Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's the wall builder show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective and a lot of topics to cover today from those perspectives, Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton, and guys, of course, we yesterday talked about all the things that happened over the weekend. It was such a, a busy weekend and some really cool things like the 250th of the army and the, all the parades and everything like that. And then of course all the Israel and Iran things began happening and just a lot a lot of stuff to cover some of it. We got to yesterday. Not all of it And then of course today, we've got another seems like every time we turn around guys. There's another 250th There's some momentous thing that happened in in either 1775 or 1776 This is just gonna be so fun over the next year and we got Bunker Hill today. This is a big one 

Tim Barton [00:00:53] It is. And Rick, one of the things that we've talked about offline, one of challenges is making sure that in the midst of us, staying relevant with the current events and trying to, you know, be on the road and speaking and all the things we're doing is to not miss some significant 250th. So we're not looking back afterwards and going, Oh man, we, I can't believe we forgot that. But fortunately, we remembered Battle of Bunker Hill, 250th anniversary. And this really was a pretty significant thing early on in the revolution, which also just quickly, the Battle of Bunker Hill is a little bit of a misnomer. It was the battle really on Breeds Hill, but the hills were very close to each other. There were, there was things on both sides, but it was that the battle, the Breeds Hill battle was more strategic. That's where the Americans had the high ground is where the British had to charge up. But anyway, it's, it became known as the Battle of Bunker Hill because historians, for whatever reason, maybe a little sloppy, a little lazy, because there were people on both sides in the Battle of Bunkers Hill really was Battle of Breeds But not to digress. This is a place where the British outnumbered the Americans. The Americans have the high ground superior position. It's estimated there's around 2,500, maybe up to 3,000 British. There's 1,200, maybe to 1,500 Americans. So they're outnumber probably two to one, somewhere in that range. The British charge the hill, the Americans are able to repel them. Actually with heavy British casualties, the British charge a second time, the Americans repel then again, heavy British casualties. When the British charged a third time, the Americans run out of ammunition. This is the reason The British got the victory, even though they suffered by far the most, the most deaths that the most soldiers killed, the most wounded, it's significant. Over a thousand of their soldiers were wounded or killed during this battle. But ultimately they win the day the noted Americans from the battle. Of course you have from the American side, William Prescott, you have Israel Putnam, Joe, Dr. Joseph Warren was there actually Joseph Warren's a fun story. Cause he was a general. But he decided, because he wanted to be involved, he basically took on the rank of a private during this battle. He went to the front lines, so he kind of demoted himself just so he could fight, ended up dying in the battle, which is also significant. You also have guys like Peter Salem, who was the noted black hero of the battle when the British charged a third time. One of the Royal Marines, actually the officer in charge of the royal marines, the Royal marines on the British side were kind of like their special forces. Major Pitcaren was their officer in-charge of them. He was the one literally leading the charge. He before the British charged the hill, he got together with his Royal Marines, gathers other soldiers around, and gives them a speech essentially saying, we're going to take this hill, that we're gonna do whatever it takes. He leads the charge, and as he is overtaking the Americans, leading the British, because the Americans ran out of ammunition, there was a soldier who had a shot left, and that was Peter Salem, a black patriot. He shot Major Pitt Caron. When Major Pitcairn goes down, because he was the leader of the Special Forces, this would be like the equivalent of their Achilles, or their Hercules, right? This incredible figure who is a champion warrior leading them. And when he falls, it does stun the British, maybe causes a pause. It allows a separation from the Americans and they're able to pull back. Ultimately, they retreat and they live to fight another day. Peter Salem is one of the guys largely responsible for that. But also other things to note, the following day, Abigail John Adams writes, John Adams, the letter. And she talks about how she heard noise, she walked out, she saw smoke in the distance. She goes up to a hill, thought to be Penn Hill, but she goes up on a hill and she actually is able to watch part of the battle. John Quincy Adams is there with her. John Quincey Adams was seven years old at the time. And John Quincy Adams later writes that it was, it was these early things that he saw in the revolution, and he specifically mentions the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was these things he saw that lighted a fire in him, a passion. That not only did he love his nation, he wanted to fight and defend his nation. Of course, that passion carried him through his entire life where he serves all kinds of presidents. He ends up being a president himself. He goes back to Congress to fight against slavery. He says so much of the motivation for everything he did came from early on from what he saw in the revolution and he was there with his mom watching from a distance the Battle of Bunker Hill or the Battle of Breed Hill unfold. So this battle was significant and for lots of reasons, lots of people that were involved, a lot of noted names and Also, this is what maybe gave a revelation to a lot of people that this this war was not going to be as easy maybe as the British thought where they come in and really just handle the Americans the Americans prove themselves to be relatively significant and able to defend themselves repel the British and and so this is one of the major big early battles that lays a little bit of the groundwork for the future revolution that Is unfolding before them, but this is the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Battle of Breeds Hill, and it is a day worth remembering. 

