Latest / The Stan R. Mitchell Show / Israel strikes back against Iran, and Russia appears to be gasping

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Israel strikes back against Iran, and Russia appears to be gasping · The Stan R. Mitchell Show

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, welcome to The View from the Front.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Stan, and I'm thrilled you all have joined me.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: As a reminder, I have timestamps for every topic that we're covering in this episode.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's a piece of news you want to jump to,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe later you want to share that with a friend,
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: you can easily find that segment in the timestamps and let your friend know.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or even better, help me out and share it on social media.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And with that out of the way, let's get started.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: What is going on, everyone?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining us.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just a couple of things before we get into the news.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: First,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I will,
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: at some point,
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure exactly when it'll start,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: but I'm going to start interviewing some folks.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I will be running those on, like, I don't know, maybe Sundays or Mondays.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I think I've got a couple lined up.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll, you know, kind of take that from there.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: But there'll probably be a military angle to it.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to give too much away,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: but I did want to mention that,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: that I guess I'm probably already tying myself down to maybe two episodes a week.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking forward to that, though.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking about it for a long time, so I'm looking forward to doing that.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's the first thing.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, it probably sounds like I am in a good mood, and indeed I am.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just because the election is next week,
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: which I wrote a very long piece on today if you want to check out the political
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: part of
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: of the newsletter that I do.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a link to that in the episode notes.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to mention that here because I try to keep this super non-political,
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: but glad that the election is next week.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing that's got me in a good mood is,
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm going to share this,
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: one,
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have to give God all credit,
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: and two,
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: it's an important lesson for you guys,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: especially the guys,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: because the guys are the worst,
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: but
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing I wanted to mention was I went to the doctor today after doing blood
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: work last week for just an annual physical,
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: which I hadn't done one in a couple of years.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And everything came out like incredible on the blood work and all that good stuff.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm super just relieved and thankful about that.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Again, give God all praise and glory for that.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's funny,
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: because before you go in for something like that,
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a buddy that has cancer,
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: and that's what made me,
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: like,
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: set up this second appointment.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And the one before that a couple of years ago,
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I had done,
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: because I was,
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 47 now,
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was probably 45 then,
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I guess,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: and I was like,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: man,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: I need to do this.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be like all the men in my family,
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: never go to the doctor,
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: and I probably hadn't gone and done a physical and maybe,
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: like...
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: 10, 15, 20 years, maybe since the military.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm a guy.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's what guys do.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we're all stupid.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't do that.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't run from our problems.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't ignore our problems.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't, you know, just never lift up the hood of your car.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Same as you should,
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: you should do some maintenance on your lawnmower or whatever thing you've got.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't do it with our bodies.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so,
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: just a reminder that if you're a dude and you haven't been to the doctor,
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a good friend who hasn't been in like seven years and I give him a hard
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: time from time to time.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And for a guy,
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: it's so hard to do because we are,
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: one,
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: not nearly as competent as women,
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: it seems,
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: in most areas of our lives.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'll just say that.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And two, you know, it's like...
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: When you aren't sick,
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: it's hard to schedule that extra thing because work always comes in the way or
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: family events or whatever.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: We don't make it a priority because nothing is wrong with us.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: But that is when you're supposed to go, is when nothing is wrong.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because on the vast majority of diseases that are going to affect us,
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: if not maybe take our life,
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: you catch them earlier,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: it's much easier to deal with them.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very thankful to God that...
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Apparently, I am the picture of health at the moment.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: I expected some high blood pressure,
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: which runs in my family,
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: and I had two years ago,
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: and a couple other things.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And apparently my blood work was better now than it was two years ago.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So all glory to God for that.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the bigger thing is I want to encourage you guys to set those appointments, please.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like...
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a military dude,
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: and there's a lot of military dudes listening right now,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: and you're over 30,
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: like,
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: set a freaking appointment,
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: please.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Do what you ought to do for yourself, for your family, your community, your church, etc.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just do...
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't about being a man, being tough, nothing's wrong with you.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's about catching something early.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do it in honor of my friend who's got cancer and may have almost called it too late.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Go do, just do it.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Please, just do it.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And before I leave this topic,
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: my typical dose of almost sick humor,
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: I tell my wife all this great news,
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm like,
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: of course,
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'll probably run into a train tomorrow.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: But at least, in theory, I'm looking pretty good.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Although, in all seriousness...
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: From a faith perspective, we are not supposed to assume anything.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says do not make plans for tomorrow,
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: or we say we're going to go to this town,
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: or we're going to go do that in the future.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing is guaranteed.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I no longer live that way.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I also do not think we should be irresponsible, especially if you're a man.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: We already have shorter lifespans.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you look at any of the...
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: insurance tables out there it's a reality and so part of the reason is is because
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: we don't take care of ourselves we don't catch things early enough women do like
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: annual appointments almost on the regular so men i'm saying step it up that is the
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: thing that i wanted to make sure i got out i am super proud of myself for going yes
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: i had the whole like
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: what if the blood work comes bad and you might have cancer or something?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was driving there today, half thinking about that, I'm like, good.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: I hope if it's, you know, I got it.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: I hope they freaking caught it early.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's the point.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you lift the hood on your car.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you go find the problem,
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: find that leaking air hose or whatever before you break down on the,
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: halfway to your vacation destination.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Find it early.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Set the appointment.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Make a reminder right freaking now to set up time to go take a physical.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this saves one life out there.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do not wait until it's too late.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the news now.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the first bit of news that I want to discuss is,
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: as you probably have heard,
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Israel responded and attacked Iran last week.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So what's significant about that?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, can we give myself...
