From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to Free Expression with me, Jerry Baker from the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Thanks very much for joining us. If you're not already a subscriber, please be sure to subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, and please leave us a five-star review.

This week, we're taking a look at the condition of America's national security and global

power. My guest is Tom Cotton, U.S. Senator from Arkansas. Senator Cotton has a new bookout,

only the strong, which argues that throughout modern U.S. history, up to and including the Joe Biden

administration, it's the political

left that has sabotaged American power. Senator says Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan,

the failure to deter Russian aggression in Ukraine, and to stand up effectively to a rising

China, are just the latest examples of progressives' failure to protect American security and

interests. And he says, this failure is not an unintended consequence, but a feature of the left's very conception of America itself and its role in the world. Tom Cotton has been a senator since 2015, before that served a term as a member in the House of Representatives. Before entering politics, of course, he served his country in a distinguished military career in Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Bronze Star, the Combat Infantryman badge and the and the Ranger Tab. And Tom Cotton, thanks very much for being here. Hey, Jerry. Thanks very much for having me on. So I want to get into the argument of your book about the left and how it has essentially sabotaged American political power over a very long period of time. And you also, I should say, do come up with proposals as to how to address that. But let's just start off if we can by looking at the state of the world at the moment.

We've got these extraordinary global events going on, major land war going on in Europe between

Russia and Ukraine. We've got China making very, very threatening noises about Taiwan.

Just over a year ago, we saw the disastrous American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Around the world,

people seem to be very, very unimpressed by American power. America seems to have lost the power

to pursue its interests. How do you sum up where we are in the world and how we got here right now?

Well, unfortunately, Jerry, you kind of hit the nail on the head, friend and foe alike around the

world, are doubtful about

America's resolve and American power. In fact, the Wall Street Journal has a column this week

by your global affairs column, is Walter Russell Meade, a great historian of American foreign policy

and a friend and mentor of mind about the high cost of low defense spending. You saw it throughout

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