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By the end of World War II, we had about 6,000 ships.

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Four years, They were made here.

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The United States does not have that capacity anymore.

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People's Republic of China can build more ships in one month than the United States can
build in a year.

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Hello, my name is David Olds and I'm the co-host for Mississippi Happenings.

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Joining me each week is my co-host and my friend Jim Newman.

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Jim, how are you my friend?

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I'm cold, I don't know about you.

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We've had some miserable weather, that's for sure.

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Each week we discuss kitchen table issues that all of us face in Mississippi.

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Not only do we discuss those issues, but offer information from experts in the field with
solutions and also a plan of actions.

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Today, we want to focus on national news and events under President Trump's new term.

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Each day we read and hear about national security issues surrounding Elon Musk and the
Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, withdrawing from NATO, the America First

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agenda, turning our backs on our European allies, and terrorist war.

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Joining us today is a man that has experience and first-hand knowledge in these concerns.

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Our guest today is retired Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett.

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Admiral Barnett is an adjunct professor in the Ole Miss Center for Intelligence and
Security Studies, teaching national security and cybersecurity policy courses.

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He served 32 years in the Navy and Navy Reserve, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral and
serving as Deputy Commander, Navy Exp-

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expeditionary combat command during the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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His first flag assignment was director of Navy education and training at the Pentagon.

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Admiral Barnett also has a website called OpinionAided, which is opinions aided by facts
that can be found on substack.com.

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is an honor to have you as our guest and we appreciate your service to our country.

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Thank you David and Jim.

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I appreciate that and appreciate being here.

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Jim, I'll let you get us started.

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Well, I don't know whether to call you Admiral or Professor or...

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Jamie would be good, yeah.

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I'm sure you've probably heard of Michael Hayden, General Michael Hayden.

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He wrote a book called The Assault on Intelligence that I read last year.

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we are faced in this country with.

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I just call it like I see it, outright lies with no factual basis.

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Trying to tell what is fact and what is not has become a real issue for the average
citizen these days.

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I was talking with Julian Carroll this morning, Senator Wickers, a man here in Tupelo, and
he was mentioning that Facebook was kind of...

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really beating up on Senator Wicker's position regarding the Ukraine and some of things he
said.

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But the thing that interested me was he said, it's hard to tell, they're probably our
Russian bots.

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What a Russian bots?

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So, and I'll just say botnets in general.

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So the term comes from a robot network and.

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And you know, anybody's computer, anybody's telephone may actually be part of that.

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It's not like they're in Russia.

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you know, when you get an email that's been, been forwarded for three times and you click
on a link, that actually may be, downloading botnet malware onto your computer that

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operates in the background without your knowledge.

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And first you get a hundred and a thousand and millions of these, are operating around the
world.

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And they've also started.

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infecting not only laptops but servers.

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I mean there's some company servers that are now part of that network.

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And they can do a couple things.

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The first way that a lot of people came to know about botnets is that they can be part of
distributed denial of service, DDOS attack, where you have just millions of inquiries into

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a website.

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It just shuts it down.

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And you've seen this over in Europe.

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was one in Estonia, hit the Estonian banks.

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I want to say that...

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early 2000s, the Russians hit it.

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You know, the Russians were upset that Estonia moved a Russian monument from a graveyard
and they just started assaulting their financial sector.

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So that's one way that botnets can go.

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But the other way that botnets can happen is there's a group called Internet Research
Group in St.

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Petersburg, Russia.

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and we know where it is.

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We know what the building looks like and they continually are researching and developing
fake news, fake news that infuriates different segments of the American public.

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And they do this for other countries as well.

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And then what they can do is set up a fake news site.

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And you know, it might be like instead of being CNN.

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calm, might be CNN.com or CNN news.

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It's, you know, it's what's called, squatting, you know, it's basically website squatting.

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It looks like a regular news organization.

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They put a fake news, article on it, and then they use these botnets to spread it around
on social media.

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And so the way that, things come to be trending,

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is the people are looking at them.

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But in this case, and what Senator Rickers person is talking about is those are rising to
the top because of these botnets run by the Russians are trading on the ramp.

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And then you get one person and it really only takes one who says, well I'm going to
repost that on my social media.

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And then it becomes legitimized.

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It's not fake bots.

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It's actual people that are doing it.

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And this is one of the reasons why we see sometimes

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even members of Congress repeating Russian talking points on the floor of the House and
the Senate.

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And we've had the Republican head of the Intel committee, House Intel committee, that's
complained about it.

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And so what are the problems that we have in today's information world?

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So the information age, it's the paradox that we have more information available than
ever, and yet people are less informed.

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And the reason

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is that, and I'll put it left, right, center, we all have a tendency to devolve into a
news and facts, basically echo chamber.

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We're not looking across things.

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We don't have Walter Cronkite that's talking to everybody, Huntley and Brinkley anymore.

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There with cable news going down, newspapers going away, there's not a common American
forum for discussion anymore.

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so it's one of the reasons I'm really glad that you're doing this.

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I hope you can reach across political divides to where we can discuss actual facts.

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But as long as we have to understand that we're under

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by the Russians with various fake news that are designed to anger us and to get our ire
up.

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And anytime that an American feels like, this makes me mad.

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We ought to be careful and make sure we check the source.

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And checking the sources is a problem a lot of times because you can't find it.

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That's true.

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And unfortunately for the United States and the world, Mark Zuckerberg has opted to end
his fact checking.

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There are some great fact checking organizations out there.

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There is an international fact checking standard of conduct.

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One of those is the Washington Post fact checker.

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There's PolitiFact, there's NewsGuard, but Zuckerberg and others have chosen to not do
that anymore.

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Elon Musk with X chose not to do it.

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He's gotten rid of his fact checkers.

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Consequently, it relies on people in the comment section say, well, that's not so.

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Well, that's why people say that you can

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One fake news article, one disinformation article can go around the world six times before
the actual news can get out there.

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One of the things I heard this morning on MSNBC, they were interviewing the chairman of
Oracle.

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And she was talking about the cloud.

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And she was talking about that it could be a group, it could be a business.

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And she went so far as to say that it could be isolated to a small

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such as a ship.

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where the cloud is secure and only the ship has access to that cloud.

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Is our Navy up to all of this AI stuff nowadays that is coming about?

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So if we're talking about the cloud, and I'll set AI aside for just a second, it used to
be that our warriors and strategists used to talk about how our weapons and sensors would

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make war on their weapons and sensors.

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And a few years ago, some of the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, now it's how
our networks make war on their networks.

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And when I say network, it's not just

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communications network, we're talking about, you know, space infrastructure.

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We're talking about cables, sensors, you know, the sensors that are on aircraft, the
sensors on surface ships, the sensors that are, you know, on drones.

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It's, you know, integrated common operating picture.

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And we have to understand that our military units have to operate in a communications
denied environment.

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we, know their frequencies.

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We know how they communicate.

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know how we do.

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And so if which, if what, the chairman of article or president of Oracle was talking about
here is kind of ship or maybe a carrier, a strike group, operate independent of connection

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back with the United States or connecting back with a, a, a headquarters.

