Speaker 1: A geopolitical story of consequence that developed over the last 24 hours, which
is really just as much about reporting as it is about foreign policy.
There were initial reports yesterday that missiles had struck Poland, and the initial
belief was this was Russia probably accidentally in targeting Ukraine.
Although it was not completely clear.
And the belief now is that this was actually an accident committed by Ukrainian forces.
The latest reporting from CNN as of this morning.
Poland's president says missile that killed two likely fired by Ukraine in defense against
a Russian attack.
Polish president said the missile.
Polish President Duda said the missile that killed two people in eastern Poland Tuesday
was likely fired by Ukrainian forces, defending against a wave of Russian missile strikes
and that the incident appeared to be an accident.
Quote, There is no indication that this was an intentional attack on Poland.
Most likely it was a Russian made S-300 rocket that was in a tweet.
He later told a press conference there's a high chance it was an air defense missile
from the Ukrainian side, which fell on Polish territory in an accident while intercepting
incoming Russian missiles.
Duda's comments were in line with those of two officials briefed on initial U.S. assessments
who told CNN it appears the missile originated in Ukraine, although it was Russian made.
This is important because listen, there's so many stories here.
Number one.
These military actions are serious business.
And when we talk about innocent bystanders, you're no more innocent.
If you're in Poland where two were killed than you are in Ukraine, where the exact same
thing would happen.
Either way, when we're talking about innocent bystanders, we're talking about innocent bystanders.
But the unintended consequences of.
An invasion of Ukraine by Russia are extraordinarily far reaching in ways that aren't even always
considered sort of as the primary question or discussion.
The second thing that's important to mention is the amount of misinformation and disinformation
and conspiracy theories that floated around in the roughly 8 to 10 hours after the original
reporting was.
This seems to have been Russia.
Russia bombed Poland.
Okay.
We saw all of the following and more.
We saw Fox News personalities say Poland should bomb Russia in response.
You can't let Russia get away with this.
Well, it turns out it wasn't Russia.
Now, can you blame Russia because Ukraine is defending itself from Russian aggression?
Well, okay, you can have that conversation.
But these hawks on right wing media saying anything short of immediately bombing Russia
back is unacceptable.
It's weak, it's sexy, whatever the case may be.
Russia didn't actually do this.
This was an accident from Ukraine.
Based on what we know right now, that's number one.
Number two, conspiracy theories.
I'm not even going to play it.
I was going to play it.
And they said, why even bother?
Conspiracy theory.
Charlie Kirk saying, I don't know.
I hope this isn't a false flag.
I have no evidence that it's a false flag, but I just hope it isn't.
And one of the things that unfortunately happens in the 24 hour news cycle and again, this
is why sometimes I can't do it because the story is so big.
But in the 24 hour news cycle, particularly when there are shootings and crimes, I will
often wait an extra day to avoid fueling disinformation or conspiracy theories.
And sometimes you just have to wait a little bit, particularly when the news is coming
from half a world away.
Not that there isn't internet and reporting in those places, but we don't always figure
out exactly what's going on right away.
So this is now another dimension to what's going on in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This has been going on now for months and months.
We don't know how long it's going to go.
We still don't know what Putin's end game is.
We still don't know what the ultimate resolution is.
There are now divided.
There have always been that there are increasingly divided opinions about for how long and to
what degree should or should the United States not be funding Ukraine's defense, be it through
money or be it through weaponry and equipment?
And we are now in a nine month conflict, it's shocking to say, but it was I believe it was
February when we first started reporting on this.
We're now almost in December.
I have no idea what the conclusion of this is going to be.
But what we do know is the longer it goes on just simply from a sort of like entropy
and statistical perspective, the more likely it is that more types of innocent bystanders
are going to be hurt and are going to be killed.
Good use of restraint, by the way, by many in the United States, not Fox News, not Charlie
Kirk, but by many of the United States in actually waiting until we have more information
about exactly what it is that happened there.
And it now appears that it was actually an errant Ukrainian defense attempt that ended
up killing two people in Poland.
What should the geopolitical consequences of that be?
I don't know.
And we don't yet know what the parties involved
are thinking.