Trump ends Syrian war with a tweet. Should America be the world's policeman？
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Summary
Donald Trump tweets that we have defeated ISIS in Syria, and the establishment is sad. But should America be the world s policeman? Ezra and I talk about why that's not what the Constitution says, and why the Constitution doesn't say that.
Transcript
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Tonight, Donald Trump ends the Syrian war with a tweet, and the establishment is sad.
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It's December 20th, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
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Donald Trump announced that he's bringing home 2,000 American troops that are in Syria.
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He tweeted it, and then he did a short video tweet, and it just became.
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He said, we have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency.
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I think both ideas in that short tweet are true.
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I think ISIS has been defeated, as much as can be done for an amorphous group that doesn't have a formal structure,
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doesn't have a formal geography, doesn't wear uniforms, or bear their weapons openly.
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The geographical form of the Islamic State used to be, well, it used to look like a real country.
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It was as big as the United Kingdom, with millions of people in it, actually,
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The ISIS capital of Raqqa was absolutely obliterated.
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It's like something out of Dresden, Germany, just firebombed by the Allies.
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500 U.S. special forces, lots of Allied air power, and some local Syrian and Kurdish militias didn't just conquer it.
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Now, that is not normally how the U.S. Constitution imagined policy on matters as grave as wars to be set,
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but neither did the U.S. Constitution imagine America getting into the conflict in the manner it did so casually.
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By contrast, three days after 9-11, the U.S. Congress debated and passed into law
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something similar to a declaration of war, where it was called the Authorization for Use of Military Force.
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It's a very short law. Let me read to you the operative sentence.
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That the president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons
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he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001,
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or harbored such organizations or persons in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism
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against the United States by such nations, organizations, and persons.
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So basically, go and get anyone who attacked America on 9-11, or help them.
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Go get them to make sure they don't do it again.
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Passed by Congress, approved by the president, and so it happened.
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By contrast, there was no authorization of military force to do what exactly in Syria?
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That one-sentence law I read to you had everything in it, didn't it?
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Barack Obama wanted to keep his disastrous Arab spring going.
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A wave of Islamist uprisings across the Arab world that toppled stable regimes.
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I didn't much like Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, seen here with Paul Martin.
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I didn't much like Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, seen here with John Khrushchev.
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And they actually fought against the Muslim Brotherhood or Al-Qaeda.
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But Obama threw both of them out, and ISIS took over Libya, and the Muslim Brotherhood took over Egypt.
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And frankly, so did many Republicans like John McCain, seen here with rebels.
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Rebels, that's a nice way of saying it, rebels, who, McCain really would have invaded half the world's countries if he had his way, I think.
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Now, I read to you what America was doing after 9-11.
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And some would say that even going after Iraq, which was also a fairly modern, fairly secular dictatorship, was not rationally connected to 9-11.
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But at least there was an explanation, an undergirding law, however flawed its execution was.
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I read, free the law to go to war against Al-Qaeda.
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Go after the folks who attacked us, make sure they don't happen again.
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Trump says it was to stop the ISIS side of the civil war.
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Or was it to topple Bashar Assad and effect some sort of regime change?
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I mean, really, it sounds like they wanted to replace every single faction and person in the country to save the country from itself.
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That's the point about those parts of the world.
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There aren't a lot of George Washingtons or John A. McDonalds waiting around to be great democratic leaders.
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If there are any people like that, they're usually killed pretty quickly or driven into exile.
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Well, it's usually a choice amongst awful alternatives in these countries.
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Do you think the natural nature of Afghanistan is one of a liberal democracy, civil rights, things like that?
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It took us in the West centuries, you could even say millennia, to truly master liberal democracy.
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And we still get it wrong, as the 20th century in Europe shows us.
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But that's after building on thousands of years since the Roman Empire with its rule of law, since the Greeks before that.
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It's been 800 years since the Magna Carta in the UK.
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Do you think Afghans are suddenly going to build an entire cultural history with their own Shakespeare's and Adam Smith's and John Stuart Mill's
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and just suddenly become liberal Democrats like us?
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I think it's fair to say, in Syria, Russia did the heavy lifting against ISIS, at least at first.
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And a major air base, also, from which they staged operations against ISIS.
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And to be sure, against other rebels against Assad.
