Pete Blaber

Blaber says he refused a general's order to drive thin-skinned vehicles into Tikrit and pulled his men back into the desert instead.

“I will never send my men in unarmored, thin-skinned vehicles to attack a brigade that's in fighting positions in a city”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 5:01:06

Blaber cites a paper by intelligence officer Spider Marks arguing the Iraqi insurgency was created by U.S. decisions rather than arising organically.

“it's not an organic insurgency we created that insurgency the u.s through bremer's bad decisions created the insurgency”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 5:23:41

Blaber argues expeditionary warfare has never succeeded because outsiders cannot make good decisions for people they do not live among.

“expeditionary warfare has never worked you can't go to a country and force decisions on that country if you're not going to live there with the decisions”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 4:11:38

Blaber says his three brainstormed recommendations for Iraq—an Arab-American volunteer database, cultural advisors in every unit, and pre-positioned infrastructure specialists—were rejected in the final CENTCOM plan.

“We're not going to use Iraqi. We're not going to bring Iraqi Americans because it'll be too logistically difficult to house and feed them in the initial stages”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 4:21:40

Blaber argues that disconnected chains of command are biologically incapable of making sense of a battlefield because sense-making requires the senses.

“decision-making and problem-solving made by disconnected chains of command who aren't there, never has and never will be capable of making sense of what's happening on the ground”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 3:06:23

Blaber recommends the military require commanders to issue orders verbally over the radio rather than through staff officers or email.

“If you're a commander... You do not issue an order to subordinates who are in the field unless that order comes out of your mouth”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 21:33

Blaber argues that institutions must actively seek out and fire toxic leaders because toxic leadership kills.

“we will seek out and fire every toxic leader that comes up on the radar we're not going to fix the problem”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 19:21

Blaber says his unit chose to use operators rather than outside specialists as dog handlers, a practice he believes remains unique.

“we believed that you should make operators handlers so and as far as i know that still is the only one that uses operators as handlers”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 2:48:06

Blaber says the dogs his squadron introduced in 1999 were the first operational military working dogs in the U.S. military since the Vietnam War.

“Those were the first operational dogs since Vietnam”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 2:45:50

Blaber advises viewers to evaluate photos and videos without their accompanying captions or narration before accepting an official interpretation.

“get rid of the call-out boxes, get rid of the narration, watch the video without the narration, look at the satellite photos without the call-out boxes”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 3:57:53

Blaber says he and his CIA counterpart concluded the satellite imagery later used by Powell showed a water truck, ordinary HVAC units, and a man urinating rather than WMD activity.

“these air purification systems, these air that purify the air, doesn't that look like the same thing we got on top of our buildings, an HVAC system?”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 3:55:39

Blaber says the battalion commander reported the friendly-fire cause to the regimental commander within two days, yet the family was not told for 35 days.

“I called the regimental commander at 12 noon and told him Pat was killed by friendly fire”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 1:05:47

Blaber concluded that Tillman died in a friendly-fire accident caused by senseless orders from a toxic chain of command rather than by fog of war or enemy skill.

“the death of Pat Tillman and the Friendly Fire incident was caused by the sum total of senseless choices made by the toxic chain of command and their staff officers who issued the orders”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 19:21

Blaber says that of the roughly twenty Rangers he interviewed, most still had PTSD nearly twenty years later, and at least two remained suicidal.

“I think 20, a little over 20, still had PTSD from this event. At least two of them were still suicidal”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 7:50

Blaber argues that psychological wounds from combat heal only through learning the truth and being supported by community.

“psychological wounds only heal with truth and community”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 9:01

Blaber recommends diaphragmatic breathing, calm speech, and counting as reliable techniques to engage the thinking brain and suppress panic.

“breathe in through your nose. Usually I do a count of four”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 6:26:28

Blaber says the reptilian brain registers sensory input roughly twelve times faster than the neocortex, making first reactions unconscious and emotional.

“your first instinctive response to any type of stimulus is always unconscious, emotional, and without context”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 6:28:46

Blaber tells departing service members their key advantage is intellectual discipline built by the military, which fades unless maintained.

“when you come out of the military, you are at a level of intellectual discipline that surpasses almost anyone”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 1:43:06

Blaber argues that every service member discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine should be reinstated with back pay without review boards.

“Everyone who was kicked out for refusing the vacs should be allowed back in and should be given back pay”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 1:59:47

Blaber characterizes the war in Ukraine as a light infantry war in which armor has been largely neutralized by drones.

“It is just old school light infantry. Drones have taken out any mech, any armor potential”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 2:57:28

Blaber says Pakistani generals, the CIA chief of station, and the U.S. ambassador all insisted there was no al-Qaeda in Pakistan, and six days after he set up in Miram Shah, al-Qaeda fighters killed 23 Pakistani soldiers.

“six days after the shrubbery conversation, 23 Pakistani soldiers were killed by three al-Qaeda members”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 3:47:35

Blaber says Bremer disbanded the Iraqi military on his third day in a country he had never visited, putting 150,000 men out of work.

“he disbanded the Iraqi military on his third day in country that he had never been in before and put 150,000 military men out of work”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 5:21:25

Blaber says he was turned away when he tried to give Bremer's team an Iraqi-American cultural advisor and was offered only a $60-a-day gate interpreter job for the man.

“this is a Department of State op, and we don't need any DOD assets here, and we don't need any cultural advisors”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 5:15:21

Blaber argues that once a reconnaissance team is compromised the only correct decision is to abort the mission, not to debate what to do with detained civilians.

“you don't fucking kill non-armed combatants. You abort the freaking mission. You've been compromised”

The Shawn Ryan Show: #294 Pete Blaber - Part 2: Delta Force Commander on Pablo Escobar, Takur Ghar, and Pat Tillman (Apr 6, 2026) · Listen from 1:19:36