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Sloviansk Is Costing Putin Everything (Does He Care?) · Combat Veteran News

0:00
Russia's main effort in Ukraine has
0:02
focused entirely now on the east with
0:05
two particular cities holding the line
0:07
against the Russian offensive cremators
0:09
and Sloviansk. But things are just a
0:12
little bit tougher for the Ruskies than
0:15
they were hoping. So let's talk about
0:17
how the Ukrainians are fighting this
0:19
defensive fight and more importantly
0:21
well how this plays into the larger war.
0:24
Let's do this breakdown. Okay, so Russia
0:28
is obviously on a campaign to squeeze
0:31
the city of Cremators and this is a city
0:37
that has been under threat for at least
0:41
2 years. Uh it's actually kind of wild
0:44
because the Russians were in fact quite
0:48
close to Creremator when I was there in
0:50
2024. It was routinely hit with cab
0:53
strikes and now here we are two years
0:56
later and while cremators has been
0:58
heavily evacuated and is only 15
0:59
kilometers from Russian positions.
1:02
It still is unusual to see that level of
1:08
uh this that it's still holding on as
1:11
well as it is. I mean 15 km again it's
1:13
close but it's not that close. And the
1:16
other major city comparable in size just
1:18
to the north is Slovian. and Slovian is
1:22
fulfilling a similar function. This is
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Slovian is considered kind of the
1:26
northern anchor of Ukraine's fortress
1:29
belt. Now,
1:31
we need to approach this sort of idea of
1:35
like favorable and unfavorable terrain
1:38
through the lens of drone warfare
1:39
because it's pretty important to
1:41
understand it is that Slovian
1:44
represents, you know, it used to
1:45
represent hilly high ground over some
1:47
really impenetrable terrain. You can see
1:49
it's on the far side of the Kosen
1:51
Tourette's River and this is makes it
1:54
very very hard to assault. Namely
1:56
because it crossing a river is a slow
1:59
arduous difficult task and when crossing
2:02
a river under drone observation is
2:04
basically impossible.
2:07
You can also see that Slovian is really
2:09
the main urban center and that
2:12
everything from the remaining
2:15
right now about 16 to 18 km is largely
2:20
open terrain with this few scattered
2:21
villages. This is important because
2:23
Russian infiltration tactics really work
2:26
under two key circumstances. The first
2:28
is in heavily urbanized terrain where
2:31
instead of having to cross over a giant
2:33
open field under under observation of
2:35
drones, you can simply hop from one
2:37
building and zip across the street to
2:39
another one. It's much easier. It makes
2:41
it much harder to detect infiltration.
2:44
It requires direct action troops to kind
2:46
of go in and sweep out an area. It's
2:49
much more difficult. Right. The other
2:50
area terrain that's very favored is
2:52
actually forested terrain. And you can
2:55
see that on the approaches to Slovian,
2:57
you don't see that much of it. And in
2:58
areas where there is forested terrain,
3:00
you can literally see the Russians are
3:02
using that to try to conduct their
3:04
advances. And so again, you look here,
3:07
you see this sort of leap from this
3:10
small village to the somehow even
3:12
smaller village of Leifka is exactly
3:15
where Russian infiltrators have gone.
