Barn Talk - Afghanistan: A Veteran's Perspective w/Micah Roberts

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

Welcome To Barn Talk! In today’s episode, we discuss the unfolding chaos in Afghanistan and get a veteran’s perspective on the conflict. SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST ➱https://bit.ly/3a7r3nR SUBSCRIBE TO THIS’LL DO FARM ➱ https://bit.ly/2X8g45c SUBSCRIBE TO BARN TALK CLIPS ➱ https://bit.ly/3BlZnqq ADD US ON: INSTAGRAM ➱ https://bit.ly/3gaobdN TIKTOK ➱ https://bit.ly/3eJfftr ------------------------------- ***PLEASE NOTE*** Barn Talk is a significant break from the typical content viewers have come to expect from This’ll Do Farm. Please be advised that we will be exploring a wide variety of topics (some adult-themed) and our younger viewers (and their parents) should be advised that some topics will be for mature audiences only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of the food we eat and much of the clothing we wear comes from plants and animals that are raised on farms. Farms are different in type, in size, and even in name. Welcome to Barn Talk. What happens at the barn stays at the barn until now. We're going to let it all out for you guys. Today, like every episode, is a special episode. We have a guest on. We've done three different concepts of shows, and today is a guest show. So if you, if you you guys get any value from the show at all, share it out to your coworkers, share it out to your family, share it out to your friends. We're trying to grow this thing. We don't run any ads on the show. So that's kind of your ticket to admission to listen or watch the show.

Drop some questions down below because in two weeks we're going to do another Q&A episode where we'll answer all your guys' questions. So drop them down below. Find us on Instagram. We'll have a poll on there where you can shoot us some questions too. But I'm here with my sidekick, co-host, Other host or both hosts. My dad, Torque. Torque. Torque. Yes.

It's a great day in southeast Iowa. It's a little cooler today. I think we got a hair of rain last night, but not much. My crop is dying or dying rapidly now. So we could use a little rain for the bean crop, I think. I think the corn's pretty well done. We've had it better than a lot of people, though. I told you the other day, we can't really be bitching because there's some people with corn that's just dry as crap.

Yeah. No, we have been, and I feel like our crops are going to be pretty good. But if I wasn't complaining, somebody would repossess my farmer card. There you go. You got to always be. You can always have something. I'll give you the market update, which we're on Friday. So this is the close from Thursday from the cat grain website.

Shout out to cat grain for supplying our information. Before I start, I do want to say one thing. I just thought about this. I want to give a shout out to Jim Eadie from Swineweb. And Jim is one of those guys that we have some kind of funny ideas, and I get going, and sometimes I stop myself and think, boy, you know, people probably think that I'm off my rocker. So Jim's one of those guys that we've kind of had a LinkedIn thread going for quite a while,

and he's one of the few people that if he does think I'm going, crazy he doesn't say so and he's got a good uh swine webb's a good place where like for me when i'm looking for information about you know what's going on in the hog business that's one of the places that i go so anyway i just wanted to any idea on a podcast yeah i've done a i've done a couple of spots with him where you know he needed a talking head to say oh yeah you know what no he's asked me my honest opinion and i've i've got a little podcast for him um just last week probably but Yeah, he's one of those guys that I can talk to that I feel like he is somewhat interested in my point of view. So go check out Swineweb to listen to Dad's podcast.

Yeah, yeah. Or listen to everything that he's got on there. Yeah, and they post our videos on their on their swine TV, I think. So we're on there. In fact, we were ours and the one with Michael Hanson from Barn Talk, which is a friend of, Barn Tools is a sponsor of the YouTube channel. We were both on there at the same time, so we were in good company. Anyway, so markets for the close yesterday, corn was 618, and that's in Muscatine,

but locally, everything's kind of taking a little bit of hit. 595 is about as high as you're going to find anywhere local. I don't know what the clothes is for today, but anyway. Soybeans 1333 at Muscatine and 1306 local. Hogs, we rotated into a new month, so they've dropped. We're $88. I mean, the last time we shot, we were 103 on the futures, but the closest future month is 88. But I think we're in the same pattern.

Weights aren't going up. The slaughter keeps going down. I don't think that we're going to have a problem with demand. Cattle, 124, it just stays where it is. Bitcoin's had a nice run. In fact, I just checked it and right at about $49,000. It's about a hit 50. It's going to go crazy once it past 50.

There's a psychological, there's a psychological ceiling on it at 50. We've stayed in. We've been telling people, time in the market on that. We've stayed in when it went to 30. What was the low on that? Oh, 28. 28, I think. It was down all the way to 28. Now look where it came.

It came all the way back, and it's going to keep going. Well, we hope. we hope we don't have to watch it go to 70 and then watch it go to 20 again. It'd be nice if it finds it. Now, don't listen to me. This isn't financial advice. We always tell you guys this. This is just what I tell myself to make myself feel better about my decision. This isn't financial advice, but if you need help rationalizing poor decisions, we're your guys because we're pros at that. I rationalize so much stuff. It's ridiculous. I'll give you the Ethereum price, $3,200. So all the, all the crypto kind of is running up. you know, Bitcoin's the big dog. But Ethereum had a hard fork or whatever, and they're actually,

the way they're mining system, air quotes mining, the way it works, they're actually burning up part of the supply of Ethereum, which makes it a little more scarce. And that's been driving the price up. Tesla had a good week. They had a bad week, and then they had a good week. and they're back, you know, a week ago we were 700, and then we went way down because the National Highway Transit Safety, Gulog, communist, whatever you want to call it, they opened an investigation because they want to save us from ourselves, and that dropped the price. But then they had their AI day. And I think people kind of shit their pants a little bit with what happened with that. Yeah, I think they did. There was a lot of people that their mind was

blown. Tesla bought. Tesla bought. Yeah, the Tesla. You haven't seen that, I would strongly recommend go check that out. Well, I think that it's pretty insane. I think the takeaway from that was anybody that's valuing Tesla as an automotive company, you shouldn't because, yeah, they make cars, but beyond that. That's a little piece of the pie. Right. They're a technology company just like Apple, and the amount of computing power they have,

1.1 terraflops is what, is what Dojo is going to run. Nobody has that. Google doesn't have that. Nobody's got that. The amount of calculations and the amount of AI that they're going to have at their hands, it's going to be pretty impressive and they're going to do some crazy stuff with it. So anyway, and new to the list, I thought I'd throw square in there. Yeah, nice. I talked about this last podcast. Just throw square in there a little bit. I mean, it's not Tesla, but. So Square, I mean, you've heard us. We're pretty bullish on Square. It's a disruptive technology in the financial business. and that stock hasn't really gone anywhere of late. It's near its high, and it got up 170-something, but it's been floating around 160. So anyway, our guest today, our guest today is Micah Roberts.

And so this episode kind of came together quick because I, like a lot of you, we're all sitting out there, and we've seen the news and we've seen what's going on, and you just got to ask yourself, like, what in the hell is going on with this Afghanistan thing? And Mike is a friend of mine. He's a veteran of both the Iraq and the Afghan war. He's a financial planner, father of four, and arguably he's a better fantasy football commissioner than our real football commissioner.

What's his name? Roger Goodell. Roger Goodell. Yeah. and I'd say so. I think he is. I'm not a big fan of Roger, actually, but I am a fan of Micah.

And he's also a very large man. He's a large man. I was going to make some smart comment about what size a hat he has on, but we'll just leave it. He's an all-around good guy, friend of the show. Welcome Micah.

Welcome to Barn Talk. Yeah, I'm excited to be here. And yeah, it's not arguable. I am a better commissioner. Yes. Yes. And anytime I hear, you know, he's a large,

man. I just like fat jokes. So I appreciate that. This will be a short one. No, I wouldn't call you that. You're fit. You're a fit guy. Swelt. Fluff. There's a little fluff there. Fluffy. Yeah. You're entitled. The dad bod's in. So you're entitled. I'm all over it. Yeah, you're all over it. In the age of entitlement, you're entitled. You've put in your time. You've hiked all over God's green earth carrying how many pounds of crap on your back. You know what? you're entitled to carry a little extra if you want i think everybody's entitled isn't that the thing well we are all entitled but i feel like you're you're legit just a little more just you're legit i'll take that i'll take that yeah i just touch on dad's point a little bit i just think everyone is kind of wondering

you know what the hell's going on and we wanted to really get a veteran's perspective on things because you know they've seen things that we haven't and they've you know lived it more than we've than we've ever lived it so i think it's really important that people should hear this message Well, let's get a little background. So people, tell us a little bit about yourself and like how you decided you wanted to get in, what branch of service you were in. Just kind of give us your backstory of how you got involved. I'm going to have a little bit of an icebreaker.

Ooh. Well, you do have a, any time you have a veteran around, there's got to be a little bit of. Yeah, you just go ahead and ask me whenever you want one. It could be Pepsi. It could be. I'm not saying it is. Totally Pepsi, folks. So yeah, you know, I, I, man, there's a lot of, there's a lot of, you know, different factors, I think that went into, went into me making that decision to join up.

