THE LIVESTREAM - Military Service in a Nation That’s Lost Its Way
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 5 minutes
Words per minute
196.12206
Harmful content
Misogyny
13
sentences flagged
Toxicity
13
sentences flagged
Hate speech
57
sentences flagged
Summary
In the wake of recent reforms in the U.S. military, some believe the military is finally turning a corner. But is this a turning toward what? Because beneath the optics of reform, the machinery still grinds forward, sending Christian sons into foreign deserts and oceans to enforce someone else s order while our own border remains porous and undefended.
Transcript
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When you give us a positive review, what that does is it triggers the algorithm
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You and I both know that this ministry is willing to talk about things that most ministries aren't.
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We need this content for the glory of God to reach more people's ears.
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Dying for your country has always been considered honorable.
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But what if your country sends you to die not to defend your own homeland, but to keep shipping
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lanes open for multinational corporations in the Red Sea? See, many Christians still see military
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service as a badge of patriotism, a way to protect home and uphold duty. And with Pete Hedgeseth now
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scrubbing the ranks of DEI policies, removing rainbow flags from barracks, and halting transgender
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enlistment, some believe the military is finally turning a corner. But what we need to ask is this,
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turning toward what? Because beneath the optics of reform, the machinery still grinds forward,
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sending Christian sons into foreign deserts and oceans to enforce someone else's order,
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while our own border remains porous and undefended. Here's our argument.
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But joining a military that may send your son to fight for diversity slogans or for
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the GDP of foreign nations is not just a personal choice.
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It's a moral and theological question that Christian families can no longer ignore.
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This episode is brought to you by our premier sponsors Armored Republic and Reese Fund,
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as well as our Patreon members and our generous donors. You can join our Patreon by going to
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patreon.com forward slash right response ministries, or you can make a donation by
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going to right response ministries.com forward slash donate. So should you encourage your sons
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to serve or is the current military still too compromised to entrust with their lives? We'll
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walk through the recent reforms, the foreign entanglements, and what Scripture has to say
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about loyalty, love of country, and the just use of force.
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All right. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Happy to see you all. Happy Friday. It is indeed a
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happy Friday. So this is a topic that I am excited to get into. For one, it has a lot of personal
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application because my son is 18. And a number of years ago, he expressed a desire to join the
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Air Force. My father-in-law went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. And my son, you know,
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grew up hearing stories about his time there and just really, really wanted to apply for the Air
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force academy wanted to go there and uh the air force is not off the table for us but i told him
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he's graduating this spring i you know we we decided i told him and he agreed um that it's
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not an option for this fall right so maybe a couple years down the road if things get cleaned
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up in the military or it looks like the country is is headed in a particular direction uh we will
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revisit it so i'll tip my hand there um that i think from conversations i've had and research
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that i've done for this episode and just talking with him i think that it's it's a time to be
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cautious about sending your son into the military so my cards on the table there from the beginning
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never my bona fides to that i've been i joined the military 2013 at 18 i was in the marine corps
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for four years my sister then went in this was like 2018 2019 she did four years and my brother
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is finishing up his fifth year in the army just this year so we're talking over a decade my dad
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and my uncle were both Marines, so very familiar with the environment. Same thing, grew up hearing
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the stories, enlisted myself, and so that's my background as well. Yep, absolutely. So this is
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a topic that I think really strikes home for a lot of Christians, because number one, based on
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the research that I was doing, 70% of the military is made up of people who identify as Christians.
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So predominantly, Christians join the military, or I guess to be technically accurate, the military
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is made up predominantly of Christians. And as far as the rank and file, the enlisted men,
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things like that, 70% of the military claims to be Christian, which is a very large minority.
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It's bigger than the majority. It's bigger than the majority of Christians in the country overall.
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And so there is something, and there has been something in the Christian perspective,
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American Christian perspective, that honors and esteems military service. And that has been
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really from the beginning with the black robed regiment preaching their sermons and then casting
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off their their robes of clerical robes and then going off to lead their men into yeah yeah the
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the military colonial uh uniform you're telling me our military is made up of uh men that are
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willing to make a difference men generally in good shape and they also happen to be majority
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christian yep who could have thought the men actually making a difference taking care of
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themselves shocking on average on the whole and let me say too a lot of that it's uh it's cultural
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south so there's tons of guys they were talking about a good time with their girlfriend on friday
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they were going to church on sunday there was certainly a lot of that but by and large on the
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whole like for sure when i was in the military christian was most certainly the name of the game
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i can't remember anyone of another faith be it muslim or certainly maybe your share of atheists
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but that was by and large the majority well to your point the 24 so there's 70 percent of the
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military are Christian, the 24% that's after that was just undisclosed, right? And then there was a
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very small minority, like less than 1% of atheist or Jew or Muslim or that sort of thing. So
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predominantly Christian, and even though it says 70%, probably a lot of those 24% would,
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if you had pressed them on it, say, well, yeah, I grew up going to church or something like that.
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So the other thing, the other reason why this has been a compelling option for Christian
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families is simply just from advancing your sons into life sort of option.
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There are men that I know, even men that go to our church that did a military career.
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You've got a whole post-military industry that you can join.
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And for a lot of our history, maybe, that actually was quite a good option.
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path into the middle class or even in some cases beyond that if you if you retire as a as a as a
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colonel or a general or something like that and you've got connections and you go private like
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that actually can be quite a profitable move and so a lot of families would look at that and they'd
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say okay well not only is it honorable to defend your country to die for your neighbor potentially
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but also it's a way of providing a way for you to get your education to advance financially even and
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you get a pension. It really has a lot, has had a lot of positives. Wes, I don't know if you want
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to talk about some of the benefits that you received just from the GI Bill and all of those
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things. Like it's pretty remarkable. We'll get into the influence in a minute, which is a real
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question. But to your point about kind of like 18 to 22, you can't think of a better system. It's
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going to make someone be in shape. It's going to make them get up early. It's going to make them
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go to a job. I mean, you can't really be fired short of doing something illegal and getting
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kicked out or leaving yourself so you're talking about four years when a young man is the most
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prone to be headstrong the most prone to get into trouble the most prone to partying and being
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irresponsible in many ways that's a great thing for someone's 18 to 22 and it started as a bit
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of those guardrails during those four years that a young man that could have gone one way or the
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other it was really actually the military they straightened him out and kept him so that as a guy
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who could hold a job it's a person who could do a good work guy who could be responsible all of
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that and so certainly an advantage on that perspective the people you encounter that's
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another question we'll get into that but for sure the the va home loan so every veteran who serves
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i think it's 36 months of active duty discharged honorably or might even be like general so honorable
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or general discharge 36 months active duty you have eligibility to the va home loan as well as
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the postline 11 gi bill and i mean those two things so home education home education those
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are some of the hardest things to do financially, especially today. So I took the GI bill and I went
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and I got my undergraduate degree and my master's degree out of it. And I graduated with zero
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dollars in debt. And I was supported to do that all the way through all of those years. Eventually
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towards the end with my master, I was working and doing my master's program. But like guys,
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we're talking about like some semesters because I went to Columbia for a bit, $60,000 for a given
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academic year that I had to take on in student loan debt. That would have been, that would have
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addled me until 35 40 yep paid for same thing then on the home loan side you can get a home loan at
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a good rate and you don't have to put a down payment down up to it's about 720 000 so you
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have that much eligibility no home loan required and no pmi so you're two that's big things that
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you're tackling at 22 years old what am i going to get educated in and that covers technical school
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covers trade school it covers you want to go be a pilot covers all those different things paid for
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a stipend even to make it happen and then on the other side getting a home i mean i was able to own
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a home a lot earlier than my peers and i actually use it i manipulated it well so i got two homes
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out of that 720 000 and then rent one of them out it was a huge start to my professional life
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by going to the military yeah yeah yeah absolutely and i i can attest to you know just talking to
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wes and um sometimes thinking like how can you do that and he's like well i've got the
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the gi bill or the the home loan oh yeah right yeah i forgot about that yeah and so this has
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been a really compelling option, both financially and both for the sense of duty and loyalty
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and patriotism that Christian families want to instill into their sons.
