Judging Freedom - Col. Douglas Macgregor : Can Israel Survive Alone?

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

Col. Douglas Macgregor : Can Israel Survive Alone?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. Today is Wednesday, July 3rd, the day before Independence Day here in America. Colonel Douglas McGregor joins us now. Colonel, it's a pleasure. My dear friend, thank you for joining us. Thanks for accommodating my schedule this week. Much to talk to you about on both Israel and Ukraine. I want to start with Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu says he's prepared to fight on seven different fronts. We can run the tape in a few minutes. The Wall Street Journal reported just as we were coming on air that the Israeli government has seized, stolen more land in the West Bank in the first six months of 2024 than at any time since the Oslo Accords were signed in 93, by which

Israel, the United States, and the Palestinian Authority agreed that the West Bank would be Palestinian. Dr. Gilbert Doctorow, who, though he's an expert on Russia, told us this morning that because of his own personal behavior, Prime Minister Netanyahu, in Dr. Doctorow's opinion, might be the final Prime Minister of Israel. How do you grasp all this, Colonel? It's a long question for which I apologize. Well, first of all, let's keep in mind that we're really not discussing anything new. I think most of us have finally come to the conclusion that whatever happened on 7 October, and I'm still not convinced that that was not allowed to happen for reasons that we've already mentioned in the past,

that the decision then to attack had very little to do with what happened on the 7th of October and everything to do with a long-term strategic plan to begin the process of ethnically cleansing, expelling or murdering, whatever you want to call it, the Arabs in Gaza and ultimately the Arabs on the West Bank. And I think that's very clearly the case. He judged, and I think for the reasons that we've discussed already, particularly his control over the Congress, his control ultimately of the White House and of U.S. foreign and defense policy, that Israel was prepared to execute this long-term strategic plan now, and this was the ideal time to do it. Now, it hasn't worked out very well, as we all know. Gaza is hardly conquered.

The Israeli Defense Force on the ground has taken very serious casualties. I'm told there are over 70,000 seriously injured Israeli soldiers. When I say serious, I'm talking about amputees, terrible wounds in Israeli hospitals. They don't admit to it, but there are at least 5,000 killed in action and maybe a lot more, but we have no way of knowing because no one really tells the truth about casualties during wartime. So the Israeli Defense Force is in terrible condition. Now, against this backdrop, he paints this seven-front war, which he thinks compels him to attack into southern Lebanon against Hezbollah. It's astonishing.

In other words, he wants to multiply the numbers of enemies that Israel's got. Of course, he'll take the position that everybody in the region hates Israel anyway. Israel is a state with no friends, and consequently, it doesn't make any difference what he does. So he might as well set out to kill as many of them as he possibly can. And he sees killing all of these enemies as the precondition for peace and security for Israel and the region. It's a little strange in my judgment, but clearly that's his view. Here's how cocksure he is of his goals and how he articulates his determination. Cut number five.

And Iran is fighting us on a seven-front war. Obviously, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, the militias in Iraq and Syria, Judea, Samaria, West Bank, Iran itself. They'd like to topple Jordan. And their goal is to have a combined ground offensive from various fronts, coupled with a combined missile bombardment. We have to, we've been given the opportunity to scuttle it and we will. The first requirement is to cut that hand, Hamas. People who do this thing to us are not going to be there. We'll have a long battle.

I don't think it's that long, but we'll get rid of them. We also have to deter the other elements of the Iran-Terra axis. But we have to deal with the axis. The axis doesn't threaten only us. It threatens you. It's on the march to conquer the Middle East. Conquer the Middle East. Conquer. That means actually conquer. Conquer Saudi Arabia, conquer the Arabian Peninsula. It's just a question of time. And what's standing in their way is the small Satan, that's us,

on the road to the middle-sized Satans, that's the Europeans. They're always offended when I tell them that. You're the great Satan, not them. And we have to stop them. And I guess there were Americans in that group. It's hard to tell exactly to whom he was speaking at the time when he said that it's your trouble, it's your danger as well. He obviously meant other than the Israelis. He has an IDF, which is stated publicly several times as recently as yesterday, that they cannot defeat Hamas. Many observers who are not biased against Israel have concluded that he has actually been defeated in his efforts to defeat Hamas.

