ukrainian border with poland, and slovakia. so putin, as you just said, expanded the war, and ukrainians are still, they don t understand why there is no air support, why the skies are still open for russian law planes that are bombing civilians. no longer discriminate, it s a terror campaign, it s intentional, and it s expanding westward. tom, you thought the ukrainian air force will be gone and days. but that is not the case. are you surprised? i m very surprised. even those of us who would normally underestimate the russian air force are, i think, fairly astonished that two weeks into this it looks like from the pentagon s count seems like something like two thirds
planes that are bombing civilians. no longer discriminate, it s a terror campaign, it s intentional, and it s expanding westward. tom, you thought the ukrainian air force will be gone and days. but that is not the case. are you surprised? i m very surprised. even those of us who would normally underestimate the russian air force are, i think, fairly astonished that two weeks into this it looks like from the pentagon s count seems like something like two thirds of the ukrainian air force is still functioning. it s really a testimony to how poorly trained, and organize the russian air forces. and that doesn t mean that they re not going to keep inflicting casualties. at some point, they will overwhelm and just keep flattening russian cities, although i think mostly they decided to do that from the ground, rather than the air, which is where a lot of the real damage is coming from.
from the very beginning. i couldn t imagine him going back on his word, unless you see something happen in poland, and defense officials have been talking behind the scenes about how there is some concern that an errant missile could hit poland. that s where you see the united states giving defense missiles systems to poland. there are four now. vice president harris talked about how there is one delivered, while she was there. and so, they want to give as much as they can, but they are not interested in all in putting troops on the ground. most importantly, giving let him a putin any reason to lie even more than he is, and say the score is justified, and give him a chance to ramp up and attack a nato country, and make this even worse than it already is. tom, you are our nato expert. there are a lot of critics out there who are saying that president biden is making a big mistake by telling the world, and vladimir putin, very clearly over and over, that our
and america sort of leading from behind. tom, you want to respond to that? i understand garry s, points, and i m certainly not gonna argue about the hesitancy of american policy over the past ten years. but the issue now, and by the way, he was right, nobody is arguing for boots on the ground. on the other hand, when we talk about no-fly zone s, we are talking about u.s. and potentially nato forces, directly engaging russian military forces, not only in the sky, but if you want to help the ukrainians, you want to type ground positions. we re talking about a no-fly zone that is not some kind of peaceful bubble over ukraine, you re talking about a no-fly zone that is gonna look more like libya where nato air assets attacked anything that could hurt civilians on the ground. and i completely accept garry s sincerity about this, i understand his feelings about it. i think we all have to be clear that we are really talking about is going to war against russia. if that s the argument, the
have it now. only now they are contemplating sending some sort of modern technology. ukrainian cities are turned into rubble. i don t buy this argument, and also we have more and more trouble with with america trying to convince zelenskyy to accept troops. the rest of your cannot act without united states, though great britain is trying. but it s one voice, and of course other european nations are waiting for the lead, and america sort of leading from behind. tom, you want to respond to that? i understand garry s, points, and i m certainly not gonna argue about the hesitancy of american policy over the past ten years. but the issue now, and by the way, he was right, nobody is arguing for boots on the ground. on the other hand, when we talk about no-fly zone s, we are talking about u.s. and potentially nato forces, directly engaging russian military forces, not only in