US on Collision Course Over Iran: Retired US Marine Colonel

And with the U.S. military buildup around Iran, is a military strike imminent? Joining me to discuss the latest developments is retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel William Dunn. Colonel William Dunn, thank you so much for joining us. Well hey Jack, thanks for having me. I appreciate you bringing me on today. Now Colonel, there's a large-scale buildup of U.S. military forces around Iran. The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier is in the region. We also have Secretary of State Marco Rubio is going to be traveling to Israel next week. Given all that we've seen so far, how close are we to a potential U.S. military strike on Iran? Well, I think we're poised for it right now. And I believe the strike or strikes could happen at any moment. Our forces will strike if required at the time and place of our choosing. And I am certain that the men and women out there on the front lines are ready to execute as soon as the president or as soon as they're directed to do so. Is it inevitable? Nothing's inevitable, but I think that right now we are on a collision course that will most likely happen, at least at some level. There's some indications and warning that I've seen by talking to some of the folks that we work with that tells me that the stage is set. And if an action from the Iranian regime is probably the only thing that could change that course, and ideally, they will leave and leave peacefully and abandon their nuclear aspirations. If they do that, I believe we can prevent hostility. Now, if the U.S. does strike Iran, how would they be able to do so without it turning into a prolonged war? It depends what the objectives of the president are. He's clearly stated two objectives, and the primary one is no nuclear weapons, period, no ability to enrich uranium. So, that's objective one. And then I believe, although it hasn't officially been stated, that the second objective is regime change or collapse of the current regime. The problem is when that happens, you have potential humanitarian crisis, you have a power vacuum in the area, and you have to fill that vacuum with either an interim government that is trustworthy to the Iranian people, so that a revolt does not take place, and an interim government that can work with the rest of the Middle East and work with the U.S. in trying to restore and maintain security and order for what I would consider the future Iranian regime and for the future Iranian people. Yeah, but before that happens, not only the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem has just been issued a partial evacuation, but we've also seen one in Beirut, Lebanon. Iran also has ballistic missiles that threaten the U.S. bases and partners in the region. There's also, like you said, the Iranian citizens who are currently being suppressed and killed by the regime. Does a U.S. strike pose a safety risk to them? Well, anytime you bring in weapons of any kind, there is a risk to people on the ground, whether they're enemy and or friendly. There's always a concern of collateral damage. We devise and design plans to reduce collateral damage. So if you're dropping a weapon into a country, it's very difficult to stop an injury or a death on the ground that's not intended. We try it. We try hard. It's something that the Americans do. I know it's something the Israelis do. It's not something that our enemies do. They do not care. I fought in Iraq. They don't care if they kill civilians. They don't even care if sometimes they kill their own civilians while trying to take out American troops. I believe we'll see the same in Iran. I think if there were any coalition of any kind of troops there, Iran would not care if they kill their own people. They've proven that, right? They've killed over 30,000 of them in protest. So that's not an issue for them. It's a huge issue for us. And our men and women that are fighting will always try to prevent and reduce any civilian casualties. That's just what we do. I want to switch topics here a bit. But this week, we have the U.S. DOJ arrested a former U.S. Air Force officer and fighter jet pilot by the name of Gerald Eddie Brown Jr. He allegedly spent years in China since 2023, just until February when he flew back here, training the Chinese military pilots. Now, Colonel Dunn, you were a commander in Iraq and a combat pilot. How serious are these allegations for our national security? They're extremely serious. And I don't know the details other than what we've seen on the open source. It's very clear in the State Department, there are very clear requirements and regulations and rules. Our company is an international company, and we must follow those rules. It's very clear. You do not do certain things with other countries, not just China, but any country. I am certain that what this individual did, if he's being arrested for it, breached what's called ITAR rules. And if he's done that, then he needs to face the penalty of the law. I don't know what level he was training people over there. To me, it seems at least, in my opinion, any American that's going to go train and work with our adversary and train them on combat systems is probably treasonous. I don't know if that's the charges they're looking at. It disturbs me that any American military person would go work directly for our adversaries, potentially teaching them how to kill Americans. And just for our understanding here, why is it important to protect this information, no matter how much or little he may have known, from the American military flight tactics? Doesn't the CCP have fighter pilots that can figure this stuff out on their own? Well, we never want to give them any advantage, right? We did a lot of training with friends of ours in Kuwait, right? And they're friends of ours. Even with our friends, they don't give us their tactics and we don't give them our tactics. Not specifically, right? So even though they're our friends, they're our allies, and when we're training with our allied forces, we don't always share every single aspect of our capabilities, and they don't either. You never want to have an American trained pilot or any kind of warrior training the enemy to fight us, because they do know our secrets. And the other thing that's very important to understand, and I am not implying that this happened, but each pilot has some level of understanding of security clearances and security requirements. If he divulged any of that information, especially on different aircraft that we train and know, that can be very deadly and hurt our pilots and put them at risk, for sure. Colonel William Dunn, thank you for sharing your insights with us. Really appreciate it. Well, hey, Jack, thanks so much for having me and have a wonderful weekend.