Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay f Daily with
Speaker 1: Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording live from our pod
Speaker 1: stream studios here in Times Square. You know, folks, it
Speaker 1: has been another extraordinary week in America, and what we
Speaker 1: know now with just a couple of days into September,
Speaker 1: is that children at a very high rate are contracting
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. We are seeing in a one week span,
Speaker 1: I want everybody to wrap their minds around this. In
Speaker 1: a one week span, two hundred and fifty thousand kids
Speaker 1: across the country contracted COVID nineteen. Now, while hospitalizations of
Speaker 1: these young people remains low, it is in fact surging
Speaker 1: where before in twenty twenty with the alpha variant we
Speaker 1: were told right and again, I am not putting any
Speaker 1: blame on scientists or doctors. They are learning as they
Speaker 1: are going and it requires all of us to be
Speaker 1: intellectually nimble right to adapt to information that we are
Speaker 1: getting and move with that new information. With the alpha variant,
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, we were told that children were really
Speaker 1: not susceptible, that they were fine, and they had the
Speaker 1: immune systems to be able to fight off COVID. Well,
Speaker 1: push back now push forward, I should say, a year later,
Speaker 1: and we were in an entirely different place with an
Speaker 1: entirely new variant. And right now they are roughly a
Speaker 1: little over two thousand children across the country that are hospitalized,
Speaker 1: and you were hearing from pediatric doctors telling us that
Speaker 1: children's hospitals are getting to capacity which they've never seen.
Speaker 1: And what we know to be true is this is
Speaker 1: that when we are dealing with hospitals that are at
Speaker 1: capacity with COVID, that other ailments that people are coming
Speaker 1: in with, that children are coming in with, are not
Speaker 1: being treated. So what does that say about this kind
Speaker 1: of domino effect that is happening with our healthcare right
Speaker 1: now as it pertains to kids. Something else is very notable,
Speaker 1: and it is the constant. I got to tell you this.
Speaker 1: It's incredibly troubling to me that we are having just
Speaker 1: a couple of days since school has begun across the
Speaker 1: country that there's a school in San Antonio, Texas where
Speaker 1: every kindergarten teacher has contracted COVID. And get this, the
Speaker 1: school did not alert parents to that fact. And as
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, the students and the teachers basically
Speaker 1: have to rely on the trust that they have in
Speaker 1: the institution to tell them what's why, because they're relying
Speaker 1: on each other, because they're getting mixed messages. Why are
Speaker 1: they getting mixed messages? Probably because they live in the
Speaker 1: fucking state of Texas, where Abbot right, I don't know,
Speaker 1: the executioner of Texas has decided to not include mass
Speaker 1: mandates right to make it so that we don't have
Speaker 1: social distancing in schools, to make it so that students
Speaker 1: right can be harassed by adults as they're heading into
Speaker 1: the building, so that people can totally begin to threaten
Speaker 1: and attack all of these school administrators that are trying
Speaker 1: to keep their kids safe well without anybody's mandates, and
Speaker 1: without with the fear of losing income if you are
Speaker 1: sued right or your salaries are caught like death Santis
Speaker 1: is doing in Florida. Teachers, parents, students are all left
Speaker 1: juggling a bunch of balls in the air and hoping
Speaker 1: that they don't just drop on their heads. It is incredibly,
Speaker 1: incredibly disgusting to me that parents are being put in
Speaker 1: a situation where, you know, we're basically allowing these governors
Speaker 1: to play Russian Roulette with your lives. So the school
Speaker 1: that I'm talking about is kind of Ranch Elementary and
Speaker 1: it is in San Antonio, And it was being reported
Speaker 1: by an epidemiologist and health economist, Eric fagel Ding on Twitter,
Speaker 1: and it was also posted on my San Antonio dot
Speaker 1: com that how parents discovered the fact that their kids
Speaker 1: were exposed to COVID. I mean, this is just bullshit.
Speaker 1: Folks like I can't imagine the anxiety and the stress
Speaker 1: that parents and caregivers are having right now, just hoping
Speaker 1: to God that the teachers and the administrators where they
Speaker 1: are dropping their kids off are doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: And clearly at this place where again we're in Texas,
Speaker 1: so there are no vaccine mandates, there are no mask mandates,
Speaker 1: there is nothing. You're just crossing your fingers and kind
Speaker 1: of pushing your kids through the door and hoping that
Speaker 1: they come back. What. Well, and here's the thing, even
Speaker 1: if we are at a situation in a place where
Speaker 1: we're saying, okay, well, I guess three thousand hospitalizations for
Speaker 1: kids across the country is not that big of a deal,
Speaker 1: which is outrageous for these quote unquote you know, pro
Speaker 1: force birth folks who are all about telling me and
Speaker 1: telling every woman and telling everybody with the uterus what
Speaker 1: they can and cannot do right to protect a life.
