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Jan. 21, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
22:44
Scott Ritter : [ScottRitter.com] - Can Ukraine Survive Trump?
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First of all, let's start with the chief, the Zionist in chief, the president of the United States.
He knows that.
Why do you think he reposted Jeffrey Sachs' damning commentary on Netanyahu?
He knows the truth about Netanyahu.
I think that many Of the pro-Israeli, pro-Zionist elements within the United States government, within the Trump administration, have a similar approach towards Benjamin Netanyahu.
He's a liar, a cheat.
He's not a friend of the United States.
And when you're operating at that level, you do get access to the counterintelligence briefings about what Netanyahu does against the United States, ostensibly behind our backs.
He's not a friend of America.
And everybody in power I think so.
I think he's at the point right now where he's a useful tool, but he's no longer a friend and an ally.
Going to be under his sway the way Biden was?
No. Look, Trump, like I said, he reposted Jeffrey Sachs.
Okay. Condemnation of Netanyahu.
It's the other way around.
Look, in the first term, Trump was very much under his sway.
Netanyahu briefed Trump and sort of owned Trump, got inside Trump's head.
But I think Trump, in the intervening time, learned a lot about Netanyahu.
And how he operates and understands that Netanyahu is not his friend.
And I think Trump today is viewing Netanyahu as a useful tool, but not a friend or an ally.
Here's an ally of Donald Trump who will be whispering in Trump's ear on an almost daily basis.
And he wants Trump, you'll know who this is, to bomb Iran.
Cut number four.
This war will never end with Hamas in charge of Gaza, politically or militarily.
Their days are numbered.
And the next question for the world is, what do we do about the Iran nuclear program?
That's where we're going to move to next.
There's diplomacy.
There's a one trillion chance you'll degrade the Iranian nuclear program through...
Yeah. Diplomacy, there's a 90% chance you'll degrade it through military action by Israel supported by the United States.
So the next topic I will be engaging in with President Trump is to take this moment in time to decimate the Iran nuclear program because they're so exposed.
What does that mean?
Help Israel deliver a knockout blow.
What does that mean?
You're going to urge him to have Israel bomb Iran's facilities that are underground and would require U.S. military support to actually be effective?
I'm going to urge the decimation of the Iranian nuclear program.
I don't think diplomacy works.
This is a religious Nazi regime.
They want to destroy the Jewish state.
They want to purify Islam and drive us out of the Mideast.
It would be like negotiating with Hitler.
I am hoping there will be an effort by Israel to decimate the Iranian nuclear program supported by the United States.
And if we don't do that, it will be a historical mistake.
Man, he gets worse with the passage of time.
Yeah, I think he didn't read the memo.
Trump is moving away from imperialistic wars of choice.
Trump ran on a platform that said we're going to get out of these war entanglements in the Middle East, that the policies of us going in and playing policemen are failed policies, and we don't want that.
Lindsey Graham didn't get the memo.
Or if he did, he's just so hate-filled that he just refuses to go.
There's not a snowball's chance in hell that Donald Trump's going to do anything that Lindsey Graham just said.
Not a snowball's chance in hell.
Everything's moving in the other direction.
Not at all.
It won't even start.
The conversation won't even begin.
Because, first of all, Israel can't attack Iran without us.
And we're just not going to play that game.
And I'm pretty sure we're on record with Netanyahu that that's just not going to happen.
Trump has said, go back in the campaign, that he wants to have negotiations with Iran about their nuclear program that lead to the lifting of sanctions and the normalization of relations.
That's the President of the United States.
That's the man who was just sworn in.
You know who wasn't sworn in as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America?
Lindsey Graham.
Lindsey Graham is a hate-filled, I'm not going to say it, but you know what I mean.
He is a horrible American, a horrible human being, and I don't know why the people of South Carolina keep voting him into office, but he's a pimple on the bottom of history right now.
That's it.
That's his only function.
There's nothing about what he said in terms of Israeli policy that's going to come true.
That's the exact opposite direction that President Trump wants to lead the United States.
Are Israel and Iran preparing for war against each other as we speak, Scotty?
No. The fact is, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Command just came out and said, for instance, Operation True Promise 3, the massive 1,000 missile attack.
He said, that's off table.
We're not going to do that.
We're not looking to have a war with Israel.
That's not what we want to do.
And right now, they're...
The Iranian president has the concurrence of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to pursue diplomatic discussions with the United States with an eye of bringing this nuclear issue under control to the point where the United States can begin lifting economic sanctions.
That's the strategic direction that Iran wants to go into, that the United States wants to go into, and frankly speaking, Israel at this point in time also wants to.
And look, even the Israelis are saying, After the collapse of Israel, Project Iran, which was their giant project that Benjamin Netanyahu has been promoting since 1995, that's no longer important.
Israel is now talking about Turkey and the long-term threat that a resurgence of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey represents.
I think you're seeing a strategic shift in Israel as well.
So Lindsey Graham, once again, is just...
The television anchor that was questioning him, I'm afraid I don't know who she is.
She had an implication in one of her questions.
