Scott Mann - The Real Cost of America's Failures | SRS #135

Scott man welcome back thanks for having. me back man it means a lot to be back. here man I've been looking forward to. this conversation we have uh I know me. too we've done quite a bit together over. the what 2024 yeah it's been a busy year. no kidding but uh I. think man I just owe you a huge.

I just want to say thank you for being. my friend and um and the the the stuff. that we've broken together yeah the. legend interview the massud. interview I mean I couldn't have put. those together without you uh the way. that it all came together and and. um thank you well it's the feeling is. mutual I mean being a small part of it. and and really watching you.

uh unpack all that and and I think given. a voice to our global war on terror. community and and and asking questions. that frankly all of us have been asking. um but not being heard was really cool. man so look to be even a small part of. that uh that's that's as good as it gets. so it's been it's been awesome watching. you guys do it and your team's amazing. like the watching the teamw work uh when. we went to you know to Vienna and then. and then what's happened since then um.

is equally impressive thank you you know. because they're just a great bunch of. guys man and they're really getting. after it and and I think it shows right. I think it shows in the stories that are. coming out of this thing good and bad. everybody here definitely uh believes in. the mission they truly do and uh you. know I couldn't be more blessed with the. with the guys that are on this team but. but man I'm just thank you my honor for. being there for helping me do that and. we made some waves we made some big big. waves for sure with the petition with.

calling certain members of Congress out. with uh and just bringing exposure I. think the biggest thing is just bringing. exposure I mean I I personally feel like. we strong armed the the is it the AG or. the IG uh the IG well the the cigar. right it's the it's the Inspector. General for the Afghanistan War I feel. like we Strongarm them one way or. another uh I think it stemmed from our. work together the they've admitted that.

they accidentally sent $239 million to. the Taliban um knowing that you know. from Legend and Sarah that it's more. like 40 to 87 million a week but hey. it's a start right yeah I mean I will. say John SOS and and the cigar folks. from what I've seen they've been very. persistant uh in their pursuit of this. thing the state department has been very. reluctant I think to reveal stuff and.

even you know I think you doing what you. did brought a level of energy and. frankly just revealed some things that I. don't think would have got revealed I. just I really believe that and I and. including that that that that late. report from cigar about The Accidental. distribution of millions of dollars to. you know the. Taliban it the timing is just too weird. for that not to have been pressured by. what by what's been done here so I think. it's I think it's great I think there's. probably more to come honestly cuz this.

is a this is just an ugly animal and I. think there'll be more stuff that will. come out of this I hope so we'll. continue to cover it as everything you. know continues to develop yeah but but. let's get to you Scott. so got a new book coming out nobody's. coming to save you a Green Beret guide. to getting [ __ ] done uh releases October. 1st Y and um and uh so I want to cover. your life story okay and then I want to.

get a little more in the Weeds on some. of the stuff that we've done together. and uh some of the Intel and information. that we've uh kind of gathered up from. doing this and then uh get into the. leadership book okay great man so I know. you're no stranger to the show here but. uh I still got to give you a proper. introduction here. so retired lieutenant colonel Scott man. you are a former US Army Green Beret. with with combat tours all over the.

world including Colombia Iraq and. multiple tours in Afghanistan you're the. president and founder of rooftop. leadership a New York Times best-selling. author of operation Pineapple Express. and number one international. best-selling author of Game Changers. going local to defeat violent extremists. you have spoken on three tedex stages. and are also a playwriter and actor in. your recent play brought to film about. the Afghan War and the unforeseen cost.

of War on Veterans called the last out. mhm eulogy of a Green Beret and uh I. just want to say that I've the whole. team here actually you gave us that. invite and we got to witness that uh. play here in Franklin and. um you guys did a hell of a job thank. you you know it wasal so cool having all. y'all at the play in Franklin but you. know what a lot of people don't know too. is that that's where you met.

that's true and honestly I think it's. where a lot of this started was in a in. a in a play about the war with men and. women who were involved in the war. having conversations uh after the play. and that's really why I wrote it. man well you did a hell of a job thank. you you are the founder of task force. pineapple and 501c3 operation Pineapple. Express relief where you actively. advocate in Congress and on on National.

media outlets for the safe passage and. resettlement of our abandoned Afghan. allies you're also the founder of the 51. C3 the hero's journey where you are. dedicated to helping veterans and. military families find their voice and. tell their story as they transition out. of the military in order to bridge into. civilian in in order to bridge the. civilian military. divide you came out with a book called. nobody is coming to save you a Green.

Beret guide to getting big [ __ ] done. which is a practical guide for leaders. who want to make a big impact on the. world your greatest accomplishments are. your 26e marriage and your three grown. sons that's right 100% 29 years now 29. years it be 29 years this Veterans Day. wow. congratulations so to Monte let's start. it off with I love the family stuff man. and um you know.

it's I keep getting these guys in here I. mean we we we worked. in a industry Special Operations right. has one of the if not the highest. divorce rate of all occupations yeah and. I keep getting um these gems that. somehow have made it through their. entire military career with one spouse. and um and uh and have been married for.

a long time what is the secret to a. successful. marriage um well Monty and I and I think. you and I talked about this we were. actually married before very early in. our lives when I first started in the. military it only lasted a few years no. kids same with her um but we got married. right before I started Special Forces. and and the tryouts you know and I think. one of the things that was we talk about. now was I was very upfront with her.

about what she was getting into and what. that world was going to be like and I. don't think I was as much with my. ex-wife and and I think that had an. impact but so very upfront being just. very honest about the life that I wanted. to pursue um but if you know look. there's there's no magic pill I think. we've certainly had our ups and downs. and a lot of challenges I you know I'm a. recovering alcoholic so I definitely. gave plenty of challenges to the. marriage over the years but I would say. that one of the things that we still do.

to this day is um you know we we fight. for each other you know we fight for. each other and and I can't tell you how. many times she's picked me up off the. floor and how many times uh I've jumped. in the breach for her you know and and. that's just something that we committed. to when we had kids little kids we said. um our mission is to get these little. kids these little boys to become young. men who will be protectors and then they. will leave and it will still still be. you and me and how do we fight for each.

other to get date nights to go on Long. weekends together to have folks stay. with the kids so that we don't lose that. fire uh and you know that was a really. important move looking back on it. because even now at 56 and 55 we still. fight for each other and it's uh it's. pretty damn cool you know because she's. my person she's my best friend. um I don't know if I'd be alive without. her honestly I love watching you guys.

man it's just. a you can tell there's a lot of love and. um you can tell you guys have each. other's backs no matter what and it's. just it's just nice even outside of the. Special Operations Community just to see. a healthy marriage I mean it's yeah. there's not a whole lot. of there's just not a lot of healthy. marriages out there and it's your you. are an example to well thank you I. appreciate that I feel like sometimes I. i i i dro the ball in terms of you know.

how I do it but I I do feel like it is. it's it's we've done something right you. know we've been together 29 years I look. at you and Katie I look at what Tom. sadly and I were talking the other day. about the same topic and I and I do I. think it I do think it is important that. um that that. couples uh continue to to to talk and. work with our community about. relationships and that we talk about. that stuff because it is a big part of. What Not Just Special Operations but. military service and I think just daily.

life I mean how do we preserve our. relationships how do we fight for our. relationships when all this stuff's. going on um I you know I think we we. talk all the time about our industry or. our business or all the other stuff but. you know the real mental health stuff. and the stability stuff if the if the. home is not in order everything else is. going to be a train wreck you know and I. learned that the hard way um but it is. refreshing to hang out with folks who. really just value relationships I mean I. know for me at 56 for the rest of my.

life that's who I'm going to hang out. with these people who are uh who value. their relationships and value their. partner and and celebrate them you know. that's who I want to be around yeah. that's uh great advice thank you well. let's get into the interview so but real. quick everybody gets a gift yes I know. this is probably the only reason you're. here it is the only reason I'm here. frankly. so cool.

man I can't wait um so thank you and um. I love these damn things and the fact. that I'm getting them twice is not lost. on me it means a lot to be on here twice. with you it really does um I have. something for you oh I love. presents so you know Green Berets we. pride ourselves in Rapport building. right that's one of the things that. you're taught in the Q course is that. when you go into the gorilla base and. you meet with the G.

you know you've really got to think. through uh those first five minutes of. the engagement because building Rapport. is super super important and um and it's. the relationship that's the asset right. like that really is what matters more. than anything else and um so I thought. about coming here to then what it means. to me to be on the show with you a. second time like and just the just the. the friendship that we've built over the. years so um I wanted to bring something. to you because of all the cool stuff you. have in this room you know everything is. so personalized but but something. happened a little while back that I.

thought you would really appreciate and. maybe even want to display but um as we. were talking about Pineapple Express. over the last couple of years I think. one of the things that's been cool about. it is this was a group of veterans from. across the country who just tried to do. something to help their allies when. nobody was coming right and and and all. I did was write the story and try to. Chron Chronicle it as best I could but. what I found was a lot of people were. inspired by these veterans who stepped. into the arena when nobody did but they.

were also really inspired by the Afghans. in the story and that was my that was my. Hope was that the afans would really. become the protagonist these Commandos. and special forces and female soldiers. and Minister of Foreign women's Affairs. who risked everything for freedom and so. I got this message from um a lady on. LinkedIn her son Tyler her name's Carrie. her son Tyler had to do a book report on. uh someone who had inspired him recently.

and he had to like write about it and. then do a sketch of this individual so. she sends this to me on. LinkedIn and Tyler Drew this at 15 years. old uh and he's a huge fan of your show. he follows you he listens to every. episode uh but he he drew this picture. of. nazam wow shooting and then naam on a. mission straight from the book right um. and he did the illustrations himself.

freehand and then wrote his little book. report on uh operation Pineapple Express. as where he drew. information um and what his mom told me. was that he really dials into your show. man he really follows what you do what. you talk about and she just talked about. how Savvy he is and how how dialed in he. is and how focused he is and um she. asked she goes you you follow Sean R. he's like oh yeah time you know and and.

he was so casual about it like of course. I do you know and I just thought that. was the coolest thing man to see how. this had influenced because we always. talk about how our country's in trouble. and this and that and you know you and. I've had this conversation I believe. that I do believe that this generation. of young folks is is our is our is our. last best hope your kids and my kids and. and certainly Tyler you know somebody. that would would would make the hero in. his journey nazam wow and take the time.

to draw them so I had this uh printed. out and framed uh and I thought. somewhere in here it would look pretty. damn cool definitely definitely going in. and if it's okay with you I'm probably. going to send him one of my gummies hey. I'll give you some extra ones all right. coming at you Tyler wow thank you yeah. pretty pretty special this will uh. definitely be in the studio yeah awesome. starting right now that is very.

cool thank. you man that's cool man that me hope you. know what I mean it does and that's what. I that's what I told his mom you know. more than anything else it just it just. gives me hope that um it's one thing to. be. inspired by you or Tom sadly or or or um. you know even Sarah but to be inspired. by our Afghan allies a a Commando like. naam I mean that to me just it really is. it just it it warms my heart man because.

those those those guys really stood at. our shoulder for a lot of years and we. should be inspired by. them you've got only a few months until. the 2024 election takes place and who. knows where the country is going to be. what will the national debt be how many. more political tricks will there be. that's why I've teamed up with a. toprated precious metals company gold. code to diversify and help protect my. savings with gold and silver before it's. too late we live in unprecedented times.

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it's not going to last long with Helix. better sleep starts. now I know everybody out there has to. be just as frustrated as I am when it. comes to the BS and the rhetoric that. the mainstream media continuously tries. to force feed us and I also know how. frustrating it can be to try to find. some type of a reliable news source it's. getting really hard to find the truth. and what's going on in the country and.

in the world and so one thing we've done. here at Shan Ryan Show is we are. developing our. newsletter and the first contributor to. the newsletter that we have is a woman. former CIA targeter some of you may know. her as Sarah Adams call signed super bad. she's made two different appearances. here on the Shawn Ryan Show and some of. the stuff that she has uncovered and. broke on this show is just. absolutely.

mindblowing and so I've asked her if she. would contribute to the newsletter and. give us a weekly intelligence brief so. it's going to be all things terrorists. how terrorists are coming up through the. southern border how they're entering the. country how they're traveling what these. different terrorist organizations. throughout the world are up to and. here's the best part the newsletter is. actually free we're not going to spam. you it's about one newsletter a week. maybe two if we release two shows the.

only other thing that's going to be in. there besides the Intel brief is if we. have a new product or something like. that. but like I said it's a free CIA. intelligence brief sign up links in the. description or in the comments we'll see. you in the. newsletter they did. yeah one last thing we got a patreon. account they're are top supporters been.

with us since the beginning yeah I. wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. and neither would you be right um and so. one of the things I do is I offer them a. uh opportunity to ask each guest a. question yeah and uh we had a ton of. questions really yes for you but I. narrowed it down to. one this is from Tory Miller since your. last interview with Shawn and the. interviews with Legend and Commander. massud do you think we will have to go.

back to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. if so do you believe since our botched. withdraw that our relationship with. partner forces and other tribes are now. strained man thought this was a great. question two part question right that's. a great question. um so yes I do think that we will have. to go back and and and and my my my. logic behind it is that the the the.

reemergence of international terrorism. out of that safe haven is so profound um. that everything that we're seeing from. multiple very credible sources um is. saying that not it's not a matter of if. it's a matter of when and and I'm sure. you and I'll talk more about this but. the uh the they are in such Advanced. stages that those operatives are already. here right so when it gets to that point. it is very difficult to stop.

it what I believe is we unfortunately. have a very short memory in this country. you know when we you look at 9/11. happened just over 20 years ago and you. remember where the country was and those. smoldering ruins and how he felt during. that there was this Collective uh. simmering anger of just retribution and. they turned guys like you and me and our. units loose in Afghanistan for for. Retribution I mean President Bush you. know said it from the pile with the.

megaphone he said they're going to hear. from us real soon you know and it was a. it was a it was a pursuit of Justice. right and you had the yellow ribbons. come out and the Budweiser commercials. and everybody was fired up and we were. we were a nation that at War and we. deployed a very small percentage of. these young men and women into a country. that frankly had been at War for four. decades like that's all that country. knows is war and what's interesting. though as you think about Osama Bin.

