The Team House - President Trump Set to Attend Meeting with Generals | EYE ON GEOPOLITICS

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

In this episode, the hosts discuss a newly proposed 21-point peace plan for Gaza, analyzing its potential impact and the challenges it faces, particularly regarding Hamas and Israeli responses. The conversation shifts to the geopolitical landscape in Europe, focusing on Russian drone incursions and the implications for NATO. The episode concludes with a discussion on an upcoming U.S. military summit, addressing leadership and strategic concerns within the military.Check out Mick's new podcast ⬇️https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pub-and-porch-applied-stoicism/id1836955475Support the show on Patreon:⬇️https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouseSubscribe to our new newsletter!!!!https://teamhousepodcast.kit.com/joinNew merch, patches, and stickers! ⬇️https://theteamhouse-shop.fourthwall.comFind Mick Mulroy here: Fogbow ⬇️https://fogbow.com/Lobo Institute ⬇️https://www.loboinstitute.org/Twitter ⬇️https://x.com/mickmulroy?s=21&t=-Ze3F_Ix2vlJ18KFvORTCALinkedIn ⬇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-patrick-mulroy-31198b52/Bluesky ⬇️https://bsky.app/profile/mickmulroy.bsky.socialMick’s publications ⬇️https://www.loboinstitute.org/publications/publications-of-michael-mick-patrick-mulroy/Find Andy Milburn here: Twitter ⬇️https://twitter.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fandymilburn8LinkedIn ⬇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmilburn2023Substack ⬇️https://amilburn.substack.com/Andy’s book ⬇️https://www.amazon.com/When-Tempest-Gathers-Mogadishu-OperationsBluesky ⬇️https://bsky.app/profile/andy-milburn.bsky.socialFind Jason Lyons here: LinkedIn ⬇️https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-lyons-666873316?uBluesky ⬇️https://bsky.app/profile/bgsilverback73.bsky.social"Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"00:00 Start 00:12 The 21-Point Peace Plan in Gaza17:09 Escalating Tensions in Eastern Europe26:50 Youth Recruitment and Espionage for Russia28:05 Disinformation and Political Interference in Europe30:12 Military Mobilization and Modernization in Europe32:07 Impact of Ukrainian Strikes on Russian Economy34:08 Recruitment Challenges in the Russian Military36:35 Unprecedented Military Summit and Leadership Dynamics41:37 Oath to the Constitution and Military Ethics"Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio"Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Eyes on Geopolitics. We've got the full crew here today. Mick Mulroy, Andy Milburn, Jason Lyons, and myself. A lot happening, as usual. We got word. Was it a day ago, a day and a half ago, about a 21 point peace plan in Gaza that who knows if the Israelis are down for? But 21 points seems like a lot and seems pretty thorough.

The interesting thing that I read is like it leaves like an open-ended thing. thing for like a Palestinian state, which I'm sure the war cabinet as it's now constituted will not exactly go for, just guessing, speculating. What do you guys tracking on this? Mick, let's start with you. So as you know, I was at the, in New York City for Unga last week. And this was a big topic because it was it was presented by the U.S. to several countries. who are paramount for its success.

In fact, if they don't buy into it, it's not going to work. The first two, of course, are Israel-grouped terrorist organization, Hamas, to agree to, because we're in the 48-hour period, right? So if they agree in the next 48 hours, that's be, you know, Israel and Hamas, this plan will start. And it starts with, obviously, the ceasefire, a complete release of all hostages, the 50, 20 of which are still believed to be alive, thousands of Palestinians will be released from prisoners, I should say.

They will go back to the 600 trucks of humanitarian aid per day, which is what's necessary. And then there is a whole other, well, the IDF will start pulling out of major, population centers, the multinational force will be raised. Indonesia's volunteer 20,000 troops. As most people know, of course, they are a Muslim country, so I think they think that they could be this force. It'll be supported by many Arab countries. Tony Blair is involved with his institute. He's going to be kind of like the best governance part, where they're going to build a technocratic infrastructure of Palestinians to focus on rebuilding the society, the economy. It'll be demilitarized. Some also have nothing to do with the future government. There'll be a Palestinian authority,

but a revived one. The current one is considered non-effective and in many ways corrupt. So they will essentially redo the Palestinian Authority and they'll fall under it. And then they'll be training Palestinian security forces that are like police, not like military army type. So they're not a threat to Israel. There'll be a major reconstruction fund. We're talking billions and billions of dollars funded mostly by the GCC countries, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, I imagine. And then all this is hopefully going to lead to a plan for a,

two-state solution in the sense that there'll be a Palestinian state that lives in harmony with Israel and an expansion of the Abraham Accords. So it's a very, and I won't go through, I mean, I'm sure I didn't cover all of them, but we'd be here the whole episode talking just about the plan. I think it's very comprehensive. Hats off the folks that put this together. I'm sure it was a lot of work. Will it happen? I don't know. We're going to find out by, you know, Tuesday. Because that's got to happen for any of the other stuff to happen. But it'll be a Herkulean effort. I think it would be worth the stability that it will bring in the region in the long run.

