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Aug. 3, 2025 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
22:31
[SPECIAL] Chief Dennis Fritz : Why the DoD Wants War. [INSIDER INTEL]
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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Monday, August 4, 2025, Chief Dennis Fritz will be here with us in just a moment.
Why does the Defense Department love war?
Well, it sounds kind of self-evident, but...
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Chief Fritz, it's always a pleasure, my dear friend.
We've missed you and I'm glad we're able to catch up with you today, although I understand you're on the road, but thank you very much for joining us.
I want to play, I don't know if you've seen this, a rather strange comment from General Christopher Donahue, who commands more troops than any other general or admiral in the United States military.
This is just about 10 days old.
We'll play it and you tell me what you think of it.
Chris, cut number five.
If you look at Kaliningrad, you can argue back and forth, but it's about 47 miles wide, surrounded by NATO on all sides.
There's absolutely no reason why that A2AD bubble to deter Russia, we cannot take that down from the ground in a time frame that is unheard of and faster than we've ever been able to do.
We've already planned that.
We've already developed it.
We know that Kaliningrad is a part of Russia that's not contiguous to the rest of it.
It's been a part of the Soviet Union since the end of World War II.
And when the Soviet Union broke up and Russia became Russia, Kaliningrad became part of Russia.
Why on earth would an American general talk about using ground troops to invade this territory?
Well, Judge, I have no idea.
And it's very disappointing, you know, when I hear general officers and flag officers with such threats.
And why do I say that?
As you mentioned my name, as I see my title as a former command chief in the United States Air Force, my job was the leader of the Enlisted Corps who fights the battles.
And when we hear general officers speaking like that or administration officials thinking like that or talking like that, they're doing it on the backs, quote, quote, of the troops who have to live and die and take the brunt of all the injuries and wounds of these threats.
Now, do you think Russia is going to sit back and take that threat lightly coming from a general officer?
No, an admiral either who months ago an admiral came out and talked about nuclear weapons and talked about how, you know, we'll be able to be the last person standing and have a capability after a nuclear war, which I don't think none of us will be still living at that time, but he was already talking about nuclear weapons we have afterwards.
So no, it disappoints me when I hear threats like that.
It disappoints me when we're supposed to be called the Department of Defense.
But yet we're talking about going on the offense.
That's very disturbing because we put it on the backs of the young men and women of our armed forces.
And I don't like that when joint officers are trying to become the next Eisenhower or the next Patton for their careers so they can so-called go down in history as not only starting a war but winning a war, but yet on the backs of the enlisted troops.
I primarily focus my attention on all of our military personnel, but primarily that's my roots of the enlisted corps.
Well, that's one of the reasons that I wanted to talk to you.
I mean, how do enlisted men feel?
I got a four-star up there.
A four-star general commands a couple of hundred thousand human beings saying, can take this part of Russia on the ground.
Am I going to risk my life for something that has nothing whatsoever to do with American national security?
Judge, I love that.
You are spot on.
The key thing you said is nothing to do with our national security, which has been all the wars in the past that we've been involved in.
It's not been about our national security.
And that's a fact.
Now, with that said, you know, I know you wrote this book, Daily Betrayal, The Truth About Why the United States Invaded Iraq.
You know, and that opened the eyes of a lot of us when we found out, and well, some of us knew already, that that war was not about WMD.
It was to give us an excuse to go on an offense in a war.
Well, we know, and when we hear our general officers say that, in fact, after the Iraq war, there was a lot of pushback against general officers because they didn't support us.
Us folks would be on the battlefield.
And so when we hear general officers talking like that, and I still talk primary, I like talking to the young troops.
And, you know, I still, you know, go out to different bases and post, army posts.
And I talk to the folks, a lot of us veterans get get together and share information and they learn from the iraq war to be listening to what their generals say and i got to tell you this group is a little different from when i was coming up uh i can tell you i wouldn't be surprised if you hear more and more of them going vocal you know we've been talking to some of the active duty troops and yes they've been going vocal with us but i wouldn't be surprprised if you see more and more why they join quote,
quote, so-called in defense of our nation, not going on and fighting these other wars on behalf of political administrations or generals that have our Navy admirals, like I said, that have this idea, this dream of becoming the next winning general officer, flag officer of a major war.
Did you, did you hear Secretary Hegseth or President Trump?
correct General Donahue?
I have not heard that yet.
Not a peep out of either of them, Chief.
Did they authorize this?
Is he jumping the shark?
Is he out ahead of his own bosses, but he correctly anticipated what they wanted?
What's going on here?
Is this a war over a piece of earth that people in the United States have never even heard of?
That was given to the Soviet Union, a small piece at that.
But let me just mention this, Judge.
No, because you know, President Trump likes strong talk.
They love tough talk, you know, and, you know, President Trump doesn't understand how serious this is.
This is, and PEXF is just going to follow suit what he thinks Trump's won.
