This is a series of CVSI and the world. I'm John Bachelor with my friend and

colleague Gordon Chang, my co-host and we are very pleased to welcome retired Air Force General

Blaine Holt served as Deputy Military Representative on NATO to ask what to make of the recent incident off the coast of Alaska when two bombers capable

of carrying nuclear weapons from Russia and two bombers same from China flew up to the alert point so that

Norad responded with fighter aircraft from Canada and from the US. The

reporting says F-18s, F-16s and F-35s. Blaine a very good day to you, thank you.

How to regard that incident? One way it was described to me was the circus came to town and they put their

elephants up front. What did you make of it? Good day to you.

It's great to be with you both. I think that that's a very good characterization.

There's a very interesting message that got sent with that.

It's very pro forma for them to come check our defenses and to check our response times and then what types of

intercept aircraft we might send up after them. They expect all those things. It's

pro forma. But what's interesting about this one is is that the Russians and the Chinese sent a message with their antique bombers to say look at us we're flying together. We train together. We're building this relationship and they're trying to give us the image of an alliance that's forming and

Honestly if they could have had antique bombers with Iranian crews and North Korean crews they'd have thrown them up there too had an

thicic bombers with Iranian crews and North Korean crews they'd have thrown them up there too.

But this was about message sending.

This is not the way that either nation would want to go to war with us.

It's not what they would do.

Gordon, have a question.

So Blaine, when we look at the Chinese and the Russian relationship,

we see naval exercises together.

We see, of course, the incursion near Alaska. I guess what we're seeing then is that if there's going to be a war in Asia, we can't count on it just being one of those two countries. I suppose we're going to have to assume that it's going to be both of them with their friend North Korea.

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