GAZA: hiltzaileen eta esperantzaren artean (25)

No idea at all!

Please, #LearnMMT: https://modernmoney.wordpress.com/index/

urt. 10

Fayez Sayegh… “Terrorism was brought into the Middle East by Zionists”… 15/05/1974

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877840979496976587

oooooo

Abier@abierkhatib

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877254036862235107

oooooo

Luisy Morgan@LuisyMorgan

Suppressed News.@SuppressedNws

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877470629990981702

oooooo

Irish Sport for Palestine@Sport4Palestine

oooooo

Tyrone@RelearningEcon

oooooo

Khalissee@Kahlissee

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877785888198914518

oooooo

Richard@ricwe123

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877725073613771102

oooooo

Lord Bebo@MyLordBebo

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877646500437578122

oooooo

oooooo

You rep

Gaza Under Attack_@Palestine001_

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877952784366002292

oooooo

Earth Hippy @hippyygoat

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877776764807549107

oooooo

David Miller@Tracking_Power

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877702799196066137

oooooo

Jonathan Cook@Jonathan_K_Cook

You repos

Irish Sport for Palestine@Sport4Palestine

oooooo

oooooo

Ali Abunimah@AliAbunimah

oooooo

Chay Bowes@BowesChay

oooooo

Irish Sprt for Palestine@Sport4Palestine

oooooo

You reposted

Angry Staffer@Angry_Staffer

oooooo

Scott Ritter@RealScottRitter

oooooo

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877718614762995985

oooooo

Khalissee@Kahlissee

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877816455258935503

oooooo

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877983913299071041

oooooo

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877844326144749818

oooooo

ooo

Scott Ritter most candid confession on Gaza, Syria, Bashar Al-Assad, Ukraine, NATO & future vision

(https://www.youtube.com/live/Ly_2Y7XTVvQ)

Scott Ritter opens up about Gaza, Syria, Bashar Al-Assad, Ukraine, NATO, and more in this candid interview. Get insights into the future vision for these global hotspots. Join us as we discuss whether Bashar al-Assad is the most misunderstood leader ever, with special guest Scott Ritter. We dive into topics like Gaza, Hamas and whether Hezbollah is defeated, the impact of Syria war, the Ukraine war, the United States, NATO, and more. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation!

Tranaskripzioa:

0:11

[Music] is

0:22

[Music]

0:28

[Music]

1:22

[Music]

1:29

[Music]

2:23

[Music]

2:29

[Music]

3:00

oh [Music]

3:24

[Music]

3:30

[Music]

4:24

[Music]

4:31

[Music]

5:20

there is no [Music]

5:32

[Music]

6:26

[Music]

6:32

[Music]

7:27

[Music]

7:33

[Music]

8:27

[Music]

8:34

[Music]

9:28

[Music]

9:34

[Music]

9:42

now [Music]

10:29

[Music]

10:35

[Music]

10:59

e

11:36

now there is no Pathway to a Palestinian Homeland now you think Hezbollah is defeated have you not heard what

11:42

Hezbollah has said Netanyahu would have to concede and and and and yield to

11:50

International pressure to begin serious discussions about the formation of a Palestinian State no I reject 100% 100%

11:59

at this point in time that it’s possible to be a Syrian nationalist who was

12:04

opposed to Bashar al- Assad because I just proved you that doesn’t exist

12:10

anymore and Russia’s in a much stronger negotiating position to impose its uh

12:16

you know its will on uh on the west so I think you know the collapse of Europe is

12:22

is strengthening Russia’s hand isn’t there a possibility isn’t there a fear

12:27

that uh NATO ends up getting more strengthen to rebuild NATO you have to

12:32

tear everything down and start from scratch and you can’t afford that who you are in terms of your

12:43

[Music] philosophies hello and welcome to

12:50

another episode of India and Global left if you are new to our show please smash that subscribe button and also consider

12:56

being a patreon or join our member ship to have Early Access in either event

13:02

like our show share and comment without further Ado let me welcome our guest

13:08

today Scott rer Scott welcome to India and Global left well thank you very much

13:13

for having me and uh Happy new year thank you same to you um I want to start

13:19

with Palestine given the news that we are hearing are so depressing I recently

13:24

interviewed Norman felstein and he said Gaza is no more I wanted to have your

13:30

response on that and what do you think is going on in

13:36

Gaza well unfortunately I think Norman is probably closer to the truth than um

13:43

those who believe that the struggle in Gaza is one that

13:50

can finish with a Palestinian State being formed uh Gaza was always going to

13:56

be the sacrificial lamb in this it was set up to be such on October 7th the entire premise behind um sino’s Gambit

14:05

October 7th Gambit was to initiate a struggle that would expose the reality

14:14

of Israel to the world and in doing so make the world understand the absolute

14:21

uh need for a Palestinian State for the Palestinian people these people who were children of the camps people who were

14:28

living l l prisoners in an open air concentration camp um the world seemed

14:34

to be blind to that reality for for so many years and uh you know sino’s

14:40

actions um basically open the door for Israel to

14:45

prove to the world what senoir and the other Palestinians knew that it is a genocidal state that um believes in

14:53

racial Supremacy uh based upon one’s religious identity uh um if you’re

15:00

Jewish you are a superhuman God’s chosen and if you’re not Jewish you are a human

15:07

animal that can be slaughtered at will with no recourse to the law um and it

15:13

almost worked I mean the tragedy is that I mean there is always going to be horrific death I’ve likened it in the

15:20

past to the sacrifice made by the French um uh on the eve of you the Normandy

15:27

invasion when uh Charles de gal was briefed by the Allied commanders what the cost of human lives be to the French

15:34

civilian population of the Normandy Peninsula um and indeed 60,000 died for

15:41

the LI to be liberated but it was a price that had to be paid there was no other way around this and if you want to

15:48

create a Palestinian State at a time when Israel openly denies the

15:54

possibility of a Palestinian State then you must engage in a conflict that defeats Israel existentially and one of

16:02

the ways you can defeat them especially if you can’t defeat them in a standup military on Military fight is to defeat

16:09

them as a as an identity to get the world to reject uh Zionist Israel and

16:16

the world was well on the path towards making that happen uh the international court of justice had found that Israel

16:22

was carry out acts of genocide the international criminal court had indicted Netanyahu and the defend

16:29

Minister for war crimes um and around the world nations were turning their

16:34

back on Israel uh including Nations that had um been I guess sighing up to Israel

16:42

like Saudi Arabia was on the cusp of normalizing relations with Israel and uh

16:47

because of Israel’s actions Saudi Arabia had moved away from that Israel was unable to defeat Hamas militarily unable

16:56

to uh eliminate Hamas politically um and then as Israel expanded the

17:01

conflict uh they were similarly unable to defeat Hezbollah militarily or

17:08

politically and so Israel was in a bind the economy was collapsed politically

17:13

Netanyahu was isolated the only way he could stay in power was uh by creating

17:19

this far right-wing Coalition that um only helped Hamas because it proved

17:26

again right there you didn’t have to um try to interpret what the Israelis

17:32

are saying or read between the lines this cabinet straight out said we are seeking the genocide of the Palestinian

17:39

people we don’t care about them they’re Human animals they must be

17:44

slaughtered but then um Syria collapsed and nobody

17:50

anticipated that and with the collapse of Syria uh so went the viability of the

17:57

axis of resistance at least in in the short term um and in one F swoop Israel

18:04

went from being a nation Fe facing existential strategic defeat to a nation

18:09

that was on the rebound um suddenly Netanyahu was able to Rebrand himself as

18:15

uh the man who defeated Iran the man who defeated Hezbollah the man who was going to defeat uh Hamas and now Hamas is

18:24

fairly well isolated um I mean the the the rapidity to in which the Arab world abandoned the

18:33

cause of Hamas the cause of the Palestinian people and celebrated the demise of Bashar al- Assad uh just goes

18:42

to once again reinforce the fact that the Palestinian people never mattered to

18:47

the larger Arab world or to the larger Muslim umah family um and this is the

18:53

this is the reality that must be faced today um I continue to believe that the

18:59

Palestinian people deserve a Homeland um and I support you know the struggle to

19:05

for the Palestinian people to get a Homeland but you have to be realistic and the fact is right now there is no

19:12

Pathway to a Palestinian Homeland now um Hamas is isolated Gaza is destroyed and

19:19

uh the the population of Gaza have a stark Choice um flee or die flee or die depopulate

19:29

or die and the world is not going to do anything to lift a hand to prevent them

19:36

from dying so ultimately I believe that Gaza will be depopulated and Israel will

19:42

take it over and it will be a crushing defeat for the Palestinian cause it’s

19:47

not something I’m happy about I continue to condemn condemn with the harshest possible terms uh the um Muslim world

19:56

and the Arab world for celebrating the demise of Bashar al-assad’s regime uh at

20:02

the expense of the Palestinians it’s interesting you have been um among those in the last uh year

20:11

or so who have been if I read you correctly who haven’t

20:17

been extremely pessimistic uh until at least uh fall of Syria um as far as uh

20:24

what was going on in Palestine and uh even South Lebanon and now I what I hear

20:31

you is that you are relatively more pessimistic was it just Syria or I also

20:37

wonder something changed in your assessment uh uh about what happened in South Lebanon uh because a lot of people

20:44

thought uh drawing from the second Lebanon war in 2006 that it would be a

20:50

genuine stalemate at the least uh but now a lot of people reach that uh this

20:56

time Israel was much more dominant um uh over hisbah what’s your assessment on

21:03

that front uh I just want to remind the people that think that Israel was dominant over Hezbollah to understand

21:09

that it was the Israelis who pushed for the ceasefire not Hezbollah Israel desperately needed the

21:15

ceasefire because their military was not defeating Hezbollah um yes Israel enjoyed some

21:22

strategic successes the murder of Hassan Nala um the elimination of senior

21:30

Hezbollah staff um and the infliction of U on on of of of damage on the Hezbollah

21:37

military infrastructure uh All Is is true but in the last week before the

21:44

ceasefire the Israel sent in the Golani Brigade and the seventh armored Brigade two of their Elite

21:49

formations and they were defeated on the battlefield by Hezbollah I’ll just say that one more time to sink it in they

21:55

were defeated on the battlefield by Hezbollah if you think Israel beat Hezbollah you know nothing about the

22:01

fighting that was going on in southern Lebanon but the difference between 2 and six and today is that Hezbollah is more

22:09

than just a resistance movement Hezbollah is a political party that plays a very important role in the

22:14

politics of Lebanon and the Israelis um had uh expanded the scope and scale of

22:22

their military actions in Lebanon to go beyond simply punishing traditional

22:28

Hezbollah strongholds and was uh branching out to punish Lebanon as a whole and the Lebanese government of

22:35

which Hezbollah is a part of an important part of said that they have to

22:41

have a ceasefire that this cannot continue uh in Hezbollah because they are a member of the government um

22:48

exceeded to that said yes we will do this ceasefire but hezbollah’s premise was always that Israel will not comply

22:55

with this ceasefire and that at the end of the 60-day period Hezbollah will be

23:02

empowered by the failure of Israel to comply to continue the the conflict indeed we see that now you think hezb is

