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Oct. 27, 2024 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
29:04
Scott Ritter : Iran and Hezbollah Crushing IDF.
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Monday, October 28th, 2024.
Scott Ritter will be with us in just a moment on why and how Iran and Hezbollah are crushing the IDF.
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Scott Ritter, always a pleasure, my dear friend.
Before we talk about Iran resisting the IDF and Hezbollah resisting the IDF, I was privileged to be part of Operation Dawn, a program that you ran yesterday at a lovely restaurant in Manhattan where we had hundreds of people who are anti-war, pro-peace.
Maximum Individual Liberty folks, many of them fans of yours and fans of the show.
And at that program, you made an incredible argument about how close we all are to nuclear war.
Can you summarize that argument, please?
In summary, we're literally just one bad decision away.
Either made by Joe Biden in signing off on giving Ukraine permission to strike.
Deep into Russia or on the United States greenlighting Israeli action targeting Iranian nuclear leadership or oil infrastructure.
A bad decision by the United States in seeking to take advantage of perceived Chinese weakness and promote Taiwan independence that triggers military conflict.
Either way, any one of these scenarios will instantaneously take us down an irreversible path that will inevitably lead to a general nuclear war.
There is no such thing as limited nuclear war.
Once it begins, it will spin out of control, and it will be the death of us all.
The reality is, had Joe Biden signed off on Saturday, for instance, allowing Ukraine to use U.S. weapons, Our Sunday brunch would not have occurred.
We'd be all dead.
That's how quick this will unfold.
And so I don't want to be accused of fear mongering, but I do want to put the fear in the hearts of every American so that they understand that there are consequences to elections.
And it's important that the people we empower through our vote to lead us.
And even though the Constitution requires that Congress declare war, the federal statutes, you pointed this out yesterday, the federal statutes are crafted in such a way that the President of the United States and him or her alone 100%.
The President of the United States is given sole authority for the launch of nuclear weapons.
People can advise him, but nobody can stop him.
There is an extreme scenario where the US military could refuse to obey an unconstitutional order, but the president would have to be so grotesquely out of line to make that happen.
Generally speaking, the way the nuclear war system works is once the president authorizes the use of nuclear weapons, the military will automatically implement that order.
Would the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff be in a position to neutralize or delay the order?
No.
The president has a unique communications capability that operates independent of any input by the chairman.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is an advisor, as is the Secretary of Defense.
But in a nuclear war, the communication will go from the President of the United States to the Commanding General of Strategic Command, who operates the independent military command that owns all of our strategic nuclear weapons.
And it will be an order from the President directly to the Commanding General of Strategic Command.
And there's obviously no standards.
There's no checklist.
No, actually, what will happen is they will open up the briefcase and the president will have, they already have prepared little cheat cards, 3x5 cards that have different war plan options.
And what will happen is the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff And the National Security Advisor say, "Mr.
President, we recommend that you implement Plan B in this scenario.
It's a range of options that meets the threat." Ideally, you would like the President to have some time to talk through this.
But given the realities of nuclear weapons, especially with the advent of hypersonic weapons, what could have at one point in time been a 12 to 15 window of deliberation before the president had to issue the order has been shrunk down to less than five minutes.
And again, in Annie Jacobson's outstanding book, Nuclear War Scenario, she talks about what these five minutes will be, which is disbelief on the part of the president.
Is this really happening, Mr. President?
You must open the suitcase.
But is this really what we're talking about?
Mr. President, you must open.
Now he opens.
Well, what options?
If I do this, the world is, Mr. President, we are running out of time.
You must make a decision, Mr. President.
We have 30 seconds until, you know, they cross the line and we can't make a response.
But I don't want, Mr. President, we are running out of time.
Issue the order, Mr. President.
And that's the kind of pressure he's going to be put under.
Now, it turns out that it was a bluff, but once you give the order, it can't be taken back.
Once the process begins, it's done.
Everything's on full automatic.
Why do they call it a nuclear football?
Is it in the shape of a football?
No, it's just where the game plan is.
It's sort of a take on where the coach has his playbook.
But it's literally a communications device where he will...
Ultimately, he will give the order.
He will issue an authentication code that's unique that has to be opened that time while the other person on the other opens up.
They will confirm the authentication.
He will input it, confirm, and then we all die 72 minutes later.