Laden quietly killed mud's daddy Amed. sha massud two days prior because he. knew that was exactly what we were going. to do yeah and he knew that we would go. to panser and that we would partner with. mud and he had the foresight the. Strategic foresight to whack the. resistance leader 48 hours before. dropping through strategic. surprise the Twin Towers hitting the. Pentagon and would have hit the capital.

so think about that for a second this. was over 20 years ago this was the level. of strategic breadth and depth that. alqaeda possessed okay today through. your interview with Sarah Adams and. others it's excruciatingly clear that. they have far surpassed that capability. today not just in terms of Fighters but. in their sophistication they're. operating at a whole different level now. and so they want us in the fight the. enemy has a vote they want us to respond. the we may be done with with Afghanistan. but they're not done with it's not done.

with us and so what you can bet on is. that they are going to outdo the last. attack and they are going to do it at a. such a level of emotional impact that we. will have no choice but to respond. because it's going to take us into a. sympathetic state of Retribution yeah. and and there will be outcries for. payback and all of these folks that have. written checks to the Taliban and done. all these policy ill adved policy moves. they'll just skull back into the Shadows.

they'll disappear and the Budweiser. commercials will hit again the country. music songs the you know the yellow. ribbons will come out except this time. it'll be my kid maybe yours you know on. c17s I think it'll be sooner than when. yours would be ready to go but it. certainly could be mine and other people. watching this it could be our kids on. those c17s and I think that they will go. um the difference is takes me to the. second part of the question I did. a scene at the end of last out in Tampa.

that had never been done before in my. play where we actually turned the lights. down at the end of the play and we had. Danny Patton the Green Beret son Kaden. uh like we heard this blackout sounds of. of the country's been attacked and this. is at the end of the play and it says. America is now responding we think there. are troops heading to Afghanistan and as. the lights come up Danny's son Kaden is. now full kitted up he's now a Green. Beret and he's rolling his parachute up. and stepping out of the Shadows is a.

Commando in tattered Rags he's got an M4. tricked out and all of the patches that. he once wore but it's all ripped up to. shreds and he's got his weapon leveled. right at. Kaden and Kaden just looks up at him and. there's this standoff between these two. in this moment and then we drop the. lights you know because that is what our. kids are going to walk into they're not. going to walk into the reception I. believe of a resistance that is waiting. anxiously for them to get there and you.

know you're going to have this link up. of unconventional warfare I think what. you're going to have are thousands of. pissed off Commandos and special forces. and interpreters who were left behind. who've lost their families who've been. co-opted in many cases by Bad actors and. the Very organizations that we trained. that would have been the Vanguard are. now going to be probably who we have to. deal with face to face um and I'm not. saying we can't I'm not saying we won't. but it is a completely different.

scenario this time because we aband we. wholesale abandoned a partner force that. has to this day three years later is. still being hunted and to think that we. could just walk back into that country. and say hey we're back how you like me. so far it's not going to go down that. way you know I've learned so much. history uh from putting these interviews. together with you and I've learned a a a. ton of information and one of the things.

that just you know that sticks out to me. that I say on every news interview every. time we talk about this now I say. it you told. me 911 was a $500,000 budget. yep now the government has come out and. publicly said that they have. accidentally given them $239 million we. know it's more than that it's a. conservative estimate but we know it's.

40 to 87 million a week absolutely but. even if it is even if it was just $239. million well that is what. 400. $480 times 478. times the budget that they. had yeah on 911 yeah and they're 10x. bigger you know probably close to 80,000. Fighters I think they had something like.

couple thousand before um 911 I check. those numbers and don't forget too they. just had a couple of operating bases in. Afghanistan at that time you had tarac. Farms you know which is near Kandahar. arfield and a few others but you've got. every NATO base that we built over there. Camp Brown you've got bogram you've got. Bastion all of the infrastructure all of. that was just left behind so they've. rolled right in on these bases with well. welld designed training areas and ranges.

um and they are they are training at a. level that's unprecedented you know and. and you think about that the Advent of. technology that is accessible to them. now think about the proliferation of. drone technology that we're seeing. coming off the battlefield in Ukraine I. mean how fast has that advanced and we. already see that um the attack in Russia. at the theater October 7 by uh Hamas in. in Israel these are all local. distributed attacks of her of horrorism. you know horrific attacks not World.

Trade Center type things but where we. live work and play right. and what I keep going back to is whether. it's Isis K whether it's the. al-Qaeda they the thing that we know is. they love to outdo the last attack. they're not going to be casual about the. next one they're going to make it a. point to make it bigger and more. spectacular and more paralyzing than the. last one and what I've heard Sarah and. others say is that all indications are.

that they have trained heavily in close. quarters battle local distributed. attacks and that there's a very good. chance that the next thing we see on the. Homeland could be an October 7 style. house to house restaurant to restaurant. synagogue to Chapel kind of attack on a. massive scale now you think about what. would what would happen if you had an. October. s style attack. in Houston akan Youngstown Dallas Miami.

all at the same. time I mean what did the DC snipers do I. mean think about that you talk about a. five 500k budget like the DC sniper shot. out of the back of a car and shut down. the Beltway for weeks imagine the. systemic paralysis that would result. from an October 7 style attack across. six cities at the same time I mean we. know we know what that looks like you. know I I want to say something I think. sometimes I feel like some of the. information that we're talking about.

seems a little out there or or maybe not. out there cuz it's all happening but. it's hard. for it's hard for everyday Americans to. have zero combat experience and are just. going to work and getting by the day and. not really they're coming after you yeah. if there's one thing that we've learned. being. overseas you know I think a lot of. people people think they're coming after. they're going to hit a military base.

yeah they're going to hit uh a police. station they're going to they're looking. for a fight they're not looking for a. fight they are looking they are looking. for the. easiest Target yeah with the most. casualties that is going to get on the. news yeah and so and where do we learn. this from we learn this from their. tactics overseas what do they hit they. hit markets. they HIIT. mosques they hit they hid public places.

where there is little to know police or. military and that's what they're going. to hit here they're coming they're not. coming after you cuz you're a hard. target they're not coming after me. they're coming after Mom and her kids. and dad that goes to his office job. every day that's who they're coming. after yeah you people better start. paying attention to what the [ __ ] is. going on because this [ __ ] is going to. happen yeah it this is going to happen.

this isn't a political thing this is a. country with zero borders they've. already caught people they have no idea. how many people have come across already. and this is how these organizations. operate and one other thing these. organizations are not competing against. each other. anymore now it's 21 terrorist. organizations working together training. together in Afghanistan with one common. goal and that is US yeah and then that's.

well said and you know there's they've. broken through barriers even the Shia. Sunni barrier you know where Iran is. very complicit in their work with. Al-Qaeda we're we're looking at an. unprecedented uh level of collaboration. between State and non-state actors also. Shia and Sunni that was you know you. didn't see that prior to 911 on on. certainly not on this scale where Iran. is offering sanctuary and and resource. support to Al-Qaeda who is a Sunni based. organization and you know Iran is Shia.

um and then you add to that Sean you. know the part that you're dealing with a. meta narrative here this is a this is a. narrative that you know ends with uh the. establishment of a caliphate in the west. and this is you this is this is. basically uh a swath of territory that. is governed by Islamic law you know it. is it is it is it is an islamist uh. objective to occupy and Gover govern.

through Sharia law you know and it is it. is it is administered by what they call. a caliphate and it goes way back uh. centuries to you know periods of Islamic. expansion and this is not I want to be. clear you know I'm not I'm not saying. that this is necessarily an Islamic. narrative it is an islamist narrative. and I think that's really important to. to clarify here because what we're. talking about are very specific groups.

who maintain this very radical ideology. that at all costs they will expand this. caliphate of sharia governed uh. territory into the west and in order to. do that all forms of governance that are. in existence today and ways of life must. go they cannot coexist you know and so. that level of commitment plus they've. already demonstrated through precedents. that their willingness to hit us right. in the chess cavity they want us in the.

fight they need us to be in the fight. because that's how they they bleed you. from a Thousand Cuts so they're coming. they're they're not they're not afraid. of our military might they're not. intimidated at all um and then the other. piece that to your original point and I. think this is really important to hash. out you talked about like when you hear. some of these things that Sarah talks. about or legend or me it's easy to go. well okay you guys were veterans you. fought in the War the war's over you.

know let's move on you know because if. there was a problem the three-letter. agencies would be talking about it or. the admin but here's the thing and this. is really important to to. unpack when Afghanistan collapsed in. 2021 right or even go back to 911 when. when 9/11 happened the worst terror. attack in our nation's history as a. nation collectively we said never again. it it hit us so deeply that it was clear. there was no really On The Ground. Intelligence capability that could have. gotten in front of this because we had. indications and there was no ground.

strike capability we weren't partnered. with the Northern Alliance we weren't. there was no partner force in the. country so we didn't really have any. ability to strike all we had was over. the horizon sound familiar so for 20. years as a nation we invested and as. NATO we invested in building an. intelligence apparatus that would. prevent another Safe Haven and deep. strike on the states and a partner force. that could be the the antibody to. Violent extremism in that Safe Haven and.

we did both we built those we bled for. them we we we lost friends for them we. gave up our youth for that and then on. August 15. 2021 an Administration literally turned. the page on that like it never even. happened like it was a serve pro. commercial and we walked away from. 30,000 Commandos you know we abandoned. 98% of our human intelligence and just. left it behind and then we decided that. we would deal with the Taliban as a. legitimate State actor and we would pay.

them humanitarian resources and. counterterror dollars to go after Isis. because somehow we feel like they can. actually Target them and they're at odds. but so in doing that what we actually. did and then these veterans groups from. all over the country it wasn't I mean. there were hundreds of them pineapple. was one of many but we picked up the. phone and we answered the phone when the. government didn't and nobody was coming. in we were talking to intelligence. operative we were talking to Afghan. Commandos and Special Forces members who.

had nowhere else to go and these. veterans Sean they never hung up the. phone they never hung up the phone in. three years they've cashed in their. 401ks for safe uh safe houses they've. cashed in their kids college funds to to. pay for food drops because these. Commandos and special forces and Intel. operatives they can't show their face in. public right so they they've kept them. alive and they've stayed on the phone. with them so when you have people like. Sarah Adams. her network in that country is amazing.

and and the people that she's talking to. are normally the people who'd be talking. to three-letter agencies but guess what. they don't trust those three-letter. agencies at all and those three-letter. agencies and our Administration clearly. is not interested I when we asked massud. are you talking to any. nope and so as weird as it is and as. strange as it is and I've never it's. like the Twilight Zone I believe the. gwatt generation specific veterans and.

intelligence Pros in that generation. have more High Fidelity information. about what's coming to the Homeland than. our own government yeah yeah and so it's. not far-fetched why do you. think why do you think they've not made. any big. moves visibly yet why have we not seen. an attack yet what's what's your I mean. if I put my conventional Warfare hat on. mhm I'm going to take infiltration as.

long as you give it to me I was going to. yeah I was going to say the same thing. so I mean what what I mean I want to. break that down a little bit more and. you know I mean we. have maybe a the question I would be. asking myself is why would we attack now. yeah I mean let's war game it let's see. what our I think this about China I. think this about a lot of a lot of our. adversaries why why would you why would.

you formulate an attack right now when. the going so good I mean yeah we it's. not a this isn't a joke this isn't over. embellished the borders are wide wide. open we know Legend uh has been talking. about this passport issue how they're. they are printing they are printing. legitimate passport out and handing them. out to as many terrorists as they.