Now I must tell you, if you remember on a previous, in fact, I think my last appearance, I was hard on then the select nominee, General Kane has been the next chairman.
But I must tell you, I've been pleasant and happy with his performance.
And I hope, you know, in the background, he's telling Hexef that this is nonsense.
And we have to tell President Trump this is nonsense.
as well.
But I think when you hear a general come out like that, I think he's becoming political and thinking that he's saying what Trump will really adore or be impressed by that toughness.
But once again, My concern, do you think that Russia is going to sit back and take that?
And oh, by the way, you mentioned something else about a war.
You take this to the bank.
I don't see, and unfortunately, with us, we don't have the manpower.
I don't think we could defeat.
And you'll hear others say that too.
Russia nor China in a conventional war on the ground.
We don't have enough troops right now.
That's a fact.
The next thing I will tell you.
When you start talking about this nonsense and going to war, judge, forget about being a conventional war and just putting boots on the ground.
It's going to turn to nuclear.
That's the only way we can defeat anybody right now.
When we talk about China or Russia and maybe even Iran, we cannot even deploy troopss in Iran?
I guarantee you that.
How would youngsters, 18, 19, 20 year old enlisted men in the military feel about being dragged into a useless, fruitless war in a spot of earth they never heard of against the most experienced army in the world?
The most experienced army in the world.
Wow.
And I think you're factual on that when you say the most experienced army, because they're getting a lot of practice right now.
I will tell you things, as I mentioned earlier and alluded to, things were different when I was coming as a young airman or young private.
You know, with the social media platforms that we have now, the young troops are more educated.
They're more in tune.
You know, I tell folks, during my time when I was coming up, Judge, we were indoctrinated.
You know, we're defending our country.
And that's all we knew.
We didn't get additional information.
Now, the troops of today are getting additional information by themselves through social media, but also from family and friends who are standing tune.
And as I would tell folks, Thank goodness for social media and shows like yourself because they're able to get the information.
Like I said, and they're more vocal than what we were because we were so indoctrinated.
So I can tell you, you know, going off to some far off place, fighting a war for a piece of land that nobody's ever heard of, I would be quite confident that they will be very vocal, you know, on social media about that.
And I tell you what, it makes the job a lot harder for commanders and sergeant majors and command chiefs and command master chiefs out in the field.
Chief, last Friday afternoon, the president got sort of a twig.
And as a result of something Mr. Medvedev said, President Trump claimed that he ordered nuclear submarines to an appropriate place.
I'm going to read for you what he actually posted on his own social media.
Based on the highly provocative statements of the former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, who was now the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council for the Russian Federation.
I have ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that.
Words are very important and can often lead to unintended consequences.
I hope this will not be one of those instances.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Why would you announce that you're moving nuclear submarines closer to another country that has three or four times the number of nuclear submarines as you do?
Well, once again, Judge, President Trump is just coming out with rhetoric, you know, just at the spare of the moment, rhetoric.
First of all, you know, during one of my assignments when I was in the military, I was part of the triad.
Triad, our nuclear base weapons.
It's part of the U.S. Space Command, which owned the land-based missiles at the time.
And then we have the air, you know, for our bombers.
And then we have our submarines.
But out there all the time at unknown locations.
I will be honest with you.
I don't think his words in regards to our military.
readiness had anything to do because our submarines were out there all the time in top secret locations which family members don't know where our sailors and marines are at the time and so i don't think it carried any any weight there because we're already out there but the concern is the threat that we're using against the Soviet Union.
And as I remind people, I must remind your audience again, we are the only country to ever use atomic or nuclear weapons against another country.
Do you think with all these threats that Russia will sit back and let us be the first to use a nuclear weapon on them?
And so we must really be careful.
And I hope General Kane.
behind the scenes is reminding Hegselv and we need to go and talk to President Trump about these threats because they're very serious and I know that the Soviet Union is taking it very serious.
And he shouldn't be getting no spat, you know, with the former president he's now i will say i think not even the full national security advisor told him to us i think also the deputy uh but we should be careful that you know if we hear you know uh president putin talking like that then yeah you you know your president should probably respond but in a political and tactful way behind closed doors but not these public threats well i think the key to what you said is behind closed doors president putin himself issued a public statement in response to that truth social that i just
read you from president trump uh which basically said mutual i'm paraphrasing that i don't have it in front of me uh mutual respect would indicate that these conversations are more fruitful when held man to man, person to person, behind closed doors.
You don't need the public threats.
The special military operation in Ukraine, is Russia fighting Ukraine or is Russia fighting Ukraine plus NATO?
This is a U.S. NATO war.
where we're using Ukraine in this war.
And I will tell you, and the shameful thing behind it is that it's the Ukrainians that are suffering with lives, with injuries and wounds and their infrastructure.
We are using, with the United States leading NATO, we are using Ukraine to fight a proxy war on our behalf to weaken Russia.
Now, you know, I think one of the questions you asked me, you know, why does DOD, you know, once go to war?