Is there any evidence that Iran wants to conquer Saudi Arabia? Does he know what he's talking about, Colonel? No, but that doesn't matter. This is his best opportunity to ultimately drag the United States into war on behalf of Israel. And he's got enormous support. We've thoroughly demonized Iran and this country to the point where the average American hears Iran and thinks, oh, it's a terrible terrorist state committing atrocities everywhere. So he's banking on the ability to bring us into this conflict. You know, on a strategic level, one of the things that the British Empire practiced very successfully until 1914 was a strategy called economy of enemies. The British, until they were

stupid enough to enter the First World War, practiced this to the point where they were able to isolate almost every major enemy they fought and build alliances. Unfortunately, Israel has no alliances and no friends and no support anymore in the region. No one, Sunni or Shia, makes no difference, is interested in helping Israel do what it's doing. So his only hope is the United States. Obviously, the British will probably tag along with us if we end up doing it. But that's his best shot, his best hope. And that's where he stands. And this notion of conquest, the only people that are judged as being on a

embarked on conquest are the Israelis. And increasingly, the Muslims in the region have decided that Israel is waging a war against the House of Islam in an attempt to establish unambiguous Jewish military, political, economic hegemony in the Middle East. And we are committed to supporting that and establishing that condition. Sonia, can you put up the full screen, please? This was reported very recently. U.S. sends amphibious assault ship to show support for Israel amid Lebanon tensions. The U.S. has deployed an amphibious assault ship to the Middle East to demonstrate support for Israel amid soaring tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border, according to the Associated Press.

What does this mean? What is an amphibious assault ship just sitting there in the water going to accomplish? Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. With courses available online 24-7 and monthly start dates, WGU offers maximum flexibility so you can focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu. Well, you've got about 1,100 Marines that you can commit to going ashore. They are obviously not going to add very much to the force that may have to fight his blow on the ground.

Remember, they're also there to provide support for evacuation of U.S. and other foreign nationals that may have to get out of a particular area. They've been to Lebanon before. And they do have aircraft. They have a number of fighter aircraft and helicopters. So this is a demonstration of support by the United States. And remember, they're not alone. They're going to be accompanied by a carrier battle group so that's a pretty substantial force it's limited what it can do ashore on the ground but the combination of air and naval power is pretty

substantial and can do a lot of damage and they they would be there to support the israelis and engage in attacks against hezbollah if Israel does in fact attack into southern Lebanon, which I think they probably will. Do they actually believe they can defeat Hezbollah even with the support of American air and naval power in light of how poorly they did against Hamas and in light of what happened to them the last time they went up against Hezbollah? Yes, I think they do.

Now, if you go back to the Israel Defense Force only, they have actually run simulations. I'm talking about the Israelis. And they know that taking on both Hamas and Gaza at the same time as they take on Hezbollah is extremely difficult, if not dangerous, and won't produce outright victory by any stretch of the imagination. Remember, their view is that if they don't win, they lose. And the Arab view is if we're still here and we're not destroyed, we win. So it's kind of a different set of circumstances but no i think they do and i think they're confident that with the added combat power in the air air and missile power from the united states from the fleet and potentially i imagine that we could fly high altitude bombers all the

way from the the central united states to drop accurately on top of Hezbollah and any other target that the Israelis want us to strike. I think that's their expectation. Right now, I think they're probably correct. The problem is not so much, let's assume that works, at least it suppresses, if not completely neutralizes or destroys Hezbollah. But how do you separate all of this from an Iranian war against Israel that will break out in support of Hezbollah? And then how do you prevent a war with Iran not involving other actors, not the least of which will be Russia? And I would say the Chinese, who have a very, very strong interest in keeping the Straits of Hormuz open, because they depend on it for huge quantities of energy, acid oil. Chinese who have a very, very strong interest in keeping the Straits of Hormuz open because