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And Iran sent in their ground troops, too, which is even more worrying.
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Basically, just oil trucks that would smuggle oil from ISIS oil fields up to Turkey that ISIS would sell in the black market for millions of dollars to pay for their terrorist country.
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Obama did not attack these ISIS oil tankers for environmental reasons.
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Here's a former senior Obama official admitting that bizarre fact.
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We don't want to destroy these oil tankers because that's infrastructure that's going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn't there anymore.
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Imagine, yeah, we had them in our sights, but, you know, it would have been so much soot.
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I mean, the carbon emissions are blowing up that ISIS oil.
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I think there was there was some hope for some mythical liberal or moderate militia in Syria who's going to take over.
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And again, you've got to see this to believe this.
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This is a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. with a senior general who is in charge under Obama of the Syrian efforts.
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Now, Congress had spent a half a billion dollars trying to recruit and train this elusive moderate militia in the vain hope that that what?
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That they would take over the country from Assad, that they would govern all of Syria, that they would just be a U.S. puppet and follow orders.
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But after a half of a billion dollars, this general was asked, so how's it going?
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How many guys do you have in this pro-American militia?
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And you just got to hear the answer for yourself.
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A shocking admission by the U.S. general running the war against ISIS.
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And the ones that are in the fight is, we're talking four or five.
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As I see it right now, this four or five U.S.-trained fighters, let's not kid ourselves, that's a joke.
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We got Mohammed and Mohammed and Asif and Shabazz or whatever.
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Yeah, I agree with that senator or congressman.
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Hillary Clinton had proposed literally shooting down any airplane in the skies over Syria.
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It's a couple minutes long from the 2016 presidential debates.
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Every day that goes by, we see the results of the regime by Assad in partnership with the
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Iranians on the ground, the Russians in the air.
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So I, when I was secretary of state, advocated, and I advocate today, a no-fly zone and safe
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We need some leverage with the Russians because they're not going to come to the negotiating
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table for a diplomatic resolution unless there is some leverage over them.
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Russia has decided that it's all in in Syria, and they've also decided who they want to
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see become president of the United States, too, and it's not me.
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But our nuclear program has fallen way behind, and they've gone wild with their nuclear program.
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Our government shouldn't have allowed that to happen.
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We are old, we're tired, we're exhausted in terms of nuclear.
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She talks really tough against Putin and against Assad.
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Mr. Trump, Mr. Trump, you're two minutes is up.
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If you were president, what would you do about Syria and the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo?
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And I want to remind you what your running mate said.
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He said, provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength and that if Russia
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continues to be involved in airstrikes along with the Syrian government forces of Assad,
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the United States of America should be prepared to use military force
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to strike the military targets of the Assad regime.
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Look, I said all three debaters because it's a reminder of how extremely partisan the media
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And believe me, that wasn't the worst of it there.
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I mean, here's Bill Clinton yucking it up with Vladimir Putin.
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While Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State, Bill Clinton was paid half a million
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He was picking up half a million dollar checks.
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Oh, and it's a New York Times article here, by the way.
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Millions more went to the Clinton Foundation from Russian interests.
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Oh, and purely a coincidence, Hillary Clinton approved the sale of American uranium interests
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So on the one hand, it's a laugh to think that Hillary Clinton wasn't bought and paid
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Remember when he had that meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian, when he had a hot mic
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I just have to get through my re-election 2012 and then tell Vladimir Putin I'll make more
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After my election, I have more talks about you.
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And I transmit this information to Vladimir and I'll stand with him.
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The 10-second clip is more proof of collusion than anything that Robert Mueller's come
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Yeah, don't tell me the Democrats were hard on Russia.
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But if we could take Hillary Clinton at her word about the no-fly zone, you really didn't
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enforce a no-fly zone over another sovereign country that has not invited you in?
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The Russians have a major air force base in Syria.
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She would literally order U.S. jets to shoot down Russian jets?
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Taking off and landing from the Russian air base there?
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Hillary Clinton is a sociopath who delighted in the assassination of Muammar Gaddafi, but
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seemed to have forgotten to plan who would replace him.
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Yeah, don't tell me that Trump is the madman, okay?
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So that 2016 clip, the media as a partisan, those were awful debates, weren't they?
