Glad to have Connor on this evening. We're doing a late, well late night for me because I'm getting old. I like going to bed earlier. But I appreciate you coming on. I know we've had a lot that happened over the weekend in Iran. I know we've talked about Venezuela in the past. I'm gonna give you a brief Like, first of all, thanks for coming on. It's always I've had several people that have come up to me and they're like, it's really cool the way that y'all have a conversation, and it's it is a very engaging conversation where you're not trying to talk over each other. You're you're just discussing topics, and I think that is a that is a reflection of the way that you look at things and your ability to articulate, and I appreciate you taking the time to do that. I'm gonna do a brief summer on what I see and like I said, then we can kick it in high drive and you'll. I mean, I'm young and you're a thousand, So what got us to where we are? Now? There you go? What was wrong back under the you know, the Fertile Crescent. Well, I mean we used to. I mean last time we went over there, we were on camels. So I think we're doing Yeah, No, I think I think one of the really I think one of the things that we have talked about over and over again, whether it be the institutions that are mismanaging, money, programs, all those different things, is government should be effective and should be measured on performance. And I think one of the things that we I do feel like we agree to. Polling, thus far, it does appear what we what the state of goal in Venezuela has not been anything other than what was stated. I thought we stopped soon by not replacing the vice president, but we we can talk about that a little bit more. But like in Iran, I think we can all I think anybody that has any type of experience with the military and see how things can different things can happen. I feel like it was a nearly flawless execution in in Venezuela to get him out in the way that they didn't bring him here. I think in the same way I think the Iran situation, I just think it was it was a time bomba is going to go off at some point I understand like different people have different views on like, well, he should have done this, he should have done that, And that's what I would ask is I would have asked that people. I think one of the things we talked about before with Barack Obama, like you can disagree with his policies, but you can say his decision and the operation that he conducted with the United States Navy Seals to get Osama bin Laden that was a flawless mission. And you can say whatever you want about his presidency, but like that was to me the pinnacle of that was a very difficult decision. He could have taken the easy route, sentimentsile flying and you know, and left everybody to wonder. But I think he did what was best for America at that time. He used the resources available to him, since the best of the best over there to deal with that, and they've done They did a phenomenal job. And that's not just a reflection on their performance, the Tier one units that conducted it, but also the military leaders. Because we've all been around people where you could be really good at your job, but if the people above you try to interfere, at some point, things grind to a halt. So I think that that was a false execution. And that's what I'd ask people on both sides to look at, is you might dislike Donald Trump and everything that he stands for, and it's just it's more comfortable to say something bad about him just because it's him. But I feel like it is comfortable. I think I do think that this is a very strategic in a lot. As far as I will blanket it, I'll just say as far as Venezuela and Iran, I think these were strategic decisions that were made and nearly flawlessly executed. There's still time to see how things pan out. But I think if you look at the way things went, you have all the like handwringing about what's going to turn into this, and it turned into that, which I understand one hundred percent. I mean, I remember what you know, you and I were talking about, like weapons of mass destructure and all that. If we can stay on task in Venezuela and do what we say, do we say we were going to do, and then you do the same thing in Iran, I think we've opened a door. I think right now now it depends really on the Iranians as to whether they are going to claim their country and do what's necessary. And that doesn't mean it's not an easy thing to do based on and it's an uphill climb for them because there is a lot of really bad people still over there, and it's not like it's it's not like here where we just reelected somebody new, we'll get behind them. It's it's a battle and a lot of them have lost their lives just protesting it. So anyway, go ahead and give your view. Like I said, I feel like it was a military operation. I think a lot of the handwringing and the complaining is because it was Donald Trump's administration. But when you look at the performance and the execution of the mission, I think it went really well. Yeah, so let's let's just start there. Let's just look at it purely from and again not military, just an outsider looking in. But let's let's first start with execution of tasks, execution of mission. You look at Venezuela and I think, all in all, like they nailed that one. If the goal was to get Maduro out with the minimal collateral damage, yeah, they did a damn good job. When you look at Iran, it was a much bigger task to accomplish what they're trying to accomplish. And when you look at I read somewhere yesterday, I think that within the first two days there was an eighty six percent drop off in ballistic missile launches because there was such dominance from American munitions targeting those missile sites and drone sites and stuff like that that yes, they're still coming out, obviously, but we just so effectively targeted their military locations and just almost immediately cut at least one, if not two legs out from under them. And credit to the Israelis militarily on the decapitation strikes they hit the supreme leader. I'm pretty sure it may have been a joint between America and Israel and that one, but I'm pretty sure Israel did a pretty big punch to him. On that read or saw yesterday that there was an excuse me meeting of like forty something of the remaining like high ups in that government that got together to vote on a new leader. And I'm like, maybe, don't get forty of your people in the same spot, right, And the assistance from US inteligence, Israelis took them out too So from a militaristic standpoint, the US has sunk their entire navy large large naval vessels, eleven naval vessels. You had the first torpedo sinking of a vessel since World War Two that happened today or yesterday outside of Sri Lanka. Pretty much decimated what was left of their air force. I think Katar shot down to SU thirty four bombers. So from a militaristic standpoint, like we've just kicked their ass, like we've given them no opportunity to make an offensive strike forward. Yes, there have been tons of drones that have come out, and there's been loss of life across the Middle East, but all things considered, they were suppressed before they even started. Really, so I got to give credit to the execution of those types of the strikes and the coordination and the intel gathering and all that. So excuse me, from that