Political And General Update On The Situation In The Middle East – We bring you a general update on the situation in the Middle East. What does it look like politically? How how this Administration failed in dealing with this situation? What can we do going forward? Tune in to hear more and for how you can pray for this crisis.

Air Date: 08/30/2021

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note: As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

 

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live, where we talk about the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. And speaking of that biblical perspective, if you have not yet been through our Biblical Citizenship in Modern America course, you can go to wallbuilders.com right now and get the DVDs and the workbook, do it on your own if you want. Or you can host a class, if you would like to get together with others, and believe me, there’s a lot of hope found in the room, when you start talking about these issues, when you realize the Bible has answers for all of the things that we’re facing and that we can implement those answers in our communities, in our states, in our nation.

You can be a part of that. You can be the catalyst for a restoration of biblical values and constitutional principles right there in your community by hosting these classes. So either get it at wallbuilders.com on your own, go through the course, get that information, you will be so glad you did. Or go ahead and go to biblicalcitizens.com and become a coach with us. Actually, be one of our hosts in your community. We’re looking to have this course hosted in every community in America. That’s our goal. So you can become one of those coaches and host right there at biblicalcitizens.com.

And I’ll give you a third option. You can join our national class. In fact, we’ve got a new one starting tonight, Monday night, at biblicalcitizens.com is the place to sign up. All of this is free by the way. You can be a coach for free. Host the class for free. The only thing you’ll pay for is if you decide you want actual physical DVDs, and workbooks. But otherwise, you can take it online, become a coach, join our online class tonight. We have like 30,000 people that come together from across the nation. We’ll have special guests. It’s we do watch the videos during the class, but we have live conversation before and after the videos, And typically, have special guests like Mark Meckler and Pete Hegseth and David Barton and Dennis Prager, all kinds of folks. So join us, biblicalcitizens.com. Okay, enough of that. Well, we’re going to get into today’s program in just a moment.

I am Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. And I am honored and privileged to work with the Barton family. I’m telling you, this family has done more to restore original intent, to restore the biblical foundations of our Constitution and Declaration than anyone in this nation. It is phenomenal what they’ve done over the last few decades. Their library is absolutely amazing. The museum has so many, it’s a working museum. I mean, they actually use these founding documents and original resources from the founding fathers to teach and to learn. It’s incredible. Anyway, if you’re not familiar with the Barton family, check out wallbuilderslive.com and you’ll learn more David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders, Tim Barton is a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. It’s my great honor to work with these guys.

And David is fresh back to the US. I mean, just got back from the Middle East. These rescue missions all over the last 10 days has been unbelievable. We’ve all watched it unfold on television. David, you’ve actually been there. How do we measure any level of success in the efforts of the Nazarene Fund and our friend Chad Robichaux and his group and the numbers of people that we were able to rescue. I know it’s heartbreaking the ones that were left, but let’s start with some good news about how many were actually rescued.

David:

Yeah, at this point, we can identify 5,100 that we’ve been able to rescue. Of course, this has been a great cooperation: the groups working together in Chad Robichaux and independence funds and Nazarene Fund and others. So we can identify about 5,100 so far, it’s still going on. Since I’ve landed, the operation certainly have not stopped, that changed, somewhat, in different direction. The civilian part we had to stop about 36 hours ago, because the civilian part of the airport, the Kabul airport is in two segments, the military has one segment, and civilians had another. And so with Nazarene Fund, we really had much control the civilian part of the airport, except the State Department kept blocking stuff. So JSOC had given our guys command over there that part.

Tim:

Let’s also clarify that when you’re saying that you guys had control, or the Nazarene Fund had control of one side of the airport, this mean the checkpoints, we’re talking about the flights coming in and out.

David:

That’s right. Yeah, good clarification. We cannot control who comes in, but we were given charge of the commercial flights going out. It was running smoothly until the State Department kept stepping in and stopping stuff. And we had on numerous occasions flights that have been cleared, people on the plane who are clear by State Department, they get vetted, they’re going out. And for whatever reason, some officials in State Department call ahead the receiving countries to say hey, don’t take these guys.

