Judging Freedom - Alastair Crooke: America’s Fatal Hunger for Honor and Glory.

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

Alastair Crooke: America’s Fatal Hunger for Honor and Glory.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Happy New Year to you. Today is Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024. We start off this year, this momentous year, with who other than our dear friend Alistair Crook. Alistair, Happy New Year to you and to your family. Thank you for all the time you gave us in 2023. We look forward to picking your big brain in 2024 and welcome here. And Happy New Year to all your viewers and listeners on your program. Thank you. Thank you, Alistair. You have written a very interesting piece. All your pieces are interesting,

but your most recent one argues that it is a general truism that the states of Western civilization fail to reclaim what they lose. What do you mean by that? Are you talking about land mass? Are you talking about reputation for respectability? I'm really talking about the wholeness of that, that once you start to lose your position, once you start to lose civilization, once civilization begins to slip through your position, once you start to lose civilization, once civilization begins to slip

through your fingers, I mean by that not just military but political culture, when you start to decline as a society, it's very hard to stop it, to recoup it. It's a path that is very hard, if you like, to get back onto. Once you lose that path it seems to be lost and i say that not my own observation but it was the observation of homer looking at history looking at the history of civilizational states um before several thousand years ago, a couple of thousand years ago. And that was the conclusion. The states, whether they were Athens or Carthage or whatever, once they started slipping, once they started getting off the path, then losses accumulated.

The attempt to recover the losses led to further losses. So that was the point. Is the West, and I'll define the West as the United States, Great Britain, and Western Europe, is the West on this inevitable, inexorable, painful decline? Yes, unquestionably. It's on that path, unfortunately. The values that we had are gone.

The sense of purpose, the sense of, if you like, some sort of integrity and moral keeping has slipped away. And so, yes, we are on a path of decline, and it will be accompanied by attempts to recover that loss, which probably will get worse as time goes on, will fail to recover the loss. Does the government of Prime Minister Sunak of the United Kingdom and President Biden of the United States recognize this decline?

Oh, no. I mean, it's very hard for them to recognize it because they're in it, and they're part of the decline. So they don't recognize it. And this is one of the great difficulties that you have with this. You get into, you start down the path of decline and it's very hard to pull where politics is disintegrating, where culture is deteriorating, where the economy is very markedly declining. It's very hard to pull all of those things back at the same time. Few states have really been able to do it. And Britain is searching for a role. It doesn't have a role. And it will be difficult for it to find a new role in this world. Is the American debacle in Ukraine, just an example of this. Yes.

I mean, you know, what people say America is now seeking is to sort of redefine victory, to get a new narrative of victory. I would say the most important thing is actually to start off by defining defeat, having a narrative of defeat, because quite clearly, this, I mean, is typically an example of something that cannot be easily recovered. I mean, the war is lost. The war is completely lost, and Kiev is sort of coming apart. Political infighting, rivalries between various groups, The economic situation is a disaster. It's

effectively financially bankrupt, running out of money, running out of men, and running out of weapons. How do you recover this? And, you know, is it sensible to try and sort of create some sort of narrative of victory from this? Well, really, it's Putin who's lost. I mean, they're still there, so Putin is lost. I mean, it doesn't really make sense because Russia won't play with that. It's not about to negotiate a solution or a sort of stagnant or, if you like, a solution of fixed borders or something like this and and leave america to rearm and due course and remake um ukraine to attack it further it's not good it's not going to happen for putin made that very clear over the Christmas period. I mean, in his own usually understated way,

President Putin said, no, I'm sorry, you know, they've lost the war and they can either capitulate or we can finish it off militarily. We have complete ability to do so. We don't mind about what he called the old Habsburg provinces. I mean, that's West Ukraine. He said other people will probably want to and they will want to belong to Poland or Hungary or whatever.

That's fine. But what is culturally Russian? What has been culturally Russian will come back to Russia. And he said, you know, that at the time it was a great mistake, if you like, to put all these provinces into Ukraine. And now what is culturally Russia is coming back. We're going all the way. It was pretty plain. So that's the situation. So trying to

create a victory narrative out of that, it falls by the fact that the facts on the ground are inescapable. Everyone can see. Militarily, it's lost. Russia has won the war overwhelmingly. And so you can't, I mean, you can't undo the facts on the ground. You can narrate it, create a different image, a different vision, see it differently, but the facts speak for themselves and the rest of the world. I mean, maybe it'll work within America, but the rest of the world won't buy it at all. So really it would be better

to just say what defeat is and get on with it and move on. Does the British public recognize that the UK and the US have effectively lost their proxy war against Russia? Probably not, because Britain has been at the forefront of this propaganda war. It's been very much, and much of Europe. There's no reporting, really no reporting, much less in America, reporting about what has been happening in Ukraine and the difficult little bits of it. Articles have started appearing. Articles of saying, well, actually, yes, they're going back into a defensive position and they're having to recruit a lot more, conscript a lot more men, and people don't want to be conscripted. But yeah, I mean, there are bits of it, but at the same time,

people are very reluctant to hear the truth, very reluctant. Russian banking assets in Brussels, which is about $300 billion by the Financial Times estimate, and deliver some of that to President Zelensky. I think that's another very clear example about how once you get into a losing situation, you compound your losses by creating new losses if they do this if america does this if the europe does this i mean it will only accelerate the financial crisis if the dollarization will just take off everyone can understand that whether it's you know arab states gulf states or whatever they're not going to have their money in a place where it can be just seized and removed from them.

