Tulsi Gabbard on Ukraine and the Military Industrial Complex

So with things like funding the Ukraine war with Russia, please explain to people what that means and why we're sending so much money over to Ukraine. So let's start with that. Let's start with the military industrial complex. What is it? Who is it? Is these massive defense corporations who make all these different weapons systems from the smallest to the most powerful nuclear weapons and missiles. When we are at war, they make a lot of money. When politicians, even if we're not at war but are threatening that we may go to war, they make a lot of money. And these decisions are not made within the context of, hey, what does our military actually need? What do we need to ensure that our military is ready to defend our country and our national security interests? It is very often what members of Congress are advocating for even more than the military is asking for sometimes because of those cozy relationships with the military industrial complex, with these massive defense contractors and their lobbyists. So there's a direct correlation as the money is changing hands there. The problem is not with the Democratic Party, the Republican Party. On this issue, when you see this so much divisiveness on tons of other issues facing our country, everything from infrastructure to education, all these other things, you see like, oh my gosh, Democrats and Republicans can't agree on anything. This issue of putting our country in a continual state of war is supported by leaders in both parties and the majority of people in both parties. And it's directly tied to the military industrial complex's influence and tied to people who want to act and look tough but aren't asking the most important questions like, okay, if we do this, will this help the American people or hurt the American people? If we vote to send these billions of dollars to Ukraine, is that strengthening our national security or undermining it? You'll hear a lot of rhetoric, especially recently, saying, hey, if we've got to send all this money to Ukraine, otherwise Russia's going to come and attack us here. Otherwise, our national security will be undermined. So they say all these things to foment fear in people's minds, but they're not rooted in reality. So what we're seeing play out now is essentially a proxy war. The US is engaging in a proxy war with Russia using Ukraine as their military. So the US and some European countries, predominantly the US, though, are providing billions of dollars in funding, weapons systems, and so forth, and essentially waging this war using the Ukrainian military and people as their chess pieces in this geopolitical chess game, the ultimate objective being regime change with Russia. And you can see years before, obviously, Russia's invasion in Ukraine, this anti-Russia sentiment has been building up by the permanent Washington establishment and laying the groundwork, and this was the opportunity that they saw. It's put us in the most dangerous position we the American people and the world has ever been in, in that a nuclear war could break out in a week, in 30 days. We are staring over the precipice of that nuclear brink now more than ever before. We're hearing language coming from Putin, from Medvedev, from different Russian nationalist leaders saying, no, Putin, you should go and use those nuclear weapons. Whether they're the tactical nukes or the strategic nukes, doesn't matter. There is no way to win this. That would spark a nuclear war. It would spark World War III, and the result of that is destruction of the world. It is destruction of the world as we know it. And I hate to paint such a bleak picture, but people need to know that this is the reality that we're facing, that our leaders have pushed us and led us to this brink of nuclear war. They have their own bunkers and ways to protect themselves. There is no shelter for the American people. I think it was last time I was here I talked to you about the nuclear scare that we had in Hawaii and how this message went out to everybody saying, hey, missile incoming, seek shelter immediately. This is not a drill. What everybody found out immediately is there is no shelter. There is no shelter. There's no place to go. There's no place where you can take your loved ones and your kids to be protected not only from the blast, but the fallout and the lack of food and water and everything else that comes after. New York City recently put out a PSA. I don't know if you saw it, but it is literally a video ad they put out saying, hey, here's what you do in the event of a nuclear explosion. Why are they putting this out now? Because of where we are as a country. The problem is, as it shows in this video, their advice to the people of New York City is get inside, stay inside, and stay tuned. That's it. Say tune to what? The radio, I guess. I mean, what is even going to be available? That's my point. That is exactly my point. There will be no power. There will be no infrastructure. There will be no ... You see what's happening in Florida right now with the recovery efforts after this hurricane just swept through and demolished it. You think about that and multiply that by, I don't know, 50,000 times the devastation is what we would see, but we wouldn't have FEMA. We wouldn't have these first responders who are able to actually go out and help people. The worst thing, man, the worst thing I said, when I watched that PSA, get inside, stay inside, stay tuned. At the end, I'm assuming as an actor they hired to do this, she looks in the camera and she's like, you got this, New York. What in the world? These people are creating this false sense of security for the American people saying, oh yeah, take shelter, but there is no shelter. We should watch that because it's so crazy. It is insane. Let's watch that because it's ... There's been a nuclear attack. Don't ask me how or why. Just know that the big one has hit, okay? So what do we do? There are three important steps that I want you to remember. Step one, get inside fast. You, your friends, your family, get inside. And no, staying in