Would you agree?

I would.

I mean, I think North Korea's human rights abuses are an order of difference because they're just so blatant.

And, you know, 200,000 people in the gulags, you know, this is a country where the concept of human rights is completely unknown.

I mean, this is a totalitarian state.

You know, it's kind of the last Stalinist state, I would say, remaining on planet Earth.

In the other places, it's much more subtle.

So do you agree that there really has been a pivot point with the Russian losses on the battlefield upwards of 35,000 a month, killed, wounded, missing in action, taken prisoner? Do you agree with that idea that every day going forward, Putin's actually losing negotiation power?

[laughs]

... uh, but, uh, in, in the world.

Um, and, a- and it's an example that we use, uh, in the report, not in so many words, of, of the importance of that and the importance of the US remaining a, a global nation.

Uh, but to come back to your question, it's the nature of these regimes.

It's the way they treat their own people, um, that really sort of unites them, and they are authoritarian regimes, and, uh, I think, uh, the greatest weakness is the nature of those regimes.

Um, the, um...

I, I, I think, uh, as, as, as Maria, um, you know, we, we lived in a, in a, in a Soviet, uh, Union that many people thought would never collapse.

Um, and we do note that in the report, um, and that, that this is an unequal, again, I'm not using the word aligns, an unequal alignment and, and the China challenge really still is the

[laughs]

Um, because they're allies.

And so, uh, the-- China's the sun, and many of these planets revolve around it.

Um, and we do note that in the report, um, and that, that this is an unequal, again, I'm not using the word alliance, an unequal alignment and, and the China challenge really still is- The, the primary sort of effort.

Uh, the US response.

Uh, you know, our recommendations, uh, delve into things that I think many of them are already in motion and, and need to be accelerated, which is the critical dependencies we have specifically on China, which is, um, uh, you know, which is rare earths.

Um, uh, and, uh, and we also have a challenge, uh, you know, that could potentially arise, uh, with the fact that, uh, China has designs.

Mm.