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Speaker 1: If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're

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Speaker 1: listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, military news and straight

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Speaker 1: talk with the guys and the community. Hello again, everyone,

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Speaker 1: welcome back to Software Radio, Software Radio on Time, on Target.

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Speaker 1: You're on the air today with Steve Australia. I'm your host.

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Speaker 1: Today we have a very special guest with US, Joe Kent.

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Speaker 1: Joe is a former Army ranger. He was in the

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Speaker 1: second Range of Battalion, part of the Range of Regiment.

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Speaker 1: He then joined Special Forces UM. I believe he was

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Speaker 1: in the fifth Special Forces Group. He did eleven deployments

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Speaker 1: in combat UM. He ended up retiring as a Chief

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Speaker 1: Foreign Officer out of the U. S. Army. He was

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Speaker 1: also UH for a Special Forces guy, which is rare.

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Speaker 1: He's a gold Star husband. His h his wife, Shannon Kent,

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Speaker 1: was the the U. S. Navies intelligence operative who was

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Speaker 1: killed in Syria a few years ago. I'm sure most

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Speaker 1: of our listeners are well aware of that. So we're

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Speaker 1: gonna talk to Joe about all of that. But before

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Speaker 1: we go any further, we want to welcome to the

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Speaker 1: podcast Joe. Thank you for taking the time this afternoon,

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Speaker 1: UH and welcome to Software Vidium. By the way, Merry Christmas,

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Speaker 1: Merry Christmas. Thanks for having me on. Been listening to

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Speaker 1: you guys for for quite a while now, so pretty

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Speaker 1: cool to be actually on the podcast. Well, we're very

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Speaker 1: glad to have you, sir. So you know, fill in

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Speaker 1: our listeners about how you came to be in the military,

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Speaker 1: and you know, you can put in some of the highlights.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if anything's classified you that you can't

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Speaker 1: talk about, but just fill us in briefly on that

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Speaker 1: and we'll go from there. Sure. Yeah, I uh pretty

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Speaker 1: much got to live out my you know, child day

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Speaker 1: dreams is far back because I can remember I wanted

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Speaker 1: to be a military guy command to have some sort um. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, growing up in the in the nineties, there

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Speaker 1: wasn't a ton of information on that type of thing

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Speaker 1: other than watching the A Team and g I Joe's um.

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Speaker 1: You know. As I got a little bit older, though,

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Speaker 1: I started doing some research and um, the black down

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Speaker 1: into that happened. Um like as a as I was

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Speaker 1: kind of becoming a young man going into high school

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Speaker 1: and having to get serious about what I wanted to do. Um,

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Speaker 1: So that kind of made me aware of arranging regiment UM.

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Speaker 1: Before that, I had been interested in special forces, but

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Speaker 1: I didn't really know like how how that whole thing happens,

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Speaker 1: like how you go from being in the military um

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Speaker 1: to trying out to special forces. And then as I

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Speaker 1: did some more research and talked to annoyed some recruiters,

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Speaker 1: probably because I was like thirteen and fourteen asking them

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Speaker 1: questions and they're like, yeah, you can't join, to leave

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Speaker 1: me alone. But I eventually figured out that hey, you

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Speaker 1: you could go right into the Ranger regiment UM if

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Speaker 1: you played your cards right. So graduated high school. My parents.

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Speaker 1: My parents helped me negotiate a Ranger in Doctor Nation

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Speaker 1: program contract UM with my with my recruiter um. So

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Speaker 1: from there I went to went to RIP and somehow

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Speaker 1: made it through all that and ended up the Second

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Speaker 1: Range of Battalion UM. And that was just a great

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Speaker 1: place to grow up. Highly disciplined, very combat focused, even

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Speaker 1: though it was a very peacetime military. We had guys

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Speaker 1: that jumped into Panama Granada UM and even a few

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Speaker 1: guys that were veterans from Third Range of Battalions. Experience

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Speaker 1: in Somalia so great. I can't say I have good

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Speaker 1: things about growing up there. Um, I decided to make

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Speaker 1: my way to Special Forces UM in September of two

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Speaker 1: thousand one, so big highlight. It was my second and

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Speaker 1: third day of s f A S. They like put

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Speaker 1: us in the big clashing Maer Camp McCall and told

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Speaker 1: us that like America was under attack and I was

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Speaker 1: an E four and like new everything. So I kind

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Speaker 1: of thought, like, there's this. I was like, there's a

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Speaker 1: scenario for s F A S. Like I thought it

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Speaker 1: was all all kind of like a game or something,

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Speaker 1: you know, because you know you go to different schools

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Speaker 1: and they always give you some some scenario. Um. I

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Speaker 1: thought that's what that was. Until later on the day

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Speaker 1: when they were like, hey, if you're from New York

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Speaker 1: or you're from d C, or you a family there,

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Speaker 1: like we're going to open up all the offices that

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Speaker 1: have phones and you can use the pay phones to

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Speaker 1: call your families. And that's when I was like, oh wow,

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Speaker 1: was just crazy. Um Yeah, It's funny because as I

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Speaker 1: used to work there, I was one of the yeah

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Speaker 1: and it's one big mind fux. So I'm sure you know,

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Speaker 1: the second day there, you're thinking, okay, yeah, these guys

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Speaker 1: they just want to see how we're gonna mean, that's

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Speaker 1: exactly what I thought. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I mean yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean they told us throughout that day and the

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Speaker 1: next day that hey, this is no bullshit, and and

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Speaker 1: you know, I hadn't been around that long, but I

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Speaker 1: could see that that the demeanor the instructors had from

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Speaker 1: when they picked us up to when they told us

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Speaker 1: about the attacks had drastically changed. And anytime they talked

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Speaker 1: about the attacks, they were like, hey, guys, this is

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Speaker 1: totally real and the whole world is changing and by

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Speaker 1: the time you get out of here, whether you make

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Speaker 1: it or not, you're probably going to war. Um. And

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Speaker 1: this is our our country will never be the same.

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Speaker 1: So I, you know, just kind of took all that

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Speaker 1: in as a candidate and somehow got through S F A,

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Speaker 1: S and sure enough got out on the other end,

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Speaker 1: and you know, the world had changed. Um. So from

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Speaker 1: there I went to the Q course UM and finally

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Speaker 1: I got the fifth group in UH summer of those

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Speaker 1: three so I missed, uh, I missed that the initial

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Speaker 1: push in Afghanistan. UM second battalion got kind of left

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Speaker 1: out a little bit. Through battalion got to jump in,

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Speaker 1: and then I missed. I was in language school, Poshtu

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Speaker 1: language school, UM when we pushed into Iraq, and so

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Speaker 1: you know, growing up in the eighties and nineties, I

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Speaker 1: was like, well, I just missed the two wars of

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Speaker 1: my generation. So you know, it's funny to say now,

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Speaker 1: because I was like, man, I think we missed it.

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Speaker 1: But by the time I got the Fifth Group, all

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Speaker 1: all the guys there that have been around the block,

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Speaker 1: they were like, no, this is just starting, man, we're

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Speaker 1: actually gearing up. We're going right back over. There's an

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Speaker 1: insurgency bruin. I don't know exactly how Fifth Group understood that.

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Speaker 1: They just understood the ground level. I think UM to

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Speaker 1: know that we were we were in for a long fight.

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Speaker 1: So sure enough, by UH late August September, I was back.

