The war in Ukraine.

0:00 Speaker 1 With US is Labor Day Sunday morning. We have Ty McCoy, former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force. One good friend, once more guy, and so many things are happening time McCoy, Where do we start? Do we start in the Ukraine?

0:15 Are we starting to mess in the Red Sea? Do we fear a drone attack for aircraft carriers? You tell me where you want to start.

0:28 Speaker 2 Well, John, it’s great to be with you, great to be on the show and talk with your listeners. And I think that indeed we’re facing a tremendous a bit of strategic confusion as opposed to strategic direction that needs to be provided by the United States as a leader of the free world and leader of the alliance which

0:51 is trying to oppose the totalitarians that have structured an arrangement now that’s increasingly strong and tight and well managed from a multi country UH status with China or Russia, Iran, North Korea others that are falling in line and providing support to the Russians UH and also providing support to the Iranians and their proxies. So there’s two big conflicts

1:24 that involve the country at the same time. Ukraine, UH and in the UH in Israel, UH supporting our allies there and we are They’re they’re interlink. There are many of the same players against us in both cases UH, and we are being distracted by UH misinformation and disinformation on the course of those wars and the importance of

1:54 those and we need to stay very firm and be very clear that we are going to support our allies in both cases, but we’re not going to be seeking to have those wars expanded, and that we want to keep the alliances together that we have in the Middle East with the other Arab countries and Israel, and we

2:20 also want to keep the NATO Alliance strong, but not appear to be aggressive aggressive. We’re not seeking Russian demise, we’re not seeking Russian territory, We’re not seeking to help Israel expand and take over areas. So we have to strike a very tough stance with our against our enemies and also manage our allies, particularly on the front lines

2:51 Ukraine and Israel, in such a way that they are not engaging in conduct or acts which are really unnecessary and really just build up anti anti Western sentiment.

3:07 Speaker 1 Now Ukraine, UH, things are not going that well for them. Is it is it that we should we better settle to do a piece right soon or a lot of people just dying.

3:24 Speaker 2 Well, unfortunately, the huge number of people are dying in the Ukraine frontline. Troops on the Ukrainian side or shorter of manpower than the Russians. The Russians are just throwing poor people and convicts and troops into the guns and they’re being so called meat assaults and they’re being killed.

3:45 The Russians don’t seem to be worried about it too much, although they are finding that their own manpower reserves are not as good as they thought. And of course the Ukrainians are quite desperate and having to force people into coming in and really impressed people to join the military.

4:04 I think that the course of the war there is going to have to play out longer. I think each side is willing to test each other longer. Part of it relates to the I like to say it to the election in the United States. People are wondering which way the United States is going to go depending on

4:28 which person is elected president. What kind of restraints are they going to put on the fighting, what kind of compromises and peace negotiations might be a pushed forward. So I think in a way for the next two or three months, we’re in a sort of a stagnant ability to bring the conflict to some sort of armistice or

4:53 some sort of cease fire. So I think that it will continue for the foreseeable future, with each side trying to get in the position for when the you know, discussions and negotiations get underway, hopefully to bring this some of this fighting to a halt.

5:11 Speaker 1 The other thing I wanted to ask you about this is people are saying that our aircraft carriers might be in danger of massive drone attacks. What do you think you were, You were in the Navy, you were in the Air Force, you were a West Point graduate.

5:32 Speaker 2 Do you tell me, Well, I think the carriers are in danger a bit. They are not in danger, I don’t believe of being attacked and sunk, but they are in some danger of being kept far from the battle area because of the ability to send in large numbers of inexpensive drones with explosives to mess up the flight deck,

5:58 to distract the forces and the people around the carrier of the other ships into engaging in such a large amount of what’s called force protection, protection of the force itself, that the capability of the carriers and the carrier task forces to project power, to project power on the land and protect American interest and allied interests would be somewhat

6:25 compromised and would be somewhat restrained. And so I think that the agile doc triantal changes and technology changes and the ability to field defenses, whether kinetic or electromagnetic or otherwise against drone attacks and drone forms is something that the military forces, both on land and at sea have to rapidly deal with in the Department of Defense, and

6:55 the military contractors and others have to recognize that it is a new form of warfare and it’s very impotent, and they have to adapt quickly. Otherwise the old goal pleated military systems we have will be somewhat compromised and somewhat outdated.

7:18 Speaker 1 We have how many days to the election now almost sixty sixty five days.

7:24 Speaker 2 What do you think, Well, I think it’s important that the question of the position of the United States and the world, it’s foreign policy, our defense posture, of the need for additional defense spending. Even though we’re spending horrendous amount we need to not really make the spending larger.

7:46 We need to make it where it’s more effective and it’s more agile, and we recognize and talk about the threat. People think, well, you know, where is the threat? Who is a threat towards us? It seems like there’s a war in Ukraine, there’s a war in Israel, but it’s not touching us. We can carry on as usual. We

8:06 don’t have any real foes that are coming our way, but in fact we do every day. The military forces of the Chinese are gaining greater and greater strength than numbers the even the North Koreans they have nuclear weapons now they may have one hundred atomic weapons, they have missiles.

8:24 The Russians of course continue to build what is their strength, which is nuclear forces, and have them on alerts. So to think that we are not facing uh, you know almost you know, vital and dangerous adversaries that that are far that are that are looking at us as as the enemy. That must be discussed and I think both

8:53 sides in both parties need to talk about it, deal with it, recognize it, talk about what solutions they have and not be trying to sweep it under the rub.

9:04 Speaker 1 Thiy McCoy, assistant Secretary of the Air Force West Pointer, Thank you for your heads up for this Labor Day weekend and God bless America.

9:13 Speaker 2 Thank you so much, Thank you very much, John, God bless you, and God Bless America. God bless