Latest / World Ablaze with George Fontes / Ryan McBeth - Intelligence Analyst, Novelist, Content Creator

Transcript

Ryan McBeth - Intelligence Analyst, Novelist, Content Creator · World Ablaze with George Fontes

• 0:00
  All right, Ryan, McBeth, thank you for being back on the show.
• 0:08
  I feel this is a do-over with you because the first time I tried to do a video episode
• 0:12
  and I had technical difficulties, so I felt bad about that.
• 0:17
  Although the audio episode did do pretty well, by the way.
• 0:20
  But this time, I'm glad to have you on video since.
• 0:22
  I mean, your audience base is YouTube, and that's what you do.
• 0:25
  You specialize and you make them very informative, awesome videos, and you do deep dives.
• 0:29
  And you have a way of explaining it in a way that people can just understand it without feeling like they have to go to school.
• 0:35
  You know, you basically remove that difficulty out of it and say, look, let me break it down.
• 0:39
  Easy for you to digest.
• 0:40
  And this is what's really going on.
• 0:41
  So I'm glad to have this again with you in video format.
• 0:44
  It's just, they need to see you.
• 0:46
  They really do to get the whole thing.
• 0:50
  So since we last talked, the first time we talked, we talked about what's going on in Ukraine.
• 0:54
  I do want to get to that because there's new developments.
• 0:56
  And I know you made a video recently about that.
• 0:59
  And then you also made another video about what was going on with Israel, what's going on in Gaza, and that whole issue as well.
• 1:07
  So let's start there, if you don't mind, because after the bombing, the U.S. sent their B-2 bombers and whatnot, and we basically bombed nuclear facilities in Iran.
• 1:19
  Iran, surprisingly to me, by the way, to me, backed off.
• 1:24
  And I didn't expect that they would, but they did settle down a bit.
• 1:29
  A lot of people were really, well, I was, I know you were, cause I know you mentioned it, but people were concerned that there might be sleeper cells here in the U S that might be activated in retaliation to that. I want to start with that, with that first and see what you think, you know, coming from your perspective, because I don't, I don't believe it's over. I really don't. I, I think that that is a reality. That's extremely plausible. I believe that that is a thing that we will have to face.
• 1:56
  and I have done the data,
• 1:58
  I've done the dive
• 1:59
  in terms of what's going on at the border
• 2:00
  and I know that this year alone,
• 2:02
  at least until May,
• 2:04
  there was about 752 or somewhere around there.
• 2:07
  I don't have the exact,
• 2:08
  but it was like 752
• 2:09
  in terms of terrorists
• 2:12
  that they knew about that they detained.
• 2:13
  When I broke it down,
• 2:14
  it was enough to put 15 terrorists
• 2:16
  in every state of the United States of America.
• 2:19
  And that's not counting the ones
• 2:20
  they don't know about.
• 2:21
  So what do you think about that situation?
• 2:24
  Should we be concerned?
• 2:25
  Should the average American citizen be vigilant, be watching out for that, or at least have an idea that, yeah, it could go bad?
• 2:34
  So, boy, that's a tough one because it feels like I'm in 2002, right?
• 2:41
  Are we red? Are we yellow? Are we blue? Are we green? Is it a high alert day? Is it a low alert day, right?
• 2:50
  That's a really good question.
• 2:51
  You know, I don't think the average American should be concerned in the sense that there's really not a lot you can do to prevent it.
• 3:04
  But in general, the security services of the U.S. need to be concerned about it.
• 3:11
  mainly because, and I don't want to get into politics,
• 3:17
  but for about four years, our borders were essentially wide open.
• 3:22
  We don't necessarily know who's here.
• 3:25
  And instead of arresting people at Home Depot,
• 3:29
  maybe we should be kind of looking for bad guys.
• 3:33
  I think kind of the problem here is that arresting people at Home Depot
• 3:35
  is good for the president's base,
• 3:36
  and arresting bad guys
• 3:39
  is hard
• 3:41
  and takes time.
• 3:43
  You don't have that immediate payoff.
• 3:46
  So it's kind of
• 3:48
  easy to see what someone might
• 3:49
  choose to do, even though
• 3:51
  fighting the bad guys
• 3:53
  could eventually stop this terrorist
• 3:55
  incident.
• 3:57
  When it comes to Iran, I think
• 4:00
  I don't want to say they've learned their lesson
• 4:01
  because they haven't
• 4:04
  learned their lesson.
• 4:04
  they're in a weird place right now
• 4:08
  we can get into that when it comes to funding
• 4:11
  and how they're going to rebuild their military
• 4:13
  but essentially
• 4:15
  I would
• 4:18
  if I were part of the security services
• 4:20
  I would be concerned about a terrorist threat
• 4:22
  within the United States
• 4:23
  that might not activate now
• 4:26
  but could activate in the future
• 4:28
  so
• 4:29
  the average person knows security services yes
• 4:32
  right
• 4:33
  I feel the same way.
• 4:35
  I just, well, I'm agreeing with you, but there's also that side of me that is like, well, I'm a civilian.
• 4:43
  Like, what's the possibility?
• 4:44
  What might I have to go through if that did come to it?
• 4:48
  And interestingly enough, you know, we had the incident in Colorado where, you know, we had the extremist that burned a few Jewish people.
• 4:57
  Right.
• 4:57
  and then they recently also arrested
• 5:00
  a few Iranians
• 5:02
  that I don't know the exact
• 5:05
  details but said to be terrorists or known
• 5:07
  terrorists that they deported that was also just
• 5:08
  happened recently so
• 5:10
  it is a real thing but I
• 5:13
  understand what you're saying you know that's for security forces
• 5:15
  to deal with and they should be dealing with that
• 5:17
  so in your opinion
• 5:19
  maybe we should just you know hey be aware
• 5:21
  but move on live on
• 5:23
  right? I mean
• 5:24
  again it sounds like it's
• 5:26
  It's 2002.
• 5:28
  If we don't just continue to live our lives, terrorists win.
• 5:32
  Right.
• 5:32
  Right.
• 5:32
  And I even remember when, I want to say it was in, God, November, October of 2001, President Bush said, go buy something.
• 5:48
  Stop watching television and go to the store and buy something.
• 5:53
  And I remember I was dating this girl all the time.
• 5:56
  I went and I bought her like a $600 leather jacket.
• 6:01
  You know, I did my part for the economy.
• 6:03
  Because our economy was actually suffering because people were hiding inside their homes watching the news.
• 6:08
  Right.
• 6:09
  They were so scared they weren't going outdoors.
• 6:11
  Yeah.
• 6:11
  Yeah, there was a great South Park episode about that where I think Randy is sitting on the couch and his eyes are just wide.
• 6:21
  You know?
• 6:22
  And, yeah, we have to live our life.
• 6:28
  Yeah, fair enough.
• 6:29
  If we live in fear, then the terrorists really do win.
• 6:31
  Yeah, hence terrorism, right?
• 6:34
  Yeah.
• 6:35
  Okay.
• 6:36
  Fair enough on that.
• 6:38
  What about your thoughts on what's going on in Gaza?
• 6:42
  I mean, we're getting really into what?
• 6:45
  We're getting close to two years or so, or about two years, correct?
• 6:49
  Somewhere around there.
• 6:49
  what is your thoughts on how that is being handled by Israel at the moment?
• 6:58
  And the reason I ask that is because the sentiment is a lot of people will agree that they had a right to do what they had to do.
• 7:04
  I mean, I saw your video where you said you didn't forget October 7th.
• 7:07
  I didn't either.
• 7:08
  Most people shouldn't have forgot about that.
• 7:11
  Do you think in your opinion, and this is just an opinion, not putting on the spot,
• 7:16
  but do you think Israel is going a little too far
• 7:21
  or are they trying to deal with a situation
• 7:24
  where it's a matter of geography?
• 7:26
  It's not a very big place,
• 7:28
  not a very big place for Hamas, for example,
• 7:30
  to spread out and hide.
• 7:33
  And I've seen that they're pretty much
• 7:34
  just using the people as shields
• 7:36
  and they're basically they're captive.
• 7:37
  They can't necessarily leave either.
• 7:39
  But at the same time,
• 7:40
  do you believe Israel should probably try a different tactic?
• 7:44
  Are they going a bit too far at this point?
• 7:45
  or are they just doing what they have to do?
• 7:48
  So one of the things that Israel has done
• 7:51
  is they've started to create militias.
• 7:57
  And these militias are made up of Palestinians
• 7:59
  who no longer want Hamas in charge.
• 8:03
  And they give them guns and they say,
• 8:07
  okay, get at it.
• 8:08
  Because these guys, they know where the hostages are.
• 8:11
  They know where Hamas is located.
• 8:13
  so it's one of those things where it's like all right you know this is kind of how we have to
• 8:20
  do this and some of these these guys they're honest to god criminal gangs right they're
• 8:26
  criminal gangs but again to kind of go back to the uh the era of uh donald rumsfeld you go to
• 8:32
  war with the army you have not the army you want or you wish you had at a later date so
• 8:37
  what choice do you have, right?
• 8:40
  Right.
• 8:41
  Those are the allies that are willing to fight.
• 8:45
  So I guess
• 8:46
  we kind of have to
• 8:47
  stick with those allies.
• 8:50
  So they're doing that. They are getting aid
• 8:52
  in, which is good.
• 8:55
  I believe they control
• 8:56
  about 60 to 65%
• 8:58
  of Gaza.
• 9:00
  And they will...
• 9:03
  Ideally,
• 9:04
  the ceasefire is coming up.
• 9:06
  supposedly there may be a ceasefire soon where Hamas will return.
• 9:12
  I believe, oh man, this is kind of putting me on the spot.
• 9:15
  I believe there are 40 remaining hostages and 22, I think, are still alive.
• 9:25
  Something like that.
• 9:26
  There's 50 hostages remaining and we know that 22 are still alive.
• 9:31
  so
• 9:32
  I believe this ceasefire gives 10
• 9:35
  hostages back
• 9:36
  and I can't even imagine what condition
• 9:39
  the hostages are in there
• 9:40
  I mean it must be absolute hell on earth
• 9:43
  right because God knows
• 9:45
  where they're getting fed
• 9:47
  right
• 9:48
  like where are these people
• 9:51
  getting food
• 9:53
  to feed these hostages so they must be
• 9:55
  at the point of starvation
• 9:57
  right
• 9:58
  you're not in good shape whatsoever
• 10:01
  yeah they can't be
• 10:03
  you addressed this a little bit
• 10:05
  but what about
• 10:07
  what's going around
• 10:09
  mostly on social media
• 10:10
  we are the media now right
• 10:12
  social media
• 10:13
  but what about what's being said of Israel
• 10:17
  willingly holding back
• 10:19
  supplies
• 10:20
  and aid
• 10:22
  and killing people who are trying to get aid
• 10:24
  because from the reports I've seen
• 10:26
  and you know way more than I do you have more access
• 10:28
  But from the reports that I've seen, it's really not necessarily the case.
