Latest / The Stan R. Mitchell Show / The 8-29-24 edition of The View from the Front podcast.

Transcript

The 8-29-24 edition of The View from the Front podcast. · The Stan R. Mitchell Show

0:00
SPEAKER_00: What is going on, guys?
0:02
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to this week's edition of The View from the Front.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: My name is Stan,
0:07
SPEAKER_00: and each week I cover our military,
0:10
SPEAKER_00: defense news,
0:11
SPEAKER_00: and foreign policy in a calm and rational manner.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: I have an overarching goal to unify our country,
0:18
SPEAKER_00: and I can tell you I will never scare you unnecessarily or use clickbait to gain
0:23
SPEAKER_00: audience share.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I think media folks who scare their audience are disgraceful.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Besides covering the news in a calm manner, I end each show with some words of encouragement.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: And so, just who is this Stan you're listening to?
0:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm a 12-time author, long-time journalist, and prior infantry Marine, and I am infatuated with podcasts.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: So a couple of years ago, I figured I'd launch one myself.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Because if you've ever deployed and had almost no one know what you did or care
0:54
SPEAKER_00: about what you did,
0:56
SPEAKER_00: you probably realize we need more attention focused on what our military is doing.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: And you probably also realize we need more discussion about potential hotspots and
1:09
SPEAKER_00: conflicts that we may get involved in before we get involved in.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: So that's what I'm trying to do here.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've beat around the bush long enough.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: Let's get this thing started in three, two, one.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Are we live?
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I think we are live.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: What is up, everybody?
1:29
SPEAKER_00: First, thanks so much for joining us.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: We have so much amazing stuff to cover tonight, and I can't wait to get into it.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: But I want to cover one thing that probably not many people out there saw that kind
1:42
SPEAKER_00: of made its rounds on social media,
1:46
SPEAKER_00: but didn't really make the news that I saw.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And it didn't really go as viral on social media as I thought it probably should have.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: But I want to share it anyway.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I want to share it is because, first, it's an apology that is so good and so real.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: It's very honest.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: It's from the heart.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: But a broader point over that is I think it helps teach you a lesson about going
2:15
SPEAKER_00: down rabbit holes,
2:16
SPEAKER_00: which I think is really good.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's something we all struggle with,
2:19
SPEAKER_00: with the Internet,
2:20
SPEAKER_00: with social media,
2:22
SPEAKER_00: with people sharing links.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: But I also think it teaches just a heck of a lesson about carrying guilt.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: And who among us doesn't carry some guilt, right?
2:31
SPEAKER_00: So I want to share this.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: Then we'll get into the news.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: Also, I should say, all the news timestamps are in the episode notes.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to jump forward and go straight to those, I totally get it.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: But I think you want to hear this.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: So what am I referring to?
2:46
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm referring to an apology that was written by Ronda Rousey.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's just, man, it's so good.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: But basically, Ronda Rousey is a very famous MMA fighter from the UFC, was a world champion.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: She's done wrestling.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: She's done movie star, you know, movie roles.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: So she's, you know, a movie star.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: She's worth a lot of money and definitely a pretty big name still to this day.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: And so she posted something out of the blue that no one knew about.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: No one had called her on.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: No one had been digging on it or anything like that.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: She just posts something out of the blue that, like I said earlier, kind of goes viral.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: And it basically went as viral as it did because it's just so good.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: So no more, you know, delay.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Let me just read what she posted.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: These are her words,
3:38
SPEAKER_00: quote,
3:39
SPEAKER_00: I can't say how many times I've redrafted this apology over the last 11 years.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: How many times I've convinced myself it wasn't the right time or that I'd be
3:53
SPEAKER_00: causing even more damage by giving it.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: But 11 years ago, I made the single most regrettable decision of my life.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: I watched a Sandy Hook conspiracy video and reposted it on Twitter.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Just a good reminder here,
4:13
SPEAKER_00: if you forgot the Sandy Hook one,
4:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it's just kind of gray in your mind,
4:18
SPEAKER_00: although you probably remember the name,
4:19
SPEAKER_00: but a 20-year-old shot and killed 26 people,
4:23
SPEAKER_00: and 20 of the victims were children between 6 and 7-year-olds.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: So it was horrific, the shooting that happened, and it really deeply affected a lot of people.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: So again, she says, I watched a Sandy Hook conspiracy video and reposted it on Twitter.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: someone continued reading what she said i didn't even believe it but was so
4:47
SPEAKER_00: horrified at the truth that i was grasping for an alternative fiction to cling to
4:52
SPEAKER_00: instead i quickly realized my mistake and took it down but the damage was done
4:58
SPEAKER_00: By some miracle,
5:00
SPEAKER_00: it seemingly slipped under the media's radar,
5:03
SPEAKER_00: and I was never asked about it,
5:04
SPEAKER_00: so I never spoke of it again,
5:06
SPEAKER_00: afraid that calling attention to it would have the opposite of the intended effect.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: It could increase the views of those conspiracy videos and selfishly inform even
5:18
SPEAKER_00: more people I was ignorant,
5:20
SPEAKER_00: self-absorbed,
5:22
SPEAKER_00: and tone-deaf enough to share one in the first place.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: I drafted a thousandth apology to include in my last memoir,
5:32
SPEAKER_00: but my publisher begged me to take it out,
5:34
SPEAKER_00: saying it would overshadow everything else and do more harm than good.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: So I convinced myself that apologizing would just reopen the wound.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: for no other reason than me selfishly trying to make myself feel better,
5:50
SPEAKER_00: that I would hurt those suffering even more and possibly lead more people down the
5:55
SPEAKER_00: black hole of conspiracy BS by it being brought up again,
6:00
SPEAKER_00: just so I could shake the label of being a Sandy Hook truther.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: But honestly, I deserve to be hated, labeled, detested, resented, and worse for what I did.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: I deserve to lose out on every opportunity.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: I should have been cancelled.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: I would have deserved it.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: I still do.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: I apologize that this came eleven years too late,
6:31
SPEAKER_00: but to those affected by the Sandy Hook Massacre,
6:34
SPEAKER_00: from the bottom of my heart and depth of my soul,
6:37
SPEAKER_00: I am so sorry for the hurt I caused.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: I can't even begin to imagine the pain you've endured,
6:44
SPEAKER_00: and words cannot describe how thoroughly remorseful and ashamed I am of myself for
6:51
SPEAKER_00: contributing to it.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: I've regretted it every day of my life since and will continue to do so until the day I die.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And to anyone else that's fallen down the black hole of BS,
7:05
SPEAKER_00: it doesn't make you edgy or an independent thinker.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: You're not doing your due diligence entertaining every possibility by digesting these conspiracies.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: They will only make you feel powerless, afraid, miserable, and isolated.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: You're doing nothing but hurting others and yourself.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Regardless of how many bridges you've burned over it, stop digging yourself a deeper hole.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Don't get wrapped up in the sunk cost fallacy.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: No matter how long you've gone down the wrong road, you should still turn back.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: That was her message.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Man, that is good.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: So many lessons in that.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: So many.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: And so often, I think, all of us, we try to run from guilt.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: We try to not bring up painful things of the past.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, and of course this is partly Christian faith, but we do have to repent.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: We do have to
8:09
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes dig up that stuff and say I was wrong and ask for forgiveness.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: It's the only way to ultimately get things off of your chest, out of your soul, out of your heart.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: But that is one of the most honest apologies I have seen in a very long time.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: And she apparently did it for no discernible reason other than carrying the guilt.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: It's been about a week since that came out.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: And I thought,
8:40
SPEAKER_00: oh,
8:40
SPEAKER_00: if it comes out in the media that someone was investigating this,
8:43
SPEAKER_00: some reporter,
8:44
SPEAKER_00: and they were asking her for comment on it before publishing a story,
8:48
SPEAKER_00: if she just tried to jump or initiate,
8:51
SPEAKER_00: you know...
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Basically put this out before the media reported on it,
8:54
SPEAKER_00: which some politicians often do,
8:55
SPEAKER_00: and some movie stars as well.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: You kind of leak your own information beforehand because you know you've been caught or exposed.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: I thought,
9:03
SPEAKER_00: I will lose some respect for her if that's the case,
9:06
SPEAKER_00: but I haven't seen anything about that being the case,
9:09
SPEAKER_00: so...
9:10
SPEAKER_00: Just a really moving apology there.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's just,
9:16
SPEAKER_00: like I said,
9:16
SPEAKER_00: there's so many lessons you can learn from it that,
9:19
SPEAKER_00: one,
9:19
SPEAKER_00: don't go down rabbit holes.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: Everything that happens from, you know, the Trump shooting assassination attempt to...
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Anything, either the RNC or the DNC convention, it doesn't matter what news breaks these days.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: There are immediately constant questions about, is it true?
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Is it, what if this?
9:44
SPEAKER_00: I wonder about that.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: I still remember some friends of mine wondering if Biden was even alive a few weeks ago.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: And that was making its rounds on the Twitter and X for sure.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: And it's crazy.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: I think as Americans, we are just naturally almost drawn to conspiracies anyway.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: But we've all, all of us, taken it way too far.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: And,
10:10
SPEAKER_00: you know,
10:10
SPEAKER_00: this isn't the 60s when people are questioning the moon landing with Twitter,
10:14
SPEAKER_00: with X,
10:15
SPEAKER_00: with social media.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: We go down these rabbit holes so much faster now.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: And it's crazy.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: I used to say this in my podcast, but pay attention to the news or the people you follow.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: When they are wrong,
10:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm not telling you who to watch or what channel to watch,
10:31
SPEAKER_00: but when they are wrong,
10:33
SPEAKER_00: if they don't apologize,
10:35
SPEAKER_00: if they don't learn from it,
10:37
SPEAKER_00: then stop following them.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: It's insane.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: It's like the biblical truth about a dog returning to its vomit.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Why?
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Why would you follow someone who goes down these crazy holes,
10:51
SPEAKER_00: gets you all worried,
10:52
SPEAKER_00: ruins your day,
10:54
SPEAKER_00: makes you question everything?
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And then they're wrong.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: They're already off to the next one.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: They never apologize.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: There are no consequences.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: And so stop the insanity.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: And I think I hope the words from her.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: you know, moved you the way that it moved me, made you think about some things.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: But I also hope that you take the point about what she said so well that you do not
11:19
SPEAKER_00: have to dig into every single thing.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make you,
11:25
SPEAKER_00: you know,
11:25
SPEAKER_00: some kind of great person because you question the various questions on every
11:32
SPEAKER_00: single thing.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Like she said, it doesn't make you edgy.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make you an independent thinker.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: You're not doing your due diligence by exploring every possible conspiracy by
11:44
SPEAKER_00: jumping on YouTube and watching these really long videos that are barely sourced.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Why?
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Why are you doing it?
11:51
SPEAKER_00: There are people whose full-time job is to report on the news and you can attack
11:56
SPEAKER_00: the left or the right or this station or that station.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: But again,
12:00
SPEAKER_00: if what you're watching,
12:01
SPEAKER_00: if what you're ingesting has been wrong,
12:04
SPEAKER_00: start dipping your toes into other media.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: We do need to be informed,
12:09
SPEAKER_00: but we do not have to be to this level of an unhealthy,
12:14
SPEAKER_00: almost just addiction to what-ifs,
12:19
SPEAKER_00: to conspiracy theories,
12:20
SPEAKER_00: etc.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: It's part of what's wrong with this country, and we all need to get away from it.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: So let's move to some U.S.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: news involving our military.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Since the past week,
12:33
SPEAKER_00: we were worried that to the north of Israel,
12:37
SPEAKER_00: that Hezbollah and then Iran might work together in some massive strikes against Israel,
12:44
SPEAKER_00: which of course the United States,
12:46
SPEAKER_00: especially if it was Iran attacking,
12:48
SPEAKER_00: would probably take part in knocking down some of those drones and missiles as they
12:55
SPEAKER_00: did a couple of months ago.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: Since last week, that fighting has happened between Hezbollah to the north.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: In Israel, they exchanged some of the heaviest cross-border fire in years.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: But both sides were kind of holding back.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: I think both sides knew they had way more to lose than to gain.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: And so, for the moment, it appears...
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Both sides have said it's kind of over.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: There was some stuff today.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm recording this on Wednesday, but there's always tensions and some stuff, so to speak.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: There was a little bit of an operation that Israel ran.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: I think both sides wanted to avoid a major catastrophic conflict because Hezbollah
13:37
SPEAKER_00: is much stronger than Hamas.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: And I think it could have been a lot uglier for Israel.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Israel stretched a little thin right now with all the fighting to the south in the
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Gaza area against Hamas.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: So I think neither side really wanted it.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: And so for the moment, that part seems done.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Hezbollah says it's made its point now.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: So I think both sides are pretty much done.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: So now, again, all eyes are on Iran, and so hopefully, for the good of all, that doesn't kick up too bad.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: As I detailed last week and the previous week,
14:15
SPEAKER_00: the United States has shifted more of our military forces to the region,
14:19
SPEAKER_00: including a carrier group.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: So we are prepared should Iran...
14:27
SPEAKER_00: attack Israel and or U.S.
14:30
SPEAKER_00: military facilities in the region.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: I would dare say they're at their highest alert.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: So let's keep hoping that doesn't happen.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: But also let's count our blessings because I think if you had asked most analysts
14:43
SPEAKER_00: last week,
14:45
SPEAKER_00: I think everyone expected a harsher attack from Hezbollah and a harsher response
14:51
SPEAKER_00: from Israel.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: And so that didn't happen.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: And I'm mostly saying that because
14:57
SPEAKER_00: So often with news trying to scare you,
15:00
SPEAKER_00: we all think worst case naturally out of fear when good things happen.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's remember that when we have concerns about conflict here or there, it's not always worst case.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to watch the flashing graphics on some cable news outlet with words like war.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: How many casualties, and will the U.S.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: get drawn in, and all these scary things that they constantly do for ratings.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: We can talk about and discuss things maturely and in a very rational manner.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's move to the next topic.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about something that's pretty heavy emotionally for a lot of people, and...
