Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn: ‘I tell people that I'm not anti-war. I'm anti-stupid-war.’

I talk about Panama Canal all the time who's controlling this very important Waterway it's the most strategic Waterway for the United States of America on the planet China is the dominant player right now between us and them at Turning Point USA's aest conference in Phoenix Arizona I sat down with Lieutenant General Michael Flynn now retired from the US Army who has been advising Trump's National Security team 80% of the largest ports in South America either the Chinese own them or they control some component and yet we have people in our government that go Russia Russia Russia this is American thought leaders and I'm Yan Kell Michael Flynn such a pleasure to have you back on American thought leaders great thank you for having me and it's I'm I'm a huge huge fan of you personally and also Epoch times and just what you guys represent so thanks that that's that's extremely kind um you know I'm going to start we're we're of course going to talk about you know what you're doing now and well why don't we actually start there yeah so what are you doing now what's what's next with this new Administration coming in part of what I have been doing is you know because my background is intelligence National Security foreign policy you know certainly the military and so I have been uh working with and and Advising uh sort of in a in a in a background way because that's the way I like I want to be you know as things are now particularly during this transition with the National Security team that president president Trump has assembled so you know from people like telsey gabard who I've known for a long time when telsey first came in as a as a uh as a first-term Democrat congresswoman from Hawaii I got to know her then and we've maintained that relationship for a long time as well as you know cash Patel Mike Waltz who's going to be the Nash security advisor cash is going to be of course FBI director uh Pete heg Seth who's who's been nominated to be the uh to be the Secretary of Defense uh Tom Holman I I've been in touch with Tom homman off on and and trying to help him to you know to navigate Tom doesn't need a lot of navigation Tom knows exactly what he's what he wants to do the challenge is going to be you know from my perspective over my many years of the military and then and then in my time uh that I got involved in politics I really uh particularly by my military background though Yan I have a great great portfolio and network of Foreign Relations you know I mean I worked with a lot of militaries around the world and so I still have great relationships with many of the countries that that want to work with America desperately to be able to do the things that need to be done to protect frankly to protect ourselves from this rise of sort of globalism I guess because that's kind of the challenging component of what we face and I don't think a lot of people understand that tell me this okay the Trump approach to National Security and foreign policy is peace through strength absolutely that would be fair to say absolutely and that's exactly what George Washington said you know he George Washington said you know basically in order to preserve our country we have to present ourselves as a strong nation and he always believed that because he was a a soldier he was a warrior he was a general and Trump in a lot of ways has those same characteristics about about doing things just using good common sense but also making sure that the country is strong and presents our ourselves as a strong healthy country because I think that's that matters and I think with the with the Advent of bringing uh uh Bobby Kennedy into the team that's a that's going to be a component of our nation is not just you know health of your body but Health as a nation and I think that Trump this idea of peace through strength that is his fundamental idea about how the United States of America needs to present itself around the world you're very skeptical of our our military frankly right but you're also as I understand it very I I supportive of the peace through strength model and to some people that might seem um in congruous how you see more on me you know first of all today's Purple Heart day so this this uh this day that we're sitting here together is uh we recognize this Purple Heart Day Purple Heart Is someone who's wounded in combat so it's a very special day and the talk the fact that that we're we're talking about right now I tell people that I'm not anti-war I'm anti- stupid war and I and there and you know you can take that for whatever you want to take it for but but our country was founded on the idea of being a benevolent Nation based on a constitution and a and an equal and fair justice system for all and when we project ourselves and what we want to be around the world we want to be seen as this you know this this great uh humble benevolent nation that is a nation of givers and this country I mean the people of our country are the greatest givers in the world they give give give to everybody around the world that needs that desperately needs help we're always there but I think now one of the things that we have to look at is we have to look at taking care of our own country and I think that this idea of of of our peace through strength or or who we are as a nation and what we're what we need to do going forward we have some you know it's it's kind of like the body right your body needs to stay fit well our nation needs to stay fit and in order to do that we have to we have to protect certain institutions and make sure that they're ready to do the right things when called upon