Judging Freedom - Putin_ This is a Global Conflict - Scott Ritter

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, March 2nd, 2023. It's about four o'clock in the afternoon here on the East Coast of the United States. Scott Ritter joins us now. Scott, thank you very much for every time you come on the show. Thanks, Matt. Of course. Has Ukraine already lost this war? I believe so. I mean, the big factor is what the Secretary General of NATO has pointed out.

Ukraine is going to run out of 155 millimeter artillery ammunition sometime this summer. And there's nothing NATO can do to alter that outcome. And in a war that is largely defined by each side's ability to put artillery fire down on the other. If one side runs out of ammunition, the other side doesn't. It doesn't look too well for the side that runs out of ammunition. So, yeah, I think the cards are there on the table. Ukraine's lost the war. So I just received an email from a very reliable source, Gary, if you want to put it on the screen, saying, single source reporting rebellion ongoing by

Ukraine troops in Bakhmut. This is five minutes old, Scott. Zelensky is furious, calling for General Zeluzhny to put down the rebels. Ukraine's lines east, north, and south under tremendous pressure. Assuming this is accurate, and again, my source is intellectually honest enough to say it's a single source. But assuming it's accurate, what is this telling you? Rebellion in the ranks? Well, if you've been following the ongoing saga of Bakhmut, there is anecdotal information in terms of videos submitted by people. We can't prove they are who they say they are but um

they just indicate that the the rank and file ukrainian uh soldiers fed up uh that they're being committed into combat that uh they themselves say that if you send a company in to bakhmut by that night they've suffered 70 80 casualties and have to be withdrawn the next day this is a suicide mission it's a one-way mission. And for what purpose? You know, there's no strategic goal other than the pride of Zelensky here. And I think basically you have a situation where thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are confronting the imminence of their demise and are doing what humans do in these conditions, rise up to try and preserve their lives. And they're revolting against, if this source is true, revolting against the orders that have them, you know, basically going on a one-way mission to hell. And that's it. And the

issue about the pressure, you and I have talked about this, you know, people go, where's the Russian offensive? It's happening right now, guys. The pressure that's being put on the Ukrainians isn't just in Baklut. It's throughout the entire line, constant pressure, constant chewing away. And I think the culmination of all this is causing fractures in the Ukrainian armed forces. And they appear to be manifesting themselves along the lines that are indicative in your email. What would General Zeluzny, for whom I believe you have a lot of respect, do? What should a commander, he's probably not physically there, but what would he do if there's true rebellion going on? Do you shoot them? Do you talk to them?

What do you do when your colleagues or the people under your command are rebelling in order to save their lives? Well, a good commander will save the lives of his soldiers. And a good commander will recognize that the cauldron that's developing there is a suicide trap. And a good commander would undertake those missions necessary to get as many of those troops out and preserve their lives. I'm not here to glorify Nazi leaders and German commanders during World War II, but there were several instances during the fighting on the East Front when German troops were facing encirclement and high-quality leaders such as von Manstein disregarded orders to hold at all costs and instead maneuvered to preserve the lives of his soldiers and continue.

And General Zeluzhny is a soldier who is a professional. He claims to care about his troops. So a good commander would get them out of there. And if you have to launch an attack, a supporting attack to create the opportunity for withdrawal of troops, then you do that. But a bad commander would send in nationalist forces who will create a line behind the Ukrainian lines and start shooting anybody who goes in. A bad leader will go in and grab leaders and make an example of them by executing them in front of their soldiers.

So we'll find out what kind of leader illusion he is. Were you as dismayed as I was to see Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen in Kyiv handing a facsimile, I can't imagine it was a real check, what they said was a check for 1.8 billion to him. Yes, but I'm also cognizant of the fact that I can virtually guarantee you that while she was handing him that check, she was sending another message. That message is that the United States is in a bottomless pit. And we know, I mean, there's been media reports have been saying this is the message going to Zelensky, especially after Biden spoke in Warsaw, where he was like, rah, rah, rah, we're here for you till the end, the bitter end, dah, dah, dah, dah. And then immediately the message went out, disregard the president. There is no bottomless pit here. You're going to have to find a way to negotiate an end to this conflict before we run out of things to give you, because we are running

