Judging Freedom - COL. Douglas Macgregor : Can Trump Get Out of Iran?

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

COL. Douglas Macgregor : Can Trump Get Out of Iran?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Pragically, 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? 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, September 15th, 2006. Colonel Douglas McGregor will be here with us in a minute. Can Trump get out of the Iran mess that he created? But first this. Today's headlines aren't just bleak. They're an indictment of a government that has abandoned the Constitution. You are witnessing the direct result of the Federal Reserve's relentless war on the value of your dollar. For centuries, gold and silver have been the ultimate shield against the state's favorite tools. Monetary expansion and runaway inflation. To protect your wealth is to protect your liberty. And you can do that

with gold and silver. I own both and continue to buy because J.P. Morgan is now lying gold at over $6,300 an ounce. And Bank of America is suggesting silver could reach $300. That's great news for precious metal investors. Don't wait for Washington to fix a mess they created. Secure your freedom Take possession of your precious metals or diversify your IRA by adding gold and silver. Call 800, 511, 4620 to see if you qualify for up to $20,000 in bonus medals. That's 800, 5114620 or go to Learjudgeonap.com. Colonel McGregor, welcome here. Before we get to some deep questions about Iran and even a few about Ukraine, this is a hot button.

topic at the moment because of our friend Congressman Thomas Massey on the floor of the House of Representatives. Should the Secretary of Defense be impeached for murdering people as judge, jury, and execution, or directing others to do so on the high seas in the eastern Pacific and Caribbean? Well, let's put it this way. Let us say there is a patient, a heart patient, and a heart patient is terminally ill. You send a surgeon in to examine the patient and he comes back and he says, I prescribe a haircut and a shave a shave for the heart patient. And you tell him, well, I'm sorry, but the haircut and the shave is going to change

anything? He said, well, that's all I can do. The problem with going after Pete Hegseth, and, you know, we've talked about this before, he was always in over his head when he was. nominated and should never be confirmed. He has a deputy named Feinberg, who has serious business conflicts that should have kept him from being confirmed. But despite efforts by Senator Elizabeth Warren and a few others to bring this up and have it carefully examined, he was pushed through and confirmed. I guess my point is there is so much wrong in the Department of Defense

at every level. Removing Higgs says may be emotionally satisfying, but it's ultimately irrelevant. It's the equivalent of the haircut and the shave. Very interesting observation. Honestly, when I heard that Congressman Massey, for whom I have a tremendous amount of admiration, I know you do as well, was doing this. I thought it was for fighting an illegal war and targeting civilians. I didn't realize what he was up to until we actually watched them on the floor of the House of Representatives. Of course, then that raises the question. I don't want to get into it now with you. But the president is the one in order the targeting of civilians,

but he certainly ordered the illegal war. All right. Well, just remember, Judge, there's an old expression. The fish always rots from the head. Right. And that's why I say, you know, look, I don't. disagree with what Congressman Massey has said. It's just that I've got to be realistic at this point. There's so much wrong. It's just I've got to make any difference. And I suspect that right now

there will be tremendous opposition to the removal of Hague Seth, given not only the midterms that lie ahead, but they'll argue that at this particular point in time, how would that help us in the Persian Gulf? And the answer is, of course, it wouldn't make any difference at all. Did the Pentagon properly calculate the correct force level for a run? Look. You know what they're doing, Colonel? No, no. I think we have to understand just how shallow the people are at the top and how this decision was made.

Look, who is running your government? Who is in charge? Well, you have Mr. Feinberg over at defense. You have Mr. Ludwig who is inseparable from the president. The president never says or does anything or decides anything without him, along with Monsieur Kushner and Whitkoff. All of these people were there for a reason, and that was to ensure that we attacked Iraq in support of Israel.

That's why they're there. That's why they poured billions of dollars into President Trump's election into his campaign, and they succeeded. Are any of these people, based on their experience as private equity fund managers and hedge fund managers and businessmen qualified for anything that they're doing inside the United States government? I don't think so. It doesn't make any difference. Why did President Trump turn around and pull a three-star from the Air Force who was in retirement, who happened to be working as an advisor on Kushner's Brothers hedge fund, into the administration? Was it simply because he had a great idea as to what to do with the United States Air Force or with its armed forces and its future?

No, I think he was pulled in because he was going to lead the war against Iraq. And he had to organize it. And it was going to start out as an air and missile campaign. Against Iran. Yes. Excuse me, Iran. I think all of these things were decided in isolation from what you're asking. you're asking the basic fundamental questions that anybody would before they began anything.

