Ep 116 ｜ Why Vets DEFIED the Taliban in INSANE Rescue Mission ｜ Tim Kennedy ｜ The Glenn Beck Podcast
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 4 minutes
Words per minute
171.95668
Harmful content
Misogyny
18
sentences flagged
Hate speech
39
sentences flagged
Summary
Tim Kennedy is a former UFC fighter, third degree black belt and prolific entrepreneur. He is a cultural commentator, History Channel host, stunt coordinator and self-described gun enthusiast. He makes most of us as guys look bad, and I don t like it. He's the kind of guy who could fight against a grizzly bear and probably would and then win. And then they'd probably cut it up and sear it over a fire that he made himself, chopping down the logs with his bare hands.
Transcript
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In the beginning, there was nothing, and then God created Chuck Norris.
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And Chuck Norris, roundhouse, kicked nothing and told it, get a job.
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He's a former UFC fighter, third-degree black belt, prolific entrepreneur.
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He is a cultural commentator, History Channel host, stunt coordinator, self-described gun enthusiast.
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He makes most of us as guys look bad, and I don't like it.
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He's the kind of guy who could fight against a grizzly bear and probably would and then win.
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And then they'd probably cut it up and sear it over a fire that he made himself, chopping down the logs with his bare hands.
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One of his hobbies is exterminating feral hogs from a helicopter.
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I know that might sound weird, unless you live in the South or in Texas.
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He recently opened a K-12 Acton Academy, full-blown pirate ship, cannons, all of it.
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After his career as an MMA fighter, he enlisted in the Army Special Forces, where he served as a sniper.
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He deployed several times during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom.
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His military uniform has five rows of awards, including a bronze star.
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Those are just some of the accomplishments, you know, in his 17-year military history.
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Even in his post-military career, he's a certified Chuck Norris.
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He just got back from Afghanistan, where he aided non-governmental organizations in rescuing Americans.
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In a recent interview, he said it was a landscape and a battlefield that was something I had never experienced before.
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He's the perfect example of what Americans can become.
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He is one of the more optimistic guys I have talked to in a long time.
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So, next time a frail, self-proclaimed communist brags about the coming revolution, find comfort in the fact that he and Americans like him will be the first ones to defend freedom.
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I want to start with a tweet that you gave, because this is, I remember when we went into
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Afghanistan, no, Iraq, I had worked with a Vietnam vet when I was young, and he was really proud of his service,
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and he was very good at what, he was an elite, an elite troop.
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And he was very proud at what he did, and he was good at what he did.
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And he came home, and he said, the first thing somebody said when he was applying for a job, he said,
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And I remember feeling, I don't ever want to be a part of a generation that treats our service personnel like this.
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And I think we've done a better job, but now with Afghanistan, you just tweeted something.
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We had to do an emergency mission for a veteran who attempted suicide because he didn't get his interpreter out.
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How can the average citizen, what do we do when we know a service personnel that was over there and going through trouble,
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but we can't, we're not going through what they're going through.
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You know, that's a, it's a hard thing to, in an era of social media and, you know, distance contact.
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And, you know, right now we're doing an over Skype interview.
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You know, it's hard to actually connect to people and give them the recognition, appreciation, and value that they deserve for some of the things that they've done.
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And the things that they've done feel really weird right now.
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You know, the Afghan OEF war veterans, you know, was their sacrifice, was the suffering, the blood, the pain, the violence, was that for no reason at all?
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Well, of course there was a reason for it and there was value to it and there, and all of their sacrifice had meaning.
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But right now it's just in this really weird position.
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You have to be hanging out, personal contact, you know, all the regular coping mechanisms that humans need, not distance, to be able to let them talk and let them express.
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Maybe they just need to be there and know that they're valued for, not for what they did, but just for who they are.
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And then everything else is the healing will be a byproduct of time and I think realization of all of the good that we did.
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So does it sound, does it sound, excuse me, I'm coming, I'm going to come at you from a couple of different angles on, you're a man's man.
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I mean, I'm, you know, I've never fought in my life.
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So, excuse me, I barely have a man card, but I still have it.
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But, so let me ask, does it seem, because I've been really trying to get my hands and arms around what's happening in Afghanistan and what has it been worth, but there were 20 years where girls and women were taught, you can't, this is who you should be.
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This is who you can be and that may be lost now, but I don't think that's, I think that's a seed that was planted deeply.
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I mean, freedom is, once that seed's planted, you know, in 1775, you know, as the British were colonizing us and, you know, overreaching in every single regard, a little bit of a taste of freedom where people learned that they could do their own thing and live the life that they wanted to, that women could go to school, that women could be teachers, that women could be engineers.
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You know, like, I am, I'm a feminist, you know, I love everything about the new kind of progressive women movements.
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My wife is a brilliant MBA, finance and economics major and seen Afghanistan 15 years ago and then seen Afghanistan three years ago where there were women shop owners, there were women teachers.
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You know, you know, when I went there, there were guys writing down with scooters and throw it, throwing acid on little girls trying to walk to school.
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Now there were schools completely dedicated to young girls learning to read and to write, you know, like walking through our humanitarian camp.
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So those, those are contagious freedoms, a contagious thing.
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I I've been using this metaphor of a doctor, a doctor that had a patient and that patient had cancer.
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And, uh, for 20 years, that patient was treated by this doctor and the doctor kept cancer at bay through a variety of methods.
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And over 20 years, you know, in his old age, the, the patient finally dies, but that didn't mean that that doctor didn't do a lot of good in that time.
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And while that pipe, that patient may have transpired, may have passed all of the positive things that happened from that person still being alive for 20 years.
