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Pentagon Insider: How Woke Policies Nearly Broke the U.S. Military · Unshaken & Unafraid with Joe Pags

0:00
Speaker 1: When there's been a massive sea change, and how the
0:02
Speaker 1: military is handled, how the military works. So we're seeing
0:04
Speaker 1: recruitment through the roof now since President Trump has been back,
0:07
Speaker 1: and since the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has been
0:11
Speaker 1: at the helm. But before that it was awfully woke.
0:14
Speaker 1: How do we know, Well, we found out a lot
0:15
Speaker 1: of information during the Biden administration. And also this young
0:18
Speaker 1: lady speaking out, Amber Smith, former deputy Assistant to the
0:21
Speaker 1: Secretary of Defense Iraq and Afghan Army combat helicopter pilot.
0:26
Speaker 1: Honored to have you on and also an author of
0:28
Speaker 1: a book called Unfit to Fied, Amber, How are you
0:30
Speaker 1: good to see it?
0:32
Speaker 2: It's great to see you, Thanks for having me.
0:34
Speaker 1: Really glad to have you on. It was no more
0:37
Speaker 1: than a year ago, no less than a year ago,
0:39
Speaker 1: i should say, where we had the Secretary of Defense disappeared,
0:42
Speaker 1: the second in charge didn't know what was going on.
0:44
Speaker 1: We had drag shows on army bases. We had people
0:47
Speaker 1: who were joining the Army and the Navy, the Air Force,
0:50
Speaker 1: Marines just to get transgender surgery. It was a woke time,
0:54
Speaker 1: wasn't it. I mean awfully woke.
0:56
Speaker 2: It was a woke time. It was a mess, and
0:59
Speaker 2: it was incredibly dangerous to our military and to our
1:03
Speaker 2: national security as a whole. To have leadership not only
1:08
Speaker 2: sort of be okay with this, it was an endorsement
1:12
Speaker 2: from the Joe Biden administration. The leadership that we saw
1:16
Speaker 2: under Secretary Austin really put the Pentagon in a downward spiral.
1:20
Speaker 2: And thankfully, as you mentioned, since President Trump has come
1:24
Speaker 2: back into office and we've seen a complete leadership shift
1:29
Speaker 2: from you know, focusing on those wogue policies to turning
1:32
Speaker 2: back to a Department of War that is going to
1:36
Speaker 2: focus on Winnie, and we are already seeing the policies
1:41
Speaker 2: change to ensure that happens.
1:43
Speaker 1: It's Amber Smith. Go get our book. It's called Unfit
1:46
Speaker 1: to Fight. How woke policies are destroying our military.
1:49
Speaker 2: This is out now, right, it is out now. It
1:52
Speaker 2: came out last summer.
1:53
Speaker 1: Okay, go and get it. Go find out exactly what
1:55
Speaker 1: she's talking about. It was probably way worse than we,
1:58
Speaker 1: as the American public saw. But I always ask this
2:01
Speaker 1: very rudimentary question when I have somebody new on that
2:03
Speaker 1: I don't know very well. I know it was woke.
2:05
Speaker 1: I know the policies were disgusting. I know that that
2:08
Speaker 1: it was purposeful. It wasn't just by accident, and the
2:10
Speaker 1: simple question is always this, why what did they gain?
2:14
Speaker 1: Why do this?
2:16
Speaker 2: Well? I think it was an ideology push. It was
2:20
Speaker 2: something that we saw start in the Obama administration sort
2:24
Speaker 2: of quietly under the radar, and I think that it
2:28
Speaker 2: wasn't just the Department of Defense at the time. You
2:32
Speaker 2: look at it across you know, Department of Education, You
2:35
Speaker 2: look at it across the health in the health and
2:39
Speaker 2: medical industry, some of the woke changes that were happening
2:43
Speaker 2: in there, and I think that for I think the
2:46
Speaker 2: American people kind of focused in on those different industries
2:49
Speaker 2: and sort of thought that the military, uh wouldn't be
2:54
Speaker 2: as affected by some of these woke policies. You know,
2:59
Speaker 2: people often of the war fighter, you know, enlisting from
3:02
Speaker 2: Red States, patriotic Americans that aren't going to buy into
3:06
Speaker 2: this woke nonsense that we saw being pushed down their throats.
3:11
Speaker 2: But instead it was started to be taught to cadets
3:15
Speaker 2: at West Point, at the Air Force Academy, to those young,
3:18
Speaker 2: new impressionable leaders who were then going to come into
3:22
Speaker 2: the military as second lieutenants and lead with that woke mindset,
3:28
Speaker 2: and we saw that with this cultural shift that was
3:32
Speaker 2: really pushing this, and so it started sort of as
3:36
Speaker 2: this silent push in the Obama administration, and there were
3:42
Speaker 2: some policies that were public that, you know, we saw
3:45
Speaker 2: with the change of women being allowed to serve in
3:48
Speaker 2: combat positions, with the transgender policies that came out of
3:52
Speaker 2: the Obama administration that the Trump administration then tried to
3:57
Speaker 2: sort of neutralize when they got into office, and then
4:01
Speaker 2: obviously went into full swing once Biden took office.