out of things to give you. And when we run out, there's nothing left to give you. And then you won't have anything, you know, any negotiating leverage. So it's better for you to negotiate now than there. And that's an ongoing fight that's going on inside the Ukrainian government right now, which is they are gradually being confronted with the inevitability of their demise. And the question is, what kind of deal can they get out of this? That's why they're hopeful that NATO can continue to provide them stuff so they can turn that into leverage against the russians saying um you know give us as much as we can to make this more face saving the russians aren't playing that game too many russians have died

uh too much betrayal on the part of the west um but if zolinski wants to continue fighting this i can guarantee you the russians are are going to be willing to continue to kill Ukrainian soldiers until which time either the soldiers rise up and rebel against Zelensky, which appears that could be beginning to happen, or they surrender without preconditions, an unconditional surrender. I mean, what would happen if Zelensky allowed Russia control of the Donbass and eastern Ukraine, the parts that are in dispute, certainly the Russian-speaking parts, if the soldiers just withdrew. Putin has no wish to destroy Kiev, does he? No. The president just gave a speech on February 21st. Are you familiar with Ray McGovern, the CIA analyst? Yeah, Ray is like an older version of you. Ray is a great, courageous, intelligent man who understands the Constitution, understands human freedom, and understands the way the world works. Well, he understands the Soviet Union and the Russians as well.

He was the old Sova, I think he was even before Sova. He was the premier Soviet analyst in the CIA for a while. And Ray taught me, you know, a good Marine always learns from his superiors. And Ray is a mentor and he's a good guy.

And he taught me something very important about evaluating Soviet and Russians. And he said, listen to them. He said, they will tell you, they will say what they mean and they mean what they say. So I actually Before we even get to what he said, because I thought as you did, it was a brilliant speech. We're speaking of President Putin's annual state of the nation speech. American media told us before he gave the speech, expect him to be bitter, angry, and vengeful. And then when he gave the speech, which wasn't bitter, wasn't angry, wasn't vengeful, was very articulate and measured, they said it was underwhelming. So, of course, there's no way that they could be pleased.

They were more or less dumbfounded. You wrote a great piece with your take on it. I have a lot of notes on it, but I'll let you I'll let you go go through it. I mean, it more or less was his report card on the first year and it didn't go exactly the way he wanted. But he's going to continue moving forward. It was a very honest. Yeah, it was a very honest yeah it was a very honest uh uh report the good the bad and the ugly um you know a lot of domestic stuff because it was for a domestic russian audience but the the major takeaway here is people were expecting big arrows you know he's going to come up and announce a drive on kiev the major offensive and they're like well he didn't so we're

disappointed i'm like you didn't listen to what he said. He actually told you exactly what he's going to do. He's going to look at, concentrate on the economic and social well-being of the newly acquired territories of Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Lugansk in totality. So his focus is on their prosperity, which means they have to be liberated from the Ukrainian occupiers who are there right now. So we know right off the bat that this war ain't stop until all of that territory is liberated. Then he said, in order to guarantee their security, we will continue to push those forces away to the maximum range of the weapons that are being provided to Ukraine by the West. In this case, it's the HIMARS with the small bomb rocket, 150 kilometers.

So he's telling you right up that Russia is not going to stop advancing. They've gone 150 kilometers inland. So anybody have any questions? There it is. The president said so. And I'll tell you what about Putin. A man don't bluff. When he says it, he does it. And that's what's going to happen. Let me quote him. Obviously, this is an English translation with which I know you will agree. He's talking about the military assistance being provided by the West Ukraine, particularly long range artillery systems, which you just mentioned. Here's the quote. The greater the range of these systems, the further away we will be forced to move the threat from our borders. Now, suppose these systems go three, four, five hundred kilometers.

Is he talking about the Polish border, which his predecessor Medvedev said last week week that's where we may have to go. If that's the systems that are provided, then that's the answer. Right now, again, he just put a number out there. I mean, he put, you know, I'm putting the number based upon his words. The maximum range, 150 kilometers right now. Just go old school on me. Get a map. Get the scale.

Get one of those compasses with the pointy end and the pencil. Do they still make those things? I don't know. My kids don't. Go out to 150 kilometers and then go to the border and start drawing it. And what do you get? You get Odessa. There's a lot of questions.