And so we were stuck with having to bring the planes back. So we’ve had, I don’t know, how many planes have been sent back because State Department interference. So we’ve literally got, and I think we’ve covered this last time, got to the point where we started calling countries and we are not talking about names and we will not because we don’t want the State Department interfering with what’s going on.

But having said that, even though the civilian side is pretty much shut down, and what’s happened is just about 36 hours ago, the American military brought the Taliban into… And when I say American military, everything I’m saying about military, understand that the cool thing about our Constitution is that places all the military under civilian control. There are so many soldiers there who are frustrated with what’s happening. They would do it very differently, talked earlier about the confrontation between the 82nd airborne commander and the British SS commander, so our guys who did it very differently in many ways except they’re controlled by civilians.

And the proudest thing I’ve been in this whole fiasco is that our soldiers haven’t gone off-grid. They’ve been following the constitutional mandates. And the Constitution has placed the civilian authority, the president over all military authority. And the President has an executive branch, and so that means State Department. And so they’re taking orders from the civilian executive authority from the president, his administration, which is great because we never want a coup. And the way you have a coup in any country is when the military takes over from civilians. And that has not happened, and as frustrated our guys have been.

And although many of them disagree with that, and we saw over the weekend, there was a marine Colonel who went online and said, hey, you know, I’ve been 17 years, and I may lose my position, but somebody needs to be asking some questions of the civilians. And he asked them, and he was canned as a result, but they were the right kind of questions to ask. But even at that, our guys, even though they’re disagreeing with some of what the administration and especially the State Department is doing, they are submitting to civilian authority, which is a constitutional thing to do.

So I’ve been so proud of the fact that the guys don’t necessarily like this mission, don’t agree with the way it’s being run or operated. But they’re doing what the civilian authority tells them and that keeps us from having a military coup in America.

Tim:

And let’s clarify again too, just to make sure everybody’s on the same page. As we’re talking about the really encouraging thing, dad, you’re saying you’ve seen over there is the military continuing to follow the orders that they have been given. And the orders are coming directly from the president, from the Biden White House administration, who as the head of the executive department, the military falls under his authority, and that’s where you’re saying the civilian control over the military, is the President has been elected. And the President is not a military commander, the President is not a general. He’s not a two-star, three-star, four-star General, etc. This isn’t a scenario where you have a military coup where the military saying, you know what, forget this president who is incompetent, who’s not coherent, whatever else. We’re going to do our own thing we know it’s better, where I mean, maybe, reasonably and justifiably, there could be a lot of military officers stepping forward and saying what we are being told to do is immoral, it’s unconstitutional, it’s anti-American. There could be some valid arguments that people could make against what’s happening.

But the encouraging thing is that we’re not seeing an undisciplined regiment of man, an disciplined military that’s disregarding the rule of law or the Constitution. Even though there’s guys very frustrated, very disappointed as most Americans are right now, they’re still faithfully upholding and performing their duty to the best of their ability. And so it is a very encouraging and honorable thing from our military right now.

David:

Yeah, it is a great thing to see, because I would say the Constitution is prevailing. It doesn’t mean the policies are right. It doesn’t mean that. But it means the process, the constitutional process are prevailing. And to that end, I’ve talked to multiple congressmen this morning, and back home, we’ve already seen articles. And this is so poorly mishandled, that we’ve seen articles of impeachment filed in Congress against the Secretary of State the way he’s handled it against the Secretary of Defense the way they’ve handled it. There’s been articles, impeachment filed against Biden for the way he’s handled it, the incompetency.

And going back to the Constitution, incompetency is not an impeachable offense, it takes high crimes and misdemeanors. And so you know, while I understand the frustration, and while we’re seeing it firsthand, and while I can lay countless lives at the hands of the State Department for their interference, their micromanagement for what’s happened, I mean, that’s not hyperbola. We can like countless lives because of the fact that we’ve not been able to get out all the people we had, because the State Department’s interfered with the process.