3:16
They've tried to sort of skip the two
3:18
kilometers through this area. And so
3:22
the battle for Slovian right and for
3:25
cremators which is subject to kind of
3:27
comparable [snorts]
3:29
terrain also again large open areas not
3:33
a lot of forested terrain and then the
3:35
town itself of Crematorque which has
3:37
both forested terrain and significant
3:39
urbanized terrain. They're subject to
3:41
kind of the same sort of constraints
3:43
where the Russians probably are going to
3:45
have to find ways to sort of infiltrate
3:47
into some of these areas and then kind
3:49
of spread through seizing more and more
3:51
of this open terrain because the reverse
3:54
also occurs where for Ukrainians holding
3:57
these somewhat developed villages or
4:00
forest belts are essential defensive
4:02
terrain and that is essentially what's
4:04
being fought over in this fighting. Now
4:06
the 93rd who we've done extensive
4:08
fundraising for is crucial and has been
4:11
for again years to holding on to
4:14
cremators. Now the Russian strategy
4:16
again as they profile here is following
4:20
a pretty standardized playbook uh doing
4:23
two things at the same time. They need
4:26
to over a 100 kilometer front between
4:28
cremators and Slovian they have to both
4:31
encircle the or put pressure on the
4:34
flanks uh and in order to squeeze put uh
4:38
the supply lines of the cities under
4:41
under strain and then push into the
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heart right so this is something that is
4:47
almost exactly like what happened in the
4:51
battle of Bachmann And while Russian
4:56
efforts on paper make sense,
5:00
the reality is a lot lot lot messier.
5:03
Again, you can see that one, Cremators
5:07
and Slovian can't really be flanked,
5:10
Slovian has this problem where unless
5:13
this gigantic salient can somehow push
5:17
all the way to Isume and then pivot
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downward. I mean that would require at
5:22
the current rate of Russian advance this
5:25
turning this into the northern prong of
5:27
your encirclement would would take like
5:30
probably the Russians like 5 years would
5:32
be my guess may maybe maybe as little as
5:34
as two. So you see this like swallowing
5:37
of Detsk I mean this is just isn't
5:40
really possible. Um you can see the
5:44
battle of Bachm when advances were much
5:46
slower three years ago
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right took place here and since then
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you've only seen again just a few
5:56
kilometers really from Bachm to the
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current edge of the Russian advances 16
6:00
kilometers right that's about maybe
6:03
eight miles 10 miles
6:05
really not not really sustainable so the
6:08
Russian strategy feels bold and I on the
6:11
maps that are shown to Putin, this looks
6:13
like an awesome idea. But you can see
6:15
that a smaller strategy isn't really
6:16
going to work because it would require
6:18
again putting a northern flank under
6:21
pressure for say cremators is going to
6:24
just create a salient where Ukrainian
6:26
forces over the river in Slovian are
6:28
going to be able to just piece them
6:30
apart. And so I really think the
6:33
Russians are putting troops into this
6:35
problem, but I'm not sure there's a
6:36
solution. Again, you can see there's
6:39
large wa bodies of water that are going
6:41
to make again infiltration really
6:45
difficult. Not you can see here again
6:47
they'd have to push the Ukrainians out
6:49
of this area near Lyman and then get
6:51
over the Sears Dets River. It it's it's
6:54
a nightmare. It's a nightmare for the
6:56
Russians. for the Ukrainians. Uh again,
6:59
this as this article points out, the
7:03
Russian offensive planning at the
7:04
operation operational level is really
7:08
disciplined. He says, "On paper, it
7:09
looks great. I'm sure the the groupings
7:11
are sequenced, axes are assigned,
7:12
objectives are staggered, but the
7:15
execution leads a lot to be desired." He
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says, quote, "There's a shift the shift
7:22
to two to threeman infiltration teams on
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motorcycles and ATVs is a function of
7:26
just a manpower deficit that they're
7:28
straining to control, right? And
7:31
replacing
7:33
uh Russians can still bring in about
7:35
30,000 fresh troops a month. Um, which
7:38
is still causing net losses to the
7:41
battlefield force."
7:43
Series estimated that there are about
7:45
721,000
7:47
Russians inside of Ukraine at the end of
7:50
June and this is a
7:55
basically has been essentially steady
7:57
since late 2025, but I think it's now
7:59
starting to dip based on casualty
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numbers. Again, this number the Russians
8:05
in um August were estimated to have lost
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about had a net loss of about 12,000
8:11
troops. So
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the this is this is one of the
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fundamental problems of a lot of these
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dictatorships uh Putin right but other
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authoritarian leaders who are surrounded
8:23
by yesmen run into these problems and
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that fundamental problem is that ways
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ends and means you may have a brilliant
8:32
map that shows your forces encircling
8:35
both sansk and cremators but as we see
8:38
there's simply not the manpower to do
8:41
it. It just doesn't exist and the
8:44
Russians can't render it into existence
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without conducting a mass mobilization.
