lieutenant army colonel james carafano.s sherman was at state department whenna al-amiri visid the white house, he was a leader, there he -- that is not him. you see him in the background, they swing around. he is on the right side of the picture. he was actually there this week, at the embassy with the thugs that were trying to invade the embassy, doesn't that sort of take away miss sherman's bragging rights with this. >> look. you know bad middle east policy like original sin, everyone president has something. why could iran do what they did. not just in attacking the embassy but having their militia attack u.s. forces over last year, u.s. forces in iraq at invitation of iraqi government, to help iraqi people, that happened because now for almost a decade iran has been infiltrating in to iraq, buying militia and politicians and government officials, they unleash that against the united states that did not happen on president trump's watch, that building up that aggressive capability, that happened before president trump c

i want to bring in james carafano. lieutenant colonel james carafano. title right, sir. let me ask you for your take on this. our latest reports, from our reporter that is out in the field is that six missiles have landed. the ap out of iran is reporting, you know, again coming from inside of iran, so it can be propaganda, they were saying tens of surface-to-surface missiles being lobbed at the air force base where the american troops are. what is your take on this? >> well, first thing, that the u.s. will want to do is confirm it, missiles were actually fired from iranian territory. that would be a real prove vision. ir-- [inaudible]. you remember they fired a bunch of missiles and drones at oil infrastructure in saudi arabia but that was not aimed at americans. this target is aimed at americans, if it did come from iranian soil it would be escalatory provocation. melissa: this is tweet two the irgc. it says brave soldiers of irgc aerospace unit launched a successful attack with tens of ballistic missiles on al-asad base in name of martyr of qassem sol

army colonel lieutenant james carafano of the heritage foundation. your reaction to this?the u.s. and other developed countries are in pretty good shape. it is called ring containment. if you have a case, outbreak, isolate them i think you can do a relatively competent job keeping them contained. here is the real problem scenario. the chinese have workers all over the world. say you go to a place without a really developed health care system and good infrastructure like sudan. if it gets there, it will get everywhere. that is the real problem. liz: that is an important point. it took sars up to three months to come close to the fatalities reporting from the coronavirus in less than one month. cases in china are exploding higher than haven't all number of cases in sars last decade. in the end sars head 17 countries. it is now in 19 countries the coronavirus. basically the cold spring harbor lab reports that the super spreaders one person can potentially spread the virus to three orfy. your reaction to all of that? >> here is what i don't know the state of chinese health car

james carafano with us, heritage foundation guy. lion middle east peace plan, israel/palestinian plan. $50 billion going in there. the palestinians are having none of it. mahmoud abbas is not going to be there. he's not being involved in this. doesn't sound like there's much chance of success on this thing. >> three reasons why the u.s. government is doing this and why it makes perfect sense. one is, this is a plan that's really designed to bypass the islamic jihad and go to the palestinian people and say look, guys, your life sucks, you could have a much better life if you throw these yahoos out and partner with the israelis in a real economy in a real country. that coupled with pressuring on the iranians and breaking their stranglehold and influence creates a potential at some point down the line this might create momentum. that's one. the second is you want to bring together the entire middle east to focus on iran. solving the palestinian peace process doesn't do that, but demonstrating that you are engaged in the region and are a

one of other top storieses downed uranium airliner, i'm joined by retired lieutenant colonel james carafanorom the heritage foundation. good to have you on the program. you heard all indications, from canadian prime minister justin trudeau, various intelligence sources it may have been inadvertently downed by a iranian surface-to-air missile. iran still denying it. >> that makes perfect sense. the smart or appropriate move, during the strike, if the iranians had shut down the airspace and grounded planes. they knew it wasn't a secret. americans knew about it. they notified iraqis ahead of time. they had plenty of time to ground airspace but they didn't do that. iranian government structure, one half of the government doesn't talk to the other half of the government. no surprise guys running civilian airspace may have been in the dark about this and didn't know this was even coming. >> if you're a relative of the 176 on board and one of your family members were kildee spite the fact missiles were launched into iraq, yet planes were still allowed to take off it makes no sense. >> it doesn't a

james carafano on the phone, security expert. ts to de-escalate and keep maximum pressure against iran. does that meet with your approval, james? >> absolutely. ironically, the iranians have already de-escalated. i know it doesn't sound like it, shooting missiles, but basically they just wasted missiles. [ inaudible ] essentially the americans knew this was coming so you listen to the iranian speech, we're done here, we are not going to attack back, but clearly iranians are sending a huge de-escalation signal. i think the president has picked up on that. stuart: could you say this is a trump win? >> this is like a trump home run. not only has he knocked it out of the park, he truly makes the iranians look stupid. this kind of face-saving fireworks display, nobody is fooled by it. not only does he make the iranians look stupid but his critics look like complete and utter idiots. i mean, they are desperately, you know, bringing out the same old tired way to criticize trump, he's irresponsible, a warmonger, an isolationist, he hasn't