perspective, we pretty well pretty well nailed it. Now expanding from there, like, I know your view is that it's the if Donald Trump does it, people are going to hate it, And I think there is a grain of truth in that, because you will always have people that you know, no matter what Obama did, people hated him. No matter what Biden did, people hated him. No matter what Trump did, people are going to hate him. I am of the mindset when it comes to Venezuela, when it comes to Iran, before giving credit or criticism to this administration, I have kind of established with myself this like one year, five year, twenty year view of these situations, in the sense of in a year are they mending, in five years are they growing? And in twenty years are they prosperous? Do the countries turn around for the better. It's going to, like anything, be slow. It's going to take time. But if you know, it doesn't matter what the US does, it doesn't matter my view on Donald Trump or this administration. Both of these ideally are for the betterment of the people in those countries, to give the young generation in Iran a chance for their voice, a voice to be heard. Thirty plus thousand protesters were killed by their own government for speaking up for something they believe, and that's god awful, that is absolutely unacceptable. But I think that that also sort of brings me into the next point, which is the thing, excuse me that I've faulted the administration for regardless of my feelings towards Trump as a human being, because this reflects on Marco Rubio, this reflects on Levitt, this reflects on Hegseth, all of them. Their communication sucks, like their their presentation and communication on this. You had Marco Rubio come out yesterday in a press conference and say, oh, well, we attacked Iran because we think they were probably gonna attack Israel, or no, because we think Israel was probably going to attack them, and Iran would then for sure attack us. So we went ahead and defensively attacked them first. And it was just this convoluted statement of like we punched them because we thought they were gonna eventually punch Like it just it was very fragmented and like it wasn't a clear statement. And so to me, is it possible, though, just so we can go on that point, because you've said a couple of things that led me to this thought process. As far as that is concerned, is it possible that he can't share all the information he has the intelligence to like explain something might not do a great job of explaining it. But I think one of the things that's clear from this whole operation is they already had. Iran already had targets, just like we had targets. They already had targets. So you have inbound, you have an attack. They start getting an understanding of Hey, this is what's going to happen. You know, Iran is like, okay, we're under attack. Boom, they start like launching their stuff, which is I think that was one of the biggest problems is that we could not inter We just did not have enough capabilities to intercept everything that they sent, but they didn't send it. Some of the stuff they sent was random, but like a lot of the stuff was they they already had targets picked out. So I don't think it's a surprise guys that Iran has invested a lot of time and effort and finding targets US targets. And you know, people that are involved in the United States Israel probably I mean, they hit, they've hit divide, They've hit I call it cutter. I know you said Qatar, you're probably saying it right, But they hit all those places, you know, they they they hit them. And I think, like from my standpoint, I think what's important to look at is that I think presentation is one thing and I agree with you it's hard. It's it's hard to stay on message. In my opinion, it's hard to stay on message when you have all the information and then you've got to make a decision on like I can't really tell them this because this is, this is and they so you dumb it down to a certain degree. Well they did it because of this, and I think it just it doesn't help in the messaging. So, like, from my standpoint, I think I think it's I think they're very clear on what they wanted to do. I think the problem that they run into is they have all this massive amounts of information and intelligence. They don't want to let that all out because obviously a lot of it's classified and you know, we're in the midst of it. But I do agree, like it is confusing when you're like, well, we hit them before they hit us. And maybe, but again I also think about how it does seem like people are able to cut cut pieces out and it totally changes and Legacy media has done that for years. I mean they'll sit there and do a thirty minute interview and they'll push out of whatever their agenda is. They'll push out five minutes worth of stuff, and you know, just like, just like when they finally decided Joe Biden was not going to be you know, it's not the best person to move forward because of his ability to remember things and just his cognitive abilities. It almost like the script totally flipped and the interviews were like, yeah, he does look like this, and before it was like he was doing this. So like they find that one minute of clarity when there's twenty minutes of no clarity, and they go, well, let's put the one minute out there and show a lot of pictures and everything else. I just I just think it's important that, you know, when we look at things like that, is to keep in mind they have access to all the information and they have to protect the information, and some people are better than others in putting the information out there. I will say I will say this. I will say from my standpoint, I think I think there's a there's a because of the personality of this president. I think there is a lot of bravado in his administration and sometimes humility and just the facts are a whole lot more effective than bravado. But I also understand, you know, you're competing with somebody. It's almost like the you know, like you have you're hanging out with a tough guy, so you're like, I got to adopt that persona and I don't think it serves us well all the time. So well, and so the like, only speaking for myself, the thing communication wise, that threw up some red flags to me. So with the with the Mark Rubio thing about you know they were going to hit us, that whole thing, like, I don't know if it was before or following his statement. I'd have to check the timeline on it. But the Pentagon and US Intelligence came out and said there was no indication that Iran was preparing for a strike on anyone at that time. The aspect of it of you know saying like, oh they have targets picked out, It's like sure, right now, there's a room somewhere in the White Hot in a capital or actually probably in the Pentagon where they have maps of Russia, China, pet probably England that would say if something happens, here's where the US is going to hit. Those things are planned out for every country, for every possible scenario, for forever. So then being able to say and honestly like if you ask me sitting here like, hey, you're Iran, what do you gonna hit? Yeah, US bases and airports would probably be my first targets, which is what they went after. Like it's not super hard to come up with a logical retaliation strike package of like, oh, we want to, but. You still have to have that. You have