particularly our military the United States military cannot be a social experiment to test things about how people should behave in their lives our military serves one purpose Pur for our country and that is to be prepared and trained and ready to fight and win and the key word there is win our nation's Wars when called upon and what we really don't want to do is we don't want to call upon our country or and our military constantly you know I spoke here we at Turning Point here beautiful uh setup that Charlie Kirk has has organized I spoke yesterday and a lot of young people are here right I mean and that's what turning point is kind of known for and and there's young people in here and I spoke to a bunch of them yesterday that they weren't born when 9/11 happened okay so their entire lives our nation has been at War think about that so for the entire adult like some of them were 20 some of them were 21 you know college age kids and I'm looking at them and I'm thinking man you kids weren't even you you weren't even born when 911 happened right and we went to war in Afghanistan then we went to war in Iraq now we're looking at war in in Eastern Europe we still see the wars in the Middle East we have the rise of the Chinese Communist Party globally around the world and they they constantly present a threat so my point is is that we have to recognize that you know in order to understand the way the world is is we cannot be in this constant state of waron we just can't be we have to return to a place where peace is the norm and war is the aberration and right now it's just the opposite and with somebody like adonal Donald Trump who I have had the opportunity to speak with him and I have stayed in touch with him and I when my I from my very first meeting with him back in 2015 two weeks after he came down the famous escalator ride you know his whole thing was why are we involved in all these wars where are we making a mistake and that's how we connected and to me it's like I say as a military officer as a general officer having served our country in Wartime you know I I mean we we sort of follow the direction of thee of the commander-in Chief in the president of the United States but when it when you start to begin to look at what's happening you go okay when does this end and it can end and it can end on our terms especially when you know when we're smart about it and we just use good god-given common sense you know you mentioned this giving uh and you know there's a a number now of analysts that I find to be highly credible who say that we actually you know kind of built the whole Chinese regime which is our I don't know if you agree but our major strategic threat over you know everything else what we have inside of our government right now and has and we've had and it's been rising I mean if you really understand the depth of our the history of our country postor War II you know we've had this sort of incremental rise of Communism in the United States of America a lot of people don't want to recognize that or they they kind of go ah it's you know but it it's it's true Eisenhower is the is the very famous warning right about the military industrial complex but it but the whole the thing wasn't it wasn't mature then Yan now it's mature now we're 2024 we're you know whatever 75 years later let's say you know and so this this communist infiltration into our country has is a real threat and when you look at the CCP you look at China because China is a you know some the the the politicians can call them adversar or can call them competitors and then maybe the the the you know the folks that are that look at you know economics can call them economic competitors as a military guy I look at them as adversaries and frankly you know an enemy when and and you know if we had ever to address them from a military perspective and I think what people need to understand is that the sort of the the shift of what China has been doing globally so if you really understand their one belt initiative right one belt one road whatever you want to call but the one belt initiative it's not just some road from northern China into Europe it is a global economic Financial political certainly military and and information war that they are waging globally in our own hemisphere in the hemisphere of the of the of the North and South Americas in the in the Caribbean in Central America there are large let's just talk Port facilities right I mean like 80% of the largest ports in the in South America in the southern hemisphere of our own hemisphere either the Chinese own them or they control some component of the largest ports in our own hemisphere we talk about the Panama Canal I talk about Panama Canal all the time who's controlling this very important Waterway it's the most strategic Waterway for the United States of America on the planet is the Panama Canal we built it for a reason way back when the United States did so I my my sort of bigger strategic point is that China is they see themselves as the global principal sole superpower this century and they've been they've been rising since we the United States of America helped their rear ends out of being basically dominated by imperialism and and Japan at that time right late 30s into the 40s Japan conquer conquered everything all the way over to really modern-day Pakistan Burma Road right I had an uncle that fought on the Burma Road during World War II and then returned to Burma and spent 25 of his years of his life in Burma to try to help the people of Burma as a Catholic I love to hear that story sometime by the way so you know I know I'm going on about this but I want people to understand that China is the dominant is the dominant player