You know, as a kid, it was, you know, G.I. Joe's and playing war with my buddies. That's, that's all I did, you know, between castrate and pigs and docking sheep tails. but, you know, my dad being a Vietnam veteran, you know, a little bit of that, you know, make dad proud kind of thing. I was, I was old, relatively speaking, when I joined. I was 24. So, you know, out of high school, been to college, ran a little bit of a business in Tennessee. Didn't do very well.

Still? Did you have a still? Wow. No, actually, I did, I did window washing. Nice. So it was through it. I was a subcontractor through another company, but at one point I had every Starbucks in the state of Tennessee. Wow.

So you'd go and you'd power wash their drive-through and wash the windows. And that company, they ended up losing their national contract. And anyway. So, but really, you know, not to get, nobody wants my entire life story. But I don't even want to hear it. But really kind of ended up in a, I guess I'd say just a really dark place. You know, that business has kind of gone, gone away. And I wasn't, you know, I had this plan growing up of what I was going to do and what I was going to be.

And it all just kind of fell apart. So, you know, at that point, it was a, you know, where am I going to find purpose? where am I going to find, you know, my why kind of thing? And I think what pushed me over the, you know, at that point, I moved back to Iowa. I think what pushed me over the edge was I went to Dan Sessker's funeral. So Sergeant Sessker, he was in my brother's unit at the time. And he got attached to, I don't remember if Alpha Troop or Charlie Troop. Anyway, he got attached and went to Iraq in 2000.

and six, um, and, uh, died in a IED explosion. So I went to his funeral and it was kind of a, you know, um,

man, I don't know how you put that. It's like a, like a, I don't know, come to Jesus kind of moment. Yeah. Of,

you know, at that point, I'm like, if I'm not doing anything, this is going to sound weird, but it was like, if I'm not doing anything of a value with my life at that point, then I either need to find that value.

you or find that purpose or at least let my death mean something if that was to be the case. So that kind of pushed me over the edge as far as, as far as, you know, joining. And I don't know, you know, I imagine you ask 100, you know, 100 different veterans why they joined. You get 100 different answers. Sure. I tend to believe that it comes down to finding that purpose. You know, because I think, I think, you know, a lot of times you get that whole elitist mindset of, well, it's because they didn't have options or because they were poor and middle class or because blah, blah, blah, not smart enough to go to college, that kind of thing, which is complete BS. But I think it's just, it's a way for a lot of young men and women to find purpose.

you know and be attached to something bigger than yourself. And I think that's so important, I think especially in today's society. Yeah, and I think we've got a bigger problem in that today than even. So that would have been what year 2006. I think nothing's changed. If anything, I feel like that there's more people today that don't feel like they have. Like they're all looking.

looking for something. Looking for some purpose. Yeah. I'd agree. And I mean, I have some buddies that joined up. My buddies Thomas and Sean Zimmer, they're good guys. Their dad was in the military. And I think it was that kind of same thing.

They were looking for something more than themselves. And their dad did it. And they've enjoyed it so far. And they're exactly the kind of people that I want in the military. I sleep better at night knowing that those two are in the military. because I know that they'll do what needs to be done. That's right. Not everybody's like that.

Not everybody's like that. And with that, I think with that purpose, you know, it's like, you know, when we look at, especially with the rise of social media,

where everything is so inwardly focused and everything's me and everything's what I need and what I want. Or that person has this and I don't, therefore they're evil. That whole kind of thing, it's like everything is so me focused. It goes from, there's social media, you get into churches,

you get into where everything is just, how does this help me? And so when you find that purpose or attach yourself to something bigger, um, and then, and then you leave the military. I think that's where we're seeing,

I think a big part of it is those 22 suicides a day. Yeah. Of, it's because now that purpose is gone. Yep. Um, you know, it's not always, it's not that this doesn't play a factor,

but it's not always the, because of what I've seen or what I've done or, et cetera, et cetera. I think a lot of it is just now what? You don't have, you don't have that, you don't have that purpose to fill the void.

Like there's a void there. Right. Yeah. I mean, not for everybody, but yeah. And that's, when you've,

when you've lived and breathed it and you've had that camaraderie and you've had a singular focus, everybody's got a singular focus. And I mean, that's one of the most, like, I bet,

I don't know, I bet that's one of the most fulfilling duties that you could do to have a purpose. Like, there's nothing probably that could top that. I mean, I feel pretty fulfilled being a farmer. But serving the country and doing your duty, that's the highest, highest you can be as far as feeling fulfilled, I think. I mean, I wasn't in it, but that's what I see from the outside anyway. I don't even know if you realize it when you're in, you know. You probably more so a little bit because you were a little older.

I feel like a lot of guys that go in that are right out of high school or, you know, you're just, you're just soaking it all in and you, you haven't had the time to, I think that this goes with a lot of things, but, you know, we talk about it on here, the ability to look backwards. Once you've lived long enough that you can look backwards a little bit, I mean, that's, it's, yeah, you can make a lot of, you can make a lot of realizations. Yeah, right. you're wise yeah you can kind of see things that you didn't see when you're in it so I bet being the age that you were you maybe were a little more aware yeah I think so I think so you know I was already the old guy you know you have officers and you know NCOs that are younger than you you know and it just it's a it's a it's a it was an interesting dynamic that's for sure but yeah and so I think that that that you know that really is what drove me to make you know to to get

was, you know, let me find that purpose. Let me, you know, and again, I think, I think my dad played a bigger role in that than maybe I even realize, or he even knows. He never pushed it. Right. You know, I mean, I think his time in Vietnam, I mean, you want to, you know, the thing that those, what those guys went through, it's just incredible. Yep.

You know, and I think, you know, in their transition home, I mean, there was no welcome home. They're a welcome home. Yeah. You know, you're getting spit on in the airport and like it's like it's their fault. It's like, you know, the government's going to screw things up, but it's your fault that they did. Yeah. That doesn't really. No.

Yeah, that was for sure. What branch and what unit were you a part of? Yeah. So all of that being said, and I joined the National Guard. So there's a story to that, though. So my brother was in the Guard and he was a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army. And I knew through the grapevine and through some of the things that he was aware of that that unit that I joined was deploying. And so I joined in 2006, went to OSET, which is your basic training, AIT.

It was all put together 17 weeks, the school of Hard Knocks. So Fort Knox. And so I knew they were deployed. You wanted to know that you were going to go. You know, and that, let's see, we left in 2007, so a little less than a year after I joined. And in an odd way, I think Afghanistan, the next deployment was just kind of a bonus in a weird way. I know that sounds messed up. So, yeah, Army, 113th Cav out of Des Moines.

What was your kind of like your specialty? Like what? was that major pain killin's my business and business so I was a cavalry scout so in a linear I guess in a linear battlefield

or a normal war you know our job would be to scout for the armored division or for the tanks you know so you you kind of snoop and poop you know get up and find the enemy you'll make sure you know there's even things like your radius of a curve things like that that we had to know as far as getting tanks to where they needed to be to engage the enemy.

So that was our specialty. It was like infantry only better because we knew a lot more, which, of course, that's the case. Yeah, right. Exactly. I got to throw a little shade. No, that's okay. Well, here's a question that you can throw a lot of shade at. What's the best branch in the military? Well, and what's, if you don't mind answering, What's the worst quote on quote or one that you're a little like, those guys don't do as much? What's the branch that's least respected in the military among military people?

Oh, yeah, that's a good question. I mean, the Coast Guard's got to be the best, right? I mean, I don't even know what they do. That's true. I guess they guard the coast. I guess that's kind of in the name. I thought they just fished. Well, that's part of it.

What are you going to do when you're sitting out there? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I'd well do a little fishing while you're out there. I think probably the least respected is probably the Air Force. That's not that. I knew you were going to say that. You know, and I think part of it is, unless you're a par rescue jumper, that's a whole

another. Right. Those guys are nuts. Yeah. I think part of it is because, you know, they go to their training and it's like their tents are air conditioned. And it's like, what? the chair force, right?

There's no rough in it there. I think the most respected is probably the Marine Corps. Yeah. You know, just from their combat abilities, the training that they go through. They're not real bright, but they get stuff done. Well, and they get sent. They get sent everywhere.

Yeah, right. Yeah, the Air Force, they're so funny because... You got a good story about this. Well, so a friend of mine, so... And he's not going to care if I use his name. So Aaron Hoffert. Yeah, yeah. So Aaron always would tell the story about when they were getting ready to deploy,

they went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. And every morning they would get up, or not every morning, but when they had to do their live fire, they would get up and they would road march, however far it was, out to where they had this obstacle course set up, where they had to work through it. And on their way out there, these tour buses would pass them. And the first day that they went, they're like,

what the hell is a tour bus doing out here in the middle of no way? And they get there, and here is all these Air Force guys that had to do this before they went over, and they're all sitting on the bus, naping. Some of them are watching cartoons on the TVs, and it's early morning, so it's 45, 50 degrees. They're all out there cold, huddled up, you know, and then they run, they run their simulation, and they come back, and the Air Force guys, they get off, they give them all their stuff, they run it, they come back, get back on the bus, start the bus up, you know. And he said, and then he always talks about when he was deployed in Iraq, that he,

they were in a transportation group where they were hauling all kinds of stuff. And anyway, they went to, they had to haul stuff into Saddam's Palace, what next close to, maybe it's close to the airport. I don't, I guess I can't remember exactly. Camp victory, probably. Anyway, but it was the Air Force base. And they pull in there and they're like, there's guys playing tennis.

