The David Knight Show - INTERVIEW — From Political Prisoner to Navy SEAL

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

Drago Dzieran, DragoDzieran.com, and author of "The Pledge to America: One Man’s Journey from Political Prisoner to U.S. Navy SEAL". Drago's amazing story of growing up in communist Poland, becoming a political prisoner there, coming to America and eventually becoming a Navy SEAL.Find out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.comIf you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @[e-mail] App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Money is only what YOU hold: Go to DavidKnight.gold for great deals on physical gold/silverFor 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to TrendsJournal.com and enter the code KNIGHTBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

Take your business international. Enterprise Europe Network is the world's largest network providing free support and advice to SMEs with global ambitions. With over 450 partner organisations worldwide, we bring together unparalleled expertise to serve businesses like yours. We can help you discover partners in new markets, advance your digitisation and gain valuable insights into EU funding opportunities. Take advantage of free expert advice and innovation resources. Visit een-ireland.com and take your business global today. We're talking with the author of a book

named The Pledge to America, One Man's Journey from Political Prisoner to U.S. Navy SEAL. His name is Drago Juran, if I'm saying that correctly. Am I saying that right, Drago? Does that get the last name? Yes. Thank you, Travis.

Correct. And he has had an amazing life, and it is an amazing book. And when I saw this, I thought, he's kind of like a Navy SEAL version of Pastor Artur Polowski. People who've grown up in communism have a love for liberty that unfortunately most of us who have grown up in America just don't appreciate enough. And he's had a lot of experience as a Navy SEAL. He was a member of SEAL Team 2, SEAL Team 4, and then was a BUDS instructor at the Navy

Special Warfare Center in Coronado, California. So he's got a lot of experience but i want to begin uh drago with uh your beginning in uh communist poland tell us a little bit about that your child there uh what was it like growing up in that country well like you mentioned before i was born i grew up in communist country and well well, let me clear it. We call it communist countries. Every country behind the iron curtain in Eastern Europe was branded communist country. Well, none of these countries were actually technically communist. They were all communist states run by communists and other perverts. So this is something that people here in the United States do not understand well. Talk a little bit about that distinction between socialism and communism.

Well, in socialism, you actually can own property, although the all infrastructure, the major economical infrastructure is owned by government and because they let you have a little small business on the side doesn't mean that they don't control it either and like I mentioned in my book

when they destroy business of my uncle who did not go along the party line, along the communist ideology. So they went and destroyed his machines, they destroyed his

business and there is nothing he could do about it. Yeah. It is kind of interesting. In a communist country you don't own any property. There's other also differences but this is the major one that yeah, that property there's other also uh differences but this is the major one that uh that uh yeah that i i think would be the easiest to explain it is kind of interesting because you know both uh the nazis and stalin called themselves socialists uh and and hitler criticized uh stalin

for saying hey took over the property and he's going to try to run these things i'm gonna let these people run it i'll control. I'll let them run it. At the very end, I'll take it from them. Yes, it did happen. It happened under Stalin. It happened under Adolf Hitler. It happened in Poland under communists like my father and other socialist states. So they basically control the narrative, and they let you have some business,

but as long as you are going along with them if you do not then you do not have the business you end up in prison very likely so uh what ages were you when you were in poland and how did you get out of poland well um by the time i was 21 in poland communists imposed martial law and they jailed around 25,000. There are different estimates, from 25,000 to 60,000 Polish citizens in one night. They were hunting them on the streets. The government was hunting them in their apartments or places they were living.

I was already involved in Solidarity Trade Union. Initially, it was a trade union. It became a social movement where almost 10 million Poles, out of 32 million at the time, were members of this trade union or more social movement. So communists were losing grip. They were losing control of it. And they were desperate to keep that control. Killing didn't help. Terror, since the second war didn't help a lot.

