Buck Brief - Combat Pilot Analyzes Trump's Iran Air War and Next Steps
4/13/202624 mincomplete
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2:50You're listening to the Buck Sexton Show podcast.
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2:57your podcasts. How has the air war against Iran gone so far?
3:03And what is going to happen next?
3:06We're joined by our friend Amber Smith.
3:08She is a former senior Pentagon official as well as a former Kiowa, which is
3:14a helicopter for all of you out there, Kiowa combat pilot in Afghanistan and wrote
3:19a great book about her time there overseas in combat.
3:23Amber, great to see you.
3:24It's been a while. How are you doing?
3:25I'm doing well. Great to be on with you.
3:27So tell me how you feel like this whole thing, the air campaign, has it
3:33exceeded? I mean, you have some particular from the rotary wing helicopter perspective, but, you
3:39know, you also work in the Pentagon.
3:41What we're capable of this seemed to be if someone had told me that we
3:46could destroy the Iranian Navy, most of its surface to air missile capability, basically its
3:52entire air force and do so with, I mean, less than no casualties in the
3:58air and only casualties really elsewhere from people being hit on bases.
4:03I would have said that seems a little bit extreme.
4:05That's what's happened. Yeah, I would say that what we have seen since it kicked
4:09off is the might of the United States military on display, the Air Force, the
4:17Navy, the Marines. We've seen the Army since with these rescue missions, but primarily it's
4:24been, you know, the aerial branches of the military and it's been fantastic.
4:29They have shined when they were called to do so, and they've just done a
4:36phenomenal job getting us up to the point of where we're at.
4:42And then what we saw with the rescue missions, with the Army helicopters and some
4:46of the Air Force helicopters as well, the HH -60s, the CSAR aircraft.
4:53I mean, those guys are just so unbelievably amazing at their jobs and we, you
5:01know, it's very rare that you get to sort of witness and we live in
5:03a day and age where videos come out about everything.
5:07So we kind of got to see some behind the scenes, look at some of
5:09that. And I'm just so incredibly proud of our military and in awe of those
5:14rescue missions across the branches of the military, like the joint operations there that they
5:20were able to pull off what they did in the shortest amount of time, I
5:24think is. is one of the most incredible rescue missions in our history it was
5:31pretty remarkable that we we got the first guy out after that shoot down we
5:37got our the pilot out but then the uh what the the weapons officer right
5:40the second person from the uh the cockpit of the f -15 we got him
5:44after a period of time did do you get i mean i assume it's pretty
5:48similar right rotary wing so a helicopter attack helicopter uh attack plane or fighter plane
5:55you got to get the was this seer school stuff right and like how to
5:59evade how to stay out of the enemy's grasp so you can get rescued yeah
6:04so every pilot that is going to go you know sort of behind enemy lines
6:10or being flying in hostile territory or in combat zones um is going to have
6:15this training and it's exactly for what we saw happen to this f -15 if
6:21you get shot down if you're behind enemy lines it teaches you how to survive
6:25um it's also known as survival school and it basically covers all of your bases
6:32it is extremely mentally physically emotional grueling in terms of the training that they put
6:39you through but it really teaches you to push you back any sort of limitations
6:43that you may think that you have and it keeps you going mentally knowing that
6:49the u .s military is doing absolutely everything in their power moving heaven and earth
6:54to ensure that they find you and they won't stop until you do that that's
6:57also a very important uh component of all of these operations is the pilots on
7:04the ground understanding that they need to complete they need to enact the training that
7:09they were given uh in order to survive um and given time for the u
7:16.s military to get you i mean this did very much remind me do you
7:19remember the movie uh with randomly owen wilson uh but it's actually a pretty good
7:23movie behind enemy lines about the about a guy i think who got shot down
7:27in kosovo right uh yes bosnia kosovo one of those one of those countries there
7:33was a shoot down and then they based a movie off of uh scott o
7:37'grady if i'm saying his name correctly that sounds right uh yes he was shot
7:42down behind enemy lines hence the name of the movie and he uh evaded the
7:48enemy for six days and that's why a lot of people were very concerned that
7:54you know the pilot still hadn't been rescued um after you know like a full
7:58day and a half and people were starting to get nervous about that and it's
8:03like he's doing his job right now the military is doing their job they don't
8:07want um there's only one group of people that that crew member wants to find
8:13him and that's the u .s military and so the fact that you know it
8:17hadn't happened yet i'm like there's still time like there's still plenty of time uh
8:22for the military to get him what was your uh back when you were flying
8:27in afghanistan what was your personal defense weapon was it like an hk mp5 or
8:32what what did you carry did you carry one did you were you supposed to
8:35oh you yeah in our aircraft at least you had like you were required to
8:41carry them so i always carried an m9 pistol and then uh the the pilots
8:48usually were the ones that had those and then i also carried an m4 rifle
8:52so we had oh you had a straight up m4 with you okay it's because
8:55i feel like sometimes the pilots have like the mp7 or they have these like
8:59submachine guns just because they're smaller and for portability but so you just went straight
9:03m4 you're ready to rock yeah we actually we were able to shoot them from
9:07our helicopter as well so um just because of our very unique mission that we
9:13had in terms of flying low level to the ground forces and uh yeah so
9:18we always had them mounted on our dash um so you had two m4s and
9:23two m9s per cockpit while you were out on missions wow yeah uh that makes
9:28that makes a lot of sense now i'm going to ask you kind of what
9:30you think about where we are just sort of putting your pentagon geopolitical assessment hat
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10:3498 98 so how do you think we're doing with this ceasefire situation you know
10:39i mean i was kind of i was getting you on the more tactical side
10:42as a combat pilot yourself a moment ago now take a look at this let's
10:46put a few stars on your shoulder and you tell me how you think this
10:50is going well i think History has proven that the Iranian regime cannot be trusted.