15:48
SPEAKER_00: I thought about skipping this topic,
15:50
SPEAKER_00: but then literally tonight on Wednesday when I'm recording this,
15:55
SPEAKER_00: one of my friends on X mentioned that he lost a buddy,
15:59
SPEAKER_00: a vet,
16:02
SPEAKER_00: last day or so to suicide.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: And the withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: carries an enormous weight for so many men and women who suffered,
16:18
SPEAKER_00: sacrificed,
16:19
SPEAKER_00: lost friends there,
16:21
SPEAKER_00: lost their youth,
16:23
SPEAKER_00: their innocence.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: They, a lot of people, lost a lot there.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to talk about this as carefully as possible.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: And often this gets just thrown around to blaming Trump or blaming Biden.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: And people get really dug in.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's enough blame to go around to everyone.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: And you'll see I do mean everyone by the end.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's an important lesson about foreign policy that we need to learn
17:01
SPEAKER_00: from this so that we can apply it to other issues.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: And one of those big lessons is that we need to be engaged as voters as
17:11
SPEAKER_00: And we have to stop picking one political party to ride or die with.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
17:18
SPEAKER_00: do you remember back in the olden days where there would be an issue come up and
17:25
SPEAKER_00: you could be a Republican or a Democrat and you'd be like,
17:27
SPEAKER_00: oh,
17:28
SPEAKER_00: on this issue of X,
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Y,
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Z?
17:31
SPEAKER_00: we are shifting maybe we voted for this person for president but man we don't we
17:36
SPEAKER_00: don't like this idea so we're against it and there would be this run up to this
17:40
SPEAKER_00: decision there would be polls run and sometimes it'd be 70 65 70 75 percent would
17:46
SPEAKER_00: be like whoa whoa whoa we don't want to do this or we do want to do this and then
17:50
SPEAKER_00: it would come to another issue and maybe you'd go back to the other side and that's
17:54
SPEAKER_00: how our politics used to be for much of my lifetime but some point
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And you can debate whether it started with Gingrich,
18:05
SPEAKER_00: or if it was after that,
18:07
SPEAKER_00: or Clinton,
18:07
SPEAKER_00: or you can put blame on whoever you want.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: But at some point...
18:13
SPEAKER_00: Most Americans picked a party and they ride with them all the way, no matter what.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Their party can't do wrong,
18:23
SPEAKER_00: even when their party acts,
18:25
SPEAKER_00: you know,
18:26
SPEAKER_00: in a very wrong manner,
18:30
SPEAKER_00: or even if there's corruption.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but the other side does it too.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: Let's not investigate this, or let's not, we don't want to bring charges against XYZ.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: And it's, I think we can talk about this Afghan situation later.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: and use it as a good learning point.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I want to try to do.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to try to as sensitively as possible.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: First,
18:51
SPEAKER_00: I want to start with something that was kind of going around on social media with
18:56
SPEAKER_00: the Afghanistan withdrawal anniversary.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's the three year anniversary.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: This happened back in 2021 after 20 plus years in Afghanistan.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Afghanistan being involved, which of course followed the September 11th attacks.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: If you're a younger reader,
19:11
SPEAKER_00: maybe you don't know this,
19:12
SPEAKER_00: but the al-Qaeda under Osama bin Laden attacked the Twin Towers.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: There were those attacks in America.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: They were horrific attacks.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: multiple locations,
19:24
SPEAKER_00: lots of casualties,
19:26
SPEAKER_00: lots of shock,
19:27
SPEAKER_00: surprise,
19:29
SPEAKER_00: pain,
19:30
SPEAKER_00: fear,
19:31
SPEAKER_00: and that quickly turned to unity.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: And that quickly turned to,
19:36
SPEAKER_00: we discovered that Osama bin Laden had been hiding in Afghanistan,
19:42
SPEAKER_00: and we asked their government,
19:44
SPEAKER_00: a very repressive government,
19:46
SPEAKER_00: to hand over
19:48
SPEAKER_00: the leader of al-Qaeda and its members because we were absolutely furious under the
19:53
SPEAKER_00: presidency of George Bush but as a nation it would have mattered if we'd had the
19:57
SPEAKER_00: Pope as the president we were going to hit somebody back we had lost way too many
20:01
SPEAKER_00: people
20:03
SPEAKER_00: So, Afghanistan refuses.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: We launch a war.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: NATO is invoked.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: They help us.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: We go into Afghanistan.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: We quickly route the Taliban, run off al-Qaeda, most of them.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: They flee into Pakistan, into some of the tribal areas there.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: And thus,
20:27
SPEAKER_00: we go from what we probably should have put a strong man in with the Northern Alliance,
20:32
SPEAKER_00: but at that point,
20:34
SPEAKER_00: we do mission creep.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: President Bush probably meant well,
20:37
SPEAKER_00: but we go from basically wanting to have retribution or justice to saying,
20:44
SPEAKER_00: let's create a democracy in one of the most illiterate,
20:48
SPEAKER_00: poorest areas of the world.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what we try to do.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: And we send in lots more ground troops.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: It was no longer just special forces and Navy SEALs and Marines and Rangers.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: We send in lots of regular ground troops and air units,
21:03
SPEAKER_00: and we are going to help build up this democracy and try to have women's rights in
21:08
SPEAKER_00: a territory that...
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Historically and culturally, this was an almost impossible task.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: It was beyond ambitious.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: It was probably a mistake for mission creep, but I'm getting a bit off point.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: You fast forward by 20 plus years, we'd gone through multiple presidencies.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: President Bush,
21:31
SPEAKER_00: President Obama wanted to withdraw,
21:33
SPEAKER_00: but he ended up surging based on the advice of some generals.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: So he keeps troops there.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Then by the end of his presidency,
21:41
SPEAKER_00: the airstrikes were starting to be limited because there was fear that collateral
21:45
SPEAKER_00: damage and killing of innocent people was leading to more and more casualties.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, not terrorists, but I guess fighters who wanted to resist us.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: President Trump comes in.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: At first, he's kind of aggressive, reopens the bombing.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: But by the end, he wanted out, too, because the American people wanted out.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: And we had spent 20 years there and $2 trillion.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: And the American people quit paying attention.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: And it was pretty much a left and right issue that everybody wanted out.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: That's the reality.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: So a post was getting shared around on social media.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: The one I saw was from Blue Virginia on Threads.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: And because so many on the right blame President Biden for the horrific withdrawal,
22:34
SPEAKER_00: it was painful to watch.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: It was embarrassing.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: We lost troops.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: It definitely hurt American prestige.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: It definitely hurt American deterrence in our posture.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: I think Russia was probably watching that.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: I think that could have helped lead to the invasion of Ukraine.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: It was an absolute reality that President Biden mangled the exit plan.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: He could have extended its timeline.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: He also could have decided to stay.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: But every time the Afghanistan anniversary comes up,
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Typically,
23:11
SPEAKER_00: people,
23:12
SPEAKER_00: because we get in our trenches,
23:13
SPEAKER_00: the people on the right who say President Trump didn't do anything wrong,
23:18
SPEAKER_00: ignore the fact that there were some things done under President Trump.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: And this post was going around as kind of a reminder on the Afghanistan withdrawal,
23:28
SPEAKER_00: and I'm just going to read it real quick.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're a Trump supporter, I'm not just going to bang on Trump on this.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: I'll be banging on Biden in a second, so just stay patient.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that Trump, not Biden, did negotiate directly with the Taliban.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: They did exclude the Afghan army.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Trump drew the forces down from 13,000 to 2,500, which did make them more vulnerable to attack.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: It was Trump, not Biden, who ordered the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison halls
24:01
SPEAKER_00: and one of whom became the new leader of Afghanistan.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: It was Trump,
24:05
SPEAKER_00: not Biden,
24:05
SPEAKER_00: who wanted to invite the Taliban leaders to Camp David on the anniversary of
24:10
SPEAKER_00: September 11th.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: It was Trump,
24:12
SPEAKER_00: not Biden,
24:13
SPEAKER_00: who agreed to a May 1st exit from Afghanistan and said at the time he kind of
24:17
SPEAKER_00: bragged he didn't need an exit strategy.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: It was Trump, not Biden, who didn't brief Biden's incoming team on the situation in Afghanistan.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: That's a reality as well,
24:27
SPEAKER_00: because as you know,
24:28
SPEAKER_00: after the January 6th situation,
24:31
SPEAKER_00: things weren't exactly great between Trump and Biden.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: And then Trump did shut down every airbase in Afghanistan except one, which did hurt the U.S.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: 's ability to extract its assets.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: So those are all facts.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Now,
24:44
SPEAKER_00: just to reinforce some of what I've just shared,
24:47
SPEAKER_00: I want to share two clips that just happened in the last day.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: This is an interview with General McMaster.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: He's a retired Army general.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: He was picked by Trump.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: This is a Trump appointee.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: This was one of Trump's people that he picked.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: He interviewed this guy.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: He wanted this guy.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: This guy became the National Security Advisor under President Trump.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: Now,
25:11
SPEAKER_00: it would sour later,
25:13
SPEAKER_00: but I want you to hear,
25:14
SPEAKER_00: because he was involved in this,
25:16
SPEAKER_00: exactly what happened.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to share these two clips, and then, like I said, if you're a Trump supporter, just hang on.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: I'll bash Biden in just a second.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: But Trump had his hand on... I mean, does Trump bear part of the responsibility for what happened?
25:31
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes.
25:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
25:32
SPEAKER_02: so the whole premise of talking to the Taliban before you leave Afghanistan,
25:36
SPEAKER_02: why the heck were we even doing that?
25:38
SPEAKER_02: He was going to invite them to Camp David.
25:39
SPEAKER_02: Right.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: Even the Obama administration...
25:41
SPEAKER_02: When they made the mistake of pulling all of our troops out of Iraq in 2010,
25:46
SPEAKER_02: which really set conditions for the rise of ISIS and so forth by 2014,
25:50
SPEAKER_02: the Obama administration didn't negotiate with al-Qaeda in Iraq on the way out.
25:55
SPEAKER_02: And so if we were going to leave, why not just leave?
25:57
SPEAKER_02: What happened in these series of negotiations and concessions to the Taliban is we
26:02
SPEAKER_02: kind of threw the Afghans under the bus on the way out.
26:04
SPEAKER_02: And they cut the Afghans.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: So there's the first clip, and it was a pretty fair clip.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: It also got in some good shots against President Obama,
26:12
SPEAKER_00: who did weaken the situation in Iraq and did help bring about the stunning,
26:20
SPEAKER_00: absolute incredible growth and power grab that ISIS did,
26:27
SPEAKER_00: that we later had to react to.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: So...
26:30
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully that's a pretty bipartisan clip there, and I hope you picked up on that.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the second clip.
26:38
SPEAKER_02: What happened in these series of negotiations and concessions to the Taliban is we
26:43
SPEAKER_02: kind of threw the Afghans under the bus on the way out.
26:45
SPEAKER_02: And they cut the Afghan government out of those negotiations, right?
26:48
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: So that was mistake one.
26:50
SPEAKER_02: Then forced them to release 5,000 of some of the most heinous people on earth,
26:55
SPEAKER_02: and then began to withdraw.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: The Trump administration forced the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban people.
26:59
SPEAKER_02: Correct.
26:59
SPEAKER_02: And that also stopped the active targeting of the Taliban,
27:02
SPEAKER_02: which President Trump,
27:03
SPEAKER_02: again,
27:03
SPEAKER_02: to his credit in 2017,
27:05
SPEAKER_02: had restored because he was convinced,
27:07
SPEAKER_02: like,
27:08
SPEAKER_02: how the heck does this make any sense to give your enemy a timeline for your
27:11
SPEAKER_02: withdrawal and then say,
27:12
SPEAKER_02: now I'm going to negotiate a favorable settlement?
27:17
SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: There's another clip that I feel like was pretty fair to President Trump,
27:22
SPEAKER_00: but also talked about the mistakes that he made.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: So then you get into the Biden administration.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: Now,
27:28
SPEAKER_00: President Biden,
27:29
SPEAKER_00: going all the way back until when he was vice president,
27:32
SPEAKER_00: he had wanted out of Afghanistan.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: His son had famously served there, and he just thought that it was a quagmire situation.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: It was not winnable.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: We'd been there for 20 years, spent $2 trillion, and he was very adamant about getting out.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: And I think,
27:51
SPEAKER_00: if you were to put him in,
27:52
SPEAKER_00: you know,
27:53
SPEAKER_00: put some truth serum in him,
27:55
SPEAKER_00: because the deadline had kind of,
27:59
SPEAKER_00: you know,
27:59
SPEAKER_00: had been pinned by Trump on when to get out,
28:03
SPEAKER_00: because it was already fast-forwarding toward that,
28:06
SPEAKER_00: this train was rolling,
28:11
SPEAKER_00: that even if it gets a little messy, everyone's going to blame Trump.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: And so he's president,
28:17
SPEAKER_00: and he's following this train that was in motion that Trump had started,
28:23
SPEAKER_00: that arguably had been started before Trump going back to Biden because no
28:26
SPEAKER_00: president really wanted to be there.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: But the train's rolling fast.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: And I think Biden was very, very fixated on the deadline of when to leave.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: And I think he was fixated.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: I think even he would admit that he was scared to death.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: to show too much weakness and get drawn back in meaning if he listened to advisors
28:53
SPEAKER_00: and extended how long we might stay if we go past that deadline or if the advisors
28:59
SPEAKER_00: say send in more troops because it's too you know the situation isn't secure enough
29:04
SPEAKER_00: he was too scared in my opinion
29:07
SPEAKER_00: that it would infuriate the Taliban and that more fighting would result and that he
29:12
SPEAKER_00: would have to send in far more troops to appear strong and thus get sucked back
29:17
SPEAKER_00: into this vortex.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: And if you know,
29:20
SPEAKER_00: if you recall toward the end,
29:22
SPEAKER_00: the Taliban was pretty careful with,
29:26
SPEAKER_00: as it was fighting the Afghan army and the Afghan air force,
29:32
SPEAKER_00: it was,
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Pretty careful.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: The Taliban, I don't think, wanted to tangle with us too bad.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: They,
29:37
SPEAKER_00: too,
29:37
SPEAKER_00: sensed victory over their hated Afghan,
29:41
SPEAKER_00: you know,
29:42
SPEAKER_00: basically cousins and family that were part of the,
29:46
SPEAKER_00: you know,
29:47
SPEAKER_00: allied government that we were helping to prop up.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to keep the fighting against them.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to minimize U.S.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: casualties, except for a few tragic incidences, obviously.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: But I think everyone would agree,
29:59
SPEAKER_00: looking at it rationally,
30:00
SPEAKER_00: that they tried to not impede the withdrawal too much.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: They could have done so much more.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: They wanted us out.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: We wanted out.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: And then we get to this ugly situation where, as this withdrawal is beginning to happen...
