Navy Seal Jocko Willink on The Ukraine Situation – It was a mistake

President Putin.

Recently, you ordered your troops into Ukraine, which is a sovereign nation.

And this was a mistake.

You underestimated the capability and the fighting spirit of the brave Ukrainian people.

And that's understandable.

My country made that same mistake in Vietnam,

and Iraq. And in Afghanistan.

The these mistakes, lead to drawn out conflicts that depleted our finances, our materials,

and cost us much of our most precious resource of all

American blood.

So I remember being a teenager in the US and arguing against the impeding invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and literally arguing at the time I was just in school, right? So you're arguing with classmates, but why but those are the people if we don't go get them, they're gonna destroy our way of life. Right? That's what we're taught. Right? And that's what would justify the the utter terrorism that we've unleashed on that world. They hate us, they hate us because we're blowing them up. Right? It's a self created problem. And it's, it's it's all about oil, it's about wealth. It's about power. It's about hegemony. And, you know, the US unfortunately, he doesn't have a leg to

stand on when it comes to condemning illegal foreign invasion. I think what blew my mind was watching Condoleezza Rice, speak out against the invasion. Look, we're all against the the, you know, illegal invasion, you know, and honestly, I'll have a lot of respect for a Ukrainian citizen who takes up an AK 47, and fire shots at an invading Russian soldier, just as I would respect a Palestinian who does the same thing against an Israeli soldier who attacks them. And for that, I might be labeled an extremist, but for another, I'm label this as modern and articulate the hypocrisy is they actually used footage of Palestinians, like a Palestinian girl resisting Israeli

occupation, Palestinian children being blown up by the Israeli military. They put that as Ukrainians resisting Russia, they actually use that footage of Palestinians resisting Israel, and they mislabeled it as footage of Ukrainians resisting Russia. And they supported that the same footage they would have labeled as terrorist, and violent and evil previously now is being celebrated. Why, because those that are defending their homeland look more like the general population, right, as, as the reporters themselves said, listen, these are blue eyed, blonde Europeans, they have Netflix accounts, they have Instagram accounts, you know, they're just like us. We I'm sorry. It's really

emotional for me, because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being healed children being killed every day with putting missiles and helicopters and Israel kids, so we have to stand with them.

Meanwhile, it was those same journalists, those same reporters, those same elected officials, that were beating the drums of war against the victims of Iraq and Afghanistan that we killed, because, frankly, what they do is they just don't live value brown life as much that that's what it comes down to. They label Muslims and Arabs as the other as the foreigner. They authorize them, they dehumanize them, they feed us lies, just like Putin is feeding his country lies to justify the illegal invasion in the massacre. And we've literally killed millions directly or indirectly, in the Middle East over the last 30 years. You know, we've done have the greatest global acts of terrorism,

and had Russia done, what we're doing. We condemn them. In fact, we are right now. We're condemning them in Ukraine for doing what we've done in Iraq for what we're doing what we've done in advance then. So we condemn what's happening. We also condemn the United States, when it's done the very same criminal acts of aggression. Let's let's not mince words, here. The invasion of Iraq was criminal was illegal. It led to the deaths of hundreds of 1000s of civilians directly, not to mention indirectly. The invasion of Afghanistan was like wise illegal. The occupation of the Palestinian land and the Israeli crimes against humanity funded by US tax dollars, it is illegal,

and Josias we celebrate the Ukrainians who resist illegal occupation. Why don't we celebrate the Palestinians, even the Iraqis, even the Atlantis, who have resisted illegal invasion, especially the vanities from Empire after empire, people are afraid to say this, but I say now's the time we come out and condemn all foreign military invasion and occupation, whether it is by Russia, or whether it's by the US, we have to be loyal to principles and truth, not to politics.

and flags before this problem, we saw that Europe was dealing with a huge influx of refugees from the Middle East, again, from conflicts that we created, let's be very clear that Ash, which is created utter chaos in the Middle East, would not have existed had it not been for the illegal invasion of Iraq. You know, we are directly responsible for the atrocities, I say we as the American people for the atrocities that she has unleashed in the Middle East and the subsequent refugee problems that happen either as a result of damage, or happened as a result of the crop dictatorships that we support over there that we fund over there. So the reality is, we ourselves as the United