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Now, couple that with the fact that for the last decade or so, military recruitment has
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And it's been dropping year over year over year.
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Not just the size of the military, because some people would say, well, we don't need
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as big of a military anymore because we're not in a war with Russia because our weapon systems are
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it's a drone warfare yeah it's it's all this kind of more high-tech warfare so we don't need the
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standing army that we used to have I mean it used to be about three million people and now it's
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about 1.3 million people but it's not just the size of the military but it's the recruitment
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numbers that have been dropping steadily over the last little while so Nate maybe you can put up
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image number one and we'll take a look at some of the details here with the with the drop in
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recruitment in recruitment yep so this was just the military size okay since 1985 uh the the
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highest number there was in 1990 that was around three million people and obviously there were
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reasons for that right like we were in desert storm yep there were actually hot conflict that
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we were involved with we were coming off the cold war um and so the military numbers were very large
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And so this is a 40-year low in 2020 that we hit.
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And so this is the number of people who are enlisting in the military year over year from
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And what's crazy about this is, Wes, like you mentioned, the GI Bill is post 9-11.
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Right. And so this military enlistment number, the peak of it was back in the 70s where the GI Bill did not exist.
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The VA home loan did, but the GI Bill did not. The VA home loan did, yes, but the GI Bill did not.
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And so even as seemingly benefits have increased, I think wages have increased.
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There's been talk about that some, but certainly the post-military benefits have increased.
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the numbers have decreased of enlisted um well so that begs the question of why that would be
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and there's lots of reasons for it a lot of a lot of the failure to believe in the american project
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right that is uh present among youth and and people are more cynical about the country
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a lot of it the fact that the the nation is more uh mixed with with different peoples here right
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And they don't have the same, necessarily the same sort of fidelity to the country.
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Although I want to be careful there because even coming through World War II, there were
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people around the nations that did serve in the U.S. military.
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But a lot of it has been pretty well documented.
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And Pete Hanks' book was about this, the wokeness and the DEI and just the lack of excellence
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and zeal for excellence and for battle readiness that the military used to have that they
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they no longer had so the last thing i want to mention here before we start looking at some of
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the other um things that pete hegseth has done is this while the military has been declining
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when trump got elected december was the highest december in like 20 years of recruitment in in
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the in military history okay um in the last 20 years and trump and hegseth came out and said
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this is because trump has promised to restore order okay to restore battle readiness to restore
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um a a spirit of the warrior again we're getting rid of the dei we're getting rid of the woke we're
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going to stop saluting men wearing dog masks things like that and i believe that's true i
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believe that's true however as i was researching for this i found a number of articles where people
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came out and said no no no biden gets credit for this because actually the whole year of 2024
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They're saying we had already turned their corner
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on recruitment and the things that we were trying to do
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and all these things, we already saw the fruits of that
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and January was just the culmination of everything
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that the Biden administration had been trying to do.
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recruitment numbers had been increasing through 2024.
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the percentage of the growth that was from women,
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the percentage of each of the branches of the military
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Okay, so the Air Force, active personnel, 20%,
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and guard personnel 21 percent obviously the marines is a lot lower um kudos to the marines
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they are much more physically demanding eight percent of active duty personnel were women
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and four percent were reserve of the reserve personnel were women i'll point out too on the
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women's side um something i've been noticing and i've heard other women say this is corporate
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america is really they're really turning on it like now it's a little bit of a day late a dollar
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short you know like well we're 40 years into feminism and i actually don't really like that
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you know i'm having to work 45 hours under fluorescent lights and pay for my own apartment
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and i'm not really protected so they don't really like it but i think a lot of women are being driven
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to join the military because they have debt so they're like i have tons of debt and i'm struggling
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to find a job and at the end of the day like i you know i'm in decent shape enough that doesn't sound
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like too bad of a gig i can go you know live in california i'd have a job that would be stable
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And so you have to understand that macroeconomic conditions could also influence it too.
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Although most certainly there was propaganda aimed at women to join these different branches,
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but most certainly also to the macroeconomic conditions that have destroyed women as a whole,
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that has made them depressed, that has made them anxious, that has made them childless,
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that has made them in many ways unmarried and not even desiring to be married,
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has also driven them to the military where they're even less feminine,
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where they have to march and arrange and go to jobs that are meant for men.
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And to that point, Wes, it's really interesting because actually what we find is even active duty women in the military,
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the numbers show that predominantly they are filling clerical roles in the military.
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They are doing secretarial roles or management roles or the kind of role that basically they're not getting in corporate America anymore.
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They're basically, a lot of them, even the active duty ones,
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they're not necessarily the combat troops, right?
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They're sitting in the general's office, filing his paperwork for him.
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That's exactly how in the Marine Corps, your squadron have different shops,
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they're called like S-shops, your S-1 is admin, your S-3 is gear, all women.
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That would just basically run these things and do the admin for it.
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And, you know, when Trump got elected, a lot of men, young men joined the military on the spot.
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And a lot of Christian families are now thinking, can we go again?
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I wanted to mention a couple of the things that Pete Hegseth has done, even just now since coming into his role as a secretary of defense, because he has been trying to turn the tide.
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I get it. Things like this take time, especially when it's so entrenched.
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So here are a couple of just bullet points of things that Hegseth has been able to do since coming into his position.
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So Executive Order 14-151 was that they were going to, he oversaw the widespread removal of DEI-related content across military branches.
