Delving into the Complexities of Warfare Propaganda, Global Politics, and Biden's Failed Leadership
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Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. As always, we're going to jump right into it. Our first guest up today, Ian Garner, is a historian and analyst of Russian culture and war propaganda, the author of Z-Generation, Into the Heart of Russia's Fascist Youth, and Stalingrad Lives, Stories of Combat and Survival. You can follow him on X at IRGarner and get all his books at

I Garner dot net or on Amazon. And he's done some fantastic work covering all the developments inside Russia, which Chuck has been pretty extraordinary the last few months with real turnover at the top of Putin's administration. And tell us a little bit about what's going on there.

Well, we've seen some interesting turnover. And just in the last few days, that turnover has been happening faster and faster. So what looks like a gentle cabinet reshuffle as Putin rejuvenated his regime, as he's entered his umpteenth term as president, has now turned into what looks like a pretty significant purge of the Ministry of Defense, including cleaning out some people who have been around the government for a long, long time.

So why did he go replace his defense minister and bring his economic economist in to take over the Department of Defense? What should people read into those moves? So the first thing to understand is Sergei Shoigu, who is the guy that just got kicked out, has been around for decades. He has been in the Russian government since 1991, since before the Soviet Union actually collapsed. So he's the only guy that's been there.

And he is a good friend to Putin. They've gone on holiday together, you can look him up, you'll find photos of them topless doing fishing. But he has not been a great and efficient commander of the Ministry of Defense. He is a very loyal man, Putin to the hilt and Putin backs into a sense this is you know, he hasn't fallen out of window. He's just been demoted.

How often do they not fall out of a window? Because that seems to be more often the end of these stories than just being retired or demoted.

Well, I think he's come out of this pretty well because he's really been removed because the Ministry of Defense is just drowning in corruption. And Russia is a country that has a huge corruption problem. But Putin is clearly going all in on war, war against the Ukraine, but more broadly war against Europe, against the West.

And in order to prosecute that war, he needs an effective and efficient man at the heart and at the head of the defense ministry. So why bring in an economist? What does that mean? So Russia has a big oil industry. And what we are reading about you now, you're saying they're preparing a Russian economy that's war-based. How does this new minister help them achieve that goal?

So, Bieloruszów, the new guy, is a boring guy. You will see none of the bare-chested stuff with him. He's grey-haired, he wears a nice suit, he's pretty quiet, but he is still an ideologue. He is still absolutely on board with the Putinist program, but he is a man who gets stuff done, gets stuff done very efficiently. He's a clever technocrat. He's a good manager.

And so Putin's he's been around troubleshooting for years for Putin. Putin has brought him in in order to take this war economy to the next stage. And right now, the war effort is basically funding around 35% of Russia's economy, give or take.

The reason the Russian economy remains so resilient despite all of the sanctions and everything else that's going on is they are investing in themselves, investing in their own military. It's basically wartime Keynesianism. That's incredible. So speaking of the war, and then I want to get to your book, is it overwhelming support for the evasion and the continual military action against Ukraine? Yes.

Or is that being suppressed at all in Russia? It's a bit of both. Of course, Russia is a hugely oppressive country. And today, even the most minor misstep, you like the wrong post on social media, you can be pulled up in front of a judge, fined, jailed. Things are difficult if you want to speak out against the war. So opposition is ruthlessly suppressed.

But in tandem with that, the war is a popular phenomenon, genuinely popular in every age demographic, whether you are looking at young Russians or whether you were looking at older Russians. Russians want this war. And even if they grow tired of this war, they are genuinely more broadly supportive of a bigger war against the West and against America, which is seen as the great evil in the world.

I want to get to your book. You wrote The Z Generation Into the Heart of Russia's Fascist Youth. So what are they doing to gin up the support for the war among the young? Because these people probably know someone who's on the front lines. There's a chance a significant portion of them know someone who has been injured or killed. So what are they doing to keep this enthusiasm among their Generation Z generation?

to continue to fight this war when they know they see the fatalities because they know it. Right. It's sort of like it's sort of like the U.S. right now. There's a big debate. Are we in a recession? Our economy is good. People have jobs. But at the end of the day, people get X amount of money into their bank account.

And then X amount leaves. So they know what they really have left. And that's what bothers newspaper reporters is as a statistic. And the same thing is this. They can say we're winning, but they all know someone who's died or been injured. So what are they doing with this Gen Z to keep them enthusiastic for this war? The big message that they are selling to the population as a whole and in particular to young people. And this is going to sound crazy because it's completely topsy turvy.

is that sacrifice is not just the greatest thing that you can do for your country, because we get that message in the West, right? We celebrate soldiers who lay down their lives. But that sacrifice is essential to be a good citizen, to be a member of the community, whether that means sacrificing economic prospects,

or whether it means sacrificing yourself at the front in this war against Ukraine. And this is a very old Russian historical myth. This is the Russian story of World War II. 27 million Soviets died to save the world. There is this sort of religious aspect to it. And when it comes to young people,

It is being pumped in this full spectrum, 24/7 way at young people with online communities, influencers, digital platforms, games, education, schools, youth groups, you name it. This message is just being driven in an ever present way. That sort of call to martyrdom

that you're talking about obviously has reflections in radical religious ideology, radical communist ideology overall. The Chinese sell their citizens on something. Hello, can everybody see me? Russ. Can you hear me? We need you off, Russ. Thanks, Russ. Go ahead, Ian.

I'm sorry about that. Sorry about that. I was I was asking there this sort of call to martyrdom has reflections in other extremist movements around the globe, whether it be religious ideological movements or the Chinese Communist Party ideology.

It doesn't seem like the Russia of a few years ago that was, you know, commerce and focused on getting as many Gucci bags as possible into the hands of their citizens would translate all that well into this renewed push for fascist nationalism. How did that shift happen? Or was it always there and we were just missing it? The desire in Russia, that interest was always latent. It was always there in society.

