Discussion Group with Allen West

Institute I'm bill Lacey the director normally I don't start these except this is the final discussion group this semester I always kick off the first and the final so I just wanted to thank all of you for coming but I especially wanted to thank Cheryl in the bond for serving as our fall fellow she's done a great job she's had excellent guests she saved the best for last and today is really going to be a lot of fun but I wanted to thank you for coming out and supporting her ask you to join me in thanking her for a great job done this fall that have been so kind to come every Tuesday throughout the semester and it's really been a privilege and an honor to to travel to Lawrence Kansas I've never been here before so it's just a lovely place and I hope to come back again so we've got Lieutenant Colonel Alan West as our guest this evening and some of you may know a little bit about him but I thought I'd just give a brief file for those of you who don't know he's the third of four generations of military service men and his family during his 22-year career in the United States Army Lieutenant Colonel West served in several combat zones talk more about that and received many honors including a Bronze Star three meritorious service medals and three Army Commendation medals in November of 2010 Allen was elected to the United States Congress representing Florida's 22nd district as a member of the 112th Congress he served on the small business and Armed Services committees and played a role in passing the 2011 and 2012 National Defense Authorization Acts he's a fox news contributor I know you've seen him on TV he's a contributing columnist for townhall.com and author of the guardian of the Republic American Ronan's journey to family Faith and Freedom he's the former executive director of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas Texas he holds a bachelor's degree from University of Tennessee as well as two master's degree one from Kansas State University another from the US Army command and General Staff Officers college so that's enough on his background all right I thought we start out talking a little bit about your military career and how it all started you're originally from Atlanta yeah what was going on in Atlanta that made you decide to go into the military aside from your family of course well that was it and and if you have ever been to Evan easer Baptist Church you were right in the middle of my neighborhood I was brought up in the same neighborhood that produced dr. Martin Luther King jr. my elementary school was right across the street from Ebenezer but I remember at the age of 15 651 Kennesaw Avenue was where we lived and my dad who was a World War 2 veteran and my mother who served 25 years civilian service with the six Marine Corps district headquarters sat me down on the steps and they challenged me they told me they wanted me to be the first officer in the family my dad was a corporal in the army like I said in World War two my older brother was a lance corporal in the Marines served of Vietnam he was wounded at Khe Sanh he's the black sheep of the family he's the only one that went outside of the army every one of us has our cross to bear so we had to have one person who wanted to be a Marine because he liked the uniforms he thought it would make him really tough and cool and so it was very interesting the following year I started in high school Junior ROTC at Henry Grady in Atlanta Georgia and as we discussed earlier my homeroom teacher went to the University of Tennessee and at the time they had one of the best ROTC programs in the country and so I ended up going up the road to Knoxville Tennessee and in 1982 I was commissioned as a second lieutenant and the United States Army Field Artillery as the hat that demand is wearing their red legs and I started my career down the road at Fort Sill Oklahoma at our Tillery school and my first assignment was over in Vicenza Italy and you know again I just want to say how great it is to see one of my former cadets from Kansas State University when I taught ROTC there from 1991 to 1994 colonel retired Dave strange is sitting here so thank you so much that's it it was about in our family service to the country and it continues on today with my nephew who was a major in the United States Army about to deploy overseas they'll be history combat tour in January and he's an artilleryman and a paratrooper just like his old uncle so what did you find most gratifying about your time military it was about taking an oath and it's very interesting that when you think about the men and women that serve in the military they do something that's unlike any other country in the world they take an oath to support and defend the Constitution in the United States from America against all enemies foreign and domestic and bear true faith and allegiance to the same they don't take an oath to a person they don't take a note to a political faction or they take an oath to the thing that embodies us as we are as the American people our rule of law that Constitution they are truly the guardians of this Republic and and so to be you know walking amongst young men and women that take that commitment freely because we have you know we don't have a draft military we have a volunteer military that was very special but I will never forget the day 31 July 1982 when I had my dad on one side my mother on the other side and they pinned those gold bars on my on my shoulders as a second lieutenant United States Army because I accepted their challenge I lived up to it and it was just great to fulfill that so fulfilling my father's dream of me being the first officer and then also serving alongside some great young men and women because the best that this country has to offer for the young men and women to wear the uniform of this nation what were some of the frustrating things I mean we know that in the military it's a very strict you know very strict path thank you to advancement except frustrating sometimes you know I think the you know the thing that I liked about the military was that you knew what the standard was you knew what was required of you and you knew the jobs that you had to take to go on and I'll never forget one of my my commanding officers I was a brigade level s3 operations officer Hughes the brigade commander at Fort Fort Bragg and he just looked at me early on he said hey major let me give you this one piece of goddess don't screw it up you know and I just had to figure out what he meant by screwing it up the thing that you know you don't like about the military lhasa times is the bureaucracy right of the military and i think that one of the things that we're facing right now for our military is that you have a dearth of experience at the civilian oversight level that has been dealing with our military let me give you some some numbers a United States Army is at nineteen thirty nine levels pre nineteen pre World War two the United States Marine Corps is at World War one levels the United States Navy is at nineteen seventeen levels the United States Air Force is the oldest and the smallest combat fleet that we've had since we created the modern United States Air Force now there are some people to say you know we don't need to have this large military and we don't need to be involved and we spend too much on the military I will tell you that we probably do spend too much on the civilian bureaucracy right other military but when we see our young men and women who are suffering when you look at the fact that you have ships colliding when you have airplanes and helicopters stead of falling out of the sky this tells you that we are not doing what is right and appropriating the money and the readiness for our United States military so that's what I tend to not like is the the bureaucracy that sometimes does not focus on what needs to happen for the military it is really you know being top-down driven instead of the bottom-up refinement and one of the civilians died faint need to happen when I mean this this Institute that we're sitting in it's named after an incredible American who served his country and continued to serve in a suit and tie back 45 to 50 years ago almost 75 percent of the people on Capitol Hill House of sinning has served in United States military today you're talking about 13 to 15 percent but if you were really to take away two people that were like lawyers and stuff like that I mean really call that you good luck but but if you take if you really look at the people that