23:09

defeated have you not heard what hezb has said at the end of the 60 days they

23:15

are going to resume military is that the language of a defeated party absolutely

23:21

not and moreover Israel has occupied parts of Southern Lebanon and

23:28

if it doesn’t Retreat from withdraw they will be in violation open violation of the ceas fire agreement and we return to

23:35

the scenario of the 1990s and 2000s where Israel is an illegitimate occupying power of Lebanon and hez

23:42

becomes the resistance movement that will seek to evict Israel from the illegally occupied territories this

23:50

legitimizes hezbo in a way that is unimaginable now hezb will succeed in

23:55

this fight Israel cannot defeat he on the ground in southern Lebanon it is

24:01

impossible for Israel to do this what Lebanon might be more constrained in being able to do is uh inflict damage on

24:10

uh Israel proper um you know they in order to have a strategic strike

24:16

capacity against um a sustainable strategic strike capacity against uh Israel uh Hezbollah needs a um

24:25

sustainable supply line to connect it with Iran that was done through Syria

24:32

and with the collapse of Syria that umbilical court has been cut and so hezb is somewhat constrained in terms of what

24:39

it will be able to do in terms of the Strategic aspects of its resistance it

24:44

will resist in southern Lebanon but its ability to take the fight into Israel in

24:51

a decisive manner is is somewhat constrained they may have retained some capability but if they start using

24:58

capability it’ll be very difficult to replenish that capability and so Hezbollah is is is a diminished power

25:06

not a defeated power but a diminished power and without Hezbollah able to um

25:12

carry out this this war of attrition uh sustainable over the long term uh it

25:19

makes it difficult for Hamas uh people don’t understand how close

25:24

Israel was to strategic defeat how close the Gambit of sinore almost worked yes

25:31

he was dead yes Hassan Nala was dead but you know two weeks prior to the U to

25:39

the or a week prior to the collapse of Israel let’s say mid November of uh of

25:46

last year n yahu was facing political catastrophe political catastrophe

25:52

because again he had not defeated Hamas and he was compelled because of the successful resistance of Hezbollah

26:00

to seek a ceasefire that the um that that the he didn’t want his his

26:05

right-wing party didn’t want they were compelled by the military because of the weakness of Israel not only that the

26:12

hostage crisis in Gaza was uh threatening to bring him down

26:18

politically uh there was a huge uh Scandal I don’t know what happened to it

26:23

now but Seymour hor wrote about this scandal in his substack and uh

26:29

it it was based on the fact that Nyo had lied to the Israeli people about who was

26:34

to blame for the failure to get the hostages released he blamed it on Hamas

26:39

and he did a briefing where he cited u a document a Hamas document and he quoted

26:46

from it to make his case but as Seymour horsh points out that document was so

26:52

highly classified Not only was you were were you not permitted to quote from it you weren’t allowed to even acknowledge

26:59

its existence this document existed in a secret room in Military Intelligence

27:05

headquarters and um and Netanyahu violated the law and bring

27:13

that out and the other aspect is he misrepresented this intelligence he talked about it by quoting a

27:20

hypothetical scenario that people said sinir should consider in this internal Hamas document which was sinir should

27:27

flee um Gaza with the hostages and go to Iran

27:32

and then yahu cited this and said see they never intended to release the hostages but the very next page went on

27:38

to say sinir rejected this that he will remain in Gaza with the hostages looking

27:44

to exchange the hostages for release of prisoners and other things so nyaho lied

27:51

court cases were opened up against him that could have brought him down so

27:56

Netanyahu was literally in danger of being kicked out of power

28:01

before the year ended and if if netanyahu’s Government collapsed Israel’s internal political

28:08

Dynamic would be one of chaos and Anarchy that could lead to the political

28:13

defeat of Israel you combine that with the ongoing economic disaster that’s taking place in Israel because of the

28:20

resistance the Anala the hoodi successful blockading of elot the

28:25

Southern Port of elot um 60 80,000 Israelis dislocated from their homes in

28:31

the north can’t go back um tens of thousands dislocated around Gaza can’t go back no foreign investment no hope

28:40

Israel Was Defeated and there was every reason to believe that whatever

28:45

government replaced Netanyahu would have to concede and and and and yield to

28:52

International pressure to begin serious discussions about the formation of a Palestinian state this is how close

28:59

Israel was to being defeated but the collapse of Syria has allowed Israel to

29:05

allow netanyahu’s government to uh redefine um you know the the political

29:11

reality they now claim to be victorious there still a lot of problems don’t get me wrong and netanyahu’s health is of

29:17

big concern because this is a man who just had prostate surgery a level three cancer stage three cancer uh he may not

29:25

be long for this world and without n Yahoo this far right-wing Coalition will

29:30

not survive and the collapse of that Coalition will lead to the very kind of

29:35

political struggle that um had existed before but the difference is this political struggle will take place in a

29:43

an environment where Israel believes that it has defeated Hezbollah and

29:49

defeated Iran and therefore it makes the people who supported that policy have

29:54

some political viability that otherwise wouldn’t exist but but uh you know I’m I’m pessimistic for Hamas because of the

30:03

this The Cutting of the umbilical cord um that’s it if if s if Bashar al- Assad

30:08

was still in power today I’d be very bullish on um the possibility of a

30:14

Palestinian state but because of the collapse of this um I just think there’s a new political Dynamic that um doesn’t

30:22

bode well for Hamas or the future of a Palestinian State yeah this is very interesting

30:29

because uh what you were saying is you don’t think that uh that the that the

30:35

assessment of balance of power between Hezbollah and Israel is significantly

30:41

skewed in favor of Israel which uh some people have uh recently come to believe

30:48

um many I know um used to believe that uh the balance was significant the

30:53

balance was somewhat even but but recent news and events have Vin them that it

30:58

has been skewed in favor of Israel but that’s not what you think you what you where your pessimism comes from is from

31:06

Fall of Syria um so let me but we need to be careful here

31:11

um what made Hezbollah such a powerful force was that Hezbollah worked in

31:20

concert with Iran and that um you couldn’t

31:25

separate the two when talking about a war with Israel give you an

31:32

example if Israel were to launch a large-scale military strike against

31:37

Iran Hezbollah serves as a loaded pistol in the head of Israel and so Israel strikes

31:44

Iran and the loaded pistol goes off and Israel’s dead um but that loaded pistol had to be loaded with potential not to

31:52

defend Southern Lebanon but to actually strike into

31:58

Galilee and and and occupied Galilee and Hezbollah had that capacity prior to

32:04

October 7th Hezbollah had long-range strike capability Hezbollah had the capability to insert thousands of highly

32:12

trained Fighters under the ground in tunnels to pop up in Israeli Villages and towns and seize control of these

32:19

towns so that the war that Israel would fight against hezo would not be fought on Southern Lebanese territory but on

32:26

Northern Israeli ter territory um and this changes the entire Dynamic for is

32:32

Israel in terms of that conflict hassanan made a strategic decision because I personally believe and I think

32:38

the evidence shows that he was not briefed beforehand by Hamas as to what they were doing on October 7th neither

32:46

was Iran and when they woke up on the morning of October 7th Hassan Nala and

32:52

president Rishi of Iran went what just happened you know we weren’t ready ready

32:58

for this we didn’t not only weren’t we ready for this we didn’t want this this was not the Strategic direction that um

33:04

either of the nations were going Iran was gearing up for U the bricks and and

33:10

transitioning into you know sort of a a period of economic um you know re

33:17

revitalization uh you know Building A system that defeated the sanctions that

33:22

were imposed on the west and Hezbollah was there to provide support for that but also Hezbollah was transitioning

33:29

into the role of governing Lebanon um the last thing either one of these

33:34

entities Hezbollah or Iran wanted was a war with Israel but because they

33:40

supported and this is this is what should just underscore the Betrayal of

33:46

the of of the Sunni Arab world towards Palestine because Hezbollah and Iran

33:52

supported the Palestinian cause and they supported the the the the right of

33:58

Palestinians to have a Homeland when Hamas made a decision to fight to achieve this both Hezbollah and Iran

34:06

said okay we have to do something to help but they weren’t going to launch a

34:12

major war against Israel that wasn’t that was never in the cards first of all

34:17

um if Hezbollah and Iran engaged early on decisively with Israel this would not

34:23

be about Hamas Gaza and the Palestinian people this would be about a greater axis a resistance struggle against

34:29

Israel and the world would not Rally against Israel but rather rally in support of Israel in order for the Hamas

34:36

plan to work the attention always had to be on Gaza and Hamas so how do you help

34:42

if you’re Hassan thisa and he said this this came out in his um October 9th

34:48

presentation you begin a policy of managed escalation a war of attrition

34:56

designed to free Israeli resources in place and to begin a process of um

35:02

wearing down Israel politically economically militarily without reaching

35:09

that that line that says this is now existential uh so that no matter what

35:14

was happening in Northern Israel Southern Lebanon the world was always focused on Gaza and it worked it worked

35:22

brilliantly even Iran when Iran uh intervened with true promise one and true promise too these weren’t

35:29

decisive uh knockout blows they were simply um you know demonstrations of

35:35

capability to rebalance the deterrence equation between Iran and Israel but the

35:41

goal was never to take away from what was happening Gaza always dominated

35:46

every morning the world woke up to the horrific reality of what Israel was doing to the Gaz and civilians every

35:53

single morning you couldn’t ignore it it was there but Hassan Nala in making this decision

36:01

sacrificed his offensive capability against Israel you see

36:09

Hezbollah if if if for hezbollah’s offensive potential to be

36:14

realized it would have to take place early on in any major fight between

36:20

Hezbollah and Israel and would have to incorporate the element of surprise meaning that you know Hezbollah strikes

36:26

decisively boom and Israel now is in reactive mode this is uh sort of an extension of John Boyd’s um udal Loop uh

36:35

getting in you know the the the Orient uh observe Orient tode act the fighter pilots Mantra of how you always win an

36:42

air-to-air engagement but the concept applied to ground is to get inside the enemy’s decision-making cycle to make

36:48

the enemy react to you and if the enem is always reacting to you that means you’re in control and Hezbollah needed

36:54

to have the Israelis reacting to Hezbollah Hezbollah would be in control of the fight they would manage that but

37:00

when Nala made the decision to do the opposite gradual War of Attrition

37:07

gradually building up he sacrificed that strategic capability and in doing so he

37:13

also put Iran in a difficult position because you know Iran’s ability to confront Israel was always contingent

37:20

upon this loaded pistol of Hezbollah at the head of Israel but to support the cause of Hamas Hezbollah gave up that

37:25

loaded pistol um and that’s where we are today so even though Hezbollah isn’t

37:32

defeated hezb no longer is that loaded pistol and against the head of Israel because hezel today does not have the

37:38

capacity to Surge uh 8 to 10,000 highly trained troops into Northern Israel and

37:44

back them up with strategic Firepower from ballistic missiles but what Hezbollah can do is defend Southern

37:51

Lebanon and go into a long-term war of resistance to evict the Israelis from

37:57

Lebanon and they’ve done that in the past and they will do it again so Hezbollah is not defeated Hezbollah just

