Judging Freedom - COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Can Trump Restrain Netanyahu?

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Can Trump Restrain Netanyahu?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, August 28th, 2000 and 25. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson joins us now. Colonel Wilkerson, always a pleasure. My dear friend, you look fabulous, by the way. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you for accommodating my schedule. Are you going out for rugby batch? You know, it was 45 degrees here at 530,

this morning when I was walking my dog and I put this on. It's still kind of chilly. This is one of my favorite colors and I love rugby shirts. It's a little early for fall, but it might almost be fireplace weather here this weekend. October down here. Well, before we get to Trump and Netanyahu, about which I have some questions,

what did the United States gain from the Trump-Pooten meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, Colonel? I'm rapidly becoming a believer in nothing except mentioning and discussing and hopefully pursuing talks over New Start, which goes out in February 26, as you know, and we need to renew that. And generally speaking, nuclear arms control with regard to both Russia and China. Our friend and a colleague and a big admirer of yours, Pepe Escobar, argued from long before the meeting that it was never really about Ukraine, that it was about these bigger issues. Are you coming to that view as well?

Because we know that since the meeting, the Russian attacks have become more aggressive. You could even describe them as ferocious. And the president has done some strange things like taunt Ukraine for not being on the offense and authorizing the sale of 3,000 medium-range missiles that have a 280-mile range range. Well, of course, there are three choices, really, that lie before Trump or that lay before Trump at the meeting in Alaska. I think haven't changed much. One, he can cut and run completely, just divest himself from the whole thing and let it cook, however way it'll cook.

And, of course, the Europeans will try for a while to keep it cooking, but they won't be able to. Two, he can just push away from the whole thing and go into the warm embrace of Putin and Sergei Lovroff. I don't think he's going to do that. And the third option is to just squirrel around. And that seems to be what Trump likes to do or what he has a proclaim. to do, and that, to me, is the most dangerous thing of all. In other words, not solve anything, really. We come back to those statements that he made, and they're indicative of Donald Trump,

I fear. Chris, one second, Colonel, Chris, put the truth social one up on the screen. It's just the first few sentences. It's very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invader's country. It's like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but it's not allowed to play offense. There's no chance of winning. it's like that with Ukraine and Russia. The rest he's attacking Biden. Why would he say something like that? And when Lavrov sees that and goes in to tell Putin, what do you think they say?

Is this guy crazy? I think that's pretty much what they say. It's also illogical and wrong, particularly with regard to warfare, as Klausowitz points out very, very carefully and pointedly. Defense is the strongest form of warfare. And all you have to do is look at Napoleon's ratio, for example, three to one. almost minimal to conduct an offense against someone with a good defense. A really good defense, I'd say it's more like five to eight to one.

And when you're outnumbered seven to one already just in population, it's absurd to say that going on the offense rather than the defense for Ukraine was a smart thing to do. That's the reason I think we ought to be taken to the woodpile and thrashed. We have not done anything since 9-11, Judge. in our military that even comes close to being competent and successful. And we're not being held task for it at all. There's no accountability.

Here's what Colonel McGregor, who was just on the show about an hour ago, and census sent me this. I'll read it. It's not that long. Ukrainian channels report an increase in casualties on the front lines. The Ukrainian armed forces lose up to 300 trucks, pickups, motorcycles, minibuses, ATVs, and other logistics vehicles per day. Additionally, up to 40 to 50 units of more expensive armored vehicles, tanks, armored cars,

and air defense systems are lost every day. All these losses mean that the infantry and drone operators are taking over the war. However, the number of experienced drone operators is steadily decreasing. The end must be near, Colonel. I heard yesterday the total is up to 1.6, 1.7 casualties now, 1.6, 1.7. That's dead or missing. McGregor agrees with you on that number. And the huge number, the huge number, all but about 300,000 are all Ukrainian. And as we're having this conversation, as Marco Rubio calls Lavrov, and I don't know if they speak,

I'm just speaking hypothetically here. isn't the U.S. intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance still trying to show Ukrainians how to kill Russian soldiers? I don't doubt it. I don't know that for a fact. I mean, I just don't know it for a fact, but I wouldn't doubt it. I wouldn't doubt that Mossad, MI6, and CIA are still operating and still operating on fundamentally the same sheet of music they got very early on and was augmented significantly

by Biden's administration. If the U.S. military at Ramstein, Germany, is using Intel reconnaissance and surveillance tools to guide the Ukrainians, do they work for the same General Donahue, who said we can attack and take over a Kalenigrad? Is that the mentality that's directing them? I won't deny that that might be the mentality, but no, the answer to your question is no, because he commands under. Underneath the 4-Star, who is Sanker, Sincke, you know, the old Supreme Allied Commander Europe who commands all the NATO forces as well as the U.S. forces underneath him. Right. He's underneath that man as the man who commands the U.S. Army elements.