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Speaker 1: I was in Iraq for the first time, and that

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Speaker 1: kind of started a cycle of consistent Iraq deployments for

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Speaker 1: the next ten years. UM. I got a little break

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Speaker 1: and did some other stuff UH in Yemen and Horn

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Speaker 1: of Africa, but Iraq was the most Fifth Groups baby

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Speaker 1: for the Iraq War proper, and then again in oh

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Speaker 1: I R. So that's UH, that's where I spent the

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Speaker 1: vast majority of my career going in and out of

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Speaker 1: out of fifth Group. Yeah, I heard Yemen Um probably

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Speaker 1: rivals Niger is one of the two worst places to be. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's uh. I see, I was there at a really

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Speaker 1: interesting time. I was there um Um and so we

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Speaker 1: were going after a very real al Qaeda threat, but

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Speaker 1: there was also the Hoothie Hoothie insurgency that the government,

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Speaker 1: the old government of em was very worried about, and

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Speaker 1: they were actively fighting um and then the Arab Spring

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Speaker 1: broke out while we were there, and so we were

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Speaker 1: there for uh the beginning of the revolution. We didn't

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Speaker 1: quite realize what was going to happen, and sal hadn't

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Speaker 1: flipped with the Hooties yet. But it was just it

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Speaker 1: was it was a neat experience as a green bread

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Speaker 1: because we were um it wasn't a total war zone yet,

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Speaker 1: so we weren't as restricted as we were in Iraq

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Speaker 1: to living on like a military outpost or whatever. We

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Speaker 1: get a team house and the in the city and

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Speaker 1: we kind of had freedom of movement. We were trans

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Speaker 1: some guys that were out there getting after it in combat,

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Speaker 1: and then we're also trying to figure out, you know,

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Speaker 1: what the hell was going on in the country. So

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Speaker 1: it was that that was quite that was quite the

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Speaker 1: learning experience for me. Wow. Yeah, I can't imagine. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I know, you haven't really heated up obviously afterwards in

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Speaker 1: it's still not really a safe place right now. But yeah, then, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know what what year did you become a warrant.

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Speaker 1: I became warrant in my my Yemen trip in was

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Speaker 1: my first trip as a w O one. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I became a warrant in nine. Everything the Panama started.

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Speaker 1: They had, to the Army's eternal regret, they made me

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Speaker 1: an officer, so you know, yeah that I always felt,

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Speaker 1: you know, you can take the boy out of Boston,

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Speaker 1: but you can't take the Boston out of the boy.

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Speaker 1: So you know, I wasn't I guess the epitome of

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Speaker 1: you know, general officer and gentleman and stuff. When the

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Speaker 1: colonel would have his uh hale and farewells or whatever

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Speaker 1: and then get together at his house. I'd ride my

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Speaker 1: Harley over there, which I always got a frown, so

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Speaker 1: I would not being a warrant officer when when if

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Speaker 1: they if you ever got reminded that you're also an

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Speaker 1: officer it was like when your parents called you by

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Speaker 1: your full name, like you were in trouble, Like hey, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: my parents came to our graduation at that time. They

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Speaker 1: really didn't even have a designated warrant course, they just

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Speaker 1: had to like kind of we were lumped in with

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Speaker 1: the captains, you know, the attachment officer. They they really

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Speaker 1: didn't know what to do with us. I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: I'm kind of dating myself back then, but yeah, we

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Speaker 1: were lumped in with the captain. So you know, we

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Speaker 1: just kind of made it our our goal to you know,

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Speaker 1: give the captains the benefit of our experience up to

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Speaker 1: that point and you know, help them become better team leaders.

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Speaker 1: So I think it kind of worked out. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: here a pretty cool model. Ik. Yeah. When we graduated,

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Speaker 1: we had a bunch of foreign officers in there, and

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Speaker 1: I had be friended a couple of guys actually from

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Speaker 1: the Middle East. There was a Jordanian SF officer and

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Speaker 1: um there was a guy from Indonesia. And my parents

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Speaker 1: came and so these two guys come over and they're

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Speaker 1: just like jumping all over my dad. They're given him

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Speaker 1: a heart about me. They're like, there's done. Is such

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Speaker 1: a rude bastard. Right. My father was rolling. He just

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Speaker 1: couldn't stop laughing, and he was like, well, obviously you

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Speaker 1: got to know him really well. So that's good man

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Speaker 1: across a cross cultural communication, that's it. Yeah, we we

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Speaker 1: definitely had a good group, so I have no complaints.

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Speaker 1: But it was pretty interesting. So we were from different

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Speaker 1: errors obviously, his uh when you went through S A

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Speaker 1: F A S. I was already out by that time.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, I think it kind of never changes that.

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Speaker 1: You know, some details here and there, and you and

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Speaker 1: some some lingo does but I think it's it allays.

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Speaker 1: It all usually seems like the same experience to me. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was. You know, it was really difficult for us

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Speaker 1: because when the guys that in my era went through

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Speaker 1: the Q course, we didn't have a selection course. You know,

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Speaker 1: it was straight into phase one and they had back

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Speaker 1: then there was a lot of harassment stuff, you know,

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Speaker 1: but when they started selection obviously it was brand new.

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Speaker 1: So the instructors when we got there, you know, um

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Speaker 1: I had already been to own I and you know,

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Speaker 1: so I'm like, oh, I want to go to own I.

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Speaker 1: I want to be on the own I committee. And

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Speaker 1: they said no, we need guys out of selection, something like, man,

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Speaker 1: I can't McCall, so I get out there. And then

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Speaker 1: that's when the major game broke the bad news, and

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Speaker 1: he's like, well, before you can work, yeah, you have

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Speaker 1: to go through selection. Oh yeah. So all of us

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Speaker 1: we were looking at each other like, well, we're already qualified,

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Speaker 1: and he's like, yeah, that's okay. So I'm like, oh, man,

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Speaker 1: really sucks. So you know, when you're doing all that stuff,

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Speaker 1: it's one thing. When you're a candidate, it's another thing.

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Speaker 1: And the candidates who were there again, they think it's

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Speaker 1: part of the mind fund is. They're like, these guys

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Speaker 1: get tabs and they don't have another song. We didn't

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Speaker 1: have to wear a number or anything like those you know,

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Speaker 1: little white tag numbers and stuff. Yeah, so they're looking

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Speaker 1: at us like, you know, they just kept staring as

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Speaker 1: now they kept us we would have our own team

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Speaker 1: when we do team events or whatever. But you know,

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Speaker 1: we had to do all the same stuff they were doing.

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Speaker 1: And uh, finally, one day when we were doing the

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Speaker 1: land of course, we're all in the truck sitting together,

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Speaker 1: and finally one of the kids said, can I ask

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Speaker 1: you a question? Sure, go ahead, What the funk are

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Speaker 1: you guys doing here? And we said, hey, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: uh what do you mean. He's like, well, you guys

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Speaker 1: already have tabs and my buddy Brian, look he's fast

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Speaker 1: away now right. I was like, oh, well, we're going

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Speaker 1: through training for NASA and whoever excels the best in

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Speaker 1: the next eighteen months gets to fly on the next

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Speaker 1: Shuttle mission. So these guys are like, wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, it never changes. So s F A

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Speaker 1: s IS is really really good though. I I'm a

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Speaker 1: firm believer in it. I think it it does a

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Speaker 1: great job for what it's designed for, and you know,

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Speaker 1: hopefully it will never change. Yeah, I think. I mean,

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Speaker 1: there's always there's always people talking about what changes and

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Speaker 1: and how big of a crisis it is. But I

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Speaker 1: mean it seems like we do a pretty good job

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Speaker 1: of you know, having a having a standard and looking

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Speaker 1: for a certain kind of person. So yeah, it's definitely

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Speaker 1: a good process, right, And U we're gonna transition to

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Speaker 1: your later military career in here in just a second,

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Speaker 1: We're talking with Joe Ken. We were doing some lighthouted

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Speaker 1: stuff of crazy selection stories, but yeah, I want to

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Speaker 1: transition over to your wife story and how did you

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Speaker 1: guys meet? Yes, we met um in some military training.

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Speaker 1: So after two thousand eleven, one Fifth Group pulled that

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Speaker 1: when the US government pulled out of Iraq, and that

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Speaker 1: with that part of the war kind of can do

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Speaker 1: an end. I was at a kind of juncture in

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Speaker 1: my career and so I tried out for a special

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Speaker 1: operations unit that kind of combines special operators and intelligence folks.

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Speaker 1: And I'm kind of talking around it, but I'm sure

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Speaker 1: you guys can allay the general the general jest. Um.

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Speaker 1: So anyways, my wife Shannon I had met once really

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Speaker 1: before in Iraq in two thousand seven, um, but lost

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Speaker 1: touch of each other. Actually had a real brief meeting

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Speaker 1: at a targeting meeting. But how we're gonna go find

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Speaker 1: some bad guys. Um. So I didn't see her again

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Speaker 1: for another six years or so, and then we both

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Speaker 1: end up at this uh this parking lot one morning.

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Speaker 1: We're supposed to report to this training after the s's

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Speaker 1: kind of sam pattern. After you get selected for this unit, Um,

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Speaker 1: you had to report for about a year worth of training.

