All language subtitles for While.The.Rest.Of.Us.Die.S01E04.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE.ENG

-If you ask a group
of randomly selected Americans

how secure do you feel today,

you might be surprised
at the results.

People might say that
they feel more confident

that we're being protected
from terrorist attacks.

But are their lives
as a whole more secure?

And the answer to that
is likely no.

-I can't breath.
I can't breath.

-Because security is more
than just the protection

against terrorist attacks.

It's one's health.

It's once economic well-being,
it's public safety.

All that comes together in how
people view their own security.

-But the U.S. government
views security

almost exclusively
in terms of military might.

Spending around
a trillion dollars a year

on a military they claim
will shield Americans from harm.

The reality is that even using
this narrow interpretation

of what it means to be safe,

the government
is losing the battle.

-National security is
the most basic level

is about keeping
the American people safe,

but the threat to America's
national security

is greater right now than
any other time in our lifetime.

♪♪

-For over 70 years,
our leaders have told us

one thing
under the bright lights.

-The protection of the lives
and property of Americans

is the responsibility
of all public officials.

-I care for trying.

-And it is my first duty

as president to protect
the American people.

-We have it so well
under control.

-But America's shadow government
has spent trillions of dollars

on secret plans
that serve one premise.

When the shit really hits
the fan, we're on our own.

-I have nothing.
Nothing.

-And while we are dying
and increasingly senseless ways,

America's vast military machine
never goes without.

♪♪

♪♪

October 2017, North West Africa.

American special forces are on
patrol deep in the Niger desert.

-They were out on our patrol
trying to find local affiliates

of ISIS near the Mali border
when they were ambushed.

-The ambush was captured
by a camera mounted

on one of the soldier's helmets.

♪♪

-When I watch that video,

I think of the worst
case scenario.

When you go through training at
Fort Benning as an infantryman,

you think
you'll never be left alone.

[ Gunfire ]

-[ Panting ]

-By the time helicopters
were able to come in

to rescue them, it was too late.

-We always say leave
no man behind,

and that video is American
troops left behind, left to die.

♪♪

[ Gunshots ]

If we have drones
and satellite eyes in space,

how do we let American troops
get abandoned?

It's outrageous,
and it's the epitome

of how little at times

our political leadership
cares about the troops.

♪♪

-Suddenly, that raised
a lot of questions,

what the hell were the soldiers
doing in Niger

in the first place?

-Do the American people
know they're there

and have they been asked whether
it's the right thing to do?

This is what happens when you
have war without accountability.

-I would not at this time draw
any particular conclusion

from the incident
that happened yesterday.

I think that it does reflect
the fact, though,

that we're having enormous
success against the core

of the very heart
of this movement.

♪♪

-It really is a beautiful case
of how the U.S. military really

is out there in the world

with very little knowledge
back in the United States.

♪♪

-In 2017, America was planning
a mission to Mars.

The early phases
of the space force

were being developed,
and American sons

were being slaughtered
in Niger by $50 AK-47s.

We have prioritized weapons
systems and defense contractors

and the needs
of corporate interests

over the needs of our sons

and daughters from Brooklyn,
Detroit and L.A.

♪♪

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

♪♪

-Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪♪

Mr. Gorbachev,
tear down this wall.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-Since the end of the Cold War,

the United States has been the
world's undisputed superpower.

♪♪

-And while it's true that Russia
has an equivalent number

of nuclear weapons,
they have a third world economy.

And while it is true that China
has a competitive

economic strength
of the United States,

it has a third world military.

And though they might
be catching up,

the truth of the matter
is that no country

is as powerful
as the United States,

no country has the capacity
to wage war in the way

that the United States wages it,

and the United States
is the sole superpower.

♪♪

-But it didn't come cheap.

The United States possesses
the most powerful military force

ever assembled,
and with 1.3 million

active duty troops,
over a million reservists

and almost 800,000
full-time civilians,

The Department of Defense is the
largest employer in the world.

To maintain this vast
military arsenal,

the United States
spends more on defense

than the combined total
of the next 10 countries.

♪♪

-Third of all,
global military spending

is done by our government.

