are very interesting. key figures in this whole thing as it s going on. we see people from all different facets of society going back and saying they want to be part of this. for your reporting on nato that there is no daylight it appears between any of the folks in the alliance. if anything that putin could ve possibly driven them to tighter bonds. we are seeing that in the west as well, you re talking about a continent at often times very difficult time congealing, getting together on defense issues, getting together on economic issues, thus far the western alliance and the defense alliance with nato have largely hung together here. there has been an argument that the vladimir putin is pushing these allies together while vladimir putin s strategy here is to drive a wedge between the united states and nato allies. thus far, the u.s. is bolstering
from china. he says this was europe s equivalent of defunds the police talking about europe s lack of spending on defense issues. would you agree in the future europe will take spending on defense more seriously span maybe our country should as well. putin assumed this was going to go at worst like chechnya. without much of a reaction from the west. here it changed. it up-ended 30 years of relationships with the west in a week and a half. is upended the riggs economy and politics. but this is going to be history will write this this way. the battle was won in the ukraine by the ukrainians, but it will end in moscow.
about larger defense issues, but those two countries and the potential threats that the u.s. is facing for them are really where the discussion has been. so secretary austin now just speaking about the threat from russia. as you know, lindsey, the reason this has gotten so much more attention, even in the last few days, is because the russia military build-up along the border with ukraine has really accelerated and it s not just combat troops. defense officials are now saying that in fact they have logistical capability along the border, and that s one of the things that s really been a game changer for concern. the one thing that i m consistently hearing here, though, is that they don t really know the defense officials don t really know what putin is up to. is he really planning an invasion of ukraine or not? or is this just about him messaging and sowing chaos with the west? the defense officials i speak to really seem to not know. the other big issue is china. secretary of defens
and he realizes that we re in a vulnerable situation, and he goes in. he calls together the generals and colonels who run the pentagon war room and he reinforces, let s understand, process and procedure. he says, you re going to follow the process. you re going to follow the procedure. and i m part of that procedure. some people, as you ve been reporting, have been criticizing that perhaps he overstepped his authority. i think it s important, two things. read the book. understand the context of what was going on. the second thing is, let s not forget that even though the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is not technically in the chain of command. he is the top military official. he is the president s top adviser on defense issues. and he had seen donald trump pull an end run, signing a rogue