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: your favorite podcast host,
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: just a little bit of credit,
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: because I literally said last week in the episode,
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Israel will likely attack Iran this week.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: They delayed for weather, and sure enough, they did strike Iran.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So, I am super proud that I said what I said, that I predicted this.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think, what's that called, like a humble brag, or whatever the right thing is.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you're paying for the subscription, but I think it's worth the price.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because the crazier thing is,
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: not only did I say what happened,
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: I gave a lot of detailed reasons of why I did not think Israel would strike either
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: the oil facilities of Iran
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: or the nuclear weapons program sites of Iran.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm glad I went through all the reasons I didn't think that would happen.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because they did not strike them.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, I'm super glad I made that call, that I was confident enough to say that.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So Israel strikes Iran last week.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: What we know about the targeting since that happened.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: One thing we don't know is we don't really know how the airstrikes and weapons were used.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know how many of them were missiles, how many of them were aircraft.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll tell you what we do know.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: We obviously, like I said, we know that no nuclear or oil facilities were struck.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: We also know that Israel took out
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: According to almost every media report you see,
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: every single one of Iran's S-300 air defense systems that are in the country of Iran,
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: which were thought to be able to protect Iran if you listen to the propagandists in
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Russia or in Iran.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: They thought they would be protected.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is a pretty sophisticated Russian weapon system, and it has again been shown to be almost worthless.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: Israel went in, knocked out every single one of them.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: In fact,
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: there's even a story right now that's in an Israeli newspaper,
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: the Israel Times,
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I believe,
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: and it said that...
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Iran is, quote, essentially naked right now, is what it called it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Essentially naked.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Iran could be hit again.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So Israel goes in, takes out the air defenses.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: We know that.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So Iran's vaunted air defenses are in rubble right now.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: They were in flames.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: They're done.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Which means Israel can easily go back in to hit oil facilities or nuclear.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: So they definitely...
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: put out a very strong signal to Iran that,
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: you are defenseless,
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: you better be careful if you think about striking us back.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's one point I want to make sure I make.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: What other targets did they hit?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: They also hit a solid propellant rocket motor plant,
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: and I could tell you the province and the town,
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: but it wouldn't mean anything to you.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, it's a place that creates the motors for ballistic missiles.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So they hit a ballistic missile site,
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've got photos of that if you want to see it in the episode notes.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: They also hit a manufacturing site that made drone parts.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this is big because these are going to have long-term repercussions for Ukraine.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because we know that Iran's been sending ballistic missiles and drones to Ukraine.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Russia, which were being used against Ukraine.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well,
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: that will be interrupted in the short term because Israel has hit those missile
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: production facilities and the drone production facilities as a part of these airstrikes.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So other than that, what do we know?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we don't know much because this was one of the scary things about the attack.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Israel goes in,
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: hits Iran,
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: but most of the analysts out there,
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: all of the media articles,
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: you can't seem to find anything about how they did it,
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: what they used,
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: anything.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Will they do anything more?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: They have announced that they are done, unless Iran plans to respond.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it was a kind of a...
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost scarier when you don't know all the details.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine if you're some Iranian general and you're like,
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: man,
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: they took out my air defenses,
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: they knew exactly what buildings to hit that create the drone parts,
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: that create the ballistic missiles,
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: and I know they could probably hit my nuclear weapons program.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to talk big,
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: but I don't know if you want to turn around and try to strike back when that happens.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get into what Iran might do.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this is where it gets a bit humorous.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: So the supreme leader of Iran is a guy named Khomeini.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Been there forever.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked about that.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: He's 85 years old.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And after the attack,
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: which of course was Israel's reply to Iran sending ballistic weapons and hitting Israel,
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Kamini gives this speech,
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: and it's crazy because,
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: as one news outlet called it,
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Kamini's words were,
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: quote,
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: muted.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, he goes on to say that the Israelis would be made to understand the power of Iran.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: He makes this kind of vow.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: But then he leaves it up to others inside the Iranian government to decide.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, quote, our officials...
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: should be the ones to assess and precisely apprehend what needs to be done.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So he neither calls for calm,
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: nor does he say a declaration of war,
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: nor does he apparently make a decision.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: He literally says publicly,
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: our officials should be the ones to assess and precisely apprehend what needs to be done.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And now since that time, nothing has happened.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that's been,
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know,
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: five days or something like that,
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: maybe a tad longer,
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: and they've done nothing.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, not a good look if you're Kamini or Inside Iran.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: You have been rendered defenseless.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're not sure where, what, how hit you.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know you can be hit again.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And your primary proxies, the primary weapons that you've developed for the past...
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Really, 10 or 20 years, and I'm talking about Hamas down in Gaza.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about Hezbollah up in the northern part of Israel to the northern part in Lebanon.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: They've both been just smashed.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, if you're Iran, you have these two arms to the north and south of Israel.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Again, Hamas to the south and Hezbollah to the north.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Both of them have been smashed.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Leaders killed on both sides.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: You just got hit hard.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: You were unable to defend yourself.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure what Iran will do.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: They know that if they do retaliate very hard, Israel will go after oil and nuclear.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Their weapons program, the nuclear weapons program is at risk.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Their oil, which is their primary source of revenue, is at risk.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I had to,
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: if you had to nail me down,
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: what will happen,
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think Iran does anything.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think they talk big and I think they're done.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think they have been just embarrassed too badly.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it went from, it's funny, the power shift from even a couple of months ago, when the U.S.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: is shifting forces into the Middle East,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: and even myself,
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like,
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: man,
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: depending on what Israel does,
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Iran might hit America too,
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: so we gotta have forces there.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you fast forward to now,
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: and Iran's already been hit,
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: they've been embarrassed,
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: and they look pretty weak.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I know they're stronger than what they look.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's things they could do that they, you know, could... If they went all out.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is, there are... War is a number of stages.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like an argument or a fight.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's a series of escalations.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: And they have been most certainly talked down, slapped, shoved, and pushed down into a chair.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they look pretty weak right now.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, I... They... I don't know...
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if I were them, I'm not sure I would want to do much.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: If I put myself in their shoes and I was talking to my generals, I would just let it go.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I would promise my people that I would hit them back at some point or that I
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: had some secret plan,
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: but I would let it go.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it appears to be that's what I think they're going to do.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: if you want to extend the rather weak analogy I used of getting pushed,
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: shoved,
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: slapped,
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: thrown in a chair...