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Speaker 1: And so day one I'm there and I run back

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Speaker 1: into Shannon, um and so we kind of as busy

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Speaker 1: as we both were in that next year or so,

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Speaker 1: we started started dating and a year later we were

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Speaker 1: we were married. So we uh we kind of connected

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Speaker 1: common bonds of you know, being kind of living a life, um,

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Speaker 1: dedicated to deploying and you know, just the chaos of

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Speaker 1: like the mid to late two thousand's and then uh

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Speaker 1: kind of bonded in the like distress of being uh

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Speaker 1: in a pretty intensive course. Oh absolutely, Now did you

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Speaker 1: guys deployed together? So we were both in Iraq and

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Speaker 1: see that in seven together. She was working um at

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Speaker 1: like the task force level as a target and an analyst,

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Speaker 1: and then I was on the an O d A

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Speaker 1: and so we we actually spoke briefly once and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, after that, we actually didn't see each other

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Speaker 1: again or talked because she moved to a different location

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Speaker 1: right after that. Um. So that was the only actual

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Speaker 1: deployment we did together because because after that we uh

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Speaker 1: we started having kids, and so we kind of switched

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Speaker 1: back and forth when he was with the kids and

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Speaker 1: he would deploy. Yeah, and uh, you had with two sons, right,

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Speaker 1: Colton and Joshua. Yep, Colton, josh Now how old are

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Speaker 1: they know? They are five and three? Wow, they're still

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Speaker 1: very young? Yeah, wow, yeah, I know that. UM, you

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Speaker 1: know read obviously when everything happened in Syria, I was

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Speaker 1: reading about your wife and she was considered basically like

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Speaker 1: a rock star in the you know, the intelligence operators

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Speaker 1: that that realm of the world in our I guess,

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Speaker 1: Joint special operations people. And Uh, I was surprised to

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Speaker 1: learn that not only did she speak fluent Arabic, but

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Speaker 1: she spoke fluent Spanish and French and Portuguese as well. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she's just one of those, one of those people, like

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Speaker 1: a true poli glash she Uh she had a love

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Speaker 1: of languages, so she learned Spanish from working um in

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Speaker 1: the stables up in upstate New York when she was

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Speaker 1: a kid, just speaking of stable hands, who were a

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Speaker 1: lot of them from Argentine necks. Was a huge polo

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Speaker 1: and uh a questioned community down there. So she that's

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Speaker 1: where she learned Spanish, and then from there Um when

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Speaker 1: she was in high school, like her high school French

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Speaker 1: class was gonna go to go to Paris, and I

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Speaker 1: guess if she scored high enough on a test that

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Speaker 1: she could act as a translator, she got to go

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Speaker 1: for free. So she buckled down and learned French real

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Speaker 1: fast as as she did UM. And then from there

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Speaker 1: once once once eleven happened. She was a couple of

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Speaker 1: years younger than me. She had just started college. Um.

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Speaker 1: But her father and her uncle, um, we're both first

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Speaker 1: responders to NI eleven. Her her uncle's Staten Island firefighter

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Speaker 1: and then her father's in New York State trooper. Um.

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Speaker 1: So she had looked at the military before. But you know,

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Speaker 1: pre nine eleven, I think there wasn't you'd call to

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Speaker 1: service for a lot of folks. But nine eleven happened. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, Shannon's uncle and father responded and then shandoned

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Speaker 1: and her brother, who's a year younger, both went and

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Speaker 1: promptly and listened in the military. Um. And she had

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Speaker 1: she had a new right away that she wanted to

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Speaker 1: learn Arabic. She knew she could do it, so she

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Speaker 1: she just went and hit up all the recruiters. And

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Speaker 1: the first one that said yeah, I can get I

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Speaker 1: can send you down to Defense Language Institute to learn

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Speaker 1: Arabic was the Navy. So that was her. People always

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Speaker 1: asked how she ends up in the Navy, and she

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Speaker 1: was like, well, the everybody else wanted me to like

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Speaker 1: learn Chinese or try this MS or that MS and

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Speaker 1: and the Navy said yeah, we'll give you what you

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Speaker 1: want right off. So she ended up joining the Navy

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Speaker 1: right after, right after night eleven and heading off to

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Speaker 1: to begin her I'd say, like lifelong learning experience with

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Speaker 1: immersing in what's a very very difficult language. That's that's

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Speaker 1: some pretty amazing stuff. And I know, you know for

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Speaker 1: a woman back in two thousand and eight being deployed

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Speaker 1: with the Seal Team, I mean that you know, she

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Speaker 1: had to know her stuff to get the respect of

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Speaker 1: those guys, because they're just like SF guys. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know how it is. I mean, if there's a

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Speaker 1: woman there, you're gonna automatically wonder if she can hold

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Speaker 1: her own. Obviously Shannon could from everything I've read about her,

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Speaker 1: she could hold her own against anyone. Yeah, It's it's

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Speaker 1: interesting because I mean there's always been women in special operations,

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Speaker 1: you know, going back to the to the OSS. But

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Speaker 1: there was a I think when the when the global

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Speaker 1: Warrant terror kicked off, we you know, women weren't allowed

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Speaker 1: to be in frontline positions. But then where was the

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Speaker 1: front line, Especially in a place like Iraq where we

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Speaker 1: were getting hit so heavily, um doing logistics or a

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Speaker 1: basis were being attacked, the front line was kind of

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Speaker 1: like you know, they just didn't exist. But Shannon kind

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Speaker 1: of found her way to working with UH with special operations,

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Speaker 1: you know, based off of a need UM that the

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Speaker 1: units all bad. So Shannon started out just doing signals,

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Speaker 1: intelligence and some translation UM as she just kept volunteering

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Speaker 1: every time they needed someone to go and get closer

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Speaker 1: to the fight. So she kind of found herself working

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Speaker 1: at the task force level. UM. This is at the

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Speaker 1: time where I think other than s F guys, other

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Speaker 1: than green berets, most of the task forces weren't really

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Speaker 1: looking at engaging with the Iraqis as much UM, either

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Speaker 1: as a partner force or looking for sources of intelligence.

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Speaker 1: So I think around oh six though seven, UM, the

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Speaker 1: bigger soft community really started looking at that. And Shannon

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Speaker 1: was right place, right time, but with the right attitude

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Speaker 1: and the right skills. So she she identified that hey, UM,

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Speaker 1: there's a gap and we need to go talk to

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Speaker 1: some of these Iraqis UM and she had no problem

397
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Speaker 1: doing it. And then some seal commanders who also realized

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Speaker 1: that hey, we can we can get more bad guys

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Speaker 1: if we exploit this UM, they took the initiative and

400
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Speaker 1: kind of put her down at the task force level. UM.

401
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Speaker 1: At the strike force level with Seal platoons to go

402
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Speaker 1: and start working with with local iraqis UM to dive

403
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Speaker 1: actionable intelligence. So she was working way outside of her

404
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:06,480
Speaker 1: scope as a cryptological course sign and technician UM. And

405
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Speaker 1: that's kind of a she got her foot in the

406
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Speaker 1: door from there, uh and that was oh seven. From there,

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Speaker 1: the Seal team started forming their own intelligence teams that

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Speaker 1: were ran by seals, and they invited her to come

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Speaker 1: to come to try outs for that. So she was

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Speaker 1: in the the first or second class. There was two

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Speaker 1: that kind of happened a couple weeks apart from each

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Speaker 1: other that allowed females to come try out. So she

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Speaker 1: was in the first crop of women that were allowed

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Speaker 1: into the Seal the Seal platoons. Before that, the seal well,

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Speaker 1: the Seal platoons had been completely closed off to anybody

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Speaker 1: who wasn't a seal. That's pretty uh, that's pretty telling

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Speaker 1: for how good she was and uh, you know, it's uh.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that struck me reading about her

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Speaker 1: her her story was that she could have been a

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Speaker 1: doctorate uh psychology student. And I guess because she had

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Speaker 1: a previous I guess cancer diagnosis was a thyroid cancer.

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Speaker 1: They they turned her down for that, and uh that's

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Speaker 1: how she ended up on her final deployment. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it is. I mean Shannon, Uh, once we started having

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Speaker 1: kids and you know, we were we were getting a

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Speaker 1: little bit a little bit older, UM, and you know,

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Speaker 1: having had a young family, Shannon was like decided that

428
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:25,080
Speaker 1: she wanted to do something that would let her stay

429
00:23:25,119 --> 00:23:27,640
Speaker 1: home with the kids but still contribute to the community.

