Judging Freedom - NATO_s Bad Plan & the Ukrainian Offensive - LARRY JOHNSON fmr CIA

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

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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. Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, June 16th, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, June 16th, 2023. It's about three o'clock in the afternoon here on the East Coast of the United States. Our guest today is Larry Johnson, who has some very, very strong comments to make about the latest out of the Pentagon. Also some comments to make about the latest out of Ukraine right after this.

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for joining us. I'm going to start right off the bat with a clip from General Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which I have a feeling will get under your skin. He's boasting here about the nature and extent. Interesting for a Friday afternoon, my dear friend. Friends for so long and I and I make a living getting under your skin. This is General Milley just two days ago boasting about the nature and extent of Western training of Ukraine troops. Take a listen. More than six ukrainians are being trained right now at 40 different locations in 65 courses in 33 nations on three continents since the beginning of the war the united states has trained over 11 000 ukrainians we are currently training three battalions a tank battalion and two territorial National Guard battalions.

All in all, the international effort has trained almost 60,000 Ukrainian soldiers for this current operation. Larry, how absent in transparency or how insincere or how deceptive, I'll let you choose, and of course you can choose another word if you want, is that that we just heard from the nation's number one military leader? It's criminal military malpractice. There's no other way. I got to stop you right here. Our friend Scott Ritter, I don't think you guys spoke, said the same thing yesterday. You two are the only ones that have used the word criminal. Go for it. This is training. When you brag about the fact that you're training 6,000 people in 40 different locations in 33 different countries is a recipe

for disaster. The normal training, let's just take someone who's going to drive a tank in the U.S. Army. That person is going to have to go through a minimum initially of six months of training just to learn how to get in and out of the tank, how to start it, how to stop it, and maybe how to shoot. Then after that, they're integrated into a company,

and then integrated into a battalion, which is upwards of 800 soldiers, 800 to 1,000 soldiers. And then they get implemented into, upgraded to a brigade. Now, at each of these levels, you have to learn how to interact and move with other people and to operate in terms of communicating with one another, sharing information. Here's where I am located. Where are you located so you don't get blown up by your own artillery? That process takes a minimum of two years, a minimum. They're training these guys in three months, four months maximum. And on top of it, when you're doing training in the United States, in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in France, in Italy, in Poland,

they're all doing different languages. So it's all being translated. You've got different standards of training in the UK from the US. Our armies are different. The same with the German army. It's different. So how in God's name are you going to train 6,000 people in all these different locations? And they said in 65 different courses of instruction. Think about that. Do the math. It works out to about 93 soldiers for each course of instruction. What would a course of instruction be? Would it be basic training? Would it be how to drive a tank? Would it be how to use a flamethrower? What would it be? One course of instruction could be the proper use of a javelin missile, you know, the shoulder-fired surface or the anti-tank guided missile, or a shoulder-fired

stinger, surface-to-air missile. a shorter fired uh stinger surface to air missile so each of those would be a separate course uh course of fire but but here's the kicker judge think of we've trained 6 000 people in what last three months four months the russians killed that many ukrainians in a week so you know just we train them and then they're dead they're gone up in a week. So, you know, we train them and then they're dead. They're gone. Up in a cell with smoke. Why is General Milley so profoundly...

Here's a guy who's at the tail end of his term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Why is he making a statement so profoundly misleading and deceptive? We'll get to criminal in a minute, but why is he even saying this? He knows that guys like you know that this is nonsense, that this is incompetence at its best, and as you say, criminal at its worst.

He's counting on the fact that the media is too stupid or too lazy to challenge him on it. And the vast majority of people listening to it have not been in the military or have not worked with the military and have no idea what the kind of training cycles are involved. But he'd be saying this on his own or is the guy next to him, his boss, the former four star, who's now the secretary of defense, telling him he has to say this. I don't think necessarily he's telling me he has to say it, but they're both in agreement that they're going to say it, that they're going to lie.

There's not enough lipstick in the world to paint this pig and to make it look good. Why do you say criminal, Larry? It's a very strong allegation. Ritter said the same thing. Because the amount of training required when people are going to go into combat and put their lives on the line is such that it can't be done in two months or three months as the United States and the NATO countries are doing. And so you are willingly, knowingly providing inadequate training to individuals and then pressing them to go into combat and basically commit suicide on your behalf. He knows better. Or if he doesn't know better, that is a damning indictment of his incompetence.

