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Tulsi Gabbard

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105

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2024-04-02

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2024-04-02

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1. “That's a dangerous thing when it becomes like normalized as, you know, well, we've got this new missile that'll go and it's targeted and it's strategic and it'll only harm this quote unquote military target. Ronald Reagan was 100% correct when he said, you know, a nuclear war cannot be won and should never be waged. It was true then, and it's true now no matter how much these guys who are producing these weapons or those who are benefiting from that industry try to tell us, oh no, it'll never happen. So to me, that's an important first step to continue to inform and educate and sound the alarms to people. Don't buy this crap because it's not true. And I look forward to listening to your podcast. But the PSA that was”

   2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “The most essential thing, first of all, is Understanding exactly what you have just detailed. We are in this very strange and absurd time where we have talking heads and so-called pundits on TV, we have politicians, we have people who are talking about a nuclear war as though it is a war that can be won, period, and a war that can be waged somehow without that risk of escalation to the point of destruction of human civilization. And so they talk about this as though it's just another war, and especially as they talk about the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Oh, well, this is just, this is small and we think it'll send a message without actually escalating to the point where We're dealing with the kind of destruction that we witnessed in World War II.”

   2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “The only real power that has the ability to destroy them and stand up against them is a free people living in a free society, exercising the rights that we have enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.”

   2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “Manipulated Yes, I admire your hopefulness. I am hopeful also because of the goodness. People and the naturally compassionate nature of people. However, I will tell you from firsthand experience that what we talk about is the national security state and the military industrial complex, this cabal of warmongers that extends not only within government but outside of government extends to many powerful media outlets. They are incredibly powerful and don't have any qualms at destroying those who try to get in the way of their power and they've got a lot of tools Got a lot of tools to do that, which I think is why President Eisenhower chose to include this in his farewell address as a warning, because the only”

   2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “They're largely silent now. And unfortunately, within the Democratic Party in Washington, there is no room for debate that if you challenge the Biden administration's position on foreign policy, you're going to get about it. And what we have seen is that that's exactly what's happened. And people have retracted statements or just fallen silent or whatever the case may be. This debate that should be existing. The Democrat side, unfortunately, it just doesn't exist anymore.”

   2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Less so recently, I agree with you, but less so recently. And this is one of the reasons why I left the Democratic Party, one of the foremost reasons. I devote an entire chapter to this issue in my book for Love of Country, Leave the Democrat Party behind going into the detail of some of the things that we've talked about, about my own experiences, about what I have learned along the way, but also how even in the last year, two years, certainly under this administration, people who I worked with in Congress, who were Democrats, dependable voices for civil liberties, dependable voices. Speaking out against the insanity of people who wanted to wage war for the sake of war.”

   2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Civil liberties, authorities that have allowed our government to illegally surveil Americans without a warrant. And as we did so, Were called traitors, we were called, we had other members of Congress on the House floor saying that if you pass this legislation, you will be responsible for another 9-11 style attack on our soil. These are all distraction tactics to try to divert our attention away from what's actually happening and instead just tell voters, hey, you can't trust these people. Obviously, this has happened to Trump. It's happened to Bobby Kennedy. It's happened to people like Rand Paul and others. There's a small group, but a growing number, at least I'm on the Republican side at this point, people who are actually willing to stand up and challenge the military industrial complex, challenge the warmongers in both parties.”

   2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “They keep going back to this playbook as they do today because, again, they're not willing to debate the substance of one position versus another, which is what we should have. If people feel so strongly that we should be going and waging this war, that war, okay, great. Go make your case to the American people. Go stand on the floor of the United States House and actually have this debate. allow those who are saying no, this is not a good idea to also stand freely and make that argument. Instead, they resort to the kind of name calling that tells voters, hey, you can't trust this person or anything that they say. Myself and some of my other colleagues got the same treatment when we tried to pass legislation in Congress that would have taken out provisions from the Patriot Act that are most egregiously violating our Fourth Amendment rights.”

   2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “Wielded and continues to wield a lot of power in the Democratic Party and amongst voters. And that took it to a whole new level. What is the basis for this? Nothing. It is a tired yet dependable playbook that is used not only by people like Hillary Clinton, but also people like Mitt Romney and others to try to smear discredit and destroy the reputations of people who have the audacity to question their objectives as they call for one war or another or have the audacity to say that this is not in the best interest of peace or in our country, in our national security.”