But it was, you're right, 20 years ago, a very, very minority position. And my Z generation or Z generation book is all about getting into the lives and minds of how this life has changed over the past 20 years and how the government has pulled the strings, how the state has increasingly explored modern branding and PR and

employed musicians and pop singers and rappers and so I went out and talked to a whole bunch of people and basically lived their lives for a few months while I was getting to know them finding out what life was like and how these ideas through repetition and through their ever presence can become really normalized and I ended up talking to people and you can read their stories in the books who were telling me the most bananas things that Ukraine has to be destroyed to save Ukraine

from itself i think you wouldn't even believe it so what you know so ian what that's interesting so is there any point to this where they can reach a peaceful resolution in ukraine or is russia and their citizens

We're all in. We need all of it back. Is there any chance? Like, let's say, for example, and I'm not suggesting this, but say, for example, there's a piece still on the table. Russia, you keep the territories you've gotten. Ukraine keeps theirs. Let's not wipe out a generation of men on both sides. Do you see anything like that possible with Putin and the population of Russia? Or is there like, no, Chuck, they want all of it. There are two problems.

The first problem is what happens to the Ukrainians in those occupied territories. And we know what happens to them. That the Russian state, the propaganda, the story is about elimination and destruction. They have to be turned into Russians through violence or through manipulation.

And the second problem is Putin. And I think for as long as Putin is in charge, nothing can change. He has gone all in and he is going to use the machinery of the state

which is hugely extensive, to keep pushing this story that Russia has to keep fighting. Is there, we only have two minutes left, is there a difference between Putinism and historic Russian nationalism that could potentially be exploited here by someone to eventually shift him out of the way and change this narrative? I think so. It's not going to be easy.

But there is some hope. There is some hope in selling a much softer version of Russian nationalism to the population, saying that, you know, you can live within your borders, you can be nationalist, you can be patriotic, but that can't include the invasion and destruction of neighboring countries.

Interesting.

Ian, any last words? We have just about 30 seconds left. What people should look for from Russia and Putin in the next few months? More war. They will say they want peace, but peace is a breathing space. It's very interesting. We had a reporter from The Wall Street Journal, and he simply said, we asked, how does this end? He goes, someone has to win. That's the only way this ends.

Yeah, absolutely. Ian Garner, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate having you on the program and love to have you back again in the future. Folks, Breaking Battlegrounds. We'll be back with more in just a moment.

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Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Moore, and I'm Sam Stone. Our next guest up today, Jack Melton, author of Failure of Leadership, Lies, Betrayal, and Treason, which hits shelves on June 1st.

Jack's tell-all book details what the Biden administration handed over to the world's largest terrorist networks, the benefit it has given China, and how those 15 days in Afghanistan reshaped the entire world. And joining Jack is Russ Walker, a friend of the program and a personal friend of both Chuck and I.

and of Jack, as I understand it. Yes. So everyone likes each other on this podcast. Lots of love to be given today. That's not even normal these days. We're supposed to all hate each other and gripe about each other. But obviously, you can get his book, folks, at failureofleadership.org. Chuck, this is something you and I have talked about quite a bit.

That the Biden administration's actions in Afghanistan and complete failure there opened the door to a far more dangerous world. And so we're very pleased, obviously, to have Jack Melton and Russ Walker joining us to talk about that. Gentlemen, so as of September 2023, the nonprofit No One Left Behind estimates that 152,000 people who qualify for special immigrant visas remain in Afghanistan.

Furthermore, they estimate that as many 300 interpreters died in Afghanistan during this time while waiting for visas. As the Taliban closed in on securing the country, as U.S. withdrew, roughly 20,000 interpreters and their families are still trying to reach the United States. Has that number got any better since September 2023?

No. And I'm actually, I mean, I'm dealing with a former Afghani general who worked with SEAL Team 5 and he's hiding out in a neighboring country because they're actively being hunted. And the Taliban's all over.

And we can't get him out. Congressman can't get him out. They just go, can't really do anything for you. Sorry. And he's one of our allies. We left a lot of them behind. Russ, you've dealt with this personally and Jack, you also. I mean, how hard would it be if someone just gave the order at the federal level just to extract them all?

I mean, it would be difficult. I mean, this is one of the problems the administration, the way they pulled out, they don't want to go back in. They don't want to do anything. As a matter of fact, everything they're doing is an attempt to try to normalize relationships with the Taliban. You know, we left behind billions and billions of dollars of equipment, and I think they're afraid to go back in. And we had a project lasted about, well, it lasted until about six months ago that we started right after the fall, after that two weeks was over.

We funded it where we hit a lot of people. We got about 2,000 people out. But as you showed, I mean, it's over 100,000 people, you know, should be out of that country that are in that country that helped us. That's a lot of people. So we're with Jack Melton and Russ Walker. Jack is the author of the book Failure of Leadership, Lies, Betrayal, and Treason about the withdrawal of Afghanistan and leaving behind our allies, our friends, those people who helped us. So Jack and Russ,

Start from day one when we're withdrawing from Afghanistan hastily. There's no other word for it. How did you get involved?

Well, I got a call from a former retired JSOC commander's wife asking me to help get out some West Point graduates that could not get through the gate at the airport. And she goes, they're stuck and they're high targets on their list. Obviously, they said at West Point, I said, I'm on it.

I mean, I went through every political connection I knew, vendors, people on the Hill, everyone. Of course, the first one I called was Russ and he's nine hours behind me. And this was 9:00 AM my time. So he's going to bed, you know, he's a laid out. So it's about 12 o'clock. He jumped on everything.

And then I directly contacted the graduates and said, hey, I know you're giving, I mean, they were defeated. They couldn't get out. And I said, look, I need you to maintain your attitude. We're going to get you out. I promise you. And I just threw out senators' names.

And I told them that the generals asked me to get them out and I can get them out. And as she said, if you can sneak into Europe during COVID, you can get these guys out of Afghanistan. And so when Russ and I talked the following morning, I had a plan in place to get them to there. And I talked to the guys on the wire who were on the wall.