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And that's how I'm viewing this Afghanistan situation where yes, 20 years later, this war might have been lost, but we did a lot of good.
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And more importantly, the good that was done, it's a ripple effect, a butterfly effect.
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I know plenty of are now pilots and engineers and shop owners and entrepreneurs and, um, translators.
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So like, you know, you, you can't stop that train once it starts going.
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I don't care if you're the Taliban and you're a bunch of gangster thugs.
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Once that train starts going, you know, it's a hard thing to stop.
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I feel horrible for the girls who never knew it any other way.
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And now they're, you know, 17 years old and you're like, wait a minute, what, what's, what's happening.
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Um, it's one thing to read about it, hear about it from the past and then experience it.
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Um, and, uh, my heart goes out to, uh, my heart goes out to them.
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Um, let's stay on Afghanistan for a little while before we move into some other things.
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Um, the, um, you're, you're involved with Chad, uh, Robichaux, uh, and Mighty Oaks and the
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save our, our coalition or save our allies coalition.
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I know we've talked before and you said, I'm just, I was just an armchair guy, you know,
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Can you tell me a little bit of what you guys are doing?
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Um, so save our allies coalition was put up between two different nonprofits, the Mighty
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Oaks foundation and, um, the independence fund.
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And I had been struggling with going to Afghanistan since, you know, the, the writing was on the
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The moment that president Biden announced that we're going to be moving out myself and
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all of my colleagues knew what was going to happen.
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So we are already looking at ways of getting back into the country.
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And, um, it wasn't until Sarah Verado and Chad Robichaux, two people that I, that I respect
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They both called me within 24 hours and said, Hey, we have these, a few hundred orphan girls
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and, um, Chad, my, my translator is stuck there.
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And all of these orphan girls are going to be, uh, executed.
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I mean, that might be the best thing that would happen to them.
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So for the first time, there was a reason there's a purpose.
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And, uh, it wasn't like, let's go be rad, do commando stuff.
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So I became part of a four man task force that went onto the ground to Kabul.
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We had two separate elements, one in, uh, Washington DC and one Ford in the UAE.
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That was going to be our host and partner nation to help people get it, to help us get people
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Um, we had a very complex team coming from the most elite special operations units on
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He was our team leader on the ground and he just exhibited extraordinary professionalism.
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He has been doing a personnel recovery his entire life.
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Uh, there were two other SF guys that comprised of the four man team.
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Um, so the 12 guys that were in UAE, they were receiving intelligence from DC to put together
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our target, target packages of who we're going to go and recover.
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Uh, and then we had a very complex bona fides vetting process to confirm that we're getting
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And then ultimately it was getting air, getting ramps, finding the people, smuggling them through
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the Taliban and American lines, and then putting them on our planes and some of your planes and,
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Can you tell me a little bit, uh, can you, can you tell me a little bit about, uh, cause
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I've heard this from a couple of people about the sewage tunnels.
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A rat line, a rat line is it's a term that's been around for a long time.
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Um, you know, the Russians and Americans are coming in.
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There are rat lines by the Vietnamese, by the Viet Cong, you know, a rat line is just a
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line that goes behind enemy lines, whether it's a supply line or an evacuation line.
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Um, we had rat lines all over the whole entire base of the airport in Kabul and, um, the, the
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one at Abbey gate, which is what you're referring to.
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There was a culvert that was just adjacent to the main gate.
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If you think of like a canal in California, like the California, it was just a big cement
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Sometimes it was water, uh, during, um, I, I've been there during the spring and the
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snow melt, all the water from the snow melt would be running through this culvert.
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But what it did was it circumvented one of the gates, the Abbey gate, and we raised the
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So you could go through this culvert drain and not get stuck in the concertina wire.
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So we were able to smuggle in hundreds of people in a really short amount of time as
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they could just walk up this, um, cement culvert.
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And, uh, obviously the Taliban learned that this was one of our rat lines.
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And that was one of, that was the place that they bombed.
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It was one of many places that they attacked, but it was the place that ultimately they,
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uh, they went and blew up and killed those heroic Marines.
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How is the, um, I mean, I have to, I have to say that the military is unbelievable.
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It is so important that we have a military that is run by civilians, but man, when you have
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a military run by civilians, it can go this bad because they don't have a, they don't know
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Um, uh, and if they don't let the military do their job, um, and clearly define what that
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But I will tell you, I'm impressed that these were all lawful orders.
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They were awful, but they were lawful and nobody, I mean, I got to believe that those
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Marines and everybody else on the ground were just dying inside because they knew they could
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And yet they didn't, they stood the line, which is remarkable.
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Um, the Marines that were at the Abbey gate when the bomb went off, uh, they, there, there
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was very, very good intelligence that there was a bomb coming and it was coming to that
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Not only were they in Kabul in Afghanistan during the withdrawal, which is extraordinary.
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The fact that they were on the ground is beyond heroic and you know, I can get goosebumps just
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This isn't running towards the sound of gunfire because you know, the evil's there.
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You're going to a spot where, you know, a bomb is coming and you're waiting.
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It might be surrounded by a hundred women and children, but you are going to be the one thing
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that stops evil, you know, health, fury, chaos, anarchy, pain, and suffering.
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You're the stop gap between that and everything else behind you, which is people on planes
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trying to fight for their lives with absolute despair.
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You know, the level of heroism, when you think about those, those young, they're, they're
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Like there's a picture of that beautiful young woman holding that Afghan child.
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You know, she died in that gate that day and about the Testament to who those people
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were, who those Marines were and the sacrifice that they made.