Where it's not necessarily DOD, Judge.
It's been written.
It goes all the way back to 1990 under Paul Wolfrich when he was one of the undersecretaries of defense and when he came out what we call the defense policy guidance.
And when he came out with that, it was about us.
us doing whether it be premature, I'm sorry, preemptive military strikes on other nations or holding other nations at bay when we thought that they may be rising to a superpower status.
So this is written because we do not want Russia to become and really be quite frank with you, compete with us on the international stage.
And so this was an opportunity.
And I will tell you, we started this war, the United States of America.
We started this war and NATO is supporting it because we're the leader of NATO.
And it's all about weakening Russia.
It's not about national security defense of our country.
It's about weakening Russia so we can be the so-called only superpower and brag about it.
You know, after the Cold War, which we so-called won, you heard us, all our top officials run around saying we won the Cold War.
You know, we're the only superpower of the world.
But how do you think a person like Putin feels about that?
that's what created putin be quite frank with you to show us hey we can compete with you likewise with china china was a non-interventionist country you know they minded their own business but we called caused that we started building up you know we changed our outlook from looking over Europe to the Indo-Pacific, as we call it now.
And we started challenging China in their own neighborhood.
So they started building up their forces.
We're the cause of a lot of this.
The clip that I just read to you from President Trump mentioning former President Medvedev was reposted.
by the Secretary of Defense.
Isn't the Secretary of Defense's job to sort of dial back a bellicose or pugnacious.
President, say, Mr. President, you've got to think about the consequences of what you're saying, rather than just reposting it as if he were his political campaign manager as opposed to his secretary of defense?
Judge, in my past life being a part of the Department of Defense, I spent over half my military career in the Pentagon.
In your past life as a judge, as you look at the Justice Department, as I look at the Department of Defense, Trump has surrounded himself by loyalists.
They're not trying to reign him in.
They're just trying to support him, get his love.
Heggself, he doesn't have the experience.
And I hate to be so critical about this, but he doesn't have the experience.
And he doesn't want to rein Trump in.
He doesn't want to give him that advice.
Well, first of all, he doesn't have the experience to give him the advice.
That's why we have to pray and we have to count on General Kane.
Like I say, his public appearances, which if you notice, they've been very few by General Kane.
But if you notice in his public appearance, he's been very reserved and he stick to being a military advisor, cool and calm.
And I must tell you, I really have been impressed with them.
But we got to hope behind the scenes that General Kane is giving him good advice.
And I got to tell you, that's our only hope.
hope because we can't expect anything out of Hexley.
All he's trying to do is please President Trump.
I would hope and pray that General Cain would say to the president, would you stop financing slaughter and starvation in Gaza?
Hey, Judge, please let me comment on that.
Don't let me get started on that.
I am disappointed in the administration, but worse, I am so disappointed in our Congress.
I mean, you know, I've been on record.
I hate to be so strong on this judge, but they are low down, bombs to allow the innocent killing of women and children and now we've gone to starve beeshun we now know let it out in your mind we of mind.
We've been saying this all along and I stand by it.
Our Congress is fought and paid for by the Israeli lobby to allow this.
If the administration and the Congress wanted to stop this, they could and the military would follow.
And so all of us, we need to come together.
Listen, we may not agree domestically, but I am on the Marjorie Taylor Green train.
I am on the Talko Carson.
train.
We need to come together as Americans.
We need to be very vocal and stop this nonsense because I tell folks, we, the American people, are complicit because those that represent us are doing this and allowing this.
So when the next, and it will be the next if we continue this, major terrorist attack against us happened, don't blame the so-called Islamists.
It's our fault because we didn't stand up and shout as loud as we could that we don't like this.
Now, I must tell you, I'm becoming very optimistic because I'm seeing more and more people.
talking about it.
And I hope that people like yourselves will keep having folks that are not afraid to speak truth.
I hope Tucker Carson continue.
I know your name, yes, Jeffrey Sachs.
He is not afraid to let the audience know what is truly happening with our foreign policy and how our Congress literally, factually, is bought and paid for.
And if they will allow the innocent women, the killing of innocent women and children, think to stay in power how they value us.
Thank you, Chief.
Thank you very much for your thoughts.
I love when you're fiery.
I love when you get angry because it's a righteous.
a righteous anger and there's not enough of it in this country.
The Congress rolls over when the president takes power away from them and when the president does things in violation of the constitution and they just look the other way.
Congress is funding this war because Congress's political campaigns are paid for by APAC.
Chief, thank you very much.
I hope to come back and visit with us again soon.
Give my best to the great Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, would you please?
I will absolutely do that.
And once again, Judge, it is great to be with you again, and I look forward to the next time.
And I think it's time for all of us to be angry because, as I stated earlier, we're complicit because we've been represented by our Congress and our presidential administration.
Thank you, Chief.
All the best to you.
Thank you and likewise.
Okay.
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