And we gave them all their papers, their SIV applications, which is special immigrant visas, you know, and there was also American citizens that we got out later, but

That paperwork hadn't been done, and that's where Russ and his connections to his former client and everything came in. So he was working that back in, and he can tell that. But my whole thing was to connect the guys on the wire with the guys and come up with a plan to get them out, and that's what we did. That's where it all started.

And go ahead, Russ. Chuck, I'll just add, it was total chaos that first day. You know, we all saw the pictures, people running over the airport. But what was really amazing is that these generals that had served in theater could not get anybody on the phone in Washington, D.C. to help get our friends out. And so that's why they contacted Jack. What resulted was, you know, from that was

We immediately I contacted everyone. Mike Lee helped us get paperwork done initially for the first four. And then after that, it was Tom Cotton's office did all the hard work. So all the lifting in terms of Mike Lee helped with the first four. How come they did not continue to help was above their pay grade? What what's the situation there? Yeah, I mean, he had me talk to one of his staffers. And when I came back the next day after we after they've helped with the four, we had, I think, 28 staffers.

female special forces, Afghani special forces. And they just said, we're not equipped to do this. I mean, the staffer said that and I knew they weren't. And what's that? What's that mean? They're not equipped. Just explain to our listeners. What does that mean? Well, their Senate offices are set up to deal with, you know, constituent issues like someone's not getting their VA benefits or some, you know, their Social Security payments not coming in.

This was beyond the scope. And the problem is all this paperwork was just was all held up at the State Department. And so I'm really not sure how Cotton's office got it done. But the guy we worked with and we use an alias in the book.

He, he got it. He set up a war room in Cotton's office and man, from that moment on every single person we brought to him, they put it into the funnel and they got that paperwork done. So they got on the list so they can get a seat on one of those planes getting out of, uh,

So how many people did Senator Cotton's office help process to get out of Afghanistan? Just well with us. I mean, Senator Cotton's office also helped post withdrawal when we had a retired Delta Force commander run operations to get people out through the rat lines. And then he also helped out us get out about seventeen hundred during the withdrawal. And the amazing thing is one of Russ's.

uh partners that he does business with in dc and she works on the hill jan personal she lived next door to cotton's main man and they were best friends so the stars were aligned for us so we could work 24 hours me and cicely where i still am i'm i'm six hours ahead of dc they're three hours ahead of russ and we just worked around the clock

Yeah. Chuck, it's probably it's probably tenfold what we what they helped us with. I mean, there were so many people making requests to them. That sounds like a good resume builder for being a future president of the United States. We can move that quickly and be that efficient. Yeah. I mean, I would say 100 percent like I'm a huge fan of Senator Cotton. They just they just put it all together, made it happen.

And the thing about people don't understand is I don't know if we put this in the book, but if we didn't, it should be in there. Hey, Russ, hold that thought. We're going to go to break here. Go ahead, Sam. Well, I don't want to. I have a longer question to ask, so I don't want to jump in with that. Folks, we're going to be coming back with more here in just a moment. We are continuing on with Russ Walker and Jack Melton. Definitely check out his book at failureofleadership.org. You can preorder your copy there. Breaking Battlegrounds will be back in just a moment.

All right, welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds, folks.

You need to stop big tech from tracking your every move and experience true freedom with 4FreedomMobile. Visit 4, that's the number 4, freedommobile.com today for top-notch coverage, digital security, and total freedom. Use the code BATTLEGROUND at checkout to get your first month of service for just $9 and save $10 a month every month after that. Again, that's code BATTLEGROUND at checkout. Visit 4freedommobile.com and stop big tech from tracking your every move. We're with Jack Melton. He is the author of...

a book about getting Afghani translators, families out of Afghanistan and contributor Russ Walker. And Russ, before I cut you off because of greedy capitalism and sponsors wanting their due.

Continue your story about what you were talking about. Things that Tom Cotton did that was really unusual. We only had a couple members of Congress that really got this hands-on involved. He called. We had a moment where we were having trouble getting something done inside of HKIA with the command. And he literally got on the phone himself as a senator. Russ, I'm going to stop you real quick.

Yeah. What is HKIA for for folks listening in who don't know? That's the that's the designation of the airport in Kabul. OK. OK. Hamar Karzai International Airport with one runway. Great. Continue, Russ. Yeah. So, I mean, he made this phone call and put pressure on.

on the staff that was on the wall so we could get people out. I mean, he took a very hands-on approach to this. So I can't say enough good things about Cotton. I just wanted to. Was his efforts also because he knew how to work that particular system based on his military experience or just because he gave more of a crap about it than other members of Congress?

Committee. It's both because his main point man was a Marine. Well, he is a Marine once Marine, always a Marine. And so when, when we had the issue, like Russ was saying with one of my guys, he literally called the Marines and laid into him. I could hear it through phones. And I was like, wow,

So between him being in the 101st and his staffer being a Marine infantryman who served in combat, both of them did, they knew what to do.

Well, I also got support from Mark Meadows office. I mean, not Mark Meadows, but Mark Green. Yes. Mark Green. Mark Green out of Tennessee. And he's a you know, he had served in the 160th SOAR. So, you know, he's a he was a special operator, a flight surgeon. I just think there was this it was a weird moment where a lot of people just really stepped up and pushed. And that's a rare thing for congressmen and members of Congress to do. Right. I mean, usually risk averse.

Well, I don't want to seem like we're throwing Mike Lee under the bus here. I mean, part of this, guys, is committees because Mike Lee, he's on energy and natural resources, budget, judiciary, economic committee, whereas Cotton is on armed forces and Senate select intelligence. Obviously, he has a lot more connection into this area. A lot more bandwidth on this particular topic. Yeah, 100 percent. You're the right staff, too. He just had the right staff around him. And that matters. John, you had a comment.