But nonetheless, that’s not an impeachable offense to be incompetent, or to be stupid, you have to have a high crime and misdemeanor. So even in talking to the congressman this morning, there’s a split in Congress over that. Some of the younger guys are saying, hey, they did it to us. Look what they did to Trump. Hey, just because they broke the Constitution doesn’t mean we get to break the Constitution. You have to have high crimes and misdemeanors.

Rick:

Though the proper constitutional tool here is the 25th Amendment, without question, if he is unable to discharge the powers and duties, then the 25th should be invoked. And I think most people realize he’s mentally unable to make these tough decisions. And that’s why we’re in the mess we’re in. I think we’re going to hear a lot of calls for the 25th. But I totally agree with you, David, impeachment is absolutely the wrong tool.

David:

Yeah. And the other thing I’d point out is even with that, people need to understand a little more about the State Department. You can’t fire people over there. You can’t fire people of Justice Department. If you recall when we had the fiasco with all the deaths that occurred in the veterans department, only one guy got fired. What, thousands of deaths of veterans because of the way that their hospitals were run, they wouldn’t get medical treatment to the vets, even the law required it, but only one guy got fired.

And so what you’ve got now is, and I go all the way back to Reagan days with this, where that Reagan would appoint, I remember guy appointed HUD, one of the high officials who said, hey, this is what the President wants, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ve got these eight districts of how across the nation, and we’re going to do at each eight, and they looked at him and said, yeah, you think so. He said, you’ll be gone in four years or eight years, we won’t be. We’re going to do it the way we want to. And they literally told that to the Secretary and undersecretary.

So despite what Ben Carson did, or despite what Betsy DeVos of the Department of Education, the bureaucrats there do what they want. And so despite what Biden and Secretary of State may say, what Blinken may say, these guys over here are doing their own things. And the State Department is populated with a lot of… Now, there’s some good people in State Department, just don’t misunderstand. But if there’s a swamp in DC, this is one of the most alligators and this is the one that has pure the “hate America people” involved.

And so you may recall, but even when President Reagan said tear down this wall, the State Department instantly put out a communique afterwards said well, his view is not the view of the State Department. What do you mean is not the view of the State Department? He’s president United States. So this is the kind of tyranny that goes on at the State Department. And despite what Biden may say he wants, and you know, I think it’s completely incompetent mishandled. You still have a State Department agenda that doesn’t care whether it’s Republican or Democrat.

And at some point, we’re going to have to say, you know, people have to be accountable. We need to fire some guys. But you can’t do that when you have Democrats that are so pro-union, that they won’t take on the government unions. And it’s going to take again in the senate 60 votes, which means you can have that Democrats and Republicans agree to bust the unions and make people accountable. So I don’t see it happening anytime soon. But that’s going to be part of the long-term solution that has to happen.

And the other thing I’ll say right now is polling I’ve seen in the last two days, only 34% of the nation is believing what the President is saying about the situation in Afghanistan. The other part I think is much worse than he’s saying. So you’re having two out of three Americans that are not buying what’s coming across much of the mainstream media and out of the White House. And I think that’s a healthy situation to be able to make some substantive changes.

Because I’m talking to congressman this morning, a lot of these congressmen that are in swing districts, and there’s about 36 districts that are seen as swing districts right now. These guys are hearing it from their people, and they’re not liking what’s happening. And so even they are entertaining that. And so even this morning, talking to the congressman doesn’t look like we’re going to have an investigation into the incompetency even.

And so at some point, their process will be to introduce a resolution to vacate the chair of the House. In other words, we want to take Nancy Pelosi out so that we can have an investigation. She’s still the Speaker, but we’re going to have someone else chair this investigation. That’s going to take three or four Democrats agreeing to that to make it happen. So if you have three or four Democrats don’t agree to that, you will not see an investigation into being competency that’s happened over here, I say over here, I’m back home now, but incompetency that’s over there. They won’t even be an investigation, unless we get three or four Dems.