possibly can to get them into South. Central. America and have them funnel up through. the southern border and so as long as. that border is wide open and nobody in. America is paying attention why would. they attack now why wouldn't they just. keep hey let's train some more guys up. get them passports have them infiltrate. into the US going still good get some. more trained up get them passports get.

them in there get as many as many of. these terrorists into the United States. as we possibly can and then if they ever. do actually secure that border that's go. time yeah I think hundreds of thousands. of terrorists inside the United States. just waiting for the go-ahead I mean. it's certainly a very large number of. Bad actors have made it into this.

country and I would say not only uh. Al-Qaeda Isis k type operatives but. you're also looking at State actors. you're looking at China Russia Iran um. all of these State actors have uh. unconventional warfare mandates right. you know so Green Berets are your your. your Guerilla Warfare unconventional. warfare uh component of the soft. Community but there's other countries. that that have that same kind of thing. so imagine that imagine that subversion.

sabotage operatives have have made their. way into the country that are not just. non-state actors like Al Qaeda but State. actors and is is it far-fetched to think. that there's actually collaboration. between them right and and and I think. there could be I mean certainly look at. what's you know look at what's going on. for example with Iran and the Taliban. and Iran and Al-Qaeda there is clearly a. symbiotic relationship that was not. there before and so there's that. then you take I wind it back to look at.

what's happening in Afghanistan that. people are I don't know why no one's. talking about this but the al-Qaeda 2.0. book that just came out verifies what. Sarah has been saying verifies what. Legend has been saying three independent. sources are saying that Hamza Bin Laden. is alive he was not killed under the. Trump Administration he is alive he is. the Amir of al-Qaeda which means the. brand is back the Ben L Are Back That. Matters to donations it matters to how.

they are perceived to the Islamic um. like it is a big stinking deal he is in. Afghanistan why would Osama Bin Laden's. son be in. Afghanistan what possible reason could. he be there if for nothing other than. retribution he is married to the. daughter of Mulla Omar the former. commander of the faithful of the Taliban. to the daughter of hakani and to the. daughter of Iman zawahiri so you go into.

who those are and so th those are so. both so the hakani network right um is. is is a massive Network in Afghanistan. that's part of the Taliban but also kind. of an independent Network that really. were very connected to Osama Bin Laden. right and they're much more aggressive. on a global scale whereas the Taliban. kind of has more of a regional Focus. hakani has very much a kind of a GL. Global focus and and a deeper alignment. in many ways with al-Qaeda in their.

Global aspirations so and then and then. zahiri was the former commander of the. the leader of al-Qaeda after bin Laden. died that was killed on the porch with. the Drone strike but what you have is. this massive intermarrying and this was. what massud was talking about between H. the bin lens and uh the Taliban so the. al-Qaeda group and the Taliban group are. intermarrying you know and this is a. very very key thing to pay attention to. this is what sulamani did with the cuds. forces in uh in Iran he he had he he he.

had his offspring interm Maring into. hisbah it it creates this bond that when. things go south man it's unbreakable and. no one's paying attention to this no. one's talking about this the fact that. Osama Bin Laden's son is now the Amir of. al-Qaeda is a very alarming thing and so. now with that condition in place you not. only have this open border for. infiltration to happen from the south. and arguably the north but you've also.

got. hakani who was the father of suicide. bombing in Afghanistan I mean a very. aggressive Global terrorist he's now the. minister of. interior so he controls the passport. office so a lot of these guys that are. here they have valid passports you know. and I've even heard from several this I. wanted to make sure people realize this. isn't like a fake ID shop in college oh. no these are valid TR. documents issued by the ministry of.

interior and frankly um he's moving with. impunity throughout the Middle East now. he has a$1 million bounty on his head by. the United States yet he moves around he. just recently went to I think Saudi. Arabia and was within miles of US troops. you know there was a time when that guy. couldn't lay his head in the same place. two nights in a row but now he is the. Minister of interior and is issuing with. impunity travel documents to folks that. can can come here legally and just set. up shop you know I think there's even.

another piece that nobody's really. thinking about I I think about it all. the time but you know we're talking. about we're talking about terrorist. cells infiltrating the US setting up. sleeper cells it's going to look like. October 7th it's going to look like the. mall in Russia it's going to look like. these. these active shooter type attacks. probably some suicide bombing stuff like. that but you know even on top of that if.

you zoom in even. closer you look at what some of the. other organizations are doing that are. infiltrating the country right now the. cartel yeah. cartel and these These people aren't. stupid they're not you know yeah some of. them live in caves and whatever but I. mean we spent 20 something years there. and uh they're doing just fine yeah and. uh but what I'm getting at is if you.

look at what cartel has done they're. also they're not just setting up little. base camps here and there to to run drug. operations they are embedding into our. politics they are embedding into local. politics State politics Federal. politics police. stations I mean they are their web is. just growing yeah I mean I I did an. interview with this guy Luis chaparo. there was a.

a it was the I'm going to butcher this. so I don't want to say it but it was. something involved somebody very high up. in police in. California just got popped. uh for uh being involved in fentanyl. trafficking and connected to the cartels. then you look at China China also. filtrating into our country spies are. sleeping with our Pol politicians.

there's no repercussions for that. they're also embedding into our politics. they're buying up our land they're. buying up real estate you go to. California you see real estate signs all. in Chinese. and and um you know and and and. so taliban's going to be taking. notes yeah these these terrorist. organizations are going to be taking. notes they're going to start getting.

into our politics they're going to start. sending in Intel reps they're going to. be sleeping with our. politicians and this is this is it's. this is like the new way and and oh you. think I'm crazy well guess who who was. there to negotiate with Taliban before. the US even left China was already. negotiating with the Taliban on how. they're going to pull this lithium this. this the lithium out of Afghanistan and.

they're setting up all these different. camps all over the place they're on. right now see and so you think. that the CCP isn't isn't colluding with. with Taliban and every in all the other. 21 terrorist organizations yeah and and. and and. maybe setting up strategic locations. side by side with China in the US I mean. I think that's why so many of the global. war on terror veterans are so upset over. all how all this went down in.

Afghanistan because the answers that we. got from our politicians and the. administration was things like we're. going to we're going to get out of. Afghanistan so we can focus on nearer. threats yeah the great you know so so as. our last planes are leaving hkaya you. have cargo planes landing in bogram. offloading Chinese Nationals you have. you know black SUVs rolling out of. vehicles on the hqa Airfield heading to. the Russian Embassy you know so there's. there's and you then of course we know. Iran and and the role that they are.

having in Afghanistan right now so to me. we completely seated the key terrain you. know the the the the very place where. the near paer threat is is the most. profound we walked away from it you know. we we literally walked away and don't. even have an embassy there anymore to to. manage the great the near peer threat. that we're dealing with and which brings. me to something that you said too Sean. that I think is really important and and. look I'm going to speak for me but I've. heard this from a lot of Veterans as. we've toured with with the play and talk. to. people for a for a lot of for me as I.

look at the country right now and I look. at the the politics of of like this. election and then whatever is going on. with that for me it really is it's not. it's not when we're talking about. something like this this is not a. republican this is not a Democrat issue. um I've served under commanders and. Chief from both parties I know have you. have two and I frankly found them all to. be pretty underwhelming in their ability. to prosecute this fight and their. understanding in the depth of this fight. I found their policy makers and their.

senior Admirals and Generals to be. woefully lacking in their command of. this problem set um and at times. intellectually dishonest about what was. actually going on and I just know for me. right now I have a hard time when I hear. some of the stuff that's coming out of. DC and when I hear some of the rhetoric. around what's going on because it is so. clear what is shaping up right now and. as you've alluded to there very well. could be a level of Nexus and.

collaboration between international. criminal elements State actors and. non-state Terror groups that could. happen because they all have a vested. interest in seeing us drop you know and. what if they do play to each other's. strengths you know what if Al-Qaeda is. able to move I don't know mortar rounds. across the southern border to link up. with Terror groups to implement. Ukrainian drone technology. with drones at a football. game now if we're sitting here thinking.

about this in. Tennessee you know that's not I just I. don't think it's that far-fetched and. what I've seen coming out of Afghanistan. and following the Congressional. testimony with all I just don't see. politicians taking it seriously I really. don't I I feel like it's and or the. media you know I just I feel like it's. it's it's it's generally the GWT. Community thumping the tub and trying to. get people to please listen pay. attention to this but uh as a as a as a.

national focus it just doesn't seem to. be there why do you why do you think. that. is H how can you not take this. seriously it's baffling to me because. you know well I have a theory on it and. I I don't know but I go back to what. President Bush said in the very early. days of the post 911 attack and he I. think it was when he was talking to. Congress and I'm paraphrasing but he. said you know this war will largely be.

fought in the shadows and it will be. fought by special operators and. intelligence professionals and and. basically what he said was the rest of. the country can go about your business. we got it and that's exactly what. happened you know um even with the the. largest footprints that we had in Iraq. and Afghanistan you know at the end of. the day just over I think 800,000 troops. from the US not counting NATO served in. Afghanistan you know there's 300 plus.

million people in this country 800,000. served in Afghanistan over 20. years wow right and so I think what you. you had was what this one military. spouse said to me at one of our plays. when we performed the play and she stood. up and she was very upset and she said. you know we fought this war for 10 years. um and when when my husband went to war. the rest of the country went to. Walmart you know and so I think there's. a. disassociation from what this really is.

and almost this idea at least in the. American population that our special. operators and our combat veterans it's. like a fortnite game it's like a video. game you just reset it put them back in. the game when you need them you know and. uh and it's not really that big of a. deal you just you just got to deal with. it when it pops up uh and we still kind. of have this isolationist mentality like. let's just focus on what matters here at. home let's get back to the economy let's. but the that's.

fine but it's not like Vietnam where you. could walk away from Vietnam and really. Vietnam's got to figure it out we've got. to figure it out this one follows us. home yeah this one follows us home this. is just a battle in a very long. multi-century struggle with these groups. they this is the you know this is just. one another round a round one by them. but they're not they're still coming and. they're coming at us with all four feet. and frankly we're in a far worse. position than pre.

911 it's just we've diluted ourselves. into thinking that we're. not I mean I don't. even I can't even. fathom if they do this as effectively as. I think they're capable of I. [Music]. don't I mean this looks really bad yeah. I I told Sarah the other day I said. there there is significant Blood on the. hands of some leaders on the other side.

of this and I mean at a scale we've. never seen I mean and it's just it's. just baffling and I think it's why so. many gwat generation veterans are really. really struggling is because the. national security threat is so high I. think it's also why recruiting and. retention are so bad because the. preponderance of a volun a volunteer. force is not an. entitlement you know it's a very fragile. thing it's a national treasure to have a. volunteer force in this world we live in.

today and we've squandered it we've just. pissed it away and one of the big things. that I think has happened is how much of. the volunteer force is comprised of. Legacy warfighters that come from they. see their dad or their mom or their. uncle and they join you know certainly. why I joined and I think with what. happened on uh August of 2021 and we. systemically walked away from our allies. and and and these young folks saw what. it did to so many of our generation of.

Warf Fighters they said you know what I. think I'm good I think I'll. pass that's what I'm hearing anyway it's. anecdotal but I think it's. significant you. know what does it look. like what does it look like when it. kicks off I. mean from our response. I mean what what does it look like yeah. I mean I'm I'm being serious yeah.

who right who's going to save us right I. who's going to protect us we've we've. demoralized. police for the fact that they're not. going to. act and I hate to say it but you can't. blame them yep we've seen so many cops. you know yes there are some bad apples. get. it but you have cut their legs out. you've made them the enemy and now you.

see what happens y. now stores are getting Ram sacked people. are getting shot all over the place for. their watches and their tennis shoes and. there aren't very many repercussions no. cops aren't going to do anything because. they're demoralized most of the good. ones have probably quit by now you have. a military who where recruiting is. completely down I mean it's on. the citizens you have politicians that. don't take much of anything seriously.

other than you know daylight savings. time and uh because that's important. right. but what does the response look like. have you thought about that I have I. mean I've talked to some of the some of. the folks that are working the problem. set hard and they're a lot smarter on it. than me but just a couple of things that. I think are probably worth considering. on the response who are you talking to. that's a lot smarter than you Sarah for. sure okay I'll buy that one way smar. than.

uh and and some other folks that kind of. work at the state and local levels you. know one of the things that Sarah and I. are trying to do uh is to travel around. and just talk to any state and local. leaders who will listen about what is. very possible right as a manifestation. of the next terror attack what and to. try to give them just threat information. updates on what's actually happening in. in Afghanistan what's happening here and. different things that the way this could. actually play out what it could look. like as a scenario right and you know I.

talked to you about the October 7 thing. I do think you're talking about complex. attacks I think you're talking about. localized attacks again where we live. work and play if you I think and and. massud said something I'd love to go. back and look at it again but he said. something that was kind of cryptic but. yet not when you were talking to him and. you you asked him something similar. about what does this kind of look like. and and he said you know Al-Qaeda has. learned a lot they've learned a lot the.

