00:00:00.000Hello, everybody. This is Lou Dobbs. President Biden is at the emergency NATO summit meeting in Brussels as the 30-nation alliance is meeting to plan their strategy to further sanction Russia for its war against Ukraine and for putting the alliance itself now at considerable risk.
00:00:19.800NATO has, for the first time in its history, activated the NATO Response Force and deployed 40,000 troops along the eastern flank of NATO, the Baltic states, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, and Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria.
00:00:40.460Welcome to the Great America Show. We thank you for joining us.
00:00:44.320Russians are continuing their onslaught against Ukraine. They've devastated the city of Maripol in southeastern Ukraine and killed thousands of its residents.
00:00:56.580The bombardment, the shelling of the entire country, and in particular Kiev and other major cities, goes on.
00:01:03.880The Russians may be stalled, but they are devastating city after city. Day after day, their attacks go on, killing and wounding thousands of Ukrainians, now trapped in the madness and pain of war.
00:01:18.980Most are on the verge of starvation. Many have no drinking water. They're living in a hell of Vladimir Putin's making, and his army is unrelenting.
00:01:28.800Where is the help for these people? The United Nations isn't there. Neither is the European Union or NATO, but there are volunteers, volunteers from all over the world trying to help.
00:01:42.480And today, we're talking with one of those brave and caring people who risked their lives each day to rescue the helpless.
00:01:49.240His name is Chad Robichaux. Chad and his wife, Kathy, founded a faith-based combat veteran service organization. It's called Mighty Oaks.
00:02:00.500Chad is a combat-decorated marine, force recon, eight tours in Afghanistan.
00:02:06.940Chad and his colleagues founded the group SaveOurAllies.org.
00:02:11.480To go into conflict and battle zones to rescue Americans, our allies, NSIVs.
00:02:18.600SaveOurAllies rescued 17,000 Americans and SIV Afghans from Afghanistan.
00:02:26.720He and SaveOurAllies group are now helping and rescuing those who are wounded, often badly, in Ukraine.
00:02:35.820Chad Robichaux and SaveOurAllies rescued a former colleague of mine, Fox News reporter and anchor, Benjamin Hall.
00:02:43.680And Chad and his friends are still doing all they can to rescue as many as they can from Ukraine.
00:02:51.740And Chad, if you will, give us a sense of how you're feeling right now, all that you're doing in Ukraine and moving people, rescuing people.
00:03:03.700And, yes, also recovering bodies and getting them out of Ukraine.
00:03:11.660Your sense of things as you stand there today?
00:03:16.120Yeah, Mr. Dobbs. Well, it's – every time I've been in war zones, I always look at the tragic things that you see,
00:03:25.980and then you see a mixture of really great things at the same time, you know, and I've always tried to make it a point to try to notice those things.
00:03:33.740And so you see in such tragedy, I mean, we have a world superpower invading unprovoked – unprovoked invading a neighboring nation and attacking civilians.
00:03:46.540I know for a fact that they're attacking civilians.
00:03:49.160I spent the day today – we just got out 47 disabled persons that weren't able to self-evacuate.
00:03:56.800And one of the gentlemen I was talking to, his father and brother were in the shelter with them,
00:04:03.840and they just got bombed over and over in a civilian shelter for days, and his father and brother were both killed.
00:04:08.660And so spending a day with people like that, seeing things like that, seeing the just deliberate attack on innocent life by a world superpower is hard.
00:04:20.040But the beautiful thing I see in it is the world coming together outside of the government.
00:04:25.140It's just people from all over the world showing up at the border, showing up at refugee centers, bringing medical supplies, bringing food.
00:04:32.280And I'm with – there's a nurse here in town that just flew from Louisiana, and she just showed up and, like, how can I help in volunteering in refugee centers?
00:04:43.640People just – at the border, there was a man at the border I saw the other day, and I posted on my Instagram.
00:04:48.900He's standing on the border in the freezing cold all day, all night, playing the piano that he drugged from Germany
00:04:55.040so that they could hear something beautiful when they come across and I hear bombs and bullets.