   2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “The hour that I walked up onto that stage to announce my candidacy, it was in Hawaii and I gave my announcement speech, NBC News published a hit piece that planted the seeds of suspicion in voters' minds that somehow I was a darling of Putin and Russia and whatever. It was baseless, all of it baseless. And that continued like a steady drum beat throughout my candidacy, but that really was escalated when in a podcast with David Axelrod, Hillary Clinton said, oh, well, the Russians are grooming her. And this is not, I mean, this came from a very influential person. Yeah. She was the former Secretary of State, former US Senator, former First Lady, someone who”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “And so, you know, the likes of Hillary Clinton and the cabal of warmongers in Washington, they weren't fans of mine, to say the least. I can't say it was a total surprise, but it was disheartening nonetheless that the very day that I announced my candidacy that I was running for president, which was in February 2019,”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “Tell you when it began. I had my first day in Congress was January 3rd, 2013. I believe it was the third, fourth, fifth, somewhere around there. And my last day was January 3rd, 2021. I had been given my experience of serving as a soldier in the Middle East The motivation that really drove me to run for Congress in the first place. I served on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee for almost eight years, the eight years that I was there with my drive and motivation to actually be in a position to challenge the influence of the military industrial complex, to try to prevent us from needlessly going to war.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “Just done that note real quick. I think that was exposed in broad daylight when it appeared that the former head of the Wagner group was about to try to launch a coup and how that was so celebrated even on MSNBC and Rachel Maddow and others touting that this was somehow going to be a great thing without looking at who is this guy really what has he been doing in different countries around the world and what what would be Of ruling philosophy and how that would differ or benefit American interests or the interests of security and peace.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “Trying to gain true understanding. And it was very disheartening. It was very disheartening and a big lesson learned about where their interests really were focused.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Perspectives, experiences, and stories that I found that would give people a more broad understanding of what was happening in that country. And what I found was there was zero interest in the mainstream media or in Congress in hearing any other perspective other than their own, which was we need to launch this regime change war through the use of arming and equipping known terrorists within Syria to overthrow the regime without any idea without them stating any realistic idea of who would take control once Assad was overthrown. But the reality actually being that no matter which opposition group they might try to prop up, they would not have the power to withstand the terrorist groups whose stated goal it was to go and Take over power from Assad. They had no interest in.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “We're given similar labels until it became popular in our politics to have been against the Iraq War. We see the same thing now with people like Tucker, myself, and others who are saying we should not be waging this proxy war against Russia via Ukraine and using the Ukrainian people's lives in this war. Well, now all of a sudden you're a Putin lover, a Putin puppet, or whatever the traitor treason, all of these accusations that are used ultimately by people who are not interested in having a substantive conversation about the truth, about looking at these wars and conflicts with a comprehensive view on exactly all the dynamics that are at play. And that's what I found when I came back. I went looking forward, went to Syria, looking forward to coming back and shedding light on different...”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “The Middle East and simply for going and yes, meeting with Assad, also meeting with religious leaders in Syria, also meeting and talking with people on the streets of Damascus, talking with college students, talking with people from the opposition party who would like to see Assad replaced talking with local law, just a whole host of people over the course of a few days. The accusation was of it like, oh, she loves dictators. It's a sad state of affairs when some of the most influential voices in our country will label someone a lover, supporter of dictators simply because you're saying, hey, we shouldn't be going to war. There is another way. Alone in this, you know, people who were against the war in Iraq.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “People levied all kinds of accusations and smears against me for going and having the audacity to go and learn more. Try to seek the truth in the hopes of preventing more needless war and in the hopes of preventing yet another quagmire and disastrous war.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “As I just stated, we need leaders who have the courage to meet not just with allies, but with adversaries in the pursuit of peace, in the pursuit of increased understanding. If policies are being made through the lenses and the barriers of bureaucrats and the media and others who have or may have their own interests President, a leader can't make even members of Congress, can't make decisions with the kind of clarity that we the American people need them to make. I think that these kinds of engagements are Weaponized and politicized as they were against me By those who Have their own interests, whether it be the military industrial complex or in Washington, if you're not part of the official narrative of the U.S. government, which was intent on a regime change war in Syria, then you're an outcast. And it was unfortunate because”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “I agree. I don't think that's naive at all. And I think there are so many examples through history that point to The power of that, the real power in that, in the Cuban Missile Crisis, how JFK had to literally find a secret way to communicate with Khrushchev to try to Go around the backs of the military Find, hey, we both ultimately want the same thing. Neither of us wants to launch a catastrophic nuclear war. So let's figure this out.