Russian President Vladimir Putin is correct in his warning that the world is facing its most dangerous decade since World War II, as a "vacuum of leadership" in the United States is creating danger worldwide, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Friday.
"American weakness and a vacuum of leadership do create danger in the global commons," Holt, a Newsmax contributor, said on "Wake Up America." "But what I'm hopeful about in our American system is that through our election process, we can start to address and sew up some of these weaknesses and start to make this a much more peaceful decade."
Putin's comments were made Thursday at the annual Valdai Discussion Club meeting, where he also asserted that "the historical period of undivided dominance of the West in world affairs is coming to an end."
Meanwhile, Holt said he doesn't think the war in Ukraine will still be under discussion nine months from now, but he has also been surprised that it has already gone on for nine months.
"We're now in an area where I feared we would be if we kept this war up, and that is repeated discussions about weapons of mass destruction," he said. "They're now threatening our space assets. We've got the 101st Airborne on the Romanian border with Ukraine. This is all escalation that has occurred."
But Putin has said he's open to diplomacy, including during his remarks Thursday, "so why don't we take him up on it?" said Holt.
"We don't have to accept his terms," he added. "We can be tough negotiators, but we better get to that table because I certainly think that we're all heading to a really bad place if we let this continue to spiral."
Putin's threats of using nuclear weapons or taking out American satellites have escalated, but the Russians are also saying they are open to "some sort of overture," on the war, Holt said.
"Let's walk through the door and have an overture," he commented. "We've already got our military forces and NATO arrayed."
It's important, though to remind everyone that conditions are not "staying static" in Ukraine, Holt said.
"This winter is getting colder and we're all squabbling over energy stocks between NATO nations and the United States," he said. "We have severe problems in this country now with diesel fuel and that doesn't put us all into a strong negotiating position as the days pass."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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