Judging Freedom - Larry Johnson : Trump's Suicide Mission of Boots on the Ground

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Larry Johnson : Trump's Suicide Mission of Boots on the GroundSee 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 Monday, March 30th, 2006. Larry Johnson will be with us in just a moment on President Trump's suicide mission of boots on the ground. But first this. Don't you just cringe when people say, I told you so. Sorry, I told you. Gold and silver would reap the benefits due to excessive money printing, inflation, and global uncertainty. It's here.

It's happened. Gold and silver have reached all-time highs. Did you call Lear Capital and buy some? It's not too late. Experts are predicting higher prices ahead. Why? Nothing has changed. Geopolitical chaos, cost of living crises, and a weaker dollar are driving central banks to boost their gold reserves.

Forecast suggests gold could hit $6,000 an ounce and silver $200 in ounce. Even Morgan Stanley ditched the 6040 rule for 60, 2020, putting 20% into precious metals. They're getting educated. and you should too. Call the best in the business and the people I trust, Lear Capital. Get their reports, get the facts, get some gold and silver. Tell them the judge sent you and get up to $20,000 in bonus gold or silver. Call 800, 511, 4620, or go to Learjudgenapp.com. Larry Johnson, welcome here, my dear friend. I know you've been traveling. Thank you for accommodating our schedule. Before we get to, thank you, before we get to, thank you, before we

get to boots on the ground uh whitkoff and kushner are they regarded as uh respected and credible negotiators for the u.s by uh international diplomats no no they they've distinguished themselves as a couple of real estate shills they're they're not to be trusted they you know they lost they they destroyed their credibility, particularly with this last round in Geneva. We go back to February 26. The Iranians were basically pretty upbeat. They thought, you know, hey, we made some progress. The Omani Intermediator, who was, you know, playing telephone tag with each of these guys.

He'd listened to Whitkoff and Kushner, and then he'd go talk to the Iranians, so he was varying messages back and forth. He was very upbeat. He said, oh, you know, we've, there's an agreement at him. hand. And then Wittkoff and Kushner just sort of let him on that, all right, we'll see you Monday. We'll be

there Monday to talk. And instead, the United States showed up on Saturday with Tomahawk missiles. And then besides killing the Ayatollah Ali Khamini, murdered 175 young girls. That

that right there is unforgivable. It is the unforgivable sin. Does Iran have any interest in compromising with the United States? They seem to be in the catbird seat now. Why would they even be as Trump claims? Yeah, he's got to stop imagining that this is like a real estate deal. Hey, we got different, you know, I want to pay a million and you want to pay 500,000.

Let's split the difference. They'll make it 750. No, it's not one of those negotiations. This is now fundamentally about the continued existence of Iran. The recognition that no matter what Iran has tried to do over the course of 47 years, it's never been enough because the United States was not going to accept the fact that Iran, along with Cuba, represented probably the only two countries in the world that have overthrown color revolutions or overthrown CIA efforts to replace or control governments.

Never forgiven them for that. And instead we keep this continued pack of lies about Iran being this unrelenting, radical aggressor intent on destroying and killing others. They haven't invaded one damn country in 47 years. U.S. can't say that. U.S. is a long list of invading and overthrowing other countries. So it's just, you know, one lie upon another. So, you know, at this point, Iran just made it very clear.

The U.S. out of the Persian Gulf. And all sanctions lifted and reparations paid. Those are the basic minimums. That's their starting position. And those, there's no flexibility there. There's not like saying, oh, Okay, well, we'll let the United States have one base. Why does the United States need a base in the Persian Gulf?

The only one reason, to attack Iran. Here's Congressman Jim Hines Democrat of Connecticut. He's not just a Democrat that doesn't like the president. He is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and under federal law is one of the gang of eight. And under the same law, it's supposed to be briefed by the White House or could be the Pentagon, the executive branch on all significant undertakings with respect to war, intelligence, and negotiations. Watch this.

