Judging Freedom - COL. Lawrence Wilkerson: Russia Can Legally Attack NATO.

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

COL. Lawrence Wilkerson: Russia Can Legally Attack NATO.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 Tuesday, November 26th, Thanksgiving week, 2024 Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. Colonel Larry Wilkerson joins us now. Colonel Wilkerson, a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you very much for joining us and for accommodating our truncated schedule this week. Colonel, do you think that the Russians fired off last week has registered with the Biden administration and with the West? It doesn't seem to have. I was doing some really heavy thinking earlier this morning, about 4 a.m. in the morning. You know, this could be a real effort to get away from nuclear weapons. I'm always looking for those kind of methodologies. And this has every promise of being a high-tech solution to nuclear weapons. I

won't say that it will improve the casualty rate, but I will say it'll improve the doomsday nature of nuclear weapons because these weapons have the impact of a nuclear weapon, but without the detritus, so to speak. They don't bring on nuclear winter, for example, that would kill the whole herd. It's an interesting development from the technological aspects alone. I've listened to Ted Postol and others who know more about it than I do. But it is really a fabulous achievement that apparently has been being worked on for longer than a decade by Soviet scientists. It is equal, in my view at this point, if I understand it,

it's equal to the Manhattan Project. Well, this thing goes 7,600 miles an hour. Incredible. You're talking about reaching London or Paris or Berlin in a couple of minutes. And not burning up in the terminal stage. That's the extraordinary thing about it. It's like it's Teflon, but stronger than Teflon. Right, right. But yet, Colonel, the United States authorized, programmed, and triggered another Atacoms attack on the Russian land, mainland, after this missile was sent. It's almost as if they're thumbing their nose. Colonel, does the United States government not take

President Putin seriously? Apparently not. And I think it will be to their ultimate detriment and all of our ultimate detriment, the entire country, because if they keep going on the path they're on right now, they're going to force this very pragmatic, very prudent man who has come to the conclusion, and I said this months ago, I think it's firm now, absolutely firm, that we are duplicitous, we lie as a matter of practice, we have no diplomacy. My God, we haven't even, I'm told we haven't even spoken seriously with the Russians for seven years, and we keep on this path that you just described. He is going to have no choice but to teach us a lesson, a big lesson, and then we're off to the races. Here's a comment about this from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

You might not recognize him. He lost so much weight, but it's him. He's basically arguing, I don't get this, Colonel, that Putin can still lose the war in Ukraine, but it's short. It's only 17 seconds. Here it is, cut 13.

I think that the missile attack at a real scale last night into Ukraine is evidence that Vladimir Putin knows that this is his maximum point of leverage and that in 60 days, fundamentally, his leverage will have decreased and the shaping of that conflict will have fundamentally changed as well. What is he talking about? There are 600,000 Ukrainian young men dead. The Russians have amassed a tremendous amount of manpower and equipment up to the Dnieper River. He thinks that this is going to turn in 60 days? I don't know if you realize it, but the juxtaposition of those two videos, the one of the strike and Pompeo, was as if God himself were refuting Pompeo's words, even as he spoke. And I think that's a good image because that is what is happening in the sense of what Russia can do and what we can do in response or for that matter, what NATO can do in response. I laugh when I hear Macron or anyone in NATO saying they're going to put troops on the

ground in Ukraine. Thank you very much. You will not get them back. They will come back in body bags if they come back at all. You are insane, people. And you need to wake up because you have lost in Ukraine. And because of that defeat, you are putting the world in jeopardy. Here's a comment, perhaps even more insane than that,

from President-elect Trump's designated number two person on his national security team. You're probably familiar with him. Sebastian Gorka, cut number 10. I'll give one tip away that the president has mentioned. He will say to that murderous former KGB colonel, that thug who runs the Russian Federation, you will negotiate now or the aid that we have given to Ukraine thus far will look like peanuts. That's how he will force those gentlemen to come to an arrangement that stops the bloodshed. Alone to take off the reservation or actually saying what Trump thinks? I have no idea what Trump thinks anymore,

given these spokespersons who've been out there speaking in the last month or so. But I got news for Sebastian. If it's peanuts, it'll be followed by English peas. There is nothing in our arsenal other than nuclear weapons. We have nothing to put into Ukraine in a conventional sense that would even give Zelensky a prayer, a hope. He's lost. He's lost badly. And as Jake Sullivan, the only sensible statement made by this administration presently in power, said, when you have 15 to 1 or 16 to 1 or 20 to 1 or whatever the ratio is now between Russia and Ukraine on the ground, you are going to lose.

Does the deep state in America do the neocons in America? I'll put Mr. Gorka in the neocon, not in the deep state category. He'll be in the deep state category. Neocons would be embarrassed, Judge. They'd be embarrassed to have him in their camp.

Well, whoever's in that camp, do they want World War III? Yeah, I think some of them do. I think so. Let's put it this way. I think a few of them on the fringe are willing to risk it. And I think as John Bolton was willing to risk 100,000 casualties, 30,000 of which would have been American, should we go to war with North Korea. And he as much as admitted that to me in his office. They would risk the world for their purposes. I don't think it's that many of them. I think right now what we're looking at is stupidity. You know, I lived through the breadth of the Cold War. I was seven years old

when I watched my father wrestle with the idea that he might, after World War II and the years he participated there, go to Korea in 53. I lived all that period. I know what kind of intense thinking and analytical thinking and other thoughts about nuclear war went on during that time and what it produced. We've lost it. We've lost it all. We have no fear of it anymore, apparently. And this is the leadership that's taken us to that point.

It started with Bill Clinton. It started with the expansion of NATO for no reason other than money. But it's gotten to insane levels. It just makes no sense anymore. It's like we were in a great big castle wandering around. Castles called the empire, the American empire. We're wandering around. We don't even know which room to go to,

or we don't know how to get out. And the ramparts are supposed to be filled with people with bows and arrows and everything to take care of the enemy. There's nobody up there. Do you think that Joe Biden would be reckless enough to give nuclear weaponry to the Ukrainians? How can I answer that given the past? I mean... Well, the past would indicate yes,

but I don't want to put words in your mouth. I hope not. I pray not. I mean, it's almost as if nobody in the West, notwithstanding that awesome demonstration of power last Thursday or Friday, whenever it happened, takes Vladimir Putin seriously, except the people on this show. We all take him seriously and have been arguing for years now that he shouldn't be called a murderous thug, and there should be regular, consistent, systematic communication with him and the President of the United States and with his

foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and with whomever is the Secretary of State of the United States. I don't know. Is that going to happen after January 20th? Is Marco Rubio going to pick up the phone and talk to Sergei Lavrov, as Tony Blinken has refused to do for the past two years? I'm beginning to seriously doubt it, and it's giving me great heartburn, I can tell you that. I don't think this administration is going to give us very much different than what the administration currently in power has given us. And this business of not talking is just sheer lunacy. If you wanted to make a comment about someone in the way that Sebastian made about Putin, you'd be far closer to being accurate if you made it about Nikita Khrushchev, if you know anything about Nikita Khrushchev's past

before he became premier at Stalingrad and so forth. To make it about Putin is not only absurd and inaccurate as much as Sebastian must hate him and others like him. But to make it about Putin is to make it about one of the most prudent, circumspect leaders in the world today, despite how he got there, despite the war he started in Ukraine and so forth. It's preposterous. This is a man who shows you his cards. You know where he's coming from almost 24-7. And when you defy him, you're going to get what he has promised to give you. And it's so clear that it's very difficult for me to understand where this administration, and Trump too now apparently, is coming from. Do the EU elite, well, let me backtrack. Do you, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson,

think that President Biden and his team and his colleagues want to extend the war in Ukraine such that a catastrophe comes about on Donald Trump's watch. If that were to be usable as an excuse for Donald Trump apparently hedging his bets and changing his own tune about Ukraine, I might entertain that theory now, but I think they both must think pretty much the same way about the war there, from what I've heard from the people that they are appointing to the most prominent positions in the administration. So if Trump believes essentially the same thing Biden does about the importance of, quote, succeeding, unquote, in Ukraine, the only thing that's probably going to stop this, and I think it might come about, is that if they, let's say they do give him a nuclear weapon.

That's just a hypothetical. I hope the hell they don't, and I don't think they will. But Zelensky would be smart to say no, or if it's insisted upon, to de-demow, that is to say leave Ukraine instantly, because he'll be the next person to be deader than a hornet. Right, right, right. Do the elites in Europe want to help Biden extend the war? They seem to. They seem to, especially those people around Brussels who speak for the NATO committee or speak for NATO in general, they seem to think that the only way they can keep the United States in NATO in a significant way

and not have to carry the burden themselves is by keeping this war going and doing what the United States tells them to do with regard to it. And that seems to be their mantra. That seems to be their direction. Just some breaking news. It's not what we're talking about, but it's worthy of mention, of course. Haaretz and Reuters are reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has approved the emerging ceasefire deal with Hezbollah, quote, in principle, closed quote, during a security consultation with Israeli officials. We don't know what the ceasefire entails. I'm sure it's being done to benefit Benjamin Netanyahu because

that's always his sole motivation. But if this is true, it's significant breaking news. You're welcome to comment on it. I don't know any more about it than what I just read to you, Colonel. I had been briefed on this earlier. I think what we're looking at is a desperate prime minister. He's beginning to realize just what dire straits he's put his country in. But that said, I think he will demand command of the aftermath of the ceasefire to the point where, and this will include the detailed movement of Israeli citizens back into the north, and it won't happen, and he will say whatever he needs to say to indicate that he believes the ceasefire has been broken and resumed the war. I do not think he will adhere to this, even if he signs up to it initially, he's got a devious mind in that way,

and that's what he'll do. Colonel, with American troops firing attackams, with British troops firing, and technicians storm shadows with both the U.S. and UK anchors of NATO. Can Vladimir Putin legally attack NATO? Can he destroy the American base, a brand new Air Force base in Poland? He can. He can. I would say this, though. What you just described, especially in light of what he has just unveiled that the Russians have, is like standing in the middle of a pasture in eastern Ukraine shooting cap guns. That's what attack them and storm shatter and all the rest of these are. Now, they could hit a single target inside Russia and do some considerable damage. There's no question about that.

But I even doubt that with the ratio of the Soviets or the Russians shot down in the last salvo five out of six and hit the six. So it's inconsequential to Putin, in my mind, that they're going to do that. He's already showed what he can do. And if he gets too irritated at it or too angry about it, he'll just eliminate, as you said, some really huge NATO facility, probably in a country like Poland, completely, completely eliminate it. Colonel, you are a staunch believer in the freedom of speech as a natural right that comes from our humanity, protected by the First Amendment.

You famously exercised your right to the freedom of speech outside, you know where I'm going, outside the Capitol building not too long ago, and you were attacked not by name, but it's obvious who he was talking about by the Prime Minister himself. I am sorry to say that the soon-to-be Attorney General of the United States is on Bibi Netanyahu's side when it comes to the freedom of speech, that she honestly thinks that students who protest on college campuses can be deported and interrogated by the FBI. Watch this, Colonel. Cut number 14. Whether they're here as Americans or if they're here on student visas and they're out there saying, I support Hamas,

you and I have seen that on all of these television shows. Frankly, they need to be taken out of our country or the FBI needs to be interviewing them right away when they're saying, I support Hamas, I am Hamas. That's not saying I support all these poor Palestinians who are trapped in Gaza. That's not what they're saying. So I think their student visas need to be revoked. I think we need to reinstate President Trump's travel ban immediately. There's a lot of things that can be done to stop this. But yeah, the

anti-Semitism that is rampant throughout this country now, and it's truly, truly heartbreaking to see what's happening to all of our Jewish friends in this country. This woman will soon directly control the Justice Department and every federal prosecution in the country and indirectly control the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As she doesn't understand the freedom of speech. She thinks the government can evaluate speech on the basis of its content and publish the content with which the government disagrees. I have a somewhat different view about what she just said.

I disagree wholeheartedly with her final remarks because the biggest cause of anti-Semitism in the world, which is growing, and it's growing dramatically across the globe, is Bibi Netanyahu. Yes. And that's the biggest cause. But what she was saying, we actually implemented in the first Bush administration post 9-11 to a certain extent. And we got real pushback from the University of Texas. We got pushback from all across the country. We cut back on student visas. And that's what she was talking about. As I heard her, she was talking about students coming to this country for education and coming on a student visa. We cut back on those so dramatically that we actually lost a lot of commerce at the University of Texas, at California, all kinds of universities came in and just hit us over the head because we were losing thousands upon thousands, if not millions of dollars for them. Because these people are usually full bill payers when they come in

from the outside. So, I mean, you got to parse that a little more closely. I'm not sure that I would be advocating maintaining the student visa of someone who was on our campus representing a terrorist organization. I mean, we've called them a terrorist organization in a very visible and forward sort of way. I mean, we kick people off. You know that they will say about student demonstrators what they said about you. Oh, yes. Funded by Iran, and they should be silenced. Take that further, which they will do. There's no way. Once you start down this slippery slope, and Powell, when we had dinners with university presidents, Powell finally relented, and he said,

okay, I'm going to the White House. And we got a lot of that stopped. One of the reasons was because we saw what a slippery slope it was. We saw that you could turn this into that and that into this. And before long, you'd be doing what we were ultimately doing under the Patriot Act. We'd be curbing the civil liberties of Americans. Is President Trump making mistakes by appointing these neocons to run his government? Absolutely. Absolutely. And I cannot believe that he isn't going to throw at least half of them out before we even get to inauguration day. I don't know how he could be happy with the comment by Sebastian Gorka, because whatever you think of Donald Trump, he believes in talking. He is not going to have a secretary of state that won't speak to his opposite number in Russia or China. And he, the president, is not going to refrain from talking to President Xi in China

and President Putin in Russia, because he understands how good things can come out of conversations with people with which you're familiar. That's been his mantra since he was a businessman in New York City. But if you listen to Waltz and Gorka and Bondi, it gives you pause. I think they're trying to trap him. I really do. I think they're trying to trap him. I really do. I think they're trying to trap him into their worldviews. And that's very deadly for a president to, in the period between the transition period, we call it, between the election and the inauguration, to have people like that out there trapping

you. I'll say this for George W. Bush. He put the word out really quick. We had a dumb-braided transition, you may recall, because of the hanging chads and everything. He put the word out there quickly quickly and it was smartly done. Do not do this. No one compromised me, including you, Colin. And Powell took it seriously, as did the other men.

My friends and former colleagues at Fox News interviewed a woman that I don't know, but she represents herself as a former intelligence officer in the CIA and the DIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, by the name of Rebecca Koffler. What she says about World War III is fascinating, and I'd like your thoughts on it. This is two days ago. Chris, cut number eight. So we war game this scenario, exactly this scenario back in the intelligence community. And we are right now on the escalation ladder inching towards a nuclear war. The Russians and the United States are de facto right now in a war. Why is that? It is because those attackers don't fire by themselves,

even though a Ukrainian soldier technically can push the button. But the targeting of the weapon systems, ensuring that there's a proper flight trajectory of the missile, that it destroys the right target, the actual battle damage achieved that we wanted to achieve. It all requires U.S. personnel and U.S. satellites. This is why the Russians have stated that the United States and European targets are now in crosshairs. And every war game that we conducted back in the intelligence community ended up in a nuclear war. A clear, articulate, and accurate message. Alas,

saints preserve us. Wow. Wow. Does the Biden administration understand that? Do Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, and Mr. Gorka get it? Don't appear to. Not to me. By the words they've been speaking, they don't appear to. They are exacerbating the very scenario she just very accurately described. Colonel, always a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you very much for your time. A happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. I appreciate you coming on this truncated week. I hope you'll visit with us again next week. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

I'm looking forward to Thai coffee. Yeah, I know you're going to see the Nutcracker. Dennis Fritz is on at five o'clock today, one of your favorite colleagues. I will watch. Thank you. Thank you, Colonel. I watched Doug before. That was a good interview. Thank you. It was an excellent interview and somewhat terrifying. In a previous interview, I said to him, how dangerous is all of this on a scale of one to 10, one being normal and 10 being the most dangerous? Without even stopping, he said, 10, Judge, 10.

I'd say the same thing. Thank you, Colonel. All the best, sir. Happy Thanksgiving. Take care. Happy Thanksgiving to you. Great man. Coming up at three o'clock, another great person, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski. And at five o'clock, the aforementioned Command Sergeant Major Chief Dennis Fritz.

Justice Napolitano for judging freedom. Paul Tanner for Judging Freedom. Thank you.