00:00:00.000Today in the Charlie Kirk Show, a friend of mine running for Senate in Pennsylvania, who is a platoon infantry leader in Afghanistan, has a lot to say about the debacle that is Afghanistan.
00:00:11.000I ask him about critical race theory in the military.
00:00:14.000I ask him whether or not we think we could turn this thing around in just a couple election cycles and so much more.
00:00:19.000If you have questions about Afghanistan and the strategic implications around it, this is the podcast for you with Sean Parnell.
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00:01:44.000Welcome to this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:01:47.000With us today is a good friend and a true American running for Senate in Pennsylvania and someone who knows a lot about what's happening in Afghanistan.
00:02:20.000Instead of kind of, you know, rephrasing what you've already said, why don't you just tell us first and foremost your background, how you've been able to understand this issue, and introduce yourself to our audience.
00:02:32.000Yeah, so I served in Afghanistan as a platoon leader in charge of an infantry platoon, 40 men, all along the Afghan-Pakistan border in 2006.
00:02:44.000And so back then, our mission was to find Osama bin Laden, was in combat for 16 months, 485 days.
00:02:54.000And during that time, hundreds of direct fire engagements, thousands of indirect fire attacks, rocket attacks, mortar attacks on our base.
00:03:02.000And while we didn't find Osama bin Laden, Charlie, we found and fought against what was really a global jihadist all-star team in eastern Afghanistan.
00:03:13.000And so I know a lot about that country.
00:03:17.000I learned a lot about that country during my time there.
00:03:20.000And in that 16 months, 85% of my platoon was wounded in the fight, some twice.
00:03:25.000Some of my guys were wounded three times.
00:03:30.000Ended up getting medically retired as a captain on my way to major and came back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I went to grad school and started writing books for a living.
00:03:41.000That book came to the New York Times bestseller.
00:03:43.000And now it's in 10 countries and it gave me an opportunity to give back to my country in much greater ways.
00:03:48.000I've got a national charity that gives service dogs to veterans.
00:03:51.000I've been advising members of Congress and the Senate for almost a decade on foreign policy and veterans issues.
00:03:57.000I helped write the VA Accountability Act, which Trump signed at the Law of the Mission Act, which gave veterans a historic choice in where they received their health care at the VA.
00:04:05.000And this was in the wake of the Phoenix VA waitlist scandal.
00:04:07.000I'm sure you remember that, Charlie, where veterans were dying on secret lists.
00:04:12.000And then in 2019, President Trump called me out randomly to run for Congress.
00:04:16.000I didn't, at the time, I'd never met him.
00:04:18.000I'd never talked to him, but he had given a speech in Western Pennsylvania and called me out randomly to run.
00:04:25.000And so I turned my life upside down and jumped into politics in a sort of more direct way.
00:04:31.000And I've been in the fight ever since, and I'm in the fight right now.
00:04:34.000Yeah, and you're running in Pennsylvania, which is an open seat because Pat Toomey, who's been a big disappointment, is deciding to retire.
00:04:47.000Afghanistan, you've had probably one of the most nuanced and wise takes because unlike some of the neocon warmongers that pollute our party, you've said, look, it was time for us to go the way President Trump was trying to do it with wisdom and prudence, not all at once.
00:05:05.000Walk us through the complexities of the country and walk us through what really a correct withdrawal would have looked like.
00:05:12.000Yeah, so I want to take us back to 2006 and 2007.
00:05:17.000In the wake of 9-11, we went into Afghanistan and in a month's time, we decimated Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
00:05:25.000Many remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda fled to Pakistan where they consolidated, reorganized, and came back at us in 2006.
00:05:35.000I would argue that the war from a tactical standpoint on the ground was won probably in the 2007 timeframe.
00:05:43.000Now, we hadn't found bin Laden yet, but we were getting intelligence from the front lines, Charlie, that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were unwilling to send their sons back into the fight because we were just killing so many of them and they didn't want to waste their effort against us.
00:06:00.000And so in 2006, 2007, we were implementing what's called a counterterror strategy.
00:06:07.000In other words, we targeted the enemy.
00:06:09.000And in targeting and killing the enemy, we allowed the Afghan people the time and the space to govern and secure their own people effectively.
