Judging Freedom - Col. Karen Kwiatkowski: Biden’s Fantasy Foreign Policy

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Col. Karen Kwiatkowski: Biden’s Fantasy Foreign PolicySee 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, excuse me, Tuesday. Tomorrow's Wednesday. Tomorrow's Ash Wednesday. Today is Tuesday, February 13, 2024. Our guest is former Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski. Karen, always a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you for joining us. I do want your thoughts on the Tucker Carlson interview of President Putin and the not surprising response of mainstream media. But before we get there, you have a fascinating piece at judgenap.com and elsewhere this week on magical thinking. What is the magical thinking of the Biden foreign policy? Joe Biden may magically think he's the president of the United States as they have the ability to do the job. Oh, no, of course not. That's the president of the United States, as they have the ability to do the job?

Oh, no, of course not. That's the problem. I mean, he does believe and want so badly to hold that position, to be respected for his service and competence and leadership. And it's just wishes. It's empty wishes, unfortunately. And you can't make things happen by wishing them, although it's just wishes. It's empty wishes, unfortunately. And you can't make things

happen by wishing them, although it is a strategy. And the idea of magical thinking, it's actually a psychological concept, which is based on wishing things into existence. So give us an example. In his own mind, he wishes himself a successful government, or a head of government. In his own mind, he wishes Ukraine will defeat Russia, and therefore he is motivated to continue to send hundreds of billions of dollars in cash and equipment to Ukraine. Is that an example of this strange psychological phenomenon at work? It really is, although he would probably not accept that it's the case. But certainly in Ukraine, the reality of that from the very beginning and even prior to the Russian invasion, you know, as some people, not me, I didn't see it, but other people were watching this and they saw buildup and they saw preparation and they saw the lack of preparation on the Ukrainian side.

They saw the poor leadership on the political leadership anyway on the Ukrainian side. They saw the influence of NATO people and all of this stuff is, there was no way it could be won. But they wished that it could be won. They imagined that we can have a NATO fortress in the body of Ukraine, right up against the borders of Russia and Belarus. We could have, they wished it, they envisioned it, not based on reality, of course, but they wanted it so badly. And then they invested in it. They invested our money and European taxpayers' money into this project based on their wishes, not on reality. And now, of course, it's all gone totally downhill. The money has been wasted and also stolen. I mean, obviously, it's Ukraine

we're dealing with here. The money has been stolen. Weapons have gone around the world. All of that is not part of their wish, but now they can't back away from it. So they have a really real problem. But again, it's a psychological problem on our side. Our wishes are not impacting the reality, but they are making us unable to see the reality. It's a serious problem if a person has difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy. If the wish is a fantasy, but it's not reality, and the person doing the wishing has the levers of power in his or her hands, whether you're Victoria Nuland or Jake Sullivan or Anthony Blinken or Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton, when she was a vice, I almost said vice president, when she was secretary of state, this is dangerous. Is this thinking animating the view that, well, we won't condone Zelensky negotiating with the Russians

until we've pushed Putin from office? Is their wishing so absurd that they think they can push Putin from office, from power, and then engage in negotiation? Have they sunk to that level of insanity? Well, we know Zelensky's own words have stated just exactly that. Zelensky says, I will not negotiate with Putin. Putin must give back all of the territory and he must be removed from office and find himself in an international court or a Ukrainian court before Zelensky will even talk. And meanwhile, his country and his people are being destroyed. And I don't mean just the ones dying on the battlefields, because there's plenty of those and the injured ones.

But he lost 17 million Ukrainians. That's nearly half the country to refugee status in the rest of Europe and other places. So he doesn't have, you know, their farmland, you know, the Poles, the Polish farmers, they were dumping some Ukrainian grain on the ground because they said the Ukrainians are flooding our market with grain that's not produced in accordance with expensive EU standards. This is true. And Ukraine is like, well, you know, why are you doing that? Well, the reality, this is the reality. And they don't want to deal with it. Zelensky is a big part of this. Now, how much