But that's where we are. Hopefully Israel will accept this immediately. And then Hamas doesn't do what it always does and blow it. But we'll see. And I was hearing about this before the plan came out really today, I think, in full. And it was very consistent with. And there's also one factor of Israel promises not to attack Qatar in the future. You know, I'm sure they stuck that in there.

But all of it's important. But really, it needs to start for it to have any relevance beyond think tanks and podcasts. Well, it's tackle that. Andy? Well, first of all, I think it's a tremendously positive move. You know, I never, frankly, I, you know, looking at the, 21 clauses are a few in here than I never expected this government to put in there. On the other hand, and I hate to say on the other hand, because I really do think that, you know, I mean,

it's easy to attack any proposal, and I'm not attacking it. I'm just concerned because there is very, I think, deliberately a lack of detail in a lot of these points. And so as the same goes, the devil will indeed be in the details. And I think one of the same, of the biggest concerns up front is Meg pointed out where within the 48 hour time limit, right? Well, it's hard to see what is in this for Hamas's leadership aside from the fact that they're not going to get attacked in Qatar. You know, they're agreeing. I mean, I understand that they can always agree to something with the belief that they're going to be able to change things down the line. But that's, you know, that's probably my biggest concern is, in same,

for Hamas leadership to agree with this right off the bat. I don't think they've proven in the past they don't care enough about the Palestinian people, or at least they have a very distorted view of how they represent the Palestinian people. And so the suffering of the Palestinian people and the option to be able to stop that, I don't think it's going to be an incentive enough. I think in the end of the day, they want to hold on to power. And this agreement threatens that. In fact, it specifically removes them from powers.

So that would be my concern. I think it's great that there's an agreement both about a transitional government. That was a sticking point previously. It's a little vague on that. It talks about Palestinian technocrats taking over a government, the interim government, before turning over to the Palestinian Authority, if the Palestinian Authority kind of passes to test for a reform, All right, so that's kind of indefinite.

But if a group of Palestinian technocrats have indeed been identified, as I'm sure they have, that is certainly positive. Again, it's easy to point poke holes in this. I'm, you know, rather than call what I'm saying criticism, I'd like to say, I prefer to say they were just concerns based on, based on what's happened historically and based on the main players. You know, when I talk about vagueness, things like the U.S. will work with Arab and other international partners to develop a temporary international stabilization force.

Mick mentioned the Indonesians. That's great, but I think there's going to be getting other. I'd like to hear if there's regional Arab partners who've agreed to that. previously both the Jordanians and the Saudis have said that would kind of be in a lose-lose situation for them to provide a stabilization force. However, okay, getting on to the positive things. Well, there's a number of positive things here. If the Israeli government agrees to this, there are some notable concessions.

One is, even though it's a very vague talk about discussions in the future, at least it opens the possibility of discussions about a future Palestinian state, which Netanyar, who has briefly said in not so many words, but over my dead body. I think another positive aspect of this is, I think it's point number 16 or 17, 17, where Israel basically says if Hamas delays or rejects the proposal, all the other points will apply in one. what are called terror-free areas that have identified within Gaza. And there's been talk about this for some time. In other words, you control who enters these areas, you know, through biometrics

or whatever means. You search military-age mails. And so they move into, I'll call them sterile zones, right, where they are fed and they looked after and given medical attention. But you make sure that ban out. actors don't get in there. Maybe easier said than done, but at least, you know, if that can be done, the IDF's proven itself not capable of doing that before, but if it can do that, then yeah, that's certainly that's a great, I'm glad to see that clause in there because it's a realistic,

certainly realistic to prepare for Hamas not agreeing to this. But I'll stop there and just say, hey, this is, I'm, I'm cautiously excited by this because at least it shows from our administration. We'll see from the Israelis the willingness to overcome some roadblocks that were there beforehand, sending in the way of a ceasefire or indeed a peace settlement. Jay? Yeah, I'm saying, I'm excited that for the possibility. while being acutely aware of the possibility of the negatives. I think Andy's point about Hamas' distorted view of their protection of the Palestinian people is going to be the main roadblock,

along with Israel's hypersensitivity to that, that's going to be the main, in my eyes, main roadblock to this because those two things are going to be the what's going to not only be the roadblock to it, but what's going to start all this up again, you know, all the destruction up again. So we just have to keep an eye on it while hoping for the best. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens. And it also includes no annexation of all parts of the West Bank, no forced expulsion of Palestinians out of Gaza. So it seems to me like it's pretty consistent with, you know, what needs to happen, at least from my point of view.