00:06:18.000And then Barack Obama was elected and we shifted very abruptly from a counterterror strategy to a counterinsurgency strategy.
00:06:27.000And I lived this strategy shift, Charlie.
00:06:30.000We built one of the very first combat outposts in Afghanistan.
00:06:35.000And combat outposts were the focal point of the war in Afghanistan during counterinsurgency.
00:06:41.000The idea that in order to pacify the country, American troops have to be living in every village.
00:06:46.000And in order to live in every village, we have to have a combat outpost everywhere, which essentially spread our forces out extraordinarily thin all along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
00:06:54.000When we did that, we didn't have the combat power to kill the enemy.
00:06:58.000We were simply occupying land and we ceded the initiative back to the enemy, to the Taliban, to Al-Qaeda, to our enemies.
00:07:05.000And in the 10 years since then, we've watched the war in Afghanistan slowly slip away as the enemy came from Pakistan, slipped by our combat outposts, and penetrated into the heart of Afghanistan to the point where we really couldn't tell the difference between friend or foe.
00:07:24.000And so now we see ourselves after in Afghanistan, 20 years of blood and treasure, trillions spent, thousands of American dead, tens of thousands of American wounded.
00:07:36.000And it was all thrown away because of a horrible withdrawal strategy from Joe Biden, who has been wholly disengaged from the very beginning.
00:07:50.000And it's so for your listeners, the Trump strategy or the Trump doctrine in Afghanistan was very, very different.
00:07:58.000And a lot of people have been saying, well, hey, President Trump wanted to draw down too.
00:08:24.000In other words, American leaders would engage with the Afghan National Army leaders for district leaders to make sure that certain conditions on the ground were met before he moved on to the next phase of the withdrawal operation.
00:08:37.000President Trump was very engaged with regional leaders of different countries and very engaged in the geopolitics of the Middle East.
00:08:44.000Juxtapose that with what Joe Biden's doing, Charlie.
00:08:47.000Joe Biden hadn't talked to the prime minister of Pakistan and he's been president for seven months.
00:08:52.000And we just found out today from Jake Sullivan in his press briefing that Joe Biden has not talked to a single world leader at all during the collapse in Afghanistan.
00:09:02.000That is absolute dereliction of duty from the commander in chief.
00:09:06.000And I think one of the most important points, and this can't be overstated, is that Joe Biden moved President Trump's withdrawal date from May back to September 11th for strictly political reasons.
00:09:18.000That's important for a couple of different reasons.
00:09:20.000Joe Biden moved our withdrawal date right into the middle of fighting season when the fighting in Afghanistan was the most intense.
00:09:29.000And by making that announcement so public, he gave the Taliban time to go to Beijing and meet with our greatest geopolitical foe in China.
00:09:40.000And he gave them time to consolidate and organize a counteroffensive that swept across the country in a month.
00:09:46.00020 years thrown away with poor policy decisions from Joe Biden.
00:09:51.000And by the way, our senior leadership in the military, you know, totally unfocused on what a pragmatic and responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan should look like.
00:10:01.000And we're seeing the devastating consequences of that lack of focus on the battlefield every day.
00:10:07.000It's just an unbelievable tragedy that was totally preventable.
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00:11:28.000And I mean, I've made the argument, again, I don't think that Joe Biden means well, that this was intentionally chaotic to try to create another refugee crisis.
00:11:37.000There's 5 million refugees now in Afghanistan.
00:11:40.000And the sinister, brute politics of it is the left, the collectivists in both Europe and America, refugee crises benefit them.
00:11:48.000It helps change the demographics of a nation.
00:11:50.000And you remember the Syrian Civil War refugee crisis.
00:11:53.000But what is the solution then to get these people out?
00:11:56.000I mean, are we going to have to now go reinvade?
00:12:50.000There are tens of, there are 10,000 Americans, right?
00:12:54.000Up to 10,000 Americans still trapped in Kabul and surrounded by the enemy.
00:12:59.000And Joe Biden is missing in action, issued one statement where, by the way, he didn't blame the Taliban or condemn the Taliban at all, but blamed the Afghan people, the Afghan army almost 10 times.
00:13:14.000The reality is, is that we're in a very complex situation right now.
