During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Army officials about the United States' capacity to beat Iran in a war.
00:00Senator Graham, followed by Senator Baldwin, and then Senator Moran.
00:05Thank you both. Good morning. Thank you both.
00:08The FY25 Army budget was $185.9 billion.
00:14Mr. Secretary, that's a lot of money, right?
00:18It is.
00:19Yeah. Well, I think we need more, and I think most of us up here understand that.
00:23Budgets need to be based on threats.
00:27So let's walk through the threat matrix real quick to America and see if we need more spending on the military list.
00:34Putin, is there any indication, General, that Putin's going to stop his effort to dismember Ukraine anytime soon?
00:45Well, I mean, it's hard for me to predict anything, but I would say right now what we're seeing—
00:49Well, let's go last night was the biggest attack on Kiev, and they killed an American citizen.
00:55So as of last night, he doesn't seem to be willing to stop, does he?
00:59Yes, you're right, Senator.
01:00Yeah, I hadn't seen any intel.
01:02I mean, does anybody up here think that he's slowing down?
01:05I don't.
01:06So we spent a lot of our ordinance and military equipment to help Ukraine, right, Mr. Secretary?
01:15We did.
01:16And the reason we're doing that, so that we don't get in a war with Putin, you know, if he gets to NATO country, we're in a war with Russia, right?
01:25We're trying to stop him now.
01:28I believe that was the theory of the case.
01:31Yeah, well, that's the good theory of the case.
01:33So if Putin's not slowing down, it seems to me we're going to be needing to help Ukraine more and be sending a deterrent message to Putin.
01:45Let's go to Iran as a threat metrics.
01:49How would you rate Iran's threat to the United States, General George?
01:54I would rate the threat as more, you know, there's a couple regional, I think is the biggest to our interests that are out in the Middle East with the troop concentrations that we have there, other interests and partners and allies.
02:14Do you know what November the 4th is in Iran?
02:18Do you know?
02:18It's Death to America Day.
02:21In 1987, Iran made November the 4th Death to America Day.
02:26That's a hint what they think about us.
02:29Do you believe, Mr. Secretary, that President Trump is right to say no nukes for Iran?
02:36I totally support the president.
02:38Do you believe Iran would use a nuke if they had it against Israel and maybe us?
02:43It's hard to answer a hypothetical.
02:45Why is it hard to answer?
02:47They say it.
02:48They write death to Israel, death to America on the missile.
02:51That's not hard.
02:53They have 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium at 60%.
02:57What commercial purpose is there for highly enriched uranium at 60%?
03:03I'll answer it for you.
03:05Zero.
03:06They got enough highly enriched uranium at 60% to make a bunch of bombs.
03:11Why do they have one of their enrichment programs at the bottom of a mountain?
03:18Do you know?
03:19I would hypothesize for security.
03:22Yeah, I would hypothesize that they want to enrich and make sure they're safe in doing it.
03:28So let's stop playing this game that Iran is like an uncertain enemy.
03:34They say it, they mean it, they're going to do it if somebody doesn't stop them.
03:40Do you agree that we're in the land of force now, General George, when it comes to stopping Iran's nuclear ambitions?
03:46Can you repeat that question again?
03:49Do you believe that it seems to be that the only option available to us now to stop their nuclear ambitions is force?
03:58I don't know.
03:59I know that they're still reaching out to make sure.
04:01Do you watch television?
04:02Okay, well, I mean, it seems to be diplomacy for 60 days.
04:07One, Mr. President, thank you for reaching out to Iran.
04:09Thank you for reaching out to Russia.
04:11Thank you for trying to find a peaceful solution.
04:13But it seems to me that we're full-on engaged, at least Israel, to take down their nuclear program by force.
04:22Is that a fair statement, that Israel's made a decision to take their nuclear program down by force?
04:28I think that's obvious.
04:29Yeah, I think so, too.
04:31And do you agree with President Trump's decision that a nuclear-armed Iran is a threat to us?
04:37Again, I think the President's been clear that he doesn't want Iran to have nuclear weapons.
04:41No, I mean, do you agree with that?
04:42Do you think it's a threat to us?
04:44That we don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons?
04:46Yes, I agree with that.
04:47Yeah, I don't think we do.
04:48I don't think we do for a lot of reasons.
04:49China, do you think China will take Taiwan by force if America and the West seems weak in the eyes of China?
05:00I think deterrence is incredibly important in making sure that we have that ability.
05:05Do you think we have lost deterrence after our withdrawal from Afghanistan, Mr. Secretary?
05:11I think that the withdrawal absolutely.
05:14Yeah, I think we have and we need to regain it.
05:16Do you think ISIS and al-Qaeda is still out there trying to find ways to kill us here at home, General George?
05:23I do think that there's a threat.
05:24Okay, so the threat matrix is about as large as I can remember.
05:28So to those who are wondering, should we spend more in the military, we should.
05:31And the goal is to spend money in the military to prevent war, but if you get in one, to win it.
05:37So last question.
05:38The Ayatollah said today that if we help Israel destroy their nuclear program, and he's not going to give it up, he said that today,
05:48there'd be all-out war with America.
05:50Did you hear that today?
05:54Yes, I did.
05:55Okay.
05:55So are you confident that America has the ability, nobody wants a war, but if we got in an all-out war with Iran, we would win?
06:07I think we're confident for 250 years the United States Army has achieved every goal.
06:11Yeah, I do too.
06:11My money's on the Army.
06:12My money's on the military.
06:13I don't want a war, but if you pick a fight with us, you're going to lose.
06:17To our friends in Israel, keep it up.
06:18We got your back.
06:19Taking that program down is an existential threat to Israel and to us.
06:24This is a moment of choosing for the world.
06:27I hope everybody understands that if they get a nuclear weapon, their religious fanatics, their religious Nazis, they would use it.
06:34I don't believe that about Rocketman.
06:36I don't believe it about Putin.
06:37I don't believe it about China, but I believe it about these folks.
06:39This is a moment of choosing, and we better get this right.
06:42If you get it right, normalization's back on the table.
06:46China's less likely to go into Taiwan, and Putin will have a new conversation with him.
06:50If we get it wrong, the world's going to blow up even worse than it is today.