4:05
Speaker 1: It's Amber Smith, former Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense,
4:08
Speaker 1: or book is called Unfit to Fight. How woke policies
4:11
Speaker 1: are destroying our military. My wife and I are watching
4:13
Speaker 1: the show called Special Forces and other Celebrity. Special Forces
4:17
Speaker 1: is not as tough as the original series out of
4:20
Speaker 1: the UK. I'm not sure if you watch that, but
4:22
Speaker 1: it really does show that it really doesn't matter what
4:25
Speaker 1: your gender is if you can do the job. That's
4:27
Speaker 1: not the way we were doing it for four years
4:29
Speaker 1: under Biden, right, I mean, they were enticing people to
4:32
Speaker 1: come in who weren't strong enough, who weren't willing enough,
4:35
Speaker 1: who weren't fit enough. People who were coming in because
4:37
Speaker 1: they wanted to get the train surgery or to have
4:40
Speaker 1: the drag shows or whatever. I would believe, and I
4:43
Speaker 1: want you to answer, I'm not entering for you, but
4:45
Speaker 1: I would think that you and I agree that if
4:47
Speaker 1: a woman can do the physical, strenuous exercise and carry
4:52
Speaker 1: the equipment and be in the front lines with a man,
4:55
Speaker 1: that's perfectly fine as long as you can do that,
4:57
Speaker 1: as long as it's not for a diversity push, right.
5:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it should be based on merit, bottom line merit,
5:05
Speaker 2: you know, equal standards. You're there because you're the best
5:08
Speaker 2: person for the job. You pass every test male female,
5:12
Speaker 2: if you're the best person for the job. But unfortunately
5:17
Speaker 2: we saw with what with how Biden tried to implement
5:20
Speaker 2: this policy that it wasn't as black and white as that.
5:24
Speaker 2: If you read in my book, I have an entire
5:26
Speaker 2: chapter on this, and if President Obama laid out or
5:32
Speaker 2: along with Secretary Ash Carter, they laid out seven sort
5:37
Speaker 2: of steps to this policy that commanders across the military
5:42
Speaker 2: were supposed to follow. And if you read those seven
5:47
Speaker 2: seven categories, you would be like, oh, this makes sense,
5:51
Speaker 2: This absolutely sounds good on paper. This is going to
5:54
Speaker 2: be implemented the right way. The problem was culturally, people
6:01
Speaker 2: had already started to buy into this wokeness. So you
6:04
Speaker 2: had commanders in the military being like well, and like
6:08
Speaker 2: you mentioned, even in special forces or special operations different
6:11
Speaker 2: units inside of there saying, well, I want to be
6:15
Speaker 2: the first commander to have a female in this very
6:19
Speaker 2: specialized special operations unit, so I can put that as
6:22
Speaker 2: a bullet point for when I go to get promoted.
6:26
Speaker 2: It looks like it makes me stand out as the
6:29
Speaker 2: first commander to have a female do that. So you
6:32
Speaker 2: saw that type of behavior from leaders in the military.
6:37
Speaker 2: You saw some leaders wanting to ensure that a female
6:40
Speaker 2: had a battle buddy. So instead of just one, say
6:43
Speaker 2: one was there based on merit, then we wanted to
6:45
Speaker 2: make sure that, you know, she wasn't there by herself,
6:49
Speaker 2: and for safety reasons, she needed to have another female there.