You know, the military budget
is over $700 billion,

but if you add
in the military work done

by like the Department of Energy
and other parts

of the government,
generally estimates

are that the real spending
on military in the U.S.

every year is about $1.2
trillion,

enormous amounts of money.

[ Camera shutters clicking ]

-You might think that the end
of the Cold War would lead to,

well, a peace, right?

The country's been at war
for decades now.

It's no longer a war.
It can reinvest in welfare,

in education and infrastructure
and foreign aid.

There's all kinds of things it
can buy with its peace dividend.

-And I remember the early 90s
and the hopefulness.

I mean, you had the end
of the Cold War,

you had the tearing down
of the Berlin Wall,

and the world could really have
gone in a different direction.

-All such hope
for a peace dividend

ended when the government took
the American people back to war.

-Well, after 9/11,
President Bush

declared a war on terror.

-Our war on terror begins
with Al Qaeda,

but it does not in there.

It will not end
until every terrorist group

of global reach has been found,
stopped and defeated.

[ Applause ]

-What followed was
a militarization

both in the United States
and abroad.

-After 9/11, President Bush
declared a national emergency

and he called up reservists

and extended tours of duty
and things like that,

basically amplifying
the military forces

available to him
for overseas deployment.

-In October 2001,
the first salvo

in the American war on terror

was fired when U.S. forces
attacked Afghanistan.

-So, you had a situation
after 9/11

where you had
a political leadership

that was largely dominated
by chicken hawks,

people who had never
served themselves

and viewed people like me

and others as pieces
on a chessboard or a video game.

In my view, it's the ultimate
disrespect to our country.

Our military is supposed
to be used as a last resort

and it's not supposed
to be abused.

-And the war on terror becomes
a new justification

for the same old process,

which is shoveling vast amounts
of money towards the military,

towards the spy agencies.

And that's great for Raytheon,
Lockheed Martin, Boeing,

all those firms.

There was one famous conference
call a couple of years ago

where a military contractor
said,

you know, war is
not good for people,

but man, it's really
been great for business.

-Since 9/11, defense contractors

have seen
their profits quadruple.

-The war on terror is basically
a welfare program

for the military
industrial complex,

the companies that provide
the planes and the bombs

because it's incredibly
profitable

for weapons manufacturers.

Just between 2016 and 2018,

military spending
went up 10 percent.

-But many of the weapons systems
that defense contractors supply

or have little practical use

to soldiers on the front lines
in most conflicts.

-We continue to dump billions
of dollars

in weapons systems like the F-35

that the military says they
don't really need or don't want,

yet the defense contractors
continue to push.

-Each F-35 fighter jet costs
over $100 million.

And with the entire program
estimated to cost U.S.

taxpayers
over a trillion dollars,

it's the most expensive
defense program ever.

-It continues to fail to meet
its objectives,

it's delayed, it's over budget.

If a human being was as bad
at their job as the F-35 was,

that person would be kicked out
of the military a long time ago.

♪♪

-The infrastructure,
the education, the health care,

all of the things
that we are failing in,

they suddenly become disposable

because we started
asking Americans

to sacrifice their well-being
in the face of an opponent.

-But who is that opponent
and why does it keep changing

and why are we still fighting?

-The national emergency
that was declared after 9/11

is still in place
almost 20 years later

and is being used for purposes

that have nothing
to do with 9/11.

-Osama bin Laden wanted to
draw us into a protracted war,

to bleed us out,
and George Bush fell for it.

And we're still being
bled out today.

Osama bin Laden is long gone,

but his objectives
have been accomplished.

His objectives continue
to be furthered

because we're still
bleeding our blood,

our treasure, our fabric
of our country every single day.

It's what brings down empires,

and it's what could bring down
America if we're not vigilant.

[ Gunfire ]

♪♪

-The idea behind
these military bases

is that they're there
for security.

But you have to ask
the question,

do they render the United States
more secure?

I think you can see some reasons
why hundreds of military bases

might actually
be counterproductive.

♪♪

♪♪

-The major sin of war
is that the United States

has been involved
in the 21st century

are under the rubric of
the global war on terrorism.

And how did that global war
on terrorism start?