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Absolutely.

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That is something that has been anticipated for a long time.

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And so they can carry a great deal of the information they need.

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on the ship itself or at least within the strike.

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Now AI is something different and there has been a lot of experimentation, a lot of
interest by the military in AI.

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It is transforming warfare, but it is still too early for me, at least to be able to see
exactly how it's going to operate.

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in some ways, Jim, it's not unlike the beginning of the smartphone era.

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You know, when the smartphones came out,

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most of it just thought, this is a slightly better cell phone, but it's transformed the
way that we, we communicate and are entertained and store knowledge.

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And in some ways it is, you know, if you want to see somebody panic, you know, just take
their, their cell phone away from them because it's actually part of our augmented

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cognition.

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Now, you know, I don't remember people's telephone numbers anymore.

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It's in my cell phone.

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So, I think we're at that.

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at that beginning stage with AI as well.

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The one thing I would hopefully would do is not have the hubris to assume that we're
ahead.

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I think the DeepSeek app that came out from China that shocked the stock market would be
an indication is that, you know, we have to put money into innovation and into application

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of those innovations in order to stay ahead.

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David, do you have any questions?

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Admiral, thank you for sharing the fact-checking, excuse me, the fact-checkers.

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You had mentioned NewsGuard.

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You had mentioned, what was the other two that you mentioned for our listeners?

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Okay.

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I subscribed to NewsGuard.

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think anybody can do that.

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It's either no money or low money.

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PolitiFact is another one that was developed by Professor Bill Adair, who's at Duke
University.

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And then the Washington Post Fact Checker.

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And all of those subscribe to the standards of this international fact checking body.

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Gotcha.

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Okay, thank you for that.

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What's your thoughts on Snopes?

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Snopes is really good.

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my son who is a computer engineer, computer scientist is the one who put me on to Snopes.

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I think it's very accurate.

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I sometimes forget to check it, but then again, know, I'm, I think, you know, it's the
number one, I'm a dinosaur, but I'm also not as susceptible to some of the social media

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stuff because I, you know, it may be 10 years ago that I decided in trust Zuckerberg, I
got off of Facebook.

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I got off of Twitter before it became X.

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you know, I'm still on LinkedIn, but that, that is a little bit, uh, more vetted.

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Um, and, so I don't know that I'm susceptible, but when I do hear somebody, you know, come
up with, uh, you know, some, some weird thing that, uh, uh, is out there, I do check

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Snopes occasionally.

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Gotcha, thank you.

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And I will add the news card and PolitiFact also to my list of fact checkers.

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I think that you brought up an important part.

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What's your thoughts as far as what's going on with...

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Donald President Trump dropping out of NATO.

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So I cannot tell you how disturbed I am about that.

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And the one thing that I would tell you and would tell Americans is this is not a
surprise.

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This was predictable.

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He's talked about it in his first term.

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He talked about it during the campaign.

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And so don't think anybody should be shocked.

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if he withdraws or if he denigrates, or if just his, you know, commentary to them
undermines the NATO Alliance confidence in the United States, which, you know, it is a

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transatlantic, Alliance, but we have been a pillar and the European nations have existed
under the protection of our nuclear umbrella for all, all these years.

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And, you know,

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As many people will remember, the main part of the North Atlantic Treaty is Article 5,
which calls for collective security.

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If one member of NATO is attacked, it will be considered as an attack on all.

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Now, that's only been invoked once, and that was in our favor after 9-11.

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Europe came to our aid.

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They went into Afghanistan with us.

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It's just amazing to me to think that we would abandon that.

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And for no good reason.

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We are not getting anything for it.

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We're just leaving it.

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as we've seen, the European leaders are very rattled by that.

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it's just one other...

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So I'm putting on a professor hat for just a second.

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Some people like to say, well, we're not the world's policemen.

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Yes, we are.

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We took on that role even before the end of World War II.

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We set up the world monetary system at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire back in 1944.

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And to have that work, you had to make sure that people were going to follow the rules,
that they weren't stealing from each other.

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It wasn't piracy.

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And so, you know, there was only one Navy that really could project a force, one military
force that could...

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project around the world and that was the United States.

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And that's what's happened.

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And that's why we've called it the Pax Americana.

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Now we've been a superpower really since World War II and we've been the sole superpower
since the fall of the Soviet Union in the 89 timeframe.

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And I'm afraid that has led to a lot of American complacency.

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There may be some feeling of entitlement that we will always be a superpower and that is
not true.

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Uh, the assessment of our intelligence community and of the last national security
strategy is that we are in the post post-co war era.

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In other words, the post-co war is over and we are back to a major power competition.

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Well, there are a lot of Americans don't remember what that was like.

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And, um, the fact of the matter is that we had to invest

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in our national security in a way that we haven't had to in the last 30 years.

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And Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker issued a report last summer.

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And while I don't always agree with everything he does, I agreed with this.

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He noted that, you know, we need to start and we don't need to cut defense spending.

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We need to increase it.

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And, you know, we spent 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan and we

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put trillions of dollars into the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan.

214
00:20:24,844 --> 00:20:27,125
And what did we get for that?

215
00:20:27,465 --> 00:20:29,476
Did we get more national security?

216
00:20:29,476 --> 00:20:32,327
Did we get more global stability for that?

217
00:20:32,447 --> 00:20:34,228
We didn't.

218
00:20:34,228 --> 00:20:36,189
The war in Iraq was a mistake.

219
00:20:36,189 --> 00:20:42,251
I admire and applaud the service of our service members who served there.

220
00:20:42,291 --> 00:20:43,792
They did so honorably.

221
00:20:43,792 --> 00:20:47,143
But it was a political decision that should not have been made.

222
00:20:47,625 --> 00:20:57,368
And we took our eyes off the ball in Afghanistan and we actually couldn't articulate a
reason why we were there after we defeated Al Qaeda.

223
00:20:57,368 --> 00:21:02,569
But we spent millions of dollars in there, billions, trillions of dollars there.

224
00:21:02,649 --> 00:21:06,030
And what did that money not go to?

225
00:21:06,550 --> 00:21:17,113
It didn't go to refreshing and upgrading our Air Force, renewing and expanding our Navy,
making sure that our Army recruiting was on track.

226
00:21:17,181 --> 00:21:20,683
And so we've got a deficit right now that concerns me.

227
00:21:20,783 --> 00:21:30,869
And there's a, I don't actually know who the, said this, but, an adage that, know, don't
go to war if you don't have to.

228
00:21:30,869 --> 00:21:33,390
We've, we violated that a couple of times.

229
00:21:33,430 --> 00:21:40,774
If you do have to go to war, don't go alone, make sure you got your allies and whatever
you do, don't go for long.

230
00:21:40,814 --> 00:21:46,177
So we've gone long, we've gone alone and we don't need to.

231
00:21:46,451 --> 00:21:49,984
dismiss our alliance is right now.

232
00:21:49,984 --> 00:21:52,686
It's the worst thing that we could do.