Rick Green [00:05:38] Well, and you mentioned, you mentioned Dr. Warren, I'm going to make a controversial statement here. Guys, as much as I love Patrick Henry and no question, he was the greatest orator of the founding generation. I think Dr. Joseph Warren would have been if he had survived the battle. He had those great speeches that he gave on the, you know, the, the, the Boston Massacre anniversary. They do one of those every year. I think it was four different times they did it and he did it twice. And I'm just going to read one quote to you that Ronald Reagan actually used part of this in his. I think it was his first inaugural dress. Can't remember if it was first or second, but this is so good. Listen to this oratory guys. Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of our enemies are numerous and powerful, but we have many friends determining to be free and heaven and earth will aid the resolution on you depend the fortunes of America, you are to decide the important question on which rests the happiness and Liberty of millions yet unborn act worthy of yourselves. The faltering tongue of Hori age calls on you to support your country. The lisping infant raises its supply in hands, imploring defense against the monster's slavery. Your fathers look from their celestial seats with smiling approbation on their sons, who boldly stand forth in the cause of virtue, but sternly frown upon the inhuman miscreant who to secure the loaves and fishes to himself would breed a serpent to destroy his children. Guys! I, I mean, I can barely even utter the words, can you imagine writing that and then giving that to a full house with British soldiers watching you just itching, I mean they hated him that's why they dug him up and desecrated his body because he had no fear in the face of that adversity just an amazing guy.

Tim Barton [00:07:17] Yeah, it really isn't Rick. As you pointed out, one of the things that's worth noting about him and kind of going along with the idea that he might've been a bigger voice, more recognized than Patrick Henry, as you allude to during the third charge of battle of Bunker Hill, he's actually shot a lot of historians believe he was already dead at that point. He was shot in the face. He was not going to survive that, but the British recognize his body and it's many historians report. That they actually begin to bayonet and desecrate his body as you mentioned maybe even dug it up later because he was someone they certainly identified as one of the major leaders early on for a lot of what was going on, and they detested him and his position, his stand, his voice so much that after he's already dead, they decide they want to ban at him and desecrate his body. That is how important and influential he was. And also, again, just it's worth noting it's really significant that he was a general and yet he identified and took the position of a private because he believed in the cause so much, he didn't want to watch it from afar, he wanted to be on the front end of this, opposing the British ultimately led to his death, but this is the kind of patriot and the kind of determination he had. 

Rick Green [00:08:34] I should have looked up the other quote. I love so much from him because his mom actually got onto him for getting so close to the, to the fire after Lexington and  Concord, you know, cause hey, I guess he was part of like following the British back and, and taking guys out or so I can't remember which thing it was, but his mom was like, hey, you're too important. You don't need to be getting, you know, so close to the, the firefight and all that. And he said, wherever danger is for the cause of liberty, that's where you'll find me, mom. I mean, he basically said be dangerous, which is kind of our theme. So anyway, neat, neat guy. And the cool thing about the 250th all throughout this next year is we get to learn about a lot of these guys that most people don't know about. I'm learning about guys. I had no idea their stories. It's just a, it's a really cool, fun time. 

Tim Barton [00:09:14] It really is. We are trying to make sure we don't miss any major dates where we can help tell some of the stories, remember the events, and we are actually working to document this. We just have to remember to review that document as we go. Right, but dad, you and I were talking as well before we started, you were documenting some other things because even since we. Recorded our program yesterday, here's been a lot of stuff happening in the news, obviously with President Trump, the G7 summit, there's a lot happening even with Israel, the missiles from Iran, Israel's response. There is a lot happen right now, generally speaking around the world, a lot significance, a lot things that do impact America, but especially even our friends over in Israel. So there's definitely a lot happened right now. 

