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defending what he's done with the staff, defending what he's done with vaccines, pushing back on COVID-19. I think he's extremely well prepared if they give him a chance to answer. I just saw it with Senator Hassan. Why did you stop this? Why'd you stop that?
He goes, well, these are studies that you're citing that are done by pharmaceutical companies, and they could not back, I could not back up their data. What was your data?
Well, what do you are data on what? On a vaccine that they study and they put forward, and we buy without looking at our own information. He's only been doing the job for eight months. Dennis Ryan Johnson was one of the people alone in the minority, sadly, who was unable to push back effectively, even though he was pushing for ivermectin, a lot of the therapies during COVID-19, and he is firmly in RFKs. Cord on this.
Coming up on 24 years since 9-11 attacks dramatically changed this country, especially my next guest, Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann, conducted and coordinated Task Force Pineapple after he was done, trying to save as many people as possible after Joe Biden foolishly pulled out without any preparation. Author of Nobody is Coming to Save You, a Green Berets Guide. And he's also here for many reasons. But, Colonel, welcome back. Hey, what's going on, Brian?
Hey, first off, how do you feel about Secretary the The Defense Department being the War Department. I like it. I like it. I think, you know, getting on a war footing. You know, and thinking about, you know, because it's kind of going back to our roots, isn't it?
You know, it's going back to our roots. And I think what Secretary Heckseth is doing to just reset everything on a war footing and being prepared. You know, for the unthinkable and peace, truth, strength, that kind of thing. I like it. I think it's probably the right move.
Colonel, I'm sure you also know, Scott, what's going on in Venezuela. Five destroy four destroyers off the coast, taking out that swift boat, leaving the coast. Also intradicting a ship coming from China with the precursors to all these horrific drugs. This is the military very much involved. This is not the just say no campaign of the 80s.
How do you feel about it? I think it's It's overdue because when you look at just fentanyl alone and the impact that it has on our society and the number of deaths that could be attributed to that, and you look at where it's coming from, look at the origins of it. I've been talking for a while, as have others in the special ops community, about this nexus between international gangs. Between state actors who are really positioning against us and Violent extremism. You know, what happens if you get the Star Wars bar and those folks start working together?
And I think you're seeing that. I think we've been seeing that for a while. And I think we're up against it. I think you're dealing with some stuff here that is a formidable force. You start downing swift boats and go fast boats and you start taking on the cartels.
That's a you know, that is a Herculean effort. And so I think it's overdue. But I think what we need to be ready for is they're not just going to, I don't think they're just going to roll their eyes and take it. You know, this is a formidable threat, and we need to be prepared for them bringing the fight back to us at a local level. That's what's on my mind: how will this manifest at home as retribution?
And we need to be prepared for what that brings. You've told me too, you worry about the people, the millions who have came across our border over the last four years, many of which want to cause us harm. Where did they go? What are they up to? I mean, they're not necessarily knocking over 7-Elevens.
You worry about a plot and plan. I do. I think that, you know, look, we're dealing with, when you talk about Al-Qaeda, when you talk about ISIS-K, you know, these are organizations that have multi-defense. Decade narratives. They're very patient.
They do not believe in a coexistence with the West. And that ideology is still there. Those groups are still there. I get really worried about these groups, Brian, when they're quiet. I'm not as worried about them when you're kind of seeing them.
And, you know, because it's kind of like any enemy, you know where they are. But when they're quiet, we should be very concerned, in my assessment, in a pre-9/11 kind of way. What has manifested with the border over the last four years? And by the way, you know, a lot of the evacuation that happened, there were people that were thrown on planes. That were not vetted, that we did not know who they were.
And by we, I mean as a nation, we brought people over here probably through the airlift. that were not.
Well-intentioned. Plus, finally, is in Afghanistan, Minister Haqqani is the former, you know, suicide, the king of suicide bombers, has been the minister of interior.
So he controls the passport office.
So you've had people coming into the United States under the Biden administration for sure, you know, like legally that were bad actors as well.
So there's going to be a reckoning in the United States, in my assessment. It's just a matter of when. Colonel 11 Days, The Story of Operation Pineapple, a new one-man, one-act play written and performed by you, adapted from the New York Times best-selling book, Operation Pineapple Express. First performance December 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th at 7 o'clock, December 20th, at the HCC Performing Arts Center in Yerbur. Ybor City in Texas.