So eventually they resulted to martial law. This is how I got involved directly into it because when they jail these activists, when they imprison the entire families of people opposing socialism, we had decided we had to do something. At least we can print the real information what is happening in Poland because everything was heavily censored and scrutinized. So people did not have real information what is happening in Poland. And we eventually,

because it was outside of the censorship, outside of the communist narrative and fake news media, we were arrested and I was received three years prison sentence. So I was released on amnesty with most of uh political prisoners after john paul ii pope came to poland second time so when and then the persecution started i was not the only. Everybody opposing socialism at the time was being persecuted this way or another way. For me, it became very dangerous since I was already convict.

Let me ask you, how long were you in jail before they- Almost two years. Almost two years. Over a year, I think a year and a half. Wow. Over a year and a half. So you did almost the entire- So were they really?

You did almost the entire sentence that they had given you, and it was for the crime of printing information, having kind of like a… Yes, printing bulletins and leaflets, actually. It's interesting. When we look at this, it's interesting, isn't it, to see what has happened over the last couple of years and how the hallmark of an authoritarian government is to try to control information and then to be able to identify people and hunt them down, you're saying as they hunted down people and arrested about 25 000 people one night i'm thinking how easy that would be for them today since they have all information on all

of us it's much easier for them uh to get that rather than to have to try to rely on a network of human informants right they they can just do it they can they can scan everybody based on on your viewing habits and what you say on social media and that type of thing which is really concerning isn't it you're right people who control information control minds and this is why there is two things that socialist state will attack and will try to get control of. One is the information. Two is they will try to destroy family values and moral values because the nation that is divided is easier to control. The censorship, and of course, the big hallmark of totalitarian state is fraudulent election. That's what happened in Poland. And i know it very well

as my father was high-ranking communist in polish government so i know a little bit from behind how that thing worked so you get amnesty and you've been sentenced and served nearly two years in prison uh you get put out of jail but you know that it's not going to end there. And this is all happening when was that happening? It was a little bit before 1983, 1984, 1985. The martial law was imposed in December 1981. And by the time I was released, I was still in effect. And being terrorized, and my family being terrorized, I decided to leave Poland at the time i went to

u.s embassy and i asked for help what happened with your your father was in the communist party i mean uh probably didn't go too well for him having a son who was opposing the communist regime what did they what happened to your family there uh my father was at that time uh not with us he left us when i was seven years old so he didn't have much to do with us so he was immune especially he denounced the everything that happened in poland uh as far as the solidarity trade union movement is concerned and patriotic polls who were opposing socialism he was on the opposite side and he really didn't care what happened to me so yeah he was not affected by this. I see.

So you got out of jail because of the general amnesty, because of the Pope coming there, Pope John Paul. And then you realize you got to get out of Dodge. So you go to the U.S. Embassy, and they accepted you, right? I guess. Yes. You know what happened? I had all the documents with me, what happened to me, my court case. And when I presented to them my visa, my immigration visa was processed in an accelerated way. And I was out of Poland, I think within three months.

Usually it takes a year to even get such a permit from the, from Poland and from us embassy to enter the United States. At least it was at the time. So within three months, I was out John Greenewald, Before we talk about what happened in the US, tell people a little bit about what life was like in Poland, the poverty or the, you know, uh, I'm sure under the communists, it was a lot of poverty always is. Uh, you know, what was it like growing up there as a child?

For me at the time, I didn't know any better. I look at it right now and I see how poor we were. But at that time, I was happy. I have my father, my mother, who took care of us, because I had two siblings, and we didn't understand the poverty until later on when we had a chance to see a could see the information placed in the US embassy walls and fans would actually read about it. And also I started to listen to Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and that was eye opener. But also it was very risky because you could go to prison if you listened to these radios in Poland at the time. Matter of fact, I was not even, when I started listening to it,

I think I was maybe like 13, 14 years old. I could be placed, if caught, I could be placed in orphanage. My mother could lose custody of me and my siblings because of that. Matter of fact, they were threatened by that. It happened that when I was in the fifth grade, when it was imposed that everybody in Poland will learn Russian language. Of course, we opposed it. And I didn't want to learn Russian language. At that time, it was not so much political. I just didn't want to learn another language. I had enough problems with Polish. So I said to the Russian language teacher, why do we learn that? We don't need to learn. Besides, Russians are occupiers. The Soviet Union is politically occupying Poland. And while I didn't realize how dangerous these words were, apparently, So I was immediately pulled out of the class.

