WEBVTT - Mike Lyons Talks to Armstrong & Getty 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.360 Doing another one of our long form podcasts here. The 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:04.640 Armstrong and Getty Show is a radio show heard on 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:07.000 the West Coast with Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. But 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:08.560 we have these guests on all the time where we 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:10.440 think we'd like to talk to them for a longer 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:12.680 period of time than you get in commercial radio. So 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.680 let's do it with Mike lyon CBS News Military Analysts 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.040 since February of oh three, What is your current title? 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:24.160 I'm a retired Army major. I'm a CBS Military analyst, um. 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:26.279 And I'm actually going to be a fellow at the 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.840 Modern War Institute at West Point this coming so I'm 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.040 really excited about that that hopefully help them with some 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:35.760 social media and get into the weeds. My son was 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:37.479 making fun of me, he said, there's no chance you'd 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:39.880 ever get I'm a retail military analyst, right, I mean, 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:44.320 that's really my gig. You know there's guys out there that, um, 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:46.880 you know, retired four stars at thirty five years in that, 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:49.040 you know, I just get up every day and and 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.320 and study the military and talk to people and and 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.440 just kind of chip away at and try to help educate. 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:55.720 And I want to go in your show. I feel 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:58.080 why my Twitter feed I can I can educate people 0:00:58.120 --> 0:00:59.560 on what's kind of going out there, what they should 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:01.080 be focused and I think and then and then you know, 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:04.039 have a debate on something. Anyway, Yeah, I'm looking forward 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:06.000 to working with West Point. Well, for folks who are 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.200 hip to the on air Armstrong and Getty show, you 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.199 know that Mike Clients has been a an esteemed guest, 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:14.319 a military analyst among other things for years. But whether 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:15.920 it's the length of our segments or the fact that 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:17.880 you have other stations you need to jump on or whatever, 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.760 we always have to cut things short and and we 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.080 always feel like we'd love to continue talking to you. 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.520 So this is gonna be fun. That's great, perfect Well, 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:28.319 and with your permission, we wanted to depart from the 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:31.560 usual thing, which is talking about geopolitics, especially as it 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.200 pertains to the military. We'll do some of that, but um, 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:36.760 we just wanted to talk about the realities of the 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.360 American military and American military families for a little while. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.400 And why don't we start with a very broad question, Uh, 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:45.640 what do you think is the state of the American 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:50.200 military family in the year Well, I think the American 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.600 military family is is held together, you know, day to day, 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:55.800 week to week, months to month, and it's based on 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.160 the deployments of the soldiers that are out there. The 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.520 military family, more than most you know, hangs on what 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.000 a president says, no matter who the president is, because 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:08.120 of that person is the commander in chief is more 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:12.720 cognizant of global affairs, recognizes places in the world where 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:16.480 their loved one can be deployed too. And I think that, um, 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.840 you know, it creates a tremendous hardship on the family. 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.120 I used to always say that if we keep this 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.239 pace up that we're going at right now, which we 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.200 have been going up, you're either as a soldier you're 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:28.880 gonna lose your mind or your family. And unfortunately, there's 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.880 been a lot of families broken up because of the 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.840 stress that's putting on it. And I think that, uh, 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:36.880 and while the army in particular is trying to do 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.880 what it can, the mission is such that the that 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:43.519 the soldier is just so stretched out doing so many 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.480 different things. It hasn't broken yet, um, but I think 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:49.560 in the future we could possibly see, you know, a 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.160 real crisis. Yeah, I wonder about that too. I mean, 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.360 whether it's the v A situation where you know you 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.000 could you could uh have served your country and even 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.079 enjoyed your mill military experience UM, and then you get 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.359 treated bad by the v A and you tell your kids, now, 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:06.280 don't do it. They lie to you, they don't, they 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:09.200 don't follow through their promises. Or I wonder about my 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:12.400 my brothers who was UM. He's been in long enough 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.200 to retire, but he's he's been in all kinds of 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.520 deployments in the Middle East over the years, and his 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:20.640 kids and UH have not seen him for long periods 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:22.399 of time. That's what they grew up with. I don't 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:24.080 know if they're going to think their kids ought to 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:25.880 get into it. I just wonder if you know we'll 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:29.959 continue to have generations of military families. I think that 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.600 one of the unfortunate aspects of UM the military, especially 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:37.320 in the last twenty years and the last generation, let's say, 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.280 has been this, it's become the family business, and