What rick sanchez had to say about the media and i think he is right for sure. I do think however that as far as the Mainstream Media goes, probably the best thing going out there is Tucker Carlson on fox news who at t brings up the issue of, are you insane . You want to invade iran . Not perfect by any stretch but at least there is one voice. And often when you switch on that show, youll see a military man standing up and saying, are you crazy . And i think, and i hope, and we should all pray that the err of the president is to finely tuned to fox news when that individual is speaking, because he speaks the truth as someone who has been there and done that. Thats whats so important. He walks the walk, he talks the talk. Im very, very proud for over two years in a row and im sorry, but he is so terrific. Colonel douglas mcgregor. [ applause ] thank you very much. First of all, i really want to express my gratitude to the man who is the reason for us being here today. This man of character and intelligence like virtually no one else, dr. Ron paul. And the good news i think is that his son, the senator, has inherited those attributes. Now, just before i came up here, dr. Paul leaned over after the comment on the double espresso was made and said, i hope youre going to live up to that. Which is kind of frightening. Because David Stockman following that man is sort of like walking down the hillside or running down the hillside of mount sinai behind moses with two more commandments. And by the time rick sanchez was finished, i felt like standing up and yelling, viva sanchez ill do the best i can. First, having covered moses which you always need to mention when you talk politics in this country, i want to talk about the next man after moses. And thats donald trump. And i say that because in all seriousness, i voted for donald trump, i support donald trump, and i will vote for him again and i will try to explain that in the course of my remarks. Now why would i have ever voted for donald trump . Well, first of all, donald trump recognized a series of what i consider to be unambiguous truths that need to be repeated early and often. First, we live in a multipolar world. The socalled unipolar moment which was excluded but by various people in the early 1990s to try to impose americas notions or at least the notions of some people in washington, of what the rest of the world should be like or look like is over. It ended relatively quickly. We dont live in the cold war. We dont have a bipolar world. There are no russian armies massing on the borders of europe ready to invade. There are no chinese armies ready to invade southeast asia. There are no Chinese Forces ready to invade the Korean Peninsula. In fact, the chinese have just spent an enormous amount of money to build a 1100 mile wall between china, its border in manchuria and north korea to prevent millions of starving north koreans from pouring into china for food. So, there are no threats on the scale that youre hearing. Everyone who has spoken this morning is absolutely, totally, and completely correct. So, whats wrong . Why have we not made more progress . Why is this Defense Budget still so large . Well, ladies and gentlemen, part of the problem is, personnel is policy. And the president is surrounded by people who dont agree with him and have successfully persuaded him again and again and again that what he has tried to do should not be done. That what he wants to do is somehow or another wrong. Some going to go over some of the areas and then talk a little bit about some of these obstacles to rationality. Because ultimately what donald trump was doing, and i think of donald trump as the american id, for those of you who have studied freud. He simply blurts out the truth. And, im not sure that even he is aware of just how accurate he is from time to time. He just returned by the way from a trip in northeast asia and while he was there he pointed out. He said, i dont know why we are defending japan. I dont know why we have sources here. Japan is profitable. They can defend themselves. People all over the state house had heart attacks. Immediately, my god, this man is questioning the rationale on something that has existed for years. He has pointed out routinely, 75 years after the end of the second world war, and we have forces not only in northeast asia and europe but all over the middle east. And he is right, and he has said, i think they should come out, and hes correct. But they arent all out. However, there is a good piece of news. That is if you go back to 2010 and you look at not only the distribution of forces around the world, but the numbers, those numbers were up and about 250,000 overseas. Those numbers have fallen dramatically. Those of us who care and are interested think they should fall to zero in most cases but we have to give credit where credit is due. But lets go through the major issues. Because the president now has 14 months. Thats 14 months to execute some very important tasks. Tasks that he set for himself, and tasks that are within his reach. The first is, afghanistan. 