meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
The John Batchelor Show

1/4: The Shadow War: Iran's Quest for Supremacy Hardcover – by Brandon J. Weichert (Autho

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

News, Books, Society & Culture, Arts

4.62.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

1/4: The Shadow War: Iran's Quest for Supremacy Hardcover – 
by  Brandon J. Weichert  (Author)
1924


There has been an ongoing shadow war between the West and Iran, one that could explode and plunge the world into a third world war. The Biden Administration's move to make peace at any cost with the mad mullahs of Iran may be the very spark for a regional war that turns into a global conflict, the likes of which not seen since the 1940s.

As the Biden Administration pines for a return to the ill-fated Iran nuclear deal, Tehran makes ready to consolidate its growing power in the Middle East at America's expense. For the last decade, Iran has consistently expanded its own reach and influence across the region—all while judiciously building up its military capabilities. As America looks for a way out of the Middle East and a return to the Obama-era nuclear agreement, Iran enhances the ability of its terrorist proxies, like Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen, to threaten the security of Israel and to destabilize the Saudi regime.

Each time the Biden Administration signals its willingness to negotiate with Iran, Iran gets more aggressive. In the words of one Saudi official, Iran is a "paper tiger with steel claws." These steel claws have extended to encompass the whole region, and they include Iran's growing arsenal of complex drones, precision-guided munitions, EMP weapons, and their nuclear weapons arsenal.

Thankfully, there is a path forward for the United States and the solution can be found in the policies outlined by the previous Trump Administration; in the form of the Abraham Accords and daring "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran. But time is not on America's side. Should President Biden continue down the destructive, illusory path to "peace" with Iran, he will not only have abandoned America's long-standing allies, but he will have also helped to trigger the very conflict he seeks to avoid. After all, as Ronald Reagan once quipped, world wars do not start "because America is too strong." They start because the United States is deemed too weak by its rivals.

In The Shadow War: Iran's Quest for Supremacy, author Brandon Weichert explores how the next world war is unfolding right before our eyes and explains how the American government can avoid it while maintaining its position of strength and support for its allies.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchelor.

0:09.0

I welcome my colleague Brandon Wyckert.

0:13.0

His book, The Shadow War, Iran's quest for supremacy, takes us to November,

0:19.0

1978.

0:25.4

The ambassador to Iran is named William Sullivan.

0:26.9

He's a veteran ambassador.

0:32.7

He also has entangled himself through his career with black operations.

0:43.4

He knows and he understands how the U.S. can use its foreign policy both above board and below board to achieve ends for the people of the land.

0:44.6

He's in Iran.

0:48.5

He writes a memo called Thinking the Unthinkable.

0:55.0

That memo eventually comes to the attention of the President of the United States, James Carter, Jimmy Carter. I welcome Brandon to take us to that moment, thinking the unthinkable, why the ambassador

1:02.0

wrote it, and what Mr. Carter made of it the first time and then the second time.

1:07.0

Brendan, congratulations, good evening.

1:10.0

This is a detail that very much illustrates how the U.S. has been deeply involved in Iran's

1:17.6

faith, at least since the middle of the 20th century, if not before.

1:22.6

What was in that memo?

1:24.6

What did Mr. Carter think?

1:26.6

What happened? Good evening to you good evening john and

1:29.5

thank you for having me uh yeah william sullivan is one of those forgotten characters uh in the

1:35.4

the the sordid saga that was the iranian revolution basically sullivan was looking around

1:41.9

and he was watching the shah of Iran, who was old at that point.

1:46.4

He was sickly.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.