Losing on Purpose: The Neocon Strategy is Designed to Fail

Erik explains what we should have done differently in Afghanistan, outlining a plan that would have saved trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives while actually eliminating the Taliban. He also discusses his proposal to avert the Russian invasion of Ukraine for less than $1 billion by sending Ukraine obsolete American aircraft - including the A-10, which was designed to take on the very same tanks Russia used in its invasion.
The episode concludes with Erik's strategy for replacing the failed Neocon ideology with a common-sense approach to foreign policy: Make our enemies fear us, our friends love us, and our rivals respect us.
Read Erik's full explanation of the Neocon failure, "Too Big to Win: How the MIC and the Neocons Keep America Losing," at im1776.com/too...
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#Afghanistan #Neocon #MilitaryIndustrialComplex #Blackwater #SpecialForces #NATO #Ukraine #Pentagon #Mercenary #Contractor #Russia #Putin #Houthi #Yemen #NASA #Lockheed #Boeing

[@dangrigsby1414]

My dad fought in Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Saipan. He died in 63, when I was just 13. But he told my mom to tell me to avoid the military at all costs. He knew something.

[@PeasantKing12B-dp3ee]

I’m ashamed that I participated in the wars. I’m not scared of fighting and dying, but I refuse to do so to line someone’s pocket. We got played fellas. The truth hurts.

[@TIG2MAN0]

I'm in the middle east now as a contractor and yea war is a business.

[@keifferiksson8537]

You shouldn’t be ashamed. Don’t be naive to think that those animals are innocent over there

[@williamclayton9566]

@@keifferiksson8537 No more guilty than our own overlords.

[@keifferiksson8537]

@@williamclayton9566 dumb comment. Who exactly are your overlords?

[@same9492]

Your intentions were good. ❤

[@CoffeeandRunning]

This program does not demand any comments. Only compliments.

[@SnowLeopard-lt1vf]

ERIK HAS TO START A HISTORY PODCAST !! HIS KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORY IS IMMENSE

[@GhostGetMade]

Able to concisely articulate things.

[@cholst1]

By proxy of being a war criminal?

[@RandyHernandez-u8d]

Love this dude wish he was in charge i would vote for you! Please run America needs you sir!

[@davesackenheim2937]

We spent trillions of dollars and replaced the Taliban with a Taliban and no one was held accountable.... what an unbelievably heavy statement that is and quite disconcerting

[@ftboomer1]

Great interview. The neocons have been the worst thing for America.

[@LeonardMichaelis]

I 110% agree with Mr Prince.

[@alexr7752]

Educating me during my 2 am workout, God bless. Yesterday really pissed me off.

[@notundermywatch3163]

2 am work out, listening to Erik Prince? What a beast 🇺🇲 let's 👍🏿

[@alexr7752]

@@notundermywatch3163 Couldn’t sleep, decided to sweat instead.

[@3581tossit]

God, not god. Always capitalize the G. Go RFK!

[@Ibn_Abdulaziz]

Allah سبحانه وتعالى said, غُلِبَتِ الرُّومُ The Romans have been defeated. [Ar-Rum 30:2] فَاسْتَكْبَرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ بِغَيْرِ الْحَقِّ وَقَالُوا مَنْ أَشَدُّ مِنَّا قُوَّةً ۖ أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا أَنَّ اللَّهَ الَّذِي خَلَقَهُمْ هُوَ أَشَدُّ مِنْهُمْ قُوَّةً ۖ وَكَانُوا بِآيَاتِنَا يَجْحَدُونَ They were arrogant on the earth without right, and they said: "Who is mightier than us in strength?" See they not that Allah who created them was mightier in strength than them. And they used to deny Our Ayat (Signs)! [Fussilat 41:15] وَلِلْكَافِرِينَ أَمْثَالُهَا And a similar (fate awaits) the disbelievers. [Muhammad 47:10] أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَيَنظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ كَانُوا أَكْثَرَ مِنْهُمْ وَأَشَدَّ قُوَّةً وَآثَارًا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَمَا أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ Have they not travelled through the earth and seen what was the end of those before them? They were more in number than them and mightier in strength, and in the traces (they left behind) in the land; yet all that they used to earn availed them not. فَلَمَّا جَاءَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُم بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ فَرِحُوا بِمَا عِندَهُم مِّنَ الْعِلْمِ وَحَاقَ بِهِم مَّا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ Then when their Messengers came to them with clear proofs, they were glad (and proud) with that which they had of the knowledge (of worldly things). And that which they used to mock, surrounded them at (i.e. the punishment). [Ghaafir 40:82-83] فَجَعَلْنَاهُمْ سَلَفًا وَمَثَلًا لِّلْآخِرِينَ And We made them a precedent, and an example to later generations. [Az-Zukhruf 43:56] قُل لِّلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا سَتُغْلَبُونَ وَتُحْشَرُونَ إِلَىٰ جَهَنَّمَ ۚ وَبِئْسَ الْمِهَادُ Say to those who disbelieve: "You will be defeated and you will be gathered together to Jahannam (Hell-Fire), and worst indeed is that place to rest." [Ãal-'Imraan 3:12] وَعْدَ اللَّهِ ۖ لَا يُخْلِفُ اللَّهُ وَعْدَهُ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ (It is) a Promise of Allah, and Allah fails not in His Promise, but most of men know not. يَعْلَمُونَ ظَاهِرًا مِّنَ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَهُمْ عَنِ الْآخِرَةِ هُمْ غَافِلُونَ They know only the outside appearance of the life of the world, and they are of the Hereafter, heedless. [Ar-Rum 30:6-7]