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right so really um going after a lot of the dei quotas and um requirements um so so that executive
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order is being carried out by hagseth um they he has or trump has under him through him dismissed
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actually quite a few of the senior military officials uh there's no more oh what's that
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cut you off no more four-star uh women generals anymore yes yes i might cut you off and jumped
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ahead but no you're okay um well that's exactly the case and um they let go of some of the the
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really woke um like the admirals things like that um uh lisa frenchetti is is one of those that
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you're talking about um and so the the dismissals that they have achieved were part of a broader
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effort to replace leaders associated with dei initiatives and so that that absolutely has
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happened. They have suspended transgender policies, but this is a thing that's gone back and forth in
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the courts. Trump's executive order to disallow transgender, so-called transgender people from
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military service, currently they are still serving. The most recent court of appeals did not allow
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a stay on a lower court judge's ruling that Trump is not allowed to. So it's going to end up in the
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Supreme Court until it's decided. The executive order to ban transgender people from the military
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is not able to be carried out. But it is going to the Supreme Court. We'll see. That can be a bit
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of a long process, too. And then there has been just a public tenor. This matters, a public tenor
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where they have publicly denounced these DEI principles. And so even though, for instance,
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the transgender executive order has been blocked um there has just trump and the white house and
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hegseth and all of them have said look they they they qualified as people with a mental
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disability or mental derangement just a couple of years ago they're not combat ready they don't
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belong in the military even just that public discourse has been very helpful in pushing the
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overton and the military i would i would think uh back towards reason and battle readiness so
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that's kind of where we stand right now that's that's where we've been and where the state of
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the military is right now we're going to hit our first commercial break here and when we come back
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we're going to talk about um some of the brewing international conflicts and the reality that if
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you send your son to the military right now there is a there's a non-zero chance that he would be
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shipped overseas to die in some proxy war of some sort so that's another consideration we're going
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all right welcome back the so a lot of groundwork that we're laying there i wanted to lay just a
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little bit more groundwork i guess before the actual discussion happens and that is this you
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know it's funny i when i was younger i didn't totally understand the outrage about the vietnam
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war right um and the older i get and the more that i see how so many of america's conflicts
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that we get involved in are really not about defending our soil they're about defending
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something else now at least with the vietnam war you could say it was about fending off communism
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right at least there was that but now the the conflict that's brewing i mean which conflict
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there's ukraine still there's china brewing but the one conflict that i wanted to mention what's
00:23:28.420
that iran iran that's the one that i wanted to mention and so the conflict that's brewing with
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iran is interesting it starts with the um a terrorist group an islamic group in yemen
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um and this is the houthi group they've been labeled as a terrorist organization which you
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know if you haven't been labeled by a terrorist as a terrorist organization by the u.s government
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what are you doing what are you doing stuff laying around no uh in this case you know they
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they really do seem to be serious about uh blowing things up and so they are in yemen
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And Nate, maybe you can pull up image number four here.
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And this is an incredibly important body of water globally
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because that Red Sea goes all the way up into Egypt.
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which has made it possible for goods to be transported
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from Europe over to Asia and even over to the US
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by going through the Red Sea at a much shorter time.
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but in a minute, I'll show some graphs to illustrate that.
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And I was so mad, I went back with a pen after the game
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Because, you know, I went overseas and I was in the sand.
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I was actually there, not by the Red Sea, but over in Kuwait.
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They're not officially the government of Yemen, as far as I know.
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And back in 2023, they began from, you saw there on the screen, they have a prominent
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position on the southeastern edge of the Red Sea.
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And they began launching rockets at ships that were sailing in to the Red Sea.
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in particular, they started out by bombing and threatening Israeli ships. But the reality is
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they quickly started threatening and attacking U.S. ships and ships that were allied with U.S.
00:25:42.200
training partners. Well, the reason why all of this matters is the Houthi are supported by Iran,
00:25:48.320
who are for them because Iran is opposed to Israel. And so the Houthi kind of became the
00:25:54.020
proxy those who were able to take direct action against israel because they're not officially a
00:25:58.800
state they don't have a government they're not in any way allied with any official countries
00:26:04.680
because they've been branded a terrorist organization well the u.s has decided that
00:26:11.040
it is our role to keep shipping lanes open in the red sea and so actually just within the last week
00:26:16.740
we've been launching drone strikes at the huti who are in that that part of the world and this
0.94
00:26:22.580
has kind of just emboldened them and made them entrench themselves even deeper. And the conflict
0.99
00:26:27.640
there is picking up. Now, this is something that really does actually have the potential
00:26:33.800
to boil over into some conflict. Nate, let's show the next image, image number five.
00:26:40.480
The reason why this is so important is because you see there the Suez Canal kind of towards the
00:26:46.180
middle of the screen. This is how long shipping takes from Europe and from other parts of the
00:26:52.640
world if the Red Sea and the Suez Canal are not options. So from Rotterdam in Europe, it would
00:26:59.320
take, for instance, 19 days to get to India. But if they have to go around, it's a 34-day trip
00:27:07.220
by oil tanker, whatever those large ships are called.
00:27:14.220
From the U.S., it adds significant amount of time also,
00:27:28.300
So this just shows it a little more simply, I think.
00:27:32.800
So really what we're dealing with is we can cut
00:28:00.120
because we tackled that some already this week earlier
00:28:02.760
But the question of we could be involved in actual conflict with Iran and with the Houthi, sending battle carriers over, over shipping lanes, right, over shipping lanes.
00:28:18.940
I don't deny that that's a real significant cost increase.
00:28:23.960
It is massively more expensive to ship around the bottom of Africa than going through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.
00:28:43.000
is the US gonna step in and enforce shipping lanes
00:28:57.180
at the end of the day, not any of our business, okay?
00:29:00.260
What products are typically shipped through those lanes?
