Hi, I'm Ben Parker from the Bullwork.

And hi, I'm Lieutenant General Mark Hirtland, contributor to the Bullwork.

And we are here with another episode of Command Post talking about national security

and the military in today's world.

Yeah, you know, General, when we started doing this, our thought was that we were going to

talk sort of broadly about the culture and structure of the military and all the ways

it was changing under this administration. And instead, we just end up talking mostly about all the different countries. Our president has unilaterally decided to invade or attack. But today, I'm a little excited because we're going to be able to get back into some of those larger themes and issues. We got a jam-packed episode. We're going to try to hit three big subjects. One is the blockade of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz about which you have an article up with the bulwark. It's called What a Blockade in the Strait of Hormuz really means. Very interesting. Everyone will talk a lot about that. We're going to talk a little bit about Victor Orban and Hungary and what that means from not only a political perspective,

but an alliance perspective, what that means for someone who's worked with our Hungarian and

inno allies before. And then we've got to talk about Ukraine. We have been, and a lot of people

have been just not paying nearly enough attention. And it is an astonishing story of what they've

accomplished. So why don't we dive in and talk a little bit about

what you heard from your Navy friends about the blockade and Hormuz. Yeah, this was an interesting

approach we took this week, Ben, and thank you for letting me do this. But I told Ben when we were

putting together an article that I had talked to a bunch of Navy friends,

both in the United States and in some foreign navies as well, Allied navies.

And I just wanted to find out the dirty details of what a blockade consists of.

I sort of knew what it was, but boy, these guys really enlightened me.

And boy, it was also a little bit, it me. And boy, it was also a little bit,

it was not only impressive, it was also a little bit scary. It is a tough mission. And one of the

friends I talked to understood Army stuff, because he had been with me in one of our units as we

were in Iraq. And he kind of laid it out what a blockade is in Navy terms and how it

related to what I understood in Army terms. First, I will tell you that I think most Americans

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