[@johnmonrow9981]

I'm not sure I would classify anything he said as educational.

[@sym8246-f5c]

Prince for the win

[@kilonovx-ray9382]

Dude is always on when it comes to wisdom knowledge and discipline He needs to run for president A true Alpha trained individual who knows how to get things done

[@markvolker1145]

100% When Trump is gone we need intelligent people with new ideas!! Fuck the elites political and bureaucrat class!!

[@TIG2MAN0]

War is all about money, it doesn't have anything to do with security, safety, making the world a better place. Its a business.

[@cancelanime1507]

I mean that's part of it but what you're saying isn't even what Prince is saying, yes obviously it's a business and good for the Military industrial complex but he's also not saying we should just ignore the middle east.

[@Bisquick]

@@cancelanime1507 _“WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives._ _I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”_ ― Maj.Gen.Smedley D. Butler, War Is a Racket The US has positioned itself as the "consumer of last resort" at the end of the global supply chain to absorb inevitable overproduction of capitalism through cheap consumption or of course through our favorite activity of war/arms sales (military Keynesianism, the only button we can push at this point clearly), launching itself to hegemony post-WWII via imposing the Bretton-Woods international financial system with the US dollar as the "global reserve currency" using the leverage of being the only industrialized nation-state _not_ bombed to shit and taking the imperial baton from the British and their pound sterling, creating the World Bank and IMF which trap nation-states into dependency relationships to perpetually extract rent and maintain "full spectrum domination" over the global working class for the benefit of transnational corporate/finance capital (maintained by regional oligarchies in subordinated nation-states). As Nixon's treasury secretary John Connally succinctly put it, _"The dollar is our currency, but _*_your_*_ problem."_ See: "washington consensus" and its "structural adjustment" policies (hence the emergence of BRICS broadly aligned _against_ this global financial coercion and all that it entails). NATO is an arms distribution network for the military industrial complex and essentially the public face of a European sphere of US domination, covertly enforced by a "strategy of tension" of violent social control mediated by corporate-controlled technology (check out Chomsky/Herman's Manufacturing Consent or Inventing Reality by Michael Parenti for historical evolution of advertising/propaganda models developed with psychos like Ed Bernays, and the foundational corporate media filters that entrench themselves over time) seen in things like Operation Gladio in Italy (see: "years of lead", Aldo Moro assassination, Bologna bombings, etc.) with parallel operations in _every_ NATO country (and even non-NATO countries like Finland and Sweden, their recent officialization of this being more or less perfunctory) where the CIA directed explicitly fascist paramilitary insurgencies ("stay-behind" armies, justified under a familiar appeal to a nonexistent manichean threat) to stoke public fear toward particular goals favorable to US corporate/finance capital and continued US hegemony. Its internally recognized geopolitical functionality or raison d'être as succinctly put by its first sec.gen Lord Ismay was to, _"keep the Americans in, the Germans down, and the Russians out"_ and hey, what a "coincidence", it appears to continue to enforce this state of affairs, especially obvious when noting the industrial sabotage of Nord Stream II clearly perpetrated by the US against Germany (a callback to interwar Germany and its imposed separation by Western powers to prevent a socialist-aligned industrial base which the Bolsheviks were _explicitly_ counting on for the USSR project to have any chance at success). To list just a few more "regime change" reference points for the expansion of US empire: Iran in '53 overthrowing democratically elected Mossadegh to prevent nationalization of oil and installing the Shah, Guatemala in '54 to prevent democratically elected Arbenz from mild land redistribution, Sukarno in Indonesia putting in Suharto who would invade East Timor backed by the US, Lumumba in the Congo, the _first_ 9/11 in '73 overthrowing democratically elected Allende to put in Pinochet's military dictatorship, Operation Cyclone funding/training the mujahideen in Afghanistan to provoke the USSR into invasion in the 80s (almost a 1:1 of Ukraine), to "give the USSR its own Vietnam" as psycho natsec cold-warrior advisor to Carter & Reagan Zbigniew Brzezinski put it - the mujahideen infamously fracturing into the Taliban and Al Qaeda, "oops" - my god this is merely the _tip_ of the imperialist iceberg - and this is of course _besides_ the overt depravity of Korea (killing ~20% of its population - gee, almost like that's why they set out to acquire nukes, Gaddafi serving as example of what happens when nukes are voluntarily given up ie NATO bombing in 2011...), Vietnam (including Cambodia, Laos and with the intention of "containing China" as revealed by Pentagon Papers), etc. etc... _"We'll know our disinformation is complete when everything the American public believes is false"_ - William Casey, -demonic arcon- CIA director under Reagan Always relevant as another example, but particularly now - Israel is a settler-colonial bulwark to protect oil and the trade routes for oil, e.g. Suez Canal by tempering Egyptian opposition, originally established by the British empire and post-WWII for example pushed back against Nasser for nationalizing the Suez Canal, post-'67 being subsumed firmly into the imperial patron of the emerging US hegemony. So long as its existence is predicated on this settler-colonial conquest and subsequent apartheid, "peace" is utilized merely as a mirage to gain further concessions of land/control, hence "iron-clad" US complicity in arming and covering for their ongoing genocide. It's no coincidence - War is a racket. _"In order to bring a nation to support the burdens incident to maintaining great military establishments, it is necessary to create an emotional state akin to war psychology. There must be the portrayal of an external menace or of internal conditions rendered intolerable by the unjust restraints of foreign nations. This involves the development to a high degree of the nation-hero nation-villain ideology and the arousing of the population to a sense of the duty of sacrifice."_ - John Foster Dulles (secstate under Eisenhower, part of tag-team sibling duo with brother and infamous CIA psycho Allen Dulles) Surely he's giving two thumbs up in hell, which at this point is probably not too dissimilar from the world he helped create for us. Nuclear apocalypse is the ultimate destination of endless escalation which thanks to the material interests staked in entrenching global bourgeoisie dictatorship over the global working class achieved under the pretext of the "cold" war (not very "cold" when, say, engulfed in napalm...) happens to be the raison d'être of the US natsec state since its inception; the divine right of "the market", the management of savagery, a means to no ends - where all possibility is strictly bound to profitability and everything and everyone, including the very planet itself, is for sale for the privatized profits of insatiable individual psychopaths who despite having everything only ever want more...

[@thatwasinteresting3319]

Read Smedley Butler "War is a Racket"

[@CH46Driver]

Brilliant

[@silentlandthousandvoices]

To be clear, Scipio and Hannibal were in the Second Punic War, “Carthage must be destroyed,” and salting the earth were in the Third Punic War.

[@freemanrhodes727]

Mr Prince, it is always impressive to listen to your solutions to major problems. I love listening to you speak and put out simple but effective ways to solve problems we are having with our enemies. Thank you for what all you have done for our great country and God bless you.

[@fjm1235]

Career politicians have lost every war since Korea.

[@mikeloughnane5436]

Who won in Korea.

[@markvolker1145]

The Neocons in both parties advocate to start the war then when its time to get reelected they make the ending the war the war a pillar of their political campaign!!

[@RollyBalondo]

Wow. what a revealing information.

[@Aron-79]

Respect 🫡

[@KarenAnn-dm4ks]

In all honesty, they not only enabled the enemy over and over, they purposely strengthened and empowered them against our own sons.

[@patriciakimball8150]

Same thing re US/EU conduct re Israel: funding and enabling the enemy against our ally-and against us.