• 10:32
  It's Hamas intercepting a lot of this aid and then trying to redistribute or sell it back to their own people.
• 10:40
  So how much of it is true that Israel is actually doing this versus it's just propaganda being spread by Hamas?
• 10:49
  That's an excellent question.
• 10:51
  and uh you know i gotta tell you that in some cases if if israelis are rushed by people and
• 11:00
  they feel threatened they're going to open fire right that's just kind of kind of the way it is
• 11:06
  if you feel threatened then uh well you got to do what you got to do to stop the threat
• 11:11
  uh that being said you know for the most part israel is getting aid in it seems like it is
• 11:20
  mostly successful. I want to say it's about 150 trucks per day, roughly. But one of the issues
• 11:26
  is the security situation. That's why you want to work with these Palestinians, the criminal gangs,
• 11:32
  who will hopefully take that food and distribute it. Now, they're probably distributing it
• 11:38
  in a way that makes their gang more powerful. One of the big issues that a lot of people don't
• 11:44
  talk about, this is actually
• 11:46
  the case in Africa as well,
• 11:48
  is we say
• 11:50
  Palestinians,
• 11:52
  but there are
• 11:54
  tribes
• 11:54
  within
• 11:57
  Palestinians.
• 12:01
  I'm actually
• 12:02
  trying to Google it right now.
• 12:03
  All the different tribes.
• 12:06
  there's
• 12:09
  different clans.
• 12:11
  And we tend to think of,
• 12:13
  Oh, there's Palestinians. We tend to think of Arabs in general. There's Arabs, but there's
• 12:17
  different clans and factions and families within those societies. And that's why democracy doesn't
• 12:25
  always work quite right. Because let's say you get hired onto the police force, you're going to
• 12:32
  try to get your cousin hired. He's part of your clan. He's part of your family. And that's how
• 12:37
  to end up with a mostly
• 12:39
  Shia police force in Iraq.
• 12:43
  That's just
• 12:43
  kind of how that part of the
• 12:45
  world works because a lot of it is still
• 12:47
  tribal.
• 12:49
  We just don't have any concept of that
• 12:51
  inside the United States. No, we don't.
• 12:53
  I was trying to look it up while you were talking.
• 12:55
  I can find a definite number but it does echo exactly what you saying A lot of it is made up by extended families throughout the generations Yeah Garifat Susan Elisa Al Abu Yeah
• 13:07
  All sorts of clans.
• 13:11
  this happened in Afghanistan.
• 13:14
  It didn't happen to me personally, but I
• 13:16
  know a guy, I know a guy
• 13:18
  who said that they built
• 13:20
  a water
• 13:22
  irrigation
• 13:24
  system
• 13:26
  this one town and this other town went and blew it up because like they thought they should get it
• 13:31
  first and it's like we you know and when it goes back to these yeah these tribal politics man
• 13:39
  you know like and we kind of thought like all right well we're going to go into Afghanistan
• 13:44
  we're going to create Jeffersonian democracy and you know we just kind of ran into that tribal
• 13:50
  issue.
• 13:52
  For the longest time,
• 13:54
  Hamid Karzai was essentially mayor of Kabul.
• 13:57
  He was president,
• 13:59
  but he was mayor of Kabul.
• 14:00
  You step outside of Kabul, you might as well be
• 14:02
  stepping back into the year 2000
• 14:04
  or the year 700,
• 14:06
  depending on the definition
• 14:08
  you want to go through.
• 14:09
  Yeah.
• 14:10
  The tribal thing is
• 14:13
  just not something that
• 14:15
  we can ignore.
• 14:18
  And
• 14:18
  it's something
• 14:21
  that we have to think about whenever
• 14:23
  we're dealing with these societies
• 14:25
  where we look at them and go,
• 14:27
  we gave you this
• 14:29
  freedom. How come you're not well?
• 14:31
  Because you put this other tribe in charge,
• 14:33
  not my tribe. So I have to fight this other tribe.
• 14:36
  God, stop.
• 14:37
  Our misunderstanding of the
• 14:39
  region and its history
• 14:41
  as just as you said
• 14:43
  between tribes has been an issue.
• 14:46
  But
• 14:46
  But I'm going to get to something.
• 14:49
  Before I move on, I'm going to get to something that touches on.
• 14:52
  Because you mentioned Afghanistan.
• 14:55
  When we went in there around 2001, our war on terror.
• 15:01
  But before that, we helped to supply the rebels and help push back against the Soviets at that time.
• 15:10
  And a lot of people don't even know this, but Afghanistan, they went through a period where they were literally a communist country that was backed by the Soviets.
• 15:15
  before the Soviets invaded in 78 or 79.
• 15:19
  So before that, they weren't even an Islamic state.
• 15:23
  They were a monarchy.
• 15:24
  They were ran under the rule of a monarchy.
• 15:26
  At that time, Islam wasn't even a governing body.
• 15:28
  It was literally just a religion,
• 15:30
  and it was spread out among different tribes.
• 15:32
  Yeah, you're absolutely right.
• 15:34
  There were people who were wearing miniskirts in Kabul.
• 15:39
  But the reason I brought that up is because you brought up Afghanistan,
• 15:44
  and the U.S. gets the blame for creating these terrorist organizations all the time.
• 15:51
  If it wasn't for us, this wouldn't have happened, right?
• 15:54
  If we didn't back Israel, nobody would hate Israel or hate the United States,
• 15:58
  which is false.
• 16:00
  They're still going to have an issue with Israel.
• 16:01
  They always have.
• 16:03
  But the reality is, you know, like I just did a deep dive on this the other day.
• 16:09
  Islamic, let me correct myself, extreme Islamist terrorism
• 16:13
  has been around in that region for 1,300 years, literally.
• 16:18
  And it's not a new concept.
• 16:21
  And primarily, it was terrorism against other Muslims.
• 16:24
  It wasn't about being against the West.
• 16:26
  It was about power and control,
• 16:28
  subjugating the other people that they believe
• 16:30
  didn't hold up or live to the standards of Islam,
• 16:34
  at least to their extreme view of it anyway.
• 16:37
  So it's a long history of terrorism
• 16:41
  and a religious war within the people
• 16:46
  that literally practice the same religion,
• 16:49
  which is crazy.
• 16:50
  And we always see in the media
• 16:52
  how the Western powers are to blame for the situation.
• 16:55
  The United States is to blame.
• 16:56
  We're not infallible at all.
• 16:57
  We did things that we probably shouldn't have.
• 16:59
  We didn't have a full understanding
• 17:01
  of why we should be there.
• 17:02
  We just knew that, hey,
• 17:03
  we're going to spread democracy and free the people.
• 17:05
  But there was way more to the story than just that.
• 17:08
  So it's like,
• 17:11
  What do you say to those who always believe that we should just not ever get involved?
• 17:16
  Should we not ever get involved?
• 17:17
  Are we just perpetuating the problem?
• 17:20
  Or is it something that we really should always have a bit of a hand in to make sure it doesn't get too out of control,
• 17:28
  as far as our interests are concerned, or maybe in the world's interest?
• 17:31
  Well, the question kind of comes up as, before we get involved, what is the definition of win?
• 17:37
  Okay.
• 17:38
  And I did a video about that.
• 17:40
  Essentially, it was about how Vietnam can kind of parallel what the conflict with China might look like.
• 17:51
  In the sense that if we go into Taiwan without a full understanding with what win actually means, we're going to have a lot of trouble.
• 18:03
  because the idea behind Robert McNamara during Vietnam was,
• 18:11
  well, we're going to apply graduated pressure until they realize that,
• 18:21
  all right, well, we probably can't win against the United States,
• 18:23
  so we're just going to come to the peace table.
• 18:26
  And that didn't seem to work.
• 18:28
  right like you know vietnam you know vietnam just all we can wait these guys out that's exactly
• 18:36
  what they did right so yeah you know it's um boy that that's a i think before getting involved
• 18:46
  any place we should kind of get that definition of win like what does def what what does win
• 18:52
  actually look like if you take a look at the houthis what does win mean does it mean regime
• 18:57
  change? Does it mean
• 18:59
  the Houthis aren't capable of
• 19:01
  launching attacks against
• 19:03
  shipping in the Red Sea
• 19:05
  anymore? Does it mean
• 19:08
  attriding them to the point where
• 19:13
  the
• 19:14
  loyalists,
• 19:19
  I should say the loyalists, but the people in the
• 19:21
  western half of
• 19:23
  Yemen would be able to actually
• 19:25
  fight back against the Houthis
• 19:27
  because right now Yemen's kind of a fractured state.
• 19:29
  The Hufis are just one tribe, right?
• 19:33
  They are a tribe that are inside of Yemen.
• 19:36
  And they were able to take over a good portion of the western half.
• 19:41
  So what does win mean, right?
• 19:43
  So that's kind of the direction that you should probably go in.
• 19:48
  Before we get involved in any kind of conflict,
• 19:50
  let's figure out what win actually means.
• 19:53
  So literally a better understanding of the area and the situation.
• 19:57
  What's the impact of our involvement, right?
• 20:00
  Yeah.
• 20:01
  I get where you're coming from as far as what is a win.
• 20:04
  I mean, it's basically defining what the mission is, right?
• 20:07
  Why are we here, really?
• 20:09
  I don't think we ever know the whole story.
• 20:12
  But at the same time, I mean, I guess it's really about,
• 20:16
  do you believe that, I wouldn't say the world.
• 20:20
  It's more like media, right?
• 20:22
  there's this rhetoric and this whole movement of
• 20:26
  America bad, anti-America, America needs to be dismantled
• 20:30
  America needs to go away because everything we do just makes the world turn to shit
• 20:34
  and I don't believe that at all, I really don't
• 20:38
  so I want to get your opinion on that and where that's coming from
• 20:42
  I mean outside of obvious propaganda that's being spread to divide us
• 20:46
  what do you think about what's going on right now with that
• 20:49
  with that push for that talking point about America just being the enemy of the world,
• 20:54
  or rather every time we get involved, we just create a worse situation?
• 21:00
  Boy, that's a very good question.
• 21:01
  You know, I think back after the terrorist attacks, one of the excuses we kind of had was,
• 21:10
  well, they hate our freedoms.
• 21:11
  And I think that some people, they look at their government and they go like, man, my government is a government for the people in charge.
• 21:29
  They don't think like, you look at Arab Spring.
• 21:34
  Well, how did Arab Spring start?
• 21:36
  Well, it started because there was a fruit cart vendor who didn't have the money to pay for a license for his fruit cart.