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Now, what I think is interesting is that
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Slovian is defended by the Ukrainian
8:54
81st Air Mobile defending uh Mikolai,
8:59
right? So-called gateway to Slovian,
9:01
which we can see located right here. A
9:03
pretty crucial part that is relatively
9:06
secure to the north thanks to this uh
9:09
this Dets River. But you can see here
9:11
Russian forces are really trying to cut
9:14
conduct a mini encirclement here. I mean
9:15
it's not mini the to the troops inside
9:17
it's a significant encirclement but
9:19
they're trying to take this Keni Ry
9:22
Alexandrika uh Knight Corifka right
9:26
create this kind of pocket where Russian
9:29
forces can then trap elements of the
9:32
81st where they can't necessarily get
9:33
out. Again, bear in mind that this isn't
9:38
like this is the best attempt of this
9:42
mapping software or this mapper to
9:44
assign distinct lines to what's not. The
9:47
better way to think of this is gray and
9:50
redder zones. So gray represents areas
9:53
where Russians already probably operate
9:55
and red represents areas where there's
9:57
really not much of a Ukrainian presence
9:59
left. And so this, think of this less as
10:01
a flanking effort and more of kind of a
10:04
diffusion and that Russian forces are
10:06
going to start to diffuse into this
10:08
pocket and drive the Ukrainians out of
10:10
it. Um, as they point out, right,
10:13
Russian assault groups are already
10:15
attacking the apartment blocks along the
10:16
town's eastern edge. Uh,
10:20
and the situation the 81st describes as
10:24
deteriorating. Again, according to one
10:26
mapper, the uh
10:30
the two the pair of towns, Sylvanians
10:32
and Cremators, hold nearly 100,000
10:34
people and are the final objectives, but
10:36
taking this inter intermediate town uh
10:38
is a key Russian objective.
10:43
And the what's also interesting is that
10:48
the Russians have actually had some
10:50
pretty significant pushes in these
10:52
areas. And let me back you up here.
10:54
We're going to back it up. Let's back it
10:55
up to the start of July. Here's the
10:57
start of July. And and just watch as the
10:59
Russians really crack in and make some
11:02
pretty big advances here. Uh oop. I
11:05
guess it would help if I scrolled
11:07
forward uh [snorts] to the actual date.
11:10
So here's July 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6, 7,
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8, 9, 10, 11, 12. You can see the
11:19
Russians are actually uh sometimes
11:21
really driving quite hard uh to create
11:24
this kind of pocket, right? You can see
11:26
here in Keny and they are making these
11:30
these kind of surges where they advance
11:33
to a new kind of uh forward position and
11:36
then try to conduct this like
11:38
consolidation. And so we can see that
11:40
yeah, it's kind of eased up a little
11:42
bit, but you have these Russian prongs
11:44
kicking out and then you have a sort of
11:46
Russian consolidation. It's a a
11:50
strategy of kind of um sort of like a
11:54
climber where you put in two footooth
11:55
holds and then you pull all your stuff
11:57
up and then you put in two more footooth
11:59
holds and you pull all your stuff up.
12:03
And the problem is I think that the
12:08
I mean according to at least one analyst
12:10
they're like listen this is not it's
12:12
highly unlikely that the battle for
12:14
Slovian will begin this year at least
12:15
because the fighting in Mikolakka is
12:17
likely to be prolonged. uh the
12:22
you know the geography as they point out
12:24
is still very difficult right the uh
12:27
Severki Detsk canal is a huge problem
12:32
again even if they could somehow get
12:34
into uh M Kolka
12:39
it still is just unlikely that they're
12:41
going to be have actually into Slaviance
12:43
but you can see here that if these
12:45
Russian infiltrators can actually get
12:47
into um
12:49
Mike Kolia, it would be a huge problem,
12:52
right? Because they can infiltrate
12:54
through these buildings and through
12:55
these buildings and then they'll be
12:58
forcibly canalized, right? It's going to
13:00
be really hard to have to cross along
13:01
basically a fixed distance, but this is
13:04
not that large a distance before they
13:06
can get into the outskirts of Slovian.