233
00:21:52,686 --> 00:22:02,572
And Jim and David, one of the things that I'm concerned about is like, okay, we're out of
NATO and people say, okay, you know, look around for what bad happens.

234
00:22:02,572 --> 00:22:13,331
It won't happen right away, but we will start noticing that countries are not doing what
we want to, not cooperating with us and things are not going our way.

235
00:22:13,777 --> 00:22:18,256
And it would take a long time, if ever, to rebuild those.

236
00:22:19,303 --> 00:22:25,208
You mentioned a couple of times the size of the Navy.

237
00:22:28,955 --> 00:22:33,072
I'm wondering now, we've got what, 200 plus ships?

238
00:22:34,336 --> 00:22:41,605
And isn't the general consensus that we need somewhere 300 plus?

239
00:22:42,665 --> 00:22:48,349
Yeah, we need about 355 ships and we need a different mix.

240
00:22:49,670 --> 00:23:03,760
One of the things that's happened over the course of the 21st century is the stalwart of
American sea power, the aircraft carrier has changed.

241
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:11,965
And just like is going into World War II, the Navy felt like the battleship was going to
be the most important aspect, but it turned out to be the aircraft carrier.

242
00:23:11,965 --> 00:23:19,571
aircraft carrier has been a tremendous force for projecting force and it will continue to
be for some time, but there's something different now.

243
00:23:19,571 --> 00:23:35,183
And that is that with supersonic missiles, which China, the People's Republic of China has
invested in greatly, and also the aircraft that can deliver them, the ability for our

244
00:23:35,183 --> 00:23:37,653
aircraft carriers to get close enough

245
00:23:37,653 --> 00:23:43,753
to have an effect means it brings within something called a weapons engagement zone, the
WES.

246
00:23:44,033 --> 00:23:55,473
And so for us to endanger one of our aircraft carriers, more than one of our aircraft
carriers, by putting it in the weapons engagement zone means that we could lose one of the

247
00:23:55,473 --> 00:23:57,033
11 that we have.

248
00:23:57,173 --> 00:24:05,453
Well, you know, if you lose one aircraft carrier, if you only have 11, that's a strategic
event.

249
00:24:05,759 --> 00:24:11,583
So we need to continue to, I'm not telling you that there aren't things that are being
done about that.

250
00:24:11,583 --> 00:24:17,437
We are definitely, I mean, you see what's going on in the fifth fleet in the middle East.

251
00:24:17,437 --> 00:24:21,719
They're experimenting with drone ships.

252
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:22,771
They're all over the place.

253
00:24:22,771 --> 00:24:24,681
They're in use right now.

254
00:24:24,762 --> 00:24:31,166
Unmanned aircraft in the unmanned surface craft, unmanned underwater vehicles.

255
00:24:31,166 --> 00:24:32,747
There's lots of stuff going on with this.

256
00:24:32,747 --> 00:24:35,269
We're doing our own work with,

257
00:24:35,487 --> 00:24:36,578
hypersonic missiles.

258
00:24:36,578 --> 00:24:43,961
The Marine Corps is coming up with new ways of breaking up their forces so that they're
dispersed and they're spread out.

259
00:24:43,961 --> 00:24:56,466
And there's a for a while that the military has had this concept of distributed lethality
so that you're not, you know, you're not providing a big target that can be taken out.

260
00:24:57,246 --> 00:25:00,247
But we need to continue to invest in that.

261
00:25:00,348 --> 00:25:03,273
And we do not have

262
00:25:03,273 --> 00:25:16,336
know, for any one carrier that you've got forward, dissuading the, the Chinese not to come
across the States of Taiwan or to discourage them for, shouldering or attacking Filipino

263
00:25:16,336 --> 00:25:19,417
shipping or Vietnamese shipping in the South China sea.

264
00:25:19,417 --> 00:25:25,559
You've got to have one that's back in the yards being repaired and one that's in training
to go replace it.

265
00:25:25,559 --> 00:25:29,730
So that's a pretty fast rotation.

266
00:25:29,730 --> 00:25:30,660
so, yeah.

267
00:25:30,660 --> 00:25:33,511
And here's one final fact that really concerns me.

268
00:25:34,005 --> 00:25:39,185
So at the beginning of World War II, had 300 ships, I mean, 400 ships.

269
00:25:39,185 --> 00:25:46,885
We only had 400 ships because Franklin Roosevelt went ahead and started pumping up the
numbers that we had.

270
00:25:47,385 --> 00:25:51,625
By the end of World War II, we had about 6,000 ships.

271
00:25:52,605 --> 00:25:54,425
Four years, 6,000.

272
00:25:54,425 --> 00:25:55,885
I mean, we didn't make those someplace.

273
00:25:55,885 --> 00:25:57,325
They were made here.

274
00:25:57,505 --> 00:26:00,425
The United States does not have that capacity anymore.

275
00:26:02,313 --> 00:26:10,258
People's Republic of China can build more ships in one month than the United States can
build in a year.

276
00:26:10,439 --> 00:26:13,181
And some of that's money.

277
00:26:13,181 --> 00:26:15,302
We need to put more money into it.

278
00:26:15,343 --> 00:26:17,484
We need to have more shipyards.

279
00:26:17,484 --> 00:26:21,126
Some of the shipyards we have may not want there to be more shipyards.

280
00:26:21,647 --> 00:26:27,331
I definitely know that one of the problems that we have is we don't have enough workers.

281
00:26:30,269 --> 00:26:35,330
Eagle shipyard, Huntington, Eagle shipyard and past Google of Mississippi.

282
00:26:35,351 --> 00:26:39,492
They could run another shift, but they don't have the people.

283
00:26:40,032 --> 00:26:41,362
it's highly skilled people.

284
00:26:41,362 --> 00:26:43,563
And so where are they running three shifts?

285
00:26:43,563 --> 00:26:45,493
Well, they're running three shifts in South Korea.

286
00:26:45,493 --> 00:26:49,125
It's one of the best and biggest shipbuilders right now in the world.

287
00:26:49,125 --> 00:26:50,915
You know where they're getting their workers?

288
00:26:50,915 --> 00:26:52,586
Malaysia, they're importing them.

289
00:26:52,586 --> 00:26:58,247
So our immigration laws, you know, are actually hurting

290
00:26:58,353 --> 00:26:59,995
our own national defense.

291
00:26:59,995 --> 00:27:10,168
So it may blow people's minds to think that we need to actually do immigration reform in
order to get the workers that we can have to do welding, the high pressure welding and

292
00:27:10,168 --> 00:27:11,769
things that we need to do.

293
00:27:12,010 --> 00:27:14,733
But that's the way that we need to think about it.

294
00:27:17,052 --> 00:27:32,524
That's quite frightening as you just mentioned, that China can build more ships in one
month than we can in a year.

295
00:27:33,385 --> 00:27:36,187
That's frightening.

296
00:27:36,477 --> 00:27:39,562
David, what's frightening is that they are doing it.

297
00:27:41,366 --> 00:27:45,592
It's not that they can, they are, and we're not.

298
00:27:46,310 --> 00:27:50,679
And at one time we had 6,000 ships in our fleet.

