 The Yaron Brooks show starts now Good morning afternoon everybody we've heard depends on I guess where you are here in California. It is still Morning 9 a.m. All right a lot to cover today. There's a lot going on in the news. There's just a lot of stuff happening and We're gonna try to get to to quite a bit of it You know first up. I think we have to talk about what's you know this this whole Issue with the four soldiers who were killed in Niger Nigueur Niger. I'm not even sure how you pronounce it. What? American soldier doing in Niger That's the fundamental question. I mean we can talk about Donald Trump's phone call and we can talk about Intelligence failures which they clearly were communication failures, which they clearly were and and lots of other You know failures logistical failures, you know leaving a soldier behind or the fact that one soldier was found about a mile From where this ambush happened. So American troops for those of you are not familiar with the story. American troops who were were You know basically attacked in Niger. It's not clear How well armed they were the the American troops themselves? There were a lot it sounds like the attackers were quite well armed and there were a lot of them You know, so this is clearly a military breakdown and a military failure and the fact that four American troops dead is a tragedy and and and very sad, but the real question it has to be asked the fundamental question has to be asked is why American troops there to begin with and We need to be able to explain that and then beyond that should they be there Where else are they if they're in Niger, which most Americans have never heard of but you know, I guess that's not a standard because Americans are not exactly whizzes at a Geography we'll talk about where Niger is in a minute and why we're there Where else are American troops? Do we have indeed full disclosure in terms of the whereabouts of American troops in Africa in particular and then You know the latest stories I've seen Have basically suggested that The Trump administration can in a sense double up or increase its presence in Africa Generally including in Nigeria's in Niger. So does that make any sense? What are we doing there to begin with should we be? increasing our presence in In this country and in other parts of Africa. What's the goal? What's the exit strategy? What does victory look like? All the important questions that of course almost nobody is asking and It doesn't seem like anybody is actually Has a strategy so the headlines I saw a couple of days ago suggested that Mathis is indicating Greater US involvement in Africa more troops being sent into Africa Does that make sense? Okay, let's start. Let's start by asking the question of Where Niger is right so I suggest Pulling up a map you can do it on Google Maps. It's very easy. Just put Niger and I g are in and And You know, and it's pretty simple. It's it's worth knowing when the news is happening You know where this where these places are Quick lesson in here in geography and it's nice to get to know the world a little bit and to get to know What's going on in the world? So I suggest pulling up a map and if you pull up a map what you'll find is Niger is in northern Africa It's landlocked. It's not by any ocean or sea. It's not by the Mediterranean It's not by the Atlantic Ocean It borders a lot of different countries that but in the north it borders Libya and Algeria We'll talk about Libya in particular, but also algeria in a little while on the west it borders Mali There's this important reference to we'll talk about Mali then there's To to the south well to the east of borders charred and to the south it borders Nigeria Another another important place, and then it also borders Burkina Faso and Benin Yeah Yeah, countries most of us have never heard of But that are right there if you open up a map you can see it. It's it's definitely what doing You know learning about the world getting to know a little bit about what's going on in the world particularly Given that American troops are there Particularly given that American troops are dying It's it's good. It's good to know where this is happening why this is happening maybe and All right, so that's a map that's a geography. So why is this important? so the reason they're there let's start with the reason that the reason that is because Nigeria has become an important I guess hub for the activities of Islamic totalitarians of Islam or fascists jihadis You've got a number of different groups there Baka Haram, which you've probably heard a lot about over the last few years Baka Haram is active in the northern Nigeria on the border with Niger and With charred and camera run so that would be in the north In the south eastern corner of Niger. There's a lot of Baka Haram A lot of Baka Haram activities a Baka Haram has affiliated itself at least one branch of Baka Haram is affiliated itself with Isis So in the sense you could argue Isis is active in in the area There are some other branches of Isis or the affiliates of Isis in the region Again these are Islamist groups that have affiliated themselves with Isis there's no net necessarily any military or Political or other coordination between them, but Libya has a significant presence of Isis Mali has a significant presence of Islamists affiliated with Isis So and then you got Baka Haram and they and there are others in the regions as well then you've also got Just you've got al-Qaeda affiliates. So you remember al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden al-Qaeda still around We still haven't crushed and defeated al-Qaeda al-Qaeda still around and al-Qaeda has a presence in charred Mali, Algeria, Libya and Niger and So Niger's like right in the middle and it's surrounded by countries that have a al-Qaeda or Isis affiliate presence and It it's somewhat I guess strategic because it is It's on this path between east and west west and east between Mali and charred and if you go You know if you go further To the to the east you get Sudan South Sudan where there's a civil war you get Central African Republic Which is and then you get to Ethiopia and ultimately Samaria, but Samaria is pretty far so Sudan and of course you've got Egypt and now Algeria which is to the north Algeria is is a country that has a long Tradition if you could call it that of Islamism a Islamist in fighting it had a massive civil war in which I think hundreds of thousands of people died in the 1990s between the Islamists and the and just a regular authoritarian Statists in in Algeria, and they're still remnant strong remnants of Islamists there Libby of course is a completely fragmented country once You know that we got we and others got rid of Vamoama Gaddafi that the place is complete anarchy ruled by various gangs many of them associate with the Islamist jihadi cause With al-Qaeda or Isis or some kind of variants a variant of Mali as you know rise significant rise in Islamist and jihadi forces The French in Mali just a ad you know I don't know if you've ever heard of Timbuktu Timbuktu is is part of an ancient civilization Islamic civilization that was in North Africa a city of learning and one of things that it had fantastic libraries of Islamic writings from the distant past and one of the first things that the jihadis did when they took Timbuktu is they burnt all the libraries and destroyed them and You know it's it's So the French are there the French in Mali the French are helping Mali Mali. I guess is a former French colony Bukena Faso and cut the ivory are all kind of Former French colonies and they're all in that same region and So the French are there they've got significant forces in Mali trying to defeat the Islamist trying to fight the Islamist I don't think the US the US probably assists the French with intelligence with drones there is an Air Force base in Niger that the US runs and We have something like Somewhere around 800 troops that turns out maybe up to a thousand in Niger and potentially in Mali chad in Nigeria all kind of working together and all this I think also working with the French So there's a major presence a major presence here Right a Major presence of the US a thousand troops as you know for killed recently Because of a presence of al-Qaeda because of the presence of ISIS affiliates because of the presidents of of the presence of Islamists all over this region And and you know, they've been emboldened You know over the last five six years and particularly in Mali they became very aggressive But again the French supposedly are taking care of of Mali You know, there's a big drone base. It looks like the United States is investing a hundred million dollars in to create a base for drones for surveillance and for attack drones Out of the Syria. All right. So in other words You know, there's there's this vast territory, it's massive it's bigger than Europe massive It's mostly desert. There's nothing there Very few people live there and yet America has a thousand troops there Okay, so we're gonna take a break when we come back. I want to talk about why the hell we're there Why we