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<\/a>Interestingly, John McCain and Hillary Clinton were here earlier today, and I guess they flew up from Baghdad, so there\u2019s been a lot of attention focused on the troops just today alone, and we\u2019re going to spend a lot of time with them from now until Saturday. We\u2019re going to be flying all over the country seeing various outposts and what they\u2019re doing, but I tell you it just makes you proud. It just really makes you proud. They\u2019re far ahead of schedule here in terms of ramping up the Afghan police force and their own version of their army. They\u2019re training army personnel here much rapidly, almost twice as fast as was projected. So it really is a positive sign here, a positive experience, and the development? The Army is doing things here that, you know, some of the old guys are not really trained for but they\u2019re adapting to it in helping the people here move forward with their freedom and whatever kind of government they set up.<\/p>\nSo I mean, it was a jam-packed first day and I\u2019m trying to cram as much of it I can here into this brief little report here. The timing worked out perfectly because I just walked into my quarters here and was able to find a free land line to give you a call. So I just want everybody to know I\u2019m okay. I understood that there was some panic yesterday when I didn\u2019t call in. That\u2019s because I wasn\u2019t even in Afghanistan yesterday. We were still in Dubai putzin\u2019 around and there\u2019s no reason to tell anybody about that. But this is in Afghanistan. This is one of the greatest things I\u2019ve decided to do. I\u2019m glad I did it. Everybody can be as proud as they can of the American military here in this operation. It\u2019s just astounding to see.<\/p>\n
GUEST HOST: Rush Limbaugh in Afghanistan. Rush, I gotta tell you, I was going to tell you that it was important to convey, as you did, our just gratitude beyond the describing of it for the sacrifice made by our young men and women who are over there doing that. Can you describe the kind of quarters you have? I mean, given that it is a country with not a lot of infrastructure, what have they offered you?<\/p>\n
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\nI met a bunch of native Afghani people today who their big fear is that the US will leave. They\u2019re so excited about the changes in the elections that took place that they\u2019re really jazzed. But in terms of the culture and just the infrastructure, I\u2019ve never seen a place like this. I guess bombed-out Dresden in World War II might look somewhat like it. But it\u2019s still a military war zone. We have a security bubble everywhere we go. Military, armed snipers and sharp shooters are with us in our little convoy. There\u2019s not much insurgent activity. The main military action over here remains warlords, the old mujahideen who fought the Russians. We had a huge military briefing tonight which they gave us the overview of what\u2019s happening in the country and what their projection is, and it\u2019s all pretty interesting, and some of it\u2019s pretty optimistic but I think a lot of it is attainable. One of the reasons I was interested to come to Afghanistan is that there\u2019s no news coming out of here, like there is out of Iraq, and I figured, “Well, given the US media, that has to be the fact that the news here is good,” and it is.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ll tell you, I am more impressed and more in awe of the armed forces in this country, the uniformed personnel than ever. I mean, they volunteer and they get sent to a place like this, and they\u2019re all smiling, and they\u2019re all happy! They are ecstatic to see people from back home, and they love hearing stories about support for their operations and their mission, because they\u2019re all committed to it. I saw men, women; black, white, you name it. All ethnic groups represented in the military here.<\/p>\n
RUSH: Well, the place I am is part of the US AID, Agency for International Development compound, which is down the street from not only the Karzai residence, but from the US embassy, and it is all Americanized. Generators run and it\u2019s all — I don\u2019t need any foreign power converters. I only have one English-language television station here, and that\u2019s the BBC. It\u2019s as boring as it can be. I\u2019ve had enough of that and CNN International while I was over in Dubai, so (raspberry) to that. But I don\u2019t need any television here. I\u2019ve got Internet. I can\u2019t get my personal e-mail to work on their LAN connection here, but we\u2019ll get that worked out before I leave. It\u2019s just — I\u2019ll tell you, you know, you talked about the opportunity to convey to the troops. It is. I can talk about them on the radio program as you do and we salute them and so forth, but I just felt so small compared to these people standing before them, and they\u2019re just as eager.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re excited to see people from back home. And, by the way, folks, if you\u2019re wondering I didn\u2019t go politically correct on them. I told them exactly who\u2019s saying what about them in an opposition fashion. I told them what I think is the sort of phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock ‘n\u2019 roller of some members of American left saying they support the troops but they don\u2019t support their mission — and I haven\u2019t run into anybody who has snickered.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re eager for the truth here. They are. As you know we\u2019ve had soldiers come back from both Afghanistan in Iraq and express frustration when they go home and watch the news and they see things that they don\u2019t see when they\u2019re actually deployed in these places, and these people have the same experience. Whenever they do see news out of Afghanistan — when the UN came out today or yesterday saying that Afghanistan is losing ground; it\u2019s the fifth worst developed country in the world and unless there\u2019s a massive infusion then Afghanistan will descend back to the ravages of the Taliban. The Taliban is done.<\/p>\n