And really what the last administration was pushing for too. So it's not purely pro Netanyahu's version of what the future should be. So we'll have to see whether he accepts it because that'll be a big step for him. and of course whether the right faction, the far right faction of his security cabinet accepts it because I don't seem to accept one accept anything. So I don't know. I think everybody's on this podcast,

at least is pulling for it. But we'll find out next, what, 36 hours? Yeah, the settlers, the West Bank Yahoo's on the right wing, they're going to go absolutely apshit about this. Absolutely abshed. There is no way they're going to. to agree to the it's not just the gaza piece but especially the west bank piece they literally think they have a god-given right i mean i mean that absolutely literally god-given right

to own the west bank and expel or kill every Palestinian living there now it's sudama judea and samaria it's not the west bank and it's already a part of israel hey guys how's it's it i want to thank you for watching this show i really appreciate it and i love for you guys to check out our Patreon. It's at patreon.com slash the teamhouse. The link is in the description. Super easy to find. If you're listening, it's in the show notes as well.

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Thank you. Also, how does Netanyahu keep his coalition? If he's down to do this kind of this 21-point plan, how can he possibly stay in power? Well, I mean, I'm sorry. I don't need to jump in. I mean, you know, Netanyahu is a cunning survivor. And he may, who knows, this is not beyond the realms of the probable. He may decide it's time to step off the extreme right-wing bus and form a centrist coalition.

And if he agrees to this plan, there is certainly the problem. possibility of doing that. Who knows? The meetings tomorrow between President Trump and Mr. Netanyahu, I believe, in the White House. So we'll just come into a head. Hopefully, hopefully we go forward with it. If not, I don't know when the U.S. just says, you know, we did everything we can, come back to us when the two sides are willing to, you know, move forward. I'm not saying we give up, but this is a very well-laid-out plan. I believe most of the the countries, the GCC countries and others are willing to contribute.

So now we have to see whether the two main parties stayed Israel and a terrorist group of Moss agrees to go forward. Yeah, so we'll see what goes down in the next 36 hours. Anything left on this that you guys want to touch on before we move on to the next topic? No, I think it's, though, it's kind of interesting that when you look at what's happening in the Republican Party, there is, you know, there's some, there's a lot of Netanyahu fatigue, right? And, you know, a lot of the media, vocal media proponents of the right wing of the Republican Party, Tucker Carlson being one, you know, it's being very forthright in the fact that we need to cut

Netanyahu loose that he does not represent U.S. interests. So I think that, that adds a little more. or perhaps impetus to this. I don't know how much, but maybe I'm grasping at straws, but I think it's certainly a positive sign. I think there's definitely a chasm in the right wing between, you know, Israel 100% and, you know, what Israel is doing is no bueno. Hey, just the last point, you know,

I was just thinking about this the other day. I'm watching on my Twitter feed, um, uh, Israeli friends. included attacking the UK for, you know, Stama's recognition of the Palestinian state and making comments about the UK being a Muslim country and this and that. And I just think about how the pendulum has swung. You know, I grew, my best friend at boarding school, his father served in Palestine, as it was called then the mandate back in, you know, this guy as a 19-year-old rifleman in the rifle brigade, right? He'd survived landing in Normandy for the Germans all the way through,

and then instead of going home, gets sent to Palestine. And I just remember him, he was a very calm, level-headed guy as a lawyer after the war. But if you started talking about what he would call the Jewish extremists and the Higana gang, the Stern gang, you know, these guys, the British soldiers were seeing civilians. and themselves taking casualties from these guys. My point is this, not to, this is not in, you know, I mean, my point is simply to this, that sometimes when we throw terms around terrorism and everything, it's all on where you stand and what you believe in, right?

It's, I, listen, this is an argument. Of course, Hamas is a terrorist organization. Of course. Of course Israel has a right to exist. I'm simply saying that I remember a time when people were labeling nascent Israelis before the state became Israel, and that's why, you know, I'm referring to them as as Jewish terrorists

from the point of view of British soldiers. That's what they called them back then. And, you know, sadly, this has been the story of the land of Israel and of Palestine since it's both sides leaving the other. And both sides wanting the same thing.

