Retired Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax Friday that the "weakness" shown by President Joe Biden and his administration since taking office in January 2021 gave Russia the resolve to invade Ukraine.
"It's the same common denominator. America's weakness projected since they took their seats," Holt said during "Prime News" Friday. "They had their faces kicked in when they tried to bring up human rights. That's what started the troop buildup in Ukraine."
Holt said that the disastrous fall of Kabul, Afghanistan, to the Taliban during the U.S. military pullout also let China and Russia know they could take advantage of the situation.
"All of us who served there watched in horror, and that is what told [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to go to war in Ukraine," he said. "I felt in my bones right then and there: We are going to war in Ukraine."
Holt said there need to be investigations into the recent independent report by journalist Seymour Hersh that the United States may be responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream II natural gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea last summer.
The pipeline, owned by Russia, supplies natural gas to Germany and Europe.
The Washington Post said Hersh's report claimed U.S. Navy divers used the cover of military exercises with Norway during the summer in the Baltic Sea to place explosives on the pipeline and then detonate them three months later, all under orders from Biden as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The United States has denied involvement in the explosion and Hersh's reporting. Russia asked the United Nations Tuesday to officially investigate the bombing based on the report. China said it supports the probe.
Holt said that the problem is that being aggressive with Russia is tempting "World War III."
"Let's have the investigation; let the sunlight come in," Holt said, "because what we are playing with is a potential of much greater war — potentially World War III — if we don't get this sorted out and get the off ramps going very quickly."
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