to have that stage. And I think if you look at some of the videos, those things were already stage. And I think a lot of things that got hit afterwards that you see videos of our trucks trying to truck stuff in to launch. So I think that's that to me is like you already have you already have the stuff there ready to launch. All it is, it is simplified, is pushing the butt as opposed to like looking at a map redirecting and you know these are a lot of them are precision munitions, notwithstanding the drones and everything else. I thought that was another kind of cool thing about this is I think it is funny how warfare, you know, changes in the fact that, like I think Ukraine Russia war, there's been a whole whole whole lot of usage of really cheap munitions and using what was available. In this case, it was drones, and I think other people have adopted it, which to me is kind of scary when it comes to the United States with how that all works. But anyway, continual I'm sorry to interrupt. Oh no, you're fine. Yeah, no. The whole drone that like, I'm sorry I have had this car. You're fine. Ukrain really broke the mold when they were like, oh no, we're just gonna use drones to go after these these tanks and stuff. You know, one hundred and fifty dollars drone taking out a couple million dollar vehicle. And so you saw Ron with the shohead drones that the US now has their I think it's the Lucas is the abbreviation. I don't know exactly what stands for, but it looks like a shyhead DRUSS just slightly smaller. Drone warfare is how we are going to do this moving forward. The the number of troops on the ground, I think you'll see, you know, those won't move in until pretty much everything's over and they're just there to start rebuilding and you know, security essentially would be my guess. But when looking at so like I look at what Iran did in this situation and again like they've been a problem in that area for decades now. So again it doesn't surprise me that they already had stuff staged like they're gunn at like they know they're surrounded by people that in one way or another one to attack them. So yeah, But what was interesting is the way I look at is they took a like I genuinely understand their approach retaliatory, which was in my opinion, and I mean, it's been kind of parrotied, but like they got hit and so their thought was, well, we can't take on the US one on one, so we're just gonna shotgun all of our neighbors and hope that they pressure the US to stop and pull back. But what they didn't realize is they've pissed off enough people with their proxy hesbala amas isis al Kai, like all the people they've funded over the years doing terror in the whole region that most of the people they hit were like who whoa woa, huh huh you you you hit us and we'll just hit you back, like it was Qatar that shot down their planes after being hit. Sabbi Arabia was like, you know, we told the US they couldn't use our air space, and you hit us like we're prepared to come back, Like they took a stab at a very reasonable you know, logical like, oh, if you get other people pissed off, America will back off. But they've done enough in that area over the decades that that didn't work. But then you look and you go so like the other big red flag, like for me to be like whoa, whoa, whoa was this administration had a perfect opportunity to present this in a way that I think would have been received a little better by the America people, which was they said months ago like hey, if you start, you know, killing protesters, there's going to be consequences. And then they killed thirty thousand protesters. Well there's your in presenting it to the American people like, hey, this dude just killed at least thirty thousand, if not more, of his own people, like this is a problem. We need to get in and protect those Like that's a very palatable justification for action, as opposed to what they said, which was I think Witkough or someone came in the week before and was like, oh, they're two weeks away from a nuclear weapon. We've been hearing that in this country since the nineties from Netan Yahoo and other people. It's what we heard going into the war in Iraq that oh, they probably have weapons of mass destruction, we need to go in and he's crazy and we know how that went out. So to me, at least, that threw up a red flag of oh, they're repeating a script that they've used before, and it was to me, it was like, I don't trust this because it was a lie last time. To some degree or another. We've had Ntan Yahoo since the seventies or eighties or nineties saying two weeks away, one month away, like Iran's always been a short time away, and it's just there's no evidence to back that up. And so to me, they tried to roll out an old playbook from last year's state championship and the team knew it, and so I think they fumbled communication wise, they fumbled what would be a very approachable and at least more palatable justification in thirty thousand deaths as opposed to weapons of mass destruction, that we've heard that spiel before, and it's just it didn't it's not going to sit as well. So I think a club, in my opinion, Yeah, I think one of the problems with that though, is I think we've gotten as a nation as and as people is unless it affects us direct and immediately, we can turn a blind eye to it, because I think there have been numerous countries that have like done ethnic cleansing and killed numerous I mean thousands upon. Thousands of people and we haven't intervened. So I just I think that's one of the tough things right now is I just don't think if it doesn't happen to you as an individual or mark you individually and affects you individually, you're not really engaged with the conversation, which is unfortunate because I think I think they're they're like you're I think you're exactly right. It'd be really nice to just be able to roll out, but I mean roll out a simple conversation which says, these people supported terrorism, and because of the supported terrorism, our concern is that they are going to act on this. They have the equipment that they need. I just think I do I agree with you the old uh they're they want to they're pursuing nuclear weapon that that whole nuclear weapon conversation I think is a moot point and I think a classication, yeah, because I think what was the biggest threat in this whole thing I think about I think about Iraq the first of War, where we thought for sure he was going to drop biological weapons, and like that was the biggest fear of like Burnlew's we're going to lose thousands upon thousands of American troops and all this, and and there was I think there was a right rightfully, so they were concerned and planning for that continguency. But like I said, it didn't turn out that way. And I think some of the things that sound the scariest aren't really reality. And I think the reality is to me is once And I thought one of the arguments that were made were they they are pursuing ballistic missiles, They're they're colluding with it's a horrible word, but they are colluding with North Korea, China and some of the other people that aren't friendly to US, Russia, and at some point point they are going to have enough technology to wreak havoc. It might not be a nuclear weapon, but it's going to be enough havoc that we're going to have problems and I think in the same way, like the it