RADIOOctober 09, 2023

How should America REACT to Hamas, Iran TERRORIST attacks on Israel?

Israel has declared war fir the first time in 50 years after Hamas terrorists attacked multiple cities and slaughtered hundreds of Jews in an event that the nation is comparing to 9/11. But how did Israel not see this attack coming? Glenn and his head researcher, former military intelligence analyst Jason Buttrill, break down what we currently know: "This was an Iranian-backed, Iranian-planned, Iranian-coordinated plot." So, how should we take the fact that the Biden administration just gave Iran access to billions of dollars? And where will this war go from here? Glenn warns that Iran and Hamas are serious about destroying Israel. So, maybe Biden should reconsider how much of our military resources he's throwing at Ukraine.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Fabian, a friend of mine from Israel wrote in. On the Sabbath, it felt like 1973 all over again. We woke up to the distant thunder of missiles and Iron Dome interoceptors. Something big was on. But our devices were off, because of Shabbat.

And so only our neighbors and the security services knew how big this was. We walked to morning prayers. Not halfway through the local border officer, interrupted the service, to say, an exceptional event was unfolding. And we should get the children inside the house. Terrorists had infiltrated in large numbers. And were moving through the countryside.

And we started seeing our friends and our neighbors, wearing green uniforms, instead of holiday white, heading off to serve.

The Sabbath, overridden by the need to protect life. One stopped, and told us to go home. In the afternoon, we heard machine guns over the horizon a cell must have want to be close. It is ugly. It's as ugly as it has ever been in my lifetime. We're in total shock. The same kind of shock in 1973. The same complete failure of intelligence, complete inadequacy of border protection systems. Utter shock of the burning tank this enemy couldn't defeat. It's the same enemy we thought.

That also, we thought they would never dare something like this.

It's 1948, the Independence War. Villages invaded. Residents slaughtered wherever they were found.

Here were also the same enemy as now, village streets are full of bodies.

Women and children massacred in their homes. Teenagers made to go door-to-door to get the residents to open their house, so they could all be killed, execution-style, more easily.

Hostages, including soldiers, but also once again women, children, grandmothers, taken to Gaza to faces God only knows what fate.

Shock is still profound. And anger, lots of it. Grief has started mixing in, as the funerals have started today. As a dad, my four children are still small. The youngest is six. The oldest is 11. My oldest boy is eight. So when I think about them. I thank God, we don't live near Gaza. My children are safe now. I have no illusions about what could happen to them, if Hamas got their hands on them. Proud of my children. They are scared. We don't show them the images. We don't let them listen to the news. But we also don't lie to them. The thunder over the horizon is not really thunder. And they know it.

They see the neighbors in uniforms leaving the village to go serve. They know there's a war on. They know we were attacked. They know hundreds are dead. They grasp at the level of a child. But they know it. We tell them the truth without gory details. And always accompanied with our advice to trust God and the IDF. But we do tell them the truth. We tell them that it's okay to be afraid. And the best way to deal with fear, is to not pretend it doesn't exist. Or that scary things don't. The best way is to look fear straight in the eyes, and tell them, we're bigger than it is.

It's not going to get the better of us. Lo and behold all of this actually seems to help. They are brave. They're patient. Well-behaved for the situation. Yes, they have nightmares. They're cupid up in a locked house for way too long. And that gets loud. But I'm proud of them. I'm a proud Israeli father. Glenn, thank you for your prayers. For what it's worth, you, your family, and America, are in my prayers, daily. America is in its own dark and ugly times of its own right now. Much of it, it seems by design, and it might get worse before it gets better. But I have hope. May God bless and keep you. Fabian.

Jason Buttrill, who is our chief researcher also was military intelligence, is here to tell us how did they get in, Jason?

JASON: Well, Glenn, it was a -- it was an unprecedented event. I would say, possible, but only impossible if it was just a few random terrorists within the Gaza Strip. But that's not what this was. This was an Iranian-backed, Iranian-planned, Iranian-coordinated plot to pull this off.

