Cross talk in the Foreign Policy blog im joined by my guest brian becker in washington hes the director of the answer coalition as well as host of loud and clear a daily news show on radio sputnik in minneapolis we have tony lazaro he is director of big tent republicans pac and in dayton we cross the hes a syndicated cartoonist and Opinion Column this are democrats like those in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate brian let me go to you 1st in the swamp you know watching this ridiculous impeachment hoax being played out which almost no one is watching here were all told about the differences you know that separate the republicans and the democrats conservatives and its very very tribal the media makes a ton of money off of well i so i would suppose i would hope for them because not many people are watching it not many people are interested in it but theres theres a huge huge failure in the. Media in the Political Class talking about what is really bipartisan and foreign wars and intervention is the bipartisan issue they keeps it together its like the glue that keeps the establishment together and i dont care if its the republicans or the democrats how do you react go ahead. Well i agree of course i mean the greatest single recent example of this in addition to the impeachment trial would be the house of representatives passing the National Defense authorization act and a they allocated authorized 700 and 38000000000. 00 to the military and to its commander in chief that would be donald trump at the moment that they were impeaching donald trump and that number that 738000000000. 00 was more than trump asked for and it was more than the pentagon asked for and it also not only basically violated the outer space treaty of 1967 by creating a space force and declaring that yes the democrats too would insist that outer space the heavens be the next war fighting domain i mean this is an indicator that even though theyre squabbling theyre fighting theyre fighting over the you know the great prize of being the leader of the state that allocates a trillion dollars of contracts every year when it comes to the empire when it comes to the military Industrial Complex when it comes to the surveillance state in the socalled Intelligence Community which is not a community its a bunch of spy agencies theres a complete consensus here in washington we used to think of the neoconservatives as part of the george w. Bush legacy not anymore its the republicans and the democrats it is the consensus position you know tony i mentioned in my introduction 2016 and i remember very clearly and i think even brian was on a program that we discussed this donald trump came out and really kind of shook up the works by questioning Foreign Policy orthodoxies meaning why are we doing this why are we spending so much money on it what do we get for it ok now i have to say as a conservative im not a member of the Republican Party but as a conservative i have i am disappointed because i wanted to see more i wanted to see the war in afghanistan come to an end and we need to get out of iraq were not wanted there any more and you have the majority of some polling that the majority of veterans. It wasnt worth it now i know that the deep state the permanent state the permanent bureaucracy is constantly pushing back against the president but at the same time he is the commander in chief and i think theres a part of the electorate there that kind of feels the way i do is that we wanted more from this president when it came to Foreign Policy issues go ahead tony. Yeah i thought it was very interesting in 2016 when the president at that time candidate trump went after jeb bush extremely hard attacked you know george w. Bush and really you know had a huge support among republican primary voters and it really proved that you know even the Republican Base was just completely sick of these wars and if thats the Republican Base that will really tell you something about you know the middle and the left so i think weve really turned a corner as far as getting out of afghanistan i mean obviously you know barack obama in 20082012 campaign heavily on you know completely getting out of the middle east as much as possible you know im not im not a general or commander or anything so i cant say you know how realistic it is to really get out 100 percent after you know what Lindsey Grahams and john mccains have you know really done after so many decades in middle east but i do think you know dont you think tony that you know since the afghan papers have been revealed would you believe any of those generals because they all lied they all lied to the commander in chief they all lied to the media and they all lied to themselves ok and hardly got any kind of coverage by goodness yet ted let me go to you and dayton here but this this shows again you know when we went looking at these opposing forces as we reported by media it actually theres a real consensus in the political elite to keep this all going no of course its quite lucrative for the arms edition we all know that and i think one of the things that i find really bothersome to kind of go back to something that tony had to say a lot of people say oh america would be retreating from the world i would counter by saying we have to start reimagining the way the world really is go ahead. Well the european colonial powers went through this process or world war 2 when independence struggles kicked them out of places it like africa and asia and at the time countries like you know even holland which we forget. It was once a massive empire but countries like france and england and so on how to reckon with the fact that they were no longer going to be empires and there