and this is where um our European friends and allies are going to have to fill the Gap Europe already provides more than 50% of the aid that goes to Ukraine anyway um and if you add together the combined economies of the EU plus UK plus Canada it dwarfs what Russia has so this is about political will not a lack of industrial capacity my concerns about security of course starts with NATO um there is a record of the former president Trump um challenging uh American commitment to Nato uh doing things that I think were um hurtful
or damaging to the cohesion of the alliance and that's a that's a gift to the Kremlin now who I don't know if he will continue on on that path when he does become president again but I'm not I'm not optimistic and so we do face the possibility um not likely but a possibility that the alliance could even fracture in the next couple of years um absent strong committed unquestionable American participation I mean I I'll be speaking of it later on to Ambassador John bolon I've spoken to John Bolton on this subject in the in the
past he's been of the view that a second Trump term in in office could break the relationship with NATO I wonder if that might be just a bit over over the top I mean as we've seen in the past has been fair to say that Donald Trump's bark is sometimes worse than his bite and he has driven NATO members to spend more on their own defense which is not altogether a bad thing well I of course I disagree it's it's not Trump that caused Nations to spend more own defense it was a growing a realization
by European countries finally that Russia um is a threat and so they have to respond to that threat it it wasn't Donald Trump otherwise Germany who received most of his abusive uh attention would be well over 2% so uh I think when it comes to defense spending it only comes when there is a cleared sober understanding of the threat and I think now many European countries are realizing that if they cannot depend on the United States for whatever reason um the threat doesn't go away in fact it grows and that's why you see Eastern European
countries who live next to Russia and have that history with Russia they're not confused about the threat and that's why they're spending as much as they can it's those that are a little bit further away from Russia that are somehow um still have their head in the sand yeah Donald Trump has famously said that he means to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours now let's not take that strictly literally and maybe put the point that Ukraine surely can't be forced to deal with Vladimir Putin entirely against its will General can it so you
know F first of all I would challenge John on you're you're you're giving him a pass that many other Trump enablers and even American Media have done like well he doesn't really mean that I think he means everything he says partly because he knows he'll never be held accountable for it I mean I got into a debate last night with a couple of people we were at the same place and and when I challenged them on something Trump said they go oh come on he doesn't really mean that I think he absolutely means what he
said but um you you are correct that he cannot force Ukraine to do something but what he can do which will increase the pressure on Ukraine is to cut off all American Aid now um or figure out some way to delay it or hold use it as leverage and this is where um our European friends and allies are going to have to fill the Gap Europe already provides more than 50% of the aid that goes to Ukraine anyway um and if you add together the combined economies of the EU plus UK plus Canada it dwarfs
what Russia has so this is about political will not a lack of industrial capacity okay now last time we spoke General you you gave it as your view that that your fellow generals Admirals US US Navy generals flag officers would resign their commissions rather than pledge some kind of unquestioning obedience to Donald Trump do you still believe that and if you're right about that what do you imagine would be the sort of deal breakers to bring that about well I think what I said was I am concerned that a the Trump Administration will sck all
of the current leadership military leadership which it is his prerogative to do by the way is to be clear the president get to choose who he wants as chairman of the Joint Chiefs for example or the Army Chief in fact all General officers are nominated by the president and then confirmed by the Senate so it is his prerogative what concerns me is that if he comes in and uh which is not the tradition and just sack everybody sure um that means in my view that he's going to be looking for officers who will pass some
sort of litmus test and I base that on all the the criticisms I've heard of General Millie for example one of the best soldiers we ever produced and now Millie is on the famous retribution list so um I think there will be officers who will be asked something some sort of limus test if they're going to be nominated to be chief of the army or chief of Naval operations or chairman of the Joint Chiefs and when I hear that then I think okay I hope an officer will resign rather than um pass a litmus test
other than uh continuing to swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States if there's a personal thing like do you believe that the last election was stolen or or will you do whatever the President says regardless you know I don't want to know an officer that would swear that sort of or pass that kind of litmus test all right let me just lastly and thanks again for your time uh this this afternoon just on the question of European security a matter of very close interest with those of us uh from the United
Kingdom is Europe maybe over Reliant just want to put the question to you for your thoughts is Europe over Reliance on American Support have I listened to this this is the former British Minister for the arms armed forces the conservative James heape he had this assessment but he was speaking on times radio the US is not simply looking for the you for the Europe for Europe to step up and have European security covered the US can never turn its back on its Atlantic Seaboard so the US is always going to be a EUR Atlantic actor
what people in Congress want to see is Europeans not just bank that the US Navy will keep the sea lines of communication to their Far East markets open Gratis and that we can all carry on selling BMWs or whatever to uh to countries in that part of the world they want to see European flagged warships in The Straits of Mala in the South China Sea contributing to indopacific Security in return for America's contribution to EUR Atlantic security that's James heape your thoughts General well I agree one 100% with what James CPI just said um look
for the United States this you know transatlantic relationship is not a gift from the US to Europe the United States depends on a strong prosperous stable Europe for our own economic purposes and because we don't have enough capacity to do everything around the world we need allies and most of our best and most reliable allies are in Europe as well as Canada and Australia so uh this is this is a situation where I'm worried that the administration um may we may cut off our nose despite our face um and turn our back on Europe which
only will damage us and and so this this is what alliances are supposed to do is people to have shared interest common interests and it is fair for American voters to uh to complain a little bit that hey where where are our British friends where are the Germans where are the Norwegians how come they're not out there as well right Le tenant General Ben Hodges so good to have your company on the program uh today