they depend on it for huge quantities of energy, acid oil. Colonel, are you of the view that the IDF is exhausted and begging for a break, and Netanyahu can't afford politically to give them that break? Well, I don't know that they're begging, but yes, they would like a pause, and they've had a longer pause than originally planned. We really thought that the IDF would have already attacked into southern Lebanon by now. They haven't. So it indicates that they have been given longer to prepare to reorganize and reorient to the north. I don't think there is a serious strategic re-examination of where they really are. I don't think there's a willingness to examine their strengths and weaknesses. And I'm beginning to think that when Mr. Netanyahu speaks to the combined House and Senate, that may be the time he launches against Hezbollah, because he will be in a position that makes it very difficult for all the people that have been taking lots of money

for many, many years in support of Israel to stand up and suddenly say, no, we're no longer going to support you. Please don't attack. Switching gears, Colonel, recently we learned that the United States sent medium range missiles to the Philippines. And then we learned this morning that those missiles are being recalled. Can you provide an explanation of what this is all about? A sudden introduction of sobriety and common sense? I don't know. I mean, there's this obsession with multiple wars on multiple continents that we cannot possibly win, one of which is against China. You know, China is, well, there's an old saying in the Navy,

a ship's a fool to fight a fort. And it simply means that if you're going to use air and naval power against something like China, you have no chance whatsoever of winning. I think there's also privately a recognition that China presents no threat to the Philippines or anybody in Southeast Asia, nor does China want to invade Taiwan. There is no evidence for preparations to do that. There are no massive forces gathering anywhere to do it. And so somebody finally said, well, let's back away from this because we've got our hands full right now in Eastern Ukraine and potentially the Middle East. That's the only way I can conclude that someone made the decision to pull those missiles out. Moving on to Ukraine, we recently learned, as recently as two hours ago,

when we saw photos, that Russia is preparing for a massive river crossing and engaged in substantial military exercises preparing to cross a river with men and equipment. Can you give a feeling about what that is all about? Well, first of all, in northeastern Ukraine, there has been for some time now a very large concentration of Russian combat power, an estimated 300,000 troops. Those troops are there for a purpose. And most of us looking at that have assumed that this force would be hurled straight at Kiev at some point and ultimately cross in the upper river. I don't know if this particular exercise is connected to that or not. The Russians are

actually very good at crossing rivers. We, by the way, are not. They've perfected the technology that allows them to very rapidly establish bridges, and they are accustomed to routinely crossing them in training. The weather now is ideal for the purpose of river crossing, so it would not be surprising to me that they are pre-positioning river crossing assets along with these forces for that purpose. Now, there are lots of rivers in eastern Ukraine, Judge, not just in Dnieper. Some of these border Russia and Ukraine, and the Russians may cross at any number of different places with these bridging assets. You know, they use this thing we call a ribbon bridge it's been around a long time it was first appeared actually

in 1973 across the suez now the ones they have today are better more more reliable and very rapidly deployable so what is it why do they call it a ribbon bridge because it's pieced together you literally dump the bridge portions or pieces into the water they float then they are effectively bolted together. And within a very short period of time, you can cross a very large river. And these are carried on the backs of trucks or tracked armored vehicles. So they back them up to the river. These go in. The engineers get to them very rapidly, bolt them together. I mean, you're talking about something that could be put together in 25, 30 minutes across a major river, like the Delaware River between New Jersey and Pennsylvania,

or even the Hudson River. And you've already got the forces up there. And as I said, this is something they do very well. They became very good river crossers during the Second World War, and they, unlike us, have never lost that ability. Moving up to Europe, what is your read with respect to Ukraine on the political demolition visited upon President Macron by the voters of France and on the likely demolition visited on the Conservatives tomorrow in Great Britain? Well, look, I've felt for a long time that behind the facade, NATO is crumbling. In view of these recent elections, I think it's crumbling faster than ever. People are trying to look for, you know, the proverbial lifesaver. Macron's not going to find one. His time is almost up. I think Sunak is now worried about it

