Marine Dakota Meyer Details What War is Really Like | Joe Rogan

The J and that podcast that you did with Jocko when I was listening to me, it changed my whole day. It changed like how I was going to look at my day. I was, you know, instead of like looking at my daily cup, it's a normal day. I was thinking, God damn, I'm lucky. God damn, I'm lucky. And God damn, imagine experiencing what you and how old were you at the time? I was 21, 21 years old and experiencing what you experienced in that insane firefight being locked down. And I mean, how many guys did you wind up engaging with? I don't know. I, you know, I don't know. I mean, everyone that I got an opportunity with, right? And it just, you know, it was just, uh, you know, it was so chaotic. I mean, I, you know, I still, I, look, I think about all the time, obviously, um, it's something I could have never experienced. I mean, I trained for war every single day when I was in the Marine Corps. I mean, it was what I was, what my job was. And I still could have never imagined that day the way it was or anything to turn out. I could have never pictured it. I could have never, and I think every day it goes by, I think there's a reckoning of it, right? The way that I seen it that day is not the way I see it today. And, um, I think that comes with, you know, just, just sharpening and just your body, you know, you change and you, you see different things in perspective, but yeah, I mean, you know, I, I, you know, that day, I mean, it's still, I mean, it's still, it's just, you know, just, it's just, there's so many lessons that come from that day that, that, you know, I look at people complaining about stuff here in America and it's like, you know, I seen him one day, the best of humans, the worst of humans and everybody, nobody thought they were wrong. And it's possible, you know, it's just, it's just one of those deals of, you know, that, that day was just, that's an important point where you just said nobody thought they were wrong. Not them, not you. Yeah. You know, I, I, and it changed me that day. Like I walked in there that day and I was the guy who was cocky, who would tell you, you know, I love fighting. Do you know what I mean? Like I, like, I just want to go fight. Like, you know, every, every fight I had before that, it was like, you know, I always had airplanes sitting, you know, or a helicopter sitting, sitting around. I always had, you know, it was like, I'm going to go in there and start the fight and then I'm going to call in all this other, this other stuff to, to win. Right. And that day it wasn't there. And, and, and literally I walked out of there and I just think about all the time today. I just think about all the time of how many generations just that day were changed. How many generations of, of people's lives were changed. You know, all my teammates died, so they'll never have kids that generation stopped their families forever. So many lives were changed that day by that, that, that piece. And guess what? And everybody in America had no clue what's going on. Like right now there are U S troops, somebody wondering if they're going to be able to come home and see their family again. That's reality. Whether you want to ignore it or not, like that's reality. And that was me September 8th, 2009. And it was just, gosh, it was a chaotic day. It's amazing how you could have thousands of days in your life in one day changes the way you look at everything. One day changes the way you look at everything. And you know, and like the, the further I go on, I look at it different. You know, I always talk about the story of, um, you know, whenever this guy came up behind me and I ended up, I ended up killing him with a rock. And I always remember just like, I remember it, like I see it every night. Like I remember like I just see his face and I got just, cause there was a point, there was a point that I feel like that anybody that when they, whether they're injured or anything, like they realize they're defeated, like they, like, like, I don't know. I just think there's a point when you look at somebody and they know they're going to die. And I'll never forget that. And I, you know, now I look at it and I see it and I always think that like, this guy is a son to somebody, his mother and father are going to miss him. This guy, he believes in his cause as much as I do. He doesn't believe he's wrong. This guy, this guy, he, he could have had a wife or kids that are never going to see their father again. Just like, you know, my dad might've never seen me again if it was switched. And really, I don't even know. I don't hate him. I don't even know this guy. We're just here at this place right now because we were born in two different countries. Were you out of weapons? Were you out of, out of ammo? So my, no, he had came up and he started choking me. I had shot him once before and he, I was trying to pick my buddy, Dottalee. My, my, my, one of my closest Africans, Dottalee had been shot. He, he got killed. He had been killed and I came around this terrace to get him and