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “Sit down and begin this process. Those kinds of engagements are the most, to me, the most powerful exercises of diplomacy that can't be matched, especially when our president's foremost role and responsibility is to serve as commander-in-chief. And I wish that we had leaders who were more willing to engage because I think we'd make a lot more progress more quickly and to find areas both of mutual interest as well as to help deconflict and de-escalate areas where there is tension or disagreement or adversarial interests.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “Yes, in an ideal world, yes, this should have happened long ago. The question of whether or not President Biden is the right person to do that at this time when all of the statements and comments that they have made, the Biden-Harris administration has made from the beginning of this war essentially point to their objective being to basically destroy Russia. And that's one of the reasons why they have supported both the continuation of this war for as long as it's lasted, as well as why they have thwarted efforts towards peace. Whoever that most effective, neutral broker is, that that's the best person to do this. The Biden-Harris administration, I think the role that they have to take is actually encouraging Zelensky.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “Only way this ends is when both sides come to the table and find an agreement that neither side is going to be completely happy with both sides being forced to make some concessions, but one where they will both walk away and this war can end.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “The only way that this war ends is to do exactly what we're talking about. There has to be a brokered dialogue. And conversation about peace. That has to occur with representatives from Russia and Ukraine. It is really truly heartbreaking to see both how efforts that began just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine to do exactly this were thwarted by the Biden-Harris administration and other Western powers has cost so many innocent people's lives. And this is where I get, I have friends in Ukraine. I've been there more than a few times. I've enjoyed and appreciated the time that I've spent there. When I hear from my friends about Afraid they are of their husbands being conscripted and feeling like they have to hide for fear of being yanked off the streets. Their friends and family members who've been killed in this war.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “Resentment and tension that exists between many Israelis and many Palestinians that can only be resolved when there's strong leadership representing both peoples who are able and willing to come together and recognize that the only way forward is to let the past be in the past and find a way towards peace in the future.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “Able to live free and in peace and not under the oppression of this terrorist group, just as the people of Israel would like to live in peace and free from the threat of attack from a terrorist group that wants to exterminate them. The complexities of what's going on in Israeli politics is, I think, a different conversation, but also one that is directly intertwined with the answer to this question when you have some people in the Israeli government who don't want the Palestinian people in Gaza at all and want them to go and repatriate in other countries. I think that's a big problem and that further exacerbates this hatred and resentment that continues to grow there. This is a generation's long challenge, unfortunately, of”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “It's a complex question with a complex answer. I think Israel's approach Has to be in recognizing that delineation as far as possible. And I know it's tough when you have a terrorist group like Hamas that is so interwoven within the community of people in Gaza But to recognize that there should be and there is a shared purpose there for the Palestinian people to”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “Own teachings of Islam and preaching peace amongst their people. War is ugly and it is messy. It is also an unfortunate reality of the world we live in. So while I Firmly believe that we must always pursue peace. I'm not a pacifist. I'm a realist and recognize that where there are these threats, we must We must do what we can to work towards that safety, that security, that freedom and peace that we all want.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “Building relationships with people in other countries, both state leaders as well as religious leaders and others who share that same objective of defeating these Islamist terrorists on both fronts and acting as a united front in taking that action, what exactly that action looks like details on the ground dictate that details about these different groups will dictate that. But we've seen examples of this before and I saw this in Somalia. We saw it in some cases in Iraq where, for example, you have imams who recognize the threat that these terrorist groups pose to their own people and their own communities and exerting their influence in defeating that the terrorist Islamist ideology with their”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “Clearly understanding who they are and where they are and why they're doing what they're doing is essential, first of all. And obviously, there are different groups, different names, they have morphed and changed based on their locale and how they operate.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “The Obama administration was failing because they were so afraid of being labeled Islamophobes that they refused to accurately identify the ideology driving these terrorist groups and instead said, we are countering violent extremism was the term that the Obama administration started to use and was coined and kind of mandated across the US government. Well, you have to know, again, you have to know the enemy that threatens you and why they're doing what they're doing if you have any hope of actually preventing their attack, both militarily. And as we're seeing now with Hamas's actions, not only directly in the assault on Israel, but How Hamas achieved their objectives in spreading their ideology around the world.