have served in combat on today's modern battlefields Iraq and Afghanistan you're talking about single-digit experience in Washington DC so it's really hard to understand what these young men and women are facing if you have not recently been out there and been on the receiving end of an ak-47 a PKM on RPG because at the strategic level which is what the decisions being made in Washington DC those decisions affect young men and women at the tactical level and so when you understand that we have rules of engagement they've been in existence for quite some time to tell young men and women that they cannot engage the enemy until the enemy fires upon them first anybody that has ever been in the firefight will tell you within 2 to 3 seconds someone's going to die and you don't want to cede over that initiative to the other side but only if you've ever been at that level can you really understand what a rule of engagement made up at the strategic level how that affects the young men and women down to tactical well let's um let's talk about politics for a minute what led you to politics what led you to run for office you know I will tell you that you know in the military we hate politicians as a matter of fact you know if you an officer and someone told you that you had to be the escort officer for congressman or senator it's because you were really pissed off your boss it was not you know something remember a good friend of mine escort senator Ted Kennedy when we were over he was not happy about it that's okay when I retired and I went back over to Afghanistan a civilian military advisor and I came back over for a holiday break and I was met by a lady Donna broswer she now lives in Colorado she was a local political operative and she looked at me she says something that cut me to the core she said just because you have retired from the military military you've taken off your uniform it does not mean that your oath of service to this nation ends I mean when how do you respond to that and so she really gut-check me and I looked I said hey you know I gotta go back go to Afghanistan I mean I understand you're talking about me coming back and running for Congress my most important issue is to keep the Taliban from shooting ma'am but when I did come back in November 2007 I I did declare to run for office in 2008 cycle I knew nothing about politics really I just knew what I learned in my experiences in my studies at the University of Tennessee Kansas State and the style college and I came about eight points from from defeating a well entrenched career politician down in South Florida it had been in the State House the state Senate and now was a was a congressman he had 3.1 million I had 500 in 57,000 wroclaw oh right so and then you know people asked me to come back and do it again in 2010 and you know dumb paratroopers you know we hate losing so I say yes here I'll do it again and we were successful and then in 2012 you know the thing that happened was you know I take pride in the fact that I guess I heard everybody up in Washington DC because the Republicans redistricted me out of the congressional district that I represented and I was the number one target after the presidential election in 2012 or the Democrat Party and era I remember this race that just happened in Georgia the special election race John Ross often carry he'll handle that is now the most expensive congressional race in US history prior to that race it was the one that I was in in 2012 the most expensive congressional race in US history is little over 36 million was spent in that race so let's talk about Congress for a minute so I have no idea what the approval ratings were when you were there in 2010 it wasn't good but it has to be worse now it's definitely worse so how do we fix you know this divisive behavior in Congress and how do we so that's one question and just sort of to follow on that what are we going to do about them getting to get something done well I think the American people it was a great challenge the Benjamin Franklin gave the American people on the day of our Constitution was signed September 17 1787 a woman by the name of mrs. Powell came up to you no Benjamin Franklin as he was coming out of Independence Hall and she asked him a question well doctor was it that we have a republic or a monarchy and Franklin replied a republic if you can keep it I think the problem that we have in United States America is that we're being dumbed down I mean we we our education system is more about indoctrination and education I mean just think about once upon a time we were kids you know Saturday morning you wake up and you have Schoolhouse Rock you know I hope and pray that I will but the day I am still just a bill I mean we were constantly educating ourselves not just within the walls but outside the walls and we were having these discussion one of the things I had to do growing up and before I had dinner I had to take an article out of Lanna Journal Constitution and I had to give a summary of it before I could eat dinner with my folks now how often does that happen first of all how often do we have kids to have mommy and daddy at the dinner table in the evening see so so we have lost so much fundamentally of who we are so if you go out and you talk about what is a constitutional republic you see the man industry things people say America is a democracy is not democracy is our process so I think the big challenge for us is how much of this type of behavior are we willing to take exactly you know when you've come to find out that there is a slush fund and DC your taxpayer money that is going to pay for lawsuits for sexual harassment and sexual abuse of members of Congress the American people should say stop first of all I have not heard anyone stand up and say you know what we're gonna release the names well I'll let you know who they don't want to release the name but they sure right because that's call accountability even furthermore we should demand that because that's the resource that's the money of the American people that's being used up there so you know I think what is happening in our country is that we're losing a sense an idea of who we are and I'll be very honest and in 2008 when then-senator Obama stood up in Minnesota he said we're five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America if someone it Bill Self were to go out and have a press conference and say in five days I'm going to fundamentally transform kayuu basketball everybody in Lawrence Kansas would say what the heck are you going to do what are you talking what's always says that about your country and no one stopped to say timeout coach what are you fundamentally transforming us from and what are you taking us to see that's the concern that I have because what I see the difference between a politician and the Statesman a politician is always going to tell you what they think you want to hear a statesman is going to tell you what you need to hear and will is willing to suffer the consequences and the ramifications thereof I don't need to be in Congress or Washington DC to be in America and to serve this country well there are some people that just believe they have to be there and that they're entitled to be there and we've got to get them to understand that they're not entitled to be there it is a privilege to serve either at the state level at the local level or at the federal level that's the key thing that we have to be established in this concert so now we know your thoughts on Congress I'm curious and I'm sure everyone else is curious to get your thoughts on the Trump administration oh so you know report card here what are they doing right where do they need improvement okay well first of all I will tell you that I know the president personally because three of his properties were in the congressional district where I was a representative down to South Florida I will tell you this that what they have done right is that they have an incredible positive economic growth atmosphere in the United States of America but if you don't follow that up with the right type of policies and legislation with the tax reform and everything not just tax cuts but tax reform you're not going to see what you see happening on the Dow Jones and in the markets and we're having I think what they somewhat get wrong and especially the president I'm I'm on Twitter but I don't play on Twitter and I think that this thing which has been a novelty has now become too much of a crutch and it has become a major distraction when you're