Ambassador Robert Blackwill

Yeah, we were spectators.

Yeah, why?

I think we backed away from the danger of a collision with China.

And in that period, we were much stronger in naval forces in the South China Sea and so forth.

But we just let it happen.

Our limp reaction to the 2014 Russian acquisition of Ukraine, I have a great long list, but liberal internationalism became weaker and weaker.

in its expression.

And China, I think, was emboldened by that and has taken advantage of it.

The last few liberal internationalist presidencies, I think, would be unrecognizable to Harry Truman or to Jack Kennedy or to Scoop Jackson or to Dan Moynihan and so forth.

Well, the peace deal, the one I would support, will...

reward Russia, because there is no stomach in the West and no capability in Ukraine to drive Russia out of the Donbas and out of Crimea.

They have been...

So they are going to profit at the expense of more than a million deaths and so forth from their invasion.

The question is,

rather, is rather, can we stop them where they are and retain Ukrainian sovereignty?

And some of the things that Mr. Witkoff has proposed in the past would jeopardize or even end Ukrainian sovereignty.

So that's the question.

And I think, sadly, the war is likely to go on because I think that there is a determination in Ukraine not to lose their statehood.

The first thing that one should say, since there's so much commentary, is that not one of the people who are writing foreign affairs articles and op-eds know what it means.

And that's what Putin, of course, wants to accomplish.