430
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:30,600
Speaker 1: So with her language skills UM and her desire to

431
00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:35,160
Speaker 1: like help out veterans, UM her actually her back rewinding

432
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:39,199
Speaker 1: a little bit. Her her last deployment in Afghanistan, she

433
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 1: was um assigned to a seal team UM where the

434
00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:46,040
Speaker 1: seal team commander actually killed himself on on the deployment.

435
00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:48,520
Speaker 1: They had suffered some losses in this guy, for whatever

436
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,800
Speaker 1: reason or another, tragically took his own life UM. And

437
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:54,199
Speaker 1: Shannon had always had an interest in psychology, but after that,

438
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 1: when she was like, you know, someday, whenever I you know,

439
00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:00,399
Speaker 1: get off the ride of deployments, I'd like to do

440
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:03,719
Speaker 1: something that I can help veterans with with this suicide

441
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,840
Speaker 1: you know epidemic that we have right now. UM. So

442
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:08,560
Speaker 1: as we grew our family, Shams like, I think I'm

443
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:12,360
Speaker 1: gonna really focus on my education and apply for this program.

444
00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:14,239
Speaker 1: So she got her masters and her bachelor's and her

445
00:24:14,240 --> 00:24:16,440
Speaker 1: masters all on her own at night, doing night school

446
00:24:16,480 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 1: and online college UM, and then she applied for it,

447
00:24:19,320 --> 00:24:20,840
Speaker 1: took the g r E and was accepted to the

448
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,400
Speaker 1: military's medical program, which is one of the better deals

449
00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:26,000
Speaker 1: in the world if you can get it. They pay

450
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 1: for your your PhD in your med school, and they

451
00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:30,920
Speaker 1: commissioned you as an officer. And that's where she hit

452
00:24:31,320 --> 00:24:36,320
Speaker 1: a stumbling point. So she academically got accepted into this course. UM.

453
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:38,480
Speaker 1: But the first step is sort of like going warrant.

454
00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:39,960
Speaker 1: The first thing they do is they put you through

455
00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:43,080
Speaker 1: the OCS to make you an officer, which means you're

456
00:24:43,240 --> 00:24:45,400
Speaker 1: you're subjected to and this is like a real big

457
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:49,159
Speaker 1: catch twenty two bureaucratic thing. They subject you to a

458
00:24:49,280 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: session standards, so you're like a person that just came

459
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:55,640
Speaker 1: off the street into the military as opposed to retention standards.

460
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:59,040
Speaker 1: So retention standards they let you the military understands that

461
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:01,120
Speaker 1: you've you've been banned death and beating up a little

462
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:02,840
Speaker 1: bit more, and so they give you some more leeway

463
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:05,800
Speaker 1: if you can still do your job. So Shan at

464
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:09,639
Speaker 1: this point had been in for close to fifteen years, um,

465
00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:12,520
Speaker 1: and so that she had had thyroid cancer while I

466
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:14,320
Speaker 1: was while I was not a deployment, she had it.

467
00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:16,440
Speaker 1: She was diagnosed of that. She had to cut it

468
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:18,439
Speaker 1: out out of her out of her thyroid, and was

469
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:20,560
Speaker 1: back to work within I think less than a week.

470
00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 1: It was barely been. It was barely been a blip

471
00:25:24,200 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 1: on the radar, and she was cancer free. So um,

472
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:30,040
Speaker 1: it really wasn't a huge deal to her. It was

473
00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:31,479
Speaker 1: a big deal, but it wasn't a big deal to her,

474
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,159
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a big deal medically, but it was

475
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:35,919
Speaker 1: in her medical records, which if you've had cancer, you

476
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:38,560
Speaker 1: can't go in list or join the military, so she

477
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:41,560
Speaker 1: was they refused to commission her, which made her ineligible

478
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 1: for the medical program. So um, she felt she was

479
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:49,359
Speaker 1: still working you know, in the at the n s

480
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:52,479
Speaker 1: A in special operations, and so it was her her

481
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,160
Speaker 1: turn to deploy essentially, um, because she hadn't gotten into

482
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:59,159
Speaker 1: that PhD program. But I mean she was, you know,

483
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:02,639
Speaker 1: it's it's obviously that's how she got into that program.

484
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 1: She'd still be alive today. Um. But she you know,

485
00:26:07,200 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 1: knew that deploying was you know, what the military paid

486
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: her do, what she had spent her adult life working

487
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 1: towards and that was where her skill set was needed.

488
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,800
Speaker 1: Because ISIS was in its final ISISS territorial caliphate was

489
00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:24,000
Speaker 1: kind of his final stand. So she, you know, was

490
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,679
Speaker 1: was torn about leaving us and disappointed that she had

491
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:30,560
Speaker 1: kind of gotten beer correctly tripped up. But you know,

492
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:32,800
Speaker 1: she just like all of us who who go and

493
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: fight for our country, she you know, eagerly, eagerly went

494
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:40,159
Speaker 1: out to go do her part. Yeah, and you know

495
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:43,959
Speaker 1: it's got to be tough, especially for a mother, regardless

496
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:49,960
Speaker 1: of what her job is, leave home to young boys. Yeah,

497
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:52,160
Speaker 1: I mean it tore her up. That was the big

498
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:54,679
Speaker 1: reason why she wanted to do this program was to

499
00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,080
Speaker 1: be able to stay home and and focus on the

500
00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,639
Speaker 1: focus on the boys. Uh. You know, as much as

501
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,879
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, you shouldn't go because you're

502
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,719
Speaker 1: a mother, she was like, well, that argument's bullshit because

503
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:10,240
Speaker 1: guys men have been deploying for as long as we've

504
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,879
Speaker 1: had wars away from their wives and their children. Like

505
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 1: if I if I want to be treated like one

506
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:18,640
Speaker 1: of the guys, why would this incident or why would

507
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,879
Speaker 1: this circumstances be being any different, you know, which I

508
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 1: couldn't argue with as much as I wanted to. Um.

509
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:27,800
Speaker 1: So that was kind of where she said where she

510
00:27:27,840 --> 00:27:29,040
Speaker 1: still she was like I don't like it, I don't

511
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 1: want to do it, but at the same time, like

512
00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,399
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna, you know, try and find a way

513
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:37,679
Speaker 1: at this. Yeah, and then you know her it was

514
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:43,120
Speaker 1: it a whole team of her co workers that that

515
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:46,400
Speaker 1: that went into that restaurant in in Syria that were

516
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:51,159
Speaker 1: you know, killed in that suicide bombing. Yeah, it was.

517
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:53,680
Speaker 1: It was a it was a mixed team, UM of

518
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:56,200
Speaker 1: you know special operations guys are out there that day.

519
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 1: They were just outside the restaurant. Um. Yeah, I'm doing

520
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: doing some work, trying to run down the last last

521
00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 1: remnants of ISIS there in Mandage. Um was it the

522
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:12,240
Speaker 1: ISIS operative who did? Then? It was? Yeah, I mean

523
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:14,440
Speaker 1: it was nice to suicide bomber. I just took client,

524
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:20,399
Speaker 1: took credit for it. Mhm. Now then was that about

525
00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 1: the time you retired? So I retired? Um retired? I was, Yeah,

526
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:30,800
Speaker 1: I had moved on and I was working, um in

527
00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:34,920
Speaker 1: the intelligence community. UM so my, my, my, retirement wasn't

528
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 1: much of a It wasn't much of a retirement really,

529
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:41,040
Speaker 1: which is kind of why Shannon wanted to switch over

530
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:43,200
Speaker 1: to the psych world and kind of stay more at

531
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 1: home because I I had kind of gotten a job

532
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 1: where I would have been on the road a little bit. UM,

533
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 1: so she was having to you, not only take care

534
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:53,760
Speaker 1: of the kids, but she was having to be flexible

535
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 1: for for my schedule as well. So understood, so I

536
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:03,720
Speaker 1: wanted to switch gears. I know that you know, um,

537
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 1: you've written some stuff, UM, and it has nothing to

538
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: do with the passing of your wife. It's just from

539
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 1: your experience and with the leven combat deployments. I think

540
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 1: you have plenty of experience, and you wrote some stuff about, uh,

541
00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:22,240
Speaker 1: it's time to get out of these endless wars in

542
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 1: the Middle East, and I'd like for you to share

543
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 1: some of your thoughts on that because I think, uh,

544
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:32,760
Speaker 1: our listeners will definitely understand what you're where you're coming from,

545
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 1: and I think you'll maybe change some opinions on people

546
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 1: who think we shouldn't leave. Yeah. Absolutely, um, once uh,

547
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 1: once Shannon was killed, I, UM, you know, I didn't

548
00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 1: actually plan on speaking out too much of me in public.