38:03

their their strategic reality has changed because of decisions made by Hassan Nala and I’ll leave it with this

38:09

we can’t you know it’s no exaggeration that the loss

38:15

of Hassan Nala is a huge problem for Hezbollah politically and militarily yes

38:21

they have very effective military leaders but they to have this figure that was almost legendary this this man

38:27

who had been power since 1992 uh the man who had defeated Israel drove them out

38:32

of Southern Lebanon and and defeated them in a standup fight in 2006 who carried out this very effective uh War

38:39

of Attrition against Israel a man who commanded the respect not only within Lebanon but around the world to have him

38:46

dead one of the dangers that any nation has when they have a leader who has of

38:53

such charismatic character um be empowered for so long is that they tend

38:59

not to have a viable Plan B when that leader goes away and heah does not have

39:06

a viable Plan B they don’t have a Hassan Nala out there who carries the same um

39:12

you know gravitas when it comes to Lebanese politics when it comes to international relations and uh that is

39:19

something that also weighs heavily on U on Hezbollah but if you think that Hezbollah is defeated hold my beer and

39:27

wait until the 60 days of the ceasefire ends and uh see what

39:34

happens I like the distinction you made between hezbollah’s capacity to evict

39:41

Israel uh from Southern Lebanon or even influence parts of Northern Israel uh as

39:47

opposed to uh hezbollah’s ability to act within a larger exis of resistance which

39:55

is what is uh um if I understand you correctly it’s probably uh weakened as

40:00

you see I um want to ask you about Syria but uh before that if I can ask you

40:08

about your experience of um

40:13

uh your experience in the Arab world um what do you think uh the fall fall of

40:20

Syria has uh changed in terms of uh the balance of power within the Arab world

40:33

ah boy the problem is to answer that question honestly and I will

40:39

um it requires a very brutal assessment of the Arab

40:45

world um and I don’t want to come across as racist I don’t want to come across is

40:51

Islamic phobic um but let’s just be straight up honest the Arab world is a

40:58

catastrophe that doesn’t mean that the Arab people are um you know problematic

41:04

I believe that you know we we we we always talk of the Arab Street you know and how rulers have to pay attention to

41:11

the Arab Street pay attention to the Suk the market you know the will of the people but for the most part um you know

41:19

the the the Arab Spring That was supposed to sweep out all these old uh

41:24

oligarchs and and such it didn’t you had uh you know something happened in

41:29

Tunisia that has been you know it has not um manifested itself the way I think

41:35

people wanted um Egypt yes we we saw the elimination of one um you know dictator

41:43

replaced by another um and nowhere else I mean I you know they were you know the

41:50

thought was that Bashar al- Assad would be swept aside but you know it took another 14 years 134 14 years for that

41:57

to happen and it wasn’t because of the Arab Street it was because of CIA money um you know so and Libya was a

42:05

catastrophe Libya was 100% catastrophe the elimination of Bashar Al Assad I

42:11

mean ofi um and that serves as a model but you know before that we knew that about

42:17

Iraq the elimination of Saddam Hussein um you know and then take a look at what happened in Iraq Iraq is still mortally

42:25

wounded it hasn’t recovered from that um and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Iraq I think you’re going to see what

42:31

happened in you know the the earthquake of of the fall of Bashar al-assad I

42:37

think will create geopolitical trimers that will um crash in on Iraq in a

42:43

potentially catastrophic manner so you know and and the reason for all

42:49

of this is because the Arab leaders the Arab world is so fundamentally weak do

42:55

do you mean sorry for interrup you mean it might trigger the old uh Civil War the Sunni resistance or civil war

43:01

against the Shia that kind of thing I think we may be looking at a Resurgence of um

43:08

Isis and Al-Qaeda and the Sunni Islamic

43:13

extremism uh that will be used by turkey to restore the vilet of mosul and kkuk

43:20

to Turkey proper which they believe historically should have been the case at the at the collapse of the Ottoman

43:26

Empire if it weren’t for the British arbitrarily drawing lines on a map um

43:31

you know that’s what I’m talking about and um you know for Iraq to lose those

43:37

oil fields in the north and and to lose that territory it it would be you know

43:42

it changes fundamentally what Iraq you know is um this is what I’m talking about that

43:49

this isn’t an Arab Spring this is you know this is basically what we’re going to be seeing

43:56

I think in the in the the Middle East is all of the um lines that were drawn on

44:01

the map with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire are going to be

44:08

erased and you’re going to see a free-for-all of violence um in in the

44:16

region that’s the potential I hope that’s not the case but one of the reasons why I believe it will be the case is that Arab leadership is horrific

44:24

horrific totally out of touch with the needs once designed of the people and as a

44:29

result um the frustration that is felt amongst the people gets captured by um

44:36

Islamic extremist movements that have and this is where I this is my belief I

44:42

I don’t pretend to be an expert on Islam at all um I have spent a lot of time in

44:48

the Middle East I have spent a lot of time talking with um Shia Sunni clerics

44:55

um I I have um studied Sufism not to become a

45:01

adherent but just because uh as I read the history of the region um you know Sufism plays such an

45:08

important uh role I’ve um you know delved into the theological differences

45:14

between the ismaelis and and Shia Faith um the alawites uh and and uh you know

45:23

and other Shia offshoots for instance that which um the you know the U the the

45:29

hoodie Embrace uh I’ve studied the the main schools of thought of the Sunni

45:35

Faith I’ve uh studied the roots of wahhabism and salafism um you know but I I I will

45:43

admit to having passing or superficial knowledge I am not a student of the Hadith I

45:50

cannot quote the Quran uh convincingly um so I’m left to

45:57

having to listen to people explain Islam to me and decide

46:03

whether they’re credible or not and as a human being I have decided to give more

46:10

Credence to those Muslims both Sunni and Shia who have said that Islam is a

46:17

religion of Peace um and that uh Islam is not uh a

46:23

religion that seeks um to conquer by the sword sword and to forcefully uh compel

46:30

people to yield to their faith uh Etc

46:36

um that may be the case but I will also say that Islam contains a component of

46:42

violence um that is either being isolated and perverted in

46:50

the cause of Islamic extremism or is the genuine True Heart of Islam I mean I I

46:55

find it interesting that those elements that U salafism wahhabism that go back

47:02

to uh the traditional roots of Islam to say this is the Islam of Muhammad the

47:09

prophet are violent and it’s those those who seek peace uh actually are

47:17

reinterpreting or reimagining Islam in the context of the modern world and modern reality um so it’s a it’s a it’s

47:26

a it’s a tough it’s a tough struggle and it’s one that’s come out with with Syria

47:31

I am disgusted by people I thought were

47:37

uh again this I don’t mean to insult but westernized Muslims what I mean by that

47:43

is Muslims that can live in America in at peace practice their religion as they see fit but seek to integrate into

47:51

American society in a non-threatening manner uh because we’re a nation that accepts all religions We’re a nation

47:57

that accepts people’s ability to have different beliefs and so I when I look at Muslims in America I don’t feel

48:04

inherently threatened until I realize now that many of them Harbor in their

48:10

hearts this desire for Islamic extremism and it came out when they

48:15

cheer the collapse of Bashar al- Assad and and and praise um you know jolani

48:22

and Al-Qaeda U ignoring the Isis past or writing it off says this is the will of

48:28

God this is legitimate uh Sharia law being you know finally coming into fruition I said well that is totally

48:34

incompatible with me the west and others if that’s who you are then we will be in an existential life and death struggle

48:41

because what you’re talking about being put in place inside Syria today is

48:47

incompatible with international law as set forth by the United Nations Charter that cannot be allowed to happen and yet

48:55

when you look at the Islamic world that appears to be that which is bubbling up inside various Nations throughout the

49:01

Middle East because of the inadequacy of their leadership because the people feel abandoned by the secular leadership that

49:08

they have they turn to their faith and their faith isn’t State controlled

49:14

religion but rather the religion of the Islamic extremists the wahhabist the salafists um maybe that’s the true face

49:21

of Islam um and so that’s where I come from on the Syrian problem because to me

49:28

the way many people have reacted to the fall of Bashar al- Assad look they say he’s horrible he did this he did that he

49:35

did this he did that and therefore he must be gone okay but to replace him with jolani and Al-Qaeda that’s not okay

49:43

and to pretend that the Syrian resistance isn’t that is a lie because

49:50

that is the Syrian resistance because the Syrian resistance was created not by the legit imate needs once and desires

49:58

of the of the Syrian people but rather that which is imposed on them by outside

50:03

Powers by turkey by Qatar by United Arab Emirates by Saudi Arabia by the United States Great Britain and others who

50:09

poured billions of dollars into creating an anti- Assad resistance including in

50:15

the United States acknowledging straight up that al-Qaeda in this case is our Ally because Al-Qaeda is enabling the

50:22

diminishment of Assad um that [Music]

50:28

that cannot be supported I won’t support it and I know I’ve disappointed a lot of people who uh who have talked with me

50:36

about the the the situation in Syria but I’m a black and white kind of guy um and

50:43

uh if you’re sympathetic or supportive of salafism wahhabism al-Qaeda and Isis

50:49

you’re evil and according to uh the tenants of

50:54

Islam that were that were presented to me by by I would call moderate Muslim clerics they agree that that’s evil and

51:02

they and you have to agree that that’s a deviation from the path of peace that

51:07

Islam is supposed to be on and yet many Muslims appear

51:13

to speak with two faces on this issue pretend to be a religion of Peace UPF

51:18

front but secretly praise what happened and and and want this um and that’s

51:24

problematic and that’s where I come I know I just irritated two billion people but you asked me a question I gave you

51:31

an answer it’s an honest answer that comes from you know from an honest Place

51:37

yeah no I think uh it’s important to recognize that uh the Arab Spring was

51:42

kind of cocktail of uh at least a few things um there was uh genuine anger

51:50

frustration against U corruption and um long Dynasty that d I rule that were not

51:57

necessarily responsive to to people then there was also uh the element of

52:03

resistance against foreign Invasion this was uh true in Libya this was true in

52:09

Syria this was uh true in Iraq and then finally there were divisions within

52:14

communities which was definitely more true in Iraq um and less true perhaps in

52:20

Libya and uh um you know somewhere in the middle in in in Syria and Patrick

52:26

cobor for instance says that it’s essential to recognize all these elements uh otherwise one um arrives at

52:33

the conclusion of excessive demonization of uh the old regimes in this naive hope

52:40

that democracy would emerge from that I wanted to ask you though as you were um

52:46

answering me um it seems to me that you uh you have

52:52

uh put less emphasis on groups of people naive maybe you know victims of

53:00

propaganda who might also be cheering the HDs because it is presented as uh an

53:07

alternative to a dictator and also in um wrongly uh as a moderate uh diversity

53:15

friendly nationalist Syrian um um element or entity so um I’m not sure if

53:22

everyone that’s uh supporting um uh the fall of Assad is necessarily coming from

53:30

the uh Sunni or salafi wahhabi Jubilation uh of fall of a secular

53:36

government your response well again I at one time supported that

53:46

thesis but dig deeper into these people I mean the first thing the first thing

53:51

comes out from these people who say I’m not a salafist I’m not a wahhabist first thing they say is H

