Mark Hertling: Putin's Weakness
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Hello and welcome to the Bullard Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. It is Wednesday. I'm actually taping this Tuesday afternoon because Wednesday morning I'm flying to D.C. Me and Sarah Longwell are doing a debate against the Libertarian Reason Bros over at the Howard Theater. So if you're in D.C. and want to come hang out. and are listening to this on Wednesday afternoon. We're doing that tonight around 7 p.m. So in the meantime, I have a wonderful guest. I'm excited to welcome back to The Bulwark to talk big picture view of what's happening here and around the world. He is a retired lieutenant general and a CNN military analyst. He's a former commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe in the Seventh Army. He's a veteran of both Iraq wars. It's Mark Hartling.
How are you doing, sir?
Hey, Tim, how are you? It's a pleasure to be on with you today. Let's talk some things.
I'm excited to have you back. Hopefully you can illuminate some things for me.
I don't know if I can do that, but we'll see.
Much to discuss. And you've written, I want to get at the end, you've written for us as well, which I always really appreciate. You wrote something beautifully about American values, what you've learned in the Army, and what maybe the citizenry needs to learn. You wrote that for us after the election. So I want to get to that at the end. But there's so much happening around the world. And usually I have a little outline of things I want to talk about. But given your breadth of experience, I actually thought the more interesting way to start would be, I want a threat assessment from you. You're looking at the domestic challenges we face with the incoming Trump administration. So I have his appointees looking at what's happening with Syria and Iran and the Koreas and Ukraine.
If you're getting a phone call, it's like, General, what do you think the biggest threat is that we face? And what are you most concerned about? What's at the top of your list right now?
You know, I tell you, Tim, it's interesting. I was at West Point last week. The seniors of the class picked their branches, which means infantry, armor, artillery. And I had the young woman who's the president of the class asked me to give a presentation to a smaller group of people that were part of her class. command staff. And the first question they asked me is, what kind of threats are we going to face as new lieutenants going out into the field? So first of all, their head's on the right place. And secondly, I had to tell them is I had no frigging clue. You know, one of the things, you know, as a military guy is You know, when I entered West Point in 1971, the Vietnam War was going on.
By the time I left there, Europe was red hot. During my time, we never fought a war in Europe except the Cold War. But during my time in Europe, we went to Panama, Iraq in 1990, and then had a terrorist hit the buildings. So, you know, it changes and there's all kinds of black swans out there. That's my preview. Now what I'll tell you is what I'm concerned about. is still an expanded war in the Middle East, even though it seems like Hamas is defeated or Hamas is destroyed, Hezbollah is partly defeated, Syria is... appears to get better right now, but you still have the Kurds wanting for their autonomous region that includes the areas within Syria, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. So that's still a very dangerous area.
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