13:08
So, it's unlikely to happen soon, but
13:11
it's also going to be very difficult to
13:14
stop or reverse.
13:17
>> [snorts]
13:17
>> So,
13:19
uh, as they point out, the Ukrainians
13:21
have built extensive, uh, fortifications
13:24
in this area. Uh, and so any sort of
13:26
effort the Russians make to infiltrate
13:28
this is going to come at a high cost.
13:29
But cost, as we've seen, is not actually
13:31
that deterrent to Russian forces. Now, I
13:35
want to zoom out a little bit and try to
13:37
put these into additional context. The
13:40
first is some of the midline stuff. This
13:42
was one story I thought was really
13:43
interesting, but it's illustrative of a
13:45
deeper Ukrainian campaign, which is that
13:47
some of the ASOV's middle strike drones
13:49
actually identified a significant
13:51
Russian um logistics column 20 km from
13:55
forward positions and they were able to
13:58
essentially destroy the entire colometer
14:00
the entire
14:02
uh column 20 km from the front line and
14:08
the Russian right Russians were
14:09
attempting to again move a significant
14:12
amount of supplies likely to kind of uh
14:16
um staging areas
14:19
to get to then sort of disperse it out
14:22
to forward positions. And one of the
14:24
things that we've seen that's really
14:25
interesting is that we've seen actually
14:27
Russians start to use the Molina drones.
14:30
These are Russia's mid-range strike
14:31
drones. And instead of a warhead,
14:33
they're actually taping up supply
14:35
packages. And they are dropping these
14:37
molenas near positions. And in some
14:42
cases, I think the Ukrainians are
14:43
actually using those dropped molenas to
14:45
identify it. But typically, you think of
14:46
like vampires as doing these logistics
14:48
runs where they'll come out, they'll
14:50
drop their package of of, you know, 10 k
14:53
10 kg of food, water, batteries,
14:55
ammunition, whatever, and then it'll fly
14:57
back. Well, again, the fact that the
14:59
Russians are spending a molina just to
15:01
resupply troops, that's a $500 drone
15:03
that essentially is being treated as
15:05
disposable and sending supplies forward
15:08
again every single one time use, right?
15:11
$500 just to get again, not even from
15:15
places like this convoy, but where this
15:16
convoy stages to then launch these out
15:19
is a
15:21
as a sign of just I think how um
15:24
difficult logistics is, how that the
15:27
Russians are actually being forced to
15:29
expend more resources to actually keep
15:32
their troops supplied, that the
15:34
attrition rate of resupply is really
15:36
high, the interdiction rate of drones is
15:39
very significant, and just the Russian
15:42
ability to keep these positions fed and
15:45
hydrated is actually really limited.
15:49
>> [snorts]
15:49
>> Now, I wanted to to
15:52
zoom out even more, right, and talk
15:54
about some kind of some of these larger
15:56
strategic issues because one of the
15:58
things that I thought was really uh
16:01
interesting is that
16:04
the the
16:07
uh
16:09
the chief issue, at least it's been
16:12
facing the Ukrainians right now, has
16:14
been air defense interceptors. And
16:18
President Trump has alternated between
16:20
saying, "Yeah, we want Ukraine to help
16:21
us build these things. We're out of
16:23
them. We need all our allies to be
16:24
building them if they can." But then
16:26
Trump said, "Actually, um, we're not
16:28
going to license Patriot missile
16:29
production to Ukraine." Citing concerns
16:31
that sensitive technology could
16:32
eventually work its way to Russia. The
16:34
key obstacle is the missiles advanced Ka
16:36
band radar seeker limited production uh
16:39
capability, meaning that basically the
16:42
US refuses to have anyone else build
16:44
this thing. It's seen as simply too
16:45
valuable. It's the thing that lets the
16:48
the missile sort of track its its track
16:52
its target in the final stages of its
16:54
flight. Um, right. Initially, Trump said
16:57
that US would license Ukraine to produce
16:59
their own Patriots, helping to increase
17:01
global supply. But then they said, well,
17:04
you know, we we we just can't give away
17:05
that super sensitive technology. It's
17:08
kind of annoying because it's made by
17:10
Boeing, but it is [snorts] 30-year-old
17:13
tech, right? It is not highly advanced.