And that is, what are the underlying assumptions? You know, what are the assumptions? Do we assume how soon we can be successful? Do we assume we have the necessary firepower? Do we assume that we can hit the right targets? Do we assume that all of this can be sustained for more than a few months? I mean, these are all the critical assumptions. By the way, Judge, none of these things were really addressed or answered.

in any kind of detail before we went into Vietnam. We all know how that turned out. Right. So, you know, to answer your question, these things were decisions that were made in isolation from anybody in uniform necessarily passing judgment. And then again, I have so little confidence in faith in the people that are at the top of the military structure these days, I doubt seriously any of them would have given very good answers anyway. You know, there's another side to this, Colonel, and you have spoken eloquently about it, which has resulted in the death of the petro dollar, the depletion of the strategic petroleum reserve.

Did the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Energy calculate the natural and probable consequences of this invasion of Iran? No, because the underlying assumption from the very beginning was, we are a superpower. Iran is not. Iran is backward, and we are modern and advanced. Iran cannot possibly successfully employ modern technology against us. We can beat them into submission. Now, if you're Mr. Besson sitting over at Treasury or you're in any other position inside the United States government, and that is the prevailing thinking, why would you raise any objections? Because your assumption is, Well, the petro dollar, or at least the notion of continuing to trade heavily in our reserve currency as far as commodities are concerned, is not going to be at risk because nothing

can go wrong. In other words, nobody asked the question, what if it doesn't work? What if we discover after three weeks or four weeks or five weeks that this is a failure? How do we get out of it? What are the branches and sequels? are the off-ramps? Where do we find an exit? And if we have to exit, how do we do it? That wasn't considered because the assumption for the very beginning, just as in 1965 when we went to Vietnam, is we're great. We're successful. No one can defeat us.

Colonel the Washington Post reported about 15 or 20 minutes ago, the Trump administration is preparing a $2.8 billion sale of 40,000. 2,000 pound bombs to Israel. Now, half of these 2,000 pound bombs, that is 20,000 of them, have something called an MK84, which sends metal fragments in every direction for thousands of feet and can cut through thick metal and thick concrete. This is obviously intended to slaughter civilians. why would we be selling 40,000, 2,000 pound bombs to a country that doesn't have aircraft strong enough to carry a 2,000 pound bomb, according to Colonel Wilkerson? The first point is this is the Israel First Administration.

I laugh all the time when I hear people that say, well, Maga is evil, maga is bad, well, Maga is irrelevant. America First is irrelevant. This is the Israel First Administration. Whatever Israel wants and its lobby demands is going to get. So to answer your question, they're going to get whatever they ask for. Now, as far as how is it going to be delivered? Are we the ones that are going to fly in, load up on it and deliver it? I can't answer those questions.

But someone should stand up and ask, why would we do such a thing when it's patently obvious that thus far every effort at the employment of firepower against Iran, or for that matter, anybody who stands in Israel's way has not worked as advertised. Now, they'll argue, well, look, we can bomb the Egyptians into submission. We can bomb the Jordanians into submission, the Saudis. Look what we did to Iraq. Look what we've done in Syria. Look what happens in Lebanon.

Who can stand against us? I mean, that'll be the answer. Well, you haven't been able to do that with Iran. And I don't think it will work against the Turks. And the Turks, of course, are sharpening their sabres of the background. You know, this whole thing doesn't make any strategic sense for us. We don't benefit as a people as a country. Whatever position we once had in the Middle East has been destroyed by the actions that we've taken

and the Israelis have forced us into taking. So there's no future for us in the region right now unless we're, prepared to kill everybody. And obviously the Israelis are, but that's not something that should be of interest to us, nor is it something we should aspire to do. But who is running your administration? I hate to get back to this very obvious point. It's not an America first administration. This has nothing to do with us. Where are you surprised at events over the weekend? I'll summarize them as I understand them. The Iranians severely damaged, according to Alastair Crook, all the control equipment, the computer controls at the American Air Base in Jordan.

The Houthis took over, what's the name of the place? Bob Al-Mandab. Correct. Port at the bottom of the Red Sea. The United States did nothing when it was attacked in Jordan. MBS, Mohammed bin Sad, the dictator of Saudi Arabia, called the president of the United States twice and asked for help to repel the Houthis, and he said, we've had enough to deal with them, and we can't really deal with it now.

So the United States did nothing for any of these events. Did any of that surprise you? Short answer is no. Now let's look at the Iranian side of this equation. What are the Iranians trying to accomplish? They've had a meeting. I think it's underway right now with the representatives of the various oil protectorates, statelets in the Persian Gulf. As I understand it, for whatever reason, the Saudis have not sent a representative to the meeting.