I was on my knee and this guy came up behind me. And so he didn't have a weapon either. No, he did. He, he had a weapon and I ended up shooting him from the ground and I thought he was dead when he fell on the ground and I kind of moved down and got down with Dottalee because I was still getting shot at from this machine gun up on this hill. And I was trying to make myself small as I could. And this guy ends up coming up and choking me. Like I thought he was, I thought he was dead and he ends up choking me out. He starts trying to choke me out and eventually let up a little bit and I ended up getting around him and I just got, we were fighting back and forth and I can remember all I was thinking about was like, don't let his legs get on me. Like, you know, these guys, their legs are, I mean, they've been crawling up mountains their whole life and he was a, he was a pretty big dude. And I just remember getting on top of him. Finally got on top of him and I, I was rolling on top of him. He didn't have all the gear on. I did. And I ended up, I remember getting on top of him, like, like I was straddling him and I'm just reaching up trying to grab for anything I can. I'm holding him and holding him down with my throat, with my, my forearm and I'm just grabbing anything I can. And finally I ended up grabbing a rock and I just started beating this dude's face and, and I just started beating and beating and beating. And I remember, I remember just like finally, like after hitting him, you know, I don't know, three or four times, four or five times, whatever. I remember him like finally just kind of looking at me and like, just, it's, it's like, he's like, just, I'm just looking at him in the eyes, like obviously closer than me to you right now. And you just see all the, you can tell like he knows where this is going. And I always think about that, you know, obviously I would kill him a million times over again, right? He, he was in him and he like, I don't feel bad about that part of it. But I just think about like in that moment, if I can find a way to relate to him in that moment, a man I'm taking his life, we all in America can find a way to connect with each other. If we don't connect with each other, it's because we choose not to. I don't care what your differences are. Like don't like find a reason of why we can get along, not why we should not get along. Right. And, and I always think about that moment, you know, of this guy and, you know, he obviously ended up dying and, and, and what it showed me was, is that no cause that you have that's built on hate will survive. I didn't hate this guy. I didn't even know him, but I was willing to, to take his life because of what I loved. And that's what, that's what we have to build our lives and our foundation on is not, not being angry and hating each other, but because we love the cause that we believe in so much. Does that make sense? It does make sense. I understand what you're saying. The way they look at it in Afghanistan, this, uh, so it's, is it Al Qaeda or the Taliban? So Al Qaeda is mainly in, so Al Qaeda was in Iraq. Al Qaeda is the issue that's in Iraq and the Taliban is the issue that's in Afghanistan. And the Taliban, what are they trying to do? Are they trying to run a religious caliphate? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they just want, they, you know, they want to run, you know, it the way that they want to, right? Like they want to, they don't want, they don't believe in, you know, women being educated. They, I mean, they don't believe in any, like, like they don't believe in, you know, they go back to that, their beliefs of, you know, it's driven by religion of, of all that control. They want to, they want to control. And how much support did they have from the general population? I mean, I think it not, not necessarily the support, but because I think that it's not necessarily the support, it's the power that they have, right? Like they come in and they lead with a heavy hand, right? I mean, there's these, they don't, these, these, these, the locals run the place, but the Taliban is kind of like, look at it like a gang, right? Like kind of like, like, like a mob or, or, or, or like, um, the Taliban is kind of like, the cartel, right? Um, and so that's, that's where they come from and they try to lead with violence and same thing that you would, you know, you would see with the cartel. Taliban is kind of like an over a big cartel. And so the general, the population, they would like that to not be the case. Yeah. I mean, they want a system of democracy similar to what we have. I mean, I don't know that they want that, but I don't want something better than what they have. Of course. Like, I mean, I think they all see that they live in shitholes, right? They all see, you know, I think that they, they, they know what could get, you know, how it could be better and how life could be better, you know? Um, the cool thing about America is that we know what freedom is. And I promise you this, like you want to have all the differences stop. If anybody