David Barton [00:09:55] Yeah, there is a lot happening. And as you pointed out, we've covered Israel in the last little bit and it's kind of settled into what would be war kind of, but there's really a lot more going on than the news is covering right now. And so digging around and there's some really interesting stories. So let's kind of start with some, uh, what I want to say, maybe shots across the bow that, that Trump, delivered toward the Iranians and back up to Tim, you mentioned the G7 conference. So this is an economic conference of what's considered the wealthy nations of the world. It used to be seven really major wealthy nations. They would get together once a year and say, okay, what do we need to do to help the economy? What did the economic situation look like? What do we to focus on? And they would do things to try to help economy in the rest of the world. And so it's called the G seven, but there's actually more than seven, seven groups in it right now. But the seven nations that are called the wealthy nations, it's of course the United States and Britain and Canada, okay, and France and Germany and Italy and Japan, and those would be the seven. So the conference was between those seven leaders, the leaders of those seven nations looking at things globally, and then they expanded it some and they added Russia, and Russia was in for a good while until they went and took Crimea from Ukraine back in 1997. So Russia has been trying to forcibly take stuff from Ukraine for, you know, more than two decades. And so they threw Russia out of it. It had been G8 and it's back to G7. And then they added the European union, which represents 27 nations in Europe, but they still call it the G7, even though there's more than seven nations there. So what happens is it's being held in Canada. And so Trump was up in Canada for the meetings. And it's interesting. A little side commentary here that the new prime minister up in Canada is as Mark Harney and he replaced place Trudeau, which was a liberal socialist. And this is the first G7 conference in several years. And by the way, they move it around from one nation to the next every year that rotates to different nations. So it's in Canada this year. So Trump was up in Canada and this is first time that they have not covered climate issues and they've not covered gender issues. So it's been several years since that has not been on the table, which kind of tells you what's happening to the whole world on those issues, that those are kind of getting pushed to the side. No longer is the woke ism, progressivism, the way it has been. We talked about, you know, leader changes like in, in Argentina and so many other places and Canada is one of those where he's more conservative than Trudeau was, so they're not covering that, but after the state banquet, Trump left the meeting and the meeting is not over. They've, they've still got stuff to cover. Trump left the meeting and he, he told when he left the meeting, his words were everyone needs to immediately evacuate Tehran. Now, if the president United States makes that comment and I'm on the other side, I think something's about to happen. Cause that was the kind of comment he made before Israel started all this stuff, just warning Iran that, Hey, you know, you had 60 days. We've had six different negotiations with America. You refuse to change. And on day 61, they get hit. So that was a big statement and, and guess what? There are miles and miles and miles of traffic leaving Tehran. If you look at online in any video, it's interesting to see headlights for as many miles as you can see. But the other thing that happened was Trump told Iran to quote, talk before it's too late. So those two statements have been picked up on as being, okay, there's something probably really big about to happen on this. And of course, the stuff that was talked about a couple days ago was the way Iran had their nuclear facilities whacked by Israel. And so we found out from Israeli generals since then that they had three objectives. One was taking out the nuclear facilities. Then second was taking the missiles and the missile bases and missile launchers. And third was taking at the leadership at the top. And so that's been their three objectives in that order and they've done really well in that. But when they took out the main nuclear facility that Iran had, the bombs that they used were all, they just wiped out everything on the surface. But Iran has its nuclear facilities underground, deep, deep, deep underground, supposedly deeper than a bomb will go and that was to protect them. Well, Israel was using bunker buster bombs from America. America, Israel being our ally, we gave them those bombs that go way down deep in the ground before they blow up. And so it just, it messed everything up for these guys. And we now know how close they were to actually having something nuclear. They were probably within two months, but they have all these, what they call centrifuges where they spin off the nuclear matter and it has to be a high percentage. They have to have uranium that's 90% enriched in order for a nuclear weapon to work. And Iran had reached 60%. Now that's not 90%, but. When you get to 60%, it doesn't take long to get to 90%. And so they were at 60% and they had 15,000 centrifuges that were spinning and enriching this uranium at the time it got hit with that bomb. So the fact that those centrifuges were working when it got with a bomb and everything, well it really means that it really devastated their program. You're not able to save that enriched uranium that you've been working on, it's now gone. And so that was some of the news that means they are much further behind now than they had been because of what's happened. They had five nuclear facilities across Iran that were targeted. So Iran at that point had 650 pounds of enriched uranium. That's a ton of uranium. When World War II happened and we had atomic and not nuclear, it was about I think 16 pounds of atomic matter. That was felt up to 50 miles away. The shock waves went up to 15 miles. So when you get into nuclear stuff, past atomic stuff, it really goes up exponentially. So 650 pounds of enriched uranium is what they were working with. So all of that has happened in the last day or so since we were on air yesterday. That's the kind of stuff that's coming out. And there is a bunch more that's happening in Iran as well. And some of it involves American stuff as well 