6:52
Speaker 2: But maybe there wasn't another female good enough, So we
6:55
Speaker 2: had to now just sort of been the rules a
6:56
Speaker 2: little bit. We saw the Secretary of the Army, you know,
7:01
Speaker 2: Congress tried to say that the physical fitness test needed
7:06
Speaker 2: to be gender neutral and age neutral, and so the
7:10
Speaker 2: Army instituted this new physical fitness standard, and they found
7:18
Speaker 2: that women could not in alarming numbers could like most
7:23
Speaker 2: women could not meet these physical standards. And so what
7:26
Speaker 2: did they do. Instead of being like, Okay, well maybe
7:29
Speaker 2: we need to reevaluate who's here, right, instead, the Secretary
7:34
Speaker 2: of the Army said, this is gonna hurt recruitment for
7:36
Speaker 2: women and retention for women. So instead of enforcing the standard,
7:41
Speaker 2: we're now going to lower the standard. And that's exactly
7:43
Speaker 2: what they did. So those types of policy decisions and
7:48
Speaker 2: the leaders that we had at the time were absolutely
7:51
Speaker 2: horrible to the military and especially you know, we heard
7:55
Speaker 2: about the recruitment crisis that was going on under the
7:59
Speaker 2: Biden administration, but what wasn't talked about as much was
8:03
Speaker 2: the retention crisis was getting those stellar leaders inside the
8:08
Speaker 2: military to stick around and stay. They were done with
8:11
Speaker 2: the policies. And I can't tell you how many good
8:17
Speaker 2: patriotic American leaders in the military that were like, I'm done,
8:22
Speaker 2: I'm out. I don't want to take battalion command, I
8:24
Speaker 2: don't want to take this leadership position that's being offered
8:27
Speaker 2: to me that I thought I was working my whole
8:29
Speaker 2: career towards. And so instead they decided to go back
8:34
Speaker 2: into the civilian world. So it is I am very
8:38
Speaker 2: happy with what I'm seeing in terms of these policies
8:41
Speaker 2: being turned around out of the Department of War. It's
8:45
Speaker 2: absolutely refreshing to see after all of my research that
8:48
Speaker 2: I've done, both for my book and then personal experience
8:51
Speaker 2: from working in the earring at the Pentagon. So the
8:55
Speaker 2: ship is turning back in the right direction, thankfully, and
9:00
Speaker 2: I'm glad to see that this is changing, especially for
9:04
Speaker 2: our national security.
9:06
Speaker 1: It's Amber Smith, former Deputy Assistant to the Secretary of Defense,
9:08
Speaker 1: also a helicopter pilot. For God Sex, take me having
9:11
Speaker 1: a helicopter sometime, Amber, that'd be amazing. Her book is
9:13
Speaker 1: called Unfit to Fight. How woke policies are destroying our military.
9:17
Speaker 1: You know, there's so much there that you just said,
9:19
Speaker 1: and I just want to put this out there, and
9:20
Speaker 1: I say it consistently because it's true. Men are in
9:24
Speaker 1: general stronger than women. Men are in general able to
9:27
Speaker 1: carry heavier things than women can. Are there women out
9:30
Speaker 1: there that can do it, absolutely, But as you said,
9:32
Speaker 1: they have to be able to meet the meritorious standard.
9:35
Speaker 1: They have to be able to I think Pete Hegseth
9:37
Speaker 1: said it recently. He said, we're going to go back
9:39
Speaker 1: to the male standard, which is thus standard. And if
9:42
Speaker 1: you can do it, then you can do it. And
9:44
Speaker 1: I mentioned this all the time. I work out a
9:45
Speaker 1: lot of six, one, two forty. I can outlift almost
9:49
Speaker 1: every woman on the planet. Now, are there some that
9:51
Speaker 1: are weightlifters and so on that could probably? Probably, But
9:54
Speaker 1: when it comes to the physical aspect. Plus, I'm going
9:56
Speaker 1: to die younger than my wife will. I mean, it's
9:58
Speaker 1: just that's the way the averages go. So why can't
10:01
Speaker 1: we notice that, realize that. And when you get a
10:03
Speaker 1: woman that can pass, and as you said, there are
10:05
Speaker 1: some that do, why would you give her somebody inferior
10:08
Speaker 1: next to her that will cause her death or cause
10:11
Speaker 1: her capture when you want people of the same standard,
10:14
Speaker 1: let's just close her eyes to gender. The fact that
10:17
Speaker 1: the public was into this woke garbage didn't make us
10:21
Speaker 1: better war fighters because we were adding more trains or
10:24
Speaker 1: women or whatever the category was. At what point? At
10:28
Speaker 1: what point was it when the president wanted guess I'm
10:31
Speaker 1: answering my own question. At what point did we wake
10:33
Speaker 1: up and say, holy crap, we will not win a war?
10:35
Speaker 1: If we keep doing it this way. Was it the
10:37
Speaker 1: inauguration of Trump again, of anything that I just said
10:43
Speaker 1: about men versus women. I mean, that's that's common sense,
10:46
Speaker 1: isn't it. That's nature.
10:48
Speaker 2: No, it's common sense, but it's it actually, like to
10:52
Speaker 2: take it a step further, it's more than just sort
10:56
Speaker 2: of the failures when it comes to luring physical standard.
