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9/11, 25 Years Later -- Did We Learn Anything? | Yaron Brook Show · Yaron Brook Show

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The radical, fundamental principles of freedom, rational self-interest, and individual rights.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: This is the Yaron Brook Show.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: 25 years ago, this.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Morning, 19 men murdered nearly 3,000 people on American soil
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: in about an hour. 25 years later, American forces still
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: trading fire with the region and the regime that produced
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: these monsters. Oil is above 100. The state of Hormuz
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: is still mostly blocked. Americans are being killed and wounded
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: in a war with Iran that Washington can't summarize in
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a single sentence because Washington still, after 25 years, cannot
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: say what victory means. And Washington still cannot see the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: connection between 9-11 and the current war because it never
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: named the actual enemy. You know, the failure... of 9-11,
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  Speaker 1: the intelligence failure, and the consequence of that, and the procrastination,
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  Speaker 1: and the evasion that led to 9-11, nothing is compared
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: to the failures since. The failures we feel every single
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  Speaker 1: year since 9-11. You know, we learned how to stop
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  Speaker 1: a particular attack, and you know, blow up particular targets.
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  Speaker 1: And we've learned how to take off our shoes and
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  Speaker 1: take off our liquids, take out our liquids and pass
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  Speaker 1: the computers through the machine to make sure that our
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  Speaker 1: planes don't blow up. But we never learned to identify
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  Speaker 1: the enemy, to fight for our own survival without apology
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  Speaker 1: or to end a war on our terms. 25 years,
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  Speaker 1: roughly 7,000 American dead in the wars that followed, trillions
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  Speaker 1: of dollars spent, and the enemy still sets the terms
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  Speaker 1: of how we live, how we fly, how we fight.
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  Speaker 1: So after 20 years, have we learned anything? Have we
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  Speaker 1: learned anything? I mean, we've learned to defend ourselves against
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  Speaker 1: the consequences, somewhat. No major terrorist attack against the United
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  Speaker 1: States since 9-11. But we have not learned to remove
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  Speaker 1: the cause, and we have done little, if anything, to
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  Speaker 1: remove the cause. I mean, I remember watching the planes
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  Speaker 1: go into the Twin Towers, at least the second plane.
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  Speaker 1: I was in bed. I was in bed. It was
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  Speaker 1: in California, so it was still early in the morning.
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  Speaker 1: My wife was actually meeting up with Amy Peekoff to
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  Speaker 1: go somewhere. I can't remember exactly what they were planning
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  Speaker 1: to do. So Amy had driven out to our home
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  Speaker 1: in California and she was, you know, my wife went
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  Speaker 1: out to see her and she said, turn on the television,
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  Speaker 1: turn on the television. So I, still in bed, turned
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  Speaker 1: on the television in time to watch the second plane
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  Speaker 1: go into the tower. I mean, it was horrific, shocking,
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  Speaker 1: something I never expected. I never expected to see. I
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  Speaker 1: never thought the Islamists were competent enough to pull anything
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  Speaker 1: like this off. I always knew they had the intent.
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  Speaker 1: And I always believed that the United States was competent
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  Speaker 1: enough to stop such an attempt. But there it was.
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  Speaker 1: the second plane going in, obviously now a terrorist attack,
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  Speaker 1: not some kind of freak accident. Of course, an hour
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  Speaker 1: and a half later, the first tower falls, and then
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  Speaker 1: the second tower falls, and, you know, the plane hit
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  Speaker 1: the Pentagon, and the plane hits the field in Pennsylvania.
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  Speaker 1: And it You know, everybody's panicked and nobody quite knows
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  Speaker 1: exactly what's going on and why it's happened. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: and I remember driving to the Institute because, you know,
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  Speaker 1: to try to get everybody together and start working on
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  Speaker 1: what we're going to do, what the plan is, how
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  Speaker 1: we're going to respond. It was obvious that a response
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  Speaker 1: was needed. And on the way, Leonard Peikoff called me
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  Speaker 1: and said, why are you driving? You know, the L.A.
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  Speaker 1: might be the next target. I had a drive through
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  Speaker 1: very close to L.A.X., the airport, and the fear was
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  Speaker 1: that L.A.X. would be a target. Anyway, we huddled together
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  Speaker 1: and figured out what the plan was, and ultimately, ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: we put out the full-page ad that Linda Peikoff wrote,
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  Speaker 1: a full-page essay in the New York Times and the
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  Speaker 1: Washington Post, which you can read on the Iron Institute's website.
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  Speaker 1: And you should read it because it's as relevant today
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  Speaker 1: as it was back then. Of course, it was incredibly,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it identified the enemy. You know, Islamism and
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  Speaker 1: the Islamic movement being led by Iran. Iran is the
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  Speaker 1: essential enemy. I mean, There are ceremonies going on right now.
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  Speaker 1: There'll be ceremonies all day in New York. Mamdani and
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  Speaker 1: EOC are at the ceremony, if that makes you feel
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  Speaker 1: better about the world, having a good time by the
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  Speaker 1: videos I've seen of them. And, you know, people will say,
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  Speaker 1: never forget, and they will read all the names of
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  Speaker 1: But the one thing that the victims of 9-11 deserve,
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  Speaker 1: they will not get. I mean, the one, the essential thing,
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  Speaker 1: the starting point of what they deserve is to know
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  Speaker 1: who killed them and why they were killed. But nobody
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  Speaker 1: would dare say it. They weren't killed by a weather event.
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  Speaker 1: They weren't murdered by any specific individuals. in the name of,
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  Speaker 1: they weren't killed by specific individuals at some random shooting.
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  Speaker 1: They were murdered by specific men, acting on a specific ideology,
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  Speaker 1: for specific reasons, and at the very least, to honor
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  Speaker 1: the people who died on that day and died horrific deaths.
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  Speaker 1: Just think of the people at the top of these towers,
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  Speaker 1: in the upper floors of these towers. Unable to escape
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  Speaker 1: one tower, all four of the stairways were blocked by fire, smoke, debris.
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  Speaker 1: Unable to escape knowing they were dead. I mean, you've
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  Speaker 1: seen the pictures of people basically falling out of the
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  Speaker 1: windows because they had nowhere else to go because their
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  Speaker 1: flow was being consumed by fire and smoke. On one
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  Speaker 1: of the towers, one staircase was open, so some people
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  Speaker 1: managed to escape. But imagine being on those top floors
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  Speaker 1: for an hour and a half. And yet, nobody's willing
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  Speaker 1: to tell them the reason they died. Nobody's willing to
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  Speaker 1: tell them who actually committed this horror. And certainly nobody
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  Speaker 1: can tell them, nobody can tell them that the people
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  Speaker 1: who did this are being defeated because they have not.
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  Speaker 1: So the reality is that America has learned very little
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  Speaker 1: and refuses to accept, to understand, to grapple with what
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  Speaker 1: really happened on 9-11, who the real enemy is and
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  Speaker 1: what needs to be done. I mean, 9-11... We have
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  Speaker 1: to understand 9-11 was not a intelligence failure. If by
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  Speaker 1: intelligence we mean we didn't have the data, we didn't
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  Speaker 1: have information. I mean, God, we had a whole set
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  Speaker 1: of data. It wasn't a problem if the FBI and
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  Speaker 1: the CIA didn't talk. Anybody could see this coming in
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  Speaker 1: a sense. You didn't need to talk. Although the fact
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  Speaker 1: that they're talking hopefully post 9-11 is a good thing.
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  Speaker 1: But the reality is that, you know, a patent could
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  Speaker 1: be observed and indeed was observed by many people. Leonard
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  Speaker 1: Peikoff being one important example of that. Leonard was claiming
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  Speaker 1: throughout the 90s that we should expect a horrific terrorist
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  Speaker 1: attack on U.S. soil, that this was going to be
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  Speaker 1: really bad. And how did he know that? And by
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  Speaker 1: the way, I remember... I remember, actually, this was in 1998,
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  Speaker 1: I believe. I was sitting with Leonard Picoff at a
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  Speaker 1: restaurant in Santorini, Greece. Beautiful, just gorgeous view. Arguing about
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  Speaker 1: exactly this. He said there was going to be a
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  Speaker 1: big terrorist attack, and I said they wouldn't because I
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  Speaker 1: thought the enemy was too incompetent to pull one off.
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  Speaker 1: Guess who was right about that one? not for the
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  Speaker 1: only time. Leonard was absolutely right. And how did he
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  Speaker 1: know this? Well, he could see the pattern. 1979. Islamists,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: part of the Iranian revolution, take the American embassy and
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  Speaker 1: start 444 days of a hostage crisis. A theocracy, but
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  Speaker 1: not just any theocracy. An Islamist Theocracy. In 1983, Islamists,
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  Speaker 1: at the behest of the Iranians and members of what
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  Speaker 1: would become Hezbollah, blow up the Marine barracks in Beirut.
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  Speaker 1: 241 Americans dead. Now, I'm just listing some of the
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  Speaker 1: main ones. There's a whole list of these, right? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: which is much more detailed.
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  Speaker 2: In 1989.
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  Speaker 1: The Islamist Ayatollah in Iran puts out a fatwa against Rushdie,
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  Speaker 1: a man who wrote a book that the Ayatollah found
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  Speaker 1: offensive to Islam. A regime, an Islamist regime, a theocracy,
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  Speaker 1: claims authority to sentence a novelist to death even though
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  Speaker 1: he's living on another continent, no matter where he lives.