30:18
SPEAKER_00: It was horrendously planned.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, what the military did was miraculous.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: It was incredible what they pulled off.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: On the other,
30:30
SPEAKER_00: the inflexibility of President Biden on this,
30:34
SPEAKER_00: and you can watch interviews from back then,
30:36
SPEAKER_00: and he's so defensive.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: And I think even he would admit he can be a very stubborn man.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: But he would not extend out,
30:44
SPEAKER_00: as he started to realize how many Americans were there,
30:47
SPEAKER_00: he would not extend out how long we should be there.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: He would not change his mind that we needed another airfield that was much larger, more secure.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: He would not, absolutely would not, move an inch on that.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: And so there was a lot of...
31:04
SPEAKER_00: Just anger and frustration.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: And of course it hurt American prestige.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: And of course it made him look weak.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: I think even he would admit that.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: Now he might argue that the withdrawal was something he had pledged to do.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: And that if he had done any of the other things that it was going to be ugly no
31:21
SPEAKER_00: matter what and we might get sucked back in.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: And you could probably make some points on that.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: But the withdrawal was horrific.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: I think everyone would agree with that.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: We lost people, unfortunately.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: It was bad.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: And so, I don't just put it on Trump.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't just put it on Biden.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: As I said before, I put a lot of blame on a lot of people on this.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Again,
31:53
SPEAKER_00: I explained the date situation, but I would even argue that Biden didn't have to exit at all.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: That we could have maintained a small presence in the U.S.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: capital.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, in the capital of Afghanistan.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Maybe part of the country.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: Clearly,
32:08
SPEAKER_00: the Afghan government couldn't rule this massive country almost the size of Texas
32:12
SPEAKER_00: that was barely controlled and has fierce warlords,
32:15
SPEAKER_00: but it could have controlled the capital and some of the areas around it.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: The U.S.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: could have maintained some bases in the area to keep some influence there,
32:25
SPEAKER_00: to hunt down terrorists,
32:28
SPEAKER_00: to maintain some prestige,
32:30
SPEAKER_00: to not look completely weak,
32:32
SPEAKER_00: to continue to train the Afghan military there,
32:35
SPEAKER_00: A large part of their collapse is they sensed, holy cow, the Americans really are leaving.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: And they're not just leaving, they're fleeing.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: They are fleeing with their tails tucked between their legs.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: And I think it frightened the Afghan people.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: I think there would have been more of a fight had they not sensed that incredible level of weakness.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: I also hold it against President Biden that he didn't say,
32:59
SPEAKER_00: you know what,
33:00
SPEAKER_00: yeah,
33:00
SPEAKER_00: that was a date that was negotiated,
33:02
SPEAKER_00: but we're not telling them the date.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: If they got a problem with that, then they can bring it on.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to stick to that date.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: That was a negotiated date by the former administration.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: We all know that every administration...
33:17
SPEAKER_00: can change a policy of the previous administration.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: But again,
33:20
SPEAKER_00: as I said earlier,
33:20
SPEAKER_00: I think President Biden wanted to partly pin this on Trump for how bad it was
33:25
SPEAKER_00: handled before he took over.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: But he was stubborn.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: He did handle it very poorly.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: And so...
33:33
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, this horrific withdrawal happens.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: The military handles it as well as it can.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: They really did pull off almost near miracles for the limited amount of resources
33:46
SPEAKER_00: they were allowed to have.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: The constraints they were put under.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: And I know that's happened with every military commander going back who knows how far.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: It happens every war, every mission.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: We are a country that has civilian leadership.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: The military does submit to that,
34:04
SPEAKER_00: and I'm thankful for that because that's definitely a better form of government,
34:08
SPEAKER_00: but it can be frustrating in combat situations for those on the ground.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: But my larger point,
34:16
SPEAKER_00: besides even the Trump or the Biden angle,
34:18
SPEAKER_00: is that I don't think we had to exit at all as a country.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: And I know that's not the most popular opinion,
34:25
SPEAKER_00: but I do believe that we could have maintained a small presence in the Capitol and
34:30
SPEAKER_00: some of the areas around it.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: We could have been a very strong support with not even that large of a footprint.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: That would have helped keep that government up.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: Now,
34:40
SPEAKER_00: you can make arguments that the government was wasteful and there's corruption,
34:44
SPEAKER_00: and I'm confident both of those are true.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: But they did make significant progress in the area of women's rights.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: They did make significant progress as a country.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: And just all factors of growth as a country,
35:02
SPEAKER_00: from literacy to educating kids to you name it,
35:05
SPEAKER_00: this very,
35:07
SPEAKER_00: frankly,
35:08
SPEAKER_00: backward country that was very...
35:12
SPEAKER_00: I guess there's really no nice way to say it, but just really fundamentalist religious country.
35:19
SPEAKER_00: They did make progress with a lot of leadership from the United States.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: And I think if you look there now and you saw how women were being treated,
35:30
SPEAKER_00: schools closed,
35:31
SPEAKER_00: etc.,
35:32
SPEAKER_00: the opportunities for people in Afghanistan are practically non-existent.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: It's gone back to a very backward country.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: And it frustrates me because if you ask me,
35:47
SPEAKER_00: and in my opinion,
35:48
SPEAKER_00: and I think most people who had served,
35:51
SPEAKER_00: the military could easily carry the load that was being asked of them there.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: They had been carrying it for years.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: The number of American casualties there were very low.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: Very, very low.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: It was a very sustainable situation.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: In my opinion, the military was willing to pay the price.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: The military had been paying the price.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: I can name to you dozens and dozens of vets that I personally know who took
36:23
SPEAKER_00: multiple tours there,
36:25
SPEAKER_00: almost all of whom had re-enlisted and volunteered to go back because they felt
36:30
SPEAKER_00: that their work mattered.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: They saw progress.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: They saw purpose.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: They saw things happening there, and they were invested in the mission.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: And they had spilled blood over there.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: They had lost brothers and sisters there.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: They were willing to continue to try to make that government experiment,
36:52
SPEAKER_00: that very young,
36:54
SPEAKER_00: fledgling democracy work.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: And civilian authorities under both President Trump and President Biden both decided it wasn't worth it.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: And I would just argue that those who had served and all,
37:08
SPEAKER_00: if you had asked them,
37:08
SPEAKER_00: I think they would tell you it was worth it.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: That's what I think.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: And I think if you looked at the suicide rates in the past three years,
37:17
SPEAKER_00: the depression levels,
37:18
SPEAKER_00: the various mental health effects of all of those who served,
37:23
SPEAKER_00: who poured their lives in it,
37:25
SPEAKER_00: there's been just an extraordinary cost to our withdrawal.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even have time to get into the ingredients
37:34
SPEAKER_00: incredible incredible volunteer effort of prior veterans and civilians who did a
37:45
SPEAKER_00: just a herculean task of going there themselves and rescuing
37:51
SPEAKER_00: Hundreds and thousands of Afghan interpreters and their families and people who we said,
37:58
SPEAKER_00: if you do this,
37:59
SPEAKER_00: we will protect you.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: These people were at risk.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: And we had veterans go back in there on very dangerous missions to rescue these people,
38:09
SPEAKER_00: to fulfill the promise that America had made and thrown out as if it was nothing.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: It's an incredible story.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there will be future movies made on that,
38:22
SPEAKER_00: but I know that the military was willing to pay the price.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: If you talk to people who served, I know when I served, people in the military don't enjoy training.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: We train to do a job.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: And we're willing to do a job.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: And most of us want to do the job.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: I wanted guaranteed infantry.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to deploy.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: Almost everyone I know is that way.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: That's why you go.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: You don't volunteer to go in the military to just sit on a base in America and be safe.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: You want to help people.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: You want to serve.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: You want to...
38:53
SPEAKER_00: You want to do the things that you signed up to do.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: We all have probably a little bit too much of a hero complex, and I'm sure that's part of it.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: But it's also about you can help people.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: You have skills.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: You have just 200-plus years of military experience that's poured into you.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: We've been in so many wars and conflicts.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: And so we have an ability as a nation to lead and to establish safe areas and protection for people.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: I still remember being my junior year in high school.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to be in the delayed entry program and there was fighting in Bosnia.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: And I will never forget the day there was a big mortar attack on some town there in Sarajevo,
39:38
SPEAKER_00: somewhere near there.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: And I think like, you know,
39:42
SPEAKER_00: 16 kids had died and some women.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: I remember telling my dad, that's why I want to go.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, why do you care about those people?
39:49
SPEAKER_00: You don't even know them.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: You could barely find the place on a map,
39:52
SPEAKER_00: which actually I could at the time because I read newspapers like crazy.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, because they can't defend themselves, dad.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Like, I want to go and protect people and like that.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: And of course,
40:02
SPEAKER_00: the irony is,
40:02
SPEAKER_00: is a couple of years later,
40:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm 19,
40:04
SPEAKER_00: I go into Albania,
40:06
SPEAKER_00: probably a couple hundred miles from where I literally wanted to go a couple of
40:10
SPEAKER_00: years earlier.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: And we did that to pull out of Americans who were in harm's way.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: And we pulled out other people from that were European allies, Italy, Germany, France, British.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: There were stranded civilians there.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: We did what we were trained to do.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: And it felt good to do to protect people, to rescue a thousand people who were in very serious danger.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who signs up has those feelings.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: And so, the military was willing to pay the price.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: And so, the last group I want to blame for this is the American people.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Because we took our eyes off the ball.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: A very small percentage of the population, less than 1%, is serving.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: And this small percentage was re-enlisting and serving.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: And in America, we didn't care.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: We wanted to shop at the malls and watch our movies and
41:01
SPEAKER_00: We ignored the war for 20 years.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: That's a flat out reality.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: And you guys know what I'm saying is absolutely true.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: And when people in America ignore situations,
41:13
SPEAKER_00: whether they're in Syria,
41:16
SPEAKER_00: you name the place,
41:17
SPEAKER_00: we could name countries in Africa,
41:20
SPEAKER_00: when we don't care in America...
41:22
SPEAKER_00: Our politicians don't care.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: And so,
41:25
SPEAKER_00: ultimately,
41:25
SPEAKER_00: there's a reason that President Trump and President Biden and President Obama
41:31
SPEAKER_00: before him,
41:32
SPEAKER_00: before either of those two,
41:34
SPEAKER_00: there's a reason they all wanted to withdraw.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to withdraw because the American people did not care.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: We were spilling blood over there.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: Again, not a lot.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: Certainly a sustainable military mission that we could easily have kept going.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: That would have been a great deterrence toward Iran, toward China.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: It was a centrally located area that we needed to be in.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to try to create a democracy, we should have stayed there like we did in Germany before.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: like we did in Japan after World War II, like we did in South Korea.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: We've been in those countries for 50-plus years helping their government stay stable.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: We could have done this.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: We could have.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: And the American people decided we couldn't get away from our phones and our social
42:24
SPEAKER_00: media and care enough about something that the veterans in this country cared a lot about.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: And so I also put it on the American people.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: So there were a lot of people that are to blame for what happened.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just Biden.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just Trump.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: There's just a lot of blame.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: And I definitely hold the American people in it.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: And it frustrates me that every time there's an election come around,
42:49
SPEAKER_00: both sides want to try to blame the other.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: And so I go back to my earlier point.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty enough blame to go around, but we have to become more engaged as voters.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: And you can't just pick one political party.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: Do not be ride or die with your political party.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: We have to hold our leaders accountable.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: And if your political party has a leader who drops the ball or doesn't do well or
43:15
SPEAKER_00: made a mistake,
43:16
SPEAKER_00: maybe someone else in your political party needs to replace them.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: We can't be so loyal to either the party or to a single person.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: We have to be more educated than that.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: We have to be more sophisticated than that.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: We have to be able to discuss these things without immediately writing someone off as,
43:32
SPEAKER_00: oh,
43:33
SPEAKER_00: they're a liberal or they're a conservative or whatever title you want to give them.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: We have to be able to engage in good conversation.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: When you look back at great democracies going all the way back to,
43:46
SPEAKER_00: you know,
43:46
SPEAKER_00: you can go back to Greece or Greece.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: Like,
43:50
SPEAKER_00: all of those,
43:51
SPEAKER_00: so many democracies have had ups and downs,
43:54
SPEAKER_00: but they thrive best when people are informed and they are engaged and they are not
44:02
SPEAKER_00: easily manipulated by people who are power hungry and who are taking advantage of
44:09
SPEAKER_00: poorly informed people.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: And so...
44:13
SPEAKER_00: For those out there who did serve, please be proud of what you did.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: Do not see it as a waste.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: You did what your country asked you to do.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: You did incredible things.
44:26
SPEAKER_00: You were formed.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: You were forged.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: You've gone through things that caused pain, that gave you experience.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: Take that leadership into the civilian world or into the political world.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: Don't look at it as loss.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: Don't.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: Look at it as gain, if you can at all.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: It's a far better way to look at it and realize that you did everything that was
44:48
SPEAKER_00: asked of you and that there's a lot of blame to go around and you can't carry the
44:53
SPEAKER_00: guilt of the fact that,
44:56
SPEAKER_00: you know,
44:56
SPEAKER_00: there were interpreters who were promised safety who didn't get it,
45:00
SPEAKER_00: that there were families that were left there,
45:02
SPEAKER_00: that there's...
