This is the Friends Vista Debating Society. I'm John Batsch. We're visiting with Professor H.J. Maccandor

International Relations, generously, as he does each week. Come any on six capital, six points of view

in Ukraine conflict, year two. On the eve of the counteroffensive, says President Zelensky of Ukraine,

fog of war, nothing is confirmed, nothing can be confirmed. You make a plan and when you meet the

enemy, you make a new plan. So there is no commitment here anywhere. We're just reading the news and

repeating what the news is telling us. Why do they want us to know this? I don't know.

And no one knows. That's why we now go to DC where the opacity of Moscow is matched

completely by the war effort of the Biden administration. It seems to be spending all of its

anxiety in the Pacific. While the front lines are engaged in Ukraine. Professor, I think we can

realize that it would be not only a tragedy, but a major blow to the United States if Ukraine falls

to Moscow's invasion. And yet it would appear that all of the energy of the administration now is

directed west over the Pacific to Beijing. Am I misunderstanding this? What is DC's point of view

about Ukraine on the eve of the counteroffensive? Well, I don't have the gift of second sight or

of discerning character or of reading the mind, but it is, I believe that no one in Washington really

knows what they're doing. None of them is prepared to the task they are facing. And as a result,

despite what may be their best efforts, they are failing to take into account the sorts of things

that a more qualified person would. And one of the things you said that it really would be a blow

if Ukraine fell to Russia. You bet your life. People forget what the stakes of this are. If Ukraine loses,

then Mr. Putin, who is a chakis, I mean, he's a secret policeman, he's very strange. Mentally,

he has delusions about Russia, but he has lots and lots of weapons, although there are gaps in his

arsenal, will suddenly be the king of the hill. And the political influence of Russia globally will

be pumped up once again. And this would be really a disaster for countries that don't want to be

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