that's 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:42.840 just not necessarily the way to go UM. From a 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:46.080 nepotistic perspective, I think you know, given the fact that 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:49.720 you know how it's gonna linger within the families and 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.080 how things will will go, I don't think you get 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.040 the turnover. You don't get others in society contributing to 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.119 the military. You know, the military should reflect the civilian 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.680 society and all ways shapes, forms and sizes, and it's 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:04.440 sometimes it doesn't. The demographics aren't such that it doesn't 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.600 do that there as well. But but in particular, um, 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.040 you know, and during the hardship is something that military 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.880 families have to go through. And um, you know, you 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:15.280 you do that over time, and you're gonna miss a 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:16.760 lot of things. You're gonna miss a lot of kids 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:19.000 baseball games, you're gonna miss You're gonna be away for 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.600 a lot of birthday parties. And you kind of hope 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.960 that it works out. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Well, well, 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:26.839 let's stay micro for a minute. Then I want to 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:28.960 talk about the macro issue of the way you know, 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:32.360 America had chooses and pays and the rest of it. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:36.560 It's military. But you talked about wearing soldiers out, Um, 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.440 the multiple deployments, how is that different from generations past? 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:44.200 What's changed? Just the number alone, um and and the 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:47.560 duration of these deployments. Uh, you know, you'd go, you know, 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.160 prior to two thousand and three, prior to the situation 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.760 of these endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you could 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:58.560 go potentially twenty years and not have any deployment at all. 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:02.000 You look back from you nineteen seventy five through Desert Storm, 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.160 there weren't soldiers deployed all around the world. They were 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.159 stationed in certain places. A hardship tour back then was 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.159 considered a thirteen month tour unaccompanied without your family to 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:13.960 go to Korea, and that was it. Uh And now 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.719 that that's completely changed, and you can deploy for six 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.400 months in Afghanistan, come home to rest for twelve to 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:22.880 eighteen months, and rear right back and then in Afghanistan. 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:27.760 So people are doing multiple deployments. Go back to um 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.040 the reserve units even in particular that you know they 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.839 shifted so much of the combat power into reserve units 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.880 after the Vietnam War, given what happened, you know those 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:38.760 there was a time when you would join a reserve 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.160 unit to go pay for college. There was almost virtually 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:43.720 no expectation you're going to deploy if you're in a 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.680 reserve unit within the military right now, the Army in particular, 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:48.480 you're going down range at some point, you're going for 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:49.800 a long period of time. It's going to take you 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:51.039 out of your job, it's going to take you away 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.400 from your family well, and put you in in the 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:56.039 way of serious danger and stress and the rest of it, 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.960 which you know is it is a change, as you're saying, 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:03.480 And I think what we require these soldiers to do 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.599 nowadays is another impossible mission, and that's flip this switch 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.719 from being a war fighter to a peacekeeper. You know, 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:12.760 you go to certain areas and in this block, I'm 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.160 a war fighter. I've got a fight and defend what's 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.800 going on. But then the next block, I'm a peacekeeper 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.760 trying to keep two sides within a civilian population from 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.640 killing each other. And I had an argument with a 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:25.479 former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of all Things that 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.120 a social event wants that I just think it's impossible 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.120 to expect our soldiers, and in particular our marines, who 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.040 are killers. Marines don't join up to be peacekeepers. They're 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:35.839 not They're not joining up any place to you know, 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:38.159 hand out flowers and m R. E s two people. 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:41.000 And I just think it's impossible, no matter how discipline 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:42.760 that unit is, to flip a switch between being a 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.200 war fighter and a peacekeeper, and I think that's one 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:46.919 of the other challenges I never had to deal with. 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:50.840 I was I trained to basically, you know, fight as 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.640 immatry when required, fight artillery, fighting, combat fighting, wars. And 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:57.320 this whole issue about Phase five peacekeeping is another thing 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.120 that the military has taken on because it needs the 0:06:59.120 --> 0:07:01.880 budget money. But it's really now an important mission. It's 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.760 it's a critical mission. Well, on a similar topic, and 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.520 I say this not to tute our own horns. In fact, 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.800 just the opposite. We've been honored and privileged to uh 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.280 be part of some pretty major fundraising efforts for various 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:19.320 causes that include uh, you know, soldiers, sailors, marines, military families, etcetera. 