standing there with code talkers from World War two you just need to you know be in awe of these men and should get a praise and honor to them for the service they get nothing else needs to happen I think the most important thing was with President Trump is that he really and truthfully not written about this now said it you know no big deal he doesn't have that ideological core okay and when you lack an ideological core you become like a weather vane you can go wherever the president of United States of America said never looked over to the house of Senate and say just pass something get it to me in our sign that's an abdication of your authority that's an abdication of your position as president that's you're just telling these other guys just just do something and it's okay by me you've got to give people a left and right limit you got to give people philosophically to understand how do you see this very important thing what is the relationship between the federal government and the individual American citizen that's the key thing that we have to answer because right now when you look at what that relationship is getting inverting and that the federal government is becoming more preeminent more dominant than the individual should be and America was established for the individual to be to be sovereign I mean when you go back and read the second three this government by John Locke a true classical liberal which is today's constitutional conservatism it was all about individual liberty and freedoms John Locke wrote about life liberty and property Thomas Jefferson came along about 4550 years later and wrote about the inalienable rights of the individual from the Creator not for man life liberty and the pursuit of happiness the problem is that we have people in Washington DC that truly believed that they can try to guarantee your happiness and what I see president Trump not being able to effectively do when he has this incredible platform is articulate his vision and articulate how he sees that relationship of the federal government to the individual America citizen so great example would be this whole tax reform package and we know that he just kind of wants to get people together and get a deal done but I'm not really seeing what's important to the president come out right what you're saying because I'm originally originally the president said I wanted three tax brackets the house said you're gonna get four tax brackets how the senators saying you're gonna get seven tax brackets I mean it's kind of like that Oh remember that Abbott and Costello routine who's on first what's on second okay but in the end who is losing with this it's the American taxpayer because you still have a sense of wealth redistribution that is going on even in this tax reform package when was the last time you heard anybody in Washington DC talked about we're going to reform our spending Wow when was the last time you or anyone in Washington DC say we're going to reform our budget process how many people here let me let me just your hands and it's not too embarrassing how many people here know the difference between baseline budgeting and zero base budgeting okay I saw three baseline budgeting zero base budget see this is what I mean if the American people if the folks sitting here the Dole Center for politics don't understand that basic concept then that's why we find ourselves in trouble because members of Congress will come down and tell you we're cutting spending they're lying what they're doing is offer a system called baseline budgeting means every single new year there's going to be an increase of spending off of a baseline the only thing that they're doing is cutting the rate of the increase of the spending now what every person here has to do every single day of their lives especially the college students the jaalin got a lot of revenue coming in you got to do zero base budgeting because you can't run deficits in your home you can't run deficits in your life what your expenditures are must match the revenues that are coming in now why can't we have a federal government that can operate in the exact same way and that's the question that you all have to come to understand and you all have to challenge your representatives when they come down and they start to say these things I think it says in the Bible you must study to show yourself approved that's a critical thing we have to do so still talking about the Trump administration let's move I'll give them about a C to C minor okay all right C to C - okay let's talk about the foreign policy and sort of our country's role in the geopolitical status with Russia China Iran I mean you've served in the military you saw first and Afghanistan in Iraq where do we go from here oh oh and today we find out the North another one right very interesting I guess that emissary or whatever envoy that the Chinese sent to North Korea they didn't work out so well I guess we now know Kim Jong Un's answer right if you think about I love to look at things in historical perspective as a matter of fact George Santayana said back in 1928 those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it we are at a 1935 moment in the world when you think about it they are despots their dictators their autocrats that are out there and we for whatever reason think that we can compromise appease negotiate cut deals with them what have you but and go back and read about the relationship between Neville Chamberlain Adolph Hitler in nineteen and how Hitler just played Chamberlain and the Great Western powers is the sack same thing is happening right now we have four major nation states that are confronting the United States and where that's Russia that's China and that's Iran and North Korea and that's where the real collusion is been then don't forget that you have the global Islamic Jihad movement that continues to go on and it's spreading as a matter of fact maybe you all didn't read about it but the BBC had a great expose and report the Isis fighters in Raqqa were not defeated they were allowed to get in trucks and buses and leave with their weapons and ammunition and no one knows where they went it's just incredible so you know I I think that what we need to first of all understand is your foreign policy has to be based upon you know a resolute stance and you have to have a military there's a credible deterrent to back up that foreign policy and we we just have not had that here in the last few years well you got to do with Russia's understand this I mean and the Trump administration said it I haven't seen them follow up on it but the big economic provider for Russia is they're all in natural gas that's what keeps you know Eastern Europe and and some of these other countries tied to them if we start to export especially you know natural gas over to Eastern Europe that undermines Vladimir Putin who already has a very very fragile economy going on case in point when I talk about credible deterrent when I went over to Europe back in 1984 from my first tour of duty we had 300,000 troops in Europe to stand against you know Soviet aggression today we only have 30,000 we're almost at a near peer-to-peer with the Russian military right now when we used to have an incredible incredible advantage over the Russian military and that's why weakness is very provocative just the same with China the thing that China realizes that we defeated the Soviet Union not militarily we defeated them economically and so what China has realized that they can still be a communist country but if you look at what they did after Hong Kong was transitioned over to China they understood that we can embrace this thing called capitalism we can grow our economy we're not going to use it to take care of the Chinese people we're going to use it to build up our military and so now you see an incredible growth of China's maritime capability and capacity they're building islands in the South China Sea fortifying it with military weaponry surface to ship missiles and ask yourself when was the last time we saw an Asian nation invest heavily in their maritime capability and put military airfields on islands in the Pacific see that's what I mean history has a way of repeating itself you're not paying attention and then of course you have Iran which is an incredible threat and how they are becoming the regional hegemon they're in the Middle East right now so that Saudi Arabia has has pulled together other Sunni Islamic states in the summit just three week three days ago and now they're talking about how they're