• 21:44
  And he also didn't have the money to pay for a bribe to this policewoman who kept harassing him.
• 21:50
  Right.
• 21:51
  And so what does this guy do?
• 21:53
  Well, he sells fruit illegally and then the police come and smash his fruit cart.
• 21:58
  Now, then he goes and sets himself on fire in protest.
• 22:01
  Right.
• 22:02
  so I think that you have people who they don't understand why their government treats them the
• 22:10
  way they do and they look at America and it's this amazing kind of why does everyone want to
• 22:15
  come here they hate us so much but I would bet you if you went to the average Palestinian and
• 22:20
  said would you like to come to America they'd be on the next freaking flight as long as they
• 22:24
  could bring their family with right right they like like we there is this magical part of america
• 22:32
  where for the most part we really do live in a security we live in a society where we do generally
• 22:39
  follow laws most people do pay their taxes most police aren't really corrupt at least not to the
• 22:45
  extent that you know you can pay a bribe to get out of a ticket or something like that right like
• 22:51
  I can't even imagine what would happen to me if I tried, you know, if the police came and I held out a hundred dollar bill.
• 22:57
  Probably wouldn't go.
• 22:58
  Right.
• 22:58
  They'd probably arrest me.
• 22:59
  Yeah.
• 23:00
  For trying to bribe them.
• 23:01
  Right.
• 23:02
  Right.
• 23:02
  I'm sure there is corruption.
• 23:04
  Right.
• 23:05
  Well, there's always corruption.
• 23:06
  You saw that.
• 23:06
  Yeah.
• 23:07
  You saw that in New York.
• 23:08
  Yes.
• 23:08
  With, you know, Mayor Eric Adams, who like, let me do all these favors for Turkey.
• 23:13
  And, you know, I get to fly to Turkey for $50, whatever he, you know, like, or Menendez.
• 23:19
  that was always a good one. Robert Menendez.
• 23:22
  It's like...
• 23:23
  I mean, there'll always be corruption, but it's
• 23:26
  never to the level that we see in these
• 23:28
  other third world countries, for example.
• 23:30
  No, not even close. If I
• 23:32
  want to start a business here in the U.S.,
• 23:34
  I have an Indian
• 23:36
  friend of mine, and
• 23:38
  he was telling me how great the U.S. is.
• 23:40
  How this guy, he moved
• 23:42
  from India to Texas,
• 23:44
  and now
• 23:45
  he wears a cowboy hat, he owns
• 23:48
  a gun. He's driving a Ford F-150.
• 23:50
  America has this way of
• 23:52
  just turning evil into Americans.
• 23:55
  And
• 23:55
  he told me how
• 23:58
  in India, if you want to start a business,
• 24:00
  you got to go pay a bribe to someone
• 24:02
  and then you go to another agency and you got to pay
• 24:04
  another bribe. And everything's set up
• 24:06
  so that everyone kind of gets their palms greased
• 24:08
  on the way to starting this business.
• 24:10
  And in America, if I want to start a business,
• 24:12
  I literally go on to the state of
• 24:14
  Maryland website and I
• 24:16
  pay $50 and I start an LLC.
• 24:19
  Literally, you just go online. You can start one.
• 24:21
  And I think that
• 24:22
  is, for the most part, the engine
• 24:24
  of our growth.
• 24:27
  The engine of our success
• 24:29
  is that people can just...
• 24:30
  You want to start a business? You want to start a cleaning
• 24:32
  business? You just...
• 24:34
  All right. Go get some Fabuloso.
• 24:37
  Get some rags. Get
• 24:38
  some buckets. Form the LLC.
• 24:41
  Poof. You just started a business.
• 24:43
  And
• 24:43
  I think that people in
• 24:46
  some other countries, they look at America
• 24:48
  and they don't get it.
• 24:50
  They don't understand how come
• 24:52
  they're successful, but
• 24:54
  we're not. And they
• 24:56
  may realize, oh, it's
• 24:58
  because our
• 25:00
  leaders are corrupt, but they can't fix
• 25:02
  that. So it's just kind of, it might be easier
• 25:04
  to blame America for your problems
• 25:06
  than it is to
• 25:08
  kind of look internally.
• 25:10
  Right? Because you can't
• 25:12
  fix that. The only way you fix that is what
• 25:14
  the Syrians did.
• 25:16
  And a lot of Syrians died to make that happen.
• 25:19
  The thing with the, well, so I see where you're coming from.
• 25:25
  I agree with that.
• 25:26
  But the reality is the Middle East has always, always had some kind of conflict.
• 25:35
  And I know, as you stated before, a lot of it is tribal.
• 25:38
  It's like that area has never, well, we consider it modernization, right?
• 25:43
  Because Western culture is just completely different.
• 25:45
  We always look at them as not progressing.
• 25:47
  They seem to be very traditional in their ways after all these years.
• 25:54
  And what happens is from what I see I may be wrong and that why you here Correct me But what I see is as soon as one faction rises right on behalf of the people it always starts out as on behalf of the people
• 26:09
  by the people,
• 26:09
  and they want to overthrow the regime that becomes authoritarian or dictator
• 26:13
  like,
• 26:13
  and then they themselves become the same thing they overthrew.
• 26:16
  It's almost like once they have power,
• 26:19
  it becomes so infectious that they just keep repeating the cycle.
• 26:23
  What is your opinion on why that happens?
• 26:25
  Is it literally just always because it's a tribal thing?
• 26:28
  Or is it because they're just so used to not being able to have any kind of power or control whatsoever that once they have it, it just gets to their head.
• 26:38
  They just can't stop.
• 26:39
  They must take it all out at that point.
• 26:41
  Boy, that's a fantastic question.
• 26:44
  You know, maybe.
• 26:47
  I look at George Washington.
• 26:50
  Probably one of the smartest things George Washington ever did was quit after two terms.
• 26:55
  Right. And that just kind of set the precedent.
• 26:58
  And we've had this precedent for 250 years.
• 27:02
  Well, a little bit less than 250 years.
• 27:04
  We've had this precedent where, for the most part, we have this peaceful transition of power.
• 27:11
  Right. And for the most part, elected officials, at least they try their best to do the right thing.
• 27:19
  You know, at least that they're answerable to their constituents, because if they don't answer to their constituents,
• 27:25
  they get unelected.
• 27:28
  And, you know,
• 27:30
  in some societies,
• 27:35
  you don't necessarily see that.
• 27:39
  If you take a look at Saddam Hussein's Iraq,
• 27:42
  there's only one party.
• 27:43
  That was the Ba'ath party.
• 27:44
  Right?
• 27:44
  And I guess it was nominally a democracy.
• 27:47
  I mean, I could say,
• 27:50
  I mean, you could,
• 27:52
  technically,
• 27:53
  Iran is a democracy.
• 27:56
  If you want to get technical,
• 27:58
  they do elect their leaders.
• 28:00
  They do.
• 28:02
  I think it's required in their
• 28:04
  constitution that one
• 28:06
  Jew and one Christian
• 28:07
  be in parliament
• 28:09
  for representation.
• 28:13
  It's not called the parliament. I can't remember the
• 28:16
  darn name of their
• 28:17
  governance structure
• 28:20
  right now.
• 28:21
  So there's that.
• 28:23
  There are nominally democracies, but when you get to the point where you can't actually affect change, I think that just drives some people absolutely nuts.
• 28:34
  It's to me almost like a false sense of democracy.
• 28:38
  I mean, when you have the same leader year after year after year, I mean, some of these people going 12 years, 20 years.
• 28:44
  I mean, hell, Russia is allegedly, you know, they're elected democratically.
• 28:50
  But Putin's been there for, I couldn't even,
• 28:52
  I've just been there for so long.
• 28:54
  I want to say since 2000 or so, before 2000.
• 28:57
  Because he was president, I think, twice.
• 29:00
  And then Medvedev took over, and then Putin took over again.
• 29:07
  So, yeah.
• 29:08
  But he's been there at least 22 to 20,
• 29:12
  somewhere between 22, 25 years.
• 29:13
  I don't remember the exact date he came into power,
• 29:16
  but it's around that.
• 29:17
  you know it's been two decades over two decades right but we hit we see this situation where
• 29:22
  you know these leaders that come into power don't they just don't want to relinquish it
• 29:26
  um and when the when they they feel that there's change in the air it seems like that's when they
• 29:33
  start turning the screws to their own people and applying applying the fear right to keep them in
• 29:37
  line and since you did bring up iran so the thing is the thing we i need to understand about iran is
• 29:45
  they're their own nation
• 29:48
  they do command respect
• 29:50
  for who they are there
• 29:52
  right now
• 29:53
  they've been the leading supporter
• 29:56
  of terrorism since 1984
• 29:57
  at least officially that's how they were labeled
• 29:59
  right since probably since
• 30:01
  1979 well before
• 30:03
  officially 1984 is when they're like
• 30:06
  hey you know these guys are
• 30:07
  state supporter of
• 30:10
  terrorism
• 30:10
  now is theirs
• 30:14
  necessarily, do you think a religious war or is it just, is that just nothing but a cover for
• 30:21
  their ultimate goal of being the power in the region? Because they use proxies to do their own
• 30:28
  bidding. Like they're not directly going out and attacking people and causing all of this,
• 30:32
  all of this harm and all this chaos. You know, they get, they get to have like the, the mafia
• 30:38
  is that, right? The boss would always have a buffer. So their buffer has always been,
• 30:40
  you know, like these proxies.
• 30:43
  So how do we,
• 30:44
  how do we hold a country like that accountable for doing those things?
• 30:48
  You can easily deny they never had direct involvement because they never
• 30:51
  really did anything except for recently between what happened with Israel and
• 30:55
  Iran, you know, with the bombings and whatnot, the missiles,
• 30:58
  but before they weren't always directly involved.
• 31:00
  So, so how should that be approached?
• 31:03
  Like how, how are they to be held accountable for their actions?
• 31:05
  But at the same time,
• 31:06
  we allow them to thrive
• 31:08
  and develop and continue to grow
• 31:11
  as a society.
• 31:13
  Well, you bomb them.
• 31:15
  You know exactly
• 31:17
  what...
• 31:18
  Look, I've often said
• 31:20
  we got to, as a nation, we have to get
• 31:22
  back to our core competencies.
• 31:24
  We're not very good at nation building,
• 31:27
  but we are really good at bombing people.
• 31:29
  That's one of the things
• 31:30
  we really excel at.
• 31:32
  It's been that way since
• 31:34
  When Reagan, Operation El Dorado Canyon, when we realized Gaddafi was his terrorist leader, he blew up Pan Am, Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland.
• 31:48
  He was helping fund the IRA.