The Taliban is defeated. It has maybe 3,000 members. It\u2019s a phony report designed because the UN is trying to get their hands in the back pockets of the American taxpayer again by talking about Afghanistan not having enough development aid. I mean, this place is so far and away better than what it was a year ago or two. Even so, though, it\u2019s a culture most Americans wouldn\u2019t realize. But the people here…<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tough for me to speak for a whole lot of Afghanis. I\u2019ve only met a very few here in this first day, and I\u2019m well aware that they could have found Afghan people for me that say things I want to hear, so I\u2019ll learn more about this as the days unfold but they\u2019re all excited about their future here and the opportunity they have to finally live lives of freedom however they decide to set up their government. Big problem here is opium production like cocaine is in Colombia. They\u2019re trying to do their best to eradicate that and that\u2019s where president Karzai is actually trying to shame these old mujahideen warlords who are growing the opium into changing their ways, but it\u2019s highly profitable.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s like anything in the illegal drug trade. There are a tremendous amount of challenges here, but the optimism from the commanding officers of the military and the grunts and the soldiers is breathtaking. It would inspire me and inspire you if you had a chance to come over and see it. Look, I know you gotta take a commercial break, because I put together the programming format. But if you\u2019d like I\u2019d hang on if you have any other questions, I\u2019d be glad to try to answer.<\/p>\n
GUEST HOST: Rush, I do, and if you would that, would be great. I know we\u2019re on a satellite phone so I appreciate the fragility of some of that, and I appreciate your giving us this report. It\u2019s exactly what we needed this morning to know what was going on there firsthand with a couple more questions let me take that break, and we will be right back.<\/p>\n
BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n
GUEST HOST: We are on the phone with the Doctor of Democracy himself, America\u2019s anchorman in Afghanistan, live with us. Rush, getting back to your schedule. If you could give us some idea about it: A meeting with Karzai, the government, the ordinary Afghanis, again, meeting with troops. How much of the country are you going to be able to see?<\/p>\n
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<\/a>RUSH: Well, all of it. I mean, it\u2019s an incredible itinerary. This reminds me of the trip I took to Israel in 1993. I had four days there, and I saw more in four days than I would have learned about in two years of college. It\u2019s the same here. I\u2019ve barely scratched the surface of what happened today, and we just got into the country five hours ago. I just now got to where it is I\u2019m staying. From the moment we got off of the airplane it was over to the US Agency for International Development to meet with them because they\u2019re working with the military, sort of a unique alliance. It\u2019s all part of the president\u2019s agenda to make sure that after routing the Taliban, that the country of Afghanistan does not descend back into what it was, and so his recipe of human freedom is the foundation for this, and the military is working with the USAID people to actually develop this country, to develop the infrastructure. They\u2019re building roads over here to improve commerce — and, you know, ideas travel on roads, too. The Taliban hated road construction because ideas move on roads. So we stopped there. That was about an hour. From there, went over for a scheduled meeting with the president, Hamid Karzai, and by the time we got there — and the schedule was up in the air. He had requested we move it to Friday, which was fine with me because I\u2019d rather talk to him after having seen a lot of the country than not having seen it all.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/what_he_saw_on_day_one.Par.0009.ImageFile.jpg\")
I trust free people. Let free people make up their own minds about things and you can trust the results,” and I said, “There are a lot of people in America who don\u2019t trust free people to do the right thing. I won\u2019t mention a political party; you all know it, and I won\u2019t mention the ideology; you all know it. But I have no desire to tell the Afghans they have to do it this way; they have to do it it that way. Give them their freedom and let th, a former Vietnam vet, thanked me for standing up for Vietnam vets and he said he wished they had people like me during the Vietnam War, and I said, “That\u2019s very nice and I appreciate that, but, look, it\u2019s a far thing, talking about what you do and doing what you do.” Like I said these questions, some have really made me small.<\/p>\n