going to step it up and and and confront against Iran Iran is in control of many of the capitals in the Middle East now being at an Sanaa Yemen Baghdad Iraq Damascus Syria and in Lebanon Beirut Lebanon all under Iran's hegemonic control backed by Russia we should have never had a nuclear agreement with Iran we should have never been shipping them billions of dollars we should have never taken our foot off the pedal and with the sanctions that we had on that's how you got to keep what we call the dime theory to diplomatic the information military and economic pressures on some of these countries and we have not done that and then when you look at this global Islamic Jihad that is spreading you all just saw what recently happened in the Sinai Isis is not a territory Isis is a movement and we fail to understand that so just because you reduce the territorial integrity in Syria and northern Iraq does not mean that this movement has gone away and we have to understand how do we confront that so these are the things that are facing this this current administration and you've got some good players in there but I don't think that they're being properly utilized I will tell you that I don't think and you may be you've heard it first from me Secretary of State Rex Tillerson won't be there in January next year I don't think he will be so out of all those things I'm not trying to depress y'all what's going on so about out of all those things and then just in light of what happened today with North Korea what what do you think is the biggest threat the biggest threat for us is our economic growth and the former chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said that when you have a debt that is approached well over 20 trillion dollars if we don't get our country clicking at a four to five maybe six percent GDP you are not going to be able to do what it's necessary to have a military that has the right capability and capacity so you cannot look at your military and and see it as a bill payer for all of the fiscally responsibilities of Washington DC because the most important responsibility of the federal government is to provide for the common defense it's to keep us safe and they're failing on on that task right now in this case it's got to be a Herculean effort to get that going so I will tell you that the biggest thing is our economic growth to get you know Americans back to work but get that GDP number clicking back up and start looking at how we reduce our debt and stop with this deficit spending and we got to be smart with our defense spending you know I served 22 years in military and there's a lot of fraud waste and abuse is out there it is incredible to me that in these years of quote-unquote austerity for the United States military we see more civilian bureaucracies we've seen more generals you know you know the Pentagon has gotten bigger but yet take a drive 70 miles west from here to Fort Riley Kansas and look at how many tours those young men and women are doing over the combat zones or over to Korea or over to Europe it's unconscionable what we're doing to them we are running them into the ground because we have so cut now I mean it's down to the bone marrow of our military capability that we're destroying them this this little ring right on maybe some of y'all want to know what it says this is called a hash tag 22 kill ring this represents the fact that every day on average 22 22 veterans are taking their lives in the United States of America 22 22 veterans per day on average are taking their lives in the United States of America now think about the stress that that also puts on the family members little left all because we have people that are sitting up in Washington DC to have a slush fund for their sexual harassment but yet we have young men and women that aren't properly trained equipped and prepared and we just lost three sailors out there at sea because their aircraft crashed and I guarantee you it was because of mechanical mishap let me ask you this though so um you know is this a function - of recruitment efforts I mean as we know the military has changed quite a bit we've got some policies you know do you think these newer policies have been a deterrent for younger people going so let's talk about well I don't think it's been a deterrent for younger people going in I think it's gonna okay it does complicate things because I don't think the people are focused on what they're supposed to do the core missions of the military folks the United States military is a discriminatory organization okay just just get it out of your heads and you think that we're all about fairness you know I was a pretty squared away true but guess what I was not 5 feet 11 so I could not be in the old guard in Washington DC I could not have been a part of the 3rd every regiment okay if you are too fat you don't stay in the military if you have flat feet you don't stay in the mill if you can't run fast enough you can't do push-ups where you don't stay in the military this is not about the culture of the participation trophy where everyone gets to play everyone gets to join and we're happy to have you that's not the mission of the United States military but again when you have people they were in civilian positions they were more so concerned about ideological agendas then you get what we have happening in nine states military and let me tell you something these are too sore points for me but I'm gonna get it out here there are two people that should still be sitting right over there in prison at Fort Leavenworth number one is Bradley Manning I don't care if you thought you wanted to be a you divulge over 700 thousand pieces of classified information and people did lose their lives you should still be sitting there Bo Bergdahl the most heinous thing that you can do in a combat zone is to desert your posts and endanger your fellow soldiers yeah here's a person that is now walking free now when you have these type of things that are going on in your military the question is what does that say to the young men and women that are there trying to do what is right and trying to serve if they see that the standards mean nothing that you can do the most abhorrent thing the most despicable thing resulting in the lives of six soldiers being killed and the only thing they do is give you a dishonorable discharge charge you ten thousand dollars and set you free the Uniform Code of Military Justice says that that is a crime punishable by death now everyone understand no one was going to execute Bowe Bergdahl well Bowe Bergdahl should be a permanent resident of the state of Kansas over there Fort Leavenworth so again what message did that sent to our military what message does it send to the family members who lost their loved one looking for someone there was a deserter and now he's free but on Thanksgiving they had an empty chair at their table so I always like to ask [Applause] I always like to ask our guests about important events in their lives that have that have changed you know their perspective on things and I want to talk about your time in Afghanistan and Iraq and I know you were there to do a job and had a mission but what did the people of Iraq and Afghanistan teach you you know what I learned in being in Iraq and Afghanistan that there is one thing that is immutable all across the world and that is the indomitable human spirit and the quest for freedom and liberty now we can't define it and and you know package it like we have here in the United States of America I'm not one for nation-building I am NOT one for you know the military trying to go over and DeVille democratic institutions but there's something about people that want to be free I would never forget how you know we would sit down with our interpreters and translators in Afghanistan and hear young men as a matter of fact our senior interpreting translator had never been outside the city of Kandahar and so one day when I asked him to escort me go with me on a plane flight up to Kabul he was terrified because he it's the big city and I just don't know what happened but when you sit down with these young men and they get on the internet and they start to all of a sudden learn all of these things that they have not been able to learn and see and experience and all of these years when you have one of your interpreter translators come to you with tears in his eyes and say colonel Wes please help me that I can get my wife and my son out of Afghanistan because I want my son to have a better future see there's