I'm John Batschra. This is Friends of History Debating Society visiting with Michael

John. He is in Vilnius Lithuania near the Russian frontier and the question Michael has been asking for several weeks now in Lithuania is what is to be done with a threat of the Russian Federation against NATO because Michael is on the front lines. He'd be a road bump on the way to Paris. Michael, what have you learned about the Lithuanian military and its preparations?

I'm sitting literally 40 meters away from the KGB headquarters. For the things we're talking about now, I would be dragged in there and tortured and killed not long ago.

They're very concerned that Lithuanians and Estonians, Latvian, Polish, everybody is quite concerned that the Russian bear will come back again because they know as soon as it's got the strength and power it will do it.

One of the things that the Lithuanians are concerned about is an invasion from the Russians and that they'll just come in and see a great deal of Lithuanian territory immediately start to negotiate and then just keep that part of the territory.

That's quite doable. Their military here is not powerful, not large and they know that. The Russians just have them outnumbered and out and everything, out terrain, out gear.

What about NATO, Michael? What do the Lithuanians say about NATO?

Well, I'm not going to say what Lithuanians say, I'll say what I say, NATO is worthless except for the United States.

I've seen them in action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, just the NATO as a whole is essentially worthless.

The United States fights and the Lithuanians realize that Lithuanians were in Iraq and Afghanistan. I got to know them in Afghanistan, actually.

They realize that they're only real possibility is the United States. They feel a close relationship with the United States.

Lithuanians move mostly to places like Chicago, like the Polish-Dew Chicago as well. They become Americans quite quickly.

They assimilate so quickly that one generation later you have no idea where they were from. They're quite proud to be Americans.

That's why you have many Lithuanians actually leaving here is because there are so many threats in the history of so rife with invasion going all directions.

It's just a matter of time until it happens again.

What do the Lithuanians say about the Russian Federation and Belarus? Do they talk about the Belarus soldiers or do they only refer to the Russian Federation?

No, they talk about Belarus every day. They talk about those almost interchangeably. Belarus is a client state of Russia. Belarus is a Russia's dog.

But it's also its own rogue dog. Belarus is very dangerous. I saw a cartoon. I think I sent it to you actually.

Lithuanian officer sent me today. It was in the media about the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko weaponizing migrants and loading up migrants from his quiver and firing them with a bow and arrow across the border here.

Because that's what they're doing. They're using the migrants to destabilize Lithuania and the EU. And it'll work eventually. It'll definitely work.

Especially with Germany and France and the tremendous mistakes we'd in others have made on migration is just adding up.

Are the Lithuanians allied with the Poles? The Poland is a much larger country with the same tradition of resistance?

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