You said that the president's not really negotiating with Iran. Is that because you haven't been briefed as a member of Congress on the diplomacy or you think he's flat out lying. Oh, I think he's flat out lying. Last Sunday, when he was told, and by the way, we're in exactly the same position today, you know, oil prices now $112 a barrel and, you know, futures win the stock market down 2%. Last Sunday, he realized, oh my God, I've got a financial cataclysm on Monday. So he just made it up that they're in negotiations with the Iranians. Look, underneath that statement, the Iranians have now realized that they have the reins. They are controlling the Strait of Hormuz. Gasoline prices are up more than a dollar a gallon.

And so the Iranians realize, holy smokes, we've got a lot of leverage here. Yeah. Hey, it's good to see one politician speaking some truth. So the answer to the question, are the United States and Iran and Iran negotiating? The answer is no. Yeah. I mean, it's just as out, you know, I saw Alistair earlier today, and he had it exactly right. Pakistan's trying to play an intermediary.

And boy, the Saudis are going to talk to the Pact. The Egyptians are there talking to the Pakistanis. And I guess earlier today, Al-Ci made a plea to Trump, please, please, you know, stop this war in the Middle East. But the United States tries to pass messages to Iran, and Iran picks and chooses what it's going to listen to or respond to. And it will give its messages to Pakistan. But Iran's not in a position.

of saying, oh, the pain, we can't stand the pain. You know, the U.S. policymakers, if you want to call them that, forget that for 10 years, Iran fought a vicious war against Iraq, and I call it vicious because the U.S.-backed Iraqis, the U.S. supplied Iraqis with chemical weapons that were used against Iran, that they endured that. they endured hundreds of thousands of deaths and a million injuries people wounded in combat and because of the chemical weapon excess. So, you know, they've got a history. They look back on this.

This has been a pattern of the United States. It's not Iran that's sponsoring terrorists in the United States that are going around assassinating our leading financial figures, political figures, and scientists. No. that's the United States. That's what the United States is doing. And I wish to God my fellow American citizens would understand this. We need to look in the mirror and recognize we're the ones with the blood on our hands.

How many combat troops has Trump introduced into the Middle East in the past two weeks? Do we know? No, we don't. We know that they've confirmed that the 82nd, airborne was ordered deployed. I don't know. I have received no information where where they were deployed to where they're currently based. There is one marine expeditionary unit with about 2,500 Marines somewhere on station. I heard that they were Diego Garcia. So they're in the general neighborhood, but they're really not in a position

to do anything yet. The 11th Mew out of California is still enrable. out. There was a large contingent. I don't know the precise number, but you had 46 flights from the United States, from bases that cater to special operations forces. Those flew to three bases, one in Israel, two in Jordan. So, you know, let's say they were already like, they claim there are already like 50,000 U.S. military personnel in the area, but those are not necessarily combat troops. So, but they are moving forces. Trump is moving forces forward, and the intent appears to be to carry out some sort of

insane ground operation. Here's Trump's latest threat as of 7.30 this morning, Monday, the 30th of March. The United States of America is in serious discussions with the next. The next six words are in caps, a new and more reasonable regime to end our military operations in Iran. Great progress has been made, but if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately open for business, in quotes, we will conclude our lovely stay in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their electric generating plants, oil wells, and Carg Island, and possibly all desalinization plants, which we have purposely not yet in quotes.

This will be in retribution for our many soldiers and others that Iran has butchered and killed over the old regime's 47-year reign of terror. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald Trump. What is he talking about retribution for Americans killed in the past 47 years by Iran? We need an intervention. Look, he's attributing the bombing of the Marine barracks in October of 1983 to Iran, blaming them on that, ignoring the United States' own responsibility for the previous month, having shelled and using the destroyers and cruisers to shell into the Bacall Valley to kill Shia Muslims.

That was a, that attack on the Marines was a repeat. retaliation for us killing Muslims. Iran never started off, said, oh, let's just go kill Americans because we hate them for their freedom or their religion or all that nonsense. No, it's always been a reaction to what we've been doing. And we invade Iraq illegally in 2003. Then Shia militia began using roadside bombs to kill U.S. troops. They blame Iran for that.

Except the fact of the matter is the Iran learned how to build those bombs, courtesy of U.S. Green Beret, Special Forces, back in the 1960s and early 1970s. So, but here's where, you know, somebody really needs to grab Trump. He needs to be 25th amended, if that's the correct phrase. Because listen to what he's saying. Two weeks ago, they lift all sanctions on Iranian oil. Why? Because he's trying to stabilize the price of Iranian oil.