ever invaded us, I mean, people don't want to give anything up. So they would all start fighting. Everybody would get on the same page and start fighting. If anybody tried to come to America, cause nobody would want to give up their stuff. Well, post 9 11, do you remember that? What that was? You were a younger guy. How old were you at 9 11? I was in the eighth grade and I always say I would never wish for another 9 11, but I would give anything for a 9 12. I would give anything for a 9 12. It was crazy. Like people were friendly. People were letting people in and traffic. People had like American flags were everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere. People were proud of America. Like it was, it was crazy. It was crazy. Like how on in sync everybody was. It's hard for people who weren't there on those days to understand the mood of the country. It was a different world. Like we, people were patriotic. Everybody was. I don't necessarily remember what it was like before the day of 9 11. So I don't, I don't have much perspective on that, but I do remember 9 12. I remember, I mean, everybody was proud to be Americans. I mean, I mean, it was, everybody was, everybody was proud of our country and who we are. It was like our switch had turned. It was. And in that, the way it goes though, like when something tragic happens, like, isn't that the way it goes? Like, like we refocus on what really matters. Like all these differences go away. Yeah. But we come back to what matters. Well, that's something that a lot of people who experienced war have said that this is where they felt the most connected because their life was literally in danger. And because they knew, because they had lost loved ones to this thing, they had lost brothers to this thing that this was real. And that to this day, that is the most exciting and happiest time of their life. Cause they were so connected. Sebastian younger wrote about this in a movie book tribe. Yeah. Do you read it? I haven't read it. It's very good. And it probably would speak to a lot of the exact same things that you say. But you know, like I, I find the same thing, not the same thing, obviously, cause my life's not in danger. And I hope that I never have to go a day where my life's in danger again. And I find the same appreciation back here in a country that, that I love. I can, you know, I narrowed it down cause I had to come up with a reason of like, why, you know, I mean, it's hard to sit here and watch the valleys that you fought for. And then the government go and give those values back to the Taliban. You know, there's this one video me and my buddy were laughing about the other day, a base that, that he had been on and he shows me this video and it's like literally the treadmills that were in the gym there. It's a Taliban guy running on our treadmills, right? Like they had left it there and we're just like, whoa, you know? And, and, and I always think about, you know, cause if you get down in the weeds and you start really getting, you'll get upset about, you know, that Valley did I really did, did, did, did my teammates sacrifice really change your, your life? Like if they hadn't a sacrifice that day, would, would your life be changed? Like, cause that's what we're fighting for is America. And so I just, I always looked at it like this and I came to peace with it of, you know, all we were trying to do anywhere we went when, when I served and I wore the nation's cloth, like I got to, I got the best opportunity when people thank me for my service. I'm like, don't, don't thank me. Like I appreciate you letting me represent America, be the away team for the United States of America. Like I got to wear the nation's cloth in so many countries. But I always, I justify it as all we tried to do, no matter whether we were passing out soccer balls to kids or we were going in and providing security for a whale or we were taking out an enemy combatant. All we were trying to do was make that part of the world that we were in a better place. That's all we were trying to do. We're trying to leave it better than we found at that moment. And if we take that same concept and we apply it here and we all go over and do it for the person on the left and the right of us. And if we use that same concept, you can apply it here in America every day, every single day you can make this world just a little bit better. There's a lot of people in this country that don't think we should be nation building in other countries and including people like Tulsi Gabbard who served, but then you got people like Dan Crenshaw who I've had on the podcast, who what his perspective is, you have to go over there. Like that you can't allow these groups to get more powerful and gain more control. You just can't. You can't. You can't. And if not us, then who? And the thing is, is America is a beacon of hope across the world. America is a beacon of hope. And you can notice when America is strong, everybody hates us. When America is weak, the world suffers. And I'm not saying we need to go in and fight everybody's