the a message to the ukrainian people that most of america stands with them. it was a message to russia and vladimir putin that the u.s. will continue to support ukraine militarily and otherwise. perhaps it was the a message for china. and other add adversary to not question america s willingness to defend democracy wherever it lives speaking of china. vladimir putin and xi jinping agreed to meet. joining us is dan hoffman. how do you assess the state of the war and the state of the region. we re tracking this horrific war of attrition with thousands of casualties on both sides. but really the story of the war is just the damage that russia has inflicted upon ukraine. deliberately targeting civilian neighborhoods and hospitals and maternity wards, that is why the ukraineanians are fighting on to force the russian out of their territory. but i think one story is that china is the big winner in this war right now, they are exploiting a weakened russia. which has been bloodied
own interest and be countering the u.s. and nato in the process. trey: dan hoffman thank you for your service and thank you for joining us on a sunday night. all right. thank you. trey: today the debate is over ukraine, what about tomorrow? poland finland, taiwan. the u.s. cannot be the work s police are we to sit by, by adversaries invade and annex a pro western democracy. there is a small but vocal group who are decidedly anti-ukraine, one referring to the conflict as ukraine s war against russia. what are the responsibilities of the world s military super power? joining us now national security correspondent jennifer griffin, welcome and thank you for joining us it has been a year.
the tv screen, steve schmidt, and going hey i don t want my son or daughter going over there and shooting each other. people always ask why are we so close to israel? why is israel such an ally of our? you know why? because israel is, you know, an oasis of stability. an oasis of stability. shares more of our values than any other country. pro western democracy, a secular society in the heart of all this chaos. and as heartbreaking as these pictures are, sickening as they are what the american people understand about this is that we don t want to be involved in another sectarian middle east year and war where we have little ability to shape the destinies of these countries. this country, our policymakers
it s a very interesting question. and the answer kind of starts with the fact that like so many revolutions ripping through the arab world right now, syria s situation is unique, it s complex, and it s always changing. take a look at this map. syria s at center stage for the middle east. it s surrounded by lebanon, israel, jordan, iraq, turkey. it s also been iran s chief arab ally. it s been labeled by the west as a state sponsor of terror, and syria is a financial supporter of hezbollah, a lebanese militant organization. if syria s anti-american government were to fall, however, there is no promise that a pro western democracy would spring up in its place. and that s what has washington and the united nations so concerned. now, the regime of president bashar al assad is playing this sort of strange game of back and forth. when the revolution started in the arab world, assad told the wall street journal it was the dawning of a new era. he has promised to drop the emergency rule th