John Kiriakou

Because at that point, they've won.

The United States already is the only country in the history of the planet to use a nuclear weapon, and we've done it twice.

If we did it a third time or allowed the Israelis to do it, I mean, that's going to be the end of the American empire.

It really would be.

We have a satirical paper here in the United States called The Onion.

a very funny newspaper.

And they had a headline last week, Chinese happy to sit back and watch U.S.

destroy itself.

And that's really, I think, what we're seeing right now.

Almost none.

Of course, Australia is a member of Five Eyes like the United States is along with Canada, the UK and New Zealand.

You know, I never visited Australia while I was with the CIA, never came a single time.

I can count my meetings with Australian intelligence officials on these two fingers over the course of a 15 year career.

But, you know, it was always my understanding that the Australians were far more interested in China than they were in the area where I was, whether it was, you know, European.

It's quaint now, but European communist terrorism or the Middle East.

I just never really encountered them.

If I were in a position where my opinion actually had some heft behind it,

I would say, ignore this 5% number.

It's economically untenable over the long term.

You know, it's funny, when President Trump was in his first term, there was only one country in NATO besides the United States that spent 2% of GDP on defense.