March 31, 2026 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
25:41
AMB. Chas Freeman : Why Trump is Panicked.
Ambassador Chas Freeman critiques President Trump's Iran strategy as market manipulation involving false negotiation claims and threats to bomb civilian infrastructure like electric plants, violating international law. He argues this incompetent approach splits the Atlantic alliance, exemplified by Spain closing airspace, while pushing a war of choice for Israeli interests without Congressional authorization. Freeman condemns Secretary Hegseth's violent rhetoric as "Caligulan" and warns that withdrawing US troops could lead to catastrophic retaliation, ultimately framing the administration's fear-driven policy as a moral failure that erodes American military legitimacy. [Automatically generated summary]
Tragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government.
To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected.
What if sometimes to love your country. you had to alter or abolish the government?
What if Jefferson was right?
What if that government is best which governs least?
What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong?
What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave?
What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now?
Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Tuesday, March 31st, 2026.
My dear friend, Ambassador Chaz Freeman, joins us now.
Ambassador, always a pleasure.
Thank you so much for these regular Tuesday mornings.
They're informative and extremely helpful.
Why do you suppose Trump is making up stories about productive negotiations with Iran one minute and the next minute, often in the same statement, sometimes in the same sentence?
Threatening to bomb civilian structures there.
Well, I think he's facing two audiences.
The announcements of so called negotiations, for which, by the way, there is no evidence at all, they may be entirely delusional.
They may be entirely fake.
There may be some discussions going on somewhere with somebody, we don't know whom.
You know, we live in an age where everything is plausible and nothing is true.
And he times these statements.
To the capital markets, to the stock market, very clearly.
And he's been called out on that by the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, Mr. Alibaba, who's just said to Americans, look, this is market manipulation.
It's not diplomacy.
And, you know, we just have to discount it.
But the other audience, of course, is Iran, and he's trying to show fierceness and resolve and so forth and so on.
Pretty clearly, what he wants is something he can call victory, and then to get out.
He's belatedly realized that this was a disaster.
This was a disaster.
So, his goals of regime change, capture of enriched uranium, destruction, or an agreement never to use ballistic missiles, they're gone.
His goal now is to open up the Strait of Hormuz, which, ironically, Was fully open two months ago.
Well, it's not even clear that that's the case.
The latest pronouncement is a defiantly isolationist one.
We can't open the Strait of Hormuz.
You guys, meaning NATO and everybody else, didn't come help us when we called.
We're not going to front for you.
It's up to you to open the Strait of Hormuz.
We're not going to help you do that.
So, on the one hand, he seems to be fixated on opening the Strait of Hormuz to.
To shipping that is from countries like the United States that are at war with or hostile to Iran.
On the other hand, he doesn't seem to want to bother to open it.
And this is the thrashing about of someone who doesn't know what he's doing, didn't know what he was doing when he got us into this war, basically, the instance of Benjamin Netanyahu, and doesn't know now what he's all about and how to get out.
I'm reading the lead headline in today's Wall Street Journal.
This is the Wall Street Journal, a publication generally favorable to this presidency.
Trump looks to exit with straight still closed.
Exactly what you said.
Goal is to limit Iran war to a few weeks.
Reopening passage could come later.
What will he have achieved other than killing thousands of people and causing billions in property damage?
Will he have?
What will that maniac in Tel Aviv do if the U.S. decides to go home?
What he's mainly achieved is the incredible weakening of the United States, both in terms of our military magazine depth, as they call it, of the supplies of weaponry and defensive equipment that are available to us to defend our own forces and to defend our interests abroad.
But he's also succeeded in splitting the Atlantic alliance, perhaps.
irrevocably.
We see now that Spain has closed its airspace to American aircraft involved in this special military operation, to coin a phrase.
And others in Europe are saying, well, the transatlantic alliance is dead and we need to provide for ourselves.
That may be a positive development in some ways, but it's an incredible write-off of the United States after 80 years of partnership.
And Donald Trump can take credit for that.
Wow.
What will Netanyahu do if Trump manifests cold feet?