You know, because it was this lavish deal. And there's all these Air Force guys that they're sitting by the pool kicking it up. And he goes, that's when it really hit home that I was in the wrong, the wrong branch. But anyway. Yeah,

and I think it's, I think they're hated because we're all just jealous. Well, and that's what he said. It's like it's like, you know, you get their, their foods better.

their facilities are better. They don't actually have to do things that are hard. Physically, most of the time. They're mentally, they're mentally sharp individuals. My dad was an Air Force. Yes, they are. Army Air Corps, a lot of respect for the Air Force.

And, you know, they have to be, so they're responsible for some very expensive equipment. And they do, yeah, I mean, it's just fun to dig on everybody. Yeah, I'll throw a caveat on that. I mean, I think, I think anybody, who, who, there's a certain amount of respect, I think, Ode, you know, anybody who, who puts on that uniform, you know, whatever branch it is, you know, they're doing their duty,

they're doing their job. We can't do it without everybody. You know, we always, you know, like, as a cavalryman or the Cavs Scout with our black Stetsons and our spurs, we're going to make fun of everybody because nobody's as good as us. Right. Right. particularly particularly i can't even talk i think my my tongue is actually growing as i get older it's like it doesn't fit in my mouth anymore anyway um but especially infantry yeah because they

think they're they're they're they're they're underrated no they think they're overrated well they are overrated they think they're underrated yeah so from the time you joined up you said you had what about 17 weeks of like back-to-back training. And then once you got through that, how long did it take before you got deployed? I got out of training. I want to say it was late November, early December, 2006, and we deployed July, June, June or July 2007. Okay. So seven months, eight months. How long of a process is it to get over there? So we, you always have your, especially for the guard, but you have your pre-mobe. And so really out of your 12-month deployment,

almost, man, was it two months, I guess it is, where you go and you pre-mobe. So you try to fit in all the training that the regular or full-time Army does. You try to fit all that in in like a two, you know, two-and-a-half-month period. So it takes, you know, by the time you actually deploy to where you're actually boots on the ground,

you know, two-and-half months, or so. So you got over there in July? Yeah, July, August, 2007. Is that a, is that a, a beautiful in Iraq, 2007. Beautiful time to get over there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's glorious. So what, it's a dry heat, though. Right. I figured that was coming. So what, what were your impressions? Like, when you got there? What was your first? What the fuck did I get myself into? Yeah, like, when did that hit you? And you're like, oh, boy. Or did it? You know, it really. It really didn't. Like, I don't think I, I don't know if it was just maybe because I was older or whatnot,

but I really didn't get into that place. It was like, oh, man, I made a huge mistake. You know, because it's, it's, I guess I just resolved myself to, this is what I chose to do. This is what I wanted to do. This is exactly where I wanted to be. Right. At that point. So I never really had that, that moment.

There were some moments of the hell are you doing. You know. but not so much the it's a very good narcissistic answer there a little bit um yeah not everybody's cut out for that no that's true there's there's not cut out for it so but yeah there's there's some there's some stories there but culture wise so you get so where did you end up at close to bagdad is that is that right yeah so we went so our our deployment to iraq we didn't do anything that we were actually trained to do or what our actual job or specialty was. We were tasked with personal security for dignitaries.

Which seems like an MP job to me, military police, but somehow we got it. And so, you know, if anybody from, you know, the chairman of the joint chiefs at that point, Admiral Mullen, Condoleezza Rice, you know, Secretary of State, John McCain, you know, those types of people would come over. than we'd be tasked with their security. So we did a lot of, which was really neat, you know, we did a lot of joint missions with like State Department Blackwater.

When we first got, when we first got to Iraq, we spent a week, maybe two weeks with Blackwater as they trained us on those different, you know, because that's what they did. That's what they were contracted to do. And, you know, they're all former spec ops guys and seals.

and man, high speed. That's cool. High speed. Man, that'll humble you. You know, especially for, when you come out of basic training IT, you think you're your Superman, you know, Rambo. Yeah. You know, that doesn't really wear off for a while.

It wore off pretty quick. Working with those guys. I was like, I don't even know what I'm doing. This is absurd. That's crazy. So maybe that would be the, what did I get myself into? Sure. But learned a lot from them.

I ran some joint missions with them, like I said. So that was a neat experience. And I got to meet a bunch of people and drive them around. We had our up armored Humveys, obviously, but then we had the up armored SUVs. So we'd go from like Camp Victory to the green zone where the embassy was. Really compared to Afghanistan, pretty cush. You know, we actually, we did have the.

air conditioning in our huge is. Yeah, right. So I can't throw, can't make for the Air Force too much. When you were over there, did you have much exposure to the, I would say, the citizenry that weren't,

I guess, hostile, as far as, like, the culture goes. Yeah, yeah, a little bit, you know, especially around the green zone because that was supposed to be, you know, kind of your safe, your safe zone. You know, in Iraqis,

and just my opinion, my impression, they were a lot more, I guess, westernized than what we found in Afghanistan. You know, I think the average person there wanted to run their business, make some money, take care of their family. You know, we didn't get into a lot of the rural areas in Iraq, so I can't speak that. We were mostly in urban centers, which I'm sure makes a difference. but, you know, it seemed like they were just a lot more willing to, you know, we just want to move forward.

And which was, I think, a little bit different than what Afghanistan was. So you were there, 12-month deployment. You get back. Then what happens? Yeah. So, oh, I was a dad all of a sudden. So when I left, well, and this is a, when I left for Iraq, I was essentially, I had a girlfriend.

Yep. But I was essentially single on my own. I come back and, well, she'd gotten pregnant before I left. Yeah. Just in case it's there. That makes a relationship a little stronger. A little bit. So my, my, Keeley, she was, she's 13 now.

So she was born November 2007. And I remember I was on the phone, you know, hearing the first cry, that kind of thing. She was two months old when I met her, came home on leave. So I came home to like a whole different world. Dynamic. You know, my wife or girlfriend at the time, but my wife had a daughter from a previous relationship, which I've since adopted, which is pretty awesome. But we're taking her to college next week.

that's how fast time goes so so it's just a different dynamic so it came back you know because it was guard then it's like well go get a job I actually did did road construction for a while

I've done a little bit of everything that's why you're so well-rounded is that another fat joke I knew it I knew that was coming so so yeah that was a little bit different

I actually went to I put myself through the police academy in Des Moines. So that was another 16, 18 weeks that I was gone. Out of the six years that I was in the National Guard, I think I was gone about four of them, total through different trainings.

And some of it was my own doing that kind of thing. So yeah, I worked some road construction. Yeah, so you did that. You went to the Police Academy. So were you essentially, so you stayed in, you didn't get out, you still were, you still were in the guard. And so then that unit came up to get deployed again.

Yep. To go to Afghanistan this time. Yep. Yep. So that would have been 2010. So what did you think when that call came? Were you like, okay? Were you ready to like jump back into that?

Or were you like, I have a kid? Yeah. Well, I guess did you feel like, did you feel like once you'd been and gotten back, did you kind of like check that off the list? And did you think you were going to get redeployed? No, not initially. Yeah. You know, like I said, I mean, I knew we were going to go to Iraq when I joined.

But yeah, and so Afghanistan wasn't even on my, wasn't on my radar. And in between, so we got back 2008 when we got back. Yeah. And 2010 were deployed. I had another kid. Yeah. So now I'm, now I've got three, right? Wow.

And so it was a little different just because it was harder. Well, yeah, you're more attachments. You know, now flip side is I missed a lot of the infancy stage with my kids. So, you know, I'm always like, you know, new parents. I'm like, this is easy. I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, but if you have a 13 year old, you're getting it paid back now because I bet you, I bet you are really smart.

So I just remember when my kids hit that about 13, 14. Boy, the torque curve. You just be glad. You just be glad you didn't have any daughters. I am thankful of that. He's got a, he's got a 13-year-old daughter, right? 18 and 13. 18 and 13.

Yeah. And an 8-year-old daughter. He's got a badge. He's got a badge. That son, he's going to have it made because you're going to be like, son, your problem's pale and camarisome. He's got a badge bigger than yours because daughters, I've heard. I'm no parent, but I've heard.

You better have some patience. I'm trying to think if they're going to listen to this or not. No, they're great. They're absolutely great. No, they all are. However, there's some struggles there. Anyway, so yeah, it was a little harder, you know, that second deployment leave. And I think it was harder on my wife.

You know, I don't think the spouse is the ones who stay home. Because it's a whole different experience there because, you know, their life stays the same. minus you. To help. Whereas you're out, you're focused on what you're doing and, you know, you don't,

at least for me, it's not that you don't think about home. It's not that you don't miss it, but it's kind of in the background. Right. And so it's, what they go through. Yeah,

because you have your job that you're singularly focused on. You're not worried about if the car breaks down, the water heater breaks, the kids get sick, I got to go to work, babysitter doesn't, show up, or grandma can't watch, all that stuff that you have to do, you don't have anybody to do it.

