#289 Michael Lester - Is the United States Going to War with Iran For Israel?

**Michael Lester** (0:01)
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**Shawn Ryan** (0:31)
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**SPEAKER_3** (1:05)
Michael Lester, didn't expect to see you so soon.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:08)
Yeah, I didn't expect to be back so soon, but thank you.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:12)
Well, surprise, we're at war again.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:15)
Yeah, wow.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:16)
And so, repeat guest, we had you on about a month ago, and you had just written the book, We Are the Bad Guys, phenomenal episode. I've been wanting to, I've really been wanting to tap into the Israeli influence over the United States, but I wanted to find the perfect guest for it. I think you were it, and had a fascinating discussion, I think a lot of people found very interesting. And now we're at war with Iran, and it's looking like, might be Israeli influence. So, I thought you'd be the perfect guest to come back. I wanted to let the Iran war kind of develop a little bit before I just start talking like everybody else. And so, now I think is the time to dive in.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:04)
Perfect.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:05)
Before we get too far into it, let me give you a quick introduction. Michael Lester, a decorated US. Marine Corps combat pilot, graduate of the US. Naval Academy and member of Mensa, masters in electrical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School and an MBA. Served across Asia and the Middle East as a combat pilot and later taught both electrical engineering and leadership at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. You now teach graduate level cybersecurity as an adjunct professor at St. Mary's University in Wake Forest University, and run your own family and personal information protection company, IronClad Family. Spent 20 years investigating US foreign policy after what you saw overseas didn't match what you were told back home. That investigation became your book, We Are the Bad Guys, How the US. Wages War Controls Economies and Calls It Freedom. We're bringing you back because the world just changed. Operation Epic Fury kicked off on February 28th, and your book reads like it predicted the playbook. But yeah, we were just chatting right before the interview started about how is anybody keeping up with all this stuff? I mean, it's just developing so fast, and the geopolitical spectrum is just, it's going, did you see this stuff in Cuba?

**SPEAKER_4** (3:31)
I did. You know what? And again, like we talked about before, all of this is a pattern.
I mean, you know, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, it's all part of the same pattern. It doesn't surprise me. On one hand, it doesn't surprise me. On the other hand, you have to scratch your head and go, what? Why? Why are we doing this? Because it doesn't make sense, at least not from an American point of view as a country. It's like, as a country, why do we do this as a country?

**SPEAKER_3** (4:09)
I don't think any of it makes sense. I mean, Hegseth said, what, back was it June, that we had completely obliterated the enriched uranium facilities. I mean, I got the quote here, we'll get into it later. Now, here we are in a war.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:29)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:30)
And the other thing is, now we're talking about Cuba. We snatched Maduro out of Venezuela.
Are we stretching ourselves a little thin here? We still have Ukraine, Russia going on. I mean, where the fuck are we going to get all these resources? Our munitions are low. Israel's munitions are also low. So why would they, I mean, I think we know why they would invoke this.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:53)
Right.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:53)
But anyways, we'll get into all this stuff. First thing I saw this morning, my good friend Joe Kent resigned.

**SPEAKER_4** (5:03)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_3** (5:04)
And I want to read, I thought his statement was really good. And, you know, I've been really hoping that somebody of somebody notable in this administration would make a statement and resign.