Leland Vittert’s War Notes: Winning the Week‼️

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NewsNation Chief Washington Anchor and On Balance host Leland Vittert was a foreign correspondent for four years in Jerusalem. He gives you an early look at tonight's 9 p.m. ET show, delivered straight to your inbox.

"Born Lucky" in Chicago✈️: I want to see you this Saturday, January 17, at Kenilworth Union Church.

✏️The GREAT Ben Bradley of WGN-TV will interview me, and then, I'll be signing copies of "Born Lucky" from 2 to 3 p.m.
- 📚Click HERE to RSVP.

Iran Iran Iran ⚠️

🚨 Few things should unite Americans like a hatred for the ayatollah in Iran — it's a 90/10 issue.

- ‼️Yes, there are Americans who like them — more on that later.
💵Today, President Trump pushed for a full pivot away from immigration by announcing a 25% tariff on all countries doing business with Iran.
- 🚨The State Department also warned all Americans to leave Iran — why they are living there in the first place is beyond me.
‼️The Iranian government is turning its weapons on its own civilians and threatening America.
- More than 500 people have been killed
- Over 10,670 people detained
🤷🏼‍♂️Something can be good politics and good policy.

Prediction👀: The news this week will be all about Iran.

Here's why it works for the Trump administration 👇
- ⚖️ The politics are elegant. It forces Democrats into an impossible choice:
  - Support Trump or the ayatollah.
- 🤷 There is no comfortable middle ground. No nuanced position that plays out well.
  - It's already happening 👀: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is now coming out in favor of the protesters.
    - 🎤AOC: "The Iranian government's violent crackdown on demonstrators is horrific and must stop now. All people have the right to protest their government without fear of violence. I support the Iranians taking to the streets to call for a better future."
    - 👍🏻Democrats are getting the memo.
📺 It also changes the subject.
- 🤷🏼‍♂️Going back into Venezuela suggests the first time didn't work.
- 📊Greenland polls are somewhere between curiosity and confusion.
- 📱Immigration enforcement is messy — deportation footage doesn't always help.
  - 🎥Stephen Miller thinks that video of blue-haired loons fighting with ICE is good for the administration, but it doesn't always work.
- 💥Investigating Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appears to be a disaster —
  - 📰Axios reports the U.S. attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, launched the investigation without telling the main Justice Department.
Iran offers cleaner optics and moral righteousness
- 🤷And then what? As George Will reminded us, regime change is easy; what comes next is hard.
  - ‼️Iran is very hard – there is no organized opposition.
  - Does this turn into a civil war? Another Libya? Syria?
- The complication⚠️ : There is no U.S. aircraft carrier in the region.
  - 🤔 The carrier got pulled for Venezuela.
  - That limits overt kinetic options.

Here's what matters 👀:

💭 There are a lot of options short of overt kinetic action — things the U.S. could do itself or green-light Israel to execute.
- 💻Cyber ops
  - 💥Infrastructure attacks
    - Power grid
    - Centrifuges
    - Communications
  - ‼️The U.S. and Israel have done this before — Stuxnet proved the concept.
- 🕵️Covert ops
  - Remember 🔙: The Israelis had people on the ground during the last war. Their networks inside Iran can be repurposed.
    - These are the ones they used to take out air defense systems.
  - 🎯 Regime targets. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders. Nuclear scientists. We've seen this playbook.
- Israeli green light
  - The U.S. doesn't have to pull the trigger. It just has to say "yes."
  - Israel has been waiting for permission to hit Iranian nuclear sites. A nod from Washington changes the calculus overnight.
  - The capability is already proven.
‼️ None of this requires aircraft carriers. It requires a decision.

Watch tonight📺: Bill O'Reilly joins us on whether Trump can extricate himself from immigration and Jerome Powell without appearing weak.

➕Elliot Ackerman and retired Brig. Gen. John Teichert on what the options are for the U.S. military

Red-Green Alliance: The day after October 7, tens of thousands of pro-Palestine protests started everywhere — especially on college campuses.

🤷We expected this to happen again this weekend to protest the Iranian regime and demand an end to this. But it didn't.
❓Where are they now for Iran? It's silent.
- Why are they so quick to condemn the Israeli government but not the Iranian government?
‼️It's the coming idea of what they call the Red-Green Alliance. They are mourning the idea of the Iranian uprising.
Watch tonight📺: Frannie Block from the Free Press about the silence from the American Left about a revolution championing all their ideals.

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