Col. Brewer on the Latest from Ukraine

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's great in more ways than oneto welcome Colonel Tom Brewer back to the
program of Nebraska state senator and aretired military and it's just back safely,
I'm happy to say. From hisfourth trip in the Ukraine. Colonel,
good morning. Good to have youback. Tom. Are you gary doing
good? You know, anytime yougo in and out of the Ukraine,

(00:21):
it's a bit of a marathon becausefifteen hour flight followed by a thirty hour
train ride. So by the timehe gets here, you're pretty well war
down. Yeah, just quickly,what's changed on the ground. You've been
there four times? Now, what'syour view and what were you doing on
this trip? Well, it's morphedevery time I've been there. So the

(00:43):
first time was right after the warstarted in two thousand and two, went
over in May. The war startedin February, and it was more of
a just a ground battle, alot of tanks, armed personnel carriers and
it was kind of a selut.Pest came back in the fall right after
the counter offensive by Kharkiv, andat that point to the Ukrainians had pushed

(01:04):
the Russians back and taken back severalthousand square kilometers and then the war lookedike
I was going in the right direction. The problem was that Ukrainians didn't have
a lot of depth and what theyhad in the way of resources, and
Russia dug into their stockpiles and theystarted to push it back. And then
last year we were there in Junewhen the counter offensive started again. And

(01:29):
the problem with that counter offensive wasthat the Russians had had time to build
these giant belts about five miles wideof mines and these dragon teeth obstacles,
and we had promised bulldozers and andwe'll call miklicks, which were mine clearing
devices, and we didn't deliver them, and so they literally drove into minefields

(01:51):
and tried to clear my hand andthen the artillery that the Russians had chewed
them up, and that just didn'twork out very well. Let me ask
you. Let me let me askyou a basic quest question, Colonel Brewer,
because I've contended that there is noway unless the United States and NATO
decided we're going to go in onthe ground, and then all indications are
we're not going to do that.Let's hope not that there's no way that

(02:13):
Ukraine is going to defeat the Russianmilitary and that we're going to have to
find a way for a negotiative settlementto that. You say what I would
say that I think they can win. The way to win is to focus
on Crimea, not to focus onthe dombos. That's where the bulk of
the belts are that are defending thatarea. The Russians have. Russians have

(02:38):
gone from ten nine eighty tanks andhave gradually got down to where they're using
tanks from the sixties because they've expendeda lot of what they have. Now
they're building some, but they're notbuilt near at the rate that they're losing
them. And what's changed in hislast trip is this drone war, which
the United States military is not preparedfor. This drone We have no no

(03:00):
plan to fight it. But whatwe saw every day, we're hundreds and
hundreds of drones in the air andyou didn't know whose drones they were.
It was a problem, and theywere all set up some reconnaissance, but
the majority of them one hunter killerdrones with shape charges and they flew them
into tanks and personnel carriers. Wewere on a convoy and there was a
vehicle hit and it was a standardvehicle just like you drive, and it

(03:23):
literally ripped it in two. Andso these are out there, and they're
changing the whole complexion of the warbecause you can't fight during the day or
else you lose whatever you have.If there's drones there, they have jammers,
but they jump frequencies, so youcan't jam on a particular frequency,

(03:44):
and so now they fight a lotat night. And you know, my
concern is that the way this waris changing over there, the United States
military probably are going to regret nothaving advisors on the ground taking notes of
learning from it, because if Chinaor some other country would use this technology

(04:05):
against us, we have ten milliondollars tanks that will blow up, yeah,
you know in a matter of minutesby a few thousand dollars drones.
Let me let me ask you this, colonel, because I know a lot
of a lot of Americans are saying, you know, we're just throwing money
and equipment over their hand over fistfor what three years or whatever it is.
Now, what is the endgame here? What is the exits to,

(04:28):
what is the goal? And howwhat kind of timeline are we looking at?
Well, you're looking at another year. I don't think there's anything that's
going to change that unless unless Russiacollapses and you know, their economy collapses
and they're forced to come up withsome type of agreement. But you know
what I would argue is that wecannot walk away from this. Meaning right

(04:50):
now, the Moodovi is, theGeorgie is, and even our Baltic states
they are there next on the list. They shouldn't any doubt anybody's mind about
that. And I think what we'vewe've messed up is we were not giving
them what they need to win.The Ukrainians are far better fighters than the

(05:10):
Russians, they just don't have whatthey need. Now. We strung them
out for six months. They ranout of artillery, they lost some ground,
but they're gaining it back. Butif if the idea of being able
to have a democracy in an areawhere we have the bread basket for Europe,

(05:30):
because if you if you give RussiaUkraine now they have the oil and
they have the food, they willthey will put a terrible hurt on the
rest of the world, but especiallyEurope, and Europe has stepped up.
You know, while we were notsupporting them during the six months we were
in fighting on how much or whatto give them. Europeans have done a
lot, now they need to domore. But I just think that if

(05:55):
you walk away and let Putin haveUkraine, you're setting uh, you know,
pretense for the future. It's goingto be. Yeah, And I'm
not advocating that either. Look,I just I think there is some question
you you and I made differ onthis time. You think you say there's
no question that the Baltis are next. I think there is some question about
that because the minute they touched NATO, then we are all obligated United States

(06:18):
to go in there. Uh.And now you're talking World War three,
And I don't think Putin wants that. Why why would he want to take
on the United States of America inan actual shooting war. Well, I
think there are things that are movingforward over there that may be out of

(06:38):
his control right now. The factthat we are just now, if if
you listen to the news, theBiden administration finally gave the green light to
strike targets in Russia proper. Andthat was that was huge because they were
massing on our side of the border, and then they were they were ramming
into Ukrainian and really hurting them,and they couldn't do anything until they were
in their backyard. Now this isgoing to cause some issues because they're threatened

(07:01):
to use their tactical nukes to retaliateagainst us letting them strike into Russia.
Now we're not striking very deep intoRussia with our weapon systems. Ukraine can
use their home generated ones to strikewherever they want. That's what they're doing
with all the oil refineries or thingslike that, which I think is brilliant.
Well, I thank you. I'vegot a lot more to talk about

(07:24):
this, Tom, because you're overthere and a lot of Americans are really
worried about what's happening and why we'redoing this and not doing that. So
we hope to have you on againstit. We will, Thanks Colonel Tom Brewer.