Bombs Away! - September 9, 2026

Ana Kasparian (0:14)

What's up, everyone, welcome to TYT, I'm your host Ana Kasparian. And not only are we going to dive into some foreign policy and international news today, we've got a big story regarding employees at various artificial intelligence companies. Blowing the whistle on just how dangerous this technology is. In fact, some of these employees have just quit their jobs in order to blow the whistle.

But we'll try to make sense of that story and more later on in the show. We're also going to talk a little bit about how much money President Donald Trump has made off of this war against Iran. I think this is an angle that isn't talked about enough. Obviously, we have lots of discussion here on TYT about the undue influence Israel has over our country.

We also talk about the impact of money in politics and how our private defense contractors are successful in persuading our lawmakers to go to war by just simply bribing them. But there's the other layer, the ongoing stock trading that takes place with not just members of Congress but President Trump as well. He's heavily invested in some of these oil companies, and I want to get into the numbers later. So definitely tune in, stay tuned for that. But let's actually start off with some of the updates regarding the ongoing war, which Trump doesn't want to call, but it's a war against Iran. Because after we ended the show yesterday, there was news of things escalating further. So let's get into it.

SPEAKER_2 (1:48)

The US military sinking an Iranian oil tanker near Karg Island in the Gulf of Oman. Look at right there. One of the five Iranian tankers hit yesterday in response to a series of failed attacks targeting US warships.

Donald Trump (2:01)

We've knocked out nine of their ships. I would say that the attacks are caused by us, yeah. And you're gonna see a lot more.

We've taken out about nine of their tankers. Many of them are gonzo.

Ana Kasparian (2:17)

What's also gonzo is lower gas prices, but we'll get to that in just a minute. First, some big updates in regard to the ongoing war against Iran. The United States bombed more Iranian oil tankers, as you just heard President Donald Trump brag about in that clip. While the IRGC absolutely retaliated with a heavy bombardment on US military bases in Jordan. Now, this is absolutely a hot war. Any way you cut it, at all signs, lead in the direction of a more aggressive Iran. So let's get into the details so you can understand why that's my take on where we currently stand here. Because since our last show yesterday, the US actually launched more air strikes against Iranian oil takers. And US officials who spoke to Fox News claimed that these strikes took place near Karg Island and near the Iranian port of Jask on the Gulf of Oman. Now obviously, I believe the United States is under the impression that by striking oil tankers, they are weakening Iran further economically speaking. And by squeezing Iran economically, the Trump administration is under the impression that they will bring the Iranian regime, as they call it, to their knees. But there is absolutely no indication. In fact, when you look at modern warfare, there has been absolutely no indication that using sanctions or squeezing a country economically leads them to concede or to bend to the will of the country they're at war with. And in fact, if you go back and study how Iran conducted warfare during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, you'll see that, well, Iran isn't a country that's easy to break. Even when you deploy literal chemical weapons, which is what was deployed with the help of the United States. We supplied Iraq with chemical weapons that were then used against the Iranians. And guess what? The IRGC is still in place. The system of government they have in Iran is still in place. The Iran-Iraq war did not break Iran. Now, going to the announcements by CENTCOM, they posted this just yesterday, noting that CENTCOM forces destroyed five Iranian crude oil carriers September 8th after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targeted a US. Navy warship with ballistic missiles twice over the past two days. We actually talked about that in depth on yesterday's show. Further, they write that the US warship successfully evaded the attempted Iranian attack and continued to patrol regional waters. No American personnel were harmed. Washington now says that despite what you heard from Trump claiming that we have destroyed nine Iranian tankers. Washington is now saying that 10 Iranian tankers were attacked over the last week.

Iranian media has acknowledged that at least one tanker was struck near Karg Island. But luckily, there were no casualties due to prior evacuation efforts. So Major General Ali Abdullahi, who is the chief of the general staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, said the following quote. The aggressive US. Army has taken Iranian oil tankers, has given Iranian, let me read that again, sorry. The aggressive US. Army has given Iranian oil tankers a warning to evacuate in order to attack them. So I declare that any attack on Iranian oil tankers will result in the targeting of US bases in the region by the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Meanwhile, the IRGC has provided statements of their own. The IRGC says that it attacked ten ships near the Strait of Hormuz, including two US vessels and eight tankers. The United States disputes Iran's claim that American warships were actually hit. At least one merchant seafarer has been killed and another is missing. So we are very much in the fog of war and it's unclear whether Iran succeeded in striking those US vessels. But there has been some indication that Iran caused some damage to our US military base in Jordan. In fact, there is a video right now going viral showing, okay, what you're looking at right now is the missile interceptors intercepting the Iranian missiles above Jordan. And this is really important to point out, guys, because I believe that Iran's strategy here, knowing that the United States is running out of Patriot missiles, interceptor missiles, they are trying to push the United States to further deplete what is left of their inventory or their arsenal of these interceptors. And so they carry out this heavy bombardment of Jordan, the US and Jordan deploy the interceptor missiles, which of course, is a finite resource that we are running low on. And so it'll eventually get to the point where the US., it's a game of chicken and it's also a game of waiting. And it seems like Iran has a lot more patience because they are more prepared militarily speaking. They're able to produce these missiles, they're able to produce these drones. They're able to carry out a bombardment like they did over the sky in Jordan. And these interceptor missiles have to be deployed in order to intercept them. Jordan says that they intercepted 18 out of 20 missiles. Although if you take a look at this next video, you will see at least four missiles make contact. They did not get intercepted.