So it's only going to lead to another crisis. It's not going to be something that is going to save the situation. They can't save the situation, even if they have the money. You can't. It's not realistic to think that they can go in and have another round with Russia. So my own view is that President Biden will do what he can. Remember, it's an election year and startling as it seems, he's determined to run for re-election. I guess he thinks he can withstand the rigors of a campaign and win. But it would seem to me that he will attempt to salvage his reputation by using the word

stalemate and claiming Ukraine is in a stalemate. We held the Russians to a stalemate. If he does that, is that even remotely credible? Not remotely. No. I mean, you're a better judge than I whether that will work at all within the United States. But I mean, the point is that it's absolutely not working in the rest of the world. One's only got to look at what's happening at the UN and in other fora like that to see that the combination of the, if you like, the quagmire in Ukraine and the quagmire in Israel with Gaza and with the Palestinians, I mean, is completely undercutting Western standing everywhere in the world.

I mean, we can barely get Seychelles to join us for resolutions in the UN. And so, no, it won't. That's why I'm saying, you know, trying to create, you know, oh, it's a stalemate, that's good, that means that Putin has lost. I mean, not only is it a nonsense, but it's self-defeating because everyone can see the facts on the ground. They can't hide the facts on the ground. And furthermore, probably, the facts on the ground are going to become even more visible during this period leading up to the election, which is going to make his assertions that it's a stalemate and somehow a victory,

would make them look more ridiculous as we approach, if you like, the elections in November. Just as a little segue, is there not likely to be a British election this year? And is it not likely, as the Financial Times predicts, to be a substantial victory for Labour? Yeah. I mean, you know, British politics is really, you know, in the state of breaking down. I mean, it's in a very serious crisis. And, you know, there's no alternative so people want to express uh anger and uh and protest what's happening and what's

happening to the economy and the society and where can they go they can only go to the opposition even though the opposition is very uh is not popular at all and the leader of the opposition, even though the opposition is not popular at all, and the leader of the opposition is very badly reviewed amongst the people. But this is the problem with our politics, where there's Tweedledum or Tweedledee, and you have to choose one or the other and you don't like either particularly. A friend of mine, Tom Woods, says of the American presidency, no matter who you vote for, you end up with John McCain. It doesn't matter the person's ideology or political party, they all want to fight wars and they all want to kill. But going back to March of 22, almost two years ago, when the Russians and the Ukrainians had a handshake on an agreement that would have saved

all this bloodshed and negotiated in Turkey, and then Tony Blinken and Boris Johnson talked President Zelensky out of it, Did they dupe him or did they really believe that their supply of cash and military equipment would be long enough and endless so as to defeat the Russians? Well, I'm not a psychiatrist, so I can't answer what they actually thought at the time. The writing was on the wall. It's been on the wall for a long time. But it was a huge betrayal because there was an agreement and it was undercut by particularly Boris Johnson coming to him. But America stood behind and said, as long as it takes and all that it takes, we will do it in order to defeat Russia. And of course, now that offer has been withdrawn.

And it's been withdrawn at a time when money is drying up and weapons are drying up. And so no doubt, I mean, Zelensky, I mean, whatever you think of him, but he must feel deeply betrayed by the West, who clearly, when you say whatever it takes, you mean there's a blank check. You can draw on it. We'll stand by you. For as long as it takes, it doesn't mean until, you know, this year and in January of this new year,

you're going to get cut off financially. So it was a lie and a betrayal, and he's trying to pretend it isn't. Zelensky is making very optimistic statements about how Ukraine is going to become the sort of the workshop of the world for making weapons. Well, good luck with that. Who's going to take the risk of building factories, weapons factories in Ukraine? They probably last about 20 hours before they're blown up by the Russians. So, I mean, it's, it's just a big betrayal. And, I mean, what is so pernicious is that between March and today,

how many young Ukrainian men have died? And for what? Nothing. I mean, it's just atrocious. It's appalling, this betrayal. I mean, and I'm sure, you know, even if they believed it was possible, did they believe it was possible or was it just wishful thinking? Were they just fantasizing that they could somehow bring Russia?

I think that at the bottom of all these decisions, whether about Israel or about Ukraine, is no one has done due diligence. No one has really thought it through. Like when they put sanctions on Russia, all of these things have had a blowback at us, not at the target, because they didn't think it through. They were told, you know, and advised not to do this, just as Netanyahu has been advised by a senior general, General Brick. And he told him at the beginning, you're walking into a quagmire in Gaza,

trying to attack Hamas. I mean, he was a very respected general. And Netanyahu spoke to him one to one several times. And he said, it's going to be a disaster. And now we know it is a disaster because all the other generals are now saying, yes, I mean, we're losing so many men there. And we don't see either Hamas collapsing. General Aylan said this. We don't see them actually collapsing. We don't see them losing control over the ground in Gaza. And now we hear that the Central Southern Command of the Israeli forces are saying, oh, no, I mean, this war is going to be one to two years.

