¶ Start
Hey, everybody, Welcome to another episode of Eyes on Geopolitics. I am dimitriconn Tacos. I'm here with Jason Lyons Mick mulroy. We're here. Do us a favorite liking, subscribe. If you're listening to us on audio, give it rated five stars, subscribe there as well. And if you want to support the show Patreon dot com, slash the Teamhouse. Mick has a new podcast, of course, The Pub and the Porch Applied Stoicism.
It's great, comes out every Monday. Check it out.
Links are in the description, Jason's links are in the description. Everything and anything you need to know is down in the description or the show notes.
So thank you.
All right, guys, A lot happening as usual. The big news I think it came out on Friday was the National Security Strategy and I dubbed it and I'm gonna trademark this so I'm gonna call it the Love Letter to Putin or Love Letter to Vladimir. Incredible stuff. I'm sure Mick you've mentioned that you've been talking about it since it's been since it came out, So what are your what were your initial your thoughts and then after you started going through. What did you come up with
that anything change? Where are you at with this?
¶ Why this NSS is a historic break & Monroe Doctrine 2.0
Yeah, yeah, I've been totally geeking out. I'm gonna lie about this, not in a good way, but certainly really digging into what this means for the United States and the world, because we are the most consequential nation I think byas of course, but the national security strategy for
the United States impacts essentially the globe. Where to start see change from the last really any national security strategy going back to the end of World War Two, including the national security strategy we drafted in twenty seventeen the first rep administration, which was very much in line with past national security strategies. This is a complete departure in my estimation. So and we could talk about this for three episodes, to be frank, even though it's a you
know what, around thirty pages. The first thing is the reorientation from basically having a major impact globally to a focus that's on the western hemisphere. So what they're calling them Monroe Doctrine two point zero or the Trump corollary. And I'll stop at each section because if not, I'll just be rambling for enough. That is, you know, it's an illusion to the Monroe Doctrine of eighteen twenty. So it's a nineteenth century doctrine where the United States said,
you know, we need to control our backyard. It was predominantly about European powers coming into the Western hemisphere, and we thought that was a challenge to us. Now it is focused mainly on mass migration, so the immigrant the issue of and it's called mass migration, so not just illegal immigration, but of course it's probably mostly illegal context they're using it stopping the flow of narcotics and essentially dominating the Western hemisphere. So it and it took some
quotes from it. So the new National Security Strategy frames US security is beginning at home in our hemisphere where threats now move faster than alliances. So that that says, you know, exactly what I just mentioned that we're focusing on the Western hemisphere, and we're doing so regardless of any kind of cooperative effort. So it's not based on alliances. It's not trying to develop, you know, countries to be trading partners, et cetera. You know, we've get done away
with most of our foreign aid. It is it is trying to force our agenda on the Western hemisphere. We can see that Benezuela right now, right, So I'll stop there because there's a lot more to say about this. But that means, of course, much less emphasis on Europe and we'll get to that. I got that in a whole separate category. Uh, less emphasis in less military power in the Middle East, even after these new security arrangements with Katar and Saudi Arabia and we're running the you know,
ceasefire and Gaza, but less emphasis on that. Africa's barely mentioned. But it's mostly you know, economic opportunities that are valuable to the United States, not not a cohesive like plan to build partnerships and democracies and free market systems and stuff like that. And then into Pacific it's a little bit more emphasis probably Kobe's influence, but also because we still view China as a competitor. Russia, by the way, and the first time ever, is not listed as an
adverse adversary in this but China. It's it's predominant based on economic competitions. But it talks about the need to have a substantial military presence. But of course, if we're going to also signal that we're not going to do things like defend Japan and South Korea and the Philippines
and all these things. Then just having a military force there isn't as consequential as you would think, because if you're sending a clear signal to China like you're not going to invade or we're not going to defend Taiwan, then who cares if we have aircraft carrier striker out there. So I'll stop there, throw it back to you guys. But my first category from this NSS is the Monroe document in two point zero.
Yeah, it's I mean, for lack of a better term, it's going to be a lonely road if we stick with this. And my fear is, how is this going to weaken us as a nation? Because as you said, we are the most consequential nation on earth. I believe that as well. But I mean literally, we're handing this to our allies, our friends, and then turning our backs so here read this, and turning our backs on them.
And I fear where down the road, even if twenty twenty eight and beyond this administration is out of office, that this is going to take years to repair, if at all.
And so that's my big fear. I have founded.
Yeah, I have a couple questions. So how often does the National Security Strategy come out every year?
