Judging Freedom - Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Is the Ukraine War Over?

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

Prof. Jeffrey Sachs : Is the Ukraine War Over?See 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, August 31st, 2006. Professor Jeffrey Sachs will be with us in just a moment. Is the Iran war effectively over? But first this. Today's headlines aren't just bleak. They're an indictment of a government that has abandoned the Constitution. You are witnessing the direct result of the Federal Reserve's relentless war on the value of your dollar. For centuries, gold and silver have been the ultimate shield against the state's favorite tools. expansion and runaway inflation. To protect your wealth is to protect your liberty, and you can

do that with gold and silver. I own both and continue to buy, because J.P. Morgan is now lying gold at over $6,300 an ounce, and Bank of America is suggesting silver could reach $300. That's great news for precious metal investors. Don't wait for Washington to fix a mess they created. secure your freedom today take possession of your precious metals or diversify your IRA by adding gold and silver call 800 511 4620 to see if you qualify for up to twenty thousand dollars in bonus medals that's 800 511 4620 or go to lear judge nap dot com professor sacks welcome here before we get to ukraine why is the united states military still engaged in pinprick attacks on Iranian facilities? Well, this was completely useless so what happened in the last day, but worse than useless, of course, costly.

The US refuses to follow through on an agreement in framework that was reached with Iran weeks ago because it would admit that it would admit that the whole U.S. war was a debacle, and the U.S. won't admit that. And so we are in a situation where there's no answer to the mess that the U.S. has created. And for that reason, when the Iranians say we will control the shipping through the straits and ships try to, under U.S. Aegis, try to pass by nonetheless.

Iran struck at them. The United States retaliated. Iran escalated. This is completely absurd and costly, as I say, costly because oil prices rose almost 3%. as a result of this, they will continue to rise. Basically, the U.S. effort has failed. The United States needs to go home, and that's the end of the story. And since Trump and our permanent state can't accept that, we just continue with the pain,

but without any solution, anything more than continued destruction and harm to the world economy. You know, Trump had a bizarre statement, most of them are bizarre, yesterday in which he said, as soon as we win the war, after having said about 50 or 60 times in public that we've won, then he said, we have total control over her moves, then he said, well, almost total. I don't even know if it's worth running this. I've run it several times today. It's dopey, it's loopy. But what is your understanding of the economics of the Strait of Hormuz at the present time?

It's closed. The Strait of Hormuz is basically closed. We have a continuing global energy crisis as a result of that. There is stories told about ships going through and so forth, which we know have no substance to them. But this is the miserable reality right now. What could return the world to some kind of normalcy is for the United States to go home. And I keep saying, I'll say it again, no agreement needed, just go home. And of course, the U.S. won't do that. Trump won't do that.

And I think the deep state won't do that. we're just paralyzed. It's not the first time we've been engaged in useless wars. Sometimes they can drag for years at incredible cost because politicians don't want to admit that they made a mistake. Wearing your economist hat. What can Bessent's D-Day sanctions possibly or probably accomplish? Nothing. Today, there is an important meeting of what's called the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. These are the countries, the large countries of Asia plus Russia. So they include Russia and Belarus and then the Central Asian countries, India, Iran, China. It's 10 countries. They actually have a combined output that is larger than the G7 countries. That's the United States and its major allies, so-called.

So this group that's meeting in Kyrgyzstan now is going to continue its trade with Iran. Iran is one of the members of this group. Iran is one of the members of the BRICS, which will meet in India in about two weeks time. So Bessent can huff and puff, but it doesn't mean much anymore. Right. I mean, Bessent claims, well, they've targeted a Chinese bank. Now, what Chinese bank would risk its own charter from the government of China by complying with a U.S. sanction? No Chinese bank is going to have to do that because there are many mechanisms that will not involve any bank.

even potentially reachable by the United States to close transactions with Iran. We are moving to non-dollar payments for a very substantial proportion of world trade and certainly a very large proportion of China's trade. And China is the main buyer of Iranian oil. They are not going to comply, of course, with Besson's demands. That's absurd. But moreover, the U.S. sanctions can't reach the Chinese trade with Iran. So this is why there was a big yawn and a big shrug of the shoulders and more derision and

mockery of Bessent than serious concern or hand-wringing or questions of Bessent. of what to do because there are so many ways around the U.S. sanctions now. And the more you use the sanctions, the more you accelerate the non-dollar international payment system. This is, in other words, a weapon that has a very limited value because the more you use it, the weaker it becomes. How effective is the non-U.S. bank clearing system? I'll use the old phrase clearinghouse for the benefit of those of us who are not tutored in economics. Well, it's not hard to settle outside of the U.S. dollar. The settlements in U.S.

dollar was convenient. It's not bad if the world. were a normal place, not run in the crazy way that the United States wants it to be run, to have a currency which serves as a unit of account and the currency of settlement. So it was convenient to have a global currency. But that role of the dollar is not an insurmountable obstacle for other countries to introduce their own settlements. and China's introduced an interbank payment system that works just fine. There's no technical problem of settling outside of the dollar is moving from what was convenient to what is no longer convenient. And this is the irony of all of this.

the U.S. people in the Treasury and in Security Council who are just absolutely absurd amateurs in economics and finance discovered 10 or 15 years ago, we have a weapon. We can threaten to cut off countries from the swift banking system at the beginning of the special military operation in February. 2022, cutting Russia out of Swift was called the nuclear option. Because they thought this is some decisive power of the United States. But this is absurd because you don't have to use dollars for Russia to trade with China or to trade with India.

