Today, Forum for Democracy International - the international arm of Forum for Democracy (FVD), led by John Laughland - records a podcast every Wednesday. This is done on Twitter Spaces so that as many people as possible can listen in, it can all be live AND it is recorded immediately. This time the topic was the Vilnius Summit and the war in Ukraine. Our own Michael van der Galien also joins in as a weekly panelist.
Daniel McAdams is president of the Ron Paul Institute. He is super active on X (formerly known as Twitter), where he uses the handle @DanielLMcAdams. Recently, McAdams wrote a particularly interesting article about the NATO summit in Vilnius and the progress of the war in Ukraine - a war that, in his view, Ukraine and the West cannot win.
In the Space, McAdams explained that it is clear to him that the West itself also understands that Ukraine cannot win this, which in his view explains why Zelensky in Vilnius did not get the NATO membership he was hoping for. Still, this does not mean that NATO is ending the war - not least because the U.S. arms industry is making tons of money from this adventure.
Peter Lavelle is in Russia and also had a particularly interesting perspective. He explained that also in his view it is really just over and out already for Ukraine, at least. Our own Michael van der Galien broke in at that point and countered a bit. Because, he said, isn't it true that America's goal is to create chaos on Russia's doorstep? If that is the goal, and not a Ukrainian victory, then surely America is successful at the moment - as terrible as that is for the Ukrainian people?
The debate continued afterward. It became a particularly interesting conversation. We encourage everyone to listen to the conversation quietly. It takes an hour, but then you have something. By the way, it's in English, of course, but that shouldn't be a problem for most people.