00:29:02.440
are you aware that's what i was gonna say well 17 of global shipping goes through there
00:29:06.440
but i don't know durable goods you're talking do you know if oil for example probably probably
00:29:12.540
yeah yep yep i don't i didn't i didn't do that research why what's your what's your thinking
00:29:16.560
there i just there's a difference between and that's what's so tough is when you become
00:29:20.020
interconnected yeah and dependent upon different nations like it's one thing with china like what
00:29:24.260
are we dependent on china for like well plastic slot right like we is a lot of merchandise a lot
00:29:28.780
of consumer goods that come from there but then you could have strategic shipments we
00:29:32.220
yep we discover this during covid like a lot of our medicines are made overseas so we're talking
00:29:36.520
a whole different calculus which is oil and medicine we need to make medicine here we need
00:29:40.980
to make chips here and we need to we need to drill we need to drill and uh and be able to have you
00:29:47.100
know all of our energy here if it was if we could do those things here which we can it's just a
00:29:53.200
matter of will and right you know getting rid of all the red tape if we can do those things here
00:29:57.780
then but i guess what i'm trying to say is that it seems like part of the reason you know that
00:30:02.620
our sons potentially would have to go and die for defending shipping lanes is because um because of
00:30:09.900
globalism because we've become so dependent on the rest of the world and so it's not even just
00:30:14.440
we're doing this for other countries it does benefit other countries but we're the ones who
00:30:18.300
always contribute the most so every country benefits by you know by free trade global free
00:30:24.020
trade every every country is having its benefits but we're the ones who make it happen that's
00:30:27.760
right we're the ones that make it you know that make sure that you know like we're the police
00:30:31.440
of the sea you know like with a global navy that makes sure that you know pirating doesn't take
00:30:36.000
over every single you know tanker that's going through this straight so if if that's the case
00:30:41.120
um that you know we're doing all of this everybody's benefiting from it but but nobody's
00:30:45.920
contributing to you know to the degree that we are um it'd be one thing if we're getting like
00:30:50.480
some kind of you know lithium or like some some unique you know rare mineral that god and his
00:30:55.840
sovereignty only placed in one part of the world and it doesn't happen to be here but if we're
00:30:59.840
going to send our sons to war to die for shipping lanes not to protect our homeland but shipping
00:31:05.260
lanes to ship plastic slot from china well here's a breakdown actually or things that matter but
00:31:10.200
things that we could do here at home then we should just start doing them here at home that's
00:31:14.360
my point but nathan pulled this up for us go ahead west okay uh the suez canal for global trade it
00:31:20.080
moves the most of these types of products crude oil petroleum liquefied natural gas containerized
00:31:25.660
goods that's electronics clothing machinery all that dry bowl commodities toys yep uh chemicals
00:31:31.860
and petrochemicals that's stuff used in like plastics production vehicles ag and military
00:31:36.760
cargo so you have a wide variety of things going through them yeah but a lot of that doesn't need
00:31:40.460
to be exactly it only is because it was cheaper on the dollar that's right to make it or to buy
00:31:45.620
it or to import it yeah cheaper on the dollar but then all of our sons can't get a livable wage
00:31:49.900
right correct because we got rid of all the gdp went up you're not looking on the bright side
00:31:54.920
yeah the gdp went up uh so yeah so that that's that was my only point and contribution to the
00:31:59.940
conversation was just to say um i'm with you 100 michael that's a great distinction like are we
00:32:04.840
fighting to protect our homeland and our neighbor and and our families um or are we fighting for
00:32:10.680
the gdp by protecting shipping lanes and that benefits the entire world but the u.s is
00:32:16.600
contributing you know 80 of that defense and every other country does jack squat yeah and the very
00:32:23.080
that we're protecting is like well yeah you know everybody else is getting a free ride but we have
00:32:27.100
to do it because we need it too and nobody else will do it okay but we need what what is it that
00:32:31.860
we're shipping and that's you know and if it turns out what we're shipping is medicine well yeah we
00:32:36.540
need medicine why don't we make medicine here right why don't we make chips here why don't we
00:32:41.300
drill for you know for oil here yeah um we have you know we have incredible resources in this
00:32:47.600
continent that's part of america's incredible success right so like i i believe you know like
00:32:52.380
that a big part of our success, that the quintessential factor is our Christian
00:32:58.660
foundation. I believe that. So like when I look at Christendom and I look at what God did in Europe
00:33:04.040
and then also with, you know, with Western Europeans predominantly coming to America and
0.72
00:33:09.140
what he did here, I'm going to attribute the lion's share of the credit to Christianity,
00:33:17.260
Christian faith. However, I will also admit that part of the reason that America has been so
0.62
00:33:23.460
prosperous is its natural resources and also its geography. We're flanked both on the east and the
00:33:30.840
west by large oceans. There's not a whole lot of military threat. To our north, there's a pretend
00:33:40.060
country. A frozen pretend country. A frozen pretend country. The freezer aisle. Right, with a bunch of
00:33:46.560
libtards that like i mean seriously like canada canada is a joke and it's sad you see that that
1.00
00:33:51.680
their prime minister came out and said that uh they're they're no longer going to be friends
0.99
00:33:56.120
with america yeah i saw that yeah we're gonna have if america will no longer lead the world
0.78
00:34:00.220
you know with you know economically then we're gonna lead the world you're a joke you're not a
00:34:04.860
real country you're a joke the people i think are precious many of the people yeah um but uh the
00:34:10.440
country and its leaders are a joke and so there's no threat from canada whatsoever and then beneath
0.90
00:34:16.480
us there actually are some threats like fentanyl and these kinds of things that are like killing
00:34:20.420
our citizens um but below you don't have a country either you have a cartel so you have you have
0.95
00:34:26.540
frozen libtards and then you have you know jose and his gangs um and that you know and then you
1.00
00:34:33.100
build a big wall and keep them out that's right you build a big wall and keep them out and then
0.99
00:34:37.580
with the north um they're they're so dumb they wouldn't you know they won't even come out of
0.99
00:34:41.780
the snow to freedom even if it was open to them they're like no we love tyranny some of them would
1.00
00:34:45.920
some of them have some of them have and those those individuals are in our church that's right
00:34:50.260
you know and god bless them we love them but a lot of them are like you know give me communism
00:34:54.740
or and snow yeah and uh you know give me half of india please yeah and here in india that's right
00:35:00.940
right and so so my point is so that's the protections that we have and then in terms of
00:35:05.960
the resources just i forget the author but like i think it's 17 000 navigable um miles of rivers
00:35:13.280
that we have whereas i think the whole world combined is like just a shade above 30 so it's
00:35:19.900
like like 30 to 35 000 rivers that like you can actually drive a tiny amount of actual rivers
00:35:26.360
and a tiny amount of accessible coasts yeah exactly all of our coasts they don't have the
00:35:31.460
same kind of like deep harbors like like god put an abundance of whether it's uh so your your
00:35:38.900
ability to you know be on the mississippi or this and ship by waterways in the united states there's
00:35:45.020
not a single other country that has that ability the protections with the coast and and you know
00:35:51.020
and snow above and you know jose and his gangs below like that that is uh very unique um and
00:35:57.220
then also you know to be fair even if mexico became a powerhouse which i don't see happening
00:36:00.780
in the near future but even if it did it's geographic it's a very small country we have
00:36:05.480
this big country and then it quite literally bottlenecks this is a big gulf of america right
00:36:11.220
there amen um but then also of oil too all the timber and and wood and then oil we have with
00:36:18.620
alaska the gulf of america and texas and texas has enough oil i think it'd be 250 years we could
00:36:24.980
supply ourselves just with east texas oil alone i remember when they kept saying you know we're
00:36:29.640
going to be out of oil in 100 years and they would discover a new reserve this actually will
00:36:33.760
keep us going for another dream like and i think oil is being made i don't think it's a bunch of
00:36:39.760
dinosaur bones from millions and millions years ago i think it's a renewable um resource that
00:36:45.160
the earth is actually continuing to produce and don't get me started on primary water so
00:36:49.200
primary water primary oil primary oil theory both i think first i think both so my point is i think
00:36:56.440
yes america has been incredibly prosperous because of the christian faith but also in god's providence
00:37:02.040
It's also been incredibly prosperous because of its natural, geographically built-in defense
00:37:10.220
and protections and isolation and also all the resources that God has given us.
