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April 28, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
11:59
Larry Johnson : NATO the Cause of Ukraine War
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A, how unbelievable is that?
B, how untrustworthy is NATO to keep the peace?
And C, why under heaven would Trump have authorized Kellogg to have made that offer publicly?
Yeah, yeah, he shouldn't have.
Look, what is clear is that Russia wants to, you know, one of Russia's goals or stated goals is that NATO is going to end on All military exercises on its borders.
That will no longer exercise with Ukraine.
That's a given.
But the military exercises in Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states, that's going to end too.
That Russia is no longer going to be living under this threat because that is exactly what it is.
These are military exercises designed to prepare for an attack on Russia.
They like to pretend, Oh, these are defensive.
We're preparing in case Russia invades.
Nonsense.
Just the simple fact that when you run an anti-submarine warfare mission, an amphibious warfare mission, and as you saw in one of the articles, I posted a video from 2017.
Who was president then?
Donald Trump.
U.S. Marines landing in amphibious craft.
On the beaches of Ukraine, down in the Black Sea.
Now, when we did that on Tarawa, when we did that on Iwo Jima, when we did that on Guadalcanal, we didn't call those defensive operations.
Those were offensive operations.
So we've got to recognize that we've created this massive war machine, and it's been targeted at Russia for 32 years.
Here's one of the people that spoke out in favor of that targeting.
He just now happens to be the Secretary of State of the United States.
Chris, cut number two.
Quote, Vladimir Putin is the real aggressor in this war, and he is attempting an unjustified takeover of a sovereign democratic country.
The United States cannot recognize Putin's claims or we risk establishing a dangerous precedent for other authoritarian regimes like the Chinese Communist Party to imitate.
What message does it send to China and other adversaries if the United States allows Russia to keep the land it's illegally claimed?
Well, first of all, I would say that right now there's a lot of press reports about this, that, or these concessions or that concessions.
A lot of things have been discussed, and the reason why those things are being discussed is very simple.
Not because we're going to force anyone to do anything or pressure anyone to do anything like this, but because we need to understand what are the options to bringing about an end to the war.
We need to be grown-ups and realistic here in any negotiated end to a war.
Both sides get something, and both sides have to give something up.
That's a reality.
Without speaking specifically about that or another, you talk about that was back in September of 2022.
Since September 2022, this war has continued.
Thousands of more people have died.
Generational destruction that Ukraine's going to spend two generations rebuilding from.
This is a war that needs to end now.
And so, in order for this war to end, there are things Russia wants that it will not get, and there are things Ukraine wants that it will not get.
I can't explain his change of mind 180 degrees, except that he now works for Donald Trump.
Yeah, well, and he's still wrong.
You know, he says, well, both sides are going to have to give something up.
No, Russia is not going to give an inch.
Just today, our friend Sergei Lavrov was giving an interview to the Brazilian newspaper, O Global.
And let me just quickly tick off.
Here's what he said.
Ukraine must lift its legislative ban on negotiations with Russia.
Ukraine cannot become a NATO member and must maintain a neutral and non-aligned status.
Russia seeks to overcome the consequences of the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev, including efforts to legislate and physically destroy everything Russian, which includes language, media, culture, traditions, and culture.
canonical orthodoxy.
Russia demands international recognition of its ownership of Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Luchansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia.
Lavrov stated all of Kiev's obligations must be legally secured, have enforcement mechanisms, and be permanent.
And then he went on to say they've got to demilitarize, denazify, lift the sanctions, and address the lawsuits and arrest warrants and return Russian assets.
Do you hear any concessions in there, Judge?
I didn't.
No, no, there's no concessions in there.
One wonders, though, I don't know what Trump and Zelensky talked about.
Nobody was listening to them.
My knowledge of Donald Trump is that's dangerous.
A, he doesn't remember everything, and B, he'll come away with his own version of things.
However, there's no concession coming from the Russians.
Notwithstanding the efforts of Margaret Brennan to try and get some from Sergey Lavrov.
Here's one of my favorite clips from her interview with him yesterday.
Chris, cut number seven.
Will Russia continue targeting Kiev despite President Trump saying, Vladimir, stop?