care? Why we don't let them just fight it out Why why does America's interest? Why does the Protection of Americans individual rights require the risking of American lives in the God-forsaken desert of Niger and why is The response to the horrible killing of four American troops to double up and to send more Americans into home way in The middle of nowhere that has basically no impact on American and American lives. All right We're gonna take a quick break. I think it's a three-minute break when we come back. We'll talk more about why why why? What a what a waste We'll be right back. You're listening to your own book show on the blaze radio network. We'll be right back after this media contributor On the blaze radio network All right, so we're talking about why Niger, why why does the United States have troops in 120 different countries? Did they even know what they're doing is their strategy No, so I think the good first conclusion now. I mean, I know there's a lot of conspiracy theories out there This is a part of American Empire This is cronyism. This is for power and control and and there's elements of truth to all of that There's elements of truth to the idea that this is cronyism that you know certain You know Politicians certain companies certain lobbyists lobby for use troops to be in certain areas in order to protect You know, maybe mining or natural resources or maybe even certain politicians in foreign countries lobby for that with with with money You know, it's it's true that There's some element of power Yeah, isn't it great to have an empire over the entire world. It's kind of interesting that Donald Trump ran as being opposed to all of this, you know, we were gonna bring all the troops home and we were going to be more Focused on America first. What the hell is America first got to do with Niger? Nothing, right? So there's empire. So, yeah, there are these reasons you can give and you can find examples of People within the government who I pull uphold this bit. I have a different theory which I think is much more accurate and much more reasonable and And reflects the reality that's actually out there in the world and that's just that these people are utterly Unquestionably our military leaders and our political leaders completely and utterly incompetent and That there is no Strategy and when you don't have a strategy when you don't know what you were doing and I don't think general Mathis and I don't think I don't think that the Chiefs of staff, I don't think they have a clue. I Don't think they have a clue What they're doing and And I'm not just talking about the Trump administration. This is true of Obama and this is to under Bush and So here's here's what what's going on. You basically have a War that the United States kind of implicitly declared in 2002 where it gave The president authority to engage in military actions all over the world in order to defeat al-Qaeda and That law has never really been revised. It's kind of a general approval for the use of force without Really, right without really Defining what that use of force would be and without defining victory without defining what it looks like to win just generally approving the command-in-chief to use whatever force necessary in order to defeat al-Qaeda how and somehow they're fit into go to war with Iraq and that somehow fit into Sending troops into defeat ISIS and Sending troops ultimately all over the world to fight al-Qaeda because you know what it turns out that al-Qaeda and Isis and Islamism generally jihadism generally have Satellites everywhere Everywhere that you know southeast Asia and the Philippines and in Malaysia and in Indonesia and in South Asia So lean Pakistan Afghanistan even India and suddenly in the Middle East You know Iraq and Syria and Iran and Saudi Arabia and Israel and then there's a Muslim brotherhood in Egypt And then if you go across northern Africa, well, I mean there all these Islamists in Libya and in Algeria And then there's a whole wing of al-Qaeda and ISIS in Morocco And they start going south to Mali and Niger and Chad in Nigeria. There's Boko Haram and And and then Kenya and Tanzania and Somalia and Sudan. I Mean there's Islamists everywhere in the world and if your idea of defeating Islamic totalitarianism of defeating Islamism of defeating al-Qaeda It's to defeat every little group in every one of these countries that self identifies in some way as Islamist Jihadi Defeating every single little group in every one of these countries just with American forces Maybe with a little bit of help from from the French in Mali and maybe from the Egyptians in Egypt If that's a strategy, then of course we're gonna lose You know and we're gonna fight. It's not just about losing. It's about fighting stupid wars and getting American kids killed for nothing For nothing These folk kids get killed for nothing Why are we in Niger to fight? Islamism, but we know Islamism originates We know who funds all the Islamic causes We know who gets them ultimately the weapons who who teaches them the ideology. We've known this forever instead of You know every time, you know, what do you call it that the game? That that the that the groundhog pops up and you walk up walk. I'm all whack-a-mo whack-a-mo. There we go Whack-a-mo. Thank you So instead of playing whack-a-mo, which is what we're playing with troops in 120 different countries whacking The different moles as they pop up out of the jungle or out of the desert or out of whatever How about going to the source? How about going to the root? How about? You know finding the the origins of this and defeating and destroying and dismantling The origins the source where it starts. Look, they've always been Islamists they've always been Muslims who take their religion really really seriously and are willing to kill for it But they have no power Without the support of two countries two countries make all the difference Two countries Saudi Arabia and Iran. That's it. Nothing else is relevant. Niger is relevant. Mali is relevant Libya is relevant. Who cares these places. Have you ever been to Niger? I haven't but I know what it looks like It's desert. There's nothing there. It's completely desert Nothing lives there No man's travel through it Traders who trade that you know between one oasis in the desert to another oasis in the desert There is no no real strategic value To the United States If you think they're smuggling terrorists into Europe through Niger then let the Europeans deal with it but there's no evidence of that and The problem is much more likely to be Libya and Algeria You can't have troops everywhere where Islamists pop up Islamists are always gonna pop up What are you gonna kill all the Muslims in the world? You want to deal with this you have to find its origins its source and the only place That how where the origin is is Saudi Arabia and Iran two countries that are based on Sharia law Two countries dedicated to world-wide rule of Islam The Saudis based on the Wahhabis and the the the Iranians, you know based on their Shiite beliefs But they're ruled by theocrats Saudi Arabia is trying to modernize. They actually let women drive now whoopie But that's the enemy They fund Every radicalized mosque every radicalized movement every radicalized person has been funded by either The Saudis of the Iranians. It's no accident that 15 of the terrorists are 9-11 with Saudis Now the regime is trying to fight some of this terrorism because the regime finds it uncomfortable to have them But they have a deal with the Wahhabis who are the spiritual leaders of Saudi Arabia and Part of that deal is giving them free reign to continue to radicalize continue to radicalize now The only way to win this war is not to have troops in 120 different countries It's to recognize the evil of Islamic totalitarianism to recognize the evil of jihadism to identify its origins political Origins, which is in Saudi Arabia and Iran and to end it there and You know, let the Niger's deal with their own. Let the Nigerians fight Boko Haram Let the Libyans fight it out. Maybe they'll be so busy fighting each other. They won't have time to come after us stop worrying about every mole that pops his head out of the ground and start thinking strategically Strategically about the enemy that the United States faces and strategically. It's not in Niger. It's all in the Middle East All right, when we come back, I want to talk a little bit more about this. Just just a few minutes. We'll talk about Syria and what's going on there. We'll talk about the Iran Declassification thing that Trump did and And and again, we'll talk about what they what the actual solutions to all these all these issues of without the distraction of Having to talk about Nigeria. All right So we'll continue this foreign policy trend when we come back you're listening to your own book show on the blaze radio network and Of course, feel free to call in 888-900-3393. We'll be right back Hey everybody, all right, but today we're talking about Africa of our places, but northern Africa kind of the Islamic part of Africa the northern part of Africa is mostly