00:37:25.460
And it's always in the name of some humanitarian, virtuous motivation of like,
00:37:29.400
oh well we care about you know this poor little country like like push on that a little bit
00:37:34.140
because a lot of our our protectionism and our intervention comes from communism so you had
00:37:38.700
world war one in contrast to communism yes like communism and you have to have sympathy for
00:37:43.440
vietnam and korea these tiny little countries as eastern asia is becoming largely communist
00:37:49.020
these little tiny peninsulas that are isolated and alone that the u.s at some level said like
00:37:53.740
well what are we for what is our military for we didn't get shackled the way world war one and
00:37:58.180
world war ii did to the rest of europe so we adopted this type of interventionalist mindset
00:38:02.140
but i mean communism is done by the late 1980s the berlin wall falls down it's no longer the
00:38:07.200
force that it was china itself has to adopt some capitalist systems some capitalist parts
00:38:11.940
into its economy so what we should have done is taken that thing that did have a time and place
00:38:16.220
perhaps there's a discussion about it but it's at least a viable point perhaps it had a point but
00:38:21.740
it's not it had a place but it hasn't been for 40 years yeah the way that communism was threatening
00:38:26.560
to take over quite literally the entire half of the globe right there was a time where we saw that
00:38:31.320
as a real possibility and for better or worse fought against it but that hasn't happened in
00:38:35.440
40 50 years and we still keep that system for today right it's a trope today so that that's
00:38:40.380
my point is it like maybe there were some virtuous like moral reasons um but there haven't been for
00:38:45.300
a very long time we still we'll still you know uh parade out all those virtuous reasons and say oh
00:38:51.280
well it's just because i care about this and i care you know we care about this and we care about
00:38:55.120
that and what are the oil exports of that country again exactly yeah that's what it always is you
00:38:59.460
know like it's like uh oh uh oil was discovered in greenland time to export some democracy in kuwait
00:39:05.340
let's go democracy for greenland all of these bases and stuff in this little place called kuwait
00:39:10.740
it's a terrible place to be and it's so clear our strategic interest in that region
00:39:14.980
is the oil it's not better if we just came out and said we're here for the oil yeah and just
00:39:20.560
and just conquest yeah but here's the thing i'm not actually inherently like for moral reasons
00:39:26.480
against empires um in a timeless sense of like like there can be no time and no place in history
00:39:33.400
where you could ever have an empire it's always immoral inherently immoral um that's that's
00:39:39.360
actually not my position but what i will say is i don't think you can have both you can have a
00:39:44.460
nation or you can have an empire you can have a country or an empire there actually are i think
00:39:48.540
virtuous reasons. I think it's rare and it needs to be providential within what God's doing in
00:39:53.560
history. There could be times and places where empires are actually fitting. But I don't believe
00:39:59.600
that we're in one of those times. I think we have been trying to straddle between having a nation,
00:40:06.440
having an empire. All the virtuous reasons for an empirical strategy like communism are all
00:40:14.420
receding that's that's not on the forefront anymore um and all so then it just leaves all
00:40:20.160
right we're going to die for for shipping lanes for resources and here's the thing um if you just
0.82
00:40:25.640
quit being ridiculous liberals all those resources are here they're all here it's literally just we're
0.86
00:40:32.260
literally just uh it's just you know because we're gonna lower our carbon footprint but here's the
0.94
00:40:37.880
thing uh the carbon footprint in kuwait and all these other places is raised by us as we go and
00:40:43.580
drills somewhere else but then we can so like we're literally doing it so just so that we um
00:40:48.680
just so that greta thunberg won't be mad at us like really is that is that u.s policy is is
00:40:54.820
trying to please a 14 year old girl like because because in in the big scheme of things even from
0.97
00:40:59.880
an objective level and i you know would push back on all the you know environmental stuff
00:41:04.620
in a lot of ways but objectively it's like it's the same carbon footprint and it's the same country
00:41:10.680
doing it they're just doing it somewhere else it's actually worse because because now all the
0.93
00:41:15.540
shipping all the shipping and you know like china wouldn't keep its um whatever you think about them
00:41:23.740
china would not keep its word on the green initiatives right it would just pollute and
0.94
00:41:27.920
pollute and pollute right so when we would do it in the u.s we were even if you grant the idea that
1.00
00:41:33.100
this is greener or better we were doing it better than those countries that are that are not right
00:41:39.540
so all that being said i i think that right now yes america first and and i'm you know i'm a
00:41:46.740
nationalist i think we need nationhood we need america to view itself as a nation come home
00:41:53.640
get get out of you know no more ukraine stuff no more israel stuff um and and that doesn't mean we
00:42:00.120
can't be sympathetic but there's not a moral obligation in scripture for us to go and and
00:42:04.300
defend these other nations so like for instance we when we had ron dotson like taiwan um is it's
00:42:10.860
probably a matter of when rather than if taiwan is probably going to fold back into china
00:42:15.880
geographically it makes sense um even in terms of customs and culture and i understand that the
0.99
00:42:21.540
taiwanese people are like no like we want to be independent because you know nobody likes china
0.93
00:42:25.860
the people in china don't like china like nobody likes china because it's it's you know the leaders
0.93
00:42:30.880
are terrible they're absolute terrible people but um i get that it's like no save us save us
00:42:36.160
america i'm sorry i'm sorry wait like no it's not you you uh in terms of language customs culture
00:42:43.380
all these different things um you are historically it's it's kind of like the same similar to like
00:42:49.020
putin and saying well these are historic you know russian lands you know or or you know a guy with
00:42:55.400
belgium you know once upon a time like you know but like they're like they're you know it's it's
00:43:00.080
that and and when those things happen like god has set up geographic boundaries and they can only be
00:43:05.220
manipulated i i think for a time temporarily eventually nations go back to a default setting
00:43:11.480
they do for better or for worse it's like no this actually belongs with this this continent is a part
0.98
00:43:16.880
of that like um you can't you can't have oh there's a a sea of muslims and then we're going to have
1.00
00:43:23.320
like a little voice like or hong kong you know like oh like uh this is going to be a bastion of
1.00
00:43:28.240
freedom and capitalism and democracy and like um no it's that's it maybe for a while but it's not
00:43:35.560
going to last because it's it's smack dab in the middle of china you know it's and so i just think
00:43:40.740
that the world right now i think the world is snapping back into a natural order that follows
00:43:47.660
geographic boundaries that god in his sovereignty and providence put into place it's reverting back
00:43:52.980
to nationalism globalism is becoming um by conviction i think people are moving away from
00:43:58.860
it but even aside from conviction or any morals i think it's becoming just less and less plausible
00:44:04.040
it's it's just not doable in in a way that previously was uh there aren't the virtuous
00:44:08.440
reasons uh in order to defend it anymore people are wising up and they're like yeah i'm not going
00:44:12.920
to go and die for shipping lanes and i'm not going to die for israel and i'm not going to die
00:44:16.960
for ukraine um and so i i think they're not going to die for a condo and uber eats right like think
00:44:22.440
about like the men that went to fight for their homes in the american revolution and in the civil
00:44:25.980
war and even into world war one and world war two insofar as they felt there was a threat when they
00:44:30.540
fought when they're on those front lines what they're thinking back to they're thinking back
00:44:33.880
to a wonderful woman they're thinking back to their children they're thinking back to a home
00:44:37.580
with land and dirt and soil and that's what's in their mind an american ethos a flag our freedom
00:44:42.720
that's what they fought and died for even in vietnam at some level it was communism is
00:44:47.180
threatening us and these freedoms that we love so much in america right we're protecting them
00:44:51.840
right people don't die for a 700 square foot condo in denver where they can uber eats all day
00:44:57.100
like those things don't motivate a man to then join the military to buffet his body and to go
00:45:01.380
overseas and to be willing to lay his life down he says okay maybe china does own it but like
00:45:07.620
do i still have netflix like they won't die for those things so you have to have a return to
0.80
00:45:19.520
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00:46:19.060
So here in this last segment, what we want to do is just actually have kind of a conversation
00:46:24.780
about what would be some good advice and principles for you as a Christian father, Christian family,
00:46:31.680
a Christian young man to think about when it comes to this question.