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.920 Veterans UM and at some of the gatherings we have 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:27.960 talked to guys who are recently back from Afghanistan Iraq 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.680 and what they've told us about the rules of engagement 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.720 UM have left me enraged, I mean actually red faced 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.400 and vibrating with anger that they have to wait until 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.760 they are certain they are in mortal danger UM before 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.560 they return fire or before they fire, which in many 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.920 cases ends up with dead marines, dead American boards UM. 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.400 And I wish the public knew a little more about that, 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:56.440 but that factors directly or that flows directly from what 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:58.880 you were saying. The idea that they're there to be 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:03.680 ambassador is of goodwill when they're not killing machines. Yeah, 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.680 I mean because all the rules of engagement and combat 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.440 and warfare are totally been blurred in this age of 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:12.320 of fighting terrorism. You know, in the old days, the 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.640 enemy were a uniform, they were across a certain border. Uh, 0:08:15.680 --> 0:08:17.800 you know, it was somewhat of a fight with honor. 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.000 There was you know, rules of war that were well defined. 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.160 At today's look at the green on blue attack. You 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:27.000 have an Afghanistan. There's just the it's the picture is 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.840 so cloudy that that's called asymmetrical warfare. Three sixty degrees 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.360 all around. We just expect our soldiers, marine sailors, everybody 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:36.840 to have this three and sixty degree awareness. I mean, 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:38.600 I try to teach my kids to think six inches 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.480 past their nose, let alone, now to try to think 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:44.320 three d sixty degrees around them. Uh. In order for 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.240 a threat to come, even in places where you're supposed 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.199 to be safe and secure and go back to those 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.000 rules of engagement, you might not even be able to 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.920 engage once once the shooting starts. So it is a challenge. 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:56.760 And I again, I just don't think you can flip 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.400 a switch. Human nature comes in and takes over on 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.920 things that that don't always count. And how about switching 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:06.960 the flipping the switch back off once you come home 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.640 and get out. Uh. You know, we hear a lot 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:12.320 about homelessness, suicide rates, all that sort of stuff. Is 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:16.199 it even realistic to expect people to, especially in the 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:19.400 maybe if you're you know, in your late teens early twenties, 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.800 really forming your your brain and the way your body 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:26.200 reacts to life. Um, then to go back to to 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:30.559 to normal life. Is that even get a reasonable expectation? No? 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.880 I agree, And I think from my perspective, I prepared 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:36.040 my whole adult life to go to combat, and I 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:38.600 went to the military academy. I studied the history of war, 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:42.400 I studied the military art. I read you know, books 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.560 about portoon leaders. I read about what men and and 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:48.920 did uh at Christmas time, for example in Best Stone 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.240 and how they you know, how they held it together. 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:53.920 And knowing that when I spent Christmas in a combat zone, 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.800 I felt almost privileged, the fact that I had almost 0:09:56.800 --> 0:09:58.960 been there before in some kind of weird way. So 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.000 I think it gets back to preparation. And so I 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.040 felt when I came home it was just, you know, 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:05.280 there's clearly nothing like a war zone. There's nothing like 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.160 a combat zone in terms of the morality and the 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.040 norms that exist there. But I think we've just sent 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.920 too many people into that area without that pre preparation. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.800 They sign up for different reasons, you know, they sign 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:18.800 up to actually go to war. You don't want, actually, 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:20.800 those kinds of people someway around you. They're gonna get 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.400 everybody killed if they're out there just just to kill anybody. 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:26.120 You need smart people. We've we've unfortunately dropped some of 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.760 those standards in the past here as well. So it 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:31.400 all gets back to being prepared to go to war 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:33.199 before you get there, and then that that will help 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.640 you on the adjustment coming back well. And it seems 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.040 to me that any people with a conscience would understand 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:40.520 the difficulty of that adjustment coming back and would have 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.920 pretty well developed programs to deal with that. You know, 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.640 I'm thinking about the fact. Have you had a chance 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.959 to get to read the Sebastian Younger's Fabulous book Tribe 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:53.200 I've not read that when I've read the other book, 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:55.680 the one on Kuragall and what took place there. I 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.480 saw that the documentary and I thought, if this is 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.480 in Vietnam, I don't know what is. I mean just 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.720 just I didn't like the lack of discipline in that unit, 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.080 you know, just got all cars on the table. And 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:06.720 I met him and I talked to him about it, 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.000 and uh, you know, because that's not what the military, 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:11.040 the Army of particular needs and wants. Is this other 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.400 kind of Vietnam situation where it's almost survival of the fittest. 0:11:14.400 --> 0:11:16.599 I didn't like, Um, you know, I don't think the 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.040 officers were treated in a manner that they should have been. 