299
00:27:51,273 --> 00:28:03,925
Yeah, back at the end of World War II, we had 6,000 ships and we very quickly, I mean, we
were fighting two wars.

300
00:28:03,925 --> 00:28:12,713
mean, really it was the Pacific war and the one in Atlantic and Mediterranean and all of
it.

301
00:28:13,074 --> 00:28:16,657
The army was depending on landing craft and...

302
00:28:16,667 --> 00:28:18,678
delivery of supplies and things like that.

303
00:28:18,678 --> 00:28:21,818
So after that was over, we could draw back a whole lot.

304
00:28:22,899 --> 00:28:26,390
And you know, we don't, we don't want to a Navy with 6,000 ships.

305
00:28:26,390 --> 00:28:28,050
There's not, there's not really a need for it.

306
00:28:28,050 --> 00:28:36,082
You know, with the, the weapons and sensors that we have have much longer reach now, but
we, we do need to have more.

307
00:28:36,282 --> 00:28:43,304
And for a long time, our, our military budget has been coming down.

308
00:28:43,657 --> 00:28:46,345
I mean, it actually goes up, but as, as a

309
00:28:46,677 --> 00:28:52,269
percentage, it has been going down for years and we need a plus up on the top line and an
impetus.

310
00:28:52,269 --> 00:28:59,002
And I'll just tell you, I think that Senator Wicker is in a good position to promote that.

311
00:28:59,562 --> 00:29:06,485
You know, we've had a great tradition in Mississippi of support for the military.

312
00:29:06,886 --> 00:29:14,459
As you know, a lot of people from the South and specifically from Mississippi go into the
military.

313
00:29:14,459 --> 00:29:15,571
We have four

314
00:29:15,571 --> 00:29:16,901
military bases here.

315
00:29:16,901 --> 00:29:23,607
have over 90 National Guard units around the state.

316
00:29:24,128 --> 00:29:26,460
And so this is important to Mississippians.

317
00:29:26,460 --> 00:29:30,853
I think Mississippians understand the importance of our alliances.

318
00:29:31,474 --> 00:29:43,354
And I definitely hope that they're not falling into the Russian propaganda trap of somehow
thinking that we shouldn't be involved in Europe.

319
00:29:43,354 --> 00:29:44,831
So I have to tell you something.

320
00:29:44,831 --> 00:29:51,610
There's one aspect of the America first phrase that makes me think we may end up being
America alone.

321
00:29:51,610 --> 00:29:54,053
And that is not a situation we want to be in.

322
00:29:54,488 --> 00:29:54,948
Thank you.

323
00:29:54,948 --> 00:29:56,129
Thank you for that.

324
00:29:56,129 --> 00:30:11,943
Speaking of Senator Wicker, the other day he kind of broke, possibly broke ties with
President Trump when he called Putin a war criminal.

325
00:30:11,943 --> 00:30:13,824
What's your thoughts about that?

326
00:30:14,773 --> 00:30:18,716
Yeah, I was very, I was very proud of Senator Wicker on that.

327
00:30:18,716 --> 00:30:22,819
You know, I raised my children over in Tupelo.

328
00:30:23,020 --> 00:30:28,384
They all went to school with, with Gail and Roger Wicker's children.

329
00:30:29,606 --> 00:30:37,392
We've not always had the same political beliefs, but I will tell you, he occupies a good
position right now.

330
00:30:37,392 --> 00:30:39,094
He just got reelected.

331
00:30:39,094 --> 00:30:43,157
He can speak his mind and not worried about getting

332
00:30:43,157 --> 00:30:50,322
primaried by somebody who may not have the same views, but he spoke absolute truth.

333
00:30:52,224 --> 00:30:55,286
Remember the question he was asked, do you trust Putin?

334
00:30:55,387 --> 00:30:56,768
No, he was immediate.

335
00:30:56,768 --> 00:30:58,489
didn't have to think about it.

336
00:30:58,489 --> 00:31:08,603
And that has been the assessment of Intel and national security strategists since World
War II.

337
00:31:08,603 --> 00:31:11,045
is that you cannot trust the Russians.

338
00:31:11,045 --> 00:31:14,958
They are not going to do things for their, for your benefit.

339
00:31:15,038 --> 00:31:16,276
You can't trust them in the alliance.

340
00:31:16,276 --> 00:31:17,961
And we found that over the years.

341
00:31:17,961 --> 00:31:20,313
We couldn't trust them on arms control.

342
00:31:20,313 --> 00:31:22,214
We couldn't trust them on anything.

343
00:31:22,214 --> 00:31:26,208
And they have, you know, we talk about them trying to undermine our elections.

344
00:31:26,208 --> 00:31:30,071
Well, yeah, but I mean, that was only in addition to all the other stuff.

345
00:31:30,071 --> 00:31:31,052
And it's not just us.

346
00:31:31,052 --> 00:31:33,314
They try to undermine every country.

347
00:31:33,314 --> 00:31:35,095
They want to subvert them.

348
00:31:35,095 --> 00:31:37,685
And that was what the whole policy of containment was.

349
00:31:37,685 --> 00:31:41,185
So when he said, no, I don't trust him, he's exactly right.

350
00:31:41,185 --> 00:31:43,205
And it's based on hard evidence.

351
00:31:43,205 --> 00:31:47,445
And he said he's a war criminal and he has, mean, Putin is a war criminal.

352
00:31:47,445 --> 00:31:51,765
He has been indicted by the international criminal courts.

353
00:31:51,785 --> 00:31:58,685
And that's why you're not going to see him in the United States anytime soon or some of
the Western Europe, because he could get arrested.

354
00:31:58,685 --> 00:32:06,925
Now, maybe not the United States now, but, um, so I was very proud of, uh, of Senator
Ricker and I'll have to tell you, I mean,

355
00:32:07,369 --> 00:32:17,655
There are members of his party that could have spoken up earlier that might've avoided
some of this, but I'm very proud.

356
00:32:17,655 --> 00:32:21,577
And this is what I think when, you know, I know y'all are all about action.

357
00:32:22,378 --> 00:32:34,355
Everybody loves to call their Senator and member of Congress to complain about something,
but I hope people will call Senator Wicker's office and call the members of Congress and

358
00:32:34,355 --> 00:32:35,245
say,

359
00:32:35,337 --> 00:32:37,239
We want strong alliances.

360
00:32:37,239 --> 00:32:41,441
We support NATO.

361
00:32:41,742 --> 00:32:46,686
Just like you mentioned, he's going to get criticism from the other side on that.

362
00:32:48,007 --> 00:32:55,953
Maybe it's botnets, maybe it's people who just want to follow whatever the president says
about Ukraine.

363
00:32:55,954 --> 00:33:05,471
But there's one thing that I can promise you, is if we bolster our NATO alliances, our
friendships around the world,

364
00:33:05,471 --> 00:33:12,368
then we're going to avoid sending Mississippi service members into a war sometime down the
line.

365
00:33:12,529 --> 00:33:19,527
And that's what Mississippians can do for national security and Mississippians can do for
Mississippians.

