Judging Freedom - COL. Douglas Macgregor : What Putin Should Do?

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

COL. Douglas Macgregor : What Putin Should Do?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 Wednesday, day, July 1st, 2006, Colonel Douglas McGregor, joined us now. Colonel of pleasure, as always, thank you for accommodating my schedule to 110 in the shade here in New York today, and they just arrested two people for climbing to the top of the Empire State Building. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. To matter is more serious and relevant.

Can you explain what is obviously the Russian reluctance to bring about, you? a military end to the special military operation in a way that doesn't drain credibility and troops and assets you always ask the easy questions first thank you for that you know first of all when we say the russian let's confine ourselves to president putin and his inner circle as opposed to what the russians think because the average russian at this point is very fed up with the way things have gone in Ukraine, doesn't understand why Russian forces have not already entered Levovost in the West, doesn't understand why they don't already occupy Odessa, most of the riverline, Kiev. So let's just confine it to President Putin, his inner circle.

I think President Putin, from the outset, has always been deeply concerned about any move he might make that would precipitate NATO intervention. And by that I mean primarily European but not exclusively. NATO intervention in Western Ukraine. In other words, he did not want a larger war. He wanted to keep it confined as much as possible. So that's number one. Number two, it took him time essentially two years to build up the Russian military so they could do more than simply occupy the territory.

It now controls and defeat the Ukrainians in an open battle. He now has a much larger force over a million men in the army, very well trained, well-led, well-equipped, and they are capable of doing at this point whatever he wants them to do, which includes potentially offensive operations across Western Ukraine. But initially, that was a reluctance. And third, he has tried to insulate the Russian economy as much as possible from the war. The problem for him recently has been that these pinprick attacks have become, more of an irritation.

And you have Russian civilians being killed, as well as strikes on missile manufacturing facility, as well as a handful of refineries. These things are not colossal problems, but they raise questions about the effectiveness of his government and why things are not moving along more swiftly. So I think we're at a crossing point now, a kind of Rubicon. And I think that's what he's discussing right now with his senior military leaders. We are seeing, and I don't know if this is a CIA propaganda or Western media slash NATO propaganda. We are seeing long gas lines.

And we're being told that the beaches in Crimea are nowhere near the way you'd expect them to be the first week in July because people don't want to spend what little gasoline they have driving there. Whether this is exaggerated or not, is there a feeling of impatience or even discussed that you can assess amongst the average Russian folks, not the elites, not the intelligence community, not the military, but the average people? Well, as I said at the outset, my impression is in talking to people who just returned recently from Russia within the last couple of days is that Russians are angry. They're not angry with President Putin, per se. They are frustrated that he is not moving more decisively to destroy the enemy in Ukraine. But they're angry because this regime in Ukraine continues to sort of nibble at the edges of the country and harms Russians whenever they can. They just don't understand why President Putin hasn't pulled out all the stops and gone after them with a vengeance.

Now, as far as the fuel shortages are concerned, I think a lot of that is exaggerated. In fact, I know it is. Someone yesterday said, well, there have been fist fights at gas stations. And of course, I said, well, you can come out where I am and go into West Virginia and you can have fist fights on any given day in the heat at gas stations here. So there aren't any lines. So I don't think that tells us very much. But I think the Western media is playing it up. I mean, you've got essentially the globalist chorus is now hit the street. Everyone from Neil Ferguson all the way across to Kotkin, another historian, any number of different people on the military side, General Keane and his friends and Petraeus and others. Everyone is out there saying the massive drone offensive is terribly effective and the tide is turning. Ukraine is posture to win. Russia is crumbling. All the same nonsense we've heard about once or twice a year.

