Judging Freedom - Putin, Biden & what_s really at stake in Ukraine

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here with Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, February 2nd, 2023. It's about 4.30 in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United States. Well, the more I look at what's happening in Ukraine, the more I listen to the ramblings of President Biden and the spokespersons for his administration, the more fearful I am that we are being dragged into a war that we cannot win and that we cannot afford to lose. There is quite simply zero American national security interest in fighting a war for Ukraine against Russia. There is zero American national security interest in providing weapons and cash to Ukraine. We have no dog in this fight and should have zero interest in the outcome. These two countries have been disputing for 300 years

over whether the land that Putin seeks is part of Russia or part of Ukraine. And the overwhelming number of persons who live in this land are Russian-speaking and are happy to be a part of Russia. All we're doing is extending a war and causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine and the destruction of a once beautiful country with once beautiful civilized cities. Although the government is authoritarian, the country is beautiful and the people are peaceful, but you're not seeing that now. You're seeing a people whipped into a frenzy fighting Russia and America's support of Russia of such a magnitude that all we're doing is extending the war. troops in Poland, right over the Polish-Ukraine border, training with 90,000 Polish troops.

Their commander-in-chief, the president of Poland, is crazy. He wants an invasion of Ukraine by American and Polish and Romanian troops. The rest of NATO is not going to get involved in this because they see right through it. And he thinks that we can, in that invasion, expel Russia from the portions of Ukraine that it now dominates, the eastern portion, and even take back Crimea, which Russia captured in 2014 after the CIA fomented a revolution and a coup in Ukraine. This is really not the way the American people want the American government to go. This is not the way American troops should go. This is not the place for American troops to go. You guys know me from my 24 years and 14,500 appearances at Fox, the overwhelming majority of which had to do with the Constitution, the laws of the land, on Fox Business with my buddy Stuart Varney, Economics 101, and why when the government gets involved in the economy, all it does is make things scarcer and more expensive. But now I'm seeing American government in a different way from the people that we have on Judging Freedom, educating you and me in the dangers of fighting a war we can't win and we can't afford to lose. Today is the 80th anniversary of the Russian victory in Stalingrad. That was the victory in World War II that repelled the Nazi invasion of Russia and turned the tide of World War II against the Russians.

President Putin celebrated that victory today, as he should, and in his speech during the celebration ceremony made some very strong comments about the United States and about the West and about what they're trying to do. So the speech is in Russian. The way the technology exists, I can't speak over him or you won't hear either of us. But if you watch the subtitles carefully, you'll be able to see in English what he's saying in Russian. And then I'll comment on it. Here's President Putin in Moscow earlier today. It's incredible, he says. It's incredible. We are being attacked by the West in the name of people who are the followers of Hitler and Bandera. Bandera is a Ukrainian Nazi who whispers ideological theories into President Zelensky's ear. He sees what's going on

with the arrival of German tanks, and honestly, I don't think they're there yet, and the promise of American tanks, which will never get there in time to save Zelensky. Those tanks have to be built and retrofitted before we can bring them over. Why do they have to be retrofitted? We have to take out the high-end digital technology that's in there so that it doesn't fall into anybody's hands and put in older technology. By the time that's done and then the tanks are shipped to Poland and then dispatched from Poland to Ukraine, it'll be April or May and the war will be over. But Putin gets it. He sees what's happening. He sees the West trying to gang up on him. And he sees the West trying to force him into using weapons that he doesn't want to use. On top of all of this, one of my former Fox colleagues, Trey Yinkst,

just did a fascinating interview on Fox, of course, with President Zelensky. Now, President Zelensky is going to answer in Ukrainian. Trey is asking the question in English, but you'll hear the translator into English. This is just about two hours old. What do you believe is stopping the United States and Ukraine's NATO allies from providing your country with more advanced weapons and fighter jets? We're grateful for everything we receive. Still, one of the versions is that the United States and some Europeans are afraid that we could hit the territory of Russia.

I want to reach them. We want them to be afraid of us. But once again, we're talking about ourselves. We are defending our territory, and all of that could be avoided if Russia would simply stop launching missiles at us. There you have it. I want to reach them. I want them to be afraid of us. He wants to use American and NATO hardware to attack Russia. Mr. President, now I'm talking to the President, if he watches, maybe one of his people in the basement of the West Wing is watching.

Mr. President, are you out of your mind? Do you really want American missiles and ammunition reaching deep into Russia? Do you really trust President Zelensky and his Nazi cohorts with the equipment paid for by the hard-earned tax dollars you've taken from the American workers? Do you really want them attacking Russia with things on it that say made in USA? Are you not fearful of what the reaction to that might be? Do you really want to push Putin, President Biden? And by the way, President Biden and I have known each other for a long time. There was a time when we sat next to each other on the Acela. That's the train that goes from New York to Washington. It stopped in Wilmington, and he'd get on, and he'd see me. And he knew me from Fox. He also knew me from Delaware Law School, where we were both on the faculty together back in the late 1970s.

And it was always, call me Joe. All right, you're the president. I'm not going to call you Joe. But Mr. President, are you crazy? Do you really want to start a war with Vladimir Putin? My friend, Gerald Salanti, a very, very tough guy, a defender of human liberty, and one of the fiercest anti-war people I know, often says, when all else fails, they take you to war. The economy is failing. The Democrats are gloating over documents found in your house, Mr. President, because they want an excuse to prevent you from being their nominee for re-election, because it's impossible to defend your stewardship. Now you want to start a war. The American public does not

want war. Don't bring us into another Vietnam. Don't borrow another trillion dollars like George W. Bush did to bring us into an invasion of Afghanistan, fruitless and useless, or another trillion dollars to invade Baghdad, fruitless and useless, and his father a trillion dollars, George H.W. Bush, for his invasion of Baghdad because Saddam Hussein tried to take back territory that was stolen from him. I don't want to repeat history here, but this nonsense about domino theories, if Russia expands, it'll eventually be in Baltimore. Same argument that Bush's father made about Iraq expanding. Same argument that you're making now, Mr. President, about Russia expanding. It's nonsense. Putin wants a prosperous country that will interact with the West diplomatically and commercially. dollars to kill Russian boys and for sending American boys over there to shoot at them.

It's time to recognize that your foreign policy in Ukraine is an utter failure, Mr. President. It's time to take a step back from it, a material step back from it. Bring the American troops that are in Poland and they're ready to attack home. Bring the troops that are on the ground and out of uniform in Ukraine home. Send the CIA home. Stop sending American military equipment to kill innocent civilians in Ukraine and conscripts in the Russian army. Then maybe you'll have a fighting chance for re-election. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.