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  Speaker 1: And we know that that fatwa was acted on. And ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: just recently, a few years ago, Rushdie lost his eye
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  Speaker 1: and lost some of the movement in his arm. In 1996,
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  Speaker 1: Iranian Islamist operatives, again, Hezbollah, working with Hezbollah, blew up
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  Speaker 1: the Cobra Towers, killing Marines. In 1988, hundreds of people,
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  Speaker 1: I think it was hundreds of people, were killed in
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  Speaker 1: the East African embassies in, I think it was Kenya
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  Speaker 1: and Tanzania. And in 2000, the USS Cole was attacked
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  Speaker 1: by Islamists. Note the pattern. And throughout the late 90s
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  Speaker 1: and early in 2000, Bin Laden issues written declarations of
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  Speaker 1: war against the United States. He tells you exactly what
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  Speaker 1: he intends. And we do nothing. We do nothing. We
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  Speaker 1: did nothing in 79 other than a failed attempt at
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  Speaker 1: a rescue, which was never really a real attempt. you know,
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  Speaker 1: some lobbying, some bombs that landed in the middle of
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  Speaker 1: nowhere in 1983 and the same in 2000. No response
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  Speaker 1: really in 96. No response to Fatwa, other than to
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  Speaker 1: apologize that any writer in the West, you know, kind
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  Speaker 1: of ridicules Islam. Shouldn't do that. Shouldn't ridicule Islam. And
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  Speaker 1: every one of these was treated as some isolated crime
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  Speaker 1: without drawing any lessons from it, without identifying the threat
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  Speaker 1: There are Islamists out there who want us dead. And
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  Speaker 1: they told us this. And they explained their reasons. We
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  Speaker 1: were the infidels. We were secular. We were successful. Allah
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  Speaker 1: had given the world to Islam, to Muslims, to faithful Muslims,
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  Speaker 1: to Muslims who are willing to fight a war in
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  Speaker 1: his name, a jihad. they would inherit the earth. And
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  Speaker 1: they believe it. They believed it. They believe it. And
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  Speaker 1: just give them enough time. They believe the world will
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  Speaker 1: be lit, will be this. So we saw this, we
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  Speaker 1: saw the whole thing. And it was just a question
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  Speaker 1: of time. I mean, I skipped the fact that in
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  Speaker 1: the early 1990s, there was a bombing attempt by an
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  Speaker 1: Islamist on the World Trade Center. It, it, you know,
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  Speaker 1: luckily failed. The bomb didn't do as much damage as
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  Speaker 1: they expected. They placed it in the wrong location. But
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  Speaker 1: they tried to beat down the World Trade Center before.
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  Speaker 1: Did anybody learn anything from this? Islamism, motivation, you know,
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  Speaker 1: what they're going after, who they want to kill. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: even after 9-11, what was the conclusion? What was the
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  Speaker 1: war that we were now engaged in? I mean, this
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  Speaker 1: is so disgusting. It's hard to comprehend. We declared a
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  Speaker 1: war on terror. A war on the tactics the enemy deployed.
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  Speaker 1: But terrorism is not an enemy. It can't be an enemy.
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  Speaker 1: That's ridiculous. It's a method. It's like ambushing or a
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  Speaker 1: bombing run or a kamikaze pilot. You don't declare war
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  Speaker 1: on a kamikaze pilot. You identify the enemy. You identify
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  Speaker 1: the source. You identify who did this to you. And
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  Speaker 1: the U.S. refused and refuses to this day to do
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  Speaker 1: exactly that. It was what we called at the time
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  Speaker 1: at the Institute Islamic totalitarians, Islamists, Islamic ideologues who believed
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  Speaker 1: in imposing Islam on the entire world and believed that Islam...
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  Speaker 1: when imposed, affected every aspect of our lives. Totalitarian. And
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  Speaker 1: they believed that they could and would bring it about
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  Speaker 1: through jihad. And they still do. Again, they still do.
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  Speaker 1: They're still out there. Have we learned that they are
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  Speaker 1: the enemy? No. No, of course not. Don't name the enemy.
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  Speaker 1: Put your head deep, deep, deep in the sand and
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  Speaker 1: pretend they don't exist. Go after terrorists. And of course,
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  Speaker 1: as a consequence of that, we never identified the states
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  Speaker 1: who sponsored, inspired, made possible these attacks, whether it was
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  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia, who was an ally of the U.S. and
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  Speaker 1: really friends with George W. Bush. So going after them
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  Speaker 1: was never an option. Or whether it was Iran, And
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: going after them, for some reason, was never an option. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: we went after the Taliban, barely insignificant in the world
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  Speaker 1: of Islamist ideology and terrorism and militancy. And we went
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  Speaker 1: after Iraq, the one secular dictator in the region. So, yes,
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  Speaker 1: unless you identify the ideology that moves people, unless you
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  Speaker 1: identify the sources of that ideology, unless you fight it
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  Speaker 1: intellectually and fight the source militarily, you cannot win. You
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  Speaker 1: cannot win. And the fact that you're afraid to name
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  Speaker 1: it is such a sign of weakness, it only emboldens
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  Speaker 1: the other side. And here's the thing about the Islamists.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the unbelievable thing about the Islamists that... You know,
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  Speaker 1: we can see in this current war with Iran, unbelievably
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  Speaker 1: weak militarily, materially. They cannot stand up to a fight
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: against the United States. They would crumble immediately. Now, it's
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  Speaker 1: true there are over a billion Muslims, and a significant
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  Speaker 1: number of them, sadly, are attracted to this version of Islam.
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  Speaker 1: Once it is viewed as a losing ideology, as a
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: defeated ideology, once its bastions, like Iran, like Saudi Arabia,
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  Speaker 1: are defeated, in one way or another, and you don't
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: have to defeat them militarily, I think Saudi Arabia would have,
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  Speaker 1: and ultimately did, in some sense, fold without war. But
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  Speaker 1: once they see that, nobody wants to die for losing ideology.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody's going to strap on a bunch of bombs and
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  Speaker 1: go blow himself up for something that they know is
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  Speaker 1: a losing strategy. Winning, watching the West cower, watching the
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  Speaker 1: West fear, that inspires, that inspires. So instead, we were
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  Speaker 1: told by the President of the United States, remember, America,
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  Speaker 1: we were told that Islam was a religion of peace,
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  Speaker 1: hijacked by extremists. But of course, that's just a dodge.
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  Speaker 1: Islam is no religion of peace. No religion is a
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  Speaker 1: religion of peace. And this particular enemy Who was inspired
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  Speaker 1: by Islam? Like it or not? I mean, it's not
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  Speaker 1: my job to interpret Islam and to tell you what
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: is the right interpretation and the wrong interpretation. Certainly there
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  Speaker 1: are millions and millions of Muslims around the world who
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  Speaker 1: don't believe, don't agree with Bin Laden's interpretation of Islam.
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  Speaker 2: Good.
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  Speaker 1: Hopefully, they too will rise up to defeat the Islamists
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  Speaker 1: and at the very least to condemn them. Many of
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: them stayed silent. But, you know, Islamism is a totalitarian
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: conviction that every part of human life, law, speech, sex, thought, dress,
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  Speaker 1: must be forced under religious rule. It's totalitarian. Or, as
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  Speaker 1: I say, I call it Islamism. It's a political or
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  Speaker 1: philosophical ideology. It's religion applied to politics in a particular way.
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  Speaker 1: And there are lots of them. There are lots of variations,
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  Speaker 1: put it that way. There are Sunni branches and Shiite branches,
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  Speaker 1: and they like to slaughter each other. Good. And there
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  Speaker 1: are Sunni ones that hate each other. Remember Al-Qaeda and
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: ISIS fighting one another.
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  Speaker 2: Good.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, the more fragmented they are, the better off
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  Speaker 1: for us. But it doesn't change the fact that they
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  Speaker 1: all share the same premise. vote of submission to Sharia.
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  Speaker 1: And that's true of Al-Qaeda, of ISIS, of Hamas, of Hezbollah,
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  Speaker 1: of Islamic Jihad, of the Muslim Brotherhood, and, importantly, of
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  Speaker 1: the Iranian regime. We could also have the Wahhabis who,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: at least during 9-11, and right after 9-11, were still held,
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  Speaker 1: you know, take control over much of Saudi Arabia, at
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: least ideologically. religiously. It's all one ideology. And that ideology
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  Speaker 1: needed to be destroyed. And to destroy it, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran,
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  Speaker 1: the Saudi Wahhabis, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad. There's probably,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: you know, if you go to the Philippines and Indonesia
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: and Malaysia and India and Bangladesh and Pakistan, there are
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  Speaker 1: lots and lots of variations of this. The Taliban, Those
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  Speaker 1: entities needed to be destroyed. They were the enemy. So, yes,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: we need to defeat it in the realm of ideas. But,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: of course, to defeat it in the realm of ideas,
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  Speaker 1: you first have to name it and then argue against it.
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  Speaker 1: And a lot of that work should be done by
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  Speaker 1: Muslims who claim not to agree with it. Where are they?