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Iran could really, really pull out a pistol, so to speak, and try to go all out.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: They could shut down the Strait of Hormuz that's in the Persian Gulf.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: A ton of oil moves through there.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: If they did that, then it would almost certainly lead to war with the United States and with Israel.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: But again, that is such a risky move because you've just been humiliated.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can't even defend yourself from Israel.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you risk going to war against the United States?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we would probably have the help.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: of,
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Britain's Navy and probably some other allies because the world will not tolerate
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: that strait being closed down.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, it's just too risky.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, if you had to nail me down, I think Iran probably doesn't do much that we hear about.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move now to the fight happening inside Ukraine.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Before I cover, I've got several points I want to cover.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Before I cover them, I want to share a quote that I read that is just mind-blowing.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: The quote involves what is basically part of the presidential election.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Former President Trump has talked about that he will declare peace or find a way to
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: have peace with Russia almost immediately,
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: within a day.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to share this quote because I disagree with that position on the
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: feasibility of it and the fact of how much Ukraine would have to give up.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not to mention, I don't even think Russia wants peace at this point because...
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Russia believes it can outlast us.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I saw a great quote that I want to share.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: The quote is this, Surrendering to aggressors isn't anti-war.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: It just shows them that aggression succeeds and encourages them to do more.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Appeasement is a pro-war position.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know that quotes a lot to get your arms around.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: But it's as if you were a police officer.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe the brother of your sister.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you know that your sister has been physically harmed by her husband.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And either you're the cop that shows up or you're the brother.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you show up and he's punching this woman or hurting her...
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And you immediately stop him from doing that,
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: but you do nothing to bring justice or to bring a just punishment or some type of consequences.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't arrest that guy and put him in jail,
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: if you don't get her to safety,
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: what have you really done?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because the moment you turn around or leave the area, the dude is going to do it again.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going to read that quote one more time.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the quote.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the issue or the rub that always happens,
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: especially with the social media fights that happen.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because some on the right will say, dude, you're just getting Ukrainians killed.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you pro-Ukraine on this funding thing?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: They always try to make the people who want to support Ukraine as if we're some
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: kind of bad people that are supporting the death of untold numbers of Ukrainians.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: As I always say on here, first of all, the Ukrainians want to resist.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: They want to fight.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't welcome in Russian forces with a parade.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's point one.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: But point two is, if we don't support Ukraine, if Putin is successful...
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: or even if he gets a short-term pause and then he rebuilds his forces,
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: we know he's going to invade again because he's done it two times before,
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: both in 2014 and then way later in the latter part of 2014,
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: early 2015.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: He's invaded Ukraine three different times already with the third invasion happening in 2022.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is a repeated action happening over and over.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the only way you get long-term peace is if there is some form of justice or a
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: defensive type force in place where he knows he cannot possibly succeed.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that has always been my issue with those who are like, let's just have peace right now.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well,
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: again,
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: that's like the police officer or the brother showing up and saying,
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: don't punch her anymore.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Don't hurt her anymore.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's not enough.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of Ukrainians have died.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: They've lost territory.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so you can't just give up,
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: whatever percent Russia currently occupies and say,
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: let's just you guys just stop fighting.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Way too much blood has been shed for that.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: As the quote says,
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: appeasement is a pro-war position because it's more than just what's happening in Ukraine.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: China is watching.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: If the world continually says,
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: it's no big deal if you take Ukraine,
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: it's no big deal if you move 10,000 North Korean troops from Asia into Europe as a
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: part of a ground war.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: We are inviting further war.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're inviting an invasion of Taiwan.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're inviting future conflict inside Vietnam, inside the Philippines, inside Thailand.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're inviting China to take actions against either South Korea or Japan to shut down shipping lanes.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the world cannot allow...
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: aggression to be rewarded so again appeasement is a pro-war position because you
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: are incentivizing the aggressor for their actions it's the same thing with if the
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: dude strikes the woman you just break them up maybe he's gotten her to be quiet if
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: he faces no consequences or if he got whatever he wanted the permission structure
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: or whatever it was for his anger it's
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: then he's just going to do that again later.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it starts with just verbal threats,
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: but the woman or the country remembers the strike or the invasion.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you just cannot allow it.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: It must be absolutely not tolerated and resisted.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: I make that point because I just get so frustrated with the sort of,
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: quote,
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: pro-peace position from some of those on the right.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of funny to me anyway because a lot of times some of those on the far
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: right that are almost like isolationists,
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: they'll be like,
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: what about World War III or you're going to send your kids to war or this or that.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be like, well, first of all, I've carried a rifle and I volunteered to do those things.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: But secondly...
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you look at the Balkans when Yugoslavia broke up and they had been fighting forever.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't until the Europeans and the United States got involved that we finally stopped that war.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: If we hadn't have done that, they'd still be fighting.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: So there are times where you do have to get involved.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not like if we just leave Ukraine alone...
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: That there aren't going to still be repercussions from countries like China, from North Korea, etc.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: These people are emboldened.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: They have seen weakness, and they are emboldened.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: So the only way you stop that is with a firm, rigid response.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: With a, we will not back down, we will not tolerate, there must be strength in our position.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm partly so frustrated about the lack of response to these North
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Korean troops being sent in.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you have troops from Asia being sent into a European theater to probably fight.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't quite got to the front yet,
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: but all indications,
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: including a recent briefing by the Department of Defense,
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: is that they will be used as infantry troops and that they will fight Ukrainians.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, part of me is not too, too worried because Ukrainian troops are very experienced.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're incredibly good with drones, artillery, etc.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And North Korean troops haven't fought in 50-plus years,
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: and they are going to find out what modern warfare is like,
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: and it isn't going to be a fun day for them.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: So part of me is like, eh, Ukraine's going to handle this, blah, blah, blah.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: But part of me is just...
