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Nov. 19, 2023 - Stew Peters Show
56:31
The Richard Leonard Show: Is America Ready for Another War?
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Time Text
I'm speaking of the issues going on in Israel and in the Gaza Strip.
Today, Jason and I are going to have a conversation about whether or not our country is ready for this.
I mean, we just spent 22 years, arguably 22 years, if some people say it wasn't that long, some people say it's still going on, way too long at war.
Can our sons and daughters and our country really stand for another war?
So, let's get into the conversation.
Stick with us.
Don't go away.
we start now.
Hey folks and welcome here to the next installment of the Richard Leonard Show.
Just so you know, this is show 87, by the way.
We're creeping up on 100.
Hopefully we're going to have some kind of cool celebration at 100 shows.
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Okay.
Please forgive me, guys.
I struggled through the intro, clearly.
I don't know what's going on.
I'm so upset.
I'm so upset today.
But anyway, let's get our good friend Jason on with us because we have a lot to talk about.
And there he is.
Hello, Jason.
Oh, look at this.
No hat today.
No hat.
Slick top.
I love it.
So, Jason, before we get started also, I want to let everybody know that Today's show topic was decided upon a day or two ago, and it was just a couple of dudes talking via text, and it was Jason and I talking, and he just straight up asked me, do you think our country's ready for another war?
Are we ready for more veterans?
And I thought, well...
I guess I don't know.
I need to ponder that.
My initial response is, probably not.
But I didn't ponder on it long because I thought that this would be a good organic conversation to have on the show.
So, Jason, pose your question so that, I mean, I know it already, but I would like the audience to hear it from your lips, how you see it, and then we'll get rolling.
So my question was, and I think militarily we're just fine, but is the American populace ready to stomach another war effort anywhere on planet Earth?
What made me really take this at heart was thinking about the 75 billion dollars that were spent in Ukraine to back that action for whatever reason that occurred.
And now with Israel and Hamas, Again, we can see this financial connection to what's going on.
But this one seems like this has been long in the works, that we kind of follow the same, you know, it's not the same song, but it's got the same melody.
It kind of feels like we're being drawn into something.
And I wonder if the population at whole understands that once you do this, you know, Are we ready for it?
Do we want it?
Do we really want to pay for it?
Do we want to pay for the effort itself?
Do we want to pay for the carnage that comes on the back end, from the occupations to the veterans created?
There's a whole trickle effect from these wars that occur, and it's not just the money up front.
If we sit back and we think about that, that has to be part of our overall feeling rather than an emotional response to clearly an emotional event.
I think that we should dissect this in pieces and as many pieces as we can get to before we run out of time for the day.
But the interesting part about it that you brought up that I want to focus on is Is our country ready to stomach producing more veterans to put into our community?
Because I think that this is interesting because I'm not quite certain that a lot of the civilian populace of our country quite understand What that means.
I mean, I think that people understand that when a man or a woman decides to join the military, they serve, they may or may not be deployed to combat, depending on what's happening in the world at that time.
And then they get out and now they're a veteran.
But what is it that the country as a whole What would you say?
Other than financial support, because we already know that that happens.
Right.
And I guess I never really thought about that follow-on effect.
A lot of my thinking was that book that was written by that Marine.
Left of Bang, I believe was the name.
And so what he talks about and his philosophies that he wanted to push...
How many things can you control and how many of those variables can you control and change and shift to ensure that if you're going to hit the point of bang that the outcome is the proper outcome, right?
And so I think this conversation is more left of bang, i.e.
if the United States decides, well, let's be honest, if the politicians decide that they want to actively enter that war effort outside of Adding finances to the pot.
The next step is what?
The next step is putting our sons and daughters on planes and getting them over there.
And so my question is, do we understand that when we start down these paths, that is one of the offshoots that can occur because of our interactions?
And so, you know, similar to the Ukraine, I still don't understand how $75 billion was spent there, wherever that went, but how that was a maneuver that necessarily impacted or benefited the United States In any way, shape, or form.