Yeah, that's well said. All right. Moving on to what's cooking in Eastern and not so Eastern Europe. A ton of drone incursions by Russian drones. Last week we heard from Trump who at the, I think it was at the Young guy, the UN General Assembly at the press conference where he said, yeah, NATO should start, or European countries should start shooting down these drones if they want to.

I'm sure they have stepped up their patrolling and stuff like that, but we're still seeing a ton of like reports of incursions over Norway last night, over their, their military base where F-35s are housed. What is Europe doing? What are these countries doing? Why aren't they, I don't understand, like, if they shoot down a drone in a populated area, people might get hurt and stuff like that, but what are we doing to knock this off? Well, to start with on the comments you mentioned for President Trump, those were pretty significant,

right? He not only talked about Europe should be shooting down drones and aircraft, he started talking about how Ukraine could win this, period, and actually take back all the terrain that they've lost to Russia. I believe, and people who I think would know more than I do as far as accesses, that he was briefed that Russia's intent is not to stop at Ukraine. So if we don't stop them, literally at Ukraine and roll it back, we could be seeing essentially a world war, right? If he goes on to a NATO country, then we're all in. So I think that was part of his comments, both on Russian intent, but also on Ukrainian capabilities. If the funding for Russia was cut off with

the secondary tariffs of European, the United States, and I think it's fair to President Trump to point out that there's still several European countries that are buying oil and gas from Russia, which funds the war that they're obviously against, including, you know, like French, Belgium, Netherlands, for example. This was a significant shift in, you know, the idea that Ukraine has to be willing to give up some of their terrain for peace. So I would highlight that first. And then secondarily, and I mean, I'm still going back to that weird drone thing we had in the United States because it looks so similar to this. I have no information that, you know, Russia was doing that.

But this is like a harassment. It's the bully that walks down the hall at school and slaps a kid on the back of the head and keeps walking, right? it's just to show that they've got some kind of power over you, but they're not really trying to get in a full-on fight. I think the, you know, next time the bully punches you in the stomach, right? So I think they need to stop it right now. They need to, A, to shoot down, actually shoot down. Drones are easy, I mean, as far as like politically deciding to shoot them down.

But shooting, they need to start shooting down manned aircraft, too. You fly over our stuff. We're going to shoot you down. It's your choice. You made it. We already told you what we're going to do. And then, you know, if it keeps going, they start sending drums over Russia. You know, you can't, you can't let bullies get away with anything or it just gets worse and worse.

It never gets better. And Russia, I mean, they are obviously trying to drag other countries into this conflict. And that has to be an alarm to everybody in Europe. And I think it already is, right? We can get into, you know, the rearm Europe 2030 plan, the safe plan, the fact that, They are expanding so much of their military spending. I mean, Europe is getting ready for war. America needs to understand it's not over exuberance.

It's because they believe it's going to happen. They're fortifying hospitals. They're building basically underground bunkers. They're doing things that really indicate as a society that they expect this to happen. And they're preparing for a war in Europe between NATO countries, which would include the United States, of course, under Article 5 and Russia. It is a, the alarm bell should be going off for everybody, not just the country's on the border of Russia. Yeah, I mean, I agree 100% with Mick, you know, put this in the perspective, all right? This is, this is definitely ratcheting up the

tension. Two weeks ago, Russia launched 19 drones in Poland, right? Clearly intentional right across the border, they weren't straying from the Ukrainian airspace. Oslo, the airports in Oslo and Copenhagen had to shut down because of unattributed drones flying nearby and likely to be Russian unproven. And then, of course, Estonia scrambled jets nine times since the first of August. All right. The first eight times were over Estonian waters, but this latest incident, two MiG-31s flew for 12 minutes right through Estonia's airspace. Twelve minutes may not seem like a long period of time, but when you're flying at, you know,

Mark I, that's a considerable distance, right? In other words, they flew right over Estonia on the way to Kalingrad. They were intercepted by two Italian F-35s. Of course, that's part of the Baltic Air Patrol. Estonia doesn't have its own fast jets. And the Italians made it very clear, by wagging their wings and everything, get out of Estonian airspace, and they were ignored. It's kind of an interesting point.

The rules of engagement in NATO was such that, although it was a violation of a sovereign country, the decision would have had to be made by NATO to intercept. The Italians could have pulled the card on that and said, you know, by intercept, I mean, shoot down. Also, the Migs were also armed. They were armed, yeah. Yeah. My point is this, it's that when you delegate,

and this was unavoidable in this particular case, but it's not, it's a tricky thing. So NATO may say, hey, this is violation of Article 5, but it's still, the country that owns those assets still makes the decision whether it's pulled the trigger or not. Back then, it's too late, right, when you're dealing with fast jets or you're dealing with an impending threat. If it's your own jets and over your own country,

then you don't have to rely on NATO at all. You can just shoot them down. And so the Russians know that. The Russians know there's going to be a lag time when they fly through Baltic airspace. Is that why they're not flying through like Poland? I don't know. I think so.