No, I'm good. Okay, great, great. So what members of Congress were not helpful on this? Well, one of the first things I did is I knew a lot of people from one of my favorite centers from Iowa, Joni Ernst staff. Now, this is her staff. I don't put this on her. It's about hiring the right people. But when we contacted them about the West Point situation,

Her staffer said, what can we do? She's just a senator and she's in Iowa at the state fair. And I went, wow, way to grasp the situation. I literally just let out an audible sigh.

Who else? And I put that in the book. So when I hear her talk about that, I think about her staff and I just it just makes my heart sink. And I know her husband, who was a command sergeant major in the Ranger Regiment, who probably if he heard that he probably would have gone up there and stopped them all. But it's his ex-husband now. So.

Okay, well, obviously staff makes a huge difference. We only have about a minute and a half left here before this segment ends, but we're going to be bringing you back for a much longer segment. The next one's 1450. I want to really get into when we do that, having you guys walk us through exactly what happened with getting the rest of the way with getting these folks out.

And then move in a little bit to telling folks what that meant on a national stage, because the book isn't just about the rescue itself, but it is about the geopolitical consequences of the Biden administration's decisions and actions. And I think...

That continues to resonate, Chuck, when you look at everything that's going on, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's the war in Israel, whether it's the Chinese aggression against Taiwan and the Eastern Pacific. So I think that day had a lot of import for the future of this country. Quick question real quick for Jack and Russ. If we had kept 2,500, 3,000 troops in Afghanistan instead of this haphazard withdrawal, would

Do you think we would have an invasion of Ukraine? Yes or no? No. No. Wow. Not in a million years. That's an awfully low price to pay to keep global stability. It's all about battle planning. It's all about battle planning and logistical support. We pulled all their intelligence. We pulled all their battle planning. And this was purely political. We hosed them, and we'll get into that more when Breaking Battlegrounds comes back in just a moment.

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Folks, this is Sam Stone for Breaking Battlegrounds. Discover true freedom today with 4Freedom Mobile. Their SIM automatically switches to the best network, guaranteeing no missed calls. You can enjoy browsing social media and the internet without compromising your privacy. Plus, make secure mobile payments worldwide with no fees or monitoring. Visit 4FreedomMobile.com today for top-notch coverage.

digital security, and total freedom. And if you use the code BATTLEGROUND at checkout, you get your first month of service for just $9 and save $10 a month for every month of service after that. Again, that's code BATTLEGROUND at checkout. Visit 4freedommobile.com to learn more.

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We're continuing on now with Jack Melton and Russ Walker. Jack has written the book Failure of Leadership that is available both on his website at failureofleadership.org. You can also get it on Amazon right now, we've just learned. So definitely check that out.

So when we went to break, we wanted to talk a little bit more about this particular incident, what happened, how did this get resolved, and then we want to move on a little bit to some of the geopolitical implications. So guys, if you can give us kind of the concise version of the rest of that story.

So just so when, when all this went down, we kind of built a reputation and I know how to speak to infantry guys. And I, I did name drop two generals that everyone in the U S army knows. And I was like, I'm here on their request to get these people out and to help anyone. Well, we immediately got connected through Jan, another group that I call the fly boys. And they had a list of a hundred and Russ and I, we,

We said, look, just organize it all, and then we'll break it down. We'll get a coyote to help the women and the men and the children, and we'd break them down into groups. We'd get all their information. We'd have their pictures of what they had on that day or if they had a – we ended up using the ugliest hat in the world. It was green and orange. It looks like something from a Chinese buffet, and it just was horrible. But that is how the guy – yeah, it was awful, and that is how –

our guys could see our groups. And the one thing that made all that pop and get all those who there is what, what happened to Russ through posting on social media, I'll let him tell it because it's, it's really important. And it's a miracle what happened with this.

Yeah, I'll try to be quick with the story, but I started posting responses to what I saw on the media, on my social media, just because there's so many lies being told by the administration. And I got contacted by Sarah Carter, who had an interpreter and a friend interpreter from time she was in Afghanistan that needed help getting out. They had had a child the day that the country fell.

So the baby was less than five days old when we were contacted. They said, can you help us get him out? And I remember just I called Jack and I said, Jack, I don't know. I don't know how we're going to do this because it's so bad. And so we got a call and it was, hey, can you bring them to this location? And they drop a pin. The way it worked is they would drop a pin and show us where in the wall that we could get someone through. We'd never taken anybody to this location before.

And so I call, I texted our contact and I said, can you get out? How can you go now? They said we're 45 minutes away. So we coordinated that with the team on the wall, the lieutenant and his squad to

And it was it turned out to be the most the easiest the easiest, you know, passage we made through the wall. There was no they went unmolested. The five day old baby made it through at that time. I think the baby was probably six or seven days old. What we didn't know at the time was that that was the black gate.

We learn later through an article in the media. New York Times. New York Times. New York Times. My gate was the CIA's gate.

That gate, opening up that gate and that opportunity for us allowed us to get a ton of people out. Like most of the people we got out ended up going through the black gate toward the end because you couldn't get anybody through Abby and some of the other gates. So, you know, our reputation kind of grew. And, you know, we got calls from Hollywood producers, actors saying, I've got family over there. I've got friends. Can you help them get out? It was amazing how many people needed assistance and had nowhere to go.

Even like the State Department reached out to Russ while they're saying it's easy to get people out. Hey, we need your help. The FBI texted me saying, can you help get our people out? And they were asking for me to send a helicopter to get them. I was like, dude, I'm a civilian in Sicily. I can't get you a helo, bro. I mean, it was wild. It sounds like the Keystone. It sounds like the Keystone cops.

It was. Oh, I would not let this administration run a Boy Scout jamboree loaded with potato guns. They are just very, very competent. So tell me. I mean, Chuck, I remember staying in my yard and having a conversation with a State Department employee, and he wanted me to help get out a list of one hundred and seventy five assets that they had in the country. They couldn't figure out how to get them into the into the airport.