00:13:18.000I'm very, very afraid that this crisis is just beginning, that there is going to be a hostage crisis on our hands.
00:13:35.000The Taliban control it now because we abandon it.
00:13:38.000And one of the greatest strategic blunders, American foreign policy disasters of the last century.
00:13:44.000I'm telling you, giving up Bagram airfield will be studied by U.S. military academies for the next 50 years on how not to withdraw from a country.
00:13:52.000You have Kandahar airfield, the Taliban control it.
00:13:55.000And so it's not as easy, you know, because Joe Biden has said, hey, we sent 2,000 troops in, 5,000.
00:14:12.000I thought that was the whole point of ending the conflict.
00:14:14.000I mean, but Sean, I got to ask this question, though, and with all possible respect for you and people that have served in the military, who are these clowns that are running the military?
00:14:23.000Seriously, just from like a simple tactical decision, I mean, how are we supposed to take our military seriously anymore?
00:15:11.000Rich next to poor, young next to old, atheists next to Christians, Democrats next to Republicans, rich next to poor.
00:15:18.000But what makes our military exceptional is we take those differences and we put them aside and we have a collective identity and we fight together.
00:15:25.000So when our generals are focused on critical race theory or diversity and inclusion, they're not focused on a force that is united and singularly focused on the mission.
00:15:36.000And so we've seen generals focus on critical race theory.
00:15:40.000We've seen generals like engaging in Twitter feuds with American citizens.
00:15:48.000And look at what's happening in Afghanistan.
00:15:50.000In June, I went on Fox on Tucker Carlson's show, and I said, you could see this coming from 100 miles away that our military was focused on things that were completely disastrous with regards to a withdrawal strategy for Afghanistan with regards to how we're going to evolve our force to confront the growing threat that is China.
00:16:12.000What are we going to do about Russia on the border with Ukraine?
00:16:14.000I mean, there are all sorts of geopolitical threats that we face, but we're focused on pronouns and bios and critical race theory.
00:16:52.000So the premise of counterinsurgency, right?
00:16:56.000The idea that a host nation, which means a nation can bring another nation in to host the nation to help that nation, the host nation grow and govern its own people, right?
00:17:05.000That's the basic premise of counterinsurgency.
00:17:08.000But Afghanistan can barely be considered a nation, right?
00:17:12.000Let alone one that can effectively host another.
00:17:30.000And so, how can you, or how can we as Americans expect for a counterinsurgency strategy to work in Afghanistan when the basic premise of that strategy is inherently flawed, right?
00:18:00.000And so the idea that we could go into Afghanistan and set up some sort of Jeffersonian democracy there was a pipe dream from the very beginning.
00:18:13.000It was a slow-motion train wreck the moment we switched our mission from killing terrorists to nation building.
00:18:20.000Yeah, and to kind of like bring in just not just a trillion dollars, but so much life lost.
00:18:28.000So you're running for Senate to hopefully try to bring a voice to try to counterbalance this.
00:18:33.000Just talk more broadly about U.S. foreign policy because now this sends a message to China that they could take Taiwan whenever they want.
00:18:42.000Talk about what you'll be, if elected, you know, your Senate in Pennsylvania, what will be your position on U.S. foreign policy?
00:18:52.000Well, I'll just put it as simply as I can: American weakness emboldens our enemies.
00:18:57.000Now, that does not mean we need to be cavalier.
00:18:59.000That does not mean we need to send our troops into harm's way.
00:19:02.000In fact, I reject the 20-year-old foreign policy doctrine, and nothing has bothered me more over the last week than seeing politicians, Republican politicians as well, and talking heads trot out the old.
00:19:16.000I mean, Afghanistan is literally collapsed after 20 years, an absolute disaster.
00:19:36.000You can make that argument about any country, and it's a justification for war with no timetable for withdrawal.
00:19:43.000What happens in Africa doesn't stay in Africa.
00:19:46.000What happens in Iraq doesn't stay in Iraq?
00:19:48.000Have we learned nothing after our occupations of Iraq and occupations of Afghanistan?
00:19:54.000So for me, again, my focus is keeping America strong, making sure that we can kill the enemy, right?
00:20:04.000And being laser focused on the mission and not getting bogged down in forever wars, right?