Muslim Although it keeps spitting south that is Islam is a growing religion There's a huge competition on in Africa between Muslim Between Muslim what do you call it evangelicals and Christian evangelicals to convert the local population to their religion? It's a continuous battle between the two been going on Really to some extent for hundreds of years, but it's really intensifying right now But basically the whole north of Africa is is Muslim some countries are split down the middle Nigeria the northern part is Islamic the southern part is I guess pagan or Christian or a little bit of both But why are we there is the real question is there a strategy for the United States to be in in In Africa and and I'm I'm contending no zero none Nada no strategy. It's a whack-a-mole start Policy which started with Bush in the later part of his administration really picked up with Obama You know, we've had we've had a presence in dozens and dozens of country I think we're now up to 120, but this has been around for a long time. This isn't new and By doing that we're neglecting the actual enemy the enemy which is I believe Saudi Arabia in Iran and I believe that Obama's policies Bush's policies and then Obama's policies and now Trump's policies have basically favored Iran Significantly over Saudi Arabia in a weird kind of way so that now Iran is the dominant player in the Middle East without any question They are the dominant player in the Middle East and we'll talk about that now if you want to ask any questions Make any comments disagree with me or just ask. I know a lot about the Middle East if you have any questions about terrorism or about a Chad or Mali or Niger, whatever the hell I know about any of those Free free feel free to give me give me a call. It's 888-900-3393 and Be happy to answer any questions you might have. We're also doing something today that we did last week a Moment of reason which is the last segment of the second hour will be dedicated to your question I have one question already lined up but if you want to ask a question unrelated to the fight on terrorism unrelated to You know to what we're talking about right now then wait for that Last segment in the second hour and I'll take the question then we're gonna make that a regular question period The source of this problem is On the Sunni side Sunni she had a different sex if you will of Islam they've hated each other forever It's like Protestants and Catholics a little bit not quite the theologian theological differences between them are not quite as clear but Saudi Arabia is Sunni that's what's important to know Iran is she and they basically both want the same thing From a from a theological perspective. They want this Slabishment of a Muslim Empire over the whole world the Iranians wanted ruled by Shiite by them They Saudis wanted ruled by Wahhabis by them But they both wanted now Saudi Arabia might be going through a process of moderation right now We will see how to believe they are still the fountain had a Radicalization that's where the money comes from them and and the United Arab Emirates and Qatar and Quate the whole Gulf oil area they are the they're the people of the money and They fund all these groups. They fund the building of the mosques. They fund the spitting of the ideology and until you stop that Whether by military means other means forget about it forget about Niger or anything it doesn't matter the ideology will expand terrorism will expand and right now Iran Which is I think the the most consistent advocate of Sharia law and consistent advocate of Islamism is Winning the battle we'll get to that in a minute just just to remind you that not only is the Trump administration not following any of these practices Not only is the Trump administration not View Saudi Arabia as an enemy it views just like Bush and just like Obama it views Saudi Arabia as a major friend and Trump signed a hundred and ten billion billion dollar deal arms deal with the Saudis he danced with the Saudi princes. I Mean, I don't know how you get more corrupt Than American politicians dealings With the Saudi oil family. I mean it is just pure Corruption on the part of American politicians from Trump on down Trump Obama Clinton, of course Clinton got massive quantities of money into their foundation from the Saudis It is so explicit. It is so obvious that Nobody reports on it nobody cares Nobody wants to do anything about it. It we're told the American people are not it's too too too complicated You know, we don't want to talk about the Middle East too calm You guys are too stupid to understand is basically what politicians and everybody else is telling you That's pathetic. It's not true about you the American people You need to know these things and Of course, if you listen to your own book show, you will know these things now Why is Iran the winner of the whack-a-mole American strategy? Why is he won the winner of? You know basically this You know the whole US strategy, which is to send troops to 120 and not to fight an actual war well Iran has been winning since George Bush decided to invade Iraq and Then didn't know what to do with it and then had no strategy about what to do with Iraq Because Iran has massive influence on Iraq Iraq. It turns out is majority Shiite quite religious and When the Americans got rid of Saddam Hussein who was a Sunni secular dictator and let people vote Then they voted for Shiite feel crats to rule over them influence controlled by the Iranians the Sunnis in Iraq Gravitated towards ISIS But now ISIS has been defeated by the Iraqi government forces and by Shiite militia Funded armed supported by the Iranian National Guard Which is the the most radical part of the Iranian government Now in addition in the Syrian civil war Assad the president of Syria has aligned himself with Iran for a very long time and He is again winning the battle with the help of the Russians and the help of the Iranians and the help of his bala his bala is a Shiite terrorist group in Lebanon Which controls the country of Lebanon and which has fought in Syria on the side of Assad? I I know this is Mostly you're probably going stop you're on brain overload too many facts. You can't understand the world if you don't have facts Can't understand the world if you don't have facts So and I'm giving you just plain facts right so look at Iran Iran now has if you go to a map You got to have a map map Open up it in Google Maps the Middle East and you look at Iran and Iran now has Iran Iraq Syria and Lebanon all under its control all under its control, which means They're on the border of Israel. They're on the border with Saudi Arabia. They're on the border with Jordan they're basically the largest most influential power in the Middle East by far and All of this all of this a consequence of George Bush's unprincipled meaningless unfocused whack-a-mole wars which ultimately led to the creation of ISIS with some help from Obama and You know the bringing of democracy to the Middle East which ultimately emboldened the Muslim Brotherhood which emboldened a civil war in Syria which and and of course The Americans have always put pressure on Israel never to defeat his Bala sakhiz Bala the Iranian ally in Lebanon is emboldened and Because of American weakness because of America's weakness not just of itself, but it's Americans weakness in in Weakening Israel Iran is thriving Iran is in nor is enormously powerful and and Increasing in its power increasing its influence and becoming the most potent political military and political force in the Middle East, Turkey Which used to be a secular power Which used to be and still is part of NATO but used to be secular and an ally of the United States is Slowly turning towards Islam Slowly becoming more of an ally of Iran and Saudi Arabia to some extent They have to their balancing act between the two because Turkey is Sunni on the one hand, but is worried about Iranian expansionism on that hand. So they have to appease them as well So, Turkey's realizes that Iran is the power they need to deal with so Turkey is turning towards Iran and sympathetic to Iran. She have a turkey That is a problem and it's moving slowly away from NATO getting into fights with the United States Lou is no longer secular and what you're getting under Bush Obama Trump is Greater radicalization in the Middle East More power to the most radical groups in the Middle East primarily the Iranian radical groups more Islamic, you know, the Turkey becoming more Islamic Saudi Arabia in a sense feeling isolated But still continuing to support You know the radicalization all over the world and the United States doing nothing instead It's sending troops to die in the middle of the desert in Niger criminal That's what this is. That's what Bush Obama Trump Responsible for criminal anti-American behavior. All right the listening to Iran book show We'll be back after these messages All right, so we're talking about policy we're talking about you know, I've come up with a new term I think As my producer pointed out It's whack-a-mole font policy or the whack-a-mole font policy of the