Paul Alkoby (00:00):
Great. Glad this, uh, glad we could finally make this happen.
Sevan Matossian (00:04):
<laugh>. Yeah, for sure. Bam. We’re live. Good morning, everybody. Caleb. What’s up, dude?
Paul Alkoby (00:09):
Good morning.
Sevan Matossian (00:11):
Caleb. Paul. Paul. Caleb.
Paul Alkoby (00:13):
Morning. Caleb. How you doing? Good to finally meet,
Sevan Matossian (00:17):
Um, Paul Alco.
Paul Alkoby (00:19):
That is correct.
Sevan Matossian (00:21):
Did I say it right?
Paul Alkoby (00:22):
You did. You’re of the right rare people to say it right.
Sevan Matossian (00:24):
Well, I, I cheated. I cheated <laugh>. I cheated. I did. I, I, I dug around and I heard on another podcast you were like, man, I’ve heard my name in every way. And when your name is Seon, you’ve heard it in every way too.
Paul Alkoby (00:38):
Oh, I’m sure.
Sevan Matossian (00:40):
Alby. What kind of name is that?
Paul Alkoby (00:41):
Oh, it’s Moroccan.
Sevan Matossian (00:43):
Oh, wow. Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that. Mor. Are both your parents Moroccan?
Paul Alkoby (00:50):
Uh, my dad is,
Sevan Matossian (00:51):
Oh shit. Is he a first generation in the United States?
Paul Alkoby (00:54):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (00:55):
Wow. Have you been to Morocco?
Paul Alkoby (00:57):
Not yet. I was to go, uh, 2014 when I was stationed overseas and there was an incident and couldn’t go.
Sevan Matossian (01:06):
Oh, that’s not exactly the kind trip I heard. It’s amazing. I heard It is absolutely amazing. I heard it’s a great place.
Paul Alkoby (01:13):
That’s what I’ve heard.
Sevan Matossian (01:14):
Yeah. Yes, I’ve heard their Portugal are fantastic.
Paul Alkoby (01:20):
Actually, a weird, uh, segue. So Portugal actually, because of the Spanish Inquisition, is giving Jews, Jews that can prove their Sephardic, uh, Portuguese passports. So I’m actually in the application process for that. So
Sevan Matossian (01:36):
Oh, that’s the best kind of reparations I ever heard. That’s enough. That’s
Paul Alkoby (01:39):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (01:39):
Perfect. Plenty. Yeah. I love that. And hey, and who better to recruit than some Jews? Recruit some Jews and some Japanese and fuck your economy’s up and running
Paul Alkoby (01:49):
There. It’s
Sevan Matossian (01:50):
<laugh> in no time. Well, se that’s racist. I know. I can’t help it. It just is. It is that way. You bring in the Jews. It was funny, I had this guy on yesterday and um, on the show who lived in a, um, in a, in, or he grew up in a projects in Bronx, right. And the projects he was describing, the project is three 20 story. It was 14 buildings in totality in the Bronx. It was like Castle Hill or something, bad place. And it was, uh, it was 14 buildings and three of them I think were 20 story buildings. And then the other 11 were smaller buildings. And I said, Hey, do you know why? Do you know the history of those? And as we started digging in the history, he, at first he was gonna go down some sort of theory that they were built to basically experiment on blacks, put blacks in like this really tough situation, experiment on ’em, and, and, and, and, and that way you could bring them guns and drugs and just purposely fuck with them.
(02:43):
He was gonna kind of go down that. But quickly we realized, no, these buildings were built in New York to house Jews coming basically through Ellis Island, basically. That’s crazy. Basically leaving Europe. And we all know what happened to those Jews. I think it was in one of, um, I forget the guy’s name, who’s that little tiny black dude who writes all those pop psychology books. They’re really cool. He’s, he’s a runner, um, skinny. Someone will say it in the comments. He’s tiny. He’s like five foot two super thin. He wrote outliers. He’s the guy who popularized, he didn’t create a Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm Gladwell, thank you Caleb. Um, one of Gladwell’s books, I I was, he described how basically, you know, the Jews came here, poor as shit. And, um, you know, their only, the only profession that they had when they came from Europe was, um, uh, seamstress, basically clothing, the garment industry. And at that time in the United States, the garment industry was exploding because they found there was some sort of way where they could manufacture, uh, ma uh, clothing, fa uh, not clothing, um, uh, I, I’m not gonna say it right, but cloth faster. And so Jews started opening up fucking shitloads of cleaning services, services, clothing stores. And that was the boom of that industry in the United States. And then those Jews took all that money and made their kids doctors and lawyers and sent ’em to school.
