The path to stop the Ukraine-Russia war is to get Russian President Vladimir Putin back to the negotiating table, and the only way to do that is through a demilitarized approach, says retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt.
"If you look at the actions of [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken and [national security adviser Jake] Sullivan the entire way through this thing, even go back to March of 2022, when Boris Johnson, the U.K. prime minister at the time, blew up the peace talks, 'We're going to be there for you, we're going to go kick the Russians out.' But you can't do it [former Defense Secretary Robert] McNamara Vietnam-style with incremental weaponization, no strategy," Holt told Newsmax's "American Agenda" on Thursday.
"We've proven that. The Ukrainians have fought valiantly, brilliantly, heroically. They've done every single thing that they could. But without a strategy, without combined arms, you're not going to get there.
"So if we talk about how well Ukraine is doing, then why is our president [Joe Biden] telling them to lower that age from 25 to 18 if they have fighting aged men to put on the battlefield? You just can't have it both ways. What they haven't done at all in the four years is to look at Russia's destroyed economy and look at levers on how to get Putin back to the table, because that's where the path lies: in a demilitarized approach."
Biden's administration is urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of those as young as 18.
A senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private consultations, said Wednesday that the outgoing Democrat administration wants Ukraine to lower the mobilization age to 18 from the current age of 25 to expand the pool of fighting-age men available to help a badly outnumbered Ukraine in its nearly three-year-old war with Russia.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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