The purpose of the meeting is to find a way out of the war for these states in the Persian Gulf that are all in the process of frankly, slowly dying. The Iranians are telling them two things. Number one, throw the Americans out of your country. You've got to get rid of these American bases until you get rid of the American basis. There will be no peace. Number two, you have to sign up for the arrangement between Oman and Iran regarding the management of the Strait of war moves and what goes in and comes out of the Persian Gulf. If you do those things, this war will end as far as you're concerned. Now, where do we stand on the other side of this? Well, first and foremost, we have to protect Israel. That means that you're not going to employ anything in the form of defensive missiles or radars or

anything else unless you can ensure first and foremost that Israel gets most of it. In other words, How can you protect anything else? It's very difficult to do so. We're having trouble protecting Israel at this point, and the Israelis are having trouble protecting themselves. Why attack the base that was attacked in Jordan? Well, it demonstrates a couple of things. It demonstrates the long-range strike capabilities that the Iranians have, the precision

at their disposal, and there's really no safe place for us. But there is a place the Iranians are inviting us to go, Judge. they are inviting us to go to Israel, to move all of the forces that we have on the ground in the region to Israel, and to utilize the Israeli ports and facilities there for our naval forces. The idea is very simple. If they can herd all of us into Israel, we present a very lucrative target that is easy to identify, easy to reach, and relatively easy to destroy. So where are we headed at this point? What are we going to do?

We can't win in the current setting with the weapon systems that we have. I don't have a good answer for the president. So how can Trump get out of this mess, Colonel? That's entirely in the hands of the Israel and its lobby, quite frank, frankly. I mean, you've got to look at the people that are ultimately making the decisions inside the administration. and outside of the administration that influenced decision-making in the Oval Office and on the Hill. You might want to ask Mr. Netanyahu whom he would prefer as a replacement for Mr. Hakeseth, because I'm sure he'll have a voice in that.

It's inevitable. I mean, they're really running everything, Judge. You know, we should have added to the list of people around the president, the person that speaks, whispers into his ear last at night and first in the morning, and that's Stephen Miller, cut from the same cloth as these other folks are. Yes. I mean, he's part of the organization and part of the cabal of people. They're in charge. And the American people, I think, are beginning to figure it out. I as an American, and I think you heard me express that view the last time we talked,

and very uncomfortable, to put it mildly, with all of this foreign influence inside our country and control over our armed forces. But that's effectively where we are. Nobody in their right mind would have taken the decisions that have been taken thus far in this war with Iran if they had thought through anything. There was no thinking because none was allowed. Thinking was not rewarded. Compliance was rewarded.

and you were rewarded handsomely in financial and monetary terms if you went along with the bad ideas and the bad suggested solutions. So there's no incentive for anybody right now inside this government to stand up and effectively argue against it. And if you look at Congressman Massey, he is a wonderful object lesson of what happens to you when you raise objections to this foreign influence. Right, right. Switching over to Iran, excuse me, to Ukraine, also this weekend, the Russians attacked a train station at the Polish-Ukrainian border, through which former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had just passed and through which former head of the CIA General David Petraeus was intending to pass. Surely this wasn't just a coincidence. Well, neither you nor I or any of us on the outside without access to very, very sense of intelligence could confirm or deny that. But I'm sure that the former CIA director felt comfort by having Bojo the clown at his side.

The two of them together managed to escape in a very timely way. And perhaps the two of them decided that that was. the hand of Providence, saving them. Who knows, God forbid. The Russians have finally wakened up. We talked the last time about their tragic naivete. They finally understand that it doesn't matter what people say. It doesn't matter how many handshakes occur.

The men he, he, that is, Foreign Minister Lavrov, or President Putin, the men that they are dealing with are men without honor. and integrity. Whatever they say is irrelevant. And they have finally focused on what really counts. It's called action. You know, years ago, when I was a cadet and my instructor at West Point was a man named Bill Odo. And we were talking about force structures and he said, you've got to get something through your head. Force structures are about intentions. And that means don't pay attention to whatever is said by your potential adversary, look instead at the force structure he builds. Well, I think the Russians have finally figured out that's what they have to do with us.

They have to look at what we're doing, the actions we're taking, and who's in charge? And where the money comes from and where the money goes? They've wakened up. They figured it out. So there's nothing going to happen now in Ukraine except the Russians, they're going to persist until they get an end. Now, what does that end state look like? that's an important question. That will depend as much on the state of the governments in Western Europe and how stable they are and whether or not the same people are there in six months than anything else, because I think the Russians know that the situation of Western Europe is bad. They're sliding into a recession, and most people think that by the middle of next year in

2027, they'll be in a depression. That may well happen here, in which case, if you're a Russian looking at this unfold, you may want to move but move cautiously and carefully because you don't want to interrupt your opponents when they're cutting their own throats. Here is President Putin's most recent statements on all this. This is from yesterday in New Delhi, and it was on the front page of this morning's Washington Post. Chris? I think that everything that is happening in Europe as a whole is the result of systemic mistakes by the so-called West.