So we did one for the term of the first and it's usually done once. And that's a good point to make here is so you got the National Security Strategy, which is everything right, so it's diplomacy, economics, obviously, security intelligence, it's it's the big picture. And then from that and that's what Secretary of HEGCEPT is doing at the Reagan Foundation this week or this weekend. He's talking about I don't know if it's completely come up, but the National
Defense Strategy flows from the National Security Strategy. So that's how the military is going to do its part in the national strategy, and then from that the National Military strategy. So that's the that's the actual uniform military saying okay, this is our defense strategy. This is how we're going to carry it out. So that's what gets down to the nuts and bolts. But that's how it flows, and it's usually done.
With all those.
Every four years.
Okay, yeah, somebody, maybe I'm a dummy, but somebody explained to me when the Western hemisphere, outside of illegal immigration, has ever been a place where we have not dominated the area.
So the original Monroe doctrine was concerned about European and that's just not a concern anymore. If anything, now, I think the proponents, and I have to be frank, I know a lot of people that wrote this were involved in it, and they never talk like this before ever, So I don't know what happened there, but I think the proponents of this plan would say that China, Russia, Iran or having especially in places like Venezuela, or having too much of an influence, and it's right in our backyard,
and we got to change that. I don't know why we couldn't, you know, do that as well as still be the leader of the free world, the leader that we're Reagan envisioned, you know, be that champion of democracies. But that's another clear part of this is that we are not It's you know, I have some quotes from it on how we're basically not going to focus on being that chiny city on the hill anymore. That it's going to be, you know, American prosperity as a foundation
of American power. Our policies will prioritize economic returns of our citizens.
Yeah, we're all off for business is what it's saying.
Foreign engagements must demonstrate clear financial benefits to the United States.
¶ From promoting democracy to raw transactional power
Yeah, right, so that says, yeah.
That's that's I mean, I'm not saying that we shouldn't look out for own financial interests, but it has to have a clear benefit or we're not going to take part.
Yeah.
But I feel like the overall national security strategy of the last forty years has been like American interests, right.
Which American interests were believed to also include promoting democracy and civil rights. Yeah, one work growth with from the thing the United States will bozue peace through strengths and advantage, not ideology or moral aspiration. It's hard to believe somebody would put that last three words in a strategy for the our own country, not ideology or moral aspiration. So it's I mean, the issues that people have, and I
think next we should talk about the europe situation. But is it clearly indicates profit over.
Principles?
I guess this is the way I put it, and I don't think the US has ever viewed themselves that way. I think we should put our interest first, right, because I mean, especially our government employees, they work for the people, but our interests should include and my I guess dated view of the world is the promotion of democracies to promotions and visual sibilis free markets. I mean, free markets used to be a core part of conservative political beliefs.
It clearly states in this document that that's not true, at least for this administration. It is tariffs as a means of coercion, which is not which is antithetical to the idea of free markets.
Say yeah, I mean, and then I don't know, I don't think you read that point it says about Africa. The African section says, for far too long, American policy and Africa is focused on providing and later on spreading liberal ideology. So there's that. And then the Latin America one says, they talk about encouraging governments and political parties that broadly align with ours, but we must not overlook governments with different outlooks, with whom.
We have nonetheless shared interests and who want to work with us.
That is a really broad and open door to saying we'll work with the worst of the worst, you know, as long as it gets us what we want. And people can come back and say, well, you guys are Cia. Isn't that what you do? You know you did all the time. Yeah, on a tactical level, Yeah, that's what we did.
But we in.
The furtherance of our democratic policies, you know so, and it was against those bad guys, you know so. Yes, it's not an excuse.
Very good point, Jay, And I think it's clearly stating that they're not so concerned.
I mean, one of the.
Things that aid USAID was supposed to do is help develop the economies of other countries to be trading partners with the United States. It wasn't to keep them in a perpetual state of need, right, But now it's and that's all gone. Now it seems to be our policy in Africa is where is the rare earth minerals? And whoever is in charge of that is now our friend, and we'll work with them for the economic benefit. Now
I get it. I mean, it's easy to sound like a complete ideologue and say, you know, but it's a balance, at least the way I view it. We want to develop countries to be trading partners so that we don't have complete imbalance economically. That's what causes the mass migration, which is the undercurrent of the entire national security strategy. In fact, this is the first one I can remember where its specific talks about, you know, specific policies of
another country like Europe. So Europe is one of the next to the United States, the largest bastionions of democracy, right, and it specifically criticizes Europe challenges the very notion that we're in an alliance with them. It says things like, quote internal governance failures. It says European partners must confront the consequences of uncontrolled migration that's strained cohesion and fuel extremens And they actually use this term and I didn't
write this down, but it's like cultural erature. Oh yeah, right, So it's criticizing Europe, not the countries the despots around the world. Again, we already talked about Russia, who has no legitimacy in its elected leadership and specifically invaded in democracy, has deliberately targeted civilians and stole twenty thousand children. So we're not going to criticize them, but we are going to criticize Europe for its lacks when we're calling lax
migration policies. It also says the United States will not underwrite europe European security and definitely, well, the one thing I've mentioned this before. I mean, Europe should have woken up a long time ago that it needed to defend itself and not just rely on the US umbrella. But now it is crystal clear. It's crystal clear that they're actually challenging the future of NATO, so.
