Judging Freedom - Scott Ritter : Russia's Next Move: Unpacking the Future of the Ukraine Conflict

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

Scott Ritter : Russia's Next Move: Unpacking the Future of the Ukraine ConflictSee 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 Monday, May 6, 2024. Scott Ritter joins us now. Scott, it's a pleasure. Thank you for joining us. I want to talk about a variety of topics, the suppression of free speech in the United States, the coming invasion of RAFA, the compulsive fear of criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu, and the latest in Ukraine, and I'll start there. Do you think President Putin is running out of patience, or will he continue his methodical war of attrition, no matter what Emmanuel Macron says, no matter what David Cameron threatens, no matter what Tony Blinken promises? I think we need to understand one fundamental truth here, that this conflict is seen by Russia as an existential conflict, that there is no tie,

there is no defeat, there is only victory. And they have put together a plan to achieve that victory. And they're on the cusp of that happening right now. As we speak, the Ukrainian army is disintegrating at the front. This is sending waves of panic through NATO, etc. And this is why you see Emmanuel Macron talking about the need to send French troops if the Ukrainian line collapses. Well, it's collapsing right now. David Cameron making similar statements. Russia has a plan. They have mobilized the troops. They have trained the troops. They have the military, conventional military to achieve this objective. As I was told by a general earlier this year, major changes on the map in May and probably game over by the end of the summer. And that's the trajectory they're on. The problem is you have the West saying insane things, such as if the Ukrainian line collapses, NATO troops will intervene. This is why Vladimir Putin now has ordered the Southern Military District, people, please just open your eyes and your ears and listen to what I'm saying.

The Southern Military District to carry out training for the employment of tactical nuclear weapons. This doesn't mean that they're going to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. They're not. They're going to blow the hell out of NATO forces in Romania, Poland, Germany, France, Italy. It's nuclear war. If this is what you want, Wes, you're going to get it. Putin doesn't bluff. This ain't a game. This isn't joke. This is life and death for Russia. They've made that clear from the very beginning. And so now we have a situation where NATO tried to cause bluff. The United States poured hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weaponry and money and such into the Ukrainian military. Russia had a plan. They ground it out. All this nonsense you hear in the West, Russia's suffering a thousand

dead. The number of Russian losses right now on the battlefield are the lowest they've been since the war started. That's how unbalanced this is right now. Russia is dominating the front line. They are devastating Ukrainians. It was 800 Ukrainian dead a week ago. It was 1,000 earlier. It's up to 1,500 dead. They're just being slaughtered. They're being annihilated, and there's nothing to replace them. So they are literally collapsing. NATO is in a panic. Macron's talking about sending troops. Poland's talking about sending troops. And Russia's saying, I don't know how many times we have to tell you, if NATO troops show up on Ukrainian soil, we're going to nuke you.

We're going to nuke you. Okay, we're going to take you out. Not your troops in Ukraine. We're going to nuke the decision-making centers. Russia isn't bluffing. I hope the people watching right now are getting cold sweats right now because the world's over at this point, ladies and gentlemen. Okay, it's over.

It's game, set, match. It's done. Whatever plans you had for the summer, they're canceled. Whatever Christmas plans you had, forget about it. So get scared. Start calling people and saying, what the hell are you doing, Tony Blinken? Biden, get on the phone to Macron and tell him to shut up and sit down. The same thing with the polls, because this

is it. Russia is getting ready to exercise the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Southern Military District. Okay, that means that if NATO troops are deployed, because the Ukrainian army is collapsing as we speak, and Macron has said it's his red line, and if they collapse, I have no choice, he says, but to send French troops in. Well, the Russians will kill them, but then they're going to nuke France. So there we are. This is about as serious as it gets, and yet we are sleepwalking. We are sound asleep. Nobody in America cares. Nobody. Do they understand what you've said, but they choose to ignore it for political reasons? When I say they, I mean the West, the West Wing, the White House, the American State Department.