The start of it,
you usually say, is 9/11,

when Al Qaeda flew planes
into the World Trade Center

and into the Pentagon.

-Can't know where the explosion.

We heard there was
a plane down here.

-I'm frustrated with the country
as a whole.

As long as we're going
to let people off the hook

in the Mid East, Iraq,
Iran and places like that,

if we don't take a strong stand,
this is going to continue.

-This provoked a lot of short
rending in the United States.

Why do they hate us

is the question
that a lot of people ask,

and the answer usually given,

including given
by President Bush,

was they hate our freedoms,
they hate our ideology.

But that way
of narrating it misses

something really important,

which is Osama bin Laden's
reason.

-Bin Laden's stated goal was
clear and so was his rally cry.

He was able to use our presence
in the Middle East

as a way to motivate people
around the world to fight us.

It's something that most
Americans can't understand.

People don't attack us
because they hate our freedom.

They don't attack us even
because they hate our president.

They attack us
because they think we're wrong

and that they're right.

They view themselves
as freedom fighters

against people
who are imposing their will

over their sacred land
and their sacred space.

♪♪

-As part of the ongoing war
on terror,

the U.S. government
has put American troops

in harm's way across the globe.

[ Gunfire ]

-We talk about places like
Afghanistan and Iraq often,

but we rarely talk about places
like Syria or Somalia,

where there are regularly
American troops in danger,

where our assets
are being utilized.

What started out
as the war on terror

has become the forever war,

America's never ending war
with any number of enemies

in any number of places,

many of which Americans
don't even know about,

can't pronounce
or can't find on the map.

-There is an armed conflict
that we have been in since 2001

when Congress
passed the Authorization

for use of Military Force,

which authorized the president
to use military force

against those who planned 9/11

and who aided
and abetted the planners.

That really meant Al Qaeda
and the Taliban.

-Allahu akbar!

-So it's become kind of a blank
check for whatever

war making against
terrorist organizations

any administration
wants to engage in.

-In 2019, U.S.
Special Operations Forces

were at some point in that year
in more than 140 countries.

I mean, that's a majority
of the countries on our planet.

[ Gunfire ]

-And so we end up
in the situation

that we're in right now,
where we're involved

in a seemingly endless war
in countries

across the world that most
Americans couldn't even name,

they wouldn't even be able to
tell you all of the countries

in which we're at war right now.

♪♪

-Whoo!

-The government's decision
to deploy troops

is often
only revealed by tragedy.

-When American troops
died in Niger,

most Americans didn't know

we had American troops in Niger.

-And the degree to which many
of the operations

that are happening
are so secretive

that even the American people

are not aware who the enemy
is that we're fighting.

That's really
a shocking state of affairs.

[ Gunfire ]
- [ Panting ]

-But it's not just
a forever war,

it's an everywhere war.

America is constantly at war
everywhere around the globe.

The sun never sets on
our military operations

because we have people in
so many places around the world.

-Key to our government's
ability to wage war

anywhere in the world
at any time

is a vast global network
of military bases.

-So, the United States
has fought the global war

on terrorism
with military bases.

♪♪

If you add up all the bases,

the foreign bases that
the United States maintains,

we're talking about a number

roughly at 750.

So all the other countries
in the world have roughly 40,

and the United States, it's 750.

-Some bases are so large,
they resemble mini cities.

-Those outposts get developed
to the point

where they feel like
as a lot of people

call them little Americans.

You have Starbucks,
you have McDonald's,

"Star Trek" fan clubs.

♪♪

-This network of overseas
U.S. military bases

dates back to the early days
of the Cold War

when the United States
was locked in a struggle

for global supremacy
with the Soviet Union.

In 1962, the Cold War
almost ended in Armageddon

when Soviet nuclear missiles
were discovered in Cuba.

♪♪

-I don't think the world
has ever come closer

to a nuclear war than it did
in the Cuban missile crisis.

The President of
the United States had said

he was willing to go to war

to get the Soviet
nuclear missiles out of Cuba.

♪♪

-But the installation of Soviet
missiles on the island

is only half the story.

♪♪

-The part that we leave out

is that from Moscow's
perspective,

the things started when
the United States put missiles

in its bases in Turkey,
pointed at the Soviet Union.