They came in from multiple areas, they came in from the sea. Boats from the sea. They came physiological paragliders through the air. And they came through a very coordinated and sophisticated attack from the land. They first used drones to knock out observation towers along the border. They then fired a barrage of rockets to distract, across the border. And then they went in with explosives, IEDs on the border fences.

I was in this exact same area, and some of the exact same towns that were hit the hardest, when we opened up our -- our -- our embassy in Israel. And the IDF spokesman then. He's been making several announcements over the past weekend, predicted this exact same thing.

He said, if we're not. If we do not respond the way they're responding, they will come into these areas. They will hit these towns.

That's exactly what they did, and it's absolutely insane that we're seeing the response that we're seeing from western governments today, offering just random support, even though why they do it in the background is they, you know, give funding to -- to Hamas through Palestine.

I mean, the -- the reactions and the way that they responded, has been actually atrocious.

And what we should be doing, is there was a blueprint for this, Glenn.

This did not have to happen. There was a blueprint for this to not happen.

It was the Abraham Accords.

It was exactly what the Trump administration had set forth. I saw the state department talking about recently, how there had been unprecedented peace.

Well, yeah. Of course there had been. Because there was a good plan to do this. But you abandoned it. You abandoned it when you started going back to Iran and incentivizing them, to do what they're doing now.

And it was absolutely insane, how we saw over the weekend.

You saw how Kirby, and the rest of the State Department, were trying to backtrack furiously.

And say, oh, no. The 6 billion we ave did nothing. It was in a secure account in Doha. It was for health aid and humanitarian aid.

Well, what do you think they will divert their funds to? Once they knew they didn't have to divert all the other money, the billions to medicine and food. What did you think they would devote that money to? Terrorist attacks. That's what they did.

It's shameful. It's absolutely shameful.

GLENN: By the way, here is Iran. Iran was having a military parade.

And it aired on channel one, in Iran.

We got this from memory TV. Cut three, please.

We have come here to tell the elder of Khomeini, that Israel will be raised from the face of the earth.

Death to Israel.

The officials of the Zionist regime make a mistake. The Islamic Republic will raise Tel Aviv and IFA to the ground!

This is very clear, and we're going to go into where this all comes from.

You know, I've been saying for years, that the next Holocaust will come from Iran. They are serious about raising Israel.

And vanishing, the Jew. Here's the Hamas leader to the Jews. Also, from memory.

This is airing now on television, all throughout the Middle East.

This is our call to our resistance to our West Bank. To our people.

You're resistance abroad. Our strategic allies. The sons of this nation.

Today is your day.

We are on the verge of victory. Let us be partners in creating this great victory.

In conclusion, we say to the enemy, that is making threats and going on a rampage, your threats, rampage and arrogance did not, will not help you. We say one thing: Get out of our land.

Get out of our faces. Get out of our Jerusalem, and our Al-Aqsa Mosque. We do not want to see you on this land.

This land is ours. Jerusalem is ours. Everything is ours.

So I think it's pretty clear. You know, what they want. And I don't think it's a two-state solution. Maybe people will listen. Now, these same people say different things. You know, when they're speaking in English.

But that's why we go to memory, which is a -- an organization, that translates, all of the news, into English. So you can read the subtitles, you know exactly what they're saying.

And they are very, very, very clear.

Here is cut five. Hamas, a commander calling for more attacks.

Listen to this. In light of the continuous crimes against our people, and in light of the occupation's rampage, and its disregard for international laws and resolutions. And in light of the American and western support of Israel and the international silence, we have decided to put an end to all of this, with the help of Allah.

So the enemy understands, that the time it could go on a rampage, without it being held accountable is over.

We declare the beginning of operation Al-Aqsa Deluge. To say to the young people in the West Bank from the various organizations: Today is your day to sweep out the occupiers, and their settlements.