549
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:50,959
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell her story. UM. But I had

550
00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 1: a pretty unique opportunity because Shannon was killed right after

551
00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,520
Speaker 1: Trump tried to get us out of series the first time, UM,

552
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:02,200
Speaker 1: which led to General or Secretary Madis at time resigning,

553
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 1: and then the head of the Isis the Counter Isis coalition,

554
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:08,640
Speaker 1: Britt McGirk resigning UM, and then a lot of other

555
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:12,200
Speaker 1: lower level bureaucrats generally resisting what the President had just

556
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:16,880
Speaker 1: put out. UM. So it was kind of a polarizing

557
00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:20,760
Speaker 1: moment that I think a lot of people mischaracterized as

558
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: Trump being reckless UM and Trump doing something wrong. UM.

559
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,320
Speaker 1: We were at a point in the counter Issis fight

560
00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: come uh, I'd say the Winter Ofen where the Territorial

561
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 1: Caliphate was for the most part defeated. UM. And there

562
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,000
Speaker 1: was two competing narratives, you know. One was what President

563
00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: Trump was saying was, Hey, we're gonna smash all the

564
00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:44,880
Speaker 1: ground they're holding and they're not gonna be able the

565
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:46,240
Speaker 1: whole ground. And then we're getting out and we're not

566
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:49,920
Speaker 1: getting stuck. And then there's the prevailing narrative of the

567
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 1: Global War on Terrorism, which has been this is a

568
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 1: long fight and we have to stay forever wherever there's

569
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: radical Islamic extremism, we need to have boots on the

570
00:30:58,200 --> 00:31:02,920
Speaker 1: ground UM, and we need stay and have consistent engagements UM.

571
00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 1: And that's something that I think we've all believed for

572
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:08,760
Speaker 1: a while, and we tried, and we've tried for quite

573
00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 1: a while, and if it was going to be successful,

574
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:13,959
Speaker 1: I think Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria would look a

575
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: heck of a lot different UM, which is a stark

576
00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 1: contrast to some other places where we've had very distinct

577
00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:26,760
Speaker 1: threats UM from radical Islamic terror UM, specifically targeting our

578
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:33,040
Speaker 1: homeland UM, mostly from the Horn of Africa and Yemen UM,

579
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 1: and also in Pakistan, and those are some places where

580
00:31:35,240 --> 00:31:38,360
Speaker 1: we haven't had a ton of persistent ground engagement. We've

581
00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:41,520
Speaker 1: had some smaller bases in neighboring countries and we've done

582
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: targeted counter terrorism raids UM and targeted counter terrorism operations

583
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:49,320
Speaker 1: with drone strikes UM and intelligence operations of partner forces,

584
00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: and that's kind of kept the homeland safe. Whereas if

585
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 1: you contrast that with the trillions of dollars in almost

586
00:31:55,000 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 1: seven thousand lives now we've poured into Iraq and Afghanistan UM.

587
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:03,320
Speaker 1: I think the differences couldn't be more stark. And if

588
00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: we look at how we initially got into these wars

589
00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 1: after nine eleven, we obviously pursued al Qaeda into Afghanistan

590
00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 1: UM with the intent of getting the perpetrators of Not

591
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:19,600
Speaker 1: eleven and also the Taliban that gave them safe haven. Um.

592
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:22,920
Speaker 1: We did that. We overthrew the Taliban government. We chased

593
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 1: al Qaida into Pakistan by the winter of two thousand one,

594
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:32,400
Speaker 1: winter of two to UM and then we stopped. And

595
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,360
Speaker 1: then George Bush publicly said, hey, I changed my mind,

596
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,520
Speaker 1: and where you are going to the ultimate nation building.

597
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:40,479
Speaker 1: We're going to bring peace and stability to this region,

598
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 1: which is overall going to eventually make us more safe

599
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 1: and secure, a huge ideological gamble with our lives and

600
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 1: with our fortunes and so ever. Since then, despite the

601
00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:54,680
Speaker 1: rhetoric of different politicians, that's been what we've been doing

602
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,360
Speaker 1: in Iraq, and I say Iraq and Afghanistan. It's more

603
00:32:57,400 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 1: for a little bit into Syria because of the IIS

604
00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 1: fight as well. But everything we've done has been centered

605
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 1: on building up these these governments that don't really naturally exist.

606
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:09,200
Speaker 1: I mean, there was there's been different iterations of the

607
00:33:09,200 --> 00:33:15,680
Speaker 1: Afghan government, but Afghanistans a bunch of tribes, and then

608
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:18,680
Speaker 1: Iraq has that different strong men that there's a huge

609
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 1: ethno sectarian war that's raging there. Um. So everything that

610
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 1: we're trying to do with building these centralized governments that

611
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,920
Speaker 1: just become pits for money and resources and lives, it

612
00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:34,360
Speaker 1: just hasn't been effective. I'm not against us having limited engagements.

613
00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:37,880
Speaker 1: I think we'll have small teams of special operations and

614
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:42,160
Speaker 1: intelligence people throughout the world, um, you know, probably for

615
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:44,520
Speaker 1: the rest of our history, because that's just the nature

616
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:47,160
Speaker 1: of conflict and nature of war. But nowadays, you stay

617
00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: too long in these locations, you get bogged down, and

618
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,600
Speaker 1: I think you can track the the rise of some

619
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:56,080
Speaker 1: of our adversaries that we thought were a thing of

620
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:58,040
Speaker 1: the past at the end of the Cold War, like Russia,

621
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:01,680
Speaker 1: and we're completely blindsided by China while we've been bogged

622
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 1: down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Having the most mighty military

623
00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:09,440
Speaker 1: in the whole world, learned tribal dynamics of Afghanistan and Pakistan,

624
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 1: and and our providence Iraq um really strategic fly over

625
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,800
Speaker 1: country if you think about it. We've had China e

626
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 1: r launch economically maneuver on our flank. In the Pacific,

627
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:24,840
Speaker 1: We've had a Russia re emerged and threatened Europe. And meanwhile,

628
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 1: we have politicians that think we need to keep our

629
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:30,560
Speaker 1: military focused and bogged down these in these locations. So

630
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:32,680
Speaker 1: I think it's just time for us to start really

631
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 1: rethinking the way that our nation fights wars and uses

632
00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 1: power and are I mean, I think are our wars

633
00:34:41,400 --> 00:34:44,520
Speaker 1: um in the Middle East? Have they reached diminishing returns

634
00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 1: probably a decade ago. So I think it's time to

635
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:48,799
Speaker 1: kind of cold Turkey and just get out of both

636
00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:53,640
Speaker 1: of those locations for a wide variety of reasons. Yeah,

637
00:34:53,920 --> 00:34:56,160
Speaker 1: it's funny you mentioned that because a lot of what

638
00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:59,680
Speaker 1: you said about Afghanistan. I don't know, if you know,

639
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:04,040
Speaker 1: are familiar with Being West, who was former Marine officer

640
00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:08,840
Speaker 1: and uh he was the under Secretary of Defense for

641
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:13,240
Speaker 1: I think international security in the Reagaane administration. I spoke

642
00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:16,800
Speaker 1: with him earlier this week, and you know, he pretty

643
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:19,839
Speaker 1: much said almost word for word a lot of what

644
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:24,520
Speaker 1: you're saying about Afghanistan. I mean, you know, we're trying

645
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:28,200
Speaker 1: to build a nation of tribes who don't want a nation.

