Quite the whiplash going from billy badass Lloyd Austin to drunken adulterer Pete Hegseth. In a book Bob Woodward wrote about a phone call between Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart in 2022, when Russia was planning on doing a nuclear strike in Ukraine.
>“If you did this, all the restraints that we have been operating under in Ukraine would be reconsidered,” Austin said to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, according to Woodward. “This would isolate Russia on the world stage to a degree you Russians cannot fully appreciate.”
>“I don’t take kindly to being threatened,” Shoigu responded.
>“Mr. Minister,” Austin said, according to Woodward, “I am the leader of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don’t make threats.”
>Two days later, the Russians requested another call. This time, the Russian defense minister dramatically claimed the Ukrainians were planning to use a “dirty bomb” — a false story the US believed the Kremlin was pushing as a pretext to deploy a nuclear weapon.
>“We don’t believe you,” Austin said firmly in response, according to Woodward. “We don’t see any indications of this, and the world will see through this.”
>“Don’t do it,” he said to Shoigu.
>“I understand,” Shoigu replied.
I can't imagine Pete Hegseth being anywhere close to this badass on the international stage.