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saddened and angry about the lack of reply.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Where are our red lines?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Where is the, if you send these troops in, we will send NATO troops or we will do this.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Where are the consequences?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the right consequences are.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's we allow Ukraine to use long range weapons that we've provided further into Russia.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: There need to be some consequences.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: We cannot allow this to happen and just kind of grimace about it.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's frustrating because neither presidential candidate is talking about it
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: because our politics are so divisive and we're so torn as a country that we've just
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: allowed 10,000 troops to be moved into Russia and likely into Ukraine,
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: and no one has hardly said a word.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's very, very frustrating.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the right answer is,
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: but if either candidate was actually providing some answers,
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: then maybe we could say,
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: oh,
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: that's too aggressive,
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: let's not threaten U.S.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: troops, or maybe that's too soft.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe,
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know,
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: like President Trump won't say whether he talks to Putin,
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: but why doesn't he say,
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: if I claim I can have peace the day after I'm elected,
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: why isn't he making phone calls saying Vladimir Putin don't send in troops?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now,
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's problematic because in theory he shouldn't be conducting foreign policy
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: before he's elected anyway.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: But we've gone through so many red lines, so to speak, on that that I wouldn't even know where to begin.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: But he's not even talking about it.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: You have almost no comments.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't really seen any from Vice President Harris because no one really knows what to do.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: We are just almost rudderless.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're just going to let 10,000 troops be moved into theater and probably to the front line.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the only people who are saying anything is I think Lithuania spoke out about it.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: But these small countries in Europe who understand the consequences because they
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: are small countries that know that they will eventually be invaded.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: This army isn't going to stop if suddenly Ukraine lays down its arms.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: They are succeeding, and so you have to stop them.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thankfully,
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: the Ukrainians are fighting like absolute mad dogs,
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: and they are doing the fighting that the West is apparently not even strong enough
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: to talk stern words about.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to share some points,
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: just the latest news in the past week,
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: that is just a few points that I think haven't made a lot of news out there.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest ones is that Russia's central bank, without any...
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: any forewarning,
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: any inkling,
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: any signs,
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: they raised their interest rates by two percentage points,
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: which is a ton.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about in America, like a quarter or half percent.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: They raised interest rates by two percentage points, and they're now back up to 21%.
• 26:09
  21%.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's the highest that the borrowing costs have been since February 2003.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're even higher than they were after the initial invasion of Ukraine,
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: when the Russian bank was struggling to stabilize the value of the ruble.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so, Russia's finance sector not looking too good.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's keep that in mind when we see the various signs of strength from Russia.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Things aren't peachy there.
• 26:35
  21%.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I don't want to borrow money anywhere at 21%.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I should mention, inflation inside Russia right now is 8.6%.
• 26:50
  8.6%.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: As a reminder,
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: in America,
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: where you often hear people complain about inflation,
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: and,
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: it has been not exactly fun,
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: we are at 2.4%.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: 2.4%.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got Russia struggling.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Incredibly high borrowing rate.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Inflation 8.6%.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And now their interest rate is just absolutely out the roof and higher than it was even two years ago.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: So things aren't exactly super peachy.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: in Russia with a 21% interest rate.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's just crazy.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then inflation at 8.4%.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: One other point I wanted to make is the Institute for the Study of War is now
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: saying that in the region of Pokrovsk,
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: which we've talked about that area on the eastern front quite a bit,
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: where Russia's trying to take that city,
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: townish city,
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: it's about 20,000 or so,
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: They have used five divisions worth of tanks and armor that they've lost in the past year.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Five divisions.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Five divisions.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's hard to wrap your arms around.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's like World War II stuff where you're drawing big arrows around cities and cities.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: And talking about battling,
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: some,
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: like Rommel or some famous German general with five divisions of like the 82nd Airborne,
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: the 101st,
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: the,
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: big red one,
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: like five divisions.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's how many the Russians have lost in a single year.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the Institute for the Study of War also talks about that in coming years,
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: because Russia almost has no armor supplies left,
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: they've been using tanks that go all the way back to World War II,
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: that increasingly Russia will have to fight with dismounted Russian troops,
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: and that these will be easy prey for Ukrainian drones.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, Ukraine is producing its own drones now by the thousands, and they are very effective.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: One other point I wanted to mention,
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: saw this in The Economist,
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: that Russia's advantage in artillery has been declining,
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: even as it increasingly depends on unreliable North Korean ammunition.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: As I've said on many podcasts earlier,
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: six months,
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: nine months ago,
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Russia was firing ten times as many shells as the Ukrainians.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's down to about 2 or 3 to 1.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: So Ukraine's getting more shells from its allies.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine's increasingly improving its own production.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then also Ukraine has done a great job of hitting those ammunition storage
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: depots with drones,
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: long-range drones.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I've talked about some of those incredibly large explosions.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Explosions so large that they showed up on Richter scales as earthquakes.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: So Russia has lost a lot of ammunition, and so that's starting to pay off.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so,
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: again,
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: The Economist is reporting that,
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: according to Ukrainian sources,
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: the artillery advantage for Russia is down to about 3 to 1 or 2.5 to 1 instead of
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: 10 to 1.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's incredibly good news if you're an infantryman fighting for Ukraine on the ground.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Economist also noted that despite all of the people who are a little concerned
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: about Ukraine's situation,
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: the Economist points out that Russia is far from achieving its main aim,
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: which was to gain control over the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they haven't done either of those.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to have that done by the end of this year.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine is slowly but surely pulling back,
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: but they're killing almost 1,000 Russians a day as they try to spare their own
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: troops' lives.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: So Russia is making small gains, but it is coming at a heavy, heavy cost.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Also worth noting that...
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine pushed into Russia in the north in Kursk, as we've talked about so many times.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: The Russians had set a goal of having Ukraine completely driven out of that area by the start of October.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well,
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: we're already at the end of October,
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: and it looks like it's now going to take far longer,
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: if it's even possible,
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: for Russia to pull that off.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, Ukraine is going to continue to control ground inside Russia.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a newer listener and you have no idea why Ukraine pushed into Russia, let me just explain.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: They did that because they could not advance against these really well-formed lines
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: of Russian troops inside occupied Ukraine.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so they pushed into Russia to,
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: one,
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: grab prisoners,
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: two,
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: exploit a soft spot in the Russian defenses,
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: and
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Three,
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: they added pressure to the leader of Russia,
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Vladimir Putin,
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: because suddenly the Russians realize Russian ground is being taken and the war in
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine is not going well.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that Russia has a controlled media environment and they often don't hear the truth.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And finally,
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: they did it because they grabbed large amounts of ground quite easily,
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: and they can now use that ground to eventually negotiate a peaceful end to the war,
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: which the only way you ever get an end to a war is when you have something the
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: other side wants.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: So Ukraine has...