ever since the war started. Unfortunately, it gains attention. It shouldn't. But most Americans aren't terribly interested anyway, which means that the ones who listen to it are, and they're too eager to believe the mainstream media. The whole purpose of the war, or at least the principal purpose of the war,

as we understand it, was to assure that NATO, that Ukraine would not join NATO. Of course, NATO has a lot of, assets in Ukraine right now, intelligence and military. Should Putin fear a war with NATO? I think he does. I don't think he should, but he does. And this is very important, Judge. I want to hear this explanation. Yeah, this is perhaps the most important point of all the reason. I'm glad you brought it up. If you listen to the globalist chorus, and I need to include,

you know, Starmer until he was gone, now we have Stormer Light, his successor, Macron, Mats, others, von der Leyen and so forth, these people are all calling for war against Russia. They're all talking about drafting eligible men into the military. They're talking about building up the arms industries and so forth and everything is aimed at Russia. What's interesting about this is that none of what they're saying makes any sense. The forces they have are boutique forces. They're Lilliputian, judge. They're tiny.

If you dragged all of the British Army, the French Army, and whatever passes for the German armed forces into Ukraine, they would be in a corner of the West. And they couldn't go very far because they can't sustain themselves. There is no logistical infrastructure for them. So I think there is a false front that these people are putting up, thinking that this is going to have some sort of desirable impact. It's not. What it is doing is it is creating the impression in the minds of Russians that they're about to go into another war

with Europe on the scale of 1941. And of course, that's utterly disastrous. That's the last thing in the world you want the Russians to think. Because in contrast to the Europeans, the Russians are ready for war. Let there be no mistake about it. They've identified the reserves, They have the factories, the manufacturing base. They have the equipment. They're ready for a major war. And if people continue to threaten them, they'll see the Russians become that much more belligerous.

And I think we're going to see more belligerents this summer. That's something all of us have waited for, to be frank, because there is nothing to stop the Russians if they decide to move decisively on the offensive. And what is Putin afraid of? I think he continues to counsel caution and patience. I suspect he thinks that these governments will be gone. Everyone was happy to see Stormer go.

But I don't think that President Putin understands that what we're most likely to see in Europe are a succession of buffoons and fools. Because to turn around the situation in Europe requires authoritarian leadership. You've literally got to have somebody come to power in these states in Europe, like Cromwell, who essentially says, this is over, no more nonsense, round up all the illegals,

all the unwanted migrants, ship them out, restore the rule of law, do whatever is required to restore industry, open direct talks with the Russians, rebuild the bridge to energy in Russia. All of things that have to happen. And I think he thought that these kinds of things would probably happened by now. They haven't. And so I think he's predisposed now to listen to those who are counseling action. You have told us your opinion of Chancellor Mers as a dangerous, maybe the most dangerous post-war Chancellor of Germany. Here is his defense minister today talking about a draft. Chris? Our goal is clear by the year 2030. 25, 260,000 active troops and at least 200,000 reservists.

And with the Reserve Strengthening, with the Reserve Strengthening Act, we are now taking the next logical step after the Reserve Strategy, a reserve that is to serve on equal footing with the active troops, to give them the recognition they deserve, to keep our reservists engaged, meaning to further develop their qualifications so that in an emergency, they can also master systems, including the new ones. This law serves all these purposes,

and as I mentioned, we need more reservists. What are we regulating? We want to abolish the double voluntariness because up until now, both employers and reservists had to agree to a call-up. According to the draft law, this requirement is to be eliminated.

In the future, reservists are to be mandatorily called up for reserve service. What are they trying to accomplish? Who are they trying to scare? Well, notice he said, I think, 2035. Right, right. Nine years from that.

now. I mean, listen, if they try to implement a draft in Germany now, based on everything I know about the current German population, their attitudes, they'll be open rebellion. People want nothing to do with it. You can see millions of people demonstrate in cities like Cologne or Berlin or any number of places, all saying absolutely not. We don't want to draft. And you'll see the signs that say, we're not going to fight in Russia. We're not going to fight in Ukraine. It's out of the question. So I think what they're doing is that they're saying, we're going to do all these things, but it's going to take us a decade to get there. These people aren't going to last that long in power. So it's kind of a joke. The problem, though, is in Russia right now. I think it has

been in the interest of the Russian government to capitalize on all these fraudy little Nazis running around in Ukraine pretending to be great men and tell the population, we're up against our old enemy and this is the old European threat to us. But now it's gotten to the point where the average Russian soldier, when he comes off the front line and he comes back to refresh himself, if he's interviewed, he said, what do you think? Well, I think we're getting ready for World War III. We have a serious threat from Europe. Well, there is no serious threat from Europe, Judge. It just doesn't exist. Come on. You've been there. You've been there as often and frequently as I have. Nobody there is just going to war with anybody anywhere. Agreed.