But what I’m hearing is there’s a lot of pressure on these guys, as there should be to find out why this is so bad, why we’ve had such a loss of life, why it’s been so badly handled. And you know, back to the point I was making earlier was we had the civilian side of the airport, but then the military brought the Taliban in and said now you have the civilian side. Now that wasn’t the military doing that on their own. That’s what they received in orders and brought it in.

And so at that point, we knew that getting flights out was over. Because at that point, the Afghans took the control tower and the control tower, not only are they incompetent as controllers, but they were saying hey, planes, you’ve only got X number of minutes on the ground, which they’re saying to the world oh, we’re letting planes come and go but that number of minutes will not allow you to reload a plane, so you’re sending planes out empty. So the world doesn’t know they’re going out empty, but oh, there’s flights going out of Kabul, they’re still going in and out.

And as of today, the Russians and Chechens are being given control of the flight towers and what’s happening there. So we know that we’re not in friendly hands anymore. So everything has now turned to the military side of the airport. And the military side of the airport is where people are trying to get out and so they’re trying to get Americans out, SIV is another guys. And then come Tuesday, would be only getting military guys out of here. So there’s still a small window for a few handful to get out. But by and large and not the refugees they’re the SIVs and the Turks and others that have helped the American allies. So there’s still flights going out and that’s still happening, but the military flights right now.

Rick:

We’re going to take a quick break, guys, when we come back, let’s kind of wrap up what the situation on the ground is. And let’s spend the rest of the program talking about where to go from here, what are the things people can be praying for, and asking their leaders to push forward. You know, what do we do with this mess that Biden has created? Stay with us, folks, we’ll be right back, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

THE AMERICAN STORY

Hey, guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have here at WallBuilders called The American Story. For years, people have been asking us to do a history book, and we finally done it. We start with Christopher Columbus and go roughly through Abraham Lincoln. And one of the things that that so often we hear today are about the imperfections of America, or how so many people in America that used to be celebrated or honored really aren’t good or honorable people.

One of the things we acknowledge quickly in the book is that the entire world is full of people who are sinful and need a savior because the Bible even tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet what we see through history, and certainly is evident in America is how a perfect God uses imperfect people and does great things through them. The story of America is not the story of perfect people. But you see time and time again how God got involved in the process and use these imperfect people to do great things that impacted the entire world from America. To find out more, go to wallbuilders.com and check out The American Story.

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. Today’s program, we’re catching up with what’s been happening on the ground in Afghanistan. David Barton just got back from the Middle East and the rescue missions there with the Nazarene Fund. David, as we said before the break, you know, pretty much they’ve shut down the efforts that were being made by a lot of the private organizations as far as the Kabul airport. What happens going forward with Nazarene and our folks over there and the people that they’re still trying to get out? Will there still be efforts? Are there other ways to get them out? What should people be praying for at this point?

David:

Yeah, you know, it’s an interesting thing because now it changes underground. This is much like what you had prior to the time of the Civil War and the American Civil War, is you develop underground railroads. You find ways to move them to different countries. You find ways to get them out across the mountains. You walk out from the south to the north. You leave Alabama, and you walk to Ohio or something where you can be free. So that’s happening.

There’s so many reports of veterans who have who have come over here and are leading their troops out and they’re finding ways across. You know, we get a call from a guy who’s been employed 14 times over that. I know that place like the back of my hand. I’m going to take people out. And so that is underway. There’s no question that’s underway. And there’s no question that there are tens of thousands left to get out, whether it be Christians, whether it be SIVs, or P-1, P-2 holders, whatever it is, people that are cleared. But the problem is the State Department gave the Taliban the list of all the SIV holders and SIV application holders.

Rick:

Now wait, remind us what that is David, SIV?