Europe needs to.
If I was European, I would start taking my security entirely in my own hands. I wouldn't rely on anything outside. I would develop a comprehensive, integrated European military and that would be as as strong as anybody else on the planet. That'd be my plan, and we can get into how that would affect Ukraine. But right now I would hope that European leaders are waking up to this. There's no
more neutrality. I'd also throw that out, you know, my beloved homeland and social homeland being part of it is if you're in Europe now, you need to contribute to the overall defense of your coalition. You've got the example of why right next to you waging a war in Europe,
which they've already said this week. Although they don't want to, they're perfectly ready to go to war with Europe, which, if you don't take that as another warning in addition to this national security strategy, you have your head in the sand.
This time of year, the pace doesn't slow down, but you still need to. The calendar's packed, the weather's changing, and your body's reminding you that it's time to rest and reset. That's where ghost bed can help. It's a family run company founded by a team with over twenty years of mattress making expertise. They've spent decades perfecting how to build a bed that's durable, comfortable, and engineered to
help you recover. Every Ghostbed mattress is made with premium materials, proven cooling technology in their exclusive pro Core layer, a targeted support system that reinforces the center of the mattress where your body is the heaviest. It helps to keep your spine aligned and your back supported so you wake up ready to take on what's next. In ghost beds, cooling materials don't just keep you from overheating, they help
regulate your temperature year round. Each mattress comes with one hundred and one night sleep trial and a twenty to twenty five year warranty plus fast free shipping. Most orders arrive in two to five days, so better rest is just around the corner.
Right now.
During ghost beds Holiday Sale, you can get twenty five percent off site wide for a limited time. Just go to ghostbed dot com slash house and use the promo code house at checkout. That's ghostbed dot com slash house promo code house. Upgrade your sleep with ghost bed, the makers of the coolest beds in the world. Some exclusions apply see site for details. And thank you ghost bed for sponsoring the show. Please check out the link down the description and support our sponsor.
It's kind of a wild place to be where you have European leaders doing damage control in terms of we're going to stand for democratic institutions and stuff like that, and America isn't. And whether whatever you believe it or not, like America's imperialists, whatever your view might be, the fact that and Europe's got a lot of problems like any other country, but they're democratic for the most part, right Like they are not China, they're not Russia, they are
not Iran, which are fucking straight up authoritarian. Plus plus plus countries that are up to no fucking good. The only thing they give a shit about is their own regime.
¶ Russia no longer an "adversary" & what that means for Ukraine
Survival has thrown a million plus people into this meat meat grinder in Ukraine, doesn't give a fuck about any of them. And it's like unbelievable that an American administration can come out and do something like this. I mean, the writing has been on the wall since they got in. Let's call it a space of spade like that February meeting in the Oval Office was.
The launching point.
But to actually put it in like hard writing, which is like this is our actual strategy is a fucking joke. And when you come out and the you know, Russian, the Russian government has publicly welcome the shift, saying the new NSS is largely consistent with Moscow's worldview. We should never be consistent with the Kremlin or Moscow's worldview. They're fucking lunatics. Vladimir Putin's a lunatic. That's why I called it love letter to Vladimir, because it's an absolute joke.
And the fact is this, like all this NSS is saying is hey, guys, whoever you are, whether you're an authoritarian, whatever, we're open for business. So we don't give a shit what you guys do, how many people you starve, how many people you kill? We're open for business if it's in our interest in terms money wise, like we're all in. And I don't know if that speaks to whether this is like some light late stage mutant you know, mutated capitalism or what it is, because yeah, free markets, it's
not free. It's it's who fucking controls shit and has the biggest guns, they can make the rules. There's nothing free about this at all.
Make back to you. Sorry I blacked out, Just now I blacked out.
So just a direct comparison. I you know, this is a quote from the twenty seventeen Russia's described as a revisionist power seeking to undermine the US and its allies, and is explicitly labeled as an adversary. I asked our cyble overlords, I e. AI, how was Russia categorized in the twenty twenty five NSS, and its response is Russia is no longer identified as an adversary rival or a
threat category at all. That's what AI when it read it, So that you know, do that at your own peril, right, Russia would love for the US not to be viewed as even an adversary anymore. Yet they're going to do whatever they can to undermine us all around the world. If you go in ben Tonnibal friend of mine, super smart, I used to be at RAND he did a thing.