and should be. He's probably going to go the way of Liz Truss. And then you've got something similar in Berlin with Schultz. These governments are not going to last. They're not going to last for a few very straightforward reasons. Number one, the economies are terrible. None of these governments have an answer for the economic problems and their financial condition, much like us, by the way. And then none of these nations have populations that are chomping at the bit to march east and fight in eastern Ukraine. Just doesn't exist. Nobody wants to go. And there's a growing awareness that whatever we are

today, we are not what we were 30 years ago. We do not have substantial ground forces to commit to a war, a land war in eastern Europe or the Middle East. Our air and naval power is stretched and we cannot pile on as we once were able to do on short notice. So I think there's a growing awareness that the world is changing, and we're about to see new governments come to power. That's going to have a huge impact, I think, in Moscow, because Moscow has exercised a lot of restraint. And I think part of that is because they recognize the utility of patience, of waiting for these governments to fall apart. You know that, and everybody knows, that Russia has thrived under these sanctions. The sanctions have done incredible damage to Germany and the rest of Europe. They haven't harmed Russia at all. And if they've done any harm, it's so modest, it's hardly worth mentioning. So Russia is now a thriving economy. It's risen to number five in the world.

Again, no strategic analysis was ever done. No understanding of what Russia could or could not do was ever examined. Everybody realizes there is no attainable end state that is going to conceal NATO's defeat in Ukraine from public view. So I think all of these people are now conferring with each other and asking, what do we do now? Where do we go? And what is the United States going to do? I mean, clearly, President Biden is, for all intents and purposes, an empty suit. Nobody pays any attention to him. And no one is going to pay a great deal of attention to Blinken anymore. Blinken runs around and says a lot of things,

none of which make any sense and don't turn out to be accurate. So everything is up now to the CIA and the Department of Defense. And I think the CIA, which has really been running things in Ukraine with the help of MI6, is trying to, you know, postpone the Afghan-like collapse in Ukraine, at least until after the election in November. I don't think they're going to be able to do it. Will that collapse involve American participation in the replacement of President Zelensky with someone who will actually sit down and negotiate with Foreign Minister Lavrov or even President Putin himself?

Yes, I think so. We may not be in a position to really be the kingmaker. Somebody else may step forward. Who knows? Maybe Sersky, who replaced Solutiony, will turn out to be the man that takes over and says, we've done enough. We can't do any more. We're prepared to negotiate. I don't think the Russians will be willing to talk with Zelensky. So perhaps it's Sersky. I don't know. There are other people in the wings that could come out of the woodwork, I suppose. But Sersky would probably be the one with some firepower behind him, which the others may not have. I want to read you a statement from the leader of a country, which is a member of NATO.

You know who it is, but I'm not going to say until you tell us when I finish the statement. The Brussels bureaucrats want this war. They see it as their own and they want to defeat Russia. They keep sending the money of the European people to Ukraine. They have shot European companies in the foot with sanctions. They have driven up inflation, and they have made making a living difficult for millions of European citizens. Viktor Orban, the president of Hungary, the most sensible person in Europe right now. Let's be fair. I think the world of Viktor Orban, but it's not hard to be sensible compared with the rest of these people. Right, right.

He's the only one who ever accurately assessed the Russians. He was very straightforward. He said, I understand the Russians. I've lived with them. Remember, Hungary was under the Soviet boot heel for a long time. They understand the mentality and the thinking of the Russian. And he certainly understands, you know, Mr. Putin. And he knows what Putin wants and doesn't want. He knows that Putin doesn't want a war with NATO or the United States,

but he also knows that Putin is not going to accept anything less than the demands that he made back in 2022, and he'll go back to that original agreement. Orban, of course, at the time said, this is a good agreement. Weban, of course, at the time said, this is a good agreement, we should take it. I don't know if everybody remembers that, but he did. And now it's going to be whatever the Russians want. And Orban, he simply wants to get the Hungarians that are living in Ukraine out of Ukraine.