Because like the polls would be like, oh, let's go. I would guess because the polls, I know they've been watching them, what they've been saying publicly. But they've been saying, don't do it. You know, most recently the, I think it was a Nonga, right? Mick, the Polish delegate said, you're going to be crying. He said, don't cry to us later. Don't violate our sovereign territory and then cry. you know you're losing people because the polls will the polls will go to war i have no doubt about that i mean

they they're ready they've got some bitter history too 20 000 poles died in caten forest 20 000 in a in and if you've seen that area it's not that big area the russians lined them up and shot them in the back of the neck, 20,000 Russian, sorry, Polish army officers. The Poles remember the Warsaw uprising when the Russians, instead of coming to their raid, deliberately stopped advancing and let the Germans go in and annihilate the rebels. You know, there's, and I mean, you just think what's happened during the period of Soviet occupation of Poland too. The way they put down strikes,

the way they put down any demonstration. You remember the strikes in the Gannansk shipyard and 82 put down very brutally by, yes, it was the Polish government with Soviet backing. So there's a lot of history there. And I have no doubt that they would strike back. Yeah, the Russians are using soft measures too,

even though it hasn't been positively attributing or a pin to them. Just four days ago, a Spanish military aircraft. It was an Airbus A330 carrying the Spanish military defense minister was flying through it. I think it was, hold on. Let me see here. Estonian airspace, I believe it was. Their GPS emitter was just, it was jammed.

And I believe it was Clintongrad. It was jammed. It was Lithuania. And it was attributed to Russian interference. And so, I mean, that kind of stuff. I mean, it was fine. The aircraft was fine ultimately. But that kind of stuff, you know, those are the kind of things that could be attributed to acts of war.

So those are all between the drones and those sorts of things. That's kind of stuff that could lead to war. So, oh, hey, who's that guy? That handsome. Yeah. Mick with the wardrobe change. That's TV Mick. Also, you got to think about, like, the sabotage stuff,

like DHL flights that they were trying to do. It's kind of brazen when you really put it down. And it's, I mean, I hope some European nations, especially the ones that are getting their airspace breach start, just doing what they need to do to, like, you know, kind of pee-p-whack Russia into place again. Yeah. I don't know if anybody else is noticing this,

but more and more kids, literal teenagers, are being arrested on charges of spying for Russia in Europe. Yeah. Like literal teenagers. It's crazy. Why is that easier, cheaper? Yeah, it's just easier. They're being recruited online through video games and, you know, things like literal Roblox. My nephew plays Roblox, things like that.

And they're just being recruited through those kinds of things. And, you know, hey, why don't you go check out this? Air Base Forest, so this warehouse, you know, stuff like that and being taught how to make pyrotechnics and, you know, Militov cocktails and they think it's cool and they're getting rolled up, you know, because they're expendable. You know, the other thing is we talk about the military stuff that's going on, but if you look at the influence campaign that is going on with disinformation, with, with people on the ground actively inciting certain political parties within Europe.

So, for instance, think back to the Georgian elections, last year's elections in Georgia. You know, the pro-Kremlin Georgian Dream Party was able to secure a majority after mass interference. Mass interference campaign by Moscow. And now the same thing is happening this weekend in Moldova. the Moldova is bordering on Ukraine. There's the Moldovan government arrested

74 Russian, what they call Russian sabbaters. I don't know exactly what they're doing there, but they certainly were there to interfere with the elections. There's a pro-Soviet party within Moldova. And it looks as though that

Moldovan elections may be going the same way. Remember, these are winning or stacking in elections and getting their guys, in position of tactics that the Russians have used before in Ukraine or attempted to use in Ukraine that used in other countries and it's why you know I don't want to sound like an alarmist but often a precursor for for invasion because the next step is to come in and say hey they they simply moving forces in defend the democratic process because their party wasn't

elected so all of this all of this stuff is happening and and the tension has been ratchet it up. And there is certainly a lag time in response by United States and NATO. But for, as we talked about, the Eastern European countries, I think that, you know, they are, I'm sure there are internal discussions about red lines going on right now. That's a big effort in Europe right now, Right. Modernization, mobilization, integration. It's all happening. The countries like, I think Poland has trying to get to 300,000 active forces to be the largest land army in Europe. Germany, I mean, you know, I have a lot of German friends kind of laugh and send me memes about, you know, this push for Germany to, you know, basically go back to its old ways, right, to be ready for the war. obviously a different completely changed Germany. But this is happening. It's something that I think is what really inspired the president's statements.

