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Adam Miller - Concerned Vets For America · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The works the company in Loveland without further ado subbing
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  Speaker 1: in for Donovan and Neil for Americans for Prosperity and Hey,
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  Speaker 1: no problem with that. Adam Miller with Concerned Veterans for
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  Speaker 1: Ohio to talk about military actions in Iran. Adam, it's
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  Speaker 1: a pleasure to have you on the program. Let me
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  Speaker 1: start by thanking for you, thanking you for your service
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  Speaker 1: to our country.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, and thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Got a busy day to day. I see you start now,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to be a Jack Underwood show. Later you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna be on the Windsor Report. I got the Windsor
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  Speaker 1: Report on a weekly basis here on Fridays. So I'm
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  Speaker 1: glad you're getting the word out real quick. Here an
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  Speaker 1: opportunity for you to explain to my listeners about your organization,
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  Speaker 1: Concerned Veterans for America High Chapter, and what you do
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  Speaker 1: basically on a day to day basis before we dive
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  Speaker 1: on into the Iranian situation.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, Concern Veterans for America were a policy advocacy
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  Speaker 2: organization that focuses on issues that they not only impact
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  Speaker 2: veterans but all Americans. You know that for America part
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  Speaker 2: of our name is kind of that guiding So the
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  Speaker 2: important work that we do from from a legislative perspective,
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  Speaker 2: it impacts every American in a positive way. So we
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  Speaker 2: are a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization.
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  Speaker 1: Fair enough, and that's good news for my veteran friends
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  Speaker 1: and a listening audience. All right, pivoting over been talking about,
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  Speaker 1: of course, since Saturday, the unleashing of fury on the Iranians.
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  Speaker 1: We've been, I guess rather successful. I mean, most notably
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  Speaker 1: that we blew all of the leading command and control
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  Speaker 1: structure up in one fell swoop. I guess they didn't
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  Speaker 1: get the message that there's a thing called a zoom
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  Speaker 1: call my friend.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm first and foremost, you know, Conserve Veterans
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  Speaker 2: for America, where we're certainly praying for the safety and
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  Speaker 2: security of American service members that are deployed in harm's way,
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  Speaker 2: and we mourn the loss and injury of multiple members
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  Speaker 2: of the armed forces. And you know, the Iranian regime,
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  Speaker 2: it's a brutal regime, and the Iranian people they deserve
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  Speaker 2: the right to chart their own path. But you know,
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  Speaker 2: we do believe at the end of the day that
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  Speaker 2: that Congress and the President should should debate these actions
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  Speaker 2: and you know, possibly hold a vote to authorize or
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  Speaker 2: oppose it. You know, the Constitution it does put the
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  Speaker 2: war war power making in the hands of Congress. While
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  Speaker 2: while we know that Congress hasn't declared war since nineteen
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  Speaker 2: forty two, we do think that the American people, I'm
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  Speaker 2: sure should have a seat at the table.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I'm glad to hear that. Although as
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  Speaker 1: I stare at you know, the War Powers Act and
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  Speaker 1: the ticking clock of sixty days, you know, you need
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  Speaker 1: Congressional action. They need to do this. They need to
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  Speaker 1: do an authorization to use the military force. They need
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  Speaker 1: a declaration of war. Otherwise, after sixty days, with maybe
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  Speaker 1: a thirty day extension, you have to end the military actions.
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  Speaker 1: You know, someone who served Adam, I guess I wonder
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  Speaker 1: I don't personally. Here's my view of what's going to
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  Speaker 1: happen this week Thursday. There's going to be a vote
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  Speaker 1: and it probably won't pass. If it does pass by
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  Speaker 1: more than fifty percent, then of course Donald Trump has
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  Speaker 1: a veto, right, There's no way they got the votes
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  Speaker 1: to override the veto, which means status quo. The clock
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  Speaker 1: remains ticking and the sixty day win will soon be closing,
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  Speaker 1: resulting in the withdrawal of the American troops. Whether or
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  Speaker 1: not it's the right time to do it, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: is that you're understanding, Adam, And where do we go
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  Speaker 1: from there if that happens.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I don't think anybody is expecting President Trump to
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  Speaker 2: sign a war powers resolution if it were to pass,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, to make to make it crystal clear,
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  Speaker 2: the President has every right to take action when there
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  Speaker 2: is a clear and imminent threat. But you know, we've
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  Speaker 2: had a long period of build up on this front,
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  Speaker 2: and both the President and Congress, you know, we believe
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  Speaker 2: that they've missed some opportunities to speak candidly with the
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  Speaker 2: American people about is what is actually going on in
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  Speaker 2: the region and the risks that are involved. And as
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  Speaker 2: you as you said, I'm a post nine eleven global
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  Speaker 2: war on terrorism. Better in myself served two deployments to
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  Speaker 2: the region, and you know, during my time, you know
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  Speaker 2: that we would consider the operational record freedom and endless war.