-The U.S. had moved
nuclear missiles

into Turkey a year earlier,

allowing America to destroy
major Russian cities in minutes.

♪♪

-That,
from Moscow's perspective,

was the provocation
and the reason that the Soviets

retaliated by putting
their missiles in Cuba.

-As the American people prepared
for nuclear war in 1962,

they never knew the truth that
their own government's decision

to place nukes in Turkey
could have killed them.

-We call it the Cuban
missile crisis.

I think we might as well call it
that Turkish missile crisis.

♪♪

-And while 60 years later
these bases are seen as crucial

in fighting the war on terror,

they have enabled, perhaps even
encouraged our leaders

to pursue a more reckless agenda
that risks American lives.

-We have to talk
about what these

military bases do to policy.

If you have 750 foreign
military bases

spread around the world,

military solutions
come really easily to hand.

-Iraq continues to flaunt
its hostility toward America

and to support terror.

The Iraqi regime has plotted
to develop anthrax and nerve gas

and nuclear weapons
for over a decade.

-It's become so easy
in the United States

to slip from this country
is doing things

that we in Washington
don't like to

something must be done.

-States like these
and their terrorist

allies constitute
an axis of evil,

arming to threaten
the peace of the world.

The price of indifference
would be catastrophic.

♪♪

-Before it was even decided
and discovered

who had carried out
the attacks of September 11th,

you had members of
the Bush administration

who were looking for an
opportunity to get within Iraq

and exercise regime change
from Saddam Hussein.

[ Explosions ]

♪♪

-My fellow citizens,
at this hour,

American and coalition forces
are in the early stages

of military operations
to disarm Iraq,

to free its people and to defend
the world from grave danger.

♪♪

[ Singing in native language ]

-In the months leading up
to the invasion of Iraq,

the Bush administration
had argued Saddam Hussein

possessed some of the world's
most dangerous weapons,

even hinting he had
nuclear weapons,

posing an existential threat
to the United States.

-Simply stated,
there is no doubt

that Saddam Hussein now
has weapons of mass destruction.

♪♪

-The pretext was the potential
existence of weapons

of mass destruction.

In fact, administration knew
full well there was not

any realistic threat that WMD
could be used in any way

that would jeopardize
the United States.

[ Applause ]

-While the American people
were being sold a lie,

behind the scenes,
plans were being made

to reshape the balance
of power in the region

with seemingly little regard for
the lives that would be lost.

♪♪

-And Iraq was a country
that had long been a thorn

in the side of
the United States.

George W. Bush's father
had led military hostilities

against Saddam Hussein
after his army

invaded the neighboring country
of Kuwait.

-It is not the United States
against Iraq.

It is Iraq against the world.

-Saddam Hussein had invaded
Kuwait in August 1990,

annexing the country
and its vast oil reserves.

In response,
the United States assembled

a massive
international coalition

to drive Iraqi forces
out of Kuwait.

But while Saddam's armies
were decimated,

he remained in power.

-[ Speaking native language ]

-In the late 1990s,

a small group of powerful
Washington insiders

from a little known
think tank began to call

for regime change in Iraq.

-So the Project for
a New American Century

is this brain child of a group
who continually call for America

to go out
and find the next crusade,

to find the next big enemy

that America can take on and
define itself in an opposite to.

Because of the first
Persian Gulf War,

you see America understand
that Saddam Hussein

is an evil figure.

They believe that he is
the type of enemy

that the American people
will accept.

So during the Clinton
administration,

this group are constantly
lobbying Bill Clinton

to fight Iraq
and they keep telling him

this is the next big move

in order to secure American
security and American power.

-But while the inside has failed
to convince Clinton to invade,

they found a willing partner
in President George W. Bush.

♪♪

-Before it was even decided
and discovered

who had carried out
the attacks of September 11th,

you had members
of the Bush administration

who were looking for an
opportunity to get within Iraq

and exercise regime change
from Saddam Hussein.

♪♪

♪♪

-Now, it's worth noting

that there is relatively
little discussed

about what happened after.

-I don't know
how long we're going to be here,

but we'll be here for a while.

It's going to be hard.

