let s bring in former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul, thanks for being with us. so in listening to that translation, obviously it s a translation. masha gessen. i listened to the russian. tell me what you got out of it. i think it s very clear what he s trying to do. everybody thought it was going to be something dramatic because peskov thought it was. he s trying to divide the wagner mercenaries, the soldiers, from their leadership. he s trying to do exactly what prigozhin was trying to do with the russian conventional forces. you have been lied to by them. they dragged into this war. said the same thing about the wagner fighting forces. that s my interpretation of why he did the speech. what i think is behind is that they must have signalled that they re not lying down their forces as you were reporting.
particularly if we were in a con conflict over taiwan. the premise is we need to be ready to fight two cwars or 2.5 wars, against the entire acts of evil adversaries. the question now and a report that you just referenced raises a concern about whether we could win one war. that s not enough on our fighting forces. we are still more capable than our adversaries when it comes to our fighting forces and their training and expertise and their abilities. they have to be properly equipped and thank you know unfortunately, what happened the first time joe biden was in the white house with barack obama where our military was devastated and all of our war games and studies have shown that we drop while china was building up its
deterrence right now with respect to china, a f particularly if we were in a conflict over taiwan. look to the premise of our military and our fighting forces has always been that we need to be ready to fight fighto two wars, maybe two and a half wars at the same time. cwars o we had to do that in world war two when we fought in the pacific theater and the european theater against an entire axis of, evil adversaries. the question now and the reportr that you just referenced really raises a concern about whether we could win even one war.t s and that s not a knock, laura , on our on our fighting forces, we are still more capable than our adversaries when it comes to our fighting forcesie and their training and their expertise and their abilities. but they have to be properlyorta equipped. and , you know, unfortunately,t biden was in what happened the first time with bar joe biden was in the white house with barack obamoua was wr our military was devastated and all of our war games and a
it keeps up with inflation. this is not about neocons and chicken hawks and warmongers, it s about protecting people of the united states. are you hearing anything among fellow republicans? we can talk about defense spending in part because of what s going to come with budget resolution at the end of september and even with that ceiling. the one thing we have to understand is this president s leadership has been week on the national stage, the world stage so china is flexing its muscles. we know what s happening with russia, we ve got to keep an eye on iran and the number one way you do that is making sure our fighting forces, men and women are lean, mean, every tool in their arsenal and capability to be able to hold back these adversaries across the globe. i think, are there cuts at dod?