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They knew a bomb was coming and they were there.
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The, the Taliban, they, they, the white houses said that this was ISIS, but please describe
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the, I mean, I think we, we set people up, we put them in a kill box, you know, surrounded
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But there were three checkpoints that the Taliban had, and it was an extraordinarily large suicide
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So you, you can't make a distinction between ISIS-K and Taliban.
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I mean, I, I, I obviously, um, I was there as a volunteer for a nonprofit.
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So my capacity in Kabul, this last time I was a hundred percent, just a volunteer working
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for them, but I'm still in the, um, and so what the white house says and does when I'm
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in official capacity, like I, I'm going to toe the line, but, uh, in, in real intelligence,
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ISIS-K and Taliban, they're this, they're feathers, different feathers from the same
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It's, it's the radical wing of the same movement.
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And if you look at the people that are running ISIS-K, it's the exact same people that were,
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um, leaders of the Taliban just a year or two ago.
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So, um, it's not like these are different people that have changed or morphed their ideas.
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Somehow the Taliban is now a political organization.
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No, they're, they're just putting a face on to try and receive some support and funds to,
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you know, to get lists about who are they're allowed to go and kill.
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But to be super, super clear, ISIS-K and Taliban are the exact same organization.
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So to think that the Taliban stopped an ISIS-K bomber, um, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's
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insulting to the lives of the, of the, the service members that died that way.
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They blew up the Abbey Gate, killed a bunch of Marines.
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Was there any reason to leave all of this stuff behind the 33 Blackhawks?
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The, I mean, I know I live in a cartoon world, but there should be a self-destruct button on
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some of these things, or we should have bombed them.
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If we knew we were going to leave them or that, that, that the Afghan army stopped using
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You know, everybody's toting this $85 billion of military equipment that was left behind.
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Um, we laid out, we, um, the military that was on the ground, not me, the, our American
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counterparts laid out arms on the ground and they rolled them over with dozers.
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Um, you know, they, they, they put water and sugar inside of gas tanks.
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They, you know, they put C4 on important mechanisms inside of helicopters.
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So none of those aircraft that were left in Kabul are, are, are going to function.
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I saw an article this morning how the Taliban was infuriated that most of the aircraft left
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at Kabul airport were not functional and that those were actually long to the Afghan people
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and that they're, that they're furious that those things weren't left in functioning order.
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Um, there is a great debate that, uh, this is expected at the end of war.
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Uh, I can't think of any other war that America has fought, even Vietnam that has ended this
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Is there any, as just looking at pure history, is there anything to compare to this?
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Um, no, um, I mean, I, I've been in working in special operations for 17 years.
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I've never seen anything like this in my life and, um, you know, I've worked for the history
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I, I am a studier of history because I believe it's, it, it predicts what's going to happen
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And, um, this is unprecedented, but the way that we withdrew from Afghanistan was unique.
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Um, we have not previously done anything like this in our country's history.
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And, um, and I, I think it will be a great learning lesson moving forward about how not
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Um, but, uh, you know, this is, this is not how wars are won, how they're fought or how
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So there was a, um, there was a, a story that came out today that the white house is
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And normally I would, you know, I, I'm, I, I don't want to be fighting wars all over the
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world, but I don't mind leaving forces around to stop bad guys from doing bad things.
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Um, but I just don't want to be the world's policeman.
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Um, but it scares the hell out of me knowing that the people that are currently in the
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administration were the ones that dropped a pallet full of cash onto the Iranian air
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If, if we leave Iraq, isn't that a clear path from China all the way to the Mediterranean
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and a really easy caliphate to be produced there?
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Uh, we're still in Germany and we're still in Japan.
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We have a larger presence in both of those countries than we do in Iraq or Afghanistan during
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I don't know where the messaging got crossed, where our troops being in those countries for
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a prolonged period of time was perceived as a bad thing.
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Um, do, are we needed in a large presence in Iraq?
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But on like a national strategic level, um, having bases, forward operating bases that,
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that give us a foothold and are able to prevent our enemies and China and Russia are our enemies
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And that we are in a degree of warfare with both of them, having Iraq and Afghanistan and
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having a footprint in both of those is, is a priceless value.
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I, I do not dictate strategic policy, but, um, I, I definitely don't want China or Russia
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to have a direct shot to the Mediterranean through, um, you know, Albania, Romania, all
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the way down into Greece, uh, just because we are going to cave to political talking points
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Is anybody going to be held responsible for this in the Pentagon?
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I mean, is it, uh, I mean, it seems like in today's world, no one ever pays a price.
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And so when you do that, that's like the bailouts from the banks.
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Well, they learned, oh, there's no cost to my, my mistakes.
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Is anybody's feet going to be held to the fire on this?
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Well, let's not forget that we were a country of laws, but we're also a country where the
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people have the power, um, there are 13 fathers and there's 13 mothers and, uh, there's 13
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brothers and sisters and husbands and wives of those Marines that just died.
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Um, you want to talk about compelling, powerful voice, those voices right now, demanding answers
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Um, you know, that that's the power of the people.
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We, we have the power to talk to our representatives.
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Like we are their constituents, they are representatives of us.
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So you can pick up the phone and you can call them and say, I demand answers of what this,
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And, um, only through the proper legal channels do I think that the consequences for that,
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Um, I'm, I'm, we, you know, you, as you know, we save our close, our, our allies and
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Uh, we don't have time right now to focus on anything else besides saving lives.
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We're trying to save people right now and, um, and prevent further loss of life.
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And I think it's why you just said in every legal way, um, I, I'm with you.
