The Hot Zone with Chuck Holton

Episode 130 - Rangers Lead the Way and Hanging with Heroes

The last of a four-part series comemorating the D-day landings 75 years ago.  Don't miss the testimonials at the end!

Episode 129 - More from Normandy - And the Greatest Speech Ever Given

One of the most powerful speeches in modern history.  More on the invasion of Normandy on today's hot zone.

 

Hi folks, Continuing with the theme this week of remembering the men who died fighting for freedom starting June 6, 1944, today I want to play for you what I believe is one of the most powerful speeches of modern history.  It was given at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, the site of a bloody battle between the Germans and American Rangers who had to scale the 100-foot cliffs there using ropes and ladders, all under withering fire from above.

 

The incredible story of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Ranger Battalion, led by Lt. Col. James Earl Rudder, who led his men to the top of the cliffs, to where 6 German cannons were supposed to be located. The mission was to take out the German guns which overlooked Omaha and Utah beaches, and if the Rangers failed their mission, the success of Operation Overlord could have been in doubt.  It was all but a suicide mission, climbing the cliffs while the Germans rained grenades and machine gun fire down on them, but the Rangers led the way and fought their way to the top of the cliff...but the guns weren’t there. And that's when their battle really began.

 

On June 6 1984, Then-president Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the site of that battle that still gives me chills every time I hear it.  It is so powerful, so poignant and so relevant to today even 35 years later, that I want to play it for you in it's entirety for the podcast today.  This is important history, and I would say your kids need to hear this, maybe more than once.  So enjoy:

 

[Ronald Reagan Speech.]

Episode 128 - Normandy Comemorations

Today we'll get a skype interview with Marcus Hull of the Three Rangers foundation, from Utah beach in Normandy.  Then, we'll hear from a World War II vet about why he decided to go back at 96 years old.

 

 

Episode 127 - the 75th Anniversary of D-Day

The order was issued by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower Just prior to the invasion on June 6, 1944, to encourage Allied soldiers taking part in the D-day invasion. The Allies had been planning to invade since the day German forces took France in 1940.  The Mission was to be a cross-Channel assault on the German occupying forces, ultimately code-named Operation Overlord. By May 1944, nearly 3 million Allied troops were amassed in southern England waiting for the moment to arrive. The largest armada in history, made up of more than 4,000 American, British, and Canadian ships, had assembled off the coast, and more that 1,200 planes collected at airfields across the country. Against a tense backdrop of uncertain weather forecasts, disagreements in strategy, and related timing dilemmas, Eisenhower decided before dawn on June 5 to proceed with the mission. Later that same afternoon, he scribbled a note intended for release, accepting responsibility for the decision to launch the invasion and full blame should the effort to create a beachhead on the Normandy coast fail. Much more polished is his printed Order of the Day for June 6, 1944, which Eisenhower began drafting months earlier. The order was distributed to the 175,000-member expeditionary force on the eve of the invasion.

 

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, and hundreds of thousands of people are expected to travel to the D-day beaches for various ceremonies to remember the event and those who died.

 

Speaking of casualties, To this day there does not exist an official count of D-Day casualties; the main reason for this was the simple fact that keeping track of 2.8 million troops is almost impossible.  What we do know is this:  over 37,000 allied ground troops and another 16,000 airmen were killed during the battle of Normandy, which includes the D-day landings.  Think about that.  53,000 men died liberating one part of France from the Nazis...and they were the winning side.  It's estimated the Germans lost more than 200,000 men.  

 

The invasion was the beginning of the liberation of europe, and it is something worth remembering.  This week I'm making my way to Afghanistan to spend some time with US troops who are carrying the torch for those heroes from world war two - the world has changed a lot in the intervening 75 years, but one thing that hasn't changed is the necessity for good men to stand up to evil, even at the cost of their own lives and safety.  So for the next few episodes of the podcast I'll be bringing you some special interviews, speeches and stories of heroism centered around the Normandy invasions, and I hope you enjoy them.  Many of these interviews came from my friends over at the defense Visual Information Distribution Service, and they have my gratitude for collecting and saving these speeches and interviews for posterity.  These will be episodes you will want to share with your kids.  So go get 'em and let's get started.

