Something we worried about from the late 40s to the early 50s until the soviet union collapsed and we re worried about it again. what is the plan for nuclear deterrence? this is the nightmare of the cold war years. this is something mika s dad, that generation lived with, the ever-present, real threat of nuclear war and having needing to have the arsenals to deter russian actions. what we re seeing is that the pentagon budget is reflecting more and more the need to modernize our nuclear forces. it s painful even to talk about this, the idea that we re getting ready to, again, have these weapons of ultimate destruction. parts of our deterrent forces have not been modernized since dr. brzezinski s days. goes back to the 1970s.
Without question, the most moving moment of the night is they ran a montage of the about nearly a dozen journalists who have been killed during covering the war on ukraine so far, including some of our colleagues from fox news. they ran this montage. when it concluded, the first person out of his seat applauding was the president of the united states. applauding with real emotion in his face. you could see it. he seemed almost like he was fighting back tears. as he stood up and clapped loudly, the rest of the room stood up, too. that s why the administration wanted to be there saturday night. because the free press is so essential to american freedom. just like federal courts, which donald trump went after early, as well. by the way, if you think i m overstating this, i mean, you re looking at somebody that donald trump accused of murder 12 times and was calling for my arrest. 12 times. had to get security. you ask why. you ask why? i was critical of his covid response. it was th
Weekend, narrowly escaped an attack there. some reports, he may have been injured. the u.s. does feel like this is a moment where they have been flooding the zone with weapons and equipments to keep the russians at bay. to richard s point, what will this look like at war s end? richard, i ve been hearing things since the beginning of this war. i ve been skeptical, first of all, of kyiv. oh, it ll overwhelming them. the first couple weeks in, they were having logistical problems. more importantly, they have cultural problems. again, you can move troos wherever you want to move troops. if your culture is rotted at its core, it doesn t matter where you move the troops. it doesn t matter what the mass of your troops are. suddenly, quantity does not have a quality all of its own.
The minuteman 3 force that s in the ground, that part of the so-called triad. one of the things the secretary of the air force told me about is the modernization of that icbm missile force. there is a new missile called the sentinol they re bringing in. this is the age of electronic warfare and cyber, so you have to have modern systems you can depend on. they ll be doing that. have other new weapons coming in. a big bomber called the b-21. what is deterrence about in the end? when russia rattles its sabers and says, you know, we may use nuclear weapons in this crisis, deterrence is about having forces that are so overwhelming and reliable that any rational adversary would hesitate, simply wouldn t take that step. it would be utterly unthinkable. this is a war that can t be thought because it can t be won. so you need to make sure your weapon systems are solid and up
It didn t. it is because of the toughness of the people like the ones we just watched. think of their brothers and fathers and cousins, sisters back home who are still in the fight. as long as that resolve is present, the russians are fighting on territory that is not generous to them. they re far from home. they re fighting people determined to protect their land. it is a reminder of why this war is going to go on. why russia didn t in the beginning and isn t now sweeping the victory. it s because of the tough people. very tough people. ruth, i m just curious, again, this could be a very long, grinding war. i m just curious, though, how vladimir putin survives a long, grinding war against the united states and the eu supplies, where i said before the war, it made no sense because, together, we had economies of over $40