Nobody to help. And I would say, too, you know, really I'm fortunate because she never, she never bothered me with those things because she knew I couldn't do anything about it anyway. You know, we were, we were fortunate to have people around that would help her take care of those things and, you know, my family and and church communities, things like that. but, you know, so I would say if there's anybody who's thinking about being a military spouse and your spouse is deployed, don't, don't bother them with that stuff. Because that's just a whole, A, it's a distraction. It adds to the stress level. And they can't do anything about it.

Right. Yeah. It probably makes you feel, makes you feel a little guilty being there while you're putting the complaint, you know, not complaints, but putting those responsibilities on him. talking about it. And it's like, well, or her or whatever, you know. Right, right. It's like you've got to be focused here.

Yeah, so pretty fortunate. But yeah, it was certainly different the second time around. When, when that call came in, you were going to get deployed, what was the, what was the sediment among the guys that you were with? Is in other words, what did you all think about what was going on in Afghanistan? Like, what was your feelings about it? Honestly, I think, I think a lot of it was a little bit of excitement. to go again.

Yep. You know, one thing about, and I know I'm generalizing a little bit, but one thing about soldiers is the politics of it, you really don't think about it. No. You know, and it's like I don't,

when I left for Afghanistan, I didn't really care at all of why. Right? this is what I'm going to go do because this is what I do it wasn't I can't wait to be a freedom fighter for these people or you know let's let's get them you know maybe they'll become a democracy or

you know I'll care about that I care about I want to know that I'm doing my job well I'm doing my country well yeah and my and my buddies are coming home yep and that's really when you're when you're when you're there all of that goes out the window and it's it's it's it's it's the guy next to me. Yep.

And that's what matters. Same kind of, same kind of ramp up. Did you have like two months of training to get you up to speed and what you were supposed to be doing over there or did they? Yeah. So I don't know how I'm still married. Because I was like, well, you know, we're doing all this pre-mobilization stuff in Des Moines, you know, before we actually go to the same thing.

You go for the two and a half months. But there's a bunch of to do before that. I was like, I'll do that. So I spent my weeks from February 2010 until we deployed. I spent my weeks in Des Moines, just come home on the weekend. I don't know. She's a trooper. She is a trooper.

My lord. So I'm going to have to buy her some tour after this or something. So did that just at the unit there in Des Moines, you know, help get things ready and and whatnot. Then we went, we went to NTC, so National Training Center in, I don't know, somewhere in California,

for two weeks, you know, kind of desert training, that kind of thing. So, but ultimately it was about two and a half months and then before we were boots on the ground. So when you got, when you get to, when you get to Afghanistan, you'd been in Iraq,

I guess, did you feel like, when you, did you think that it was going to be a similar experience? Or did you know that this is a totally different culture and terrain and all that? Yeah, culture-wise, you know, and they do a good job. Military does a fairly good job. Trying to prepare you a little bit for the culture and, you know, there's different dialects, different customs, different, you know,

you don't want to offend anyone. Right. So, yeah, I think there was an expectation that was going to be a little different It was a completely different mission from what we had in Iraq. We had our own battle space. You're responsible for this chunk. This chunk of land. So there was a different expectation there.

I think I was a little surprised, you know, and I guess it's just my naivety. But did I say that right? Naivity? Don't ask. I was right. I'll go with that. Yeah. So I think you put all around, you said all around smart guy.

and I'm proving that wrong here. But so, you know, the people there, the culture there, I think are completely different than what we found in Iraq. You know, they're still living in mud huts. And it's like tribal. Yeah, very. And yeah, certainly a different. Not a lot of people don't travel a lot. In other words, like if you're born here, you don't decide.

I'm going to pick up and move over here. Right. You stay. You've been there for however many generations. And your dad was your 5X, grandpa was a goat herder and you're going to be a goat herder too. Or you're going to make clay pots or you're going to do. I don't know what they do.

Yeah. Your fifth generation there. Your goats are fifth generation. You know, it's all just a generational thing. So I didn't realize until I started looking into it a little bit. Afghanistan, the constants of its existence is other people coming in trying to fix it. And I didn't realize

how many people had tried to fix it. I mean, I remember the Russians, I remember the Russians toiling away in there for, I don't know how many years and finally given up, which we were encouraging, we were, the U.S. was meddling in that big time because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But I didn't know that the British had been in there. I think the Turks might have been in there at one point. So I guess I don't know why. Why is that, like what is it about that country that makes it to where, for one, I don't know why everybody wants to go in there other than, other than a lot of bad people apparently came out of there. I mean, the narrative that, the narrative that everybody was spoon fed, I mean, 9-11 happens. And we're in America, we want to fix

things and somebody's got to answer for all this and i'm not really i'm not really pointing fingers at everybody because i think everybody felt the same way i think we were probably about the most united as a country in thought it as we have been in my in my generation yeah i mean i'll just say my generation i think no one should stand up and talk about they're really they're kind of i mean you can have an opinion but you didn't live that time where that did happen and people seem to forget, I think that that's why we went over there. I mean, we were so united and that is the reason why we went over there. You weren't there. You didn't feel a camaraderie of America. The narrative was we're going to go to Afghanistan because we're going to stop those people there so we don't have to

have that fight here. That was the long and short of it. Yeah. But when you get over there, and you may not be able to speak to this because like you said, when you're singularly focused on your mission, there's not much time to think about the why and the why and the political this and that. But did you get a feeling? I guess what was your feeling while you were there doing your mission as is this thing? Is this? Can we complete this mission? You know, I don't know how much while you're there, but certainly a lot of time to think about it after. Yeah. No, would be the short answer, in my opinion. All right.

Hit the button. Right. That's it. You know, I don't, like, what was the, to me, it's what was the end goal? Yeah, I still don't know. Right. You know, is it, is it not to take their natural resources or we would have done that. Right.

You know, it's like the whole war for oil thing in Iraq. Well, maybe, maybe a part of it, but we didn't take it. Yeah. Like if we're going to, if we're going to go in there and take over a country, at least take their stuff. Right. If that's, if that is supposedly the reason or the, you know, the conspiratorial reason, right? Right. You know, so, so no.

You know, when you have people, I think the reason why, why it's an empire killer, right? Yeah. Afghanistan is these people, when it takes, what we talked about like the generations and the, you know, they've been there forever. and they don't look at time, I don't think, the same way that we do. It's a long game. It's like, well, yeah, I might not be able to get you out of my country, so to speak, but my grandkids will, and that we'll just work towards that. It's not everything is, the time frame is so, so extended.

You know, like the Taliban sat fairly quiet, right, for what, 20 years? Yeah, right. And as soon as it was time, all right. right here we go yeah so it's no i don't i think the the outcome that we're seeing as far as the taliban regaining control that was always going to happen whether we left within the first year or whether we left 15 years from now it's this it's going to same outcome um which is unfortunate right you know in retrospect you know you go in there we toppled their government what three months with, I don't know, 30 spec ops guys or whatever it was.

You know, if we want to send a message to where, you know, if you're going to punch us in the face, you know, be prepared. Right. Great. But why do we stay? Yeah. Right. I think that's a really good point.

You brought up with time. I listened to a podcast the other day and they said that, you know, China, Middle East, other countries have such a different outlook on time than we do as Americans. We're so short-term thinking and we elect new people every four years. It's just like we all, and you brought up a really good point in the last podcast. You know, you elect people and then they want to make change right away because they feel obligated to do so when maybe they don't need to make change. But that's their job.

So they think, I got to do, I got to pass some stuff. Yeah. Well, they over there... It's generational. It's generational. And you think, I mean, China, you look at China, it's like, they ethically don't care really what they're doing. They just, they know they want to take over.

They want to accomplish something. They have a goal in mind. They don't care how long it takes they're going to go for it. And they don't care about the short-term things of it. And I think it's the same thing with the Middle East. I mean, they... China's true to a point. The thing that I think most people don't,

I won't get off very far. but the thing that most people don't realize about China, and there's a guy named, well, I'm going to slaughter his name, but I think his name is Peter Zion. I think his name is pronounced Zion, maybe. I can't remember. Anyway, he's got a series of books out. He's actually from Iowa.

I'd love to get him on here, but he's a huge, he's a student of history, but he's also a big student. of demographics and geography. And I think what a lot of people don't realize about China is when we think of China, we think of the Chinese people and we think that they are all the same. And they are not. There's like 35 different ethnic groups within China.

And the whole country is ruled by one. And their number one priority. The reason you could say that, well, they don't really care, you know, they're not real big on worker safety and everybody's a number and, you know, if you, we're going to control population or this or that. But that's true to a point. But their number one priority above everything else is that the ruling minority stays the ruling minority. And the reason they're so big on all of the technology as far as keeping track of everybody and the money supply and all that and keeping the money within China is to keep them in power. But you're right, they do. They think generationally.