something in all of us that really wants to be free there really wants to get out there and as Thomas Jefferson said life liberty and pursuit of happiness and so that's what I learned and the most the most special thing and all of my years serving in the military that just got me to know the reason why I served was in Afghanistan when I watched the little girls go to school and I will tell you I'm tough so I'm a gun but I broke down crying because having you know being the father of two daughters to see those little girls maybe have an opportunity that touched my heart and so when I think of that young lady Malala you saw see who the Taliban shot in the head oh because she wanted to get an education that's why we go and we fight for people that we don't know and people we may never know to give them an opportunity like what you all have here to place call kayuu that's what we do so we just got finished talking about Congress but I do have to ask you you serve one term don't you go back that's what I saying you want to go back into the trenches and do Hanahan come you know I I will I will always do what God and country would ask me to do it's not about me and and you know there's a great verse of Solomon it's a chapter 3 verse 5 through 6 it says trust in the Lord with all that heart and lean not upon your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path so I don't know what my future may be you know but I know that I was supposed to be here with you all tonight unfortunately I was not able to be here earlier because of you know a health issue with my wife but I just asked each and every day that I can be used by the Lord that I serve in the country that I love to make sure that I pass on a better and a brighter future for our children and grandchildren that's the most important thing it may be that you know that's up there in the halls of Congress if so I'm going back with more grenades and a bayonet or it may just be doing what I'm doing right now getting out looking at Americans eyeball to eyeball and talk about what's important I think that's a good place to end let's open it up for Q&A we've got a mic coming sir when I was in the field artillery we sounded off right colonel with Scott off your cadence sound off your numbers that's right twenty minutes because so many people can't qualify now for the services because the big guts a third of the guys are only eligible and a lot of them don't want to go in the military so I don't know what the futures gonna bring well I think that you will always have a contingent of America when you talk about the true one-percenters it's the men and women that served in the United States military serving right now I mean and and understand this I think is point zero five 0.5 whatever percent that is served at full career 20-plus years but there's something about our country when you think about when the men who stepped out on Lexington green back in 1775 all the way up to today there have always been people that have done as it says in Isaiah chapter six verse eight whom shall we send who will go for us here am I send me and that's the greatness of America that somehow with all the things that we go through we still you know create and we still raise up men and women that will take that oath of service now I will tell you I'm very concerned about some of the things that are happening out there in civilian society because your standards must be high a lot of people ask me when I go out you know do you agree with bring a package around I would say no I think that we have a very good volunteer force but we just need to train them and clip them and get them mission focus you know when you start to open up into a draft then you're gonna have more problems for commanders because you're going to spend 95 percent of your time on five percent of a unit that doesn't want to be there but when you look at the fact that we have States in the United States of America that are now saying it's okay to smoke marijuana this can serve military okay because one of the questions you asked on enlistment MIT contract head is have you ever done drugs and you know some people might say well it was legal and you know and watch and say we're sorry you know we just can't have it and I don't want anyone in the military all of a sudden hallucinations say so you know they you have to have those standards you know when I was in high school we used to have PE Murphy you know if he wasn't you went into the stadium you sat there and you were on your own op and whatever you know coach made you run coach made you you know swim and you had to go take a shower whatever you need to get back to that now I'm not trying to say we want to create a new generation of spark they like that you know no I'm not saying that but when you think about our health care system one of the main problems with our health care system is that we're not taking care of ourselves okay so we need to go back and start thinking about what is it and look I've been first got to tell you I like a 5 guys double cheeseburger okay but I will also tell you that this morning I got up and I ran 5 miles down to Kay you were Kansas River Trail wherever I go when I'm speaking I take my running shoes because my physical fitness my health is my personal responsibility and I think that we need to once again inculcate into our that into our young people man I was out somewhere and I saw this look here kid couldn't have been more than 3 4 years old that kid had already way about hurting 10 pounds and I said I mean to me that's kind of abusing with you I'm not saying you got to sit down and make a meet during peace because I hate great peace but I don't think you need to try to get the kids to understand as a parent let's go out walk let's go out and play I remember as a kid we didn't want to come in the house we stayed out there as long as we could to play the wrestle to do whatever and I think we need to get that that sense of a a personal responsibility and your fitness and not not about looking good but just in fitness and then we need to start as my dad did you know challenging some of our young kids my dad said I want you to be the first off and right then I knew what that meant and then I had to carry myself a certain way not just on the outside the character on the inside and I think that's one of the most important lessons we need to start teaching our young people hi my name is Emily welcome back to Kansas City back I know you're at the enemy institution but that's okay this is a discussion on engagement of women I'd hoped for more questions about how constitutional conservatives such as yourselves engage women you know my understanding of constitutional conservatism is it's as the founders intended life liberty and the pursuit of happiness I'm wondering how you rectify that with its statement of all men especially considering that the Equal Rights Amendment was never ratified and how that in the larger picture engages women well sure I think that the most important thing when you look at how you engage women is that everyone has their dreams and aspirations of what they want to be and I think that there should not be any constraints or restraints on what people seek to be and I think that the great thing you know classical liberalism constitutional conservatism we believe in the individual we believe in their sovereign rights to go out and pursue their habits and their dreams we understand that sometimes you might you know slip and fall down off the ladder climb into whatever levels of success you want but a safety net needs to be there the safety net needs to be there to help you continue on this is the thing that I tell my daughters my oldest daughter is 24 my youngest daughter's 21 moterz daughter just finished her master's degree in molecular and cellular biology at SMU she had a pre-med biology degree she's now in PA school my youngest daughter wants to be in health services administration she's also an air force rotc donna ask me how to happen and she's a junior in college I tell them you're not a victim don't let anyone portray you as a victim and you know who also told me that there's my dad my dad told me never see yourself because of this color of your skin as a victim you go out there and you find out what the standard is you find out what the requirement is and then you exceed it a hundred times fold so no one can be able to deny you of anything that you seek to be the greatest equalizer in the United States of America in the world is education and so that is what we stress in