 

[MG Schwartz speech]

 

I feel like we need to spend more time elevating our heroes.  America needs all the good men she can get, and when one gives his life like that, we need to make it a very big deal.  As the Bible says, Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

 

When I was in the Army I had to deal with people asking me sometimes how I, as a Christian, could condone, and even possibly participate in a war.  To answer that question I memorized part of this quote by John Stuart Mill, and it helped me so much that I'm going to quote it verbatim for you as we end this episode of the podcast.  So thanks for watching, and I'll see you back again tomorrow.

 

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. When a people are used as mere human instruments for firing cannon or thrusting bayonets, in the service and for the selfish purposes of a master, such war degrades a people. A war to protect other human beings against tyrannical injustice; a war to give victory to their own ideas of right and good, and which is their own war, carried on for an honest purpose by their free choice, — is often the means of their regeneration. A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendancy in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing, when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.”

 

Episode 126 - Honduras, Hungary and Israel

Howdy folks!  Chuck Holton here with another great episode of the Hot Zone for your entertainment and edification.  The podcast is growing by leaps and bounds - and that's a good thing.  Thanks for your support and feedback.  I want the hotzone to get better and better at giving you the news and commentary that really matters.  Rather than obsess for days about celebrity breakups or inside the beltway shenanigans, I want to talk about the places where people need help.  There are millions of real people out there around the world who could care less about Kanye or Pelosi because their lives are being turned upside down as we speak.  And I don't just want to bring you their stories, I want to give you a way to reach into their lives and help them directly.  It's a new kind of news gathering that really hasn't been tried, and you get to be a part of it.  Just go to Patreon.com/hotzone and subscribe for three bucks a month and soon (as in within a couple of days) I'll be off on another big trip to Afghanistan, my first in five years., and I'll bring you not only the ground truth about what's going on there, but I'm going to bring some cheer to the US troops stationed there, and you get to come along with me.

 

Okay, let's get to the news.  Protesters in Honduras set fire to the front gate of the US embassy in Tegucigalpa over the weekend.  The weird thing is, nobody's exactly sure why.  They were protesting rumors that the Honduran government is about to privatize their health care system, something the government denies, but that has literally nothing to do with the United States.  It also came out over the weekend that the president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez is... or at least was being investigated by the DEA for being involved in a massive drug and money laundering scheme, but I can't figure out how that would cause Hondurans to be angry at us, especially since most of the country seems to hate the president, who they call by his initials, "JOH" for getting himself reelected back in 2017.  See the Honduran constitution stipulates that the president can only serve one term, but somehow JOH got that changed so he could run for reelection.  The country has basically been on fire since then, though many of the protests, they say, are being instigated by undercover Venezuelan provocateurs.  Whatever the reason, all the protesting has at least forty percent of the country (like four million people) planning to head north to the United States as soon as possible.

 

We're seeing lots and lots of unrest across Latin America, and much of it indeed has to do with Venezuela, because they were subsidizing countries across the region with cheap oil for many years, but that golden goose has run out of eggs, and now countries like Haiti and Nicaragua are up in arms as they are seeing huge price increases as the cost of fuel is no longer at artificially low prices.  

 

But there's a deeper issue at play in Latin America, and it strikes at the heart of the same kinds of worldview divisions we see in the United States right now.  Many across Central and South America adhere to what is called the Chavista worldview, named after Hugo Chavez.  Essentially socialist leanings.  And for many years politicians in places like Bolivia and Nicaragua have been pitting the poor against the rich by spouting the same tired tripe we're hearing out of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.  "Power to the people!"  Yeah right.  Except what they mean by that is making the people as dependent as possible on a government that takes all you have to ostensibly provide everything you need.  Which never works, but definitely gets the votes!

 

So far at least 25 people have been injured in the protests in Honduras, fortunately none of those were Americans at the embassy, which basically told it's people to stay home that day and keep a low profile.  But it does kind of make you scratch your head and wonder how if so many of these Hondurans want to go to the United States, why are they attacking our embassy?  Seems counterproductive.

