WTH: Gen. Frank McKenzie Explains the Importance of American Strength in the Middle East
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 3 October 2024
⏱️ 56 minutes
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Summary
General (Ret.) Frank McKenzie was the Commander of United States Central Command when the U.S. took out Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. What can we learn from Gen. McKenzie’s time as CENTCOM Commander? It’s simple: America’s enemies respect our strength. And when we fail to punish bad actors, stand by our allies, or uphold our commitments, our enemies – from Iran to Russia to China – are emboldened. In our conversation with Gen. McKenzie, we discuss his new book, lessons from his service under multiple administrations, and the decision making leading up to America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
General (Ret.) Frank McKenzie the former Commander of United States Central Command. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the University of South Florida’s Global National Security Institute, the Executive Director of the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, and as a Distinguished Senior Fellow on National Security at the Middle East Institute. He is the author of The Melting Point: High Command and War in the 21st Century (Naval Institute Press, 2024).
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.0 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. What hell's going on? |
| 0:01.1 | Who in God's name knows what it's all about. |
| 0:29.6 | I am Danielle Pletka. |
| 0:31.4 | And I'm Mark Teeson. |
| 0:32.4 | Welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:33.6 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:35.9 | Mark, what the hell is going on? |
| 0:39.3 | What the hell is going on is we've got a great interview for you today with General Frank McKenzie, who was the combatant commander of |
| 0:44.1 | U.S. Central Command, and he's the guy who carried out the strike that killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. |
| 0:50.2 | He's the guy who carried out the strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, presided over one of the strongest periods of U.S. taking out bad guys and deterring their sponsors in the Middle East. And he's going to take us deep into those stories about how those happened. He's got a new book out where he tells these stories. And he's going to, he's a great storyteller. And he's going to tell it, take you behind the scenes in some of these operations. and it's absolutely fascinating. It is absolutely fascinating. And, you know, it's funny, over the last 40 years that I've been in this business, I've met a lot of combatant commanders. We called them sinks in the old days. And Rumsfeld changed that. I was there. I know. He said it was commander-in- chief of U.S. Central Command and like that, and |
| 1:28.8 | Rumsfeld came in and said there's only one commander in chief. |
| 1:31.2 | Yes. Well, if only Rumsfeld had kept himself to the bureaucratic exercises that engaged him. |
| 1:37.0 | But anyway, yeah, not a fan, as you know. |
| 1:41.6 | I am. |
| 1:43.0 | Not a fan. Not a fan. |
| 1:44.8 | Sorry. |
| 1:45.6 | Anyway. |
| 1:46.5 | But as we, but, but one of, you know, one of the things that I've seen over these years is that these guys that are immersed in the region become very much part of the region. |
| 2:00.2 | And something that has changed that was hugely important. become very much part of the region. |
| 2:07.2 | And something that has changed that was hugely important was that Israel, |
| 2:11.5 | which used to be part of Ucom, the European Command, |
... |
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