We're trying to increase supply of oil in the world, right? And now his prescription is, we're going to blow up all of the Iranian oil wells and cut off all their supply. Oh, okay, yeah, that makes sense. So now you're going to exacerbate the economic problems the world's facing, apart from the fact that Iran has vowed, and they've been very clear, that if you attack our power centers,

we're going to attack and destroy all of those in the Persian Gulf. And in fact, the United States and Israel, within the last 36 hours, did launch an attack on one of the power centers, power grids, in and around Tehran. And lo and behold, within an hour or two, Iran was responding by blowing up similar systems in the Persian Gulf. Iran's not messing around.

And so this drama queen that Donald Trump has become is just, he's completely disorienting because he takes both sides of an issue. Yeah. What would boots on the ground look like, Larry? What would their goal be? Would a goal be militarily achievable? Or is this just some sort of a negotiation? We got all our troops ready to invade so you better cave.

Well, for some in the Trump administration, I'm sure it's a negotiating ploy. Let's try to intimidate, put pressure on Iran, and maybe they'll cave. They won't, but that's the thinking. But the other thought is that they've really convinced themselves that, boy, if we take Carg Island and turn off and we take control of the oil, that's what Trump has said himself, that that will fix the problem. No, it won't. Number one, taking, putting troops on Karg Island, we may, and I'll emphasize, may be able to insert troops there. It would be very difficult. It's not going to be done through an amphibious landing because the ships carrying the Marines would have to sail up through the Strait of Hormuz and they'll be blown out of the water before they get there. So that means

they'd have to be inserted, I guess, via a parachute drop. Well, that's not the Marines. The Marine Corps, some are parachute qualified, but they as a force are not equipped to do that. So that means the 82nd Airborne or the 75th Ranger battalions. There are two of them that have been deployed, that they might do that. But then, okay, you've got control of Karg for a day, two. You've got thousands of Iranians on that island. they're going to fight back.

Then the United States, as they start fighting, as the United States tries to fight back, and then we'll be killing a lot of civilians, which is, unfortunately, it will become a disgusting habit of ours. How do we resupply? So then they're going to look, you'll rely upon some C-130 or C-141 aircraft

to come in to drop supplies. But those are relatively slow-flying, and they will be easy targets for air defense that Iran still has, despite Trump's claims to the contrary. So it's not really a clear military objective. And even if you take Karg Island, all that's going to do is affect part of Iran's ability to pump and deliver oil. It doesn't do a single thing to open the Strait of Hormuz. And opening the Strait of Hormuz right now is the critical issue.

This week, you know, it's been, we're in the fifth week of the war. some people in Asia particularly have begun to feel the pain, but the real pain, the economic pain, the international chaos that's resulting from it, that's going to really start surfacing this week. People will begin to understand just how serious and how dangerous this is in terms of the global economy, whether economists have not officially defined it yet,

but we are in a recession. And the danger is that recession can become a depression, which means a 10% drop in economic growth. Oh, boy. Such bitter irony. Regime change is no longer their goal. Destruction of Iran's ballistic missiles is no longer their goal. Their goal is opening up the Strait of Hormuz, which was totally open before the war. before he started all this.

Well, in fact, I don't know if Iran had ever sat down and calculated, hey, if we want to break this cycle of Israel in particular attacking us and assassinating our leaders, what we should do is take the Strait of Hormuz, close it down, and then we can operate it like a toll booth. You know, you have to pay a toll to come in and out. I don't know if they'd ever really thought that through thoroughly, but they now understand.

Right, right. And they understand how lucrative that is for them. Correct. Correct. It is one way to compensate for the international economic sanctions that the West, you know, particularly the United States and Europe have imposed on them. Would a ground invasion involve Israeli troops, IDF troops, or just American? Oh, man. No, Israel's got its hands full.

good Lord. You know, again, despite this mythology about how great the Israeli military is, they haven't defeated Hamas in two and a half years, okay? They've had an enclosed area five miles wide, 25 miles long, they've got 300,000 troops around it. Hamas doesn't have lines of supply flowing in. They fought with what they've had, and Israel can't beat them. And now Israel, once again, with their arrogance, their hubris. They've launched into southern Lebanon. Oh, yeah, we're going to push up to the Latani River, and we're going to wipe out Hezbollah.