All nonsense. So, I mean, anyway, the bottom line is we've talked ourselves into a dangerous position. Let's put it that way. Here's the meme you sent me a little while ago. So this is Vladimir Putin. Britain has invaded

171 countries. France has murdered 22 African presidents since 1963. The U.S. runs 750 military bases and 80 nations. and you're worried about Russia? I don't think he actually said this, but the point is well taken.

Oh, absolutely. It's well taken. And by the way, this morning, I was reading in all Israel news about a new big push to establish bases for American forces of Israel. And that's very important because it recognizes we're never going back into the Gulf judge. That's over. I mean, the dry strategic change, the sea, change that everybody thought was impossible has occurred. We're not going back into the Gulf. Those bases will never be rebuilt. So where is our quote unquote toehold in the Middle East?

Well, now it's limited to Israel potentially. And the Israelis are only too happy to have thousands of U.S. troops stationed on Israeli soil at this point because they see this as insurance against inevitable dissolution as a state. I don't think it's going to work. I think there'll be a lot of objections to it, but I'm sure Senator Cotton and his friends who are interested in ensuring the Israelis have access to whatever they want in the United States will also support this idea. Putin can legally strike the munitions plants, which are being used to manufacture weapons that are eventually being hurled at Russia. These munitions plants are in Great Britain and Germany

in Sweden and Norway, etc. Should he attack them? Well, President Putin directed that those targets that you just mentioned be published publicly. So if you go into the West European media, you're probably going to find articles about it. But it's known. Everybody knows where those manufacturing bases are. Everybody knows who's producing what for the Ukrainians. And the Ukrainians are getting certainly in terms of unmanned systems and missile systems.

probably some of the best technology that's available. The question that comes up, I'm told in the inner circle for President Putin, is, Mr. President, how bad does it have to get? Remember that last year we targeted his private residence. The point of targeting his private residence was to kill him for God's sakes. To assassinate him, they have targeted all sorts of places deep inside Russia and everybody collapse. and at some point how many people you have to kill,

how many Russians have to be killed, how much more serious does the damage you have to become? That's the question he's being asked. They already have plans on the table ready to effectively implement. So if they decide they want to counter strike, they can do it. There's no question about that. They have, I don't even want to begin to estimate, but let's put it this way.

There are no lack of a rationale. or other munitions or other missiles in the inventory. And it wouldn't be a damn thing we can do about it, because we can't stop the hypersonic missiles in any case. But Putin has held back because he regards these strikes as not sufficiently lethal to justify that kind of response. But that question is coming up. I don't know what he says in private,

but I know that that question has been directed to him. Colonel, the United States is a co-belligerent with Ukraine against Russia, is it not? Yes, and I think that this is something that has been hard for the Russians to accept. I think President Putin in particular wanted to believe that President Trump was sincere, wanted to believe that he was actually interested in resolving the dispute in Ukraine. I think he took President Trump's meeting in Anchorage far more seriously than he should have. I think now he and everybody else in the Russian government has figured out that they were just participants in a reality TV show directed by the stagemaster Donald Trump. This was all for Donald Trump's glorification in the hopes that he could somehow another baffle and push the Russians into agreeing to something.

that was not in their interest. It didn't happen. And I think now the Russians have discovered whatever was discussed there was meaningless. Again, Putin, or excuse me, Donald Trump remains to this point in time still remarkably popular in Russia. And most Russians continue to see Americans in a positive light. They think their problems originate with the Europeans, not us. is even this bizarre notion, I think it really is bizarre, that we and the Russians are similar. Well, we're very different people. You can make a good argument for strategic partnership. There's no question about that.

