Judging Freedom - Col. Douglas Macgregor: Biden bringing the US to war.

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Col. Douglas Macgregor: Biden bringing the US to war.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. Our military organization today bears little relation to that known of any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. process. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, October 20th, 2023. Those, of course, were the almost immortal words of Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address to the nation in January of 1961. Colonel Douglas McGregor joins us now. Colonel, thanks very much for joining us. I read a piece

before we get to the more serious matters in which President Eisenhower's granddaughter is quoted as saying the original phrase was military industrial congressional. And he crossed that out the last minute and somebody asked him why. And he said, I'm waiting for one or two pieces of legislation to be passed before I leave office. The old general still had a sense of the politics. When we started, and I thank you very much for coming back, Colonel. You gave us so much time yesterday. When we started, and I thank you very much for coming back, Colonel. You gave us so much time yesterday. When we started off yesterday, I started off by quoting you in the title of a brilliant piece you just wrote about how to avoid Armageddon, and we discussed that. Since then, and in my view, a rather bellicose and misguided President Joe Biden addressed the nation last night. He wants more

than $100 billion, about two-thirds for Ukraine and about one-third for Israel. I think we're closer to Armageddon now than we were 24 hours ago. How do we avoid Armageddon with a president and a Congress that wants to spend a fortune fighting other people's wars? Well, in this case, it's going to be very difficult. The Times of Israel announced that apparently President Biden had reassured Prime Minister Netanyahu that in the event that Hezbollah attacked in the north that we would commit our air power and whatever other forces that we've got in the in the area to help defend Israel ostensibly for the purpose of easing the burden on the Israelis of dealing with two fronts

sounds fine except that by making that commitment which was evident from his speaking last night, he's essentially doing what the British did in 1914. When the First World War began, it was really a regional war. And in fact, most of the British cabinet and large numbers of people in Britain didn't see any particular reason to become excited about it. All of that was turned around within a remarkably short space of time, but ultimately Britain declared war. And when Britain became a co-belligerent, that's when the regional war involving the Germans, the Russians, the French, and the Austrians became a world war. And that's unfortunately the danger that confronts us now. I want to play some of what he said last night, Colonel,

one of which, this is cut seven, Chris, is that mantra that he's used in the past, almost as if he's been deaf, dumb, and blind for the past two months, Putin has failed. When Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he would take Kyiv and all of Ukraine in a matter of days. Well, over a year later, Putin has failed, and he continues to fail. Kyiv still stands because of the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine has regained more than 50 percent of the territory Russian troops once occupied, backed by U.S.-led coalitions of more than 50 countries around the world, all doing its part to support Kyiv. About getting into the size of the so-called coalition, is any of what he said true?

Did Putin ever expect to take Kyiv? Did the Ukrainians even arguably take back 50% of the land that is legally Russia? You know, in 1920-21, Trotsky was approached by one of the Central Committee members who said, you know, you're printing something that's not true. And Trotsky said, don't worry about it, comrade. Paper will put up with anything you put on it. Well, right now, it appears that the American people are going to put up with anything anybody says in Washington, whether it's true or not. And of course, there was no truth in anything that President Biden has said. But this is the

larger trope that we are somehow or another involved in some great struggle for democracy, which has nothing to do with what's happening right now. And that we have to mobilize our respective arsenal of democracy to support this great war. It's lunacy, but it's all he knows. He's simply repeating what his handlers wrote for him. If the United States actually gets involved in the war in Israel, whether it's troops on the ground, which he claims he won't do, or whether it's jets in the skies, will that not open up American interests, assets, human beings, and mainland to attack?

Oh, obviously. I mean, that's the whole point, that he's turning what he should contain as a local conflict and turning it into a regional one. And our presence makes that an absolute certainty. Right now, the Turkish Navy is conducting exercises not far from Cyprus, and Turkish armed forces are quietly mobilizing, waiting to see what we are going to do. And what we've done is essentially given a green light to the Israelis to do whatever

they want without regard to the larger regional balance and, frankly, to act in ways that are destructive to Israel's interests. You know, I don't know what you can do at this point. He's essentially giving you the George Bush speech that was given back in 2001. Again, he says, you're either with us or against us. You know, I talked about, I think the last time we spoke, practicing economy of enemies. I mean, George Bush Sr. in 1990 did everything in his power to isolate Iraq before taking it on. We've made no effort whatsoever to isolate Hamas. In fact, what we've done is won more friends and supporters for Hamas. We're playing catch-up, and it's too late

