Comedy Central’s The Weekly Show podcast host Jon Stewart welcomed MS NOW talking head and former Obama deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes to the show on Wednesday to discuss their problems with American foreign policy. To Stewart and Rhodes, just about everything from the general mess that is the Middle East to Europe’s refugee crisis to ICE’s operations in Minnesota is the fault of American foreign policy.
Stewart wanted to talk about foreign policy at a more fundamental level, “But I want to walk us through a little bit of the kind of grounding and foundation of American foreign policy that—what options, what can we do anymore? Is it still our hubris that is creating all these difficult situations? Do you understand where I'm going with this?”
Rhodes began his attack by claiming that the U.S. policy towards certain parts of the world can be reduced to killing people, “I do understand what you're going and I want to kind of get us to why I think we need to completely dismantle a bunch of the infrastructure of American foreign policy. Because that's the only way to change things. But to get there first, I think what you have to realize is the United States government is a massive machine, and for well over 20 years since 9/11, we've been building infrastructure to kill people and bomb people and spy on people across a vast swath of territory that runs through North Africa, the Middle East, and into South Asia and Afghanistan, Pakistan.”
After Jon Stewart asks "I want to walk us through a little bit of the kind of grounding and foundation of American foreign policy that what options, what can we do anymore? Is it still our hubris that is creating all these difficult situations?" MS NOW talking head/former Obama… pic.twitter.com/0r8UCwnFtL
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) May 14, 2026
He continued lamenting, “And one of the things that happens is when you build that kind of infrastructure of bases, of intelligence platforms, of special forces, you're constantly seeing enemies, right? ‘Look, these guys in Somalia, they just gained some territory. We better go after them.’ Or, ‘There's some bad guy that just popped up in Mali. We have to deal with him’ or, you know, lo and behold, Netanyahu comes and says, ‘Look, you've got the table all set here to encircle the Iranians and deliver a blow at them.’
If the U.S. is debating whether to go after “some bad guy” in Somalia or Mali—which contrary to Stewart and Rhodes’s assertions, we generally have not—that would mean the chaos predates U.S. action. Nevertheless, Rhodes, whose own colleagues nicknamed him “Hamas,” continued, “The problem is, you build this massive machinery. It becomes kind of self-sustaining. You can find a threat anywhere or all it takes is, you know, apparently, Donald Trump waking up with the wrong idea in his head and starting a war in Iran. And I think we just have to stop, right? Like this is, nobody wants us. Americans don't want to pay for this. The people in these countries are tired of violence.”
Rhodes then uncorked a wild one, “The War on Terror has created the refugee crisis. Tens of millions of people displaced in the wake of American violence. That's radicalized European politics to the far-right.”
Europe’s refugee crisis was mostly driven by the Syrian Civil War, which the U.S. largely stayed out of with the exception of fighting ISIS. Afghans made up the second-largest group of migrants trying to enter Europe, but Afghan applications for asylum in Europe surged in 2021, not because of an ongoing U.S. war, but because President Biden ended a U.S. war with the Taliban back in power.
Rhodes was not done, however. Next, he turned inward:
And the machinery came home because we had the equipment. What do you think ICE, why they look so scary? Because the equipment that we use in wars, we bring home, and give to police forces and ICE. And suddenly you've got armored vehicles and dudes in body armor. And some of those guys in ICE were trained in counterinsurgency tactics in Baghdad. And then they're doing them in Minneapolis. Like this is what the entire edifice of the War on Terror is. And I actually don't think, and if I fault my administration, we tried to rein it in and bring some of the troops home and follow the law more to the letter. I think it's time to say we just need to stop doing this.
It is clearly ridiculous to compare Minneapolis to Baghdad, but Stewart loves it whenever someone blames America for all of the world’s problems.
Here is a transcript for the March 13 show:
Comedy Central The Weekly Show
5/13/2026
JON STEWART: But I want to walk us through a little bit of the kind of grounding and foundation of American foreign policy that—what options, what can we do anymore? Is it still our hubris that is creating all these difficult situations? Do you understand where I'm going with this?
BEN RHODES: I do understand what you're going and I want to kind of get us to why I think we need to completely dismantle a bunch of the infrastructure of American foreign policy.
STEWART: Alright. Let's go.
RHODES: Because that's the only way to change things. But to get there first, I think what you have to realize is the United States government is a massive machine, and for well over 20 years since 9/11, we've been building infrastructure to kill people and bomb people and spy on people across a vast swath of territory that runs through North Africa, the Middle East, and into South Asia and Afghanistan, Pakistan.
And one of the things that happens is when you build that kind of infrastructure of bases, of intelligence platforms, of special forces, you're constantly seeing enemies, right? “Look, these guys in Somalia, they just gained some territory. We better go after them.” Or, “There's some bad guy that just popped up in Mali. We have to deal with him” or, you know, lo and behold, Netanyahu comes and says, "Look, you've got the table all set here to encircle the Iranians and deliver a blow at them."
The problem is, you build this massive machinery. It becomes kind of self-sustaining. You can find a threat anywhere or all it takes is, you know, apparently, Donald Trump waking up with the wrong idea in his head and starting a war in Iran. And I think we just have to stop, right? Like this is, nobody wants us. Americans don't want to pay for this. The people in these countries are tired of violence.
The War on Terror has created the refugee crisis. Tens of millions of people displaced in the wake of American violence. That's radicalized European politics to the far-right.
STEWART: Yeah.
RHODES: And the machinery came home because we had the equipment. What do you think ICE, why they look so scary? Because the equipment that we use in wars, we bring home, and give to police forces and ICE. And suddenly you've got armored vehicles and dudes in body armor. And some of those guys in ICE were trained in counterinsurgency tactics in Baghdad. And then they're doing them in Minneapolis. Like this is what the entire edifice of the War on Terror is. And I actually don't think, and if I fault my administration, we tried to rein it in and bring some of the troops home and follow the law more to the letter. I think it's time to say we just need to stop doing this.