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  Speaker 1: Why are they so few? Why, importantly, are they so silent?
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  Speaker 1: But their representatives, the people who put on the bombs,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: the people who fund the bombs, the people who make
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the bombs possible, they need to be materially defeated. I mean,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: here's the thing. 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: not Iraqis, not Afghans, Saudis. And that's not just an
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: accident of some kind of geography. They were inspired by
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  Speaker 1: the Saudi ideology of Wahhabism, which was, you know, which
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: was merged and integrated with Muslim Brotherhood ideology in the 60s, 70s, 80s.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: For decades, Saudi Arabia exported this Wahhabi ideology all over
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: the Middle East. But it started in Saudi Arabia, in
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  Speaker 1: its schools, in its universities, in its madrasas, religious schools.
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  Speaker 1: Wahhabism is a reason-hating, individual-hating, West-hating strain of Islam. And
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  Speaker 1: yet the Saudis finance mosques, textbooks, religious schools across the globe.
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  Speaker 1: to a large extent in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. Many
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  Speaker 1: of the Saudis educated in Saudi Arabia who wanted to
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  Speaker 1: go live this life of Islamism as Wahhabism called for
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: went to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan and helped defeat
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  Speaker 1: the Soviets in Afghanistan and joined the Taliban in turning
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  Speaker 1: Afghanistan into a hellhole. the Islamist movement globally could have
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: not existed, could have not have grown to the place
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  Speaker 1: that it grew. Certainly by 9-11, later on with ISIS,
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  Speaker 1: without Saudi money and without the Saudi doctrine in which,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: you know, which educated bin Laden and the rest of
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the Al-Qaeda mob. Saudi Arabia was at least the financial engine,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: and to a large extent, the ideological engine of Sunni jihadism. Now, Yuan,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, now, remember, we talked about this
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  Speaker 1: the other day, right? We talked about this yesterday, the
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: day before, about the new evidence that's coming out in
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: a new BBC documentary that You know, there's footage showing
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: a Saudi national who's connected to Saudi intelligence in one
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  Speaker 1: way or the other. You know, hanging out with al-Walaki,
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  Speaker 1: a senior al-Qaeda operative. And, you know, he was also
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  Speaker 1: the same guy, Bayoumi, was the same guy who met
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: up with the hijackers in San Diego when they were
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: going to flight school, helped them get apartments and helped
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: them out there. They helped him find an apartment, get
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: a driver's license, apply to flight school. He was drawing
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: about a $ 90, 000 salary from companies tied to Saudi Defense
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: Ministry for a job that he never showed up to.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: What was he getting paid for? He was living in
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: San Diego, hanging out with the hijackers. Was he ever arrested?
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Ever really questioned? Was the Saudi connection ever, ever? No,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of course not. Of course not. Was Bayoumi coordinating with
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: the Saudi government when he assisted the hijackers? Was he
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: a lone wolf? We don't know. Were there elements within
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the Saudi regime doing this? Others opposed it? We don't know.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: The FBI never showed the 9-11 Commission most of the
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: information in this documentary. The plane diagram that was found
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: the him hanging around with Awalaki, the jihadist writings that
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: were found in his place. The commission never saw them.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: But there was a reason for that. Nobody wanted to
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: find a link to the Saudis. Nobody wanted to go there.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: They didn't. And why was it buried? Why didn't it
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: shield the Saudi relationship? Well, oil American bases, arms deals. Oh,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: it's run by a moderate king and who's an ally
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: of ours. We needed all those stories to be true.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: But the reality is, naming Saudi Arabia Saudi complicity or
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: even suspecting Saudi complicity would have, you know, would have
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: meant that somebody we called a friend might not be
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: a friend. We might actually have to face reality. We
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: would not defend our own interests against an ally. For
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: 25 years, we chose a relationship with the Saudis over
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: the 3,000 dead, over the truth. Now, again, I don't
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: know if there's a link, but nobody in our government
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: has really gone looking But it wasn't just Salih. It is,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of course, what really inspired the Muslims to, Sunnis and Shiites,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: to really delve into the Islamist ideology and dedicate their
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: lives to fighting, to jihad, was indeed the success of
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: the Iranian Revolution. Iran, this massive country with 90 million
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: people and a long history, a long history of civilization,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: this massive country that had been secularized and turned to
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: the West under the Shah, in 1979, became an Islamist
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: country dedicated to Sharia, imposing totalitarianism on its own population.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: And it had succeeded. And it had killed Americans, it
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: had killed Westerners, and nobody had done anything about it.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: It was all-powerful. It became the model. It inspired. This is,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: if Iran can do this, why can't we? If the
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Shias can do this, why can't the Sunnis? There is
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: no Islamist movement in the world, one that is as
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: successful and as confident as it is today, without Iran,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: even on the Sunni side of the ledge. And there's
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: plenty of evidence to suggest that Iran helped al-Qaeda in
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: various ways, even though the Sunnis, they don't actually object.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: They don't actually object to them fighting the West. Go
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: for it. Kill our... are mutual enemies. So, Iran was
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: never on the target list. Iraq? Secular? Now, part of
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: this is, part of this is, part of the reason
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: not to name Islam, Islamism, Jihadism, I think there was
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: a week, like three times that Judge Bush called them Islamofascists.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: And then he stopped. Then he stopped. Remember the operation?
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: The first bombing of Afghanistan, when the bombers were hitting there,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: the name of the operation was Operation Infinite Justice. Infinite Justice.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: And what happened? When the Saudis heard that the United
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: States had started Operation Infinite Justice. The Saudis and other
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Muslim countries, they called the White House immediately and said,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: you can't do this. Infinite justice. Only Allah can do
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: infinite justice. You can't. You can't call this Operation Infinite Justice.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: You're not doing this in the name of Allah, in
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the name of God. And the White House says, oh, whoops, sorry.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: This is weeks after 3,000 Americans are murdered. And the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: United States is changing the name of the operation to
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: appease the enemy. What was it called? Operation Enduring Freedom.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Whose freedom exactly? Are we going to end?
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Anyway.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: So you couldn't name the enemy. Because it was associated
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: with a religion that a lot of people who, I guess,
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: the Bush administration liked, didn't want you to name. You
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: also couldn't name the enemy because once you named a religion,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: even if it's just a part of a religion, an
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: application of the religion, then what about your own religion?
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Because at the end, all religions are about faith. And
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: faith ultimately leads to force. And no religion, no religion
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: is a religion of peace. All religions have their fanatics
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: who are engaging in violence. Look at the settlers in
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the West Bank. Look at, you know, what Christianity has
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: done over its history in terms of killing other Christians
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: and killing non-Christians. Slaughter left and right. So Bush, a
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: born-again Christian, found it difficult, difficult to say it lightly,
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: put it lightly, to name a religion as the enemy.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: And he went out of his way, out of his way,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: that it had nothing to do with Islam, religion of peace.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Ramadan was celebrated in the White House in October 2001,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: a month after 9-11. It still sends shivers just thinking
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: about it. It still makes me feel sick just thinking
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: about that, the appeasement. But here's the thing. The ultimate
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: reason you couldn't name the enemy is moral. To name
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: the enemy and destroy it, America would have had to
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: act ruthlessly and unapologetically in its own self-interest. To say
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: without flinching, we are doing this to protect American lives.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: And that is enough. that would be too selfish. That
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: would be too self-interested. Instead, our foreign policy, our lives,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: but particularly our foreign policy, our foreign policy is where
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: this really, you can see it in concrete terms, in
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: a way that's hard to sometimes see in domestic policy,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: is guided by altruism. Not kindness, not generosity, not helping others,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: you know, an old woman across the street. It's about sacrifice, self-sacrifice,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: as being the measure of virtue. An action is only
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: moral if it's done for other people, not for yourself.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: And pursuing your own self-interest is always suspect. At best,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: morally neutral, and at worst, damn shameful. Iman, a vice.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: We all know this. We know this because we know
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: that calling somebody selfish is not a compliment. I mean,
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: here's the thing. We couldn't actually go out there and
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: announce after 9-11. At least George Bush couldn't go out
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: there and announce after 9-11. We're going to destroy the enemy.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: We're going to do it in American interests. This is
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: what American interests require. This is what the safety of
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Americans requires now. At West Point in 2002, George Bush said, quote,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: our nation's cause has always been larger than our nation's defense.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: Our nation's cause has always been larger than our nation's defense.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: We're not in this to defend ourselves. We're in this
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: for something bigger, change the world, bring democracy to the world,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: make the world a better place, make it safe for,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It's not just our national defense. We
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: need to aspire to more noble goals. That's the altruism.