I think he's been briefed not just by U.S. intelligence, but also by people in Europe and leaders around the world that he knows. And I think they're telling them, like this is critical that we win here. It's not charity. It never has been charity. even though we obligated ourselves to secure Ukraine in the 90s. But it is in everybody's interest to see them win and Russia lose substantially. Hey, Mick, question. And that's for everybody here.

I mean, we've been President Trump's been present for eight months. He's just been briefed about this. Like, it's just like a eureka moment. Oh, I'm sure he's been briefed many times. I know. I'm saying, like it finally saturated. It's all speculation. Perhaps they even have some kind of intelligence that's direct that Putin's talking about his, you know, future goals.

It's complete speculation. I haven't even seen that speculated immediately. But something could have been brief that really gave him the confidence that they got to win. But, I mean, I think everybody would agree his words on this subject changed pretty substantially last week. Yeah. I heard, but I don't know, D, that it had to do with the oil refinery strikes. The Ukrainians have been going after Russian oil refining capability and a half. I don't know if it's exaggerated, but I've heard that they've reduced reduction by 80%, production by 80%.

And if you look on in Twitterland, there are photographs of long lines of cars at Russian gas stations, so it's certainly having an impact on the economy. And the Russian economy, despite all the sanctions violations, is not doing well. And you look what the ruble has done too. You know, the pressure may not be mounting up directly on the government because of the massive amount of casualties in Ukraine. And they are, and they continue to lose a thousand guys a day,

wounded and killed. British Ministry of Defense this week repeated those numbers. but you combine that with what every single Russian citizen is seeing as far as the impact on their pocketbook and you certainly must be having war fatigue. Of course, criticism of war there gets to a five-year jail sentence. But there's only so much, so long you can keep the lid on the pot, right? I was trying to think of a metaphor that wasn't a cliche, but I think. Almost got it.

Yeah. I have read that recruiting has been pretty up in terms of like, because they're offering a really good amount of money if you're, if you join the Russian army as a, you know, Russian dude, which is interesting, right? Like these guys would never see this kind of salary outside of this war economy. And outside, I might not live to see much salary. and father, right. They realize your life expectancy is a month.

And, you know. Gee, that was, that was true. And so a few months ago, I've heard it's not so true now, as Mick points out, the, you know, the word is getting back that it's, it's a lot of money, but it's a very short period of time. Yes, your family, your family gets a pretty generous payout. But that's not a lot of consolation to many people to know that. And, and, and, yes, that was. was a particularly strong selling point in provincial areas, especially in the eastern part of

Russia. But again, word is getting back. And actually, there have been some documentaries, it's not by Russian TV, of course, but on the internet by Russian media outlets working from outside Russia that have been showing what is happening on the front there for Russian soldiers. a Dowell's that has had a had a negative effect on the recruiting drive. They're not in as bad shape as the Ukrainians of Italy. I mean, Ukrainians are in a really dire place when it comes to manpower. All of their units are undermanned.

And I, you know, this sounds so pompous to me, but I predicted this. I wrote an article two years ago now saying that manpower would be the biggest challenge for Ukrainians. And it is proving to be, you know, you get sectors of the line. that are being held by, you know, a squad for every five kilometers. And if that, and that's how the Russians made advances a couple of months ago,

the vicinity of Pogrovsk. They simply just walked through the Ukrainian lines, which would become very porous. But, you know, the Ukrainians saw continue to inflict heavy casualties, not just on the Russian army in the field, but in a very intelligent, strategic way. and now at Russian energy assets. Yeah, it's great. All right. Last bit, HexS meeting on Tuesday.

I want to say I could be wrong, but the early next this week coming up with the top generals in the entire United States military. I don't know if the Coast Guard's there. They should be. Shout out to the Coast Guard. What do you got? I mean, it's been leaking somewhat

since me and Andy spoke about this a few days ago. go that it's going to be a talk like a pep rally on i'm smiling when i say this because it's so ridiculous a pep rally on warrior ethos and something else that makes no sense mick you were in the military you were a marine unfortunately no i'm just joking i love marines i love the marines what's your uh what's your in this present company i know i know i'm surrounded yeah i know your audience uh so i look i look because i pretty sure I'm being talking about this this week. I think it's unprecedented.