I was brought to principal's office. They called police. As they went to my mother, she was a teacher in different schools. So she drove up there. They basically kidnapped her. They drove her back to my school. They sat us down. They tried to explain and they were threatening her.

They say, if she does not instill more love for socialism, we will be taken away from her place in the government custody and then we can learn to be proper, good socialist citizens. Of course, my mother was scared. She cried. I didn't understand really why this thing is happening, but it was my first exposure to secret police, to persecution, and to the method that socialism works. And you know what? Please remember too, my family opposed that socialism because they survived quite a few of those socialists. They survived Joseph Stalin socialism. They survived Adolf Hitler socialism and Second

World War, national socialism. Then they survived Léonid Brezhnev socialism. So in Poland, they call it democratic socialism with thousands of people locked up in prisons. So when you're listening to this, and you could get in trouble if you listen to Radio for Europe, how did you do it? I mean, the way we did it is my mother was scared to death. So she brought a bunch of pillows as many as she could find in the house because I thought that I'm going to listen to it. She patted me out and then I got under the pillows because she was so afraid that one of the neighbors may hear it. And in Poland at the time, it's not much different. What happened in East

Germany and Stasi secret police, I'm sure you heard about it. So she was so afraid that one of the neighbors can hear and then also report us to police. But that could mean disaster to my mother, to to our family we would be separated from her very likely what what was it that caught your attention what was it the western music what was it no what got my attention was my uncle i was mentioned earlier that they destroyed the communists in socialist state destroyed his business. So he decided to open his own business. He was making bricks and cedar blocks, but the quality of his work was so high that people stopped buying from government factories. They were going to him and purchasing the bricks, the cedar blocks from him.

So somebody complained to the Communist Party. And they definitely, the police first visited my uncle, told him to scale down. The base even shut down and joined the government factory and help up there. My uncle didn't agree with it. He says, no, I'm running my business. I cannot scale down because if I do scale down, I won't be able to make it.

So he continued with it. And so the first thing that happened is they, the the gangs of young men came and destroyed his machines. Wow. And threatened him. Say, if you continue with it, we're going to kill you. So he said he didn't care about it. It was just young goons, young socialist goons.

And he decided to say he's going to do it again. He's going to rebuild the machine. He did. They ruined it again. By the way, when he went to police to complain, he was arrested, beaten up, tortured for the nights and at home, or beat up. Take your business international.

Enterprise Europe Network is the world's largest network providing free support and advice to SMEs with global ambitions. With over 450 partner organizations worldwide, we bring together unparalleled expertise to serve businesses like yours. We can help you discover partners in new markets, advance your digitization and gain valuable insights into EU funding opportunities. So, he rebuilt it. I think he repeated it twice. Eventually, he ran out of the resources to rebuild his factory, his machines, and he had to move on. But please remember, too, that the very prominent feature of socialism is villains and the unregulated groups of people fighting these villains.

So in Soviet Union, villains were kulaks, the wealthy peasants. In Adolf Hitler's socialist Germany, there were Jews. And we know how it ended up. In Poland at the time, there were also Jewish people, but also intelligentsia and anybody who was wealthier. So they create these groups of young people from factories, from schools, and that's supposed to be spontaneous. They call themselves anti-fascists and anti-Nazis. So my uncle, because he built this business for himself,

he was branded a fascist and a Nazi by these groups. They were not formal groups created by the government, but they were secretly guided and supported by socialist government. And they were very that was very scary for many citizens in Poland. And these young misguided people are almost a feature in socialist state. If you look in 1917, the Bolshevik revolution, that was the same thing. There was not Lenin and Stalin carrying out the atrocities, killing and robbing people. There were those young pioneers and young people who were directed or instigated by communist party, by socialists.

Yes. We need to be very careful about it. And we see the same thing now. We see the same thing. They always organize the same way. And youthful idiots is what I call them. They call them useful idiots. I call them youthful idiots.

