Joe Rogan | What People Get Wrong About War w/Dakota Meyer

First of all, anybody who really wants to know you in depth in your element talking with a fellow warrior, I strongly recommend that podcast. For people who don't, what number is it? Do you know which number? I don't know what number it is. Just listening to it. It's Jocko Podcast 115, Into the Fire and Beyond the Call of Duty. Jocko is a fucking beast and you two together talking about the incidents that happen with you overseas, it's insane. I had to call a buddy of mine, I had to stop the podcast and call my friend Brendan just to talk to him. I was like, this is so intense. I was driving, I was getting nervous. Driving in my Tesla, my little electric car, I drive, my hands are sweating and I'm breathing heavy and I'm like fuck. If you hear all those, when you're listening to that podcast, that was by far the most, Jocko just pulled it out of me. Most everybody hits the high points of it, but me and Jocko just made that connection. It was the first time we'd ever met. Face to face, yeah. We just went, he actually picked me up from the airport and we went there and we sat down and did the podcast. I don't know, I think he knew the questions to ask because I think it was good for both of us because if you got to the point in the middle of it, if you start hearing those silences, it was both of us trying to keep from tears falling. It was like that moment you're trying to, we were really connected and it was a tough podcast. Well, you could tell because for Jocko, I listen to a lot of Jocko's podcast, but that was one where he was really in his element. First of all, it's very obviously has a deep respect for you and who you are and what you stand for. Then two, it brought him back to his own experiences and more. The whole thing is just, it's one of the most intense podcasts I've ever listened to, if not the most intense. It's fucking heavy, man. Yeah, it was heavy. It was a hard one. Like you said, I think we both, I think Jocko was getting as much out of it as I was. I have the utmost respect for Jocko. The guy is just, he's the epitome of a warrior all around, from day in and day out. He wakes up every day and lives the things that he says. He does what he says and he lives it and he puts people first. He's one of the greatest guys I've ever met. I agree. I couldn't say it better. And Tim Kennedy as well, we're both friends with Tim and that same thing. That's a rare human being. It is. Both of those guys. That's what I'm so fortunate about. I'm just surrounded by just people like that. I'm so fortunate to have a circle like that. I think that that's what makes us who we are. It's true, the epitome is, iron sharpens iron. When you're surrounded by guys like Jocko and Tim Kennedy, you have no option. Even if you're last in that group, you're still above average. There's a cliche that comes up when people talk about military. People will say things, and sometimes it's hard to understand whether or not they grasp exactly what they're saying, but that people make sacrifices so that you could be free. I don't think people, it's hard to truly internalize that without having experienced what you've experienced, what Jocko and Tim Kennedy have experienced. When I'm listening to it, I know that it's correct. I know that it's true. I support it 100%, but it's almost like an alien thing to me because I've never experienced it. When hearing you guys talk about it and climb inside your head for a bit and listen to you describe it, that cliche, the land of the free because of the brave, it gets highlighted. You understand this is why America's not like it is in other places because of this strong military. One of the things you guys talked about in that podcast was this idea of us invading Afghanistan. You were fighting alongside Afghans. Most people who talk about war will have this peripheral cursory understanding about what they would like the world to be like, that they would like no war and that this is terrible. We shouldn't be over there. Don't truly understand what you understand. They don't. The perspective that I get to come back and I think all these guys telling their stories from Rob O'Neill to Marcus Latrell, I think every warrior out there has to tell their story to make people understand. It's so important for that because we've got a perspective of the world that a lot of people don't get. I stood next to people that we couldn't ... You talk about not believing, not being raised, coming from the same place, not having ... We could have found every reason not to be on the same ground, but we stood next to each other and we were willing to die for each other. We found, we chose to find the common denominator. That was because there's only two types of people in this world. There's good and evil. It really comes down to that. War is so simple. Life is so simple. When you try to complicate it, there's other reasons. It's like this whole thing. We were all over there fighting for the belief to be free, this belief of democracy, this belief of what we all live for. You can't see it, but we live it every day and we were willing to give our lives for people we didn't even know, people we didn't even meet. One of the things you talked about with Jaco, you said you didn't just lose four brothers that day. You lost 10 because you lost six Afghani brothers as well. The Afghans were as close to me as the Marines were. My team of Afghan soldiers, I lived on a base. It was four US and 80 Afghans. Every day I went out on patrol and I'm patrolling with them and they're no different than me and you. They just want a place, I'll never forget, that really hit home to me, is I had an Afghan. We were sitting up on the mountain. Actually the cover of my book, it was that day, we were sitting on that mountain because we had chased some Taliban up that hill. We were sitting up there and this Afghan looked at me and he just said, I hope that someday you can bring your family here on vacation. I hope that we can get it to that point. It really hit home to me. We're all just alike. We all just want to live a great life and we all just want to get along. If you don't get along, it's because you choose not to get along. For people who don't understand the conflict in Afghanistan, explain what is happening and why we're over there. Basically Afghanistan, and it was the same thing in Iraq too. That's where these terrorist organizations were. We're over there fighting alongside Afghanistan. We're over there fighting alongside Iraq. We're not fighting Iraq and fighting Afghanistan. We're fighting alongside both of those countries and trying to rebuild it up and trying to get rid of these terrorist cells that are inside those countries. Like you said, everybody thinks that we're fighting Iraq and we're fighting Afghanistan. It's not the case. We're alongside them, helping them rebuild their countries. When you go to Black Rifle Coffee in Salt Lake, those guys are awesome. They brought a bunch of former Afghani troops over and they work for them over there. A lot of the guys working in the factory, you're like, oh, okay. These guys are so close to these people, they brought them back and gave them jobs in America. Absolutely. Absolutely. I just think most people don't really have a full picture of what's at stake and why it's even happening. They just don't want war, right? They just don't want war, but it's like ... There's no way. You can go in your house and lock your doors and sit there and try to pretend that the evil that we fight doesn't exist, but it exists. It exists. It's there. It's there. If we don't go fight it over there, it's going to come here. That's another cliche that seems alien to people. It's a true statement. It's always been true throughout human history. But when you live in a country like America, we're so fortunate. It's so awesome here. Even when it sucks, it's awesome. In comparison to the rest of the world, it's very rare that you have a place where you really can start at the bottom and make your way up to be a successful person. I mean, literally, you can start here and come from nothing and within your generation be the president of the United States. You could literally start from that, and it's the only country on the face of the planet. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it.