What happened on Friday and Saturday when Israel claimed Israel?
The missiles they used are called air-launched ballistic missiles as opposed to Iran's ground-launched ballistic missiles.
These are, you know, derivatives of weapons that are used.
For instance, the Russians use a weapon called the dagger, the Kenzal, which is an air-launched ballistic missile.
These Israeli missiles have been around for some time now.
They've used them in the past in combat.
They have some capabilities.
Israel launched around, I think they were preparing 56 of them for launch for an operation of this sort.
So I would imagine that they went forward with a strike package that represented that.
56 ballistic missiles is enough to hit.
A handful of targets, not enough to take out, you know, all of Iran's capabilities.
It's about the package that we would have used in the Gulf War to take out, for instance, a site like the Taji missile production and assembly and storage area north of Baghdad, which we hit with 35. Air-launched cruise missiles on the night of the Gulf War opened up.
And this appears to be what Israel did.
They fired a large number of these missiles, approximately 40 of them were probably used to clear out air defense sites, to take out radars that would allow...
And there may have been another missile production facility hit as well.
But it appears that Israel was trying to send a signal by saying, we're striking the facilities to produce the missiles that you used to attack us.
The extent to which this is a success, if you listen to pro-Israeli media, it was a great success.
If you listen to the Iranians, it was a horrible failure.
As an experienced battle damage assessment officer during times of war, I will say the truth is somewhere in between probably sliding in favor of the Iranian version of events.
Did the Israelis encounter some sort of a missile defense system or radar system with which they were unfamiliar, and it deterred them from a second or third wave?
I don't believe that's the case at all.
I believe Israel launched an attack that was in itself consisting of three waves.
Again, you have to launch attacks that clear the way.
You have to clear a corridor.
The Israelis had to put 100 aircraft in the air to make this thing go off.
None of those aircraft, by the way, came close to penetrating Iranian airspace.
all of these air launch ballistic missiles were fired over, um, Iraqi airspace, um, north of, uh, Baghdad.
Uh, but a hundred airframes of, of this quality.
These were talking F 35s, F 15 eyes, F 16 eyes.
You know, that's it.
That's the bulk of Israel's strike package right there.
So there's not like there's a whole bunch of waves lining up to go on.
This was it.
This was their Sunday punch.
This is what Israel had.
Approval from the Iraqi government to use its airspace in which and from which to attack Iran?
Absolutely not.
But even more curious is the question, did Israel have permission to use Jordanian airspace?
Because the Israelis flew in the past to launch the last strike in April 19th.
Israel actually flew over Syrian airspace, southern Syria.
into Iraqi airspace again without permission.
But the Russians have their enhanced detection techniques in Syria, and so to avoid being detected by the Russians who then would tip off the air airspace, That's not something they could have done without permission of the Jordanian Air Force.
So they had permission of the Jordanian government to launch a strike against Iran.
And that's going to be embarrassing for the Jordanians going forward.
Did the IDF suffer some serious setbacks in southern Lebanon in the past several days?
The IDF's goal was to...
to launch an attack that would be about, what basically would take control of a large chunk of southern Lebanon.
The goal was to push Hezbollah out of this, to push Hezbollah beyond the range of their, of some of their rocket bases, thereby creating peace and prosperity so that, 60,000 of them were displaced.
They were supposed to be 20 kilometers deep by now inside southern Lebanon on a front of about 100 kilometers.
They've penetrated a couple hundred meters in areas.
They haven't taken over a major town yet.
They continue to be ambushed as they push in.
Their elite forces are being hit.
Their armored forces are being hit.
And the bottom line is Hezbollah has basically pounded them to a standstill and is now punishing them with continued rocket strikes, not only inside Lebanon, but in the force assembly areas in Israel.
So as Israel brings up reserves to come in and replace the forces that have been beaten to a pulp in Lebanon, they're being hit by Hezbollah rockets.
And instead of being able to bring 60,000 settlers back in, tens of thousands more settlers are fleeing Israel.
This is an absolute disaster.
Hezbollah has proven the fact that they are a very resilient resistance movement that has very deep layers of leadership, and they have a battle plan that they're implementing, and right now they're beating the Israelis head-to-head in a stand-up fight in southern Lebanon.
Do you think he recognizes that either his days are numbered or his military plans are numbered and that he can't go much farther?