It's just, it's shocking. And look what has happened to the so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive. It's run out of gas. Yeah, they made a few little advances here and there, but they have not even reached the first line of Russian defense. And Russia has a three-layer defense system that goes at least 20 miles deep. So even if the Ukraine manages to get through the first line, they got two more coming up. Okay. So to be precise, when you say criminal military incompetence, the crime that you're alleging is being committed on the trainees by knowingly giving them inadequate training for them to stay alive and to conduct their mission. Fairly stated? Yes. I mean, what he should have done, he could have simply said, okay, yeah, we're going to

train 6,000 troops. We're going to bring them to Fort Ord in California, and we're going to have a group of dedicated instructors who speak Ukrainian. You know, that would have been competent. That would have been appropriate. And we're going to train them in one or two courses of instruction. But 65 courses over in 33 different countries at 40 different locations, this is insanity. Okay, so you got two four stars there. One retired and now the Secretary of Defense. The other is still a four star. Why would they be doing this?

Are they getting pressure, political pressure from the West Wing, from the Oval Office? They must know what you know Are they getting pressure, political pressure from the West Wing, from the Oval Office? They must know what you know about the insipid, useless, as you call it, criminal nature of this six-week training to do something that should take two years. Now, if they had any integrity, we're not doing this. This is malpractice. This is military malpractice. It violates every doctrine, every training level that's established, every benchmark in the U.S. military. And yet they've succumbed to political pressure. This is all about politics and optics.

You know, the fact that Milley thinks by going through this litany of all we're training 6 000 in 40 country in 40 locations in 33 countries boy look how united this is a group effort i mean it is what i saw that and i you know you were the first one to highlight it when i saw i was shocked i i could not believe he would say something abjectly stupid. And yet there he was, and he was proud of it. I mean, that's like some parent being proud of the fact that the kid is the ugliest kid in school. It's remarkable that he would go down that road. All right. We're going to take a break to pay some bills.

When we come back, we have another clip of General Milley. We'll see what you made at the same press conference yesterday. We'll see what Larry's view of that is right after this. You want to feel safe in your vehicle. And for you, that means easy, rapid access to your firearm. But safety also means your items don't fall into the wrong hands. You don't have to choose between safety and convenience. The Headrest Safe keeps your firearm where you can access it, and no one else can.

Just order your Headrest Safe, install it yourself when it arrives, and enjoy peace of mind. It starts at theheadrestsafe.com. Gary, would you play the second clip of General Milley for Larry? Larry, in this clip, the general rattles off too fast for me to follow and some of the terminology is technical. A list of equipment and gear that we are sending comes to about 2 billion 300, if I recall, 2 billion 325 million. You tell me what this is, if the Ukrainians know how to use it, or if this is more deception or more crimes by giving people equipment they can't use. Take a listen. Last week, the United States released another Ukrainian security assistance initiative package

totaling several billion dollars, two billion. This package procures critical capabilities, including Patriot munitions, Hawk air defense systems, artillery, rocket munitions, maintenance, sustainment support, and much more. Additionally, this week, we released our latest drawdown package of $325 million. From our current stocks, we are providing Ukraine air defense munitions, Gimler's long-range artillery, artillery rounds, 155, Bradley's Strikers, and many other capabilities. What is this stuff? Yeah, so basically he's talking about air munitions for air defense systems for the Patriot batteries and long-range artillery. The problem with this, this is a promise of things to come in the future, maybe. Right now, the United States is not able to produce enough ammunition, enough artillery shells, enough Patriot,

the missiles that are put into the Patriot batteries, to sustain Ukrainian activity for a week. And yet, you know, so this is, what this is, is it's setting up the spending process that's going to go on over the next year or two. The problem is I don't think Ukraine will exist in a year in its current form and there will be no no longer any justif justification or excuse or reason to send them more ammunition more artillery shells uh the Russians are rapidly

destroying the actual systems that fire those munitions. So they can send them some artillery shells, but they'll no longer have M777s to fire them from. Yesterday, Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was indicted for improper handling of national defense information. Coincidentally, it is the very same statute, the very same section, the very same subsection of the statute as that which was contained in the indictment filed last week against President Trump. That's not my question. My question is the documents that Teixeira is accused of revealing and which the government claims he and he alone revealed, I'll let you opine on whether he was alone in a minute, reveal unambiguously the belief of American military, including the two guys we just saw on the tape,

General Milley and Secretary Austin, that by early June, and we're now mid-June, documents are dated February, Ukraine would have no air defenses. That would mean if the documents are correct, it still has no air defenses, and this stuff that he announced yesterday is going to send over there isn't going to get there in time right well I I think we've already seen the evidence there's there's actual physical evidence that the air defense systems at least in the forward lines have been destroyed that's because Russia is sending its helicopters, attack helicopters forward to provide missile fire on advancing armored vehicles at Ukraine and Ukrainian tanks. And those helicopters are not being shot down by air defense systems.