00:46:34.520
And I'm certainly not going to say if you join the military right now, it's a sinful decision, right?
00:46:40.300
Like we would never bind your conscience in that way.
00:46:42.280
I actually know people who are graduating from high school this year, joining the Marine Corps.
00:46:51.540
But we do just kind of want to give some perspective and principles and advice that maybe would help guide your decision.
00:46:58.420
And Wes, I was hoping you could share a little bit about just the condition of the military.
00:47:03.100
Is it a suitable place for a Christian young man?
00:47:06.900
I've heard from people in certain branches of the military who say, I went, the chaplain
00:47:14.020
We had Bible study every week, and he was actually a solid Christian chaplain.
00:47:18.480
And it was really a fantastic environment for me to grow as a Christian or demonstrate
00:47:25.740
I've had friends who went into the military and said, man, after I got out, it took me
00:47:29.380
10 years to kind of come back to my faith and really get my life straight from some of the
00:47:35.040
decisions, the bad sinful decisions that I had made while I was in the military. So Wes, you're
00:47:40.020
the resident expert here on this topic and I think would offer a valuable perspective. Sure.
00:47:45.220
Your module will vary. Of course, you're looking at about 1.2 million individuals and then 20 to
00:47:50.660
30 bases, big ones, as well as tons of other embassies and everything that you could be spread
00:47:54.920
out at and the most difficult thing is that your experience is going to depend greatly not even
00:48:00.320
necessarily on the base you go to or the job you pick but your individual unit and even down to
00:48:05.980
your unit your shop so that that's the five to ten people that's your corporal that's your sergeant
00:48:11.440
that's your commanding officer those kind of people are going to make your life very difficult
00:48:16.340
difficult to be a christian difficult to hold your faith difficult to just succeed or they're
00:48:21.240
going to be honestly some of your best friends like that's legitimately some guys go in and those
00:48:25.120
are their brothers for life especially in special forces where it's smaller there's more training to
00:48:29.880
go through it there's a higher selection process i mean some of those units those men just for life
00:48:34.580
their families and everything they stay together and so i can never tell you well you'll go here
00:48:38.380
and it'll be great you go here and it'll be bad but be aware that you could go to a unit where a
00:48:42.900
young man is going to have to fight for his faith where he's going to have to make a conscious
00:48:46.340
decision to say i mean many times i was invited to strip clubs i'll come to the strip club out
00:48:50.220
with us didn't do it that is 100 going to be some of the influence right influence towards drinking
00:48:55.000
influence towards uh just reckless behavior you'll always have those elements they're going to be
00:49:00.460
worse in some units and and particularly here's the balance with kind of like the marine corps
00:49:05.340
versus the other ones when you kind of like go down the list that the air force is one of the
00:49:09.700
softest branches as far as physical discipline as far as the standards that they hold as far as just
1.00
00:49:14.680
the people that are allowed in i mean some of the gayest stuff we're seeing out of the military
1.00
00:49:18.160
it was the air force uh as far as transitions and all of that you got air force in the bottom
1.00
00:49:23.700
the navy navy's pretty bad army next the marine corps even just that graph you showed has lowest
0.87
00:49:29.380
proportion of women for example right it's the hardest one to get into so the marine corps
00:49:33.280
experience for example it's going to be different on the whole from the air force experience so
00:49:37.700
calculating what branch am i going in what job am i going into infantry you're going to be around a
00:49:43.200
lot of men and in many ways they're going to be the good men like a man who's just looking to go
00:49:47.260
to a glorified kind of desk job in admin, get a free college ride and a VA home loan,
00:49:56.760
There's going to be some bad dudes there, but kind of bad in that they're hardcore.
00:50:02.880
So going into infantry, you'll be surrounded by those guys for better or for worse versus
00:50:09.180
You can be surrounded by a lot of women and a lot of freeloaders.
1.00
00:50:12.320
So all those variables, I can't tell you what one will happen.
00:50:15.600
But, I mean, for me, I could say, like, I met Joel through the military.
00:50:20.660
There was a navigator's Bible study ministry there that picked up young men.
00:50:24.400
And he said, hey, on Sunday nights, we go to this place called the Response Church.
00:50:29.420
So 100% at big bases, there are Bible studies, there are men, there are people that are typically
00:50:39.140
Help them out, invite them into their home, invite them to church.
00:50:41.820
So 100% always is that, even on deployment, every Sunday.
00:50:47.140
We had church out there in Kuwait, in the Middle East.
00:50:56.500
Whether a young man will gravitate towards that
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00:50:58.660
or to the negative influence that's going to be around him
00:51:04.320
and this is something to consider with the military,
00:51:06.800
we talk a lot about the importance of home and place,
00:51:12.680
especially if you enlist for multiple enlistments.
