WEBVTT - Strategic Narcissism 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.600 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay Effi Daily with 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:18.120 Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording live from our pod 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:22.520 stream studios here in Times Square. Folks, let's just say this, 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:26.239 things are not going well in Afghanistan. They have not 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.080 been going well for the last several weeks since the 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.440 Biden and Harris administration announced that they would be withdrawing 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:36.720 all troops from the region after twenty two years of 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:39.800 being involved in a civil war and in a conflict 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:43.159 where we thought that the United States was building a 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:48.600 democratic infrastructure to help the people of Afghanistan. Well, we 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:53.080 were receiving reports that there was going to be considerable 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:58.000 attacks happening outside of the capital of Kabul at the 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.080 airport where there were one mornings that went out not 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:04.640 just from the United States but from the UK as 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.920 well to their citizens in the region to move away 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:11.280 from the airports because they were very concerned that the 0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:15.040 security threats that they were receiving were going to actually 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:19.280 come to fruition. Well, lo and behold sadly they have 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:24.080 with reports of multiple military folks being killed because that 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:28.200 is where they were stationed, outside of the airports. And 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:32.920 then also there were apparently suicide bomber attacks that happened 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:37.319 at a nearby hotel as well. Folks, when you see 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:42.959 the pictures coming out of Afghanistan, heartbreak doesn't begin to 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:48.720 really convey what is transpiring in this region of the world. 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.520 And you know, there are several military folks throughout the 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:56.000 years that I've had on various shows that I have hosted, 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.440 and to follow them now on social media to just 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:04.480 see how exasperated they are by the fact that they 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:10.560 lost friends, right, people lost lives, they lost limbs in 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.519 order to secure this country. And at the end of 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.480 the day, the United States really did not have a 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:20.080 plan for entry, and they sure as fuck did not 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.960 have a solid plan for exit. And you know, I 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.240 said this earlier in the week that Congresswoman Barbara Lee 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:31.960 was the only the singular person member of Congress to 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:36.359 vote against going to Afghanistan, because she said, why are 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.200 we going to a place where we have no clear 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:43.720 path out and don't really know what we are going 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:46.880 there for? And I find, you know, when I talk, 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:49.040 and I'm not a foreign affairs expert, and I make 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.280 that very very clear, but I am a person that 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.200 has enough information and research and talk to enough people 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.840 to have a clear eyed opinion of the way in 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:00.919 which the United States goes around the world and bigfoots 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:06.320 in other countries creating these terror vacuums when they decide 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.639 to withdraw. And that's exactly what is happening in Afghanistan. 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.880 We're in conversation with the Taliban for fuck's sake, right, 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:18.360 and assuming that we're taking a terrorist organization on their 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.200 word about what they are going to do once the 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.400 United States is fully out of the country or as 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:28.160 they say that the operation to evacuate people will be 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:32.320 done on August thirty first, according to reports from MSNBC, 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:36.640 CNN and many other outlets. Is this the reality is 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.880 that even if the United States were to keep pace, right, 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:44.080 given the suicide bombing attack that just happened that clearly 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:49.600 killed people, right, civilians and military alike, clearly has now 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:54.160 created a more heightened sense of security in that area, 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.280 the United States is not going to be able to 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.520 keep up the pace of evacuations that they were talking about. 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.920 So how is this deadline of August thirty first, which 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.840 is just a couple of days from now, really going 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:11.680 to happen. I don't get it, And you know, General 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:17.240 McMaster was the National Security Advisor under Trump for one 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.080 year twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen, and he has had 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.400 a military career for well over thirty years and is 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.279 currently teaching at Stanford University. And he said made a 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:33.080 comment that actually had me take real pause. It was 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:35.760 one of those moments when you're kind of washing dishes 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:37.560 in the kitchen and then you hear a phrase and 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:39.320 you put the dish down and you turn over and 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:42.640 you're like, did he just say that? And this is 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.440 what McMaster said, And this is a person. Look, I 0:04:46.120 --> 0:04:53.279 don't applaud various military folks because I don't understand military 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.240 operations as well. You have some people that are hawks, right, 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:01.240 that just believed that really aggressive of military action is 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:06.160 the only way to navigate in countries, right, And then 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.080 you have other people that believe in more diplomatic approaches. 