would appear to me the thing that did the most damaged up until this point has been the drone strike that I'm my understanding is that it was either a missile like a missile or a drone strike that killed those six soldiers. It wasn't. I think that's accurate. And so you know, we didn't say, hey, they're this far like no, like they have the capability we are not. And I think that's the way to say it, is like, we are not going to allow our soldiers to be in harm's way from a regime that doesn't respect their own population. They killed thousands of their own people. We're not going to put our soldiers in that position. So we're going to preemptively strike them to take out their capabilities of injuring our soldiers. But I think again that that rolls back into like if you say something like that, then if it happens a little bit different, I think people like freak out and they're like, well, that's nothing, because I think there is that that section of the population that will be like if something bad happens, So like if we have a and I think it's coming, we're gonna have a We're going to have an attackle on the homeland and and they're going to go this is because we no, it is it is, it is, it doesn't. It's not a one for one thing. I think it might speed things up, but the fact is there are evil people in this country and other countries that want to do harm because to innocent people, and you, somebody has to go out there and deal with them and either remove their capabilities or remove them from this earth. And I think that I think that exact thing is the hard part. And I was kind of having this conversation with a buddy earlier today, is that for whatever reason, over the last ten years or so, we've been trying to do this like connect the dots point to point causation where you know, oh, we did this, so this immediately happened, and sure like if we haven't, if there is God forbid an attack in this country, we can say, oh, well it's only because we attacked Iran. And sure that's absolutely a factor, you know, that's it might even be a large factor, or the straw that broke the camel's back. But to not take into account the history of our relationship with Iran, the history of our relationship with the Middle East, the view of the United States from a capitalist or religious or persecutory viewpoint, Like, there's so many factors in why people choose to do what they do that to just narrow that window to oh, it's because we did this one thing, to me just opens the door for those argumentative conversations because now it's well, what about this, what about that? And it's it just you have to be able to knowledge that there are, you know, factors in I brought it up when we were talking about ice and all that, like we could talk about what was happening there, but my point was there's ben stuff brewing all year long, both sides for better, you know, whatever, whatever, but there's ben tension, and so you can't just say it's, oh, it's this one day that it happened. No, this is a building thing. Right. But then so with Bran. Now, so now we're kind of getting to my point three. So point one military execution fantastic, Point two communication kind of crap leaves a little to be desired one way or the other. The point three, and I think this is the one where the trump animosity comes in is when you look at it. When you look at it, there are two or three things that sort of stand out to me. Number one on the obvious one is congressional involvement. People say the War Powers Act. Okay, I'm not super familiar with the depth and breadth of the Warpowers. I get the basic framework, which is, if there's an imminent risk like that, we can't wait for Congress. The president has the ability to make a move as needed, which cool totally makes sense. I think I think Obama did it in Libya. I think Bush did it once. I think Biden did it on a drone strike in Syria. Like there are these times that's been utilized. So I totally understand that. But there's this thing where you know, Congress was on recess. This was kind of brewing it. To my side of things, it still has that air of I don't need to prove why I'm going to do what I want to do, which I think is where that like animosity towards Trump comes in. Just his general approach to doing things to me is contentious. The one that was interesting to me. I put something up, you know, on my Facebook or whatever, talking about like ripple effects of this and this popped up, and I'm very intrigued. I need to do a little more research, but I was reading, you know, someone's poster or looking into this thing called the Olympic Truce. The Olympic Truce is a deal that was made that for the week leading up to the Olympics and until and through the week after the Olympics and Paralympics, no military aggression is allowed to take place or the country that is the aggressor is banned from the next Olympics. So what's interesting about that is, if my dates are correct, this attack fell within that window, which would mean technically, if the IOC wants to uphold their rule, the US stands to be disqualified from the next Olympics, which is the Summer Olympics, which we're hosting. So there's this weird, like the side quest ripple that we may have in it virtually got ourselves banned from the own Olympic, from the Olympics were hosting. I don't think it's going to happen, but it's just an interesting little thread that I saw pop up. Go ahead, No, I think that is very interesting. Is I don't know, I mean, I just think that that is I'm one hundred percent sure that there was nobody that that was part of the war room conversation of like, well, what about the Olympics. Just a couple of quick points that I wanted to go over because I did some key examples. Some of these you probably don't remember, but we were run through them last forty years, military actions without direct congressional approval since the mid eighties, paying them all with the first Bush. What retroactive approval on that one afterwards, if I remember. Right, Yeah, because the war That's what was really interesting too, is the War Act said you have to the War Powers Resolution requires the President to notify Congress, but then forty eight hours of committing troop and then mandates troop withdrawal within sixty to ninety days without authorization. And I think that's where there's a little loophole, because he hasn't put boots on the ground in this situation. Yeah, and I think all these are examples of well, Panama we did put boots. But again that one looks a lot like Moundor because we just went and got in Oriega, Bosnia in nineteen ninety five with President Clinton Kosovo, President Clinton Libya in twenty eleven president Obama, Syria, seventeen and eighteen with Trump, and twenty twenties the Trump and Biden administration. As you strike against Iran back groups citing article of whatever. So I think that's I think that's the danger in all of it is is that when people extract pieces of information and go this has never happened again because in their view, I think it's a fair view because they're like, he is, he is, no kings and all this other stuff, and I think you're destroying a You're going after a country that clearly I don't know. I thought what was interesting I saw with all this stuff was I think it was a la I'm sure they I don't know that they staged it. But the caption basically said, in Los Angeles, instead of complaining about Donald Trump, here's a group of women who are from Iran. They're celebrating. You know you've got because they were saying, like all the actresses and actors were like complaining about you know, how dare we go? And I think that's a slippery slope too for the Democrats, is like think you really want to put your put your like push your chair under the table of a regime like the head in Iran. Well, I think that that's like that, that's something that I think my part of the left just butts our head against time and time again, which is two things are allowed to be true. I can sit here and say, you know, Maduro not being in Venezuela is a good thing, right, but we could have done things, you know, differently leading up to I can sit here and say the Iatola and his extremest, seemingly extremeist religious bass which which set around I mean, you look at Iran in the sixties and seventies, and they were the most progressive state in the Middle East. They were amazing. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous time. And then the Iotolas took over and regressed and took away all women's rights like it was. It was not good. And so I can sit here and say him not being there in that oppressive regime, not being there is a good thing that can be true. Right, most I think, most reasonable people, and I mean you're like we've always said, you'll have your loudest on the left and your loudest on the right that are gonna yell no matter what. But most reasonable people will say yes, Iran hopefully will be better off without the Eyetola. The world and the region will be better off without the Iyatola, especially if we can cut the head off of funding to these terror groups. AMAS has below all them. But what can also be true is we can sit, you know, my side can sit and say he should have been, you know, more involved with Congress. There should have been more transparency within the government of what's going on it where it I think again, raises these like impulsive like don't like that out of my side of things is because it's so similar to all these other moments, whether they be legal or illegal, or up for debate or whatever, where his mentality is I don't give a shit, I'm doing it. And because of that that like restiveness where it does work out for some things, it's a good approach for some situations, because he uses it so blanketly across everything. It's where that gut reaction out out of me is like okay, hold on, like is this legal? Is this something? Because legality doesn't matter anymore. You had the Supreme Court rule that you know, his tariffs were illegal, and he immediately turned around and said, well, fifteen percent tariff on everything and so there's this like contentiousness about it where I just instinctively don't trust that what he's doing is legal, because there have been multiple federal cases that have shown that they're illegal. Well, I think, while you're calling, and I'm gonna tell you, one of the things that I've learned about the tariffs is, I think the biggest complaint the Supreme Court had about the tariffs is he took a very narrow section of the code that gave him discretion on the amounts and everything else. And they their their view, and I'm summarizing, and this is this is the kindergarten version of really smart people's everything, the kindergarten version. So I'm on the kindergarteners and the kindergarten part of this is the complaint from the Supreme Court is you cannot use tariffs in a punitive way. If you in other words, you've got to show, hey, this is harmon And they what their interpretation was is they looked at different things where he had put tariffs on countries because he didn't like something that they did, and it had. Built because they arrested the former president and they were buddies or. Something, and so you know, and so I think that I think that you know, like both sides will look at that and go, Supreme Court told him we couldn't do it now, And then you have the other side that says, you know, Supreme Court is evil because they did this. But the reality is it is it is. It is a a judicial body who said, here are all the facts, and based on the facts, we are applying this against the Constitution and we feel like this is wrong. And I think at some point you have to respect that. And you know, despite I don't agree with everything that people do, but like you have to understand, like that's the system of government that we have, and those checks and balances, if they always go your way, there's no checking balance. And I think that that's where I think there's just like, like, I think we both can agree that checks and balances are neither checking nor balanced. Right now. I don't. I don't, I don't. I don't agree with Okay. I think I think a good example of that is is I think I look at it big picture. From a big picture standpoint, I think localities, after George Floyd and everything else, have in local departments have kind of pulled away and They're like, we don't want anything to do with that, like we're not going to be proactive, We're not going to be aggressive and going after criminals. And I think now you have so then you have the or government that steps in and I think they are being they are being the heavies. I think in law enforcer right now you're seeing them be extremely aggressive like local law enforcement late local and state law enforcement used to be. But they think local is kind of standing back. Then you progress up. And I think the with one well, I wouldn't put one hundred percent, but I believe that we have the governor that we have in the Commonwealth of Virginia because of Donald Trump's policies on immigration and the execution of that plan. And I think people, and that's the check and balance. The checking balance is you can. You can affect it. It just might not be the the And I think that's one of the coolest things about our country, not only on the checking balance system, but I also think as as individuals inside of this country, is I can decide one day, I've been trained in this field, but I don't like this field anymore. I want to try something else. And you can you can you can change pass in this country and kind of and kind of like explore other things. And I think that's one of the most amazing things about this country is you can go you can say Okay, despite everything that's happened up at this point, the training experience that I have, if you're willing to put into work and learn something, and you can be successful. And unfortunately some people have figured out, hey, these government systems and programs are very beneficial financially. So I create and it's on both sides, Like you can I would love for them to look at a good hate mail for this, but like I would love for them, like when they're complaining about the fraud in Minnesota, I'd like them to look at like the contractors, the military contractors, the Big four whatever they have up there, and some of the crap that they like, they are making a killing off of all these different things, and it's just like, don't complain about that. And I think that's I honestly, I think that's why they I think that that is one of the reasons why they hate uh Secretary of War Hexes so much is because he's not an insider. He's not somebody's been in the military system. But I also think that's part of the reason