 

Anyway, let's move on.  Last Wednesday night at about 9pm in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, a sightseeing barge with 33 South Koreans and two local crew members on-board collided with a much larger Viking Lines cruise ship near one of the famous bridges that spans the Danube between buda and pest. Hungarian police say the smaller boat flipped over and sank in about seven seconds.

 

Seven tourists are confirmed dead already, but there are another nineteen Koreans and the two crewmen who are still missing, presumed trapped in the wreckage or swept away by a river swollen by the heavy rain that has been severely hampering the emergency rescue operation. Only Seven South Koreans are known to have survived the disaster.  

 

I was on a Danube river cruise back in 2016...on a ship almost identical to the one which caused the sightseeing barge to capsize.  The river this time of year is very crowded with ships, and the currents are fast, especially this year since the water level is so high.  But you can see by the video I shot why it's such a popular place - Budapest is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world.  But tragedy can strike anywhere, and this is a very unfortunate series of events to be sure.  The captain of the Viking cruise ship has been arrested, and will likely be charged with manslaughter for hitting the smaller boat, although it looks to me by the video that the smaller boat cut in front of the ship.  

 

The reason I was there was to join a cruise with some important American politicians and make a news feature about the migrant crisis in Europe.  On that trip I had a chance to talk to Newt Gingrich about the crisis, and what he said is, I think, very applicable to our own migrant crisis we're seeing today on the US southern border.  Take a listen.

 

The migrant crisis in Europe is still happening, though the press has gotten kind of tired of reporting on it.  Over the weekend a migrant center in Bosnia caught fire and more than 20 people were injured.  Here's one of the migrants describing the scene.

 

The effect of all this migration is that Europe is shifting politically much further to the right.  People are starting to realize that when you institute massive socialized programs to care for your people, then fail to control your borders, you will very likely see millions of people from outside your country who have never contributed to your system show up with their hands out looking to cash in on your generosity.  And that's when your system starts to break down.  

 

Okay let's go on to talk about Israel.  There were two more stabbing attacks in Jerusalem last week, both carried out by palestinians. One attack occurred in the early morning, around 6:20 A.M. Israeli police say officers at the scene in Jerusalem shot and killed one suspect, a Palestinian from the West Bank who had been allowed into Israel for the last Friday of Ramadan. according to police.

 

The first stabbing occurred near Damascus Gate, and the victim was evacuated to the hospital where he remains in critical condition. The 50-year-old Jewish man was on his way to pray at the wall when he was stabbed in the neck and head.  The other victim was a 26-year-old man.

 

There have been at least nine terror attacks in Israel this year by Palestinians that have resulted in Jews being killed or wounded.  

 

Stabbings are one of the more common ways Palestinians try to kill Jews...about forty percent of all terror attacks against Jews in Israel last year were carried out this way.  But Palestinians are equal opportunity murderers.  They'll just as happily use guns, rockets, or ram their car into a crowded bus station.  It should be noted that these attacks would be much, much more deadly if Israel wasn't such a heavily armed society.  And because of their universal military service requirement, among other things, those good guys who are carrying weapons tend to be well trained in their use.  And that's a good thing.

 

Now, somebody take a guess about how many terror attacks have been perpetrated by Jews in the past ten years...Right.  Not many.  Not zero, but probably less than a dozen, most aimed back at Palestinians whose elected government openly calls for the murder of all Jews and the destruction of the Jewish state.  So there's that.  

 

Well that's all I have for today folks.  Thanks for watching.  Remember, I'm headed to Afghanistan later this week and am looking forward to bringing you great content from the war zone there as I embed with US troops.  Prayers appreciated as always.  And thanks again for being a part of the Hot Zone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Episode 125 - Let's talk Suicide

Let's talk suicide.  ON this episode of the Hot Zone.

 

Hi folks.  I'm heading to the airport, about to fly back to Panama today for a few days before I pack up my body armor and head over to Afghanistan.  Yesterday I spent a little time on the podcast wondering what makes modern countrieshave much higher suicide rates than countries where basically everything sucks.  You know what I mean.  For example, if you had to guess which country would make it's people want to end it all - would you choose Venezuela or Japan?  how about Pakistan or Belgium?  Iraq or Switzerland?  Well, surprisingly, Japan, Belgium and Switzerland all have suicide rates more than five times higher than Venezuela, Pakistan or Iraq.  That's right.  There's been so much talk lately about how bad conditions are in central america, which is held out as the reason so many people are leaving those areas and coming to the United States.  But the US is another country in which the suicide rate is high and climbing.  Now more than five times the rate in El Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala.  Isn't that kind of amazing?  