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.560 But this is what General McMaster said. He called the 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:17.479 United States' role in Afghanistan over the past twenty two 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:23.839 years strategic narcissism. And I nearly dropped the dish that 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:27.479 I was washing when I heard that phrase, because it 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:33.920 so clearly articulates America's position in Afghanistan. He talked about 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:40.840 it as essentially looking through the lens of America. You 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:47.719 cannot go into various regions, especially complicated, layered regions that 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:52.560 have been in distress for generations, and go in with 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:58.600 the lens of Americanism and impose that on other countries 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.839 and then think that you're going to create some type 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:06.560 of mirrored democracy. And he said, you know that isn't 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:09.000 what was never going to happen. There was never a 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.800 clear plan as to what we were actually doing there, right, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:15.839 So initially it was to hunt for the people that 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.280 were behind nine to eleven, but lo and behold with 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.080 more intel and information, those fucking people came from Saudi Arabia, 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.120 right and so, but because we have really tight knit 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:32.839 relationships with the Saudis, we didn't go where we actually 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.640 needed to go. So here's the thing. How do we 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.599 deal with the fact that the United States is not 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:42.960 going to be able to evacuate all of the people 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.800 that need to be evacuated and the assumption is that 0:06:46.839 --> 0:06:48.520 they are going to be over a quarter of a 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.280 million people that are going to be left behind that 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:55.839 have worked with and collaborated with the United States over 0:06:55.880 --> 0:07:00.440 the last twenty years. What does that say about the 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:05.400 United States, What does that say about our operations across 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:12.200 varied countries right underdeveloped or developing countries that basically, the 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.640 US will come in, not provide you with a clear timeline, 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.520 and then when they decide that they've had enough, they'll 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:22.920 just up and leave. And Europe fucking left right and 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.920 and in this case left at the airport, left to 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:31.520 be murdered and slayed by the Taliban, because we're taking 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:33.480 their word for the fact that they're not going to 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.280 do anything, even though we have reports that have come 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.480 out and said the Taliban is going door to door, 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:43.440 knocking on doors and executing family members of people who 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.920 worked with the Americans. So they're not even people in 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.640 that household that them themselves had worked with Americans, but 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.440 say their brother, their sister were as an interpreter, and 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:58.400 now those people are being hunted. We've already heard reports 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:03.040 of women, women in the workforce being told by the 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:07.560 Taliban that they need to stay home because apparently they 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:11.800 have not trained their men in dealing with what working women. 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:16.080 So that's availed bullshit that we are going back to 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:21.239 one of the strictest Sharia law practitioners right in the region, 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.840 which is the Taliban, where women are stoned to death, 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.680 right where they're not allowed outside of their homes unless 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.720 they are under the guardianship of a man. That they 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:33.880 are not allowed to work, that they are not allowed 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:36.960 to be educated, that they are not allowed to drive. Now, 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.320 let me not say this in a way that makes 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.800 it seem like again, the United States doesn't do fucked 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.280 up shit to women, because here's the thing is that 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:48.680 we always look at these countries, right, and we say 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:53.680 how barbaric, how horrible. Meanwhile, there is one abortion clinic 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:56.959 in all a fucking Mississippi, right And Roe v. Wade 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.320 is being challenged in the United States because the Republicans 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:01.560 don't believe that women in the United States, in a 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:06.080 democratic society, have the ability to have autonomy over their bodies. Okay, 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.400 we don't have an equal pay law in the United States, 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.920 so we know that women are oftentimes making way less money, 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.520 particularly if you are a woman of color, making way 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.440 less money then their white male counterparts. So let us 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.880 not pretend that we are going around the world to 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.360 tell you how to deal with and how to create 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.480 equity for women when in this very fucking country we 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.120 don't have equity for women. Okay, so just because we 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:34.439 don't stone people to death in the streets, right, doesn't 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.120 mean that we have actual equity in this country. And 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:42.480 I think that when we are talking, particularly about women's issues, 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:44.880 we need to come from a lens and come from 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:49.040 a place of transparency and honesty about where the United 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:55.120 States is incredibly lagging behind other industrialized nations. All that 0:09:55.200 --> 0:10:01.319 to be said, the situation is rapidly deteriorated in Afghanistan. 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:08.000 There are reports heartbreaking of children being trampled of a 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.439 five year old little girl. This is from an unverified source, 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:15.560 but a five year old little girl being caught in 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.400 the blast this week and dying in the arms of 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:23.319 a worker, a person, an Afghan person who was working 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.960 with the United States military over the past several years. 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:33.120 You know. And what is sickening on top of sickening, 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:37.720 on top of sickning, is that the Taliban gets to 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:43.360 say that they are successful in driving the United States 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:49.040 from Afghanistan, reclaiming power in just a matter of weeks. Right. 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:54.000 Trump's negotiations with the Taliban allowed there to be five 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:58.080 thousand Afghans who are associated with ISIS to be released. 