Nope, the ones getting wiped out are the Israeli troops. They don't have troops to deploy. Wow. I wonder how American troops, I know these guys are well-trained and gung-ho and they're decent human beings feel about fighting a war for a foreign country. the scuttlebutt you know because soldiers marines sailors they talk um there there is an actually there is an interesting piece on tic-tok a stripper from one of the clubs near one of the

military bases was talking about what the troops are telling her but they're you know and they're they're they're not a happy group that they uh they feel that they're fighting a war that's so unnecessary and they were like, let's, you know, eat, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. So this is, you know, Trump and his team have been effective up to this point in covering up the casualties.

The casualties are significant, but they're not getting talked about. They're being hidden from the public as best they can. But if they, if Trump, it goes ahead and authorizes the deployment of, U.S. troops, whether it's to bond or Abbas or the Kemish Island that's right there in the Strait of Hormuz or on Karg Island or all of the above, there are going to be significant. KIA, dead Americans, as well as severely wounded.

And unlike, you know, in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States had a pretty, they had that what they call the golden hour. You could be wounded severely with a life-threatening wound, but they were able to get you out into a hospital within an hour. That won't happen. That won't happen because just trying to get helicopters into those places that they're going to be under fire. And Iran's got drones, they've got missiles,

they still have enormous capability to retaliate. And so then you'll get air crews that have been downed and killed. Wow. Here's, and not to ruin your breakfast, Larry, but here's, no, it's not Senator Graham. Oh, thank God. Oh, my God. I wouldn't do that as early in the day. Secretary Rubio and Good Morning America this morning, really, really over the top with an apocalyptic vision of all this. Watch this. Well, I think the first point the president makes is he prefers diplomacy. As I said, those efforts. efforts are nascent, there is messages being relayed back and forth, some conversations going on, including through intermediaries. And he always prefers that. Look, if the Iranian regime

had come forward at any point in the past and said, we're going to walk away from our nuclear ambitions, we're going to do nuclear energy the way every other country in the world primarily, almost every other country in the world does it, and that is through a peaceful means in which you bring in the fuel and it's supervised and so forth. We're not, we're going to stop supporting terrorist groups across the region. Look at this region. Every single terrorist group in this region as a link to the Iranian regime. Every single one, the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas,

the Shia militias that are attacking everyone out of Iraq. Every single one of these groups and all the destabilization in this region tracks directly back to the Iranian regime. Those things have to be addressed. And if Iran had been willing to address those in the past, we wouldn't be having this interview on this topic right now. Their refusal to

do so and they're continuing move towards one day acquiring a nuclear capability, these people are lunatics. They are insane. They are religious, who can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon because they have an apocalyptic vision of the future. And all of their neighbors know that, by the way, which is why all of their neighbors have been supportive of the efforts were conducting. This doesn't apply to Smotrich and Ben-Gavir and Netanyahu. You know, the lies that Marco, Narco Rubio just told are off the charts.

the only crazed operators that have been engaged in supporting terrorism in the Middle East is us. Al-Jalani, anybody remember that? Hayat Terrar al-Sham, one of the top 10 terrorist groups, and the majority of the terrorism, 90% of the terrorism, according to State Department, which Rubio will all read the damn reports, is carried out by Sunni terrorists. And in fact, Iran has been fighting ISIS, fighting al-Qaeda, fighting al-Nusra, because those radical Sunnis were attacking and killing Shia.

That's number one. Number two, Iran has been a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty. Iran was allowing nuclear inspectors into its nuclear facilities. Israel does not. Israel's the pariah. Israel is not a signatory to the NPT. Israel doesn't allow outside inspections, and Israel's got the bomb.

So this kind of projection and attempt to demonize Iran for the very things that Israel and the United States are doing is sick. Well, thank you, Larry. Your analysis is so valuable, particularly in all the military aspects of this. you have a good week.

We'll see you on Good Friday. We'll see you for the roundtable. I hope we survive till then. Yes. Thank you, Larry. All the best of you. Thank you. Thank you.

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