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: That's the defeat. That's the inability to win. You can't
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: actually win when victory is not the purpose. I mean,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the defense of Americans is treated as too small of
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: a purpose to fight for. It has to be dressed
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: up as something bigger. I mean, we need to free
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: the Iraqis. We need to bring democracy to Afghanistan. We
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: need to serve Foreign populations, that's noble, that's good. By
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: the way, all of that is consistent with our self-defense,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: they tell you. Now, as soon as you do that,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: as soon as you declare defending Americans is insufficient, the
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: war has no boundary, has no victory possible, and has
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: no finish line. No finish line. To win, war is
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: a serious matter. You're sending people to die. fight and die.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: You have to have a clear agenda, a clear goal,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: a clear purpose. It has to be definitive, and there
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: has to be a clear point in which it ends.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: We can't do that. Look at our war with Iran
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: right now. We just can't do it. But the goals
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: of the Bush administration were to.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: So much of America bought into this. We were going
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: to uplift the Middle East. Why? For what purpose? To
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: make ourselves feel good. To appease our moral sentiments. A
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: country that doesn't treat its own defense as sufficient. As
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: a sufficient moral purpose. can never win, can never define victory.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: It's quietly declared its own survival. to be not worth
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: winning for. That's what drives failure. That's what's driven the
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: last 25 years. Altruism in our foreign policy through and through.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Every strategic failure, everyone, Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Iran, Is
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: altruism ethical? I mean, think about it. I mean, the
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: actual war, however you want to define that, like the shooting,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, we won both Afghanistan and Iraq in weeks.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, we are the mightiest superpower in all of
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: human history. It's not even close. We The United States
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: removed the Taliban after it sheltered al-Qaeda, and it removed them. Now,
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: it didn't do it in the quickest way. It didn't
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: do it with overwhelming force. We had to watch out
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: for civilian casualties. We had to fight the war proportionally.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Proportionality was important. I mean, we didn't even kill bin
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Laden when we had a chance because we were worried
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: about collateral damage. I mean, seriously. He was on his
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: way to Bora Bora, and we wouldn't bomb the convoy
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: because civilians would die. And then he was in Bora Bora,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: in the caves in Bora Bora. And we didn't send
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: Marines to get him. We didn't send special forces to
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: get him. We sent the Iraq, the Afghans, who cut
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: a deal. And ultimately, he managed to sneak out into Pakistan.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, the history of a failure to capture bin
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Laden or to kill bin Laden has not yet been written, sadly.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: It should have been done in the first few days
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: of the war, but we were so uptight. Maybe civilians
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: will die at the same time. Again, unwillingness to defend ourselves.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: In spite of that, in spite of all the handcuffs,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: in spite of all the limitations we placed on ourselves,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: on the rules of engagement, in spite of all of that.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: We still managed to get rid of the Taliban in
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: a few weeks, at least in terms of holding power.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: And got Al-Qaeda to run away. And then the mission changed.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: It wasn't just about eliminating the threat, getting rid of Al-Qaeda.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: It was now about building a liberal democracy in Afghanistan.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: How are you going to do that? There's no cultural
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: or philosophical foundations for that. Much of Afghanistan was still
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Islamist at the core of its ideology. You cannot just
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: install individual rights in a population that doesn't have any
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: clue what that means and doesn't value those rights. I mean,
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: just think about what we did in Afghanistan. It's just,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: it should terrify you, horrify you. 20 years, a couple
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: of trillions of dollars Thousands of American troops killed and maimed.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Thousands of Americans traumatized by war in Afghanistan. 20 years,
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: trillions of dollars, thousands of casualties. And in 2021, the
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Taliban walked back into Kabul and took it over.
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: They just came back. Same regime. Will they do the
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: same thing they did in the past in terms of
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: supporting terrorism against the United States?
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Who doubts it? One thing they know, they can outlast
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: America because America won't fight because America wants to build
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: schools and cultivate the population and America won't actually defeat
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: its enemies. It's not committed. We'll take Iraq. A monster,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: Saddam Hussein. But not a monster who attacked us. Not
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: a monster who is relevant to the case of Islamism.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Should the American government be out there hunting down every
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: foreign monster, killing every foreign leader who treats their people horribly? No.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. And, of course,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: the Bush administration knew that, so they had to come
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: up with weapons of mass destruction. But other countries had
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: weapons of mass destruction. We know, for example, that Syria
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: had weapons of mass destruction and had a brutal dictator
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: running it, Assad. And yet, we didn't go after Syria.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, I never understood the weapons of mass destruction. Yeah,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: they have it. We know that. They used chemical weapons
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: on the Kurds. What did we get? Not attacking the
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: United States. And then it was UN resolutions, and then
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: it was bring democracy to the Middle East, which was,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: I think, the neocons really believed in. Talk about altruism.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Operation Infinite Justice turns into Operation Enduring Freedom. Not our freedom,
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: their freedom. Bring them freedom. I mean, the operation in Iraq,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: they didn't even try to come up with a name
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: like infinite justice. They immediately called it Operation Iraqi Freedom.
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: Altruism through and through. And of course, we all know
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: elections are not freedom. And remember, they were going to
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: bring freedom to the entire Middle East. They were going
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: to bring elections to the entire Middle East. They did.
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: So the Egyptians voted after the Arab Spring. And who
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: did they vote? They voted in. The Muslim Brotherhood didn't
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: last very long, but they voted in the Islamists. And
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: the Palestinians voted, because the Americans insisted in 2005 that
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: the Palestinians vote. And then Israel said, okay, but Hamas
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: can't run because they're a party dedicated to violence and
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: dedicated to the destruction of Israel. And Bush said, no, no, no,
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: it's democracy. Everybody can run. Even somebody who's dedicated to
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: killing you, can run. So Israel relented, Hamas ran, and
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Hamas won. And as they say, the rest is history.
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: October 7th is history. I mean, it's, I mean, this just,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: this just goes on and on and on and on.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, the reality is that Everybody in these wars
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: knew they were adding up to nothing that was favorable
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: to America, and yet they continued them. I mean, we
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: got all the mission accomplished for Bush, Cheney, Cheney's last throes.
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: It's almost there. But then a few years ago, the
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: Washington Post published the Afghanistan Papers. And these were interviews
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: with government officials. about what was really going on in
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Afghanistan during those years. And it turns out, it turns
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: out that while they were telling us that we were
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: winning and everything was great and all the troops that
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: were necessary and this was vital for our security, and
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: don't worry, we're winning, while telling us, all of us,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: all of that, in private, they all knew that it
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: was BS. They all knew that we were losing the
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: war in Afghanistan. They all knew that the soldiers dying
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: there were dying for nothing. I mean, this was institutional
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: dishonesty on a scale that changed as a nation, and
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: I think it changed America. I mean, and we're not
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: talking about just minor government officials. We're talking about everybody,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: from President Bush and Obama and Trump to the generals,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: the chiefs of the different branches of the military, to,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: you know, politicians in both parties, to intelligence officers. They knew.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: They knew that this was a failure. They knew it
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: wouldn't succeed. They knew it was all for naught. And
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: yet they continued. And they continue to tell us lies.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you haven't read the Afghanistan papers, I mean,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: you should, although it will really depress you. Really depress you.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, this institutional dishonesty created a vacuum. And what
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: rushed to fill the vacuum were conspiracy theories. No end
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: to conspiracy theories. When the government won't tell you the
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: truth about why it's failing, people invent their own explanations.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: You get the right recoiling into so-called isolationism, that it
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: mislabels self-interest. America first is isolationism. And the left, whose
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: reflexive hatred of America turns it into a cheerleader for
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: any movement that would kill the values that we stand for.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Just think, October 7th and its aftermath. And then there's
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: the human cost. And, I mean, this, yeah. I know
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: most people don't seem to, this really doesn't seem to
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: really land. But maybe because I come from Israel, a
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: small country, where when a soldier dies, it's a big
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: deal because it's your neighbor, it's your cousin, it's somebody
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: you know. The human costume is really unbelievable. Roughly 7,000
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: American service members, kids, somebody's sons, husbands, died in this war. 7,000
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: in the post-911 wars. Tens of thousands more had suffered
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: catastrophic physical and psychological wounds. The cost of war project
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: Estimates that post-911 military and veteran suicides ran into the
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: tens of thousands several times to combat death toll. Why?
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Why did they die? What justifies sending an American to die?
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: Only one thing. To protect his country. To protect his country. freedom,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: to protect his family and friends. Not to build somebody
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: else a democracy. Not to build them schools, sewer systems, whatever.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: That's not what you fight for. Fighting should be for
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: self-interested reasons, for your values, your life. Risking your life
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: for these altruistic reasons is the ultimate self-sacrifice. And that
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: our politicians demand that of our young men and women,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: that we expect it of them, is beyond disgusting, beyond appalling.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: It's a moral crime. And look, we're seeing the same
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: thing right now in Iran, right? We can beat their
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: military easily. Easily. And they deserve to be defeated, given
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: how many Americans they've killed over many, many years, and
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: how many others they've inspired to kill Americans. And yet,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: we can't win it. Or we seem not to be
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: willing to win it. We bomb, but we bomb tentatively.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: We don't bomb strategic targets. We don't make this a
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: war of self-defense. We don't define what victory looks like.
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: We don't insist on regime change. You know, Iran turned
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: out to be a paper tiger. It really did. But
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: we turned out to be a bigger paper tiger. Not
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: because we don't have the weapons, the forces, the capacity.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: It opened the state of hormones that have bombed every...
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: every military target or non-military target in Iran. No, because
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: we're not willing to use the weapons that we have.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: And we can't think strategically about it. And we don't
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: define it. We don't think about it. So the nuclear program,
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: the buildings and tunnels were destroyed, or some of them.