But we're as different from the Russians as the Chinese are culturally and so forth. But this is still popular in Russia. We should be very grateful for this, by the way, Judge, but I don't think most Americans have a clue. And I don't think President Trump gives it damn. Here's President Putin two days ago. After you listen to this, I'm going to ask you why he needs to make statements like this in an ostentatious and staged and produced. I'm not suggesting he's insincere when I say stage, but highly produced, highly stylized way. Chris number three.

Russia has encountered an unprecedented kind of pressure from the Western elites. They wanted to deal a strategic defeat against us on the battlefield. They wanted to destabilize our society, but they fail at everything. They continue to fund the Kiev regime that they use as a battering ram to destroy Russia. And let me emphasize that, again, Russia can only be a strong, and independent country, or there will be no Russia. There are only two paths. Whenever we show weakness, we are being ignored

and being treated only with a violent approach. They always test us. They try to remove us as a global factor of power that stands against evil. Like I said, they have always failed. They will fail this time, and they will fail forever. The need to make statements like this to leading members of his own government administration and some academics and think tank people.

Well, this is vintage Putin. Understand that President Putin has one foot in Tsarist Russia, the other foot in the Soviet Union, in terms of history and background and knowledge and understanding. Everything that he does is deliberate, methodical. This is not someone who is given to off-the-cuff remarks of doing things along the lines of Trump, saying things and then sees what sticks.

That's not Vladimir Putin. The Russian population has expectations of their leaders, especially the man at the top. The man at the top, if he does not appear to be in control, if he does not appear in a formal, direct fashion as Putin does, with all the trappings of national power around him, this weakens Russian confidence in him. So what you're seeing is not Putin's ego on display. He is playing the role of Russia's national sovereign. He is effectively as close as you're going to get today to a czar. And people will listen to him and believe him because of the image that he portrays the way he speaks

and the confidence with which he expresses himself. He's made it very clear that Russia has been through these things many, many times. He's not wrong about that. Going all the way back to the Mongols that governed and occupied much of Russia for 300 years and going forward, Russia has been through many, many invasions. They've actually been invaded by the Poles, who marched right into the city of Moscow and established a Polish Tsar. It took them an entire year to stuff this Polish Tsar

into the largest cannon they could find and fire him back to Poland, but they have not forgotten. So he's saying things that resonate with the population. And remember, Russians are hearing through the news, unfiltered, uncensored, the kinds of things that Mertz and others are saying. And that's the problem. People are taking them seriously. And if Putin stands up there and says, I have made the decision to mobilize the nation, war is imminent, that's what will happen. That's not something we in the West should want to hear.

We should be doing the opposite. We should be sending very different signals. I think we're being very stupid. Switching gears before we finish, Colonel. Yesterday, the White House leaked that the Pentagon gave a briefing to President Trump on the mechanics for the resumption of all-out war against Iran. Is the memorandum of understanding worth of paper it's written on? No, no. I don't think there's any doubt about that, Judge.

remember who drafted the paper the Iranians they submitted it to us and in order to get talks started if for no other reason to give everybody a break and to potentially open the straight and improve the situation globally for the global economy Trump signed off on it but if you just go through the points and very early on there's this point about Lebanon you know and I was following Lebanon this morning And I was surprised, not totally, but surprised to find that Israeli forces have open fire on many targets in Lebanon within the last 24 hours, including civilian vehicles. They bulldozed roads, uprooted trees, leveled villages, machine gun main roads. Effectively, they've announced they're in Lebanon to stay. They're setting up checkpoints and strong points. all of this is in violation of the opening of the 14 points. So does anyone really think this ends the war? Of course not.

