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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on

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Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and welcome back to Coast to Coast George Norri

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Speaker 1: with you, Robert Young Pelton Back with Us has become

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Speaker 1: the inspiration and role model for a new generation of

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Speaker 1: intellectual adventurers. He's an author, journalist, filmmaker, photographer, adventurer, explorer, philosopher,

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Speaker 1: passionate advocate for truth and discovery. Robert has trained Navy

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Speaker 1: Seals and survival participated and secret Special Forces training motivates

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Speaker 1: young people to do meaningful things with their short time

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Speaker 1: on this planet. His websites are linked up at Coast

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Speaker 1: to Coast am dot com. A couple of his books

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Speaker 1: include Comeback Alive, The World's Most Dangerous Places, and License

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Speaker 1: to Kill Hired Guns in the War on Terror. Robert,

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Speaker 1: Welcome back and Happy holidays to you, my friend. Same

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Speaker 1: to you, George. Thank you for having me on. Have

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Speaker 1: you been everything? Okay? Yeah, I've been in Ukraine. I

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Speaker 1: was in the Ukraine visiting all the front lines from money. Well,

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Speaker 1: do you have a lot to tell us? How did

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Speaker 1: we get into this mess? My gosh, Well, I don't

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Speaker 1: think we chose to get into this mess, but you know,

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Speaker 1: we are fighting a war using a proxy against Russia,

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Speaker 1: and depending on who you believe, you know, if we've

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Speaker 1: worn down about fifty percent of the Russians military capacity,

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Speaker 1: which is not bad, but it's it's it's a long,

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Speaker 1: terrible tale that goes back to, you know, the end

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Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union, when Russia was brought to its

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Speaker 1: knees by the Reagan era and a young man named

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Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin never forgot that, and when he was magically

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Speaker 1: made into the leader of Russia nineteen ninety nine, you know,

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Speaker 1: he vowed to rebuild Russia and he started with Chesnia,

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Speaker 1: then Georgia and South Ascetia in places like that, and

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Speaker 1: then he then began expanding his military and in twenty

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Speaker 1: and fourteen he was a very sneaky tactic to go

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Speaker 1: into Ukraine and start grabbing land there. So you know,

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Speaker 1: in February when he decided to attack Ukraine, he literally

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Speaker 1: that was as big as move and he was hoping

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Speaker 1: to take over the entire country in less than a month,

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Speaker 1: and that didn't happen. So that's how we got involved.

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Speaker 1: And did they see week when when we left Afghanistan

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Speaker 1: the way we left it, of course, I don't think

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Speaker 1: we ever should have been in there in the first place, Robert.

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Speaker 1: But the way we left it, did that give him,

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Speaker 1: you know, in opening, yeah, yet to remember, you know,

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Speaker 1: Putin is surrounded by people who tell him how the

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Speaker 1: world works and what's happening, and you know, America's position

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Speaker 1: on the world stage didn't look like that. You know,

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Speaker 1: we were pulling troops out of simply Afghanistan, even Germany, Africa,

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Speaker 1: and Putin decided that this was his moment because they

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Speaker 1: was an elderly leader coming into power and if he

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Speaker 1: did something brash, he gambled on the fact that the

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Speaker 1: US would not be spawnsitarily, he didn't count on the

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Speaker 1: effect that Biden it's sort of a passive aggressive guy.

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Speaker 1: In other words, he didn't send troops and bombers. He

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Speaker 1: sent money in weapons and support. They kept Ukraine fighting.

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Speaker 1: So Putin miss judge. He also miss judges own military,

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Speaker 1: of course, and he turned out to be a paper tiger. Well,

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Speaker 1: there's an unbelievable situation. And when Putin started lining his

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Speaker 1: troops up against the Ukrainian border by the thousands, and

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Speaker 1: that was weeks and weeks and weeks, Robert, before he

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Speaker 1: sent those troops in Why didn't anybody do anything about that? Then? Well,

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Speaker 1: because the Russians have always used threats, right, you know,

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Speaker 1: you see out North Korea, China, They'll they'll fly bombers

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Speaker 1: close to a US bomber. They'll they'll fire missiles into

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Speaker 1: the sea. And Putin was always making sets it. He's

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Speaker 1: always saying, you know, don't mess with me, because I've

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Speaker 1: got nuclear weapons. So when we saw what essentially looked

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Speaker 1: like Hitler's bootscreen being put together, you know, the experts

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Speaker 1: just said, no, he's not going to do that. That's

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Speaker 1: crazy because he would bring the full wrath of Europe.