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: But the enriched material, the scientific knowledge, the personnel, and
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: above all, the intent, still survive. As of today, nobody
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: knows what actually happened in those strike sites and where
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: that material is. We know the personnel. You know, some
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: of the leading scientists have been killed, but most of
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: them are still alive. And we know that they still
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: intend to build it. Why wouldn't they? More than ever, probably.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: And yet, what are we doing about it? Nothing. I mean,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: Trump seems to have lost interest in the nuclear program.
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: the regime itself. We can kill leaders who were just replaced.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: What about the machine that creates these leaders, that makes
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: them possible? What about the theocracy, the entire administration, the bureaucracy,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: the entire mechanism of this regime? Can't touch it. You know,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: I argued for bombing the Madrasas and Homs. Homs is
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: that It's the spiritual heart of Iran. That's what needed
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: to go. Their ideology needed to be decapitated, not just
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: the name on the nameplate. In the state of Hormuz,
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: I talked about this endlessly, right? Couldn't even think, even
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: though you know that they're going to block it, couldn't
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: have a strategy to prevent it, couldn't have a strategy
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: to open it, couldn't have, I mean, just amateurs running
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: the show. with no clear goals. Now, it could be
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: that we still win somehow in Iran, because the Iranian
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: regime ultimately collapses from within, but that'll be more luck
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: than brains. I mean, what we need, what we needed
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: in Afghanistan, what we need in Iran, and what we
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: needed in Iran in the past, was to be ruthless,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: was to do what was necessary quickly, thoroughly, on a
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: massive scale, to destroy the capabilities of our enemies that
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: ever inflict pain on the United States, and then come home.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Not to build their democracies, not to fix their societies,
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: but to make it clear to them, unequivocally, and to
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: anybody who wanted to emulate them, the price that they
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: would pay. Instead, you know, as I wrote in Just
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: War Theory, and you can find the article online, just
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: search my name in Just War Theory, it'll come up.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: We play by altruistic rules of engagement, proportionality, and, you know,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: and so, you know, you can only bomb, you can
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: only use weapons in proportion to your aims and goals. Well,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: what are the aims and goals? I mean, think about
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: what was done in World War II. I mean, imagine
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: what would have happened in World War II if we
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: had not softened the French coast before D-Day. Now, let
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: me explain to you what softening the French coast meant.
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: In bombing every town on the French coast, the Germans
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: had a military presence. artillery, or troops. An overwhelming majority
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: of the people who died in softening the French coast
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: before D-Day were French, were actually our allies. Many of
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: them were members of the resistance. And they knew they
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: were going to die, but they knew this was the
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: only way for their goals to be achieved, for freedom
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: to be achieved. Now, imagine if we said, no, you
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: can't do that. You can't bomb civilians. I mean, there
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: would have been no D-Day. Or if there had been,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: there would have been a lot more casualties on the
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: American side. And maybe, potentially, we would have lost it.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine Nohio Shimonogasaki. Imagine the actual invasion of Japan and
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: the horrors that that would have entailed for American troops
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: and the Japanese. Humane wars are damn right evil. They
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: sacrifice your own troops for the sake of enemy civilians.
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: They drag out the war. They allow the enemy and
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: the people who support the enemy to continue to exist,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: to continue to fight. A real, a truly humane war
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: is a war that ends fast. It's a war that
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: destroys the enemy's ability and his will to fight. And
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: therefore he stops. Because the futility of that fight becomes evident.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: And the cost of the fight becomes overwhelming. The cool
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: war is the restrained one that grinds on for 20 years,
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: kills more people on every side, and ultimately settles nothing.
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: Evil rises up again. Just look at Afghanistan. Altruism kills.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: It kills. You're not going to get a better lesson
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: than that. what we've learned, what we've seen with our
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: own lives. Now, what did we learn from 9-11? We
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: learned to harden our defenses because we didn't defeat the enemy.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: We learned to have better intelligence. We learned all the
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: technical lessons. We have The intelligence agencies share more information.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: So given the incompetence of the terrorists, it's very difficult
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: for them to pull off another 9-11 because now we'll
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: probably catch it. Cockpit doors are being reinforced. So when
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: a pilot goes to the bathroom, there's a whole procedure
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: that has to go through. Moving terrorist money got harder
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: because now we have a Patriot Act that basically monitors
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: all cash exchanges. And it makes it impossible for a
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: lot of us to actually transact money without the banks
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: wanting a gazillion amount of information about everything that we do.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: So yes, terrorists move money. It's harder for them. But
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: it's also harder for me and you. Yes, we destroyed
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: al-Qaeda camps and leadership. A lot of plots have been disrupted.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: ISIS territorial caliphate ultimately, after many years, was destroyed. And,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: you know, our planes are pretty safe. We have TSA.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: But at what cost? The cost is, you know, we
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: try to bring them freedom at the cost of our
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: own freedom. What the hell? The NSA has snowed and
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: revealed spying on Americans. What the hell? We have secret
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: courts in America. Secret courts that issue warrants to listen
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: in and to monitor American citizens. Secret courts. Pfizer, of course,
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: is a call. All as a consequence of 9-11. Ooh,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: we have the TSA. We have the TSA. You get
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: to take your shoes off. Well, not anymore, I guess. Liquids. Well,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: now they have more powerful machines that look into your bags.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: You get to stand in line sometimes for hours to
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: get the privilege of somebody to pat you down to
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: make sure you're not, I don't know, wrapped a bomb
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: around your body or something. I mean, do you remember
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: when you could just walk into an airport and go
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: to a gate and greet the people coming off a plane?
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: Do you remember what freedom is like? And now every
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: transaction you make, Every cash deposit you make is monitored.
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: The bank has a legal responsibility to let the government
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: know of anything, quote, suspicious. I mean, the bank doesn't
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: want to get caught not letting the government know of
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: anything suspicious. So everything is suspicious. Do you guys remember
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: what freedom is? When you can just transact? You can
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: just move money around? You just deposit cash into a bank?
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, we have the Patriot Act. We have the
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: creation of Department of Homeland Security. Yeah, we're learning what
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: that feels like right now with ICE. Largest restructuring of
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: American government. For what? To infringe on our rights as Americans.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: To limit us, to constrain us, to spy on us.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: Instead of How about just defeating the enemy? Defeating the enemy?
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: So we're getting really good at defense at a huge
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: cost of freedom. Really good at defense. So yes, there's
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: been no major terrorist attack against America since 9-11 because
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: of that. Call that a win if you want. Not
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: much of a win in my book. So what do
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: we need to do to win? It's 25 years later.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: We need to do what we didn't do back then.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: We need to name Islamic totalitarianism as the ideological enemy
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: and define it clearly, define the groups that belong to it,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: define from the Muslim Brotherhood to Hamas to Hezbollah to
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: Islamic Jihad to the whole gamut. Define the governments that
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: support it. Iran, Qatar, which is like our main ally
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: and investing more in Americans' universities than any other entity
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: in the world. Qatar has more political influence, more money
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: being spent on politics and education in America than anybody.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: Nobody cares. And yet they're Islamists. They're the home of
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: the Muslim Brotherhood. They're the only place that'll host the
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Muslim Brotherhood. Even the Saudis don't want them anymore. But
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: Qatar will do it. And we don't care because, you know,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: we make fun of Taka for being Qatar Taka or whatever.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: It's a serious issue. Qatar's funding was funding ISIS when
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: ISIS was around. So identify the enemy, identify all who
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: are part of that, all who belong In the category
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: of enemy. And make the protection of American lives and freedom.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: The sole purpose. Of American military action. Really the sole
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: purpose of American foreign policy. Not the promotion of democracy.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: Not nation building. Not humanitarian reconstruction. Protecting American lives and freedom.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: Hold regimes responsible. For the proxies they fund. For the
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: proxies they arm. Train and shelter. So for example. Israel
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: should hold Iran and Qatar responsible for the actions of
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: Hamas on October 7th. The actions of Hamas on October
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: 7th justify the complete and utter destruction of the Iranian regime.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: And if America won't do it, let the Israelis do it.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: Hamas is an enemy of America. It falls under the
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: Islamic totalitarian category. And we should examine Saudi Arabia. It's
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: ruled in 9-11. But what's this up to these days?
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Hard to tell. Everybody seems so enamored with MBS, the
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: crown prince, and his westernizing agenda.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: Is it real?
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: So we needed this today, what we needed to do
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: back then. And with regard to Iran specifically, we need
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: regime change. We need to do whatever it takes. And
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: at this point, you know, It's hard to tell what
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: it takes. I don't have the intelligence to know what's
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: going on inside Iran, but it takes a lot more bombing.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: It might take some boots on the ground, whether it
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: be American or Kurds or somebody else. It needs an opposition.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: It needs domestic leadership. We need to be cultivating that.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: We need to be building for that. We need to
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: be building for regime change. We need to open the
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: whole most straight path and we need to dismantle the
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: proxy network. We need to help Israel defeat Hamas and Hezbollah.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: And Hezbollah should be gone. Instead of negotiating ceasefires all
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: the time, we should just tell Israel, go for it,
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: destroy it, kill them all. The Lebanese will thank you
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: when it's done. And if we need to help them,
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: we should help them. It's good for us. We need
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: to be very wary of of the president of Syria,
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: the former al-Qaeda, ISIS guy, who's supposedly being reformed, but
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: still is an Islamist, still holds jihadist ideas. Why are
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: we his ally? More suicide. And at the same time,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: we need to liberate ourselves. Defend free speech and individual
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: rights at home. Get rid of the permanent surveillance state
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: that we are creating. Return to a pre-911 state at
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: our airports. Stop living in fear. Because we know the
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: enemy's been defeated. At the end of World War II,
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: we weren't like, ooh, the Nazis are coming after us.
