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Jan. 5, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
11:01
Scott Ritter :
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That's what Zionism is about.
The United States is a Zionist power from that perspective.
We seek to impose our will on people that we deem to be lesser.
I mean, look, I love America.
I would say I love my country as much or more than most people.
But the love of my country comes from...
A love of the Constitution and the potential of my country.
I believe that we have the potential to be a great nation and be a great people.
But that doesn't mean that we're superior to anybody.
It doesn't mean that we have a right to go around and impose our will on anybody.
That doesn't make us a great nation.
What makes us a great nation is living up to the ideals and values that we set for ourselves.
If we can do that at home, then we become a great nation because we're great to ourselves.
But the idea that we can go out and conquer people, bully people, impose people, doesn't make us great.
It makes us lesser.
Less than the people we're seeking to impose.
Because the people we're trying to impose our will on just want to live in peace in their own home.
They're not trying to come here and impose their will.
We're not acting in self-defense.
We are in search of enemies.
And that doesn't make us great.
That makes us weak.
Morally weak.
Intellectually weak.
And we're not strong enough physically to get away with that anymore.
Secretary of State Blinken has been giving a series of farewell interviews, one of which was to the New York Times.
Some of this will probably make your blood boil, Scott.
But here he is repeating his mantra that Putin has failed.
Not making it up.
You'll hear it out of his mouth in just a moment.
Chris, cut number two.
Do you feel like you've left Ukraine in the strongest position that you could have?
Or what are the things that you could have done differently?
Well, first, what we've left is Ukraine, which was not self-evident because Putin's ambition was to erase it from the map.
We stopped that.
Putin has failed.
His strategic objective in regaining Ukraine has failed and will not succeed.
Ukraine is standing.
And I believe it also has extraordinary potential not only to survive, but actually to thrive going forward.
And that does depend on decisions that...
It's hard for anybody to take that seriously, Scott.
Let's start off with some statements of fact.
Russia never had any territorial ambition in Ukraine whatsoever, even on the very sensitive issue of Crimea.
Russia always operated on the fact that with the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the agreement to the 1991 borders, Crimea was Ukraine.
There was a certain sovereignty about the Sevastopol and based upon treaties and such that Russia wanted Ukraine to continue.
But Russia never said, you know, we're taking Crimea.
And when this conflict started, you know, remember in 2014 when the Donbass Russians said, we're done with these Ukrainian nationalists and they sought independence, Russia said, no, you're part of Ukraine.
The Minsk Accords was about making, retaining them as part of Ukraine.
Russia is the only nation that was trying to implement the Minsk Accords.
And even when this conflict started, and Russia was compelled by law and by humanity to...
Recognize the independence of people who wanted to be independent from Ukraine in the Donbass.
The territory that they took in support of this military campaign was territory that Russia was willing to and ready to cede back to Ukraine.
Russia wasn't fighting a war of territorial acquisition.
So Tony Blinken is a liar, a stinking liar, the worst kind of liar because he's the Secretary of State and he knows better.
It's not as though he's some cat we pulled off the street who's sitting there talking.
Because they don't know any better.
He's the man who made policy.
He knows what the truth is.
He is a liar, straight up.
And to say that Ukraine has survived, my God, Tony Blinken, a million dead Ukrainians isn't surviving.
He's a war criminal of the highest sort.
I really look forward to the day that the United States Congress...
Calls him in to investigate him for high crimes and misdemeanors, for lying to the American people, and for behaving unconstitutionally.
Because I believe that much of the U.S. policy towards Ukraine, especially since September of last year, has been done unilaterally by Blinken in total obviation of constitutional norms.
Mentally capable of governing.
Others are governing in his stead without the American people knowing.
And Blinken initiated policies in November that bypassed the Department of Defense, who normally would provide a check and balance.
These are policies related to The approval of the use of ATACMS missiles and other aggressive acts against Russia that brought the United States very close to the brink of war.
The Secretary of State is not authorized by the Constitution to declare war, to take the United States to war, and yet that is what Tony Blinken is doing.
So he's not just a liar.
He's a warmonger and a criminal.