53:58

1982 and they started throwing out numbers 20,000 40,000 and the brutal Slaughter of these

54:05

innocent people by HZ al-assad and I said but what about the Muslim

54:11

Brotherhood they no no no and that immediately discredits them in my book if you don’t understand what the Muslim

54:17

Brotherhood was what the Muslim Brotherhood was trying to do uh and then you have to go back even further when we

54:24

speak of Syria what are we talking about what is Syria it’s a fake artificial

54:30

State created by the French in the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire cobbled together brought in you know a a a

54:37

hashimite king fizal who only ruled for like 20 days or was booted out um you

54:42

know but again this this this mandate French mandate that put together a a

54:48

total artificiality where the French played off one power against the other and created uh all these divides um then

54:55

you have the baist Revolution U that said okay it’s similar what happened in

55:00

Iraq we understand we’re a fake country but we’re a country so let’s make it a

55:05

real country and create you know Arab nationalism and that was you know the

55:11

goal I mean Syria was part of the you know United Arab Republic uh together with Egypt and all this and and and you

55:18

saw from the very beginning again I I I’m I’m being superficial here because a we don’t have all the time in the world

55:25

uh history is a very complicated thing that’s I I want to say this right off the bat and as you said you know you

55:32

quoted Patrick Co cogman you know once you start pulling threads I mean you

55:37

find out that this this this thing you thought was a single thing is you know entity is actually a carpet woven

55:44

together by millions of threads um that interact in different ways and and and

55:50

such so but I will say this that you had a number of um

55:56

movements competing inside uh this this artificial entity called Syria you had

56:02

the the nerites uh supporters of um you know NASA the Egyptian uh Arab

56:08

nationalists you had the Muslim Brotherhood which was evicted from Egypt people need to remember that in Syria

56:15

and in conflict with Arab nationalism because it was about an Islamic State and then you had U sort of a socialist

56:23

movement within Syria and the Socialist movement LED to the bists taking over evicting the nerites and having a

56:30

fundamental existential uh issue with the Muslim Brotherhood so this if you’re

56:36

going to say you’re a Syrian nationalist I believe I’m a Syrian and all this who are you what are your

56:43

roots are you a nerite are you a Muslim Brotherhood or are you a

56:48

baist you know let’s you know so this this notion that Assad comes from Evil a

56:55

place of evil is an absolute lie 100% lie the Muslim Brotherhood is a vicious

57:02

brutal Islamic extremist organization that seeks to slaughter anybody who

57:07

doesn’t agree with them and in 1982 they launched an attack against the Syrian government they slaughtered Military

57:14

Officers in a military academy and their families and the Syrian government came in and annihilated them I’m not

57:21

condoning the tactics used but that’s the truth it’s not that aaz Assad woke

57:27

up one morning and said oh what the hell coffee eggs bacon let’s go slaughter people in Hama no that’s not what

57:34

happened the Muslim Brotherhood chose this fight it was an existential fight designed to eliminate the the baist

57:41

regime and the bath came in and eliminated the Muslim Brotherhood so nothing happens in a vacuum and if you

57:47

forget that part of the history then everything that goes forward after that is a lie and the Muslim Brotherhood

57:53

retreated into turkey and elsewhere and was played an important role in whatever

57:59

came in in 2011 uh after that so we we can’t sit here and I don’t I don’t believe anybody

58:07

when they say oh I’m just a I’m a peaceloving Syrian uh and I was

58:13

brutalized by the Assad regime no if you’re a peac loving Syrian how do you

58:18

identify yourself as a Syrian if you identify yourself as a Syrian in accordance to the uh uh ideal

58:26

of the baist party where you’re trying to bring in these different people to work together um as a singularity then

58:33

you have to support Bashar Al Assad you have to support Bashar al- Assad Assad

58:38

didn’t wake up in the morning and say I’m G to crush the sunnis he just said I don’t want this I don’t want the the Muslim Brotherhood

58:45

here because it’s evil from his perspective the Muslim Brotherhood is looking at a saying you’re evil and then

58:52

you know the other thing scratch a scratch a Sunni and you get somebody hates the alawites it it’s just

58:58

immediately this you know I I I had so many people say no no in my heart I

59:03

support you know we don’t support the the subjugation of minorities we don’t support this the Christians the Jews um

59:11

I say what about the alawites they’re not Muslim they’re not Muslim they must be killed they must be eradicated oh my

59:17

God so you’re not a religion of Peace what about the Shia the Shia are you know they are deviants they you know

59:25

apostates shiism must be eradicated oh so haaz al- Assad as an alawite has

59:31

every reason to treat you Muslim Brotherhood Fanatics as an existential threat to his vision of Syria and here’s

59:39

the last thing for the people that take the side of the Muslim Brotherhood or anybody who’s not Pro Vision of Syria as

59:48

Assad laid out how quickly they sell Syria

59:53

out as soon as I engage in a conversation about what the future of Syria will

59:59

be immediately the prospect of well turkey will occupy us and there will be

1:00:06

a period of Turkish occupation uh in which you know stability we brought forth similar to that which existed in

1:00:12

the Ottoman Empire I said so you don’t believe in Syria at all you don’t you

1:00:17

you you don’t you’re not a Syrian stop calling yourself a Syrian you’re not a Syrian you’re an islamist you’re an

1:00:25

Islam mamist who’s willing to sacrifice Syrian territorial Integrity so that your vision of religion of sharia law

1:00:33

can be imposed on whatever we’re going to call this thing but it’s not Syria

1:00:38

they are willing to allow turkey to take idlib Aleppo raaka which aroan has said

1:00:44

are rightfully part of Syria or part of Turkey um should never been turned over

1:00:49

to the French mandate um and he’s going to reverse this so no I reject 100% 100%

1:00:57

at this point in time that it’s possible to be a Syrian nationalist who was

1:01:03

opposed to Bashar al- Assad because I just prove to you that they’re not syrians they’re Muslim Fanatics

1:01:11

islamists who are willing to sell out Syrian national uh Integrity territorial

1:01:17

Integrity uh in support of their Islamic cause and they feel that uh the the the

1:01:23

Turks will enable them to pursue their Islamic cause better than Assad’s

1:01:30

secularism I just I just alienated no no thank you so much yeah in the interest

1:01:36

of time I want to switch to um Ukraine to understand your thoughts about uh uh

1:01:43

somewhat unpredictable emerging uh New or Old

1:01:48

whatever uh us Russia relationship some people are saying that um there is a

1:01:55

real possibility a a green shoot if you like um in terms of breaking with years

1:02:03

and years of us Russia relationship uh led by Trump J Vance and I don’t know

1:02:11

Rubio and others who are talking about peace and um then the Deep state which is perhaps resisting it and we don’t

1:02:18

know what the outcome would be uh walk us through um your thoughts at this

1:02:23

moment as far as us Russia relationship um the future of us Russia relationship

1:02:29

is concern also if you can just add a little bit about your experience in visiting Russia recently that that would

1:02:36

allow us to humanize a little bit humanize the conversation which is otherwise so brutal okay well then what we’re going

1:02:42

to do is we’re going to we’re going to pull back for a second and talk about us Russian

1:02:48

relations um you know I I uh grew up in the Cold War and that was my thing and

1:02:56

the cold war was a a bipolar World divided between the forces of good

1:03:02

democracy America and the forces of evil communism and the Soviet Union and

1:03:08

that’s why Ronald Reagan I’m coming I’m telling this narrative from an American point of view I know I’ve just got a lot

1:03:14

of people out there that might question what I’m talking about but you know it’s important to know that I was raised in

1:03:19

an environment where the Soviet Union was considered the evil empire literally the evil empire um they were our

1:03:25

existential enemy um my father deployed to Turkey uh twice the first time was in

1:03:31

the 1960s and in the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis where he deployed with an F100 Squadron U that was

1:03:38

stationed at Chile Airbase that had uh fighters on standby that means the plane

1:03:43

is on the strip with a nuclear bomb underneath a pilot in the cockpit um

1:03:49

ready to launch and bomb the Soviet Union because they are evil um we went

1:03:55

again in the 19 of you know in my dad also served in Vietnam and to me that

1:04:00

was a extension of the uh democracy versus uh communism uh

1:04:06

struggle um my dad deployed to Korea in the aftermath of the uh Pueblo incident

1:04:11

that the American ship that was taken over by the North Koreans his Fighter Squadron deployed to uh South Korea to

1:04:19

reinforce because it looked like we might go to war I grew up Ready for War

1:04:25

uh I lived Liv in Turkey in the in the in the 1970s where literally across I mean everything that was happening in

1:04:30

turkey when I was in Turkey the entire American community and enra was all one giant Espionage ring against the Soviet

1:04:37

Union um and then we moved to Germany and you you see that Germany at that

1:04:43

time was 100% an armed Camp uh with hundreds of thousands of American

1:04:48

soldiers and British soldiers and others uh NATO prepared to repel a Soviet

1:04:54

attack that was our think they were going to attack us so when I graduated from high school in

1:05:00

1979 I went straight into the military why because I wanted to defend my system

1:05:07

from them I volunteered to go on the front lines I wanted to be the first guy there when they came across the border

1:05:13

so I could kill aami for Mommy because that’s what was all about um I went later went on in the Marine Corps

1:05:19

because it’s a higher level of efficiency of killing Soviets and um and spent a lot of time training I went to

1:05:25

college and I studied Russian history I took Russian language why you have to know your enemy you have to know your

1:05:33

enemy but here’s the distinction never once did I do anything

1:05:40

other than respect my enemy meaning that I didn’t come up with an artificial

1:05:46

understanding of who they were I didn’t manufacture anything I wanted to know the truth who these people are I needed

1:05:53

to know their culture I needed to know their history I needed to know their literature their language everything about them um and I worked hard to do it

1:06:01

and the the the the system at the time encouraged this at no time did the US

1:06:06

government ever tell me um you must interpret everything you hear about the the Soviet Union as this the task the

1:06:14

the mission given to me was learn about the Soviet Union learn how it works learn its

1:06:20

realities I had the opportunity in 1988 to I joined What’s called the

1:06:26

on-site inspection agency Department of Defense activity created in the aftermath of the signing of the intermediate nuclear forces treaty

1:06:32

between Ronald Reagan Mela gorbachov that eliminated entire categories of nuclear armed missiles that threaten U

1:06:39

European and Global Security and we were going to get rid of these missiles and I was tasked with implementing that um

1:06:46

along with others I was assigned to votkinsk machine building plant a factory that produced ss20 intermediate

1:06:54

range missiles but also SS2 intercontinental ballistic missiles my job along with others is to build a

1:07:00

multi-million dollar monitoring facility that would help us determine that the missiles coming out of the factory weren’t the prohibited ss20 is but the

1:07:07

permitted ss25 um in order to do this in an closed

1:07:12

area a defense area that everything was secret a defense Town we lived there permanently 30 Americans permanently

1:07:19

station outside this Factory we had to work with our Soviet counterparts to make this happen and what what happened

1:07:26

there is that our our our learning about the Soviets went from being book studies what you learn from books academic to