646
00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:32,640
Speaker 1: They want to you know, ninth century caliphate. So I

647
00:35:32,719 --> 00:35:35,439
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't know what the endgame is gonna

648
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:39,160
Speaker 1: be there, But uh, that peace agreement we signed with

649
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:45,279
Speaker 1: them back in February, it doesn't seem Yeah, no, I mean,

650
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 1: but I think that the peace agreement and all that's

651
00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 1: just kind of eyewash to give us a reason to

652
00:35:51,200 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 1: say that we're going to leave, which is fine, like

653
00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:55,600
Speaker 1: I'm not against it, it also gives us another reason

654
00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:59,440
Speaker 1: that like, hey, I mean, I'm of the mindset places

655
00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 1: like Afghania stand and this this goes for probably a

656
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:05,799
Speaker 1: lot of the Middle East and and uh, the Islamic world, like, hey,

657
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:08,000
Speaker 1: we don't care really what you do, how you live,

658
00:36:08,080 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 1: that's not our that's not our business. However, if you

659
00:36:10,840 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 1: harbord terrorists, we will come back in here and we

660
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:15,680
Speaker 1: will crush you. So something like the piece agreement to

661
00:36:15,719 --> 00:36:18,759
Speaker 1: actually have it in writing, and if they do get

662
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:22,200
Speaker 1: bold enough to let anybody with any kind of external

663
00:36:22,239 --> 00:36:24,239
Speaker 1: aspirations come back in there, we can say, well, they

664
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,240
Speaker 1: violated the piece a greement and now we're going to

665
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:30,200
Speaker 1: inflict some kind of punitive damage against them, but then

666
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:32,920
Speaker 1: get back out. We're not We're not there to build

667
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:35,720
Speaker 1: a government and training military and open little girls schools.

668
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,439
Speaker 1: Like if we come back here, it's it's to ruin

669
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:41,720
Speaker 1: your day. Yeah, and that was something you had written

670
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 1: for Fox News. You know, most people believe that there's

671
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 1: only two choices when we're talking about the Middle East exactly,

672
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:56,000
Speaker 1: either fight and and stay until we have total victory,

673
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:58,400
Speaker 1: or we have to pull out and you know, go

674
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 1: into a shell. And that's that's not really you know,

675
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:05,120
Speaker 1: that's not really the way. I mean, there's other ways to,

676
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:08,360
Speaker 1: you know, for us to conduct that. I think you

677
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:10,399
Speaker 1: hit the nail on the head, and I think that's

678
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:13,359
Speaker 1: probably what's going to happen in the future. I think

679
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:17,000
Speaker 1: we're not going to probably pull out completely. We'll probably

680
00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:21,080
Speaker 1: leave some special operators and you know, intel people with

681
00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:28,000
Speaker 1: the capability of directing air strikes if these terrorists, which

682
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:32,520
Speaker 1: I believe in Afghanistan, the Taliban hasn't even divested themselves

683
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:37,640
Speaker 1: with al Qaeda, so I think they I think it

684
00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 1: the Taliban that hangs out in uh in Qatar and

685
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:42,360
Speaker 1: has meetings of US. I think they say they do,

686
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 1: but I think the guys on the ground don't. But

687
00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 1: I mean, that's another thing that I think folks just

688
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:48,760
Speaker 1: don't understand about the region is you have competing tribes,

689
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,600
Speaker 1: competing ethno sectarian groups. They're all kind of at each

690
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:55,480
Speaker 1: other's throats, if you if we utilize our intelligence services

691
00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:58,560
Speaker 1: to monitor that, we can more or less play them

692
00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:01,080
Speaker 1: off each other because when or when they're busy fighting

693
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:05,440
Speaker 1: each other, Um, they really can't provide sanctuary for folks

694
00:38:05,440 --> 00:38:07,439
Speaker 1: that want to come and attack us. And so if

695
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:11,680
Speaker 1: the Taliman, as nebulous as the Taliman is a non

696
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:14,600
Speaker 1: monolithic as it is, if they know that there's a

697
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:18,640
Speaker 1: financial incentive to ratting on their cousins who are letting

698
00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:20,719
Speaker 1: out kind of guys come back in, well, then our

699
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:22,640
Speaker 1: intelligence guys are going to stay pretty busy. And so

700
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 1: were drones. I mean, we don't need to have a

701
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:30,880
Speaker 1: massive base there um doing these huge you know, government

702
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,440
Speaker 1: building type of type of missions there um. As a

703
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:35,399
Speaker 1: matter of fact, the lower our footprint is, the less

704
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:37,279
Speaker 1: vulnerable we are, because you know, we sell the whole

705
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:41,839
Speaker 1: the cold controversy of Russian bounties. Um, that's a whole

706
00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:44,560
Speaker 1: different topic. But really anywhere that we over extend ourselves

707
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:47,279
Speaker 1: in an over at presence, we're the biggest dogs in

708
00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:50,640
Speaker 1: the planet. We make ourselves at that point a target

709
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 1: for everybody to come and provide money to an economy

710
00:38:56,520 --> 00:39:01,720
Speaker 1: full of people who are essentially paid proxies or paid terrorists,

711
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:03,120
Speaker 1: however you want to look at, because that's kind of

712
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:04,560
Speaker 1: the way a lot of these tribes work. They have

713
00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:07,560
Speaker 1: a well armed cadre of young men who know how

714
00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:10,239
Speaker 1: to fight, and if you pay them, they're happy to

715
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:12,560
Speaker 1: go fight you. Um. So if we have these big

716
00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:15,839
Speaker 1: bases in Iraq or Afghanistan, all of our enemies can

717
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:17,920
Speaker 1: leverage that against us, which is how you want to

718
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 1: fight us. You fight us unconventionally. None of our adversaries

719
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:23,359
Speaker 1: want to fight us head on. So we we take

720
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:28,000
Speaker 1: away a ton of our um technological advantage when we

721
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:29,880
Speaker 1: go and we stay in these places permanently and we

722
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,799
Speaker 1: get within small arms fire range of these dudes. Um.

723
00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:35,400
Speaker 1: I mean, we're gonna need some people within smaller entranched

724
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 1: fire every now and again, but for the most part,

725
00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:42,480
Speaker 1: we can use intelligence and we can use our standoff

726
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:45,680
Speaker 1: and our allies in the region um to get to

727
00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:50,319
Speaker 1: get the job of counter terrorism done. Yeah, and you know,

728
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 1: going to Iraq, um. You know, one of the interesting

729
00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 1: things about Iraq is they fought at hugely costly war

730
00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:03,440
Speaker 1: what I ran back in the eighties, and they you

731
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:06,440
Speaker 1: know that that was their enemy. I mean, that was there.

732
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:11,440
Speaker 1: You know, Uh died in the wool enemy. They couldn't

733
00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:15,799
Speaker 1: stand each other. And then Um, after you know, our

734
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:19,520
Speaker 1: invasion of Iraq the second time, it seems like now

735
00:40:19,600 --> 00:40:24,160
Speaker 1: the Iranians have basically the government at their back and

736
00:40:24,200 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 1: call in Iraq and they have a lot more influence.

737
00:40:27,680 --> 00:40:32,640
Speaker 1: And you know, it comes down to Um, I believe,

738
00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:36,879
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you feel the same way that it's

739
00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:40,120
Speaker 1: time for us to pull out of Iraq, and they

740
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:42,880
Speaker 1: it's up to the Iraqis to decide whether or not,

741
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:46,759
Speaker 1: you know, they're going to be allies with us in

742
00:40:46,800 --> 00:40:50,920
Speaker 1: the Western world, or they're going to be allies with Iran,

743
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 1: who's still a pariah on the national community. Yeah. Absolutely,

744
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:59,239
Speaker 1: I mean, and there there's a huge history there on

745
00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:01,120
Speaker 1: why Iran was will look at their teentnacles and there

746
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:04,759
Speaker 1: mostly it's just because the populations and mostly Shia. Um

747
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:08,120
Speaker 1: Saddam treatedly she is horribly UM and Iran did a

748
00:41:08,160 --> 00:41:11,359
Speaker 1: really good long game about reach the Shia community there,

749
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:15,600
Speaker 1: and we were, um, I think, willingly blindsided by that

750
00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:18,160
Speaker 1: going in Iraq the second time, and we put a

751
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:21,279
Speaker 1: ton of shia's Uh and the Shia militant groups that

752
00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:24,239
Speaker 1: had very close ties to Iran. We put them in

753
00:41:24,280 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 1: power because they were the alternative to Saddam. And nobody

754
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:30,759
Speaker 1: really wanted to admit how bad we messed up, because

755
00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:33,399
Speaker 1: there's there's two administrations there that have that that yoke

756
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:37,319
Speaker 1: on their face, mostly bush Um. But the table has

757
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:40,400
Speaker 1: been set that this Iraqi government that we built is

758
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 1: supposed to be some sort of success, especially after we

759
00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:45,759
Speaker 1: said so in two thousand eleven we pulled out the

760
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:50,480
Speaker 1: first time. UM. So now we have this Iraqi government

761
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:53,600
Speaker 1: that is more loyal to Iran, who's our enemy, who

762
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 1: we fund. We also provide a good deal of economic

763
00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 1: waivers to Iraq so they can do business with Iran.