That's what I mean by quagmire. Two years of Hamas in Gaza. And what is its impact going to be on the United States and on the West? Joe Biden has a dream, an aspiration, not something that comes to mind in a sleep, that he can weaken Putin by battering him in Ukraine. What happens to that dream on October 7th? It collapsed. I mean, he woke up and found it was a nightmare. Not a... It was no longer a dream. It was just a bad nightmare because I mean Russia is in a very strong position.

Now it is simply just completing. It won't. It was very clear from what Putin said. It was reflected by General Shoigu and Gerasimov. You know, they are not going to deal with Zelensky. There's going to be no, if you like, no settled outcome, no negotiated outcome. This is wishful thinking by Team Biden.

It's not going to happen. The Russians are not going to deal with those people. They've had it with them. And they're going to push it to the point at which someone in Kiev who is able to say this will say, we capitulate and let's talk about how this will be done. Back to Israel. Is there any sound logic other than the biblical references to God

having given all this earth to the ancient Hebrews. Is there any sound military logic to the Netanyahu program of ethnic cleansing and utter destruction of Gaza, turning it into a soccer field, as one of his ministers said? Well, there is a logic, but it's a logic that's quite strange and alien to us. But it is a logic which is that really, in one profound sense, and I remember saying this to you some time ago, sort of Zionism has failed. I mean, Zionism was supposed to be the end of pogroms, if you like, around the

world. And suddenly, for the Israelis, they feel, you know, in Israel, on Israeli soil, we had this pogrom. And now we're not even safe in the northern part of Israel because of Hezbollah up there, or even in the West Bank. So what is the purpose of this? And unfortunately, the logic of this does drive Israelis to say, well, you know, the two-state solution isn't going to be a solution for us, because we tried that. It was the apartheid state, and that didn't work. And look how insecure we are still after this.

The only thing we can do is to clear the land of all the Arabs, West Bank, Gaza, and push Hezbollah back, defeat Hezbollah, and go in. And this is a new war, an apocalyptic war, a new war of, if you like, a new war of independence for Israel. Now, it's actually, yes, a utopian ideal that is being pursued, that is unrealistic and will probably lead to catastrophe because all of the fronts are opening up, particularly, and we are almost certain, moving towards a conflict in the north with Hezbollah.

Every day it gets more and more serious, and I think in the next few weeks we are there. There is the attempt, there was the killing of a senior Iranian, a very senior Iranian general, just before Christmas, and then attacks going on against Iran and Hezbollah daily. Clearly, Israel is trying to provoke the United States into giving a green light now for an attack on Hezbollah, in order that the people who were displaced from the northern territories of Israel can go back there and go to their homes.

And they say, well, you know, we won't go if Hezbollah is sitting there. So they're desperate now to push Hezbollah back. But they don't understand what they're unleashing. I really think that they're so caught up with these visions and this romantic sense of, you know, reestablishing Israel on the land of Israel. It's a path that's very difficult to get off once you get on it. They're on it in Gaza, they're on it in the West Bank,

and they're going to be on it in the next few weeks, probably before the end of this month in Lebanon. Back to where we started, Alasdair, from Joe Biden's perspective. Will his attempts to repair these two foreign policy disasters, Ukraine and Gaza, inevitably lead him to another disaster. Yes, this is the logic of these things. Once you get desperate, you want to try. It's in the effort to retrieve your image, in the effort to pretend you haven't had a problem, the effort to move and say,

we've got glory, America has achieved this wonderful success, and in that doing, you actually make mistakes, you misjudge matters, you find yourself on a path that you wish you'd never taken, which is the path in the Middle East at the moment, which is, you know, America is drawn in now with Yemen, with the Houthis. It's drawn in on Iraq, trying to bomb some of the Iraqi militia. It is drawn in in Hezbollah. It is drawn into the Red Sea conflict.

All of these things are apart, I don't think. You know, the initial idea was simple. Okay, let's confine the war just to Gaza. Make sure it doesn't spread anymore. And what's happened, predictably enough, is spreading and it's drawing America further and further in. And this will not be good for his reelection platform in November. Alistair, my dear friend, you have just had the largest audience that you've had on this show. The world is welcoming your wisdom at this early hour in the East Coast of the United

States on this first day of our show, January 2nd in this year, 2024. Thank you very much, my dear friend. We look forward to seeing you in your usual Monday morning weekly perch back next week. All the best. Well, I also want to wish you all the luck with this project because it's very important. Well, you've been an important part of it.

Thank you, Alistair. All the best. So we have a very vigorous and exciting day set up for you at 10 a.m. These are all Eastern times. Ray McGovern at 11 a.m. Karen Kwiatkowski at four o'clock. Larry Johnson at five o'clock. I'm going to sleep. Judge Napolitano, we'll see you throughout the day. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. I'm out.