17:17
Again, only Germany and Japan are
17:20
licensed to manufacture their own
17:21
Patriot missiles. For Japan, who only
17:24
got the production license in 2005, so
17:26
20 years ago, they were not permitted uh
17:29
to manufacture their own Ka band radar
17:31
seeker. So
17:34
this is but the real story that I
17:36
thought was interesting and this is from
17:38
the Atlantic who cited cited a
17:40
Republican official in Congress who said
17:42
one of the primary holdups is actually
17:45
um the systems designers Rathon and
17:47
Lockheed right two of the prime
17:49
contractors. These officials said that
17:51
the two defense contractors quote will
17:52
officially frame their concerns around
17:53
IP theft and tech transfer. The KA Ben
17:56
radar quote but their real worry is that
17:58
the Ukrainians will find a way to
17:59
improve the Patriot and then produce
18:01
them at a scale faster and for much less
18:03
cost than what existing production lines
18:05
in the US could do, threatening
18:06
manufacturers in the United States. And
18:09
this is um annoying for a bunch of
18:13
reasons. One, because Mr. free market.
18:16
Well, guess what guys? The point of the
18:18
free market is that competitors come in
18:20
and they produce things as cheaply or
18:22
efficiently as possible and then you
18:24
have to compete. And that is something
18:27
that US manufacturers uh are loathed to
18:30
do. And you can literally see in real
18:32
time uh just how like how good it is to
18:37
own the US government in this way. And
18:39
here is the stock price of Loheed Martin
18:42
over the last 5 years. As you can see,
18:43
it was trading at $357. Now it's trading
18:45
closer to $600. You look at from when
18:47
the Patriot debuted in the 80s, Lucky
18:50
Martin was a $26 a share company. Today,
18:52
it is a $600 a share company. So, and it
18:57
has it pays out a huge dividend, meaning
18:59
that they just have so much capital,
19:01
they make so much money that they just
19:03
give it away. Uh, which is fine. Like,
19:05
like I'm not like dividends in a stock
19:07
bad, but Rathon [snorts]
19:09
is the same story. in in the 80s when
19:11
the Patriot missile came out, it was a
19:13
$10 a share stock. Now it's a $224 a
19:16
share stock. So the thing to to
19:19
understand here, these are these are
19:21
companies that we're now seeing with
19:23
real regulatory capture and they can go
19:26
to the Pentagon and say, "Hey, our
19:28
technology is too sensitive to let
19:30
anyone have." Again, this is not
19:32
something that was invented in a lab
19:34
under the Pentagon 6 weeks ago. This is
19:37
30-year-old radar tech. This is
19:40
something that again was invented before
19:42
we had a smartphone.
19:45
I'm pretty skeptical that this is
19:47
something that can even be um that is
19:51
even worth like defending to this level
19:53
of rigor. Now again,
19:57
like these companies are just mad they
19:59
have to compete in the free market with
20:01
competitors, but that's how it's
20:03
supposed to work. And when you we spend
20:05
nearly a trillion dollars a year um for
20:09
not enough Patriot interceptors, you've
20:11
got to you've got to marry that up. You
20:14
got to live in the real world. And in
20:16
the real world, like supply and demand
20:19
have to equal out. And so classic, it's
20:23
like building chips, right? Or AI
20:26
models, great example, right? Open AAI
20:29
was like, we have this great LLM. How
20:32
long did it take before six other LLMs
20:35
emerged? It took 12 months, 18 months.