1:07:34

being reality based um these people were right there vodkin is the birthplace of

1:07:40

or of of chaikovsky pet chaikovsky great Uh Russian composer and they’re very

1:07:46

proud of that now I I’ve listened to the grew up with the Nutcracker Suite um and and uh you

1:07:53

know I was familiar swan Lake and I was familiar with chaikovsky work um but to

1:07:59

be there in the town where he was born and see how the people how chaikovsky resonates with everybody suddenly the

1:08:05

connectivity between culture and humanity is real you realize it’s not propaganda it’s not an academic EXC it’s

1:08:13

real it’s there um and I realized at that point in time that the while we

1:08:21

might have a problem with their government this was not an evil empire it was a nation populated by people who

1:08:28

wanted the same things I wanted and Etc so that’s a long way of saying that

1:08:33

there is so much value to be had by going to a place and meeting the people

1:08:38

and and having an open mind about learning who they are and what they are um and I carried that back with me but I

1:08:46

left you know the last time I was in um Russia was

1:08:52

1992 uh I hadn’t returned uh since that time and what happened in the 1990s is

1:09:00

that the Cold War ended and we went into this period of stagnation that um the

1:09:06

role America played in the in in the horror of the 19th the decade of the

1:09:11

1990s is unknown to most Americans uh recently there was a memorandum that was

1:09:18

Declassified and released under the Freedom of Information Act that was written in 1994 by a American Diplomat

1:09:24

uh named Mar um and they are liken it to sort of the the the second Long Telegram the first

1:09:32

Long Telegram is written by George Kennan 1946 um and paved the way for uh the

1:09:38

creation of the policy of containment which led to the Cold War this one talked about what America was doing in

1:09:46

uh in Russia and uh this this perversion of democracy you know uh when he wrote

1:09:53

this in 1994 it comes after Boris yelton whom we supported um in October of 1993

1:10:01

you know he put tanks in the streets of Moscow and declared war against the Russian Parliament fired on the

1:10:06

parliament killed parliamentarians stormed the Parliament and we then

1:10:11

instead of calling out yelton for what he is a brutal autocrat we said no no no he’s a democratic guy we’re going to

1:10:17

pretend that didn’t happen and we’re going to create do this election thing uh that that’s going to you know imp

1:10:25

power democracy but the problem is the people that were opposed to yelton won

1:10:31

the the elections and now Russia’s in this this period where we have to continue to support yelson which means

1:10:37

we’re not supporting democracy and when he was coming up for re-election 1996 uh

1:10:43

instead of letting the forces of democracy do their thing and evict him and bring somebody new we bought an election we went in and and corrupted it

1:10:50

we made Boris yelson King uh he couldn’t be touched because we backed him up and

1:10:55

in doing so we turned our back on you know creating a legitimate Democratic

1:11:01

movement in Russia the reason why there is no Democratic movement in Russia Today is because of the United States of

1:11:06

America we killed it we slaughtered it we butchered it we never gave it a chance and we did that for selfish

1:11:14

political reasons ignoring the economic realities that created the the the the

1:11:19

domestic political push back against yelton and Russia went through a

1:11:25

horrific time millions of Russians died because of the economic catastrophe that was taking place and we encourage this

1:11:32

um the people that I used to work with go ahead you were talking about the 90s right hyperinflation yeah yeah not just

1:11:39

hyperinflation I’m talking about the the the the mass murder of hundreds of thousands if not millions of pensioners

1:11:45

to steal their homes and sell them to the mafia I’m talking about um a a

1:11:50

working class of U of educated uh Soviet era uh you know scientists committing suicide

1:11:57

because there is no employment for them I’m talking about drug addicts I’m talking about children disappearing

1:12:03

hundreds of thousands disappearing into a A Wasteland of no laws where they are

1:12:08

trafficked sexually they are uh slaughtered for their organs this whole this was Russia it was a horrible place

1:12:16

the Russian people lost faith in themselves and started to look to the

1:12:21

west to Salvation which is what we wanted we wanted to destroy the Russian Spirit in order to do that

1:12:28

we had to redefine Russia as a bad place there’s nothing proud to be had um

1:12:33

people like me who were you know the the the the Russian experts uh in the 1980s

1:12:39

were no longer welcome I was interviewed by the CIA in 1993 um to come in as a Soviet or a

1:12:46

Russian analyst and I was rejected even though I had two classified accommodations from the director of the CIA for my work in the Soviet Union as a

1:12:54

Soviet expert Russian expert they said no you’re old you’re old thinking we want new thinking new thinking was we

1:13:00

don’t want you to know Russia and love Russia we want you to manipulate and exploit Russia and that’s what this was

1:13:07

and the reason why I bring this up is When Vladimir Putin came in and uh and said no I’m not going to allow this to

1:13:13

happen and stood up look in short look at where Russia was in 1999 and look where it is today it is just a a a

1:13:21

orders of magnitude better than than it was that’s because of Vladimir Putin we hate Putin not because he’s undemocratic

1:13:28

we hate Putin because he rebuilt Russia and brought Russia back up Russia’s undemocratic because of us because even

1:13:34

when Putin tried to bring democracy back in we corrupted by the CIA funding nalni n and the others we corrupted it and we

1:13:42

continue to corrupt it um but now what’s happening in the United States is we have this uh this ignorance about Russia

1:13:49

because we have people like Michael McFall who was an ambassador under Barack Obama but he was in Russia in the

1:13:55

1990s part of this system of corrupting Russia he’s not there as somebody who knows Russia who loves Russia who

1:14:01

believes in Russia he’s there is somebody who hates Russia wants to destroy Russia and so he and others all

1:14:07

of these Russian experts today none of them are Russian experts there’s not a single Russian expert in the uh advising

1:14:14

US Government today whether it be Trump or whether it be Biden they are all people who have been infected with

1:14:21

russophobia these are people who hate Russia who fear Russia and they promulgate this irrational fear of

1:14:29

Russia premised on Vladimir Putin being this evil brutal dictator who is the enemy of all things Democratic which is

1:14:35

just an outright lie um so now how do you defeat that well I go back to my

1:14:40

roots how did I overcome the notion of the evil empire in the 1980s I lived in

1:14:46

Russia Soviet Union I saw them I shopped in their stores I ate in their

1:14:52

restaurants I walked in parks with their people I I skied with them we we got to

1:14:57

know each other and it changed my outlet my Outlook so I felt that it was

1:15:02

imperative that I go back to Russia and and re-engage Russia in this way because

1:15:08

a lot had happened I mean I went back to Russia in May of 2023 and the last time that I was in

1:15:14

Russia was in November of 19 uh

1:15:20

92 um so we’re talking you know 21 years of P my my math is horrible 31 years had

1:15:27

passed uh Russia had changed and I couldn’t say that I I I could say that I

1:15:32

had book knowledge of Russia but I couldn’t say that I knew who the Russian people were or what Russia was I went

1:15:39

there and I spent almost the entire month of May traveling Russia um I I had my book about Arms Control published in

1:15:47

Russian language and I went around talking about the book engaging with Russian audiences but also seeing Russia

1:15:52

learning from the Russians listening to the Russians and I came back and I started to use this as a a mechanism of inoculating the

1:16:00

American public against russophobia to say this is the reality of Russia it’s not what you’re being told it’s

1:16:06

something totally different I went back in December of last of 2023 January of

1:16:11

2024 to do the same thing um and I was supposed to go back in June for a 40-day

1:16:17

visit that would take me from kamaka to krad and everywhere in between um to to

1:16:22

to this the US government finally woke up to what I was doing and how effective I was being so they pulled my passport

1:16:28

to prevent me from going because my God we can’t have the American people actually educated about the reality of

1:16:34

Russia no no no no no uh we must keep this russophobia going and unfortunately

1:16:39

the Trump Administration is has is being advised by people who continue to be this old think even people who want to

1:16:46

be friends with Russia or want not to be at conflict with Russia JD Vance and others they’re ignorant about Russia

1:16:53

because they don’t understand what Russia is who the Russian people are who Vladimir Putin is how he came into being

1:17:00

um and as a result it colors their you know their analysis that leads to the

1:17:05

formulation and implementation of policy when you have Keith Kellogg believe that

1:17:11

Donald Trump can come in and tell the Russians that they have to accept a freezing of the conflict and um you know

1:17:19

and and they have to make you know certain uh concessions to the ukrainians and and that includes 20-year window for

1:17:26

NATO to come in that means you don’t know anything about Russia you don’t know anything about their history you don’t know anything uh and that’s why no

1:17:33

sooner did they put this on the table the Russians swept it away and said no uh now with russophobia in place you can

1:17:40

take the rejection of the Russian of the by the Russians as a indicator that Russia has no desire to live in peace

1:17:46

with the West that’s just an absolute lie Russia wants nothing more than to live in peace with the west but it has

1:17:53

to be peace that recognizes that Russia has legitimate spheres of in interest and that Russia has a legitimate

1:17:59

National Security interest that are as important to the Russians as ours are to the United States as Europe is to Europe

1:18:05

you know European Security is to Europeans um and so I think we’re in a we have a

1:18:12

window of opportunity where we have people who want to end this this

1:18:18

conflict with Russia and to move past it but they don’t have the tool set because

1:18:23

the tool set that they’re using is a tool set that’s influenced by russophobia and it’s imperative that

1:18:30

they get a tool set that is geared towards the reality of Russia not that we’re surrendering to you don’t

1:18:36

surrender when you Embrace reality you’re doing the right thing but see there’s too many people because we have

1:18:42

built policiy so long with this toolbox of ignorance that any deviation from that we say well you’re surrendering to

1:18:48

the Russians no we’re admitting that this toolbox is fundamentally flawed that this isn’t a toolbox based upon

1:18:54

realityy you know no matter how much Americans believe in the supremacy of

1:18:59

America we don’t get to make our own history we don’t get to make our own facts we have to deal with the world as

1:19:05

it is not as we want it to be or as we think it should have been um and that’s

1:19:12

the problem is that the Trump Administration today is not grounded in the reality of Russia and I’m hopeful

1:19:18

that I will get my passport back and uh maybe um you know sometime in the spring and the summer get back to Russia so

1:19:26

that I can help inoculate the Trump Administration I know that they’re open

1:19:32

to this thinking because I have some connectivity with people on the periphery of Team Trump who have talked

1:19:38

to me about Russia policy and all that and they have influenced JD Vance and

1:19:44

and others so I know that there’s a willingness to at least be open to

1:19:50

learning more about Russia and team Trump than there ever was in the Biden Administration the B Administration was

1:19:56

100% russophobic and um and you were never going to make any progress in terms of approving us Russian relations

1:20:03

as long as the Democrats were in power uh what could be some of the terms

1:20:08

of dis engagement as far as this conflict is concerned we are told about the classic uh means to some kind of

1:20:15

autonomy to parts of Eastern Europe uh sorry Eastern excuse me Eastern uh

1:20:21

Ukraine and uh um UK Ukraine being able to join EU if they like but uh not NATO

1:20:29

and um yeah kind of a neutrality if you like um what do you think could be some

1:20:35

of those uh terms of dis engagement I think we first of all have to start off with the following premise that any term

1:20:43

that’s being conceived in the west should not be considered at all Ukraine has lost this war and NATO