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Speaker 1: And you remember, we've been planning for this war ever

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Speaker 1: since George Patton wanted to keep going in nineteen forty five,

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Speaker 1: and he guessed, right. You know, the US did not

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Speaker 1: react in the way that we would normally react, but

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Speaker 1: he didn't count on the Ukrainians standing and fighting. And

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Speaker 1: remember this war started in twenty fourteen and the Ukrainians

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Speaker 1: had had a lot of time to get their act together.

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Speaker 1: So he also didn't realize that numbers don't win wars.

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Speaker 1: So these tanks, these kids, these conscripts, didn't know how

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Speaker 1: to operate in a war, and people forget that the

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Speaker 1: last major war the Russian spot was nineteen forty five,

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Speaker 1: you know, in World War Two. So he has never

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Speaker 1: tested his battle numbers in combat, Robert, as we speak,

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Speaker 1: because sirens are going off in Ukraine right now as

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Speaker 1: he continues bombings homes and offices and places like that.

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Speaker 1: Should he be put up on war crimes when this

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Speaker 1: is all done, Well, there's two elements here. One is

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Speaker 1: that just the fact that he invaded the sovereign nation

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Speaker 1: for no reason is probably the biggest crime. Secondly, when

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Speaker 1: his soldiers went in to Ukraine, they began to do

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Speaker 1: horrible things to the population and they've been around, you know,

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Speaker 1: they've been amped up that these are Nazis and that

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Speaker 1: these were terrible people. And there's a very very industrious

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Speaker 1: group inside the Ukraine that's gathering evidence for war crimes.

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Speaker 1: So absolutely, But what we're learning is that there's no

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Speaker 1: international body to stop you know, a Hitler or a

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Speaker 1: Putin or you know, a major country invading another one.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's the biggest shock is that you

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Speaker 1: can pretty much get away with anything. Now. There have

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Speaker 1: been rumors, of course, and we've seen some episode that

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Speaker 1: Pouchin would poison his opponents and do away with him

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Speaker 1: that way. Do you think that is the actual case? Okay?

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Speaker 1: So remember I was in Chechening in nineteen ninety nine,

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Speaker 1: two thousand and all the people I was with were

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Speaker 1: all murdered or killed a number of journalists involved in

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Speaker 1: an interview I did a dead and there's been a

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Speaker 1: long list just in this year of twenty two Putin associates.

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Speaker 1: We're talking olmidarics, journalists, whatever that seemed to have this

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Speaker 1: magical attraction to jumping out a window. So you think

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Speaker 1: that that's just a coincidence, would be crazy. So is

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Speaker 1: there hard evidence that Putin is murdering these people? Not really,

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Speaker 1: But is he murdering these people? Yes? And now he's

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Speaker 1: threatening nukes, or at least some of his people are

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Speaker 1: threatening nukes. How serious is he? Oh, that's very serious

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Speaker 1: because we tend to think of nukes like Japan, right, like,

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Speaker 1: you know, killing half a million civilians doing a terrible

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Speaker 1: thing to stop, you know, an existential war. Nukes are

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Speaker 1: built into the Russians battle plan. They don't really see

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Speaker 1: that much difference between oakes and regular weapons. And don't

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Speaker 1: forget they use term of barrack weapons they use magnesium

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Speaker 1: question bombs was abandoned. So what the big one I

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Speaker 1: was in the Ukraine, the big threat or the rumor

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Speaker 1: was that he was going to use a dirty bomb,

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Speaker 1: which is not a note, it's just an explosive device

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Speaker 1: that has nuclear materials. So there's a whole shade of

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Speaker 1: horrible things that he could employ. But I don't know

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Speaker 1: if he would technically do that, because I think the

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Speaker 1: US and Europe is a very precise response mechanism to that.