the car is not an option. You need to get into a building and move away from the windows. Look at her smiles. I know. Big smile. Step two, stay inside. Shut all doors and windows. Have a basement? Head there. If you don't have one, get as far into the middle of the building as possible. If you were outside after the blast, get clean immediately. Remove and bag all outer clothing to keep radioactive dust or ash away from your body. Step three, stay tuned. Follow media for more information. Don't forget to sign up for Notify NYC for official alerts and updates. And don't go outside until officials say it's safe. All right? You've got this. You're gonna shit. Officials like who? Rashida Tlaib? She's gonna tell you? Like who's the officials? People that they elected? Who? Who's gonna tell you it's okay to go outside during a nuclear blast in the United States, something that's never happened ever and that we're completely woefully unprepared for? Exactly. You got this. You got this. She's so pretty though. Your big smile. She's got a nice smile. She's got a great smile. That's probably the fire. You hired her. That is a crazy thing to put out there. First of all, because like what is it? What's the purpose of that? Is that to reassure people? Like what is the purpose of that? It's not to inform people because none of what she said makes any sense. No. Oh, get in the middle of the room? Oh, that's okay. The outside's not good? The middle's not gonna be... Because the radiation is not... It just stays but the radiation's kind of like a fog machine. Just doesn't get inside. I was in, I think it was after my second deployment. When I came back from the Middle East, I went on a trip and did some travel through Eastern Europe and went and actually visited Chernobyl. And it was astonishing to me even decades after that happened because I was curious. I'd heard about it and was like, okay. Went on this little bus and went out there. They gave us these radiation monitors, these handheld radiation monitors so that wherever we were, you could kind of test and see where the radiation still existed. They're like, oh, you're gonna see apple trees and things like that? Don't eat any of the fruit because it's contaminated. It is still contaminated decades later. Walking through the middle of the town, I know everyone's seen the pictures and obviously now with that Chernobyl series, I think that Netflix did, more and more people know the story but walking through the school and the classrooms where the desks and the books and the kids' shoes and the deflated basketballs, everything is still there in the way that it was when people fled and had to evacuate when that nuclear plant melted down. It was so eerie walking through there. You could almost kind of feel the heaviness of what happened there. And then as we were leaving after we left and were crossing back into Ukraine, we had to go through these, before we got on the bus, we had to go through these radiation, kind of like the thing you walk through in TSA, except it tests for radiation to make sure you're not actually bringing any contaminants with you back into society. All of that is to say, this is what we're talking about. So you see that kind of video and you see how completely out of touch it is with the reality of what could happen in the event of a nuclear attack and the fact that you know Russia's got what, over 6,000 nuclear warheads. United States has over 5,000 nuclear warheads, both countries making up 90% of the total number of nuclear warheads that exist in the world. And literally it would just take the flick of a match to spark this war off. And that's where say, okay, well, you hear President Biden say, well, this is Putin's war. This is Putin's fault. It's Putin who's the one who's solely responsible. Well, the United States and some of these European NATO countries are fueling this war and need to provide the leadership to bring about a negotiated outcome. That is exactly what needs to happen here to prevent the destruction of the planet and life as we know it. They're not doing that. And in doing so, they are failing the American people and putting us in this position of not knowing where we're going to be in the event that this kicks off. Do you think that whoever the powers it be and whatever the influence is from the military industrial complex, that they are trying to prolong this in order to profit. So they're trying to continue to fund Ukraine. It gives them an excellent reason to ramp up budgets and keep shipping over weapons and arms. They keep making more and more profit and just get us right to the point where it gets squirrely. Well, Putin won't do it. He won't do it. He won't do it. But if he does it, there's no pulling back from that. There's no pulling back. The only reason why we would ever get to that point is because people are trying to make more money. That is certainly a major driver. I have no doubt about that. I am concerned that we may have passed that point already. You're talking about people pushing us right up, right up to the line and then just saying, well, you know, the whole theory of nuclear weapons is one of mutually assured destruction. There's no way Putin will ever launch this because of that fear of like, okay, well, we will all be destroyed if that happens. They're saying, you know, Putin is many things, but he's not crazy. There's no way he's going to do this. Well, they're talking about doing it. They changed their nuclear weapons policy so that according to their laws, they would be authorized to use a nuclear weapon if they are facing any kind of existential threat, whether it's coming from a nuclear source or not. You look at the situation that Putin is in right now. He's boxed into a corner. He's lost face. He is in a place where he may feel like he has nothing else to lose. You find that same kind of mentality in people who are suicidal or people who are bullied or people who feel like their best option is a way out. And so to be so dismissive and say, well, you know, Putin's not crazy. He's not going to do this. It denies the reality of the position that he's in.