And the Middle East, that's why if they didn't think generationally, they wouldn't care about that ethical stuff as far as you only have one child or whatever. And, you know, the work, they would care more about the workers. but they don't. They don't because they know they're trying to go, they're trying to expand their nation. They're trying to do whatever they can, stay in power and expand. They want to be the next empire.

Yeah, they want to be the next empire. And power, power, if you have power, you always want to keep it. I mean, it's not just a,

yeah, you have the ruling minority there, but then you have, not to turn this end up, but you have the, I'll say, the elitist class or the political class here. Oh,

100%. That's exactly what they're trying to do. Yeah. You know, power's a drug. That is. It's like if you can choose wealth or power, choose power. Yeah, because wealth is fleeting.

And if you don't have power, you won't have wealth very long. I mean, if you have power, you can get wealth pretty fast. I mean, yeah. Right, right. So for people that don't understand how kind of the geography is, the vast majority, yeah, I think I'm right in this. So the vast majority of Afghanistan is very rugged. So as far as cities go, when we hear cobble on the, you know, how big a city is that?

I don't know. Never went. Okay. You know, we had, so, you know, around Bogram, well, you have the Bogram Air Base, man, you say city or I'll call it, let's say population center. It's just such a different from my experience, just such a different concept. because it's, you know, it looks like, it looks like a third world country.

Yeah. So even if you have a city, it's still. You just have a lot of markets where people go to try to get stuff. And other than that, it's a lot of single family dwelling or maybe, I don't know, is there much for two, three story buildings or is it mostly? Yeah. And we spent most, you know,

most of it was in the mountain regions. Yeah. So I never, you know, again, drastic difference from Iraq, our mission in Iraq and our mission in Afghanistan was all urban center and mountains. And the Taliban, so you got there in the, when did you get there? When did you get there? 2010. What time of year? Summer. Yeah. And so then, were you there through the following spring? So winter, they don't like, so one of the stories is the Taliban in the wintertime, they're like, yeah, we don't want to play in the winter. So we just go up.

mountains and hang out till spring because winter is pretty brutal and they don't they don't want to engage anybody which i always thought that was kind of odd because when we think about you know you think about war well like i think about world war two you know they fought through the winter there's some really russians yeah i mean the root the winter was brutal but they tried to keep fighting and in this situation the taliban i think we wanted to fight but the taliban was like yeah no not interested. We'd have an advantage. Yeah.

Yeah. I was going to say, I mean, we had every technology weapons. We had more of an advantage on them anyway. They were already at a disadvantage. So had that on top of it, they were like, well, screw that. We're not going to try and get them when it's the wintertime. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, when you get summer, spring, just always a lot more activity during those times. Yeah. Not that there's never anything going on in the winter, but it's pretty good. Yes. Okay. So, so you got, you got out in the spring of 11? Summer. Summer of 11. And you come home. And then did you stay in the guard? So I only had a year left. It's a six-year contract. So I did for another 12 months, 11 months, something like that.

So this time when you came back, was the adjustment harder or easier? I think it was easier because I knew I was done. Yeah. You know, I think somewhere, somewhere in Afghanistan and that whole, it was, I'm done running around with a gun chasing a bad guy. Yeah. And so it was really the biggest transition was, you know, transitioning into my career now. You know, we had another kid in 2012. So, you know, not long after we got back.

So there was just a lot going on with a career change and coming out of the military. You know, and you still have that struggle. You know, I think probably more so that struggle with, okay, what's my purpose now? Right. I think I had more of a struggle the second time with that aspect of it. Again, because I knew I was done. I wasn't going to sign up again. Right.

and so that was yeah that was a little that was a little harder now now fortunately i think certainly found found my purpose now um or well found it then but what my purpose is now so um pretty fortunate in that in that case but so let's talk about that for a minute um obviously today you're financial planner right so how did you get you didn't i mean you had you didn't come back and go, I'm going to fire up this window cleaning deal again. Like, what drew you to that or did somebody point you in that direction? You know sheep, right? Yes, I do know sheep.

So my brother-in-law, his nickname was sheep in high school, I guess. He's a financial planner with the firm that I ultimately joined. And he had been on me for a while. You know, and a lot of what, I guess what drew me to that was, you know, ultimately being able to help people reach their financial goals and, you know, to have the right behaviors to be able to do that. And sitting in an office is a lot better than squatting on a rock somewhere. Yeah. So as much as I'm in the office anyway. Yeah. never when I need you yeah what's the deal of that I don't know you go in there you don't really need me

though she lets me go in though and sit on your desk does she you seen that scene out of stepbrothers where they're talking about the drum set yeah think about that the next time you put your arms on your desk I thought it's so well she's fired so that's good nice nice job sorry lindsay I'm sorry. So now, and you know, and as far as the investment world or, you know, financial planning, my first, my, I opened my first investment account when I was 12. Well, I say I did. Dad did it for me. I had Stein Rowe Young investors fund. You know, I had Pepsi and Nike and Coke and, you know, the cool stuff. Yeah, those types of companies, which I thought was really cool until I realized that dad decided he was going to get.

give me an allowance, but then take half of it. So, you know, I got a management fee. Yeah, basically. I learned young. So at like, I get like $10 and then I would give him five. And he would put that into that Steinrow Young Investors Fund. And then when I started, you know, bailing hay or cash rate and things like that, well, where's, where's half your pay?

Right. So let's get that put in there. And man, that just drove me. nuts. I hated it. Until I was older. I thought, oh, there's money there. There's more money than I put in. Hi, Pop. For those that don't know,

the farm dog Duke just decided that he would wanted to come join the show. We put in a spiral staircase because we had an old ladder that just sat here. We were like, we don't really want that liability of someone falling or anything. I mean, that's what we were joking about. but he was a little timid to come up the steps and go down the steps but now i think he's he's figured it out yeah i carried him up here the first time and he he wasn't having it and then i had to carry him down and then this morning we were getting ready and just randomly he just decided that well

must be okay so he came up but he'd gone back down but anyway we'll have to see whether okay so um you know i had more respect for you if you would have told me you had some kind of an epiphany to become, go down that financial advisor instead of just sheep telling you that it was a good idea because your stock went down a little bit. Well, it wasn't real high to begin with. Well, that's fine. But so anyway, you, how long of a process was that? When did you start, when did you start down that road when you got back?

So, yeah, so it was pretty quick. I think within two months I'd applied and their hiring process takes forever, which it should. Yeah. And then they're training, you know, six months or so. You know, you have to pass your Series 7, Series 66, you know, with all the different regulatory exams. So that's a pretty long process. I think I was officially on duty, let's say, spring 2012. Yeah.

So it was a nine, nine, ten months, nine month process. So. here we are so we're basically nine years nine years since you left Afghanistan oh no you're 10 years you got out 2011

and you're like a lot of us you know that went on but it drew down and it got to just be where you barely even heard anything about it we knew we still had troops over there we knew that we were running around looking for bad guys and trying to keep

the status quo but you really got lulled into everybody. I mean, I know I just kind of knew that it was never going to be, you're never going to wake up one day and Afghanistan was going to have, you know, a Starbucks on a corner of wherever a little city it was. But at the same time, you kind of felt like, well, they got, you know, the U.S. governments got it under control and we're winning the hearts and minds and these people are figuring out that, you know, they can be free.

Because, and this is something like. we should probably touch on, but, you know, I think one of the biggest travesties of this is we've been there 20 years. There is a whole generation of young women in Afghanistan that have grown up being able to walk the streets and jeans and a sweatshirt, go to school, and, you know, not be covered head to toe and a veil and walk three steps behind a man, or not be able to leave. leave the house. And they have got to be just like God smacked because I'm a, the story is that that hasn't all happened yet, but I don't think it can be very far behind. We're going to go back to what we were. But when you, so we're about 10, I think we're about 10 days from when this

all kind of fell apart, maybe two weeks. When, when you saw, when the news broke that basically all of the defense forces that we have spent oodles of money training. And when that all fell apart and the Taliban was basically just walking over the country, what was your feeling about that? Yeah. So, well, you bring up just a, you bring up a great point with a generation of, you know, if it's a 15-year-old girl, she's done nothing different. And it's going to get ugly.

It's going to get ugly for them. So, you know, I guess my feeling was, it wasn't shock, certainly, because I think we touched on that before, where the outcome was always going to be this. The speed at which it happened is a little surprising. And I say the speed, you know, we're looking at it as far as our media, you know, over the last 10 days, two weeks. but really since the

since the treaty let's say was broken you know we were supposed to be out of there withdrawn by May 1st so really I think this is a if we look at it from May 1st through here the end of August that's the time frame it's not just the last 10 days

you know so a little you're not shot kind of a yeah well figures I figures that would happen I think the shocking part is how how much we've messed this up as far as the withdrawal itself.

You know, it's almost like there's a couple different aspects to it. It's one is the outcome, which not shocking. Two, the actual withdrawal, which is a travesty. And then three, how do we parse out the feelings as a veteran, you know, of the blood that was shed? Yeah. you know, was it worth it kind of thing? So really those, kind of those three aspects.

