plainly, he could bomb kyiv much more than he has. that s what we were seeing on the news today. you know it s just pointless well, not pointless if you re a terrorist. militarily pointless. except for the long-range goal of winning the war and making people just say uncle. and that seems it s terror bombing. the entire point look, you know, criticizing i mean, what we did in germany in 1943, 44 and 45 bomb and say we were publicly said we are going to break their spirit. and that s something that ended in 1945. the russians are doing this today. that isn t what s happening on the ground. i remember on the first david war i called up one of my friends in kyiv and said i talked to people, you need to get out. he said i remember this conversation. he said, this is different than 2014. we are not this is our country. we are not leaving. and what is happening in ukraine
but this is also created new problems for him. because now united states and nato are looking very seriously at sending high altitude anti-aircraft systems to ukraine which they should have sent months ago. so this is another bad decision by putin. but it mean as decisional suffering for people of ukraine. very clearly. general, what do you see as the purpose and goal of these strikes? well, kate, it really has little these strikes have very little impact on what i could call the tactical engagement between ukrainian forces and russian forces. what this does, it primarily attacks the ukrainian will to resist. that is what this is all about. these are terror bombing, not unlike the nazi bombings of london, that the blitzkrieg that took place in london from 40 through 41. it is really going after ukrainian desires about how much longer they want to have this type of fight.
so there is a gender link. abortion, gun rights. these are democratic guardrails and whether or not they can galvanize them. i will pause the discussion here. as we go to break, as we do every memorial day weekend at meet the press, we want to remember the american service members who died in the line of duty. since last memorial day, this list includes 13 killed in the terror bombing.
i want to go right now to a guy who if you think about it, about a year before had the first hint of terror when his ship the u.s.s. cole was hit by terror bombing, guys who got out to the boat and were able to explode, kill 18 sailors, that was in october of the year 2000 and we know what happened about 11 months later and many say that was a preview to coming attractions. and the commander lipo with us right now. commander, nice to see you. where do you think we stand, commander 20 years after 9/11 and by extension, 21 years after the u.s.s. cole? well, neil, first thank you for having me on on a solemn day like this as we pause to remember those who paid a terrible price for a government that didn t do anything in response to the attack on the u.s.s. cole. when i look back 20 years ago,
who if you think about it, about a year before had the first hint of terror when his ship the u.s.s. cole was hit by terror bombing, guys who got out to the boat and were able to explode, kill 18 sailors, that was in october of the year 2000 and we know what happened about 11 months later and many say that was a preview to coming attractions. and the commander lipo with us right now. commander, nice to see you. where do you think we stand, commander 20 years after 9/11 and by extension, 21 years after the u.s.s. cole? well, neil, first thank you for having me on on a solemn day like this as we pause to remember those who paid a terrible price for a government that didn t do anything in response to the attack on the u.s.s. cole. when i look back 20 years ago,