• 31:51
  He was helping fund, there was an operation to Iranian affiliated terrorists who blew up a disco in Berlin.
• 32:01
  I want to say it was Berlin, that killed a couple of US service members.
• 32:05
  There was even a situation where in East Germany, they caught some, I want to say it was Iranian terrorists, trying to smuggle a bomb on board.
• 32:15
  And the bomb wasn't for the East German flight.
• 32:17
  It was going someplace else.
• 32:19
  And they were going to put the bomb on that plane.
• 32:20
  And the East Germans turned them in.
• 32:22
  They don't want those idiots in their country either.
• 32:24
  Right.
• 32:24
  But once we bombed Libya, Gaddafi shut up for a good, let's say, 10, 12 years, roughly.
• 32:38
  And the reason Iran uses proxies is that it's cheap.
• 32:44
  And that's actually probably one of the reasons why they lost their air battle against Israel.
• 32:51
  Iran, they can't build an aircraft carrier.
• 32:54
  They can't build an ICBM, an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach the United States.
• 33:03
  But what they can do is fund terrorist organizations around the globe that can perform kinetic actions that can give them leverage over certain areas of the world, like Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah, Hamas.
• 33:20
  So they can do that.
• 33:22
  And what's interesting is that I think that the reason Iran kind of failed against these Israeli attacks isn't just the skill of the Israeli Air Force, which is undeniably skillful.
• 33:36
  but they were kind of putting so many eggs in the irgc and the islamic revolutionary guard corps
• 33:44
  basket uh they were funding terrorist organizations all over the world that they were kind of
• 33:51
  neglecting the rsh they were neglecting their own military and you can see that just by looking at
• 33:57
  their jet fighters i mean right the jet fighters what remains are from the 1970s i'm sure there's
• 34:06
  been some upgrades and
• 34:08
  supposedly Iran, they want to purchase
• 34:10
  a couple
• 34:12
  Su-34s from
• 34:14
  Russia. A deal went through
• 34:16
  to purchase these Su-34s. I don't think
• 34:18
  they've got a single Su-34.
• 34:21
  I think they've got a single
• 34:22
  one because Russia's like, yeah, we kind of need
• 34:24
  these right now. No surprise, right?
• 34:26
  And a couple of years ago, Russia
• 34:28
  helped Iran launch a satellite
• 34:30
  and
• 34:32
  I remember the spy satellite
• 34:34
  and they said to Iran, like, we're going to
• 34:36
  uses for a little while. Consider it a
• 34:38
  consider it a fee.
• 34:42
  So yeah, the
• 34:43
  I think that
• 34:47
  Iran's way to affect changes through the
• 34:50
  proxies, which was cheap,
• 34:51
  but for every
• 34:53
  proxy that you fund with a dollar,
• 34:56
  it's one less dollar that you can
• 34:58
  fund your conventional military
• 35:00
  with. And that's how you get into
• 35:02
  a situation where
• 35:04
  you have this
• 35:06
  this military that is
• 35:09
  essentially very brittle.
• 35:11
  They can't even destroy
• 35:13
  Israeli planes coming into their own country.
• 35:18
  They can't launch
• 35:19
  sorties against Israeli
• 35:21
  planes that are flying into their own country.
• 35:23
  I think Israel established their dominance
• 35:24
  within three to five days
• 35:27
  to the point where they're operating
• 35:28
  during the
• 35:31
  daytime, which is absolute
• 35:32
  madness.
• 35:34
  yeah like it's crazy they obviously didn't have any fear of what iran could do
• 35:38
  no no they didn't have any fear and that's kind of not how it's supposed to be like you're supposed
• 35:45
  to have air sovereignty over your own country and after three to five days i believe iran didn't
• 35:52
  that's a pretty big issue and that's i think it's directly because they funded their proxies so much
• 36:00
  there's essentially no money left over
• 36:02
  for their conventional forces,
• 36:04
  their surface-to-air missile forces,
• 36:05
  their air force.
• 36:08
  So you're running at a reduced capacity.
• 36:11
  And then you actually get into that fight,
• 36:13
  and now you get smacked around
• 36:17
  by a country that's 20 times smaller than you.
• 36:21
  It's interesting that you brought up Russia
• 36:24
  because what I've seen happen with Iran,
• 36:28
  So out the gate, right?
• 36:32
  Pakistan is like, oh, we support Iran and we will back them.
• 36:36
  And if we have to, we'll launch a nuclear weapon if we need to.
• 36:40
  So Iran has these, I don't even know if they're real allies or pseudo-allies because Russia's supposed to be an ally.
• 36:47
  But what we've seen is we've never really seen Russia really come to their need necessarily.
• 36:52
  necessarily. I know Iran helped Russia in the Ukraine war by sending them, I think it was
• 36:57
  technology, like drones, different things. Yeah, so I had drones. Okay. And then same thing with
• 37:02
  China. China supposedly says, hey, they also stand by Iran, but China doing what China does,
• 37:09
  they haven't really done much or said anything outside of just saying, we support Iran.
• 37:15
  After the bombings, everyone got quiet. So I don't know if that's a testament to still
• 37:21
  how strong the US really is in the world stage
• 37:24
  that people actually saw that,
• 37:26
  okay, we're not sleeping anymore.
• 37:28
  We will take care of things if we have to.
• 37:31
  Or if Iran,
• 37:32
  their true colors just came out
• 37:34
  and this whole thing has just been
• 37:35
  one giant charade, really,
• 37:38
  in terms of what Iran can really do
• 37:40
  and what power they really have.
• 37:43
  Yeah, I mean, look,
• 37:45
  if you're Russia,
• 37:46
  what exactly are you going to do right now
• 37:48
  to support Iran?
• 37:50
  Not much.
• 37:51
  That means, can you send aircraft?
• 37:55
  You kind of need those aircraft.
• 37:57
  Right?
• 37:59
  So what do you do?
• 38:01
  Because I don't really have an answer.
• 38:03
  I get it.
• 38:04
  It just seems like they don't really have the allies they think they do.
• 38:09
  As soon as the U.S. did step into back Israel, which we always do,
• 38:14
  which is going to be another question for you.
• 38:16
  but it seemed like everybody just kind of stepped back.
• 38:22
  They just didn't want to get involved anymore.
• 38:25
  I,
• 38:25
  in my opinion,
• 38:25
  I think China is just watching all of these conflicts and just while they're
• 38:29
  doing that,
• 38:30
  they're testing the waters over there with Taiwan.
• 38:32
  Sorry,
• 38:32
  Taiwan.
• 38:33
  I don't know why I said Taiwan.
• 38:34
  Taiwan and also,
• 38:36
  you know,
• 38:36
  also the Philippines.
• 38:38
  And just recently,
• 38:40
  they basically laser targeted a German,
• 38:43
  I think it was a helicopter or some military craft.
• 38:46
  when they were having an exercise out there.
• 38:48
  So to me, I think China is saying what people want to hear while at the same time plotting
• 38:55
  to do what they want to do in the region.
• 38:58
  And I mean I know their end goal is to eventually take Taiwan But with Russia you correct Obviously it like they don have any means to really separate and fight two wars
• 39:09
  They just can't.
• 39:10
  I mean, they're barely even able to handle what's going on in Ukraine right now.
• 39:13
  And that's a much smaller country, you know.
• 39:16
  So, yeah, I get you.
• 39:18
  Now, as far as Israel and Iran, though, I always ask, I've asked a question to other guests that I've had recently.
• 39:28
  And do you believe at some point that Israel needs to stand on their own without knowing that the USA is going to step in?
• 39:40
  Hmm.
• 39:41
  I know we're allies.
• 39:42
  I'm not saying we shouldn't help our allies.
• 39:44
  But there have been situations where, and historically, they have done things that have really made it hard, right?
• 39:53
  Especially for us.
• 39:54
  I mean, if you look at the geopolitical relationships, like, what if we're in a negotiation with another country or we're trying to do something to where we can improve relations and all of a sudden Israel's in another war with somebody, you know, or there's another conflict.
• 40:08
  How do you feel about that?
• 40:09
  Or at least your opinion on that situation?
• 40:12
  Well, usually Israel doesn't necessarily start, right?
• 40:16
  But you could say that one war that Israel, I'm really trying, I mean, really the only war that Israel really started was 1948, right?
• 40:29
  So kind of like, what do you, you know, even the Sinai campaign, I want to say, was the Sinai campaign, I think that was instigated by Egypt.
• 40:40
  And they were like, well, let's just keep going.
• 40:44
  let's say the Egyptian forces are collapsing.
• 40:47
  Let's just keep going.
• 40:49
  Might as well keep going here.
• 40:51
  So, wait.
• 40:55
  Usually it seems like other people kind of roll in
• 40:58
  and they cause trouble with Israel
• 41:03
  and Israel decides to respond
• 41:04
  and that's when they have to step in.
• 41:05
  Now, for the most part,
• 41:07
  Israel does stand on its own.
• 41:11
  When they need a little extra help,
• 41:12
  they can call the U.S.
• 41:14
  for the most part,
• 41:16
  you look at Israel's Air Force,
• 41:18
  and they were able to do a lot
• 41:19
  with, I think it's
• 41:22
  11 fighter
• 41:24
  squads.
• 41:26
  I think it's three F-35s,
• 41:29
  three
• 41:30
  F-16Is,
• 41:34
  three,
• 41:35
  one F-16E,
• 41:37
  well, F-15I.
• 41:39
  I think they have
• 41:40
  two F-15Cs,
• 41:42
  F-15C.
• 41:47
  I'm trying to do this from memory,
• 41:49
  but I think it's 11 squads.
• 41:51
  It's not as large.
• 41:52
  Not a very large.
• 41:54
  Passive, but it's a respectable
• 41:56
  Air Force for the region.
• 41:59
  Yeah, comparatively.
• 42:01
  And
• 42:01
  they can
• 42:04
  usually handle themselves.
• 42:06
  It's kind of when things go a little out of
• 42:08
  control that the U.S. gets
• 42:10
  called in. Normally, they don't
• 42:12
  started. They sure as hell
• 42:14
  finished it. Well, history has shown they
• 42:15
  technically
• 42:17
  typically
• 42:18
  don't start it. You're correct.
• 42:22
  67
• 42:23
  Israel started, but only because they saw
• 42:26
  the Egyptians building up on the border.
• 42:28
  Right.
• 42:30
  They essentially took out the Egyptian Air Force in one day.
• 42:33
  Right.
• 42:34
  Yeah, they're a powerful nation for their size.
• 42:37
  But still,
• 42:38
  do you think we should always have to
• 42:40
  step in. Because that's
• 42:42
  been the rhetoric
• 42:44
  going around. It's
• 42:46
  as if we shouldn't support Israel anymore.