Rick Green [00:16:29] Well, let's take a quick break guys. We'll be right back. We got a lot more to talk about. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:17:42] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us catching up on some of the headlines over the last few days and the weekend. David, you were just talking about, Israel and Iran. And, you know, I had mentioned yesterday, just real briefly, it seems like the propaganda war is a big part of this because they're really trying hard to, to weaken American support for Israel and you know even with what, some are calling the woke right and, and some of these people that used to be MAGA used to, be, you know pro Israel seemed to be going anti Israel. So that's a big, it's an important part of this whole thing is even just the perception campaign and, a lot of the stuff that came out this weekend, you already dispelled a lot that yesterday for us in terms of the, you know, captured fighters, the female fighter, all that, all that stuff has there been more of that in the last 24 hours as well. 

David Barton [00:18:27] Yeah, there's been a lot of propaganda, but now really nobody's kind of believing it. The only guy that's really given its Iranian president, and it kind of came out in the last 24 hours that the reason the president's still alive is because allegedly President Trump told Israel, don't take out the civilian leader. Take out the military guys, leave the civilian leaders alone. And Netanyahu has apparently conceded to that, but he did point out and made it in the last 24 hours that he still has the capability to take out the Iranian president. And if he doesn't kind of get himself in shape, what Netanyahu said is one way to absolutely bring peace to Iran is to take care of that president. So they've both kind of thrown a warning across the bow of the president. You better shut up, you better back off, and you better stop firing the missiles. At this point, he's fired 350 missiles into Israel. 22 have made it through, which is about 7%. The most recent count I had was eight dead and 300 wounded. So they've knocked down about about 93% of those missiles, but they're all aimed at civilian populations. So Trump and Netanyahu both gave them a really strong warning. 

Tim Barton [00:19:39] Well, dad, you know, one of the things it's worth acknowledging too, Rick, kind of to your point with some of this propaganda, we, we're approaching faster and faster, getting closer to the time when it's going to be even more difficult than it is now to determine what is propaganda, what is not, what is, what has made up and what is now, if you guys remember, even when the Russia Ukraine thing happened, they had images of some of these planes that were flying and some of the maneuvering and the shooting and the explosions. And, and I think it was Ukraine initially that was saying like, this is, this is part of what our group is doing. And then somebody identified that's for a video game, right? Like that's not real footage. That's a video game. And that was several years ago. AI has come so far since then. And so it does make it even increasingly difficult to navigate what is true, what is not true as people that have advocated for decades going to original sources. It is actually one of the interesting thoughts too. We had a friend who was explaining to us some of the origins like the word nonsense where if you go back to France because of the misinformation propaganda hundreds of years ago in France it led to them embracing this notion of nonsense where they said if you didn't see it If if you, didn't hear it if you didn't taste it if, you can't smell it right that's if it's one not one of your senses don't believe it. You have to identify for yourself. And I think this is where a lot of people are. I think part of what has happened over the last several years has added to what, to some extent, there's a, there is a healthy level of skepticism, but it, it's a great challenge when there's no trust of the system, when there is no trust in the institutions, when we look at media and we don't know who can we trust, who can't we trust anymore, are they just doing propaganda for Israel as a propaganda for Iran is a propaganda for Trump as a propaganda for whatever else. And I'm saying all of that because as we're even telling some of these things, we are doing the best we can to find the most credible sources from Israel to say, here's what they have found. How many dead, how many wounded, how many missiles they've shot down. We are doing the best we can to identify this, but it is one of the reasons this is a challenge. And I also think, and I'd love to hear y'all's response on this. I also think it's one of the reasons, not only that Americans are tired of sending our men and women to harm's way and saying, look, we don't want to have a war with Iran. We don't, we, don't what America once again to have to be like the police of the world in this situation. I think that's part of it, but I think also there's just such a disgust with this, what has become the status quo, the way things have been where we get lied to and then, oftentimes military is sent somewhere, whether that's entirely true or not. I think that's a lot of how people are feeling. And I think, that is even driving some of, some of the responses of what we are seeing from people to what's going on is they don't trust the system. They don't, trust the people in charge. They've been lied to now for years that they have been able to identify. They've, been lied too, and they just don't know who to trust anymore. And I, think therefore there's not a lot, of trust. So even though President Trump... Has largely done everything he said he's going to do. He's, he's the president in our lifetime. That's probably kept his word more than anybody else. But there's a lot of people now that are even skeptical of president Trump because of their, their distrust of the system, because of how many times they've been burned. What do you guys think? 