Okay. Can you envision European troops on the ground in Ukraine under any circumstance, is either now or after the special military operation is over? Would the Russians permit that or would they violently expel them? Well, Loverov was very specific. He said, here are our non-negotiable parameters. Ukraine must be non-nuclear. It must not have any military block that it's aligned with and it must be neutral. And then he went on to say that you could accept any of the U.N. Council members, troops in some sort of security guarantee. And then he went on further to say, and that would include, for example, Germany and Turkey. And Germany, of course, was a member of the

EU group that was associated with the JCPOA. So he was being very lenient there. Didn't he then go on to say, but Russia would have a veto over all this? Well, of course, on the UN Security Council, if that was a deployment. But I take him at his word that if he's saying he would accept if they needed security guarantees that Russia would accept, that those countries would be acceptable. Caitlin Johnson, Johnstone, you and I know of her. I don't know her personally. She's a brilliant and at times snarky and witty Australian journalist just sent me a little,

yeah, sent me a little ditty here. God clearly and explicitly commands Christians to support the modern state of Israel. It's right here in the Holy Bible. Give me a minute and I'll find the verse for you. Ah, I got it. Exodus 2013. You shall not murder.

Well, wait a minute. That's not. Here it is, Matthew 511. Blessed are the peacemakers, Israel. We can't allow Palestinian journalists to remain alive in Gaza because all the Palestinian journalists are Hamas. Western journalists. Okay, so let us in.

That way, there can be journalists in Gaza who aren't Hamas. Israel, no. Judge, there's a book called Dark Crusade that details what dispensationalists in America believe. And it tells you that the estimate of dispensationalists in America, fundamentalists, we call them, is about 48 to 55 million. Their belief about Russia, and this explains, I think, some of the otherwise inexplicable hatred of Russia amongst these people.

That's a lot of people. They believe that the Rus, the Russians, are the soldiers of the Antichrist. They believe that. Oh, God. The Russia that I observed in the week I was there was a devoutly religious, traditional Russian Orthodox that reminded me of the old-fashioned Latin masses that I attend here. Probably better Christians than many of these dispensationalists. Yeah, Chris, play the, I didn't look at the number, forgive me.

The two rabbis and Mike Huckabee for Colonel. The ambassador has a very interesting view of anti-Semitism. She grew up in America. There was anti-Semitism, of course, in my experience, of all experiences. The ambassador has a very interesting view of that. He says, people are, you can't understand anti-Semitism. If the people who are anti-Semitic, it's because they're against Scott, against Urbain Shulid. And we are represented as his people, and that's why they're anti-Semitic.

Otherwise, it doesn't make any sense. Interesting view. It's interesting view. There's another view that since we can say the chosen people. And that's part of it, is that because you are the chosen people, given a chosen place, for a chosen purpose and if someone is angry at God he'll be angry at the people who represent him so I tell people anti-Semitism is irrational there's no reason for it unless you understand the spiritual reason which is what I

believe is at the heart of it it is not the left versus the right it is good versus evil. It is the creator versus those who rebel against the creators. Wow. Does Mike represent the United States or the state of Israel? I forget almost. Who is he their ambassador to us or our ambassador to them? That's a good question. You can say the same thing about the director of the CIA. Who's he directing the CIA for? Yeah. And you could say the same thing about a lot of these dual citizens. who are, shall we say, more of allegiance to Israel when the crunch is there than they are to America.

That's very dangerous. George Washington had this problem, of course, with the French. And it was a real pain for him because he had had to deal with the French to win the Revolutionary War. I mean, to be very frank about it, and without him, he wouldn't have won without their Navy off Yorktown

and without the forces at Yorktown, wouldn't have won. And yet, he became a virulent opponent of the French post-war because he realized there were too many Americans enamored of them. And it was ruining his possibility of salvaging what was left of the Continental Congress and ultimately the new country. You just can't be, as he said explicitly, so bound to a single other state that you sacrifice your own interest for it. And we're talking that guy thinking he's doing it for God. Colonel, do you know anybody that doesn't know that the Israelis attack the Nassar hospital and murdered doctors, patients, and five journalists?

That probably has gotten more attention than anything that's happened in this conflict with regard to changing people's minds than anything else. Oh, here's somebody who didn't know about. about it, cut number 10. If we could get your reaction, sir, the Israelis bombed a hospital in Gaza that killed 20 people, including five journalists. When did this happen? This happened overnight today.

I didn't know that. Any reaction to this? Are you going to talk to about it? I don't want to see it. At the same time, we have to end that all nightmare. I'm the one that got the hostages out. I got them out. All of them.

How could he not know? If he didn't know, then he's got a fire. Hegseth Rubio, his chief of staff, and wherever the hell whispers into his ear. He did know he wasn't telling the truth, and he changed the subject immediately. Yep. I think that's a relevant occasion for so much more, Judge.

I don't believe he's being told the truth when the truth hurts. Well, they are not serving him well because he's making life and death decisions. Well, has he normalized genocide? why is he not being criticized for genocide the way Biden was? That's a good question, too. I think it's because that was the side that was supposedly progressive, and so they could find their bona fides to criticize him,

but the side that Trump represents is not the progressive side, so they don't have any bona fides for criticism, so why go along with it? I mean, that's a crass thing for me to have to say, because that's my political party. But I'll say it. Here's another one for you. Mr. Smotrich, the Minister of Finance.

