Hello and welcome to The Byron Yorkshire, no chipchat podcast.

We like to get right into it and what we're going to get into today is the time far, far

away long, long ago, maybe five years, when national security leaks were patriotic.

You may be aware, although some people are just learning it really, national security

circles in Washington are just absolutely aghast and a new leak of classified US military

documents.

Now, the leak apparently originated in the Pentagon is said to include about 100 documents

and focuses mostly on US assistance to Ukraine and American assessments of Ukraine's defense

and defense of abilities against the Russian invasion.

Now maybe the biggest takeaway from the leaked material comes from a top secret document

leaked in which US intelligence concluded in February that Ukraine's military effort

is falling, quote, well short of its goals.

Now, according to an account in the Washington Post, that is a, that was a bleak assessment,

quote, bleak assessment, and it is, quote, a marked departure from the Biden administration's

public statements about the vitality of Ukraine's military and is likely to embolden critics

who feel the United States and NATO should do more to push for a negotiated settlement to

the conflict.

Okay, so it's, in other words, it's way different from what the Biden administration is saying

in public and it will probably encourage and support those critics who want US and NATO

to push for negotiated settlement in Ukraine.

So that's what it appears that the documents suggest.

Now, is that the point of the leak to create pressure and momentum for a negotiated settlement?

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