Netanyahu?
I think he realizes that if he has the continued political mix that he has, that that's the case because the current military structure, especially with Gallant as Minister of Defense, They've basically said, you're losing, and we're not going to win, and your plans don't work, and all this.
So either Netanyahu has to accept the fact that Israel needs to change course, or he's going to fire Gallant and replace the senior military leadership, something that is unprecedented in a time of crisis.
But this is an unprecedented crisis because this war isn't about the security of Israel per se.
It's about the legacy of Benjamin Netanyahu.
So he's doing things to preserve his legacy as opposed to preserve and protect, as opposed to actually help Israel out.
And I think we're going to be looking at him cleaning house soon in the defense area as one last desperate measure to maintain some sort of political viability.
This too will fail, and eventually Netanyahu is going to be repurposed In furtherance of what you've just articulated, Scott, here's a report from Crux, C-R-U-X.
It's about two or three hours old.
The long-running feud between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his number two, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, has once again come to the fore.
In a recent letter, Gallant has warned Netanyahu on the lack of war strategy and clear direction.
Gallant expressed serious concerns that while the threats to Israel evolved, the war's objectives have not kept pace.
The Israeli Defense Minister has added that lack of strategy is leading to potential missteps in cabinet decision-making.
Israel's Channel 13 reported that Gallant sent the letter to Netanyahu and the Security Cabinet hours before Israel attacked Iran on Friday.
So, I mean, over here, that would be inconceivable that the defense secretary would be attacking and challenging the president in a written publication in wartime.
It just shows the total disarray that exists in the Israeli leadership and the Israeli government because of Benjamin Netanyahu's stance, which, again, when Gallant says there's a lack of strategy, he's talking about the lack of a military strategy attached to war.
But because this is about preserving the political legacy of Netanyahu, the strategy that Netanyahu is pursuing is completely different from the one that Gallant would like to see pursued.
And so Gallant is calling him out.
And this is becoming expensive.
We're talking about Israelis are losing up to 10 soldiers a day.
In Lebanon with scores wounded.
These are casualties that cannot be sustained by Israel.
And they're losing them in some of their most elite units.
The Egoz unit is an elite commando unit specifically trained to operate in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, and they're just getting waxed by Hezbollah because...
Every valley, every stream, every wadi, every hill is an ambush site already prepared by Hezbollah in advance.
Is Defense Minister Gallant popular with the troops or stated differently?
Will there be a fallout amongst the IDF if Netanyahu fires Gallant?
Hard to say.
Remember, he is also somebody who is responsible for what happened on October 7th, and he still has to be held to account.
And so there's many who believe that he too has to go.
I do believe, though, that we'll see within the generals there will be dissatisfaction, depending on who Galant is replaced by.
If Galant is replaced by a warfighter who looks out for the interests of the soldiers, who will advocate for the soldiers, then the military might let this one pass as simply a political dispute.
But if Galant is replaced by a Bing Gavir type, this political right-wing, foaming-at-the-mouth lunatic, the military won't put up with that, and you might actually see the beginning of an active revolt within the military against Benjamin Netanyahu.
In theory, yes.
In practice, no.
Absolutely not.
The opposite.
And this isn't just going back in time to talk about the USS Liberty, which is reflective of the absolute cavalier approach Israel has towards American national security interests.
It's not just about Jonathan Pollard, who, as an American citizen, stole.
The crown jewels of the U.S. intelligence community back in the 1980s.
That is the book that listed all of the frequencies that we collected and how we collected them, what intelligence we're getting, billions of dollars worth of intelligence data that he gave to the Israelis who then sold it to the Soviet Union, our arch enemy at the time, to open up some immigration.
So Israel took the It's not just that.
Israel spies on America more than any other nation.
They spy on the White House.
They spy on the Pentagon.
They spy on industry.
Israeli intelligence has penetrated the United States.
They're not spying on us to protect us.
They're spying on us.
To collect information to be used for their benefit and sometimes to the detriment of the United States.
Israel is not an ally of the United States.
Israel contributes nothing positive in this day and age to American national security.
In fact, Israel weakens us.
Ask any ambassador who represents the United States abroad today what America's un- Ask the BRICS people why the world is gravitating towards Russia and China and away from the United States.
