In this episode of Independent Americans, host Paul Rieckhoff cuts through a blizzard of news and chaos with retired four-star General Barry McCaffrey. From Trump at Davos mocking allies and floating military action toward Greenland, to ICE crackdowns stretching from Minneapolis to Maine and talk of deploying the 11th Airborne toward American cities, it is a deep, unflinching look at a country on the brink of something very dangerous.
McCaffrey details how the Trump White House has shattered global trust, why he believes NATO as we knew it is effectively dead, and how turning ICE and federal law enforcement into camouflaged, armored shock troops erodes vital trust between cops and communities. He explains the real-world implications of Trump’s threats to “wipe Iran off the face of the earth,” his pirate-like seizures of Venezuelan oil, and his efforts to use the Army-Navy game, the National Guard, and active-duty forces as partisan political props. Paul and the General also dig into the quiet end of the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, the lessons of Vietnam and the War on Terror, the danger of believing war can be easy or bloodless, and the collapse of once-strong national security institutions.
