11-10-25 *INTERVIEW* Admiral James Stavridis on Trump Admin Recent Attacks on Drug Dealer Boats

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Admiral James Tabrita's former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and best
selling author of both fiction and nonfiction, and co founder
of the somewhat secretive but highly influential Two Dudes Consulting
joins us on KOA.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, Admiral, good morning, how are we doing.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Congratulations on the new show, Ross, Thank you, Thank you, sir,
You're my very first guests on the new show.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
And that was that was quite intentional before we jump
into our our various topics today. There's a major birthday today.
Do you want to wish happy birthday to anybody? Or
anybody's help me out the Marine corps?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Oh gosh, you know, I'm in the Navy.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I know. But your dad was a marine of.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
The Marines, and my dad was a marine. And what
we say to a marine on the birthday is not
happy birthday. We say semper fidels, which means always faithful.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Indeed, what marines are sempified. All the Marines listening to
the show right now. Got a few things I would
like to ask you about you before be a NATO commander,
you ran Southcomb and I was curious what your thoughts
were regarding the recent announced early retirement of the current

(01:12):
Southcom commander. Some folks suspect that he may be objecting
to the Trump administration policy of blowing up some of
those drug boats, And I wonder two things, do you
have any insights and what you would you be objecting
to that.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Policy if you still had that job.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
As to the first Admiral Josey, his name is ed
Alvin Josey has been non communicative about why he is laming.
So it could be a personal issue, it could be
a medical issue, could be as you ascribed to it.
The possibility of disagreements with the administration about the policy

(01:52):
to go after counter narcotics bodes. We just don't know.
In terms of my own view, I'm hampered rossy because
I don't see the intelligence. I think that what the
administration needs to do if they want to make the
case that they can simply blow up these drug boats,
and they do so under the rubric of declaring them

(02:16):
combatants who are coming to the United States to kill Americans.
You know, if a terrorists were coming here with a
bomb and we knew all that, then yeah, it would
be legal to take out such a terrorist. The question
here is the intelligence, how do they know these are
drug boats? How do they know they're coming to the

(02:38):
United States? All we see are the videos, and so
without access to the intelligence, I can't make an informed judgment.
But I think it's a very difficult case to make
for the administration. They need to do a better job
explaining publicly what the theory of the case is here.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Okay, one follow up on this without without asking you
whether you think these are legal or not. In a
hypothetical situation where you believed you were getting an illegal
order and you communicated back through the chain of command
that you believed it was an illegal order, and the
chain of command says that might be your opinion, but

(03:18):
those are still your orders.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
And then if you decided I.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Can't live with that and I'm going to retire early, resign,
whatever do you think you personally, Admiral James Tavritez, would
make any public statements in that kind of situation about
why you resigned.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
It's such an intensely personal judgment that any officer who
would have to make. You've correctly outlined the course of action,
which is to communicate your disagreement. If overruled, and you
find yourself your conscience shocked by the order, then you
would have the resignation option. Whether I would then go

(04:01):
public would depend on the nature of the particular order,
and if it were something that was, say a policy
disagreement to stay in Latin America. I didn't believe that
attacking Venezuela was within the bounds of the laws of
armed conflict. Attacking the mainland of Venezuela, I think in

(04:24):
that case I probably would not get into a public
conversation about it. If, on the other hand, I were
being ordered to assassinate the families of Venezuelan leaders, then yeah,
I think that's so egregious. I think also unlikely. But
if I were ordered something like that to commit effectively

(04:46):
murder on civilians, for example, then I think yes you would,
because it shocks the conscience so thoroughly you'd have, I
think a moral and ethical obligation to make that public.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
We're talking with Admiral James Great his former NATO Supreme
Allied Commander, former southcom commander, author of many books. This morning,
I will commend to you twenty thirty four, a novel
of the Next World War, and the Admiral's bookshelf, his
latest non fiction but just one great book after another
his website Admiral staff stav dot com. All right, I

(05:19):
think I've got time for one more quick topic with you.
Admiral the Secretary of War's last Secretary of Defense gave
an interesting speech a few days ago in which he
talked about a system that is full of bureaucracy and
sclerosis and inefficient, bloated five year plans. And you know,

(05:40):
it sounded intentionally that like he was talking about the
Soviet Union, but he was talking about the Department of
Defense's acquisition procedures. And he sounds like he's, you know,
wants to make some huge changes to modernize all that.
And you are far more expert than I, in my
unexpert opinion, says he has identified the real problem that

(06:01):
a lot of people have known is a real problem
for a long time.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
What are your thoughts in this instance?

Speaker 3 (06:07):
I agree with Secretary Headsets. I yield to no individual
with my frustrations over the years with the defense acquisition system.
And this has been a well known problem for decades.
I hope Secretary Heggset goes at it hard. I hope
he brings in a lot of outside eyes to work

(06:31):
on it. I hope that he puts pressure on the
big defense companies. I hope that he flows resources to smaller, faster, cooler,
hipper companies that are producing, for example, stealthy drones or
swarm technologies or lasers. These are all things that the

(06:53):
system screams for. So I'm in favor of taking a
very aggressive approach here, and in this instance, I'm in
agreement with Secretary Hank Seth.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Admiral James Stavrite is former NATO Supreme Aidicommander. Admiralstav dot
com to learn more and check out all his books
as well.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
I know you've got to get to the airport. Thanks
for making time for us.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
Thanks for letting me be the first guest on your
new show. Congratulations. I'm proud to be part of Team Ross.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Go get Them. Thanks, Admiral, appreciate it.