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: The Nazis were gone. It was done. It was finished.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: Same thing has to happen with Islamism. Until then, the
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: war is not over. And I want to tell you
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: the story of an extraordinary man. I didn't know this
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: story until the last couple of days I read about this.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: It's truly astounding. His name was Rick Riscola. Rick Riscola. Cornwall-born,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: decorated in Vietnam, head of security for Morgan Stanley in
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: the South Tower on 9-11. Riscola warned that the World
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: Trade Center was vulnerable to a truck bomb in the
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: basement before the 1993 bombing proved him right. Afterwards, he
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: was certain they'd be back. He had Morgan Stanley's personnel
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: drill evacuating the World Trade Center over and over again,
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: even though his bosses thought it was annoying. The employees
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: definitely thought it was annoying. And the building management, you know,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: did not approve. They did not like this. He'd have them.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: two by twos, walking down the stairs. He knew the
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: Islamists would be back. He wasn't afraid to face reality.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: On September 11th, when the first plane hit, the Port
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: Authority told everyone in the South Tower to stay at
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: their desks. Riz Corolla ignored it. He got his people moving,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: just as he had trained them. down the stairs. About 2,700
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: of them, nearly all of them survived. He went back
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: up to look for stragglers. He was last seen climbing
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: towards the 10th floor. Viscola did not have perfect intelligence.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: Nobody does. He had the same facts everybody else had.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: The difference is, he integrated those facts into a framework,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: named the danger, out loud, and acted on it, on
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: his own judgment, while every institution around him told him
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: he was being silly and to stop. That's the entire
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: lesson of the last 25 years, right? Think, judge, act.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: A nation with all the facts. All the facts. And yet,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: without the judgment, without the dedication, without the commitment, it fails.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: Power without purpose wins battles but loses the war. So
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: did we learn anything from 9-11? Yeah, we learned to manage.
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: To manage the danger. harden targets, watch the money, share
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: the intelligence, kill individual terrorists. Now, these things have prevented
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: attacks and saved lives, but they do not resolve the
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: issue and they do not restore the freedom and the
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: confidence that we had before that morning. They taught us
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: to live around the enemy instead of living without the enemy.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: Power can substitute for purpose. A country that refuses to
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: name its enemy, refuses to treat its own defense as
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: morally sufficient, refuses to define victory, will turn even the
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: most brilliant military operations into decades of inconclusive war, which
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: is exactly what we did. The 3,000 who died that
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: morning are owed more than a bell and a moment
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: of silence. They're owed more than what they're getting right
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: now in New York. They own more than Mamdani and
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: OEC or Trump can give them. They own a country
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: that understands why they were killed, that has the will
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: to eliminate the threat, and that's confident enough to live
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: freely again. 25 years on, that country doesn't exist yet.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: I hope it doesn't take another 25 years to build it.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: That is my 9, 11, 25 years later spiel. All right.
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: It's a sad day. It's a sad day. It's a
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: sad day for lots of reasons. Remembering what happened. Remembering
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: the victims of all this. Remembering the soldiers who died
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: since then. The failures. And also, you know, remembering You know,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: realizing the extent to which I told you so. If
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: only they'd listen. All of it was predictable. All of
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: it was predictable. And we predicted it. The Ironman Institute,
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: we predicted it. You can go back and watch my talks.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: 9-11 one year later. 9-11 two years later. 9-11 ten
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: years later. The Danish cartoons. Everything we wrote, you know,
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: Winning an Unwinnable War, read that book. Everything that we wrote,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: we spoke, we put out there, all of it, predicted
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: the complete and utter pathetic nature of the response. Oh,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: there's a book on Rick Ruscola. It's titled Heart of
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: a Soldier. I mean, it's a great story, and I
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: didn't know that story. It's a great story. It was
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: hard to tell you the story without tearing up. So,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's inspiring. There are real heroes out there. And,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: you know, if you know anything about our soldiers in
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: Afghanistan and Iraq, how many of them are real heroes?
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: How many of them did unbelievable things and achieved unbelievable things?
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: And how many of them die doing it? And it
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: all adds up to nothing. It adds up to nothing.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: All right. Let's see how we're doing. All right, we're
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: doing pretty well. Pretty well. About $ 100 short of our
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: second hour goal. It's important we attain our second hour goal.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: We're in our second hour. So support, you know, the
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: 9-11 show, support. all the, you know, your support today
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: is particularly meaningful because it's support for everything we've done,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: everything I've done since 9-11. It's 25 years of working
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: on this stuff nonstop. Roman says, Charlie Hebdo happened too. Yes.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: So did dozens of terrorist attacks in Europe that nobody
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: cares about, nobody talks about. I mean, there was the
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: attack on the London subway. There were the ramming attacks
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: on the French coast. Was it in Nice? There were
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: the attacks in Germany. I mean, the number of terrorist
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: attacks in Europe. And Europe is probably going to... I mean,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: this is the sad thing. Europe is probably going to
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: hate for our mistakes after 9-11 more than we will. Again, America...
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: It's far away from that part of the world. We
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 1: don't have that many Muslims in America, not that many
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: Muslims coming in. And it's hard to get here. It's
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: hard to organize a 9-11. But Europe is easy. Europe
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: is right there, and you've got a lot of people
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: you can recruit in Europe because of all the Islamic immigration.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: So to the extent that we fail dealing with Iran,
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: to the extent we fail dealing with Islamism, and hey,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: now we've got Turkey as well, It is Europe that
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: will bear the brunt of the damage, the bulk of
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: the damage. They will suffer the consequence because it's right there.
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: It's right there. I mean, Turkey has a border with
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: Europe and is a member of NATO. Hard to fathom.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: It's another failure of diagnosing the cause, right? If we
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: understood that Islamism was the enemy, then Erdogan, who is
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: an Islamist, couldn't be a member of NATO. He's part
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: of the enemy. And this is not just a failure
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: of America. It's obviously a failure of the entire West.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: All right. Let's see. Oops, I moved the wrong file.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: I didn't mean to move that. Let me get my
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: chat questions in the right place. Let's take a look
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: at them. All right, Michael. Does challenging altruism make people
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: uncomfortable because they think they would be left to die
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: in the street if something happened to them in a
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: non-altruistic world? No, I don't think very many people think that.
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: I think challenging altruism, I mean, why would you challenge altruism?
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: What would motivate somebody to challenge altruism? I mean, the
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: people who are made uncomfortable by challenging altruism, it's primarily
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: because they can't imagine an alternative to it. The people
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: who know what the alternative is to it, the alternative
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: is to it, rational self-interest, are not uncomfortable challenging it.
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: Or if they are uncomfortable challenging it, it's because they
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: still have a remnant of altruism in their system, you know,
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: because they grew up with it and because they haven't
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: completely extracted it from their life. But no, I don't
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: think there's anybody out there who doesn't adopt objectivism or
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: doesn't reject altruism because they think, hmm, I wonder what
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: will happen to me. if I become poor and nobody
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: will help me. I don't think that's a motivation. I
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: don't think that's real. So, yeah, no, I don't think
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: that's the case at all. Michael says, investors were criticized
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: for buying cheap property in Trabiaca after 9-11, this seems
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: like pure altruism. Upset people saw an economic opportunity to
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: rebuild instead of only thinking about the victims of the attack. Well,
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: it's that they did it for monetary gain. It's an
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: attack on self-interest, right? It's they did it for monetary gain.
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: They did it for their own well-being. They did it
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: for their own benefit. And it's pure altruism to attack them, absolutely.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: And what they're attacking is the self-interest that is inherit
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: in that action. They saw financial opportunity for themselves. They
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: made their own lives better when they should have been,
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know, giving, sacrificing. So yes, anytime you see
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: people benefiting themselves, particularly at a time of an emergency
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: or times of horror, then they are going to be,
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: they're going to be, you know, attacked because altruism does
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: not permit that. And a situation like 9-11 demands you
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: bring forward all of your altruistic sentiments, all of your altruism, right?
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: People are suffering. People are hurting. People are dead. And
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: you are trying to make money? How awful are you?
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: That's altruism. Pure unadulterated.
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: Michael. When I've asked doctors about oseptic or z-bound, they've
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: told me, we don't know how it works, but it does.
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: I've heard the same when I've asked so-called experts about AI.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: They say, we don't know how it works, but it does.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: How can this be? The people who invented it did
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: so by revelation? Is this philosophical mysticism corrupting scientific explanation? No,
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is how science often works, right? We
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: know gravity works. We can't explain it. But the reality
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: is aspen. Aspen, which has been around, what, 80 years?