In other words, he'd like to redraw the map and incorporate the Hungarian territory that ended up as a result of World War II in the Soviet Union and is now inside Ukraine back to Hungary. That's about it. Otherwise, he wants to stay as far away from this ridiculous war in eastern Ukraine as he can get because he knows it's a loser. He also knows the true state of European forces.

These Europeans aren't ready for a real war. I mean, our armed forces certainly aren't the U.S Army isn't and I know that the other armies in Europe are absolutely not ready they're feminized if anything uh they're not up for the fight there are a few exceptions in terms of people or units but overwhelmingly forget it let me go hardships involved with combat or something these people can't even begin to imagine let me me go back to, I want to ask you about Russia and China in a minute, but let me go back to Hezbollah and Israel and American support. Is the Navy, is the Air Force up to it, or are they too feminized and weak? Your colleague,

Colonel Wilkerson, says we only have two, two aircraft carriers that are seaworthy. Well, that may be true. That doesn't mean that we could not get others ready to go. But the point is, what are we putting at risk? You know, if the Houthis can strike an aircraft carrier with very modest capability very modest missiles or drones and do some damage what could a power like Iran do or for that matter even his belong or beyond that ultimately the Turks others that may decide to join into this I mean once it becomes clear that Israel is losing and cannot win, there will be an ugly bloodletting because the wounded animal called Israel will be attacked viciously. This is the problem with Netanyahu's whole approach. No one wants to attack Israel at the moment, but when it stumbles badly, it's already stumbled,

but when it stumbles very badly in a war with Hezbollah and potentially Iran, then suddenly everybody else who was hesitant in the past will join in, and that's what will happen. So, you know, how do I frame this? We can't stop that. You know, we just can't. We don't have the combat power to compensate for the emergence of a regional alignment against Israel. We can't do it, which is why any competent president and administration would have long ago stepped in and said, that's it. No more. You've come as far as you can. We've got to come to some sort of arrangement. And then this destructive war in Gaza. Well, nobody did it.

And Mr. Netanyahu has the perennial bit between his teeth. And he's prepared to run the course, even though it's suicidal. I want to ask you about the new handshake between Russia and China. But before I do, I want to play a clip for you, which you as a historian will appreciate. I don't even have to say who this is. You'll know instantaneously. It's from 1983, cut number three.

The most indispensable factor in guaranteeing the security of Taiwan is a good relationship between the United States and Peking. If we have that relationship, that may restrain them. If Peking has a relationship like that with the Soviet Union, then Taiwan is in mortal danger. So Joe Biden, to the extent he knows what he's talking about, says we will defend Taiwan. You just said a Navy will lose against a fort. The Russians and the Chinese just came out with some sort of a new handshake, a new we like each other.

Our peoples want to trade and engage in commerce and tourism with each other. What's going on between Beijing, Peking, as Nixon called it at the time, and Moscow? Nixon, of course, was right about China. The best way to help Taiwan is for us to cultivate a good relationship with the Chinese. The Chinese are not belligerent people. They're not predisposed to attack anybody. China has been the victim throughout most of its history of external invasion and attack. It's not a martial people by any means. Nixon was right. We've thrown that out of the window, but people still don't understand what's going on in taiwan the legislature in taiwan is dominated by shanghai sheikh's old party the kuomintang they want

peaceful reunification with beijing so they're they're in charge of the parliament this president has made outrageous statements and has essentially been censured by the legislature for doing so, by inviting Chinese anger and potential aggression. If we can forge a better relationship with Beijing, that is still the best answer for Taiwan's interests. And remember that the original date set by President Xi for peaceful reunification was, as I recoll recollect about 2040 or 2046. that's not evidence for a hyper aggressive China with blood in its throat I mean it's ridiculous now of course things were different then and the Soviet Union was very different from Russia today