1:20:50

because it chose to engage Russia using Ukraine as a proxy has lost this War in the United States because we chose to

1:20:57

side with nato in pursuit of this we have lost this war Russia has won this

1:21:04

war so if you’re if you’re if your starting point is I

1:21:09

wonder what Brussels is thinking about the uh the cessation of conflict uh you’re no one no one cares Brussels

1:21:17

doesn’t matter I wonder what they’re thinking in Washington DC think tanks about how this conflict should in no one

1:21:23

cares the only school of thought should be I wonder what they’re thinking in

1:21:29

Moscow because Moscow the thought coming out of Moscow is the only thought that matters and so if you’re seeking to get

1:21:37

some sort of compromise it has to be by taking the Russian

1:21:43

position understanding why the Russians believe the pillars of this position are

1:21:48

important and then working to convince the Russians that in the best interest

1:21:54

of a of a deal that’s that that that everybody can buy into that Russia needs

1:21:59

to yield on these following pillars without compromising their strategic

1:22:05

objective a frozen conflict Russia will never support European peacekeepers in Ukraine

1:22:11

Russia will never support Russia will never support nato in Ukraine and if you

1:22:17

want to jump in and say the European Union not so long as the European Union and the United States talk about a uh

1:22:25

conflict designed to achieve the Strategic defeat of Russia see then the European Union is a

1:22:31

threat so the very first thing that has to happen is that the United States has to approach the Russians and say we no

1:22:38

longer support a policy seeking the Strategic defeat of Russia nor do we support a European policy to that extent

1:22:45

we have a policy that seeks the um you know the peaceful coexistence with Russia on terms that recognize Russia’s

1:22:53

legitimate spheres of influence and interest boom if you start with that the

1:22:59

Russians will sit down at the table and start talking to you um but then you you know you have to understand that you

1:23:05

lost this war so Russia sort of gets to determine what the future of Ukraine is going to be Russia gets to do that only

1:23:13

Russia gets to do that and if you don’t understand that then you haven’t paid to

1:23:18

much attention the West will have zero say in what Ukraine looks like Russia

1:23:25

will have the say and the best way to get Russia to do something that is supportive to the West is to sit down

1:23:31

with the Russians and say hey what are you thinking about Ukraine that’s how you have to start the conversation what

1:23:36

are you thinking about the future of Ukraine what are your opinions oh wow okay that’s pretty cool what you know

1:23:43

gosh if you do that you might you might run a foul over here could we talk about maybe doing something different and the

1:23:48

Russians say okay what do you what do you propose you see the difference in the in the approach as opposed to Russia

1:23:54

this is the way Ukraine’s going to be Russia gonna say you didn’t win the war we won the war you don’t get to dictate

1:24:01

any terms to us at all none that’s the reality

1:24:07

and it continues to amaze me that there’s people in the west that believe that Europe gets a vote Europe gets no

1:24:15

vote there’s people that believe the United States gets a vote you don’t get a vote if you’re American you were on

1:24:21

the wrong side you put all your ships in on a bad

1:24:26

hand of cards and you lost I don’t want to drain you by asking this boring question but since uh the

1:24:33

Western press is still propagating this idea that

1:24:39

uh that Ukraine can still uh go on fighting uh uh can you dispel this myth

1:24:47

um can you uh just tell us a little bit about why you said uh Ukraine has lost

1:24:52

this war Ukraine lost the war because Ukraine lost the War I mean it’s just military math uh there’s not a single um

1:25:01

statistic uh or or or or you know point of you know area of of the

1:25:09

conflict where Ukraine is prevailing unfortunately I think we’re gonna have my dogs

1:25:14

uh sing as somebody approaches the door I think the mailman’s here but uh hopefully they’ll stop in a

1:25:21

second but he’s not leaving but um I’ll do my best to continue but I don’t know can you hear the dogs no I don’t okay if

1:25:29

you can’t hear the dogs then we’re not going to work the mail’s gone so we’re good um

1:25:35

the the the ukrainians aren’t winning economically Ukraine is an economic basket case so anybody who says the

1:25:43

ukrainians can go on demonstrate how they can do that economically and you can’t Europe is exhausted they don’t

1:25:49

have any more money the United States is unwilling to continue to fund that’s done Ukraine has had it Army destroyed

1:25:55

and rebuilt four times and it’s being destroyed as we speak and there’s nothing left to rebuild it the arsenal

1:26:01

of democracy doesn’t exist there’s nothing left to give Ukraine and even if

1:26:06

we had something to give the ukrainians the Ukrainian Manpower pool has been

1:26:11

severely depleted um to the point now where they’re left with lowering the

1:26:17

conscription age to 18 and bonking people on the head and and taking them to the front line without adequate

1:26:23

training um so there that’s that’s the reality of of it Ukraine will

1:26:29

lose is losing has lost that doesn’t mean that Ukraine can’t fight and I

1:26:35

think sometimes people um conflate the two the the Russians and I’ve been

1:26:41

Amazed by this too um but I’ve spoken with Russian commanders and Russian journalists about the ability of the

1:26:50

ukrainians to to resist and they said well we always knew that that they were going to be tough Fighters they’re you

1:26:56

know because they’re us I mean they told a story about Vagner uh in um in bahmut uh in the latter stages of

1:27:04

the fight as B Vagner uh the the Russian mercenary organization uh was closing in

1:27:11

and and occupying the town they had surrounded an element of Ukrainian forces in a basement of a building and

1:27:17

there was no chance they surrender or die so the Russians called down the

1:27:22

Vagner guys said hey brothers surrender you fought bravely we won’t kill you we’re going to give you you know tea

1:27:28

we’ll take you prisoner you’ll you’ll be able to go home to your families you fought honorably and you know what the

1:27:33

ukrainians shouted back Russians don’t surrender now why would they say that if

1:27:38

they’re Ukrainian because they’re not Ukrainian Russians don’t surrender is a statement a phrase that comes from the

1:27:45

second world war the Great Patriotic War that common Heritage of Ukraine and the Russian uh people um where a Russian

1:27:52

soldier surrounded by Germans was given the option to surrender he said Russians don’t surrender he wasn’t even a Russian the guy who said it but he he said it

1:27:59

and became the the the the rallying cry Russians don’t surrender um so the

1:28:05

Russians always said they’re us we’re fighting ourselves this is like more like a civil war than anything else um

1:28:11

but even then the Russians said we we don’t understand the willingness to fight to

1:28:17

the death that when a situation would come where you could either expect them to r

1:28:24

Treat or Surrender they instead choose nine times out of 10 to fight to the death and

1:28:31

therefore we have to go in and dig them out and it’s a very difficult fight we win but it’s costly it takes time um you

1:28:40

know and and and it’s continuing to happen even at this late stage in the

1:28:46

fight you’ll see the fresh recruits who come in without adequate training with with bad command and control they’re

1:28:52

surrendering I guess the one 55th Brigade went into fighting in the pcrk region uh 5 to 7,000 guys and

1:29:00

immediately 1,500 of these uh of these quarterly trained people just quit um

1:29:05

that’s reality but the others they’re going to fight and to give you an example of how difficult this is uh it

1:29:11

you know there’s a video that’s going around the internet that shows a Ukrainian officer fighting a um a um

1:29:19

yakut um a Russian of yakut it’s a brutal fight brutal hand-to-hand combat

1:29:26

and in the end the uh the Russian wins by stabbing the Ukrainian to death uh

1:29:32

but when the fight ends the words that are exchanged between the two men are of Brothers you fought honorably you’re a

1:29:39

good fighter you know you I mean that that’s the Russian Ukrainian conflict in

1:29:44

a in in a nutshell the Russians are going to have to kill every single one of these people in brutal hand toand

1:29:49

combat and at the end they don’t hate each other they respect each other as Fighters um but Russian will win they

1:29:58

will walk away from the battlefield with the Ukrainian dead that is the reality of what’s Happening Here it’s a horrible

1:30:05

situation very bloody very brutal there’s nothing easy about it but Russia

1:30:11

cannot lose because Russia has the correlation of forces that give it the supremacy on the battlefield um and no

1:30:19

matter how Brave the ukrainians are you can’t overcome that reality

1:30:24

I want to quickly ask you uh about uh Europe in this equation I mean there is

1:30:30

one way to say that even Europe doesn’t matter at all the other ways to think

1:30:36

that uh European russophobia is uh um is

1:30:42

a significant impediment between normalization of relationship between Russia and the West Collective West

1:30:48

where US the US plays a larger role and if you follow the liberal press the the

1:30:55

fds and the Guardians and um The Economist you get a sense that the

1:31:01

European Elite is uh unrelenting about the narrative that

1:31:06

Russia is the greater evil uh but there are um Alternatives at the um um at the

1:31:14

level of the people and sometimes political alternative from um even people who might be rightwing and and

1:31:19

faride whose uh politics uh uh might not be great domestically uh what’s your

1:31:25

reading about Europe’s attitude to uh relationship between the west and

1:31:33

Russia well I think first of all we have to understand that what what we call Europe is um you know has undergone a um

1:31:42

a radical change over the course of the past several decades uh when I I used to live in Europe I lived in West Germany I

1:31:50

traveled extensively through Europe and when I mean Europe I mean Europe uh when I crossed the uh German border into

1:31:55

France uh I I entered a different country um there was a there was border control checkpoint I got a stamp in my

1:32:01

passport I had to exchange my German deuts marks into a French Franks and

1:32:07

then if I crossed into Spain I had to do the same thing go through a border control Point stamping the passport by

1:32:13

pesos um that was Europe Europe was a continent uh comprised of a a number of

1:32:21

sovereign states um but then in the 990s they decided that they were going to

1:32:27

create something called the European Union that would redefine what Europe is

1:32:32

so today you have a singular currency um you know the the the the ability of

1:32:38

governments uh to act independently has been diminished by the creation of this

1:32:43

uh Council of Europe and the you know the European presidency and all this

1:32:48

this kind of stuff um none of which works by the way um I mean Europe went

1:32:54

from being a a a continent where if the French President spoke people listened

1:32:59

uh the German Chancellor spoke people listened uh to a place where you know

1:33:04

it’s just the Tower of babyl and it makes it nothing happens and the the

1:33:11

thing about the russophobia is that russophobia to the extent that it exists in Europe is a reflection of American

1:33:17

russophobia that has been reflected onto the political and economic Elite because

1:33:23

this European Union is actually I believe a part and parcel of American’s

1:33:28

strategic objective to weaken Europe not strengthen Europe to keep Europe perpetually subordinated to the United

1:33:34

States economically politically and militarily um as we created the European Union you know NATO still Lords over

1:33:41

them uh what’s more important um when it comes to uh defining European goals and

1:33:47

objectives a statement made by um the Secretary General of NATO or a statement

1:33:52

made by rul vandel and you know we know which one Carri but even NATO now

1:33:59

carries no weight because it’s been so diminished by the United States NATO can’t speak without America backing it

1:34:06

up so there is no Europe today it’s a fake entity that is going to collapse

1:34:12

because it has no viability and one of the reasons it’s collapsing is that it

1:34:19

has irresponsibly um joined in on this this this russophobic driven policy towards