But very dangerous. There's nobody that's more useful than a youthful idiot. But yeah, they keep using the same patterns over and over again because they work. And that's one of the things that's really... Well, they work. And also, please remember that socialism will not sustain itself without terror, without censorship, and without fraudulent elections. So to impose socialism, the terror is necessary. There is one thing though, that Joseph Stalin made one big mistake, because he relied on terror only.

Well, if he had the knowledge that we have today, if he had access to computer and understood social science, he would not only resort to terror, but he would also flood the Republic, the states, or the countries he invaded with people who have no loyalty to that country. Yes. That way, he dilute the patriotism, attack patriotism until there is none. So that was very very normal for socialist state to attack patriotic polls, to

attack patriotism itself because it was on the way to instill this international socialist communist cabal. Of course another tactic that we see happening heavily now in our country as well. Well I hope we will not go that way because it is easy to vote yourself or to fall.

Actually, it's hard to vote because people don't vote for communism. But you can fall into the traps of socialism and communism, but pretty much you have to shoot your way out of it. Poland was very lucky because at that time there was no technology like we have today that can control your every step, every move. If communists had that type of technology then I think Poland would be still communist

I mean socialist state run by communists. But again I don't think this is the socialism or communism is the goal. The socialism and communism is just the tool to control society. This is the best way to control society through terror, through different mechanisms. And then basically the elites, the socialist elites, they can't have a lifestyle they want. They were never, as Poland were, and other, as in Poland and in other countries, socialist countries,

people were starving, the socialist elites. They never had to. They were these oligarchs, what we call them today. Yeah, it's always a way of having elitists running an authoritarian regime, and that's the commonality. What they use in order to trick us and deceive us into, into this step-by-step, uh, that can change from time to time. But as you point out, uh, with the technology that they have now, uh,

if we do not stop some of the things that are being done, uh, we're, it's going to be very difficult, uh, for us. And, and the world has never seen the kind of oppression that these people are capable of doing to these totalitarians at this point. Well, let's pick up with your story now. So you listen to Radio Free Europe. I started listening to it because you were upset about what was being done to your uncle.

Yes, to my family. It happened then quite often that he was just swiped from the street brought to police station, beat up, held overnight and just let them go let him go so he was the one who explained it to me about Polish history, about the

Radio Free Europe, BBC, Voice of America where to listen, where to learn about the real Polish history because the socialists they destroyed all the monuments they were not going along with, they were not

supporting their socialist communist narrative, they twisted the history, they censored the history to the point that we growing up in Poland did not know a lot about the Poles fighting Second World War on the Allied side. When I was growing up, I only heard about these heroes of the Soviet Union, heroes of the Polish satellite army in the Soviet Union whose input into the Second World War was nil, almost nothing,

versus the army that was fighting war on the Allied side from Great Britain. We didn't know much about it. They were hiding it. And then when people came back, some of these veterans from the Second World War came back to Poland, to socialist Poland, they were promptly executed or put in prison, most of them. Wow. Until today, there are still unmarked graves of these Polish patriots, these Polish veterans coming back from Second World War. Many graves cannot be found. They are still looking for it. There are still people missing from the socialist era in Poland.

This is how I learned about it from Radio BBC, Radio Free Europe, that my uncle who was tortured by communist state turned me on to it. My mother was petrified, but I think it was the right thing to do. I learned a lot about Poland, about what is really happening in Poland. That's great. So, so, uh, you're how old when you get to the American embassy and get approved? How old were you when you got to, uh, I was, uh, 24 years old. Wow.

Okay. So then 23 years old, basically. I know that's 23 going 24. And so you didn't get into the military until that that's kind of a little bit old to get into the military you had quite a career in the military tell us a little bit about that how did you get into the military after you get to the united states i mean what what well i came to the united states in 1984. and uh i had a great life you know i started as a janitor i was cleaning toilets i was cleaning uh classrooms schools and uh and I learned English. Because when I came to America,

I didn't speak English. I did not have anything but the bag of clothes I came in with. So I started a lot from the janitorial world, but I didn't expect anything better. But I believe that when I learn English, when I learn more about America, I can definitely go progress and get different jobs and do something else. And I did. But I started as a janitor, then progress slowly to work in the parts department of the dealership. Then I became a mechanic working for Saab and Mercedes.

