Ukraine needs aid today.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is this morning? Is General Wesley Clack, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. Who else would know what the heck is going on in Europe and the world than he would? He ran for president a West Point there in class sixty six, and General a lot of Americans are confused what the heck is going on? Can you

0:25 fill in all Americans on a Sunday morning.

0:29 Speaker 2 John, I’m happy to, and I would put it this way. I think the United States is in a new era of international relations. We went through the Cold War, and you and I remember very well, but it ended thirty years ago. And for thirty years there’s been this the idea that America is the indispensable power, that were a

0:53 unique and exceptional superpower. And on the periphery there have been other countries growing, developing their power, envious of US, determined to block US. One of them is China. Now there is Russia. Iran is still a problem in the Middle East, and so we have to look around the world and say where really are we? You have to

1:15 say the post Cold War period is over. It is a new era. There is a group of nations that are forming against US, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea in an organized way that they’ve never done before. Secondly, in this new era, they are willing to use force. It was shocking to see Russia invade Ukraine. Actually Russia put

1:43 two hundred thousand troops. Now they have four hundred thousand troops engaged against Ukraine. And just yesterday President Putin threatened the West again with nuclear weapons. So they’re willing to use force. The third thing is that in this environment nuclear weapons matter. Whoton must think they matter, but otherwise you wouldn’t be threatening us. The administration must think they matter.

2:12 Because President Biden said he didn’t want to start World War three, and so Russia has basically got a free pass, almost a free pass, to do whatever it wants to in Ukraine. And we are inhibited by these red lines that have either been negotiated or implicit understandings about what we can and cannot do to help Ukraine our ally.

2:38 Speaker 1 And President President Biden has forbidden the Ukraine from crossing over some of those lines into Russia.

2:46 Speaker 2 That’s exactly right. And our allies in Eastern Europe are very concerned. The closer they are to Russia, the more concerned they are. But they say, well, if the United States is so respectful of these red lines with Putin for Ukraine, are they are we going to really risk a war over Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland? What if Putin

3:11 threatens nuclear weapons? Then so it’s a new world situation, call it a new era. We’ve got to do a lot of things with here. And we have to understand also that the financial sanctions that we thought might be a substitute for real going after Russia, they’re not working that well. They’re an inconvenience. But Russia’s economy is doing

3:34 okay by the standards of the Kremlin. At least they’ve got oil money to spend, and they’re getting technology. In one of the recent drones that were shot down German to have a lot of American components in it. And if you look at trade, the trade between Poland and Kurajistan has skyrocket in the last years, suddenly buying more

4:01 from Poland now it’s buying it on behalf of Russia. And so that’s not an isolated case. That’s what happens with sanctions, they’re just not that effecting.

4:11 Speaker 1 And the same thing is happening well, the safe things happening with oil it’s being shifted mid scores, of course.

4:19 Speaker 2 But but oil is a particular thing because in the American political system we’re very sensitive to the price of gasoline. So if we could just shut down Russia’s export of nine or ten million barrels of oil a day, price of gasoline might be eight dollars a gallon, but Russia wouldn’t have that money. But is it worth it for

4:39 the Americans consumer to have to eight or nine dollars that gallon for gasoline just to keep Russia from invading Ukraine? And they might do it anyway. So this is These are the kinds of issues that we have to confront as a nation. And we also have to look at our armed forces. Don the Army and Navy. The volunteer

5:00 force is a great concept, but as the memories of World War Two faded and the memories of the Cold War have faded, young Americans don’t have much interest in the armed forces. Eighty percent of the recruits we’re getting into the army have over the last two or three years have all been people who come from army families. Grandfather, father, uncle, aunt, brother, sister.

5:27 They have a connection to the army. But the vast majority of the American people don’t, and we’re missing our recruiting goals. Same thing with the Navy, So we have to relook this and our military industrial complex. We can’t provide Ukraine with the artillery ambition that needs. Why we’re not producing enough. So there are many different facets of

5:51 where we are right now that have to be re examined if we are going to continue to compete and have the kind of fable, American friendly international environment that Americans have traditionally come to expect.

6:08 Speaker 1 Well, what happened general too. What I’ve been saying is that the fact is it’s also oil money involved. When President Biden took over and created problems for the oil industry and the price went from fifty five to one hundred and ten, that made Russia’s budget, That made oil of Opis Nation’s budget, It made Iran’s budget. So and

6:33 every time it is an attempt to get the price of oil down, well something happens, like what happened with the Red Sea.

6:43 Speaker 2 You know, Jones, we’re the greatest oil producing country in the world. Our production is higher than anybody else’s. We could produce more if the government wanted us to, they could incentivize it. They could open up more federal areas for drilling, et cetera. And so the administration is trying to get the balance right. We have to have oil

7:03 for energy. We’re still in a petroleum based economy with oil and plastics and things like this. At the same time we want to move and address the challenges of climate change. It’s been a really tough balancing act. And in the middle of this, you’ve got this war going on, and it’s increasingly hard for the United States to look

7:22 at dealing with Russia and China as business as usual, especially with the case of Russia, when you’re being threatened with nuclear reference, it’s not business as usual. So we’re going to get through this presidential election season one way or another, and the next president it’s going to have a big challenge. If it’s President Trump, maybe he’ll just

7:42 say to mister Putin, look, you can have Ukraine. We’re not interested in NATO. We’re really interested in just keeping people away from our southern border, and let’s make a good deal. And if it’s President Biden, maybe he’ll do what Woodrow Wilson did. If one hundred years ago Woodrow Wilson ran for president in nineteen sixteen on the platform

8:04 of we would not get involved in World War One. Thirty days after he was inaugurated, he as Congress for a declaration of war to go against Germany and Austro Hungary.

8:19 Speaker 1 And so history repeats itself sometimes.

8:23 Speaker 2 Well it’s what they say. Maybe it doesn’t repeat itself, but at least it rhymes. And so here we are again. We have pressing foreign policy issues. We have an election campaign going. We have two candidates who are stressed squaring off against each other with different visions of the future.

8:41 The American people have some faithful decisions to make in this election general.

8:47 Speaker 1 Last question, we talked about the dangers of nuclear weapons, how far aways I ran from pushing that button and having them.

8:58 Speaker 2 Well, my suspicion is that Iran probably has its first nuclear weapons right now, but doesn’t want to declare it, maybe because they don’t have enough of them, maybe because they’re not sure of them, maybe because they know that when they declare, maybe Israel will bomb them. But you know, I’ve watched this program evolved for a long time, and

9:18 you know for years, we’ve for two or three years we said they’re only months away from getting a nuclear weapon. Well, what’s keeping them from getting a nuclear weapon real? They haven’t announced it yet, so my guess is they probably are in the throes of putting together their first set of nuclear weapons. And once that’s announced and becomes reality

9:38 in the Middle East, it’s a new environment for the protection of Israel and it’s a new incentive for the Arab States to gain your own nuclear weapons.

9:52 Speaker 1 General Wesley Clark thirty eight years in the Army. Thank you for everything you’ve done for our country and continue to speak out for our country. God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you so much.

10:03 Speaker 2 Thank you. John