Watch this. This is stomach churning. Cut number 16. What will come in over the next few days is very little. A few bakeries handing out petas to people and public kitchens providing a daily portion of cooked food. Civilians in Gaza will get a pita and a plate of food, and that's it. That's exactly what we're seeing in the videos. People are standing in line waiting for someone to ladle them a bowl of soup.

But I want to avoid having to bring even a single grain into the Gaza Strip altogether, not even for the civilians. Maybe so. I completely understand the anger. I completely understand the pain in our guts that we all feel as citizens. The truth is, until the last hostage returns, we shouldn't even be giving water to the Gaza Strip. For a year and a half now, we've been beating Hamas to a pulp. We're dismantling Gaza and leaving it as sword lovers with

total and unprecedented destruction in the world, and the world still isn't stopping us. With the aim of achieving the one and only required outcome, conquering Gaza, destroying Hamas, and bringing back all the hostages. In one word, victory. Does the government the American taxpayers paying for, Colonel? Right. It's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. And yet we continue. And if I have to conclude that Donald Trump knows even a half, even a third of that kind of of vitriol that we just heard and is going along with it, I've lost all faith in him. Here's an interesting analysis by a Dutch analyst, last name Rabani, Chris Cut Number 9.

It does appear that the Trump administration has now finally fully fallen in with the footsteps of its predecessor, the Biden administration, and lined up unconditionally behind Israel. And it appears that at this point, the United States is fully behind the Israeli plan to physically seize Gaza City and then Deer al-Belah in the center of the Gaza Strip, and Israel will then basically be able to dictate so-called post-war arrangements.

Also another meeting today at the Security Council where 14 of the 15 members spoke out very strongly about the need to address the growing famine in the Gaza Strip, which has already claimed several hundred lives and is claiming more at a higher rate by the day, and the United States, through its full weight behind preserving Israeli impunity. I mean, the real issues, of course, are genocide and famine in the Gaza Strip, annexation in the West Bank. And to talk now about post-war plans is a bit like fiddling while Rome Burns. And he didn't even mention the most serious issue. The most serious issue is the coming war with Iran. We have got an event that's going to take place here. The E3, apparently,

France, UK, and Germany are going to let the snapback sanction. snap back and this is going to be extremely injurious to Iran not only does it say formally from the UN that they cannot enrich it also puts draconian sanctions on top of draconian sanctions and now Netanyahu is going to be looking for that war and I think Trita Parsi is right in his article he's rebuted again in line with this snapback business and we're going to We're going to war with Iran, and I say we, because Trump is going to have to, he thinks, go with him when Netanyahu gets himself into existential circumstances. He is going to put the state of Israel in an existential situation because Iran is going to beat the be Jesus out of him. And then he's going to have to call on us.

Wow. I don't know where I don't know where this is going to go there be some justice in that crude justice but I don't want to see that I mean we're talking about a real conflagration and you think Venezuela is serious I mean that's a

that's a really stupid thing we're doing down there I got to think that maybe Higgsith is positioning this tiny little flotilla as it were with a nuclear submarine attack submarine what the hell is that going to do to drug lords he's positioning maybe to slip up around vera cruz and to do something with regard to the truly dangerous cartels that are in mexico but i i have no idea what are they doing this is utter stupidity they're going to kill they're going to kill innocence well the force doesn't even meet the

requirement it's it's a it's a conglomeration is what it is it's reduced marine expedition expeditionary unit with its command and control ships and its carrying ships, the LPDs that carry the Marines, and a nuclear attack submarine and a command and control ship. This is crazy. What are we doing? It makes no sense. I dealt with this in the Pacific all the time because we had to have muse and args all over the Pacific for real security reasons.

What are they doing? Why are we bombing Somalia, Colonel? Good question, but let me tell you, we've been doing. it all along. And supposedly we're doing it because we don't like the way the terrorists, quote unquote, ISIS, whatever they might be, are complicating our relations with African countries in that particular sector. It's all about the military having taken over Africa and banned the State Department, and they are our policy in Africa now. And they're run by people as stupid as that general by the name of Donahue in Europe.

President said as recently as yesterday he's going to change the name of the Defense Department to the War Department. I don't think he can do that I think only Congress can do it because Congress changed from war to defense in 1949. Watch this Congress do it. Well, or watch this Congress roll over and let the President do whatever the hell he wants. Exactly, exactly. I wonder what your...

You should see some of the... comments coming back from my friends at the eyes and their media network as to what they should call it. The rapide and pillage department. The incompetent department. They can't fight a war department. How

long would Secretary Powell have lasted as the Secretary of State for Donald Trump? Well, he wouldn't have taken the job. He had a pretty good eye for that sort of thing. The only time he failed was when he lined up with the governor of Texas.

Yeah. We know about that. Colonel, thank you very much. Thank you for your time. I hope you have a great long, restful holiday weekend coming up, and we'll see you next week. Thank you. You too. Thank you, Colonel.

All the best. Sure. Coming up at 3 o'clock on all of this, is Israel destroying itself? is Ukraine destroying itself, is the United States destroying itself? Professor John Mearsheimer. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.