Judging Freedom - Matt Hoh: US Hatred for Iran

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

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Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, September 10th, 2024. Matt Ho joins us now. Matt, always a pleasure, my dear friend. I want to speak to you at some length on Iran and Israel, but before we do, I would like to address with you some of the breaking news. So in Ukraine, Colonel McGregor is reporting that there are over 720 deaths in the attack on the Poltava Military Institute. And last night, there were numerous drones that reached Moscow, all of which were shot down. But one, the one that was not shot down, hit a house in a suburb outside of Moscow and killed the woman who was the occupant of the house. So let's start with Ukraine and your thoughts on those most recent developments. There's also Kursk, which is off the front pages.

It's off all the pages, but it's apparently still going on. Right. Right, Judge. And thanks for having me back on. Right, right, Judge. And thanks for having me back on. And what we're seeing here with these attacks, whether it was that attack on the military schoolhouse in Poltava or these overnight attacks on Moscow, which somehow they've launched 145 drones and only one person was killed, you know, thank God. But, you know, this this is foreshadowing what's to become. And, you know, I was thinking about this with the Volodymyr Zelensky coming to New York at the end of the month for the U.N. General Assembly and the pitch he's going to be making. And, you know, Judge, I think I'm the only Iraq and Afghan veteran in your in your regular lineup, which makes me the resident expert on false hope, particularly on giving false hope to others. And so we can see a pathway here where these attacks

become the war, right? Where a year from now, we're having the same conversation and it's just rocket, missile, and drone attacks on each other's cities, on each other's population cities, hoping to score lucky hits and get mass casualties to cheer up the folks back home. You know, if I was if I was put that hat back on and do what I did in Iraq and Afghanistan and in D.C. 15 years ago or so, you know, what I would say is Linsky is,, yeah, of course you're going to talk to President Biden and Vice President Harris, Jake Sullivan, whoever, but you also need to get in with the CEOs of BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, State Street, and all these other large investment banks. The people on Wall Street are arguably just as important in all this for you as the people in Washington, D.C. are. I say this in reminding people that remember in World War I, one of the reasons, one of several reasons why Wilson gets the U.S. into that war is because the bankers are coming

to him and they're saying, if you don't intervene, if we don't send an American army to Europe and Britain and France loses, we're not getting our money back. And in this case, it's not the same thing where Wall Street wants its money back. It wants what was promised, because we remember that Wall Street has been promised the reconstruction of Ukraine, which some estimates are in the high hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars. So you are so correct in what you're saying, and much of it was mimicked this weekend or anticipated this weekend in a conference held by the Financial Times, a publication you and I read regularly, at which they managed to get Sir Peter Moore, the head of MI6, and Bill Burns, the head of the CIA, in public together

in front of an audience where they could put questions. And we're going to play two clips from them, both of which are absurd and have been derided by other guests of ours. You, of course, say whatever you think, but they seem more interested in narrative than in reality on the ground. So, Chris, number nine followed immediately by number 10. Typically audacious and bold on the part of the Ukrainians to try and change the game in a way. And I think they have, to a degree, changed the narrative around it.

The Kursk offensive is a significant tactical achievement. It's not only been a boost in Ukrainian morale, it has exposed some of the vulnerabilities of Putin's Russia and of his military. And it's important to remember how this started in this phase with Putin mounting a war of aggression in February 2022. And two and a half years later, that failed. It continues to fail. The Ukrainians will continue to fight. We will continue to help them to fight. And it's difficult. They are so ignorant of history and reality, but I'll let you take it from there. This is, Judge, this is one of many reasons why the CIA needs to be abolished. This is why JFK said they should be scattered to the ashes, and then they murdered him, of course. This is what Harry Truman said after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, was essentially the CIA needs to be abolished.

What you've seen here is the success of the CIA, the success of the intelligence community, that part of the empire becoming so pedestrian, so accepted at so many levels in the sense of that these people are not just to be trusted, but, and I mean, when I mean pedestrian, I mean, in the sense that it's common knowledge that we accept what they say. These are our trusted leaders, you know, and it used to be that the CIA, which is an organization built upon lies, devoted to lies. Its main operational efforts are lies. It used to be that their lies were always in the background, right? If people remember Bill Casey, Ronald Reagan's CIA director, to paraphrase him, he said something along the lines of, we'll know we're successful when everything, we know we're successful when the American public believes everything that we tell them.

