Judging Freedom - COL. Douglas Macgregor : Ukraine Nearing the End!

Episode Date: June 27, 2024

COL. Douglas Macgregor : Ukraine Nearing the End!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 Thursday, June 27th, 2024. Colonel Douglas McGregor will be here with us in a moment on Ukraine's last chance, what remains of its military and Netanyahu's paranoia. But first this. You all know that I am a paid spokesperson for Lear Capital, but I'm also a customer, a very satisfied customer. About a year ago, I bought gold and it's now increased in value 23%. So $100 invested in gold a year ago is now worth $123. If you have $100 in the bank, it still shows $100, but $100 in the bank is now worth 24% less. Inflation has reduced all of your savings, all of your buying power and mine by 24%. And

gold is largely immune from that. If you want to learn how gold will soon hit $3,200 an ounce, call Lear Capital, 800-511-4620 or go to learjudsnap.com. Get your free gold report. Same experts who predicted the 23% rise that I've enjoyed have predicted this $3,200 an ounce gold. Learn about how to transfer this to an IRA. Protect your savings. 800-511-4620, learjudsnap.com. Tell them the judge sent you. Colonel, welcome here, my dear friend. We much appreciate your time.

In your view, is the United States at war with Russia? Effectively, yes. Sadly, without any formal declaration, without consulting the American people, we are very definitely in a condition of war with Russia. And I think that's what the Russians have concluded. It's very dangerous. And I wish it were not the case, but I'm afraid it is. Is there a rational explanation from the American perspective of the terror that was visited on Russian civilians on a beach sunday afternoon in savastopol well one analysis suggests that the reason for the deposit of uh cluster munitions from the

mlrs weapon system that fell near the beach or into the water and unfortunately killed people and injured several people including children is is because the Russian missile defense systems worked. They were able to destroy all of the missiles except one, and they actually diverted the last missile from its course, damaged it so that the cluster munitions fell to the earth much further away from the original target. Now, the key thing to keep in mind is that those cluster munitions did not explode. They simply struck people and caused their death. But because they had interrupted the flight of the missile in the warhead,

the cluster munitions were apparently not armed. And so at least they did not explode, which would have been a much worse outcome. Isn't that six of one, half a dozen of the other? Because does blusters explode at some later date when they're discovered by a six-year-old who thinks they're a rock or a baseball? Well, potentially. And I actually was surprised that they were in use at all because I thought that based on the 91 experience where we saw this happen, saw children in Iraq, even some soldiers who were told to not do it, but weren't very smart at the time, and picked up these bomblets, lost their hands or were severely injured or even killed. So I thought the whole thing was off the table, but I guess I was wrong.

And it may be it's another case of running out of existing munitions and not being able to rapidly restore the arsenal with new ones. Frankly speaking, we don't have very many of these missiles left at this point. And as far as I know, there are no plans to go to shifts on a 24-hour basis in order to make missiles. Why is the U.S. delivering to Ukraine a weapon, well, not a weapon, but ammunition, which is unlawful in 95% of the world? That's a question I can't answer and neither can you because we don't know what the orders were that were given. I suspect, again, they ran out of high-explosive warheads and what they had left is what was used.

And the orders were, doesn't matter, send whatever we've got to Ukraine, we'll fire whatever is left it's the only way i can explain it here's uh the russian ambassador to the un seems to have a good handle on uh what happened cut number 10. kiev regime supported by the usa and carried out a heinous attack against civilians in the Russian city of Sevastopol in Crimea. Ukraine launched five U.S.-supplied attack MS missiles armed with cluster munitions. An American Global Hawk UAV was patrolling the airspace over the Crimean Peninsula. There will be measures in response.

The Russian Federation will continue to protect its people and its national security until no threat is posed by the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv that was breeded, raised, and financed by the West. … raises, one, cluster munitions, and two, breeded, raised, and financed by the West. How do you think Russia will respond with President Putin's typical patience or with something that sends a dramatic message? Well, I think your point is accurate in that this is not the first provocation. If we stop and consider the strike that struck the early warning ballistic missile system radar,

that in and of itself could have resulted in an immediate counter-strike by the Russians. It didn't happen, primarily because President Putin wants to avoid a direct confrontation with the United States and NATO. He's never wanted it. We're the ones that goaded him into attacking into eastern Ukraine to begin with. We're the ones that wanted to place forces right on his border with the goal of attacking him. We're the ones that wanted to place missile systems there. So I think it's very obvious that under the circumstances, he could have attacked with any number of different weapon systems a long time ago, and he hasn't done it. I hope he can continue to exercise restraint because I think we're nearing the end of this

