John Mearsheimer:

On 11 September 2025, I talked to Lt. Col. (ret.) Danny Davis on his podcast — “Deep Dive” — about Ukraine and the Israeli attack on Doha. We focused a lot of attention on the Russian drones that landed in Poland on the previous day, as well as Ukraine’s deteriorating situation on the battlefield. Exactly how those drones ended up wandering into Poland is not clear, but we both agreed that the claim that Russia purposely attacked Poland with unarmed drones fails the common sense test.

We also discussed Ukraine’s problems on the battlefield: 1) outnumbered overall 3:1 and 6:1 in certain key places, according to General Syrski; 2) not enough troops to cover the front lines; and 3) combat brigades manned at about 50% strength.

We also talked about the Israeli strike on Qatar, which aimed to kill not just the Hamas negotiators, but the negotiations themselves. Given that the Trump administration green-lighted the Israeli attack at the same time it was pushing Hamas negotiators to meet to discuss the US-Israeli ceasefire proposal, it is hard to see how any country or international group like Hamas could trust the United States any longer. Of course, nobody has trusted Israel for a very long time now.