Judging Freedom - Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: How to avoid all-out war.

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: How to avoid all-out war.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. Our military organization today bears little relation to that known of any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea, we must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Friday, October 20th, 2023. Back from an incredible world tour, Professor Jeffrey Sachs joins us. That was, of course, one of the most famous clips in American history, President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

And I just picked out something I never heard before, and I've listened to it so many times uh professor sacks the weight of this combination and I understand I've said this before on air I understand from his granddaughter that the not you shouldn't say this to me personally but she said this publicly that the original script said military industrial congressional complex and the old general at the last minute crossed out congressional and when asked why, he said, well, I only have a few days left in my term, but I'm waiting for them to pass two more bills. Anyway, it's profound, which leads us to the profound question of the day. Professor Sachs, how do we avoid Armageddon? Boy, are we drifting towards disaster, and I would say this is drift. Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke 62 years ago.

It was his farewell address, 1961, January, and he warned us already then about the power of the military-industrial complex. The military-industrial complex took hold of U.S. foreign policy, especially from the 1990s onward. We sometimes call it the neocon era. It has been the era in which the U.S. has pursued nonstop military approaches, wars, covert regime change operations. It has brought us to now multiple hot wars, tremendous global insecurity, a budget that is drowning in debt. And President Biden just asked for another $100 billion plus in this endless stream of spending for the military. And he sounded to me like a pitchman for the military industrial complex. Your artillery shells are produced in 12 states, including Pennsylvania and Texas. Arizona produces the Patriot missile systems. This is clearly a military industrial complex-led foreign policy. Wall Street Journal just carried

a story about how they're expecting boom times. And I use that phrase perhaps unwisely, lots of booms over Gaza, but lots of money in the accounts of the military contractors. And our foreign policy, on the other hand, is a disaster. President Biden said we're the beacon to the world. The world is absolutely standing against what the United States is standing for right now. And if you want proof of it, it was 14 to 1 in the UN Security Council in recent days when the other 14 members of the UN Security Council said we need a ceasefire and humanitarian relief. And the United States vetoed that.

This is really troubling and amazing and completely unconvincing from a foreign policy point of view. And aside just even on the straight economics of it, for heaven's sake, another $100 billion on top of a busting budget deficit that the Congressional Budget Office has just reported, $300 billion larger deficit than in FY22. This is the fiscal year 2023. We didn't collect the revenues down 9% year over year. We know that the interest rates are rising to unprecedented levels of the recent years. This is causing a lot of pain. And now, oh, why not another $100 billion for a failed policy. So what would the argument be against humanitarian assistance? How could the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. with a straight face argue against that? And before you answer that, the president claims that he told Prime Minister Netanyahu and Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed to allow humanitarian assistance in the form of food, medicine and water to cross from Egypt into southern Gaza. As of the time we went on air, Professor, those trucks are still lined up.

The caravan is miles long, but the Israelis won't let them in. Nothing has opened up. There is no relief. There was a massive bombing again yesterday, a bombing that hit a Greek Orthodox church complex. I think it's 1,600 years old. I've heard from the Greek Orthodox community and leadership today. This is just horror. And there is not only no relief in sight, there is only escalation in sight. Doesn't Prime Minister Netanyahu understand the dangers to Israel and to him personally? I'm talking about his longevity in office, to this type of gross overreaction? I don't think he has any longevity in office

personally under any circumstances, but I would say that Israel may be living in almost in a state of unawareness of what the world feels right now. But you felt the same thing hearing Joe Biden speak. To me, it was a speech from 30 years ago. Indeed, it used the rhetoric of 30 years ago as if nothing had happened in the past 30 years and nothing had happened in the past seven days. We're alone in this, and we're not protecting Israel by basically standing by while this disaster in Gaza unfolds, which is absolutely inimical to Israel's own interests. They don't understand what they're getting into, which is very bad and very deep and very much opposed by the whole rest of the world, save the leadership of the United States right now. Does President Biden and his colleagues and do Prime Minister Netanyahu and his colleagues

understand what will happen if American fighter jets attack Hezbollah or American Marines land on the shores of Gaza, the 2,000 Marines off the coast in the aircraft carrier? God forbid. I don't think that they understand. And the dangers are extraordinarily high, and the lack of diplomacy is absolutely staggering. It is unbelievable that President Biden and President Putin have not spoken once, as far as we know, but I think it's a pretty good bet that they have not

spoken once since early 2022. They have a lot to speak about before this world goes over the edge. And we are not having basic diplomacy right now. And Professor Sachs, the president of the United States personalizes this. Here he is last night. It's cut seven, Chris. Putin has failed. It's absolutely untrue, but it's so personal. When Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he would take Kiev and all of Ukraine in a matter of days. Well, over a year later, Putin has failed, and he continues to fail. Kiev still stands because of the bravery of the Ukrainian people.

