I'd say we don't need more German tanks, we need more German trains.

There's only enough trains to move 1.5 armor brigades in Europe, total simultaneously.

In 1995, when NATO's I-4 went into Bosnia to implement the Dayton Peace Accords, we had Russian

troops with us.

I mean, a modern brigade command post gives off a signal like a small city, and it's easily

targetable.

Welcome back to the Modern War Institute podcast.

I'm John Amble, editorial director at MWI,

and this episode features a conversation with retired lieutenant general Ben Hodges.

He holds the Pershing chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis,

and before retiring from the Army, he spent a good portion of his career in Europe,

beginning as a platoon leader in Germany

and culminating in command of U.S. Army Europe.

I originally recorded this episode and we release it about a year ago.

Obviously, given Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the past month, circumstances surrounding

the broad subject of European defense have changed pretty dramatically.

But as we focus on the daily news coming out of the conflict in Ukraine,

I think it's also really important to understand some broader context.

As I've been following the war, I kept finding myself thinking back to some really important points

that General Hodges made in our conversation.

So I would really encourage listeners to use some of the thoughts he shared in this discussion

to help conceptualize what we're watching in Ukraine today, with how we got here and what it all

...