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Hillary Clinton as A, a liar, and B, an insane warmonger, and then C, Donald Trump saying,
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That's what he said he was going to do, kill ISIS and get out, and guess what he did?
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And then he followed up with some more tweets, including this interesting video that was roundly
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mocked online and by the pundits, but I found it actually compelling.
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I've been president for almost two years, and we've really stepped it up, and we have
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We've beaten them, and we've beaten them badly.
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We've taken back the land, and now it's time for our troops to come back home.
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I get very saddened when I have to write letters or call parents or wives or husbands
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of soldiers who have been killed fighting for our country.
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These are great heroes of the world because they fought for us, but they've killed ISIS,
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And I'll tell you, they're up there looking down on us, and there is nobody happier or more
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proud of their families to put them in a position where they've done such good for so many people.
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So our boys, our young women, our men, they're all coming back, and they're coming back now.
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We won, and that's the way we want it, and that's the way they want it.
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We'll run that by a military vet from the U.S. foreign war in the Americas, so we'll get
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Before I show it to you, let me ask you a question about this next video.
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Is this a heartwarming video that makes you feel good?
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Or is this a heartbreaking video that makes you feel bad?
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Or is it just the last two minutes of six months or nine months or 12 months of sorrow and loss
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and alienation and worry and stress and sadness?
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When you take your hand off a hot stove, is that a wonderful moment at the end?
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Let us grant that it made sense to go in there and smash ISIS.
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And don't tell me Obama sent those troops in there in the first place to tackle Iran,
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Obama was the president who approved Iran's nuclear program,
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And this video here is actual footage of more than a billion dollars in cold, hard cash
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So, yeah, no, I don't believe that 2,000 Americans in Syria is about containing Iran.
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And these intrigues, what do they have to do with America's interests or Canada's interests?
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And you'll forgive me if I note that the same politicians seem to switch sides with the winds.
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A few years ago, it was respectable to hang out with Bashar Assad,
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just like I showed you pictures of Mubarak and Gaddafi.
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Here is Barack Obama's Secretary of State on the left, John Kerry.
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That was back in 2009 when he was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
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having a fine meal with Bashar Assad, the dictator of Syria, son of Hafez Assad, the previous dictator of Syria.
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As you can see, they were dressed for a fine night out.
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And as you can see, their wives were with them.
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And they met at least six times that we know about.
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In March of 2011, Vogue magazine, which was edited by Anna Wintour, an ally of Obama.
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Vogue, a glamour magazine, published this glowing, sexy, soft-focus interview with the Assads,
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Now, they've taken it down since, but Gawker magazine pirated it and put it back up on the Internet for the historical record.
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That's the term of endearment I save for only my close friends like David Menzies.
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This is about making the Assads polite company in fancy circles in America.
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They called Asma the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies.
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here's the wife of Recep Erdogan, the authoritarian ruler of Turkey, just for contrast.
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And here's the ruler of Pakistan with his lovely new bride.
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So, by contrast, yes, Asma was fresh and magnetic.
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And although Bashar Assad is a tyrant, we must say, he is by any measure less cruel than the ISIS terrorists who devoured so much of his country.
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Under Assad, Christians were permitted to practice their religion.
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Assad, as you can see by how he dresses, and obviously by how his wife dresses, sees himself as a modern, secular man.
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In fact, Assad is Muslim, but part of a small sect called Alawites, who follow the Koran, but other books, too.
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And in fact, ISIS wouldn't even regard them as true Muslims.
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For example, Alawites are allowed to drink alcohol, for example.
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Here's a picture of Assad as a young man, that's him standing second from the left, with his family.
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I'm glad I'm not from that part of the world, but if I was, I'd probably rather be ruled by this clan, the Alawites, than by most other tyrants in the region.
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Again, I think how they treat women is shorthand for a lot of things, don't you?
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How a woman is treated in a culture tells you a lot about how everyone's treated.
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You think the liberal media establishment would like Trump pulling the soldiers out of Syria.
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All the anti-war protesters, they're on the left.
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And instead of cheering this, they hate the fact that Trump is declaring victory.
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They prefer smearing the military and veterans.
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They love how they denormalize the military after Vietnam.
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They hate that part, but aren't they normally just for peace?
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Even if they hate soldiers, don't they want to bring them back?