Ukraine has regained more than 50% of the territory Russian troops once occupied, backed by US-led coalition of more than 50 countries around the world, all doing its part to support Kyiv. We're segueing into Ukraine, but I would argue that none of what he just said is accurate. I would absolutely concur. It's just straight propaganda. And to say this, by the way, after a disastrous failure of Ukraine's so-called counteroffensive, which began in June, and which has cost tens of thousands of Ukrainian deaths. And those deaths continue at staggering rates every single day.

And this is known by everyone watching this, everyone observing to have been an unbelievable failure pushed by the United States. And Biden, he's reading a script. It's really a puzzle who writes this stuff. This is dreadful. If you had been the Secretary of State, and how I wish you were. Thanks for that. Talk about sleepless nights. Yeah, exactly.

But Tony Blinken, we both know him personally. I mean, this was just a disaster of whatever he attempted to do in the days preceding the president's trip over there. What would you tell Prime Minister Netanyahu? Bibi, you've got to look at the way the world looks at this. You're killing innocents. Remember, the entire U.S. foreign policy of this administration has been a failure. And it was just days before the Hamas attacks, of course, that Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, declared the Middle East the quietest that it's been in 20 years. They misread everything. They are misunderstanding everything. And if you don't know what you're facing,

how can you solve any problems at all? So they're not solving any problems. They're just deepening the problems. The whole trip was completely ill-advised. I keep offering, they can use my cell phone. They can use my Zoom links. They could reach anybody at any time, have serious discussions with anybody. We don't need the grandstanding. We don't need this unbelievably vacuous and wrongly directed speech. We don't need the next hundred billion dollars. We need some diplomacy. The president of the United States, it's his job. He should be speaking with President Putin. He should be speaking with President Xi. He should be speaking with other. He should be speaking with the leaders of the Arab countries. He doesn't have to fly there for that. He could have a Zoom call and actually get something real done. reaching a boiling point they didn't even recognize that the water was getting hot and then when it has boiled over the reactions are absolutely uh contrary to the entire world's

sense of this which is that this is about politics it's about politics overdue for 50 years. We need a political resolution. We don't need a destruction of this absolutely vulnerable and trapped civilian population. And yet they have no answers. Our administration and the Netanyahu government, which, by the way, was already pushing Israel itself to the brink of disaster internally before this happened. So this was a government that was incredibly divisive. It had hundreds of thousands of Israelis out on the streets against it. it, it obviously was not watching or hearing or understanding anything, nor was our national security apparatus understanding or hearing anything because they don't listen to anybody. They just talk. They think that the whole world waits for the U.S. word. And Biden said it yesterday, again, like a blast from the past, where the indispensable nation, the whole world looks to the

U.S. for leadership and blah, blah, blah, in the midst of a complete collapse of diplomacy. This is very, we'll play exactly what he said. It's cut nine, Chris. This is very George W. Bush like, you're with us or against us in the days and weeks after 9-11. On Ukraine, I'm asking Congress to make sure we can continue to send Ukraine the weapons they need to defend themselves and their country without interruption, so Ukraine can stop Putin's brutality in Ukraine. They are succeeding, backed by U.S.-led coalition of more than 50 countries around the world, all doing its part to support Kyiv. What would happen if we walked away?