 

Yesterday I talked about my theory as to why this is.  The fact that young people especially in western countries are interacting far more with devices than they are with flesh and blood humans, and at earlier and earlier ages contributes to a disconnected sense of meaninglessness that makes people feel life just isn't worth all that much.  People have a deep desire to be needed, and a device just can't provide that.  It doesn't need you.

 

But there's more to it than that.  People need a battle to fight.  In developing countries, that battle is for literal survival, and you and your whole family are in it together.  Everyone needs to be in the struggle if the family is going to make it.  Even the kids are so, well, necessary.  whether it's working the farm, herding the goats or going to fetch water, the young people have purpose in their lives.  How could something like candy crush compete with that?  I really believe that in a lot of ways, Americans are literally entertaining themselves to death.  All that passive activity makes it increasingly difficult to think deep thoughts, feel deep emotions, and find a purpose bigger than yourself.

 

Here's one other factor I think contributes largely to suicide rates that I've never heard anyone talk about.  I just went and did some cursory research on google and found that the countries with the highest suicide rates also happen to be countries where abortion is legal and common for almost any reason.  by contrast, Countries that restrict the killing of the unborn, no matter what their poverty level, tend to have some of the lowest suicide rates.  For example, Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.  The majority of people there live on less than a dollar a day.  They've been plagued by hunger,  Now this is probably more correlation than causation, but it stands to reason:  a country whose culture does not value human life enough to preserve it for their most vulnerable citizens is obviously not going to inculcate it's people with a healthy respect for the value of your own life.  Now like I said the link between suicide rates and legal abortion may be circumstantial, but there is a direct correlation between atheism and suicide.  The fewer citizens there are in a country who describe themselves as religious, the higher the suicide rate is likely to be.  

 

Here's the most alarming statistic of all:  If US military veterans were a country, they'd have the highest suicide rate in the world - more than a third higher than the current number one country, Lithuania. We've seen over six thousand veteran suicides every year since 2005, and that is truly a national crisis.  I think there are many complex factors that lead to the problem we see today, and there are a lot of people out there who have spent far more time looking at the issues surrounding Post Traumatic Stress and all that than I have.  And to the military's credit, they are taking the problem very seriously.  I want to show you some testimonies the Army has filmed that it's using in it's anti-suicide push.

 

So this is great, and I think they should do more of it.  Sharing our troubles helps others who are going through the same thing. But I really think addressing the root causes of the problem wil require more than this.  In the case of our veterans, you have to understand the very unique stressors that hit a guy kind of by surprise when he returns from downrange.  His battle in the kinetic sense might be over, but another one is just beginning.  See the most difficult thing for a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine to handle when they come back off deployment is the fact that everyday life is just so complicated.  Here's what I mean.  Combat simplifies your life very much.  When you are in battle, you aren't worrying about bills, insurance, your mortgage...and your relationships are kind of on hold.  And you are very, very necessary.  A unit in a fight needs all the help it can get.  Every troop is supremely valuable.  It's built into the military ethos.  Leave no man behind.  All of your problems are in the now, , not the future. There's some group of guys over there who are trying to kill you and your buddies, and all it takes to solve your problem is right in your hands.  eleven pounds of pressure with your trigger finger can fix just about all your problems. You own everything - if you need to use a house, you take it. Very simple. 

 

Then you come home.  Your car insurance got canceled, your wife is used to running things without you, and everyone at the mall is using this very precious liberty you've been "fighting" for and watching your friends die for...to surf social media on their phones.  You feel useless.  You feel disconnected.  Unnecessary.  And that toxic mix is what leads many of these guys to put a gun in their mouth.

 

for too long, the military has, I think, tried to bandaid the problem and actually has prohibited chaplains from using strategies to mitigate it that have been proven to increase meaning in a person's life.  I did a story on this a few years ago.  Check it out.

