Sept. 5, 2017 - Steve Pieczenik
05:27
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Hi, this is Dr. Steve Pachenk. | |
| This is Steve Talks. | |
| To the wonderful people of Texas and Louisiana, I want to express my best wishes for speedy recovery and the return I want to express my best wishes for speedy recovery and the return I have some idea of what it's like to be in storms. | |
| I had lived in south of Miami and we had several hurricanes and we had to evacuate. | |
| But I want to thank the first responders, the military, the Coast Guard, and especially POTUS, Trump, and First Lady Melania who went down twice to Texas and Louisiana to help out everybody out there. | |
| And especially, I want to thank this special, special Navy that's called the Cajun Navy, the kind of people that I know and the kind of people I care about who are from Lafayette, Louisiana, and they are the best, but the best fishermen I know. | |
| And as I say in French, let's say, let the good times grow. | |
| Now, having said congratulations to the President, I do want to offer a word of advice as a former vet in the Armed Forces and as a former senior official in four presidencies. | |
| I think it's important for the President of the United States to understand the legitimacy and seriousness with which General John Kelly has taken his position as Chief of Staff. | |
| This is not something he wanted to receive in order to self-aggrandize or to benefit anything from. | |
| He's doing this because he's serving the country. | |
| That means he's serving me, he's serving you, and he's serving the entire republic. | |
| Mr. | |
| President, I would like you to understand one thing, that it's very nice for you to be able to work on impulse, And your own primary feelings. | |
| But it's also equally important for you to understand that we have to have a well-controlled White House where there's a command and control system in place. | |
| If some of your friends are complaining, like Roger Stone, then so be it. | |
| The real issue here isn't about Roger Stone, it isn't about me, and it isn't about any other civilian. | |
| It's literally about the Republic. | |
| The reason why General John Kelly was placed there wasn't simply because General Mattis wanted him there and General McMaster. | |
| It was the collective will of those of us who served in the government in different areas and in different forms that insisted that we have a general who could run and manage a White House that had been chaotic. | |
| Now, Mr. | |
| President, it's your desire to maintain an effective regime. | |
| To do so, you're going to need a General Kelly, and you will need a General Mattis to run a Defense Department, as well as many other generals who will command many of our troops overseas and will hopefully develop a strategy that will effectively pull us out of many areas of conflict. | |
| Let me give a word of advice to our army commanders. | |
| A report has come out recently that at the squad, platoon and company levels in our army, we are not doing very well in terms of tactical capabilities. | |
| In relation to our 11 other allies and NATO forces, it turns out that we rank quite low in tactical army maneuvers. | |
| That is a serious concern for me and other individuals who've been involved with the military. | |
| Similarly, there has been a major problem with our Navy that has had two major destructive episodes, one in Singapore Harbor and the other one in Japan. | |
| There was no excuse for either one of those accidents. | |
| So I think it's time for General Mattis or Secretary of Defense Mattis to one, reorganize the Defense Department, two, to eliminate $124 billion of wastefulness within the indirect costs, and three, to make sure that his commanders in the field are demanding the most and the best of our Army, Navy, and Air Force. | |
| As for the rest of the country, I think we are going through interesting times. | |
| We've done well, and we will do better. | |
| And let me remind you in the commandments of the Cajun country, which is a little bit akin to what I grew up in the south of Toulouse. | |
| One commandment says, it is okay to kill a duck and maybe a fish, but it is not okay to kill people. | |
| With that in mind, I wish you good night and good luck. |
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