Speaker 1: Fucking bullshit, Because if they were really interested in protecting life,
Speaker 1: you tell me why they wouldn't be on the side
Speaker 1: of mask mandates, Why they wouldn't be on the side
Speaker 1: of vaccinations to keep everybody safe, since you know life
Speaker 1: is so precious and all given to you by the
Speaker 1: Great Lord above. Fucking hypocrisy, And I want Democrats to
Speaker 1: call out the hypocrisy on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1: And frankly, I want these parents right that are concerned
Speaker 1: about the wellbeings of the wellbeing of their kids to
Speaker 1: sue the fucking school district because if I were a
Speaker 1: parent at Kinder elementary school, I would absolutely be suing
Speaker 1: this school district because how are you not sending emails
Speaker 1: or text messages or making phone calls to let people
Speaker 1: know exactly what is happening? Right? Why are they finding out?
Speaker 1: Why are these parents finding out through the grape vine
Speaker 1: like a game of telephone with other parents to find
Speaker 1: out whether or not they're safe. And mind you, these
Speaker 1: kids are coming home. Some of these kids live in
Speaker 1: intergenerational homes, right, So what does that mean about the
Speaker 1: safety of the adults in those homes. It is we
Speaker 1: are at an infuriating place when it comes to COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen because what I fear and what I continue to say,
Speaker 1: and what our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel tells us, is
Speaker 1: that the middle of October is going to tell us
Speaker 1: a whole fucking lot about what it is that American
Speaker 1: school systems are doing completely and totally wrong, folks. Coming
Speaker 1: up next is my conversation with American University professor David Vine,
Speaker 1: who is going to talk about and I'm very interested
Speaker 1: in this conversation about his new book, The United States
Speaker 1: of War. It is a third in a trilogy of
Speaker 1: books about war in peace and our obsession with empire
Speaker 1: building in this country and our militarized society. That is
Speaker 1: coming up next, folks. I am so excited to welcome
Speaker 1: to wok F for the very first time David Vine,
Speaker 1: professor of anthropology at American University and the author of
Speaker 1: the United States of War, which is a provocative examination
Speaker 1: of how the US military has shaped our entire world,
Speaker 1: from today's multi ti trillion dollars decades long wars to
Speaker 1: the prominence of violence. David you know, we're talking to
Speaker 1: you at a really interesting time, and obviously your book
Speaker 1: is incredibly timely with our recent withdrawal from Afghanistan, America's
Speaker 1: longest war were twenty years we have been fighting alongside
Speaker 1: Afghans to defend against the Taliban and to bring some
Speaker 1: type of semblance of democracy. But in that time, what
Speaker 1: we realize is as the withdrawal was being announced that
Speaker 1: within weeks, twenty years of effort, twenty years of lives
Speaker 1: lost on both sides of the conflict, whether it be
Speaker 1: Afghan civilians or American military members, it was all poof
Speaker 1: gone within weeks, and now the Taliban has full control
Speaker 1: over a country that the United States had supposedly been
Speaker 1: keeping safe for the last twenty years. Before we jump
Speaker 1: into your book, The United States of War, what were
Speaker 1: your feelings when you heard about the withdrawal happening, And then, honestly,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts about how the withdrawal actually happened
Speaker 1: and whether or not we should have been in Afghanistan
Speaker 1: to begin with? I think those are all the right questions.