00:51:15.600
it's about every three so basically you'll go to your training you'll get a job if you have a
00:51:19.980
four-year enlistment you'll do about two to three years and then when you're looking at re-enlisting
00:51:23.880
you're shipped halfway across the country you could be i know tons of guys like they stayed
00:51:27.940
for example in san diego for 10 years and then they came in and like we know you have a house
00:51:31.800
we know you have a church we know your wife has a job here but we're going to take you and we're
00:51:35.320
going to send you to japan if you re-enlist you know and they had to get out here's here's the
00:51:39.800
thing what do you do if you're 32 years old and all you've known is being an airfield technician
00:51:44.720
There's not a lot of $150,000 jobs in San Diego, California
00:51:52.820
And so you have a lot of families, and it leads to a lot of divorce.
00:51:55.860
I've watched my different buddies through the Marine Corps,
00:51:58.020
the ones that stayed in, the ones that got out,
00:52:00.140
a lot of divorce, a lot of dads with their kids.
00:52:07.060
And so the military on the whole, especially as a career,
00:52:10.300
it's one thing if you're in it, you've got to make the best of it.
00:52:12.320
but as a whole, it is not conducive to family formation
1.00
00:52:16.680
because any military base, all the women around there,
00:52:19.680
even the ones in church, they've had 20 military guys
00:52:23.780
They are very much so turned off the idea of dating a military man.
00:52:26.940
So tough dating market, tough to start a family.
00:52:33.960
and then taking them again when they're two years old
00:52:41.180
especially if you make a career out of it yeah so wes are you saying that um a lot of the divorce
00:52:46.280
would happen just because the wife would get tired of all the moves or is it because the man maybe
00:52:51.140
would be deployed for long periods and actually wouldn't wouldn't be home at all like the wife
00:52:55.140
would stay wherever they were located san diego in this case the the guy goes to japan for two
00:52:59.800
years like like what do both of those dynamics happen or like how often do families travel and
00:53:06.500
and deploy with the husband to a base obviously not in a time of war yeah but there's two tours
00:53:11.240
there's accompanied and unaccompanied tours so a man could be sent to okinawa for example for
00:53:15.300
an unaccompanied tour which could be two years or something like that without his family as in
00:53:19.800
they're not giving him base housing they're also accompanied so you're going to germany and we're
00:53:24.000
allowing for you to take your family and all of that typically as you get more senior those are
00:53:27.860
accompanied tours a deployment six seven eight months those are very much so unaccompanied your
00:53:33.140
family's not coming with you a lot of the divorces that i saw in the military was it was certainly
00:53:38.180
sometimes the caliber of the man that he was just a man that was not a good leader good husband good
00:53:42.360
father faithful but a lot of times too the caliber of wife like you're talking about long hours and
00:53:47.580
you're living in a military community again not rooted and grounded so you're not living in this
00:53:51.820
military community where you just moved to north carolina and i got grandparents around i got
00:53:56.020
church community it's a bunch of people i didn't know i didn't grow up with i don't have ties to
00:54:10.840
So that definitely, if we're not talking about the character of the individuals,
00:54:13.780
she was a gold digger, this, that, or the other,
00:54:15.860
even just the family circumstances from moving around
00:54:26.620
the COVID vaccine requirement for military service was rescinded. But I did want to ask you a little
00:54:32.520
bit about just like the, I know that there's a sense where the military disciplines you,
00:54:37.060
makes you fit, makes you have to be strong and even combat ready. What about just the health
00:54:45.780
of enlisted soldiers as far as being taken care of? You know, if you're a mom or a dad who has
00:54:55.460
fed your son well insisted on you know good eating exercise all of those things is a military
00:55:02.460
career even a four-year tour going to be in line with some of those things that you've done
00:55:07.620
or is that is it going to be with the vaccines or even just diet health care all of those things
00:55:14.400
any thoughts or comments on that especially sorry especially in light of the fact that you are
00:55:19.220
entering the age where you're going to be getting married having your children and we've talked a
00:55:23.580
lot about how especially for men um that fitness leading up to um conceiving your children is
00:55:31.600
really really critical yeah yeah it is an uphill battle for sure that's funny my wife she's like
00:55:36.840
i don't want our son going into the military because he'd have to get vaccines he hasn't
00:55:40.020
had any vaccines and she's like you have to get a lot i mean like i was fully vaccinated and uh i
00:55:45.340
went to the military and boot camp i had to get a bunch of them so for sure that's a factor there
00:55:49.160
are religious exemptions but that's a lot of paperwork that you have to jump to jump through
00:55:53.300
for sure the problem with the lifestyle so like you're talking about field adventures like going
00:55:57.800
out in the field and doing expeditions there you're most certainly talking about deployment
00:56:01.020
you're talking about the people that surround you you are talking about most certainly not
00:56:04.940
being surrounded by people that are probably the way you're kind of referencing it going to be
00:56:09.420
thinking about health diet fitness and all of that i mean in the marine corps it was just notorious
00:56:13.920
like oh we got a five mile run tomorrow morning but who cares we're pounding beer tonight like
00:56:18.920
literally and people they're running they're throwing up on the side of the road yeah but
00:56:22.180
you're because you're 20 years old yeah like you're 20 years old you're practically invincible
00:56:25.480
and so all that being said if you're a young man you're going in yeah the diet's not great it's
00:56:29.760
full of seed oils you're going to be peer pressured to smoke cigarettes and drink and all of that
00:56:33.640
doesn't really affect you necessarily earlier on right but i will say people's bodies fall
00:56:39.080
apart i was literally just today and my other job was talking to a guy he threw out his knee years
00:56:43.720
ago throwing something over his shoulder slipped his knee out of place but dealing with that
00:56:48.720
injury ever since. They take young men that are strong and motivated and disciplined and they use
00:56:53.740
them to do manual labor, you know, to run trucks, to fly in planes, to serve as air crew. And so it
00:56:58.860
is a toll on the body 100%. Now, there's a good cause there, like fidelity to the fatherland,
00:57:05.400
patriotism, patria, patrias, it's a term of love for the father, the lineage, the ancestry
00:57:15.380
that made your country so it's a good thing to say hey i'm young and especially i think of special
00:57:20.180
forces guys that have dedicated their life to being fit they could go compete in crossfit they
00:57:24.220
could go do this and say no i'm going to go in this and i'm going to be willing to make the
00:57:27.520
ultimate sacrifice for the sake of my nation giving up my body giving up my health giving up
00:57:32.300
my youth for all of this so that's not a it's probably not going to be the best for your health
00:57:36.720
between the vaccines between the diet between the deployment between the sleepless nights between
00:57:40.180
all that it's probably not going to be the best for your health but that isn't necessarily
00:57:46.140
But be aware, you're going to have to make a conscious effort
00:57:50.300
As you get more senior, you're going to have more time.