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  Speaker 2: There wasn't clear congressional oversight, and there was a lack
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  Speaker 2: of clear party in duration, and you know, a lack
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  Speaker 2: of a clear end state. So, you know, with our
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  Speaker 2: men and women on the ground, we definitely think that
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  Speaker 2: there needs to be a clear mission, a clear end
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  Speaker 2: state communicated to the American people.
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  Speaker 1: So in when you were serving in combat and in
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  Speaker 1: your time in the service, were these types you mentioned
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  Speaker 1: the lack of clarity while you were dealing with that,
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  Speaker 1: Is that something that was regularly discussed among the frontline troops,
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  Speaker 1: you know, one of your friends who were also serving
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  Speaker 1: at the time.
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  Speaker 2: Most definitely, because because the mission and our operations had
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  Speaker 2: changed on so many different fronts throughout the Middle East.
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  Speaker 2: Whether you know, I was deployed to to southern Lebanon,
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  Speaker 2: I was deployed to to to the Horn of Africa,
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  Speaker 2: I was deployed to western Iraq. So so there was
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  Speaker 2: a lot of questions around, you know, what what our
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  Speaker 2: deployments actually looked like, but also the impact of those
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  Speaker 2: deployments on our nation service members. I mean, the last
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  Speaker 2: time I was on your show, well we had talked
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  Speaker 2: at length about veterans healthcare and the issues of you know,
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  Speaker 2: two decades of sustained combat has on veterans mental health
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  Speaker 2: and just their overall healthcare. So there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: variables that play here when we get engaged in these
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  Speaker 2: very serious conflicts.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I'm actually so pleased that you brought that up,
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  Speaker 1: because it was festering in the back of my mind.
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  Speaker 1: I have a good friend who's a career submariner, and
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  Speaker 1: I call him Cribbage. Mike's a great guy, and he
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  Speaker 1: mentioned that that tension that those men and women serving
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  Speaker 1: on the Navy, serving in the Navy or anyplace else
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  Speaker 1: in combat sustained, you know, basically twenty four to seven attention, worry,
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  Speaker 1: and concern some missile might come out of nowhere and
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  Speaker 1: blow the boat up or blow the sub up, or
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  Speaker 1: you know, a bomb might get dropped in your camp
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  Speaker 1: where you're serving in one of the various bases over there.
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  Speaker 1: You experienced that, I that is I guess, isn't that
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  Speaker 1: the source and genesis of what we call post traumatic stress?
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  Speaker 1: Living under that constant adrenaline and worry and fear, and
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  Speaker 1: then once your return home from service, you can't turn
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  Speaker 1: that off.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, America's war fighters, you know, they're they're they're they're
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  Speaker 2: trained well and and they're up to the challenge. But
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  Speaker 2: you know, some of these experiences that that we face overseas,
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  Speaker 2: they do have, you know, physical and mental impacts, and
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  Speaker 2: we have to weigh those types of variables when when
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  Speaker 2: we when we go and start conflicts like this. I mean, obviously,
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  Speaker 2: if if we look at you know, what the the
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  Speaker 2: Iranian regime is doing now, I mean they're targeting civilians.