You can use rubles or rupees or Redmond B or other current. and as a technical matter, it ain't a problem. So what has evolved are alternative payments, and these are now accelerating because the bricks, which I mentioned, will meet next week, the large emerging economies, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and now several more, they know that the U.S. is playing these games that Besson's job is this economic deed A, so they're accelerating the development of non-dollar payments. I want you to watch a clip from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It's a campaign speech. We're just going to run a small portion of it, but in it... If you make me do it, I'll do it. All right. In it, he boasts of his influence in the United States government. Cut number five, Chris. I am involved in this matter. I have been against Iran for nearly 40 years, and you need to identify the danger, and you need to be able to bring.

It took me a long time to get our security establishment to deal with Iran itself and not just its proxies. And that is what we did in the end when this unity government I spoke of was formed, and it also took a long time to bring the United States to that realization. I could do it because I had, I don't want to say thousands, but close to a thousand hours on America. with the ability to influence in the United States, with intimate knowledge of all its leaders, both those who support us and those who do not support us, the ability to navigate this field,

without which, without which, what are you? The ultimate knowledge of all of its leaders, both those who support us and those who do not support us. Both the US and Israel are at the end of their end game. The US game was primacy, so-called. It was going to show Russia, we can do whatever we want in Ukraine or Georgia or any other place on your borders. Israel was going to become the hegemon of the Middle East, and Israel was going to do it with the U.S. backing, unshakable backing. We're at the end of this.

The American public, which Netanyahu boasts of, despises that man. And that, and that counts. We don't support him, and the more he talks, the less support there will be for Israel. That is absolutely certain. And they can't accomplish what they say they aim to accomplish. Netanyahu played a major role of getting the United States into the Iraq War, which was a multi-trillion dollar disaster sold to the American people on phony pretences. He played a major role in getting the United States into this current war with Iran, another complete debacle. The man's a disaster. But most of all, he is a disaster for Israel. He has played a historic role. He has turned the world against Israel.

All right. Now, I know it is dinner time on the East Coast. of the United States as we are chatting because this will upset your stomach. This is a Itamar Ben-Gavir political ad, which could have been produced and looks like it might have been produced, but Joseph Goebbels. Chris cut number six. Is that for real? That is for real. He's showing enslaved people. Yes. Oh, my God.

The man is a war criminal. And I'm absolutely, I shouldn't be shocked because the genocide has been openly proclaimed by Ben-Givir, by Smokritch, by Netanyahu, by the Israeli leaders, the open proclamation that they have. They will make the Palestinian lands, Gaza, and the West Bank, unlivable for the Palestinians, that they treat them like animals. But to show a concentration camp like this and what it means, this is a kind of, well, it's so repulsive that I would hope that any American congressman or Senator looking at that, no matter if you're on APAC money or not, look at that and understand that. That's the genocide that you, Congressman or you, Senator, with your APAC money, have been supporting and that you are complicit in. And the vulgarity of that, I mean, if you told me that is an AI generated spoof, not a spoof,

whatever, you know, a fraud, I'd believe it. But if that's actually something that is being portrayed in Israeli politics, fine. Let the American politicians finally break free of the complicity in genocide. Understand that, look at that, and stop. Our other guests today were as repulsed by it as you are, Professor Sachs. I'm shocked. Uniformly said, and I suspect you'll agree, it doesn't matter if Netanyahu is reelected, because the Israeli foreign policy, genocide, killing,

a greater Israeli project will continue. Well, it will continue as long as the United States remains complicit in genocide. So I would say to the American people, in November, vote for candidates who say that they are for peace to stop funding the Israeli murder machine, to stop funding this horrendous war in Ukraine, which is doing nothing but destroying Ukraine because we keep it going rather than negotiate a peace which has been available all along. Remember, Judge, I spoke to Biden's national security advisor at the end of 2021, and I said negotiate. He said, don't worry, Jeff, there's not going to be a war.

That's Big Sullivan. These people are incompetent. And I would like the American people to vote against the warmongers, to vote against congressmen and senators of either party that put money. money into the Ukraine war, which has accomplished nothing but destroying Ukraine under the idea of American primacy, because it was all spelled out 30 years ago, and to vote against any candidate that says, we stand with Israel in what Israel is doing, because what Israel is doing is genocide, and standing with Israel is complicity in genocide. Here is arguably the American congressional version of Itamar Ben-Gavir, Congressman Randy Fine.