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I, I am very afraid, you know, this, this country, um, the left has tried to paint everybody
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who disagrees with them as a radical extremist to terrorist even.
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Um, and you know, there are, if, if there isn't pressure relieved in some way or another,
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somebody's going to do some on all sides, it doesn't matter.
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And if that happens, we, we could transform into a very different country.
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And so I guess what I'm kind of asking you, and, and, and it's also goes back in some ways
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to the first question I asked you, what can we do?
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Because we don't want there's, we are split.
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And we have to find that bridge back to each other.
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Afghanistan's not that bridge, you know, that they're, that, um, women in Afghanistan are
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Women in Afghanistan are not going to be able to learn.
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Little girls are not going to be able to go to school.
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Like, um, if there's somebody on the far left, okay.
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Hey, do you want girls to be able to go to school?
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Me, do you think that, that our Marines should be dying over there as they're sacrificing
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their lives, trying to get the women that learned how to read and went to school and
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Do you think that people should be held accountable and responsible for what happened over there?
00:28:59.940
Now let's come together and try and find solutions to prevent this from ever happening
00:29:04.640
again and make sure that people that made it happen are held accountable for the bad
00:29:10.060
What do you think of the, uh, Marine Colonel that, uh, that, uh, resigned his commission,
00:29:17.600
uh, because he just was asking for accountability.
00:29:23.920
Um, wearing the uniform is a great responsibility.
00:29:26.540
And with that responsibility, uh, comes some restrictions and limitations, you know,
00:29:32.040
as, as you, you've asked some questions that I have skirted, um, that's the, the response.
00:29:39.640
We, we have a bigger responsibility and that's having the flag on our shoulder.
00:29:42.980
And, um, you know, we have a chain of command and there's, there are clear communication pathways
00:29:48.280
that are vertical and how we for our chain of command.
00:29:51.500
Um, so if I have a grievance about something, I can be a whistleblower.
00:29:54.680
I have that authority to be able to say, there's a problem here.
00:29:57.720
Let me go through the whistleblower process, or let me go through my chain of command and
00:30:03.100
Um, I have a huge social media presence, you know, like I could say things on there that
00:30:13.800
I, I stay purposed to try to make positive change.
00:30:20.000
Um, and, and also not get fired, you know, a really gentle line.
00:30:28.900
And, uh, you know, sometimes I misstep slightly and I get corrected and I get a great
00:30:35.100
Um, but, uh, man, it's, it is really hard to wear the uniform, the first amendment and
00:30:44.620
I mean, they'd have to, but we swore to protect the constitution to include the first amendment,
00:30:52.360
So was his problem, was his problem that he didn't resign first because he said, I I've
00:30:59.540
seen others do it the other way where they did it within the system.
00:31:08.120
It's, it's a really, the military is a big bureaucratic process.
00:31:12.380
And like the Titanic, you would have had to turn that helm miles and miles back, not to
00:31:20.860
Um, it's, it's the same in that regard where it feels like changes aren't made, but changes
00:31:33.900
You know, we, we, we, we've struggled with, um, sexual harassment within military for a
00:31:41.520
And, you know, just in my military career, seeing going from don't ask, don't tell to,
00:31:47.260
um, like, let's not even pretend it exists to, okay, now everybody's welcome to, we're
00:31:53.300
an inclusive military to now directly talking about how to prevent sexual harassment in
00:31:59.820
Um, these, these are really great changes that happened just in the time that I have
00:32:05.320
Um, you know, where you think, see things like the young woman that was killed in Fort
00:32:09.980
hood, um, that had a long, that had years of sexual assault in her military career.
1.00
00:32:17.440
Well, we're seeing good things happen within the chain of command and through the legal process.
00:32:23.340
Um, that doesn't mean that you can't, we're also a, a people of rebels.
00:32:31.780
My, uh, and I think we have a great heritage of being rebels.
00:32:35.140
And if there were a cause, I joke sometimes with my command that don't put me on a hill
00:32:41.100
that is worth dying on, um, because I'll die on that hill.
00:32:46.060
You know, like I will happily flush my career in the toilet if it's the right problem and I
00:32:50.640
can't fix it through the normal channels, but I still have faith in the system.
00:32:54.100
Um, and I, I work for some really incredible people that I have a lot of faith in.
00:32:57.840
How can this, their army and military be such a behemoth and bureaucratic nightmare?
00:33:04.200
And yet it seems to be the only thing really that works well.
00:33:10.100
Is it the, is it the people down at the bottom?
00:33:13.700
Is it, yeah, that they just have a different attitude.
00:33:20.040
Yeah, that's, it's really intuitive and perceptive of you to it.
00:33:25.220
That there was a belief in a young boy or a young girl that walked into recruiter's office
00:33:33.640
I'm like this, all volunteer military, every, every one of those Marines that died on that
00:33:38.080
wall at the Abbey gate, they volunteered to be there.
00:33:41.400
And, and that, that, that thing that compels somebody to service is a very powerful thing.
00:33:47.080
That's, that is first a characteristic in a person.
00:33:50.680
Now we have millions of those people that we kind of shape and create into, and we, we morph
00:33:56.920
them into what we need them to be in the military, which is people that can contribute with a
00:34:01.500
servant's heart and to lead and to, and to believe that in the greater good and knowing
00:34:06.920
that their sacrifices has, that's a powerful thing.
