Judging Freedom - Scott Ritter: Joe Biden and WWIII

Episode Date: October 27, 2023

Scott Ritter is a former United Nations Weapons Inspector. His insights and passion in this episode are on full display. This is a MUST-LISTEN as Ritter pounds out the current state of the war in Israel and answers the question; just how close are we to a world word.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, October 26th, 2023. Our dear friend Scott Ritter joins us now. Scott, always a pleasure, my friend. Thank you for coming back on the show. How misguided, morally, legally, and politically, is the decision by the Netanyahu government to either invade or level or both Gaza, irrespective of harm to civilians? Well, it shows an absolute lack of imagination, and it's reflective of the panic that has taken hold in Israel. I mean, people have to stop viewing the decisions made by Netanyahu today, by the Minister of Defense of Israel today, by the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces today, by the Minister of Defense of Israel today, by the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces today, and go back to October 7th. This October 7th, it wasn't just a Hamas victory. October 7th

was a humiliation, political humiliation, for a prime minister that had premised his entire existence on guaranteeing the security of Israel. He is a failure, a walking, talking failure. His minister of defense is responsible for securing Israel. He is a failure. Israeli defense force failed. Every single one of these senior officers failed. They are failing, and they failed because Hamas outplayed them. The Hamas executed, however you feel about Hamas, professionally, you have to acknowledge that they executed a picture-perfect military assault, nullifying Israeli intelligence and outclassing the Israeli Defense Force at every level during this assault. And they did it because they have a larger plan. They've been planning this for a year. And if you think that their planning ended on October 8th. You don't understand Hamas. They have fallen back

on a position of strength that has been designed with all of Israel's capabilities in mind. Their tunnels are designed to withstand the bombardment that's taking place today. Their purpose is to lure the Israeli defense force into Gaza to wage an urban conflict that Israel is not prepared to do. And the most important aspect of this and the cruelest aspect of this is that their plan envisioned Israel doing what Israel is doing now. The panic, the absolute need to be seen as being strong has manifested itself in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, the slaughter of the innocent Palestinian people that has created the conditions of Israel's strategic defeat. Israel is being defeated, not on the battlefield. War is an extension of politics by other means. Israel is being defeated

politically because for the first time ever, people are starting to side with Hamas over Israel. Israel has lost this war. They just don't realize it yet. Doesn't Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is the ultimate political survivor in Israeli politics, understand the way the world views his overreaction. Nobody would argue that Israel has the right to defend itself, and nobody would argue that Israel has the right to kill a group that is out to kill its citizens. But the gross overreaction, the risking of escalation, this can't be in the benefit of Israelis who he's claiming to keep safe. No, you're 100% correct. But again, this is, we have to understand the level of panic that

exists in Israel today. Still panic today, two weeks after the Hamas assault. Oh, pure panic. Everything about this is panic. Look, I'm going to, in 1998, I had a conversation with very senior Israeli military intelligence professionals about Hamas. And they said something very interesting. They said, you know, we will never defeat Hamas if we try to out kill them. Because Hamas is an ideology. It's an ideology premised on the notion of resistance. And the more we seek to destroy them, the more the urge to resist amongst the Palestinian will

be born. The way to defeat Hamas, they said, is to invite Hamas to the negotiating table. If you want to destroy Hamas, simply sit down and say, we're ready to negotiate everything. But Hamas, no more intermediaries. We won't talk through the Qataris we won't talk through the Egyptians come to the table and talk to us because that forces Hamas to suddenly recognize Israel and it immediately just your Israel could win the war today judge right now right now Israel will win the world I'm gonna give the formula then yeah if you're listening to me listen carefully stop bombing call for an immediate ceasefire allow all the humanitarian goods in the I'm going to give the formula. Then, if you're listening to me, listen carefully. Stop bombing.

Call for an immediate ceasefire. Allow all the humanitarian goods in the world to flow in. Encourage it. Be seen as the savior of the Palestinian people. And then say, we're ready to sit down with Hamas at the negotiating table to talk about the hostages and prisoners. But Hamas, you have to talk to me. You have to talk to the Israelis, not through Qatar, not Egypt. Sit down with me. You suddenly flip the script. See, Hamas right now is in control of the events. Israel is reacting to Hamas. Everything Israel is doing right now is part of the Hamas game plan that Hamas envisioned. Hamas is ready for this. You want to screw with their minds? Excuse my language. Flip the script. Put Hamas on the defensive. Hamas will cease to exist as a resistance organization the moment it

sits down at the table with the Israelis. And if Israel offers to sit down at the table with Hamas and Hamas rejects it, suddenly Hamas will be seen as the bad guy again. It's not Israel that's the bad guy. Israel's wanting peace. Hamas will be conceived now the bad guy again. It's not Israel that's the bad guy. Israel's wanting peace. Hamas will be conceived now as a terrorist organization. It's that easy. War is an extension of politics by other means. It's time the Israelis start to act on that because everything they're doing militarily strengthens Hamas. Wow. A gifted idea, Scott. How dangerous towards escalation is sending two U.S. aircraft carriers, one to the Red Sea, one to the Mediterranean Sea, each surrounded by 10 other support ships, and one containing 2,000 of your former colleagues, U.S. Marines, ready to go when old Joe unleashes them?