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They actually hate both, but isn't bringing the troops home what they want?
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And don't they especially hate the war on terror?
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And don't they especially hate the war on terror against Muslim terrorists?
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Didn't the CBC here in Canada cheer, for example, when Justin Trudeau removed our six CF-18 fighter jets
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from the fight against ISIS when ISIS was strong?
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And when it had that UK-sized piece of real estate,
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and when it was killing and raping Yazidis and Christians by the thousand?
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Trudeau abandoned combat against ISIS while it was in the middle.
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While ISIS was still powerful, he quit and ran away.
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When I was in Iraq last year, I met a Kurdish general who helped beat back ISIS.
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And he told me that he was very well aware that Canada quit the fight right before the final battle.
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And he suggested that perhaps some of the men he commanded would still be alive now,
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had they been able to benefit from Canadian jets coming in from the sky to take out clusters of terrorists.
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So what does the CBC say about Donald Trump bringing the troops home?
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They loved it when Trudeau did so before the final battle.
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Well, here's what CBC's flagship show called The National had to say.
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President Trump is running his Syria policy as if it's a reality TV show.
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Or was that just another anti-Trump insult spoken by some leftists at a think tank?
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And he's with a think tank in Washington called the Center for a New American Security.
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Including, they made the F-14 Tomcat, fighter jet, for example.
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If you skim through this, there's a lot of arms dealers on the list.
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People who believe fighting perpetual war is for perpetual peace.
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Or as George Soros might say, invade the world's countries, welcome the world's refugees.
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Look, if this were about defending a real democracy against tyrannical invaders, it would be something the West should consider.
00:27:00.120
And by the West, I mean America, because Trudeau has cut our military so badly, we can't even have our annual flight exercise at Cold Lake anymore.
00:27:06.620
But we're not defending any democracy in Syria with our, or America's 2000s.
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I'll stop saying we, since Trudeau has pretty much abandoned any fight against terrorism.
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Even here at home, where he welcomes ISIS terrorists back to Canada.
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Trump obviously saw the entire foreign policy establishment raging at him.
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He said, does the USA want to be the policeman of the Middle East, getting nothing but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who, in almost all cases, do not appreciate what we are doing?
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Once upon a time, there was a rationale for America to fight Arabian wars, maybe to defend access to OPEC oil, if that's the reason.
00:27:57.380
But now America produces more oil than Saudi Arabia does.
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And Americans are tired of fighting and dying for countries that are ungrateful and, more to the point, don't have freedom and democracy in their national blood.
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There's a border in America for the troops to guard.
00:28:15.920
Just three days ago, this U.S. military veteran, a triple amputee, as you can see, his name is Brian Colfage.
00:28:31.280
I mean, it's a billion-dollar, multi-billion dollar project.
00:28:38.980
In just three days, as I say this, he's actually raised more than $6 million.
00:28:44.680
By the time this goes to air, I bet it'll be $8, $9, $10 million.
00:29:00.180
That's a fraction of a sliver what America spends in places like Syria to protect.
00:29:06.580
How about protecting America from its actual invaders?
00:29:12.140
And I think its real purpose is not to pay for the wall.
00:29:16.000
I think it's an effort that will hopefully shame Donald Trump and the Congress into fulfilling
00:29:21.620
Trump's biggest and most important promise of protecting the United States itself.
00:29:28.400
And a mission that we here in Canada sorely need, too.
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I've been president for almost two years, and we've really stepped it up.
00:30:01.060
We've beaten them, and we've beaten them badly.
00:30:03.700
We've taken back the land, and now it's time for our troops to come back home.
00:30:09.320
I get very saddened when I have to write letters or call parents or wives or husbands of soldiers
00:30:35.380
These are great heroes of the world because they fought for us.
00:30:44.240
And I'll tell you, they're up there looking down on us.
00:30:47.200
And there is nobody happier or more proud of their families to put them in a position
00:30:52.720
where they've done such good for so many people.
00:30:56.200
So our boys, our young women, our men, they're all coming back, and they're coming back now.
00:31:06.920
Well, that's U.S. President Donald J. Trump announcing with some personal flourish
00:31:15.180
that he is bringing home some 2,000 U.S. military personnel who are in Syria.