No, no, no, because they're not suicidal. I've seen them scared before. I've seen them early on when Putin said, hey, I just want to let you know from the start, this is our thing, we're doing it. And if you put NATO boots on the ground, we nuke you. And at the start, you can't say that. You can't talk about nuclear weapons. And they were scared. And then they said, well, we don't see any evidence of this and uh we think he's bluffing and then when he reminded them again you guys come in there we nuke you he's bluffing he's right now they think he's bluffing let me ask him let me ask some technical questions if ukraine is foolish enough to send an f-35 equipped with a nuclear weapon into the sky,

and it is shot down, does that engage the nuclear aspect of it? If Ukraine possesses a nuclear weapon, that engages the nuclear aspect of it. The moment Russia finds out Ukraine has received a nuclear weapon, Russia will react accordingly. Ukraine cannot have nuclear weapons. Now, here's an interesting thing. Russia has put the West on notice that they will treat the F-16s as nuclear weapons carriers. All right. So that's the point of my question. If they truly are nuclear weapons carriers, and Russia uses a low-yield nuclear weapon to take it down, does that set off the nuclear paraphernalia, for lack of a better word, in the atmosphere? First of all, Russia's not using a nuclear weapon to take it down. Russia's going to drop a nuclear weapon on Romanian bases, Polish bases, German bases,

and then they're going to go ahead and take out decision-making centers. So they'll engage Europe with about 50 nuclear weapons. Then the question is, what is the United States going to do? Commit suicide? Because that's just low-level stuff Russia's using. All their big stuff still sit there on full alert, on full alert. So the moment the United States goes to alert, sends signals out to the subs, the Russians say, okay, screw it.

Goodbye. Dasvidaniya. You're all dead. Everybody dies. We go to heaven as martyrs because we didn't start this. We warned you. Do not use F-16s. Those F-16s come from nations that are part of the NATO nuclear sharing program.

And because they are part of the nuclear weapons sharing program, we have to assume that they still retain that role when they enter Ukraine. And the West is going, but no, no, no. Russia doesn't care. Does Ukraine have American F-16s as we speak? They are training on, not American F-16s on, I mean, American made F-16s, but they're training on F-16s provided by NATO countries as we speak. These weapons have not arrived in Ukraine yet, but they're expected to do so sometime this summer. So this is why Russia's trying to give us all the heads up possible. They'll treat it as a nuclear weapons carrier. If NATO troops land,

if they get involved, Russia's ready to go to nuclear war. This is not a game for Russia. This is literal existential survival. People should listen to Vladimir Putin tomorrow. He's being inaugurated. One of the biggest events in modern geopolitical history in the West, again, is ignoring it. Listen to his speech. It's going to be very deliberate. His words are going to be carefully chosen. If President Macron sends a few thousand troops to Ukraine? French, regular French troops, not the Foreign Legion. Does Putin attack Paris? Well, no, what will happen is that Putin will kill all the French troops

and then he'll probably strike the French logistics centers in Romania. Now, at that point in time, France has said that, I mean, the stupidity of the French is unmeasurable. You have a French general who says, but we have 200 nuclear weapons. Russia would never bomb our troops in Romania. Well, that's my worst French accent in the world. But the point is, it doesn't matter, man. Russia's got thousands of them, and they will take you off the map. And that's what France needs to understand, that you will take you off the map. And that's what France needs to understand, that you will be taken off the map. You will no longer exist whether you have 200 nukes or not. The French need to start shutting up. And this is where America's got to be a leader

and call Macron and say, just shut up. I don't want to hear another word out of you. So does Bill Burns, the head of the CIA, understand what you just said? 100% he knows they're not. He is right now screaming to the White House, this isn't a joke. This is red alert kind of stuff. But here's the problem. Blinken and Seller said, well, we can't back down because then the Russians will think that they've achieved some sort of nuclear deterrence supremacy over us. We have to stand tall. If we back down, then the Russians will think that they've achieved some sort of nuclear deterrence supremacy over us. We have to stand tall. If we back down, then the NATO nuclear sharing program is no longer viable. We can't back down.