Look, I think it's always a good idea to have Marines forward deploy in areas of tremendous unrest because the Marines have capabilities that can be drawn upon. They're an expeditionary force. So if we were to have to evacuate embassies, if we were to evacuate American civilians, the Marines can carry out these NEO operations, noncombatant evacuation operations. So I'm not against having Marines there, but no matter how good the Marines are, and I believe we're pretty damn good, excuse my language, but there's only 2,000 of them. We're not supermen, and you can only do so much with 2,000. You can't defeat Hamas with 2,000. You can't defeat Hezbollah with 2,000.

You can't fight Iran with 2,000. So anybody who thinks that by positioning this amphibious ready group right there is scaring Iran or scaring, it's not. And I hope that the American military planners like, well, Kirby's not a planner. He's a spokesperson. But I hope the Pentagon isn't pretending that this somehow is impressing anybody. It's not. The aircraft carriers, it's judged they're just not that good anymore.

I mean, what are they going to do? They have a limited number of airplanes. They have to fly a long way just to bomb what they want to bomb through air defenses we've never flown against. This is just posturing. This is the United States being trying to be seen as doing something, while behind the scenes they are desperately trying to get Israel to de-escalate, not to go into Gaza. But in order to talk to Israel that way, we have to be seen as supporting Israel,

as the point that the forces we're deploying, they have no meaningful impact on the modern battlefield that's emerging. They will not intimidate Iran. They will not intimidate Hezbollah. They're not even intimidating the Shia militias in Iraq and Syria who are bombarding American bases as we speak. Talk to us about Turkey. Yesterday, the president of Turkey, President Erdogan, made a very incendiary speech. We can play it if you like, but I think you've seen it, and I think our viewers have seen it a couple of times, in which he referred to Hamas as liberation

fighters, not as a terrorist organization, said everybody should take their finger off the trigger. Israel has to dial it back. Israel, as you said, has to stop the invasion, has to allow humanitarian aid in. And those countries that are aiding Israel under the guise of friendship with Israel are actually harming it and threatening worldwide destruction. I think I have fairly summarized what he said. Is he intimating that the Turkish military might get involved? Well, first of all, we need to understand that even, I mean, Aragon has said things that when you compare and contrast it with the official American policy or European policy about Hamas, we view Hamas as a terrorist organization. Turkey has never viewed Hamas as a terrorist organization, but in Turkey hosts Hamas delegations. They engage in diplomatic discussions repeatedly. But for Aragon to come out and not just not call them terrorists, but to elevate them, to Mujahideen. These are religious liberators.

These are religious warriors who have a God-given cause. This is a different level altogether, and it plays to the increasing Islamist nature of Turkey. Erdogan has been an Islamist leader. He's been moving Turkey away from the secularism of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk towards this new religious nation where Islam is the dominating force. In the military, there was a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan, and that led to a widespread purge in the military, and the pro-NATO officers have been replaced in a new generation of officers who identify with the pan-optimism of Erdogan's Turkey, where Turkey is expansive, where they have a right to Mosul, they have a right to Aleppo, they have rights to go into Central Asia, where the Turkic populations are. These are the officers.

So when they're listening to this, this is a call to arms. And even though he's not threatening war straight up, in the past, Erdogan has intimated that the Turkish military could get involved. And I think he's putting that marker on the table right now, saying that if Israel continues to commit genocide, and that's what Israel is doing right now, saying that if Israel continues to commit genocide, and that's what Israel is doing right now to 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, to commit genocide against a defenseless people, that Turkey will join others in holding Israel to account. And that could include a military aspect. What will happen if the Israelis engage in a land invasion of Gaza, where we're looking at Erdogan? What happens if the Israelis engage in a land invasion of Gaza, the Israeli special forces are, they work as a team. They train with the Americans, but mainly about techniques and things of that nature. When they execute their operations, it's done as their own team. They don't integrate American special operations, and we don't like to integrate with them as well. So I think you're not going to see American boots on the ground in a significant number.

There may be some advisors going forward in a covert status. There's a famous photograph of a Delta force officer he published that he shouldn't have that shows him in an israeli uniform because every once in a while delta puts on israeli uniform and and goes in uh to give eyes on target but um generally speaking we're not going to put conventional forces on the ground fighting side by side with the israelis that won't benefit them it won't benefit us but what when you ask the question what will happen if israel goes into Gaza? They'll be destroyed. They'll be slaughtered. They'll be annihilated. That's the battle Hamas has been preparing to fight. And it's the battle that Israel is unqualified to fight. 300,000 reservists sound like a lot until you realize that those reservists aren't very well

trained. They don't know how to clean their weapon. They haven't put on 70 pounds of combat gear and spent all day running jumping falling down getting up sprinting running jumping falling down they will be exhausted within the first 30 minutes of combat and physical exhaustion leads to mental uh mistakes that lead to death this is the future of the israeli defense force if they go into gaza large scale what you're going to see instead i believe is what america proposing, what we saw last night. Battalion-sized raids into Gaza, and it's more for domestic political consumption because nothing happened last night, nothing of significance. But everybody's showing that video. You just showed the video,

and everybody's saying, look, Israel went into Gaza. They didn't go into Gaza. They rode on a damn road. They put a hole in the fence and then they left. But this is what Israel is going to be doing, I think, for the foreseeable future. Raids like this to be seen as doing something because there's a political need to be seen as doing something, but it's not accomplishing anything. And they can't engage decisively because that runs the risk of Hezbollah getting involved up north. And if Hezbollah gets involved, Israel's in deep trouble. What is the status of the Iran nuclear program? And can Iran deliver a nuclear weapon in an offensive, violent way if it wanted to?

No, Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapons program. That's a statement of fact. I know there's a lot of people out there that want to speculate that, but I'm an expert on this, and I'm just here to tell you right now, they don't have a nuclear. This is your field, and I'm happy asking you about it. There's a certain senior senator from South Carolina who seems to feel this is all Iran's fault and we should bomb the bomb. We should destroy Tehran and we should do

it tomorrow. Israel, I mean, Iran has developed a strategic deterrence that's non-nuclear in its composition. They just test fired the fatal missile which is a hypersonic missile um that can strike any target uh it can strike israel can strike any american um military and we have nothing that can shoot it down they have thousands tens of thousands of similarly accurate rockets that israel is a very country. And when you eliminate the deserts, when you eliminate the hills, and you just focus on population centers, industrial centers, et cetera, it's even smaller. And Iran has sufficient military force combined with Hezbollah, which has been supplied with 200,000 rockets, 100,000, which are precision guided munitions. They will saturate Israel and eliminate Israel. So

Iran doesn't need a nuclear weapon. And again, people need to respect the fact that it's a theocracy and that the supreme leader, the head religious figure, who's also the head of state, has issued fatwas, say religious edicts saying that nuclear weapons are haram, forbidden, they're not going to happen. So Graham can sit there and play this game all he wants. The danger isn't, and this is where nobody's picking up on this, the danger isn't that Iran's going to use a missile with a nuclear bomb. Let's say Israel executes the Samson option. Let's say Israel invades Gaza, Hezbollah comes in, Iranian missiles and Hezbollah comes in, and they're just flattening Israel, and Israel has nothing to defend itself. The Samson option is to fire off nuclear weapons

and take Iran out. But what Iran isn't listening to is statements made by Pakistani politicians, because Pakistan does have missiles with nuclear weapons. And Pakistan has made it clear that if Israel nukes Iran, Pakistan will nuke Israel. And no one's talking about that. What is the mood amongst Islamic peoples in the Middle East and around the world over this conflagration between Israel and Gaza for the past two weeks? Look, Israel has lost the war of public opinion. You know, it used to be a time when, I mean, if you ask people to, except for the most fanatic supporters of Palestine, and we have to understand that Palestine had lost this battle. The Abrams

Accords that were signed in, I think, 2019 under Donald Trump, they created the conditions for normalization of relations between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf Arab states, which means that those states will no longer sacrifice everything for a Palestinian state. They had written off the Palestinians, and the Aram's Accord, while they said we want a Palestinian state, was so restrictive that no Palestinian state would ever emerge. So it was over. The debate about a Palestinian state was finished. It was done. But what's happened now because of what Hamas has done on October 7th and Israel's overreaction, everybody's talking about the Palestinians and even the president of the United States has said that the status quo

cannot be returned to, that whatever solution emerges must be a solution that has a two-state solution, which is the last thing that Nagy wants. Barack Obama has weighed in, and he is sort of the secret power behind the democratic establishment with the same thing, telling Israel, you're losing the support of the world by your overreaction in Gaza. This is the fact. Israel has lost the support. What Turkey said the other day is now being echoed around the world. The world is demanding justice for the Palestinian people, and that's the last discussion that Israel wanted the world to be having. Chris, let's play President Biden's SOT1. No status quo and only a two-state solution can resolve this.