00:20:11.000And from a foreign policy standpoint, right now, the leaders of this country, Charlie, need to be focused on China.
00:20:17.000Like they are the greatest geopolitical threat that we've ever faced in a decade.
00:20:21.000Like their economy will likely eclipse ours.
00:20:24.000Certain aspects of their military already do.
00:20:28.000They are singularly focused on deposing the United States of America as the lone world superpower.
00:20:34.000And we have not evolved our military from the point to where by and large we are wholly structured, right, from a bureaucratic standpoint, structured to face an asymmetric threat.
00:20:43.000We need to be evolving our military to face a more conventional threat of China.
00:20:47.000Right now, we're behind the power curve on that.
00:20:50.000So, you know, when we win in Pennsylvania, we're going to be wholly focused on being strong, being powerful, projecting strength, but also recognizing that America's sons and daughters, the people that raise their right hand to volunteer to serve this country, are the most precious natural resource that we have.
00:21:11.000And we need to make sure that when we send them into the fight, because sometimes war is unavoidable, freedom has to be defended.
00:21:54.000And look, you know, you won't hear anybody in the media talking about this in any substantive way.
00:22:00.000But, you know, just in my time campaigning across the state, I've probably talked to 30 different both active duty National Guard veterans and say, hey, Sean, I haven't done my rifle qualification yet because we're focused on, you know, all of these sort of diversity PowerPoint briefings.
00:22:19.000And I'm thinking, and I've heard, I've heard variations of that story from about 30 different people over the last maybe month and a half since I've been in this Senate race.
00:22:29.000And I'm telling you, that is a real problem.
00:22:32.000The training time that you get as a service member, right, is precious.
00:22:38.000And during that time, you should be focused exclusively, again, on the mission and learning to function, shoot, move, and communicate together as a team.
00:22:46.000Because when you get into the fight, the only thing that matters is the team and you're going to fight, bleed, and die together as a team.
00:22:53.000And so if we are distracted at all, which it seems like our force is, when we talk about like, is it an officer thing?
00:25:06.000They have a whole course on theology 101.
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00:27:16.000That my commander hears that I don't get promoted.
00:27:19.000They bring somebody in that will tell that commander what they want to hear.
00:27:22.000And our meritocracy, which is inherent to our promotion system in the military, lends itself to painting an overly rosy picture on the battlefield.
00:27:31.000So everything's great to the next chain of command.
00:27:39.000And that's why after every year you read the report on Afghanistan that comes out in January, every year for the last 20 years, they read almost exactly the same.
00:27:49.000Everything's great, mission's on track.
00:27:51.000So what happens is people that get shot at every day and wounded every day that are willing to give honest assessments of the battlefield, they get out.
00:28:20.000He's reading Marx and he's studying white rage.
00:28:22.000And so there are, but, you know, how many officers like him that were in his year group got out that weren't willing to play those critic, those sort of fake political games.
00:28:33.000We need leaders like that now that aren't willing to play those games, that are willing to stand up and show courage and say, look, critical race theory is a national security threat.
00:28:42.000You know, Mr. President, like, I get that this is where you want to focus, but our focus needs to be on the mission and this isn't part of it.
00:28:50.000So the first time you joined our program, Sean, it was about all the issues with the 2020 election.
00:28:56.000And on your website, parnellforsenate.com, if anyone wants to support Sean's Senate campaign, parnellforsenate.com, two L's.
00:29:03.000You have a whole election integrity component to this.
00:29:07.000I believe the Pennsylvania election was conducted unconstitutionally and illegally.
00:29:44.000He removed any semblance of a deadline.
00:29:46.000All of those things and rules were changed at the exact same money, at the exact same moment, Mark Zuckerberg dumped millions of dollars into the state of Pennsylvania Zuckerbucks that funded drop boxes, right?
00:30:00.000Obviously, all of those changes were highly unconstitutional.
00:30:03.000But prior to that, in October of 2019, I believe, in October of 2019, the Pennsylvania legislature and our Democrat governor rolled out what's called Act 77.
00:30:17.000Now, Act 77 is Pennsylvania's no excuse absentee ballot law.
00:30:21.000That law is unconstitutional on its face because in order to change the time, place, and manner of an election in the state of Pennsylvania, you've got to, you know, you've got to advertise in three separate newspapers for three months.
