The Iran Mistake We Made Before the First Bomb | Ryan McBeth

Is there a way to end the war with Iran that doesn't totally suck? And where's the line between an online grifter and a foreign state running influence operations against American elections?A week out from the midterms, OSINT analyst and YouTuber Ryan McBeth joins me to break down how information warfare actually works, and why the U.S. keeps leaving its own information operations capability on the shelf.We get into bot farms used to tank stock prices, the Tenet Media case and Russian money behind American influencers, and the Chinese sponsor Ryan turned down because the contract barred criticism of China. Then we turn to Iran: whether the regime is a rational actor, whether this war makes an Iranian bomb inevitable, Ryan's plan for marching on Tehran (and why I think it breaks down in the mountain passes), and why it's easier to get approval for a drone strike than a leaflet drop.Ryan McBeth is a 20-year infantry veteran, former C4ISR software engineer, Newsmax intelligence consultant, and author of The Win Machine and the Deseret series.Find Ryan:Substack: ryanmcbeth.substack.comYouTube: @RyanMcBethProgrammingChapters:00:00 Cold open00:37 Intro01:09 Cigars, Ranger School & firefighting school07:43 Info ops ahead of the midterms08:14 How bot farms short stocks10:49 The grift economy & "decliners"12:02 Tenet Media and paid influencers16:12 The Chinese sponsor Ryan turned down19:39 The economics of military YouTube21:26 From coding interviews to Ukraine's tank turrets25:09 YouTube, Substack & Newsmax27:54 Veterans, partisanship, and finding a lane32:34 Is Iran a rational actor?37:21 Will Iran get the bomb? Containment & blockade42:06 The McBeth plan vs. the terrain46:04 Why no psyop campaign against Iran?49:43 Easier to drop a bomb than a leaflet52:43 Where to find Ryan