David:

That’s a Special Immigrant Visa. These are the guys that help the American. This is the allies. These are the guys who saved American lives. They were interpreters for the military forces. They were intelligence guys telling us what’s going on to the ground. And so…

Rick:

So we basically handed on the hit list?

David:

That’s exactly it. That’s exactly it. And then we found out too, Great Britain, and I was with some British guys that were not happy. But when the British Embassy closed down because the British people have had a lot more backbone over here from their civilian side than we’ve had from our civilian side, or at least, our elected civilian side. So they were talking about that the Taliban recently took the media through a tour of the British Embassy because look what we have now.

And this correspondent was going through noticing that there were still papers laying all over the desk of SIV applicants and all these other assets. And so the British apparently didn’t destroy all their paperwork before they left the embassy. So now the Taliban’s got their list, and Taliban has so much more technology now than what they’ve ever had. So even with the underground railroad, people are having to travel with all communication cut off, all phones cut off because they’re tracking phones, now then is seeing where these phones are moving, seeing who’s exiting, who’s fleeing and whatnot. And so people trying to keep their phones than to talk with other people. Wrong thing to do, is you just got to go off-grid. And so that’s going to be gone.

And no question, there’s going to be operations going on. Now I’ve talked to several people this morning who are conducting operations. And so that’ll be going for months and months and months. Because there’s…

Rick:

And those are probably more difficult operation. I mean, even as chaotic as has been the last 10 days, now you’re trying to do you know what you’re talking about in secret and find them. It’s like Rudy said last week, it’s like a needle in a haystack: you’re looking for a couple thousand people among millions. So I guess, the missions going forward are going to be even more difficult than the ones who just did.

David:

They will be. And it’s interesting, even cottage industries are being set up. I mean, we’ve seen ads say we can get you out of the country for $12,000 a head. So it’s like guys are coming over and saying, hey, we know the country and for this amount of money we’ll get you out. And there will be people that will do that, for sure.

So there is going to be an opening here for sure in getting people out. And no doubt, we’ll still be engaged in doing what we can to support efforts to get people out. So this is not going away. And what we’re seeing right now, we’re actually waiting for 24 to 48 hours, because Kabul has been handed over right now to a different group of Taliban. Taliban fighters have been in here taking the city. And so now they’re going to bring in the Taliban political guys who are going to say, oh, yeah, we’re so tolerant, we don’t retaliate, whatever, and they will be the face that you see on the press.

And so they’re pushing the military guys, the fighters kind of just to back right now, and they’re bringing a different place. And so in the next 24 to 48 hours they’re bringing all these international groups, particularly China and Russia and saying, hey, we have the whole nation, we’ve got the capital, and look how efficient things are now, look at how it’s all set up. So the bringing foreign press and to show what a great job they’re doing and how nice humane they are.

And so in that period of time, they’re coming out with new rules for people here. You may have seen that they came out over the weekend saying oh, by the way, nobody can have any guns, only us. Everybody else needs to turn in your guns because we’re going to take care of you. So they’re making these new rules. And we’ll have to see what those rules are over the next 24 to 48 hours to know what kind of strategies can be planned to even know what to do going forward. So there’s about to be…

Rick:

So in some ways, they’re just acting like Democrats, get good guns for us, but not for you? Right? Right? Yeah.

David:

That’s right. Yeah, exactly, Rick. All the things that we’re used to in our Bill of Rights, that we have one side ignoring like freedom of religion, or freedom of assembly, or freedom of protest, or the right to keep and bear arms, all those kinds of inalienable rights that they don’t have inalienable right, but that we do, we think of Bill of Rights. That’s the same kind of stuff you’re seeing over there. Say, ah, you don’t need that. We got you… We can do a different from you. And we don’t have to recognize inalienable rights. And so that’s what’s happening right now.

Rick:

It’s a good reminder for us to be thankful for that Bill of Rights, for those things we have. This is like a commercial against tyranny, and why what we have is so precious.