Taliban have learned a lot and Isis K. are still very young and it would not. surprise me at all you ask me what I. looks like and this is some speculation. but with some synthesis if you saw Isis. K or some other uh organization on the. front of it actually conducting the. attack with a marionette behind it that. goes all the way back to Iran and the. Taliban and Al-Qaeda but there's layers. of plausible deniability all the way up.

to you know Isis K who they could care. less you know their their Mantra is to. usher in the apocalypse so they're not. too worried about retribution or. attribution you know and they've. demonstrated that they'll hit anybody. look at what they did in Russia look at. what they've done in Iran like they will. they will be the front I believe and if. you look look at Pakistan and massud. said this too when you interviewed him. he talked about how Pakistan you know. they kind of made the deal with the. Devil with the Taliban during the war. that we were in they funded you know the.

Taliban and they funded these Insurgent. groups these Terror groups to overthrow. the Afghan government and and defeat us. and they provided Sanctuary to do that. well now that the the the country has. fallen and the Taliban are in charge the. T the Pakistan has seen like a 500%. increase in Terror attacks against them. against the very organizations that were. sponsoring these Terror groups but it's. not coming from the Taliban it's coming. from surrogate groups like The Tariq.

Taliban and others but you could walk. that sucker back on a whiteboard to very. likely the you know the Taliban senior. leadership doing that so there's already. models for this that's one I think. you're going to see high levels of. collaboration I do not think that Isis K. and the Taliban are on the outs I think. that is a facade that we as westerners. has have fallen for I just don't buy it. I don't buy it I mean they may have some. ideological differences. but I think they they're and now that.

hakani has the level of assertion that. he does I think there's even in the AL. qaa 2.0 book they talk about the Isis K. leadership is now directly tied to. hakani but there's still this plausible. deniability that could be done it wasn't. Al-Qaeda it was that was Isis you know. what I mean yeah so I think that's one. that we've got to start our politicians. have and our agencies have got to start. looking at that I think the other one I. think you see is it's the levels of. attack could be so horrific and so.

localized that there would be an an. emotional overreach on the part of the. United States where the only thing we. know to do is just send a bunch of 18y. olds over there with Bradly fighting. vehicles and do it. again that's what you think the response. will be go back to Afghanistan while. they're all here I think it'll be a. heavy response because we won't know. what to do you know there's this story. about when the when the hijacked. airliner one of the airliners was I. think it was the one that ended up going.

down in Pennsylvania but um they they. scrambled a couple of jets out of DC. they didn't have time to put Armament on. them and. uh Penny was one of them as our first. name but they went up and so their. mission was to Ram The Airliner that was. that was what they were going to have to. do they were going have to Ram it you. know and they got up to late that it had. already happened but I think it's a. metaphor right box cutters and an. airliner and you're going to get up in. an F16 you're going to ram it like. that's your response and I think just.

based on the way we've stuck our head in. the sand and doled out tax dollars to an. enemy that's actually conspiring against. us how could we think our response is. going to be anything except a bumbling. overreach there is potentially so many. of them here that this could just happen. on and on and on and I think the. response looks. I'm not I I I think they're going to. send people back to. Afghanistan I think the response looks.

very similar to the problem that we're. seeing in the schools with active. Shooters there is no. response there is incompetence there's. paralysis there is the it's never going. to happen to me. attitude we're not seeing any more. funding go to educ uh go to protecting. our schools yeah like nothing's getting. ped. like I said and it's not a this isn't a. political thing you know what like half.

the country thinks it's gun control. guess what nothing's been passed the. other the other half thinks we need to. arm the schools up and protect them and. teachers need to be carrying. guns not much has been done yeah you. know it's. it's I got kids getting ready to go to. school that's the number one thing we. look at in every school and I amased. with everywhere I've seen I hear you man.

and there is no plan no you're right and. and I and I do agree with you I do think. there will be a level of. wholesale systemic paralysis in the. nation when this. happens unlocke anything we've ever seen. that will make 911 look like as Legend. says a dress. rehearsal like because just stop and. think about precedent in our in our past. where the DC sniper 911 like what did. that do to the nation just step back and. go okay how I mean it was significant.

mhm you take an October 7 style attack. that happened in Israel they won't even. be able to cover everything that's. happening and you put it in Sixers like. now you put it in six or seven cities. because they probably could based on the. levels of infiltration they've been able. to achieve and the time they've been. afforded and the resources they have. there's no reason to think they couldn't. execute that in six places across the. country or more. you are you are you are talking about a. level of systemic paralysis that this. country has never seen and it you know.

who knows what that leads to I think. they could be. recruiting you certainly have evidence. of gangs here now uh from the diaspora. of Afghanistan where there are Taliban. Affiliated gangs much like you have. gangs in Minneapolis that are affiliated. with al-shabab and that's very important. to note as well because once you have. those you have now tribal linkages you. have International linkages and they're. in the they're in the criminal realm as. well right so they're Narco trafficking.

as well and they're tied into. International gangs so you've already. got a Nexus right there you know and. there are there is growing evidence of. Taliban Affiliated gangs in the United. States because of the how many 100,000. Afghans we brought over here right and a. lot of them we don't know who they are. right and their kids are now you know 17. 18 years old uh there's videos out of uh. and there's even there's been videos of. of of Afghans going back to as gang.

members going back to Afghanistan and. shooting shooting videos wow wow Scott. let's take a quick break when we come. back I want to talk about I think this. all falls on the individual. yeah when I first started podcasting. opening an online store is something I. knew I needed to do but I had. zero clue on where to start tried all. these different platforms and then I.

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docomond that's meetfabric. docomond join me and my special guests. for the next behindth scenes experience. exclusively available on vigilance Elite. patreon the behind the-scenes footage is. raw and uncut this is as close to the. set as you can possibly get you can. expect anything from off-topic. conversations Studio tours final moments. before the interview starts and. everything in between the behind. the-scenes content is constantly.

evolving and will continue to bring you. more as we grow you can gain access for. just $15 a month exclusively at. vigilance Elite. patreon all right Scott we're back from. the break we were going to talk about. what individuals do but we're going to. shift that a little bit here because we. were just having a I want to I a couple. things came to mind on the break one is. we started talking about what else what.

other parts of our what parts of our. infrastructure do you think that these. terrorist organizations will come after. other than just Humanity itself but also. um sorry I have to clear my head. otherwise I'll forget this stuff yeah. the other thing that I'm interested in. is you know I did I said that I don't. they go for easy targets I don't believe. 100% that they are going to be after. guys like you and I mhm.

because they know what we can do they've. seen it and uh they know how capable uh. American Commandos are but with that. being. said when we left. Afghanistan not only did we leave all of. the weapons and vehicles and planes and. helicopters and everything that. we need to make war we left that all. there but the other thing that we left.

there was to my. knowledge none of the classified. information in any of these outstations. or the capital itself or the embassy was. destroyed and. so I'm going to stop talking about the. the ramifications that the that that. what we've done there and how we pulled. out and and what that means for. Afghanistan but what it I want to shift.

now to what does that mean for me and. you because while they had all of the. the Biometrics and the addresses and the. names and the family members of all of. the Commandos that we worked with my. name's there my real true name is with. socials and all of that in your name and. anybody who took part in that war. especially at a high level uh working.

for intelligence. organizations special. ops maybe both all that information is. in. Afghanistan and so yeah are they going. to come after in your. opinion the men and women who fought. over there is is Target number one well. I think it's very possible. I mean first of all because it's a it. makes sense doesn't it I mean that if.

you were if you were going to do. high-profile targeting and you wanted to. hit morale and you know I think you got. to back it up to what would be the. objectives of Terror attacks in the west. by groups like Al-Qaeda or Isis K and. certainly we talked about the caliphate. as a long-term objective but you know. establishing a level of what my friend. Dave Phillips who um used to work at the. ages he calls horrorism it's beyond. terrorism it's a it's a it's a level of. of horror that is is manifested in our. psyche in our heart where you are just.

literally I mean look at what happened. on October 7 you know that was horrorism. that was beyond terrorism that was a. level of atrocity and violence that is. nowhere in the law of land Warfare like. you that it just beyond the pale and I. think that is uh part and parcel of what. these groups want to inflict upon us it. is a level of horror and suffering that. causes and elicits a. response a collective response from us.

that results in. overreach you know the fighter jet. against ramming the the commercial. airliner right because ultimately if. that becomes our response every time. that's a pretty predictable outcome on. who wins that one it's not us so you. know if then if if that if you buy into. that notion then would with attacking. veterans high-profile. veterans uh folks that you know are are.

in the public space would that would. that Aid in that and I think it probably. would and not to mention the fact that. we are talking about some things that. are. disruptive if these plans are in place. and I believe they are then it's. disruptive because the politicians are. not the media is not I mean you hit. stuff with. massud that his father was never even. listened to when he went to France and. he tried to warn the the the world that. Bin Laden was about to launch an attack.

he got completely blown off by Major. media Outlets I mean Peter Bergen was. about the only guy that actually you. know listened to the dude and then with. his son same thing nobody's listening. but you've given now you've given him a. platform so does that illuminate your. profile yeah I think it does and I think. we'd be foolish to think it doesn't um. but I think also we've got to realize. that where these guys are going to go uh. is the part of our civil society I think. that's what's at risk what you know the. things we love the most are the things.

they're going to Target nothing is off. limits and I'm just going to read you a. quick quote here this is uh the book I. was telling you about Al-Qaeda 2.0 uh. it's written by William Archer he's a. Former Intelligence professional in the. British intelligence Service Plus some. other authors that uh the trans. transatlantic intelligence Consortium so. Consortium so it's a lot of folks like. Sarah who worked this problem set for. decades who are on the outside looking. in now and are trying to warn us because. of their context and this is a quote.

from the previously thought dead Hamza. Bin Laden very. recently what America and its allies. fear the most is that we take the. battlefield from Kabul Baghdad and Gaza. to Washington London Paris and Tel Aviv. and to take it to all the American. Jewish and W Western interests in the. the. world and this is the Amir of al-Qaeda.

now who is married to the the former the. daughter of the former commander of the. Taliban you know saying this openly like. this isn't that's not a cryptic message. that's a declaration the same way his. father made a declaration right before. 911 you. know and so I think that you know one of. the things that I would love to see. happen is these conver ations are great. I would love to see more state and local. conversations about scenarios and the.

ways that this could go down I'd love to. see red cell type conversations where. you have state and local law enforcement. response agencies Federal but then also. folks like Sarah Adams and others who. are talking to a lot of these. individuals and getting very high. fidelity information that could be of. assistance you know Sarah did a check to. see if the Department of Homeland. Securities if you see something say. something process actually worked she. had some actual information about uh.

terrorist activity that would have been. helpful so she she contacted the DHS. site and they said well what we prefer. is you provide this to local law. enforcement right so she lives in Tampa. and and they said well we'll help you. you know um where are you and she told. them Tampa Florida and the information. went to the hurricane Operation. Center and Sarah and I we provided that. information to Governor DeSantis and his. team and I think they've made. adjustments to it but the the larger.

point is that we're not. tracking we're not tracking and if we. think we got caught flatfoot it on. 9911 like we are we are asleep at the. switch on. ambient wow I want to get into I know. you and Sarah are traveling around and. and and I we've talked about this and in. in. in educating State dignitaries and. politicians on on what may be coming but.

before we get there what are some of. the what are some of the points of our. infrastructure that you think that they. would find um ripe for a. hit well I would say the first thing is. that anything that would um hinder our. ability to use these. things I mean we have become this is. something I talk about in my book but we. are essentially in a collective Trans.