our home and especially when I have a wife they had a dual degree from Kansas State an MBA for Long Island University and a PhD from Kansas State okay you can just imagine the type of conversation we have in our home that's where it has to start and so when you talk about being a constitutional conservative I don't look at people and I don't see black white red yellow male-female what I see a person and I see a person that has dreams and admiration aspirations and I just believe that we need to be able to equip the individual to be able to achieve whatever they want in their life and understand that when you run into those obstacles or when you run into those discriminatory practices then you crack down on them without a doubt but I don't want people that look at us and collective groups and they see us as victims and then they try to play us against each other and that I think is what is happening in the United States of America and I can tell you as exactly what's happening in the black community I have a two-part question so I went to University of Tennessee I can only deal with one question at a time just one question first what is what your life made you a conservative and the second one is you went in the Air Force could he have been a four-star general like Mars well I could probably still do a mile and a half in less than 20 minutes if you asked you know let me tell you about my folks my dad was born and raised in South Alabama jump to Chattahoochee River and grew up the South Georgia my mom was born raised Fort Valley Georgia just south of Macon my dad did not go to college my mom did go to college my folks were registered Democrats but my folks raised me on these principles faith on family on individual responsibility on quality education and service to the nation and so I did not look at my family as far as belonging to any political party I looked at the principles upon which they raised me and I think that right now what we have to do as Americans is stop with the noise of political parties and if you want my opinion I think in about the next six to eight years the Republican and Democrat parties didn't go under they really are people are gonna start to identify with their personal principles and values more so than political parties George Washington called the political factions so when you talk about when did not come into an understand that I was a conservative I probably understood it when I took a political theory class down at Kansas State University when I was getting my masters and I started reading John Locke and I started reading all of these great philosophers and I understood that classical liberalism which is really what my parents were raised me to be it wasn't to be a member of a certain party but it was to hold certain truths and values and principles within myself and so that that's that's what I would ask people to do let me tell you what I see we are split in the United States of America it is two schools of philosophy constitutional conservatism if you study and read the Declaration of Independence the Federalist Papers in the Constitution five points limited government because the Constitution is a restraint and document on the federal government all the powers that are not enumerated to the federal government go to who to the state's it to the individual the second thing is fiscal responsibility the third thing is individual freedoms liberty sovereignty the fourth thing free market free enterprise system and the fifth thing is strong national defense because you got to defend those things the other side is what I call progressive socialism and progressive socialism believes in wealth redistribution it believes in nationalize in production that means all means of economic production call it falls under the government the third thing is the creation and expansion of a welfare state because it's about dependency is not about in dependency it's about social legality realism where we see everyone the same everyone is equal and the last one is about secular humanism and I think that if we will sit down and we will have that discussion with people based upon what principles what philosophies do you believe in I think that we would have a more unified country but we don't have those conversations the last person that effectively had that conversation with American people was Ronald Reagan and that was why in his elections there was only one state that never voted for Ronald Reagan meanie soda okay that's a real weird state I mean Jesse Ventura you know everything you know they run around with them horns on their helmets and everything like that you know so I don't know but I think that when you have the discussion with people based upon your inherent philosophies and beliefs when you sit down with your kids if I were to sit down here anywhere at a kku as if a student would have come up to me and say and you know I'm a liberal i say i'm a liberal too and they freaked out I said but I'd explain I'm a classical liberal and let me talk to you about what classical liberalism is now what type of liberal are you and we just have a simple conversation like we're having tonight and I think that when we try to do that instead of letting people start to yell and scream they try to shout down because I don't like what you're saying you know the one thing that someone said to me that just absolutely made me just laugh they said I disagree with your facts and you know what that reminded me of that reminded me how many people remember Senator Daniel Patrick Monahan from New York Daniel Patrick Monahan said you're entitled to your own opinion but you're not entitled to your own facts two plus two still equals four and so that's what we must do but we're not doing that and that's why I like going on college campuses okay because this is where we need to have that open intellectual debate and discussion if kids on college campuses believe that when you graduate there's gonna be something out there called a safe space y'all gonna have to have a serious wake-up call because if you want a safe space your boss will tell you sure here's your pink slip go home and you can be as safe as you want in your own little space but we need to start being adults and we need to start looking at how do we pass on the greatness of America to the next generation but first of all we got to get them to understand the greatness of America and we have failed in doing that over these past 10 to 15 years thank you so much for being here um I am just wondering where women can fit in into the military and ideas on how we can get more women to the highest levels of leadership in the military and the Department of Defense well I mean they're quite a few up there right now I mean you know this whole thing about again I talked about the culture the participation trophy if if we are going to force something to say that we need to have women in the infantry we need to have women in the Special Forces we need to have women as Navy SEALs just so they can get promotions that's not you taking care of the institution of the military that's you imposing a Cell say selfish legality Rhian philosophy on the military I serve with incredible women in the United States military that were paratroopers jump masters you name it and you can't take anything away from them I mean at Kansas State University the cadet battalion commander in my second or third year there was a young lady by the name of Ilsa Waterman her dad was a full colonel up at at Fort Riley and she was just as qualified just as strong just as good as any of these you know cadets that we had and and she did exceptionally well and her advanced cam now what I have taken the time to put Ilsa Waterman in the pit and have her go up against David strange no because I understood that she was not going to be capable to do that but I understood that Elsa Waterman was an exceptional and fine young cadet and she became an exceptional and fine officer so what I don't want to see us do is saying is that for the sake of advancement for the sake of promotions or anything like this we're not going to be concerned about the mission and the focus of the military and its readiness we're going to try to put this round peg into the square hole so when I look at you know some of the four-star in three-star generals as a matter of fact there's a three-star general out there right now in the United States Army and her name is Nigel West Surrey we're not related but an incredible officer and if you were to look at her and say that there needed to be some