was a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth at the time and guess what theyre all fine now theyre able to dedicate resources to things Like National health care that americans cant apparently afford because were spending so much of our of our tax dollars on war 54 percent of all federal spending goes either to current wars or to debt service on old wars and so it is a you know were thats where our money is going it is a its ridiculous to say that we cant get out as a colleague cartoonist of mine once said how would we get out of places like iraq we would go to the airport we would take planes we wouldnt eat that would be it. And thats so simple that i may go back to brian and a more serious note here brian i think that you know all of his here on this program agree that the sentiment to get these senseless wars echoing donald trump in 2016 why why doesnt it filter up what where where is the bottle neck what what what what what happens from the grassroots until you get into these think tanks that their entire existence is based on starting another war or go to war with iran i mean where is the bottle neck where does it flip go ahead right. Theres a theres a myth about american governance which is that its a democracy that it is the rule of the people and that the elected representatives have constituents and their constituents are the people who elected them yes there are elections every 2 and 4 years in the United States but its quite clear by any sober assessment or analysis of how the congress the house or the senate function that the real constituents of these elected officials who are constantly engaged in fund raising nonstop 247 every week every month of the year that their real constituents are wall street bankers they are the corporations those banks and those corporations are completely integrated into defense spending which is a massive form of government subsidy or welfare for the corporate establishment and so none of them dare really break ranks when they dare to break ranks occasionally and its very rare they are then decimated look at tulsa gabbert i mean shes a military war veteran shes been a member of the house for you know for 4 terms shes been completely demonized as a russian asset by Hillary Clinton but thats basically recognized around the political establishment here in washington and why because she said its not a good idea to keep sending American Military personnel into endless wars that for which there is no end and for which there is no obvious goal and theres no definition of what victory even means so tell us again but a war veteran a military veteran comes up and says this and shes 100 percent demonized every Congress Member understands the rules of the game if they have an antiwar sentiment or if they listen to their antiwar constituents and they are the majority peter its not a big minority the majority of americans are sick and tired of endless wars but if the if the elected representatives listen to those people build theyll have their back turned by their real constituents who are their donors in. Funders in Corporate America you know tony how is it playing out for 2020 because you know trump says a lot of things i mean a lot of things here but it seems to be very very incoherent because that you know the whole syrian withdrawal thing and i did a few programs on and i was so excited because i finally and this promise is being made and then in a matter of days and weeks its all pushed back in a different direction and i found that to be a defeat because that could have been a demonstration effect start there and then finish the job in the middle east the middle east is a strategic backwater there is no reason for such a heavy american presence there whatsoever and the world is awash with or oil ok theres no reason to be there but that doesnt move the needle with the military does it go ahead tony right i mean i remember like i said barack obama was president for 8 years were heavily invested with the kurds in afghanistan but i think we are moving in the right direction i mean if Lindsey Graham or just bush won this election in 2016 wed be in a totally different place lord knows how much middle east intervention we have right now and i think that you know entering this new decade this is a completely different perspective the American People have for the 1st time and certainly in my lifetime and i think its not going to be as fast as any of it sounds like all of us are in quite a bit of agreement wanted to be but it is happening and i think that thats definitely a good thing because that number 54 percent as someone like me who identifies as a fiscal conservative fiscal conservative and argue that we should spend 54 percent of our money on yeah its ridiculous you know ill give the last 30 seconds to. Take in here i want to talk about how the republicans have become the new neo cons and let you start knology finish and when we come back go ahead. Well sure i mean just to follow up a little bit also i mean about this president s instincts clearly hes skeptical and remain skeptical of it and she is and we saw that with the crisis with iran when he brought it in for a soft language landing after it really looked like we were at the precipice of war and that was very interesting i think to see from a republican president ok im going to jump in here gentlemen were going to go to a short break and after that short break well continue our discussion on the Foreign Policy block stay with r. T. And were going to fulfill the repeated promise is probably to the people i promise you know weve all pots were going to. Break free from. Now you want to 1st correct that. No. Thanks guys or financial survival. When customers go by