But it does lead me to China and the

Russian relationship. I'm very obviously

skeptical of just how far this goes.

It's more of strategic convenience,

marriage of convenience. What do you

think the Chinese are thinking right now

in the context of the war in Ukraine,

but also what's happened in Venezuela.

Never want to underestimate what the CCP

is capable of or thinking, but I'm

curious how you see that mention.

>> Well, the Chinese relationship with

Russia has always been highly

transactional. They don't see the

Russian Federation as in the least bit

comparable to what they have in China.

And I think that's an accurate

assessment. That said, they don't want

Russia to lose the war. I believe

President Xi has said that explicitly

publicly. And they are the biggest

enabler of the military-industrial

complex of Russia. They're the ones

providing the wherewithal. Remember in

the early days of the war, the

full-blown war, Russia was buying huge

numbers of refrigerators and then

stripping them for their chips and other

elements that were useful in the Russian

military-industrial complex. China is

now providing all of that, the magnets

that are required, the chips, the all of

the components necessary

uh to manufacture hardware and software

and so forth and munitions.

Um but again, that's because it's in

their interest to prolong this war. Now

remember, they were originally uh

irritated by Russia's action because

they were trying to develop an economic

a larger economic relationship with

Ukraine. Uh which keep in mind was

exporting some 20 or 25%

of the world's grain exports,

not all production, but the exports. So

again, it's a complicated relationship.

China has learned from the Soviet Union.

Their lesson is don't go soft like

Gorbachoff did and they're certainly

trying to learn from what's going on on

the battlefield. They may be doing that

more assiduidously

than our NATO countries. I think they

have a very wary eye as they see US

capabilities demonstrated for example in

Caracus. No other military in the world

could remotely have done that. And I by

the way I think it was a much diceier

operation than people seem to realize.

Look, imagine the gunfights that took

place given that there were over 30

Cuban special operations forces

augmenting the Secret Service of

Venezuelan. How I don't know how many

Venezuelans

had to be taken out. Uh, but there was

some serious military action here.

Vastly more challenging than the

operation to get Osama bin Laden. as

important strategically and and as

challenging in some individual cases,

not to mention the uh the hard landing

of the first aircraft which meant that

it couldn't be flown out. By the way,

the lead helicopter was hit in this

case. It's a very large MH4 shinook

configured for special ops and the pilot

lead pilot was hit several times in the

leg and they had to I'm sure there was

awareness of this by those monitoring

the operation having monitored a few in

my life in Iraq and Afghanistan central

command and see yet he stuck the landing

and they managed to fly that aircraft

out back to the appropriate location.

Look, China looks at that and it

realizes what we have not withstanding

their enormous increase in ship

building, autonomous system development,

a host of other capabilities, but also

let's recognize they keep firing all

their senior military. How do you have

the confidence in your senior leaders if

you have to fire them as regularly as

President Xi has been doing? In any

event, this stuff is complex. I don't

buy the spheres of responsibility or

what have you at all. Uh I think the US

is active around the world. I think it

actually is not a surprise that

President Trump has not proved to be the

isolationist that some of the

campaign supporters and even perhaps

campaign remarks might have indicated.

>> No, certainly not. I I think anyone who

thought he was an isolationist didn't

understand what Trump really represents.