1:34:26

Ukraine U you know I’m not an economist um you know I I I yield to Jeffrey Sachs

1:34:33

on this and others um but I am a historian and I am a an analyst of the

1:34:39

region um and I will tell you that in December of of 2021 I wrote a very

1:34:44

detailed article that basically said that if Europe joins in with the United States to sanction Russia to try to have

1:34:52

a war of sanctions that it will backfire on Europe and Europe will kill itself

1:34:58

economically uh because the key is cheap gas cheap energy and there is no

1:35:03

alternative cheap energy when you’re talking about economic survival and as the economies collapse so will the

1:35:10

political power of these Elites they will collapse Society will redefine

1:35:15

itself from being um this massive neutered sheep uh being led by these

1:35:25

I don’t want to be too insulting but whatever we want to call European leadership um you know and and and

1:35:31

you’ll see nationalism reemerge where it’s important to be a German where it’s important to be a Frenchman uh because

1:35:38

under Europe the concept of what it meant to be German French all that disappeared you were European but then

1:35:44

Europe opened the borders to brought in non-europeans to flood in the immigrants you start blending East Europeans with

1:35:50

West Europeans and suddenly Nation that had felt comfortable with who they are

1:35:56

like Germany are suddenly very uncomfortable about what they’ve become and um so you have all of this tension

1:36:03

taking place a collapsed economy Etc look what’s happening um you know we can

1:36:08

call alternative for deuts land right-wing and all that I don’t I call them a reflection of German politics um

1:36:16

and German reality um they are rejecting you know Newton’s third law of physics

1:36:21

applies not only to physics but uh to geopolitics as well for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction

1:36:27

and when you have um you know the green party together with uh other left leaning parties um embark on policies

1:36:36

which have failed the reaction coming back will be called right-wing but it’s

1:36:43

not it’s just a a reaction to the failure of this element which was green

1:36:49

woke left whatever you want to say um this is what we’re seeing we’re seeing

1:36:55

the the political and economic swept from Power because of their own stupidity uh because of their own failed

1:37:02

performance and they’re going to be replaced with entities that aren’t seeking to further or continue the

1:37:10

failed European experiment but rather to reestablish their the the national uh

1:37:17

identity of their respective piece of of turf that’s what’s happening in in Germany alter for deuts has said if they

1:37:25

win the election next year and it looks like they might um they’re going to walk

1:37:30

away from the European Union why because the European Union is bad for them uh look at Romania they had a presidential

1:37:36

election uh where again they call it far right it’s not far right it’s a reaction

1:37:42

of the people against the failure of the political entities that are that that

1:37:47

have been governing them imperfectly um you know you you had the court in uh at

1:37:54

the behest of the West to nullify this election even though there’s no legitimate reason to do that that that’s sort of the last desperate gasp of of

1:38:02

defending the the the the old Elites the old Elites will crumble they’re collapsing right now they will not

1:38:08

survive this you’re going to see a total radical transformation of Europe away from the singularity of the European

1:38:14

Union into a mass of Nations seeking to reassert themselves as singular National

1:38:21

identities um and it will we can not just Europe as a you know the

1:38:27

idea of having Europe as this monolithic entity that could be used by the United States to to maneuver against Russia now

1:38:35

is going to be dividing the Nations that Russia will be able to come in and use the you know

1:38:40

um you know the the the the Divide uh principle and

1:38:46

uh that’s the reality and and with it will go NATO I think that NATO is also a uh an institution that has long outlived

1:38:53

its utility today it’s a corrupt entity cannot be afforded by Europe in order to

1:38:58

have NATO work the way NATO wants it to work you need a European Union willing to U fund it but as Europe breaks apart

1:39:05

into individual nation states none of which can sustain the level of military spending necessary to sustain NATO NATO

1:39:11

too will collapse and behind it all is the United States who is uh is not

1:39:17

willing to underwrite politically or economically uh the continuance of this

1:39:23

NATO European Union disaster and so that’s that’s where I think we stand on Europe we we’re looking at the collapse

1:39:29

of Europe which when we come back to Russia is of fundamental importance because understand this in December of

1:39:36

2021 Russia put two draft treaties on the table on how to resolve U the the

1:39:41

standoff between it and the collective West one was given to Nato the other was given to the United States but that that

1:39:48

draft treaty was premised on a European Singularity what a with a NATO uh cap on

1:39:55

top of it backed by the United States today that doesn’t exist anymore and

1:40:01

Russia’s in a much stronger negotiating position to impose its uh you know its

1:40:07

will on uh on the west so I think you know the collapse of Europe is is strengthening Russia’s

1:40:15

hand I want to ask you uh about your comment that NATO might be collapsing

1:40:21

and um um did Trump and others are trying to uh

1:40:29

blackmail uh Europe and his other allies Japan to uh spend more on Military and

1:40:36

uh a lot of people say that he well he might will be successful because uh for

1:40:42

Continental Europe um Germany and others who share uh Surplus with uh the US they

1:40:49

fear uh huge tariffs which Trump is already talking about uh Britain who uh

1:40:57

who has a sort of slight deficit but it it is anyway under the orbit of uh uh

1:41:04

the US and and Japan might not be able to resist and they are already talks

1:41:09

about uh increasing Japanese military budget um and and all this idea about um

1:41:16

Chinese threat and all are uh whipped up so uh my question is uh is isn’t there a

1:41:23

possibility isn’t there a fear that uh NATO ends up getting more strengthened

1:41:30

uh through expansion of military budgets in uh the European countries Japanese I

1:41:36

know they are economically stressed but who knows maybe a huge a bigger on their

1:41:42

working class to diver I mean there are already talks about I don’t know if you have read about infrastructure fund that

1:41:48

they were uh planning in Europe uh fund to be now diverted to military so um

1:41:54

yeah your response on that well let’s just go with what you just said so Europe is building

1:42:00

infrastructure fund why because European infrastructure needs to be funded why

1:42:07

because Europe is collapsing eroding falling down so you’re the average European

1:42:15

citizen German French whatever and you wake up and you say uh our life sucks

1:42:21

our economy is horrible our politicians have spent all this money in uh in Ukraine in this failed thing we need to

1:42:28

we need to be focused on things at home and suddenly that failed leadership that you’ve already started to reject turns

1:42:35

around and says oh no we’re going to take all the money that we put as side for development plus we’re going to take

1:42:42

your pensions and we’re going to take your social welfare you think the citizens are going oh yeah I didn’t

1:42:48

think about that sure good why do you think the afd is going to win this election because they reject that out of

1:42:54

hand this is unsustainable it it won’t work in Germany it won’t work in France it won’t

1:43:01

work anywhere Nations can’t but the only two that matter are Germany and France

1:43:06

you know England is no longer part of the European Union but you know they’re collapsing as well the British military is a joke today it’s not even worth

1:43:13

calling it a military the Boy Scouts of America have more you know physical being exaggerated and being factious

1:43:21

here but you know you you take take the entire British Army put it in a big league soccer stadium and have 30,000

1:43:27

unsold seats that’s not an army it’s not even a police force there’s more cops in the in

1:43:35

New York City than there are British soldiers so you know that’s the absurdity of this and how are you going

1:43:41

to do that when the British economy is collapsing how are you suddenly going to say oh no we’re going to turn around and out Fund in a meaningful way to fix this

1:43:49

you understand the rot of NATO military the rot and it is rotten to the core the

1:43:54

rod is so much that we’re not talking about a new paint job it’s not like we’re coming in saying hey uh plug the

1:43:59

hole in the roof new paint job fix that joist repair the door handle and and we now have a viable building the

1:44:06

foundation is gone it is gone you in order to rebuild NATO you have to tear

1:44:12

everything down and start from scratch and you can’t afford that there is no money for that Germany they you know

1:44:19

early on in this conflict um the the Germans set aside 100 billion Euro for

1:44:24

the re you know invigoration of the German military to bring it up to speed

1:44:29

last year uh in the German def defense budget discussions um they said well we

1:44:35

used all that 100 billion well what did you get nothing we spent $100 billion and we didn’t get anything because why

1:44:41

because it’s so rotten that money just disappears it’s it’s like a money pit and so the German defense minister turns

1:44:48

to the Parliament and says why need you to give me expenditures I forget what he was looking for for 7 8% um growth in

1:44:55

the budget uh so that we can continue some of these programs that we started with this1 billion doar that’s now gone

1:45:01

and the Parliament went we can’t do that we don’t have any money um so we’re going to give you and I forget what it

1:45:07

was a one point something perc increase which is below

1:45:12

inflation now I’m not an economist but I’m smart enough to know that um if you

1:45:17

have inflation that’s the purchasing power of your of your of your economy um and if you’re below inflation that means

1:45:24

that your purchasing power is diminished so if you budgeted based upon um you

1:45:29

know an x amount of dollars but because of inflation that’s only worth this and you don’t increase the amount of money

1:45:34

you have less money to spend and that’s the reality the Germans at a time when they should be expanding their army or

1:45:41

fixing their military have to start cutting back they’re fixing nothing

1:45:46

they’re cutting back that’s the reality and now you’re going to sit here and tell me that Germany’s somehow going to magically transform turn this thing

1:45:53

around and become the PowerHouse of Europe building this new grand military you can take on the Russians well what

1:45:59

about alternative for deuts don’t you think they have a say and why do you think alternative for

1:46:05

deuts land has a say because the German people have rejected this and they’re going to reject this the same thing in

1:46:10

France Europe cannot build cannot fund a military they need the United States to

1:46:16

step in and America isn’t going to do it so now we come back to my original

1:46:21

premise it’s over for NATO NATO can’t afford to exist it’s a nice club but it’s you know I used to play golf at a

1:46:28

great little Country Club down the road I love golf and all that but economic realities came in kids had to go to

1:46:34

college and one day I woke up and I said I can’t be a member of this country club anymore I had to quit well that’s Europe

1:46:39

waking up saying I can’t be a member of this NATO Country Club anymore can’t afford it gotta quit and that’s what’s

1:46:45

going to happen to Nato it just can’t nobody can afford it Scott this is my

1:46:50

last question and I want to record uh Preserve a little bit of uh personal

1:46:55

memories as a Archive of people we admire we are building it in in our

1:47:01

small ways uh my question is um

1:47:08

what talk about a little bit um about what inspires uh you um when you do um

1:47:16

your anti-military activism anti-militarism activism let’s say um

1:47:21

when you talk about uh Building Bridges uh is it like pure um consequentialist

1:47:27

in sting that oh that’s what protects American interest because or else we are going to a catastrophe or is it a

1:47:35

broader humanitarian concern a broader internationalist concern what’s your who

1:47:42

are some of what are some of the philosophies that have inspired you um both in terms of international relations

1:47:48

but also uh thinking about decent Society perhaps a little bit about your economic Vision you don’t have to be an

1:47:54

economist for that but I have heard about you talking that we should invest in we should give more education to