[@trumanhw]

A little reminder ... during WWII ... GENERALS made battle plans. By Vietnam ..? Every single target had to be approved by politicians. (too big not to fail)

[@jaypee389]

Kissinger was plotting to outsource labor and to fully develop China the entire time. Total War was off the table in Vietnam.

[@jaypee389]

Some say....U.S. S&P 500 is still outsourcing as fast as humanely possible. Legend has it....

[@nathanielmacelroy1988]

With LBJ running it from the office over the telephone. Westmoreland that inept

[@hkmorhsi]

Financed and engineered by who? Fuck generals and politicians.

[@jaypee389]

@@hkmorhsi NYC armed Hitler (bankrolled Germany) and built USSRs essential factories. It's a free market.

[@KGSpradleyAuthor]

Much respect for Erik Prince and I’m proud to be a former Blackwater Security Guy but I must make a correction. There were at least 3 helicopters shot down by MANPADS in Afghanistan. 2 were Stinger missiles (1 from early 80s and 1 from a Qatari arms deal in 2016) and 1 was an SA-7. FLIPPER 75 was the first and then TURBINE 33. I can’t remember the third but I talk about my part in the recovery of the missile from FLIPPER 75 in my book. Thanks.

[@markvolker1145]

Thanks for your service!

[@joer3238]

Tell sig to bring back the black water p226 I finally have money for it!

[@davidsurbeck2599]

Mr Prince, I wish to express my gratitude for your voice. I have an idea that you should hear.

[@denisdrubetskiy2265]

chief gallagher and special forces officer (silver star) also court martialed

[@ZzJ17]

THE 17% ILL LEAVE MY INPUT AS USUAL WHEN NEEDED DURING SHOW

[@Arbiter710]

Erik I would vote for you for president if you decided to run one day, I never say this about any man but I look up to you as role a model.

[@NormieWeimarican]

He’s not what the aipac tribe want.

[@Arbiter710]

@@NormieWeimarican Only thing I don’t agree on Eric with is the Ukraine Russia situation but other then that hes well over qualified to be president… That little conspiracy stuff with “AIPAC” dosent mean anything bro, this is America! if he wants to be president he can… Just like president trump did with no military or political background

[@joycem2819]

Since you brought up the FAA, I've done contract work there and I can tell you that's an agency that needs to be privatized! It's ridiculous the amount of waste there!

[@westmassdave7354]

U r right.

[@ChazToz]

Delete 'The Rules of Engagement' that require our military to wait until being fired upon before we begin to fight. Follow only the guidelines in the Geneva Convention, and then, only with co-signers of that agreement. Rewrite The Mission Statement for the Department of Defense to: “We Break Things & Kill Our Enemies” Note to Eric Prince: Please consider Public Service as Donald J. Trump's Secretary of Defense.

[@75Prelives]

Prince is a smart MoFo. I’m pretty dialed in to what’s going on but I always learn something when I listen to his show.

[@blackwolfman777]

Chuck Holton sent me. Love the content 👌.

[@wecanwatersports4151]

High Tech Low Tech Solutions... Money gets in the way. 🤫

[@bretrudeseal4314]

We are in debt because our entitlements are out of control. We also have a math problem at the Pentagon, but entitlements is where costs are exploding. That and debt service payments.

[@MartymcFly-zz2pg]

Debts that cannot be paid, won't be.

[@markvolker1145]

Exactly! How does the DOD lose 2 trillion dollars?! It is entrepreneurs like Prince that made the US a leader! When Trump leaves we need Erik to replace him!

[@zamilthankyou8839]

Erik Prince : a Genius made in usa

[@ZzJ17]

E I'm able to see you guys making decisions back from 2015ish when I was in that Mississippi river and the SEE NO with all the rakes

[@MrMikeV00]

I feel that. General flop is everywhere.

[@KT-zx9jr]

End the Cuban reign....Vote out Dems and BIden...

[@thatwasinteresting3319]

Only the current US government (both parties) would directly fund our enemies by paying them tolls to get our shipments to our soldiers. We have lost.

[@David-yp4fl]

🌿 LOVE FROM MISSISSIPPI USA 🇮🇱♥️🇺🇲

[@Sddwtd8787]

@off leash with Erik prince if you have any knowledge or thoughts on the “share holders” in the MIC would love to hear about it.

[@Doodlefisher]

Great comparison on Roman Cannae situation

[@robertohlrich369]

Love this series!

[@anthonyturnerG7]

Another Great one for EP definitely need you in the Trump 2024 Administration

[@stephaniejooste3879]

And Stu lost everything because he wouldn't be quiet! He was placed in the BRIG under 24 hrs isolation.

