Sep 10, 2026 · 33 min · 11 segments
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Jiang XueqinHost
CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow, eight hours, behind closed doors, face to face with the head of Russian intelligence, Sergei Naryshkin.
A country fighting for its survival went quiet for 72 hours on direct instruction from Washington.
So we have a president who says Iran is beaten and America is completely in control.
and on the exact same day his CIA director is in Moscow negotiating with Russian intelligence.
Ukraine is standing down and Trump is publicly thanking Russia for good behavior at the Strait of Hormuz.
Now, The mainstream coverage of the Radcliffe trip buried the most important sentence, not in the headline, not in the first three paragraphs, buried in paragraph 7.
The Wall Street Journal wrote, and I am quoting directly, that U.S. officials believe shortages of critical Western munitions, partly driven by spending on the Iran war, could factor into Putin's calculations about whether to test NATO.
After six months of bombing Iran, Operation Epic Fury they called it, the United States has burned through 65% of its Patriot missile stockpile.
Expanded defending Gulf bases, protecting allied air corridors, keeping the war machine running in the Persian Gulf for half a year.
Defense analysts at the Royal United Services Institute put it plainly this week, NATO Europe's best air defense shield right now is not American firepower.
It is the fact that Russia is also exhausted from Ukraine that is your deterrent, not American strength, the mutual exhaustion of your adversary.
America cannot simultaneously guarantee Europe's security, sustain Ukraine, and fight a war of attrition in the Persian Gulf.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe flew to Moscow, eight hours, behind closed doors, face to face with the head of Russian intelligence, Sergei Naryshkin.
A country fighting for its survival went quiet for 72 hours on direct instruction from Washington.
So we have a president who says Iran is beaten and America is completely in control.
and on the exact same day his CIA director is in Moscow negotiating with Russian intelligence.
Ukraine is standing down and Trump is publicly thanking Russia for good behavior at the Strait of Hormuz.
Now, The mainstream coverage of the Radcliffe trip buried the most important sentence, not in the headline, not in the first three paragraphs, buried in paragraph 7.
The Wall Street Journal wrote, and I am quoting directly, that U.S. officials believe shortages of critical Western munitions, partly driven by spending on the Iran war, could factor into Putin's calculations about whether to test NATO.
After six months of bombing Iran, Operation Epic Fury they called it, the United States has burned through 65% of its Patriot missile stockpile.
Expanded defending Gulf bases, protecting allied air corridors, keeping the war machine running in the Persian Gulf for half a year.
Defense analysts at the Royal United Services Institute put it plainly this week, NATO Europe's best air defense shield right now is not American firepower.
It is the fact that Russia is also exhausted from Ukraine that is your deterrent, not American strength, the mutual exhaustion of your adversary.
America cannot simultaneously guarantee Europe's security, sustain Ukraine, and fight a war of attrition in the Persian Gulf.
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