I wonder if it's correct.
She implied that the Israelis would be unable to destroy the Iranian underground development of nuclear materials without USAID.
Is that true?
That is 100% correct.
Okay. Now to a cut on tape that I think you will have the opposite view of as we segue into Ukraine, Trump, and Putin.
Chris, cut number eight.
We've heard his commitment to do everything to prevent World War III.
Of course, we welcome this approach, and we congratulate.
Newly elected President of the United States, on his inauguration, we have never been against dialogue.
We have always been ready to maintain a peaceful relationship with any American administration.
I have said that many times.
We would like to see the dialogue built upon equality and mutual respect, considering The common positions on our country on a number of international issues, including strengthening security and political stability.
We're also open for dialogue with the new US administration on the Ukrainian conflict.
The most important thing here is to eliminate the fundamental reason for the conflict.
That's the most important.
And as for settling the situation itself, its goal should be Not a brief ceasefire, not just getting some time to regroup and rearm and carry on the conflict,
but long-term peace based on respect to lawful interests of all people and nationalities living in the region.
And of course, we're going to fight for the interests of Russia and its people.
This is actually the goal.
That is a serious diplomat.
A serious leader.
Articulate, clear, crisp, open-minded.
No doubt about it.
I mean, there's a reason why Vladimir Putin is the leader he is.
There's a reason why Russia is where it is today.
Is he perfect?
No. Has Russia made mistakes?
Of course.
The bottom line is Russia has never deviated from its strategic objectives, its stated strategic objectives when it comes to the special military operation.
And those strategic objectives remain the same today.
Ukraine will never be a member of NATO.
And NATO never means never.
Not in 10 years, 20 years.
That's the General Kellogg nonsense.
We'll delay their entry for 10 years.
That's a non-starter, and the general must know that by now.
Everybody knows that by now.
Even Trump.
But the general keeps repeating the propaganda.
Two, there won't be a frozen conflict.
If you saw, you know, Putin was very diplomatic and he said, you know, we're not looking to have a ceasefire so people can rearm.
Russia has, through, you know, tremendous cost to itself, achieved the strategic initiative and dominance in this conflict, a war of attrition, where Russia has achieved the You know,
mathematical dominance over Ukraine.
Russia has won the war of attrition.
Ukraine today is collapsing on the front line.
And Russia will continue to keep making the advances that it's making.
There's nothing Ukraine can do to stop it.
There's no amount of equipment or manpower that can be brought in to stabilize the situation.
The attrition machine is so much in favor of Russia right now that it just grinds away at whatever the Ukrainians throw at it.
Why would Russia stop?
The conflict can allow a reset.
So everything Russia has sacrificed for over the course of the last three years will be thrown away.
Russia is just not going to do that.
There will be no ceasefire until the terms that are acceptable to Russia have been agreed to.
Russia is not going to stop in a good faith measure and let Ukraine rebuild, let the West rearm, let NATO think that it can intervene.
Right now, the entire West is off balance because of the...
The victories being won by the Russian forces, by the supremacy of Russian defense industry, by the superiority of the Russian economy.
And so Russia is not going to concede any of these advantages to allow the President of the United States to get a politicized talking point.
If Trump is serious about peace, frankly speaking, he needs to fire Keith Kellogg, or at least silence him, and bring in better advisors.
Trump, if you're listening, call me.
I'm not happy to talk to you about it.
I wish he would call you.
The show was Face the Nation.
The questioner was Margaret Brennan.
She asked a great question.
And that was Vladimir.
For those listening on audio only, that of course was President Putin on the day of Trump's inauguration.
Yesterday, Trump said the following about...
The war in Ukraine.
Cut number 13. President Zelensky would like to have peace.
He's told me that very strongly.
He'd like to have peace.
But it takes two to tango.
We'll see what happens.
Anytime they want, I'll meet.
I'd like to see that end.
Millions of people are being killed.
And they're being killed.
It's a vicious situation.
And they're now largely soldiers.
A lot of people have been killed in the cities.
They look like demolition sites.
The thing with Ukraine is that many more people died than you're reporting.
You're not reporting the real numbers.
And I'm not blaming you for that.
I'm blaming maybe our government for not wanting to release those numbers.
Many more people died than what you know about.
Do you know what he means when he says many more people died than what you know about?
He doesn't even know what he means with all the respect to the president.
He's repeating garbage numbers given to him by Keith Kellogg.
Keith Kellogg.
You know, has said that 700,000 Ukrainians and over a million Russians have died.
Well, there's no evidence for that.
Not a million Russians.
Look, the BBC and Meduza, who are not pro-Russia, pro-friendly, have done a deep dig into, you know, Russian obituaries.
And what we can get from this data, which roughly correlates, is that around 90,000 Russian soldiers from the Ministry of Defense have been killed.
In the fighting since the special military operation began.
Just to put this in perspective, the United States lost 58,000 Americans in 10 years of fighting in Vietnam, and that's a national tragedy.
So in three years, Russia's lost 90,000.
Now, this doesn't include the casualties from the Donetsk Republic or the Lugansk Republic, from Wagner.