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: very valuable territory of Russia,
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: or basically more valuable to Putin than what the occupied areas of Ukraine is,
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: and the idea is that they could trade that back for occupied ground inside Ukraine.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's why they did it.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now with all of this being said...
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: The Economist pointed out that the one place where Russia is definitely winning,
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: it's not on the ground,
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: it's not in the air,
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: it's nowhere in Ukraine,
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: it's in the information space.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: They are doing a great job using social media accounts, tons of bots.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: AI,
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: all kinds of disinformation to convince us in the West that Ukraine cannot possibly
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: win and that we should stop trying to help Ukraine defend itself,
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: which is why I allotted a fair amount of time in the beginning of this section to
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: explain about appeasement and why we need to push back against this kind of false information,
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: these false ideas.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's why last week and in previous episodes,
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've devoted time to explain what is on the line,
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: why it's important that we hold up,
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: because I need the listeners to know so that when your buddy at work or your friend
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: or whoever on Facebook or whatever makes some not very well-informed comment,
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: you can reply with some better researched information on what's actually happening.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: and, of course, why it actually matters to both the United States and most of the world.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And by that I mean I'm referring to the long-term consequences of what China might
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: see or other conflicts that might happen in the next 5,
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: 10,
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: 20 years.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, guys, if you're enjoying the show, there are several ways you can support it.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Help me grow it into something bigger with more frequency and just get you guys
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: better and better content.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: You can subscribe through Substack.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably my preferred method.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to support, you can do for five dollars per month.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great way.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a link to that in the episode notes.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Also, Patreon, if you're on there, that's another way to support.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Also, $5 per month.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can even send a tip through Venmo or through PayPal.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate everyone's support.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Only do this if you've enjoyed it for a while.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are,
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: as we like to say in the church,
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: giving cheerfully,
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: if it's something you want to do,
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: that's great.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: If not,
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: hey,
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: just share a link,
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: drop a review wherever you're listening,
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: especially if it's Apple or Spotify.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to get the algorithms to cooperate.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: We've now been doing this for more than two years, so we've hit one of the minimums.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the other one is getting more reviews.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: So a short little review.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: Throw five stars on there if you're enjoying the show.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: It would be a great way to help me and the algorithms realize what hopefully is good content.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: So both are great ways to help subscribing or rating and reviewing.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move to China now,
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: and I don't have a whole lot to cover there,
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: but I did want to mention just one thing for sure,
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: which is I saw a great article in Bloomberg,
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: and this kind of falls under the be careful what you wish for.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the headline is, A new great game unfolds in the Pacific as the U.S.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: and China vie for backing.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the article talks about
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of funny,
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: but for decades,
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: the countries in the Pacific have been frustrated that they haven't had much influence,
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: they haven't had much attention,
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: not much trade,
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: not much of anything.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't been, I guess you could say, very important.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's been that way for decades and decades.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: But as it is pointed out in Bloomberg,
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: with this great game that is unfolding,
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: there's an intensifying competition between China and the United States.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Both countries are looking for maritime routes that are safe.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: Both countries are looking for deep water ports.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: Both countries are looking for strategic assets.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Places basically to either have an alliance or to put troops or weapons.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: And suddenly these countries that maybe in the past didn't have great resources...
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: are finding themselves in the middle of a lot of pressure,
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: in the middle of an ugly situation,
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: you might say,
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: this rivalry,
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: because there is a lot at stake.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: A ton, really, I mean.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: And these places have...
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Very important geography.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: Very important strategic locations.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: And near them are things such as communication cables that are underwater.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: They crisscross the Pacific floor.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are very important fisheries.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: There are very important underground minerals near them.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why China is really pushing China.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: towards some of these, and they're bullying, they're kind of almost bribing, they're pushing.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think the kind way to say it is China,
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: as one author of the report that was quoted from Bloomberg says,
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: this is the sophisticated way to say it,
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: but China is expanding its reach through diplomatic relations,
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: infrastructure projects,
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: and development finance.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not really what's happening.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is...
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Very pushy international relations from China.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: I could go through dozens of examples that I've read about,
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: but it would be very uncomfortable to be a leader in some of these smaller Pacific countries.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: When China is,
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: they may say they'll do an infrastructure project,
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: but then suddenly you've got Chinese advisors in your country and you've got these
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: workers and they're not following local laws and they're pushing people around and
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: they don't have good reactions to businesses and neighbors around them.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you give them a foothold.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: They take a mile and ten more miles.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you read about what China's done in Africa and in parts of South America, it's crazy.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: They don't follow laws.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: They don't worry about if there's going to be enough fish in that fishery a year
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: from now or five years from now.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, they're going to overfish it.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: There will be fleets of Chinese fish.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: fishing vessels there they're not going to follow any rules they don't care if
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: turtles get wrapped up in the nets or if they overfish or if they catch whales or
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: any of that they don't care it's only about the short term and so every country
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: that deals with china has to deal with this
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: China doesn't care about stealing your technology, your plans, following your local laws.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're very pushy.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: So they start out with kind of a good cop, but they often very quickly turn into the bad cop.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: So many of these countries that were frustrated...
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: with U.S.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: dominance, are now very happy to welcome U.S.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: forces back in because they want the protection.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: They know they can't defend themselves,
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: and they want the alliances so that China cannot pick off these small island
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: countries one or two at a time or bully them.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: If everyone stands together, then perhaps China will turn around and stop what it's doing.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: But
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Back to what I said in the beginning,
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: it is interesting,
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: the whole be careful what you wish for,
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: because many of these countries wanted more attention,
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: they wanted to be in the limelight,
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: they wanted to matter,
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: and now they suddenly do.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I would not want to be a leader in a very small Pacific Island country,
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: trying to make the decisions that you know will affect your kids and your grandkids,
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: your small country's future,
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: for generations and generations.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't want to be wrong about it.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_00: And don't get me wrong,
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that allying with the United States is the safest thing,
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: because depending on who gets elected,
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: who knows what would happen in elections in four or eight years.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the United States becomes more isolationist and we say, ah, forget them.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you had sided with the United States and we do decide to quit worrying about the Pacific Ocean,
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not a fun place to be if you've been holding up against China for a decade or so.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a lot of stress and pressure on these small countries throughout the Pacific.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very tense situation for them as they try to decide which side are they
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: going to be on and who's in it for the long haul.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of podcasts are funny or humorous and are not very serious,
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: but that's why I've always kept this podcast serious and try to speak in a reserved tone.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because the decisions made are huge.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: There are lives at risk.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's...