-You get rid of Saddam,

you get rid of his lieutenants,
then what?

And the big question
about how are you

going to govern this country,
how are you going to rebuild it,

wasn't something that was much
discussed in Washington

in the run up to the war.

But it would come to bedevil us
for years to come.

-And would end up killing
thousands of American troops.

♪♪

But at first, all seem to be
going well for U.S. forces.

-Within three weeks,
U.S. forces were in Baghdad,

Saddam Hussein's
government had melted.

[ Cheers and applause ]

And in some quarters
in Washington,

there was a feeling that

the mission had been
accomplished.

-Major combat operations in Iraq
have ended.

In the battle of Iraq,

the United States
and our allies have prevailed.

[ Cheers and applause ]

-But for those of us in Baghdad,

it was clear that we had
just finished the first chapter

of what was going
to be a very long book.

[ Gunshots,
indistinct shouting ]

And the reality is the furthest
thing from mission accomplished.

-I got to the city of Baghdad
at the same time

the president said
the mission was accomplished.

-Paul Rieckhoff was an infantry
officer in the National Guard,

stationed in one of the city's
most dangerous neighborhoods.

-We arrived with no body armor,
with no adequate vehicles,

without water, we didn't have

enough water to go around.

The most powerful army in...
The world has ever seen,

and we had to scrap
for ammunition and body armor?

-But the troops were rushed
into the region

without adequate equipment
on the back of lies

told about weapons
of mass destruction.

-Our vehicles are not armored.

We're digging pieces
of rusted scrap metal

to put on our vehicles
to take into combat.

-As you know, you go to war
with the army you have,

not the army you might want
or wish to have at a later time.

-The Bush administration
also claimed

they'd be greeted as liberators.

-Yeah.

[ Gunshots ]

-Now soldiers
like Paul Rieckhoff

found themselves occupiers
in an increasingly hostile land.

♪♪

-[ Shouting ]
[ Gunfire ]

-Only someone who's never
experienced war

thinks that it's quick
and easy and simple.

War is complicated,
war is messy,

war is expensive,
war is painful.

-The ones that are fighting
truly believe

in their cause, just as we do.

When we were
fighting for our independence,

we fought like the Indians.

The man will fight
with whatever he has at hand.

-As the insurgency
started to pick up in intensity,

U.S. forces were
totally unprepared.

And importantly,
they were unprepared

in terms of equipment.

In many cases, our soldiers
would drive around in Humvees,

in four wheel drive vehicles

that lacked
any meaningful protection

against small arms fire
or roadside bombs.

♪♪

-As anarchy and violence
quickly consumed Iraq,

the political elites
found sanctuary

in a fortified compound.

-So while they were in
air-conditioned bunkers,

we were in the streets
bleeding and dying.

♪♪

-When the months
after U.S. forces arrived,

Washington realized,

hey, we actually need
to send some people over

to try to govern, administer
and rebuild this country.

And so the U.S. needed
a headquarters in Baghdad,

and it turned pretty quickly
to the large compound

that housed Saddam Hussein's
Republican Palace,

right smack dab
in the center of Baghdad.

This place soon got a name.

In contrast to the red zone,
the dangerous Iraq

all around it, this area inside

was called the Green Zone.

♪♪

-The Green Zone quickly became
a four square mile

piece of America
in the heart of Baghdad.

♪♪

-You could go jogging
on the streets,

you could get bacon
cheeseburgers

and other such things
that weren't available,

you know, in Iraqi restaurants,
and you could get a drink.

-Well, I didn't know there was
going to be a steaks out here.

-My unit was on the other side
of the river

from the Green Zone.

So while these guys
were sleeping

in palatial palaces

and walking around in suits
saying there was no insurgency,

that we were winning the war,

that we were being
treated as liberators,

we were facing hostility
and riots

and the manifestation of what
would become the insurgency.

♪♪

-And so the Green Zone
was like not only a fantasy,

it became part of the problem
that... that elites

could insulate themselves
from the destruction

that they had wrought
and they could pursue

their... their silly ideas
that Iraq was going to quickly

turn into a miniature
version of America.

