RUSH: If you think that all of this angst over Trump pulling out 28 or 50 military advisers from Syria is about the Kurds, if you think it’s because all of these people in Washington, D.C. care about the Kurds, then you are misreading the circumstance. They don’t care about the Kurds. How many media reports have you seen where the Drive-Bys went over to Syria to do a series of reports on the plight of the Kurds? None! They don’t care about the Kurds. That’s not what this is about.
Let me tell you, it’s about a number of things, but the primary thing it’s about is that Trump didn’t tell anybody before he was gonna do it. No leaders in the House, no leaders in the Senate. He just announced it and everybody wakes up and says, “What? He didn’t confide in us. He didn’t consult us.” And there’s already animosity towards Trump from a lot of people that don’t like him being an outsider, so it’s just another avenue to go at the guy for being unqualified.
Remember the piece from years ago in the American Spectator that basically defined Washington as the ruling class and everybody outside it as the country class. And first pointed out the obvious characteristics of the ruling class, that they are for themselves first and America second. And maybe America first, depending on what they want America to be. It was a fabulous piece. We spent numerous days on it, adding to it, analyzing it and praising it.
And Mr. Codevilla is back with a piece at American Greatness that was published a couple of days ago called, “Who the Hell Do They Think They Are?” And it’s about this military business. In fact, one of the reasons that it so appeals to me is that it builds on a point that I was making, have made a number of times about how war is a never-ending thing because of the profit in it, because of the money in it.
And that’s another thing about Syria. Trump is getting us out of foreign wars, and the entire military-Washington complex wants no part of that! These people’s personal fortunes are tied up in ongoing war. Their power base is tied up in ongoing war. Military defense contractors are tied up in war. The last thing anybody — you know, the Democrats run around and traditionally they’ve been the anti-war party, but notice when they get elected they never get us out of any war. They always ramp ’em up and expand ’em.
Look at Obama. He ran as getting us out of here, and getting us out of there, went to West Point. We didn’t get out of anywhere, other than Iraq, and we didn’t reduce troops. We transferred ’em. And then what happened getting out of Iraq? ISIS was created, necessitating us going to other places, which is one of the reasons why we’re now in Syria.
So Trump campaigns on getting us out of endless foreign wars and military entanglements that don’t have anything to do with U.S. national security. Who dies in these wars? The American middle class, the sons and daughters of the American middle class, and Trump campaigned and promised to get us out.
This is another thing. You think the head honcho in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, do you think 50 American soldiers prevented him from making an attack on the Kurds? They didn’t. To think that 50 American soldiers are a tripwire so then Trump pulls ’em out of there and here comes a signal from Washington to Turkey, Ankara, that Recep Tayyip Erdogan is free to go.
No, it’s all about Trump pulling us out of these wars. It threatens the military aspect of the deep state as much as anything else Trump is doing with the other realms contained within the deep state or the Washington establishment or what have you. The military people in this deep state have really been brilliant. They know that the American people for the most part, in a vast majority, instinctively support the troops. They know the American people instinctively adore and admire and support the troops. It’s a volunteer force. They lay their lives on the line the moment they volunteer to join.
And so the people running the deep state military aspect of the Washington establishment have been taking advantage of this for longer than we can count. When you stop to think about this — this is what Codevilla’s piece did for me — when you stop and think about it, it becomes even more outrageous. They count on us loving our soldiers, because we do. They count on us loving our country, because we do. And they count on most of us to unilaterally support the military, because we do. They even count on our Christianity as an aspect of promulgating and promoting certain aspects of foreign policy. The belief in Christianity that Israel, for example, is sacred. They take advantage of that too.
It’s stunning when you stop to think about it. And they have used all of these good characteristics, they have used all of these really admirable traits that the American population have to prop up the military complex. The reason why it’s surfacing now is Trump. Trump is exposing all of this. I can imagine some of you saying, “Wait a minute, Rush. You’ve been one of the biggest advocates of the military.” That’s right I have for exactly these reasons that I have given you.
But all of a sudden here come these left-wing generals — and it’s not new — but now we’ve got these left-wing generals popping up like McRaven, William McRaven writes a New York Times op-ed: It’s time for a new person in the Oval Office. Republican, Democrat, or independent, the sooner, the better. Now he’s joined the call for impeachment. He even advocated a coup, if necessary, in this New York Times piece!
