Are WE The Baddies?
American military blogger Ryan McBeth expressed his support for Ukraine on his YouTube channel. He noted that Ukraine has not only repeatedly expressed verbal gratitude to the United States for its assistance, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces also share their battlefield experience, training military personnel at NATO training centers on how to conduct warfare under modern conditions.
A lot of people asked me to comment on President Zelensky's meeting with President Trump on Friday, February 28th, 2025 at the White House. Look, right now I'm sick. I went to urgent care yesterday.
They said it's not the flu and it's not COVID. I'm stuffy. I've been coughing.
I have a fever. So maybe I have some advanced genetically engineered Romanian freaking rhinovirus that I bought back to me from Europe. But right now I feel like I've been run over by dump truck.
And the fact is that my latest novel, The Last Republic, is on deadline and has to get sent to the editor. So I need to get that done. So I'm going to make this quick because I need to get back in bed and die.
I titled this video Are We the Baddies after a sketch from that British show that Michael and Webb look.
Our caps? The badges on our caps. They've got skulls on them. Are we the baddies?
This comes at an interesting time because I was just in Poland and Romania visiting NATO sites and talking with NATO members. One of the sites that I visited was JATEC or the Joint Analysis and Education Center or Joint Analysis Training and Education Center. Sorry, I'm still messed up.
It is basically a schoolhouse that's founded by NATO, administered by Poland, and run by Ukraine. The whole idea is that Ukraine has learned a lot over the last three years from their war with Russia. And their instructors come to Poland to help teach NATO members what they've learned, things about drone warfare, robotics, unmanned systems.
It's a really neat school. It's a great idea for a school. And NATO is learning a lot from these Ukrainian instructors.
While I was in Poland, I attended an exercise where I watched dudes in ghillie suits attack a trench line. And that seemed to me like one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard. Like, why are you wearing some hot-ass ghillie suit to attack a trench line? But what the Ukrainians have found is that wearing a ghillie suit not only breaks up your outline while you're moving across the field to hit the trench, it also lowers your thermal profile, so it makes it harder for drones to spot you.
And that's something that Ukraine learned the hard way, and that they're sharing with us now that they have this school, this JATEC. You know, Ukraine never really asked for anything more than weapons and ammunition. They have tested their flesh against metal in order to remain free from the yoke of authoritarianism.
And at one point during the White House conversation yesterday, Vice President J.D. Vance asked if President Zelensky had ever thanked the U.S. for help. And yes, Ukraine has said thank you. They helped found JATEC.
And it's where we get to learn all of Ukraine's lessons to see how we can apply them to the next war. So not only have they thanked us, they've paid us in information. Also, every time Ukraine fires a Patriot missile, that data is going back to the U.S. We've learned a lot on how to do air defense from incoming theater ballistic missiles just from that.
You know, the funny thing is that while this conversation in the White House is going on, I believe while the meeting was taking place, there was a funeral in Ukraine for a young American, a former Marine who went to Ukraine to volunteer, and he lost his life in the fighting. His name was Ethan Hertrecht. And this is how Ukraine says thank you.
The real winner in this whole exchange was Russia, who seriously can't believe it's luck. I mean, when you are handing content wins to RT, formerly known as Russia Today, you probably need to reevaluate your strategy, right? Kind of the scary thing for me was that my Newsmax colleague Carl Higby posted on Twitter at the exchange saying America is so back. And while I respect Carl Higby, I think it's a rather short-sighted view, mainly because if America is taking the side of Russia in a conflict, it calls into question all American aid.
If America could hold back weapons systems because the president feels slighted or snubbed, or the president, the person the president is speaking to isn't doing what he wants them to do, that could put many weapons programs in danger, such as our sale of the F-35 to India. And, you know, the world will be a better, safer place if India has American weapons systems than with India operating the F-35. But why buy the F-35 from America if just saying the wrong thing to the president could get them to cut off your supply of parts? And I think that's the real takeaway from this interaction.
If I were Australia who just agreed to buy three Virginia class submarines from the U.S. instead of buying some of France's submarines, I would seriously start taking a look at France's submarines again. I mean, yes, ours are quieter, but they come with a fondue machine. You know, I wouldn't want to risk a major defense platform on the whims of a man who was looking for what he called good television, right? You know, one of the things that President Trump said to President Zelensky was, you're not winning this.
And for almost three years, I have said there is no win. There is lose, and there is lose more. Russia isn't going to win, and Ukraine isn't going to win.
Russia literally can't win because the day the war ends is the day their economy collapses. But if America champions the cause of Russia or even takes their side or pursues sanction relief for Russia, then that gives Russia a soft landing and they can lose less. And that's about as close to a win as they're going to get.
I think the only way Russia can lose less is if America supports Russia. America is supposed to stand for freedom and democracy, not good television. And the people of Ukraine have made it clear that they do not want to live under the control of Russia.
And yet we just handed Russia a victory essentially for free. Which begs the question, are we the baddies? If you want to help pay for my funeral expenses, grab the win machine from Amazon or from Audible. It'll still help keep you busy until the last republic comes out.
Also grab one of my rock out with your chalk out aerosol shirts from Bunker Branding. Thank you for watching. I'm gonna go die now.