Trump In Obama era, it's have no strategy Where did what happened to America first? I'm wondering what happened to America first all right So we got 10 minutes to finish up on this topic because after the next week I want to I want to turn to some domestic issues But what is America first America first should mean the placing of American interests above all else and That requires one to actually define what American interests are That is what is acquired to protect the life and liberty the life liberty and property of American citizens That's The question that's the only question our foreign policy and military should be concerned about Is having a presence in Niger necessary for the defense of American life liberty and property? No is Taking care of the Iranian threat Unnecessary for the protection of the lives liberty and property of Americans long term. I believe the answer is yes But that's where the debate should be agree or disagree with me That's where the debate should be bring the troops home from 119 countries or 120 countries or whatever the number is And let's have a real debate on what we should be doing with those troops on who We should go to war with On what from whom we should be protecting america now Trump is completely ignoring the strategic strategic issues So what did he just do he just? Decertified the nuclear arms deal, which the which horrifically Uh, uh, the trump the uh, obama administration signed with iran and all these europeans Decertified, which it turns out means Absolutely nothing Nothing There are no consequences to decertified we can now Basically not do anything congress can do nothing and it'll just stay decertified Businesses will continue to be able to do business with iran iran will continue to be able to build Uh nuclear weapons in i think it's now eight years or seven years And uh, they will continue to be allowed to build what do you call it ballistic missiles without any restrictions Basically they could continue without any hindrance to continue to pose a threat to the united states So decertifying is kind of the most wimpy solution one could come to it's It's vaguely Him living up to a campaign promise without really Living up to the campaign promise because it doesn't do anything congress could end the iran deal the probability of that happening is zero congress could renegotiate the uh the iran deal So-called improve the deal make it a better deal for america the probability of that actually happening is very close to Zero maybe a little higher. Maybe a little above zero Because ending the deal that's zero. This is there may be five percent the probability of congress doing nothing nothing Probably close to a hundred percent And as a consequence nothing happens to iran now you asked me what should be done about iran Well, I suggest you read my book and farm policy. I've got a book where I have three essays It was written a long time ago, but nothing in it has really changed I suggest picking it up. It's called winning than winnable war. It was edited by ilan zhono Winning than winnable war in which we ilan Ilan basically lays out, but I support what he proposes and my essays are consistent with it I've got three essays in that book Basically lays out a strategy for winning the war and yeah, it involves crushing the iranian regime and it involves bringing the saudis to their knees That's what it involves. It involves using the mightiest military force in human history The mightiest military force in all of human history to actually protect america And not to run around the desert Protecting various tribes against various other tribes trying to figure out who our friends are who our enemies are and he's getting out of afghanistan it means getting out of chad and nijir and and uh, you know sudan and libya and all these places And destroying the fountainhead of islamism so I'd suggest a few things one Go by the book. It's it's available at amazon winning the unwinnable war it's my It's by ilan zhono, but you'll see my name on three of the essays in there one A co-authored with ilan and two co-authored with uh, another former airway fellow, um, alex epstein and It lays out the strategy the book a strategy for winning What george w bush called an unwinnable war what obama and trump Trying to make an unwinnable war there is america has no strategy What they have is whack-a-mole farm policy whack-a-mole farm policy if you have a question on this eight eight eight nine zero zero three three nine three eight eight nine zero zero three three nine three uh question any kind of question on uh american farm policy as part of the strategy I would definitely unleash the israelis give them a green light Crush your enemies and in particular two major islamist forces that are on the border with israel chizballah and chamas Those need to be crushed particularly chizballah. Chizballah is now a lied. It has been always a lied with the iranians It's always been a um You know like the the iranian terrorist organization And more powerful now than ever before chizballah now has had gotten real combat training by fighting in syria It has been equipped with the latest Of military equipment that the iranians have iranians of course get weapons from the russians. That's another Thing you would think you would do something about is stop the sale of weaponry to iran You know syria and others by The russians, I thought we were I thought I thought trump and putin were going to be best friends or something, but no it continues part of part of part of what is being uh sold there is Is uh Defense systems that uh, this the north korea has now had this as well. They also got this from the russians Uh, the sam I forget it's 200 or whatever 300. These are the anti aircraft missiles that are that are Supposedly the best in the world and that the americans are not sure they can defeat although I have a feeling the israelis could You know, we do nothing about the important stuff. This is the important stuff Dealing with iran and syria arabia dealing with chizballah dealing with what's happening in iraq and syria and lebanon supporting the Kurds in iraq Rather than the iranian backed iraqi government Those are the important things those would actually project one minute a strategy an actual farm policy But no god forbid we have something like that Uh, and again, we haven't had it for several presidents and those of you who Who uh, we're excited about the fact that donald trump was going to be in america first 40 acres and a four president You don't have a lot of pretty rural areas Welcome to a discussion of radical fundamental principles of freedom Rational self-interest laser their capitalism and individual rights The iran brook show starts now Hey, everybody. We're talking, um Whack-a-mo farm policy today. We we've come up with a new term. I like it I like it whack-a-mo farm policy because that's the quality of the farm policy we have today We got a problem over there whack. We got a oh whack Don't think strategically and certainly certainly certainly never ever ever think america first Not even the so-called america first president can think america first He's the he's the least american America first maybe other than obama president that i know of but none of them do because none of them actually think strategically Stinky strategically would mean who is the enemy And how in the big picture do we defeat them? By the way, if you're interested in this topic I have two great courses that i've done on this issue that you can get for free On on my podcast one is called a brief history of the middle east And it's it's in five parts five Lectures with q&a and the other is called the rise of totalitarian islam, which is in four lectures and combined That will give you the best introduction the best introduction i think ever presented On the problems we face in the middle east if i can be so arrogant as to say I don't think anybody's put it all together quite as well as i have in those two courses In terms of presenting the problems and indicating The solution so you can get that on iTunes or anywhere where my podcast is available and it's free. That's the amazing thing. It's free So if you go backwards, uh, the september 27th episode, it's called history lesson the rise of totalitarian islam That's one course and you can go back further back into uh, september And you will find history lesson a brief history of them at least part one through five I I you know, I encourage you all to listen to it because I think you'll learn a lot. I think you'll also enjoy it and And I think it's the best I really do I think if you want to understand them at least if you want to understand the enemy that we are fighting Still fighting. I think we started this war started in 1979 when uh, when Iran Khomeini took over the u.s. Embassy in Tehran. That's november 4th 1979 Yep, almost 40 years ago. That's when the war started and Ah, anyway, we don't even recognize there's a war. I never mind when it started Okay, uh, we've got a call from donnie in richmond, vijinia who wants to talk about this topic Hey, donnie. How's it going? Hi? How