly what Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu, al-Qaeda, Bolton, Haley and other neocons and neolibs want. That's what he puts first, not America. So that was short, sweet, but it was exactly what was needed. Donald Trump may claim that he doesn't want war with Iran and that he wants to strike some sort of a deal. But regardless, if John Bolton is able to catalyze a war with Iran under his nose, he's going to own it, he's going to go along with it, especially now that he may perceive some sort of electoral advantage because of a war. Now, in a different video, Bernie Sanders called out John Bolton specifically and warned us that what John Bolton wants is war with Iran. And it's incumbent on all of us to pay close attention to what's happening. Because if we don't, we could be looking at another disaster like we saw with the Iraq War. So I will leave you with Bernie Sanders' warning here. Today, The New York Times reported that, and I quote, at a meeting of President Trump's top national security aides last Thursday, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East, end of quote, to fight Iran. Let me be as clear as I can be. A war with Iran would be an absolute disaster. As former General Anthony Zinni stated, quote, if you like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you will love the war in Iran, end of quote. I agree with General Zinni. 16 years ago, the United States committed one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the history of our country by attacking Iraq. That war was sold to the American people based on a series of lies about weapons of mass destruction. We should remember that one of the leading advocates for that war was John Bolton, who served then as a member of the Bush administration. Incredibly, even today, Bolton is one of the few remaining people in the world who continues to believe that that war was a good idea. Let us never forget that the Iraq war led to the deaths of more than 4,400 American troops, tens of thousands of American soldiers were wounded and many very severely, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed. The Iraq war unleashed a wave of radicalism and destabilization across the region that we will be dealing with for many, many years. It was the biggest foreign policy disaster in the modern history of our country. And now, based on that disaster that he helped bring about in Iraq, it appears that John Bolton wants a war in Iran. A war in Iran would, in my view, be many times worse than the Iraq war. U.S. military leaders have repeatedly told us that if the United States would attack Iran, Iran would respond with attacks on U.S. troops and allies around the world. It would lead to the further destabilization of that region in a way that is unimaginable and would result in wars that would go on year after year after year and likely cost trillions of dollars. If you want to know what perpetual warfare is, never ending war, that's what a war with Iran would mean. The United States Congress must do everything it can to prevent a war with Iran. And by the way, not inconsequentially, the Constitution of the United States is very clear. And that is that it is the Congress and not the President who determines whether or not we go to war. And right now, as we did with Yemen, I am working hard to see if we can get 51 members of the U.S. Senate, as well as a majority in the House of Representatives, to make clear that before the President takes any military action in Iran or any place else, he must seek authorization from the Congress. Taking us into a war without congressional authorization would be unconstitutional and illegal. Let me be very clear in telling you that I do understand that Iran pursues a lot of bad policy. This is not a model government by any means. It represses its own population, massive corruption in that country, and it supports militant groups around the area. But the United States is strong enough to deal with these issues and others diplomatically, working with our allies around the world. And that is precisely what we should be doing. We do not need to fight another unnecessary war. So I ask all of the folks who are watching this program to stand up and fight back on this issue. We must not, we cannot allow ourselves to be dragged in to another terrible, terrible war, which in my view will impact not only our generation, but the generation that our children and grandchildren live in as well. Thank you all very much.