9, 12, 10, 28, 2, 23.

This is Deep State Radio, coming to you direct from our super secret studio in the third sub-basement of the Ministry of Snark in Washington, D.C., and from other undisclosed locations across America and around the world.

Hello and welcome to Deep State Radio. I'm David Rothkopf, your host, and this week

we have a special episode of Deep State Radio, because we're going to talk about breaking news

that's of great consequence with a great expert and friend General Mark Hurtling, former

commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, and also the author of a really moving and

compelling new book called If I Don't Return, a Father's Wartime Journal, which actually resonates with the news in some important ways.

So, first of all, Mark, welcome, and congratulations on the book.

Thank you, David. It's good to be back with you. And I hope you say hello to your wife as well,

with the chocolate chip cookies that my wife has been helping with.

Yeah, yes. Well, that's that I will pass that

although the cookie baker is my sister. It's not my, my wife is more she cuts them off of the

roll of cookies from the either. From the supermarket.

But in any event, I'm very, very grateful that you could take the time to join us.

I know you're very busy.

We're recording this on a Wednesday afternoon following a just extraordinary Tuesday here in the United States, which began a little after 8 a.m. yesterday with the President

of the United States threatening to wipe Iranian civilization, which has existed for something

in excess of 7,000 years, off the face of the earth. And then with the world holding its breath until the very last minute when last night,

a so-called deal between the United States and Iran to produce a two-week ceasefire was announced

and then almost immediately began to unravel. And as somebody

who spent a lot of your life in this part of the world, and dealing with situations like this,

I just, before I get into any sort of pithy questions, I'd just like to ask, what was your reaction to yesterday?

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