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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep354: SEGMENT 6: ESCALATION TOWARD IRANIAN LEADERSHIP Guest: General Blaine Holt (USAF, Ret.) Holt outlines concentric circles of escalation targeting Iranian leadership if conflict erupts. Discussion covers strike planning that moves progressively toward regim

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2026

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

SEGMENT 6: ESCALATION TOWARD IRANIAN LEADERSHIP Guest: General Blaine Holt (USAF, Ret.) Holt outlines concentric circles of escalation targeting Iranian leadership if conflict erupts. Discussion covers strike planning that moves progressively toward regime centers of power. China's evacuation planes positioning near Iran suggest Beijing anticipates potential conflict and prepares to extract its nationals from the region.

1850 BRUSSELS

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm John Batchel, my colleague General Blaine Holt, United States Air Force, retired, the podcaster,

0:21.8

importantly, dangerous intellectuals. A man who can read is dangerous. I agree, Plain. It always has been.

0:31.2

However, Blaine has number 19 up right now, and I recommend highly because he's not only a careful reporter, he's a very

0:39.6

spooky narrator, and I recommend it. Always sounds like I'm about to hear something I shouldn't

0:45.2

as it starts. Number 20 is coming next week, and that has someone who's anonymous.

0:51.0

Blaine and I move around people who are careful not to be in the news.

0:56.0

That's just what they do.

0:58.1

Good for them.

0:59.0

And we don't put them on air.

1:00.1

We don't talk about them.

1:01.3

Every once in a while it happens.

1:03.2

We now move to the question, well, what are you going to bomb?

1:06.7

I thought this is already reduced with no air defense after the B2 raid after the Israeli attack last summer.

1:14.5

Theoretical, what would it look like with this amount of firepower plane?

1:19.7

So, you know, we talked before about the rings or what the warden's rings of concentric rings

1:27.3

where you start at the outward levels,

1:30.3

infrastructure, power, water, grid, and you move your way in until you're actually getting to

1:35.5

command and control and then the leadership at the center.

1:38.9

And so, again, we don't want to take this war away from the Iranian people.

1:42.8

It's their war to fight and win.

1:44.4

But what we want to do is have targeting sets that increase the cost in position to the regime and tips the scales at wherever we can in favor of the Iranian people.

1:56.7

An example of that would be, let's say you had the besiege.

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