states of ukraine joining nato? because think about that. now it s a domino process. ukraine desperately wants to be in nato, at least under president zalenski, but once they re in, we re on the hook. what would be the sentiments of american it is our men and women had to fight for ukraine? i m raising the question and that s part of my ancestry. here s another one, many people wonder if russia would call the u.s. if we started massing troops on the board we are mexico. the good news we are not going to do that at any time soon nor on our northern tier. one more. screw the olympics, the ioc is about as trustworthy. but let s allow its existence to inflame tensions. how about the nba? i mean, that s the acronym,
but there s something more fundamental. ukraine as a successful experiment invalidates putin s view of managed democracy. basically, this idea that he could that everything is under centralized control, and with limited curtailed freedoms for the population. if ukraine is able to be successful, if ukraine is prosperous, and it s made some headway, significant headway since 2014, which is why we see ourselves in this situation right now. with a major escalation looming in the next couple weeks and months. if ukraine is successful, it basically proves his alternative view of managed democracy to be false. and on those two reasons are the driving force. that s why some of the conversation going on around security assurances that nato could offer, i see those as red herrings. i see those as negotiating tactics, trying to draw out compromises, trying to test the resolve of the u.s. and nato, but really, it s a question of whether he can keep ukraine in russia s orbit. he lost it in 2014.
let s face it. the russians have experienced their own forever wars, michael. and those ghosts rattle around moscow. putin is trying to weigh that precise calculus. if he does go across that border, he ll do it swiftly. he ll try to carve out a chunk that creates a land bridge from mother russia to crimea. he s not hanging around for a long fight in ukraine. okay, admiral. here s another thought in my mind. is it in the united states best interest to have ukraine in nato? and i ask that question because i m sure many people are watching this discussion tonight, alarmed at the thought that the united states could get dragged into this, if ukraine is in nato, then that prospect of u.s. troops being deployed, american men and women, becomes much more likely. it does indeed. and in my view, we ought to be
solemn anniversary with a moment of silence and other ceremonies. in washington, d.c., president biden and the first lady visited the world war ii memorial to pay their respects. in a proclamation marking pearl harbor remembrance day, the president encouraged all americans to reflect on the courage shown by the brave warriors that day. the news continues. let s hand it over to michael smerconish and cnn tonight. i m michael smerconish. this is cnn tonight. president biden put vladimir putin on notice there will be consequences if russia decides to invade ukraine. but was he able to dial putin back today from the brink of war in their two-hour video summit? that s the looming question tonight. it certainly looks like the brink of war. russia s been amassing tens of thousands of troops on its border with ukraine, potentially as many as 175,000, along with weapons and tanks and other military equipment. all caught on satellite cam. could it all be just a bluff?
machine, with all that implies and a few other things, and orchestrated from beijing, there was an effort to have me fired. nbc would have none of it. then they said we ll accept a full public apology in primetime, and i wouldn t do that. eventually it went away. didn t they apologize. didn t nbc try to walk that back. there was some sort of boiler plate thing, it was in august. everyone had gone on vacation, and a pr man put out one of those sorry if anyone was offended statements, bebut not with my approval. in 2008, president bush was there. in fact, he was seated next to vladimir putin when it became clear that russia had invaded georgia. and i mentioned the human rights record, not as often as i would have liked. networks tend to be timid about these things and i put the question to president bush when i was able to interview him. did the same thing about putin and russia when sochi hosted the olympics. here is china hosting an olympics again, what, a decade and a half after