And, you know, the one, this is going to be the outcome. Two, the fact that we can't figure out that whether the Taliban came in this, took over this quickly or not, you're saying, okay, we're going to be gone in September 1st with the new time frame. and you still have 15,000 U.S. citizens. And you didn't think to maybe, maybe let's go ahead and start getting them out of here. Yeah, it seems like a,

it seems like a huge misstep by the intelligence. So it's got to be one or the other. Either the intelligence changed and it was very poor. Or they had a narrative that they just plain didn't plan for, that they didn't think could happen, or the administration chose to go their own way and not heed. So either they didn't believe the intelligence that they got

or they didn't receive the right intelligence. Or they didn't care and they just were going to do it themselves. I think three, I think number three, I think this is just personal opinion. I think Biden administration, I think Joe Biden wanted the credit for getting them out of Afghanistan. And because I heard a podcast, and Trump's been he was working on getting getting us out of Afghanistan, but there's a certain way to do it.

What should we do it in the middle of a fighting season when they're coming out of the mountains? Probably not. Should we have done it maybe during the wintertime? When they're not as aggressive, I mean, that would have been a good way. Yeah. I think. And you touched on a little bit, you know, there's 15. I read a thing that said 10 to 40,000 Americans are left there.

They don't even know how many Americans are just left there and they're just there. And they don't even know. Totally rushed. And I think it was, this is my opinion again, I think it was truly, I think Biden won the credit. Well, I think we've seen that before with different administrations where, you know, whether it's Benghazi or, you know, or Afghanistan now, you know, where it's, I'm going to make political decisions. And, you know, boots on the ground or the U.S. citizens are there be damned. Yeah.

Because that's, that's to me the only explanation. I can't, I have a hard time believing that our intelligence community was that wrong. Is so jacked up. Right. That they didn't know the Taliban was coming across the country. Yep. Like, how, I don't even know how that happens.

And it's hit. I mean, the history, they fight during this season of the year. I mean, this is their peak time to be. out and about. So I can't imagine that they would get that wrong. Like, you know. Another thing that, and I want to touch on this, because I think you have a little bit of perspective on it, is the one of the narratives that is out there is that we were relying, we were relying on the Afghan forces to step up and buffer this transition. But it seems as though what happened, I mean, obviously the president He fled with, I can't remember how many million dollars,

but a lot of press has been that a lot of the commanders were paid off, and they just said, all right, and they let it go. So, do you have, does that make sense to you? Do you, like, what's the, when you talk about the culture, when you were over there, did you see how the U.S. did things? I guess I'm trying to think of a better way to say it. Yeah, I think I know what you're getting at. So, you know, I think for 20 years, we, we set up a system of, let's give you money for this.

Let's give you money for that. Let's pay you for this. Let's pay you. And so, you know, where we'd go into, you know, Assura in a villa, or meeting in a village with the elder. And it was never, it was always, what are you going to put in my village? You know, are you going to, we need money for this or we need this type of equipment or we need that. And so we set up, you know, well, really at this point, a whole generation of, of Afghanis. And you think about, well, who's, who's most likely to be in the military in Afghanistan? Well, it's young men.

Yep. So for 20 years, they've seen that, well, I'm for sale, right? So no principles, no, you know, we're doing the right thing. It was always, yeah, well, let's just give you more money. And that way we get what we want. I'll give you this pile of cash and you tell me where the Taliban are hiding, right? And it may or may not be that the Taliban are actually hiding there, but they already got their cash. And the next time you come, oh, yeah, I've got Intel. Yep. Give me more money. It doesn't matter if the Intel pays off or not.

So, you know, the fact that or the idea that these commanders or even the troops are getting paid off, yeah, of course they are. Yeah. Because that's, that's, we, we set that up in their culture. You know, when we went to, and I don't remember, I don't remember for it's Iraq or Afghanistan. I think it was Afghanistan. There was some trainer in one of our, on one of our classes, you know, and, and, and pre-mo that, that said, you know, don't give candy and pens and whatever to the kids, which they always, as soon as you park somewhere, you get out in a village, your surroundings. it and they're trying to get all your stuff and, you know, you give them candy and it makes their day and you feel good about it, right? But it was reinforcing the idea that Americans are here

to give you something with nothing in return, ultimately. So yeah, I think we set up that, I think we set up that whole system. Yeah. And we've been doing that for decades. You go back to Russia and Afghanistan, right? I mean, we were funding the Mujahideen. Yeah, to try to get rid of them. Yeah. And so you have Afghanistan, this little mountainous dirt patch, let's say, where you have empires, so to speak, or world powers fighting over this patch of land.

And I think over time you get really good in your culture and be able to play one side versus the other. and what they what what afghanis understand i think is fear and so whoever is going to instill the most fear is the one in charge well we stopped doing that a long time ago so and if we're pulling out well who's who is there to fear right well it's going to be the taliban because you know they're going door to door looking for people who helped you the u.s and if we don't get sorry i know i'm on a tangent a little bit. But if we don't get those people out, our interpreters, the people who helped us, and we just let them go, let the Taliban, you know, put them on video, behead them, kill their families, sell their daughters into sex slavery, which is exactly what's going to

happen. What happens the next time? That's a great point because one of the first, one of the first comments I heard about this that I hadn't thought about is in the world today, how would you like to be, how would you like to be Taiwan? How would you like to be Ukraine? Because if you're sitting there and you're watching that and the U.S. is telling you, don't worry, we got your back. We're going to be there for you. How much credibility do you have? And if that, if what you're talking about when that happens because it is going to happen. We've let it go now that best case scenario, they'll be lucky if they can get, I don't know how many of those people they can get out, but you know, they're not going to get anywhere near all of them. And they're going to make that,

it'll be a spectacle. Well, and they're trying to, I've seen on the media, they're sitting down and, you know, having these press conferences or they're talking to the media and they're acting like, oh, we're good. We don't want to have any, we don't want any, we don't want to do anything. you know we're not hostile right now but i bet the beheadings have already started they're just not feel they're just not video in them honestly i mean i think they're trolling us yeah oh totally oh yeah it's i saw a thing that said twitter they have their own verified uh twitter account the talban a terrorist group has a twitter account cannot believe it it's like they just the media i the media i don't know i don't get it i don't get the media well and the fact that are we really

a place, man, maybe I shouldn't go there, but are we really at a place where our biggest concern right now from the UN is whether or not there's going to be educational rights for women under the freaking Taliban? Like, no, there won't be. And it's not just, it's worse than that. That's the least of their problems right now or what's coming. Because there's one thing about, you know, we talked about kind of the long, game and whatnot. That's a lot of time to get all ramped up and say, oh yeah, revenge is coming.

Well, and that's what they, that's those, those cultures, you can be, I will be more than happy to kill your son for what your great grandfather did to my family. Well, they already hated us, now they hate us even more. Well, but I'm talking about the, the, the, the citizenry of Afghanistan, anybody that is perceived to have not been a supporter is their enemy. Right. And as Mike has said, the revenge, the revenge is coming. It doesn't make any sense to just come out guns blazing because there's no need to. We've already ceded everything to them.

And I think, and the word, I'm pretty sure that they're smart enough to know the worst thing that they could do right now is something graphic that would get world sentiment turned that we say, oh, wait a minute. We better run some drone strikes and get rid of some of these people or whatever. They're going to wait, my opinion is, they're going to wait until it's done. We're gone. We've, and then it'll happen. We're going to take care of all of those who have wronged us in some way at some time.

Yeah, and I think, I think, you know, that's like you see the stories where they have checkpoints around the Kabul airport or that they're going door to door making less. Yeah, they're not. They're not, they're not getting into the ugly stuff yet. No. But they're ready for it. Yeah. It's coming.

So, so. So, so. So, so. Here's, here's, I guess, kind of my, one of my, I say, I'll say fears is that when those videos start leaking of your mass graves, of your beheadings, of your, of your, of your your forced genital mutilation, um, on, on young girls especially. When that stuff starts coming out, the war machine has to eat, right? not to be all Alex Jones, but,

right. But the war, you know, when Eisenhower talked about the military industrial complex, as I was, when I was growing up, I was always like, oh, that's a slander against troops. And it's not. No. It's the fact you have your Lockheed Martins and your Halliburtons and your, you know, the Secretary of Defense right now, Austin was on the board of, was a Halliburton or Lockheed? One of those two.

I don't know. I don't know, but I know that he's very connected with the defense. You know, so that, so my fear is that we're going to end up going right back in there on a quote unquote humanitarian mission. And then 20 years from now we're going to be having this discussion about, oh man, we drew down and Taliban took over again. Yeah. I think I agree with you 100%.

I think the only thing that's going to temper that is this was a $2 trillion endeavor. cost over 2,000 American lives, and I don't know how many 100,000 people. And the interest on the debt was it's $537 million, or billion dollars, $537 billion. And when interest rates, and they printed all that money, they printed all that money out of thin air. And when interest rates were going down,

the war actually got cheaper because the interest was lower. Well, today we're getting out. We have this debt and we're adding to it with all the other stuff we're doing. I think it's going to be pretty hard to justify. And I think that's sad in its own right in the fact that it took so little. I mean, we can argue the merits of going over there. But I think the reason that we wouldn't go back, is economics.