State with these things we we live here. we live in this arena in this you know. in this in this represented realm this. digital realm we don't live in the. natural world so I think anything where. they could alter our ability to to work. on these phones be in these phones any. anything with the power grid you know. anything that because we've become so. reli a friend of mine recently his wife. had a C-section and I think there was a. hack was it on Microsoft or one of the.

telecoms but they had to delay the. C-section for 24 hours because of a hack. that had happened uh on a telecom are. these guys are are these guys hacking. too terrorist organizations well again I. think the and and it would be. interesting maybe you you look at. bringing some folks on that can address. that but I do think there's a level of. collaboration between State and. non-state actors that makes hacking very. viable you know do you know somebody. that I should talk to about let me let. me stew on it and I'll and I'll talk to.

some folks too but I think that would be. a very because when you start talking. about. vulnerabilities you know I mean. obviously we want to be careful there. but I but I again at the same time if. we're talking about it in a conversation. you can bet that bad actors have long. since been looking at it and are. actively targeting and I so I don't. think there's it's not like you're. talking about classified what I think. though is we've got to start having. these red cell type conversations like. for example we're talking about power. grids right now and substations I mean.

the ability to look at the redundancies. of a substation and where it's most. vulnerable and how it can be taken out. with the least effort is unconventional. warfare 101 and it's a joke I just want. I want I I want to paint how easy this. is I touch on the power grid all the. time I've had entire episodes dedicated. to just exactly how weak our power grid. is and if you don't believe me how easy. it would be to attack a power grid drive. around find a substation tell me how.

that's guarded yeah the only thing that. separates that from the external world. is a chain link fence right and to that. point most of them don't even have a. padlock to get in and to that point when. we talk about people that have come. across the border and and Bad actors. right anybody who is trained in. subversion and sabotage which is the the. the the meat and potatoes of. unconventional. warfare that you're talking about. whether that's from China whether that's.

a sabotage expert from Iran or Al-Qaeda. the first rule of thumb is that kind of. thing is like anything where you can. disrupt at a strategic level with. minimum risk and minimum output right. and that's what you're talking about. when you're talking about these. substations and other pieces of. infrastructure um it's very very. vulnerable and and and the fact that. you've got all of this flood of. potential Bad actors who are trained in. that you know then it to me it's just.

it's just mindboggling that we're not. leaning into that and saying all right. well if these things have occurred then. what can we at least do to mitigate at a. state and local level uh and at least. have conversations that would prepare. communities for this kind of thing as. best we can that's not happening I mean. that's just not happening there's not a. conversation around this and I think for. me as a global World on terror veteran. who saw 911 who lost his ranger buddy in.

the Pentagon that day and who lost a lot. of friends in the war that. followed it just seems criminal to me. that we would put ourselves back in this. position again where communities are so. at risk and we would not have. responsible at least have responsible. conversations on how to mitigate at this. point and instead it is literally head. in the sand let's focus on the economy. and which I get it but it's not going to. matter. you know if we've exposed ourselves to. what I think we've exposed ourselves to.

and no one's going to care about those. other things when the Reckoning comes. for that you know it's going to all be. you know the next 9/11 commission how. did this happen you know with a bunch of. congressmen harping on what should have. been done and who knew what. when and to have that happened twice in. you know 30 years it's just it's it's. disgusting right I think I think the. power grid is a very viable option for. him I. mean and then just going back to China I.

mean I've been talking about China for a. long time now and and the control that. they have over our power. grid and you know a lot of people called. me a conspiracy theorist for saying it. oh but guess what a couple months ago. FBI director Chris Ray comes out and. says hey guess. what turns out that China has. infiltrated not only our power grid but. also our water treatment plants so that. they could and what that means for.

anybody that isn't tracking here with. the look our power grid is. not China manufactures the the. the huge ginormous Transformers I think. if I remember correctly if you took nine. of those. out countryes out of power it's done. they have to rip op passes out I mean. we're talking years to get another one.

of these. in on top of that these these that's if. they were taken out by I don't know an. EMP or a bomb or they shot it or. whatever we don't check these for Trojan. Horse malware virus type. things I've talked to multiple people. General Robert spal. David. Ty cash. Patel it's literally the push of a.

button and from China and our power grid. is. done and. so I think what would be a very viable. option for a China Taliban type of they. um you know work together. I mean China doesn't really have to do. [ __ ] because Taliban and these terrorist. organizations are so hungry uh to get us.

they'll just do China's dirty work and. be the face just like we were the face. overseas hey that wasn't us that hit. that Target that was the Afghans I think. there's a lot of hey that wasn't us that. took out your power grid that was the. terrorist organization oh by the way but. we negotiated this while you guys were. pulling out I think there's a lot of. precedent happening right. now for State actors to use non-state. surrogates you don't have to look far to.

see that happening look at Hamas look at. hisbah look at the tqi Taliban you know. look it's it's it's happening all over. the place like there's precedent for. this this is not this is not some kind. of you know uh uh theory that state. actors using non-state surrogates is a. is a very very viable Theory especially. if those non-state surrogates are well. established highly effective combat. trained islamist terrorist organizations. like Al-Qaeda Isis K you know who have a.

a a multi-century. narrative to undo our way of life you. know it's a it's a it's it's a perfect. match and to think that that's not going. to happen and that it's not you know in. the near future something that's going. to go down I just think it's diluted you. know and now I think what we should be. talking about is is mitigation and how. do we have responsible conversations at. state local and federal levels about. what we do about this and what I'm. seeing honestly I'm not seeing either.

Administration talking about it enough. and I'm not seeing the media talking. about it enough yeah and I I hope that. something that comes out of this maybe. will be some folks just going man look. look let's just you know could we. actually have a you know a pre- 911. conversation instead of a post 911. conversation well I. mean it sounds like that's kind of. happening just not on the level that we. would like it. but the federal government is not. functioning it's not and they're not.

taking this. seriously I don't think they're really. taking any of the threats against uh the. US seriously but it does sound like the. some of the states are taking it. seriously yeah and so I know you and. Sarah uh have been going around talking. to I know you talked to Des santis I. think I I think I called you once you. were on a flight to Texas Maybe we're. going to go we're going we're trying to. work that right now that uh some Alabama. has has shown some interest we talked to.

uh state senator Jay Collins former. Green Beret about it um you know it's. and what how many states I mean it's. it's it's refreshing to hear that states. are realizing that the federal. government is not functioning and. probably completely. gone what states are actually taking. measures into their own hands and. wanting to hear what you and Sarah and. Legend have to say about what's coming I.

mean at this point it's mostly been. aneco anecdotal responses to interviews. that you've done with Sarah or me and um. and then a couple of where we've reached. out and and through contacts have. actually gone. into like the office of Governor. DeSantis and sat with him and his chief. of staff and had the conversation it's. not that many I mean honestly and and. it's because if you if you stop and. think about it for a second. everybody is running 100 miles an hour. at every level focused on. their you know political thing whatever.

the whatever the flavor of the day is. that's what they're focused on I mean. even when we've talked to some of the. state and local politicians they're so. busy with the all this other stuff and. so you try to Elbow your way into the. room and hey you know I'm a gwatt. veteran and I'd like to talk to you. about you know the reemerging terror. threat from Afghanistan how you like me. so far it's it's it's not like it's it's. people are hungry to do that or or to. hear that and it's like I said in our. when we started this interview we have a. very short memory in this country I.

don't understand I do not under what. what is a higher priority than this and. second of all it should be the central. issue in the election what what looks. better. than the governor of your state coming. out saying hey federal government hasn't. taking this [ __ ] seriously this is a. real threat this is what our our state. is going to do to combat this I would. love to see that you know with a plan. mean that's like if I saw that I'd be.

like that's our guy I think there's a. range of folks in the jat community who. would if afforded that opportunity would. would jump at at the chance to sit down. with state and local leaders and at. least lay out what's being seen and. heard in the realm that we're in because. again what I'm saying is this is an. unprecedented thing Sean where veterans. are getting inform. in many cases. unsolicited from very well-placed very. well Tred very highly vetted special.

operators and intelligence professionals. who we trained for 20 years to do this. task and they are in country they are. seeing it and they have a very high. fidelity level of information and so. it's being provided it's there it's. available it's not classified. information it's coming straight to. Veterans but it's just unprecedented. that they have this but where do you. share it where do you where do you. actually sit down in a responsible.

forum and say look post 911 this is the. stuff coming off the battlefield that. we're hearing this is who's here this is. what they're saying these are the quotes. that Hamza Bin Laden is making now you. know these are the threats that he's. making this is where they' I mean Sarah. and others have information on um on. weapons tracks that went into Gaza where. certain Fighters have trained for a lot. of this CQB stuff in former NATO bases. like it's really solid info and even. just their analysis you know even if you.

just take and these aren't disgruntled. veterans these are individuals who were. the best of the best and who for a range. of reasons whether it was what happened. in Benghazi or whether it was what. happened to our allies on August 15th. 2021 or what happened on 911 we're just. not good with sitting by and watching it. happen again when we're getting. information that tells us it's coming. and this is what it's going to look like. and We Know How It Ends we know how this. one ends you know but yet trying to get. folks to just listen and pay attention.

and put that other [ __ ] aside for a few. minutes it is it's like pushing a needle. up a noodle uphill man and so I hope. that maybe this will jar some stuff. loose because we've got to do it it. nobody's coming nobody is coming for. this one it's going to be Grassroots. conversations that will hopefully. mitigate to some degree have you heard. any feedback from the people you have. talked to about what they're doing with. their. state has there been any any any. proactivity a little bit I mean you know.

and and. honestly. um the probably the most the most. prolific was for example Governor. DeSantis you he was very receptive of. what was put out very appreciative and. you know he's a gwatt veteran himself. and and uh worked in the around the the. naval special Warfare community and so. has an appreciation I think for the kind. of the bottomup type stuff that we. brought and Sarah did a great job with. it and then uh my understanding is the. very next day he took that information.

to and talked to all of the sheriffs. nice he you know and I thought that's. pretty squared away man it is and um and. and then he said if you you know and. then we made connections to where like. his folks and Sarah could pass. information if things continued and they. and they can that's established it's not. like this isn't a heavy lift in that. sense I mean a lot of it is connecting. um much like what happened with. Pineapple Express and these other groups. what you had were veteran groups you had. active duty folks working together.

passing information to fill the gaps. that the topown institutions weren't. filling you know so we were for example. in Pineapple Express and other groups. you had all these guys on the wall. looking at thousands of Afghans that. they couldn't discern who was who so you. had Green Berets and others on their. phones they knew who we we knew who the. Commandos were we knew who the special. forces were they trusted us and we could. move them using remote coms to a right. place right time for near and far.

recognition signal with those young. paratroopers on the gate and then. present them responsibly as highly. vetted individuals to that young. paratrooper so he could pull them. through that 4- foot hole in the fence. so you knew who you were pulling through. it was a 20-year Commando his family his. name is this it's on a baseball card. right and our generation of veterans. came up with that like that in that. chaos and they provided that information. to fill the it was truly you talk about. soft for life and Military for life kind. of organ it was that I think it was.

Veterans really stepping into the bridge. and just helping in a relevant way I. think that's still possible you asked. the question what would we do at home. with the communities and the disarray. that they are I think gwatt veterans. could play a very critical role in this. they could play a very critical role in. the sense that they could help just. provide information and Analysis and and. and and thinking about what this could. look like they've seen these people. fight they know how they fight they know. what they bring to the party um and we.

have those kinds of War Fighters all. over the country if we started to create. Red Cell conversations about that and. you've got organizations like the ones. that wrote this book why not connect. them to State and local leaders all over. the country and allow them to have. Forums on zoom and other forums where. they can talk about this and what to. expect I mean to me that's a that's a. no-brainer you know and it could be done. the same way pineapple us and these. other groups did it we don't need. permission you know and um and I think. they're already doing a lot of heavy.

lifting but now I think they need to be. connected to the folks at the Grassroots. Community levels because I think that's. where this thing is going to show up. what are before we dive into the. individual federal government obviously. isn't going to do anything what can what. would you like to see or what are some. things that states can do to prepare for. for for for what might be coming I mean. I think it varies state to state and I. think this again this would be a a great. idea to to maybe bring in um some State.

administrators who are proactive in this. and let them talk about what they're. doing or what what they're seeing or. what's possible um but what I've heard. so far just in in conversations and. again this is a bit anecdotal but there. are you know really solid state agency. capabilities that are in play here as. First Responders that that have looked. at terrorism before for they have a good. chain of command they have it's really. about prioritizing the effort and I. think it's really about recognizing.

because it's almost. like if you think about it in the. 20-year war that we fought you had this. because of the post 911 Commission and. all of that you had really a pretty good. uh architecture of federal state local. information sharing it was very flat. very collaborative you know coming out. of the smoldering ruins of 911 there was. a lot of cross agency collaboration and. I think multi- Echelon. collaboration when Afghanistan collapsed. that just shut down that just stopped.

and I think a lot of people are still. because there's well there's no threat. now there's no there's nothing to worry. about it's over and so I think people. just moved on and they're executing. their day-to-day not recognizing the. fact that there is very much a threat at. hand here probably worse than pre 911. yet the apparatus that had been in place. for federal state local INF information. sharing is not there at all anymore it. went away with the Afghanistan. withdrawal and instead what you've got.

is actionable information with gwatt. veterans going to the hurricane. Operation Center you know that's where. we are so the capabilities I think are. there at a state local level to at least. look at it the problem and go okay well. here's what we could do the same way you. would deal with a hurricane or some. other disaster but the conversation. isn't happening because one the things. our federal government can really do. well is to tee up the priorities and the. conversations and you know they're. responsible first and foremost for.

National Security okay so well Al-Qaeda. is a threat the Taliban are a threat no. instead the Taliban are a legitimate. State actor that we're giving funds to. so by definition there's nothing coming. down into the what would been have been. wellestablished channnels about this. threat because they don't the federal. government doesn't see them as a threat. what you have are gwat veterans who see. them as a threat so as a state and local. leader who are you going to. believe.

