Why the Hell is Biden talking about Armageddon? Frederick Kagan on the Chances Putin will Use Nukes in Ukraine
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 12 October 2022
⏱️ 53 minutes
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Summary
Putin is incurring major losses on the battlefield. The strategic and symbolic Kerch Bridge connecting mainland Russia to Crimea was hit a few hours after Putin turned 70; Russian citizens are increasingly unhappy with their leadership; the Ukrainian counter-offensive is resilient and capitalizing on Russia's many military vulnerabilities. Putin has ramped up threats of nuclear escalation, prompting Joe Biden to warn of impending Armageddon at a recent Democratic fundraiser. Is nuclear escalation a legitimate fear? If so, how do we deter Russia from escalating without offering Putin a compromise or offramp?
Fred Kagan on these questions and more in today's episode. Kagan is the director of AEI's Critical Threats Project. He, together with the Institute for the Study of War, release a live Ukraine-Russia war tracker.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.0 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. Thanks for listening. Here's our show. What the hell's going on? What the hell is going on? What the hell is going on? I don't know what the hell he's talking about. You don't have to know what the hell is on it. What hell's the matter with these guys? We don't know what's going on. What hell's going on? |
| 0:01.1 | Who in God's name |
| 0:21.7 | knows what it's all about. |
| 0:34.7 | Hi, I'm Daniel Pekka. And I'm Mark Dyson. |
| 0:38.4 | Welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:40.3 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:42.4 | Mark, what the hell? |
| 0:44.2 | What the hell is going on is Joe Biden went to a Democratic fundraiser and began having stream of consciousness about the danger of nuclear Armageddon, which, you know, |
| 0:57.2 | I'll tell you something, Danny, before we begin criticizing him, I just want to read for our listeners |
| 1:01.9 | the exact word so we know what we're talking about what Joe Biden said. Think about it. |
| 1:06.1 | We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis. |
| 1:10.6 | We've got a guy I know |
| 1:11.7 | fairly well. His name is Vladimir Putin. I spent a fair amount of time with him. He is not joking when he |
| 1:17.3 | talks about the potential use of tactical and nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons, |
| 1:22.5 | because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming. It's part of the Russian doctrine that they will not. |
| 1:29.1 | They will not. If the motherland is threatened, they'll use whatever force they need, including |
| 1:34.4 | nuclear weapons. I don't think there's any such thing as an ability to use a tactical nuclear |
| 1:39.8 | weapon and not end up with Armageddon. And then he said, what we're trying to figure out, |
| 1:45.6 | what is Putin's off ramp? Where does he get off? Where does he go on a way out? Where does he find |
| 1:51.0 | himself in a position that he not only does not lose space, but lose significant power within Russia. |
| 1:57.5 | So that's some serious stuff, Danny. The president of the United States has no greater |
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