With Vladimir Putin reportedly in declining health and facing mortality, former action Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell on Newsmax said Putin is trying to cement his legacy, but is doing it with a Russia military that just ain’t what it used to be.
“I think that what you have is a situation that when individuals recognized the limitations of their humanity, they begin to think about how they want to be thought of and placed in the history books,” Grenell told Saturday’s “The Count.” “And for Vladimir Putin, he has always wanted to bring back the glory days of the Soviet empire, and clearly his decisions of late are heading in that direction, or at least that’s what he wants to think.
“And the reality is that the Russian military is not what it used to be, and that’s I think one of the big pieces of news and new information that we’ve learned through the war in Ukraine is that Russia is not what they used to be when it comes to a military fight.”
Grenell has been listening to Putin’s words and weighing his actions, which suggest he is entering a new “phase” in his regime.
“We’ve always watched world leaders become mad men, and have always prescribed some sort of a reason for it, and if you look at Vladimir Putin, he’s really gone into a phase unlike any other phase that he’s been in,” Grenell told host Mike Carter. “He’s always been somebody who pushes propaganda and fights for Russia oligarchs.
“But the reality is that over the last year or two, if you look at the speeches that he’s given and the videos, something is happening. Something is clearly different about this situation.”
Grenell also lamented a bloating Pentagon leadership structure is spending money on too many chiefs and not enough on soldiers, veterans, weapons, and military readiness.
“You look at the Pentagon and there’s a deputy assistant secretary for this and that,” Grenell continued. “They have too many management types, and I believe that what we have to do is be able to do what Ronald Reagan said, which is have the best military in the world, have it the best equipped, best trained, ready to go.”
A strong military gives a diplomat leverage at the negotiation tables, Grenell added.
“That gives our diplomats on the front line the ability to avoid war,” he said. “If you want to avoid war, then you better have tough diplomats that are sitting at the table saying, ‘look, let’s negotiate something; let’s try to come to a resolution, because if we don’t get it right here at this table – if we can’t solve the problem diplomatically – then I gotta transfer this file over to the Pentagon, and they don’t negotiate.’
“Now, that’s the way that the U.S. government should be.”
Grenell laments this is just too much passing over the State Department and handling of foreign affairs in the Pentagon.
“But too many people in official Washington are rushing in, shoving the State Department aside, rushing in with the military, and we were asking our military men and women to do things that they’re not supposed to be doing,” he concluded. “They’re supposed to carry guns and protect the national security of Americans, and if you want to win hearts and minds, that should be the State Department.”
Via Newsmax