This is about pride. This is about America standing tall. And they'll say this nonsense, and Biden will sit there with his senility and go, oh, yes, we must do this. And next thing you know, we're going to be standing tall. The French are going to go, well, America's standing tall. Hell, let's do this. And boom, we're all dead. We need leadership right now and we don't have it. How many troops do we have on the ground in Ukraine out of uniform or in? Not that many. I mean, I've heard other people talk about, you know, some ridiculous numbers, to be honest. Let me just say that one number i heard was a 15 000 that's division that's 750 tons of sustainment a day i don't know if anybody knows

how many trucks loads that is that's a footprint that is detectable and interdicted i think that we're we're dealing with um hundreds at the most maybe a hundred hundred and fifty that's it we don't have that many on the ground we can't don't have that many on the ground. We can't afford to have that many on the ground because it's a huge risk. They are detectable and they'll be killed. Now, there's some talk about if we send in these patriots because Ukraine doesn't have the crews for them anymore. Remember, when you destroy a patriot battery, you kill the crew. I'm sorry, guys. I don't mean to smile about this, but how stupid can people get? The crew of the patriot battery consists of Americans?

They used to consist of Ukrainians that were trained. They're all dead. So now when we come in, we're going to see American contractors, not necessarily serving soldiers, but when we start turning over this equipment, it'll be used to protect the airfields where the F-16s are coming in, which will be maintained by American contractors. And so you're going to have a lot of Americans on the ground in a airfield, and the Russians are just going to kill them all. Is it true that President Macron sent 1,500 French Foreign Legion, not regular French soldiers, French Foreign Legion, which as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong, Scott, consists of many foreigners, not just French people, but the command and control is French, sent this group to Ukraine. Is that true?

I don't believe so because we need to be careful. The French Foreign Legion is still the French army. The men that are in there are French soldiers. They wear the French flag. They follow the orders of France. They're not independent actors. They are a force that is used overseas a lot. They used them in Africa extensively, but they're still part of the French army. And as such, if they deploy to Ukraine, they will be French army. They'll be treated by the Russians as French army and they'll be killed. Ray McGovern reports that seven of them were killed in the past weekend. Do you have any ability to confirm or alter that? I've heard that seven Frenchmen were killed. You know, there may be an arrangement where foreigners in the French Foreign Legion

can leave the French Foreign Legion and join the International Legion in Ukraine to make a direct transfer. The French might have come up with an arrangement like that, but that still has the soldiers on the ground wearing a Ukrainian flag, not not a french flag um but yeah no i i heard that the seven of them got killed i heard that there's a number of them that are out there a couple hundred that are on the front lines um plugging this is this is macron's interim measure um so basically he went to the french foreign legion and said if you are foreigners and you're under a French contract, we are willing to, and I don't know the total deal, but I would imagine that you get sheep dipped. You go over, you fight for the Ukrainians, but the clock's still ticking for your French pension. And then when that's done, if you live, you come back, they reconvert you, you get credit

for your time served and your contract's maintained intact. Because otherwise, if were a French foreign legionnaire, I wouldn't do it. I'd be like, wait a minute, I got a good deal in France. I'm not going there without protection. It's the same thing when in Vietnam, back in the old Laos days, when they used to take Air Force officers and have them go off and fly, you know, forward air controlling for the CIA in Laos, they sheep dipped them. They weren't Air Force officers anymore. They were CIA officers. But as soon as that tour ended, they went back to the Air Force and the Air Force went, okay, you're back. You get credit for your time served. Your

promotion didn't get cooked up. You did a good fitness report and your career is made. I've known a number of Ravens, they called them, that had that happen to them because they wouldn't have signed up for the CIA and throw away an Air Force career. So the deal had to be made. I'm sure the French did that to send these guys in, but these aren't French foreign legionnaires. This scenario that you've described, whereby Putin might use nuclear weapons, is this understood by General Brown, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and by Secretary Austin, the Secretary of Defense? Yes, but the question now is in the Defense Intelligence Agency, are they saying that Putin's bluffing? This is the key question of intent.

This is where the failure of the United States to engage with the Russians. There was a time when we met with the Russian defense attache. We met with the assistance defense attaches, both in Moscow, here in the United States. We had conversations. And this is the purpose of the defense attache, to call up his counterpart and say, guys, this ain't a bluff. Okay, I know you're positive, but this isn't a bluff. This is as serious as it gets. It also allows American officers to sit down and go, hey, what's going on't a bluff. Okay, I know you guys, you're positive, but this isn't a bluff. This is as serious as it gets. It also allows American officers to sit down and go, hey, what's going on?