And again, I'm not picking aside Israel or Hamas.
You know, population centers, I know, you know, Hamas has committed some atrocities, but certainly those on the Israeli side have done much of the same.
When you really understand We're the Palestinian line divides and the people that control those pieces.
And again, a lot of this left a bang.
If you get to know more and more of both sides, you realize that both sides of this certainly have blood on their hands.
Either one could be, it's like Schrodinger's war.
I don't know who started it, but I understand eventually somebody's going to finish it.
Well, is this really one that we need to be actively engaged in to decide who takes it or not?
I don't see the benefit.
Well, I guess I would ask folks, what is the advantage?
What would be the advantage of getting involved?
It seems to me, and I'll be the first to say, I'm not super scholarly, especially about other countries' militaries in the world, and maybe I should be saying that I served for 19 years in our military, but But what is our advantage to being involved in this?
Because I think that a lot of folks in our communities take the stance that it's the right thing to do on whatever side they believe is the right side.
It's the right thing to do because there's innocent people involved and there's women and children and, you know, this side didn't do anything wrong and this other side are a bunch of bullies and terrorists and heathens and assholes.
And so that may be true, but for me, that doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter to me as long as whatever is going on doesn't affect us in a super huge way.
And maybe that sounds insensitive, but when I really stop and think about it, there's so many things here in our own backyard That we could be focused on cleaning up before we are off cleaning up Israel.
And we're off cleaning up the Ukraine.
And I wonder if this is why a lot of the American people are so pissed off about all of these things going on.
Because here we are shelling out $75 billion to the Ukraine, for example...
And for what?
What are we going to get out of it at the end?
Right.
And what was the economic partnership like?
Was there something we were protecting other than protecting Ukrainian soil?
I mean, protecting American soil hasn't seemed like something that's on everybody's mind at all.
We're not spending any extra dollars there on our security.
But yet we're going to, you know, define the line in between Russia and the Ukraine?
Like, that's a fundamental standing block.
I'm sure three years from now, just like the Afghan war, you know, we'll find out that we did it to ensure that women and other minorities in the Ukraine got better education and opportunities, similar to what we found out a couple of weeks ago, Richie, right?
Yep, yep.
You know, that'll actually be the reason that we were there.
But, you know, on the front end, well, then tell me why.
Why is it important?
I understand there are certain, you know, there are certain sections of our population that are truly evil.
And again, if we don't go find them, sort them out on their own ground, you know, they have a potential to come to us.
But Show that to me.
Show me something that adds some value to the investment in time and blood that we're going to actually make a truly thoughtful decision driving forward rather than a political decision.
Political decisions are expensive as hell.
And what are we facing right now?
A $4 trillion deficit?
Spending versus federal tax revenue?
Well, and counting.
And counting.
Yeah.
It goes up by the second.
A couple years ago, somebody pointed out to me there was this website.
It's a counter that counts the nation's debt.
And it's ongoing, 24 hours a day, and the thing is just spinning at alarming rates up and up and up.
And here's the other part, man, is that I'm the first one to bend over backwards to help somebody in need, as are you.
And then there's a lot of us in our communities that are helpful people and that care about your neighbor and just want the best for the people around us, whether you know them or not.
And I can understand that people come from a place where Where they want everybody to be okay, right?
We want everyone to live in a field of tulips and just be alright.
You know, milk and honey and all that other crap.
But at the end of the day, we can't do that.
So when you're on a plane, for example, and the plane's plummeting towards the earth and the mass drop down, What do you do?
You put yours on first, right?
And then you help your neighbor.
Well, I kind of see the same scenario in all of this stuff.
I'd be alright with helping the Ukraine if we were all good.
Right.
But we're not all good.
Right.
Well, it's that idealistic view that we have of ourselves.
You know, we see ourselves as the peacekeeper.
We see ourselves as the Christian nation that helps everybody in need, right?
And that's a great thing.
But I would just ask people to think, put yourself in the position of other people that see our actions.
Are they truly seen as good-natured?
