CHAFFETZ: And Kurt, what do you - what's your reaction to that?
KURT SCHLICHTER, TOWNHALL SENIOR COLUMNIST: Well, look, I'm a retired colonel, so I'm not impressed by generals just because they pin a couple stars on their shoulders. And I think the American people are coming up with that is, Professor Hanson said, and as usual he's writing everything he said.
He pointed out that Reagan Institute study that says only 45 percent of Americans approve of the military now. I cited that for my next book just the other day. In 2018, it was 70 percent. These guys have presided over a freefall of the American people's confidence in the military, which was once the only institution that we still had any respect for.
I'm listening to these guys, and all I hear is, I don't trust my soldiers. They are not going to listen to me. They won't take the vaccine. Holy cow. It would never occur to me that my troops wouldn't follow me, but I guess I was coming up under a different Army. For instance, in my Army, unlike today's Air Force, we did not ask pronouns to our signature blocks. We were serious about were fighting and serious and winning. And in fact, I was in the last war that we unequivocally won, Operation Desert Storm. It's been 30 years.
Now, if these guys were coming off a string of victories, if they had put something in the "W" column, I might be more willing to listen to them. But all I see is a bunch of guys who figure out they can't beat any foreigners, so maybe they will give it a shot with some Americans. Maybe they'll do better. But I kind of doubt that. It's an embarrassment. We need to fire everybody --
CHAFFETZ: All right, gentlemen, I've got a very short amount of time, a very short amount of time. Quickly, 20 seconds each. Why the scare tactic? What do they think they're going to achieve? Twenty second each. Victor?
HANSON: They're preempting. They want to scare conservatives and traditionalists to back and to not try to get voter I.D. and have fairer and free election. So they are planning a coup if you try that, you're planning a coup. And so they're doing this because they're losing support and they're terrified of a midterm disaster in the next year.
CHAFFETZ: A lot of truth to that. Kurt?
SCHLICHTER: Look, we are not going to be talking about this coup nonsense in 2024. We're going to be talking about Putin's successful invasion of Ukraine and the Chinese successful seizure of Taiwan. And I pray that we are not talking about thousands and thousands of American casualties. But this level of incompetence makes that almost a foregone conclusion.
Look, guys, I'm worried. And I think Dr. Hanson is worried, too. And we all need to get our military back into shape and to a warfighting frame of mind.
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