• 42:49
  I think if we're no longer
• 42:50
  their ally, we lose a major position
• 42:52
  there in terms of an ally,
• 42:54
  military position, everything.
• 42:57
  Not just that, but a
• 42:58
  major technical position.
• 43:00
  Look, one of the reasons Israel
• 43:02
  and the United
• 43:04
  States, when it came to
• 43:06
  Oman, just
• 43:07
  Qatar, a couple of
• 43:10
  weeks ago when Iran launched all those missiles. We've gotten all that data from Ukrainian
• 43:15
  intercepts. Whenever Ukraine intercepts a Russian missile with a Patriot, we get that data.
• 43:26
  So we got a heck of a lot of data on the performance of the Patriot.
• 43:31
  And the performance of the Patriot in Israel, we got a heck of a lot of data on that.
• 43:37
  One of the things that Israel helped create with U.S. money was the Iron Dome system.
• 43:46
  Well, now we have access to that tech.
• 43:47
  Now, Iron Dome really isn't that useful for us, but we can use some of that tech to develop other systems that might be useful in the future.
• 43:58
  Another good example is the Trophy System.
• 44:01
  Trophy System is on, I want to say, 150 U.S. tanks that are in Germany.
• 44:07
  The trophy system is kind of like an iron dome for tanks.
• 44:10
  It intercepts incoming rockets.
• 44:12
  So we have this tech transfer with Israel that would be lost if they were no longer allies.
• 44:20
  So when you essentially have a country that's in a very bad part of the world,
• 44:25
  who's kind of willing to test out some of your weapons for you and bring back the data,
• 44:30
  well, heck, why not do that?
• 44:32
  Right.
• 44:32
  And then we would also lose some of that intelligence as well, no?
• 44:35
  yeah absolutely so and plus israel is a democracy you know we need to be able we need to
• 44:43
  support democracies around the globe yeah you know i just want to clarify that i that question
• 44:50
  wasn't to put you on the spot and have you say israel bad i was just wanted your opinion because
• 44:55
  you know there there is as i stated earlier there's a sentiment that america bad right where the
• 45:00
  for the cause of all ire in the world.
• 45:03
  And then now it's like, well, let's not support Israel anymore.
• 45:06
  Let's just let them do whatever they got to do and stand on their own.
• 45:09
  And then, you know, well, at the same time, support Ukraine,
• 45:14
  which was never really an ally.
• 45:15
  But, you know, with that situation, you know,
• 45:18
  we don't want to see the little guy get taken over by the larger aggressor,
• 45:21
  right, for no reason.
• 45:22
  So it's just like this whole thing right now with the way the media is pushing,
• 45:29
  they're talking points of their narrative.
• 45:30
  It's like we're living in an upside down world.
• 45:33
  And I don't know where it's coming from.
• 45:36
  I don't know who is behind this propaganda,
• 45:39
  but even on US soil, we have people that are marching for Hamas.
• 45:45
  I mean, I get supporting the people of Palestine
• 45:48
  that are stuck in the middle of the actual people,
• 45:50
  civilians that are being killed because of the decisions made by Hamas.
• 45:55
  I understand that, but I don't understand
• 45:58
  how we can get behind terrorist organizations
• 46:00
  and say, no, they're actually the good guy.
• 46:02
  It's America that's bad.
• 46:04
  We're the reason that all this is happening.
• 46:06
  Well, I had a whole theory about that.
• 46:09
  Okay.
• 46:10
  Well, I just want to tell you where I was coming from.
• 46:12
  I think, honestly, I think one of the reasons
• 46:16
  that the U.S. college students in the United States
• 46:22
  got so involved with the whole conflict in Gaza
• 46:27
  was that these are students who for four years, three, four years, three years at least,
• 46:36
  they couldn't go to class, they couldn't wear masks, they couldn't go out on a date with a girl.
• 46:41
  Then all of a sudden, here's this opportunity to meet other people in real life
• 46:46
  on a subject that they're passionate about.
• 46:49
  I'm kind of reminded of my old first sergeant.
• 46:55
  when i first joined in 1994 my first sergeant was like he told me he was a vietnam vet
• 47:04
  and this guy said you know uh what he used to do he used to work at the pentagon
• 47:10
  after work he would change into civilian clothes and he would go to the protests
• 47:14
  and civilian clothes and like tell the girls he was a soldier and you know he he got he got to
• 47:21
  sleep with all sorts of girls that way because they thought like we're bringing them into our
• 47:25
  side well so if you're if you're a kid if you're a boy right and you know you uh you've never
• 47:33
  kissed a girl before i've never been on a date with a girl before and here's an opportunity to
• 47:38
  meet girls in real life you don't have to worry about a mask you don't have to worry about tinder
• 47:43
  and they're passionate about this thing yes i'll be passionate about this too can we go back to
• 47:47
  your dorm afterwards right so i think i and i i i have too far off with this theory though
• 47:53
  i don't think i am i really don't um because it's it sounds like a very open and shut thing
• 48:02
  right it sounds like one of those things where you can go like oh you know um i i'll i'll do this
• 48:09
  thing and I'll get this girl and I'll be able to socialize with people. I'll be able to feel a part
• 48:18
  of something. I think a lot of these kids, if you're wearing a mask in high school for three
• 48:24
  years and you can't do organized sports or you can't go to homecoming dance because of COVID,
• 48:30
  and then you go to college and now you have all this freedom and look, all the cool kids are out
• 48:37
  here protesting well i'm gonna go protest as well right yeah so i think i think a lot of it was
• 48:42
  was just um i don't want to say there's some people who might feel genuinely bad but i would
• 48:49
  not be surprised if there were a lot of kids i did a whole video about this uh who just wanted
• 48:55
  to make friends and this was just an easy way to do that hmm that's that's yeah i mean i i'm
• 49:03
  That can, seems to track.
• 49:06
  I have another, I have another person that mentioned that some of this support also is
• 49:12
  we have, you know, generations removed from at least the atrocities that we saw, right?
• 49:20
  With September 11th that don't understand what the U.S. went through.
• 49:24
  And then, you know, this new generation of people, these younger people in their lifetime
• 49:30
  haven't really seen the effects of true terrorism or not on a broad scale like it used to be.
• 49:36
  It never really went away, but it wasn't as bad now as it used to be until recently.
• 49:41
  Now, we're looking at this war between Hamas and Israel,
• 49:46
  and this is the first time they've been able to see a conflict like this of this scale,
• 49:50
  and they don't know what to make of it.
• 49:52
  They don't know how to make the connection as to why Hamas is considered bad.
• 49:58
  Who really is Palestine?
• 49:59
  Palestine is not a nation.
• 50:01
  They were a region.
• 50:02
  They were always referred to as a region,
• 50:03
  a region that encompassed a lot of other tribes and nations,
• 50:07
  not nations, but tribes and other cultures together.
• 50:12
  It was always considered a region, not a nation.
• 50:15
  So they don't get that.
• 50:17
  They don't understand that.
• 50:17
  They can't make that connection.
• 50:18
  So they just see, oh, this is bad.
• 50:20
  There's no reason this war should be happening.
• 50:23
  And then you also have Ukraine going on.
• 50:26
  But it seems like everybody,
• 50:27
  the younger people really attach themselves to this Palestinian or Palestine versus Israel,
• 50:33
  Hermos versus Israel war.
• 50:35
  I think it's because they just don't understand or see what is behind it all.
• 50:41
  Like, what is the true history?
• 50:43
  Not just what they hear, because it seems like,
• 50:45
  this is really what pisses me off lately, Ryan.
• 50:48
  I don't know if you agree,
• 50:49
  but it seems like we're living through a period of revisionist history.
• 50:52
  You know, we got like, you don't have to say anything because I know you can't,
• 50:56
  but I'll just say it.
• 50:57
  You have guys like this martyr made guy who believes suddenly that Hitler's a good guy.
• 51:02
  You know, he wasn't all that bad.
• 51:03
  He said a few things, but all in all, his intent was good.
• 51:06
  And, you know, Winston Churchill was the bad guy.
• 51:08
  And if it wasn't for Winston Churchill, we wouldn't have had to go to war with Germany,
• 51:11
  et cetera.
• 51:12
  And it just makes you scratch your head.
• 51:14
  It's like, where is all this revisionist history stuff coming from?
• 51:17
  You know, it's really easy to be, you know, 20, 30, 40 years removed from something and
• 51:21
  then go back and say, well, it should have been done this way.
• 51:24
  You didn't live through it.
• 51:26
  You didn't understand what was really happening.
• 51:28
  So I believe that could also be what's going on right now.
• 51:31
  We have a generation of people that have never really had to deal with this situation.
• 51:36
  And right now, with the way social media is, it's so prevalent.
• 51:41
  You cannot turn it off.
• 51:43
  Every time you turn your phone on, it's another headline.
• 51:45
  It's another picture.
• 51:46
  It's another video.
• 51:47
  Some of that's fake, but still.
• 51:50
  I recall how there was this one college professor, an interview with him.
• 51:56
  And he's starting to realize that a lot of his students have no real concept of September 11th.
• 52:03
  No action.
• 52:04
  concept of what happened that day.
• 52:08
  And so he'll actually
• 52:09
  play the
• 52:10
  phone calls from the towers.
• 52:13
  He'll play the video footage. He'll show
• 52:15
  the horror of that
• 52:17
  day. And
• 52:19
  that kind of brings it home
• 52:21
  for a lot of these people
• 52:22
  who are hearing their
• 52:24
  people call their loved ones and
• 52:27
  say goodbye. Leaving a message
• 52:29
  on an answering machine.
• 52:31
  Having to say goodbye.
• 52:33
  Which is like,
• 52:34
  god I remember that day that was a horrible
• 52:36
  horrible day
• 52:38
  yeah
• 52:38
  it's one of those everybody remembers where they
• 52:42
  were kind of days right
• 52:44
  everybody remembers where they were
• 52:46
  everybody
• 52:47
  yeah god I remember
• 52:50
  just
• 52:50
  we were all like ready to go
• 52:54
  let's go let's go kill
• 52:56
  who are we supposed to kill I don't know let's just go
• 52:58
  it was one of those rare times where
• 53:00
  it didn't matter if you were in the military
• 53:02
  civilian, everybody was ready to go pick up a pitchfork, whatever it was like, Hey, we're
• 53:06
  going to defend our soil. Um, and I don't know, it's just, it's just funny how throughout
• 53:12
  the years we just lose that connection, you know, as, as being Americans and being proud
• 53:16
  of who we are, um, as a people. And it's sad to see where we're at right now, but I don't
• 53:21
  know. I hope, I hope we could turn that around and bring back the, um, pro American sentiment,
• 53:25
  sentiment, not, not isolationism, by the way, just being more proud of who we are. And, and
• 53:30
  And I hope that we can understand why things were done the way they were done.