Let me ask you this question. What should have been done in an orderly manner? How long would it have taken to get these people out? A structured withdrawal. What does that look like? What would that look like? Well...

Orally withdrawal? Well, first off, you had the ambassador there who refused to leave and put all those guys in jeopardy at the embassy because he wanted to meet and greet the Taliban to establish diplomatic relations, and he wanted to make that work so they could

recognized him as a country, which he didn't care about it. The guy at the State Department that was there with the ambassador just got drunk the entire time. They gave all the biometric data of every American citizen, special immigrant visa holder, anyone that either worked with special operations or built a toilet

At Bagram Air Force Base, they gave them all their data and everything. So the Taliban had the list to go hunt people because they traded that so they could get the ambassador safely out. Now, it needed five months. If they had the 2,500 at the airport, they probably could have done it.

At least. Yeah, at least. I mean, this would have been a it would have been a big task for anybody, a competent administration with this administration. You could have given them years and they wouldn't have done it right. They would have screwed it up.

And because they're just not capable. And I mean, they I really believe they're not capable of getting anything done because didn't have to go as bad as it went. No, no. I mean, there's always going to be problems on something like this. Right. But this is a catastrophe. There's no other definition to it. And Biden's lucky the press covers for him all the time. Well.

Well, you say a catastrophe. The main catastrophe was I got a call of the morning of the suicide bombing early from the general's son, who's like my best friend and a brother. And he said, hey, man, they're coming now. You need to tell your guys on the wall to get off. And I said, what? He goes, it's coming from the boss. Tell them now. So I contacted my guys on the wall the morning of the bombing. Hey, it's coming now. It's coming now. And he's like, who's it from? I told the general's name. They go, you got it.

Now, if I knew, the whole world should have known. But what happened is the suicide bomber, and if you recall the congressional hearing with the sniper, could never get the answer to take down the actual suicide bomber. Well, the president is the one that gives that order.

The Democrats under Obama since the Captain Phillips shooting thing, he got mad that he did not have the authority to say yay or nay because he did not want the Somali pirates killed. So from then on, they took that order in, and President Biden was asleep. It was 3.30, 4 o'clock in the morning when he could have taken the shot in D.C., and he was asleep.

I mean, the president works nine to five, if that, and then it's Matlock and putting time and he's out. So he is the reason why that bomber was allowed to do what he did. If I knew it was coming, the whole damn world knew it was coming.

We're with Jack Melton. He is the author of Failure of Leadership, Lies, Betrayal, and Treason. This is about the American withdrawal and trying to get people out of Afghanistan who are allies, are brothers in arms. You can buy this book on Amazon.com. That brings me to one question about military operations. So I was told...

When Obama was president, you'd have to call into D.C. to get approval to do something like that, right? Yes, 100%. My understanding is the reason ISIS was conquered during the Trump years—

is Trump just gave the people on the ground the ability to make the decision themselves. They didn't need to call him. Is that true? That is 100% correct. My friends at Special Operations in Afghanistan, they'd be at the JOC, which is the Joint Operating Center, I think, and they'd go, we have a target. We need to turn this guy into Pete Messi. He's one of our Taliban targets. They would have to call D.C., and Obama sometimes would not...

I'm picking the phone. He'd be asleep. And the one commander I knew, he just said, F it. Take him down. I'm not waiting on this. Take him down. Right. Done. And they invited them operate. It's the same White House. It might as well be Susan Rice for the country. He brought it back in and he was asleep. You look at the timeline and everything that I know from my guys, the special operations, he was asleep. And those 13 Marines are dead because he was asleep. Right.

Okay, guys, I have to – Jack, I know you're an operator, so I don't want to rein you in too much here. I have to ask you to be a little careful of the language. We are on a Christian network broadcast station. You didn't tell me that. I apologize. But I want to get into something else here with all of this that ties into what's going on right now in the Middle East, that ties in what's going on to Russia, both the way our adversaries see us, but also –

Given what we did to all the Afghan interpreters and the people that helped us there,

How does this government ever go to a potential source in Iran or in Gaza and the West Bank or in Russia and have any credibility of saying, hey, you help us and we will help you. We'll protect you. And if we need to get you out, we'll do it. Because don't they now just have to assume that's complete lies? Yes.

yes i look at it 100 no even our allies i've been going back and forth to israel

smuggling drones in for the IDF and they're like, what's going on? I mean, they trust me, but we don't trust our leaders at all. Well, this is one of those points when we elect leaders, we need to know truly what their background is and their history. Biden did this in Vietnam as a young senator in Cambodia when Ford, by the way, who does not get enough credit for turning America around after Nixon and so forth,

When he was pulling people out of Vietnam, he refused to fund and did not want to bring in South Vietnamese translators.

I mean, just go look at his first day in office when he's 30 years old. He did the same thing in Cambodia where you had millions of people killed. This has been what he does. He does not make a correct decision. Everything is political to this man. He is a disgrace to the office. He's a disgrace to the U.S. Senate when he was in there. Yeah. You know, a lot of people don't pay attention to foreign affairs. But if you look at what's going around the world, we just left a bunch of troops in Niger. Yeah.

the the russians literally just occupied a u.s military base in niger that we use to fly drones and

And we are now having to withdraw our troops out. This is this is this guy can't make a good decision on foreign affairs if it was placed before. Because everything's because everything's political. It has nothing to do with principle for this man. You know, he's a he's a he's a Catholic. He's a menu Catholic and he's a menu politician where it's like, how does this affect poll numbers? I mean, just look how he does domestic policy. Right.

We only have two minutes here. Guys, I want to ask you a question that hasn't come up here that I didn't see in the book. But the equipment we left behind, U.S. equipment that we use for our own troops is outfitted with modifications and advancements that we do not include on equipment that we sell to the rest of the world.