Or is there a potential that the world does see us as the bully we possibly could be seen as?
Right.
I'm sure.
And I'm sure it's both.
It depends on where you're at and who's looking at it and who you're asking.
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But at the end of the day, when the question at hand is, do we as a country, do we as a nation, as a society, want to add more veterans to the mix?
And I mean, I have no problem with more veterans, right?
I mean, We're all brothers and sisters.
We'll all get along some way or another.
But when it comes down to paying...
I just filled up my truck yesterday at like $4.25 a gallon or something like that.
I would rather not force another 50,000 veterans into our population if we don't need to.
Because the other part that needs to be understood is that...
We are expensive.
We as people to this country are expensive.
And our budgets for federal, all the cool three-letter federal agencies and the VA and all these other agencies all have super large budgets.
And they're only going up.
And so then we want to take an institution, the VA, that spends...
Buckle up for this one, folks.
The VA spends about $142 billion a year to pay Jason, you, and me, and everyone else that are veterans disability compensation, pensions.
That's just...
And that's it.
$142 billion, that's not counting medical care facilities, wages for employees, all those things.
And so all those numbers are probably a whole other show that we can get into.
But just to provide context, if we start adding more and more veterans at alarming rates, how are we going to be able to afford it?
And it doesn't seem like anybody else that works in government is thinking about how we're going to afford this stuff.
Right.
Well, when you spend $2 for everyone coming in, I mean, no business can sustain that anyway.
Certainly no country can.
It would be interesting to see that dig out.
But I just don't...
I think you saw the American population stand pretty hard on the side of zero involvement in the Ukraine militarily.
Now...
Now, this is very similar to how to lie with statistics.
This is how to lie with speech, right?
So we didn't get involved militarily, but we provided them with Dollars to purchase or procure or we gave them armament for their military so when they say that I think it's tongue-in-cheek For anyone to believe again the perception from the outside world looking in Regardless if it was let's just say it was an Australian person no skin in the game.
They're they're not American They're not Russian.
They're not Ukraine and they were to see that America gave all these missiles and eventually tanks and airplanes correct and You know, and millions of dollars.
But yeah, we can stand here on a soapbox and say, we are just giving them aid.
We are not militarily engaging in this battle.
That Australian is going to see, well, okay, you didn't squeeze the trigger, but you gave him the gun.
There's certainly that culpability.
And you would look at it and you would say, and again, would it matter really?
Because again, it didn't change the Australian's day.
But for us to have this view that we were just involved with aid and we weren't involved in the military combat portion of this thing would be absolutely foolish.
Because whatever money we gave them created blood on one side or the other.
I don't care how that works.
Now, they're not American lives, but they're still lives.
You know, and I think Trump said it the best.
This needs to stop the bloodshed.
He didn't pick a side either.
You know, I think that's one thing that we tend to do is we pick a side.
It's emotional.
We're either, you know...
Pro-Hamas, pro-Israel, pro-Ukraine, pro-Russia.
Not a lot of the pro-Russias, but you know what I'm saying.
And then once we're into that mindset, it's almost like a sporting event, and we kind of lose the context of the reality of what's happening.
So, yes, it's just money, but it's money doing some pretty terrible things across our globe that otherwise wouldn't need to occur.
Well, and that's just, you're right, it's just money.
And I would say that the atrocities being committed with our money is probably the bigger deal But for a lot of people in this country, it's just money is a really big deal because there's folks that are having a hard time feeding their children and putting gas in their vehicle to get to work and bring their kids to a movie so they don't have to just sit in the house all the time.
I mean, there's probably a million different examples that we could point out.
Right.
But also, I think the one thing you mentioned was Russia, for example.
I'm not quite sure that Vladimir Putin is such a horrible dude.
I mean, he's made out to be a horrible guy.
But if he was as bad as everybody says...
I would think that he would have been doing a whole lot worse stuff to people in the world than he is right now.
And if I understand his stance on this whole war in Ukraine right now, without diving deep into this hole, but if I understand his stance on his war with the Ukraine, it was their land to begin with.