1 trillion later, 2300 american dead, thousands of americans whose lives have been ruined one way or another by routine deployments to this worldclass money pit. Its time to leave. Its well overdue. There is nothing in afghanistan of importance to us anymore. There really wasnt much there after the first few months. Any attempt to try to mold this country into something that is simply is not and cannot become has failed. Its analogous to sticking your hand into a bucket of water, then withdrawing it to discover that your impact on the bucket of water is zero. Donald trump can remove our forces from afghanistan with the stroke of a pen. Thats the power he has in foreign and defense policy. He needs to do it. Thats number one. Thats the first task. Number two. Korea. Donald trump had the wisdom to understand after his first initial meeting with president xi from china, to recognize that there was no threat in north korea anymore. President xi was very honest with him and made it abundantly clear that china wants nothing to do with a war in asia. Period. Least of all on the Korean Peninsula which is a dagger pointed at the heart of china. Wants nothing to do with it. And, he said to President Trump, we want peace on the peninsula, and i will support you in that effort. And, President Trump went about doing things in ways that nobody expected. The first thing he did, realizing that north korea was isolated. Isolated from china, and isolated from the help and assistance that china might otherwise provide. He also understood that north korea economically was circling the drain. There is no Gross Domestic Product or Gross National product in north korea. Somebody compared it to ethiopia. Long. Ethiopia is light years ahead. Theres nothing there. The armed forces are in ruins. The latest missiles that this man fired were gifts from mr. Putin. They werent developed in north korea. And they were used to create the illusion. The illusion of some capability. Wisely, donald trump has dismissed these and said, no, this is ridiculous. Theres nothing there. We can reach an agreement. But he did it by first demonstrating that he was actually quite willing to attack north korea. This was not a post, this was not a bluff, this was real. And that had a desired effect because mr. Kim went to beijing. He helped before the emperor and the emperor said, no help from us. Do business with mr. Trump. And so, mr. Kim went to do business with mr. Trump. He went to hanoi to sign an agreement. An agreement that had been carefully studied and previously agreed to that should have been signed. That would have marked the beginning of the dismantling of the nuclear capability. Unfortunately, he was accompanied by individuals who were determined to prevent that from happening and he succeeded. And that set us back but its not over. So, task number two is, first, go to korea and sign an end of war declaration. Thats number one. Now, why do we sign the end of war declaration . We sign it because it is the end of use force on the peninsula to change anything. And if you live in beijing or pyongyang, you have this suspicion that someone may come along in the future and pursue regime change. I wonder why they would worry about that. So, when donald trump signed the agreement and renounces the use of force, that is the critical aspect of the whole deal. Then they know we are finally serious. Then he announces that the operational control of military power on the Korean Peninsula is now president moons. We are no longer treating south korea as a military satellite. As a colony. That south korea is a sovereign state that controls the destiny. When he sees that, theyll be the second most important which means that president moon is now in charge of the destiny of his country, not us. And then he needs to direct the team to sit down with the south koreans and work out a timetable that north korea agrees to for the dismantlement of the Nuclear Capabilities and that each step will be matched by the withdrawal of u. S. Forces from korea. That must happen. There is nothing for those men to do there anymore and there has not been for a long time. And we can repurpose them. Im sure that instead of the Demilitarized Zone which is effectively out of business at this point, theyd be much happier on the texas border and at least would be closer to home and could commute to work. And then finally once these things are accomplished, what President Trump mentioned while he was in japan will come to fruition. Because, you see, japan has been waiting for us to go to china. And when it becomes abundantly clear that we are leaving the career, the chinese know that there is no threat to them any longer. There will be no more march north and into manchuria. There is no threat or gain of which they must defend. And that means there is no rationale for 20,000 marines in okinawa. An island that is smaller than loudoun county, virginia. And we will withdraw from japan. Suddenly, japan, one of the most powerful economic forces in the world will reassert itself as a great power, which it must and needs to in asia for good reasons. Not bad ones. China has already welcomed the japanese into their markets which is being the principal reason for chinese hostility over many, many centuries. There will be no war between japan and china. The japanese invaded it. They know there is no point and theyre not going to repeat that mistake. And, korea, well, president moon is going to have to manage the north to extinction. And everyone in south korea and increasingly knows that the more contact the north and south have, the sooner the north korea will vanish. There will be no war, and it will be over. And that part of the world doesnt need American Military power. In fact, we need to move decisively to demilitarized our relationship with asia. Our relationship needs to be a business relationship. President knows that. He wants to do that. He may or may not have taken the right with the new route. Although i do sign on for his views of that policy and in the past vis vis the economy, but if we are going to have disputes with the chinese, let those be on the business level, the economic level, and put away this nonsense about an aggressive