764
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:02,880
Speaker 1: So I ran access as the world community through Iraq

765
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:07,759
Speaker 1: that we fund. UM. However, the the Iranians, anytime that

766
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:11,480
Speaker 1: they're upset with them, that we do sanctions wise, they

767
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:15,440
Speaker 1: again have within close reach of their their most leathal

768
00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:18,600
Speaker 1: asset their proxies. They have a huge US embassy and

769
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:22,840
Speaker 1: they have multiple US basis UM. So that when we

770
00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:28,879
Speaker 1: came back in there in twenty four helped them fight ISIS. Um,

771
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:30,799
Speaker 1: they left us alone because they needed us to take

772
00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:32,680
Speaker 1: care of ices because IIS was a threat to them.

773
00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:34,440
Speaker 1: As soon as the ISIS threat kind of went away

774
00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:39,440
Speaker 1: towards the latter part of and UH nineteen, the Iranians

775
00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:42,919
Speaker 1: start attacking Americans again. Um. They just didn't anticipate at

776
00:42:43,239 --> 00:42:45,040
Speaker 1: President Trump when he drew a red line it was

777
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,120
Speaker 1: going to be different than Obama's red line in Syria

778
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:49,719
Speaker 1: because Trump said, if you killed one American will come

779
00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:52,720
Speaker 1: after you. Um. And sure enough they did. They tragically

780
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 1: killed an American you know, about a year ago, um,

781
00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:58,640
Speaker 1: right before New Year's and then from their Trump struck

782
00:42:58,640 --> 00:43:01,560
Speaker 1: back and we killed customs money. But a big problem.

783
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:03,800
Speaker 1: As good as that was, I think it was excellent

784
00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:05,600
Speaker 1: that he did that. And that's the that's the most

785
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:09,240
Speaker 1: vengeance that the US has taken against Iran in nineteen

786
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 1: seventy nine. Um, we've played this, We played this game

787
00:43:12,160 --> 00:43:14,080
Speaker 1: where I ran punches us and then we talked tough

788
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:16,240
Speaker 1: against Iran, and we don't have really punched back until

789
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:18,960
Speaker 1: until we killed some money. So I can't say enough

790
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,399
Speaker 1: good things about that. The problem is once we did that,

791
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:25,680
Speaker 1: we we remained in Iraq again, like we're fighting the

792
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:27,719
Speaker 1: enemy on their terms. We have all the advantages in

793
00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:31,480
Speaker 1: the world economic and militarily against Iran, but we leave

794
00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:34,080
Speaker 1: these troops on the table in Iraq um to give

795
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:36,839
Speaker 1: the Iraqi government money. Who's really supporting Iran? It's it's

796
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:38,759
Speaker 1: I mean, I smile laugh to think about it, but

797
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:41,839
Speaker 1: it's kind of sick um. But we also give them

798
00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:43,880
Speaker 1: this massive advantage, like we had these troops that are

799
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:46,359
Speaker 1: there on the battlefield that are vulnerable to all these

800
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:49,480
Speaker 1: different militant procy groups that I ran and has built up.

801
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:52,160
Speaker 1: So to me, there's nothing but strategical ability that comes

802
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:55,360
Speaker 1: out of being in Iraq, because really we're one Katusha

803
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:58,720
Speaker 1: rocket away from killing an American. And then now Trump

804
00:43:58,840 --> 00:44:01,040
Speaker 1: or the next president is faced with, Okay, well now

805
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:02,959
Speaker 1: do I do? Now do I go go to warfare ranks?

806
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,440
Speaker 1: They just killed an American? Continue to pour money in

807
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:08,640
Speaker 1: the Iraqi government. We really we could just leave and

808
00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,200
Speaker 1: do exactly what you just said, like say, hey, Iraq,

809
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:13,600
Speaker 1: like call us if you if you want us back,

810
00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:17,160
Speaker 1: But until you guys summar ties if I ran, like

811
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:20,480
Speaker 1: we're not funny anymore, don't ask I ran for money

812
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:21,920
Speaker 1: and then we just thank you the crap out of

813
00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:25,680
Speaker 1: our Rans, right, And you know a lot of the people,

814
00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:30,280
Speaker 1: from what I've been reading with some of the periodicals

815
00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:32,920
Speaker 1: that are coming out of the Middle East, the Iraqi

816
00:44:32,960 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 1: people are getting tired of, you know, the Iranian influence

817
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:40,000
Speaker 1: on all their lives over there. I think they they

818
00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:42,120
Speaker 1: want the Iranians out just as much as they want

819
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:45,400
Speaker 1: us out. Yeah, I mean, they really do. And I

820
00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:48,200
Speaker 1: think the Iraqi people actually want us to do a

821
00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:50,920
Speaker 1: lot more. I mean, there was a the conventional wisdom

822
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:53,680
Speaker 1: before he killed Somani and his deputy who who's an

823
00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:58,480
Speaker 1: Iraqi Iranian citizen, Badi Mandas. The logic prior to that

824
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:00,319
Speaker 1: was that we couldn't touch these guys because they were

825
00:45:00,360 --> 00:45:03,240
Speaker 1: so popular and they just these guys were like rock stars,

826
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:05,719
Speaker 1: where they were like gods to you know, folks in

827
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:09,239
Speaker 1: that area. After we killed them, like the Iraqis and

828
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:10,919
Speaker 1: even a lot of people in Iram were like, well,

829
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:13,879
Speaker 1: thank God, like pats off the President Trump for killing them,

830
00:45:13,880 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 1: you know, Like I think Trump got more praise in

831
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:19,359
Speaker 1: Iraq from Iraqis than he did, you know, back here

832
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:22,399
Speaker 1: in the States from making that decision. So I think

833
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:24,279
Speaker 1: you're I think you're right, and I've been reading the

834
00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:27,560
Speaker 1: same thing. I think they want the the Iranian influence

835
00:45:27,600 --> 00:45:31,239
Speaker 1: out um, and I think they would be I think

836
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:33,480
Speaker 1: if we didn't prop up that government and give them

837
00:45:33,480 --> 00:45:38,240
Speaker 1: an option, UM, they would ask about to the whims

838
00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:40,400
Speaker 1: of their people. Because the problem is we continue to

839
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:42,600
Speaker 1: pump money in there because they say, oh, there's nicest

840
00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:44,719
Speaker 1: threat and we're all scared of the icest coming back Ice.

841
00:45:44,800 --> 00:45:46,920
Speaker 1: This is bad. We don't wants to come back. They

842
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 1: say there's nicest threats, so we have to continue to

843
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:51,120
Speaker 1: give them aid. We don't want them to fail because

844
00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:54,120
Speaker 1: we've lashed ourselves to them, Like there's now there's two

845
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:56,840
Speaker 1: and there's even there's two administrations, and there's even members

846
00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,279
Speaker 1: of the Trump administration who say that we need to

847
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:01,279
Speaker 1: be deeply invested in Iraq. So there's so many people

848
00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:03,840
Speaker 1: right now that are deeply invested in making this government

849
00:46:04,280 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 1: despite all of its efforts, despite all that government's efforts

850
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:10,200
Speaker 1: to make it successful. So we just keep pulling money

851
00:46:10,239 --> 00:46:13,399
Speaker 1: and enabling their horrible treatment of their people and their

852
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:15,839
Speaker 1: capitulation to Iran. We just keep enabling with our money.

853
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:17,560
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's time for us to

854
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:21,280
Speaker 1: walk away, probably not forever. To have an Iraqi government

855
00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:23,840
Speaker 1: that that is an ally to us would be great.

856
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:28,839
Speaker 1: Iraqi is strategically valuable, um, but not at the cost

857
00:46:28,920 --> 00:46:34,400
Speaker 1: that we're paying right now. Just I'm strictly opinion. Do

858
00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:38,000
Speaker 1: you think the Biden administration will pull us out? What

859
00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:42,040
Speaker 1: do you think that we'll we'll keep people there now?