And I was doing great. I mean, I love life. I started skydiving then. And then the first Persian war broke out. I became a US citizen at the time. So I believe that this is my moral obligation to support my country the best I can. I'm American. So I went and joined US military just because again, there was my moral obligation to do so. So I dropped everything, my work, my friends, when I announced that I'm going to join the army. That was kind of a little bit convoluted because I didn't know how to do it. I described it in the book. But eventually I end up in the Navy and end up in the SEAL teams. And I then never intended to serve 20 years.

My intention was to serve America during the war and then return to my life, my good life that I had. It just happened. I never returned. I stayed 20 years. Well, that's amazing that you enlist in your mid-20s or something. Oh, yeah. I was 32. I was 33.

That's way too old. But you know what? I was doing so well, I guess, in boot camp. I graduated as a number one recruit from the entire graduation group. Then I did also graduate at the top of my class from A school, the trade school in the Navy. So when I asked for my orders

to go to SEAL training, it took maybe a few months, but eventually I ended up in BUDS as a student, as a trainee in the SEAL program. So you had no intention of getting in the Navy so that you could become a SEAL. You just got in to do your duty.

Yeah, no, my intention was not about the SEALs. I didn't really know much about the SEALs. I didn't hear about them until I met them actually in Memphis, Tennessee. Take your business international. Enterprise Europe Network is the world's largest network providing free support and advice to SMEs with global ambitions. With over 450 partner organisations worldwide, we bring together unparalleled expertise to serve businesses like yours. We can help you discover partners in new markets, advance your digitisation and gain valuable insights into EU

funding opportunities. Take advantage of free expert advice and innovation resources. Visit EEN-Ireland.com and take your business global today. My intention was just to serve the Navy and serve the America in the Navy. And it just happened that I end up in the SEAL teams and I'm very proud of it. Oh, yeah. it oh yeah yeah but you know there's one thing i need to uh stress to hear that yeah i'm as extremely proud as i am being navy seal i think there is something much more important for me than being just the navy seal uh being american citizen this is something that is so precious that's something that you don't see me uh wearing the trident the navy seal trident

my lapel because i wear american flag in american flag encompasses the seal and everything else with what is good about america good for you good for you that's a great message i uh it is amazing tell us a little bit then you know what was that like you're going in and uh again you're you're quite a bit older than all the rest of these other people that's such a grueling um you know, what, what was that like? You're going in and, uh, again, you're, you're quite a bit older than all the rest of these other people. I had, that's such a grueling, um, you know, program to go through. A lot of people can't handle the physical aspects of it. You must've been in excellent shape.

You're in your thirties and you, An excellent shape, but that was definitely the term to succeed. But, uh, yes, you are right. I was like almost four years, five years over the age limit. So I had to obtain a waiver from the Navy. And I think that what helped me is just my performance till that point within the Navy that such waiver was granted to me. So yes, you're right.

I was 32 years old and it was literally kicking my butt physically more than mentally mentally it was it was not really nothing that tough and my attitude was also different i didn't go up there to try like i hear i used to hear it all the time well i'm trying to be the best i'm trying this i. I'm trying that. Well, I didn't go there to try. I just went there to become a sale. So, yeah, that's great. I love the attitude that you have about all of this stuff, your, your career, as well as your country. Uh, tell us a little bit about, you said, uh, you had time, uh, as a seal, you saw

combat, uh, you know, any stories that, um, uh, you want to relate to us about, uh, your time in the Navy seals what it was like it was a great time in my life and had a huge impact of my life today so yes i joined i was older person but once i made the seal teams there was not really not not much difference i was treated the same way like anybody else and uh my uh you know there's one i would like There's one more thing I would like to say, because I see so many divisions in our nation happening right now. When I went into the US Navy, when I became a US citizen, the first thing I learned is that we all have only one color, red, white, and blue. There is no other color we should be concerned about. All that is that all of us are Americans and in the heart, we are red, white, and blue.

