That sort of period of goodwill was squandered by the Bush administration when they invaded Iraq.

And now we are all paying for that mess.

So it's America's fall.

Finally, you admit it.

But not Trump.

I mean, it's America's fall in the sense that people, because we squandered all this goodwill

in the Middle East, that nobody believes in America's deterrent power anymore.

Nobody, the Russians don't believe that we will actually go after them if they do something.

And so they feel like that's a green light to do whatever they want.

Mm-hmm.

And I guess, you mentioned how Putin's been in power for a long, long time.

Can you comment on the tonal shift in his messaging?

And the way that you notice that when he came in, he was kind of like shy and more wet

behind the ears, is that the expression was like, you know, he was kind of much more non-ideological.

And now there is, I don't know if he has an ideology.

I don't think he's like, I mean, the only ideology that kind of exists in Russia is this

glorification of the victory in the Second World War.

I feel like everything that Russia does these days is hung around this skeleton of victory

in the Second World War and that we need to glorify.

And that's what holds our people together, remembering the greatness of our grandfather's

in the victory that they had.

And even in the rhetoric that he's using now in Ukraine, it all harkens back to the Second

...