00:04:59.080So it's this mix of just horrific things, and then humans dare to just love and serve other humans and doing some beautiful things.
00:05:10.040So that's kind of what I'm seeing, and it's a mix of that every single day.
00:05:15.760But a sense of the security on the ground is the situation is getting worse and worse,
00:05:21.220and the people are getting more and more desperate as well as both sides of the militaries,
00:05:27.020and this thing is progressing, and the real victims is the Ukrainian people, the civilians.
00:07:47.620So she wanted to ride with us in because she had brought her kids out, but she wanted to go back and help.
00:07:53.320And so we drove her in, and she's a young, you know, just normal woman, and she wanted to go back in.
00:08:00.580And as we crossed the border, she got out of our vehicle, and she started walking.
00:08:05.840And I was walking back to wherever she was going to go to get back in.
00:08:09.180And I think a lot of people don't realize that these people, like 200,000 – I think it's worth pausing on – 200,000 Ukrainian men who are free in America and other parts of the world have flown back, went into Ukraine to be part of this fight.
00:08:28.200These people are so resilient, and it's so moving to see them.
00:08:32.380I was in one of our houses in Ukraine just the other day with this pastor who's really – these pastors in this underground church are doing such amazing things to help people survive.
00:08:43.860It's literally like the things we see in World War II where people are hiding safe houses, the networking to survive and to fight back.
00:08:51.660And this pastor, I was like, what do you think is going to happen?
00:08:53.640He's like, we will win because the Russians would have to kill every single one of us.
00:08:58.500They have to kill every single one of us to lose, and we're not – we're going to fight to the end.
00:09:01.980And he said more and more people are coming back to fight, and they're not going to give up, and they're embarrassing Putin.
00:09:09.700And because of that, you're seeing him make more irrational and desperate moves, which is going to have catastrophic effects.
00:09:18.980At some point, he's going to – they're going to do something that's going to – I fear – I hope I'm wrong with this.
00:09:23.360I fear it's going to make the United States or NATO have to be involved because of chemical weapons or because of violating Article 5 of NATO and them harming a NATO member of NATO, which we know they already have.
00:09:41.880But the – your effort under your group, Save Our Allies, you have seen a great deal, whether it was rescuing 17,000 people in Afghanistan,
00:09:57.380whether it's your services as Force Recon and the Marine Corps, which, for those who don't know, is the Special Forces, the Green Berets of the Marine Corps.
00:10:10.800Eight tours, what you're watching now, what you've seen in Afghanistan.
00:10:16.020Give us your reaction to the bravery that you're seeing, the courage of the Ukrainian resistance and Ukrainian military, the Ukrainian people.
00:10:29.680Well, you know, like over the last – since August, I've seen some of the most – around some of the brave human beings that have been in my life.
00:10:37.520I did – like you said, I was a 4th Street kind of Marine.
00:10:39.640I went to JSOC, Joint Special Operations, granted a diplomat to Afghanistan.
00:10:43.320And Aziz, who was my interpreter, we did eight deployments together, not just as my interpreter, but as my friend and as my teammate,
00:10:51.160the two of us worked independently together.
00:10:53.060I lived in his home like he was my brother, and I love this guy, and he saved me multiple times, saved my life literally multiple times.
00:11:00.320And I mean, seeing all that in combat, I've seen some amazing things in combat,
00:11:08.580but to see just human beings voluntarily going back to these environments, to Afghanistan where we're in August, in September, October, November.
00:11:20.020And what I'm seeing here in Ukraine is just the volunteers, the people in Afghanistan.
00:11:26.180Afghans are going back and helping Afghans.
00:11:28.080And Ukraine, Ukrainians going back and helping Ukrainians, people choosing to stay, women choosing to stay.
00:11:32.080And it's been one of the most inspiring, bravest things I've ever seen in my life, in any battle I've been in.
00:11:37.500I mean, going back to Afghanistan, for me, it was going to get my friend.
00:11:51.640Ultimately, we were able to continue on and save 17,000 people.
00:11:54.680But that was with the help and assistance of Afghans and people from around the world who stepped up.
00:12:01.740And we knew we had to do that again here in Ukraine.
