Robert Gates: “Retrenchment brought about by short-sighted cuts could well lead to costlier and more tragic consequences later.”

Putin hasn't given up on any of his original goals in Ukraine.

He wants Ukraine, basically, to be a client state of Russia.

I think it would be a very heavy political lift for the president to say he's going to cut off military supplies to Israel unless they stop in Gaza.

Putin feels that he has a destiny to recreate the Russian Empire.