Wow Wow Let's talk about the. individual okay what would you tell. families the first thing I mean. I I still hold out some measure of. hope I have to do that because I have. three sons and you know a couple of them.

would be at risk if this thing goes the. way. it could possibly go I hold out hope. that there's still political pressure. that can be applied so the first thing I. say to any individual is are you paying. attention to this you know are you. actually paying attention to this or are. you doing like what you do when you. drive by a housing project and say. somebody should do something about. that you know and uh other people should.

handle that you know but or are you. taking personal responsibility for. what's actually happening here do you. feel it at a personal level if you don't. then you know the only advice I can give. you is defend your house and know know. your [ __ ] so you can do that because the. biggest thing that citizens could do. right now is make this damn thing uh an. election your issue and and that's why I. love what you did with the petition you. know and because what it did was. honestly and I've heard this from so.

many of our generation of War Fighters. you know it gave a voice to a group of. veterans and gwatt generation folks in a. way that they just hadn't been heard. since we shut the door on that on that. war and look at what it resulted in you. know. 300,000. signatures um a a very mobilized. activated voice that made its way into. Congress that has resulted in. legislation I think that has brought a. lot of pressure and frankly illumination.

on the topic in a way that it's not. going away it's very clear now that this. generation of veterans is not that we're. not going to go away on this we're not. going to walk silently away and let. another 9911 happen without at least. being heard and so I. say if if you can do that with your. platform and you can mobilize 300,000. people to sign a petition. then what can an individual do in. Youngstown Ohio or Austin Texas to make.

this known have you have you talked to. your mayor have you talked to your. Sheriff have you demanded some kind of. bottomup Outreach to the governor's. office about what are we doing here what. is the plan if this goes down you know. um I just think it is responsible. citizens looking at the problem and. first of all take ownership of the damn. thing this you know and I and I and it. down a little bit more cuz people need. people need. actionable plans that they can do where.

they feel like they're in a group I. think that's why some of this stuff. never gets done M and so here's an. example if you're going to call the. mayor or you're going to try to educate. or or inform your Sheriff chief of. police it always goes better when these. things come in groups and and and you. know I learned. something very effective from Eric. Prince and instead of just doing the.

outcry you make it a voting issue. because all of these. people want to be reelected Sheriff's. want to be reelected Mayors want to be. reelected congressmen want to be. reelected everybody wants to be. reelected because that's their new. identity that's who they are they think. they're they're in charge they have. power and so when you. threaten their. reelection [ __ ] starts getting done and.

so and that's what we saw with the. petition with 300 I don't know what it's. at I think it's close to 350,000 people. now right and what did we do we called. it out on the Trump interview and. magically all of a sudden we got. somebody's attention and they finally. did something and so it needs to I feel. like it needs to happen in groups so. maybe it's maybe you get all the parents. at your kids school together and draft.

up a letter and everybody sends the. exact same letter and but signs it with. their name maybe don't stop there go to. your church have your pastor you know. get it out have your minister get it out. get everybody a copy sign it give them. the address even address the damn. envelopes with the stamp all you have to. do is sign your name on on this put it. in the mail and raise the little mailbox. flag and then he's. got I mean some of these churches are.

huge you know then he's got. 10,000 letters going to his office and. those are voters yeah if you don't do. something we're going to vote for the. other guy you know and and and it just. it creates pressure and it Demands a. response and I think I think that is the. next step to moving forward personally. because we've proven that it works and. uh nothing else nothing else has been. working yeah and I I I think that's.

really good and and again I would just. call out to to. Veterans I I'm speaking primarily to. global war on terror veterans but. certainly Vietnam veterans veterans of. any generation I think are are well. um I just think they're well equipped to. lead conversations and Community level. activities around this kind of thing to. me it's it's just as pragmatic as. preparing for a hurricane or a tornado. or a natural disaster that could hit. your community you know nobody in East.

Palestine Ohio ever thought that a train. would derail in the middle of town and. spew chemicals everywhere you know what. I mean but it did and look at what it. how it impacted that community and um. you better believe now they have a. community action plan for those kinds of. disasters but I think veterans are just. well equipped for that and I and I think. that we've seen the enemy we know how. they operate and we know they're very. real and we're pretty good at at. communicating a narrative and again I. think it should be pointed out that what.

you've done with this what Sarah has. done what Legend has done all of us are. arguably underqualified. to take this on in the terms of like. what's been accomplished I mean I look. out over my skis all the time like it's. a ski jump thinking man that Landing is. going to suck that's what it feels like. I always feel like I'm out over my skis. and there's somebody way better than me. that should be doing this and there and. I'm sure there are that should be but.

but the reality is right now we've got. what we've got and we can either just. sit dormant and hope it doesn't happen. or we can actually start to engage each. other at a a community level like you've. talked about in a collective fashion and. really start to look at it as a. community problem but also I mean. honestly are you calling your are you're. calling your congressman and demanding. that this be a central issue in his or. her campaign you know uh mobilizing. people like you've done with a petition.

for town halls to get it added to the. agenda of of of what politicians are. talking about right now as part of their. platform I just I'm not seeing it I I. just I there's such an absence of kind. of personal concern for this issue you. know you kind of get the head nod and. wow that's too bad but it's like man. have we really collectively forgotten. that much since 9/11 2001 it's it's. almost it's hard to Fathom but it seems. like we have like as a civil society.

we've just literally erased our memory. of it as if it never happened you know. in a whole generation of veterans are. sitting here going what the hell just. what was that yeah yeah you know did it. matter that I lost my friend over there. or my wife to five deployments you know. it just it's such a contrast Sean and. and I think that's what bothers me more. than anything is that you've got this. little handful of veterans that are.

trying to stump the tub and sound the. alarm but a real absence of concern at. the collective. level and it's exhausting honestly I. want to go back to my job I want to go. back to my nonprofit I want to go back. to my life that's what one person said. to me in the in our chat room about this. he's like I just want my life back you. know we're not victims we're not walking. around with a victimhood mentality we're. actually trying to take some kind of. activated stance here and and and and.

present ourselves responsibly where the. institutions are not you know and it's. exhausting and and it's not a complaint. it's just like at what point how long. can you sustain this I mean how long can. these these veterans that are out there. and again I know I keep citing Sarah but. I mean she does that on her own man like. she is just constantly working that. obsessively but she doesn't have a lot. of support for that that she's just. doing it it just needs to be done but. we're we're we're literally heaping this.

on a whole generation of Warf fighters. who gave us so much for 20 years man. they gave us so much they didn't ask for. anything they just kept going and kept. going and now we're going to Heap this. [ __ ] on them I just to me the. politicians and the media should be. ashamed of themselves they should be. ashamed that you've got these seasoned. multi- toured combat veterans that are. the only ones sounding the alarm and.

they've been through. enough unfortunately there aren't very. many politicians that feel ashamed of. anything and but I do believe that the. media is almost. done tides are turning on that and media. is they're pretty much done what do you. mean they're going out yeah I mean it's. it's. cat's kind of out of the bag you know I. mean I'll give you an example we just. did I'm seeing it firsthand now it's.

happening to me right. and we did this is just one example but. about of why the media is dying we did I. just interviewed just did an interview. with JD Vance okay and I asked him if he. would support rept we're we're. potentially facing a government shutdown. on October 1st and I asked him in that. interview if he would consider.

supporting a government shutdown on. October 1st if we are still funding. terrorist. organizations and he said yes well NBC. picked that article up and they they. spun it and said that JD Vance would. support a government shutdown. uh due to foreign aid they they replaced. funding terrorism with foreign aid yeah.

yeah because that's what the government. calls it but people are seeing that you. know they there was no mention there was. no hyperlink to my interview no. hyperlink to any Clips there was no NOC. Avenue for anybody to reference what was. actually said they just said Sean in an. interview on the Shawn Ryan show this is. what he said yeah I'll have uh we'll. actually put the article up in this. right now it'll be overlaid so everybody. can see um.

but but what basically what I'm getting. at is media's numbers are dying and. podcasts like this one are on the rise. and the numbers are are are flipped now. now we're getting the numbers and the me. I mean a lot of these media. organizations get like 50,000 views an. hour 50,000 viewers it's like what you. talk when you interviewed massud right I. mean there's things that continue to. come out of that interview and frankly.

that we didn't know when we went into it. that have to do with other resistance. organizations um you know levels of. Competency inside each of these. resistance organizations like you're not. you don't have the opportunity to. evaluate any of that information because. the news doesn't even cover it they. don't even talk about it they don't. interview no one's interviewed massud. like you did and like went to him and. laid that out and a lot of the things. that are falling out of that interview. some good some bad like that's that's.

that's necessary I think for you know. who was it that was telling me the other. day who said that you know pretty soon. the highest commodity in the country is. going to be. truth because you just don't know what's. true anymore yeah there's no way to know. what's true and what you said that NBC. did with with with that interview like. they didn't even cite it or Source it. just so how do you know what's true. unless you do these long.

form. conversations where there's plenty of. opportunities for you and me to screw up. plenty of opportunities to say things. wrong but also plenty of opportunities. for people to get a sense of you a sense. of me and start to get a sense of. themselves yeah you know and and we just. don't do that anymore and when you're. dealing with these kinds of. topics honestly. what people have told me about Pineapple. Express in the book is I had no idea. that our Afghan Commandos went through. that yeah you know I had no idea that.

the minister of women's. Affairs the Most Wanted woman in. Afghanistan was not even picked up by. the state department but rather had to. jump in a [ __ ]. canal and get fac Guided by veterans and. the 82nd Airborne to even. Escape you know one of four female. ministers in in the whole country like. so I I I I think I I see your point like. the the the the whole thing is kind of. being upended and uh and I don't know.

how that ends but right now it's the. only place to go for anything involving. truth I think are these long form. interviews yeah well I mean even on top. of that look at what's happening yeah. the media is having to cover what we're. talking about on this show because they. can't pull what off they cannot pull off. what we're doing. how crazy is that it's crazy and and I. think institutions the same way you know. institutions are I can tell you during.

Pineapple. Express um and I'm not alone in this. there are several volunteer groups that. have told me similar things I got. calls from the Chairman's Office of the. Joint Chiefs of Staff a special adviser. to cala. Harris several Congressional leaders all. asking for Pineapple Express to get out. their favorite. Afghan now these are institutions within. the United States government that are. doing this calling the cell phone of a.

frakin you know retired SF dude like. that's been a playright for 10 years I'm. not exactly you know your top pick for. personnel recovery M but that's what was. happening you know and I think there's I. think that's continuing to happen I. think if you look at Ukraine if you look. at Haiti um if you look at what happened. in uh the AA anytime now you see a. non-combatant evacuation or a mass. Personnel uh emergency you see these.

veterans groups rushing into The Fray. and they're they're these. pre-illuminated networks now that are. getting all this [ __ ] done and they're. tied into these apparatuses on the. ground I've never seen anything like it. but I think it is here to stay you know. I think you're going to see now these. networks these bottomup networks doing a. amazing things to F the gaps when nobody. else is coming and going back to your. original question of what is you know. what's that going to look like at a. community level what can individuals.

do um I can't speak to the very. specifics but what I can say is I think. you'll see those same networks rise up. as long as the comms stay in. place that you saw in uh Afghanistan. that you you'll see these just really. organic networks that are both formal. and informal working together at light. speed to get stuff done why not connect. them now yeah and introduce them to each. other so that they know who's who.

relationships are established and the. pre-existing conditions are in place for. if something goes down you now have. these eclectic groups that can light up. and work the problem because I think. it's the best shot we got I think you're. right I think you're right let's move. into I mean since we've given plenty of. examples of people who realize nobody's. coming to save them and making moves. yeah I'm doing it you're doing it. Sarah's doing it lots of other veterans.

are doing it let's move into your book. nobody's coming to save. you why did you write this. book it was really that what happened in. Afghanistan at one point. um Monty my wife it was really you know. everything was happening so fast my. clients were gone you know our nonprofit. play had just been shelv at this point. cuz we're just I'm just myopically. focused on trying to answer the phone.

and and try to help buddies that I knew. get out and at some point Monty just. said to me she's like why why are we. doing this you know I mean there was a. point in my life in in 2015 where I was. standing in a closet holding a pistol. you know when I came out of the army. that um a very dark place in my life in. my. transition and I think for Monty that's. where she saw me heading back to when. when when the country collapsed like. that and she's like you know just why. why are you doing this you know it it.

just makes no sense and the only thing I. could think to tell her was like. nobody's coming babe I mean like our. kids are watching us right now like our. three boys are watching us to see what. we're going to do when our friends are. calling us right now you know and no and. for a while I thought some. surely somebody's going to step in from. us Socom or somewhere and there's no way. we're going to leave 30,000 Commandos in. the in the dirt there's no way it's just. they're just getting it together right. now but it turns out we did and for me.

it was just like this Epiphany that I. had always kind of felt was starting to. happen but it was the first time I saw. at a collective institutional level. where the top down organizations that we. had relied on for years simply did not. perform they just didn't show. up and so you had veterans and others. stepping in just doing the best they. could and they did okay we did all right. nothing near what the government could.

have done in that case I mean my buddy. Duke said it was um an Uncle Sam siiz. problem with veterans tring to solve it. with their Pension funds you know but. but we did move the needle and it just. stuck with me I'm like wow you know and. and and where it took me back Sean the. the first time I ever heard this saying. nobody was coming was we had just. deployed to Afghanistan in ' 04. and one of the we just got there and one. of the Blackwater uh Casas crashed on a. mountain a c in 212 way up in the Hindu.