. >> harris: retired army lieutenant colonel james carafano, vice president for the heritage foundationstitute for national security and foreign policy. good to have you on the program. i want to start with how much we are seeing and hearing from the ayatollah, how significant is that? >> that is huge. he has not been to public prayers according to sources, and eight years. so, him coming to public prayers in making this declaration, this seems to be all about domestic iranian politics, not really about the confrontation with the united states. it is him trying to put a strong face on the administration and on his government, and really saying, we are the ones speaking for the iranian people. look, he would not be doing that if they weren't really, really nervous about the level of anger and mistrust inside iran today. >> harris: how is that level of anger and mistrust in iran. by the way their inflation is 47%. those three days after general soleimani was killed by her u.s. forces drone, them minute all of that in the streets backed off, they went back to the realities of their economy

me now is vice president of national security and foreign policy for the heritage foundation, james carafanoyou think the reception for president trump will be this year? >> i think they understand president trump. remember, he's been the president for three years now and i think the world community has figured out how to deal with him. he does come in with a strong position. he didn't just do two trade deals, the u.s., canada, mexico is the largest, most important trading block in the world deal and he wrestled china, one of the world's largest economy, those are bigger than a bread box deals, that's got to give him a lot of street cred. lauren: and a trade truce with the french president when it comes to taxes and the like. he is making arrangements with many trading partners in the world. he tweeted that he aims the to bring good policy and additional hundreds of billions of dollars back to the united states of america. do you think that world leaders and other countries are going to want to do business with the united states? >> well, i think clearly now if you look -- just look at the n

retired general james carafano joins us now. good morning, james. >> good to be with you. >> ed: was her since big picture about the fact that both these men, both president trump and the prime minister, have political problems back home and would prefer to be talking about this big plan? >> well, that is one of the reasons why the timing on this is good. there's lots of reasons to put this plan out right now. actually getting pieces of one of them. one of the most important things is that shows the united states is a strong supporter of israel. that is our mos valuable ally ie region. send the message of the arab countries that the united states is here to stay, we are not leaving. that strengthens our hand. it also puts pressure on the islamic jihad, hamas, because it is going right to the palestinian people and saying, "the problem is the people governing you. if you get rid of them he could have a much better future." when you add in the pressure we are putting on the iranians, because these guys are surrogates of the iranian

james carafano wrote that headline and james joins us now. tell us why did they retreat?as it the threat of more air strikes? >> yeah, we don't know. i got the same information that you have. all we know is what we, the reporting we got on the ground. we have seen two things -- a couple things. one, we see the iraqi government come out and say they are going to take responsibility. we have seen photos of iraqi security forces deploying. we see at least 100 u.s. marines move into the compound and more on the way. then we see these guys leave. that's all we know. stuart: okay, but could we say that president trump is most unwilling to go to war in a military engagement with iran? he will take precautions but won't go to war? is that the message here, too? >> i think that's right. i think that's very consistent with this president, where he doesn't -- he doesn't respond to provocations. on the other hand, you touch an american citizen or soldier, the u.s. takes an action but the actions tend to be proportional response, essentially retaliating for that, not in an escalatory

. >> laura: i want to play, just so people know what we're talking about here, for james carafano, democrats repeating this mantra about the president acting implicitly and explicitly, they said, illegally. watch. >> i don't believe the president has authority to go to war in iraq without congressional dairy approval. >> he says they do. >> i don't believe that. >> no consultation with congress, that is a violation of the work consultation act. >> you are 1 of 3 democrats who have been briefed after the fact. >> after the fact. >> there is usually a congressional consulting period. it is constitutionally required constitutionally required. >> laura: did they care when obama was droning everyone and their dog? >> chuck schumer is the master of disinformation. he knows the u.s. is not seeking to go to war with iraq. what he is complaining against is not what the u.s. is doing. 2002, military force, that is what bush, obama have operated in, it's exactly the same. even if it wasn't, when american troops are imminently in danger of attack, has the right to authorize self-defense. >> that is abso