1:48:00

people Healthcare and so on so yeah um just the final uh thoughts about um who

1:48:06

you are in terms of your philosophies well you know it’s interesting

1:48:12

um you I’m a product of my upbringing I’m a product of of my childhood of my

1:48:17

of of you know my adult um experiences uh which you know started during the

1:48:24

Cold War and have extended to where we are today um

1:48:30

but the the see I I can’t I can’t accept the concept that I’m

1:48:36

anti-military I came from a military family I said militarism yeah militarism

1:48:41

but what is militarism um see I I I’m I I have a Marine Corps

1:48:47

background and I love the Marine Corps and I will never go against the Marine Corps I believe the Marine Corps has the

1:48:53

America has a need to have Marines um because I believe that they’re and I

1:48:59

often quote this and I get in trouble but again I don’t care um To Kill a Mockingbird is a great American novel

1:49:06

and a great American movie and the movie um attakus Finch this lawyer was played

1:49:12

by Gregory peek and um there’s a scene where you know he he’s defending people

1:49:17

and his kids view him is weak because he doesn’t stand up and believe in violence and and such

1:49:23

but there’s a scene where there’s a rabid dog loose in the town and the sheriff comes in and finds him and um

1:49:29

gives him the rifle and atus finin takes his glasses up sights in and pow kills

1:49:34

the dog and the the kid is like why my dad he said your dad was the finest

1:49:40

Marksman in World War I he’s the guy that we had to go to the point is when there’s Rabbid dogs in the street you

1:49:46

need the finest marksmen in the world and you don’t create them overnight we need a Marine Corps we have to have a

1:49:53

Marine Corps we have to have a military capable of killing the Rabbid dogs in the world or else our society will

1:49:58

always be under attack by uh threats that that shouldn’t be allowed to manifest themselves so I don’t reject

1:50:06

the military and I know this irritates a lot of people um but what I say

1:50:11

is that before we use the military we have to exhaust every venue

1:50:19

possible short of War to resolve the issue that the military must be the

1:50:25

absolute last thing we turn to my idea of the perfect Marine Corps career would

1:50:32

be to join the Marine Corps and spend 20 years training so that when you retire you are

1:50:37

the best trained Marine in the world who has never seen combat because our

1:50:42

political leaders are so wise as to choose alternatives to war to resolve

1:50:48

the issues and I will say this too there are rabid dogs in the world but you know

1:50:53

we can diminish rabies through inoculations and through you know health and and taking care of the F the

1:50:59

fundamentals rabies thrives in in an area where disease is

1:51:05

fostered so why not focus on education

1:51:10

why not focus on health care why not make those your priorities when we speak of National

1:51:16

Defense to me National Defense isn’t just the Marine Corps actually the Marine Corps in order to have something

1:51:23

to defend you have to have something worthy of Defending so before we put money into

1:51:29

the Marine Corps we have to build something that’s worthy of Defending we have to build a society where education

1:51:36

is Paramount we have to build a society where healthc care is Paramount we have

1:51:41

to build a society where people can you know grow up healthfully get educated

1:51:46

and have jobs meaningful jobs jobs that contribute to the betterment of society

1:51:52

and then once you build that you can build the Marine Corps over here to defend it but if you start and say I’m

1:52:00

going to build a Marine Corps and then all the other things healthc care is bad

1:52:06

what are you defending you end up defending the Marine Corps you end up defending the system that creates the

1:52:12

Marine Corps the military-industrial complex becomes the center and this is where we have lost our way we’ve become

1:52:20

so focused on building the perfect Marine that we in order to do that we

1:52:25

have to have a system now that funds this but in order to keep that funding going we have to justify that funding so

1:52:31

we have to keep using the Marines so we have to keep sending them overseas to fighting Wars that don’t need to be

1:52:37

fought that shouldn’t be just because you have a Marine Corps doesn’t mean you need to use the Marine Corps no

1:52:44

you have the Marine Corps in case everything else goes wrong but if you start with the fundamental premise of

1:52:50

let’s take care of ourselves make ourselves healthy and in doing so transfer that approach to the rest of

1:52:56

the world why do I have to invade you why can’t instead of spending a trillion

1:53:01

dollars imagine if we had gone to Afghanistan instead of spending a trillion dollars to destroy that Society

1:53:07

we turned around and invested properly no strings attached to start from Grassroots make people healthy encourage

1:53:14

education you’ll see a society will start to transform from within and that 20-year experiment could have succeeded

1:53:20

perhaps in creating a new Afghanistan and instead all we did is kick out the Taliban spend 20 years destroying that

1:53:26

society and then the Taliban comes back nothing changed except everybody’s dead everybody’s poor that’s not smart policy

1:53:33

and I’m against that I’m against what we did in Iraq I’m against what we’re doing with Russia not because I’m

1:53:39

anti-military there’s Rabbid dogs out there we need to kill the Rabbid dog but

1:53:46

we don’t need to shoot the healthy dogs and we don’t need to shoot the owners of the healthy dogs and we don’t need to blow up their houses and that’s what

1:53:52

what we’ve become the United States has become this nation we are singularly focused on conflict because the only way

1:53:59

our system can continue itself sustain itself is by creating new conflict this

1:54:05

is why I’m hopeful of Donald Trump do I think Donald Trump’s perfect nope I disagree with so much about him but he

1:54:11

at least is seeking to break the Paradigm to redefine how America operates with the world he does it

1:54:17

through a perversion of economy where it’s American economic dominance as opposed to military dominance but at

1:54:23

least people aren’t dying um and that’s a good thing I I’ve traveled around the world

1:54:30

and uh you say what what motivates me you know in in

1:54:37

1975 we had a Vietnamese family South Vietnamese family fallos saon uh they

1:54:42

were boat people who fled South Vietnam and they’re coming to United States and my family got on the list of people we

1:54:49

would you know bring in a family and and take of them until they could be relocated to their permanent home so we

1:54:55

had this Vietnamese South Vietnamese Refugee family live with us and um it was I had never been outside the United

1:55:02

States until that point and um to have these people come in and then to talk with them and learn about them you

1:55:08

realize that there’s just a whole world there was kids my age and talking about their experiences growing up through War

1:55:14

and what it was like to flee your home you’re like holy cow that’s that’s real and yet here in the

1:55:22

United States you know I got up on my bike every day and and rode down to the beach and surfed and fished and did

1:55:27

whatever kids do uh in a paradise called Hawaii then we moved to Turkey and I we

1:55:35

didn’t live on base we lived in the economy and I I learned how to speak Turkish and I interfaced I mean I one of

1:55:41

the great friends I had was you know nazim the flower man who uh who had a

1:55:47

flower shop outside the American hotel where American families came before they found a a place to live in town and I

1:55:53

became friends with him and so I’d go down there and we drink tea and I’d help him with his flowers and we talk it turns out that he was actually part of a

1:56:01

u islamist political movement that was being suppressed by the Turks but he would you know talk to me and I’d learn

1:56:08

about it um I I I studied the history of turkey and so when I left turkey I

1:56:13

didn’t view turkey as you know as something fake I knew turkey for what it was I went to Germany and did the same

1:56:19

thing everywhere I’ve traveled I’ve tried to go in and meet with the people and talk with the people and and have

1:56:25

sympathy why because I don’t view humans as rabid dogs I view humans as the the

1:56:34

building block of humanity and that the best way to avoid war is to be able to

1:56:40

communicate with one another and understand where people coming from so that when we sit down across the table hey I don’t hate you right off the bat I

1:56:47

sit down and say hey how you doing I treat you as a human with respect and you treat me the same way then I saywhat

1:56:53

concerns you and you tell me I say wow man but if you do that you know that that bothers me over here they saywell

1:56:59

what can we do and next thing you know you’re working through this problem and and you solve the problem there’s not a

1:57:05

problem out there that can’t be solved if we approach it from Humanity from a

1:57:11

from a place of humanity the other thing is killing humans is the worst thing in the world

1:57:18

humans I’m not talking about rabid dogs I’m talking about humans I’m talking about killing a fellow human

1:57:24

being it is it it is the antithesis of what it means to be a human and

1:57:32

so we need to spend more time focusing on how to save lives how to promote

1:57:37

lives how to you know and you start with the children you start with making sure

1:57:42

the children have a found you know a family they can they can be nourished in a home they can feel safe in um a

1:57:50

society that supports the um Etc and if you start with each of that then we don’t have a genocide in

1:57:57

Gaza and we don’t have what’s happening in the Sudan we don’t have child slave

1:58:02

labor in the Congo we don’t have U child sex trafficking in in in in in Ukraine

1:58:08

start with the children treat the children as humans and and and then you and you force yourself to be a human as

1:58:15

well then as they grow up that’s how they’ll approach but if the children they look to the adults and they see how

1:58:20

we Act and then they start behaving in that manner and hate perpetuates hate we

1:58:26

have to break the Paradigm and that’s where I come from is trying to break the Paradigm and I do that by working

1:58:32

through the lies and distortions and the myths and the the Fabrications of history and who people are and that’s

1:58:39

why what I’m trying to do in Russia is so important because it’s about bringing the reality of Russia to the American

1:58:45

people to introduce the Russians as people fellow humans that we don’t need to go to war with and if we do that with

1:58:52

everybody else I think I think the world will be a better place so that’s where I come from not wanting to kill people

1:58:58

recognizing that you have to and I I’m I’m I don’t believe the Marine Corps

1:59:03

should ever be a reflection of society it’s not the Marine Corps is a standalone entity it should never

1:59:09

reflect Society you don’t want America to be like the Marine Corps not at all you want America to be the exact

1:59:14

opposite the Marine Corps is a unique Standalone thing that exists um you have

1:59:19

to treat it with a lot of respect and a lot of care I I came from that it’s impossible for

1:59:25

me to leave that impossible sometimes I wish I hadn’t because it the Marine

1:59:31

Corps complicates my thinking um because I am singularly focused on closing with

1:59:37

and destroying the enemy through Firepower manuver but I also have learned to recognize that that is not

1:59:42

the solution that Society should be seeking that there are other solutions to these problems and that it’s

1:59:47

important that we have leadership that seeks these other Solutions and Views the Marine core is literally the tool of

1:59:53

Last Resort the sheriff has come up to attakus fch the rabid dog is threatening into town shoot the dog that’s what the

2:00:01

Marine Corps is good for other than that don’t ever bring that rifle out again on that powerful note of

2:00:08

invocation of To Kill a Mocking B uh Scott rer thank you so much it took us a little while to get in touch with you

2:00:15

but uh this was as good as it could be hi my name is aishman I along with with

2:00:22

jotis man have started this platform the last two years we have tried to build

2:00:28

content for the left and Progressive forces we have interviewed Economist

2:00:33

historians political commentators and activists so far if you have liked our content so far

2:00:41

and want us to build an archive for the left I have two requests for you please

2:00:47

do consider donating for the cause link is in the description below

2:00:52

also if you’re are not able to do so don’t feel sad you can always like our videos and share our videos to your

2:01:00

comrades finally don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button

2:01:08

[Music]

2:01:19

[Music]

oooooo

MK71@MK71GA

oooooo

urt. 10

Former CIA intelligence expert @TPASarah: “The terrorists are already here. The plan is operational.”

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1877506944367214732

oooooo

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1878082218200899787

oooooo

Geure herriari, Euskal Herriari dagokionez, hona hemen gure apustu bakarra: