Judging Freedom - COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Is the US a Republic or an Empire?

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson : Is the US a Republic or an Empire?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, August 12, 2006. Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson will be with us in just a moment. I've been wanting to ask him this question for a long time. Is the United States a republic or is it an empire? What do you think? But first this. Today's headlines aren't just bleak. They're an indictment of a government that has abandoned the Constitution. You are witnessing the direct result of the Federal Reserve's relentless war on the value of your doctor. For centuries, gold and silver have been the ultimate shield against the state's favorite tools.

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That's 800, 5114620 or go to Learjudgeonap.com. Colonel Larry, welcome here, my dear friend. Before we get to this question of whether the United States is still a republic or has become an empire or something else, I do want to ask you some questions about Ukraine. You and I have been emailing about this. You provided me with a fair amount of reading material in the past few days, and it got me thinking about basics. Why is the United States still in Korea? in Ukraine. Why are U.S. armaments and Intel still there? What are the American interests today in Ukraine? Strangely enough, Judge, I don't think it's the volition of the commander-in-chief Donald Trump. I think he just has gone along to get along, and he's involved in a far more serious war for him politically in Southwest Asia. So it's kind of on automatic pilot right now with much of the same that's been going on in the past. I think what got us involved, ultimately,

is what I've talked about many, many times, and it is this inexorable shift of power, and it is inexorable, away from the Western empires, if you will, the Western powers, and towards the magnet of that shift, China, with all the accoutrements thereof, which now includes such disparate countries,

as North Korea, Iran, possibly, and I think more likely in the future, Turkey and India, the subcontinent. But now the vastest country of all, Russia. So you have what are continental powers arrayed mightily with incredible populations, incredible strategic depth, incredible GDPs, really, particularly the lead one, China, the leading economy in the world by any stretch of the imagination or even the facts. And that's being contested, and it's being contested in a long way. And Biden really began this contest with regard to Russia, but it started with Bill Clinton. And it's been going on ever since Bill Clinton's first time, however, in co-itly, it's been going on.

But Biden deepened it, and he didn't deepen it on his own, in my view. He deepened it for Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan and others of their like. And what I'm talking about is the people behind the scenes who really, you could name some of them, we can't any of us name all of them because they operate in secret many times and sometimes all the time. They all want to stop this shift and they see the best way to do it is with the two weapons that the empire, the American Empire has become so accustomed to using that it knows no other. And that's massive sanctions and military force. What is the current state putting aside the sanctions?

Because we know that unless there's some dramatic breakthrough, they're only going to get worse. The Senate passed. I don't know if the House has or the president have signed it. This bill they named after the late Senator Graham, which imposes secondary sanctions, sanctions on countries that do business with Russia. I think this has been a burrow in the saddle to President Putin, but it hasn't knocked him off the horse at all, so to speak. But putting that

aside, what is the current state of United States-Russia relations? Do the Russians take seriously the idea that the United States of America, a co-belligerent with Ukraine against Russia could possibly be a mediator? And does it take seriously the two real estate agents? People who are nowhere near the caliber of Sergei Lavrov are the negotiators? There is no meaningful negotiation, diplomacy with Russia from Washington's point of view. There is zero in South West Asia. So we are bereft of the diplomatic instrument in all of its forms. Notwithstanding, we do. In fact, I have a Secretary of State, but he doesn't seem to practice diplomacy at all. Well, wait a minute. He's also the U.S. Archivist. He's also the

manager of the Venezuelan slush fund. Right. Head of National Security Council, Viceroy of Venezuela, about to be an invader of Cuba. I don't know when the guy sleeps. Yes. This is a strong. strange administration, but to your question, the diplomacy with Russia lapsed the moment Trump decided he was not going to be a person to be a part of it. And he turned it over to the Europeans. And that's where it began to go really squirrelly because the Europeans, as Powell predicted in 1989, as Mitterrand and Cole and all the old guys with their feet in the war disappeared from the landscape, have gone crazy. They've gone insane.

They have turned back into the 1930s European for all practical effects. And those practical effects, we know what that led to. It led to 100 million casualties in a brutal war on two theaters. And we're looking for that again, I think. We're seriously looking at that again. And I say that with some emphasis on latest developments, which are, as I sent to you, Sergey Lavrov, making a categorical statement that Russia's paper, nations had run out. And what they're going to do now, in my estimation, militarily, is they're going to pinpoint of which there are plenty NATO targets inside Ukraine. There's French, there's U.S., there's German, there's all manner of NATO targets inside Ukraine. There's MI6, there's Mossade, there's CIA. I suspect the French are there in their intelligence assets, and I suspect others are too.

They can hit these with pinpoint accuracy. And if that doesn't do anything, they're going to graduate to an actual naval country with a target that's ripe for striking. I think personally, I think it'll be Lithuania. And then we're off to the races. And the question then becomes because, frankly, the E3 and the EU in general,

I don't think can stand up to Russia. They could be able to, but they can't. They will not. And if Trump plays his usual card here and withholds U.S. participation and whatever results from that, that we are in a cockamamie mess par excellence, one that could bid farewell to go nuclear at any point in time when Donald Trump and others realize that we're out and we need to come back in. Now, take General Grinkewitch, for example.

He is sitting on all that is possible to put up against the Russians should they suddenly decide they are seriously at war with NATO and commence it. And all the munitions that have been used up in the Southwest Asian conflict and all the things that have been shot by Israel in the air, now to where Israel virtually has no air defenses, same with most of the Gulf states, if not including all the Gulf states. Grinquich is really angry because his munitions are gone, and his navy that everyone is talking about sending to the Mediterranean to defend Israel is going to be sorely needed if he's to defend Europe against a possible NATO attack by Russia. So he's probably sweating bullets right now, and that's the reason he's hollering at C.JCS, the chairman of the Joint Chief General Kane, about these.

munitions shortfalls and about what's happening with regard to force in general, and it's misuse in other theaters when we might possibly have the big one, the one we always suspected we might have, and the pull the gap in elsewhere in Europe. Maybe before he deploys the Navy General Grincovic would spend a week on the USS Abraham Lincoln, where he couldn't take a shower, couldn't find toothpaste, wouldn't have deodorant, and eat. some sort of a pasty, canned gruel that they claim is meat. There's a story for another time, but it's disgusting. They've had seven suicide attempts.

Seven young people tried to jump off the carrier. It's truly disgusting. Colonel, further to the analysis you just gave is a fascinating statement made by President Putin himself about NATO facilities. You're right. They know what and where the NATO facilities. are to the decimal point. Watch this. Chris number 19.

NATO is gradually seeping into the area, and new military political blocks are being formed right before our eyes. New weapon systems are currently being deployed and are also planned for deployment here, which pose serious threats to our country as well. Tensions are also been significantly ramped up in the neighboring Arctic zone, which we have already mentioned,

specifically regarding the ongoing use of the northern sea route, Although Russia has always, and I truly mean always, consistently educated for, and now confirms its full and complete readiness for, broad international cooperation and utilizing the many strategic advantages of the Northern Sea Roe for the mutual benefit of everyone in bully. And those states that are genuinely interested in working with us are now showing a significant level of interest, primarily from our close friends, such as China, India and other nations.

They are currently engaged in active, discussions with us regarding these issues, and we will certainly welcome and encourage joint cooperation, both with our friends and with all countries. Question. Before you analyze the words, why is he in a military uniform? Good question. Maybe he's trying to up one on Zelenskyy. Or on Trump. I couldn't imagine Trump in the military uniform. What kind of ribbons and bows he'd insist beyond his chest. But again, another topic for another time. Is he planning, as you have just said before I ran the tape, to target NATO facilities in Ukraine, no matter who's there, could be an American general there? Question, follow-up.

Is he planning to target NATO manufacturing facilities? These are civilian people now in NATO countries. I think you'll start with those intelligence and pseudo and military. installations that he knows about. I think that's what he'll start with. But there's no question in my mind that if that doesn't make some change in the circumstances, he may move on to other targets that will be judged more serious, if you will. And as I said, I think he'll move outside Ukraine into a NATO country and actually test it

and see what happens if nothing comes out of the rest. Now, you've got the E3 and Zelensky stating categorically that Ukraine has, has to be a member of NATO as a condition of any settlement of the conflict there. How do you deal with that kind of obstinence and that kind of wooden headiness, dare I say hard-headedness? You execute it. Yes. That's what they'll say in the Kremlin. Having these idiots learned anything in the past four and a half years? That is, going to use a phrase my Latin teachers taught me, the sine qua non, without which there is nothing. of this entire war, NATO in Ukraine.

Do they really think that Putin would negotiate and accept that under any circumstances? He wouldn't accept that with a gun to his head. The crucial issue here, Judge, in my mind, is that they all think, I don't care who you're talking about, from Lithuania to Paris to Berlin to London, they all think that they have the United States,

not just our nuclear umbrella, But they think they have us behind them. They haven't been looking at what's happening in Southwest Asia, for example, where we're being proven, if not a paper tiger, a pretty flimsy one. They haven't looked at anything that's happened in the last 20 years since the last war where we showed any pluck and any competence at all, the first Gulf War. That was a long time ago, Judge. A generation has passed since that time.

We have fallen apart militarily, presidentially, congressionally, you name it. We are falling apart. The Europeans are not looking at the truth. The truth is, even if Donald Trump agreed and gave Grickwich the order

as both the U.S. and the shape commander to go ahead and pursue the defense in any way, fashion, or form he wanted to, I don't think it would happen. I just don't think it would happen. happened. So they're betting on something that isn't going to be behind them. And even if it is behind them, minus its nuclear capacity, it's not going to be worth a damn. Well, let's go to the other

hotspots. What options remain for Trump to salvage his loss in Iran? Very few, unless he's willing to eat a lot of crow. And he's good at that if he can lie his way out of it. But I don't think this is one where he wants to eat the crow. I don't think it is one ultimately that with the devastating polling that's in now on his disapproval rating and on other issues that pertain to the midterms, I don't think he's probably going to be willing to do that from a political point of view as well as a personal point of view. So he's trapped. He is trapped. I don't know how he gets out of this.

I couldn't even begin to suggest a way to. to get out of it, other than to try to accept the things that are not so resounding a defeat and make them look like they're a victory or at least a neutral outcome, something like that. And I see that as being extremely difficult. It would call upon some really good diplomatic effort to do that, and we have no diplomats. You have written to me about the divisions in the Iranian people. There is the government, there are the religious fanatics, there are the corrupt generals in the government, there are the young people who want more freedom, there's the great majority that just wants the war over. But how unified are the Iranian people against the United States and Israel right now, because of the United States.

of what's been going on for the past years, the 13-day war in June. Since 28 February, there has been a lot of resoluteness created. All those people talking about, including General Kane and testimony to the Congress, the issue of air campaigns and bombing in general, not really bringing about victory in any point in history that you can point back to. And much of the lying about the bombing and war, World War II and Vietnam and elsewhere has been proven just that lying in what we're called bomb damage assessments in the post years. No air campaign has ever done anything much more than

make the people upon whom the bombs are falling more resolute, more determined to stand up whoever's dropping them. So we're looking at a situation where we in our stupidity have fused a statured, that was in some ways in many components, many parts, 51, 52% Persian, a lot of other nationalities, 50,000 Jewish citizens and so forth. We've fused that into a body that wants to fight us to the death and fight Israel to the death as well because it realizes if it doesn't fight Israel to the death, this will just come back and again and again and again and haunt them, because they see no possibility of a change in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, or anywhere else in the Jewish component of the state of Israel. And they see the United States, at least with this president,

linked with that 100%. So they're going to fight to the death. Colonel, is the United States of America, a republic or an empire? Empire. I taught this for 16 years at William and Mary for eight years at the nation's war colleges, the two premier war colleges, and for six years at George Washington, it started with the Great White Fleet and the Spanish American War and so forth, and came on creepingly. It slowed down in World War I, and then we realized how much money could be made in the inner war years and slowed down again and then World War II. At the end of World War II,

we had 51% of the world's GDP. We built 51,000 airplanes in a single year. We had 7,000 ships, 111 carriers. We had 7,000 ships in the army. Now, a lot of those were landing craft and so forth, but we were the world's power by a large measure. Our enemies lay prostrate at our feet, our allies lay prostrate at our feet. We were the total GDP of the world in many respects. We were 51% actual GDP. And we built our friends and allies up and some of our enemies back up. And we said, boy, this is really pretty good. We like being champion of the world. And we were checked in that to a certain extent by another monolithic ideological power, or call the Soviet Union.

When that check came off, the full imperial glow of the United States of America took on a new patina. It took on a new complexion. George H.W. Bush tried to dampen it, tried to deal with it in a logical, sensible way. He was defeated, largely because of APAC

and others throwing their weight behind Bill Clinton. A nobody from Arkansas. How did that man get? elected. Go back and look at it. And ever since that time, the imperial side of us has dwarfed the Republican side of us and in many respects has killed the republic just as happened after Julius Caesar was assassinated and Octavius fought his wars and consolidated the Roman Empire, which it was for thereon. Most historical empires, classic empires, drew assets from their vassal states around the world, the Romans, the British. The United States

wastes money on its vassal states. Phil Juraldi says that that number of 850 military installations is wrong. It's closer to 1,100 military installations around the world. No human could name them. Hegseth couldn't name them. Hegseth couldn't say where they are, why they're there. We know the Pentagon hasn't passed an audit in 25 years. So nobody knows, Colonel, how much money is being spent on these, whether it's 850 or 1,100 vessels around the world. Well, it's about $75 to $80 billion a year, just the upkeep maintenance and general situation with regard to that many bases overseas. I mean, that's the assessment that we did a few years ago.

Vine's the expert on this, and his book, Base Nation, is the treatise on it. I think he's right. That's a bit of an exaggeration. It's more like somewhere between 730 and 750. And you've got to put some criterion on it. You can't call a gas pump with Exxon Mobil on it, a military base, which a lot of these people do. It's got to have something regarding the military there. The most likely ones, of course, you know right off the bat, Ramshy and it plays a place. like that. But it is incredible, and it is incredible when you put it up against it. And these people run around

saying China has one and Russia has two, that's crap too. China has somewhere around 11 or 12, and it depends on how you count them, but that's the way I count them if they have any military. Colonel, we know where there's at least a half dozen fewer

U.S. military bases. Oh, yes. And that's in the Gulf. Yes. Interesting. just read a paper on how to China. The emperor would love to expand the empire. He's actually shrunk it. He has. He has.

It's going to shrink a lot further. Before it's overruth, it's going to shrink a lot further. And I'll be the first one to say it should. And I would be willing to hand him a plan showing him where he could close about 200 these bases. But look what we're doing. We're building new ones in a line to oppose China, a line all the way from up at Guam, all the way down into the Polynesian Islands and down to New Zealand and Australia.

We're building a defense lot. Could we fight a war against Russia and Europe and a war against China and the Pacific at the same time when we can't even fight a war against Ukraine? Not on your life. I mean, Iran? Not anymore. We couldn't create the industrial base. It'd take 10 years to even get to a remotely capable industrial base to do that kind of conflict.

Especially when you consider that a lot of this is new technologies, and we're looking at things now that are basically middle of the road or old technology. You see that article on Grumman and that factory out there in the Midwest that the Army spent 500 million plus on, and it hadn't made hardly a round yet. Excess going to have to explain this. The IGs are all over. Wow. Colonel, I'll let you go.

Thank you very much. I know you have an important matter coming out. and my heart and thoughts are with you, and we'll look forward to seeing you next week. Thank you. Thank you. All the best. Coming up in 33 minutes,

if you're watching us live at 3 o'clock this afternoon on all of this, the interesting question. The defense department gets a trillion dollars a year and still runs out of ammunition. How does that happen? Who else? The great Phil Giraldi, Gerald Giraldi, Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.