366
00:33:19,638 --> 00:33:20,117
Thank you.

367
00:33:20,117 --> 00:33:21,310
That's that's.

368
00:33:22,312 --> 00:33:28,016
what I think it was Roosevelt about speak softly and carry a big stick.

369
00:33:28,319 --> 00:33:30,645
Yeah, the first Roosevelt, that's right.

370
00:33:30,645 --> 00:33:32,120
Roosevelt, yes.

371
00:33:33,090 --> 00:33:34,052
Teddy.

372
00:33:35,923 --> 00:33:51,399
What's your thoughts regarding the United States and Russia talking about Ukraine without
the presence of Ukraine?

373
00:33:53,395 --> 00:33:53,655
Yeah.

374
00:33:53,655 --> 00:34:02,673
So, I heard this repeated on the news the other day, but you know, if you're, if you're,
if you don't have a seat at the table, it probably means you're on the menu.

375
00:34:02,714 --> 00:34:16,065
And, that sounds very much like, other instances in history, Soviet Russia meeting with,
Nazi Germany and deciding how to divide up Poland.

376
00:34:16,586 --> 00:34:19,168
it sounds like the Trump administration,

377
00:34:19,989 --> 00:34:27,529
meeting with the Taliban without including the Afghani government that the United States
had tried to set up.

378
00:34:28,729 --> 00:34:30,669
It's not diplomacy.

379
00:34:30,669 --> 00:34:38,989
And I have to tell you, just the beginning talk of it, we have Russia under sanctions,
some of the heaviest sanctions in the world.

380
00:34:39,049 --> 00:34:44,369
And it's not just us, there are other countries that we encourage to enter into those
sanctions.

381
00:34:45,429 --> 00:34:47,645
So just the fact that there are...

382
00:34:47,645 --> 00:34:57,072
of shoving that off is a breach of what I would call normal diplomatic protocols,
ill-advised not to go into it.

383
00:34:57,072 --> 00:35:06,018
And Senator Rickers mentioned some rookie mistakes that are being made where they're
actually taking bargaining chips and just giving them away before you even get to a

384
00:35:06,018 --> 00:35:07,539
bargaining position.

385
00:35:08,540 --> 00:35:11,842
So I think it's ill-advised.

386
00:35:12,383 --> 00:35:15,615
They should include Afghanistan unless...

387
00:35:15,615 --> 00:35:22,769
There's something surreptitious going on, something nefarious, and that they are trying to
sell Ukraine to the highest bidder.

388
00:35:22,949 --> 00:35:36,447
So I'm hoping that as they move forward, that Secretary Rubio will be inclusive in the
discussions for actually seeking some type of reasonable settlement or ceasefire or

389
00:35:36,447 --> 00:35:37,327
something.

390
00:35:37,938 --> 00:35:38,940
One of the things that...

391
00:35:38,940 --> 00:35:57,560
possibility with what's going on now between Russia and Trump that there would be a
possibility of, and could Trump do this, could he, what's the word I'm looking for, could

392
00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:05,320
he eliminate those sanctions or could he get rid of those sanctions against Russia?

393
00:36:05,579 --> 00:36:06,840
Yes, yes he can.

394
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:12,103
He can lift a lot of those sanctions by presidential order.

395
00:36:12,784 --> 00:36:18,908
you know, and quite frankly, if he goes to Congress, he might be able to get them to
reduce some of the others on that.

396
00:36:19,649 --> 00:36:31,216
That would be really unfortunate because, you know, economic sanctions can have some
effect and it has an effect on the Russian economy.

397
00:36:31,797 --> 00:36:40,137
We started imposing pretty heavy sanctions on Russia in 2014 under the Obama
administration when they invaded Crimea.

398
00:36:40,417 --> 00:36:42,877
Some of them were more effective than we thought.

399
00:36:42,877 --> 00:36:48,877
mean, they, sanctions that we put on them crushed the Russian ruble.

400
00:36:48,877 --> 00:36:53,477
I I think it lost like 40 % or more of its value.

401
00:36:53,477 --> 00:37:01,837
And I don't know that we really, we intended to punish Putin and the oligarchs, not the
Russian people.

402
00:37:01,877 --> 00:37:02,647
So you have to be careful.

403
00:37:02,647 --> 00:37:13,524
But the other thing is with economic sanctions is that over time they erode because the
recipient of the sanctions is going to find ways around them.

404
00:37:13,524 --> 00:37:20,127
And the people imposing the sanctions sometimes get tired of it or lose focus or things
like that.

405
00:37:20,127 --> 00:37:27,071
So for America to say we're going to lift them, I think means that Russia will not have
sanctions anymore.

406
00:37:27,071 --> 00:37:30,653
And it'll be back to business as normal.

407
00:37:30,653 --> 00:37:38,041
And what that means is that once again, Russia can take what it wants from its neighbors.

408
00:37:38,202 --> 00:37:48,003
And, you know, the Russian people may have paid a price, but I don't, I don't think,
Vladimir Putin's even gotten a hang nail out.

409
00:37:49,073 --> 00:38:08,821
One of the things that you mentioned in negotiations, it seems to me, and it's been my
thought for many years, that the United States is behind in not having diplomats.

410
00:38:08,821 --> 00:38:17,565
tend to, every time we have a new president, we tend to have ambassadors go to various
countries.

411
00:38:18,029 --> 00:38:22,750
A lot of times depending on how much money they donated to the campaign, et cetera.

412
00:38:23,331 --> 00:38:40,816
But the diplomatic corps to me is kind of a lifelong pursuit of knowing your adversary or
your friend as closely as possible.

413
00:38:41,996 --> 00:38:44,557
And when it comes time to negotiate,

414
00:38:47,087 --> 00:38:49,531
It's not like.

415
00:38:51,665 --> 00:39:01,775
Senator Rubio going over to Saudi Arabia got no experience in international relations and
negotiations and all of that.

416
00:39:01,876 --> 00:39:07,581
And here we've got diplomats that have got that experience.

417
00:39:08,342 --> 00:39:10,964
And it seems to me we don't listen to them.

418
00:39:13,397 --> 00:39:14,738
Jim, you're exactly right.

419
00:39:14,738 --> 00:39:24,457
is this concept I think that Americans have is that, anybody can do this.

420
00:39:24,457 --> 00:39:27,357
I had a...

421
00:39:27,357 --> 00:39:35,881
My wife was a school teacher and I remember her basically saying, it seems like
everybody's an expert on education because they went to school.

422
00:39:36,101 --> 00:39:44,245
I'm Senator Rubio, at least he's had a lot of foreign affairs experience in the Senate.

423
00:39:44,797 --> 00:39:53,761
and, and so you've seen his past statements that he seems to be walking back now that he's
part of the Trump administration, but I do think he's got the capability.

424
00:39:53,761 --> 00:39:59,244
But I do think that there is a lack of appreciation for our foreign service core.

425
00:39:59,244 --> 00:40:06,006
And we saw it the first time during the first Trump administration, when he was getting
rid of top people left and right.