Is Russia going to go to Odessa? I think Putin just answered the question. Yes. You get Dnipropetrovsk. Is Russia going to go to Dnipropetrovsk? Putin just answered yes. Are they going to take Kh odessa i think putin just answered the question yes you're getting yepa petrovsk is russia going to go to nepot who just answered yes are they going to take kharkov yep they're going to take carcl to putin just answered all your questions you know but he doesn't have to come out there and pound the table and pointed a map and scream he just calmly says this and what he's saying is don't blame me it your fault. You're the ones who've set the terms of this relationship. You provided them with weapons that threaten the Russian people. I all the factory workers that are working around the clock to produce more hardware and more ammunition.

And from that, you concluded, I think quite properly, but I want you to give a basis for it, that Russia is a nation mobilized for war. Absolutely. The whole presentation of his speech, first of all, he talked about the casualties. He talked about the need to take care of the casualties, the need to take care of the families, and he invoked the Great Patriotic War in doing so. So clearly he is linked. This current fight is being an existential struggle on par with the Great Patriotic War. Now, here in America,

we can go, that's- Great Patriotic War, it's his- World War II. Great Patriotic War is his terminology for World War II. Correct. And the important thing about that is, again, I may have asked you this question before, but I'll just throw it up for the audience. When was the last time we celebrated, truly celebrated Victory in Europe Day? Not for a long time. Well, when's the last time they celebrated this every year may 9th they celebrate it and yes you know one of the reasons we don't celebrate is because we're running out of veterans to support so we we identify the war based upon the guys who fought the war guys

they identify it as part of their culture their history their gut they have something called the immortal regiment and it is something to behold. All the people of Russia come out to the streets and they hold the photographs of their grandparents, their great-grandparents, or their current relatives. Anybody who served then, died, served today, they march because this is a nation that will never forget the great patriotic war, the Second World War. So when the Russian president invokes that to the current struggle, this is visceral. It's serious. He means it. And then he turned around and said, our defense industries are working constantly around the clock producing the weapons we need to fight this struggle and to prepare ourselves for a future

struggle. Russia is a nation at war. Everybody's like, well, where's the declaration of war? He didn't make it, but he just told you, listen to what the president said. Now ask yourself, where's American defense industry? Are we cranking things out 24 seven? Have we mobilized new factories? Are we working around the clock? Have we called this an existential struggle? Have we mobilized the support of the American people? Has President Biden said anything that gets the American people up out of their seats ready to march today, no, we're not a nation of war, and yet we claim to seek the strategic defeat of Russia. Ain't going to happen. He actually said that the West is waging a war of economic aggression intended to destabilize our society from within. I mean,

that is not only true, it is shockingly candid and direct from the leader of a nation. So he doesn't pull punches. But he also said they're winning. He said, you may be seeking that, but guess what? We actually are winning. We are thriving. Your sanctions haven't worked. We are, I mean, think about it. It's a nation that's been subjected to the most stringent economic sanctions in modern history. And it's a nation at war. Whenever we go to war, we're into deficit spending, deficit spending, deficit spending. And instead, what he's saying is our economy's recovered from the sanctions, our economy's growing, and we're running a budget surplus. When was the last time America went to war and ran a budget surplus?

Probably. He talks about Russia will not destroy our own economy in pursuit of cannons over butter. What a very simple, brilliant, and even gifted way to explain that even though we're on a war footing, life will go on and we will remain prosperous. Their sanctions be damned. In the West, we tend to believe that we won the Cold War by outspending the Russians. And we forced them, in order to keep pace with us, to sacrifice butter for cannons. And that led to problems. What he's saying is we will not repeat the mistakes of the past. What we're doing right now with this mobilization and everything, we haven't forgot the people.

And we can do both. We can make cannons and we can make butter. We can win this war and our people prosper. And here's the interesting thing. He's doing it. He isn't just saying it. He's doing it. And we are even compelled right now, the experts in the West to say, yeah, he is doing it. He's actually doing what he says. He's winning. He's prevailing. So yesterday, I guess it was actually the day before, Secretary Blinken in Mumbai, minister that we will continue to aid Ukraine for as long as it takes. Now, I don't know if that's true, but if I were Blinken, I would have said, hey, Sergei, is there any way we can start talking about this? Not in Ukraine, not in Russia, maybe in Geneva.