Paul Alkoby (04:11):
No, everyone hates us. Apparently.
Sevan Matossian (04:13):
<laugh>. No, they don’t. That’s that’s just
Paul Alkoby (04:15):
The hype. Yeah, I know. It’s
Sevan Matossian (04:17):
Absolutely crazy. Jewish parents quit telling your kids that no one gives a shit that you’re Jewish. Could be so narcis. Very true.
Paul Alkoby (04:26):
There’s, uh, I’ve had a lot of conversations recently with folks, um, you know, just because I, I grew up in this more traditional household and, uh, I’m not practicing. Uh, you know, I mean, I, to be honest, didn’t even wanna bar mitzvah, but, uh, you know, my parents hate that. But I, I’ve had these conversations with people that just have never, uh, especially being in the military. And, and at one point I lived in Eastern New Mexico and I’ve met people in my life that have never met a Jew before. Yeah. And they had this idea of what like a Jewish person was and, uh, what they aren’t. And I’m like, Hey, you know, I’m, I’m Jewish. They’re like, we thought you were Italian or Greek or something. I’m like,
Sevan Matossian (05:06):
I see it. I see it. I see it. I see it. I see the Italian Greek guy in you.
Paul Alkoby (05:11):
Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, my mom grew up in South Philly, so I guess, uh, by proxy, slightly Italian.
Sevan Matossian (05:20):
Um, we do, we do, um, my wife’s Jewish. We do the, um, manure. We like the candles. We let the kids know about the holidays, but to say we’re practicing, um, it’s funny, we were invited to the temple in town and they had a vaccine and mask policy, so that definitely wasn’t gonna fly. And then recently, about a week ago, um, a lady who, who uh, goes to my, her kids go to my kids’ tennis, um, clinic, invited us again to the temple. And I said, Hey, uh, do they require masks there? And she said, this is fucking, uh, last week. And she said, yes. And I said, sorry, these Jews don’t, these Jews aren’t ever gonna wear masks. <laugh>. These are non masks wearing crazy.
Paul Alkoby (06:06):
Yeah. It’s, it’s masks living in wild times. Um, yeah. I don’t, that stuff is, is still wild to me. Uh, I was at the VA a few weeks ago and I mean, their whole policy is still back. Cause it’s federal government, obviously. And, uh, there’s still occasionally places I’ll go being on the East Coast right now. And, uh, I usually am just kinda like, really? Or it’s two years, uh, and all the data’s there, but, okay,
Sevan Matossian (06:35):
I, I went into Whole Foods now twice in the last week in Santa Cruz. And I had, and I, I used to love going there with my kids, but I haven’t been since in, you know, in two and a half years since they started enforcing all those rules. And half the people in there are wearing masks. It is fucking bizarre. They’re all old people too. By old, I mean, my and older
Paul Alkoby (06:54):
I’ll see people, uh, masking their kids up because of RSV and stuff. Uh, I actually had, so I was a medic, uh, and I worked on a pediatric ward for two years, and I’ve had RSV patients in the past, stuff like that. And, uh, it’s very interesting to me how we’re kind of going from pandemic to pandemic to pandemic now, uh, according to the, the media and, uh, you know, just a lot of those aspects out there right now,
Sevan Matossian (07:19):
You will guaranteed 100% damage your child by putting a mask on them. And you will also damage your child from having them around people with masks. Every single study that’s been done on ’em, I’ve looked at 12 studies, it’s a hundred percent conclusive. There’s no fucking way around it. Quit fucking telling yourself. I heard a really sad story the other day. A guy told me that he got an exemption for his kid to wear a mask during the pandemic, but everyone else in the school wears masks. And now the kid has a speech impediment because it’s something like, more than 50% of a kid learning words is lip reading. So now the kid has a fucking speech because when a kid doesn’t understand a word, he automatically just goes straight to the lips. And I’m just like, holy shit.
