Two aircraft carriers off Israel's shore. Enormous firepower.

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today is doctor William J. Parker, thirty years in the Navy, was chief of Staff to Naval Surface Forces, President of the East West Institute, and one smart guy. Doctor Parker, We were talking a couple of days ago, and you said to me that you have never in your thirty or forty years, between the Navy and the

0:27 other institutions you served, worried so much about what’s going on in our country? Can you tell all Americans about it?

0:35 Speaker 2 This Sunday morning, John Firstball, good to be back on your show. When you know I said to you about two weeks before the current administration was sworn in on this show that the president will be tested and he must be strong on day one or we would find ourselves in conflict around the globe. After the debacle of

0:55 a pool out in Afghanistan where we left countless allies and about sixty billion dollars in aquipment behind, we discussed again on your show that that week that the terrorist groups and nation states will be emboldened. So these events, in addition to a week in economy and nearly open southern border have led to a real threat to our security.

1:15 So what have we seen, John, since you and I have been talking back and forth on this over the last couple of years. We’ve seen the Russians embolden to attack Ukraine, We’ve seen the Iranians embolden to attack Israel, and over fifty attacks on US facilities in the last month alone through their proxies, and we have no idea

1:34 how many people who wish US harm have entered our country as the result of the southern border. The Russians in the Chinese have conducted joint military operations off the coast of Alaska for the past three years, and this year with eleven warships, while they continue to fly close to our aircraft in the South China Sea and basically

1:51 take it out of our way. And don’t forget the Chinese flew spy balloons over the US earlier this year, hovering over some of our most sensitive base and when the US finally shot it down, we did so over salt water instead of capturing it so we could discover the sensitive information that was possibly being collected. So there

2:10 we are.

2:13 Speaker 1 Everybody’s scratched from their heads. Why is well, why is the White House, why is it Department of Defense giving these kind of orders, and who is giving these orders, and how did the people in the normal command feel about them? What the heck is going on?

2:32 Speaker 2 Well, I can’t say why certain decisions are being made, but it can say what the results are and what we need to do to change and change pretty quickly. We have the smallest air force in our history right now.

2:48 We have a navy that is just flat out old and getting older and very small, smaller than the Chinese. Now. We have an army that has been worn out over years of war, and we have some serious work to do here. Meanwhile, when you look at Israel in particular, and you had mentioned this to me the other day,

3:12 it’s the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. I mean, fourteen hundred Israelis were killed in that assault, two hundred and forty taken hostage. And as a result of that and the result of what Hamas did, they had about ten thousand of their own people killed as well, because they started this war with Israel. So it’s it’s pretty

3:33 pretty ugly, to say the very least. And these terrorist groups and these nations are being emboldened. All I think we need to do is go back and look at the Budapest Amendment and we can talk about that if you’d like to.

3:46 Speaker 1 Yeah, please do. I mean, obviously, I mean ninety nine percent of people believe that Iran is responsible. Iran is supplying the money to play, to pay Hamas to do to do that dirty what uh in Hamas? Uh, they’re just hired killers.

4:06 Speaker 2 I mean they absolutely brutal. John, I mean they’re beheading babies. I’m sorry, but you cross the line when you start beheading kids and babies, when you start going in and just raping and pillaging. That’s not warfare, that’s not about national security. That that’s just about being evil, bad people.

4:26 And these people need to be taken down, and they need to be taken down hard so that they can’t come back up again, and and we have to fight them a second time.

4:35 Speaker 1 Understood. Is there any any of the generals standing up and saying this is wrong?

4:45 Speaker 2 I’m sure there are, and I’ve just certainly talked to a lot of them behind the scenes, etc. Don’t wanna, don’t want to put any of them, in particular in uh uh in a bad situation, but there are people that are very concerned right now. There’s also people that are scratching the had over this Budapest Security Assurance Agreement

5:03 that we signed under the Clinton administration, start under George H. W. Bush went to Clinton and you know that agreement that it’s back in nineteen ninety four. And by the way, who oversaw it, who was the ambassador there was Tony B.

5:16 Lincoln’s father, Ambassador Blincoln, so the current Secretary of State’s father was there. And that agreement basically said that at the time, Ukraine would have been the third largest holder of nuclear weapons in the world. And so we said, look, we don’t want this to happen as the wallfalls, etc.