tragedy, frankly. How much longer can, before we get to nearing the end, why would they have done this on a Sunday afternoon, on a Sunday that is a feast day, a high feast day, it's Pentecost Sunday in the Russian Orthodox Church. Everybody's off and the beaches are packed, unless they wanted to injure or kill civilians. Well, I'm sure that's not an unreasonable conclusion if you're a Russian. unless they wanted to injure or kill civilians. Well, I'm sure that's not an unreasonable conclusion if you're a Russian. Clearly, one of the things that we have to note is that this regime in Keith treats Christianity with complete contempt. They've shut down churches. They've imprisoned members of the clergy. So that's

unsurprising. This is a very nihilistic, atheistic regime in Kyiv, which may be why the globalist elites in Washington and in places like Paris and London are so excited about attacking Russia. They wanted this sort of nihilistic, atheistic approach adopted here in the United States. We know that from experience during COVID. So I guess you have to accept the fact that this looks deliberate. Do you think there's a connection between what happened on the beach in Sevastopol and the attributed to ISIS attack on a synagogue and on a Russian Orthodox church the same day where a Russian Orthodox priest had his throat slit on the altar of the church?

Well, it's a legitimate question. I don't know why the Islamists would have done what they did, except that they were provided with some incentive to do so. By the Ukrainians? Yeah, well, potentially by the Western intelligence organizations, MI6, the CIA. I mean, obviously, they have the capacity to do that sort of thing. And we've done it before in places like Syria, where we aligned ourselves with the Sunni Islamists to do enormous damage to Assad and his regime. I, you know, I can't answer those

questions. I don't have access to the intelligence on the inside to call it as whatever it may be. But it looks very troubling. And we have to keep something in mind that Putin has done an exemplary job of making the Muslim citizens of Russia comfortable. They don't fear any sort of oppression. They're not worried about the Russian state going after them for any particular reason. So there's been remarkable peace inside Russia between Muslims and Christians. So this comes at a strange point in time, and it does beg the question, why now? And why would they do what they did? But I don't know the answer, Judge. I can't say definitively Western intelligence and

Ukrainian SBU or secret police had anything to do with this. I don't know. How much longer do you think Ukraine can last? We know that the Biden administration wants them to last at least until November 6th. But what is your view about the overwhelming odds favoring the Russians at this point? Well, if we look at the map, as recently as this morning, we see evidence for the concentration of roughly 300,000 Russian troops in the northeastern corner of Ukraine. These forces are in a position to attack due east and move very rapidly on Kiev or Kiev at this point. We still have another 100,000 Russian troops up in Byelorussia that no one has talked about or mentioned that could be moved south. In other words, they can very rapidly approach the capital and put everything in the capital in range of their various artillery

systems. So I think the end is near. The Russians are very deliberate. They're very cautious. They're not going to move forces forward beyond the umbrella of air and missile defense. Everything is being carefully planned and organized very deliberately. So I think that's going to happen. I don't know how the government in Kyiv stays in Kyiv. I'd be surprised if they did not pull out and move further west. We know they have plans to go potentially to Lvov in the far western corner of the country. So I think this is the end game. There's no question about it. The sad part is that the Ukrainians are now rounding up whatever men they can find.

I'm told that they rounded up from in and around Odessa, three to 5,000 men. Now, I don't know how old they are. Some may be boys, some may be old men, who knows, but they're definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel and they're going to throw these people into Russian gunfire. They'll just be killed. But that doesn't seem to matter very much in Kyiv. It doesn't seem to matter in Washington. Do you think that President Zelensky hangs on and is present at this endgame, or the Russians just won't deal with him, and maybe the Americans want him to go at some point?

We have assassinated people before that when we decided they were of no further use to us, we can go back to the historical record, all the way back to Diem. In Vietnam, as you know, Judge. But I would have thought that by now someone inside the Ukrainian military establishment would have stepped forward, at least with some concern for the remaining lives of Ukrainians, and put an end to this thing. And I think that's something the Russians have looked for, but it hasn't happened. And part of that reason is that Western intelligence services, again, SAS and others, have done an excellent job of protecting Zelensky from any potential inside threat. So I guess he'll last at least until he's killed as a result of eventual Russian assault on Kiev.