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Speaker 1: In other ways of the nuclear missile goes into the city,

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Speaker 1: I think that's the call to action for Eastern countries

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Speaker 1: to respond. So I don't think he's going to go there. Yet.

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Speaker 1: What do you say to critics who say, guy, it's Ukraine,

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Speaker 1: who cares? Let Russia do what it wants to do.

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Speaker 1: How do you answer that? That's a tough one because

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Speaker 1: you know that that is a legitimate question. If you're

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Speaker 1: not reading the newspaper every day and up from world affairs,

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Speaker 1: you would pay. But Ukraine's just another Eastern European country,

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Speaker 1: and didn't they used to be part of Russia? Et cetera,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. But the reality is that Ukraine is an independent,

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Speaker 1: democratic nation that's done very well, wants to be part

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Speaker 1: of the European sphere of things, and wants to be

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Speaker 1: part of NATO, and wants to be part of the

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Speaker 1: modern world. And just because Vladin reported disagrees Withent, that

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Speaker 1: doesn't give him the permission to invade it. Now, should

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Speaker 1: we get involved, that's really the question, right And we

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Speaker 1: have a leader who is old enough to remember what

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Speaker 1: happened when we didn't do things in Europe. And you

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Speaker 1: remember we're very slow to Anglo America. Doesn't we just

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Speaker 1: jump in with both seat We wait, we wait in everything,

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Speaker 1: and then we jump. So what we're doing now is

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Speaker 1: we have two units over there already on the border

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Speaker 1: and they are literally ready to go in at anytime.

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Speaker 1: And I think it's the eighty second Airborne. We have

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Speaker 1: plenty of people inside gathering intelligence, We are monitoring with

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Speaker 1: a lot of high tech aviation and satellite information and

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Speaker 1: providing real time intercepts to the Ukrainians. So we're ready.

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Speaker 1: I mean, if something does happen where we decide that

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Speaker 1: we've got to go, we can move pretty quickly. But

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Speaker 1: right now we don't have to. The Ukrainians want to

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Speaker 1: fight this war. They're doing a good job and they

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Speaker 1: will at some point finish this war. I don't know

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Speaker 1: exactly how, but they will finish it. Would Putin have

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Speaker 1: gone into Ukraine had Donald Trump still been a president, Well,

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Speaker 1: don't skint. He already is in Ukraine right fourteen He

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Speaker 1: sent in the Little Green and they shot down an

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Speaker 1: airliner and there was a big mass Mahant, So they

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Speaker 1: had already been in there. What they were trying to

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Speaker 1: get rid of the government, and Donald Trump was working

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Speaker 1: with them to try to get rid of Zilenskin put

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Speaker 1: sort of Russia friendly leaders in there. So I think

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Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons why there wasn't any major

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Speaker 1: military action until February, because Putin was getting what he wanted.

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Speaker 1: You know, he had influence in the Lighthouse and it

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Speaker 1: was making moves on Ucar. That's a good point. Then

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Speaker 1: Putin screw up in this. Well yeah, so so people forget.

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Speaker 1: You know, Putin's not a military guy. He's he's a

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Speaker 1: guy that wants to do something surrounded by people who

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Speaker 1: are his supporters. So they're telling him, yes, we can

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Speaker 1: do that. Look at our giant military. And when they

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Speaker 1: actually go to do something, they say, hey, they've got

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Speaker 1: GPS units in here, or this tank has had all

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Speaker 1: a couple of wire stripped out of it, or this

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Speaker 1: kid does not at all period of tank. So the

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Speaker 1: reality of the Russian system suddenly hits home. And as

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Speaker 1: you know, they're they're resorting to mercenaries now, and you're

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Speaker 1: getting Trajogan, who is the head of Wagner is not

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Speaker 1: recruiting Russians out of prisons, paying them sort of three

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Speaker 1: grand a month, and they're being slaughtered in great numbers

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Speaker 1: on the front lines right now. Meanwhile, Robert China is

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Speaker 1: looking at Taiwan. Are we're gonna have a problem there? Well,

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Speaker 1: we already have a problem. I mean, I mean a

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Speaker 1: real problem. Yeah, it's the issue is not what it's when, right,