860
00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:45,240
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Biden, for a wide variety of reasons,

861
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:47,520
Speaker 1: he's he's going to have us stay in Iraqi and

862
00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:51,960
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan. I mean, he's he's ideologically wed to Iraq.

863
00:46:52,239 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 1: This is another reason why like Trump, love him or

864
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:56,000
Speaker 1: hate him. The guy didn't have a record coming in,

865
00:46:56,120 --> 00:46:58,399
Speaker 1: and that's a good thing because he didn't. He wasn't

866
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:01,440
Speaker 1: ideologically wed the past actions and past statements. I mean,

867
00:47:01,520 --> 00:47:05,280
Speaker 1: Biden isn't voted for the Iraq war. Um. Every opinion

868
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:07,200
Speaker 1: he's had in Iraq so far has has called for

869
00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:10,000
Speaker 1: more engagement, and frankly, every opinion he's had has been wrong.

870
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:14,120
Speaker 1: So these politicians don't, especially career politicians that have been

871
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:16,680
Speaker 1: rewarded by failure, they don't tend to learn from their mistakes.

872
00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:19,640
Speaker 1: They just double and triple down on it and especially

873
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:22,520
Speaker 1: now that as polarized as things are, if you do

874
00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:25,000
Speaker 1: the opposite of Trump, you must be good. So I

875
00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:28,120
Speaker 1: think an easy win for Biden is to say, well,

876
00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:30,000
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna send more troops in because what Trump

877
00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:32,000
Speaker 1: did was ridiculous, and now we're gonna have more troops

878
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:34,440
Speaker 1: in the battlefield. The Iraqis are gonna be like, Okay, well,

879
00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:36,640
Speaker 1: Biden's back. We just need to tell him that Isis

880
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:39,080
Speaker 1: is super bad and super scary, and the money will

881
00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:41,319
Speaker 1: continue to flow in. And the same thing in Afghanistan,

882
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:44,200
Speaker 1: really like we just need more time to build our

883
00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:46,319
Speaker 1: army in our government, and we just need more Americans here,

884
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:49,400
Speaker 1: and we need more money, and it's rents, repeat, And

885
00:47:49,520 --> 00:47:53,040
Speaker 1: I think Biden knows that most Americans don't closely follow

886
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:56,160
Speaker 1: these wars and in the way that and the way

887
00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:58,480
Speaker 1: that we do in the veteran community, in the military community,

888
00:47:58,480 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 1: like we're pretty tiny in the grand scheme of things. Um,

889
00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:04,239
Speaker 1: So I think they'll just say that they're doing the

890
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:07,760
Speaker 1: opposite of Trump, and the media will, you know, reward

891
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:09,960
Speaker 1: them for that, and then we'll just move on. So

892
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:14,080
Speaker 1: I kind of have a a more grim pessimistic outlook

893
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: on the next four years. I think of a lot

894
00:48:18,040 --> 00:48:21,840
Speaker 1: of us should have the same look. So what's next

895
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:24,439
Speaker 1: for you personally? I mean, I know you have two

896
00:48:24,480 --> 00:48:27,680
Speaker 1: young sons. Are you going to continue to be involved

897
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:31,520
Speaker 1: with the you know, some of the organizations that would

898
00:48:31,520 --> 00:48:38,480
Speaker 1: like to see its end our involvement there or you know, yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely,

899
00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:43,239
Speaker 1: I'm working with Concerned Veterans for America right now, UM,

900
00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:45,960
Speaker 1: and that's that's our whole campaign is trying to endians wars.

901
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:48,520
Speaker 1: So as as much engagement as they want me to

902
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:50,640
Speaker 1: do or they'll let me to do, I'm I'm happy

903
00:48:50,680 --> 00:48:53,880
Speaker 1: to do doing uh, you know, programs like this or

904
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:56,600
Speaker 1: even getting to go hopefully get in front of them

905
00:48:56,760 --> 00:49:01,840
Speaker 1: some of our congressional representatives UM and senators to convinced

906
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:03,960
Speaker 1: them to use the tools and the legislature, namely the

907
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:08,000
Speaker 1: budget UM to end these endless wars. In particular, I

908
00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:11,080
Speaker 1: think repealing the National Defense Authorization Act two GUS one.

909
00:49:11,160 --> 00:49:13,600
Speaker 1: I mean, we've been essentially going to war on the

910
00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:19,000
Speaker 1: same legal foundations since September twelve, UM two thousand one

911
00:49:19,000 --> 00:49:20,880
Speaker 1: as well as we are right now, which to me

912
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:23,080
Speaker 1: is is kind of crazy. At some point, I think

913
00:49:23,080 --> 00:49:26,560
Speaker 1: we need to review this and rain in the president's

914
00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:30,920
Speaker 1: whoever he happens to be blank check on warfare. So

915
00:49:30,960 --> 00:49:33,160
Speaker 1: that's that's something I'd like to to work on as

916
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:36,520
Speaker 1: we as we move forward. Yeah, I think on a

917
00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:40,240
Speaker 1: future software up. Either it might be just a question

918
00:49:40,280 --> 00:49:42,760
Speaker 1: and answer type thing, or we might be doing another

919
00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:46,480
Speaker 1: podcast with we were talking with the folks over there

920
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:52,880
Speaker 1: concerned Veterans for America and maybe with yourself and and

921
00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:58,200
Speaker 1: getting another get together and talking about the issues here.

922
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:02,600
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, yeah, we we definitely want to thank

923
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:05,520
Speaker 1: you for your time. Um, we appreciate you taking the time.

924
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,080
Speaker 1: I know at Christmas time it's got to be very

925
00:50:08,080 --> 00:50:13,320
Speaker 1: hectic with two young boys and oh yeah I remember

926
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:15,960
Speaker 1: that time. My son's now twenty two, so I'm a

927
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:19,640
Speaker 1: little bit older than you, but time was it was

928
00:50:19,640 --> 00:50:22,040
Speaker 1: a headache, but it was also the most fun as

929
00:50:22,080 --> 00:50:25,040
Speaker 1: a parent. It's a lot of work, but it's fun. Yeah,

930
00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:28,920
Speaker 1: because the kid's eyes are when they light up like

931
00:50:28,960 --> 00:50:34,080
Speaker 1: that makes it all worthwhile. So but anyway, yeah, thank

932
00:50:34,120 --> 00:50:37,799
Speaker 1: you for your time. Um, and uh, you know, we

933
00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:41,640
Speaker 1: we appreciate all your service and your continued service to

934
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:44,600
Speaker 1: our veterans community as well as to you know, all

935
00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:47,560
Speaker 1: the guys that are still serving there, so before we go,

936
00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:50,879
Speaker 1: I just want to read something else before we sign off.

937
00:50:51,960 --> 00:50:54,560
Speaker 1: You want to get soft rip on your phone, Download

938
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:57,760
Speaker 1: our free mobile app and get easy access to our articles,

939
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:01,840
Speaker 1: podcasts and gear reviews, all perfectly format is a year device.

940
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:05,480
Speaker 1: Please describe to soft reap dot com to get access

941
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:08,120
Speaker 1: to all of our library of e books and our

942
00:51:08,200 --> 00:51:11,719
Speaker 1: exclusive team room forms and content available on all your

943
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:15,080
Speaker 1: Apple and Android devices. We want to thank all our

944
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:17,839
Speaker 1: listeners out there for tuning in. We want to thank

945
00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 1: our guests Joe Kent, who's you know, taking the time

946
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:26,320
Speaker 1: out of his Christmas holiday to join us. Joe, thanks

947
00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:30,080
Speaker 1: again for joining us. We hope we can do yeah,

948
00:51:30,280 --> 00:51:33,359
Speaker 1: we hope we can do this again real soon. Yeah.

949
00:51:33,800 --> 00:51:37,120
Speaker 1: And for myself, Steve bl Jury, our guests, Joe Kent,

950
00:51:37,200 --> 00:51:39,760
Speaker 1: and all of us here at software dot com, thanks

951
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:42,960
Speaker 1: for listening. We'll be back with another episode here real

952
00:51:43,000 --> 00:52:02,359
Speaker 1: shortly listening to self rep Lydia