426
00:40:06,006 --> 00:40:14,550
So the equivalence of three and four star generals in our foreign service core, people who
were expert, who built a career under understanding.

427
00:40:14,550 --> 00:40:28,693
you know, the flows of money, you know, in terrorist networks or understanding, you know,
the dynamic of ethnicities within the Middle East and how that affects it.

428
00:40:28,693 --> 00:40:33,535
You know, to get rid of those, you can't just go to industry and hire one of those folks.

429
00:40:33,535 --> 00:40:36,775
And so that would be an indication that we devalued them.

430
00:40:36,775 --> 00:40:43,517
The other thing is, and I'm part of a group of retired generals and admirals that
advocated for more money for the Department of State,

431
00:40:44,414 --> 00:40:50,537
You know, there's, think there's only about 30,000 people in, the department of defense.

432
00:40:50,537 --> 00:40:57,511
I'm not sure if that maybe includes some foreign nationals that we hire at embassies for
security and other things like that.

433
00:40:57,511 --> 00:41:02,613
That's tiny compared for say, for instance, our military.

434
00:41:03,033 --> 00:41:04,954
And we need to bolster that up.

435
00:41:04,954 --> 00:41:11,738
mean, yeah, we're a big, powerful Navy, a big, powerful military, but we don't want to use
our military.

436
00:41:11,738 --> 00:41:14,321
think it was Eisenhower or somebody else said that, know, the

437
00:41:14,321 --> 00:41:17,694
reason you want to have a military is so that you don't have to use it.

438
00:41:17,694 --> 00:41:23,300
And the way that you not use it is you start with diplomacy and it's not a pickup game.

439
00:41:23,300 --> 00:41:33,389
So I know, you know, it's the American system to, you know, have a few people, that, that
get ambassadorships based on their contributions.

440
00:41:33,533 --> 00:41:41,335
typically our most important one, you know, okay, so you go to the, you're ambassador to
the British Virgin Islands or something like that.

441
00:41:41,335 --> 00:41:46,487
You're, you know, ambassador to Belize or something like that.

442
00:41:46,487 --> 00:41:55,759
But you know, when you, when you've got people that really have no experience that are
going to some of our major allies, that may be of concern.

443
00:41:55,899 --> 00:42:02,823
We need to understand and promote the concept and increase the ability of our diplomatic
corps.

444
00:42:02,823 --> 00:42:08,016
I'm interested in what you're teaching over at Ole Miss.

445
00:42:08,016 --> 00:42:16,914
The department, is it the Department of Intelligence or what is it?

446
00:42:16,914 --> 00:42:25,635
of Mississippi, about 13 years ago, a former intelligence officer helped found the Center
for Intelligence and Security Studies.

447
00:42:25,985 --> 00:42:32,748
and it became a intelligence community center of academic excellence.

448
00:42:32,748 --> 00:42:41,172
And so students that come here, they can minor in intelligence studies, and then they go
off to a career in the intelligence services.

449
00:42:41,172 --> 00:42:54,678
And that would include FBI, Naval Intelligence, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, any of
the other ones that are like our space intelligence, National Conscience Agency or the

450
00:42:54,678 --> 00:42:55,751
National Geospatial.

451
00:42:55,751 --> 00:42:57,332
intelligence agency.

452
00:42:57,753 --> 00:43:02,529
And, you know, it's great because what they do is they come back and recruit other Ole
Miss students.

453
00:43:02,529 --> 00:43:11,408
So I'm very proud that Ole Miss is having such a contribution to our law enforcement and
to our intelligence services.

454
00:43:12,489 --> 00:43:15,130
And I tell my friends, I'm not part of the intelligence pieces.

455
00:43:15,130 --> 00:43:17,521
I was not an intelligence officer in the military.

456
00:43:17,521 --> 00:43:21,132
I was a consumer of intelligence that was developed.

457
00:43:21,132 --> 00:43:32,355
So I get to teach national security and I'm teaching a course called Introduction to
Global and National Security, which I thoroughly enjoy and great, great students.

458
00:43:32,355 --> 00:43:38,437
have co-taught a cybersecurity policy course in the past, but I'm not doing that right
now.

459
00:43:39,133 --> 00:43:42,223
That's a frequent term that's used, cybersecurity.

460
00:43:42,607 --> 00:43:44,171
Can you explain that?

461
00:43:45,599 --> 00:43:58,063
Yeah, so, you know, in the past we've had the understandable domains of air, subsurface,
surface for our warfare domains.

462
00:43:58,963 --> 00:44:04,896
You know, that is expanded now to the space domain and we now have a space force.

463
00:44:05,357 --> 00:44:17,354
and if anybody thinks that, that, you we're not, we're not talking about Star Trek, but
the space infrastructure that we have invisible above our heads is critical to our

464
00:44:17,354 --> 00:44:18,505
wellbeing.

465
00:44:18,927 --> 00:44:32,724
If somebody exploded a nuclear weapon in space, or quite frankly, just got a big satellite
off orbit, it could start something called the Kessler syndrome.

466
00:44:32,724 --> 00:44:34,664
It could wreck the infrastructure.

467
00:44:34,664 --> 00:44:39,366
And if our satellites go out, it's not just that we don't have intelligence.

468
00:44:39,647 --> 00:44:47,010
It also means that our cell phones won't work, our electrical grid relies on that timing.

469
00:44:47,010 --> 00:44:48,951
So that's another domain.

470
00:44:48,951 --> 00:44:51,793
that we have that we have to protect and we have horse.

471
00:44:51,793 --> 00:44:59,918
And the cybersecurity aspect of it is all things having to do with computer network
interactions and security.

472
00:44:59,939 --> 00:45:06,743
And the interesting thing about that particular domain is it's not something that the
military can put its arms around.

473
00:45:06,743 --> 00:45:08,044
It's divided up.

474
00:45:08,044 --> 00:45:16,809
I mean, you don't want the military involved in your civilian networks, but you do want
them protecting them from firing actors.

475
00:45:16,870 --> 00:45:18,711
And over the years we finally

476
00:45:18,711 --> 00:45:22,933
developed, I think what is a pretty good regime for that.

477
00:45:23,734 --> 00:45:34,919
We have the National Security Agency that's kind of the outward looking, it's the
intelligence aspect of trying to thwart and exploit networks.

478
00:45:34,919 --> 00:45:45,945
then we also have the military aspect, that which is cyber command, US cyber command, but
all things relating to computer networks and communications.

479
00:45:48,268 --> 00:46:01,197
Recently on your website, Opinions Aided by Facts, you wrote an article titled, Murder on
Pennsylvania Avenue Reduces American Global Power.

480
00:46:01,238 --> 00:46:08,682
In that article, you talked about USAID, or the US Agency for International Development.

481
00:46:08,763 --> 00:46:10,544
Tell us more about that.

482
00:46:11,785 --> 00:46:18,191
Yeah, so USAID has been around for decades.

483
00:46:18,733 --> 00:46:22,696
you know, as I mentioned in the article,

484
00:46:22,933 --> 00:46:30,773
typically ask my national security students, well, how much of the U S budget goes to
foreign aid?

