Mark Dubowitz

So the 30s was this big debate between...

The those who saw the gathering storm of what was happening with Nazi Germany and those who wanted to keep America out.

And I think in some respects, it's like today with the contemporary reality with Khamenei is that because these isolationist voices were so prominent and so vocal and in some cases quite persuasive.

to American leaders, Hitler calculated that the United States would not enter the war.

And so he could do what Scott says.

He could focus on the Eastern Front.

He could gather his forces, and then he could do a kill shot on the Western democracies in Western Europe, and the United States would not intervene.

I mean, you're right.

The big mistake he makes is declaring war on the United States after Pearl Harbor.

But he believes all through the 30s and before Pearl Harbor that the isolationist voices are keeping FDR from entering the war, even while Churchill and the Brits and the French and others are imploring the Americans not only to just just to provide provide them with material support, with weapons so that they could hold hold on to the island and defend themselves.

And I think Hitler miscalculates.

In the same way, I think Khamenei miscalculates.

Khamenei heard the debate over the past number of years.

He believed that this sort of isolationist wing of the Republican Party, represented, I think, by Tucker Carlson and others who have been very anti-intervention with respect to Iran, I think he believed that that was the dominant voice within Trump's MAGA coalition, and that as a result, the United States would not use

military force.

So in the same way that Hitler miscalculated the influence of the isolationists on FDR, Khamenei misjudged the influence of the isolationists on Trump, and both ended up miscalculating to their great regret.

So to me, that's the sort of parallel between kind of World War II in the 30s and the prelude to World War II and what we're seeing in the current reality over the past few weeks.

And they were giving refuge to al-Qaeda.

And the CIA said, this is a key facilitation pipeline between Iran and al-Qaeda.

Key facilitation pipeline.