One of his posts talks about all of the terms used against Russia in the twenty seventeen one and it is what I think most people would think we view Russia. None of it's in there this time. It is a complete shift. So that has to have some consequence. I mean Ukraine should read that and view that they need to basically get Europe more, not only on their side, I think they're obviously on their side, but they need
to be their main advocate. Like there. If we're gonna just send Special Envoy Witkoff with a pro Russia dictated peace plan to go talk to the people who dictated it, it's not gonna amount to anything. It's not going to amount to any ceasefire. It's just a delay and a reason to actually put consequences. So we're not gonna do the secondary sanction bill that has overwhelming support in the Senate.
We're not going to push for releasing the over four hundred billion dollars worth of frozen Russian asset so Ukraine can defend itself. We're not doing these things because Russia agrees to have a meeting next month and then the next month and the next month, even though and they're
in shockingly and not shockingly. Yes, the Russian advances are incremental right now in Ukraine, but the Institute for the Study of War just highlighted that they took more territory in the last four weeks than they did in the previous four.
Weeks, almost two hundred and fifty square miles right exactly.
Was Yeah.
So the other thing that's attached to this, the consequences of this security strategy is when is Europe going to start talking about where's our red line, like a real red line, like are we going to allow them to take keep I'm not saying they're going to I think some of the it's overstated how much. But from Russian perspective, I mean from the European's perspective, when would they be willing, if they will be willing to deploy forces to stop
and advance that consumes Ukraine. And again, I'm not saying
¶ Can Europe still rely on America? NATO, decoupling & rearmament
it's going to happen, but you got to talk about this now, and you gotta start sending clear messages that if you can't come to an agreement. If not, in say hypothetically, Russia takes Ukraine for the rest of history, they will ask RiPP did all these European leaders do as they clutched their pearls and twiddled their fingers as Russia kept taking incrementally over parts of Ukraine until it was too late. And then what if Russia immediately turns and goes after.
Moltova or another or or NATO country. Yeah, we're just gonna clutch our pearls and twiddle our fingers for that.
I mean, I'll bet money that the US wouldn't do shit to be on at this point. I'm gonna be completely honest. I mean, that's the signal that's coming out of the administration. If they went and took over Estonia, which is probably not that difficult to do. It's a tiny country, and God bless them like they're they fucking hate the Russians more than most If they what what we do? Would we actually fucking step Well, I don't even know Europe would sure, but like would we I doubt it?
Well, I mean, if you view the strategy as definitive on the topic, and I would point out we write strategies sometimes and don't do it like we're always talking about pivoting for the Middle.
Age, for example.
It's like it's like a perpetual thing that people in DC talk about. And then I mean, look, look, look how engaged we are in the Middle East right now.
Yeah.
Yeah, but anyway, if.
This is definitive, then the answer to your question would be Europe needs to do it. It is clearly yeah, it's here's some other quotes please, from when I already read that one.
I also think that while you get that, like Europe really needs to decouple, and like I know they have a military industrial base, they should really decouple from the American one and be as self sufficient as humanly possible. I know they do have a really solid one, but you know, our stuff is kind of their back stop too, you know, like from engines to the F thirty five to everything.
I wouldn't trust.
America as an ally gonna be completely if I'm a European country. If I'm Poland, I'm fucking sketched to shit out with with what's going on with America, you know, like I really am.
It's or any any European country. It's like, we can't trust these guys.
And it's it's a funny thing when because everyone's tiptoeing around Trump and everyone's trying to get like a great meeting with Trump. So like the headlines are good the next couple of days, but what is the substantive change that happens after a quote unquote good meeting. Nothing fucking happens. Everything stays the same, And now it's in black and white for europe to see it that they're not us is not coming to their backs, and it's a fucking joke,
to be honest. It's like, what the fuck we spending a trillion dollars a year for in defense? What give me some free healthcare if that's the case. If this is the deal, let's all get free healthcare and not spend a trillion on defense. If we're not gonna fight for or even support uh tyrants invading democratically a democrat democracy. And Ukraine might be corrupt, and I get it, like every other country. We can look in the mirror and look at America.
Yeah, we got a lot of corruption going on the imagery.
Right, But the fact is Lensky was there's a it's a democracy.
Yeah, he was elected leader, and he's actually more popular than it ever was, right, So that'sn't even matter. I mean, it's it's not it's I mean, he was elected leader. Their constitution says they can't have an election in the middle of an invasion.
Right, that makes plus twenty percent of their country's gone. Right, Who does anyone vote there? How does that work?
Like? What are the justs?
And and so we're obsessed about whether Zelenski gets another democratic election and gets re elected when Vladimir Putin hasn't been elected in how many years?
Right?
I mean it's I mean, this is a clear right and wrong.
Right.
Just pointing out there's some corruption apparently that continues in Ukraine is both accurate and irrelevant. I mean, we should do everything we can to make sure the money we provide gets used for the purposes. But there's corruption in the United States. There's Congress people that are both caught, convicted, and pardoned all and you know, a matter of a few years, and we just kind of look the other way.