From all of our lands and the West Bank, to make them pay the price for their crimes over the lean years. Organize your attacks on this settlements, with all your means at your disposal.

Torch the earth, under the feet of the plundering occupiers. Kill, burn, destroy, and shut down roads.

Make the cowardly occupiers understand that the Al-Aqsa Deluge is bigger than they think.

The day has come, when anyone who has a gun, should take it out.

Now is the time.

If you don't have a gun, take up your cleaver or your axe.

Molotov cocktail. Truck, tractor, or car.

They also go on to say, all of those who are living now in western lands, this leads to the question, how many people are here from Iran? From Hamas? From Hezbollah?

From anybody who wishes us ill?

We know the -- according to the Border Patrol, that 80 -- 80 people that were on our most wanted terrorist list, 80 have come across the border, that we caught.

How many are on the terrorist list, that we didn't catch?

We're going to -- you know, I thought about it this morning. This is -- I've always heard the phrase, you know, elections have consequences.

This is the most consequential election of my lifetime, 2020.

We have depleted all of our resources. Because we have Joe Biden in power. The world is on fire.

The -- the oil shortage, that is here.

The munitions shortage that we have.

Let me bring Jason back in, in one minute, to talk just about how are we going to respond?

And what could we possibly give them. Because we've given them so much already, in Ukraine.

This seems to be, in my opinion, exactly what the Soviet Union, what happened to them.

They're doing to us, what we did to the Soviet Union.

Can you play cut eight, as we go back to Jason?

This is the Palestinian supporter's march in New York City.

Then we have the Palestinian supporter's march in Europe.

Same thing.

Europe is in trouble. I think we're in trouble because we don't know who is -- who is here.

And how are we going to be able to fight on two fronts, if we were to get involved in any kind of war?

Jason.

JASON: Sorry. Seeing that is absolutely disgusting.

That's the equivalent of during the -- during the World War II, if we had known about what was happening to Jews. And then people marching in the streets of New York, parading and glorifying the Nazis. That is absolutely disgusting. You should be ashamed of yourself.

GLENN: And may I just say, the same thing is true.

Hitler said what he would do to the Jews. So does Hamas. So does Hezbollah. So does Iran. So does Syria.

They're very, very clear what they will do to the Jews. Kill them all.

JASON: Yeah. Believe them. Believe them when they say they will do this. Our response is going to be limited. I mean, we don't really have the resources to really respond. We've never really directly responded anyway. We've provided weapons. We've provided basically, you know, a big stick in the background, to wave it around and make sure that nobody else gets involved.

And that's what we will do here.

We will sit probably off the coast. With an aircraft carrier.

I think there's always one inbound. But we will hope that Iran doesn't directly get involved.

They're indirectly involved right now. Because they're using a proxy. They're using Hamas. They're using another group called Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They're using those groups within the Gaza Strip to wage this war. That's what they're doing now.

Will they directly get involved? That's the question right now. And that's when we'll step in. I hope that does not happen.

But I don't -- I don't want to be like every other western analyst that is looking for this.

I've been trained in the same way, that they have, to look at this.

They never account for the wild card. They never account for the crazy man. They never account for the Hitler.

That's what we're looking for with Hitler right now. There is a wild card. Don't be fooled in thinking, this is not deeply religious. This is deeply religious. This is not about geopolitics with Israel. That's like what's so drastically different, than say something like Ukraine. This is drastically different.

The ONE “forever war” Glenn Beck supports

This Fourth of July, Glenn Beck reveals the only “forever war” he supports. It’s the war Americans have been fighting since our nation’s founding, and we must continue the fight…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Two hundred forty-nine years ago, I think it is tomorrow. Right? Is tomorrow the second, or is it the first?

What day is it today?

So it was 200 -- 249 years ago, tomorrow, that somebody sat alone, in a -- in a one-room hotel room.

And scratched out the words, when in the course of human events. Those are the first six words of a document that is so dangerous!

Still today, so revolutionary.

