Learn English with Matt Gaetz. Rep. Gaetz has been targeted by the Deep State for his stand against permanent Washington and his defense of our troops in Afghanistan. In this speech, Congressman Gaetz explains why he supports the withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan and why President Obama should withdraw all of them.
00:03:53.000The American people were lied to for decades about Afghanistan by warmongers in both political parties.
00:04:01.000Some of the very same people who defied their oaths and needlessly sacrificed our service members for their corrupt objectives remain in vastly powerful positions in government and society today.
00:04:14.000People like Liz Cheney, General Milley, Bill Kristol, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
00:04:23.000There is a well-organized war cartel in America as I lay bare here.
00:04:29.000I oppose the NDAA not because I'm against our troops, but because I love them so much.
00:04:36.000America's fighting men and women are so precious that they should not have to die in some failed state,
00:04:43.000some faraway land that most Americans can't even point to on a map,
00:04:47.000so that defense contractors can extend our involvement in these wars,
00:04:53.000so that lobbyists can get rich, and so that members of Congress can get reelected.
00:04:58.000This good bill has been hijacked by the forever war lobby and their bought-and-paid-for allies in the United States Congress.
00:05:05.000It puts barriers in the way of an administration that wants to bring our troops home and put America first.
00:05:12.000This legislation has become too swampy.
00:05:15.000It does good things to ensure that America can vanquish any foe on the battlefield,
00:05:20.000but we should only fight when that fight is just and proper.
00:05:24.000We have spent two decades trading the same villages back and forth in Afghanistan,
00:05:29.000and I believe that the administration that leads our country should work to bring those troops home,
00:05:34.000and unfortunately, this bill does exactly the opposite from Afghanistan, from Germany, and elsewhere.
00:05:40.000I'm going to put America first, and I'm voting against this bill. I yield back.
00:05:43.000Turns out, we didn't know much about Afghanistan when we invaded.
00:08:45.000The madrasas that teach his version of extreme Wahhabism spread from Saudi.
00:08:51.000We actually know a great deal about the kingdom, more than our government will ever choose to disclose or admit.
00:08:57.000Perhaps our arms deals, foreign aid, and military presence in Saudi Arabia prevent the establishment from addressing the realities that are staring us right in the face.
00:11:16.000And none of it remotely relevant to the interests of the American people.
00:11:21.000Afghanistan is no asset to the United States.
00:11:24.000So what makes it an asset to any other nation?
00:11:27.000Hell, watching Russia and China get bogged down in nation-building in Afghanistan might be good for American hegemony.
00:11:34.000In fact, worst case scenario, the United States leaves Afghanistan as we found it with the Taliban in control.
00:11:43.000After the U.S. had toiled in Afghanistan for a decade, UPenn anthropologist Brian Rose went looking for a unifying nationalism to study and highlight and cherish.
00:11:55.000Instead, he found a corrupt nationless band of tribes that hate each other.
00:12:02.000National identity is something we take for granted as Americans. We have a national identity.
00:12:07.000There isn't one in Afghanistan that I could see.
00:12:11.000There are tribes. And there's a lot of rivalry among the tribes.
00:12:16.000There's certainly a level of ethnic hatred among the tribes.
00:12:23.000The thing about nationalism is in order for it to work, you have to have some sort of confidence in the national government.
00:12:34.000You have to view the capital with a sense of respect.
00:12:38.000It's not clear to me that that's happening now.
00:12:41.000It's not clear to me that anyone views the government with much respect.
00:12:45.000The level of corruption in Afghanistan, I could see, is off the charts. It's extraordinarily high.
00:12:52.000The honest, politically incorrect truth is that Afghanistan isn't a country.
00:12:57.000They aren't worth it and they never were.
00:13:00.000Their people weren't worth it. Our money that we sent over there wasn't worth it.
00:13:05.000The military gains were fleeting at best.
00:13:08.000What's permanent is the pain, the damage that folks like this widowed mother felt when she was left to raise seven children without the hugs of their father.
00:13:20.000The corrupt government we propped up was definitely not worth it.
00:13:26.000I'm not even sure they'll still be in Kabul when you listen to this episode.