And so they need to work that out.
And I don't know that we have any business being involved in that.
In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say, and it's not new, right?
This has been a conversation on this network as a whole, on the Stu Peters Network for some time.
I think Stu said it on his show probably months ago.
That if every politician in our government and political institutions in this country were really concerned about America first, we would probably be in a whole lot different situation.
Vladimir Putin seems to be about Russia first.
He doesn't care about Israel.
He doesn't care about the Ukraine.
He doesn't give a shit about us.
He doesn't care about anybody else.
Except for Russia and the things happening around the world that are going to impact Russia.
And so to bring context to the conversation, when we are interfering or getting involved in a situation like the Ukraine that has nothing to do with us, It's a waste.
It's a waste of time.
It's a waste of our money.
It's a waste, potentially, of our soldiers.
God forbid they get involved and we start losing our own soldiers in this debacle.
I just don't understand what it is that he's done so horribly wrong.
Yeah, maybe he's an asshole.
Right.
But he's looking out for his people.
Yeah, terrible guy, but he's looking out for Russians.
So, I mean, that's step one, right?
Do Russians hate him?
Do the Russian people hate Vladimir Putin?
I don't even know.
I think that would be interesting to find out.
I mean, I don't think we can go to any of our news sources to find out the popularity contest there.
But, you know, regardless of his popularity or anything else going on, he looks out for the Russian people.
Good, bad, or ugly.
His way, he's in that position.
That's his job.
You know, I look at the involvement there.
The Ukraine was the breadbasket of Europe.
Having this war linger on and languish, you know, it's cutting down potentially on the food production that's feeding people across the globe.
It's changing the logistics of the certain foods that were already grown for specific places.
It's changed a lot of other things that we really don't think about.
And so the idea of diplomacy up front is, I mean, if America wants to be The perceived world leader, the forefront superpower.
Your strength comes through diplomacy.
Your ability to convey a message to say where you stand and then stick to it.
Period.
I mean, we've all had bosses that tell us, oh man, that's great.
You're fantastic.
Don't worry about it.
You're not going to be working this weekend.
And then on Friday on the way out the door, I was like, oh, by the way, you're going to be here with Tony and Al and you're going to work your half day on Saturday.
Good to see you.
Well, now it doesn't matter what that leader tells me.
That's a small scale...
I hate words sometimes.
It's easier to relate to that as a boss that tells you one thing and then does another.
Imagine these countries and other leaders when they see those things happening.
Every time that you break your word, every time that you twist your words, When you don't speak cleanly and in an articulate nature and then have the strength to back it up, it doesn't matter what you say.
So diplomacy is gone.
And maybe that's why we're in the situation we are because we didn't have anybody that could be, you know, to use the mainstream media's phrase, the grown-up in the room.
We ended up with the situation we're in where you've kind of got a couple of jellies against a pretty hard object and all they can do is squirm around.
Well, and furthermore, we have not had a real good track record of politicians doing what they say they're going to do.
Every two years, we find ourselves in an election cycle, and it's like these politicians take an air compressor with a really soft, velvety nozzle and And shove it right up our asses and press the lever to blow air right up our ass.
And they pump us full of all these promises and what we're going to do and what we're going to see and tax breaks and we're going to put more money in your pocket.
You're going to see the difference at the pump.
You're going to see the difference at the cashier, at the grocery store.
You're going to see the difference in your kids' school lunch prices.
And yet, here we are.
Unprecedented levels of inflation and money coming out of our pockets.
And every two years we're told it's gonna get better.
Just hang in there with us.
Well, the fact of the matter is that I don't know if my ass can hold any more air.
And so it would be really refreshing If we had some politicians run for office, get elected in, if elected in is even a thing anymore, or placed in, mind you, and then start just stomping people in the groin and doing what they say they're going to do.
And don't give a crap about The world's feelings.
Because the problems that we have at home are bigger than the world's feelings.
