the character of the war a ten balance of risk and reward on whether or not to directly intervene. doesn't need to be an attack on nato for nato to use military force and can decide to do that as long as the members agree and i think we are today unfortunately closer to that than four weeks ago with the nature of the war and the fact that vladimir putin is not winning and trying to fig yush out how does he avoid losing? >> there's some stunning reporting in "the washington post" about general milley and defense secretary austin trying to call the russian counter parts. repeated attempts by the u.s. top defense officials to speak with russians is rejected with moscow for a month leaving the two leaders in the dark about explanations for military weapons and raising fears of a