485
00:46:30,773 --> 00:46:34,353
A lot of Americans will answer, it must be 20, 25%.

486
00:46:34,353 --> 00:46:38,413
Most of my students say, well, you know, 15 % and I it's lower than that.

487
00:46:38,413 --> 00:46:42,573
10%, 5 % now it's about 1%.

488
00:46:42,573 --> 00:46:44,973
It's, it's minuscule amount.

489
00:46:44,973 --> 00:46:52,533
And yet it has tremendous effect on promoting goodwill, opening up markets,

490
00:46:53,548 --> 00:46:58,572
goodwill from going to our adversaries and you know they're

491
00:46:58,773 --> 00:47:01,093
Part of it is American altruism.

492
00:47:01,093 --> 00:47:04,453
We don't want people to die of preventable diseases.

493
00:47:04,453 --> 00:47:06,973
We don't want them to starve to death.

494
00:47:07,173 --> 00:47:15,353
But we also, you we don't, we want good to be out there, but beyond altruism, we would
like to have influence with those nations.

495
00:47:15,353 --> 00:47:20,673
And we'd like to do it without having to do it in no imperialistic way of stationing
troops there.

496
00:47:20,673 --> 00:47:25,973
So it's an incredibly good bargain of what we've been getting.

497
00:47:26,673 --> 00:47:27,693
Now,

498
00:47:27,795 --> 00:47:35,205
So I call it a murder on Pennsylvania Avenue because they, I don't think it is in any way
functioning right now.

499
00:47:35,205 --> 00:47:39,900
There was despite court orders to say that when I don't think it's functioning.

500
00:47:40,436 --> 00:47:49,028
And the thing that's most alarming to me about that, David, is that there's something
called the People's Republic of China Belt and Road Initiative.

501
00:47:49,028 --> 00:47:53,169
Sometimes you'll see this abbreviated in the press as BRI.

502
00:47:53,229 --> 00:47:55,670
And this has been going on for 10 years.

503
00:47:55,670 --> 00:48:04,782
And what they'll do is a slightly different approach than America has used, where they'll
come in and they say, well, you need a new telephone system.

504
00:48:04,782 --> 00:48:06,292
We'll build it for you.

505
00:48:06,292 --> 00:48:10,093
We'll loan you the money and we'll send you the engineers and we'll build it.

506
00:48:10,649 --> 00:48:17,231
and that might be a train system, might be a transportation system, it might be water
systems, any number of things like that.

507
00:48:17,272 --> 00:48:26,815
And the difference with the American system is if they can't pay and sometimes they can't,
then all of a sudden China owns them.

508
00:48:26,815 --> 00:48:29,136
It's called a debt trap.

509
00:48:29,176 --> 00:48:31,413
And what's happening is

510
00:48:31,413 --> 00:48:38,373
The United States is abdicating its position of leadership in the world and pulling back
all this foreign aid.

511
00:48:39,273 --> 00:48:44,253
China has already, we already have instances where they've come in and said, well, we'll
take over that project for you.

512
00:48:44,253 --> 00:48:45,593
The Americans are gone.

513
00:48:45,593 --> 00:48:47,773
You can't trust them.

514
00:48:47,773 --> 00:48:49,713
And we'll take that over.

515
00:48:49,713 --> 00:48:52,233
And so it's kind of a double whammy.

516
00:48:52,233 --> 00:48:57,613
It's kind of like handing the prize to our adversaries.

517
00:48:57,733 --> 00:49:01,557
they were already spending more money around the world than we were.

518
00:49:01,557 --> 00:49:05,437
So it's a real tragedy to me.

519
00:49:05,597 --> 00:49:17,977
And if it was reversed right this minute, we still would have sustained significant damage
because people are not going to trust us.

520
00:49:17,977 --> 00:49:19,825
And the damage to...

521
00:49:19,825 --> 00:49:22,287
Americans is also pretty significant.

522
00:49:22,287 --> 00:49:30,652
We've run a lot of American NGOs, so non-governmental organizations that were helping take
that aid.

523
00:49:30,832 --> 00:49:42,140
And we've got farmers in Iowa with silos full of corn that's rotting and that they've got
debt for doing it.

524
00:49:42,140 --> 00:49:44,341
It's just a mess.

525
00:49:44,637 --> 00:50:06,473
I think one of the funniest things I've heard lately in the last couple of weeks with Musk
was his minions, I'll call them, had found in the USA group that Reuters News Service had

526
00:50:06,473 --> 00:50:10,064
gotten several millions of dollars.

527
00:50:10,864 --> 00:50:13,165
And they made a big deal out of it.

528
00:50:13,285 --> 00:50:14,525
And it was...

529
00:50:15,091 --> 00:50:18,044
picked up and it was reported.

530
00:50:18,686 --> 00:50:26,916
And then after it was dug into, the truth of the matter was it wasn't Reuters News
Service.

531
00:50:27,437 --> 00:50:30,580
It was a company whose name was...

532
00:50:32,489 --> 00:50:34,290
Thompson Reuters, yeah.

533
00:50:34,772 --> 00:50:39,925
Thompson Reuters, Unrelated to the news organization.

534
00:50:39,925 --> 00:50:41,124
unrelated.

535
00:50:42,405 --> 00:50:46,729
So, it's dangerous and.

536
00:50:46,729 --> 00:50:48,600
Well, you're exactly right, Jim.

537
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:52,433
And I have to tell you, Elon Musk doubled down on that.

538
00:50:52,433 --> 00:50:55,766
Just the fact that they corrected him on it, doesn't mean he doesn't keep repeating it.

539
00:50:55,766 --> 00:51:10,447
And they did the same thing with the magazine Politico, which quite frankly is read a lot
by a lot of people in Washington, but the political pro aspect is read by a lot of people

540
00:51:10,447 --> 00:51:12,208
in business.

541
00:51:12,208 --> 00:51:13,609
you know, that...

542
00:51:14,165 --> 00:51:16,116
It's just a ridiculous.

543
00:51:16,116 --> 00:51:21,487
And here's the thing that, that concerns me about Elon Musk.

544
00:51:21,487 --> 00:51:28,989
You know, we, we've always had a strong tradition of, an independent press and media.

545
00:51:29,189 --> 00:51:30,830
We, sometimes we chafe.

546
00:51:30,830 --> 00:51:32,570
We don't like what they say.

547
00:51:33,187 --> 00:51:35,001
you know, there can be arguments.

548
00:51:35,001 --> 00:51:36,891
can be lawsuits about it.

549
00:51:37,041 --> 00:51:43,093
but it's always been independent and we do not have a state media the way that

550
00:51:43,093 --> 00:51:45,513
that Russia or China does.

551
00:51:45,853 --> 00:51:52,233
But now we see that outlets are being persecuted.

552
00:51:54,033 --> 00:52:01,053
be Associated Press, which has been around, I think, almost a hundred years, being thrown
out of the White House.

553
00:52:01,053 --> 00:52:02,733
So there's that aspect of it.

554
00:52:02,733 --> 00:52:12,991
Now you've got somebody close to the president in the Oval Office with him who has access
to over 270 million people.