this is a Russia that doesn't want wars, contrary to what everybody says. We goaded Russia into attacking Ukraine, not the other way around. We built the force in Ukraine to attack Russia. That force shelled and destroyed Russians in Luhansk and Donetsk for years and killed more than 14,000 Russians before this intervention in February of 2022 ever occurred. Those are facts. They're not really disputable at all. And I think Professor Mearsheimer has made these points repeatedly. What is happening now is that Russia and China realize that they've got several things in common. Yes, Russia has the resources, the oil, the natural gas, a lot of the metals, the minerals, the coal, all of these things, along with food

that China needs. And remember, China has to import food now. It can't get along on its own. Its population is simply too large, and it doesn't have enough land under cultivation, not because it's sitting out there waiting to be cultivated. It's simply a fact of the matter that China doesn't have that much to cultivate. So there's a natural affinity for each other because China can replace most of the goods, the finished products, machinery, technology, and so forth that was previously purchased largely from Germany, but also Scandinavia, France, and so forth that was previously purchased largely from Germany, but also Scandinavia, France, and Italy with goods from China. So they have a natural relationship there.

Both of them are also acutely sensitive to what happens in Central Asia. Central Asia is a place that overnight could become a real problem for both Russia and China. So they're both interested in managing it. Some of the problem in Central Asia is Islamism. It's also the nature of these republics and the people who live in them. These are Mongolian Turkic peoples. And if anybody bothers to reflect on the history of China in particular, but also Russia, the Mongolian armies, which were always at least

half Turkic or Tartar, conquered both China and Russia and ruled both states for centuries, many, many times. So both of these states want to make sure that Central Asia is calm. They also want to be able to trade with each other. And if Central Asia is not calm, how do you move vast goods and services over thousands of miles between, on the one hand, Europe, and on the other hand, Asia, through Central Asia? Well, you can't do it. Now, what I sent to you, and I think some of these points are worth reeling off, to be frank, is that the biggest emphasis in cooperation between Russia and China is not only recognition of what I just said, but what is stressed over and over and over

again is mutual respect and respect for each other's interests. All right, look at the language they used. Eternal, eternal friendship, legitimate rights and interests, equality, mutual respect. We are experiencing the best period in our history. China has a history that goes back 3,000 years, Russia 1,000. They're saying this is the best time in history. This cooperation between Russia and China is not directed against anyone. Forgive me for reading this, Colonel. Yeah, absolutely. We are simply acting in the interests of our people. The SCO, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is meeting as we speak, is one of the key pillars of a fair, multipolar world order. P.S., it's going to ally with BRICS and we're going to tell the Americans and their

U.S. dollar, go take a hike. Well, they're telling us to take a hike because we've pushed them to tell us to take a hike. You know, this is not something they didn't all wake up and say, we're hostile to America. That's a lot of nonsense.

In other words, this stupid comment by W they hate us because we're free. You know, that kind of nonsense. In other words, this stupid comment by W, they hate us because we're free, you know, that kind of nonsense. That's all bull. That was never the case. They just are tired of trying to do business with us and watch us spit in their faces. And that's certainly true for Moscow. We've spit in Putin's face repeatedly. And Xi has now experienced something very similar to it. They thought when Trump was in office, there was a potential for the kind of relationship described in that document from which you read. They turned out to be wrong. And they see absolutely no evidence that if Trump

is elected, anything will change. If for no other reason, because they see a lot of the same people with Trump today who were there during the last administration, who did everything they could to promote hostility and aggression against China and Russia. So that's a great document because it's something that we ought to adopt, but we don't seem to understand that it's in our interest to have peace abroad and prosperity at home, for reasons that aren't clear to me, because I think that's what Americans want. We are still controlled by the neocon mentality, which has its battering ram against Russia and Ukraine failing miserably. I don't know what their battering ram is against China, but I would imagine the Lindsey Grahams and Victoria Nulands are not happy about