If it turns out the 10,000 troops that just arrived there were a subdiffusion, they go home.
And if he dials back all the bombing and all the killing?
Well, he'll have a fit, obviously.
And the Zionist lobby is already in full gear attacking Trump for vacillating on this.
In this war, and insisting that he take Karg Island and do other things that military specialists, those who looked at these targets, say would probably be a suicide mission.
So Benjamin Netanyahu is quite prepared to fight to the last American against Iran.
Meantime, his country, Israel, is taking a battering, and we're hearing more and more out of Israelis who are fed up with having to spend their lives in bomb shelters while. buildings blow up around them and life becomes impossible.
And you know, it's entirely possible, I mean, I'm not predicting this, but if Donald Trump walks away from this war, even if he continues to arm Israel, which more and more people in the United States are questioning, it's entirely possible this war will not end, that Iran will continue to bombard Israel until Israel cries uncle.
And I think Benjamin Netanyahu ought to be very concerned because he has been a catastrophic prime minister for Israel.
He's led it into the October 7th debacle.
Alienation of the entire world from Israel as a genocidal state.
And now he's gotten the United States and Israel into a war from which there appears to be no graceful exit.
How damaged is Israel?
I mean, is ordinary life going on?
Are shops open?
Are schools open?
Are the courts open?
Are there police directing traffic in the streets?
Do people go to work?
Well, I'm not there.
And Israeli military censorship.
would refuse to allow me to answer all those questions if I were there.
So we don't really know, but we're hearing from Israeli politicians, from individual Israelis, that life is becoming something close to intolerable.
You know, Benjamin Netanyahu has called up 400,000 soldiers for this attempt to annex southern Lebanon that he's engaged in under cover of the war.
We don't know how many people have actually reported for duty.
We do know that the chief of staff of the Israeli Armed Forces has said that the Israeli army is on the verge of breaking.
He, quote, raised 10 red flags in a cabinet meeting about the condition of the army.
So it doesn't sound to me, 8,000 miles away, and therefore not able to observe anything for myself, as though things are going at all well.
Disgusting War Crimes00:14:12
Here's a portion of an interview by my friend.
Tucker Carlson of a young Marine named James Webb.
He is the grandson, well, his grandfather and his father are Marines, but his grandfather was the Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration and then became a United States Senator from Virginia.
This is a Marine dyed in the wool.
There's a part of the interview which we're not going to play now in which he says, I would never, ever let my sons become Marines because there is no Loyalty, there is no joy, there is no purpose or patriotism in fighting a war for another country.
However, this part of the interview reveals war games that the Marines planned with respect to these islands in the Strait of Hormuz, which did not go very well.
Cut number eight, Chris.
We have war gamed this and it didn't go well.
The other parts of it are the if you look at the terrain of Iran, It is Afghanistan, but worse with a larger population that is obviously well more equipped than any other war we fought in recent memory.
That's why it's the oldest empire in the world.
Probably geography matters.
Absolutely.
And their traditions matter.
Like they have survived for two millennia.
You know, and a lot of that was by having to fight.
You know, they're not pushovers.
I'm not a fan of their policies.
I don't want to live in Iran.
But At the same time, you have to recognize realistically who you're dealing with.
And they're not a backwater.
They are a very advanced philosophical, mathematical society.
They've given the world a lot.
And if you don't take that into account, you rely on hubris to make your planning, you're going to walk into a trap.
There's the line, Ambassador.
If you don't take that into account, the strength of your enemy, you rely on hubris.
Obviously, talking about the Oval Office to make your planning.
You may have been talking about Hegseth as well, I don't know.
And you're going to walk into a trap.
Well, I knew his grandfather, who was a very thoughtful man, very talented man, good Secretary of the Navy.
a fine author, by the way, and clearly the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
This young man is thoughtful.
I want to comment, if I may, on the issue that you didn't show but may show later, and that is the question of whether young Americans want to or should want to join the armed forces, the Marines, or other services.
