The Daily Signal - Retired Army Gen. Carter Ham on Today's Military Challenges

Episode Date: February 12, 2020

General Carter Ham, retired from the United States Army, is currently president and chief executive officer of the Association of the United States Army. On today’s podcast, he tells his story of why he decided to join the military, what he learned in some of his deployments in places like Africa and Somalia, as well as his perspective on the current state of the military, and where there is room for improvement.    We also cover these stories: The Justice Department says it will change the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, a one-time Trump campaign adviser convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering. Border crossings are down significantly, Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan says. Attorney General William Barr announces the Justice Department will be taking new action to limit the effects of sanctuary cities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, February 12th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Richard Aldjudis. General Carter Ham is retired from the United States Army and currently president and chief executive officer of the Association of the United States Army. On today's podcast, we discuss his story of why he decided to join the military, what he learned in some of his deployments in places like Africa and Somalia, as well as his perspective on the current state of the military and where there is room for in And if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. And please encourage others to subscribe. Now onto our top news. The Justice Department is saying it will change the sentencing recommendation for Roger Stone, a one-time Trump campaign advisor convicted of lying to Congress and witness tampering. Prosecutors had recommended Stone served seven to nine years in jail. Now, an unnamed Justice Department official reportedly told CNN. The department believes the recommendation is extreme and excessive and is grossly disproportionate to Stone's offenses and indicated that the sentencing

recommendation would be changed. President Donald Trump tweeted recently a story about Stone and wrote, this is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them and cannot allow this miscarriage of justice. The Justice Department says the decision to change the recommendation was in place prior to Trump's tweet. Border crossings are down significantly, acting U.S. Customs on Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said Tuesday at a media briefing. According to Morgan, only 36,679 illegal immigrants were stopped at the border, with only 29,200 being arrested by border patrol, and 7,000 were not allowed to enter the U.S. The total number of 36,679 illegal immigrants that were stopped is down from 144,116 last May.

The Washington Examiner reported, with Morgan saying that the numbers are the lowest they have been since February 2018. Attorney General William Barr announced the Justice Department will be taking new actions to limit the effects of sanctuary cities. Barr said, while speaking to the National Sheriff's Association, we are reviewing the practices, policies, and laws of other jurisdictions across the country. This includes assessing whether jurisdictions are complying with our criminal laws. In particular, the criminal statute that prohibits the harboring or shielding of aliens in the United States. Barr specifically announced complaints filed against King County and Washington State

and the state of New Jersey. For New Jersey, the complaint was about its laws that forbids state and local law enforcement from sharing vital information about criminal aliens with the Department of Homeland Security, said Barr. Regarding King County, which is in the Seattle area, the issue was a policy it recently adopted that forbids the Department of Homeland Security from deporting aliens from the United States using King County International Airport, Barr said. Tedros de Brazos, Director General of the World Health Organization, is calling coronavirus a very grave threat for the rest of the world. More than 1,000 Chinese have died from the virus,

and more than 43,000 across the world have contracted it. In prepared testimony, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday, we are closely monitoring the emergence of the coronavirus, which could lead to disruptions in China, that spill over to the rest of the global economy. Texas is taking California to court over its travel ban. Currently, California bans government-sponsored travel for its employees to several states, including Texas.

Why? Well, Texas allows faith-based adoption providers to follow their conscience regarding who they placed children with. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement, California is attempting to punish Texans for respecting the right of conscience for foster care and adoption providers. He added, boycotting states based on nothing more than political disagreement breaks down the ability of states to serve as laboratories of democracy while still working together as one nation, the very thing our Constitution intended to prevent.

Paxton is asking the Supreme Court to strike down California's ban. Universal Pictures announced Tuesday that it's film The Hunt, which we reported. reportedly shows elites hunting people in red states for fun is set to be released on March 13th. Production on the film was previously put on hold due to controversy about the film. Here's an audio clip of the trailer. What is happening? What is all of this? Do you see that article?

Every year these liberal elites kidnap a bunch of normal folks like us and hunt us for sport. Damon Linloff, who co-wrote the film, said of his movie, This is not a dangerous movie. This is not a provocative movie. This is not a divisive movie. In August, President Trump appeared to criticize the movie, saying, We're going to be very tough with them. They're treating conservatives very unfairly.

