CERL Book Talk with David Philipps

In a moderated conversation with CERL's Prof. Claire Finkelstein, award-winning national correspondent for The New York Times David Philipps discussed his book Alpha: Eddie Gallagher and the War for the Soul of the Navy SEALs.

[@mmeeozzzaaa3421]

I'm surprised that the Navy lawyers didn't tape the medic's interview and use that to impeach his testimony if he changed his story.

[@ryanrich06]

1:01:14 “if you aren’t cheatin you aren’t trying” does not equate to BUD/S creating cheaters, it is more of a motto of out of the box thinking and developing tradecraft. Would you call spies in the CIA all liars because they’re experts at lying? No, because we entrust those people to use their skills professionally, the same goes for SEALs and special operations in general.

[@Chertoff88]

The ignorance of the military displayed in this interview is stunning. However, Phillips book was very good.

[@mmeeozzzaaa3421]

That's because the vast majority of this country has no one, in the military. They haven't had someone in the military since at least Vietnam, which was 60 years ago, and some haven't had anyone in the military since WWII. Therefore they don't know anything about the military. And when something goes wrong or there is a miscarriage of justice, then they don't know enough to care. You will also find this in Congress, where very few members of Congress know enough to call BS on a General or Admiral. The result is that the military is running around, more or less unsupervised and no one is really calling them on problems, such as why we had a 20 year war in Afghanistan and lost or why we lost the war in Iraq. This is what happens when you have a volunteer force. It becomes a self selecting thing where the only ones who go into the military are people with a family history of going into the military. There are exceptions of course, but by and large, it's becoming a family thing that people in certain families do. And because so few people have family in the military, there isn't any interest in following news about what happens in the military, except when there's a huge scandal. In short, a lot of money is being spent without any supervision or oversight. I don't know if that's what the military intended when it went for an all-volunteer force, but it's what it got. It also means no one cares because they don't have to. They don't have to because they don't have family in the military. This video on a sizeable scandal in the military has less than 600 views. It should have far more. (it's also the underlying problem with someone walking up to the military and saying "Thanks you for your service." the unspoken part is "because that means neither me nor my family have to serve and there is no draft."

[@mmeeozzzaaa3421]

there were generals in the German Army in WWII who after the war tried to claim that they were only following orders. The judges at Nuremberg, said "No. Soldiers can't escape responsibility for war crimes, even if they were only "following orders."

[@mmeeozzzaaa3421]

the Seal's pin is a symbol of everything they've done, and as such it's value is far beyond its dollar value. Trump by putting his finger in it, put his finger and politicize the pin far more than it ever could have been

[@glenn2745]

So this is Trump's fault? He got played, the problem is with the SEALs.

[@glenn2745]

Interviewer is terrible. She doesn't understand the subject matter broadly so she asks silly questions.

[@reginaldgalluzzo5093]

☺️ "promo sm"