I can't think of, I can't find any time in history where they brought all of the combatant commanders and below back in person to see the Secretary of Defense, even when, you know, we didn't have the communication systems we have today, which you can obviously securely VTC people in from all over the world, right? So that's unprecedented. There's questions of expense, fair. There's questions of security. I'm pretty sure we can guard all these folks of Quantico. I've spent a lot of time there myself. But and then the question of what's the real point. So a couple of points, and I'll throw it to the other guys.

One, if you really want to have an effective summit like this, you need to tell people what it's about so they can prepare. It's just odd that it hasn't, that they haven't been told. There's no reason to keep, you know, four-star generals and admirals in the, in the, you know, dark about why they're doing something. It is disruptive. They are, there's major events happening every day in many of these folks' regions, if not all of their regions. I mean, look, there's a war in your continuous conflict in the Middle East. So that bears a question. So other issues they might discuss,

there is a potential on this cut of GOs, right? So generals and animals. I think that's a fair discussion to have. If you look at, say, World War II, we had 12 million people under arms. We had just over 1,000. you know, generals. We now have like 880 generals and we have 1.3 million million under arms. It to me says we have we have a lot more generals than we did then.

And perhaps what used to be done by a lieutenant colonel is not being done by a two-star or so. So I think it's a fair question to have. I don't think it's fair to then like make them the bad people, right? The people that served 30 plus years in the military devoted their entire life. 20 of those years were in combat. They start as a second lieutenant, in just case people don't understand, you don't start as a general. So they've seen it on every level. So to have the argument that we need fewer generals and then make generals the actual bad guy is just completely unfair. And I think they would actually be the ones that are most helpful when it comes to reducing you know, the GOs because they know

more about what's needed at what level. So I think it's a fair question. I don't think it's fair to criticize them. And I would also say that everybody they're bringing back is well aware what the war ethic ethos is, right? That's what they've dedicated their entire lives to. And this idea that our military isn't capable

is just unfair to the military. It's capable, whether there's a Democrat charge or Republican charge or, you know, hopefully one day an independent. Sure. They are still the same military and their main purpose in existence is to fight and win wars and defend the country. And I think that is important. But these men and women that are on planes right now flying back, they're well aware of the war ethos. Not saying that we don't need to have a discussion, not saying that the Secretary of Defense of War should talk to them directly. But I think there'll be a lot of questions based on that. And then there's this idea that there's going to be some kind of oath. I can't imagine that is the case. Maybe it's just propaganda. But ultimately, I'm not saying that there is going to be an oath,

but you can't take an oath other than to the Constitution. If you're asked to, you resign. There is no alternative oath. Or you're actually violating your oath to take another oath. I don't want to get too worked out about it because it just might be. It might be a. Yeah, but I don't think that's the case. But if it is, I think we'll see 880 generals refuse.

Andy, you were a colonel in the Marine Corps, full bird, no bullshit. You know what I mean? Like, what's your take? Well, first of all, absolutely I agree with Mick. I mean, it's hardly even worth discussing the possibility of taking an oath. I mean, that's so far-fetched. But if indeed it is true, yeah, I agree with Mick. I mean, you're just going to see mass resignation of all these officers.

It's not a gray area. It's a very black and white area. You take one oath and that's to the Constitution. We've all taken it and we sure take it seriously. And that transcends oath to any one loyalty, obligation to any one person or certainly any political party. There may be officers who forget that, who don't understand that. But I don't think you'll find them in the general officer ranks. Yes, look, I mean, I started as a private and,

And at every rank you resent the people above you, right? I mean, that's just the way the Marine Corps works. Everyone above you is an idiot, and they don't know what the hell is going on. I agree with Mick. You know, you don't really have to give a lecture to these guys about the worry ethos is what they've dedicated their lives to. And they may be general officers now, but they all have significant combat time behind them. Commandant Marine Corps has a purple heart, you know, a real purple heart, not from heat stroke, or just having his bill rung and a Humphi.

I mean, he was shot. You know, so everyone has, yeah, I get it, man. We've all done multiple combat tours. There's no one more lethal warrior than another. And they all understand that. And, you know, I would say, yeah, it's really not worth bringing them all back to Guancoe to get them a talk about that or PT standards or anything like that.

I, you know, for the sake of being the devil's advocate, because I enjoy doing that, arguably, Perhaps there is a reason to call them back if you're talking about 20% reduction in general officer ranks. And you want to ensure that all of these guys can look you in the face and hear the direct truth from you rather than, you know, from an email or a signal chat or anything like that. You know, I do understand that. I mean, there's an aspect of leadership when you're breaking bad news. You want to tell people face to face. So again, being devil's advocate here, if that is part of this, then maybe I do understand

bringing all these very important, very busy people back at high cost, incredibly high cost to the government to one single location. But there's another part of this that is that I think make all of our speculation null and void, and that is the president now is going to appear at this meeting. and that broke today on the Washington Post. And so Secretary of War, Heg's death was going to talk to them in his words less than an hour about the warrior ethos and all this other stuff. But now the president is going to talk and who knows how long that's going to take.

