Steve Forbes warns that U.S. foreign policy fecklessness could hand Russian President Vladimir Putin a victory in his war of aggression against Ukraine.
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00:00Is Putin about to win the Ukraine war by default?
00:08Hello, I'm Steve Forbes and this is What's Ahead, where you get the crucial insights you need to navigate these turbulent times.
00:16Russian dictator Vladimir Putin may yet achieve his goals of winning control of Ukraine and shattering NATO.
00:24Such victories would be an unmitigated disaster for the free world.
00:28They'd make Putin the political master in Europe.
00:32NATO, which has kept the peace on the continent since its creation in 1949, would be fatally undermined.
00:39Countries could no longer count on the U.S.
00:42China would take note, rubbing its eyes in disbelief that Putin's military disaster in Ukraine could turn into victory because of U.S. fecklessness.
00:52It would confirm Beijing's belief that the U.S. is in terminal decline.
00:57Such an assessment is a massive misreading of the U.S., but such a misdiagnosis can lead to catastrophic miscalculations.
01:07Believing the U.S. is in the grips of an irreversible decline, Beijing may well conclude the time has come to put an ever-tightening squeeze on Taiwan,
01:17while pressuring Asian countries to loosen ties with Washington and get ready to kowtow economically to China.
01:25India can expect new Chinese moves on disputed borders.
01:29Is such an awful scenario possible?
01:32Putin thinks it is.
01:34During the Monday call, Putin refused to agree to a ceasefire.
01:59There'd be no negotiations unless Ukraine acquiesced to Kremlin demands in advance that would make Ukraine a vassal state.
02:08Call it surrender in advance.
02:11Previously, President Trump threatened new crippling sanctions on Russia if Putin didn't agree to the ceasefire.
02:18After the call, the president said it was up to Russia and Ukraine to negotiate on their own.
02:24He hinted the U.S. could walk away if the two parties didn't come up with a deal.
02:29This is the outcome Putin wants.
02:32The U.S. tiring of the conflict and then washing its hands of it.
02:36He's counting on Washington being oblivious to the far-reaching strategic importance of the war's outcome.
02:43Russia's game plan in Ukraine is simple and brutal.
02:46Pour ill-trained men into the meat grinder of the battlefronts and gradually gain ground against outnumbered Ukrainians who will be increasingly deprived of needed weaponry.
02:58In three years of war, Russia has suffered a staggering 900,000 casualties.
03:04It holds little more than 20% of Ukrainian territory.
03:08Russia has serious economic and manpower problems.
03:11New sanctions against its oil and gas exports would hit hard.
03:16Secondary sanctions could hinder China's critical purchases of Russian oil and its exports to Putin of machine tools and certain necessary computer chips.
03:27To avoid setting off serious political reactions, the Kremlin has resisted mass mobilization in urban areas.
03:35Putin's ability to continue prosecuting the war is ripe for crippling blows.
03:40Ukraine obviously has challenges, but consequential and sufficient deliveries of needed weaponry would turn the tide and give the free world a crucial, much-needed victory.
03:52I'm Steve Forbes. Thanks for listening.
03:55Do send in your comments and suggestions and look forward to being with you soon again.