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “Goal and their objective, which is to ultimately establish their Islamic caliphate and destroy Israel and exterminate the Jewish people and basically destroy, kill or convert anyone who doesn't adhere to their ideology. That continues on. And they will only become stronger the longer our leaders put their heads in the sand and pretend like, oh no, this doesn't exist. This kind of war, this war specifically is one that has to be waged militarily and ideologically. And the ideological component to this, which is defeating their ideology with a superior one, is one that I pointed out in Congress during the Obama administration. We, the collective, we were failing at.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “The declaration of President Biden, for example, saying, well, the war on terror is over. The war on terror is over. What does that mean? Or the forever wars are over. What does that actually mean? I served on my last most recent deployment in 2021 to East Africa and Somalia, where al-Shabaab is one of those Islamist terrorist groups that follows the same ideology as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, and others. This group has been allowed to grow and be strengthened, even though they are one of the main groups that provides funding to Al-Qaeda in that entire region. So any president or politician can declare war to be over. But when you have an enemy like these Islamist terrorist groups who are still intent on their”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “And Congress at the time, and very quickly, even as I was on the ground there, started to have my eyes opened up into how we had been lied to tremendously and how that protracted war went on for a very, very long time with decisions being made that ultimately served to strengthen terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, the creation of ISIS, and others really undermining our national security interests in the meantime. Understanding the enemy that you are trying to defeat is essential to being able to build a strategy.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “Attention was diverted very quickly to the regime change war in Iraq that was waged on false pretense and the resources and focus was taken away from that initial mission that went. To Afghanistan. And the war in Afghanistan blew up into something that became about regime change and governance and the Taliban and less focus on al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. And it became this thing that even general officers had a hard time articulating what is the objective here? What are we trying to accomplish? What does winning look like? At what point do we know it's time to exit and get out? And as you look at things like the Afghanistan files and others, the answers to these simple and essential questions shifted and changed over time, over a very long time. Similarly in Iraq, you know, I bought into a lot of what was being sold by the administration and by Democrats and Republicans.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “Well, first of all, there's part of the problem of our foreign policy has been how many conflicts, wars, military actions have been waged in the name of this quote-unquote war on terrorism, in the name of national security, legislation like the Patriot Act that violates civil liberties, our civil liberties, and freedoms in the name of the war on terrorism and national security when it's not justified. And so I'll use Afghanistan as an example. I support the initial mission that lifted off shortly after the attack on 9-11. The Islamist terrorist attack on 9-11. It was a relatively small group of U.S. military launched to go after those al-Qaeda cells and Osama bin Laden in the wake of that attack. That is the mission that should have been supported and focused on in its execution. Instead, as you know, it was”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “War is justified when it is in the best interest of our national security. And when it is the last resort. All diplomatic efforts have been completed and exhausted and war is The last possible route that must be taken to ensure the safety, security, and freedom of the American people.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “Congress and senior professional staffers in Congress. Same exact revolving door where you have people, whether they're writing contracts for the Department of Defense for the company that then wins the bid for that contract and then going and working for that company or those in Congress who are writing policies and doing exactly the same thing.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “It can be. It's powerful. I don't think you can overstate the powerful nature of it because it extends so deeply within our government. It's not just those in these specific big defense contracting companies that benefit from it. You look at the revolving door within the Pentagon, for example, where you have both high-ranking people who wear military uniforms as well as those who serve as high-ranking Department of Defense civilians who are literally working their way into a big payout when they leave that job. We see it with our own Secretary of Defense now. He retired as a general officer, went and served on one of the boards for one of the big defense contractors and then now back as the Secretary of Defense. We see the same thing in Congress with members of.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “What they will claim is that it's expensive to move logistics through a country at war. They get away with it ultimately, these insane war profiteering and they're not alone, obviously. There are other companies that this is their business model. They get away with it because of their political connections. And the lobbyists that they have, the relationships they have with politicians. And ultimately what President Eisenhower warned against with that with regard to that cozy relationship between Congress and even what he called them the military industrial complex. It's been alive and well. He warned us against it. And I would say it's thriving more now than ever before.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “A downward shift in casualties from the unit that had been there before us simply because of that That basic human connection that our guys sought to make, and then gradually finding like, hey, local, you know, people who lived in the town right next to us were saying, hey, you guys should really, somebody was digging a big hole down a mile down the road. You might want to bypass that or check that out and finding weapons cachets and IEDs, improvised explosive devices and other things that helped save people's lives.