Yeah, in Tampa. In Tampa.
So that's interesting. Again, you got this theatrical Gene in you that was suppressed under camouflage for years, but you're able to take what you did in war. And and what you did after serving. which are arguably is as as important And bring it to the stage. Why is that important?
Well, because if you stop and think, first of all, I appreciate you bringing it up. You and I have had this conversation a lot over the years with my first play, Last Out, that was about the war. This play is about the withdrawal. And what I found, Brian, in my recovery is I, you know, I almost took my own life, man. I had a really bad transition from the military.
And storytelling actually was the modality that I found through mentorship to make sense of stuff that didn't make sense, like trauma and grief and moral injury. And it saved me. And since that time, my wife and I and others have been using storytelling as a way to educate Americans on the impact of modern war and what comes with war. When you go to war for 20 years and you use less than 1% of your population to fight it over and over again, there's a cost. Like, what does that look like?
And then when you leave a war the way we did and you abandon your 20-year ally, what's the impact on all these veterans who now are on the world's longest 911 call and you watch the suicide rate go through the roof? The best way to address that, Brian, I believe. Yes, there's books and yes, there's movies, but is theater, live storytelling, particularly if it's the persons who lift it telling the story.
So I just felt really strong that Pineapple Express is a story that had not been heard. It's a story that a lot of groups did something similar. And I wanted to tell it from the stage so that people couldn't get away from it. And it's what we're going to do. And I think it's going to have a really big impact.
Gary Sinisa help in this, right? Or was it just the last one? This Gary helped with the last one. He produced it. I suspect he'll have a role in this one.
We're already talking. He's been a big mentor on this. You know, I've got several supporters at that level that will help. I didn't start acting until I was 50, you know, and I started studying acting as a way to deliver stories to help make sense of things that didn't make sense. And I think people in the audience like it because.
You know. In addition to telling the story, I lived it. And so I can be as authentic as I need to be in that. I think veterans can tell their own story.
So, what I'm hoping through this, Brian, is people come to the show, like yourself and others, is you hear a story that hasn't been told, and veterans are sitting out there going, That was my life, man. That was my life. I went through that and you feel seen and heard and that's what's I think killing our veterans and first responders today is that a lot of them think that what they did didn't matter. Because we just turned the page on it when we left Afghanistan and we turned the page on them. And we can't do that, man.
They gave us too much. I hear you.
So you go out to where's the best way to get tickets to 11 Days The Story of Operation Pineapple Express? Go to tf tf tango foxtrot tfpineapple.org. We've already got the landing page up there. Come see the world premiere. And then, Brian, we're going to take it on the road in 26.
We're going to tour. I want to get it up to New York City. I want to get it to DC. And I definitely want to get you and CJ to the show and your family. I'd love for you to see it.
And we're going to take it to America. And CJ Douglas, by the way, is briefing, he's one of the people briefing Secretary of Defense Hakeseth today on what went wrong in Afghanistan.
Something came out last week that I want to discuss with you. And it is that there was an offer. Given. from the Taliban to not take Kabul. Before, and we thought there was a phone call you could take, we just want the airport, but there was another offer, they did not want it.
They did not want to take control of the country yet. They were right. They're a terror organization. What do they know about running the other stuff, whatever they had, buses or. Or um Or petty cabs, who knows?
And it was rejected. By Mackenzie. Uh Uh by general The general insurance just to have the general church gets to everybody. Millie, yeah. Millie, what did what do you what do you think about that?
A lot's coming out now on, you know. Deals that were made. And, you know, I can tell you that a lot of the decisions, including senior military officers that were made in the in the lead up to the withdrawal, were very, very irresponsible decisions. It was a complete walk away. And, you know, if we've learned anything, I mean, just look at Vietnam.
Like, you cannot leave that way. When you leave that way, you leave a gaping hole. In a 20-year build of capacity, here's what I think about it, Brian. We went into Afghanistan because of 9-11, because we did not have appropriate ground intelligence assets and we did not have a partner force to deal with al-Qaeda, who launched the worst terror attack in our nation's history. We said never again.