And as we've discussed on the show many times, myself and you and I together, that the men and women that have to bear the burden of the horrors that are war are the ones that have to live with it.
But it's a shame that they will or would have to live with it.
Just because some guy with an air compressor wants more money, power, and control.
It's a lot easier to stomach living with it when you know that your service went for something good.
That the people that you stood up for are being helped.
I'm sorry, I got up on my soapbox yesterday.
Something about you ranting on for two minutes just pisses me off.
Not that it's you, but you always seem to just bring the topic right to the place that just squeezes my scrotum.
Anyway, folks, we're running out of time in this segment.
We'll be right back.
Stick with us.
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Hey folks, welcome back here.
Before we took a break, I got a little heated.
Sorry about that.
I know that some descriptions got a little colorful, so I apologize for that if you're offended.
Well, I don't really apologize if you're offended.
You don't have the right to not be offended.
But I understand this is a family show, but sometimes these topics kind of just get you in the fee-fees and it just comes out.
But let's move on.
Jason, I want to switch gears a little bit.
And I want to ask you a question.
Okay.
Other than...
I mean, because I think that we've talked about it, and we could probably talk about it for another five hours straight.
But other than monetary or financial reasons, why might America not...
Want to or not be ready to sign up for another war?
And also remembering that this war in Israel may be the big one, right?
World War III, some are saying it could turn out to be.
But why might America not be ready for that?
That's an interesting question.
I think it's got many answers.
But for me, outside from the byproducts we spoke of earlier, if wars were fought with generals that were leaders rather than politicians, I think people would be able to get behind the idea of engagement if you truly went in to fight a war.
Explain.
I think people's minds are 20 years.
20 years plus in the Middle East.
Those at certain points, yes, they were war-ish.
There's no question.
Not demeaning anybody's time in that country.
I mean, we all know it sucked, right?
Yes.
But in 1991, Desert Storm, Desert Shield, it took 14 to 21 days.
To move from the southern tip of Kuwait through to just south of Baghdad.
And that was probably the last time that we've seen the United States military move with efficiency and effectiveness and achieving the objective and then regrading and leaving.
And I think if the politicians were out of the way and you were talking about a true warfighter, if it was deemed necessary to have engagement on whichever side we're on and whichever conflict we're on, And go in and just say, no, we're going to truly go to war.
Generals have no restrictions.
This is not political.
This is not going to be driven by Washington, D.C. And we are going to go grab the best and the brightest that West Point has kicked out, that the general staff colleges have created.
And we're going to put together a battle plan and we are going to execute it with violence and speed.
And then we are going to leave.
And that is it.
I think the likelihood of people not necessarily wanting it, but understanding what we were going to do, would be willing to say, okay.
So you're saying that if we were able to rally our troops, go in, we came, we saw, we kicked some butt, and we went home, that America may be a little more apt to support it.
Yes.
I would think so.
I guess that's just kind of the thing that looms most in my mind because I think about ongoing conflict.
I mean, truly, yes, it was conflict for 20 years, but it was like a police force occupation.
You know, there are theoretically other organizations that could have carried that weight, right?
Yep.
Yes, and so I think that that's an interesting point because I think that everybody is aware, or at least has an idea, that this country is extremely polarized right now.
And as the days go by, there's just more and more events happening that polarizes us and divides us even further.
And I think that America could use...
Something to rally behind.
Right?
Kind of like...
And I'm not in any way trying to say that we need another 9-11.
Right?
But kind of like the vibe that we had on 9-12.
And for many weeks, days, weeks, and months after...
How we were not divided.
Everyone came together and everything else kind of took a side seat for just a little while.
And although we were trapped in this tragedy, this horrific event that happened on our own soil...
We were still able to come together, put all of our differences aside and rally together for the good of what we know as home.
And so I think you're on to something there.
But I think also what we need to think about is the cost of war outside of finances.
And I think that if you were to ask mothers and fathers and children of soldiers who have been vastly affected by war, that they would say, absolutely not.
We don't want to do this.
We're not ready for this.