00:21:53.000And so this morning, based on the unanimous recommendation of my national security team,
00:21:58.000I ordered our armed forces to take action to counter an immediate threat from the bin Laden network.
00:22:05.000Earlier today, the United States carried out simultaneous strikes against terrorist facilities and infrastructure in Afghanistan.
00:22:14.000Clinton's theory on Afghanistan is that we should mostly ignore them.
00:22:19.000And when they get naughty and allow terrorist bases to build up,
00:22:22.000we should bomb the smithereens out of them from a very high altitude and then fly home.
00:22:29.000After all, the Taliban isn't exactly an expeditionary force.
00:22:34.000Eighty percent of Taliban fighters have never been more than 20 miles from their own home.
00:22:40.000If bombing the bad guys without moving in with them for 20 years is wise,
00:22:45.000one of the key lessons we must take from the Afghanistan loss is that pouring U.S. dollars into a vat of lawlessness does not a nation make.
00:22:55.000U.S. efforts at nation-building actually make things worse, not better.
00:23:01.000When Uncle Sam rounded up all the tribal Bedouins and tried to mold them into a provisional government,
00:23:07.000we always believed that more money would ultimately be the glue to create a stable democracy, national unity and identity.
00:23:17.000But it turns out, when you give a bunch of corrupt people more money than they could ever imagine,
00:23:23.000it only makes them more corrupt, especially in the eyes of their own people.
00:23:28.000Regular Afghans didn't trust the provisional government.
00:23:32.000Like, when they had more American money and support,
00:23:35.000they were able to demonstrate that they had the trappings of corruption all around them.
00:24:26.000Furthermore, in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution, Congress is given the sole power to declare war.
00:24:33.000Over the years, this responsibility has been almost completely degraded and ceded to the executive branch.
00:24:40.000The executive branch has been acting unilaterally with only passive approval from the Congress in the form of authorizations of force instead of declarations of war, as our founders intended.
00:24:53.000It is time that we repeal the authorization of military force from 2001 and bring our troops home.
00:25:01.000On Wednesday, July 21st, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley held an Afghanistan briefing.
00:25:10.000Both Austin and Milley confirmed President Biden's deadline to withdraw, and they affirmed its efficacy.
00:25:17.000Secretary of Defense Austin laid out five objectives as part of this withdrawal.
00:25:22.000The President has made a decision that we're going to get it done, and we're going to get it done right.
00:25:32.000We remain committed to protecting our diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, and to providing funding to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces,
00:25:41.000and to advising Afghan security ministries, and to preventing the reemergence of transnational terrorist organizations.
00:25:49.000And we've added a fifth urgent task, and that is working closely and urgently in support of the State Department as they relocate brave Afghans and their families who have provided such exceptional service during our long mission.
00:26:04.000So let's review what Lloyd Austin is saying here.
00:26:07.000His four ongoing key tasks are, one, to preserve America's diplomatic presence in Afghanistan.
00:26:14.000Who are exactly we preserving ties with?
00:26:17.000The corrupt regime we propped up and refused to prosecute when they stole our money and the people's money?
00:26:24.000Will we have real diplomatic relations in Afghanistan if there's no unified, centralized state with any semblance of federal authority?
00:26:32.000The second and third key tasks are, two, to provide funding to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, and three, advising Afghan security ministries.
00:26:43.000So, $2 trillion in 20 years wasn't enough, but the next $12 billion the Biden government wants, that's the key to lock things up and to ensure the preservation of democracy and national unity in Afghanistan.
00:26:59.000It seems like we're clinging on to Afghanistan like a simp with separation anxiety clinging on to an X.
00:27:06.000It's furthered with the ongoing key task number four, preserving the re-emergence of transnational terrorist organizations.
00:27:15.000Look, I hate terrorists, and I hate terrorism, but does it bother anyone else that preventing transnational terrorist organizations was the reason we went into Afghanistan?
00:27:26.000So it seems a little bizarre to say that we need to keep that going as we leave.
00:27:32.000It takes me back to the 2000s, the very same words President George W. Bush used to get into these forever wars.
00:27:40.000Now, the Taliban will pay a price. By destroying camps and disrupting communications, we will make it more difficult for the terror network to train new recruits and coordinate their evil plans.
