Retired U.S. General James Jones, who served as former President Obama’s national security adviser, weighed in on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on Friday, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin “miscalculated” on a number of fronts in how he has carried out the invasion into the country.
In an appearance on Hill TV’s “Rising,” Jones explained to Robby Soave that Putin’s dislike for NATO led him to invade Ukraine in a way that did not take into consideration how he would be opposed.
“I think he did miscalculate on a couple of fronts,” Jones told Soave.
“One is, I think he miscalculated on the ability of NATO to come together,” Jones added, crediting the Biden administration for aiding the unity among NATO member states. “But NATO is together on this.”
He later told Soave that he also believes Putin miscalculated how much resistance Ukraine would put up to an invasion.
“I think militarily they may have miscalculated on the resilience of the Ukrainian people,” he said. “I’ve always said that before you get involved in changing the order of a sovereign country, whether its Afghanistan or Vietnam or whatever, the one thing that you have to calculate is whether the people themselves are willing to fight for what you’re offering. And it’s obvious that the people are willing to fight against what Vladimir Putin is offering.”
“And so I think with NATO being stronger it certainly wasn’t one of Vladimir Putin’s goals and I think in that sense he may have miscalculated,” he added.
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