# “War Is Chaotic — and We Went In Without a Strategy'" with General Mark Hertling.

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737/war-is-chaotic-and-we-went-in-without-a-strategy-with-general-mark-hertling
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737/war-is-chaotic-and-we-went-in-without-a-strategy-with-general-mark-hertling.md
Podcast: [Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff](https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737)
Published: 2026-06-30T19:36:46+00:00
Episode link: https://bleav.com/shows/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff/episodes/war-is-chaotic-and-we-went-in-without-a-strategy-with-general-mark-hertling/
Audio file: https://pdrl.fm/c39fb6/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/1385/injector.simplecastaudio.com/c67dcf2c-bdc6-42d2-91a1-db918b8e8626/episodes/ecafe750-ce64-4383-b67c-24caf5aa62f6/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=c67dcf2c-bdc6-42d2-91a1-db918b8e8626&awEpisodeId=ecafe750-ce64-4383-b67c-24caf5aa62f6&feed=8GTvjwcf
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Duration seconds: 2566

## Resource

War is chaotic and complex. You really never know which way it's going to go — and you especially don't know if you go in without a strategy. That's the line General Mark Hertling keeps coming back to in this no-BS conversation with Paul Rieckhoff, recorded as the Trump administration careens deeper into a war with Iran that Congress never authorized and the American people never signed off on. Hertling — former commanding general of US Army Europe, 36 months in combat, and author of the new book If I Don't Return: A Father's Wartime Journal — lays out exactly why this moment feels more like Vietnam than anything we've seen in a generation, and why the silence from both parties is its own kind of sucking chest wound.

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## Transcript

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