00:31:21.780
It's interesting that he references soldiers who were killed in Syria and speaks on their behalf.
00:31:30.600
That was pounced upon immediately by liberal critics who usually are anti-war,
00:31:40.480
So pulling troops home is something they suddenly don't agree with.
00:31:44.520
Now, neither I nor Donald Trump have served in the military.
00:31:49.520
He went to an academy as a youth, but he avoided service in a hot war.
00:31:56.360
And I think this is the sort of subject that we must defer in some regard
00:32:01.400
to those who have actually risked their lives and served and sacrificed.
00:32:06.800
I'm not saying that only people who served can speak about these matters,
00:32:10.140
but I think on touchy subjects, I think we should listen to them first.
00:32:14.760
And so it is with pleasure, and it's an honor also,
00:32:22.100
He's the host of Take That, twice a week on The Rebel.
00:32:25.420
But did you know he is also a military veteran?
00:32:31.100
Kurt, great to see you again. Thanks for joining us today.
00:32:35.160
And I appreciate what you said, because you pointed out that we all have a say in this.
00:32:52.820
But everybody's got a right to give their view, and all the views are important.
00:32:59.220
Some of us may know some technical stuff that others don't.
00:33:02.640
And I think what that leads me to is what Donald Trump did.
00:33:13.360
I think the people who are anti-Trump, or in many cases, just anti-Trump, they don't have a coherent reason for being against what he says,
00:33:22.760
or it goes against what they believe right up to the point where he was inaugurated.
00:33:26.740
But I also understand that there are some risks with pulling out.
00:33:32.200
I'm particularly concerned about our Kurdish allies.
00:33:42.180
But, you know, Ezra, there's a lot of questions about the policy that we're on now, too.
00:33:49.880
I'll go on Twitter, and I'll say, OK, how many lives are you willing to spend to restore something like order?
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And anyone who says you are, I'm done with you.
00:34:05.620
You're not going to – to restore order to Syria.
00:34:10.180
And, you know, all I get is you're Putin's puppet.
00:34:18.920
And, you know, as a lawyer, because I'm also a lawyer, when somebody doesn't give me a straight answer, Ezra, I assume that they're trying to pull something on me.
00:34:29.680
I assume they don't have a good answer or their answer hurts them.
00:34:34.460
I'd like to know how many lives does whatever your objective in Syria justify?
00:34:46.800
Kurt, you mentioned what our objectives would be.
00:34:50.940
Of course, Canada abandoned this fight soon after Justin Trudeau took over.
00:35:01.940
But, of course, it's America that's doing the heavy lifting.
00:35:03.960
Let me read Trump's very succinct tweet yesterday.
00:35:13.860
My only reason for being there during the Trump presidency.
00:35:18.080
And what I like about that, Kurt, is he's saying my objective was defeat them.
00:35:25.120
So sticking around for collateral purposes to be a globo cop because there's some, you know,
00:35:33.740
idealistic hope that we can find a George Washington of Syria.
00:35:41.420
And anyone who has a different goal should should elaborate on it.
00:35:45.260
What is your goal now that ISIS is down to one percent of its original strength?
00:35:51.560
And look, I, you know, in the Army War College, I'm a graduate.
00:35:55.700
You know, we're taught, you know, hey, when you don't have an objective, you have problems.
00:35:59.300
And, of course, the United States probably forgot about establishing objectives over the last 17 years.
00:36:08.620
I don't think that it is inherently wrong for us to be in Syria.
00:36:23.320
And, again, I'm also not one of those people who is a knee-jerk anti-peacekeeping nation-building guy.
00:36:33.540
I was in Kosovo, and we succeeded in a peacekeeping nation-building mission there.
00:36:39.060
So, again, I'm not here advocating for anything except clarity.
00:36:45.780
And I'd like to see – I do like that the president's being clear.
00:36:51.060
Now, you might not agree with where he's going, but he is taking a stand against the establishment, saying,
00:36:56.320
I promised this, I've been telling you I'm going to do this, and now I'm going to do it.
00:37:02.600
So this should not come as a shock to anybody, although a lot of people are acting shocked.
00:37:07.600
You know, I just, in my monologue, played some old clips of Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, you know, toppling Hosni Mubarak in Egypt,
00:37:17.660
letting the Muslim Brotherhood come in, toppling Muammar Gaddafi.