Paul Alkoby (08:07):
Yeah, that’s,
Sevan Matossian (08:08):
Yes. You never quarantined this. The healthy thank you. You never, ever quarantined the healthy, it’s on the CDC website. You never quarantined the healthy people ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. And, and scientists know that you never deploy a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic. This is the first time in in world history that that’s ever been done. None of the other vaccines, not polio, not measles, never deployed during the pandemic, never deployed during the crisis. And why is that? Because those people don’t offer herd immunity. What are you talking about Sevan? Just go back and look. A couple years ago when they had the measles outbreak at Disneyland, do a little research, dig around LA Times most liberal fucking newspaper. You can get, they, they talk about how, uh, half those kids who got the fucking measles at Disneyland were vaccinated. Well, that’s weird. That’s really weird. That’s fucking, uh, all, all my friends whose kids got the chicken box vaccine all got the chicken box. That can’t be good. That’s fucking weird. We live in weird times. <laugh>. We, we live in, um, I saw, I just saw today this morning that, um, uh, the country of Ireland is now suggesting that all PE classes stop the bleep test. Are you familiar with the bleep test?
Caleb Beaver (09:23):
The beep test? Yeah. Pacer test
Sevan Matossian (09:26):
Beep. Yeah. Oh, beep or bleep beep.
Caleb Beaver (09:28):
I know the article said it’s like the beep test or the pacer fitness Graham pacer test.
Sevan Matossian (09:34):
This is, this is the test where all the kids line up, like there’s a 10 yard course, you know, or five, seven yard course, and all the kids have their hand on the fence and you have eight seconds to cross 10 yards. And you do that for a minute, and then after a minute you only have seven seconds. And then after another minute, you only have six seconds and it’s basically last man standing. Right. You have to run back and forth in the, in the amount of allotted time and the time gets shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter. And they’re now suggesting that that’s bad for kids mentally, because some kid has to lose, like, go fuck yourself.
Caleb Beaver (10:04):
I used to win that every time.
Sevan Matossian (10:05):
You did?
Caleb Beaver (10:06):
Just, yeah, every time. Sorry,
Sevan Matossian (10:07):
Just, just added Caleb.
Paul Alkoby (10:09):
Here’s the only one in the class though. I forgot to mention that.
Caleb Beaver (10:12):
<laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (10:13):
Hey, I, I had to do the presidential fitness exam with the girls. I didn’t have to, they had me do it cuz I just couldn’t do any of the shit the boys could do. I, I I
Paul Alkoby (10:23):
Think they should just, you know, out upgrade the Secret Service snatch test for, for all grades.
Sevan Matossian (10:27):
What’s that? You go, what’s that?
Paul Alkoby (10:30):
Uh, it’s, it’s Max Snatches in, what was it, like, five or seven minutes, I think.
Caleb Beaver (10:36):
Yeah, it’s with a kettle bell though.
Paul Alkoby (10:38):
Yeah. Kettle Ball snatches.
Caleb Beaver (10:40):
It’s like, it’s
Sevan Matossian (10:41):
Is that a cross workout?
Paul Alkoby (10:44):
I think it became one
Caleb Beaver (10:46):
Pro. Yeah. Probably
Sevan Matossian (10:47):
Secret Service Max. Why do they call it that?
Paul Alkoby (10:51):
I think just cuz the Secret Service does it. <laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (10:53):
Oh, it’s awesome. Wow. I like it. P Paul, I don’t know what happened in Afghanistan at all. I, um, someone recently told me that it was a massive blunder because that base is so close to, uh, tactically or strategically because it’s so close to China, it was our closest, one of our closest bases to China. So that was a huge fuck up to vacate that. But other than that, I just remember seeing on the news of my only is, is seeing those giant airplanes covered with people, which was just fucking weird. And basically I just saw the headlines that basically we left there, um, in the wrong sequence. Um, and because of that it caused, um, mad chaos. Can you kind of gimme the backstory on why we left, what we were doing there in the first place? Can you gimme the history and what what’s the name of it’s, it’s the airport in Kabul, right?
Paul Alkoby (11:48):
Yeah. So it was, uh, hummed Karzai International Airport. Uh, H Chia is probably how I’ll refer to it. Um,
Sevan Matossian (11:55):
How many? He was the leader of, uh, Afghanistan.
Paul Alkoby (11:59):
Uh, he was the president, uh, presidency. Yeah. Okay.
Sevan Matossian (12:03):
Okay. Go ahead. Action.