changes to the standard if you were to look at her and say that you know we need to make sure that you know we level a playing field more for you so that you could advance I think that would be disrespectful to lieutenant general West because what she saw was the requirement the standard and she exceeded thank you for your service and thank you for being here how do you think the military should address and prevent sexual assault very simple you say we have a zero tolerance for it and I was an hours an artillery guy so I did not have females and in any of my units but I knew you know friends of mine that did have females and their use and I knew some female commanders as well you you've got to understand that you've got to be toughest woodpecker lips hard as nails and you've got to say that if you do something we're gonna come down we're going to crush you it cannot be any equivocating whatsoever so I think that's one of the important things now I will tell you this I don't like this gender integration of basic training because you know I've seen some issues with that and a lot of that came from outside civilian you know interjections of thoughts that they wanted to see happen I think that it's important that you know at basic training it has to be hard it has to be rigid it has to be regimented and you get people to understand and those those areas that you will respect people for who they are and then when they go to their advanced individual training which is based upon their military occupational specialty then you must further make sure that you are doing the right things to let people know that there are zero tolerance for that in our military thanks for coming I once heard and maybe incorrectly or I misunderstood that when an American aircraft carrier puts to see it has to have a certain number of contractors aboard to do certain jobs because there aren't enough qualified people in the Navy to provide all the technical support and services that that vessel needs to do its mission now it is not just on aircraft carriers it's all across the military period we have gotten upside down and that now the ratio of military to contractor is 1/2 like 2.6 I just read that in the the army magazine that I was reading flying up here and that has become upside down why is that happened it's because again we looked at our military and we tried to figure out where we could cut the capability capacity of our military and we did it in the logistical sustainment side of the house so now you know let me tell you was it nice to be in Iraq and Afghanistan David you probably agree and and and go and have these nice you know dining facilities where you could get all big Chow and everything like that and Burger King was over there on Kandahar Air Base absolutely right it was nice but guess what it comes with a cost because the the e4 in the military's base pay is about $22,000 but then yet you're having contractors over there that you're paying 80 to $100,000 to do what to drive a logistical support convoy why don't we have soldiers that are driving these logistical support convoys so when we talk again about what we need to do for the military it is not about this large contingent of contractors there's large contingent of bureaucratic civilians it is how do we make sure we have the right capability at the lowest level let me tell you about battlefield calculus battlefield calculus is this for every one combat troop and what I mean by a combat troop I'm talking about a trigger puller I'm talking about the person that's going out on a patrol with the m4 or with you know the the 249 or 240 golf machine gun and pulling the trigger at the bad guy for every one of them it requires five to six logistical support soldiers so when you hear people say that we're going to deploy 3,000 troops to Afghanistan we're going to send 4,000 troops to Iraq understand that ratio now if that be the case how many for that one trigger puller of those five to six support our contractors and that's how we have gotten so off the rails in our military and in our force structure the thing that we should do with our military is not look to the military say here's $10 go figure out how you're going to protect American keep us safe what we should do is have those generals that are out there and their staffs that are in the respective geographic areas of responsibilities the Central Command Africa Command Pacific Command the European Command Southern Command what capability and capacity do you need to be a deterrent force to be able to operate in the full spectrum of operations which I mean from low intensity to the highest intensity and then that's how you build the force but what we have done is we were saying we're going to just give you a few dollars and you guys got to figure it out and that has not worked very well and and you know there's a breaking point that's coming and and I'm very concerned about that breaking point because the enemies that we face it was very simple in 1984 when I came in us in the Soviet Union now we got splinter you know adversaries all over the place I don't like us trying to be the world's policemen I really don't we need to be working with other host nations to see how they can engage we can take you know a support role but we need to figure out where our priorities are and where our main effort is and and we have not done that very well to make sure yeah he's had his hand up for a bit I would love if you have a moment if you could just discuss what you think the correct diplomatic approaches to Iran yeah to Iran and your criticisms of the Iran deal well first and foremost you know why would you take your foot off a person that was at the bringing point with the sanctions that we had on there Iran cannot be trusted and when you look at this nuclear agreement they've already violated many of the the precepts of that nuclear Iran was not supposed to be selling or purchasing any type of conventional a munitions or munitions whatsoever for the next five to eight years they've already done that as a matter of fact they purchased the venerable s-300 surface-to-air missile system and guess where they put them they put them at these suspected nuclear weapons facilities and sites the cooze force and some of the other terrorist organizations they support are not supposed to be deployed into other countries you already have the cooze force in syria they were not supposed to have any type of ballistic missile tests and they have done that we know about the harassment that they've been doing against our naval vessels in the Persian Gulf so Iran is not a fair actor they're not a good actor if you go back and you think about it before there was 9/11 the worst terrorist attack against the United States and against the United States military was the Beirut bombing where 234 Marines and sailors lost their lives back in October 1983 what I would do is use your economic pressures first and foremost against Iran because now you've let the cat out of the bag there's all kind of contracts there's all kind of business deals flowing into Iran that is assistance that has sustained them economically and enabled them to deploy their forces out we missed an incredible window the majority of the Iranian people are less than 35 years of age and when the green movement stood up against the you know faux election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back in 2002 to 2 to 10 11 somewhere in there we didn't support them and that was a golden opportunity that we missed to support that Green Revolution because again these young people do not want to live under the tyranny of the ayatollahs and these clerics that you have over there they want to experience freedom and really and truthfully the Persian history is an incredible history and we should once again support that incredible history that they have not this history of this domination which we allow to come back in with the Ayatollah Khomeini doing the Islamic Revolution so economically needs to be more pressure diplomatically we should be looking at how we can isolate them just the same as we should be looking how we can isolate North Korea but the most important thing is we got to separate Iran from the the sugar daddy that it has now which is Russia and if you haven't been paying attention Iran and North Korea or your two major mooning at nations when it comes to this nuclear weapons technology proliferation there is no way that North Korea has made this incredible jump with technology they have without the assistance of the Iranians I