It was whispered in those candle lit rooms by men who knew. Knew. That if I signed this document, that's a death warrant.

I'm dead!

I'm dead.

But in the course of human events, shh.

Jefferson wrote them!

33 years old. Adams would later say, you do well to revere Jefferson. But he didn't write alone. Basically, I was there too.

And so was Ben Franklin. The ideas were forged in the minds of men like Franklin, who is old enough to know better. And Adams, who was stubborn enough, not to care. And they weren't perfect men. But I love this about the left. They try to make you think.

That you think are perfect. I don't think they were perfect! I mean, Ben Franklin used to walk around naked in his house a lot. That shows, I mean, for as smart as that guy was. It shows, maybe he had a lack of mirrors. But they weren't perfect!

They owned slaves. They argued. They compromised.

How does that make them different than us?
I mean, we should be able to relate to them!

What is it that we tolerate right now?
What is it that we compromise on?

What is it -- what are our failures that future generations are going to go, these people just didn't get it? Perhaps what we should notice is that they, unlike most of us. They were willing to gamble their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

For something that had never, ever been done before. Something entirely new!

The idea that rights don't come from a government, or from a king, or from a parliament.

They don't come from the majority voting. Everyone has certain rights.

You know, for all these people who are, you know -- going in Macy's, and burning down towns. And then stealing clothing. And they're like, because I've been oppressed!

And you can't -- I've got rights, you know.
Yeah. Yeah.

You know who the first people were, to articulate those rights?

You know the only country that actually has stood for those rights?

And we're imperfect!

That idea came from the Founders, that you say you hate.

But the actual rights come from God, which you dismiss!

Think of this. Just ponder this for a second.

That all men are created equal! That their rights are given to them, by a creator.

It's not a political assertion. It's a genius. That's eternal truth!

That's theological dynamite, lobbed straight in to the thrones of Europe.

All over the world, it's still dynamite.

They knew what they were doing.

And I don't mean like, they knew what they were doing.

They had it. No. They knew that the British crown had the largest military force in the world. And these guys, they were farmers. They were printers. They were lawyers. They were a ragtag collection of intellectual and idealists, facing down an empire, where they said, the sun never set on the British empire. Meaning, the colonialism was everywhere!

You could not escape England. And yet, they declared it. We're leaving, without apology!

And they said that when a government becomes destructive of the ends of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness, it's not only the right of the people, it's their duty to throw it off!

Wow. And you know what is amazing? That's not rebellion.

That's -- that's not revolution. That's -- that's responsibility.

That -- that kind of language today, that would have you flagged, shadow banned. Labeled an extremist. In most countries, disappeared!

But that is the foundation of what we call America. The American experiment. And it's that. The American experiment.

And it's just that, an experiment. We didn't know if we could get it right. And we haven't gotten it right. But isn't it worth experimenting?

Isn't it worth trying to get that concept right?

When you fail on that concept, you're like, eh. That's a stupid idea.

That's not a stupid idea. That's the greatest idea of all time.

Why are so many people willing to just quit?

The experiment is self-rule. It's not perfect.

Never has been. Slavery. Jim Crow. Internment camps. Assassinations.

My God! Forgive us, for what we have done.

But at the same time, what nation has done more to correct its own errors?

What people have shed more blood, not for conquest, but for freedom.

Twice in the last century, we crossed oceans. Not to claim territory. But to liberate that territory!

Our sons and daughters fought and bled on foreign soil to push the darkness back, to fight against Naziism and fascism and Communism. And here we are. Here we are today.

After 249 years tomorrow of that experiment, standing at the lip of the very abyss, those men feared.

A godless chaos, rising in the east and a cold atheistic utopia, clawing at the foundations of the Western world. Islamism and Communism, two ideologies that have killed tens of millions of people. Now dressed all in new robes, selling old lies.

And we can't even teach a child where their rights come from. We have replaced Jefferson and Adams with TikTok influencers and bureaucratic groupthink.