And I would say that that would be something that we should all take into account with the idea that we're not gonna shy away from having to stand up and defend ourselves.
And we're not gonna shy away from doing what is right when it's necessary.
But the things that we've talked about today, in my opinion, and seemingly in your opinion, our involvement isn't 100% necessary.
Not military.
No, not at all.
I mean, if we want to fly over Israel and drop rice and pallets of water for people that need it, perfect.
Right.
I'm cool with that.
But also, you know, in my travels outside of the military, working with veterans for all the years that I have and the people that I know, I'm not sure that we're really ready to deal with the cost of war outside of money.
The effects that war has on the human mind, the effects that it has on our bodies, the effects that it has on our families and our work, our workplaces, our careers, our educations, all that stuff I don't know that it's worth it.
I don't know that it's worth plunging ourselves into that bullshit for what?
I don't see Hamas and Israel and the Ukraine and the things happening there as a huge threat to us at this point.
And maybe there's some things that I'm super ignorant about as it relates to these topics.
But I can tell you what I do understand.
I do understand that in this country, we lose a lot of veterans every day by their own hands.
17.
What's that?
17 is the new number.
17 a day, which is less than 22, so that's great, but 17 is way too many.
We have way too many orphans In our country, fatherless and motherless children because of their service.
Now, those sacrifices don't go unnoticed.
They're not unappreciated.
And it's understandable that when these things are needed...
Then it's kind of the cost of doing business, unfortunately.
And there's many people that would say, well, we didn't have any business being in Iraq or Afghanistan anyway.
So all that is a moot point.
But the fact of the matter is that what's done is done.
And so I'm not sure that America is ready...
To plunge thousands of American men and women back into war without knowing what benefit it is to us.
I would not be willing myself.
Well, I shouldn't say I wouldn't be willing because, you know, when you wear a uniform, you do what you're told.
But I wouldn't be happy about going to war for some unforeseen, unknown reason.
What's the reward?
So when we took our oath of enlistment, do you remember how that began?
That was like 22 years ago, brother.
I swore an oath and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, so on and so forth.
I never swore an allegiance to democracy across the globe.
Great point.
So the idea that the United States military is there to protect democracy from sea to shining sea is odd, right?
It's kind of this whore of Babylon approach to what our military is there for.
I know that we need to use our military to create some change at times.
But when you hit on that idea of ask mothers and fathers of people who have served and those that never made it home.
You know, if that juice is ever worth a squeeze.
I think even those of us who came back that seem to be in pretty good shape mentally and physically, there are certain changes that, you know, they change you for the good or for the bad.
But I think a lot of times it's more negative.
It's more stagnated in nature.
And I think those around us who know us before and know us after would be the best judge of, is it worth it?
They truly got to watch everything as it occurred on the ground.
They were able to see whatever changes that were globally.
But then most importantly, they saw the change in the veteran that came home.
And that's the unfortunate thing is some didn't even get that chance to come home.
And those that did in a lot of cases came home different.
Not bad, not good, but different.
And I think that's the, you know, I really think if you think about that internally, if you know a veteran, and especially if you knew one before and after, you can really see that effect that it has on a person's overall being.
Yes.
Yes, you're right.
A thousand percent.
And to add to that, I think that if you were to go and talk to these families or talk to even veterans, even the ones who are the most wounded or the most broken or however you want to describe it, they would all say, That absolutely, we should go do it, if it's for a good cause.
I could certainly see some parents of some soldiers who didn't make it home saying, well, yeah, if it's needed and it's for a good cause and America will be better for it, then yes, we should do it.
But I can't imagine, in a million years, Being the father of a soldier that didn't make it home, and my son or daughter was overseas fighting a war for some bullshit.
I now understand, after doing this show, after working in the veteran service community for as long as I have, and just talking to a lot of people, I now understand why some people kind of just lose their minds and do stupid shit like shoot up places or have acts of violence or commit suicide or fall into addiction or whatever the case may be.
Not that it's right, but I understand where they come from a little bit.
Because there's no other action in life that you can do.