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: We don't know how it works. We don't know the
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: mechanism by which it actually works to reduce fever, eliminate headaches.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: They don't know the biological mechanism. They've tried. They've looked
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: at it. They've studied it. But they discover it because
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of medicine is like this. You find different
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: compounds that you think might be interesting and you test
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: them on human beings or you test them on mice
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: first and you discover, oh, they do this stuff in mice.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: We don't know exactly why, but it does it. Let's
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: try it on humans. And if you think about GLP-1s,
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: Zemtik and Zepound, they were, this is a compound derived
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: from from the poison of a lizard, right? I mean,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: I may be screwing this up, but I think this
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: is true. A substance derived from the poison of a lizard. Now,
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: this lizard has a unique feature, and that is, I
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: think it's something like, and again, this is from my memory,
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: this lizard eats four times a year, It eats very, very,
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: very few times, and yet it manages its energy. It
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: manages its ability to live in spite of eating in
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: very short windows. So when scientists discovered it, they thought, huh,
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: this is interesting, and they started studying this lizard. And
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: they discovered a compound that they thought may explain the
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: regulation of this. And it regulates its sugar, its blood sugar, really,
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: really well, in spite of the fact that it eats
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: so little, right? It needs the sugar as energy. So
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: I said, huh, this chemical regulates sugar in the lizard.
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: I wonder if we could figure out how it regulates
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: sugar in mice. So they tested it, and yeah, it
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 1: turns out it regulates blood sugar in mice. And then,
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: you know, with some refinements and some changes and stuff,
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: they ultimately tested on human beings, and it turns out
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: not only does it regulate sugar in human beings. Okay.
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: So these drugs were pitched as drugs to help with diabetes.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: But then they noticed that not only does it help
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: regulate sugar and help with diabetes, these drugs also cause
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: people to eat less and lose weight. We don't know
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: why it causes them. I mean, we'll get to some
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: theories why it causes them. But the reality is it does.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: And we do tests and we do double blind tests
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: and We see that if you give these Yopi ones
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: to people, beyond just to help in terms of diabetes,
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: they lose a lot of weight and they keep it off.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: And then we notice, huh, we've got a lot of
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: people taking these drugs. So we run a lot of
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: tests on these people. And we notice that when we
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: run regressions, when we do the analytical analysis, even when
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: we control for the weight loss, People seem to have
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: improved cardiovascular symptoms, even when controlled for the weight loss
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: and for control for the sugar. How's that happening? Well,
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: we don't know exactly, but it's doing something positive for cardiovascular.
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: Cool.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: So let's give it a cardiovascular. We'll try to figure
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: out why it's working. So none of this is mysticism.
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: It's just you discover something works. And then you're going
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: to try to figure out the cause of relationship, but
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: you discover something works. Then it works. Latest one is,
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: I just was reading about this, cartilage. They discovered, again,
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: they had a huge number of people taking these drugs.
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: And what they discovered is people with arthritis in the
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: knees were feeling better. Their arthritis was getting better.
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 2: Hmm.
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: We didn't know GLP-1 had anything to do with joints.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: So they went and they studied this. And they did, again, studies.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: People with arthritis, some get GOP1, some don't. What happens
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: to joints? And it turns out that for some reason,
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: GOP1s cause the cartilage in your joints to regrow. Now,
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: medicine has thought that that was literally an impossibility. And
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: yet it's happening. So a good scientist looks at it
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: and says, it's happening. I don't know why, but it's happening. Cool.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: Let me give GLP-1s to people with arthritis. Now, I
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: don't think it's been approved yet, but that's kind of
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: where it's going. But I'm just giving you this as
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: an illustration of how it works. Now, we know a
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: lot more about why GLP-1s do what they do, just
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: like we know a lot more about AI and how
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: it works. You know, the GLP-1 receptors, you know, in cells,
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: in the stomach primarily, are You know, GOP1s cause your
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: digestion to slow significantly, so you feel fuller for longer.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: But here's an interesting one. GOP1s actually reduce, you know,
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: your inclination to gamble. If you're addicted to porn and
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: things like that, they reduce those addictions, so-called addictions, right?
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: So they have something in the brain that they're causing
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: you to be less... eager to seek particular stimulations. What
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: does it do exactly? We don't know, but let's figure
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: it out. That's what scientists do. So no, this is
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: completely consistent with the scientific method. And the same with AI.
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: People build these algorithms that go out there and they
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: look at correlations and relationship between words in sentences in
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: existing books. in existing knowledge. They train these algorithms with this.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: Train means, I mean, we do this in correlation analysis, right?
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: You create a model based on past data and you
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 1: expect it to predict the future. Well, here you train
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: these models based on, you know, words in books, sentences
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: in books, and you expect them to be able to
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: form sentences. And it takes a huge amount And these
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: models have to be super powerful. But at some point,
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: there's so many variables. There could be trillions of variables,
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: I think. So many variables in the models. And the
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: algorithm is so complex that you, as a scientist, lose
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: sight of what exactly is going on. And you're amazed
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: by some of the stuff that is produced by the algorithm,
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: by the AIs. Now, some apply kind of a mystical
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: thing to AI. It's thinking. It's a mind. It's not.
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: But it's not inconsistent to say we don't exactly know
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: how it works. You build a very, very complex system
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: that is self-learning in a sense. It reinforces itself and
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: it gains in complexity. And you lose the ability to
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: be able to track the causal relationship between inputs and
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: an output because it's too complex. So, no, I think
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: they're still all being scientists.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: We're still, let's see, $ 78 short. of our second hour goal.
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: We're in our second hour, so it would be really
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: good if we made it. Now, just maybe this will
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: encourage you in terms of your pocketbook. So far, it's
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: Aubrey Michael, who's done $ 200. Thank you, Michael. Really, really,
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: really appreciate the support all year round, all the time.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: There's no show tomorrow, and there's no show Sunday. Maybe Monday,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: but no show Saturday or Sunday. So, you know, no
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: financial commitments to the Iran book show for Saturday or Sunday.
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: And next two weeks, next three weeks, Iran book shows
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: are going to be spotty, going to be spotty. So
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: if you've got a monthly budget. Anyway, Tom, Tom says, thanks, Iran.
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: Eri has made visible the essential nature of this day
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: since the beginning. Thank you, Tom. Really appreciate that. And yes,
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: I think that's right. I think we have. We've done
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: a good job on this. Made a lot of enemies
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: doing so, but we've done a good job on it. Oivind,
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: to someone who knows how to state, defend, and articulate
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: the proper means of freedom on a day like today,
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: thank you. Thanks, Oivind. Really appreciate that. Really appreciate it.
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: I tried. Frank says, on Saturday and Sunday, we can
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: catch up on all the shows. Yes, but it's not
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: the same as doing a super chat or a sticker
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: and supporting the show live and getting thanked. Oh, I
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: didn't do, have I done the stickers? Have I thanked
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: the sticker people? No. Darlene, thank you. Hinded Amy, thank you.
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: These are stickers. Mary Aline, thank you. Bonnie, and again,
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: Mary Aline. And let's see. There is Ryan. Thank you, Ryan.
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: And Enric. And, yep, covered everybody. All right, thank you.
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: Sticker people, really appreciate it. Thank you to all of you. NYK,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: did you read what happened in Garland, Texas in response
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: to the Hebdo attack? Amazing, not only that they refused
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: to back down, but they actually got attacked by Islamic
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: terrorists and won. then lost the PR world. So, oh God,
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is way back. This is the cartoons.
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: Is that right? So there was a cartoon competition, cartoon
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: competition in Garland, Texas. It was held in Garland, Texas.
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: What's his name? The cartoonist was there, who was at
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: the time a friend of mine. Why is his name slipping?
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: All right, I think sound is back. Can you hear it? Yeah,
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: so as I said, it was Bosch, Bosch Faustin, who
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: was the cartoonist at this event and at the time
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: was a friend, and he told us all about it.
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: But yes, it was attacked by Islamists. They were shot
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: by the security guard. The cartoonist inside, you know, had
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: to be, you know... locked in and it was difficult
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: to evacuate them and it was a whole story but
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: they did win in a sense but yeah in the
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: end they were the bad guys for having drawn Muhammad
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: that somehow was the evil not the people trying to
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: kill them not the whole Islamist movement and what it
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: represents no the guys who dare draw Muhammad I mean
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: this is the lesson of the Danish cartoons of Charlie
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: Hebdo and of Garland Texas Yes, Bosch did not turn
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: out too good, sadly. But at the time, we were friends.
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: All right, let's see. Matt says, two parts. Did you
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: look into the records they released about the air quality
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: post 9-11? Seems like our government chose to cover up
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: vital public health info. to get back to business quicker.
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: How would a proper government act in this situation and
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: how do you defend capitalism against associated attacks? Well, it's
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: not capitalism. It was the government, right? I think a
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: proper government would have put out a warning that there
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: were these and these poisons in the air and to
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: beware and then let people do what they want to do, right?
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: People can engage in risky behavior, but for the government
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 1: to withhold that information is evil. for the government to
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: let people know what the risks involved are evil. But,
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's not like the government should have banned
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: people engaging in business or anything like that. It's just
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: that they should have just provided the information. And it
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: has nothing to do with capitalism. Harrison says, how was
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: Camino Baruna? Also, could you review Storm Blessed by Feedrate Command?
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 1: Let me copy this. It tells a small snippet of
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: a story that would be interesting in hearing what you think.
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: Not just the melody, but also the character being discussed. Okay, edit, copy.
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: Let me find the file to put it into so
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: that I can review it. Oh, Camino Baruna was amazing.
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: It was just a stunning, it was stunning. I mean,
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know if Thomas is on here, Tom Shubottom.