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's literally the future of the world at risk on decisions made, on decisions that aren't made.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: This stuff's a big deal, and so I take it very serious.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: Whether we decide to stay in Afghanistan or leave,
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: or whether we go in,
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: or whether we do this or whether we do that,
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: whether we abandon Ukraine,
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: all of these things...
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Play are very small moves in a much larger game.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: And sadly, in the United States, we don't cover foreign policy very much.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: Most people don't stay very engaged in it at all.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: And like many things in our democracy, there's a great quote.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: I probably should look it up.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: But basically, we're slow to act.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then once we finally do, we often overreact.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: But that's pretty much a good description of much of U.S.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: history.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: I could give you dozens and dozens and probably hundreds of examples.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: One other bit of China news that you won't really see anywhere unless you were to
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: research this is Germany sent a delegation to India last Friday.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: And according to one article I saw, Germany is seeking to, quote, de-risk China.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: End quote.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Its economic relationship with China.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: So Germany knows that China is moving down a path toward authoritarianism and aggressive aggression.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously Germany, like the United States, has moved a lot of manufacturing into China.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we've done a lot to help China build its economy.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: But everyone's starting to get nervous because it does look like China's heading
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: down a path that's not good for the world or good for China.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so Germany sent a delegation to India, the largest democracy in Asia today.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: to talk about some long-term economic stuff,
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: advance some negotiations on what was called a long-stalled EU,
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: which is European Union-India trade deal.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, if you're China, you should be looking around and seeing that, hey, we're losing out on...
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: literally billions and billions if not trillions of dollars of future deals by our
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: frankly pretty silly aggression but again they've kind of they're at a fork every
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: week they can make the right decision but every single week they seem to take the
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: wrong fork in the road and so they boost military spending they become increasingly
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: aggressive and
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: They've had all kinds of war games happening around Taiwan.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's almost like a weekly thing.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: If I talked about it,
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: it would be the only thing I talked about during the show,
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: but it's all they ever do.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so they continue down this path that doesn't look good,
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_00: which is why so many countries are creating alliances with the United States and
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Europe because they see what China is doing,
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: what it's becoming,
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: and where it's headed,
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: and everyone's trying to prepare for that.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm going to cover three final quick news things.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: These are small items you will not see anywhere that I did just want to mention in brief.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: First thing, in Haiti, we've talked about Haiti off and on the past year or so.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's a small island to the south of the United States.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: The gang violence there is still horrific.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: In the past week, more than 10,000 people were displaced.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we've talked about how the UN's been doing a little bit down there.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: We brought in some police forces from Africa.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: We were trying not to get U.S.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: troops involved, even though earlier this year I was convinced at some point U.S.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: troops would get sucked in.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: Just wanted to update people.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty bad down there right now.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: Again, 10,000 people displaced over the past week.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Armed groups and gangs continue to attack government-held areas.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: Gangs still control 80% of Port-au-Prince, the capital.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: And earlier this month,
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: a gang attack killed more than 70 people inside central Haiti,
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: including women and children.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: I just share that because part of me still thinks at some point it's very hard for
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: us not to get sucked into Haiti,
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: so I like to keep that on people's radar.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: Moving along, every now and then you hear about Sudan.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: It is horrific fighting there.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's a catastrophic civil war.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: The United Nations Security Council has again been discussing it.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: They've sent a UN fact-finding mission, finding that both sides of the conflict...
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Both the National Army and the Rapid Support Forces have probably committed war crimes,
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: so it's just horrific.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: I could spend hours talking about it,
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_00: but I just bring that up because that's another place that,
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: at some point,
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think the world has to do something about.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: It probably will be the United Nations, but it is horrible what's happening in Sudan.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: I feel for all of those people stuck there in that fighting,
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: all of those atrocities that are happening there.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're just terrible.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of those stories that almost never makes the news here,
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: but if you live in America or if you're listening to me in Europe,
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: we are so blessed and fortunate,
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: and it's crazy how we take that so for granted.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I wanted to end on kind of a humorous note.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: In Afghanistan, we haven't talked about Afghanistan in a long time.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to share a story from the Washington Post.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just a brief part.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even going to get in the weeds of it because it's hard to get to talk about
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: Afghanistan without either getting frustrated or mad or making some listener mad.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: But the Taliban...
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: that has been doing so many bad things to women,
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: keeping children,
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: females,
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_00: from going to school,
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: doing all these rules for women,
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: making them cover up and all.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of funny.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: I want to share this.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: The headline of the story is,
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: as Taliban starts restricting men as well,
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: some regret not speaking up sooner.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just want to steal one line from the story.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: Besides imposing severe rules on women, new laws require men to grow fist-length beards...
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: and they bar them from imitating non-Muslims in appearance or behavior.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of found that humorous,
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: because it's all fun and games when rules are being made for others,
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: but when you do not speak up,
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: those rules come for you at some point,
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_00: do they not?