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.360 It was not a very good snapshot. I thought of 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.000 what's what should a unit look like? Right? But the 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:26.760 book Tribe is all about the way we tend to 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.360 band together as Homo sapiens and the things and and 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.160 how strong that need is. And he talks a great 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.280 deal about folks in the military and coming back home 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:38.640 and how um, a young man or a woman will 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.640 have an experience where they have a life and death 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.080 trust with a fairly small group of people, and that 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.520 is so incredibly satisfying to the human soul and and 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.120 it's also so necessary in war zone. Um. But then 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:57.240 one of the aspects of PTSD or or difficulty adjusting back, 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:01.800 is you get back to the stupid, heavy, slow paced 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:07.400 real world quote unquote, and that's it's really hard for guys. Um. 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.880 And you know, the famous contrast is that at the 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.400 end of w W two it took months for these 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.840 guys to get back home in you know, the in 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.839 country centers, than weeks on a cruise ship, than being 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.000 mustred out, etcetera, etcetera. And now it's it's literally a 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:26.040 NonStop plane flight and near you are back in Omaha. Yeah. 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:28.240 And on top of that, while you've been in combat, 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.360 you've been facetiming with your family and you know, communication 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.120 is instant. In some ways, you've got a lot, you've 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:37.000 got a lot more exposure to the outside world. And um, 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.360 I do agree that when you do come home, I mean, look, 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:44.040 the reality of combat is it provides this adrenaline rush 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.640 that it's really pretty hard to to replicate. You know, 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:49.480 I'm a sports guy, like a lot of sports analogies, 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:52.160 but it's still nothing close, especially if you're successful. I 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:54.720 mean our our units were in desert storm, for example, 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.840 we're just so successful. You just it was no match, 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.360 and your level of invincibility just was sent to a 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.840 whole different level that when you do things in the 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.880 future you kind of compare and contrast to that how 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:09.920 you felt about that. So you're right, it's hard to 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.160 find that feeling again, especially when you run up to 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:14.520 against civilians were I've run up to civilians in the 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.280 job force that have literally and we're asking about getting 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:18.599 people in, And I said, why don't we recruit some 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:20.720 veterans I know, so a couple of guys too, we 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.040 can go after and and and literally I had senior 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.240 people telling me we really want to do that. Those 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:26.720 guys are real damage. We don't want to do that. 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:28.360 And I said, well, am I damage? And why how 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.120 do I look? I mean, am I coming off in 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:35.000 it in a way that's damaged? So UMA investment is 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.440 a challenge and it's there. Yeah. Um, it's just popped 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.920 into my head. How good is our military? I remember 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:44.920 hearing I think it was John McCain one time he 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.000 was asked the question about how good is our military? 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:49.920 You know, as Americans, we get a great charge out 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:51.320 of I know, I have my whole life. If we 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:53.560 have the best military in the world, right, um, we 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:56.439 could beat anybody, and we take pride in that. But 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:58.600 John mckaine talking about it, and they said, have you 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.400 ever faced any soldiers that are are no of any 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:04.120 soldiers were as good as you know the US And 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.719 he said the North Vietnamese regulars were as good. And 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.000 what's what's your experience with that? Are we better than 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.120 everybody else who out there compares to us? We are 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.160 for a couple of different reasons. Number One, we have 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.840 the best technology that you can imagine, um, and when 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.760 we get into a combat situation and a combat zone, 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:23.920 all that technology comes to play. I can tell you 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:26.400 when I was in a combat zone, all things showed 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.440 up that I've never even seen before, and we were 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:33.000 successful in implementing it quickly to you know, in our 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.240 operations and systems. So that's number one. Number two, we 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.400 have that not only the technology, but the equipment in 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.720 and above itself. Are our equipment, It depends on survivability. 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.320 We we build tanks and a pc s and armored 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.680 personnel carriers and equipment and planes that that survives um 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:53.800 combat and in order for the soldier to feel confident 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.440 in it. I looked at the Soviet tanks, and I've 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.600 looked at Soviet armored personnel carriers and they're just tin cans, 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.160 They're just f traps. So our protection of the force 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.440 is something that's very important to the soldier. But then 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:06.480 the third thing is, at the end of the day, 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.400 our military is superb because it trains in a combined 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.720 arms way, and we truly fight like the Germans did 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:15.600 in the Second World War with this you know, we 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.120 call it AirLand battle. Uh. You know, they they were, 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.480 you know, combining tanks and combining airplanes and infantry on 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.560 the ground. Uh in in that in that blitz creeg. 