Israelis and Palestinians equally deserve to live side by side in safety, dignity and peace. There's no going back to the status quo as it stood on October the 6th. That means ensuring Hamas can no longer terrorize Israel and use Palestinian civilians as human shields. It also means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next. And in our view, it has to be a two-state solution. American president ever said that before? Listen, you and I are not fans of Joe Biden at all, and neither are the people watching us now. But has any American president said that? Look, of course, American

presidents have been talking about a two-state solution for some time now. Jimmy Carter spoke of a two-state solution. George W. Bush spoke of it. Barack Obama spoke of it. But it was unattainable because we weren't willing to do what was, it was words only. We weren't willing to follow up with real policies because we would never confront Israel about settlements, about political Zionism, about greater Israel, about the things that Israel refused to talk about. when he said the status quo, we cannot go back to where we were on October 6th. That's the game changer, because now what he's doing is telling Israel that your policy of settlements is over. It's done. The Abrams Accord is finished. That's fundamental right there. It's finished. Saudi Arabia has played a very important role in this, because one of the cornerstones of Biden's Middle East policy is to get normalized relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, because one, they believe that'll draw Saudi Arabia away from Iran and get back to the division that we always wanted in the Persian Gulf between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The Chinese messed that up by making that rapprochement. But Saudi Arabia has come in. And you see, emotionally, Saudi Arabia could have have said because of what Israel's doing to Palestine, we will we've shut the door. We're not considering, you know, normalization relations. That would have been the normal thing. But when you do that, you lose all negotiating leverage. They know that Biden wants this more than anything else. So what Saudi Arabia said is we're willing to continue to talk with you, Biden, about normalization, meaning let's keep talking right now. But we will never finalize the deal until there's a Palestinian state. And that's why Joe got up and said what he said.

Wow. Fascinating. Scott, how close are we to World War III today, October 26, 2023? I think actually that Joe Biden and the Pentagon have made it clear to the Israelis that we will not tolerate a large-scale military incursion into Gaza because that would bring Hezbollah. Hezbollah does not want to get involved. Hezbollah wants to continue the policies of rebuilding the Lebanese economy and enlarging their political presence in the Lebanese government. That's what Hezbollah's priority is. Iran doesn't want to get involved. They just joined BRICS. They just made peace with Saudi Arabia. They're part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. They're looking at building up their economy and delivering on the promise that the Iranian government gave to

the Iranian people that things will get better. A war with Israel does all that. So I don't think anybody wants this war. Now, if you go back and read Barbara Tuchman's book, August, The Guns of August, you know, you'll see how Europe all slow move towards a world war when everybody said, we don't want this, we don't want this, we don't want this. But it became inevitable because of the momentum. There is a certain momentum here. Israel could do something very stupid and go into Gaza and trigger this conflict. But I think Biden has been making, and again, you know I don't like Joe Biden, and I'm pretty certain that you're not a huge fan of his. But if he's doing what I think he's doing, look at Tony. Tony Blinken just got heavily criticized because he has inserted himself into the Israeli command system. And all the anti-Semites out there going, Tony Blinken's a Jew. Look, he's putting Israel first. He's sitting with the Israelis.

Tony Blinken's the secretary of state who I despise. But this is the right move because now he's on the inside and he's telling the Israelis, you can't invade Gaza. The United States is using the tools of diplomacy that we all claim should be first to prevent a war. And as long as this works, I don't think we're in danger of World War III. Chris, put the B roll up again that you ran a few minutes ago. Is this why the Israeli tanks rip down a fence, enter, and then leave? For domestic political consumption, but in order to comply with what the Americans want, which is no invasion. Yeah, that's exactly, this is a pressure relief valve. This allows the Israeli government to tell their people, we just sent a battalion in for a battalion-sized raid. There it is, the images.

Every Israeli is looking at that saying, we're doing something. We're going after Hamas. This isn't going after Hamas. Hamas is 85 to 90 to 100 feet below ground. Hamas isn't anywhere near where that tank was fired. Switching gears before I let you go, has the U.S. government, well, you wouldn't know this from Joe Biden's financial requests of Congress, given up the ghost on Ukraine? Look, the very first speech made by the newly appointed Speaker of the House was to promote funding for Israel separate from Ukraine. That's it for Ukraine. It's over. The House will not fund Ukraine.

Biden hasn't made the case for Ukraine and Ukraine's losing the war. So, yeah, I think they've given up the ghost. And Maverick agrees. Yeah, well, that I what can I do? I can't shoot him. Well, you know, I keep saying, Chris, would you run this tape? And somebody emailed in, Judge, your dog is Chris. Did you train the dog to run the tape? No, Chris is also the producer. The dog is outside. Scott, thank you very much. Much appreciated. We'll talk again soon. Thank you. much. Much appreciated. We'll talk again soon.

Thank you. Okay. Wow. Tomorrow, Professor John Mearsheimer for a very sobering analysis on where the Middle East may go and where the Middle East can't go. Have a nice evening, my friends.

Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thanks for watching!