now. Blinken's little tour around the country made no difference at all. If anything, things are now much worse. So I don't think we're going to be able to stop this train. And the real question is, how long does it take before everyone in the region jumps in? The Turks are there. The Iranians are there. The Saudis, the Iraqis, the Syrians, Lebanon, Egypt, everyone is watching and waiting. And it's not because they're all eager to get killed in a large war, but everyone in the region, Judge, is emoting. Remember, Anthony Blinken showed up and insisted, did he tell the people he was talking to, you know, I'm Jewish. Well, you know, Mr. Secretary of State, there are a lot of Muslims out there, and they're taking the same position. They're Muslims, and they are watching film footage,

and it's destructive. You know, the Israelis have already lost this PR battle, if you will. They can't possibly win it. You don't win that kind of battle by killing, I think the total is now over 4,000 people in Gaza, 1,500 of which are children. I don't care how justified your cause is, that doesn't help you. That helps your opponents. And the opponents are gathering, and we're doing nothing to stop that. And Secretary Blinken, who has a long history in these matters, you would think he would understand. You can't personalize this. It's irrelevant that he is personally Jewish. His job is to lessen tensions and not to personalize it. I just don't know what he would think he would gain by making comments like that.

First of all, everybody knows that he's Jewish. And secondly, it's largely irrelevant. He's there as the chief diplomat for the United States government, not as an emissary for the Jewish people. Leave that to Bibi Netanyahu. I think you're right. I think the Israelis are losing the PR war, whether it's based upon the instantaneous reaction of the destruction of that hospital, and we still don't know how it happened. But let me dwell on something that you mentioned a few minutes ago. Turkey's in NATO. Would that status, what would happen if a Turkish missile took down an American jet

that was attacking Hezbollah? Well, we've shot down a Turkish unmanned aircraft. Just the other day. Yeah, very recently. So I think we know what happens. We go to war. And once we're at war with the Turks, that's a war to the bitter end. I mean, I know the Turks very well. You're talking about ferocious fighters. There's strong contempt and hatred for the Israelis. This goes back specifically to 2008, where they tried to bring in a ship carrying humanitarian aid in support for Gaza. The Israelis boarded the ship, ended up killing some Turkish citizens on board. This was never forgotten. And, you know, Erdogan made the point that I just did a minute ago. He says, you must understand that I am a

Muslim. I see this through the lens of Muslims in this region. That's how I view what's happening. And that's what we need to take on board. That's what Mr. Netanyahu needs to take on board. This thing that Joe Biden did, declaring effectively that Iran, Russia, and China are enemies, once again, reminiscent of that speech in 2001, that launched us on 20 years of wasteful, stupid, counterproductive warfare that cost us thousands of lives and people say more than $14 trillion. Where do you think we're headed now? How wasteful, stupid, and counterproductive do you think a land invasion by the Israeli defense forces into Gaza will be? The Israeli officers I know are very familiar with the problems of urban warfare. They know

it only too well. They had some ugly experiences in southern Lebanon with it. They know what it entails. They're not anxious to do it. They're doing everything in their power to prepare the battlefield, to ensure that the troops that go in everything in their power to prepare the battlefield, to ensure that the troops that go in there have all the support, the intelligence, the engineering, the technology that they need. And I'm sure that they will do the best they can. But let's be frank, Judge, all of that counts for almost nothing when you're picking your way through rubble. I mean, if you look at Gaza right now, at least the things that I've seen, it looks like Dresden in 1945. You're fighting your way through ruins, and the ruins work to the advantage of the defender. And these defenders,

they'll fight to the bitter end. I'd be very surprised if they didn't. I expect them to behave like the Imperial Japanese Army. As of just a few minutes ago, before we got on air, the Israelis still were blocking food and medical supplies coming into southern Gaza from Egypt. I mean, what does Prime Minister Netanyahu hope to gain by that that serves some Israeli purpose? He thinks that a combination of blockade, starvation, misery, and Israeli attacks will bring Hamas to its knees. But he forgets that Hamas is not just a collection of well-armed fanatics willing to sacrifice themselves to destroy Israel.