20:38
And now you have Chinese LLMs. You've
20:40
got Google with their own. You've got
20:42
Anthropic. You've got OpenAI. You have a
20:44
bunch of these competitors. You have
20:46
Grock. And it's not an accident. It's
20:48
how the free market's supposed to work.
20:51
And it lowers costs. It increases
20:53
product effectiveness. And we refuse to
20:56
do that in our military. again at our
20:58
own peril because now we're looking
21:00
around. We're saying, "Damn, these
21:02
Patriots cost more than they did last
21:05
when they debuted. They are not any more
21:08
effective. We still have a massive
21:10
shortage of them and still somehow the
21:12
free market says that we can't get any
21:14
of them and we refuse. We we find anyone
21:17
who could potentially be a competitor
21:18
and we squish them out of existence.
21:21
It's insufferable. And frankly, the
21:23
Ukrainians are going to find are going
21:25
to build their own interceptors. They're
21:26
12 to 18 months away. And the if the US
21:31
was smart, they would just give them the
21:34
Patriots. Why? Because if the Ukrainians
21:36
build their own that don't depend on US
21:37
tech, everybody and their brother is
21:40
going to be raising their hands to get
21:42
to want some or is going to build their
21:44
own because obviously, as we've seen,
21:46
the United States gives sells you
21:49
weapons with big strings attached. you
21:52
have to do what the US says or else we
21:54
won't supply spare parts or else we
21:55
won't refill your Patriots, whatever it
21:57
is. So again, a lot of these countries
22:00
are like, we can't depend on the United
22:01
States because what if we make big daddy
22:04
Uncle Sam mad at us, right?
22:07
And so the if we were smart, we would
22:10
just give the Ukrainians the Patriots
22:11
and that way it would disincentivize
22:13
Ukrainian companies from building their
22:15
own cheap ballistic missile interceptors
22:19
just like we've already seen where yeah
22:22
the US gave Ukraine a bunch of things
22:23
like the highars and um basically the
22:27
highars and attackums missiles but lo
22:28
and behold the Ukrainians found that
22:31
they were most effective when they said
22:32
listen we're just going to find our own
22:34
way to hit long range targets. Two
22:36
Russian refineries were hit by drones at
22:39
a distance of 1500 km and six nearly
22:42
7,000 km. These were in Orinberg Oblast
22:46
and Rosnf plant. Uh these are some
22:50
people think they might have been
22:51
sabotaged. They might have been drones,
22:52
but you can see from the map here that
22:54
this is a these are unbelievably long
22:57
range strikes, right? So in one
22:59
instance, you're looking at again 1500
23:01
km to Orsk, but this one here
23:06
probably not a drone because to fly that
23:09
with a drone you'd have to traverse most
23:11
of Russia. You you're talking about
23:13
something that would probably have to go
23:14
into like orbit. But still a a really a
23:20
reflection of the investment that the
23:23
Ukrainians have made
23:25
in their homegrown defense technology.
23:28
And I think a lot of other countries
23:30
have to look at this and just take note
23:31
and say, listen, we can't be dependent
23:34
on the US. We don't know what side of
23:36
the bed Donald Trump or his successor is
23:38
going to wake up on. Again, this is
23:40
somebody who provides most of the
23:43
technological and technical capabilities
23:44
for most European militaries, the United
23:47
States defense establishment.
