over time these relationships are going to deepen and one we haven t mentioned that punches way above its weight, joe, is singapore, this tiger of asia, another strong economy, excellent armed forces, when you put it all together it s a powerful coalition that stands alongside the nato alliance in europe. i feel pretty good about all that. americans should as well. no doubt about that. let s talk about ukraine. about six, seven, eight months ago officials at the pentagon quietly, not to cross diplomats and not to cross the white house, were quietly telling me they were very skeptical that the ukrainians were going to be able to push back from russia from their dug-in positions and said they re just not going to