 And of course, World War II is probably necessary, but then again, think of the tens of thousands of Americans who died in Vietnam for senseless war, that again, was not about protecting America, wasn't about defending our values, wasn't about defending liberty or freedom, wasn't about protecting their own families, died in Vietnam for what? Died in Vietnam for whom? Yes, it was William McKinley, President McKinley, who was president during the American-Spanish War. And I think Teddy Roosevelt was, you know, he stormed up the hill in Cuba, didn't he? I mean, he was one of the commanders during that period and a big fan of war and a big fan of that war. Jimmy Carter, somebody says Jimmy Carter was really bad president. Yeah, but not on the scale of World War II, not on the scale of the FDR, not even on the scale of Obama or Trump. So the wall of government, as I've said here many, many times, as I ran, of course, articulated in hill writings, the wall of government is to protect individual rights. The wall of the American government is to protect the individual rights of Americans. It should go to war only when the individual rights of Americans are threatened, when the life and property of Americans is threatened. And when the only way to deal with that threat is to go to war. Spain did not, as far as I know, my history, Spain did not really threaten the individual rights of America. It did not require a global war against Spain in the Spanish-American War in the late 19th century to protect the individual rights of Americans. There was no threat to the individual rights of Americans during World War I. Europeans could have continued to slaughter each other for years and America would have been fine, would have been fine. Oh, better, better to have peace, better to have trading partners, better than Europe, be a peaceful place. But you don't go to war for better. You go to war when the individual rights of your citizens are threatened. Their lives are threatened. There was no reason for the United States to enter the Korean War, a war that so thousands and thousands of Americans die for what? For South Korea to become a free, prosperous country? Koreans should fight for a free, prosperous South Korea. Why should Americans? American military should be used only the protection of the individual rights of Americans, not Koreans, not Vietnamese, not anybody's, not Europeans. So again, the great tragedy when you think about Memorial Day is the number of American soldiers who have died over the last 250 years for the wrong reason, for the wrong purpose, defending the wrong principles. In other words, not defending this great country. And indeed one doesn't have to look backwards in order to see that. But all one has to do is read the newspaper. Why? Oh, why? Oh, God, oh, why? Americans dying today in Afghanistan. For what purpose? To protect whom? Why is Donald Trump trying to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban? If you want the troops home, bring them home. And to hell with what happens in Pakistan, in Afghanistan. Let the Afghans fight it out. They're going to do it anyway, peace deal or not. Get the troops out of harm's way. Now, we lost that war. We lost that war a decade ago. Why do we perpetuate death? Death among our own people. Death among our own children. For the sake of whom? For the sake of what? So memorial day should be a day to get angry. Angry at the fact that our politicians will not do the right thing, do not care about the lives of our own kids. That most Americans, 90% of Americans do not seem to care about their own kids. Now, you know, we could win in Afghanistan if we wanted to, but clearly there's no will to win. Clearly, there's no ambition to do what is necessary to win that war. So get out. We lost it. It's done. Forget about it. You know, if they become a threat again, maybe we'll have to go bomb the hell out of them again. But for now, there's no point. I said this about Iraq in 2000, I can't remember, 2004 or 2005. I said, enough's enough. We've lost the war. This is before the surge. I think the surge cemented our loss. And more American kids had a die for that. What's the point in fighting wars where we're going to lose? So I called for bringing back the troops in 2004, I think it was, from the Iraq war, because it was obvious we had lost. It was obvious we were not willing to do what was necessary to win. And if you're not willing to do what's necessary to win, at least don't die in a losing cause. So to me it's horrific. We've got troops all over the world doing what? Protecting Americans? I don't think you need troops in 100 countries to protect Americans. I don't think we need troops everywhere around the world in order to protect the individual rights of Americans. You only need troops in the world out there in places that are necessary for the protection of the individual rights of Americans and when they go to war, they should be provided, they are Americans too. They're not sacrificial fodder. They're not to be sacrificed for the good of the state, for the good of society, for the common good. They have individual rights. And as such, we should never send our kids to war unless we're willing to win. We should never send our kids to war unless we're willing to give them the tools to defeat the enemy. We should never send our kids to war to be sacrificed for the enemy as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan. We should never send our kids to war tying their hands behind their backs so that they cannot shoot, so they cannot defend themselves. We should never send our kids to war unless we're willing to do whatever is necessary to protect them while allowing them to win, to win. And yet that is what we do constantly. Again, we have troops all around the world, not protecting America, not protecting our interests, but protecting other people. And we tie their hands behind their backs. We value the civilian population of Iraq more than we value our own children. We value the civilian population of Afghanistan more than we value our own children. So somebody posted a smear of me in a conservative journal the other day. They were attacking Brad Thompson's article, Brad Thompson's article about the new right, the Nietzschean nihilistic right. And as part of that, they attacked me because I'm a co-author with Brad on a book on neo-conservatism. And they attacked me, they looked me up on Wikipedia and they discovered that I'm much called for the flattening of Fallujah. And they said, oh my God, the inhumanity of flattening Fallujah. How could you have a strategy, a military strategy that involves killing civilians? And my question is, how can you have a military strategy that involves killing your own kids? How can you have a military strategy that involves sacrificing your own children for the sake of Iraqi civilians? Of course, I got no answer. I was called the monster. I asked them if they thought Truman was a monster, or Churchill was a monster, or Sherman was a monster for killing civilians in order to protect their own troops. I got no answer. But that's modern conservatives. They're sell-outs. They're not about American self-interest, they're about altruism. They're about Christian altruism. They're all happy to sacrifice somebody else's children for the common good, for nation-building, for so-called American interests, which they cannot never define. So yeah, if you care about troops, if you care about the soldiers, if you care about America, bring all those kids home, deploy them only where they're needed, and deploy them with the resources to win and to protect their own lives. Pretty simple foreign policy. Pretty simple approach. And it's the only patriotic approach. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual, would be any man or woman who is willing to think, meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, wins, or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism, and impotence, and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist. Using the super chat, and I noticed yesterday, when I appealed for support for the show, many of you stepped forward and actually supported the show for the first time. So I'll do it again. Maybe we'll get some more today. If you like what you're hearing, if you appreciate what I'm doing, then I appreciate your support. Those of you who don't yet support the show, please take this opportunity, go to Iranbrookshow.com slash support, or go to subscribestar.com, Iranbrookshow, and make a kind of a monthly contribution to keep this going.