Now, McRaven is well known to those of us who study well-known military people. He’s a well-known, uber-leftist in the United States military. You want to talk about a conflict for me, that is a gigantic conflict. But as you know, we have two kinds of generals, two kinds of people in the military. We got warrior generals; we got political generals. McRaven’s a political general in his current iteration. But these people are making it clear, folks, elections, if they don’t go the way they want them, they’re gonna overturn them! And they think they’re perfectly entitled to! That’s the thing.
These people with John Brennan and Clapper and all the rest, Hillary Clinton, who ran this operation while in cahoots with Russia, make no mistake about it, run this operation to get rid of Trump to overturn the election results. And it’s ongoing now with Schiff and his stupid little, invisible, behind-the-scenes-in-the-basement committee.
Now, when you see these military people pop up after Syria, after pulling out 50 American troops, then it kind of, if you get jogged in the right direction, it all starts to become clear. So we’ve got a military guy here essentially in the New York Times advocating for Trump’s impeachment even if it takes — he doesn’t use the word coup, but he makes it clear that getting rid of Trump is important at all costs.
Why? In their minds they’re scared to death Trump is gonna get us out of these various foreign wars that we’re in that have no end and have no U.S. national interest at stake. Something that, again, Democrats routinely every four years, every day, every year, however you want to quantify it, promise to do this all the time. They’re known as the anti-war party. They do that to get votes from the pacifist aspect of their base, but it doesn’t ever happen.
Where are we still? Still in Afghanistan. Who promised to get us out of Afghanistan? Barack Hussein O. There’s no end. Nobody can even tell you how it’s gonna end. We don’t even take the time to define victory and whatever the exit strategy would be. So it’s an extensive piece. I’ll be quoting from it later in the program. That sets the table on it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Angelo Codevilla. He’s back. He never went anywhere. He continues to write. He wrote the great piece some years ago about the ruling class, published in the American Spectator, quoted frequently here on this program. He’s back with a stunning dissertation on what has become an almost role reversal in American politics.
What would you say if I were to tell you that the Democrat Party, under the auspices of the Washington establishment, the deep state, has actually become the party of war? “What? Rush, no, no. Code Pink. The Democrats, Antifa, the Democrats, every knows they’re anti-war.” Ahhh, that’s what everybody thinks. It isn’t so anymore.
The headline to Mr. Codevilla’s essay here is entitled, “Who the Hell Do They Think They Are?” The subhead: “With William McRaven’s call to oust President Trump — maybe through impeachment, maybe through a coup — the military officer class joins the establishment in claiming a right to rule, regardless of the outcome of elections.” It appears at American Greatness.
“Retired Admiral William McRaven devoted the bulk of a New York Times op-ed to appropriating for himself the moral and hence political authority of generations of soldiers and sailors … who have sacrificed for America, for ‘the good and the right.’ Then he gratuitously stated — citing no specifics, as if everyone already knows — that ‘President Trump seems to believe that all these qualities are unimportant or show weakness.’
McRaven concludes, ‘it is time for a new person in the Oval Office — Republican, Democrat or independent — the sooner, the better.’ At the very least, McRaven called for impeachment ahead of an election, or perhaps for a coup, and pretended to do so on the military’s behalf.”
He was speaking on behalf of the entire U.S. military in saying that Trump’s got to go, even if it takes a coup. In fact, McRaven’s “was just one more voice from an establishment that has squandered the public’s trust, senses that it can no longer win elections honestly, and is pulling out all the stops.
“It pretends to be trying to take down Donald Trump. In fact, it is trying to do something much bigger: Invalidate the votes of the ‘deplorables’ who oppose them. I suggest that the just response from self-respecting Americans to McRaven and others like him is: ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’
“Officers are supposed to obey superiors. That authority flows from the president. Why? Because only the president is elected by the whole people, and because the Constitution, which they are sworn to ‘uphold and defend,’ says so. If officers cannot abide superiors, they are supposed to resign their commissions. But McRaven and a host of senior officers do not resign. They subvert.”
Okay. So let me take over here and add my own unique — and the column, the essay goes on. I have been on this kick of the ruling class and the whole notion that war is a giant profit center for a while. And I’ve been thinking more about it. I think we’ve been taken advantage of by these military people, swamp people in this way. And do not misunderstand. I have not become an opponent to the military. That’s not what this is about.