11:00
Speaker 2: What it also comes with is having you know, not
11:07
Speaker 2: equal standards, basically like what we've seen where we had
11:10
Speaker 2: a gender standard versus a mission standard. A mission standard
11:14
Speaker 2: very important. That's what you were just talking about with
11:18
Speaker 2: the Secretary of War. When you have a gender standard,
11:22
Speaker 2: it hurts morale and it damages trust between a team
11:26
Speaker 2: because when you have some people on a team or
11:29
Speaker 2: in a unit because they were the best person for
11:32
Speaker 2: the job and they worked hard, they did what they
11:34
Speaker 2: needed to do, and they got selected for a position,
11:37
Speaker 2: then you have a you know, say, a handful of
11:40
Speaker 2: other people who are there, but they had to do
11:43
Speaker 2: different push up standards, different two mile run standards. They
11:47
Speaker 2: had to whatever the difference may be. So they're there,
11:52
Speaker 2: and so the people who met the standard are saying, well,
11:56
Speaker 2: I had to work really hard to get here, and
11:57
Speaker 2: you're here because you're a different gendered and we have
11:59
Speaker 2: to meet a certain quota, even though they're not allowed
12:02
Speaker 2: to call them quotas. That's the loophole. They call them
12:05
Speaker 2: targets instead of quotas to stay legal. So anyway, that
12:13
Speaker 2: now you have this divide right within a unit where
12:15
Speaker 2: you're supposed to have unit cohesion, where you work together
12:18
Speaker 2: and blend as a team. And then, like I said,
12:20
Speaker 2: that trust, you want to make sure that you can
12:22
Speaker 2: trust your teammates to be there to pull you out
12:27
Speaker 2: of a helicopter that crashed, of a vehicle that rolled
12:30
Speaker 2: over of you know, when the pressure is on and
12:32
Speaker 2: the bullets are flying, that everybody physically can do the
12:37
Speaker 2: same thing, and you can have that trust right there.
12:40
Speaker 2: So that's the thing we'll admit further.
12:42
Speaker 1: When you walk in, if there's standards, You're right, I'm
12:45
Speaker 1: sorry for interrupting me. You've really got my brain work
12:46
Speaker 1: in here. When you walk in. If I walk into
12:49
Speaker 1: to the platoon, the battalion, the barracks, whatever, and I
12:52
Speaker 1: see you there, I don't want to think to myself,
12:55
Speaker 1: is she one that checked the box? I want to
12:57
Speaker 1: think to myself, she's going to kick some ass here,
12:59
Speaker 1: And that's what you're.
13:00
Speaker 2: Talking exactly, exactly, And that's why I say whenever I
13:05
Speaker 2: get talks about females in combat and females in the military.
13:10
Speaker 2: As someone who was in the military for over seven
13:13
Speaker 2: and a half years in a very male dominant environment,
13:16
Speaker 2: a helicopter that still had very few female pilots flying it,
13:23
Speaker 2: you know women want to be there. It makes women's
13:27
Speaker 2: lives easier when they are there because of merit, because
13:32
Speaker 2: they don't want people walking into that room and saying,
13:36
Speaker 2: is she here because she's a female, or is she
13:38
Speaker 2: here because she's the best person for the job and
13:41
Speaker 2: also happens to be female. And that's what happens when
13:46
Speaker 2: you have those separate standards and women have to end
13:49
Speaker 2: up working you know, double what they would if those
13:54
Speaker 2: standards were the same.
13:56
Speaker 1: It is Ambersmith. Go get her book. It's called Unfit
13:58
Speaker 1: to Fight. How woke policy are destroying our military? So
14:02
Speaker 1: for those four years you walked in, you didn't know,
14:05
Speaker 1: you had no idea. I also know that in your
14:07
Speaker 1: book you talk about how failure somehow got you promoted
14:11
Speaker 1: during that period of time. How did that work?
14:14
Speaker 2: Well, I believe you're referring to me talking about senior
14:17
Speaker 2: military generals and admirals, and a culture that was sort
14:23
Speaker 2: of created where it was called failing up. So instead
14:27
Speaker 2: of especially we saw it with the COVID vaccine commanders
14:32
Speaker 2: not wanting to do their own research and just sort
14:35
Speaker 2: of falling in line because everyone was terrified, instead of
14:39
Speaker 2: standing on principle and understanding and order. And so you
14:46
Speaker 2: saw a lot of military leaderships just learning to sort
14:50
Speaker 2: of shut up and go along with some of these
14:54
Speaker 2: woke policies that they knew were likely hurting the military.
14:58
Speaker 2: But sadly, it was a culture where if they wanted
15:02
Speaker 2: to get promoted, they knew that they either needed to
15:06
Speaker 2: get in line with these policies and sort of be
15:08
Speaker 2: the enforcers of this uh, or they would be forced out.
15:14
Speaker 2: And sadly, that was a culture that created and it
15:19
Speaker 2: it also became a culture of the untouchables once you
15:22
Speaker 2: got to a certain level that was much more political,
15:27
Speaker 2: probably an O six and above, a colonel and above,
15:29
Speaker 2: and then into the general officer corps. It was a
15:35
Speaker 2: political job and the military should not be political at
15:39
Speaker 2: any level. UH. And so just as what we saw
15:43
Speaker 2: with General Millie and him, you know, stepping outside his
15:50
Speaker 2: right and left limits, including thinking that it was his
15:57
Speaker 2: responsibility to call his Chinese counterpart and let him know.