Alistair Crook has written a fascinating piece out yesterday speculating that if Donald Trump and his team Are unable to achieve the type of negotiation that General Kellogg has asked for,
that he might actually, in order to manifest a certain American hegemony and personal virility, attack Iran.
Does that make sense to you?
I do think that Trump can separate Iran from Russia.
I do believe that, again, we come back to the peace through strength mantra that is the foundation of Trump's approach.
I think he wants to enter into any potential negotiations with Iran about the future of their nuclear program, with the Iranians understanding what the consequences, potential conflict, consequences of failing to...
We take these talks to fruition.
Trump has said there could be no nuclear program, no nuclear weapons program in Iran.
Iran is literally a nuclear weapons state today.
They're one political decision and four or five days away from having a nuclear bomb.
This is something that's unacceptable to Donald Trump.
And normally, if this was the government of Iran that existed before the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the government of Iran that existed when President Raisi was in power, We would be headed towards a military conflict with Iran.
But there's a new president in town.
He's a moderate president.
He ran on a platform when he ran for presidency back in June of last year of saying, I want to reach out to the West and repair relations with the West.
And he has not been a fan of bringing this conflict to Israel.
He's not looking for a war.
He's told this to the Turkish foreign minister.
And he said he's ready to negotiate.
So I think this is Trump posturing.
But I do think that when Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, back in 2018, he didn't do it as part of a policy of regime change.
He did it saying, I want a better deal.
This is a bad deal.
I want a better deal.
Now he has the chance.
He has an Iranian leader in a set of circumstances in which he can begin negotiations for a better deal.
Whether or not Trump has a team capable of pulling these negotiations off, I don't know.
But there is the potential for this.
Should these negotiations fail, however...
I do think that the United States and Israel will be looking at military strikes against Iran, and that would be devastating because we don't have the capacity to deliver a knockout blow, and Iran's retaliation would destroy Middle East oil production, gas production, and the global economy at a time when that's the last thing Donald Trump needs.
When you're a new president seeking to make America great again, the last thing you need is a global energy crisis that destroys your economy.
Do you think it's realistic that the new Al Jelani, the one who trimmed his beard and wears what appears to be Brooks Brothers suits, will actually have an alliance with Bibi Netanyahu?
I don't know about an alliance.
I don't think there will be an actual...
You know, recognition of that.
But there's a de facto understanding amongst the Al-Qaeda people that represents the guidance given to them by their masters, the United States, Turkey, Israel, and others, that this new government in Syria will not be seen by Israel as a threat and will not be threatening to Israel.
And I think that Jolani is happy to trade to concede that in exchange for getting what the Islamists have always wanted, a caliphate.
And that's what he has.
For four years now, he's going to govern without any effort for an election.
And at the end of four years, he will not turn this power over.
He has turned over every senior ministry, the defense ministry, intelligence industry, etc., to headchoppers, to guys who execute women, to people who set people on fire, slit throats.
This is who they are.
This is the real face.
Of Jolani and his government.
You can put them in a suit all you want.
At the end of the day, they cut off heads and they're still cutting off heads.
What's going on in Syria today is an absolute calamity, tragedy, etc.
The prosecution and persecution of Alawites, of Christians, of Druze, and of anybody who at any time said, I worked for Bashar al-Assad or I supported the Assad government.
These are all dead people walking.
All of this Orchestrated, perpetrated, financed by Tony Blinken's Department of State.
100%. Hey, I just have a curious question for Tony Blinken.
You had a $10 million bounty on this guy's head, and now you took it off.
What made you do that?
What part of him being al-Qaeda suddenly went away?
And he can't answer that question, which means that the $10 million bounty was always a lie.
It was always an act of theater that the United States never intended to fully hold these people to account, that al-Qaeda has always been an extension of American foreign and national security policy when it comes to implementing American policy objectives in the Middle East.
Scott, a pleasure, my dear friend.
No matter what we talk about, I wish all of us were more optimistic, but maybe we'll be in for some surprises after January 20th.
Thank you for your time.
Look forward to seeing you again next week, my buddy.
Thanks for having me on.
Have a great day.
Of course.
Thank you.
All the best.
Coming up at 4 o'clock this afternoon on the economy, on the problem with spending more money than you take in, Kevin DeMeritt, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.
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