David Barton [00:23:13] You know, there's one other thing I'd add to that because I think where we are right now and the criticism is going on, people forgot how we got to this point. We should not be having Israel should not be facing any of the stuff it's facing right now. We shouldn't be having this discussion. When you look at Iran, I mean, this, this is a place where the US military intelligence says by far the largest ballistic missile stockpile in the Middle East is held by Iran. Where did Iran get the money to do all the stuff they're doing? How did they get the money to fire all these hundreds of missiles at Israel to enrich uranium 600 and some odd pounds of uranium? Where do they get it? Where'd they get all that money? And you go back to it and if you'll recall when Obama was in office, we had sanctions against Iran. Iran was one of the poorer countries in the Middle East. Obama lifted those sanctions. When Trump came in, he restored the sanctions and put them back in. When Trump, by the time Trump left office, because of the boycotts and the other things he had done to help get Iran back in line and get them off the global scene, the oil exports they were doing were about 400,000 barrels a day. And oil is their big income producer. That's where they make their money. When Biden got in office, he reversed that. He lifted the sanctions, he lifted the boycots. He gave them back a lot of the money that Obama had originally given. And suddenly, their oil exports, they go to selling four times as much. They're up to 1.6 million barrels a day. At that point in time, the price of oil was around $60 a barrel. So if you'll take that extra 1.2 million barrels a day they're selling at $60, a barrel, you're looking at tens of millions, nearly a hundred million dollars a day that they're making. And so suddenly they have a new source of income coming in. Wow, where can we spend this money? Hey, let's get some nuclear stuff. Let's get some missiles. Let's get some drones. Let us get some. Let's buy some stuff from Russia, North Korea and China. And that's where they get the money to do all the things they're doing now was because both Biden and Obama put them back in business again. So all of this goes back to two failed Democrat leaders that thought, you know, we ought to let Iran have all that stuff. We wouldn't even be having this discussion if we still had the policies that Trump had put in place that recognize they are tyrants. They are global killers. They are murderers. And he shot them down and we're back in this place because Biden and Obama both made sure that Iran was strong. And so we wouldn't be having discussion otherwise. And that's something to remember. So if you want to yell at Trump and blame him for what he's doing, how bad, how about going back to when he handed it off to Biden back in 2021, because it was a whole different world then. 

Tim Barton [00:25:53] Well, Dad, again, let me point out, I'm not sure that Trump is doing anything that is worth being yelled at right now because a lot behind the scenes, he's navigating trying to get to peace. 

Tim Barton [00:26:03] Agreed. 

Tim Barton [00:26:03] But I think it's just the distrust people have now in the system and in leadership and in media. It just makes it hard as they're navigating this. But certainly we do believe that Trump was still thinking America first. But he's also thinking, preserving life. He has been one of the most anti-war presidents any of us have ever seen in our lifetime. And I think that is really his chief motivation in the midst of this. 

Rick Green [00:26:25] Yeah. And last thing I would say is we're closing out is just to totally agree with you, Tim on the, on the fact that people just have, they have a lack of trust in the institutions and in leadership because of what's been done over the last few years. And I think that has as much to do with it as, as anything. And Trump's trying to regain that trust and rebuild that trust. Well, thanks for listening to everybody. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show.