How much of that is now being dissected by the Chinese, the Russians, the Iranians and everyone else? How much of our technology did they get from that withdrawal? Well, right now, Afghanistan is the world's largest military car dealership. I mean, we got played. We released Mr. Boot.

for an NBA basketball player who can get all these things for these people. I mean, supposedly our weapons are showing up in Gaza. Yeah, I would just say, I would say it's hard to know what, I don't know what advanced equipment was left behind.

I would have to believe that some was, you know, as we pulled out, I would have to believe that we took most of the sensitive equipment with us as we were pulling back as U.S. forces pulled out and kind of consolidated at the airport. But, you know, I mean, who knows? I mean, the problem is, is that our equipment is good equipment. Like we build nice stuff. And I can guarantee you that even what we sell to our foreign partners,

to our foreign friends, even though it's, you know, maybe sometimes two generations behind what we use, it's still better than what most of the world has. Right. Correct. So...

None of this is good. No. This is going to be something that carries on. The impact from this will carry on for generations. Jack Melton, Russ Walker, really appreciate having you both on the program today. Folks, you can get Jack's book at Amazon or online on his website if you want to do that. Failureofleadership.org. Breaking Battlegrounds back in the air next week.

The 2022 political field was intense, so don't get left behind in 2024. If you're running for political office, the first thing on your to-do list needs to be securing your name on the web. With a yourname.votewebdomain from GoDaddy.com. Get yours now.

Welcome to the podcast portion of Breaking Battlegrounds. I want to thank our guests today, Ian Garner, Russ Walker, Jack Mountain. Fantastic discussions from all of them. I think we spent more on foreign policy today than any of the major networks have combined all week. Oh, Chuck, we blew them away by like the end of the second segment. Yeah, no, it was horrible. Foreign policy coverage in our national media is garbage.

And it used to be in fairness, they're in the business to make money. So this is people. But I think they underestimate how much people really want to know about this. Honestly, that was why you subscribe to The New York Times, even if you don't like their editorial content. You know what's going on in the world. One hundred percent. Well, we have Kylie of Kylie Corner keeping us updated on what's going on in the meanderings throughout the world. Hopefully we have a little Boston update. Kylie, what's going on?

We always have a Boston update. It just gets more interesting every week. It's crazy. But last week you had asked who...

I would play in their movie. Yes. Or we would play them in their movie. And so I feel like I casted the best cast. Okay. And I'm kind of envisioning a situation where it flashes back to what really happened and then kind of flashes forward to the trial and we go back and forth. Right, right. So if Netflix wants to hire me. Who gets played by Ray Liotta? Because clearly he's one of the actors in this. Ray passed away, so he can't be in this movie anymore. Yeah.

Well, no, but one of my people that I'd like to cast, I couldn't find the perfect current actor, but it would be Buzz McAllister from, you know, that kind of personality. Oh, from Home Alone. He would play Colin Albert. He would play the kid that said he doesn't get in any fights and that he doesn't have social media. Yeah.

And so something about him. So his testimony last week, he says he gets in no fights and he has no social media. Over the weekend, he posted on his social media.

And someone like one of his friends or someone that he's gotten in a fight with in the past posted a video of him fighting. Friends like that who needs enemies, right? Exactly. But what I found interesting was over the weekend, he posted an engagement of his cousin, Allie McCabe, who was on trial last weekend. And so was her boyfriend or last week. They got engaged over the weekend, which is...

I'm not sure an engagement is on my mind when every single person in my family... Actually, it's legally relevant. Right? You can't be forced to testify against a spouse. Oh. Well, there you go. They're about to get married real quick. They're going to get married quick, though. Yeah. They're going to get married quick, though. So we'll know that there is Stan Sam. If they get married by next week. Yeah. We'll give them a week. All right. Continue, Kylie. So the boyfriend testified already, and then she has testified. But if this case gets turned around...

Wow. Wow.

Yeah, it's going to be a long trial. And this was a very, they're right now trying to set up the fact that from the beginning, I have always said this was an accident, but the defense and the prosecution are both saying this was on purpose, right? Like the prosecution is saying she killed him in a drunken rage. And then the defense is saying, no, this was all set up. His friends killed him on purpose. Like they set this up, which I think both are just extreme ways. And whatever had happened that night had to have been an accident. I don't think anyone set it up.

And that this was planned in any way. And now the story has just been out of control. Now it's just completely out of control. And I think both sides are just out of control. But playing Karen Reid, I would say Keri Russell, the woman from The Diplomat. Oh, okay. Yeah. Good choice. Yeah. If you look them up, they also look familiar or similar. Okay. Brian Albert, he is the...

of the house, the police officer. I think Dominic Purcell would play him. He's the main character, the bald guy from the prison break. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. They have similar personalities from what I can see from court TV. Okay.

You know, it was hard to find. So Jennifer McCabe is she is from the defensive side, the whole manipulator of this whole situation. She testified for three days. So she's been the longest witness on the stand so far. This was her. So I'll get into her testimony this week. But I think Nicole Kidman would play her. She kind of seems like she wants to be everyone's best friend, but then can also backstab. You can never go wrong. Nicole Kidman. And then if you get her in the film, Keith Urban could do the theme song.

It's a two for it's a two for that used to be. I mean, when she first broke out, it was basically because if you hired her, you got Tom Cruise. Yeah. No, I hate to be mean about it, but I mean, yeah. Yeah. But she, her testimony this week was she came off extremely aggressive, um,

She just does not seem like a kind person whatsoever. But she was on the stand for three days. She's the one that Googled at 2.30 in the morning, how long does it take to die in the snow? So they showed on the screen her search at that time, right? And then she also searched it again at 6.30 and 6.32 or something like that. And she is saying that the only time she made those searches was at 6 in the morning and that Karen Reid told her to Google that. She's completely denying that she never Googled it

at two in the morning and that search at two in the morning was looking up a basketball team or a basketball score because her daughter was asked to play on a basketball team and someone needed an answer. So she just completely denied that despite the fact saying she made that search.