I thought you would go to him, yes. Who recently authored a letter with two of his colleagues to the Attorney General of the United States calling for the indictment of our friend Max Blumenthal, because Max did in-person live interviews on the streets of Tehran. before, during, and after the Ayatollah's funeral, and Congressman finds view that is some sort of a federal crime. This is crazy, but I'll show you what Congressman Fein said. Jew hatred is simply the gateway and companion drug to a broader societal collapse. In your Republican Party, though,

since I last spoke to you in October, we have had some extraordinary wins. One year ago, I told you I served with two anti-sense. Semites in the U.S. House of Representatives. And today, I am proud to tell you I will soon serve with none. We ran the quitter Marjorie Taylor Green out of Congress. And if Thomas Massey needed a real reason to hate the Jews, well, we gave him one in May when we kicked his ass. A year ago, before all of you, I declared Tucker Carlson was not MAGA. People were shocked. He actually called the Speaker of the House to complain before I left the stage.

but thanks to President Trump, one year later, we have expelled him and his filth from the Republican Party. The language is so repulsive, but the vulgarity of it is that being opposed to genocide is not being anti-Semitic, being opposed to what this Israeli fascistic government is doing is not being anti-Semitic. It is actually standing up for true Jewish values, I would say, which are values of peace and decency. Murdering people is not religious values. This is a political instrumentation, and calling that anti-Semitism is the lie that people, like Congressman Fine, say opposing genocide is not anti-Semitism. It is opposing despicable behavior by a rogue government. And I'm very proud and happy that my fellow Americans, by an overwhelming majority, overwhelming,

reject what Israel is doing. And they are not anti-Semites. They are decent people that don't want mass murder. Now to Ukraine, where do things stand economically, militarily, geopolitically, as you understand it. Ukraine is in a state of collapse that is accelerating and inevitable. And the only question is how long the agony goes on. Does Europe and the United States fight to the last Ukrainian?

Or do they admit that this was yet another debacle starting back in the 1990s when they said contrary to promises that had been, made to the Soviet Union and Russia about NATO not enlarging, that they would enlarge NATO all the way to Russia's border in Ukraine and Georgia. So the United States and Germany broke a very explicit binding commitment made in 1990, and it brought Ukraine into a disaster. The Ukrainians were were smart enough to oppose what the United States was doing. They didn't want to join NATO. Their president, President Viktor Yonakovich, did not want to join NATO because he knew Ukraine

is in the middle. And to join NATO would invite war. So the United States helped to overthrow the president and engulfed Ukraine in a massive, destructive war. Ukraine is now being pummeled. And we have our senators like Senator Richard Blumenthal who actually said, and he was one of many who said, this is great value. No Americans are dying, literally.

We can fight Russia, but it's not American deaths. Yes, it's Ukrainian destruction is what all of this has wrought. And it is accelerating. the Ukrainian economy is entering a state of collapse, and Ukraine is entering a winter in which there will be basically a breakdown of the most basic economy, because in this war, Ukraine attacks Russia, and then with the British and American support, and then Russia hits back larger, which all of us have been saying for years, would be the inevitable outcome. So instead of peace, we have been destroying Ukraine. So I am off to Russia and some of our colleagues, Professor Mearsheimer, Larry Johnson,

Alastair Crook and his wife and I have been invited to spend a little bit of time with Prime Minister Lavrov, aside from giving him your regards since you know each other so well, What would you have me ask him? Well, I would like Russia at this point to put forward clear ideas about how a new Eurasian security architecture could establish peace. Because I think that with the United States having failed utterly in Ukraine with the disaster in, Iran with the failure of the U.S. block to overwhelm what these people perceive to be their foes, though they are not inevitable foes in any way. I think I hope that Russia, China, India, maybe at the bricks even, the week after you're in Moscow, could put forward proposals.

Here is how the world could actually function in which the major powers are not provoking each other. They are respecting each other's red lines, and we avoid these destructive wars. Remember, and this I just want to emphasize, Zvignu Bersinski in 1997, said that there are places in the world that we should use, not because they're important in and of themselves, but we can use them against our foes. He called these places geopolitical pivots. It's an extraordinarily cynical idea because it's using other people and other countries. Two of them that he named were Ukraine and Iran.

Look at us in the Grand Chessboard. These are places where we play, but this isn't a game. This is destruction that brings the world closer to utter disaster. So when you meet foreign minister Lavrov, Russia, China, India, these large countries which are feeling this U.S. still attempt at this crazy primacy idea that goes back to the 1990s, maybe can spell out the way that things could really work properly so that all of these wars stop. Professor Sachs, thank you very much, my dear friend.

I look forward to seeing you soon. Great. Safe travels. Yeah, thank you. All the best. Bye, bye. Bye. So as we've been mentioning all day, we will not be airing new programming on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

Obviously, everything that we've posted is still there. we expect to be airing programming from Moscow on Thursday and Friday and the following week, at least up until Wednesday. Thank you for watching, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.