We sent our nation's youth in there for 20 years to build that intel capacity, which they did, and to build a partner force, which they did. And then we walked away from it in less than 24 hours and we kicked that anthill over and we left all of those veterans and military families and gold star families. We basically thumbed our nose at them and said, whatever you guys built over the last 20 years was not even worth. Not even worth trying to hold on to cobble so we do a responsible handover and keep capacity in place. It wasn't even worth that.
They wanted to share power. Believe it or not, that's what they agreed on in Doha when Trump was in. And then they ended up with the whole thing because Karzai left. We don't even look for Karzai. Where is he?
Where's the chopper? Where's the money? Yeah, Gonnie left. Yeah, Donnie. Gonnie, excuse me.
Yeah, no, it's fine. And it was. And more of this is going to come out. You know, more of this is going to come out. And I hope it does because we need accountability and we need to learn from this.
Because if we don't learn from it, then these moral injuries, this violation of what we know to be right, that's been heaped upon a whole generation of veterans. It's now our kids that are going to go back over there and have to unscrew that crap. when the next terror attack hits and you mark my words everybody will forget Right, the everything that's happened, and we'll load our kids up on planes and we'll go do it all over again and make the same mistakes. And, Scott, here's the one thing that, and again, you fight the wars, I report on them. But the one thing that any leader could have explained.
that we're in Afghanistan for this reason. to give us a looking glass on the enemies of the world. We were able to see China, able to see Pakistan, able to see what Iran was up to, build alliances out there. If you explained that to the American people, along with our NATO staff, and we held that somewhat together, and maybe there was a chance for more and more kids to be educated and understand that there's in 20 years, they were beginning to understand there's more than the rubble they're living in. Every day that we were there was an advantage for American security.
That was never explained. Not by Trump, not by Biden. Bush thought it was definitely relevant to be there. But that's what happened. No one explained it.
So they just said, why don't we pull out? Right. And this is why I always appreciate what you do: you go to the issue and you don't necessarily go to the party because this is an area where I do not agree. with what the Trump administration has done here in the sense that Because, as you said, had we just explained it, I mean, I don't believe in a complete withdrawal from a country that is the bastion for safe haven. Like, to think that you can just pull out of a place like that and then deal with the Taliban as a responsible counterterrorism partner, which, by the way, that is what this administration is doing.
Make no mistake, we are dealing. with the Taliban as a counterterrorism partner. And that's what we're doing because there is no other partner in the mix. And we're taking their reports and their insights. Sebastian Gorka has even said it.
that they're they're you know that they're a surprisingly Decent counterterrorism partner. I think that's diluted. I think it's a massive mistake. It's a dumb mistake. And we're going to read it.
Yep. It just makes no sense. And they just lost 800 people in a devastating earthquake. They have no relations with anyone. If that had happened while we're there, we would have saved countless lives.
100%. And we would have had a disposition to influence things in the Southwest Asia part that we don't right now. We're never going to have the ability to fight unilaterally in this world we live in. It's just not possible. We're going to have to work by with and through.
And Afghanistan is part of that equation. And NATO didn't have to be convinced. They were there. They were not looking to pull out. And my last thing I'd say: there would have been no Ukraine invasion, I believe, if Russia didn't deem us as pulling out of the world and weak.
They wouldn't have been invaded. See how things ripple together. I just think you need deep thinkers or at least strategic planners before you do something, not somebody doing things for political expediency, especially when the people that fight the war get no say in how it ends, and you won every single battle you were in and you're not given credit for it. Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann, check it out his one-man play, 11 Days: The Story of Operation Pineapple Express, a new one-act, one-man play off his best-selling book, Operation Pineapple Express. Find out more.
Where'd we go? tfpineapple.org Brian tf pineapple.org Colonel Scott Mann, thanks so much. Thanks, Brian. Appreciate you. Back in a moment.
This is the Brian Kill Me Show. It's Will Tain Country. Watch it live at noon Eastern Monday through Thursday at FoxNews.com or on the Fox News YouTube channel. And don't miss the show. Listen and follow the podcast five days a week at FoxnewsPodcasts.com or wherever you download your favorite podcasts.