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “And without anybody telling them to culturally, our guys began trying to build relationships. And, you know, for Hawaii and Samoa, and we had soldiers from Guam and Saipan, little things like you're writing down in a Humvee, you've got a gunner in the turret with a 50 cal or a machine gun of some sort, little things like pointing the muzzle to the sky as you're riding through a town rather than pointing it directly at where people are walking down the street was a huge gesture of an assumption of, hey, let's actually talk and become friends. We had our guys riding down the street and throwing chakas out to the local people there, breaking bread, sharing tea, and building those relationships. And again, I served in a medical unit. And what we saw was”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “On a positive note, you know, Polynesian culture, especially, but also Asian culture and other cultures around the world, our guys found that as they were shortly after we got there, the unit that we were replacing, were taking the guys out on patrol and saying, hey, here's this village. Here's where we found friendlies or here's where we know that there are insurgents operating and they've got allies and lookouts and, you know, showing them the lay of the land, basically. And what our guys found was that as they were doing these ride-alongs, they call it a left seat, right seat, when you're coming in and taking over, that there was a bit of a tense even adversarial type of relationship where on the military side there was an assumption of suspicion or lack of trust, just with the local Iraqi people who lived around the base that we were at.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “Getting up and going out, getting the job done, and coming back home together. I mean, I had friends of mine who were from Hawaii, who were from American Samoa, very culturally tight-knit community who confided in me throughout that, you know, year that we were there some of the very infantry soldiers who were going out on security patrols and doing raids every day, just some of the very traumatic experiences that they went through. No physical injury, but creating a kind of emotional stress and trauma that as human beings, they were struggling in dealing with.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “Course, we all have our own political opinions on things, but when it comes right down to it in a war zone, it's about your friends. It's about your brothers and sisters that you're serving alongside. It's not about the politicians or whatever insanity is going on in Washington. It's about”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “Physical, you know, I mean, some injuries appeared to be minor up front. At that time, traumatic brain injury was not something that was talked about much, if at all. And so, you know, many had visible wounds. Others are now what we know. Those who were injured in a way that did not allow them to get back to work found it emotionally very difficult to be put on a plane and evacuated out of there. Feeling guilty that they were leaving their friends behind. Not thinking about themselves or not feeling bad for themselves, but instead feeling bad for being forced to be in a position to leave. For soldiers, it's not.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “And so I knew that the reason for that tension was they were terrified of getting a phone call delivering the worst possible news. And that was what I thought of as I went through that list of how it is the reality of war behind every one of those names on that list was, you know, a husband or a wife, parents, you know, sons and daughters, family members who had no idea what we were dealing with really. All they knew is what they saw in the news and what my dad told me later when I got home. After that deployment was that every time they saw the news and they saw a helicopter shot down or crashed or some IED. They held their breath until they saw or heard the news of who it was or what it was.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “Yeah. And I knew, you know, I didn't get to call home every day, but. When I called home and talked to my parents, I felt the tension in their voice. And, you know, they didn't want me to worry about anything at home. And so they were always like, hey, how are you? What can we send you? And this and that. But, you know, it wasn't like I was calling them from down the street and saying, hey, how's it going? Let's go have lunch or whatever.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “Of dollars, trillions of dollars. And yet this Filipino mom is making 500 bucks a month, maybe getting one day off a week, maybe working twelve hours a day otherwise. And how often are you able to go home to your family? Well, they'll let us go home a couple of weeks every other year. It was an eye-opening experience that growing up in Hawaii, I frankly hadn't given much thought to before. But it's what led me ultimately coming back from that first deployment. There was no way that I could go back to the life that I had left behind. And I knew somehow, some way, I needed to find a way to use those experiences to try to make a positive impact, to try to influence those, I mean, frankly, the politicians who are making decisions to go and launch these regime change wars. Send our men and women in uniform into war and to what end ultimately.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “Per head, per meal, four times a day. Thousands and thousands of people. And then we made friends. You know, there's a lot, there's a pretty large Filipino community in Hawaii, a lot of Filipino soldiers from Hawaii. We made friends with the Filipino workers who were there. They would often go in like the back of the tents and set up their own rice cookers and cook their own meals, which is where the real good food was. But just started talking to them and getting to know them and asked like, hey, how much do you get paid? And on average, it was like, oh, I get paid like 500 bucks a month. 500 bucks a month to go and do this work of either cleaning out porta potties, picking up trash, the dining facility, doing laundry, all of these different tasks because the military wanted soldiers to be out doing things that only soldiers could do. Understandable. But when I started putting, you know, two and two together and knowing that this company, one company alone was making trillions.”

    2024-04-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #423 – Tulsi Gabbard: War, Politics, and the Military Industrial Complex · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source