00:37:20.880
Even – and I'm no fan of either man, but Gaddafi had given up his weapons of mass destruction,
00:37:27.940
had paid more than a billion dollars in compensation to terrorism victims.
00:37:32.600
I've never heard of that happen in the history of the world.
00:37:35.200
He was trying to reconcile with the West, and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama toppled them,
00:37:41.220
but they didn't answer the question, and then what?
00:37:44.780
And I think that's the big question throughout the Middle East.
00:37:59.620
I mean, if the standard is – because the standard seems to be, well, ISIS can come back,
00:38:03.900
because I think everybody's agreed that they've suffered major strategic and tactical defeats over there,
00:38:08.680
and that their area where their unchallenged power exists is very, very small, if it exists at all in Syria.
00:38:22.800
And Obama's actions in Iraq, which led to the rise of ISIS,
00:38:28.440
are an important lesson that we shouldn't ignore no matter where you stand on the issue overall.
00:38:33.200
But the idea that there's a potential that a bunch of Islamic radicals are going to rise up again,
00:38:44.580
If that's your standard, you know, if that's your standard, say that's your standard.
00:38:48.600
If your standard is, I think we just occupy the whole area, okay, now we can talk honestly.
00:38:53.540
But when you start saying, well, you know, Putin's excited about this,
00:38:58.020
you know, Putin's got maybe 4,000 guys in there.
00:39:04.240
Maybe like 20 square miles, 30 square miles of all of Syria?
00:39:12.060
I think it was Gordon Chang, who I generally respect.
00:39:15.040
I mean, I find Gordon Chang very wise on the question of China.
00:39:19.060
And he's very skeptical of China, and he's a big booster of Trump's China policy.
00:39:24.400
So I know that Gordon Chang is not an anti-Trumper, and I know he's an American patriot.
00:39:32.520
His worry is this, and help me out with this one, because it's the only criticism I've seen
00:39:37.240
that is registering with me, partly because it's Gordon.
00:39:39.800
He says this may telegraph to other bad actors that maybe Donald Trump doesn't have the stomach
00:39:48.220
for a lengthy and potentially bloody military project.
00:39:54.360
And he was worried that China might take some adventurous steps in the South China Sea or whatever,
00:40:04.080
He was worried that maybe Vladimir Putin would take advantage and go further into Ukraine.
00:40:10.840
So Gordon Chang, where he was not precisely about Syria, it was what other people might
00:40:18.480
Do you think there's any merit to that criticism?
00:40:22.380
Substantively, I don't think it reflects on Trump's resolve.
00:40:25.700
I think Trump actually would have a much easier time if he just let this go on.
00:40:36.700
Could an enemy draw that perception from what's happening in Syria?
00:40:43.300
But I don't think, you know, the idea that we're wrapped up in Syria is probably, you know,
00:40:53.880
The simple fact is we're focused on a low-level bandit hunt out in the Syrian desert when our
00:41:01.700
real threat is a high-tempo conventional war against North Korea and China right now.
00:41:12.560
I think Russia in a lot of ways is a paper tiger.
00:41:18.660
But the simple fact is, you know, are our enemies going to be really thrilled, unhappy
00:41:24.020
that we're, or happy that we're pulling ourselves out of a quagmire?
00:41:27.360
And that, you know, that goes for Afghanistan, too.
00:41:30.920
I don't know if quagmire is the right word, but an engagement that may or may not be giving
00:41:45.520
A friend of mine got shot in Afghanistan last month.
00:41:48.840
Guy I've known for years, guy who came up with me in the military and some traitor shot
00:41:59.000
You know, so this is, you know, this is personal.
00:42:00.680
And I'm wondering, is the life of my friend and the other comrades who I don't know, worth
00:42:07.860
it in Afghanistan anymore after all these years?
00:42:11.600
And I think those are important questions to ask.
00:42:14.320
You are not helping Putin because you ask those questions and you force people to take
00:42:18.960
I would like the Congress to do its war making job and either declare that we are at war
00:42:24.660
against ISIS and we're going to stay in Syria until they are gone and pounded into
00:42:30.520
rubble and people fear to whisper America's name or we're going to pull out.
00:42:36.660
It's only Donald Trump and he gets all the heat, but he's willing to take it.