Hollywood is really terrible. You talk about racist? Hollywood is racist. Next up, we'll feature Rachel's interview with General Carter Ham. Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205 or email us at letters at dailysignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. We are joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by General Carter Ham, who is retired from the United States Army,

and he's currently president and chief executive officer of the Association of the United States Army. General Ham, thank you so much for being with us today. Thanks, Rachel. Glad to be here. Well, can you just start off by telling us. us about how you ended up in the Army? It's a bit of an odd story. Even today in my old age, there's not a really logical process. I graduated from high school and just outside Cleveland, Ohio, went to college because

that's what you're supposed to do. And I had fun, but I didn't have much purpose. And then for reasons that even today, I can't quite fully understand one day I walked into a recruiting station and in our hometown and enlisted in the Army. and I went to basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. And for the first time, for a kid who grew up in very comfortable middle class, all-white suburbia, I was in and amongst people who weren't like me. And I found that a little bit challenging to be sure,

but more so rewarding and empowering and interesting. And I found that I enjoyed that. So I like the physical aspects of being in the Army. I like being around people who were different than me. I like jumping out airplanes and those kind of adventurous things. And so that's kind of how my Army journey began. Well, thank you for sharing that. So you retired from the Army in 2013.

And before that time, you were commander of the U.S. Africa Command where you traveled to 42 countries as part of this mission's efforts to enhance America's security by establishing and developing partnerships. What were some things you learned in that role? Well, the first thing about serving at United States Africa Command is, while it was a stimulating, an exhilarating job and a wonderful way to cap off my military service, it was completely unexpected. I had previously been serving in Europe, which was a very comfortable environment for me.

I'd spent many, many years serving with the Army in Europe. to go back there as a four-star commander, kind of the final assignment, what I thought was the final assignment was very rewarding, but very comfortable. When then Secretary of Defense Gates told me that he was going to propose to the president that I be the next commander of the United States Africa command, I was overcome by two simultaneous emotions. The first was, frankly, pure exhilaration, combatant commanders for the United States military are kind of top of the pile.

There's the Forest Service Chiefs, Army Navy Air Force Marine Corps, and then there's the combatant commanders for Europe, Pacific, South America, Mid-East, and Africa. So to be one of those commanders was exhilarating. But then it also hit me instantaneously that I had no background in Africa. Nobody had any background in Africa because it wasn't a part of the world. that the U.S. military had focused much on. So I embarked on a program of study, going to the intelligence agencies,

to the State Department, to universities, to lots of places that did have expertise in Africa to try to learn. When I got to the assignment, it was even more rewarding than I expected it to be the ability to travel across the vast African continent, to help Africans deal, with the many complex security challenges that those nations faced was certainly challenging,

but very rewarding as well. Well, before you retired in 2011 and going back to, you know, Rousse Sarfus was talking about your time in Africa, your service there, you became just the second commander, as you mentioned, of the United States of Africa Command. And you, during that time, had combat operations in Libya and hostage operations. in Somalia, can you tell us a little bit about those two different missions? Sure. The first one in Libya was quite unexpected.

In fact, I remember very clearly arriving at the command in the first week of March of 2011. And if you had told me that day that 10 days later, we would be engaged in combat operations in North Africa, I simply would not have believed you. combat operations were not part of the vision of Africa command when it was stood up. It was envisioned that the command would be engaged principally in assisting African nations developing their security forces where necessary, perhaps some very specific and targeted counterterrorism operations, humanitarian assistance should that be necessary. but mostly it was cooperating with our African partners.

So combat operations was not really envisioned, and the command had not really practiced that, wasn't very experienced in that. So it was quite a challenge for the command to in a very short period of time plan for and conduct operations. We were fortunate that they had a number of other nations that joined the United States and in operations in Libya, the purpose of which was to protect civilians from the Gaddafi regime.

So we led that operation from United States Africa Command for a couple of weeks and then handed off to NATO for subsequent operations. So during that time, you were in like hostage rescue situations. What was it like to be working with hostages, rescuing them? What was that whole experience like? Yeah. So it's quite different, you know, operating at, at the theater command, at the four-star command level where you're obviously not personally engaged in the conduct of the operations.

But what you learn is that it's a very complex process. The tactical forces, the special operating forces of the United States, are exquisitely trained and selected. And there was never any doubt in my mind about their ability to conduct these very sensitive, sometimes very risky operations. The greater challenge was coordinating those activities through the U.S. government interagency and in some cases in coordination with other nations. You get matters of law and policy. The risk evaluation is quite different. But ultimately, it's a decision that gets presented to the President of the United States, in my case, President

Obama at the time to lay out the possible options. So here's an American who's being held hostage. She happened to be being held in Somalia alongside with a Danish citizen. We laid out what we knew about the hostage takers where we knew they were. How did we know that? The nature of the operation, the president listens to all of his advisors and makes a decision and says, okay, I approve the execution of this mission. I'll confess that from a, you know, from a thousand miles away, watching the special operating forces listening to them as they're conducting the operation tensions pretty high.