Right. And the idea was that they would do it through newsrooms. They do it through propaganda. Right. They do it because they go the people post and CNN are at the same cocktail parties as them, that type of thing. But here you have a judge where you've got the CIA director in public lying so cavalierly, so easily, so enthusiastically. They don't need to lie behind scenes anymore. They don't need to put plants or to have spies places to push their propaganda. They can just say it out loud and it's accepted as truth. And this is a troubling aspect of American society, that we're so willing to forgive our leaders, our elites who lie like this so openly and clearly, because we give them, you know, C. Wright Mills, a sociologist in the 1950s, he described this as the higher immorality,

where the American public allows the elites to do things that they themselves would not do or would never condone among their peers. But because they are the elites, they're above what holds us back, what we are guided by, what we are bound by. And you see the success of the CIA and the fact that, and MI6 as well, and intelligence community uh at large uh in the sense that they could have this type of forum where two men who lead organizations whose whole point in being is to lie and they are feeded this way they're they're they're they're grandstanded this way they're publicized this way and everyone accepts that these men are men that we should listen to um you know for reasons that have everything to do with uh the imperial imperial whims of empire and nothing to do with reason, logic, morality, truth, et cetera. That's a great phrase, the imperial whims of

empire and nothing to do with logic, morality, or truth. And of course, Chris, the producer, has put together a montage of government officials saying Putin is lost, Putin is lost, Putin is lost. Now we have another one, even though it's not an American official. It's Sir Peter who runs MI6 saying as recently as last week, Putin is lost. I just scratched my head. Jumping to Israel. Now, a lot has happened. Netanyahu has announced publicly for the third time that he has authorized an invasion of Lebanon.

The IDF shot an American woman in the head, obviously killed her right on the streets. A peaceful demonstrator with no arms in her possession. The Prime Minister of Great Britain, who was visiting the White House in two days, announced that Great Britain is going to dial back what it's sending to Ukraine because they, or excuse me, what they're sending to Israel because they believe it's a violation of Israeli law. I think that's probably a deception or a facade. But you can weigh in on all of that. And then we'll jump to Israel and Iran. Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. With courses available online

24-7 and monthly start dates, WGU offers maximum flexibility so you can focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu. Right. Well, maybe first to start with Eisner Ege, the young woman who was murdered by the Israeli military in the West Bank. The IDF has put out a statement admitting that they shot her, but they said they didn't mean to shoot her. And we know exactly where that's going to go, Judge. We know that nothing is going to come of this. So because of that admission, there'll be no investigation. And if there had been an investigation, it'd be the IDF investigating

the IDF. Right. And any time Matt Miller or Vendit Patel or Jake Sullivan or Tony Blinken get asked about it, they'll just defer to the Israeli investigation as they have done every day throughout this genocide, as they have done for every day of this administration, because these crimes against the Palestinian people predate October 7th by eight decades, really more than 100 years, actually. You know, I have a friend of mine, Judge, who's actually over there right now doing that type of solidarity work that Eisenhower, Iggy was killed for. It's the same kind of work, you know, a bunch of months ago, you show video of Ray McGovern and I in the West Bank doing this type

of solidarity work. It's dangerous work. We were routinely attacked. I got hit by a car by a settler. Ray got shot in the arm with a tear gas canister. We were exposed to live gunfire. I mean, like, this is very serious, very difficult, very dangerous work that is absolutely necessary because the Palestinians need the support of the world. They need the support of people like Eisner, Iggy, like my friend Brian, who's there right now, because they need people to go and stand with them because they are up against the empire. I mean, there is no greater cause in the world that someone could give themselves for right now than what Eisenhower did in losing her life for the Palestinian people. Murdered in cold blood that way, of course, because that's that's what the Israelis do.

That's what the Americans back. Keir Starmer coming here. I'm not surprised he's leaving the country. He is incredibly unpopular. Labor is incredibly unpopular. Labor is incredibly unpopular. They are going to be cutting heat for pensioners in the winter this year. I mean, so I have not surprised at all that Keir Starmer is fleeing the UK for at least a weekend. But this is part of the larger pressure that is going on governments across Europe. We see, of course, it's happening in France. We saw what happened in Germany with the success of AFD and BSW parties in those state elections

last week. And so no shock with that pressure. We then see Olaf Scholz over the weekend say, you know what? Negotiations to end the Ukraine war have to come faster than we would like, faster than we may expect. And they need to, negotiations, of course, over the next peace summit must include Russia. So what we see here in these two stories, one of a brave young woman who gave her life for people that were foreign to her, but it was the right thing to do. And then, of course, the pressure that individuals can put on their governments to change, to correct this travesty, whether it be the crime of the unwinnable war in Ukraine, the proxy war in Ukraine, or the crime of the genocide