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Speaker 1: China stated over and over again, like with Hong Kong,

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Speaker 1: we're coming, that's that's our territory um. But they also

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Speaker 1: have a serious problem if they do that, because their

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Speaker 1: trade is international and they don't want to destroy the economy,

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Speaker 1: so they have a double edged sword there. I think,

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm not on the inside here, but I

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Speaker 1: think that China was watching that Putin was doing, and

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Speaker 1: our reaction very very carefully and when putting screwed up,

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Speaker 1: I think she said, okay, maybe next year. Do you

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Speaker 1: think Russia is surprised by the way Ukraine has put

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Speaker 1: up a fight? Oh? Absolutely. The You gotta remember, Russians

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Speaker 1: use numbers, right, They throw a lot of something and

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Speaker 1: just grind it down. They don't rely on skills. So

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Speaker 1: when you have numeric superiority, the assumption has just keep

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Speaker 1: throwing bodies, bullets, bombs and at some point they'll give up.

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Speaker 1: The Ukrainians fight, and you remember I spent a lot

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Speaker 1: of time on the front lines there this year, this

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Speaker 1: month and last month. They utilize their resources very carefully,

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Speaker 1: and they know Russian tactics. Russian tactics are very well known,

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Speaker 1: and the Ukrainians are incredibly creative. And how they harass

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Speaker 1: the Russians, the Russians are not you know, the Russians

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Speaker 1: simply attack, they use all their ammunition, they fall back,

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Speaker 1: they attack again, and then when nobody left, they just

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Speaker 1: set it out for a while. We get the supplied.

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Speaker 1: So the war was very predictable. Who's winning it right now? Well,

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Speaker 1: nobody's winning. I mean, you can't really say that anybody's winning.

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Speaker 1: But if we continue to do what we're doing, which

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Speaker 1: is to send our old nineties hardware and the stuff

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Speaker 1: we were going to use against Russian And if we

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Speaker 1: keep sending the money and bullets and the things they need,

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Speaker 1: the Ukrainians will bog down the Russians. And you gotta remember,

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Speaker 1: if you look at a map of Ukraine, it's a

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Speaker 1: huge place, yea. So to physically hold Ukraine you would

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Speaker 1: have to topple kids, wipe out the leadership, and that's

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Speaker 1: not going to happen. Then the government officials I've met,

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Speaker 1: the military guys I met, they're young, they're smart, they're creative,

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Speaker 1: they work hard. The Russians are scripts, you know, they

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Speaker 1: turn around and around, they get shot. So there's a

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Speaker 1: totally different reason for the Ukrainians to flight than there

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Speaker 1: is for the Russians. What was Putin's real goal, Robert,

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Speaker 1: I mean, did you want to reassemble the old Soviet Union? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: I think I think he saw an opportunity in slowly

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Speaker 1: nibbling away when he started with che Yeah, and he thought, Okay,

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Speaker 1: if I just steal little pieces, little strategic pieces like

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Speaker 1: Crimian whatever, nobody will notice, and before they notice, I'll

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Speaker 1: have Russia all back together again. And then while they're

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Speaker 1: looking at that, I'll steal the Arctics, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I'll make alliances with China, with India, We'll kick the

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Speaker 1: Americans out, and we'll put pressure on Europe. Now you

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Speaker 1: saw Brexit. You know a lot of people assume that

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Speaker 1: Brexit was a Russian disinformation operation. So he uses many

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Speaker 1: other tactics to slice off and sort of divide people.

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Speaker 1: So he had the policy of just slowly stealing back

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Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. I heard Putin was one of the

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Speaker 1: world's richest guys. Why wasn't he just sitting back and

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Speaker 1: joining his life and everybody? Why didn't Hitler go take

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Speaker 1: a vacation in nineteen forty four? Why didn't Bussolini, you know,

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Speaker 1: by a yacht. I don't know. There's something that drives

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Speaker 1: these people power a little bitter in. Yeah, there's something

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Speaker 1: in there, to be sure. Listen to more Coast to

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Speaker 1: Coast AM every weeknight at one am Eastern and go

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Speaker 1: to Coast to Coast am dot com for more