16:00
Speaker 1: That's shocking.
16:01
Speaker 2: He would warn him of any sort of strike that
16:05
Speaker 2: was going to happen, which is just absolutely insane to
16:12
Speaker 2: me that that was not looked into further. Well, here
16:20
Speaker 2: the senior military yes officer operating that way. It was
16:26
Speaker 2: just absolutely insane to me.
16:27
Speaker 1: Part Marshall could be treason, could be seditioned, all that stuff.
16:30
Speaker 1: It should have been on the table when he did that.
16:32
Speaker 1: That blew my mind that we knew that we did
16:35
Speaker 1: not have the military we thought we had. Hopefully we're
16:37
Speaker 1: on the way back. It's amber Smith get her book,
16:39
Speaker 1: it's called Unfit to Fight. She's also at amber Smith
16:42
Speaker 1: USA over on X. Let me ask you about about
16:45
Speaker 1: how long it took to get it? So woke eight
16:47
Speaker 1: years under Obama, four years under Biden, so it was
16:49
Speaker 1: really Obama on steroids as Biden was licking ice cream.
16:53
Speaker 1: How long is it going to take to fix it?
16:55
Speaker 1: It's not fixed yet. I think heg Seth is saying
16:57
Speaker 1: and doing the right things. I think that President Trump
16:59
Speaker 1: is saying and doing the right things. But you can't
17:00
Speaker 1: snap your fingers and undo all that was that was done.
17:04
Speaker 1: How do you fix it? How long do you think
17:05
Speaker 1: it'll take?
17:06
Speaker 2: Well, you hit the nail on the head is that
17:09
Speaker 2: it's not only just a policy problem. We've seen some
17:12
Speaker 2: of that policy with executive orders change you know, quickly
17:17
Speaker 2: on paper. So you have the policy problem, which is
17:20
Speaker 2: a much quicker fix, and then you have the cultural problem, which,
17:24
Speaker 2: as you mentioned, is going to take time. So, yes,
17:29
Speaker 2: it took years for this ideology to infiltrate the military.
17:35
Speaker 2: It's going to take as long, if not twice as
17:38
Speaker 2: long to correct it because it's systemic within the military
17:43
Speaker 2: culture at this point, Like I said, they had generations
17:48
Speaker 2: of young military leaders being told and being taught that
17:52
Speaker 2: this is normal, this is the way this is. If
17:56
Speaker 2: you read in my book, some of the examples are
17:58
Speaker 2: just insane that taxpayer dollars were used to teach West
18:03
Speaker 2: Point cadets and Air Force cadets some of the craziest
18:08
Speaker 2: things that you have heard about. And so that part
18:14
Speaker 2: is going to take some time. It's it's you know,
18:18
Speaker 2: hopefully we have another Republican administration that can continue on
18:25
Speaker 2: after President Trump to continue to fix some of these
18:29
Speaker 2: problems because it is not going to be a quick fix.
18:31
Speaker 2: It's going to be incredibly hard. And the Pentagon is
18:34
Speaker 2: the biggest bureaucracy that we have, the Department of Wars
18:37
Speaker 2: the biggest bureaucracy that we have. And so it's not
18:40
Speaker 2: just changing a military culture, it's working with all of
18:44
Speaker 2: the careers that know that the careers meaning the gs,
18:48
Speaker 2: civilians that have a career working at the Pentagon and
18:52
Speaker 2: aren't politicals, they're not just there for the administration that
18:55
Speaker 2: know that they can wait out some of these policies.
18:58
Speaker 2: So that's a problem as well. So they're doing a
19:04
Speaker 2: good job though they're trying to fix some of this
19:07
Speaker 2: twelve years. It's going to be an uphill battle.
19:09
Speaker 1: But well, let me ask you this. I think I
19:12
Speaker 1: know the answer, and I'm pretty sure I do, but
19:15
Speaker 1: I want I want you to give me you know,
19:16
Speaker 1: a better answer than I know in my head. How
19:18
Speaker 1: big a role does morale play and turning this entire
19:21
Speaker 1: thing around. I'm guessing the morale was in the dumps
19:24
Speaker 1: when they were pushing all this trends and woke and
19:27
Speaker 1: just strange diversity and DEI garbage. I'm guessing morale plays
19:32
Speaker 1: a huge role. How big a deal is it in
19:34
Speaker 1: the military in getting back to what the mission originally was,
19:37
Speaker 1: which is being great war fighters.