And I think the reason we went to start could have just as been, could have just as well been economics also. Because you're right. That military industrial complex, war is a good business for them. Well, the one thing, they might want to go over there for a human, humanitarian mission or whatever. But, I mean, we can't forget the reason we went over there is because they came on our soil and did it.

So we might, we might just wait for that to happen again. And they might be like, well. Yeah. And I could. And I would, I'm sorry. No, you're good. Yeah. And I would say it's, you know, debatable to me in my mind anyway.

And because we were there, they weren't here. That's debatable. I mean, we didn't go to Saudi Arabia. We didn't go to Pakistan. Right. I didn't go into. And that's where a lot of this comes from. Mm-hmm.

You know, and I think, I think here's, I think you're right. If we stay out would be on economic reasons. if we go back in, it'll be under a new administration, probably GOP. Yep. And it'll be the Democrats screwed this up so bad. We're going to look what's happening. We're going to fix it. Yeah.

And the Democrats and the Republicans, that whole establishment, be like, yeah, we're on board, right? Because I can't wait to get my board seat. Yeah. Short-term thinking. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So when they were, I don't know this for sure.

But when the day was happening when everyone's evacuating, And we were, we saw, everyone saw the videos of the, you know, Afghan citizens, you know, people were falling from the planes because they were trying to get on and whatever. And that was trying to hang on. Yeah, I was trying to hang on. It was brutal. So the people that were on those planes, were those just Americans or were those people that we just said, you could come have freedom?

Yeah, I actually don't know. I saw a photo of one plane that was just full of Afghan male citizens, just sitting on the plane. what sorry i've got i've got something to say and one thing that it's just that's just concerning for me is like okay so we just did your whole country totally wrong americans just totally abandon you and you're lucky enough to get on this plane to come to america and you're just an afghan citizen you had to abandon your whole family to come to america and how does that how do you feel about america once you get here yeah you're coming here for freedom, but you had to abandon your, your whole family, and they pretty much

abandoned you. I mean, that's kind of, they're probably the taste that they have in their mouth. And then, here's the, here's the honest truth. How many of those people do we actually know are truly Afghanistan citizens on that are on these planes? Because Boston bombing, they weren't screaming at the rooftops, Boston Marathon bombing. They weren't screaming at the rooftops that were terrorists, and we're going to, you know. I think, Mike. So I think. So I think it's, speak to that. I think you got the same thought process.

Well, yeah, I think obviously we're not very good at vetting people, just in general. It's not politically expedient enough. You know, and I think one thing that,

that interests me with those photos is where's the women and kids? Yep. Right, right. Exactly. And I kind of understand your point as far as, you know,

abandoning their family. Yeah, that's exactly what they're doing. Now, I don't want to take away from the 66,000, I think it is, Afghanistan, army or police who did give their lives, right?

But at some point, it's either, it's take care of your own shit, right? Yep. Like, this is an ordeal. Yeah. This is a, at best, this is an Afghan civil war. We made a huge mistake staying for as long as we did. And leaving as bad as we did. And leaving as bad as we did.

And I think the withdrawal, we had to, at some point, we had to be done. I think I agree. I think everyone agrees on it. I think everyone is an agreeance that we should have gotten out of there. It's just how could we have done it better? We couldn't have done it worse. Yeah, this is the worst. I think you've got the base case model of how not to do it.

Yeah. And I don't mean to cut you off. But one thing that I will say, so my father-in-law, Vietnam veteran, and he's not much interested in watching news. I don't think he watches CNN or Fox or anything because he's just. Mainstream media. He likes to fish, and he just, he doesn't like that. And my wife called him and told him what was going on, and he turned on the TV.

And he called her, and he said to her, he goes, he goes, well, it doesn't look like America's learned much. He goes, I turned it on, and I saw that Chinook. And he goes, just reminded me of Saigon all over again. And I thought, that's true. I mean, if you see the pictures, they look, I don't. I mean, yeah, but I don't, I don't think we learn much. Nope. Because like you said, I don't think there's a poorer, a poorer example of how we did it.

Yeah, and I don't think, I don't think it's, it's just, we don't want to learn. It's that short term thinking, get the seats, get your power. You know, I haven't talked to my dad, really about this whole thing at all. Yeah, I'm not sure exactly how to bring it up. And I think there, there's certainly, you know, between Saigon and, or Vietnam and here, you know, there's, there's a lot of differences. There is a lot of differences. Because I think from a soldier's point of view, nobody's blaming us.

Yeah. Right. Which is a lot different than what it was, you know, in early 70s. And we all volunteered. Yeah. And I, you know, don't give me the victim. Oh, poor me. I went to wherever Iraq or Afghanistan.

You signed up. What did you think was going to happen? But that's a whole other story. Um, so, you know, whereas Vietnam, when they were drafted a lot of this, they didn't have a choice to go or not. Um, and then it's not only did the government turn on you because, and I read this and I would need to confirm it, but we won every major engagement in Vietnam. Um, I think the kill rate was like three to one, right? So, and again, I'd need to confirm that. Somebody can correct me if I'm, if I'm wrong in the comments, but, um, but our government gave up and the American people gave up. and, you know, when you don't have your, that type of support, and then you see, okay, you sent me there, my buddies died, I'm missing the leg, my life is forever changed, and when I come home, you spit on me, and you don't support me. The government doesn't support me. And then you see that. Yes. Where we're retreating. I can't imagine. You know,

to me this is a different, it's the same but different. Yeah. Where the government's doing the same thing because it's government. Yep. But the people are not. And I think soldiers, for the most part, feel that support. Yeah. I think almost to an unhealthy level.

But again, that's another discussion. Well, but I think what you're saying for a veteran, that brings up, when you see that, that really, that brings up an old wound. To me, it would anyway. Yeah, and I think, you know, and again, I think, you know, we talked about kind of those three parts, third part being like, how do you parse those feelings of, you know, in Afghanistan, Jews was killed, certain justice. And it's like, what does that mean, right? And I don't know.

I don't know. It's, you know, again, I think, yeah, I guess for me, I have to fall back on to we were there. because we volunteered to go. And when you're there, you're fighting for the guy next to you. And that's exactly how he died. And there's honor in that. And whether or not governments figure out, you know, did we win the war? Did we lose the war?

Did we just stop fighting? That doesn't change any of that. It doesn't change any of that. Yeah. I think that's something that we have to as a community, as a veteran community. have to hold on to is it's the guy beside you. You know, the guy in the suit in Washington means nothing. We could have, well, we did.

We won within six months or whatever. Everything else after that was we're going to do, we're going to do our duty, we're going to serve our country, the best we know how, right. I call it good. I think there's a lot of us that, hey, yeah, drop me in Kabul. We'll get them out. Yeah.

But again, the government's not willing to do that. Right. You know, if you start, you start sending missions to rescue Americans, that makes it look even worse. Yeah, you look more desperate. And that's why they're reluctant to do it. Yep. We've moved to a time of optics. Everything is about optics and how it looks.

It doesn't matter what the... Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me. That's what it's about. It's all it's about. Well, so... this has been a light one yeah right yeah well we had so i think we'll i think we'll have to get we'll have to get micha back on here because um so we we have a lot of good conversations about the financial world and that's something

that i think we're both obviously interested in but um i think we've gone long enough for today i had one thing i had just one thing maybe just ask micha one more thing where do you think we go from here like what oh yeah that's a good question what you know, predictions, you know, what questions do we need to have answered? Like, where do we go from here as a country or as what Americans should think or, I don't know, you know, just. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, if I was going to make predictions, it's that we're going to end up back there. You know, and it's either back there or it'll be somewhere. You know, you can't go 10 years without deploying somewhere. And I think it'll be, I think it'll be there just because it's, it's, it's, when

those, we talked about it, when those videos start coming out in those pictures, um, you know, the, the world, the world will react. Yep. Um, or the attack on American soil. I mean, or, or, yeah, something like that. Which, you know, it's, it's, which is certainly, certainly possible. Um, that, that, that, with those photos are kind of skin past that a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, the, I would like to get your thoughts on that because I, I kind of jumped in and then you, and then dad jumped in on you and you couldn't really finish your thought about how all the all the afghan man men on the planes and there's no women and children and you don't know if someone's a towel man or if they're just a citizen and it just does look it does look a little fishy i mean if you have seen the photos

it does look a little fishy if you're a civilian you want your kids and your your your wife on that plane too it's like one or one of two things are happening either we are telling them the state department you can come, but you can't bring your family, which is unbelievable. Messed up. It wouldn't be surprising. Or they're just choosing to abandon their family and try to get to some essence of freedom because they either helped us in some way or they're, I'm sure there's a few of them that are trying to get to America to recap it, right?

Yeah. You know, I guess them choosing young men especially choosing to abandon the families. I'm not even sure that would be surprising because women are property there, right? Children are property. You know, it's not a whole lot different just in my opinion or from my experience, how they view, how they view them. They're not a whole lot different than their goats. they treat them about the same. So is it real surprising that they're like,

screw you, I'm out of here? No. But are we, are we idiots? Let's, let's fill a C-17 with a bunch of military age males. That's just absurd.