 

So the bottom line is we need to put down our phones more and interface with each other in real life.  We need to do things that affirm the value and dignity of life - all life.  And we need to focus less on entertainment and more on making the world a better place.  That's one reason I started this podcast.  I want to help you understand crisis around the world better, yes.  But I also want to give you a conduit through which you can do something about the news.  Be the good guy in this story - reach into the lives of the people I meet and improve them.  Engage more with the news rather than just be a spectator.  So I hope you'll join me and like and share the podcast.  We've got some amazing content coming soon!

 

I'm Chuck Holton.  I'll see you back here tomorrow on the Hot Zone.

Episode 124 - Stabbing in Japan and an IED in Canada?

Today's Hot Zone covers the horrible terror Knife attack in Japan and a bomb going off in a restaurant in Toronto.  Don't miss it!

Episode 123 - A Travesty of Justice: John Walker Lindh with Lt. General Jerry Boykin

American forces first entered Afghanistan in 2001, members of the CIA’s ultrasecret Special Activities Division were among the first boots on the ground. A former Marine Corps captain was among them.  His name was Johnny “Mike” Spann. In 1999 Mike joined the CIA and became a member of the agency’s paramilitary unit in the Directorate of Operations. Dozens of paramilitary officers—the actual number is still classified—were dispatched to Afghanistan to assist U.S. Special Operations forces in equipping, arming, training, and supporting the troops flooding into Afghanistan. After the attack on 9/11, Mike Spann was among the first in the Special Activities Division to volunteer for duty there. During the last week of September, SAD operatives were deployed to establish a forward base for military Special Operations detachments which soon followed. Once on site, Mike and his teammates “vetted” Afghans for duty with the Northern Alliance, organized intelligence collection and analysis cells for operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and conducted counter-intelligence activities. During the fight for Mazari-Sharif, more than 300 Taliban fighters surrendered and were taken into custody by Northern Alliance forces and imprisoned in the city’s nineteenth-century fortress. Because the detainees had potential intelligence value on the capabilities and whereabouts of key Taliban and Al Qaeda kingpins, SAD officers were assigned the task of interrogating them.

 

On 25 November, Mike Spann and his partner arrived at the prison and began to conduct interrogations. That’s how they discovered that one of the detainees wasn’t an Afghan at all. He was an American named John Walker Lindh. According to Lindh, he was a convert to Islam and had traveled first to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan with the intention of joining Al Qaeda. Shortly after being interrogated by Spann, Lindh and his fellow prisoners overpowered their guards and murdered Mike Spann with two gunshots to the head, making him the first American casualty of the War on Terror. Mike Spann was thirtytwo years old when he died at the hands of a murderous countryman who had joined the Jihad. Mike left behind his widow, Shannon Span, an infant son, and two young daughters.

 

for his part, Lindh was one of only a few dozen to survive the uprising that killed Mike Spann. Brought to trial in United States federal court in February 2002, Lindh pleaded guilty to two charges and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

 

Fast forward to last week, May 23, 2019, Lindh was released early under supervision.  IT was a pretty contentious decision.  To talk about it more, let's go over to former Delta Force commander and deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence under George W Bush, Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin.

 

That's all I have for today folks.  Go back and peruse the last 123 episodes of this program.  We have brought you some absolutely powerful interviews with some very high caliber guests.  If you've been watching the show you have heard a lot of news before it broke in the mainstream media.  I'm busting my hump to bring you really good content that will make you smarter about the most pressing issues of our day.  So if you are enjoying it, please support the podcast by subscribing over at itunes or podbean, or on youtube.  And for three dollars a month at patreon.com/hotzone you can be part of the inner circle and get lots of cool extras.  So go do that right now.  It takes only second and it's really encouraging to me.  Thanks for watching.  I'm Chuck Holton and this has been the Hot Zone.

 

https://www.amazon.com/American-Heroes-Oliver-North-ebook/dp/B007SUUSFW/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=oliver+north+american+heroes&qid=1559096786&s=gateway&sr=8-2

Episode 122 - What Makes America Great?

Why America is Great, and how our military is one of the best examples.

Episode 121 - What Makes America Great?

A short reminder of why we celebrate Memorial day.