00:12:04.780And I tell you, the guys I'm sitting here that aren't able to talk and do an interview like this because of their current careers and not being known who they are.
00:12:14.100But I represent them, and they're some of the most bravest, not only bravest, but most intelligent human beings I've ever seen
00:12:21.340that are able to conduct, you know, real-world precision rescue operations.
00:12:27.020And I think a lot of times people see us doing this, see veterans doing this, and like, what are these guys doing?
00:12:31.900They're out there as cowboys, you know, trying to relive the glory days.
00:15:01.640And within 30 minutes, we were out of the door and driving across the border in the middle of the night for many hours to get to this location.
00:15:33.080I tell you, every one of us feel privileged we had the opportunity to be out here and doing this.
00:15:37.940This is something that in our generation, I don't think anything this has happened in our generation.
00:15:43.160So to be here and be able to participate and trying to make the difference feels something that we have the honor of doing.
00:15:50.920And not just to help these people, but we also believe, and I think many people believe, this is the front line to prevent World War III.
00:15:57.160If we could empower the Ukrainian people to both defend their land, it is the line in the sand for a potential global war.
00:16:06.040And I think everyone here feels that I didn't understand that, even with all my military experience and the time I spent in the military around conflict.
00:16:18.420When you go here and see what they're doing to the Ukrainian people, you realize how serious the situation really is.
00:16:24.200Just the video that we do see, those of us who are sitting in the United States, for example, it's horrific just to see what the effect of the bombing has been, the bombardment, the shells, the missiles and rockets that have torn up every city that we look at from the south to the northeast to the west of Ukraine.
00:16:48.460It seems there's nothing being spared.
00:16:53.940I mean, even outside of Kiev, I was in another city, Chinopoli, and it hadn't been hit yet, but the feeling of sitting there, I'm in this city, I'm in this safe house, and I'm there, and this is a place where people are going to work and having lunch, and the kids are playing in the park, and the kids are walking to school.
00:17:21.320I was talking to people, and I was talking to neighbors there, and now it's just, of course, in Eastern Europe, so the skies are gray, and it's dark, and it's cold, and it's just desolate.
00:17:32.400And the power goes out, and the power goes out at dark because they don't want lights on for bombings, and the air raid sirens go off.
00:17:40.480It's just such an eerie feeling, that to be in a sovereign nation, in a place like where you live, like where I live in Texas.
00:17:48.160Like, this is like, this isn't Afghanistan.
00:17:53.160This is a very modernized country, and this isn't the Taliban attacking them.
00:18:03.580This is Russia, a superpower, and no one, they don't know, no one is coming to help them.
00:18:09.840Not a government in the world is going to come to help them.
00:18:12.240In fact, the people in Poland are even scared, like, because they know, because they know it.
00:18:17.180Not a government in the world is going to help the Ukrainian people, and the Russians know that.
00:18:22.860And that just gives it such a sense of hopelessness, and it just amplifies the situation because you know, even our team, I mean, we know, like, if something happens to us, no one's, none of our old teammates could come and get us.
00:18:36.280No one is coming, like, this is, it's off limits, and, you know, the president of the United States has said it, NATO has said it, they're not going to go and help.
00:18:45.160Let me ask you, Chad, I hope that, I hope that you're wrong, that if you do get in trouble, that, and I think you, I pray that you are, because you're the kind of man who deserves as good as you've given.
00:19:11.480What is your sense of how this is resolved?
00:19:15.520To the credit of the Ukrainians, they have managed to stave off the Russians for almost a month now, when no one gave them more than a few days.
00:19:26.580I won't say no one, most military area analysts said, you know, more than a few days could they hold out against the wanted Russian army and military.
00:19:37.060But here we are, approaching a month of bombardment, every kind of weapon fired at them imaginable, short of nuclear, and I don't even want to say that.
00:19:49.440What do you think it takes to resolve this?
00:19:54.280You know, one is, it's very difficult to predict what's going to happen, because you can't predict the actions of a lunatic, and that's what, you know, Putin is acting like a lunatic right now.