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's get to the best part of the show.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: As you know, life is hard, and sometimes you just need to hear something that will lift you up.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: So every episode,
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: I like to share just a few verses from the Bible or some quotes that touch on the
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: Bible or Jesus,
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: just because,
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: as you guys know,
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: my Christian faith has become such a source of strength and wisdom.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: and calm for me during the past couple of years since losing my mom,
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_00: and then now I worry an awful lot about my dad and his pretty serious memory problems.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm betting that you might have something going on that's kind of challenging in
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: your life or that you're worried about,
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: or if you don't,
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: I know you're wise enough to know that it's coming.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, in life, we are going to go through some challenging things.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I hope by sharing these,
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: it might encourage you a bit to get into your Bible,
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: because I think it'll change your life if you let it.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here is the first one.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord hears those in need.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the Lord hears those in need.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's from Psalms 69, verse 33-34.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's a good reminder,
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: when we go through rough parts of our life,
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: and we all do,
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: it will happen at some point,
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: the Lord does hear us,
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: and unfortunately,
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: so often we,
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why it is,
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: it's human nature,
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_00: when things are going well,
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: we don't really seek God,
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: and sometimes it just takes,
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: when we go through a dark valley of our life,
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: or something tragic happens,
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: That suddenly we say,
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: holy cow,
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: like maybe there's more to life than watching TikTok videos or Instagram or whatever,
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: TV or Netflix.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you get in those dark places, it is scary and it is hard.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: But we should remember that the Lord does hear those who are in need.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that's Psalms chapter 69, verse 33.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: This next verse is a great one.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_00: You've probably heard it before.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_00: And now these three remain, faith, hope, and love.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the greatest of these is love.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that verse is, and now these three remain, faith, hope, and love.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: But the greatest of these is love.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: Next one's just a quote I came across that I thought was great.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: The quote is, It's a great quote from George Carlin.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then it dawned on me, they're cramming for their final exam.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do a couple more.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is another verse.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's from 1 Samuel 10, verse 6.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's a wonderful thing if you've gone through that.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've been watching it do that to my life.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: And now let's do one more from the book of John, chapter 13, verse 34.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: Again, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: We know that if you have read the New Testament,
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was so much about love,
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: so much about helping those who
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_00: who were dealing with ailments or some type of paralysis,
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe were blind,
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe they were a prostitute sitting by the well,
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: or maybe they were a prostitute about to be stoned by religious authorities.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is about love, at least initially, and then he would often tell these people to go and sin no more.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: He is still, a lot of people in the West especially get it mixed up,
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: And they think Jesus is only about love.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that's a correct reading of the Bible.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is about justice.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a scary thing if you are not familiar with Jesus, if you haven't trusted in him.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it's also, in a crazy way, a beautiful thing.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because as I was talking about earlier with the example of countries being
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: aggressive or a spouse being aggressive...
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is a reason God is a God of justice, and that's because God does not like injustice.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: He does not like the horrible things that happen in this world where innocent
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: people suffer horrific things.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so God is both love, but he is also about justice.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so those who have committed wrongs will one day, they will be face to face with God.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's if they don't pay before then.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't,
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to scare people or any of that stuff,
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_00: but I do like to remind people that you can't just say God is love because we all
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: like to think about that really strong father that protects you when you're a kid
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: and you're scared about,
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: maybe the made up ghost or whatever's in your closet.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: We want the strong father or if someone breaks in your house, you want the strong father to protect you.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to remember that that strong father does sometimes discipline us and
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: and sometimes if we act even worse than that,
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: maybe the strong father cuts you off or moves you away from the will or whatever
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_00: the situation may be.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's what a strong father does.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just always love.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know this is kind of a deep topic, but I listened to a great sermon on this recently by Dr. Tim Keller.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just,
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_00: when you think about horrific crimes,
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_00: like imagining someone abusing a child or maybe killing a two-year-old kid or just
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: something horrific.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_00: Just imagine the worst thing that you can imagine.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: We want a God of justice in a situation like that.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: We want someone to pay for what they have done.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so it is a balancing act.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I am glad that I am not God and I don't have to be the one to make very hard decisions.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_00: God is definitely forgiving,
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_00: and He is definitely patient,
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_00: and He is definitely loving,
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_00: but He is also a God of justice.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have to remember that.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_00: Two final things.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_00: As a reminder, I did launch a podcast that focuses solely on faith.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: I now have three episodes up for that.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's called The Search for God, so you can find that wherever you listen.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just look for The Search for God, and
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Stan R. Mitchell, or you can find the link in the episode notes.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I always like to end this part by just saying as a final scripture reminder,
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_00: do not grow weary in doing good.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're just helping one hungry kid or donating one school backpack,
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: that might not solve world hunger.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_00: It might not fix everything in our country or your neighborhood, but you are doing good.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't feel overwhelmed by the size of the world's problems.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_00: And remember that you're setting a good example that others will see and will probably replicate.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably why you do good.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: Someone you saw doing good and you have started doing good.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you can create a ripple effect by doing a small deed.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_00: One other thing that I want to do tonight is something I do in every show.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you just for a moment about depression, PTSD, and even suicide.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just for a moment.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: I do this because,
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: most people aren't aware of this,
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_00: but veterans are at a 57% higher risk of suicide than
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_00: than their peers of the same age group of folks who haven't served.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_00: But this section isn't just for veterans.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: I know we can all get in really low spots in our lives.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to remind people that it's a season.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's a valley.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're in that thick, deep valley,
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_00: tough situation that just seems like you can't see over it.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just remember, it's just a season.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a valley.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, if you are having serious issues, you can call 988 and select one.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can talk to a crisis line responder anytime, day or night.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_00: And you can do this whether you're a civilian or a veteran.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I do know that this is hard to do, and I know most of you who are struggling probably won't.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I have to be a little mean here,
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_00: because the fact is,
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: is when we've had a drill instructor or a tough coach in the past who pushed you,
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_00: you've experienced that you can go further than when it's just yourself just
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_00: talking to yourself.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to be mean for a moment, and I got to remind you guys that you cannot give up.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_00: Can't give in to those really terrible thoughts you're having.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to lose this fight.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to, you know, don't make your parents or your family have to plan your funeral.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want them to feel guilty that they didn't check on you enough or that they couldn't reach you.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that you can hold on for another day,
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: and I think if you do,
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think the next day is going to be a little easier.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: now again if you're in a fight that you worry you may lose please call someone call
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: a friend or a family member this is really easy to do and it's something i beg of
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: you to do we've all lost friends that we wish had reached out to us so again reach
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_00: out to one of them just be honest say hey i'm struggling right now man can't can't
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_00: catch a break but you can also call 988 select one as i said but whatever you do
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: please do not quit
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're just in a valley, and this world does need you.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_00: Probably,
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: if we're honest,
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_00: your parents need you as well,
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_00: because seriously,
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_00: who's going to take care of your parents in 30 years,
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_00: or in 10 years,
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_00: or whatever age you are?
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm serious about this.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_00: I just helped take care of my mom before she passed.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm helping take care of my dad.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so, I just want to ask you, who's going to do it?
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_00: Are you just going to let the system take care of them?
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_00: How horrible is that?