-People who thought we were
going to roll into Iraq

and make it look like New Jersey
were... were dangerously

disconnected and out of touch
with the reality.

Iraq is never going
to look like New Jersey,

but Iraq is a place
that motivated

hundreds of thousands
of mostly young men

to come and fight against us.

[ Gunshot ]

-And kill Americans.

♪♪

While U.S. soldiers
began to feel the brunt

of a growing insurgency,

corporations were raking
in profits by the billions.

-The great American
General Smedley Butler

once said war is a racket,

and Iraq was definitely
a racket.

And the American troops
were not in on it.

The American troops
had to scrape and scrap

for everything while other guys
were getting rich,

while companies like Halliburton
were getting no-bid contracts.

-Private companies made
an estimated $140 billion

from the conflict,
securing lucrative contracts

in private security,

reconstruction
and oil production.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

[ Explosion ]

-War shouldn't be about profit.

War should be a last resort,

and it should be something
that we try to end

as quickly as possible.

It shouldn't be a bonanza
for scumbags to come in

and get rich,
and that's what we saw.

We saw scumbags
and grifters come in

and get rich off Iraq while we
lost our legs and our friends.

So that cuts to maybe
the most outrageous part

of America's involvement
in Iraq and Afghanistan

is that some people gave
everything and others got rich.

They want the war to go on

so they can make more money
and buy champagne.

That cuts to the core
of how unequal it was

and how dangerous it was
for our national security

to have the profit
motive introduced

on a level
we'd never seen before.

♪♪

-Major American combat
operations in Iraq

eventually wound down
in December 2011.

The war cost taxpayers an
estimated $2 trillion dollars,

but the cost to Americans went
way beyond the dollars spent.

-Approximately 4,500 U.S.
service members

would be killed in action.

Tens of thousands
would come home injured,

some of them gravely,
missing limbs,

suffering from traumatic
brain injuries,

wracked by
post-traumatic stress.

-We're really good
at sending people to war.

We're really good at paying
to send people to war.

We're really bad
at bringing people home

and taking care of them
once they get back.

Guys like Paul Wolfowitz
and Don Rumsfeld

said you go to war
with the army, you have.

That's right, and then you
come home to the VA you have.

And when I went to war
with the army we had,

I came home to the VA we had,
which was a VA that didn't know

how to take care of women,
didn't know how to treat

post-traumatic stress disorder,

didn't know about
roadside bombs,

didn't know about ear injuries

and the other kinds of wounds
we were facing.

And already we've lost
more people to suicide

than we've lost on the ground
in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And we will lose many more
in the decades to come.

♪♪

-In the vacuum left by
the removal of Saddam's regime

and the end of a major
U.S. military presence,

extremism flourished and many
more lives would be lost.

-So, you get ISIS after about 10
or 11 years of... of...

Of the crisis caused by
the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

And ISIS is... is a real threat
to regional stability.

-The fight against ISIS
has claimed tens of thousands

more Iraqi lives,

with millions losing their homes
and way of life,

but it has done something else.

Kept the business of war going.

-This has been produced
by the, supposedly,

the attempt to
make the world safe

with U.S. military means,

but it produces insecurity.

And then that insecurity
justifies

more of the same military
intervention and spending.

♪♪

-Our government has spent
trillions of dollars

over the last two decades

fighting perceived enemies
across the globe.

But has it really made us safer?

-And then once you guys are out,
I can take the mask off?

- Yes.
- Okay.

-We've disproportionately
allocated our resources,

and not just money,
but really our attention.

And so for years, preparing for
a global pandemic

was something that was
shockingly under resourced,

not just in terms of money
and equipment,

but in terms of the time

and thinking
of senior policymakers.

♪♪

-February 29, 2020...

The first confirmed death
from COVID-19

is reported
in the United States.

-Unfortunately, one person
passed away overnight.

On the very same day
over 7,000 miles away,

the U.S. government signs
a peace deal with the Taliban,

highlighting a grim reality.

Since American troops were first
sent to Afghanistan in 2001,

that war has raged on
while problems that threaten

the lives of Americans
back home have been ignored.

-So, February 2020,
there was supposedly

a peace agreement signed.

But there's been no peace for
American soldiers for 19 years.