why the military is successful right now is because you have you have performance based initiatives where it's like, this is what we're gonna do. And that brings me around Robin to my point, I think one of the reasons why we don't share stuff anymore with Congress is because there are so many leaks and on both sides. I will say, I am not a fan of Hillary krit at all, but that's bush league crap that that Rep did where she was taking pictures of her. Yeah, I mean that's bush Lee, that's I mean, that's that's like something that Kennedy a child would do. What is the point, like, you can't, like you can't expect to be respected and be disrespectful, Like don't call me in there and tell me to do something and then like that again, that's a pet peep of mine, Like don't don't be sneaky, don't do sneaky stuff. You know, if you extend an invitation in good faith, then like follow that up and do what you're supposed to do. Because and like I said, I would not give anything for that woman, Secretary Clinton because of the crap that she did and been gossy. But that's a story for a different day. But there's it should never be that type of situation where and it is it's just that gotcha moment, like so you can put a picture out there so you can be like this firebrand of like oh you know, no, like have. A little bit definitely across the line like that was unacceptable. Yeah, I mean I said, I think that's bush league. I mean that's the kind of like, that's the kind of stuff that I don't know, I just don't have any respect for people to do that. And like, I don't know if you heard their exchange between you. She was like, well, I didn't do it this. I was like, you're like a child. You got caught with your hand in the cookie jar, and now you're trying to well I did it before you told me I couldn't put my hand in the cookie jar. It's just ridiculous. Yeah, you know, you know you're not supposed to grab a cookie just logically, but you're gonna wait until someone tells it's like come on now, like that's. Very good and well, I mean I don't know, and I think that's anyway. Go ahead, No, No, you're fine, no, no, so sort of like circling back to Iran like so this or you know whatever, Like I think just overall, like there's been stuff that's happened that just instinctively is too similar to other situations where people on my side of things just there's we don't trust what's going on coming out of the government. We don't trust what you know, DHS is saying, we don't trust what the White House is saying. We don't because there have been enough times where we and you as well, it happened, Uh, it happened today or yesterday. Christinom was in front of the Senate or an oversight committee or something, I forget what exactly group it was, but Corey Booker was talking to her asking about US citizens being arrested, and she was like, we didn't arrest any US citizens. That never happened, and he said then goes, yeah, here's one right here. This dude was detained for seventy hours. You didn't know about it. And so it's these moments of like again going back to the communication, going back to awarenesses and things like that, where like we could be doing things well, I could be just completely off the mark and you know, ten years from now, see like oh wow, like I was blind to what was going on, and if that happens, I'll fully retract my stances on things, you know, and update my views. But they are just these situations where time and you know, repeatedly the communication is just it leaves the door open for judgment and lack of trust from people on my side of things. Right, but I think right now, like you know, certain back all the way to Iran, like where my immediate thought is now is we're already in there. Whether Congress approved it or not, whether it was legal, illegal, whatever it happened, we're in it. So the important thing now, like in Venezuela and how we progress with them, the important thing now is getting in there and making the country safe for the people that are there, because they've already shown that they're willing to kill the people that disagreed with them. They killed thirty thousand of them at least. So my genuine fear for the next situation or the next step in this is once the missiles are destroyed, once the drone production is down, once the IRGC starts to see like, oh, this is the walls are closing in, This is it. I genuinely have a feel that they're just going to turn the guns on the young people and the people that were opposed to them in Iran and just take out whoever they can on their way out the door. Like I genuinely think that if if we are to go troops on the ground or what the next step is, it's security, it's getting there disarmed. Diffuse uh to pose get them out before they can do more damage to their own country and their own civilians. Because I don't I don't think I'm far off the mark of that being a possibility. So what you just described is what I feel like the left is always complaining about. They just attached the word regime change. Yeah, but what I'm saying is is that and I'm not I'm not saying that we didn't do a horrible job in both Iraq and Afghanistan after the initial battles were over. We didn't win the hearts of minds. We didn't We tried to play American ball in a in a third world country in Afghanistan and an in a at best of developing country in Iraq. We can't put see where some people don't want it. Yeah, and so but one thing I would like to say, because I've heard a lot from a lot of different veterans in what they said, and I think one of the things I would like to say to any veteran that was in Afghanistan and in Iraq, and I know a lot of these guys deployed and they're like, what was the point? And I think from a law enforcement standpoint, the point was. And it's easy for me to say that because I didn't lose any close friends, you know, people in my unit and stuff like that when I was over there. But I think that you should hold your head high because part of the reason why this country had the calm that they had and didn't have follow on attacks and everything else, is because we were in someone else's country taking the fight to the terrorists, not here. Yes, did we do make mistakes and create more terrorists, yes, But as far as I feel like the work that veterans did, it was a noble cause and they did make the United States safer, which is proven by the amount of attacks that we had. So I understand that people are frustrated when they look at it, especially the veterans that lost friends, because I can't relate to that but what I can relate to is is someone that's in law enforcement that does proactive work, which is you were proactive for the United States and you I heard a Delta guy describe it as like, we killed a lot of really bad people. We had a really good run of killing a lot of really bad people. And that's what they did. And I don't. I do agree that leadership failed them, but as far as their mission and what they accomplished in spite of that, I think they should hold their heads up high. The gy veterans who went over there and took the fight to the terroriffs that would have done us harm. And like I do like there and say like I personally, I have friends also that were veterans. Regardless of what administration or higher ups choose to do, the approach they choose to take, the decisions they choose to make. The thing that does get