Jon Stewart: 'I am not used to the cruelty', Senate blocking PACT Act - 2022

29 July 2022, Washington DC, USA

So ain't this a bitch? Ain't this a bitch?

America's heroes who fought in our wars outside sweating their asses off, with oxygen, battling all kinds of ailments while these motherfuckers sit in the air conditioning walled off from any of it.

They don't have to hear it. They don't have to see it. They don't have to understand that these are human beings.

Do you get it yet? Do we see that these are … these aren't heroes. These are men and women, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers that we just let stand outside in the heat when they can't breathe.

I'm going to read you something. This is beautiful. I'm going to read you something beautiful. You know what... I said a curse word and I'm sorry about that. That was my fault. Let me say something beautiful.

There's a tweet from Senator Rick Scott of Florida from yesterday. It's beautiful. And I'm sorry about the cursing and let me say something beautiful to make it up to you.

"I was honoured to join the USO today and make care packages for our brave military members in gratitude ... In gratitude! ... of their sacrifice and service to our nation." And there's a beautiful picture. I wish you could see it. He's standing with a little package. Did you get the package? It's like, I think it has M&Ms in it and some cookies. And some moist towelettes.

Honestly. I don't even know what to say, I've been coming down here. 10, 15 years. I'm used to the hypocrisy. Christina Keen will tell you from DFW, she sat in an office with Mitch McConnell and a war veteran from Kentucky and he looked that man in the eyes and he said, 'We'll get it done'. And he lied to him cuz Mitch McConnell yesterday flipped.

I'm used to the lies. I'm used to the hypocrisy. Senator Pat Twomey won't take a meeting with the veterans groups, sends out his Chief of Staff. I'm used to the cowardice. I've been here a long time.

The Senate is where accountability goes to die. These people don't care. They're never losing their jobs. They're never losing their healthcare. Pat Twomey didn't lose his job. He's walking away. God knows what kind of pot of gold he's stepping into, to lobby this government to shit on more people.

I'm used to all of it, but I am not used to the cruelty.

They passed it June 16th. They passed the PACT Act 84 to 14. You don't even see those scores in the Senate anymore. They passed it. Every one of these individuals that has been fighting for years, standing on the shoulders of Vietnam veterans who have been fighting for years, standing on the shoulders of Persian Gulf War veterans fighting for years, Desert Storm veterans to just get the healthcare and benefits that they earned from their service. And I don't care if they were fighting for our freedom. I don't care if they were fighting for the flag. I don't care if they were fighting cuz they wanted to get out of a drug treatment centre or it was jail or the army. I don't give a shit. They lived up to their oath and yesterday they spit on it in abject cruelty.

These people thought they could finally breathe. You think their struggles end because the Pact Act passes. All it means is they don't have to decide between their cancer drugs and their house. Their struggle continues.

Crowd member: This bill does a lot more than just give us healthcare

Gives them healthcare, gives them benefits. Lets them live.

Crowd member: Keeps veterans from going homeless. Keeps veterans from becoming addicts. Keeps veterans from committing suicide.

Senator Twomey's not going to hear that cuz he won't sit down with this man cuz he is a fucking coward. You hear me? A coward. And like I say, I'm used to it. But this type of cruelty on those that we say we hold up as our most valued Americans. Then what are we? Pat Twomey stood up there ... 'Patriot Pat Twomey', Excuse me, I'm sorry. I want to give him his propers. I wanna make sure that I give him his propers ... 'Patriot Pat Twomey' stood on the floor and said, 'this is a slush fund. They're going to use 400 billion to spend on whatever they want.'

That's nonsense. I call bullshit. This isn't a slush fund. You know what's a slush fund. The OCO, the Overseas Contingency Operations fund. 60 billion. 70 billion dollars every year on top of 500 billion, 600 billion, 700 billion of a defence budget. That's a slush fund. Unaccountable, no guardrails. Did Pat Twomey stand up and say 'This is irresponsible. The guardrails?' No, not one of them did. They vote for it year after year after year. You don't support the troops. You support the war machine. That's all you care about.

Crowd member: He personally signed the doc proclamation to

Boy, they haven't, haven't met a war they won't sign up for and they haven't met a veteran they won't screw over. What the fuck are we?

Veteran: Barbaric! Barbaric.

And now they're going to go away. Pat Twomey says, 'I've got veterans groups behind me'. I call bullshit. These are the veterans groups. VFW, American Legion, IADA, Wounded Warriors, DAV, Amvets. They're all here.

This is the veterans community, Senator. They don't stand behind you. In fact, you won't let them stand in front of you.

Crowd member: Cowards.

Cowards all of them. Cowards all of them. And now they say, well, this'll get done, maybe after we get back from our summer recess, maybe during the lame duck because they're on Senate time. Do you understand? You live around here. Senate time is ridiculous ...