We are the essential nation. Meanwhile, Putin has turned to Iran and North Korea to buy attack drones and ammunition to terrorize Ukrainian cities and people. What is President Putin doing while Joe Biden and company are exacerbating what's happening in the Middle East? You know, it was almost a split screen for the world in last week, the U.S. foreign policy coming unraveled in Ukraine and in the Middle East. And halfway around the world in Beijing, President Xi was hosting world leaders in a celebration of a 10-year initiative, the Belt and Road Initiative,

which is building infrastructure, fast rail, 5G networks, renewable energy, long-distance transmission grids, with partners of 150 countries. And China's saying, we want peace, we want cooperation. The world leaders came there, President Putin came, they declared their unlimited friendship and partnership. It was President Putin's third visit for Belt and Road initiatives. These are global gatherings that China has hosted since 2013. President Putin has been there for all three of them. It says something. But by the way, there were leaders from all over the world in Beijing. And what they were saying is we want peace, we want development, we would like connectivity, we want fast rail. We want energy transformation. We want all of that. And China's helping to finance it. And we're spending trillions and trillions of dollars in the last 20 years. By one estimate, it's over $8 trillion that we don't have, can't afford, took up debt to do on military approaches, not on building infrastructure, on blowing up things.

And this is the difference. This was the split screen in the dysfunction at the moment in the House of Representatives, once that is resolved, the war party, which is 90% of both houses of Congress, I think beyond question will give Joe Biden what he asked for. I'm waiting to see because the American people are really against this and the numbers are rising. It's overwhelmingly clear in the Republican grassroots and in the independents of this country. The Democrats maybe are following Biden's lead on this, but the American people do not want this and don't deserve this. And we will see whether Congress has even a glimmer left of recognizing its role of reflecting the interests of the American people. It's a real question mark. It's fascinating to see that in this internal struggle within the Republican Party,

who is warning the speaker candidates? It's, of course, the head of the Armed Services Committee, you better vote for this. If you want our support, you need to vote for the money that's going to go to Lockheed and to Raytheon and to General Dynamics and to Northrop Grumman and to Boeing. Those are the campaign funders. This is serious business for the United States. Joe Biden reminded us. They figured out to put all those factories in different states so that you can continue to get the money you got that you got that exactly right so the representatives in those states will always vote for war and say look i i kept your job for you that's it the jobs in the neighborhood and

they were put there for a reason to keep the money flowing and that's what President Eisenhower was telling us. My God, the Supreme Allied Commander of Forces in World War II was the one warning us about the military industrial complex. An amazing, an amazing reality. Correct. And we're living it. And we are suffering it it just as he warned 62 years ago. I'm going to lighten this up just a little bit, although there's serious implications even to this humor. This is President Putin inviting President, can't make this up, inviting President Biden over for pancakes and tea. If Russia has lost the war, why do they, the USA, supply attackums? Let them take them back and all of the other weapons. Biden can take a seat and eat pancakes and visit us for some tea.

If the war is lost, what are we talking about? Why attackums? Ask him that. It's funny. First, this supplying attackums, of course, causes harm and creates an additional threat. Secondly, we will, of course, be able to repel these attacks. War is war. Jeff, he's 100% correct. Amazing to see and watching that venue in Beijing behind him. You know, we've got this all wrong.

But what he's really saying, you know, deep down is how weird it is that the two aren't actually talking, whether they have pancakes or not is yet another matter. But instead of diplomacy, we have these moments in front of the camera where Biden wants to look tough. This man can't stay in power. This man's evil. This is the opposite of how to make the world safe. And what Putin is saying there is basically, we don't talk. I just hear these things, you know, and see the missiles. We don't really talk at all. And so I think underneath this was the weirdness of the way that America conducts its foreign policy right now. No diplomacy. No diplomacy. Just war. And it's very strange for the whole world, actually. Even our closest allies are very uncomfortable about this right now, in fact, which is why in the U.N. Security Council,

we have no supporters. It's just the U.N. Security Council against the Biden administration. And that shows how far along we have gone on the wrong road. Professor Sachs, I know you're very busy and you just got off a month trip from around the world. Thank you very much for your time on this. It is deeply and profoundly appreciated. I can tell from the numbers of people watching us and the seriousness of their comments. I hope you'll come back and visit with us again next week. Absolutely. We'll do that. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All the best.

Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. So we have at 2.30 Eastern the Intelligence Roundtable, Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern. And later on, ask the judge. And later on, Scott Horton, an interesting question. Why do Americans love war? We'll see you shortly. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom. Thank you.