battle, obviously, right? Like, but on the backside of it, you know, we're not necessarily going in and fighting for other countries, but we do have an obligation to go and help people. Like you take Syria when they are gassing, kids and women. If nobody else is going to go send rockets in there, if nobody else is going to go hold somebody accountable for it, I'm there. There's nobody that's serving, that's wearing the uniform that it's not gladly doing that and going to go hold them accountable for it. It has nothing to do with anything other than good and evil. And if we don't go fight the evil, then who's going to do it? Who's going to do it? And we don't want the evil to get bigger. You don't want the evil to get bigger. You don't want the evil to progress. And you don't want the evil to think that they can... I mean, imagine you see what they're doing right now, and I think the world knows that America will come and show up, and you see how they're still going. Imagine if they didn't have to worry about us doing it. Imagine what they would look like. I think you can imagine better than most. That's part of the problem is that when you're in Count Lebasis, going to the mall, getting yourself a fucking smoothie, it doesn't seem real. And you can have all these opinions about what we should be doing, and that we need to stop these warmongers, and we need to stop this and stop that. And I've had those opinions myself in the past, and gone back and forth. And the only thing that's changed my mind is I listen to people that actually know. I think it's one of the most important things you could ever do. And don't try to form an opinion if you don't really have any facts or any real understanding. I've done that in the past too. I've made those mistakes. I can tell you this. You look at 9-11, thousands of people died, and none of them volunteered to give their country for their life that day, except obviously the first responders. You look since 9-11, besides a couple of attacks that's been in America, but you look since 9-11, everybody that's given their life overseas has volunteered to do that. They volunteered to go fight the evil. And for us to go over there and do that and keep it off the country, to keep it out of our country, to keep it to where our kids and our families and our mothers and fathers don't have to worry about this, obviously it could happen anywhere. But I can't think that us being over there and giving them a place to fight us has not helped this country keep from being attacked multiple times if we had not gone over there. That's a hard pill for people to swallow, right? They don't want to think that. They want to think the reason why they would attack us is because we're over there. Yeah. Well, you know what? Why did we get attacked on 9-11? That's a good question. These people hate us just because they hate us. It's not about, you know, there was that one worker that said that, oh, we should go over there and get them more jobs and more opportunities. No, these people don't care. They wake up every day and try to think of a way to kill us. There's no negotiating with these people. These people are evil. These people will do nasty things to human beings that you couldn't even imagine, you couldn't make a video game about. I mean, you look at some of this ISIS stuff of what they're doing. I mean, putting somebody in a cage and burning them, you want to be empathetic to that? Throwing people because of their sexual preference off the top, tying their hands and legs together and throwing them off the top of a building? These are the type of people that this is the type of evil that we're going after. And if we don't do it, who's going to do it? Right. Who's going to do it? Do you think it's possible that this all could be resolved someday? That maybe if it's not our children, our children's children, do you think it's possible? Nope. That's, everybody says that. That's one of the most disheartening things about any kind of conflict. But I mean, if you look at any of the books that came before us, this is what you get. This is just part of any, at any point in time, there's conflict going on. It'll never be resolved. It'll never be resolved. It will never be resolved. So it's like a maintenance program. It's hard for people to swallow, right? Because people want to think that the reason why it'll never be resolved is because the military industrial complex wants to keep us at war. And this is just a big money grab. And that's all they're trying to do is the reason why they have us over there is they're sending people over there to die so that they can make money. This is, this is how people love to look at it. I mean, everybody wants to, I think it's just because everybody wants to find a reason. You know, everybody wants to, everybody wants a reason that they can touch, feel and blame. Like they want something to blame. Right. And they, you know, there's nothing to blame except the people who are doing this. And it exists and it's real. And these are real people. And you know what, we're just so lucky