We said many times that NATO's eastward expansion was unacceptable to us. Eventually, they reached Ukraine. This ultimately became the real root cause of today's tragic events in Ukraine. The Western globalist elites are to blame for this. Now they are saying that they are thinking about how to deploy troops on the territory of Ukraine. This means war with Russia. As I understand it, the citizens of European countries understand what is happening. That's a pretty accurate summary.

Yes, yes, the elite doesn't. But if they put troops in Ukraine, this means war with Russia. Pretty clear. Well, look, Judge, you've been to Washington many times. And it's a place that lives in a permanent state of denial. I mean, even now, as we're speaking, if you were to go to any of these major think tanks or sit in on congressional discussion, Senator House, people are sitting there saying, we're the greatest power in the world.

Well, then why haven't we won in the Persian Gulf yet? Well, the president just needs to do more. He needs to send every B-52, every B-1. on every B2, that'll work. That's what's needed. And we need to be prepared to get tough with the Russians. You know, whatever that requires. We can do that in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Baltic.

That's what we need to do. This is what people are saying. There is no appreciation for the, I guess, how's the best way to put it, the poor fit right now between our military power and its use? I mean, we're up against continental powers, and we're a maritime and aerospace power. We don't have the right mix of capabilities. We have no army per se to send. I'm not saying we need a million man force.

What I'm trying to say is we just don't have an army that's capable of doing anything on the mainland, on the continent of Europe. And by the way, of all the armies in Europe right now, probably the best one is the Polish army that's sitting right there in Poland with us. and they're not prepared. Their chief of staff has said repeatedly over the last year, the Russians are very capable. We are not in a position to challenge them, and we are not in a position to defeat them. But people like Rodek, Sikorsky, and others dismissed what their own Polish military leadership says

and pushes a war agenda. We're not in a position to fight the Russians at all. And the Russians, I think, are finally beginning to figure it out. because if the world has learned anything from what's happened in the Persian Gulf, it's that we are not invincible. We are not invulnerable. And our forces are limited in what they can do because we are heavily dependent upon aerospace and maritime power. We're designed to operate on the rim of Eurasia, on the coasts of Africa, not inside these countries, not inside these continents.

We don't have the capability, and it's prohibitively expensive to even consider building it. So, you know, if you were smart, you look at this and say, well, listen, we've gone as far as we can go. We can't go any further. So we're going to get the best deal we can and get out. That's what a rational person would do. It may be that privately, President Trump may actually agree with that. But he's not in charge. He can't just leave.

Very terrifying, Colonel. Your analysis is like a scalpel, and it's exposing a... an underlying rot of the American Republic. Well, usually I'm accused of wielding a chainsaw, so I take this couple as a great compliment. You're a human surgeon, not a tree surgeon today. I mean, this is terrifying, and it's irrefutable that the United States federal government

is in the hands of a foreign power, the president is a dupe and pretends to be in charge, but he's not. Well, remember the president was the man who really didn't know that we were attempting to strike Putin at his residence in northern Russia, remember? Yes. Well, I don't think the president knows half of what goes on. I think the CIA is largely a rogue organization that is closely linked to MI6 and Assad

and is doing things that it is always done. It is pursuing its own agenda. It's very much part of this bid for global military and economic hegemony by the United States. And that's not a goal that the American people are interested in pursuing because it's unaffordable and unattainable. But it doesn't matter. We can't seem to get control of anything. And I think that's President Trump's position right now. He's not really in control.

So there's no really good news in this connection, Judge. I wish that there were. But I think people should pay attention to what happened over the last few months with these meetings, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and now more recently Bricks, simply because these entities have come together, these various nations. They represent about 50% of the world's population, probably 25 to 30% of its gross domestic product. And they've said we are tired of being brutalized and bullied by the United States. We're tired of sanctions.

retired of tariffs, retired of economic warfare waged against us, we're tired of subversion by the CIA, MI6, and other entities. We want an end to it. And so what we're doing is we're putting together the future infrastructure to support alternative financial solutions so that we're not dependent upon you. We don't have to do business in your dollars.

In fact, if they do this right, they may not even have to do business with us at all. We should be very concerned about that. because if that was the goal of this rules-based liberal international order, which I always compared to the Holy Roman Empire that was neither holding or Roman, well, the liberal international order has nothing to do with liberalism in the classical sense. It's not really international because it's about American hegemony. And order is what, whatever we say it is.

And the rules are what, whatever we say they are? This is where we are in the world has said, thank you very much. enough. Thank you very much, Colonel. Thanks for great analysis, frightening and terrifying as it is. We'll look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you for coming today, not your usual day or time, but you've accommodated my schedule. Thank you, my dear friend. Always. Thank you, Judge. Sure. All the best. Tomorrow, Wednesday, a shortened day, at 8 in the morning, Gilbert Dr. O, at 10 in the morning, The great Phil Giraldi, Judge Nipal Tano for Judging Freedom.