and occupation in Palestine, we see what's possible when people commit themselves to something. And unfortunately, in Azzar Aghi's case, that commitment meant her murder. Is it true that Iran is giving missiles to Russia? Not Russia giving missiles to Iran, but Iran giving missiles to Russia. And if that's the case, I guess the American sanctions on Iran didn't have the intended effect. No, I mean, here we are back talking about a narrative in spite of logic and reason and truth. Absolutely. If Iran that has been under 40 years of just increasingly draconian sanctions, they are essentially blockaded with the American Navy stopping their ships whenever they want. We have surrounded them with military bases. We invaded,

occupied two of their neighbors, Iraq and Afghanistan. We have politicians who almost every day speak, hopefully, about war with Iran. And yet they're somehow able to, and they're facing this crisis with Israel, with the potential for war with Israel and the US, and they're somehow willing to export missiles to Russia. Russia is on the other side of this too, Josh, because remember a few weeks ago or back in July, Russia was sending air defense missiles and electronic warfare equipment to Iran. So same thing too. Russia's under these massive sanctions. They're in a war, not just against Ukraine, but against NATO. And they have the wherewithal, they have the surplus, they have the capacity to send some of their stuff to Iran. So obviously, our sanctions are not working. Obviously, our understanding of

the industrial bases of these nations is completely off. And so this idea that getting into a fight with these countries, we don't even understand basic concepts such as how much can they produce, let alone, you know, just completely ignoring historical realities or just the reality of what's occurring in the moment. Yeah, I mean, the idea of going to war with Iran, it just doesn't seem like a good one. But of course, the White House doesn't want to go to war with Iran, because it would be an absolute catastrophe for the Democratic Party. I mean, this idea, last week you were showing that clip of Lindsey Graham talking about bombing the oil refineries and oil stores, right, and oil production in Iran. Such a move. What do you

think would happen here in the U.S.? If we bombed Iranian oil production facilities, our gasoline prices would double overnight, right? I mean, the shock to the American economy would be incredible. We would have our inflation back to where it was a couple of years ago. Our gas prices, $7, $8 a gallon. God help you people in California, whatever you would be paying. I mean, so that idea that somehow war with Iran is even possible for the U.S. with the current administration, the current ruling party is just, you know, but Netanyahu, you know, he showed us who he is when he came a couple of months ago to the U.S. and got the nearly the entire U.S. Congress to bend a knee and kiss his ring. Yeah, here's Secretary Blinken earlier today confirming the State Department's understanding of the passage of ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia. Number 16, Chris. Dozens of Russian military personnel have been trained in Iran to use the FATA-360 close-range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles russia has now received shipments of

these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in ukraine against ukrainians russia has an array of its own ballistic missiles but the supply of iranian missiles enables russia to use more of its arsenal for targets that are further from the front line while dedicating the new missiles it's receiving from Iran for closer range targets. This development and the growing cooperation between Russia and Iran threatens European security and demonstrates how Iran's destabilizing influence reaches far beyond the Middle East. I'm surprised they didn't say threatens Israeli security, given the way he thinks about these things. Yeah, I mean, that's a great clip, Judge, because again, any normal

person, any normal institution, when faced with this, as we just discussed, all these decades of action, of blockade, of threats against Iran, and they're exporting ballistic missiles at this time of crisis, any individual or institution with any integrity would close the doors and said, okay, we obviously have failed. What are we going to do now? And here you see, it's not as if they're doubling down on it, but they're excited about it because they're able to use this to continue to further their narrative. Right. So for in the minds of those in D.C., this idea of Iran sending missiles to Russia, they couldn't care less about what happens to the Ukrainians because of it.

But they're excited because this proves our point. Right? This hammers home our case. This is why we have to, you know, do whatever, you know, increase sanctions, be tougher, stand firm with Israel, even as I just, as what we were just saying, right? Going to war with Iran is an impossibility. But these people, they believe that they're masters of the universe. They believe that they can push things right up to the edge and control it. They don't believe that others have any agency. They don't believe in the historical realities, the inertia that comes with history. The idea of Tolstoy is general, if people are familiar with that idea, that concept, that we are not the makers of our own reality, but there are so many factors that impact us.

But these are men and women in D.C. who believe that they make reality, but there are so many factors that impact us. But these are men and women in DC who believe that they make reality, whether it's Democrat or Republican, they are so full of themselves. The other thing too, is that these are politicians. Tony Blinken never ran for office, but he's been in politics his whole life. And he views everything through the American lens of politics. And so that means everything has to be bluster. Everything has to be this over the top confidence. And you have to believe that everything your opponent is saying is a lie and they won't follow through on it because that's the way the zero sum game of American politics, particularly in the selling and the marketing and the advertising, the propaganda

that works. So you see here where, yeah, they should be closing the doors, George, and being like, oh, man, this isn't working. These guys are sending ballistic missiles. They're not supposed to have any. They've got so many, they're sending them away. Let's get back to Israel and Iran. Can Israel defeat Iran without the help of the United States? No.