45:03
SPEAKER_00: It's terrible.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: It's a horrific situation still to this day.
45:08
SPEAKER_00: But...
45:09
SPEAKER_00: You can't carry that guilt.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: You weren't the one that decided that we needed to pull out.
45:16
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't on you.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: And so please be mentally and emotionally strong.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: Please check on your brothers and sisters who served during this time because I
45:27
SPEAKER_00: know it's a heavy time for those who served.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: And I hope the things I've said...
45:32
SPEAKER_00: We're not offensive to those out there listening.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: I didn't try to say anything that was offensive to anyone on the left or the right.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: There was plenty of blame to go around.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, this isn't the first time we've done this as a country.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: We've sold out the Kurds in northern Iraq.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: We've unfortunately sold out groups of people before.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: It's completely heartbreaking when we do it.
45:58
SPEAKER_00: It's, in my opinion, wrong.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: And it's very short-sighted.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: Because every time we do that,
46:04
SPEAKER_00: we hurt the ability of our intelligence agencies and the CIA to recruit people.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: We hurt our ability of...
46:13
SPEAKER_00: those serving in special forces to train with allied nations or maybe countries
46:19
SPEAKER_00: that aren't allies but people that we're working with because we show that our word
46:25
SPEAKER_00: and our bond are not as strong as they should be.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: And then finally,
46:29
SPEAKER_00: as I said earlier,
46:31
SPEAKER_00: I think once we showed this weakness,
46:34
SPEAKER_00: I think that led partly to the much larger invasion into Ukraine because President
46:39
SPEAKER_00: Biden looked weak.
46:40
SPEAKER_00: He looked like a president who didn't want to be engaged in that part of the world.
46:46
SPEAKER_00: You could even argue that it led to some of China's more provocative actions.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, I think since that time, I think President Biden reacted as he should have and course corrected.
46:57
SPEAKER_00: And he's done a good job building up NATO, which has expanded.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: He's done a good job.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: Sending material into Ukraine to help it defend itself.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: He's done a good job positioning with allies in the Pacific to counter China, which was much needed.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: Much needed.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: So I don't mean to just totally bash him either.
47:22
SPEAKER_00: But the grander point,
47:24
SPEAKER_00: the larger point is we have to be more engaged as voters and we have to be more
47:29
SPEAKER_00: knowledgeable or else those above us,
47:34
SPEAKER_00: whether they're on the left or the right,
47:37
SPEAKER_00: they want us to be with their party.
47:40
SPEAKER_00: They don't want us to be fully informed because it's much easier to just say,
47:45
SPEAKER_00: oh,
47:45
SPEAKER_00: the other side's wrong and not have people who are actually digging into the issues
47:51
SPEAKER_00: and knowing the facts.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: Not chasing conspiracy theories,
47:54
SPEAKER_00: as I said earlier,
47:55
SPEAKER_00: but just think for yourself and know the facts and be willing to challenge your
48:00
SPEAKER_00: party and your leadership and your party when they are wrong.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's move to another quick topic that involves our U.S.
48:09
SPEAKER_00: military.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: This is an update to a story from, gosh, it's been a while ago, but as you may recall, there was a U.S.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: Army private who had fled to North Korea.
48:22
SPEAKER_00: It's been about a year ago.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm covering this because I barely made the news,
48:28
SPEAKER_00: but as an update,
48:29
SPEAKER_00: we did get this soldier back into custody.
48:33
SPEAKER_00: And apparently even China played a role in helping us get to that soldier back,
48:37
SPEAKER_00: so that was kind of an interesting thing to read.
48:40
SPEAKER_00: But she's back in U.S.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: custody,
48:42
SPEAKER_00: and according to the Associated Press and a few other outlets,
48:46
SPEAKER_00: he will likely be pleading guilty to desertion and assaulting an officer and a few
48:54
SPEAKER_00: other charges,
48:55
SPEAKER_00: and then will face a sentencing hearing.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: So...
49:00
SPEAKER_00: The good news is he's back.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: As I said back then, I'm sure he regrets his decisions.
49:07
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure it wasn't very fun for the months that he spent inside North Korea.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: And I'm confident that was not a fun time.
49:16
SPEAKER_00: And I dare say he's had his eyes opened a bit about...
49:19
SPEAKER_00: What a great country we are,
49:21
SPEAKER_00: even when sometimes I know serving in the military can be a frustrating situation,
49:26
SPEAKER_00: and so I'm sure he wasn't happy in the U.S.
49:30
SPEAKER_00: Army,
49:30
SPEAKER_00: and I'm not sure exactly what caused him to make the decision to try to flee to
49:35
SPEAKER_00: North Korea,
49:36
SPEAKER_00: but I'm glad he's back,
49:38
SPEAKER_00: and so he will now potentially put in a plea bargain,
49:43
SPEAKER_00: and we will see how long the Army...
49:47
SPEAKER_00: sentences sentences him to it might be a bit of a long time so did want to update
49:53
SPEAKER_00: that story so we're going to move to some news about ukraine but before we do i do
49:59
SPEAKER_00: need to throw in quick commercial on how you can support the show and what i'm
50:03
SPEAKER_00: trying to do here and then when we get back there has been so so much that has
50:08
SPEAKER_00: happened in ukraine so i can't wait to get into that but i do gotta throw this in
50:12
SPEAKER_00: first
50:14
¶¶
50:21
SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, just a quick reminder.
50:23
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoy the show,
50:25
SPEAKER_00: you've been listening to it for a while,
50:26
SPEAKER_00: and you'd like to support what I'm doing,
50:28
SPEAKER_00: there's a few ways you can do so.
50:31
SPEAKER_00: You can sign up on my Substack page, support the show at $5 per month.
50:35
SPEAKER_00: You can also do it through Patreon.
50:38
SPEAKER_00: I've got a link to that in the episode notes.
50:40
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, you can even do so through Venmo or PayPal.
50:44
SPEAKER_00: I have links to both of those in the episode notes as well.
50:48
SPEAKER_00: Your support is honestly so important because as you guys know,
50:52
SPEAKER_00: I do work a normal job 40 hours a week and long term.
50:57
SPEAKER_00: I really think the podcast needs to be twice a week coming out on Tuesdays and Fridays.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: I think that not only would that help not the country better,
51:07
SPEAKER_00: not only would it help me reach more people,
51:10
SPEAKER_00: I think it would allow the show to grow greatly with the way that the algorithms
51:16
SPEAKER_00: are set up on the various podcast stations.
51:18
SPEAKER_00: It's just pretty challenging with a weekly show to get where you need to be on the charts.
51:24
SPEAKER_00: Twice a week would help that a ton as most of the shows that go up the charts come
51:31
SPEAKER_00: out sometimes daily or at least twice a week.
51:34
SPEAKER_00: So doing it once a week,
51:36
SPEAKER_00: it's very challenging to get the kind of traction that in a perfect world you would
51:41
SPEAKER_00: like to have.
51:42
SPEAKER_00: Not to mention there's often updates on news that I would love to put out that
51:46
SPEAKER_00: doing it once a week is a little more challenging.
51:49
SPEAKER_00: As I love to say,
51:50
SPEAKER_00: there's a quote,
51:52
SPEAKER_00: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
51:55
SPEAKER_00: committed citizens can change the world.
51:58
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
52:01
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm hoping that this small group of thoughtful,
52:06
SPEAKER_00: committed citizens that listen in every week can help this show grow to where we
52:12
SPEAKER_00: can have the kind of impact that goes far beyond our own internal borders and
52:18
SPEAKER_00: actually helps people out there.
52:19
SPEAKER_00: That's the long-term goal.
52:21
SPEAKER_00: And of course,
52:23
SPEAKER_00: I want to help people inside our own country as they face so many weekly and sometimes daily challenges.
52:31
SPEAKER_00: All of us need pep talks,
52:32
SPEAKER_00: and I would love to be doing this full time and doing that at least twice a week.
52:37
SPEAKER_00: So thanks if you're supporting already,
52:40
SPEAKER_00: and thank you for those who are on the fence and thinking about it.
52:44
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate even your consideration.
52:55
SPEAKER_00: All right, so I appreciate you guys sticking around.
52:58
SPEAKER_00: Let's get to Ukraine news.
52:59
SPEAKER_00: And it's funny looking at the clock.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: I've got a feeling this is going to be a record-breaking episode for a length of time,
53:07
SPEAKER_00: but thank goodness I work for myself on these,
53:10
SPEAKER_00: and obviously I do the full-time job,
53:13
SPEAKER_00: but other than maybe the wife getting frustrated that it's approaching midnight and
53:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm still in here recording,
53:21
SPEAKER_00: there's limitless room.
53:23
SPEAKER_00: So as long as you guys enjoy these, I'll keep recording them.
53:27
SPEAKER_00: So let's get to all this Ukraine news, because there's a ton going on there.
53:31
SPEAKER_00: So I want to start by talking about the head of Telegram,
53:35
SPEAKER_00: which is of course a messaging service that is encrypted,
53:40
SPEAKER_00: has been arrested.
53:42
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's the kind of story that you wouldn't care too much about.
53:45
SPEAKER_00: It actually is such a big story that it did make U.S.
53:48
SPEAKER_00: news in quite a few different outlets, but...
53:51
SPEAKER_00: The reason it's big from Ukraine's perspective is that Russia heavily uses Telegram.
54:00
SPEAKER_00: Its military especially.
54:02
SPEAKER_00: Now, the head of Telegram was arrested for a number of allegations made by French authorities.
54:12
SPEAKER_00: Because Telegram has not been working with government authorities to help fight crime,
54:19
SPEAKER_00: drug trafficking,
54:20
SPEAKER_00: child pornography,
54:21
SPEAKER_00: etc.
54:23
SPEAKER_00: Telegram's one of those companies that's very proud of its independence.
54:26
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't want to work with the government, and so...
54:29
SPEAKER_00: They hadn't been cooperating, and thus its founder faces a number of charges for not cooperating.
54:36
SPEAKER_00: But from the military perspective,
54:38
SPEAKER_00: and the reason this matters is that Telegram is widely used by,
54:42
SPEAKER_00: again,
54:43
SPEAKER_00: as I said earlier,
54:43
SPEAKER_00: the Russian military.
54:45
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking even for battlefield communications.
54:49
SPEAKER_00: And partly it's because Russia has struggled to have its own secure comms.
54:53
SPEAKER_00: Or communications.
54:54
SPEAKER_00: In the military, people call that comms.
54:56
SPEAKER_00: But if you're not military, you may not realize that.
54:58
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of Russian soldiers have been using it.
55:02
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of pro-war military bloggers.
55:06
SPEAKER_00: And on top of that, millions of ordinary Russians use it because it's encrypted.
55:11
SPEAKER_00: And so,
55:12
SPEAKER_00: you know,
55:13
SPEAKER_00: one military blogger for Russia said,
55:16
SPEAKER_00: quote,
55:16
SPEAKER_00: they practically detained the head of communication of the Russian army.
55:21
SPEAKER_00: And his point in that is that is how much that...
55:24
SPEAKER_00: Telegram is used by the military and by civilians for,
55:28
SPEAKER_00: again,
55:28
SPEAKER_00: basically secret communication among each other.
55:32
SPEAKER_00: Remember,
55:32
SPEAKER_00: in Russia,
55:32
SPEAKER_00: if you speak out against Putin or someone like that,
55:37
SPEAKER_00: you're going to be in prison for a very long time.
55:40
SPEAKER_00: You can stand out in public and just hold a sign that says,
55:44
SPEAKER_00: you know,
55:45
SPEAKER_00: stop the war,
55:46
SPEAKER_00: and you're going to be in prison for 10 years.
55:49
SPEAKER_00: You communicate secretly with someone in Russia...
55:52
SPEAKER_00: about how dumb the war is or that President Putin and Russia is an idiot or
55:56
SPEAKER_00: anything like that,
55:57
SPEAKER_00: you are going to face decades.
56:00
SPEAKER_00: And so people have been using these secure messaging apps such as Telegram because
56:05
SPEAKER_00: they don't want to get busted.
56:06
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to get caught.
56:07
SPEAKER_00: And so the concern for Russia is that this head of Telegram may hand over the
56:16
SPEAKER_00: encryption keys to the French authorities.
56:20
SPEAKER_00: And if they were to,
56:22
SPEAKER_00: that would allow access to all of those messages that all the users thought were encrypted.
56:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that would be huge if that were to happen.
56:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, the French say that's absurd.
56:35
SPEAKER_00: In fact,
56:35
SPEAKER_00: French President Macron came out on Monday and said that the arrest was in no way a
56:41
SPEAKER_00: political decision,
56:43
SPEAKER_00: that it was just a regular...
56:46
SPEAKER_00: There were some allegations against the head of Telegram,
56:50
SPEAKER_00: and thus that is why he has been arrested.
56:53
SPEAKER_00: But we will stay tuned on this because I'm not real sure...
56:59
SPEAKER_00: What the real truth is and what all this means as far as how it might affect Russia and its military.
57:06
SPEAKER_00: And if, maybe in some way, French intelligence or U.S.
57:11
SPEAKER_00: intelligence or NATO intelligence somehow gets the encryption keys to be able to
57:18
SPEAKER_00: hear or see certain accounts.
57:20
SPEAKER_00: Now, certainly...
57:22
SPEAKER_00: You know,
57:22
SPEAKER_00: if you're a rule of law person,
57:25
SPEAKER_00: if someone's using something to,
57:26
SPEAKER_00: especially,
57:27
SPEAKER_00: you know,
57:28
SPEAKER_00: crime,
57:29
SPEAKER_00: drug trafficking,
57:30
SPEAKER_00: certainly child pornography or anything to do with a child,
57:33
SPEAKER_00: like,
57:33
SPEAKER_00: you know,
57:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of a law and order guy.