I’m an opponent of the administrative state in Washington, which includes everything. It includes the military and the bureaucracy, the Congress, it includes everybody there — the swamp — who believe the election of 2016 was invalid because they lost. For that reason alone it’s invalid and it needs to be redone or wiped out because Trump won, and that’s just unacceptable. You screwed up. And McRaven’s column purposely lumps all of the military — he claims to be speaking for the military in this piece.
Now, they counted on us loving our soldiers ’cause we do. They counted on us loving our country because we really do. They also count on our Christianity. Believing Israel is sacred. They take advantage of that too. They have used our good characteristics to prop up a military complex that goes way beyond what we think its purpose is.
Republicans have always said yes to everything that has to do with soldiers, patriotism, and Israeli. They know that we always say yes. That’s how they take advantage of us. And so a guy got elected claiming we’ve gotta stop this. We’re in too many places around the world that have no distinct U.S. national interests. We’re losing too many American men and women. They are the sons and daughters of the middle class. We’re spending a lot of money on things that have no U.S. vital interest. We have no exit plan.
This one of the reasons they opposed Trump from the get-go and what made Michael Flynn so unique. You put in perspective what happened to Flynn I think is exactly this. He’s a traitor! He’s a military guy who sided with Trump! He had to be damaged. He had to be made an example of to make sure there were no others. And what an example of him they made.
I think, folks, that there is a lot more power in the establishment invested in the military than we can begin to understand. Because very likely these military people — we generally admire them and respect them, instinctively. I know many of them are socialists. Many of them are political activists. Not all. We have some warrior generals. We have some warrior military people. But we have a lot of people getting very, very rich off of endless, victoryless wars that they have encouraged, that they lobbied, that they perpetuate. And all of this is being exposed by Donald Trump.
Now, as we know, leftists ruin everything they touch, including the military. And here’s Trump not beholden to any of them. He’s not buying their garbage. He’s not beholden to any part of this military complex other than the troops. He is one thousand percent for the troops. They can’t buy him now. They can’t make him rich. They can’t promise him something lucrative later if he plays ball now, like they can to everybody else.
Trump spent a lot of political capital on that first budget. He had a ton of new money for the military. It had to be rebuilt. He did it. He was all-in. After the Bush wars, after Obama’s neglect, they were out of bullets. Trump likes to say, they were out of bullets. They had to be restocked. He has built up a strong fighting force that I believe he sincerely hopes will never see action. He believes in deterrence. You have a big, gigantic military so that you don’t have to use it, so that nobody dares attack us. And very few do.
But yet we’re everywhere now. It’s a fine line here, I understand. But the true ascertainment of legitimate U.S. national interests would probably result in us getting out of a lot of these skirmishes around the world. But we don’t. Now, initially the war lobby, the establishment, military, they loved Trump’s military budget. They loved all that new money. They loved the commitment to ongoing existing wars.
But now that Trump has rebuilt the military and now that it’s back to fighting force strength, now Trump wants to stop playing war games. We can’t have that! Are you kidding? Why, we can’t have that! That would mean the gravy train would slow down. Trump’s the one guy that may actually be able to bring some semblance of peace to the world. And they want no part of it. Look who it is that has become the party of war. It’s the Democrats and their establishment buddies in the military.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Hi. Welcome back. I’m gonna have to continue this tomorrow. I expect many of you may be surprised and you may not be fully understanding my point. This is not anti-military; do not misunderstand. The Codevilla piece was the second trigger. But the first trigger for me, Trump announces that we’re gonna pull 50 people out of Syria and all of Washington went bat crazy, they went bonkers, and then over what? The Kurds. And I just don’t think as many people that went bonkers over the Kurds actually care about ’em.
I mean, it was unanimous and it was omnivorous. It was all over Washington. Republicans, Democrats, House, Senate. I never heard any stories about the Kurds, never saw any profiles about the Kurds, never saw anybody doing stories about how unfortunate the Kurds are. In Iraq, yeah. The Syrian Kurds are stateless. They don’t have a state. That’s the one reason they’re in big trouble. But it just aroused my suspicions.
And then McRaven’s column hits, assuming that he’s speaking for the military saying Trump’s gotta go even if it’s a coup, coup-like thing to get rid of him, and it clicked. But this is not anti-military. Do not misunderstand.
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