Speaker 1: First thing, thank you, Danielle for having me. I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to speak with you. You know, I supported it
Speaker 1: and support President Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan. I think it
Speaker 1: was the right thing to do. I think the withdrawal
Speaker 1: itself was handled poorly on the whole. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: evacuating upwards of one hundred and fourteen thousand Afghans plus
Speaker 1: several thousand more from Afghanistan was impressive in a very
Speaker 1: short period of time. But the chaos that a formal
Speaker 1: withdrawal of most of the US military from Afghanistan did
Speaker 1: not need to happen and should have been better with
Speaker 1: the Taliban. Now, that said, the war should never have
Speaker 1: been fought. This was not a war for democracy. This
Speaker 1: was not a war to protect Afghans. This was a
Speaker 1: war that was fought for a variety of reasons having
Speaker 1: to do with the Bush and Cheney administration desire for revenge,
Speaker 1: supported by large segments of the US population. But it
Speaker 1: was barbally. Of course, the one member of Congress stood
Speaker 1: up and opposed the war in Afghanistan, who of course
Speaker 1: was right from the beginning. And there were others anti
Speaker 1: war movement brewing then and that was speaking out. But
Speaker 1: this was a war that was built on lies twenty
Speaker 1: years lies about the progress of the war lies that
Speaker 1: the war was indeed to bring democracy and peace and
Speaker 1: freedom and security to Afghans. This is a war that
Speaker 1: I think it more appropriately characterized as a massive wealth transit.
Speaker 1: Robert Reich is just wow that literally of dollars two
Speaker 1: point three kinds of trillion dollars to put three trillion
Speaker 1: with a T dollars that went to funding for the
Speaker 1: US war in Afghans. The vast majority of it ended
Speaker 1: up in the coffers of the military industrial complex, weapons manufacturers.
Speaker 1: And this is I think the major effect of the war.
Speaker 1: In addition to taking the lives of six hundred thousand Afghans,
Speaker 1: that includes those side and indirections, the lives of US
Speaker 1: military personnel and contract. Each death, each injury is a
Speaker 1: terrible cost at this war. But we have to keep
Speaker 1: our eyes first and foremost that's been inflicted on Afghans,
Speaker 1: which is really catastrophic and which continues. And will can
Speaker 1: you after the US AD all you know to listen
Speaker 1: to you say that essentially, and I'm going to paraphrase,
Speaker 1: this was a money laundering scheme, right, a two point
Speaker 1: three trillion with a T dollar money laundering scheme. My
Speaker 1: question to you about it is how was this able
Speaker 1: to survive over four presidents right on Republican and Democrats?
Speaker 1: How was this able to survive for that many years?
Speaker 1: Knowing that, I mean, do we not provide progress reports
Speaker 1: with the military? Do they not let us know how
Speaker 1: efforts are going on the ground, and so then we
Speaker 1: can then analyze whether it makes sense to keep expending
Speaker 1: the money, keep expending the life and the energy force
Speaker 1: in order to be in a situation that we know
Speaker 1: that we can't change. I think the short answer is
Speaker 1: lives and credit cards now lives mean we were given
Speaker 1: progress reports. We were given by generals and admirals and
Speaker 1: civilian government officials who consistently lied about the progress, consistently
Speaker 1: lied about how things were going in this war. And
Speaker 1: the Washington Post Afghanistan papers they sort of echoed the
Speaker 1: Pentagon papers of the Vietnam era. The Afghanistan shows these lies,
Speaker 1: and I would ret to anyone. This of course came
Speaker 1: after the Washington Post and other major news outlets were
Speaker 1: really cheerleaders in Afghanistan and Iraq. Years later, they of
Speaker 1: course cast a more critical the credit card part that
Speaker 1: these wars, the war in Afghanistan, but also the US
Speaker 1: war in Iraq and all the post nine to eleven
Speaker 1: wars in twenty five countries where US combat troops have
Speaker 1: been deployed. These have been fought on a credit card,
Speaker 1: which is to say that administrations have and congresses behind
Speaker 1: them have charged the cost of these wars rather than
Speaker 1: raising taxes, which is how have been fought in the past.
Speaker 1: We're US citizens fatally the effects of these wars, the
Speaker 1: efecial effect of going to war. In the case of
Speaker 1: the post nine eleven wars, these wars have been put
Speaker 1: on a credit card, effectively inflicting the costs on future
Speaker 1: to pay back all that. But that's another way that
Speaker 1: the wars essentially have been hidden and away, in which
Speaker 1: four administrations have kept them going. You know, I just
Speaker 1: find it so atrocious the amount of money that our
Speaker 1: tax dollars, the amount of tax dollars that are funneled
Speaker 1: into our military industrial complex, funneled into the Pentagon, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think about what it is we don't spend
Speaker 1: money on, right, We're always told that there isn't enough
Speaker 1: There is enough money to put in health and human services,
Speaker 1: there isn't enough money to put in public education, There
Speaker 1: isn't enough money to fight climate changer isn't there's never
Speaker 1: enough money. But you know who's always like, you know,
Speaker 1: neck deep in money is the military. So talk to
Speaker 1: us about your book The United States of War and
Speaker 1: how you think that the military and our militarization of
Speaker 1: our police right which we saw for the first time
Speaker 1: really I think up close during Ferguson in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: when we're seeing the fact that our local police departments
Speaker 1: had all the latest Gi Joe outfits as well as
Speaker 1: tanks as well as you know, weaponry that you would
Speaker 1: see in an Afghanistan as opposed to a suburb of
Speaker 1: the United States. Talk to us about how this militarization
Speaker 1: has happened over the years and how it has accelerated.