• 53:35
  It wasn't all bad intentions.
• 53:38
  And it's a sad thing.
• 53:41
  Let me ask you this question.
• 53:43
  What's next, man?
• 53:44
  What do you think's next with Iran and Israel and where this is going to go?
• 53:49
  I don't think it's going to go anywhere.
• 53:52
  No?
• 53:53
  No.
• 53:55
  Both sides are pretty much spent.
• 53:58
  They just don't have the internal resources.
• 54:03
  That's why when people said, oh my God, this is going to be World War III.
• 54:09
  There's just no capacity for waging a long war.
• 54:17
  Now, granted, Israel is waging a long war inside Gaza, but that's not as expensive as keeping aircraft running 24-7.
• 54:26
  Right. And Iran doesn't have, it's not like they can sail to Israel and drop the landing ships and invade.
• 54:36
  Right. There's no World War III.
• 54:39
  So I think what happens is both sides kind of take a breather. They take lessons from that.
• 54:47
  Iran is probably going to, they probably have a shopping list.
• 54:50
  But there's not a lot of people that can actually fulfill that shopping list.
• 54:57
  They're going to need new surface air systems.
• 54:59
  They're going to need new radar systems.
• 55:03
  And one of the issues is that there's just no capacity around the world for them to gain the systems that they need to defend their airspace.
• 55:14
  You look at Russia, try placing an order for a missile system in Russia right now, right?
• 55:22
  They're going to fill their orders first.
• 55:24
  Try placing a system for a missile system order from China right now.
• 55:28
  Well, they're going to fill their orders first.
• 55:31
  So who's left?
• 55:32
  Yeah, China's not concerned with anyone else having more power than that.
• 55:36
  China is always going to do what's best for China.
• 55:40
  And right now what's best for China is manufacturing weapons for a fight against Taiwan.
• 55:44
  Right.
• 55:45
  I agree.
• 55:46
  That's what's best for China.
• 55:47
  I thought we could have been on the verge of World War III.
• 55:54
  And the reason I thought that is what I kind of mentioned earlier,
• 55:57
  because when Pakistan stepped up and they were right away going,
• 56:00
  oh, we'll use nuclear weapons if we have to.
• 56:02
  We'll do it.
• 56:03
  And then Russia right away stepped up and said, oh, we're behind Iran.
• 56:08
  And so did China.
• 56:09
  But it does make sense what you're saying,
• 56:12
  because from a financial standpoint,
• 56:13
  none of them could
• 56:15
  enter into this and have an extended
• 56:17
  war. None of those nations whatsoever.
• 56:21
  I think I was more
• 56:22
  I would think I took it more
• 56:24
  seriously just because of what Pakistan said.
• 56:27
  You know,
• 56:28
  shooting a nuclear weapon
• 56:29
  off, but who knows?
• 56:32
  You're probably right. It probably did
• 56:33
  come down to literally just finances.
• 56:35
  Nobody could afford to do it.
• 56:38
  Nobody. Yeah, and I
• 56:39
  was not actually familiar
• 56:41
  with
• 56:42
  with
• 56:44
  Pakistan saying they're going to use a nuclear
• 56:47
  weapon because when someone says we're going to
• 56:49
  use a nuclear weapon, the next
• 56:51
  question needs to be
• 56:52
  against whom?
• 56:56
  What is the
• 56:59
  I've often said this.
• 57:01
  There's really only four cases in which
• 57:03
  you'd use a nuclear weapon.
• 57:05
  That is to establish a breakthrough.
• 57:07
  We're talking about a tactical weapon. It's to establish
• 57:09
  a breakthrough. That's a valid use
• 57:11
  case. You blow up a nuclear weapon
• 57:13
  above a troop concentration.
• 57:15
  You do it as an air burst so there's very little
• 57:17
  ground radiation or very little radio
• 57:19
  act to flow out and you run your troops
• 57:20
  through that hole that you made in the
• 57:23
  front lines. That would be an
• 57:25
  ideal weapon for Russia to use against Ukraine
• 57:27
  if they had the troops to actually
• 57:29
  exploit a breakthrough. There's a
• 57:31
  second thing, which is defending a breakthrough.
• 57:33
  When Ukraine went into
• 57:35
  curse, using a nuclear weapon
• 57:37
  on Russian, a tactical nuclear weapon on Russian
• 57:39
  soil, that would have been a good
• 57:41
  use case for using a nuclear weapon.
• 57:43
  It would have stopped that breakthrough
• 57:45
  like that.
• 57:47
  And it would have been on Russian soil.
• 57:50
  The world
• 57:51
  probably would have been mad, but hey,
• 57:53
  they blew up their own country,
• 57:55
  so that's okay.
• 57:58
  The third thing is to use a nuclear
• 58:01
  weapon against a naval fleet.
• 58:04
  American carriers
• 58:05
  in the Atlantic, that is an
• 58:07
  ideal use case for a nuclear weapon.
• 58:08
  the fourth thing is an amphibious landing so if taiwan or china lands on taiwan using a nuclear
• 58:15
  weapon against the amphibious beachhead that would be an ideal use case for a nuclear weapon
• 58:20
  but so when pakistan says we're going to use a nuclear weapon against what
• 58:26
  are you going to explode it over israel good luck with that no understood i i believe with
• 58:32
  No, I'm with you.
• 58:34
  Where it came from,
• 58:36
  you know,
• 58:36
  it's where it came from
• 58:38
  was the belief
• 58:39
  that when the situation
• 58:42
  was happening, right,
• 58:43
  it was all based
• 58:44
  allegedly on the fact
• 58:46
  that Iran wouldn't come
• 58:47
  to the table
• 58:47
  with their nuclear deal.
• 58:49
  We didn't want,
• 58:49
  no, the world does not want them
• 58:50
  to have a nuclear weapon
• 58:52
  or to develop one.
• 58:54
  So Pakistan at the time
• 58:56
  and a lot of the other
• 58:57
  sympathizers of Iran
• 59:00
  were always like,
• 59:01
  why does Israel have them?
• 59:03
  They're not even part of this agreement or this pact.
• 59:05
  Why do they have nuclear weapons?
• 59:07
  Well, we're assuming that Israel has a nuclear weapon.
• 59:09
  Right.
• 59:10
  So that's what the rhetoric was.
• 59:12
  So it was a response to everything going on saying,
• 59:16
  if Israel dares to launch a nuclear weapon,
• 59:18
  or if there's a nuclear weapon launch,
• 59:20
  we're going to launch everything we have and back Iran.
• 59:24
  And I believe that's where that came from.
• 59:27
  So, I mean, when a country or nation says,
• 59:29
  hey, we're going to use our entire nuclear arsenal
• 59:31
  if we have to, it kind of makes me go,
• 59:34
  hey, wait a minute. We might be going a bit too far.
• 59:38
  But I see your point. You're right.
• 59:39
  I mean, a use case.
• 59:41
  Who are they going to?
• 59:42
  Yeah.
• 59:43
  What are they going to do?
• 59:44
  Now, a good use case for a nuclear weapon in Israel's case,
• 59:47
  if they have them might be all right well we want to reach Fordow We can reach Fordow So let
• 59:59
  explode a nuclear weapon, ground burst, small 15, 20 kiloton nuclear weapon against Fordow.
• 1:00:06
  That'll take out Fordow. Would the world be mad? Probably. But in some ways, I think one of the
• 1:00:18
  reasons that Israel kind of
• 1:00:20
  kind of
• 1:00:22
  I don't want to say they screwed themselves
• 1:00:24
  but when
• 1:00:26
  10 days after
• 1:00:28
  the
• 1:00:29
  10 days after the
• 1:00:32
  October 7th
• 1:00:36
  there was an explosion
• 1:00:38
  at the
• 1:00:39
  Al Arabiya Hospital
• 1:00:41
  and the New York
• 1:00:44
  Times immediately publishes
• 1:00:46
  Israel dropped a bomb
• 1:00:48
  on this hospital.
• 1:00:50
  And so then they,
• 1:00:52
  when I saw that,
• 1:00:54
  I was like, no, they didn't.
• 1:00:56
  And I kind of knew why.
• 1:00:57
  I watched the footage and all that.
• 1:00:59
  I'm like, that wasn't a bomb from Israel.
• 1:01:02
  And it was later found out
• 1:01:04
  to be a missile fired by Islamic Jihad
• 1:01:07
  that just kind of fell short.
• 1:01:08
  And that happens.
• 1:01:09
  I think 20% of all missiles
• 1:01:12
  launched against Israel land inside the Hossam.
• 1:01:15
  Yeah, never really made it,
• 1:01:17
  never hit their mark.
• 1:01:17
  Oops.
• 1:01:18
  Right?
• 1:01:20
  You know, that's an interesting thing you brought up the hospitals
• 1:01:24
  because it seems like there are 200 and something hospitals in Gaza.
• 1:01:30
  You know?
• 1:01:31
  I think it's fewer than that, but go on.
• 1:01:33
  Well, the way they're reporting it, it's just crazy that it seems like
• 1:01:37
  every other week there's a hospital being blown up.
• 1:01:41
  And how much of this is true versus just, again, propaganda?
• 1:01:46
  How much of that is just trying to win the sympathy of the world and turn Israel into the big bad enemy?
• 1:01:54
  In some cases, I believe it's been true.
• 1:01:56
  I would have to go over each bombing case.
• 1:02:00
  But if daddy-old-daddy is in a hospital, now hospitals are supposed to be exempt from attack according to the Geneva Conventions.
• 1:02:08
  kind of the issue that you run into is that if you are hosting troops in there,
• 1:02:16
  and I don't mean troops that have been wounded.
• 1:02:19
  And, you know, there was a couple of years ago,
• 1:02:23
  there was an attack against the hospital.
• 1:02:25
  And I think it was Amnesty International said,
• 1:02:27
  oh, the Ukrainians were using the hospital as a mess hall.
• 1:02:33
  And like, that's one of those.
• 1:02:35
  Well, yeah.
• 1:02:36
  because if you go to the hospital
• 1:02:40
  to visit your buddy, where are you going to eat?
• 1:02:42
  You're going to eat at the hospital.
• 1:02:44
  That's kind of stretching it
• 1:02:46
  as an excuse for attacking the hospital.
• 1:02:52
  But yeah, that just...
• 1:02:56
  For the most part, you're not supposed to do that.
