Hello everyone and welcome to the Focus Group podcast.

I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of the bulwark.

And this week we're covering an organization that was once the most trusted institution

in America, but has become a political football in the second Trump administration, and I am

talking about the American military. This year, we've seen a major parade in the nation's capital

that was kind of sort of for the president's birthday, which is not a thing we usually do here in

America, the National Guard deployed in major American cities, including the one I'm

sitting in right now.

And we are maybe doing war crimes to these boats in Venezuela. We've changed the name from the

Department of Defense to the Department of War. We have some very controversial and I would say

unqualified people in charge. And it's interesting

because this is all happening while the Republican electorate is a lot less hawkish than it used to be.

It's one of the big changes that I've seen as somebody who is a young Republican in the post-9-11 world

and the Republican Party today, which is much more isolationist.

My guest today is Lieutenant General Mark Hurtling, the Bullwarks resident military expert,

who recently came on as a contributor, and he has been contributing a ton, partly because he's so

good and partly because there's been quite a bit to talk about.

Thanks, General. Thanks for being here.

Good to be with you, Sarah, for the first time. Let's see what happens today. Let's see what happens.

Well, you know, we use the focus group pod as kind of a hazing ritual for new people at the

bulwark. We're like, oh, you're here now. You've got to listen to voters and we inflict them on you as

as part of your

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