Welcome. My name is Glenn Dyson. I'm joined by Alexander McCurs and also retired Colonel Daniel Davis. Welcome, sir.

Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

So I've said many times before that, you know, patriotism is often now expressed, I would say, almost as self-delusion.

We have this conformity to the extent, you know, we have to repeat narratives which we know are false and even damaging.

And I think that, you know, in every war, we eventually discover that self-delusion does not produce good policies.

And we become largely unable to pursue our national interests and increase our security so I think this idea of

committing to a narrative of based on wishful thinking will result in well absence

of accountability course correction is prevented you know we, we reward failures. So we also see that

those who advocate for wars without any possibility of success often end up getting nice jobs

for arms manufacturers, while those who push for accountability might have their loyalty questions.

So the system isn't working the way it should is what I'm trying to say.

And I think this is a great topic to discuss today with Colonel Daniel Davis, who has

served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and has also been at the forefront, I would say,

of observing such a dangerous deception

when the narrative deviates too far from reality.

So if I'm not mistaken among the US military officers,

you were one of the first to really publicly criticize the war in Afghanistan.

It wasn't going as, well, authorities and the media suggested it was,

and proving evidence that the war wasn't being won and pretending otherwise is not in

America's interests.

And, well, Mr. Davis, I feel a bit of a sense of a deja vu here because, you know, we see again that

delusion, I would say, is almost celebrated as virtue.

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