00:57:52.800
As you get married, you're not just stuck with,
00:57:54.780
because what they'll do is they'll give you money
00:57:56.120
if you live off base, but if you live on base in the barracks,
00:58:00.900
So you're talking like hundreds of dollars if you're married
0.69
00:58:02.580
to help you eat better, but if you're eating at the chow hall,
0.94
00:58:07.760
Same thing for like MREs when you're out in the field.
00:58:13.500
But it's not the best for health, at least right now.
00:58:16.660
Do RFK, do Pete Hegseth, does that make a difference?
00:58:19.680
But even still, it's going to be difficult.
0.98
00:58:21.360
With RFK Jr., there'll be a kosher option.
0.94
00:58:31.800
There's a lot of fat people still in the military.
00:58:35.480
There was tons of guys, and for whatever reason they were able to run,
00:58:46.460
And it's like, well, the military helped you do that.
00:58:48.040
Like, I remember guys in boot camp, like, they were like, well, I'll just do this and they'll make me do it.
00:58:58.700
Well, okay, I was going to say something, but now that last comment's got me rethinking this.
00:59:03.380
I was going to say, if your son is the kind who you just see the writing on the wall and he's probably just going to work a 20-hour-a-week job
00:59:12.620
and um video games with the rest of his time like maybe maybe kick him in the pants a little bit and
00:59:19.180
sign him up you know but it sounds like wes you're also saying that's not necessarily a guaranteed
00:59:24.480
um fix as it were right well it depends younger or older at 28 i remember this man like an old
00:59:32.360
like literally a video game guy who was like i'm gonna do it i'm just gonna sign up for the marine
00:59:35.580
corps they'll make me disciplined he dropped out but he was also 28 got it 20 is different yeah
00:59:40.760
You know, like you can put on a little weight and your body will adapt much better.
00:59:45.160
It's much harder to change those habits, though, the older that you get.
00:59:48.940
And so totally to your point, an 18 year old man, even if he's lived a mostly sedentary
00:59:52.980
lifestyle for a long time, I'm confident if he's, you know, relatively good health,
00:59:58.680
And it would be, you know, it'd be hard and he would change a lot, but he can make it
01:00:03.480
happen versus, all right, you're 25, time to fly, son, let's make it happen.
01:00:07.700
No, actually, he might not have that left in him anymore.
01:00:10.500
gotcha all right well joel any pastoral perspective on this from you you know if a
01:00:16.140
family in our church were to say what do you think you don't you're not making the decision
01:00:20.540
for them but anything beyond we've added a lot of caveats but anything beyond this that that you
01:00:25.040
would want to make sure they're thinking about i would have strongly dissuaded them um in the
01:00:30.600
previous four years in the previous administration um just because of what the military stood for
01:00:37.380
like yeah like you don't you don't want to risk the lives of your sons um to go and and you know
0.90
01:00:44.500
expand and preserve gay race communism you know on the other side of the world like so that you
0.94
01:00:49.880
know so that ukraine can have you know wave gay flags you know like we just got to make sure that
0.97
01:00:57.460
those poor pakistanis are you know being taught about transgenderism you know those i mean those
01:01:02.120
are the things that we that's what we're doing that's what we're fighting for um so now
01:01:07.300
that you know we have a change in administration my calculus is different um so that wouldn't be
01:01:13.820
as much of a hesitation with pete hedgseth and with trump um but now i have kind of a new hesitation
01:01:21.840
um which is just i i still would really want to see how things shake out with um with israel and
01:01:30.260
iran i don't i don't think we're going to be going to save taiwan right i mean i think that
01:01:35.260
that decision is is just so foolish that even the worst leaders in government still wouldn't make it
01:01:42.000
maybe like sorry taiwan i'll tell you i'll tell you where it could happen you know part of the
0.94
01:01:47.020
reason is because i don't think tai taiwan has a bunch of uh dirt on the sitting president yeah
01:01:53.920
fair enough like ukraine ukraine is literally just kind of like the purse of of the whole world
01:02:01.380
and had blackmail on everybody especially the bidens and so that's true i think that that you
0.58
01:02:07.180
know whereas taiwan it's just it's not our people not our problem and i don't i don't think taiwan
01:02:12.440
has a whole bunch of you know those are our chips puppet strings yeah you need them no we need a
01:02:17.820
manufacturer i'll tell you the only the only reason why i could see it happening is because
01:02:21.420
i actually think the first um nation to get involved defending taiwan possibly would be japan
01:02:27.580
because they are in the area and then if we then ended up feeling like we needed to support japan
01:02:33.100
because trying to attack japan that's the scenario where i could see it happen not necessarily for
01:02:37.640
taiwan's sake but because of japan maybe so i personally i don't see the taiwan there's like
01:02:44.220
three main potential conflicts like you know china taiwan russia ukraine and then like israel
01:02:49.560
iran yeah and so um ukraine i think you know i think we're done with that um especially under
01:02:55.520
this administration and i don't think we're going to go back to it um taiwan i don't really think
01:03:00.160
that that's going to happen but israel and iran that would be my one big hesitancy uh so the last
01:03:06.840
four years i would have been you know very very um you know i would just would have given i wouldn't
01:03:14.680
have commanded anybody but i would have given a lot of cautions because of just exporting you know
01:03:19.840
rainbow flags and with this administration um my hesitancy would be just i don't know what's
01:03:26.640
going to happen with iran and israel i do think that there's there's a potential to escalate and
01:03:32.880
ramping up towards war and whether or not we're involved i don't know but but it doesn't it doesn't
01:03:38.800
look great yeah and that's where i've settled too i mentioned at the beginning that this is personal
01:03:43.280
for my family and with my son my oldest son he's um getting lord willing he's he's been accepted
01:03:50.560
for a two-year technical degree in the field so aircraft mechanic um and we've said okay in two
01:03:57.360
years we're going to evaluate and see what the situation is that's not too late for him to go
01:04:01.760
and still join um but i think it will be enough time to maybe provide some clarity to see what
01:04:08.160
the situation is in a couple years and that's that's also the decision the calculus that we've
01:04:12.800
made as well yep i agree yeah and for the record it's not just we've already said it but to say it
01:04:18.540
one last time it's not um oh why be hesitant because um at this particular time if your son
01:04:24.420
signs up you know he might actually have to fight i'm it's not that i'm inherently against fighting
01:04:28.480
that's literally the purpose of the military it is right but um but the fight that i'm particularly
01:04:33.280
talking about is it shouldn't be our fight yeah so i i would not want um if it was if it was like
01:05:05.180
that's it for this week and Lord willing we'll see you again
01:05:09.140
have a very blessed yeah that's right amen good friday and then yeah and then easter and then uh
01:05:15.320
we will see uh hopefully um see you guys next monday yep