James Stavridis I'm going to talk about Ben Hodges General I'm going to talk about Mark Kimmitt. General they have an urgency
about urban warfare. Give us the same urgency about naval warfare in the Black Sea. What does Ukraine Russia looked like
on water. Russia dominates the Black Sea and really has. For centuries
they've been the dominant power there. If you spin around the Black Sea Tom you see Romania Bulgaria Turkey Georgia Ukraine.
But it's Russia is the monster force there. They will continue to dominate it. Turkey has a chokehold on the Dardanelles. The
Bosphorus the strait that controls access to the Black Sea. But it's going to be Russia's game up there because that's where
their Black Sea fleet is located. Think having the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet inside the Black Sea. That's the advantage that
the Russians have. Your important asset for Bloomberg opinion the single money sentences at your time of duty. They're
reformed thousand Americans in service in Europe and that's been whittled down for whatever reason to one hundred thousand. What
is your timeline to see a rebuild of American military in Europe. Is it a question of weeks and months or is this going to
be a long drawn out extended process. Depends on Vladimir Putin. And so far he is certainly giving us plenty of reason to think
we are going to increase our troop levels in Europe. I don't think we're going back to four hundred thousand the way we were
during the Cold War. But look for the U.S. presence to go from around 50000 to perhaps 70000 permanently based forward. If
Putin continues and more importantly Tom you're seeing the Germans and others increasing their defense spending extremely
quickly. All of that will move troops to the borders of NATO. The NATO alliance will keep Russia out. When you say the borders
of NATO Admiral are you talking about Poland. Most importantly I think it's Poland but also all around the Eastern Eastern
Europe. So think Estonia Latvia Lithuania Romania Bulgaria they have either borders on Russia or borders on Russia. Client
states like Belo Rose or as to the conversation Tom and I just had borders on the Black Sea. There's going to have to be an
upgrade if you will in troops forward. That alliance realizes that it's in progress. Now Admiral there is a story today on a
Bloomberg terminal that Putin's end game is starting to look more and more like simply reducing Ukraine to rubble. What do
you suggest are the next steps since the sanctions have gone almost as far as they can go at this point the next steps to try
to bring a swift end to this conflict first. Unfortunately I agree. When you're the Russian military and you have performed
as badly as they have with poor logistics poor command and control war criminal behavior at some point you're only tool
left as a big hammer and they're starting to swing that thing hard through Ukrainian cities trying to make Ukraine look like
Syria on the Dani Burger River. That's a terrible outcome for everybody and it's war criminal behavior. What we should do
about it is continue the massive sanctions. They will bite. That'll take time. On the military front continue to supply the
Ukrainians with absolutely everything they need short of our troops going and boots on the ground and fighting. That's a
parallel to World War Three level confrontation but that's more material going into Ukraine. And above all let's get these MiG
29 fighters from Poland into the hands of the Ukrainians. It's complicated. I get that. But that could be a game change. We've
got to stop. Show your general admiral. Scuse me. I got the wrong service here. Admiral David this is really important. The
images right now are the Opera House of 1887 in Odessa. This isn't normally where the Germans are shooting from the cliffs.
This is Odessa with sandbags and a bunch of Ukrainians. How do we get those jets from Poland to Odessa to defend against a well
equipped Russian navy. The Poles have said they're willing to turn them over to the NATO alliance fly into Ramstein Air Base
in Germany. Tom I think the next stop for them would be put them in Libby. Libby is going to stand for a long time. The Russians
are not on some effective high speed blitzkrieg across Ukraine. Put him in Libby. Build your defense from there. Turn him over
to the Ukrainians. Let the Ukrainians do what they want to do. Let them create a Ukrainian no fly zone. What does that do to
NATO and NATO being independent. I mean if we go into western Ukraine and leave that's fine. But. All right guys this morning
is this is hugely problematic for the NATO your experience with the answer Tom is turned them over to the Ukrainians do not
operate them with NATO pilots. When they are turned over to the Ukrainians they become Ukrainian jets operating out of Ukrainian
bases in western Ukraine. NATO can correctly say it is not a belligerent in the combat. Is it somewhat risky. Absolutely. But
at this point go back to those images you were showing a minute ago about two million refugees. We're gonna have to take some
risk to solve this problem. Meanwhile on the Russian side Admiral how much are they running out of the fuel. I mean this
in every meaning of the word. To continue with this battle and I'm talking about this with parts that are getting stalled out
as some of these sanctions bite that they need to repair their planes. I'm talking about the fact that we have not seen the
full airpower of the Russian army despite Vladimir Putin's resolution.
All of the logistic failures are coming home to roost. Russia does not have the kind of 21st century military that NATO does
that the United States has. And you see it always and this is true in business as it is in war. Logistics eats strategy for
lunch. Professionals know logistics are what drive wars. And so we ought to capitalize on that at the back office and crushing
them with the sanctions. And at the front office and if you will the client facing end to this by giving the Ukrainians the tools
to take apart what they can put on the battlefield.