That has nothing to do with I think. I think in the past the United States has viewed itself as that beacon of democracy and leader of the free world. If you don't want to be the leader of the free world, then it's going to be less free in my estimation, sure, and it's going to leave a vacuum that might not be created by the next champion of freedom and democracy. It might just be overcome by China, who says great, They're they're detaching from the world. They're
focused on the Western hemisphere. We're going to dominate not only the Indo Pacific, but Africa, uh and the Middle East, and in Russia says great, we'll take Europe and we're over here focused on on the Western hemisphere. Again, I think we should probably be paying more attention to the Western hemisphere. It is in our backyard. But I don't think we were coming at it as as benevolent with
benevolent intentions. I think we're coming at it to dominate, right right, right, Yeah, you know it's you know, I call it hemispheric fortification, is what it sounds like.
They want to.
Basically force countries to deal with migration. I'm okay with that, but it's going to be done with military because a national defense strategy they just created. I think a Western hemisphere section of the US Army. Right, So there it all adjusts. Everything adjusts based on the national strategy, the defense strategy, the military strategy, and of course I've always added advocated for having a an appendix to the defense
strategy that's for intelligence, right, especially covert stuff. But either way, it's all going to adjust based on the strategy. That's how it works. So if this is actually carried out, were gonna we're gonna be getting again, uh hemispheric fortification. We're gonna get be going from a more alliance based to a more transactional based world. And we're gonna get away from uh promoting uh democracies, civil rights, et cetera, and more just totally geared toward economic self interest of
the country. And that's probably gonna be for corporations, right, the US corporations. I mean, it's I don't I don't know how necessarily the US taxpayer.
You think it's trickling down to like the middle class, yeah, bull ship gota, Yeah, go ahead.
Sorry, No, I'm just saying they they're I mean, they're not stupid. They throw buzzwords into these into the NSS like prosperity. You know, this is about prosperity, but who is that prosper prosperous for who? You know, the cronies or exactly exactly, but they know along with they also threw in that beloved buzzword d I in there that this is for, you know, to root out DEI. Somebody tell me, and I'm guaranteeing I'm going to get a
text or a message or something. Well, actually tell me where DEI has has been a burden on national security. It's give me one instance where it has. But they know if they throw these these buzzwords in there, you know, prosperity on the positive side and DEI on the negative side, it's gonna number one, it's gonna get people rowed back up. And number two, there are people who already support them. It's going to fortify them. See, this is why he
needs to do this. And going back to what Mickey were saying about Russia and China, in the long run, they can afford to abandon the Western hemisphere. They're whatever they're doing in South America, they can afford to you know, hey, not a problem. You know, America, We're out of here as long as you leave us alone in Europe to do what we want and in the Pacific, you know, to do what we want, they can afford it in the long run.
So that's a huge trade point. That's a massive point. Who wouldn't take that right, like exactly.
Yeah, that's a very good point. People should be looking at that very point, Jake, because I haven't heard it made,
¶ Migration, "cultural erasure" & the immigration reality check
but this could be an offer to like basically just to bide up the world.
Yep. Absolutely, yeah.
And then as far as Europe is concerned, you know, we we just had an incident with them, you know where they certain countries said we're going to stop sharing intel with you as far as visa vise or visa v South America and Central America concern because we don't agree with what you're doing. Well, now let's shift that to Europe. If we cut them off, you know, we still have US citizens that live there, who go vacation there. You know, we still have embassies there, things like that.
So what says that they get somebody gets wind of an impending terror attack or something like that and they decide screw them. You know, they're not you know, US isn't helping us. So we might hold off on this for a little bit until we know for sure it's going to be an attack, you know. So the ripple effect, the butterfly effect of this is going to be far reaching.
It is, it is.
I think we're gonna talking about this for a long time, especially if we see it play out in policy. Yep, Like I mean to go to have this big of a shift in over any president right over the last since nineteen forty seven. Well, like for example, European Europe was a core partner, like the core partner with US on security matters since nineteen forty seven. Right, So this
is a complete departure. So if it's a complete departure, that tells me they intend to do it, right, what's the point of lighting like a very controversial, totally changed perspective even from your first administration, and then not do it.
Yeah?
Right, So yeah, I think it's happening totally, Mick. What's what do you call it? Cultural erasure? That's happening, right, That's what they mentioned in the NSS in terms of like migration from into European countries and our country. Yeah, why don't we just call it what it is and call it white supremacy, bro, That's what the fuck it is. Let's be real, like, oh, they're not Western, They're not
Western European white people that are coming into these countries. Meanwhile, the only fucking reason America is so prosperous because of immigration. Let's call a spade a fucking spade here. The reason why we're so we are so popular and have dominated the world the last eighty years is because of our immigration. I'm a child of an immigrant. My dad came from Greece when he was nine. It's what, because I'm fucking white,
I look white coated, It's all good. A brown guy from fucking Mexico's no bueno, Like this is a joke.