00:27:53.000Initially, the terrorists may burrow deeper into caves and other entrenched hiding places.
00:27:59.000Our military action is also designed to clear the way for sustained, comprehensive, and relentless operations to drive them out.
00:28:10.000Furthermore, all the military operating bases outside of Kabul have been fully transferred to the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the Afghan Security Forces.
00:28:18.000A small contingent of predominantly military personnel, but some civilians and contractors, along with Department of State, remain in Afghanistan to provide security and bolster our diplomatic presence in Kabul.
00:28:32.000The forces here are key to achieving the five ongoing tasks that the Secretary laid out in his comments.
00:28:39.000A major component of sustaining a robust diplomatic presence in Kabul is to maintain a functioning and secure airport in Kabul.
00:28:49.000So we continue to dedicate our security resources to that, to secure the embassy, to secure the international zone, and to secure HKIA, the international airport in Kabul, for our diplomats, our personnel, and our continued support to the government of Afghanistan.
00:29:04.000The Afghan Security Forces have the capacity to sufficiently fight and defend their country, and we will continue to support the Afghan Security Forces where necessary, in accordance with the guidance from the President and the Secretary of Defense.
00:29:21.000The future of Afghanistan is squarely in the hands of Afghan people, and there are a range of possible outcomes in Afghanistan, and I want to emphasize repeatedly, and I've said this before, a negative outcome, a Taliban automatic military takeover, is not a foregone conclusion.
00:29:39.000General Milley declares that the Afghanistan Security Forces, who we will now continue to fund, presumably forever, have the capacity to fight and defend their country, and we will continue to support them.
00:29:51.000So, basic question, if their security forces have the capacity to defend themselves, why will we continue to support them and fund them?
00:30:00.000Is their capacity to defend themselves solely based on U.S. taxpayer dollars continuing to flow to Afghanistan? Was the $2 trillion not enough for this crazy experiment?
00:30:13.000I support President Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, but you have to realize that Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley's press conferences provide mixed messages,
00:30:23.000and there should be additional clarity that leaving Afghanistan is not going to bind us to additional resources and additional personnel down the road.
00:30:34.000And we must remain diligent in calling out these facts, because the media increasingly sides with the neocons, and that powerful war cartel still exists in Washington today.
00:30:46.000Just take a look at the debate that I had against Democrat Jason Crowe and Republican Liz Cheney when they were trying to keep the United States forever in Afghanistan.
00:30:58.000But here, many Republicans are going to support Mr. Crowe's amendment that in fact ties the administration's hands when it comes to leaving Afghanistan.
00:31:07.000You know, the gentleman said there's always a right way and a wrong way to leave.
00:31:12.000I would say that a great nation does not force the next generation to fight their wars.
00:31:18.000And that's what we've done in Afghanistan.
00:31:20.000I think the best day to have not had the war in Afghanistan was when we started it, and the next best day is tomorrow.
00:31:26.000I don't think there's ever a bad day to end the war in Afghanistan.
00:31:30.000Our generation is weary of this and tired of this.
00:31:34.000And what this amendment does is it puts additional barriers in front of the administration as they would try to leverage a withdrawal and get the best conditions we can.
00:31:43.000And certainly, Afghanistan is a dangerous place.
00:31:47.000The gentleman from Colorado said, well, you know, we might be able to prevent an Afghan civil war.
00:31:52.000It is not my expectation that we are preventing a whole lot of violence there now.
00:31:56.000You see the extent to which the administrative districts that the Afghan government is controlling is declining, not raising as a consequence of our continued involvement.
00:32:07.000Even the military and governmental officials that were executing the war did not have a vision for victory and knew that we were entangled in a mire pile as it was going on.
00:32:20.000We know this is a consequence of the Afghan papers.
00:32:22.000Mr. Khan and I have called on the committee to hold hearings on the Afghan papers so that we can ascertain the extent to which our government was negligent with the most precious resource our country has.
00:32:34.000And that's the blood of our bravest patriots.
00:32:36.000I know that there are desires to continue to have American taxpayers invest in the Afghani security forces to a greater and greater degree.