Before we switch over to Israel and Gaza, here's President Putin predicting that the West will get rid of President Zelensky when he no longer serves any Western purpose. And there is a decision of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine of 2015, which says quite clearly that the term of the Ukrainian president is five years, no more, no less. What are we even talking about? In the West, I think they just don't want, the West just doesn't want to change a president for a different figure. It's obvious

that they have their hands full with other things and it's Zelensky who's who'll be charged with making all the unpopular decisions and after they are done with him he will be replaced.

After they are done with him he will be replaced if history repeats itself. Can this last another year? It seems hard to believe that it could last beyond September, but I don't know. Again, if there's no one willing to step forward and say, enough's enough, let's come to some sort of arrangement. And right now, no one in Washington wants to do that, certainly not before the election, because that would compel them to admit failure and defeat. Right. Paris seems willing to do that. Now, there is a possibility that you could see a change in government in Germany and France. If that change occurs in the fall or sometime before November, then potentially, yes, you could see this thing end. I think there would be a willingness to negotiate on the part of the Russians with a collection of European states that have said enough's enough. This needs to end.

But I don't know judge uh there's not much left of Ukrainian military power let's be Frank right uh we're seeing Western what's the right word contractors and potentially Western soldiers in civilian clothes or the uniform of the Ukrainian army operate these more complex systems. The Russians know that. They're going to try to destroy them. They shot down that global hawk that was responsible, at least in their minds, with coordinating this latest strike.

So I think the Russians are now going to look for every opportunity to disrupt the command, control, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance capabilities that we bring to bear, that could lead to a confrontation. I hope they'll be careful because that could trigger the very thing that I think no one in their right mind wants, which is a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States. But we know that contractors are going to get killed. If those guys are wearing fatigues but not government-issued and their boots on the ground and they have weapons in their hands or at the other end of their computers, they're fair game. Oh, absolutely. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking

about potential attacks on our satellites in space, as well as attacks on aircraft, manned or unmanned, that are part of this uh intelligence surveillance reconnaissance complex because that's that's really at heart of what what keeps the Ukrainians even in the game right there's not much left on the ground as as far as an army is concerned that's been ruins last week they lost 13 000 men this is the sort of thing that happens at the end of a war when the when an army is collapsing and retreating. That's when most of the damage occurs. You lose more people during a retreat than you do in a stand-up battle. So this is effectively over on the ground. I'm sure the

Russians will advance when they feel comfortable doing so. The real question is, how much damage do they do to what I just described, our intelligence surveillance reconnaissance complex? I hope that people are more thoughtful than they've been thus far and will keep at least our manned aircraft out of range. But as the Russians advance towards the west, towards that river, they'll be able to take more and more things under fire and destroy them. That's the concern that I have. Switching gears to Israel, here's Prime Minister Netanyahu's latest, I won't even characterize it other than by saying he has a catalog of countries in there that he believes will soon be at war and he blames everybody but Israel. This is just about an hour old, this clip, Colonel. So we'll play it for you. It's

a little bit longer than a minute. I'd love your thoughts on it. 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 terror 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 okay and uh we have to stop them i don't know what to make of that uh colonel what do you think uh he's beginning to sound like ahab in moby dick uh he's on a doomed whale hunt. He's beginning to see enemies

everywhere. He doesn't seem to understand that he's precipitated the emergence of this coalition against him. It's his actions as the Israeli offensive that's being launched against Hamas. Now the very high probability that they will attack Hezbollah, that is convincing everyone in the region to turn against him. The Saudis, like the other ruling elites in the Arab world right now, are very concerned about being removed by their own people because the populations are enraged. This is certainly true in Jordan. I think King Abdullah is hanging on by his fingernails. He's got millions of Palestinians in his country that are appalled at what's being done to their fellow Palestinians on the other side of the Jordan River you've got General Sisi who is apoplectic we have been

bribing him willing to forgive his 180 billion dollar debt National national sovereign debt, in return for taking in the Palestinian Arabs that are being driven out of Gaza. He's incapable of doing it. He understands that if he does that, he's going to be seen as a traitor to his own people. And that's a pretty good description of the way many Egyptians feel about him at this point. Everything is coming apart in the region. And as you point out, he's blaming it on everything and everybody but himself and the actions of his own country. And it's very interesting when he attributes his desire by the Iranians to conquer the region. The Iranians are not equipped to conquer anything. They can't project

their own military power very far at all. They build up the arsenal of rockets and missiles, much like Hezbollah, for the same reason, to deter the Israelis. But they can't march into anything and conquer anything. So the only people in the region who are capable of conquering very much right now, at least their neighbors, is Israel. And they are viewed as waging this war for Jewish supremacy in the region. It's entertaining to listen to his description as, once again, the permanent victim. And that's something that he keeps insisting is the case, that he and Israel together are permanent victims but right now the rest of the region and the rest of the islamic world sees them as the offending force they see their own people being