23:49
And the US president was like, if you
23:51
want our help, you're going to seed your
23:53
territory to us. you're going to allow
23:55
us to annex Greenland, right? And so, or
23:58
he says, "Oh, I'm going to make Canada
24:00
the 51st state." Again, every one of
24:02
these countries is looking around and
24:03
saying, "You know what? I think it's
24:04
time we uh got our our military
24:07
equipment from elsewhere because there
24:08
is a non-trivial chance that we're going
24:11
to have to use that equipment to deter
24:13
the United States from taking over
24:15
portions of our territory." And they're
24:18
looking around at the Ukrainians and
24:19
saying, "I think we have maybe
24:20
overpaid." Again, this is like somebody
24:23
bragging that they say, "Yeah, $200 a
24:26
month. Don't be jealous, but I have a
24:28
56k dialup modem." And then all of a
24:31
sudden, you look around and you say,
24:34
"Wait, my neighbors have cable modems
24:36
and they pay 60 bucks a month. They have
24:40
a fiber line that costs them $23.95 a
24:43
month." and you realize that your
24:45
internet company just scammed you, that
24:48
they've been selling you an inferior
24:49
product for way too much. And you don't
24:51
realize it until you look at the next
24:53
street over and you say, "Hey, man,
24:55
they're getting 10 times the value for a
24:58
third of the price." And that's what
24:59
everyone's doing. They're saying,
25:00
"Listen, the Ukrainians have shown that
25:03
you can strap a lawnmower engine to an
25:05
explosive and some wings and you can
25:07
achieve the same thing that a $15
25:09
million American tomahawk costs." And oh
25:13
yeah, nobody's going to tell you who you
25:15
can shoot your lawn mower at, which is
25:17
more than you can save for the United
25:18
States. Again, that's one of the reasons
25:20
why we saw Turkey yesterday
25:22
put out sell its entire stockpile of
25:25
attackums missiles because Turkey says,
25:27
"Listen, the state of Israel has said,
25:30
"We view Turkey as a potential
25:31
adversary." And Turkey says, "Okay,
25:35
well, obviously the Americans are never
25:36
going to let their technology be used
25:37
against Israel. That's not possible
25:39
within the the the American the American
25:42
priorities have been made clear. So they
25:44
say, "Well, then this stuff is
25:45
worthless. If it won't let us deter or
25:48
strike a geopolitical adversary, then
25:51
what are we doing with it on our books?"
25:53
They said, "Let's just sell it and we'll
25:55
buy some Chinese stuff or we'll build
25:57
our own." Right? Turkey, it does have
26:00
its own. It sold Russian the Bakadar,
26:03
one of the early strike drones, right? a
26:05
dis the predator for people on a budget.
26:09
And we're already seeing this, right?
26:10
You see the North Koreans fielding their
26:13
ballistic missiles, right? Hitting
26:15
plants in Zapesia. There's a theme here
26:18
and it is that
26:20
countries are learning that they really,
26:22
really, really, really, really, really
26:25
do not want someone else to tell them
26:27
who they can and can't defend themselves
26:30
against. And that is increasingly what
26:32
the US is doing. and they're realizing
26:34
that the US has been screwing them on
26:36
price the entire time. This is the this
26:39
is the truly delicious irony of sort of
26:42
the Trump era is that he claims to be
26:44
this brilliant businessman, but he's
26:46
bankrupted company after company because
26:49
he doesn't understand a good thing. He
26:51
doesn't understand a money-m an actual
26:54
business, right? He understands
26:56
celebrity and licensing his name and
26:59
leaving the actual casinos to get
27:00
bankrupted. He understands looting an
27:02
entity, but you cannot become a a a a
27:07
truly [snorts] successful businessman.
27:09
You cannot run a real successful
27:10
business when dishonesty and and
27:14
scamminess is your is your your
27:16
playbook. and the fact that he had a a
27:21
borderline exploitive business in
27:23
American overseas arm sales to allies
27:26
and that he destroyed that in order for
27:29
reasons that nobody can really seem to
27:31
establish um is is bad for the United
27:34
States. But in the long run, I think
27:35
it's actually probably good. It's good
27:37
for most of these countries because they
27:39
are going to gain something. They're
27:40
going to gain sovereignty. They're going
27:42
to gain sovereignty over their military
27:44
policy. They're going to have the
27:45
ability to pursue their interests
27:48
without seeking permission from the
27:50
United States to do so. Now, if you want
27:53
to pursue your own interests with equal
27:55
aggression, you should consider picking
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