00:42:45.700
I want to hear more and we can certainly do it wrong.
00:42:48.300
If we betray our Kurdish friends, we're doing it wrong.
00:42:53.140
Kurdistan is the closest thing we'll find to a liberal democracy in the region.
00:42:58.620
We had the interesting experience of visiting there and seeing some of the Christian refugees
00:43:04.600
that were cleansed, so to speak, ethnically cleansed.
00:43:11.980
The new enemy, of course, for them is the Iranians.
00:43:15.700
But I was just remarking, I was just thinking as you were talking that the Americans have
00:43:19.780
been on the ground in Afghanistan for 17 years now.
00:43:22.400
That's clearly the longest war in American history, I think.
00:43:31.060
It's not like having a military base in Germany that's just sort of a base.
00:43:39.020
We are unwilling to do what it takes to turn the tide.
00:43:43.340
As a country, it seems pretty clear we are not going to put in 100,000 more guys and tell
00:43:56.020
Hey, can I end by asking you something about Canada?
00:43:58.500
And I know it's on the Air Force side, and that's a different side of things than you
00:44:08.120
You know, the red flag exercises in the United States developed in Vietnam.
00:44:13.980
There was a study that the vast majority of pilots, airs being shot down, et cetera, were
00:44:25.580
So they set up red flag to basically do those 10 missions in exercises over America to send
00:44:39.380
And in Canada, we started something called Maple Flag, you know, maple being our maple
00:44:49.660
And the only time it was interrupted in Canada was when we had major overseas deployments
00:44:57.600
Just last week, Justin Trudeau announced that he is shutting down the Maple Flag exercise,
00:45:04.240
the two-week exercise every year at a major air base in my home province of Alberta.
00:45:09.160
And they're saying, well, we need to refocus, and we need to manage resources, and we need
00:45:14.100
And that was something, it wasn't just for Canadians.
00:45:17.140
NATO pilots, and even non-NATO, Australians, New Zealanders, Israel even came once, Singapore
00:45:23.440
Canada just shut down our version called Maple Flag.
00:45:27.460
And I wonder if America even knows, if America, what does America think of Canada in terms
00:45:35.240
I just am so depressed about that, because that was the best thing our air force did every
00:45:39.380
Well, look, I got to tell you, among American military, the Canadians' reputation is, it
00:45:50.380
They are solid, squared away, brave, resourceful.
00:45:53.440
Yeah, they are, you know, they're under threat from a leader who, frankly, doesn't do what
00:46:03.360
he needs to do as far as defending his country.
00:46:06.040
And I think it's a damn shame that they're not getting this vital experience.
00:46:13.620
Hopefully, they can continue working with the United States and NATO forces.
00:46:22.220
We've decided that, you know, as people, that, you know, we're not worth defending ourselves
00:46:37.680
Guys will die in combat because they don't have that vital training.
00:46:41.720
But, you know, Trudeau will be, you know, by then he'll be off partying with rock stars
00:47:01.760
Well, Kurt, listen, I appreciate you taking the time.
00:47:04.020
And, you know, I have to say, although I don't have skin in the game, the idea of bringing
00:47:11.080
American men and women home and not putting them at risk and all the stresses to the families
00:47:17.560
and the stresses to the communities, the cost is the least of it.
00:47:24.940
And let America go to war only when it is necessary and required and certain objectives
00:47:33.180
and sharpen, but not a 17-year or a 10-year open-ended mission.
00:47:42.320
I think that once you leave Washington, D.C., you have a very different perspective because
00:47:46.700
it ends the people in Washington, D.C. who send their sons and daughters over there to
00:47:50.880
And those are the people who elected Donald Trump.
00:47:53.880
And Donald Trump was absolutely clear about what he intended to do.
00:48:02.960
It's always great to have you, to talk with you on my show.
00:48:07.280
We call them Take That because you dish it out.
00:48:13.800
And the fact that you actually lived up to your ideals and served your country.
00:48:19.240
And of course, you were doing it to defend the United States.
00:48:21.360
But you were defending us, too, even if it wasn't on the top of your mind.
00:48:33.020
And we're proud to serve side by side with the brave Canadian forces.
00:48:40.360
And they could not have higher respect from Americans.