murdered and and turned into victims they they don't agree with the israeli assessment and we are standing behind israel continuing to provide unconditional support for whatever Mr. Netanyahu wants to do. And unfortunately, at this point, it seems to be a willingness to destroy the entire region. In the meantime, Phil, Geraldine reports from a source that the Israelis have used phosphorus to destroy an entire village of people in Lebanon. I wonder if we paid for it. I wonder if we supplied it. Well, we do have white phosphorus in our inventory. Normally, we use it to mark a target as opposed to burn down a village, but it can be used for that purpose. White phosphorus is terrible. I mean, I've seen people with holes in their arms where a very small droplet of white phosphorus fell

on a soldier's arm, and you could literally see right through the arm. The arm was melted in most respects. I mean, it's a horrible weapon. So I can understand why people would be horrified by that. But at this point, if you're an Israeli, you take the position you are the permanent victim, the world is against you, and anything you do to anyone who is your enemy is justified. I mean, this was surprising to me to listen to the former chief of defense in Israel, Benny Gantz,

make the comment that, well, we haven't been able to destroy Hamas, but we think we can destroy Hezbollah's capabilities in the space of a few days. Isn't that absurd? The only way that could happen is with the use of tactical nuclear weapons, which is my great fear, because that would literally open Pandora's box and put the very existence of Israel at very, very high risk. Is there or are there any reports of which you are aware of the Greeks on Crete aiding the Israelis by using a portion of Crete for assembling or staging troops or weapons?

Well, I was alerted by a source that's very familiar with Cyprus, actually a British source, saying that the Israelis were preparing to utilize facilities on Cyprus, specifically airstrips. I don't know whether or not that happened, because very early on, Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, warned that if that were the case, that they would regard Cyprus as a legitimate target for their weapon systems. But again, as we discussed much earlier, this is a very dangerous thing to even discuss because it involves the turks the turks are very sensitive right now because they know that the israelis and

agents from the united states are working to stir up the kurds against the turks turks are looking southward and they see the danger of kurish violence directed at them. In other words, an actual war front opening up to the south and to the east. And at the same time, now they're looking at Cyprus as a potential springboard for the Israelis. And they're not going to allow that to happen. The Turks are very sensitive to Cyprus. It's the unsinkable aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean. They don't want that to fall into the hands of Israel forinkable aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean. They don't want that to fall into the hands of Israel for fear that it might be used against them. And there's so much anger in Turkey right now, in fact, across the entire region, but especially among the Turks

against the Israelis for what they've done in Hamas. I don't think it would take very much for the Turks to intervene directly on Cyprus. And of course, that opens up the potential for a war between the Turks and the Greeks, a war that, quite frankly, the Greeks would probably lose because they're not prepared for it and the Turks are. Here's President Erdogan just two days ago. Israel has its eyes set on Lebanon. Number eight, Chris. It is understood that Israel, which has burned Gaza to the ground, has set its sights on Lebanon now. I am saying this clearly.

Netanyahu's plan to spread the war to the region with the consent of the West will lead to catastrophe. The Islamic world and brotherly countries in the Middle East need to react to this bloody plan before the West. We should not provide an opportunity for this. Turkey is with the brotherly people of Lebanon and its state. I invite the other countries in the region to stand in solidarity with Lebanon. Is this domestic political pap or credible? It's a little of both. Clearly, he's talking to his own population because they are admittedly disappointed in his failure to do much on behalf of the Muslim Arabs in Gaza. And Erdogan has talked a great game. He's talked about doing many things, but thus far he really hasn't acted

decisively. I think he's being pushed to the edge right now by his own population. At the same time, he's also stating the truth. Netanyahu is expanding the war. We always knew that if he was going to win the conflict against Hamas, that he would probably expand the war, certainly to Hezbollah, in the hopes that that would bring us into the conflict on his side. And of course, that means bringing Iran into the war as well. In other words, he's intent on blowing up the region on the assumption that with us, he can destroy all of Israel's potential or real adversaries and then dominate the region in perpetuity. I think it's a very dumb idea. It's a very dangerous idea. The first thing he should be concerned about, preeminently,