Right. It's absurd. It does look like, it just boggles my mind. Yeah, right. But I think that, again, kind of goes to the mindset of,

of kind of where, where they are. It's, it's, it's almost mid. evil, right? Just the mindset is medieval and we spent 20 years trying to bring them into the, you know, the, the, a current century, maybe not even this one, at least a little bit more current. It's not going to happen.

So, um, so I think prediction wise is, I think we'll end up back there in one way or another, um, probably under a new administration who's trying to fix what the Democrats did. Um, you know, the GOP likes their war is just as much as Hillary. So, um, I don't know. societally, what will unite us at this point? Well, this pains me to say, but if another terrorist attack happens, that's as big as doing a lot. I don't, I don't think so.

I don't think so. I would hope. Yeah. But I don't really think so because it's, because here's what's going to happen. Let's say another Boston marathon bombing happens, right? Well, it's Biden's fault because we brought all these military age males from Afghanistan, right? No, it's Trump's fault because he did something. Well, no, really it's George Bush's fault. Well, no, really, if you think about it, Obama did, and it still has that, everything is so politicized, which is by design in my opinion, that the more you can divide people into groups and you can tribalize people, the easier it is to control them.

100% I mean our entire political system has has dissolved into division we want to put everybody in a box we are not Americans first anymore you are a you're Republican or Democrat you're a liberal or you're conservative you're a vaxer or an anti-vaxxer you are a proud of African American an Asian a Hispanic or a Caucasian yeah you're your they're gay, you're by, you're straight, and we're just going to try to get you at every point you possibly can. The more the politicians can divide, and I will say, and the more they can get all of us to focus on those things instead of the things that are actually happening right now. Yep. The more you guys don't know what the hell's happening. Look at this. Don't look over here.

Don't look at what I'm doing over here. Yep. Yeah. It's a tough. Well, intersectionality. You know, it's how how high can I get on the victimhood status because that is the new high I wouldn't say it's not the elite class it's a new higher class yeah more of a victim I can be which which I think veterans fall into that everybody falls into kind of being a little bit of a victim where you know if if I can get pity right now I can get a little bit of of I get a leg up yeah yeah and so so you feel bad for me so you give me X or society gives me X yeah and again it goes back to what we're talking about before it's all that inward focus.

And we're not, we're not connected as a, as a, as citizens to something bigger than ourselves anymore. It's not where the United States of America, it's no, this is my experience in America. In America. Yep. And so, so I don't, I don't know.

I hope something could unite us. I just don't know what it is. Yeah. And I'm not sure that, that, that even another 9-11 style, you know, we're not going to get 9-12 again. where everybody's essentially on the same page. Yeah, also we talked about, you know, it'll be politicians versus politicians,

but the fatalities, if a terrorist attack would happen, they would describe how those people died, what class they fit in. If they were a black man, if they were a Hispanic, maybe this is a race attack by one of our own in America. You know, they'd flip it in so many different ways to just cause more division.

I mean, I would hope not. You know, it's interesting because, Yonme Park. I don't know if you know that issue. On Joe Rogan's podcast. Oh,

yes. Oh my gosh. I had listened to her on Jordan Peterson's podcast. And it's the same, you look at every, let's say, totalitarian regime,

whether communists or socialist or whatever, it's always you have to separate into classes first. And the more we're separated, again, the easier we are to control.

And it's the same thing that's happening here. There's a famous YouTube clip of, I don't know, it's Yuri something. He was a former KGB. I don't know if you've seen this. It was like from the 70s or maybe 80s. And he's talking about how communism will take over the United States without ever firing a shot.

Yes, I have seen that. And it's the same, it's the same playbook that he brings out the same playbook that they have in North Korea. Because we're geographically, it's really hard to invade America. It's the only way to flip America from the inside. Yep. Yep. So, you know, I don't know.

I don't know where we go from here. I think it's a good prediction, though. I think you're, I think ultimately, if a Republican gets elected in office, hell, even if a Democrat gets elected in office, they're going to try to fix it. Yeah. Well, and I would say even, you know, at this point, even when, probably not if Kamala takes over. Yeah.

Because, you know, and where has she been lately? I sure haven't seen her much. She does not want her face on this. She sure is awful hard to find lately. So is Biden. He hasn't, has he spoke to a world leader since.

He's got sleepy time. He came back from vacation. Or at least he went down and watched cartoons in the bunker for a while. With a pudding cup. They got a picture of it. So, yeah. And I think, I think it could be as easy.

No matter who it is, I mean, we're at the point. And I think that's why like him, love him, hate him, whatever. And he brought a lot of it on himself. But I think that's why they hated Trump so much. Because he's an outsider. Yeah, because it wasn't, he wasn't, he wasn't part of the group. He wasn't trying to get a check.

He wasn't trying to, right. He was genuinely trying to do what he thought was right for America. Yeah. Not necessarily for himself. Obviously not for himself. Yeah. Yeah. I think he lost plenty.

But damn, those mean tweets, though, we can't have them mean tweets. Yeah, I can't have that. So, you know, and because he's not part of that system of, you know, again, we have to be somewhere fighting someone for some reason. Yep. You know, they can't have that. Kamala would be part of that system just like Biden is, just like Hillary was, just like George W. Bush was. Just like, you know, I mean, it's John McCain. Yeah.

You know, it's not a, it's not even a Republican Democrat thing. It's what, it's a class thing. Yeah. I think when we start, if we start looking at things as a class system, that that's where we're getting and that's what we're getting into, things become a little bit clearer. You know, you have the elite class. You have the, you know, the proletariat, right?

Yeah, I don't know. Well, we got to stop getting people on here with such radical. Yeah. So much different than our own. I thought it was really good. I think we should end it on a lighter note, though, and just say, I think people are waking up. I think people understand that mainstream media is trying to put us in classes. I think people are getting that you can't really trust the media, and politicians are here for that short-term thinking.

They're doing it for legacy purposes. They're doing it for a board. Their legacy, not our legacy. No, their legacy, right. They're doing it for their legacy purposes. and I have hope that people will figure it out. I really do. I think people will hopefully.

I think you need to realize that the government, if you think the government has your best interest in their heart, you're lying to yourself. You really are lying to yourself because they don't. They don't have it. And they're trying to divide us because that's just easier for them to control us. And I think that would be maybe the bright spot or what I would hope is they, like your generation down, I think is, is a lot smarter than what we were.

They accept things. They don't accept things at face value as easily as we. Well, we kind of have to because, hell, we, for you guys, when you saw something on the news, it was the news. Yeah. And that's what it was. And there was no, that was, that was the truth. Now it's kind of like, even video, even video evidence is a little like, is it? Is that video evidence? Is that, actually the truth of what's actually going on. Right. So, I mean, we kind of have to be that way. Yeah.

And I, yeah, I don't think with, with what we've seen, you know, especially over the last year or a half or so, you know, with,

with the pandemic response, you know, I think that kids, you know, you go to any middle school or elementary school, and there's a bunch of kids that will just tell you, this is freaking stupid.

Yeah. Right. I'm not going to get into the efficacy of masks or whatnot, but, um, I think there's something in this next generation that is like, you're not, you're not going to control me. It's almost like, it's almost like, how would I put that? Conservatives are too broad of a term, but more of what would right now be considered a right wing think, even though it would be traditional liberalism think.

Yeah. Right. that sort of I don't want the government controlling me I don't want that sort of mindset I think it's prevalent it's kind of what they have and so and that's the rebellion the rebellion is no you're not going to tell me that a is B or that two plus two equals five that's stupid I'm going to figure it out for myself and then realize what the truth is yeah and so it's like it's like it's like it's like that type of thinking is the new leather jacket right when leather jacket you were a rebel if you wore a leather jacket.

Right. Right. Well, being a rebel now is thinking for yourself. Yep. And that's a great thing. That's a great thing.

Yeah, I'll take that. Yeah, I'll take that all day long too. And I think that's, I think people need to really realize that. Like, we are not as divided as they want to tell us we're divided. We are Americans. And they're going after headlines to try to divide us as much as we can. Just respect your fellow man.

And I think a most, 98% of the people, people out there most majority of the people respect their fellow man no matter what your skin color is no matter who you want to have sex with you know you are we respect our fellow man but they want to go for the people and the stories and the headlines that are going to the division the division cause the division and show that to us so we feel more divided than we actually are that's a good that's a good place to stop yeah and and i'll say this um we hope you got some value from this. This was a pretty impromptu episode because we saw what was happening. We wanted to get somebody on here that had a little different perspective. And we say this all the time, but,

you know, if you don't agree with us, you don't have to agree with us, and you don't have to agree with me or any of us, but do your own research. Go find your own answers. Do not let somebody, whether it be me or whether it be a politician, don't let that person tell you what you ought to think because you need to be responsible for you. And so tell us what you think. Leave us a comment. Leave us a question for next week,

or not next week. Two weeks, we'll do a Q&A. Thank you, Micah, for coming on. Thank you guys. It was amazing. I thought it was a great show. I think it's well. It was needed right now at this time.

No, I agree. America. It was a good time. I appreciate it. appreciate the opportunity. Have a great weekend.