It's an idea. You know, remember, this is the man who had a hand in standing up Hamas, helping Hamas, bolstering Hamas, because he and his advisors thought that they could split the Palestinian effort and manipulate one group of Palestinians in the West Bank against Gaza. This is not unusual. We've done stupid things like that as well. But the point is, this is not going to work. If anything, he's unified the entire Muslim world in the region against him. And he knows that Hezbollah will attack. Hezbollah has 100,000 fighters. In addition to that, they've got thousands of, some people say 140,000 rockets and missiles, of which about

40,000 are accurate and very lethal. What is the likelihood that we'll wake up one morning and find that a few hundred American troops have parachuted into Israel or gotten there by some other means from the aircraft carriers that are in the eastern Mediterranean. Well, I don't think anybody will have to parachute into Israel. I suspect that if they're going to bring the Marines ashore, they can do that with the various watercraft that they have at their disposal. And our experience with this sort of thing in the region is not good. And undoubtedly, we'll have lost people.

And we don't know what will happen to the vessels that have been assembled offshore. I mean, surface combatant ships, as we've seen from our experience in Ukraine, are actually very vulnerable. It's not hard to find and hit surface vessels. So I would expect damage there. The point is, why do we want to do this? Why are we not containing this? Why do we not convene a conference of great powers to try and sort through this and find a solution? How does Israel benefit from a regional war that is made almost inevitable by us once we are a co-belligerent. I don't get it.

The president, of course, wrapped himself in the American flag last night and did sound, you pointed this out very wisely a few minutes ago, did sound like George W. Bush. Here's cut nine, Chris, President Biden saying, you're going to love this, Colonel, although you probably heard it last night, we are the indispensable nation. On Ukraine, I'm asking Congress to make sure we can continue to send Ukraine the weapons they need to defend themselves and their country without interruption so Ukraine can stop Putin's brutality in Ukraine. They are succeeding, backed by a U.S.-led coalition of more than 50 countries around the world, all doing their part to support Kyiv.

What would happen if we walked away? We are the essential nation. Meanwhile, Putin has turned to Iran and North Korea to buy attack drones and ammunition to terrorize Ukrainian cities and people. Well, he's living in a world that doesn't exist. He's caught up in this world of alliances that he thinks are keeping us safe when in fact these entangling alliances are dangerous to us. All small nations, small countries, whether it's Ukraine or Israel or anywhere else, have a permanent interest in leveraging American power, whether it's economic, political, diplomatic, or military. We're in a position right now where the proverbial tale is wagging the big dog. The big dog is barking in whatever direction these various states want it to bark.

Is Russia going to become involved directly or indirectly in the Israeli-Hamas conflict, in your view, Colonel? I think it will become involved, but not immediately. I think the Russians will watch carefully to see how we handle Turkey. If we end up in a fighting war with the Turks, then I think the Russians will be inclined to support the Turks. But the Russians are not interested in fighting us. Again, I don't think very many people in the region are, although there are a lot of people that now hate us. But I think Biden is really coming out of the kindergarten school of statesmanship. It's all nonsense. He's acting as though this is not just 1991, but 1941. It's not. And the other thing is this indispensable nation nonsense that

Madeline Albright came up with that was then echoed repeatedly down through decades by people like Condoleezza and Rice. They also said American values are universal values. No, they're not. They're not. And they never have been, and they probably never will be. And you know what? It's not important to us. We should be interested in doing business with most of the world.

You know, this idea of having respect for other cultures and other peoples who are different from ourselves is completely lost in this discussion. It's always painted as black or white. Either you're like us, you're with us, you talk like us, you govern like us, or you're the enemy. That's a losing proposition. And I'm telling you, this regional war that's brewing up is a losing possibility for Israel and us. Colonel, we're going to put on the screen a post from Dmitry Medvedev, which you sent to me earlier. Mr. Medvedev is, of course, the former president of Russia and now the number two person in the International Security Council. Here's what he says. It's

long. I won't read the whole thing. Led by the U.S., the world is steadily rolling into a deep abyss. The decisions made clearly point not only to irreversible mental deterioration, but also to loss of the remaining shreds of conscience. These decisions, both significant and minor, are glaring symptoms of the epidemic social disease. One, Biden has called the money to be spent on other people's death far away from the U.S. a, quote, smart investment, close quote. It is about getting additional weapons worth tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine and Israel. Two, Kiev regime has decided to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, thus cutting its Orthodox Christians off the cradle of the mother church. Three, France's interior minister unhesitatingly condemns a football star for his posts in support of