Zelensky is controlled by British and American, you know, fantasists, we can debate that. But certainly Zelensky has said he will not deal with Putin. And that is almost insane, because the chances of Putin going and the chances of Zelensky going, they're very different. They'reitary, that Zelensky is under the control of MI6 and CIA. Do you believe that? Well, I think he's influenced, and I don't know what responsibility he feels towards the West or what things we have on him. I don't know. Clearly, his background suggests, being he's an actor, suggests very much that he could be playing a role that someone else is writing for him. And now he's stuck. He's in a bad place right now. It's one thing if the fantasist, if Vicky had had her way and everything would be really fast and rapid and all these things would have happened, Zelensky might be in a good place. But he has stood on top of a country

that he has destroyed by his decision-making and by his obedience to his Western masters. He has destroyed Ukraine to the extent now. Do you think that he fears that he might be assassinated by the Nazi-like people in his military because they would perceive negotiations not as a sign of confronting the inevitable, not as a way to save life and property and liberty, but as moral weakness. Oh, yeah. And I think he's probably been worried about that for quite a long time. I mean, even from the very beginning of this war, the most vicious and heartless, illegal, evil acts of the war, and all wars happen. But the most seem to be directly in the hand of the Banderites, the Nazi battalions. Those folks are serious, okay?

They're dangerous. And Zelensky knows this very well, and he has always known this. So I think he's always watched his back. I think he was very careful in the removal of Zelensky just recently and the replacing of him. Very, very cautious about that. What will people say? What will people do? How will I be protected? And again, he seems to be clinging even closer to the very folks that would be the first to stab him in the back and the first to assess him. Why does the West find Russia's intolerance for Nazism, for the Banderites, so shocking and incomprehensible? That's a good question because clearly in this country, we do not, our media and our people, our politicians, we don't support Nazism. Our media is the first to call somebody a Hitler if they don't like what they're doing. So clearly Nazism is not popular in this country by the powers that be nor by the majority

of the people. So why we are upset that Russia similarly does not tolerate Nazism, I don't really understand it. But I think part of it is we don't really care about Nazism. The neocons despise, they have almost a satanic hatred for Russia, and they despise Russia. And it's almost like whatever Russia does must be the evil thing. And they're bypassing the whole issue of our little patron that we have, our little patsy that we have in Ukraine, and his core backing, which is living Nazis. I mean, it's not just a 98-year-old guy in front of the Canadian parliament who was a real Nazi that killed Russians. It's not just that.

These guys, they have young soldiers, whole Italians that are soaked in Nazi ideology. And we are on that side. We are backing them, regardless of what we say. They are receiving our weapons. They are receiving our money. Their support makes sure that Zelensky doesn't lose his position. So, yeah, it's the hatred of Russia amongst neocons, particularly, because we have a neoconservative foreign policy and have had it 25 years maybe more um it overwhelms everything else and again it is based on fantasy remember what uh tom woods's famous one-liner is it seems no matter who you vote for for president you end up with john mccain and that seems to be the case, at least since the

Reagan years. What has become of the United States of America that our foreign policy is to support, pay for genocide in Gaza and Nazis in Ukraine? I mean, if you had predicted this 10 years ago, no one would have thought you were serious. But here we are with a liberal Democrat in the White House, and this is what we're doing. Okay, liberal Democrat in the White House may be unfair. I don't know what he is anymore. Like a lot of people, I knew him when he was younger and his mind was sound.

I don't know who he listens to now or what they're saying to him. I only know what the administration does. They're paying for slaughter and genocide in Gaza, and they're paying for Nazis in Ukraine. Yes, that's exactly right. That's what we've turned into. Why do these Nazis and their American backers refuse to consider any kind of negotiation? Don't they see 10 million Ukrainians have fled the country? Elections have been canceled next year. It's now illegal to leave the country. And most crushing, 500,000 young men are dead or so severely injured they can't lead normal lives. And still, they won't talk to the adversary. Well, as wars, when they're lost, when they become apparent to the people in the country that not only is the objective not obtainable, but it is lost, and people are still dying in the cost, the cost that has to be borne, the lost cost to the environment to the to the society to the culture everything that they've paid to fight this war

that they have lost this is what the ukrainians recognize today which is why they are refusing to be drafted anymore they've been resisting it for a long time and they need people they're refusing the fighting with the uh with the military that's coming to collect them and send them to the front. They don't want that. They reject that. And with that rejection comes a rejection of those who brought them there. And those who brought them there, of course, NATO, the United States, Zelensky and the Nazi movement within Ukraine. They have earned the contempt of their own people. For them, it's very sad, but it's also very dangerous because a smaller Ukraine, which will

be smaller, the Ukraine that comes out of this will be physically, territorially smaller. The people that remain there know what's happening and they know who to blame for it. And they are going to take their revenge because that's what happens when you lose a war. Somebody has to pay for it. When Tucker Carlson interviewed President Putin, there were some very interesting takeaways. T1, Sonia. Here's Carlson asking President Putin, would you ever invade Poland? And it's followed up with, was there ever a negotiation between Russia and Ukraine? Watch this. Can you imagine a scenario where you sent Russian troops to Poland?

Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia. Why? Because we have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. Why would we do that? We simply don't have any interest. It's just threat mongering. So I just want to make sure I'm not misunderstanding what you're saying. I don't think that I am. I think you're saying you want a negotiated settlement to what's happening in Ukraine. Right. And we made it. We prepared a huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He affixed his signature to some of the provisions, not to all of it. He put his signature and then he himself said, we were ready to sign it and the war would

have been over long ago, 18 months ago. However, Prime Minister Johnson came, talked us out of it, and we missed that chance. You commented in your piece on magical thinking that Prime Minister Johnson was enraged at what Vladimir Putin revealed in that interview with Tucker Carlson. Yeah, he almost went off his rocker on the video, very, very upset. And yet there's been books that interviewed Boris some months earlier where this is all reported. This is not even a surprise. The very fact that Putin mentions this to anybody that's been watching the news and even reading European newspapers, they will know this. The whole, you know, midnight visit of Boris Johnson to Ukraine is keep fighting, keep fighting,

we're with you, keep killing Russians. This is common knowledge. And suddenly, answers this. And I thought it's interesting how he answered it. I mean, he was very careful to say they initialed, the Ukrainian, initialed certain pages. No, they didn't agree with everything. But this is where it was very honest. He comes across as a person who's trying to share what he understands, what he knows. And if he doesn't know something or, you know, he's very he wants to have a thorough picture. Very believable, of course, but not just believable, but what Putin said there was completely factual. And instead of Boris Johnson maybe ignoring it,

no, no, he has to go on the newspaper, Twitter, and scream, oh, he's lying about me, he's lying about me. You're insane, Boris! Well, one place where you may have heard Boris but didn't hear Carlson and President Putin was in Ukraine, going to do with it. They don't have the manpower to use the equipment. It'll three different clips. They're each about 15 or 18 seconds in length. But to take a listen to the type of pabulum that is articulated by Republicans and agreed to by Democrats in the Senate of the United States. So it's Sonia 16, excuse me, eight, nine and 10 back to back to back. If we fail to help Ukraine, Putin will invade a NATO nation. He may delay his next invasion until he rebuilds his decimated military. But we must be clear eyed. Ukraine is not the end. It is a step. If we fail to help Ukraine, NATO, the alliance that's prevented great power conflict for over 75 years, will falter and eventually disintegrate.

If we fail to help Ukraine, China will eventually absorb Taiwan. If we fail to help Ukraine, we will abandon our word and our commitment, providing to our friends a view that America cannot be trusted. We got one. The premise, of course, is what is ordinarily defective. And his premise is that giving them money is helping them. Giving them money is destroying them. The premise, of course, is what is ordinarily defective. And his premise is that giving them money is helping them.

Giving them money is destroying them. That's true. One of the other questions that Tucker Carlson asked him was, how soon would this war be over? He said, well, if Joe Biden stops sending military equipment, it'll be over in two or three weeks. Yeah, I think that's fair. And also, you know, Romney, he's been a senator for a long time. You know, he ran for president, I think, at one time. His facts are insanely out of sync with reality. The idea that NATO has been a force for peace. In my lifetime NATO has not been a force for peace okay that we can we list the examples on multiple hands of where they have fomented violence and perhaps in the name of doing

something good but they have created huge problems and been a part of huge problems because Afghanistan is one of the more recent examples but certainly many of their actions and, you know, their expansion, constant expansion, the language that comes out of NATO, none of it is related to supporting peace. So they are not an organization that's interested in peace. That's one thing. But you did get it right. The trust in the United States is diminishing around the world. That is correct. You mentioned in your piece about magical thinking the tragic situation of Julian Assange, whose final appeal before a panel of British judges is either late this week or early next week. I was asked by his legal team