00:34:10.260
Can that, because I think that, you know, there is something about the people that serve,
00:34:18.500
they, and not, this is not universally true, just like not every cop is bad or every cop
00:34:26.040
Um, but generally speaking, it seems as though they are, they believe in something honorable
00:34:41.560
And, you know, the few, the proud, the Marines, those kinds of things that we were raised in
00:34:47.620
and steeped in helps select those people that you're not going in for, you know, adventure
00:35:01.340
And now that may be just an idealistic look at things, but I think that's the way a lot
00:35:06.940
of people in the military feel or have felt when they got into it.
00:35:11.960
Can that, when they got, when they got to, when they got it, yeah, that goes away.
00:35:19.440
I mean, um, it's always there, you know, like there, even now I'm two years away from retirement
00:35:24.780
and there's like a string in my heart that's, um, that will always compel me into that service.
00:35:30.080
You know, like I don't need the military, you know, like I'm a successful entrepreneur
00:35:34.200
with seven businesses, but man, you're going to have to fight.
00:35:38.780
Cause I, I can't leave this amazing organization and all of the good that they do all over the world.
00:35:46.120
So let me, let me pivot here on, you are a very successful guy.
00:35:52.200
You are one of those people that people like me hate.
00:35:56.640
Um, you know, cause I look, I look at, I'm like, I am such a slug.
00:36:00.400
I am such a slug, seven successful businesses, uh, obviously very successful military career.
00:36:18.280
I think it's something uniquely American, but what is it in you that is driving you that drives you like this?
00:36:26.920
Um, so in the center, my, my, uh, my executive, I actually just got worked working out with Justin,
00:36:34.720
my CEO of and CEO of a couple of our businesses.
00:36:37.340
And we're talking about has anything shifted about what our purpose is.
00:36:43.040
So we have this Venn diagram in, in our office and in the center of it is my purpose for being on earth.
00:36:49.620
It's the reason that God made me, which is, and, um, to preserve and protect human life and to expand freedom.
00:36:56.880
And, uh, and I think you're a hundred percent spot on when you said it's, it's uniquely American.
00:37:01.820
And that is a very American thing to preserve and protect human life and to expand freedom.
00:37:11.420
And I, and when, when, when he made me, I'm not a special mold.
00:37:14.800
There are millions of other people that have that exact same mold that have those exact same
00:37:24.580
So everything that I do, whether it's my businesses or fighting or going, hopping as a volunteer
00:37:31.440
for a nonprofit on an airplane into Kabul in the middle of the night, 36 hours after
00:37:35.760
I get the call, it still has to connect to the sole reason in the center of that Venn
00:37:40.580
diagram of why I'm on this planet, the purpose of my, of me being here.
00:37:48.640
And then the next question is, how can I, if that's my mission, how can I expand that
00:37:57.380
You know, like if I'm going on a TV show or if I'm going to get on this podcast with
00:38:00.600
you, um, I think you and I both agree that us talking about these things expands that
00:38:06.640
You have, you, you have donated and I don't know if I'll just go and throw you under the
00:38:15.800
The planes that you sent in and the financial support that you sent to, to save our allies
00:38:21.120
I can send you pictures today, Glenn, of babies that were born in the humanitarian center that
00:38:34.700
It's a brand new baby that was born today in our humanitarian center.
00:38:38.620
And his dad was a translator and he would have been murdered in Afghanistan five days ago.
1.00
00:38:48.080
So, so that to answer your wrong way, that's the reason why.
00:38:52.080
So now, and I'm sorry, I, I grew up in, you know, the Muhammad Ali era, uh, you know,
00:39:00.340
George Foreman and, and boxing, which my mother used to say, it's such a brutal sport.
00:39:09.320
Now, MMA, while it's not the most brutal of sports, how does that, what was it, rescue
00:39:26.880
Um, the skills of being like a special forces guy and being a fighter, I argue that you could
00:39:34.320
walk into a lot of special forces ODAs and randomly grab a guy off the A team and throw
00:39:40.280
him in the octagon and he would fight at a very, very high level.
00:39:43.220
Um, so, and vice versa, a lot of fighters have a lot of great characteristics that would
00:39:51.360
Um, so that overlap of those kinds of connected bubbles made it, I'm fighting while I'm in
00:40:00.920
And then you might have the greatest product in the world.
00:40:04.640
You might have the greatest idea in the world, but ultimately you still have to get it out
00:40:09.140
And, uh, and fighting was a means to the end in that regard where, you know, an opportunity
00:40:15.500
to get in front of millions of people and to, to spread the gospel of, of my ideas, which
00:40:25.640
But it put it in my face, you know, that I could, that I could talk about these ideas.
00:40:30.320
And you thought, um, having people kick you in the face was the, was the, would give me
00:40:47.760
Can I, let me just explore this with you just for a second more, um, on two things.
00:40:56.640
Uh, I know so many guys that feel this way and, but we're all wusses.
00:41:03.500
Um, just can't stand watching women just beating each other up.
1.00
00:41:12.220
I, uh, I know it's sexist, I guess, I guess it's sexist to say, I just, I don't, I, I see
00:41:21.360
It's less bad when a woman is hitting a woman, but to see them just kick the snot out of each
1.00
00:41:31.700
Well, I've seen a couple of, I don't watch, I don't have TV.
00:41:35.860
So I, so there, there's a, there's one of my favorite episodes and this sounds horrible
00:41:40.240
is, uh, Beth is the woman and she's just, I mean, she will kick your ass six ways to
1.00
00:41:51.660
She's one of the greatest characters I think ever on television.
00:41:54.820
And there's this scene where she is brutally raped.
00:41:58.740
And I have to tell you, I've never seen, I know, listen, I know this sounds bad, but
00:42:07.120
I've always skipped past it or turn away from it because it's always awful.