57:37
SPEAKER_00: You do something like that, I don't think you deserve to have privacy.
57:41
SPEAKER_00: So I would hope that Telegram or...
57:43
SPEAKER_00: X or any of any of the groups signal would share that stuff with the government
57:48
SPEAKER_00: because that kind of behavior is horrendous and it should be prosecuted harshly.
57:54
SPEAKER_00: But I know privacy is an important thing for a lot of people.
57:59
SPEAKER_00: And so there are balancing acts on some of these things.
58:02
SPEAKER_00: So we will see.
58:02
SPEAKER_00: I think by the next week we will know what kind of the impact of this arrest is.
58:09
SPEAKER_00: I think we'll know a little bit better on why and what it might mean for Russia and Ukraine.
58:17
SPEAKER_00: Now this next story is equally huge.
58:21
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even know that I saw it in a single mainstream news outlet.
58:25
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure why sometimes.
58:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they don't have a good strategic sense or...
58:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure why some things don't make the mainstream media as far as when we're
58:35
SPEAKER_00: discussing foreign policy and military matters and fighting in places like Ukraine.
58:41
SPEAKER_00: But this story is, I assure you, a huge one.
58:45
SPEAKER_00: And that is that,
58:48
SPEAKER_00: and I've got a link to this in the episode notes,
58:50
SPEAKER_00: it's from a website called The War Zone,
58:53
SPEAKER_00: but I saw a lot of military analysts talking about this.
58:56
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the Crimean Peninsula.
58:58
SPEAKER_00: That's obviously the most prized thing that Russia took if you go all the way back
59:02
SPEAKER_00: to 2014 and in one of the first invasions of Ukraine.
59:08
SPEAKER_00: The Crimean Peninsula is huge.
59:09
SPEAKER_00: They had naval bases.
59:11
SPEAKER_00: That's what Russia really wanted, and they took it almost in a bloodless invasion.
59:16
SPEAKER_00: This is back when they used the little green men.
59:18
SPEAKER_00: There was a lot of confusion, and they basically took it in almost a bloodless invasion.
59:23
SPEAKER_00: You can research that all you want.
59:25
SPEAKER_00: But once they had the Crimean Peninsula, obviously Ukraine was to the north of the Crimean Peninsula.
59:33
SPEAKER_00: It was attached to Ukraine, clearly.
59:36
SPEAKER_00: So the Russians built a bridge.
59:38
SPEAKER_00: And so Ukraine has targeted that bridge a number of times in the past few years.
59:44
SPEAKER_00: The bridge itself is honestly an engineering feat,
59:48
SPEAKER_00: a marvel,
59:49
SPEAKER_00: a construction feat,
59:51
SPEAKER_00: a construction marvel that is impressive.
59:55
SPEAKER_00: A very long bridge that allows in both cars and train supplies.
1:00:01
SPEAKER_00: However, that was...
1:00:05
SPEAKER_00: kind of seriously hampered when the Ukrainians damaged the bridge in an attack.
1:00:11
SPEAKER_00: And ever since then,
1:00:12
SPEAKER_00: the Russians have been using ferries,
1:00:15
SPEAKER_00: just regular old ships,
1:00:17
SPEAKER_00: to supply the Crimean Peninsula with fuel.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_00: Because they're afraid that if they put fuel from these freight trains on the bridge,
1:00:28
SPEAKER_00: that the Ukrainians would target it,
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: and that the bridge,
1:00:31
SPEAKER_00: the Kercher Bridge,
1:00:32
SPEAKER_00: would finally go down.
1:00:35
SPEAKER_00: And so they've been using a ferry,
1:00:37
SPEAKER_00: and unbeknownst to most people,
1:00:40
SPEAKER_00: and I have to confess,
1:00:42
SPEAKER_00: even I myself wasn't aware that they'd been targeting some of these ferries,
1:00:46
SPEAKER_00: but the Russians were using three ferries to supply the amount of fuel that the
1:00:53
SPEAKER_00: Russian military needed inside the Crimean Peninsula.
1:00:56
SPEAKER_00: Now,
1:00:57
SPEAKER_00: there's not a lot of fighting happening down there,
1:00:59
SPEAKER_00: so it's not like it's some of the more active places that are enduring fighting
1:01:06
SPEAKER_00: right now.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_00: But they were using these ferries,
1:01:09
SPEAKER_00: and two of the ships had already been damaged,
1:01:11
SPEAKER_00: so they were down to one.
1:01:13
SPEAKER_00: And the Ukrainians used one of their prized Neptune missiles.
1:01:18
SPEAKER_00: They hit one of these ferries.
1:01:20
SPEAKER_00: While it had a lot of oil containers on it, there were reportedly 30 fuel tank cars aboard.
1:01:28
SPEAKER_00: Of course, those erupted in flames and that helped sink the ship.
1:01:35
SPEAKER_00: And so,
1:01:35
SPEAKER_00: the big story that hasn't really been covered in the mainstream media yet is that
1:01:41
SPEAKER_00: there is now,
1:01:43
SPEAKER_00: since they're not moving fuel by the Kerch Bridge to the Crimean Peninsula,
1:01:48
SPEAKER_00: and since there are now three ferries sunk,
1:01:51
SPEAKER_00: the Russians have no way to get fuel to the Crimean Peninsula.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what they're going to do.
1:01:57
SPEAKER_00: The civilians who were down there immediately started rushing the gas stations
1:02:02
SPEAKER_00: because they don't know how they're going to be resupplied either.
1:02:05
SPEAKER_00: And so I think in the coming days,
1:02:07
SPEAKER_00: I think it'll start to be a bigger story as more of the regular media catches on to
1:02:14
SPEAKER_00: what a big deal this is.
1:02:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, if by chance some of the facts aren't correct, we'll find out.
1:02:20
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Russia has some other ship it can move in.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's...
1:02:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there's temporary piping that you can lay that's 12,
1:02:27
SPEAKER_00: 13 miles long or however long it'd have to be.
1:02:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
1:02:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm not an engineer that's in military logistics.
1:02:35
SPEAKER_00: But at least with what is known now, this is not a good situation for Russia.
1:02:41
SPEAKER_00: And so,
1:02:42
SPEAKER_00: this was probably another one of those phone calls to President Putin that someone
1:02:45
SPEAKER_00: had to make that probably did not go very well.
1:02:49
SPEAKER_00: Lots of screaming, I'd imagine, and hollering on the phone.
1:02:53
SPEAKER_00: And maybe a
1:02:54
SPEAKER_00: You need to come back to Moscow so we can discuss this.
1:03:00
SPEAKER_00: As I've said before,
1:03:01
SPEAKER_00: I would not want to serve in the Russian military as an officer or even as a ground troop.
1:03:06
SPEAKER_00: As you know, if you're a ground troop, you can't ever surrender or retreat.
1:03:09
SPEAKER_00: They will literally gun you down.
1:03:11
SPEAKER_00: There is no retreating in the Russian military.
1:03:14
SPEAKER_00: You also can't think for yourself if you see that maybe an attack should go left or right.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_00: If you were ordered to go right or you were ordered to go left,
1:03:21
SPEAKER_00: even if it's insane,
1:03:23
SPEAKER_00: you can't think for yourself.
1:03:25
SPEAKER_00: You have to follow orders or you will be gunned down in the back.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_00: So, I'm sorry for those people who have to serve in Russia.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_00: As I've said many times before,
1:03:35
SPEAKER_00: I wish that you all would take your weapons that you're handed and head toward
1:03:40
SPEAKER_00: Moscow and replace your leadership with a better president.
1:03:46
SPEAKER_00: Instead of taking your wrath down to Ukraine,
1:03:51
SPEAKER_00: where you are fighting much more formidable,
1:03:54
SPEAKER_00: experienced troops armed with NATO weapons weapons.
1:03:59
SPEAKER_00: that have vastly superior range and accuracy than what you've been handed.
1:04:05
SPEAKER_00: I know that sounds terrible.
1:04:06
SPEAKER_00: I actually care about the Russian people, and especially those who are forced into service.
1:04:10
SPEAKER_00: They are drafted.
1:04:12
SPEAKER_00: But the way they are treated is just incredible to me.
1:04:15
SPEAKER_00: And some of these families who lose veterans, they aren't even paid.
1:04:20
SPEAKER_00: And so it just frustrates me, and I wish the Russian people would...
1:04:26
SPEAKER_00: band together and rise up and take back their government,
1:04:29
SPEAKER_00: because it's a horrific war,
1:04:32
SPEAKER_00: and that's one of the few possibilities that some people see.
1:04:36
SPEAKER_00: Although,
1:04:37
SPEAKER_00: I think we're getting closer to a peace agreement,
1:04:40
SPEAKER_00: because it is costing President Putin so much.
1:04:45
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of which...
1:04:47
SPEAKER_00: We have to ask the question, has Ukraine invaded Russia again by another direction?
1:04:53
SPEAKER_00: And so,
1:04:54
SPEAKER_00: in the episode notes,
1:04:55
SPEAKER_00: let me say,
1:04:56
SPEAKER_00: first of all,
1:04:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm sharing from a great social media source called Meanwhile in Ukraine or UA.
1:05:04
SPEAKER_00: There's an animated map that someone made of the original Kursk offensive that
1:05:09
SPEAKER_00: began almost three and a half weeks ago,
1:05:11
SPEAKER_00: August 6th.
1:05:13
SPEAKER_00: And it shows the amount of troops that have entered into Russia,
1:05:18
SPEAKER_00: how many troops Russia had in theater,
1:05:20
SPEAKER_00: how once Ukraine sees this opening,
1:05:23
SPEAKER_00: they start moving hundreds and hundreds and thousands of more troops across.
1:05:27
SPEAKER_00: And you can see,
1:05:28
SPEAKER_00: as they have now redrawn these maps,
1:05:31
SPEAKER_00: that Ukraine probably did not have such ambitious plans to begin with.
1:05:36
SPEAKER_00: But the Russian weakness was so bad.
1:05:39
SPEAKER_00: They've just exploited it.
1:05:41
SPEAKER_00: As I said last week, since then, Ukraine has destroyed three bridges that cut off the province even more.
1:05:51
SPEAKER_00: They destroyed a pontoon bridge, as I said, so those forces over there are cut off, isolated.
1:05:58
SPEAKER_00: There have been hundreds of Russian POWs already captured.
1:06:01
SPEAKER_00: The troops that are fighting the Ukrainians there are barely trained conscripts.
1:06:06
SPEAKER_00: And I mean barely trained.
1:06:08
SPEAKER_00: We're talking 18, 19 year old kids that barely look like full grown men.
1:06:14
SPEAKER_00: So they're going to have to get more forces there from somewhere.
1:06:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure where because most of their troops are obviously in Ukraine.
1:06:21
SPEAKER_00: But not a good situation.
1:06:23
SPEAKER_00: Now the reason I say all that...
1:06:26
SPEAKER_00: Go look at that graphic.
1:06:27
SPEAKER_00: It's a great watch to see how that invasion, day by day, spread.
1:06:33
SPEAKER_00: And you can watch the troops expand.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_00: It's a really great graphic.
1:06:37
SPEAKER_00: But there may be another invasion in another part of Russia.
1:06:47
SPEAKER_00: On social media and in a few news sources...
1:06:52
SPEAKER_00: A few news sources are beginning to report this.
1:06:55
SPEAKER_00: Radio Free Europe was one that I saw.
1:06:57
SPEAKER_00: You can see a few others.
1:06:59
SPEAKER_00: But the Russian regional governor in Belgorod is saying that the Ukrainians are trying to break through.
1:07:08
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Russian governor is saying that they've been stopped.
1:07:12
SPEAKER_00: They've been halted.
1:07:13
SPEAKER_00: But if you read some of the social media and the analysts and people who are following it,
1:07:21
SPEAKER_00: And even if you listen to Russian war correspondence,
1:07:25
SPEAKER_00: there is reporting that the Ukrainian army has broken through the Russian National Guard.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_00: They had some Chechen units there.
1:07:33
SPEAKER_00: And it looks as though Ukraine has broken through again.
1:07:38
SPEAKER_00: Now, Ukraine is not commenting.
1:07:40
SPEAKER_00: They're keeping this secret.
1:07:43
SPEAKER_00: But this could be big because this is near the northeast part.
1:07:47
SPEAKER_00: It's near Kharkiv.
1:07:48
SPEAKER_00: I have a graphic, by the way, in the episode notes.
1:07:50
SPEAKER_00: If you have no idea what I'm talking about or if you don't even know where the
1:07:53
SPEAKER_00: Crimean Peninsula is,
1:07:55
SPEAKER_00: go look in the episode notes.
1:07:56
SPEAKER_00: You'll see a map.
1:07:57
SPEAKER_00: It'll make you feel a little more informed.
1:07:59
SPEAKER_00: But go take a look at that,
1:08:01
SPEAKER_00: because we're going to know in the next week or so if this was just like a feint or
1:08:06
SPEAKER_00: a threatening action to make Russia have to defend its borders better so that
1:08:11
SPEAKER_00: President Putin doesn't face even more embarrassment,
1:08:14
SPEAKER_00: or if Ukraine spotted weakness.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_00: And because Kharkiv has been heavily getting bombed by glide bombs and other weapons from inside Russia,
1:08:26
SPEAKER_00: The Ukraine may have decided they needed a larger buffer area,
1:08:29
SPEAKER_00: but either way,
1:08:30
SPEAKER_00: take a look at the map,
1:08:32
SPEAKER_00: and we'll see in the next week as to whether or not this is a serious second
1:08:38
SPEAKER_00: offensive into Russia,
1:08:40
SPEAKER_00: or if it was just mostly a feint.
1:08:43
SPEAKER_00: We will know soon.
1:08:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, unfortunately, not everything that's happened in Ukraine is good news since last week.