00:49:18.600
On my monologue yesterday about Trudeau dropping in the polls, James writes,
00:49:21.980
The 30% support for Trudeau is the liberal base.
00:49:28.500
My focus is on the 10% between 30% and 40% because that is what will win the election.
00:49:33.280
James, I think that's pretty good reasoning on your part.
00:49:38.380
There are some diehard lefties that will never move over, some diehard conservatives that will
00:49:44.240
That said, even saying these words in answer to you, I think, well, look what happened in
00:49:50.340
A new party out of the blue, the Coalition Avenue in Quebec, crushed the liberals, put them
00:49:57.300
And in fact, if you look at all the upstart parties combined, it was more than the traditional
00:50:02.860
There was the Quebec Solidaire ultra-left party.
00:50:06.540
And Trudeau is clearly moving hard to the left, taking advantage of Jagmeet Singh's total
00:50:13.140
I think I mentioned to you a couple months ago when there was a by-election in Leeds-Grenfield,
00:50:19.060
going from memory here, the new Democrat got 3% of the vote.
00:50:21.960
Now, the conservatives want a majority there, but if your NDP nationwide is losing 10 points,
00:50:39.420
And clearly, that's what Andrew Scheer was thinking.
00:50:42.900
And although he doesn't have the infrastructure, he has charisma and online presence.
00:50:47.680
And he is really leading a national discussion.
00:50:50.540
I really think it's clear that Andrew Scheer is copying Maxime Bernier on issues, whether
00:50:57.960
it's immigration or just trying to copy his style.
00:51:03.160
That's my way of saying we could be in a disruption cycle like they were in Quebec.
00:51:11.280
Remember, there's a new coalition party in New Brunswick, the People's Alliance, I think
00:51:21.360
Jason Kenney in Alberta is nominally a conservative.
00:51:24.320
But again, they mashed up a couple of parties there.
00:51:30.160
But don't close your mind to the possibility that we could see a redrawing of the lines and
00:51:43.180
Isn't that what we saw, in fact, in Donald Trump?
00:51:44.780
Robert Wright's Trump approval, 47 percent, Rasmussen.
00:51:56.240
And that is with 90 percent hostile press towards Trump and 90 percent, you know, dating game
00:52:02.980
style, Rosemary Barton love letter press for Trudeau.
00:52:08.220
On my car ride interview with Joel Pollack, Paul writes, the GOP lost Congress because
00:52:17.020
Throwing out Trump over this will hand the country over to the Democrat globalists.
00:52:20.720
There will be plenty of blame to go around, but America will never come back from it.
00:52:25.280
I mean, I found the U.S. midterm elections very interesting, as I'm sure many of you did.
00:52:31.600
And I accept the conventional wisdom that the battle over Brett Kavanaugh and the Supreme
00:52:36.960
Court motivated Trump's people to fight and get out and vote because they saw good.
00:52:42.500
You're not willing to bend the knee to the political correctness.
00:52:47.040
In fact, I think Trump grew in the Senate, if my memory serves.
00:52:53.540
In my mind, Texas is the most right wing of places.
00:52:56.580
I know technically it's not Utah, West Virginia, places like that.
00:52:59.660
And Wyoming are actually more right wing, mathematically speaking.
00:53:06.440
And a white Obama named Beto O'Rourke got 48% in Texas for the Democrats.
00:53:21.000
If the Democrats can come within a one and a half points of turning Texas blue.
00:53:26.540
By the way, if Texas goes Democrat, there is no math.
00:53:34.480
I think it's the second largest state by population now after California.
00:53:38.480
It's California, Texas, and Florida in a close second and third.
00:53:42.100
It would be like if the Dems lost California to a Republican.
00:53:50.200
California, if my memory serves, or was he senator?
00:53:52.860
If California ever went Republican, Democrats would never win again.
00:54:01.220
If Texas goes Democrat, Republicans will never win again.
00:54:09.860
That's why the wall is the live or die issue for the Dems.
00:54:12.680
Because the wall keeps out their future voters.
00:54:15.200
If you look at the counties in Texas that went most pro-Democrat, it's the one closest to the border.
00:54:22.000
That's what happens when you have 13 million illegals.
00:54:29.620
That's exactly why Justin Trudeau is doing it up here too.
00:54:35.480
On behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.