Kush and we were down in Kandahar the. the crash happened up in Boman way up at. like 15,000. ft but one of the I was the opsin. director you know the Operation Center. Director for an SF Battalion and um so I. I kind of command and not commanded but. controlled and coordinated the actions. of all the teams that would go in and go. out and one of the teams that uh had. trained in high altitude rescue. Personnel recovery before coming over. and had done a lot of work in that. regard and Mark was the the team.

sergeant of that team and and as soon as. he heard about the crash over the SAT. radio he came running in he's like we. can get up there we could get up there. if we could get he's like they don't. have much. time and um at first I kind of like yeah. okay you know whatever and he just. stayed on me sure nobody's coming like. we got to go we got to get up there. those guys you know they could still be. alive and some point I we did a. bottom-up conop and and convinced the. powers that be up in bogram to to let. Mark's team go and they did and it took.

but it took like four days I think for. them to finally get up there with all. the bureaucracy and everything and they. finally got up on the side of the. mountain and everybody was dead at the. top of the mountain and they but they. they they stayed up there they extracted. the Black Box they got every stuff you. know mail even off the plane um and they. you know when they finally came back to. the Operation Center you know Mark. walked into my office and he laid down a. couple of pictures and I remember he. just had tears in his eyes and it was.

one of the soldiers uh halfway in his. sleeping bag urine stains in the snow. and a couple of cigarette. buds you know and he just looked at. me you know and he's since passed on but. I never forgot that you know because. it was I could have moved faster I could. have pushed harder I could have done a. lot more you know and he was he was.

crystal clear nobody was coming that we. needed to go and I just promised myself. I'm like that will not happen to me. again you know in my lifetime like if. that that will not happen again and um. and and I've tried to like live that. life you know where if it's clear that. there's an Institutional shortfall if. it's the right thing you step in the. arena anyway you know but Afghanistan. was the most glaring example of it for. me um and it it it really set me forward.

to put this book out you know I love how. you started the book with what was it is. it the churn yeah the churn the churn. you know you you were talking about. building Rapport at the very beginning. of this interview. and what I remember about that chapter. is you guys your SF team and heading. into a village right and fighting off. bad guys yeah night after night after. night after night after night and it.

sounded like the villagers had zero. trust in you right. and you were persistent you and your. team were persistent night after night. you protected that Village against the. bad guys you led by example you proved. to them that you were there to to fight. alongside with. them and then eventually one. guy started to return fire with you guys.

and I would like to you know kind of. make that this is what's happening right. now yeah yeah in in in in a different. way we are opening different. conversations that have to do with. National Security yeah and for whatever. reason a lot of people are afraid to. speak up and talk about certain subjects. uh. today but we continue to lead the way.

and we continue to have these. conversations over and over and over and. they get some of them get pretty dicey. we've gone halfway across the world to. have them yeah with a guy whose dad was. assassinated in an interview yeah. and and what I'm noticing is. media is starting to pick this up other. podcasts are starting to pick this up. the conversation's getting bigger and.

louder. and the the the information and the. threat is being it's it is being. disseminated and it's by being. persistent letting them know it's okay. to do this and and I think that kind of. goes hand inand with the first chapter. it does and and honestly you talked. about the churn so you know with with. special forces and I you know this is I. think this is true with all special ops. and even combat veterans in Afghanistan. but but Special Forces by Doctrine you. know they get dropped into low trust at.

risk areas where there is a ton of. conflict right and that's by definition. why they're there and it's usually a. strategically relevant area then that. green ber team will go in and they. should work by with and through the. indigenous people in that area to build. social capital or relationships Rapport. trust over time and then ultimately as. you said get Inspire those people to go. up on rooftops and fight back right to. fight back from the inside out the. bottom up um and and that is the nature.

of unconventional warfare like that is. the bread and butter of Green Berets. that's what they do and there's a lot of. I think miss a lot of confusion out. there on the different special ops. groups but like at the heart of Green. Berets that's what they've done since. World War II with the OSS teams working. with partisans in Europe is they would. go in the jedberg teams and they would. mobilize these partisans build trust and. then combat advised them shoulder Tosh. shoulder against infrastructure and the.

things that we talked about. earlier so I had the privilege you know. when I went into Afghanistan in the. beginning it was payback for my buddy. Cliff like a lot of Americans it was. walking the enemy down for 10 years but. then halfway through the war we we. realized we were losing and we started. doing this program called Village. stability where we lived and operated in. these Villages and we worked alongside. tribes uh to do that and other Afghan. communities and in doing that Sean it. was you know I was one of the ones.

fortunate enough to to be a a program. director for that so I bounced between. different Villages and I saw these. different teams doing this work and. what's what really stuck out to me every. time is they were going into these low. trust areas I mean they just churn of. conflict and then they would establish. trust and Rapport at a local level just. using old school interpersonal skills. and then over time they would build that. Social Capital out until the collective. would stand up on its own and I was just. blown away by that over the years but.

then when I got back to the States in. 2013 and started going through a. transition one of the things that really. sent me off the edge in my transition. was coming back to a country I didn't. even recognize anymore so divided so. much just conflict with ourselves um. Sebastian younger says it in this book. tribe you know most combat veterans are. more than willing to die for their. country they just don't know how to live. for it because it's hard to know how to. live for a country that's tearing itself. apart along every imaginable line from. race to politics to religion and that.

really put me into that spiral that I. went to in my transition is like what. was the point of going over there and. fighting to keep it over there when. we're tearing each other apart here at. home and for me I knew that there was. like something I could offer to that to. that churn I'd seen it my whole life but. it wasn't it wasn't a lot of the the the. cool guy stuff that you see special I it. was it was interpersonal skills. storytelling active listening building. trust building Rapport when the when the. reaction is you want to reach for your. gun you know and that's what these ncos.

taught me in Special Forces was how to. do that but every time I would try to. talk about it or do it I would just get. stuck in my throat I had so much anxiety. and survivors guilt from it I couldn't. get in front of people at all I was. petrified I think you and I talked about. this like it was really hard for me to. get in front of people and share those. lessons even though I felt like I had a. ton of content to do that and ultimately. I ended up studying storytelling under. this x NFL player uh who who had learned. storytelling as an actor and and a. playwright and he started teaching me.

and then I started bringing that into. talks that I would give from the stage. and ultimately what I realized was man. the churn is here the churn the same. churn that was kicking our ass in. Afghanistan it's in this country you. know we're more divided and disconnected. than we've ever been we're acting like. tribes you know instead of uh uh out of. many come one and so what I decided for. me for the rest of my life was I'm going. to pour the rest of my years into. building a methodology of interpersonal.

skill sets and and Rapport building and. and communication skills and I'm going. to teach that to leaders in Corporate. America and communities nonprofits. wherever I can I how to use storytelling. active listening non-verbal. communication to build relationships. when it's hard when people are scared. when they're angry when nobody's coming. and I've been working on that for six. years I've been I've Rewritten this damn. thing probably 15.

times uh but I after. pineapple and after we did the play last. out and Gary sise picked it up and. people kept asking them like well how. did you do pineapple when you didn't. have any money or authorities or. resources and how did you do a play that. Gary sise produced when you're not even. a trained actor or you've ever in to. play and the answer. was old school interpersonal skills and. relationships building social capital. and surrounding myself with people who.

see the problem the way I see the. problem and who are better than me and. and then building that collective in. such a way that we can take on any kind. of ambiguity or Wicked problem and and I. just love it you know and it so that's I. thought man if I could put that in a. book that's like stories and best. practices where individuals like you who. are you're building this massive. movement and you are literally filling. the Gap as you said that media is not. feeling that politics is not feeling if.

I can pour into you supplemental. information on okay here's how. storytelling actually works on the brain. here's how active listening actually. works if you ask questions that start. with what and how you have a much better. chance of establishing reciprocity you. know putting in tactics that really help. people just make better Connections in. the moment. there's no ceiling for them there's no. limit to what they can do and that's. what this book is it really is just. chalk full of best practices that I. learned as a Green Beret and believe it.

or not that I learned as an actor hm. interesting yeah yeah and an actor yeah. because when we did so when we wrote the. play last out I'd never acted I mean it. was like the ultimate midlife crisis you. know I I started studying acting at 50. and I snuck up to New. York uh I didn't tell anybody my wife. the only one that knew and I studied. under Larry moss and car Carl buy really. good. coaches but I told him I said I want to. do a play about the war to help.

civilians and politicians feel it like. in their gut in their toor plexus and I. want veterans and gold star family. members when they watch that. play they say that's me up there that's. my life at the same time and those. coaches said well Scott you can't do. that because the only thing you you know. how to do as a soldier is to take hard. information and push it down and as an. actor you have to take the armor off and.

you have to have all those moments with. the audience you have to be completely. exposed so unless you're willing to do. that it's not possible give it give it. to an actor that can do it and I was. like what does it take to do that and. they said well about a year and so I. started training and diaphragmatic. breath work and it what what I learned. though Sean what was astounding to. me was that the the theater Community is. really good at getting in front of a a.

group of people they don't. know and being super present and. available on things that are very. emotional and feeling it with the. audience so if you think about that if. you go into um a negotiation or you have. to get in front of your teenager that's. been bullied. whatever it's this You' got to be there. you got to be present you got to be. available you got to be intentional. that's the leaders we're missing right. now you know we're missing those leaders.

that have been scuffed up and that are. just real and there's no armor they're. just here you know I think that's why. people are so drawn to the interviews. that you've done and stuff it's because. it is it's completely vulnerable like. you don't know what's going to happen. next and that is the ultimate definition. of vulnerability is when the leader. steps into the arena and has no idea. what's going to happen next but does it. anyway and and and that's what acting is. but what they've done is they've. developed a craft that allows them to.

prepare because what happens we all do. it when you get in front of people and. the stakes are high and there's no trust. you lock down and so tension. becomes what happens to our bodies it's. protecting itself it's a 250,000 year. response the human operating system has. does it but what we've learned is that. the human operating system can actually. you can actually metabolize tension. where you're fully present and most of. it's just diaphragmatic breath it's.

literally. breathing three to five diaphragmatic. breaths before you walk into the. engagement and you go from a sympathetic. state to a parasympathetic State the. acting Community has known this for. years but guys like you and me we were. never taught that yeah but it would have. been nice to know right before I walk. now some guys figured it out but the. point is these are all replicable skills. that if you give that to a corporate. leader or someone who runs a nonprofit. or just someone who's a teacher who has. to get up in front of people in high.

stakes moments and make a connection. there's a way to do that where you. really bring the science into it and. you're very skilled at it and you own. that room and you make that connection. and you're relatable to that human. across from you and it doesn't cost you. anything right and I just think that's. what the country needs we need. politicians who do that we need teachers. who do that we need moms and dads who do. that and who have these interpersonal. skills we've all got the coercive skills. like you said there's plenty of that mhm. but where are the skills about just.

making better human connections and. being a better Storyteller and being a. better listener because that's actually. where reciprocity happens and we form. collectives that can actually do the. things you're talking about about at a. community level coming together and. demanding action you know and we need. leaders who have those skill sets when. nobody's coming and I think that's how. we get big [ __ ] done right is is getting. back to the human operating system back. to our nature getting out of these. phones and into what allows us and.

allows our grandfathers and grandmothers. to connect it's an old school set of. skills but it's completely atrophied. especially with covid I mean what. is you've built one hell of an an. extensive network and and so you know we. live in day and age where human. interaction is damn near non-existent I. mean you see it every time you go to the. store you see it everywhere yeah you.

know even even when you're asking uh an. employee of a store Hey where's the. where can I find the I don't know door. knobs right um I don't know yeah you. know and it's. like there human interaction is is is. like I said it's damn near nonexistent. and so. I understand the importance of a network. you understand the importance of a. network I think a lot of people because. of the way culture's gone have no idea.

how important a network actually is and. if they do I don't think that a lot of. people even. have step one in how to even start to. create a network or even what kind of. network they would want to create and so. what what would step one be so so that's. a great question and and and so let's. just unpack it the the first thing that. I have in my book is when we talk about. the churn right there's there's there's.

an old saying in Special Ops it's a. special ops imperative is know your. operational environment right it's a. first sof imperative and I think that's. true today in the world that we live in. in this in this is is the churn and what. I tell people is first of all you've got. to understand the true enemy of what. you're up against when you're trying to. influence and get big [ __ ] done the. enemy is not the Republican or the. Democrat in front of you the enemy is. not the mask or no mask person in front. of you right the enemy actually is a. very unique unprecedented novel set of.