under my skin quicker than anything is when people on my side of the road start hurling insults at the soldiers, at the veterans, at the people that just got sent somewhere because that's the duty they signed up for. And to me, like I get frustrated very quickly when it's you know, going after the staff sargeant or the corporal or whatever, or just the grunt, because it's not them. They're not the ones making decisions. They're not the ones, you know, in charge of anything. Like you know, hate Obama, hate Trump, hate Biden, whoever, Bush whatever, right, But the dude that just got taken out of his home and cans and dropped in a desert what however, many thousands of miles away for him to come home and just be attacked is in my opinion, just unacceptable. Yeah. Well, like I said, I know, I was watching Sean Ryan show the other day and he was just so frustrated with like was it really worth it? He doesn't feel like it's worth it. And that's what I would tell him in any other veteran, is like, it absolutely was worth it. And we as American citizens are grateful for the sacrifices for the ones that came back, the ones that came back harmed, anyone that was deployed over in that type in the Global War on Terear, like they did do good. It might not have been paid in the way that they wanted it to paid back in like the objective that they wanted. But one thing that they can say with absolute clarity is that they went over and took the fight to an enemy that would have come here and killed as many Americans as they could. Well, I think what made at least can't a stand. I was talking to our buddy Billy about this today. Shout out Billy at What I think made Afghanistan very interesting from my perspective is when you look at like World War Two, it was over at least as far as America's involvement in four or five years. When you look at Vietnam was seven right like that. What made Afghanistan so interesting is, and I propose this to him, but you know that first wave of people that went over, you know, right following September eleventh, you know, two thousand and three, the first group go over. Those guys are in it. What became interesting to me to look at it in terms of a timeline is that last group of deployments. Some of the guys there at the tail end, they very well may have been born either just before or just after nine to eleven and not have a conscious memory of it. And so to them, it is a war in a country for a reason. They don't have a visceral understanding for because it wasn't part of their life, and not saying that that changes any of what you said. I still completely agree with you on that point. But it was just an interesting thought that I hadn't really had before before I was talking to Billy today about that, Like the timeline of Afghanistan was so long, and again reasonably, you know, we went in there once against the Russians, got in, got out, and it went to you know, civil war, tribal warfare. So this time it's like, okay, pendulum swing, We're going to stick around, and then still didn't work. You know, it is what it is. You know, that's a conversation for a different day. But this sense of there being soldiers there that may not have had a conscious memory as to why they were there where this started like they've got the history book, and it was just what. I think what happened. I think what happened as the deployment's got is the rules of engagement in the elected officials and the leadership that's not on the ground dictating to what they should or should not do. The whole I can't shoot until I see a gun aimed at me, like is one of those things that like sounds reasonable on paper kind of, but then in actuality it's like, no, that's going to cause so much stress. But I think I think it's because you have the politicians and the people that are just trying to protect their territory thinking like you got. In a secured building and say that's you're shot at me. I think the other thing, and the problem that you have from my standpoint, with the with the leadership is they're sitting there going, oh, hearts and minds, we need to win hearts and minds, and if we kill somebody and there's collateral damage, we've lost that battle. What they don't understand is if you create an environment where the people that you're sending to do the job don't feel safe doing the job, they are not going to do their job the way they should. And I think a lot of stuff that happened in Vietnam, and a lot of the stuff that happened towards the end was just the frustration of like being handicapped in an area where you should have a clear concise mission. And I think that's the issue. Is the clear concise mission going into Afghanistan was we're going to remove the Taliban, and those just supported the people that committed the Act of September eleventh. We're going to go in there and we're gonna and we're gonna deal with it. And I think that's one of the problems is then then you have politicians arguing, what we think we should do it this way, we think we should do it this way, and they don't have the same It just I don't know. I just think that's one of the biggest problems in every occupation, certainly in the government, is if you don't have good leadership and you don't have the ability to execute a clarity of mission, it creates problems. And I think that is I do believe, and I think we've discussed it. I think that's one of the problems that we had with ICE in Minnesota is there wasn't a clarity of mission and because of that, like it, it created havoc. So yeah, yeah, I think you're right. And so like I said, like with a run now like the fact the Maatic, like I said, we're in it. So it'll be you know, how quickly can we stop the drones coming out? How quickly can you know we start getting our our friends and our allies in the area secure like so the other the other This just pop back in my head. I meant to bring it up earlier, but like someone one of the other things in terms of like a knock on Trump. But again, I don't know how this type of coordination works. But like we have American citizens over there that don't have a way out, like flights are canceled, air traffics canceled. So like a big one for me too is we got to get our people out. We got to get our the Americans out. And like right now the DJ or dos like twenty four to seven phone line at least it may be updated by now. When last I saw someone talking about it, which was earlier today or last night, the twenty four to seven like call for helpline I'm paraphrasing, is we can't help. Best of luck. I'm sorry, keep checking back. So it is this like we've kind of it. The initial attack is from from the Trump perspective, the initial attack seemed impulsive, and now we have people trapped, trapped over there for lack of a better term, they can't get up that now are at risk because you got to think it's not an again it's not an unreasonable thought that if an IRGC comes across an American they're not gonna ask questions. There's gonna shoot them. And so but it's those things that pop up in my head is like a concern as like what's the next step. How do we get security? How do we get our people back? How do we keep the drones from coming out of around Like we're in it, We're doing stuff, whether I want to be there or not. Now I'm thinking about our people. You know where we were. The personal security question based on your limited