19:41
Speaker 2: Well, that's like, that's a multi front problem. So you have,
19:47
Speaker 2: like you said, the diversity, the DEI, the woke problems
19:52
Speaker 2: that were being shoved down everybody's throat, and they're like
19:55
Speaker 2: most war fighters are like, I'm a patriotic American who
19:59
Speaker 2: loves my country and I want to be here to
20:01
Speaker 2: serve and you know, ensure that the world's a better
20:03
Speaker 2: place for our children. And then they have all of
20:06
Speaker 2: this crap being shoved down their throats and they're like it.
20:09
Speaker 2: After a while, that starts to seriously damage morale. Then
20:15
Speaker 2: you have the standards, the standards things that we talked about,
20:20
Speaker 2: where that's damaging as well because it's like, why am
20:22
Speaker 2: I working so hard to be here when you guys
20:24
Speaker 2: are just there's this double standard that exists. Of course,
20:27
Speaker 2: that's going to damage morale as well. And then something
20:30
Speaker 2: that was happening early on in the Obama administration, probably
20:38
Speaker 2: even a little bit towards the end of the Bush administration,
20:41
Speaker 2: was allowing lawyers to fight our wars for us and
20:46
Speaker 2: really tying the hands of the war fighter out on
20:50
Speaker 2: the battlefield, so to the point where they were having
20:55
Speaker 2: people were concerned for their own safety and when the
20:58
Speaker 2: bullets are flying the like, it is unfair to the warfighter.
21:03
Speaker 2: It's setting them up for failure when they have to
21:05
Speaker 2: hesitate because they're scared of their own legal system. If
21:09
Speaker 2: they are going to have you know, eyes turned on them,
21:13
Speaker 2: that suddenly they're the bad guy. And sadly, we saw
21:17
Speaker 2: that happen a lot. You know, of course, there's u
21:21
Speaker 2: CMJ that soldiers have to follow, and the majority of
21:26
Speaker 2: them do in combat, good soldiers that do their job.
21:32
Speaker 2: But you talk to anybody that served in the later
21:37
Speaker 2: part of the post nine to eleven wars, they felt it.
21:40
Speaker 2: They felt that the lawyer's side of things breathing down
21:45
Speaker 2: their neck every time they went out. And I think
21:47
Speaker 2: that was just such a disservice to do to our
21:50
Speaker 2: service members for them to feel that their leadership would
21:53
Speaker 2: not have their back when something rough happened in combat. Which,
21:58
Speaker 2: by the way, let me remind everyone, it's combat. It's
22:01
Speaker 2: not a black and white world. It's crazy things happen,
22:05
Speaker 2: it's intense, and there's a gazillion things happening at once,
22:09
Speaker 2: and so I'm over the Monday morning quarterbacks when it
22:13
Speaker 2: comes to combat, which we're seeing today with Washington, DC
22:20
Speaker 2: going after leadership at the Department of War right now.
22:22
Speaker 1: I want to get into that in earnest in a second,
22:24
Speaker 1: it's Amber Smith. Go get our book called Unfit to Fight.
22:26
Speaker 1: How woke policies are destroying our military came out this
22:29
Speaker 1: past summer. When you were speaking. All I can think
22:31
Speaker 1: of was the rules of engagement in Afghanistan, which we're discussing. Basically,
22:35
Speaker 1: we were a police force. Shouldn't have been. We're war fighters.
22:39
Speaker 1: We should be winning war. It's not policing an area.
22:41
Speaker 1: And also we had targets on our backs. If I
22:44
Speaker 1: recalled during Obama, literally the rules of engagement were you
22:47
Speaker 1: could not go after the bad guys anymore. You had
22:49
Speaker 1: to have somebody attack you first and then maybe you
22:52
Speaker 1: can go and get them afterwards if you got the
22:54
Speaker 1: okay from somebody at scentcom or something. Am I right
22:57
Speaker 1: in that what you were saying was referring almost directly
22:59
Speaker 1: to that, in that we had no intention of winning
23:01
Speaker 1: the Afghanistan war. We just didn't. We were just there
23:04
Speaker 1: in force. People were being maimed and killed on our side,
23:07
Speaker 1: and we were not allowed to prosecute the war? Am
23:09
Speaker 1: I right about that?
23:11
Speaker 2: You are correct? And it was infuriating because the American
23:15
Speaker 2: soldiers should always know that they that their leaders are
23:18
Speaker 2: going to give them the best training, equipment and resources
23:23
Speaker 2: to be able to go out in a combat environment
23:26
Speaker 2: and accomplish their mission. And just off of the things
23:30
Speaker 2: that you mentioned with the ROE and the restrictions that
23:35
Speaker 2: they were under, it was like, why are we sending
23:37
Speaker 2: troops outside the wire if you're setting them up for
23:40
Speaker 2: failure and they're not allowed to do their job. You're
23:42
Speaker 2: putting them in harm's way, Yes, for no reason, and
23:47
Speaker 2: that to me is awful to do.