1:08:50
SPEAKER_00: I've got a gift link in the episode notes from the Washington Post about how
1:08:55
SPEAKER_00: Ukrainians are being forced to flee Pokrovsk,
1:09:01
SPEAKER_00: if I'm saying that correctly.
1:09:03
SPEAKER_00: That was the city that was being threatened by the Russians down in the furthest part of the southeast.
1:09:12
SPEAKER_00: And this is a city that...
1:09:14
SPEAKER_00: At least as of the writing of this article,
1:09:18
SPEAKER_00: there were 45,000 civilians there,
1:09:21
SPEAKER_00: including more than 3,000 children.
1:09:23
SPEAKER_00: So this is a really sad story.
1:09:26
SPEAKER_00: Civilians are being ordered to evacuate and many have fled in recent days or are
1:09:30
SPEAKER_00: planning to make arrangements to leave.
1:09:34
SPEAKER_00: but the russians have closed to within eight miles of this city and it is
1:09:38
SPEAKER_00: considered a key supply hub in eastern ukraine so it is was as the washington post
1:09:45
SPEAKER_00: said until this point it was seen as a relatively safe fallback city
1:09:49
SPEAKER_00: That it was far enough from the front line that civilians could stay.
1:09:54
SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, the Russians have thrown just about everything they have at this city.
1:10:00
SPEAKER_00: And they have, as I said, closed within 8 miles, which is easily within artillery range.
1:10:06
SPEAKER_00: And lots of drones are hitting there, so the Ukrainians are trying to evacuate the city by train.
1:10:12
SPEAKER_00: So that is a very sad thing.
1:10:14
SPEAKER_00: I really, really hope that Ukraine can continue to hold on.
1:10:20
SPEAKER_00: But it is a pretty dire situation.
1:10:22
SPEAKER_00: The Russians are losing so many troops down there.
1:10:26
SPEAKER_00: And you can see so many videos of attacks they're doing.
1:10:30
SPEAKER_00: I hope that Ukraine can still hold on.
1:10:33
SPEAKER_00: Part of me thinks maybe Ukraine knows something we don't.
1:10:37
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're going to shift some forces,
1:10:38
SPEAKER_00: but it's a long ways from those fronts up in the north,
1:10:42
SPEAKER_00: and so those do seem to be primary objectives of President Zelensky,
1:10:49
SPEAKER_00: the president of Ukraine.
1:10:50
SPEAKER_00: There have been a lot of generals, actually, in the U.S.
1:10:53
SPEAKER_00: who have now said that it's more important that Ukraine continues to expand taking
1:10:58
SPEAKER_00: Russian land because it's adding more pressure to Russia,
1:11:02
SPEAKER_00: and there are more favorable areas to fight up there,
1:11:05
SPEAKER_00: so...
1:11:06
SPEAKER_00: It's a,
1:11:07
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:11:07
SPEAKER_00: they're winning bigly in one area and they're losing some ground slowly down in the southeast.
1:11:13
SPEAKER_00: So again, you can read the article.
1:11:15
SPEAKER_00: There's a great map in it.
1:11:17
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's a free gift link to the Washington Post article, which is a very good one.
1:11:22
SPEAKER_00: So I welcome you to take a look at that.
1:11:26
SPEAKER_00: In other news that's not so great for Ukraine,
1:11:29
SPEAKER_00: Russia launched one of its largest combined missile and drone attacks of the war
1:11:34
SPEAKER_00: this past week.
1:11:36
SPEAKER_00: One of the days was Monday.
1:11:37
SPEAKER_00: It's been a couple of days that they've done it.
1:11:40
SPEAKER_00: But it was a massive attack that, according to President Zelensky, it had more than 100 missiles fired.
1:11:49
SPEAKER_00: more than a hundred self-destructing drones they targeted critical civilian
1:11:54
SPEAKER_00: infrastructure they actually did knock the power out they're still trying ukraine's
1:11:58
SPEAKER_00: still trying to see how much damage was done to the grid but it did put quite a
1:12:05
SPEAKER_00: strain on ukraine's energy grid it was quite an attack
1:12:11
SPEAKER_00: Now,
1:12:11
SPEAKER_00: the Ukrainians did a good job of stopping most of the attacks,
1:12:15
SPEAKER_00: but this was such a large one,
1:12:17
SPEAKER_00: it was spread over 15 different regions.
1:12:20
SPEAKER_00: It was overnight that unfortunately some of the attacks got through.
1:12:27
SPEAKER_00: And the Russians really went all out.
1:12:29
SPEAKER_00: They're clearly...
1:12:30
SPEAKER_00: President Putin is clearly not happy about the fact that Ukraine's advancing into Russia.
1:12:35
SPEAKER_00: They even attacked a dam that helps hold back the Kiev Sea, which is north of the capital.
1:12:43
SPEAKER_00: A missile hit that.
1:12:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, if that dam were to break...
1:12:48
SPEAKER_00: millions of people downstream could be flooded and potentially die.
1:12:52
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the dam holds 3.7 billion tons of water.
1:12:57
SPEAKER_00: And again, it sits upstream from the capital city of Kiev.
1:13:01
SPEAKER_00: So a breach there would endanger literally thousands for sure of civilians in the city and nearby towns.
1:13:07
SPEAKER_00: So that was a kind of scary strike.
1:13:11
SPEAKER_00: But again, just an overwhelming attack there.
1:13:15
SPEAKER_00: by Russia.
1:13:17
SPEAKER_00: Now,
1:13:17
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to quote,
1:13:19
SPEAKER_00: I've got this in the episode notes,
1:13:20
SPEAKER_00: the chairperson of the parliament of Ukraine,
1:13:26
SPEAKER_00: and the name is Ruslan Stepanchuk,
1:13:30
SPEAKER_00: if I said that correct,
1:13:31
SPEAKER_00: Stepanchuk.
1:13:34
SPEAKER_00: He said that,
1:13:37
SPEAKER_00: talked about how bad the attack was,
1:13:38
SPEAKER_00: and he says that the Russians deliberately targeted civilian objects and energy infrastructure.
1:13:45
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, there is damage.
1:13:47
SPEAKER_00: Ukraine has repeatedly called on its allies to lift all restrictions on the use of
1:13:52
SPEAKER_00: weapons of our partners against the military targets of the aggressor.
1:13:57
SPEAKER_00: This will allow us to target Russian strikes, secure Ukrainian cities, and protect civilians.
1:14:05
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we've talked about in some previous episodes, the U.S.
1:14:08
SPEAKER_00: does not want Ukraine using weapons except for very short-distance attacks inside Russia.
1:14:15
SPEAKER_00: Ukraine has claimed over and over again that it needs to strike further in.
1:14:21
SPEAKER_00: And again this week, some pretty big names in the U.S.,
1:14:27
SPEAKER_00: argued with the Biden administration.
1:14:29
SPEAKER_00: One of them was former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.
1:14:34
SPEAKER_00: He said the United Nations Charter gives the right of self-defense to all countries, including Ukraine.
1:14:40
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that if you are attacked from abroad,
1:14:42
SPEAKER_00: you only have the right to respond within your own borders.
1:14:46
SPEAKER_00: President Biden must lift the illogical constraints on Ukraine's right to self-defense.
1:14:54
SPEAKER_00: Also agreeing with Ambassador McFaul was retired General Barry McCaffrey.
1:15:00
SPEAKER_00: He said completely agree with what the ambassador said.
1:15:05
SPEAKER_00: He says, our response to 9-11 was a massive military response 7,000 miles away.
1:15:11
SPEAKER_00: We were prepared to go to war with Pakistan to get access to Afghanistan.
1:15:19
SPEAKER_00: NATO needs to act as one.
1:15:21
SPEAKER_00: All Russian forces attacking Ukraine are lawful targets.
1:15:27
SPEAKER_00: Those are pretty strong words for sure.
1:15:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, there were a few positives from the attack.
1:15:33
SPEAKER_00: First,
1:15:34
SPEAKER_00: President Zelensky said that Ukraine's F-16s took part in the defensive actions and
1:15:39
SPEAKER_00: actually shot down some missiles.
1:15:41
SPEAKER_00: So, we've talked about how much impact the F-16s may have.
1:15:45
SPEAKER_00: That seems like great news that they're already literally in the air.
1:15:51
SPEAKER_00: Being armed, shooting down stuff.
1:15:53
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
1:15:54
SPEAKER_00: Also, I've got in the episode notes, there's video of Ukraine even using helicopters.
1:16:02
SPEAKER_00: The Mi-8 and Mi-24 helicopters, those are Hind helicopters.
1:16:07
SPEAKER_00: You can see them flying.
1:16:09
SPEAKER_00: Basically,
1:16:10
SPEAKER_00: they're very fast helicopters flying after these drones and shooting them down with
1:16:14
SPEAKER_00: machine guns.
1:16:15
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure that that's been done yet.
1:16:17
SPEAKER_00: So that was an improvement in Ukraine's ability to defend itself.
1:16:22
SPEAKER_00: Also in the source notes,
1:16:24
SPEAKER_00: I have a list of all of the different weapon systems that were used to help shoot
1:16:27
SPEAKER_00: down missiles.
1:16:28
SPEAKER_00: And it's a long list.
1:16:30
SPEAKER_00: If you want to look at that, that's great.
1:16:32
SPEAKER_00: It has a link to X where you can see images of the various weapon systems.
1:16:38
SPEAKER_00: The sad thing is,
1:16:40
SPEAKER_00: is that it has come out that Ukraine,
1:16:45
SPEAKER_00: if you recall a few,
1:16:47
SPEAKER_00: I guess this has been last month,
1:16:50
SPEAKER_00: we talked about how at the NATO summit,
1:16:53
SPEAKER_00: a lot of countries pledged additional air defense to Ukraine because it was so
1:16:58
SPEAKER_00: obvious that the grid was being hammered.
1:17:01
SPEAKER_00: And if the electrical grid gets knocked out, then the winter is going to be terrible in Ukraine.
1:17:06
SPEAKER_00: and that might lead to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people fleeing the country.
1:17:11
SPEAKER_00: These people would go toward Europe.
1:17:14
SPEAKER_00: They don't have anywhere in Europe.
1:17:15
SPEAKER_00: Poland has already accepted several million Ukrainians who wanted to avoid the war.
1:17:20
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately,
1:17:21
SPEAKER_00: it has come out that at least five systems,
1:17:25
SPEAKER_00: anti-air systems,
1:17:26
SPEAKER_00: that were pledged at last month's NATO summit in Washington,
1:17:30
SPEAKER_00: D.C.,
1:17:31
SPEAKER_00: have failed to materialize.
1:17:35
SPEAKER_00: Now,
1:17:35
SPEAKER_00: President Zelensky did not name which ones,
1:17:38
SPEAKER_00: but he did single out the U.S.,
1:17:40
SPEAKER_00: U.K.,
1:17:41
SPEAKER_00: and France during his evening address in which he called on allies to speed up
1:17:45
SPEAKER_00: deliveries of promised weapons systems.
1:17:48
SPEAKER_00: He even said, "...there are no vacations in war.
1:17:52
SPEAKER_00: Decisions are needed, as is timely logistics for the announced aid packages."
1:17:59
SPEAKER_00: So obviously I would hope that our military folks and the government folks who are
1:18:06
SPEAKER_00: controlling what the military does are expediting as much as possible these weapon systems.
1:18:12
SPEAKER_00: And I also would hope that they are studying the situation about releasing Ukraine
1:18:18
SPEAKER_00: to use some of the offensive missile systems
1:18:22
SPEAKER_00: to hit some of these airfields and places that Russia is using to launch these
1:18:28
SPEAKER_00: attacks from,
1:18:29
SPEAKER_00: because they are,
1:18:30
SPEAKER_00: it is very frustrating.
1:18:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, apparently in recent weeks, another reporter shared that,
1:18:38
SPEAKER_00: as President Zelensky is begging the U.S.
1:18:40
SPEAKER_00: to let it use some of its long-range missiles,
1:18:43
SPEAKER_00: that they're even sharing what type of targets they would like to hit,
1:18:46
SPEAKER_00: including airfields,
1:18:48
SPEAKER_00: ammunition depots,
1:18:49
SPEAKER_00: fuel storage,
1:18:51
SPEAKER_00: command and control centers.
1:18:53
SPEAKER_00: So they are hoping that it would help.
1:18:57
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll see what happens.
1:19:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this attack was so...
1:19:04
SPEAKER_00: decisive and bad for Ukraine,
1:19:06
SPEAKER_00: that it might scare the Americans,
1:19:10
SPEAKER_00: mostly,
1:19:11
SPEAKER_00: who are the ones holding back,
1:19:13
SPEAKER_00: allowing them to hit deep.
1:19:15
SPEAKER_00: Again,
1:19:15
SPEAKER_00: they're worried about an escalation with Russia,
1:19:18
SPEAKER_00: but obviously the Ukrainians are not worried about any type of escalation.
1:19:22
SPEAKER_00: They've been fighting the Russians since 2014,
1:19:25
SPEAKER_00: really,
1:19:25
SPEAKER_00: but definitely in the past two years,
1:19:28
SPEAKER_00: and they have seen that Putin blinks when the
1:19:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay,
1:19:33
SPEAKER_00: moving away from the bad news,
1:19:35
SPEAKER_00: one other good thing that Ukraine did do in the past week that really brought the
1:19:41
SPEAKER_00: pain to Russia is they have now again hit another Russian oil depot.
1:19:48
SPEAKER_00: i talked about last week how russia had an oil depot that had been burning i think
1:19:52
SPEAKER_00: at that point three or four days it ended up being continuing to burn well past
1:19:56
SPEAKER_00: seven eight nine days depending on which source you want to believe but the
1:20:01
SPEAKER_00: ukrainians have hit another one this one and i have an image in the episode notes
1:20:06
SPEAKER_00: They hit one 1,100 kilometers from Ukraine.
1:20:10
SPEAKER_00: So it's like 800 miles, sorry, 690 miles away from Ukraine.
1:20:17
SPEAKER_00: They hit another one.