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:28.680 It's the same thing. Come fighting the way we fight 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:31.320 when we put all our things together, when we wind 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:33.200 this big fist up and we take the time and 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.040 wind it all up. Uh, there's no one, there's nothing 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.360 on the planet that can defeat the U. S. Military 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:40.440 when it decides to put it's it's it's a mind 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.000 is something that's interesting. A great coach doesn't roll around 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:47.320 pleasuring himself over his team's strengths. He talks about he 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.120 did they go after what the team isn't doing well. 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:53.880 What's wrong with the U. S. Military? What's week or 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.080 what's wrong with the Pentagon specifically? What could be better? 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:02.520 The Pentagon is such a bureaucracy that can't adjust to 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:06.320 the civilians and the political environment. And I think that 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.280 that is the biggest challenge right now. And and while 0:16:09.280 --> 0:16:11.520 it's trying to adjust, you know that the Pentagon has 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.160 got to work off intent so many, so many ways, 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:16.120 and it moves down you know, the highway I saw, 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.320 you know, so as it's trying to acquire weapons, there's 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:22.200 people in the Pentagon that are looking twenty thirty years 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:24.280 down the road on technology that the military has to 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.000 buy right now. And there's there's things that the Pentagon 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:29.360 is to do now that affect that down the road. 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:31.720 But politicians are just worried about getting reelected in the 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.240 next two to four years and whether or not those 0:16:34.280 --> 0:16:37.400 projects get funded or not. So the Pentagon, you know, 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.880 has to do ten or fifteen things and and do 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:42.920 a lot of make work stuff for things that end 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:46.000 up not happening go sit on a shelf, stum place um. 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:50.080 Because they can't adjust to the the political environment. Once 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:53.280 in combat though once once you unleash the Pentagon and 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.360 unleash the power of the military. Again, the resources go 0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:00.160 and tenants followed. Look, there's no other organization aside from 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:02.560 the military. They can get to e Bowl and and 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.000 fight a pandemic that exists there. I mean, Napoleon would 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.960 never send his army into that kind of environment. The 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:11.280 military can get to Haiti, the military and get anywherese 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:13.479 in the world. The Navy, and once it cranks it up, 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:15.840 it can do it. But um, but sometimes it gets 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.280 caught up in the bureauxcy of politics. And I think 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.439 that's its big That's interesting that the last two questions 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.280 and answers go together. So the Pentagon with its you know, 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:25.680 having to think here's in the future, and the politics 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:27.520 hold them back and all this, Yet we still are 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.360 ahead of all these authoritarian countries where they can make 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.760 decisions on a dime, one person can make that decision. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.439 How do we stay ahead of all these people? It's money. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:38.560 I mean, you look at the budget that was just approved, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.240 over seven hundred billion dollars. We have a budget that's 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.120 you know, ten times the next uh, the next competitor 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.200 that's out there and so and and the military industrial 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.199 complex is a tremendous jobs programming. Let's face it, we 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.000 we we make things that we don't even use in 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:57.840 some levels. And so I think that you know, you 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.480 bring all all that together, the fact that we invest 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:03.000 what we invest in military, and you combine that with 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.960 the technology, and it gets back to from now, the 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.560 world is so much shorter, you know, it's smaller. If 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.480 you're our enemy right now, that's the thing. You're enemy 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:13.080 right now. You're not even gonna try to fight the 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.080 United States conventionally. I mean, h R McMaster said that recently. 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:17.880 It'd be stupid for you to do something like that. 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.040 The next battle is happening in cyber The next battle 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.080 is happening in that fifth do Main possibly even space. 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:25.879 I mean, Trump's got it right here with this space force. Um, 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.000 somebody goes and takes out all our satellites, takes out 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.040 a lot of technology and space, we could be blinded. 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.600 That's a real problem. So the next battle is not 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:34.680 going to happen conventionally on the ground, even though we're 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.040 still preparing for that. A couple more pentagonst questions. I 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.160 keep hearing that we have a shortage of spare parts 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.520 for our aircraft. Is that true? More or less it is, 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:45.800 But I will tell you this, the Air Force doesn't 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.600 do a great job of managing that. I mean in 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:50.760 all cards on the table, because the air Force is 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:53.600 pretty smart. The air Force funds its people programs first. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.639 It funds its golf courses, and it's housing projects and 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:58.600 and things and make sure all that happens. And so 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:00.359