Is there any way we can start talking rather than the two of us in a hallway for 10 minutes with a translator? What do you think? Well, that's called diplomacy, and the Biden administration does not know how to carry out diplomacy, and they proved it with the release. I don't know if Blinken has the cojones pull that stunt off. I mean, to go up against one of the world's most accomplished diplomats, a man who was doing diplomacy when Blinken was still in grade school, and confront him in that fashion. I mean, we know that the Biden administration is capable of lying to create perception, to avoid focusing on reality. Maybe Blinken said something that replicates that, but the bottom line is

there's widespread recognition in Washington, D.C. today that we are going to have to find a way to get to the negotiating table with the Russians. And you don't get to the negotiating table by pulling Lavrov aside and threatening him. First of all, Blinken's the wrong guy to be issuing that threat. He has no credibility. You know, he should be saying just what you said. How can we do this? And you know what about the Russians? I've learned this about them over the years. They're the most discreet diplomats in the world, meaning that unlike us, when the Russians would say something, we run to the press and say, this is what happened. If you go to the Russians and say, hey, we need a little tête-à-tête here, how can we get to the negotiating table? Lavrov isn't going to go running out saying,

well, Blinken just came to me and showed American weakness by begging to come to the negotiating table. He's not going to say a darn thing because he's going to sit there and see if you're going to follow through. So you can get to the negotiating table and maybe negotiate a good settlement. Isn't Biden shooting himself in the foot by saying we're going to do this for as long as it takes when he must know the people around him must be telling him an analysis similar to what you're giving me that the United States simply can't go at this for as long as it takes and of course he won't or can't answer the question as long as it takes to do what if you ask Lindsey Graham it's kill Vladimir Putin.

If you ask Tony Blinken in private, he'll probably say to destabilize Russia or destabilize Vladimir Putin. Whatever it is, it's not militarily achievable. No, and we know that. And Biden's got to be told that. Well, General Cavoli just told him. General Cavoli is a three-star general,

commander of American forces in Europe, commander of all NATO forces in Europe. He gave a public presentation in Sweden in January where he said that stuff that's going on in Ukraine right now is on a scope and scale of violence we didn't even imagine. We don't know how to comprehend what's going on there. And what that means is we're not trained, equipped, organized, prepared for that kind of fighting. Now, if your general's saying this publicly, I can guarantee you he's writing up things saying, hold off, guys. We can't do this. We don't have the ability to do what's going on there. So why don't you pull your horses back in before you get us committed into a fight

we're not ready to do? So unlike his boss, General Milley, who once spoke his mind, and then I guess got his fingers burned, and now says what he thinks his boss, the president, wants to hear, this Supreme Allied Commander in Europe speaks his mind publicly. Would he have told Secretary of Defense Austin, his boss, that he was going to say this before he said it? Is he getting ready to retire? Well, generally speaking, whenever military personnel of that caliber, that rank, with that kind of responsibility, before they

give a public presentation of this nature, the comments are vetted and approved, and also possible questions that could be asked. The answers are prepared. So there's no doubt in my mind that what he said is something that was approved to be said. And he picked that form to say it, to send a signal to other military people out there to calm this thing down. Stop trying to create the perception that NATO is ready to go forth and conquer. We can't. We're not ready for this. We don't have the ammunition for this. We don't have the training, the organization. We don't want this. And that's why he gave the statement and it's been picked up and hopefully things are going to calm down. Look, Biden knows that this war is over.

He knows it. Everybody knows it. Even the Ukrainians are beginning to know it. And now the question is, how do you disentangle yourself from this mess that you've made with as minimal loss as possible? And I'm not just talking about the loss of Ukrainian lives, because believe me, that's the last thing on our minds. We don't care about them because if we did we wouldn't have a label allowed this situation to occur where hundreds of thousands are dead millions are wounded tens of millions are displaced a trillion dollars of infrastructure damage that tells me we don't care

about the ukrainians but we do care about saving face and so they're trying to find a face-saving mechanism to disentangle themselves and get out of this. And that might be a bridge too far, but hopefully they're working in that direction. Scott Ritter, always a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Oh, and thanks for keeping the dogs on the second floor. All the best, Scott. Thank you. Judge Napolitano, thank you so much for watching us, my dear friends. Judge Napolitano, thank you so much for watching us, my dear friends. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.