We've talked about American trustworthiness in future negotiations.

We've talk about how this could impact other conflicts as other world leaders.

Watch this. You know, we saw what happened in

Afghanistan and it had a knock on effect in other places.

A lot of leaders possibly with Putin making the decision to go into Ukraine.

What does this conflict do for other conflicts around the world?

Oh, I think, you know, watching this, I was reminded of the winter of 2021,

2022, when the U.S. was trying to engage with Russia

diplomatically for months, going back and forth in diplomatic negotiations

over Ukraine. I was there in Geneva with Blinken and

Lavrov when he still had a job. There you go.

Right. And the Russians were saying people were

saying the Russians are negotiating in good faith.

They're going to invade anyway. And the Russians said, no, we have no

plans. We have no plans to invade Ukraine.

We really are trying to, you know, and Ukraine cannot be a naito.

They can just not be a naito. We're negotiating in good faith.

And it turned out, no, they were not. This was just a way to it, like a box

ticking exercise. They were going to invade anyway.

And I can't help but be reminded of that this morning, that these negotiations,

it seemed like were you know, they were asking the impossible of Iran while

building up these forces in the region. Kind of like China time.

Yeah, but like Chekhov's gun you know like if you if you put that stuff there,

it has to go off, right? You have to you have to use it.

And yes, buying time because of course our resources were stretched thin.

The the air carrier, the aircraft carrier, Gerald Ford was in Venezuela.

We've been a little busy in Venezuela. Yeah.

And it needed time to get to the Middle East.

So because the president wants to be seen as a man of action, wants to think

of himself as a man of action. We've been two months without military

intervention. You know, it's a long time.

It's funny you mention I talk I was talking to a Republican who was on the

National City Council in the first Trump administration, and he said to me, this

is why you don't move your firepower to Venezuela, because you can't take your

eye off the Middle East because you always need that firepower in the Middle

East. I look at this statement that we're

getting right now from Emmanuel Macron of France Chancellor Friedrich Mertz and

Prime Minister Keir Starmer in reaction to all of this, condemning the military

action that Iran has taken in the past, but noting we did not participate in

these strikes but are in close contact with our international partners.

And Julia, on that point, I'm curious how you see what's happened here

reverberating around European capitals. And again, we had hoped to bring you on

here to talk about Ukraine on the fourth anniversary of the invasion there.

Still very much Europe's focus now having to navigate this one in which the

US not unilaterally, but with Israel, has gone about and made this attack.

Well, I think to me that was one of the hints that Trump was going to do this

anyway, because a lot of our European partners and allies do still have

contacts with the Iranian regime, do have diplomatic a diplomatic presence in

Iran. And we could have them act as our

proxies and have for years. Exactly.

And we could have used their help in this if we had been actually

negotiating. And I think this is yet another

sidelining of Europe, another kind of trying to relegate them to irrelevance.

I think this administration sees them as weak and feckless and probably

effeminate, given how this administration tends to view things.

And as for our allies, I think it's interesting that the Saudis came out and

said they support this, the Canadians, the Canadians as well.

Mark Carney has been very critical of the president of a statement in front of

me saying he supports the U.S. acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a

nuclear weapon and preventing its regime from further threatening international

peace and security. So I think what I think is interesting

here. CARNEY you remember he spoke at Davos

and said we're basically out of this. You guys have been using our alliance as

a tool against us. We're out of Pax Americana, essentially

peace guys, but now they're on board. The Australians are on board.

And I think what this is the signal this is likely sending to Trump is, yeah,

these guys talk a big game, but they're still going to support us anyway.

And I think this is just just like Venezuela reinforced this, just like his

airstrikes in Iran in June reinforced this idea is that he can get away with

things. If he just pushes hard enough, people

will go along with it no matter what.