What's your intentions? How can we nip this thing in the bud? We don't have any of that dialogue now. There's been no connectivity between our military officers and Russian military officers. There's absolute steel barrier there. And with that now, when you can't talk to the Russians, you don't know what they're thinking. So you start to speculate. And the longer you go, the more ridiculous your speculation gets. So right now, the guys that the State Department

should be turning to, the foreign area officers who are supposed to be the experts, they say, what are the Russians thinking? They go, we don't know because we're not allowed to talk to them. We haven't been allowed to talk to them for over two years now. So they don't know. All right. Switching gears to Israel and Gaza, actually to the domestic aspect of Israel and Gaza, why is the government so forceful and enthusiastic about cracking down on the freedom of speech? What is the government afraid of? Well, they're afraid of the truth, and they're afraid of, they know for a fact that this is an issue that can rapidly spin out of control as far as the government's concerned. It's expanding across the campuses. There's a chance that once the schools shut down, this will jump into the streets, and we'll have a long, hot summer of, you know, anti-genocidal

stuff going on. And we're leading up to an election and this is not the optics that the president of the United States wants to see. So they're doing this. And now, I mean, this is a question I have for you because I've been, you know, a very, you know, I've been strongly saying that this is a frontal assault on not just freedom of speech, but freedom of assembly. And I have people that are saying, no, no, no, no, no. They don't have freedom of assembly. They don't have freedom of speech rights. This isn't a constitutional issue. I believe it is, but you're the constitutional expert on this. Are these students are, you know, in the faculty, are they protected by First Amendment rights here or is the school right in cracking down?

It's a legal question and I'm not a legal specialist. They are out there not because they are pro-Khomas. They are out there because they are outraged by what the Israeli government is now doing in Gaza, which is bringing unbelievable not just to the terrorist organization, the Hamas, but to the entire Palestinian people. And that's why these anti-war demonstrators are out there. They do not want to see a situation continue where 110,000 Palestinians out of 5% of the population have been killed or wounded, where children now face starvation, hundreds of thousands of children face starvation because Israel is refusing to allow humanitarian aid to get to where it has to go.

Demonstrations is what, and the right to dissent, the right to protest, that is what the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States is all about. That's what, in fact, makes you a free country. Being a free country means that somebody goes out and demonstrates, you don't have to agree with them, they have the right. That's the difference between autocracy and dictatorship and a free country. But for anybody to suggest that we cannot be critical of the government of Israel or the government of Italy or the government of Ireland, you know, for whatever reason,

is not what democracy is about. So I happen to believe, not everybody agrees with me, that the war policies of the Netanyahu government are a disaster. They are causing unprecedented harm. They are in violation of international law and absolutely in violation of American law, by the way. But I think people who are critical, the idea that people who are critical of what Netanyahu is doing are anti-Semitic, That is nonsense. And that is a very,

very dangerous line to cross in terms of freedom of expression in this country. I am thinking back, and other people are making this reference, that this may be Biden's Vietnam. All right. So I'm having a problem with my camera, probably because I've been on all day. And you know what I look like and everybody watching now knows what I look like. I think that was too little too late. But he's the only United States senator, the only member of the Congress that we've heard speaking that way. But my only problem with what Bernie said, and I agree with everything he said there, is the way he starts. These students are not pro-Hamas. Bernie, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. Okay. Free speech is free speech. You know, it just so happens that Bernie, by saying they're not, you know, pro-Hamas, that they're going against the policy of Netanyahu, that he morally can stand with them. But where would he be if they were saying they were pro-Hamas? Well, they have the right to be pro-Humas. That's what I'm trying to, that's my point is that this is a free speech issue. It's not a

free speech issue that is sugarcoated by saying, and it's a free speech and something that I agree with that, you know, the Netanyahu government is genocidal and bad and we need to oppose them. No, Bernie, it's a free speech issue. It's black and white, free speech. There I agree with, but they're being shut down because, you know, it's private universities, except they take federal money. So, I mean, but there are freedom assembly issues. You know, this is one of those areas where, you know, the police and the powers are, I mean, I love it when I say I love it, I hate it. When somebody like Ben Sasse, former Senator from Nebraska, current President of University of Florida, is talking about how we love free speech and freedom assembly, but we're not going to let them practice free speech