States of America, with the support of Europe have created the refugee crisis in the Middle East. And what we saw when refugees were literally escaping for their lives to Europe, was closed borders was turning away of ships was 1000s and 1000s of refugees drowning to their death, while European nations stood by. So they said we cannot take in refugees, but again, now that the refugees are but you know, green eye and blue eyed, blond haired white people. We I'm sorry. It's really emotional for me, because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being huge. They're welcoming them with open arms. Again, it shows the hypocrisy, even how they speak about them, right. So when

they talk about European refugees, they talk about families that are victims, when they talk about Muslim refugees, they try to label them just as men that are potential aggressors, you know, the rhetoric, the language that is used is very problematic. I think it just reflects xenophobia. That's all it reflects. So this is not getting into the politics between Russia, nor Ukraine. Right. We're so you're talking about this is just the blatant double standards and hypocrisy. Right? That I mean, what what should someone who is kind of obvious it's something that now doesn't take much of pointing out when when you see obviously, again, the reporters, like the many reporters who have

coming out, you can see people can see that right now. Yeah, well, just to put it bluntly, these are not refugees from Syria. These are refugees from neighboring Ukraine. I mean, that, quite frankly, is part of it. These are Christians, they're white, they're

they're very similar to people, many people live in Poland, this is not a developing third world nation. This is your this isn't a place with all due respect, you know, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. You know, this is a relatively civilized, relatively European, I have to choose those words carefully talk about the millions of lives that were killed using US taxpayer dollars, talk about the torture we saw in February, as you mentioned in Guantanamo, which continues to this day, you know, the more TONYAN thing is an excellent film, I recommend everybody to see about one of the experiences of one of the people, which is all the more

TONYAN is, again, highly recommend people to watch it again. Normally, I don't encourage people to watch films, but something like this is important for people to be educated about the experience. It's it's a true story about somebody who was wrongfully locked up in Guantanamo, the documentary Dirty Wars. I've seen, you know, everybody's got to watch that we literally kill people. Like we play video games sitting in the Arizona desert, playing with people's lives with the so called signature drone strikes example, many have argued they create more terrorists than they kill the night raids and many have argued they create more terrorist nation. I don't disagree with that when

you drop a bomb from a drone, you're investing you're you are going to cause more damage, then you're going to cause good It isn't just top generals either. Former CIA counterterrorism Chief Robert Grenier has admitted that drone strikes are creating more enemies than we are removing from the battlefield. Even some former drone operators themselves have pointed out that drone strikes have only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantanamo Bay that kill civilians mostly. And you know what, even the person pulling the trigger doesn't know who the heck is killing. Because

what they're killing signature. So if somebody fits a pattern, if they go to a certain location, that's enough to get them killed.

It's disgusting. We're killing people, not even knowing how all paid for by US tax, I don't wonder why they hate us. So again, listen, we are people of principle, where people have peace, of justice of equity, we believe that you cannot get close to the Creator without love and sincere service to the creation. And on the Day of Judgment after monotheism, one of the first things that people be questioned about sacred wood, how you shed the blood of the creation of God, it doesn't matter what the religion is, if you unjustly shed blood, they will be held to pay for that. And unfortunately, in the US, we're very complicit in shedding innocent blood abroad. And, you know, we see the havoc

of that when other governments do so. You know, we see the uproar against Russia. We should have seen that uproar in the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. And to be fair, we did by some segments of our fellow Americans. I mean, I remember my

Father taking me to DC and we protested against, but it needed to have been louder.

And we see in the end illegal invasion doesn't work. Well Hamdulillah. So this is not about one religion

versus the other religion or this group versus that group. This is about justice. This is about, you know, awakening, you know, good human beings who are in these positions, like you mentioned, to go ahead and make a difference to live up to our ideals. That's all I'm calling for. Look, I obviously believe in American that I choose to be an American citizen. I choose to live here. I think despite the horrific problems our nation has, it's actually still a bit more just than many others.