You know, this is very reminiscent, I'm sorry to say, of what happened to the Roman Republic.
when young Romans no longer followed what they called the cursus honor, the path of honor up the ladder, which began with service in the legions and continued to service in various elected offices in the Roman Republic.
That republic failed.
Some of my ancestors, German ancestors, were recruited by the Romans as mercenaries to take the place of the Romans who weren't in the legions.
They became the Praetorian Guard.
They took over the state, determined who the emperor was.
And I'm reminded as ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War of 1990 to 91 to liberate Kuwait by my friend, the Mexican ambassador, who kept saying with a twinkle in his eye, when are you going to take me to see my army?
One third of the army was Mexican-American.
And these are the people that we are now trying to get rid of in this country.
I see this as a terrible echo of a very bad history.
And I hope that I'm wrong, but I think the polls show that young Americans are turned off now by military or other patriotic service.
Here is that other clip of James Webb with Tucker Carlson.
And interestingly, Ambassador uses the same word that you just used mercenary.
As of right now, I hate to say this.
I love this country.
I am not as proud of anything as I am as my service in the Marine Corps.
But I will not let my kids join because of the way that we went to war with Iran.
Because if you look at it philosophically, we have gone to war on behalf of another country to further their interests.
Those are not my words.
The administration has said as much, Speaker of the House has said as much.
And When that's the case, you know, you have reduced our military to effectively a mercenary force.
And there's no honor in that.
You know, it's this is an offensive war of choice.
No honor in being a mercenary force.
This is an offensive war of choice, more intellectually honest than what we've heard from the president.
Well, I think he's on to the main point here that this war.
Was authorized by Benjamin Netanyahu, not by the US Congress.
It is in pursuit of Israeli interests, not American interests.
Israel has a strategy.
We were asked to provide a campaign plan.
We don't have a strategy.
And that's become very apparent now.
And this is doing huge damage to us, to the global economy, to our relationships with others, to our military position in the Gulf, which is now insecure.
I mean, one of Iran's clear objectives is to convince its neighbors that they cannot afford to harbor American forces.
On their territory without raising the threat of attack.
Iran is going nowhere.
It's been there for 2,500 years.
And those countries are going to have to live with that reality and the reality that we are not only unable to defend them, but we are unwilling to defend them.
We are interested in defending Israel and our own forces, of course.
And we're not interested in giving them any kind of priority in resupply of munitions.
or in defense.
And the worst example of that is our president's threat to knock out the desalination plants in Iran, which he imagines is central to the Iranian economy.
Actually, desalinated water in Iran accounts for 2% of consumption.
It's 90% in Kuwait.
It's 80 to 90% in Qatar.
It's 60 to 70% in Saudi Arabia and Oman.
It's the same proportion in the United Arab Emirates.
It's 90%, 80 to 90% in Bahrain.
So to threaten to take out the desalination plants in Iran, which of course would generate a counter blow by Iran, and Iran has actually, yesterday I believe, attacked a desalination plant in Kuwait to demonstrate its willingness to make good on his threat to match any attack on its desalination.
With one of its own on these very, very vulnerable countries.
They literally cannot exist without that water.
And so the effect of Donald Trump's threat to Iran should be or must be to cause a lot of hard thinking in places like Riyadh and Manama and Kuwait and Doha and Abu Dhabi and Muscat.
They need to be, as every country should, they should take their own interests first and give them priority.
America first.
But if you're guttery, gutter first.
Wow.
Yesterday, the president's spokesperson was asked about the potential war crime liability for intentionally targeting civilian targets.
We know about the little girls' school where 175 little girls and their teachers, and in one case, parents, were incinerated.
We know that the incineration was the second missile.
That struck the school.
We've never heard an acknowledgement or an apology from the president or the secretary of defense.
But here's Carolyn Levitt, the president's spokesperson, brushing off the concept of a war crime.
And before we go to it, I mean, what do you expect from her?
She works for a guy who says international law means nothing to me.
It's reprehensible.
But here it is, Chris, number six.
The President posted this morning about his threat that on leaving Iran he said we might be blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells, Harg Island, and possibly all desalinization plants.