And at the end of the day, a lot of it comes down to America's blanket support for Israel and Israel's behavior, which is so un-American-like.
What Israel is doing right now, open genocide, open murder, mass murder.
They just did a funeral for an Israeli soldier.
Where his brother and soldiers in arms came up.
And this is supposed to be the eulogy they give.
We remember when you volunteered to go into Gaza and you said, I'm going there so I can kill every Arab man, woman, and child I see to get revenge.
They're saying this as if it's pride.
We remember as a joke to cheer us up how you blew up that Palestinian home.
We remember how you shot that Palestinian farmer and murdered him.
And they're saying this is good things.
This is the sickness of Israel, and this is why America today is being hurt so bad, because we've attached ourselves to this cancer that is infecting not only the Middle East but the entire world.
While you and Colonel Wilkerson and others were talking about peace yesterday in New York City, on the other side of town, a madman was addressing 25,000 people.
In Madison Square Garden.
Here is a 60-second clip of what the madman said.
Cut number four.
They are our best friend.
I worked for Ronald Reagan for eight years.
Ronald Reagan said, we have to be there for Israel always because they are always there for us!
Hamas is not there for us!
Iran is not there for us.
They want to kill us.
And the Palestinians are taught to kill us at two years old.
They won't let a Palestinian in Jordan.
They won't let a Palestinian in Egypt.
And Harris wants to bring them to you.
They may have good people.
I'm sorry, I don't take a risk with people that are taught to kill Americans at two.
I'm on the side of Israel!
You're on the side of Israel!
Donald Trump's on the side of Israel!
And they're on the side of the terrorists!
Does Iran propose the slightest iota of threat to the national security of the United States?
So long as the United States doesn't pose a threat to the national security of Iran, and remember, Iran's a nation that's interested in preserving its sovereignty, not projecting its power around the world.
There's not 800-plus Iranian-based military bases around the world.
There are 800-plus American military bases around, many of them surrounding Iran.
But no, as long as the United States is not threatening Iran, attacking Iran, Then Iran poses no threat.
In fact, it's just the opposite.
Iran, and I say this with first-hand knowledge, having spoken to ambassadors, presidents, and other senior officials in Iran, they would love nothing more than to have normal relations with the United States.
They don't see an inherent ideological conflict between the two.
They recognize the sovereign status of the United States, and they just ask that the United States recognize and respect the sovereign status of Iran.
Is there any legitimate argument to support or any evidence to support Mayor Giuliani's claim that Israel is always there for us and the Palestinian children as babies are taught to kill?
Well, I mean, I'm no expert on, you know, childhood education, but I am a father who raised a child.
You met one yesterday.
You've met the other at our event in September.
You know, and I remember when they were two years old, the idea that you're going to teach a two-year-old anything is ludicrous.
You can teach them love.
You can expose them to love.
Maybe you could expose them to hate, but their ability to comprehend what's transpiring around them is nil.
That is maverick hearing Chris.
I was doing such a good job playing with my dog with my foot.
This is stupidity in the extreme and it's just racist on the part of Giuliani.
But Israel, again, does not contribute anything.
This is a nation that has a support network that has It brags about buying the United States Congress.
Buying.
They spent $100 million this year alone, AIPAC, to buy.
If you add all the pro-Israeli lobbies together, we're probably talking close to a billion or more dollars.
We have an American Jewish lady who is pledging $100 million to Donald Trump's election just so he supports Israel.
American democracy cannot be bought.
I mean, it is being bought, but it cannot be allowed to be bought.
And Israel is in the business of buying American democracy.
Why?
Is it a friendship, Judge, if I have to buy your friendship?
I mean, if I'm taking a lady out for dinner and I have to pay her for the night, I think there's another term we use for that.
So America is Israel's whore.
We're not Israel's friend.
Scott Ritter, thank you very much, my dear friend.
It was great being with you all day yesterday, just like it was up at Salenti's gathering in Kingston last month, and we'll do it again soon.
I appreciate you coming on today, and hopefully we can talk again next week.
Okay, thank you, Judge.
Thank you.
All the best.
Coming up tomorrow at noon from Paris, Pepe Escobar.
At 2 o 'clock, Matt Ho.
At 3 o 'clock, Karen Kwiatkowski.
At 4 o 'clock, Colonel Douglas McGregor.
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