555
00:52:12,991 --> 00:52:15,222
who respond to him at an incident.

556
00:52:15,403 --> 00:52:19,606
It's not state media, it's state social media.

557
00:52:19,606 --> 00:52:22,148
And it's hard to stand up against that.

558
00:52:22,148 --> 00:52:34,218
he decides to go against somebody, it can have an immediate and disastrous effect and hard
for regular media or any other social media to counter it.

559
00:52:34,218 --> 00:52:43,105
So I see the willingness to repeat untruths and to use scathing

560
00:52:43,377 --> 00:52:52,063
damaging, disparaging epithets on Twitter X is very dangerous.

561
00:52:52,063 --> 00:52:57,426
And I have a very simple thing that everybody can do on that.

562
00:52:57,467 --> 00:53:00,268
Get off X.

563
00:53:00,309 --> 00:53:05,212
I've been off of it for years and you know, it hadn't hurt me a bit.

564
00:53:05,372 --> 00:53:07,914
There are other ways to communicate with folks.

565
00:53:07,914 --> 00:53:12,645
I don't, I mean, I don't personally use Facebook anymore, but you know, I use Facebook.

566
00:53:12,645 --> 00:53:14,646
use something else besides that.

567
00:53:14,646 --> 00:53:24,251
And any platform that is promoting, you know, things that have been proven to not be true
should not be trusted.

568
00:53:24,251 --> 00:53:31,856
And that's, David, I posted something just yesterday called a bearing false witness.

569
00:53:31,856 --> 00:53:39,920
You know, I'm not a theologian or very religious really, but the King James version talks
about bearing false witness.

570
00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:41,421
That's more than just lying.

571
00:53:41,421 --> 00:53:42,153
mean, the,

572
00:53:42,153 --> 00:53:44,254
They could have, they could have said it a different way.

573
00:53:44,254 --> 00:53:45,855
They could have said, don't lie.

574
00:53:46,155 --> 00:53:59,522
but they said, don't bear false witness, which also means accepted, you know, sustain
somebody else lying and silence in the face of somebody lying that hurts our country,

575
00:53:59,522 --> 00:54:04,838
hurts other people should not be sustained and it should be called out to know that's not
right.

576
00:54:04,838 --> 00:54:06,485
That's why it's one reason.

577
00:54:06,655 --> 00:54:12,221
Well, I'm glad that Senator Wicker, they asked him a question that he knew would run afoul
of the president.

578
00:54:12,221 --> 00:54:14,245
He said, no, I don't trust Putin.

579
00:54:15,532 --> 00:54:16,633
Good, thank you.

580
00:54:16,633 --> 00:54:18,555
Thank you for sharing that.

581
00:54:19,036 --> 00:54:23,050
Jim, do you have anything to add as we wind down?

582
00:54:23,591 --> 00:54:28,423
I think we could have another podcast.

583
00:54:28,664 --> 00:54:30,585
There's plenty to talk about.

584
00:54:32,326 --> 00:54:42,191
I mean, we really haven't gotten around to talking about security and some of the things
that are going on nationally.

585
00:54:45,520 --> 00:54:47,021
It's really been a pleasure talking.

586
00:54:47,021 --> 00:54:58,841
and talk about that, one of the things I'm afraid is they've been holding off, but it now
looks like that they're going after our military people in the Department of Defense.

587
00:54:59,401 --> 00:55:14,281
And this is one of the alarming things to me is that somehow or another these folks have
gotten the idea that our federal workforce, and in my particular case, the defense

588
00:55:14,281 --> 00:55:15,923
civilian workforce,

589
00:55:15,923 --> 00:55:23,478
or somehow fat, unnecessary, slothful, unresponsive.

590
00:55:23,478 --> 00:55:28,162
And I would tell you from personal experience, nothing could be further from the truth.

591
00:55:28,162 --> 00:55:33,705
The people that work for our Department of Defense in civilian clothes are dedicated.

592
00:55:33,705 --> 00:55:39,109
They have probably passed up more money going to do something else in civilian world.

593
00:55:39,109 --> 00:55:40,210
Why do they do that?

594
00:55:40,210 --> 00:55:45,383
Because they're doing something that they feel is important, that has meaning to them.

595
00:55:45,569 --> 00:55:55,516
And the other thing is certainly for our people in uniform, but also for our people that
serve in civilian roles.

596
00:55:55,516 --> 00:55:57,657
Sometimes they're not easily replaceable.

597
00:55:57,657 --> 00:55:59,998
Sometimes you have to grow them.

598
00:56:00,099 --> 00:56:10,906
And when you are now dismissing people at the top, so you're getting rid of a lot of
experience up there and you're getting rid of your probationary folks, the new hires.

599
00:56:10,906 --> 00:56:13,708
So you're getting rid of your seed, your seed corn.

600
00:56:16,041 --> 00:56:22,623
you are, they are going to do something that will affect us for a long, long time.

601
00:56:22,784 --> 00:56:31,227
It's not like firing the people who are, you know, experts in bird flu and they say, come
back.

602
00:56:31,227 --> 00:56:37,679
You know, if you're doing that, you're damaging our department defense for now and for
years to come.

603
00:56:38,292 --> 00:56:39,082
Thank you for that.

604
00:56:39,082 --> 00:56:51,898
Thank you for that and and Admiral, please we'd love to have you back and we could spend
it spend more time and As we know what's what's going on today is going to be changed

605
00:56:51,898 --> 00:57:05,656
Tomorrow or going to be worse tomorrow and the months after that so we do appreciate that
To our viewers if you've got any questions comments suggestions or top topics

606
00:57:05,656 --> 00:57:17,581
please send us an email at mshappenings1@gmail.com That's mshappenings and the number one
at gmail.com.

607
00:57:17,581 --> 00:57:29,165
Also at the bottom of your screen, you will see a link to Admiral Barnett's website,
Opinions Aided by Facts.

608
00:57:29,386 --> 00:57:32,207
And that's jamiebarnett76.substacks.com.

609
00:57:35,518 --> 00:57:39,569
Admiral, once again, thank you so much for being with us.

610
00:57:39,569 --> 00:57:43,670
We learned so much about what's going on.

611
00:57:43,670 --> 00:57:48,452
Thank you for your service to our country and thank you for being with us today.

612
00:57:49,272 --> 00:57:52,793
Also, thank you.

613
00:57:52,793 --> 00:58:03,926
And also, one of the things that you know that we say at the close of every podcast, may
we never become indifferent.

614
00:58:04,152 --> 00:58:06,133
to the suffering of others.

615
00:58:06,133 --> 00:58:08,755
So thank you guys, good to see you.

616
00:58:08,755 --> 00:58:13,738
And I'm glad you got the, I got the memo of the blue, blue, blue shirts.

617
00:58:15,332 --> 00:58:17,145
All right, thanks guys.

618
00:58:17,145 --> 00:58:18,285
Thanks.

619
00:58:18,285 --> 00:58:19,605
Have a good one.

620
00:58:19,706 --> 00:58:19,859
you.