Bill Roggio
speaker
300 appearances
5 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 8 Aug
Bill Roggio’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
So, again, I don't want to come off as being an isolationist, but, you know, when you get stuck somewhere in the middle there, you know, you have you really have no hope, especially in a place like Washington.
well the trump administration i think is everyone should uh or should be very clear to everyone at this point really is looking to negotiate across the board in ukraine with russia um negotiate with the iranians negotiate with the syrians negotiate with the taliban idea with the taliban right we just had two american hostages released in exchange for the dropping of bounties
So I'm not surprised that President Trump believes that there's a lot of deals to be made out there. One of my concerns is that when you're dealing with the Putins and the Iranians of the world, they're not you're not dealing on a level playing field.
And I do hope he understands that, that you can't trust the Iranians and you can't trust the Russians when it comes to negotiations with as far as Iran goes. Look, I've always been very skeptical that the Israelis can pull off a strike deal. against Iran's nuclear program without significant U.S. support.
There's a lot that goes into hitting nuclear program like Iran's that's extensive with bunkers and facilities that are very deep underground, built in the mountains. It's not just fly a plane, drop a bomb and it's destroyed. You got to do Follow on strikes. You have to have search and rescue available. We go down. You got to be able to refuel those planes.
You got to be able to get the air, get the clear to go over the Saudis and the Jordanian airspace, et cetera, et cetera. It's a very complicated. I don't think this is something the Israelis can do on their own. So if the Trump administration, you know, if they were going to carry it out. They need American support, both political and military support to launch an effective strike.
And they have to do it effectively. They're really going to get one shot at this.
So I would say it's loose. The Iranians and its access of resistance, that includes Hezbollah, that includes the Iraqi and Syrian militias, that includes the Houthis, groups like Hamas. The Iranians are never going to ask these groups to do something. A, they don't believe, the Iranians don't believe that these groups can carry out, that includes the Houthis.
And if there's concern, so it's a back and forth. right the iranians have a good read on the capabilities of these groups what they can and can't get away with but if they're you know so if the the iranians are never going to order the houthis to do something but they can advise them they can encourage them they provide the weapons systems and the advisors so it's that sort of relationship and
As far as the Houthis go, this is one of the questions that I have. Are we dealing with a symptom of the disease or are we dealing with the cause? Striking at the Houthis, it's necessary. It's something we have to do. But if you really want the Houthis to stop... You hit the Iranians. You hit them hard. You make the Iranians pay.
You kill their IRGC operatives that are advisors and building weapons systems within Yemen and other places. And you also show the Iranians that they're weak at home. You pick targets inside of Iran. That's the real weakness of the Iranians is... And that's why they have this access of resistance. They have groups like the Houthis and Hezbollah. Because it's the way of projecting power.
But it also shows how weak they are. If they're shown to be weak at home, that is something that they can't tolerate. That is something that could really get them to force the Houthis and Hezbollah and Hamas to draw back. That could get the Iranians to order them. That's a situation where the Iranians feel they are truly threatened. These groups would comply with that.
What do you make of all of that? I don't think the Trump administration is going to get what it wants and what it needs. The problem with our negotiations in the past is it's decoupled Iran's nuclear program with its support for these militias across the Middle East or that access of resistance. That was one of the big problems with the JPCOA.
And I suspect that it's going to be a big problem with this. And also the Iranians. are going to try and run out the clock. They're going to string the U.S. along. They're going to say and do enough things to keep Trump advisors and particularly the State Department, which loves negotiations for the sake of negotiations. And that doesn't matter who is running the State Department.
It doesn't matter if it's a Republican or a Democratic administration. The State Department likes to talk for the sake of talking. That's what they're paid to do.
Yeah. I will say that the Trump administration does need to go through the process of talking to them. Right. I just hope they don't allow themselves. Absolutely. Right. They need to get to know and then do what it needs to do what they need to do. I just hope that they eventually recognize that they're being played.
Yeah, that's a great question. Honestly, it's all a matter of how President Trump wants to be perceived. Remember, he campaigned on no new wars. Now, striking at the Houthis is not a new war. It was an existing war. The Houthis were attacking U.S. warships, international shipping. So it was a continuation. So what he's doing, we can't proceed. Launching strikes on Iran would be perceived as such.
Does he want to go down that route? How desperate or how desirous is he of getting a deal to show that he's the dealmaker? Or how willing is he to walk away? You know, President Trump is it's very I find it. He's very uptight. He's the most typical person to read in Washington. You know, if this was the Biden administration, I could easily say a little talk for the sake of talking.
This will be strung out. President Trump could on a drop of a dime. He could either he could say, I've had enough and it's time for us to deal with this problem meaningfully. Or he could say, well, we're just going to continue negotiations. So, yeah, unfortunately, I wish I had a better answer for you.
Yeah, absolutely. And look, there's been times in my career where I could give you a definitive answer. When President Biden announced the withdrawal from Afghanistan, I was the guy who created that map that showed the Taliban taking over. I said day one, the Afghan government will be lucky to make it out by the end of the summer. They collapsed on August 15th.
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