Welcome to the program today. My name is Mawne Gonzalez and I have the privilege of talking with retired Lieutenant Colonel Bob McGinnis. Welcome, Bob.

Well, thank you, Mondo.

And there is certainly a lot going on and our audience is eager to hear your perspective. I mean, you're a geopolitics expert as well. You have a lot of connections around.

And kind of just right up front, give us kind of your thoughts. There's a lot of connections around. And kind of just right up front,

give us kind of your thoughts. There's a lot of stuff happened over the weekend. Kind of share with us.

Well, now that we're in almost a week of fighting in Ukraine, something that should have been prevented

a long time ago had, I think the U.S. and NATO done

more to come to the aid of Zelensky and the people there in Kiev, but we didn't.

And so Mr. Putin, you know, created a pretext going into the east, claiming genocide, claiming that there were Nazis that were dominating

Ukraine.

Now, Ukraine, understand, is a part of the old Russia-Ukraine empire.

And one thing that Vladimir Putin is very possessive of.

And now, initially, Mr. Putin hoped that he could go in with a light touch, only going

after the military, insisting that the government, you know, abandon its claim to sovereignty

and surrender and become a neutral country, much like Finland, has been for many

years. Well, that didn't happen. And so Mr. Putin's light touch has now become a metastasized,

almost a cancerous assault on the Ukrainian people.

You know, this is almost reminiscent of what they did against the Chechens.

And they went in and they used heavy weapons against the civilians,

and they slaughtered thousands and thousands.

So Mr. Putin's initial effort to just intimidate through military prowess from all sides

has failed.

...