that s worrisome. i think the bigger problem with our strategy so far is that the defense department seems to be pursuing a strategy what they are calling integrated deterrence relying less on hard power, actual lethal american hard power, and more on so-called soft power whether it s sanctions or half side diplomacy. that would be a massive mistake. the second contradiction is on the energy policy which is totally incoherent and benefiting putin and xi. there is no way we can compete effectively with the russians or chinese if we pursue the war on domestic energy production. dana: c.i.a. chief says we can t take likely that russia has nuclear weapons and putin could use them. we ve seen leaders like boris johnson going to kyiv to walk the streets with president zelenskyy. yesterday president biden was asked if he would go. watch.
negotiations with iran. i think the reporter from tehran was right. the iranians are going to try to exact more financial concessions and more economic activity from the europeans as a means of enriching themselves and staying in the deal. so i m not sure that iran is going to immediately break out. but if negotiations go south of the europeans, they will. and, as i said before, they are going feel more emboldened in what they re doing in syria, building out their ballistic missile program because they know there will be no international consensus to be mustered against that activity. what do you make of john kerry back channeling and having some of these conversations about diplomacy around the deal? democrats didn t like it when tom cotton did something similar? i don t know too much about that. i don t think it s super propt for former administration officials to be trying to do side diplomacy. but i haven t received any first hand reports of it if that s indeed the case, i d be