There's nothing that anybody can ask of you other than putting your life down for somebody else that you don't even know, for a whole country, but then that country telling you in a roundabout way that it's really all for nothing.
What a kick in the balls that is.
The old dick twist.
What's that?
The old dick twist.
Yeah, just grab it and pull.
Right?
I mean, I just...
At times, Jason, I'll be honest, man.
At times, it really makes me think about my service and the service of the other folks close to me And about how those people might feel about their service, knowing what we know now about what was going on.
I would do it all over again, but sometimes it really makes me super upset to know that we left people there.
I mean, their bodies came home, but we left people there.
Well, and that's, you know, is it a military failure?
Or was it a politically driven leadership failure?
And I think that's the one saving grace is nobody in the military would have made those decisions.
Politicians did.
And so, although that's a hard one to stomach because the politicians are the same ones that get you into it, that pathetic egress was certainly something that, you know, it put a lot of salt and a lot of wounds that it almost healed over.
And so, you know, seeing the negative reactions in our community that we have, I don't think anything worse could have happened at the end.
I don't know about you, but that was probably the worst possible.
Yes, I agree.
And it just baffles my mind, man, that anybody, no matter what your stance on the topics are, that anybody thought that that was a good idea.
That anybody who's taken orders from our president, if any of them thought, yeah, man, this is a great idea, what great leadership this is.
Are you kidding?
Yeah.
Did anybody...
Here's my question.
Now we're getting off in the weeds into this deal.
Did anybody stop...
When this whole idea of unasked in the AO in Afghanistan came about and the plan of action, did anybody at all stop and think, man, if I was a veteran of this war, this would be a real kick in the balls?
I'm sure not.
No, and if it was, it was just a caveat to the big story.
But I just wonder how many people went against this.
Because I have to believe that there is no way.
Don't get me wrong, we know who makes the big decision, right?
And then we know that they're guided by, you know, four-star command that have no interaction with troops but give guidance on potential outcomes for movements.
Was it a failure on their behalf?
Because I am certain when that order went down, That there was somebody along the chain of command that wanted to refute that order.
That said, take a look again.
Like, there is no...
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
Are you sure about this type thing?
Right.
Yeah.
You know, but we don't live in a time where, you know, militarily, you could be the person who is...
Is questioning decision making when it's clearly not being done with a military tactical mind.
Because it's not.
It's purely political.
And that just kind of full circles to the whole thing.
Are we ready to stomach another war if it's another political war?
And I just got to say it.
Probably not.
I'm not.
I can tell you that for sure.
Not unless there's some kind of evidence or some kind of proof to show that if we don't get involved, that this thing is going to end up on our doorstep.
Or if we don't get involved, we're not going to have chocolate for 10 years or gas for 1,000 years, whatever it is.
You know what I mean?
If we don't get involved, there's going to be significant impact to the American people.
Yeah.
And if that's not the case...
I'm not in.
It's a horrible idea.
In fact, I would be more apt to...
If the federal government said, hey...
We need to raise taxes another 6% to, I don't know, let's just think of one.
Yeah, I know, eyebrows go up, right?
We need to raise taxes another 6% over the next two years, and we are going to build affordable housing for every homeless veteran in the country.
First of all, I'm going to call bullshit.
Second of all, if it's true, I'm all right with it.
If there's a good cause that my money or my effort and my time is going to, I'm okay with it.
If my money, effort, and time is going to some bullshit, they can shove it right up their tailpipe.
I don't want anything to do with it.
Why do we think that government can solve these problems?
You know, government, maybe they have the resources.
I mean, we were looking through some figures to see how many dollars are being spent through the VA. We saw how much was being earmarked specifically through the VA for struggling veteran housing.
We also know that there's other avenues where the money is being earmarked and spent.
And by the time it trickles down, there's nothing there.
And that, again, we're talking about doing something else with government involvement, and I don't think that there's a way for regular people to conduct a war or anything like that.
I'm not being that foolish.