are you? Can you hear me? I can I can hear you perfectly Okay, I'm Long-time listener first-time caller. I just I wanted to throw a strategy thing I have not listened to your The little the two little classes that you just told me about it and I wish I already had before I called in however, I wanted Go ahead I think there is a strategic thing that they're doing in africa and in my opinion this and this is a viewpoint I'm not a veteran. I'm not a war hero. I'm not anything like that. I'm just a little common guy that Kind of self-educated himself on a lot of things that are going on over there And my thought would be this it on a world stage It is not politically acceptable to go after i ran or to go after saudi arabia as the sources of these things And the fact that these people are willing to die for a cause and it's an ideology thing To me in my opinion the strategy would be to reach out as far as the tentacles reach Even into a place like africa or someplace that may 20 years from now Considering that this would be a war of attrition and a war of faith That if you start way out at the extremes and you start working your way backward You have to come back to the source and you're at least Stopping it from expanding. So i'm confused by the concept when you say that But you'll never win that we should be but they can't win See you can't win a war like that You can't win by a little group pops up in one part of chat and then another part of niger and then another part of this And another part of that you're constantly chasing them and they have the strategic advantage They continue to get funding and arms and support and moral support from Iran and saudi arabia on top of that what you're showing the world Is that you are beholden to world opinion. So you are weak. You're not a leader You don't think strategically. So we have troops today fighting islam in philippines in malaysia in in in And and we're losing we're not we're not winning It's not like radical islam or islamic totalitarianism is shrinking because we're doing all this Instead of saying screw world opinion Let me say that again. I think you can wait, you know to hell with to hell with world opinion America first This is the one phrase of everything Trump said that I actually agree with on farm policy The phrase not his intention because he doesn't understand what that means, but yes All that matters is america and our interest comes first And you know what we're gonna if you don't want to go with you on then at least do what what Bush and obama did in the beginning which is completely isolated completely Destroyed economy by any means possible. Do the same thing to saudi arabia start isolating these countries But why not just go to war get it over with and move on? But this is gonna be unwinnable endless Looking forever There'll always be a mole popping his head up somewhere in the world and we'll send troops and our kids will die for nothing because there's no Direction and then on top of that think about this, right? So we're sending troops to fight these little satellites of isis and al-qaeda But we know where the headquarters are We know where the masses for example for isis. It's in syria and iraq or was they've recently been defeated Why didn't we send massive american troops to crush isis in week one? Why did it take three years and let other people do it? And then if we crushed them then bokeh how arm would have never announced for isis isis would have never become A household name people all over europe would have never said. Oh, i'm gonna kill Europeans in the name of isis Isis would have why didn't we do that in week one or two? Why don't we go and find every last remnant of al-qaeda and take whatever Military we need to do it in afghanistan and in pakistan or wherever isis still is and crush them Even even by your theory You would go at least to the hubs of where these instead of any little group that's oh with isis Bam, we try to go after them. It's an endless endless endless war which we will only lose That's my problem and in my opinion is that i think that they know that already and it's a war of attrition So stop stop it. I say bring the troops home. It's better to bring the troops home And and and and at least let's fortify our defenses in a sense and figure out then having them die in niger No, if if let me ask you this question If you bring all of the troops home and you just let the Let the middle east do what it does they're now they'll kill each other already know where it's gonna go No, you don't because they're gonna fight each other as soon as they're gonna kill shea It's a shea. It's of course soon is a kaita will kill isis isa will kill a kaita In africa all of them will fight each other and they'll kill each other And you know, maybe we can come over there in in in 20 years and mop it up But in the meantime, we let them slaughter each other and give the israelis a green light to defend themselves and to take care of the terrorists there Okay, valid point. I'd rather do that than have my kids your kids The kids of parents who are sending their kids thinking that their purpose is to protect america God forsaken places that have nothing that nobody from niger Nobody from that part of the world from bukha haram has attacked america. None of them have attacked americans Yes, they've kidnapped nigerian girls. Let the nigerians fight the nigerians have lots of money from oil Let them fight bukha haram You know, nobody from molly has has killed an american It is not an american self-interest to be in all these places around the world playing this whack-a-mole game Uh, it's better and and I don't believe we should all come home and not do anything I believe we should do something But if we're not going to do anything meaningful Then I'd rather we do nothing and at least our troops don't die for nothing I value the lives of the men and women who are serving this country the men and women who are volunteered To fight for the defense of america and when they are used not to defend america I view that as treasonous I view that as criminal and I view that as as Is as massively irresponsible of whoever the president is and that was to a bush and obama and trump is no Different. He's exactly the same as all the others Thanks, donny I appreciate the call. I get all excited. None of that was meant as me yelling at you Just my frustration at the world But but definitely get my courses Definitely go find the the history lessons the rise of totalitarian islam and the brief history of the middle east You know, I'm going to be releasing other history lessons on my podcast So sign up and subscribe to the podcast on blog talk radio dot com and look up uran brook Or on itunes or in any podcasting app right now. I've got a history lesson on the corporation Where does the corporation come from? Is it a legitimate concept for business? All right We're gonna take a quick break when we come back. We're gonna talk about The federal reserve. You're listening to uran brook show on the blaze radio network Best selling author prolific media contributor phd and finance. This is the uran brook show The blaze radio network This is the uran brook show All right, we've been talking foreign policy today and uh with with the death of the four soldiers in niger And it continued deaths of americans in afghanistan and once in a while in iraq or syria Or somewhere else just i think just horrific horrific that american troops american young men and women are dying because our foreign policy establishment Our presidents our generals have no strategy Zero strategy Whack them all foreign policy is what we're calling it. All right, we got rich on the line from white plains new york hey rich Hey uran, how are you? I'm good. I'm good. It's frustrated, but good frustrated about something or another These days the way the way we're divided, but um, well, I'm not worried about the division You see I don't worry worry about division. I worry about truth And what worries me is not that we're divided What worries me is that we have drifted left and right everybody so far from truth So far from what works so far from what's good for america. That's what worries me, you know Uh, we'll always be divided. It's good. You know, it's good The people who hold falsehood should be divided from the people who hold the truth problem today is everybody holds falsehoods You're right that the truth is continually being harder to find because Of the sides that people are taking they they are they are placing their blind trust in either one A party or the other one talking point of the other but at any rate one or one television network or the other It's even begun to that journalism now is about taking sides. It's not about finding the truth Yeah, yeah, you have to forget it. But anyway, well, I just wanted to say that I admire your point of view I've been using the term whack-a-mole myself for for quite a long time And um, you know while I understand that you still think that there's a way to You know defeat radical islam over You know in iran and you know where at its origins I believe we made