1:20:19
SPEAKER_00: And the crazy thing is that these oil storage facilities, the one that burned for 10 days...
1:20:29
SPEAKER_00: It took 15 years for Russia to build that.
1:20:31
SPEAKER_00: 15 years.
1:20:33
SPEAKER_00: These are,
1:20:34
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:20:35
SPEAKER_00: you talk about,
1:20:36
SPEAKER_00: people say wonders of the world,
1:20:38
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:20:38
SPEAKER_00: there's seven wonders of the world.
1:20:41
SPEAKER_00: These are not quite a wonder of the world, but these are, you know, Russia's number one export is oil.
1:20:49
SPEAKER_00: It's the one thing, the one resource they have.
1:20:52
SPEAKER_00: And they have these incredibly large, huge oil depots.
1:20:59
SPEAKER_00: And they keep getting hit by drones.
1:21:01
SPEAKER_00: The one that was 1,100 kilometers away,
1:21:02
SPEAKER_00: or 690 miles,
1:21:03
SPEAKER_00: almost 700 miles away,
1:21:03
SPEAKER_00: four Ukrainian drones hit that.
1:21:10
SPEAKER_00: And apparently Russia just does not have the air defenses to defend its airfields.
1:21:16
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we talked about last week, the capital city Moscow got hit again.
1:21:20
SPEAKER_00: So they're having to defend a lot of things.
1:21:23
SPEAKER_00: But this oil depot storage facility that was hit almost 700 miles away, it's past Moscow.
1:21:29
SPEAKER_00: It is past Moscow.
1:21:32
SPEAKER_00: Moscow and they still couldn't defend it and so wouldn't surprise me if it's
1:21:37
SPEAKER_00: burning for days to days and if each fire leads to the next oil depot structure
1:21:43
SPEAKER_00: starting to burn these are I mean I wouldn't want to be a firefighter near them so
1:21:47
SPEAKER_00: I can't really fault Russia too much I guess but apparently they're not real good
1:21:52
SPEAKER_00: at stopping these fires once they begin and so the cost of this war has to be it
1:21:59
SPEAKER_00: just has to be at some point
1:22:03
SPEAKER_00: you know, coming to Putin's attention.
1:22:05
SPEAKER_00: And so,
1:22:06
SPEAKER_00: I am probably more optimistic that some kind of peace deal can happen hopefully
1:22:13
SPEAKER_00: sometime in the near future than I've probably been to date because the situation
1:22:17
SPEAKER_00: for Russia is just more dire than it's been at any point so far.
1:22:21
SPEAKER_00: Now,
1:22:21
SPEAKER_00: I think Putin might try to hold out until the elections in November because he
1:22:25
SPEAKER_00: probably thinks he can get a better deal with President Trump if he's re-elected.
1:22:32
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe President Trump will even cut off Ukraine as he has made comments somewhat
1:22:37
SPEAKER_00: similar to that in the past.
1:22:39
SPEAKER_00: But Russia has really got to be starting to feel it between all the things we've
1:22:45
SPEAKER_00: discussed tonight,
1:22:46
SPEAKER_00: last week,
1:22:47
SPEAKER_00: and the previous weeks.
1:22:48
SPEAKER_00: Just a lot of really large-scale losses happening for Russia in both esteem and financial loss.
1:22:59
SPEAKER_00: They said one calculation I saw showed that just in the rocket,
1:23:05
SPEAKER_00: missile,
1:23:06
SPEAKER_00: and drone attack,
1:23:07
SPEAKER_00: the 200-plus weapons they fired at Ukraine in what was a successful attack,
1:23:13
SPEAKER_00: It cost almost a billion dollars.
1:23:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can't keep doing that forever.
1:23:17
SPEAKER_00: And these fuel storage facilities that take 10,
1:23:23
SPEAKER_00: 15 years to build,
1:23:26
SPEAKER_00: that is just a catastrophic loss for Russia.
1:23:31
SPEAKER_00: Both in just storage capacity, but also in financial losses.
1:23:38
SPEAKER_00: I said last week,
1:23:40
SPEAKER_00: one website estimated,
1:23:43
SPEAKER_00: or one analyst on a news website estimated that it probably cost $200 million,
1:23:49
SPEAKER_00: one of those storage facilities that burned buildings.
1:23:52
SPEAKER_00: Well,
1:23:53
SPEAKER_00: Putin has another one burning now,
1:23:54
SPEAKER_00: so this is expensive stuff happening that isn't easily rebuilt or repaired.
1:24:01
SPEAKER_00: Now,
1:24:01
SPEAKER_00: this final Ukraine story is arguably a smaller one,
1:24:04
SPEAKER_00: but it's not small if you actually watch the video.
1:24:06
SPEAKER_00: But the Ukrainians had 115 Ukrainians returned from Russian captivity.
1:24:15
SPEAKER_00: they were exchanged for 115 russian soldiers so you know it's a win-win for both
1:24:21
SPEAKER_00: sides for the poor men and women who have been captured if you see the ukrainians
1:24:28
SPEAKER_00: who returned it is just terrible to see how poorly they were
1:24:35
SPEAKER_00: I almost struggled to even call them fed.
1:24:36
SPEAKER_00: They were starved.
1:24:38
SPEAKER_00: They were emaciated.
1:24:41
SPEAKER_00: But the good news is 115 of them have been returned.
1:24:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's easy to be in a war this large,
1:24:48
SPEAKER_00: in the largest ground war since World War II,
1:24:51
SPEAKER_00: to be like,
1:24:51
SPEAKER_00: ah,
1:24:52
SPEAKER_00: it's 115.
1:24:52
SPEAKER_00: But if you see the faces of these men and women, you see the phone calls they make, the tears shed...
1:25:01
SPEAKER_00: For 115 people, their lives were changed with that release.
1:25:04
SPEAKER_00: And so the good news is that Ukraine has captured a lot of POWs in the north inside Russia.
1:25:10
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm very thankful and hoping that they can be exchanged and they can go back
1:25:17
SPEAKER_00: to their moms and dads,
1:25:19
SPEAKER_00: but that other Ukrainian courageous soldiers can be returned home as well.
1:25:25
SPEAKER_00: So I had planned on getting to some China news,
1:25:27
SPEAKER_00: but it's running late,
1:25:28
SPEAKER_00: and I'm just not going to be able to squeeze it in.
1:25:32
SPEAKER_00: But I do want to say that the National Security Advisor,
1:25:35
SPEAKER_00: Jake Sullivan,
1:25:36
SPEAKER_00: did meet with his counterpart in the past week in an effort to potentially diffuse
1:25:41
SPEAKER_00: some tension between China and the United States,
1:25:45
SPEAKER_00: as I said last week.
1:25:47
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of friction over what is happening in some islands near the Philippines.
1:25:54
SPEAKER_00: So any communication right now between those two is a good thing.
1:25:57
SPEAKER_00: So let's be glad that that's happening.
1:26:00
SPEAKER_00: So let's get to the best part of the show, which is the words of encouragement.
1:26:05
SPEAKER_00: I like to end each show with these because I know that life is hard and sometimes
1:26:09
SPEAKER_00: you just need to hear something that will lift you up.
1:26:13
SPEAKER_00: I obviously love to share some verses from the Bible or sometimes it'll be quotes
1:26:17
SPEAKER_00: that touch on the Bible or Jesus himself.
1:26:20
SPEAKER_00: But I do that because,
1:26:22
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:26:22
SPEAKER_00: my Christian faith has become such a source of strength and wisdom and calm for me
1:26:27
SPEAKER_00: during the past couple of years since I lost my mom.
1:26:31
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm worrying an awful lot about my dad and some of his serious memory problems.
1:26:34
SPEAKER_00: So
1:26:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm betting that if I had to guess, you probably got something challenging going on in your life.
1:26:42
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, I bet you're wise enough to know that it's probably coming.
1:26:46
SPEAKER_00: That's just how life goes.
1:26:48
SPEAKER_00: We all know this.
1:26:50
SPEAKER_00: So I hope by sharing some of these,
1:26:51
SPEAKER_00: it might encourage you to get into your Bible some yourself because I think it'll
1:26:55
SPEAKER_00: change your life if you let it.
1:26:58
SPEAKER_00: now here's the first one the reason why god doesn't reveal his entire plan to you
1:27:03
SPEAKER_00: all at once is because if he did then you would get your peace from the information
1:27:10
SPEAKER_00: rather than from your relationship with him
1:27:14
SPEAKER_00: That's a deep one, isn't it?
1:27:15
SPEAKER_00: I'll read it one more time.
1:27:29
SPEAKER_00: So good.
1:27:30
SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one.
1:27:31
SPEAKER_00: There is no place where you can go where Christ has not been before you.
1:27:36
SPEAKER_00: It's another good one.
1:27:38
SPEAKER_00: There is no place where you can go where Christ has not been before you.
1:27:43
SPEAKER_00: Obviously that quote's referring to Jesus Christ who not only faced death,
1:27:48
SPEAKER_00: but was wrongly accused,
1:27:49
SPEAKER_00: was tortured.
1:27:50
SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, there's nowhere you're going to go that Jesus Christ hasn't been already.
1:27:57
SPEAKER_00: All right, here's the next one.
1:27:59
SPEAKER_00: God will get you through it.
1:28:01
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
1:28:02
SPEAKER_00: Don't look back.
1:28:03
SPEAKER_00: Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
1:28:06
SPEAKER_00: It's a nice and simple one.
1:28:09
SPEAKER_00: Here's the next one.
1:28:10
SPEAKER_00: If God doesn't heal us physically, His grace will carry us one day at a time.
1:28:17
SPEAKER_00: Again,
1:28:17
SPEAKER_00: if God doesn't heal us physically,
1:28:21
SPEAKER_00: His grace will carry us one day at a time,
1:28:25
SPEAKER_00: meaning He will be there with you.
1:28:26
SPEAKER_00: If He doesn't heal you,
1:28:28
SPEAKER_00: He will still be there with you in your pain,
1:28:31
SPEAKER_00: in your adversity,
1:28:32
SPEAKER_00: in your emotional distress.
1:28:37
SPEAKER_00: Alright, here's the next one.
1:28:38
SPEAKER_00: I had a plan, but God had a better one.
1:28:41
SPEAKER_00: That is so good, isn't it?
1:28:43
SPEAKER_00: I had a plan, but God had a better one.
1:28:45
SPEAKER_00: I'll bet there's not one person listening to this right now who hasn't been
1:28:50
SPEAKER_00: frustrated by a U-turn or a hard left or hard right that you didn't see coming that
1:28:56
SPEAKER_00: was traumatic at the time that...
1:28:58
SPEAKER_00: In some cases you look back at it and you're like,
1:29:01
SPEAKER_00: oh,
1:29:02
SPEAKER_00: that relationship that didn't work out or that job that fell through or the job
1:29:09
SPEAKER_00: loss and the replacement by a better one.
1:29:12
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes what we think is the worst thing ever happens.
1:29:16
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not necessarily talking about death.
1:29:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there are some things that are, you know, they're just painful.
1:29:21
SPEAKER_00: There's no explanation for them and they're horrible.
1:29:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about something like that.
1:29:25
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we have plans, homes we want to buy, cars, various things.
1:29:31
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's which college you wanted to go to.
1:29:33
SPEAKER_00: But we have plans and sometimes God has better plans that we don't see it until much later.
1:29:40
SPEAKER_00: All right, here's the next one.
1:29:41
SPEAKER_00: Dear God, I trust you today.
1:29:43
SPEAKER_00: I trust you tomorrow.
1:29:45
SPEAKER_00: I trust you with my past.
1:29:47
SPEAKER_00: I trust you with my future.
1:29:51
SPEAKER_00: I trust you.
1:29:53
SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
1:29:55
SPEAKER_00: Here's another good one.
1:29:56
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes a delay in your plans is God's protection.
1:30:02
SPEAKER_00: So good.
1:30:03
SPEAKER_00: Again, sometimes a delay in your plans is God's protection.
1:30:07
SPEAKER_00: I think I talked about this a few months ago about how,
1:30:11
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:30:11
SPEAKER_00: if you give birth too soon,
1:30:13
SPEAKER_00: that's not a blessing.
1:30:14
SPEAKER_00: That can be a curse.
1:30:16
SPEAKER_00: It cannot be good for the mother.
1:30:17
SPEAKER_00: It cannot be good for the newborn baby.
1:30:21
SPEAKER_00: Same thing if you buy a house before you're ready as a young couple.
1:30:24
SPEAKER_00: It can be a burden, not a blessing.
1:30:27
SPEAKER_00: Things that are birthed too soon, sometimes blessings you get too soon, they're not always blessings.
1:30:34
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes, as that quote said, a delay in your plan is God's protection.
1:30:42
SPEAKER_00: I know I tell myself that often with the podcast.
1:30:44
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'll be impatient and I want it to grow faster.
1:30:47
SPEAKER_00: And then I remind myself if it was huge right now.
1:30:53
SPEAKER_00: And if some of the things I've said, maybe I didn't have the discernment and the discipline.
1:30:58
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I overstated things.
1:31:01
SPEAKER_00: But besides all that,
1:31:02
SPEAKER_00: what if I said something that was too controversial and it's on the news and
1:31:08
SPEAKER_00: they're calling wanting to do an interview or maybe there are trolls who are
1:31:13
SPEAKER_00: sharing it on social media and they're attacking me or maybe they're attacking my
1:31:17
SPEAKER_00: wife and am I ready for that?
1:31:21
SPEAKER_00: Those are the kinds of questions that sometimes a delay in your plans is God's
1:31:26
SPEAKER_00: protection and so we should be thankful for that.
1:31:29
SPEAKER_00: Even though I know we're impatient, but sometimes it is protection.
1:31:34
SPEAKER_00: Alright, this last one is from the book of Micah, chapter 7, verse 8.
1:31:39
SPEAKER_00: Man, that's good.
1:31:39
SPEAKER_00: Again, for though I fall, I will rise again.
1:31:43
SPEAKER_00: Though I sit in the darkness, the Lord will be my light.