We're raising generations to not even know the truth about their own identity.

But to question their identity. And they could be, oh, you're a funny, funny colored unicorn today. What do you want to be tomorrow?

We don't teach them anything about truth, or their inheritance, most importantly. Their inheritance. What good are hot dogs and fireworks, if the soul of the nation is up for auction? What is the meaning in Fourth of July, if we have forgotten the why? If we don't even call it Independence Day anymore. Most people don't even know who we fought against for independence.

They think we fought for its independence! Most people think we fought the South!

And yet, we'll light the sparklers, or blow our fingers off, because we're just that stupid.

This Independence Day weekend, would you do me and yourself and your country a favor, and read the words out loud. Speak the words out loud.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with one another.

And to assume among the powers of earth, the separate, but equal station, to which the laws of nature.

And nature's God entitle them.

A decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes, which impair them to the separation.

What are they saying?

Look, we want to be decent people.

We want to be decent people.

And we have to separate them.

But we believe it's only right that we tell you why we have to separate. And it's not because of all the bad things you've done. We'll get to those later. It's because we're different. And you don't understand. You have been telling us all of these things, we no longer believe in. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, and they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable. Unchangeable rights.

And just among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, government are his instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

My gosh. Read those words. And let your children hear what thinking and courage sounds like.

That to secure these rights, I'm telling you, the king, who thinks that your government was given to you, by God.

And you are the ruler.

And you will tell everybody what to think, what to do. What to buy. What to sell. What to tax. What not to tax. Who gets land. Who doesn't get land.

No, no, no. Government are his instituted among men, deriving their powers, their just powers, from the people. And that government is only there, established by those men to protect the rights that God has given each of those men.

Let them feel the chill, that runs down the spine, when Jefferson writes, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government, or from the governed. Let them hear the words, of -- of responsibility. What responsibility sounds like, with courage and freedom. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

And to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their a lot of and happiness.

In other words, you have the right, you have the responsibility to stop tyrants. And if the government has gone bad, to throw that government off.

But reconstitute a government, that will do a better job at protecting those rights. Not to form a communist government.

Not to do anything else. But you want a new government?

Fine! Let's find the way to make men more free. This is not a metaphor. This is a declaration of war on tyranny in all of its forms.

I mean, I said, yesterday, freedom isn't free.

It was paid for by somebody's blood. But you have to remember, they paid for their freedom, not for our freedom, necessarily.

We -- there comes a time, we have to pay for our freedom. And God forbid, that it comes down to blood.

But at least shake off the apathy. We -- we must renew this promise of this experiment of America.

We need to fight for it as well. An out-of-control government that seeks to rope us into forever wars, over and over again. We're all against forever wars. I'm against it.

I hate them.

But there is one forever war, that is required in a free society. A different kind of forever war.

A war against ourselves, a war against human nature in each of us. Because of human nature, we get fat. We get lazy.

We get tolerant of abuses. Let your children hear you speak these words. And when you speak them, ponder them yourself.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils are sufferable than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms in which they're accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a sign to reduce them under absolute despotism.

It's their right. It's their duty. To throw off such government. And provide new guards for such future security.

In one paragraph, we make the point twice. And they tell us, look, we've studied people.

We know you're going to get fat and lazy and apathetic. And you won't want to do stuff for transient causes. Because this is really not good.

But when push comes to shove. And everything is moving towards absolute despotism. Absolute tyranny. Then you must stand up.

I ask you to ponder this. This particular part, when a long train of abuses and usurpations. Prudence will indeed dictate that governments long established should not be exchanged for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils suffer, than to right themselves.

Aren't we exactly the same people, that their experience was talking about?

Aren't we the people that are more disposed to suffer, than to right ourselves? Because we're too comfortable. Or we're too afraid, just to stand up and simply say no to lies.

No!

There is a difference between men and women.

No! Communism is to be feared. It's killed over 100 million people, in the last 100 years.