10:57I think that Iran bases its survival on maintaining its threats to the world, just
11:06as we've seen the control over the Strait of Hormuz with their nuclear program.
11:11They don't want to get rid of their nuclear program.
11:13They need it for their survival to still maintain their status as a threat, as
11:20a player in the region.
11:22They do not want to give that up.
11:23I think we are going to see them being fine with kicking the can down
11:28the road and sort of pushing this deal to take a break and to rebuild
11:37whatever they have left of their military and regather their pretty much decimated command and
11:44control structure and their disorganized military operations.
11:47So they're definitely going to be using this time to sort of restructure in case
11:57they feel that they need to move forward militarily again.
12:02In terms of the United States side, if you're serious about a negotiation, you're not
12:10always going to get 100 % of what you want.
12:14And I do think President Trump has been very clear about saying that Iran Iran
12:19can never be allowed to get a nuclear weapon.
12:23And I just think on the flip side, Iran is never going to 100 %
12:30stop pursuing it. They're going to always want to maintain enough uranium that they can
12:38stay a threat in the region for their own survival.
12:41And so maybe, maybe in the deal, they may come up with something that looks
12:46good on paper. But in reality, I don't see Iran actually disarming any of their
12:53nuclear ambitions. Yeah, this is the problem that as I see it, that we run
12:57into over and over. And that is, the Trump administration has said that regime change
13:02is not the goal. And I can buy that fine.
13:05I think that that was like, considered a bonus if they could get that.
13:09But fine, if they didn't go in just for regime change, I can accept that.
13:14But they're saying that in Iran that can never go nuclear, and now we're back
13:19to negotiating with them over this, I don't see a world in which we're able
13:23to punish that concession out of them.
13:27And this doesn't, I feel like I get a lot of people that want success
13:32here, and I certainly want success here.
13:34But they feel like that's being a doubting, doubting Thomas at the phrase, that's like
13:38not not giving Trump the faith that he deserves on this issue.
13:42But I feel like the Iran from the Iranian perspective, they were able to create
13:46a lot of a lot of problems with the Strait of Hormuz.
13:51And they know it's a more of a political and economic problem than a military
13:54one. But that that matters to here in America, those things matter here in America.
13:58And I don't see a world in which they're able to actually punish them to
14:03the point where they're going to say, because remember, it's not just agreeing, right?
14:06Trump's not an idiot. He knows that for them to agree would mean, it means
14:10removing the enriched uranium, which I think they absolutely will not do.
14:13It means giving free reign to inspections over a period of time for us and
14:18for some international body maybe to go and inspect what they absolutely will not like.
14:23They're not going to agree to things that we can hold them to account on
14:26that would actually end their nuclear program.
14:28So this is I think that we're hoping that they've been punished so much that
14:32they're going to concede on that.
14:33But, Amber, I don't see it.
14:35And I'm somebody who from the beginning was like regime change not happening, just not
14:39happening. And once you start talking about opening a second front with the Kurds, I'm
14:42like, oh, I remember this in Iraq like this.
14:44The Kurds are not about to take over Iran for us.
14:46This is crazy talk. Yeah, I just I think that I completely agree with you.
14:54I do not think that what has happened so far is going to bring them
15:00to the table the way that we want them to.
15:03I think that they I mean, you've seen the difference between the 15 point plan
15:07and the 10 point plan and the stark differences between those.
15:12And it's I mean, we'll have to see in the coming days in terms of
15:16what they're able to negotiate it down to.
15:19But I do not. What it comes down to is Iran's the regime's survival.
15:26And they know that they don't stand a chance.