1:31:59
SPEAKER_00: One other thing that I want to do tonight is something I do in every show.
1:32:03
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you just for a moment about depression, PTSD, and even suicide.
1:32:10
SPEAKER_00: Just for a moment.
1:32:12
SPEAKER_00: I do this because,
1:32:13
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:32:13
SPEAKER_00: most people aren't aware of this,
1:32:14
SPEAKER_00: but veterans are at a 57% higher risk of suicide than
1:32:19
SPEAKER_00: than their peers of the same age group of folks who haven't served.
1:32:24
SPEAKER_00: But this section isn't just for veterans.
1:32:26
SPEAKER_00: I know we can all get in really low spots in our lives.
1:32:29
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to remind people that it's a season.
1:32:32
SPEAKER_00: It's a valley.
1:32:33
SPEAKER_00: So when you're in that thick, deep valley,
1:32:36
SPEAKER_00: tough situation that just seems like you can't see over it.
1:32:40
SPEAKER_00: Just remember, it's just a season.
1:32:42
SPEAKER_00: It's just a valley.
1:32:43
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, if you are having serious issues, you can call 988 and select one.
1:32:49
SPEAKER_00: You can talk to a crisis line responder anytime, day or night.
1:32:53
SPEAKER_00: And you can do this whether you're a civilian or a veteran.
1:32:57
SPEAKER_00: But I do know that this is hard to do.
1:32:59
SPEAKER_00: And I know most of you who are struggling probably won't.
1:33:02
SPEAKER_00: So I have to be a little mean here because the fact is,
1:33:05
SPEAKER_00: is when we've had a drill instructor or a tough coach in the past who pushed you,
1:33:10
SPEAKER_00: you've experienced that you can go further than when it's just yourself just
1:33:15
SPEAKER_00: talking to yourself.
1:33:16
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to be mean for a moment.
1:33:18
SPEAKER_00: And I got to remind you guys that you cannot give up.
1:33:21
SPEAKER_00: Can't give in to those really terrible thoughts you're having.
1:33:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to lose this fight.
1:33:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to, you know, don't make your parents or your family have to plan your funeral.
1:33:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't want them to feel guilty that they didn't check on you enough or that they couldn't reach you.
1:33:37
SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that you can hold on for another day.
1:33:40
SPEAKER_00: And I think if you do, I think the next day is going to be a little easier.
1:33:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, if you're in a fight that you worry you may lose, please call someone.
1:33:48
SPEAKER_00: Call a friend or a family member.
1:33:50
SPEAKER_00: This is really easy to do, and it's something I beg of you to do.
1:33:54
SPEAKER_00: We've all lost friends that we wish had reached out to us.
1:33:57
SPEAKER_00: So, again, reach out to one of them.
1:34:00
SPEAKER_00: Just be honest.
1:34:00
SPEAKER_00: Say, hey, I'm struggling right now, man.
1:34:02
SPEAKER_00: Can't catch a break.
1:34:04
SPEAKER_00: But you can also call 988-SELECT-1, as I said.
1:34:07
SPEAKER_00: But whatever you do, please do not quit.
1:34:10
SPEAKER_00: You're just in a valley, and this world does need you.
1:34:14
SPEAKER_00: Probably,
1:34:14
SPEAKER_00: if we're honest,
1:34:15
SPEAKER_00: your parents need you as well,
1:34:17
SPEAKER_00: because seriously,
1:34:18
SPEAKER_00: who's going to take care of your parents in 30 years,
1:34:21
SPEAKER_00: or in 10 years,
1:34:21
SPEAKER_00: or whatever age you are?
1:34:23
SPEAKER_00: And I'm serious about this.
1:34:24
SPEAKER_00: I just helped take care of my mom before she passed.
1:34:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm helping take care of my dad.
1:34:30
SPEAKER_00: And so, I just want to ask you, who's going to do it?
1:34:34
SPEAKER_00: Are you just going to let the system take care of them?
1:34:36
SPEAKER_00: How horrible is that?
1:34:38
SPEAKER_00: So...
1:34:39
SPEAKER_00: the broader point is you cannot quit and you need to think about beyond the season
1:34:44
SPEAKER_00: that there's something you're meant to do you just can't see it because like I said
1:34:48
SPEAKER_00: earlier in this immediate fog and pain you can't see the end result but I believe
1:34:54
SPEAKER_00: that there's a mission for you to do I believe that God has a mission for you to do
1:34:58
SPEAKER_00: maybe it's to coach little league maybe it's to help others with PTSD maybe you're
1:35:03
SPEAKER_00: supposed to run for office
1:35:05
SPEAKER_00: But I believe there's some calling for you and you just haven't found it.
1:35:08
SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you to get involved.
1:35:11
SPEAKER_00: Stop isolating yourself.
1:35:13
SPEAKER_00: Visit a veterans group such as the VFW, something like that.
1:35:17
SPEAKER_00: Maybe visit a church near you.
1:35:19
SPEAKER_00: Maybe visit some family you've lost touch with.
1:35:22
SPEAKER_00: Maybe call or text that friend you've grown apart with from,
1:35:26
SPEAKER_00: you know,
1:35:27
SPEAKER_00: the one from high school or the one from the military.
1:35:29
SPEAKER_00: They're probably dying to talk to you.
1:35:31
SPEAKER_00: But again, if you're struggling, I beg of you, call 988.
1:35:35
SPEAKER_00: Select one.
1:35:36
SPEAKER_00: Or, of course, you can start moving closer to God, which is something I'd certainly recommend.
1:35:40
SPEAKER_00: Read the Bible if you never have.
1:35:42
SPEAKER_00: I really do think that will help.
1:35:44
SPEAKER_00: You can read some of Psalms or Proverbs, or you can start with the New Testament in John.
1:35:49
SPEAKER_00: I think you'll find the Bible will start drawing you in, and I think it'll start changing your life.
1:35:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't have a Bible, you can download a Bible app on your phone, or you can look it up online.
1:35:59
SPEAKER_00: There are dozens of sites with it.
1:36:01
SPEAKER_00: But again, the broader point is, I just want to encourage you not to give up.
1:36:05
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a plan for you.
1:36:07
SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll reach out to God or maybe check out the Bible, as I've mentioned so many times.
1:36:13
SPEAKER_00: If that's not your thing or if you're not ready for that step,
1:36:16
SPEAKER_00: I hope you try to surround yourself with some more community or some more friends.
1:36:22
SPEAKER_00: I know...
1:36:23
SPEAKER_00: A lot of the websites say don't guilt someone who's thinking about suicide,
1:36:27
SPEAKER_00: that that's cruel,
1:36:28
SPEAKER_00: but I sadly think suicide's the easy way out.
1:36:33
SPEAKER_00: It's a short-term solution to what you think is a complicated problem that you can't solve.
1:36:40
SPEAKER_00: And hey, I'm not stupid.
1:36:42
SPEAKER_00: I know life is hard.
1:36:43
SPEAKER_00: I know going on, whether it's life or a marathon or a really long rucksack run
1:36:51
SPEAKER_00: or forced march in the military, to keep going is often more painful.
1:36:56
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt about that, but it's also the right answer.
1:37:00
SPEAKER_00: Not only will you get tougher and stronger and have more endurance,
1:37:06
SPEAKER_00: but if you fall out of that race,
1:37:09
SPEAKER_00: someone's got to carry your gear.
1:37:11
SPEAKER_00: Someone's got to care for you.
1:37:13
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you arrive at the mission objective with fewer people, which is going to lead to more strain
1:37:19
SPEAKER_00: danger and probably casualties to those around you and so that same thing happens
1:37:25
SPEAKER_00: if you decide to pull the plug and check out somebody's going to have to carry your
1:37:31
SPEAKER_00: load somebody's going to have to care for your family for your parents someone's
1:37:36
SPEAKER_00: going to have to plan your funeral someone is going to have to deal with all the
1:37:41
SPEAKER_00: things that you left hanging out there and
1:37:43
SPEAKER_00: So am I trying to guilt you?
1:37:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm really not trying to, but I just want you to think about these things.
1:37:49
SPEAKER_00: When you are in that lowest point in your life, that really dark place, please think of others.
1:37:56
SPEAKER_00: You're a good person, and I just think you're stronger than what you think you are right now.
1:38:01
SPEAKER_00: And I just encourage you, please keep fighting.
1:38:05
SPEAKER_00: Please keep taking that next step.
1:38:08
SPEAKER_00: It's going to get better.
1:38:17
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
1:38:19
SPEAKER_00: I hope as you go through this week that you act a little nicer on social media and in the world as well.
1:38:25
SPEAKER_00: Smile at folks in the grocery store.
1:38:27
SPEAKER_00: Do small acts of kindness.
1:38:29
SPEAKER_00: And remember that most Americans are good and they will help you in an emergency,
1:38:33
SPEAKER_00: even if you don't agree politically.
1:38:36
SPEAKER_00: as you go through this week i want you to aim to be more motivated and more
1:38:40
SPEAKER_00: disciplined try to improve yourself mentally physically and spiritually you don't
1:38:46
SPEAKER_00: have to set impossible goals on these matters just be a little more motivated and
1:38:50
SPEAKER_00: disciplined than you were the week prior
1:38:54
SPEAKER_00: As I said earlier, I really hope that you spend some time in your Bible this week.
1:38:59
SPEAKER_00: If you have no idea where to read on your own, just start with Psalms or Proverbs.
1:39:05
SPEAKER_00: Read some of those and then start with the New Testament by reading the book of John.
1:39:10
SPEAKER_00: Moving to a final note on the political front,
1:39:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm confident after this episode you're going to hear some bad news this week.
1:39:18
SPEAKER_00: Where you're going to hear something ugly and it's going to remind you of how divided we are.
1:39:22
SPEAKER_00: This is as certain as the law of gravity.
1:39:26
SPEAKER_00: But I'm begging you, please do not give up on this country.
1:39:29
SPEAKER_00: I know it's pretty ugly right now.
1:39:31
SPEAKER_00: and i know we're living in dark times but we've made it through nearly two hundred
1:39:35
SPEAKER_00: fifty years together and we're far stronger together than we'll ever be apart don't
1:39:40
SPEAKER_00: ever believe anyone who tells you differently about that
1:39:44
SPEAKER_00: Let me wrap up the show by talking about my books and a couple of other newsletters that I do.
1:39:50
SPEAKER_00: First, a bit about myself and my books.
1:39:52
SPEAKER_00: I am a military vet.
1:39:54
SPEAKER_00: I spent four years in the Marine Corps, all of that time in the infantry.
1:39:57
SPEAKER_00: And yes, that does matter.
1:39:59
SPEAKER_00: After my enlistment, I went to college at the University of Tennessee.
1:40:02
SPEAKER_00: I became a journalist.
1:40:03
SPEAKER_00: I spent more than 10 years in the news business.
1:40:06
SPEAKER_00: Besides all of that, I've also written 12 books.
1:40:09
SPEAKER_00: Those books include a series about a Marine Corps sniper,
1:40:12
SPEAKER_00: several novels about a police detective and a private investigator,
1:40:15
SPEAKER_00: and a few books about war,
1:40:17
SPEAKER_00: such as World War II and Afghanistan.
1:40:19
SPEAKER_00: Basically, these are all fast-moving books with lots of action and plot twists,
1:40:24
SPEAKER_00: because those are the kind of books I've always enjoyed reading.
1:40:27
SPEAKER_00: You can find all of those books in the link in the episode notes,
1:40:31
SPEAKER_00: or you can look on Amazon by just searching my name,
1:40:34
SPEAKER_00: Stan R.
1:40:35
SPEAKER_00: Mitchell.
1:40:36
SPEAKER_00: Buying a book,
1:40:37
SPEAKER_00: telling a friend about a book,
1:40:39
SPEAKER_00: or buying one as a gift for someone,
1:40:41
SPEAKER_00: friend or loved one,
1:40:42
SPEAKER_00: is a great way to help support the show.
1:40:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, I always like to end each show by reminding people that you can comment anytime.
1:40:48
SPEAKER_00: I try to monitor those.
1:40:50
SPEAKER_00: You can also reach out privately by email to me at AuthorStanRMitchell at Yahoo.com.
1:40:57
SPEAKER_00: And that's in the episode notes, by the way.
1:40:59
SPEAKER_00: But again, it's AuthorStanRMitchell at Yahoo.com.
1:41:03
SPEAKER_00: Hey, here's one other thing.
1:41:04
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is about defense news, but I also do a political blog.
1:41:09
SPEAKER_00: So if you love my moderate, optimistic views, you might enjoy that.
1:41:13
SPEAKER_00: It's called Thoughts from a Southern Gentleman.
1:41:16
SPEAKER_00: You can find a link to the episode notes to that, or you can just search that on Google.
1:41:21
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for hanging with me this week.
1:41:23
SPEAKER_00: It's truly an honor to talk with each of you and to know that there's a few of you
1:41:27
SPEAKER_00: out there who are listening and who care about our country and our military and all
1:41:32
SPEAKER_00: the issues that we face.
1:41:34
SPEAKER_00: I know there are a lot of scary issues out there,
1:41:36
SPEAKER_00: but we're going to get through them together,
1:41:38
SPEAKER_00: the same way America's gotten through everything before this.
1:41:42
SPEAKER_00: If you can at all this week,
1:41:43
SPEAKER_00: reach out to a friend or anyone who you know is struggling,
1:41:47
SPEAKER_00: whether they are young or old.
1:41:48
SPEAKER_00: Life is truly hard.
1:41:50
SPEAKER_00: We know this.
1:41:51
SPEAKER_00: But the true strength of this country is its people,
1:41:54
SPEAKER_00: and that includes you folks listening to me right now.
1:41:56
SPEAKER_00: So be a leader, be a doer, be a servant to someone.
1:42:00
SPEAKER_00: With all of that being said, I'll catch you all next week.
1:42:03
SPEAKER_00: You have been listening to The View from the Front.
1:42:08
Thank you.