No!

Muslims aren't bad. Islamism is!

It's evil. No!

You can peacefully protest, any time, any place. And I will fight to the death for your right to do that.

But when you start burn cities down to the ground, no!

We're just a few days away. And we have marked our 249th birthday. Maybe. Just maybe, this year, can we stop asking what America was, and start deciding what America will be?

Where it just slips quietly into history. In the dark of apathy and ignorance.

Because the only thing more dangerous than tyranny is the people who have forgotten what it took to break its chains.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

We need REAL jobs in America — Trump should do THIS now!

It is clear we need to create more productive, high-paying jobs for American citizens. But that doesn't mean bringing back the same exact jobs of the past in massive numbers. It means creating and supporting jobs of the present and future that will better the lives of Americans. Glenn Beck and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts break down exactly what this entails and how President Trump can make it a reality.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts HERE

The most INCREDIBLE World War II story you’ve NEVER HEARD

One of the biggest American World War II cemeteries in Europe is in a small town in the Netherlands, where thousands of Dutch people continue the tradition to this day of “adopting” a fallen US soldier and checking in on his family. “The Monuments Man” author Robert Edsel joins Glenn Beck to tell this incredible story, which he documents in his new book, “Remember Us.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Robert, welcome back to the program. How are you, sir?

ROBERT: Great to talk to you!

GLENN: It's great to talk to you.

Can you remind me? You were on with us, after Monuments Men. And you talked about this great service that is still going on, where people that -- they were still looking for paintings and pieces of art, that had been taken by the Nazis.

And if I remember right, didn't somebody in our -- our own audience reach out to you, and say, I think we found one of those paintings?

ROBERT: Yes, sir. Absolutely.

The Glenn Beck audience. And Glenn Beck, you yourself deserve a lot of credit.

Because I hadn't walked out of your studio last time. You know, in Dallas at Las Colinas.

Headed back to our office at Monuments Men and Women Foundation office, before someone in my office contacted me and said, we've already had a lead, as a result of your interview with Glenn. And it turned out someone whose aunt had been given two paintings during World War II.

She had worked for the government overseeing Germany, and these two paintings were missing.

We were able to identify who the rightful owner was, and get them back.

So it's a great thing that you performed. And, you know, it's a magnificent conclusion, though obviously a very difficult part of history.

GLENN: What was it like to give that back to the family?

ROBERT: It was a deeply moving experience. We -- the foundation found and returned more than 30 works of art, from paintings to documents, ancient books. Tapestries, to museums. Individual collectors, and so on.

And, you know, when we see, oftentimes, the people just stand there, and they cry.

They don't even know what to say. Because they may have worked 50 or 60 years, trying to find some work of art that's been missing. And they haven't had leads. And to -- to see us standing there, with something that belongs to them.

Not asking for anything in return. Don't charge anybody for doing it. Because we feel like everybody who went through World War II already paid enough.

Words -- words just fail. It's just pure gratitude.

GLENN: I can't wait for you to tell this new story.

Tell me the story of the care takers. The care takers of --

ROBERT: Well, it's a story that found me, just as Monuments did.

I have written about -- in the Monuments Men, I told the story of two Monuments Officers who were killed in combat, one British soldier and one American, Walter Huchthausen. And Huchthausen was killed. He once did a last casualty at war. He was killed in the last month of World War II, and is buried in the American benevolence, American cemetery, in Margraten in the Netherlands. I knew that story, and I had made mention of a young girl who was harbored in September '45, asking for the address of his mother, wanting to write her and tell her, that she walked 5 miles, several times a week, from her house to the American military cemetery. It was called then. To put flowers on his grave. Because her family knew them. And they were grief-stricken to know that they were killed.

And I knew that story too. I mentioned that. And then in 2015, the nephew of Huchthausen wrote me and included a photograph of this elderly lady with this crown of white hair. And he said, here's a photo with Frida, and I couldn't place who this was.