Um, she also at between 1245 and 1250 in the morning, she called John O'Keefe's phone six times and ended it every single time before it went to voicemail. She was saying that those were butt dials.

And he's like, but if it was a butt dial, you know, that there's sometimes when you would leave a voicemail or what. So every time was ended. And he so the defense was alluding to the fact that you would only call someone's phone that many times over and over if you're looking for someone's phone. Correct. Yes. Which.

Makes sense to me. Those calls, all six of them were also deleted. She denies deleting any calls. She's like, I didn't delete the calls. OK, can I stop you for a moment, Kylie? How stupid in this day and age does someone have to be that they think that deleting something on their phone gets rid of it? Like whether it's a search or that call or anything else like folks, it's not just your phone. Right. No. So I want to go back to that search. Also, that two thirty in the morning search was deleted. Right.

I forgot about that, but that was deleted. She's like, I didn't delete it. I don't even, she goes, I don't even know how to delete stuff on my phone. Interesting. Interesting. Her entire testimony was just her saying, no, that's not true. Even though they were showing facts on the screen. What a train wreck. So it'd be interesting to know how the, the jury is viewing this because I had

I so wish I was on the jury. Now, is it an open courtroom? Like, could you go sit in on the testimony one day? Yeah, could you go sit in on it? I could, yes. And I have thought about it. But it's, she has so many, Karen Reid has so many supporters that there's like extremely long lines. I think they just, they might as well just sleep in that courtroom at this point. But I do want to go down, kind of do like a little drive by and see what it's like. But she has supporters inside, outside. You should go down one day.

Yeah. Okay. I'll take some pics if that's legal. Yeah. No, I mean, it'd be really interesting to see how the jury's reacting to this testimony. 100%. 100%. Yeah. So I've read like, you know, they're right. They took a lot of notes on her body language and-

And they just the court TV was noting when they were taking notes and stuff. I'm not a fan of court TV, though. They do not believe in innocent until proven guilty. They just think she is guilty. You should be in jail. You've got to get viewers. You've got to get viewers. That's why we probably don't have enough foreign policy on the network because it doesn't provide ratings. You know, that's why there's a term clickbait. Yeah.

But something else she denied calling and then also deleting was she called her sister the morning they found the body. And it shows that she was on the phone for a duration and there was no voicemail. It says the call was picked up. And she said that she her sister did not answer and that she ended the call before. So I don't know what that conversation was about, but she called her twice. Both times it shows her sister picked up and those calls were also deleted.

Interesting. But she denies that she picked up and denies deleting them. Who's on tap this week to be on the stand?

So currently Brian Higgins is on the stand and this is where my theory comes in. I don't know. I, this is strictly my theory, strictly my theory. Don't sue me. I think so. What he's admitting to right now is the fact that him and Karen Reed had had a relationship prior to this night. Okay. So they had 56 pages of text messages that have shown up or that are now in evidence of them communicating prior to this night and

And even the night when they were at the waterfall, which is the bar that they were all out before they went back to 34 Fairview, she or he texted her like a flirty text and she didn't respond to it. But my theory from the beginning is either he went into the house and found out about this relationship between him and Brian and then Brian Higgins. And then this fight broke out.

But that makes sense. That does make sense. Yeah. So it probably doesn't work. But that makes sense. Yeah.

Yeah. And the annals of Boston homicide. Common sense. He's being questioned right now by the prosecution. And so I think when the defense comes up, then then it'll get a little more spicy because right now it's just fluffy up in the air. Something else weird that he did after he left 34 Bearview, which was around 1245, 1 a.m., he said he went to the Canton police station after he had been drinking from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Wow. He went to the police station and then went home and he said his excuse for doing that was he was moving the cars so that they could plow the roads because it was snowing that night. And he didn't want to have to go do that in the morning. Interesting.

Well, he's on the stand. I think he'll be he'll be a good one. Yeah, he'll be a great one. We can't wait for that report next week. And I think Robert Patrick, the guy that plays Hawkins in The Night Agent, would be a good one for him to play. Oh, that would be a good choice. Yeah. No, that's it. And by the way, folks, like a sneaky. By the way, folks, that's a great show. Yeah, it's a very good show. So any any any other crime or catastrophe to report on?

No, but remember when I talked about Charlotte the stingray who was, she's the stingray that just got pregnant. Yeah, the hermaphrodite stingray. Yeah, I was like, did she have her babies? Because stingrays are only supposed to be pregnant from three to four months. She is eight months pregnant still.

Wow. So I looked it up and sharks are pregnant for 12 months. So I feel like that just further. It sort of reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Frank Costanza talk about a hen, chicken, just talking about how unnatural it is for things to get together like that. And that seems like that sort of story. We are four months from shark rays with frigging lasers on their heads. Yeah.

So they are saying they still believe it's not shark rays, but in that they don't know, you know, how long if she was just self-impregnated. They don't know how long that pregnancy would run. But I think, you know. It's too long to be an alien, so. Yeah, that's interesting.

Well, I have a couple of points just to bring up before we end the show today. So this week, Michael Cohen testified in the Trump trial about Stormy Daniels and payoffs and so forth. And MSNBC had a headline, How Michael Cohen's Pass Lies, Making Me More Credible Witness.

And then Lawrence O'Donnell, who is just unbelievably a propagandist, said he explained to the audience how Michael Cohen didn't steal anything. This is a real quote. Are you ready? It didn't really sound like stealing. It sounded a lot like Michael Cohen doing the little that he could within that calculation to rebalance the bonus he thought he deserved.

He thought he deserved. That's just the best part of that. He's rebalancing his bonus. Remember this, Kylie, at Christmas time? He's rebalancing his bonus. So everybody needs to try that for future bonuses, just so you know. Nobody let the office know about this plan. No, no, no. But rebalancing the bonus. Can we touch on one other different thing, Chuck? Because I was really kind of ticked off this week. After the death, the fortunate, thank goodness,

Adios Hasta La Vista can't be happier that we got rid of Abraham Raisi, the Iranian prime minister. Correct. Right? Mm-hmm.