00:42:10.600
But this one, she's fighting back and she's like, really, that's the best you have.
00:42:15.940
And there is something about that, that my wife even said, I love her.
00:42:24.160
But, um, the women in the octagon, um, they, they're most extraordinary athletes.
00:42:29.100
Uh, they, they have a true fighter spirit and, um, I, I've, I've been fortunate to,
00:42:34.500
uh, watch women's MMA go from, you know, kind of this taboo thing to they're the main
1.00
00:42:43.060
Um, I think the women fighter are better than a lot.
1.00
00:42:45.940
A lot of the men fighters and the current women champions are, I would say pound for pound
00:42:52.060
If you take gender out of it entirely, the, some of the women champions are just extraordinary
00:42:58.480
And I don't know the difference between a woman marathoner to a man marathoner to a woman
0.99
00:43:03.060
fighter, to a man fighter, you know, like it's all the same to me.
00:43:05.860
It's like, if, if my daughter is going to be a president or if she wants to go fight, fly
00:43:10.020
a plane, or she wants to go be a professional fighter, uh, ultimately it's her.
0.81
00:43:16.400
So there is one thing that I have, uh, told both my son and my daughter.
00:43:25.540
I'm not even going to hear it unless you know how to defend yourself.
00:43:32.760
Um, and my daughter hasn't really started and she's 15.
00:43:38.120
And I say, you have to, you have to know how to defend yourself.
00:43:43.280
What is the, she's, she's like, I, dad, I don't want to do all the, what is the best
00:44:02.640
Uh, one of the, one of my companies is sheepdog response and we're a defensive tactics, self
00:44:07.860
And, um, in a three day course, obviously you don't learn how to defend and protect yourself
00:44:14.000
But what you learn is you get, you get on a path of all that you learn what you need
00:44:24.540
You're like your daughter and I probably have a lot of different, uh, characteristics, right?
00:44:29.120
I'm a 220 pound, it's scarred up ogre and she's young, pretty and small arena.
1.00
00:44:35.160
Um, I don't walk out of a Walmart and worry if somebody is going to rape me.
00:44:40.360
Um, like I, I stepped out and I'm like, man, I wish somebody would try.
00:44:46.620
Um, so we have to have different tools and those tools, our minds have to work differently.
00:44:51.820
Um, you have, those are practice rehearsed tools that take a lot of time to develop situational
00:45:02.660
Am I notifying my dad when I get out of the car?
00:45:05.460
Um, you know, does he let me, does he know that I'm walking out to the parking lot right
00:45:09.540
There's a lot of different things that we can do in the 21st century that take, um, safety
00:45:16.920
Like they are practice rehearsed things that, that are a skill and they're a perishable skill.
00:45:23.440
I believe in the basics of shooting and I believe in the basics of situational awareness for
00:45:28.420
And, um, and we have courses that built around that, but seriously, send her to me for, for
0.86
00:45:36.420
Um, I I'll tell you, I've had, um, I've had protection now for gosh, 15 years.
00:45:42.720
Um, and my detail has gone from six people to two people at different times.
00:45:48.180
Um, and there is, you know, it's perishable skill.
00:45:52.160
I didn't realize how perishable any kind of situational awareness really is when you are constantly
00:46:03.060
shepherd, you know, somebody is a shepherd and they're moving you and they're looking
00:46:08.660
You're just allowed to think, have the conversations that you want.
00:46:13.920
The first time that I said, guys, I don't, I don't need you this weekend.
00:46:19.480
I went to the mall and I almost had like a panic attack because it all, I, I was doing
00:46:26.520
what everybody does every day, but it was gone.
00:46:29.760
And I don't think people understand how perishable that is and how built in that is with all
00:46:38.520
Um, I explained, you know, like your brain's a supercomputer and you have a certain amount
00:46:42.840
of bandwidth and the more efficient, more effective you are at that, the more that you're
00:46:48.700
allowed, the more able you are to process information and the more you're able to see.
00:46:53.800
Um, the first time a bomb ever went off on a door and I went into a shoot house to execute
0.69
00:47:04.300
Like I was literally like trying to see what was happening in this house, looking through
00:47:08.920
And then by the 200 or 400 thousandth time that I did it, I could see everything.
00:47:13.820
I could see the guys, the instructors on the catwalks.
00:47:18.080
I could hear his finger move the selector from safe to fire.
00:47:23.100
It's the same with situational awareness, right?
00:47:25.320
The first time that like I went into a foreign country in a non-permissive environment and
00:47:29.960
I, I was just like so focused on, Oh my God, that has a guy, that guy's a target.
00:47:36.340
Like I couldn't even process what was happening around me.
00:47:38.520
But then by like the 15th time, you know, I could see everything.
00:47:43.520
I could smell, Oh man, I'm in, there's a great restaurant next door to here.
00:47:49.000
Uh, but you're, you're a hundred percent right.
00:47:50.800
That is, it is a practiced, rehearsed, perishable thing that you have to do diligently and often
00:48:02.640
I should probably shouldn't say this on a podcast, but I feel like we're just having
00:48:13.020
I tried to, I tried, you know, joke with him and say, and like, like I thought he was going
00:48:27.380
Cause he, well, he, in three hours here, he never broke it.
00:48:34.000
I, I have a, I have one of the guys on my team is, uh, uh, former Royal Navy, uh, commander
00:48:40.900
or not Navy, uh, Royal Marine commander from Scotland.
00:48:44.200
And that guy is just, yeah, he's a good, he's a good guy.