I mean, I mean that's a total Sorry, I haven't getting about coming back on to talk about this on the news and stuff. Yeah, I don't know anybody out there has a different definition of cultural erasure.
Yeah exactly.
I mean you're talking about a culture. You're talking about European culture. People can have you know, if European culture is democracy based on individual civil liberties, human rights, freedom or religion all that stuff. Right, you can come from anywhere be part.
Of that culture.
Right, Look at that, Look at Amica. Right, there is no skin tone requirement.
For that.
So but then they're equating migration, so people coming in from other places to the erasure. So I mean over to somebody else to explain that they're not talking about a racial group, right.
Right, Yeah, it's it's just incredible how this is just plain as day in our faces in an official US government document that is super important, right, the National Security Strategy?
I mean, what what are we doing, bro? What do we do? Like honestly, it's an absolute joke.
¶ Middle East reset, Israel downgrade & shifting U.S. forces
And what is it going to mean? What is it going to mean for actually where the US will push its force around the world?
Does I mean?
Right now? Obviously Europe should be just where economic interest in or that means you know, very limited places in Africa and largely working with people who are dictators. It's Europe, You're on your own. It's Middle East, even though we just made a lot of commitments, it's kind of like stabilize yourself. There's also a lot of talk, you know, I do in Middle Eastern media, there's a lot to talk about a shift from Israel being what was the
term they used, exceptional? That wasn't a term to a partner who needs to deal with its own and stuff. I'm kind of I'm kind of mischaracterizing the way it was turned, but it downgrades Israel is not like the pre eminent relationship with the United Sate now just a partner with requirements, right, So that's going to send chalk
waves in Israel if they read it that way. And the Arab countries that were really tight with we were like, oh, I thought we were doing all these mutual defense agreements and having you guys stage your forces in the Middle East for a reason, you know, like lu Daid for example, and there's Bahrain in the Fifth Leet. I don't know, does that mean we're moving them out? Will that stabilize the region or will it just they'll become an arms race well or on rebuild its strength.
I don't know.
So there's consequences.
I know this is the Middle East, But wasn't there maybe you sent it a story about US troops in Romania.
Got pulled out.
I think yeah, And there was no no announcement, It just happened.
Yes, yes, family members that were there who were being told their last last ones to deploy, right, So you're already seeing the consequences of the strategy. And again, you know I and I half seen. I talked to a lot of European national security types. They are standard. They are like like Germany's society, They're gonna have the baddest army in the best I mean in Germany, I mean in Europe. Right, Poland's kicking button. You're seeing a lot of money go into the military. It's going to take
a little while. And again they shouldn't have been in this situation. They shouldn't have just said, you know, we got you know, a big brother here, so we're just gonna go ahead and spend money on ourselves and let them cover our defense for the last four decades. But they are doing it, and that's good, and I need to do it, and they need to just completely take responsibility for their own security and for the advocacy of our Ukraine.
I think, yeah, if Europe's not ringing alarm bell specifically defense economics wise, where they're just like, let's get we cannot count on America as a defense partner really, from in terms of soldiers and alliances to all the way down to the nuts and bolts literal they're correct.
It specifically says that they because of migration, that European countries are going to become so non European that it challenges our belief in their ability to be in NATO.
It's set. Why don't they just why don't they just goofstep and see Kyle real quick? Why do they do that?
Google that on specific I'll just read. It's thirty three pages and a lot of stuff people don't read because it's just like a thousand pages of stuff. This is not this is not you know, complicated. You could read it in a half an hour. So there's that.
Yeah, great, I was just feeling really really good about what's going on here in the leadership.
Conversations about this. I mean, if there's people that want to defend it, you know, I obviously think we should control migration and it should be on our UH. I do think you know, it talks about having the strongest military. Of course, yes, I agree with that. Every I think every strategy said that. But I mean people that want to support dumping Europe in favor of Russia, go ahead, do it, jump on TV.
You know.
I mean I talked to plenty of Republicans that are elected leaders. None of remember the stuff that's in this UH strategy.
So I mean you even said it to a lot of the people that were authors of this strategy probably seven eight, nine months ago, were not not in favor or not backing what is being said and what they wrote in the strategy. I think it's the same thing applies for most politicians, where they move away and back away from their ideology and what they really believe in because it helps them professionally. Like bottom line, we're all human, I get it, We all like the next wrong on
the ladder. But at some point the rubbers got to meet the road and you got to either be like, am I gonna be a fucking shill?
Or am I going to stand up for what I believe in?
Yeah?
And if you're not standing up for what you believe in, what's the point? Yeah, you might just be staying business.
And right scumbag businessman, yeah, or be a good businessman.
To be saying like it's I you're you're not going to Congress to promote your ideas?
Yeah?