if I would make a statement. I did, and I addressed the statement directly to the judges. I don't know if they give a damn what I think or even if my words will reach them. But you talk about the tragedy of America. What is your understanding of the tragedy of Julian Assange, who did nothing but expose war crimes and expose evil and in return has been tortured every single day? That's right. And he's not even an American citizen. I think a lot of the way this has been presented to Americans is, oh, he's a traitor. You know, he's some sort of unpatriotic. He's not an American. What he reported on and what he published was not done on American soil or in American territory. government, having been exposed of committing war crimes in Iraq and lying, cheating, stealing, any number of things that were embarrassing or exposing criminality in our government. I can see why our government would not be happy. But to pursue the individual who they see as responsible

for this, who's not an American citizen, who did not conduct any crime, did not commit any crime, but certainly even what they're accusing him of, he did not commit it on any territory that the United States controls, and he did not do it in any way to harm the country, because Julian Assange has been responsible for publishing many, many things, and America is not the target of what he does. He's in the publishing business. He's in the news business. It's a crime that our government has committed under multiple presidencies. And huge disappointment to me that Trump did not stop this, did not drop those charges that they had, but instead it continued along. And I think that speaks to who really runs our country. They don't share the American values that I think most Americans grew up with and

embrace. Our government is not connected to us. If it was up to American people, there would be no charges against Assange ever, much less the harassment and the torture in jail. It speaks terribly about what Great Britain has done as well. It's just a bad situation. Former Director of the CIA and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is reputed to have said, this has been reported many times and he hasn't denied it, that Julian Assange should be assassinated. And the Brits took this so seriously that while Assange was holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy, they added to security around the Ecuadorian embassy, not to keep him from getting out, but to keep somebody from getting in.

This is just crazy. Then eventually, of course, they arrested him, extracted him from there. And he's been in solitary confinement every day since. First judge in his case actually ruled that he's been so terribly treated in Britain and is so diminished he can't possibly get a fair trial in the United States. And she ruled against his extradition. She's since been overruled. They have a lot of levels of appeal, more levels of appeal than we do here. She's been ruled against by all the appellate courts. Now, the final appellate, either argument is coming or ruling is coming. But I believe this is his last shot. I've said this publicly, so I'll say it again to you.

Shortly before he left office, President Trump called me on a number of things, one of which was, I plan to pardon these people. What do you think? Pardon commute, pardon commute. It was very flattering. We went through the list. And then I said, you know, I think you should pardon assange and snowden and he said i agree with you and then i remind well what are they charged with again and i reminded him how did they do it and what did they do and this guy wasn't even in the u.s we went through everything pardon me when i got off the phone call i mean i agreed with him with him. I wouldn't say anything. I was at Fox at the time.

I really thought it was going to happen. And then he sent a message to me through a U.S. senator, I won't say who, saying the people around me changed my mind, so I want to do it. I think you're right, but I can't. So Snowden

is free, but can't come back here. He's happily married and has a child or two in Moscow. Sanj is profoundly unfree and being brutalized mentally in a hellhole called Belmarsh. That's London's Florence, Colorado, London's maximum security prison. We'll see where it all goes. I wish we could end on a happy note. Did you see the ridiculous clip of Hillary Clinton mocking Tucker Carlson? I'm not sure if I saw that. All right. Sonia, can you find that? I'm pretty sure we have it. Just to end on a lighter note. So here is a successor to Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State of the United States. And here's what she had to say about a journalist doing journalism.

What does that tell you about Tucker Carlson and right wing media and also Vladimir Putin? Well, it shows me what I think we've all known. He's what's called a useful idiot. I mean, if you actually read translations of what's being said on Russian media, they make fun of him. I mean, he's like a puppy dog. You know, he somehow has, after having been fired from so many outlets in the United States, I would not be surprised if he emerges with a contract with a Russian outlet because... There she is. She's another magical thinker. There you go. What you wish for the future. There you go. There you go.

We'll end up where we started. The wish of the father to reality in the minds of these people that can't separate fantasy from reality. Karen, it's always a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Sure. We'll see you again next week. Coming up in an hour at 4.30 Eastern,

the inimitable Scott Ritter. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.