right now between us and them and and the way the world is moving and yet we have people in our government that go Russia Russia Russia Russia is actually a declining population they're a declining economy I mean they're still a world superpower power because they have the most nuclear weapons on the planet and we're involved in a we're involved in and we're talking more about nuclear war than we've ever talked about in my entire lifetime my entire life and that includes the the Cuban Missile Crisis so I mean we could just have a a discussion just about China alone I uh one quick sec we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back and we're back with General Michael Flynn this is actually really interesting and something that's been on my mind in a big way for the last few years I you know what Vina chakarova calls uh dragon Bear right that Alliance right right um obviously highly problematic right for for the US and frankly I think for the Free World Is it possible for Russia with eyes open right understanding you know what kind of a system it is because right you know some I think some people are kind of mistaken about that but is it possible for to bring Russia out of that Alliance yeah because it would seem to be a good idea again little history lesson there was a there was a a China Russia split a few decades ago right the the Russo China split very very important and you have to understand sort of why did that happen then and I think that there's some we always have to go back to the history of these nations and these regions Russia is primarily a eurocentric and wants to have a eurocentric focus okay because they're part of you know we say the Eurasian continent right but it's really Russia sees themselves principally as a as a as a eurocentric you know sort of entity nation state Sovereign Nation they really don't want I mean if they if they could have their way they really don't want that that alliance with China this this current Administration that we have still and even in the past in other administrations we've seen our our nation push Russia into this into the the sphere of influence of China and and we want that you know we need to change that you know it doesn't mean that you know Vladimir Putin's a good guy whatever I I don't want to look at that the personality side of this what I want to look at is you know the demographics I want to look at the the relationships the economic relationships the military relationships really the the the ideas that we have in common between American people and the Russian people and and I can talk about that with the Chinese people the Chinese people most of the Chinese people don't like X of course G's afraid I mean we have to push G because it's a it's a it's the paper tiger right so we need to we need to figure out and I under this coming Administration we need to figure out how we can draw Russia back into a more eurocentric uh uh sphere of influence and how we can have a have a better relationship it is a peer-to-peer relationship because because we're talking about at the end of the day we're talking about the two great nuclear powers on the planet right so we have to face that reality but we also what are the other things that that are in common and you know all of the people in the United States intelligence Community they'll listen to this part of this and they will now listen to this part of this conversation that we're having they're going to go see he's a you know he's a Putin puppet no what I am is I'm somebody who's looking to achieve peace right and get out of get ourselves away from from this notion that we always have to have an adversarial relationship between these people we don't there's so many good things that we can do obviously we we actually can't really do that with communist China right and a lot of people argue that it's impossible with Russia now given everything that's happened too right it's getting it's becoming more difficult so you're optimistic that it's possible I guess that's yeah I'm optimistic on a for a couple things number one I'm optimistic that we can figure out with the right leaders uh how we can develop a a strong relationship to one slow this train down of War I mean world war is real and we've been through a couple of them we're in a new century we're in the third decade of a new century we've been at War the entire the entire Century so far the United States of America has been involved or engaged in some level of conflict where people are are being you know lives are being lost right so you know here we are in this purple heart day so I am optimistic that that can happen with the right leaders so we have to figure out geopolitically you know and geost strategically how we return to a much greater balance here in the world and the only way that we're going to do that is to slow this pace that we are heading on right now towards a much more dangerous war and we need good strong leaders who are willing to to to work their way through the noise of the media and through the noise of the of the frankly of the intelligence system that we have that under that works to undermine and and is already they're already they did it in the last Trump Administration they're already starting to do it again and that's why we have to have good leaders at every level inside of those organizations because we can do this Yan we can achieve peace it doesn't mean that there's always going to you know you're you know you're not going to have these conflicts around the world because people sadly that's what happens but we can achieve peace with the great nation states and live on this planet in a much more refined Natural State instead of constantly being at this at our at