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_00: So...
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_00: the broader point is you cannot quit and you need to think about beyond this season
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_00: that there's something you're meant to do you just can't see it because like i said
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: earlier you're in this immediate fog and pain you can't see the end result but i
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_00: believe that there's a mission for you to do i believe that god has a mission for
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_00: you to do maybe it's to coach little league maybe it's to help others with ptsd
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_00: maybe you're supposed to run for office
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I believe there's some calling for you and you just haven't found it.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you to get involved.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_00: Stop isolating yourself.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: Visit a veterans group such as the VFW, something like that.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe visit a church near you.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe visit some family you've lost touch with.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe call or text that friend you've grown apart with from,
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_00: the one from high school or the one from the military.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're probably dying to talk to you.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_00: But again, if you're struggling, I beg of you.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: Call 988-SELECT-1.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_00: Or, of course, you can start moving closer to God, which is something I'd certainly recommend.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_00: Read the Bible if you never have.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_00: I really do think that will help.
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can read some of Psalms or Proverbs, or you can start with the New Testament in John.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think you'll find the Bible will start drawing you in, and I think it'll start changing your life.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't have a Bible, you can download a Bible app on your phone, or you can look it up online.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are dozens of sites with it.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_00: But again, the broader point is I just want to encourage you not to give up.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a plan for you.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll reach out to God or maybe check out the Bible, as I've mentioned so many times.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_00: If that's not your thing or if you're not ready for that step,
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you try to surround yourself with some more community or some more friends.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know...
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of the websites say don't guilt someone who's thinking about suicide, that that's cruel.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I sadly think suicide's the easy way out.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's a short-term solution to what you think is a complicated problem that you can't solve.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_00: And hey, I'm not stupid.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know life is hard.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_00: I know going on, whether it's life or a marathon or a really long rucksack run...
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_00: or forced march in the military, to keep going is often more painful.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt about that, but it's also the right answer.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not only will you get tougher and stronger and have more endurance,
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_00: but if you fall out of that race,
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_00: someone's got to carry your gear.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_00: Someone's got to care for you.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you arrive at the mission objective with fewer people, which is going to lead to more strain
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_00: in danger, and probably casualties to those around you.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so that same thing happens if you decide to pull the plug and check out.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's going to have to carry your load.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's going to have to care for your family, for your parents.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_00: Someone's going to have to plan your funeral.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_00: Someone is going to have to deal with all the things that you left hanging out there.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_00: So am I trying to guilt you?
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really not trying to, but I just want you to think about these things.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you are in that lowest point in your life, that really dark place, please think of others.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're a good person, and I just think you're stronger than what you think you are right now.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I just encourage you, please keep fighting.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_00: Please keep taking that next step.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to get better.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_00: I hope as you go through this week that you act a little nicer on social media and in the world as well.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: Smile at folks in the grocery store.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_00: Do small acts of kindness.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_00: And remember that most Americans are good,
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_00: and they will help you in an emergency,
• 1:01:48
  SPEAKER_00: even if you don't agree politically.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_00: As you go through this week, I want you to aim to be more motivated and more disciplined.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_00: Try to improve yourself mentally, physically, and spiritually.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to set impossible goals on these matters.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_00: Just be a little more motivated and disciplined than you were the week prior.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_00: As I said earlier, I really hope that you spend some time in your Bible this week.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you have no idea where to read on your own, just start with Psalms or Proverbs.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_00: Read some of those and then start with the New Testament by reading the book of John.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_00: Moving to a final note on the political front,
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm confident after this episode,
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_00: you're going to hear some bad news this week,
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_00: where you're going to hear something ugly,
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_00: and it's going to remind you of how divided we are.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is as certain as the law of gravity.
• 1:02:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm begging you, please do not give up on this country.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's pretty ugly right now.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I know we're living in dark times,
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_00: but we've made it through nearly 250 years together,
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: and we're far stronger together than we'll ever be apart.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever believe anyone who tells you differently about that.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let me wrap up the show by talking about my books and a couple of other newsletters that I do.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_00: First, a bit about myself and my books.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: I am a military vet.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_00: I spent four years in the Marine Corps, all of that time in the infantry.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, that does matter.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_00: After my enlistment, I went to college at the University of Tennessee.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_00: I became a journalist.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_00: I spent more than 10 years in the news business.
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_00: Besides all of that, I've also written 12 books.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_00: Those books include a series about a Marine Corps sniper,
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_00: several novels about a police detective and a private investigator,
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: and a few books about war,
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_00: such as World War II and Afghanistan.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, these are all fast-moving books with lots of action and plot twists,
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_00: because those are the kind of books I've always enjoyed reading.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can find all of those books in the link in the episode notes,
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_00: or you can look on Amazon by just searching my name,
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_00: Stan R.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_00: Mitchell.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_00: Buying a book,
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_00: telling a friend about a book,
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_00: or buying one as a gift for someone,
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_00: friend or loved one,
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_00: is a great way to help support the show.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I always like to end each show by reminding people that you can comment anytime.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_00: I try to monitor those.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can also reach out privately by email to me at authorstanormitchell at yahoo.com.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that's in the episode notes, by the way.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_00: But again, it's authorstanormitchell.com.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, here's one other thing.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is about defense news, but I also do a political blog.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you love my moderate, optimistic views, you might enjoy that.
• 1:04:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Thoughts from a Southern Gentleman.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can find a link to the episode notes to that, or you can just search that on Google.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for hanging with me this week.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's truly an honor to talk with each of you and to know that there's a few of you
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_00: out there who are listening and who care about our country and our military and all
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_00: the issues that we face.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know there are a lot of scary issues out there,
• 1:04:50
  SPEAKER_00: but we're going to get through them together,
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_00: the same way America's gotten through everything before this.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you can at all this week,
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_00: reach out to a friend or anyone who you know is struggling,
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_00: whether they are young or old.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: Life is truly hard.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_00: We know this.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_00: But the true strength of this country is its people,
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_00: and that includes you folks listening to me right now.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_00: So be a leader, be a doer, be a servant to someone.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_00: With all of that being said, I'll catch you all next week.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_00: You have been listening to The View from the Front.
• 1:05:22
  Thank you.