do see some potential impacts on energy
markets uh from the role
of the suez canal as a key by
bidirectional transit route for oil and
obviously that's one of the reasons we
offered assistance from the united
states and or we are in close
consultation with the
egyptians about that well this will be
the second time
in this show that i agree with madame
saki
now yesterday last evening i was kind of
half joking when i said we're going to
have to send in the marines to fix this
mess in the suez canal
but pretty good forecast now the u.s
navy plans to have a team of
experts in egypt this weekend the navy
is going to help him out
dig out a giant container ship it's just
kind of stuck on its side
and it's a very large place one of the
world's busiest waterways
and it could be at least a week by the
time this whole thing
is cleared up so i want to get my next
guest's thoughts on this
and some other matters we welcome back
general jack keane former vice chief of
staff of the u.s army
retired four-star general fox business
senior strategic analyst
and medal of freedom recipient as i
always say i was in the room and he got
it
general kane thank you sir um you know
it's it sounds like a goofy story
but this suez canal of course the suez
canal is famous for a lot of other
things
in the post-world war ii era in the cold
war but
this thing is going to choke off a lot
of supply chains and supply routes
it's going to heavily affect europe and
it will have some effect um
on the united states not only energy but
some manufacturing
so i know you're when our army big shot
can the navy get this done apparently
the home country can't
can the navy solve this sir
oh i suspect yes uh navy puts their
minds to just about anything they can
get it done
um they're gonna host a number of
dredging experts uh
there that weekend to sort out what's
what's actually needed
um it makes you wonder uh what causes a
40 knot wind and a sandstorm i mean
given all the technology we have about
weather particularly immediate weather
why would you why would you let that
ship transit the suez canal
very slowly as they have to do under
those kind of conditions makes no sense
but
you know the other thing is is that just
in time logistics which is
which helps to drive the global supply
chain
where you know companies aren't you know
putting huge warehouses and storing
goods in those warehouses and the spare
parts and the rest of it
it's also affects just-in-time
manufacturing uh
it'll it'll have some impact for a while
particularly if it goes on
for weeks we're talking about a tenth of
the world shipping goes through there
and
and already there's a hundred ships uh
stacked up there
most of them are likely container ships
and oil ships to be sure
this monster of the i mean i
i had to read it twice to make sure i
got it is
is almost the size of the empire state
building in lent
yes and you can put 20 000 containers on
it which is
hard for me to get my head around but
give you the size and scale
of of the impact of the global supply
chain today is
is quite traumatic but general you know
here's a thought
i want to move on to north korea and
china but sir
just imagine if we were still dependent
on oil imports from saudi arabia and the
gulf states
as we were for so many so many decades
before we reached energy independence
under the trump administration imagine
if we were still beholden to them
how bad this could be for our country
and our economy that's something i don't
know these greenies
are thinking about as they want to end
fossil fuels which is a pretty dumb idea
in my view
no i i totally agree with you on that uh
energy independence certainly
has impacted everything in the united
states and
and obviously our national security
we still have an interest in the middle
east because the world's economy is
dependent on the oil
flowing through the middle east and
particularly through the persian gulf
and certainly we want a stable world
economy and we'll always have that
national interest though we're
we're blessed now to have our own energy
independence
all right uh moving right along look at
i was quite surprised
and you may disagree with this for
heaven's sakes but i was quite surprised
when asked a question at the press
conference
that um president biden said he agreed
with former
president obama that our biggest problem
in foreign policy was north korea
now i understand all the issues with
north korea
and the threat of nuclear weapons or
whatever
but iowa to me i would answer china
china is the biggest problem and i still
think sir
you know china is the biggest problem
regarding north korea
and they're not going to help us on that
so what's your take were you surprised
perhaps you agree with them
no i don't agree with him at all but i
just think he was mistaken
listen his administration to include
himself
has already stated that china is that is
the most significant threat the united
states is facing and we've discussed
before they pretty much agree
with trump's tough stand on this
rhetoric to be sure right now actions
later we'll see if this
if it stands up and certainly his entire
national security team
has said as much i really think the
answer
is explained by the fact that it was a
reflex action
on president biden when asked the
question do you agree
with president obama on north korea
being a number one threat well of course
four years ago he passed that
to president trump and in his mind it
was uh
i didn't think it was then either but uh
certainly
it was a very higher threat than what it
is today
china everything has changed in four
years larry
and and i think that's what it was it
was a reflex action his administration
fundamentally believes by by words and
by
deeds that china is in fact
the number one threat facing the united
states well
i know you you have taught me that i'm
with you because i went through those
wars
during the trump years in you know
transition on our attitudes towards
china
um i think president trump was a you
know major major major factor in
reworking that
and i think you're right the biden
people have been quite good um
now we're fighting them on business
sizes and
not helping the uyghurs and so forth and
so on so it's going to be rough stuff
but anyway
china is behind north korea we should
know that general jack keane thank you
sir
as always appreciate it very much