• 1:02:58
  And so if Israel is going to decide to do that,
• 1:03:02
  they're going to go over
• 1:03:03
  their
• 1:03:04
  their
• 1:03:06
  oh my god I can't remember the darn word for it
• 1:03:10
  but they're going to go over a procedure
• 1:03:11
  to decide how to actually strike this
• 1:03:14
  they're going to do the weapon hearing
• 1:03:15
  and say we're going to use this specific type of bomb
• 1:03:18
  because daddy el baddie
• 1:03:20
  is on the third floor in the fourth room
• 1:03:22
  so we're going to use a
• 1:03:24
  small diameter bomb that'll just
• 1:03:26
  take out this one room
• 1:03:27
  so you have to be very
• 1:03:30
  aware
• 1:03:31
  of how Israel is actually going to undertake these actions.
• 1:03:38
  And so they might do this,
• 1:03:40
  but what was the criteria for striking this particular target?
• 1:03:44
  Yeah, I understand that.
• 1:03:46
  I think the reason people are so peeved about all of it
• 1:03:53
  in terms of, because it seems to be indiscriminate.
• 1:03:57
  That's, you know, let's just say that's what it is.
• 1:03:59
  That's what people are gathering about from what's happening.
• 1:04:04
  And the reason it seems this way is because Israel has proven
• 1:04:09
  that they can be very strategic and surgical when they want to be.
• 1:04:13
  But when it comes to Gaza, it seems like they're just leveling the place.
• 1:04:20
  Well, a lot of the leveling is, those are bulldozers.
• 1:04:24
  Those are D9 bulldozers.
• 1:04:26
  Those aren't necessarily bomb buildings.
• 1:04:28
  Now, it doesn't make a difference for the person whose home is destroyed.
• 1:04:31
  Right.
• 1:04:32
  But if you're in a platoon and you have to clear a house and you know there's a bad guy in that house, you're like, well, is this bad guy really worth my platoon's life?
• 1:04:43
  You might call in an airstrike or you might say, just get the D9 up here.
• 1:04:47
  Some of the D9 bulldozers are actually armored and they're remote control.
• 1:04:52
  So the D9 just comes in, levels the house, move on to the next house.
• 1:04:56
  so I think a lot of this is is just blown out of proportion you know it's it's all for just
• 1:05:01
  getting eyeballs on news feeds and on social media posts possibly but it works yeah hey you
• 1:05:08
  talked about oh god there's that one guy who was saying Hitler was the good guy yeah well what gets
• 1:05:13
  you on Tucker Carlson everybody else says Hitler is the bad guy right so Tucker Carlson knows all
• 1:05:20
  right well if I bring on this guy who says Hitler was the good guy I'm gonna get lots of people
• 1:05:25
  watching my show. I'm going to get lots of people talking
• 1:05:27
  about my show.
• 1:05:30
  For a guy who's been
• 1:05:32
  fired from every job he's ever
• 1:05:33
  had, he needs views.
• 1:05:37
  He needs views.
• 1:05:40
  What's going to get a view?
• 1:05:42
  Talking about how
• 1:05:43
  Hitler is a good guy.
• 1:05:45
  Misunderstood.
• 1:05:47
  There's a lot of guys there that are
• 1:05:49
  taking that stance and again, trying to
• 1:05:51
  rewrite history.
• 1:05:53
  To me, that's a whole other conversation.
• 1:05:55
  I mean, that's another rabbit hole that we can dive down.
• 1:05:58
  But I just think it's so ridiculous how people don't see what's going on.
• 1:06:04
  And they're just eating it up.
• 1:06:06
  They're just eating it up.
• 1:06:08
  I mean, it's so easy to do research these days.
• 1:06:10
  It's not like you have to find a library that might have a specific collection of books anymore.
• 1:06:14
  I mean, the internet is vast.
• 1:06:16
  I mean, you've got to vet your sources on the internet.
• 1:06:17
  But it's not as hard as it used to be to find information, you know?
• 1:06:21
  So it's as if they just take these people for their word just because they have a huge following or a podcast that's popular.
• 1:06:31
  But nobody seems to be questioning what they're saying.
• 1:06:34
  They're just eating it up.
• 1:06:36
  Yeah.
• 1:06:36
  I mean, some of that is the attention culture, right?
• 1:06:43
  When you have some Instagram video, you're scrolling through this thing.
• 1:06:51
  That's how a lot of people get their news these days is from Instagram.
• 1:06:54
  Have you recently watched the evening news?
• 1:06:59
  CBS Evening News, ABC Evening News?
• 1:07:01
  Once in a while, I might watch the news.
• 1:07:05
  I watch the morning news.
• 1:07:07
  I do watch the morning news to find out the weather or, hey, these roads are going to be closed in D.C. or whatever.
• 1:07:12
  I do watch the morning news.
• 1:07:15
  But for the most part,
• 1:07:16
  when you watch the evening news,
• 1:07:18
  one of the interesting things you see
• 1:07:20
  is commercials
• 1:07:22
  for
• 1:07:23
  medication.
• 1:07:26
  Literally every single commercial
• 1:07:28
  is for medication. Why is that?
• 1:07:31
  It's because the only
• 1:07:32
  people who watch the news are old people.
• 1:07:35
  Fair enough.
• 1:07:37
  The only people One of the reasons I don watch mainstream news or tele televised news because it it 90 commercials and advertising and maybe 10 of actual content
• 1:07:48
  you know,
• 1:07:49
  probably less than that.
• 1:07:52
  Right.
• 1:07:52
  I think I'm going to say 10 minutes of commercials.
• 1:07:54
  I'm going to say 90.
• 1:07:55
  It seems like every time I'm watching it,
• 1:07:57
  I run into like,
• 1:07:58
  you know,
• 1:07:58
  10 commercials in a row.
• 1:08:00
  And then all of a sudden they talk for 30 seconds.
• 1:08:01
  It's another 10 commercials.
• 1:08:02
  It's almost as bad as watching an NFL game sometimes.
• 1:08:06
  So.
• 1:08:06
  Another issue that you run into is with the internet, you have this hyper-specialization when it comes to viewing content.
• 1:08:20
  So if you see someone's opinion and you like that opinion, well, they're going to show you more things that are associated with that because they want to keep your eyeballs on the...
• 1:08:36
  on the screen. Absolutely. Well, since we're talking about this, I've seen it with,
• 1:08:42
  and I know you've seen this because you've been doing this longer than I have.
• 1:08:45
  I just started getting into video and utilizing YouTube and Rumble and whatnot. And what I've
• 1:08:51
  noticed is the difference between my audio podcast and what works on YouTube were two different
• 1:08:55
  things. I could throw a two-hour interview on YouTube and get almost abysmal views, but I've
• 1:09:01
  turned them into a bunch of shorts and all of a sudden it's like, you've got thousands of looks.
• 1:09:03
  I'm like, what?
• 1:09:05
  Because people can't get past 30 seconds.
• 1:09:07
  And even within those 30 seconds,
• 1:09:09
  you're lucky if they stick around for 15 of those.
• 1:09:12
  Some can.
• 1:09:13
  Right.
• 1:09:13
  But in general, I know I'm generalizing,
• 1:09:15
  but it just seems like everybody has a very short attention span
• 1:09:18
  when it comes to video content, I've noticed anyway.
• 1:09:23
  So it's like I could have a two-hour episode on a conversation
• 1:09:26
  on a podcast audio format that does extremely well,
• 1:09:29
  but then in video format,
• 1:09:30
  it seems like everybody just wants to get right to it.
• 1:09:32
  It's like, where's the short at?
• 1:09:33
  I want to see these little clips.
• 1:09:34
  They don't want to go through the whole thing and,
• 1:09:36
  and really take it in the majority.
• 1:09:38
  I'm not saying all,
• 1:09:39
  but the majority.
• 1:09:40
  So I've noticed the difference.
• 1:09:42
  It's,
• 1:09:42
  it's,
• 1:09:43
  it's,
• 1:09:43
  it's crazy.
• 1:09:43
  And again,
• 1:09:44
  different audiences too,
• 1:09:45
  right?
• 1:09:46
  Maybe,
• 1:09:47
  maybe the people as an audio or just an older generation of people that are
• 1:09:50
  used to just wanting to hear those long conversations.
• 1:09:52
  But it seems like the younger people or the newer generations are like,
• 1:09:56
  no,
• 1:09:56
  I want to quick,
• 1:09:57
  I want to fast.
• 1:09:57
  I went to the point and I'm done.
• 1:09:58
  I want to move on.
• 1:10:00
  Yeah.
• 1:10:00
  That's what it seems like.
• 1:10:01
  That's my opinion.
• 1:10:02
  Anyway,
• 1:10:02
  from my perspective,
• 1:10:03
  So, Ukraine.
• 1:10:08
  What's going on, man?
• 1:10:09
  Well, we're about to pass our time box.
• 1:10:13
  I know.
• 1:10:13
  We're getting there.
• 1:10:15
  But before we go, I wanted to get your opinion on what's going on with the sudden shift to send Ukraine weapons and support when Trump was against it or seemed to be.
• 1:10:26
  No, honestly, I don't think that was President Trump.
• 1:10:28
  I think that was, oh, crap, I can't remember his name.
• 1:10:33
  I think there were some people in the DOD.
• 1:10:36
  I can't remember the specific guy's name, but he's a big China hawk.
• 1:10:40
  And I think that was him.
• 1:10:42
  And when Trump kind of realized what had happened, that this happened without his authority,
• 1:10:47
  I think he kind of put the kibosh on that real quick.
• 1:10:53
  Elbridge Colby.
• 1:10:55
  What's the guy's name?
• 1:10:55
  Elbridge Colby.
• 1:10:56
  He's a big, we need to be ready to fight China guy.
• 1:11:01
  He's not wrong.
• 1:11:02
  But we can do both.
• 1:11:05
  And kind of the scary thing here, the thing I've mentioned is that by supporting Ukraine, we are deterring China.
• 1:11:12
  Because we were saying we're going to stand with our allies no matter what.
• 1:11:16
  So China, if you decide to take Taiwan, you're going to have a bad day.
• 1:11:20
  Right.
• 1:11:20
  And that was definitely in question for a while.
• 1:11:22
  Would we stand behind our allies?
• 1:11:24
  It seemed like we wouldn't.
• 1:11:25
  But, I mean, we've definitely turned that corner and showed the world that we will.
• 1:11:30
  Well, one of the huge issues is that there are a finite amount of weapons.
• 1:11:35
  We burned through a lot of interceptors.
• 1:11:38
  We burned through a lot of interceptors in Israel.
• 1:11:43
  And I think Raytheon has the capability of manufacturing 550 factories per year.
• 1:11:53
  It's not a lot.
• 1:11:55
  Right?
• 1:11:55
  No.
• 1:11:57
  And I'd love to say, well, we should fund that more.
• 1:12:01
  We should put more money into developing missiles.
• 1:12:07
  We should hire more people working at these factories.
• 1:12:10
  And that's great, but who's going to pay for that?
• 1:12:13
  Yeah, agreed.
• 1:12:13
  Yeah, exactly.