You're not listening to me.
We will continue to target the sites used by the military of Ukraine, by some mercenaries from You see him catch himself about mercenaries.
He knows that some of those mercenaries and some of those instructors are Americans.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, you know, again, like I said, I called it a master class in how to do diplomacy.
Can you imagine?
I can't name a single American politician or diplomat that could go on Russian television and Russian language and deal with questions from a hostile interrogator with the aplomb and skill demonstrated by Lavrov.
Not one.
Agreed.
Agreed entirely, Larry.
Here's another one.
Cut number six.
If you want a ceasefire just to continue supplying arms to Ukraine, so what is your purpose?
You know what Kaya Kalas and Mark Rutte said about the ceasefire?
The NATO Secretary General and the European Union.
They bluntly stated that they can support only the deal which at the end of the day will make Ukraine stronger, would make Ukraine a victor.
So if this is the purpose of the ceasefire, I don't think this is what President Trump wants.
This is what Europeans, together with Zelensky, want to make out of President Trump's initiative.
He's 100% correct.
The Europeans do not want peace.
Von der Leyen wants to become the commander-in-chief of a military.
I can make the case that the Russians...
Particularly during the presidency of Obama and Trump were extraordinarily naive.
That they were entirely too trusting.
That they believed too much that they could actually defuse a future conflict through negotiation.
Because all I can tell you is looking back on the 32-year record that I documented in my recent pieces.
That the United States is committed unalterably to destroying Russia.
There is no, while people like Donald Trump, yes, appear to want to have a deal, want to work it out, you've got to deal with the statements by people like even Senator John Kennedy, who was just on the air in the last 24 hours, saying either Putin gives into a ceasefire or we're going to turn him into dust.
Really?
That's your play.
You know, that's your play against a country that has hypersonic missiles, at least three categories, that some of them are intercontinental.
We don't have a single one.
And yet, they've defeated every military system we put on the battlefield in Ukraine, and that we planned.
Our generals were planning the operations.
We were providing the intelligence for the operations.
And they defeated us.
And instead of that...
We continue to be bellicose and make these threats against Russia.
I think they finally, you know, are awake in Moscow and realize there's no negotiating.
We'll talk to these people.
We will try, still leave negotiation open as a channel, as Lavrov made clear to Margaret Brennan during that 45-minute interview.
But Russia's not, they're not going to pull their pants down and let us have their way with them.
They're not going to do that.
Senator Kennedy, who's actually a lot smarter than his country bumpkin image, actually said the United States would turn Vladimir Putin and his country into fish food.
Yeah, fish food.
This may be something that plays well in Louisiana, but it's absolutely absurd.
I wonder what you think of this.
Marco Rubio saying we're going to give them another week.
Just a week.
Cut number one.
We think we've brought the sides closer than they've been in a very long time, but we're not there yet, and it needs to start happening.
I think this is going to be a very critical week.
This week is going to be a really important week in which we have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in, or if it's time to sort of focus on some other issues that are equally if not more important in some cases.
But we want to see it happen.
There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic, of course, as well.
We're close, but we're not going to see it happen.
The good news out of that is, I hope he's right.
Two options, not three.
Option one, okay, we go on.
We continue to keep the negotiations open.
We'll come to a negotiated settlement.
Option two, we're walking away.
We're getting out.
He did not lay out option three, which could have been, we're going to re-up our armament.
We're going to give them everything they need to fight.
We're going to give them intelligence.
We're going to up this war against Russia.
Didn't say that.
So I took that as good news.
Larry Johnson, thank you, my dear friend.
Very helpful, very insightful.
Again, I encourage anyone interested in a rational, easy-to-follow history of NATO and Ukraine to go to Larry's website, Sonar21.
It won't take you very long to absorb all this.
Larry, we'll see you Friday.
With that youngster who's testing his Russian all over Moscow this week.
I bet you'll have boar stains all over his shirt.
All the best, Larry.
Thank you.
All right, my friend.
Thank you.
Of course.
And coming up later today at 2 o 'clock, Kivork, Almasian, and at 3 o 'clock, Scott Ritter.
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