Or from non-Ministry of Defense sources.
If you add up the total number of dead for the Russians, you're getting in the area of around 150,000, 160,000 dead.
You can add on to that, say, three times that number.
You're probably looking at a number of around 500,000 wounded.
So a total of between 650,000 and 700,000 casualties total for Russia.
That's huge.
It's a big deal.
But it's not a million dead.
The Ukrainians, on the other hand, We're talking about a minimum of 700,000 dead, possibly up to 1.1 million dead, and then you add on to that the wounded, and we're talking about multiple millions.
That's the number that Trump might be saying are being underreported.
But the fourth matter is it's Ukraine that suffered the casualties.
There's a reason why Russia is winning the war of attrition, and it's because they're killing more Ukrainians.
What is the status of the Ukrainian and NATO-backed incursion into Kursk?
Well, I mean, they put their best trained and best equipped troops into this effort, and they have dug in.
And so the Russians are doing what the Russians do, which is a slow attrition-based approach towards eliminating...
We're good to go.
The Russians will use their firepower superiority to grind down the enemy and slowly push them out of territories.
And that's what's happening.
The Russians are pushing the Ukrainians out.
The Ukrainian system launched a counteroffensive timed with Trump's inauguration.
Everything's political for them.
The idea is they thought they were going to come in and give Russia a black eye.
The counteroffensive fizzled.
Pretty much the entire counterattacking force was destroyed.
Now the Russians are back to Do we know, Scott, if the United States Department of Defense is still operating under orders issued by Lloyd Austin and Joe Biden to deliver military equipment to Ukraine?
Or has that stopped since the inauguration?
There was a report that's gotten a lot of play that the Trump administration has frozen everything and relieved the entire team.
I find that...
Difficult to believe.
First of all, many of the people implementing these policies are career military officers, simply executing the orders.
Why would you fire them?
The second thing is, that would be conceding everything to Putin.
Basically, if that's true, that means Trump has made a decision to freeze, to deny Ukraine critical assistance.
What do you think he'll do?
I mean, Zelensky can't even run the government.
If we stop the spigot of cash, am I right?
Yeah, no.
Zelensky's in a panic.
I don't know if you saw him in Davos.
He's starting to lash out against the United States.
He sees the handwritings on the wall that it's game, set, match, it's over.
He's already condemning the United States.
He's already critical of Europe.
You know, it's not going to be a good time for Zelensky.
I mean, it's never pretty when these These failed adventures collapse.
And Zelensky is the leader of an entity that we created for the purpose of bringing harm to Russia.
And Russia has succeeded in two and three years in defeating that, turning the tables.
And we're in the endgame status of it.
It's either going to be a negotiation where Trump concedes everything to Russia that Russia wants.
Or it's going to be the Russians rejecting any intervention by Trump and gaining what they want through military force.
One can end the war shorter with fewer loss of lives.
The other one will take longer, maybe even another year.
But Russia is going to win no matter what.
That's where we're at in this stage.
There's nothing Donald Trump can do to reverse that.
He doesn't have the defense industry to do it.
He doesn't have the military to do it.
He doesn't have the equipment to do it.
But will President Trump listen to Europe?
Or will he negotiate with Russia and China without Europe?
Do you know what he's talking about?
No, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
I mean, he's trying to create something that doesn't exist, which is an independent, you know, decisive Europe that acts free of American influence or direction.
Does he think that Europe will come to his rescue once Trump Turns off the spigot?
I don't know who thinks that.
He's hopeful.
He's praying.
He's trying to create the conditions for that.
But I was listening to other statements he made.
I think he fully understands what's about to happen.
That's the total abandonment of Ukraine.
Will the U.S. have to replace him since Putin won't speak with him?
Yeah, I mean, this thing doesn't end with Zelensky in power.
That's just a...
That's the sad reality.
Russia will not compromise on that.
Remember, Russia, and Putin has said this, and Trump has alluded to this as well, you don't want to create a cessation of hostilities that retains the underlying problems that will only,
if they're not resolved, will lead to...
You know, the resumption of fighting two, three, five years from now.
Marco Rubio, the new Secretary of State, said that as well.
Zelensky is a problem that if left in, will only lead to problems.
Russia will not allow a Zelensky-like government to stay in power.
Russia wants that government removed and replaced with a government that will do Russia's bidding, will change the constitution of Ukraine to denazify Ukraine, to get rid of the...
The Banderas, etc.
That's the reality, and this is a reality that Trump is going to have to accept.
Scotty, thank you very much, my dear friend.
Your analysis on both hotspots is so excellent, deeply and profoundly appreciated.
Thank you, my dear friend.
Thanks for having me.
Sure. We'll see you again soon.
All the best.
We have a very exciting day for you tomorrow.
Tony Schaefer, Gilbert Doctorow, Dr. Rand Paul, who's accused Tony Fauci of perjury, Kevork Almasian, Colonel Larry Wilkerson, Professor John Mearsheimer, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and Colonel Douglas McGregor.
Wow. I better get my arrest.
Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.
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