I had no idea who it was. And I realized, my God, this is that 19-year-old girl that is still alive. So I flew to England. She married a British soldier after the war. And I went to meet with her. She started showing me photographs of when the American -- Americans liberated her area of the Netherlands.

And all these American soldiers that they knew.

And she said, you know about the American military cemetery.

She said, have you been there?

And I said yes. And she said, so you know about the great adoption program?

And I said, what? She said, the great adoption program.

I said, I have no idea what you're talking about. So I started doing some research on this. And learned, at the end of World War II, our largest World War II cemetery in Europe, was not Normandy. It was the Netherlands American cemetery, where 17,800 boys and a few women buried at this cemetery by May 1946.

And by that time, every single grave had a Dutch person, a local person, who volunteered to be an adaptor of that brave.

Go out there on the first death date of the soldier, Veterans Day, Memorial Day.

And if they had the contact information for the next of kin, send them a photograph of the grave.
And a letter.

Because they realized, it was okay to adopt the bodies of dead boys.

But where the real need was, was to reach across the ocean, into the American homes and try to assuage the grief of the families.

And they knew some of these boys. And I found it the most heartwarming, uplifting, and certainly unique conclusion to a World War II story that I think has been written.

GLENN: So are they still some of them still doing this?

ROBERT: Not some. In fact, there were about -- in 1940, 748.

American families were given the choice to have their loved ones sent home, or to be left overseas in a military cemetery.

The Army had no idea, how many -- how many families would want their boys sent home, and as a consequence, they couldn't tell how many cemeteries they would need.

We thought almost everybody would want to have the families sent home. But it turned out not to be the case. So about 61 percent came home. About 39 percent stayed in Europe, which was about the numbers from World War I.

Although, the numbers in this area, in the Netherlands were higher.

The -- the graves that are there now.

There are 10,000 boys there. And four women.

8300 graves. 1700 names on the walls of the missing.

Every one of them has an adaptor for 80 years.

All those graves have been adopted, without interruption.

There's a waiting list of almost a thousand people in the Netherlands, to become a doctor. This is a -- not just a --

GLENN: This is --

JASON: A privilege. Because they take their kids out to the cemetery. They turn the cemetery into a classroom. And you go out there. And, yes, there's a somber element. They're instilling in their kids, you're able to think, and say what you want to. Because of the freedom that was given to you, by this American girl or boy. And we don't do that in our country anymore.

GLENN: So this is one of the most incredible stories that I've -- I've ever heard.

And I'm shocked that the world doesn't know this!

Is -- have you -- is there anything like this, anywhere else in the world?

JASON: No. We couldn't even find a comp of any nature.

There are -- that is not to say, the people in Normandy area, don't care about Normandy and other cemeteries. They do, of course. As do the Belgians in other cemeteries.

But there's no place that created an organic great adoption program, during the war, in January 1945!

These people in this area of the Netherlands were so grateful, having been neutral in World War I.

And having not lost their freedom for 100 years!

And they didn't like it!

And when the Americans liberated them in September 44. I'll never forget this woman Freda. This elderly woman I met, looked at me, the first time I interviewed her. I knew her for eight years. The last eight years of her life.

I delivered a eulogy two summers ago. She looked at me, there were the eyes of the 19-year-old. And she said, when I saw that first tank over the hill and I realized, we were saved.

I looked at my dad, and I said, Papi, these American boys come all the way across the ocean to say this. And there were tears in her eyes.

Because they didn't -- they couldn't imagine how we could have moved that equipment across -- across the ocean.

And why we would have cared so much.

So there isn't anything like it.

But January 45, these people in this little town of Margraten.

A mile from the cemetery, organized a meeting of the town leaders. The town who got 1200 people.

And they were trying to find an answer to the question: How do you thank your liberators, when they're no longer alive to thank? And they came up with this idea of this great adoption program, and it's a story that I tell, following the lives of about 12 different American combat soldiers.