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  Speaker 2: You know, our partners in the region like UAE, they're clearly,
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  Speaker 2: clearly not prepared for this conflict. And you know there's
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  Speaker 2: from the latest numbers the State Department that says that
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  Speaker 2: there's you know, around a million Americans that are that
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  Speaker 2: are in the region with tens of thousands that are
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  Speaker 2: trying to get out. So it's not just really a
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  Speaker 2: military perspective, it is a civilian perspective and how the
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  Speaker 2: Iranian regime is targeting civilians at will.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I would put you on this on the spot here,
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  Speaker 1: Adam Miller from Concerned Veterans for America, Ohio, where do
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  Speaker 1: you see this going? I mean, you know what, what
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  Speaker 1: what does Obviously Adam Miller wants a success in the region,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps a building the we all can pray for that,
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  Speaker 1: But where do you see this specific conflict going given
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  Speaker 1: the war powers you know, vote perhaps it's happening this
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  Speaker 1: week and the the disagreement among members of Congress whether
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  Speaker 1: or not Donald Trump should even be there. We have
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  Speaker 1: that whole Trump rangent syndrome. We got a factor into
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  Speaker 1: the equation because I think a lot of Democrats would
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  Speaker 1: feel otherwise if it wasn't Donald Trump running the country.
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  Speaker 1: But where do you see it going, Adam.
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's still a lot of unknowns, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: I would kind of go back to, you know, as
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  Speaker 2: we talk about this debate, is you know President Obama,
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  Speaker 2: you know he had you know, authorized operations in Libya
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  Speaker 2: for for seven months yep, and operations in Syria without
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  Speaker 2: congressional approval. So there is a little bit of a
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  Speaker 2: history here. But I would say, you know, I don't
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  Speaker 2: I don't think anybody is crying over you know, the
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  Speaker 2: regime or at least some of the heads of the
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  Speaker 2: regime being you know, dismantled at this point. But again,
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  Speaker 2: there's still a lot of information coming out and kind
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  Speaker 2: of putting all the pieces together, and we and we
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  Speaker 2: really don't have a lot of clarity yet. But I
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  Speaker 2: guess my message to your listeners and to every one
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  Speaker 2: here is, you know, there's there's a lot of issues
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  Speaker 2: here in the United States and we've seen what what
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  Speaker 2: happens when when these conflicts you know, happen with you know,
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  Speaker 2: just looking at Opak and look at some of the
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  Speaker 2: some of the oil prices, and that's again another example
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  Speaker 2: of why we need to unleash American energy here at all.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there there is an affordability crisis that many
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  Speaker 2: Americans are facing, and you know, being less reliant on
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  Speaker 2: regions like the Middle East from from an energy perspective,
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  Speaker 2: I think is important and probably is top of mind
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  Speaker 2: for a lot of Americans who are struggling financially.
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  Speaker 1: Without question, that's why Donald Trump's all the above strategy
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  Speaker 1: with regard to energy may save us from well the
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  Speaker 1: the global warming alarmist religion that's out there that basically
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  Speaker 1: was a masculating the United States ability to be independent
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  Speaker 1: and have sufficient energy. Excellent point, Adam Miller, Adam Miller
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  Speaker 1: from Concerned Veterans from America before we park copany Adam,
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  Speaker 1: anything else you want to interject here before we separate
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  Speaker 1: this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, you know, so we've seen a
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  Speaker 2: lot of kind of tactical wins on this front, and
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  Speaker 2: I would say, you know, while while those are important,
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  Speaker 2: they don't automatically translate into a clear strategy for the
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  Speaker 2: American people. So we do depend on our representatives in
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  Speaker 2: Congress to provide that clarity or to to make the
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  Speaker 2: case to the American people of why, you know, our
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  Speaker 2: treasure and our resources and our US troops should should
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  Speaker 2: be deployed onto these forward areas. So it's a continuing conversation.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we have over forty thousand US troops in
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  Speaker 2: the region, and we need to make sure sure that
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  Speaker 2: there that their safety and security is first and foremost.
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  Speaker 2: And obviously we continue praying for those.
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  Speaker 1: That we have lost absolutely start to finish. I won't
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  Speaker 1: stop that. I will continue my prayers for them. And also,
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  Speaker 1: let's face it, the casualties of war quite often involve
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of innocent civilians and we all can pray
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  Speaker 1: for them as well and hope they stay out of
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  Speaker 1: harm's way.