00:30:35.000You've got to vote on a constitutional amendment in back-to-back legislative sessions.
00:30:40.000And the most important part of changing the Constitution in Pennsylvania is it needs to be voted on in a referendum, which means it needs to go on the ballot.
00:30:47.000None of that stuff happened, which makes Act 77 unconstitutional on its face.
00:30:52.000Now, the reason you need a constitutional amendment for Act 77 is because the PA state constitution sets forth very clear parameters in which somebody can vote absentee, right?
00:31:03.000Like you're either sick, military service, you're working.
00:31:07.000Bottom line is there is no provision in the Pennsylvania Constitution that allows for no excuse mail-in ballots, and which makes Act 77 unconstitutional.
00:31:23.000It cited 180 years of constitutional case law and 180 years of Pennsylvania Supreme Court case law to support our position.
00:31:35.000Went all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, and we had three justices agree with our perspective in certain ways when citing Pennsylvania cases.
00:31:45.000But Amy Coney, Barrett, and Justice Kavanaugh didn't come through for us.
00:31:50.000But we're still in the fight for election integrity, you know, every single day.
00:31:55.000When was that decision made by it was like March or April of 2020?
00:32:01.000I don't understand how they can possibly say that.
00:32:04.000It says so clearly in the Constitution that the states will select the matter of time and the way the electors are appropriated.
00:32:12.000This was an unconstitutional election.
00:32:14.000I mean, it's certainly certainly, there were certainly, yeah, it was.
00:32:19.000It was absolutely the election in Pennsylvania wasn't free, wasn't fair, which is why we've been in the trenches ever since trying to work with the legislature and help reform the way our elections are conducted.
00:32:31.000And I think we're moving in the right direction.
00:32:34.000I'm so, I'm look, we're going to win in Pennsylvania in 2022, Charlie.
00:32:56.000And then we had our judicial elections in 2021 and we had two ballot questions on there, referendums that would curb Governor Wolf's unilateral authority to declare emergencies in Pennsylvania.
00:33:07.000Republicans won those ballot questions by 139,000 votes.
00:33:12.000So this state is trending more and more Republican every year.
00:33:17.000And in 2022, you know, first of all, we're going to work harder than anybody else in the race.
00:33:22.000There's no question about that, Charlie.
00:33:24.000But I do think that there are going to be hundreds of thousands of independents that maybe voted for Joe Biden thinking he would be a moderate unifier that maybe didn't pay attention until late, or maybe they voted early.
00:33:36.000I think they're going to come back our way.
00:33:44.000Did you know that if you shop at Nike, they turn around and give your hard-earned dollars to pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and the Population Council?
00:33:54.000Did you know that Airbnb gave $500,000 to the Marxist BLM incorporated organization?
00:34:01.000Your first vote is at the ballot box, but that isn't enough to defend our traditional Judeo-Christian values.
00:34:09.000Left-wing corporations are subverting our nation and our republic by taking money from conservative customers and giving it to radical organizations that support abortion, gun control, and critical race theory.
00:34:22.000You have another vote, a second vote at the checkout line, which is why there's a massively important organization called Second Vote that comes in.
00:36:16.000And we got to get behind good young candidates like you, like JD Vance, and many others that are rising up and are thinking about, hey, you know, I want to talk about, you know, real solutions for our country.
00:36:27.000Sean, talk a little bit about that, the generational divide.
00:36:30.000I don't know how old you are, but you know, obviously younger than some of the Septuagarians in Congress.
00:36:38.000Talk about kind of how the generational perspective you'll bring, which would be a fresh young voice to the Senate where it's so desperately needed.
00:36:49.000And so, and that gives when you're, when you talk about being in Afghanistan for 20 years, we've been in Afghanistan for half of my life.
00:36:56.000Just, you know, so this, when I say it's time to go, it comes from that place where I've only all of my adult life, we've been in Afghanistan and it was.
00:37:05.000So, you know, I think, I think that this country desperately needs more leaders, fewer career politicians.
00:37:13.000And I say to people all the time, my intent is not to go to Washington for a career for 50 plus years.
00:37:20.000I think that's a real problem on the Republican and Democrat side.