Speaker 1: I think the militarization of the police is actually a
Speaker 1: really good example and terrible atradious example, as you said,
Speaker 1: of how the post nine eleven wars and a much
Speaker 1: longer process of militarization that dates to independence in some ways,
Speaker 1: as I show in my book The United States War
Speaker 1: really dates to Columbus surviving in Americas. It's an example
Speaker 1: of how this has come back to bite us here
Speaker 1: in the United States. The effects of these wars have
Speaker 1: been felt not just by people in Afghanistan or Iraq,
Speaker 1: or Syria or Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Philippines and on, they've
Speaker 1: been felt here in the streets of the United States
Speaker 1: and have damaged our lives in profound ways, beginning with
Speaker 1: the money that has been spent on these wars. In total,
Speaker 1: the post nine eleven wars have cost US taxpayers eight
Speaker 1: trillion dollars eight trillion dollars, and that is really a
Speaker 1: hard sun to comprehend. But I think, as you rightfully
Speaker 1: pointed out, so frequently when people, you know, we're asking
Speaker 1: for money for universal healthcare or universal education, the universal college,
Speaker 1: that is for you to house the homeless, to make
Speaker 1: sure that there's no one in this country goes hungry.
Speaker 1: To rebuild bridges and streets and other infrastructure, public transportation,
Speaker 1: we're told there isn't enough money. There is there's always
Speaker 1: been enough money. We've invested eight trillion dollars in war
Speaker 1: since two thousand and one. In total, that's just the
Speaker 1: war budgets. In total, if you include the regular quote
Speaker 1: unquote regular Pentagon budget, it's twenty one trillion dollars. Now
Speaker 1: the US government, yes, I mean it it's mind boggling
Speaker 1: and should really make us weep. I mean, how many
Speaker 1: literally hundreds of thousands of people died of COVID because
Speaker 1: we didn't invest even a small portion of that eight
Speaker 1: trillion just takes eight trillion alan in pandemic for apiredness
Speaker 1: because we didn't invest in PP, because we didn't invest
Speaker 1: in ventilators, because we didn't invest in vaccine production capacity.
Speaker 1: And then we think about how many people have died
Speaker 1: because we don't have universal healthcare in this country, or
Speaker 1: how many people have died sleeping on the streets at
Speaker 1: night in places like Washington, DC. It's really I you know,
Speaker 1: it should make us weak. And as I show in
Speaker 1: my book The United States War, this is a long
Speaker 1: term process, especially since World War Two, dominated by an
Speaker 1: increasingly powerful military industrial complex that is so addicted to war.
Speaker 1: There's so many profits to be made from war. It
Speaker 1: has created a self perpetuating system that we have to break.
Speaker 1: We have to bring down the military industrial colurewise, we're
Speaker 1: going to keep fighting. And that's my greatest fear, that
Speaker 1: we're going to end up in another Afghanistan, another Iraq,
Speaker 1: which really in my mind that you know, all the
Speaker 1: posto a living wars are our Vietnam. For those of
Speaker 1: us who grew up after the Vietnam War, this is
Speaker 1: our Vietnam. It's not recognized as such, but the damage
Speaker 1: that's been inflicted is just as great, and we're going
Speaker 1: to end up in yet another Vietnam, another Afghanistan, another
Speaker 1: Iraq if we don't change the underlying system of terry
Speaker 1: industrial complex and the system of a permanent war. That's
Speaker 1: it for today's Woke a f Daily podcast. To hear
Speaker 1: more from today's show, including my full interview with David Vine,
Speaker 1: support me on Patreon at patreon dot com Slash Woke
Speaker 1: AF Power to the people and to all the people. Power,
Speaker 1: get woke and stay woke as fuck.