Bomber recipients.

Tankers.

Because we don't know that story.

We don't what knows to an American story, when they're killed on the field of battle.

Because it's depressing.

We move on to the next scene in a movie.

Well, I want people to know, you started your program with freedom is not free.

It's ugly.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what the cost is.

Let's talk about the stripping line that the body goes through, and the removal of dog tags, one being put in the mouth, if there's still a head. And the other being nailed to the cross, because they don't have time to stencil the names on yet.

Let's talk about that, and let people know, it's not just a Marvel movie. Or a gang war.

This is real. This is painful. And, of course, at the end of the war, when we Americans declare victory, and move on with our lives, there's millions of family members in the United States, whose lives will never be the same.

So it is -- it's still happening today. It's still happening today.

GLENN: The name -- the name of the book is Remember Us.

And take us -- I mean, because that's really kind of the -- the -- the beauty of it.

Take us through the rest of the book, just briefly.

It starts with what?

ROBERT: Well, I follow -- I began what a nice life was in the Netherlands. Until May 10, 1940.

And the Netherlands does not get much attention from World War II, and yet everybody has heard of Battle of the Bulge. And Battle -- those are all within 50 miles of what we're talking about.

They happened around there. Of course, World War II, in western Europe, begins right here in this area. Because the German tanks roll across the border.

So I cover the life of these 12 different Americans. I interviewed all their family members. Some make it through the war. Some don't.

You read the book, you realize who makes it, who doesn't. But their lives converge around this area of the Netherlands. And when post-world War II stories end, with the war being over, remember us kicks into a transcendent moment when the Dutch come up with this idea of this great adoption program. The Americans refuse to provide the names and addresses of the next of kin.

So they're foiled with trying to achieve their ultimate objective. Which is to try to contact all the American families.

And frustrated, there was -- one of the key figures of the book.

A woman who is the mother of 12 children.

Who takes it upon herself. She's a woman of action.

She writes president Truman. And pleads for him to get involved.

When that doesn't work. She gets on the first airplane, she's ever flown on. She leaves her kids behind.

She flies to New York. Lands in LaGuardia Field.

She goes to Washington, and meets the members of Congress. Including a young guy from Texas, named Lyndon Johnson.

Who says, young lady, you need to go to Texas. Because there are so many military bases there.

She flies to our hometown. And lands in Lovefield.

In June of 1946. And is met by two family members. And for five weeks, she lives with American families, that lost somebody during a war.

And to each of them she says, leave your boys with us. When the election comes.

We will watch over them, like our own forever.

And they have done that. Now, today, these 10,000 Dutch doctors only have contact information for 20 percent of the American families.

They couldn't ever get the others.

GLENN: You're kidding me. Where is the list? Do you have a list?

ROBERT: Yeah. The Monuments Men and Women Foundation entered into a joint venture with the Dutch Foundation for Adopting Graves.

Not charging anybody for this. And we have created a website called foreverpromise.org.

And on that website is a list of all 10,000 men and women, more women that are buried at the cemetery, or whose names are on the walls missing.

And it's a searchable database. We're asking people to go and see. Do you have someone you know, or a relative, who is buried there.

And if so, we have a short questionnaire. What's your relationship? Are you aware of this great adoption program? Are you in contact with your adopter? Would you like to be? Would you allow us to share your contact information?

I connected a lady from Richmond, Texas. Saturday night. To her -- to this young Tammy, that's the adopter of her brother.

She's 93 years old.

She was in tears. At the thought when she leaves this world, there will be someone there to watch over her brother.

And that's what we're all about is this connecting.

GLENN: Rob, I have to tell you.

You've really done something with your life. I mean, I know you don't need me to say it.
But what a great job you have. And what a great service you have done for so many years.

Thank you so much.

Please, look this up.

The forever promise project.

You can find it at foreverpromise.org. Foreverpromise.org. Robert Edsel is the author's name. The book is Remember Us. It's a perfect read for this week.