Right, If you're not gonna do that, what's the point. I mean, you're universally disliked politicians are, uh, and you know, for the most part, they're not doing anything. They've become just a punditry and that's not the intent. It is the first branch of government, meaning that it's ourka one right. So yes, and by the way, if you haven't seen The American Revolution by Ken Burns, please do. I'll plug it every time until I think everybody that listens to us has watched it.
It's excellent.
But it really does go through how we developed our system of governance and the legislature, who during the Revolutionary War was essentially running the show, right because there was no president. The Continental Congress was running the show through its General Washington, right, So they're supposed to have a lot more say in everything, especially in matters of war and peace.
Yeah.
No, they are applicating their responsibility completely.
And I'm part of this group called the Vaninburgh Coalition,
which is it's nonpartisan. But the whole point it comes from a quote from Senator Vandenburg that says politics is supposed to stop at the water's hedge, right, So we should have a uniform like national strategy that incorporates, you know, both sides of the political spectrum, because the other thing that could happen here is such such a deviation that it lasts for three years and then somebody else comes in whether it's a more traditional Reagan type Republican or Democrat,
and that's all gone. So everything that we headed down one direction, whether you agreed with the direction or not, is just going to do the drastic back and forth. The way to try to stop that is to have that dialogue potentially in the Foreign Relations committees in the House and Senate, with the White House to talk about, you know, where we should go as a nation, so we have a long term projected strategy that we can actually compete with strategies of China, etc. Who have a
very long view. We don't really have that luxury, but we are making it such that this could be you know, four years from now. Nobody's talking about Monroe two point zero.
Nobody.
Also, I feel like what would help, probably not hurt, is gutting the National Security Council. I feel like that's probably a move that would have help find this sync policy when it comes to specific areas of the world.
That's where it's supposed to be developed. The National NSC, National Council, and then it comes down and then we we at the Pentagon and turn it into defense strategy and the military right, so we'll see within as this comes down, it might already be happening. We'll start seeing force redeployments, maybe maybe closing some diplomatic posts. I mean, that's it's it's a national strategy, so everybody should adjust
to it. So if we say we don't care about X region, then we should have less diplomatic missions there,
¶ Venezuela, Western Hemisphere war footing & closing rant on democracy
less personnel in those missions, less military deployments there, potentially collect less intelligence there. Right, it's all based on the national strategy.
Wild Yeah, I can see totally, like embassies closing in and around Europe. Imagine you know, like all those big money donors who you know, who get the ambassadorships in the cush places.
You're gonna have to look for some other work.
But that probably just becomes, you know, secretary of defense or something, you know, get a bigger job. So I'm being spicy today, guys. I'm sorry, because this national security strives a fucking joke. It's real clear, especially when it comes to Russia, like any Ukraine, what's going on.
It's like.
Not only I mean, I don't understand why we count out everything Russia says and we copy and paste their fucking peace plan.
The fact that we're not outwardly.
And openly fucking with them in any possible way we can, and by whether it's intelligence sharing, weapons, tomahawks. We went from Zelenski's getting tomahawks in August to now like he had a deadline, another bullshit deadline that he wasn't gonna get any intelligence sharing or anything to make this bullshit peace deal by Thanksgiving.
This is as clear as day.
It doesn't matter if you're right, left center, it doesn't matter, like what's going on with Russia. Putin is a dictator, he is invading a democratic country. This should be easy, guys.
You know, I don't know, sending the wrong message, but it's definitely in line with the national security strategy that came out on Thursday night.
Yeah, there you go.
So we'll obviously keep an eye on this. I mean, everything else is skill going on. We're still you know, blowing people up in the Caribbean, which is great and I in my I'm going all in in my opinion, completely illegal. Uh So we're still in a kind of holding powder. When it comes to like strikes on Venezuela inside of Venezuela, we'll see what happens there. Obviously, we're monitoring this as it comes so we'll keep you guys updated. Things are still fucked up around the world, so don't worry.
We'll keep an eye on it. Is anything else you guys want to hit on.
Well, I do think you know, we're gonna have to see what happens in Venezuela because you can't just keep this level of military capacity in the Caribbean.
Yeah, costs a lot, so is it going.
It's clearly aimed towards regime change, right, So you don't need the level of firepower to do the drug interdiction. So we're gonna have to see what comes from it. I mean that's you know, we've seen the reports on the negotiations. I assume my old organizations. Yeah, he's doing that. I don't know, but I'm trying to get him, believe right, that would be great. It'd be great for Venezuela. But who's an come next?
You know?
Yeah, didn't he offer to leave if he would get like him in one hundred of his associates amnesty and stuff like that, and then put in power his vice president until elections were held and we said no to that. Frankly, I don't give a fuck who runs venezuel I'm gonna be completely honest, guys. I think we're just cherry picking a conflict to have and maybe just to highlight and
push the national security strategy. Uh, I'm gonna be completely honest because we're not interdicting many fucking drugs.