doubt is not grass thanks for coming I kind of had to she was my question goes to the mental health that you had talked about earlier with the suicides when you go and you see the things you see and then you come back to a nation that's not involved as a people in the war effort that goes on how do you reconcile in your mind what you see on the battlefield versus what you deal with when you come back and then how do you take that and help those people in the VA going through the administration for help how do you help them to not become a statistic well I'll tell you it the the VA system is broke when it comes to dealing with our veterans I mean you just can't you know give people a bag of pills and think that that's going to rectify the situation it takes a lot of counseling and a veteran should be able to go to any medical facility that they want to anywhere in the United States of America they not should it should not be forced to go to a certain place you know and and what everyone you know they go up thank you for your service thank you for your service but what does that really mean what's behind those words you know you think about it I mean when you realize what's happening here are we taking that extra mile or we're going out there and putting our arms around these these young men and young women and and what is really hard for them is when they are separating from the United States military and all of a sudden they're in a community where they're not with their comrades where they can sit down and they can talk and everything like that and they're in a new civilian community and that's where if you know that you have someone that is recently separated from the military code just just go up and talk to him here on the college campus okay it is really hard for some of these young men and women who have just come from these combat zones Iraq and Afghanistan to be on a college campus that's why you're starting to see more student veterans organizations and whatever to help them you know kind of you know transition and and really be a part of this this environment but every student you've got to reach out to them and not just on Veterans Day and not just think about a mama Maria de but you know befriend them and talk to them it just goes a long way to sit down to conversation how many people saw that the the movie Hurt Locker remember we were Hurt Locker you know was the most important part of that movie because at the end it was at the end when he was in the grocery store okay and the wife told him to go down and get a box of cereal and what did he do he went down that aisle with the boxes of cereal and it just freaked him out because there were so many different boxes of cereal that he could which boxes here that she won't did she want him to get and what was the follow-on scene he volunteered to go back into another combat to her duty in Iran because life was very simple for him as an EOD tech you go out you find a bomb you disarm the bomb the same thing in the movie American sniper and and you know all of a sudden you bring someone out of this very intense combat zone and you want them to just come back and be you know regular dad and whatever well when cars get too close it freaks them out you know I remember you know coming back and looking at piles of garbage that a pile of garbage or is there an IE D under that pile of garbage so we need to have that period of transition over there in the combat zone and also once we get back here and our communities need to put their arms around these young men and women and just talk to him and get them to understand that again like I say here you're not a victim they don't want to be seen as a victim but they just want someone to reach out and talk to him and and and take it to a game take them out and get a burger or whatever there's a program that they have up here Kansas State University and it has taken veterans and is puttin them out and helping them become the next generation of farmers think about how peaceful and tranquil it is to go out there and work the land and cause something to grow that's the type of thing that you you you look for your veterans to do and so we can't have them sitting at home we don't need them going out and drinking and things we don't need them going to the VA and getting issued a bag of pills that's the key thing don't just say thank you for your service reach out and say how can I help and and that's why today when you see those Vietnam veterans and you say welcome home to them it means a lot because they didn't get told that when they came back and it means a lot when you say that to someone that has a little hat that says Vietnam better so I look forward to the day that I don't have to wear this ring more question good evening aiming so you've had a chance to kind of see the the curtain maybe see behind it a little bit in Congress I've always been a little bit puzzled and maybe even worried that people do spend 30 40 50 500 a billion dollars to get into a political position that pays no more than two hundred thousand dollars a year I'm wondering if you could give us some insight into maybe things that you've seen or people who have approached you and outside the ideologue who views it a good investment in the future to spend thirty million dollars to put a politician in place what's what's the secret well the first thing is the American people should not seek to put a politician in place they should seek to put a citizen servant a servant legislator a statesman in place there was a great quote it said nothing so greatly impels a man to regard the interests of his constituents then the certainty of returning to the general mass of the people from whence he was taken where he shall participate in their burdens that was 30 July 1785 I believe at the Virginia ratifying convention for our Constitution I was sent by George Mason we were never meant to have career politicians we were meant to have people that went there and served the people recess meant you came home he went back to words being as a former doctor you know what happened but it did not mean you got a taxpayer-funded vacation we have lost control of this process we have lost control and have abdicated our republic to a an elite class of politicians and that is why I think one of the most important things that needs to happen in our country is term limits at the federal government level until you have term limits at the federal government level you're going to continue to get this incredible behavior that you have and guess what you don't have to give people your vote you can start looking at other folks just everyday citizens you can raise up Thank You consent Eric Cantor I don't know if some of you remember Eric Cantor was the sitting House Majority Leader from the state of Virginia Eric Cantor was defeated by Dave brat who was a professor at randolph-macon College Eric Cantor had 9 to 1 campaign cash first time in the history of the United States of America is sitting House Majority Leader lost in a primary because the people of Virginia congressional district number one believed the Eric Cantor was not serving their purposes anymore so they brought him home so I think that's what people all across the United States of America have to do is ask the question are you serving your interests and the self-interest in Washington DC as opposed to serving our interests and the interests of this country now I will tell you something that politics has become a big money-making business ok if you look at your newspapers and radio ads and everything folks jack up the rates man as soon as she's go into an election season because they know folks got to get the message out and that's why I tell a lot of young folks that want to run for elected office leverage social media social social media is free and you can get your message out very simply and so I think that there's going to be a a seismic change within the next six to eight years in the political system the structure of the United States of America because I just believe the American people are tired of it well thank you all for being here this evening and Thank You Alan let's go a beer try to wear kayuu colors I love you mom a to someone

Channel: The Dole Institute of Politics

Views: 20,102

Keywords: Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, Republicans, Democrats, 2017, constitutional conservatism, Allen West, US Congressman, Florida 22nd District

Id: YVH3SDWy2WI

Length: 73min 54sec (4434 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 28 2017