Victor Davis Hanson and host Jack Fowler discuss why several NATO allies—especially France—restricted the United States from using bases and airspace during operations aimed at Iran, arguing Europe benefits from U.S. security while pursuing divergent domestic and foreign-policy agendas. Hanson urges the Trump administration to frame NATO burden-sharing and reciprocity in “sorrowful” terms, consider tighter bilateral ties with supportive allies, and better explain the difficulty and aims of the Iran campaign, including deterrence and possible conditions for regime change while clarifying U.S.-Israel alignment. They also address tensions with Canada over defense spending and policies, the scale of alleged fraud in California programs highlighted by City Journal reporting, and Democrats’ attempts to rebrand figures like Pete Buttigieg to win back white working-class voters.
Jack’s comment about Canada being more willing to provide an MRI to an animal than a human sparked a hilarious memory. In the early ’90s I did some work in Montreal. A headline in the Gazette caused me to read the whole article. MRI waiting lists were months long because the Health Service couldn’t afford to pay multiple shifts of technicians. Someone remarked that animals could use the same MRI machines and that they could charge them money. They opened the services to animals, hired more technicians, and the wait list for humans shrunk. BUT since the animals (vets) were paying, they would get in before humans. That, of course, was unacceptable so the government passed a law that animals could not use the same machines as humans. They had to lay off the extra technicians and the wait list for humans extended out back to the multiple months.