Let's be honest.
I can get cocaine really easy around here. So who will we fucking there's no ventanyl coming from Venezuela, so.
Comes from Mexico.
And like you said, like, is this just a regime change? There's no actual Like what are we doing here? This is the reason why we're doing X, Y, and z.
We must be seeing the implementation of the Western Hemisphere part of the national security strategy before the strategy actually came out.
Yeah, yeah, this is it.
So who's next?
Who's who? Who else are we talking?
We're talking about Columbia, apparently Colombia and Mexico.
Right, Mexico, who's a huge trading partner. You know, when we talk about free markets and stuff, there's a reason why things are relatively inexpensive. Relatively inexpensive is because a lot of the stuff and manufacturing happens in Mexico. Right, they are a legitimate partner and I don't know if tearing up their area in terms of a war is really good for their economy. And what will that do with my firm migration in terms of people from Mexico
coming to the America. I don't I'm not an expert, but I feel like it would probably bump it up pretty pretty high. And let's not forget people from South and in Central America are the people who run this fucking economy. They're the backbone of it. Sorry, I'm done, I'm off, I'm off, I'm off. My lefty, my lefty pulpsh. All right, as usual a pleasure. I didn't expect to get so worked up, but mick Wick was a little
worked up, so he got me going. I was feeling mixed vibes and I was like, all right, I'm gonna push it to fuck it. It's ridiculous. This is your life, life Sport, Jason too, right, Andy Millburn, everybody who's on this show, right, this is you guys serve for decades. Not because you guys want to see American power projected everywhere and everything like that. It's because we represent democracy, like it or not, we do. I don't give a shit about the tankies out there who think we're imperialists
all this bullshit. When a dictator invades a democratic country, it's real easy, what what what side you need to stand on? And the fact that the United States administration is not doing that is a fucking joke and it's a disappointment. And it's on American Frankly.
On social media it said American men and women died fighting communism since the end of World War Two and now we're just we're just basically spitting in the face of those people that lost their lives.
Yeah, I remember Russia was a bad guy as of like Wednesday, right, Yeah, Yeah.
It's amazing how they there was nothing even said about Russia in the NSS.
Oh it's in there, but it's it's like, we've got to work to stabilize the region. And yeah, but it's it's not now there's an adversary. It's when they're clearly an adversary, I mean almost jumping up and down, hold up the hands, and I want to be an adversary the United States. They literally I think sometimes you say, what does the United States wants to do in this region? Okay, let's do the opposite.
Yeah, it's literally just to be the villain for us.
And then we got no, you're not, you're not.
And like they fucking went and zapped a bunch of our diplomats and officers, Mark p being one of them. Right, Like they're outwardly and offensively going after our people. It's time for us to start doing that to them. Yeah, we got a peepeewack. They got to get peep whack for lack of a better term. I know that's not high, you know, hi, bro, I think it is. Yeah, all right.
I think said sorry, I think said this a while back.
It's not like if we decide we're gonna go all in with Russia and you know, we're gonna make peace of Russion, everything is great with Russia, that they're all of a sudden gonna say, okay, we're gonna match that, you know, one for one.
No, they're gonna.
Take that and be like you idiots and then established right in the back and go do what it was it they were doing anyway.
Yep.
Absolutely, that's what they've proven over and over and over again.
Yeah, all right, guys, we'll keep an eye on as always. Check out Mixed Podcast, The Pub and the Porch applied stosis and not links and description.
Jason's links are into description.
Andy Millburn to and support the show Patreon, dot com, slash the Teamhouse. You get eyes On, Jill Pocks and the Teamhouse ad free early. You can ask us questions and you can support the show.
So as always, guys, a pleasure, Thank you.
Thanks Jentz, Take care everybody.
Hey, guys, I want to tell all of you today about a new newsletter that we're launching that encompasses both the team House podcast, the eyes On podcast, and the high Side News outlet which I run with Sean Naylor. The newsletter is gonna be once a week. It's going to come into your inbox and you're gonna get the most current podcasts on eyes On and the Teamhouse and
whatever's topical or current on the high Side. So it's another way for us to get the information out to you as social media algorithms are pretty iffy and you never really know what you're gonna get. So this is a once a week email. It'll slide into your inbox and it will have you know the greatest hits of that week.
It's really good man.
Checking it out. The website for it is Teamhouse Podcast dot kit dot com, slash Join, Teamhouse Podcast dot kit dot com slash Join. Uh, you go there and you enter into your email list or you enter your email into the little thing on the website and you're good to go.
And that'll be it.
So we really appreciate your support and I hope you'll consider signing up.
Where's the link?
The link will also be down the description if you're looking for it. There, and that's Teamhouse Podcast, dot Kit, k I, t Kilo India, Tango dot com backslash Join