a mistake and there was a turning point Right after 9 11 after 9 11 everybody came together and says do something And george bush had a choice in my in my opinion He could either go play whack-a-mole, which is what he did Or we could secure our borders and try to keep ourselves safe that way and you know, it's not just Which we're gonna disagree on this one because I don't think this has anything to do with securing our borders No Power has ever survived by building walls building walls Securing borders is a sure way of guaranteeing defeat The way you win the way the romans won when they won the way every Power military power is always one When it needed to win was to go out there Find the enemy and crush them Defeat them thoroughly the problem with george bush and I grew with you on this was that he went after the wrong enemy He had an opportunity after 9 11 to define the enemy clearly to define it as Islamic totalitarianism to define it as jihadism and he didn't he defined it as terrorism If terrorism is the enemy then the only thing you have is whack-a-mole But if you define it as the ideology of Islamism, right of jihadism Then you find the people who are advocating it you find the people who are funding it You find the people that found can have it of it And there are only two countries in the world that do this Saudi Arabia and Iran and instead of making Saudi Arabia about a friend It should have been defined as an enemy instead of not doing anything about Iran and going to Iraq We should have gone after Iran and if we had after 9 11 when everybody wanted to do something Actually devastated Iran and Saudi Arabia instead of Afghanistan and Iraq It would have been over by now. It'll be gone Well, I don't disagree with you Europe because you seem to be an expert on that but with regard to securing our borders and from whom who's the threat of our borders Well, you can't use history as an example We've we've already seen that this is an unconventional type of quote-unquote war It's not unconventional guerrilla warfare was fought by the barbarians against the romans This kind of warfare has always been fought throughout history against powerful militaries There's nothing unique here and the only way to stop it is not building walls. They'll go under they'll go over They'll come by boat. They'll come by plane. They'll do they'll come through Canada There's the only way to this to stop it is to go to the source and destroy the source and to destroy their motivation to Show them unequivocally that they will be defeated. Let me recommend something to you I recommend that you go to amazon and you buy winning unwinnable war. It's cheap You can get on the kindle for nothing and it lays everything out and The whole idea of building a wall and hunkering down is so defeatist and at the end of the day You're hoarding. You're only hoarding the american economy You're only hoarding good people who want to come to this country instead of Actually going after the enemy the enemy The enemy will find a way into america the enemy will find a way into america because they're heavily Motivated and walls won't stop them never have throughout human history and they still won't so if you want to win this war They're no shortcuts. You have to do it right and and again Thanks, thanks rich for listening. Thanks for calling really appreciate it Go read winning unwinnable war go buy it and then again, I recommend to everybody Follow my podcast You know, you you won't find a better Presentation of the history of our enemies the rise and the rise of totality many slum Then on my podcast and and the history of the middle east you'd have to read 40 books To get what I condensed down into five courses so five lectures So I recommend history of the middle a brief history of the middle east also on my podcast and it's all all For free and you load it up on your iphone and you listen to it on the way to work or something No, well while while you're exercising in the morning easy and plus you get all the other podcasts you get all these shows And you know, I've got I've got one Lecture there also as a history lesson on the rise and decline of the state of israel and the problems with israel You've got one on money lending and then you've got recently. I just uploaded the corporation. All right I want to switch topics here because in our font policy, it's too depressing and and nothing's gonna come of it because Rich is much more likely to get his way. We'll build a wall, but that's gonna that's not gonna help us Uh, you know, nobody nobody in the foreseeable future is gonna do what's necessary to go after the uranians Uh, uranians not hard to defeat iran. It's easy not no country in the world Certainly no country in the middle east can stand up to the american might in american military. They don't even come close Don't even come close Anyway, federal reserve interesting stuff happening on that front because Trump is about to announce his choice for for the chairman of the federal reserve a very powerful position Maybe the most powerful economic position Uh in the united states and possibly Possibly the world more more powerful. I think than treasury secretary or the chief economic advisor to the president Um, and uh, we've got a number of different Competitors for the wall. Uh, we've got janet yellen who is the current chairman of the federal reserve We've got um, juan paul Who is one of the fed governors who's on the board that makes these kind of decisions already and has been there in the While a while we've got gary kohen Who is a chief economic advisor to the president and was the frontrunner for this position until he criticized trump Gary gary. You can't criticize trump If you want to advance in life It's wrong. You look look at me, right? I criticize trump and Anyway, you can't do it. You can't do it. Trump is a narcissist And he does not tolerate criticism from anyone media his own colleagues his own friends His anybody you cannot criticize him. So you you messed up. So I don't think gary's gonna get it Kevin walsh who is a former fed governor. He was a fed governor under um Bernanke and he was there during the financial crisis and was responsible for everything the fed did During the financial crisis So, uh, so given walsh is another and then I think the most interesting, uh Possibility is is john taylor Uh, john taylor is a stanford economist Generally a free market guy. None of these other people. I would call them free market guys. They were all Either economic statists. They believe the same central planning Or they are cronies. I would consider walsh cone and powell cronies And I would consider yelling. Well yelling and powell are clear statists And john taylor is the only one who's a free market guy and this is why I truly believe john taylor is not going to get the job Now it's not just that and I'm going to get a little technical on you here So, uh, but bear with me again, you listen to your own book show not just to hear me yelling and inspiring But also to get educated because you're not going to hear this stuff anywhere else The fed reserve is the most powerful economic institution in the world It basically controls the money supply of the united states It prints the money It Determines interest rates. It determines the quantity of money in the economy And the interest rate charged on money at least on the short-term rate in the economy It has massive ability to distort the u.s economy for example by buying financial assets or selling financial asset That's by the way how it expands or shrinks the amount of money in the economy As most of you know The fed reserve bought about four and a half Trillion that's what the t trillion. That's a thousand billion Which is a million millions so four million millions Of various financial instruments primarily uh bonds and mortgage back securities And by doing that expanded Nominally expanded the money supply by four trillion. The funny thing is at the same time those four trillion Were put by the banks into reserve at the fed So really in terms of circulating money 90 not much really changed and not much really expanded Anyway, the fed has this incredible Discretionary power. It doesn't really report to anybody. It's an independent institution government institution But you know, you can impeach the fed reserve chairman, but other than that he's pretty autonomous Bernanke almost all fed chairman have had since the great depression since 1933 Have had complete autonomy in terms of what they do one minute They weren't bound by any rules or by any standards or by any restrictions or by any constraints And that's what One two three four of the five nominees would like to continue The advantage that the the the thing john taylor is different the way john taylor is different Is he would like to constrain the fed He would like to constrain its ability to move interest rates To to either print money 30 or extract money from the economy Uh, and that's what makes him interesting. So when we come back, we're gonna talk more about What john taylor wants to do about the taylor rule What these others