social conditions that we've never seen. before in this country and it's a set of. social conditions that have. actually caused us to evolve to a place. where we're doing what you just said. where there's no human connection at all. it's straight up division it's. fear-based most people are operating in. what uh psychiatrist Ivan tro calls a. trance State when we are in a persistent. state of fear or anger we go into a. trance right it happens all the time.

it's just a state of hyperfocus where. I'm angry or I'm afraid and the body. takes over and the body is focused on. Survival right and if you look at people. all the time they're in this trans-like. state where they're either they're. focused on Surviving they're afraid or. they're angry and they've been. conditioned through these damn phones. through the 247 news cycle divisionist. politicians and it's over and over and. over we're inundated with this and over. a a period of time the amydala the. Primitive brain it doesn't know the. difference between a saber-tooth tiger.

and a contentious. election right so the our bodies haven't. changed in a quarter million years so we. have this Primal response of trance and. so most people are walking around in a. trance State man and when that happens. and you're afraid what you do is you. revert back to the most Primal form of. trust which is your in group the people. that look like you think like you. believe like you and those people over. there they're dangerous existential.

threat and we start treating each other. as younger says with contempt that would. normally be reserved for one's. enemies right so you've got pervasive. contempt moral superiority just. everywhere in our society and so it. causes us to act in a tribal way you. know rather than what we're actually. preconditioned to do which is connect. and Bridge right and what's defined this. country for 200 years Alexander D toille.

said it when he visited here in the. 1800s he said that country is. individualism rightly understood. individuals but who understand the value. of community and connection and we've. lost it right um so the first thing I. tell people is to recognize that you you. know you're you're operating in a set of. Novel conditions. where your first order of business is to. recognize most folks around you are in. some kind of Trance State and your first. order of business is to bring their. emotional temperature down to a level.

that they're even ready to listen to. what you have to say and we may not like. it but it's just our reality is how do I. get the person across from me ready to. listen to me right now how do I take the. tone down to where they're in a. parasympathetic State their ears. actually start functioning again and. they're listening you know and that's. hard man and I can remember going into. places in Afghanistan where you I'm sure. you do too where you had to build. rapport really fast oh yeah right and. you come in hard I mean you can do that. but what you're actually doing is.

creating a social Insurgent you know. they're already amped up so you got to. bring their emotional temperature down. and that's why again in so the other. piece that I would say to your question. is not only do you need to understand. the churn and that you're in these novel. circumstances but that you actually have. something at your disposal which is the. human operating system this Primal. instrument that has been around for. hundreds of thousands of years is. actually well suited to bridge through. that stuff we're natural storytellers we.

we're actually predisposed for. connection we don't have fur fangs or. claws right but yet we form groups and. teams better than anybody else and we. sit on top of the food chain of all. mammals because we know how to team and. we're wired for it but we've atrophied. all those skills so what I'm saying is. we need to understand how humans. actually make connections how we build. relation what creates reciprocity what. makes another human want to do something. for you right what the reason that I've. built the networks that I've built is. because I understand both the art and.

the science of connection right and I. understand that the relationship is the. most valuable asset you have in your. inventory not for the transaction but. for the fraking relationship you know. you think about the things you and I. have done together in the last what four. or five months every single one of those. things has come from the Rel. relationship that we have and that we've. built and it's all built on a platform. of trust right and I know that if you. come to me with something or I come to. you with something it's we're going to.

go we're going to figure it out we don't. know the answers but we'll figure it out. and honestly that is the foundation for. where we need to go as a civil society. as businesses communities is we got to. reestablish social capital and we got to. get away from this [ __ ] of building. a relationship for the transaction which. is what we've been conditioning to do. and get back to how actually humans. operate which is social capital it's the. oldest form of capital in the world. relationships and put a premium on them.

teach it to our kids relearn it. ourselves become better storytellers. better listeners and the final thing. I'll say is a very tactical thing where. you said like that person's like yeah. it's over there is like is to act one of. the things I teach in negotiations is. the first rule in this environment is. you have to make a human connection. first before you ask for anything before. you show a slide before you make a point. do I have a connection with you do you. see me okay all right I got you now all. right what's going on yeah and then we.

go right make a human connect and we're. not doing that anymore we're just. literally in our phones we're not even. connecting to one another so the leaders. that are conscious of connections and. actually clock it and and and leverage. human connection as an asset they're. going to be the most relevant people. every time they're the ones that are. going to get the big [ __ ] done and you. look at some of these candidates out. there right now in. politics no social capital yeah and it's. it's it's not good man because that's.

what we model our Behavior off of you. know that's a good point yeah we model. our Behavior off that and it's we need. leaders stepping into the breach who are. responsible on demonstrating what human. connection and Rapport and relationships. is supposed to look like how do we treat. each other and the last thing I'll say. about it and I know I've rifted on it is. in this. election as a Green Beret who has worked. in a lot of insurgencies and I've seen. How It Ends just like you have I am far.

more worried in this election. about how we treat each other discussing. these issues than the issues. themselves because the biggest threat we. face is in how we deal with these issues. if we deal with these issues the way. that we are and we keep on this path. [ __ ] it's going to be so easy for. Al-Qaeda and Isis and everybody else to. just fet us.

yeah. yeah it's like we're a remote Outpost. you know um I I tell people like imagine. that you're on a Hilltop and you're. you're defending against an onslaught of. the Taliban right and you and me are in. a fox ho and we're and we're fighting. this this Onslaught and they're starting. to flank us now and they're coming. around our flank and it's very clear. that they're about to get The High. Ground on us and so at that point I just.

turned to you in my Foxhole and I just. knocked the [ __ ] out of you and then you. knock the [ __ ] out of me and then we. just start knocking the [ __ ] out of each. other while the Taliban are flanking us. that's what we're doing yeah literally. literally that's what we're doing we're. doing and so I think we got to shake off. that trance I've never heard a put that. way. metaphorically I think it's exactly. what's happening and I travel all over. the country and I teach this in every. industry imaginable nonprofits I speak.

on it I you know with the play we do. talkbacks after every play so I just. spend a lot of time listening and. watching what's happening in the human. terrain and I'm absolutely convinced. that's what's happening and and the big. reason is a lot of our leaders are what. I call divisionist you know to have a. civil society like America that is is. based on bridging across ingroups and. outgroups right out of many come one. that kind of trust is not a normal trust.

in the mammal. Community right mammals when we no. matter we we group and we we trust only. the people in our group or our den or. our pack or our clan or our tribe that's. that's who we trust but we've built a. society that we actually trust Beyond. race and religion and politics and we. you know it's pretty pretty astounding. honestly but it's not a natural thing. and it requires a level of. leadership that is bridging in nature.

you have to be stewards of that you have. to model that in what you do and to me. over the last several decades what. you've seen are leaders who actually are. supposed to do that but they've actually. become like these divisionist leaders. who F Division and back and basically F. the create the reemergence of these. ingroups and outgroups these tribal. groups to advance a narrow. agenda and if you look around you see it. everywhere you see it on both sides of. the aisle you see it in social media you.

see it in 247 news you see it in. communities where these leaders are. actually fomenting instability by. advancing one group over another. group and it's the antithesis of what. this country was founded on you know. it's the worst form of leadership it's. Tribal leadership you know and so we. need leaders again. I look at what's happening in this. country and guys like you and girls like. Sarah and Legend who are building these. things they're and and.

um I'll show the football a little bit. at the end of my book I talk about in. the early. 1900s um it was a really rough time in. the. country bad time in the country U there. was a lot of division a lot of political. halves and Have Nots you know uh the. agriculture communities were collapsing. and everybody was going to the cities. and the cities were failing in their. infrastructure immigration was a massive. problem and the pundants were saying. America's on her last leg it's the end.

of. days in fact Robert putner when he. writes in this book The upswing he talks. when he does the first chapter you think. he's talking about right now sounds. familiar and he actually reveals it the. early 1900s but here's the thing a. couple of drunks in akan Ohio who had. tried everything under the sun to get. sober Dr Bob and Bill. W couldn't get sober in any of the. institutions so they said all right. nobody's coming let's let's you and me.

have a meeting and they called it. Alcoholics. Anonymous wow and that meeting obviously. spurned into years later you know. millions and millions of people in. recovery including me you know I've been. in AA for 24 years now you know as a. result of that meeting of these two. dudes but it just wasn't just AA during. that same per of like 1900 to 1910. Rotary Club the Kanas Club the Elks Club. the Junior League the IND ACP Future. Farmers of America pretty much every.

bridging trust community- based. organization that you and I have ever. known in our life started in that period. and it was all bottom up all Grassroots. when nobody else was coming and it. ushered in the longest running period of. social capital in American history it. went from 1900 to. 1972 and then in 72 the downswing. started again with Vietnam and we've. been on it ever since but a lot of. social. scientists and myself included I'm not a.

social scientist but I agree with them I. think that we could be on the cusp of. another upswing that there is evidence. of a large number of movements that are. happening and I again I look at what you. did with that petition right we we but. it is exactly. the kind of upswing that the country's. going to need and I think if if. precedent is our guide what that did was. it also put a tremendous pressure on uh.

politicians you know most of the reforms. in the National Park Service against. monopolies Theodore Roosevelt did during. that period because of the pressure that. was coming from the bottom. up so there's a lot of macro level. precedent Sean for this this isn't just. little boy whistling in the dark I mean. like this stuff actually works and what. we we just need to make sure though that. we equip these the and I'm not talking. about I'm talking about just good Civic. leadership right I'm not talking about.

like armed uprisings or anything I'm. talking about just good Civic leadership. by community-based leaders business. owners nonprofit leaders who see. nobody's coming okay I'll do it and they. and they and and plus we've got the. Advent of this technology the so you. know the phones and it can that's what. made pineapple possible it's what made. the petition possible was actually. putting into play this technology to do. that and so I think there's still Reason. for Hope I really do but we can't be. amateurish about it and we can't be. casual about it we've got to train.

ourselves we've got to be great. communicators we've got to be able to. build these networks you were talking. about and and and it can't be Discovery. learning like it's got to be you got to. have. game um and we don't have a lot of. time I think that's the perfect way to. end. this sounds like we need to start. something yeah. yeah or maybe it's already started and. we just need to continue to illuminate. it and um call it out and I think again.

platforms like the one you've built um. are going to be critical and what I. would say to you and I would say to. people who are going through. this most of the time you're going to. feel like you don't know what the [ __ ]. you're doing and you're going to feel. like that you're not the right person. and I know you and I have talked about. this and I've had convers and I've had. these conversations with myself with my. wife and I think it's part in partial of. what we're doing here you're going to.

feel like you're an impostor or you're. going to feel like you're not the right. person you're not going to be the one. strutting in the end zone or spike in. the football it's going to feel clunky. and ugly and hard and isolating at times. you know but um it's actually a metric. to tell you you're right where you need. to be. we have had a lot of those conversations. we have and there'll be. more thank you yes. sir well. brother I got to say one thing I think.

we need to I think we need to have a. panel in here with me you Sarah and uh. hopefully Legend although we would. probably need. uh that could be tricky yeah would be. good but but um I think that would go I. think it's important I think needs to. happen so let's set that up but yeah but. um but I do I think that is the I just. feel like that's the perfect way to end. it it's it's a yeah it is.

a it's a glimmer of positivity and and. and what could potentially come and uh. well I mean you've given you you know. the hard part is you hear a lot of. things because of what you Expose and. you wear that [ __ ] like there's like I. we' talked about like you you just keep. getting hit with it and it's a lot and I. agree with you I think there's so many. reasons to but again I I look at look at. the number of people who have actually.

taken Hope from the way you've reverse. engineered it into okay now here's what. we're going to. do right and and to me that's like a. great shot across the bow of like wow. look at look at that you know like that. actually led to this there are going to. be more opportunities I think for you as. you move forward and others to. have calls to action right and even if. it's just like hey you guys do this like. you know in your areas like kind of like. we talked about today we don't have all. the answers on State and local Solutions.

but you do get after it like start. working it um I don't know I just I. think that a lot of that is um it is it. is a I mean it is a message of Hope but. it's based on precedent that's what I. try to get across to people like I don't. just throw [ __ ] out there like I've. studied the hell out of this and I saw. it with our village stability operations. in these places that had [ __ ] no. hope I saw entire communities restored. in. months where they were farming again.

they were managing livestock like. dispute resolution was was taken away. from the Taliban and put back in the. hands of community leaders and then. green bra is like disappeared back into. the. Woodline you know and I'm like [ __ ] we. can do that like we can do that [ __ ]. [ __ ] it I'd rather go that way anyway. yeah you know so we'll see what happens. well Scott nobody is coming to save you. it's out October 1st it's linked down in.

the description everybody go buy it and. um Scott once again man I. just thank you for coming thank you for. being my friend absolutely same here God. bless you brother I love you I love you. too all right. [Music]. no matter where you're watching Shan. Ryan Show from if you get anything out.

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