But when they reported that they had safely recovered both the American citizen and her Danish counterpart, that was a feeling unlike any other. To know that that that woman would be able to rejoin her family, that Danish man would be able to rejoin his family. and have a life. She subsequently has had a child. It's pretty special. That is special. Thank you so much for sharing that. So you were one of a very small number of military leaders who rose from the rank of private to four-star general. What was that experience like, considering at the very bottom and coming up so high? Well, certainly when I first enlisted in the Army, I enlisted as an infantryman, a paratrooper, and I enjoyed that, no expectation that I would serve in a career, and certainly not even, in a thought about being an officer.

My thought, frankly, was, you know, served for a couple of years, make a little money, honestly, mature a little bit, hopefully, and kind of figure out what do I want to do with the rest of my life. But I found that the Army life was very attractive to me. And when I was afforded the opportunity by the Army to go back to college, finish my degree, earn a commission as an officer, I felt honored to have that ability. So in the initial years as an officer, having served as an enlisted soldier before, I think it gave me a better understanding of the nature of the Army. Some of the stuff is just very tactical and very simple.

You know, I was pretty good with communications. I was pretty good with weapons. I knew, you know, first aid. I know how to march. You know how to put on my uniform, you know, those kinds of things that kind of come second nature to soldiers. But it gave me, I think, a better understanding of the lives of soldiers. of enlisted soldiers. And so particularly in the early stages of my service as an officer,

I think I had a keener understanding of the challenges that young enlisted soldiers face, perhaps that my peers who hadn't had the same experience could share with those soldiers. Given your vast experience working in the military and seeing, you know, everything you've experienced to where you're at now, what are some things that you think could improve in the military? One of the areas that causes me concern, and it has for a number of years, and I certainly see it now in my role at the Association of the United States Army, is that the cohort of young Americans who serve in all of the branches comes from a pretty small swath of our population. Geographically, and from Virginia through the south, across to Texas, people come disproportionately into the military service. from that geographic region.

And over the past several years, the number of people who choose to serve who come from families who have served in the military, that number seems to grow each year. I think the last number I saw was two years ago. And well over 70% of the young people who joined the military, joined the Army, came from families where their mother, father, sister, brother, other close relative had served. In one regard, that's very good. Those are young people who have seen the military, seen the Army up close and said,

I want to be part of that. On the other hand, it's exempting, if that's the right word, a large, large segment of our population who don't share that experience, who don't know much about the military, are not inclined to serve. And so I'm a little bit worried

that there's a potential gap growing between the all-volunteer military and the nation it serves in a balance, I don't think that's particularly healthy. So you were speaking here at the Heritage Foundation, talking about working with ROTC and as well as historically black colleges and universities working with those programs to help them be globally competitive and be prepared. What are some strategies you think that could be used positively toward that goal? Well, first, I'd give a big shout out to the Heritage Foundation

for hosting this inaugural event, focusing on the historically black colleges and universities. It's been really a great program that has been developed. We've been through the first half day of sessions. This afternoon we'll talk a little more specifically about the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the HBCUs. One of the things, as we look at, what are the characteristics and the attributes that military leaders will need into the future? They will lead a military in an environment that's very different than the environment

in which I led. You know, most of my career was during the Cold War. It was certainly dangerous, but there was a stability to it. We knew who the adversaries were. We knew their tactics, their equipment, their uniforms, we knew where their forces were staged. They knew the same about us. It was certainly, had we ever gone to war during that period, it would have been exceedingly dangerous, but there was a stability, a predictability during that period. That's not the situation today. leaders of the military, all branches, today deal in an air of great uncertainty. And even in what some call a return to great power competition with China and Russia predominantly, there is a level of competition below the threshold of war that is still very dangerous.

We're talking about cyber operations, other influence operations, that frankly my generation didn't have to deal with. That necessitates, in my view, a leader skill set that is different than what I had to deal with. Where I had a fairly predictable enemy, they have a wholly unpredictable enemy. They have to be leaders today must be agile and adaptive. They must feel comfortable operating in ambiguity. We must trust them to operate with proper intent, but in the absence of continuity of orders with their higher headquarters. so independent operations at a much lower level.

Young junior officers expected to display initiative and judgment that my generation didn't have to do. Hard skills, advanced manufacturing, understanding artificial intelligence, manned, unmanned, teeming of material. Again, operations in space and cyberspace and knowing how to leverage and take advantage of those emerging technologies and capabilities.

that places, in my mind, a much greater, much more difficult demand on leaders at a much lower level than I had to deal with. And I would argue that in ROTC, whether at the HBCUs or across the board at West Point and our other commissioning programs, must adapt to that changed environment to produce leaders who have the skill sets, the leadership abilities, the technical understanding to not only operate in that environment to thrive and to win. in that environment. Well, General Ham, thank you so much for being with us today on the Daily Signal

Podcast. Thanks, Rachel. It's great to be here. Thank you. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify.

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