that we have an all volunteer military with some of the greatest people that's ever walked the face of the planet who are willing to go do this, who are willing to do it on, on mining your behalf. I mean, how cool is that? It's pretty wild when you think about it, right? Cause it's a complete volunteer army. Volunteer. Complete volunteer military. These people are willing to raise their right hand to a piece of paper, to an idea of democracy, to go over, they put their whole life on hold, their wives sacrifice. I mean, you take military spouses and they sacrifice, if not more than the people, you know, than the veterans and the service members. And they're willing to go over and fight for mining your freedom. They've never met us, but they're willing to give their lives for it. Like think about this. Like, like I challenge people who are listening to this. Like what can you name one thing right now that you're willing to give your life for? I think about that. What would you give your life for right now? Like, like, like somebody pulled a gun out. You know, you're going to die. What would you give your life for? I mean, these people are willing to go do it on the idea of democracy on the idea of me and you on the idea of, of good. It's incredible. It is incredible. You, when you signed up, how old were you? 17. You were 17. Wow. Had my 18th birthday in boot camp. No shit. Yeah. Wow. So you can do that? I didn't know. I didn't know you, I thought you had to be 18. No, no, I graduated high school at 17 and my dad signed for me. Oh, someone can sign for you. Wow. And did you have any other aspirations or was that something that you knew you were going to do? No, I like, honestly, a Marine recruiter channel told me I'd never make it as a Marine. And so like, yeah, yeah. Like I was walking. Yeah. Well, like he told me, I was walking through my lunch room. Like I, I don't have any cool stories. Like, Oh, I woke up and knew I was going to be a Marine. Like, you know, I, I was walking through the lunch room and this Marine recruiter was there. I started asking him a lot of smart, smart, out questions and just, you know, being a typical high school student. And he's like, look, you're wasting my time. You'd never make it as a Marine. And, you know, look, I was up for the challenge. So I, I signed up that. So him saying that was what really stirred in. Yeah, that was it. Wow. I didn't even really know what the Marine Corps was before that. Really? What did you think you were signing up for? You know, I just told him I wanted to go fight. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Holy smokes. You know, but you think about that. Like our whole life is built off decisions, you know, our decisions, our control. We are, we are today where we're, where we deserve to be because we made the decisions up to this point. Like, and that's a hard pill to swallow too. Yeah. It's variable, right? There's, there's some things that are out of your control. There are, but, but a lot of it, but a lot of it, you can't control situations and circumstances, but you can control how you take it. You can control your response. You can control your response. Growing up like that. I mean, you're growing up in combat. I mean, you're growing up at 18 years old. I mean, I was a fucking baby when I was 18. Yeah. You're growing up in combat. I did. Yeah. I guess if you look at it like that, yeah. Yeah. And you are here now 10 years after what we were talking about. Yeah. And you said it still keeps you up. Yeah. I mean, I wake up, you know, a couple, a couple nights a month and just, you know, an anxiety attack, throwing up. I was actually speaking last week. I was on the road. It's the first time, you know, I always, like, I'm always nervous. Like if in the middle of night, my daughter gets scared or she, you know, she comes down and gets in my bed. Like I'm always really like nervous about that because like, I don't, I would like, like, it was so, I was so nervous about it because I was just, gosh, I never want them to see me in that, in that, that state. Right. And the other day we were on the road. I was speaking out in North Carolina and she was obviously wearing a hotel. So she was staying with me and I don't know. I didn't feel good that night. So what I did is I put a, I put a pillow between us and gosh, I had, I had one. I knocked my tooth off. I knocked my veneer off. Like it was so terrible. And she just looked at me, she's three and she just looked at me and she said, it's okay, daddy. You're not, you're not a bad dad. Wow. And, uh, three and I was like, gosh, you know, but yeah, I mean, you know, you still, I mean, this is, that's, that's why you look at it. And I see these people who, who play these video games and they, they get nothing from like, there's no emotional attachment to it. And it's like, this stuff's real. Like there's nobody who, I would go out on a limb and say, there's nobody who sees this stuff and they don't, you don't come back and deal with it. Like it's, it's a normal process to, to being part of not normal situations.