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: If he's on here, he's a conductor. But the performance was, It.
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 3: Was a youth orchestra, and a relatively small one, but
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 3: the hall we heard it was pretty small.
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: Beautiful hall. Beautiful, beautiful. Palau de Música in Barcelona. You
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: should definitely go see it if you're here. And it
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: was a Japanese chorus plus a local Barcelona chorus. This
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: is a choral piece with lots of singers. And it
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: had this amazing conductor. She was phenomenal. she was so
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: into the music. She was so expressive. Somebody described a
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: review of her conducting. It's as if she's sculpting the
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: music while conducting, sculpting. I mean, just gorgeous. And Camino
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: Buona is, particularly the first section of it, super intense.
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: She was like engaged in a kung fu fight on stage,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: you know, conducting the orchestra in this super intense. It was,
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: so we sat in the second row, so right there
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: to see it. But I was, you know, I've heard
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: Carina Boone in the past. Usually you just hear the
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: first few sections of it. Here we heard the whole thing.
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: I think I've heard it before in a symphony concert.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know why, but this time I was far,
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: far more impressed. with the composition itself. Now, the composition
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: is episodic. It doesn't have like a theme that runs
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: throughout it, but the music is amazing. Melodic, dramatic, modern,
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: and yet with roots in really kind of the Middle
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: Ages when these poems were written and some of the
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: music is originally from. Rhythmic, dynamic, Oh, super exciting. I really,
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. So
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: if you have an opportunity to hear Camino Buena live
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: or just stream it and just sit back. And it's
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: about an hour long. So it's an hour piece. I
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: love choral pieces. I love the human voice. Even though
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't understand a word, did not understand a word.
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: It has solo singers. They were really good. Really good.
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, again, this is a small production. It's not
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: one of the big orchestras, not one of the big,
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: you know, places. Really good performance. I really enjoyed it. So, yeah.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: And I don't know. I'm going to have to find
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: out more about this woman conductor, figure out where she conducts.
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: I'd love to see her again. She was just fun
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: to watch. God, I've never been so entertained. by a
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: conductor as I was with a conductor's purpose is not
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: to entertain the audience. She was entertaining. She entertained the audience,
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: but I'm really curious at some point for Thomas Shibata
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: to tell us what he thinks about coming to Boona.
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: I really, really, really enjoyed it much more than I expected.
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: So it was great. Tomorrow we're going to the same theater.
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: We're going to see a performance of Carmen. And again, it's,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: it's a small stage, relatively small orchestra, no, orchestra pit.
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: So they, they, they, they minimalize it. The, the, they
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: minimalize the whole staging of the opera. And we've seen, I've,
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: we saw Madame Butterfly and La Traviata on the same
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: stage in the past, and they do a really, really
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: good job. And it's really fun. And again, it's a
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: small auditorium. So sound quality is great. It's loud. I
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: like music, my music loud. It's a, it's really good.
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: It's really good. Anyway, Thank you. Have a son. And
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: I've jotted down the new song to review, and I
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: know I still owe you some reviews. Yehil, thank you
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: for the sticker. Really appreciate it.
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 1: Oivit says, thanks for lunch. Had a great time. I
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: did too. It was fun. My wife and I had
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: a good time. If you haven't tried it, I would
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: recommend Karnal Steakhouse for dinner. Karnal. They had very tasty food. Excellent.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: Thanks for the recommendation. I've got more food recommendations for
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: Barcelona than days I'm here. So my list now gets
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: exported to next year. We'll be here again. But there's
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of places we haven't yet tried that
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: I want to try. Barcelona, foodie heaven. Edica, something, Edica,
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: something like that. Dear Iran, I'm developing a product for
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: YBS I think will interest you and greatly improve experience.
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: May I send you mail to schedule a meeting? Yep,
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: send an email, yuran at yuranbookshow.com. Thank you. Roman, which
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: are the best epistemological arguments against religion? Oh, God. I mean,
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: I think the best argument against religion is that religion
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: is arbitrary. I think it's the epistemological argument about the
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: non-cognitive status of the arbitrary, which Leonard Peacock makes. So
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: religion makes arbitrary claims. claims that are ungrounded in any
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: fact of reality. That is the primary epistemological, the main
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: thing that I think, you know, destroys religion, destroys the arguments. Michael,
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: as unpredictable and destructive as Trump is, has he militarily
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: done more to destroy radical Islam than anyone else who
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: would have become president? I don't know. We'll see. It
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: all depends on how Iran turns out. Trump has weakened
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: America's standing in the world. He's weakened America's standing in
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: the Middle East. He's emboldened the Saudis and the Pakistanis
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: and the Turks, who might be a new Islamist pivot
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: in the Middle East. And he hasn't destroyed Iran yet.
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: And an injured animal is sometimes more dangerous than an
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: uninjured one. So We will see. We will see what
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: the consequence of this. I think it's way too soon
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: to say anything about what he's done. It could be
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: that a half war is worse than no war at all. Jason,
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, actually, I take that back. There's no question
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 1: the half war in Iran is worse than no war
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: at all. I wish now he'd never done this. But
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: we still could get lucky and something good could happen
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: in Iran. But that will be luck. not trouble. Jason,
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: after the first attack on the World Trade Center, should
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: the U.S. have banned Islamic entry, immigration into the United States?
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: Countries without Muslims don't have Islamic terrorism. No, I don't
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: think so. I think they could have banned, I think
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: they should have banned Islamist immigration and entry into the
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: United States. Anybody affiliated in any way with the Islamist
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: ideology should be banned from entering the United States. I've
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: been saying that for a long time. And they could
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: have done that after 1979. They had plenty of opportunities
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: over the decades to ban Islamists from entering the United States.
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: And that's what they should have done. But no, I mean,
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: Under that rule, Ayaan Hirsi Ali couldn't have come into
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: the United States. I mean, if you ban Muslims, poor Muslims,
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: even secular ones, even atheist ones, no, I would be
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: against that. Now, it could be that if you can't
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: identify Islamists, you can't identify them relative to Muslims, then.
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: Then for a limited period of time while you're fighting
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: in the war, and until you win, you can ban
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: all Muslims. But you can't ban all Muslims indefinitely. That
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: is unbelievably unjust. Harrison, in 1786, Thomas Jefferson asked Barbary
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: states why they were robbing, killing, and enslaving American merchants.
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: They told him it was because the Quran said that
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: infidels Were they rightful prey? America's first war in the
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: Middle East happened in 1786 because Islamists had been a
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: problem since long before our country existed.
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: And, you know, in those days, Jefferson sent the Marines
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: and the Marines won a war and they stopped harassing
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: American shipping in the Mediterranean after we won the war.
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: So winning wars makes a difference. We could have learned
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: from Jefferson. more stuff we could learn from Jefferson. All right, Nate,
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: how did Iran inspire the 9-11 attacks? It inspired the
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: entire Islamist movement. It is the fountainhead of Islamist ideology.
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: It inspired them and showed them that Sharia law in
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: a country can exist, that the West cowers before them,
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: that it is possible to achieve and to win, to
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: achieve Sharia to achieve, you know, success and to win
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: against the West. And that, it didn't inspire directly the
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: specific attack. It inspired the whole movement that made the
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: attack possible. But Iran should have been attacked not just
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: because 9-11, but because it had killed Americans since 1917.
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: it had been in a state of war with America
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 1: since 1979. Frank said, I love the Odyssey. In this war,
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: Iran seems like Troy besieged by Greeks. What kind of
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: Trojan horse can America use to finally put an end
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 1: to Iran? It's called a B2. You know, you don't
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: need a Trojan horse. You just need to crush him.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: You need to eviscerate the regime. You need to eviscerate
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: the people who support the regime. You need to eviscerate
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: the IRGC and all the soldiers that support the regime
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: and crush their own people. B2s. That's the Trojan horse. Harrison.
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: Jesuit Charlie Hebdo. Well, you're only Jesuit Charlie Hebdo if
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: you're willing to draw cartoons of Muhammad and publish them.
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: Matt says, peace has cost you strength. Victory has defeated you.
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: Bane to Batman in Nolan's The Dark Knight Returns, who
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: is a broad allegory for jihadists. I can't remember that.
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: I vaguely remember that line. But yeah, I like that trilogy.
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: I like the Nolan Batmans. I think it's the best
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: superhero movies that were made. Michelle, can you say that
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: Trump is a president of the United States that doesn't
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: understand anything about the United States? Yes, I've been saying
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: that for years. He can't be America first because he
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: doesn't know what America is. He doesn't understand America in any...
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: meaningful sense he has no knowledge of america how can
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: he be america first when he doesn't know what america
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 1: is all right guys um yeah 9 11 not an
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: easy show to do i will be back next week
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: maybe monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday not sure exactly
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: what day is not exactly you know exactly how it's
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: going to work i'll be in london But I will
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: try to do some shows from London during next week.
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: No shows Saturday and Sunday, tomorrow, the day after. And
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: then the week after that, I'll be in Georgia, in Tbilisi.
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: We'll try to do shows from there. The time difference
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: from there is really vast. But we will try. And yes, thanks, guys.
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening today. Thanks to all the super chatters.
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: You were very generous. I will see you guys from
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: London in a few days. Bye, everybody.