But again, if we're looking at dollars and impact, like government gets involved and they make it worse.
You know, philanthropic adventure shouldn't be dictated by tax dollars that are taken from all of us out of our hard-earned paychecks.
Right.
If we want to be philanthropic with our money, if we are so fortunate and blessed on planet Earth to have excess wealth to be able to share, I want to be able to share that the way that I know it's impactual.
I don't need the government to step in and do those things.
You know, you take care of your family, you take care of your friends, you take care of your community.
Government shouldn't be taking care of all these problems.
Maybe they could spend more time being diplomats and less time spending money on bullshit, and then they could start to figure out their own financial problems.
Boy, I almost threw another one out there.
They can start to figure out their financial house and do the true important things that our leaders need to be doing rather than rabble rousing all of this stuff all around the globe for what appears to be very little benefit to the United States citizens.
Well, that's a very good point.
Let me ask you a question quick.
Do you think that it's possible...
For an organization outside, and I'll pick the topic that we already talked about.
Let's just pick veterans' homelessness, for example.
Do you think it's possible for an organization outside the government, just regular dudes or gals, to positively affect veterans' homelessness one way or the other?
Yeah.
The people have been doing it for decades, for centuries.
We haven't had housing problems.
You don't think there's developers out there that understand how to build housing on green space and land and create those things?
They're being inhibited by governmental factors.
They're handcuffed in their abilities to operate, to do things that, you know, ultimately to do anything good, you have to make some money.
You know, how do you save the rainforest?
You go buy it.
You're not going to save them by talking about it.
You're not going to tie yourself to the tree.
And we're not going to solve veteran homelessness by giving money to organizations that don't know how to house people.
Why would you give money to somebody who says they're for veteran housing but they have no development skills?
They have no building ability.
They have to go find the people that are capable of doing it.
Start putting money in the people that are capable's hands and you start to solve some problems.
It's pretty simple.
Well, I like where you're going with that.
It makes me wonder if two regular dudes like you and I and maybe a few others could just do it ourselves.
Well, we've been struggling with just getting the infrastructure in place for the nonprofit to drive off.
Attorneys are fearful to touch it.
It's a development business based upon a nonprofit model that at the end of the day creates the affordable housing that Americans need.
You know, and we would be in a fortunate enough position to be able to, you know, key in on working with some, you know, homeless veteran groups that have identified these people to get them housed.
But it's also affordable housing issues.
And so it's always that micro focus on the very small piece, rather than looking at the entire field and going, well, this is a problem across all boards.
It just so happens that we can talk about homeless veterans.
And then you look at how much money they spend on fixing the problem.
You know, it's very easy to look at a huge number, divide by the number of homeless veterans and come up with a static number and say it's, you know...
$500,000, which in some instances we've seen that much money going out in certain areas per identified homeless veteran, where that's the dollar figure.
We know that's not what's being spent on creating the housing.
You know, it's clearly being spent helping veterans, but it isn't, again, it's not being spent to actually house them.
So it's kind of a misnomer.
And they're the same people that are raising money under that grand tent of ending veteran homelessness.
And they're not doing it.
So anyway, I digress.
That one just pisses me off.
Well, folks, it seems that I've hit a nerve, but I think that this may be a good thing.
And what I'm going to tell you, the audience, is you never know what could happen.
Maybe Jason and Richard might just pull off some magic and do something good for people outside of doing this amazing show, but I guess we'll have to brainstorm and see if that ever comes to fruition.
But anyway, we are out of time.
We're over time, actually.
I want to thank you all for being here.
Before we go, I just want to make sure that we go full circle.
We started the day asking about whether or not the country was ready to shove its sons and daughters into another war.
And I think that we've effectively answered that question by saying, no, I don't think that we are, unless it is for a very good cause.
So I'm going to leave it there.
So if you guys have any other ideas or comments, please leave them below.
Let us know what you think.
We always enjoy the feedback.
Jason, thank you for your time, sir.
I really appreciate you being here.
Thank you for joining us, everybody.
Have a great week.
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