[@MechAnonymous]

The men we need are not being recruited in the military there needs to be more drafts like the nfl but in real life vocations like mechanics and electricians

[@NormieWeimarican]

Why should they go and die for zog?

[@tadasa498]

Hi everyone, respect from Lithuania,with all due respect,does anyone know,how are Stuart Scheller now,is he ok?

[@UNLAWFULCOPTER]

wasn't extortion 17 shot down by an sa-7? not officially but isn't it pretty widely known now...

[@Carbon2wheeler]

EP for potus. If Macgregor and Erik dont make it into the trump cabinet we are in deep trouble.

[@3581tossit]

ain't gonna happen. RFK all the way!

[@NormieWeimarican]

Nothing like voting and thinking you did your best.

[@joesteinmetz2378]

Your editor missed Erik’s lav mic on the response to the skirt comment.

[@cwiersma73]

I want a unplugged phone, sadly I have verizon

[@KT-zx9jr]

Can we swap the Neocons for either Russian or Chinese individuals that truly support capitalism and free markets?

[@jamessmith-hq5mr]

He is wrong at 4:04. Extortion 17 was shot down with a SA7, not a RPG.

[@PatrickHenrysPourOver]

I hope this guy is the Sec Def in Trump's second term.

[@faliqsamoray]

It was a swamp to drag to

[@MechAnonymous]

Kindly and respectfully requesting Biden switch positions with Erik Prince for the Democratic Nominee

[@3581tossit]

Erik has a problem being faithful to his wives. He's better off running as another hypocritical Republican. All the way with RFK!

[@MrMikeV00]

On a more serious note. Dubai sounds nice.

[@mattpeters6224]

Love you guys. But I have heard Erik say what he says here 10-15 times. We just destroyed faith in our justice system. Perhaps speaking on this would have been better.

[@3581tossit]

Trump is still no good. RFK all the way!

[@dominickmoura165]

👍🏽👍🏽

[@VilhelmSauers]

Another meat for the Meat Grinder. - Starship Troopers.

[@Whyoakdbi]

Who are the neocons? 90% percent are of a particular ethnic background and they promote policies that benefit their people (a foreign country)

[@NormieWeimarican]

Dude! Yes! You get it.

[@adamruss8338]

Angry Karen's. Monday morning quaterbacks.

[@robtheblacksmith3253]

Cia op

[@JS-oy6nn]

Sounds like the military started handing out participation trophies 🏆 yippee 🥳 everyone’s a general.!!

[@jaypee389]

#rambo3

[@dancooper4733]

Prince isn't a NeoCon?

[@andreyche193]

Yeah, that whole American war in Afghanistan was another Putin's mistake! Just think about it: he did his best to help Americans, how stupid was that! He introduced Americans to the Northern Alliance and even helped with a Russian military base in Tajikistan as well as with logistics of withdrawing US military material from Afghanistan when Pakistan refused to co-operate! Saying nothing about that very valid point of not really providing Taliban with effective weapons to destroy US armor, helicopters and planes! Such a wasted opportunity! I only hope Russia will never ever miss the next one!

[@jaypee389]

I think 4 Million Afghans died in Afghanistan if you include starvation from 1979-1988...then I think 1-2 Million died in between 1988 and 1996. That's like....a lot. There are 70-80 Million Pashtu if you include PahkiStahn. That's a lot.

[@williamclayton9566]

How many had anything to do with 9/11?

[@NormieWeimarican]

@@williamclayton9566 right? Prettyy much none.

[@lillianbebes9191]

💀❤️👽

[@MechAnonymous]

talk more tools spare parts and mechanics thank you

[@3581tossit]

Talk more about the use of punctuation and how it changed your life.

[@AnarchyEnsues]

sadly eric prince is just a neocon by another name.... as the establishment have jettisoned neocon term.

[@JonathanSigwart]

I'm just curious....not to bash this guy but he talks about using better tactics but isn't we responsible for the deaths of 4 pmc in 2004 in fallujah???(because of bad planning) And that's not including what black water was doing new Orleans after Katrina which I will not mention on KZbin I ask if im wrong if someone can educate me please

[@Sapnfap]

Bro its a war, 4 people are you serious?

[@jaypee389]

Mistakes can and will still happen. At the end of the day....Amazon is better then Fed Ex and the USPS.

[@robertohlrich369]

Read his book.