We don't see other colors. So, and when I came to, of course, my language barrier was not very helpful for me at the time. So I had to put extra work in my English as I was mastering my Navy seal skills and eventually, uh, the second war broke out and I deployed to Iraq at the time, and that was actually one of the longest deployments I ever made because as the West coast seal platoons were deploying and were active in the war, the East coast was preparing itself for the war and, uh, me and SEAL platoon deployed to South America. In the middle of my deployment, I was called that,

hey, you need to go to Baghdad. We're going to send you to interface our guys with Polish Special Forces GROM. And you're going to be spending three months up there. So after six months total deployment, because in the Navy Navy we do six months deployments most of the time. So after six months you come back, you join your new platoon and start over. Well, three months passed and I was still there. Nobody called me. So I kind of enjoyed

what I did. I believe it was so important. So I didn't say anything either. So instead of three months, four months, five months, six months, seven months, eight months, nine months, eventually my night vision broke out and broke down. So I had to call my command. It's like, where are you at? I'm Baghdad. Okay.

How long have I been there? Almost a year, nine months, a year in deployment. Oh, well, okay. You need to come back. They just forgot about you. They just forgot about you. So I came back and then I went on to help out another SEAL platoon. I went with just for two weeks, but it happened four months later, my SEAL team was calling me and said, hey, you need to come back because we are going back to Iraq. So you just come back and go back to Iraq again. So I came back.

Then after a short workup, went back to Iraq again. So it was pretty intense, back-to-back deployments. Wow. You say your night vision broke down. You're talking about your device, not your eyes, right? Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. My night vision goggles broke down down and I had to call my

commander and say, Hey, I need the new one. Can you send me the new one? And actually for a funny story. That's funny. They don't know that you're there. Yeah. Yeah. Who's a new seal who was there to say, okay, well, you want the night vision? What do you want them? I said like in Baghdad. Oh, okay. What do you want also with it? You want the suicidal bomb vest with it? They thought I'm just Iraqi trying to elicit. I think this is what he thought.

There's a new guy in the armory. He said, do you want to? Yeah. So I had to kind of like straight him up, explain it to him. That's funny. But you know, the thing is, we listened to your story and the things that you went through in Poland, the experiences that you had with authoritarianism, totalitarianism, the brutal police state, the mass arrests of people and all that type of thing.

You came to this country, you valued freedom. And that used to be the common thing that we would see with people who would come here. A lot of people would come here from Europe in the early 20th century, had nothing but the clothes on their back, just like you. They came here because they wanted freedom. And that's a big difference, you know, and it is, I guess, one of the things that I'm concerned most about as I listen to people who have lived under communism, and they talk about the eradication of history, the eradication of monuments, the rewriting of history, the radicalization of youth through the institutions that have been taken over. And, of course, that is essentially the plan that they have, you know, taking over these institutions and taking over the minds of kids from a very early age. It is very concerning to see that. And I think that's got to be one of the most important aspects of

your experience, the experience that you can bring to us, telling us what we can fall into if we're not careful, why America is not this evil presence that is what is being sold to the kids in the institutions today. Everything is about demonizing America, and I think that's a key thing. The love that you have for the country, the commonality, the melting point aspect of this, and it is something that's really been, I think, deliberately set aside. I think it's very important for people to see a book like this. I'm glad that you did. Tell me the title.

