You want to go ahead?

Mr.

President, good evening.

I'm Ludovic Hood, also a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

I'd like to return to a question that Mr. Walters asked you about Europe's position today.

It's been almost 13 years since your country was first invaded, almost five years since the full-scale invasion.

And yet, by and large, Europe defense budgets, while they have increased, still mean surprisingly weak armies, a very weak defense industrial base, also unintegrated across Europe.

And I'd love to better understand what you all are hoping to accomplish and what need it is that you felt, um, this was responding to.

We are not a, um, Jewish advocacy organization.

Um, we are, uh, you know, uh, a well-established, um, national security, hard power think tank.

We happen to believe, we've got some core beliefs here at Hudson.

We believe that China and Russia, together with Iran and North Korea, are actively seeking ways to undermine the West in different shapes and sizes.

or different forms, I should say.

And we also believe that there are some critical alliances for us in the world.

That has been one of our defense mechanisms over the years.

So what mechanism do we need to have in place that turns that damage into the political outcome that we discussed?

Well, stepping back, I mean, from my own experience, having served in the Middle East for about half of the last 10 years, it's clear to me, based on what I've seen and particularly what I've been told by people in the countries I've served in and what I've observed, that regime change in Tehran would be a good thing, above all for the people of Iran.

not to mention for the region, for the region's stability and prosperity.

And it goes without saying that this regime is the overwhelming source of instability and mayhem and suffering in the region.

Again, I base that on what I've seen, and I think anyone with a rudimentary understanding of recent Middle East history would be inclined to agree with that.

You look at how Iran has backed these so-called proxy militias, some of which are also political movements, or at least political movements that pack a punch because of the fact that they have arms and so forth and have hijacked societies.

That's held back Iraq in different ways, Lebanon in different ways, obviously Yemen, what Iran has sowed a lot of mayhem in the region.

And what are you looking out for in the next, I guess, coming weeks and months?