00:20:04.980We always thought he was calculated, we always thought he was strategic, and people always said he's, every move he makes, he's calculated as a chess player.
00:20:30.680And look, you look at history of Russia, I mean, I don't want to underestimate and say they're a paper tiger, but they couldn't take Afghanistan.
00:20:44.300And here they are in Ukraine, and in many cases, in many perspectives, they're losing.
00:20:52.400They're getting their butts kicked, and they're outmanning, and out, they have more technology, more weapons, more manpower, but they're getting their butts kicked.
00:21:03.440And it's really, it's inspiring and impressive.
00:21:07.860And the reason why is, I believe it comes down to the will of the people.
00:21:12.660I don't believe the Russian soldiers, the morale's there, the desire's there.
00:21:17.160They have nothing individually to gain as soldiers in the trenches fighting.
00:21:23.360Many of them have been lied to while they were going there.
00:21:26.440Some were told they were going to train with the Ukrainian people.
00:21:30.700Some were told they were going there to liberate the Ukrainian people.
00:21:33.460Some were told they were going there to attack.
00:21:35.280So a lot of them are confused why they're there.
00:22:37.700And I think now – I didn't believe this when I came here.
00:22:40.320I think now the Ukrainian people, if we empower them and support them through the NGO community, through organizations like Save Our Allies that are doing what we're doing,
00:22:49.660if some – I mean I'm no fan of our current administration, but if they are able to support them financially, I am not for us jumping into a war.
00:23:07.820I'm certainly no – I've been around enough water to say I'm not – I'm an advocate of trying to avoid that at all costs.
00:23:16.240So if we can empower the Ukrainian people before we'd have to intervene, that's what I'd like to see done.
00:23:21.940And so if the administration does that, I'd be really happy to see that because I believe that if we just get behind the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian military, they could do this themselves.
00:23:32.640I wonder right now how long the Ukrainian people can hold out.
00:25:47.840They've done a terrible job with their logistical training to support this war effort.
00:25:51.700I'm going to say – I'm going to draw a parallel because I want to know how you personally – your emotions as you see the bravery, the will to fight.
00:26:03.080I think of all of the countries where our forces have been in the world and supporting regimes that didn't want to fight, couldn't put together an army that wanted to fight.
00:26:17.160I'm thinking of watching those C-17s trying – taking off empty in Kabul and the thousands of Americans who were left behind.
00:26:31.740And what are those emotions like for you right now as you're standing where you are?
00:26:39.100Yeah, I mean, just as – not even as a military person, just as a human, it just makes – it makes me angry.
00:26:45.040I mean, I believe and I always have believed that America is better than what we're doing right now.
00:26:51.260I mean, when we left – when I was in doing the rescue operations in Afghanistan and we were done after 10 days and the military pulled out of H.K. airport and our team was there doing those evacuations, we had –
00:27:06.020in that week, we had got 12,000 people out.
00:27:09.320And when the military left, we said, there's still Americans there.
00:27:34.120And if there's one American anywhere in the world, even if they did something stupid like Verdol, that we're going to scorch the earth to go get them.
00:27:41.220We will turn over every – use every bit of military power and strength to go get them because that's what America does for their fellow Americans.
00:27:48.160And so it was unconsciousable for me to see our government make a decision.
00:27:53.940For politics aside, it doesn't matter what people's political views are or what administration is in office.
00:28:00.300And we stayed, and we got another 5,000 people out, including about another 100 Americans out, just us.
00:28:07.560And there was a lot of other people doing similar work.
00:28:11.940And then to see that here, to see those Americans trapped in Kiev right now that want to get out, but they're scared to move.
00:28:22.440And our government's not going to do anything.
00:28:25.220And then take out the American factor and just the innocent human life being targeted by a superpower nation, personally, as an American, regardless of what nation they're from, I'm not okay with that.
00:28:41.540And what I see a lot on social media right now and I hear in the news is that the kind of – the painting of Ukraine, of not being a just nation, of half-corruption, and not being a good people.
00:28:52.700And Zelensky – I don't care if Zelensky's a good guy or a bad guy.
00:28:57.460I don't care if Ukraine's a good country or a bad country.