These motherfuckers live to 200. They're tortoises. They live forever and they never lose their jobs and they never lose their benefits and they never lose all those things. Well, they're not on senate time. They're on human time, cancer time.

Don't you have families? Don't you have people who are deciding how to live their last moments? I know some of them, they've been down here advocating with us. They spent their remaining time advocating so that other soldiers didn't have to face the indignities and the depravity and the desperation that they faced. And none of them will hear it. And none of them care except to tweet. Boy, they'll tweet it. Can't wait to see what they come up with on Veterans Day, on Memorial Day! Well, this is the reality of it.

I honestly don't even know what to say anymore. But we need your help because we're not leaving. These people cannot go away. I don't know if you know this. Obviously I'm not a military expert. I didn't serve in the military. But from what I understand, you're not allowed to just leave your post when the mission isn't completed. Apparently you take an oath, you swear an oath and you can't leave.

But these folks can leave cuz they're on Senate time.

Go ahead, go home, spend time with your families cuz these people can't do it anymore. So they can't leave until this gets done. Cuz these people will not give up, they will not give in and they will not relent.

This is an embarrassment to the Senate, to the country, to the founders and all that they profess to hold dear.

And if this is America first, then America is fucked.

Tom Tugendhat: 'I've watched good men go into the earth', Commons speech on Afghanistan withdrawal - 2021

18 August 2021, Westminster, London, United Kingdom

Like many veterans, this last week has been one that has seen me struggle through anger, grief and rage. The feeling of abandonment, not just of a country but of the sacrifice that my friends made. I’ve been to funerals from Poole to Dunblane; I’ve watched good men go into the earth, taking with them a part of me and a part of us all. And this week has torn open those wounds, left them raw, left us all hurting. I know it’s not just soldiers. I know aid workers and diplomats who feel the same way. I know journalists who’ve been the witnesses to our country in its heroic effort to save people from the most horrific fates.

This isn’t just about us. The mission in Afghanistan wasn’t a British mission, it was a Nato mission. It was a recognition that globalisation has changed us all. The phone calls that I am still receiving, the text messages that I have been answering, putting people in touch with our people in Afghanistan, reminds us that we are connected. Afghanistan is not a far away country about which we know little. It is part of the main. That connection links us also to our European partners, to our neighbours and our international friends.

And so it is with great sadness that I now criticise one of them. Because I was never prouder than when I was decorated by the 82nd Airborne after the capture of Musa Qala. It was a huge privilege to be recognised by such an extraordinary unit in combat. To see their commander-in-chief call into question the courage of men I fought with — to claim that they ran. It is shameful.

Those who have never fought for the colours they fly should be careful about criticising those who have. Because what we have done, in these last few days, is we’ve demonstrated that it’s not armies that win wars. Armies can get tactical victories and operational victories that can hold a line. They can just about make room for peace, make room for people like us, parliamentarians, to talk, to compromise, to listen. It’s nations that make war. Nations endure. Nations mobilise and muster. Nations determine, and have patience.

Here we have demonstrated, sadly, that we, the West — the United Kingdom — does not have patience. Now, this is a harsh lesson for all of us and if we are not careful it could be a very, very difficult lesson for our allies. And it doesn’t need to be. We can set out a vision, a clear articulated vision, for reinvigorating a European-Nato partnership, to make sure we are not dependent on a single ally, on the decision of a single leader, but that we can work together with Japan and Australia, with France and Germany, with partners large and small, and make sure we hold the line together.

We know that patience wins. We know it because we have achieved it, we know it because we have delivered it. The Cold War was won with patience. Cyprus is at peace with patience. South Korea, with more than ten times the number of troops that America had in Afghanistan, is prosperous through patience.

So let’s stop talking about ‘forever wars’, let’s recognise that forever peace is not bought cheaply — it is hard. It is bought through determination and the will to endure. The tragedy of Afghanistan is that we are swapping that patient achievement for a second fire and a second war.

Now we need to turn our attention to those who are in desperate need, to supporting the UNHCR, the World Food Programme and so many other organisations who can do so much for people in the region. Yes to support refugees, though it’s unnecessary to get into the political auction of numbers. We just need to get people out. So I leave with one image. In the year that I was privileged to be the adviser to the governor of Helmand province, we opened girls’ schools. The joy it gave parents, seeing their little girl going to school, was extraordinary. I didn’t understand it until I took my own daughters to school about a year ago. There was a lot of crying when she first went in, but I got over it.

But there is a second image that I must leave you with and it is a harder one. But I am afraid it is one I think we must all remember. The second image is one that the forever war that has just reignited could lead to. It is the image of a man whose name I will never know carrying a child who had died hours earlier, carrying this child into our base and begging for help. There was nothing we could do. It was over. This is what defeat looks like: when you no longer have a choice of how to help. This doesn’t need to be defeat — but at the moment, it damn well feels like it.