15:30I mean, look at who their neighbor is with Israel.
15:33They are not going to give up what they view as their strength as being,
15:42you know, top top of the food chain in the Middle East.
15:46And so I don't think that I think they'll talk about it.
15:49But I mean, I don't know.
15:52I think reality wise, I don't think Iran is going to come to the table
15:57with what we need to agree to some sort of a deal.
16:01Yeah, I think everyone needs to be prepared for this, too.
16:04But you said this early on and I we haven't coordinated on this beforehand, but
16:08I've been saying in two weeks and I maybe there is a poly market bet
16:13on this because I think I think it would be a pretty sound bet in
16:15two weeks when the deadline is up.
16:18What we'll be told is we've made a lot of.
16:20progress the negotiations will continue and and the second you hear that when you're dealing
16:25with iran and this regime that's where they want to be they want to be
16:30in the okay let's keep talking and talking and they're going to do whatever they
16:33want in the background that they can get away with that they're capable of doing
16:36they're going to do whatever they want and we're going to talk talk talk and
16:39they know that for then us to for trump to turn around and start bombing
16:44the hell out of them again and doing all this stuff there's going to have
16:47to be some you know igniting point of of disagreement or some incident so they'll
16:53just avoid giving us that so i i i'm worried that this turns into a
16:57game and uh and that that's where this is going to head for them yeah
17:00and i think that we've seen this before this is not something new we've been
17:05dealing with iran and how they operate for decades now we've seen different administrations try
17:12to come to different deals uh and the reality is is that uh like you
17:18mentioned the sort of kick the can down the road strategy to keep talks going
17:22while behind the scenes they're enriching uranium they're you know building their military they're building
17:27their drone fleet they are fortifying their infrastructure so in future operations when if we
17:34do need to attack um you know they their their infrastructure and their military infrastructure
17:41is what i'm talking about is that much more hardened um and harder for our
17:46own military in terms of us trying to take some of those targets out so
17:50i mean it would be nice if they come to the table i just think
17:55you know looking back on history i think they are playing the game that they
17:59always play they wanted a break from the airstrikes uh and that is what they're
18:05getting right now pure talk is our sponsor here cell phone company i use is
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18:50buck now amber now that i've got you you got two kids you got two
18:54kids you have a dog right i have a bulldog you have an english bulldog
18:59okay questions for you now questions for you now because i feel like i might
19:05as well get all the knowledge from you that i can my wife is not
19:09a bulldog person i am i love the bulldogs huge fan of the bulldogs does
19:14the bulldog snore loudly enough that it keeps you up and is that something that
19:18we need to take into consideration i was just going to ask you if you
19:23like to sleep you already have a very young baby so i'm assuming that you're
19:27not that much sleep bulldogs are so loud they're such loud snores yes it sounds
19:35like there's like a man that's running through freight trains yeah it's oh gosh what's
19:43your bulldog's what's your bulldog's name so believe it or not my dog's name is
19:49kaiwa named after the helicopter i flew in the army kaiwa that's cool i mean
19:53that's that's legit yeah she's getting old though so i will say for like bulldog
19:58owners they have a short lifespan compared to other dogs so they really enter their
20:03sort of like like window at around eight years old so i feel like you
20:10know my parents i grew up with labs and they can make it to like
20:1315 plus but no english bulldogs um don't and mine's already eight and a half
20:19so but she's healthy as can be so we love her she's such a great
20:25family dog but if you're concerned about your sleep the snoring is real that's a
20:30real thing wow okay and then for for any of the parents out there who
20:34are relatively new parents like me this is really just self -serving but what is
20:37your favorite what is the thing that you would tell someone with a young kid
20:42uh you know a young child who's about to enter the toddler years what is
20:47like the lesson learned you know the after action report from the front lines of
20:52parenthood battlefield what do we need to know about toddlers or what's the advice about
20:57about toddlers that you would give to anybody listening who's in that situation so i
21:03will say something that i've learned over my years is just kids want to do
21:07everything you're doing take them with you i think i think a lot of times
21:12in our culture uh everyone's like oh keep your kids at home like get some
21:17help if you need to go out and do things like i have started traveling
21:21with my children significantly even when i'm by myself or if i have to do
21:25something professionally and i think it has broadened my children's horizons at such a young
21:32age and they've learned so much and just socially interacting with kids of all ages
21:37and adults and i think it really helps with them being well -rounded and they
21:43absolutely love it because they get to be with you and they get to learn
21:47new things and see new things and so my advice is bring them with you
21:52let them learn from life i like that we can end on that one that's
21:57a good one for everybody amber amber smith great to see you thank you for
22:01your service and thanks for joining thanks buck can't to heard you loud and clear
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