Welcome back to the Lincoln Project. I'm your host, Reed Gaelin. Today I'm joined by

Mike Hayes, author of the new book Never Enough, a Navy SEAL commander on living a life

of excellence, agility, and meaning. Mike served as commanding officer of SEAL Team 2,

and in 2012 he oversaw all special operations in South Eastern Afghanistan. He was a director

at the National Security Council for Defense Policy and Strategy under President George W. Bush

and President Barack Obama. In addition to his memoir, Mike founded the 1162 Foundation

to support the families of special operators who gave their lives in service. And most recently,

Mike wrote an op-ed for Time Magazine entitled, President Biden made the right choice to withdraw

from Afghanistan. Mike, thanks for joining me today. Reed, it's a real pleasure to be here,

and thanks to you for all the incredible positive impact you've had on this great nation.

Well, you're too kind to say so. You guys had to go out and do actual work. We sat behind

zooms and made commercials about Donald Trump's small hands and inability to drink water. So,

we all do our part, I guess. But Mike, talk to me a little bit about your background. So,

you went to Holy Cross, you were in the ROTC and joined the Navy, became a SEAL. How long

were you a member of the SEAL teams? I served for 20 years, came in in 1993 and retired

in 2013 and have been in the private sector now for a little over eight years.

So let me ask you this. I mean, when you went in in 1993, that was sort of the, I mean,

maybe not for guys like you, but for the rest of the world, that felt a little like Pax

Americana. The Cold War had ended. Democracy was on the rise. There were hot spots here

and there, obviously, Somalia, Kosovo, Haiti, places like that. But the global standoff

between communism and capitalism and mutually assured destruction appeared probably to

have receded. So what was it like going into the teams in that early 90s mindset to post

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