knowledge of what was going on in Iran. If you scheduled a trip to the Middle East, for example, and you saw all these navy like I mean, it wasn't like we just suddenly showed up over there. There was a huge build up. Do you not think I'm not saying people like soldiers and people that were in diplomats were sent over there. I'm saying like civilians that are like, hey, I think now's a good time to go to Dubai. At some point, you as a citizen have a responsibility of like just like Mexico, Like yeah, like Mexico, like people were surprised that what was that Porta, I can't ever say, right. So anyway, the really expensive place where the new generation cartel leader got killed, and like they were burning stuff down and all these all these people were stuck on this. It was I think they secured it, but like they were like it was horrible. Like I thought. I saw a couple of things where people were down there for different events in Mexico and they're like, we didn't think we're gonna get out of here. We didn't think we were gonna get out alive. But like it's pretty clear that the Department State has said that all but said don't go to Mexico, you know. But I think people are like, well, let's chance it. It's really nice down there. It's I'm on a resort. It can't happen to me. But then they realize and that's what this guy was saying, is this guy had to pay security, and his security was was he was like, they told us we can't get out, So they actually flew they brought a chopper in and and got their people out that way, and that was the only boy that got all. You heard his story about that, yeah, yeah, So I mean I just I just think like at the end of the day, like there are sure Like I mean, it's easy to sit here in the safety of home being like, well, why did you go to Dubai when there were boats over there? But we've always had a military prit not to this degree. I get that, but like it's an it's an easy statement to make. Right now, I still sit there and go, I don't. It doesn't matter to me why you went over there. If if I would, I didn't go. That wasn't a good idea. Sure, I'm not. I'm not removing I don't. I'm not removing responsibility to the government to work that out. But the flip side of it is is that like at some point you have to take personal responsibility if you decide in the next little bit, like hey, I think I'm gonna take a trip to se to Chicago because I want to see if I can make it on their numbers games, you know, homicides, like hey, there's a good chance of going to be in a bad way, you know. And it's just like I just think at some point, you as human, as a human being and as a person, you're going to have to go, hey, I need to take personal responsibility. The government can't fix everything, and in a lot of cases they just make it worse. So but anyway, all right, buddy, Well, I really appreciate you coming on. I thought this would be one of those ones that were like difficult, but like we've burnt through the time pretty quick. I don't know if you're like getting closer to my side. I I'm like I'm drifting left or what, but like I feel like we're I feel like we're starting to head towards the middle. So well, I think like with a subject like this, it's like and to my to my point earlier, like if we're able to accept that like two things can be true at the same time and we can analyze something from the different you know, like I tried to break it down into like my three layers of how I looked at this, Like I think that that's something you know, for people to consider of, you know, find the common ground first and then try and work through like where some of the differences might be or or any of that. But no, I mean I think there we're going to come across subjects that you and I pretty much agree on throughout throughout the course of things, but you know, we might approach or execution or things like that. But you know, like I said, like right now for me where I'm trying to hold on to or to ground myself and my viewpoint on like geopolitical stuff, it's not you know, I've had a year now of listening to Trump say one thing and then do the complete opposite or something completely different or not, you know, providing you he said no regime changes, and now we're on two and a half, so who knows. But because of that, it's it's sit and say, Okay, you know, Venezuela, let's see how let's let's the the The administration's job now is to make sure they're set up for success. Around the administration's job now you fired the shot. Now make sure that we make sure we do right by them. Yeah, we picked that, we picked two battles. Let's see how they Let's see if we see if our initial I feel like the we've been really good starting. Let's see if we can finish. Because that's that's the last little historical thing I'll leave it on is if you look at us involvement in military actions and they're out excuse me, military actions and they're out since World War Two. Our track record hasn't been great in terms of UH success rate so to speak, Like Vietnam not great. Korea is still technically going on like that. One's kind of the best right now. But you look at our attack in Libya, Libya a state. I don't know. I don't really don't know how good we did in Korea. But interesting but interesting point about Vietnam that somebody brought up the other day that I had never thought about, and they said, we we have like a we have like a view of things of like, well, we didn't we didn't drive the we didn't drive the The purpose of that war was to prevent the spread of communism in Asia. We we picked Vietnam as our battle ground. But like they said, it is like, well, you can look at that and say we weren't successful because we lost Vietnam, but look at the countries around there that if thrived because of our involvement in Vietnam. So yeah, I mean, I think to me, I look at the loss of just the loss of life, like it was just doing so much for something that maybe we did. Maybe we did that. I don't know. I mean, I think the problem I think I do. I do think it's just it's just clarity. I think. I think you had somebody that got us in it and they were like they just kept I think I think the best example I can give is like you have a sucking chest, win and you put a band aid on it. Eventually you're gonna have to treat that or you're gonna lose. You can put as many resources on it as you can, but at some point you're gonna have to, like you're gonna have to like get in there and actually fix the problem, and there's a chance that might not work and the person won't live in the same way when you engage in activities like we've engaged in with these countries, just because you pour resources and manpower into it doesn't doesn't necessarily mean you be successful. And I think that's I think in looking at it full clarity in my head is I think that's one of the reasons why we struggle with immigration. I think it's why we struggle in other countries and policies that we have, is they become reoccurring problems. And the reason they do is because there's a chance you could lose, and nobody wants to lose. Nobody wants to be old. Nobody wants to be holding holding the ball when the clock runs out and you lose. And I think that's a fair, fair, fair point. Yeah right, Well, I appreciate your time and UH as always, it's great to have you on. Good to see you. We'll see you next time you're around the shop.