and free assembly on our university because there are rules. Well, I mean- Why are they so afraid of free speech? Why was the crackdown so ferocious? The governor of Texas sent 100 Texas Rangers in on horseback. The president of the University of Texas hadn't even asked for that. The mayor of the city of New York was up there personally at Columbia University. There were 500 demonstrators and 1,000 police. They had a professor, an undercover professor, was also a works in New York City NYPD intelligence spying on the students at Emory University. Two big, huge, thug, overweight, tattooed cops beat the daylights out of a female economics professor. Why the ferocity? Because of speech.

Well, it's not because of speech. It's because of the message. The United States is on the cusp of losing control of the pro-Israeli narrative. The pro-Israeli lobby has been very careful in how it's approached the Israeli issues, et cetera. They've tried to make Israel the 51st state. I know I went to Israel. Every time there's a holiday, it's an Israeli flag out of one window, an American flag out of the other. We're like America. We're the same as America. We are America. And that's their thing. And right now, Americans are going, that ain't us. We're not genocidal. We're not doing that. We disagree with this so much. And this issue has the opportunity to transform American public opinion about Israel, which is why they have to nip this

thing in the bud. This isn't about free speech or anything. This is about ensuring that an anti-Israeli narrative doesn't take hold in the American population in an election year where there are ramifications at the polls. So all of the people that are part of the establishment that the Israeli lobby has been lobbying, you know, for so long, bought them out, paid for their elections, whatever. They're all saying, we got to take control of this because this is our future. This is our political future. We have married into this pro-Israeli lobby, and now we have to step, look what Congress just did, passing, and again, I'm not a legal scholar, but I mean, a simple reading of the First Amendment, Congress should not pass any laws that infringe on,

you know, the free speech and the free press. Congress just passed a law, an act, that tries to tell me what anti-Semitism means. Sure that that'll be invalidated by the courts, although it is repellent that Congress would do that. Switching gears to our last topic, what do you think about 12 thugs who would say in writing to a prosecutor, target Israel and we will target you. We will sanction your employees and your associates, bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned. Now, these aren't just thugs.

These are United States senators, and every single one of them should be reprimanded. I don't know who, because one of them is Mitch McConnell, who's retiring as the minority leader. But this is criminal on their part. This is not what the United States should be about. And frankly speaking, the President of the United States should chastise the Senate and tell them that you don't get to make policy. You can't warn anybody. You have no powers. Warn them. What are you going to do, Tom Cotton? What are you going to do, Mitch McConnell, Marsha Blackburn?

What are you going to do? You can do nothing. It's the exclusive purview of the executive branch to make these decisions. Now, we will go to you for advice and consent, and where necessary, you will have to ratify decisions that the president makes. But these senators don't get to do this. This is the mafia. This is thug. Wait a minute, Scott. The mafia would be smart enough not to put this in writing. True. But where's Biden? That's what gets me is Biden's silent on this. Literally, the president needs to step up and say, now, separations of powers, you guys are out of your box. Get back in your box. You don't get to do this. Now, there was a law that was passed that basically said that the International Criminal Court came after American service members, et cetera, that we would take appropriate actions. But what these guys have done is unilaterally extend the meaning of the law to say that Israel is the same as America.

Israel is not the same as America. Israel is a foreign nation. It is a totally different state, which is right now committing genocide. And we ourselves recognize that what they're doing is wrong. So these senators are insane and they should be chastised. They should be reprimanded and they should be put back in their box because if they don't, it's just, again, an example of America spinning out of control because of poor leadership in the White House. Scott, I'm going to have to go because of this camera issue. We're going to figure out what it is. But thank you very much for your time, my dear friend. Thank you for your analysis. Thank you for your passion. I'm off to Italy, but we'll see you next week, my man. Okay. Thank you very much. Of course. Camera will be fixed. Coming up at 5.30 Eastern,

Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thanks for watching!