Paul Alkoby (12:05):
Yeah. So obviously we were, uh, in Afghanistan post nine 11, uh, multiple troop surges were there for 20 years. Uh, and I mean, this had been talked about for years and, uh, Trump initially had started the kind of like retrograde of, you know, in the withdrawal of getting everyone out. Uh, there had been multiple meetings between, uh, I believe they were in the UAE with the Taliban and stuff like that where, uh, discussions were happening, right? And I think this, there’s this, this idea, uh, amongst the, the mainstream media still that somehow the aghans were fit to defend themselves, uh, post withdraw, which if you talk to any service member, uh, or anyone that had, you know, worked in the region, uh, that’s, that’s just not the truth. Um, personally, I actually,
Sevan Matossian (13:00):
We couldn’t even defend our own capital building on January 6th from a bunch of dudes dressed in, in Halloween costume with no guns and, and no fire. And they expected those people to protect their airport.
Paul Alkoby (13:11):
It’s, uh, they, they were heavily reliant on, you know, US forces. Um, and especially by this point, uh, special operations, uh, primarily, uh, because of the, the withdrawal that had taken place. Um, so July 6th, 2021, uh, the US withdrew from, uh, Bagram Airfield. Um, so, you know, that was kind of our last, uh, a base in the region essentially. And after that, uh, the Taliban kind of just rolled through Afghanistan. Uh, they took Kandahar, I think, uh, August 5th or August 6th, I believe. And then, you know, August 15th or 16th was when they actually took cobble, uh, the capital of Afghanistan.
Sevan Matossian (13:58):
And what’s wrong with the Taliban? They’re basically, they’re, it’s a dictatorship. It’s, it’s, it’s what’s their deal? Why are, why are they such bad guys? I mean, besides, so Taliban, they bombed our buildings.
Paul Alkoby (14:09):
Well, I mean, you know, the Taliban didn’t directly, uh, they were however supportive of Al Qaeda, uh, the entity that did, right? So they carried out those attacks and, uh, the Taliban essentially was the looked at as, uh, the governing body of Afghanistan at the time. Uh, which I mean, they were harboring, uh, terrorists according to the US government and, you know, NATO in general. So we ended up there. Uh,
Sevan Matossian (14:36):
And they’re the people, they do bad shit. Like if your wife cheats on you, they kill her. They have some, they got some weird rules around boys
Paul Alkoby (14:44):
Going to school.
Sevan Matossian (14:45):
They don’t believe in women going to school, right?
Paul Alkoby (14:47):
They don’t, they don’t believe in women really doing anything. Um, you know, uh, I’ll talk about one of the stories, but, um, and she actually reached out to me yesterday, but an Afghan woman, uh, we evacuated, uh, she had been kidnapped and tortured by the Taliban for weeks, uh, before we were able, she was able to escape and we were able to, um, work on an xFi plan for her and get her out of the country.
Sevan Matossian (15:12):
And, and why was she tortured? Not that there’s ever an excuse for
Paul Alkoby (15:15):
It. Uh, she was a professor.
Sevan Matossian (15:16):
Okay. So she was a professor and women aren’t supposed to be educated. She was probably teaching other women, and so she had to be punished.
Paul Alkoby (15:23):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (15:24):
What does torture look like? What does torture look like?
Paul Alkoby (15:27):
Um, so, uh, this, I put this out a little bit and I don’t really reveal any personal information about her, but, uh, she was raped. She was, you know, tied up. Uh, and I mean, I’m talking, you know, there were multiple people involved in all of this. Obviously the Taliban is a, a pretty savage organization no matter how they wanna paint it now. Um, you know, all this same stuff that they said wouldn’t happen is starting again there. But, uh, she, she was, you know, brutally tortured for weeks on end, uh, beat, you know, starved, just locked in a room essentially. Um, and I mean, she suffers the effects of it now, you know, severe ptsd, depression, anxiety, uh, everything that comes with that. Uh, but she’s a fighter and she survived. And I mean, there’s, uh, I’ve, I’ve had multiple encounters, uh, of dealing with women that were in, in the same situation as her. Uh, I did help a family where a professor was kind of, uh, she was much luckier in this regard because she realized that her students actually dimed her out. Uh, so she was basically just dimed out, uh, by her own students that she had been teaching. And she figured it out. I, I guess a student had kind of given her a heads up and she was able to go into hiding, and they got out, uh, probably about four months ago. Uh, and they, they made it to Europe.
