Newsmax host: “There is a cost to being a superpower. And sometimes for six months, you got to pay a dollar extra a gallon.”
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From the July 22, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Carl Higbie: Frontline
CARL HIGBIE (HOST): Loo, Teddy, you took a bullet in Afghanistan over this type of thing when there wasn't a clearly defined mission. I mean, this is not something that's difficult to do. Why do you think it's not getting through that we have a clear defined route here?
TEDDY DANIELS (GUEST): Carl, I wish I could answer that question for you. I think we've been programmed with Iraq and Afghanistan, with nation building and, you know, the State Department role that they should have been doing and not the military role. OK? This soon, four KIA -- it -- enough is enough. Carl, I went and fought, and you went and fought so our kids wouldn't have to go fight. I don't want this drug on. Let's finish it now.
HIGBIE: Yeah. I mean, this is an unfortunate issue that we had -- like, this breaks my heart when when we have to do segments like this. But every time -- and this is the one thing that you know and that I know. Every time there's a casualty, you have to learn from that casualty. Did we learn anything?
DANIELS: Well, I think maybe we learned. We can't negotiate with these people. These people don't honor treaties. They don't have the same code of honor or ethics that Americans do. So you know what? Let's show a little action and a little less negotiating here. OK? Because they will respect action. They're not going to respect treaties.
HIGBIE: But this is the problem too is we constantly have this where American support initially going into Iran was very high. After Fordow, after Midnight Hammer, people were like, yes. Let's go. Let's knock these people back to the stone age. And then we start actually doing it, and public sentiment is like, well, you know, it's dragging on and, oh, I had to pay $4 a gallon for gas. There is a cost to being a superpower. And sometimes for six months, you got to pay a dollar extra a gallon.
DANIELS: Carl, I'm with you, and I think the big thing is to you know it and I know it. War is nasty. It is the nastiest, most primitive thing that you could possibly imagine. And a lot of people out there, Carl, they can't stomach it. And that's the sad part. They just can't stomach what guys like you did, what guys like I did. They can't do it.
HIGBIE: Yeah. I don't --
DANIELS: It's nasty business.
HIGBIE: Yeah. That I mean, that's the bigger problem. I mean, like, look. I will say, the president has the toughest job in the world, especially on a day like today when you're bringing bringing people home like this. You know, I've never sat in that chair. Pete Hegseth is sitting in the same chair. What they've done for the military is unbelievable. They've done an incredible job rebuilding it. But we're running -- like, there are reports that we are running low on munitions. How? Like, that's what we spend a trillion dollars a year, more than the next 24 countries combined, 23 of which are allies, to be good at war. What went wrong?