above all things, is the survival of the Israeli state. That should be our concern at this point. Israel is going to have a tough time surviving in a region where virtually everyone is aligned against Israel. And though we have a lot of military power, I don't think the American people are willing to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles at everyone surrounding Israel. I think, in fact, we'll try to limit the conflict to the conventional level. And that means air and naval power. And air and naval power cannot win alone. And we know that from experience. There will be no ground assets from the United States, and the Israeli ground force is in pretty bad shape right now. It's been severely damaged by experience in Gaza, and it's taken losses in northern Israel. And I would expect those losses to climb

if he expands the war into southern Lebanon. Colonel, if Netanyahu attacks Iran and Iran appears to be taking a lot of firepower from them, wouldn't you expect President Putin to get involved? I think the first thing that we should see or will see probably is a direct assault against Hezbollah. The direct assault against Hezbollah. The direct assault against Hezbollah will inevitably bring in Iran because the Iranians are not going to abandon the Shiite Arabs that live in southern Lebanon to be destroyed or annihilated by Israel. This is especially true

if the Israelis in fact employ tactical nuclear weapons, which I think would be disastrous. That would be the precursor to a regional war. At the same time, President Putin is not going to stand idly by if we attack and try to destroy Iran. He will certainly come to Iran's aid. The real question, though, that is most important beyond these is what do the Turks do? Will the Turks simply sit there and do nothing? I think that's going to be very hard for Mr. Erdogan to do. I think he's looking at what's happening on the southern border with the Kurds and what we and the Israelis are doing there, as well as what potentially could happen on Cyprus.

Those two things may be enough to trigger direct Turkish intervention, particularly if Iran comes into the conflict. These are all wild cards. We're discussing terrible scenarios, and it gets back to the original point. Strategically, Mr. Netanyahu's first concern should be the survival of the Israeli state. Israel's survival is not best served by trying to destroy everyone in the region. That's not a good answer. Someone needs to step forward in Israel and point that out, because Israel must survive. Just because we don't like what the Israelis have done in Hamas, and there are many of us like that, that are very disappointed, that doesn't mean that we want to see Israel destroyed. On the contrary, I think Israel should survive. I strongly support that, and I think we should intervene

to ensure that happens. My concern is he's putting the entire thing at risk. He's essentially risking everything on one throw of the dice to be blocked. Because he wants to stay in office in order to avoid prosecution, another charge against him leveled by the Israeli Attorney General this week. Well, that may be true. I don't know the man personally. I have always believed that in his heart, he thinks he is a Jewish patriot saving Israel. I think he's misguided, to put it bluntly. And the

alternative outcome is what I fear. And we can't stop that, Judge. That's what people have to understand. The American military establishment is not in shape to wage war against everyone in the region, let alone Russia. Where does World War III start? In Israel, Gaza, or in Russia, Ukraine? You know, I have trouble believing that it would start in Ukraine. I really do. Because I think if we look at these latest election results from the European Union, it's pretty damn clear that the European people are unhappy with their governments

and they don't want a war with Russia. Now, they may not all think that what's happened in Ukraine is justified. They may not like what's being done, but they know they don't want a war with Russia. So I would argue that the great danger right now is in southern Lebanon, that if the Israelis, who have failed miserably to deal with Hamas effectively, now turn on Hezbollah, that that will widen the war. That will inevitably bring in Iran. He's talking about a seven-front war. That's much more than what he's even discussing. That means that the Iranians will launch their arsenal at Israel. Then the question is, what does everybody else in the region do? Will Sisi go away? Will King Abdullah be replaced? And will these Arab states suddenly erupt like volcanoes and

spew out hatred, hostility, violence against Israel on a scale that no one today can even imagine? This is my concern. And then finally, the Turks. The Israelis have been very smug and arrogant about the rest of the region, saying, oh, that's impossible. They'll never do this. They'll never do that. And yet the evidence has always been there that these populations and governments and scientific industrial capacities are greater than the Israelis thought, and that there's a greater willingness to fight against them than they anticipated. And that's my concern. Everyone is miscalculated. And here we sit waiting for the volcano to erupt that could

ultimately engulf and destroy everything. I hope not. Colonel, you've been very gracious to spend all this time with us and to analyze both of these conflagrations with such depth and clarity. Thank you very much, my dear friend. Much, much appreciated. I hope we can see you again before the 4th of July, a week from today. All the best. Thanks, Judge. Happy 4th of week, Doug. And back at you and your family. Thank you. Wow. Truly one of the most important interviews I've been able to conduct with a man I admire so much and was also my friend. Coming up at 4 o'clock Eastern, Max Blumenthal, and at 5 o'clock Eastern, Professor John Mearsheimer. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.