Under international law, striking civilian infrastructure like that is generally prohibited.
Why is the President threatening what would amount to potentially a war crime with the U.S. military?
And how do you square that with the administration repeatedly saying that the U.S. does not target civilians?
Look, the President has made it quite clear to the Iranian regime at this moment in time, as evidenced by the statement that you just read.
That their best move is to make a deal, or else the United States Armed Forces has capabilities.
Beyond their wildest imagination, and the president is not afraid to use them.
That's not what I said, Garrett.
And you're saying the word potential for a reason, because I'm sure some experts are telling you that in your ear to try to ask me that question.
Of course, this administration and the United States Armed Forces will always act within the confines of the law.
But with respect to achieving the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump is going to move forward unabated, and he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration.
To my end, which of those objectives would be?
Destroying a desalination plant must help.
Haley, go ahead.
I would not want to be Caroline Levitt as if she goes through the pearly gates or tries to get through them.
I mean, her conscience must disturb her.
Blatant lies.
And it's absolutely clear in international law that treaties that the United States has signed and ratified, which therefore are the supreme law of the land under the Constitution.
That attacking essential infrastructure for civilian life is a war crime, not just any old war crime, but a very severe one.
And so, on the one hand, she's saying to the president, thankfully, of Iranians, very much what a mafioso would say to someone he's shaking down.
You know, if you don't do what I say, I'm going to blow your bloody factory up and you're going to be left destitute.
But on the other hand, I'm a nice guy, you know, and I follow the law and so on.
So, I mean, this is just, as you said, reprehensible.
Yeah.
When you said stomach churning, this is going to ruin your breakfast.
This is the Secretary of Defense who calls himself the Secretary of War offering a prayer to kill people.
Cut number nine Almighty God, who trains our hands for war and our fingers for battle.
You who stirred the nations from the north against Babylon of old, making her land a desolation where none dwell, behold now the wicked who rise against your justice and the peace of the righteous.
Snap the rod of the oppressor, frustrate the wicked plans, and break the teeth of the ungodly.
By the blast of your anger, let the evil perish.
Let their bulls go down to slaughter, for their day has come, the time of their punishment.
Pour out your wrath upon those who plot vain things and blow them away like chaff before the wind.
I did not hear the message of Jesus Christ in that statement.
What I heard was the Secretary of War Crimes behaving like one of Tolkien's orcs, jumping up and down in slavery with the desire for murdering people, killing people, exercising lethal power on everyone.
That is disgusting.
Absolutely disgusting.
And I can imagine that those parts of the world that have seen that, those abroad who have seen that, are quite as disgusted by the amoral attitude that our Secretary of War Crimes has evidenced as I am.
I don't know a better word than disgusting.
It does arouse disgust in the heart, in the belly, and in the head.
Caligulan Foreign Policy00:01:56
This is what we live with.
And he must know when he says things like that, that it's played around the world.
Well, I think what you have here. is again a Caligulan foreign policy.
Let them hate us as long as they fear us.
That was the motto of Caligula, and it apparently is the marching order of this administration.
And I find that absolutely unacceptable.
And I can't imagine why any cohort of the American people would accept it if we are a Christian nation, as Secretary Hagsass asserts.
I don't think we are.
I think we're a secular society with many, many Christians.
Then this is contrary to our religion.
It is utterly immoral.
If we are a secular society, it is unwise.
And if we are an amoral society, it is a disgrace.
Ambassador Freeman, thank you for your eloquence and ability to cut right through all of this.
Seems like we talk about the same thing week in and week out, but maybe this will.
Come to an end.
I don't know.
Maybe it'll come to an end at the midterm elections, but we'll see.
Ambassador, thank you.
An early happy Easter to you and your family, such as the world is.
And we'll look forward to seeing you next week.
Very good.
Thank you.
And coming up later today, if you're watching us live in 34 minutes, Professor John Mearsheimer at 9 o'clock, at 1 o'clock this afternoon, Scott Ritter, at 2 o'clock this afternoon, Matt Ho.