Putin beginning to have excuses made for him: Military expert

Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges lifted the veil on the Kremlin Thursday on "Your World."

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This has been a lesson in strategic leadership. I'm sure he's not hearing everything … In this very top-down centralized command structure, I'm sure there are people who are reluctant to tell him bad news or to offer different opinions. And this is also - you made a reference to all the Russian generals who have been killed - the reason they're so exposed is because of the tradition inside Russian military for very centralized decision-making. … [A]s we would have captains and colonels and senior sergeants making decisions at the front where there was a problem, they have to have a general come forward, and then these guys are talking on cell phones, which is amazing to me, and that's why they're getting killed.