TrueLife - The Pentagon, the Powerless, and the Taliban: War, Strategy, and the Human Cost of Conflict

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/Power is never evenly distributed. In this episode, George Monty examines the tangled web connecting the Pentagon, local populations, and the Taliban — uncovering the strategic, political, and human dimensions of modern conflict.From military operations to social consequences, this conversation investigates how strategy, power, and ideology collide — and the cost paid by those caught in between.In this episode:The role of the Pentagon in modern warfareHow local populations navigate powerlessness in conflict zonesThe Taliban’s influence on geopolitics and social structuresStrategic, ethical, and human consequences of warLessons for understanding power, policy, and global dynamics One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scar's my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Hears through ruins maze lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Kodak Serafini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. We should be thankful for the Taliban. We should be thankful for what they have shown us. The lessons they have taught the West, just like they taught the Russians and the British. and the British and the Romans before them.

I believe that what you see on the world stage is in fact a macro version of what happens inside the individual. And we see this play out time after time. The hubris, the willingness to force yourself on someone who appears to be weaker than you. is what the United States did to Afghanistan. Time and time again, the United States leadership,

the corruption of not Republicans, not just Democrats, but the entirety of those that call themselves leaders. They made a conscious decision to purposely seek out people that were weaker than them and try to hurt them. try to destroy them. Take everything that they held sacred and turn it into profanity. I don't agree with the way in which the Taliban run their country, live their lives, but it's none of my fucking business what they do.

They're people just like you and I. If we believe that we have inalienable rights, then don't they as well? What we see happen around the world from the leaders of every country is an attempt to suppress the human spirit through means of violence let me see if I can try to try to illustrate to you the beauty of the human spirit we should be thinking the Taliban they stood up for what they believe in. They never gave up the fight. And even when America was there for 20 years, they still had a shadow government that was much more powerful than the government in which we tried to instill. We brought them neoliberalists. We brought them gender studies. We brought them a new way of

life that doesn't even work in our countries and tried to force it on them. We brought profanity. brought profane ideas of relationships. We brought them the idea of destroying their family unit to them. And they resisted. And when they resisted, we reacted with ever tightening, with an ever tightening grasp on their freedom. And still they resisted. And we poured more money.

We poured billions. We poured trillions. Into our latest technology. Into our latest military hardware. Into our chemical weapons. Into our propaganda. And still, the Taliban resisted. We brought them opium.

so that we could sell it back to our own people and kill them. I think it would be fascinating to see the amount of opium that now travels from Afghanistan to now. The Taliban claim that they are going to cut down all the opium fields. What does that say about France, the United States, Australia, Britain? What does that say about all of us who occupied that country so that we could grow opium and sell it? back to the very people who went there to fight.

Maybe we should be taking a page out of the Taliban's back and telling our leaders, this is unacceptable, and we will fight. Maybe we could learn the spirit of the human being from watching the Taliban soldiers. I'm so tired of hearing how horrible they are and how despicable they are. Are they really? You mean a man that fights for the fucking relationship

that he wants that his father's, always had for his tradition is horrible. Maybe what's more horrible is a group of fucking invaders that come over, steal all your shit, grow a bunch of opium, make your people heroin addicts, all so they can sell that heroin right back to the very people they claim to lead. How many men and women from our countries have died over there so that Poppy Bush, so that Bill Clinton, so that Barack Obama, so that McCrone, so that Tony Blair,

so that the Queen of fucking England, can sell a bunch of dope to the very people they claim to lead. I would gladly take every single Afghanistan refugee in place of our senators and of our congressmen and their families. I think that they're probably better people. I think the refugees from Afghanistan, are better people than every one of our leaders. Every one of them.

And I think that this war represents something more than what we're being told. I think perhaps that this particular battle, the Taliban taking Kabul could be a sort of turning point. Maybe the Taliban taking back their country is foreshadowing Americans. French, Australian, British, German, all my European brothers, maybe the Afghanistan, taking over Kabul is a roadmap for all of us to take our

countries back. Maybe we can take a page from their book and resist this new oligarchy, this new class of fascistic leaders. who give not one fuck about you, your son, your daughter, your nephew, your mother, your grandfather. Maybe it's our return to nationalize all the pharmaceutical companies. Maybe we should be holding trials. Maybe we should each have Nuremberg trials in our own country. Maybe once some of our leaders are forced to stare down the very damage.

they have caused their country, they will repent. And if they don't repent, perhaps they should be tried by a panel of their peers and face the consequences. Some of those being treason, maybe seeing the Afghan soldiers will stiffen the spine of what we used to call men. Maybe the women in our country

will have someone to protect them instead of the state, instead of Moderna or Pfizer. It would be impossible for our leaders to suck out so much money of our economy if we as individuals stood up for ourselves. In a world that is becoming increasingly ruled by mandates, why is it that the people don't start having their own mandates? Why don't we mandate four-day work weeks?

Why don't we mandate that every single employee becomes a share owner. Why don't we get rid of private banking? Why don't we mandate that the profits from pharmaceutical companies and private banking be seized and distributed back to the people?

Why don't we mandate that our so-called officials, our leaders, our representation, why don't we mandate that if they are seen with a lobbyist, they go to prison. Why don't we mandate that these individuals be responsible to us? Why don't we mandate no forced inoculations? I think the time is coming.

There is no more powerful idea than an idea whose time has come. And I think we should be thanking the Taliban. I think they are showing us this. How much courage does it take to resist for 20 years? How much strength against all odds, against the most powerful army in the world? How do you fight for 20 years? Never give up. You know how you do it?

You know you're right. You know that what you're fighting for is worth fighting for. Tradition, integrity, family. These are things that the Taliban refuse to give up. These are also things that we have been told in the West are worth nothing. You see, the Taliban have decided to fight for that which is sacred to them. They rejected the profane notion of the state taking over for the family. They refuse to have their daughters become whores.

They refuse to allow large corporations to come in and steal all their shit and give them nothing. Where we in the West have rolled over. We have traded a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage. And they're coming for our children now. In a few months, you will be asked to vaccinate your child with an experimental scientific project

that of which we do not know the long-term ramifications. So I think we should be thanking the Taliban for showing us where we went wrong. I think we should be thanking the Taliban for illuminating to their brothers around the world that the fight can be won regardless of the odds if you're willing to stand up for what is right. I think we should be thanking them for showing us the path of the sacred while treacherous at times, while questioning at times, is a much safer path than that of the profane. Thank you.