So if Ukraine actually had intact air defense systems, particularly mobile systems that could accompany attacking forces, those helicopters would be in trouble. That's why the Russians are totally confident in flying them in there. So there we have some actual evidence to back that up. How much longer do you think this can go on, Larry, the military confrontation? I mean, the Western media can feed all the nonsense it wants to the Western media-consuming public, whether it's Western Europe or the U.S. That's not going to change one whit what happens on the battlefield. It may influence thinking in Washington, but it's not going to change the battlefield. What do you think? Can this go on

for another year? No, I don't see how it does. I agree with Scott and with Doug, that Scott Ritter, Doug McGregor, that I think we're looking at this thing coming to, it's going to be closed up in the fall, simply because Ukraine is running out of manpower that it can throw into these combat engagements. It's not just a matter that they can run out and grab somebody off the street, throw them in a van, take them to a recruitment center, dress them up in a uniform, give them a gun, then throw them on the front line. I mean, those guys are useless. But they don't even have a train, a process in place where they're picking people up, taking them and training them for a minimum. Remember, U.S. basic training, just to get basic training out of the way is roughly a three-month process.

And then after that, you do what's called advanced individual training, which is another three to four-month process. Well, so that means if Ukraine was actually going to have reserves that it could bring into the front line that would be trained and have minimal levels of competency, they should have 400,000 people being trained. All right, Larry, let me just stop you. Whatever number you gave, the internet broke up. So just go back a paragraph and repeat what you were saying. So right now, what Ukraine would need is a minimal force, because the Russians have three to 400,000 troops along that 850 mile line of combat. Ukraine to counter that is going to need 1.2 million troops. So they would need to have at least five, six hundred thousand recruits right now in training depots just to get minimal levels of training. That's not happening. And the United States and NATO, they don't have

ample supplies of artillery shells and Patriot missile munitions. They're scrambling to try to come up with this stuff. So it's one thing to talk about all this is going to drag out. I don't see how it drags out simply because when you run out of bullets and you run out of people, what's left? What is the rule of thumb for an offensive military operation seeking to take land from a defending military operation? What's the scale of superiority, numerical superiority in the rule books that you learn in the classroom in order for the offensive to win? In other words, how much superiority, numerical superiority do the Ukrainians need in order to even think that they can push the Russians eastward? Three to one.

So if Russia has 500,000 troops deployed along that line, that means Ukraine at a minimum needs 1.5 million. And yet look at what they're attacking with. They do not have fixed-wing aircraft to support. They don't have rotary wing helicopters to support. They don't have mobile wing helicopters to support. They don't have mobile artillery following along behind them, pummeling the Russian lines. And they certainly don't have mobile air defense. So how in God's name is a 1.5, and they don't have 1.5 million people either. That flat out doesn't exist. Switching gears before I let you go, Daniel Ellsberg passed away earlier today.

He, of course, the releaser of the Pentagon Papers, which he stole 7,000 pages of military secrets and handed them to reporters for the New York Times and the Washington Post. And when the Nixon administration attempted to prevent their publication, the Supreme Court ruled six to three in a remarkable First Amendment case that when the media has in its hands interest, material interest to the public, it doesn't matter how it got up there, immune civilly and criminally from the consequences of publishing it. Ellsberg was indicted for espionage,

same charges as against Trump and the sheriff. And then in the midst of his trial, the FBI broke into his psychiatrist's office. Last week, the United States released records against him. The judge was furious. They threw the case out. The government didn't even appeal, and he walked free.

How important was it at the time, and is it for history, what Daniel Ellsberg selflessly did? Yeah. Ellsberg is a genuine hero. He's a just genuinely decent human being. Sort of thing to repent for the sins of his youth. He was a Marine officer in Vietnam before he joined up at the Pentagon. It's a sad irony that his death coincides with the decision of the High Court

in the United Kingdom to reject the appeal of Julian Assange. Because Assange basically stands accused of doing the same thing that Daniel Ellsberg was doing, exposing the lies of the American defense establishment. Ellsberg exposed the fact that the Pentagon was lying to the American public about what was going on in Vietnam. And Julian Assange exposed mass lies about what was going on in Iraq. And within politics in general,

within the Clinton campaign, and how Hillary Clinton was subverting her rivals and tried to steal the election in 2016. So Ellsberg hopefully will save Julian Assange because when Assange is extradited to the United States, his case is going to rise to the supreme court and let's hope that the supreme court has the backbone and courage and integrity to go back and uphold what was established in the ellsberg case because the what daniel ellsberg did was expose lies and the government tried to use secrecy as an excuse to both punish him and to cover that up. And our republic depends upon

the populace, the citizens, being adequately and thoroughly informed about what it is that their government is doing, especially in overseas events such as what's taking place in Ukraine right now. Larry Johnson, thank you very much, my dear friend. Always a pleasure. Have a great weekend. Thank you, Judge. You too. Thank you.

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