00:37:23.000Our founders never intended for people to be career politicians.
00:37:27.000Maybe one, maybe two terms, do everything I can to shrink the size and scope of the federal government because I believe that there's a direct correlation between a small federal government and more freedom in your life.
00:37:38.000And what I mean by freedom is your ability.
00:37:40.000I don't care what your political ideology is or where you come from, how much money you make.
00:37:46.000I want you to be able to chart your own path, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
00:37:50.000And the more freedom that you have in your life to do that, the better.
00:37:53.000And then once I accomplish that mission, I'm probably going to buy a nice big farm in Western Pennsylvania and never talk to anybody again.
00:38:01.000There's a, you know, George Washington was the head of something called the Society of Cincinnatus, which is where we name Cincinnati after.
00:38:09.000And Cincinnatus was a Roman general who went and fought the war against the invaders and then went back to his farm afterwards.
00:38:16.000So people who want to do that are right.
00:38:18.000And George Washington did the same thing.
00:38:20.000He was basically the American Cincinnati.
00:38:23.000So I'm going through your website here, parnellforsenate.com, supporting law enforcement, the American dream, strengthening our military.
00:38:31.000What strikes me, Sean, is I read your website word for word.
00:38:35.000And if this, if I would have read your website, I want everyone to do this.
00:38:51.000It's like, you know, pre-existing conditions need to be protected, you know, fighting for the unborn in the Supreme Court.
00:38:57.000You wouldn't be able to tell 10 years ago.
00:38:58.000Like, you know, this is a Republican or Democrat.
00:39:00.000You might be able to tell a little bit, but now it's so clear that you're a Republican.
00:39:05.000Talk about that and how you've seen these parties changed, one into a radical, you know, angry and ugly party and one that really stands for the country.
00:39:16.000Yeah, this is really remarkable to me, by the way, because I come from a sort of union, old school Democrat, Western Allegheny Democrat, Allegheny County, Western Pennsylvania Democrat family and pro-life, pro-gun, hardworking, blue-collar.
00:39:35.000They don't recognize their party anymore, Charlie.
00:39:39.000If you would have told them that four years ago, if you'd have told them four years ago that, hey, you know, the Democrat Party is going to be the party of defunding the police and introducing critical race theory into our military, they would have laughed at you because it was so absurd.
00:39:57.000And that just the Democrat Party, I don't even, that's why I don't attack Democrats in Pennsylvania.
00:40:03.000There are so many Reagan Democrats, pro-life, pro-gun that voted for Trump, too.
00:40:11.000And that's the funny thing about it because I got Republicans in my family too.
00:40:15.000But the Democrats in my family, again, old school Western Pennsylvania Democrats were more pro-Trump than the Republicans in my family, you know?
00:40:24.000And so that's why when I campaign and I talk on the trail, it's never about Democrats.
00:40:32.000It's always about the radical left or the new Democrat Party that is the party of critical race theory, defunding the police, open borders, high crime.
00:40:51.000Like, look at their anti-cop rhetoric, for example, in the state of Pennsylvania has caused a skyrocket, skyrocketing in crime in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
00:41:02.000And it can be directly tied to the defund the police, anti-police rhetoric.
00:41:09.000And it's, they're just, they're just devastating.
00:41:13.000They're just devastating to this country.
00:41:51.000The radical left, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, they're laser focused on the state of Pennsylvania because they know that there's no pathway to the majority in the United States Senate unless they flip this seat.
00:42:06.000It's been in Republicans' hands for 62 years.
00:42:09.000And my promise to the people of Pennsylvania is to be a warrior for the state, to always do what's best on behalf of the people.
00:42:17.000Of course, that means engaging with the radical left and not being afraid to lock horns with them, but it also means standing up to our own party when they're wrong.
00:42:25.000This country desperately, desperately needs more leaders and fewer politicians, and leadership is what I do.
00:42:33.000So if you are looking for a campaign to help, please go to parnellforsenate.com and contribute to the cause because I liken campaign dollars to bullets and a gun in combat.
00:42:47.000If you run out, if you run out of bullets in combat, you're surrounded by the enemy, you're dead.
00:42:51.000You run out of campaign dollars on the campaign trail, not good either.