You talk about your pledge to America. What is your pledge to America? Well, when I came to America, from the first day, I had the help of American people. See, America is built on goodness on personal freedom there is so many good things about American people that when I faced this when I

was embraced by America I told myself that I will be the best American I can be best American citizen I can be I want to be better American citizen today than I was yesterday citizen I can be. I want to be a better American citizen today than I was yesterday, and I will be a better American citizen tomorrow than I am today. That's my pledge. That's

my, that's what I believe. That's how I live now in my family. But you are right, the attacks on family, on patriotism is very common. This is something new to America, and people really do not understand the tactics of communists and socialists. So what they will do, and now we are in the phase of desensitizing, normalizing poverty, poor living conditions, normalizing perversion, normalizing debauchery. And people do not... So what they do, it is a very slow process. And with the help of fake news media, with the help of all kinds of perverted organizations or outright enemies of the United States. Slowly what is happening,

the older generation that knew freedom, they knew what the freedom was, they knew how good it was, how great America was, they are fading away. So basically what communists do, they just wait it out. They want to wait out

and fade these people away, make them disappear, and bring the young, new generations already indoctrinated into socialism and socialist way that don't know any better, any different. And this is how slowly they subvert America. This is the process of desensitization and normalization of poverty and perversion. It is kind of interesting, as you pointed out, and I've heard other people say this, not just coming from another country, but I've heard people say this about growing up in America.

We were poor, but we didn't know it. And I think people look at, you can not know that you're free you cannot understand the good things that you have until you lose them as well and i think that's kind of what we are in america right now is that we we were free but we don't recognize we we have good things that were given to us by previous generations but we don't recognize it and they're doing their best to make sure that we don't know that and to change the narrative of that i think that's really where we are especially the new generation don't know it that's what is very important for them this is why there's these attacks and these attempts to hijack our children that's what that's this is a very dangerous process and it's not well understood uh in

american society that's why we need to be very vigilant because we can lose freedom very quickly if we are not vigilant. The freedom that we have is not passed to our president Reagan, it's not passed to our children in our blood. They need to learn it. We need to teach our kids. And this is a very important part for the parents too. If school gets perverted, if school basically is trying to hijack our children, parents need to step in and parents must be able to educate the kids the way they want it. So this is why you can see right now so much stress, so much pressure, especially in democratic grand states, to kidnap our children away from parents and indoctrinate them in the socialist way. Again, I don't think that socialism

is a goal in America. Socialism is just a vehicle, a tool to subdue the society, to control the society. And, uh, we must not allow it to happen here. Yeah. It's just the argument. America is not social state. That's right. It's just the argument they use to, uh, to, to sell that. Yes.

Yes. But please remember America is not social state. Uh, not yet. And we must make sure that that doesn't happen. That's that's right. And it is, uh, it is a fight for the next generation. And if we can turn the hearts of the fathers towards the children, that'll make all the difference in the world. Or if God does it, that'll make the difference in the world.

And, you know, it is the type of thing they have marched through the institutions. And one of the last institutions, one of the most important institutions, is the schools. And they've now marched through those schools. But we still have an opportunity where people can take control of their children's education. If they understand what is happening, we still have that freedom to do that, which is still an amazing story. I had a listener who contacted me how they fled out of Sweden because they wanted to homeschool their child, and it was illegal there, as it is in many European states, to even homeschool your child. So we have a choice. You know, you can put your child in a private school.

You can homeschool your kids. You don't have to send them to the institution that's been taken captive. And that's the key thing. We're going to have to fight for this. And I think your book, giving people an idea of what it is like to live under communism, your appreciation for freedom and for America, I think that is really key. And that may be one of the most important things that you fight for right now. You know, we don't want to have to shoot our way out of it, as you said before. It's really important to fight this war at the beginning, isn't it? Yes. The book was written because when I share my story,

I heard most of the time, oh, the communism and socialism is so bad, you know, you need to write the book. I don't want to write the book about how bad socialism and communism are. Most of the people know it. I want to use this book as a prism, as a lens. When people read it, they can see how great America is, how unique America is, how we can love this country,

we can build it, we can make it better even, but we need to love it first. What disturbs me is the hate I see towards America from our own citizens. You know, I was hunting terrorists in the Middle East, and I have to admit that I haven't seen so much hate towards America from these terrorists like I see from some of our citizens yes here in america this is very disturbing this is something that uh we need to address and this is coming from our educational institutions our schools especially the higher education was hijacked

by marxists and communism and this is something very disturbing that we need to address and address fairly quickly. I agree. And I think it's very important for books like yours. Talk about, you don't want to focus on the negativity about how bad communism is, but talk about what's right with America. And that is a big part of what is missing right now. You look at it in the arts, you look at it in education. It's one of the reasons why Brave Books and Kirk Cameron were doing that.

