Stefano Ritondale, U.S. Army veteran and chief intelligence officer at Astorias, and Ricoh Danielson, national security expert and U.S. Army combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, joined a panel discussion with NTD's Iris Tao.
In the discussion, the panel analyzed Iran's leadership vacuum and the severe impact of U.S. military strikes on its infrastructure. Ritondale said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military commanders are likely making military decisions independent of Iran's president or new religious leader, leaving Iran being unable to be war-ready and with decades-long rebuilding ahead. Danielson believes the regime won't recover soon, if at all, and repeated strikes would dismantle it again, dealing the regime a major national security blow. He warned that nuclear empowerment and uranium enrichment at a weapons level will only have the potential to harm the region, and noted that it will take ground troops and strategic missiles to dismantle Iran's nuclear program. Ritondale discussed the military planning for an operation to penetrate and destroy these nuclear systems which are 200 feet underground. He said ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes on the undeclared nuclear facilities across Iran shows Iran's nuclear program was far more expansive than known.
Ritondale noted Cuba’s situation, with extended blackouts and ongoing nightly protests, which provide State Secretary Marco Rubio major U.S. negotiating advantage over Cuba. Danielson argued the U.S. must gain control of Cuba to stop Chinese Communist Party infiltration and Caribbean manipulation. He said that the CCP has injected counterfeit money into the region, but the U.S. would invest in the region to bring about genuine prosperity.