And I would say that that has kind of hijacked whatever the reason for this. Originally, I would say the president's visit kind of eclipses all of that, wouldn't you? and it certainly raises new security concerns secret service i'm sure i jason will tell you i delighted uh to be flooding down there now in mass to prepare for this what the president will say is anyone's guess who knows jay i love to fly on the wall me too yeah as the uh lowest man on the totem pole here i'm just hoping that it's you know as the guy who probably would have been He's so angry. Yeah, the guy who probably would have been leading the working party to get this freaking dog and pony show pretty.

I just hope it's something that's substance. You know, that's all I can say. Because over the last few days, I've heard every theory of what it could be from we're going to war to it's, hey, you know, everybody's wearing silkies for PT from now on. I don't know. I don't know what it is. Um, but hopefully it's something substantive because as Andy's pointed out, a lot of money is being spent. A lot of security is being, um, gussied up for these, uh, general officers to, uh, fly to one

spot. I'm not worried like Andy said or like, uh, Mick said, you know, I'm not worried about a missile landing on Quantico, you know, to take them all out. Um, they'll be safe. But if this could have been an email or a VTC, then that's what it should have been. But if not, as Andy's pointed out, I do believe that if this is, hey, a 20% reduction thing, then yeah, he should do the right thing and look them in the eye and say that that's what it is. That's the leadership thing to do. That's the right thing to do.

But if it's something minuscule, you know, relatively, then that could have been done via VTC, a warrior ethos thing that they are going to in turn stand on a stage in front of their men and women and say pass on, then it should have been done that. way but I guess we'll see we'll you know wait with bated breath and see what comes out and New York Times will say its piece and you know J.D. Vance will turn around and say see it you know you guys made a big deal out of nothing which he's done already and we'll see what happens but I think the bigger piece will be what the president says when he gets down there and you know we'll see what happens. Yeah I wonder if it has anything to do. do also with like the looming government shutdown. There's a meeting Monday

with President Trump and like Democratic senators or Democratic leadership from the Congress. And, and this, you know, this powwow is going on on Tuesday, I believe, right?

And the president's supposed to be there. There has also been talk of like a Doge 2.0 that like if there is a government shutdown, they're going to use it to fire more federal workers. Even though they've hired the federal, a lot of federal, workers back from eight months ago. If I get fired, just know that the next podcast, I'll be butt-ass naked.

So let's all just get that out the way now. Yeah, you have nothing to worry about it. You can be full, full frontal. Well, I think you should get that out in the, uh, out of the way now. No, no, no, no, no. Let's, uh, no, I, let's not waste this moment. I think that D just needs to get that out to the, uh, The team house audience who would be interested in that, and they will come fucking in.

I'll be in the studio. They do enjoy shirtless, Andy, especially when Andy gets shirtless. They do enjoy it. Next one is it going to be shirtless at the team house. It's going to be Mick and Jason. I'm going to make sure it happens. Break away soon. I saw that.

There's some team house podcast lore. Andy one day showed off his pecks on the team house podcast and the incredible physique. And so that has become part of like the team house lore. So that's like the whole thing we talk about about getting shirtless and stuff like that. So you're next, Mick. So prepare. Start run, doing the calisthenics.

It's totally. What Dee said was A not true and B, if a little bit true, it was mostly exaggerated. Okay, sure. Okay, Andy. We'll leave it at doubt. Agree to disagree. Yeah, so we'll look and see what's going,

what happens in the next week, obviously, and we'll bring it back to you next week. I'm sure there's going to be more, a lot more to talk about, about these subjects. You guys have anything else before we run? I want you guys to do me a favor. I want you guys to check out Mick Mulroy's new podcast about stoicism.

It's called The Pub and the Porch. Really good. I'm enjoying it a lot. I'll put a link in the description down there for that. Indy Milburn, his book, of course, All the links are down in the description. Andy's book's called One that Tempest Gathers. Jason Lyons, links are in the description. And support us on Patreon.

Please, patreon.com slash the Teamhouse. Thank you guys. Thanks, Jen. Everyone. See you next week. Hey, guys. I want to tell all of you today about a new newsletter that we're launching that encompasses both the Teamhouse podcast, the Eyes on podcast,

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