The Art of Political War

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jack and I have both made reference to Elliott Ackerman's
fabulous book. I took it in via audio, did you
as well? Jack? I think you have to take it
in through audio because the author, who served in Afghanistan
and Iraq in a lot of different places reads the book,
and I think that adds a lot to it. Um.
I think this should be required for all voting age

(00:23):
adults in America and every high school. That's how much
I think of this book. Yeah, it's It's absolutely brilliant
and terrific and very readable slash listenable. Again, it's the
fifth act. Find it wherever audio books are distributed. Um.
And I agree that the author reading it is great. Um. So.
Interestingly enough, in the last chapter he talks about a

(00:47):
couple of different issues that are definitely related to the
Afghanistan thing, but more about the current state of American
politics and American life. And by the end of this book,
you will agree he has earned the right to discuss
these things. Abe Lincoln once said, it's one of my

(01:08):
favorite quotes of his from his Lyceum address. If destruction
be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.
As a nation of freemen, we must live through all
time or die by suicide. I hope I am overweary.
But if I am not, there is even now something
of ill omen amongst us. His point being the things

(01:30):
that make America great make us so great. We will
not be defeated from outside unless we kill ourselves. Obviously,
and just as one more aside, before we get into
some of what Elliott Ackerman had to say, Um, Jack
and I are embarked on this naive and idiotic quest

(01:52):
to help the country stay together, as opposed to profiting
from it being torn apart. And there's a lot in
politics and in talk radio, in media that is all
about profiting as much as possible while pouring gasoline on
the fires. In the Cold War, failure meant mutually assured

(02:13):
destruction through nuclear war. It was an outcome that fortunately
never arrived. Though it's instructive that Eisenhower's farewell address came
a little less than two years before the Cuban Missile crisis,
the closest humanity has ever come to nuclear annihilation. Today,
we sit on a different sort of precipice. Are we

(02:35):
entering an era where we hold elections in a nation
so hopelessly divided that neither side is willing to accept defeat. Yes,
and a democracy that is the truest form of mutually
assured destruction. Yes, that that last thing you described, that
is what we're headed for screaming toward. And I don't
think there's any arresting it. That's why I've been so
hesitant to to get into the conversation among the politic

(03:00):
class to which to what extent we are in that
I don't know. But the political class who months ago
would be saying, we're now just fifteen weeks from the
election and just just the that being the only star
out there for us to point our eyes toward for
anything that is of interested all in our lives. When
is the next election? Where are things right now in

(03:22):
the polls for the next election? And they'll start that
again the day after this coming election. You know, I
appreciate him putting such a beautiful label on something we've
been talking about for a very long time. The political
industrial complex that profits off of left right right conflict.
Therefore must keep it stoked at every moment, and in

(03:44):
a state of perpetual election, which everybody is recognized is
the is the current the current state, without a doubt,
right right, Uh, you know what to do about it?
On on our show is something Jack and I discuss
a fair amount, but um in greater society. And again
this is a naive and idiotic quest that we're on um.
But you know what the hell Barmstrong and Getty