Sevan Matossian (16:53):
So all the, when you say tortured, all the worst shit you could ever think of.
Paul Alkoby (16:59):
Yes. Yeah. I mean, it’s, uh, the, it’s, it’s pretty barbaric the stuff that would happen over there. Uh, and even during, um, everything going on. I mean, uh, I actually, I planned on bringing this up. There was a, he had just recently separated from the Marine Corps. Uh, his name’s Mike Walberger. He had put out a video during the withdrawal of his unit’s kind of experience there. And the stuff that you see happening in the crowds, you’ll actually see the Taliban in the crowds beating people with rifles, beating people with sticks, you know, all kinds of just inhumane things that were going on there. Uh, and I mean, I’m talking like, you know, the butt of a rifle to someone’s head. Um, so there, there’s a lot that that was at play there.
Sevan Matossian (17:50):
Okay. So, so, so, so there were p there were people there that were, that weren’t that the only thing stopping them from having these horrific things happening to ’em, starvation, rape stuff, that stuff that if they, someone did to our mom or sister, we would go kill them s and, um, the, and that was happening to them. And the only thing stopping that from happening at least openly was the fact that there was US presence there.
Paul Alkoby (18:18):
Yes. Us and nato for
Sevan Matossian (18:19):
Sure. Yeah. And, and, and, and is NATO still there?
Paul Alkoby (18:23):
No.
Sevan Matossian (18:24):
So did they leave at the same time the US left or
Paul Alkoby (18:27):
Before? Uh, nato, yeah. Pretty much everyone kind of bounced at the same time.
Sevan Matossian (18:31):
And, and, and whose decision was it to leave and why did we leave?
Paul Alkoby (18:35):
Uh, so I mean, it was the, the decision started during the Trump administration. I mean, it was, uh, I would say the American public was kind of fed up, to be honest. Uh, we were kind of done. Um, and I mean, rightfully so, I, you know, I’ve lost friends in Afghanistan. Uh, I worked on, you know, wounded patients out of Afghanistan, stuff like that. And, um, I, you know, can wholeheartedly say that I think people were just sick of, of seeing, you know, fellow Americans and I mean, NATO allies, uh, coming home in body bags, um, you know, for 20 years. So, uh, especially when the, the mission wasn’t really clear anymore.
Sevan Matossian (19:13):
And, and so, and then, and how many, and then, so the, the current administration is the one that pu pulled the final troops out?
Paul Alkoby (19:20):
Yes. Uh, so what ended up happening was they sent, uh, I believe it was 6,000 total, uh, you know, soldiers, uh, airmen, marine sailors, all in to do the final withdrawal and actually help evacuate, uh, allies.
Sevan Matossian (19:36):
And how many? 6,000,
Paul Alkoby (19:38):
I believe it was 6,000.
Sevan Matossian (19:42):
And and how many were there before those? How many you send in 6,000 people to evacuate? How many people?
Paul Alkoby (19:48):
Uh, the total estimates, um, I wanna say I, this is just what I recall seeing were I believe 35,000 total, uh, allies that got
Sevan Matossian (20:00):
Out. And, and, and does that include Afghanis?
Paul Alkoby (20:03):
Oh yeah. That’s Afghans, uh, American citizens, stuff like that.
Sevan Matossian (20:07):
I saw, I saw, I saw 90,000 somewhere
Paul Alkoby (20:10):
That could be more accurate. Um, more specifically. I mean, that could definitely be more accurate.
Sevan Matossian (20:17):
Okay. I, I just thought I say what
Paul Alkoby (20:18):
I saying
Sevan Matossian (20:19):
Is Yeah,
Paul Alkoby (20:20):
Total accuracy. Um, there, I have a lot of numbers going on in my head with this, but Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (20:26):
In my country also, girls and women are deprived of many things. Sex inequality is big. Sorry, I had to edit, uh, for the correct usage of the word. Sex inequality is big. Only small minority of real men know how to treat and respect women.
Paul Alkoby (20:41):
I’m curious what
Sevan Matossian (20:42):
That is. I mean, for starters, just you don’t even have to respect them. Just don’t disrespect them.
Paul Alkoby (20:47):
Yeah. Don’t, you know, torture
Sevan Matossian (20:49):
Them. Yeah. I’m not asking you to respect anyone that’s not, just don’t disrespect
Paul Alkoby (20:52):
People like the I and, and that’s the thing, right? Human rights, uh,
Sevan Matossian (20:55):
Are and thank you No, for that. I appreciate you, uh, sharing that by the way. Sorry, go ahead.