would do And what I would suggest in terms of the fed and maybe talk about the inherent inherent problem With the very existence of the federal reserve. All right, you're listening to your own book show on the blaze radio network We'll be back after these messages All right, this is uh your own book we're talking about the federal reserve and You know, Trump is gonna have to make a choice here about nominating a new fit chairman Now if I had to guess right now, this is my prediction You can call me on it, but my prediction is he's gonna go with yellen. Why yellen? Because he knows her Uh, he doesn't want anybody new who might stand up to him. God forbid who might criticize him god forbid Um, so he's gonna go with the known quantity. Yellen's a known quantity I also think Donald trump is a real estate guy. He wants low interest rates. He doesn't really care about much and his understanding in economics is Superficial at best It's it's very bad and yellen's gonna keep she's a dove She's gonna keep interest rates low for as long as you can He might go with somebody like your own power low gary koan Who are gonna do the same thing? I'm pretty sure you won't go with kevin walsh kevin walsh is too much of a Loose cannon, I think and and too much of a republican and No, yellen, uh pow Koan all democrats. I think that's where Um, donald trump's heart really is it's in the democratic party when it comes to economic issues And uh, and I suspect he's gonna go with one of them easiest safest Appointment would be to appoint janet yellen I If I could influence the decision which again, I would love to see john taylor in the wall because john taylor has a view somewhat at least to some extent of limited government and also limiting the power of the fed And limiting the power of the fed in terms of its discretion In terms of what it does. So he would have a rule an equation if you will I'm not a huge fan of of the rule but better than nothing um A rule that that is predictable that the markets know about how monetary policy would would uh Move over time And it would not be at the discretion of some bunch of economists to come up with some bunch of economic theories and and uh It would be one equation basically and the markets would know and they would adjust and while I think it's far far from optimal It's it's better he now Would john taylor stick to the taylor rule if he got into power? Unfortunately, I think he wouldn't Uh, I mean, this is the problem with the federal reserve. It's a political institution And they always succumb to political pressure So this is my bottom line The only solution to federal reserve is to do away with it. I think the federal reserve is a horrible Institution I would like to do away with it and I would like to Do away with the government having any control over money or interest rates I'd like to pass that responsibility over to the public's private sector I'd like to give banks the responsibility of issuing currency based on Some reserve that they have like gold and then Interest rates would be determined purely by the market. There would be no No government set interest rates. Think about it this way um Central planning doesn't work When government sets prices you either have They either set them too high or too low The only proper Price is a market price. It's the price where supply and demand clear It's the price that integrates our values what we care about Imagine if the government set the price of an iphone. I mean it would completely distort The whole supply chain of the iphone and destroy apple And and either make the iphone too expensive, which is what it would probably do Or it would make it so cheap apple would stop producing it So we'd even have shortages or surpluses because it was too expensive. Nobody would want to buy it No, we know this doesn't work because the Soviet Union experiment and prices of bread and what you had is shortages and surpluses And it was just a disaster every time price controls by the government Nixon tried this in the 70s every time government tries to impose price controls. It messes it up. It screws it up completely but We take the most important price in the entire economy By the way, the most important price in the entire economy is interest rates because every economic decision relies on some estimate on some projection of interest rates Everything every every product you have out there is impacted its value is impacted by interest rates in the economy So we take interest rates the most important price in the entire economy And we centrally plan that we let the government determine that through the federalism. We take money Maybe the most important product in the entire economy because we use it To purchase every other product we use it to save we use it to invest and we give the government a monopoly over its distribution over its creation and distribution And how ridiculous is that? We don't believe in government monopolies Well, I guess we do we have a government basically monopoly over education We're working towards a government monopoly over health care They still have first-class mail. They have a monopoly over we can never destroy government monopolies. It seems but they don't work And they suddenly don't work when it comes to money and interest rates All they do is distort and destroy the economy So nobody not John Taylor not Alan Greenspan not Ben Bernanke Not Janet Yellen can determine the right interest rates only markets can do that and in trying to do it All they do is set us up for failure Alan Greenspan's interest rate policy set us up for the great recession Interstate policy during the 1920s set us up for the great depression Interest rates during the 1930s set up The continuation of the great depression the federal reserve has been an unmitigated disaster since its founding and and There's a lot more I could say about this, but we are a little short in time here So I'll just say this it doesn't at the end of the day doesn't really matter who trump But I think it'll tell us a lot about trump's personality If if he appoints um John Taylor That would you know, that would be one of the better things he's done If he does that just because I think John Taylor could be more independent, but he'll probably appoint some lackey um Cohen paul or yellen uh And that'll tell you a lot about donald trump That'll tell you a lot of not that you need to know a lot more about donald trump I think we already know all we need to know about him. All right. I'm gonna take a call from peter but peter Suppose you have two questions one on the fed and one on uh Borders, let's do the fed question now. Then we're gonna take a break. Then we'll get to your other question All right, and peter's calling from germany, uh cool Yes, that's right. I'm cooking dinner right now. So really quick. Um Um Federal I was wondering if you could clarify for me a particular My understanding of the difference between recessions and depressions. So as far as I can tell all depressions are Uh, the results of government interference or federal central bank interference in the economy And their reaction in effect to a recession And a recession is a natural phenomenon. Yeah in the free market. It's just so no, I don't I don't think that's right I I think in in I think you're right in this sense That in a free market, I don't think they would be depressions I think depressions can only exist systematic Long-term collapse of the economy can only exist because of government action So they are depressions a consequence of governments Messing up once a well, it's not even once a recession happens because I think they create the recession So reset but recessions can happen for two causes One is because of government failure But it is possible to have a recession that's caused by Uh, the market so dramatic technological change can cause a short-term recession But most recessions Most recessions are caused like depressions by government failures So I wouldn't hold it as a session as market depression is not it's the difference between them Is the depth how bad they are and how long they are depressions are Massive collapses of the economy that last a long time recessions tend to be shorter And shallower But you know the 91 recession in the u.s. Was caused by the federal reserve The recession that started the great depression was caused by the federal reserve The great recession was called in 2008 was caused by the federal reserve. So another government policy. So government is caused most of the recessions Of the 20 and 21st century and suddenly has caused all the depressions Does that answer the question? Yeah, I agree with Yeah, I agree with the depression part. I was just wondering in terms of um The analogy a recession I always associate with to break it down on the individual level Uh, you made a mistake and no, that's just not true. It's just just not true And there needs to be a relocation of capital, you know in the economy because no, it's not a mistake It's not a mistake because it's a it's a government caused mistake Which yes, you need a recession in order to reallocate the capital