Palestine. These pieces of news are varied, but all of them speak of accelerated decay of the very fabric of Western society. Colonel, I got to believe that President Putin saw that or authorized it or approved it before it came out. And it's right on the mark, in my view. Unfortunately, it is accurate. I think we know that Medvedev has transformed himself into a kind of attack dog, because when he was president, he was seen as not as strong as Russians wanted him to be. He's been trying to compensate for that. But his essential points are correct. This is the problem with this portrayal of Ukraine as some sort of pristine Democratic society it's a lot of nonsense it's the opposite it also ignores a few other things we lose roughly every year and

have for the last five years 100 000 Americans to fentanyl poisoning that never seems to come up for discussion now we lost or we had 318 000 casualties in the first war 110 000 dead in just 110 days of fighting that really shook the united states to its foundation which is why you had nothing but republican government after wilson left and we stayed out of other people's business right now no one seems to care about the hundred thousand fentanyl victims not one dime is spent on defending an inch of the american border with mexico but we're shipping billions overseas ostensibly to protect a government in kiev which was unambiguously corrupt and criminal and then you turn turn from Kiev down to Israel, and the Israelis

are emoting, just as the Arabs are emoting. And instead of us rationally intervening and saying, look, we feel your pain. I'm sure you've heard that. We feel your pain. But you know, we don't want a regional war. And the timing is bad because we're broke, we're bankrupt, we don't have the money for this. Our forces are not in the best repair. Let's find a different way. There's nobody in charge. Again, the dog is being wagged by the tail. Oh, but Colonel, according to the president, cut 10, Chris,

there is nothing beyond the capacity of the United States government. Tonight there are innocent people all over the world who hope because of us, who believe in a better life because of us, who are desperate not to be forgotten by us and are waiting for us. But time is of the essence. I know we have our divisions at home.

We have to get past them. We can't let petty, partisan, angry politics get in the way of our responsibilities as a great nation. We cannot and will not let terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin win. I refuse to let that happen. In moments like these, we have to remind, we have to remember who we are. We are the United States of America. The United States of America. And there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.

How has he forgotten the past 50 years of history? Well, not only that, but he, like a lot of other people in this country, don't understand that we made our greatest strides in terms of prosperity, standard of living, economic strength and power between 1865, the end of the Civil War, and the early 1920s. That's when the huge scientific industrial foundations of our power were created. And what did we do in that interim time? We had very few conflicts. We only had one with the Spanish-American War, which subsequently most people, I think, regretted. But otherwise, we managed to stay out of major conflicts overseas. widening it. And he's widening it. Let's be frank. If we're going to send jet aircraft from two carrier battle groups to attack southern Lebanon, I think that's what's going to happen. Some of those are going to be shot down. The vessels out at sea are going to be taken under

fire. But this will be the tipping point. This is where the Turks, the Iranians, everybody else in the region say, that's it. You know. We're going to have to line up against the United States because they don't see the same country that President Biden does. He's talking about a country that in many respects has changed profoundly since he remembers it in his youth. We all know that. We are not this shining city on the hill at the moment. All you had to do is watch BLM and Antifa all through the summer of 2020 to figure that out. So we've got serious problems here. They're going to get worse too as a result of this, but we're also going broke. The treasuries deserve everybody's

attention. The climb to 5% on the 10-year or the 20-year, excuse me, 30-year Treasury bonds is quite serious. We're moving way beyond just a trillion dollars a year or roughly the equivalent of the defense budget in terms of interest payments. We're at severe risk of collapse. And more and more people are coming on and warning Americans about it. You know, Treasuries are like everything else, supply and demand. There's no demand for our treasury bonds. The stuff they're holding, they're trying to offload. China is disposing of billions every month in U.S. treasuries. And then people start to do business in their own currency.

They don't need you and your dollars and your financial system any longer. All of these things are coming together. He, in effect, is creating the perfect storm to destroy himself, his administration, and ultimately our prosperity and security. That's a hell of an achievement for one president who hasn't even completed his first term. Correct. Nicely put, Colonel. Thank you very much for your time. Deeply appreciated. We really prevailed on you this week, and I and the many, many thousands watching you

are profoundly grateful. We'll see you next week, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Judge. More as we get it, my dear friends, at 1.15 this afternoon, Eastern Professor Jeffrey Sachs on all of this, also with an eye on what were President Putin and President Xi agreeing to in Beijing earlier this week.

Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thanks for watching!