RUSH: I think this is season 5 of Homeland, if I’m not mistaken. It’s set in Berlin this year, and it looks like it’s gonna be another barn burner of a season. But his particular segment — and Cookie, it’s in the first 20 minutes, if you can get hold of the episode. I should have told her. It’s just something in the Kasich story reminded me of this, and otherwise I would have mentioned it to her earlier. If we don’t get to it today, we certainly will get to it next week, ’cause you’ve got to hear it. In fact, this is exactly what somebody serious in our government ought to be saying and ought to be, if not saying, thinking, ’cause it’s just dead on, what we’re up against. It explains or expresses, anyway, the utter futility with the way we’re going about dealing with it and stopping it. And his point, you can’t appease these people, you can’t be nice. They’re not interested in any of that. The only read one thing. They don’t read what you’re saying about them. They don’t read what you think about them. They don’t care. They read one thing, and that’s all they read, and that’s all they have read since the seventh century. Makes the point that they are committed to this like you don’t know commitment, making the point that we are not committed in any way, shape, manner, or form to stopping them. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Okay, Friday, grab audio sound bite number 43. This is Showtime’s Homeland on Sunday night. It premiered at nine p.m. Eastern, and it’s now Showtime on demand, it’s on Showtime Anytime, it’s on the Showtime app, pretty much anywhere you want to watch it now. He’s in a meeting of CIA analysts and executives. He’s just come back undercover from Syria and F. Murray Abraham is the character that is speaking to him. Well, no, actually F. Murray Abraham is his boss, but it’s a different character speaking to him. And the question he’s asked: “Is our strategy working?” QUINN: What strategy? Tell me what the strategy is. I’ll tell you if it’s working. See, that right there is the problem, because they — they have a strategy. They’re gathering right now in Raqqa by the tens of thousands. Hidden in the civilian population, cleaning their weapons, and they know exactly why they’re there. BOSS: Why is that? QUINN: They call it the end times. What do you think the beheadings are about? The crucifixions in Deir Hafer, the revival of slavery, you think they make this (bleep) up? It’s all in the book, their (bleep) book, the only book they ever read. They read it all the time. They never stop. They’re there for one reason and one reason only: to die for the caliphate and usher in a world without infidels. That’s their strategy, and it’s been that way since the seventh century. So do you really think that a few Special Forces teams are gonna put a dent in that? BOSS: Well, what would you do? QUINN: You’re offering me a promotion? BOSS: I’m offering you a hypothetical. QUINN: Two-hundred thousand American troops on the ground indefinitely to provide security and support for an equal number of doctors and elementary schoolteachers. BOSS: Well, that’s not going to happen. QUINN: Then I better get back there. BOSS: What else? What else would make a difference? QUINN: Hit reset. BOSS: Meaning what? QUINN: Meaning, pound Raqqa into a parking lot. RUSH: Hit reset, meaning pound Raqqa. Raqqa is a city in Syria. You know, it’s amazing. This season premiered Sunday night. It was written months ago. Filming on this episode probably started — let’s see, airs in October. They didn’t start filming this until September. So there was enough ISIS in the news that they could safely build the opening episode around this theme, even though the episode centered in Berlin. You know, I wondered when this season began how much more do they have here? What have they not explored? And I was pleasantly surprised with the opening episode. There’s really, really, really a lot of good television on right now. You know what? A lot of it is suffering because they’re losing ground on how to calculate who’s watching. If you just go by Nielson numbers, it looks like TV viewing may be down, but people watching shows is not down. They’re watching it different ways other than on conventional TV screens in the family living room or what have you. They’re watching on their devices and so forth. They’re watching it delayed, streamed or what have you. There’s just incredible content out there right now. And Homeland is one of these shows — I want you to listen to this again. This goes by pretty fast here. But the whole thing, he’s brought in, he’s on the ground in Syria and he’s being asked, “Okay, is what we’re doing fighting ISIS working? Is our strategy working?” BOSS: Is our strategy working? QUINN: What strategy? Tell me what the strategy is. I’ll tell you if it’s working. See, that right there is the problem, because they — they have a strategy. They’re gathering right now in Raqqa by the tens of thousands. Hidden in the civilian population, cleaning their weapons, and they know exactly why they’re there. BOSS: Why is that? QUINN: They call it the end times. What do you think the beheadings are about? The crucifixions in Deir Hafer, the revival of slavery, you think they make this (bleep) up? It’s all in the book, their (bleep) book, the only book they ever read. They read it all the time. They never stop. They’re there for one reason and one reason only: to die for the caliphate and usher in a world without infidels. That’s their strategy, and it’s been that way since the seventh century. So do you really think that a few Special Forces teams are gonna put a dent in that? QUINN: You’re offering me a promotion? BOSS: I’m offering you a hypothetical. QUINN: Two-hundred thousand American troops on the ground indefinitely to provide security and support for an equal number of doctors and elementary schoolteachers. BOSS: Well, that’s not going to happen. QUINN: Then I better get back there. BOSS: What else? What else would make a difference? QUINN: Hit reset. BOSS: Meaning what? QUINN: Meaning, pound Raqqa into a parking lot. RUSH: The point of this exchange was to illustrate that here we got a guy on the ground, undercover, who knows exactly what’s going on, is brought back to report on how our strategy’s working and tells him, “We don’t have one.” I know it’s a TV show, and in the TV show the writers, the point they’re making in this show is that our people in charge of defeating and stopping all of this have not even yet admitted what we’re up against. And, folks, it’s eerie, because that is Obama, that is this administration. They won’t even label what’s going on, what it really is, will they?
And of course he’s talking about the Koran. And they are committed to wiping out everybody who disagrees with them because they’re infidels. And he says, “If you people in this room think that you’re gonna be able to send a couple of Special Forces teams here or there or drop a bomb here or there or do whatever to fight this, then I’m outta here, because you haven’t the slightest idea what we’re up against.” I’m paraphrasing it, but I’m telling you it was the most powerful — and kudos to the scriptwriters of the show. It’s a Howard Gordon show. He was part of the 24 team. Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa.
BOSS: Is our strategy working?
BOSS: Well, what would you do?
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