Paul Alkoby (21:01):
You know, the, the, the lack of human rights there, uh, is, is the biggest issue, right? And, uh, these people were essentially made this promise by the US government and our allies that we were gonna, uh, give them democracy, give them education, give them all this stuff, and then essentially, uh, we held their hands in terms of how we, we did things. And I mean, this is reported on multiple levels now, where, um, the military was kind of individuals in the military, leadership in the military was kind of misreporting what was going on on the ground. And there were, uh, you know, a few Afghan units, uh, in the special operations realm that could hold their own and stuff like that. But the overwhelming majority could not. And that’s what we saw is that the, the, the majority of the Afghan units just kind of dropped their weapons and were like, cool. Bye. We’re out. Uh, and just kind of gave up.
Sevan Matossian (21:57):
And this is prior to, you’re talking about prior to the evacuation?
Paul Alkoby (22:00):
Do Yeah. Prior. Um, and that’s when all the, uh, you know, like Kandahar fell, all the other provinces fell, um, leading up to, uh, when the Taliban basically rolled in the cobble, like, what’s up? We’re here.
Sevan Matossian (22:15):
Um, I’m gonna jump ahead real quick and then we’ll go back. What happens to are, are Afghan, like you hear about how successful Nigerians are who come to this country as, as a whole Yeah. As a demographic. How do Af Afghanis do once they come here?
Paul Alkoby (22:28):
Uh, so the, the gans that, um, have come here are, you know, it, it’s, it’s kind of mixed, right? So, uh, I’ll go off of what I know and the, uh, direct interactions I’ve had. So the first individual I brought over here, uh, with the help of his former interpreter, uh, Corey Maza, uh, amazing guy. He was a Harvard grad, uh, was in the Marine Corps, and Zabi was actually his interpreter. So we got Zabi out. He was, uh, a pretty, I, I can get into the backstory of that for sure. It was a pretty crazy, uh, situation. So we get him out, he gets over here, um, there was some problems getting am mirror whatnot, but he transitioned into a, you know, a decent job. Uh, he works in, uh, retail somewhere and he’s just doing his thing and he’s, he’s able to transition because he already had an education.
(23:23):
He already, you know, spoke the language, already had this kind of base, uh, of knowledge. There are other aghans that came here. And this is directly, you know, from Zabi when he was actually in one of the, the, uh, refugee camps that were, I mean, a lot of these folks are, are from the mountains. Um, there were individuals that were brought here that really, really had no ties to the US as well. Uh, so they’re a cousin of a cousin who had a friend that was in the Afghan army, and they basically let them slide and get into H chia and get on a plane and come here. Uh, so Zabi would see these individuals in these refugee camps literally just taking a shit on the floor because they’d never used a bathroom, right? Right. So you have this, this vast difference, uh, where you had individuals in the major cities who were living a somewhat westernized life, um, for, for years. And then you have these people that, that had never even seen a toilet before. Right? Uh, so you can kind of get everything in between as well.
Sevan Matossian (24:30):
And, and, and have they found a city, like, um, there’s a city in Maine, which is bizarre to me, which is like the largest congregation of, um, Brazilians. Is there a city and, and you know, in Detroit and Cleveland where, where huge for like Armenians and Los Angeles was huge for Armenians. Um, you know, uh, uh, Pakistanis and Indians have come to the Bay Area. Is there a city where the Afghans are going? Afghan? Are they Afghan or Afghans?
Paul Alkoby (24:55):
Afghan. Afghan is, uh, the currency,
Sevan Matossian (24:58):
So Oh, okay. Right. Alright. Nothing but a dollar to me. Okay. The Afghans <laugh>, where do the Afghan go? Do they have a city where they’re all, they’re they’re huddling up, they’re
Paul Alkoby (25:07):
Spread out. Um, they’re spread out, but there were, there were a good amount that actually, I do know there’s a, there was a good influx into Virginia, uh, various cities in Virginia.
Sevan Matossian (25:17):
Well, they still should on the floor there, so they, they That’s good. That’s a good training ground for them.