imperial china. It is nonsense, it is wrong, it doesnt exist. China has already adopted the no first use pledge. Thats very important. They dont even mount Nuclear Warheads on their intercontinental or ballistic range missiles. I dont know how much more obvious they can be in terms of their disinterest in going to war. It would be wonderful if President Trump who has privately expressed an interest in announcing no first use would do so and do so jointly with president putin. Then maybe we could get back to some useful arms control, instead of this peerless and stupid course of spending billions on armaments we dont need. Three. Iran. Iran, iran, iran. Iran spends 15 billion annually on its National Defense establishment. Thats about what we spend right now to stand up fully equipped, fully manned, a Carrier Battle Group and equip it with carriers and escorts and submarines. 15 billion. Thats what iran spends annually. Yet, iran has become a sled for military power and military action in the united states. Lets look carefully at what needs to happen. It needs to happen soon. First, in the gulf, we need a new arrangement with iran. We dont need to escort vessels that are really not under threat. We dont need to do anything that would disrupt shipping, especially the movement of idle oil and natural gas from the middle east, from iran, from the persian gulf to china, japan, korea, and other nations that do business with us. That would be a disaster. So we need to begin disengaging our forces in the gulf. But to do that, weve got to sit down and talk with and to the iranians. And its not a question of talking to them. Youre going to have to sit and listen to them. Thats something we dont do. This may come as a real shock in washington, d. C. Iran, like russia, like china, like turkey, like france, actually has legitimate security interest. We need to identify those and once we have identified those and we stipulate very clearly what hours are, we might be able to come to an arrangement. In fact i would go beyond it and say with absolute certainty. We also have 5000 troops sitting in iraq and another 2000 in syria. This is a very hazardous place for them to be below two reasons. First of all, theres always the danger that a third country like israel or saudi arabia or the emirates take action in these areas that is somehow or another mistaken for action by us. And that we end up becoming the target of retaliation. That would then involve us in a regional war that neither we nor iran, or for any matter any sane human being in the world today wants. Theyve got to come out. But before we pull them out, they too have to be part of this discussion. The other problem is that we have forces right now in the path of the turkish army. The turks are not the turks of 30 or 40 years ago. Secular turkey is dead. Mr. Erdogan has been leading a son need that few people have been paying attention to. And unlike iran where the population is 100 is interested in going to war with anybody and ultimately dislikes this government, in turkey, he has the support of millions. And his armed forces are far, far more substantial. He can mobilize and put into the field 2 million men in a very short period of time. And for those of you who have never been in the middle east, i can tell you, the drive from the turkish Syrian Border to the height is a quick one. And if youre planning on using Nuclear Weapons to deter the turks, that becomes extraordinarily difficult when there are 1 million of them sitting across from you. The israelis who have obsessed for so long need to reconsider the assumptions and consider the possibility that as in the past, there could be the commonality of interest with iran that they have neglected. And that turkey, no matter what, is the real existential threat to israel because its already very clear that mr. Erdogan is violently anti christian, hes antijewish, hes antieuropean. Those are facts. Theyre indisputable. That is Something Else we have to take very seriously. And putting 2000 likely armed soldiers in the path of this juggernaut that is only waiting for the opportunity to move into syria is a very dangerous thing. And again, with the stroke of a pen, you can remove them. And if someone tells you you have to keep soldiers in iraq to keep an eye on iran, we should remind the president of our spacebased surveillance and intelligence and reconnaissance right now is second to none. And if we really want to know what the mullet thought last night in bed, we could probably find out although i doubt it would be very interesting. So, it needs to be done quickly, and it needs to be done in secret. In secret, not publicly. Why would you want to do it publicly and give the opportunity to the hundreds and thousands of your enemies all over the beltway, in new york city, in boston, philadelphia, los angeles, or miami to take shots at you . We need to talk quietly in a third country and sort this out. And in the meantime, begin disengaging our forces to ensure there are no accidents. This brings me to number four. It has to happen just about as quickly. Venezuela. You know, when i listened to rick sanchez go down a litany of american misfortunes and stupidities in latin america, i was so excited i almost stood up and went, viva sanchez well, im not ready to do that yet, rick. But, it is time for us to re examine what weve been doing. The president has resisted the use of force in iran. He has resisted the use of force in venezuela. He does not want a war. He is being told that if nothing changes, nothing changes that suits us, he will have to resort to military power to, quote unquote, removed military machine. Heres