00:32:46.000I'm sure, ultimately, there will be some defense contractors that do very well on those deals.
00:32:51.000But, like, pardon me if I just like to make our country great again before we make Kandahar great again.
00:32:57.000And I think that's, while on this committee that might not be a popular view, I think when we get to the broader Congress, if you've got the right-wing populists like myself and the left-wing populists that are members of the majority party working together, you know, it's going to be hard to stand against where a majority of the American people are, and that is against this war.
00:33:21.000Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman.
00:33:24.000I want to begin by thanking my colleague, Mr. Crow, for his very diligent work on this.
00:33:32.000This is a very careful amendment, very careful piece of legislation that focuses on what's really critical about what we need to do to protect our security and what needs to be done in Afghanistan.
00:33:46.000We need to make sure that we're denying terrorist safe havens.
00:33:49.000We need to make sure that we are able to continue counterterrorism activity.
00:33:54.000You know, I listened to my colleague, Mr. Gates, say that, quote, we started it.
00:34:01.000And I would just urge everyone in this room, and I know all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle recognize how flawed that assessment is.
00:34:16.000And the reality of the situation is al-Qaeda, ISIS, a number of those same terrorist groups continue to operate in Afghanistan.
00:34:26.000In fact, we have reports that Ayman al-Zawahiri has been in Afghanistan recently, may be there now.
00:34:34.000So we have an obligation as we look at how we're going to be able to continue to protect this nation to do it in a way that is responsible.
00:34:44.000Increasingly, I hear the term sustainable force around the Afghanistan debate.
00:34:49.000Sustainable, after all, that's a good word. We like sustainable.
00:34:53.000But sustainable force is merely the language that allows our national security apparatus to convert these policing operations into forever wars.
00:35:04.000The best thing to do with Afghanistan is to cut our losses, leave that hellscape wasteland, and endeavor to never make the mistakes that got us there in the first place.
00:35:15.000There was a lot of conversation from my colleagues about the need for us to be obligated to secure Saudi Arabia's southern border.
00:35:24.000I wish we had that much passion and interest in securing our own southern border.
00:35:28.000To me, that would seemingly be a more consistent application of our principles.
00:35:32.000And it seems odd to bang our chests about American leadership while referencing Afghanistan and Yemen.
00:35:38.000If what we get from American leadership is involvement in one of the most brutal, horrific civil wars in Yemen,
00:35:47.000and then a multi-decade war in Afghanistan, one asks the question if that leadership is being properly husbanded for the benefit of our country.
00:35:56.000There is an opportunity for the president under any circumstance to respond to terrorism, to threats against our forces, as my Republican colleagues have referenced, attacks against our interests and against our allies.
00:36:09.000We would still have the ability under the language of the amendment to fully respond to those things.
00:36:13.000But what we do not need is excessive entanglement from the United States in some civil war where we're trying to build some democracy out of sand and blood.
00:36:23.000And that is what we have done for far too long in the Middle East.
00:36:26.000We have done great work in this legislation to raise our gaze to combat the real threat that we face, which is China.
00:36:33.000And continuing to obsess about our our Middle Eastern conquests just does not rise to the level of a great body or a great nation.
00:36:46.000We just got word that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered all members of the military vaccinated by September 15th.
00:36:53.000And what's so frustrating is that the lead Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, Mike Rogers, endorsed and went along with his decision.
00:37:02.000He noted that 70 percent of the military is vaccinated now and he thinks that number should be 100 percent.
00:37:07.000Here's the problem with the way they're hunting people over this like faux sense of extremism in the military.
00:37:14.000And now this it's almost like they're trying to drive out anybody who's capable of independent thought.
00:37:19.000Similarly, we don't know the long term impacts of this vaccine on readiness on the human body.
00:37:26.000And the fact that we're forcing military families to take this vaccine before it goes through the normal process, that's deeply troubling to me.
00:37:33.000And I think Republicans should be fighting against this decision, not supporting it like Mike Rogers has.
00:37:39.000Thanks for joining us for Firebrand. Make sure to subscribe on your favorite podcast listening platform of choice on Rumble on YouTube and watch our full episodes on Facebook.
00:37:50.000Thanks so much and join us again next Thursday.