There's been no peace
for the Afghans for 19 years,

and there's no peace
in the region.

[ Gunfire ]

[ Indistinct shouting ]

-The original mission
of the Afghan war

was aimed at toppling
the Taliban government

so that the United States
and allied forces

would be able to kill or capture
the top leadership of Al Qaeda,

specifically Osama bin Laden.

-And Afghanistan
has become the place

that Osama bin Laden
hoped it would become.

The place that would suck
in the American military,

that would suck in our blood
and treasure,

that would take our eye
off the ball.

And Afghanistan is in some ways
part of the reason

why we can't prepare adequately
for a pandemic.

If we hadn't fought
the war in Afghanistan,

think about how much
better prepared

we could have been
for the coronavirus.

♪♪

♪♪

-For years, preparing
for a global pandemic

was something that was
shockingly under resourced,

not just in terms of money
and equipment,

but in terms of the time and
thinking of senior policymakers.

-But where is the PPE?
Where are the ventilators?

♪♪

-And it's a sad reflection
on this society

that we have the greatest,

most powerful military
in the history of mankind,

and yet nurses have had
to wear garbage bags

to protect themselves
from patients in hospitals.

♪♪

-The pandemic is hurting America
in ways that Osama bin Laden

could have only dreamed of,
and in my view,

is the greatest modern threat

to our national security
we've ever seen.

-But the pandemic isn't the
only threat to national security

that the ongoing war
in Afghanistan

has distracted us from.

-When you look at the
most significant attack

that has been perpetrated
against Americans

in recent years,

there was a cyber attack
in 2016.

-Hello, hello.

-Election interference
by the Russians,

a concerted campaign
of misinformation,

of disinformation targeted
at American voters.

-We viewed Russia as a regional
power very famously.

You know, that's what
President Obama called Russia,

much to Putin's chagrin.

We thought that Russia
is not a threat to us.

Russia's military
is not a threat to us.

Therefore,
there is there's no way

that Russia can undermine
the United States.

And we were too late
to recognize this threat.

I think we are distracted by,
for instance, the war on terror.

-We'll never know conclusively
whether those attacks

resulted
in President Trump's election,

but it was the most
significant attack

directed against
the United States

and one that we continue to be
woefully unprepared to defend.

-Just recently, Twitter was
hacked by a 17-year-old.

We're lucky that that hacker
just used it

to get himself some Bitcoin

and not start a nuclear war.

♪♪

-I think that we've started
to realize

that not only can our government
not take care of us

in a way that we would
expect them to,

but they can't even carry out
the basic necessity

of taking care
of our national security.

-Security is about the lives
of Americans,

and those threats
are more than just bombs

or hijacked airplanes.

It's microscopic
virus particles.

It's potential cyber attacks.

For Americans
to feel truly secure,

they need not just that
sort of physical security,

they need to know
that they have security

when it comes to their health.

-We may get to the point
where more people are killed

by COVID in the United States

than were killed
in the second World War.

-We're dying constantly in just
really overtly incompetent ways,

and I think that it's making it
obvious that this government

that has completely sold itself
on its ability

to protect us
has failed in every regard.

-This is what happens
when there is a shadow agenda,

a shadow America that benefits
one group of people

at the expense
of the greater good.

All they need is for you
not to pay attention.

All they need
is for you not to know

where America's sons
and daughters are dying

or how much money they spend
on a weapons system

or where they're
deploying troops.

They hope
you don't pay attention

if you don't pay attention,
that's how this happens.

That's how billions
of dollars are spent.

That's how cities
are left vulnerable.

That's how pandemics spread.

-And so it's maybe a time
for us to rethink

about what makes us safe and
and what really endangers us.

-We kind of had a phrase
decades ago

in the prep industry called
72 hours to animal.

We don't believe that anymore.

We believe it's more like
72 seconds

or 72 minutes to animal.

Chaos is going to
break out within

the first hour or hours.

Rich people in government,
they take care of themselves.

But for the middle class
and for lower-income folks,

you're absolutely on your own.

Government's number one priority
is taking care of themselves.

Police number one priority,
continuity of government,

taking care
of the elected officials.

-Back up!

♪♪