00:48:48.920
Um, and, uh, and I said to him, I'm always tease.
00:48:54.760
I'll always come up to them and say, like, if you were here, I'd say, I got to tell you,
00:48:59.360
Tim, I don't think this, but Craig over there said, he just could kick your ass.
00:49:16.860
So let me ask you a fight between you and Jocko.
00:49:22.620
Uh, I would, I would, I would mop the, the, the whole entire mat bald head.
00:49:29.360
Um, he better say, he better say the same thing about you mopping him.
0.96
00:49:36.700
He better say that he could mop the mat with my face.
00:49:42.800
Um, let me, um, let me go to, uh, the, um, sheepdog mentality.
00:49:52.880
And I, I think again, this is uniquely American.
00:50:03.320
And then if you would go back to uniquely American, why is this here?
00:50:10.880
And without being a slam on other nations, why do you say it's not elsewhere?
00:50:16.480
So Colonel Grossman coined the term sheepdog in the metaphor that we use.
00:50:22.840
Um, uh, it's, I'll just give you this brief analogy.
00:50:28.220
Um, you have the sheep, which are just regular people living their lives.
0.52
00:50:32.960
They're eating grass or making little sheep, right?
00:50:34.960
They're just kind of living and there's nothing wrong with being a sheep.
00:50:37.300
The vast majority of people are sheep and God bless them because sheep are amazing.
00:50:48.320
Then you have the wolf and, um, that's a natural predator that looks for the weakest of the herd
00:50:53.700
to, to, to feed itself for the sole purpose of its own, for its own self worth.
00:51:03.640
Sometimes it's kills for just its own nourishment, but the wolf is exclusively a predatory thing
00:51:12.220
The sheepdog genetically is, is a descendant of the wolf.
00:51:25.300
It knows that it's going to tap the neck and speak fully and knows all of these things.
00:51:29.300
The only thing that makes it different than the wolf is that it likes the sheep.
00:51:34.120
It values the sheep and it, there's something in it that makes it want to protect the
00:51:38.880
sheep and they'll, they'll even at their own, at the expense of their own life, they'll
00:51:47.120
And I know that there's a lot of people that have that thing in them.
00:51:50.100
They don't know why they can't let, you know, I don't, I think I was 16 years old
00:51:56.020
and I was walking down San Luis Obispo and, um, a guy hit a girl in front of me.
00:52:01.840
I'm just, just smashed her in the face, waiting for an elevator to go up into a parking
00:52:09.920
I was just walking and I cracked this dude in the face, put him on the ground, got on
00:52:14.460
And I hit him probably 10 or 15 times till the elevator door opened.
00:52:17.900
Then I stood up, got in, took my bloody hand, pressed number three, got in my car and drove
00:52:21.940
And my dad was super pissed at me because I came home with bloody hands.
00:52:26.020
But, um, did you just say I came home bloody again?
00:52:31.840
Um, again, another difference between you and me, uh, I don't, I don't think you could
00:52:38.400
stand there and you, you, you might've done something different, right?
00:52:44.660
You're doing something because you can't let something bad like that happen.
00:52:48.520
There was no reason for us in 1942 to be sitting here and be like, all right, I'm just
00:52:55.900
going to be okay with them gassing and burning all those Jews.
1.00
00:53:01.160
There's not, there's not a single American that would stand there and say that that type
00:53:08.760
We're like, get on the boats, get on the boats, boats, boys.
00:53:11.340
We're going overseas and we're fighting fascism.
00:53:13.380
You know, fast forward to a variety of wars where the impetus was, we have to go over there
00:53:20.280
because the wrong that is happening cannot be allowed.
00:53:25.400
If we're the same species, there's no way that I'm going to let that happen.
00:53:31.140
So tell me because I don't know if that's waning or if it's exactly the same.
00:53:41.080
We're buying iPhones that were made by slaves.
0.91
00:53:51.600
She was over at a friend of my, a friend of mine's house.
00:53:55.820
Uh, he was around Christmas and she had escaped a few months before he had gotten her out of
00:54:00.680
China and they were taking all the stuff out of a box for Christmas.
00:54:04.180
And she was handed the, the big ball of Christmas lights.
00:54:07.300
I don't know why they gave her the worst job, but he's like, just untangle these.
00:54:11.440
He looks over in about 10 minutes and she is crying.
00:54:16.140
And she said, these are the lights that I made.
00:54:20.980
These were, I was making these when I was a slave because I believed in Christ.
00:54:26.240
We're buying our stuff from the, we know that the concentration camps are over there.
00:54:32.100
And yet there's something in us that's outraged.
00:54:35.340
And yet, uh, you're, you say we, a lot, um, I'm, I'm, I'm going to push back a little
00:54:45.300
I've never seen a movement of buy American made as strong as right now.
00:54:50.780
So of the seven that I own, I'm trying to shift all manufacturing to the United States.
00:54:56.600
Jocko Willink himself, you know, cause we're going to bring them up again.
00:54:58.860
You know, he, they said that never again would soft goods be manufactured in the United States.
00:55:04.160
Well, let me introduce you to Jocko Willink in origin, right?
00:55:13.860
There's something happening there where Americans, I hope are realizing that that phone in their
00:55:19.120
hand, or they want to spend $5 left less on Amazon and buy China made cool.
00:55:26.460
You are also contributing to what will be a war in our future with a foreign nation that
1.00
00:55:32.220
does not say share our same values or, or you can go ahead and start right now by an American
00:55:38.280
made making in America, figure out a way to do everything in America.
00:55:42.640
So dime D I M E diplomatic information, military and economic.