23:50
Speaker 1: To Amber, why do you think why do you think
23:52
Speaker 1: we stayed there so long? Was it just about making
23:53
Speaker 1: money for the outside corporations and so on? I don't
23:55
Speaker 1: want to get into conspiracy theories, but there was no
23:58
Speaker 1: reason to continue Afghanistan for that long if we had
24:00
Speaker 1: no intention of winning.
24:05
Speaker 2: It's the war machine. Once you start, you can't stop.
24:08
Speaker 2: And I think that if the military should always be
24:14
Speaker 2: given a clear and concise mission and in any state,
24:18
Speaker 2: this is what it looks like to win, right, So
24:22
Speaker 2: we could have absolutely gone in and accomplished the mission
24:27
Speaker 2: and done what we needed to do. But then once
24:30
Speaker 2: Obama came in and it was that mission became somewhat
24:34
Speaker 2: ambiguous and people were like, well, what are we doing here?
24:37
Speaker 2: After Osama bin Laden was killed, people are like, okay,
24:42
Speaker 2: what is the you know, thirty thousand foot mission here?
24:48
Speaker 2: And you talk to a lot of soldiers they didn't
24:52
Speaker 2: know anymore, and that creates a little bit of doubt.
24:56
Speaker 2: That's also not good for the warfighter in a combat zone,
24:58
Speaker 2: Like you want the warfighter to know why they're there,
25:01
Speaker 2: why it's important that they're there, and what they are
25:04
Speaker 2: contributing to winning the war. And sadly it drug on
25:08
Speaker 2: for so long with poor leadership that they couldn't answer
25:13
Speaker 2: that question anymore.
25:14
Speaker 1: We literally could we could have question years, right, could.
25:19
Speaker 2: We could have? Because after.
25:23
Speaker 1: Let go?
25:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, after after been Laden was killed, nobody could answer
25:28
Speaker 2: that question anymore. And you had generals going on Capitol
25:31
Speaker 2: Hill who were testifying, you know, giving this like rose
25:36
Speaker 2: tinted glasses version of Afghanistan and what they were accomplishing
25:41
Speaker 2: and who they were training. In all actuality, none of
25:45
Speaker 2: it was real. We were wasting billions of dollars and
25:51
Speaker 2: you know, into the trillions when when you include Iraq
25:55
Speaker 2: and Afghanistan and then the the VA taking care of
25:57
Speaker 2: veterans in the aftermath, and it's like what to show
26:02
Speaker 2: for it? You know, we left billions of dollars of
26:05
Speaker 2: equipment behind when we left, and you know, the Taliban
26:12
Speaker 2: is in power. So if there's a reason to use
26:15
Speaker 2: our military, yeah, then that's important. That's the job of
26:19
Speaker 2: the military. But I do think that the military has
26:24
Speaker 2: to have a clear and concise mission, and leadership owes
26:26
Speaker 2: that to them, and they should be given the opportunity
26:30
Speaker 2: to go seek out in this destroy the enemy that
26:34
Speaker 2: their mission is, that their mission involves, and that wasn't
26:41
Speaker 2: happening towards the end of Afghanistan.
26:43
Speaker 1: It's all very sick. It's Amber Smith. Go follow her
26:45
Speaker 1: at Ambersmith USA over on x Unfit to Fight is
26:49
Speaker 1: the name of the book. I've been remiss to not
26:51
Speaker 1: to not at least get a few minutes with you
26:52
Speaker 1: on this, And thanks for all the time. Today we
26:55
Speaker 1: are blowing up people who are in speed boats loaded
26:59
Speaker 1: to the brim with cocaine. We're blowing them up as
27:03
Speaker 1: they head north to drop all that stuff up on
27:05
Speaker 1: our shores and Democrats are taking the side of the
27:08
Speaker 1: drug runners as somebody who's got this extensive military history,
27:11
Speaker 1: as somebody who wants to know what the mission is.
27:13
Speaker 1: And I think the mission in that one is let's
27:15
Speaker 1: stop the bad guys that are bringing drugs to America.
27:17
Speaker 1: Is there any question in your mind that this is
27:19
Speaker 1: not a war crime, as the Democrats are suggesting, by
27:23
Speaker 1: killing bad guys bringing drugs to our shores.
27:26
Speaker 2: It's such a distraction, I think Washington. I think the Washington,
27:30
Speaker 2: DC Democrats have finally found someone that they hate more
27:34
Speaker 2: than the President, and that's now the Secretary of War,
27:37
Speaker 2: so they're going after him with everything they can. When
27:40
Speaker 2: the President from the get go has said that stopping
27:43
Speaker 2: drugs from coming into this country and annually killing hundreds
27:47
Speaker 2: of thousands of Americans is one of his top priorities,
27:51
Speaker 2: so it should come as no surprise that he is
27:54
Speaker 2: using He designated these groups as terror organizations and he's
27:59
Speaker 2: now going after them. It is completely legal, and it
28:03
Speaker 2: is keeping drugs that are killing Americans off of our streets.