this Vladimir Putin-President Xi handshake meeting at SCO this morning. Well, you know, one other thing that I would mention in disconnection is Japan, because the Japanese and the Russians are coming to all sorts of mutually beneficial agreements in the North Pacific. This involves fishing rights, it involves joint exploitation of mineral deposits, a whole range of things, despite the fact that Japan, that is Tokyo and Moscow, still are unhappy with the current ending of the Second World War. The Japanese would like to regain control of the islands that were taken from them up north. But despite that, and despite the militarization of those islands by the Russians, the Japanese are actually doing a land office business with Russia. And one of the things that's

kind of interesting, we don't pay much attention to it, but the Chinese in particular are desperate for coal. And the Japanese are brokers for moving coal from North America into China. Gee, what an amazing development. So we sell it to them. They turn it around and send it to China. China is building dozens of new power plants all over the country, and they don't have the kind of road infrastructure that we do, and they don't have the infrastructure for natural gas that we have or Europe has, but they do have railroads, and the rail lines are very convenient for the delivery of coal, So they can move the coal to areas that need power and power generation and fuel these plants. Now, I'm just pointing these kinds of things out because they're also

buying coal from Russia. And at the same time, we're reading in all of our papers about the criticality of rare earths and these minerals to the Department of Defense, to the defense industry to produce very, very sophisticated equipment. And it's not just the Defense Department. Every cell phone is dependent upon these minerals. Everything from graphene to any number of other rare earths that you can look up on the periodic table there at the bottom. Now, we have one of the largest

concentration of rare earths in the United States and maybe in the world sitting in southern Kentucky in the coal seams. These rare earths are available. Nobody wants to go in there and spend the money to get them out. And we haven't built any refineries. So even if we pull the rare earths out in many cases, we've got to ship it to China because the Chinese have a refinery that can take the raw rare earths and turn them into the minerals that we need. Then they ship it back to us and it costs us a lot of money.

This is all nonsense. And in the meantime, we want to destroy whatever relations we have with China, Russia, and anybody else in the world that disagrees with us. We are ignoring what needs to happen here in the United States. We are ignoring the rare earth exploration, extraction, and refinery requirement. These things need to happen, And we're not doing it. And in the meantime, we want to make war. And you've got people quietly saying behind the scenes in the Department of Defense, are you crazy? We can't do this. We're not ready. And we will exhaust our arsenal of

missiles and rockets, air defense, and otherwise very, very quickly, will also exhaust the rare earths and the other minerals that we've got in this country right now very, very rapidly. What we need is peace, and we can have peace. The Russians and the Chinese are not resisting us. They want peace, but they do want to be treated as equals, if anything, as equal partners or competitors, however you want to put it, but not necessarily as enemies. How do we get there? We're not going to get there with anybody right now that's running for office except potentially RFK Jr., the man that was excluded from the debates. Right. Colonel, a profound analysis from you.

We circled the globe. We may have skipped California, but we circled the globe. Who was the famous architect? Not Vincent Kling, the man that was revolutionary from Wisconsin, did all the Midwestern architecture. You know him. The name's just failing me right now. Frank Lloyd Wright? Yes, Frank Lloyd Wright.

And Frank Lloyd Wright's comment about California is still true. He said, if you turn the earth upside down and shake it vigorously, all the nuts and bolts will fall into this place called California. Right. Colonel, thanks very much. Thank you for accommodating our crazy schedule this week, because we're all taking the four-day holiday. We look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you, my dear friend. Happy Fourth, Judge. Back at you and to your family. Bye-bye. Bye. Well, what a great conversation with extraordinary insight on such a vast array of problems confronting America, which America or the people running the federal government fail to understand. At 3 o'clock, Phil Giraldi. At 4 o'clock, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. At five o'clock, you know

he's worth waiting for, Max Blumenthal, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.