00:55:48.700
And we are currently at war and three of them with China and Russia.
00:56:05.960
And then of course, economically, man, we are at war with them.
00:56:09.400
So you guys better figure it out and start buying American made or where it's going to
00:56:16.280
I will tell you what, 15 years ago, I started making jeans when Levi's said, you know, they
00:56:25.740
want to be the, the official uniform of the revolution.
00:56:30.240
And I was like, Hmm, I love Levi's, but I'm not, I'm not for that.
00:56:35.660
Uh, and started making them at the, at the cone denim, uh, factory who they were really
00:56:41.940
expensive at the time, but things have changed and people have changed.
00:56:48.500
When we realized, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, we don't make our own medicine
00:56:58.320
If they, if, I mean, I, I said to my wife yesterday, we ordered it.
00:57:06.480
And they keep telling me it'll be done in two weeks.
00:57:11.380
But anyway, um, we just got news that the stove we ordered is now possibly another year
00:57:23.020
And I said, I think I know what it's like to live in a country.
00:57:34.460
I've had so many of those experiences because nothing is made here.
00:57:38.660
And it kind of wakes you up going, we're really screwed.
00:57:46.660
Um, I, I see a new wave of entrepreneurs that they're focused.
00:57:50.460
This is American made, American manufactured, American sourced, American materials.
00:57:55.380
Um, we're launching a suppressor company and, um, not only be looking at being American
00:58:02.800
made, American owned, American assembled, but all materials to be made from Texas.
00:58:16.460
And it's, it's, it's, it's, I think things, I don't know, maybe it's just the groups that
00:58:21.380
I'm traveling with, but, um, there's definitely energy around America made, you know, when
00:58:26.140
you're, when you're reading online that if you are vitamin D deficient, um, that you have
00:58:33.120
a higher risk of having something bad happen to you from COVID.
00:58:36.760
Uh, and then you can't get any water soluble vitamins because they're all from China and
1.00
00:58:50.720
What happened to, uh, I mean, I know you're, you're friends with Joe Rogan and I think he's
00:58:56.540
just getting, I think this is insane what's happening with COVID where he's like, Hey,
00:59:06.560
I had a bad case of it, but I think it would have been much worse if I hadn't have been
00:59:12.440
Uh, and there was a few other things, uh, I can't remember what they were.
00:59:16.780
It's been about a year, but I took drugs that are, you know, that had been prescribed for
00:59:25.120
Why is all of a sudden that so wrong to do and you get hammered like Joe is getting hammered
00:59:33.720
I, it is a really, really dangerous precedence when we are making medicine politicized.
00:59:40.960
Um, I, I hope every doctor right now is freaking out over, um, I mean, the writings on the wall
00:59:52.060
that this, this is a slippery slope of setting a precedent of being able to limit people's
00:59:56.660
freedoms off of medical necessity and then telling doctors what they're allowed to do and
01:00:02.680
what they're allowed to do is being governed by not medicine and not science, but by political
01:00:13.400
Uh, if it's, if it's good for you and your doctors for it, go for it.
01:00:22.100
Speaking of health, uh, the vast majority of everybody that died of COVID died from COVID
01:00:31.920
Um, almost every single, the two leading causes of death in the United States are weight related
01:00:39.280
So, um, the cost of my healthcare as a young, healthy person with young, healthy children
01:00:45.880
and a young, healthy wife, I am paying an exorbitant amount for my healthcare because
01:00:56.920
Like this new trend of accepting anybody for their shape.
01:01:04.180
And you're doing, uh, if I, you know, I spend a lot of my time.
01:01:10.520
The moment I get on that plane and I, I fly, I land in Atlanta or I land in Miami or whatever
01:01:17.860
And I get off the plane and I look around, I'm like, uh, I'm back in America.
01:01:22.680
I hope that person's diabetes doesn't get on me.
01:01:38.440
I think you were talking directly to me about being fat and I was a little offended by it.
01:01:52.780
Um, let, let's, um, let's just end it here on, um, Texas.
01:02:12.860
Well, first let me explain what central California.
01:02:18.980
I talked to Californians all the time and they're like, I'm from California, but wait, let me
01:02:29.800
And all I did growing up was fixing barbed wire and fighting with Mexicans best way to
1.00
01:02:35.440
You know, um, the, my, my family, they are militant conservatives because they're surrounded,
01:02:42.780
you know, San Francisco's three hours North LA or South, um, Sacramento's four hours Northeast.
01:02:48.480
And, um, every single one of these blue collar agricultural towns, you know, past Robles and
01:02:55.060
a Tascadero, you know, into Salinas and Bakersfield and Fresno.
01:02:59.300
They're very, very, um, conservative, but they're militant conservatives because they're
01:03:05.020
surrounded by these people that are governing them.
01:03:08.160
And, uh, so I enlisted out on nine 11 and, uh, I never went back to California after I left
01:03:15.880
So I came to Texas and Texas, all my kids are Texans and I'm a Texas, I'm a Texan, Glenn.
01:03:22.320
My son, we adopted him here in the, from the Dallas area.
01:03:30.080
And we were talking about moving to Texas for, we had never talked about Texan attitude
01:03:36.340
And he's sitting at the dinner table and he said, you know, I will be the only natural
01:03:54.660
It is a, it's a, it's a pleasure to talk to you.
01:03:58.040
Um, and thank you for all of the good work that you do and the, just the good vibes that
01:04:06.160
It's hard to be positive right now for a lot of people.
01:04:12.820
It's a choice to choose, choose to be positive.
01:04:23.120
Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast and pass this on to a friend