28:07
Speaker 2: I think it's disgusting that the Democrats are siding with
28:12
Speaker 2: drug cartels and these drug conners over American lives.
28:18
Speaker 1: They literally because I guess they bombed a boat once
28:22
Speaker 1: and then two guys survived it. They literally said we
28:25
Speaker 1: should have gone down via the Geneva Convention, offered them
28:28
Speaker 1: safe harbor or some other crap. And then they're saying
28:31
Speaker 1: these are men with families and so on. The real
28:34
Speaker 1: story was the guy survived it, got back on the boat,
28:36
Speaker 1: and we're calling another boat to come and help them
28:39
Speaker 1: continue the mission, and we stopped the mission. I mean, Imbra,
28:42
Speaker 1: why are we having this discussion? Not you and me,
28:44
Speaker 1: I love this, but why are we having this discussion
28:46
Speaker 1: in Washington in Congress where we literally are watching people,
28:50
Speaker 1: as you said, and as I've said, taking the side
28:53
Speaker 1: of drug cartels over the Department of War. How did
28:56
Speaker 1: we get here? I mean, it sounds like an awfully
28:58
Speaker 1: philosophical question, but there had to have been a path
29:01
Speaker 1: to where these people feel safe saying the drug dealer
29:04
Speaker 1: is the good guy, or a Brego Garcia who's an
29:07
Speaker 1: MS thirteen guy, he's the good guy somehow, Or the
29:10
Speaker 1: people in Washington, DC who are carjacking, they're the good
29:13
Speaker 1: guys and the National Guards shouldn't be there. Do you
29:15
Speaker 1: have any thoughts on how we got here as a nation.
29:18
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's really sad that the Democrats would
29:23
Speaker 2: play politics with American lives. They, like I said earlier,
29:29
Speaker 2: they have such significant trumpt arrangement syndrome that they can't
29:35
Speaker 2: even appreciate something he does when he is saving American
29:39
Speaker 2: lives in the tens and thousands. We're not just talking
29:42
Speaker 2: about like one or two here. They say that every
29:45
Speaker 2: time they blow up one of those drug boats, it
29:47
Speaker 2: saves twenty five thousand American lives. Why is that a problem.
29:54
Speaker 2: It's what The President's number one job when he is
29:58
Speaker 2: in office is to text the American people, and that's
30:01
Speaker 2: exactly what he's doing, and he's using the resources that
30:05
Speaker 2: he has available to him to ensure that happens. America
30:11
Speaker 2: is a better place and a safer place when we
30:13
Speaker 2: don't have drugs in this system. And whether it's they're
30:16
Speaker 2: coming across the southern border or they're coming in on
30:19
Speaker 2: these speedboats, the delivery doesn't matter. They're still bringing drugs
30:26
Speaker 2: in and it still needs to stop.
30:29
Speaker 1: Last question for you, Amber, and thanks for all the
30:30
Speaker 1: time today. Go follow her at Amber Smith USA Unfit
30:33
Speaker 1: to Fight. How woke policies are destroying our military is
30:36
Speaker 1: the name of the book. Are you fearful about how
30:38
Speaker 1: many terrorists may have come across the border during Biden?
30:41
Speaker 1: Is it in the hundreds, is it in the thousands?
30:43
Speaker 2: What do you think about that it's in the thousands.
30:47
Speaker 2: And it is absolutely terrifying to know that there are
30:55
Speaker 2: known terrorists in the thousands just sitting here in America
31:00
Speaker 2: waiting for the right time. And if there's one thing
31:04
Speaker 2: that we know and should have learned from nine to
31:06
Speaker 2: eleven is that they can be patient when they need
31:08
Speaker 2: to be and they have every intent of attacking America
31:16
Speaker 2: from the inside. And so I hope that you know
31:21
Speaker 2: every resource that we have right now is being used
31:25
Speaker 2: to track these terrorists down that are already here and
31:28
Speaker 2: planning and waiting to attack Americans.
31:34
Speaker 1: I'm with you, Amber, It's a warning that everybody needs
31:36
Speaker 1: to hear. For sure. Go get the book called Unfit
31:38
Speaker 1: to Fight, How woke policies are destroying our military? It
31:41
Speaker 1: is Amber Smith. Go follow her at Ambersmith USA. Thanks
31:44
Speaker 1: a million for all you've done, Thanks for your sacrifice
31:46
Speaker 1: of the country, and please come on the show again.
31:49
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. Absolutely appreciate it.
31:51
Speaker 1: You very welcome. We're back after this. Actually, this is
31:54
Speaker 1: it for this episode of Unshaken and Afraid with Joe
31:56
Speaker 1: Pegs another one to drop very soon.