They want to show people a positive vision. And we see some movies that are now being done by some new movie studios showing people a positive vision. Disney, when I was a kid, was showing us positive stories about the American Revolution or about Davy Crockett or whatever. We were proud of our history. They focused on the freedom aspects and the commonality of man and the opportunities that were a part of America, the beauty that is there. And that's what is missing and that's what needs to be recovered. I'm glad that that's the focus of your book because we consciously need to give people a vision of what to aspire to and a vision of what is right with America, what we can fix.

Certainly we want to know, but we also want to know what is right with America, what is beautiful and celebrate that type of thing. That is something that really is missing. I'm glad you're focusing on that in your book. We do unite. We need to unite as Americans, definitely, and do not allow these divisions to happen. The enemy of the United States will use these divisions to destroy America the way it is. You know, I'm not concerned about a bunch of Chinese guys

landing on our beaches or parachuting on our land. That's not going to happen. But I'm concerned about America being attacked from within. And there is a program, and I think some people are aware of it, but it's not generally known, that the best way to dismantle America is from within, to purchase a political party and politicians, and then just guide them through or demand this or that, and eventually the America

we know will stop existing and we'll have a totalitarian state, very dangerous. And, uh, again, this is not, it is not here now, but we just must be vigilant. It doesn't happen. You're right. Yeah. The greatest danger is the danger of rot from within and decay from within. And I mean, look at the White House now.

Sorry? Look what happened. I mean, this family turned the most cherished institution, the most cherished place in the world, into a crack house. I mean, how is that? That's right. Yeah, and then how is it that they get away with it? That's the other part of this.

Well, how they get away with it, I know, that's the other part of this. Well, how they get away with it, I know, because I experienced it in communist Poland. My father, who was a communist, he used the same tactics and he used the same influence to protect his assets and his things. So that's something that we need to be careful about here. That's true. Yeah, even as we look at the you know, the judge who came back against the Bidens in terms of censorship and said, you know, no, this is not going to stand.

This is, you've set up an Orwellian ministry here of censorship, even as that was happening. You had people in mainstream media saying, no, we want the government to censor. We want people, the government to control speech. That's the danger that we are right now. It is really pervasive. And so that's why it's important for people to get your perspective. I absolutely agree with what you're saying. Where's the best place for people to get your book? I'm sure you can find it on Amazon and you've got a website there. Yes, my website is right above my head here. That's my, where you can actually go and find a little bit more information there will be some uh posts that didn't make into the book that i'm going to go and out and expand on it i

think it's important so yeah you can purchase it on amazon barnes and in the bookstores like barnes and nobles books a million um and uh yeah it is available now okay and and uh let me tell this to be i'll have it in the notes uh for the show uh but pull his uh website up there again travis so i can read this off to people who are listening with podcast it's a d-r-a-g-o-d-z-i-e-r-A-N.com. So it's Drago, and the last name is D-Z-I-E-R-A-N. The book is The Pledge to America. Sounds like a fantastic book. Thank you so much for what you've done for our country. What you're doing now is really important.

It was an honor to serve. Thank you. Showing us, holding a mirror up. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And showing people what is right with America, showing people what we need to preserve, that is one of the most important things you could do. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And showing people what is right with America, showing people what we need to preserve, that is one of the most important things you could do. Thank you so much.

Thank you, sir. The common man. They created common core to dumb down our children. They created common past to track and control us. Their commons project to make sure the commoners own nothing. And the communist future. They see the common man as simple, unsophisticated, ordinary. But each of us has worth and dignity created

in the image of God. That is what we have in common. That is what they want to take away. Their most powerful weapons are isolation, deception, intimidation. They desire to know everything about us while they hide everything from us. It's time to turn that around and expose what they want to hide. Please share the information and links you'll find at thedavidknightshow.com. Thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing. If you can't support us financially, please keep us in your prayers.