Will the Israelis ever voluntarily leave Lebanon? I think they could be driven out, but that's about it. I don't see that they will leave unless they are compulsively forced out. I don't see any evidence that we, under any circumstances, are going to force them out. So I think they're there to stay until they lose it. I mean, lose it. See, the thing that Americans are missing right now, this entire region, as dysfunctional in many ways as it is,

is aligning against the Israelis. There's no question about it. The UAE wants to survive, just as Bahrain and others want to survive. They are making their deals, if you will, their agreements with the Iranians. They are sending money over there because we refuse to send the money that was promised as part of the first meeting, you know, eventually $12 billion that was Iranian funds. So I think what you've got going right now is that the people that have power,

those are the Turks and the Iranians primarily. They are absolutely unquestionably aligned in opposition to Israel. Iran is leading. the Islamic world. It has become the champion of Islam. It is the only nation that is directly stood up to the Israelis and survived and against us, and we are seen effectively as a appendage of greater Israel. We're all waiting to see what the Turks will do. And the Israelis keep talking about inevitable war with the Turks, that the Turks are the next country they need to attack, and so forth, which I think is extraordinarily dangerous and very stupid. Because I think

they're going to get their wish at some point. And what I'm trying to say is that this is going to end when we leave. That's it. When we finally pack up our gear, we get onto airplanes, we get on the ships, and we leave. Now, if we agree to occupy bases on Israeli soil, then the war will not end. because as long as we are there with Israel, we will be seen as a serious threat to everybody in the region. I don't see how you get past that. And I don't see how Israel survives, by the way, without us. And that's an important point. Has the U.S. begun to leave, Colonel?

I think some forces have, and I won't go into what those are that have gone back to the continental United States. But these can be returned relatively easily, if they're. have to. And remember, you have your intercontinental bombing capability, so that can be rapidly restored. I don't, I guess what I'm trying to say is we're in a pause right now. And the real question is, how long does the pause last? It's interesting you say pause. Here's the man who is betting his entire political future on this memorandum of understanding. And he, he, says it's just a pause. Chris number four. So I think what the president has told us to do is use this MOU to sort of refill the world's oil economy, to refill some stocks, and then to see where the hand is.

And, you know, as I've said this repeatedly, if the Iranians are willing to make the commitments that we would like them to make and are willing to back those up with verifiable milestones, then we are going to change our relationship with Iran. And if they don't do that, then nothing has really changed except for what we've already accomplished from the military campaign, which is a lot. So we kind of have two options here. We have the option of pursuing a long-term deal with the Iranians, but that requires a significant change in their behavior. We have the option of banking our wins, and then of course doing things on top of that if the president feels that we have to. And I think both of those options are very much in play, and the president's going to let this play out.

But what's happening right now is he's letting those options play out in an environment where there is significantly less pressure on the world energy economy. possibly mean by banking our wins. We haven't won a thing. No. There has been no victory of any kind. I think they feel obligated to say this to the American people. And of course, they're worried about midterms, although I think those are going to be kind of a disaster, no matter what they do at this point. Vice President Vance, however, was being honest when he said this is a pause. We're trying to restore some measure of energy to the world that needs it. We are also interested in restoring our own stocks. So we are in a pause.

This pause could end tomorrow or it could end in January. It could end in October. It could end in September. You know, Judge, we don't know. But one thing is absolutely clear. The Iranians are not delusional. They are preparing for open war again against us and Israel. They are working every day, every night to get ready. Their stocks of missiles, unmanned systems are being rapidly replenished. Their forces are being restored. Their morale is high. The readiness and the willingness of the society to fight to the bitter end against their enemies is greater now than it was back in January when everybody insisted they were on the verge of collapse. So I don't think that we've accomplished anything that is of any real value to us. One would hope that we will realize the futility of

any further warfare and quietly leave. But I don't see that happening to you. No, no. I am leaving for a couple of weeks off and we'll miss you and miss your analysis. And Colonel, thank you very much. We'll look forward to chatting with you when I return unless something happened to me. two years ago when I was in northern Italy in the same week, Donald Trump got shot and Joe Biden withdrew from the race. So don't let me pick which weeks to take off. It sounds like you better leave immediately. Thank you, Colonel. All the best. We'll see you in the middle of July. Sure. Have a good vacation.

Thank you. And happy fourth to you. Same to you. Thank you. A great, great analysis on both Hot Button. areas, Ukraine slash Europe and Israel slash Iran. If you're watching us live in 28 minutes, so 3 o'clock on all of this, and the domestic political ramifications of it has manifested in Democratic primary elections in the past two weeks. Aaron Mate, Judge Napal Tano for judging freedom.