Mike Lyons Talks to A&G

According to The New York Times in their article yesterday, some military institute that studies these sorts of things said, we're at a bloody stalemate. He's rue his country is ruined financially and it is not coming back as long as he's the leader of it. Not a chance. So he's backed into a corner. He is the wounded animal in a corner. Let's discuss with Major Mike Lions, retired from the United States Military, where he served with distinction.

Respected analyst for a number of broadcast and cable networks. Mike, how are you, sir? Taken morning? Guys, great to be back tour. I think, hey, before we get to the question of tactical nukes, can you describe for us what you see as the situation in Ukraine, I mean the it seems to be an all out barbaric slaughter the likes of which we haven't seen in many many generations, have no question, and the Ukraine military has now resorted to guerrilla tactics. Um. The days of maneuver are over.

The Russians are digging their tanks in and defensive positions, what it's called the hasty defense. Um. The Ukraine military is deploying small units of eight to ten individuals. They're loaded with javelins and stingers and all kinds of things and creating havoc in guerrilla warfare style. Um, it's completely a stalemate on the ground. Conventionally, it just goes to show you that, you know, the military is and extension of foreign policy looking to accomplish aims that diplomacy couldn't.

But at this point it doesn't look like that's happening, and so there's not much more I don't think the military to do on the ground conventionally just happens what comes from the air and what the strategic weapons are going to do. And it's going to continue to be a pounding situation right now. I think the Ukraine military is going to go after artillery units, um, those local units that can affect the situation, but they don't have a lot of say in what comes from the sky.

And that's what I was gonna ask, is there anything they can do about those missiles that come in and take out the schools or apartment buildings or a mall today in Keith? Is there any weapon that we can give them or anything to do anything about that. So they're trying. There's that's where those Essay three hundreds or the Patriot missiles can do that. And and it's there they're deploying the hypersonic missiles, which are much more difficult

for us to intercept them. But it's feels very difficult to shoot a missile out of the sky. Um, it's kind of hitting the bullet that's going very fast, and those hypersonic missiles go expused out, So it's it's very difficult to do that. Now, the question is it's they have some Essay three hundreds there they have been deployed. It's the reason why the airspace is contested over Ukraine. However, I don't know how we're going to get more in and those they just don't. You just can't roll them

across the border. And all those systems also come with radar equipment and fire direction centers and crews, and they have to be deployed as well. The worst possible thing happens is if the Ukraine military gets some of this equipment, like let's say the US Patriot missile battery for example, and not sure how it goes, they could potentially shoot a Ukraine aircraft out of the sky. So it is um these are strategic, challenging, crew served weapons that are

just not easy to get into country right now. So on the clip that we played just a little bit ago, the idea of Putin using one to two tactical nukes over the next couple of weeks. What the heck is a tactical nuke? What would it do if he used one? And what do you think the reaction of NATO or

the United States would be. So tactical nuke is defined by delivery mechanism, and in this case it would be likely artillery round um that is approximately anywhere from twenty miles away and it has a low kiloton yieldage that that doesn't replicate anything that we saw, for example in Hiroshima or or or the like. But it could cause enough damage where it um you know, it multiplies the impact of a normal artillery battery, so uh. Plus it leads radiation, It leads that there's a you know, the

cloud that goes with it. There, there's it is a high bank for your buck type weapons system. We have tactical nukes on our side as well. Um, we deploy them as something I was in charge of when I was in the military, um full time, and it they're highly effective and they're used in most cases in the defense to to kind of stop an enemy from coming through something. Now to use them offensively is um something

that we don't we would do doctrinally. But if they're going to do it, if all they'll do is cause tremendous destruction, because any sing within you know, let's say five square miles, six square miles, maybe even ten square miles will be completely obliterated. Really, anything within ten square miles would be completely obliterated. Wow. Well, it certainly seems to us that Putin has shown zero hesitation to slaughter civilian populations. Are we just being naive about the way

most warfare unfolds or is this particularly callous. I think this is warfare, and this is just something we haven't seen since World War Two because the world has been peaceful since then and m and in some ways it's still happening only on a regional scale. It's not we don't see millions of people killed yet at this point, I know, I'm trying to keep this in perspective, but Russia is a country that lost twenty million people during World War two, and and so we just we're not

used to it. We're not used to seeing it. And then it's unfolding on television every night, it's unfolding in TikTok videos, that's unfolding out there. Uh. And it's obviously very personalized to a lot of us. But this is the competive, the capabilities that these sides have have and they can do but I don't. There's nothing, I'm not sure still what we could do to stop it on the other side right now as well. Um, we can't find Latimer Prutin, we can't bomb him. That there's an

expression about you know, bombing for example. You can vombit, you can do everything you want, but it's still at some point you have to hold it and Russia is not going to be able to proving to be holding the ground in Ukraine that they currently have. So back to the tactical nukes thing. The other question I had was what do you think the reaction would be by NATO if he if he crossed that line into using nukes. I still don't think that's the red line. The red

line remains the border. The red lines the border if if he decides so. I think he's concerned about by accident, shooting a cruise missile over across the border into those supply lines into Poland, into Romania. I think that is the that's the red line. But inside of the sandbox of Ukraine right now is as harsh as it sounds. Um NATOS still will not respond because what what's the response?