you or do something. Else well reduce our. Thats undercutting not whats good for the market its not good for the global economy. Your government and our government and all the other major governments of the world know whats going to them when its going. But they havent told you and they havent told me they havent announced. Imagine something as big as the earth. Is going to cause tidal waves earthquakes volcanoes erupt and its going to tell. So very for a while right. My great grandfather. Nobody would care about the law or prison so youd have wallace should have. A turbo license between the and. Welcome back to crossfire where all things are considered im Peter Lavelle to remind you were discussing the Foreign Policy blob. Ok ted let me go back to you in dayton i mean one of the interesting things during the during the campaign 420020161 very interesting phenomenon happened in you could see it through the wall street journal the Washington PostNew York Times etc. You saw many a well known renowned and i would say disgraced neo cons. Entering the democratic ranks with open and open them brace the number of people that supported Hillary Clinton for example former acting cia director morale a really good example right there and i think that thats one of the things thats really interesting thats come in with 1st of all you have a very strong neo con presence in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party and you actually have this kind of schizophrenia reaction to form paul. If trump is for it you have to be against it even if its in the National Interest i mean everything starts getting twisted around where you just have to be against the guy no matter what which is absolutely absolutely childish and at the end of the day very destructive go ahead ted well yeah i mean you know anybody who doubts that theres a Foreign Policy consensus between the 2 major parties only has to consider that wide variety of opinion on domestic matters whether its identity politics or for human rights or at the economy taxes and so on theres so many variations of opinion but even within the Democratic Party you know for example when general salome was assassinated by an american drone Elizabeth Warren of all people who selfstyled progressive said that she was happy he was gone and in kind of a didnt didnt really take trump to task for killing him as much as just failing to get congressional approval under the war powers act there was just a Elizabeth Warren who just came out her list of Foreign Policy advisers and bear in mind she really she and Bernie Sanders are the left of mainstream american political the 2 party system Elizabeth Warrens list of a Foreign Policy advisers though not really neo cons is all prowar and interventionist there theyve been fed in from these conservative democratic think tanks in washington like the center for American Progress so you know there will never be anyone at the table in a warranted ministration who will say hey lets not intervene yet little bit brian and but thats the same thing with trump i mean this whole thing with john bolton floating around i guess that was on the white board just waiting to blow up and it will. Go in the wind like all these other nonsensical things here but i mean he is really the kind of the epitome of it i mean he would have worked fine in a little Clinton Administration donald it didnt matter because he had his own agenda and it was trumps fault to bring him into the fold in the 1st place i remember when he announced. It i mean you know you thought you could youve heard everything and then you just because he appeared on Tucker Carlson a few times that he becomes actual security advisor and trump pays heavily for that ok i mean this is an h. Our problem here i mean im not agreeing with everything wrong with donald trump does with Foreign Policy but when he gets it right he gets it right and you get support for it ok thats just a common sense of weighing of dealing with politics every since 2016 all common sense has gone out the window go ahead brian. Well you know lets look at the killing of qassam solo money the iranian general who was coming to Baghdad Airport to engage in negotiations to deescalate tensions i mean that was trumps decision john bolton was no longer in the in the administration i agree with you it was a terrible mistake to bring bolton in but for whatever reason impulsivity narcissism the fact that he could be could jolt in his his arm easily twisted whatever he took responsibility for killing a soul money that brought the United States to the brink of a major war perhaps the biggest war ever in the middle east war more like vietnam than the war in iraq or libya and then donald trump said if when iraq when Iraqs Parliament said the americans must leave donald trump said well were going to keep your your oil revenues which turns out to be in a bank account in the Federal Reserve bank in new york not in baghdad and it shows that washington even donald trump who i agree with you had an instinct to speak at least to that part of the population that is sick and tired of endless war has is also awash with a sort of a colonial mentality towards other people and other people in other regions and that fits in very well with the with the agenda of the military Industrial Complex as if america can area gate to itself the right to be the ruler over all people everywhere thats the recipe for endless war that has to stop. You know you have to tony and i think what is so mystifying for and i mean if you look at it in a commonsensical way i mean when we look at these Foreign Policy interventions adventures around the world particularly in the last 2 decades when has it ever worked and if you even ask that que