• 1:12:14
  So, in some ways, maybe one of the solutions is maybe we need to look at a less expensive interceptor that has 80% of the capabilities.
• 1:12:34
  I'm surprised Andrel hasn't worked on something like that.
• 1:12:37
  Like, here's this thing.
• 1:12:38
  Here's this new missile we developed.
• 1:12:39
  It's $150,000 each.
• 1:12:41
  We can make $10,000 of them.
• 1:12:42
  It'll fit on the Pac-3 launcher.
• 1:12:44
  And it has 80% of the capabilities of the Patriot.
• 1:12:48
  Is supporting Ukraine with munitions enough?
• 1:12:54
  I mean, do you think, because we first talked about this,
• 1:12:58
  I think when you and I first talked, it was like back in January or so.
• 1:13:02
  And so do you think that at this point,
• 1:13:06
  just giving them munitions and money is enough?
• 1:13:09
  Are we ever going to get to the point where you think
• 1:13:11
  we may have to actually get involved with real troops?
• 1:13:14
  to push back on Russia just because they're such a much,
• 1:13:18
  I mean, they're just a much bigger country.
• 1:13:21
  It's a little different than the Israel-Iran situation.
• 1:13:23
  We're looking at Russia's just so much bigger
• 1:13:25
  and has so many more capabilities,
• 1:13:28
  at least depth anyway, right?
• 1:13:29
  Depth.
• 1:13:30
  So do you think we'll ever come to that
• 1:13:32
  or will just the support of munitions be enough?
• 1:13:36
  All Ukraine has ever wanted was weapons.
• 1:13:42
  They haven't asked for any troops.
• 1:13:43
  They haven't asked anyone to come to their aid.
• 1:13:48
  Now, could we do something more like establish a no-fly zone?
• 1:13:55
  I mean, back when the war first started, I made a video about that where I said,
• 1:14:00
  look, it'd be really difficult to establish a no-fly zone because we would have to take out Russian surface air missiles.
• 1:14:06
  We'd have to.
• 1:14:07
  um now kind of the the question there becomes like well could the uk and france establish a
• 1:14:18
  no-fly zone and they might be able to do that that is the question actually right a no-fly zone
• 1:14:24
  would would really help ukraine because it would essentially mean any missiles fired into ukraine
• 1:14:31
  we get shot down.
• 1:14:33
  And they have the capability.
• 1:14:35
  I don't know if they have the ability
• 1:14:38
  to run AWACS 24-7 like the United States does.
• 1:14:47
  And you're going to need those airborne warning control planes
• 1:14:50
  in order to detect those incoming missiles.
• 1:14:55
  But yeah, I certainly think that maybe establishing
• 1:14:59
  a no-fly zone,
• 1:15:00
  at least
• 1:15:02
  from the European side, a European run
• 1:15:05
  no-fly zone, that might not be a bad
• 1:15:07
  idea. So that in combination with the
• 1:15:09
  continued support of munitions and
• 1:15:10
  money to fund this should be
• 1:15:13
  enough?
• 1:15:15
  I think so. I mean,
• 1:15:16
  like I said, that's all they really wanted.
• 1:15:19
  Right.
• 1:15:20
  They never called for actual troops.
• 1:15:23
  I agree. You're correct. They never did.
• 1:15:25
  I guess the other factor is well Putin back off eventually You know the longer this goes on Will he eventually back off
• 1:15:36
  That's a good question.
• 1:15:38
  You know, his goal, the goal of Russia is to turn Ukraine into a satellite state.
• 1:15:48
  So one of two things is going to happen.
• 1:15:50
  They're either going to turn Ukraine into a satellite state or Russia is eventually going to collapse.
• 1:15:56
  and I actually believe one of the reasons that our strategy at one point during the early
• 1:16:04
  administration was let's get out of Ukraine let's just let Russia take it because the absolute
• 1:16:11
  nightmare scenario is what happens if Russia and Ukraine continue to fight for the next four years
• 1:16:19
  and then China invades Taiwan
• 1:16:22
  and then Russia
• 1:16:24
  collapses and now we have
• 1:16:26
  a collapsed state
• 1:16:28
  with nuclear weapons
• 1:16:29
  we have to go secure those weapons
• 1:16:32
  now the first time
• 1:16:34
  that Russia collapsed
• 1:16:36
  people didn't leave their post
• 1:16:38
  even though they weren't
• 1:16:40
  getting paid or they didn't really know
• 1:16:42
  if they had a country anymore
• 1:16:43
  they stayed by their post
• 1:16:45
  and they guarded those nuclear weapons
• 1:16:48
  but I don't know if that's
• 1:16:51
  going to be the case
• 1:16:52
  if Russia collapses
• 1:16:54
  to the point where you have regional
• 1:16:56
  warlords who take over
• 1:16:58
  and
• 1:17:00
  they're not going to be able to use those
• 1:17:02
  nuclear weapons because all the
• 1:17:04
  permissive action links
• 1:17:06
  are in Moscow
• 1:17:07
  but eventually you can take the plutonium
• 1:17:10
  out of there, you can give it to another nation
• 1:17:12
  they can build their own
• 1:17:14
  bomb eventually, some of all fear style
• 1:17:16
  Yeah. Do you think Russia may be on a bridge of collapse if this does extend any longer?
• 1:17:24
  It keeps going.
• 1:17:26
  I think they could collapse mainly because at some point, there's just no...
• 1:17:36
  They're fighting their own economy.
• 1:17:41
  So, right now...
• 1:17:43
  Now, they're paying.
• 1:17:49
  So they have laborers and they have soldiers.
• 1:17:52
  And right now in the factories in Russia, you can either join the army or you get a job at a factory.
• 1:18:00
  And so Russia is paying money.
• 1:18:03
  These are compact.
• 1:18:04
  These are not conscripted soldiers.
• 1:18:06
  These guys are being paid to join the army.
• 1:18:10
  And right now, they're paying them enough money that people think, well, I'm going to roll the dice and run the risk of joining the army for all this fucking full of money.
• 1:18:25
  And the issue is that some of the weapons manufacturing companies, they can't find workers, so they raise wages.
• 1:18:34
  So now people go to the weapons manufacturing company instead of joining the army, so the army raises wages.
• 1:18:40
  So then the other companies raise wages and they just keep raising wages.
• 1:18:45
  The army raises and the defense companies raise wages.
• 1:18:48
  I think 20% of Russia's economy is geared towards the war right now.
• 1:18:51
  Yeah.
• 1:18:52
  And, you know, one of the scary parts I've said is that if you turn that off.
• 1:18:57
  That's going to be a big problem.
• 1:19:00
  Because you can't just let's say Russia wins the war.
• 1:19:05
  Right.
• 1:19:05
  If they don't have a soft landing with their economy, there's going to be a huge issue, a massive issue.
• 1:19:15
  Because you have all these people who they had a job one day and now they don't have a job.
• 1:19:23
  And maybe you demobilize soldiers and these soldiers, they come back and yeah, they have a bunch of money that only lasts so long.
• 1:19:31
  Right.
• 1:19:32
  And they might drink it all away.
• 1:19:34
  eventually
• 1:19:35
  people
• 1:19:37
  you know when you have a society
• 1:19:40
  and you just taught all these people how to use guns
• 1:19:42
  and they come back to no job
• 1:19:44
  what happens
• 1:19:45
  well people like that have always figured out how to get a gun
• 1:19:48
  and Russia's
• 1:19:50
  gun laws
• 1:19:52
  are not the same as the United States
• 1:19:54
  but you can buy a gun
• 1:19:55
  so I think that's
• 1:19:59
  kind of the nightmare
• 1:20:00
  scenario for Russia where
• 1:20:02
  say they win, but then they kind of lose as well because their economy collapses.
• 1:20:08
  And we need to the point where you can only raise wages so much, right? What is Russia's
• 1:20:14
  main export right now? Coal, it's natural gas, oil, right? And the rest of the world can only
• 1:20:20
  buy so much of that. And a lot of their extraction equipment is made in the West,
• 1:20:27
  so they can't get spare parts for that. They also don't really have a machine tool
• 1:20:32
  industry. A lot of the machine tool industry is in Germany, the Netherlands, the United States.
• 1:20:37
  China doesn't even have a real machine tool industry, at least CNC manufacturing. So you're
• 1:20:44
  pumping oil as fast as you can for the hard currency that you can use to pay your people
• 1:20:52
  and buy weapons and keep this war going. But at some point, you're going to reach the limit to
• 1:20:57
  how much oil you can actually pump and things are breaking down. So there's less oil to sell.
• 1:21:02
  right so they can only keep this up for so long and i don't know how long that's going to be
• 1:21:09
  but um there is a finite limit to how long russia can keep pumping oil yeah no that's true and then
• 1:21:19
  there's the other the other factor as to whether or not or when do the people start to really
• 1:21:23
  turn on putin and not support him anymore because for the most part most russians do
• 1:21:29
  I can tell you when
• 1:21:31
  if Russia ever
• 1:21:33
  establishes
• 1:21:36
  a general conscription again
• 1:21:37
  like they tried that I want to say
• 1:21:40
  it was in September of
• 1:21:41
  2022
• 1:21:42
  Russia did a general mobilization
• 1:21:46
  and the people hated it
• 1:21:48
  because there's always been this
• 1:21:50
  deal between Moscow
• 1:21:52
  and St. Petersburg
• 1:21:54
  and Russian politicians
• 1:21:56
  which is do whatever the hell you want just don't touch
• 1:21:58
  our kids
• 1:21:58
  Right. So as long as the elite in St. Petersburg and Moscow aren't being sent to the front lines, do whatever the heck you want. But the second your kids are being sent to the front lines, that's an issue. And that's where you could actually see real change.
• 1:22:15
  Right now, the whole thing is being funded by taxes on these Russian oligarchs.
• 1:22:23
  They can't possibly enjoy those high taxes.
• 1:22:25
  They want to live in their mansion and buy their football teams in England and stuff.
• 1:22:29
  Right?
• 1:22:30
  That's not really good for them either.
• 1:22:32
  All right.
• 1:22:33
  Well, I think we're at your time here.
• 1:22:35
  I'd love to keep talking to you, but I can't keep you forever.
• 1:22:39
  I appreciate that.
• 1:22:40
  I want to thank you for coming back on, man.
• 1:22:42
  and I'll stay in touch with you,
• 1:22:44
  but it's always informative
• 1:22:45
  and I like talking to you.
• 1:22:47
  So appreciate it.
• 1:22:49
  And, you know,
• 1:22:50
  hopefully we talk again soon.
• 1:22:52
  I know you're a very busy guy though.
• 1:22:54
  Thank you so much.
• 1:22:55
  Thank you.
• 1:23:12
  Bye.