David:

Well, and it’s a really good thing to remember that the Constitution is the difference. And again, I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see the military following the constitutional mandates on who their boss really is, even though they don’t like it. And you know, Congress back home need to follow the Constitution. I don’t care if the Democrats violated it. You don’t violate it. And so that is what has made us unique nation for as long as we’ve been that unique nation. And if we get away from that, we will be like a third world nation. And what we’re seeing over here is what you can look forward to when you don’t have the rule of law and guaranteed constitutional rights.

Tim:

Well, guys, this is why we’re seeing people even like Bill Maher, who just over the weekend came out talking about the people that are arguing against America, he used different words, but the people that are whining and complaining about America being a terrible nation, he said, you need to get off your soapbox, you need to look at Afghanistan, you need to see what oppression, what terrorism actually looks like, and you need to stop pretending like that’s what we’re doing here in America.

And what we’re seeing is there were some people who were in the middle who maybe they didn’t like Trump, they didn’t like his personality, and they thought Joe Biden was going to be the more stable, the more reasonable, the more rational president and they’re seeing what this woke agenda does. And there’s a lot of people being woken up to this, which the reason I bring it up is it gives us hope that we can restore, protect and defend some of these basic constitutional God-given inalienable rights because people are now recognizing what it looks like in a nation where they don’t have those basic right.

So certainly, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done in Afghanistan. Everybody listening, there’s still a lot of reasons to be praying. Still, man, there’s a lot of Americans, there’s a lot of Christians, there’s a lot of Afghani allies that were with us in the military that are not out yet. And they have, I mean, really, death threats, prices on their head, and it’s not going to be easy for them. And so we definitely need to keep them in prayer. And we want to make sure that we can try to hold probably our government officials responsible and accountable for the dereliction of duty and the bad decisions and the bad choices going forward, which guys, even as we’re hearing from these articles of impeachment, which we recognize we probably don’t have the votes to really get that done, it still is at least a promising thing that people are recognizing how bad this debacle was, and there is a call for accountability.

David:

And, Tim, let me jump on to what you said about prayer, because that’s so important. And by the way, let me just tell people, over the coming months, you’re going to hear a lot less. I mean, even though we’re going to know a lot, our group and a lot of the groups I’ve talked to today, we’re going to go dark for a while, because so much that happens has got to have happened undercover and you can’t be talking to the media. We can’t be talking to each other. We can’t be saying things about what’s happening or what operations are going on, because you jeopardize lives. It’s going to be happening. And there’s a lot going on just like the underground railroad back in the Civil War, but you’re just not going to hear much about it.

But in the meantime, think about all these people that are being moved out. And you know, we’ve met people initially out of country, now we got to get them to their final destination. And these guys are going out kind of with a paper sack in their hand getting on board a plane, leave behind everything they have, go into a country they don’t even know how to pronounce with the language they’ve never heard before in their life to culture they’re not familiar with, often a Western culture where they’re landing. And so think about praying for those people.

I mean, I don’t know how traumatic you can make something appear, but they’re into it. I mean, they are into this with their kids and what they can carry. So pray for them these countries where they go. It’s going to be really tough on them to learn everything new to set aside the way they think and the way they’ve learned to respond, and everything they’ve done and talking and patterns and habits and culture. It’s new. So pray for them. So my heart really does go out to these immigrants, these refugees because this is a really tough time on them. So praise God, their lives have been saved.

Rick:

Well, and like we said, some of the toughest missions are ahead and even in the final placement of a lot of these refugees and getting these Christians out, so now is a great time to give, folks. There’s a lot of hard work ahead. The Nazarene Fund will be working on this for months and years to come. You can make that donation at wallbuilders.com. Go to the donation page, and then look for the Middle East fund and rescuing Christians and it’s a great thing to help with right now.

Thanks so much for listening today. And thank you David and Tim and all the team at Nazarene Fund for the incredible work over the last couple of weeks to rescue so many people. Folks, we appreciate you listening, appreciate you donating, and being a part of everything that we’re doing at WallBuilders. God bless you for listening today to WallBuilders Live.