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:03.520 And where did they go back to fucking isis. So 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:08.640 I just, you know, we really have to take a deep, 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:14.280 serious examination of who America is in the world right 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:18.520 now and who we want to be because the amount 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:22.320 of money, resources, and lives that have been lost over 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.720 the past two decades in this part of the world 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:32.000 is unconscionable. And for this current president to say that 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.320 we are not going to deviate from the plan, that 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.560 we are not going to make any arrangements to be 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:41.320 in this country past the thirty first of August, knowing 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:43.800 good god damn well that there are going to be 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:49.040 mass executions, right And I hate listening to these news 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.040 reports that are talking about getting Americans out where and 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:57.800 I'm like, what about the Afghans? What about these people? Right? So, 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:03.720 now you have created this crisis of humanitarian proportion that 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:09.880 we have not seen, have not witnessed right since Syria. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:14.280 And this is worse because we're dispersing these people all 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.640 around the world, not really having a plan for what 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.160 happens to them next. And when this story fades from 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.840 the news, these people are going to be left with 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.160 trying to piece together what is left of their lives. 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.960 And I can't express that enough that we will never know, 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:34.680 and maybe I should never use the word never, certainly 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:40.360 not in these fucking abnormal times. But for the most part, 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:43.800 as Americans do not understand what it is like to 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:48.080 live under a terrorist regime. We do not understand what 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.400 it could be like to have to have just a 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:54.400 few hours to pack up what you can carry and 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.480 flee your homeland, never to return again, to be left 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:03.120 on an airport, to be left there and just hope 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.080 that you'll be able to find a way out of 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:10.960 this country alive. We don't understand that here in the 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.280 United States. We look at these images kind of in 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.680 the same way that we look at and connect to 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:21.040 Hollywood movies, except these are real people and these are 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.240 real lives. And what we are already seeing is how 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:27.000 the right wing is trying to turn these people that 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:33.920 are fleeing, that worked alongside us for two decades into terrorists. Right. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:40.000 So I am fearful for these people as they are 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:44.000 moved from Afghanistan into other parts of the world and 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.679 what is going to happen to them there. But I 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:53.000 will say this that you know, not only is this 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:58.480 just this scenario emblematic of where we go wrong in 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.440 America on a regular basis in terms of what it 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.160 is that we are doing. We create these power vacuums, 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.760 these terrorist vacuums all around the world, and we do 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.240 a very shit job in our own media of covering 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:15.080 the truth. We don't even cover the truth of what 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:19.160 is happening domestically, let alone really engage with what is 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:24.800 happening with the American presence in these developing nations right 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:30.000 that have these massive terrorist cells. We don't deal with 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.560 our own terrorist cells here because if we did, then 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:34.600 we wouldn't have had a president that told people to 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.240 stand back and stand by and then set them up 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:43.320 for an insurrection. All I'm saying is this, I think 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.520 that things in Afghanistan are going to get tremendously worse. 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.800 We are going to see images and hear stories that 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:53.160 are going to be so damaging to this current administration 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.160 because they will bear the brunt, because they will be 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.920 the ones that decided to pull out right and leave 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:04.840 these people high and dry to be executed one after 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.520 the other after the other. I fear for the women 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:10.360 and girls that are left in this country and what 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.360 will happen to them. They had a little sliver of 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:16.880 hope and promise through the last twenty years of being educated, 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.560 of getting jobs, of adding value to their lives into 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.480 their country. Now that is all coming to a halt, 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:30.920 just like that. Overnight. We create a lot of problems, 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:39.840 and yet we present ourselves as the world saviors. And 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.160 I think that what is coming to light right now 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:47.520 is this consciousness, this wake up moment of wait a minute, 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:52.160 We aren't the savior. We aren't the heroes in this story, 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.480 right And I don't know, honestly when we really truly 0:15:55.520 --> 0:16:01.240 have been the heroes in any foreign story. But that's how. 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.560 That's the force feeding that we have gotten, that we 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:09.280 have received over so many generations. And I think that 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.680 right now what is happening in Afghanistan is a wake 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:18.560 up call for all of us. As always, at the 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.920 end of every Friday show, folks, I want to give 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:27.080 tremendous gratitude to my super supporters and to the wokast. 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.480 So let me give this shout out to Abdul Sada 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.720 a met Yearwood, Courtney Battle, Courtney, Dana Garcia, Dana Holmes, 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:40.440 Denise Grenier, Desire Vaudoon, Donna maybriy Erskin Hawkins, Glenn Herb Campbell, 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:45.880 Jennifer Reeve, Jennifer Trust, Joshua Silo, Ja Torrez, kay Altham Kamirashaw, 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:51.440 Katherine Dussell, Lt. Larry Wilkis, Levation, Glenn Lisa, Mathena, Lynn Fields, 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:55.280 Miss Michael D. 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That is it for today's Woke f 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:42.680 Daily Podcast. To hear more from me, including five full 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.880 hour long shows every single week, exclusive guest interviews, and more. 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.800 Support me on Patreon at patreon dot com. Slash woke 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:54.080 AF Power to the people and to all the people. Power, 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:56.240 get woke and stay woke as fuck.