There's no there's nothing we can do that will deter him from doing that again, and it could also cause him to fire that same nuclear weapon across the border. Then then Dendom, what do you do if he decides to go after Poland, decides to go after Romani with a larger go to Warsaw. I mean, could you imagine fire nuclear weapon at Warsaw. That's that's on the table. Yikes. Major my clients on the line, Mike, my final question anyway. Uh, and I realized this is a little outside your your

your field. But um, some are are encouraging President Biden on his trip to Poland to just go ahead, go next door, go see Vladimir Zelenski in Kiev announced an advanced city. American president is going to be in Kiev. How crazy an idea is? That? It's crazy. It's on the it's a hundred on the crazy meter. I can't even imagineer proposed that. I mean, I can't even we please the risk that would go with that. It's just

not worth any potential reward. Um, you know, Joe Biden is not the spring of the chickens to be in a situation where something had to happen and he had to move quickly. Let's say he's not doing it. So I know that that's not a good idea. I don't know. I you know, it's not He's not the right guy. All the things are wrong. He's not the right guy. That's a really dangerous place. We've got a really bad enemy. You do the math on that, and you double underlining,

you say probability of success in that his zero. So I think I saw that and I wasn't think Yeah. I think one on the crazy meter pretty much summarized your view, well, said Major Mike Clients. Mike, thank you so much for the analysis. Let's talk again soon. Great, Gus, thanks for so so. He's a military expert. That's what he knows as well as anybody in America. That's why we talked to him on the media public opinion question, though, which is something I know more about. I was watching

MSNBC this morning. Joe Scarborough, who has the ear of a lot of the Democratic Party in this country, said there's no way Americans and Europeans put up with the use of nukes on the European continent, and the politicians would be pushed so hard to react to that, even even if so even if militarily, As my clients said, what are you gonna do? It's a bad idea, It's not a red line, boy. I think public opinion wise, WHOA,

I think it would be huge. I could explain to why it shouldn't be, but you know, at a certain point that doesn't matter. It's nuclear energy is an energy source, and those bombs are very, very different. The tactical nukes we're talking about are very, very different from a major nuclear weapon. Oh yeah, but how about the idea of wiping out Imagine what those videos look like if it completely obliterated ten square miles. What the hell would those

videos look like? Oh my god, And the public opinion in the United States, I think would would run way toward we need to do more. Imagine what it would be in Europe that same journalists. You just heard Katie Turo and I've heard David Ignatius to the Washington Post talking about traveling around Europe. He said, you can't believe the fever pitch of support for Ukraine there is in Europe right now. Imagine if he uses a nuke. Well, and I wonder what those echoes would be in Beijing

as well. As they're they're desperately and pathetically trying to defend the indefensible, and we have some of those clips and they'll just make you squirm in your seat. But can you imagine if if it got even more horrific and indefensible, what sort of recalculations might happen in Beijing? There is I hope I never find out. I hope we don't find out any of this stuff. But it is not just you know, wild talk radio speculation. This is absolutely on the table over the next couple of weeks.

The fact that Putin decides to use a tactical nuke, Europe says, no, you're not. And you know, we we don't make all the decisions in NATO. NATO decides we're responding to this full on we're at war with Russia. Now, you do not use nukes that close to NATO countries, and yet we're at war with the biggest nuclear power in the world. You know, you make a good point. Radiation floats with the wind, so that is that, that is the red line. You have now in effect attacked

Poland for instance, or Romania or wherever. People have said previously are still say that the likelihood of this, you know, spreading toward the United States, I think I think they're being way too sanguine about the idea of a full on US versus Russia war. I hope it doesn't happen NATO versus Russia. Please. As an American, I'm mostly worried

about the the U s angle of UM. I think I think if Putin uses a tactical nuke and I mean, this is completely out of my high nand I don't know what he's thinking is, but I gotta believe that that's like at least a fifty fifty chance over the next couple of weeks, given how backed into a corner he is, what are his other options? Well, this one wouldn't do him any good. I mean, in the long term, it would do enormous harm. But that's the problem. None

of this is doing him any good. Bombing that mall earlier today, killing who knows how many hundreds of people didn't do him any good. None of this is doing him any good. He's doomed. He might as well put a gun in his mouth today. He is over. Can we have a vote on that one? That proposal? I love that idea. Well, how many you know this is getting really really grim, I realized, But it's a grim topic.

How many times do you see the situation where it's usually a guy you know, I'm taking you know, I'm I'm I'm angry at the boss, I'm angry at the family, whatever it is they're going with me before I put the gun in my mouth. Happens all the time. Putin might be that guy. He just it's gonna be nukes on the world stage. Well, yep, Graham is Right's but completely I think one a real possibility. God dang it, these next couple of weeks are going to be dicey.

But like you said earlier, there's there's no there's no letting him out of the corner. He can't back down from the guy. No, But all you can do is, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, is to face it and deal with it quickly. Don't turn your back because you will double the danger. Um. So wow, we'll watch that now. On a more inspirational note, I don't know from David Beckham, the giant soccer star. I understand he could bend it.

I wouldn't know him if he walked into the studio and kicked me with his super powerful socker leg right in the junk. But he did something incredibly beautiful this past week. I want to tell you about, Okay, fantastic, that's good stuff. I do need to talk about how my kid uh did in that kid way. He was pretty damaging to me, you know. And then the way that kids are super honest, Oh no, not honest, too honest.

Sometimes you got that for a bunch of other stuff, and you can text us any thoughts on that conversation four nine five k f tc Barn strong and yetty