No. Okay. Can the United States defeat Iran without using nuclear weapons? You know, I don't, what does defeat mean, right? I guess it graded to the point where it's no longer adversarial. That's a good question. Yeah. I don't know. No, I don't think so. I mean, like without, even with nuclear

weapons, you know, we wipe out all 100 million Iranians kind of thing. Yeah. I mean, this is where, this is a good conversation too, right? Because it exposes the folly of all this thinking, right? That the idea that there's some way, some pathway to victory in the minds of those in Washington, D.C., whether they're neoconservatives or liberal interventionists, so whether they're John Bolton's or Tony Blinken's, the idea is that you would make things so bad on Iran, you take away their military capabilities, you destroy their military. enraged. They feel betrayed by the Supreme leader and all his, his, his clerics and whatnot. And they would rise up and they would overthrow them. You know, this is, this is their belief that this is how these will play out. Very similar to this idea of we've got to bait Russia into a war with Ukraine so that Russia gets to go so badly for Russia that the Russians are so upset about it that they overslept overthrow Vladimir Putin and his

government. I mean, it's again, these people are fantasists. They're fabulous and they're crackpot realists. And the problem is the reason they're in power is because their fantasies line up with the moneymaking of the military industrial complex, as well as Wall Street and the fossil fuel corporations. So the most lunatic, the craziest among us are the ones who can bring in the most money and this way keep themselves in power, you know, in spite of all of us who are sitting here watching this wreckage occur in real time and in many ways strapped into the car. Because when you start talking about nuclear weapons, you know, where that goes, how that develops, a little in the consequences, just from even, say, several dozen

nuclear weapons being deployed, the atmospheric consequences, where that leads to with, say, a nuclear winter or a partial nuclear winter, however you want to describe that, you know, the consequences for all of us in this world would be dire. You know, and that's not, I mean, that's not being exaggerated. So Joe Biden, and I guess by extension, Vice President Harris, are pretty much sitting on two time bombs. They don't want Ukraine to collapse before November 5th,

and they don't want Israel, Iran, to explode before November 5th. Right, And they're trying to manage all this. I will say there's some, there was a poll that was put out by the Cato Institute yesterday, and it was of voters in the swing states, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania. And it's just, you look at the polling numbers and in those three states, right, which are the three most consequential states for this election coming up, entire election can turn on those three states. In those three states, what Cato found was that 90% of the Democrats support an immediate ceasefire and three quarters of the Democrats support either ending arms sales to ending arms shipments to Israel or to

conditioning them there. You don't get any weapons unless you commit to a ceasefire. So three out of four Democrats feel that way. And you can see in those swing states that the Democrats are ignoring that. They couldn't care less about that because they're so invested in staying in the good graces of AIPAC and the pro-Israel lobby, they're willing to lose the election in November. I mean, this is insane. On the other side of it, though, where it's really troubling is the fact that Democratic voters still really identify with the Ukraine war. For them, this comes back to the whole idea that Trump is Putin's puppet, that this is a struggle of democracy versus authoritarianism, that this is what's happening

here is reflected by what Moscow is doing over there. And so for them, flying the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine really speaks to their identity as a Democrat, as an American, et cetera. And so the numbers in terms of Democratic Party support for Ukraine, including one question along the lines was, you know, do you are you in favor of supporting Ukraine, even if it risks war with Russia? A majority of Democrats said yes. I mean, so that's where identity politics can take you if it's manipulated correctly. Meanwhile, you can see on the other side. So that's all to say that the White House and the Harris campaign take all that into account and they try and manage it. But at the same time, too, again, we're all sitting in this car racing towards the cliff with them all. Thank you, Matt. Great analysis. Great analysis as always.

The time went by like that. I don't know if you saw it yesterday. We had Ralph Nader on. Much of what he said reminded me of you. And I say that by the highest of highest of compliments because I'm a fan of me of you. And I say that by the highest of compliments, because I'm a fan of both of yours. Ralph and I have been friends for more than 50 years. All the best, Matt. We'll see you again next week. Thanks, Judge. Of course. Coming up later today at three o'clock, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, and at four o'clock from Moscow, always worth waiting for, Pepe Escobar. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.