00:28:59.620I care about innocent human life that, in this modern world, has no place to have to live in fear of a world superpower coming after them with bombs and rockets and tanks.
00:29:15.160One of my friends on this team right here is sitting in the room next to me right now, drove past a tank that had been shot probably a minute before him.
00:29:52.680The Ukraine military empowered them to be able to defend themselves.
00:29:55.680I think one thing that we all could do is save our allies.
00:30:01.800Where can we send a dollar or whatever to help you and everybody else?
00:30:11.240Yeah, so saveourallies.org is the website.
00:30:13.520And, you know, everything we do, unfortunately, right now, it's extremely expensive to do these type of operations.
00:30:22.060And every dollar is literally – 100% of it is going to save human lives.
00:30:26.920I mean, this morning, I was able to move 47 disabled people who didn't have the ability to evacuate themselves.
00:30:33.380That's the type of people we're kind of focused on our evacuation side.
00:30:36.600We're putting communications infrastructure in place.
00:30:38.680So, when the cellular system goes out, when the power goes up, we can still communicate, move medical supplies forward to help replenish these medical supplies.
00:31:06.820The missions that Chad Robichaux and his colleagues are carrying out are tremendously important, requiring not only money but the strength, the courage of Chad Robichaux and his team, which is exemplary.
00:31:22.900And, you know, Chad, I really appreciate you taking the time to share with us what's going on right now from your location.
00:31:32.820It is really eye-opening and difficult just to hear what those people are going through, what you're going through, and all that are doing – who are doing so much for those people.
00:31:47.080I'm going to see what you think of this.
00:31:49.500I'm going to urge everyone listening to talk to their representative, their congressman.
00:31:55.400I'm one of those folks who, frankly, I'm not sure always that our Congress or our senators are worth much.
00:32:02.540But they ought to be worth this much, and that is call in and write them a letter and tell them to get some supplies and food and help to those folks in Ukraine.
00:32:14.780Do you think that's a reasonable idea?
00:32:16.480I think it's not only a reasonable idea, it's necessary, and America could and should do it, as well as other nations around the world, including NATO.
00:32:29.100You know, you would think that the people of Europe would have already done that.
00:32:33.720We're talking about neighbors, and that's troubling that that hasn't happened in Europe.
00:32:41.380Well, I can say that we hadn't seen it from the government, but the European people – I said this earlier – I just really moved my hearts.
00:32:54.540You know, when you come across that border, fighting for your life to make across that border, the first thing they're going to be welcomed with is a giant pile of jackets, people lighting barrels of fires just so people could get warm.
00:33:09.800There was a couple of guys from India that came in, and they're cooking rice and cauliflower curry.
00:33:16.860You get a hot bowl of curry right when you come across the border.
00:33:19.060So people from around the world, including European people, are there welcoming their neighbors.
00:33:24.000But that's just their fellow humans, not their neighboring countries.
00:33:29.320And I really – anybody from those neighboring countries in the government, I really challenge you to step up and do the right thing and help your neighbor, help the Ukrainian people, and the governments have the power to do that.
00:33:44.140Absolutely, and people have the power to do a great deal, as you were demonstrating, and everyone else there in Ukraine.
00:33:55.300Chad Robichaud, we appreciate it so much.
00:33:59.220Chad is the chairman, the head of SaveOurAllies.org.
00:34:05.540We urge you to support him and his organization and all of the others there trying to help those who need it most in Ukraine.
00:34:13.560A difficult time is such a ridiculous understatement in Ukraine for those people.
00:34:21.420They're fighting for their lives and for their homeland.
00:34:42.700Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know who's listening out there, if you're people of prayer or not, but, you know, money's great, and we need it.
00:34:52.180We need a lot of financial support, but, you know, I'd ask everyone listening to come to their knees in prayer for these people, for our team, for the safety of our team.
00:35:02.240But more importantly than for us, it's for these people.
00:35:05.340So I believe in the power of prayer and God's hand over the situation, so.
00:35:23.180And I know this is difficult, and we greatly appreciate everything you're doing, and for taking the time to talk with us today here on The Great America Show.