each other's throats and trying to go to war we have to we have to move away from that and move towards more of a place where where we have conversations about what needs to be done instead of confrontations about what is being done the message that Americans just sent to the world is we the people are now back in charge but what I'm telling the American people that listen to to this to to you and and to listen to this great uh uh platform of epoch times is that we now have a responsibility we have a Citizens responsibility to stay engaged to stay engaged at the local level and I use this phrase local action equals a national impact Donald Trump can't do this on his own every single citizen I just made it met a great uh young lady who just won the uh superintendent election in one of the biggest counties in our country a county well known by probably people globally it's called Maricopa County she's wonderful she's bold she's Brave she's super smart and she knows that she's got a she's going to have a fight ahead of her at the local level but she made a decision to do more than what she was doing right serve your country I served my country I'm still serving my country you're serving you're serving in this capacity on everybody out there needs to start thinking about what is my responsibility to serve as a citizen at the local level you Ser you serve at the local level you're going to have a national impact that's what we need to do to stitch this country back together well and what's really interesting is I feel by doing this I'm actually serving my country of Canada as well yeah right which is which is very interesting the people of Canada need to understand I think they do we're very complex United States of America our system of government is very complex federal state local I mean tribal in many cases Canada is very complex so coalitions have to come together for what's what's best for Canada and what's best for the United States of America and these coalitions like we talked about prior you know I'm a former Democrat I I just left the Democrat Party like three years ago and so there's a lot of people in this country that are Democrats right and I and I still have a my belief system hasn't changed I just changed my party affiliation that's why I was such a big fan of Bobby Kennedy when Bobby Kennedy made the very bold courageous decision to step down and put country before self that's my message to everybody that's listening we now have to put each of us you don't have to be Bobby Kennedy you don't have to be General Flynn just be yourself but put country before self and we can get this country back and it's going to take an entire Coalition of people not just Republicans and Democrats I mean I described as a hardcore right-wing you know fascist I mean Christian National I mean all kinds of names but if people meet me and they get to know me I actually am I'm you know I mean I served in our in our military during a very very difficult time in war five years I've spent of my life in combat and so I love this country I love all people you know and I think that's kind of where Donald Trump's coming from and and know as bad as he's been you know uh described in the in the sort of the woke media he's actually a really good guy who loves people well so as we finish up I wanted briefly to talk about your new film Flynn it's not that new came out in April very I mean you've had a a very adventurous life over the last few years right to say the least and I just want to quote something you said you said I feel blessed to feel alive right now and I can tell my story I haven't really given you a chance to do that here because I got so interested in your in your other thoughts but maybe briefly tell us about the film and how so people can yeah so the name of the film is Flynn deliver the truth whatever the cost they can go to Flyn mov.com and thank you so much for allow me to just talk about it for a second Flyn movie.com you can live stream it I think it's like 3.99 and so yeah I I actually think it should be it should be mandatory viewing for anybody going into the government right now honestly but uh it's an inspiring story of survival it is a story of Faith definitely Faith and family and it is a story of corruption deep corruption in our in our country in our government and and it and it it touches everybody it's not just Democrats or it's not just the left and the right it's the whole system of government that we have that has really kind of overpowered the people of this country that are supposed to be the rulers right we the people are supposed to be the rulers of our destiny as a republic and uh and so that's what the the the movie really does take you through that it is it is an it has emotional highs where you'll laugh and it has emotional lows where you'll absolutely break down in tears when you listen to my wife and listen to my son describe what they went through because the attacks weren't just on you know little old General Mike Flynn it was directed against my family and so these are people that are in my life that were all impacted because they all know me you don't rise to being a general in the Army and then being chosen as a national security advisor and be the person that was described and and and to actually to have to do the things that I had to do in order to protect my family and so watch the film it's great film go to Flyn mov.com and uh and also uh thank you so much Yan for having me well no and Michael Flynn it's such a pleasure to have had you on it's great I love I love that Bo times you guys are wonderful thank you all for joining General Michael Flynn and me on this episode of American thought leaders I'm your host Yan Kell [Music]