another solution. These sanctions which are so destructive and debilitating have never changed a resume anywhere. But they have done enormous harm and damage to the populations in many, many countries. That is happening in venezuela. And if we do not lighten up on these sanctions, another 8 Million People will leave that country and there will be no opposition to mr. Maduro that is running the country. That would be a disaster. So the sanctions need to be lifted to the extent that we can to ensure that the population is no longer penalize and punish in venezuela. We need to do the same thing in korea and the same thing in iran. And we may be surprised at the very positive response that we get from these countries, if in fact we do that. Now there is a second problem that mr. Trump is dealing with that doesnt get much attention. And thats the problem with the Senior Officers who command Americas Armed forces. They are products of the last 20 to 30 years of government that has rewarded the wrong kind of behavior and the wrong kind of thinking. Let me tell you, when i was a commander, i kept in my office a little g. I. Joe doll. And i would bring it out periodically for my troops when i talk to them. Especially when i had newcomers. Because i said, its important that you understand what this doll means. If youre like this doll, we dont need you in my squadron. Because i need soldiers who can link and act without orders because when combat comes from personal experience, theres not going to be any thing to protect you in the field. Answer brought out this doll. G. I. Joe could say two words. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So i look at this thing and say, do you see what this thing says . I said, lets see if this doll is anatomically correct. And i would pull down the trousers and id say, no genitalia. And then i would pull off the head. The plastic head. And id say, look at this. No brain. If thats you, we dont want you in the calvary. We want you out of here. The troops loved it. Unfortunately, President Trump doesnt seem to understand that thats what hes got now for four stars. And they got where they are by saying, yes, sir. Yes, sir. Whatever it was it came down. Because anybody else who stood up and said, you know . Occupying a Muslim Country with a western army is a decision for disaster. Thank you very much. You can find employment in the private sector. Or turned around and said, if you occupy this country and you begin banging down doors in your conduct of counterinsurgency, you will cultivate millions of enemies. You may seek employment in the private sector. And so, what you have left our people who have been part of failure after failure and they have been rewarded. Churchill once said, the secret to success was moving from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. Well, there are a lot of four stars out there who are living proof. Thats the problem. Hes got to get rid of them. When he said, how do we persuade people to adopt our way of life . Chairman, what is the secret . He said, shoot one, educate 1 million. He was right. Donald trump doesnt have to remove very many of these people. This is a group of people that always had their fingers in the air. They want to stay on. They want to be promoted. They want jobs in industry. They want to enrich themselves. If the wind changes, theyll change. Donald just needs to fire a few. One who comes to mind is a commander who helped set up the ambush with other people that nearly triggered a war in the persian gulf. That donald trump walked away from. Those things dont happen by accident. You to move hundreds of aircraft, thousands of crew and hundreds of ships into an area by accident. You dont do it unless you are being told to do it. And donald trump did not tell anybody to do it. And then he was walked into the ambush and he said, no. Whoever those people, they need to be fired. What about this admiral down south . Fallon. Or fowler. I think thats his name. He keeps talking about the requirements for a naval blockade. To bring venezuela to its knees. He openly makes these statements. Where are these people from . What would eisenhower have done with these people . What would truman or fdr had done with them . They would have been fired so fast, their heads would have spun right off their bodies. These people are out of control. These people need to be removed. And it needs to get started as soon as possible. Because unless he takes these actions, hes going to find more and more opposition for what he needs and needs to do. Finally i want to talk about the election thats coming. The election is not just about donald trump. This election next year is almost a spiritual battle as someone pointed out to me last night. Because on one side, you have these globalists caught up in the International Finance arena. People that are for open borders. People who are absolutely committed to a continuation of our overseas entanglements. And in addition to that, we have growing ranks of nihilists, marxists, who are committed to the very destruction of the country we live in. On the other side are americans. Donald needs to remember that when he got elected, he was elected by republicans and democrats who voted for him because he was the id. Because he said things nobody else would say. And he said hed do things that nobody else would do. Hes got to get started. Ive given him a list. He needs to do it as soon as possible. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. The last comment i just want to leave you with is, washington and hamilton used to say that Americas Mission in the world is to be its engine of prosperity