Out For Blood - July 20, 2026

**Dr. Elliott Morgan** (0:14)
Hi everybody, welcome to The Young Turks. My name is Dr. Elliott Morgan filling in today. So thank you to everybody at TYT for having me, but I'm not alone. I'm also with the fantastic, hilarious, and lovely Sharon Reed. Sharon, how was your weekend?

**Sharon Reed** (0:30)
It's great, it's great hearing you say doctor as well. I'm just a regular gal, nothing before my name, but I'm just in awe.

**Dr. Elliott Morgan** (0:41)
Thank you, you were one of the first ones. You called me doctor way before I actually got the degree. So it's like you knew somehow, it's psychic almost you could say.

**Sharon Reed** (0:49)
That's right, that's right, let's go with that.

**Dr. Elliott Morgan** (0:51)
Yeah, all right, well, we have many stories to get into today, folks, so let's dive in.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:58)
Being an American means something unbreakable. If you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on Earth, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation, and we will kill you.
President Trump has also been very consistent. Crazy regimes like Iran, hell bent on prophetic Islamist delusions, cannot have nuclear weapons.

**Dr. Elliott Morgan** (1:26)
So those comments were made back in March, but Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell decided to repost it following news that multiple US service members were killed as strikes between Iran and the US continue to escalate. It's weird how war just kind of tends to do that. This also proves once again that at least for this administration, the whole bloodlust thing is just not going to get old anytime soon. Two US service members were killed Friday while defending against an Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack in Jordan. And another service member is missing US Central Command said Saturday. Four other American service members were medically evacuated to hospitals in Jordan but have since been discharged, Cenk Kam said. Other personnel who were evaluated for minor injuries have returned to duty. Also Cenk Kam did announce that on Sunday they found unidentified remains at the location of the strike. However, they have yet to confirm that those remains actually belong to the missing soldier and that's not all. Separately, a US service member in northern Iraq was killed in action July 18th during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordinance from a downed Iranian one way attack drone. A second service member was wounded and continues to receive medical treatment for a minor injury. The service member killed during the disposal of an Iranian drone in Iraq on Saturday. It was not a bomb technician, but another soldier who was hit by debris or fragments when the drone was detonated according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
So if you are keeping track, that means there have been at least 18 deaths of US service members since the war with Iran began on February 28th. It's also important to note that that number is very likely way too low. Because according to the New York Times, even before Friday's strike in Jordan, Iran launched three other attacks that week, injuring dozens of troops and damaging US helicopters. So of course, the US government responded the only way the US government knows how to respond, which is just more strikes. Then Khan said US forces struck Iranian military surveillance and air defense facilities, maritime assets, and missile and drone storage sites. The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Sunday that it was investigating reports of an overnight attack on the construction site of Iran's planned Darkovin nuclear power plant. But the strikes actually go well beyond what they were actually intended to target with Iranian civilians noting that roads and other civilian infrastructure are getting absolutely destroyed.
At a time when temperatures are running over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, Residents are dealing with daily power cuts and water outages every other day. Reza, 50 year old retiree in Bushra province said, much of the world is so immersed in their own lives, he said, that the destruction happening in Iran no longer seems important to them. It also doesn't seem like anything is going to be slowing down anytime soon. If anything, things are very likely to escalate. In a Truth Social post this morning, Trump issued a very serious warning to Iran.
He wrote, every time Iran kills an American soldier, they will pay for that killing many times over. This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, General Cain, and every leader in the military, President Donald J Trump. Now according to the New York Times, the US is also preparing to send even more warplanes as part of further escalation. Air Force F-16 fighter jets from Germany and stealthy F-35 jets from Britain were being sent to the Middle East according to officials who were not authorized to publicly discuss operational matters. Additional aerial refueling aircraft were also on the way, which does kind of bring up the question, why would we need to send even more fighter jets if we actually obliterated the Iranian military? Interesting, and it does seem that not only we're not the only ones asking that question because even Maria Bartiromo seems to be a little bit confused.