In the U.S., the State Department putting out their condolences, the Irish government putting out their condolences. Did you see Senator Kaine? Yeah. I don't know what's wrong with them. What in these people's minds has broken so badly that someone who's referred to as the butcher of Tehran, not by the West, but by his own people, deserves the empathy, sympathy, and condolences of leaders around the globe? Yeah.

The only answer, and thank goodness we're now on the podcast and I can say this, is good riddance, motherfucker. He's just he is an evil human being. He the world's a little bit safer today because of him. I I there was a post on this on Instagram and I just posted. I said, I wonder how many people he had killed.

I got like 4,000 responses from people. I mean, this was not a beloved human being, but you have these world governments. You have the United States sending condolences. You have a U.S. senator from Virginia, a former vice presidential candidate who could have easily been vice president, sent his condolences.

This is just unacceptable when they are responsible for the deaths of so many people, including American allies, including Israel. Anyone who doesn't think they're not behind October 7th massacre in Israel.

It's just not facing reality. Oh, this is insanity. The response of any reasonable, decent human being is good riddance. Yeah. Good riddance. Well, that goes on top of one other. Well, every day the Biden administration does something which I just you sometimes just think they can't go there. So Biden this week announced he's forgiving another seven point seven billion dollars in student debt relief, bringing the total.

to $167 billion, which is the tire size of the U.S. Army budget in 2023. Think about that, okay? And this is all, make no mistake, bonds.

buying votes. This may be one of the most pernicious vote buying schemes ever seen in electoral politics in this country. It's horrible because you're saying to somebody the median salary for a college grad in this country, college grad, not higher level, is $72,000 per year. The median salary of a non-college grad is about $36,000 per year. So you're telling the people who make half as much

That they have to bear the burden and bear the brunt for the people who make twice what they do. Right. And what also makes this so infuriating is I see all the self-righteous pundits talk about how Trump is the end of democracy. Biden made this comment when the Supreme Court overruled his vote buying scheme. Quote, when the Supreme Court told me I couldn't, I found two other ways to do it.

I mean, he doesn't care about checks and balances. Biden is everything of the dictator he accuses Trump to be. And he gets complete cover by the press. Well, this is I mean, honestly, this this to me is the entire modern leftist movement is they you know.

All these elitist white liberals who are the most racist people anyone will ever meet on the planet, they look in the mirror, they see themselves, and they project that on Donald Trump and Republicans. Yeah, because they're the same people. Right. They're everything they say Donald Trump is. Right. And these folks who are getting the student relief and have no compunction, no embarrassment about taking this action.

this giveaway for something they signed. It reminds me a lot, and you know, there's a dispute who came to the story, but we'll say it's Churchill. I love all of them announcing they can go back to college now. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, they also showed that their greater debt after they forgive is they go start spending money on credit cards, right? But remember the old story of Churchill is about the man who asked the woman if she would sleep with them for a million pounds, right? And she says, yeah. Then he goes back, we'll have about 10 pounds, and she's like,

Aghast, right? There's no way I'm doing that, right? And he says, the woman goes, what type of woman do you think I am? He goes, we've already established that. Now we're just haggling over price. And that reminds me of all these people taking this giveaway. You signed a loan document.

Now, I wouldn't mind this if they went to Congress and said – because it really is burdensome to a lot of people. I wouldn't mind if they went to Congress and said, we're just cutting this out all to 2% interest rate. We're getting rid of all this extra interest. I mean, I would have a problem with that, but I could understand the argument. That would make some sense. But this saying, you signed a document –

And that you now say, I can't pay it. I mean, that's what put people in bankruptcy all the time. I 100 percent agree. Apropos of nothing, before we close this podcast, can I tell you my favorite ever Churchill story? Yes, you can. Then I got finished with a sunshine moment because we have to end on a good note here today.

Well, this is funny, so we're going to have him laughing. So I'll save the Churchill thing until after the sunshine moment. No, no, no. Go ahead. All right. Well, so after World War II, when Churchill was struggling and England's economy was struggling, his big competitor in the House of Commons, Atlee Hamaker, followed him into the restroom at the conclusion of a session one day. And Churchill goes up to the urinal and unzips, and Hamaker comes in and stands next to him.

And Churchill stops and takes a few steps away, moves to the other end and uses a different urinal. And Hamacher looks at him and snidely says, what are you afraid of, Winston? And Churchill looks at him and says, I know you socialists. Anytime you see something big, you want to nationalize it. And I just can't take that risk. That's a pretty good story. Yeah.

Oh, boy. All right. So we're going to close here with a sunshine moment. There is a really touching story. So this 18-year-old girl broke her wrist while still able to play her gig with her dad. She was a violinist. Mary Leahy broke her wrist just two days before her big solo at a music festival. She fell off the farm cart, which makes the story even better that it's a farm cart, right?

But instead of pulling out her father, Donald, one of the best fiddle players in Canada who toured with Shania Twain, who uses a lot of fiddle, stepped in to create a very special duet. The 55-year-old oscillated the bow while Mary played the chords with her healthy hand.

Quote, I don't know how, but I managed to play with my left hand only, said Mary, a full-time musician in Ontario. It was really hard. I honestly don't know how I pulled it off, but I did. His left hand was playing the fingers on my back, which was tickling me, while I had to imagine myself playing the bow with my right hand.

They know the instrument inside and out, so the result looked and sounded seamless. We're going to leave you with this video of them playing. And boy, there's not much, there's not much, something greater than a father's love for his daughter. So I can imagine this as well. That's wonderful. Folks, this is Breaking Battlegrounds. You can visit us at breakingbattlegrounds.vote. And wherever you get your podcasts, we appreciate your support. And please share us with your friends and family. And we're going to leave you with Mary Leahy's

violin performance. Have a great weekend.