5:33 We don’t want all these countries of nuclear weapons. So what we did was we signed an agreement. The United States, Russia, and Ukraine signed this and what we said was we will take care of your security and make sure that you are not incurred that you have sovereignty if you give up your nukes. Ukraine gave up their nukes. Russia

5:53 signed the agreement, the United States signed the agreement, Ukraine signed the agreement in China, and the uk also signed US after version of that. And the result is we’re not ensuring that Ukraine right now is safe, and we should have done this before the incursion ever started. Somebody should have gone, Vladimir, do not cross that line. And

6:13 he gave us plenty of indications that he was going. He very slowly moved his forces up on the border to see if we were going to do anything, very slowly, then added more forces right up to the border and started moving aircraft up. He was telling us exactly what he was going to do, and we let it happen.

6:31 Speaker 1 Well. Kadafi trusted the United States. Saddam Hussein trusted the United States. What happened to them?

6:41 Speaker 2 Right, Kadafi, Saddam Musin you you can go on beyond that, you can. You can look at Panama. The leader of Panama used to it used to be very very close to United says. We did not hold these people accountable along the way while we were getting information from when they gave up their nukes or gave up their special weapons. Uh,

7:04 this is where we end up. So it’s a it’s a real concern, and we have to shift this back around. We also have to build a military again that can deter and and deter is both the intent and capability and and the fact that we don’t have enough ships, enough aircraft, enough army right now to actually deter what’s

7:24 going on around the globe is a huge concern.

7:28 Speaker 1 Well, there should be a concern. Can we fight three was at the same time if China opened up another front? Uh? Yeah in the east?

7:41 Speaker 2 Now the answer, the answer is no. We we decided as a country over a decade ago that we would switch from a two mt W two major theater war and two major contingency capability down to two m c o’s two major combat operations and then one m c O.

8:00 And when we did that, we then started restructuring our forces to have smaller numbers. So remember, under John Layman, we had a six hundred ship navy, and except we need to be able to do two major theater war and two major contingencies at one time, we’re now down to one major contingency, which is a huge problem. And

8:19 so we went from a navy that had two hundred and eighty nine ships up to six hundred under John Layman, are heading in that direction back down to less than three hundred. Now no longer the biggest navy in the world, and that is a huge, huge problem. As you decommissioned ships, you at least have to build and replace those the

8:39 same with aircraft. Were the oldest aircraft in the world. Why do we get rid of the F twenty two, the most capable aircraft we have. It’s absolutely beyond my understanding of why we would do these.

8:50 Speaker 1 And we’re still flying. We’re still flying B fifty twos. I understand that we’re re engineing them with Rolls Royce engines now, but to be fifty two is how many?

9:02 Speaker 2 I’ll give you a better one? Eisenhower. President Eisenhower was the guy who built the KC one thirty five, which we were refueling aircraft during Iraq in Afghanistan with KSE one thirty five is the ones that were funded under the Eisenheer our administration. Yes, and everything exactly. We have got to reconstitute and rebuild our military pretty quickly right now.

9:29 But it’s not just about It’s not just about that. It’s about intent and capability and being smart about things too, and being smart about relationships. I do believe in my heart of hearts that we could have brought Russia on to our side. Have we been smart about it? Early on, they were predominantly Christian, they were predominantly there was another

9:49 country that didn’t have a good time in Afghanistan. They had issues with China. They still have issues with China. We had a chance to bring them on and we didn’t do that, and so now they are a huge enemy again, and that’s that’s a problem China.

10:02 Speaker 1 Agree.

10:02 Speaker 2 I do not think that. I do not think we will ever be close to China. We just have too many differences. I think maybe we can work economically with them, et cetera. I do not think we will be close to China in our lifetimes.

10:15 Speaker 1 Well, doctor William Parker, thank you very much for coming on this Sunday morning and telling it the way it is. I pray for our country and I will will light an extra candle in a chuch.

10:30 Speaker 2 Today, John, I appreciate it, and I’ll leave your audience with one more thing. Remember, for the last three years, the Chinese and Russian have conducted combat operation exercises just off the coast of Alaska. This year was their largest exercise.

10:46 This is not by coincidence. They are showing us that they are building their capability and they’re building it together. It’s always a pleasure to be on your.

10:53 Speaker 1 Show, doctor William J. Parker. Thank you so much, and we’ll catch up again, will so