because the government Caused the markets to screw up. They have been very few Recessions that in america that I am familiar with that were not caused Directly by government policy that caused people to make mistakes that need to be fixed And sometimes what the government does is it takes a recession and turns it into depression. All right, we have to take a break here Uh, thanks, uh, thanks peter for calling. We'll get you at the other side of the break You're listening to run book show on the blaze radio network You're on brook All right, this is the final segment today and we call the segment Um moment of reason and and it's basically an open q&a So you can call up 888-900-3393 and and call and ask about anything about any issue That's on your mind. Um, you can ask me whatever you want Not no trolling, but other than that It's uh, it's an open mic. So, um, we're gonna start off with peter, but call and 888-900-3393 peter has a Question on a on a different topic. I guess the original topic we talked about earlier this morning. Go ahead peter Yeah, um in the I like your whack-a-mole Uh term Thank you But in the beginning of in the beginning of the show, I actually came up with Uh an analogy of my own uh to describe american foreign policy because it reminded me of my garbage policy here at home You know, I Keep hunting down. I keep hunting down individual fruit flies that keep popping up and start annoying me Uh, and and I keep just doing that instead of you know Going to the source and taking the garbage out. So that was my analogy. It's a good analogy. I hope it's not true But it's a good analogy Well, well sometimes it is. Yeah, it works well. You can buy a lid for the garbage so To minimize the food fight. Do you ever did you have a question on borders or something? Uh, no, that was just all I had. Okay. Good. Good. Yeah, I mean, it's another variation of the whack-a-mole foreign policy. So Uh Cool, thanks peter calling from germany. We's cooking dinner at what's the time over there? eight nine o'clock p.m Yeah, it's uh, just about eight o'clock eight o'clock p.m. All right. Thanks peter. Thanks for listening and And as I said, let me remind everybody you can you can get all my podcasts the blaze ones the ones I do Not on the blaze the ones I just put up lectures of mine courses of mine everything everything You can catch on the uran book show on blog talk radio or Which is just a host for for all this content or on itunes or any podcasting app Just look up uran book show And and you can find it And there's a lot of great content there. So please do that. Also later this week I'll be launching a patreon site for those of you who don't know what patreon is patreon is a way for you to support this show financially It's a way for you to contribute directly to the show and and to help us do marketing for it to promote it to To enhance it and that'll be launched launched later in the week together with our website a uran book show Uh website, so a lot is going to happen the next few days really And hopefully hopefully all of you will stay engaged and and thanks all of you for listening All right, eight eight eight nine zero zero three three nine three We've got about I don't know about eight minutes if you want to sneak in a quick call I did go to question in advance about The opiod epidemic. What do I think about the opiod epidemic? And this is look, this is a big big Big issue and I'm certainly no expert about it And there's a lot of research one it would have to do to really figure out The sequence of events that have happened To get us to where we are today where where I don't know thousands of people dying from opiod overdose Maybe tens or hundreds of thousands or maybe more our people are addicted now to opioids all around the country Uh, it seems to be afflicting primarily Middle-aged men um and and particularly in the middle of the country or a place like New Hampshire and and uh So so I think that the two things going on here Two things going on here one is a sociological Psychological issue that's going on where people are in a sense Open to being addicted willing to being addicted You know Taking on this addiction or looking to get high and and and most overdoses most overdoses most of deaths Are not from people trying to medicate Uh following the doctors prescribed medication for pain Almost all the overdoses almost all the deaths are consequential people trying to get high Are people who are addicted who are trying to up the dosage In recreational use of these opioids ultimately heroin Uh oxycontin all these kind of opioids that that that uh very very addictive Pain medication are very very addictive and there's a certain sociological psychological aspect to this We unfortunately in this country have today a large population of people who have no purpose in life And who have no self-esteem And who have lost the will the interest in living and embracing life and really Loving life and loving their own life That's the lack of self-esteem and and I think this is a consequence of a welfare state This is a consequence of a mixed economy. This is a consequence of being told repeatedly That the game is rigged and they have no chance. This is a consequence to be told repeatedly That you didn't build that you are not responsible for your own life Your life is just in the hands of your genes your environment the politicians The state around you That you are nothing and nobody and have no shot at being successful That you should sit around i've used this example many times Sit around in south ohio and wait for the jobs to come back You are victim of the chinese you are victim of illegal immigrants. You are victim victim victim Of technology of robots This is a consequence of the psychology of victimhood. We have taken a whole generation of people particularly uh High school graduates who or people who didn't graduate from who never went to college whether they graduate from high school or not And they used to have manufacturing jobs and maybe don't anymore And uh who used to be in the middle class or lower middle class And and and became unemployed at some point And we have told them they are victims We have told them they cannot be successful. We have told them that there is no work for them anywhere that's worthwhile And they have lost all purpose and self-esteem in their life and when you lose purpose and self-esteem life is not worth living anymore And then all you want is to get high In one way or another all you want is to get high And we've told them it's not their fault. That's the big deal and that they can do nothing about it So we've destroyed them. We've destroyed self-esteem. Which brings about these kind of epidemics. The second thing we've done Is we've gotten government-evolved in medicine So government for decades tells doctors what's important and what's not important What they should prescribe or what they shouldn't prescribe What they will be evaluated and ranked on or what they won't and one of the things that They're ranked on is pain And and if their patients have pain, that's not good. They get a lower ranking They're incentivized to focus on an essential to pain reduction We also tell them what drugs to prescribe and not what and and and here's an example and again, I'm not an expert so I I generally have a sense that this is applicable, but I haven't seen anybody writing about this directly In 2004 I think it was 2004 the government banned vioxx vioxx was a very effective pain medication particularly for arthritis A lot of people Swore by vioxx. It was it was the pain medication that most worked for them I just read an article somewhere that Two minutes the tiger words is actually taking vioxx in spite of the fact that it's illegal They banned vioxx because it had Uh, it increases your odds of heart disease and stroke in about 10% of the patients But because it was because 10% was the FDA ruled is too high They didn't give you a choice to decide whether to take the risk or not. They banned it Which reduced dramatically the options doctor had in terms of what to give their patients Which moved them more towards giving opioids to their patients so government has Reduced through regulation the the options available government is also By making it so expensive and difficult to develop new drugs Made it on it almost impossible. Nobody invests In pain reducing medicine one minute because the lesson they learned from vioxx The government just yanked the approval and the company lost a fortune as a consequence So I think government involvement in medicine Government involvement with the FDA government involvement and how doctors should practice their craft Is a big part of what we're seeing today the big part of why We're seeing this at epidemics of two things one a culture of victimhood That is destroyed psychologically destroy these people and they're looking for a high and second government involvement in healthcare Those are the causes of the opioid crisis. All right We're almost done. Thanks all for listening. You've been listening to your own book show and we're on the blaze radio network