Paul Alkoby (25:23):
Um, yeah, I mean there’s, yeah, Virginia, interesting state, but, uh,
Sevan Matossian (25:30):
There’s definitely,
Paul Alkoby (25:31):
There’s definitely, uh, an influx there. Uh, you know, and I know a few cities in the Midwest, uh, one of, one of our, uh, really, really crazy stories. He’s, uh, he’s up in, uh, the, the New England region, uh, and that guy’s story, uh, we jokingly, uh, during his, his whole deal, I gave him the nickname GaN Wick. Agan Wick, because, uh, while we were getting him out, he ended up actually having to, uh, smoke a few Taliban that had basically a hit squad showed up to, to get him and his family on his way out of the house.
Sevan Matossian (26:10):
I heard that, I heard that story in one of your other podcasts. Crazy. We’ll, we’ll get, we’ll get to those. Yeah. Um, okay. So there is a decision to do a final withdrawal and, and is and from the current administration, and was that a public announcement? What happened? What went wrong? What went, I mean, is it fair to say something went wrong?
Paul Alkoby (26:34):
Yes. Uh, they basically announced they were gonna pull out as fast as possible. They set a, a date, uh, to get to which was the deadline and started the withdrawal process. Uh, within that, what wasn’t really considered was how many people were gonna show up in cobble and try to get into the gates at the airport, uh, because people weren’t being evacuated, VIPs were getting out of the country. Uh, that that was, I mean, you know, a given, right? Like there were a lot of VIPs that were able to get out kind of, uh, in the early days and, you know, there were just
Sevan Matossian (27:10):
Ambassadors with people with money, people who got pregnant from the general’s son, shit like that,
Paul Alkoby (27:17):
Pretty much. Yeah. And then, uh, once, once that kind of, once the, and
Sevan Matossian (27:24):
How would they get out? A military plane would land or, and, and they would all load onto it, or it would be commercial jets?
Paul Alkoby (27:29):
Yeah. Uh, from, to my, to my knowledge, it was primarily a military evacuations at that time.
Sevan Matossian (27:35):
And then they would get,
Paul Alkoby (27:36):
There were still commercial flights to, to be clear, I don’t know the, the number of commercial flights, but there were,
Sevan Matossian (27:41):
And, and then they would get visas, um, from the US government to make it legal when they landed in the US so that they would be here and they could, they could land and not be deported,
Paul Alkoby (27:51):
Uh, under refugee status, asylum status, stuff like that. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (27:54):
Did we send anyone back?
Paul Alkoby (27:57):
I don’t know. Actually, that’s a really good question. Um, I’ve wondered that because I had people in camps, uh, they were in the refugee camps, and they would tell me that, uh, especially like the guys from the Panier region, stuff like that, they’re like, Hey, you know, there’s Taliban here. And, uh, they, I mean, at one point these guys wanted to basically, you know, kill these dudes that they suspected of being Taliban because they’re like, they’re here. Like, these are fucking Taliban. And I had to be like, Hey, you know, go find a, uh, NCO or an officer and tell them, uh, do not like, do not do this because you’ll end up screwed over.
Sevan Matossian (28:33):
Why, why not? Um, sorry, I’m just depending on you as the all knowing why not run to, uh, Trek menan to Chi Stan, uh, Pakistan, um, uh, or Iran? Why or why not cross?
Paul Alkoby (28:48):
So a lot of people did.
Sevan Matossian (28:49):
Okay. Yeah. Stan, these are all bordering countries of, of Afghanistan, by the way.
Paul Alkoby (28:55):
Yeah. Yep. And, and people did. Uh, and the other side of it too, uh, like especially with like Tajikistan, Stan, all that stuff, uh, the terrain there is, is insane. Um, I mean, we’re talking, you know, insane mountain ranges that, uh, like hundreds of, of thousands of miles of just mountains, uh, and moving, traversing that on foot is, is heavy. And a lot of people did make it out. Like, uh, there are stories of people kind of traversing that, uh, even into the dead of winter, uh, you know, there were, I think it was like, uh, 80 refugees that were found, uh, and there were like barefoot in the dead of winter, uh, just trying to get into Iran.
Sevan Matossian (29:39):
Wow. I, I did, did, I did yesterday try to map route out of there using Google Maps. And everywhere I chose for them it says no route available. Yeah. And then I, and then I started Looking Road, there’s definitely no roots. Yeah. And I was looking for road networks and shit, and Seven Elevens and I, nothing. Yeah.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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